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184
THE QUR'ÂN.
XXXIX, 18-24.
They shall have over them shades of fire, and under them shades; with that does God frighten His servants: O my servants! then fear me.
But those who avoid Tâghût1 and serve them not, but turn repentant unto God, for them shall be glad tidings. Then give glad tidings to my servants who listen to the word and follow the best thereof; they it is whom God guides, and they it is who are endowed with minds. [20] Him against whom the word of torment is due,-canst thou rescue him from the fire?
But for those who fear their Lord for them are upper chambers, and upper chambers above them built, beneath which rivers flow; God's promise! God does not fail in His promise.
Hast thou not seen that God sends down from the heaven water, and conducts it into springs in the earth? then He brings forth therewith corn varied in kind, then it dries up, and ye see it grow yellow; then He makes it grit;-verily, in that is a reminder for those endowed with minds.
Is he whose breast God has expanded for Islâm, and who is in light from his Lord....? And woe to those whose hearts are hardened against a remembrance of God! those are in obvious error.
God has sent down the best of legends, a book uniform and repeating; whereat the skins of those who fear their Lord do creep! then their skins and their hearts soften at the remembrance of God. That is the guidance of God! He guides therewith whom He will. But he whom God leads astray there is no guide for him.
1 See Part I, p. 40, note 2.
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