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for He is the High, the Mighty One ! 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 w’atch 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 lias 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 (•) are conjectural (the text being imperfect), as suggested 
by the context, which is a quotation from the Kuran. 
