Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/379

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ⅩⅥ, 28-35.
the chapter of the bee.
253

Those who were before them devised a stratagem, but God brought their building off its foundations, and the roof fell over them, and the torment came to them, from whence they could not perceive[1].

Then on the resurrection day He will put them to shame, and say, ‘ Where are your associates whom ye divided into parties about?’ Those to whom knowledge is brought will say, ‘ Verily, disgrace to-day, and evil are upon the misbelievers !’

30 Those whom the angels took away were wronging themselves; then they offered peace : ‘We have done no evil.’ — ‘ Yea ! verily, God knows what ye did. Wherefore enter ye the doors of hell, to dwell therein for aye ; for ill is the resort of the proud.’

And it will be said to those who fear God, ‘ What is it that your Lord has sent down ?’ They will say, ‘ The best,’ for those who do good, good in this world ; but certainly the abode of the next is best, and surely pleasant is the abode of those who fear.

Gardens of Eden which they shall enter, beneath them rivers flow ; therein shall they have what they please ; — thus does God reward those who fear Him.

To those whom the angels take off in a goodly state they shall say, ‘ Peace be upon you ! enter ye into Paradise for that which ye have done.’

35 Do they expect other than that the angels should come to take them off, or that thy Lord's bidding should come ? — thus did those before them ; God did not wrong them ; but it was themselves they wronged.


  1. Said to refer to the building and overthrow of the tower of Babel.