Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/261

Ⅵ, 149-153. Those who associate others with God will say, ‘Had God pleased, we had not so associated, nor our fathers; nor should we have forbidden aught.’ Thus did they give the lie to those who came before them, until they tasted of our violence ! Say, ‘Have ye any knowledge ? if so, bring it forth to us : ye only follow suspicion, and ye do but conjecture.’

Say, ‘God’s is the searching argument; and had He pleased He would have guided you all.’

Say, ‘Come on then with your witnesses, who bear witness that God has prohibited these!’ but if they do bear witness, bear thou not witness with them ; nor follow the lust of those who say our signs are lies, and those who do not believe in the last day, or those who for their Lord make peers.

Say, ‘Come ! I will recite what your Lord has forbidden you, that ye may not associate aught with Him, and (may show) kindness to your parents, and not kill your children through poverty; — we will provide for you and them ; — and draw not nigh to flagrant sins, either apparent or concealed, and kill not the soul, which God hath forbidden save by right ; that is what God ordains you, haply ye may understand.’

And draw not nigh unto the wealth of the orphan, save so as to better it, until he reaches full age ; and give weight and measure with justice. We do not compel the soul save what it can compass ; and when ye pronounce, then be just, though it be in the case of a relative.

And God’s compact fulfil ye; that is what He