Quran — Page 361

when it shall face them from afar, they will hear its angry roar and its hiss;

and when they are flung, linked [all] together, into a tight space within, they will pray for extinction there and then!

[But they will be told:] “Pray not today for one single extinction, but pray for many extinctions!”

Say: “Which is better - that, or the paradise of life abiding which has been promised to the God-conscious as their reward and their journey’s end –

a promise given by thy Sustainer, [always] to be prayed for?”

BUT [as for people who are oblivious of thy Sus­tainer’s oneness -] one Day He will gather them together with all that they [now] worship instead of God, and will ask [those to whom divinity was falsely ascribed]: “Was it you who led these My creatures astray, or did they by themselves stray from the right path?”

They will answer: “Limitless art Thou in Thy glory! It was inconceivable for us to take for our masters anyone but Thyself! But [as for them -] Thou didst allow them and their forefathers to enjoy [the pleasures of] life to such an extent that they forgot all remembrance [of Thee]: for they were people devoid of all good.”

[Thereupon God will say:] “And now, they [whom you regarded as divine] have given the lie to all your [past] assertions, and you can neither ward off [your punishment] nor obtain any succour! For, whoever of you has committed [such] evil, him shall We cause to taste great suffering!”

AND [even] before thee, [O Muhammad,] We never sent as Our message-bearers any but [mortal men] who indeed ate food [like other human beings] and went about in the market places: for [it is thus that] We cause you [human beings] to be a means of testing one another. Are you able to endure [this test] with patience? For [remember, O man,] thy Sustainer is truly all-seeing!