1. Alif. Lam. Mim.

2. This is the Scripture whereof there is no doubt, a guidance unto those who ward off evil.

3. Who believe in the Unseen, and establish worship, and spend of that We have bestowed upon them;

4. And who believe in that which is revealed unto thee Mohammed and that which was revealed before thee, and are certain of the Hereafter.

5. These depend on guidance from their Lord. These are the successful.

6. As for the Disbelievers, Whether thou warn them or thou warn them not it is all one for them; they believe not.

7. God hath sealed their hearing and their hearts, and on their eyes there is a covering. Theirs will be an awful doom.

8. And of mankind are some who say: We believe in God and the Last Day, when they believe not.

9. They think to beguile God and those who believe, and they beguile none save themselves; but they perceive not.

10. In their hearts is a disease, and God increaseth their disease. A painful doom is theirs because they lie.

11. And when it is said unto them: Make not mischief in the earth, they say: We are peacemakers only.

12. Are not they indeed the mischief-makers? But they perceive not.

13. And when it is said unto them: believe as the people believe, they say: shall we believe as the foolish believe? are not they indeed the foolish? But they know not.

14. And when they fall in with those who believe, they say: We believe; but when they go apart to their devils they declare: Lo! we are with you; verily we did but mock.

15. God Himself doth mock them, leaving them to wander blindly on in their contumacy.

16. These are they who purchase error at the price of guidance, so their commerce doth not prosper, neither are they guided.

17. Their likeness is as the likeness of one who kindleth fire, and when it sheddeth its light around him God taketh away their light and leaveth them in darkness, where they cannot see,

18. Deaf, dumb and blind; and they return not.

19. Or like a rainstorm from the sky, wherein is darkness, thunder and the flash of lightning. They thrust their fingers in their ears by reason of the thunder-claps, for fear of death, God encompasseth the disbelievers in His guidance, His omniscience and His omnipotence.

20. The lightning almost snatcheth away their sight from them. As often as it flasheth forth for them they walk therein, and when it darkeneth against them they stand still. If God willed, He could destroy their hearing and their sight. Lo! God is able to do all things.

21. O mankind! worship your Lord, Who hath created you and those before you, so that ye may ward off evil.

22. Who hath appointed the earth a resting-place for you, and the sky a canopy; and causeth water to pour down from the sky, thereby producing fruits as food for you. And do not set up rivals to God when ye know better.

23. And if ye are in doubt concerning that which We reveal unto Our slave Mohammed, then produce a chapter of the like thereof, and call your witness beside God if ye are truthful.

24. And if ye do it not - and ye can never do it - then guard yourselves against the Fire prepared for disbelievers, whose fuel is of men and stones.

25. And give glad tidings O Mohammed unto those who believe and do good works; that theirs are Gardens underneath which rivers flow; as often as they are regaled with food of the fruit thereof, they say: this is what was given us aforetime; and it is given to them in resemblance. There for them are pure companions; there for ever they abide.

261 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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