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and He leads astray by it only the oversteppers, those who break the pact of God after the solemn engagement that binds it, sever what God ordered to be joined, and sow corruption on the earth.

Do you order virtue upon men, while forgetting yourselves, when you recite the Scripture?

And when Moussa said to his people: "God orders you to slaughter a cow."

do, then, what you are ordered."

Say: "How evil is what your faith orders you, if you are believers!"

Overlook, then, and turn the page, until God brings His command.

When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: "Be",

He orders you only evil and indecency, and to say about God what you do not know.

with the Agents, and that the matter be decided?

And it is to God that all matters return.

And once they are no longer so, unite with them from where God has ordered you.

The Diverter promises you poverty, and orders you to indecency,

and his matter rests with God;

Indeed, those who disown the signs of God, kill the informants without right, and kill those who, among men, order equity — announce to them a painful punishment.

When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: 'Be',

And he would not order you to take the Agents and the informants as masters.

Would he order you to disown, after you have become true to God alone?

And let there be from among you a community that calls to good, orders what is recognized, and forbids what is disavowed.

and it is to God that all matters return.

You are the best community brought forth for mankind: you order what is recognized, you forbid what is disavowed, and you believe in God.

They believe in God and the Last Day, order what is recognized, forbid what is disavowed, and speed toward good deeds.

But help comes only from God, the All-Powerful, the Wise, so that He may cut off a part of those who disown, or lay them low, and they depart disappointed. You have, in this matter, no power: either He turns toward them with clemency, or He punishes them, for they are wrongdoers.

And their only saying was to say: "Our Guardian, forgive us our offenses and our excesses in our conduct, make firm our steps, and help us against the people who disown."

until, having given ground, you disputed among yourselves over the matter, and disobeyed, after He had shown you what you loved.

saying: "Do we have any part in the matter?"

Say: "The matter, entirely, indeed belongs to God."

saying: "Had we had, in this matter, any power, we would not have been killed here."

So overlook it for them, ask forgiveness for them, and confer with them on the matter;

But if you are patient and guard yourselves, that is indeed among the matters requiring resolve.

Those who are stingy, enjoin stinginess upon men, and withhold what God has given them of His favor —

And God's command is always a thing done.

God orders you to restore trusts to their rightful owners, and, when you judge between men, to judge with justice.

O you who have believed! Defer to God, defer to the messenger, and to those among you who hold command.

Have you not seen those who claim to have believed in what has been sent down to you and in what was sent down before you, and who want to bring their dispute before the Overreacher, though they have been ordered to disown it?

And when news reaches them, reassuring or alarming, they broadcast it;

but had they referred it to the messenger and to those among them who hold command, those among them who seek to draw out its substance would have known it.

There is no good in most of their secret talks, except for one who orders an act of charity, or what is recognized, or a reconciliation between men.

who said: "I will surely take, among Your obedient ones, a fixed portion; I will surely lead them astray, I will surely give them vain hopes, I will surely order them to slit the ears of cattle, and I will surely order them to alter God's creation."

it may then be that God brings the opening, or a command from Himself, and they find themselves, for what they kept secret within themselves, full of regret.

And whoever among you kills it intentionally, an equivalent recompense in cattle, as two just ones among you shall decide, as an offering reaching the Ka'ba, or an expiation consisting of feeding the destitute, or the equivalent of that in abstention, so that he may taste the baleful consequences of his deed.

I told them only what You ordered me: Obey God, my Guardian and your Guardian;

And had We sent down an Agent, the matter would already have been decided, and they would be granted no delay.

Say: "I have been commanded to be the first of those who are true to God alone",

Say: "If I held what you seek to hasten, the matter would already have been decided between me and you."

Say: "The guidance of God, that is the guidance; and we have been commanded to be true to the Guardian of all beings alone, and to maintain the Contact, and to guard ourselves toward Him."

Their matter rests only with God,

And that is what I have been commanded,

He said: "What prevented you from prostrating, when I commanded you?"

And when they commit an indecency, they say: "We found our ancestors doing this, and God has ordered it of us."

Say: "God indeed does not order indecency.

Say: "My Guardian has ordered equity.

He covers the day with the night, which pursues it relentlessly — and the sun, the moon, and the stars, subjected to His command.

