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Home  »  library  »  prose  »  The Chapter of the Night

C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.

The Chapter of the Night

By The Koran

Translation of Edward Henry Palmer in ‘The Sacred Books of the East’

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.

By the night when it veils!

And the day when it is displayed!

And by what created male and female!

Verily, your efforts are diverse!

But as for him who gives alms and fears God,

And believes in the best,

We will send him easily to ease!

But as for him who is niggardly,

And longs for wealth,

And calls the good a lie,

We will send him easily to difficulty!

And his wealth shall not avail him

When he falls down [into hell]!

Verily it is for us to guide;

And verily, ours are the hereafter and the former life!

And I have warned you of a fire that flames!

None shall broil thereon but the most wretched, who says it is a lie and turns his back.

But the pious shall be kept away from it—he who gives his wealth in alms, and who gives no favor to any one for the sake of reward, but only craving the face of his Lord the most High; in the end he shall be well pleased!