Page:Sacred Books of the East - Volume 9.djvu/137

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ⅩⅩⅨ, 33-42.
the chapter of the spider.
121

are about to send down upon the people of this city a horror from heaven, for that they have sinned; and we have left therefrom a manifest sign unto a people who have sense.'

35 And unto Midian we sent their brother Shoʼhâib, and he said, 'My people, serve God, and hope for the last day; and waste not the land, despoiling it.'

But they called him liar; and the convulsion seized them, and on the morrow they lay in their dwellings prone.

And ʿÂd and Thamûd—but it is plain to you from their habitations; for Satan made seemly to them their works, and turned them from the way, sagacious though they were!

And Korah and Pharaoh and Hâmân—Moses did come to them with manifest signs, but they were too big with pride in the earth, although they could not outstrip us!

And each of them we seized in his sin; and of them were some against whom we sent a sandstorm; and of them were some whom the noise seized; and of them were some with whom we cleaved the earth open; and of them were some we drowned: God would not have wronged them, but it was themselves they wronged.

40 The likeness of those who take, beside God, patrons is as the likeness of a spider, that takes to himself a house; and, verily, the weakest of houses is a spiders house, if they did but know!

Verily, God knows whatever thing they call upon beside Him; for He is the mighty, wise.

These are parables which we have struck out