It is He who showeth you the lightning for fear and hope [of rain], and gathereth the lowering clouds,
And the Thunder magnifieth His praise, and the angels, for awe of Him, and He sendeth His thunderbolts and smiteth therewith whom He pleaseth:—and they are wrangling about God! but strong is His might!
Unto Him is the true cry: but those whom they cry to beside Him shall answer them naught save as one who stretcheth forth his hands to the water that it may reach his mouth, but it doth not reach it! The cry of the unbelievers is but in error.
And unto God bow down all things in the heavens and the earth, willingly or unwillingly, and their shadows at morn and eve!
Say: Who is Lord of the heavens and the earth? Say: God. Say: Why then have ye taken beside Him Patrons who are powerless for weal or woe to themselves? Say: What! are the blind and the seeing alike? or are darkness and light the same? or have they made Partners for God, who create as He creates, so that they confuse the creation? Say: God is the Creator of all things, He is the One, the Conqueror.
He sendeth down water from heaven; and the valleys flow in their degree, and the torrent beareth along foaming froth, and from the [ore] which they burn in the fire, desiring ornaments or necessaries, a scum like it ariseth. So doth God liken truth and falsehood. As to the scum it passeth off as refuse, and as to what profiteth man it remaineth on the earth. Thus doth God frame parables. For those who respond to their Lord, good; but those who respond not to Him, had they all that the earth containeth and its like beside it, they would surely give it in ransom: these shall have an evil reckoning, and Hell shall be their home,—and wretched the bed!
Is he who knoweth that what hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord is naught but the truth, like to him who is blind? but men of understanding alone will mind,
Who fulfil their covenant with God and break not the compact;
And who join what God hath bidden to be joined, and who fear their Lord and dread the evil reckoning;
And who are patient, seeking the face of their Lord, and perform prayer and give alms secretly and openly of what we have provided them, and turn away evil with good: for these is the reward of the Abode,—