|
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
- He answered: "Did I not tell thee that thou canst have no patience with me?"
- (Moses) said: "If ever I ask thee about anything after this, keep me not in thy company: Then wouldst thou have received (full) excuse from my side."
- Then they proceeded: Until, when they came to the inhabitants of a town, they asked them for food, but they refused them hospitality. They found there a wall on the point of falling down, but he set it up straight. (Moses) said: "If thou hadst wished, surely thou couldst have exacted some recompense for it!"
- He answered: "This is the parting between me and thee: Now will I tell thee the interpretation of (those things) over which thou wast unable to hold patience.
- As for the boat, it belonged to certain men in dire want: They plied on the water: I but wished to render it unserviceable, for there was after them a certain king who seized on every boat by force.
- "As for the youth, his parents were people of Faith, and we feared that he would grieve them by obstinate rebellion and ingratitude (to Allah and man).
- "So we desired that their Lord would give them in exchange (a son) better in purity (of conduct) and closer in affection.
- "As for the wall, it belonged to two youths, orphans, in the Town; there was, beneath it, a buried treasure, to which they were entitled: Their father had been a righteous man: So thy Lord desired that they should attain their age of full strength and get out their treasure -- a mercy (and favor) from thy Lord. I did it not of my own accord. Such is the interpretation of (those things) over which thou wast unable to hold patience."
- They ask thee concerning Zul-qarnain. Say, "I will rehearse to you something of his story."
- Verily We established his power on earth, and We gave him the ways and the means to all ends.
- One (such) way he followed,
- Until, when he reached the setting of the sun, He found it set in a spring of murky water: Near it he found a People: We said: "O Zul-qarnain! (thou hast authority), either to punish them, or to treat them with kindness."
- He said: "Whoever doth wrong, him shall we punish; then shall he be sent back to his Lord; and He will punish him with a punishment unheard-of (before).
- "But whoever believes, and works righteousness, -- he shall have a goodly reward, and easy will be his task as we order it by our command."
- Then followed he (another) way,
- Until, when he came to the rising of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom We had provided no covering protection against the sun.
- (He left them) as they were: We completely understood what was before him.
- Then followed he (another) way,
- Until, when he reached (a tract) between two mountains, he found, beneath them, a people who scarcely understood, a word.
- They said: "O Zul-qarnain! the Gog and Magog (people) do great mischief on earth: Shall we then render thee tribute in order that thou mightest erect a barrier between us and them?"
- He said: "(The power) in which my Lord has established me is better (than tribute): Help me therefore with strength (and labor): I will erect a strong barrier between you and them:
- "Bring me blocks of iron." At length, when he had filled up the space between the two steep mountain sides, he said, "Blow (with your bellows)": Then, when he had made it (red) as fire, he said: "Bring me, that I may pour over it, molten lead."
- Thus were they made powerless to scale it or to dig through it.
- He said: "This is a mercy from my Lord: But when the promise of my Lord comes to pass, He will make it into dust; and the promise of My Lord is true."
- On that day We shall leave them to surge like waves on one another; the trumpet will be blown, and We shall collect them all together.
Page 1
| |