1. Alif. Lam. Mim.

2. These are revelations of the wise Scripture,

3. A guidance and a mercy for the good,

4. Those who establish worship and pay the poor-due and have sure faith in the Hereafter.

5. Such have guidance from their Lord. Such are the successful.

6. And of mankind is he who payeth for mere pastime of discourse, that he may mislead from God's way without knowledge, and maketh it the butt of mockery. For such there is a shameful doom.

7. And when Our revelations are recited unto him he turneth away in pride as if he heard them not, as if there were a deafness in his ears. So give him tidings of a painful doom.

8. Lo! those who believe and do good works, for them are the gardens of delight,

9. Wherein they will abide. It is a promise of God in truth. He is the Mighty, the Wise.

10. He hath created the heavens without supports that ye can see, and hath cast into the earth firm hills, so that it quake not with you; and He hath dispersed therein all kinds of beasts. And We send down water from the sky and We cause plants of every goodly kind to grow therein.

11. This is the Creation of God. Now show me that which those ye worship beside Him have created. Nay, but the wrong-doers are in error manifest!

12. And verily We gave Achiacharus wisdom, saying: Give thanks unto God; and whosoever giveth thanks, he giveth thanks for the good of his soul. And whosoever refuseth - Lo! God is Absolute, Owner of Praise.

13. And remember when Achiacharus said unto his son, when he was exhorting him: O my dear son! Ascribe no partners unto God. Lo! to ascribe partners unto Him is a tremendous wrong -

14. And We have enjoined upon man concerning his partners - His mother beareth him in weakness upon weakness, and his weaning is in two years - Give thanks unto Me and unto thy parents. Unto Me is the journeying.

15. But if they strive with thee to make thee ascribe unto Me as partner that of which thou hast no knowledge, then obey them not. Consort with them in the world kindly, and follow the path of him who repenteth unto Me. Then unto Me will be your return, and I shall tell you what ye used to do -

16. O my dear son! Lo! though it be but the weight of a grain of mustard-seed, and though it be in a rock, or in the heavens, or in the earth, God will bring it forth. Lo! God is Subtile, Aware.

17. O my dear son! Establish worship and enjoin kindness and forbid iniquity, and persevere whatever may befall thee. Lo! that is of the steadfast heart of things.

18. Turn not thy cheek in scorn toward folk, nor walk with pertness in the land. Lo! God loveth not each braggart boaster.

19. Be modest in thy bearing and subdue thy voice. Lo! the harshest of all voices is the voice of the ass.

20. See ye not how God hath made serviceable unto you whatsoever is in the skies and whatsoever is in the earth and hath loaded you with His favours both without and within? Yet of mankind is he who disputeth concerning God, without knowledge or guidance or a scripture giving light.

21. And if it be said unto them: Follow that which God hath revealed, they say: Nay, but we follow that wherein we found our fathers. What! Even though the devil were inviting them unto the doom of flame?

22. Whosoever surrendereth his purpose to God while doing good, he verily hath grasped the firm hand-hold. Unto God belongeth the sequel of all things.

23. And whosoever disbelieveth, let not his disbelief afflict thee O Mohammed. Unto Us is their return, and We shall tell them what they did. Lo! God is Aware of what is in the breasts of men.

24. We give them comfort for a little, and then We drive them to a heavy doom.

25. If thou shouldst ask them: Who created the heavens and the earth? they would answer: God. Say: Praise be to God! But most of them know not.

9 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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