Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 9.djvu/137



And unto Midian we sent their brother Shoʼhâib, and he said, 'My people, serve God, and hope for the last day; and waste not the land, despoiling it.'

But they called him liar; and the convulsion seized them, and on the morrow they lay in their dwellings prone.

And ʿÂd and Thamûd—but it is plain to you from their habitations; for Satan made seemly to them their works, and turned them from the way, sagacious though they were !

And Korah and Pharaoh and Hâmân—Moses did come to them with manifest signs, but they were too big with pride in the earth, although they could not outstrip us !

And each of them we seized in his sin; and of them were some against whom we sent a sandstorm; and of them were some whom the noise seized; and of them were some with whom we cleaved the earth open; and of them were some we drowned: God would not have wronged them, but it was themselves they wronged.

The likeness of those who take, beside God, patrons is as the likeness of a spider, that takes to himself a house; and, verily, the weakest of houses is a spiders house, if they did but know !

Verily, God knows whatever thing they call upon beside Him; for He is the mighty, wise.

These are parables which we have struck out