{"collection":"Texts of Islam","full_text_available":false,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_043_htm/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/sacred_texts_v1_isl_043_htm","id":"sacred_texts_v1_isl_043_htm","license":"unknown_pending_legal_review","rights_basis":"sacred_texts_v1_preview_gate_primary_text_only; acquisition-method/ToS and compilation-copyright questions still open, not resolved by this gate","source":"sacred_texts_v1","source_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/isl/043.htm","summary":"This is Surah 43 (Az-Zukhruf, \"The Gold Adornments\"), the forty-third chapter of the Quran, here rendered in an archaic English translation typical of nineteenth-century Islamic scholarship. The chapter's central argument is the absolute unity and sovereignty of God against the polytheistic practices of the Meccan Arabs, who attributed daughters to God, venerated angels as female beings, and defended idol worship by appeal to ancestral tradition \u2014 all of which the text systematically refutes. A recurring structural move is the citation of earlier prophets \u2014 Abraham rejecting his people's idols, Moses confronting Pharaoh, Jesus teaching submission to God \u2014 each met with mockery and eventual divine punishment, framing the Meccan rejection of Muhammad as part of a historical pattern of human ingratitude. The chapter's title derives from its treatment of gold and worldly ornament as spiritually worthless: God withholds universal material abundance from disbelievers not because it has value, but to prevent all humanity from converging on materialism, while paradise alone offers lasting fulfillment. Jesus receives distinctive attention: he is explicitly demoted from divinity to \"a servant whom we have been gracious to\" and a prophetic sign, not a son of God. The overall tone is forensic and confrontational, addressed to a skeptical audience in Mecca, building a cumulative case that tradition, wealth, and social prestige are false grounds for rejecting revelation.","tags":[],"text":null,"title":"043","tradition":"Texts of Islam","translated_text":null,"word_count":1728}