I am commanded only to worship God, and not to associate any with Him: on Him I cry, and unto Him is my goal. Thus have we sent down the Korān as an Arabic judgment; and assuredly, if thou followed their desires after the knowledge had come to thee, thou shouldst have no protector nor warder against God. And we have sent apostles before thee, and gave them wives and offspring. But to no apostle was it given to bring a sign save by God's permission to each age its Book. God wipeth out or confirmeth what He pleaseth, and with Him is the Mother of the Book. And whether we show thee somewhat of that which we promised them, or take thee hence before; verily, it is thine to announce only, and ours to take account. See they not that we come into the land and cut down its chiefs? And when God judgeth, there is none to reverse His sentence and He is swift to reckon. And those who were before them plotted: but God's is the master plot: He knoweth what every one soul earneth, and the infidels shall know for whom is the reward of the abode. And those who disbelieve shall say, "Thou art not sent from God." Say: God is witness enough between me and you, and he that hath knowledge of the Book. (xiii.) 115 DECEPTION. In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. ALL that is in the heavens, and all that is in the earth, magnifieth God: His is the kingdom, His is the praise, and He is powerful over all things. It is He who hath created you; and one of you is an unbeliever, and another a believer; and God seeth what ye do. He created the heavens and the earth in truth; and He hath fashioned you and made goodly your forms; and to Him is your journeying. He knoweth what is in the heavens and the earth ; and He knoweth what ye hide and what ye manifest; and God knoweth well the secrets of the breast. Hath not the story come to you of those who disbelieved aforetime, and tasted the evil fruit of their doings, and received an aching torment ? That was because when their apostles had come to them with manifestations, they said, "Shall mortal men guide us?" And they believed |