The Qur'an (Oxford World's Classics)

6: 54
Livestock 83
42 We sent messengers before you [Prophet] to many communities
and afflicted their people with suffering and hardships, so that they
could learn humility. 43 If only they had learned humility when
suffering came from Us! But no, their hearts became hard and
Satan made their foul deeds alluring to them. 44 So, when they had
forgotten the warning they had received, We opened the gates to
everything for them. Then, as they revelled in what they had
been given, We struck them suddenly and they were dumbfounded.
45The evildoers were wiped out: praise be to God, the Lord of the
Worlds!
46 Say [Prophet], ‘Think: if God were to take away your hearing and
your sight and seal up your hearts, what god other than He could
restore them?’ See how We explain Our revelations in various ways,
yet still they turn away. 47 Say, ‘Think: if the punishment of God
should come to you, by surprise or openly, would anyone but the
evildoers be destroyed?’ 48 We send messengers only to give good news
and to warn, so for those who believe and do good deeds there will be
no fear, nor will they grieve. 49 As for those who rejected Our signs,
torment will afflict them as a result of their defiance. 50 Say, ‘I do not
have the treasures of God, nor do I know the unseen, nor do I tell you
that I am an angel. I only follow what is revealed to me.’ Say, ‘Is a blind
person like one who can see? Why will you not reflect?’
51 Use the Quran to warn those who fear being gathered before
their Lord – they will have no one but Him to protect them and no
one to intercede – so that they may beware. 52 Do not drive away
those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, seeking nothing
but His Face. a You are in no way accountable for them, nor they
for you; if you drove the believers away, b you would become one of
the evildoers. 53 We have made some of them a test for others, to
make the disbelievers say, ‘Is it these men that God has favoured
among us?’ Does God not know best who are the grateful ones?
54 When those who believe in Our revelations come to you
[Prophet], say, ‘Peace be upon you. Your Lord has taken it on
a ‘His pleasure/approval’, or ‘to see His face’ (see ‘The Face, Divine and Human in
the Quran’, in Abdel Haleem, Understanding the Quran, 107–22); see also 92: 19–21.
b Cf. 80: 1. The Prophet was torn between his efforts to win over the nobles to save
them, and the humble believers, whom the nobles wanted him to get rid of, claiming that
they only congregated around him to gain prestige or material benefits. The Prophet
here is told that he should not worry about them and so become a wrongdoer by driving
away true believers.