1. Alif. Lam. Mim.

2. Do men imagine that they will be left at ease because they say, We believe, and will not be tested with affliction?

3. Lo! We tested those who were before you. Thus God knoweth those who are sincere, and knoweth those who feign.

4. Or do those who do ill-deeds imagine that they can outstrip Us? Evil for them is that which they decide.

5. Whoso looketh forward to the meeting with God let him know that God's reckoning is surely nigh, and He is the Hearer, the Knower.

6. And whosoever striveth, striveth only for himself, for lo! God is altogether Independent of His creatures.

7. And as for those who believe and do good works, We shall remit from them their evil deeds and shall repay them the best that they did.

8. We have enjoined on man kindness to parents; but if they strive to make thee join with Me that of which thou hast no knowledge, then obey them not. Unto Me is your return and I shall tell you what ye used to do.

9. And as for those who believe and do good works, We verily shall make them enter in among the righteous.

10. Of mankind is he who saith: We believe in God, but, if he be made to suffer for the sake of God, he mistaketh the persecution of mankind for God's punishment; and then, if victory cometh from thy Lord, will say: Lo! we were with you all the while. Is not God Best Aware of what is in the bosoms of His creatures?

11. Verily God knoweth those who believe, and verily He knoweth the hypocrites.

12. Those who disbelieve say unto those who believe: Follow our way of religion and we verily will bear your sins for you. They cannot bear aught of their sins. Lo! they verily are liars.

13. But they verily will bear their own loads and other loads beside their own, and they verily will be questioned on the Day of Resurrection concerning that which they invented.

14. And verily we sent Noah as Our messenger unto his folk, and he continued with them for a thousand years save fifty years; and the flood engulfed them, for they were wrong-doers.

15. And We rescued him and those with him in the ship, and made of it a portent for the peoples.

16. And Abraham! Remember when he said unto his folk: Serve God, and keep your duty unto Him; that is better for you if ye did but know.

17. Ye serve instead of God only idols, and ye only invent a lie. Lo! those whom ye serve instead of God own no provision for you. So seek your provision from God, and serve Him, and give thanks unto Him, for unto Him ye will be brought back.

18. But if ye deny, then nations have denied before you. The messenger is only to convey the message plainly.

19. See they not how God produceth creation, then reproduceth it? Lo! for God that is easy.

20. Say O Mohammed: Travel in the land and see how He originated creation, then God bringeth forth the later growth. Lo! God is Able to do all things.

21. He punisheth whom He will and showeth mercy unto whom He will, and unto Him ye will be turned.

22. Ye cannot escape from Him in the earth or in the sky, and beside God there is for you no friend or helper.

23. Those who disbelieve in the revelations of God and in their Meeting with Him, such have no hope of My mercy. For such there is a painful doom.

24. But the answer of his folk was only that they said: "Kill him" or "Burn him." Then God saved him from the Fire. Lo! herein verily are portents for folk who believe.

25. He said: Ye have chosen only idols instead of God. The love between you is only in the life of the world. Then on the Day of Resurrection ye will deny each other and curse each other, and your abode will be the Fire, and ye will have no helpers.

44 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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