M.Asad · MealMerkezi.Net

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THE BESTOWAL from on high of this divine writ issues from God, the Almighty, the Wise:

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for, behold, it is We who have bestowed this revelation upon thee from on high, setting forth the truth: so worship Him, sincere in thy faith in Him alone!

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Is it not to God alone that all sincere faith is due? And yet, they who take for their protectors aught beside Him (are wont to say), “We worship them for no other reason than that they bring us nearer to God.” Behold, God will judge between them (on Resurrection Day) with regard to all wherein they differ (from the truth): for, verily, God does not grace with His guidance anyone who is bent on lying (to himself and is) stubbornly ingrate!

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Had God willed to take Unto Himself a son, He could have chosen anyone that He wanted out of whatever He has created - (but) limitless is He in His glory! He is the One God, the One who holds absolute sway over all that exists!

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He it is who has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with (an inner) truth. He causes the night to flow into the day, and causes the day to flow into the night; and He has made the sun and the moon subservient (to His laws), each running its course for a term set (by Him). Is not He the Almighty, the All-Forgiving?

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He has created you (all) out of one living entity, and out of it fashioned its mate; and he has bestowed upon you four kinds of cattle of either sex; (and) He creates you in your mothers’ wombs, one act of creation after another, in threefold depths of darkness. Thus is God, your Sustainer: unto Him belongs all dominion: there is no deity save Him: how, then, can you lose sight of the truth?

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If you are ingrate behold, God has no need of you; none the less, He does not approve of ingratitude in His servants: whereas, if you show gratitude, He approves it in you. And no bearer of burdens shall be made to bear another’s burden. In time, unto your Sustainer you all must return, and then He will make you (truly) understand all that you were doing (in life): for, verily, He has full knowledge of what is in the hearts (of men).

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NOW (thus it is:) when affliction befalls man, he is likely to cry out to his Sustainer, turning unto Him (for help); but as soon as He has bestowed upon him a boon by His grace, he forgets Him whom he invoked before, and claims that there are other powers that could rival God - and thus leads (others) astray from His path. Say (unto him who sins in this way): “Enjoy thyself for a while in this thy denial of the truth; (yet,) verily, thou art of those who are destined for the fire!

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Or (dost thou deem thyself equal to) one who devoutly worships (God) throughout the night, prostrating himself or standing (in prayer), ever- mindful of the life to come, and hoping for his Sustainer’s grace?” Say: “Can they who know and they who do not know be deemed equal?” (But) only they who are endowed with insight keep this in mind!

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Say: “(Thus speaks God:) ‘O you servants of Mine who have attained to faith! Be conscious of your Sustainer! Ultimate good awaits those who persevere in doing good in this world. And (remember:) wide is God’s earth, (and,) verily, they who are patient in adversity will be given their reward in full, beyond all reckoning!’ ”

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Say (O Muhammad): “Behold, I am bidden to worship God, sincere in my faith in Him alone;

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and I am bidden to be foremost among those who surrender themselves unto God.”

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Say: “Behold, I would dread, were I to rebel against my Sustainer, the suffering (which would befall me) on that awesome Day (of Judgment).”

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Say: “God alone do I worship, sincere in my faith in Him alone -

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and (it is up to you, O sinners, to) worship whatever you please instead of Him!” Say: “Behold, the (true) losers will be they who shall have lost their own selves and their kith and kin on Resurrection Day: for is not this, this, the (most) obvious loss?

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Clouds of fire will they have above them, and (similar) clouds beneath them…” In this way does God imbue His servants with fear. O you servants of Mine! Be, then, conscious of Me -

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seeing that for those who shun the powers of evil lest they (be tempted to) worship them, and turn unto God instead, there is the glad tiding (of happiness in the life to come). Give, then, this glad tiding to (those of) My servants

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who listen (closely) to all that is said, and follow the best of it: (for) it is they whom God has graced with His guidance, and it is they who are (truly) endowed with insight!

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On the other hand, could one on whom (God’s) sentence of suffering has been passed (be rescued by man)? Couldst thou, perchance, save one who is (already, as it were,) in the fire?

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As against this they who of their Sustainer are conscious shall (in the life to come) have mansions raised upon mansions high, beneath which running waters flow: (this is) God’s promise - (and) never does God fail to fulfill His promise.

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ART THOU NOT aware that it is God who sends down water from the skies, and then causes it to travel through the earth in the shape of springs? And then He brings forth thereby herbage of various hues; and then it withers, and thou canst see it turn yellow; and in the end He causes it to crumble to dust. Verily, in (all) this there is indeed a reminder to those who are endowed with insight!

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Could, then, one whose bosom God has opened wide with willingness towards self-surrender unto Him, so that he is illumined by a light (that flows) from his Sustainer, (be likened to the blind and deaf of heart)? Woe, then, unto those whose hearts are hardened against all remembrance of God! They are most obviously lost in error!

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God bestows from on high the best of all teachings in the shape of a divine writ fully consistent within itself, repeating each statement (of the truth) in manifold forms (a divine writ) whereat shiver the skins of all who of their Sustainer stand in awe: (but) in the end their skins and their hearts do soften at the remembrance of (the grace of) God. Such is God’s guidance: He guides therewith him that wills (to be guided) whereas he whom God lets go astray can never find any guide

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Could, then, one who shall have nothing but is (bare) face to protect him from the awful suffering (that will befall him) on Resurrection Day (be likened to the God-conscious)? (On that Day,) the evildoers will be told: “Taste (now) what you have earned (in life)!”

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Those who lived before them did (too) give the lie to the truth - whereupon suffering befell them without their having perceived whence it came:

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and thus God let them taste ignominy (even) in the life of this world. Yet (how) much greater will be the (sinners’) suffering in the life to come - if they (who now deny the truth) but knew it!

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THUS, INDEED, have We propounded unto men all kinds of parables in this Qur’an, so that they might bethink themselves; (and We have revealed it)

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as a discourse in the Arabic tongue, free of all deviousness, so that they might become conscious of God.

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(To this end,) God sets forth a parable: A man who has for his masters several partners, (all of them) at variance with one another, and a man depending wholly on one person: can these two be deemed equal as regards their condition? (Nay,) all praise is due to God (alone): but most of them do not understand this.

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Yet, verily, thou art bound to die, (O Muhammad,) and, verily, they, too, are bound to die:

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