True Religion and False
LXIV.
Verily God commandeth justice and the doing of good and the giving unto the relation: and He forbiddeth wickedness and iniquity and oppression. He admonisheth you that ye may reflect.
(xvi. 92.)163
LXV.
†By the Night when she spreadeth her veil,
By the Day when it appeareth in glory,
By Him who made male and female;
Verily your aims are indeed different!
As then for him who giveth [alms] and feareth [God],
And yieldeth assent to the Good,
To him will We therefore make easy the path to happiness.
But as to him who is covetous and bent on riches,
And calleth the Good a lie,
To him will We make easy the path to distress;
And what shall his wealth avail him when he goeth down headlong?
Truly man’s guidance is with Us,
And Ours the next Life and this life Present.
I warn you therefore of the flaming fire;
None shall be burned at it but the most wretched,—
Who hath called the truth a lie and turned his back.
But the greatly God-fearing shall escape it,—
Who giveth away his substance that he may become pure,
And who [offereth] not favours to any one for the sake of recompense,
But only as seeking the face of his Lord the Most High.
And assuredly in the end he shall be well content.1
(xcii.)
LXVI.
†What thinkest thou of him who treateth the day of judgment as a lie?
It is he who thrusteth away the orphan,
And stirreth not [others] up to feed the poor.
Woe, then, to those who pray,
Who in their prayer are careless,
Who make a show [of devotion],
But refuse help [to the needy].164
(cvii.)
LXVII.
Your turning your faces in prayer towards the east and the west is not piety: but the pious is he who believeth in God and the Last Day, and in the angels, and the Scripture, and the prophets, and who giveth money, notwithstanding his love of it, to relations and orphans, and to the needy and the son of the road,165 and to the askers and for the freeing of slaves, and who performeth prayer and giveth the [appointed] alms, and those who perform their covenant when they covenant, and the patient in adversity and affliction and in the time of violence. These are they who have been true: and these are they who fear God.
(ii. 172.)
LXVIII.
†He only shall visit the temples of God who believeth in God and the Last Day, and observeth prayer, and payeth the [appointed] alms, and dreadeth none but God: for these are among the rightly-guided.
(ix. 18.)
LXIX.
O ye who have believed, make not your alms of no effect by reproach and harm, like him who expendeth his wealth to make a vain show unto men, and believeth not in God and the Last Day. For his likeness is as the likeness of a smooth stone upon which was earth, and a violent rain hath fallen upon it, and left it smooth and hard. [Such] cannot have aught that they have gained, and God directeth not the unbelieving people.
And the likeness of those who expend their wealth from a desire of God’s being pleased, and from assurance on their part,166 is as the likeness of a garden upon a hill, on which a violent rain hath fallen, and it hath produced its fruit twofold: and if a violent rain fall not upon it, a gentle rain falleth.
(ii. 266, 267.)
LXX.
If ye manifest alms, good will it be: but if ye conceal them and give them to the poor, it will be better for you; and it will expiate some of your sins.
(ii. 273.)
LXXI.
A kind speech and forgiveness are better than alms which hurt167 followeth.
(ii. 265.)
LXXII.
Revile not what they invoke in preference to God,168 lest they revile God evilly without knowledge.
(vi. 108.)
LXXIII.
Turn away evil by that which is better: and lo, he between whom and thyself [was] enmity [shall become] as though he were a warm friend:
But none is endowed with this169 except those who have been patient, and none is endowed with it except he who is greatly favoured.170
(xli. 34, 35.)
LXXIV.
†If ye are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or at least return it: verily God taketh count of all things.
(iv. 88.)
LXXV.
†If there be any [debtor] under a difficulty [of paying his debt], let [his creditor] wait until it be easy: but if ye remit it as alms, it will be better for you.
(ii. 280.)171