MECCA.–21 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the NIGHT when she spreads her veil;

By the Day when it brightly shineth;

By Him who made male and female;

At different ends truly do ye aim!1

But as to him who giveth alms and feareth God,

And yieldeth assent to the Good;

To him will we make easy the path to happiness.

But as to him who is covetous and bent on riches,

And calleth the Good a lie,

To him will we make easy the path to misery:

And what shall his wealth avail him when he goeth down?

Truly man’s guidance is with Us

And Our’s, the Future and the Past.

I warn you therefore of the flaming fire;

None shall be cast to it but the most wretched,–

Who hath called the truth a lie and turned his back.

But the God-fearing shall escape it,–

Who giveth away his substance that he may become pure;2

And who offereth not favours to any one for the sake of recompense,

But only as seeking the face of his Lord the Most High.

And surely in the end he shall be well content.

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1 See Pref., p. 5, line I.

2 Comp. Luke xi. 41. Muhammad perhaps derived this view of the meritorious anture of almsgiving from the Jewish oral law.