Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)
15. When ye welcomed it with your tongues, and uttered with your mouths that whereof ye had no knowledge, ye counted it a trifle. In the sight of Allah it is very great.
16. Wherefor, when ye heard it, said ye not: It is not for us to speak of this. Glory be to Thee (O Allah)! This is awful calumny.
17. Allah admonisheth you that ye repeat not the like thereof ever, if ye are (in truth) believers.
18. And He expoundeth unto you His revelations. Allah is Knower, Wise.
19. Lo! those who love that slander should be spread concerning those who believe, theirs will be a painful punishment in the world and the Hereafter. Allah knoweth. Ye know not.
20. Had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy unto you, and that Allah is Clement, Merciful, (ye had been undone).
21. O ye who believe! Follow not the footsteps of the devil. Unto whomsoever followeth the footsteps of the devil, lo! he commandeth filthiness and wrong. Had it not been for the grace of Allah and His mercy unto you, not one of you would ever have grown pure. But Allah causeth whom He will to grow. And Allah is Hearer, Knower.
22. And let not those who possess dignity and ease among you swear not to give to the near of kin and to the needy, and to fugitives for the cause of Allah.1 Let them forgive and show indulgence. Yearn ye not that Allah may forgive you? Allah is Forgiving, Merciful.
23. Lo! as for those who traduce virtuous, believing
1 Tradition says that Abû Bakr, when he heard that a kinsman of his own whom he had supported had been among the slanderers of his daughter Ayeshah, swore no longer to support him, and that this verse was revealed on that occasion.
