Thoughts on Suicide

I don't know if I'll have any coherent theme to follow as I talk about suicide. I intend to dive right into the subject and share my feelings, reactions, and thoughts as they present themselves. So don't expect eloquence or order in the ensuing paragraphs. Something I prepare you for not entirely out of shame, but to put an emphasis on other assets of writing, like honesty, intuition, and spontaneity.

Robin Williams killed himself a few years back. We were all so shocked because Robin and his characters were so often the embodiment of childlike joy-of silliness, creativity, fun, and innocence. He also radiated goodness in his life, or at least as far as I could tell (someone's private life could demonstrate something else entirely). By goodness, I mean empathy and kindness. If Robin didn't feel pure empathy for everyone, he at least offered a smile and the appearance of empathy, which is a powerful and virtuous thing in and of itself. As for real love and caring-real action-we're all now familiar with his Jesus-like (or better) care for sick children, and for his love of giving (the gifts of humor and bikes were his favorite).

I don't know what percentage of who I am now is Robin Williams. I do know I have a tendency to act silly (that is, when I'm not stoic or low). I've always been goofy, quirky, and, at times, energetic. I've never been talented like Robin Williams, but emotionally I feel like I assimilated his soul at a young age. As a kid I watched Mork (Robin Williams as an alien) and Mindy, and I still remember the joy of saying "Na-nu Na-nu" as I presented the modified Vulcan hand gesture to my siblings.

I admit that part of this Robin William's style of silliness is a subtle or not-too-subtle sense of trying to be cute or funny. I remember my brother Jim getting mad at me for photo bombing a picture of he and his buddies in front of an electric train and track that they set up. I was probably seven. Just when the photographer was opening the shutter, I popped up from behind the table, spread my arms, and said "cheeeeeesse" in the cutest way possible. Which was not cute to Jimmy.  So no, I'm not making the claim that the Robin Williams/Josh form of humor is universally appreciated. Nor am I trying to convince you that its a trait I'm proud of. In case you were wondering.
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I wasn't obsessed with Robin Williams characters, just highly influenced by them emotionally, perhaps in conjunction with other similar manic, child-like characters found on the television sets of the late 70s and 80s. Who knows if our temperament and personalities are fully developed by, say, age 2, or age 6, or 18? All I can say is that influence happens-I can feel it when it does. The emotional/personality transference occurred, and Robin Williams was a major donor for me.

And he was present throughout the first forty years or so of my life. Present in my world, if not my life. Everyone knew of him. Almost everyone enjoyed his performances. He was beloved.

For me, personally, I recognize now that I loved him to some degree or another. Love is a feeling that's a stew (or brick) of other emotions: affection, familiarity/intimacy, admiration, all of which I felt towards Robin Williams. I did not love him like I love my wife or son or mother, but I loved him nonetheless. I think this notion of love is easily understood by anybody with a heart, but for me its something of a revelation. If there is a theme that continues through these paragraphs it might be this.

Chris Cornell, the frontman for the bands Soundgarden and Audioslave, was also someone I loved. He killed himself a little over a year ago. He was a presence during my highly emotional and formative teen years-years that were marked by desire, heartache, loneliness, and awkwardness.  In the eleventh grade, I remember asking a talent show DJ to play "Hunger Strike" on the loud speaker in our school auditorium after the room had emptied out. It was a powerful, memorable experience (as evidenced by the way I am re-telling it). I owned and listened to Chris's albums during the same time I was obsessed with Pearl Jam. Cornell's voice, like the voices of several other musical artists, is a permanent fixture in my mind and key component of my emotional makeup. Hw had one of the best male voices I've ever heard-so emotive, so unique, so heart-achingly human.

I don't intend to write a eulogy. Not that I could. What I do want to draw attention to is the fact that several individuals who I loved to some degree or another and who are now emotionally apart of me have killed themselves. Its a sad thing, but its also a strange position to find myself in existentially speaking. I've thought about suicide, mostly in an academic, objective ways. I've also had the same kind of fleeting thoughts that I'm sure most people have at some time or another ("what would it be like to jump off this cliff?" "would I feel anything if I was shot in the head?" whatever)  But I've not seriously considered killing myself. I don't currently obsess about it. And can't imagine I'd ever actually do it.

Yet some of my major heros/influences have taken their own lives. What does this mean if anything?

Dolores O'riordan killed herself earlier this year. Now, as with Chris Cornell, some may argue that it was drugs that killed the artist. Either way, they both died far too young. I had a different emotional connection with Dolores. I guess I'd have to say I had a crush on her even though now, when I think that she's dead and gone, it feels like more.

Dolores was beautiful, feminine, sweet-yet-fierce, intelligent, and righteous. Her Irish voice and look appealed to something deeply ingrained in my genetic makeup. She was also present in my life during those turbulent teen years. The Cranberries performance on MTV's Unplugged in the early 90s was absolutely mesmerizing. I'm sure I'm not the only one who fell in love with Dolores while watching that performance.

Her voice cut deep into my soul. I've had so many moments listening to her albums while driving. If you're  a music fan (or Seinfeld fan...remember the "Desperado" episode), you'll understand what I mean by "moments".

Of all the artists and celebrities to pass away in the last five or so year (there have been many), Dolores's death was the most shocking and tragic to me. If I happened to be an old Irishman in Dublin, I can imagine raising toasts to the lost lass with the voice of a mythological siren. My buddies and I would drink too many Guinness, sing sappy songs, and celebrate her name once a year on the anniversary of her death.

Just a few days ago, Anthony Bourdaine was found dead in his hotel room. He too had committed suicide. I've spent a small percentage of my life sitting in front of the TV but existing in my mind in different parts of the world, tasting exotic foods, connecting with people who should be very different from me but aren't, and being stimulated and amused by the literary, political, and philosophical ramblings of Anthony Bourdaine.

I felt a connection with Anthony-I loved him-for a more than a few reasons. I shared an apartment with my buddy Eric Westrom for several years in my twenties. Those bachelor years were characterized by a lot of bike riding, large plates of spaghetti, big pans of ramen noodles, and giant bowls of cereal. Oh, and the old desperation. And good music. Eric and I shared interests, including music, bikes, comedy, and Anthony Bourdains shows. In short-and again-this individual was a prominent figure in my life.

I also just liked Anthony and felt a connection with him on an emotional/intellectual level. He had a wry, sarcastic sense of humor that occasionally relaxed into pure silliness. I appreciated the way he tried to draw significance from every experience and see the biggest picture possible. I liked the respect and openness he brought with every personal interaction. He was down-to-earth, honest, curious, and creative. And it was no secret that Anthony possessed a troubled (relatively speaking) soul. "Troubled" isn't the best adjective here. Yearning, angst-filled, turbulent, edgy...none of these on their own are quite right. It would be fair to say that a large percentage of humanity possess "troubled" souls. Perhaps its %100. At any rate, I related to Anthony's particular style of troubled soul. The punk rock, righteous, friendly, self effacing, and slightly-down... A soul that is no longer. Mine is still here. Again, what to make of this?

So what are my thoughts on suicide? Well, its certainly sad whenever someone is suffering from pain or depression, especially when it follows from losing the love of others as in a failed relationship or the loss of a mother, father, son, daughter, etc. In my opinion, the existence of suffering from depression is worse than the actual loss of life. Death is a common feature of life. Its absolutely rampant in this world. Dare I say its an epidemic (someone should do something about it). Its silly to be too shocked and saddened by death in general-or by the death of someone you don't love. Its absolutely natural to be emotionally destroyed by the death of someone you love greatly. Death may be something that's worth trying to prevent by treating and curing ailments and by outlawing the purposeful killing of individuals. But to be emotionally traumatized by it (in general) is kind of dumb. Not to trivialize things by implying that our emotional reactions are 100% the result of well thought-out decisions, just to say that we shouldn't make it a habit to morn any and every loss of life that comes across our TV or computer screens. What's tough to accept emotionally is the the before and after affects of suicide. The depression felt before, and the pain of the those who loved the one who died.

I don't look down on anyone who commits suicide. I don't condemn the act. Its a shame whenever it happens. I can't help it, it saddens me to think of a person experiencing so much pain that they successfully overrule their most fundamental survival instinct. But I would be a hypocrite if I said someone shouldn't have the right to choose for oneself whether they should continue to live or not. I believe in free agency, especially in matters of existence (I probably shouldn't volunteer to work the suicide prevention hotline).

I tend to agree with those who say that being suicidal (having suicidal thoughts/fantasies) is a disease. I think the thought of ending ones own life is something that infects a person. I think it builds on itself-it grows and spreads. And it even jumps from one person to the next. If someone you know and love commits suicide, my guess is that you're far more likely to do so as well, sooner or later. I'm sure there are statistics that either support or kill this assumption. So, just as we don't blame a person for having cancer, we don't lay blame those who are suicidal. Who would choose to be depressed? Who, if they could help it, choose to die if they could simply choose to live a pain-free, contented life? So we need to offer empathy and close professional care for those who are at a high risk of committing suicide, just as we would for anyone who is sick or injured.

There could also be some biological explanations for suicide. I know it sounds heartless to say it, but maybe suicide is a way for a species to rid itself of the runts or the losers in the constant battle for status and mating supremacy. I don't believe it-I just don't know. I think of how I've been at my lowest after break ups-either romantic or social. Romantic and social isolation can seem/feel like death to an individual-and, I'd guess, lead to suicide.

I don't want to spend too much time trying to explain suicide since clearly I'm not an expert on the subject. I'll only say one more thing: drugs often seem to be around when someone decides to kill him/herself.

I don't "do drugs". A fact that would probably cause more than a few people to discount my thoughts on any number of subjects. How can I speak about something I've not experienced? My point is extremely general and maybe that will help it.

I'm in awe with how much my mood can swing from feeling healthy, strong, sharp, intelligent, and even superior, to feeling old, week, dull, dumb, and inferior. I can feel quite contented and sometimes happy, but I can also be unsettled, dissatisfied, and down..Having experienced true depression, I can really relate to the Cure's lyrics, "Yesterday I got so old, I felt like I could die." Other times I don't feel old so much as I feel an extreme heaviness on my heart and mind. The point is, without drugs, my moods can have extreme variance.

If drugs did nothing but make me high, then there'd be nothing more to say about them. But moods tend to swing, and even a drug that makes me feel better will most likely lead to me feeling more down. Some drugs are explicitly intended to bring the user down. What I don't need help with is feeling down. I often enjoy the experience-call it the catharsis of depression. It can be like a deep sleep. I can come out of it refreshed. Or my depression can be, simply, a nice aesthetic/emotional experience, like listening to Joy Division, the Cure, Sufjan Stevens, the Counting Crows, or any one of the dozens of bands I revere. Depression can be a great wellspring of creativity as well, I've found.

But generally speaking, true depression is not a good thing. And I suffer from the bad kind from time to time. Like I said, I've never intended to or desired to kill myself, despite my depression. But if I were to add drugs to the mix and increase my highs and lower my lows, who knows how I'd behave in those new extremes.

The problem with certain drugs may be as simple as their tendency to impair your judgement.

Now that I'm a father, I feel obligated to share some helpful advice or suggestions to those who aren't so lucky as to not worry about suicide. If the thought of suicide sometimes haunts you, just know that life can be a roller coaster ride-when you're really low, chances are you'll come up (its a near guarantee). Don't let your low self make all the decisions for your future high self. If you've been capable of joy and fun and contentment in the past, at any point in your life, you are factually capable of that again. You are still you.

Also, don't think that you can survive if you do nothing to try to improve your situation. No one who's down wants to hear someone say, "pull yourself up from your bootstraps and get to work making your life better". But if you are always 100% reliant on someone else and are unwilling to try for yourself, I guess there's little hope for you. You may not think you have the power to make a difference for yourself, but you do. Even asking others for help is exercising some kind of power. Rely on others when necessary, but think of the arrangement as a partnership and you're a team member who's going to pull his weight.

Is loneliness driving you to tears? Put yourself out there and keep trying to make connections-do it conscientiously and not selfishly. Be honest-recognize your weaknesses, accept them, but then make some kind of attempt to improve yourself. Nothing transforms depression into energy and contentment like ambition, hope, and real change. It takes action to gain all three. No, you can't expect someone to love you as you are if you're a rude, idiotic slob. No one is obligated to accept you for "who you are" if who you are is a smelly imbecile. Take a bath. Get an education. There are objective standards that make someone likable and/or attractive. Don't take these for granted. Make an effort if you lack them. Work towards gradual, reliable, lasting improvement. Take solace in the fact that no one is perfect, no one will ever be perfect, but small improvements in your life can give you the confidence to make connections. Confidence is the most attractive trait. Do what you have to do to build it. Acceptance can coexist with ambition. Embrace both.

I'm not comfortable giving motivational speeches. I'm not a fan of artificial, temporary boosts to moral. We all need to find some lasting peace, self worth, and strength that help us survive the various lows and tragedies of life. I've rejected religion as a source for these things. But I give religion credit for offering something-anything-that brings people purpose and peace, as well as critical social belonging. I'm ashamed of atheists' inability to offer the world anything more than "you are made of stars" as an existentially reassuring sentiment. There's work to do yet.

So what does it mean for me, that all of these great people I looked up to and related to have committed suicide? It just reinforces what I've always thought: anything can happen-we can't predict what will occur in the future or how we'll respond to those events. I'm not any better than anyone else, so I can't or shouldn't talk as though I would never commit suicide (even though I don't have a the slightest desire to do so now).

Given that I can't imagine that I'd end my own life (apart from being extremely old and in constant pain/misery), I feel uncomfortable writing something that begins, "if I commit suicide...", like a suicide note. But this kind of writing project has interested me, especially as I've gotten older. As morbid as it sounds, I'd like to write letters (addressed to my son and wife, perhaps) that begin like this. I think everyone should. For example, one letter might begin, "If I get eaten by a bear while I'm on a bike ride" dot, dot, dot. Or, "If I die in a fiery car crash" dot, dot, dot. Or, perhaps more useful to those who survive me, "If I have a massive stroke and become incapacitated...". Things like this. These will be different writing projects. But I'll share one of the main points I'd want to make in each. That no matter how I go, the way I went is ultimately not that important. No matter how painful or tragic my final end may (or may not) be, its just a small footnote to my entire life. I could experience the most horrific pain, depression, or panic as I'm dying (you know, like being eaten by a bear), but ninety nine percent of my life was not that. I was alive and feeling well (for the most part) and doing the best that I could to enjoy myself, work toward my personal goals, and be the guy I wanted to be.

With that said, here's to a few thousand more years of life here on Earth (I'm sure medical science will keep me around for at least two or three thousand, right?). I'm looking forward to all kinds of fun and adventures with you in the years to come.

In the Absence of a God

I intend to write this post using something like "stream of consciousness" or "free form". I'm not sure which term is most accurate or whether what I'm about to write really fits the definition. Though I'm happy with much of what I've written in the past in terms of content and clarity, I've always been mildly distressed with how rarely I write and how long it often takes me to put word onto (in this case) a computer. Readers are thankfully ignorant to the degree of effort and amount of time a writer devotes to his work. In this case, I'll do you the disservice of enlightening you: It can take several hours to write a few simple paragraphs that I'm happy with. I tend to reread what I've written over and over again; edit it, rewrite it, scrap it, and so often just stall out and suspend the writing before it goes where I want it to go. Thus, I'll attempt another tactic with this blog post. I'm going to abandon any hope of coherence, concision, connection, eloquence, or even intelligence. Rather than overthink things, I'm going to type what pops into my head. So, with that typically long, overdrawn introduction out of the way, let's dive into it.

I want to explore the subject of what replaces faith when faith is lost. Is there anything that serves the purpose that-or can fill in for-a believer's faith in salvation, the soul, heaven, eternal life with the ones you love, and a loving "father in heaven"?

