1. Those who disbelieve and turn men from the way of God, He rendereth their actions vain.

2. And those who believe and do good works and believe in that which is revealed unto Mohammed - and it is the truth from their Lord - He riddeth them of their ill-deeds and improveth their state.

3. That is because those who disbelieve follow falsehood and because those who believe follow the truth from their Lord. Thus God coineth their similitudes for mankind.

4. Now when ye meet in battle those who disbelieve, then it is smiting of the necks until, when ye have routed them, then making fast of bonds; and afterward either grace or ransom till the war lay down its burdens. That is the ordinance. And if God willed He could have punished them without you but thus it is ordained that He may try some of you by means of others. And those who are slain in the way of God, He rendereth not their actions vain.

5. He will guide them and improve their state,

6. And bring them in unto the Garden which He hath made known to them.

7. O ye who believe! If ye help God, He will help you and will make your foothold firm.

8. And those who disbelieve, perdition is for them, and He will make their actions vain.

9. That is because they are averse to that which God hath revealed, therefor maketh He their actions fruitless.

10. Have they not travelled in the land to see the nature of the consequence for those who were before them? God wiped them out. And for the disbelievers there will be the like thereof.

11. That is because God is patron of those who believe, and because the disbelievers have no patron.

12. Lo! God will cause those who believe and do good works to enter Gardens underneath which rivers flow; while those who disbelieve take their comfort in this life and eat even as the cattle eat, and the Fire is their habitation.

13. And how many a township stronger than thy township O Mohammed which hath cast thee out, have We destroyed, and they had no helper!

14. Is he who relieth on a clear proof from his Lord like those for whom the evil that they do is beautified while they follow their own lusts?

15. A similitude of the Garden which those who keep their duty to God are promised: Therein are rivers of water unpolluted, and rivers of milk whereof the flavour changeth not, and rivers of wine delicious to the drinkers, and rivers of clear- run honey; therein for them is every kind of fruit, with pardon from their Lord. Are those who enjoy all this like those who are immortal in the Fire and are given boiling water to drink so that it teareth their bowels?

16. Among them are some who give ear unto thee Mohammed till, when they go forth from thy presence they say unto those who have been given knowledge: What was that he said just now? Those are they whose hearts God hath sealed, and they follow their own lusts.

17. While as for those who walk aright, He addeth to their guidance, and giveth them their protection against evil.

18. Await they aught save the Hour, that it should come upon them unawares? And the beginnings thereof have already come. But how, when it hath come upon them, can they take their warning?

19. So know O Mohammed that there is no God save God, and ask forgiveness for thy sin and for believing men and believing women. God knoweth both your place of turmoil and your place of rest.

20. And those who believe say: If only a chapter were revealed! But when a decisive chapter is revealed and war is mentioned therein, thou seest those in whose hearts is a disease looking at thee with the look of men fainting unto death. Therefor woe unto them!

21. Obedience and a civil word. Then, when the matter is determined, if they are loyal to God it will be well for them.

22. Would ye then, if ye were given the command, work corruption in the land and sever your ties of kinship?

23. Such are they whom God curseth so that He deafeneth them and maketh blind their eyes.

24. Will they then not meditate on the record, or are there locks on the hearts?

25. Lo! those who turn back after the guidance hath been manifested unto them, Satan hath seduced them, and He giveth them the rein.

13 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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