1. Hath there come upon man ever any period of time in which he was a thing unremembered?

2. Lo! We create man from a drop of thickened fluid to test him; so We make him hearing, knowing.

3. Lo! We have shown him the way, whether he be grateful or disbelieving.

4. Lo! We have prepared for disbelievers manacles and carcans and a raging fire.

5. Lo! the righteous shall drink of a cup whereof the mixture is of camphor,

6. A spring wherefrom the slaves of God drink, making it gush forth abundantly,

7. Because they perform the vow and fear a day whereof the evil is wide- spreading,

8. And feed with food the needy wretch, the orphan and the prisoner, for love of Him,

9. Saying: We feed you, for the sake of God only. We wish for no reward nor thanks from you;

10. Lo! we fear from our Lord a day of frowning and of fate.

11. Therefor God hath warded off from them the evil of that day, and hath made them find brightness and joy;

12. And hath awarded them for all that they endured, a Garden and silk attire;

13. Reclining therein upon couches, they will find there neither heat of a sun nor bitter cold.

14. The shade thereof is close upon them and the clustered fruits thereof bow down.

15. Goblets of silver are brought round for them, and beakers as of glass

16. Bright as glass but made of silver, which they themselves have measured to the measure of their deeds.

17. There are they watered with a cup whereof the mixture is of ginger,

18. The water of a spring therein, named Shalshabil.

19. There wait on them immortal youths, whom, when thou seest, thou wouldst take for scattered pearls.

20. When thou seest, thou wilt see there bliss and high estate.

21. Their raiment will be fine green silk and gold embroidery. Bracelets of silver will they wear. Their Lord will slake their thirst with a pure drink.

22. And it will be said unto them: Lo! this is a reward for you. Your endeavour upon earth hath found acceptance.

23. Lo! We, even We, have revealed unto thee the record, a revelation;

24. So submit patiently to thy Lord's command, and obey not of them any guilty one or disbeliever.

25. Remember the name of thy Lord at morn and evening.

6 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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