Quran — Page 489

And thus, too, [O Muhammad,] have We revealed unto thee a life-giving message, [coming] at Our behest. [Ere this message came unto thee,] thou didst not know what revelation is, nor what faith [implies]: but [now] We have caused this [message] to be a light, whereby We guide whom We will of Our ser­vants: and, verily, [on the strength thereof] thou, too, shalt guide [men] onto the straight way –

the way that leads to God, to whom all that is in the heavens and all that is on earth belongs. Oh, verily, with God is the beginning and the end of all things!

Ha. Mim.

CONSIDER this divine writ, clear in itself and clearly showing the truth:

behold, We have caused it to be a discourse in the Arabic tongue, so that you might encompass it with your reason.

And, verily, [originating as it does] in the source, with Us, of all revelation, it is indeed sublime, full of wisdom.

[O YOU who deny the truth!] Should We, perchance, withdraw this reminder from you altogether, seeing that you are people bent on wasting your own selves?

And how many a prophet did We send to people of olden times!

But never yet came a prophet to them without their deriding him –

and so, [in the end,] We destroyed them [even though they were] of greater might than these: and the [very] image of those people of old became a thing of the past.

Yet thus it is [with most people]: if thou ask them, “Who is it that has created the heavens and the earth?” - they will surely answer, “The Almighty, the All-Knowing has created them.”

He it is who has made the earth a cradle for you, and has provided for you ways [of livelihood] thereon, so that you might follow the right path.