The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

16: 31
The Bee 167
use their reason. 13 He has made of benefit to you the many-coloured
things He has multiplied on the earth. There truly are signs in this
for those who take it to heart. 14 It is He who made the sea of benefit
to you: you eat fresh fish from it and bring out jewellery to wear; you
see the ships cutting through its waves so that you may go in search
of His bounty and give thanks. 15 He has made mountains stand firm
on the earth, to prevent it shaking under you, and rivers and paths so
that you may find your way, 16 and landmarks and stars to guide
people. 17 Can He who creates be compared to one who cannot
create? Why do you not take heed?
18 If you tried to count God’s blessings, you could never take them
all in: He is truly most forgiving and most merciful. 19 He knows
what you conceal and what you reveal. 20 Those they invoke beside
God create nothing; they are themselves created. 21 They are dead,
not living. They do not know when they will be raised up. 22 Your
God is the One God. As for those who deny the life to come, their
hearts refuse to admit the truth and they are arrogant. 23 There is no
doubt that God knows what they conceal and what they reveal. He
does not love the arrogant.
24 When they are asked, ‘What has your Lord sent down?’ they say,
‘Ancient fables.’ 25 On the Day of Resurrection they will bear the full
weight of their own burden, as well as some of the burden of those
they misled with no true knowledge. How terrible their burden will
be! 26 Those who went before them also schemed, but God attacked
the very foundations of what they built. The roof fell down on them:
punishment came on them from unimagined directions. 27 In the
end, on the Day of Resurrection, He will shame them, saying,
‘Where are these “partners” of Mine on whose account you opposed
[Me]?’ Those given knowledge will say, ‘Shame and misery on the
disbelievers today!’ 28 Those whose lives the angels take while they
are wronging themselves will show submission: ‘We were doing no
evil.’ ‘Yes you were: God knows fully everything that you have done,
29 so enter the gates of Hell. There you will remain – the home of the
arrogant is evil indeed.’
30 But when the righteous are asked, ‘What has your Lord sent
down?’ they will say, ‘All that is good.’ There is a reward in this
present world for those who do good, but their home in the Hereafter
is far better: the home of the righteous is excellent. 31 They will
enter perpetual Gardens graced with flowing streams. There they