Fazlollah Nikayin, The Quran; The First Poetic Translation (2000)
To anyone except by God's permission;1
Indeed they learned what only hurt them,
Not what would ever profit them;
And they well knew that people in this business,
Would have no portion of the bliss,
In the Hereafter;
Miserable is indeed the goals
For which they sold their souls,2
If only they knew better!
103. Had they but known, had they believed and guarded
Themselves from evil, certainly they would,
Have been by God rewarded,
Far better good!
104. O you believers, do not say: "ra'ina",3
But simply say: "unzurna" and give ear;
Surely the disbelievers shall be facing,
A chastisement severe.
105. Neither the people who lack faith,
Among the People of the Book,
Nor the idolaters, would like
That any blissful good is poured
Down to you from your Lord,
But God His Mercy showers,
1. The power of evil is, of course, limited to the extent to which God permits.
2. Selling one's soul into slavery to the Evil.
3. This means: "Listen, look or pay attention", but in the dialect ofJewish Arabs, it also meant "Our naughty one"!
4. This also means "Look or pay attention" but it lacks the secondary abusive meaning or derisive pun of the former.
