1. O ye who believe! Be not forward in the presence of God and His messenger, and keep your duty to God. Lo! God is Hearer, Knower.

2. O ye who believe! Lift not up your voices above the voice of the Prophet, nor shout when speaking to him as ye shout one to another, lest your works be rendered vain while ye perceive not.

3. Lo! they who subdue their voices in the presence of the messenger of God, those are they whose hearts God hath proven unto righteousness. Theirs will be forgiveness and immense reward.

4. Lo! those who call thee from behind the private apartments, most of them have no sense.

5. And if they had had patience till thou camest forth unto them, it had been better for them. And God is Forgiving, Merciful.

6. O ye who believe! If an evil-liver bring you tidings, verify it, lest ye smite some folk in ignorance and afterward repent of what ye did.

7. And know that the messenger of God is among you. If he were to obey you in much of the government, ye would surely be in trouble; but God hath endeared the faith to you and hath beautified it in your hearts, and hath made disbelief and lewdness and rebellion hateful unto you. Such are they who are the rightly guided.

8. It is a bounty and a grace from God; and God is Knower, Wise.

9. And if two parties of believers fall to fighting, then make peace between them. And if one party of them doeth wrong to the other, fight ye that which doeth wrong till it return unto the ordinance of God; then, if it return, make peace between them justly, and act equitably. Lo! God loveth the equitable.

10. The believers are naught else than brothers. Therefore make peace between your brethren and observe your duty to God that haply ye may obtain mercy.

11. O ye who believe! Let not a folk deride a folk who may be better than they are, not let women deride women who may be better than they are; neither defame one another, nor insult one another by nicknames. Bad is the name of lewdness after faith. And whoso turneth not in repentance, such are evil-doers.

12. O ye who believe! Shun much suspicion; for lo! some suspicion is a crime. And spy not, neither backbite one another. Would one of you love to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Ye abhor that so abhor the other! And keep your duty to God. Lo! God is Relenting, Merciful.

13. O mankind! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you, in the sight of God, is the best in conduct. Lo! God is Knower, Aware.

14. The wandering Arabs say: We believe. Say unto them, O Mohammed: Ye believe not, but rather say "We submit," for the faith hath not yet entered into your hearts. Yet, if ye obey God and His messenger, He will not withhold from you aught of the reward of your deeds. Lo! God is Forgiving, Merciful.

15. The true believers are those only who believe in God and His messenger and afterward doubt not, but strive with their wealth and their lives for the cause of God. Such are the sincere.

16. Say unto them, O Mohammed: Would ye teach God your religion, when God knoweth all that is in the heavens and all that is in the earth, and God is Aware of all things?

17. They make it a favour unto thee Mohammed that they have surrendered unto Him. Say: Deem not your Surrender a favour unto me; but God doth confer a favour on you, inasmuch as He hath led you to the Faith, if ye are earnest.

18. Lo! God knoweth the Unseen of the heavens and the earth. And God is Seer of what ye do.

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.

Scripture is part of a suite of educational simulations at a9l.im. Explore particle physics with Geon, redistricting with Gerry, or cellular metabolism with Cyano.