Quran — Page 535

Immortal youths will wait upon them

with goblets, and ewers, and cups filled with water from unsullied springs

by which their minds will not be clouded and which will not make them drunk;

and with fruit of any kind that they may choose,

and with the flesh of any fowl that they may desire.

And [with them will be their] companions pure, most beautiful of eye,

like unto pearls [still] hidden in their shells.

[And this will be] a reward for what they did [in life].

No empty talk will they hear there, nor any call to sin,

but only the tiding of inner soundness and peace.

NOW AS FOR those who have attained to righteous­ness - what of those who have attained to righteous­ness?

[They, too, will find themselves] amidst fruit- laden lote-trees,

and acacias flower-clad,

and shade extended,

and waters gushing,

and fruit abounding,

never-failing and never out of reach.

And [with them will be their] spouses, raised high:

for, behold, We shall have brought them into being in a life renewed,

having resurrected them as virgins,

full of love, well-matched

with those who have attained to righteousness:

a good many of olden times,

and a good many of later times.

BUT AS FOR those who have persevered in evil - what of those who have persevered in evil?

[They will find themselves] in the midst of scorching winds, and burning despair,

and the shadows of black smoke -

[shadows] neither cooling nor soothing.

For, behold, in times gone by they were wont to abandon themselves wholly to the pursuit of pleasures,

and would persist in heinous sinning,

and would say, “What! After we have died and become mere dust and bones, shall we, forsooth, be raised from the dead? -

and perhaps, too, our forebears of old?”

Say: “Verily, those of olden times and those of later times

will indeed be gathered together at an appointed time on a Day known [only to God]: