stake 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.

XVIII: SAY: WE HAVE CAUSED THE RIVERS OF DIVINE...

Say: We have caused the rivers of Divine utterance to proceed out of Our
throne, that the tender herbs of wisdom and understanding may spring forth
from the soil of your hearts. Will ye not be thankful? They who disdain to
worship their Lord shall be of those who are cast off. And oft as Our
verses are rehearsed unto them, they persist in proud disdain, and in
their gross violation of His law, and know it not. As for them who have
disbelieved in Him, they shall be in the shadow of a black smoke. "The
Hour" hath come upon them, while they are disporting themselves. They have
been seized by their forelock, and yet know it not.

The thing that must come hath come suddenly; behold how they flee from it!
The inevitable hath come to pass; witness how they have cast it behind
their backs! This is the Day whereon every man will fly from himself, how
much more from his kindred, could ye but perceive it. Say: By God! The
blast hath been blown on the trumpet, and lo, mankind hath swooned away
be