The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

a
Cf. 
23: 100.
25: 12
228
The Qur
an

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as something to be shunned,’
31but We have always appointed adver-
saries from the wicked, for every prophet: Your Lord is su
fficient
guide and helper. 
32The disbelievers also say, ‘Why was the Quran
not sent down to him all at once?’ We sent it in this way to strengthen
your heart [Prophet]; We gave it to you in gradual revelation. 
33They
cannot put any argument to you without Our bringing you the truth
and the best explanation. 
34It is those driven [falling], on their faces,
a
to Hell who will be in the worst place –
– they are the furthest from
the right path.
35We gave Moses the Book and appointed his brother Aaron to
help him. 
36We said, ‘Go, both of you, to the people who have
rejected Our signs.’ Later We destroyed those people utterly. 
37The
people of Noah, too: when they rejected their messengers, We
drowned them and made them an example to all people. We have
prepared a painful torment for the evildoers, 
38as We did for the
people of 
 Ad, Thamud, and al-Rass, and many generations in
between. 
39To each of them We gave warnings, and each of them We
destroyed completely. 
40These disbelievers must have passed by the
town that was destroyed by the terrible rain
b
–– did they not see it?
Yet they do not expect to be raised from the dead. 
41Whenever they
see you [Prophet] they ridicule you: ‘Is this the one God has sent as a
messenger?
42He might almost have led us astray from our gods if we
had not stood so 
firmly by them.’ When they see the punishment,
they will know who is furthest from the path. 
43Think [Prophet] of
the man who has taken his own passion as a god: are you to be his
guardian? 
44Do you think that most of them hear or understand?
They are just like cattle –
– no, they are further from the path.
45Do you not see how your Lord lengthens the shade? If He had
willed, He could have made it stand still –
– We made the sun its indi-
cator –
–
46but We gradually draw it towards Us, little by little. 47It is
He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest, and
made the day like a resurrection. 
48It is He who sends the winds as
heralds of good news before His Mercy.
c
We send down pure water
from the sky, 
49so that We can revive a dead land with it, and We give
it as a drink to many animals and people We have created. 
50Many
times We have repeated this to people so that they might take heed,
but most persist in their ingratitude. 
51If it had been Our will, We
a
Cf. 
67: 22.
b
See
15: 74, 76.
c
The rain.
229
25: 51
The Di
fferentiator

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would have sent a warner to every town, 
52so do not give in to the
disbelievers: strive hard against them with this Qur
an.
53It is He who released the two bodies of flowing water, one sweet
and fresh and the other salty and bitter, and put an insurmountable
barrier between them. 
54It is He who creates human beings from
fluid, then makes them kin by blood and marriage: your Lord is all
powerful! 
55Yet instead of God they worship things that can neither
bene
fit nor harm them: the disbeliever has always turned his back on
his Lord. 
56We sent you only to give good news and warning. 57Say,
‘I am not asking for any reward for it, but anyone who wishes should
take a path to his Lord.’
58Put your trust in the Living [God] who
never dies, and celebrate His praise. He knows the sins of His ser-
vants well enough: 
59it is He who created the heavens and earth and
what is between them in six Days,