1. Their reckoning draweth nigh for mankind, while they turn away in heedlessness.

2. Never cometh there unto them a new reminder from their Lord but they listen to it while they play,

3. With hearts preoccupied. And they confer in secret. The wrong-doers say: Is this other than a mortal like you? Will ye then succumb to magic when ye see it?

4. He saith: My Lord knoweth what is spoken in the heaven and the earth. He is the Hearer, the Knower.

5. Nay, say they, these are but muddled dreams; nay, he hath but invented it; nay, he is but a poet. Let him bring us a portent even as those of old who were God's messengers were sent with portents.

6. Not a township believed of those which We destroyed before them though We sent them portents: would they then believe?

7. And We sent not as Our messengers before thee other than men, whom We inspired. Ask the followers of the Reminder if ye know not?

8. We gave them not bodies that would not eat food, nor were they immortals.

9. Then we fulfilled the promise unto them. So we delivered them and whom We would, and We destroyed the prodigals.

10. Now We have revealed unto you a Scripture wherein is your Reminder. Have ye then no sense?

11. How many a community that dealt unjustly have We shattered, and raised up after them another folk!

12. And, when they felt Our might, behold them fleeing from it!

13. But it was said unto them: Flee not, but return to that existence which emasculated you and to your dwellings, that ye may be questioned.

14. They cried: Alas for us! we were wrong-doers.

15. And this their crying ceased not till We made them as reaped corn, extinct.

16. We created not the heaven and the earth and all that is between them in play.

17. If We had wished to find a pastime, We could have found it in Our presence - if We ever did.

18. Nay, but We hurl the true against the false, and it doth break its head and lo! it vanisheth. And yours will be woe for that which ye ascribe unto Him.

19. Unto Him belongeth whosoever is in the heavens and the earth. And those who dwell in His presence are not too proud to worship Him, nor do they weary;

20. They glorify Him night and day; they flag not.

21. Or have they chosen gods from the earth who raise the dead?

22. If there were therein gods beside God, then verily both the heavens and the earth had been disordered. Glorified be God, the Lord of the Throne, from all that they ascribe unto Him.

23. He will not be questioned as to that which He doeth, but they will be questioned.

24. Or have they chosen other gods beside Him? say: Bring your proof of their godhead. This is the Reminder of those with me and those before me, but most of them know not the Truth and so they are averse.

25. And We sent no messenger before thee but We inspired him, saying: There is no God save Me God, so worship Me.

87 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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