Is it not to Him that creation and the Order belong?

They then hamstrung the she-camel, insolently defied the order of their Guardian,

"What then do you advise?"

Take them, then, with strength, and order your people to take what is best in them.

Did you want to hasten the command of your Guardian?"

I will inscribe it, then, for those who guard themselves, give pure liberality, and who believe in Our signs, those who follow the messenger, the informant without a prior Scripture, whom they find written down with them in the Tawrah and the Injil, who orders them what is recognized and forbids them what is disavowed, permits them the wholesome things and prohibits to them the vile things, and lifts from them their yoke and the shackles that were upon them.

order what is recognized,

but so that God might bring to its term a matter that was a thing done, so that whoever was to perish might perish upon clear evidence, and whoever was to live might live upon clear evidence.

and had He shown them to you as many, you would certainly have given ground, and you would certainly have disputed among yourselves over the matter;

And when He showed them to you, when you met, as few in your eyes, and made you appear few in their eyes, so that God might bring to its term a matter that was a thing done.

And it is to God that all matters return.

Say: "If your fathers, your sons, your brothers, your spouses, your kinsmen, the goods you have acquired, a trade whose decline you dread, and dwellings with which you are satisfied, are dearer to you than God, His messenger, and striving in His way, then bide your time, until God brings His command."

though they had been ordered only to obey one deity.

They had already sought the trial before, and had turned matters over for you in every direction, until the truth came and God's command appeared, though they were averse.

and if misfortune strikes you, they say: "We had already taken our precautions before" — and they turn their backs, rejoicing.

The hypocrites, men and women, are of one another: they order what is disavowed and forbid what is recognized, and they close their hands; they forgot God, so He forgot them.

they order what is recognized and forbid what is disavowed, they maintain the Contact, give pure liberality, and defer to God and His messenger.

And others are left pending God's command: either He will punish them, or He will turn toward them with clemency.

Those who turn back, who obey, who praise, who journey, who kneel, who prostrate, who order what is recognized and forbid what is disavowed, and who preserve the limits of God —

He governs the Order.

until, when the earth has taken on its gilding and become embellished, and its people presume they have mastery over it, Our command comes to it, by night or by day, and We make it a mown field, as if it had not flourished the day before.

Or who holds mastery over hearing and sight, who brings forth the living from the dead and brings forth the dead from the living, and who governs the Order?"

So bring together your resolve and your associates,

let your resolve no longer be, for you, a clouded matter,

and I have been commanded to be among those true to God alone."

And I have been commanded to be among the believers,

Until, when Our command came and the oven began to boil over, We said: "Carry into it, of every kind, two elements of a pair, and your family, except him against whom the saying has already preceded, and those who have believed."

He said: "There is no safeguard today against God's command, except for him to whom He shows benevolence."

And the water subsided, the matter was decided, and the vessel established itself on al-Judi.

And when Our command came, We saved Hud and those who had believed with him, by a benevolence from Us, and We saved them from a harsh punishment.

And such were the Aad: they stubbornly rejected the signs of their Guardian, disobeyed His messengers, and followed the command of every obstinate tyrant.

When Our command came, We saved Salih and those who had believed with him, by a benevolence from Us, and from the disgrace of that day.

They said: "Do you marvel at God's command?

the command of your Guardian has already come,

When Our command came, We made its top its bottom, and rained upon it stones of formed clay, layered, marked with your Guardian:

They said: "O Shu'ayb, does your Contact command you that we leave what our ancestors obeyed, or that we stop doing with our goods what we wish?

And when Our command came, We saved Shu'ayb and those who had believed with him, by a benevolence from Us.

We have indeed sent Moussa with Our signs and manifest authority, to Fir'awn and his court; but they followed the command of Fir'awn,

and the command of Fir'awn was not well-advised.

their deities, which they invoked besides God, availed them nothing when your Guardian's command came,

So stand straight, as you have been commanded, and those who have turned back with you, and do not exceed the measure:

and to Him the whole matter returns:

When they took him away and agreed to put him in the depths of the well — and We revealed to him: "You will surely inform them of this affair, while they do not sense it" —

He said: "Rather, your Self has suggested a course to you.