One of my favorite bands is Modest Mouse. I really connect with a lot of their lyrics because they so often deal in existential elements, including our mortality and the interconnectedness of life on Earth ("who's going to steal your carbon"). One of my favorite songs on their album, No One's First, and Your Next is "The Wale Song." A repeating refrain in the song is "I guess I am a scout so I should find a way out so everyone can find a way out." Obviously this line is open to interpretation and I don't expect mine to reflect the author's intended meaning. But it has a powerful affect on me. When I hear it I think of all of us-all of humanity-being stuck inside something vaguely like a big dark castle (or cage) together, and that castle is representative of life, of mortality, which is often times scary in all that we don't know and don't see. I envision humanity mostly being unaware of living in the dark due to its relative lack of knowledge and intelligence, of living among so many doors and walls representing the great distractions of life, both intellectual and physical distractions that keep it from finding a door to truth, to light, to a greater understanding, to a better life. I think of the fear we all experience at the thought of death or the death of our loved ones. If you wanted, you could imagine these fears as ghosts lurking in the dark castle of my analogy. I know this is all vague/nebulous, but I'll go on. When I hear the lyrics to the song I think of all the suffering associated with life that we all share in some measure or another. Life has its moments, for sure.

Anyway, I'm overdoing it. Basically, I hear the lines of the song and I feel a deep sadness and empathy for humanity and all that we go through, which is accompanied by a kind of angst and feelings of responsibility and motivation to "find a way out" of our existential predicament filled with fear, suffering, constant distraction, confusion, and darkness (relative lack of knowledge/intelligence).

Life can be filled with great things too-health, love, happiness, joy, confidence, inspiration, thrill, pleasure, etc. So why conceptualize our existence in such a dismal way? I guess I'd say its not really a matter of choosing to think of a glass as "half full" or "half empty", but an instance of stating the facts. Fear of death does not inflict everyone with the same severity, but I believe its a common human experience. Emotional and physical suffering is not constant for everyone, but we all go through some form of it. The suffering of just one child (say orphaned, sick, and dying) can bring you to tears. Don't even attempt to imagine the extent of suffering that has before and continues to be felt on this planet. Its not possible. If it were it wouldn't be wise to proceed. My point is that pain is not a matter of conception. Its real, and in a way its eternally begging those with the power to provide it for relief. And so on. I can make the same kind of point for "distraction" "confusion" and "darkness".

Atheists have attacked religion for its lies and absurdity. Religious and superstitious thinking have been, by many accounts, forces of evil which have led to violence, suffering, and lives sacrificed to false causes. I'd also argue that religion is The Great Distraction. For a long litany of the harm religion causes, just read the first post on this blog and keep reading until you've read them all.

But religion is far more than evil. It is also good. Or else without it in so many cases suffering would be far greater. It may be impossible to back up this claim, but I think its less of a claim and based more on observations throughout my life. Belief in an afterlife is massively effective in lessening the severity of emotional distress when someone you love dies. Its even effective in the same way regarding general suffering in life. If you believe that suffering will end and that you'll eventually be somewhere with no suffering, where god and your family will be waiting for you to hold you in their arms, then you surely will be able to handle temporal pain with much more ease and grace. Its impossible to overstate the power of this belief to engender sanity and perhaps civility among a people.

Religion has also been the biggest force (besides natural familial connections) out there to compel individuals and families to come within the protective and nurturing folds of a caring community. I am one of the least social persons I know (meaning I have little inner compulsion to socialize, even if I really enjoy getting together with people I like), yet even I recognize that having an "extended family" like one has in a church is healthy and nurturing and likely a source of great joy for most who attend.

Furthermore, religion (especially Christianity) has been a major force for good in this world by convincing individuals that salvation is possible. In other words, Christianity teaches (I'll use general terms) that if you make a mistake, there is still hope for you. You may be forgiven, you may still be loved. There is reason to better oneself, despite one's weaknesses. This idea of forgiveness/salvation/redemption/whathaveyou helps kill bitterness, anger, depression and fear, and replaces them with "grace" (or happiness/acceptance/appreciation), love/care, happiness, and confidence. It does so on all levels: individual, familial, communal, societal, and global. Again, this is no small accomplishment. One has to wonder if the means to these ends is mere trivia or should be gotten rid of. 

Religions have been educational institutions. Perhaps not now-at a time when the knowledge religions deal in is so obviously flawed-but in the past, religious organizations took learning seriously. Not all were democratic in their education. Nevertheless, religion institutionalized and heightened learning.

Finally, religions have possessed, protected, and spread philosophies and rules which today many people define as "good". I've taken issue with religions' various commands and philosophies and I still do. But if humans are capable of believing any nonsense and committing any crime (and we know we are), one could say that we all benefit from the protection of genuinely good ideas from an onslaught of philosophical/moral anarchy. I'm not sure I'd  commit to this statement, but I get it. Inasmuch as religions have brought order and civility to nations, it has been a force of good on this planet. (order and civility ((within limits)) being preconditions to health and happiness).

Do these admissions (or recognition of facts) mean that I'm doubting my disbelief? No not at all-there's no logical connection between saying something like, "hey, this person who does bad things also does good things, so now I believe the nonsense he's telling me." This post really isn't about religion, which I still dismiss on an intellectual/moral level because its defined by totalitarianism, lies, and irrationality. This post is about the things that, to me, represent in large measure "finding a way out" of our existential cage-many of these things just happen to be the things that religions do well:

1) giving comfort to those who lost loved ones,
2) lessening the psychic trauma and fear that the thought of death causes (both allowing people to live more joyfully)
3) giving people a reason to be good, to continue to do good, and to treat others with respect (salvation/redemption/heaven/etc)
4) giving people a reason to come together and treat each other like family (which satisfies base human emotional needs)
5) identifying what is good, protecting it, and promoting it
6) education
7) identifying what is bad and fighting it

Each one of these strategies for escaping the darkness and misery of life can be integrated into our lives without believing fairy tales, without accepting the authority of an invisible dictator or father figure, and without identifying oneself as the member of a particular cult (religion). Number six, for example, is pretty straight forward. We already have a system of secular education in this country. It could be improved, for sure, but "escaping the darkness" involves, simply, better and more education. I'm not implying that ending ignorance is not complicated, just that the answer, "education" is clear. And I think its up to each of us to continue educating ourselves throughout our lives.

What I'm most interested in is in "winning" back from religion all of these other strategies/roles. For many reasons, religion should not define what is good and bad. We shouldn't have to ally ourselves with a cult in order to be a part of and enjoy a church-like community. We shouldn't need to fool ourselves into believing in a heaven or god in order to find a reason to be good, to love ourselves and others, to forgive, and to be forgiven. And I believe we shouldn't have to lie to ourselves to stay sane and happy in the face of our mortality. This last one poses the greatest challenge, as made evident by my choice of words ("I believe..." usually harbors a spore of uncertainty and hopefulness).

The Qur'an Condensed

GOD

God is the One God, the Holy One. God is the Truly Great, the Tremendous, and the Most High. He is the Praiseworthy One, the One Worthy of All Praise.

God is the First and the Last, the Outer and the Inner. He is the Almighty, the Lord of Power, and the Overpowering. He is the Controller, Originator, and Shaper. God is the Lord of the Glorious Throne, Supreme Master over His Creation, Lord of the Worlds, and the Lord of all people.

God is the Ever Watchful One, the All Aware. He is the Best of Schemers.

God is the master of the Day of Judgement, the Judge, the One who Decides, and the Wise. He is the Lord of the Ways of Ascent. God is the Lord of Mercy, the Giver of Mercy, the Most Merciful. The Ever Relenting, the Most Bountiful One, the Provider. He is the Source of Peace, Granter of Security, and Guardian over all.

God is the All Compelling, the Living and the Light (25:58).

There is nothing like God (42:11). He never dies (25:58). Everything will perish except his face (28:88). A single day with God is like a thousand years by our reckoning (22:47).

The East and West belong to God; wherever you turn, there is his Face (2:115). No vision can take him in, he takes in all vision (6:103). He is all pervading (2:115). If all the trees on earth were pens and all the seas were ink, God’s words would still not run out (31:27).

God is the Light of the heavens and earth. His light is like this: there is a niche, and in it a lamp, the lamp inside a glass, a glass like a glittering star, fueled from a blessed olive tree from neither east nor west, whose oil almost gives light even when no fire touches it-light upon light-shining out in houses of worship (24:35). No mortal is granted the ability to speak to God except through revelation, from behind a veil, or through a messenger who reveals God’s will (42:51).

God was not begotten (112:3) nor has he begotten a child (2:116). He has no wife (6:101), no daughter, and no son (23:91). He is far above having offspring (39:4). He is far above the partners people set up alongside him (7:191).

God is self sufficient and forbearing (2:263). He does not need his creatures-they do things for their own benefit (29:6). He created jinn and man only to worship him (51:56).

God has power (2:20) and control over everything (2:107). The forces of heaven and earth are his (48:7). When God decrees something, he says only, ‘Be’ and it is (2:117). All of creation devoutly obeys his will (2:116). God keeps the heavens and earth from vanishing (35:41). Preserving it all does not tire him (2:255). God does not sleep (2:255).

God guides his creations and determines their destinies (87:3). He has full power to withhold or release his blessings (35:2). All grace is in God’s hands-he grants it to whoever he will (3:73). All things that happen-both good and bad-are his will (2:253, 6:111). He cannot be called to account for anything he does (21:23).

God has knowledge of all things (2:29), including what we do (2:110) and what we conceal in our hearts (3:29). He is closer to us than our own jugular vein (50:16). He is well aware of those who improve things (2:220), just as he is aware of those who spoil things (2:220). He knows who causes corruption (3:63). He put two receptor angels on either side of man; man does not utter a single word without an ever-present watcher (50:17). Not even a speck of dust in the earth or sky escapes God. Everything that has ever happened and ever will happen is all written in a clear record (10:61).

God does not love the arrogant (16:23) or the treacherous (8:58). He does not guide treacherous hypocrites (63:6). God does not love those who overstep the limits (2:190) or those who ignore his commands (3:32). He does not guide rebellious people (61:5). He does not love the unfaithful or the ungrateful (22:38). He is not pleased with the ungrateful, and has no need for them (39:7). He does not like the wasteful (6:141) or the extravagant people (7:31). But the worst creatures in God’s sight are those who reject him and will not believe (8:56)-those who are willfully deaf and dumb, who do not reason (8:23). He is more disgusted with disbelievers when they do not heed the call to faith than the disbelievers will be with themselves on the Day of Judgement (40:10).

If anyone is an enemy of God’s angels and messengers, then God is certainly the enemy of such disbelievers (2:98). God is swift to take account (3:20) and severe in punishment (3:11).

But God is all-embracing and benign to all (4:12). He wishes to make his laws clear to you and guide you to the righteous ways of those who went before you. He wishes to turn towards you in mercy and lighten your burden (4:26). God does not burden any soul with more than it can bear (2:286). He is most subtle towards his creatures (42:19). He is compassionate towards his servants (3:31) and pleased by their gratitude (39:7). He loves those who are even-handed (49:9), those who keep themselves clean (2:222), those who seek to purify themselves (9:108), and those who put their trust in him (3:159).

God is always ready to accept repentance (9:104). He will accept the repentance of those who hid proofs and guidance (2:160). But he only accepts repentance from those who do evil out of ignorance and soon afterwards repent (4:17). He responds to those who call him and believe in him (2:186). God’s bounty has no limits (2:105).

God is just. He will give whoever does a good deed ten times to his credit, but whoever has done a bad deed God will repay only with its equivalent (6:161). He doubles any good deed (4:40).

God is the believers only protector and helper (2:107). He is a sufficient protector (4:81). His guidance is the only true guidance (2:120).

God created the angel messengers with two, three, and four pairs of wings (35:1). He made the jinn out of smokeless fire (55:15).

God created the heavens and the earth and everything in between in six days without tiring (50:38).

His throne was on water (11:7) before he ripped apart the heavens and earth that used to be joined together (21:30). The sky was smoke (41:11)-he told it to come into being. He made the sky a well-secured canopy. He built it and raised it high (79:27) with no visible supports (13:2) or rifts (50:6). He keeps the heavens from falling down on the earth (22:65).

In just two days, God created the earth (41:9). He spread it out very smoothly (51:48) and set broad paths on it so that people could follow the right direction. He placed firm mountains on the earth to prevent it from swaying (21:31). He released the two bodies of flowing water, one sweet and fresh, the other salty and bitter. He put an insurmountable barrier between them (25:53). God put down the rivers (13:3) and pastures (79:30). Within four days, God had blessed the earth and measured out its various provisions (41:10).

In two days (41:12), God created the seven levels of heavens (23:17) and a similar number of earths (65:12). He placed the heavens one above the other and instilled into each its function (41:12). He adorned the closest heaven with beautifully illuminated lamps and made them secure (41:12, 67:5). He made them missiles for stoning every rebellious devil (67:5). God made the stars (6:97) and set up constellations in the sky. He made them beautiful for all to see, and guarded them from every pelted satan: every eavesdropper is pursued by a clearly visible flame (15:16).

God made the sun a shining radiance and the moon a light (10:5). He made the sun and the moon to a precise measure (6:96). Each floats in its own orbit (36:40). God created the night and the day (21:33). The sun cannot overtake the moon, nor can the night outrun the day (36:40).

The creation of the heavens and earth is far greater by far than the creation of mankind (40:57).

God created man from dust (22:5) or dried clay (15:26), like pottery (55:14) formed from dark mud (15:26). God breathed his spirit into us (15:29)-he said ‘Be’ and Adam was (3:59). He made man from a single soul, and from it created man's mate so that he may find comfort in her (7:189). He created man in the finest state, then reduced him to the lowest low (95:4).

He made human beings kin by blood and marriage (25:54). He made people into races and tribes so they could get to know one another as relatives from the same origin (49:13). God created a group of people who guide with truth and act justly according to it (7:181). He also created many jinn and people who are destined for hell (7:179).

God created the semen we eject (57:58). He created us from a drop of spilt out sperm (75:37), an underrated fluid, which became a clinging form (75:38), then a lump of flesh both shaped and unshaped (22:5). He created us in due proportion, fashioning two sexes (75:39). God grants female offspring to whoever he will, male to whoever he will, and he makes whoever he will barren (42:49). He created us in our mothers’ wombs, in one stage after another, in threefold depths of darkness (39:6). He housed us in a safe lodging for a determined time (22:5). God shaped us all in the womb as he pleased (3:6). He specified a time for our lives and determined its span (6:2).  

God created all things in due proportion. He made every living thing out of water (13:3). He made two of every kind of fruit (13:3) and pairs of all things (51:49). He created four kinds of livestock in pairs (39:6). God created each animal out of its own unique fluid or design (24:45).

God did not make the heavens and earth as a pastime-he made them for a true purpose: to reward each soul according to its deeds (45:22). He created life and death to test us, and reveal which of us does best (67:2). He puts us through suffering to find out who truly believes, to choose martyrs/witnesses from among them (3:140). God created man for toil and trial (90:4).

In the end, it is God will inherit the earth and all who are on it (19:40).

God chose, guided, and blessed his servants.

He taught Adam all the names of things (2:31). He commanded Adam to recite the revelation, but Adam forgot and God found him lacking in constancy (20:115). God taught man how to communicate (55:4). When he took out the offspring from the loins of the Children of Adam and made them bear witness about themselves, He said, ‘Am I not your Lord?’ and they replied, ‘Yes, we bear witness.’ You cannot say, then, that on the Day of Resurrection, ‘We were not aware of this’ (7:172).

From Adam and Eve, God spread countless men and women far and wide (4:1). He saved Noah and his people from great distress. God let Noah be praised by later generations (37:76). He chose Adam, Noah, Abraham’s family, and the family of Imran, over all other people, in one line of descent (3:33). He favored Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Noah, David, Solomon, Job, Joseph, Moses, Aaron, Zachariah, John, Jesus, Elijah, Ishmael, Elisha, Jonah, and Lot. He gave them the scripture, wisdom, and prophethood (6:89).

