Texts of Islam

The Qur'ân, ed. Palmer (SBE6): XIV. The Chapter of Abraham

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This is an excerpt from Sura Ibrahim (Chapter 14) of the Qur'an, drawn from E.H. Palmer's 1880 English translation published in the Sacred Books of the East series. The passage presents core Islamic theological arguments: God's absolute sovereignty over creation, the recurring pattern of prophets (including Moses and Abraham) delivering divine guidance to resistant peoples, and the ultimate accountability of believers and unbelievers on the Day of Judgment. It contrasts the fates of the faithful — paradise beneath flowing rivers — with the damned, who face hell, scalding puss, and eternal torment. The excerpt includes Abraham's prayers for Mecca and his descendants, establishing a direct lineage between Qur'anic Islam and the Abrahamic tradition. Palmer's translation is notable for its philological fidelity over readability, as shown in the translator's footnotes defending his blunt rendering of Arabic terms (e.g., "liquid puss") against the more sanitized choices of contemporaries Sale and Rodwell — a distinctively scholarly, Victorian-era approach to sacred text translation.

The Qur'ân, ed. Palmer (SBE6): XIV. The Chapter of Abraham

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