Chapters from the Koran.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
The Chapter of Those Sent
I
By those sent in a series!
And by those who speed swiftly!
And by the dispensers abroad!
And by the separators apart!
And by those who instil the reminder, as an excuse or warning!
Verily, what ye are threatened with shall surely happen!
And when the stars shall be erased!
And when the heavens shall be cleft!
And when the mountains shall be winnowed!
And when the apostles shall have a time appointed for them!
For what day is the appointment made?
For the day of decision! and what shall make thee know what the decision is?
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
Have we not destroyed those of yore, and then followed them up with those of the latter day?
Thus do we with the sinners.
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
Did we not create you from contemptible water, and place it in a sure depository unto a certain decreed term? for we are able and well able too!
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
Have we not made for them the earth to hold the living and the dead? and set thereon firm mountains reared aloft? and given you to drink water in streams?
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
Go off to that which ye did call a lie! Go off to the shadow of three columns, that shall not shade nor avail against the flame! Verily, it throws off sparks like towers,—as though they were yellow camels!
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
This is the day of decision! We have assembled you with those of yore; if ye have any stratagem employ it now!
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
Verily, the pious are amid shades and springs and fruit such as they love.—‘Eat and drink with good digestion, for that which ye have done!’
Verily, thus do we reward those who do well.
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
‘Eat and enjoy yourselves for a little; verily, ye are sinners!’
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
And when it is said to them bow down, they bow not down.
Woe on that day for those who say it is a lie!
And in what new discourse after it will they believe?