Human models and divine advice

There is a man who talks well of the world to your pleasing, and makes God witness to what is in his heart, yet he is the most contentious;

For when his back is turned he goes about spreading disorder in the land, destroying fields and flocks; but God does not love disorder.

Whenever he is told: "Obey God," his arrogance leads him to more sin; and sufficient for him shall be Hell: How evil a place of wide expanse!

And there is a man who is willing to sell even his soul to win the favour of God; and God is compassionate to His creatures.

O believers, come to full submission to God. Do not follow in the footsteps of Satan your acknowledged foe.

If you falter even after Our signs have reached you, then do not forget that God is all-powerful and all-wise.

Are they waiting for God to appear in the balconies of clouds with a host of angels, and the matter to be settled? But all things rest with God in the end.

Ask the children of Israel how many a clear sign We had given them. But if one changes the favour of God after having received it, then remember, God is severe in revenge.

Enamoured are the unbelievers of the life of this world, and scoff at the faithful. But those who keep from evil and follow the straight path will have a higher place than they on the Day of Reckoning; for God gives in measure without number whomsoever He will.

Men belonged to a single community, and God sent them messengers to give them happy tidings and warnings, and sent the Book with them containing the truth to judge between them in matters of dispute; but only those who received it differed after receiving clear proofs, on account of waywardness (and jealousies) among them. Then God by His dispensation showed those who believed the way to the truth about which they were differing; for God shows whom He please the path that is straight.

Do you think you will find your way to Paradise even though you have not known what the others before you have gone through? They had suffered affliction and loss, and were shaken and tossed about so that even the Apostle had to cry out with his followers: "When will the help of God arrive?" Remember, the help of God is ever at hand.

They ask you of what they should give in charity. Tell them: "What you can spare of your wealth as should benefit the parents, the relatives, the orphans, the needy, the wayfarers, for God is not unaware of the good deeds that you do."

Enjoined on you is fighting, and this you abhor. You may dislike a thing yet it may be good for you; or a thing may haply please you but may be bad for you. Only God has knowledge, and you do not know.

They ask you of war in the holy month. Tell them: "To fight in that month is a great sin. But a greater sin in the eyes of God is to hinder people from the way of God, and not to believe in Him, and to bar access to the Holy Mosque and turn people out of its precincts; and oppression is worse than killing. They will always seek war against you till they turn you away from your faith, if they can. But those of you who turn back on their faith and die disbelieving will have wasted their deeds in this world and the next. They are inmates of Hell, and shall there abide for ever.

Surely those who believe, and those who leave their homes and fight in the way of God, may hope for His benevolence, for God is forgiving and kind.

They ask you of (intoxicants,) wine and gambling. Tell them: "There is great enervation though profit in them for men; but their enervation is greater than benefit. And they ask you what they should give. Tell them: "The utmost you can spare." So does God reveal His signs: You may haply reflect

On this world and the next. And they ask you about the orphans. Tell them: "Improving their lot is much better; and if you take interest in their affairs, they are your brethren; and God is aware who are corrupt and who are honest; and if He had pleased He could surely have imposed on you hardship, for God is all-powerful and all-wise.