SURA XXXV (35) - THE CREATOR, OR THE ANGELS (Mecca - 45 verses) (LXXXVI - (289)
 
       In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
 
35:1   Praise be to God, Maker of the Heavens and of the Earth!  Who employeth
the angels as envoys, with pairs of wings, two, three and four:  He addeth to
his creature what He will!  Truly God hath power for all things.
 
       The mercy which God layeth open for man, no one can keep back; and what
He shall keep back, none can afterwards send forth.  And He is the Mighty, the
Wise.
 
       O men! bear in mind the favour of God towards you.  Is there a creator
other than God, who nourisheth you with the gifts of heaven and earth?  There
is no God but He!  How then are ye turned aside from Him?
 
       If they treat thee as an impostor, then before thee have apostles been
treated as impostors.  But to God shall all things return.
 
       O men! assuredly the promise of God is true: let not then the present
life deceive you: and let not the Deceiver deceive you as to God.
 
       Yes, Satan is your foe.  For a foe then hold him.  He calleth his
followers to him that they may become inmates of the flame.
 
       The unbelievers - for them a terrible punishment!
 
       But believers and doers of good works, for them is mercy, and a great
reward!
 
       Shall he, the evil of whose deeds are so tricked out to him that he
deemeth them good, be treated like him who seeth things aright?  Verily God
misleadeth whom He will, and guideth whom He will.  Spend not thy soul in
sights for them:  God knoweth their doings
 
35:10  It is God who sendeth forth the winds which raise the clouds aloft:
then drive we them on to some land dead from drought, and give life thereby to
the earth after its death.  So shall be the resurrection.
 
       If any one desireth greatness, all greatness is in God.  The good word
riseth up to Him, and the righteous deed will He exalt.  But a severe
punishment awaiteth the plotters of evil things; and the plots of such will He
render vain.
 
       Moreover, God created you of dust - then of the germs of life - then
made you two sexes: and no female conceiveth or bringeth forth without his
knowledge; and the aged ageth not, nor is aught minished from man's age, but in
accordance with the Book.  An easy thing truly is this to God.
 
       Nor are the two seas alike: the one fresh, sweet, pleasant for drink,
and the other salt, bitter; yet from both ye eat fresh fish, and take forth for
you ornaments to wear, and thou seest the ships cleaving their waters that ye
may go in quest of his bounties, and that ye may be thankful.
 
       He causeth the night to enter in upon the day, and the day to enter in
upon the night; and He hath given laws to the sun and to the moon, so that each
journeyeth to its appointed goal:  This is God your Lord:  All power is His:
But the gods whom ye call on beside Him have no power over the husk of a date
stone!
 
       If ye cry to them they will not hear your cry; and if they heard they
would not answer you, and in the day of resurrection they will disown your
joining them with God:  and none can instruct thee like Him who is informed of
all.
 
       O men! ye are but paupers in need of God; but God is the Rich, the
Praiseworthy!
 
       If He please, He could sweep you away, and bring forth a new creation!
 
       Nor will this be hard for God.
 
       And the burdened soul shall not bear the burden of another:  and if the
heavy laden soul cry out for its burden to be carried, yet shall not aught of
it be carried, even by the near of kin!  Thou shalt warn those who fear their
Lord in secret, and observe prayer.  And whosoever shall keep himself pure, he
purifieth himself to his own behoof:P for unto God shall be the final
gathering.
 
35:20  And the blind and the seeing are not alike; neither darkness and light;
nor the shade and the hot wind;
 
       Nor are the living and the dead the same thing!  God indeed shall make
whom He will to hearken, but thou shalt not make those who are in their graves
to hearken; for only with warning are thou charged.
 
       Verily we have sent thee with the truth; a bearer of good tidings and a
warner; nor hath there been a people unvisited by its warner.
 
       And if they treat thee as a liar, so did those who were before them
threat their Apostles who came to them with the proofs of their mission, and
with the Scriptures and with the enlightening Book:
 
       Then chastised I the unbelievers: and how great was my vengeance!
 
       Seest thou not how that God sendeth down water from the Heaven, and that
by it we cause the up-growth of fruits of varied hues, and that on the
mountains are tracks of varied hues, white and red, and others are of a raven
black?  And of men, and reptiles and animals, various likewise are the hues.
Such only of his servants as are possessed of knowledge fear God.  Lo! God is
Mighty, Gracious!
 
       Verily they who recite the Book of God, and observe prayer, and give
alms in public and in private from what we have bestowed upon them, may hope
for a merchandise that shall not perish:
 
       God will certainly pay them their due wages, and of his bounty increase
them: for He is Gracious, Grateful.
 
       And that which we have revealed to thee of the Book is the very Truth,
confirmatory of previous Scriptures:  for God knoweth and beholdeth his
servants.
 
       Moreover, we have made the Book an heritage to those of our servants
whom we have chosen.  Some of them injure themselves by evil deeds; others keep
the midway between good and evil; and others, by the permission of God,
outstrip in goodness; this is the great merit!
 
35:30  Into the gardens of Eden shall they enter: with bracelets of gold and
pearl shall they be decked therein, and therein shall their raiment be of silk:
 
       And they shall say, "Praise be to God who hath put away sorrow from us.
Verily our Lord is Gracious, Grateful.
 
       Who of His bounty hath placed us in a mansion that shall abide for ever:
therein no toil shall reach us, and therein no weariness shall touch us."
 
       But for infidels is the fire of Hell; to die shall never be decreed
them, nor shall aught of its torment be made light to them.  Thus reward we
every infidel!
 
       And therein shall they cry aloud, "Take us hence, O our Lord!
righteousness will we work, and not what we wrought of old." - "Prolonged we
not your days that whoever would be warned might be warned therein?  And the
preacher came to you -
 
       Taste it then." - There is no protector for the unjust.
 
       God truly knoweth the hidden things both of the Heavens and of the
Earth:  for He knoweth the very secrets of the breast.
 
       He hath appointed you his vicegerents in the earth:  And whoever
believeth not, on him shall be his unbelief; and their unbelief shall only
increase for the unbelievers, hatred at the hands of their Lord:  - and their
unbelief shall only increase for the unbelievers their own perdition!
 
       Say:  What think ye of the gods whom ye invoke beside God?  Shew me what
part of the earth they have created?  Had they a share in the creation of the
Heavens?  Have we given them a Book in which they can find proofs that they are
to be called on?  Nay, the wicked promise one another only deceits.
 
       Verily God holdeth fast the Heavens and the Earth that they pass not
away:  and if they were passing away one could hold them back but He:  for He
is Kind, Gracious.
 
35:40  They swore by God with their mightiest oath that should a preacher come
to them they would yield to guidance more than any people:  but when the
preacher came to them it only increased in them their estrangement,
 
       Their haughtiness on earth and their plotting of evil!  But the plotting
of evil shall only enmesh those who make use of it.  Look they then for aught
but God's way of dealing with the peoples of old?  Thou shalt not find any
change in the way of God, -
 
       Yea, thou shalt not find any variableness in the way of God.
 
       Have they never journeyed in the land and seen what hath been the end of
those who flourished before them, though mightier in strength than they?  God
is not to be frustrated by aught in the Heavens or in the Earth; for He is the
All-knowing, the All-mighty.
 
       If, moreover, God should chastise men according to their deserts, He
would not leave even a reptile on the back of the earth!  But to an appointed
time doth He respite them.
 
       And when their time shall come, then verily God's eye is on his
servants.
 
 
