“They said, ‘Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned? Nay, ye are an erring people.’
“Then from the end of the city a man (i.e. Ḥabīb, the carpenter) came running: He said, ‘O my people! follow the Sent Ones;
“ ‘Follow those who ask not of you a recompence, and who are rightly guided.
“ ‘And why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought back?
“ ‘Shall I take gods beside Him? If the God of mercy be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:
“ ‘Truly then should I be in a manifest error.
“ ‘Verily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me.’
“—It was said to him, ‘Enter thou into Paradise’ (i.e. after they had stoned him to death). And he said, ‘Oh that my people knew
“ ‘How gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones.’
“But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels—