The Column (Al-Suff)
In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful
Whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth halloweth Allah. And He is the Mighty, the Wise. 1 Believers, why do you preach what you do not practice? 2 Great is hatred in the sight of Allah that you say what you do not do. 3 Verily Allah loveth those who fight in His way drown up in ranks, as though they were a structure well compacted. 4 And recall what time Musa said unto his people: O my people! wherefore hurt ye me, when surely ye know that verily I am Allah's apostle unto you? Then when they swerved, Allah made their hearts swerve; and Allah guideth not a transgressing people. 5 And [this happened, too,] when Jesus, the son of Mary, said: "O children of Israel! Behold, I am an apostle of God unto you, [sent] to confirm the truth of whatever there still remains of the Torah, and to give [you] the glad tiding of an apostle who shall come after me, whose name shall be Ahmad." But when he [whose coming Jesus had foretold] came unto them with all evidence of the truth, they said: "This [alleged message of his] is [nothing but] spellbinding eloquence!" 6 And who does greater evil than he who forges a lie against Allah, when he is being called to Islam? Allah does not guide the harmdoing people. 7 They aim to extinguish God's light with their utterances: but God has willed to spread His light in all its fullness, however hateful this may be to all who deny the truth 8 He it is Who sent His Apostle with the guidance and the true religion, that He may make it overcome the religions, all of them, though the polytheists may be averse. 9