or he have a garden to eat therefrom…!’ and the unjust say, ‘ Ye only follow an infatuated man.’
10 See how they strike out for thee parables, and err, and cannot find a way.
Blessed be He who, if He please, can make for thee better than that, gardens beneath which rivers flow, and can make for thee castles !
Nay, but they call the Hour a lie ; but we have prepared for those who call the Hour a lie a blaze : when it seizes them from a far-off place they shall hear its raging and roaring ; and when they are thrown into a narrow place thereof, fastened together, they shall call there for destruction.
15 Call not to-day for one destruction, but call for many destructions!
Say, ‘ Is that better or the garden of eternity which was promised to those who fear — which is ever for them a recompense and a retreat ?’ They shall have therein what they please, to dwell therein for aye : that is of thy Lord a promise to be demanded.
And the day He shall gather them and what they served beside God, and He shall say, ‘Was it ye who led my servants here astray, or did they err from the way ?’
They shall say, ‘Celebrated be Thy praise, it was not befitting for us to take any patrons but Thee ; but Thou didst give them and their fathers enjoyment until they forgot the Reminder and were a lost people!’
20 And now have they proved you liars for what ye say, and they[1] cannot ward off or help.
- ↑ Another reading of the text is, ‘ye cannot.’
