1. Qaf. By the Glorious record,

2. Nay, but they marvel that a warner of their own hath come unto them; and the disbelievers say: This is a strange thing:

3. When we are dead and have become dust shall we be brought back again? That would be a far return!

4. We know that which the earth taketh of them, and with Us is a recording Book.

5. Nay, but they have denied the truth when it came unto them, therefor they are now in troubled case.

6. Have they not then observed the sky above them, how We have constructed it and beautified it, and how there are no rifts therein?

7. And the earth have We spread out, and have flung firm hills therein, and have caused of every lovely kind to grow thereon,

8. A vision and a reminder for every penitent slave.

9. And We send down from the sky blessed water whereby We give growth unto gardens and the grain of crops,

10. And lofty date-palms with ranged clusters,

11. Provision made for men; and therewith We quicken a dead land. Even so will be the resurrection of the dead.

12. The folk of Noah denied the truth before them, and so did the dwellers at Rass and the tribe of Shamod,

13. And the tribe of Od, and Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot,

14. And the dwellers in the wood, and the folk of Tobba: every one denied their messengers, therefor My threat took effect.

15. Were We then worn out by the first creation? Yet they are in doubt about a new creation.

16. We verily created man and We know what his soul whispereth to him, and We are nearer to him than his jugular vein.

17. When the two Receivers receive him, seated on the right hand and on the left,

18. He uttereth no word but there is with him an observer ready.

19. And the agony of death cometh in truth. And it is said unto him: This is that which thou wast wont to shun.

20. And the trumpet is blown. This is the threatened Day.

21. And every soul cometh, along with it a driver and a witness.

22. And unto the evil-doer it is said: Thou wast in heedlessness of this. Now We have removed from thee thy covering, and piercing is thy sight this day.

23. And unto the evil-doer his comrade saith: This is that which I have ready as testimony.

24. And it is said: Do ye twain hurl to hell each rebel ingrate,

25. Hinderer of good, transgressor, doubter,

20 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.

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.