His bidding, and follow naught, through the power of God
and His might, except His truth. He, verily, shall recompense the
truthful.

39 Narrate, O Servant, the things Thou didst behold at the time of Thine
arrival in the City, that Thy testimony may endure amongst men, and serve
as a warning unto them that believe. We found, upon Our arrival in the
City, its governors and elders as children gathered about and disporting
themselves with clay. We perceived no one sufficiently mature to acquire
from Us the truths which God hath taught Us, nor ripe for Our wondrous
words of wisdom. Our inner eye wept sore over them, and over their
transgressions and their total disregard of the thing for which they were
created. This is what We observed in that city, and which We have chosen
to note down in Our Book, that it may serve as a warning unto them, and
unto the rest of mankind.

40 Say: If ye be seekers after this life and the vanities thereof, ye
should have sought them while ye were still enclosed in your mothers'
wombs, for at that time ye were continually approaching them, could ye but
perceive it. Ye have, on the other hand, ever since ye were born and
attained maturity, been all the while receding from the world and drawing
closer to dust. Why, then, exhibit such greed in amassing the treasures of
the earth, when your days are numbered and your chance is well-nigh lost?
Will ye not, then, O heedless ones, shake off your slumber?

41 Incline your ears to the counsels which this Servant giveth you for the
sake of God. He, verily, asketh no recompense from you and is resigned to
what God hath ordained for Him, and is entirely submissive to God's Will.

42 The days of your life are far spent, O people, and your end is fast
approaching. Put away, therefore, the things ye have devised and to which
ye cleave, and take firm hold on the precepts of God, that haply ye may
attain that which He hath purposed for you, and be of them that pursue a
right course. Delight not yourselves in the things of the world and its
vain ornaments, neither set your hopes on them. Let your reliance be on
the remembrance of God, the Most Exalted, the Most Great. He will,
erelong, bring to naught all the things ye possess. Let Him be your fear,
and forget not His covenant with you, and be not of them that are shut out
as by a veil from Him.

43 Beware that ye swell not with pride before God, and disdainfully reject
His loved ones. Defer ye humbly to