The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

206
The Quran 21: 57
witness to this. 57 By God I shall certainly plot against your idols as
soon as you have turned your backs!’ 58 He broke them all into pieces,
but left the biggest one for them to return to. 59 They said, ‘Who has
done this to our gods? How wicked he must be!’ 60 Some said, ‘We
heard a youth called Abraham talking about them.’ 61 They said,
‘Bring him before the eyes of the people, so that they may witness
[his trial].’ 62 They asked, ‘Was it you, Abraham, who did this to our
gods?’ 63 He said, ‘No, it was done by the biggest of them – this one.
Ask them, if they can talk.’ 64 They turned to one another, saying, ‘It
is you who are in the wrong,’ 65 but then they lapsed again and said,
‘You know very well these gods cannot speak.’ 66 Abraham said, ‘How
can you worship what can neither benefit nor harm you, instead of
God? 67 Shame on you and on the things you worship instead of God.
Have you no sense?’ 68 They said, ‘Burn him and avenge your gods, if
you are going to do the right thing.’ 69 But We said, ‘Fire, be cool and
safe for Abraham.’ 70 They planned to harm him, but We made them
suffer the greatest loss. 71 We saved him and Lot [and sent them] to
the land We blessed for all people, 72 and We gave him Isaac and Jacob
as an additional gift, and made each of them righteous. 73 We made all
of them leaders, guiding others by Our command, and We inspired
them to do good works, to keep up the prayer, and to give alms: they
were Our true worshippers. 74 We gave Lot sound judgement and
knowledge and saved him from the community who practised
obscenities – they were shameless people who broke God’s law! 75 We
admitted him to Our mercy; he was a righteous man.
76 Long before that, We answered Noah when he cried out to Us:
We saved him and his family from the great calamity 77 and We
helped him against the people who rejected Our signs – they were
evil people, so We drowned them all.
78 And remember David and Solomon, when they gave judgement
regarding the field into which sheep strayed by night and grazed. We
witnessed their judgement 79 and made Solomon understand the case
[better], though We gave sound judgement and knowledge to both of
them. We made the mountains and the birds celebrate Our praises
with David – We did all these things – 80 We taught him how to make
coats of mail for the benefit of you [people], to protect you in your
wars, but are you grateful for this? 81 We harnessed the stormy wind
for Solomon, so that it sped by his command to the land We had
blessed – We have knowledge of all things – 82 and We made some of