THE CHAPTER OF THE KINGDOM.

(LXVII. Mecca.)

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.

Blessed be He in whose hand is the kingdom, for He is mighty over all!

Who created death and life, to try you, which of you does best; for He is the mighty, the forgiving!

Who created seven heavens in stories; thou canst not see any discordance in the creation of the Merciful!

Why, look again! canst thou see a flaw? Then

look again twice!-thy look shall return to thee driven back and dulled!

[5] And we have adorned the lower heaven with lamps; and set them to pelt the devils with ¹; and we have prepared for them the torment of the blaze!

And for those who disbelieve in their Lord is the torment of hell, and an evil journey shall it be!

When they shall be cast therein they shall hear its braying ² as it boils-it will well-nigh burst for rage!

Whenever a troop of them is thrown in, its treasurers shall ask them, 'Did not a warner come to you?'

They shall say, 'Yea! a warner came to us, and we called him liar, and said, "God has not sent down aught; ye are but in great error!"'

[10] And they shall say, 'Had we but listened or had sense we had not been amongst the fellows of the blaze!'

And they will confess their sins; but 'Avaunt to the fellows of the blaze!'

Verily, those who fear their Lord in secret, for them is forgiveness and a great hire!

Speak ye secretly or openly, verily, He knows the nature of men's breasts!

Ay! He knows who created! for He is the subtle, the well-aware!

[15] He it is who made the earth flat for you; so walk in the spacious sides thereof and eat of His provision; for unto Him the resurrection is!

Are ye sure that He who is in the heaven will not cleave the earth with you, and that it then shall quake?

Or are ye sure that He who is in the heaven will not send against you a heavy sand storm, and that ye then shall know how the warning was?

But those before them did call the apostles liars, and what a change it was!

Or have they not looked at the birds above them expanding their wings or closing them?-none holds them in except the Merciful One; for He on everything doth look.

[20] Or who is this who will be a host for you, to help you against the Merciful?-the misbelievers are only in delusion!

Or who is this who will provide you if He hold back His provision?-Nay, but they persist in perverseness and aversion!

Is he who walks prone upon his face more guided than he who walks upright upon a straight path?

Say, 'It is He who produced you and made for you hearing and sight and hearts'-little is it that ye give thanks.

Say, 'It is He who sowed you in the earth, and unto Him shall ye be gathered!'

[25] They say, 'When shall this threat be, if ye do speak the truth?'

Say, 'The knowledge is only with God; and I am but a plain warner!'

And when they see it nigh, sorry shall be the faces of those who misbelieve; and it shall be said, 'This is that for which ye used to call!'

Say, 'Have ye considered, whether God destroy me and those with me, or whether we obtain mercy,

yet who will protect the misbelievers from grievous torment?'

Say, 'He is the Merciful; we believe in Him, and upon Him do we rely; and ye shall shortly know who it is that is in obvious error!'

[30] Say, 'Have ye considered if your waters on the morrow should have sunk, who is to bring you flowing water?'