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183
Their works are vain in this world and
IX, 70-75.
discussed. the next, and they it is who lose.
Did there not come to them the declaration of those who were before them? of the people of Noah and Âd and Thamûd, and of the people of Abraham, and the people of Midian? and of the overturned (cities)? Their apostles came to them with manifest signs; for God would not wrong them, but it was themselves they wronged.
THE CHAPTER OF REPENTANCE.
And the believers, men and women, are some the patrons of others; they bid what is reasonable, and forbid what is wrong, and are steadfast in prayer, and give alms, and obey God and His Apostle. On these will God have mercy; verily, God is mighty, wise!
God has promised to believers, men and women, gardens beneath which rivers flow, to dwell therein for aye; and goodly places in the garden of Eden, But good-will from God is the greatest of all! that is the mighty happiness!
O thou prophet! strive strenuously against the misbelievers and the hypocrites, and be stern against them; for their resort is hell, and an ill journey shall it be.
[75] They swear by God they did not speak it, but they did speak the word of misbelief; and they disbelieved after they had embraced Islâm, and they designed what they could not attain; and they only disapproved it because God and His Apostle had enriched them of His grace. If they turn again 'tis
1 Sodom and Gomorrah.
• A plot had been set afoot at Medînah to kill Mohammed, and was only abandoned because of the increased trade and prosperity which Mohammed's residence then brought.
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