Page:Koran - Rodwell - 2nd ed.djvu/435

 O ye who believe! make use of precautions; and advance in detachments, or, advance in a body. There is of you who will be a laggard: and if a reverse befall you he saith, “Now hath God dealt graciously, with me, since I was not with you in the fight:”

But if a success from God betide you, he will say, as if there had never been any friendship between you and him, “Would I had been with them! a rich prize should I have won!” Let those then fight on the path of God, who barter this present life for that which is to come; for whoever fighteth on God's path, whether he be slain or conquer, we will in the end give him a great reward.

But what hath come to you that ye fight not on the path of God, and for the weak among men, women and children, who say, “O our Lord ! bring us forth from this city whose inhabitants are oppressors; give us a champion from thy presence; and give us from thy presence a defender.” They who believe, fight on the path of God ; and they who believe not, fight on the path of Thagout: Fight therefore against the friends of Satan. Verily the craft of Satan shall be powerless!

Hast thou not marked those to whom it was said, “Withhold your hands awhile from war; and observe prayer, and pay the stated alms.” But when war is commanded them, lo! a portion of them fear men as with the fear of God, or with a yet greater fear, and say : “O our Lord! why hast thou commanded us war? Couldst thou not have given us respite till our not distant end?” : Small the fruition of this world; but the next life is the true good for him who feareth God! and ye shall not be wronged so much as the skin of a date stone.

Wherever ye be, death will overtake you—although ye be in lofty towers! If good fortune betide them, they say, “This is from God;” and if evil betide them, they say, “This is from thee.” : All is from God: But what hath come to these people that they are not near to understanding what is told them?

Whatever good betideth thee is from God, and whatever betideth thee of evil is from thyself; and we have sent thee to mankind as an apostle: God is thy sufficing witness.

Whoso obeyeth the Apostle, in so doing obeyeth God: and