{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_2800/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_2800","id":"gutenberg_2800","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2800","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Harvard Classics","Islam","Qur'an"],"text":"The Koran\n\n\n\nTRANSLATED FROM THE ARABIC BY THE REV. J.M. RODWELL, M.A.  WITH AN\nINTRODUCTION BY THE REV. G. MARGOLIOUTH, M.A.\n\n\n\nIntroduction Preface Index\n\nSura Number (this edition) Sura Number (Arabic text) Title\n\n1    96      Thick Blood or Clots of Blood\n2    74      The Enwrapped\n3    73      The Enfolded\n4    93      The Brightness\n5    94      The Opening\n6    113     The Daybreak\n7    114     Men\n8    1       Sura I.\n9    109     Unbelievers\n10   112     The Unity\n11   111     Abu Lahab\n12   108     The Abundance\n13   104     The Backbiter\n14   107     Religion\n15   102     Desire\n16   92      The Night\n17   68      The Pen\n18   90      The Soil\n19   105     The Elephant\n20   106     The Koreisch\n21   97      Power\n22   86      The Night-Comer\n23   91      The Sun\n24   80      He Frowned\n25   87      The Most High\n26   95      The Fig\n27   103     The Afternoon\n28   85      The Starry\n29   101     The Blow\n30   99      The Earthquake\n31   82      The Cleaving\n32   81      The Folded Up\n33   84      The Splitting Asunder\n34   100     The Chargers\n35   79      Those Who Drag Forth\n36   77      The Sent\n37   78      The News\n38   88      The Overshadowing\n39   89      The Daybreak\n40   75      The Resurrection\n41   83      Those Who Stint\n42   69      The Inevitable\n43   51      The Scattering\n44   52      The Mountain\n45   56      The Inevitable\n46   53      The Star\n47   70      The Steps or Ascents\n48   55      The Merciful\n49   54      The Moon\n50   37      The Ranks\n51   71      Noah\n52   76      Man\n53   44      Smoke\n54   50      Kaf\n55   20      Ta. Ha.\n56   26      The Poets\n57   15      Hedjr\n58   19      Mary\n59   38      Sad\n60   36      Ya. Sin\n61   43      Ornaments of Gold\n62   72      Djinn\n63   67      The Kingdom\n64   23      The Believers\n65   21      The Prophets\n66   25      Al Furkan\n67   17      The Night Journey\n68   27      The Ant\n69   18      The Cave\n70   32      Adoration\n71   41      The Made Plain\n72   45      The Kneeling\n73   16      The Bee\n74   30      The Greeks\n75   11      Houd\n76   14      Abraham, On Whom Be Peace\n77   12      Joseph, Peace Be On Him\n78   40      The Believer\n79   28      The Story\n80   39      The Troops\n81   29      The Spider\n82   31      Lokman\n83   42      Counsel\n84   10      Jonah, Peace Be On Him!\n85   34      Saba\n86   35      The Creator, or The Angels\n87   7       Al Araf\n88   46      Al Ahkaf\n89   6       Cattle\n90   13      Thunder\n91   2       The Cow\n92   98      Clear Evidence\n93   64      Mutual Deceit\n94   62      The Assembly\n95   8       The Spoils\n96   47      Muhammad\n97   3       The Family of Imran\n98   61      Battle Array\n99   57      Iron\n100  4       Women\n101  65      Divorce\n102  59      The Emigration\n103  33      The Confederates\n104  63      The Hypocrites\n105  24      Light\n106  58      She Who Pleaded\n107  22      The Pilgrimage\n108  48      The Victory\n109  66      The Forbidding\n110  60      She Who Is Tried\n111  110     HELP\n112  49      The Apartments\n113  9       Immunity\n114  5       The Table\n\n\nMOHAMMED was born at Mecca in A.D. 567 or 569.  His flight (hijra) to Medina,\nwhich marks the beginning of the Mohammedan era, took place on 16th June 622.\nHe died on 7th June 632.\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\nTHE Koran admittedly occupies an important position among the great religious\nbooks of the world. Though the youngest of the epoch-making works belonging\nto this class of literature, it yields to hardly any in the wonderful effect\nwhich it has produced on large masses of men. It has created an all but new\nphase of human thought and a fresh type of character. It first transformed a\nnumber of heterogeneous desert tribes of the Arabian peninsula into a nation\nof heroes, and then proceeded to create the vast politico-religious\norganisations of the Muhammedan world which are one of the great forces with\nwhich Europe and the East have to reckon to-day.\n\nThe secret of the power exercised by the book, of course, lay in the mind\nwhich produced it. It was, in fact, at first not a book, but a strong living\nvoice, a kind of wild authoritative proclamation, a series of admonitions,\npromises, threats, and instructions addressed to turbulent and largely\nhostile assemblies of untutored Arabs. As a book it was published after the\nprophet's death. In Muhammed's life-time there were only disjointed notes,\nspeeches, and the retentive memories of those who listened to them. To speak\nof the Koran is, therefore, practically the same as speaking of Muhammed, and\nin trying to appraise the religious value of the book one is at the same time\nattempting to form an opinion of the prophet himself. It would indeed be\ndifficult to find another case in which there is such a complete identity\nbetween the literary work and the mind of the man who produced it.\n\nThat widely different estimates have been formed of Muhammed is well-known.\nTo Moslems he is, of course, the prophet par excellence, and the Koran is\nregarded by the orthodox as nothing less than the eternal utterance of Allah.\nThe eulogy pronounced by Carlyle on Muhammed in Heroes and Hero Worship will\nprobably be endorsed by not a few at the present day. The extreme contrary\nopinion, which in a fresh form has recently been revived[1] by an able writer,\nis hardly likely to find much lasting support. The correct view very probably\nlies between the two extremes. The relative value of any given system of\nreligious thought must depend on the amount of truth which it embodies as\nwell as on the ethical standard which its adherents are bidden to follow.\nAnother important test is the degree of originality that is to be assigned to\nit, for it can manifestly only claim credit for that which is new in it, not\nfor that which it borrowed from other systems.\n\n\n[1] Mahommed and the Rise of Islam, in \u201cHeroes of Nations\u201d series.\n\n\nWith regard to the first-named criterion, there is a growing opinion among\nstudents of religious history that Muhammed may in a real sense be regarded\nas a prophet of certain truths, though by no means of truth in the absolute\nmeaning of the term. The shortcomings of the moral teaching contained in the\nKoran are striking enough if judged from the highest ethical standpoint with\nwhich we are acquainted; but a much more favourable view is arrived at if a\ncomparison is made between the ethics of the Koran and the moral tenets of\nArabian and other forms of heathenism which it supplanted.\n\nThe method followed by Muhammed in the promulgation of the Koran also\nrequires to be treated with discrimination. From the first flash of prophetic\ninspiration which is clearly discernible in the earlier portions of the book\nhe, later on, frequently descended to deliberate invention and artful\nrhetoric. He, in fact, accommodated his moral sense to the circumstances in\nwhich the _r\u00f4le_ he had to play involved him.\n\nOn the question of originality there can hardly be two opinions now that the\nKoran has been thoroughly compared with the Christian and Jewish traditions\nof the time; and it is, besides some original Arabian legends, to those only\nthat the book stands in any close relationship. The matter is for the most\npart borrowed, but the manner is all the prophet's own. This is emphatically\na case in which originality consists not so much in the creation of new\nmaterials of thought as in the manner in which existing traditions of various\nkinds are utilised and freshly blended to suit the special exigencies of the\noccasion. Biblical reminiscences, Rabbinic legends, Christian traditions\nmostly drawn from distorted apocryphal sources, and native heathen stories,\nall first pass through the prophet's fervid mind, and thence issue in strange\nnew forms, tinged with poetry and enthusiasm, and well adapted to enforce his\nown view of life and duty, to serve as an encouragement to his faithful\nadherents, and to strike terror into the hearts of his opponents.\n\nThere is, however, apart from its religious value, a more general view from\nwhich the book should be considered. The Koran enjoys the distinction of\nhaving been the starting-point of a new literary and philosophical movement\nwhich has powerfully affected the finest and most cultivated minds among both\nJews and Christians in the Middle Ages. This general progress of the\nMuhammedan world has somehow been arrested, but research has shown that what\nEuropean scholars knew of Greek philosophy, of mathematics, astronomy, and\nlike sciences, for several centuries before the Renaissance, was, roughly\nspeaking, all derived from Latin treatises ultimately based on Arabic\noriginals; and it was the Koran which, though indirectly, gave the first\nimpetus to these studies among the Arabs and their allies. Linguistic\ninvestigations, poetry, and other branches of literature, also made their\nappearance soon after or simultaneously with the publication of the Koran;\nand the literary movement thus initiated has resulted in some of the finest\nproducts of genius and learning.\n\nThe style in which the Koran is written requires some special attention in\nthis introduction. The literary form is for the most part different from\nanything else we know. In its finest passages we indeed seem to hear a voice\nakin to that of the ancient Hebrew prophets, but there is much in the book\nwhich Europeans usually regard as faulty. The tendency to repetition which is\nan inherent characteristic of the Semitic mind appears here in an exaggerated\nform, and there is in addition much in the Koran which strikes us as wild and\nfantastic. The most unfavourable criticism ever passed on Muhammed's style\nhas in fact been penned by the prophet's greatest British admirer, Carlyle\nhimself; and there are probably many now who find themselves in the same\ndilemma with that great writer.\n\nThe fault appears, however, to lie partly in our difficulty to appreciate the\npsychology of the Arab prophet. We must, in order to do him justice, give\nfull consideration to his temperament and to the condition of things around\nhim. We are here in touch with an untutored but fervent mind, trying to\nrealise itself and to assimilate certain great truths which have been\npowerfully borne in upon him, in order to impart them in a convincing form to\nhis fellow-tribesmen. He is surrounded by obstacles of every kind, yet he\nmanfully struggles on with the message that is within him. Learning he has\nnone, or next to none. His chief objects of knowledge are floating stories\nand traditions largely picked up from hearsay, and his over-wrought mind is\nhis only teacher. The literary compositions to which he had ever listened\nwere the half-cultured, yet often wildly powerful rhapsodies of early Arabian\nminstrels, akin to Ossian rather than to anything else within our knowledge.\nWhat wonder then that his Koran took a form which to our colder temperaments\nsounds strange, unbalanced, and fantastic?\n\nYet the Moslems themselves consider the book the finest that ever appeared\namong men. They find no incongruity in the style. To them the matter is all\ntrue and the manner all perfect. Their eastern temperament responds readily\nto the crude, strong, and wild appeal which its cadences make to them, and\nthe jingling rhyme in which the sentences of a discourse generally end adds\nto the charm of the whole. The Koran, even if viewed from the point of view\nof style alone, was to them from the first nothing less than a miracle, as\ngreat a miracle as ever was wrought.\n\nBut to return to our own view of the case. Our difficulty in appreciating the\nstyle of the Koran even moderately is, of course, increased if, instead of\nthe original, we have a translation before us. But one is happy to be able to\nsay that Rodwell's rendering is one of the best that have as yet been\nproduced. It seems to a great extent to carry with it the atmosphere in which\nMuhammed lived, and its sentences are imbued with the flavour of the East.\nThe quasi-verse form, with its unfettered and irregular rhythmic flow of the\nlines, which has in suitable cases been adopted, helps to bring out much of\nthe wild charm of the Arabic. Not the least among its recommendations is,\nperhaps, that it is scholarly without being pedantic that is to say, that it\naims at correctness without sacrificing the right effect of the whole to\nover-insistence on small details.\n\nAnother important merit of Rodwell's edition is its chronological arrangement\nof the Suras or chapters. As he tells us himself in his preface, it is now in\na number of cases impossible to ascertain the exact occasion on which a\ndiscourse, or part of a discourse, was delivered, so that the system could\nnot be carried through with entire consistency. But the sequence adopted is\nin the main based on the best available historical and literary evidence; and\nin following the order of the chapters as here printed, the reader will be\nable to trace the development of the prophet's mind as he gradually advanced\nfrom the early flush of inspiration to the less spiritual and more equivocal\n_r\u00f4le_ of warrior, politician, and founder of an empire.\n\nG. Margoliouth.\n\n\n\n\nSELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY\n\nENGLISH TRANSLATIONS.  From the original Arabic by G. Sale, 1734, 1764, 1795,\n1801; many later editions, which include a memoir of the translator by R. A.\nDavenport, and notes from Savary's version of the Koran; an edition issued by\nE. M. Wherry, with additional notes and commentary (Tr\u00fcbner's Oriental\nSeries), 1882, etc.; Sale's translation has also been edited in the Chandos\nClassics, and among Lubbock's Hundred Books (No. 22). The Holy Qur\u00e1n,\ntranslated by Dr. Mohammad Abdul Hakim Khan, with short notes, 1905;\nTranslation by J. M. Rodwell, with notes and index (the Suras arranged in\nchronological order), 1861, 2nd ed., 1876; by E. H. Palmer (Sacred Books of\nthe East, vols. vi., ix.).\n\nSELECTIONS: Chiefly from Sale's edition, by E. W. Lane, 1843; revised and\nenlarged with introduction by S. Lane-Poole. (Tr\u00fcbner's Oriental Series),\n1879; The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad, etc., chosen and\ntranslated, with introduction and notes by S. Lane-Poole, 1882 (Golden\nTreasury Series); Selections with introduction and explanatory notes (from\nSale and other writers), by J. Murdock (Sacred Books of the East), 2nd ed.,\n1902; The Religion of the Koran, selections with an introduction by A. N.\nWollaston (The Wisdom of the East), 1904.\n\nSee also: Sir W. Muir: The Koran, its Composition and Teaching, 1878;\nH. Hirschfeld: New Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Qoran,\n1902; W. St C. Tisdale: Sources of the Qur\u2019\u00e1n, 1905; H. U. W. Stanton: The\nTeaching of the Qur\u2019\u00e1n, 1919; A. Mingana: Syriac Influence on the Style of\nthe Kur\u2019\u00e1n, 1927.\n\n\n\nTO\n\nSIR WILLIAM MARTIN, K.T., D.C.L.\nLATE CHIEF JUSTICE OF NEW ZEALAND,\n\nTHIS VOLUME IS DEDICATED,\n\nWITH SINCERE FEELINGS OF ESTEEM FOR HIS PRIVATE WORTH,\n\nPUBLIC SERVICES,\n\nAND EMINENT LITERARY ATTAINMENTS,\n\nBY\n\n\t\t\t\tTHE TRANSLATOR.\n\n\n\nPREFACE\n\nIt is necessary that some brief explanation should be given with reference to\nthe arrangement of the Suras, or chapters, adopted in this translation of the\nKoran. It should be premised that their order as it stands in all Arabic\nmanuscripts, and in all hitherto printed editions, whether Arabic or\nEuropean, is not chronological, neither is there any authentic tradition to\nshew that it rests upon the authority of Muhammad himself. The scattered\nfragments of the Koran were in the first instance collected by his immediate\nsuccessor Abu Bekr, about a year after the Prophet's death, at the suggestion\nof Omar, who foresaw that, as the Muslim warriors, whose memories were the\nsole depositaries of large portions of the revelations, died off or were\nslain, as had been the case with many in the battle of Yem\u00e2ma, A.H. 12, the\nloss of the greater part, or even of the whole, was imminent. Zaid Ibn\nTh\u00e2bit, a native of Medina, and one of the Ansars, or helpers, who had been\nMuhammad's amanuensis, was the person fixed upon to carry out the task, and\nwe are told that he \"gathered together\" the fragments of the Koran from every\nquarter, \"from date leaves and tablets of white stone, and from the breasts\nof men.\"1 The copy thus formed by Zaid probably remained in the possession of\nAbu Bekr during the remainder of his brief caliphate, who committed it to the\ncustody of Haphsa, one of Muhammad's widows, and this text continued during\nthe ten years of Omar's caliphate to be the standard. In the copies made from\nit, various readings naturally and necessarily sprung up; and these, under\nthe caliphate of Othman, led to such serious disputes between the faithful,\nthat it became necessary to interpose, and in accordance with the warning of\nHodzeifa, \"to stop the people, before they should differ regarding their\nscriptures, as did the Jews and Christians.\"2 In accordance with this advice,\nOthman determined to establish a text which should be the sole standard, and\nentrusted the redaction to the Zaid already mentioned, with whom he\nassociated as colleagues, three, according to others, twelve3 of the\nKoreisch, in order to secure the purity of that Meccan idiom in which\nMuhammad had spoken, should any occasions arise in which the collators might\nhave to decide upon various readings. Copies of the text formed were thus\nforwarded to several of the chief military stations in the new empire, and\nall previously existing copies were committed to the flames.\n\nZaid and his coadjutors, however, do not appear to have arranged the\nmaterials which came into their hands upon any system more definite than that\nof placing the longest and best known Suras first, immediately after the\nFatthah, or opening chapter (the eighth in this edition); although even this\nrule, artless and unscientific as it is, has not been adhered to with\nstrictness. Anything approaching to a chronological arrangement was entirely\nlost sight of. Late Medina Suras are often placed before early Meccan Suras;\nthe short Suras at the end of the Koran are its earliest portions; while, as\nwill be seen from the notes, verses of Meccan origin are to be found embedded\nin Medina Suras, and verses promulged at Medina scattered up and down in the\nMeccan Suras. It would seem as if Zaid had to a great extent put his\nmaterials together just as they came to hand, and often with entire disregard\nto continuity of subject and uniformity of style. The text, therefore, as\nhitherto arranged, necessarily assumes the form of a most unreadable and\nincongruous patchwork; \"une assemblage,\" says M. Kasimirski in his Preface,\n\"informe et incoh\u00e9rent de pr\u00e9ceptes moraux, religieux, civils et politiques,\nm\u00eal\u00e9s d'exhortations, de promesses, et de menaces\"-and conveys no idea\nwhatever of the development and growth of any plan in the mind of the founder\nof Islam, or of the circumstances by which he was surrounded and influenced.\nIt is true that the manner in which Zaid contented himself with simply\nbringing together his materials and transcribing them, without any attempt to\nmould them into shape or sequence, and without any effort to supply\nconnecting links between adjacent verses, to fill up obvious chasms, or to\nsuppress details of a nature discreditable to the founder of Islam, proves\nhis scrupulous honesty as a compiler, as well as his reverence for the sacred\ntext, and to a certain extent guarantees the genuineness and authenticity of\nthe entire volume. But it is deeply to be regretted that he did not combine\nsome measure of historical criticism with that simplicity and honesty of\npurpose which forbade him, as it certainly did, in any way to tamper with the\nsacred text, to suppress contradictory, and exclude or soften down\ninaccurate, statements.\n\nThe arrangement of the Suras in this translation is based partly upon the\ntraditions of the Muhammadans themselves, with reference especially to the\nancient chronological list printed by Weil in his Mohammed der Prophet, as\nwell as upon a careful consideration of the subject matter of each separate\nSura and its probable connection with the sequence of events in the life of\nMuhammad. Great attention has been paid to this subject by Dr. Weil in the\nwork just mentioned; by Mr. Muir in his Life of Mahomet, who also publishes a\nchronological list of Suras, 21 however of which he admits have \"not yet been\ncarefully fixed;\" and especially by N\u00f6ldeke, in his Geschichte des Q\u00f4rans, a\nwork to which public honours were awarded in 1859 by the Paris Academy of\nInscriptions. From the arrangement of this author I see no reason to depart\nin regard to the later Suras. It is based upon a searching criticism and\nminute analysis of the component verses of each, and may be safely taken as a\nstandard, which ought not to be departed from without weighty reasons. I\nhave, however, placed the earlier and more fragmentary Suras, after the two\nfirst, in an order which has reference rather to their subject matter than to\npoints of historical allusion, which in these Suras are very few; whilst on\nthe other hand, they are mainly couched in the language of self-communion, of\naspirations after truth, and of mental struggle, are vivid pictures of Heaven\nand Hell, or descriptions of natural objects, and refer also largely to the\nopposition met with by Muhammad from his townsmen of Mecca at the outset of\nhis public career. This remark applies to what N\u00f6ldeke terms \"the Suras of\nthe First Period.\"\n\nThe contrast between the earlier, middle, and later Suras is very striking\nand interesting, and will be at once apparent from the arrangement here\nadopted. In the Suras as far as the 54th, p. 76, we cannot but notice the\nentire predominance of the poetical element, a deep appreciation (as in Sura\nxci. p. 38) of the beauty of natural objects, brief fragmentary and\nimpassioned utterances, denunciations of woe and punishment, expressed for\nthe most part in lines of extreme brevity. With a change, however, in the\nposition of Muhammad when he openly assumes the office of \"public warner,\"\nthe Suras begin to assume a more prosaic and didactic tone, though the\npoetical ornament of rhyme is preserved throughout. We gradually lose the\nPoet in the missionary aiming to convert, the warm asserter of dogmatic\ntruths; the descriptions of natural objects, of the judgment, of Heaven and\nHell, make way for gradually increasing historical statements, first from\nJewish, and subsequently from Christian histories; while, in the 29 Suras\nrevealed at Medina, we no longer listen to vague words, often as it would\nseem without positive aim, but to the earnest disputant with the enemies of\nhis faith, the Apostle pleading the cause of what he believes to be the Truth\nof God. He who at Mecca is the admonisher and persuader, at Medina is the\nlegislator and the warrior, who dictates obedience, and uses other weapons\nthan the pen of the Poet and the Scribe. When business pressed, as at Medina,\nPoetry makes way for Prose, and although touches of the Poetical element\noccasionally break forth, and he has to defend himself up to a very late\nperiod against the charge of being merely a Poet, yet this is rarely the case\nin the Medina Suras; and we are startled by finding obedience to God and the\nApostle, God's gifts and the Apostle's, God's pleasure and the Apostle's,\nspoken of in the same breath, and epithets and attributes elsewhere applied\nto Allah openly applied to himself as in Sura ix., 118, 129.\n\nThe Suras, viewed as a whole, strike me as being the work of one who began\nhis career as a thoughtful enquirer after truth, and an earnest asserter of\nit in such rhetorical and poetical forms as he deemed most likely to win and\nattract his countrymen, and who gradually proceeded from the dogmatic teacher\nto the politic founder of a system for which laws and regulations had to be\nprovided as occasions arose. And of all the Suras it must be remarked that\nthey were intended not for readers but for hearers-that they were all\npromulgated by public recital-and that much was left, as the imperfect\nsentences shew, to the manner and suggestive action of the reciter. It would\nbe impossible, and indeed it is unnecessary, to attempt a detailed life of\nMuhammad within the narrow limits of a Preface. The main events thereof with\nwhich the Suras of the Koran stand in connection, are-The visions of Gabriel,\nseen, or said to have been seen, at the outset of his career in his 40th\nyear, during one of his seasons of annual monthly retirement, for devotion\nand meditation to Mount Hir\u00e2, near Mecca,-the period of mental depression and\nre-assurance previous to the assumption of the office of public teacher-the\nFatrah or pause (see n. p. 20) during which he probably waited for a\nrepetition of the angelic vision-his labours in comparative privacy for three\nyears, issuing in about 40 converts, of whom his wife Chadijah was the first,\nand Abu Bekr the most important: (for it is to him and to Abu Jahl the Sura\nxcii. p. 32, refers)-struggles with Meccan unbelief and idolatry followed by\na period during which probably he had the second vision, Sura liii. p. 69,\nand was listened to and respected as a person \"possessed\" (Sura lxix. 42, p.\n60, lii. 29, p. 64)-the first emigration to Abyssinia in A.D. 616, in\nconsequence of the Meccan persecutions brought on by his now open attacks\nupon idolatry (Taghout)-increasing reference to Jewish and Christian\nhistories, shewing that much time had been devoted to their study the\nconversion of Omar in 617-the journey to the Thaquifites at Taief in A.D.\n620-the intercourse with pilgrims from Medina, who believed in Islam, and\nspread the knowledge thereof in their native town, in the same year-the\nvision of the midnight journey to Jerusalem and the Heavens-the meetings by\nnight at Acaba, a mountain near Mecca, in the 11th year of his mission, and\nthe pledges of fealty there given to him-the command given to the believers\nto emigrate to Yathrib, henceforth Medinat-en-nabi (the city of the Prophet)\nor El-Medina (the city), in April of A.D. 622-the escape of Muhammad and Abu\nBekr from Mecca to the cave of Thaur-the FLIGHT to Medina in June 20, A.D.\n622-treaties made with Christian tribes-increasing, but still very imperfect\nacquaintance with Christian doctrines-the Battle of Bedr in Hej. 2, and of\nOhod-the coalition formed against Muhammad by the Jews and idolatrous\nArabians, issuing in the siege of Medina, Hej. 5 (A.D. 627)-the convention,\nwith reference to the liberty of making the pilgrimage, of Hudaibiya, Hej. 6-\nthe embassy to Chosroes King of Persia in the same year, to the Governor of\nEgypt and to the King of Abyssinia, desiring them to embrace Islam-the\nconquest of several Jewish tribes, the most important of which was that of\nChaibar in Hej. 7, a year marked by the embassy sent to Heraclius, then in\nSyria, on his return from the Persian campaign, and by a solemn and peaceful\npilgrimage to Mecca-the triumphant entry into Mecca in Hej. 8 (A.D. 630), and\nthe demolition of the idols of the Caaba-the submission of the Christians of\nNedjran, of Aila on the Red Sea, and of Taief, etc., in Hej. 9, called \"the\nyear of embassies or deputations,\" from the numerous deputations which\nflocked to Mecca proffering submission-and lastly in Hej. 10, the submission\nof Hadramont, Yemen, the greater part of the southern and eastern provinces\nof Arabia-and the final solemn pilgrimage to Mecca.\n\nWhile, however, there is no great difficulty in ascertaining the Suras which\nstand in connection with the more salient features of Muhammad's life, it is\na much more arduous, and often impracticable task, to point out the precise\nevents to which individual verses refer, and out of which they sprung. It is\nquite possible that Muhammad himself, in a later period of his career,\ndesignedly mixed up later with earlier revelations in the same Suras not for\nthe sake of producing that mysterious style which seems so pleasing to the\nmind of those who value truth least when it is most clear and obvious but for\nthe purpose of softening down some of the earlier statements which represent\nthe last hour and awful judgment as imminent; and thus leading his followers\nto continue still in the attitude of expectation, and to see in his later\nsuccesses the truth of his earlier predictions. If after-thoughts of this\nkind are to be traced, and they will often strike the attentive reader, it\nthen follows that the perplexed state of the text in individual Suras is to\nbe considered as due to Muhammad himself, and we are furnished with a series\nof constant hints for attaining to chronological accuracy. And it may be\nremarked in passing, that a belief that the end of all things was at hand,\nmay have tended to promote the earlier successes of Islam at Mecca, as it\nunquestionably was an argument with the Apostles, to flee from \"the wrath to\ncome.\" It must be borne in mind that the allusions to contemporary minor\nevents, and to the local efforts made by the new religion to gain the\nascendant are very few, and often couched in terms so vague and general, that\nwe are forced to interpret the Koran solely by the Koran itself. And for\nthis, the frequent repetitions of the same histories and the same sentiments,\nafford much facility: and the peculiar manner in which the details of each\nhistory are increased by fresh traits at each recurrence, enables us to trace\ntheir growth in the author's mind, and to ascertain the manner in which a\npart of the Koran was composed. The absence of the historical element from\nthe Koran as regards the details of Muhammad's daily life, may be judged of\nby the fact, that only two of his contemporaries are mentioned in the entire\nvolume, and that Muhammad's name occurs but five times, although he is all\nthe way through addressed by the Angel Gabriel as the recipient of the divine\nrevelations, with the word SAY. Perhaps such passages as Sura ii. 15, p. 339,\nand v. 246, p. 365, and the constant mention of guidance, direction,\nwandering, may have been suggested by reminiscences of his mercantile\njourneys in his earlier years.\n\nIt may be considered quite certain that it was not customary to reduce to\nwriting any traditions concerning Muhammad himself for at least the greater\npart of a century. They rested entirely on the memory of those who have\nhanded them down, and must necessarily have been coloured by their prejudices\nand convictions, to say nothing of the tendency to the formation of myths and\nto actual fabrication, which early shews itself, especially in\ninterpretations of the Koran, to subserve the purposes of the contending\nfactions of the Ommeyads and Abb\u00e2sides. It was under the 5th Caliph, Al-\nM\u00e2m\u00fbn, that three writers (mentioned below) on whom we mainly depend for all\nreally reliable information, flourished: and even their writings are\nnecessarily coloured by the theological tendencies of their master and\npatron, who was a decided partizan of the divine right of Ali and of his\ndescendants. The incidents mentioned in the Koran itself, for the\ninterpretation of which early tradition is available, are comparatively few,\nand there are many passages with which it is totally at variance; as, for\ninstance, that Muhammad worked miracles, which the Koran expressly disclaims.\nTraditions can never be considered as at all reliable, unless they are\ntraceable to some common origin, have descended to us by independent\nwitnesses, and correspond with the statements of the Koran itself-always of\ncourse deducting such texts as (which is not unfrequently the case) have\nthemselves given rise to the tradition. It soon becomes obvious to the reader\nof Muslim traditions and commentators that both miracles and historical\nevents have been invented for the sake of expounding a dark and perplexing\ntext; and that even the earlier traditions are largely tinged with the\nmythical element.\n\nThe first biographer of Muhammad of whom we have any information was Zohri,\nwho died A.H. 124, aged 72; but his works, though abundantly quoted by later\nwriters, are no longer extant. Much of his information was derived from Orwa,\nwho died A.H. 94, and was a near relative of Ayesha, the prophet's favourite\nwife.\n\nIbn Ishaq, who died in A.H. 151, and who had been a hearer of Zohri, composed\na Biography of Muhammad for the use of the Caliph Al M\u00e1ns\u00fbr. On this work,\nconsiderable remains of which have come down to us, Ibn Hisham, who died A.H.\n213, based his Life of Muhammad.\n\nWaquidi of Medina, who died A.H. 207, composed a biographical work, which has\nreached us in an abbreviated form through his secretary (Katib). It is\ncomposed entirely of traditions.\n\nTabari, \"the Livy of the Arabians\" (Gibbon, 51, n. 1), who died at Baghdad\nA.H. 310, composed annals of Muhammad's life and of the progress of Islam.\n\nThese ancient writers are the principal sources whence anything like\nauthentic information as to the life of Muhammad has been derived. And it may\nbe safely concluded that after the diligent investigations carried on by the\nprofessed collectors of traditions in the second century after the Hejira,\nthat little or nothing remains to be added to our stores of information\nrelative to the details of Muhammad's life, or to facts which may further\nillustrate the text of the Koran. But however this may be, no records which\nare posterior in date to these authorities can be considered as at all\ndeserving of dependance. \"To consider,\" says Dr. Sprenger, \"late historians\nlike Abulfeda as authorities, and to suppose that an account gains in\ncertainty because it is mentioned by several of them, is highly uncritical.\"\nLife of Mohammad, p. 73.\n\nThe sources whence Muhammad derived the materials of his Koran are, over and\nabove the more poetical parts, which are his own creation, the legends of his\ntime and country, Jewish traditions based upon the Talmud, or perverted to\nsuit his own purposes, and the floating Christian traditions of Arabia and of\nS. Syria. At a later period of his career no one would venture to doubt the\ndivine origin of the entire book. But at its commencement the case was\ndifferent. The people of Mecca spoke openly and tauntingly of it as the work\nof a poet, as a collection of antiquated or fabulous legends, or as palpable\nsorcery.4 They accused him of having confederates, and even specified\nforeigners who had been his coadjutors. Such were Salman the Persian, to whom\nhe may have owed the descriptions of Heaven and Hell, which are analogous to\nthose of the Zendavesta; and the Christian monk Sergius, or as the\nMuhammadans term him, Boheira. From the latter, and perhaps from other\nChristians, especially slaves naturalised at Mecca, Muhammad obtained access\nto the teaching of the Apocryphal Gospels, and to many popular traditions of\nwhich those Gospels are the concrete expression. His wife Chadijah, as well\nas her cousin Waraka, a reputed convert to Christianity, and Muhammad's\nintimate friend, are said to have been well acquainted with the doctrines and\nsacred books both of Jews and Christians. And not only were several Arab\ntribes in the neighbourhood of Mecca converts to the Christian faith, but on\ntwo occasions Muhammad had travelled with his uncle, Abu Talib, as far as\nBostra, where he must have had opportunities of learning the general outlines\nof Oriental Christian doctrine, and perhaps of witnessing the ceremonial of\ntheir worship. And it appears tolerably certain that previous to and at the\nperiod of his entering into public life, there was a large number of\nenquirers at Mecca, who like Zaid, Omayah of Taief, Waraka, etc., were\ndissatisfied equally with the religion of their fathers, the Judaism and the\nChristianity which they saw around them, and were anxiously enquiring for\nsome better way. The names and details of the lives of twelve of the\n\"companions\" of Muhammad who lived in Mecca, Medina, and Taief, are recorded,\nwho previous to his assumption of the Prophetic office, called themselves\nHanyfs, i.e., converts, puritans, and were believers in one God, and regarded\nAbraham as the founder of their religion. Muhammad publicly acknowledged that\nhe was a Hanyf-and this sect of the Hanyfites (who are in no way to be\nconfounded with the later sect of the same name) were among his Meccan\nprecursors. See n. pp. 209, 387. Their history is to be found in the Fihrist-\nMS. Paris, anc. fonds, nr. 874 (and in other treatises)-which Dr. Sprenger\nbelieves to have been in the library of the Caliph El-M\u00e2m\u00fbn. In this\ntreatise, the Hanyfs are termed Sabeites, and said to have received the\nVolumes (Sohof) or Books of Abraham, mentioned in Sura lxxxvii. 19, p. 40,\n41, which most commentators affirm to have been borrowed from them, as is\nalso the case with the latter part of Sura liii. 37, ad f. p. 71; so that\nfrom these \"Books\" Muhammad derived the legends of Ad and Themoud, whose\ndownfall, recent as it was (see note p. 300), he throws back to a period\nprevious to that of Moses, who is made to ask (Sura xiv. 9, p. 226) \"whether\ntheir history had reached his hearers.\" Muhammad is said to have discovered\nthese \"Books\" to be a recent forgery, and that this is the reason why no\nmention of them occurs after the fourth year of his Prophetic function, A.D.\n616. Hence too, possibly, the title Hanyf was so soon dropped and exchanged\nfor that of Muslim, one who surrenders or resigns himself to God. The Waraka\nabove mentioned, and cousin of Chadijah, is said to have believed on Muhammad\nas long as he continued true to the principles of the Hanyfs, but to have\nquitted him in disgust at his subsequent proceedings, and to have died an\northodox Christian.\n\nIt has been supposed that Muhammad derived many of his notions concerning\nChristianity from Gnosticism, and that it is to the numerous gnostic sects\nthe Koran alludes when it reproaches the Christians with having \"split up\ntheir religion into parties.\" But for Muhammad thus to have confounded\nGnosticism with Christianity itself, its prevalence in Arabia must have been\nfar more universal than we have any reason to believe it really was. In fact,\nwe have no historical authority for supposing that the doctrines of these\nheretics were taught or professed in Arabia at all. It is certain, on the\nother hand, that the Basilidans, Valentinians, and other gnostic sects had\neither died out, or been reabsorbed into the orthodox Church, towards the\nmiddle of the fifth century, and had disappeared from Egypt before the sixth.\nIt is nevertheless possible that the gnostic doctrine concerning the\nCrucifixion was adopted by Muhammad as likely to reconcile the Jews to Islam,\nas a religion embracing both Judaism and Christianity, if they might believe\nthat Jesus had not been put to death, and thus find the stumbling-block of\nthe atonement removed out of their path. The Jews would in this case have\nsimply been called upon to believe in Jesus as being what the Koran\nrepresents him, a holy teacher, who, like the patriarch Enoch or the prophet\nElijah, had been miraculously taken from the earth. But, in all other\nrespects, the sober and matter-of-fact statements of the Koran relative to\nthe family and history of Jesus, are altogether opposed to the wild and\nfantastic doctrines of Gnostic emanations, and especially to the manner in\nwhich they supposed Jesus, at his Baptism, to have been brought into union\nwith a higher nature. It is quite clear that Muhammad borrowed in several\npoints from the doctrines of the Ebionites, Essenes, and Sabeites. Epiphanius\n(H\u2018r. x.) describes the notions of the Ebionites of Nabath\u2018a, Moabitis, and\nBasanitis with regard to Adam and Jesus, almost in the very words of Sura\niii. 52. He tells us that they observed circumcision, were opposed to\ncelibacy, forbad turning to the sunrise, but enjoined Jerusalem as their\nKebla (as did Muhammad during twelve years), that they prescribed (as did the\nSabeites), washings, very similar to those enjoined in the Koran, and allowed\noaths (by certain natural objects, as clouds, signs of the Zodiac, oil, the\nwinds, etc.), which we find adopted in the Koran. These points of contact\nwith Islam, knowing as we do Muhammad's eclecticism, can hardly be\naccidental.\n\nWe have no evidence that Muhammad had access to the Christian Scriptures,\nthough it is just possible that fragments of the Old or New Testament may\nhave reached him through Chadijah or Waraka, or other Meccan Christians,\npossessing MSS. of the sacred volume. There is but one direct quotation (Sura\nxxi. 105) in the whole Koran from the Scriptures; and though there are a few\npassages, as where alms are said to be given to be seen of men, and as, none\nforgiveth sins but God only, which might seem to be identical with texts of\nthe New Testament, yet this similarity is probably merely accidental. It is,\nhowever, curious to compare such passages as Deut. xxvi. 14, 17; 1 Peter v.\n2, with Sura xxiv. 50, p. 448, and x. 73, p. 281 John vii. 15, with the\n\"illiterate\" Prophet-Matt. xxiv. 36, and John xii. 27, with the use of the\nword hour as meaning any judgment or crisis, and The last judgment-the voice\nof the Son of God which the dead are to hear, with the exterminating or\nawakening cry of Gabriel, etc. The passages of this kind, with which the\nKoran abounds, result from Muhammad's general acquaintance with Scriptural\nphraseology, partly through the popular legends, partly from personal\nintercourse with Jews and Christians. And we may be quite certain that\nwhatever materials Muhammad may have derived from our Scriptures, directly or\nindirectly, were carefully recast. He did not even use its words without due\nconsideration. For instance, except in the phrase \"the Lord of the worlds,\"\nhe seems carefully to have avoided the expression the Lord, probably because\nit was applied by the Christians to Christ, or to God the Father.\n\nIt should also be borne in mind that we have no traces of the existence of\nArabic versions of the Old or New Testament previous to the time of Muhammad.\nThe passage of St. Jerome-\"H\u00e6c autem translatio nullum de veteribus sequitur\ninterpretem; sed ex ipso Hebraico, Arabicoque sermone, et interdum Syro, nunc\nverba, nunc sensum, nunc simul utrumque resonabit,\" (Prol. Gal.) obviously\ndoes not refer to versions, but to idiom. The earliest Ar. version of the Old\nTestament, of which we have any knowledge, is that of R. Saadias Gaon, A.D.\n900; and the oldest Ar. version of the New Testament, is that published by\nErpenius in 1616, and transcribed in the Thebais, in the year 1171, by a\nCoptic Bishop, from a copy made by a person whose name is known, but whose\ndate is uncertain. Michaelis thinks that the Arabic versions of the New\nTestament were made between the Saracen conquests in the seventh century, and\nthe Crusades in the eleventh century-an opinion in which he follows, or\ncoincides with, Walton (Prol. in Polygl. \u00a7 xiv.) who remarks-\"Plane constat\nversionem Arabicam apud eas (ecclesias orientales) factam esse postquam\nlingua Arabica per victorias et religionem Muhammedanicam per Orientem\npropagata fuerat, et in multis locis facta esset vernacula.\" If, indeed, in\nthese comparatively late versions, the general phraseology, especially in the\nhistories common to the Scriptures and to the Koran, bore any similarity to\neach other, and if the orthography of the proper names had been the same in\neach, it might have been fair to suppose that such versions had been made,\nmore or less, upon the basis of others, which, though now lost, existed in\nthe ages prior to Muhammad, and influenced, if they did not directly form,\nhis sources of information. But5 this does not appear to be the case. The\nphraseology of our existing versions is not that of the Koran-and these\nversions appear to have been made from the Septuagint, the Vulgate, Syriac,\nCoptic, and Greek; the four Gospels, says Tischendorf6 originem mixtam habere\nvidentur.\n\nFrom the Arab Jews, Muhammad would be enabled to derive an abundant, though\nmost distorted, knowledge of the Scripture histories. The secrecy in which he\nreceived his instructions from them, and from his Christian informants,\nenabled him boldly to declare to the ignorant pagan Meccans that God had\nrevealed those Biblical histories to him. But there can be no doubt, from the\nconstant identity between the Talmudic perversions of Scripture histories and\nRabbinic moral precepts, that the Rabbins of the Hejaz communicated their\nlegends to Muhammad. And it should be remembered that the Talmud was\ncompleted a century previous to the era of Muhammad,7 and cannot fail to have\nextensively influenced the religious creed of all the Jews of the Arabian\npeninsula. In one passage,8 Muhammad speaks of an individual Jew-perhaps some\none of note among his professed followers, as a witness to his mission; and\nthere can be no doubt that his relations with the Jews were, at one time,\nthose of friendship and intimacy, when we find him speak of their recognising\nhim as they do their own children, and hear him blaming their most colloquial\nexpressions.9 It is impossible, however, for us at this distance of time to\npenetrate the mystery in which this subject is involved. Yet certain it is,\nthat, although their testimony against Muhammad was speedily silenced, the\nKoreisch knew enough of his private history to disbelieve and to disprove his\npretensions of being the recipient of a divine revelation, and that they\naccused him of writing from the dictation of teachers morning and evening.10\nAnd it is equally certain, that all the information received by Muhammad was\nembellished and recast in his own mind and with his own words. There is a\nunity of thought, a directness and simplicity of purpose, a peculiar and\nlaboured style, a uniformity of diction, coupled with a certain deficiency of\nimaginative power, which proves the ayats (signs or verses) of the Koran at\nleast to be the product of a single pen. The longer narratives were,\nprobably, elaborated in his leisure hours, while the shorter verses, each\nclaiming to be a sign or miracle, were promulgated as occasion required them.\nAnd, whatever Muhammad may himself profess in the Koran11 as to his\nignorance, even of reading and writing, and however strongly modern\nMuhammadans may insist upon the same point an assertion by the way\ncontradicted by many good authors12-there can be no doubt that to assimilate\nand work up his materials, to fashion them into elaborate Suras, to fit them\nfor public recital, must have been a work requiring much time, study, and\nmeditation, and presumes a far greater degree of general culture than any\northodox Muslim will be disposed to admit.\n\nIn close connection with the above remarks, stands the question of Muhammad's\nsincerity and honesty of purpose in coming forward as a messenger from God.\nFor if he was indeed the illiterate person the Muslims represent him to have\nbeen, then it will be hard to escape their inference that the Koran is, as\nthey assert it to be, a standing miracle. But if, on the other hand, it was a\nBook carefully concocted from various sources, and with much extraneous aid,\nand published as a divine oracle, then it would seem that the author is at\nonce open to the charge of the grossest imposture, and even of impious\nblasphemy. The evidence rather shews, that in all he did and wrote, Muhammad\nwas actuated by a sincere desire to deliver his countrymen from the grossness\nof its debasing idolatries-that he was urged on by an intense desire to\nproclaim that great truth of the Unity of the Godhead which had taken full\npossession of his own soul-that the end to be attained justified to his mind\nthe means he adopted in the production of his Suras-that he worked himself up\ninto a belief that he had received a divine call-and that he was carried on\nby the force of circumstances, and by gradually increasing successes, to\nbelieve himself the accredited messenger of Heaven. The earnestness of those\nconvictions which at Mecca sustained him under persecution, and which perhaps\nled him, at any price as it were, and by any means, not even excluding deceit\nand falsehood, to endeavour to rescue his countrymen from idolatry,-naturally\nstiffened at Medina into tyranny and unscrupulous violence. At the same time,\nhe was probably, more or less, throughout his whole career, the victim of a\ncertain amount of self-deception. A cataleptic13 subject from his early\nyouth, born-according to the traditions-of a highly nervous and excitable\nmother, he would be peculiarly liable to morbid and fantastic hallucinations,\nand alternations of excitement and depression, which would win for him, in\nthe eyes of his ignorant countrymen, the credit of being inspired. It would\nbe easy for him to persuade himself that he was \"the seal of the Prophets,\"\nthe proclaimer of a doctrine of the Divine Unity, held and taught by the\nPatriarchs, especially by Abraham-a doctrine that should present to mankind\nJudaism divested of its Mosaic ceremonial, and Christianity divested of the\nAtonement and the Trinity14-doctrine, as he might have believed, fitted and\ndestined to absorb Judaism, Christianity, and Idolatry; and this persuasion,\nonce admitted into his mind as a conviction, retained possession of it, and\ncarried him on, though often in the use of means, towards the end of his\ncareer, far different from those with which he commenced it, to a victorious\nconsummation. It is true that the state of Arabia previous to the time of\nMuhammad was one of preparedness for a new religion that the scattered\nelements were there, and wanted only the mind of a master to harmonise and\nenforce them and that Islam was, so to speak, a necessity of the time.15\nStill Muhammad's career is a wonderful instance of the force and life that\nresides in him who possesses an intense Faith in God and in the unseen world;\nand whatever deductions may be made-and they are many and serious-from the\nnoble and truthful in his character, he will always be regarded as one of\nthose who have had that influence over the faith, morals, and whole earthly\nlife of their fellow-men, which none but a really great man ever did, or can,\nexercise; and as one of those, whose efforts to propagate some great verity\nwill prosper, in spite of manifold personal errors and defects, both of\nprinciple and character.\n\nThe more insight we obtain, from undoubted historical sources, into the\nactual character of Muhammad, the less reason do we find to justify the\nstrong vituperative language poured out upon his head by Maracci, Prideaux,\nand others, in recent days, one of whom has found, in the Byzantine\n\"Maometis,\" the number of the Beast (Rev. xii)! It is nearer to the truth to\nsay that he was a great though imperfect character, an earnest though\nmistaken teacher, and that many of his mistakes and imperfections were the\nresult of circumstances, of temperament, and constitution; and that there\nmust be elements both of truth and goodness in the system of which he was the\nmain author, to account for the world-wide phenomenon, that whatever may be\nthe intellectual inferiority (if such is, indeed, the fact) of the Muslim\nraces, the influence of his teaching, aided, it is true, by the vast impulse\ngiven to it by the victorious arms of his followers, has now lasted for\nnearly thirteen centuries, and embraces more than one hundred millions of our\nrace-more than one-tenth part of the inhabitants of the globe.\n\nIt must be acknowledged, too, that the Koran deserves the highest praise for\nits conceptions of the Divine nature, in reference to the attributes of\nPower, Knowledge, and universal Providence and Unity-that its belief and\ntrust in the One God of Heaven and Earth is deep and fervent-and that, though\nit contains fantastic visions and legends, teaches a childish ceremonial, and\njustifies bloodshedding, persecution, slavery, and polygamy, yet that at the\nsame time it embodies much of a noble and deep moral earnestness, and\nsententious oracular wisdom, and has proved that there are elements in it on\nwhich mighty nations, and conquering though not, perhaps, durable-empires can\nbe built up. It is due to the Koran, that the occupants in the sixth century\nof an arid peninsula, whose poverty was only equalled by their ignorance,\nbecome not only the fervent and sincere votaries of a new creed, but, like\nAmru and many more, its warlike propagators. Impelled possibly by drought and\nfamine, actuated partly by desire of conquest, partly by religious\nconvictions, they had conquered Persia in the seventh century, the northern\ncoasts of Africa, and a large portion of Spain in the eighth, the Punjaub and\nnearly the whole of India in the ninth. The simple shepherds and wandering\nBedouins of Arabia, are transformed, as if by a magician's wand, into the\nfounders of empires, the builders of cities, the collectors of more libraries\nthan they at first destroyed, while cities like Fost\u00e2t, Baghdad, Cordova, and\nDelhi, attest the power at which Christian Europe trembled. And thus, while\nthe Koran, which underlays this vast energy and contains the principles which\nare its springs of action, reflects to a great extent the mixed character of\nits author, its merits as a code of laws, and as a system of religious\nteaching, must always be estimated by the changes which it introduced into\nthe customs and beliefs of those who willingly or by compulsion embraced it.\nIn the suppression of their idolatries, in the substitution of the worship of\nAllah for that of the powers of nature and genii with Him, in the abolition\nof child murder, in the extinction of manifold superstitious usages, in the\nreduction of the number of wives to a fixed standard, it was to the Arabians\nan unquestionable blessing, and an accession, though not in the Christian\nsense a Revelation, of Truth; and while every Christian must deplore the\noverthrow of so many flourishing Eastern churches by the arms of the\nvictorious Muslims, it must not be forgotten that Europe, in the middle ages,\nowed much of her knowledge of dialectic philosophy, of medicine, and\narchitecture, to Arabian writers, and that Muslims formed the connecting link\nbetween the West and the East for the importation of numerous articles of\nluxury and use. That an immense mass of fable and silly legend has been built\nup upon the basis of the Koran is beyond a doubt, but for this Muhammad is\nnot answerable, any more than he is for the wild and bloodthirsty excesses of\nhis followers in after ages. I agree with Sale in thinking that, \"how\ncriminal soever Muhammad may have been in imposing a false religion on\nmankind, the praises due to his real virtues ought not to be denied him\"\n(Preface), and venture to think that no one can rise from the perusal of his\nKoran without argeeing with that motto from St. Augustin, which Sale has\nprefixed to his title page, \"Nulla falsa doctrina est, qu\u00e6 non aliquid veri\npermisceat.\" Qu\u2018st. Evang. ii. 40.\n\nThe Arabic text from which this translation has been made is that of Fluegel.\nLeips. 1841. The translations of Sale, Ullmann, Wahl, Hammer von Purgstall in\nthe Fundgruben des Orients, and M. Kasimirski, have been collated throughout;\nand above all, the great work of Father Maracci, to whose accuracy and\nresearch search Sale's work mainly owes its merits. Sale has, however,\nfollowed Maracci too closely, especially by introducing his paraphrastic\ncomments into the body of the text, as well as by his constant use of\nLatinised instead of Saxon words. But to Sale's \"Preliminary Discourse\" the\nreader is referred, as to a storehouse of valuable information; as well as to\nthe works of Geiger, Gerock, and Freytag, and to the lives of Muhammad by Dr.\nWeil, Mr. Muir, and that of Dr. Sprenger now issuing from the press, in\nGerman. The more brief and poetical verses of the earlier Suras are\ntranslated with a freedom from which I have altogether abstained in the\nhistorical and prosaic portions; but I have endeavoured nowhere to use a\ngreater amount of paraphrase than is necessary to convey the sense of the\noriginal. \"Vel verbum e verbo,\" says S. Jerome (Pr\u00e6f. in Jobum) of versions,\n\"vel sensum e sensu, vel ex utroque commixtum, et medie temperatum genus\ntranslationis.\" The proper names are usually given as in our Scriptures: the\nEnglish reader would not easily recognise Noah as N\u00fbh, Lot as L\u00fbt, Moses as\nMusa, Abraham as Ibrahym, Pharaoh as Firaun, Aaron as Harun, Jesus as Isa,\nJohn as Yahia, etc.; and it has been thought best to give different\nrenderings of the same constantly recurring words and phrases, in order more\nfully to convey their meaning. For instance, the Arabic words which mean\nCompanions of the fire, are also rendered inmates of, etc., given up to,\netc.; the People of the Book, i.e. Jews, Christians and Sabeites, is\nsometimes retained, sometimes paraphrased. This remark applies to such words\nas tanzyl, lit. downsending or Revelation; zikr, the remembrance or constant\nrepetition or mention of God's name as an act of devotion; saha, the Hour of\npresent or final judgment; and various epithets of Allah.\n\nI have nowhere attempted to represent the rhymes of the original. The\n\"Proben\" of H. v. Purgstall, in the Fundgruben des Orients, excellent as they\nare in many respects, shew that this can only be done with a sacrifice of\nliteral translation. I subjoin as a specimen Lieut. Burton's version of the\nFatthah, or opening chapter of previous editions. See Sura [viii.] p. 28.\n\n\t1  In the Name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate!\n\t2  Praise be to Allah, who the three worlds made.\n\t3  The Merciful, the Compassionate,\n\t4  The King of the day of Fate.\n\t5  Thee alone do we worship, and of thee alone do we ask aid.\n\t6  Guide us to the path that is straight-\n\t7  \tThe path of those to whom thy love is great,\n\t\tNot those on whom is hate,\n\t\tNor they that deviate.\t\tAmen.\n\n\"I have endeavoured,\" he adds, \"in this translation to imitate the imperfect\nrhyme of the original Arabic. Such an attempt, however, is full of\ndifficulties. The Arabic is a language in which, like Italian, it is almost\nimpossible not to rhyme.\" Pilgr. ii. 78.\n\n\n1  Mishc\u00e2t, vol. i. p. 524.  E. Trans. B. viii. 3, 3.\n\n2  Mishc\u00e2t, as above.  Muir, i. p. xiii.  Freyt. Einl., p. 384.  Memoires de\nl\u2019Acad. T. 50, p. 426.  N\u00f6ld. p. 205.\n\n3  Kit\u00e2b al Waquidi, p. 278\n\n4  See Suras xxxvi. xxv. xvii.\n\n5  See Walton\u2019s Prol. ad Polygl. Lond. \u00a7 xiv. 2.\n\n6  Prol. in N.T. p. lxxviii.\n\n7  The date of the Bab. Gemara is A.D. 530; of the Jerusalem Gamara, A.D.\n430; of the Mischina A.D. 220; See Gfr\u00f6rer\u2019s Jahrhundert des Heils, pp. 11-\n44.\n\n8  Sura xlvi. 10, p. 314.\n\n9  Sura vi. 20, p. 318.  Sura ii. 13 (p. 339), verse 98, etc.\n\n10  Sura xxv. 5, 6, p. 159.\n\n11  Sura. vii. 156, p. 307; xxix. 47, p. 265.\n\n12  See Dr. Sprenger\u2019s \u201cLife,\u201d p. 101.\n\n13  Or, epileptic.\n\n14  A line of argument to be adopted by a Christian missionary in dealing\nwith a Muhammadan should be, not to attack Islam as a mass of error, but to\nshew that it contains fragments of disjointed truth-that it is based upon\nChristianity and Judaism partially understood-especially upon the latter,\nwithout any appreciation of its typical character pointing to Christianity as\na final dispensation.\n\n15  Muhammad can scarcely have failed to observe the opportunity offered for\nthe growth of a new power, by the ruinous strifes of the Persians and Greeks.\nAbulfeda (Life of Muhammad, p. 76) expressly says that he had promised his\nfollowers the spoils o Chosroes and C\u00e6sar.\n\n\nSURA1 XCVI.-THICK BLOOD, OR CLOTS OF BLOOD [I.]\n\nMECCA.-19 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful2\n\nRECITE3 thou, in the name of thy Lord who created;-\n\nCreated man from CLOTS OF BLOOD:-\n\nRecite thou! For thy Lord is the most Beneficent,\n\nWho hath taught the use of the pen;-\n\nHath taught Man that which he knoweth not.\n\nNay, verily,4 Man is insolent,\n\nBecause he seeth himself possessed of riches.\n\nVerily, to thy Lord is the return of all.\n\nWhat thinkest thou of him that holdeth back\n\nA servant5 of God when he prayeth?\n\nWhat thinkest thou?6 Hath he followed the true Guidance, or enjoined Piety?\n\nWhat thinkest thou? Hath he treated the truth as a lie and turned his back?\n\nWhat! doth he not know how that God seeth?\n\nNay, verily, if he desist not, We shall seize him by the forelock,\n\nThe lying sinful forelock!\n\nThen let him summon his associates;7\n\nWe too will summon the guards of Hell:\n\nNay! obey him not; but adore, and draw nigh to God.8\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The word Sura occurs nine times in the Koran, viz. Sur. ix. 65, 87, 125,\n128; xxiv. 1; xlvii. 22 (twice); ii. 21; x. 39; but it is not easy to\ndetermine whether it means a whole chapter, or part only of a chapter, or is\nused in the sense of \"revelation.\" See Weil's Mohammed der Prophet, pp. 361-\n363. It is understood by the Muhammadan commentators to have a primary\nreference to the succession of subjects or parts, like the rows of bricks in\na wall. The titles of the Suras are generally taken from some word occurring\nin each, which is printed in large type throughout, where practicable.\n\n2 This formula-Bismillahi 'rrahmani 'rrahim-is of Jewish origin. It was in\nthe first instance taught to the Koreisch by Omayah of Taief, the poet, who\nwas a contemporary with, but somewhat older than, Muhammad; and who, during\nhis mercantile journeys into Arabia Petr\u2018a and Syria, had made himself\nacquainted with the sacred books and doctrines of Jews and Christians. (Kitab\nal-Agh\u00e2ni, 16. Delhi.) Muhammad adopted and constantly used it, and it is\nprefixed to each Sura except the ninth. The former of the two epithets\nimplies that the mercy of God is exercised as occasions arise, towards all\nhis creatures; the latter that the quality of mercy is inherent in God and\npermanent, so that there is only a shade of difference between the two words.\nMaracci well renders, In Nomine Dei Miseratoris, Misericordis. The rendering\nI have adopted is that of Mr. Lane in his extracts from the Koran. See also\nFreytag's Lex. ii. p. 133. Perhaps, In the name of Allah, the God of Mercy,\nthe Merciful, would more fully express the original Arabic. The first five\nverses of this Sura are, in the opinion of nearly all commentators, ancient\nand modern, the earliest revelations made to Muhammad, in the 40th year of\nhis life, and the starting point of El-Islam. (See the authorities quoted in\ndetail in N\u00f6ldeke's Geschichte des Qor\u00e2ns, p. 62, n.)\n\n3 The usual rendering is read. But the word qaraa, which is the root of the\nword Koran, analogous to the Rabbinic mikra, rather means to address, recite;\nand with regard to its etymology and use in the kindred dialects to call, cry\naloud, proclaim. Compare Isai. lviii. 1; 1 Kings xviii. 37; and Gesen.\nThesaur. on the Hebrew root. I understand this passage to mean, \"Preach to\nthy fellow men what thou believest to be true of thy Lord who has created man\nfrom the meanest materials, and can in like manner prosper the truth which\nthou proclaimest. He has taught man the art of writing (recently introduced\nat Mecca) and in this thou wilt find a powerful help for propagating the\nknowledge of the divine Unity.\" The speaker in this, as in all the Suras, is\nGabriel, of whom Muhammad had, as he believed, a vision on the mountain Hir\u00e2,\nnear Mecca. See note 1 on the next page. The details of the vision are quite\nunhistorical.\n\n4 This, and the following verses, may have been added at a later period,\nthough previous to the Flight, and with special reference, if we are to\nbelieve the commentators Beidhawi, etc., to the opposition which Muhammad\nexperienced at the hands of his opponent, Abu Jahl, who had threatened to set\nhis foot on the Prophet's neck when prostrate in prayer. But the whole\npassage admits of application to mankind in general.\n\n5 That is Muhammad. N\u00f6ldeke, however, proposes to render \"a slave.\" And it is\ncertain that the doctrines of Islam were in the first instance embraced by\nslaves, many of whom had been carried away from Christian homes, or born of\nChristian parents at Mecca. \"Men of this description,\" says Dr. Sprenger\n(Life of Mohammad. Allahabad. p. 159), \"no doubt prepared the way for the\nIslam by inculcating purer notions respecting God upon their masters and\ntheir brethren. These men saw in Mohammad their liberator; and being\nsuperstitious enough to consider his fits as the consequence of an\ninspiration, they were among the first who acknowledged him as a prophet.\nMany of them suffered torture for their faith in him, and two of them died as\nmartyrs. The excitement among the slaves when Mohammad first assumed his\noffice was so great, that Abd Allah bin Jod'an, who had one hundred of these\nsufferers, found it necessary to remove them from Makkah, lest they should\nall turn converts.\" See Sura xvi. 105, 111; ii. 220.\n\n6 Lit. hast thou seen if he be upon the guidance.\n\n7 The principal men of the Koreisch who adhered to Abu Jahl.\n\n8 During a period variously estimated from six months to three years from the\nrevelation of this Sura, or of its earliest verses, the prophetic inspiration\nand the revelation of fresh Suras is said to have been suspended. This\ninterval is called the Fatrah or intermission; and the Meccan Suras delivered\nat its close show that at or during this period Muhammad had gained an\nincreasing and more intimate acquaintance with the Jewish and Christian\nScriptures. \"The accounts, however,\" says Mr. Muir (vol. ii. 86) \"are\nthroughout confused, if not contradictory; and we can only gather with\ncertainty that there was a time during which his mind hung in suspense, and\ndoubted the divine mission.\" The idea of any supernatural influence is of\ncourse to be entirely excluded; although there is no doubt that Muhammad\nhimself had a full belief in the personality and influence of Satans and\nDjinn. Profound meditation, the struggles of an earnest mind anxious to\nattain to truth, the morbid excitability of an epileptic subject, visions\nseen in epileptic swoons, disgust at Meccan idolatry, and a desire to teach\nhis countrymen the divine Unity will sufficiently account for the period of\nindecision termed the Fatrah, and for the determination which led Muhammad,\nin all sincerity, but still self-deceived, to take upon himself the office\nand work of a Messenger from God. We may perhaps infer from such passages as\nSura ii. 123, what had ever been the leading idea in Muhammad's mind.\n\n\nSURA LXXIV.-THE ENWRAPPED1 [II.]\n\nMECCA.-55 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO THOU, ENWRAPPED in thy mantle!\n\nArise and warn!\n\nThy Lord-magnify Him!\n\nThy raiment-purify it!\n\nThe abomination-flee it!\n\nAnd bestow not favours that thou mayest receive again with increase;\n\nAnd for thy Lord wait thou patiently.\n\nFor when there shall be a trump on the trumpet,2\n\nThat shall be a distressful day,\n\nA day, to the Infidels, devoid of ease.\n\nLeave me alone to deal with him3 whom I have created,\n\nAnd on whom I have bestowed vast riches,\n\nAnd sons dwelling before him,\n\nAnd for whom I have smoothed all things smoothly down;-\n\nYet desireth he that I should add more!\n\nBut no!  because to our signs he is a foe\n\nI will lay grievous woes upon him.\n\nFor he plotted and he planned!\n\nMay he be cursed!  How he planned!\n\nAgain, may he be cursed!  How he planned!\n\nThen looked he around him,\n\nThen frowned and scowled,\n\nThen turned his back and swelled with disdain,\n\nAnd said, \u201cThis is merely magic that will be wrought;\n\nIt is merely the word of a mortal.\u201d\n\nWe will surely cast him into Hell-fire.\n\nAnd who shall teach thee what Hell-fire is?\n\nIt leaveth nought, it spareth nought,\n\nBlackening the skin.\n\nOver it are nineteen angels.\n\nNone but angels have we made guardians of the fire:4 nor have we made this to\nbe their number but to perplex the unbelievers, and that they who possess the\nScriptures may be certain of the truth of the Koran, and that they who\nbelieve may increase their faith;\n\nAnd that they to whom the Scriptures have been given, and the believers, may\nnot doubt;\n\nAnd that the infirm of heart and the unbelievers may say, What meaneth God by\nthis parable?\n\nThus God misleadeth whom He will, and whom He will doth He guide aright: and\nnone knoweth the armies of thy Lord but Himself: and this is no other than a\nwarning to mankind.\n\nNay, by the Moon!\n\nBy the Night when it retreateth!\n\nBy the Morn when it brighteneth!\n\nHell is one of the most grievous woes,\n\nFraught with warning to man,\n\nTo him among you who desireth to press forward, or to remain behind.5\n\nFor its own works lieth every soul in pledge.  But they of God\u2019s right hand\n\nIn their gardens shall ask of the wicked;-\n\n\u201cWhat hath cast you into Hell-fire?\u201d6\n\nThey will say, \u201cWe were not of those who prayed,\n\nAnd we were not of those who fed the poor,\n\nAnd we plunged into vain disputes with vain disputers,\n\nAnd we rejected as a lie, the day of reckoning,\n\nTill the certainty7 came upon us\u201d-\n\nAnd intercession of the interceders shall not avail them.\n\nThen what hath come to them that they turn aside from the Warning\n\nAs if they were affrighted asses fleeing from a lion?\n\nAnd every one of them would fain have open pages given to him out of Heaven.\n\nIt shall not be.  They fear not the life to come.\n\nIt shall not be.  For this Koran is warning enough.  And whoso will, it\nwarneth him.\n\nBut not unless God please, shall they be warned.  Meet is He to be feared.\nMeet is forgiveness in Him.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura is placed by Muir in the \u201csecond stage\u201d of Meccan Suras, and\ntwenty-first in chronological order, in the third or fourth year of the\nProphet\u2019s career.  According, however, to the chronological list of Suras\ngiven by Weil (Leben M. p. 364) from ancient tradition, as well as from the\nconsentient voice of tradionists and commentaries (v. N\u00f6ld. Geschichte, p.\n69; Sprenger\u2019s Life of Mohammad, p. 111) it was the next revealed after the\nFatrah, and the designation to the prophetic office.  The main features of\nthe tradition are, that Muhammad while wandering about in the hills near\nMecca, distracted by doubts and by anxiety after truth, had a vision of the\nAngel Gabriel seated on a throne between heaven and earth, that he ran to his\nwife, Chadijah, in the greatest alarm, and desired her, perhaps from\nsuperstitious motives (and believing that if covered with clothes he should\nbe shielded from the glances of evil spirits-comp. Stanley on I Cor. xi. 10),\nto envelope him in his mantle; that then Gabriel came down and addressed him\nas in v. I.  This vision, like that which preceded Sura xcvi., may actually\nhave occurred during the hallucinations of one of the epileptic fits from\nwhich Muhammad from early youth appears to have suffered.  Hence Muhammad in\nSura lxxxi. appeals to it as a matter of fact, and such he doubtless believe\nit to be.  It may here be observed, that however absurd the Muslim traditions\nmay be in many of their details, it will generally be found that where there\nis an ancient and tolerably universal consent, there will be found at the\nbottom a residuum of fact and historical truth.  At the same time there can\nbe no doubt but that the details of the traditions are too commonly founded\nupon the attempt to explain or to throw light upon a dark passage of the\nKoran, and are pure inventions of a later age.\n\n2 The Arabic words are not those used in later Suras to express the same\nidea.\n\n3  Said to be Walid b. Mogheira, a person of note among the unbelieving\nMeccans.  This portion of the Sura seems to be of a different date from the\nfirst seven verses, though very ancient, and the change of subject is similar\nto that at v. 9 of the previous Sura.\n\n4 This and the three following verses wear the appearance of having been\ninserted at a later period to meet objections respecting the number of the\nangels who guard hell, raised by the Jews; perhaps at Medina, as the four\nclasses of persons specified are those whom Muhammad had to deal with in that\ncity, viz., the Jews, Believers, the Hypocrites, or undecided, and Idolaters.\nThese are constantly mentioned together in the Medina Suras.\n\n5 That is, who believe, and do not believe.\n\n6 As the word sakar disturbs the rhyme, it may have been inserted by a\nmistake of the copyist for the usual word, which suits it.\n\n7 That is, death.  Beidh.  Comp. Sura xv. 99.\n\n\nSURA LXXIII. THE ENFOLDED1 [III.]\n\nMECCA. 20 Verses.\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO THOU ENFOLDED in thy mantle,\n\nStand up all night, except a small portion of it, for prayer:\n\nHalf; or curtail the half a little,-\n\nOr add to it: And with measured tone intone the Koran,2\n\nFor we shall devolve on thee weighty words.\n\nVerily, at the oncoming of night are devout impressions strongest, and words\nare most collected;3\n\nBut in the day time thou hast continual employ-\n\nAnd commemorate the name of thy Lord, and devote thyself to Him with entire\ndevotion.\n\nLord of the East and of the West! No God is there but He! Take Him for thy\nprotector,\n\nAnd endure what they say with patience, and depart from them with a decorous\ndeparture.\n\nAnd let Me alone with the gainsayers, rich in the pleasures of this life; and\nbear thou with them yet a little while:\n\nFor with Us are strong fetters, and a flaming fire,\n\nAnd food that choketh, and a sore torment.\n\nThe day cometh when the earth and the mountains shall be shaken; and the\nmountains shall become a loose sand heap.\n\nVerily, we have sent you an Apostle to witness against you, even as we sent\nan Apostle to Pharaoh:\n\nBut Pharaoh rebelled against the Apostle, and we therefore laid hold on him\nwith a severe chastisement.\n\nAnd how, if ye believe not, will you screen yourselves from the day that\nshall turn children greyheaded?\n\nThe very heaven shall be reft asunder by it: this threat shall be carried\ninto effect.\n\nLo! this is a warning. Let him then who will, take the way to his Lord.\n\nOf a truth,4 thy Lord knoweth that thou prayest almost two-thirds, or half,\nor a third of the night, as do a part of thy followers. But God measureth the\nnight and the day:  He knoweth that ye cannot count its hours aright, and\ntherefore, turneth to you mercifully. Recite then so much of the Koran as may\nbe easy to you. He knoweth that there will be some among you sick, while\nothers travel through the earth in quest of the bounties of God; and others\ndo battle in his cause. Recite therefore so much of it as may be easy. And\nobserve the Prayers and pay the legal Alms,5 and lend God a liberal loan: for\nwhatever good works ye send on before for your own behoof, ye shall find with\nGod. This will be best and richest in the recompense. And seek the\nforgiveness of God: verily, God is forgiving, Merciful.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 From the first line of this Sura, and its expressions concerning the Koran,\nPrayer, and Future Punishment: from the similarity of the tradition with\nregard to its having been preceded by a vision of Gabriel (Beidh., etc.), it\nseems to belong to, or at least to describe, a period, perhaps immediately\nsucceeding the Fatrah, during which the hours of night were spent by Muhammad\nin devotion and in the labour of working up his materials in rhythmical and\nrhyming Suras, and in preparation for the public assumption of the prophetic\noffice. Comp. especially verses 11, 19, 20, at the end, with 11, 54, 55, of\nthe preceding Sura.\n\n2 Singe den Koran laut. H.v.P. Psalle Alcoranum psallendo. Mar. Singe den\nKoran mit singender und lauter Stimme ab. Ullm.\n\n3 Lit. most firm, perhaps, distinct.\n\n4 This verse, according to a tradition of Ayesha, was revealed one year later\nthan the previous part of the Sura. N\u00f6ldeke says it is \"offenbar ein\nMedinischer.\"\n\n5 The reader will not be surprised to find in the very outset of Muhammad's\ncareer a frequent mention of Alms, Prayer, Heaven, Hell, Judgment, Apostles,\netc., in their usual sense, when he remembers that Judaism was extensively\nnaturalised in Arabia, and Christianity, also, although to a smaller extent.\nThe words and phrases of these religions were doubtless familiar to the\nMeccans, especially to that numerous body who were anxiously searching after\nsome better religion than the idolatries of their fathers (v. on Sura iii.\n19, 60), and provided Muhammad with a copious fund from which to draw.\n\n\nSURA XCIII.1-THE BRIGHTNESS [IV.]\n\nMECCA.-11 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBY the noon-day BRIGHTNESS,\n\nAnd by the night when it darkeneth!\n\nThy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither hath he been displeased.\n\nAnd surely the Future shall be better for thee than the Past,\n\nAnd in the end shall thy Lord be bounteous to thee and thou be satisfied.\n\nDid he not find thee an orphan2 and gave thee a home?\n\nAnd found thee erring and guided thee,3\n\nAnd found thee needy and enriched thee.\n\nAs to the orphan therefore wrong him not;\n\nAnd as to him that asketh of thee, chide him not away;\n\nAnd as for the favours of thy Lord tell them abroad.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This and the six following Suras are expressions of a state of deep mental\nanxiety and depression, in which Muhammad seeks to reassure himself by\ncalling to mind the past favours of God, and by fixing his mind steadfastly\non the Divine Unity. They belong to a period either before the public\ncommencement of his ministry or when his success was very dubious, and his\nfuture career by no means clearly marked out.\n\n2 The charge of the orphaned Muhammad was undertaken by Abd-al-Mutalib, his\ngrandfather, A.D. 576. Hishami, p. 35; Kitab al Wakidi, p. 22, have preserved\ntraditions of the fondness with which the old man of fourscore years treated\nthe child, spreading a rug for him under the shadow of the Kaaba, protecting\nhim from the rudeness of his own sons, etc.\n\n3 Up to his 40th year Muhammad followed the religion of his countrymen. Waq.\nTabari says that when he first entered on his office of Prophet, even his\nwife Chadijah had read the Scriptures, and was acquainted with the History of\nthe Prophets. Spreng. p. 100. But his conformity can only have been partial.\n\n\nSURA XCIV.-THE OPENING [V.]\n\nMECCA.-8 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHAVE we not OPENED thine heart for thee?\n\nAnd taken off from thee thy burden,\n\nWhich galled thy back?\n\nAnd have we not raised thy name for thee?\n\nThen verily along with trouble cometh ease.\n\nVerily along with trouble cometh ease.\n\nBut when thou art set at liberty, then prosecute thy toil.\n\nAnd seek thy Lord with fervour.\n\n\nSURA CXIII.-THE DAYBREAK [VI.]\n\nMECCA OR MEDINA.-5 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nSAY: I betake me for refuge to the Lord of the DAY BREAK\n\nAgainst the mischiefs of his creation;\n\nAnd against the mischief of the night when it overtaketh me;\n\nAnd against the mischief of weird women;1\n\nAnd against the mischief of the envier when he envieth.\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. who blow on knots. According to some commentators an allusion to a\nspecies of charm. Comp. Virg.Ec. vi. But the reference more probably is to\nwomen in general, who disconcert schemes as thread is disentangled by blowing\nupon it. Suras cxiii. are called the el mouwwidhetani, or preservative\nchapters, are engraved on amulets,etc.\n\n\nSURA CXIV.-MEN [VII.]\n\nMECCA OR MEDINA.-6 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nSAY: I betake me for refuge to the Lord of MEN,\n\nThe King of men,\n\nThe God of men,\n\nAgainst the mischief of the stealthily withdrawing whisperer,1\n\nWho whispereth in man's breast-\n\nAgainst djinn and men.\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Satan.\n\n\nSURA I.1 [VIII.]\n\nMECCA.-7 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nPRAISE be to God, Lord of the worlds!\n\nThe compassionate, the merciful!\n\nKing on the day of reckoning!\n\nThee only do we worship, and to Thee do we cry for help.\n\nGuide Thou us on the straight path,2\n\nThe path of those to whom Thou hast been gracious;-with whom thou art not\nangry, and who go not astray.3\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura, which N\u00f6ldeke places last, and Muir sixth, in the earliest class\nof Meccan Suras, must at least have been composed prior to Sura xxxvii.\n182,where it is quoted, and to Sura xv. 87, which refers to it. And it can\nscarcely be an accidental circumstance that the words of the first, second,\nand fifth verses do not occur in any other Suras of the first Meccan period\nas given by N\u201dldeke, but frequently in those of the second, which it\ntherefore, in N\u201dldeke, opinion, immediately precedes. But this may be\naccounted for by its having been recast for the purposes of private and\npublic devotion by Muhammad himself, which is the meaning probably of the\nMuhammadan tradition that it was revealed twice.  It should also be observed\nthat, including the auspicatory formula, there are the same number of\npetitions in this Sura as in the Lord's Prayer. It is recited several times\nin each of the five daily prayers, and on many other occassions, as in\nconcluding a bargain, etc. It is termed \"the Opening of the Book,\" \"the\nCompletion,\" \"the Sufficing Sura,\" the Sura of Praise, Thanks, and Prayer,\"\n\"the Healer,\" \"the Remedy,\" \"the Basis,\" \"the Treasure,\" \"the Mother of the\nBook,\" \"the Seven Verses of Repetition.\" The Muhammadans always say \"Amen\"\nafter this prayer, Muhammad having been instructed, says the Sonna, to do so\nby the Angel Gabriel.\n\n2 Islam\n\n3 The following transfer of this Sura from the Arabic into the corresponding\nEnglish characters may give some idea of the rhyming prose in which the Koran\nis written:\n\nBismillahi 'rahhmani 'rrahheem.\nEl-hamdoo lillahi rabi 'lalameen.\nArrahhmani raheem.\nMaliki yowmi-d-deen.\nEyaka naboodoo, wa\u201ayaka nest aeen.\nIhdina 'ssirat almostakeem.\nSirat alezeena anhamta aleihim, gheiri-'l mughdoobi aleihim, wala dsaleen.\nAmeen.\n\n\nSURA CIX.-UNBELIEVERS [IX.]\n\nMECCA.-6 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nSAY: O ye UNBELIEVERS!\n\nI worship not that which ye worship,\n\nAnd ye do not worship that which I worship;\n\nI shall never worship that which ye worship,\n\nNeither will ye worship that which I worship.\n\nTo you be your religion; to me my religion.1\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura is said to have been revealed when Wal\u00eed urged Muhammad to\nconsent that his God should be worshipped at the same time with the old\nMeccan deities, or alternately every year. Hish\u00e2mi, p. 79; Tabari, p. 139. It\nis a distinct renunciation of Meccan idolatry, as the following Sura is a\ndistinct recognition of the Divine Unity.\n\n\nSURA CXII.-THE UNITY [X.]\n\nMECCA.-4 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nSAY: He is God alone:\n\nGod the eternal!\n\nHe begetteth not, and He is not begotten;\n\nAnd there is none like unto Him.\n\n\nSURA CXI. ABU LAHAB [XI.]\n\nMECCA. 5 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nLET the hands of ABU LAHAB1 perish,and let himself perish!\n\nHis wealth and his gains shall avail him not.\n\nBurned shall he be at the fiery flame,2\n\nAnd his wife laden with fire wood,-\n\nOn her neck a rope of palm fibre.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Undoubtedly one of the earliest Suras, and refers to the rejection of\nMuhammad's claim to the prophetic office by his uncle, Abu Lahab, at the\ninstigation of his wife, Omm Djemil, who is said to have strewn the path of\nMuhammad on one occasion with thorns. The following six Suras, like the two\nfirst, have special reference to the difficulties which the Prophet met with\nthe outset of his career, especially from the rich.\n\n2 In allusion to the meaning of Abu Lahab, father of flame.\n\n\nSURA CVIII.-THE ABUNDANCE [XII.]\n\nMECCA.-3 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTRULY we have given thee an ABUNDANCE;\n\nPray therefore to the Lord, and slay the victims.\n\nVerily whoso hateth thee shall be childless.1\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 A reply to those who had taunted Muhammad with the death of his sons, as a\nmark of the divine displeasure.\n\n\nSURA CIV.-THE BACKBITER [XII.]\n\nMECCA.-9 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWoe to every BACKBITER, Defamer!\n\nWho amasseth wealth and storeth it against the future!\n\nHe thinketh surely that his wealth shall be with him for ever.\n\nNay! for verily he shall be flung into the Crushing Fire;\n\nAnd who shall teach thee what the Crushing Fire is?\n\nIt is God's kindled fire,\n\nWhich shall mount above the hearts of the damned;\n\nIt shall verily rise over them like a vault,\n\nOn outstretched columns.\n\n\nSURA CVII.-RELIGION [XIV.]\n\nMECCA.-7 Verses\n\nIn the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHAT thinkest thou of him who treateth our RELIGION as a lie?\n\nHe it is who trusteth away the orphan,\n\nAnd stirreth not others up to feed the poor.\n\nWoe to those who pray,\n\nBut in their prayer are careless;\n\nWho make a shew of devotion,\n\nBut refuse help to the needy.\n\n\nSURA CII.-DESIRE [XV.]\n\nMECCA.-8 Verses\n\nIn the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTHE DESIRE of increasing riches occupieth you,\n\nTill ye come to the grave.\n\nNay! but in the end ye shall know\n\nNay! once more,in the end ye shall know your folly.\n\nNay! would that ye knew it with knowledge of certainty!\n\nSurely ye shall see hell-fire.\n\nThen shall ye surely see it with the eye of certainty;\n\nThen shall ye on that day be taken to task concerning pleasures.\n\n\nSURA XCII.-THE NIGHT [XVI.]\n\nMECCA.-21 Verses\n\nIn the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBY the NIGHT when she spreads her veil;\n\nBy the Day when it brightly shineth;\n\nBy Him who made male and female;\n\nAt different ends truly do ye aim!1\n\nBut as to him who giveth alms and feareth God,\n\nAnd yieldeth assent to the Good;\n\nTo him will we make easy the path to happiness.\n\nBut as to him who is covetous and bent on riches,\n\nAnd calleth the Good a lie,\n\nTo him will we make easy the path to misery:\n\nAnd what shall his wealth avail him when he goeth down?\n\nTruly man\u2019s guidance is with Us\n\nAnd Our\u2019s, the Future and the Past.\n\nI warn you therefore of the flaming fire;\n\nNone shall be cast to it but the most wretched,-\n\nWho hath called the truth a lie and turned his back.\n\nBut the God-fearing shall escape it,-\n\nWho giveth away his substance that he may become pure;2\n\nAnd who offereth not favours to any one for the sake of recompense,\n\nBut only as seeking the face of his Lord the Most High.\n\nAnd surely in the end he shall be well content.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1  See Pref., p. 5, line I.\n2  Comp. Luke xi. 41.  Muhammad perhaps derived this view of the meritorious\nanture of almsgiving from the Jewish oral law.\n\n\nSURA LXVIII.-THE PEN [XVII.]\n\nMecca.-52 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nNun.1 By the PEN2 and by what they write,\n\nThou, O Prophet; by the grace of thy Lord art not possessed!3\n\nAnd truly a boundless recompense doth await thee,\n\nFor thou art of a noble nature.4\n\nBut thou shalt see and they shall see Which of you is the demented.\n\nNow thy Lord! well knoweth He the man who erreth from his path, and well doth\nhe know those who have yielded to Guidance;\n\nGive not place, therefore, to those who treat thee as a liar:\n\nThey desire thee to deal smoothly with them: then would they be smooth as oil\nwith thee:\n\nBut yield not to the man of oaths, a despicable person,\n\nDefamer, going about with slander,\n\nHinderer of the good, transgressor, criminal,\n\nHarsh-beside this, impure by birth,\n\nThough a man of riches and blessed with sons.\n\nWho when our wondrous verses are recited to him saith-\"Fables of the\nancients.\"\n\nWe will brand him on the nostrils.\n\nVerily, we have proved them (the Meccans) as we proved the owners of the\ngarden, when they swore that at morn they would cut its fruits;\n\nBut added no reserve.5\n\nWherefore an encircling desolation from thy Lord swept round it while they\nslumbered,\n\nAnd in the morning it was like a garden whose fruits had all been cut.\n\nThen at dawn they called to each other,\n\n\"Go out early to your field, if ye would cut your dates.\"\n\nSo on they went whispering to each other,\n\n\"No poor man shall set foot this day within your garden;\"\n\nAnd they went out at daybreak with this settled purpose.\n\nBut when they beheld it, they said, \"Truly we have been in fault:\n\nYes! we are forbidden our fruits.\"\n\nThe most rightminded of them said, \"Did I not say to you, Will ye not give\npraise to God?\"\n\nThey said, \"Glory to our Lord! Truly we have done amiss.\"\n\nAnd they fell to blaming one another:\n\nThey said, \"Oh woe to us! we have indeed transgressed!\n\nHaply our Lord will give us in exchange a better garden than this: verily we\ncrave it of our Lord.\"\n\nSuch hath been our chastisement-but heavier shall be the chastisement of the\nnext world. Ah! did they but know it.\n\nVerily, for the God-fearing are gardens of delight in the presence of their\nLord.\n\nShall we then deal with those who have surrendered themselves to God, as with\nthose who offend him?\n\nWhat hath befallen you that ye thus judge?\n\nHave ye a Scripture wherein ye can search out\n\nThat ye shall have the things ye choose?\n\nOr have ye received oaths which shall bind Us even until the day of the\nresurrection, that ye shall have what yourselves judge right?\n\nAsk them which of them will guarantee this?\n\nOr is it that they have joined gods with God? let them produce those\nassociate-gods of theirs, if they speak truth.\n\nOn the day when men's legs shall be bared,6 and they shall be called upon to\nbow in adoration, they shall not be able:\n\nTheir looks shall be downcast: shame shall cover them: because, while yet in\nsafety, they were invited to bow in worship, but would not obey.\n\nLeave me alone therefore with him who chargeth this revelation with\nimposture. We will lead them by degrees to their ruin; by ways which they\nknow not;\n\nYet will I bear long with them; for my plan is sure.\n\nAskest thou any recompense from them? But they are burdened with debt.\n\nAre the secret things within their ken? Do they copy them from the Book of\nGod?\n\nPatiently then await the judgment of thy Lord, and be not like him who was in\nthe fish,7 when in deep distress he cried to God.\n\nHad not favour from his Lord reached him, cast forth would he have been on\nthe naked shore, overwhelmed with shame:\n\nBut his Lord chose him and made him of the just.\n\nAlmost would the infidels strike thee down with their very looks when they\nhear the warning of the Koran. And they say, \"He is certainly possessed.\"\n\nYet is it nothing less than a warning for all creatures.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 It has been conjectured that as the word Nun means fish, there may be a\nreference to the fish which swallowed Jonas (v. 48). The fact, however, is\nthat the meaning of this and of the similar symbols, throughout the Koran,\nwas unknown to the Muhammadans themselves even in the first century. Possibly\nthe letters Ha, Mim, which are prefixed to numerous successive Suras were\nprivate marks, or initial letters, attached by their proprietor to the copies\nfurnished to Said when effecting his recension of the text under Othman. In\nthe same way, the letters prefixed to other Suras may be monograms, or\nabbreviations, or initial letters of the names of the persons to whom the\ncopies of the respective Suras belonged.\n\naddenda: The symbol nun may possibly refer to this letter as forming the\nRhyme in most of the verses of this Sura.\n\n2 This Sura has been supposed by ancient Muslim authorities to be, if not the\noldest, the second revelation, and to have followed Sura xcvi. But this\nopinion probably originated from the expression in v. 1 compared with Sura\nxcvi. 4. Verses 17-33 read like a later addition, and this passage, as well\nas verse 48-50, has been classed with the Medina revelations. In the absence\nof any reliable criterion for fixing the date, I have placed this Sura with\nthose which detail the opposition encountered by the Prophet at Mecca.\n\n3 By djinn. Comp. Sur. xxxiv. 45.\n\n4 In bearing the taunts of the unbelievers with patience.\n\n5 They did not add the restriction, if God will.\n\n6 An expression implying a grievous calamity; borrowed probably from the\naction of stripping previous to wrestling, swimming, etc.\n\n7 Lit. the companion of the fish. Comp. on Jonah Sura xxxvii. 139-148, and\nSura xxi. 87.\n\n\nSURA XC.-THE SOIL [XVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-20 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nI NEED not to swear by this SOIL,\n\nThis soil on which thou dost dwell,\n\nOr by sire and offspring!1\n\nSurely in trouble have we created man.\n\nWhat! thinketh he that no one hath power over him?\n\n\"I have wasted,\" saith he, \"enormous riches!\"\n\nWhat! thinketh he that no one regardeth him?\n\nWhat! have we not made him eyes,\n\nAnd tongue, and lips,\n\nAnd guided him to the two highways?2\n\nYet he attempted not the steep.\n\nAnd who shall teach thee what the steep is?\n\nIt is to ransom the captive,3\n\nOr to feed in the day of famine,\n\nThe orphan who is near of kin, or the poor that lieth in the dust;\n\nBeside this, to be of those who believe, and enjoin stedfastness on each\nother, and enjoin compassion on each other.\n\nThese shall be the people of the right hand:\n\nWhile they who disbelieve our signs,\n\nShall be the people of the left.\n\nAround them the fire shall close.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. and begetter and what he hath begotten\n\n2 Of good and evil.\n\n3 Thus we read in Hilchoth Matt'noth Aniim, c. 8, \"The ransoming of captives\ntakes precedence of the feeding and clothing of the poor, and there is no\ncommandment so great as this.\"\n\n\nSURA CV.-THE ELEPHANT [XIX.]\n\nMECCA.-5 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHAST thou not seen1 how thy Lord dealt with the army of the ELEPHANT?\n\nDid he not cause their stratagem to miscarry?\n\nAnd he sent against them birds in flocks (ababils),\n\nClaystones did they hurl down upon them,\n\nAnd he made them like stubble eaten down!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura is probably Muhammad's appeal to the Meccans, intended at the\nsame time for his own encouragement, on the ground of their deliverance from\nthe army of Abraha, the Christian King of Abyssinia and Arabia Felix, said to\nhave been lost in the year of Muhammad's birth in an expedition against Mecca\nfor the purpose of destroying the Caaba. This army was cut off by small-pox\n(Wakidi; Hishami), and there is no doubt, as the Arabic word for small-pox\nalso means \"small stones,\" in reference to the hard gravelly feeling of the\npustules, what is the true interpretation of the fourth line of this Sura,\nwhich, like many other poetical passages in the Koran, has formed the\nstarting point for the most puerile and extravagant legends. Vide Gibbon's\nDecline and Fall, c. 1. The small-pox first shewed itself in Arabia at the\ntime of the invasion by Abraha. M. de Hammer Gemaldesaal, i. 24. Reiske\nopusc. Med. Arabum. Hal\u2018, 1776, p. 8.\n\n\nSURA CVI.-THE KOREISCH [XX.]\n\nMECCA.-4 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nFor the union of the KOREISCH:-\n\nTheir union in equipping caravans winter and summer.\n\nAnd let them worship the Lord of this house, who hath provided them with food\nagainst hunger,\n\nAnd secured them against alarm.1\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 In allusion to the ancient inviolability of the Haram, or precinct round\nMecca. See Sura, xcv. n. p. 41. This Sura, therefore, like the preceding, is\na brief appeal to the Meccans on the ground of their peculiar privileges.\n\n\nSURA XCVII.-POWER [XXI.]\n\nMECCA.-5 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nVERILY, we have caused It1 to descend on the night of POWER.\n\nAnd who shall teach thee what the night of power is?\n\nThe night of power excelleth a thousand months:\n\nTherein descend the angels and the spirit by permission of their Lord for\nevery matter;2\n\nAnd all is peace till the breaking of the morn.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The Koran, which is now pressed on the Meccans with increased prominence,\nas will be seen in many succeeding Suras of this period.\n\n2 The night of Al Kadr is one of the last ten nights of Ramadhan, and as is\ncommonly believed the seventh of those nights reckoning backward. See Sura\nxliv. 2. \"Three books are opened on the New Year's Day, one of the perfectly\nrighteous, one of the perfectly wicked, one of the intermediate. The\nperfectly righteous are inscribed and sealed for life,\" etc. Bab. Talm. Rosh.\nHash., \u00a7 I.\n\n\nSURA LXXXVI. THE NIGHT-COMER [XXII.]\n\nMECCA. 17 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBY the heaven, and by the NIGHT-COMER!\n\nBut who shall teach thee what the night-comer is?\n\n'Tis the star of piercing radiance.\n\nOver every soul is set a guardian.\n\nLet man then reflect out of what he was created.\n\nHe was created of the poured-forth germs,\n\nWhich issue from the loins and breastbones:\n\nWell able then is God to restore him to life,-\n\nOn the day when all secrets shall be searched out,\n\nAnd he shall have no other might or helper.\n\nI swear by the heaven which accomplisheth its cycle,\n\nAnd by the earth which openeth her bosom,\n\nThat this Koran is a discriminating discourse,\n\nAnd that it is not frivolous.\n\nThey plot a plot against thee,\n\nAnd I will plot a plot against them.\n\nDeal calmly therefore with the infidels; leave them awhile alone.\n\n\nSURA XCI.-THE SUN [XXIII.]\n\nMECCA.-15 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBY the SUN and his noonday brightness!\n\nBy the Moon when she followeth him!\n\nBy the Day when it revealeth his glory!\n\nBy the Night when it enshroudeth him!\n\nBy the Heaven and Him who built it!\n\nBy the Earth and Him who spread it forth!\n\nBy a Soul and Him who balanced it,\n\nAnd breathed into it its wickedness and its piety,\n\nBlessed now is he who hath kept it pure,\n\nAnd undone is he who hath corrupted it!\n\nThemoud1 in his impiety rejected the message of the Lord,\n\nWhen the greatest wretch among them rushed up:-\n\nSaid the Apostle of God to them,-\"The Camel of God! let her drink.\"\n\nBut they treated him as an impostor and hamstrung her.\n\nSo their Lord destroyed them for their crime, and visited all alike:\n\nNor feared he the issue.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura vii. 33, for the story of Themoud.\n\n\nSURA LXXX.-HE FROWNED [XXIV.]\n\nMECCA.-42 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHE FROWNED, and he turned his back,1\n\nBecause the blind man came to him!\n\nBut what assured thee that he would not be cleansed by the Faith,\n\nOr be warned, and the warning profit him?\n\nAs to him who is wealthy-\n\nTo him thou wast all attention:\n\nYet is it not thy concern if he be not cleansed:2\n\nBut as to him who cometh to thee in earnest,\n\nAnd full of fears-\n\nHim dost thou neglect.\n\nNay! but it (the Koran) is a warning;\n\n(And whoso is willing beareth it in mind)\n\nWritten on honoured pages,\n\nExalted, purified,\n\nBy the hands of Scribes, honoured, righteous.\n\nCursed be man! What hath made him unbelieving?\n\nOf what thing did God create him?\n\nOut of moist germs.3\n\nHe created him and fashioned him,\n\nThen made him an easy passage from the womb,\n\nThen causeth him to die and burieth him;\n\nThen, when he pleaseth, will raise him again to life.\n\nAye! but man hath not yet fulfilled the bidding of his Lord.\n\nLet man look at his food:\n\nIt was We who rained down the copious rains,\n\nThen cleft the earth with clefts,\n\nAnd caused the upgrowth of the grain,\n\nAnd grapes and healing herbs,\n\nAnd the olive and the palm,\n\nAnd enclosed gardens thick with trees,\n\nAnd fruits and herbage,\n\nFor the service of yourselves and of your cattle.\n\nBut when the stunning trumpet-blast shall arrive,4\n\nOn that day shall a man fly from his brother,\n\nAnd his mother and his father,\n\nAnd his wife and his children;\n\nFor every man of them on that day his own concerns shall be enough.\n\nThere shall be faces on that day radiant,\n\nLaughing and joyous:\n\nAnd faces on that day with dust upon them:\n\nBlackness shall cover them!\n\nThese are the Infidels, the Impure.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 We are told in the traditions, etc., that when engaged in converse with\nWalid, a chief man among the Koreisch, Muhammad was interrupted by the blind\nAbdallah Ibn Omm Makt\u00fbm, who asked to hear the Koran. The Prophet spoke very\nroughly to him at the time, but afterwards repented, and treated him ever\nafter with the greatest respect. So much so, that he twice made him Governor\nof Medina.\n\n2 That is, if he does not embrace Islam, and so become pure from sin, thou\nwilt not be to blame; thou art simply charged with the delivery of a message\nof warning.\n\n3 Ex spermate.\n\n4 Descriptions of the Day of Judgment now become very frequent. See Sura\nlxxxv. p. 42, and almost every Sura to the lv., after which they become\ngradually more historical.\n\n\nSURA LXXXVII.-THE MOST HIGH [XXV.]\n\nMECCA.-19 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nPRAISE the name of thy Lord THE MOST HIGH,\n\nWho hath created and balanced all things,\n\nWho hath fixed their destinies and guideth them,\n\nWho bringeth forth the pasture,\n\nAnd reduceth it to dusky stubble.\n\nWe will teach thee to recite the Koran, nor aught shalt thou forget,\n\nSave what God pleaseth; for he knoweth alike things manifest and hidden;\n\nAnd we will make easy to thee our easy ways.\n\nWarn, therefore, for the warning is profitable:\n\nHe that feareth God will receive the warning,-\n\nAnd the most reprobate only will turn aside from it,\n\nWho shall be exposed to the terrible fire,\n\nIn which he shall not die, and shall not live.\n\nHappy he who is purified by Islam,\n\nAnd who remembereth the name of his Lord and prayeth.\n\nBut ye prefer this present life,\n\nThough the life to come is better and more enduring.\n\nThis truly is in the Books of old,\n\nThe Books of Abraham1 and Moses.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Thus the Rabbins attribute the Book Jezirah to Abraham. See Fabr. Cod.\nApoc. V. T. p. 349.\n\n\nSURA XCV.-THE FIG [XXVI.]\n\nMECCA.-8 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nI SWEAR by the FIG and by the olive,\n\nBy Mount Sinai,\n\nAnd by this inviolate soil!1\n\nThat of goodliest fabric we created man,\n\nThen brought him down to be the lowest of the low;-\n\nSave who believe and do the things that are right, for theirs shall be a\nreward that faileth not.\n\nThen, who after this shall make thee treat the Judgment as a lie?\n\nWhat! is not God the most just of judges?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 In allusion to the sacredness of the territory of Mecca. This valley in\nabout the fourth century of our \u2018ra was a kind of sacred forest of 37 miles\nin circumference, and called Haram a name applied to it as early as the time\nof Pliny (vi. 32). It had the privilege of asylum, but it was not lawful to\ninhabit it, or to carry on commerce within its limits, and its religious\nceremonies were a bond of union to several of the Bedouin tribes of the\nHejaz. The Koreisch had monopolised most of the offices and advantages of the\nHaram in the time of Muhammad. See Sprenger's Life of Mohammad, pp. 7 20.\n\n\nSURA CIII.-THE AFTERNOON [XXVII.]\n\nMECCA.-3 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nI SWEAR by the declining day!\n\nVerily, man's lot is cast amid destruction,1\n\nSave those who believe and do the things which be right, and enjoin truth and\nenjoin stedfastness on each other.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Said to have been recited in the Mosque shortly before his death by\nMuhammad. See Weil, p. 328.\n\n\nSURA LXXXV.-THE STARRY [XXVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-22 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBY the star-bespangled Heaven!1\n\nBy the promised Day!\n\nBy the witness and the witnessed!2\n\nCursed the masters of the trench3\n\nOf the fuel-fed fire,\n\nWhen they sat around it\n\nWitnesses of what they inflicted on the believers!\n\nNor did they torment them but for their faith in God, the Mighty, the\nPraiseworthy:4\n\nHis the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth; and God is the witness of\neverything.\n\nVerily, those who vexed the believers, men and women, and repented not, doth\nthe torment of Hell, and the torment of the burning, await.\n\nBut for those who shall have believed and done the things that be right, are\nthe Gardens beneath whose shades the rivers flow. This the immense bliss!\n\nVerily, right terrible will be thy Lord's vengeance!\n\nHe it is who produceth all things, and causeth them to return;\n\nAnd is He the Indulgent, the Loving;\n\nPossessor of the Glorious throne;\n\nWorker of that he willeth.\n\nHath not the story reached thee of the hosts\n\nOf Pharaoh and Themoud?\n\nNay! the infields are all for denial:\n\nBut God surroundeth them from behind.\n\nYet it is a glorious Koran,\n\nWritten on the preserved Table.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. By the Heaven furnished with towers, where the angels keep watch;\nalso, the signs of the Zodiac: this is the usual interpretation. See Sura xv.\n15.\n\n2 That is, by Muhammad and by Islam; or, angels and men. See, however, v. 7.\n\n3 Prepared by Dhu Nowas, King of Yemen, A.D. 523, for the Christians. See\nGibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xii. towards the end. Pocock Sp. Hist. Ar.\np. 62. And thus the comm. generally. But Geiger (p. 192) and N\u00f6ldeke (p. 77\nn.) understand the passage of Dan. iii. But it should be borne in mind that\nthe Suras of this early period contain very little allusion to Jewish or\nChristian legends.\n\n4 Verses 8-11 wear the appearance of a late insertion, on account of their\nlength, which is a characteristic of the more advanced period. Observe also\nthe change in the rhymes.\n\n\nSURA CI.-THE BLOW [XXIX.]\n\nMECCA.-8 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTHE BLOW! what is the Blow?\n\nWho shall teach thee what the Blow is?\n\nThe Day when men shall be like scattered moths,\n\nAnd the mountains shall be like flocks of carded wool,\n\nThen as to him whose balances are heavy-his shall be a life that shall please\nhim well:\n\nAnd as to him whose balances are light-his dwelling-place1 shall be the pit.\n\nAnd who shall teach thee what the pit (El-Hawiya) is?\n\nA raging fire!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. Mother.\n\n\nSURA XCIX.-THE EARTHQUAKE [XXX.]\n\nMECCA.-8 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHEN the Earth with her quaking shall quake\n\nAnd the Earth shall cast forth her burdens,\n\nAnd man shall say, What aileth her?\n\nOn that day shall she tell out her tidings,\n\nBecause thy Lord shall have inspired her.\n\nOn that day shall men come forward in throngs to behold their works,\n\nAnd whosoever shall have wrought an atom's weight of good shall behold it,\n\nAnd whosoever shall have wrought an atom's weight of evil shall behold it.\n\n\nSURA LXXXII.-THE CLEAVING [XXXI.]\n\nMECCA.-19 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHEN the Heaven shall CLEAVE asunder,\n\nAnd when the stars shall disperse,\n\nAnd when the seas1 shall be commingled,\n\nAnd when the graves shall be turned upside down,\n\nEach soul shall recognise its earliest and its latest actions.\n\nO man! what hath misled thee against thy generous Lord,\n\nWho hath created thee and moulded thee and shaped thee aright?\n\nIn the form which pleased Him hath He fashioned thee.\n\nEven so; but ye treat the Judgment as a lie.\n\nYet truly there are guardians over you-\n\nIllustrious recorders-\n\nCognisant of your actions.\n\nSurely amid delights shall the righteous dwell,\n\nBut verily the impure in Hell-fire:\n\nThey shall be burned at it on the day of doom,\n\nAnd they shall not be able to hide themselves from it.\n\nWho shall teach thee what the day of doom is?\n\nOnce more. Who shall teach thee what the day of doom is?\n\nIt is a day when one soul shall be powerless for another soul: all\nsovereignty on that day shall be with God.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Salt water and fresh water.\n\n\nSURA LXXXI.-THE FOLDED UP [XXXII.]\n\nMECCA.-29 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHEN the sun shall be FOLDED UP,1\n\nAnd when the stars shall fall,\n\nAnd when the mountains shall be set in motion,\n\nAnd when the she-camels shall be abandoned,\n\nAnd when the wild beasts shall be gathered together,2\n\nAnd when the seas shall boil,\n\nAnd when souls shall be paired with their bodies,\n\nAnd when the female child that had been buried alive shall be asked\n\nFor what crime she was put to death,3\n\nAnd when the leaves of the Book shall be unrolled,\n\nAnd when the Heaven shall be stripped away,4\n\nAnd when Hell shall be made to blaze,\n\nAnd when Paradise shall be brought near,\n\nEvery soul shall know what it hath produced.\n\nIt needs not that I swear by the stars5 of retrograde motions\n\nWhich move swiftly and hide themselves away,\n\nAnd by the night when it cometh darkening on,\n\nAnd by the dawn when it brighteneth,\n\nThat this is the word of an illustrious Messenger,6\n\nEndued with power, having influence with the Lord of the Throne,\n\nObeyed there by Angels, faithful to his trust,\n\nAnd your compatriot is not one possessed by djinn;\n\nFor he saw him in the clear horizon:7\n\nNor doth he grapple with heaven's secrets,8\n\nNor doth he teach the doctrine of a cursed9 Satan.\n\nWhither then are ye going?\n\nVerily, this is no other than a warning to all creatures;\n\nTo him among you who willeth to walk in a straight path:\n\nBut will it ye shall not, unless as God willeth it,10 the Lord of the worlds.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Involutus fuerit tenebris. Mar. Or, thrown down.\n\n2 Thus Bab. Talm. Erchin, 3. \"In the day to come (i.e., of judgment) all the\nbeasts will assemble and come, etc.\"\n\n3 See Sura xvi. 61; xvii. 33.\n\n4 Like a skin from an animal when flayed. The idea is perhaps borrowed from\nthe Sept. V. of Psalm civ. 2. Vulg. sicut pellem.\n\n5 Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn.\n\n6 Gabriel; of the meaning of whose name the next verse is probably a\nparaphrase.\n\n7 Sura 1iii. 7.\n\n8 Like a mere Kahin, or soothsayer.\n\n9 Lit. stoned. Sura iii. 31. This vision or hallucination is one of the few\nclearly stated miracles, to which Muhammad appeals in the Koran. According to\nthe tradition of Ibn-Abbas in Waquidi he was preserved by it from committing\nsuicide by throwing himself down from Mount Hira, and that after it, God\ncheered him and strengthened his heart, and one revelation speedily followed\nanother.\n\n10 Comp. the doctrine of predestination in Sura 1xxvi. v. 25 to end.\n\n\nSURA LXXXIV.-THE SPLITTING ASUNDER [XXXIII.]\n\nMECCA.-25 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHEN the Heaven shall have SPLIT ASUNDER\n\nAnd duteously obeyed its Lord;1\n\nAnd when Earth shall have been stretched out as a plain,\n\nAnd shall have cast forth what was in her and become empty,\n\nAnd duteously obeyed its Lord;\n\nThen verily, O man, who desirest to reach thy Lord, shalt thou meet him.\n\nAnd he into whose right hand his Book shall be given,\n\nShall be reckoned with in an easy reckoning,\n\nAnd shall turn, rejoicing, to his kindred.\n\nBut he whose Book shall be given him behind his back2\n\nShall invoke destruction:\n\nBut in the fire shall he burn,\n\nFor that he lived joyously among his kindred,\n\nWithout a thought that he should return to God.\n\nYea, but his Lord beheld him.\n\nIt needs not therefore that I swear by the sunset redness,\n\nAnd by the night and its gatherings,\n\nAnd by the moon when at her full,\n\nThat from state to state shall ye be surely carried onward.3\n\nWhat then hath come to them that they believe not?\n\nAnd that when the Koran is recited to them they adore not?\n\nYea, the unbelievers treat it as a lie.\n\nBut God knoweth their secret hatreds:\n\nLet their only tidings4 be those of painful punishment;\n\nSave to those who believe and do the things that be right.\n\nAn unfailing recompense shall be theirs.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. and obeyed its Lord, and shall be worthy, or capable, i.e., of\nobedience.\n\n2 That is, into his left hand. The Muhammadans believe that the right hand of\nthe damned will be chained to the neck; the left chained behind the back.\n\n3 From Life to Death, from the Grave to Resurrection, thence to Paradise.\n\n4 The expression is ironical. See Freyt. on the word. Lit. tell them glad\ntidings.\n\n\nSURA C.-THE CHARGERS [XXXIV.]\n\nMecca.-11 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBy the snorting CHARGERS!\n\nAnd those that dash off sparks of fire!\n\nAnd those that scour to the attack at morn!\n\nAnd stir therein the dust aloft;\n\nAnd cleave therein their midway through a host!\n\nTruly, Man is to his Lord ungrateful.\n\nAnd of this he is himself a witness;\n\nAnd truly, he is vehement in the love of this world's good.\n\nAh! knoweth he not, that when that which is in the graves shall be laid bare,\n\nAnd that which is in men's breasts shall be brought forth,\n\nVerily their Lord shall on that day be informed concerning them?\n\n\nSURA LXXIX.1-THOSE WHO DRAG FORTH [XXXV.]\n\nMECCA.-46 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBy those angels who DRAG FORTH souls with violence,\n\nAnd by those who with joyous release release them;\n\nBy those who swim swimmingly along;\n\nBy those who are foremost with foremost speed;2\n\nBy those who conduct the affairs of the universe!\n\nOne day, the disturbing trumpet-blast shall disturb it,\n\nWhich the second blast shall follow:\n\nMen's hearts on that day shall quake:-\n\nTheir looks be downcast.\n\nThe infidels will say, \"Shall we indeed be restored as at first?\n\nWhat! when we have become rotten bones?\"\n\n\"This then,\" say they, \"will be a return to loss.\"\n\nVerily, it will be but a single blast,\n\nAnd lo! they are on the surface of the earth.\n\nHath the story of Moses reached thee?\n\nWhen his Lord called to him in Towa's holy vale:\n\nGo to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:\n\nAnd say, \"Wouldest thou become just?\n\nThen I will guide thee to thy Lord that thou mayest fear him.\"\n\nAnd he showed him a great miracle,-\n\nBut he treated him as an impostor, and rebelled;\n\nThen turned he his back all hastily,\n\nAnd gathered an assembly and proclaimed,\n\nAnd said, \"I am your Lord supreme.\"\n\nSo God visited on him the punishment of this life and of the other.\n\nVerily, herein is a lesson for him who hath the fear of God.\n\nAre ye the harder to create, or the heaven which he hath built?\n\nHe reared its height and fashioned it,\n\nAnd gave darkness to its night, and brought out its light,\n\nAnd afterwards stretched forth the earth,-\n\nHe brought forth from it its waters and its pastures;\n\nAnd set the mountains firm\n\nFor you and your cattle to enjoy.\n\nBut when the grand overthrow shall come,\n\nThe day when a man shall reflect on the pains that he hath taken,\n\nAnd Hell shall be in full view of all who are looking on;\n\nThen, as for him who hath transgressed\n\nAnd hath chosen this present life,\n\nVerily, Hell-that shall be his dwelling-place:\n\nBut as to him who shall have feared the majesty of his Lord, and shall have\nrefrained his soul from lust,\n\nVerily, Paradise-that shall be his dwelling-place.\n\nThey will ask thee of \"the Hour,\" when will be its fixed time?\n\nBut what knowledge hast thou of it?\n\nIts period is known only to thy Lord;\n\nAnd thou art only charged with the warning of those who fear it.\n\nOn the day when they shall see it, it shall seem to them as though they had\nnot tarried in the tomb, longer than its evening or its morn.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura obviously consists of three portions, verses 1-14, 15-26, 27-46,\nof which the third is the latest in point of style, and the second, more\ndetailed than is usual in the Suras of the early period, which allude to\nJewish and other legend only in brief and vague terms. It may therefore be\nconsidered as one of the short and early Suras.\n\n2 Or, By those angels which precede, i.e., the souls of the pious into\nParadise. Or, are beforehand with the Satans and djinn in learning the\ndecrees of God.\n\n\nSURA LXXVII.-THE SENT [XXXVI.]\n\nMECCA.-50 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBy the train of THE SENT ones,1\n\nAnd the swift in their swiftness;\n\nBy the scatterers who scatter,\n\nAnd the distinguishers who distinguish;\n\nAnd by those that give forth the word\n\nTo excuse or warn;\n\nVerily that which ye are promised is imminent.\n\nWhen the stars, therefore, shall be blotted out,\n\nAnd when the heaven shall be cleft,\n\nAnd when the mountains shall be scattered in dust,\n\nAnd when the Apostles shall have a time assigned them;\n\nUntil what day shall that time be deferred?\n\nTo the day of severing!\n\nAnd who shall teach thee what the day of severing is?\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nHave we not destroyed them of old?\n\nWe will next cause those of later times to follow them.2\n\nThus deal we with the evil doers.\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nHave we not created you of a sorry germ,\n\nWhich we laid up in a secure place,\n\nTill the term decreed for birth?\n\nSuch is our power! and, how powerful are We!\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nHave we not made the earth to hold\n\nThe living and the dead?\n\nAnd placed on it the tall firm mountains, and given you to drink of sweet\nwater.\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nBegone to that Hell which ye called a lie:-\n\nBegone to the shadows that lie in triple masses;\n\n\"But not against the flame shall they shade or help you:\"-\n\nThe sparks which it casteth out are like towers-\n\nLike tawny camels.\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nOn that day they shall not speak,\n\nNor shall it be permitted them to allege excuses.\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nThis is the day of severing, when we will assemble you and your ancestors.\n\nIf now ye have any craft try your craft on me.\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nBut the god-fearing shall be placed amid shades and fountains,\n\nAnd fruits, whatsoever they shall desire:\n\n\"Eat and drink, with health,3 as the meed of your toils.\"\n\nThus recompense we the good.\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\n\"Eat ye and enjoy yourselves a little while. Verily, ye are doers of evil.\"\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture!\n\nFor when it is said to them, bend the knee, they bend it not.\n\nWoe on that day to those who charged with imposture\n\nIn what other revelation after this will they believe?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. by the sent (fem.) one after another. Per missas. Mar. Either angels\nfollowing in a continued series; or, winds, which disperse rain over the\nearth; or the successive verses of the Koran which disperse truth and\ndistinguish truth from error.\n\n2 Sura xliv. 40.\n\n3 Maimonides says that the majority of the Jews hope that Messiah shall come\nand \"raise the dead, and they shall be gathered into Paradise, and there\nshall eat and drink and be in good health to all eternity.\"-Sanhedrin, fol.\n119, col. I.\n\n\nSURA LXXVIII.-THE NEWS [XXXVII.]\n\nMECCA.-41 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nOf what ask they of one another?\n\nOf the great NEWS.1\n\nThe theme of their disputes.\n\nNay! they shall certainly knows its truth!\n\nAgain. Nay! they shall certainly know it.\n\nHave we not made the Earth a couch?\n\nAnd the mountains its tent-stakes?\n\nWe have created you of two sexes,\n\nAnd ordained your sleep for rest,\n\nAnd ordained the night as a mantle,\n\nAnd ordained the day for gaining livelihood,\n\nAnd built above you seven solid2 heavens,\n\nAnd placed therein a burning lamp;\n\nAnd we send down water in abundance from the rain-clouds,\n\nThat we may bring forth by it corn and herbs,\n\nAnd gardens thick with trees.\n\nLo! the day of Severance is fixed;\n\nThe day when there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and ye shall come in\ncrowds,\n\nAnd the heaven shall be opened and be full of portals,\n\nAnd the mountains shall be set in motion, and melt into thin vapour.\n\nHell truly shall be a place of snares,\n\nThe home of transgressors,\n\nTo abide therein ages;\n\nNo coolness shall they taste therein nor any drink,\n\nSave boiling water and running sores;\n\nMeet recompense!\n\nFor they looked not forward to their account;\n\nAnd they gave the lie to our signs, charging them with falsehood;\n\nBut we noted and wrote down all:\n\n\"Taste this then: and we will give you increase of nought but torment.\"\n\nBut, for the God-fearing is a blissful abode,\n\nEnclosed gardens and vineyards;\n\nAnd damsels with swelling breasts, their peers in age,\n\nAnd a full cup:\n\nThere shall they hear no vain discourse nor any falsehood:\n\nA recompense from thy Lord-sufficing gift!-\n\nLord of the heavens and of the earth, and of all that between3 them lieth-the\nGod of Mercy! But not a word shall they obtain from Him.\n\nOn the day whereon the Spirit4 and the Angels shall be ranged in order, they\nshall not speak: save he whom the God of Mercy shall permit, and who shall\nsay that which is right.\n\nThis is the sure day. Whoso then will, let him take the path of return to his\nLord.\n\nVerily, we warn you of a chastisement close at hand:\n\nThe day on which a man shall see the deeds which his hands have sent before\nhim; and when the unbeliever shall say, \"Oh! would I were dust!\"\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Of the Resurrection. With regard to the date of this Sura, we can only be\nguided (I) by the general style of the earlier portion (to verse 37, which is\nanalogous to that of the early Meccan Suras; (2) by verse 17, which pre-\nsupposes lxxvii. 12; (3) by the obviously later style of verse 37 to the end.\n\n2 See Sura ii. 27. This is the title given by the Talmudists to the fifth of\nthe seven heavens.\n\n3 This phrase is of constant recurrence in the Talmud. Maimonides, Yad Hach.\ni. 3, makes it one of the positive commands of the Rabbins to believe \"that\nthere exists a first Being . . .    and that all things existing, Heaven and\nEarth, and whatever is between them, exist only through the truth of his\nexistence.\"\n\n4 Gabriel.\n\n\nSURA LXXXVIII.-THE OVERSHADOWING [XXXVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-26 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHath the tidings of the day that shall OVERSHADOW, reached thee?\n\nDowncast on that day shall be the countenances of some,\n\nTravailing and worn,\n\nBurnt at the scorching fire,\n\nMade to drink from a fountain fiercely boiling.\n\nNo food shall they have but the fruit of Darih,1\n\nWhich shall not fatten, nor appease their hunger.\n\nJoyous too, on that day, the countenances of others,\n\nWell pleased with their labours past,\n\nIn a lofty garden:\n\nNo vain discourse shalt thou hear therein:\n\nTherein shall be a gushing fountain,\n\nTherein shall be raised couches,\n\nAnd goblets ready placed,\n\nAnd cushions laid in order,\n\nAnd carpets spread forth.\n\nCan they not look up to the clouds, how they are created;\n\nAnd to the heaven how it is upraised;\n\nAnd to the mountains how they are rooted;\n\nAnd to the earth how it is outspread?\n\nWarn thou then; for thou art a warner only:\n\nThou hast no authority over them:\n\nBut whoever shall turn back and disbelieve,\n\nGod shall punish him with the greater punishment.\n\nVerily to Us shall they return;\n\nThen shall it be Our's to reckon with them.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The name of a bitter, thorny shrub.\n\n\nSURA LXXXIX.-THE DAYBREAK [XXXIX.]\n\nMECCA.-30 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBy the DAYBREAK and ten nights.1\n\nBy that which is double and that which is single,\n\nBy the night when it pursues its course!\n\nIs there not in this an oath becoming a man of sense?\n\nHast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with Ad,\n\nAt Irem adorned with pillars,\n\nWhose like have not been reared in these lands!\n\nAnd with Themoud who hewed out the rocks in the valley;\n\nAnd with Pharaoh the impaler;\n\nWho all committed excesses in the lands,\n\nAnd multiplied wickedness therein.\n\nWherefore thy Lord let loose on them the scourge of chastisement,2\n\nFor thy Lord standeth on a watch tower.\n\nAs to man, when his Lord trieth him and honoureth him and is bounteous to\nhim,\n\nThen saith he, \"My Lord honoureth me:\"\n\nBut when he proveth him and limiteth his gifts to him,\n\nHe saith, \"My Lord despiseth me.\"\n\nAye. But ye honour not the orphan,\n\nNor urge ye one another to feed the poor,\n\nAnd ye devour heritages, devouring greedily,\n\nAnd ye love riches with exceeding love.\n\nAye. But when the earth shall be crushed with crushing, crushing,\n\nAnd thy Lord shall come and the angels rank on rank,\n\nAnd Hell on that day shall be moved up,3-Man shall on that day remember\nhimself. But how shall remembrance help him?\n\nHe shall say, Oh! would that I had prepared for this my life! On that day\nnone shall punish as God punisheth,\n\nAnd none shall bind with such bonds as He.\n\nOh, thou soul which art at rest,\n\nReturn to thy Lord, pleased, and pleasing him:\n\nEnter thou among my servants,\n\nAnd enter thou my Paradise.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Of the sacred month Dhu'lhajja.\n\n2 Or, poured on them the mixed cup of chastisement.\n\n3 The orthodox Muhammadans take this passage literally. Djelal says that hell\nwill \"be dragged up by 70,000 chains, each pulled by 70,000 angels,\" as if it\nwere an enormous animal or locomotive engine.\n\n\nSURA LXXV.-THE RESURRECTION [XL.]\n\nMECCA.-40 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nIt needeth not that I swear by the day of the RESURRECTION,\n\nOr that I swear by the self-accusing soul.\n\nThinketh man that we shall not re-unite his bones?\n\nAye! his very finger tips are we able evenly to replace.\n\nBut man chooseth to deny what is before him:\n\nHe asketh, \"When this day of Resurrection?\"\n\nBut when the eye shall be dazzled,\n\nAnd when the moon shall be darkened,\n\nAnd the sun and the moon shall be together,1\n\nOn that day man shall cry, \"Where is there a place to flee to?\"\n\nBut in vain-there is no refuge-\n\nWith thy Lord on that day shall be the sole asylum.\n\nOn that day shall man be told of all that he hath done first and last;\n\nYea, a man shall be the eye witness against himself:\n\nAnd even if he put forth his plea. . . .2\n\n(Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this revelation:3\n\nFor we will see to the collecting and the recital of it;\n\nBut when we have recited it, then follow thou the recital,\n\nAnd, verily, afterwards it shall be ours to make it clear to thee.)\n\nAye, but ye love the transitory,\n\nAnd ye neglect the life to come.\n\nOn that day shall faces beam with light,\n\nOutlooking towards their Lord;\n\nAnd faces on that day shall be dismal,\n\nAs if they thought that some great calamity would befal them.\n\nAye, when the soul shall come up into the throat,\n\nAnd there shall be a cry, \"Who hath a charm that can restore him?\"\n\nAnd the man feeleth that the time of his departure is come,\n\nAnd when one leg shall be laid over the other,4\n\nTo thy Lord on that day shall he be driven on;\n\nFor he believed not, and he did not pray,\n\nBut he called the truth a lie and turned his back,\n\nThen, walking with haughty men, rejoined his people.\n\nThat Hour is nearer to thee and nearer,5\n\nIt is ever nearer to thee and nearer still.\n\nThinketh man that he shall be left supreme?\n\nWas he not a mere embryo?6\n\nThen he became thick blood of which God formed him and fashioned him;\n\nAnd made him twain, male and female.\n\nIs not He powerful enough to quicken the dead?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. shall be united. In the loss of light, or in the rising in the west.-\nBeidh.\n\n2 Supply, it shall not be accepted.\n\n3 Verses 16-19 are parenthetic, and either an address to Muhammad by Gabriel\ndesiring him (I) not to be overcome by any fear of being unable to follow and\nretain the revelation of this particular Sura; (2) or, not to interrupt him,\nbut to await the completion of the entire revelation before he should proceed\nto its public recital. In either case we are led to the conclusion that, from\nthe first, Muhammad had formed the plan of promulging a written book. Comp.\nSura xx. 112.\n\n4 In the death-struggle.\n\n5 Or, Therefore woe to thee, woe! And, again, woe to thee, woe. Thus Sale,\nUllm. Beidhawi; who also gives the rendering in the text, which is that of\nMaracci.\n\n6 Nonne fuit humor ex spermate quod spermatizatur.\n\n\nSURA LXXXIII.-THOSE WHO STINT [XLI.]\n\nMECCA.-36 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWoe to those who STINT the measure:\n\nWho when they take by measure from others, exact the full;\n\nBut when they mete to them or weigh to them, minish-\n\nWhat! have they no thought that they shall be raised again\n\nFor the great day?\n\nThe day when mankind shall stand before the Lord of the worlds.\n\nYes! the register of the wicked is in Sidjin.1\n\nAnd who shall make thee understand what Sidjin is?\n\nIt is a book distinctly written.\n\nWoe, on that day, to those who treated our signs as lies,\n\nWho treated the day of judgment as a lie!\n\nNone treat it as a lie, save the transgressor, the criminal,\n\nWho, when our signs are rehearsed to him, saith, \"Tales of the Ancients!\"\n\nYes; but their own works have got the mastery over their hearts.\n\nYes; they shall be shut out as by a veil from their Lord on that day;\n\nThen shall they be burned in Hell-fire:\n\nThen shall it be said to them, \"This is what ye deemed a lie.\"\n\nEven so. But the register of the righteous is in Illiyoun.\n\nAnd who shall make thee understand what Illiyoun is?\n\nA book distinctly written;\n\nThe angels who draw nigh unto God attest it.\n\nSurely, among delights shall the righteous dwell!\n\nSeated on bridal couches they will gaze around;\n\nThou shalt mark in their faces the brightness of delight;\n\nChoice sealed wine shall be given them to quaff,\n\nThe seal of musk. For this let those pant who pant for bliss-\n\nMingled therewith shall be the waters of Tasnim-2\n\nFount whereof they who draw nigh to God shall drink.\n\nThe sinners indeed laugh the faithful to scorn:\n\nAnd when they pass by them they wink at one another,-\n\nAnd when they return to their own people, they return jesting,\n\nAnd when they see them they say, \"These are the erring ones.\"\n\nAnd yet they have no mission to be their guardians.\n\nTherefore, on that day the faithful shall laugh the infidels to scorn,\n\nAs reclining on bridal couches they behold them.\n\nShall not the infidels be recompensed according to their works?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Sidjin is a prison in Hell which gives its name to the register of actions\nthere kept, as Illiyoun, a name of the lofty apartments of Paradise, is\ntransferred to the register of the righteous.\n\n2 Derived from the root sanima, to be high: this water being conveyed to the\nhighest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise.\n\n\nSURA LXIX.-THE INEVITABLE [XLII.]\n\nMECCA.-52 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nThe INEVITABLE!\n\nAnd who shall make thee comprehend what the Inevitable is?\n\nThemoud and Ad treated the day of Terrors1 as a lie.\n\nSo as to Themoud,2 they were destroyed by crashing thunder bolts;\n\nAnd as to Ad, they were destroyed by a roaring and furious blast.\n\nIt did the bidding of God3 against them seven nights and eight days together,\nduring which thou mightest have seen the people laid low, as though they had\nbeen the trunks of hollow palms;\n\nAnd couldst thou have seen one of them surviving?\n\nPharaoh also, and those who flourished before him, and the overthrown cities,\ncommitted sin,-\n\nAnd disobeyed the Sent one of their Lord; therefore did he chastise them with\nan accumulated chastisement.\n\nWhen the Flood rose high, we bare you in the Ark,\n\nThat we might make that event a warning to you, and that the retaining ear\nmight retain it.\n\nBut when one blast shall be blown on the trumpet,\n\nAnd the earth and the mountains shall be upheaved, and shall both be crushed\ninto dust at a single crushing,\n\nOn that day the woe that must come suddenly shall suddenly come,4\n\nAnd the heaven shall cleave asunder, for on that day it shall be fragile;\n\nAnd the angels shall be on its sides, and over them on that day eight shall\nbear up the throne of thy Lord.\n\nOn that day ye shall be brought before Him: none of your hidden deeds shall\nremain hidden:\n\nAnd he who shall have his book given to him in his right hand, will say to\nhis friends, \"Take ye it; read ye my book;\n\nI ever thought that to this my reckoning I should come.\"\n\nAnd his shall be a life that shall please him well,\n\nIn a lofty garden,\n\nWhose clusters shall be near at hand:\n\n\"Eat ye and drink with healthy relish, as the meed of what ye sent on\nbeforehand in the days which are past.\"\n\nBut he who shall have his book given into his left hand, will say, \"O that my\nbook had never been given me!\n\nAnd that I had never known my reckoning!\n\nO that death had made an end of me!\n\nMy wealth hath not profited me!\n\nMy power hath perished from me!\"\n\n\"Lay ye hold on him and chain him,\n\nThen at the Hell-fire burn him,\n\nThen into a chain whose length is seventy cubits thrust him;\n\nFor he believed not in God, the Great,\n\nAnd was not careful to feed the poor;\n\nNo friend therefore shall he have here this day,\n\nNor food, but corrupt sores,\n\nWhich none shall eat but the sinners.\"\n\nIt needs not that I swear by what ye see,\n\nAnd by that which ye see not,\n\nThat this verily is the word of an apostle worthy of all honour!\n\nAnd that it is not the word of a poet-how little do ye believe!\n\nNeither is it the word of a soothsayer (Kahin)-how little do ye receive\nwarning!\n\nIt is a missive from the Lord of the worlds.\n\nBut if Muhammad had fabricated concerning us any sayings,\n\nWe had surely seized him by the right hand,\n\nAnd had cut through the vein of his neck.5\n\nNor would We have withheld any one of you from him.\n\nBut, verily, It (the Koran) is a warning for the God-fearing;\n\nAnd we well know that there are of you who treat it as a falsehood.\n\nBut it shall be the despair of infidels,\n\nFor it is the very truth of sure knowledge.\n\nPraise, then, the name of thy Lord, the Great.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Thus Beidh., Sale, etc. But with reference to another sense of the root\nkaraa, it may be rendered the day of decision, the day on which man's lot\nshall be decided.\n\n2 On Ad and Themoud. See Sura vii. 63-77.\n\n3 Lit. God subjected it to himself, availed himself of it against them.\n\n4 El-wakia, the sudden event, the calamity; the woe that must break in upon\nHeaven and Earth. The same word is used, Sura lvi. 1, and ci. 1, for the\nResurrection and Day of Judgment.\n\n5 In allusion to the mode of executing criminals in many eastern countries.\n\n\nSURA LI.-THE SCATTERING [XLIII.]\n\nMECCA.-60 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBy the clouds1 which scatter with SCATTERING,\n\nAnd those which bear their load,\n\nAnd by those which speed lightly along,\n\nAnd those which apportion by command!\n\nTrue, indeed, is that with which ye are threatened,\n\nAnd lo! the judgment will surely come.2\n\nBy the star-tracked heaven!\n\nYe are discordant in what ye say;\n\nBut whose turneth him from the truth, is turned from it by a divine decree.\n\nPerish the liars,\n\nWho are bewildered in the depths of ignorance!\n\nThey ask, \"When this day of judgment?\"\n\nOn that day they shall be tormented at the fire.\n\n\"Taste ye of this your torment, whose speedy coming ye challenged.\"\n\nBut the God-fearing shall dwell amid gardens and fountains,\n\nEnjoying what their Lord hath given them, because, aforetime they were well-\ndoers:\n\nBut little of the night was it that they slept,\n\nAnd at dawn they prayed for pardon,\n\nAnd gave due share of their wealth to the suppliant and the outcast.\n\nOn Earth are signs for men of firm belief,\n\nAnd also in your own selves: Will ye not then behold them?\n\nThe Heaven hath sustenance for you, and it containeth that which you are\npromised.\n\nBy the Lord then of the heaven and of the earth, I swear that this is the\ntruth, even as ye speak yourselves.3\n\nHath the story reached thee of Abraham's honoured guests?4\n\nWhen they went in unto him and said, \"Peace!\" he replied, \"Peace:-they are\nstrangers.\"\n\nAnd he went apart to his family, and brought a fatted calf,\n\nAnd set it before them. He said, \"Eat ye not?\"\n\nAnd he conceived a fear of them. They said to him, \"Fear not;\" and announced\nto him a wise son.\n\nHis wife came up with outcry: she smote her face and said, \"What I, old and\nbarren!\"\n\nThey said, \"Thus saith thy Lord. He truly is the Wise, the Knowing.\"\n\nSaid he, \"And what, O messengers, is your errand?\"\n\nThey said, \"To a wicked people are we sent,\n\nTo hurl upon them stones of clay,\n\nDestined5 by thy Lord for men guilty of excesses.\"\n\nAnd we brought forth the believers who were in the city:\n\nBut we found not in it but one family of Muslims.\n\nAnd signs we left in it for those who dread the afflictive chastisement,-\n\nAnd in Moses: when we sent him to Pharaoh with manifest power:\n\nBut relying on his forces6 he turned his back and said, \"Sorcerer, or\nPossessed.\"\n\nSo we seized him and his hosts and cast them into the sea; for of all blame\nwas he worthy.\n\nAnd in Ad: when we sent against them the desolating blast:\n\nIt touched not aught over which it came, but it turned it to dust.\n\nAnd in Themoud:7 when it was said to them, \"Enjoy yourselves for yet a\nwhile.\"\n\nBut they rebelled against their Lord's command: so the tempest took them as\nthey watched its coming.8\n\nThey were not able to stand upright, and could not help themselves.\n\nAnd we destroyed the people of Noah, before them; for an impious people were\nthey.\n\nAnd the Heaven-with our hands have we built it up, and given it its expanse;\n\nAnd the Earth-we have stretched it out like a carpet; and how\n\nsmoothly have we spread it forth!\n\nAnd of everything have we created pairs: that haply ye may reflect.\n\nFly then to God: I come to you from him a plain warner.\n\nAnd set not up another god with God: I come to you from him a plain warner.\n\nEven thus came there no apostle to those who flourished before them, but they\nexclaimed, \"Sorcerer, or Possessed.\"\n\nHave they made a legacy to one another of this scoff? Yes, they are a rebel\npeople.\n\nTurn away, then, from them, and thou shalt not incur reproach:\n\nYet warn them, for, in truth, warning will profit the believers.\n\nI have not created Djinn and men, but that they should worship me:\n\nI require not sustenance from them, neither require I that they feed me:\n\nVerily, God is the sole sustainer: possessed of might: the unshaken!\n\nTherefore to those who injure thee shall be a fate like the fate of\n\ntheir fellows of old. Let them not challenge me to hasten it.\n\nWoe then to the infidels, because of their threatened day.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. (I swear) by those which scatter (i.e., the rain) with a scattering,\n(2) and by those which carry a burden, (3) and by those which run lightly,\n(4) and by those which divide a matter, or by command. The participles are\nall in the feminine: hence some interpret verse 1 of winds; verse 2 of\nclouds; verse 3 of ships; verse 4 of angels.\n\n2 Comp. note at Sura lvi. 1, p. 65.\n\n3 That is, this oath is for the confirmation of the truth, as ye are wont to\nconfirm things one among another by an oath.\n\n4 Comp. Sura xi. 72, and xv. 51. From the want of connection with what\nprecedes, it is highly probable that the whole passage from verse 24 60 did\nnot originally form a part of this Sura, but was added at a later period,\nperhaps in the recension of the text under Othman.\n\n5 Lit. marked, with the names of the individuals to be slain, say the\ncommentators.\n\n6 Or, with his nobles.\n\n7 For Ad and Themoud, see Sura xi.\n\n8 That is, in broad daylight. Thus Beidh. Comp. Sura xlvi. 22.\n\n\nSURA LII.-THE MOUNTAIN [XLIV.]\n\nMECCA.-49 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBY the MOUNTAIN,\n\nAnd by the Book written\n\nOn an outspread roll,\n\nAnd by the frequented fane,1\n\nAnd by the lofty vault,\n\nAnd by the swollen sea,\n\nVerily, a chastisement from thy Lord is imminent,\n\nAnd none shall put it back.\n\nReeling on that day the Heaven shall reel,\n\nAnd stirring shall the mountains stir.2\n\nAnd woe, on that day, to those who called the apostles liars,\n\nWho plunged for pastime into vain disputes-\n\nOn that day shall they be thrust with thrusting to the fire of Hell:-\n\n\"This is the fire which ye treated as a lie.\n\nWhat! is this magic, then? or, do ye not see it?\n\nBurn ye therein: bear it patiently or impatiently 'twill be the same to you:\nfor ye shall assuredly receive the reward of your doings.\"\n\nBut mid gardens and delights shall they dwell who have feared God,\n\nRejoicing in what their Lord hath given them; and that from the pain of hell-\nfire hath their Lord preserved them.\n\n\"Eat and drink with healthy enjoyment, in recompense for your deeds.\"\n\nOn couches ranged in rows shall they recline; and to the damsels with large\ndark eyes will we wed them.\n\nAnd to those who have believed, whose offspring have followed them in the\nfaith, will we again unite their offspring; nor of the meed of their works\nwill we in the least defraud them. Pledged to God is every man for his\nactions and their desert.3\n\nAnd fruits in abundance will we give them, and flesh as they shall desire:\n\nTherein shall they pass to one another the cup which shall engender no light\ndiscourse, no motive to sin:\n\nAnd youths shall go round among them beautiful as imbedded pearls:\n\nAnd shall accost one another and ask mutual questions.\n\n\"A time indeed there was,\" will they say, \"when we were full of care as to\nthe future lot of our families;\n\nBut kind hath God been to us, and from the pestilential torment hath he\npreserved us;\n\nFor, heretofore we called upon Him-and He is the Beneficent, the Merciful.\"\n\nWarn thou, then. For thou by the favour of thy Lord art neither soothsayer\nnor possessed.\n\nWill they say, \"A poet! let us await some adverse turn of his fortune?\"\n\nSAY, wait ye, and in sooth I too will wait with you.\n\nIs it their dreams which inspire them with this? or is it that they are a\nperverse people?\n\nWill they say, \"He hath forged it (the Koran) himself?\" Nay, rather it is\nthat they believed not.\n\nLet them then produce a discourse like it, if they speak the Truth.\n\nWere they created by nothing? or were they the creators of themselves?\n\nCreated they the Heavens and Earth? Nay, rather, they have no faith.\n\nHold they thy Lord's treasures? Bear they the rule supreme?\n\nHave they a ladder for hearing the angels? Let any one who hath heard them\nbring a clear proof of it.\n\nHath God daughters and ye sons?\n\nAsketh thou pay of them? they are themselves weighed down with debts.\n\nHave they such a knowledge of the secret things that they can write them\ndown?\n\nDesire they to lay snares for thee? But the snared ones shall be they who do\nnot believe.\n\nHave they any God beside God? Glory be to God above what they join with Him.\n\nAnd should they see a fragment of the heaven falling down, they would say,\n\"It is only a dense cloud.\"\n\nLeave them then until they come face to face with the day when they shall\nswoon away:\n\nA day in which their snares shall not at all avail them, neither shall they\nbe helped.\n\nAnd verily, beside this is there a punishment for the evildoers: but most of\nthem know it not.\n\nWait thou patiently the judgment of thy Lord, for thou art in our eye; and\ncelebrate the praise of thy Lord when thou risest up,\n\nAnd in the night-season: Praise him when the stars are setting.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Of the Caaba.\n\n2 Comp. Psalm lxviii. 9.\n\n3 The more prosaic style of this verse indicates a later origin than the\ncontext. Muir places the whole Sura in what he terms the fourth stage of\nMeccan Suras.\n\n\n\nSURA LVI.-THE INEVITABLE [XLV.]\n\nMECCA.-96 Verses\n\nIn the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHEN the day that must come shall have come suddenly,1\n\nNone shall treat that sudden coming as a lie:\n\nDay that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!\n\nWhen the earth shall be shaken with a shock,\n\nAnd the mountains shall be crumbled with a crumbling,\n\nAnd shall become scattered dust,\n\nAnd into three bands shall ye be divided:2\n\nThen the people of the right hand3-Oh! how happy shall be the people of the\nright hand!\n\nAnd the people of the left hand-Oh! how wretched shall be the people of the\nleft hand!\n\nAnd they who were foremost on earth-the foremost still.4\n\nThese are they who shall be brought nigh to God,\n\nIn gardens of delight;\n\nA crowd of the former\n\nAnd few of the latter generations;\n\nOn inwrought couches\n\nReclining on them face to face:\n\nAye-blooming youths go round about to them\n\nWith goblets and ewers and a cup of flowing wine;\n\nTheir brows ache not from it, nor fails the sense:\n\nAnd with such fruits as shall please them best,\n\nAnd with flesh of such birds, as they shall long for:\n\nAnd theirs shall be the Houris, with large dark eyes, like pearls  hidden in\ntheir shells,\n\nIn recompense of their labours past.\n\nNo vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor charge of sin,\n\nBut only the cry, \"Peace! Peace!\"\n\nAnd the people of the right hand-oh! how happy shall be the people of the\nright hand!\n\nAmid thornless sidrahs5\n\nAnd talh6 trees clad with fruit,\n\nAnd in extended shade,\n\nAnd by flowing waters,\n\nAnd with abundant fruits,7\n\nUnfailing, unforbidden,\n\nAnd on lofty couches.\n\nOf a rare creation have we created the Houris,\n\nAnd we have made them ever virgins,\n\nDear to their spouses, of equal age with them,8\n\nFor the people of the right hand,\n\nA crowd of the former,\n\nAnd a crowd of the latter generations.9\n\nBut the people of the left hand-oh! how wretched shall be the people of the\nleft hand!\n\nAmid pestilential10 winds and in scalding water,\n\nAnd in the shadow of a black smoke,\n\nNot cool, and horrid to behold.11\n\nFor they truly, ere this, were blessed with worldly goods,\n\nBut persisted in heinous sin,\n\nAnd were wont to say,\n\n\"What! after we have died, and become dust and bones, shall we be raised?\n\nAnd our fathers, the men of yore?\"\n\nSAY: Aye, the former and the latter:\n\nGathered shall they all be for the time of a known day.\n\nThen ye, O ye the erring, the gainsaying,\n\nShall surely eat of the tree Ez-zakkoum,\n\nAnd fill your bellies with it,\n\nAnd thereupon shall ye drink boiling water,\n\nAnd ye shall drink as the thirsty camel drinketh.\n\nThis shall be their repast in the day of reckoning!\n\nWe created you, will ye not credit us?12\n\nWhat think ye? The germs of life13-\n\nIs it ye who create them? or are we their creator?\n\nIt is we who have decreed that death should be among you;\n\nYet are we not thereby hindered14 from replacing you with others, your likes,\nor from producing you again in a form which ye know not!\n\nYe have known the first creation: will ye not then reflect?\n\nWhat think ye? That which ye sow-\n\nIs it ye who cause its upgrowth, or do we cause it to spring forth?\n\nIf we pleased we could so make your harvest dry and brittle that ye would\never marvel and say,\n\n\"Truly we have been at cost,15 yet are we forbidden harvest.\"\n\nWhat think ye of the water ye drink?\n\nIs it ye who send it down from the clouds, or send we it down?\n\nBrackish could we make it, if we pleased: will ye not then be thankful?\n\nWhat think ye? The fire which ye obtain by friction-\n\nIs it ye who rear its tree, or do we rear it?\n\nIt is we who have made it for a memorial and a benefit to the wayfarers of\nthe desert,\n\nPraise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.\n\nIt needs not that I swear by the setting of the stars,\n\nAnd it is a great oath, if ye knew it,\n\nThat this is the honourable Koran,\n\nWritten in the preserved Book:16\n\nLet none touch it but the purified,17\n\nIt is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.\n\nSuch tidings as these will ye disdain?\n\nWill ye make it your daily bread to gainsay them?\n\nWhy, at the moment when the soul of a dying man shall come up into his\nthroat,\n\nAnd when ye are gazing at him,\n\nThough we are nearer to him than ye, although ye see us not:-\n\nWhy do ye not, if ye are to escape the judgment,\n\nCause that soul to return? Tell me, if ye speak the truth.\n\nBut as to him who shall enjoy near access to God,\n\nHis shall be repose, and pleasure, and a garden of delights.\n\nYea, for him who shall be of the people of the right hand,\n\nShall be the greeting from the people of the right hand-\"Peace be to thee.\"\n\nBut for him who shall be of those who treat the prophets as deceivers,\n\nAnd of the erring,\n\nHis entertainment shall be of scalding water,\n\nAnd the broiling of hell-fire.\n\nVerily this is a certain truth:\n\nPraise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The renderings of Mar. cum inciderit casura, or as in Sur. lxix, 15,\ningruerit ingruens nearly express the peculiar force of the Arabic verb and\nof the noun formed from it; i.e. a calamity that falls suddenly and surely.\nWeil renders, ween der Auferstehung's Tag eintritt (p. 389). Lane, when the\ncalamity shall have happened.\n\n2 Comp. Tr. Rosch Haschanah, fol. 16, 6.\n\n3 Lit., the companions of the right hand, what shall be the companions of the\nright hand! and thus in verses 9, 37, 40.\n\n4 Lit., the preceders, the preceders.\n\n5 See Sura liii. 14, p. 69.\n\n6 Probably the banana according to others, the acacia gummifera.\n\n7 \"A Muslim of some learning professed to me that he considered the\ndescriptions of Paradise in the Koran to be, in a great measure, figurative;\n'like those,' said he, 'in the book of the Revelation of St. John;' and he\nassured me that many learned Muslims were of the same opinion.\" Lane's Modern\nEgyptians, i. p. 75, note.\n\n8 Like them, grow not old.\n\n9 This seems a direct contradiction to verse 14, unless we suppose with\nBeidhawi that an inferior and more numerous class of believers are here\nspoken of.\n\n10 Or, scorching.\n\n11 Lit., not noble, agreeable in appearance.\n\n12 As to the resurrection.\n\n13 Lit., semen quod emittitis.\n\n14 Lit., forestalled, anticipated.\n\n15 Lit, have incurred debt.\n\n16 That is, The Prototype of the Koran written down in the Book kept by God\nhimself.\n\n17 This passage implies the existence of copies of portions at least of the\nKoran in common use. It was quoted by the sister of Omar when at his\nconversion be desired to take her copy of Sura xx. into his hands.\n\n\nSURA1-LIII. THE STAR [XLVI.]\n\nMECCA.-62 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBy the STAR when it setteth,\n\nYour compatriot erreth not, nor is he led astray,\n\nNeither speaketh he from mere impulse.\n\nThe Koran is no other than a revelation revealed to him:\n\nOne terrible in power2 taught it him,\n\nEndued with wisdom. With even balance stood he\n\nIn the highest part of the horizon:\n\nThen came he nearer and approached,\n\nAnd was at the distance of two bows, or even closer,-\n\nAnd he revealed to his servant what he revealed.\n\nHis heart falsified not what he saw.\n\nWhat! will ye then dispute with him as to what he saw?\n\nHe had seen him also another time,\n\nNear the Sidrah-tree, which marks the boundary.3\n\nNear which is the garden of repose.\n\nWhen the Sidrah-tree4 was covered with what covered it,5\n\nHis eye turned not aside, nor did it wander:\n\nFor he saw the greatest of the signs of his Lord.\n\nDo you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza,6\n\nAnd Manat the third idol besides?7\n\nWhat? shall ye have male progeny and God female?\n\nThis were indeed an unfair partition!\n\nThese are mere names: ye and your fathers named them thus: God hath not sent\ndown any warranty in their regard. A mere conceit and their own impulses do\nthey follow. Yet hath \"the guidance\" from their Lord come to them.\n\nShall man have whatever he wisheth?\n\nThe future and the present are in the hand of God:\n\nAnd many as are the Angels in the Heavens, their intercession shall be of no\navail8\n\nUntil God hath permitted it to whom he shall please and will accept.\n\nVerily, it is they who believe not in the life to come, who name the angels\nwith names of females:\n\nBut herein they have no knowledge: they follow a mere conceit; and mere\nconceit can never take the place of truth.\n\nWithdraw then from him who turneth his back on our warning and desireth only\nthis present life.\n\nThis is the sum of their knowledge. Truly thy Lord best knoweth him who\nerreth from his way, and He best knoweth him who hath received guidance.\n\nAnd whatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth is God's that he may reward\nthose who do evil according to their deeds: and those who do good will He\nreward with good things.\n\nTo those who avoid great crimes and scandals but commit only lighter faults,\nverily, thy Lord will be diffuse of mercy. He well knew you when he produced\nyou out of the earth, and when ye were embryos in your mother's womb. Assert\nnot then your own purity. He best knoweth who feareth him.\n\nHast thou considered him who turned his back?\n\nWho giveth little and is covetous?\n\nIs it that he hath the knowledge and vision of the secret things?\n\nHath he not been told of what is in the pages of Moses?\n\nAnd of Abraham faithful to his pledge?\n\nThat no burdened soul shall bear the burdens of another,\n\nAnd that nothing shall be reckoned to a man but that for which he hath made\nefforts:\n\nAnd that his efforts shall at last be seen in their true light:\n\nThat then he shall be recompensed with a most exact recompense,\n\nAnd that unto thy Lord is the term of all things,\n\nAnd that it is He who causeth to laugh and to weep,\n\nAnd that He causeth to die and maketh alive,\n\nAnd that He hath created the sexes, male and female,\n\nFrom the diffused germs of life,9\n\nAnd that with Him is the second creation,\n\nAnd that He enricheth and causeth to possess,\n\nAnd that He is the Lord of Sirius,10\n\nAnd that it was He who destroyed the ancient Adites,\n\nAnd the people of Themoud and left not one survivor,\n\nAnd before them the people of Noah who were most wicked and most perverse.\n\nAnd it was He who destroyed the cities that were overthrown.\n\nSo that that which covered them covered them.\n\nWhich then of thy Lord's benefits wilt thou make a matter of doubt?11\n\nHe who warneth you is one of the warners of old.\n\nThe day that must draw nigh, draweth nigh already: and yet none but God can\nreveal its time.\n\nIs it at these sayings that ye marvel?\n\nAnd that ye laugh and weep not?\n\nAnd that ye are triflers?\n\nProstrate yourselves then to God and worship.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura was revealed at about the time of the first emigration of\nMuhammad's followers to Abyssinia, A. 5. The manner in which the Prophet\ncancelled the objectionable verses 19, 20, is the strongest proof of his\nsincerity (as also is the opening of Sura 1xxx.) at this period. Had he not\ndone so, nothing would have been easier for him than to have effected a\nreconciliation with the powerful party in Mecca, who had recently compelled\nhis followers to emigrate.\n\n2 The Angel Gabriel, to the meaning of whose name, as the strong one of God,\nthese words probably allude.\n\n3 That is, Beyond which neither men nor angels can pass (Djelal). The\noriginal word is also rendered, the Lote-Tree of the extremity, or of the\nloftiest spot in Paradise, in the seventh Heaven, on the right hand of the\nthrone of God. Its leaves are fabled to be as numerous as the members of the\nwhole human family, and each leaf to bear the name of an individual. This\ntree is shaken on the night of the 15th of Ramadan every year a little after\nsunset, when the leaves on which are inscribed the names of those who are to\ndie in the ensuing year fall, either wholly withered, or with more or less\ngreen remaining, according to the months or weeks the person has yet to live.\n\n4 The Sidrah is a prickly plum, which is called Ber in India, the zizyphus\nJujuba of Linn\u00e6us. A decoction of the leaves is used in India to wash the\ndead, on account of the sacredness of the tree.\n\n5 Hosts of adoring angels, by which the tree was masked.\n\n6 Al-Lat or El-Lat, probably the Alilat of Herodotus (iii. 8) was an idol at\nNakhlah, a place east of the present site of Mecca. Al-Ozza was an idol of\nthe Kinanah tribe; but its hereditary priests were the Banu Solaym, who were\nstationed along the mercantile road to Syria in the neighbourhood of Chaibar.\n\n7 When at the first recital of this Sura, the prophet had reached this verse,\nhe continued,\n\nThese are the exalted females, [or, sublime swans, i.e., mounting nearer and\nnearer to God]\n\nAnd truly their intercession may be expected.\n\nThese words, however, which were received by the idolaters with great\nexultation, were disowned by Muhammad in the course of a few days as a\nSatanic suggestion, and replaced by the text as it now stands. The\nprobability is that the difficulties of his position led him to attempt a\ncompromise of which he speedily repented. In the Suras subsequent to this\nperiod the denunciations of idolatry become much sterner and clearer. The\nauthorities are given by Weil, Sprenger and Muir. See Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 74-\n76.\n\n8 Verses 26-33 are probably later than the previous part of the Sura, but\ninserted with reference to it. Some (as Omar b. Muhammad and 1tq.) consider\nverse 33, or (as Itq.36) verses 34-42, or (as Omar b. Muhammad) the whole\nSura, to have originated at Medina.\n\n9 Ex spermate cum seminatum fuerit.\n\n10 The Dog-star, worshipped by the Arabians.\n\n11 Compare the refrain in Sura lv. p. 74.\n\n\nSURA LXX.-THE STEPS OR ASCENTS [XLVII.]\n\nMECCA.-44 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nA SUITOR sued1 for punishment to light suddenly\n\nOn the infidels: none can hinder\n\nGod from inflicting it, the master of those ASCENTS,\n\nBy which the angels and the spirit ascend to him in a day, whose length is\nfifty thousand years.2\n\nBe thou patient therefore with becoming patience;\n\nThey forsooth regard that day as distant,\n\nBut we see it nigh:\n\nThe day when the heavens shall become as molten brass,\n\nAnd the mountains shall become like flocks of wool:\n\nAnd friend shall not question of friend,\n\nThough they look at one another. Fain would the wicked redeem himself from\npunishment on that day at the price of his children,\n\nOf his spouse and his brother,\n\nAnd of his kindred who shewed affection for him,\n\nAnd of all who are on the earth that then it might deliver him.\n\nBut no. For the fire,\n\nDragging by the scalp,\n\nShall claim him who turned his back and went away,\n\nAnd amassed and hoarded.\n\nMan truly is by creation hasty;\n\nWhen evil befalleth him, impatient;\n\nBut when good falleth to his lot, tenacious.\n\nNot so the prayerful,\n\nWho are ever constant at their prayers;\n\nAnd of whose substance there is a due and stated portion\n\nFor him who asketh, and for him who is ashamed3 to beg;\n\nAnd who own the judgment-day a truth,\n\nAnd who thrill with dread at the chastisement of their Lord-\n\nFor there is none safe from the chastisement of their Lord-\n\nAnd who control their desires,\n\n(Save with their wives or the slaves whom their right hands have won, for\nthere they shall be blameless;\n\nBut whoever indulge their desires beyond this are transgressors);\n\nAnd who are true to their trusts and their engagements,\n\nAnd who witness uprightly,\n\nAnd who keep strictly the hours of prayer:\n\nThese shall dwell, laden with honours, amid gardens.\n\nBut what hath come to the unbelievers that they run at full stretch around\nthee,\n\nOn the right hand and on the left, in bands?\n\nIs it that every man of them would fain enter that garden of delights?\n\nNot at all. We have created them, they know of what.\n\nIt needs not that I swear by the Lord of the East and of the West4 that we\nhave power.\n\nTo replace them with better than themselves: neither are we to be hindered.\n\nWherefore let them flounder on and disport them, till they come face to face\nwith their threatened day,\n\nThe day on which they shall flock up out of their graves in haste like men\nwho rally to a standard:-\n\nTheir eyes downcast; disgrace shall cover them. Such their threatened day.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. asking one asked; probably some unbeliever, with reference to the\nopening of Sura lvi., p. 60, or like statements in some previous Sura.\n\n2 The expression is hyperbolical, and, as such, identical with Sura [lxx.]\nxxxii. 4. Compare also Sura xcvii., p. 37. where the descent is said to take\nplace in a single night.\n\n3 Lit. forbidden or prevented by shame.\n\n4 See next Sura. v. 16.\n\n\nSURA LV.-THE MERCIFUL [XLVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-78 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nThe God of MERCY hath taught the Koran,\n\nHath created man,\n\nHath taught him articulate speech,\n\nThe Sun and the Moon have each their times,\n\nAnd the plants and the trees bend in adoration.\n\nAnd the Heaven, He hath reared it on high, and hath appointed the balance;\n\nThat in the balance ye should not transgress.\n\nWeigh therefore with fairness, and scant not the balance.\n\nAnd the Earth, He hath prepared it for the living tribes:\n\nTherein are fruits, and the palms with sheathed clusters,\n\nAnd the grain with its husk, and the fragrant plants.\n\nWhich then of the bounties of your Lord will ye twain1 deny?\n\nHe created man of clay like that of the potter.\n\nAnd He created the djinn of pure fire:\n\nWhich then of the bounties, etc.\n\nHe is the Lord of the East,2\n\nHe is the Lord of the West:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nHe hath let loose the two seas3 which meet each other:\n\nYet between them is a barrier which they overpass not:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nFrom each he bringeth up pearls both great and small:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nAnd His are the ships towering up at sea like mountains:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nAll on the earth shall pass away,\n\nBut the face of thy Lord shall abide resplendent with majesty and glory:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nTo Him maketh suit all that is in the Heaven and the Earth. Every day doth\nsome new work employ Him:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nWe will find leisure to judge you, O ye men and djinn:4\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nO company of djinn and men, if ye can overpass the bounds of the Heavens and\nthe Earth, then overpass them. But by our leave only shall ye overpass them:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nA bright flash of fire shall be hurled at you both, and molten brass, and ye\nshall not defend yourselves from it:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nWhen the Heaven shall be cleft asunder, and become rose red, like stained\nleather:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nOn that day shall neither man nor djinn be asked of his sin:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nBy their tokens shall the sinners be known, and they shall be seized by their\nforelocks and their feet:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\n\"This is Hell which sinners treated as a lie.\"\n\nTo and fro shall they pass between it and the boiling water:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nBut for those who dread the majesty of their Lord shall be two gardens:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nWith o'erbranching trees in each:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nIn each two kinds of every fruit:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nOn couches with linings of brocade shall they recline, and the fruit of the\ntwo gardens shall be within easy reach:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nTherein shall be the damsels with retiring glances, whom nor man nor djinn\nhath touched before them:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nLike jacynths and pearls:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nShall the reward of good be aught but good?\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nAnd beside these shall be two other gardens:5\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nOf a dark green:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nWith gushing fountains in each:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nIn each, fruits and the palm and the pomegranate:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nIn each, the fair, the beauteous ones:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nWith large dark eyeballs, kept close in their pavilions:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nWhom man hath never touched, nor any djinn:6\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nTheir spouses on soft green cushions and on beautiful carpets shall recline:\n\nWhich, etc.\n\nBlessed be the name of thy Lord, full of majesty and glory.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Men and djinn. The verb is in the dual.\n\n2 Lit. of the two easts, of the two wests, i.e., of all that lies between the\nextreme points at which the sun rises and sets at the winter and summer\nsolstices.\n\n3 Lit. he hath set at large, poured forth over the earth the masses of fresh\nand salt water which are in contact at the mouths of rivers, etc. See Sura\n[lxviii.] xxvii. 62; [lxxxvi.] xxxv. 13.\n\n4 Lit. O ye two weights; hence, treasures; and, generally, any collective\nbody of men or things.\n\n5 One for men, the other for the Genii; or, two for each man and Genius; or,\nboth are for the inferior classes of Muslims. Beidh.\n\n6 It should be remarked that these promises of the Houris of Paradise are\nalmost exclusively to be found in Suras written at a time when Muhammad had\nonly a single wife of 60 years of age, and that in all the ten years\nsubsequent to the Hejira, women are only twice mentioned as part of the\nreward of the faithful. Suras ii. 23 and iv. 60. While in Suras xxxvi. 56;\nxliii. 70; xiii. 23; xl. 8 the proper wives of the faithful are spoken of as\naccompanying their husbands into the gardens of bliss.\n\n\nSURA LIV.-THE MOON [XLIX.]\n\nMECCA.-55 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nThe hour hath approached and the MOON hath been cleft:\n\nBut whenever they see a miracle they turn aside and say, This is well-devised\nmagic.\n\nAnd they have treated the prophets as impostors, and follow their own lusts;\nbut everything is unalterably fixed.\n\nA message of prohibition had come to them-\n\nConsummate wisdom-but warners profit them not.\n\nQuit them then. On the day when the summoner shall summon to a stern\nbusiness,\n\nWith downcast eyes shall they come forth from their graves, as if they were\nscattered locusts,\n\nHastening to the summoner. \"This,\" shall the infidels say, \"is the\ndistressful day.\"\n\nBefore them the people of Noah treated the truth as a lie. Our servant did\nthey charge with falsehood, and said, \"Demoniac!\" and he was rejected.\n\nThen cried he to his Lord, \"Verily, they prevail against me; come thou\ntherefore to my succour.\"\n\nSo we opened the gates of Heaven with water which fell in torrents,\n\nAnd we caused the earth to break forth with springs, and their waters met by\nsettled decree.\n\nAnd we bare him on a vessel made with planks and nails.\n\nUnder our eyes it floated on: a recompence to him who had been rejected with\nunbelief.\n\nAnd we left it a sign: but, is there any one who receives the warning?\n\nAnd how great was my vengeance and my menace!\n\nEasy for warning have we made the Koran-but, is there any one who receives\nthe warning?\n\nThe Adites called the truth a lie: but how great was my vengeance and my\nmenace;\n\nFor we sent against them a roaring wind in a day of continued distress:\n\nIt tore men away as though they were uprooted palm stumps.\n\nAnd how great was my vengeance and my menace!\n\nEasy for warning have we made the Koran-but, is there any one who receives\nthe warning?\n\nThe tribe of Themoud treated the threatenings as lies:\n\nAnd they said, \"Shall we follow a single man from among ourselves? Then\nverily should we be in error and in folly.\n\nTo him alone among us is the office of warning entrusted? No! he is an\nimpostor, an insolent person.\"\n\nTo-morrow shall they learn who is the impostor, the insolent.\n\n\"For we will send the she-camel to prove them: do thou mark them well, O\nSaleh, and be patient:\n\nAnd foretell them that their waters shall1 be divided between themselves and\nher, and that every draught shall come by turns to them.\"\n\nBut they called to their comrade, and he took a knife and ham-strung her.\n\nAnd how great was my vengeance and my menance!\n\nWe sent against them a single shout; and they became like the dry sticks of\nthe fold-builders.\n\nEasy have we made the Koran for warning-but, is there any one who receives\nthe warning?\n\nThe people of Lot treated his warning as a lie;\n\nBut we sent a stone-charged wind against them all, except the family of Lot,\nwhom at daybreak we delivered,\n\nBy our special grace-for thus we reward the thankful.\n\nHe, indeed, had warned them of our severity, but of that warning they\ndoubted.\n\nEven this guess did they demand: therefore we deprived them of sight,\n\nAnd said, \"Taste ye my vengeance and my menace;\"\n\nAnd in the morning a relentless punishment overtook them.\n\nEasy have we made the Koran for warning but, is there any one who receives\nthe warning?\n\nTo the people of Pharaoh also came the threatenings:\n\nAll our miracles did they treat as impostures. Therefore seized we them as he\nonly can seize, who is the Mighty, the Strong.\n\nAre your infidels, O Meccans, better men than these? Is there an exemption\nfor you in the sacred Books?\n\nWill they say, \"We are a host that lend one another aid?\"\n\nThe host shall be routed, and they shall turn them back.\n\nBut, that Hour is their threatened time, and that Hour shall be most severe\nand bitter.\n\nVerily, the wicked are sunk in bewilderment and folly.\n\nOn that day they shall be dragged into the fire on their faces. \"Taste ye the\ntouch of Hell.\"\n\nAll things have we created after a fixed decree:\n\nOur command was but one word, swift as the twinkling of an eye.\n\nOf old, too, have we destroyed the like of you-yet is any one warned?\n\nAnd everything that they do is in the Books;2\n\nEach action, both small and great, is written down.\n\nVerily, amid gardens3 and rivers shall the pious dwell.\n\nIn the seat of truth, in the presence of the potent King.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 155; also Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 71.\n\n2 Kept by the Guardian Angels.\n\n3 The Talmudic descriptions of the Gardens-for the later Jews believed in\nmore than one Paradise-and of the rivers and trees therein, will be found in\nSchr der Talm. Rabb. Judenthum, pp. 418-432.\n\n\nSURA XXXVII.-THE RANKS [L.]\n\nMECCA.-182 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBy the angels ranged in order for Songs of Praise,\n\nAnd by those who repel demons,1\n\nAnd by those who recite the Koran for warning,\n\nTruly your God is but one,\n\nLord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them, and\nLord of the East.2\n\nWe have adorned the lower heaven with the adornment of the stars.\n\nThey serve also as a guard against every rebellious Satan,\n\nThat they overhear not what passeth in the assembly on high, for they are\ndarted at from every side,3\n\nDriven off and consigned to a lasting torment;\n\nWhile, if one steal a word by stealth, a glistening flame pursueth him.\n\nAsk the Meccans then, Are they, or the angels whom we have made, the stronger\ncreation? Aye, of coarse clay have we created them.\n\nBut while thou marvellest they mock;\n\nWhen they are warned, no warning do they take;\n\nAnd when they see a sign, they fall to mocking,\n\nAnd say, \"This is no other than clear sorcery:\n\nWhat! when dead, and turned to dust and bones, shall we indeed be raised?\n\nOur sires also of olden times?\"\n\nSay, Yes; and ye shall be covered with disgrace.\n\nFor, one blast only, and lo! they shall gaze around them, And shall say, \"Oh!\nwoe to us! this is the day of reckoning; This is the day of decision which ye\ngainsaid as an untruth.\"\n\nGather together those who have acted unjustly, and their consorts,4 and the\ngods whom they adored\n\nBeside God; and guide them to the road for Hell.\n\nSet them forth: they shall be questioned.\n\n\"How now, that ye help not one another?\"\n\nBut on this day they shall submit themselves to God,\n\nAnd shall address one another with mutual reproaches.\n\nThey shall say, \"In sooth, ye came to us in well-omened sort:\"5\n\nBut they will answer, \"Nay, it was ye who would not believe; and we had no\npower whatever over you. Nay, ye were people given to transgress;\n\nJust, therefore, is the doom which our Lord hath passed upon us.6 We shall\nsurely taste it:\n\nWe made you err, for we had erred ourselves.\"\n\nPartners therefore shall they be in punishment on that day.\n\nTruly, thus will we deal with the wicked,\n\nBecause when it was said to them, There is no God but God, they swelled with\npride,\n\nAnd said, \"Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?\"\n\nNay, he cometh with truth and confirmeth the Sent Ones of old.\n\nYe shall surely taste the painful punishment,\n\nAnd ye shall not be rewarded but as ye have wrought,\n\nSave the sincere servants of God!\n\nA stated banquet shall they have\n\nOf fruits; and honoured shall they be\n\nIn the gardens of delight,\n\nUpon couches face to face.\n\nA cup shall be borne round among them from a fountain,\n\nLimpid, delicious to those who drink;\n\nIt shall not oppress the sense, nor shall they therewith be drunken.\n\nAnd with them are the large-eyed ones with modest refraining glances, fair\nlike the sheltered egg.7\n\nAnd they shall address one another with mutual questions.\n\nSaith one of them, \"I truly had a bosom friend,\n\nWho said, 'Art thou of those who credit it?\n\nWhat! when we shall have died, and become dust and bones, shall we indeed be\njudged?\"'\n\nHe shall say to those around him, \"Will ye look?\"\n\nAnd he shall look and see him in the midst of Hell.\n\nAnd he shall say to him, \"By God, thou hadst almost caused me to perish;\n\nAnd, but for the favour of my Lord, I had surely been of those who have been\nbrought with thee into torment.\"\n\n\"But do we not die,\" say the blessed,\n\n\"Any other than our first death? and have we escaped the torment?\"8\n\nThis truly is the great felicity!\n\nFor the like of this should the travailers travail!\n\nIs this the better repast or the tree Ez-zakkoum?\n\nVerily, we have made it for a subject of discord to the wicked.\n\nIt is a tree which cometh up from the bottom of hell;\n\nIts fruits is as it were the heads of Satans;\n\nAnd, lo! the damned shall surely eat of it and fill their bellies with it:\n\nThen shall they have, thereon, a mixture of boiling water:\n\nThen shall they return to hell.\n\nThey found their fathers erring,\n\nAnd they hastened on in their footsteps.\n\nAlso before them the greater number of the ancients had erred.\n\nThough we had sent warners among them.\n\nBut see what was the end of these warned ones,\n\nExcept of God's true servants.\n\nNoah called on us of old, and right prompt were we to hear him,9\n\nAnd we saved him and his family out of the great distress,\n\nAnd we made his offspring the survivors;\n\nAnd we left for him with posterity,\n\n\"Peace be on Noah throughout the worlds!\"\n\nThus do we reward the well-doers,\n\nFor he was one of our believing servants;-\n\nAnd the rest we drowned.\n\nAnd truly, of his faith was Abraham,\n\nWhen he brought to his Lord a perfect heart,\n\nWhen he said to his father and to his people, \"What is this ye worship?\n\nPrefer ye with falsehood gods to God?\n\nAnd what deem ye of the Lord of the worlds?\"\n\nSo gazing he gazed towards the stars,\n\nAnd said, \"In sooth I am ill:10\n\nAnd they turned their back on him and departed.\n\nHe went aside to their gods and said, \"Do ye not eat?\n\nWhat aileth you that ye do not speak?\"\n\nHe broke out upon them, with the right hand striking:\n\nWhen his tribesmen came back to him with hasty steps\n\nHe said, \"Worship ye what ye carve,\n\nWhen God hath created you, and that ye make?\"\n\nThey said, \"Build up a pyre for him and cast him into the glowing flame.\"\n\nFain would they plot against him, but we brought them low.\n\nAnd he said, \"Verily, I repair to my Lord who will guide me:\n\nO Lord give me a son, of the righteous.\"\n\nWe announced to him a youth of meekness.\n\nAnd when he became a full-grown youth,11\n\nHis father said to him, \"My son, I have seen in a dream that I should\nsacrifice thee; therefore, consider what thou seest right.\"\n\nHe said, \"My father, do what thou art bidden; of the patient, if\n\nGod please, shalt thou find me.\"\n\nAnd when they had surrendered them to the will of God, he laid him down upon\nhis forehead:\n\nWe cried unto him, \"O Abraham!\n\nNow hast thou satisfied the vision.\" See how we recompense the righteous.\n\nThis was indeed a decisive test.\n\nAnd we ransomed his son with a costly12 victim,\n\nAnd we left this13 for him among posterity,\n\n\"PEACE BE ON ABRAHAM!\"\n\nThus do we reward the well-doers,\n\nFor he was of our believing servants.\n\nAnd we announced Isaac to him-a righteous Prophet-\n\nAnd on him and on Isaac we bestowed our blessing. And among their offspring\nwere well-doers, and others, to their own hurt undoubted sinners.\n\nAnd of old,14 to Moses and to Aaron shewed we favours:\n\nAnd both of them, and their people, we rescued from the great distress:\n\nAnd we succoured them, and they became the conquerors:\n\nAnd we gave them (Moses and Aaron) each the lucid book:\n\nAnd we guided them each into the right way:\n\nAnd we left this for each among posterity,\n\n\"PEACE BE ON MOSES AND AARON.\"\n\nThus do we reward the well-doers,\n\nFor they were two of our believing servants.\n\nAnd Elias truly was of our Sent Ones,\n\nWhen he said to his people, \"Fear ye not God?\n\nInvoke ye Baal and forsake ye the most skilful Creator?\n\nGod is your Lord, and the Lord of your sires of old?\"\n\nBut they treated him as a liar, and shall therefore be consigned to\npunishment,\n\nExcept God's faithful servants.\n\nAnd we left this for him among posterity,\n\n\"PEACE BE ON ELIASIN!\"15\n\nThus do we reward the well-doers,\n\nFor he was one of our believing servants.\n\nAnd Lot truly was of our Sent Ones,\n\nWhen we rescued him and all his family,\n\nSave an aged woman among those who tarried.\n\nAfterward we destroyed the others.\n\nAnd ye indeed pass by their ruined dwellings at morn\n\nAnd night: will ye not then reflect?\n\nJonas, too, was one of the Apostles,\n\nWhen he fled unto the laden ship,\n\nAnd lots were cast,16 and he was doomed,\n\nAnd the fish swallowed him, for he was blameworthy.\n\nBut had he not been of those who praise Us,\n\nIn its belly had he surely remained, till the day of resurrection.\n\nAnd we cast him on the bare shore-and he was sick;-\n\nAnd we caused a gourd-plant to grow up over him,\n\nAnd we sent him to a hundred thousand persons, or even more,\n\nAnd because they believed, we continued their enjoyments for a season.\n\nInquire then of the Meccans whether thy Lord hath daughters, and they, sons?\n\nHave we created the angels females? and did they witness it?\n\nIs it not a falsehood of their own devising, when they say,\n\n\"God hath begotten\"? They are indeed liars.\n\nWould he have preferred daughters to sons?\n\nWhat reason have ye for thus judging?\n\nWill ye not then receive this warning?\n\nHave ye a clear proof for them?\n\nProduce your Book if ye speak truth.\n\nAnd they make him to be of kin with the Djinn: but the Djinn have long known\nthat these idolaters shall be brought up before God.\n\nFar be the glory of God from what they impute to him.\n\n\"His faithful servants do not thus.\n\nMoreover, ye and what ye worship\n\nShall not stir up any against God,17\n\nSave him who shall burn in Hell.\n\nAnd verily each one of us hath his appointed place,\n\nAnd we range ourselves in order,\n\nAnd we celebrate His praises.\"18\n\nAnd if those infidels say,\n\n\"Had we a revelation transmitted to us from those of old,19\n\nWe had surely been God's faithful servants.\"\n\nYet they believe not the Koran. But they shall know its truth at last.\n\nOur word came of old to our servants the apostles,\n\nThat they should surely be the succoured,\n\nAnd that our armies should procure the victory for them.\n\nTurn aside therefore from them for a time,\n\nAnd behold them, for they too shall in the end behold their doom.\n\nWould they then hasten our vengeance?\n\nBut when it shall come down into their courts, an evil morning shall it be to\nthose who have had their warning.\n\nTurn aside from them therefore for a time.\n\nAnd behold; for they too shall in the end behold their doom.\n\nFar be the glory of thy Lord, the Lord of all greatness, from what they\nimpute to him,\n\nAnd peace be on his Apostles!\n\nAnd praise be to God the Lord of the worlds.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 I have given in the text the sense of these first two verses according to\nthe Muhammadan commentators. The original, literally translated, viz. By the\nranks which rank themselves, and by the repellers who repel, would not convey\nan intelligible idea to the English reader. Mar. renders, Per ordinantes\nordinando et agitantes agitando.\n\n2 Ar. Easts. Errat in pluralitate mundorum. Mar. But the allusion probably is\nto the different points of the horizon at which the sun rises and sets in the\ncourse of the year.\n\n3 See Sura [lvii.] xv. 18.\n\n4 Or, comrades, i.e. the demons.\n\n5 Lit. on the right hand, the side of good omen i.e. with semblance of truth.\n\n6 See Sura [lx.] xxxvi. 6.\n\n7 The ostrich egg carefully protected from dust.\n\n8 Lit. and are we not among the punished?\n\n9 Lit. et sane euge auditores. Mar.\n\n10 And therefore unable to assist at your sacrifices.\n\n11 Lit. cum igitur pervenisset cum eo ad \u2018tatem cui competit operandi\nstudium. Mar. Beidh. When he had attained to the age when he could work with\nhim. Lane.\n\n12 Brought, says Rabbi Jehoshua, from Paradise by an angel. Midr. fol.\n\n13 This salutation.\n\n14 The Arabic particle which is here and elsewhere rendered of old (also,\nalready, certainly) serves to mark the position of a past act or event as\nprior to the time present, and in all such passages merely gives a fulness\nand intensity to our perfect, or pluperfect tense.\n\n15 The form of this word is altered in the original for the sake of the\nrhyme.\n\n16 Lit. he cast lots (with the sailors).\n\n17 Nequequam vos ad illud colendum estis Seducturi. Mar.\n\n18 This verse and the six preceding are the words of the Angel.\n\n19 Compare verse 69.\n\n\nSURA LXXI.-NOAH [LI.]\n\nMECCA.-29 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWe sent NOAH to his people, and said to him, \"Warn thou thy people ere there\ncome on them an afflictive punishment.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my people! I come to you a plain-spoken warner:\n\nServe God and fear Him, and obey me:\n\nYour sins will He forgive you, and respite you till the fixed Time; for when\nGod's fixed Time hath come, it shall not be put back. Would that ye knew\nthis!\"\n\nHe said, \"Lord I have cried to my people night and day; and my cry doth but\nmake them flee from me the more.\n\nSo oft as I cry to them, that thou mayest forgive them, they thrust their\nfingers into their ears, and wrap themselves in their garments, and persist\nin their error, and are disdainfully disdainful.\n\nThen I cried aloud to them:\n\nThen again spake I with plainness, and in private did I secretly address\nthem:\n\nAnd I said, Beg forgiveness of your Lord, for He is ready to forgive.\n\nHe will send down the very Heaven upon you in plenteous rains;\n\nAnd will increase you in wealth and children; and will give you gardens, and\nwill give you watercourses:-\n\nWhat hath come to you that ye hope not for goodness from the hand of God?\n\nFor He it is who hath formed you by successive steps.1\n\nSee ye not how God hath created the seven heavens one over the other?\n\nAnd He hath placed therein the moon as a light, and hath placed there the sun\nas a torch;\n\nAnd God hath caused you to spring forth from the earth like a plant;\n\nHereafter will He turn you back into it again, and will bring you forth anew-\n\nAnd God hath spread the earth for you like a carpet,\n\nThat ye may walk therein along spacious paths.\"'\n\nSaid Noah, \"O my Lord! they rebel against me, and they follow those whose\nriches and children do but aggravate their ruin.\"\n\nAnd they plotted a great plot;\n\nAnd they said, \"Forsake not your Gods; forsake not Wadd nor Sowah,\n\nNor Yaghuth and Yahuk and Nesr;\"\n\nAnd they caused many to err;2-and thou, too, O Muhammad! shalt be the means\nof increasing only error in the wicked-\n\nBecause of their sins they were drowned, and made to go into the Fire;\n\nAnd they found that they had no helper save God.\n\nAnd Noah said, \"Lord, leave not one single family of Infidels on the Earth:\n\nFor if thou leave them they will beguile thy servants and will beget only\nsinners, infidels.\n\nO my Lord, forgive me, and my parents, and every one who, being a believer,\nshall enter my house, and believers men and women: and add to the wicked\nnought but perdition.\"\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura xxii. 5.\n\n2 Or, the idols had seduced many. Thus Kas. Beidh. gives both  interpp.-See\non these idols Freytag's Einleitung, p. 349.\n\n\nSURA LXXVI.-MAN [LII.]\n\nMECCA.-31 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nDoth not a long time pass over MAN, during which he is a thing unremembered?1\n\nWe have created man from the union of the sexes that we might prove him; and\nhearing, seeing, have we made him:\n\nIn a right way have we guided him, be he thankful or ungrateful.\n\nFor the Infidels we have got ready chains and collars and flaming fire.\n\nBut a wine cup tempered at the camphor fountain2 the just shall quaff:\n\nFount whence the servants of God shall drink, and guide by channels from\nplace to place;\n\nThey who fulfilled their vows, and feared the day whose woes will spread far\nand wide;\n\nWho though longing for it themselves, bestowed their food on the poor and the\norphan and the captive:\n\n\"We feed you for the sake of God: we seek from you neither recompense nor\nthanks:3\n\nA stern and calamitous day dread we from our Lord.\"\n\nFrom the evil therefore of that day hath God delivered them and cast on them\nbrightness of face and joy:\n\nAnd hath rewarded their constancy, with Paradise and silken robes:\n\nReclining therein on bridal couches, nought shall they know of sun or\npiercing cold:\n\nIts shades shall be close over them, and low shall its fruits hang down:\n\nAnd vessels of silver and goblets like flagons shall be borne round among\nthem:\n\nFlagons of silver whose measure themselves shall mete.\n\nAnd there shall they be given to drink of the cup tempered with zendjebil\n(ginger)\n\nFrom the fount therein whose name is Selsebil (the softly flowing).\n\nAye-blooming youths go round among them. When thou lookest at them thou\nwouldest deem them scattered pearls;\n\nAnd when thou seest this, thou wilt see delights and a vast kingdom:\n\nTheir clothing green silk robes and rich brocade: with silver bracelets shall\nthey be adorned; and drink of a pure beverage shall their Lord give them.\n\nThis shall be your recompense. Your efforts shall meet with thanks.\n\nWe ourselves have sent down to thee the Koran as a missive from on high.\n\nAwait then with patience the judgments of thy Lord, and obey not the wicked\namong them and the unbelieving:\n\nAnd make mention of the name of thy Lord at morn, at even,\n\nAnd at night. Adore him, and praise him the livelong night.\n\nBut these men love the fleeting present, and leave behind them the heavy day\nof doom.\n\nOurselves have we created them, and strengthened their joints; and when we\nplease, with others like unto themselves will we replace them.\n\nThis truly is a warning: And whoso willeth, taketh the way to his Lord;\n\nBut will it ye shall not, unless God will it, for God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nHe causeth whom He will to enter into his mercy. But for the evil doers, He\nhath made ready an afflictive chastisement.\n\n_______________________\n\n1 When in the womb.\n\n2 With (the water of) Kafoor. Lane.\n\n3 Desire no recompense from you.\n\n\nSURA XLIV.-SMOKE [LIII.]\n\nMECCA.-59 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHa. Mim.1 By this clear Book!\n\nSee! on a blessed night2 have we sent it down, for we would warn mankind:\n\nOn the night wherein all things are disposed in wisdom,3\n\nBy virtue of our behest. Lo! we have ever sent forth Apostles,\n\nA mercy from thy Lord: he truly heareth and knoweth all things-\n\nLord of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all that is between them,-if ye\nbe firm in faith-\n\nThere is no God but He!-He maketh alive and killeth!-Your Lord and the Lord\nof your sires of old!\n\nYet with doubts do they disport them.\n\nBut mark them on the day when the Heaven shall give out a palpable SMOKE,\n\nWhich shall enshroud mankind: this will be an afflictive torment.\n\nThey will cry, \"Our Lord! relieve us from this torment: see! we are\nbelievers.\"\n\nBut how did warning avail them, when an undoubted apostle had come to them;\n\nAnd they turned their backs on him, and said, \"Taught by others, possessed?\"\n\nWere we to relieve you from the plague even a little, ye would certainly\nrelapse.4\n\nOn the day when we shall fiercely put forth our great fierceness, we will\nsurely take vengeance on them!\n\nOf old, before their time, had we proved the people of Pharaoh, when a noble\napostle presented himself to them.\n\n\"Send away with me,\" cried he, \"the servants of God; for I am an apostle\nworthy of all credit:\n\nAnd exalt not yourselves against God, for I come to you with undoubted power;\n\nAnd I take refuge with Him who is my Lord and your Lord, that ye stone me\nnot:\n\nAnd if ye believe me not, at least separate yourselves from me.\"\n\nAnd he cried to his Lord, \"That these are a wicked people.\"\n\n\"March forth then, said God, with my servants by night, for ye will be\npursued.\n\nAnd leave behind you the cleft sea: they are a drowned host.\"\n\nHow many a garden and fountain did they quit!\n\nAnd corn fields and noble dwellings!\n\nAnd pleasures in which they rejoiced them!\n\nSo was it: and we gave them as a heritage to another people.\n\nNor Heaven nor Earth wept for them, nor was their sentence respited;\n\nAnd we rescued the children of Israel from a degrading affliction-\n\nFrom Pharaoh, for he was haughty, given to excess.\n\nAnd we chose them, in our prescience, above all peoples,5\n\nAnd we shewed them miracles wherein was their clear trial.\n\nYet these infidels say,\n\n\"There is but our first death, neither shall we be raised again:\n\nBring back our sires, if ye be men of truth.\"\n\nAre they better than the people of Tobba,6\n\nAnd those who flourished before them whom we destroyed for their evil deeds?\n\nWe have not created the Heavens and the Earth and whatever is between them in\nsport:\n\nWe have not created them but for a serious end:7 but the greater part of them\nunderstand it not.\n\nVerily the day of severing8 shall be the appointed time of all:\n\nA day when the master shall not at all be aided by the servant, neither shall\nthey be helped;\n\nSave those on whom God shall have mercy: for He is the mighty, the merciful.\n\nVerily the tree of Ez-Zakkoum9\n\nShall be the sinner's10 food:\n\nLike dregs of oil shall it boil up in their bellies,\n\nLike the boiling of scalding water.\n\n\"-Seize ye him, and drag him into the mid-fire;\n\nThen pour on his head of the tormenting boiling water.\n\n-'Taste this:' for thou forsooth art the mighty, the honourable!\n\nLo! this is that of which ye doubted.\"\n\nBut the pious shall be in a secure place,\n\nAmid gardens and fountains,\n\nClothed in silk and richest robes, facing one another:\n\nThus shall it be: and we will wed them to the virgins with large dark eyes:\n\nTherein shall they call, secure, for every kind of fruit;\n\nTherein, their first death passed, shall they taste death no more; and He\nshall keep them from the pains of Hell:-\n\n'Tis the gracious bounty of thy Lord! This is the great felicity.\n\nWe have made this Koran easy for thee in thine own tongue, that they may take\nthe warning.\n\nTherefore wait thou, for they are waiting.11\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.\n\n2 Of the 23rd and 24th of Ramadhan, in which, according to the Muslim creed,\nall the events of the year subsequent are arranged. See Sura xcvii. n. 2, p.\n27.\n\n3 Lit. We settle each wise affair-called wise, because proceeding direct from\nthe will of Him who is absolute wisdom.\n\n4 Beidh, and others suppose this verse to have been revealed at Medina. This\nopinion, however, is based upon the supposition that it refers to the famine\nwith which Mecca was visited after the Hejira.\n\n5 Comp. Ex. xx. 20; Deut. viii. 16.\n\n6 Tobba, i.e. Chalif or successor, is the title of the Kings of Yemen; or of\nHadramont, Saba, and Hamyar.-See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar. p. 60.\n\n7 Lit. in truth.\n\n8 That is, Of the good from the bad.\n\n9 See Sura xxxvii. 60, p. 81.\n\n10 The commentators suppose this sinner to be Abu Jahl, one of the chief of\nthe Koreisch, and the bitter enemy of Muhammad.\n\n11 To see the turn which events may take.\n\n\nSURA L.-KAF [LIV.]\n\nMECCA.-45 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.\n\nKaf1. By the glorious Koran:\n\nThey marvel forsooth that one of themselves hath come to them charged with\nwarnings. \"This,\" say the infidels, \"is a marvellous thing:\n\nWhat! when dead and turned to dust shall we. . . .? Far off is such a return\nas this?\"\n\nNow know we what the earth consumeth of them, and with us is a Book in which\naccount is kept.\n\nBut they have treated the truth which hath come to them as falsehood;\nperplexed therefore is their state.\n\nWill they not look up to the heaven above them, and consider how we have\nreared it and decked it forth, and that there are no flaws therein?\n\nAnd as to the earth, we have spread it out, and have thrown the mountains\nupon it, and have caused an upgrowth in it of all beauteous kinds of plants,\n\nFor insight and admonition to every servant who loveth to turn to God:\n\nAnd we send down the rain from Heaven with its blessings, by which we cause\ngardens to spring forth and the grain of harvest,\n\nAnd the tall palm trees with date-bearing branches one above the other\n\nFor man's nourishment: And life give we thereby to a dead country. So also\nshall be the resurrection.\n\nEre the days of these (Meccans) the people of Noah, and the men of Rass2 and\nThemoud, treated their prophets as impostors:\n\nAnd Ad and Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot and the dwellers in the forest,\nand the people of Tobba,3 all gave the lie to their prophets: justly,\ntherefore, were the menaces inflicted.\n\nAre we wearied out with the first creation? Yet are they in doubt with regard\nto a new creation!4\n\nWe created man: and we know what his soul whispereth to him, and we are\ncloser to him than his neck-vein.\n\nWhen the two angels charged with taking account shall take it, one sitting on\nthe right hand, the other on the left:\n\nNot a word doth he utter, but there is a watcher with him ready to note it\ndown:\n\nAnd the stupor of certain death cometh upon him: \"This is what thou wouldst\nhave shunned\"-\n\nAnd there shall be a blast on the trumpet,-it is the threatened day!\n\nAnd every soul shall come,-an angel with it urging it along, and an angel to\nwitness against it5-\n\nSaith he, \"Of this day didst thou live in heedlessness: but we have taken off\nthy veil from thee, and thy sight is becoming sharp this day.\"\n\nAnd he who is at this side6 shall say, \"This is what I am prepared with\nagainst thee.\"\n\nAnd God will say, \"Cast into Hell, ye twain, every infidel, every hardened\none,\n\nThe hinderer of the good, the transgressor, the doubter,\n\nWho set up other gods with God. Cast ye him into the fierce torment.\"\n\nHe who is at his side shall say, \"O our Lord! I led him not astray, yet was\nhe in an error wide of truth.\"\n\nHe shall say, \"Wrangle not in my presence. I had plied you beforehand with\nmenaces:\n\nMy doom changeth not, and I am not unjust to man.\"\n\nOn that day will we cry to Hell, \"Art thou full?\" And it shall say, \"Are\nthere more?\"7\n\nAnd not far from thence shall Paradise be brought near unto the Pious:\n\n- \"This is what ye have been promised: to every one who hath turned in\npenitence to God and kept his laws;\n\nWho hath feared the God of Mercy in secret, and come to him with a contrite\nheart:\n\nEnter it in peace: this is the day of Eternity.\"\n\nThere shall they have all that they can desire: and our's will it be to\naugment their bliss:\n\nAnd how many generations have we destroyed ere the days of these (Meccans),\nmightier than they in strength! Search ye then the land. Is there any escape?\n\nLo! herein is warning for him who hath a heart, or giveth ear, and is himself\nan eye-witness.8\n\nWe created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six\ndays, and no weariness touched us.9\n\nWherefore put up with what they say, and celebrate the praise of thy Lord\nbefore sunrise and before sunset:\n\nAnd praise Him in the night: and perform the two final prostrations.\n\nAnd list for the day whereon the crier shall cry from a place near to every\none alike:\n\nThe day on which men shall in truth hear that shout will be the day of their\ncoming forth from the grave.\n\nVerily, we cause to live, and we cause to die. To us shall all return.\n\nOn the day when the earth shall swiftly cleave asunder over the dead, will\nthis gathering be easy to Us.\n\nWe know best what the infidels say: and thou art not to compel them.\n\nWarn then by the Koran those who fear my menace.\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.\n\n2 See [lxvi.] xxv. 40.\n\n3 See xliv. 36, p. 90.\n\n4 The Resurrection.\n\n5 Lit. a driver and a witness.\n\n6 The Satan who is chained to him. Sura [lxxi.] xli. 24.\n\n7 Lit. is there any addition? which some explain as if Hell enquired whether,\nbeing already full, any addition could be made to its size. Comp. Prov. xxx.\n15, and Othioth Derabbi Akiba, 8, 1: \"That the Prince of Hell saith daily,\nGive me food enough, is clear from what is said (Is. v. 14). Therefore Shaol\nhath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, etc.\"\n\n8 That is, of the ruins of the destroyed cities, etc.\n\n9 This verse is said (by Omar b. Muhammad, Itq. 36, Djelal Eddin, ap. Maracc.\nand Beidh.) to have been revealed in answer to the Jews who told the Prophet\nthat if God rested on the Sabbath, it was because he was weary. But a\nconnection with verse 14 seems more natural.\n\n\nSURA XX.1-TA. HA. [LV.]\n\nMECCA.-135 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTA. HA.2 Not to sadden thee have we sent down this Koran to thee,\n\nBut as a warning for him who feareth;\n\nIt is a missive from Him who hath made the earth and the lofty heavens!\n\nThe God of Mercy sitteth on his throne:\n\nHis, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and\nwhatsoever is between them both, and whatsoever is beneath the humid soil!\n\nThou needest not raise thy voice:3 for He knoweth the secret whisper, and the\nyet more hidden.\n\nGod! There is no God but He! Most excellent His titles!\n\nHath the history of Moses reached thee?\n\nWhen he saw a fire, and said to his family, \"Tarry ye here, for I perceive a\nfire:\n\nHaply I may bring you a brand from it, or find at the fire a guide.\"4\n\nAnd when he came to it, he was called to, \"O Moses!\n\nVerily, I am thy Lord:. therefore pull off thy shoes: for thou art in the\nholy valley of Towa.\n\nAnd I have chosen thee: hearken then to what shall be revealed.\n\nVerily, I am God: there is no God but me: therefore worship me, and observe\nprayer for a remembrance of me.\n\nVerily the hour is coming:-I all but manifest it-\n\nThat every soul may be recompensed for its labours.\n\nNor let him who believeth not therein and followeth his lust, turn thee aside\nfrom this truth, and thou perish.\n\nNow, what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?\"\n\nSaid he, \"It is my staff on which I lean, and with which I beast down leaves\nfor my sheep, and I have other uses for it.\"\n\nHe said, \"Cast it down, O Moses!\"\n\nSo he cast it down, and lo! it became a serpent that ran along.\n\nHe said, \"Lay hold on it, and fear not: to its former state will we restore\nit.\"\n\n\"Now place thy right hand to thy arm-pit: it shall come forth white, but\nunhurt:-another sign!-\n\nThat We may shew thee the greatest of our signs.\n\nGo to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! enlarge my breast for me,\n\nAnd make my work easy for me,\n\nAnd loose the knot of my tongue,5\n\nThat they may understand my speech.\n\nAnd give me a counsellor6 from among my family,\n\nAaron my brother;\n\nBy him gird up my loins,7\n\nAnd make him a colleague in my work,\n\nThat we may praise thee oft and oft remember thee,\n\nFor thou regardest us.\"\n\nHe said, \"O Moses, thou hast obtained thy suit:\n\nAlready, at another time, have we showed thee favour,\n\nWhen we spake unto thy mother what was spoken:\n\n'Cast him into the ark:8 then cast him on the sea [the river], and the sea\nshall throw him on the shore: and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall\ntake him up.' And I myself have made thee an object of love,\n\nThat thou mightest be reared in mine eye.\n\nWhen thy sister went and said, 'Shall I shew you one who will nurse him?'9\nThen We returned thee to thy mother that her eye might be cheered, and that\nshe might not grieve. And when thou slewest a person, We delivered thee from\ntrouble, and We tried thee with other trial.\n\nFor years didst thou stay among the people of Midian; then camest thou hither\nby my decree, O Moses:\n\nAnd I have chosen thee for Myself.\n\nGo thou and thy brother with my signs and be not slack to remember me.\n\nGo ye to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:\n\nBut speak ye to him with gentle speech; haply he will reflect or fear.\"\n\nThey said, \"O our Lord! truly we fear lest he break forth against us, or act\nwith exceeding injustice.\"\n\nHe said, \"Fear ye not, for I am with you both. I will hearken and I will\nbehold.\n\nGo ye then to him and say, 'Verily we are Sent ones of thy Lord; send\ntherefore the children of Israel with us and vex them not: now are we come to\nthee with signs from thy Lord, and, Peace shall be on him who followeth the\nright guidance.\n\nFor now hath it been revealed to us, that chastisement shall be on him who\nchargeth with falsehood, and turneth him away.\"'\n\nAnd he said, \"Who is your Lord, O Moses?\"\n\nHe said, \"Our Lord is He who hath given to everything its form and then\nguideth it aright.\"\n\n\"But what,\" said he, \"was the state of generations past?\"10\n\nHe said, \"The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in the Book of his decrees.\nMy Lord erreth not, nor forgetteth.\n\nHe hath spread the earth as a bed, and hath traced out paths for you therein,\nand hath sent down rain from Heaven, and by it we bring forth the kinds11 of\nvarious herbs:\n\n-'Eat ye, and feed your cattle.' Of a truth in this are signs unto men endued\nwith understanding.\n\nFrom it have we created you, and into it will we return you, and out of it\nwill we bring you forth a second time.\"12\n\nAnd we shewed him all our signs: but he treated them as falsehoods, and\nrefused to believe.\n\nHe said, \"Hast thou come, O Moses, to drive us from our land by thine\nenchantments?\n\nTherefore will we assuredly confront thee with like enchantments: so appoint\na meeting between us and you-we will not fail it, we, and do not thou-in a\nplace alike for both.\"\n\nHe said, \"On the feast day13 be your meeting, and in broad daylight let the\npeople be assembled.\"\n\nAnd Pharaoh turned away, and collected his craftsmen and came.\n\nSaid Moses to them, \"Woe to you! devise not a lie against God:\n\nFor then will he destroy you by a punishment. They who have lied have ever\nperished.\"\n\nAnd the magicians discussed their plan, and spake apart in secret:\n\nThey said, \"These two are surely sorcerers: fain would they drive you from\nyour land by their sorceries, and lead away in their paths your chiefest men:\n\nSo muster your craft: then come in order: well this day shall it be for him,\nwho shall gain the upper hand.\"\n\nThey said, \"O Moses, wilt thou first cast down thy rod, or shall we be the\nfirst who cast?\"\n\nHe said, \"Yes, cast ye down first.\" And lo! by their enchantment their cords\nand rods seemed to him as if they ran.\n\nAnd Moses conceived a secret fear within him.\n\nWe said, \"Fear not, for thou shalt be the uppermost:\n\nCast forth then what is in thy right hand: it shall swallow up what they have\nproduced: they have only produced the deceit of an enchanter: and come where\nhe may, ill shall an enchanter fare.\"\n\nAnd the magicians fell down and worshipped. They said,\n\n\"We believe in the Lord of Aaron and of Moses.\"\n\nSaid Pharaoh, \"Believe ye on him ere I give you leave? He, in sooth, is your\nMaster who hath taught you magic. I will therefore cut off your hands and\nyour feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you on trunks of the palm,\nand assuredly shall ye learn which of us is severest in punishing, and who is\nthe more abiding.\"14\n\nThey said, \"We will not have more regard to thee than to the clear tokens\nwhich have come to us, or than to Him who hath made us: doom the doom thou\nwilt: Thou canst only doom as to this present life: of a truth we have\nbelieved on our Lord that he may pardon us our sins and the sorcery to which\nthou hast forced us, for God is better, and more abiding than thou.15\n\nAs for him who shall come before his Lord laden with crime-for him verily is\nHell: he shall not die in it and he shall not live.\n\nBut he who shall come before Him, a believer, with righteous works,-these!\nthe loftiest grades await them:\n\nGardens of Eden, beneath whose trees16 the rivers flow: therein shall they\nabide for ever. This, the reward of him who hath been pure.\"\n\nThen revealed we to Moses, \"Go forth by night with my servants and cleave for\nthem a dry path in the sea;\n\nFear not thou to be overtaken, neither be thou afraid.\"\n\nAnd Pharaoh followed them with his hosts, and the whelming billows of the sea\noverwhelmed them,17 for Pharaoh misled his people, and did not guide them.\n\nO children of Israel! we rescued you from your foes; and We appointed a\nmeeting with you on the right side of the mountain; and We caused the manna\nand the quail to descend upon you:\n\n\"Eat,\" said We, \"of the good things with which we have supplied you; but\nwithout excess, lest my wrath fall upon you; for on whom my wrath doth fall,\nhe perisheth outright.\n\nSurely however will I forgive him who turneth to God and believeth, and\nworketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.\n\nBut what hath hastened thee on apart from thy people,18 O Moses?\"\n\nHe said, \"They are hard on my footsteps: but to thee, O Lord, have I\nhastened, that thou mightest be well pleased with me.\"\n\nHe said, \"Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst leave\nthem, and Samiri19 had led them astray.\"\n\nAnd Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.\n\nHe said, \"O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise? Was the\ntime of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord\nshould light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?\"\n\nThey said, \"Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to thee, but\nwe were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw them into\nthe fire and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to them a\ncorporeal lowing20 calf: and they said, \"This is your God and the God of\nMoses, whom he hath forgotten.\"'\n\nWhat! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither hurt\nnor help them?\n\nAnd Aaron had before said to them, \"O my people! by this calf are ye only\nproved: surely your Lord is the God of Mercy: follow me therefore and obey my\nbidding.\"\n\nThey said, \"We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to us.\"\n\nHe said, \"O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what hindered\nthee from following me? Hast thou then disobeyed my command?\"\n\nHe said, \"O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head:\nindeed I feared lest thou shouldst say,\n\nThou hast rent the children of Isreal asunder, and hast not observed my\norders.\"'\n\nHe said, \"And what was thy motive, O Samiri?\" He said, \"I saw what they saw\nnot: so I took a handful of dust from the track21 of the messenger of God,\nand flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me.\"\n\nHe said, \"Begone then: verily thy doom even in this life shall be to say,\n'Touch me not.'22 And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not\nescape hereafter. Now look at thy god to which thou hast continued so\ndevoted: we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast\ninto the sea.\n\nYour God is God, beside whom there is no God: In his knowledge he embraceth\nall things.\"\n\nThus do We recite to thee histories of what passed of old; and from ourself\nhave we given thee admonition.\n\nWhoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day of\nResurrection:\n\nUnder it shall they remain: and grievous, in the day of Resurrection, shall\nit be to them to bear.\n\nOn that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and We will gather the\nwicked together on that day with leaden23 eyes:\n\nThey shall say in a low voice, one to another,-\"Ye tarried but ten days on\nearth.\"\n\nWe are most knowing with respect to that which they will say when the most\nveracious24 of them will say. \"Ye have not tarried above a day.\"\n\nAnd they will ask thee of the mountains: SAY: scattering my Lord will scatter\nthem in dust;\n\nAnd he will leave them a level plain: thou shalt see in it no hollows or\njutting hills.\n\nOn that day shall men follow their summoner25-he marcheth straight on: and\nlow shall be their voices before the God of Mercy, nor shalt thou hear aught\nbut the light footfall.\n\nNo intercession shall avail on that day, save his whom the God of Mercy shall\nallow to intercede, and whose words he shall approve.\n\nHe knoweth their future and their past; but in their own knowledge they\ncomprehend it not:-\n\nAnd humble shall be their faces before Him that Liveth, the Self-subsisting:\nand undone he, who shall bear the burden of iniquity;\n\nBut he who shall have done the things that are right and is a believer, shall\nfear neither wrong nor loss.\n\nThus have We sent down to thee an Arabic Koran, and have set forth menaces\ntherein diversely, that haply they may fear God, or that it may give birth to\nreflection in them.\n\nExalted then be God, the King, the Truth! Be not hasty in its recital26 while\nthe revelation of it to thee is incomplete. Say rather, \"O my Lord, increase\nknowledge unto me.\"\n\nAnd of old We made a covenant with Adam; but he forgat it; and we found no\nfirmness of purpose in him.\n\nAnd when We said to the angels, \"Fall down and worship Adam,\" they worshipped\nall, save Eblis, who refused: and We said, \"O Adam! this truly is a foe to\nthee and to thy wife. Let him not therefore drive you out of the garden, and\nye become wretched;\n\nFor to thee is it granted that thou shalt not hunger therein, neither shalt\nthou be naked;\n\nBut Satan whispered him: said he, \"O Adam! shall I shew thee the tree of\nEternity,27 and the Kingdom that faileth not?\"\n\nAnd they both ate thereof, and their nakedness appeared to them, and they\nbegan to sew of the leaves of the Garden to cover them, and Adam disobeyed\nhis Lord and went astray.\n\nAfterwards his Lord chose him for himself, and was turned towards him, and\nguided him.\n\nAnd God said, \"Get ye all down hence, the one of you a foe unto the other.\nHereafter shall guidance come unto you from me;\n\nAnd whoso followeth my guidance shall not err, and shall not be wretched:\n\nBut whoso turneth away from my monition, his truly shall be a life of misery:\n\nAnd We will assemble him with others on the day of Resurrection, blind.\"28\n\nHe will say, \"O my Lord! why hast thou assembled me with others, blind?\nwhereas I was endowed with sight.\"\n\nHe will answer, \"Thus is it, because our signs came unto thee and thou didst\nforget them, and thus shalt thou be forgotten this day.\"\n\nEven thus will We recompense him who hath transgressed and hath not believed\nin the signs of his Lord; and assuredly the chastisement of the next world\nwill be more severe and more lasting.\n\nAre not they, who walk the very places where they dwelt, aware how many\ngenerations we have destroyed before them? Verily in this are signs to men of\ninsight.\n\nAnd had not a decree of respite from thy Lord first gone forth, their\nchastisement had at once ensued. Yet the time is fixed.\n\nPut up then with what they say; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord before\nthe sunrise, and before its setting; and some time in the night do thou\npraise him, and in the extremes29 of the day, that thou haply mayest please\nHim.\n\nAnd strain not thine eye after what We have bestowed on divers of them-the\nbraveries of this world-that we may thereby prove them. The portion which thy\nLord will give, is better and more lasting.\n\nEnjoin prayer on thy family, and persevere therein. We ask not of thee to\nfind thine own provision-we will provide for thee, and a happy issue shall\nthere be to piety.\n\nBut they say, \"If he come not to us with a sign from his Lord . . .!\"30 But\nhave not clear proofs for the Koran come to them, in what is in the Books of\nold?\n\nAnd had We destroyed them by a chastisement before its time, they would\nsurely have said, \"O our Lord! How could we believe if thou didst not send\nunto us an Apostle that we might follow thy signs ere that we were humbled\nand disgraced.\"\n\nSAY: Each one of us awaiteth the end. Wait ye then, and ye shall know which\nof us have been followers of the even way, and who hath been the rightly\nguided.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The first 14 or 16 verses of this Sura are said to have induced Omar to\nembrace Islam (His. 226. Ibn S\u00e2d, i. and v. Comp. Weil, p. 60. Causs. i. 396\nff.) in the sixth year before the Hejira.\n\n2 Freytag supposes these letters to mean, Hush! but see Sura lxviii. 1, p.\n32.\n\n3 Lit. if thou raise thy voice.\n\n4 Lit. guidance. Moses had lost his way, say the Commentators, when\njourneying to Egypt to visit his mother.\n\n5 The Muhammadan Commentators tell how Moses when a child burnt his tongue\nwith a live coal. The same story is found in Midr. Jalkut on Ex. c. 166, and\nin Shalsheleth Hakabalah, p. 5, b. Ed. Amsterd.\n\n6 Lit vizir.\n\n7 Or, strengthen my back.\n\n8 The form of the word in the original is not the pure Hebraic, but the later\nRabbinic form.\n\n9 See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 11, 12.\n\n10 What is their condition after their death as to happiness or misery.\nBeidh. whom Sale follows. But the word state, which Mar. renders mens, refers\nrather to their creed. \"How,\" enquires Pharaoh, \"do you explain the fact that\nthe generations of men have always practised a different worship?\"\n\n11 Lit. pairs.\n\n12 The Midrasch Tanchumah on Ex. vii. gives a very similar dialogue between\nPharaoh and Moses.\n\n13 Lit. the day of ornament.\n\n14 In punishing. Beidh.\n\n15 To recompense. Beidh.\n\n16 As the garden is said in Sura lxxxviii. to be lofty in point of situation,\nthis frequently recurring phrase may mean that rivers run at its base. The\nCommentators, however, generally understand it to imply that the rivers flow\nbeneath its shades or pavilions.\n\n17 Lit. and there overwhelmed them of the sea that which overwhelmed them.\n\n18 The 70 elders who were to have accompanied him.\n\n19 That is, the Samaritan. This rendering, which is probably the true\nexplanation of the word Samiri, involves a grievous ignorance of history on\nthe part of Muhammad. Selden (de diis Syr. Syn. i. ch. 4) supposes that\nSamiri is Aaron himself, the Shomeer, or keeper of Israel during the absence\nof Moses. Many Arabians identify him with the Micha of Judges xvii. who is\nsaid to have assisted in making the calf (Raschi, Sanhedr. 102, 2 Hottinger\nHist. Orient. p. 84). Geiger suggests that Samiri may be a corruption of\nSamael. See next note. But it is probable that the name and its application\nin the present instance, is to be traced to the old national feud between the\nJews and Samaritans. See De Sacy, Chrestom. i. p. 189, who quotes Abu Rihan\nMuhammad as stating that the Samaritans were called Al-limsahsit, the people\nwho say, \"Touch me not\" (v. 97, below), and Juynboll Chron. Sam. (Leid. 1848)\np. 113. Sale also mentions a similar circumstance of a tribe of Samaritan\nJews dwelling on one of the islands in the Red Sea.\n\n20 \"The calf came forth (Ex. xxxii. 24) lowing and the Israelites beheld it.\nR. Jehuda saith, Samuel entered into it and lowed in order to mislead\nIsrael.\" Pirke R. Eliezer, \u00a7 45.\n\n21 From the track of Gabriel's horse, or of Gabriel himself.\n\n22 Lit. no touch.\n\n23 I have adopted the word leaden as expressive of the idea implied in the\noriginal word, viz. grey or greyish blue; hence, dulled, dimmed. The Arabians\nhave a great aversion to blue and grey eyes as characteristic of their\nenemies the Greeks. The word, however, may also mean blind. Comp. v. 124, 5.\n\n24 Lit. the most excellent or just of them in his way: dignitate, Mar. But\nKam. in Freyt. (iii. 150) justissimus eorum, simillimus veracibus. The sense\nof the last clause is, \"Yes have not tarried even so much as ten days, such,\nnow that we look back upon it, is the brevity of life.\" See Sura [lxiv.]\nxxiii. 115.\n\n25 The angel Israfil.\n\n26 Compare Sura lxxv. 16-19, p. 56.\n\n27 It should be observed that here and in Sura vii. 19, Muhammad seems\nunaware of the distinction between the tree of knowledge, and the tree of\nlife, as given in Gen. ii. 9, and iii. 5.\n\n28 From the intensity of the light, mentioned Sura [1xxx.] xxxix. 69.\n\n29 In order to reconcile this passage with the prescribed hours, some\nunderstand the extremes to mean the mid-day, when the day is as it were\ndivided.\n\n30 Supply, we will not believe.\n\n\nSURA XXVI.-THE POETS1 [LVI.]\n\nMECCA.-228 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTa. Sin. Mim.2 These are the signs of the lucid Book.\n\nHaply thou wearest thyself away with grief because they will not believe.\n\nWere it our will we could send down to them a sign from Heaven, before which\nthey would humbly bow.3\n\nBut from each fresh warning that cometh to them from the God of Mercy they\nhave only turned aside,\n\nAnd treated it as a lie: But tidings shall reach them which they shall not\nlaugh to scorn.\n\nHave they not beheld the earth-how we have caused every kind of noble plant\nto spring up therein?\n\nVerily, in this is a sign: but most of them believe not.\n\nAnd assuredly, thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful.\n\nAnd remember when thy Lord called to Moses, \"Go to the wicked people,\n\nThe people of Pharaoh. What! will they not fear me?\"\n\nHe said, \"My Lord, in sooth I fear lest they treat me as a liar:\n\nAnd my breast is straitened, and I am slow of speech:4 send therefore to\nAaron to be my helpmate.\n\nFor they have a charge5 against me, and I fear lest they put me to death.\"\n\nHe said, \"Surely not. Go ye therefore with our signs: we will be with you and\nwill hearken.\n\nAnd go to Pharaoh and say: 'Verily we are the messengers of the Lord of the\nworlds-\n\nSend forth with us the children of Israel.\"'\n\nHe said, \"Did we not rear thee among us when a child? And hast thou not\npassed years of thy life among us?\n\nAnd yet what a deed is that which thou hast done!6 Thou art one of the\nungrateful.\"\n\nHe said, \"I did it indeed, and I was one of those who erred: And I fled from\nyou because I feared you; but my Lord hath given me wisdom and hath made me\none of his Apostles.\n\nAnd is this the favour thou hast conferred on me, that thou hast enslaved the\nchildren of Israel?\"\n\nSaid Pharaoh, \"Who then is the Lord of the Worlds?\"\n\nHe said, \"The Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all that is between\nthem, if only ye believe it.\"\n\nSaid Pharaoh to those around him, \"Hear ye this?\"\n\n\"Your Lord,\" said Moses, \"and the Lord of your sires of old.\"\n\n\"In sooth, your Apostle whom He hath sent to you,\" said Pharaoh, \"is\ncertainly possessed.\"\n\nHe said, \"Lord is He of the East and of the West, and of all that is between\nthem, if ye can understand.\"\n\nHe said, \"If ye take any God beside me, I will surely put thee in ward.\"\n\nSaid Moses, \"What! if I shew thee that which shall be a proof of my mission?\"\n\nHe said, \"Forth with it then, if thou speakest truth.\"\n\nThen threw he down his staff, and lo! an undoubted serpent:\n\nAnd he drew out his hand, and lo! it was white7 to the beholders.\n\nHe said to his nobles around him. \"This truly is a right cunning sorcerer:\n\nFain would he drive you out of your land by his Sorcery. But what do ye\nsuggest?\"\n\nThey said, \"Put him and his brother off awhile, and send summoners to all the\ncities,\n\nWho shall bring to thee every cunning magician.\"\n\nSo the magicians were mustered at a set time, on a solemn day:\n\nAnd it was said to the people, \"Are ye all assembled?\"\n\n-\"Yes! and we will follow the magicians if they gain the day.\"\n\nAnd when the magicians were arrived they said to Pharaoh, \"Shall we have a\nreward if we gain the day?\"\n\nHe said, \"Yes. And verily in that case ye shall be of those who are near my\nperson.\"\n\nMoses said to them, \"Throw down what ye have to throw.\"\n\nSo they cast down their ropes and rods, and said, \"By Pharaoh's might we\nshall surely win.\"\n\nThen Moses threw down his rod, and lo! it swallowed up their cheating\nwonders.\n\nThen the magicians threw themselves down in worship:\n\nThey said, \"We believe on the Lord of the Worlds,\n\nThe Lord of Moses and of Aaron.\"\n\nSaid Pharaoh, \"Have ye then believed on him ere I gave you leave? He truly is\nyour master who hath taught you magic.8 But bye and bye ye shall surely know\nmy power.\n\nI will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you all\ncrucified.\"\n\nThey said, \"It cannot harm us, for to our Lord shall we return:\n\nAssuredly we trust that our Lord will forgive us our sins, since we are of\nthe first who believe.\"\n\nThen revealed we this order to Moses: \"Go forth by night with my servants,\nfor ye will be pursued.\"\n\nAnd Pharaoh sent summoners through the cities:-\n\n\"These Israelites,\" said they, \"are a scanty band;\n\nYet are they enraged against us-\n\nBut we truly are numerous, wary.\"\n\nThus we caused them to quit gardens and fountains,\n\nAnd treasures and splendid dwellings;\n\nSo was it; and we gave them to the children of Israel for an heritage.9\n\nThen at sunrise the Egyptians followed them:\n\nAnd when the hosts came in view of one another, the comrades of Moses said,\n\"We are surely overtaken.\"\n\nHe said, \"By no means:-for my Lord is with me-He will guide me.\"\n\nAnd we revealed this order to Moses, \"Strike the sea with thy rod.\" And it\nclave asunder, and each part became like a huge mountain.\n\nThen made we the others to draw on;\n\nAnd we saved Moses, and those who were with him, all;\n\nBut we drowned the others.\n\nTruly in this was a sign; but most of them did not believe.\n\nBut verily thy Lord,-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!\n\nAnd recite to them the story of Abraham\n\nWhen he said to his Father and to his people, \"What worship ye?\"\n\nThey said, \"We worship idols, and constant is our devotion to them.\"\n\nHe said, \"Can they hear you when ye cry to them?\n\nOr help you or do you harm?\"\n\nThey said, \"But we found our Fathers do the like.\"\n\nHe said, \"How think ye? They whom ye worship,\n\nYe and your fathers of early days,\n\nAre my foes: but not so10 the Lord of the Worlds,\n\nWho hath created me, and guideth me,\n\nWho giveth me food and drink;\n\nAnd when I am sick, he healeth me,\n\nAnd who will cause me to die and again quicken me,\n\nAnd who, I hope, will forgive me my sins in the day of reckoning.\n\nMy Lord! bestow on me wisdom and join me to the just,\n\nAnd give me a good name11 among posterity,\n\nAnd make me one of the heirs of the garden of delight,\n\nAnd forgive my father, for he was one of the erring,\n\nAnd put me not to shame on the day when mankind shall be raised up,\n\nThe day when neither wealth nor children shall avail,\n\nSave to him who shall come to God with a sound heart:\n\nWhen Paradise shall be brought near the pious,\n\nAnd Hell shall lay open for those who have gone astray.\n\nAnd it shall be said to them, 'Where are they whom ye worshipped\n\nBeside God? Can they harm you or help themselves?'\n\nAnd they shall be cast into it-the seducers and the seduced,\n\nAnd all the host of Eblis.\n\nThey shall say, as they wrangle therein together,\n\n'By God, we were in a plain error,\n\nWhen we equalled you with the Lord of the Worlds:\n\nAnd none misled us but the wicked,\n\nAnd we have none to plead for us,\n\nNor friend who careth for us.\n\nCould we but return, we would be of the believers.\"'\n\nVerily, in this was a sign: but most of them believed not.\n\nAnd truly thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!\n\nThe people of Noah gainsaid the Apostles,\n\nWhen their brother Noah said to them, \"Will ye not fear God?\n\nOf a truth am I your faithful Apostle;\n\nFear God then and obey me.\n\nI ask of you no reward for this, for my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds\nalone:\n\nFear God then and obey me.\"\n\nThey said, \"Shall we believe on thee when the meanest only are thy\nfollowers?\"\n\nHe said, \"But I have no knowledge of that they did:12\n\nTo my Lord only must their account be given: would that ye understood this!\n\nAnd I will not thrust away those who believe,\n\nFor I am only one charged with plain warnings.\"\n\nThey said, \"Now unless thou desist, O Noah, one of the stoned shalt thou\nsurely be.\"\n\nHe said, \"Lord! my people treat me as a liar:\n\nDecide thou therefore a decision between me and them, and rescue me and the\nfaithful who are with me.\"\n\nSo we saved him and those who were with him in the fully-laden ark,\n\nAnd afterwards we drowned the rest.\n\nHerein truly was a sign, but most of them believed not.\n\nBut thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful.\n\nThe Adites13 treated their Apostles as liars,\n\nWhen their brother Houd said to them, \"Will ye not fear God?\n\nI am your Apostle, worthy of all credit;\n\nFear God then and obey me:\n\nI ask for no reward for this; for my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds\nalone.\n\nWhat! build ye landmarks on all heights in mere pastime?\n\nAnd raise ye structures to be your lasting abodes?14\n\nAnd when ye put forth your power do ye put it forth with harshness?\n\nFear ye God then and obey me;\n\nAnd fear ye Him who hath plenteously betowed on you ye well know what:\n\nPlenteously bestowed on you flocks and children,\n\nAnd gardens and fountains;\n\nIndeed I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day.\"\n\nThey said, \"It is the same to us whether thou warn or warn us not.\n\nThis is but a tale of the ancients,\n\nAnd we are not they who shall be punished.\"\n\nAnd they charged him with imposture; and we destroyed them. In this was a\nsign: but most of them believed not.\n\nBut thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!\n\nThe Themoudites also treated their Apostles as liars,\n\nWhen their brother Saleh said to them, \"Will ye not fear God?\n\nI am your Apostle worthy of all credit:\n\nFear God, then, and obey me.\n\nI ask of you no reward for this: my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds\nalone.\n\nShall ye be left secure amid these things here?\n\nAmid gardens and fountains,\n\nAnd corn-fields and palm-trees, with flower-sheathing branches?\n\nAnd, insolent that ye are, will ye hew out your dwellings in the mountains?\n\nBut fear God and obey me,\n\nAnd obey not the bidding of those who commit excess,\n\nWho act disorderly on the earth and reform it not.\"\n\nThey said, \"Certainly thou art a person bewitched;\n\nThou art only a man like us: produce now a sign if thou art a man of truth.\"\n\nHe said, \"This she-camel, then-drink shall there be for her, and drink shall\nthere be for you, on a several day for each.\n\nBut harm her not, lest the punishment of a tremendous day overtake you.\"\n\nBut they ham-strung her, and repented of it on the morrow;\n\nFor the punishment overtook them. In this truly was a sign, but most of them\nbelieved not.\n\nBut thy Lord!-He is the Powerful, the Merciful!\n\nThe people of Lot treated their apostles as liars,\n\nWhen their brother Lot said to them, \"Will ye not fear God?\n\nI am your Apostle worthy of all credit:\n\nFear God, then, and obey me.\n\nFor this I ask you no reward: my reward is of the Lord of the worlds alone.\n\nWhat! with men, of all creatures, will ye have commerce?\n\nAnd leave ye your wives whom your Lord hath created for you? Ah! ye are an\nerring people!\"\n\nThey said, \"O Lot, if thou desist not, one of the banished shalt thou surely\nbe.\"\n\nHe said, \"I utterly abhor your doings:\n\nMy Lord! deliver me and my family from what they do.\"\n\nSo we delivered him and his whole family-\n\nSave an aged one among those who tarried-\n\nThen we destroyed the rest-\n\nAnd we rained a rain upon them, and fatal was the rain to those whom we had\nwarned.\n\nIn this truly was a sign; but most of them did not believe.\n\nBut thy Lord! He is the Powerful, the Merciful!\n\nThe dwellers in the forest of Madian15 treated the Apostles as liars.\n\nWhen Shoaib their brother said to them, \"Will ye not fear God?\n\nI truly am your trustworthy Apostle.\n\nFear God, then, and obey me:\n\nNo reward ask I of you for this: my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds\nalone.\n\nFill the measure, and be not of those who minish:\n\nWeigh with exact balance:\n\nAnd defraud not men in their substance, and do no wrong on the earth by deeds\nof licence;\n\nAnd fear Him who made you and the races of old.\"\n\nThey said, \"Certainly thou art a person bewitched.\n\nThou art but a man like us, and we deem thee liar-\n\nMake now a part of the heaven to fall down upon us, if thou art a man of\ntruth.\"\n\nHe said, \"My Lord best knoweth your doings.\"\n\nAnd when they treated him as a liar, the chastisement of the day of cloud\novertook them. This truly was the chastisement of a dreadful day!\n\nIn this was a sign, but most of them believed not.\n\nBut thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!\n\nVerily from the Lord of the Worlds hath this Book come down;\n\nThe faithful spirit16 hath come down with it\n\nUpon thy heart, that thou mightest become a warner-\n\nIn the clear Arabic tongue:\n\nAnd truly it is foretold in the Scriptures of them of yore.17\n\nWas it not a sign to them18 that the learned among the children of Israel\nrecognised it?\n\nIf we had sent it down unto any foreigner,\n\nAnd he had recited it to them, they had not believed.\n\nIn such sort have we influenced19 the heart of the wicked ones,\n\nThat they will not believe it till they see the grievous chastisement?\n\nAnd it shall come upon them on a sudden when they look not for it:\n\nAnd they will say, \"Can we be respited?\"\n\nWhat! will they seek to hasten on our chastisement?\n\nHow thinkest thou? If after we have given them their fill for years,\n\nThat with which they are menaced come upon them at last,\n\nOf what avail will their enjoyments be to them?\n\nWe never destroyed a city which had not first its warners\n\nWith admonition; nor did we deal unjustly.\n\nThe Satans were not sent down with this Koran:\n\nIt beseemed them not, and they had not the power,\n\nFor they are far removed from hearing it.20\n\nCall not thou on any other god but God, lest thou be of those consigned to\ntorment:\n\nBut warn thy relatives of nearer kin,21\n\nAnd kindly lower thy wing over the faithful who follow thee.\n\nAnd if they disobey thee, then say: \"I will not be answerable for your\ndoings;\"-\n\nAnd put thy trust in Him that is the Mighty, the Merciful,\n\nWho seeth thee when thou standest in prayer,\n\nAnd thy demeanour amongst those who worship;\n\nFor He heareth, knoweth all.\n\nShall I tell you on whom Satan descend?\n\nThey descend on every lying, wicked person:\n\nThey impart what they have heard;22-but most of them are liars.\n\nIt is the POETS23 whom the erring follow:\n\nSeest thou not how they rove distraught in every valley?\n\nAnd that they say that which they do not?\n\nSave those who believe and do good works, and oft remember God;\n\nAnd who defend themselves when unjustly treated. But they who treat them\nunjustly shall find out what a lot awaiteth them.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura belongs to about the seventh year of Muhammad's prophetic life.\n\n2 See Sura 1xviii. I, p. 32.\n\n3 Lit. to which their necks would humble themselves.\n\n4 Lit. my tongue is not free. This verse appears to be a studied\nsimplification of Ex. iv. 10-13.\n\n5 The murder of the Egyptian. See Geiger, 159.\n\n6 Lit. and thou hast done thy deed which thou hast done. See xxviii. 15.\n\n7 Thus Pirke R. Elieser \u00a7 48. \"He placed his hand in his bosom, and drew it\nforth, white as snow with leprosy.\"\n\n8 \"The Pharaoh who lived in the days of Moses was a great magician.\" Mid.\nJalkut, c. 182. Comp. Sura xxviii. 38, where, in accordance with the Rabbinic\ntraditions Pharaoh claims to be a God.\n\n9 See ii. 58, and Midr. Jalkut on Ex. xii. c. 208.\n\n10 Lit. except.\n\n11 Lit. a tongue of truth, i.e. high repute. Or, grant that my words may be\nbelieved among posterity. See [lviii.] xix. 47.\n\n12 Of their motives in embracing Islam.\n\n13 The Adites are mentioned in vii. and xi.\n\n14 This is to be understood of the small forts erected by the nomades of the\nHejaz along the route of the caravans to guarantee their safety. Comp. Gen.\nxi. 1-10, and Sura lxxxix. 6, p. 54.\n\n15 The Madian and the El-Aika of other Suras are unquestionably one and the\nsame place, as they have the same prophet Shoaib (or Sho'eyb), the Jethro of\nScripture-a name perhaps altered from Hobab (Numb. x. 29)-and because the\nsame sin is laid to the charge of both. See Winer's Realw\u201drterbuch on Jethro.\nThe Midr. Rabbah on Ex. ii. I6, Par. I, makes Jethro renounce idolatry, and\nhis office of Priest, and undergo banishment from the Midianites.\n\n16 Gabriel. See Sura lxxxi. 19, p. 46.\n\n17 See Sura xiii. 36. This verse is said to have been revealed at Medina by\nItq. 34.\n\n18 The unbelieving Meccans. Lit. that the knowing (Doctors, Uhlemas) knew it.\n\n19 Lit. have introduced it, i.e. infidelity; or, the Koran. Beidh. The latter\ninterpretation seems most accordant with the context.\n\n20 Comp. Sura xxxvii. 7, 8, p. 79.\n\n21 It is probable that within three or four years from his entry upon the\nprophetic office, Muhammad had made about 40 converts. Some biographers refer\nto this passage, and not to Sura lxiv. I, as the first call to preach. But\nthis Sura is itself late, and bears evidence of the opposition to which the\nprophet had become exposed, and of adherents to his cause, now become\nnumerous. The diffuseness and feeblenss of the style clearly point to a late\norigin.\n\n22 They impart to their votaries on earth what they have learned by stealth\nand partially, in heaven.\n\n23 Muhammad found it necessary to employ the pens of certain poets to defend\nhimself and his religion from the ridicule and satire of other poets, whose\nproductions were recited at the great annual fair held at Okatz, the Olympus\nof the Hejaz. The poems which were judged the best were written up in letters\nof gold, or suspended (hence called Moallakat) in the Caaba. These poetical\ncontests were subsequently suppressed by Muhammad, as offering openings for\ndiscussions which might prove inconvenient, and dangerous to his rising\nclaims.\n\n\nSURA XV.-HEDJR1 [LVII.]\n\nMECCA.-99 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. RA.2 These are the signs of the Book, and of a lucid recital\n[Koran].\n\nMany a time will the infidels wish that they had been Muslims.\n\nLet them feast and enjoy themselves, and let hope beguile them: but they\nshall know the truth at last.\n\nWe never destroyed a city whose term was not perfixed:3\n\nNo people can forestall or retard its destiny.\n\nThey say: \"O thou to whom the warning hath been sent down, thou art surely\npossessed by a djinn:\n\nWouldst thou not have come to us with the angels, if thou wert of those who\nassert the truth?\"\n\n-We will not send down the angels without due cause.4 The Infidels would not\nin that case have been respited.\n\nVerily, We have sent down the warning, and verily, We will be its guardian;\n\nAnd already have We sent Apostles, before thee, among the sects of the\nancients;\n\nBut never came Apostles to them whom they did not deride.\n\nIn like manner will We put it into the hearts of the sinners of Mecca to do\nthe same:\n\nThey will not believe on him though the example of those of old hath gone\nbefore.\n\nEven were We to open above them a gate in Heaven, yet all the while they were\nmounting up to it,\n\nThey would surely say: It is only that our eyes are drunken: nay, we are a\npeople enchanted.\n\nWe have set the signs of the zodiac5 in the Heavens, and adorned and decked\nthem forth for the beholders,\n\nAnd We guard them from every stoned6 Satan,\n\nSave such as steal a hearing:7 and him doth a visible flame pursue.\n\nAnd the Earth have We spread forth, and thrown thereon the mountains, and\ncaused everything to spring forth in it in balanced measure:\n\nAnd We have provided therein sustenance for you, and for the creatures which\nnot ye sustain:\n\nAnd no one thing is there, but with Us are its storehouses; and We send it\nnot down but in settled measure:\n\nAnd We send forth the fertilising winds, and cause the rain to come down from\nthe heaven, and give you to drink of it; and it is not ye who are its\nstorers:\n\nAnd We cause to live and We cause to die,8 and We are the heir of all things:\n\nWe know those of you who flourish first and We know those who come later:\n\nAnd truly thy Lord will gather them together again, for He is Wise, Knowing.\n\nWe created man of dried clay, of dark loam moulded;\n\nAnd the djinn had We before created of subtle fire.\n\nRemember when thy Lord said to the Angels, \"I create man of dried clay, of\ndark loam moulded:\n\nAnd when I shall have fashioned him and breathed of my spirit into him, then\nfall ye down and worship him.\"\n\nAnd the Angels bowed down in worship, all of them, all together,\n\nSave Eblis: he refused to be with those who bowed in worship.\n\n\"O Eblis,\"9 said God, \"wherefore art thou not with those who bow down in\nworship?\"\n\nHe said, \"It beseemeth not me to bow in worship to man whom thou hast created\nof clay, of moulded loam.\"\n\nHe said, \"Begone then hence; thou art a stoned one,10\n\nAnd the curse shall be on thee till the day of reckoning.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! respite me till the day when man shall be raised from\nthe dead.\"\n\nHe said, \"One then of the respited shalt thou be\n\nTill the day of the predestined time.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! because thou hast beguiled me, I will surely make all\nfair seeming to them11 on the earth; I will surely beguile them all;\n\nExcept such of them as shall be thy sincere servants.\"\n\nHe said, \"This is the right way with me;\n\nFor over none of my servants shalt thou have power, save those beguiled ones\nwho shall follow thee.\"\n\nAnd verily, Hell is the promise for them one and all.\n\nIt hath seven Portals;12 at each Portal is a separate band of them;\n\nBut 'mid gardens and fountains shall the pious dwell:\n\n\"Enter ye therein in peace, secure-\"\n\nAnd all rancour will We remove from their bosoms: they shall sit as brethren,\nface to face, on couches:\n\nTherein no weariness shall reach them, nor forth from it shall they be cast\nfor ever.\n\nAnnounce to my servants that I am the Gracious, the Merciful,\n\nAnd that my chastisement is the grievous chastisement.\n\nAnd tell them of Abraham's guests.\n\nWhen they entered in unto him, and said, \"Peace.\"\n\n\"Verily,\" said he, \"We fear you.\"\n\nThey said, \"Fear not, for of a sage son we bring thee tidings.\"\n\nHe said, \"Bring ye me such tidings now that old age hath come upon me? What,\ntherefore, are your tidings really?\"\n\nThey said, \"We announce them to thee in very truth. Be not then one of the\ndespairing.\"\n\n\"And who,\" said he, \"despaireth of the mercy of his Lord, but they who err?\"\n\nHe said, \"What is your business then, O ye Sent Ones?\"\n\nThey said, \"We are sent unto a people who are sinners,\n\nExcept the family of Lot, whom verily we will rescue all,\n\nExcept his wife. We have decreed that she shall be of those who linger.\"\n\nAnd when the Sent Ones came to the family of Lot\n\nHe said, \"Yes; are persons unknown to me.\"\n\nThey said, \"Yes; but we have come to thee for a purpose about which thy\npeople doubt:\n\nWe have come to thee with very truth, and we are truthful envoys.\n\nLead forth therefore thy family in the dead of the night; follow thou on\ntheir rear: and let no one of you turn round, but pass ye on whither ye are\nbidden.\"\n\nAnd this command we gave him because to the last man should these people be\ncut off at morning.\n\nThen came the people of the city rejoicing at the news13-\n\nHe said, \"These are my guests: therefore disgrace me not.\n\nAnd fear God and put me not to shame.\"\n\nThey said, \"Have we not forbidden thee to entertain any one whatever?\"14\n\nHe said, \"Here are my daughters, if ye will thus act.\"\n\nAs thou livest, O Muhammad, they were bewildered in the drunkenness of their\nlust.\n\nSo a tempest overtook them at their sunrise,\n\nAnd we turned the city upside down, and we rained stones of baked clay upon\nthem.\n\nVerily, in this are signs for those who scan heedfully;\n\nAnd these cities lay on the high road.15\n\nVerily, in this are signs for the faithful.\n\nThe inhabitants also of El Aika16 were sinners:\n\nSo we took vengeance on them, and they both became a plain example.\n\nAnd the people of HEDJR treated God's messengers as liars.\n\nAnd we brought forth our signs to them, but they drew back from them:\n\nAnd they hewed them out abodes in the mountains to secure them:\n\nBut a tempest surprised them at early morn,\n\nAnd their labours availed them nothing.\n\nWe have not created the heavens and the earth and all that between them is,\nbut for a worthy end.17 And verily, \"the hour\" shall surely come. Wherefore\ndo thou, Muhammad, forgive with kindly forgiveness,\n\nFor thy Lord! He is the Creator, the Wise.\n\nWe have already given thee the seven verses of repetition18 and the glorious\nKoran.\n\nStrain not thine eyes after the good things we have bestowed on some of the\nunbelievers: afflict not thyself on their account, and lower thy wing to the\nfaithful.19\n\nAnd SAY: I am the only plain-spoken warner.\n\nWe will punish those who foster divisions,20\n\nWho break up the Koran into parts:\n\nBy thy Lord! we will surely take account from them one and all,\n\nConcerning that which they have done.\n\nProfess publicly then what thou hast been bidden,21 and withdraw from those\nwho join gods to God.\n\nVerily, We will maintain thy cause against those who deride thee,\n\nWho set up gods with God: and at last shall they know their folly.\n\nNow know We that thy heart is distressed22 at what they say:\n\nBut do thou celebrate the praise of thy Lord, and be of those who bow down in\nworship;\n\nAnd serve thy Lord till the certainty23 o'ertake thee.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Hedjr, a valley in the route between Medina and Syria, originally the\ncountry of the Themoudites.\n\n2 See Sura lxviii. p. 32.\n\n3 Lit. which had not a known writing.\n\n4 That is, not merely to gratify the curiosity of the doubting, but to\nexecute prompt punishment. It might also be rendered, save with justice\n\n5 Ar. bourdj, Gr. [greek text], towers, i.e. Signs of the Zodiac.\n\n6 See Sura xv. 34; and note p. 114.\n\n7 Comp. Sura xxxvii. 6, p. 79. In Chagiga 16, 1, the Demons (schedim) are\nsaid to learn the secrets of the future by listening behind the veil\n(parg\u00f4d).\n\n8 Compare precisely a similar association of subjects, the Rain, Food, God,\nas Lord of life and death in Tr. Taanith, fol. 1 a.\n\n9 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 32. There is much in this dialogue between Eblis and\nAllah which reminds of the dialogue between Jehovah and Satan in the opening\nof the Book of Job.\n\n10 That is, accursed. According to the Muhammadan tradition, Abraham drove\nSatan away with stones when he would have hindered him from sacrificing\nIsmael. Hence the custom during the pilgrimage of throwing a certain number\nof stones-the Shafeis, 49; the Hanafis, 70-as if at Satan, in the valley of\nMina, near Mecca. The spot where the apparition of Satan to Abraham took\nplace is marked by three small pillars, at which the stones are now thrown.\nComp. Gen. xv. II.\n\n11 Lit. I will embellish, prepare.\n\n12 Thus, in Sota, 10, David is said to have rescued Absalom from \"the seven\ndwellings of Hell;\" in Midr. on Ps. xi. \"There are seven houses of abode for\nthe wicked in Hell;\" and in Sohar ii. 150, \"Hell hath seven gates.\"\n\n13 At the arrival of strangers.\n\n14 Comp. Midr. Rabbah on Gen. Par. 50.\n\n15 From Arabia to Syria. The pronoun in the fem. sing. may refer to the\nPentapolis as to a single city, or to Sodom alone.\n\n16 See Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 176.\n\n17 See Sura [lxxiii.] xvi. 3.\n\n18 That is, the seven verses of Sura 1, p. 28. Others understand, the seven\nlong Suras; or, the fifteen Suras which make a seventh of the whole; or, this\nSura (Hedjr) as originally the seventh. Mathani is an allusion, according to\nsome, to the frequency with which the fatthah is to be repeated; or, to the\nfrequent repetitions of great truths, etc., in order to impress them on the\nmemory of the hearer and reader; or, to the manner in which waid and wa'd,\npromises and threatenings, alternate and balance each other in the same or\nsubsequent verses and Suras, in pairs. This verse and Sura x. 10 shew that a\npart at least of the Koran was known under that name and existed as a whole\nin the time of Muhammad. Geiger's interpretations at pp. 59, 60 (and in the\nnote) seem very forced.\n\n19 Comp. Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 215, i.e. demean thyself gently.\n\n20 Lit. as we sent down upon the dividers, i.e. the Jews and Christians, who\nreceive part of the Scriptures and reject part. Others render obstructors and\nexplain the passage of twelve idolaters, who in order to intimidate the\nMeccans, seized upon the public revenues of Mecca during the pilgrimage.\n\n21 In this, the fourth year of his mission, Muhammad is said to have hazarded\nthe step of mounting the Safa, a slight eminence in one of the streets of\nMecca, and publicly preached to the Koreisch. The authorities are given in\nSprenger (Life of M. p. 177, 8).\n\n22 Lit. contracted.\n\n23 Death.\n\n\nSURA XIX.1-MARY [LVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-98 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nKAF. HA. YA. AIN. SAD.2 A recital of thy Lord's mercy to his servant\nZachariah;\n\nWhen he called upon his Lord with secret calling,\n\nAnd said: \"O Lord, verily my bones are weakened, and the hoar hairs glisten\non my head,\n\nAnd never, Lord, have I prayed to thee with ill success.\n\nBut now I have fears for my kindred after me;3 and my wife is barren:\n\nGive me, then, a successor as thy special gift, who shall be my heir and an\nheir of the family of Jacob: and make him, Lord, well pleasing to thee.\"\n\n-\"O Zachariah! verily we announce to thee a son,-his name John:\n\nThat name We have given to none before him.\"4\n\nHe said: \"O my Lord! how when my wife is barren shall I have a son, and when\nI have now reached old age, failing in my powers?\"\n\nHe said: So shall it be. Thy Lord hath said, Easy is this to me, for I\ncreated thee aforetime when thou wast nothing.\"\n\nHe said: \"Vouchsafe me, O my Lord! a sign.\" He said: \"Thy sign shall be that\nfor three nights, though sound in health, thou speakest not to man.\"\n\nAnd he came forth from the sanctuary to his people, and made signs to them to\nsing praises morn and even.\n\nWe said: \"O John! receive the Book with purpose of heart:\"5-and We bestowed\non him wisdom while yet a child;\n\nAnd mercifulness from Ourself, and purity; and pious was he, and duteous to\nhis parents; and not proud, rebellious.\n\nAnd peace was on him on the day he was born, and the day of his death, and\nshall be on the day when he shall be raised to life!\n\nAnd make mention in the Book, of Mary, when she went apart from her family,\neastward,6\n\nAnd took a veil to shroud herself from them:7 and we sent our spirit8 to her,\nand he took before her the form of a perfect man.9\n\nShe said: \"I fly for refuge from thee to the God of Mercy! If thou fearest\nHim, begone from me.\"\n\nHe said: \"I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a holy\nson.\"\n\nShe said: \"How shall I have a son, when man hath never touched me? and I am\nnot unchaste.\"\n\nHe said: \"So shall it be. Thy Lord hath said: 'Easy is this with me;' and we\nwill make him a sign to mankind, and a mercy from us. For it is a thing\ndecreed.\"\n\nAnd she conceived him,10 and retired with him to a far-off place.\n\nAnd the throes came upon her11 by the trunk of a palm. She said: \"Oh, would\nthat I had died ere this, and been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite!\"\n\nAnd one cried to her from below her:12 \"Grieve not thou, thy Lord hath\nprovided a streamlet at thy feet:-\n\nAnd shake the trunk of the palm-tree toward thee:13 it will drop fresh ripe\ndates upon thee.\n\nEat then and drink, and be of cheerful eye:14 and shouldst thou see a man,\n\nSay,-Verily, I have vowed abstinence to the God of mercy.-To no one will I\nspeak this day.\"\n\nThen came she with the babe to her people, bearing him. They said, \"O Mary!\nnow hast thou done a strange thing!\n\nO sister of Aaron!15 Thy father was not a man of wickedness, nor unchaste thy\nmother.\"\n\nAnd she made a sign to them, pointing towards the babe. They said, \"How shall\nwe speak with him who is in the cradle, an infant?\"\n\nIt said,16 \"Verily, I am the servant of God; He hath given me the Book, and\nHe hath made me a prophet;\n\nAnd He hath made me blessed wherever I may be, and hath enjoined me prayer\nand almsgiving so long as I shall live;\n\nAnd to be duteous to her that bare me: and he hath not made me proud,\ndepraved.\n\nAnd the peace of God was on me the day I was born, and will be the day I\nshall die, and the day I shall be raised to life.\"\n\nThis is Jesus, the son of Mary; this is a statement of the truth concerning\nwhich they doubt.\n\nIt beseemeth not God to beget a son. Glory be to Him! when he decreeth a\nthing, He only saith to it, Be, and it Is.17\n\nAnd verily, God is my Lord and your Lord; adore Him then. This is the right\nway.\n\nBut the Sects have fallen to variance among themselves about Jesus: but woe,\nbecause of the assembly of a great day, to those who believe not!\n\nMake them hear, make them behold the day when they shall come before us! But\nthe offenders this day are in a manifest error.\n\nWarn them of the day of sighing when the decree shall be accomplished, while\nthey are sunk in heedlessness and while they believe not.\n\nVerily, we will inherit the earth and all who are upon it. To us shall they\nbe brought back.\n\nMake mention also in the Book of Abraham; for he was a man of truth, a\nProphet.18\n\nWhen he said to his Father, \"O my Father! why dost thou worship that which\nneither seeth nor heareth, nor profiteth thee aught?\n\nO my Father! verily now hath knowledge come to me which hath not come to\nthee. Follow me therefore-I will guide thee into an even path.\n\nO my Father! worship not Satan, for Satan is a rebel against the God of\nMercy.\n\nO my Father! indeed I fear lest a chastisement from the God of Mercy light\nupon thee, and thou become Satan's vassal.\"\n\nHe said, \"Castest thou off my Gods, O Abraham? If thou forbear not, I will\nsurely stone thee. Begone from me for a length of time.\"\n\nHe said, \"Peace be on thee! I will pray my Lord for thy forgiveness, for he\nis gracious to me:\n\nBut I will separate myself from you, and the gods ye call on beside God, and\non my Lord will I call. Haply, my prayers to my Lord will not be with ill\nsuccess.\"\n\nAnd when he had separated himself from them and that which they worshipped\nbeside God, we bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and each of them we made a\nprophet:\n\nAnd we bestowed gifts on them in our mercy, and gave them the lofty tongue of\ntruth.\"19\n\nAnd commemorate Moses in \"the Book;\" for he was a man of purity: moreover he\nwas an Apostle, a Prophet:\n\nFrom the right side of the mountain we called to him, and caused him to draw\nnigh to us for secret converse:\n\nAnd we bestowed on him in our mercy his brother Aaron, a Prophet.\n\nAnd commemorate Ismael in \"the Book;\" for he was true to his promise, and was\nan Apostle, a Prophet;\n\nAnd he enjoined prayer and almsgiving on his people, and was well pleasing to\nhis Lord.\n\nAnd commemorate Edris20 in \"the Book;\" for he was a man of truth, a Prophet:\n\nAnd we uplifted him to a place on high.21\n\nThese are they among the prophets of the posterity of Adam, and among those\nwhom we bare with Noah, and among the posterity of Abraham and Israel, and\namong those whom we have guided and chosen, to whom God hath shewed favour.\nWhen the signs of the God of Mercy were rehearsed to them, they bowed them\ndown worshipping and weeping.\n\nBut others have come in their place after them: they have made an end of\nprayer, and have gone after their own lusts; and in the end they shall meet\nwith evil:-\n\nSave those who turn and believe and do that which is right, these shall enter\nthe Garden, and in nought shall they be wronged:\n\nThe Garden of Eden, which the God of Mercy hath promised to his servants,\nthough yet unseen:22 for his promise shall come to pass:\n\nNo vain discourse shall they hear therein, but only \"Peace;\" and their food\nshall be given them at morn and even:\n\nThis is the Paradise which we will make the heritage of those our servants\nwho fear us.\n\nWe23 come not down from Heaven but by thy Lord's command. His, whatever is\nbefore us and whatever is behind us, and whatever is between the two! And thy\nLord is not forgetful,-\n\nLord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them!\nWorship Him, then, and abide thou steadfast in his worship. Knowest thou any\nother of the same name?24\n\nMan saith: \"What! after I am dead, shall I in the end be brought forth\nalive?\"\n\nDoth not man bear in mind that we made him at first, when he was nought?\n\nAnd I swear by thy Lord, we will surely gather together them and the Satans:\nthen will we set them on their knees round Hell:\n\nThen will we take forth from each band those of them who have been stoutest\nin rebellion against the God of Mercy:\n\nThen shall we know right well to whom its burning is most due:\n\nNo one is there of you who shall not go down unto it25-This is a settled\ndecree with thy Lord-\n\nThen will we deliver those who had the fear of God, and the wicked will we\nleave in it on their knees.\n\nAnd when our clear signs are rehearsed to them, the infidels say to those who\nbelieve: \"Which of the two parties26 is in the best plight? and which is the\nmost goodly company?\"\n\nBut how many generations have we brought to ruin before them, who surpassed\nthem in riches and in splendour!\n\nSAY: As to those who are in error, the God of Mercy will lengthen out to them\na length of days\n\nUntil they see that with which they are threatened, whether it be some\npresent chastisement, or whether it be \"the Hour,\" and they shall then know\nwhich is in the worse state, and which the more weak in forces:\n\nBut God will increase the guidance of the already guided.\n\nAnd good works which abide, are in thy Lord's sight better in respect of\nguerdon, and better in the issue than all worldly good.\n\nHast thou marked him who believeth not in our signs, and saith, \"I shall\nsurely have riches and children bestowed upon me?\"\n\nHath he mounted up into the secrets of God? Hath he made a compact with the\nGod of Mercy?\n\nNo! we will certainly write down what he saith, and will lengthen the length\nof his chastisement:\n\nAnd we will inherit what he spake of, and he shall come before us all alone.\n\nThey have taken other gods beside God to be their help.27\n\nBut it shall not be. Those gods will disavow their worship and will become\ntheir enemies.\n\nSeest thou not that we send the Satans against the Infidels to urge them into\nsin?\n\nWherefore be not thou in haste with them;28 for a small number of days do we\nnumber to them.\n\nOne day we will gather the God-fearing before the God of Mercy with honours\ndue:29\n\nBut the sinners will we drive unto Hell, like flocks driven to the watering.\n\nNone shall have power to intercede, save he who hath received permission at\nthe hands of the God of Mercy.\n\nThey say: \"The God of Mercy hath gotten offspring.\" Now have ye done a\nmonstrous thing!\n\nAlmost might the very Heavens be rent thereat, and the Earth cleave asunder,\nand the mountains fall down in fragments,\n\nThat they ascribe a son to the God of Mercy, when it beseemeth not the God of\nMercy to beget a son!\n\nVerily there is none in the Heavens and in the Earth but shall approach the\nGod of Mercy as a servant. He hath taken note of them, and numbered them with\nexact numbering:\n\nAnd each of them shall come to Him, on the day of Resurrection, singly:\n\nBut love will the God of Mercy vouchsafe to those who believe and do the\nthings that be right.\n\nVerily we have made this Koran easy and in thine own tongue, that thou mayest\nannounce glad tidings by it to the God-fearing, and that thou mayest warn the\ncontentious by it.\n\nHow many generations have we destroyed before them! Canst thou search out one\nof them? or canst thou hear a whisper from them?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Comp. the first 37 verses of this Sura with Sura iii. 35-57 with reference\nto the different style adopted by Muhammad in the later Suras, probably for\nthe purpose of avoiding the imputation of his being merely a poet, a\nsorcerer, or person possessed. Sura lii. 29, 30; xxi. 5; lxviii. 2, 51. This\nSura is one of the fullest and earliest Koranic Gospel Histories, and was\nrecited to the Nagash or King of \u00c6thiopia, in the presence of the ambassadors\nof the Koreisch. His. 220; Caussin, i. 392; Sprenger (Life of M.) p. 193.\n\n2 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32. Golius conjectured that these letters represent\ncoh ya'as, thus he counselled, and that they were added by some Jewish\nscribe. Sprenger (Journ. of As. Soc. of Bengal, xx. 280) arranges them as\nAin, Sad, Kaf, Ha, Ya, and supposes them to be taken from the Arabic words\nfor Aisa (Jesus) of the Nazarenes, King of the Jews. But we can hardly\nimagine that Muhammad would ascribe such a title to our Lord, and the word\nwhich Dr. Sprenger uses for Jews is not the form peculiar to the Koran.\n\n3 Lest they should desert the worship of the God of Israel.\n\n4 Ar. Yahia. It may be true that the name in this form had never been given.\nOtherwise, we have in this passage a misunderstanding of Luke i. 61, as well\nas ignorance of the Jewish Scriptures. Comp. 2 Kings xxv. 23; 1 Chron. iii.\n16; Ezra viii. 12; Jerem. xl. 8. Some commentators try to avoid the\ndifficulty by rendering samiyan, deserving of the name.\n\n5 Or, with firm resolve. See Sura [xcvii.] iii. 36. The speaker is God.\n\n6 To an eastern chamber in the temple to pray. Or it may mean, to some place\neastward from Jerusalem, or from the house of her parents.\n\n7 Thus the Protev. Jac. c. 12 says that Mary, although at a later period,\n[greek text] But Wahl, she laid aside her veil.\n\n8 Gabriel.\n\n9 See Sura [lxxxix.] vi. 9.\n\n10 It is quite clear from this passage, and from verse 36, that Muhammad\nbelieved Jesus to have been conceived by an act of the divine will. Comp.\nSura [xcvii.] iii. 52; see also note at Sura [xci.] ii. 81.\n\n11 Or, the throes urged her to the trunk of, etc.\n\n12 This was either the Infant which spoke as soon as born, or Gabriel. Comp.\nThilo Cod. Apoc. 136-139 on this passage. Beidhawi explains: from behind the\npalm tree.\n\n13 See Thilo Cod. Apoc. N. T. p. 138, and the Hist. Nat. Mar. c. 20, which\nconnects similar incidents with the flight into Egypt. Thus also Latona,\n[greek text], Call. H. in Apoll. and [greek text], H. in Delum.\n\n14 Or, settle, calm thine eye, refresh thine eye. The birth of a son is still\ncalled korrat ol ain.\n\n15 The anachronism is probably only apparent. See Sura iii. 1, n. Muhammad\nmay have supposed that this Aaron (or Harun) was the son of Imran and Anna.\nOr, if Aaron the brother of Moses be meant Mary may be called his sister,\neither because she was of the Levitical race, or by way of comparison.\n\n16 See Sura [cxiv.] v. 109.\n\n17 From the change in the rhyme, and from the more polemical tone of the\nfollowing five verses, it may be inferred that they were added at a somewhat\nlater period.\n\n18 The title Nabi, prophet, is used of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as\ndepositaries of the worship of the one true God, but with a mission\nrestricted to their own families; whereas Houd, Saleh, Shoaib, etc., are\ndesignated as (Resoul) apostles and envoys, charged with a more extended\nmission to the tribes of Arabia. In Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, etc., are\nunited the office and gift both of prophet (nabi) and apostle (resoul).\n\n19 Made them to be highly praised. Beidh.\n\n20 Enoch. Beidhawi derives the name Edris from the Ar. darasa, to search out,\nwith reference to his knowledge of divine mysteries. The Heb. Enoch, in like\nmanner, means initiated.\n\n21 Comp. Gen. v. 24, and the tract Derek Erez in Midr. Jalkut, c. 42, where\nEnoch is reckoned among the nine according to other Talmudists, thirteen\n(Schroeder's Talm. und Rabb. Judenthum)-individuals who were exempted from\ndeath and taken straight to Paradise. It should be observed that both here\nand Sura xxi. 85, Edris is named after Ismael.\n\n22 Maracci and Beidhawi, in absentid. Sale, as an object of faith. Beidhawi\nad f. in reward for their secret faith. Ullmann f\u00fcr die verborgene Zukunft.\n\n23 This verse is to be understood as an answer on the part of Gabriel to\nMuhammad's complaints of the long intervals between the revelations.\n\n24 The idolaters called their deities Gods, but as Polytheists were unused to\nthe singular Allah, God.\n\n25 Even the pious on their way to Paradise are to pass the confines of Hell.\n\n26 The Koreisch, or the Muslims.\n\n27 Or, glory, strength.\n\n28 To call down judgments upon them.\n\n29 As ambassadors come into the presence of a prince. Sale. This is implied\nin the original.\n\n\nSURA XXXVIII.-SAD [LIX.]\n\nMECCA.-88 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nSAD.1 By the Koran full of warning! In sooth the Infidels are absorbed in\npride, in contention with thee.\n\nHow many generations have we destroyed before them! And they cried for mercy\nbut no time was it of escape!\n\nAnd they marvel that a warner from among themselves hath come to them; and\nthe Infidels say, \"This is a sorcerer, a liar:\n\nMaketh he the gods to be but one god? A strange thing forsooth is this!\"\n\nAnd their chiefs took themselves off. \"Go, said they, and cleave steadfastly2\nto your gods. Ye see the thing aimed at.\n\nWe heard not of this in the previous creed.3 It is but an imposture:\n\nTo him alone of us all hath a book of warning been sent down?\" Yes! they are\nin doubt as to my warnings, for they have not yet tasted my vengeance.\n\nAre the treasures of the mercy of thy Lord, the Mighty, the bounteous, in\ntheir hands?\n\nIs the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth and of all that is between\nthem theirs? Then let them mount up by cords!\n\nAny army of the confederates4 shall here be routed.\n\nBefore them the people of Noah and Ad and Pharaoh the impaler5 treated their\nprophets as impostors;\n\nAnd Themoud, and the people of Lot, and the dwellers in the forest: these\nwere the confederates.\n\nNought did they all but charge the apostles with falsehood: Just, therefore,\nthe retribution.\n\nAnd these (Meccans) await but one single trumpet blast-There shall be no\ndelaying it-\n\nYet they dare to say, \"O our Lord! hasten our lot to us, before the day of\nreckoning.\"\n\nPut thou up with what they say: and remember our servant David, a man strong\nof hand6, one who turned him to Us in penitence:\n\nWe constrained the mountains7 to join with him in lauds at even and at\nsunrise;\n\nAnd the birds which flocked to him, and would all return to him oft;\n\nAnd we stablished his kingdom: and wisdom, and skill to pronounce clear\ndecisions, did we bestow on him.\n\nHath the story of the two pleaders8 reached thee, O Muhammad, when they\nmounted the walls of his closet?\n\nWhen they entered in upon David, and he was frightened at them, they said,\n\"Be not afraid; we are two opposing parties: one of us hath wronged the\nother. Judge therefore with truth between us, and be not unjust, but guide us\nto the right way.\n\nNow this my brother had ninety and nine ewes, and I had but a single ewe; and\nhe said, make me her keeper. And he over-persuaded me in the dispute.\"\n\nHe said, \"Certainly he hath wronged thee in asking for thine ewe to add her\nto his own ewes: and truly many associates do one another wrong-except those\nwho believe and do the things that are right; and few indeed are they!\" And\nDavid perceived that we had tried him; so he asked pardon of his Lord, and\nfell down and bowed himself and repented.\n\nSo we forgave him that his sin; and truly he shall have a high rank with Us,\nand an excellent retreat in Paradise.\n\nO David! verily we have made thee our vicegerent upon earth. Judge therefore\nbetween men with truth, and follow not thy passions, lest they cause thee to\nerr from the way of God. For they who err from the way of God shall meet with\na grievous chastisement, for that they have forgotten the day of reckoning.\n\nWe have not created the heaven and the earth and what is between them for\nnought. That is the thought of infidels; but woe to the infidels because of\nthe fire!\n\nShall we treat those who believe and do the things that are right like those\nwho propagate evil on earth? Shall we treat the God-fearing like the impious?\n\nA blessed Book9 have we sent down to thee, that men may meditate its verses,\nand that those endued with understanding may bear it in mind.\n\nAnd Solomon gave we unto David. An excellent servant, for he loved to turn\nhim Godward.\n\nRemember when at eventide the prancing10 chargers were displayed before him,\n\nAnd he said, \"Truly I have loved the love of earthly goods above the\nremembrance of my Lord, till the sun hath been hidden by the veil of\ndarkness.11\n\nBring them back to me.\" And he began to sever the legs and necks.\n\nWe also made trial of Solomon, and placed a phantom12 on his throne:\nwhereupon he returned to Us (in penitence).\n\nHe said, O my Lord! pardon me, and give me a dominion that may not be to any\none beside me, for thou art the liberal giver.\n\nSo we subjected the wind to him; it ran softly at his bidding, whithersoever\nhe directed it:\n\nAnd the Satans-every builder and diver-\n\nAnd others bound in chains:13\n\n\"This,\" said we, \"is our gift: be bounteous then, or withhold thy favours; no\naccount shalt thou render.\"\n\nAnd his rank also is high with Us, and an excellent retreat.\n\nAnd remember our servant Job when he cried to his Lord, \"Verily, Satan hath\nlaid on me disease and pain.\"\n\n\"Stamp,\" said we, \"with thy foot. This14 is to wash with; cool, and to\ndrink.\"\n\nAnd we gave him back his family, and as many more with them in our mercy; and\nfor a monition to men of judgment.\n\nAnd we said, \"Take in thine hand a rod, and strike15 with it, nor break thine\noath.\" Verily, we found him patient!\n\nHow excellent a servant, one who turned to Us was he!\n\nAnd remember our servants Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, men of might and\nvision.16\n\nWith this cleansing did we cleanse them the remembrance of the abode of\nParadise.\n\nAnd verily, they were, in our sight, of the elect and of the good.\n\nAnd remember Ishmael and Elisha and Dhoulkefl, for all these were of the\njust.\n\nThis is a monition: and verily, the pious shall have a goodly retreat:\n\nGardens of Eden, whose portals shall stand open to them:\n\nTherein reclining, they shall there call for many a fruit and drink:\n\nAnd with them shall be virgins of their own age, with modest retiring\nglances:\n\n\"This is what ye were promised at the day of reckoning.\"\n\n\"Yes! this is our provision: it shall never fail.\"\n\nEven so. But for the evil doers is a wretched home-\n\nHell-wherein they shall be burned: how wretched a bed!\n\nEven so. Let them then taste it-boiling water and gore,\n\nAnd other things of kindred sort!\n\nTo their leaders it shall be said, \"This company shall be thrown in headlong\nwith you. No greetings shall await them, for they shall be burned in the\nfire.\"\n\nThey shall say: \"But ye, too! there shall be no welcome for you. It was ye\nwho prepared this for us, and wretched is the abode!\"\n\nThey will say: \"O our Lord! increase twofold in the fire, the punishment of\nhim who hath brought this upon us.\"\n\nAnd they will say: \"Why see we not the men whom we numbered among the wicked-\n\nWhom we used to treat with scorn? Have they escaped our eyes?\"17\n\nVerily this is truth-the wrangling together of the people of the fire.\n\nSAY: I am but a warner; and there is no God but God the One, the Almighty!\n\nLord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them,18 the\nPotent, the Forgiving!\n\nSAY: this is a weighty message,19\n\nFrom which ye turn aside!\n\nYet had I no knowledge of what passed among the celestial chiefs when they\ndisputed,20\n\n-Verily, it hath been revealed to me only because I am a public preacher-\n\nWhen thy Lord said to the angels, \"I am about to make man of clay,21\n\nAnd when I have formed him and breathed my spirit into him, then worshipping\nfall down before him.\"\n\nAnd the angels prostrated themselves, all of them with one accord,\n\nSave Eblis. He swelled with pride, and became an unbeliever.\n\n\"O Eblis,\" said God, \"what hindereth thee from prostrating thyself before him\nwhom my hands have made?\n\nIs it that thou are puffed up with pride? or art thou a being of lofty\nmerit?\"\n\nHe said: \"I am more excellent than he; me hast thou created of fire:22 of\nclay hast thou created him.\"\n\nHe said: \"Begone then hence: thou art accursed,23\n\nAnd lo! my ban shall be on thee till the day of the reckoning.\"\n\nHe said: \"O my Lord! respite me till the day of Resurrection.\"\n\nHe said, \"One then of the respited shalt thou be,\n\nTill the day of the time appointed.\"\n\nHe said: \"I swear by thy might then that all of them will I seduce,\n\nSave thy sincere servants among them.\"\n\nHe said: \"It is truth, and the truth I speak. From thee will I surely fill\nHell, and with such of them as shall follow thee, one and all.\n\nSay: I ask no wage of you for this, nor am I one who intermeddleth.\n\nOf a truth the Koran is no other than a warning to all creatures.\n\nAnd after a time shall ye surely know its message.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The letter S. See Sura lxviii. p. 32.\n\n2 These verses are said to have been revealed when, upon the conversion of\nOmar, the Koreisch went in a body to Abu Talib and requested him to withdraw\nhis protection from Muhammad, but being put to silence by the latter,\ndeparted in great confusion. Wah. Beidh.\n\n3 That is, in the Christian religion, which teaches, Muhammad ironically\nimplies, a plurality of Gods.\n\n4 This may allude to the so-called \"confederacy\" of the Koreisch against\nMuhammad.\n\n5 This term is also applied to Pharaoh, Sura lxxxix. 9, p. 54. He is said to\nhave fastened the Israelites to stakes, and then subjected them to various\ntorments.\n\naddenda: This is the usual interpretation.  Lit. Lord of, or, possessor of\nstakes (comp. li. 39 in Ar.), i.e., Forces.  Dr. Sprenger ingenuously\nsuggests that Muhammad\u2019s Jewish informant may have described Pharaoh as rich\nin ne\u00e7yb, i.e., fortresses; whereas, in Ar., na\u00e7yb, means an erection,\npillar, etc., for which Muhammad substituted the word for tent stakes.  Vol.\ni. (470).\n\n6 Pr\u00e6diti (manibus) virtute. Mar.\n\n7 Comp. Ps. cxlviii. 9, 10.\n\n8 Two angels who pretended to appeal to David in order to convince him of his\nsin in the matter of Uriah's wife. Comp. I Sam. xii.\n\n9 The Psalms, if we suppose with N\u00f6ldeke, p. 99, that David is still\naddressed: the Koran, if with Sale we refer the passage to Muhammad.\n\n10 The Commentators say that the word used in the original implies that the\nmares stood on three feet, and touched the ground with the edge of the fourth\nfoot.\n\n11 Solomon, in his admiration of these horses, the result, we are told, of\nDavid's or his own conquests, forgot the hour of evening prayer, and when\naware of his fault commenced their slaughter. The Tr. Sanhedr. fol. 21,\nmentions Solomon's love for horses, and that he determined to have a large\nstud; yet not to send the people to Egypt (Deut. xvii. 16) but to have them\nbrought to him out of Egypt (I Kings x. 28).\n\n12 One of the Djinn. The absurd fiction may be seen in extenso in Sale.\nCompare Tr. Sanhedr. fol. 20, b. and Midr. Jalkut on I Kings vi. \u00a7 182.\n\n13 Thus the second Targum on Esther i. 2, mentions the four different kinds\nof Demons which were \"given into the hand\" of Solomon-a legend derived from a\nmisunderstanding of Eccl. ii. 8.\n\n14 The fountain which had sprung up. To this history the Talmudists have no\nallusion.\n\n15 Thy wife;-on whom he had sworn that he would inflict an hundred blows,\nbecause she had absented herself from him when in need of her assistance, or\nfor her words (Job ii. 9). The oath was kept, we are told, by his giving her\none blow with a rod of a hundred stalks. This passage is often quoted by the\nMuslims as authorising any similar manner of release from an oath\ninconsiderately taken.\n\n16 Lit. men of hand and of sight.\n\n17 Lit. or do our eyes wander from them.\n\n18 See verses 9, 26, above. It seems to have been one of the peculiarities of\nMuhammad, as a person very deficient in imagination, to dwell upon and repeat\nthe same ideas, with an intensity which is at once an evidence of deep\npersonal conviction and consciousness, of the simple Arabian especially.\n\n19 The connection between the concluding episode and the preceding part of\nthe Sura does not seem very clear. It probably originated at a different but\nuncertain period.\n\n20 About the creation of man.\n\n21 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 28, ff.\n\n22 Comp. Ps. civ. 4.\n\n23 Lit. stoned. See Sura xv. 34, p. 114.\n\n\nSURA XXXVI.-YA. SIN [LX.]\n\nMECCA.-83 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nYA. SIN.1 By the wise Koran!\n\nSurely of the Sent Ones, Thou,\n\nUpon a right path!\n\nA revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful,\n\nThat thou shouldest warn a people whose fathers were not warned and therefore\nlived in heedlessness!\n\nJust, now, is our sentence2 against most of them; therefore they shall not\nbelieve.\n\nOn their necks have we placed chains which reach the chin, and forced up are\ntheir heads:\n\nBefore them have we set a barrier and behind them a barrier, and we have\nshrouded them in a veil, so that they shall not see.\n\nAlike is it to them if thou warn them or warn them not: they will not\nbelieve.\n\nHim only shalt thou really warn, who followeth the monition and feareth the\nGod of mercy in secret: him cheer with tidings of pardon, and of a noble\nrecompense.\n\nVerily, it is We who will quicken the dead, and write down the works which\nthey have sent on before them, and the traces which they shall have left\nbehind them: and everything have we set down in the clear Book of our\ndecrees.3\n\nSet forth to them the instance of the people of the city4 when the Sent Ones\ncame to it.\n\nWhen we sent two unto them and they charged them both with imposture-\ntherefore with a third we strengthened them: and they said, \"Verily we are\nthe Sent unto you of God.\"\n\nThey said, \"Ye are only men like us: Nought hath the God of Mercy sent down.\nYe do nothing but lie.\"\n\nThey said, \"Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you;\n\nTo proclaim a clear message is our only duty.\"\n\nThey said, \"Of a truth we augur ill from you:5 if ye desist not we will\nsurely stone you, and a grievous punishment will surely befall you from us.\"\n\nThey said, \"Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned?6 Nay,\nye are an erring people.\"\n\nThen from the end of the city a man came running:7 He said, \"O my people!\nfollow the Sent Ones;\n\nFollow those who ask not of you a recompense, and who are rightly guided.\n\nAnd why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought\nback?\n\nShall I take gods beside Him? If the God of Mercy be pleased to afflict me,\ntheir intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:\n\nTruly then should I be in a manifest error.\n\nVerily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me.\"8\n\n-It was said to him, \"Enter thou into Paradise:\" And he said, \"Oh that my\npeople knew\n\nHow gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His\nhonoured ones.\"\n\nBut no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then\nsending down our angels-\n\nThere was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.\n\nOh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but\nthey laugh him to scorn.\n\nSee they not how many generations we have destroyed before them?\n\nNot to false gods is it that they shall be brought9 back,\n\nBut all, gathered together, shall be set before Us.\n\nMoreover, the dead earth is a sign to them: we quicken it and bring forth the\ngrain from it, and they eat thereof:\n\nAnd we make in it gardens of the date and vine; and we cause springs to gush\nforth in it;\n\nThat they may eat of its fruits and of the labour of their hands. Will they\nnot therefore be thankful?\n\nGlory be to Him, who hath created all the sexual pairs of such things as\nEarth produceth,10 and of mankind themselves; and of things beyond their ken!\n\nA sign to them also is the Night. We withdraw the day from it, and lo! they\nare plunged in darkness;\n\nAnd the Sun hasteneth to her place of rest. This, the ordinance of the\nMighty, the Knowing!\n\nAnd as for the Moon, We have decreed stations for it, till it change like an\nold and crooked palm branch.\n\nTo the Sun it is not given to overtake the Moon, nor doth the night outstrip\nthe day; but each in its own sphere doth journey on.\n\nIt is also a sign to them that we bare their posterity in the full-laden Ark;\n\nAnd that we have made for them vessels like it on which they embark;\n\nAnd if we please, we drown them, and there is none to help them, and they are\nnot rescued,\n\nUnless through our mercy, and that they may enjoy themselves for yet awhile.\n\nAnd when it is said to them, Fear what is before you and what is behind\nyou,11 that ye may obtain mercy. . . .\n\nAye, not one sign from among the signs of their Lord dost thou bring them,\nbut they turn away from it!\n\nAnd when it is said to them, Give alms of what God hath bestowed on you,12\nthey who believe not say to the believers, \"Shall we feed him whom God can\nfeed if He will? Truly ye are in no other than a plain error.\"\n\nAnd they say, \"When will this promise be fulfilled, if what ye say be true?\"\n\nThey await but a single blast: as they are wrangling shall it assail them:\n\nAnd not a bequest shall they be able to make, nor to their families shall\nthey return.\n\nAnd the trumpet shall be blown, and, lo! they shall speed out of their\nsepulchres to their Lord:\n\nThey shall say, \"Oh! woe to us! who hath roused us from our sleeping place?\n'Tis what the God of Mercy promised; and the Apostles spake the truth.\"\n\nBut one blast shall there be,13 and, lo! they shall be assembled before us,\nall together.\n\nAnd on that day shall no soul be wronged in the least: neither shall ye be\nrewarded but as ye shall have wrought.\n\nBut joyous on that day shall be the inmates of Paradise, in their employ;\n\nIn shades, on bridal couches reclining, they and their spouses:\n\nTherein shall they have fruits, and shall have whatever they require-\n\n\"Peace!\" shall be the word on the part of a merciful Lord.\n\n\"But be ye separated this day, O ye sinners!\n\nDid I not enjoin on you, O sons of Adam, 'Worship not Satan, for that he is\nyour declared foe,'\n\nBut 'Worship Me: this is a right path'?\n\nBut now hath he led a vast host of you astray. Did ye not then comprehend?\n\nThis is Hell with which ye were threatened:\n\nEndure its heat this day, for that ye believed not.\"\n\nOn that day will we set a seal upon their mouths; yet shall their hands speak\nunto us, and their feet14 shall bear witness of that which they shall have\ndone.\n\nAnd, if we pleased, we would surely put out their eyes: yet even then would\nthey speed on with rivalry in their path: but how should they see?\n\nAnd, if we pleased, we would surely transform them as they stand,15 and they\nwould not be able to move onward, or to return.\n\nHim cause we to stoop through age whose days we lengthen. Will they not\nunderstand?\n\nWe have not taught him (Muhammad) poetry,16 nor would it beseem him. This\nBook is no other than a warning and a clear Koran,\n\nTo warn whoever liveth; and, that against the Infidels sentence may be justly\ngiven.\n\nSee they not that we have created for them among the things which our hands\nhave wrought, the animals of which they are masters?\n\nAnd that we have subjected them unto them? And on some they ride, and of\nothers they eat;\n\nAnd they find in them profitable uses and beverages:\n\nYet have they taken other gods beside God that they might be helpful to them.\n\nNo power have they to succour them: yet are their votaries an army at their\nservice.\n\nLet not their speech grieve thee: We know what they hide and what they bring\nto light.\n\nDoth not man perceive that we have created him of the moist germs of life?\nYet lo! is he an open caviller.\n\nAnd he meeteth us with arguments,17 and forgetteth his creation: \"Who,\" saith\nhe, \"shall give life to bones when they are rotten?\"\n\nSAY: He shall give life to them who gave them being at first, for in all\ncreation is he skilled:\n\nWho even out of the green tree hath given you fire18, and lo! ye kindle flame\nfrom it.\n\nWhat! must not He who hath created the Heavens and the Earth be mighty enough\nto create your likes? Yes! and He is the skilful creator.\n\nHis command when He willeth aught, is but to say to it, BE, and IT IS.\n\nSo glory be to Him in whose hand is sway over all things! And to Him shall ye\nbe brought back.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura is said to have been termed by Muhammad \"the heart of the Koran.\"\nIt is recited in all Muhammadan countries to the dying, at the tombs of\nsaints, etc. On Ya. Sin, see Sura lxviii. p. 32.\n\n2 Sura xxxviii. 85, p. 129.\n\n3 Lit. in the clear prototype, that is, in the Preserved Table, on which all\nthe actions of mankind are written down.\n\n4 Antioch, to which Jesus is said to have sent two disciples to preach the\nunity of God, and subsequently Simon Peter. This vague story, and that of the\nseven sleepers in Sura xviii. are the only traces to be found in the Koran of\nany knowledge, on the part of Muhammad, of the history of the Church\nsubsequent to the day of Pentecost, or of the spread of the Christian\nreligion.\n\n5 Comp. Sura xxvii. 48; vii. 128, where, as in this passage, the word augur\nrefers to the mode of divination practised previous to Islam, by the flight\nof birds.\n\n6 Lit. if ye have been warned (will ye still disbelieve?).\n\n7 Habib, the carpenter, who, as implied at verse 25, was martyred, and whose\ntomb at Antioch is still an object of veneration to the Muhammadans.\n\n8 Ullm. following Wahl, renders, Als sie (die stadtlente) darauf ihn\nsch\u00e4ndlich behandleten. The verb in the original is thus used in the 4th\nconj. N\u00f6ldeke supposes that words to this effect have been lost from the\ntext. But of this there is no trace in the Commentators.\n\n9 Or, the Apostles shall not return to them again. Ullm.\n\n10 For instance, date trees, the female blossoms of which were carefully\nimpregnated, when requisite, by branches of the male plant. See Freyt. Einl.\np. 271.\n\n11 The chastisements of this world and of the next.\n\n12 On account of this precept, Itq. 35, and Omar b. Muhammad suppose the\nverse to have originated at Medina.\n\n13 The Muhammadans affirm that a space of forty years will intervene between\ntwo blasts of the Trumpet. Maracci suggests that the idea of the two blasts\nis derived from 1 Thess. iv. 16, \"the voice of the archangel and . . . the\ntrump of God.\"\n\n14 Thus Chagiga, 16; Taanith, 11. \"The very members of a man bear witness\nagainst him, for thus is it written (Is. xliii. 12), Ye yourselves are my\nwitnesses, saith the Lord.\" See also Sura [lxxi.] xli. 19, 20.\n\n15 Lit. in their place.\n\n16 See Sura xxvi. 225, p. III.\n\n17 Lit. he setteth forth to us comparisons.\n\n18 The form of the Arabic word is Rabbinic Hebrew.\n\n\nSURA XLIII.-ORNAMENTS OF GOLD [LXI.]\n\nMECCA.-89 Verses.\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHa. Mim.1 By the Luminous Book!\n\nWe have made it an Arabic Koran that ye may understand:\n\nAnd it is a transcript of the archetypal Book,2 kept by us; it is lofty,\nfilled with wisdom,\n\nShall we then turn aside this warning from you because ye are a people who\ntransgress?\n\nYet how many prophets sent we among those of old!\n\nBut no prophet came to them whom they made not the object of their scorn:\n\nWherefore we destroyed nations mightier than these Meccans in strength; and\nthe example of those of old hath gone before!\n\nAnd if thou ask them who created the Heavens and the Earth, they will say:\n\"The Mighty, the Sage, created them both,\"\n\nWho hath made the Earth as a couch for you, and hath traced out routes\ntherein for your guidance;\n\nAnd who sendeth down out of Heaven the rain in due degree, by which we\nquicken a dead land; thus shall ye be brought forth from the grave:\n\nAnd who hath created the sexual couples, all of them, and hath made for you\nthe ships and beasts whereon ye ride:\n\nThat ye may sit balanced on their backs and remember the goodness of your\nLord as ye sit so evenly thereon, and say: \"Glory to Him who hath subjected\nthese to us! We could not have attained to it of ourselves:\n\nAnd truly unto our Lord shall we return.\"\n\nYet do they assign to him some of his own servants for offspring! Verily man\nis an open ingrate!\n\nHath God adopted daughters from among those whom he hath created, and chosen\nsons for you?\n\nBut when that3 is announced to any one of them, which he affirmeth to be the\ncase with the God of Mercy,4 his face settleth into darkness and he is\nsilent-sad.\n\nWhat! make they a being to be the offspring of God who is brought up among\ntrinkets, and is ever contentious without reason?\n\nAnd they make the angels who are the servants of God of Mercy, females. What!\ndid they witness their creation? Their witness shall be taken down, and they\nshall hereafter be enquired at.\n\nAnd they say: \"Had the God of Mercy so willed it we should never have\nworshipped them.\" No knowledge have they in this: they only lie.\n\nHave we ere this given them a Book?5 and do they possess it still?\n\nBut say they: \"Verily we found our fathers of that persuasion, and verily, by\ntheir footsteps do we guide ourselves.\"\n\nAnd thus never before thy time did we send a warner to any city but its\nwealthy ones said: \"Verily we found our fathers with a religion, and in their\ntracks we tread.\"\n\nSAY,-such was our command to that apostle-\"What! even if I bring you a\nreligion more right than that ye found your fathers following?\" And they\nsaid, \"Verily we believe not in your message.\"\n\nWherefore we took vengeance on them, and behold what hath been the end of\nthose who treated our messengers as liars!\n\nAnd bear in mind when Abraham said to his father and to his people, \"Verily I\nam clear of what ye worship,\n\nSave Him who hath created me; for he will vouchsafe me guidance.\"\n\nAnd this he established as a doctrine that should abide among his posterity,\nthat to God might they be turned.\n\nIn sooth to these idolatrous Arabians and to their fathers did I allow their\nfull enjoyments, till the truth should come to them, and an undoubted\napostle:\n\nBut now that the truth hath come to them, they say, \"'Tis sorcery, and we\nbelieve it not.\"\n\nAnd they say, \"Had but this Koran been sent down to some great one of the two\ncities6 . . .!\"\n\nAre they then the distributors of thy Lord's Mercy?7 It is we who distribute\ntheir subsistence among them in this world's life; and we raise some of them\nby grades above others, that the one may take the other to serve him: but\nbetter is the mercy of thy Lord than all their hoards.\n\nBut for fear that all mankind would have become a single people of\nunbelievers, verily we would certainly have given to those who believe not in\nthe God of Mercy roofs of silver to their houses, and silver stairs to ascend\nby;\n\nAnd doors of silver to their houses, and couches of silver to recline on;\n\nAnd ORNAMENTS OF GOLD: for all these are merely the good things of the\npresent life; but the next life doth thy Lord reserve for those who fear Him.\n\nAnd whoso shall withdraw from the Warning of the God of Mercy, we will chain\na Satan to him, and he shall be his fast companion:\n\nFor the Satans will turn men aside from the Way, who yet shall deem\nthemselves rightly guided;\n\nUntil when man shall come before us, he shall say, \"O Satan, would that\nbetween me and thee were the distance of the East and West.\"8 And a wretched\ncompanion is a Satan.\n\nBut it shall not avail you on that day, because ye were unjust: partners\nshall ye be in the torment.\n\nWhat! Canst thou then make the deaf to hear, or guide the blind and him who\nis in palpable error?\n\nWhether therefore we take thee off by death, surely will we avenge ourselves\non them;\n\nOr whether we make thee a witness of the accomplishment of that with which we\nthreatened them, we will surely gain the mastery over them.9\n\nHold thou fast therefore what hath been revealed to thee, for thou art on a\nright path:\n\nFor truly to thee and to thy people it is an admonition; and ye shall have an\naccount to render for it at last.10\n\nAnd ask our Sent Ones whom we have sent before thee,\n\n\"Appointed we gods beside the God of Mercy whom they should worship?\"11\n\nOf old sent we Moses with our signs to Pharaoh and his nobles: and he said,\n\"I truly am the Apostle of the Lord of the worlds.\"\n\nAnd when he presented himself before them with our signs, lo! they laughed at\nthem,\n\nThough we shewed them no sign that was not greater than its fellow:12 and\ntherefore did we lay hold on them with chastisement, to the intent that they\nmight be turned to God.\n\nThen they said, \"O Magician! call on thy Lord on our behalf to do as he hath\nengaged with thee, for truly we would fain be guided.\"\n\nBut when we relieved them from the chastisement, lo! they broke their pledge.\n\nAnd Pharaoh made proclamation among his people. Said he, \"O my people! is not\nthe kingdom of Egypt mine, and these rivers which flow at my feet?13 Do ye\nnot behold?\n\nAm I not mightier than this despicable fellow,\n\nAnd who scarce can speak distinctly?\n\nHave bracelets of gold14 then been put upon him, or come there with him a\ntrain of Angels?\"\n\nAnd he inspired his people with levity, and they obeyed him; for they were a\nperverse people:\n\nAnd when they had angered us, we took vengeance on them, and we drowned them\nall.\n\nAnd we made them a precedent and instance of divine judgments to those who\ncame after them.\n\nAnd when the Son of Mary was set forth as an instance of divine power, lo!\nthy people cried out for joy thereat:\n\nAnd they said, \"Are our gods or is he the better?\"15 They put this forth to\nthee only in the spirit of dispute. Yea, they are a contentious people.\n\nJesus is no more than a servant whom we favoured, and proposed as an instance\nof divine power to the children of Israel.\n\n(And if we pleased, we could from yourselves bring forth Angels to succeed\nyou on earth:)16\n\nAnd he shall be a sign of the last hour;17 doubt not then of it, and follow\nye me: this is the right way;\n\nAnd let not Satan turn you aside from it, for he is your manifest foe.\n\nAnd when Jesus came with manifest proofs, he said, \"Now am I come to you with\nwisdom; and a part of those things about which ye are at variance I will\nclear up to you; fear ye God therefore and obey me.\n\nVerily, God is my Lord and your Lord; wherefore worship ye him: this is a\nright way.\"\n\nBut the different parties18 fell into disputes among themselves; but woe to\nthose who thus transgressed, because of the punishment of an afflictive day!\n\nFor what wait they but for the hour \"to come suddenly on them, while they\nexpect it not?\"\n\nFriends on that day shall become foes to one another, except the God-\nfearing:-\n\n\"O my servants! on this day shall no fear come upon you, neither shall ye be\nput to grief,\n\nWho have believed in our signs and become Muslims:\n\nEnter ye and your wives into Paradise, delighted.\"\n\nDishes and bowls of gold shall go round unto them: there shall they enjoy\nwhatever their souls desire, and whatever their eyes delight in; and therein\nshall ye abide for ever.\n\nThis is Paradise, which ye have received as your heritage in recompense for\nyour works;\n\nTherein shall ye have fruits in abundance, of which ye shall eat.\n\nBut in the torment of Hell shall the wicked remain for ever:\n\nIt shall not be mitigated to them, and they shall be mute for despair\ntherein,\n\nFor it is not we who have treated them unjustly, but it was they who were\nunjust to themselves.\n\nAnd they shall cry: \"O Malec!19 would that thy Lord would make an end of us!\"\nHe saith: \"Here must ye remain.\"\n\nWe have come to you with the truth (O Meccans), but most of you abhor the\ntruth.\n\nHave they drawn tight their toils for thee?20 We too will tighten ours.\n\nThink they that we hear not their secrets and their private talk? Yes, and\nour angels who are at their sides write them down.\n\nSAY: If the God of Mercy had a son, the first would I be to worship him:\n\nBut far be the Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, the Lord of the Throne,\nfrom that which they impute to Him!\n\nWherefore let them alone, to plunge on, and sport, until they meet the day\nwith which they are menaced.\n\nHe who is God in the Heavens is God in earth also: and He is the Wise, the\nKnowing.\n\nAnd Blessed be He whose is the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth and of\nall that is between them; for with Him is the knowledge of the Hour, and to\nHim shall ye be brought back.\n\nThe gods whom they call upon beside Him shall not be able to intercede for\nothers: they only shall be able who bore witness to the truth and21 knew it.\"\n\nIf thou ask them who hath created them, they will be sure to say, \"God.\" How\nthen hold they false opinions?\n\nAnd one22 saith, \"O Lord! verily these are people who believe not.\"\n\nTurn thou then from them, and say, \"Peace:\" In the end they shall know their\nfolly.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.\n\n2 Lit. it is in the Mother of the Book, i.e. the original of the Koran,\npreserved before God.\n\n3 That is, of the birth of a female.\n\n4 Lit. which he imputeth to the God of Mercy, as his likeness.\n\n5 To authorise angel-worship.\n\n6 Supply, Mecca and Taief, we would have received it.\n\n7 Lit. mercy, i.e. the gift and office of prophecy.\n\n8 Lit. the two Easts, by which some understand the distance between the two\nsolstices.\n\n9 Comp. Suras xl. 77; xxiii. 97; x. 47; xxix. 53; xxxvii. 179; xiii. 42.\nThese passages clearly show that Muhammad had at this period-towards the\nclose of his Meccan period-full faith in his ultimate success, and in the\nfulfilment of his menaces against the unbelievers.\n\n10 Lit. ye shall be examined in the end.\n\n11 This verse is said (see N\u00f6ld. p. 100, n.) to have been revealed in the\ntemple at Jerusalem on the occasion of the night journey thither. See also\nWeil's Muhammed der Prophet, p. 374.\n\n12 Lit. sister.\n\n13 See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 39, n.\n\n14 Comp. Gen. xli. 42.\n\n15 This was a captious objection made to Muhammad by the idolaters of Mecca\nwhen he condemned their gods (Sura xxi. 98), as if they had said, \"Jesus is\nworshipped as a God by the Christians: does he come under your anathema\nequally with our idols? we shall be content for our gods to be with him.\"\n\n16 That is, as we caused Jesus to be born without a human father.\n\n17 At his return to this earth. Some refer this to the Koran as revealing the\nlast Hour. Lit. He (or It) is for knowledge of the Hour.\n\n18 Jewish and Christian sects.\n\n19 Malec is one of the keepers of Hell, who specially presides over the\ntorments of the damned.\n\n20 Lit. if they have twisted tight or set firmly the affair, i.e. their plots\nagainst thee and the truth.\n\n21 Or, and they (the Infidels). The Commentators say that Jesus, Ezra, and\nthe angels, will be allowed to intercede.\n\n22 Muhammad.\n\n\nSURA LXXII.-DJINN [LXII.]\n\nMECCA.-28 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nSAY: It hath been revealed to me that a company of\n\nDJINN1 listened, and said,-\"Verily, we have heard a marvellous discourse\n(Koran);\n\nIt guideth to the truth; wherefore we believed in it, and we will not\nhenceforth join any being with our Lord;\n\nAnd He,-may the majesty of our Lord be exalted!-hath taken no spouse neither\nhath he any offspring.\n\nBut the foolish among us hath spoken of God that which is unjust:\n\nAnd we verily thought that no one amongst men or Djinn would have uttered a\nlie against God.\n\nThere are indeed people among men, who have sought for refuge unto people\namong Djinn: but they only increased their folly:\n\nAnd they thought, as ye think, that God would not raise any from the dead.\n\nAnd the Heavens did we essay, but found them filled with a mighty garrison,\nand with flaming darts;\n\nAnd we sat on some of the seats to listen, but whoever listeneth findeth an\nambush ready for him of flaming darts.\n\nAnd truly we know not whether evil be meant for them that are on earth, or\nwhether their Lord meaneth guidance for them.\n\nAnd there are among us good, and others among us of another kind;-we are of\nvarious sorts:\n\nAnd verily we thought that no one could weaken God on earth, neither could we\nescape from him by flight:\n\nWherefore as soon as we had heard 'the guidance' we believed in it; and\nwhoever believeth in his Lord, need not fear either loss or wrong.\n\nThere are some among us who have resigned themselves to God (the Muslims);\nand there are others of us who have gone astray. And whoso resigneth himself\nto God pursueth the way of truth;\n\nBut they who go astray from it shall be fuel for Hell.\"\n\nMoreover, if they (the Meccans) keep straight on in that way, we will surely\ngive them to drink of abundant waters,\n\nThat we may prove them thereby: but whoso withdraweth from the remembrance of\nhis Lord, him will He send into a severe torment.\n\nIt is unto God that the temples are set apart: call not then on any other\ntherein with God.\n\nWhen the servant of God stood up to call upon Him, the djinn almost jostled\nhim by their crowds.\n\nSAY: I call only upon my Lord, and I join no other being with Him.\n\nSAY: No control have I over what may hurt or benefit you.\n\nSAY: Verily none can protect me against God;\n\nNeither shall I find any refuge beside Him.\n\nMy sole work is preaching from God, and His message: and for such as shall\nrebel against God and his apostle is the fire of Hell! they shall remain\ntherein alway,-for ever!\n\nUntil they see their threatened vengeance they will be perverse! but then\nshall they know which side was the weakest in a protector and the fewest in\nnumber.\n\nSAY: I know not whether that with which ye are threatened be nigh, or whether\nmy Lord hath assigned it to a distant day: He knoweth the secret, nor doth He\ndivulge his secret to any,\n\nExcept to that Apostle who pleaseth Him; and before him and behind him He\nmaketh a guard to march:\n\nThat He may know if his Apostles have verily delivered the messages of their\nLord: and He embraceth in his knowledge all their ways, and taketh count of\nall that concerneth them.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This interview with the Djinn took place at Nakhla, probably the \"Wady\nMohram\" of Burckhardt, midway between Mecca and Ta\u2039ef, when Muhammad was\ndriven from Mecca. A.D. 620.\n\n\nSURA LXVII.-THE KINGDOM [LXIII.]\n\nMECCA.- 30 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBLESSED be He is whose hand is the KINGDOM! and over all things is He potent:\n\nWho hath created death and life to prove which of you will be most righteous\nin deed; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving!\n\nWho hath created seven Heavens one above another: No defect canst thou see in\nthe creation of the God of Mercy: Repeat the gaze: seest thou a single flaw?\n\nThen twice more repeat the gaze: thy gaze shall return to thee dulled and\nweary.\n\nMoreover we have decked the lowest heaven with lights, and have placed them\nthere to be hurled at the Satans, for whom we have prepared the torment of\nthe flaming fire.\n\nAnd for those who believe not in their Lord is the torment of Hell; and\nhorrid the journey thither!\n\nWhen they shall be thrown into it, they shall hear it braying:1 and it shall\nboil-\n\nAlmost shall it burst for fury. So oft as a crowd shall be thrown into it,\nits keepers shall ask them, \"Came not the warner to you?\"\n\nThey shall say, Yes! there came to us one charged with warnings; but we\ntreated him as a liar, and said, \"Nothing hath God sent down: ye are in\nnothing but a vast delusion.\"\n\nAnd they shall say, \"Had we but hearkened or understood, we had not been\namong the dwellers in the flames;\"\n\nAnd their sin shall they acknowledge: but, \"Avaunt, ye dwellers in the\nflame.\"\n\nBut pardon and a great reward for those who fear their Lord in secret!\n\nBe your converse hidden or open, He truly knoweth the inmost recess of your\nbreasts!\n\nWhat! shall He not know who hath created? for He is the Subtil,2 the\nCognizant.\n\nIt is He who hath made the earth level for you: traverse then its broad\nsides, and eat of what He hath provided.-Unto Him shall be the resurrection.\n\nWhat! are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not cleave the Earth beneath\nyou? And lo, it shall quake.\n\nOr are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not send against you a stone-\ncharged whirlwind? Then shall ye know what my warning meant!\n\nAnd verily, those who flourish before you treated their prophets as liars:\nand how grievous my wrath!\n\nBehold they not the birds over their heads, outstretching and drawing in\ntheir wings? None, save the God of Mercy, upholdeth them: for he regardeth\nall things.\n\nWho is he that can be as an army to you, to succour you, except the God of\nMercy? Truly, the infidels are in the merest delusion.\n\nOr who is he that will furnish you supplies, if He withhold His supplies? Yet\ndo they persist in pride and in fleeing from Him!\n\nIs he who goeth along grovelling on his face, better guided than he who goeth\nupright on a straight path?\n\nSAY: It is He who hath brought you forth, and gifted you with hearing and\nsight and heart: yet how few are grateful!\n\nSAY: It is He who hath sown you in the earth, and to Him shall ye be\ngathered.\n\nAnd they say, \"When shall this threat be put in force, if ye speak the\ntruth?\"\n\nSAY: Nay truly, this knowledge is with God alone: and I am only an open\nwarner.\n\nBut when they shall see it nigh, sad shall wax the countenances of the\ninfidels: and it shall be said, \"This is what ye have been calling for.\"\n\nSAY: What think ye? Whether God destroy me or not, and those who follow me,\nor whether he have mercy on us, yet who will protect the infidels from a\nwoeful torment?\n\nSAY: He is the God of Mercy: in Him do we believe, and in Him put we our\ntrust; and ye shall know hereafter who is in a manifest error.\n\nSAY: What think ye? If at early morn your waters shall have sunk away, who\nthen will give you clear running water?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Thus Shakespeare uses the word braying of clamours of Hell; and Milton\nspeaks of braying horrible discord. Comp. Sura xxv. 12-21.\n\n2 Der alles durchdringt. Ullm.; perspicax. Mar.; sagacious. Sale. The primary\nmeaning of the Arabic root is to draw near; hence the above signification, in\nthe sense of God's presence as interpenetrating all things: hence also the\nother sense of benign, as in Sura [lxxxiii.] xlii. 18.\n\n\nSURA XXIII.-THE BELIEVERS [LXIV.]\n\nMECCA.1-118 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHAPPY now the BELIEVERS,\n\nWho humble them in their prayer,\n\nAnd who keep aloof from vain words,2\n\nAnd who are doers of alms deeds,\n\nAnd who restrain their appetites,\n\n(Save with their wives, or the slaves whom their right hands possess: for in\nthat case they shall be free from blame:\n\nBut they whose desires reach further than this are transgressors:)\n\nAnd who tend well their trusts and their covenants,\n\nAnd who keep them strictly to their prayers:\n\nThese shall be the heritors,\n\nWho shall inherit the paradise, to abide therein for ever.\n\nNow of fine clay have we created man:\n\nThen we placed him, a moist germ,3 in a safe abode;\n\nThen made we the moist germ a clot of blood: then made the clotted blood into\na piece of flesh; then made the piece of flesh into bones: and we clothed the\nbones with flesh: then brought forth man of yet another make4-Blessed\ntherefore be God, the most excellent of Makers5-\n\nThen after this ye shall surely die:\n\nThen shall ye be waked up on the day of resurrection.\n\nAnd we have created over you seven heavens:6-and we are not careless of the\ncreation.\n\nAnd we send down water from the Heaven in its due degree, and we cause it to\nsettle on the earth;-and we have power for its withdrawal:-\n\nAnd by it we cause gardens of palm trees, and vineyards to spring forth for\nyou, in which ye have plenteous fruits, and whereof ye eat;\n\nAnd the tree that groweth up on Mount Sinai; which yieldeth oil and a juice\nfor those who eat.\n\nAnd there is a lesson for you in the cattle: We give you to drink of what is\nin their bellies, and many advantages do ye derive from them, and for food\nthey serve you;\n\nAnd on them and on ships are ye borne.\n\nWe sent Noah heretofore unto his people, and he said, \"O my people! serve\nGod: ye have no other God than He: will ye not therefore fear Him?\n\nBut the chiefs of the people who believed not said, \"This is but a man like\nyourselves: he fain would raise himself above you: but had it pleased God to\nsend, He would have sent angels: We heard not of this with our sires of old;-\n\nVerily he is but a man possessed; leave him alone therefore for a time.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! help me against their charge of imposture.\"\n\nSo we revealed unto him, \"Make the ark under our eye, and as we have taught,\nand when our doom shall come on, and the earth's surface shall boil up,7\n\nCarry into it of every kind a pair, and thy family, save him on whom sentence\nhath already passed: and plead not with me for the wicked, for they shall be\ndrowned.\n\nAnd when thou, and they who shall be with thee, shall go up into the ark;\nsay, 'Praise be unto God, who hath rescued us from the wicked folk.'\n\nAnd say, 'O my Lord! disembark me with a blessed disembarking: for thou art\nthe best to disembark.\"'\n\nVerily in this were signs, and verily we made proof of man.\n\nWe then raised up other generations after them;\n\nAnd we sent among them an apostle from out themselves, with, \"Worship ye God!\nye have no other God than He: will ye not therefore fear Him?\"\n\nAnd the chiefs of His people who believed not, and who deemed the meeting\nwith us in the life to come to be a lie, and whom we had richly supplied in\nthis present life, said, \"This is but a man like yourselves; he eateth of\nwhat ye eat,\n\nAnd he drinketh of what ye drink:\n\nAnd if ye obey a man like yourselves, then ye will surely be undone.\n\nWhat! doth he foretell you, that after ye shall be dead and become dust and\nbones, ye shall be brought forth?\n\nAway, away with his predictions!\n\nThere is no life beyond our present life; we die, and we live, and we shall\nnot be quickened again!\n\nThis is merely a man who forgeth a lie about God: and we will not believe\nhim.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! help me against this charge of imposture.\"\n\nHe said, \"Yet a little, and they will soon repent them!\"\n\nThen did the shout of the destroying angel in justice surprise them, we made\nthem like leaves swept down by a torrent. Away then with the wicked people!\n\nThen raised we up other generations after them-\n\nNeither too soon, nor too late, shall a people reach its appointed time-\n\nThen sent we our apostles one after another. Oft as their apostle presented\nhimself to a nation, they treated him as a liar; and we caused one nation to\nfollow another; and we made them the burden of a tale. Away then with the\npeople who believe not!\n\nThen sent we Moses and his brother Aaron, with our signs and manifest power,\n\nTo Pharaoh and his princes; but they behaved them proudly, for they were a\nhaughty people.\n\nAnd they said, \"Shall we believe on two men like ourselves, whose people are\nour slaves?\"\n\nAnd they treated them both as impostors; wherefore they became of the\ndestroyed.\n\nAnd we gave Moses the Book for Israel's guidance.\n\nAnd we appointed the Son of Mary, and His mother for a sign; and we prepared\nan abode for both in a lofty spot,8 quiet, and watered with springs.\n\n\"O ye apostles! eat of things that are good: and do that which is right: of\nyour doings I am cognisant.\n\nAnd truly this your religion is the one religion;9 and I am your Lord:\ntherefore fear me.\"\n\nBut men have rent their great concern, one among another, into sects; every\nparty rejoicing in that which is their own;\n\nWherefore leave them till a certain time, in their depths of error.\n\nWhat! think they that what we largely, bestow on them of wealth and children,\n\nWe hasten to them for their good? Nay, they have no knowledge.\n\nBut they who are awed with the dread of their Lord,\n\nAnd who believe in the signs of their Lord,\n\nAnd who join no other gods with their Lord,\n\nAnd who give that which they give with hearts thrilled with dread because\nthey must return unto their Lord,\n\nThese hasten after good, and are the first to win it.\n\nWe will not burden a soul beyond its power: and with us is a book, which\nspeaketh the truth; and they shall not be wronged:\n\nBut as to this Book, their hearts are plunged in error, and their works are\nfar other than those of Muslims, and they will work those works,\n\nUntil when we lay hold on their affluent ones with punishment; lo! they cry\nfor help:\n\n-\"Cry not for help this day, for by Us ye shall not be succoured:\n\nLong since were my signs rehearsed to you, but ye turned back on your heels,\n\nPuffed up with pride, discoursing foolishly by night.\"\n\nDo they not then heed the things spoken-whether that hath come to them which\ncame not to their fathers of old?\n\nOr do they not recognise their apostle; and therefore disavow him?\n\nOr say they, \"A Djinn is in him?\" Nay! he hath come to them with the truth;\nbut the truth do most of them abhor.\n\nBut if the truth had followed in the train of their desires, the heavens and\nthe earth, and all that therein is, had surely come to ruin! But we have\nbrought them their warning; and from their warning they withdraw.\n\nDost thou ask them for remuneration? But, remuneration from thy Lord is best;\nand He is the best provider.\n\nAnd thou indeed biddest them to the right path;\n\nBut verily they who believe not in the life to come, from that path do surely\nwander!\n\nAnd if we had taken compassion on them, and relieved them from their trouble,\nthey would have plunged on in their wickedness, wildly wandering.10\n\nWe formerly laid hold on them with chastisement, yet they did not humble them\nto their Lord, nor did they abase them;\n\nUntil, when we have opened upon them the door of a severe punishment, lo!\nthey are in despair at it.\n\nIt is He who hath implanted in you hearing, and sight, and heart; how few of\nyou give thanks!\n\nIt is He who hath caused you to be born on the earth: and unto Him shall ye\nbe gathered.\n\nAnd it is He who maketh alive and killeth, and of Him is the change of the\nnight and of the day: Will ye not understand?\n\nBut they say, as said those of old:-\n\nThey say,\"What! When we shall be dead, and have become dust and bones, shall\nwe, indeed, be waked to life?\n\nThis have we been promised, we and our fathers aforetime: but it is only\nfables of the ancients.\"\n\nSAY: Whose is the earth, and all that is therein;-if ye know?\n\nThey will answer, \"God's.\" SAY: Will ye not, then reflect?\n\nSAY: Who is the Lord of the seven heavens, and the Lord of the glorious\nthrone?\n\nThey will say, \"They are God's\". SAY: Will ye not, then, fear Him?\n\nSAY: In whose hand is the empire of all things, who protecteth but is not\nprotected? if ye know:\n\nThey will answer, \"In God's.\" SAY: How, then, can ye be so spell-bound?\n\nYea, we have brought them the truth; but they are surely liars:\n\nGod hath not begotten offspring; neither is there any other God with Him:\nelse had each god assuredly taken away that which he had created,11 and some\nhad assuredly uplifted themselves above others! Far from the glory of God, be\nwhat they affirm of Him!\n\nHe knoweth alike the unseen and the seen: far be He uplifted above the gods\nwhom they associate with Him!\n\nSAY: O my Lord! If thou wilt let me witness the infliction of that with which\nthey have been threatened!\n\nO my Lord! place me not among the ungodly people.\n\nVerily, we are well able to make thee see the punishment with which we have\nthreatened them.\n\nTurn aside evil with that which is better: we best know what they utter\nagainst thee.\n\nAnd SAY: \"O my Lord! I betake me to Thee, against the promptings of the\nSatans:\n\nAnd I betake me to Thee, O my Lord! that they gain no hurtful access to me.\"\n\nWhen death overtaketh one of the wicked, he saith, \"Lord, send me back again,\n\nThat I may do the good which I have left undone.\"12 \"By no means.\" These are\nthe very words which he shall speak:\n\nBut behind them shall be a barrier, until the day when they shall be raised\nagain.\n\nAnd when the trumpet shall be sounded, the ties of kindred between them shall\ncease on that day; neither shall they ask each other's help.\n\nThey whose balances shall be heavy, shall be the blest.\n\nBut they whose balances shall be light,-these are they who shall lose their\nsouls, abiding in hell for ever:\n\nThe fire shall scorch their faces, and their lips shall quiver therein:-\n\n-\"What! Were not my signs rehearsed unto you? and did ye not treat them as\nlies?\"\n\nThey shall say, \"O our Lord! our ill-fortune prevailed against us, and we\nbecame an erring people.\n\nO our Lord! Bring us forth hence: if we go back again to our sins, we shall\nindeed be evil doers.\"\n\nHe will say; \"Be ye driven down into it; and, address me not.\"\n\nA part truly of my servants was there, who said, \"O our Lord! we believe:\nforgive us, then, and be merciful to us, for of the merciful art thou the\nbest.\"\n\nBut ye received them with such scoffs that they suffered you to forget my\nwarning, and ye laughed them to scorn.\n\nVerily this day will I reward then, for their patient endurance: the blissful\nones shall they be!\n\nHe will say, \"What number of years tarried ye on earth?\"\n\nThey will say, \"We tarried a day, or part of a day;13 but ask the recording\nangels.\"14\n\nGod will say, \"Short indeed was the time ye tarried, if that ye knew it.\n\nWhat! Did ye then think that we had created you for pastime, and that ye\nshould not be brought back again to us?\" Wherefore let God be exalted, the\nKing, the Truth! There is no god but He! Lord of the stately throne! And\nwhoso, together with God, shall call on another god, for whom he hath no\nproof, shall surely have to give account to his Lord. Aye, it shall fare ill\nwith the infidels.\n\nAnd SAY: \"O my Lord, pardon, and have mercy; for of those who show mercy, art\nthou the best.\"\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura is said by Wahidi Intr, and by Assuy\u00fbti, 55, to be the last\nMeccan revelation. But there seems to be no reason for this opinion.\n\n2 In prayer. Eccl. v. I; Matt. vi. 7. But it may be understood of idle talk\ngenerally.\n\n3 See Sura xxii. 5, n.\n\n4 That is, a perfect man at last, composed of soul and body. The verb halaka,\nto create, is used throughout, for which I have necessarily substituted to\nmake, in order to retain the same word throughout the verse.\n\n5 These words are said by most commentators on Sura vi. 93, to have been\nuttered by Muhammad's scribe, Abdallah, on hearing the previous part of this\nverse, and to have been adopted by the prophet, at the same moment, as\nidentical with his own inspirations.\n\n6 Lit. seven paths-a Talmudic expression.\n\n7 See Sura [lxxv.] xi. 42, n.\n\n8 Comp. Sura xix. 22 ff., p. 119. Wahl understands this passage of Paradise.\n\n9 Comp. Sura xxi. 92, p. 157.\n\n10 There is no reliable tradition as to the nature of the visitation here\nalluded to.\n\n11 That is, each would have formed a separate and independent kingdom.\n\n12 Or, in the (world) which I have left.\n\n13 That is, our past life seems brevity itself in comparison with eternal\ntorment.\n\n14 Lit. those who number, or keep account, i.e. our torments distract us too\nmuch to allow us to compute.\n\n\nSURA XXI.-THE PROPHETS [LXV.]\n\nMECCA.-112 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTHIS people's reckoning hath drawn nigh, yet, sunk in carelessness, they turn\naside.\n\nEvery fresh warning that cometh to them from their Lord they only hear to\nmock it,-\n\nTheir hearts set on lusts: and they who have done this wrong say in secret\ndiscourse, \"Is He more than a man like yourselves? What! will ye, with your\neyes open,1 accede to sorcery?\"\n\nSAY: \"My Lord knoweth what is spoken in the heaven and on the earth: He is\nthe Hearer, the Knower.\"\n\n\"Nay,\" say they, \"it is the medley of dreams: nay, he hath forged it: nay, he\nis a poet: let him come to us with a sign as the prophets of old were sent.\"\n\nBefore their time, none of the cities which we have destroyed, believed: will\nthese men, then, believe?\n\nAnd we sent none, previous to thee, but men to whom we had revealed\nourselves. Ask ye the people who are warned by Scriptures,2 if ye know it\nnot.\n\nWe gave them not bodies which could dispense with food: and they were not to\nlive for ever.\n\nThen made we good our promise to them; and we delivered them and whom we\npleased, and we destroyed the transgressors.\n\nAnd now have we sent down to you \"the book,\" in which is your warning: What,\nwill ye not then understand?\n\nAnd how many a guilty city have we broken down, and raised up after it other\npeoples:\n\nAnd when they felt our vengeance, lo! they fled from it.\n\n\"Flee not,\" said the angels in mockery, \"but come back to that wherein ye\nrevelled, and to your abodes! Questions will haply be put to you.\"\n\nThey said, \"Oh, woe to us! Verily we have been evil doers.\"\n\nAnd this ceased not to be their cry, until we made them like reaped corn,\nextinct.\n\nWe created not the heaven and the earth, and what is between them, for sport:\n\nHad it been our wish to find a pastime, we had surely found it in ourselves;-\nif to do so had been our will.\n\nNay, we will hurl the truth at falsehood, and it shall smite it, and lo! it\nshall vanish. But woe be to you for what ye utter of God!\n\nAll beings in the heaven and on the earth are His: and they who are in his\npresence disdain not his service, neither are they wearied:\n\nThey praise Him night and day: they rest not.3\n\nHave they taken gods from the earth who can quicken the dead?\n\nHad there been in either heaven or earth gods besides God, both surely had\ngone to ruin. But glory be to God, the Lord of the throne, beyond what they\nutter!\n\nHe shall not be asked of his doings, but they shall be asked.\n\nHave they taken other gods beside Him? SAY; Bring forth your proofs that they\nare gods. This is the warning of those who are with me, and the warning of\nthose who were before me: but most of them know not the truth, and turn\naside.\n\nNo apostle have we sent before thee to whom we did not reveal that \"Verily\nthere is no God beside me: therefore worship me.\"\n\nYet they say, \"The God of Mercy hath begotten issue from the angels.\" Glory\nbe to Him! Nay, they are but His honoured servants:\n\nThey speak not till He hath spoken;4 and they do His bidding.\n\nHe knoweth what is before them and what is behind them; and no plea shall\nthey offer\n\nSave for whom He pleaseth; and they tremble for fear of Him.\n\nAnd that angel among them who saith \"I am a god beside Him,\" will we\nrecompense with hell: in such sort will we recompense the offenders.\n\nDo not the infidels see that the heavens and the earth were both a solid\nmass, and that we clave them asunder, and that by means of water we give life\nto everything? Will they not then believe?\n\nAnd we set mountains on the earth lest it should move with them, and we made\non it broad passages between them as routes for their guidance;\n\nAnd we made the heaven a roof strongly upholden; yet turn they away from its\nsigns.\n\nAnd He it is who hath created the night and the day, and the sun and the\nmoon, each moving swiftly in its sphere.\n\nAt no time5 have we granted to man a life that shall last for ever: if thou\nthen die, shall they live for ever?\n\nEvery soul shall taste of death:6 and for trial will we prove you with evil\nand with good; and unto Us shall ye be brought back.\n\nAnd when the infidels see thee they receive thee only with scoffs:-\"What! is\nthis he who maketh such mention of your gods?\" Yet when mention is made to\nthem of the God of Mercy, they believe not.\n\n\"Man,\" say they, \"is made up of haste.\"7 But I will shew you my signs:8\ndesire them not then to be hastened.\n\nThey say, \"When will this threat be made good? Tell us, if ye be men of\ntruth?\"\n\nDid the infidels but know the time when they shall not be able to keep the\nfire of hell from their faces or from their backs, neither shall they be\nhelped!\n\nBut it shall come on them suddenly and shall confound them; and they shall\nnot be able to put it back, neither shall they be respited.\n\nOther apostles have been scoffed at before thee: but that doom at which they\nmocked encompassed the scoffers.\n\nSAY: Who shall protect you by night and by day from the God of Mercy? Yet\nturn they away from the warning of their Lord.\n\nHave they gods beside Us who can defend them? For their own succour have they\nno power; neither shall the gods they join with God screen them from Us.\n\nYes! we have given these men and their fathers enjoyments so long as their\nlife lasted. What! see they not that we come to a land and straiten its\nborders9 Is it they who are the conquerors?\n\nSAY: I only warn you of what hath been revealed to me: but the deaf will not\nhear the call, whenever they are warned;\n\nYet if a breath of thy Lord's chastisement touch them, they will assuredly\nsay, \"Oh! woe to us! we have indeed been offenders.\"\n\nJust balances will we set up for the day of the resurrection, neither shall\nany soul be wronged in aught; though, were a work but the weight of a grain\nof mustard seed, we would bring it forth to be weighed: and our reckoning\nwill suffice.\n\nWe gave of old to Moses and Aaron the illumination,10 and a light and a\nwarning for the God-fearing,\n\nWho dread their Lord in secret, and who tremble for \"the Hour.\"\n\nAnd this Koran which we have sent down is a blessed warning: will ye then\ndisown it?\n\nOf old we gave unto Abraham his direction,11 for we knew him worthy.\n\nWhen he said to his Father and to his people, \"What are these images to which\nye are devoted?\"\n\nThey said, \"We found our fathers worshipping them.\"\n\nHe said, \"Truly ye and your fathers have been in a plain mistake.\"\n\nThey said, \"Hast thou come unto us in earnest? or art thou of those who\njest?\"\n\nHe said, \"Nay, your Lord is Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, who hath\ncreated them both; and to this am I one of those who witness:\n\n-And, by God, I will certainly lay a plot against your idols, after ye shall\nhave retired and turned your backs.\"\n\nSo, he broke them all in pieces, except the chief of them, that to it they\nmight return, inquiring.\n\nThey said, \"Who hath done this to our gods? Verily he is one of the unjust.\"\n\nThey said, \"We heard a youth make mention of them: they call him Abraham.\"\n\nThey said, \"Then bring him before the people's eyes, that they may witness\nagainst him.\"\n\nThey said, \"Hast thou done this to our gods, O Abraham?\"\n\nHe said, \"Nay, that their chief hath done it: but ask ye them, if they can\nspeak.\"\n\nSo they turned their thoughts upon themselves, and said, \"Ye truly are the\nimpious persons:\"\n\nThen became headstrong in their former error12 and exclaimed,\"Thou knowest\nthat these speak not.\"\n\nHe said, \"What! do ye then worship, instead of God, that which doth not\nprofit you at all, nor injure you? Fie on you and on that ye worship instead\nof God! What! do ye not then understand?\"\n\nThey said:13 \"Burn him, and come to the succour of your gods: if ye will do\nanything at all.\"\n\nWe said, \"O fire! be thou cold, and to Abraham a safety!\"14\n\nAnd they sought to lay a plot against him, but we made them the sufferers.\n\nAnd we brought him and Lot in safety to the land which we have blessed for\nall human beings:\n\nAnd we gave him Isaac and Jacob as a farther gift, and we made all of them\nrighteous:\n\nWe also made them models who should guide others by our command, and we\ninspired them with good deeds and constancy in prayer and almsgiving, and\nthey worshipped us.\n\nAnd unto Lot we gave wisdom, and knowledge; and we rescued him from the city\nwhich wrought filthiness; for they were a people, evil, perverse:\n\nAnd we caused him to enter into our mercy, for he was of the righteous.\n\nAnd remember Noah when aforetime he cried to us and we heard him, and\ndelivered him and his family from the great calamity;\n\nAnd we helped him against the people who treated our signs as impostures. An\nevil people verily were they, and we drowned them all.\n\nAnd David and Solomon; when they gave judgment concerning a field when some\npeople's sheep had caused a waste therein; and we were witnesses of their\njudgment.\n\nAnd we gave Solomon insight into the affair; and on both of them we bestowed\nwisdom and knowledge. And we constrained the mountains and the birds to join\nwith David in our praise: Our doing was it!\n\nAnd we taught David the art of making mail15 for you, to defend you from each\nother's violence: will ye therefore be thankful?\n\nAnd to Solomon we subjected we subjected the strongly blowing wind; it sped\nat his bidding to the land we had blessed; for we know all things:\n\nAnd sundry Satans16 who should dive for him and perform other work beside:\nand we kept watch over them.\n\nAnd remember Job: When he cried to his Lord, \"Truly evil hath touched me: but\nthou art the most merciful of those who shew mercy.\"\n\nSo we heard him, and lightened the burden of his woe; and we gave him back\nhis family, and as many more with them,-a mercy from us, and a memorial for\nthose who serve us:\n\nAnd Ismael, and Edris17 and Dhoulkefl18-all steadfast in patience.\n\nAnd we caused them to enter into our mercy; for they were of the righteous:\n\nAnd Dhoulnoun;19 when he went on his way in anger, and thought that we had no\npower over him. But in the darkness he cried \"There is no God but thou: Glory\nbe unto Thee! Verily, I have been one of the evil doers:\"\n\nSo we heard him and rescued him from misery: for thus rescue we the faithful:\n\nAnd Zacharias; when he called upon his Lord saying, \"O my Lord, leave me not\nchildless: but there is no better heir than Thyself.\"20\n\nSo we heard him, and gave him John, and we made his wife fit for child-\nbearing. Verily, these vied in goodness, and called upon us with love and\nfear, and humbled themselves before us:\n\nAnd her who kept her maidenhood, and into whom21 we breathed of our spirit,\nand made her and her son a sign to all creatures.\n\nOf a truth, this, your religion, is the one22 Religion, and I your Lord;\ntherefore serve me:\n\nBut they have rent asunder this their great concern among themselves into\nsects. All of them shall return to us.\n\nAnd whoso shall do the things that are right, and be a believer, his efforts\nshall not be disowned: and surely will we write them down for him.\n\nThere is a ban on every city which we shall have destroyed, that they shall\nnot rise again,\n\nUntil a way is opened for Gog and Magog,23 and they shall hasten from every\nhigh land,\n\nAnd this sure promise shall draw on. And lo! the eyes of the infidels shall\nstare amazedly; and they shall say, \"Oh, our misery! of this were we\ncareless! yea, we were impious persons.\"\n\nVerily, ye, and what ye worship beside God,24 shall be fuel for hell: ye\nshall go down into it.\n\nWere these gods, they would not go down into it; but they shall all abide in\nit for ever.\n\nTherein shall they groan; but nought therein shall they hear to comfort them.\n\nBut they for whom we have before ordained good things, shall be far away from\nit:\n\nIts slightest sound they shall not hear: in what their souls longed for, they\nshall abide for ever:\n\nThe great terror shall not trouble them; and the angel shall meet them with,\n\"This is your day which ye were promised.\"\n\nOn that day we will roll up the heaven as one rolleth up25 written scrolls.\nAs we made the first creation, so will we bring it forth again. This promise\nbindeth us; verily, we will perform it.\n\nAnd now, since the Law was given, have we written in the Psalms that \"my\nservants, the righteous, shall inherit the earth.\"26\n\nVerily, in this Koran is teaching for those who serve God.\n\nWe have not sent thee otherwise than as mercy unto all creatures.\n\nSAY: Verily it hath been revealed to me that your God is one God; are ye then\nresigned to Him? (Muslims.)\n\nBut if they turn their backs, then SAY: I have warned you all alike; but I\nknow not whether that with which ye are threatened be nigh or distant.\n\nGod truly knoweth what is spoken aloud, and He also knoweth that which ye\nhide.\n\nAnd I know not whether haply this delay be not for your trial, and that ye\nmay enjoy yourselves for a time.\n\nMy Lord saith: Judge ye with truth; for our Lord is the God of Mercy-whose\nhelp is to be sought against what ye utter.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. while ye see it to be such.\n\n2 Lit. the people or family of the admonition. Itq. 34 considers this verse\nto have been revealed at Medina.\n\n3 Or, they invent not (concerning Him). Comp. Rev. iv. 8.\n\n4 Lit. they precede him not in speech.\n\n5 Lit. before thee, which might seem to imply that the grant of immortality\nhad been made to Muhammad. I have therefore rendered, as in the text, to\navoid the ambiguity. Comp. Suras [xcvii.] iii. 182; [lxxxi.] xxix. 57, and\nWeil's Life of Mohammad, p. 350.\n\n6 Comp. Matt. xvi. 28; Heb. ii. 9. Hist. Josephi Fabr. Lign. c. 22 at the\nend.\n\n7 See the index under the word Man. The Rabbins teach that man was created\nwith innate evil propensities. See Schr der's Talm. Rabb.- Judenthum, p. 378.\n8 That is, my teaching as to the future lot of the infidels, etc.\n\n9 Muhammad appeals to the rapid progress of Islam as a proof of his divine\nmission.\n\n10 Ar. furquan-a derived by Muhammad from the Jews, constantly used in the\nTalmud, and meaning as in Syr. and \u00c6th. deliverance, liberation. Thus, Sura\nviii. 29, 42, and hence, illumination, revelation, generally. The usual\ninterpretation here and in other passages is the distinction, i.e. between\ngood and evil, lawful and unlawful. The title is applied to the Koran and\nPentateuch alike.\n\n11 This story is taken in part verbatim from Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 17.\nSee also Schalscheleth Hakabala, 2; Maimon de Idol. ch. 1; and Yad\nHachazakah, vii. 6, who makes Abraham-in his 40th year-renounce star-worship,\nbreak images, escape the wrath of the king by a miracle, and preach that\nthere is one God of the whole universe.\n\n12 Lit. sie neigten sich nach ihren Kopfen. They were turned down upon their\nheads. Ullm. and Sale in notes. But Ullm. in the text, verfielen sie wieder\nin ihren Aberglauben.\n\n13 The Rabbins make Nimrod to have been the persecutor of Abraham. Comp.\nTarg. Jon. on Gen. xv. 7. Tr. Bava Bathra, fol. 91 a. Maimon. More Nevochim,\niii. 29. Weil, Legenden, p. 74.\n\n14 Or, let peace be upon Abraham. Comp. Targ. Jon. on Gen. xi. 28, from the\nmistranslation of which this legend took its rise, the word ur in Heb.\nmeaning fire. See also Targ. Jon. on. Gen. xv. 7. The legend was adopted by\nsome of the Eastern Christians; and commemorated in the Syrian Calendar on\nJan. 29. (Hyde de Rel. V. Pers. 74). Comp. the Abyssinian Calendar on Jan.\n25. (Ludolf. Hist. p. 409).\n\n15 It has been observed that the blacksmith has ever been looked upon with\nawe by barbarians on the same principle that made Vulcan a deity. In\nAbyssinia all artisans are Budah, sorcerers, especially the blacksmith, and\nhe is a social outcast, as among the Somal;   Throughout the rest of El-\nIslam, the blacksmith is respected as treading in the path of David, the\nfather of the craft. Burton. First Footsteps in E. Africa, p. 33. The\nnumerous wars in which David was engaged, may have given rise to the myth of\nhis being the inventor of mail.\n\n16 See Sura xxxviii. 37, p. 127.\n\n17 See Sura xix. 55, 6, p. 121.\n\n18 The man of the lot or portion. Or, of care, support. According to some\nElias, as others say, Isaiah. It is more probable, however, that he is he\nObadiah of 1 Kings xviii. 4, who supported 100 prophets in the cave, or\nEzechiel, who is called Kephil by the Arabs. See Niebuhr, Travels, ii. 265.\n\n19 The man of the fish-Jonah.\n\n20 See Suras [xcvii.] iii. 33; xix. p. 117, for the story of Zacharias in\nfull. The concluding sentence of this clause is obscure. It probably means\nthat even if no heir were vouchsafed to Zacharias, yet since God will be the\nheir of all things he would take Zacharias to himself and thus abundantly\nrecompense him. See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 58.\n\n21 See Sura [cix.] lxvi. 12. It is quite clear from these two passages that\nMuhammad believed in the Immaculate and miraculous conception of Jesus.\n\n22 That is, identical with that of the previous prophets, etc.\n\n23 See Sura [lxix.] xviii. 93. Thus, the ancient Jewish and Christian legend\nconnects Gog and Magog with the end of the world. Rev. xx. 8. Pseudojon on\nLev. xxvi. 44. Comp. Numb. xi. 27. Gog, however, is probably the mountain\nGhef or Ghogh (see Reinegg's Beschreib. der Caucasus, ii. 79) and the\nsyllable Ma in Magog, the Sanscrit mah, maha great.\n\n24 \"Whenever a people is punished (for idolatry) the beings honoured by them\nas gods, shall also be punished, for so it is written, on all the gods also\nof Egypt will I inflict judgments.\" (Sakkah, 29.)\n\n25 Ar. Sidjill, which is supposed by some to be the name of the angel who\nwrites down the actions of every man's life upon a scroll, which is rolled up\nat his death (comp. Isai. xxxiv. 4); by others, to be the name of one of\nMuhammad's secretaries.\n\n26 Ps. xxxvii. 29. This is the only text quoted in the Koran.\n\n\nSURA XXV.-AL FURKAN [LXVI.]\n\nMECCA.-77 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nBLESSED be He who hath sent down AL FURKAN1 (the illumination) on his\nservant, that to all creatures he may be a warner.\n\nHis the Kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth! No son hath He begotten! No\npartner hath He in his Empire! All things hath He created, and decreeing hath\ndecreed their destinies.\n\nYet have they adopted gods beside Him which have created nothing, but were\nthemselves created:\n\nAnd no power have they over themselves for evil or for good, nor have they\npower of death, or of life, or of raising the dead.\n\nAnd the infidels say, \"This Koran is a mere fraud of his own devising, and\nothers have helped him with it,2 who had come hither by outrage and lie.\"3\n\nAnd they say, \"Tales of the ancients that he hath put in writing! and they\nwere dictated to him morn and even.\"\n\nSAY: He hath sent it down who knoweth the secrets of the Heavens and of the\nEarth. He truly is the Gracious, the Merciful.\n\nAnd they say, \"What sort of apostle is this? He eateth food and he walketh\nthe streets! Unless an angel be sent down and take part in his warnings,\n\nOr a treasure be thrown down to him, or he have a garden that supplieth him\nwith food . . .\"4 and those unjust persons say, \"Ye follow but a man\nenchanted.\"\n\nSee what likenesses they strike out for thee! But they err, and cannot find\ntheir way.\n\nBlessed be He who if he please can give thee better than that of which they\nspeak-Gardens, 'neath which the rivers flow: and pavilions will He assign\nthee.\n\nAye, they have treated the coming of \"the Hour\" as a lie. But a flaming fire\nhave we got ready for those who treat the coming of the Hour as a lie.\n\nWhen it shall see them from afar, they shall hear its raging and roaring,-\n\nAnd when they shall be flung into a narrow space thereof bound together, they\nshall invoke destruction on the spot:\n\n-\"Call not this day for one destruction, but call for destructions many.\"\n\nSAY: Is this, or the Paradise of Eternity which was promised to the God-\nfearing, best? Their recompense shall it be and their retreat;\n\nAbiding therein for ever, they shall have in it all that they desire! It is a\npromise to be claimed of thy Lord.\n\nAnd on the day when he shall gather them together, and those whom they\nworshipped beside God, he will say, \"Was it ye who led these my servants\nastray, or of themselves strayed they from the path?\"\n\nThey will say, \"Glory be to thee! It beseemed not us to take other lords than\nthee. But thou gavest them and their fathers their fill of good things, till\nthey forgat the remembrance of thee, and became a lost people.\"\n\nThen will God say to the Idolaters, \"Now have they made you liars in what ye\nsay,5 and they have no power to avert your doom, or to succour you.\"\n\nAnd whosoever of you thus offendeth, we will make him taste a great\npunishment.\n\nNever have we sent Apostles before thee who ate not common food, and walked\nnot the streets. And we test you by means of each other. Will ye be\nsteadfast? Thy Lord is looking on!\n\nThey who look not forward to meet Us say, \"If the angels be not sent down to\nus, or unless we behold our Lord. . . .\u201d  Ah! they are proud of heart, and\nexceed with great excess!\n\nOn the day when they shall see the angels, no good news shall there be for\nthe guilty ones, and they shall cry out, \"A barrier that cannot be passed!\"6\n\nThen will we proceed to the works which they have wrought, and make them as\nscattered dust.\n\nHappier, on that day, the inmates of the Garden as to abode, and better off\nas to place of noontide slumber!\n\nOn that day shall the heaven with its clouds be cleft, and the angels shall\nbe sent down, descending:\n\nOn that day shall all empire be in very deed with the God of Mercy, and a\nhard day shall it be for the Infidels.\n\nAnd on that day shall the wicked one7 bite his hands, and say, \"Oh! would\nthat I had taken the same path with the Apostle!\n\n\"Oh! woe is me! would that I had not taken such an one8 for my friend!\n\nIt was he who led me astray from the Warning which had reached me! and Satan\nis man's betrayer.\"9\n\nThen said the Apostle, \"O my Lord! truly my people have esteemed this Koran\nto be vain babbling.\"\n\nThus have we given to every Prophet an enemy from among the wicked ones-But\nthy Lord is a sufficient guide and helper.\n\nAnd the infidels say, \"Unless the Koran be sent down to him all at once. . .\n.\" But in this way would we stablish thy heart by it; in parcels have we\nparcelled it out to thee;10\n\nNor shall they come to thee with puzzling questions,11 but we will come to\nthee with the truth, and their best solution.\n\nThey who shall be gathered upon their faces into hell, shall have the worst\nplace, and be farthest from the path of happiness.\n\nHeretofore we gave the law to Moses, and appointed his brother Aaron to be\nhis counsellor:12\n\nAnd we said, \"Go ye to the people who treat our signs as lies.\" And them\ndestroyed we with utter destruction.\n\nAnd as to the people of Noah! when they treated their Apostles as impostors,\nwe drowned them; and we made them a sign to mankind:-A grievous chastisement\nhave we prepared for the wicked!\n\nAnd Ad and Themoud, and the men of Rass,13 and divers generations between\nthem:\n\nUnto each of them did we set forth parables for warnings, and each of them\ndid we utterly exterminate.\n\nOft are this have the unbelieving Meccans passed by the city on which was\nrained a fatal rain. What! Have they not seen it? Yet have they no hope of a\nresurrection!\n\nAnd when they see thee, they do but take thee as the subject of their\nrailleries. \"What! Is this he whom God has sent as an Apostle?\n\nIndeed he had well nigh led us astray from our gods, had we not persevered\nsteadfastly in their service.\" But in the end they shall know, when they\nshall see the punishment, who hath most strayed from the path.\n\nWhat thinkest thou? He who hath taken his passions as a god-wilt thou be a\nguardian over him?\n\nThinkest thou that the greater part of them hear or understand? They are just\nlike the brutes! Yes! they stray even further from the right way.\n\nHast thou not seen how thy Lord lengtheneth out the shadow?14 Had He pleased\nhe had made it motionless.15 But we made the sun to be its guide;\n\nThen draw it in unto Us with easy indrawing.\n\nHe it is who ordaineth the night as a garment, and sleep for rest, and\nordaineth the day for waking up to life:\n\nHe it is who sendeth the winds as the forerunner of his mercy (rain); and\npure water send we down from Heaven,\n\nThat we may revive by it a dead land: and we give it for drink to our\ncreation, beasts and men in numbers;\n\nAnd we distribute it among them on all sides, that they may reflect: but most\nmen refuse to be aught but thankless.\n\nHad we pleased, we had raised up a warner in every city.\n\nGive not way therefore to the Infidels, but by means of this Koran strive\nagainst them with a mighty strife.\n\nAnd He it is who hath let loose the two seas,16 the one sweet, fresh; and the\nother salt, bitter; and hath put an interspace between them, and a barrier\nthat cannot be passed.\n\nAnd it is He who hath created man of water,17 and established between them\nthe ties of kindred and affinity: and potent is thy Lord.\n\nYet beside God do they worship what can neither help nor hurt them: and the\nInfidel is Satan's helper against his Lord:\n\nStill we have sent thee only as a herald and a warner.\n\nSAY: I ask of you no recompense for it,18 except from him who is willing to\ntake the way to his Lord.\n\nAnd put thou thy trust in Him that liveth and dieth not, and celebrate his\npraise; (He fully knoweth the faults of his servants) who in six days created\nthe Heavens and the Earth, and whatever is between them, then mounted his\nThrone: the God of Mercy! Ask now of the Wise concerning Him.\n\nBut when it is said to them, \"Bow down before the God of Mercy,\" they say,\n\"Who is the God of Mercy? Shall we bow down to what thou biddest?\" And they\nfly from thee the more.\n\nBlessed be He who hath placed in the Heaven the sign of the Zodiac!19 who\nhath placed in it the Lamp of the Sun, and the light-giving Moon!\n\nAnd it is He who hath ordained the night and the day to succeed one another\nfor those who desire to think on God or desire to be thankful.\n\nAnd the servants of the God of Mercy are they who walk upon the Earth softly;\nand when the ignorant20 address them, they reply, \"Peace!\"\n\nThey that pass the night in the worship of their lord prostrate and\nstanding:-\n\nAnd that say, \"O our Lord! turn away from us the torment of Hell, for its\ntorment is endless: it is indeed an ill abode and resting place!\n\nThose who when they spend are neither lavish nor niggard, but keep the mean:-\n\nThose who call on no other gods with God, nor slay whom God hath forbidden to\nbe slain, except for a just cause, and who commit not fornication (for he who\ndoth this shall meet the reward of his wickedness:\n\nDoubled to him shall be the torment on the day of Resurrection; and in it\nshall he remain, disgraced, for ever:-\n\nSave those who shall repent and believe and do righteous works-for them God\nwill change their evil things into good things, for God is Gracious,\nMerciful-\n\nAnd whose turneth to God and doeth what is right, he verily will convert with\na true conversion):\n\nAnd they who bear not witness to that which is false, and when they pass by\nfrivolous sport, pass on with dignity:-\n\nAnd they who, when monished by the signs of their Lord, fall not down\nthereat, as if deaf and blind:-\n\nAnd who say, \"O our Lord! give us in our wives and offspring the joy of our\neyes, and make us examples to those who fear thee:\"\n\nThese shall be rewarded with the High Places of Paradise for their steadfast\nendurance, and they shall meet therein with-Welcome and Salutation:-\n\nFor ever shall they remain therein: a fair abode and resting-place!\n\nSAY: Not on your account doth my Lord care if ye call not on Him! ye have\ntreated his Apostle as an impostor: but bye and bye a punishment shall cleave\nto them.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura [lxv.] xxi. 49.\n\n2 Comp. Sura [lxxiii.] xvi. 105. The frequency with which Muhammad feels it\nnecessary to rebut this charge by mere denial is strongly indicative of its\ntruth.\n\n3 \"The meaning may possibly be that the teachers of Muhammad were persons who\nhad taken refuge in Arabia for offences and heresies.\" Sprenger, Life of M.\np. 96, n. Or, but they utter an injustice and a falsehood. N\u00f6ldeke combats\nDr. Sprenger's supposition that \"Tales of the ancients\" (verse 6) is a book.\nHist. of Qoran, p. 13.\n\n4 Supply, we will not believe.\n\n5 In your ascriptions of divinity to them. Beidh.\n\n6 Or, far, far be they removed. The same words occur at the end of verse 55.\nThe Commentators doubt whether they are spoken by the wicked of the\nimpossibility of their attaining Paradise, or by the angels to the wicked.\n\n7 Said by Beidh. to be the polytheist Okbeh, the son of Abu Mo'eyt, who by\nMuhammad's persuasion professed Islam, but afterwards retracted to please\nUbei ben Khalaf. See Gagnier's Vie de Mahom. i. 362.\n\n8 Ar. fulani (whence the Spanish fulano) identical with the Heb. p. 155, used\nof a person only in Ruth iv. 1, but by the Rabbinic writers, constantly.\n\n9 Or, abandoner.\n\n10 This verse shews that the Koran was of gradual growth in the time of\nMuhammad himself.\n\n11 Lit. parables.\n\n12 Lit. vizier.\n\n13 It is uncertain whether Rass is the name of a city in Yemama; or merely,\nas some interpret it, of a well near Midian; or, according to others, in the\nterritory of Hadramont.\n\n14 Geiger is mistaken in supposing that this passage alludes to 2 Kings xx. 9\n12, and his translation is inaccurate.\n\n15 Lit. quiescent, i.e. always the same.\n\n16 According to some commentators, Muhammad here speaks of the waters of the\nTigris, which do not mingle with the salt water of the sea till they have\nreached a considerable distance from the river-mouth. See Zech. xiv. 8.\n\n17 See Sura [cv.] xxiv. 44, n.\n\n18 \"Thou art taught that whoever would make a profit by the Law depriveth\nhimself of life.\" Pirke Aboth, i. 4. This precept is of frequent occurrence\nin the Talmud.\n\n19 Comp. Sura [xc.] xiii. 29; and the following Sura xvii. 109, n.\n\n20 The idolaters.\n\n\nSURA XVII.-THE NIGHT JOURNEY [LXVII.]\n\nMECCA.1-111 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nGLORY be to Him who carried his servant by night2 from the sacred temple of\nMecca to the temple3 that is more remote, whose precinct we have blessed,\nthat we might shew him of our signs! for He is the Hearer, the Seer.\n\nAnd4 we gave the Book to Moses and ordained it for guidance to the children\nof Israel-\"that ye take no other Guardian than me.\"\n\nO posterity of those whom we bare with Noah! He truly was a grateful servant!\n\nAnd we solemnly declared to the children of Israel in the Book, \"Twice surely\nwill ye enact crimes in the earth, and with great loftiness of pride will ye\nsurely be uplifted.\"\n\nSo when the menace for the first crime5 came to be inflicted, we sent against\nyou our servants endued with terrible prowess; and they searched the inmost\npart of your abodes, and the menace was accomplished.\n\nThen we gave you the mastery over them6 in turn, and increased you in wealth\nand children, and made you a most numerous host.\n\nWe said, \"If ye do well, to your own behoof will ye do well: and if ye do\nevil, against yourselves will ye do it. And when the menace for your latter\ncrime7 came to be inflicted, then we sent an enemy to sadden your faces, and\nto enter the temple as they entered it at first, and to destroy with utter\ndestruction that which they had conquered.\n\nHaply your Lord will have mercy on you! but if ye return, we will return:8\nand we have appointed Hell-the prison of the infidels.\n\nVerily, this Koran guideth to what is most upright; and it announceth to\nbelievers\n\nWho do the things that are right, that for them is a great reward;\n\nAnd that for those who believe not in the life to come, we have got ready a\npainful punishment.\n\nMan prayeth for evil as he prayeth for good; for man is hasty.\n\nWe have made the night and the day for two signs: the sign of the night do we\nobscure, but the sign of the day cause we to shine forth, that ye may seek\nplenty from your Lord, and that ye may know the number of the years and the\nreckoning of time; and we have made everything distinct by distinctiveness.\n\nAnd every man's fate9 have we fastened about his neck: and on the day of\nresurrection will we bring forth to him a book which shall be proffered to\nhim wide open:\n\n-\"Read thy Book:10 there needeth none but thyself to make out an account\nagainst thee this day.\"\n\nFor his own good only shall the guided yield to guidance, and to his own loss\nonly shall the erring err; and the heavy laden shall not be laden with\nanother's load. We never punished until we had first sent an apostle:\n\nAnd when we willed to destroy a city, to its affluent ones did we address our\nbidding; but when they acted criminally therein, just was its doom, and we\ndestroyed it with an utter destruction.\n\nAnd since Noah, how many nations have we exterminated! And of the sins of his\nservants thy Lord is sufficiently informed, observant.\n\nWhoso chooseth this quickly passing life, quickly will we bestow therein that\nwhich we please-even on him we choose; afterward we will appoint hell for\nhim, in which he shall burn-disgraced, outcast:\n\nBut whoso chooseth the next life, and striveth after it as it should be\nstriven for, being also a believer,-these! their striving shall be grateful\nto God:\n\nTo all-both to these and those-will we prolong the gifts of thy Lord; for not\nto any shall the gifts of thy Lord be denied.\n\nSee how we have caused some of them to excel others! but the next life shall\nbe greater in its grades, and greater in excellence.\n\nSet not up another god with God, lest thou sit thee down disgraced,\nhelpless.11\n\nThy Lord hath ordained that ye worship none but him; and, kindness to your\nparents, whether one or both of them attain to old age with thee: and say not\nto them, \"Fie!\" neither reproach them; but speak to them both with respectful\nspeech;\n\nAnd defer humbly to them12 out of tenderness; and say, \"Lord, have compassion\non them both, even as they reared me when I was little.\"\n\nYour Lord well knoweth what is in your souls; he knoweth whether ye be\nrighteous:\n\nAnd gracious is He to those who return to Him.\n\nAnd to him who is of kin render his due, and also to the poor and to the\nwayfarer; yet waste not wastefully,\n\nFor the wasteful are brethren of the Satans, and Satan was ungrateful to his\nLord:\n\nBut if thou turn away from them, while thou thyself seekest boons from thy\nLord for which thou hopest, at least speak to them with kindly speech:\n\nAnd let not thy hand be tied up to thy neck; nor yet open it with all\nopenness, lest thou sit thee down in rebuke, in beggary.\n\nVerily, thy Lord will provide with open hand for whom he pleaseth, and will\nbe sparing. His servants doth he scan, inspect.\n\nKill not your children for fear of want:13 for them and for you will we\nprovide. Verily, the killing them is a great wickedness.\n\nHave nought to do with adultery; for it is a foul thing and an evil way:\n\nNeither slay any one whom God hath forbidden you to slay, unless for a just\ncause: and whosoever shall be slain wrongfully, to his heir14 have we given\npowers; but let him not outstep bounds in putting the manslayer to death, for\nhe too, in his turn, will be assisted and avenged.\n\nAnd touch not the substance of the orphan, unless in an upright way, till he\nattain his age of strength: And perform your covenant; verily the covenant\nshall be enquired of:\n\nAnd give full measure when you measure, and weigh with just balance. This\nwill be better, and fairest for settlement:\n\nAnd follow not that of which thou hast no knowledge;15 because the hearing\nand the sight and the heart,-each of these shall be enquired of:\n\nAnd walk not proudly on the earth, for thou canst not cleave the earth,\nneither shalt thou reach to the mountains in height:\n\nAll this is evil; odious to thy Lord.\n\nThis is a part of the wisdom which thy Lord hath revealed to thee. Set not up\nany other god with God, lest thou be cast into Hell, rebuked, cast away.\n\nWhat! hath your Lord prepared sons for you, and taken for himself daughters\nfrom among the angels? Indeed, ye say a dreadful saying.\n\nMoreover, for man's warning have we varied16 this Koran: Yet it only\nincreaseth their flight from it.\n\nSAY: If, as ye affirm, there were other gods with Him, they would in that\ncase seek occasion against the occupant of the throne:\n\nGlory to Him! Immensely high is He exalted above their blasphemies!\n\nThe seven heavens17 praise him, and the earth, and all who are therein;\nneither is there aught which doth not celebrate his praise; but their\nutterances of praise ye understand not. He is kind, indulgent.\n\nWhen thou recitest the Koran we place between thee and those who believe not\nin the life to come, a dark veil;\n\nAnd we put coverings over their hearts lest they should understand it, and in\ntheir ears a heaviness;\n\nAnd when in the Koran thou namest thy One Lord, they turn their backs in\nflight.\n\nWe well know why they hearken, when they hearken unto thee, and when they\nwhisper apart; when the wicked say, \"Ye follow no other than a man\nenchanted.\"\n\nSee what likenesses they strike out for thee! But they are in error, neither\ncan they find the path.\n\nThey also say, \"After we shall have become bones and dust, shall we in sooth\nbe raised a new creation?\"\n\nSAY: \"Yes, though ye were stones, or iron, or any other creature, to your\nseeming, yet harder to be raised.\" But they will say, \"Who shall bring us\nback?\" SAY: \"He who created you at first.\" And they will wag their heads at\nthee, and say, \"When shall this be?\" SAY: \"Haply it is nigh.\"\n\nOn that day shall God call you forth, and ye shall answer by praising Him;\nand ye shall seem to have tarried but a little while.\n\nEnjoin my servants to speak in kindly sort: Verily Satan would stir up\nstrifes among them, for Satan is man's avowed foe.\n\nYour Lord well knoweth you: if He please He will have mercy on you; or if He\nplease He will chastise you: and we have not sent thee to be a guardian over\nthem.\n\nThy Lord hath full knowledge of all in the heavens and the earth. Higher\ngifts have we given to some of the prophets than to others, and the Psalter\nwe gave to David.\n\nSAY: Call ye upon those whom ye fancy to be gods beside Him; yet they will\nhave no power to relieve you from trouble, or to shift it elsewhere.\n\nThose whom ye call on, themselves desire union with their Lord,18 striving\nwhich of them shall be nearest to him: they also hope for his mercy and fear\nhis chastisement. Verily the chastisement of thy Lord is to be dreaded.\n\nThere is no city which we will not destroy before the day of Resurrection, or\nchastise it with a grievous chastisement. This is written in the Book.\n\nNothing hindered us from sending thee with the power of working miracles,\nexcept that the peoples of old treated them as lies. We gave to Themoud19 the\nshe-camel before their very eyes, yet they maltreated her! We send not a\nprophet with miracles but to strike terror.\n\nAnd remember when we said to thee, Verily, thy Lord is round about mankind;\nwe ordained the vision20 which we shewed thee, and likewise the cursed tree\nof the Koran, only for men to dispute of; we will strike them with terror;\nbut it shall only increase in them enormous wickedness:\n\nAnd when we said to the Angels, \"Prostrate yourselves before Adam:\" and they\nall prostrated them, save Eblis. \"What!\" said he, \"shall I bow me before him\nwhom thou hast created of clay?\n\nSeest thou this man whom thou hast honoured above me? Verily, if thou respite\nme till the day of Resurrection, I will destroy his offspring, except a few.\"\n\nHe said, \"Begone; but whosoever of them shall follow thee, verily, Hell shall\nbe your recompense; an ample recompense!\n\nAnd entice such of them as thou canst by thy voice; assault them with thy\nhorsemen and thy footmen;21 be their partner in their riches and in their\nchildren, and make them promises: but Satan shall make them only deceitful\npromises.\n\nAs to my servants, no power over them shalt thou have; And thy Lord will be\ntheir sufficient guardian.\"\n\nIt is your Lord who speedeth onward the ships for you in the sea, that ye may\nseek of his abundance; for he is merciful towards you.\n\nWhen a misfortune befalleth you out at sea, they whom ye invoke are not to be\nfound: God alone is there: yet when he bringeth you safe to dry land, ye\nplace yourselves at a distance from Him. Ungrateful is man.\n\nWhat! are ye sure, then, that he will not cleave the sides of the earth for\nyou? or that he will not send against you a whirlwind charged with sands?\nThen shall ye find no protector.\n\nOr are ye sure that he will not cause you to put back to sea a second time,\nand send against you a storm blast, and drown you, for that ye have been\nthankless? Then shall ye find no helper against us therein.\n\nAnd now have we honoured the children of Adam: by land and by sea have we\ncarried them: food have we provided for them of good things, and with\nendowments beyond many of our creatures have we endowed them.\n\nOne day we will summon all men with their leaders: they whose book shall be\ngiven into their right hand, shall read their book, and not be wronged a\nthread:\n\nAnd he who has been blind here, shall be blind hereafter, and wander yet more\nfrom the way.\n\nAnd, verily, they had well nigh beguiled thee from what we revealed to thee,\nand caused thee to invent some other thing in our name: but in that case they\nwould surely have taken thee as a friend;22\n\nAnd had we not settled thee, thou hadst well nigh leaned to them a little:\n\nIn that case we would surely have made thee taste of woe23 in life and of woe\nin death: then thou shouldest not have found a helper against us.\n\nAnd truly they had almost caused thee to quit the land, in order wholly to\ndrive thee forth from it:24 but then, themselves should have tarried but a\nlittle after thee.\n\nThis was our way with the Apostles we have already sent before thee, and in\nthis our way thou shalt find no change.\n\nObserve prayer at sunset, till the first darkening of the night, and the\ndaybreak reading-for the daybreak reading hath its witnesses,\n\nAnd watch unto it in the night: this shall be an excess in service:25 it may\nbe that thy Lord will raise thee to a glorious station:\n\nAnd say, \"O my Lord, cause me to enter26 with a perfect entry, and to come\nforth with a perfect forthcoming, and give me from thy presence a helping\npower:\"\n\nAnd SAY: Truth is come and falsehood is vanished. Verily, falsehood is a\nthing that vanisheth.\n\nAnd we send down of the Koran that which is a healing and a mercy to the\nfaithful: But it shall only add to the ruin of the wicked.\n\nWhen we bestow favours on man, he withdraweth and goeth aside; but when evil\ntoucheth him, he is despairing.\n\nSAY: Every one acteth after his own manner: but your Lord well knoweth who is\nbest guided in his path.\n\nAnd they will ask thee of the Spirit.27 SAY: The Spirit proceedeth at my\nLord's command: but of knowledge, only a little to you is given.\n\nIf we pleased, we could take away what we have revealed to thee: none couldst\nthou then find thee to undertake thy cause with us,\n\nSave as a mercy from thy Lord; great, verily, is his favour towards thee.\n\nSAY: Verily, were men and Djinn assembled to produce the like of this Koran,\nthey could not produce its like, though the one should help the other.\n\nAnd of a truth we have set out to men every kind of similitude in this Koran,\nbut most men have refused everything except unbelief.\n\nAnd they say, \"By no means will we believe on thee till thou cause a fountain\nto gush forth for us from the earth;\n\nOr, till thou have a garden of palm-trees and grapes, and thou cause forth-\ngushing rivers to gush forth in its midst;\n\nOr thou make the heaven to fall on us, as thou hast given out, in pieces; or\nthou bring God and the angels to vouch for thee;\n\nOr thou have a house of gold; or thou mount up into Heaven; nor will we\nbelieve in thy mounting up, till thou send down to us a book which we may\nread.\" SAY: Praise be to my Lord! Am I more than a man, an apostle?\n\nAnd what hindereth men from believing, when the guidance hath come to them,\nbut that they say, \"Hath God sent a man as an apostle?\"\n\nSAY: Did angels walk the earth as its familiars, we had surely sent them an\nangel-apostle out of Heaven.\n\nSAY: God is witness enough between you and me. His servants He scanneth,\neyeth.\n\nAnd He whom God shall guide will be guided indeed; and whom he shall mislead\nthou shalt find none to assist, but Him: and we will gather them together on\nthe day of the resurrection, on their faces, blind and dumb and deaf: Hell\nshall be their abode: so oft as its fires die down, we will rekindle the\nflame.\n\nThis shall be their reward for that they believed not our signs and said,\n\"When we shall have become bones and dust, shall we surely be raised a new\ncreation?\"\n\nDo they not perceive that God, who created the Heavens and the Earth, is able\nto create their like? And he hath ordained them a term; there is no doubt of\nit: but the wicked refuse everything except unbelief.\n\nSAY: If ye held the treasures of my Lord's mercy ye would certainly refrain\nfrom them through fear of spending them: for man is covetous.\n\nWe therefore gave to Moses nine clear signs. Ask thou, therefore, the\nchildren of Israel how it was when he came unto them, and Pharaoh said to\nhim, \"Verily, I deem thee, O Moses, a man enchanted.\"\n\nSaid Moses, \"Thou knowest that none hath sent down these clear signs but the\nLord of the Heavens and of the Earth; and I surely deem thee, O Pharaoh, a\nperson lost.\"\n\nSo Pharaoh sought to drive them out of the land; but we drowned him and all\nhis followers.\n\nAnd after his death, we said to the children of Israel, \"Dwell ye in the\nland:\" and when the promise of the next life shall come to pass, we will\nbring you both up together to judgment. In truth have we sent down the Koran,\nand in truth hath it descended, and we have only sent thee to announce and to\nwarn.\n\nAnd we have parcelled out the Koran into sections, that thou mightest recite\nit unto men by slow degrees, and we have sent it down piecemeal.\n\nSAY: Believe ye therein or believe ye not? They verily to whom knowledge had\nbeen given previously, fall on their faces worshipping when it is recited to\nthem, and say: \"Glory be to God! the promise of our Lord is made good!\"\n\nThey fall down on their faces weeping, and It increaseth their humility.\n\nSAY: Call upon God (Allah),28 or call upon the God of Mercy (Arrahman), by\nwhichsoever ye will invoke him: He hath most excellent names. And be not loud\nin thy prayer, neither pronounce it too low;29 but between these follow a\nmiddle way:\n\nAnd SAY: Praise be to God who hath not begotten a son, who hath no partner in\nthe Kingdom, nor any protector on account of weakness. And magnify him by\nproclaiming His greatness.30\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Verses 12, 23-41, 75-82, 87, are supposed by many commentators to have\noriginated at Medina.\n\n2 Waquidy says the night-journey took place on the 17th of Rabhy' 1, a\ntwelvemonth before the Hejira.\n\n3 Of Jerusalem; and thence through the seven heavens to the throne of God on\nthe back of Borak, accompanied by Gabriel, according to some traditions;\nwhile others, and those too of early date, regard it as no more than a\nvision. It was, however, in all probability a dream. Muir ii. 219; N\u00f6ld. p.\n102, who give the Muhammadan sources of information.\n\n4 It is probable that as this verse has no real or apparent connection with\nthe preceding, a verse may have been lost, and that verse 1 has been placed\nat the head of the Sura merely because the night-journey is elsewhere alluded\nto in it.\n\n5 According to the commentators the slaughter of Isaiah and the imprisonment\nof Jeremiah, punished by the invasion of the Assyrians.\n\n6 Over Sennacherib.\n\n7 The slaying Zacharias, John Baptist, and Jesus, punished by the destruction\nof Jerusalem by the Romans. Comp. Tr. Gittin, fol. 57, where we read of the\nsufferings drawn down upon the Jews in consequence of the former of these\ncrimes.\n\n8 That is, if ye return to sin, we will return to punish.\n\n9 Lit. bird.\n\n10 Comp. Mischnah Aboth, 3, 20.\n\n11 Comp. in Heb. Isai. liii. 3.\n\n12 Lit. lower a wing of humility.\n\n13 Comp. Sura [lxxxix.] vi. 151; lxxxi. 8, p. 45. Zaid, the sceptical seeker\nafter truth, is reported to have discouraged the killing of daughters,\nsaying, \"I will support them.\" Kit\u00e2b al Wackidi, p. 255. See note at Sura\n[xcvii.] iii. 18.\n\n14 Or, next of kin.\n\n15 Or, run not after vain things which will avail nought. Or, accuse not any\nof a crime if thou art not sure of his guilt.\n\n16 Used a variety of arguments and illustrations.\n\n17 Thus Tr. Chagiga, fol. 9 b. \"There are seven heavens (rakian): the veil,\nthe firmament, the clouds, the habitation, the abode, the fixed seat, the\naraboth.\" See Wetst. on 2 Cor. xii. 2.\n\n18 In obvious allusion to the saint-worship of the Christians.\n\n19 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 71.\n\n20 See note on v. 1. The tree is Zakkoum, Sura [xlv.] lvi. The Rabbins teach\nthat food of the bitterest herbs is one of the punishments of Hell. See\nSchr\u00f6der's Rabb. und. Talm. Judenthum, p. 403.\n\n21 That is, with all thy might.\n\n22 Zamakshary relates that this passage was revealed when the Thaqyfites in\nframing the document of agreement between themselves and Muhammad, required\nthat the words requiring the prostrations in worship should not be added. The\nwriter looked at the prophet, who stood by in silence, when Omar stood up and\ndrew his sword with menacing words. They replied, We speak not thee but to\nMuhammad. Then this verse was revealed. Thus Dr. Sprenger. Life, p. 186. He\nrenders the last clause, but at the right moment a friend reprehended thee.\n\n23 Lit. weakness, languors.\n\n24 \"The Jews, envious of Muhammad's good reception and stay there, told him,\nby way of counsel, that Syria was the land of the Prophets, and that if he\nwas really a prophet, he ought to go there.\" Sale from Djelal Eddin ap. Mar.\nGeiger, p. 12, quotes a Talmudical saying to the same effect, but without any\nreference.\n\n25 A work of supererogation, and therefore doubly meritorious. Thus Tr.\nBerachoth, fol. 4. The word station (mekam) is still used of the nearness to\nGod, attained in spiritual ecstacies, etc.\n\n26 That is, to enter the Grave or Mecca. Lit. with an entry of truth.\n\n27 The word spirit is probably to be understood of the Angel Gabriel. Comp. 1\nKings xxii. 21. Others understand it of the immaterial soul of man. See note\non Sura [xci.] ii. 81.\n\n28 The infidels hearing Muhammad say, Ya Allah! Ya Rahman! in his prayers,\nimagined that he was addressing two Deities; hence this passage. Comp.\n[lxxiii.] xvi. 52; [lxvi.] xxv. 61. As this title of God (Rahman) disappears\nfrom the later Suras, it has been inferred that Muhammad's original intention\nwas to have combined it with Allah, but that through fear lest Allah and\nArrahman should be supposed to be two Gods, he dropped the latter.-This title\nwas applied to their deities by the Himyarites; and it occurs in Ps. lxxviii.\n38, and Ex. xxxiv. 6. The root is not found in \u00c6thiopic.\n\n29 The Talm. Tr. Berachoth, 31, 2, forbids loudness in prayer by the example\nof Hannah.\n\n30 Lit. magnify Him by magnifying.\n\n\nSURA XXVII.-THE ANT [LXVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-95 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTA. SAD.1 These are the signs (verses) of the Koran and of the lucid Book;\n\nGuidance and glad tidings to the believers who observe prayer and pay the\nstated alms, and believe firmly-do they-in the life to come.\n\nAs to those who believe not in the life to come, we have made their own\ndoings fair seeming to them, and they are bewildered therein.\n\nThese are they whom the woe of chastisement awaiteth; and in the next life\nthey shall suffer-yes shall they-greatest loss;\n\nBut thou hast certainly received the Koran from the Wise, the Knowing.\n\nBear in mind when Moses said to his family, \"I have perceived a fire;\n\nI will bring you tidings from it, or will bring you a blazing brand, that ye\nmay warm you.\"\n\nAnd when he came to it, he was called to, \"Blessed, He who is in the fire,\nand He who is about it; and glory be to God, the Lord of the worlds!\n\nO Moses! verily, I am God, the Mighty, the Wise!\n\nThrow down now thy staff.\" And when he saw that it moved itself as though it\nwere a serpent, he retreated backward and returned not. \"O Moses, fear not;\nfor the Sent Ones fear not in my presence,\n\nSave he who having done amiss shall afterwards exchange the evil for good;\nfor I am Forgiving, Merciful.\n\nPut now thy hand into thy bosom: it shall come forth white, yet free from\nhurt:2 one of nine signs to Pharaoh and his people; for a perverse people are\nthey.\"\n\nAnd when our signs were wrought in their very sight,3 they said, \"This is\nplain magic.\"\n\nAnd though in their souls they knew them to be true, yet in their wickedness\nand pride they denied them. But see what was the end of the corrupt doers!\n\nAnd of old we gave knowledge to David and Solomon: and they said, \"Praise be\nto God, who hath made us to excel many of his believing servants!\"\n\nAnd in knowledge Solomon was David's heir. And he said, \"O men, we have been\ntaught the speech of birds,4 and are endued with everything. This is indeed a\nclear boon from God.\"\n\nAnd to Solomon were gathered his hosts of Djinn5 and men and birds, and they\nwere marched on in bands,\n\nTill they reached the Valley of Ants. Said AN ANT, \"O ye ants, enter your\ndwellings, lest Solomon and his army crush you and know it not.\"\n\nThen smiled Solomon, laughing at her words, and he said, \"Stir me up, O Lord,\nto be thankful for thy favour which thou hast shewed upon me and upon my\nparents, and to do righteousness that shall be well pleasing to thee, and\nbring me in, by thy mercy, among thy servants the righteous.\"\n\nAnd he reviewed the birds, and said, \"How is it that I see not the lapwing?\nIs it one of the absent?\n\nSurely, with a severe chastisement will I chastise it, or I will certainly\nslaughter it, unless it bring me a clear excuse.\"\n\nNor tarried it long ere it came and said, \"I have gained the knowledge that\nthou knowest not, and with sure tidings have I come to thee from Saba:\n\nI found a woman reigning over them, gifted with everything, and she hath a\nsplendid throne;\n\nAnd I found her and her people worshipping the sun instead of God; and Satan\nhath made their works fair seeming to them, so that he hath turned them from\nthe Way: wherefore they are not guided,\n\nTo the worship of God, who bringeth to light the secret things of heaven and\nearth, and knoweth what men conceal and what they manifest:\n\nGod! there is no god but He! the lord of the glorious throne!\"\n\nHe said, \"We shall see whether thou hast spoken truth, or whether thou art of\nthem that lie.\n\nGo with this my letter and throw it down to them: then turn away from them\nand await their answer.\"\n\nShe said, \"O my nobles! an honourable letter hath been thrown down to me:\n\nIt is from Solomon; and it is this: 'In the name of God, the Compassionate,\nthe Merciful!\n\nSet not up yourselves against me, but come to me submitting (Muslims).' \"\n\nShe said, \"O my nobles, advise me in mine affair: I decide it not without\nyour concurrence.\"6\n\nThey said, \"We are endued with strength and are endued with mighty valour.-\nBut to command is thine: See therefore what thou wilt command us.\"\n\nShe said, \"Kings when they enter a city spoil it, and abase the mightiest of\nits people: and in like manner will these also do.\n\nBut I will send to them with a gift, and await what my envoys bring back.\"\n\nAnd when the messenger came to Solomon, he said, \"Aid ye me with riches? But\nwhat God hath given to me is better than what he hath given you: yet ye glory\nin your gifts:\n\nReturn to them: for we will surely come to them with forces which they cannot\nwithstand, and we will drive them from their land humbled and contemptible.\"\n\nSaid he, \"O nobles, which of you will bring me her throne before they come to\nme, submitting? (Muslims).\"\n\nAn Efreet7 of the Djinn said: \"I will bring it thee ere thou risest from thy\nplace: I have power for this and am trusty.\"\n\nAnd one who had the knowledge of Scripture said, \"I will bring it to thee in\nthe twinkling of an eye.\"8 And when he saw it set before him, he said, \"This\nis of the favour of my Lord, to try me whether I will be thankful or\nunthankful. And he who is thankful is thankful to his own behoof; and as for\nhim who is unthankful-truly my Lord is self-sufficient, bounteous!\"\n\nSaid he, \"Make her throne so that she know it not: we shall see whether she\nhath or not guidance.\"\n\nAnd when she came he said, \"Is thy throne like this?\" She said, \"As though it\nwere the same.\" \"And we,\" said he, \"have had knowledge given us before her,\nand have been Muslims.\"\n\nBut the gods she had worshipped instead of God had led her astray: for she\nwas of a people who believe not.\n\nIt was said to her,\"Enter the Palace:\" and when she saw it, she thought it a\nlake of water, and bared her legs. He said, \"It is a palace paved with\nglass.\"\n\nShe said, \"O my Lord! I have sinned against my own soul, and I resign myself,\nwith Solomon, to God the Lord of the Worlds.\"\n\nAnd of old we sent to Themoud their brother Saleh, with \"Serve ye God:\"but\nlo! they became two sets of disputants wrangling with each other.\n\nHe said, \"O my people, why, if ye ask not pardon of God that ye may find\nmercy, hasten ye on evil rather than good?\"\n\nThey said,\"We augur9 ill concerning thee and those who are with thee.\" He\nsaid, \"The ills of which ye augur10 depend on God. But ye are a people on\nyour trial.\"\n\nAnd there were in the city nine persons who committed excesses in the land\nand did not that which is right.\n\nThey said, \"Swear ye to one another by God that we will surely fall on him\nand on his family by night: then will be say to the avenger of blood, we\nwitnessed not the destruction of his family: and verily we speak the truth.\"\n\nAnd they devised a device, and we devised a device, and they were not aware\nof it-\n\nAnd see what was the end of their device! We destroyed them and their whole\npeople:\n\nAnd for their sin these their houses are empty ruins: Verily in this is a\nsign to those who understand;\n\nAnd we delivered those who believed and feared.\n\nAnd Lot, when he said to his people, \"What! proceed ye to such filthiness\nwith your eyes open?\n\nWhat! come ye with lust unto men rather than to women? Surely ye are an\nignorant people.\"\n\nAnd the answer of his people was but to say, \"Cast out the family of Lot from\nyour city: they, forsooth, are men of purity!\"\n\nSo we rescued him and his family: but as for his wife, we decreed her to be\nof them that lingered:\n\nAnd we rained a rain upon them, and fatal was the rain to those who had had\ntheir warning.\n\nSAY: Praise be to God and peace be on His servants whom He hath chosen! Is\nGod the more worthy or the gods they join with Him?\n\nIs not He who hath made the Heavens and the Earth, and hath sent down rain to\nyou from Heaven, by which we cause the luxuriant groves to spring up! It is\nnot in your power to cause its trees to spring up! What! A god with God? Yet\nthey find equals for Him!\n\nIs not He, who hath set the earth so firm, and hath made rivers in its midst,\nand hath placed mountains upon it, and put a barrier between the two seas?11\nWhat! a god with God? Yet the greater part of them have no knowledge!\n\nIs not He the more worthy who answereth the oppressed when they cry to him,\nand taketh off their ills, and maketh you to succeed your sires on the earth?\nWhat! a god with God? How few bear these things in mind!\n\nIs not He, who guideth you in the darkness of the land and of the sea, and\nwho sendeth forth the winds as the forerunners of His mercy? What! a god with\nGod? Far from God be what ye join with Him!\n\nIs not He, who created a Being, then reneweth it, and who supplieth you out\nof the Heaven and the Earth? What! a god with God? SAY: Bring forth your\nproofs if you speak the truth.\n\nSAY: None either in the Heavens or in the Earth knoweth the unseen but God.\nAnd they know not\n\nWhen they shall be raised.\n\n-Yet they have attained to a knowledge of the life to come:12-yet are they in\ndoubt about it:-yet are they blind about it!\n\nAnd the unbelievers say: \"When we and our fathers have been dead shall we be\ntaken forth?\n\nOf old have we been promised this, we and our sires of old it is but fables\nof the ancients.\"\n\nSAY: Go ye through the land, and see what hath been the end of the wicked.\n\nAnd grieve not thou for them, nor be in distress at their devisings.\n\nAnd they say, \"When will this promise be made good, if ye speak true?\"\n\nSAY: Haply a part of what ye desire to be hastened may be close behind you.\n\nAnd truly thy Lord is full of goodness towards men: But most of them are not\nthankful.\n\nAnd thy Lord knoweth well what their breasts enshroud, and what they bring to\nlight,\n\nAnd there is no secret thing in the Heaven or on the Earth, but it is in the\nclear Book.\n\nTruly this Koran declareth to the children of Israel most things wherein they\ndisagree:\n\nAnd it is certainly guidance and a mercy to the faithful.\n\nVerily, by his wisdom will thy Lord decide between them: for He is the\nMighty, the Knowing.\n\nPut thou then thy trust in God: for thou hast clear truth on thy side.13\n\nThou shalt not make the dead to hear; neither shalt thou make the deaf to\nhear the call, when they turn away backward;\n\nNeither art thou the guide of the blind out of their errors: none truly shalt\nthou make to hear but those who believe our signs: and they are Muslims.\n\nWhen the doom shall be ready to light upon them, we will cause a monster14 to\ncome forth to them out of the earth, and cry to them \"Verily men have not\nfirmly believed our signs.\"\n\nAnd on that day shall be gathered out of every nation a company of those who\nhave gainsaid our signs, in separate bands;\n\nTill they come before God, who will say, \"Treated ye my signs as impostures,\nalthough ye embraced them not in your knowledge? or what is it that ye were\ndoing?\n\nAnd doom shall light upon them for their evil deeds, and nought shall they\nhave to plead.\n\nSee they not that we have ordained the night that they may rest in it, and\nthe day with its gift of light? Of a truth herein are signs to people who\nbelieve.\n\nOn that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and all that are in the\nheavens, and all that the on the earth shall be terror-stricken, save him\nwhom God pleaseth to deliver; and all shall come to him in humble guise.\n\nAnd thou shalt see the mountains, which thou thinkest so firm, pass away with\nthe passing of a cloud! 'Tis the work of God, who ordereth all things! of all\nthat ye do is He well aware.\n\nTo him who shall present himself with good works, shall be a reward beyond\ntheir desert,15 and they shall be secure from the terror on that day;\n\nAnd they who shall present themselves with evil shall be flung downward on\ntheir faces into the fire. Shall ye be rewarded but as ye have wrought?\n\nSAY: Specially am I commanded to worship the Lord of this land, which He hath\nsanctified. All things are His: and I am commanded to be one of those who\nsurrender them to God (a Muslim)\n\nAnd to recite the Koran: and whoever is rightly guided, assuredly will be\nrightly guided to his own behoof.\n\nAnd as to him who erreth, SAY, I truly am a warner only.And SAY, Praise be to\nGod! He will shew you His signs, and ye shall acknowledge them: and of what\nye do, thy Lord is not regardless.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii., p. 32, n.\n\n2 Not really leprous.\n\n3 Lit. when our visible signs came to them.\n\n4 This tradition may be derived from 1 Kings iv. 33. Comp. Geiger, p. 185.\nThe legend of Solomon's power over the Genii originates in a mistranslation\nof Eccl. ii. 8. Comp. also for other points in this story Prov. vi. 6; 1\nKings x. 1-10.\n\n5 \"Demons obeyed him (Solomon) . . . and evil spirits were subjected to him.\"\nTarg. 2. on Esther 1, 2. From the same source Muhammad has adopted, with\nslight variations, the whole story of Solomon's intercourse with the Queen of\nSaba. Comp. also Tr. Gittin, fol. 68, and Midr. Jalkut on 1 Kings vi. ch.\n182.\n\n6 Lit. unless ye bear me witness.\n\n7 That is, malignant. \"The efreets are generally believed to differ from the\nother djinn in being very powerful and always malicious; but to be in other\nrespects of a similar nature\" (Lane's Modern Egyptians, i. 285). \"The ghosts\nof dead persons are also called by this name\" (ib. 289).\n\n8 Or, before thy glance can be withdrawn from an object.\n\n9 Lit. we have consulted the flight of birds: hence presage.\n\n10 Lit. your bird, augury.\n\n11 Comp. Sura [lxvi.] xxv. 55.\n\n12 Lit. their knowledge attaineth to the next life.\n\n13 Lit. art on clear truth.\n\n14 Al Jassaca, the Spy.\n\n15 Or, shall derive advantage from them.\n\n\nSURA XVIII.-THE CAVE [LXIX.]\n\nMECCA.-110 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nPRAISE be to God, who hath sent down the Book to his servant, and hath not\nmade it tortuous1\n\nBut direct; that it may warn of a grievous woe from him, and announce to the\nfaithful who do the things that are right, that a goodly reward, wherein they\nshall abide for ever, awaiteth them;\n\nAnd that it may warn those who say, \"God hath begotten a Son.\"\n\nNo knowledge of this have either they or their fathers! A grievous saying to\ncome out of their mouths! They speak no other than a lie!\n\nAnd haply, if they believe not in this new revelation, thou wilt slay\nthyself, on their very footsteps, out of vexation.\n\nVerily, we have made all that is on earth as its adornment, that we might\nmake trial who among mankind would excel in works:\n\nBut we are surely about to reduce all that is thereon to dust!\n\nHast thou reflected that the Inmates of THE CAVE and of Al Rakim2 were on our\nwondrous signs?\n\nWhen the youths betook them to the cave they said, \"O our Lord! grant us\nmercy from before thee, and order for us our affair aright.\"\n\nThen struck we upon their ears with deafness in the cave for many a year:\n\nThen we awaked them that we might know which of the two parties could best\nreckon the space of their abiding.\n\nWe will relate to thee their tale with truth. They were youths who had\nbelieved in their Lord, and in guidance had we increased them;\n\nAnd we had made them stout of heart, when they stood up and said, \"Our Lord\nis Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth: we will call on no other God than\nHim; for in that case we had said a thing outrageous.\n\nThese our people have taken other gods beside Him, though they bring no clear\nproof for them; but, who more iniquitous than he who forgeth a lie of God?\n\nSo when ye shall have separated you from them and from that which they\nworship beside God, then betake you to the cave: Your Lord will unfold his\nmercy to you, and will order your affairs for you for the best.\"\n\nAnd thou mightest have seen the sun when it arose, pass on the right of their\ncave, and when it set, leave them on the left, while they were in its\nspacious chamber. This is one of the signs of God. Guided indeed is he whom\nGod guideth; but for him whom He misleadeth, thou shalt by no means find a\npatron, director.\n\nAnd thou wouldst have deemed them awake,3 though they were sleeping: and we\nturned them to the right and to the left. And in the entry lay their dog with\npaws outstretched.4 Hadst thou come suddenly upon them, thou wouldst surely\nhave turned thy back on them in flight, and have been filled with fear at\nthem.\n\nSo we awaked them that they might question one another. Said one of them,\n\"How long have ye tarried here?\" They said, \"We have tarried a day or part of\nday.\" They said, \"Your Lord knoweth best how long ye have tarried: Send now\none of you with this your coin into the city, and let him mark who therein\nhath purest food, and from him let him bring you a supply: and let him be\ncourteous, and not discover you to any one.\n\nFor they, if they find you out, will stone you or turn you back to their\nfaith, and in that case it will fare ill with you for ever.\"\n\nAnd thus made we their adventure known to their fellow citizens, that they\nmight learn that the promise of God is true, and that as to \"the Hour\" there\nis no doubt of its coming. When they disputed among themselves concerning\nwhat had befallen them, some said, \"Build a building over them; their Lord\nknoweth best about them.\" Those who prevailed in the matter said, \"A place of\nworship will we surely raise over them.\"\n\nSome say, \"They were three; their dog the fourth:\" others say, \"Five; their\ndog the sixth,\" guessing at the secret: others say, \"Seven; and their dog the\neighth.\" SAY: My Lord best knoweth the number: none, save a few, shall know\nthem.\n\nTherefore be clear in they discussions about them,5 and ask not any Christian\nconcerning them.\n\nSay not thou of a thing, \" I will surely do it to-morrow;\" without , \"If God\nwill.\"6 And when thou hast forgotten, call thy Lord to mind; and say, \"Haply\nmy Lord will guide me, that I may come near to the truth of this story with\ncorrectness.\"\n\nAnd they tarried in their cave 300 years, and 9 years over.7\n\nSAY: God best knoweth how long they tarried: With Him are the secrets of the\nHeavens and of the Earth: Look thou and hearken unto Him alone.8 Man hath no\nguardian but Him, and none may bear part in his judgments:-\n\nAnd publish what hath been revealed to thee of the Book of thy Lord-none may\nchange his words,-and thou shalt find no refuge beside Him.\n\nBe patient with those who call upon their Lord at morn and even, seeking his\nface: and let not thine eyes be turned away from them in quest of the pomp of\nthis life;9 neither obey him10 whose heart we have made careless of the\nremembrance of Us, and who followeth his own lusts, and whose ways are\nunbridled.\n\nAnd SAY: the truth is from your Lord: let him then who will, believe; and let\nhim who will, be an infidel. But for the offenders we have got ready the fire\nwhose smoke shall enwrap them: and if they implore help, helped shall they be\nwith water like molten brass which shall scald their Wretched the drink! and\nan unhappy couch!\n\nBut as to those who have believed and done the things that are right,-Verily\nwe will not suffer the reward of him whose works were good, to perish!\n\nFor them, the gardens of Eden, under whose shades shall rivers flow: decked\nshall they be therein with bracelets of gold, and green robes of silk and\nrich brocade shall they wear, reclining them therein on thrones. Blissful the\nreward! and a pleasant couch!11\n\nAnd set forth to them as a parable two men; on one of whom we bestowed two\ngardens of grape vines, and surrounded both with palm trees, and placed corn\nfields between them: Each of the gardens did yield its fruit, and failed not\nthereof at all:\n\nAnd we caused a river to flow in their midst: And this man received his\nfruit, and said, disputing with him, to his companion, \"More have I than thou\nof wealth, and my family is mightier.\"\n\nAnd he went into his garden-to his own soul unjust. He said, \"I do not think\nthat this will ever perish:\n\nAnd I do not think that 'the Hour' will come: and even if I be taken back to\nmy Lord, I shall surely find a better than it in exchange.\"\n\nHis fellow said to him, disputing with him, \"What ! hast thou no belief in\nhim who created thee of the dust, then of the germs of life,12 then fashioned\nthee a perfect man?\n\nBut God is my Lord; and no other being will I associate with my Lord.\n\nAnd why didst thou not say when thou enteredst thy garden, 'What God willeth!\nThere is no power but in God.' Though thou seest that I have less than thou\nof wealth and children,\n\nYet haply my Lord may bestow on me better than thy garden, and may send his\nbolts upon it out of Heaven, so that the next dawn shall find it barren dust;\n\nOr its water become deep sunk, so that thou art unable to find it.\"\n\nAnd his fruits were encompassed by destruction. Then began he to turn down\nthe palms of his hands at what he had spent on it; for its vines were falling\ndown on their trellises, and he said, \"Oh that I had not joined any other god\nto my Lord!\"\n\nAnd he had no host to help him instead of God, neither was he able to help\nhimself.\n\nProtection in such a case is of God-the Truth: He is the best rewarder, and\nHe bringeth to the best issue.\n\nAnd set before them a similitude of the present life. It is as water which we\nsend down from Heaven, and the herb of the Earth is mingled with it, and on\nthe morrow it becometh dry stubble which the winds scatter: for God hath\npower over all things.\n\nWealth and children are the adornment of this present life: but good works,\nwhich are lasting, are better in the sight of thy Lord as to recompense, and\nbetter as to hope.\n\nAnd call to mind the day when we will cause the mountains to pass away,13 and\nthou shalt see the earth a levelled plain, and we will gather mankind\ntogether, and not leave of them any one.\n\nAnd they shall be set before thy Lord in ranks:-\"Now are ye come unto us as\nwe created you at first: but ye thought that we should not make good to you\nthe promise.\"\n\nAnd each shall have his book put into his hand: and thou shalt see the wicked\nin alarm at that which is therein: and they shall say, \"O woe to us! what\nmeaneth this Book? It leaveth neither small nor great unnoted down!\" And they\nshall find all that they have wrought present to them, and thy Lord will not\ndeal unjustly with any one.\n\nWhen we said to the angels, \"Prostrate yourselves before Adam,\" they all\nprostrated them save Eblis, who was of the Djinn,14 and revolted from his\nLord's behest. behest.-What! will ye then take him and his offspring as\npatrons rather than Me? and they your enemies? Sad exchange for the ungodly!\n\nI made them not witnesses of the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth,\nnor of their own creation, neither did I take seducers as my helpers.\n\nOn a certain day, God shall say, \"Call ye on the companions ye joined with\nme, deeming them to be gods:\" and they shall call on them, but they shall not\nanswer them: then will we place a valley of perdition between them:\n\nAnd the wicked shall see the fire, and shall have a foreboding that they\nshall be flung into it, and they shall find no escape from it.\n\nAnd now in this Koran we have presented to man similitudes of every kind:\nbut, at most things is man a caviller.\n\nAnd what, now that guidance is come to them, letteth men from believing and\nfrom asking forgiveness of their Lord-unless they wait till that the doom of\nthe ancients overtake them, or the chastisement come upon them in the sight\nof the universe?\n\nWe send not our Sent Ones but to announce and to warn: but the infidels cavil\nwith vain words in order to refute the truth; and they treat my signs and\ntheir own warnings with scorn.\n\nBut who is worse than he who when told of the signs of his Lord turneth him\naway and forgetteth what in time past his hands have wrought? Truly we have\nthrown veils over their hearts lest they should understand this Koran, and\ninto their ears a heaviness:\n\nAnd if thou bid them to \"the guidance\" yet will they not even then be guided\never.\n\nThe gracious one, full of compassion, is thy Lord! if he would have chastised\nthem for their demerits he would have hastened their chastisement. But they\nhave a time fixed for the accomplishment of our menaces: and beside God they\nshall find no refuge.\n\nAnd those cities did we destroy when they became impious; and of their coming\ndestruction we gave them warning.\n\nRemember when Moses said to his servant, \"I will not stop till I reach the\nconfluence of the two seas,15 or for years will I journey on.\"\n\nBut when they reached their confluence, they forgot their fish, and it took\nits way in the sea at will.\n\nAnd when they had passed on, said Moses to his servant, \"Bring us our morning\nmeal; for now have we incurred weariness from this journey.\"\n\nHe said, \"What thinkest thou? When we repaired to the rock for rest I forgot\nthe fish; and none but Satan made me forget it, so as not to mention it; and\nit hath taken its way in the sea in a wondrous sort.\"\n\nHe said, \"It is this we were in quest of.\"16 And they both went back\nretracing their footsteps.\n\nThen found they one of our servants to whom we had vouchsafed our mercy, and\nwhom we had instructed with our knowledge.\n\nAnd Moses said to him, \"Shall I follow thee that thou teach me, for guidance,\nof that which thou too hast been taught?\"\n\nHe said, \"Verily, thou canst not have patience with me;\n\nHow canst thou be patient in matters whose meaning thou comprehendest not?\"\n\nHe said, \"Thou shalt find me patient if God please, nor will I disobey thy\nbidding.\"\n\nHe said, \"Then, if thou follow me, ask me not of aught until I have given\nthee an account thereof.\"\n\nSo they both went on, till they embarked in a ship, and he-the unknown-staved\nit in. \"What!\" said Moses, \"hast thou staved it in that thou mayest drown its\ncrew? a strange thing now hast thou done!\"\n\nHe said, \"Did I not tell thee that thou couldst not have patience with me?\"\n\nHe said, \"Chide me not that I forgat, nor lay on me a hard command.\"\n\nThen went they on till they met a youth, and he slew him. Said Moses, \"Hast\nthou slain him who is free from guilt of blood? Now hast thou wrought a\ngrievous thing!\"\n\nHe said, \"Did I not tell thee that thou couldst not have patience with me?\"\n\nMoses said, \"If after this I ask thee aught, then let me be thy comrade no\nlonger; but now hast thou my excuse.\"\n\nThey went on till they came to the people of a city. Of this people they\nasked food, but they refused them for guests. And they found in it a wall\nthat was about to fall, and he set it upright. Said Moses, \"If thou hadst\nwished, for this thou mightest have obtained pay.\"\n\nHe said, \"This is the parting point between me and thee. But I will first\ntell thee the meaning of that which thou couldst not await with patience.\n\n\"As to the vessel, it belonged to poor men who toiled upon the sea, and I was\nminded to damage it, for in their rear was a king who seized every ship by\nforce.\n\nAs to the youth his parents were believers, and we feared lest he should\ntrouble them by error and infidelity.\n\nAnd we desired that their Lord might give them in his place a child, better\nthan he in virtue, and nearer to filial piety.\n\nAnd as to the wall, it belonged to two orphan youths in the city, and beneath\nit was their treasure: and their father was a righteous man: and thy Lord\ndesired that they should reach the age of strength, and take forth their\ntreasure through the mercy of thy Lord. And not of mine own will have I done\nthis. This is the interpretation of that which thou couldst not bear with\npatience.\"\n\nThey will ask thee of Dhoulkarnain [the two-horned17]. SAY: I will recite to\nyou an account of him.\n\nWe stablished his power upon the earth, and made for him a way to everything.\nAnd a route he followed,\n\nUntil when he reached the setting of the sun, he found it to set in a miry\nfount; and hard by he found a people.\n\nWe said, \"O Dhoulkarnain! either chastise or treat them generously.\"\n\n\"The impious,\" said he, \"will we surely chastise;\" then shall he be taken\nback to his Lord, and he will chastise him with a grievous chastisement.\n\nBut as to him who believeth and doeth that which is right, he shall have a\ngenerous recompense, and we will lay on them our easy behests.\n\nThen followed he a route,\n\nUntil when he reached the rising of the sun he found it to rise on a people\nto whom we had given no shelter from it.\n\nThus it was.  And we had full knowledge of the forces that were with him.\n\nThen followed he a route\n\nUntil he came between the two mountains, beneath which he found a people who\nscarce understood a language.\n\nThey said, \"O Dhoulkarnain! verily, Gog and Magog18 waste this land; shall we\nthen pay thee tribute, so thou build a rampart19 between us and them?\"\n\nHe said, \"Better than your tribute is the might wherewith my Lord hath\nstrengthened me; but help me strenuously, and I will set a barrier between\nyou and them.\n\nBring me blocks of iron,\"-until when it filled the space between the mountain\nsides-\"Ply,\" said he, \"your bellows,\"-until when he had made it red with heat\n(fire), he said,-\"Bring me molten brass that I may pour upon it.\"\n\nAnd Gog and Magog were not able to scale it, neither were they able to dig\nthrough it.\n\n\"This,\" said he, \"is a mercy from my Lord:\n\nBut when the promise of my Lord shall come to pass, he will turn it to dust;\nand the promise of my Lord is true.\"\n\nOn that day we will let them dash like billows one over another; and there\nshall be a blast on the trumpet, and we will gather them together in a body.\n\nAnd we will set Hell on that day close before the infidels,\n\nWhose eyes were veiled from my warning, and who had no power to hear.\n\nWhat! do the infidels think that they can take my servants as their patrons,\nbeside Me? Verily, we have got Hell ready as the abode of the infidels.\n\nSAY: Shall we tell you who they are that have lost their labour most?\n\nWhose aim in the present life hath been mistaken, and who deem that what they\ndo is right?\n\nThey are those who believe not in the signs of the Lord, or that they shall\never meet him. Vain, therefore, are their works; and no weight will we allow\nthem on the day of resurrection.\n\nThis shall be their reward-Hell.20 Because they were unbelievers, and treated\nmy signs and my Apostles with scorn.\n\nBut as for those who believe and do the things that are right, they shall\nhave the gardens of Paradise21 for their abode:\n\nThey shall remain therein for ever: they shall wish for no change from it.\n\nSAY: Should the sea become ink, to write the words of my Lord, the sea would\nsurely fail ere the words of my Lord would fail, though we brought its like\nin aid.\n\nSAY: In sooth I am only a man like you. It hath been revealed to me that your\nGod is one only God: let him then who hopeth to meet his Lord work a\nrighteous work: nor let him give any other creature a share in the worship of\nhis Lord.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. hath not put crookedness into it.\n\n2 The valley, or mountain, in which the Cave of the Seven Sleepers was\nsituated. Comp. Fundgreiben des Orients, iii. 347-381. Gibbon's Decline and\nFall, ch. xxxiii., especially the concluding sentences.\n\n3 Because they slept with their eyes open. Beidh.\n\n4 The Muhammadans believe that this dog will be admitted into Paradise. One\nof its traditional names is Katmir, a word whose letters, it should be\nobserved, are with one exception identical with Rakim.\n\n5 Lit. dispute not about them unless with clear disputation.\n\n6 Muhammad had omitted to use the qualifying phrase when, in reply to the\nJews who asked for the History of the Seven Sleepers, he simply promised to\ngive it on the morrow; hence, this verse. Comp. James iv. 13-15.\n\n7 They entered the cavern under Decius and awoke in the time of Theodosius,\naccording to the tradition; which cannot be reconciled with the number of\nyears given in the text.\n\n8 Thus Ullm. But the words may be taken with Beidh. and Sale, as ironical.\nMake thou him to see and hear.\n\n9 Said to have been promulgated at Medina. N\u00f6ld. p. 106\n\n10 Omaya Ibn Chalf, who advised Muhammad to cast off all his poorer\nfollowers, out of respect to the Koreisch.\n\n11 It is probable that this and the numerous similar descriptions of the\nenjoyments in Paradise are based upon Muhammad's knowledge, or possibly\npersonal observation, of the luxurious habits of the Persians, to whom many\nArabian tribes owed allegiance, and with whom they had mercantile\ntransactions by means of caravans. The word Paradise, the names of cups and\nbrocade in Sura lvi. pp. 66, 67, and the word sundus in this passage, are all\nPersian.\n\n12 Lit ex spermate.\n\n13 Comp. Isai. xl. 4, etc.\n\n14 Muhammad appears, according to this text, to have considered Eblis not\nonly as the father of the Djinn, but as one of their number. The truth\nappears to be that Muhammad derived his doctrines of the Genii from the\nPersian and Indian mythology, and attempted to identify them with the Satan\nand demons of the Semitic races. Both the Satans and Djinn represent in the\nKoran the principle of Evil. See Sura [xci.] ii. 32, n.\n\n15 The sea of Greece and the sea of Persia. But as no literal interpretation\nof the passage seems satisfactory, the Commentators have devised a spiritual\nor metaphorical one, and explain it of the two oceans of natural and\nsupernatural knowledge. There is no trace of this legend in the Rabbinic\nwritings.\n\n16 The loss of our fish is a sign to us of our finding him whom we seek,\nnamely, El-Khidr, or El-Khadir, the reputed vizier of Dhoulkarnain, and said\nto have drunk of the fountain of life, by virtue of which he still lives, and\nwill live till the day of judgment. He is also said to appear, clad in green\nrobes, to Muslims in distress, whence his name. Perhaps the name Khidr is\nformed from Jethro.\n\n17 Probably Alexander the Great-so called from his expeditions to the East\nand West. He seems to be regarded in this passage as invested with a divine\ncommission for the extirpation of impiety and idolatry. Comp. Dan. viii. and\nTr. Tanith, fol. 32. Hottinger Bibl. Orient. 109.\n\n18 Ar. Yadjoudj and Madjoudj-the barbarous people of E. Asia. See Ibn\nBatoutah's Travels, iv. p. 274 (Par.ed.)\n\n19 This rampart has been identified with fortifications which extended from\nthe W. shore of the Caspian Sea to the Pontus Euxinus, made, as it is said,\nby Alexander, and repaired by Yezdegird II. Caussin de Perceval, vol.i.p. 66.\nSee Sura [lxv.] xxi. 96\n\n20 The form of this word in the Arabic, with the h in the second syllable and\nthe final m, shews that the word was borrowed from the Hebrew, and not from\nthe Greek or Syriac.\n\n21 Observe in this expression the same admixture of the Semitic and Indo-\nPersian elements as was noticed above in the identification of Satans and\nDjinn, verse 48.\n\n\nSURA XXXII.-ADORATION [LXX.]\n\nMECCA.-30 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM.1 This Book is without a doubt a Revelation sent down from the\nLord of the Worlds.\n\nWill they say, He hath forged it? Nay, it is the truth from thy Lord that\nthou mayest warn a people to whom no warner hath come before thee, that haply\nthey may be guided.\n\nGod it is who hath created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is between\nthem in six days; then ascended his throne. Save Him ye have no patron, and\nnone to plead for you. Will ye not then reflect?\n\nFrom the Heaven to the Earth He governeth all things: hereafter shall they\ncome up to him on a day whose length shall be a thousand of such years as ye\nreckon.2\n\nThis is He who knoweth the unseen and the seen; the Mighty, the Merciful,\n\nWho hath made everything which he hath created most good; and began the\ncreation of man with clay;\n\nThen ordained his progeny from germs of life,3 from sorry water:\n\nThen shaped him, and breathed of His Spirit into him, and gave you hearing\nand seeing and hearts: what little thanks do ye return!\n\nAnd they say, \"What! when we shall have lain hidden in the earth, shall we\nbecome a new creation?\"\n\nYea, they deny that they shall meet their Lord.\n\nSAY: The angel of death who is charged with you shall cause you to die: then\nshall ye be returned to your Lord.\n\nCouldst thou but see when the guilty shall droop their heads before their\nLord, and cry, \"O our Lord! we have seen and we have heard: return us then to\nlife: we will do that which is right. Verily we believe firmly!\"\n\n(Had we pleased we had certainly given to every soul its guidance. But true\nshall be the word which hath gone forth from me-I will surely fill hell with\nDjinn and men together.)\n\n\"Taste then the recompense of your having forgotten the meeting with this\nyour day. We, too, we have forgotten you: taste then an eternal punishment\nfor that which ye have wrought.\"\n\nThey only believe in our signs, who, when mention is made of them, fall down\nin ADORATION, and celebrate the praise of their Lord, and are not puffed up\nwith disdain:\n\nWho, as they raise them4 from their couches, call on their Lord with fear and\ndesire, and give alms of that with which we have supplied them.\n\nNo soul knoweth what joy of the eyes is reserved for the good in recompense\nof their works.\n\nShall he then who is a believer be as he who sinneth grossly? they shall not\nbe held alike.\n\nAs to those who believe and do that which is right, they shall have gardens\nof eternal abode as the meed of their works:\n\nBut as for those who grossly sin, their abode shall be the fire: so oft as\nthey shall desire to escape out of it, back shall they be turned into it. And\nit shall be said to them, Taste ye the torment of the fire, which ye treated\nas a lie.\n\nAnd we will surely cause them to taste a punishment yet nearer at hand,\nbesides the greater punishment, that haply they may turn to us in penitence.\n\nWho acteth worse than he who is warned by the signs of his Lord, then turneth\naway from them? We will surely take vengeance on the guilty ones.\n\nWe heretofore gave the Book of the law to Moses: have thou no doubt as to our\nmeeting with him:5 and we appointed it for the guidance of the children of\nIsrael.\n\nAnd we appointed Im\u00e2ms from among them who should guide after our command\nwhen they had themselves endured with constancy, and had firmly believed in\nour signs.\n\nNow thy Lord! He will decide between them on the day of resurrection as to\nthe subject of their disputes.\n\nIs it not notorious to them how many generations, through whose abodes they\nwalk, we have destroyed before them? Truly herein are sings: will they not\nthen hear?\n\nSee they not how we drive the rain to some parched land and thereby bring\nforth corn of which their cattle and themselves do eat? Will they not then\nbehold?\n\nThey say, \"When will this decision take place? Tell us, if ye are men of\ntruth?\"\n\nSAY: On the day of that decision, the faith of infidels shall not avail them,\nand they shall have no further respite.\n\nStand aloof from them then, and wait thou, for they too wait.6\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.\n\n2 Comp. Sura [cvii.] xxii. 46, and Ps. xc. 4, which is taken literally by\nmany of the Talmudists. Comp. e.g. Sanhed. 96, 2.\n\n3 Lit. ex spermate genitali.\n\n4 Lit. their sides are raised.\n\n5 N\u00f6ldeke thinks that the word for meeting is used here in the same sense as\nin v. 10 above and Sura [lxxi.] xli. 54, and that the clause does not belong\nto this verse, p. 108, n.\n\n6 Wait thou for their punishment as they wait for thy downfall.\n\n\nSURA1 XLI.-THE MADE PLAIN [LXXI.]\n\nMECCA.-54 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHA. MIM.2 A Revelation from the Compassionate, the Merciful!\n\nA Book whose verses (signs) are MADE PLAIN-an Arabic Koran, for men of\nknowledge;\n\nAnnouncer of glad tidings and charged with warnings! But most of them\nwithdraw and hearken not:\n\nAnd they say, \"Our hearts are under shelter from thy teachings, and in our\nears is a deafness, and between us and thee there is a veil. Act as thou\nthinkest right: we verily shall act as we think right.\"\n\nSAY: I am only a man like you.3 It is revealed to me that your God is one\nGod: go straight then to Him, and implore his pardon. And woe to those who\njoin gods with God;\n\nWho pay not the alms of obligation, and in the life to come believe not!\n\nBut they who believe and do the things that are right shall receive a\nperfect4 recompense.\n\nSAY: Do ye indeed disbelieve in Him who in two days created the earth? and do\nye assign Him peers? The Lord of the worlds is He!\n\nAnd he hath placed on the earth the firm mountains which tower above it; and\nHe hath blessed it, and distributed food throughout it, for the cravings of\nall alike, in four days:\n\nThen He applied himself to the Heaven, which then was but smoke: and to it\nand to the Earth He said, \"Come ye, whether in obedience or against your\nwill?\" and they both said, \"We come obedient.\"\n\nAnd He made them seven heavens in two days, and in each heaven made known its\noffice: And we furnished the lower heaven with lights and guardian angels.\nThis, the disposition of the Almighty, the All-knowing.\n\nIf they turn away, then SAY: I warn you of a tempest, like the tempest of Ad\nand Themoud!\n\nWhen the apostles came to them on every side,5 saying, \"Worship none but\nGod,\" they said, \"Had our Lord been pleased to send down, He had surely sent\ndown angels; and in sooth, your message we do not believe.\"\n\nAs to Ad, they bore them proudly and unjustly in the land, and said, \"Who\nmore mighty than we in prowess?\" Saw they not that God their creator was\nmightier than they in prowess? And they rejected our signs.\n\nTherefore on ill-omened days did we send against them an impetuous blast that\nwe might make them taste the chastisement of shame in this world:-but more\nshameful shall be the chastisement of the life to come; and they shall not be\nprotected.\n\nAnd as to Themoud, we had vouchsafed them guidance; but to guidance did they\nprefer blindness; wherefore the tempest of a shameful punishment overtook\nthem for their doings:\n\nBut we rescued the believing and the God-fearing:\n\nAnd warn of the day when the enemies of God shall be gathered6 unto the fire\nurged on in bands:\n\nUntil when they reach it, their ears and their eyes and their skins shall\nbear witness against them of their deeds:\n\nAnd they shall say to their skins, \"Why witness ye against us?\" They shall\nsay, \"God, who giveth a voice to all things, hath given us a voice: He\ncreated you at first, and to Him are ye brought back.\n\nAnd ye did not hide yourselves so that neither your ears nor your eyes nor\nyour skins should witness against you: but ye thought that God knew not many\na thing that ye did!\n\nAnd this your thought which ye did think of your Lord hath ruined you, so\nthat ye are become of those who perish.\"\n\nAnd be they patient, still the fire shall be their abode: or if they beg for\nfavour, yet shall they not be of favoured.\n\nAnd we will appoint Satans as their fast companions; for it was they who made\ntheir present and future state seem fair and right to them; and the sentence\npassed on the peoples of Djinn and men who flourished before them hath become\ntheir due, and they shall perish.\n\nYet the unbelievers say, \"Hearken not to this Koran, but keep up a talking,\nthat ye may overpower the voice of the reader.\"\n\nSurely therefore will we cause the unbelievers to taste a terrible\npunishment;\n\nAnd recompense them according to the worst of their actions.\n\nThis the reward of the enemies of God,-the Fire! it shall be their eternal\nabode, in requital for their gainsaying our signs.\n\nAnd they who believed not shall say, \"O our Lord! shew us those of the Djinn\nand men who led us astray: both of them will we put under out feet, that they\nmay be of the humbled.\"\n\nBut as for those who say, \"Our Lord is God;\" and who go straight to Him,7\nangels shall descend to them and say, \"Fear ye not, neither be ye grieved,\nbut rejoice ye in the paradise which ye have been promised.\n\nWe are your guardians in this life and in the next: your's therein shall be\nyour soul's desire, and your's therein whatever ye shall ask for,\n\nThe hospitality of a Gracious, a Merciful One.\"\n\nAnd who speaketh fairer than he who biddeth to God and doth the thing that is\nright, and saith, \"I for my part am of the Muslims\"?\n\nMoreover, good and evil are not to be treated as the same thing. Turn away\nevil by what is better, and lo! he between whom and thyself was enmity, shall\nbe as though he were a warm friend.\n\nBut none attain to this save men steadfast in patience, and none attain to it\nexcept the most highly favoured.8\n\nAnd if an enticement from Satan entice thee, then take refuge in God, for He\nis the Hearing, the Knowing.\n\nAnd among his signs are the night, and the day, and the sun, and the moon.\nBend not in adoration to the sun or the moon, but bend in adoration before\nGod who created them both, if ye would serve Him.\n\nBut if they are too proud for this, yet they who are with thy Lord do\ncelebrate His praises night and day,9 and cease not.\n\nAnd among His signs is this, that thou seest the earth drooping: but, when we\nsend down the rain upon it, it is stirred and swelleth; verily He who giveth\nit life, will surely give life to the dead; for His might extendeth over all\nthings.10\n\nThey truly who with obloquy disown our signs are not hidden from us. Is he\nthen who shall be cast into the fire, or he who shall come forth secure on\nthe day of resurrection, in the better position? Do what ye will: but His eye\nis on all your doings.\n\nVerily, they who believe not in \"the warning,\" after it hath come to them . .\n. and yet the Koran is a glorious book!\n\nFalsehood, from whatever side it cometh, shall not come night it;11 it is a\nmissive down from the Wise, the Praiseworthy.\n\nNothing hath been said to thee which hath not been said of old to apostles\nbefore thee. Verily with thy Lord is forgiveness, and with Him is terrible\nretribution.\n\nHad we made it a Koran in a foreign tongue, they had surely said, \"Unless its\nsigns be made clear . . . !12 What! in a foreign tongue? and the people\nArabian?\" SAY: It is to those who believe a guide and a medicine;13 but as to\nthose who believe not, there is a thickness in their ears, and to them it is\na blindness: they are like those who are called to from afar.\n\nOf old we gave the Book to Moses, and disputes arose about it: and if a\ndecree of respite from thy Lord had gone before, there would surely have been\na decision between them: for great were their doubts and questionings about\nit.14\n\nHe who doth right-it is for himself:15 and he who doth evil-it is for\nhimself: and thy Lord will not deal unfairly with his servants.\n\nWith Him alone16 is the knowledge of \"the Hour.\" No fruit cometh forth from\nits coverings, neither doth any female conceive, nor is she delivered, but\nwith His knowledge. And on that day He shall call men to Him, saying, \"Where\nare the companions ye gave me?\" They shall say, \"We own to thee, there is no\none of us can witness for them.\"\n\nAnd what they erst called on shall pass away from them, and they shall\nperceive that there will be no escape for them.\n\nMan ceaseth not to pray for good: but if evil betide him he despondeth,\ndespairing.\n\nAnd if we cause him to taste our mercy after affliction hath touched him, he\nis sure to say, \"This is my due: and I take no thought of the Hour of\nResurrection: and if I be brought back to my Lord, I shall indeed attain with\nHim my highest good.\" But we will then certainly declare their doings to the\nInfidels, and cause them to taste a stern punishment.\n\nWhen we are gracious to man, he withdraweth and turneth him aside: but when\nevil toucheth him, he is a man of long prayers.\n\nSAY: What think ye? If this Book be from God and ye believe it not, who will\nhave gone further astray than he who is at a distance from it?\n\nWe will shew them our signs in different countries and among themselves,\nuntil it become plain to them that it is the truth. Is it not enough for thee\nthat thy Lord is witness of all things?\n\nAre they not in doubt as to the meeting with their Lord? But doth he not\nencompass all things?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 In some MSS. this Sura is entitled Adoration. Thus Beidh. According to His.\n186, comp. Caussin 1, 375 f., Muhammad's aim in this Sura was the conversion\nof a noble Meccan, Utba ben Rabia, to Islam. The precise year is uncertain.\n\n2 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.\n\n3 Thus SS. Paul and Barnabas, Acts xiv. 15.\n\n4 Or, never failing.\n\n5 Lit. from before them and from behind them.\n\n6 See Sura [lx.] xxxvi. 64, n.\n\n7 Comp. Sura [lxxxviii.] xlvi. 12.\n\n8 Lit. the possessor of great good fortune.\n\n9 Comp. Rev. iv. 8 in the original.\n\n10 Thus Tr. Taanith (init.).\n\n11 Lit. vanity shall not come to it from before it, or from behind it.\n\n12 We will not receive it. The literal rendering of the following words is\nwhat! foreign and Arabian?\n\n13 Comp. Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 83, 84.\n\n14 Lit. verily they were in suspicious doubting about it.\n\n15 Lit. for his soul. See next Sura, v. 14.\n\n16 Lit. to Him is referred.\n\n\nSURA XLV.-THE KNEELING [LXXII.]\n\nMECCA.-36 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHA. MIM.1 This Book is sent down2 from God, the Mighty, the Wise!\n\nAssuredly in the Heavens and the Earth are signs for those who believe:\n\nAnd in your own creation, and in the beasts which are scattered abroad are\nsigns to the firm in faith:\n\nAnd in the succession of night and day, and in the supply which God sendeth\ndown from the Heaven whereby He giveth life to the earth when dead, and in\nthe change of the winds, are signs for a people of discernment.\n\nSuch are the signs of God: with truth do we recite them to thee. But in what\nteaching will they believe, if they reject3 God and his signs?\n\nWoe to every lying sinner,\n\nWho heareth the signs of God recited to him, and then, as though he heard\nthem not, persisteth in proud disdain! Apprise him of an afflictive\npunishment.\n\nAnd when he becometh acquainted with any of our signs he turneth them into\nridicule. These! a shameful punishment for them!\n\nHell is behind them! and neither their gains nor the lords whom they have\nadopted beside God shall avail them in the least: and theirs, a great\npunishment!\n\nThis is \"Guidance:\" and for those who disbelieve the signs of their Lord is\nthe punishment of an afflictive torment.\n\nIt is God who hath subjected the sea to you that the ships may traverse it at\nhis bidding, and that ye may go in quest of the gifts of his bounty, and that\nye may be thankful.\n\nAnd he hath subjected to you all that is in the Heavens and all that is on\nthe Earth: all is from him. Verily, herein are signs for those who reflect.\n\nTell the believers to pardon those who hope not for the days of God4 in which\nHe purposeth to reward men according to their deeds.\n\nHe who doth that which is right, doth it to his own behoof, and whoso doth\nevil, doth it to his own hurt. Hereafter, to your Lord shall ye be brought\nback.\n\nTo the children of Israel gave we of old the Book and the Wisdom, and the\ngift of Prophecy, and we supplied them with good things, and privileged them\nabove all peoples:\n\nAnd we gave them clear sanctions for our behests: neither did they differ,\nthrough mutual envy, till after they had become possessed of knowledge; but\nthy Lord will judge between them on the day of resurrection, as to the\nsubject of their disputes.\n\nAfterwards we set thee over our divine law:5 follow it then: and follow not\nthe wishes of those who have no knowledge,\n\nFor against God shall they avail thee nothing. And in sooth, the doers of\nevil are one another's patrons; but the patron of them that fear Him is God\nhimself.\n\nThis Book hath insight for mankind, and a Guidance and Mercy to a people who\nare firm in faith.\n\nDeem they whose gettings are only evil, that we will deal with them as with\nthose who believe and work righteousness, so that their lives and deaths\nshall be alike? Ill do they judge.\n\nIn all truth hath God created the Heavens and the Earth, that he may reward\nevery one as he shall have wrought; and they shall not be wronged.\n\nWhat thinkest thou? He who hath made a God of his passions, and whom God\ncauseth wilfully to err, and whose ears and whose heart he hath sealed up,\nand over whose sight he hath placed a veil-who, after his rejection by God,\nshall guide such a one? Will ye not then be warned?\n\nAnd they say, \"There is only this our present life: we die and we live, and\nnought but time destroyeth us.\" But in this they have no knowledge: it is\nmerely their own conceit.\n\nAnd when our clear signs are recited to them, their only argument is to say,\n\"Bring back our fathers, if ye speak the truth.\"\n\nSay: God giveth you life, then causeth you to die: then will He assemble you\non the day of resurrection: there is no doubt of it: but most men have not\nthis knowledge.\n\nAnd God's is the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth; and on the day when\nthe Hour shall arrive, on that day shall the despisers6 perish.\n\nAnd thou shalt see every nation KNEELING: to its own book shall every nation\nbe summoned:-\u201dThis day shall ye be repaid as ye have wrought.\n\nThis our Book will speak of you with truth: therein have we written down\nwhatever ye have done.\"\n\nAs to those who have believed and wrought righteously, into his mercy shall\ntheir Lord cause them to enter. This shall be undoubted bliss!\n\nBut as to the Infidels-\"Were not my signs recited to you? but ye proudly\nscorned them, and became a sinful people.\"\n\nAnd when it was said, \"Verily the Promise of God is truth; and as to the\nHour, there is no doubt of it;\" ye said, \"We know not what the hour is-we\nconceive it a mere conceit,-we have no assurance of it.\"\n\nAnd the evils they have wrought shall rise up into their view, and that at\nwhich they mocked shall hem them in on every side.\n\nAnd it shall be said to them, \"This day will we forget you as ye forgat your\nmeeting with us this day, and your abode shall be the fire, and none shall\nthere be to succour you:-\n\nThis, because ye received the signs of God with mockery, and this present\nlife deceived you.\" On that day therefore they shall not come out from it;\nand they shall not be asked to win the favour of God.\n\nPraise then be to God, Lord of the Heavens and Lord of the Earth; the Lord of\nthe worlds!\n\nAnd His be the greatness in the Heavens and on the Earth; for He is the\nMighty, the Wise!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. p. 32.\n\n2 Lit. the sending down, i.e. the revelation of the Book.\n\n3 Lit. after God.\n\n4 That is, the days of victory. In Scripture phrase, \"the days of the right\nhand of the Most High.\"\n\n5 The Arabic amri may be rendered either command or business, i.e. of\nreligion.\n\n6 Lit. the makers vain, i.e. vanitatis arguentes alcoranum. Mar.\n\n\nSURA XVI.-THE BEE [LXXIII.]\n\nMECCA.-128 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTHE doom of God cometh to pass. Then hasten it not. Glory be to Him! High let\nHim be exalted above the gods whom they join with Him!\n\nBy his own behest will He cause the angels to descend with the Spirit on whom\nhe pleaseth among his servants, bidding them, \"Warn that there is no God but\nme; therefore fear me.\"\n\nHe hath created the Heavens and the Earth to set forth his truth;1 high let\nHim be exalted above the gods they join with Him!\n\nMan hath He created from a moist germ;2 yet lo! man is an open caviller.\n\nAnd the cattle! for you hath He created them: in them ye have warm garments\nand gainful uses; and of them ye eat:\n\nAnd they beseem you well3 when ye fetch them home and when ye drive them\nforth to pasture:\n\nAnd they carry your burdens to lands which ye could not else reach but with\ntravail of soul: truly your Lord is full of goodness, and merciful:\n\nAnd He hath given you horses, mules, and asses, that ye may ride them, and\nfor your ornament: and things of which ye have no knowledge hath he created.\n\nOf God it is to point out \"the Way.\" Some turn aside from it: but had He\npleased, He had guided you all aright.\n\nIt is He who sendeth down rain out of Heaven: from it is your drink; and from\nit are the plants by which ye pasture.\n\nBy it He causeth the corn, and the olives, and the palm-trees, and the grapes\nto spring forth for you, and all kinds of fruits: verily, in this are signs\nfor those who ponder.\n\nAnd He hath subjected to you the night and the day; the sun and the moon and\nthe stars too are subjected to you by his behest; verily, in this are signs\nfor those who understand:\n\nAnd all of varied hues that He hath created for you over the earth: verily,\nin this are signs for those who remember.\n\nAnd He it is who hath subjected the sea to you, that ye may eat of its fresh\nfish, and take forth from it ornaments to wear-thou seest the ships ploughing\nits billows-and that ye may go in quest of his bounties, and that ye might\ngive thanks.\n\nAnd He hath thrown firm mountains on the earth, least it move with you; and\nrivers and paths for your guidance,\n\nAnd way marks. By the stars too are men guided.\n\nShall He then who hath created be as he who hath not created? Will ye not\nconsider?\n\nAnd if ye would reckon up the favours of God, ye could not count them. Aye!\nGod is right Gracious, Merciful!\n\nAnd God knoweth what ye conceal, and what ye bring to light,\n\nWhile the gods whom they call on beside God, create nothing, but are\nthemselves created:\n\nDead are they, lifeless! and they know not\n\nWhen they shall be raised!\n\nYour God is the one God: and they who believe not in a future life, have\nhearts given to denial, and are men of pride:-\n\nBeyond a doubt God knoweth what they conceal and what they manifest:-\n\nHe truly loveth not the men of pride.\n\nFor when it is said to them, \"What is this your Lord hath sent down?\" they\nsay, \"Fables of the ancients,\"-\n\nThat on the day of resurrection they may bear their own entire burden, and\nthe burden of those whom they, in their ignorance, misled. Shall it not be a\ngrievous burden for them?\n\nThey who were before them did plot of old. But God attacked their building at\nits foundation the roof fell on them from above; and, whence they looked not\nfor it, punishment overtook them:4\n\nOn the day of resurrection, too, will He shame them. He will say, \"Where are\nthe gods ye associated with me, the subjects of your disputes?\" They to whom\n\"the knowledge\" hath been given will say, Verily, this day shall shame and\nevil fall upon the infidels.\n\nThe sinners against their own souls whom the angels shall cause to die will\nproffer the submission, \"No evil have we done.\" Nay! God knoweth what ye have\nwrought:\n\nEnter ye therefore the gates of Hell to remain therein for ever: and horrid\nthe abiding place of the haughty ones!\n\nBut to those who have feared God it shall be said, \"What is this that your\nLord hath awarded?\" They shall say, \"That which is best. To those who do\ngood, a good reward in this present world; but better the mansion of the\nnext, and right pleasant the abode of the God-fearing!\"\n\nGardens of Eden into which they shall enter; rivers shall flow beneath their\nshades; all they wish for shall they find therein! Thus God rewardeth those\nwho fear Him;\n\nTo whom, as righteous persons, the angels shall say, when they receive their\nsouls, \"Peace be on you! Enter Paradise as the meed of your labours.\"\n\nWhat can the infidels expect but that the angels of death come upon them, or\nthat a sentence of thy Lord take effect? Thus did they who flourished before\nthem. God was not unjust to them, but to their ownselves were they unjust;\n\nAnd the ill which they had done recoiled upon them, and that which they had\nscoffed at encompassed them round about.\n\nThey who have joined other gods with God say, \"Had He pleased, neither we nor\nour fathers had worshipped aught but him; nor should we, apart from him, have\nforbidden aught.\" Thus acted they who were before them. Yet is the duty of\nthe apostles other than public preaching?\n\nAnd to every people have we sent an apostle saying:-Worship God and turn away\nfrom Taghout.5 Some of them there were whom God guided, and there were others\ndecreed to err. But go through the land and see what hath been the end of\nthose who treated my apostles as liars!\n\nIf thou art anxious for their guidance, know that God will not guide him whom\nHe would lead astray, neither shall they have any helpers.\n\nAnd they swear by God with their most sacred oath that \"God will never raise\nhim who once is dead.\" Nay, but on Him is a promise binding, though most men\nknow it not,-\n\nThat He may clear up to them the subject of their disputes, and that the\ninfidels may know that they are liars.\n\nOur word to a thing when we will it, is but to say, \"Be,\" and it is.6\n\nAnd as to those who when oppressed have fled their country for the sake of\nGod, we will surely provide them a goodly abode in this world, but greater\nthe reward of the next life, did they but know it\n\nThey who bear ills with patience and put their trust in the Lord!\n\nNone have we sent before thee but men inspired ask of those who have Books of\nMonition,7 if ye know it not-\n\nWith proofs of their mission and Scriptures: and to thee have we sent down\nthis Book of Monition that thou mayest make clear to men what hath been sent\ndown to them, and that they may ponder it.\n\nWhat! Are they then who have plotted mischiefs, sure that God will not cause\nthe earth to cleave under them? or that a chastisement will not come upon\nthem whence they looked not for it?\n\nOr that He will not seize upon them in their comings and goings, while they\nshall not be able to resist him?\n\nOr that he will not seize them with some slowly wasting scourge? But verily\nyour Lord is Good, Gracious.\n\nHave they not seen how everything which God hath created turneth its shadow\nright and left, prostrating itself before God in all abasement?\n\nAnd all in the Heavens and all on the Earth, each thing that moveth, and the\nvery angels, prostrate them in adoration before God, and are free from pride;\n\nThey fear their Lord who is above them, and do what they are bidden:\n\nFor God hath said, \"Take not to yourselves two gods, for He is one God: me,\ntherefore! yea, me revere!\n\nAll in the Heavens and in the Earth is His! His due unceasing service! Will\nye then fear any other than God?\n\nAnd all your blessings are assuredly from God: then, when trouble befalleth\nyou, to Him ye turn for help:\n\nThen when He relieveth you of the trouble, lo! some of you join associates\nwith your Lord:-\n\nTo prove how thankless are they for our gifts! Enjoy yourselves then: but in\nthe end ye shall know the truth.\n\nAnd for idols, of which they know nothing, they set apart a share of our\nbounties! By God ye shall be called to account for your devices!\n\nAnd they ascribe daughters unto God! Glory be to Him! But they desire them\nnot for themselves:8\n\nFor when the birth of a daughter is announced to any one of them, dark\nshadows settle on his face, and he is sad:\n\nHe hideth him from the people because of the ill tidings: shall he keep it\nwith disgrace or bury it in the dust?9 Are not their judgments wrong?\n\nTo whatever is evil may they be likened who believe not in a future life;10\nbut God is to be likened to whatever is loftiest: for He is the Mighty, the\nWise.\n\nShould God punish men for their perverse doings, he would not leave on earth\na moving thing! but to an appointed term doth He respite them; and when their\nterm is come, they shall not delay or advance it an hour.\n\nYet what they loathe themselves do they assign to God; and their tongues\nutter the lie, that theirs shall be a goodly lot. But beyond a doubt is it\nthat the fire awaiteth them, and that they shall be the first sent into it.\n\nBy God we have sent Apostles to nations before thee, but Satan prepared their\nwork for them, and this day is he their liege; and a woeful punishment doth\nawait them.\n\nAnd we have sent down the Book to thee only, that thou mightest clear up to\nthem the subject of their wranglings, and as a guidance and a mercy to those\nwho believe.\n\nAnd God sendeth down water from Heaven, and by it giveth life to the Earth\nafter it hath been dead: verily, in this is a sign to those who hearken.\n\nYe have also teaching from the cattle. We give you drink of the pure milk,\nbetween dregs and blood, which is in their bellies; the pleasant beverage of\nthem that quaff it.\n\nAnd among fruits ye have the palm and the vine, from which ye get wine and\nhealthful nutriment: in this, verily, are signs for those who reflect.\n\nAnd thy Lord hath taught the BEE, saying: \"Provide thee houses in the\nmountains, and in the trees, and in the hives which men do build thee:\n\nFeed, moreover, on every kind of fruit, and walk the beaten paths of thy\nLord.\" From its belly cometh forth a fluid of varying hues,11 which yieldeth\nmedicine to man. Verily in this is a sign for those who consider.\n\nAnd God hath created you; by and bye will he take you to himself; and some\namong you will he carry on to abject old age, when all that once was known is\nknown no longer. Aye, God is Knowing, Powerful.\n\nAnd God hath abounded to some of you more than to others in the supplies of\nlife; yet they to whom He hath abounded, impart not thereof to the slaves\nwhom their right hands possess, so that they may share alike. What! will they\ndeny, then, that these boons are from God?\n\nGod, too, hath given you wives of your own race, and from your wives hath He\ngiven you sons and grandsons, and with good things hath he supplied you.\nWhat, will they then believe in vain idols? For God's boons they are\nungrateful!\n\nAnd they worship beside God those who neither out of the Heavens or Earth can\nprovide them a particle of food, and have no power in themselves!\n\nMake no comparisons, therefore, with God.12 Verily, God hath knowledge, but\nye have not.\n\nGod maketh comparison between a slave13 the property of his lord, who hath no\npower over anything, and a free man whom we have ourselves supplies, and who\ngiveth alms therefrom both in secret and openly. Shall they be held equal?\nNo: praise be to God! But most men know it not.\n\nGod setteth forth also a comparison between two men, one of whom is dumb from\nhis birth, and hath no power over anything, and is a burden to his lord: send\nhim where he will, he cometh not back with success. Shall he and the man who\nenjoineth what is just, and keepeth in the straight path, be held equal?\n\nGod's are the secrets of the Heavens and of the Earth! and the business of\nthe last hour will be but as the twinkling of an eye, or even less. Yes! for\nall things is God Potent.\n\nGod hath brought you out of your mothers' wombs devoid of all knowledge; but\nhath given you hearing, and sight, and heart, that haply ye might render\nthanks.\n\nHave they never looked up at the birds subjected to Him in Heaven's vault?\nNone holdeth them in hand but God! In this are signs for those who believe.\n\nAnd God hath given you tents to dwell in: and He hath given you the skins of\nbeasts for tents, that ye may find them light when ye shift your quarters, or\nwhen ye halt; and from their wool and soft fur and hair, hath He supplied you\nwith furniture and goods for temporary use.\n\nAnd from the things which He hath created, hath God provided shade for you,\nand hath given you the mountains for places of shelter, and hath given you\ngarments to defend you from the heat, and garments to defend you in your\nwars. Thus doth He fill up the measure of His goodness towards you, that you\nmay resign yourselves to Him.\n\nBut if they turn their backs, still thy office is only plain spoken\npreaching.\n\nThey own the goodness of God-then they disown it-and most of them are\ninfidels.\n\nBut one day, we will raise up a witness out of every nation: them shall the\ninfidels have no permission to make excuses, and they shall find no favour.\n\nAnd when they who have acted thus wrongly shall behold their torment, it\nshall not be made light to them, nor will God deign to look upon them.\n\nAnd when they who had joined associates with God shall see those their\nassociate-gods, they shall say, \"O our Lord! these are our associate-gods\nwhom we called upon beside Thee.\" But they shall retort on them, \"Verily, ye\nare liars.\"\n\nAnd on that day shall they proffer submission to God; and the deities of\ntheir own invention shall vanish from them.\n\nAs for those who were infidels and turned others aside from the way of God,\nto them we will add punishment on punishment for their corrupt doings.\n\nAnd one day we will summon up in every people a witness against them from\namong themselves; and we will bring thee up as a witness against these\nMeccans: for to thee have we sent down the Book which cleareth up everything,\na guidance, and mercy, and glad tidings to those who resign themselves to God\n(to Muslims).\n\nVerily, God enjoineth justice and the doing of good and gifts to kindred, and\nhe forbiddeth wickedness and wrong and oppression. He warneth you that haply\nye may be mindful.\n\nBe faithful in the covenant of God when ye have covenanted, and break not\nyour oaths after ye have pledged them: for now have ye made God to stand\nsurety for you. Verily, God hath knowledge of what ye do.\n\nAnd, because you are a more numerous people than some other people, be not\nlike her who unravelleth the thread which she had strongly spun, by taking\nyour oaths with mutual perfidy. God is making trial of you in this: and in\nthe day of resurrection he will assuredly clear up to you that concerning\nwhich ye are now at variance.\n\nHad God pleased, He could have made you one people: but He causeth whom He\nwill to err, and whom He will He guideth: and ye shall assuredly be called to\naccount for your doings.\n\nTherefore take not your oaths with mutual fraud, lest your foot slip after it\nhath been firmly fixed, and ye taste of evil because ye have turned others\naside from the way of God, and great be your punishment.\n\nAnd barter not the covenant of God for a mean price; for with God is that\nwhich is better for you, if ye do but understand.\n\nAll that is with you passeth away, but that which is with God abideth. With a\nreward meet for their best deeds will we surely recompense those who have\npatiently endured.\n\nWhoso doeth that which is right, whether male or female, if a believer, him\nwill we surely quicken to a happy life, and recompense them with a reward\nmeet for their best deeds.\n\nWhen thou readest the Koran, have recourse to God for help against Satan the\nstoned,14\n\nFor no power hath he over those who believe, and put their trust in their\nLord,\n\nBut only hath he power over those who turn away from God, and join other\ndeities with Him.\n\nAnd when we change one (sign) verse for another, and God knoweth best what He\nrevealeth, they say, \"Thou art only a fabricator.\" Nay! but most of them have\nno knowledge.\n\nSAY: The Holy Spirit15 hath brought it down with truth from thy Lord, that He\nmay stablish those who have believed, and as guidance and glad tidings to the\nMuslims.\n\nWe also know that they say, \"Surely a certain person teacheth him.\" But the\ntongue of him at whom they hint is foreign,16 while this Koran is in the\nplain Arabic.\n\nAs for those who believe not in the signs of God, God will not guide them,\nand a sore torment doth await them.\n\nSurely they invent a lie who believe not in the signs of God-and they are the\nliars.\n\nWhoso, after he hath believed in God denieth him, if he were forced to it and\nif his heart remain steadfast in the faith, shall be guiltless:17 but whoso\nopeneth his breast to infidelity-on such shall be wrath from God, and a\nsevere punishment awaiteth them.\n\nThis, because they have loved this present life beyond the next, and because\nGod guideth not the unbelievers!\n\nThese are they whose hearts and ears and eyes God hath sealed up: these are\nthe careless ones: in the next world shall they perish beyond a doubt.\n\nTo those also who after their trials fled their country,18 then fought and\nendured with patience, verily, thy Lord will in the end be forgiving,\ngracious.\n\nOn a certain day shall every soul come to plead for itself, and every soul\nshall be repaid according to its deeds; and they shall not be wronged.\n\nGod proposeth the instance of a city,19 secure and at ease, to which its\nsupplies come in plenty from every side. But she was thankless for the boons\nof God; God therefore made her taste the woe20 of famine and of fear, for\nwhat they had done.\n\nMoreover, an apostle of their own people came to them, and they treated him\nas an impostor. So chastisement overtook them because they were evil doers.\n\nOf what God hath supplied you eat the lawful and good, and be grateful for\nthe favours of God, if ye are his worshippers.\n\nForbidden to you is that only which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine's\nflesh, and that which hath been slain in the name of any other than God: but\nif any be forced, and neither lust for it nor wilfully transgress, then\nverily God is forgiving, gracious.21\n\nAnd say not with a lie upon your tongue, \"This is lawful and this is\nforbidden:\" for so will ye invent a lie concerning God: but they who invent a\nlie of God shall not prosper:\n\nBrief their enjoyment, but sore their punishment!\n\nTo the Jews22 we have forbidden that of which we before told thee; we injured\nthem not, but they injured themselves.\n\nTo those who have done evil in ignorance, then afterwards have repented and\namended, verily thy Lord is in the end right gracious, merciful.\n\nVerily, Abraham was a leader in religion:23 obedient to God, sound in\nfaith:24 he was not of those who join gods with God.\n\nGrateful was he for His favours: God chose him and guided him into the\nstraight way;\n\nAnd we bestowed on him good things in this world: and in the world to come he\nshall be among the just.\n\nWe have moreover revealed to thee that thou follow the religion of Abraham,\nthe sound in faith. He was not of those who join gods with God.\n\nThe Sabbath was only ordained for those who differed about it: and of a truth\nthy Lord will decide between them on the day of resurrection as to the\nsubject of their disputes.\n\nSummon thou to the way of thy Lord with wisdom and with kindly warning:\ndispute with them in the kindest manner: thy Lord best knoweth those who\nstray from his way, and He best knoweth those who have yielded to his\nguidance.\n\nIf ye make reprisals,25 then make them to the same extent that ye were\ninjured: but if ye can endure patiently, best will it be for the patiently\nenduring.\n\nEndure then with patience. But thy patient endurance must be sought in none\nbut God. And be not grieved about the infidels, and be not troubled at their\ndevices; for God is with those who fear him and do good deeds.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura [lxxxiv.] x. 5, n.\n\n2 Ex gutta spermatis. Pirke Aboth iii. Unde venisti? ex gutt\u00e1 foetid\u00e2. This\nverse is said to be an allusion to a difficulty proposed by an idolatrous\nArab, who brought a carious leg-bone to Muhammad, and asked whether it could\nbe restored to life. Compare a similar argument for the Resurrection, Tr.\nSanhedrin, fol. 91 a.\n\n3 Lit. there is beauty in them for you, i.e. they win you credit.\n\n4 In allusion to Gen. xi. 1-10.\n\n5 An Arabian idol.\n\n6 Ps. xxxv. 9.\n\n7 Lit. the family of the admonition, i.e. Jews and Christians versed in the\nPentateuch and Gospel.\n\n8 The idolatrous Arabians regarded Angels as females and daughters of God.\nBut their own preference was always for male offspring. Thus Rabbinism\nteaches that to be a woman is a great degradation. The modern Jew says in his\nDaily Prayers, fol. 5, 6, \"Blessed art thou, O Lord our God! King of the\nUniverse! who hath not made me a woman.\"\n\n9 See Sura lxxxi. 8, p. 45. It is said that the only occasion on which Othman\never shed a tear was when his little daughter, whom he was burying alive,\nwiped the dust of the grave-earth from his beard.\n\n10 Lit. the likeness of evil to those, etc.\n\n11 The Arabs are curious in and fond of honey: Mecca alone affords eight or\nnine varieties-green, white, red, and brown. Burton's Pilgr. iii. 110.\n\n12 Ex. xx. 4.\n\n13 The slave, and the dumb in verse following, are the idols.\n\n14 See Sura [xcvii.] iii. 34, and n. 1, p. 114.\n\n15 Gabriel.\n\n16 This passage has been supposed to refer to Salman the Persian. He did not,\nhowever, embrace Islam till a much later period, at Medina. N\u00f6ld. p. 110. Mr.\nMuir thinks that it may refer to Suheib, son of Sinan, \"the first fruits of\nGreece,\" as Muhammad styled him, who, while yet a boy, had been carried off\nby some Greeks as a slave, from Mesopotamia to Syria, brought by a party of\nthe Beni Kalb, and sold to Abdallah ibn Jodda'\u00e2n of Mecca. He became rich,\nand embraced Islam. Dr. Sprenger thinks the person alluded to may have been\nAddas, a monk of Nineveh, who had settled at Mecca. Life of M. p. 79.\n\n17 This is to be understood of the persecutions endured by the more humble\nand needy Muslims by their townspeople of Mecca.\n\n18 From Mecca to Medina, i.e. the Mohadjers, to whom also verse 43 refers.\nBoth passages, therefore, are of a later date than the rest of this Sura.\nThus N\u00f6ldeke. Sprenger, however (Life, p. 159), explains this passage of the\nseven slaves purchased and manumitted by Abu Bekr. They had been tortured for\nprofessing Islam, shortly after Muhammad assumed the Prophetic office.\n\n19 Mecca.\n\n20 Lit. the garment.\n\n21 Comp. Sura [lxxxix.] vi. 119.\n\n22 Comp. Sura [lxxxix.] vi. 147. This verse as well as the following, and\nverse 125, were probably added at Medina.\n\n23 Antistes. Maracci. Or the text may be literally rendered Abraham was a\npeople, i.e. the people of Abraham; from whom the idolatrous Koreisch\npretended to derive their origin.\n\n24 Ar. a Hanyf. According to a tradition in Waquidi, fol. 255, Zaid (who died\nonly five years before Muhammad received his first inspiration, and\nundoubtedly prepared the way for many of his subsequent announcements)\nadopted this term at the instance of a Christian and a Jew, who exhorted him\nto become a Hanyf. Zaid having at this time renounced idolatry, and being\nunable to receive either Judaism or Christianity, \"What,\" said he, \"is a\nHanyf?\" They both told him, it was the religion of Abraham, who worshipped\nnothing but God. On this Zaid exclaimed, \"O God, I bear witness that I follow\nthe religion of Abraham.\" The root, whence Hanyf is derived, means generally\nto turn from good to bad, or vice vers\u00e2, and is equivalent to the verbs\nconvert and pervert.\n\n25 All Muhammadan commentators explain this verse as a prohibition to avenge\nthe death of Hamza on the Meccans with too great severity.\n\n\nSURA XXX.-THE GREEKS [LXXIV.]\n\nMECCA.-60 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM.1  THE GREEKS have been defeated2\n\nIn a land hard by: But after their defeat they shall defeat their foes,\n\nIn a few years.3  First and last is the affair with God. And on that day\nshall the faithful rejoice\n\nIn the aid of their God: He aideth whom He will; and He is the Mighty, the\nMerciful.\n\nIt is the promise of God: To his promise God will not be untrue: but most men\nknow it not.\n\nThey know the outward shews of this life present, but of the next life are\nthey careless.\n\nHave they not considered within themselves that God hath not created the\nHeavens and the Earth and all that is between them but for a serious end, and\nfor a fixed term? But truly most men believe not that they shall meet their\nLord.\n\nHave they never journeyed through the land, and seen what hath been the end\nof those who were before them? Mightier were they than these in strength; and\nthey broke up the land, and dwelt in it in greater numbers than they who\ndwell there now; and their apostles came to them with proofs of their\nmission: and it was not God who would wrong them, but they wronged\nthemselves.\n\nThen evil was the end of the evil doers; because they had treated our signs\nas lies, and laughed them to scorn.\n\nGod bringth forth the creation-then causeth it to return again-then to Him\nshall ye come back.4\n\nAnd on the day when the hour shall arrive, the guilty shall be struck dumb\nfor despair,\n\nAnd they shall have no intercessors from among the gods whom they have joined\nwith God, and they shall deny the gods they joined with Him.\n\nAnd on that day when the Hour shall arrive, shall men be separated one from\nanother;\n\nAnd as for those who shall have believed and done the things that are right,\nthey shall enjoy themselves in a flowery mead;\n\nBut as for those who shall not have believed, but treated our signs and the\nmeeting of the next life as lies, they shall be given over to the torment.\n\nGlorify God therefore when ye reach the evening, and when ye rise at morn:\n\nAnd to Him be praise in the Heavens and on the Earth; and at twilight, and\nwhen ye rest at noon.\n\nHe bringeth forth the living out of the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead\nout of the living: and He quickeneth the earth when dead. Thus is it that ye\ntoo shall be brought forth.5\n\nAnd one of his signs it is that He hath created you out of dust; then lo! ye\nbecome men who spread themselves far and wide:\n\nAnd one of his signs it is, that He hath created wives for you of your own\nspecies,6 that ye may dwell with them, and hath put love and tenderness\nbetween you. Herein truly are signs for those who reflect.\n\nAnd among his signs are the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth, and\nyour variety of tongues and colour. Herein truly are signs for all men.\n\nAnd of his signs are your sleep by night and by day, and your goings in quest\nof his bounties. Herein truly are signs to those who hearken.\n\nAnd of his signs are, that He sheweth you the lightning, a source of awe and\nhope; and that He sendeth down rain from the heaven and giveth life by it to\nthe earth when dead. Herein truly are signs to those who understand.\n\nAnd of his signs also one is that the Heaven and the Earth stand firm at his\nbidding: hereafter, when with one summons He shall summon you out of the\nearth,-lo! forth shall ye come.\n\nHis, whatsoever is in the Heavens and on the Earth: all are obedient to him.\n\nAnd He it is who bringeth a creature forth, then causeth it to return again;\nand to him is this most easy. To whatever is loftiest in heaven and earth is\nHe to be likened; and He is the Mighty, the Wise.