Now thy Lord!  He will decide between them on the day of resurrection as to the subject of their disputes.

Is it not notorious to them how many generations, through whose abodes they walk, we have destroyed before them?  Truly herein are sings:  will they not then hear?

See they not how we drive the rain to some parched land and thereby bring forth corn of which their cattle and themselves do eat?  Will they not then behold?

They say, “When will this decision take place?  Tell us, if ye are men of truth?”

Say:  On the day of that decision, the faith of infidels shall not avail them, and they shall have no further respite.

Stand aloof from them then, and wait thou, for they too wait.6

_______________________

1 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.

2 Comp.  Sura [cvii.] xxii. 46, and Ps. xc. 4, which is taken literally by many of the Talmudists.  Comp. e.g.  Sanhed. 96, 2.

3 Lit. ex spermate genitali.

4 Lit. their sides are raised.

5 Nöldeke thinks that the word for meeting is used here in the same sense as in v. 10 above and Sura [lxxi.] xli. 54, and that the clause does not belong to this verse, p. 108, n.

6 Wait thou for their punishment as they wait for thy downfall.

SURA1 XLI.-THE MADE PLAIN [LXXI.]

Mecca.-54 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ha.  Mim.2 A Revelation from the Compassionate, the Merciful!

A Book whose verses (signs) are made plain-an Arabic Koran, for men of knowledge;

Announcer of glad tidings and charged with warnings!  But most of them withdraw and hearken not: 

And they say, “Our hearts are under shelter from thy teachings, and in our ears is a deafness, and between us and thee there is a veil.  Act as thou thinkest right:  we verily shall act as we think right.”

Say:  I am only a man like you.3 It is revealed to me that your God is one God:  go straight then to Him, and implore his pardon.  And woe to those who join gods with God;

Who pay not the alms of obligation, and in the life to come believe not!

But they who believe and do the things that are right shall receive a perfect4 recompense.

Say:  Do ye indeed disbelieve in Him who in two days created the earth? and do ye assign Him peers?  The Lord of the worlds is He!

And he hath placed on the earth the firm mountains which tower above it; and He hath blessed it, and distributed food throughout it, for the cravings of all alike, in four days: 

Then He applied himself to the Heaven, which then was but smoke:  and to it and to the Earth He said, “Come ye, whether in obedience or against your will?” and they both said, “We come obedient.”

And He made them seven heavens in two days, and in each heaven made known its office:  And we furnished the lower heaven with lights and guardian angels.  This, the disposition of the Almighty, the All-knowing.