Part 15
Sura XVII (17)
The Night Journey
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Glory
be to Him who carried his servant by night from the sacred
And we
gave the Book to Moses and ordained it for guidance to the children of
Of
posterity of those whom we bare with Noah! He truly was a grateful servant!
And we
solemnly declared to the children of
So
when the menace for the first crime came to be inflicted, we sent against you
our servants endued with terrible prowess; and they searched the inmost part of
your abodes, and the menace was accomplished.
Then
we gave you the mastery over them in turn, and increased you in wealth and
children, and made you a most numerous host.
We
said, "if you do well, to your own behoof will you do well: and if you do evil, against yourselves will you do
it. And when the menace for the second crime came to be inflicted, then we sent
an enemy to sadden your faces, and to enter the temple as they entered it at
first, and to destroy with utter destruction that which they had conquered.
Haply
your Lord will have mercy on you! but if you return we will return: and we have appointed Hell -- the prison of the
infidels.
Verily
this Koran guideth to what is most upright; and it announceth to believers
17:10 Who do the things that are right, that
for them is a great reward;
And
that for those who believe not in the life to come, we have got ready a painful
punishment.
May
prayeth for evil as he prayeth for good; for man is hasty.
We
have made the night and the day for two signs:
the sign of the night do we obscure, but the sign of the day cause we to shine
forth, that you may seek plenty from your Lord, and that you may know the
number of the years and the reckoning of time; and we have made everything
distinct by distinctiveness.
And
every man's fate have we fastened about his neck:
and on the day of resurrection will we bring forth to him a book which shall be
proffered to him wide open:
-
"Read thy Book: there needeth none by
thyself to make out an account against thee this day."
For
his own good only shall the guided yield to guidance, and to his own loss only
shall the erring err; and the heavy laden shall not be laden with another's
load. We never punished until we had first sent an apostle:
And
when we willed to destroy a city, to its affluent ones did we address our
bidding; but when they acted criminally therein, just was its doom, and we
destroyed it with an utter destruction.
And
since Noah, how many nations have we exterminated! And of the sins of his
servants thy Lord is sufficiently informed, observant.
Whoso
chooseth this quickly passing life, quickly will we bestow therein that which
we please -- even on him we chose; afterward we will appoint hell for him, in
which he shall burn -- disgraced, outcast:
17:20 But whoso chooseth the next life, and
striveth after it as it should be striven for, being also a believer, -- these!
their striving shall be grateful to God:
To all
-- both to these and those -- will we prolong the gifts of thy Lord; for not to
any shall the gifts of thy Lord be denied.
See
how we have caused some of them to excel others! but the next life shall be
greater in its grades,, and greater in excellence.
Set
not up another god with God, lest thou sit thee down disgraced, helpless.
Thy
Lord hath ordained that you worship none but him; and, kindness to your
parents, whether one or both of them attain to old age with thee: and say not to them, "Fie!" neither
reproach them; but speak to them both with respectful speech;
And
defer humbly to them out of tenderness; and say, "Lord, have compassion on
them both, even as they reared me when I was little."
Your
Lord well knoweth what is in your souls; he knoweth whether you be righteous:
And
gracious is He to those who return to Him.
And to
him who is of kin render his due, and also to the poor and to the wayfarer; yet
waste not wastefully.
For
the wasteful are brethren of the Satans, and Satan was ungrateful to his Lord:
17:30 But if thou turn away from them, while
thou thyself seekest boons from thy Lord for which thou hopest, at least speak
to them with kindly speech:
And
let not thy hand be tied up to thy neck; nor yet open it with all openness,
lest thou sit thee down in rebuke, in beggary.
Verily,
thy Lord will provide with open hand for whom he pleaseth, and will be sparing.
his servants doth he scan, inspect.
Kill
not your children for fear of want: for them
and for you will we provide. Verily, the killing them is a great wickedness.
Have
nought to do with adultery; for it is a foul thing and an evil way:
Neither
slay any one whom God hath forbidden you to slay, unless for a just cause: and whosoever shall be slain wrongfully, to his
heir have we given powers; but let him not outstep bounds in putting the
manslayer to death, for he too, in his turn, will be assisted and avenged.