God told Abraham to train four birds to come back to him. He told Abraham to place the birds on separate hilltops. Then Abraham called the birds and they came back-God is all powerful and wise. (2:260). God took Abraham as a friend (4:125). He gave Moses the Scripture and sent messengers after him in succession (2:87). He gave David a book of Psalms (17:55), granted him sovereignty and wisdom, and taught him what He pleased (2:251). God gave Jesus clear signs and strengthened him in the holy spirit (2:87). In God’s eyes, Jesus is like Adam (3:59).

God gave the scripture as a heritage to his chosen servants (35:32). He took a pledge from the prophets, saying, ‘If, after I have bestowed Scripture and wisdom upon you, a messenger comes confirming what you have been given, you must believe in him and support him.’ (3:81)

God afflicted many communities with suffering and hardship, so that they could learn humility (6:43).

God sent every community a messenger who used his own people’s language to make things clear for them and warn them (14:4). People ignored or forgot the warning they had received. The disbelievers hearts became hard and Satan made their foul deeds alluring to them. As they reveled in what they had been given, God opened the gates to everything for them. He struck them suddenly and they were dumbfounded. The evildoers were wiped out (6:43).

God destroyed many generations (6:6). Noah’s people rejected him and they refused to renounce their gods. They were insolent and arrogant. God drowned them all in a flood and saved only Noah and his family (7:59). God destroyed the community of Ad after its people rejected the messenger Hud and refused to renounce their Gods (7:65). In Thamud, God sent Salih to warn the people. The arrogant leaders rejected him and defied their Lord’s commandment when they hamstrung God’s she-camel. God sent an earthquake that killed them in their homes (7:73). After the people of Lot’s community became very wicked and lusted after other men, God rained destruction down upon them (7:80). Shu’ayb’s people in Midian caused corruption, they were unfair in commerce, and they blocked and threatened believers. An earthquake killed them in their homes (7:85). The Pharaoh and his people were arrogant and wicked, they rejected Moses and God’s signs. God inflicted them with years of drought and crop failure. He let loose on them the flood, locusts, lice, frogs, blood, and plague (7:103). Elijah’s people invoked Baal and forsook God. God’s punishment is pending (37:123).

God does not destroy towns for their wrongdoing if they have not been warned (6:131). If the people of these towns had believed and been mindful of God, he would have showered them with blessings from the heavens and earth, but they rejected the truth and so God punished them for their misdeeds (7:96). God did not wrong the people, they wronged themselves (11:100).

God found Muhammad an orphan and sheltered him (93:6). He found him in need and satisfied his need. He found Muhammad lost and guided him. (93:8). God relieved Muhammad’s heart, removed his burden, and raised his reputation (94:1). He opened up a path to clear triumph for Muhammad, so that He could forgive his sins, complete His grace upon him, guide him to a straight path, and help him mightily (481).

God revealed the Arabic Qur’an to Muhammad in order that he may warn the mother of cities, Mecca, and all who live nearby (42:7). God sent the Prophet to recite revelation, purify believers, and teach scripture, wisdom, and other things people did not know (2:151). God sent the Prophet Muhammad with the Truth (2:119). He did not teach the prophet poetry (36:69).

God assigned to Muhammad and the prophets an enemy: evil humans and evil jinn (6:112).

God never sent any messenger or prophet before Muhammad into whose wishes Satan did not insinuate something. But God removes what Satan insinuates and affirms His message. He makes Satan’s insinuations a temptation only for the sick at heart and those whose hearts are hardened (22:52).

God made the Prophet venture from his home for a true purpose, though a group of believers disliked it and argued with him about the truth after it had been made clear (8:5). To the believers who swore their allegiance, God promised many future gains and held back the hands of hostile people from them (48:20).

God made his servant travel by night from Mecca to Jerusalem and blessed his surroundings to show him some of God’s signs (17:1). God sent watchers to go in front and behind his messengers to ensure that they delivered their Lord’s message (72:27).

God is with the believer’s army (8:19). Believers have the upper hand in battle (3:139).

God told Muhammad to encourage the believers to fight and be steadfast (8:65). The Prophet was told to be tolerant and command what is right (7:199).

At the first gathering of forces, God drove some of the People of the Book who broke faith with Muhammad down from their strongholds and out from their homes. He came upon them from where they least expected and put panic into their hearts (59:2).Their homes were destroyed by the their own hands and the hands of the believers (59:2). God spared the believers from fighting (33:25). They killed some of the Jews and took others captives (33:26).

Muhammad was instructed by the Lord to tell captives that God will forgive them if they have any goodness in their hearts. But if they betrayed God, God gave the Prophet mastery over them (8:70). He was told to accept the pledges of allegiance from believing women and pray to God to forgive them whenever they promise that they will not steal, commit adultery, kill their children, lie about who has fathered their children, disobey the Prophet in any righteous thing, or ascribe any partners to God (60:12).

God told Muhammad to take the gains of battle-it belonged to God, the Messenger, kinsfolk, orphans, the needy, the traveller in need, and others-not just the rich (59:7). God passed onto the believers their enemy’s houses, their possessions, and a land where they had not previously set foot (33:27).

God allowed the Children of Israel to prevail once and increased their wealth and offspring (17:4). Though the believers lost the battle, God fulfilled his promise. He brought them within sight of their goal; but when they faltered, disputed the order, and disobeyed, God prevented them from defeating the enemy as a punishment (3:154). Despite their disobedience, God forgave the believers (3:154). 

When Muhammad and his companion were holed up in a cave after being driven out by disbelievers, God sent invisible forces to foil the disbelievers’ plan (9:40). God relented towards the Prophet and the emigrants and helpers who followed him in the hour of adversity. He even relented in mercy towards those who stayed behind (9:118).

When the believer’s army was in a desperate situation, when they were about to lose hope, he made his tranquility descend into their hearts, to add faith to their faith, so as to admit believing men and women into Gardens (48:4). God gave them sleep as a reassurance and sent down rain to cleanse them (8:11). He gave the believers a message of hope: ‘I will reinforce you with a thousand angels in succession’ (8:9). God promised them that if they were steadfast, they would be victorious, even if highly outnumbered (8:65), and told them that if they suffer a blow, the disbelievers would also suffer a blow (3:140).

Twice, God sent servants against the Children of Israel with great force. The Jewish clan of Banu al-Nadir made an alliance with the Meccans after promising the Prophet that they would not take sides. The Prophet and believers drove them from their homes and their homes were destroyed (59:2). The believers ravaged their homes, shamed their faces, entered the place of worship, and utterly destroyed whatever fell into their power (17:4). The Prophet was told to not take captives before he had conquered the battlefield (8:67). It was Gods will to finish off the disbelievers, establish the truth according to His Word, and prove the Truth to be true and the false to be false (8:8).

God said, “Muhammad, it is not your responsibility to protect those who believed but did not emigrate, but it is your responsibility to help them against religious persecution, unless you have a treaty with the people (8:72).”

God controls the circumstances of battles (8:41)-what happens in battle only happens with his permission (3:165). Once, he sent flocks of birds against the army of elephants, pelting them with pellets of hard-baked clay. He made them like cropped stubble (105:3). God has driven some people back by means of others (2:251). In one instance, God brought enemies together who then became brothers. He saved them from a fiery pit (3:103).

Every death on the battlefield God wills (3:154). He tests his servants in battle, to see which of his servants truly believe (3:154). He able to pardon those who turn away from battle (3:154). He pardons much (42:34). God makes thoughts like ‘If only they had stayed with us they would not have died or been killed’ a source of anguish (3:156). He rescues believers from this and every distress (6:61).

Every day, God attends to some task (55:29). He guides whoever he will (2:272). He sends his wisdom to anyone he pleases (2:269). He humbles, elevates, and gives control to whoever he will (3:26). God does not put two hearts within a man’s breast-man speaks words while God speaks the truth (33:4).

God upholds justice (3:18). He calls you to account for oaths you mean in your heart, not ones you utter unintentionally (2:225). He judges between the things that people differ about (42:10).

If anyone desires a harvest in the life to come, God shall increase it for him; if anyone desires a harvest in this world, He will give him a share of it, but in the hereafter that person will have no share (42:20).

God shows you the lightning, inspiring fear and hope; he builds up the clouds heavy with rain-the thunder sounds his praises (13:12). He sends thunderbolts to strike whoever he will (13:13).  Do not test him-if he wanted, he could paralyze you where you stand (36:67), make the earth swallow you whole (67:16), or remove you altogether and replace you with someone else (4:133). If God took people to task for the evil they do, he would not leave one living creature on earth, but he reprieves them until an appointed time (16:61).

God warns us to beware of him (3:30). He sends out recorders to watch over us throughout our lives (6:61). He put an angel of death in charge of us and it will reclaim us (32:11). No soul may die except with God’s permission at a predestined time (3:145). He takes our souls at the time of death and the souls of the living while they sleep. He keeps hold of those whose death he has ordained and sends the others back until their appointed time (39:42).

God bears witness that there is no god but him (3:18). He hurls the truth against falsehood and the truth obliterates it (21:18). He replaces any revelation he causes to be superseded or forgotten with something better or similar (2:106). He decreed that there are twelve months, four of which are sacred (9:36). God has called the believers Muslims so that the Messenger can bear witness about you and so you can bear witness about other people (22:78).

God makes us laugh and weep (53:43). God invites everyone to the Home of Peace. (10:25).

God has granted you countless favors (14:34) and shows real favor to people (2:243).

He brought you out of your mothers’ wombs knowing nothing, and gave you hearing and sight and minds, so that you might be thankful (16:78). God has given you spouses from amongst yourselves for you to live with in tranquility. He ordained love and kindness between you (30:21). Through them God has given you children and grandchildren and provided you with good things (16:72).

God has made what is in the heavens and earth beneficial to you (45:13). He has given you a place of rest in your homes (16:80). He gave sleep for rest, the night as a cover, and the day for your livelihood (78:9). From the skins of animals, you make light-weight shelter, granting you shade (16:80). He produces fire for you out of the green tree (36:80). He provides livestock for you; for riding, food, warmth, and beauty (16:7). He made some animals obedient so that you can control them (36:72). They carry you and your loads (16:7). You can reach any destination you wish on them (40:80). God sent iron, with its mighty strength and many uses for mankind, so that He could find out those who would help Him and His messengers (57:25). He made ships useful to you (14:33).

God sent down water and made it flow at your feet. From that water, he produced things for your sustenance (2:22). He sends relief through rain after people have lost hope, and spreads his mercy far and wide (42:28). He sends the wind to fertilize (15:22). God splits open the seed and the fruit stone (6:95). He brings out grain (6:99). From the date palm comes clusters of low hanging dates, and there are gardens of vines, olives, and pomegranates, alike yet different (6:99). He made the sea of benefit to you: you eat fish from it and bring out jewelry to wear (16:14).

God provides immeasurably (3:6) and gives multiple increases to whoever he wishes (2:261). He gives more bounty to some and less to others (4:34). Both good fortune and harm come from God, unless you’re Muhammad: anything bad is ultimately from himself (4:78). God would not change a favor he conferred on a people unless they changed what was within themselves (8:53).

God chose the believers, blessed them, and placed no hardship in their religion (22:78). God sent down the Torah and the Gospels as a guide for people, to distinguish between right and wrong (3:3). God made a promise to those who believe and do good deeds: he will make them successors to the land, he will establish the religion he has chosen for them, he will grant them security to replace their fear (24:55). God does not break his promises (2:80).

God sheltered and strengthened the believers and provided them with good things when they were few, victimized in the land, and afraid that people might catch them (8:26). 

He made believers a secure sanctuary in Mecca (29:67). He made the the Sacred House for all people-residents and outsiders alike (22:25). He made it a means of support for people, the Sacred Months, and the sacrificial animals, including the garlanded (5:97).  

God blesses the believers, as do his angels (33:43). God leads those he chooses to the truth and the straight path (2:213). When God wishes to guide someone, he opens his breast to Islam (6:125). God comes between man and his heart, and gathers man to him (8:24). He brings believers out of the depths of darkness and into the light (2:257).

God has given clear signs to those who reflect, so they may take heed. There are signs in the creation of the heavens and the earth and the sun and moon made to precise measure. There are signs in the alternation of night and day, how your shadows lengthen and move, right to left, submitting themselves to God obediently (16:48).

There is a sign in the winds bearing good news, making the ships sail at God’s command, enabling you to journey in search of his bounty (30:46). God suspends birds in the sky-nothing holds them up except him (16:79). The stars that guide us in the dark, on land or sea are also signs.

God brings the living out of the dead and the dead out of the living (3:27). He sends the winds stirring up the clouds, spreading them around the sky as he pleases (30:46). God drives clouds to dead land, and with them revives the earth after its death: such will be the resurrection (35:9) He guides the water along to form springs in the earth (39:21).

There are signs in water you drink (56:68) and the rain that gives life to barren earth, scattering all kinds of creatures over it. There are signs in bees, the honey that is a healing for people (16:68), and in the sweet pure milk that comes from the contents of a cows belly, from between waste matter and blood (16.66). There are signs in the seeds you sow (56:63), the grains, clusters of low-hanging dates, gardens of vines, shoots of plants, olives, pomegranates, alike yet different (6:99). There is a sign in the growth and ripening of fruit (6.99). There is a sign found in the diversity of language (30:22) and colors in nature (35:27); in the small and large pearls that come forth from the earth's waters (55:22), the fire you kindle and the wood it burns (56:71), as well as Noah's ark and similar things God made for people to ride in (2:248).

There is a sign in the semen you eject (56:58), and in the way God takes away souls when dead or sleeping and returns those who wake until their appointed time (39:42).

The ruins of earlier communities that you see along the highway are signs for those who believe. (15:74).

One of God’s signs is the garments God gave the children of Adam to cover their nakedness and wear as an adornment. The garment of God-consciousness is the best of all garments (7:26).

The Angels and Satan

The Angels glorify God. They bear witness that there is no god but God (3:18). They are in awe of him (13:12). They never disobey his command (66:6).

The angels are stern and strong (66:6). They will not speak except for those to whom God gives permission, and who will say only what is right (78:38). They stand in rows (78:38). Angels stand over hell (66:6).

The angels beg forgiveness for the believers (40:7). The angels asked God, ‘how can you put a successor on earth who will cause damage and bloodshed when we celebrate your praise and proclaim your holiness?’ The angels declared, ‘May you be glorified! We have knowledge only of what you have taught us. You are the all knowing and all wise.” (2:30)

Satan is a sworn enemy of man (17:53). When God made man, Satan was the angel Iblis. Iblis refused to worship man, so God cast him out of heaven (15:29). Satan told God that because God had wronged him, he would lure mankind on earth and put them in the wrong, all except God’s devoted servants (15:39). He swore to Adam and Eve, ‘I am giving you sincere advice’-he lured them with lies (7:20). He whispered, ‘I shall show you the tree of immortality and power that never decays (20:120) so as to expose their nakedness (7:20).

Satan is the patron of these present disbelievers (16:63). He has no power over those who believe and trust in their Lord; his power is only over those who ally themselves with him, and join partners with God (16:99). Satan wants to lead people far astray (4:60). He makes people’s foul deeds seem alluring to them (16:63). He threatens people with the prospect of poverty and commands them to do foul deeds (2:268). He sows discord among God’s servants (17:53). Satan's strategies are truly weak (4:76).

The Prophet Muhammad

The Prophet Muhammad was just a messenger like the many who had been before (3:144), whose duty was only to make plain his message (64:12). He was neither an oracle (52:29) or an outcast devil (81:25). He did not stray and was not deluded (53:2). He was not mad (7:184). Muhammad was not tutored or possessed (44:14).

The Prophet was meant to be obeyed, by God’s leave (4:64). Whoever obeys the Messenger, obeys God (4:80). Those who pledge loyalty to Muhammad are also pledging loyalty to God himself (48:10).

Muhammad was full of kindness and mercy towards the believers (9:128) and gentle in dealing with his fighters (3:159). He was deeply concerned for those suffering distresses (9:128). He was closer to the believers than they were to themselves (33:6). His wives were like mothers to the believers (33:6).

Muhammad possessed great strength (81:20) and was held in honor by God (81:20). He was noble (81:19) and strong in character (68:4). He was honest and fair in the acquisition and distribution of battle gains (3:161). Muhammad is an excellent model for believers (33:21).

The Prophet Muhammad saw some of the greatest signs of his Lord (53:18). He repeated what was revealed to him from the Lord (7:203). He swore that what he said was true (84:16). He did not allow his own heart to distort what he saw when the angel Gabriel taught him the Qur’an, nor did he allow his sight to waver or be too bold (53:11). If the Prophet had made some fabrication about God, God would have seized his right hand and cut off his lifeblood (69:44). 

Muhammad did not claim to know the unseen (6:50). He did not tell people that he was an angel (6:50). He did not say to believers ‘follow me, not God.’ (3:79) He did not offer treasures of God (6:50) or ask for any reward for the guidance he gave (6:90).

He told believers that they on a sure footing with the lord (10:2).

Muhammad consulted with his fighters about matters of war before deciding on a course of action, then ultimately put his trust in God (3:159). Once, he recited the Qur’an to a group of jinn, who then turned to their community and gave them the warning (46:29). Another time, Muhammad frowned at a blind person who was eager to hear what he was saying to ‘self-satisfied’ men. God scolded the Prophet for this (80:1). Muhammad made an oath with a wife that he would abstain from something (sex or honey) when he shouldn't have (66:3). He also told something in confidence to one of his wives who then disclosed it to another wife. He told both wives to repent (66:3).

Prophet, celebrate God’s glory (15:98) and remember Him inwardly, in all humility and awe, without raising your voice, in the mornings and in the evenings (7:205). Arise, give warning, proclaim the greatness of God, cleanse yourself, keep away from all filth, and be steadfast in God’s cause (74:2). Stay up throughout the night, all but a small part of it, recite the Qur’an slowly and distinctly, celebrate the name of the Lord, and devote yourself wholeheartedly to God (73:2). Do not hurry to recite the revelation before it is fully complete (20:114), or rush your tongue in an attempt to hasten your memorization of the Revelation (75:16).

Prophet, talk about the blessings of the Lord (93:11), and give those who believe and do good the news that they will have Gardens of bliss (2:25). Give news of agonizing torment to those who ignore God’s revelation, who unjustifiably kill prophets, and who kill those who command that justice is done (3:21).

Do not force disbelievers to believe (50:45). Leave the disbelievers to eat and enjoy themselves, and let false hopes distract them; they will come to know the truth in due time (15:3). Leave them to wade in deeper and play about until judgement day (43:83). Pay no attention to foolish people (7:199). Do not argue with them about trivialities (18:22). Tell those who want to argue that you and your followers devote themselves to God alone (3:20)-ask them if they believe the same (3:20). When you do enter into debate, argue with people in the most courteous way (16:125). But be tough with the disbelievers and hypocrites. Strive against them (9:73). Do not yield to any sinful, aggressive impostor (68:10).

Prophet, do not be in doubt (10:94), feel overwhelmed, weaken in God’s cause (74:6), or have anxiety in your heart because of the Qur’an (7:2). Do not deny God’s signs (10:94). Seek God’s protection from the outcast Satan whenever you recite the Qur’an (16:98). Say an invocation against evil; darkness, witches, and the envious. (113:1).

Content yourself with those who pray to their Lord morning and evening, seeking His approval (6:52). Do not drive them away (6:52). Do not be harsh with the orphan or chide the one who asks for help (93:9). Do not let your eyes turn away from them out of desire for the attractions of this worldly life (18:28). Do not be dazzled by the disbelievers' movements back and forth across the land in trade (40:4). Take as allies all those who emigrated and struggled for God’s cause, and those who gave refuge and helped. Do not rely on those who do evil, or the fire may touch you (11:113).”

Muhammad, you may take wives whose bride gifts you pay, any slaves God assigns you through war, and the daughters of your uncles and aunts on his father’s and mother’s sides who migrated with you. Also, any believing woman who has offered herself to you (waiving any bride gift) and whom you wish to wed-this is only for you and not the rest of the believers (33:50). Do not take any more wives, nor exchange the wives you have for others, even if they attract you with their beauty. This restriction does not pertain to your slave girls (33:52). If your wife desires the present life and its finery, and if you make provisions for her, you may release her with kindness (33:28).

The Qur’an

The Qur’an is a message sent down from the Lord of the Worlds (69:43). He will guard it Himself (15:9). It is a revelation taught to Muhammad by an angel with mighty powers and great strength, who stood on the highest horizon and then came close and revealed what he revealed to the Prophet on the month of Ramadan (53:4, 2:185).

The Quran is divine, it could not have been devised by anyone other than God (10:37). Even if all mankind and jinn came together, they could not produce anything like the Qur’an (17:88). It is not mystical-it was not the Jinn who brought it down (26:210). It is a glorious, noble Qur’an, in a protected Record, on a preserved tablet that only the purified can touch (56:77, 85:21). It is a reminder inscribed in honored scrolls, exalted, pure, by the hands of noble and virtuous scribes (80:13).

The Qur’an is a heritage to our chosen servants (35:32). God made the Qur’an in Arabic so that the Prophet’s people could understand it (43:3). It is good news for the faithful (2:97) and a warning for Mecca and all those around the city (6:92). There is a scripture for every age (13:38).

The Qur’an is a book that explains to the children of Israel most of what they differ about (27:76). It is the decisive (10:1), authoritative (43:4) scripture. The Qur’an is a clear message giving guidance and distinguishing between right and wrong (2:185). It includes every matter of wisdom (44:4).

The Qur’an is the most beautiful of all teachings: it causes the skins of those in awe of their Lord to quiver-which softens their hearts at the mention of God (39:23). The Quran is powerful-it causes people who have prior knowledge to fall down on their faces weeping when it is recited to them, saying, ‘Glory to our Lord! Our Lord’s promise has been fulfilled.' It increases their humility (17:107). The Qur’an is truly exalted (43:4). It is a healing and a mercy for what is in believers’ hearts (10:57, 17:82). It is scripture that brings people from the depths of darkness into light, to the path of God (14:1). It is a light, guiding with it whoever God wills (42:52).

The word of God is complete in its truth and justice. No one can change his words (6:115). The Qur'an is an unassailable Scripture that falsehood cannot touch from any angle (41:41). It is perfectly consistent (4:82)-If it had been from anyone other than God, you would find much inconsistency in it. (4:82). It draws comparisons (39:23). Some of its verses are definite in meaning (these are the cornerstone of the Scripture) and others are ambiguous. Only God knows their true meaning. (3:7).

God sent down the Qur’an to confirm the Torah and Gospels that came before it: (6:92)

Adam and Eve were seduced by Satan and cast out of the Garden by God (7:20). Joseph was sold by his spiteful brothers. Years later, Joseph’s father and brothers came begging for provisions. They did not recognize Joseph, but he recognized them. Ultimately, Joseph showed them mercy and they were reunited (12:4). Abraham converted to monotheism when he saw the impossibility of worshiping the setting sun or moon. He argued against polytheism in his community (6:76). Abraham called on his father to stop taking idols as gods (6:74), and responded to his tribes who argued with him (6:80). Abraham followed God’s command to sacrifice his son, but God stopped him-it was only a test of character (37:99). Lot was told of the destruction that was coming (15:51). God punished the Pharaoh and the Egyptians with plague, etc. Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses was given the Ten Commandments. The Jews were disobedient. God punished them but led them on their journey to new home (7:103+). The Jews requested of their prophet a king to help them fight their enemies. God gave them the Ark of the Covenant. Some did not like the choice of Talut as king. Talut tested them for loyalty. The small group of loyal followers were able to defeat Goliath and his warriors (2:246-251). Two litigants asked King David to judge between them-one had insisted on taking the other’s ewe. David said this was wrong, but later found out the whole thing was a test from God. David repented. (38:21). Solomon was an excellent servant of God who liked fine horses, but God took them away. God reduced him to a mere skeleton on his throne. God gave Solomon power over the wind and other things (38:30-38). Zachariah prayed for a successor. God bestowed his grace on his servant by allowing Zachariah’s old wife to conceive and give birth to John; the wise, tender on pure (19:2). Mary conceived Jesus without a father (3:35).

The Qur’an contains stories that are signs and lessons for those who reflect:

God made a man die, and resurrected him after a hundred years to show him that God has power over everything (2:259). A man was given God’s messages but sloughed them off. Satan took him as a follower and he went astray. God could have used signs to raise him high, but instead the man clung to the earth and followed his own desires (7:175-6). Young men took refuge in a cave after being forced from their community for being Muslims. They were in the cave for years. God woke them so he could make clear which of the two parties was better able to work out how long the young men had been there. God’s promise of resurrection is true and that there is no doubt about the Last Hour (18:13+). An arrogant man bragged about how much he had, how it would last forever, and how he was sure God’s reward for him would be even greater. A humble man gave glory to the Lord and admonished the other for not doing the same. He warned the arrogant man that if God so chose, he would send thunderbolts from the sky and turn the wealthy man’s garden to barren dust. Later, the arrogant man’s harvest was indeed lost and he was left wishing he had not set up any partners with God. The only protection is the True God. He gives the best rewards and outcomes (18:32-44). Moses once met a holy man. Moses committed to follow the holy man, despite the man’s prediction that Moses would not be able to bear with him patiently. In the time they spent together, the holy man did several things that seemed wrong or unwise, causing Moses concern. Ultimately, the holy man revealed the true reasons for his actions, and they were all indeed wise (18:64-82).The powerful leader Dhu ‘l-Qarnayn built a wall of iron between two mountain barriers. It is those who disbelieve in their Lord’s messages and deny that they will meet Him that have the most to lose by their actions-their efforts in this world are misguided, even when they think they are doing good work (18:83-99).

A group of jinn once listened in on a recitation of the Qur’an and came to believe it. The jinn stated that man had sought refuge with them in the past, that the jinn tried to reach heaven but discovered it full of stern guards and shooting stars, that they would sit and listen for news of the future, etc (72:1+).

The Qur’an contains comparisons and illustrations:

A stream carries on its surface a growing layer of froth. The froth disappears, but what is of benefit to people stays behind. This illustrates truth and falsehood (13:17). Two men; one a powerless slave, the other a man supplied with good provision who gives: Can they be considered equal? Two more men; one dumb, powerless, a burden, and achieves nothing good; the other commands justice and is on a straight path. Can they be considered equal? (16:75,76). A good word is like a good tree whose root is firm and whose branches are high in the sky, yielding constant fruit by its Lord’s leave. An evil word is like a rotten tree, uprooted from the surface of the earth, with no power to endure. God will give firmness to those who believe in the firmly rooted word (14:24-27). Those who take protectors other than God can be compared to spiders building themselves houses-the spider’s is the frailest of all houses (29:41). A man questioned how God would give life after death. God made him die for a hundred years and then resurrected him (2:259). Two armies met in battle; one fighting for God’s cause, the other made up of disbelievers. Despite the disbelievers’ army being twice the size, the believers were victorious (3:13).

Islam

Islam (devotion to God alone) is True Religion in God’s eyes. It is the right religion (30:30). There is no compulsion in religion: true guidance has become distinct from error (2:256)

Life

The present world is only an illusory pleasure (3:185). It is nothing but a game, an amusement, a diversion, a distraction (29:64), and an attraction (6:32). This present world is a cause of boasting among you, of rivalry in wealth and children (57:20). Your possessions and children are only a test (8:28). Whatever things you have been given for the life of this world are merely temporary gratification and vanity (28:60). Little is the enjoyment in this world, the Hereafter is far better for those who are mindful of God (9:38).

People of the Book

God gave the Children of Israel scripture, wisdom, and prophethood. He provided them with good things and favored them above others. He gave them clear proof in matters of religion (45:16). All but a few Jews turned away from the Ten Commandments and paid no heed. They did not seek and observe their religion properly (2:83). The Children of Israel did wrong when they chose to worship the calf after Moses brought them clear signs (2:92). They sold their souls for an evil price (2:102). They broke their pledge and rejected God’s revelations (4:155). God forbade the Jews every animal with claws, and the fat of cattle and sheep, except what is on their backs and in their intestines, or that which sticks to their bones. This is how God penalized them for their disobedience (6:146). The Children of Israel unjustly killed God’s prophets. They said, ‘Our minds are closed’. They uttered a terrible slander against Mary and said they killed Jesus even though they did not really kill him-God sent him up (4:155). Many are killing one another and driving some of their own people from their homes, helping one another in sin and aggression against them. (2:85).

Most of the Jews do not believe (2:100). Some Jews do not believe in anything but what was revealed to them (2:91). They hide the proofs and guidance God sent down (2:159). They are tight-fisted (5:64). You are sure to find them clinging to life more eagerly than any other people because of what they have stored up in their own hands (2:95). Those who have been charged to obey the Torah but do not do so are like asses carrying books: how base such people are who disobey God’s revelations! (62:5). Until the Day of Resurrection, God will send people against the Children of Israel to inflict terrible suffering on them (7:167).

The Jews are merely human beings, not God’s chosen ones or His beloved ones (5:18). They are allies with Christians (5:51). They are among the most hostile to Muslims (5:82). They will never be pleased with Muslims unless they follow Judaism (14).

Children of Israel, remember how God blessed you and favored you over other people; how God did so much for you, how you made a pledge to obey his law, and remember how so many of you were disobedient (2:47+). Do not follow the whims of those who went astray before (5:77). Do not shed one another’s blood or drive one another away from your homelands (2:84). Guard yourselves against a day of judgement (2:48).

Christians are merely human beings, not the children of God or His beloved ones (5:18). They are the closest in affection towards the Muslims (5:82). There are Christians who are devoted to learning and ascetics, who are not given to arrogance, and when they listen to what you have sent down to the Messenger, you will see their eyes overflowing with tears because the recognize the truth in it. They will be rewarded with Gardens (5:82). Christians are allies to the Jews (5:51).

Some of the People of the Book are uneducated about the scripture and only know it through wishful thinking and guesswork.They are more concerned about this life than the life after. They are disobedient, lawbreakers (2:93). Some are trustworthy and some are completely untrustworthy (3:75). They want nothing good sent down to the believers (2:105). Some would love to lead the believers astray (3:69). Many wish to turn believers back from the truth out of selfish envy (2:109).

God has sown enmity and hatred amongst the Jews and Christians until the Day of Resurrection (5:64). The Jews say ‘The Christians have no ground whatsoever to stand on,’ and the Christians say, ‘The Jews have no ground whatsoever to stand on.’ God will judge between them concerning their differences (2:113).

The People of the Book will not do Muslims much harm; even if they come out to fight, they will soon turn tail. They will get no help, and unless they hold fast to a lifeline from God and from mankind, their vulnerability will overshadow them wherever they are found. They are overshadowed by weakness too, because they have persistently disbelieved in God’s revelation and killed prophets without any right, all because of their disobedience and boundless transgression (3:111).

But they are not all alike. There are some among the People of the Book who are upright. They are among the righteous (3:113). Those who hold fast to the Scripture and keep up the prayer will not be denied their reward (7:170).

Most of the People of the Book disbelieved in the Qur'an when it came to them (2:100). They demanded the Prophet make a book physically come down to them from heaven (4:153). They would say, ‘At the beginning of the day, believe in what has been revealed to the Muslims. Then at the end of the day reject it, so that they may turn back, but do not sincerely believe in anyone unless he follows your own religion’ (3:72). When they met believers they would say ‘We too believe.’ But when they were alone with each other they would say, ‘How could you tell them about God’s revelation to us? They will be able to use it to argue against you before your Lord! Have you no sense?’  (2:75).

Some used to hear the words of God and then deliberately twist them, even when they understood them (?). They twist the scripture with their tongues to make people think that what they say is part of the Scripture when it is not (3:78). They say that it is unlawful to eat certain things, like camel’s meat and milk. But what they say is a lie-all food was lawful to the Children of Israel before the Torah was revealed (3:93). They argue about Abraham despite the fact that the Torah and the Gospels were not revealed until after his time; they argue despite not having full knowledge (3:65).

