| rodwell | |
|---|---|
| 1. * | A SUITOR sued for punishment to light suddenly |
| 2. * | On the infidels: none can hinder |
| 3. * | God from inflicting it, the master of those ASCENTS, |
| 4. * | By which the angels and the spirit ascend to him in a day, whose length is fifty thousand years. |
| 5. * | Be thou patient therefore with becoming patience; |
| 6. * | They forsooth regard that day as distant, |
| 7. * | But we see it nigh: |
| 8. * | The day when the heavens shall become as molten brass, |
| 9. * | And the mountains shall become like flocks of wool: |
| 10. * | And friend shall not question of friend, |
| 11. * | Though they look at one another. Fain would the wicked redeem himself from punishment on that day at the price of his children, |
| 12. * | Of his spouse and his brother, |
| 13. * | And of his kindred who shewed affection for him, |
| 14. * | And of all who are on the earth that then it might deliver him. |
| 15. * | But no. For the fire, |
| 16. * | Dragging by the scalp, |
| 17. * | Shall claim him who turned his back and went away, |
| 18. * | And amassed and hoarded. |
| 19. * | Man truly is by creation hasty; |
| 20. * | When evil befalleth him, impatient; |
| 21. * | But when good falleth to his lot, tenacious. |
| 22. * | Not so the prayerful, |
| 23. * | Who are ever constant at their prayers; |
| 24. * | And of whose substance there is a due and stated portion |
| 25. * | For him who asketh, and for him who is ashamed to beg; |
| 26. * | And who own the judgment-day a truth, |
| 27. * | And who thrill with dread at the chastisement of their Lord- |
| 28. * | For there is none safe from the chastisement of their Lord- |
| 29. * | And who control their desires, |
| 30. * | (Save with their wives or the slaves whom their right hands have won, for there they shall be blameless; |
| 31. * | But whoever indulge their desires beyond this are transgressors); |
| 32. * | And who are true to their trusts and their engagements, |
| 33. * | And who witness uprightly, |
| 34. * | And who keep strictly the hours of prayer: |
| 35. * | These shall dwell, laden with honours, amid gardens. |
| 36. * | But what hath come to the unbelievers that they run at full stretch around thee, |
| 37. * | On the right hand and on the left, in bands? |
| 38. * | Is it that every man of them would fain enter that garden of delights? |
| 39. * | Not at all. We have created them, they know of what. |
| 40. * | It needs not that I swear by the Lord of the East and of the West that we have power. |
| 41. * | To replace them with better than themselves: neither are we to be hindered. |
| 42. * | Wherefore let them flounder on and disport them, till they come face to face with their threatened day, |
| 43. * | The day on which they shall flock up out of their graves in haste like men who rally to a standard:- |
| 44. * | Their eyes downcast; disgrace shall cover them. Such their threatened day. |