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XXXIV, 19-26. THE CHAPTER OF SEBA.
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and they followed him, save a party of the believers 1.
[20] Yet had he no authority over them, save that we might know who it was that believed in the hereafter from him who amongst them was in doubt; for thy Lord guards everything.
Say, 'Call on those whom ye pretend beside God;' they cannot control the weight of an atom in the heavens or in the earth; nor have they any partnership in either; nor has He amongst them any supporter; nor is intercession of any avail with Him, except for him whom He permits; so that when fright is removed from their hearts they say, 'What is it that your Lord says?' they say, 'The truth; for He is the high, the great.'
Say, 'Who provides from the heavens and the earth?' Say, 'God.' And, verily, we or ye are surely in guidance or in an obvious error.
Say, 'Ye shall not be asked about what we have sent, nor shall we be asked about what ye do.
[25] 'Our Lord shall assemble us together; then He shall open between us in truth, for He is the opener who knows.'
Say, 'Show me those whom ye have added to Him as partners; not so! nay, but He is God, the mighty, the wise!'
A great trade used formerly to exist between Sebâ and Syria. The Mohammedan commentators suppose that the cessation of traffic, which naturally caused the gradual ruin of the intermediate towns, and the subsequent destruction of Sebâ or Mâreb itself by the flood, was a punishment for the covetous wish of the people of the city, that the distances which traders had to pass over were longer, so that they themselves might earn more money by providing them with camels and escorts.
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