Some of the People of the Book invented lies that led them astray of their own religion (3:69). They invented monasticism, which is not ordained by God (57:27). They take their rabbis, monks, and Christ as lords beside God. In doing so, they try to extinguish God’s light with their mouths (9:31). It almost causes the heavens to be torn apart, the earth to split asunder, and the mountains to crumble to pieces, that they attribute offspring to the Lord of Mercy (19:90). In the hereafter they will have torment of fire because they set themselves against God and his Messenger (59:3).

Their rabbis and scholars do not forbid people to speak sinfully and consume what is unlawful (5:63). Many rabbis and monks wrongfully consume people’s possessions and turn people away from God’s path (9:34). They took usury when they were forbidden to do so (4:161).

People of the Book, believe in God, his Messenger (4:171), and the message God sent down confirming what you already possess (2:47). Do not be the first to reject the Qur’an (2:41) and do not sell it for a small price (2:41). Do not mix truth with falsehood, or hide the truth when you know it. (3:71). Do not say things about God except the truth. You must not speak of a ‘Trinity’. Admit that Jesus was nothing more than a messenger from God. Do not go to excess in your religions (4:171).

Believers

The Believers are people who direct themselves wholly to God and do good (4:125). They are the best community singled out for people (3:110). Those who turn for protection to God, his messenger, and the believers are God’s party-God’s party will triumph (5:56).

True believers are those whose hearts tremble with awe when God is mentioned, whose faith increases when His revelations are recited to them, who put their trust in their Lord. (8:2) They never grow weary from glorifying God night and day (21:19). They are in a different class than disbelievers (3:163). Believers are devoted to God because they have taught the Scripture and studied it closely (3:79). Believers are those who, through giving, are saved from their own souls’ greed (59:9). They are mindful of God (2:2) and remain steadfast (3:17). They are believing, obedient, truthful, humble, charitable, fasting, chaste, and remember God often (33:35).

Those who are aware of God think of Him when Satan prompts them to do something and immediately they see straight (7:200). They do not feel secure in day or night against God’s plan (7:99). Disbelief, mischief, and disobedience are hateful to them (49:7). They do not love those who oppose God and His Messenger, even if they may be their fathers, sons, brothers, or other relations (58:22).

Those who followed Muhammad into battle are tender towards each other and firm against the disbelievers. You see them kneel and prostrate, seeking God’s bounty and his good pleasure. They are like a seed that puts forth its shoot, becomes strong, grows thick, and rises on its stem to the delight of its sowers (48:29). The believers are brothers (49:10).

But when they are called to fight for God’s cause, and they tell the Prophet ‘we would follow you if we knew how to fight’, they are more like disbelievers than believers (3:167). Those who stay at home, apart from those with an incapacity, are not equal to those who commit themselves and their possessions to striving in God’s way. (4:95) True believers should be ready to lay down their lives or leave their homes if they are told to do so by the Prophet (4:64). Those who fought with the prophets were godly men who, in the face of their suffering, did not lose heart or weaken or surrender (3:146). God has purchased the persons and possessions of the believers in return for the Garden-they fight in God’s way: they kill and are killed (9:111). They give their lives away to please God (2:207).

Believers were clearly astray before God sent them a Messenger of their own (3:164). If it had not been for God’s bounty and mercy towards them, they would almost all have followed Satan. (4:83).

Believers, believe in God, the Day of Judgement, the angels, the prophets, the Torah, the Gospels, and the revelation sent down to Muhammad (2:177, 2:4). Know that God’s comparisons are the truth (2:26). Have a firm faith in the Hereafter (2:4). Put your trust in God (4:81).

Do not profess faith and then reject it (63:3). If, after believing, you disbelieve and increase in your disbelief, you will not have your repentance accepted (3:90).

Believers, remember God often (33:35). Do not let your wealth or children distract you from remembering Him (63:9). Glorify God (39:54), bow down in worship, and celebrate the Lord’s praises (32:15). Do not think yourselves above doing so (32:15). Believers, dress well whenever you worship, eat, and drink (7:31).

Believers, be thankful to God, never ungrateful (2:152). Do not think you are self-sufficient (96:7).

Do not join anything with God in worship (4:36). God would never command you to take angels or prophets as lords (3:80). Do not bow down in worship to the sun or moon (41:37). Do not call on false gods or idols, an evil master or an evil companion (22:13). Believers, do not say things about God that you do not really know (2:169). Do not make up images about God (16:74).

Enter wholeheartedly into submission to God (2:208). Instead of saying ‘We have faith,’ say ‘We have submitted.’ (49:14). Obey God and the Messenger, and those in authority among you (4:59). Reject unjust tyrants-do not go to them for their judgement (4:60). Respond to God and His messenger when he calls you to that which gives you life (8:24). Say ‘We hear and we obey’ when summoned to God and His Messenger (24:51). Give reasonable obedience-not swearing (24:53). Do not regard the messenger’s summons to you as being like one of you summoning one another (24:63). Be God’s helper (61:14). Do not betray God and the Messenger (8:27).

Do not obey your parents if they strive to make you serve anything besides God (29:8). Do not allow your fathers, sons brothers, wives, tribes, the wealth you acquired, the trade which you fear will decline, and the dwellings you love to be dearer to you than God and his Messenger and the struggle in His cause (9:24).

Believers, fear God (2:150) and his punishment (70:27). Fear a day of widespread woes (76:7). Do not call for God’s judgement to come sooner (16:1). Guard yourselves and your families against a Fire (66:6). Follow the scriptures fully as they were meant to be followed (2:121). Do not follow blindly what you do not know to be true (17:36). Treat Satan as an enemy (35:6). Do not let Satan seduce you (7:27) and do not follow his footsteps (2:168). Do not go astray (1:7) and revert to your old ways after being tested (3:144). Be steadfast (33:35) and persevere patiently (39:10). If you are oppressed, migrate for God’s cause (4:99).

Believers, say to disbelievers, ‘I do not worship what you worship, you do not worship what I worship, I will never worship what you worship, you will never worship what I worship: you have your religion and I have mine.’ (109:2).

Move at a moderate pace (31:19). Speak in a direct fashion and to good purpose (33:70). Whoever speaks for a good cause will share in its benefits and whoever speaks for a bad cause will share in its burden (4:85).

Believers, do not seek superiority on earth (28:83). Do not compete for more against others (102:1). Be humble (33:35). Do not say to a person who offers you a greeting of peace ‘You are not a believer’-you yourself were in the same position once (4:94).

Become a community that calls for what is good, urges what is right, and forbids what is wrong (3:104). Shun great sins and gross indecencies (42:37). Help one another to do what is right and good (5:2), and urge one another to steadfastness and compassion (90:13).

Believers, be good to your parents (6:151). Do not speak words of impatience to aging parents or treat them harshly (17:23). Speak to them respectfully and lower your wing in humility towards them in kindness and say, ‘Lord, have mercy on them, just as they cared for me when I was little.’ (17:23).

When you enter any house, greet one another with a greeting of blessing and goodness (24:61). Children, after reaching puberty, always ask permission before entering a room, like elders do (24:59). Do not enter houses by the back door (2:189) or enter other people’s houses until you have asked permission to do so and greeted those inside (24:27). Do not spy on one another (49:12). Maintain three periods of privacy a day: before the dawn prayer; when you lay your garments aside in the midday heat; and after the evening prayer (24:58). Sleep only little at night (51:17).

Follow the steep path: free a slave (90:13) and liberate those in bondage (2:177). Make a contract with any of your slaves who wish to pay for their freedom (24:33). God does not forbid dealing kindly and justly with anyone who has not fought you for your faith or driven you out of your homes (60:8). Be patient and forgive-it is one of the greatest things to do (42:43). Pardon people (3:134). Forgive and forbear the Jews who wish to turn you back from the path until God gives his command (2:109).

Believers, be mindful of making peace between people (2:224). Beware of discord (8:25). Beware of severing the ties of kinship (4:1). Do not divide into factions within the faith (42:13). Incur no anger (1:7) and restrain your anger (3:134). When aggressive people address you, reply with words of peace (25:63). Say to the People of the Book, "Let us arrive at a statement that is common to us all: we worship God alone, we ascribe no partner to Him, and none of us takes others beside God as lords.’ (3:64) Keep away from those who abuse God’s names (7:180).

Believers, seek help through steadfastness and prayer (2:153).

Perform the regular prayers in the period from the time the sun is past its zenith till the darkness of the night (17:78). When the call to prayer is made on the day of the congregation, hurry towards the reminder of God and leave off your trading (62:9). When you are about to pray, wash your face and your hands and arms up to the elbows, wipe your head, wash your feet up to the ankles and, if required, wash your whole body (2:144). Do not come anywhere near the prayer if you are intoxicated, not until you know what you are saying; nor if you are in a state of major ritual impurity-not until you have bathed (4:43). Make room for one another in your assemblies if you are told to do so (58:11). Turn your face in the direction of the sacred mosque (2:144). Ask the Lord to forgive your sins and wipe out your bad deeds (3:135). Do not be too loud or too quiet in prayer (17:110). When the prayer has ended, disperse and go back to doing what you were doing beforehand (62:9). During the night, wake up and pray as an extra offering of your own (17:78).

Keep up the prayer (2:3) even during travels and war in the land of the disbelievers. However, it is permissible to shorten the prayers in these cases (5, 4:101).

Believers, fast on prescribed days; unless you are ill, then put off fasting until later. If it’s too difficult to fast, feed the needy (2:183). Fast throughout the day during Ramadan (2:187).

Believers, recite as much of the Qur’an as is easy for you (73:20). Recite it at dawn (17:18). Be quiet and listen when it is recited (7:204).

Believers, complete the major and minor pilgrimages (2:196). If you are able to, make a pilgrimage to Mecca (3:97); to the first House, a blessed place (3:96). Do not postpone the sacred months (9:37). If you are prevented from going on a pilgrimage, send an offering you can afford (2:196).

Do not kill game while on pilgrimage (5:1). If you kill game intentionally during a pilgrimage you must make an offering of a domestic animal brought to the Ka’ba (5:95).

If you are ill, on a journey, have relieved yourselves, or had intercourse, and cannot find any water, then find some clean sand and wipe your faces and hands with it before performing the rights (4:43). Perform the acts of cleansing, fulfilling vows, and circling the Ancient House at the sacred mosque (22:29). Mention God’s name over cows when they are lined up for sacrifice. When they have fallen down dead, feed yourselves and those who do not ask, as well as those who do (22:36).

The walk between the mountains of Safa and Marway are among the rites of God during the pilgrimages-It is no offense to circulate between the two hills (2:158).

Do not violate the sanctity of God’s rites, the Sacred Month, the sacrificial animals, including the garlanded, nor those going to the Sacred Mosque (5:2). Do not violate the Sacred Mosque with wrongdoing (22:25). Do not allow those who ascribe partners to God to come near the Sacred Mosque. They are truly unclean (9:28). Only those mindful of God are the Sacred Mosque's rightful guardians (8:34).

Do not shave your head until your pilgrimage offering has reached the place of sacrifice (2:196).

more pilgrimage rules (2:196+)...

Believers, guard your chastity except with your spouses or slaves (23:5). Righteous wives are devout and guard what God would have them guard in their husband’s absence (4:34). Wives of the Prophet, do not speak too softly in case the sick at heart should lust after you (33:32). Wives of the Prophet, speak in an appropriate manner and stay at home (33:32).

Believing men, if you are unable to marry, keep chaste until God gives you enough of his bounty (24:33).

Believing women, lower your eyes, guard your private parts, and do not display your charms beyond what is acceptable (24:31). Women, do not display your charms except to your husbands, their fathers, their husband’s fathers, their sons, their sisters’ sons, their womenfolk, their slaves, such men as attend them who have no desire, or children who are not yet aware of women’s nakedness. Do not stamp your feet so as to draw attention to any hidden charms. (24:31).

Women, draw your coverings over your necklines (24:31) and make your outer garments hang low so as to be recognized and not insulted (33:59). Elderly women who have no desire may take off their outer garments without flaunting their charms (24:60). Do not flaunt your finery as they used to in the pagan past (33:33).

Believers, do not jeer at one another (49:11) or use offensive nicknames (49:11). Do not commit obscenities, whether openly or in secret (6:151). Do not undeservedly insult and slander believing men and women (33:57). Do not make too many assumptions (49:12) or spread false rumors (24:11). Do not speak ill of others behind their backs (49:12). Do not revile those they call on beside God in case they, in their hostility and ignorance, revile God (6:108).

Believers, do not indulge in idle talk and joke about God, his Revelations, and His Messenger. Do not become mean and turn obstinately away even after receiving some of God’s bounty. Do not insult God and his messenger (33:57). Do not sow discord, speak words of defiance, and plot against him (9:43+). When you converse in secret, do not do so in a way that is sinful, hostile, and disobedient to the Messenger, but in a way that is good and mindful of God (58:9).

Believers, do not raise your voice above the Prophet’s, as you do with one another (49:2). Do not push yourselves forward in the presence of God and his Messenger. (49:1) When you are gathered with the Messenger for a communal matter, do not depart until you have asked his permission (24:62). Do not steal away surreptitiously or do so against the Messengers orders (24:63). Do not scatter towards entertainment or trade and leave the Prophet standing there (62:11).

Do not shout to the prophet from outside his private rooms (49:4). Do not enter the prophet’s apartment for a meal unless you are given permission to do so; do not linger until the meal is ready (33:53). Do not stay and talk with the Prophet, for that would offend him, though he would shrink from asking you to leave (33:53).

Do not ask about matters which, if made known to you, might make things difficult for you (5:101). Do not think of those who have been killed in God’s way as dead-they are alive with their Lord, well provided for, happy, rejoicing that those who are left behind have no fear and do not grieve (3:169). Do not grieve over what you miss or gloat over what you gain-everything was ordained by God (57:23). Do not credit God for good things that happen and then blame the Prophet when bad things happen (4:78).

Believers, be truthful (33:35). Shun false utterances (22:30) and give honest testimony (70:33). Do not use your oaths to deceive each other (16:94) or cover up false deeds (58:16). Do not allow your oaths in God’s name to hinder you from doing good (2:224). Fulfill any pledge you make in God’s name and do not break oaths after you've sworn them (16:91). Return things entrusted to you to their rightful owners (4:58.) Do not knowingly betray other people’s trust in you (8:27). Do not say things and then not do them (61:3). The atonement for breaking an oath is to feed ten poor people, or to clothe them, or to set free a slave-if a person cannot find the means, he should fast for three days (5:89).

Believers, uphold justice and bear witness to God, even if it means being against yourselves, your parents, or your close relatives (4:135). Do not let hatred of others lead you away from justice (5:8). Do not distort or neglect justice (4:135). Believers, do not use your property to bribe judges, intending to eat up parts of other people's property (2:188). Do not wrongfully consume each other’s wealth (4:29).

Cut off the hands of thieves, whether they are man or woman, as a punishment for what they have done and a deterrent from God (5:38). Do not exceed the limits of fair retribution for murder (2:178). Fair retribution is a free man for a free man, the slave for the slave, the female for the female (2:178), an eye for an eye, and so on (5:45). But if the culprit is pardoned by his aggrieved brother, this shall be adhered to fairly, and the culprit shall pay what is due in a good way (2:178). Do not act against anyone who defends himself after being wronged (42:41). God will help those who retaliate against an aggressive act merely with its like and are then wronged again (22:60).

Call four witnesses from among you if your women commit a lewd act. If they testify to the woman’s guilt, keep her at home until she dies or until God shows them another way (4:15). If someone accuses chaste women of fornication and fails to produce four witnesses, strike them eighty times and reject their testimony afterwards (221).

If a man accuses his wife of adultery but has no other witnesses, he must call God to witness that he is telling the truth five times-on the fifth time, he must call God to reject him if he is lying. Punishment of the wife shall be averted if she in turn calls on God in the same way (24:6).

