The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

a
The Arabic verb ata is in the past tense to express inevitability and nearness.

---

use their reason. 
13He has made of benefit to you the many-coloured
things He has multiplied on the earth. There truly are signs in this
for those who take it to heart. 
14It is He who made the sea of benefit
to you: you eat fresh 
fish from it and bring out jewellery to wear; you
see the ships cutting through its waves so that you may go in search
of His bounty and give thanks. 
15He has made mountains stand firm
on the earth, to prevent it shaking under you, and rivers and paths so
that you may 
find your way, 16and landmarks and stars to guide
people. 
17Can He who creates be compared to one who cannot
create? Why do you not take heed?
18If you tried to count God’s blessings, you could never take them
all in: He is truly most forgiving and most merciful. 
19He knows
what you conceal and what you reveal. 
20Those they invoke beside
God create nothing; they are themselves created. 
21They are dead,
not living. They do not know when they will be raised up. 
22Your
God is the One God. As for those who deny the life to come, their
hearts refuse to admit the truth and they are arrogant. 
23There is no
doubt that God knows what they conceal and what they reveal. He
does not love the arrogant.
24When they are asked, ‘What has your Lord sent down?’ they say,
‘Ancient fables.’
25On the Day of Resurrection they will bear the full
weight of their own burden, as well as some of the burden of those
they misled with no true knowledge. How terrible their burden will
be!
26Those who went before them also schemed, but God attacked
the very foundations of what they built. The roof fell down on them:
punishment came on them from unimagined directions. 
27In the
end, on the Day of Resurrection, He will shame them, saying,
‘Where are these “partners” of Mine on whose account you opposed
[Me]?’ Those given knowledge will say, ‘Shame and misery on the
disbelievers today!’
28Those whose lives the angels take while they
are wronging themselves will show submission: ‘We were doing no
evil.’ ‘Yes you were: God knows fully everything that you have done,
29so enter the gates of Hell. There you will remain–– the home of the
arrogant is evil indeed.’
30But when the righteous are asked, ‘What has your Lord sent
down?’ they will say, ‘All that is good.’ There is a reward in this
present world for those who do good, but their home in the Here-
after is far better: the home of the righteous is excellent. 
31They will
enter perpetual Gardens graced with 
flowing streams. There they
The Bee
167
16: 31

---

will have everything they wish. This is the way God rewards the
righteous, 
32those whose lives the angels take in a state of goodness.
They will say to them, ‘Peace be upon you. Enter the Garden as a
reward for what you have done.’
33Are the disbelievers waiting for
the angels to come to them, or your Lord’s Judgement? Those who
went before them did the same. God did not wrong them; they
wronged themselves. 
34So the evil they had done hit them and they
were surrounded by the very thing they had mocked.
35Those who worshipped others alongside God say, ‘If God had
willed, we would not have worshipped anything but Him, nor
would our fathers. We would not have declared anything forbidden
without His sanction.’ Those before them said the same. Are the
messengers obliged to do anything other than deliver [their message]
clearly? 
36We sent a messenger to every community, saying, ‘Worship
God and shun false gods.’ Among them were some God guided;
misguidance took hold of others. So travel through the earth and see
what was the fate of those who denied the truth. 
37Though you
[Prophet] may be eager to guide them, God does not guide those
who misguide [others],
a
nor will they have anyone to help them.
38They have sworn by God with their strongest oaths that He will
not raise the dead to life. But He will –
– it is His binding promise,
though most people do not realize it –
–
39in order to make clear for
them what they have di
ffered about and so that the disbelievers may
realize that what they said was false. 
40When We will something to
happen, all that We say is, ‘Be,’ and it is. 
41As for those who emi-
grated in God’s cause after being wronged, We shall give them a
good home in this world, but the reward of the Hereafter will be far
greater, if they only knew it. 
42They are the ones who are steadfast
and put their trust in their Lord.
43[Prophet], all the messengers We sent before you were simply
men to whom We had given the Revelation: you [people] can ask
those who have knowledge if you do not know. 
44We sent them with
clear signs and scriptures. We have sent down the message to you too
[Prophet], so that you can explain to people what was sent for them,
so that they may re
flect.
45Are those who plan evil so sure that God will not make the earth
swallow them up, that punishment will not come on them from some