your lands or to sow dissension amongst your peoples. Nay rather, We came in obedience to the command of the sovereign, and in order to exalt your authority, to instruct you in the ways of Our wisdom, and to remind you of that which ye had forgotten—even as He saith in truth: “Warn them, for, in truth, Thy warning will profit the believers.”
[72] But ye hearkened not unto the sweet melodies of the Spirit, and gave ear unwittingly unto Our enemies, they who follow the promptings of their corrupt inclinations, whose deeds the Evil One hath made fair-seeming in their own eyes, and whose tongues utter calumnies against Us. Heard ye not that which hath been revealed in His all-glorious and unerring Book: “If a wicked man come to you with news, clear it up at once”?
[73] Wherefore have ye then cast the command of God behind your backs, and followed in the footsteps of them that are bent on mischief?
35We have heard that one of these calumniators hath alleged that this Servant practised usury whilst residing in
‘Iráq, and was engaged in amassing riches for Himself. Say: How can ye judge a matter whereof ye have no knowledge? How can ye hurl calumnies against the servants of God, and entertain such evil suspicions? And how could this accusation be true, when God hath forbidden this practice unto His servants in that most holy and well-guarded Book revealed unto
Muḥammad, the Apostle of God and the
Seal of the Prophets, a Book which He hath ordained to be His abiding testimony, and His guidance and monition