Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/157

Ⅱ, 209-214. down with them the Book in truth, to judge between men in that wherein they disagreed ; but none did disagree therein save those who had been given it after that manifest signs had come to them, through greed amongst themselves ; and God guided those who did believe to that truth concerning which they disagreed by His permission, for God guides whom He will unto the right path.

Did ye count to enter Paradise, while there had nothing come to you like those who passed away before you ; there touched them violence and harm, and they were made to quake, until the Apostle and those who believed with him said, ‘ When (comes) God’s help ? Is not God’s help then surely nigh ?’

They will ask thee what they are to expend in alms : say, ‘ Whatsoever good ye expend it should be for parents and kinsmen, and the orphan and the poor, and the son of the road ; and whatsoever good ye do, verily, of it God knows.’

Prescribed for you is fighting, but it is hateful to you. Yet peradventure that ye hate a thing while it is good for you, and peradventure that ye love a thing while it is bad for you ; God knows, and ye, — ye do not know !

They will ask thee of the sacred month, — of fighting therein. Say, ‘ Fighting therein is a great sin ; but turning folks off God’s way, and misbelief in Him and in the Sacred Mosque, and turning His people out therefrom, is a greater in God’s sight ; and sedition is a greater sin than slaughter.’

They will not cease from fighting you until they turn you from your religion if they can ; but whosoever of you is turned from his religion and dies