Quran — Page 345

[for,] no community can ever forestall [the end of] its term - and neither can they delay [its coming].

And We sent forth Our apostles, one after another: [and] every time their apostle came to a community, they gave him the lie: and so We caused them to follow one another [into the grave], and let them become [mere] tales: and so - away with the folk who would not believe!

AND THEN We sent forth Moses and his brother Aaron with Our messages and a manifest authority [from Us]

unto Pharaoh and his great ones; but these behaved with arrogance, for they were people wont to glorify [only] themselves.

And so they said: “Shall we believe [them] two mortals like ourselves - although their people are our slaves?”

Thus, they gave the lie to those two, and earned (thereby) their place among the doomed:

for, indeed, We had vouchsafed revelation unto Moses in order that they might find the right way.

And [as We exalted Moses, so, too,] We made the son of Mary and his mother a symbol [of Our grace], and provided for both an abode in a lofty place of lasting restfulness and unsullied springs.

O YOU APOSTLES! Partake of the good things of life, and do righteous deeds: verily, I have full knowledge of all that you do.

And, verily, this community of yours is one single community, since I am the Sustainer of you all: remain, then, conscious of Me!

But they (who claim to follow you) have torn their unity wide asunder, piece by piece, each group delighting in [but] what they themselves possess [by way of tenets].

But leave them alone, lost in their ignorance, until a [future] time.

Do they think that by all the wealth and offspring with which We provide them

We [but want to] make them vie with one another in doing [what they consider] good works? Nay, but they do not perceive [their error]!

Verily, [only] they who stand in reverent awe of their Sustainer,

and who believe in their Sus­tainer’s messages,

and who do not ascribe divinity to aught but their Sustainer,