Strike the adulterer and adulteress one hundred times. Do not let compassion for them keep you from carrying out God’s law. Ensure that a group of believers witnesses the punishment (24:2). If wives that were slaves commit adultery when they are married, their punishment will be half that of free women (4:25). If two men commit a lewd act together, punish them both. If they repent and mend their ways, leave them alone (4:16).

If you judge between two people, do so with justice (4:58). If two groups of believers fight, you should try to reconcile them; if one of them oppresses the other, fight the oppressor until they submit to God’s command, then make a just and even-handed reconciliation between the two of them. (49:9)

Believers, conduct affairs by mutual consultation (42:38). Use the Torah and the Gospel for decision making (5:47). Let Muhammad decide matters of dispute and accept his decisions totally (4:59). Do not claim freedom of choice after God and His Messenger have decided on a matter that concerns them (33:36). Turn to the Messenger and those in authority among you to find the meaning of any news going around (4:83). If a troublemaker brings you news, check it first in case you wrong others unwittingly and later regret what you have done (49:6).

The blind, lame, and sick will be blameless and can eat in their families homes (24:61).

Believers, pay the prescribed alms (2:110). Alms are meant only for the poor, the needy, those who administer them, those whose hearts need winning over, those in debt, and travelers in need. Alms should also be given for God’s cause and to free slaves (9:60). Give one-fifth of your battle gains to God and the Messenger, to close relatives and orphans, to the needy and the travelers (8:41). When you come to speak privately with the Messenger, offer something in charity before your conversation unless you do not have the means (58:12). Do not contribute to your own destruction by not spending in God’s cause (2:195). Do not give grudgingly (47:38). God does not ask you to give up all your possessions (47:36).

Feed at a time of hunger an orphaned relative or a poor person in distress (90:13). Give food to the poor, the orphan, and the captive, saying, ‘We feed you for the sake of God alone. We seek neither recompense nor thanks from you’ (76:8). Give to those needy who are wholly occupied in God’s way and cannot travel in the land for trade (2:273). Give away wealth to relatives, to orphans, the needy, travelers and beggars (2:177). Give charity in private or give charity in open, but private is best (2:274). Make provisions for the feeble minded from your property; clothe them, and speak to them kindly (4:5). If you know your slaves that are paying for their freedom have good in them, give them some of the wealth God has given you (24:33). Speak some word of comfort to those you turn down (17:28).

Giving charity atones for some bad deeds (2:271).

Believers, make a proper will to parents and close relatives (2:180). Make a bequest for your widow-a year’s maintenance and no expulsion from her home (2:240). When death approaches, let two just men act as witnesses to the making of a bequest (5:106). Give blood relatives preference when bestowing gifts, but still give something to your adopted sons-your proteges (33:6). Make sure both men and women have a share of what their parents and closest relatives leave (4:7). Give a son the equivalent share of two daughters (4:11). If there are two daughters, give them 2/3rd share. If there is just one daughter, give her ½ share. Give other relatives, orphans, and other needy people something at the distribution of inheritance (4:8). Do not give the bad things that you yourself would only accept with your eyes closed (2:267). Do not entrust your property to the feeble-minded (4:5). If a person dies childless, with no surviving parents, give out to her surviving family accordingly (4:176). 

further instructions for the distribution of inheritance (4:11+)

Believers, name your adopted sons after their real fathers (33:5). Combine orphans affairs with yours-remember they are your brothers and sisters (2:220). Do not consume orphans’ property along with your own (4:2) or replace their good things with bad (4:2). When you find that orphans have good judgement, hand over their property to them. Call witnesses in when you hand over their property (4:6). You will not be blamed if you make a mistake raising your adopted son; only for what your heart deliberately intend (33:5).

Believers, do not take life, except by right (17:33) and in pursuit of justice (25:68). Do not kill each other out of hostility and injustice (4:29). Do not commit unjustified aggression (7:33). Do not be excessive in taking life, particularly when settling a wrongful killing (17:33). Do not kill your children for fear of poverty (17:31).

Persecution is more serious than killing (2:191). You may act against those who oppress people and transgress in the land against all justice (42:42).

Believers, fight in God’s cause against those who fight you, but do not overstep the limits of what is permissible (2:190). You are permitted to take up arms when you are attacked (22:39). If you have to respond to an attack, make your response proportionate, but it is best to stand fast (16:126).

Some ask why no surah about fighting has been sent down, yet when one has they get sick at heart and nervous at the prospect of death (47:20). Remember God’s goodness to you when mighty armies massed against you and God sent violent wind and invisible forces against them (33:9). Do not lose heart or despair (3:139). Go out and fight when called (9:39), even though it is hard to do and you do not like it (2:216). Fight when called or be severely punished by God (9:39). Do not fear the wrongdoers (2:150) or Satan’s followers-fear God instead (3:175). Remember, It is not a fighter who kills another, it is God (8:15).

Do not make excuses for not going to battle when called to. Do not lie and say you can’t go (9:43). Do not be miserly (3:180). Those who are open to blame are those who asked for an exemption from fighting despite their wealth, and who preferred to be with those left behind (9:93). Do not be lazy, grudging, or cowardly (9:43+). Do not hold out in battle (3:180).

Fight those who reject faith, the allies of Satan (4:76). Fight the unbelievers near you and let them find you standing firm (9:123). Fight the people who have broken their oaths, tried to drive out the messenger, and attacked first (9:13). Fight those of the People of the Book who do not believe in God and the Last Day, who do not forbid what god and His Messenger have forbidden, who do not obey the rule of justice. Fight them until they pay the tax promptly and agree to submit (9:29).

Fight during Ramadan only to prevent persecution (2:217). Do not fight the idolaters during the four holy months, except in self defense (9:36).

Believers, prepare against disbelievers whatever forces you can muster, including warhorses, to frighten off God’s enemies, and warn others unknown to you but known to God (8:60). Be on guard-march to battle in small groups or as one body (4:71). Support one another (8:73). Do not quarrel with one another, or you may lose heart and your spirit will desert you (8:46).

Do not be faint-hearted in pursuing the enemy (4:104). When you meet the disbelievers in battle, strike them in the neck (47:4), strike above their necks, and strike all their fingers (8:12). Kill them wherever you encounter them and drive them out from where they drove you out, for persecution is more serious than killing (2:191). Do not turn your backs on the disbelievers in battle (8:15). Stay on guard, but you will not be blamed if you lay aside your arms when you are overtaken by heavy rain or illness (4:102). Seize and kill your enemies if they neither withdraw, nor offer peace, nor restrain themselves from fighting you (4:91). Make a fearsome example of them to those who come after them, so that they may take heed (8:57). Fight them until there is no more persecution and all worship is devoted to God alone (8:39). Once the enemy is defeated, bind any captives firmly until the toils of war have ended. Later you can release them as a grace or for ransom (47:4).

Do not kill another believer, except by mistake (4:92). Whoever kills a believer by mistake must free one Muslim slave and pay compensation to the victim’s relatives (4:92). 

more rules for compensation (4:92)

In battle, when you are offered a greeting, respond with a better one, or at least return it (59). Cease hostilities if they cease hostilities, except towards aggressors (2:193). If the enemy inclines towards peace, you must also incline towards it (8:61). If the disbelievers desist, their past will be forgiven (8:39). If you learn of treachery on the part of any people, throw their treaty back at them (8:58).

Heed the example of Abraham when it comes to treating enemies you may be tempted to treat as friends: say, ‘We disown you and what you worship besides God! We renounce you! Until you believe in God alone, the enmity and hatred that has arisen between us will endure!’. Abraham said to his father, ‘I will pray for forgiveness for you though I cannot protect you from God’ (60:4)

Enjoy in a good and lawful manner the things you have gained in war (8:69).

Believers, do not marry for fornication rather than wedlock (4:24). Marry off the single among you, and those off your male and female slaves who are fit for marriage (24:32).

Do not marry women that your fathers married. Do not marry your mothers, daughters, sisters, paternal and maternal aunts, the daughters of brothers and sisters, your milk-mothers and milk-sisters, your wives’ mothers, the stepdaughters in your care, wives of your begotten sons, and already married women, save for your slaves whose husbands are not around (4:22). Do not marry two sisters simultaneously (4:22). Do not marry idolatresses until they believe (2:221). Do not marry Muhammad’s wives after him (33:53). All other women are lawful to you so long as you seek them in marriage, with gifts of your property (4:22).

Test the believing women when they come to you as emigrants-if you are sure of their faith, do not send them back to the disbelievers (60:10).

Believers, do not inherit women against their will (4:19). If you fear you may not deal fairly with orphan girls, you may marry whichever other women seem good to you; two, three, or four. If you fear you cannot be equitable, then marry only one, or your slaves (4:3).

Give women their bridal gift upon marriage (4:4). If you do not have the means to marry a believing free woman, then marry a believing slave with their people’s consent and their proper bride-gifts (4:25). 

more rules for marriage ( 2:+)

Believers, your wives are like your fields, so go into your fields whichever way you like (2:223). Keep away from women during their menstruation until they have cleaned (2:222). Do not lie with your wives during the nights of their devotional retreats in the mosques (2:187). Do not commit adultery (25:68)-adulterers are only fit to marry adulterers or idolatresses (24:3).

Believers, live with your wives in accordance with what is fair and kind (4:19). Take good care of your wives with their money (4:34). Do not treat your wives harshly, hoping to take back some of the bride-gift you gave them, unless they are guilty of something clearly outrageous (4:19). Believers, do not act against your wife if she obeys you (4:34). If you fear highhandedness from one of your wives, remind her of God’s teaching. If necessary, ignore her in bed, then hit her (4:34). Do not curse and disown your wife (58:2). Do not ignore one wife altogether, leaving her suspended between marriage and divorce (4:129).

Prophet, if your wife does something clearly outrageous, punish her doubly, but if she is obedient then give her double the reward and generous provisions (33:30).

If you fear that a couple may break up, appoint one arbiter from his family and one from hers. Then, if the couple want to put things right, God will bring about a reconciliation between them (4:35).

The waiting period for divorce will be four months for those who swear they will not approach their wife (2:226), but do not expect a waiting period when you divorce a believing woman before you have touched her (33:49). If you are in doubt, the waiting period will be three months for women who are not menstruating (65:4). Women, do not conceal what God has created inside your wombs (2:228). The waiting period of those who are pregnant will be until they deliver (65:4). Do not force your wife to leave your home during this period-nor should they leave-unless they commit a flagrant indecency (65:1). When they have completed their appointed term, call just two witnesses from your people.

In divorce, do not take back anything you've given your wife unless she opts to give something for her release (2:229). Do not hold onto women you have divorced with the intent to harm them and commit aggression (2:231). Do not harass them (65:6). Do not prevent women you have divorced from remarrying (2:232). Divorced women must wait three monthly periods before remarrying (2:228). Divorced women have rights similar to their obligations and ex-husbands have a degree of right over them (2:228).

No mother should be made to suffer harm on account of her child. Clothing and maintenance must be supplied by the father in the two years the mother suckles her baby, even after divorce (2:233). If your ex-wife suckles your infants, pay her for it (65:6). Consult together in a good way-if you make difficulties for one another, another woman may suckle the child for the father (65:6).

Divorce can happen only twice, and each time wives can be kept on or released in an acceptable manner (2:229). If a husband re-divorces his wife after a second time, she will not be lawful for him again until she has married someone else and divorced that man (2:230). Pay the prescribed penalty for disowning your wife but then taking her back (58:3). 

more rules regarding divorce (2: 224+).

Widows should wait four months and ten nights before remarrying. If you intend to marry a widow, do not make a secret arrangement with her; speak to her honorably and do not confirm the marriage tie until the prescribed period reaches its end (2:235).

Believers, when you contract a debt, have a scribe put it down in writing. The scribe must write and record accurately. Guardians must dictate in cases in which the debtor is feeble minded. Ensure proper witnesses. Let no harm be done to the scribe or witness (2:282).

Do not charge interest for loans (2:275). Delay things until matters become easier for a debtor who is in difficulty, but it is better to write it off as an act of charity (32:280).

Trade by mutual consent (4:29).

Do not squander your wealth wastefully (17:26). Do not follow your spending with hurtful words or reminders of your benevolence (2:262)

Believers, unless forced to by hunger, do not eat carrion, blood, or pig’s meat. Do not eat animals over which any name other than God’s has been invoked (2:173), and do not eat meat over which God’s name has not been pronounced (6:121). Do not eat any animal that has been strangled, killed by a violent blow or fall, or gored by a beast of prey unless you still slaughter it in the correct manner. Do not eat anything sacrificed on idolatrous altars (2:173).

Believers, do not take Jews and Christians as allies (5:51).

Do not take God’s enemies as your allies, showing them friendship when they have rejected the truth you have received, and have driven you and the Messenger out simply because you believe in God (60:1). Do not take the disbelievers as allies rather than other believers, except when you need to protect yourselves from them (3:28). Do not take your fathers and brothers as allies against the Muslims if they prefer disbelief to faith (9:23). Be aware that among the believers’ spouses and children they have enemies-but they are forgivable (64:14).

Do not give your loyalty to people with whom God is angry (58:14). Do not take as intimates outsiders who spare no effort to ruin you and want to see you suffer (3:118). Do not sit with people who are denying and ridiculing God’s revelation, unless they start to talk of other things. If you do, you will become like them (4:140).

Do not love those who oppose God and his Messenger (58:22). Do not ask forgiveness for the idolaters (9:113) or be an advocate for those who betray trust (4:105). Do not argue on behalf of those who betray their own souls, even if you are related to them (4:106). Do not hold funerals for any of the hypocrites who disbelieved in God and his Messenger and died rebellious (9:84).

Believers, do not follow your own desires (4:135) and lust (4:27). Do not be extravagant in dress (7:31), or covet what God has given to some of you more than others (4:32).

Do not do anything shameful, blameworthy, or oppressive (16:90). Do not gamble (2:219) or get intoxicated (2:219). Do not be wasteful (6:141) and corrupt the earth (7:56). Do not allot shares of meat by drawing marked arrows (5:3).

Do not force your slave-girls into prostitution in your quest for the short-term gains of this world, when they themselves wish to remain honorable. But if they are forced, God will be forgiving and merciful to them (24:33).

Believers will be tested with loss of property, lives, and crops; they will be tested with fear and hunger. They will be tested through their persons and their possessions (3:186). Those who are faced with affliction and calamity and say, ‘We belong to God and to Him we shall return’ will be given blessings and mercy from their Lord. (2:155). They will not fear, grieve (2:38), go astray, or fall into misery (20:123). Believers will be put to the test when they hear much that is hurtful from those who were given the Scripture before them and from those who associate others with God.(3:186).

God will defend the believers (22:38). If the Prophets army is steadfast and mindful of God, and the enemy were to suddenly attack them, God would reinforce the believers with five thousand swooping angels (3:125). God will cut off the flanks of the disbelievers army or frustrate them to make them withdraw in total failure (3:127). God may still bring about affection between the believers and their present enemies (60:7).

God will certainly wipe out the bad deeds of those who emigrated and were driven out of their homes, who suffered harm for his cause, who fought and were killed (3:195). He will give them a good home in this world, but a far better one after (16:30). Those who died migrating in God’s way will be given generous provisions (22:58).

God may cancel out your bad deeds for you if you are sincere in repentance (66:8). He will overlook the faults of those who have faith, do good deeds, and believe in what has been sent down to Muhammad. He will put their hearts to rest (47:2). He will not allow the deeds of any one of you to be lost, whether you are male or female-each is like the other in rewards (3:195).

God will give love to those who believe and do righteous deeds (19:96). The Muslims, Jews, Christians, and Sabians-all those who believe in God and the Last Day and do good will have their rewards with their Lord. There will be no fear for them, nor will they grieve. (2:62). They will prosper and go to heaven (2:5). Believers will inherit the earth (21:105).

