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XVII, 72-80. THE CHAPTER OF THE NIGHT JOURNEY.
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But we have been gracious to the children of Adam, and we have borne them by land and sea, and have provided them with good things, and have
preferred them over many that we have created. ✓ The day when we will call all men by their high
priest; and he whose book is given in his right hand—these shall read their book, nor shall they be wronged a straw. But he who in this life is blind shall be blind in the next too, and err farther from the way.
[75] They had well-nigh beguiled thee from what we inspired thee with, that thou shouldst forge against us something else, and then they would have taken thee for a friend ; and had it not been that we stablished thee, thou wouldst have well-nigh leant towards them a little: then would we have made thee taste of torment both of life and death, then thou wouldst not have found against us any helper?.
And they well-nigh enticed thee away from the land, to turn thee out therefrom ; but then-they should not have tarried after thee except a little.
[This is the course of those of our prophets whom we have sent before thee; and thou shalt find no change in our course.
[80] Be thou steadfast in prayer from the declining of the sun until the dusk of the night, and the reading of the dawn ; verily, the reading of the dawn is ever testified to.
1 The commentators say that this refers to a treaty proposed by the tribe of THaqîf, who insisted, as a condition of their submission, that they should be exempt from the more irksome duties of Muslims, and should be allowed to retain their idol Allât for a certain time, and that their territory should be considered sacred, like that of Mecca.
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