1. Alim. Lam. Mim.

2. God! There is no God save Him, the Alive, the Eternal.

3. He hath revealed unto thee Mohammed the Scripture with truth, confirming that which was revealed before it, even as He revealed the Torah and the Gospel.

4. Aforetime, for a guidance to mankind; and hath revealed the Criterion of right and wrong. Lo! those who disbelieve the revelations of God, theirs will be a heavy doom. God is Mighty, Able to Requite the wrong.

5. Lo! nothing in the earth or in the heavens is hidden from God.

6. He it is Who fashioneth you in the wombs as pleaseth Him. There is no God save Him, the Almighty, the Wise.

7. He it is Who hath revealed unto thee Mohammed the Scripture wherein are clear revelations - they are the substance of the Book - and others which are allegorical. But those in whose hearts is doubt pursue, forsooth, that which is allegorical seeking to cause dissension by seeking to explain it. None knoweth its explanation save God. And those who are of sound instruction say: We believe therein; the whole is from our Lord; but only men of understanding really heed.

8. Our Lord! Cause not our hearts to stray after Thou hast guided us, and bestow upon us mercy from Thy Presence. Lo! Thou, only Thou, art the Bestower.

9. Our Lord! Lo! it is Thou Who gatherest mankind together to a Day of which there is no doubt. Lo! God faileth not to keep the tryst.

10. On that Day neither the riches nor the progeny of those who disbelieve will aught avail them with God. They will be fuel for Fire.

11. Like Pharaoh's folk and those who were before them, they disbelieved Our revelations and so God seized them for their sins. And God is severe in punishment.

12. Say O Mohammed unto those who disbelieve: Ye shall be overcome and gathered unto Hell, an evil resting-place.

13. There was a token for you in two hosts which met: one army fighting in the way of God, and another disbelieving, whom they saw as twice their number, clearly, with their very eyes. Thus God strengtheneth with His succour whom He will. Lo! herein verily is a lesson for those who have eyes.

14. Beautified for mankind is love of the joys that come from women and offspring; and stored-up heaps of gold and silver, and horses branded with their mark, and cattle and land. That is comfort of the life of the world. God! With Him is a more excellent abode.

15. Say: Shall I inform you of something better than that? For those who keep from evil, with their Lord, are Gardens underneath which rivers flow wherein they will abide, and pure companions, and contentment from God. God is Seer of His bondmen,

16. Those who say: Our Lord! Lo! we believe. So forgive us our sins and guard us from the punishment of Fire;

17. The steadfast, and the truthful, and the obedient, those who spend and hoard not, those who pray for pardon in the watches of the night.

18. God Himself is Witness that there is no God save Him. And the angels and the men of learning too are witness. Maintaining His creation in justice, there is no God save Him the Almighty, the Wise.

19. Lo! religion with God is the Surrender to His Will and Guidance. Those who formerly received the Scripture differed only after knowledge came unto them, through transgression among themselves. Whoso disbelieveth the revelations of God will find that lo! God is swift at reckoning.

20. And if they argue with thee, O Mohammed, say: I have surrendered my purpose to God and so have those who follow me. And say unto those who have received the Scripture and those who read not: Have ye too surrendered? If they surrender, then truly they are rightly guided, and if they turn away, then it is thy duty only to convey the message unto them. God is Seer of His bondmen.

21. Lo! those who disbelieve the revelations of God, and slay the prophets wrongfully, and slay those of mankind who enjoin equity: promise them a painful doom.

22. Those are they whose works have failed in the world and the Hereafter; and they have no helpers.

23. Hast thou not seen how those who have received a portion of the Scripture invoke the Scripture of God in their disputes that it may judge between them; then a faction of them turn away, being opposed to it?

24. That is because they say: The Fire will not touch us save for a certain number of days. That which they used to invent hath deceived them regarding their religion.

25. How will it be with them when We have brought them all together to a Day of which there is no doubt, when every soul will be paid in full what it hath earned, and they will not be wronged.

175 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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