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LII, 43-LIII, 6. THE CHAPTER OF THE STAR.
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Or have they a god beside God? celebrated be God's praises above what they join with Him!
But if they should see a fragment of the sky falling down, they would say, ' Clouds in masses!'
[45] But leave them till they meet that day of theirs whereon they shall swoon1; the day when their plotting shall avail them naught, and they shall not be helped!
And, verily, there is a torment beside that for those who do wrong; but most of them do not know!
But wait thou patiently for the judgment of thy Lord, for thou art in our eyes. And celebrate the praises of thy Lord what time thou risest, and in the night, and at the fading of the stars!
THE CHAPTER OF THE STAR.
(LIII. Mecca.)
IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.
By the star when it falls, your comrade errs not, nor is he deluded! nor speaks he out of lust! It is but an inspiration inspired! [5] One mighty in power3 taught him, endowed with sound understanding, and appeared, he being in the loftiest
tract.
1 At the sound of the last trumpet.
2 I. e. beside the torment of the judgment day they shall be punished with defeat and loss here.
The angel Gabriel, who appeared twice to Mohammed in his natural form, namely, on the occasion of the 'Night Journey,' to which this passage refers, and on the first revelation of the Qur'ân. (See Introduction, pp. xx and xxxii.)
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