In a lofty garden:

No vain discourse shalt thou hear therein:

Therein shall be a gushing fountain,

Therein shall be raised couches,

And goblets ready placed,

And cushions laid in order,

And carpets spread forth.

Can they not look up to the clouds, how they are created;

And to the heaven how it is upraised;

And to the mountains how they are rooted;

And to the earth how it is outspread?

Warn thou then; for thou art a warner only:

Thou hast no authority over them:

But whoever shall turn back and disbelieve,

G.o.d shall punish him with the greater punishment.

Verily to Us shall they return;

Then shall it be Our's to reckon with them.

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1 The name of a bitter, th.o.r.n.y shrub.

SURA Lx.x.xIX.-THE DAYBREAK [x.x.xIX.]

MECCA.-30 Verses

In the Name of G.o.d, the Compa.s.sionate, the Merciful

By the DAYBREAK and ten nights.1

By that which is double and that which is single,

By the night when it pursues its course!

Is there not in this an oath becoming a man of sense?

Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with Ad,

At Irem adorned with pillars,

Whose like have not been reared in these lands!

And with Themoud who hewed out the rocks in the valley;

And with Pharaoh the impaler;

Who all committed excesses in the lands,

And multiplied wickedness therein.

Wherefore thy Lord let loose on them the scourge of chastis.e.m.e.nt,2

For thy Lord standeth on a watch tower.

As to man, when his Lord trieth him and honoureth him and is bounteous to him,

Then saith he, "My Lord honoureth me:"

But when he proveth him and limiteth his gifts to him,

He saith, "My Lord despiseth me."

Aye. But ye honour not the orphan,

Nor urge ye one another to feed the poor,

And ye devour heritages, devouring greedily,

And ye love riches with exceeding love.

Aye. But when the earth shall be crushed with crushing, crushing,

And thy Lord shall come and the angels rank on rank,

And h.e.l.l on that day shall be moved up,3-Man shall on that day remember himself. But how shall remembrance help him?

He shall say, Oh! would that I had prepared for this my life! On that day none shall punish as G.o.d punisheth,

And none shall bind with such bonds as He.

Oh, thou soul which art at rest,