34 Say:  God is My witness, O concourse of the negligent!  We came not unto you to spread disorder in 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."(91) 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"?(92) Wherefore have ye then cast the command of God behind your backs, and followed in the footsteps of them that are bent on mischief?

35 We have heard that one of these calumniators hath alleged that this Servant practised usury whilst residing in ’Iraq, 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 Muhammad, 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 unto all mankind?  This is but one of the matters in which We have opposed the divines of Persia, inasmuch as We have, according to the text of the Book, forbidden unto all men the practice of usury.  God Himself beareth witness to the truth of My words.  “Yet I hold not myself clear, for the soul is prone to evil."(93) We intend only to impart unto you the truth, that ye might be informed thereof and be of them that lead a godly life.  Beware lest ye give ear to the words of those from whom the foul smell of malice and envy can be discerned; pay no heed to them, and stand ye for righteousness.

36 Know ye that the world and its vanities and its embellishments shall pass away.  Nothing will endure except God’s Kingdom which pertaineth to none but Him, the Sovereign Lord of all, the Help in Peril, the All-Glorious, the Almighty.  The days of your life shall roll away, and all the things with which ye are occupied and of which ye boast yourselves shall perish, and ye shall, most certainly, be summoned by a company of His angels to appear at the spot where the limbs of the entire creation shall be made to tremble, and the flesh of every oppressor to creep.  Ye shall be asked of the things your hands have wrought in this, your vain life, and shall be repaid for your doings.  This is the day that shall inevitably come upon you, the hour that none can put back.  To this the Tongue of Him that speaketh the truth and is the Knower of all things hath testified.