1. Blessed is He in Whose hand is the Sovereignty, and, He is Able to do all things.

2. Who hath created life and death that He may try you which of you is best in conduct; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving,

3. Who hath created seven heavens in harmony. Thou Mohammed canst see no fault in the Beneficent One's creation; then look again: Canst thou see any rifts?

4. Then look again and yet again, thy sight will return unto thee weakened and made dim.

5. And verily We have beautified the world's heaven with lamps, and We have made them missiles for the devils, and for them We have prepared the doom of flame.

6. And for those who disbelieve in their Lord there is the doom of hell, a hapless journey's end!

7. When they are flung therein they hear its roaring as it boileth up,

8. As it would burst with rage. Whenever a fresh host is flung therein the wardens thereof ask them: Came there unto you no warner?

9. They say: Yea, verily, a warner came unto us; but we denied and said: God hath naught revealed; ye are in naught but a great error.

10. And they say: Had we been wont to listen or have sense, we had not been among the dwellers in the flames.

11. So they acknowledge their sins; but far removed from mercy are the dwellers in the flames.

12. Lo! those who fear their Lord in secret, theirs will be forgiveness and a great reward.

13. And keep your opinion secret or proclaim it, lo! He is Knower of all that is in the breasts of men.

14. Should He not know what He created? And He is the Subtile, the Aware.

15. He it is Who hath made the earth subservient unto you, so Walk in the paths thereof and eat of His providence. And unto Him will be the resurrection of the dead.

16. Have ye taken security from Him Who is in the heaven that He will not cause the earth to swallow you when lo! it is convulsed?

17. Or have ye taken security from Him Who is in the heaven that He will not let loose on you a hurricane? But ye shall know the manner of My warning.

18. And verily those before them denied, then see the manner of My wrath with them!

19. Have they not seen the birds above them spreading out their wings and closing them? Naught upholdeth them save the Beneficent. Lo! He is Seer of all things.

20. Or who is he that will be an army unto you to help you instead of the Beneficent? The disbelievers are in naught but illusion.

21. Or who is he that will provide for you if He should withhold His providence? Nay, but they are set in pride and frowardness.

22. Is he who goeth groping on his face more rightly guided, or he who walketh upright on a straight road?

23. Say unto them, O Mohammed: He it is who gave you being, and hath assigned unto you ears and eyes and hearts. Small thanks give ye!

24. Say: He it is Who multiplieth you in the earth, and unto Whom ye will be gathered.

25. And they say: When will this promise be fulfilled, if ye are truthful?

5 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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