Koran Curious - A Guide for Infidels and Believers (23 page)

[22:66] He is the One who granted you life, then He puts you to death, then He brings you back to life. Surely, the human being is unappreciative.

[22:75] GOD chooses from among the angels messengers, as well as from among the people. GOD is Hearer, Seer.

[22:76] He knows their past and their future. To GOD belongs the ultimate control of all matters.

[22:77] O you who believe, you shall bow, prostrate, worship your Lord, and work righteousness, that you may succeed.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

[23:1] Successful indeed are the believers;

[23:2] who are reverent during their Contact Prayers (Salat).

[23:3] And they avoid vain talk.

[23:4] And they give their obligatory charity (Zakat).

[23:5] And they maintain their chastity.

[23:6] Only with their spouses, or those who are rightfully theirs, do they have sexual relations; they are not to be blamed.

[23:7] Those who transgress these limits are the transgressors.

[23:23] We sent Noah to his people, saying, “O my people, worship GOD. You have no other god beside Him. Would you not be righteous?”

[23:24] The leaders who disbelieved among his people said, “This is no more than a human like you, who wants to gain prominence among you. Had GOD willed, He could have sent down angels. We never heard of anything like this from our ancestors.

[23:25] “He is simply a man gone crazy. Just ignore him for awhile.”

[23:26] He said, “My Lord, grant me victory, for they have disbelieved me.”

[23:27] We then inspired him: “Make the watercraft under our watchful eyes, and in accordance with our inspiration. When our command comes, and the atmosphere boils up, put on it a pair of every kind (of your domesticated animals), and your family, except those condemned to be doomed. Do not speak to Me on behalf of those who transgressed; they will be drowned.

[23:43] No community can advance its predetermined fate, nor delay it.

[23:44] Then we sent our messengers in succession. Every time a messenger went to his community, they disbelieved him. Consequently, we annihilated them, one after the other, and made them history. The people who disbelieved have perished.

[23:65] Do not complain now; you have given up all help from us.

[23:66] My proofs have been presented to you, but you turned back on your heels.

[23:67] You were too arrogant to accept them, and you defiantly disregarded them.

[23:68] Why do they not reflect upon this scripture? Do they not realize that they have received something never attained by their ancestors?

[23:69] Have they failed to recognize their messenger? Is this why they are disregarding him?

[23:101] When the horn is blown, no relations among them will exist on that day, nor will they care about one another.

[23:102] As for those whose weights are heavy, they will be the winners.

[23:103] Those whose weights are light are the ones who lost their souls; they abide in Hell forever.

[23:104] Fire will overwhelm their faces, and they last miserably therein.

[23:105] Were not My revelations recited to you, and you kept on rejecting them?

[23:106] They will say, “Our Lord, our wickedness overwhelmed us, and we were people gone astray.

[23:117] Anyone who idolizes beside GOD any other god, and without any kind of proof, his reckoning rests with his Lord. The disbelievers never succeed.

[23:118] Say, “My Lord, shower us with forgiveness and mercy. Of all the merciful ones, You are the Most Merciful.”

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

[24:2] The adulteress and the adulterer you shall whip each of them a hundred lashes. Do not be swayed by pity from carrying out GOD’s law, if you truly believe in GOD and the Last Day. And let a group of believers witness their penalty.

[24:3] The adulterer will end up marrying an adulteress or an idol worshiper, and the adulteress will end up marrying an adulterer or an idol worshiper. This is prohibited for the believers.

[24:4] Those who accuse married women of adultery, then fail to produce four witnesses, you shall whip them eighty lashes, and do not accept any testimony from them; they are wicked.

[24:5] If they repent afterwards and reform, then GOD is Forgiver, Merciful.

[24:6] As for those who accuse their own spouses, without any other witnesses, then the testimony may be accepted if he swears by GOD four times that he is telling the truth.

