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THE ESSENCE OF THE KORAN
17

In the name of the merciful and compassionate God.

Say, "He is God alone! God the Eternal! He begets not and is not begotten! Nor is there anyone like unto Him!"


The entire Koran contains close upon 150,000 words.


ON THE CREATION OF MANKIND

(The "speaker" in each verse of the Koran is always represented to have been the angel Gabriel, referring to God as "We" and addressing Mohammed directly).

We created mankind, then we fashioned you, then we said to the angels, "Adore Adam," and they adored, save Iblis[1]; who was not of those who did adore. We said, "What hinders thee from adoring, when we ordered thee?" He said, "I am better than he; Thou hast created me from fire, and him from clay."

***

We said to Iblis: "Then go down therefrom; what aileth thee that thou shouldst be so big with pride? Go hence! Verily, thou art but a small one!" And he answered, "Respite me, until the day when they shall all be raised." We said: "Thou are respited!" And he said: "For that Thou hast led me into error, I will lie in wait for them in Thy straight path; then I will surely come to them, from behind them and from before them, and most of them shall


  1. Iblis = Satan.