XVIII: SAY: WE HAVE CAUSED THE RIVERS OF DIVINE...


Say: We have caused the rivers of Divine utterance to proceed out of Our
throne, that the tender herbs of wisdom and understanding may spring forth
from the soil of your hearts. Will ye not be thankful? They who disdain to
worship their Lord shall be of those who are cast off. And oft as Our
verses are rehearsed unto them, they persist in proud disdain, and in
their gross violation of His law, and know it not. As for them who have
disbelieved in Him, they shall be in the shadow of a black smoke. “The
Hour” hath come upon them, while they are disporting themselves. They have
been seized by their forelock, and yet know it not.

The thing that must come hath come suddenly; behold how they flee from it!
The inevitable hath come to pass; witness how they have cast it behind
their backs! This is the Day whereon every man will fly from himself, how
much more from his kindred, could ye but perceive it. Say: By God! The
blast hath been blown on the trumpet, and lo, mankind hath swooned away
before us! The Herald hath cried out, and the Summoner raised His voice
saying: “The Kingdom is God’s, the Most Powerful, the Help in Peril, the
Self-Subsisting.”

This is the Day on which all eyes shall stare up with terror, the Day in
which the hearts of them that dwell on earth shall tremble, save them whom
thy Lord, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise, pleaseth to deliver. All faces
have turned black except those to whom the God of Mercy hath vouchsafed a