|
|
|
|
|
We said: "O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in the Garden; and eat of the bountiful things therein as where and when you will; but approach not this tree, or you run into harm and transgression." Then did Satan make them slip from the garden, and get them out of the state of felicity in which they had been. We said: "Get you down, all you people, with enmity between yourselves. On earth will be your dwelling-place and your means of livelihood - for a time." But those who have faith and work righteousness, they are companions of the Garden: Therein will they abide For ever. Or do you think that you will enter the Garden of bliss without such trials as came to those who passed away before you? They encountered suffering and adversity, and were so shaken in Spirit that even the Messenger and those of faith who were with him cried: "When will come the help of God." Ah! Verily, the help of God is always near! Do not marry unbelieving women idolaters, until they believe: A slave woman who believes is better than an unbelieving woman, even though she allures you. Nor marry your girls to unbelievers until they believe: A man slave who believes is better than an unbeliever, even though he allures you. Unbelievers do but beckon you to the Fire. But God beckons by His Grace to the Garden of bliss and forgiveness, and makes His Signs clear to mankind: That they may celebrate His praise. And the likeness of those who spend their substance, seeking to please God and to strengthen their souls, is as a garden, high and fertile: Heavy rain falls on it but makes it yield a double increase of harvest, and if it receives not Heavy rain, light moisture suffices it. God sees well whatever you do. Do any of you wish that he should have a garden with date-palms and vines and streams flowing underneath, and all kinds of fruit, while he is stricken with old age, and his children are not strong enough to look after themselves - that it should be caught in a whirlwind, with fire therein, and be burnt up? Thus does God make clear to you His Signs; that you may consider. Be quick in the race for forgiveness from your Lord, and for a Garden whose width is that of the whole of the heavens and of the earth, prepared for the righteous, Every soul will have a taste of death: And only on the Day of Judgment will you be paid your full recompense. Only he who is saved far from the Fire and admitted to the Garden will have attained the object of Life: For the life of this world is but goods and chattels of deception. They do blaspheme who say: "God is Christ, the son of Mary." But said Christ: "O Children of Israel! worship God, my Lord and your Lord." Whoever joins other gods with God. God will forbid him the garden, and the Fire will be his abode. There will for the wrong-doers be no one to help. "O Adam! dwell you and your wife in the Garden, and enjoy its good things as you wish: But approach not this tree, or you run into harm and transgression." So by deceit he brought about their fall: When they tasted of the tree, their shame became manifest to them, and they began to sew together the leaves of the garden over their bodies. And their Lord called unto them: "Did I not forbid you that tree, and tell you that Satan was an avowed enemy unto you?" O you Children of Adam! Let not Satan seduce you, in the same manner as He got your parents out of the Garden, stripping them of their raiment, to expose their shame: For he and his tribe watch you from a position where you cannot see them: We made the evil ones friends only to those without faith. To those who reject Our signs and treat them with arrogance, no opening will there be of the gates of heaven, nor will they enter the garden, until the camel can pass through the eye of the needle: Such is Our reward for those in sin. But those who believe and work righteousness, no burden do We place on any soul, but that which it can bear. They will be Companions of the Garden, therein to dwell for ever. And We will remove from their hearts any lurking sense of injury; beneath them will be rivers flowing; and they will say: "Praise be to God, who has guided us to this felicity: Never could we have found guidance, had it not been for the guidance of God. Indeed it was the truth, that the apostles of our Lord brought unto us." And they will hear the cry: "Behold! The garden before you! You have been made its inheritors, for your deeds of righteousness." The Companions of the Garden will call out to the Companions of the Fire: "We have indeed found the promises of our Lord to us true: Have you also found Your Lord's promises true?" They will say, "Yes."; But a crier will proclaim between them: "The curse of God is on the wrong-doers; Between them will be a veil, and on the heights will be men who would know every one by his marks: They will call out to the Companions of the Garden, "peace on you.": They will not have entered, but they will have an assurance thereof. "Behold! Are these not the men whom you swore that God with His Mercy would never bless? Enter you the Garden: No fear will be on you, nor will you grieve." The Companions of the Fire will call to the Companions of the Garden: "Pour down to us water or anything that God does provide for your sustenance." They will say: "Both these things has God forbidden to those who rejected Him." God has purchased of the believers their persons and their goods; for theirs in return is the garden of Paradise: they fight in His cause, and slay and are slain: A promise binding on Him in truth, through the Law, the Gospel, and the Qur'an: And who is more faithful to his covenant than God. Then rejoice in the bargain which you have concluded: That is the achievement supreme. To those who do right is a goodly reward - Yea, more than in measure! No darkness nor shame will cover their faces! They are companions of the garden; they will abide therein for aye! And those who are blessed will be in the Garden: They will dwell therein for all the time that the heavens and the earth endure, except as your Lord wills: A gift without break. The parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised!- beneath it flow rivers: perpetual is the enjoyment thereof and the shade therein: Such is the end of the Righteous; and the end of Unbelievers in the Fire. Namely those whose lives the angels take in a state of purity, saying to them, "Peace be on you; enter you the Garden, because of the good which you did in the world." "Or until you have a garden of date trees and vines, and cause rivers to gush forth in their midst, carrying abundant water; He went into his garden in a state of mind unjust to his soul: He said, "I deem not that this will ever perish, "Why did you not, as you went into your garden, say: `God's will be done! There is no power but with God.´ If you do see me less than you in wealth and sons, "It may be that my Lord will give me something better than your garden, and that He will send on your garden thunderbolts by way of reckoning from heaven, making it but slippery sand!- "Or the water of the garden will run off underground so that you will never be able to find it." Except those who repent and believe, and work righteousness: For these will enter the Garden and will not be wronged in the least, Such is the Garden which We give as an inheritance to those of Our servants who guard against Evil. Then We said: "O Adam! Verily, this is an enemy to you and your wife: So let him not get you both out of the Garden, so that you are landed in misery. In the result, they both ate of the tree, and so their nakedness appeared to them: they began to sew together, for their covering, leaves from the Garden: Thus did Adam disobey his Lord, and allow himself to be seduced. He said: "Get you down, both of you, all together, from the Garden, with enmity one to another: But if, as is sure, there comes to you Guidance from Me, whosoever follows My Guidance, will not lose his way, nor fall into misery. "Or Why has not a treasure been bestowed on him, or why has he not a garden for enjoyment?" The wicked say: "You follow none other than a man bewitched." Say: "Is that best, or the eternal garden, promised to the righteous? For them, that is a reward as well as a goal of attainment. The Companions of the Garden will be well, that Day, in their abode, and have the fairest of places for repose. "Make me one of the inheritors of the Garden of Bliss; "To the righteous, the Garden will be brought near, But they turned away from God, and We sent against them the Flood released from the dams, and We converted their two garden rows into "gardens" producing bitter fruit, and tamarisks, and some few stunted Lote-trees. It was said: "Enter you the Garden." He said: "Ah me! Would that my People knew what I know!- Verily the Companions of the Garden will that Day have joy in all that they do; And those who feared their Lord will be led to the Garden in crowds: Until behold, they arrive there; its gates will be opened; and its keepers will say: "Peace be upon you! Well have you done! Enter you here, to dwell therein." They will say: "Praise be to God, Who has truly fulfilled His Promise to us, and has given us this land in heritage: We can dwell in the Garden as we will: How excellent a reward for those who work righteousness!" "He that works evil will not be requited but by the like thereof: And he that works a righteous deed - whether man or woman - and is a Believer - such will enter the Garden of Bliss: Therein will they have abundance without measure. In the case of those who say, "Our Lord is God., and, further, stand straight and steadfast, the angels descend on them from time to time: "Fear you not!" they suggest, "Nor grieve! But receive the Glad Tidings of the Garden of Bliss, the which you were promised! Thus have We sent by inspiration to you an Arabic Qur'an: That you may warn the Mother of Cities and all around her. And warn them of the Day of Assembly, of which there is no doubt: when some will be in the Garden, and some in the Blazing Fire. Enter you the Garden, you and your wives, in beauty and rejoicing. Such will be the Garden of which you are made heirs for your good deeds in life. Such are they from whom We will accept the best of their deeds and pass by their ill deeds: They will be among the Companions of the Garden: A promise! Of truth, which was made to them in this life. And admit them to the Garden which He has announced for them. Here is a Parable of the Garden which the righteous are promised: In it are rivers of water incorruptible; rivers of milk of which the taste never changes; rivers of wine, a joy to those who drink; and rivers of honey pure and clear. In it there are for them all kinds of fruits; and Grace from their Lord. Can those in such Bliss be compared to such as will dwell for ever in the Fire, and be given, to drink, boiling water, so that it cuts up their bowels to pieces? And the Garden will be brought nigh to the Righteous, no more a thing distant. Near it is the Garden of Abode. There is for him Rest and Satisfaction, and a Garden of Delights. Be you foremost in seeking Forgiveness from your Lord, and a Garden of Bliss, the width whereof is as the width of heaven and earth, prepared for those who believe in God and His apostles: That is the Grace of God, which He bestows on whom he pleases: And God is the Lord of Grace abounding. Not equal are the Companions of the Fire and the Companions of the Garden: It is the Companions of the Garden, that will achieve Felicity. And God sets forth, as an example to those who believe the wife of Pharaoh: Behold she said: "O my Lord! Build for me, in nearness to You, a mansion in the Garden, and save me from Pharaoh and his doings, and save me from those that do wrong."; Verily We have tried them as We tried the People of the Garden, when they resolved to gather the fruits of the garden in the morning. Then there came on the garden a visitation from your Lord, which swept away all around, while they were asleep. So the garden became, by the morning, like a dark and desolate spot, whose fruit had been gathered. "Let not a single indigent person break in upon you into the garden this day." But when they saw the garden, they said: "We have surely lost our way: "It may be that our Lord will give us in exchange a better garden than this: For we do turn to Him in repentance!" In a Garden on high, Does every man of them long to enter the Garden of Bliss? And because they were patient and constant, He will reward them with a Garden and garments of silk. Reclining in the Garden on raised thrones, they will see there neither the sun's excessive heat nor the moon's excessive cold. And the shades of the Garden will come low over them, and the bunches of fruit, there, will hang low in humility. Their abode will be the Garden. And when the Garden is brought near; In a Garden on high,
|
.
