Lest ye should say, “The Scriptures were indeed sent down only unto two peoples before us, but we were not able to go deep into their studies:"40

Or lest ye should say, “If a book had been sent down to us, we had surely followed the guidance better than they.”  But now hath a clear exposition come to you from your Lord, and a guidance and a mercy.  Who then is more wicked than he who treateth the signs of God as lies, and turneth aside from them?  We will recompense those who turn aside from our signs with an evil punishment, because they have turned aside.

What wait they for, but the coming of the angels to them, or the coming of thy Lord Himself, or that some of the sings of the Lord should come to pass?  On the day when some of thy Lord’s signs shall come to pass, its faith shall not profit a soul which believed not before, nor wrought good works in virtue of its faith.  Say:  Wait ye.  Verily, we will wait also.

As to those who split up their religion and become sects, have thou nothing to do with them:  their affair is with God only.  Hereafter shall he tell them what they have done.

He who shall present himself with good works shall receive a tenfold reward; but he who shall present himself with evil works shall receive none other than a like punishment:  and they shall not be treated unjustly.

Say:  As for me, my Lord hath guided me into a straight path; a true religion, the creed of Abraham, the sound in faith; for he was not of those who join gods with God.

Say:  My prayers and my worship and my life and my death are unto God, Lord of the Worlds.  He hath no associate.  This am I commanded, and I am the first of the Muslims.

Say:  Shall I seek any other Lord than God, when He is Lord of all things?  No soul shall labour but for itself; and no burdened one shall bear another’s burden.  At last ye shall return to your Lord, and he will declare that to you about which you differ.

And it is He who hath made you the successors of others on the earth, and hath raised some of you above others by various grades, that he may prove you by his gifts.  Verily thy Lord is swift to punish.  But He is also Gracious, Merciful!

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1 Lit. their affair would have been decided.  In that case there would no longer have been an opportunity for the warnings of the prophets and for repentance, but the angels would at once have executed the divine judgments.

2 See Sura xli. 13, p. 193.

3 See Sura [xc.] xiii. 36.

4 This denunciation is repeated in eleven other passages of the Koran, and coupled with the known reverence of the early Muslims for what they considered as the word of God, must have greatly tended to secure the revelations of the Prophet from being in any way tampered with and corrupted.

5 They are self-convicted of their own hypocrisy and of the hollowness of their professions.