[24:11] A gang among you produced a big lie. Do not think that it was bad for you; instead, it was good for you. Meanwhile, each one of them has earned his share of the guilt. As for the one who initiated the whole incident, he has incurred a terrible retribution.

[24:12] When you heard it, the believing men and the believing women should have had better thoughts about themselves, and should have said, “This is obviously a big lie.”

[24:13] Only if they produced four witnesses (you may believe them). If they fail to produce the witnesses, then they are, according to GOD, liars.

[24:16] When you heard it, you should have said, “We will not repeat this. Glory be to You. This is a gross falsehood.”

[24:17] GOD admonishes you that you shall never do it again, if you are believers.

[24:21] O you who believe, do not follow the steps of Satan. Anyone who follows the steps of Satan should know that he advocates evil and vice. If it were not for GOD’s grace towards you, and His mercy, none of you would have been purified. But GOD purifies whomever He wills. GOD is Hearer, Knower.

[24:27] O you who believe, do not enter homes other than yours without permission from their inhabitants, and without greeting them. This is better for you, that you may take heed.

[24:31] And tell the believing women to subdue their eyes, and maintain their chastity. They shall not reveal any parts of their bodies, except that which is necessary. They shall cover their chests, and shall not relax this code in the presence of other than their husbands, their fathers, the fathers of their husbands, their sons, the sons of their husbands, their brothers, the sons of their brothers, the sons of their sisters, other women, the male servants or employees whose sexual drive has been nullified, or the children who have not reached puberty. They shall not strike their feet when they walk in order to shake and reveal certain details of their bodies. All of you shall repent to GOD, O you believers, that you may succeed.

[24:32] You shall encourage those of you who are single to get married. They may marry the righteous among your male and female servants, if they are poor. GOD will enrich them from His grace. GOD is Bounteous, Knower.

[24:52] Those who obey GOD and His messenger, and reverence GOD and observe Him, these are the triumphant ones.

[24:55] GOD promises those among you who believe and lead a righteous life, that He will make them sovereigns on earth, as He did for those before them, and will establish for them the religion He has chosen for them, and will substitute peace and security for them in place of fear. All this because they worship Me alone; they never set up any idols beside Me. Those who disbelieve after this are the truly wicked.

[24:56] You shall observe the Contact Prayers (Salat) and give the obligatory charity (Zakat), and obey the messenger, that you may attain mercy.

[24:62] The true believers are those who believe in GOD and His messenger, and when they are with him in a community meeting, they do not leave him without permission. Those who ask permission are the ones who do believe in GOD and His messenger. If they ask your permission, in order to tend to some of their affairs, you may grant permission to whomever you wish, and ask GOD to forgive them. GOD is Forgiver, Most Merciful.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

[25:4] Those who disbelieved said, “This is a fabrication that he produced, with the help of some other people.” They have uttered a blasphemy and a falsehood.

[25:5] They also said, “Tales from the past that he wrote down; they were dictated to him day and night.”

[25:6] Say, “This was revealed by the One who knows the Secret in the heavens and the earth. He is Forgiving, Most Merciful.”

[25:10] Most blessed is the One who can, if He wills, give you much better than their demands - gardens with flowing streams, and many mansions.

[25:11] In fact, they have disbelieved in the Hour (Day of Resurrection), and we have prepared for those who disbelieve in the Hour a flaming Hell.

[25:27] The day will come when the transgressor will bite his hands (in anguish) and say, “Alas, I wish I had followed the path with the messenger.

[25:28] “Alas, woe to me, I wish I did not take that person as a friend.

[25:35] We have given Moses the scripture, and appointed his brother Aaron to be his assistant.

[25:36] We said, “Go, both of you, to the people who rejected our revelations,” and subsequently, we utterly annihilated the rejectors.

[25:37] Similarly, when the people of Noah disbelieved the messengers, we drowned them, and we set them up as a sign for the people. We have prepared for the transgressors a painful retribution.