God is victorious in His purpose,

and if he does not do what I order him, he will surely be imprisoned, and will surely be among the diminished."

He has commanded that you obey none but Him:

The matter on which you both consulted me is decided."

the Self surely incites to evil, except one to whom my Guardian shows benevolence.

When they entered as their father had commanded them, it was of no use to them against God, except for a need in Yaacoub's Self, which he satisfied;

He said: "Rather, your Self has suggested a course to you.

you were not with them when they agreed on their affair while plotting.

He governs the Order,

He has, before him and behind him, relaying watchers, preserving him by God's command.

Only the possessors of intelligence remember, those who are faithful to God's pact and do not break the solemn engagement, those who join what God has commanded to be joined, dread their Guardian and fear the worst of reckonings, those who were patient seeking the direction of their Guardian, maintained the Contact, spent from what We provided them, secretly and openly, and push back evil with good.

And those who break God's pact after the solemn engagement that binds it, sever what God has commanded to be joined, and sow corruption on the earth — those are the ones to whom belongs the curse, and to whom belongs the worst of abodes.

But to God belongs the command, entirely:

Say: "I have only been commanded to obey God, and to associate nothing with Him:

And the Diverter will say, when the matter is decided: "God indeed made you a true promise, and I made you a promise, but I failed you; I had no authority over you, except to call you, and you answered me. So do not censure me, but censure yourselves: I cannot answer your cry, nor can you answer mine. I indeed disown that you associated me with God before."

God is the One who created the heavens and the earth, and who sent down from the sky a water, by which He brought forth fruits as provision for you, and He subjected for you the vessel, so that it might sail upon the sea by His command,

So depart with your family, at a time of the night, and follow behind them, and let none of you turn around, and go where you are commanded."

And We decreed to him this command: the last remnant of those people would be cut off, by morning.

So proclaim openly what you are commanded,

In the name of God, the All-Benevolent, the Benevolent. The command of God has come: so do not seek to hasten it.

He sends down the Agents with the Influx, by His command, upon whom He wills among His obedient ones: "Warn that there is no deity but Me; so guard yourselves before Me."

And He has subjected for you the night and the day, the sun and the moon; and the stars are subjected by His command.

Do they then wait only for the Agents to come to them, or for the command of your Guardian to come?

And before God prostrates everything in the heavens and on the earth, among living beings, as well as the Agents, without growing proud: they fear their Guardian, above them, and do what they are commanded.

And God multiplies an example: two men, one of whom is mute, possessing no power at all, an entire burden upon his nearest guarantor; wherever he sends him, he brings back no good — is that one the equal of one who commands justice and stands upon a straight path?

The matter of the Hour is only like the blink of an eye, or even swifter.

God commands justice, beneficence, and giving to the close relative,

And when We wish to annihilate a city, We address Our commands to its affluent ones, but they overstep within it; so the saying proves true against it, and We destroy it utterly.

Say: "The Influx is of my Guardian's command; and you have been given of knowledge only a little."

When the young people took refuge in the Cave and said: "Our Guardian, grant us, from Yourself, a benevolence, and shape for us, in our affair, a path of rectitude."

And since you have drawn apart from them and from what they obey besides God, take refuge in the Cave: your Guardian will deploy over you some of His benevolence and shape for you, in your affair, a support."

when they disputed among themselves over their matter and said: "Build over them a structure" —

Those who won out in the matter said: "We shall surely set up over them a place of prostration."

and do not defer to one whose core We have made heedless of Our remembrance, who has followed his emotion, and whose affair is excess.

except Iblis: he was among the Occulted, and he overstepped the command of his Guardian.

and I will not disobey you in anything."

He said: "Have you made a hole in it to drown its occupants? You have come to a very grave thing!"

He said: "Do not hold me to account for what I forgot, and do not crush me, in my affair, with hardship."

and I did not do that of my own accord.

and we shall speak to him, of our affair, an easy saying."

It is a matter already decreed."

When He decrees a matter, He only says to it: "Be",

And warn them of the Day of Desolation, when the matter is decided, while they are heedless and do not believe.

And mention, in the Scripture, Isma'il: he was true to his promise, and he was a messenger, an informant. He would enjoin upon his people the Contact and pure liberality,

"We do not descend except by the command of your Guardian.

