the day of judgment. Thee do we worship, | with I have favored you, and that I have and of thee do we beg assistance. Direct us in the right way-in the way of those to whom thou hast been gracious, not of those against whom thou art incensed, nor of those who go astray. PRAYER. prayer And Adam learned words of from his Lord, and God turned unto him; for he is easy to be reconciled and merciful. We said, Get ye all down from hence; hereafter shall there come unto you a direction from me; and whoever shall follow my direction, on them shall no fear come, neither shall they be grieved; but they who shall be unbelievers and accuse our signs of falsehood, they shall be the companions of hell-fire, therein shall they remain for ever. O children of Israel, remember my favor wherewith I have favored you; and perform your covenant with me, and I will perform my covenant with you; and revere me; and believe in the revelation which I have sent down, confirming that which is with you, and be not the first who believe not therein, neither exchange my signs for a small price.; and fear me. Clothe not the truth with vanity, neither conceal the truth against your own knowledge; observe the stated times of prayer, and pay your legal alms, and bow down yourselves with those who bow down. Will ye command men to do justice, and forget your own souls? yet ye read the book of the law do ye not therefore understand? Ask help with perseverance and prayer; this indeed is grievous unless to the humble, who seriously think they shall meet their Lord, and that to him they shall return. O children of Israel, remember my favor where pre ferred you above all nations; dread the day wherein one soul shall not make satisfaction for another soul, neither shall any intercession be accepted from them, nor shall any compensation be received, neither shall they be helped. ors. TO FIGHT FOR RELIGION. Consume not your wealth among yourselves in vain; nor present it unto judges, that ye may devour part of men's substance unjustly, against your own consciences. Fight for the religion of God against those who fight against you; but transgress not by attacking them first, for God loveth not the transgressAnd kill them wherever ye find them, and turn them out of that whereof they have dispossessed you; for temptation to idolatry is more grievous than slaughter; yet fight not against them in the holy temple, until they attack you therein; but if they attack you, slay them there. This shall be the reward of infidels. But if they desist, God is gracious and merciful. Fight therefore against them, until there be no temptation to idolatry, and the religion be God's; but if they desist, then let there be no hostility except against the ungodly. A sacred month for a sacred month and the holy limits of Mecca, if they attack you therein, do ye also attack them therein in retaliation; and whoever transgresseth against you by so doing, do ye transgress against him in like manner as he hath transgressed against you, and fear God, and know that God is with those who fear him. Contribute out of your substance toward the defence of the religion of God, and throw not yourselves with your own hands into perdition; and do good, for God loveth those who do good. GOD AND HIS REVELATION. : There is no God but God, the living, the self-subsisting he hath sent down unto thee the book of the Koran with truth, confirming that which was revealed before it; for he had formerly sent down the law, and the gospel a direction unto men; and he had also sent down the distinction between good and evil. Verily those who believe not the signs of God shall suffer a grievous punishment; for God is mighty, able to revenge. Surely nothing is hidden from God, of that which is on earth, or in heaven: it is he who formeth you in the wombs, as he pleaseth; there is no God but he, the mighty, the wise. It is he who hath sent down unto thee the book, wherein are some verses clear to be understood, they are the foundation of the book; and others are parabolical. Verily the true religion in the sight of God is Islam; and they who had received the Scriptures dissented not therefrom, until after the knowledge of God's unity had come unto them, out of envy among themselves; but whosoever believeth not in the signs of God, verily God will be swift in bringing him to account. If they dispute with thee, say, I have resigned myself unto God, and he who followeth me doth the same: and say unto them who have received the Scriptures, and to the ignorant, Do ye profess the religion of Islam? Now if they embrace Islam, they in this world, and in that which is to come; and they shall have none to help them. WOMEN, ORPHANS AND LEGACIES. Give O men, fear your Lord, who hath created you out of one man, and out of him created his wife, and from them two hath multiplied many men, and women and fear God by whom ye beseech one another; and respect women who have borne you, for God is watching over you. watching over you. And give the orphans when they come to age their substance; and render them not in exchange bad for good: and devour not their substance, by adding it to your own substance; for this is a great sin. And if ye fear that ye shall not act with equity toward orphans of the female sex, take in marriage of such other women as please you two, or three, or four, and not more. women their dowry freely; but if they vol untarily remit unto you any part of it, enjoy it with satisfaction and advantage. And give not unto those who are weak of understanding the substance which God hath appointed you to preserve for them; but maintain them thereout, and clothe them, and speak kindly unto them. And examine the orphans until they attain the age of marriage: but if ye perceive they are able to manage their affairs well, deliver their substance unto them; and waste it not extravagantly, or hastily, because they grow up. Let him who is rich abstain entirely from the orphans' estates; and let him who is poor take thereof according to what shall be reasonable. And when And when ye deliver their substance into them, call witnesses thereof in their presence: God taketh sufficient account of your actions. Men ought to have a part of what their parents and kindred leave be hind them when they die and women also the debts be paid. They also shall have the And if a man or woman's substance be inherited by a distant relation, and he or she have a brother or sister; each of them two shall have a sixth part of the estate. But if there be more than this number, they shall be equal sharers in a third