The Quran

Preface

بِئسَمَا اشتَرَوا بِهِ أَنفُسَهُم أَن يَكفُروا بِما أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ بَغيًا أَن يُنَزِّلَ اللَّهُ مِن فَضلِهِ عَلىٰ مَن يَشاءُ مِن عِبادِهِ ۖ فَباءوا بِغَضَبٍ عَلىٰ غَضَبٍ ۚ وَلِلكافِرينَ عَذابٌ مُهينٌ

Yusuf Ali

Miserable is the price for which they have sold their souls, in that they deny (the revelation) which God has sent down, in insolent envy that God of His Grace should send it to any of His servants He pleases¹: Thus have they drawn on themselves Wrath upon Wrath. And humiliating is the punishment of those who reject Faith.

Racial arrogance made the Jews adverse to the reception of Truth when it came through a servant of God, not of their own race. Again the lesson is wider. Is that adverseness unknown in our own times, and among other races? Yet how can a race or a people set bounds to God’s choice? God is the Creator and Cherisher of all races and all worlds. (Cf. n. 359).