Part 218

O children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I shewed favour upon you, and be true to your covenant with me; I will be true to my covenant with you; me therefore, revere me! and believe in what I have sent down confirming your Scriptures, and be not the first to disbelieve it, neither for a mean price barter my signs: me therefore, fear ye me!

And clothe not the truth with falsehood, and hide not the truth when ye know it:18

And observe prayer and pay the legal impost, and bow down with those who bow.

Will ye enjoin what is right upon others, and forget yourselves? Yet ye read the Book: will ye not understand?

And seek help with patience and prayer: a hard duty indeed is this, but not to the humble,

Who bear in mind that they shall meet their Lord, and that unto Him shall they return.

O children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I shewed favour upon you; for verily to you above all human beings have I been bounteous.

And fear ye the day when soul shall not satisfy for soul at all, nor shall any intercession be accepted from them, nor shall any ransom be taken, neither shall they be helped.

And remember when we rescued you from the people of Pharaoh, who had laid on you a cruel chastisement. They slew your male children, and let only your females live: and in this was a great trial from your Lord:

And when we parted the sea for you, and saved you, and drowned the people of Pharaoh, while ye were looking on:

And when we were in treaty with Moses forty nights: then during his absence took ye the calf and acted wickedly:

Yet after this we forgave you, that ye might be grateful:

And when we gave Moses the Book and the Illumination19 in order to your guidance:

And remember when Moses said to his people, "O my people! verily ye - have sinned to your own hurt, by your taking the calf to worship it: Be turned then to your creator, and slay the guilty among you;20 this will be best for you with your creator:" Then turned He unto you, for He is the one who turneth, the Merciful:

And when ye said, "O Moses! we will not believe thee until we see God plainly;" the thunderbolt fell upon you while ye were looking on:

Then we raised you to life after ye had been dead,21 that haply ye might give thanks:

And we caused the clouds to overshadow you, and we sent down manna and quails upon you;-"Eat of the good things we have give you for sustenance;"-and they injured not us but they injured themselves.22

And when we said, "Enter this city,23 and eat therefrom plentifully, at your will, and enter the gate with prostrations, and say, 'Forgiveness;' and we will pardon you your sins, and give an increase to the doers of good:"-

But the evil-doers changed that word into another than that spoken to them,24 and we sent down upon those evil-doers wrath from heaven, for that they had done amiss:

And when Moses asked drink for his people, we said, "Strike the rock with thy rod;" and from it there gushed twelve fountains: each tribe25 knew their drinking-place:-"Eat and drink," said we, "of what God hath supplied, and do no wrong on the earth by licentious deeds:"

And when ye said, "O Moses! we will not put up with one sort of food: pray, therefore, thy Lord for us, that He would bring forth for us of that which the earth groweth, its herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils and its onions:" He said, "What! will ye exchange that which is worse for what is better? Get ye down into Egypt;-for ye shall have what ye have asked:" Vileness and poverty were stamped upon them, and they returned with wrath from God: This, for that they disbelieved the signs of God, and slew the Prophets26 unjustly: this, for that they rebelled and transgressed!

Verily, they who believe (Muslims), and they who follow the Jewish religion, and the Christians, and the Sabeites27-whoever of these believeth in God and the last day, and doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with their Lord: fear shall not come upon them, neither shall they be grieved.

Call to mind also when we entered into a covenant with you, and lifted up the mountain28 over you:-"Take hold," said we, "on what we have revealed to you, with resolution, and remember what is therein, that ye may fear:"

But after this ye turned back, and but for God's grace and mercy toward you, ye had surely been of the lost! Ye know too those of you who transgressed on the Sabbath, and to whom we said, "Be changed into scouted apes:"29

And we made them a warning to those of their day, and to those who came after them, and a caution to the God-fearing:

And when Moses said to his people, "Verily, God bids you sacrifice a COW;"30 they said, "Makest thou a jest of us?" He said, "God keep me from being one of the foolish." They said, "Call on thy Lord for us that He would make plain to us what she is." He said, "God saith, 'She is a cow neither old nor young, but of the middle age between the two:' do therefore what ye are bidden."

They said, "Call on your Lord for us, that he would make plain to us what is her colour." He said, "God saith, 'She is a fawn-coloured cow; her colour is very bright; she rejoiceth the beholders.' "

They said, "Call on they Lord for us that He would make plain to us what cow it is-for to us are cows alike,-and verily, if God please, we shall be guided rightly:"