1. Say O Mohammed: It is revealed unto me that a company of the Genies gave ear, and they said: Lo! we have heard a marvellous record,

2. Which guideth unto righteousness, so we believe in it and we ascribe no partner unto our Lord.

3. And we believe that He - exalted be the glory of our Lord! - hath taken neither wife nor son,

4. And that the foolish one among us used to speak concerning God an atrocious lie.

5. And lo! we had supposed that humankind and genies would not speak a lie concerning God -

6. And indeed O Mohammed individuals of humankind used to invoke the protection of individuals of the genies, so that they increased them in revolt against God;

7. And indeed they supposed, even as ye suppose, that God would not raise anyone from the dead -

8. And the Genies who had listened to the record said: We had sought the heaven but had found it filled with strong warders and meteors.

9. And we used to sit on places high therein to listen. But he who listeneth now findeth a flame in wait for him;

10. And we know not whether harm is boded unto all who are in the earth, or whether their Lord intendeth guidance for them.

11. And among us there are righteous folk and among us there are far from that. We are sects having different rules.

12. And we know that we cannot escape from God in the earth, nor can we escape by flight.

13. And when we heard the guidance, we believed therein, and whoso believeth in his Lord, he feareth neither loss nor oppression.

14. And there are among us some who have surrendered to God and there are among us some who are unjust. And whoso hath surrendered to God, such have taken the right path purposefully.

15. And as for those who are unjust, they are firewood for hell.

16. If they the idolaters tread the right path, We shall give them to drink of water in abundance

17. That We may test them thereby, and whoso turneth away from the remembrance of his Lord; He will thrust him into ever-growing torment.

18. And the places of worship are only for God, so pray not unto anyone along with God.

19. And when the slave of God stood up in prayer to Him, they crowded on him, almost stifling.

20. Say unto them, O Mohammed: I pray unto God only, and ascribe unto Him no partner.

21. Say: Lo! I control not hurt nor benefit for you.

22. Say: Lo! none can protect me from God, nor can I find any refuge beside Him

23. Mine is but conveyance of the Truth from God, and His messages; and whoso disobeyeth God and His messenger, lo! his is fire of hell, wherein such dwell for ever.

24. Till the day when they shall behold that which they are promised they may doubt; but then they will know for certain who is weaker in allies and less in multitude.

25. Say O Mohammed, unto the disbelievers: I know not whether that which ye are promised is nigh, or if my Lord hath set a distant term for it.

3 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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