Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 6.djvu/375

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ⅩⅤ, 70-77.
the chapter of el ʿhagr.
249

my daughters, if do it ye must.’ — By thy life[1]! verily, they were surely in their intoxication blindly wandering on ! —

And the noise caught them at the dawn. And we made the higher parts (of the cities) their lower parts, and rained down on them stones of baked clay. 75 Verily, in that is a sign to those who mark. And, verily, the (cities) are on a path that still remains[2]. Verily, in that is a sign to the believers.

And the fellows of the Grove[3] too were unjust ; and we took vengeance on them, and, verily, they both[4] are for an obvious example.

80 And the fellows of El ʿHagr[5] called the messengers liars, and we brought them our signs, but they therefrom did turn away. And they did hew them in the mountain houses to dwell in in safety.

But the noise caught them in the morn ; and that which they had earned availed them naught.

85 We did not create the heavens and the earth and all that is between them both, save in truth. And, verily, the Hour is surely coming; then do thou pardon with a fair pardon,

Verily, thy Lord He is the creator, the knowing ! We have already brought thee Seven of the Repetition[6], and the mighty Qurʼân.


  1. Addressed to Mohammed.
  2. On the road from the territory of the Qurâis to Syria.
  3. The Midianites, who are spoken of as dwelling in a grove, and to whom Jethro, or, as he is called in the Qurʼân, Shoʼhâib, was sent as an apostle ; see p. 148.
  4. I. e. both Sodom and Midian.
  5. The tribe of Thamûd, see p. 146.
  6. The Opening Chapter, which contains seven verses, and is