Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 9.djvu/27

ⅩⅦ, 92-101. And they say, ‘ We will by no means believe in thee, until there gush forth for thee a fountain from the earth ; or there be made for thee a garden of palms and grapes, and rivers come gushing out amidst them ; or thou make the sky to fall down upon us in pieces ; or thou bring us God and the angels before us; or there be made for thee a house of gold ; or thou climb up into the heaven ; and even then we will not believe in thy climbing there, until thou send down on us a book that we may read !’

Say, ‘ Celebrated be the praises of my Lord ! was I aught but a mortal apostle ?’

Naught prohibited men from believing when the guidance came to them, save their saying, ‘ God has sent a mortal for an apostle.’

Say, ‘ Were there angels on the earth walking in quiet, we had surely sent them an angel as an apostle.’

Say, ‘ God is witness enough between me and you ; verily, He is ever of His servants well aware, and sees.’

He whom God guides, he is guided indeed ; and he whom God leads astray, thou shalt never find patrons for them beside Him ; and we will gather them upon the resurrection day upon their faces, blind, and dumb, and deaf ; their resort is hell ; whenever it grows dull we will give them another blaze !

That is their reward for that they disbelieved in our signs, and said, ‘ What ! when we are bones and rubbish, shall we then be raised up a new creation ?’

Could they not see that God who created the