Page:Koran - Rodwell - 2nd ed.djvu/50

The most rightminded of them said, “ Did I not say to you, Will ye not give praise to God?”
They said, “ Glory to our Lord! Truly we have done amiss.”
30And they fell to blaming one another:
They said, “Oh woe to us ! we have indeed transgressed!
Haply our Lord will give us in exchange a better garden than this: verily we crave it of our Lord.”
Such hath been our chastisement—but heavier shall be the chastisement of the next world. Ah! did they but know it.
Verily, for the God-fearing are gardens of delight in the presence of their Lord.
Shall we then deal with those who have surrendered themselves to God, as with those who offend him?
What hath befallen you that ye thus judge?
Have ye a Scripture wherein ye can search out
That ye shall have the things ye choose?
Or have ye received oaths which shall bind Us even until the day of the resurrection, that ye shall have what yourselves judge right?
40Ask them which of them will guarantee this?
Or is it that they have joined gods with God? let them produce those associate-gods of theirs, if they speak truth.
On the day when men's legs shall be bared,^[1] and they shall be called upon to bow in adoration, they shall not be able:
Their looks shall be downcast: shame shall cover them: because, while yet in safety, they were invited to bow in worship, but would not obey.
Leave me alone therefore with him who chargeth this revelation with imposture. We will lead them by degrees to their ruin; by ways which they know not;
Yet will I bear long with them; for my plan is sure.
Askest thou any recompense from them? But they are burdened with debt.
Are the secret things within their ken? Do they copy them from the Book of God?
Patiently then await the judgment of thy Lord, and be not like him who was in the fish,^[2] when in deep distress he cried to God.

1. An expression implying a grievous calamity; borrowed probably from the action of stripping previous to wrestling, swimming, etc.
2. Lit. the companion of the fish. Comp. on Jonah Sura xxxvii. 139–148, and Sura xxi. 87.