And
touch not the substance of the orphan, unless in an upright way, till he attain
his age of strength: And perform your convent;
verily the covenant shall be enquired of:
And
give full measure when you measure, and weigh with just balance. This will be
better, and fairest for settlement:
And
follow not that of which thou hast no knowledge; because the hearing and the
sight and the heart, -- each of these shall be enquired of:
And
walk not proudly on the earth, for thou canst not cleave the earth, neither
shalt thou reach to the mountains in height:
17:40 All this is evil; odious to thy Lord.
This
is a part of the wisdom which thy Lord hath revealed to thee. Set not up any
other god with God, lest thou be cast into Hell, rebuked, cast away.
What!
hath your Lord prepared sons for you, and taken for himself daughters from
among the angels? Indeed, you say a dreadful saying.
Moreover,
for man's warning have we varied this Koran:
Yet it only increaseth their flight from it.
Say: If,, as you affirm, there were other gods with
Him, they would in that case seek occasion against the occupant of the throne:
Glory
to Him! Immensely high is He exalted above thier blasphemies!
The
seven heavens praise him, and the earth, and all who are therein; neither is
there aught which doth not celebrate his praise; but their utterances of praise
you understand not. He is kind, induglent.
When
thou recitest the Koran we place between thee and those who believe not in the
life to come, a dark veil;
And we
put coverings over their hearts lest they should understand it, and in their
ears a heaviness;
And
when in the Koran thou namest thy One lord, they turn their backs in flight.
17:50 We well know why they hearken, when
they hearken unto thee, and when they whisper apart; when the wicked say,
"You follow no other than a man enchanted."
See
what likenesses they strike out for thee! But they are in error, neither can
they find the path.
They
also say, "After we shall have become bones and dust, shall we in sooth be
raised a new creation?"
Say: "Yes, though you were stones, or iron, or any
other creature, to your seeming, yet harder to be raised." But they will
say, "Who shall bring us back?" Say:
"He who created you at first." And they will wag their heads at thee,
and say, "When shall this be?" Say:
"Haply it is nigh."
On
that day shall God call you forth, and you shall answer by praising Him; and
you shall seem to have tarried but a little while.
Enjoin
my servants to speak in kindly sort: Verily
Satan would stir up strifes among them, for Satan is man's avowed foe.
Your
Lord well knoweth you: if He please He will
have mercy on you; or if He please He will chastise you:
and we have not sent thee to be a guardian over them.
Thy
Lord hath full knowledge of all in the heavens and the earth. High gifts have
we given to some of the prophets than to others, and the Psalter we gave to
David.
Say: Call you upon those whom you fancy to be gods
beside Him; yet they will have no power to relieve you from trouble, or to
shift it elsewhere.
Those
whom you call on, themselves desire union with their Lord, striving which of
them shall be nearest to him: they also hope
for his mercy and fear his chastisement. Verily the chastisement of thy Lord is
to be dreaded.
17:60 There is no city which we will not
destroy before the day of Resurrection, or chastise it with a grievous
chastisement. This is written in the Book.
Nothing
hindered us from sending thee with the power of working miracles, except that
the people of old treated them as lies. We gave to Themoud the she-camel before
their very eyes, yet they maltreated her! We send not a prophet with miracles
but to strike terror.
And
remember when we said to thee, Verily, thy Lord is round about mankind; we
ordained the vision which we shewed thee, and likewise the cursed tree of the
Koran, only for men to dispute of; we will strike them with terror; but it
shall only increase in them enormous wickedness:
And
when we said to the Angels, "Prostrate yourselves before Adam:" and they all prostrated them, save Eblis.
"What!" said he, "shall I bow me before him whom thou hast
created of clay?
Seest
thou this man whom thou hast honoured above me? Verily, if thou respite me till
the day of Resurrection, I will destroy his offspring, except a few."
He
say, "Begone: but whosoever of them shall
follow thee, verily, Hell shall be your recompense; an ample recompense!
