Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/186

60 Ye were the best of nations brought forth unto man. Ye bid what is reasonable, and forbid what is wrong, believing in God. Had the people of the Book believed, it would have been better for them. There are believers among them, though most of them are sinners.

They shall surely not harm you save a hurt ; and if they fight you, they shall show you their backs, then they shall not be helped.

They are smitten with abasement wherever they be found, save for the rope of God and the rope of man ; and they draw on themselves wrath from God. They are smitten, too, with poverty; that is because they did disbelieve in God’s signs, and kill the prophets undeservedly. That is because they did rebel and did transgress.

They are not all alike. Of the people of the Book there is a nation upright, reciting God’s signs throughout the night, as they adore the while. They believe in God, and in the last day, and bid what is reasonable, and forbid what is wrong, and vie in charity; these are among the righteous.

What ye do of good surely God will not deny, for God knows those who fear.

Verily, those who misbelieve, their wealth is of no service to them, nor their children either, against God ; they are the fellows of the Fire, and they shall dwell therein for aye.

The likeness of what they expend in this life of the world, is as the likeness of wind wherein is a