Disbelievers, Hypocrites, Idolaters, and Polytheists

Disbelievers are oppressors and allies of Satan (4:76). God made evil ones their allies (7:27). They have lost their souls (6:20). Those who deny that the day of Judgement is coming are evil aggressors (83:12). Some are fault finding backbiters who amass riches (104:1). They are such liars (6:28)! Hypocrites are the devious enemy (63:1+). They are all show (107:6).

The disbelievers are those God distanced himself from, was angry with, and condemned as apes and pigs. They are those who worship idols (5:60). Most are rebels (5:81). They are worse in rank than believers (5:60).

Disbelievers are full of hate. Their hatred is evident from their mouths, but what their hearts conceal is far worse (3:118). They are openly hostile and aggressive (50:25). Some have open hostility on their faces when the Qur'an is recited to them, as though they are about to attack those who recite (22:72).

The disbelievers are treacherous, thankless (31:32), and base (62:5). They are mean-they want nothing good sent down to the believers (3:120). They are like Pharaoh’s people (8:52). They are insolent (25:21) and arrogant (16:22). They are diseased at heart (2:10).

The disbelievers are unguided by God (16:104). Their efforts in this world are misguided (18:103). They buy error in exchange for guidance (2:16). They have the most to lose by their actions (18:103).They are heedless of their own prayer (107:5). Their prayers are all in vain (13:14). Their deeds are like a mirage in a desert: the thirsty person thinks there will be water but, when he gets there, he finds it is nothing (24:39).

The disbelievers are feeble (22:73). Their armed alliance is weak and will be crushed (38:11). They are not equal to believers (32:18).

The disbelievers are stubborn and stuck in disbelief: even if God sent the angels down to them, and the dead spoke to them, and God gathered things right in front of them, they still would not believe, unless God so willed (6:111). They will not believe, even if every sign comes to them (10:97).

The desert Arabs are the most stubborn of all people in their disbelief and hypocrisy (9:97). The desert Arabs who stayed behind and asked for forgiveness were not sincere. They thought that the messenger and the believers would never return to their families and this thought warmed their hearts. They are evil and corrupt (48:11).

The disbelievers are entirely heedless (7:179). Those who try to ruin believers and want them to suffer are deaf, dumb, and blind (2:18). They are like people who put their fingers into their ears to keep out the thunderclaps for fear of death (2:19). They walk on whenever lightning flashes on them and stand still when darkness falls around them (2:20).

The disbelievers are unintuitive-they have hearts they do not use for comprehension (7:179). They are confused (50:5), deep in loss (103:2), and deluded (7:51/35:3). They are hesitant, doubtful, and deceived by false hopes (57:14). They are like a dog that pants with a lolling tongue whether you drive it away or leave it alone (7:176).

Disbelievers don’t believe, even though they say they do (2:8). They deny the truth (34:53). Only those who defy God would refuse to believe his clear messages (2:99). God rejects those who disbelieve (2:89).

The Hypocrites think they deceive God and the believers about their own belief, but they only deceive themselves, though they do not realize it (2:9). The disbelievers think that they are doing good work (18:104). They lied when they said ‘We believe in God and the Last Day’ and ‘We believe as other people believe.’ When they are alone with their evil ones, they say, ‘We’re really with you; we were only mocking’ (2:14). God will not forgive the hypocrites and rebels, even if they ask seventy times (9:80).

The Hypocrites remember God only a little (4:142). They take their religion for a distraction, a mere game (7:51). They stand up to pray sluggishly, showing off in front of people (4:142). The hypocrites waver between this and that (4:143), and seek a middle way, saying, ‘We believe in some but not in others’ (4:150). Most hypocrites do not honor their commitments. Most are defiant (7:102).

But they cry to God when trouble befalls them. As soon as God relieves them, they go on their way as if they had never cried out (10:12). Man never tires of asking for good, but if evil touches him, he loses all hope and becomes despondent. Whenever God grants him some mercy, he says ‘This is all my own doing,’ and goes away haughtily, but, as soon as harm touches him, he turns to prolonged prayer (41:49). They say they believe in God but when they suffer for his cause, they think human persecution is as severe as God’s torment (29:10).

The disbelievers are in deep doubt and suspicion (34:53). They doubt the resurrection (50:15) and deny the Judgement (107:1). They cause others to doubt (50:25). They cause corruption in the land, even though they do not realize it and think they are only putting things right (2:12).

Most disbelievers follow nothing but assumptions (10:36). They worship things that neither benefit nor harm them (25:55). Many assume that God did not create the heavens and the earth for a purpose (38:27). They do not use their reason (36:62). God brings disgrace on those who do not use their reason (10:100)

If you ask disbelievers who created the heavens and the earth, they are sure to say ‘God’, yet they turn away from him (29:61). The disbelievers wrap themselves up to hide their feelings from God. (11:5). They harden their hearts at the mention of Him (39:21). Whenever He is mentioned on his own, the hearts of those who do not believe in the hereafter shrink with aversion, but they rejoice when gods other than Him are mentioned (?).

The disbelievers used to say ‘If only we had a scripture like previous people, we would be true servants of God,’ yet now they reject the Qur’an (37:167). They ignore God and his messenger (4:150). They say ‘Our hearts are impenetrably wrapped against whatever you say’ (2:88). Some appear to listen, but God has placed covers over their hearts and deafness in their ears, so they do not understand the Qur’an (6:25). They tell others not to listen to the Qur’an, while they themselves keep away from it (6:25). Their leaders say ‘Walk away! Stay faithful to your gods! We did not hear any such claim in the last religion’ (38:6). They turn away from the Prophet’s warning like stampeding asses fleeing from a lion (74:49).

Disbelievers throw conjecture from a far-off place (34:53). Man disputes openly (36:77). When people dispute God’s messages, with no authority given to them, they are doing something loathed by God and believers (40:35). There is nothing in the hearts of those who dispute God’s message but a thirst for a greatness they will never attain (40:56).

They say, ‘God has sent nothing down to a mere mortal’ (6:91). God sent down the scripture. The believers have been taught things that neither the disbelievers nor their forefathers had known. (6:91). If there were angels walking about on earth, feeling at home, God would have sent them an angel from Heaven as a messenger (17:95). They say, You are only men like us. (14:10) True, the Prophet and his followers are only men, but God favors whichever his servants he chooses (14:11). Of the communities God destroyed before, not a single one believed. Who will believe now? Messengers who came before the Prophet were only men God inspired (21:6).

They say, ‘The Prophet has made the Qur’an up’ (11:35). If Muhammad had made it up, he is responsible for his own crime, but he is innocent of the crimes the disbelievers commit (11:35). If they think he made it up, they should produce ten surahs like it, and call in whoever they can besides God (11:14). They say, ‘This can only be a lie he has forged with the help of others’ (25:4). The disbelievers themselves have done great wrong and lied (25:4). They say ‘It is a man who teaches him’ (16:103). But the tongue of the person they maliciously allude to is incapable of expression, while this revelation is in clear arabic (16:103).

They say that Muhammad has muddled dreams or that he’s just a poet (21:5). They say ‘This is two kinds of sorcery helping each other’ (28:48) and ‘This man is clearly a sorcerer’ (10:2). Is it so surprising to people that God has revealed to a man from among them that he should warn people, and give them glad news to those who believe, that they are on a sure footing with their Lord? If they produce a book from God that gives better guidance than these two, the Prophet will follow it (28:49).

They say, ‘We've heard all this before. We could say something like it if we wanted. This is nothing but ancient fables’  The disbelievers will be losers in hell (8:31). They say, ‘This is ancient fiction’ (46:11).  The verdict has been passed on such people, in communities that went before them (46:18). It was sent down by him who knows the secrets of the heavens and the earth (25:6).

They say, ‘Bring us clear proof then, if you can.’ (14:10) The Prophet cannot bring any proof unless God permits it, so let the believers put all their trust in Him-he has guided them (14:11). They say they cannot see the clear proof that comes from God. The Prophet is not the disbelievers guardian, nor their keeper. This is how God explains his revelations in various ways. (6:104)

They say they will not believe until the Prophet performs some miracle (17:90).

The Prophet is just a mortal, a messenger (17:93). They ask, ‘Why has no sign or miracle been sent down to the Prophet from his Lord’ (6:37) God certainly has power to send down a sign (6:38). If there were ever a Qur’an with which mountains could be moved, the earth shattered, or the dead made to speak it would have been this one, but everything is truly in God’s hands. (13:31) Signs are in the power of God alone (6:109). God does not now send miraculous signs because people previously denied them (17:59). Even if God opened a gateway into the sky for the disbelievers and they rose through it, they would say ‘Our eyes are hallucinating. We are bewitched’ (15:14). God leaves whoever he will to stray, and guides to himself those who turn towards him (113:27). They say, ‘God has commanded us not to believe any messenger unless he brings us an offering that the fire from heaven consumes.’ Messengers before Muhammad came to these people with clear signs. If the disbelievers are sincere, why did they kill them (3:183)?

They ask, ‘Why do you not bring us the angels, if you are telling the truth?’ (15:6). God sends down the angels only to bring justice. If he did now, these people would not be reprieved. God has sent down the Qur’an Himself, and He Himself will guard it (15:8).

They say, ‘We shall not believe unless we ourselves are given a revelation as God’s messengers were.’ (6:124). Each one of them demands that a scripture be sent down to him and unrolled before his very eyes (74:49). God knows best where to place his messages (6:124). Even if God sent down to the Prophet a book inscribed with parchment and the disbelievers touched it with their own hands, they would say, ‘This is nothing but blatant sorcery,’ (6:7). Truly they have no fear of the life to come (74:53).

They say, ‘What? When we are turned to bones and dust, how can we be raised in a new act of creation?’ (17:98). They say ‘we shall not be raised from the dead.’ (6:29). Do they not see that God, who created the heavens and the earth, can create the likes of them anew (17:99)? God sends down water and gives life to a land that was dead. This is how the dead will emerge from their graves (50:11). They challenge the prophet to bring back their forefathers from the dead, if what he says is true (45:25). God gives life, causes people to die, and gathers all on the day of resurrection (45:26). Disbelievers, show the Prophet those you pray to other than God. What part of the earth did they create? What share of the heavens do they own? Bring the Prophet a previous scripture or some vestige of divine knowledge if what you say is true (46:4). What if this Qur’an really is from God and you reject it? What if one of the Children of Israel testifies to its similarity to earlier scripture and believes in it, and yet you are too proud to do the same (46:10).

They say, ‘We follow the ways of our fathers’ (2:170) and ‘what we inherited from our forefathers is good enough for us’ (5:104). What! Even though their fathers understood nothing and were not guided (2:170)?  

They say, ‘There is only our life in this world: we die, we live, nothing but time destroys us.’ (45:24) ‘There is nothing beyond our life in this world’ (6:29). They have no knowledge of this; they only follow guesswork (45:24).

They say, ‘God, if this is the truth, then rain stones on us from the heavens, or send us some other painful punishment’. God would not send them punishment while the prophet is in their midst, nor would he punish them if they later sought forgiveness (8:31).

The evil ones incite their followers to argue with believers. If believers listen to them, they too will become idolaters (6:121). Some argue about the last hour (42:18). They eagerly pursue the ambiguities in the Qur'an in an attempt to make trouble and pin down a specific meaning of their own (3:7). Disbelievers seek to refute the truth with false arguments and make fun of God’s messages and warnings (18:56). They wish to put God’s light out with their mouths (61:8).

They say, ‘No one will enter Paradise unless he is a Jew or Christian’ (2:111). This is wishful thinking. They should produce their evidence if they are telling the truth. All who believe and do good will have their reward. In fact, any who direct themselves wholly to God and do good will have their reward with their Lord (2:111). They say, ‘Become Jews or Christians and you will be rightly guided’ (2:135). The Prophet replies, ‘No, ours is the religion of Abraham, the upright, who did not worship any god besides God. We believe in God and what was sent down to Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes, and what was given to Moses, Jesus, and all the prophets by their Lord. We make no distinction between any of them.’ So if Christians and Jews believe like Muslims they will be rightly guided. But if they turn their backs, they will be entrenched in opposition. How can Christians and Jews argue with Muslims about God when they worship the same God? Were Abraham, Ishmael, Isaac, Jacob, and the Tribes Jews or Christians? Who knows better, man or God (2:135)?

They say, ‘If there were any good in this Qur’an, they would not have believed in it before we did’ (46:11). The scripture of Moses was revealed before it as a guide and a mercy, and this is a scripture confirming it in the Arabic language to warn those who do evil and bring good news to those who do good (46:11).

They ask, ‘Why do Muslims pray to Mecca instead of Jerusalem?’ (2:142). God guides whoever he will to the right way. God directed the prophet to pray in the direction of the Sacred Mosque in order to distinguish those who follow the messenger from those who turn on their heels (2:142).

The idolaters will say, ‘If God had willed, we would not have ascribed partners to Him, nor would our fathers, or have declared anything forbidden.’ Have they any knowledge that they can show us? They follow only suppositions and tell only lies. The conclusive argument belongs to God alone. Had he so willed, he would have guided everyone. Can they produce witnesses to testify that God has forbidden all of this (6:148)?

They ask, ‘Why was the Qur'an not sent down all at once?’ (25:32). God sent it this way to strengthen the Prophet’s heart (25:32).

When a surah is revealed, some hypocrites say, ‘Have any of you been strengthened in faith by it?’ (9:124). It certainly does strengthen the faith of those who believe and they rejoice. It is the perverse at heart who become more perverse with each new surah (9:124).

They ask, Why does the Prophet bother preaching to people God will destroy, or at least punish severely? (7:164). In order to be free from the Lord’s blame, and so perhaps they may take heed. (7:164)

They say, ‘Bring us a different Qur’an or change it’ (10:15). It is not for the Prophet to change on his own accord; he only follows what is revealed to him. If God so willed, the Prophet would not have recited the Qur’an, nor would he have made it known to people. The Prophet lived a lifetime before the revelations came to him. How can people not use their reason (10:15)?

The disbelievers’ arguments have no weight with their Lord (42:16).Those who argue about God but have no knowledge or guidance or any book of enlightenment, and turn scornfully aside to lead others away from God’s path, will have disgrace in this world (22:8). God’s anger will fall on those who argued about him (42:16).

The disbelievers do no not love the Prophet. They tell him they believe, but when he leaves they bite their fingertips in rage at him (3:119). They rush to peer at the Prophet, from right to left, in crowds (70:36).

The disbelievers become arrogant whenever a messenger brings them something they don’t like (2:87). They call some messengers ‘imposters’ and kill them (2:87).

The disbelievers prohibit the mention of God’s name in His places of worship and strive to have them deserted (2:114). Some persecute the believers (85:10). They will keep fighting believers until they make them revoke their faith (2:217). Some have lost all hope that believers will give up their religion (5:3).

Those who reject faith fight for an unjust cause (4:76). When the disbelievers win in battle, they should not think that they have won; they cannot escape God (8:59). In the past, disbelievers swore that their power would have no end. God utterly destroyed those people. Today, disbelievers are living in those same places (14:44). God is shrinking their borders (21:44).

The Disbelievers laugh at believers, wink at one another when the believers pass by, joke about them when they get back to their own people, and say ‘these people are misguided.’ (83:29). They think the believers are bad, and take them for a laughing stock (38:62).

Whenever any fresh revelation comes to believers from their Lord, the disbelievers listen to it playfully with frivolous hearts (21:2). They laugh instead of weep and pay no heed when the prophet gives his warning (53:60). They ridicule the call to prayer (5:58) and indulge with others in mocking the believers (74:45). They mock Muhammad and messengers before him (6:10).

The hypocrites suggest alluring words to one another in order to deceive (6:112). They say ‘Follow our path and we shall bear the consequences for your sin.’ They are liars (29:12). They use their oaths as a cover and so bar others from God’s way (63:2). They plot and scheme (86:15). God will expose the malice of the corrupt at heart (47:29).

Who could be more wicked than one who claims that a revelation has come to him when no revelation has been sent (6:93). Woe to those who write something down with their own hands and then claim, ‘This is from God,’ in order to make some small gain (2:79). Who could be more wicked than one who says, ‘I too can reveal something equal to God’s revelation’ (6:93).

