62 



for He is the High, the Mighty One 1 No compulsion (let 

 there be) in religion ! Since the right is distinct enough from 

 the wrong ; surely he that denies Tagoot (the idol) and believes 

 in Allah, has indeed laid hold on a firm handle, not subject to 

 being broken ; yea, God hears and knows ! * But He that 

 fears, on the part of the testator, an error, and thus settles 

 among them (the heirs) is not guilty ; for God is forgiving, 

 merciful. Then your hearts hardened, and were afterwards 

 like stones, and even harder : for among stones there are some 

 from which rivers flow ; and some burst asunder so that water 

 trickles from them ; and some of them fall down from the fear 

 of God ; now God is not unmindful of what you are doing. 



" Or like him that came upon a city ruined to its foundation ; 

 he said : * Now, will God revive it after its death ? ' Then 

 God caused him to be dead for a hundred years; then He 

 raised him again, and said : ' How long didst thou continue 

 so ? ' he replied : ' I continued so for a day, or a part of a day.' 

 He said : ' No ! thou didst continue so for a hundred years ; 

 look but at thy food and thy drink, they are not yet decayed ! 

 look but at thy ass ; whereby we will make of thee a sign unto 

 men ; now look at its bones, how we awake them, and cover 

 them with flesh ! ' Now, when this became clear to him, he 

 said : ' I know that God is all-powerful ! It is all the same, 

 •whether any one of you secret his words, or proclaim them ; 

 whether he conceal himself in night, or rove about in day- 

 light: there are for him attendant angels, before him and 

 behind him, and they watch over him by the behest of God ; 

 verily, God changes not towards a people, unless they have 

 changed what is in their souls ; but when God has decreed 

 evil upon a people, there is none to avert it from them, and 

 besides Him, there is for them no protector. * It is He that 

 shows you the lightning, for fear and for hope, and that piles 

 up the pregnant clouds. Yea, the thunder celebrates His 



The places marked thus (*) arc conjectural (the text being imperfect), as suggested 

 by the context, which is a quotation from the Kuran. 



