“This, for thy handywork of old! for God is not unjust to His servants.”

There are some who serve God in a single point.  If good come upon one of them, he resteth in it; but if trial come upon him, he turneth him round (to infidelity) with the loss both of this world and of the next!  This same is the clear ruin!

He calleth upon that beside God which can neither hurt him nor profit him.  This same is the far-gone error!

He calleth on him who would sooner hurt than profit him.  Surely, bad the lord, and, surely, bad the vassal!

But God will bring in those who shall believe and do the things that are right, into gardens ’neath which the rivers flow:  for God doth that which He pleaseth.

Let him who thinketh that God will not help His Apostle in this world and in the next, stretch a cord aloft as if to destroy himself; then let him cut it, and see whether his devices can bring that4 to nought at which he was angry!

Thus send we down the Koran with its clear signs (verses):  and because God guideth whom He pleaseth.

As to those who believe, and the Jews, and the Sabeites,5 and the Christians, and the Magians, and those who join other gods with God, of a truth, God shall decide between them on the day of resurrection:  for God is witness of all things.

Seest thou not that all in the Heavens and all on the Earth adoreth God? the sun and the moon and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and the beasts, and many men?  But of many is chastisement the due: 

And whom God shall disgrace there shall be none to honour:  God doth that which pleaseth Him.

These, the Faithful and the Infidels, are the two disputants who dispute concerning their Lord:  but for those who have disbelieved, garments of fire shall be cut out; the boiling water shall be poured down upon their heads: 

All that is in their bowels, and their skins, shall be dissolved:  and there are maces of iron for them!

So oft as they, for very anguish, would fain come forth thence, back shall they be turned into it:  and-"Taste ye the torment of the burning.”

But God will bring in those who shall have believed, and done the things that are right, into gardens ’neath which the rivers flow.  Adorned shall they be therein with golden bracelets and with pearls, and their raiment therein shall be of silk;

For they were guided to the best of words; guided to the glorious path!

But those who believe not, and seduce others from the way of God, and from the Holy Mosque which we have appointed to all men, alike for those who abide therein, and for the stranger;

And those who seek impiously to profane it, we will cause to taste a grievous punishment.

And call to mind when we assigned the site of the House6 to Abraham and said:  “Unite not aught with Me in worship, and cleanse My House for those who go in procession round it, and who stand or bow in worship:"-