February 04, 2005

From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)

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 tosucceed 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.