part, after payment of the legacies which shall be bequeathed, and the debts, without prejudice to the heirs. This is an ordinance from God and God is knowing and gracious. These are the statutes of God. Men shall have the pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein God hath caused the one of them to excel the other, and for that which they expend of their substance in maintaining their wives. The honest women are obedient, careful in the absence of their husbands, for that God preserveth them, by committing them to the care and protection of the men. But those, whose perverseness ye shall be apprehensive of, rebuke; and remove them into separate apartments, and chastise them. But if they shall be obedient unto you, not an occasion of quarrel against them for God is high and great. And if ye fear a breach between the husband and wife, send a judge out of his family, and a judge out of her family: if they shall desire a reconciliation, God will cause them to agree; for God is knowing and wise. WINE FORBIDDEN. seek O true believers, surely wine, and lots, abomination of the work of Satan; therefore avoid them that ye may prosper. Satan seeketh to sow dissension and hatred among you, by means of wine and lots, and to divert you from remembering God, and from prayer: will ye not therefore abstain from them? THE LAST JUDGMENT. When the heaven shall be cloven in sunder; and when the stars shall be scattered; and when the seas shall be suffered to join their waters; and when the graves shall be turned upside down; every soul shall know what it hath committed, and what it hath omitted. O man, what hath seduced thee against thy gracious Lord, who hath created thee, and put thee together, and rightly disposed thee? In what form he pleased hath he fashioned thee. Assuredly. But ye deny the last judgment as a falsehood. Verily there are appointed over you guardian angels, honorable in the sight of God, writing down your actions; who know that which ye do. The just shall surely be in a place of delight; but the wicked shall surely be in hell; they shall be cast therein to be turned, on the day of judgment, and they shall not be absent therefrom for ever. What shall cause thee to understand what the day of judgment is? Again, What shall cause thee to understand what the day of judgment is? It is a day whereon one soul shall not be able to obtain anything in behalf of another soul and the command, on that day, shall be God's. FALSE MEASURE. Woe be unto those who give short measure or weight who, when they receive by measure from other men, take the full; but when they measure unto them, or weigh unto them defraud! Do not these think they shall be raised again, at the great day, the day whereon mankind shall stand before the Lord of all creatures? By no means. Verily the register of the actions of the wicked is surely in Sejjin. THE SUN. By the Sun, and its rising brightness; by the moon, when she followeth him; by the day, when it showeth his splendor; by the night, when it covereth him with darkness; by the heaven, and him who built it; by the earth, and him who spread it forth; by the soul, and him who completely formed it, and inspired into the same its faculty of distinguishing, and power of choosing, wickedness and piety: now is he who hath purified the same, happy; but he who hath corrupted the same, is miserable. Thamud accused their prophet Saleh of imposture, through the excess of their wickedness: when the wretch among them was sent to slay the camel; and the apostle of God said unto them, Let alone the camel of God; and hinder not her drinking. But they charged him with imposture; and they slew her. Wherefore their Lord destroyed them, for their crime, and made their punishment equal unto them all and he feareth not the issue thereof. THE BRIGHTNESS. By the brightness of the morning; and by the night, when it groweth dark: thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither doth he hate thee. Verily the life to come shall be better for thee than this present life and thy Lord shall give thee a reward wherewith thou shalt be well pleased. Did he not find thee an orphan, and hath he not taken care of thee? And did he not find thee wander ing in error, and hath he not guided thee | ness, yet which alone is faithful to them, into the truth? And did he not find thee whose sweet affections require not the stimneedy, and hath he not enriched thee? ulus of prosperity or fame, the lure of acWherefore oppress not the orphan neither complishments or the tribute of flattery, but repulse the beggar: but declare the goodness which are constant to us in distress and conof thy Lord. sole us even in disgrace! : Translation of GEORGE SALE. BENJAMIN DISRAELI (Earl of Beaconsfield). PARENTAL LOVE THE TRUEST LOVE. THE HE course of existence too generally teaches to us all that mournful truth that. after all, we have no friends that we can depend upon in this life but our parents. All other intimacies, however ardent, are liable to cool; all other confidence, however unlimited, to be violated. In the phantasmagoria of life the friend with whom we have cultivated mutual trust for years is often suddenly or gradually estranged from us, or becomes, from painful yet irresistible circumstances, even our deadliest foe. As for wo men, as for the mistresses of our hearts, who has not learnt that the links of passion are fragile as they are glittering, and that the bosom on which we have reposed with idolatry all our secret sorrows and sanguine hopes eventually becomes the very heart that exults in our misery and baffles our welfare? Where is the enamored face that smiled upon our early love and was to shed tears over our grave? Where are the choice companions of our youth, with whom we were to breast the difficulties and share the triumphs of existence? Even in this inconstant world what changes like the heart? Love is a dream, and friendship a delusion. No wonder we grow callous; for how few have the opportunity of returning to the hearth which they quitted in levity or thoughtless weari N IN THE SHIPWRECK. vain the cords and axes were prepared, For now the audacious seas insult the yard; High o'er the ship they throw a horrid shade, And o'er her burst in terrible cascade. Uplifted on the surge, to heaven she flies, Her shattered top half buried in the skies, Then, headlong plunging, thunders on the ground: Earth groans, air trembles and the deeps resound; Her giant bulk the dread concussion feels, And, quivering with the wound, in torment reels; So reels, convulsed with agonizing throes, |