And
entice such of them as thou canst by thy voice; assault them with thy horsemen
and thy footmen; be their partner in their riches and in their children, and
make them promises: but Satan shall make them
only deceitful promises.
As to
my servants, no power over them shalt thou have; And thy Lord will be their
sufficient guardian."
It is
your Lord who speedeth onward the ships for you in the sea, that you may seek
of his abundance; for he is merciful towards you.
When a
misfortune befalleth you out at sea, they whom you invoke are not to be found: God alone is there:
yet when he bringeth you safe to dry land, you place yourselves at a distance
from Him. Ungrateful is man.
17:70 What! are you sure, then, that he will
not cleave the sides of the earth for you? or that he will not send against you
a whirlwind charged with sands? Then shall you find no protector.
Or are
you sure that he will not cause you to put back to sea a second time, and send
against you a storm blast, and drown you, for that you have been thankless?
Then shall you find no helper against us therein.
And
now have we honoured the children of Adam: by
land and by sea have we carried them: food
have we provided for them of good things, and with endowments beyond many of
our creatures have we endowed them.
One
day we will summon all men with their leaders:
they whose book shall be given into their right hand, shall read their book,
and not be wronged a thread:
And he
who has been blind here, shall be blind hereafter, and wander yet more from the
way.
And,
verily, they had well nigh beguiled thee from what we revealed to thee, and
caused thee to invent some other things in our name:
but in that case they would surely have taken thee as a friend;
And
had we not settled thee, thou hadst well nigh leaned to them a little:
In
that case we would surely have made thee taste of woe in life and of woe in
death: then thou shouldest not have found a
helper against us.
And
truly they had almost caused thee to quit the land, in order wholly to drive
thee forth from it: but then, themselves
should have tarried but a little after thee.
This
was our way with the Apostles we have already sent before thee, and in this our
way thou shalt find no change.
17:80 Observe prayer at sunset, till the
first darkening of the night, and the daybreak reading -- for the daybreak
reading hath its witnesses,
And
watch unto it in the night: this shall be an
excess in service: it may be that thy Lord
will raise thee to a glorious station:
And
say, "O my Lord, cause me to enter with a perfect entry, and to come forth
with a perfect forthcoming, and give me from thy presence a helping power:"
And
say: Truth is come and falsehood is vanished.
Verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth.
And we
send down of the Koran that which is a healing and a mercy to the faithful: But it shall only add to the ruin of the wicked.
When
we bestow favours on man, he withdraweth and goeth aside; but when evil toucheth
him, he is despairing.
Say: Every one acteth after his own manner: but your Lord well knoweth who is best guided in
his path.
And
they will ask thee of the Spirit. Say: The
Spirit proceedeth at my Lord's command: but of
knowledge, only a little to you is given.
When
we please, we will take away what we have revealed to thee: none will thou then find to undertake thy cause
with us.
Save
as a mercy from thy Lord; great, verily, is his favour towards thee.
17:90 Say:
Verily, were men and Djinn assembled to produce the like of this Koran, they
could not produce its like, though the one should help the other.
And of
a truth we have set out to men every kind of similitude in this Koran, but most
men have refused everything except unbelief.
And
they say, "By no means will we believe on thee till thou cause a fountain
to gush forth for us from the earth;
Or,
till thou have a garden of palm-trees and grapes, and thou cause forth-gushing
rivers to gush forth in its midst;
Or
thou make the heaven to fall on us, as thou hast given out, in pieces; or thou
bring God and the angels to vouch for thee;
Or
thou have a house of gold; or thou mount up into Heaven; nor will we believe in
thy mounting up, till thou send down to us a book which we may read." Say: Praise be to my Lord! Am I more than a man, an
apostle?
And
what hindereth men from believing, when the guidance hath come to them, but
that they say, "Hath God sent a man as an apostle?"
Say: Did angels walk the earth as its familiars, we had
surely sent them an angel-apostle out of Heaven.
Say: God is witness enough between you and me. His
servants He scanneth, eyeth.
And He
whom God shall guide will be guided indeed; and whom he shall mislead thou
shalt find none to assist, but Him: and we
will gather them together on the day of the resurrection, on their faces, blind
and dumb and deaf: Hell shall be their abode: so oft as its fires die down, we will rekindle the
flame.
17:100 This shall be their reward for that
they believed not our signs and said, "When we shall have become bones and
dust, shall we surely be raised a new creation?"
Do
they not perceive that God, who created the Heavens and the Earth, is able to
create their like? And he hath ordained them a term; there is no doubt of it: but the wicked refuse everything except unbelief.
Say: If you held the treasures of my Lord's mercy you
would certainly refrain from them through fear of spending them: for man is covetous.
We
therefore gave to Moses nine clear signs. Ask thou, therefore, the children of
Said
Moses, "Thou knowest that none hath sent down these clear signs but the
Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth; and I surely deem thee, O Pharaoh, a
person lost."
So
Pharaoh sought to drive them out of the land; but we drowned him and all his
followers.
And
after his death, we said to the children of
And we
have parcelled out the Koran into sections, that thou mightest recite it unto
men by slow degrees, and we have sent it down piecemeal.
Say: Believe you therein or believe you not? They
verily to whom knowledge had been given previously, fall on their faces
worshipping when it is recited to them, and say:
"Glory be to God! the promise of our Lord is made good!"
They
fall down on their faces weeping, and It increaseth their humility.
17:110 Say:
Call upon God (Allah), or call upon the God of Mercy (Arrahman), by whichsoever
you will invoke him: He hath most excellent
names. And be not loud in thy prayer, neither pronounce it too low; but between
these follow a middle way:
And
say: Praise be to God who hath not begotten a
son, who hath no partner in the Kingdom, nor any protector on account of
weakness. And magnify him by proclaiming His greatness.
Sura XVIII (18)
The Cave
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In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Praise
be to God, who hath sent down the Book to his servant, and hath not made it
tortuous
But
direct; that it may warn of a grievous woe from him, and announce to the
faithful who do the things that are right, that a goodly reward, wherein they
shall abide for ever, awaiteth them;
And
that it may warn those who day, "God hath begotten a Son."
No
knowledge of this have either they or their fathers! A grievous saying to come
out of their mouths! They speak no other than a lie!
And
haply, if they believe not in this new revelation, thou wilt slay thyself, on
their very footsteps, out of vexation.
Verily,
we have made all that is on earth as its adornment, that we might make trial
who among mankind would excel in works:
But we
are surely about to reduce all that is thereon to dust!
Hast
thou reflected that the Inmates of The Cave and of Al Rakim were one of our
wondrous signs?
When
the youths betook them to the cave they said, "O our Lord! grant us mercy
from before thee, and order for us our affair aright."
18:10 Then struck we upon their ears with
deafness in the cave for many a year:
Then we
awaked them that we might know which of the two parties could best reckon the
space of their abiding.
We
will relate to thee their tale with truth., They were youths who had believed
in their Lord, and in guidance had we increased them;
And we
had made them stout of heart, when they stood up and said, 'Our Lord is Lord of
the Heavens and of the Earth: we will call on
no other God than Him; for in that case we had said a thing outrageous.
These
our people have taken other gods beside Him, though they bring no clear proof
for them; but, who m ore iniquitous than he who forgeth a lie of God?
So
when you shall have separated you from them and from that which they worship
beside God, then betake you to the cave: Your
Lord will unfold his mercy to you, and will order your affairs for you for the
best."
And
thou mightest have seen the sun when it arose, pass on the right of their cave,
and when it set, leave them on the left, while they were in its spacious
chamber. This is one of the signs of God. Guided indeed is he whom God guideth;
but for him whom He misleadeth, thou shalt by no means find a patron, director.
And
thou wouldst have deemed them awake, though they were sleeping: and we turned them to the right and to the left.
And in the entry lay their dog with paws outstretched. Hadst thou come suddenly
upon them, thou wouldst surely have turned thy back on them in flight, and have
been filled with fear at them.
So we
awaked them that they might question one another. Said one of them, "How
long have you tarried here?" They said, "We have tarried a day or
part of a day." They said, "Your Lord knoweth best how long you have
tarried: Send now one of you with this your
coin into the city, and let him mark who therein hath purest food, and from him
let him bring you a supply: and let him be
courteous, and not discover you to any one.
