not taken such a one for a friend now, for he did lead me astray from the Reminder after it had come to me, for Satan leaves man in the lurch !'
The Apostle said, ‘ O my Lord ! verily, my people have taken this Qurʼân to be obsolete !’
Thus have we made for every prophet an enemy from among the sinners ; but thy Lord is good guide and helper enough.
Those who misbelieve said, ‘ Unless the Qurʼân be sent down to him all at once[1]…!’ — thus — that we may stablish thy heart therewith, did we reveal it piecemeal[2]. 35 Nor shall they come to thee with a parable without our bringing thee the truth and the best interpretation.
They who shall be gathered upon their faces to hell, — these are in the worst place, and err most from the path.
And we did give to Moses the Book, and place with him his brother Aaron as a minister ; and we said, ‘ Go ye to the people who say our signs are lies, for we will destroy them with utter destruction.’
And the people of Noah, when they said the apostles were liars, we drowned them, and we made them a sign for men ; and we prepared for the unjust a grievous woe.
40 And ʿAd and Thamûd and the people of ar Rass[3], and many generations between them.
- ↑ Like the Pentateuch and Gospels, which were revealed all at once, according to the Mohammedan tradition.
- ↑ Or it may be rendered, ‘ slowly and distinctly ;’ the whole revelation of the Qurʼân extends over a period of twenty-three years.
- ↑ The commentators do not know where to place ar Rass ; some say it was a city in Yamâmah, others that it was a well near Midian, and others again that it was in ʿHadhramaut.
