Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/361

XIII, 20-29. Those who fulfil God's covenant and break not the compact, and those who attain what God has bidden to be attained, and dread their Lord and fear the evil reckoning up; and those who are patient, craving their Lord's face, and are steadfast in prayer, and expend in alms of what we have bestowed upon them secretly and openly, and ward off evil with good,—these shall have the recompense of the abode, gardens of Eden, into which they shall enter with the righteous amongst their fathers and their wives and their seed; and the angels shall enter in unto them from every gate:—'Peace be upon you! for that ye were patient; and goodly is the recompense of the abode.'

And those who break God's covenant after compacting for it, and who cut asunder what God hath bidden to be joined, and who do evil in the earth, these—upon them is the curse of God, and for them is an evil abode.

God extends his bounty freely to whomsoever He will, or He metes it out; and they rejoice in the life of this world, but the life of this world is naught but a (temporary) provision compared with the next.

Those who misbelieve say, 'Unless a sign is sent down upon him from his Lord. . . .' Say, 'God leads whom He will astray, but guides unto Him those who turn again.

'Those who believe and whose hearts are comforted by the mentioned of God,—aye! by the mention of God shall their hearts be comforted, who believe and do what is right. Good cheer for them and an excellent resort.'

Thus have we sent thee to a nation before