The Speeches & Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad · Prophet Muhammad
Y. S.
_In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful._ Y. S. By the wise Korān! Verily thou art of the Messengers Upon the straight way. A revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful:-- To warn a people whose fathers were not warned, and themselves are heedless. Our word has proved true against the most of them; yet they will not believe! Verily we have put shackles on their necks, reaching to the chin, and their heads are tied back; And we have put a barrier before them and a barrier behind them, and we have covered them so that they see not; And it is all one to them whether thou warn them or warn them not: they will not believe. Thou wilt only warn to good purpose him who followeth the monition and feareth the Merciful in secret: so tell him good tidings of forgiveness and a noble reward. Verily it is we who quicken the dead, and write down the deeds they have sent before them and the vestiges they leave behind them; and everything do we set down in the plain Exemplar.
And frame for them a parable--the people of the town [of Antioch], when the Apostles came to it; When we sent unto them two, and they called them liars; so we strengthened them with a third, and they said, “Verily we are sent unto you.” The people said, “Ye are only men like us; and the Merciful hath not revealed aught; in sooth ye are only lying.” They said, “Our Lord knoweth that we are indeed sent unto you; And there is naught laid upon us but to announce a plain message.” The people said, “Of a truth we have drawn an evil augury from you: unless ye desist, we will surely stone you, and a painful punishment shall surely betide you from us.” They said, “Your evil augury is with yourselves! If ye be warned?--Nay! ye are an ignorant people.” And there came from the furthest part of the city a man running: he said, “O my people! follow the Apostles, Follow those who ask you not for recompense, and who are guided aright. And what is in me, that I should not worship Him who made me and to whom ye must return? Shall I take gods beside Him? If the Merciful be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avail me aught, nor will they deliver me; Verily in that case I should be in a manifest error. Verily I believe in your Lord: therefore hear ye me.”-- It was said, “Enter into Paradise,” and he said, “Would that my people knew How that my Lord hath forgiven me and hath made me one of the honoured!” And afterwards we sent not down upon his people armies out of heaven nor what we were wont to send down: It was but one shout, and lo, they were extinct!
O the pity of men! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn. Do they not consider how many generations we have destroyed before them? Verily they shall not return to them, But gathered together before us shall they all be arraigned. And a sign for them is the dead earth which we quicken and bring thereforth grain, and they eat of it; And we make therein gardens of palm-trees and vines, and cause springs to gush forth therein; That they may eat of its fruits, and of the labour of their hands: and will they not be thankful? Extolled be the glory of Him who hath created all sorts of what the earth beareth, and of men’s selves, and of that they know not of! And a sign for them is the night. We draw away the day from it, and lo! they are in darkness; And the sun hasteneth to her resting-place.--This is the ordinance of the Mighty, the Wise!-- And for the moon we have decreed his mansions, till he is wasted to the likeness of a withered palm-branch. It is not meet that the sun should overtake the moon, nor the night outstrip the day; but each doth swim in its sphere. And it is a sign for them that we carry their offspring in the burthened ship; And that we create for them the like of it to ride on; And if we please, we drown them, and there is no succour for them, nor are they delivered, Save in our mercy, and for a transient joy. And when it is said to them, “Fear what is before you and what is behind you; haply ye may obtain mercy:” Thou bringest not one sign of the signs of their Lord but they turn away from it! And when it is said to them, “Give alms of what God hath bestowed on you,” they who disbelieve say to those who believe, “Shall we feed him whom God can feed if He pleases? verily ye are only in manifest error.”
And they say “When will this threat come to pass, if ye be speakers of truth?” They await but a single blast; it shall smite them whilst they are wrangling, And they shall not be able to make their wills, and unto their families they shall not return. And the trumpet shall be blown, and behold they shall hasten out of the graves to their Lord: Saying, “Oh, woe is us! who hath roused us from our sleeping-place? This is what the Merciful threatened; and the apostles spake truth.” There shall be but one blast, and, lo! all are arraigned before us; And on that day no soul shall be wronged at all, nor shall ye be recompensed save for what ye have wrought. Verily on that day the people of Paradise shall, be happy in their pursuits, They and their wives reclining on couches in the shade; They have fruit there and whatsoever they demand: “Peace” is their greeting from a merciful Lord. “Separate ye this day, O ye sinners! Did I not charge you, O sons of Adam, not to serve the Devil,--surely he is your open enemy,-- But to worship Me: this is the straight way? Yet he led away a great multitude of you: had ye no wits? This is Hell, which ye were threatened with: Roast there to-day, because ye did not believe.” On that day will we set a seal on their mouths, but their hands shall speak to us, and their feet shall bear witness of what they have earned for themselves. And if we pleased, we could put out their eyes, and still would they hasten on their way: but how would they see? And if we pleased we could transform them as they stand so that they could not go on or turn back; And him whom we make old, we bow down his body: have they no wits?
We have not taught [Mohammad] poetry, nor would it befit him. It is only a warning and a plain Korān, To warn whosoever liveth: and the sentence shall be carried out upon the unbelievers. Do they not see that we have created for them, of what our hands have made, the cattle which they possess? And we have subdued them unto them, and some of them are for riding and of some they eat, And they have in them profit and milk to drink: and will they not be thankful? But they have taken other gods beside God, if haply they may be holpen: They are not able to help them; yet they themselves are an army arrayed for their defence. But let not their speech grieve thee: verily, we know what they hide and what they show! Doth not man see that we created him from a germ? Yet, behold he is an open adversary, And he putteth arguments to us, and forgetteth his creation, saying, “Who can quicken bones that are rotten?” Say: He who first made them to be shall quicken them: for all creating He knoweth well;-- Who made for you fire from a green tree, and behold, ye kindle with it; And is not He who created the Heavens and the Earth able to create their like? Yea! for He is the wise Creator. His command, when he willeth a thing, is only to say to it “BE,” and it is! Then extolled be the Perfection of Him in whose hand is the empire over all, and to whom ye must return. (xxxvi.)
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.