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XLVIII, 13-18.
THE CHAPTER OF VICTORY.
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Whoso believes not in God and His Apostlewe have prepared for the unbelievers a blaze!
God's is the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth. He pardons whom He pleases, and torments whom He pleases; and God is forgiving, merciful.
[15] Those who were left behind1 shall say when ye have gone forth to spoils that ye may take, 'Let us follow you ;' they wish to change God's words. Say, 'Ye shall by no means follow us; thus did God say before!'
They will say, 'Nay! but ye envy us!' Nay! they did not understand save a little.
Say to those desert Arabs who were left behind, 'Ye shall be called out against a people endowed with vehement valour, and shall fight them or they shall become Muslims. And if ye obey, God will give you a good hire ; but if ye turn your backs, as ye turned your backs before, He will torment you with grievous woe!'
There is no compulsion on the blind, and no compulsion on the lame, and no compulsion on the sick, but whoso obeys God and His Apostle, He will make him enter gardens beneath which rivers flow; but whoso turns his back He will torment with grievous woe.
God was well pleased with the believers when
1 In an expedition against the Jews of Khaibar, which Mohammed undertook shortly after his return from 'Hudaibîyeh, and obtained considerable booty, which he shared only with those who had accompanied him on the previous occasion.
The followers of Musailimah, Mohammed's rival, and the tribes that had apostatized from Islâm. Some think it refers to the Greeks and Persians.
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