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themselves from all things.



This is the Day whereon the earth shall tell out her tidings. The workers

of iniquity are her burdens, could ye but perceive it. The moon of idle

fancy hath been cleft, and the heaven hath given out a palpable smoke. We

see the people laid low, awed with the dread of thy Lord, the Almighty,

the Most Powerful. The Crier hath cried out, and men have been torn away,

so great hath been the fury of His wrath. The people of the left hand sigh

and bemoan. The people of the right abide in noble habitations: they quaff

the Wine that is life indeed, from the hands of the All-Merciful, and are,

verily, the blissful.



The earth hath been shaken, and the mountains have passed away, and the

angels have appeared, rank on rank, before Us. Most of the people are

bewildered in their drunkenness and wear on their faces the evidences of

anger. Thus have We gathered together the workers of iniquity. We see them

rushing on towards their idol. Say: None shall be secure this Day from the

decree of God. This indeed is a grievous Day. We point out to them those

that led them astray. They see them, and yet recognize them not. Their

eyes are drunken; they are indeed a blind people. Their proofs are the

calumnies they uttered; condemned are their calumnies by God, the Help in

Peril, the Self-Subsisting. The Evil One hath stirred up mischief in their

hearts, and they are afflicted with a torment that none can avert. They

hasten to the wicked, bearing the register of the workers of iniquity.

Such are their doings.



Say: The heavens have been folded together, and the earth is held within

His grasp, and the corrupt doers have been held by their forelock, and

still they understand not. They drink of the tainted water, and know it

not. Say: The shout hath been raised, and the people have come forth from

their graves, and arising, are gazing around them. Some have made haste to

attain the court of the God of Mercy, others have fallen down on their

faces in the fire of Hell, while still others are lost in bewilderment.

The verses of God have been revealed, and yet they have turned away from

them. His proof hath been manifested, and yet they are unaware of it. And

when they behold the face of the All-Merciful, their own faces are

saddened, while they are disporting themselves. They hasten forward to

Hell Fire, and mistake it for light. Far from God be what they fondly

imagine! Say: Whether ye rejoice or whether ye burst for fury, the heavens

are cleft asunder, and God hath come down, invested with radiant

sovereignty. All created things are heard exclaiming: "The Kingdom is

God's, the Almighty, the All-Knowing, the All-Wise."



Know thou, moreover, that We have been cast into an afflictive Prison, and

are encompassed with the hosts of tyranny, as a result of what the hands

of the infidels have wrought. Such is the gladness, however, which the

Youth hath tasted that no earthly joy can compare unto it. By God! The

harm He suffereth at the hands of the oppressor can never grieve His

heart, nor can He be saddened by the ascendancy of such as have repudiated

His truth.



Say: Tribulation is a horizon unto My Revelation. The day star of grace

shineth above it, and sheddeth a light which neither the clouds of men's

idle fancy nor the vain imaginations of the aggressor can obscure.



Follow thou the footsteps of thy Lord, and remember His servants even as

He doth remember thee, undeterred by either the clamor of the heedless

ones or the sword of the enemy.... Spread abroad the sweet savors of thy

Lord, and hesitate not, though it be for less than a moment, in the

service of His Cause. The day is approaching when the victory of thy Lord,

the Ever-Forgiving, the Most Bountiful, will be proclaimed.