He said: "My Guardian, open up my chest for me, ease my task for me, undo a knot from my tongue so that they may understand my saying, and appoint for me an assistant from among my own, Harun, my brother.

Strengthen through him my resolve, and associate him with my task, so that we may glorify You abundantly and remember You abundantly; You are All-Seeing of us."

So they disputed among themselves over their matter and kept their secret talk hidden.

He said: "We have indeed tried your people after you, and as-Samiri has led them astray."

They said: "We did not break your appointment of our own will; but we were made to carry burdens of the people's adornments, and we hurled them away, and thus did as-Samiri also throw."

and indeed your Guardian is the All-Benevolent: so follow me, and defer to my command."

He said: "O Harun, what kept you, when you saw them straying, from following me? Did you then disobey my command?"

He said: "And what is your case, Samiri?"

And order your household to the Contact, and be constant in it:

who do not precede Him in saying, and who act by His command.

And We made them leaders who guide by Our command,

And to Sulayman, the raging wind, running by his command to the land that We blessed,

But they split their affair among themselves;

those who, if We establish them in the land, maintain the Contact, give pure liberality, order what is recognized, and forbid what is disavowed.

And to God belongs the outcome of all matters.

Have you not seen that God has subjected to you whatever is on the earth, and the vessel which sails through the sea by His command?

So let them not contest with you concerning the matter,

And it is to God that all matters return.

Then, when Our command comes and the oven boils over, insert into it, of every kind, two elements of a pair, along with your family, except him among them against whom the saying has already preceded;

But they split their affair among themselves into pieces,

and whoever follows the footsteps of the Diverter — he indeed commands indecency and what is disavowed.

And they swore by God, with the utmost strength of their oaths, that if you ordered them, they would surely go forth.

The believers are only those who believe in God and His messenger, and who, when they are with him for a common matter, do not leave until they have asked his permission.

Let those who oppose his order beware lest a trial strike them, or a painful punishment strike them.

Shall we prostrate before what you order us?" And it only increases their recoil.

He said to the court around him: "This one is surely a knowing worker of illusion, who wants to drive you out of your land by his illusion. What then do you advise?"

And do not defer to the command of the excessive, who sow corruption on the earth and make nothing sound."

She said: "O court, enlighten me about my affair; I issue no ordinance without you bearing witness to it."

They said: "We are possessors of strength and possessors of severe rigor, but the affair is yours to decide; so consider what you command."

"I have only been ordered to obey the Guardian of this land, which He has made inviolable, and to whom belongs everything;

and I have been ordered to be among those true to God alone, and to recite the Recitation."

He said: "O Moussa, the court is conspiring against you to kill you; leave — I am indeed a sincere advisor to you."

You were not on the western side when We decreed the command to Moussa,

To God belongs the command, before and after.

And among His signs is that the sky and the earth stand by His command;

And among His signs is that He sends the winds as bearers of good tidings, so as to let you taste of His benevolence, and so that the vessels may sail by His command, and so that you may seek His favor, and perhaps you will be grateful.

and order what is recognized,

that is among the matters requiring resolve.

and to God is the outcome of all matters.

He governs the Order from the sky to the earth, then it ascends to Him in a day whose measure is a thousand years of those you number.

And We appointed among them leaders guiding by Our command, because they had been patient,

And it is not for any believing man or believing woman, when God and His messenger have decided a matter, to have the option in their own affair.

And God's command is always a thing done.

And God's command is a determined measure.

and whoever among them deviated from Our command, We made him taste the punishment of the Inferno.

And those who were deemed weak will say to those who grew proud, "It was rather a plot, night and day, when you commanded us to disown God and to assign equals to Him."

And it is to God that all matters return.

His command, when He wants a thing, is only to say to it: "Be",

He said: "O my father, do what you are commanded;

So We subjected the wind to him, running at his command, gently, wherever he aimed; and the Diverters, every builder and diver, and others bound together in fetters.

Say: "I have been commanded to obey God, devoting the Law exclusively to Him, and I have been commanded to be the first of those true to Him alone."

Say: "Do you then command me to obey other than God, O ignorant ones?"

