The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

25: 51 The Differentiator
as something to be shunned,’ 31 but We have always appointed adversaries
from the wicked, for every prophet: Your Lord is sufficient
guide and helper. 32 The disbelievers also say, ‘Why was the Quran
not sent down to him all at once?’ We sent it in this way to strengthen
your heart [Prophet]; We gave it to you in gradual revelation. 33 They
cannot put any argument to you without Our bringing you the truth
and the best explanation. 34 It is those driven [falling], on their faces, a
to Hell who will be in the worst place – they are the furthest from
the right path.
35 We gave Moses the Book and appointed his brother Aaron to
help him. 36 We said, ‘Go, both of you, to the people who have
rejected Our signs.’ Later We destroyed those people utterly. 37 The
people of Noah, too: when they rejected their messengers, We
drowned them and made them an example to all people. We have
prepared a painful torment for the evildoers, 38 as We did for the
people of Ad, Thamud, and al-Rass, and many generations in
between. 39 To each of them We gave warnings, and each of them We
destroyed completely. 40 These disbelievers must have passed by the
town that was destroyed by the terrible rain b ––did they not see it?
Yet they do not expect to be raised from the dead. 41 Whenever they
see you [Prophet] they ridicule you: ‘Is this the one God has sent as a
messenger? 42 He might almost have led us astray from our gods if we
had not stood so firmly by them.’ When they see the punishment,
they will know who is furthest from the path. 43 Think [Prophet] of
the man who has taken his own passion as a god: are you to be his
guardian? 44 Do you think that most of them hear or understand?
They are just like cattle – no, they are further from the path.
45 Do you not see how your Lord lengthens the shade? If He had
willed, He could have made it stand still – We made the sun its indicator
– 46 but We gradually draw it towards Us, little by little. 47 It is
He who made the night a garment for you, and sleep a rest, and
made the day like a resurrection. 48 It is He who sends the winds as
heralds of good news before His Mercy. c We send down pure water
from the sky, 49 so that We can revive a dead land with it, and We give
it as a drink to many animals and people We have created. 50 Many
times We have repeated this to people so that they might take heed,
but most persist in their ingratitude. 51 If it had been Our will, We
a Cf. 67: 22. b See 15: 74, 76. c The rain.
229