Aye! but man hath not yet fulfilled the bidding of his Lord.

Let man look at his food: 

It was We who rained down the copious rains,

Then cleft the earth with clefts,

And caused the upgrowth of the grain,

And grapes and healing herbs,

And the olive and the palm,

And enclosed gardens thick with trees,

And fruits and herbage,

For the service of yourselves and of your cattle.

But when the stunning trumpet-blast shall arrive,4

On that day shall a man fly from his brother,

And his mother and his father,

And his wife and his children;

For every man of them on that day his own concerns shall be enough.

There shall be faces on that day radiant,

Laughing and joyous: 

And faces on that day with dust upon them: 

Blackness shall cover them!

These are the Infidels, the Impure.

_______________________

1 We are told in the traditions, etc., that when engaged in converse with Walid, a chief man among the Koreisch, Muhammad was interrupted by the blind Abdallah Ibn Omm Maktûm, who asked to hear the Koran.  The Prophet spoke very roughly to him at the time, but afterwards repented, and treated him ever after with the greatest respect.  So much so, that he twice made him Governor of Medina.

2 That is, if he does not embrace Islam, and so become pure from sin, thou wilt not be to blame; thou art simply charged with the delivery of a message of warning.

3 Ex spermate.

4 Descriptions of the Day of Judgment now become very frequent.  See Sura lxxxv. p. 42, and almost every Sura to the lv., after which they become gradually more historical.

SURA LXXXVII.-THE MOST HIGH [XXV.]

Mecca.-19 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Praise the name of thy Lord the most high,

Who hath created and balanced all things,

Who hath fixed their destinies and guideth them,

Who bringeth forth the pasture,

And reduceth it to dusky stubble.

We will teach thee to recite the Koran, nor aught shalt thou forget,

Save what God pleaseth; for he knoweth alike things manifest and hidden;

And we will make easy to thee our easy ways.

Warn, therefore, for the warning is profitable: 

He that feareth God will receive the warning,-

And the most reprobate only will turn aside from it,

Who shall be exposed to the terrible fire,

In which he shall not die, and shall not live.

Happy he who is purified by Islam,

And who remembereth the name of his Lord and prayeth.

But ye prefer this present life,