Gems from the Holy Qur’an
From the translation by Muhammad Asad (Leopold Weiss)
About the translator:
Muhammad Asad, Leopold Weiss, was born of Jewish parents in Livow, Austria (later Poland) in 1900, and at the age of 22 made his first visit to the Middle East. He later became an outstanding foreign correspondent for the Franfurter Zeitung, and after years of devoted study became one of the leading Muslim scholars of our age. His translation of the Holy Qur'an is one of the most lucid and well-referenced works in this category, dedicated to “li-qawmin yatafakkaroon” (people who think). Forwarded by Dr Ismat Kamal.
Chapter 6, Verse 54
And when those who believe in Our messages come unto thee, say: “Peace be upon you. Your Sustainer has willed upon Himself the law of grace and mercy – so that if any of you does a bad deed out of ignorance, and thereafter repents and lives righteously, He shall be [found] much-forgiving, a dispenser of grace.”
Chapter 6, Verses 71-73
Say: Shall we invoke, instead of God, something that can neither benefit us nor harm us, and [thus] turn around on our heels after God has guided us aright? – like one who whom the satans have enticed into blundering after earthly lusts, the while his companions, trying to guide him, call unto him [from afar], ‘come thou to us!’” Say, “Verily God’s guidance is the only guidance: and so we have been bidden to surrender ourselves unto the Sustainer of all the worlds, and to be constant in prayer and conscious of Him: for it is He unto whom you all shall be gathered.” And He it is who has created the heavens and the earth in accordance with [an inner] truth – and whenever He says, “Be,” His word comes true; and His will be the dominion on the Day when the trumpet [of resurrection] is blown. He knows all that is beyond the reach of a created being’s perception, as well as all that can be witnessed by a creature’s senses or mind: for He alone is truly wise, all-aware.
Chapter 6, Verses 95-96
Verily God is the One who cleaves the grain and the fruit-kernel asunder, bringing forth the living out of that which ids dead, and He is the One who brings forth the dead out of that which is alive. This, then, is God: and yet, how perverted are your minds! [He is] the One who causes the dawn to break; and He has made the night to be [a source of] stillness, and the sun and the moon to run their appointed courses: [all] this is laid down by the will of the Almighty, the all-Knowing.
Chapter 6, Verse 104
Means of insight have now come unto you from your Sustainer [through this divine writ]. Whoever, therefore, chooses to see, does so for his own good; and whoever chooses to remain blind, does so for his own hurt. And [say unto the blind of heart]: I am not your keeper.”
