Or how he105 demeaned him who passed by a city which had been laid in ruins.106 “How,” said he, “shall God give life to this city, after she hath been dead?” And God caused him to die for an hundred years, and then raised him to life.  And God said, “How long hast thou waited?” He said, “I have waited a day or part of a day.”  He said, “Nay, thou hast waited an hundred years.  Look on thy food and thy drink; they are not corrupted; and look on thine ass:  we would make thee a sign unto men:  And look on the bones of thine ass, how we will raise them, then clothe them with flesh.”  And when this was shewn to him, he said, “I acknowledge that God hath power to do all things.”

When Abraham said, “O Lord, shew me how thou wilt give life to the dead!” He said, “Hast thou not believed?”

He said, “Yes; but I have asked thee, that my heart may be well assured.”  He said, “Take, then, four birds,107 and draw them towards thee, and cut them in pieces; then place a part of them on every mountain; then call them and they shall come swiftly to thee:  and know thou that God is Might, Wise!”

The likeness of those who expend their wealth for the cause of God, is that of a grain of corn which produceth seven ears, and in each ear a hundred grains; and God will multiply to whom He pleaseth:  God is Liberal, Knowing!

They who expend their wealth for the cause of God, and never follow what they have laid out with reproaches or harm, shall have their reward with their Lord; no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they be put to grief.

A kind speech and forgiveness is better than alms followed by injury.  God is Rich, Clement.

O ye who believe! make not your alms void by reproaches and injury, like him who spendeth his substance to be seen of men, and believeth not in God and in the latter day.  The likeness of such an one is that of a rock with a thin soil upon it, on which a heavy rain falleth but leaveth it hard:  No profit from their works shall they be able to gain; for God guideth not the unbelieving people.

And the likeness of those who expend their substance from a desire to please God, and for the stablishing of their souls, is as a garden on a hill, on which the heavy rain falleth, and it yieldeth its fruits twofold; and even if a heavy rain fall not on it, yet is there a dew:  God beholdeth your actions.

Desireth any one of you a garden of palms and vines through which rivers flow, in which he may have every fruit, and that old age should surprise him there, and that his offspring should be weakly, and that then a fiery violent wind shall strike it so that it shall be burned?  Thus God maketh plain his signs to you that ye may reflect.

O ye who believe! bestow alms of the good things which ye have acquired, and of that which we have brought forth for you out of the earth, and choose not the bad for almsgiving,

Such as ye would accept yourselves only by connivance:  and know that God is Rich, Praiseworthy.