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THE QUR'ÂN.
XVII, 5-14.
[5] And when the threat for the first (sin) of the two came, we sent over them servants of ours, endued with violence, and they searched inside your houses; and it was an accomplished threat.
Then we rallied you once more against them, and aided you with wealth and sons, and made you a numerous band.
'If ye do well, ye will do well to your own souls ; and if ye do ill, it is against them!
And when the threat for the last came to harm your faces and to enter the mosque as they entered it the first time, and to destroy what they had got the upper-hand over with utter destruction.'
It may be that thy Lord will have mercy on you ;- but if ye return we will return, and we have made hell a prison for the misbelievers.
Verily, this Qur'ân guides to the straightest path, and gives the glad tidings to the believers [10] who do aright that for them is a great hire; and that for those who believe not in the hereafter, we have prepared a mighty woe.
Man prays for evil as he prays for good; and man was ever hasty.
We made the night and the day two signs; and we blot out the sign of the night and make the sign of the day visible, that ye may seek after plenty from your Lord, and that ye may number the years and the reckoning; and we have detailed everything in detail.
And every man's augury2 have we fastened on
· Supply, we sent foes.'
I. e. 'fortune' or 'fate, literally, 'bird;' the Arabs, like the ancient Romans, having been used to practise divination from the flight of birds.
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