The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

The Qur
an
2: 69
10

---

orphans and the poor; speak good words to all people; keep up the
prayer and pay the prescribed alms.’ Then all but a few of you
turned away and paid no heed. 
84We took a pledge from you, ‘Do not
shed one another’s blood or drive one another from your homelands.’
You acknowledged it at the time, and you can testify to this. 
85Yet
here you are, killing one another and driving some of your own
people from their homes, helping one another in sin and aggression
against them. If they come to you as captives, you still pay to set
them free, although you had no right to drive them out.
a
So do you
believe in some parts of the Scripture and not in others? The pun-
ishment for those of you who do this will be nothing but disgrace in
this life, and on the Day of Resurrection they will be condemned to
the harshest torment: God is not unaware of what you do. 
86These
are the people who buy the life of this world at the price of the
Hereafter: their torment will not be lightened, nor will they be
helped.
87We gave Moses the Scripture and We sent messengers after
him in succession. We gave Jesus, son of Mary, clear signs and
strengthened him with the Holy Spirit. So how is it that, whenever
a messenger brings you something you do not like, you become
arrogant, calling some impostors and killing others? 
88They say, ‘Our
hearts are impenetrably wrapped [against whatever you say],’ but
God has rejected
b
them for their disbelief: they have little faith.
89When a Scripture came to them from God confirming what they
already had, and when they had been praying for victory against the
disbelievers, even when there came to them something they knew [to
be true], they disbelieved in it: God rejects those who disbelieve.
90Low indeed is the price for which they have sold their souls by
denying the God-sent truth, out of envy that God should send His
bounty to any of His servants He pleases. The disbelievers have
ended up with wrath upon wrath, and a humiliating torment awaits
them.
91When it is said to them, ‘Believe in God’s revelations,’ they
reply, ‘We believe in what was revealed to us,’ but they do not believe
in what came afterwards, though it is the truth con
firming what they
a
Razi: although the Jews fought each other in alliance with di
fferent Arab tribes,
when their side captured a Jew from another side, they would pay to have them released,
as they said this was required by the Torah.
b
La
ana in Arabic dictionaries gives the meaning of tarada ‘to reject’, ‘to drive away’
rather than ‘to curse’.
The Cow
11
2: 91

---

already have. Say [Muhammad], ‘Why did you kill God’s prophets
in the past if you were true believers? 
92Moses brought you clear
signs, but then, while he was away, you chose to worship the calf –
–
you did wrong.’
93Remember when We took your pledge, making the mountain
tower above you, and said, ‘Hold on 
firmly to what We have given
you, and listen to [what We say].’ They said, ‘We hear and we dis-
obey,’ and through their disbelief they were made to drink [the love
of] the calf deep into their hearts. 
94Say, ‘How evil are the things
your belief commands you to do, if you really are believers!’ Say, ‘If
the last home with God is to be for you alone and no one else, then
you should long for death, if your claim is true.’
95But they will
never long for death, because of what they have stored up with their
own hands: God is fully aware of the evildoers. 
96[Prophet], you are
sure to 
find them clinging to life more eagerly than any other people,
even the polytheists. Any of them would wish to be given a life of a
thousand years, though even such a long life would not save them
from the torment: God sees everything they do.
97Say [Prophet], ‘If anyone is an enemy of Gabriel–– who by
God’s leave brought down the Qur
an to your heart confirming pre-
vious scriptures as a guide and good news for the faithful –
–
98if
anyone is an enemy of God, His angels and His messengers, of
Gabriel and Michael, then God is certainly the enemy of such dis-
believers.’
99For We have sent down clear messages to you and only
those who defy [God] would refuse to believe them. 
100How is it that
whenever they make a covenant or a pledge, some of them throw it
away? In fact, most of them do not believe.
101When God sent them a messenger confirming the Scriptures
they already had, some of those who had received the Scripture
before threw the Book of God over their shoulders as if they had no
knowledge, 
102and followed what the evil ones had fabricated about
the Kingdom of Solomon instead. Not that Solomon himself was a
disbeliever; it was the evil ones who were disbelievers. They taught
people witchcraft and what was revealed in Babylon to the two
angels Harut and Marut. Yet these two never taught anyone without
first warning him, ‘We are sent only to tempt–– do not disbelieve.’
From these two, they learned what can cause discord between man
and wife, although they harm no one with it except by God’s leave.
They learned what harmed them, not what bene
fited them, knowing