For
they, if they find you out, will stone you or turn you back to their faith, and
in that case it will fare ill with you for ever."
18:20 And thus made we their adventure known
to their fellow citizens, that they might learn that the promise of God is
true, and that as to "the Hour" there is no doubt of its coming. When
they disputed among themselves concerning what had befallen them, some said,
"Build a building over them; their Lord knoweth best about them."
Those who prevailed in the matter said, "A place of worship will we surely
raise over them."
Some
say, "They were three; their dog the fourth:"
others say, "Five; their dog the sixth," guessing at the secret: others say "Seven; and their dog the
eighth." Say: My Lord best knoweth the
number: none, save a few, shall know them.
Therefore
be clear in thy discussions about them, and ask not any Christian concerning
them.
Say
not thou of a thing, "I will surely do it to-morrow;" without,
"If God will." And when thou has forgotten, call thy Lord to mind;
and say, "Haply my Lord will guide me, that I may come near to the truth
of this story with correctness."
And
they tarried in their cave 300 years, and 9 years over.
Say: God best knoweth how long they tarried: With Him are the secrets of the Heavens and of the
Earth: Look thou and hearken unto Him alone.
Man hath no guardian but Him, and none may bear part in his judgments: --
And publish
what hath been revealed to thee of the Book of thy Lord -- none may change his
words, -- and thou shalt find no refuge beside Him.
Be
patient with those who call upon their Lord at morn and even, seeking his face: and let not thine eyes be turned away from them in
quest of the pomp of this life; neither obey him whose heart we have made
careless of the remembrance of Us, and who followeth his own lusts, and whose
ways are unbridled.
And
say: the truth is from your Lord: let him then who will, believe; and let him who
will, be an infidel. But for the offenders we have got ready the fire whose
smoke shall enwrap them: and if they implore
help, helped shall they be with water like molten brass which shall scald their
faces. Wretched the drink! and an unhappy couch!
But as
to those who have believed and done the things that are right, -- Verily we
will not suffer the reward of him whose works were good, to perish!
18:30 For them, the gardens of Eden, under
whose shades shall river flow: decked shall they
be therein with bracelets of gold, and green robes of silk and rich brocade
shall they wear, reclining them therein on thrones. Blissful the reward! and a
pleasant couch!
And
set forth to them as a parable two men; on one of whom we bestowed two gardens
of grape vines, and surrounded both with palm trees, and placed corn fields
between them: Each of the gardens did yield
its fruit, and failed not thereof at all:
And we
caused a river to flow in their midst: And
this man received his fruit, and said, disputing with him, to his companion,
"More have I than thou of wealth, and my family is mightier."
And he
went into his garden -- to his own soul unjust. He said, "I do not think
that this will ever perish:
And I
do not think that 'the Hour' will come: and
even if I be taken back to my Lord, I shall surely find a better than it in
exchange."
His
fellow said to him, disputing with him, "What! hast thou no belief in him
who created thee of the dust, then of the germs of life, then fashioned thee a
perfect man?
But
God is my Lord; and no other being will I associate with my Lord.
And
why didst thou not say when thou enteredst thy garden, 'What God willeth! there
is no power but in God.' Though thou seest that I have less than thou of wealth
and children,
Yet
haply my Lord may bestow upon me better than thy garden, and may send his bolts
upon it out of Heaven, so that the next dawn shall find it barren dust;
Or its
water become deep sunk, so that thou art unable to find it."
18:40 And his fruits were encompassed by
destruction. Then began he to turn down the palms of his hands at what he had
spent on it; for its vines were falling down on their trellises, and he said,
"Oh that I had not joined any other god to my Lord!"
And he
had no host to help him instead of God, neither was he able to help himself.
Protection
in such a case is of God -- the Truth: He is
the best rewarder, and He bringeth to the best issue.
And
set before them a similitude of the present life. It is as water which we send
down from Heaven, and the herb of the Earth is mingled with it, and on the
morrow it becometh dry stubble which the winds scatter:
for God hath power over all things.