He casts the Influx of His command upon whom He wills among His obedient ones, to warn of the Day of Meeting, the day they will appear exposed,

and I commit my affair to God;

Say: "I have indeed been forbidden to obey those you invoke besides God, since the clear proofs have come to me from my Guardian; and I have been commanded to be true to the Guardian of all beings alone."

and when He decrees a matter, He only says to it: "Be",

and when God's command comes, it is decided in truth, and there the workers of falsehood are the losers.

So He completed them as seven heavens in two days, and inspired to each heaven its command.

For this, then, call and stand straight as you have been commanded, and do not follow their emotions.

And say: "I believe in whatever Scripture God has sent down, and I have been commanded to be just between you.

and for those who answer their Guardian, maintain the Contact, conduct their affairs by conferring among themselves, and spend from what We have provided them;

And whoever is patient and forgives, that is surely among the matters requiring resolve.

Thus have We revealed to you an Influx emanating from Our command;

Is it not so: to God all affairs make their way.

Or have they clinched some plan? It is We who clinch.

In it, every wise matter is set apart, a command from Us.

God is the One who subjected the sea for you, so that vessels may sail upon it by His command, and so that you may seek of His favor, and perhaps you will be grateful.

We indeed gave the Sons of Israel the Scripture, the judgment, and the charge of informing; We provided them with wholesome things and favored them above all beings; and We gave them clear proofs concerning the Command.

Then We placed you upon a legislated way from the Command, so follow it,

destroying everything by the command of its Guardian.

Then, when the decision is made, if only they had been veracious to God, it would have been better for them.

That is because they have said to those who detest what God has sent down: "We will defer to you in part of the matter."

And know that the messenger of God is among you; were he to defer to you in many matters, you would be overwhelmed.

If one of the two commits iniquity against the other, fight the one that commits iniquity until it returns to the command of God.

They rather denied the truth when it came to them; so they are in a confused state.

In the name of God, the All-Benevolent, the Benevolent. By those that winnow, winnowing, those that bear a heavy weight, those that glide with ease, those that distribute a command: what you are promised is indeed true, and the Due will surely befall.

And in the Thamud: when it was said to them, "Enjoy yourselves for a time," but they insolently defied the command of their Guardian, so the thunderbolt seized them while they were looking on.

Or is it their composure that commands them to this, or are they a people who exceed all measure?

Yet every matter finds its stable place.

and made the earth gush forth in springs, so the waters met according to a matter already decreed.

and the Hour is more terrible and more bitter.

And Our command is but one, like the blink of an eye.

And it is to God that all matters return.

They will say: "Yes, but you put yourselves to trial, and bided your time, and doubted, and false hopes deluded you until the command of God came, and the great deluder deluded you concerning God."

Those who are stingy and enjoin stinginess upon men.

who tasted the baleful consequences of their conduct.

Has the information not come to you concerning those who disowned before, and tasted the baleful consequences of their conduct, and for them is a painful punishment?

You have no idea: perhaps God will give rise, after that, to something.

God indeed brings His command to its term.

And whoever guards himself toward God, He grants him ease in his affair.

That is God's command, which He has sent down to you.

Then, if they take the child into care for you, give them their rewards, and consult together according to what is recognized.

How many a town defied with insolence the command of its Guardian and His messengers! We called it to a severe account and punished it with a horrible punishment, and it tasted the baleful consequences of its conduct.

And the outcome of its conduct was loss.

The command descends among them, so that you may know that God is capable of all things, and that God encompasses all things in knowledge.

O you who have believed! Guard your Selves and your families from a Fire whose fuel is men and stones, over which are Agents, harsh and severe, who do not disobey God in what He commands them, and who do what they are commanded.

In the name of God, the All-Benevolent, the Benevolent. By those who tear away, submerging, those who release gently, those who swim, swimming, those who race ahead, racing, those who govern the affair — the Day the first quaking quakes, followed by the one that comes after,

By no means! He has not yet concluded what He commanded him.

And the command, that Day, belongs to God.

Have you seen if he is upon guidance, or enjoins guardedness?

During it descend the Agents and the Influx, by the permission of their Guardian, for every command.

And they were not commanded except to obey God, devoting the Law exclusively to Him, wholly turned toward Him, and to maintain the Contact and give pure liberality.