Chapter One - The Opening and the Warning

CHAPTER ONE

The Opening and the Warning

THE BOOK BEGINS with a prayer.

It’s short, just seven lines long. But it’s everything.

It praises the one God, the Lord of the worlds, the Master of Judgment Day.
It asks Him for guidance.
Not the path of those who earned His anger.
Not the path of those who went astray.
The straight path.
The right one.

That’s how the book opens.
With a request.
Then the response begins.

The book says it contains no doubt.
It is guidance, but only for those who fear God.
It separates people into three types:

Those who believe, pray, and give.
Those who reject the message, some of whom will never believe.
And those who pretend, the hypocrites who claim to follow, but lie to themselves.

These people are blind, deaf, and lost.
They wander in storms.
They light a fire, only to see it snuffed out.
They take one step in lightning, then get swallowed by darkness.
That’s what it’s like, the book says, to hear the truth and ignore it.

The people are told:
Worship your Lord.
He made you.
He made the ones before you.
He made the earth your floor, the sky your ceiling, and the rain that feeds your crops.
Don’t worship others beside Him.
You know better.

If you doubt the message, try to write something like it.
You can’t.

If you reject it, there is fire.
If you accept it, there is a garden.
Shade.
Fruit.
Clean rivers.
Forever.

This is not a book that tiptoes.
It threatens those who lie.
It promises bliss to those who believe.

Then it begins to tell the old stories.
Adam. The angels. The first fall.

God tells the angels He’s creating a human.
They ask, “Why? Will he spill blood?”
God says, “I know what you don’t.”
He teaches Adam the names of everything.
The angels admit they didn’t know.

God tells them to bow.
They all bow except Iblis.
He refuses.
He is proud.
He is cast out.

Adam and his wife are placed in the garden.
They are told: enjoy it, but don’t go near this one tree.
They go near it.
They slip.
They are warned.
They are sent down to Earth.
But God says: there will be guidance.
And whoever follows it will have nothing to fear.

Then the book speaks to the Children of Israel.

They were chosen.
They were rescued.
They were shown signs, saved from Pharaoh, given food from the sky, and still they disobeyed.

They worshipped a golden calf.
They demanded to see God in person.
They broke the Sabbath.
They argued over a cow when they were just told to sacrifice it.
They asked question after question to avoid doing what they were told.
Eventually, they did it. But only after stalling.

Their hearts became like stone.
Harder than stone.
They had the truth, and they still broke it.

The book reminds them:
God gave you prophets.
He gave you the covenant.
He gave you food.
You turned away.

Some still believed.
Many did not.

Then the believers are told what they believe:
In this book.
In the books that came before.
In Moses.
In Jesus.
In all the prophets.
No picking and choosing.

This is how the story starts.