Gems from the Holy Qur’an
From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)
About the translator:
Muhammad Asad, Leopold Weiss, was born of Jewish parents in Livow, Austria (later Poland) in 1900, and at the age of 22 made his first visit to the Middle East. He later became an outstanding foreign correspondent for the Franfurter Zeitung, and after years of devoted study became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. His translation of the Holy Qur'an is one of the most lucid and well-referenced works in this category, dedicated to “li-qawmin yatafakkaroon” (people who think). Forwarded by Dr Ismat Kamal.
Chapter 25, Verses 54-59
And He it is who out of this [very] water has created man, and has endowed him with [the consciousness of] descent and marriage-tie: for thy Sustainer is ever infinite in His power.
And yet some people worship, instead of God, things that can neither benefit them nor harm them: thus, he who denies the truth does indeed turn his back in his Sustainer!
Yet [withal, O Prophet,] We have sent thee only as a herald of glad tidings and a warner. Say: “For this, no reward do I ask of you [-no reward] other than that he who so wills may unto his Sustainer find a way!”
Hence, place the trust in the Living One who dies not, and extol His limitless glory and praise: for none is as aware of His creatures’ sins as He – He who created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six eons, and is established on the throne of His almightiness: the Most Gracious! Ask then, about Him, [the] One who is [truly] aware.
Chapter 25, Verses 62-71
And He it is who causes the night and the day to succeed one another, [revealing Himself in His works] unto him who has the will to take thought – that is, has the will to be grateful.
For, [true] servants of the Most Gracious are [only] they who walk gently on earth, and who, whenever the foolish address them, reply with [words of] peace; and who remember their Sustainer far into the night, prostrating themselves and standing; and who pray: “O our Sustainer, avert from us the suffering of hell – for, verily the suffering caused by it is bound to be a torment dire: verily, how evil an abode and a station!”-; and who, whenever they spend on others, are neither wasteful nor niggardly but [remember that] there is always a just mean between these [two extremes]; and who never invoke any [imaginary] deity side by side with God, and do not take any human being’s life – [the life] which God has willed to be sacred – otherwise than in [the pursuit of] justice, and do not commit adultery.
And [know that] he who commits aught thereof shall [not only] meet with a full requital but shall have his suffering doubled on Resurrection Day: for on that [Day] he shall abide in ignominy.
Excepted, however, shall be they who repent and attain to faith and do righteous deeds: for it is they whose [erstwhile] bad deeds God will transform into good ones – seeing that God is indeed much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace, and seeing that he who repents and [thenceforth] does what is right has truly turned unto God by [this very act of] repentance.
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