The Angels
IN THE NAME OF GOD, THE MOST GRACIOUS, THE DISPENSER OF GRACE
[35:18]
AND NO BEARER of burdens shall be made to hear another’s burden; and if one weighed down by his load calls upon [another] to help him carry it, nothing thereof may be carried [by that other], even if it be one’s near of kin.
Hence, thou canst [truly] warn only those who stand in awe of their Sustainer although He is beyond the reach of their perception, and are constant in prayer, and [know that] whoever grows in purity, attains to purity but for the good of his own self, and [that] with God is all journeys’ end.


* v.18 : I.e., on Judgment Day – for “whatever [wrong] any human being commits rests upon him alone” (6:164, which is followed by a sentence identical with the one above).
* Thus, any transfer of moral responsibility from one person to another is shown to be impossible. Whereas the first part of the above statement implies a negation of the Christian doctrine of “original sin” with which mankind is supposedly burdened, the second part categorically refutes the doctrine of the “vicarious atonement” of that sin by Jesus. (See also 53:38 and the corresponding note 31.)
* For an explanation of this rendering of bi’l-ghayb, see sūrah 2, note 3. The meaning is that only those “who believe in the existence of that which is beyond the reach of human perception” can really benefit by the “warning” inherent in the preceding statement. (See also 27:8-81 and 30:52-53.)