Marmaduke Pickthall, The Meaning of The Glorious Koran. An Explanatory Translation (1930)
placed roads for you therein, that haply ye may find your way;
11. And who sendeth down water from the sky in (due) measure, and We revive a dead land therewith. Even so will ye be brought forth;
12. He who created all the pairs, and appointed for you ships and cattle whereupon ye ride.
13. That ye may mount upon their backs, and may remember your Lord’s favour when ye mount thereon, and may say: Glorified be He Who hath subdued these unto us, and we were not capable (of subduing them);
14. And lo! unto our Lord we are returning.
15. And they allot to Him a portion of His bondmen! Lo! man is verily a mere ingrate.
16. Or chooseth He daughters of all that He hath created, and honoureth He you with sons?
17. And if one of them hath tidings of that which he likeneth to the Beneficent One,1 his countenance becometh black and he is full of inward rage.
18. (Liken they then to Allah) that which is bred up in outward show, and in dispute cannot make itself plain?
19. And they make the angels, who are the slaves of the Beneficent, females. Did they witness their creation? Their testimony will be recorded and they will be questioned.
20. And they say: If the Beneficent One had (so) willed, we should not have worshipped them. They have no knowledge whatsoever of that. They do but guess.
21. Or have We given them any Scripture before (this Qur’ân) so that they are holding fast thereto?
22. Nay, for they say only: Lo! we found our fathers following a religion, and we are guided by their footprints.
23. And even so We sent not a warner before thee (Muhammad
1 i.e. tidings of the birth of a girl-child.
