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| 16. WE will brand him on the snout. 17. WE will, surely, try them as WE tried the owners of the garden when they vowed to each other that they would, certainly, gather all its fruit in the morning. 18. And they made no exception and said not `If God Please.' 19. Then a visitation from thy Lord visited it while they were asleep; 20. And the morning found it like a garden cut down. 21. So they called to one another at the break of dawn, 22. Saying, `Go forth early in the morning to your field, if you would gather the fruit.' 23. And they set out talking to one another in low tones, 24. Saying, `Let no poor man today enter it while you are there.' 25. Thus they went forth early in the morning, determined to be niggardly, 26. But when they saw it, they said, `Surely, we have lost our way ! 27. `Nay we have been deprived of all our fruits.' 28. The best among them said, `Did I not say to you, why do you not glorify God ?' 29. Thereupon, they said, `Glory be to our Lord ! Surely, we have been wrongdoers.' 30. Then some of them turned to the others, reproaching one another. 31. They said, `Woe to us ! We were indeed, rebellious, 32. `May be, if we repent, our Lord will give us instead a better garden than this; we do humbly entreat our Lord.' 33. Such is the punishment of this world. And, surely, the punishment of the Hereafter is greater. Did they but know ! 34. For the righteous, indeed, there are Gardens of Bliss with their Lord. 35. Shall WE, then, treat those who submit to US as WE treat the guilty ? 36. What is the matter with you ? How judge ye ? 37. Have you a book wherein you read, 38. That you shall, surely, have in it whatever you choose ? 39. Or, have you taken any covenant binding on US till the Day of Resurrection that you shall, surely, have whatever you judge ? 40. Ask them, which of them will vouch for that. 41. Or, have they any associate-gods ? Let them, then, produce their associate-gods, if they are truthful. 42. On the day when the truth shall be laid bare and they will be called upon to prostrate themselves, they will not be able to do so; |
