1. Alif. Lam. Ra. These are verses of the Wise Scripture.

2. Is it a wonder for mankind that We have inspired a man among them, saying: Warn mankind and bring unto those who believe the good tidings that they have a sure footing with their Lord? The disbelievers say: Lo! this is a mere wizard.

3. Lo! your Lord is God Who created the heavens and the earth in six Days, then He established Himself upon the Throne, directing all things. There is no intercessor with Him save after His permission. That is God, your Lord, so worship Him. Oh, will ye not remind?

4. Unto Him is the return of all of you; it is a promise of God in truth. Lo! He produceth creation, then reproduceth it, that He may reward those who believe and do good works with equity; while, as for those who disbelieve, theirs will be a boiling drink and painful doom because they disbelieved.

5. He it is Who appointed the sun a splendour and the moon a light, and measured for her stages, that ye might know the number of the years, and the reckoning. God created not all that save in truth. He detaileth the revelations for people who have knowledge.

6. Lo! in the difference of day and night and all that God hath created in the heavens and the earth are portents, verily, for folk who ward off evil.

7. Lo! those who expect not the meeting with Us but desire the life of the world and feel secure therein, and those who are neglectful of Our revelations,

8. Their home will be the Fire because of what they used to earn.

9. Lo! those who believe and do good works, their Lord guideth them by their faith. Rivers will flow beneath them in the Gardens of Delight,

10. Their prayer therein will be: Glory be to Thee, O God! and their greeting therein will be: Peace. And the conclusion of their prayer will be: Praise be to God, Lord of the Worlds!

11. If God were to hasten on for men the ill that they have earned as they would hasten on the good, their respite would already have expired. But We suffer those who look not for the meeting with Us to wander blindly on in their contumacy.

12. And if misfortune touch a man he crieth unto Us, while reclining on his side, or sitting or standing, but when We have relieved him of the misfortune he goeth his way as though he had not cried unto Us because of a misfortune that afflicted him. Thus is what they do made seeming fair unto the prodigal.

13. We destroyed the generations before you when they did wrong; and their messengers from God came unto them with clear proofs of His Sovereignty but they would not believe. Thus do We reward the guilty folk.

14. Then We appointed you viceroys in the earth after them, that We might see how ye behave.

15. And when Our clear revelations are recited unto them, they who look not for the meeting with Us say: Bring a Lecture other than this, or change it. Say O Mohammed: It is not for me to change it of my accord. I only follow that which is inspired in me. Lo! if I disobey my Lord I fear the retribution of an awful Day.

16. Say: If God had so willed I should not have recited it to you nor would He have made it known to you. I dwelt among you a whole lifetime before it came to me. Have ye then no sense?

17. Who doeth greater wrong than he who inventeth a lie concerning God and denieth His revelations? Lo! the guilty never are successful.

18. They worship beside God that which neither hurteth them nor profiteth them, and they say: These are our intercessors with God. Say: Would ye inform God of something that He knoweth not in the heavens or in the earth? Praised be He and High Exalted above all that ye associate with Him!

19. Mankind were but one community; then they differed; and had it not been for a word that had already gone forth from thy Lord it had been judged between them in respect of that wherein they differ.

20. And they will say: If only a portent were sent down upon him from his Lord! Then say, O Mohammed: The Unseen belongeth to God. So wait! Lo! I am waiting with you.

21. And when We cause mankind to taste of mercy after some adversity which had afflicted them, behold! they have some plot against Our revelations. Say: God is more swift in plotting. Lo! Our messengers write down that which ye plot.

22. He it is Who maketh you to go on the land and the sea till, when ye are in the ships and they sail with them with a fair breeze and they are glad therein, a storm- wind reacheth them and the wave cometh unto them from every side and they deem that they are overwhelmed therein; then they cry unto God, making their faith pure for Him only: If Thou deliver us from this, we truly will be of the thankful.

23. Yet when He hath delivered them, behold! they rebel in the earth wrongfully. O mankind! Your rebellion is only against yourselves. Ye have enjoyment of the life of the world; then unto Us is your return and We shall proclaim unto you what ye used to do.

24. The similitude of the life of the world is only as water which We send down from the sky, then the earth's growth of that which men and cattle eat mingleth with it till, when the earth hath taken on her ornaments and is embellished, and her people deem that they are masters of her, Our commandment cometh by night or by day and We make it as reaped corn as if it had not flourished yesterday. Thus do we expound the revelations for people who reflect.

25. And God summoneth to the abode of peace, and leadeth whom He will to a straight path.

84 more verses…

About this reader

What is Scripture?

Scripture is a browser-based reader for sixteen sacred texts spanning multiple religious and literary traditions. It provides chapter-by-chapter navigation, full-text search across all works, word concordance with frequency analysis, verse-linked notes, text-to-speech, and deep linking to any chapter or verse.

Traditions Represented

The collection spans Abrahamic, East Asian, Zoroastrian, Buddhist, and Nordic traditions. Christian texts include the King James Version Old and New Testaments (1611) and Apocrypha. The Quran uses Marmaduke Pickthall's 1930 English translation. Latter-day Saint scripture includes the Book of Mormon (1830), Doctrine and Covenants (1835), and Pearl of Great Price (1851).

Confucian works include James Legge's translations of The Four Books (1893) and the Book of Poetry (1876). The Tao Te Ching uses Legge's 1891 translation. The Kojiki uses Basil Hall Chamberlain's 1919 English translation. Zoroastrian texts include the Bundahishn (E. W. West, 1880) and the Arda Viraf (Haug & West, 1872). The Lotus Sutra uses Hendrik Kern's 1884 translation. The Finnish Kalevala uses John Martin Crawford's 1888 translation, and the Norse Poetic Edda uses Henry Adams Bellows' 1923 translation.

Public Domain Translations

Every translation in this collection is in the public domain. The most recent translation dates to 1930 (Pickthall's Quran). All texts are freely available for reading, study, quotation, and redistribution with no copyright restrictions.

Concordance and Related Passages

The concordance indexes every word across all sixteen works, showing frequency and distribution. TF-IDF (term frequency-inverse document frequency) scoring identifies passages with similar vocabulary across different traditions, enabling comparative study without requiring prior knowledge of each text's structure. TF-IDF weights words that are frequent in one chapter but rare across the corpus, surfacing meaningful thematic connections rather than common function words.

Deep Linking

Every chapter and verse has a permanent URL. Chapter links follow the pattern /scripture/{work}/{book}-{chapter} (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1 for Genesis 1). Verse links append the verse number (e.g., /scripture/ot/gen-1:26 for Genesis 1:26). These URLs can be shared, bookmarked, or cited directly.

Accessibility

Scripture supports keyboard navigation throughout: Tab moves between controls, Enter activates verse actions, and arrow keys navigate chapters. The reading pane has a skip-to-content link. All overlays (search, concordance) are focus-trapped ARIA dialogs. Dynamic content regions use aria-live for screen reader announcements. High-contrast mode is available via the theme toggle. Verse numbers are visible to assistive technology. No flashing content or motion hazards.

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