Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/309

Ⅸ, 70-75. discussed. Their works are vain in this world and the next, and they it is who lose.

Did there not come to them the declaration of those who were before them ? of the people of Noah and ʿAd and Thamûd, and of the people of Abraham, and the people of Midian ? and of the overturned (cities) ? Their apostles came to them with manifest signs; for God would not wrong them, but it was themselves they wronged.

And the believers, men and women, are some the patrons of others ; they bid what is reasonable, and forbid what is wrong, and are steadfast in prayer, and give alms, and obey God and His Apostle. On these will God have mercy ; verily, God is mighty, wise !

God has promised to believers, men and women, gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein for aye ; and goodly places in the garden of Eden, But good-will from God is the greatest of all ! that is the mighty happiness !

O thou prophet ! strive strenuously against the misbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern against them; for their resort is hell, and an ill journey shall it be.

They swear by God they did not speak it, but they did speak the word of misbelief; and they disbelieved after they had embraced Islâm, and they designed what they could not attain ; and they only disapproved it because God and His Apostle had enriched them of His grace. If they turn again ’tis