Wealth
and children are the adornment of this present life:
but good works, which are lasting, are better in the sight of thy Lord as to
recompense, and better as to hope.
18:45 And call to mind the day when we will
cause the mountains to pass away, and thou shalt see the earth a levelled
plain, and we will gather mankind together, and not leave of them any one.
And
they shall be set before thy Lord in ranks: --
"Now are you come unto us as we created you at first: but you thought that we should not make good to
you the promise."
And
each shall have his book put into his hand:
and thou shalt see the wicked in alarm at that which is therein: and they shall say, "O woe to us! what
meaneth this Book? It leaveth neither small nor great unnoted down!" And
they shall find all that they have wrought present to them, and thy Lord will
not deal unjustly with any one.
When
we said to the angels, "Prostrate yourselves before Adam," they all
prostrated them save Eblis, who was of the Djinn, and revolted from his Lord's
behest. -- What! will you then take him and his offspring as patrons rather
than Me? and they your enemies? Sad exchange for the ungodly!
I made
them not witnesses of the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth, nor of
their own creation, neither did I take seducers as my helpers.
18:50 On a certain day, God shall say,
"Call you on the companions you joined with me, deeming them to be gods:" and they shall call on them, but they shall
not answer them: then will we place a valley
of perdition between them:
And
the wicked shall see the fire, and shall have a foreboding that they shall be
flung into it, and they shall find no escape from it.
And
now in this Koran we have presented to man similitudes of every kind: but, at most things is man a caviller.
And
what, now that guidance is come to them, letteth men from believing and from
asking forgiveness of their Lord -- unless they wait till that the doom of the
ancients overtake them, or the chastisement come upon them in the sight of the
universe?
We
send not our Sent Ones but to announce and to warn:
but the infidels cavil with vain words in order to refute the truth; and they
treat my signs and their own warnings with scorn.
But
who is worse than he who when told of the signs of his Lord turneth him away
and forgetteth what in time past his hands have wrought? Truly we have thrown
veils over their hearts lest they should understand this Koran, and into their
ears a heaviness:
And if
thou bid them to "the guidance" yet will they not even then be guided
ever.
The
gracious one, full of compassion, is thy Lord! if he would have chastised them
for their demerits he would have hastened their chastisement. But they have a
time fixed for the accomplishment of our menaces:
and beside God they shall find no refuge.
And
those cities did we destroy when they became impious; and of their coming
destruction we gave them warning.
Remember
when Moses said to his servant, "I will not stop till I reach the
confluence of the two seas, or for years will I journey on."
18:60 But when they reached their
confluence, they forgot their fish, and it took its way in the sea at will.
And
when they had passed on, said Moses to his servant, "Bring us our morning
meal; for now have we incurred weariness from this journey."
He
said, "What thinkest thou? When we repaired to the rock for rest I forgot
the fish; and none but Satan made me forget it, so as not to mention it; and it
hath taken its way in the sea in a wondrous sort."
He
said, "It is this we were in quest of." And they both went back
retracing their footsteps.
Then
found they one of our servants to whom we had vouchsafed our mercy, and whom we
had instructed with our knowledge.
And
Moses said to him, "Shall I follow thee that thou teach me, for guidance,
of that which thou too hast been taught?"
He
said, "Verily, thou canst not have patience with me;
How
canst thou be patient in matters whose meaning thou comprehendest not?"
He
said, "Thou shalt find me patient if God please, nor will I disobey thy
bidding."
He
said, "Then, if thou follow me, ask me not of aught until I have given
thee an account thereof."
18:70 So they both went on, till they
embarked in a ship, and he -- the unknown -- staved it in. "What!"
said moses, "hast thou staved it in that thou mayest drown its crew? a
strange thing now hast thou done!"
He
said, "Did I not tell thee that thou couldst not have patience with
me?"
He
said, "Chide me not that I forgat, nor lay on me a hard command."
Then
went they on till they met a youth, and he slew him. Said Moses, "Hast
thou slain him who is free from guilt of blood? Now hast thou wrought a
grievous thing!"
He
said, "Did I not tell thee that thou couldst not have patience with
me?"