Quran — Page 446

CONSIDER these [messages] ranged in serried ranks,

and restraining [from evil] by a call to restraint,

and conveying [to all the world] a reminder:

Verily, most surely, your God is One –

the Sustainer of the heavens and the earth and of all that is between them, and the Sustainer of all the points of sunrise!

Behold, We have adorned the skies nearest to the earth with the beauty of stars,

and have made them secure against every rebellious, satanic force,

[so that] they [who seek to learn the unknowable] should not be able to overhear the host on high, but shall be repelled from all sides,

cast out [from all grace], with lasting suffering in store for them [in the life to come];

but if anyone does succeed in snatching a glimpse [of such knowledge], he is [henceforth] pursued by a piercing flame.

AND NOW ask those [who deny the truth] to enlight­en thee: Were they more difficult to create than all those [untold marvels] that We have created? - for, behold, them have We created out of [mere] clay commingled with water!

Nay, but whereas thou dost marvel, they [only] scoff;

and when they are reminded [of the truth], they refuse to take it to heart;

and when they become aware of a [divine] message, they turn it to ridicule

and say: “This is clearly nothing but [a mortal’s] spellbinding eloquence!

Why - after we have died and become mere dust and bones, shall we, forsooth, be raised from the dead? –

and perhaps also our forebears of old?”

Say: “Yea, indeed - and most abject will you then be!” –

for that [resurrection which they deride] will be [upon them of a sudden, as if it were] but a single accusing cry - and then, lo! they will begin to see [the truth]

and will say: “Oh, woe unto us! This is the Day of Judgment!”

[And they will be told:] “This is the Day of Distinction [between the true and the false - the Day] which you were wont to call a lie!”

[And God will thus command:] “Assemble all those who were bent on evildoing, together with others of their ilk and [with] all that they were wont to worship

instead of God, and lead them all onto the way to the blazing fire,

and halt them [there]!” [And then,] behold, they shall be asked,