Who could be more wicked than those who invent lies about God? The Disbelievers made jinn partners with God (88). They attributed sons and daughters to God (88) and set up other gods alongside Him (50:26). God does not forgive the worship of others beside him (4:116). As for those who say ‘We only worship others because they bring us nearer to God’, God himself will judge between them regarding their differences (39:3). He will make followers of other gods see their deeds as a source of bitter regret (19:167).

If the hypocrites, the sick at heart, and those who spread lies in the city do not desist, God will rouse the Prophet against them-they will be rejected. Wherever they are found, they will be arrested and put to death (33:61).

The disbelievers only know the outer surface of this present life and are heedless of the life to come (30:7). They allow themselves to be tempted (57:14). They are seduced by the life of this world (6:130). They think that it is glamorous (2:212). They overindulge in luxury (56:45) and vain desires (4:119). The disbelievers persist in great sin (56:45). Some choose Satan as a patron and allow him to mislead them (4:119). They are tempted by Satan’s insinuations (22:53). God does not guide those who do evil (2:258).

The disbelievers have strayed far from the right path (2:108). They do not pray (74:43), feed the poor (74:44), or urge others to feed the hungry (107:3). They push orphans aside (107:2). They give short measure and demand of others full measure for themselves (83:1). Some hinder good (50:25) and forbid common kindness (107:7). They have squandered their souls (7:53).

When God wishes to lead disbelievers astray, he closes and constricts their breasts (6:125). He lets them go astray because on earth they reveled in untruth and ran wild (40:75).

God has added disease to disbelievers’ hearts (2:10). He has covered their eyes and sealed their hearts and ears (2:7) and taken away all their light, leaving them in utter darkness (2:18). God mocks the disbelievers and allows them more time to wander blindly in their insolence (2:15).

God bars disbelievers from the right path by assigning an evil one as a comrade for whoever turns away from the revelation (43:36). God makes some evildoers have power over others through their misdeeds (6:129). God put chief evildoers in every city to perpetrate their schemes there (6:123). He makes each communities actions seem alluring (6:108).

The Idolaters call upon created beings (7:191) who create nothing (7:191). The idolaters invoke only females (4:117) and assign daughters to God (16:57). They attribute to God what they themselves dislike while their own tongues utter the lie that the best belongs to them (16:62). Polytheists lie against themselves when they say ‘we have not set up partners besides God’ (6:23). They follow their own desires without any knowledge (30:29). Some are influenced by jinn to follow the poets (26:221).

The idolaters set aside part of the sustenance God gives them for idols about which they have no true knowledge (16:56). They believe falsehoods like that some animals should be exempt from labour (6:138). Some slit the ears of cattle, and tamper with God’s creation (4:119). Their idols have induced many of the pagans to kill their own children (6:137). When one is given news of a birth of a baby girl, his face darkens and he is filled with gloom. he may choose to bury her in the dust (16:58).

The idolaters swore their most solemn oath that, if someone came to warn them, they would be more rightly guided than any other community, but when someone did come they turned yet further away, became more arrogant in the land, and intensified their plotting of evil (35:42).

Those who worship idols are worse in rank than believers (5:60).God will punish the idolaters at the believers hands. He will disgrace them and help the believers conquer them (9:14).

Whoever turns away from God’s guidance will have a life of great hardship (20:124). Whatever they give away in this life will be nullified: a frosty wind will strike and destroy their harvest (3:117). God shall make disbelievers taste a nearer torment in this life prior to the greater torment, so that perhaps they may return to the right path (32:21). God shall show those astray signs on the far horizon and in themselves until it becomes clear to them that this is the Truth (41:53). He gives disbelievers respite until a Day when their eyes will stare in terror (14:42). God will grant disbelievers some enjoyment for a short while before sending them to hell (2:126). He will truly humiliate those he commits to the Fire (3:192).

The Day of Judgement

No one knows when the Day of Judgment will arrive, except a messenger of God’s choosing (72:27). God alone knows the hour (7:187).

When the Day of Judgement arrives, a trumpet will sound a single time (69:13). Everyone in the heavens and earth will be terrified and fall down senseless, except for those God spares (39:68). Disbelievers will be thunderstruck (52:45). The trumpet will sound once again and they will be on their feet, looking on (39:68).

People will hear a single, deafening blast (80:33) that will overtake them while the disbelievers are still arguing (283). They will scatter like moths (101:4). The ground will split open (50:44) and the earth will cast out its contents and become empty (84:4). Graves will turn inside out (82:4), letting the dead rush out (50:44) and return to God (36:51). Eyes down, the dead will come out of their graves like swarming locusts-rushing towards the Summoner as if rallying to a flag (54:7). The Day of Judgement will be a stern day (54:8)-it will be a day that turns children’s hair grey (73:17).

The earth will shake violently in its last quaking (99:1). God will raise the mountains high and crush them into dust with a single blow (69:14), leaving a flat plain (20:105). The mountains will be ground to powder (56:4), become like a mirage (78:20), and float away (52:9) like clouds (27:88) or tofts of wool (70:9).

The earthquake of the Last Hour will be a mighty thing (22:2): pregnant camels will be abandoned, wild beasts will be herded together (81:4). People will appear drunk when they are not (22:2). Every nursing mother will think no more of her baby, every pregnant female will miscarry (22:2). All will be absorbed in concerns of their own, and flee from friends and family (80:34). It will be a day when hearts are at throats, choking them (40:18).

Winds will be sent forth in swift succession; violent storming, scattering far and wide, separating forcefully (81:2). The seas will burst forth (82:3) and boil over (81:6). The stars will be dimmed (81:2) and scattered (82:2). The heavens will be like molten copper (70:8).

The sky will sway back and forth (52:9). The moon will be eclipsed, and the sun and moon brought together (75:7). The sky will turn crimson, like red hide (55:37). It will split open (55:37) and break (82:1). It will be torn apart (69:16) and stripped away (81:11). They sky will become wide portals (78:19). The angels will be sent down in streams (25:25). The whole earth will be in God’s grip (39:67). The sun (81:1) and heavens will be rolled up in his right hand like a writer rolls up his scrolls (39:67).

God will reproduce creation just as he produced it the first time (21:104). The earth will be turned into another earth, the heavens into another heaven (14:48). The earth will shine with the light of its Lord (39:69). Eyes will be dazzled (75:7). Every voice will be hushed for the Lord of Mercy-only whispers will be heard (20:108).

People will follow the summoner (20:108). Everyone will carry only their own burden (35:18). Those burdened with evil will despair (20:111). The evil doers will have no friends, nor intercessor to be heeded (40:18). Intercession will be useless except from those to whom the Lord of Mercy has granted (20:109).

On the day of mutual neglect (64:9), every soul will come pleading for itself (16:11). No friend will ask about his friend (70:10). The guilty person will wish he could save himself by sacrificing his sons, his spouse, his brother, the kinfolk who gave him shelter, and everyone on earth, if it could save him (70:11). There will be no bargaining or friendship (2:254)

But whoever has done righteous deeds and believed need have no fear of injustice or deprivation (20:112). God will save the believers from the woes of that day (76:11). He will give them radiance and gladness (76:11).

Each person will arrive attended by one angel to drive him on and another to bear witness (50:21). Those who turned away from God’s guidance will be brought to the assembly blind (20:124). Each person’s veil will be removed and they will see clearly (50:22). It will seem to people like they lingered in this life an evening or its morning (79:46)

The angels will be on all sides of the sky, eight of them will bear the throne of the Lord above them (69:17). The Spirit and the angels will stand in rows and will not speak except for those to whom the Lord of Mercy gives permission (78:38).

All people will appear before God (14:48), and all faces will be humbled before Him (20:110). Some faces will be beaming, laughing, and rejoicing (80:40)-they will be in God’s grace, there to remain (3:107). But some faces will be dust-stained and covered in darkness (80:40). They will be invited to prostrate themselves but will be prevented from doing so. Their eyes will be downcast and they will be overwhelmed with shame (68:43). God will show them the evil of their deeds plainly, and they will be overwhelmed by them (39:47). It will be asked of the hypocrites, “How could you reject your faith after believing?’ (3:106). Disbelievers will be made to stand before God, he will say ‘Is this not real?’  When they answer yes, he will say, ‘Then taste the torment for having disbelieved’ (6:30).

Believers, both men and women, will have their light streaming out ahead of them and to their right. The hypocrites will say to the believers, ‘Wait for us! Let us have some of your light!’ they will be told, ‘Go back and look for a light.’ A wall with a door will be erected between them: inside it lies mercy, outside lies torment. (57:13). Muhammad will dispute with others in the presence of their Lord (39:31).

People will be sorted into three classes (56:7). Those going to the garden will be given their records in their right hands, those going to hell will be given their records in their left hands (69:19). The Record of Deeds will be laid open (81:10)-all will be exposed and no secrets will remain hidden (69:18).The baby girl buried alive will be asked for what sin she was killed. (81:8). The prophets and witnesses will be brought in (39:69). A witness for every community will be raised up and brought against the disbelievers (16:89). God will judge between the Jews, Sabians, the Christians, the Magians, and the idolaters (22:17). Fair judgement will be given between them (39:69).

Hell

Hell will be made to blaze (81:12), and Paradise brought near (81:13).

The disbelievers will be known by their mark and seized by their foreheads and their feet (55:41).Those who had incurred God’s wrath and disdained to please him will be beaten on their faces and backs by the angels when they are taken away (47:27). They will be led to hell in their throngs (39:71). They will hear a fire raging from a distance (25:12). Clouds of smoke will envelope the people (44:10). Smoke will rise in three columns that shoot out sparks as bright as copper and as large as tree trunks. No shade will the smoke give. (77:30). The disbelievers will be driven like a thirsty herd to Hell (19:86).

When the disbelievers arrive at hell, its seven gates (15:44) will open and its keepers will say to them, ‘Were you not sent your own messengers to recite the revelations of your Lord to you and warn you that you would meet this day?’ (39:71).

The truth the disbelievers used to hide will become all too clear (6:28). It was the their own thoughts that they entertained about their Lord that led them to ruin (41:23). Their false, invented gods took them into the depths of darkness (2:257) and deserted them (10:30). When idolaters face the torment, they will say, “If only we had one last chance, we would disown our false gods as they now disown us’ (2:167).

The disbelievers eyes and skin will testify against them for their misdeeds (41:20). They will confess their sins. Their mouths will be sealed up (36:65).

Neither their possessions nor their children will be any use to the disbelievers against God (3:10). They will not be saved even if they offer enough gold to fill the entire earth (3:91). Disbelievers will say, ‘Our Lord, show us those jinn and humans who misled us and we shall trample them underfoot, so they may be among the lowest of the low’ (41:29). God will neither look at them or speak to them (3:77).

The evildoers will be left sitting at their knees around hell (19:72). An iron collar will be placed on the disbelievers’ necks (40:71). They will be bound with fetters (14:49) and a chain seventy meters long (69:32). The disbelievers will rush forward, craning their necks, unable to divert their eyes, a gaping void in their hearts. They will stare in terror (14:42). They will be hurled into a narrow part of hell; chained together they will cry out for death (25:13).

The disbelievers will be dragged into scalding water (40:71) and burned in a raging fire that strips away their skin (70:16). They will wear tailored (22:19) garments of pitch (14:50) and fire (22:19). Their faces will be covered in fire (14:50). Scalding water will be poured over their heads, melting them on the inside as well as the outside. (22:19)

Those who hoarded wealth on earth and did not give to the needy will have heated metal branded on their foreheads, sides, and backs (9:35). Those who hid scripture and sold it at a small price will have their bellies filled with Fire (2:174). Those who sneered, ‘So God is poor, while we are rich’ will taste the torment in the scorching fire. So too will those who killed the prophets (3:181).

If those who rejected the truth ask for relief in hell, they will be given water like molten metal, scalding their faces (18:29). The pleas of the disbelievers will always be in vain (40:50). Whenever they try to escape they will be pushed back in and told ‘Taste the suffering of Fire’ (22:22).

Disbelievers will have boiling water to drink in hell (6:70)-a scalding, dark, foul fluid (38:57, ?). They will fill their bellies (37:66) with fruits like devils heads (37:65) from the tree of Zaqqum (44:43). Hot as molten metal, the fruit will boil in their bellies like seething water (44:45). Then the disbelievers will drink a scalding mixture on top of it, before returning to the blazing fire (37:67).

The disbelievers will dwell amid scorching wind and scalding water in the shadow of black smoke, neither cool nor refreshing (56:42). They will continue to drink scalding water, lapping it like thirsty camels (56:54). Toiling and weary they will have no food except bitter dry thorns that neither nourish nor satisfy hunger (88:3). They will eat only filth (69:36). They will groan piteously (21:100). They will have a bottomless pit for a home (101:9). They will be fuel for hell (66:6).

The disbelievers will say, ‘if only I were dust!’ (78:40).

Paradise

Those who believe and do good deeds (2:82) will find the gates of paradise wide open (39:73).They will look around and see angels surrounding the Throne, glorifying their Lord with praise (39:75). The keepers of Paradise will say to the believers, ‘Peace be upon you. You have been good; come in, you are here to stay’ (39:73). Believers will receive their blessed reward, a pleasant resting place (18:31), the Home of Peace (6:127).

They will find two gardens above two more (55:62). The gardens will be as wide as the heavens and earth (3:133). Both levels will be the deepest green and gushing with springs (55:64). They will be gardens of lasting bliss (9:72); graced with flowing streams (2:25), lush meadows (42:22), vineyards (78:32), and cool, refreshing shade (4:57).There will be rivers of water forever pure, rivers of milk forever fresh, rivers of honey clarified and pure, and rivers of wine (47:15).

The believers will feel neither scorching heat nor biting cold (76:13). Neither toil nor fatigue will not touch them (35:35). All ill feelings from believers hearts will be removed (7:43).

They will be joined by their righteous ancestors, spouses, and descendants (13:23). They will be united with their offspring who followed them in faith (52:21). They will be paired with good natured, dark eyed (55:70), modest spouses or maidens of matching age (78:33). God made the partners special-virginal and loving (56:35). They will be like rubies and brilliant pearls (55:58), untouched beforehand by man or jinn (55:74).

Believers will look around and see bliss and great opulence (76:20). Everyone will be adorned with bracelets of gold (18:31), silver (76:21), and pearls (22:23). They will wear green garments of fine silk and brocade (18:31). They will be comfortably seated on soft chairs (18:31), fine carpets, green cushions (55:76), or couches of well-woven cloth (56:15) arranged in rows (52:20) and facing one another (37:44). There will be clusters of fruit hanging close by (76:14). Dishes, plates, and goblets of gold (43:71) and silver, according to their fancy (76:15), will be passed around with all that their souls desire and their eyes delight in (43:71). They will be provided with any fruit or meat they desire (52:22). Devoted youth like hidden pearls will wait on them (52:24).

Believers will be given white, delicious drinks (37:46). There will be a drink infused with ginger (76:17), a drink mixed with the fragrant herb kafur (76:5), and a nectar also sealed with a fragrant herb (83:25), all made with water from a flowing spring (76:18). The drinks will be passed around (52:23). They will cause no headiness or intoxication (37:47) that leads to idle talk and sin (56:19). Only clean and wholesome speech will be heard (56:26).

The people of the Fire will ask the people of Paradise for water and sustenance. Believers will refuse and say, God forbids these things for you-you took religion for a distraction, a mere game, and were deluded by worldly life. You will be ignored’. (7:50) The believers will laugh at the disbelievers as they sit on their couches in paradise (83:34).

Believers will dwell amid thornless lote trees and clustered acacia with spreading shade (56:28). They will be lodged in lofty dwellings (29:58), one above the other (39:20) or wherever they please (39:74).

But the greatest thing they’ll have-the supreme triumph-is God’s good pleasure (9:72).

Every soul will be paid in full for its actions. None will not be wronged (16:111).