1. Alif. Lam. Ra. This is a Scripture which We have revealed unto thee Mohammed that thereby thou mayst bring forth mankind from darkness unto light, by the permission of their Lord, unto the path of the Mighty, the Owner of Praise,

2. God, unto Whom belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth. and woe unto the disbelievers from an awful doom;

3. Those who love the life of the world more than the Hereafter, and debar men from the way of God and would have it crooked: such are far astray.

4. And We never sent a messenger save with the language of his folk, that he might make the message clear for them. Then God sendeth whom He will astray, and guideth whom He will. He is the Mighty, the Wise.

5. We verily sent Moses with Our revelations, saying: Bring thy people forth from darkness unto light. And remind them of the days of God. Lo! therein are revelations for each steadfast, thankful heart.

6. And remind them how Moses said unto his people: Remember God's favour unto you when He delivered you from Pharaoh's folk who were afflicting you with dreadful torment, and were slaying your sons and sparing your women; that was a tremendous trial from your Lord.

7. And when your Lord proclaimed: If ye give thanks, I will give you more; but if ye are thankless, lo! My punishment is dire.

8. And Moses said: Though ye and all who are in the earth prove thankless, lo! God verily is Absolute, Owner of Praise.

9. Hath not the history of those before you reached you: the folk of Noah, and the tribes of Od and Shamod, and those after them? None save God knoweth them. Their messengers came unto them with clear proofs, but they thrust their hands into their mouths, and said: Lo! we disbelieve in that wherewith ye have been sent, and lo! we are in grave doubt concerning that to which ye call us.

10. Their messengers said: Can there be doubt concerning God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth? He calleth you that He may forgive you your sins and reprieve you unto an appointed term. They said: Ye are but mortals like us, who would fain turn us away from what our fathers used to worship. Then bring some clear warrant.

11. Their messengers said unto them: We are but mortals like you, but God giveth grace unto whom He will of His slaves. It is not ours to bring you a warrant unless by the permission of God. In God let believers put their trust!

12. How should we not put our trust in God when He hath shown us our ways? We surely will endure the hurt ye do us. In God let the trusting put their trust.

13. And those who disbelieved said unto their messengers: Verily we will drive you out from our land, unless ye return to our religion. Then their Lord inspired them, saying: Verily we shall destroy the wrong-doers,

14. And verily We shall make you to dwell in the land after them. This is for him who feareth My Majesty and feareth My threats.

15. And they sought help from their Lord and every froward potentate was bought to naught;

16. Hell is before him, and he is made to drink a festering water,

17. Which he sippeth but can hardly swallow, and death cometh unto him from every side while yet he cannot die, and before him is a harsh doom.

18. A similitude of those who disbelieve in their Lord: Their works are as ashes which the wind bloweth hard upon a stormy day. They have no control of aught that they have earned. That is the extreme failure.

19. Hast thou not seen that God hath created the heavens and the earth with truth? If He will, He can remove you and bring in some new creation;

20. And that is no great matter for God.

21. They all come forth unto their Lord. Then those who were despised say unto those who were scornful: We were unto you a following, can ye then avert from us aught of God's doom? They say: Had God guided us, we should have guided you. Whether we rage or patiently endure is now all one for us; we have no place of refuge.

22. And Satan saith, when the matter hath been decided: Lo! God promised you a promise of truth; and I promised you, then failed you. And I had no power over you save that I called unto you and ye obeyed me. So blame not, but blame yourselves. I cannot help you, nor can ye help me, Lo! I disbelieved in that which ye before ascribed to me. Lo! for wrong-doers is a painful doom.

23. And those who believed and did good works are made to enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow, therein abiding by permission of their Lord, their greeting therein: Peace!

24. Seest thou not how God coineth a similitude: A goodly saying, as a goodly tree, its root set firm, its branches reaching into heaven,

25. Giving its fruit at every season by permission of its Lord? God coineth the similitudes for mankind in order that they may reflect.

27 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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