James 4

Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Do not they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2You lust, and do not have. You kill, covet, and cannot obtain. You fight and make war. You do not have, because you do not ask. 3You ask, and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures. 4You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with Allah? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of Allah. 5Or do you think that Al-Kitab says in vain that the Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously? 6But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, Allah opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.[1] 7Therefore submit to Allah. Resist Iblis, and he will flee from you. 8Draw near to Allah, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11Do not speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the Taurat and judges its shariah. But if you judge the shariah, you are not a doer of the shariah, but a judge. 12There is only one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow let’s go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit. 14Whereas you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapour, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15For you ought to say, “Insha Allah, we will both live, and do this or that. 16But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17To him therefore who knows to do good, and does not do it, to him it is sin.

 

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[1] 4:6 Quoting the Taurat in Proverbs 3:34.