\n\nHe setteth forth to you an instance drawn from yourselves. Have ye among the\nslaves whom your right hands have won, any partner in what we have bestowed\non you, so that ye share alike? Fear ye them as ye fear each other? (Thus\nmake we our signs clear to men of understanding.)\n\nNo, ye do not. But the wicked, devoid of knowledge, follow their own\ndesires:7 and those whom God shall mislead, who shall guide, and who shall be\ntheir protector?\n\nSet thou thy face then, as a true convert,8 towards the Faith which God hath\nmade, and for which He hath made man. No change is there in the creation of\nGod. This is the right Faith, but the greater part of men know it not.\n\nAnd be ye turned to Him, and fear Him, and observe prayer, and be not of\nthose who unite gods with God:\n\nOf those who have split up their religion, and have become sects, where every\nparty rejoices in what is their own.9\n\nWhen some evil toucheth men, they turn to their Lord and call upon him: then\nwhen he hath made them taste his mercy, lo, a part of them join other gods\nwith their Lord,\n\nUngrateful for our favours! Enjoy yourselves then. But in the end ye shall\nknow your folly.\n\nHave we sent down to them any mandate which speaketh in favour of what they\njoin with God?\n\nWhen we cause men to taste mercy they rejoice in it; but if, for that which\ntheir hands have aforetime wrought, evil befall them, they despair.\n\nSee they not that God bestoweth full supplies on whom He pleaseth and giveth\nsparingly to whom He pleaseth? Signs truly are there herein to those who\nbelieve.\n\nTo him who is of kin to thee give his due, and to the poor and to the\nwayfarer: this will be best for those who seek the face of God; and with them\nit shall be well.\n\nWhatever ye put out at usury to increase it with the substance of others\nshall have no increase from God:10 but whatever ye shall give in alms, as\nseeking the face of God, shall be doubled to you.\n\nIt is God who created you-then fed you-then will cause you to die-then will\nmake you alive. Is there any of your companion-gods who can do aught of these\nthings? Praise be to Him! and far be He exalted above the gods they join with\nHim.\n\nDestruction hath appeared by land and by sea on account of what men's hands\nhave wrought, that it might make them taste somewhat of the fruit of their\ndoings, that haply they might turn to God.\n\nSAY: Journey through the land, and see what hath been the end of those who\nwere before you! The greater part of them joined other gods with God.\n\nSet thy face then towards the right faith, ere the day come which none can\nhinder God from bringing on.11 On that day shall they be parted in twain:\n\nUnbelievers on whom shall be their unbelief; and they who have wrought\nrighteousness, and prepared for themselves couches of repose:\n\nThat of his bounty He may reward those who have believed and wrought\nrighteousness; for the unbelievers He loveth not.\n\nAnd one of his signs is that He sendeth the winds with glad tidings of rain,\nboth that He may cause you to taste his mercy, and that ships may sail at his\ncommand, that out of his bounties ye may seek wealth, and that haply ye may\nrender thanks.\n\nWe have sent apostles before thee to their peoples, and they presented\nthemselves to them with clear proofs of their mission; and while it behoved\nus to succour the faithful, we took vengeance on the guilty.\n\nIt is God who sendeth the winds and uplifteth the clouds, and, as He\npleaseth, spreadeth them on high, and breaketh them up; and thou mayest see\nthe rain issuing from their midst; and when He poureth it down on such of his\nservants as He pleaseth, lo! they are filled with joy,\n\nEven they who before it was sent down to them, were in mute despair.\n\nLook then at the traces of God's mercy-how after its death he quickeneth the\nearth! This same God will surely quicken the dead, for to all things His\nmight is equal.\n\nYet should we send a blast, and should they see their harvest turn yellow,\nthey would afterwards shew themselves ungrateful.\n\nThou canst not make the dead to hear, neither canst thou make the deaf to\nhear the call, when they withdraw and turn their backs:\n\nNeither canst thou guide the blind out of their error: in sooth, none shalt\nthou make to hear, save him who shall believe in our signs: for they are\nresigned to our will (Muslims).\n\nIt is God who hath created you in weakness, then after weakness hath given\nyou strength: then after strength, weakness and grey hairs: He createth what\nHe will; and He is the Wise, the Powerful.\n\nAnd on the day whereon the Hour shall arrive, the wicked will swear\n\nThat not above an hour have they waited: Even so did they utter lies on\nearth:\n\nBut they to whom knowledge and faith have been given will say, \"Ye have\nwaited, in accordance with the book of God, till the day of Resurrection: for\nthis is the day of the Resurrection-but ye knew it not.\"\n\nOn that day their plea shall not avail the wicked, neither shall they again\nbe bidden to seek acceptance with God.\n\nAnd now have we set before men, in this Koran, every kind of parable: yet if\nthou bring them a single verse of it, the infidels will surely say, \"Ye are\nonly utterers of vain things.\"\n\nIt is thus that God hath sealed up the hearts of those who are devoid of\nknowledge.\n\nBut do thou, Muhammad, bear with patience, for true is the promise of God;\nand let not those who have no firm belief, unsettle thee.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.\n\n2 By the Persians; probably in Palestine in the 6th year before the Hejira,\nunder Khosrou Parviz. (Ann. 615. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. xlvi.)\nThe sympathies of Muhammad would naturally be enlisted on the side of the\nChristians rather than on that of the idolatrous fire-worshippers, with whom\nIslam had nothing in common.\n\n3 This alludes to the defeat of the Persians by Heraclius, ann. 625. The\nMuhammadans appeal to this passage as a clear proof of the inspiration of\ntheir prophet. But it should be borne in mind that the vowel points of the\nconsonants of the Arabic word for defeated in verse 1, not being originally\nwritten, and depending entirely on the speaker or reader, would make the\nprophecy true in either event, according as the verb received an active or\npassive sense in pronunciation. The whole passage was probably constructed\nwith the view of its proving true in any event.\n\n4 Comp. Psalm xc. 30, in the Arabic version.\n\n5 The Talmudists apply the description of God of the sender of the rain to\nthe divine command which shall cause the dead to arise. Taanith (init.).\n\n6 Lit. from yourselves, i.e. either from the side of Adam or of human, and of\nno other kind of being. Beidh.\n\n7 By worshipping idols conjointly with God.\n\n8 Lit. as a Hanyf. See note on the preceding Sura, 121, p. 209.\n\n9 Peculiar to and distinctive of themselves. Muhammad had a just appreciation\nof that narrowness of mind which is the characteristic of sectarians in every\nage, who seize upon some one point of truth, through inability to grasp the\nwhole in its due proportions and bearing, and glory in it, as if the fragment\nwere the whole.\n\n10 Comp. Ps. xv. 5.\n\n11 Lit. which none can put back from God.\n\n\nSURA XI.-HOUD [LXXV.]\n\nMECCA.-123 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. RA.1 A book whose verses are stablished in wisdom and then set\nforth with clearness from the Wise, the All-informed-\n\nThat ye worship none other than God-Verily I come to you from Him charged\nwith warnings, announcements;\n\nAnd that ye seek pardon of your Lord, and then be turned unto Him! Goodly\nenjoyments will He give you to enjoy until a destined time, and His favours\nwill He bestow on every one who deserves his favours.2 But if ye turn away,\nthen verily I fear for you the chastisement of the great day.\n\nUnto God shall ye return, and over all things is he Potent.\n\nDo they not doubly fold up their breasts, that they may hide themselves from\nHim?\n\nBut when they enshroud themselves in their garments, doth He not know alike\nwhat they conceal and what they shew?\n\nFor He knoweth the very inmost of their breast.\n\nThere is no moving thing on earth whose nourishment dependeth not on God; he\nknoweth its haunts and final resting place: all is in the clear Book.\n\nAnd He it is who hath made the Heavens and the Earth in six days: His throne\nhad stood ere this upon the waters,3 that He might make proof which of you4\nwould excel in works.\n\nAnd if thou say, \"After death ye shall surely be raised again,\" the infidels\nwill certainly exclaim, \"This is nothing but pure sorcery.\"\n\nAnd if we defer their chastisement to some definite time, they will exclaim,\n\"What keepeth it back?\" What! will it not come upon them on a day when there\nshall be none to avert it from them? And that at which they scoffed shall\nenclose them in on every side.\n\nAnd if we cause man to taste our mercy, and then deprive him of it, verily,\nhe is despairing, ungrateful.\n\nAnd if after trouble hath befallen him we cause him to taste our favour, he\nwill surely exclaim, \"The evils are passed away from me.\" Verily, he is\njoyous, boastful.\n\nExcept those who endure with patience and do the things that are right: these\ndoth pardon await and a great reward.\n\nPerhaps thou wilt suppress a part of what hath been revealed to thee, and\nwilt be distress at heart lest they say, \"If a treasure be not sent down to\nhim, or an angel come with him. . . .\" But thou art only a warner, and God\nhath all things in his charge.\n\nIf they shall say, \"The Koran is his own device,\" SAY: Then bring ten Suras\nlike it5 of your devising, and call whom ye can to your aid beside God, if ye\nare men of truth.\n\nBut if they answer you not, then know that it hath been sent down to you in\nthe wisdom of God only, and that there is no God but He. Are ye then Muslims?\n\nThose who choose this present life and its braveries, we will recompense for\ntheir works therein: they shall have nothing less therein than their deserts.\n\nThese are they for whom there is nothing in the next world but the Fire: all\nthat they have wrought in this life shall come to nought, and vain shall be\nall their doings.\n\nWith such can they be compared who rest upon clear proofs from their Lord? to\nwhom a witness from him reciteth the Koran, and who is preceded by the Book\nof Moses, a guide and mercy? These have faith in it: but the partisans of\nidolatry, who believe not in it, are menaced with the fire! Have thou no\ndoubts about that Book, for it is the very truth from thy Lord. But most men\nwill not believe.\n\nWho is guilty of a greater injustice than he who inventeth a lie concerning\nGod? They shall be set before their Lord, and the witnesses shall say, \"These\nare they who made their Lord a liar.\" Shall not the malison of God be on\nthese unjust doers,\n\nWho pervert others from the way of God, and seek to make it crooked, and\nbelieve not in a life to come? God's power on earth they shall not weaken;\nand beside God they have no protector! Doubled shall be their punishment!\nThey were not able to hearken, and they could not see.\n\nThese are they who have lost their own souls, and the deities of their own\ndevising have vanished from them:\n\nThere is no doubt but that in the next world they shall be the lost ones.\n\nBut they who shall have believed and done the things that are right, and\nhumbled them before their Lord, shall be the inmates of Paradise; therein\nshall they abide for ever.\n\nThese two sorts of persons resemble the blind and deaf, and the seeing and\nhearing: shall these be compared as alike? Ah! do ye not comprehend?\n\nWe sent Noah of old unto his people:-\"Verily I come to you a plain\nadmonisher,\n\nThat ye worship none but God. Verily I fear for you the punishment of a\ngrievous day.\"\n\nThen said the chiefs of his people who believed not, \"We see in thee but a\nman like ourselves; and we see not who have followed thee except our meanest\nones of hasty judgment, nor see we any excellence in you above ourselves:\nnay, we deem you liars.\"\n\nHe said: \"O my people! how think you? If I am upon a clear revelation from my\nLord, who hath bestowed on me mercy from Himself to which ye are blind, can\nwe force it on you, if ye are averse from it?\n\nAnd, O my people! I ask you not for riches: my reward is of God alone: and I\nwill not drive away those who believe that they shall meet their Lord:-but I\nsee that ye are an ignorant people.\n\nAnd, O my people! were I to drive them away, who shall help me against God?\nWill ye not therefore consider?\n\nAnd I tell you not that with me are the treasures of God: nor do I say, 'I\nknow the things unseen;' nor do I say, 'I am an angel;' nor do I say of those\nwhom you eye with scorn, No good thing will God bestow on them:-God best\nknoweth what is in their minds-for then should I be one of those who act\nunjustly.\"\n\nThey said: \"O Noah! already hast thou disputed with us, and multiplied\ndisputes with us: Bring then upon us what thou hast threatened, if thou be of\nthose who speak truth.\"\n\nHe said, \"God will bring it on you at His sole pleasure, and it is not you\nwho can weaken him;\n\nNor, if God desire to mislead you, shall my counsel profit you, though I fain\nwould counsel you aright. He is your Lord, and unto Him shall ye be brought\nback.\n\nDo they say, \"This Koran is of his own devising?\" Say: On me be my own guilt,\nif I have devised it, but I am clear of that whereof ye are guilty.\n\nAnd it was revealed unto Noah. Verily, none of thy people shall believe, save\nthey who have believed already; therefore be not thou grieved at their\ndoings.\n\nBut build the Ark under our eye and after our revelation: and plead not with\nme for the evil doers, for they are to be drowned.\n\nSo he built the Ark; and whenever the chiefs of his people passed by they\nlaughed him to scorn:6 said he, \"Though ye laugh at us, we truly shall laugh\nat you, even as ye laugh at us; and in the end ye shall know\n\nOn whom a punishment shall come that shall shame him, and on whom shall light\na lasting punishment.\"\n\nThus was it until our sentence came to pass, and the earth's surface7 boiled\nup. We said, \"Carry into it one pair of every kind, and thy family, except\nhim on whom sentence hath before been passed, and those who have believed.\"\nBut there believed not with him except a few.\n\nAnd he said, \"Embark ye therein. In the name of God be its course and its\nriding at anchor! Truly my Lord is right Gracious, Merciful.\"\n\nAnd the Ark moved on with them amid waves like mountains: and Noah called to\nhis son-for he was apart-\"Embark with us, O my child! and be not with the\nunbelievers.\"\n\nHe said, \"I will betake me to a mountain that shall secure me from the\nwater.\" He said, \"None shall be secure this day from the decree of God, save\nhim on whom He shall have mercy.\" And a wave passed between them, and he was\namong the drowned.\n\nAnd it was said, \"O Earth! swallow up thy water;\" and \"cease, O Heaven!\" And\nthe water abated, and the decree was fulfilled, and the Ark rested upon Al-\nDjoudi;8 and it was said, \"Avaunt! ye tribe of the wicked!\"\n\nAnd Noah called on his Lord and said, \"O Lord! verily my son is of my family:\nand thy promise is true, and thou art the most just of judges.\"\n\nHe said, \"O Noah! verily, he is not of thy family: in this thou actest not\naright.9 Ask not of me that whereof thou knowest nought: I warn thee that\nthou become not of the ignorant.\n\nHe said, \"To thee verily, O my Lord, do I repair lest I ask that of thee\nwherein I have no knowledge: unless thou forgive me and be merciful to me I\nshall be one of the lost.\n\nIt was said to him, \"O Noah! debark with peace from Us, and with blessings on\nthee and on peoples to be born from those who are with thee; but as for other\nand unbelieving peoples, we will give them their good things in this world,\nbut hereafter shall a grievous punishment light on them from us.\n\nThis is one of the secret Histories: we reveal it unto thee: neither thou nor\nthy people knew it ere this: be patient thou: verily, there is a prosperous\nissue to the God-fearing.\n\nAnd unto Ad we sent their Brother HOUD. He said, \"O my people, worship God.\nYou have no God beside Him. Ye only devise a lie.\n\nO my people! I ask of you no recompense for this: my recompense is with Him\nonly who hath made me. Will ye not then understand?\n\nO my people! ask pardon of your Lord; then be turned unto Him: He will send\ndown the heavens upon you with copious rains:\n\nAnd with strength on strength will He increase you: only turn not back with\ndeeds of evil.\"\n\nThey said, \"O Houd, thou hast not brought us proofs of thy mission: we will\nnot abandon our gods at thy word, and we believe thee not.\n\nWe can only say that some of our gods have smitten thee with evil.\" Said he,\n\"Now take I God to witness, and do ye also witness, that I am clear of your\njoining other gods\n\nTo God. Conspire then against me all of you, and delay me not.\n\nFor I trust in God, my Lord and yours. No single beast is there which he\nholdeth not by its forelock. Right, truly, is the way in which my Lord goeth.\n\nBut if ye turn back, I have already declared to you my message. And my Lord\nwill put another people in your place, nor shall ye at all hurt Him; verily,\nmy Lord keepeth watch over all things.\"\n\nAnd when our doom came to be inflicted, we rescued Houd and those who had\nlike faith with Him, by our special mercy: we rescued them from the rigorous\nchastisement.\n\nThese men of Ad gainsaid the signs of their Lord, and rebelled against his\nmessengers, and followed the bidding of every proud contumacious person.\n\nFollowed therefore were they in this world by a curse; and in the day of the\nResurrection it shall be said to them, \"What! Did not Ad disbelieve their\nLord?\" Was not Ad, the people of Houd, cast far away?\n\nAnd unto Themoud we sent their Brother Saleh:10-\"O my people! said he,\nworship God: you have no other god than Him. He hath raised you up out of the\nearth, and hath given you to dwell therein. Ask pardon of him then, and be\nturned unto him; for thy Lord is nigh, ready to answer.\"\n\nThey said, \"O Saleh! our hopes were fixed on thee till now:11 forbiddest thou\nus to worship what our fathers worshipped? Truly we misdoubt the faith to\nwhich thou callest us, as suspicious.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my people! what think ye? If I have a revelation from my Lord to\nsupport me, and if He hath shewed his mercy on me, who could protect me from\nGod if I rebel against him? Ye would only confer on me increase of ruin.\n\nO my people! this is the she-Camel of God, and a sign unto you. Let her go at\nlarge and feed in God's earth, and do her no harm, lest a speedy punishment\novertake you.\"\n\nYet they hamstrung her: then said he, \"Yet three days more enjoy yourselves\nin your dwellings: this menace will not prove untrue.\"\n\nAnd when our sentence came to pass, we rescued Saleh and those who had a like\nfaith with him, by our mercy, from ignominy on that day. Verily, thy Lord is\nthe Strong, the Mighty!\n\nAnd a violent tempest overtook the wicked, and they were found in the morning\nprostrate in their dwellings,\n\nAs though they had never abode in them. What! Did not Themoud disbelieve his\nLord? Was not Themoud utterly cast off?\n\nAnd our messengers came formerly to Abraham with glad tidings. \"Peace,\" said\nthey. He said, \"Peace,\" and he tarried not, but brought a roasted calf.\n\nAnd when he saw that their hands touched it not,12 he misliked them, and grew\nfearful of them. They said, \"Fear not, for we are sent to the people of Lot.\"\n\nHis wife was standing by and laughed;13 and we announced Isaac to her; and\nafter Isacc, Jacob.\n\nShe said, \"Ah, woe is me! shall I bear a son when I am old, and when this my\nhusband is an old man? This truly would be a marvellous thing.\"\n\nThey said, \"Marvellest thou at the command of God? God's mercy and blessing\nbe upon you, O people of this house; praise and glory are His due!\"\n\nAnd when Abraham's fear had passed away, and these glad tidings had reached\nhim, he pleaded with us for the people of Lot. Verily, Abraham was right\nkind, pitiful, relenting.\n\n\"O Abraham! desist from this; for already hath the command of thy God gone\nforth; as for them, a punishment not to be averted is coming on them.\"\n\nAnd when our messengers came to Lot, he was grieved for them; and he was too\nweak to protect them,14 and he said, \"This is a day of difficulty.\"\n\nAnd his people came rushing on towards him, for aforetime had they wrought\nthis wickedness. He said, \"O my people! these my daughters will be purer for\nyou: fear God, and put me not to shame in my guests. Is there no rightminded\nman among you?\"\n\nThey said, \"Thou knowest now that we need not thy daughters; and thou well\nknowest what we require.\"\n\nHe said, \"Would that I had strength to resist you, or that I could find\nrefuge with some powerful chieftain.\"15\n\nThe Angels said, \"O Lot! verily, we are the messengers of thy Lord: they\nshall not touch thee: depart with thy family in the dead of night, and let\nnot one of you turn back: as for thy wife, on her shall light what shall\nlight on them. Verily, that with which they are threatened is for the\nmorning. Is not the morning near?\"\n\nAnd when our decree came to be executed we turned those cities upside down,\nand we rained down upon them blocks of claystone one after another, marked16\nby thy Lord himself. Nor are they far distant from the wicked Meccans.\n\nAnd we sent to Madian17 their brother Shoaib. He said, \"O my people! worship\nGod: no other God have you than He: give not short weight and measure: I see\nindeed that ye revel in good things; but I fear for you the punishment of the\nall-encompassing day.\n\nO my people! give weight and measure with fairness; purloin not other men's\ngoods; and perpetrate not injustice on the earth with corrupt practices:\n\nA residue,18 the gift of God, will be best for you if ye are believers:\n\nBut I am not a guardian over you.\"\n\nThey said to him, \"O Shoaib! is it thy prayers which enjoin that we should\nleave what our fathers worshipped, or that we should not do with our\nsubstance as pleaseth us? Thou forsooth art the mild, the right director!\"\n\nHe said, \"O my people! How think ye? If I have a clear revelation from my\nLord, and if from Himself He hath supplied me with goodly supplies, and if I\nwill not follow you in that which I myself forbid you, do I seek aught but\nyour amendment so far as in me lieth? My sole help is in God. In Him do I\ntrust, and to Him do I turn me.\n\nO my people! let not your opposition to me draw down upon you the like of\nthat which befel the people of Noah, or the people of Houd, or the people of\nSaleh: and the abodes of the people of Lot are not far distant from you!\n\nSeek pardon of your Lord and be turned unto Him: verily, my Lord is Merciful,\nLoving.\n\nThey said, \"O Shoaib! we understand not much of what thou sayest, and we\nclearly see that thou art powerless among us: were it not for thy family we\nwould have surely stoned thee, nor couldest thou have prevailed against us.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my people! think ye more highly of my family than of God? Cast ye\nHim behind your back, with neglect? Verily, my Lord is round about your\nactions.\n\nAnd, O my people! act with what power ye can for my hurt: I verily will act:\nand ye shall know\n\nOn whom shall light a punishment that shall disgrace him, and who is the\nliar. Await ye; verily I will await with you.\"\n\nAnd when our decree came to pass, we delivered Shoaib and his companions in\nfaith, by our mercy: And a violent tempest overtook the wicked, and in the\nmorning they were found prostrate in their houses\n\nAs if they had never dwelt in them. Was not Madian swept off even as Themoud\nhad been swept off?\n\nOf old sent we Moses with our signs and with incontestable power to Pharaoh,\nand to his nobles-who followed the behests of Pharaoh, and, unrighteous were\nPharaoh's behests.\n\nHe shall head his people on the day of the Resurrection and cause them to\ndescend into the fire: and wretched the descent by which they shall descend!\n\nThey were followed by a curse in this world; and in the day of the\nResurrection, wretched the gift that shall be given them!\n\nSuch, the histories of the cities which we relate to thee. Some of them are\nstanding, others mown down:\n\nWe dealt not unfairly by them, but they dealt not fairly by themselves: and\ntheir gods on whom they called beside God availed them not at all when thy\nLord's behest came to pass. They did but increase their ruin.\n\nSuch was thy Lord's grasp19 when he laid that grasp on the cities that had\nbeen wicked. Verily his grasp is afflictive, terrible!\n\nHerein truly is a sign for him who feareth the punishment of the latter day.\nThat shall be a day unto which mankind shall be gathered together; that shall\nbe a day witnessed by all creatures.\n\nNor do we delay it, but until a time appointed.\n\nWhen that day shall come no one shall speak a word but by His leave, and some\nshall be miserable and others blessed.\n\nAnd as for those who shall be consigned to misery-their place the Fire!\ntherein shall they sigh and bemoan them-\n\nTherein shall they abide while the Heavens and the Earth shall last, unless\nthy Lord shall will it otherwise; verily thy Lord doth what He chooseth.\n\nAnd as for the blessed ones-their place the Garden! therein shall they abide\nwhile the Heavens and the Earth endure, with whatever imperishable boon thy\nLord may please to add.\n\nHave thou no doubts therefore concerning that which they worship: they\nworship but what their fathers worshipped before them: we will surely assign\nthem their portion with nothing lacking.\n\nOf old gave we Moses the Book, and they fell to variance about it. If a\ndecree of respite had not gone forth from thy Lord, there had surely been a\ndecision between them. Thy people also are in suspicious doubts about the\nKoran.\n\nAnd truly thy Lord will repay every one according to their works! for He is\nwell aware of what they do.\n\nGo straight on then as thou hast been commanded, and he also who hath turned\nto God with thee, and let him transgress no more. He beholdeth what ye do.\n\nLean not on the evil doers lest the Fire lay hold on you. Ye have no\nprotector, save God, and ye shall not be helped against Him.\n\nAnd observe prayer at early morning, at the close of the day, and at the\napproach of night; for the good deeds drive away the evil deeds. This is a\nwarning for those who reflect:\n\nAnd persevere steadfastly, for verily God will not suffer the reward of the\nrighteous to perish.\n\nWere the generations before you, endued with virtue, and who forbad corrupt\ndoings on the earth, more than a few of those whom we delivered? but the evil\ndoers followed their selfish pleasures, and became transgressors.\n\nAnd thy Lord was not one who would destroy those cities unjustly, when its\ninhabitants were righteous.\n\nHad thy Lord pleased he would have made mankind of one religion: but those\nonly to whom thy Lord hath granted his mercy will cease to differ. And unto\nthis hath He created them; for the word of thy Lord shall be fulfilled, \"I\nwill wholly fill hell with Djinn and men.\"\n\nAnd all that we have related to thee of the histories of these Apostles, is\nto confirm thy heart thereby. By these hath the truth reached thee, and a\nmonition and warning to those who believe.\n\nBut say to those who believe not, \"Act as ye may and can: we will act our\npart: and wait ye; we verily will wait.\"\n\nTo God belong the secret things of the Heavens and of the Earth: all things\nreturn to him: worship him then and put thy trust in Him: thy Lord is not\nregardless of your doings.20\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. p. 32.\n\n2 Or, will bestow his grace on every gracious one, or will bestow his\nabundance on every one who hath abundance (of merit). The difficulty of\nrendering this passage arises from the word fadhl, which means merit as\napplied to man, favour as applied to God.\n\n3 That is, before the Creation. Precisely the same statement occurs in Raschi\non Gen. i. 2, also in the modern catechism. Tsenah ur'enak b'noth Tsion,\nauthoritatively put forth by the Polish and German Talmudist Rabbins. \"At the\nfirst creation of Heaven and Earth . . . the throne of glory of the Blessed\nGod stood in the air above the waters.\" Comp. Ps. civ. 3.\n\n4 Men, heaven, and earth. Comp. Tr. Aboth, v. Mischna 1.\n\n5 Comp. verse 37 and Sura [xci.] ii. 21. It should be observed that the\nchallenge in these passages is not to produce a book which shall equal the\nKoran in point of poetry or rhetoric, but in the importance of its subject-\nmatter with reference to the Divine Unity, the future retribution, etc. Upon\nthese topics Muhammad well knew that he had preoccupied the ground. And we\nmay infer from the fragments of the Revelations of Musailima and Saj\u00e2h\n(Hisam. 946; Attab\u00e2ri (ed. Kosegarten) i. 134, 136, 152; Tab. Ag\u00e2ni, 339),\nwhich are mere imitations of the Koran, that he felt this to be the case.\n\n6 \"They laughed and jeered at him in their words.\" Midr. Tanchuma. \"The\npassage Job xii. 5, refers to the righteous Noah who taught them and spake to\nthem words severe as flames: but they scorned him, and said, 'Old man! for\nwhat purpose is this ark?\"' Sanhedr. 108. Comp. Midr. Rabbah on Gen. 30, and\n33 on Eccl. ix. 14.\n\n7 Or, oven: according to others, reservoir. Geiger thinks that the expression\nthe oven boiled up may be a figurative mode of expressing the Rabbinic idea\nthat \"the generation of the Deluge were punished by hot water.\" Rosch.\nHaschanah, 16, 2; Sanhedr. 108. Comp. Weil's Legenden, p. 44.\n\n8 The Montes Gordyoei, perhaps.\n\n9 According to another reading: He hath done amiss. The origin of this story\nis probably Gen. ix. 20-25.\n\n10 A Prophet, so far as we know, of Muhammad's own invention, unless Muir's\nconjecture be admitted that he was a Christian or Jewish missionary whose\nadventures and persecution were recast into this form.-The name may have been\nsuggested by, Methusaleh, upon whose piety the Midrasch enlarges.\n\n11 That is, we had intended to make thee our chief. Beidh.\n\n12 Thus, in contradiction to Gen. xviii. 8, the Rabbins; comp. Tr. Baba\nMezia, fol. 86, \"They made as though they ate.\"\n\n13 Or, menstrua passa est, in token of the possibility of her bearing a\nchild.\n\n14 Lit. his arm was straitened concerning them.\n\n15 Lit. column.\n\n16 With the name, it is said, of the person each should strike.\n\n17 See Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 176.\n\n18 That is, after giving fair measure.\n\n19 Seizure, for punishment. Hence, the punishment itself.\n\n20 In the later period of his life Muhammad attributed his gray hairs to the\neffect produced upon him by this Sura and its \"Sisters.\" While Abu Bekr and\nOmar sat in the mosque at Medina, Muhammad suddenly came upon them from the\ndoor of one of his wives' houses.  . . .  And Abu Bekr said, \"Ah! thou for\nwhom I would sacrifice father and mother, white hairs are hastening upon\nthee!\" And the Prophet raised up his beard with his hand and gazed at it; and\nAbu Bekr's eyes filled with tears. \"Yes,\" said Muhammad, \"H\u00fbd and its sisters\nhave hastened my white hairs.\" \"And what,\" asked Abu Bekr, \"are its sisters?\"\n\"The Inevitable (Sura lvi.) and the Blow (Sura ci.).\" Kit\u00e2b al Wackidi, p.\n84, ap. Muir.\n\n\nSURA XIV.-ABRAHAM, ON WHOM BE PEACE [LXXVI.]\n\nMECCA.-52 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. RA. This Book have we sent down to thee that by their Lord's\npermission thou mayest bring men out of darkness into light, into the path of\nthe Mighty, the Glorious-\n\nOf God; to whom belongeth whatever is in the Heavens and whatever is on the\nEarth: and woe! for their terrible punishment, to the infidels,\n\nWho love the life that now is, above that which is to come, and mislead from\nthe way of God, and seek to make it crooked. These are in a far-gone error.\n\nAnd in order that He might speak plainly to them, we have not sent any\nApostle, save with the speech of his own people; but God misleadeth whom He\nwill, and whom He will he guideth: and He is the Mighty, the Wise.\n\nOf old did we send Moses with our signs: and said to him, \"Bring forth thy\npeople from the darkness into the light, and remind them of the days of God.\"\nVerily, in this are signs for every patient, grateful person:\n\nWhen Moses said to his people, \"Remember the kindness of God to you, when he\nrescued you from the family of Pharaoh who laid on you a cruel affliction,\nslaughtering your male children, and suffering only your females to live.\" In\nthis was a sore trial from your Lord-\n\nAnd when your Lord caused it to be heard that, \"If we render thanks then will\nI surely increase you more and more: but if ye be thankless. . . .  Verily,\nright terrible my chastisement.\"\n\nAnd Moses said, \"If ye and all who are on the Earth be thankless, yet truly\nGod is passing Rich, and worthy of all praise.\"\n\nHath not the story reached you of those who were before you, the people of\nNoah, and Ad, and Themoud,\n\nAnd of those who lived after them? None knoweth them but God. When their\nprophets came to them with proofs of their mission, they put their hands on\ntheir mouths and said, \"In sooth, we believe not your message; and in sooth,\nof that to which you bid us, we are in doubt, as of a thing suspicious.\"\n\nTheir prophets said: \"Is there any doubt concerning God, maker of the Heavens\nand of the Earth, who calleth you that He may pardon your sins, and respite\nyou until an appointed time?\"\n\nThey said, \"Ye are but men like us: fain would ye turn us from our fathers'\nworship. Bring us therefore some clear proof.\"\n\nTheir Apostles said to them, \"We are indeed but men like you. But God\nbestoweth favours on such of his servants as he pleaseth, and it is not in\nour power to bring you any special proof,\n\nBut by the leave of God. In God therefore let the faithful trust.\n\nAnd why should we not put our trust in God, since He hath already guided us\nin our ways. We will certainly bear with constancy the harm you would do to\nus. In God let the trustful trust.\"\n\nAnd they who believed not said to their Apostles, \"Forth from our land will\nwe surely drive you, or, to our religion shall ye return.\" Then their Lord\nrevealed to them, \"We will certainly destroy the wicked doers,\n\nAnd we shall certainly cause you to dwell in the land after them. This for\nhim who dreadeth the appearance at my judgment-seat and who dreadeth my\nmenace!\"\n\nThen sought they help from God, and every proud rebellious one perished:\n\nHell is before him: and of tainted water shall he be made to drink:\n\nHe shall sup it and scarce swallow it for loathing; and Death shall assail\nhim on every side, but he shall not die: and before him shall be seen a\ngrievous torment.\n\nA likeness of those who believe not in their Lord. Their works are like ashes\nwhich the wind scattereth on a stormy day: no advantage shall they gain from\ntheir works. This is the far-gone wandering.\n\nSeest thou not that in truth1 hath God created the Heavens and the Earth?\nWere such his pleasure He could make you pass away, and cause a new creation\nto arise.\n\nAnd this would not be hard for God.\n\nAll mankind shall come forth before God; and the weak shall say to the men of\nmight, \"Verily, we were your followers: will ye not then relieve us of some\npart of the vengeance of God?\"\n\nThey shall say, \"If God had guided us, we surely had guided you. It is now\nall one whether we be impatient, or endure with patience. We have no escape.\"\n\nAnd after doom hath been given, Satan shall say, \"Verily, God promised you a\npromise of truth: I, too, made you a promise, but I deceived you. Yet I had\nno power over you:\n\nBut I only called you and ye answered me. Blame not me then, but blame\nyourselves: I cannot aid you, neither can ye aid me. I never believed that I\nwas His equal with whom ye joined me.\"2 As for the evil doers, a grievous\ntorment doth await them.\n\nBut they who shall have believed and done the things that be right, shall be\nbrought into gardens beneath which the rivers flow: therein shall they abide\nfor ever by the permission of their Lord: their greeting therein shall be\n\"Peace.\"\n\nSeest thou not to what God likeneth a good word?3 To a good tree: its root\nfirmly fixed, and its branches in the Heaven:\n\nYielding its fruit in all seasons by the will of its Lord. God setteth forth\nthese similitudes to men that haply they may reflect.\n\nAnd an evil word is like an evil tree torn up from the face of the earth, and\nwithout strength to stand.\n\nThose who believe shall God stablish by his steadfast word both in this life\nand in that which is to come: but the wicked shall He cause to err: God doth\nhis pleasure.\n\nHast thou not beholden those who repay the goodness of God with infidelity,\nand sink their people into the abode of perdition-\n\nHell? Therein shall they be burned; and wretched the dwelling!\n\nThey set up compeers with God in order to mislead man from his way. SAY:\nEnjoy your pleasures yet awhile, but assuredly, your going hence shall be\ninto the fire.\n\nSpeak to my servants who have believed, that they observe prayer, and give\nalms of that with which we have supplied them, both privately and openly, ere\nthe day come when there shall be neither traffic nor friendship.\n\nIt is God who hath created the Heavens and the Earth, and sendeth down water\nfrom the Heaven, and so bringeth forth the fruits for your food: And He hath\nsubjected to you the ships, so that by His command, they pass through the\nsea; and He hath subjected the rivers to you: and He hath subjected to you\nthe sun and the moon in their constant courses: and He hath subjected the day\nand the night to you: of everything which ye ask Him, giveth He to you; and\nif ye would reckon up the favours of God, ye cannot count them! Surely man is\nunjust, ungrateful!\n\nABRAHAM said, \"O Lord make this land secure, and turn aside me and my\nchildren from serving idols:\n\nFor many men, O my Lord, have they led astray. But whosoever shall follow me,\nhe truly shall be of me; and whosoever shall disobey me. . . .  Thou truly\nart Gracious, Merciful.\n\nO our Lord! verily I have settled some of my offspring in an unfruitful\nvalley, nigh to thy holy house;4 O our Lord, that they may strictly observe\nprayer! Make thou therefore the hearts of men to yearn toward them, and\nsupply them with fruits that they may be thankful.\n\nO our Lord! thou truly knowest what we hide and what we bring to light;\nnought on earth or in heaven is hidden from God. Praise be to God who hath\ngiven me, in my old age, Ismael and Isaac! My Lord is the hearer of prayer.\n\nLord! grant that I and my posterity may observe prayer. O our Lord! and grant\nthis my petition. O our Lord! forgive me and my parents and the faithful, on\nthe day wherein account shall be taken.\"\n\nThink thou not that God is regardless of the deeds of the wicked. He only\nrespiteth them to the day on which all eyes shall stare up with terror:\n\nThey hasten forward in fear; their heads upraised in supplication; their\nlooks riveted; and their hearts a blank. Warn men therefore of the day when\nthe punishment shall overtake them,\n\nAnd when the evil doers shall say, \"O our Lord! respite us yet a little\nwhile:5\n\nTo thy call will we make answer; thine Apostles will we follow.\" \"Did ye not\nonce swear that no change should befal you?\n\nYet ye dwelt in the dwellings of those6 who were the authors of their\nundoing7 and it was made plain to you how we had dealt with them; and we held\nthem up to you as examples. They plotted their plots: but God could master\ntheir plots, even though their plots had been so powerful as to move the\nmountains.\"\n\nThink not then that God will fail his promise to his Apostles: aye! God is\nmighty, and Vengeance is His.\n\nOn the day when the Earth shall be changed into another Earth, and the\nHeavens also, men shall come forth unto God, the Only, the Victorious.\n\nAnd thou shalt see the wicked on that day linked together in chains-\n\nTheir garments of pitch, and fire shall enwrap their faces that God may\nreward every soul as it deserveth; verily God is prompt to reckon.\n\nThis is a message for mankind, that they may thereby be warned: and that they\nmay know that there is but one God; and that men of understanding may ponder\nit.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura [lxxxiv.] x. 5.\n\n2 Lit. I truly renounce your having associated me (with God) heretofore.\n\n3 The preaching and the profession of Islam. Comp. Ps. i. 3, 4.\n\n4 The Caaba.\n\n5 Lit. to a term near at hand.\n\n6 Of the anciently destroyed cities of Themoud, Ad, etc.\n\n7 Lit. were unjust to their own souls.\n\nSURA XII.-JOSEPH, PEACE BE ON HIM [LXXVII.]\n\nMECCA.-III Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. RA.1 These are signs of the clear Book.\n\nAn Arabic Koran have we sent it down, that ye might understand it.\n\nIn revealing to thee this Koran,2 one of the most beautiful of narratives\nwill we narrate to thee, of which thou hast hitherto been regardless.\n\nWhen Joseph said to his Father, \"O my Father! verily I beheld eleven stars\nand the sun and the moon-beheld them make obeisance to me!\"3\n\nHe said, \"O my son! tell not thy vision to thy brethren, lest they plot a\nplot against thee: for Satan is the manifest foe of man.\n\nIt is thus that thy Lord shall choose thee and will teach thee the\ninterpretation of dark saying, and will perfect his favours on thee and on\nthe family of Jacob, as of old he perfected it on thy fathers Abraham and\nIsaac; verily thy Lord is Knowing, Wise!\"\n\nNow in JOSEPH and his brethren are signs for the enquirers;4\n\nWhen they said, \"Surely better loved by our Father, than we, who are more in\nnumber, is Joseph and his brother; verily, our father hath clearly erred.\n\nSlay ye Joseph! or drive him to some other land, and on you alone shall your\nfather's face be set! and after this, ye shall live as upright persons.\"\n\nOne of them said, \"Slay not Joseph, but cast him down to the bottom of the\nwell: if ye do so, some wayfarers will take him up.\"\n\nThey said, \"O our Father! why dost thou not entrust us with Joseph? indeed we\nmean him well.\n\nSend him with us to-morrow that he may enjoy himself and sport: we will\nsurely keep him safely.\"\n\nHe said, \"Verily, your taking him away will grieve me; and I fear lest while\nye are heedless of him the wolf devour him.\"\n\nThey said, \"Surely if the wolf devour him, and we so many, we must in that\ncase be weak indeed.\"5\n\nAnd when they went away with him they agreed to place him at the bottom of\nthe well. And We revealed to him, \"Thou wilt yet tell them of this their\ndeed, when they shall not know thee.\"\n\nAnd they came at nightfall to their father weeping.\n\nThey said, \"O our Father! of a truth, we went to run races, and we left\nJoseph with our clothes, and the wolf devoured him: but thou wilt not believe\nus even though we speak the truth.\"\n\nAnd they brought his shirt with false blood upon it. He said, \"Nay, but\nyourselves have managed this affair.6 But patience is seemly: and the help of\nGod is to be implored that I may bear what you tell me.\"\n\nAnd wayfarers came and sent their drawer of water,7 and he let down his\nbucket. \"Good news!\"8 said he, \"This is a youth!\" And they kept his case\nsecret, to make merchandise of him. But God knew what they did.\n\nAnd they sold him for a paltry price-for some dirhems counted down, and at no\nhigh rate did they value him.\n\nAnd he who bought him-an Egyptian-said to his wife, \"Treat him hospitably;\nhaply he may be useful to us, or we may adopt him as a son.\" Thus did we\nsettle Joseph in the land, and we instructed him in the interpretation of\ndark sayings, for God is equal to his purpose; but most men know it not.\n\nAnd when he had reached his age of strength we bestowed on him judgment and\nknowledge; for thus do we recompense the well doers.\n\nAnd she in whose house he was conceived a passion for him, and she shut the\ndoors and said, \"Come hither.\" He said, \"God keep me! Verily, my lord hath\ngiven me a good home: and the injurious shall not prosper.\"\n\nBut she longed for him; and he had longed for her had he not seen a token\nfrom his lord.9 Thus we averted evil and defilement from him, for he was one\nof our sincere servants.\n\nAnd they both made for the door, and she rent his shirt behind; and at the\ndoor they met her lord. \"What,\" said she, \"shall be the recompense of him who\nwould do evil to thy family, but a prison10 or a sore punishment?\"\n\nHe said, \"She solicited me to evil.\" And a witness out of her own family11\nwitnessed: \"If his shirt be rent in front she speaketh truth, and he is a\nliar:\n\nBut if his shirt be rent behind, she lieth and he is true.\"\n\nAnd when his lord saw his shirt torn behind, he said, \"This is one of your\ndevices! verily your devices are great!\n\nJoseph! leave this affair. And thou, O wife, ask pardon for thy crime, for\nthou hast sinned.\"\n\nAnd in the city, the women said, \"The wife of the Prince hath solicited her\nservant: he hath fired her with his love: but we clearly see her manifest\nerror.\"\n\nAnd when she heard of their cabal, she sent to them and got ready a banquet\nfor them, and gave each one of them a knife, and said, \"Joseph shew thyself\nto them.\" And when they saw him they were amazed at him, and cut their\nhands,12 and said, \"God keep us! This is no man! This is no other than a\nnoble angel!\"\n\nShe said, \"This is he about whom ye blamed me. I wished him to yield to my\ndesires, but he stood firm. But if he obey not my command, he shall surely be\ncast into prison, and become one of the despised.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! I prefer the prison to compliance with their bidding:\nbut unless thou turn away their snares from me, I shall play the youth with\nthem, and become one of the unwise.\"\n\nAnd his Lord heard him and turned aside their snares from him: for he is the\nHearer, the Knower.\n\nYet resolved they, even after they had seen the signs of his innocence, to\nimprison him for a time.\n\nAnd there came into the prison with him two youths. Said one of them,\n\"Methought in my dream that I was pressing grapes.\" And the other said, \"I\ndreamed that I was carrying bread on my head, of which the birds did eat.\nDeclare to us the interpretation of this, for we see thou art a virtuous\nperson.\"\n\nHe said, \"There shall not come to you in a dream any food wherewith ye shall\nbe fed, but I will acquaint you with its interpretation ere it come to pass\nto you. This is a part of that which my Lord hath taught me: for I have\nabandoned the religion13 of those who believe not in God and who deny the\nlife to come;\n\nAnd I follow the religion of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. We may\nnot associate aught with God. This is of God's bounty towards us and towards\nmankind: but the greater part of mankind are not thankful.\n\nO my two fellow prisoners! are sundry lords best, or God, the One, the\nMighty?\n\nYe worship beside him mere names which ye have named, ye and your fathers,\nfor which God hath not sent down any warranty. Judgment belongeth to God\nalone. He hath bidden you worship none but Him. This is the right faith: but\nmost men know it not.\n\nO my two fellow prisoners! as to one of you, he will serve wine unto his\nLord: but as to the other, he will be crucified and the birds shall eat from\noff his head. The matter is decreed concerning which ye enquire.\"\n\nAnd he said unto him who he judged would be set at large, \"Remember me with\nthy lord.\" But Satan caused him to forget the remembrance of his Lord,14 so\nhe remained some years in prison.\n\nAnd the King said, \"Verily, I saw in a dream seven fat kine which seven lean\ndevoured; and seven green ears and other withered. O nobles, teach me my\nvision, if a vision ye are able to expound.\"\n\nThey said, \"They are confused dreams, nor know we aught of the unravelling of\ndreams.\"\n\nAnd he of the twain who had been set at large, said, \"I will tell you the\ninterpretation; let me go for it.\"\n\n\"Joseph, man of truth! teach us of the seven fat kine which seven lean\ndevoured, and of the seven green ears, and other withered, that I may return\nto the men, and that they may be informed.\"\n\nHe said, \"Ye shall sow seven years as is your wont, and the corn which ye\nreap leave ye in its ear, except a little of which ye shall eat.\n\nThen after that shall come seven grievous years which shall eat what ye have\nstored for them, except a little which ye shall have kept.\n\nThen shall come after this a year, in which men shall have rain, and in which\nthey shall press the grape.\"\n\nAnd the King said, \"Bring him to me.\"15 And when the messenger came to Joseph\nhe said, \"Go back to thy lord, and ask him what meant the women who cut their\nhands, for my lord well knoweth the snare they laid.\"\n\nThen said the Prince to the women, \"What was your purpose when ye solicited\nJoseph?\" They said, \"God keep us! we know not any ill of him.\" The wife of\nthe Prince said, \"Now doth the truth appear. It was I who would have led him\ninto unlawful love, and he is one of the truthful.\"\n\n\"By this\" (said Joseph) \"may my lord know that I did not in his absence play\nhim false, and that God guideth not the machinations of deceivers.\n\nYet I hold not myself clear, for the heart is prone to evil, save theirs on\nwhom my Lord hath mercy; for gracious is my Lord, Merciful.\"\n\nAnd the King said, \"Bring him to me: I will take him for my special service.\"\nAnd when he had spoken with him he said, \"From this day shalt thou be with\nus, invested with place and trust.\"\n\nHe said, \"Set me over the granaries of the land,16 I will be their prudent\nkeeper!\"\n\nThus did we stablish Joseph in the land that he might house himself therein\nat pleasure. We bestow our favours on whom we will, and suffer not the reward\nof the righteous to perish.\n\nAnd truly the recompense of the life to come is better, for those who have\nbelieved and feared God.\n\nAnd Joseph's brethren came and went in to him and he knew them, but they\nrecognised him not.\n\nAnd when he had provided them with their provision, he said, \"Bring me your\nbrother from your father. See ye not that I fill the measure, and am the best\nof hosts?\n\nBut if ye bring him not to me, then no measure of corn shall there be for you\nfrom me, nor shall ye come near me.\"\n\nThey said, \"We will ask him of his father, and we will surely do it.\"\n\nSaid he to his servants, \"Put their money into their camel-packs, that they\nmay perceive it when they have returned to their family: haply they will come\nback to us.\"\n\nAnd when they returned to their father, they said, \"O, our father! corn is\nwithholden from us: send, therefore, our brother with us and we shall have\nour measure; and all care of him will we take.\"\n\nHe said, \"Shall I entrust you with him otherwise than as I before entrusted\nyou with his brother? But God is the best guardian, and of those who shew\ncompassion He is the most compassionate.\"\n\nAnd when they opened their goods they found their money had been returned to\nthem. They said, \"O, our father, what more can we desire? Here is our money\nreturned to us; we will provide corn for our families, and will take care of\nour brother, and shall receive a camel's burden more of corn. This is an easy\nquantity.\"17\n\nHe said, \"I will not send him with you but on your oath before God that ye\nwill, indeed, bring him back to me, unless hindrances encompass you.\" And\nwhen they had given him their pledge, he said, \"God is witness of what we\nsay.\"\n\nAnd he said, \"O, my sons! Enter not by one gate, but enter by different\ngates.18 Yet can I not help you against aught decreed by God: judgment\nbelongeth to God alone. In Him put I my trust, and in Him let the trusting\ntrust.\"\n\nAnd when they entered as their father had bidden them, it did not avert from\nthem anything decreed of God; but it only served to satisfy a desire in the\nsoul of Jacob which he had charged them to perform; for he was possessed of\nknowledge which we had taught him; but most men have not that knowledge.\n\nAnd when they came in to Joseph, he took his brother to him. He said,\n\"Verily, I am thy brother. Be not thou grieved for what they did.\"19\n\nAnd when he had provided them with their provisions, he placed his drinking\ncup in his brother's camel-pack. Then a crier cried after them, \"O\ntravellers! ye are surely thieves.\"\n\nThey turned back to them and said, \"What is that ye miss?\"\n\n\"We miss,\" said they, \"the prince's cup. For him who shall restore it, a\ncamel's load of corn! I pledge myself for it.\"\n\nThey said, \"By God! ye know certainly that we came not to do wrong20 in the\nland and we have not been thieves.\"\n\n\"What,\" said the Egyptians, \"shall be the recompense of him who hath stolen\nit, if ye be found liars?\"\n\nThey said, \"That he in whose camel-pack it shall be found be given up to you\nin satisfaction for it. Thus recompense we the unjust.\"\n\nAnd Joseph began with their sacks, before the sack of his brother, and then\nfrom the sack of his brother he drew it out. This stratagem did we suggest to\nJoseph. By the King's law he had no power to seize his brother, had not God\npleased. We uplift into grades of wisdom whom we will. And there is one\nknowing above every one else endued with knowledge.\n\nThey said, \"If he steal, a brother of his hath stolen heretofore.\"21 But\nJoseph kept his secret, and did not discover it to them. Said he, aside, \"Ye\nare in the worse condition. And God well knoweth what ye state.\"\n\nThey said, \"O Prince! Verily he hath a very aged father; in his stead,\ntherefore, take one of us, for we see that thou art a generous person.\"\n\nHe said, \"God forbid that we should take but him with whom our property was\nfound, for then should we act unjustly.\"\n\nAnd when they despaired of Benjamin, they went apart for counsel. The eldest\nof them said, \"Know ye not how that your father hath taken a pledge from you\nbefore God, and how formerly ye failed in duty with regard to Joseph? I will\nnot quit the land till my father give me leave, or God decide for me; for of\nthose who decide is He the best.\n\nReturn ye to your father and say, 'O our father! Verily, thy son hath stolen:\nwe bear witness only of what we know: we could not guard against the\nunforeseen.\n\nEnquire for thyself in the city where we have been, and of the caravan with\nwhich we have arrived; and we are surely speakers of the truth.'\n\nHe said, \"Nay, ye have arranged all this among yourselves: But patience is\nseemly: God, may be, will bring them back to me together; for he is the\nKnowing, the Wise.\"\n\nAnd he turned away from them and said, \"Oh! how I am grieved for Joseph!\" and\nhis eyes became white with grief, for he bore a silent sorrow.\n\nThey said, \"By God thou wilt only cease to think of Joseph when thou art at\nthe point of death, or dead.\"\n\nHe said, \"I only plead my grief and my sorrow to God: but I know from God\nwhat ye know not:22\n\nGo, my sons, and seek tidings of Joseph and his brother, and despair not of\nGod's mercy, for none but the unbelieving despair of the mercy of God.\"\n\nAnd when they came in to Joseph, they said, \"O Prince, distress hath reached\nus and our family, and little is the money that we have brought. But give us\nfull measure, and bestow it as alms, for God will recompense the almsgivers.\"\n\nHe said, \"Know ye what ye did to Joseph and his brother in your ignorance?\"\n\nThey said, \"Canst thou indeed be Joseph?\" He said, \"I am Joseph, and this is\nmy brother. Now hath God been gracious to us. For whoso feareth God and\nendureth. . . .  God verily will not suffer the reward of the righteous to\nperish!\"\n\nThey said, \"By God! now hath God chosen thee above us, and we have indeed\nbeen sinners!\"\n\nHe said, \"No blame be on you this day. God will forgive you, for He is the\nmost merciful of those who shew mercy.\n\nGo ye with this my shirt and throw it on my father's face, and he shall\nrecover his sight: and bring me all your family.\"\n\nAnd when the caravan was departed, their father said, \"I surely perceive the\nsmell of Joseph:23 think ye that I dote?\"\n\nThey said, \"By God, it is thy old mistake.\"\n\nAnd when the bearer of good tidings came, he cast it on his face, and Jacob's\neyesight returned.\"\n\nThen he said, \"Did I not tell you that I knew from God what ye knew not?\"\n\nThey said, \"Our father, ask pardon for our crimes for us, for we have indeed\nbeen sinners.\"\n\nHe said, \"I will ask your pardon of my Lord, for he is Gracious, Merciful.\"\n\nAnd when they came into Joseph he took his parents24 to him, and said, \"Enter\nye Egypt, if God will, secure.\"\n\nAnd he raised his parents to the seat of state, and they fell down bowing\nthemselves unto him. Then said he, \"O my father, this is the meaning of my\ndream of old. My Lord hath now made it true, and he hath surely been gracious\nto me, since he took me forth from the prison, and hath brought you up out of\nthe desert, after that Satan had stirred up strife between me and my\nbrethren; for my Lord is gracious to whom He will; for He is the Knowing, the\nWise.\n\nO my Lord, thou hast given me dominion, and hast taught me to expound dark\nsayings. Maker of the Heavens and of the Earth! My guardian art thou in this\nworld and in the next! Cause thou me to die a Muslim, and join me with the\njust.\"\n\nThis is one of the secret histories25 which we reveal unto thee. Thou wast\nnot present with Joseph's brethren when they conceived their design and laid\ntheir plot: but the greater part of men, though thou long for it, will not\nbelieve.\n\nThou shalt not ask of them any recompense for this message. It is simply an\ninstruction for all mankind.\n\nAnd many as are the signs in the Heavens and on the Earth, yet they will pass\nthem by, and turn aside from them:\n\nAnd most of them believe not in God, without also joining other deities with\nHim.\n\nWhat! Are they sure that the overwhelming chastisement of God shall not come\nupon them, or that that Hour shall not come upon them suddenly, while they\nare unaware?\n\nSAY: This is my way: resting on a clear proof, I call you to God, I and whoso\nfolloweth me: and glory be to God! I am not one of those who add other\ndeities to Him.\n\nNever before thee have we sent any but men, chosen out of the people of the\ncities, to whom we made revelations. Will they not journey through the land,\nand see what hath been the end of those who were before them? But the\nmansions of the next life shall be better for those who fear God. Will they\nnot then comprehend?\n\nWhen at last the Apostles lost all hope, and deemed that they were reckoned\nas liars, our aid reached them, and we delivered whom we would; but our\nvengeance was not averted from the wicked.\n\nCertainly in their histories is an example for men of understanding. This is\nno new tale of fiction, but a confirmation of previous scriptures, and an\nexplanation of all things, and guidance and mercy to those who believe.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. p. 32. In no other Sura beside this is one subject treated\nof throughout. It was recited to the first eight of the Ansars who were\nconverted, and clearly proves that Muhammad must have been in confidential\nintercourse with learned Jews.\n\n2 The word Koran is here used in the same sense as Sura.\n\n3 Muhammad was either unaware of the previous dream mentioned, Gen. xxxvii.\n7, or passes it by in silence.\n\n4 The captious and unbelieving Koreisch.\n\n5 Wir mussten denn zuerst das Leben einb\u00fcssen. Wahl. Ullm. Maracci.\n\n6 Lit. your minds have made a thing seem pleasant to you.\n\n7 According to Gen. xxxvii. 24, the well or pit had \"no water in it.\n\n8 Some take the Arabic Boshra as the proper name of the person who\naccompanied the drawer of water.\n\n9 The apparition of his father, who said, \"Hereafter shall the names of thy\nbrethren, engraven on precious stones, shine on the breast of the High\nPriest. Shall thine be blotted out?\" Tr. Sotah, fol. 36. Comp. Weil,\nLegenden, p. 109, n.\n\n10 Lit. that he be imprisoned.\n\n11 An infant in the cradle. Sepher Hadjascher, as below on v. 31.\n\n12 Instead of their food, through surprise at his beauty. Seph. Hadj. in\nMidr. Jalkut. See also Midr. Abkhir, ib. ch. 146.\n\n13 It is curious to observe how Muhammad, in this and the following verse,\nputs his own doctrine and convictions into the mouth of Joseph.\n\n14 Satan induced Joseph to place his confidence in man, rather than in God\nalone, in punishment of which sin the imprisonment was continued. Thus Midr.\nRabba. Gen. Par. 89. Midr. Jalkut, ib. ch. 147.\n\n15 In Gen. xli. 14, Joseph is released from prison before the interpretation\nof the dreams. But the Koran makes him decline to quit it till his character\nis cleared.\n\n16 According to Gen. xli. 39, Pharaoh of his own accord sets Joseph over his\nhouse and land.\n\n17 For the king to bestow.\n\n18 Thus we read in Mid. Rab. on Gen. Par. 91, \"Jacob said to them, Enter ye\nnot all by one gate.\" See also Midr. Jalkut, ch. 148.\n\n19 Thus also, in the Sepher Hadjaschar, Joseph first discovers himself to\nBenjamin, in opposition to Gen. xlv. 1.\n\n20 Comp. Gen. xlii. 9.\n\n21 Joseph is said by the Muhammadan commentators to have stolen an idol of\ngold belonging to his mother's father, which he broke, that he might not\nworship it. But this comment, as well as the text of the Koran, is probably\nbased upon some such tradition as that of Midr. Rabba, Par. 92, \"He is a\nthief and the son of a thief\" (Comp. Gen. xxxi. 19)-spoken of Benjamin.\n\n22 That is, that Joseph was still alive. Thus Midr. Tanchumah on Gen. xlii.\n1.\n\n23 Comp. Gen. xxvii. 27.\n\n24 Joseph's mother had long been dead. See Gen. xxxv. 19. But the object of\nMuhammad was probably to bring the event into strict accordance with the\nprediction of the dream. Gen. xxxvii. 10. Some, however, suppose that Bilhah\nis here meant, and her appearance before Joseph is also asserted to be the\nfulfilment of the dream by some of the Rabbins. Comp. Raschi on Gen. xxxvii.\n10.\n\n25 Lit. This is of the announcements of the things unseen (by thee,\nMuhammad). Compare the manner in which the story of the Creation and of Moses\nin the mount is introduced. Sura xxxviii. 70; xxviii. 45. Mr. Muir thinks\nthat Muhammad must at this period, while recasting and working up these\nmaterials, have entered upon a course of wilful dissimulation and deceit\n(although the end would justify to him the means employed) in claiming\ninspiration for them.\n\n\nSURA XL.-THE BELIEVER [LXXVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-85 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHA. MIM. The Revelation (sending down) of the Book is from God the Almighty,\nthe All-knowing,1\n\nForgiver of sin, and receiver of penitence,-vehement in chastisement,\n\nLong-suffering! There is no God but He: to Him shall be the final gathering.\n\nNone but infidels gainsay the signs of God: but let not their prosperity in\nthe land deceive thee.\n\nThe people of Noah, and the confederates after them, have brought the charge\nof imposture before these Meccans: each nation schemed against their apostle\nto lay violent hold on him, and disputed with vain words to refute the truth.\nTherefore did I lay violent hold on them; and how great was my chastisement!\n\nThus is it that thy Lord's sentence, that inmates shall they be of the fire,\nwas accomplished upon the infidels.\n\nThey who bear the throne2 and they who encircle it, celebrate the praise of\ntheir Lord and believe in Him, and implore forgiveness for the believers:-\"O\nour Lord! thou embracest all things in mercy and knowledge; forgive,\ntherefore, those who turn to thee and follow thy path; keep them from the\npains of hell:\n\nO our Lord! and bring them into the Gardens of Eden which thou hast promised\nto them, and to the righteous ones of their fathers and their wives and their\nchildren; for thou art the All-mighty, the All-wise:\n\nAnd keep them from evil: for on him hast thou mercy whom on that day thou\nshalt keep from evil;\" and this will be the great felicity.\n\nBut to the infidels shall a voice cry, \"Surely the hatred of God is more\ngrievous than your hatred of yourselves, when ye were called to the faith,\nand remained unbelievers.\"\n\nThey shall say, \"Twice, O our Lord, hast thou given us death, and twice hast\nthou given us life:3 and we acknowledge our sins: is there no way to escape?\"\n\n\"This hath befallen you, for that when One God was proclaimed to you, ye\nbelieved not: but when partners had been united with him, ye believed: But\njudgment belongeth unto God, the High, the Great.\"\n\nIt is He who sheweth you his signs, and sendeth down supplies to you from\nHeaven: but none will receive warning save he who turneth to God.\n\nCall then on God, offering him a pure worship, though the infidels abhor it.\n\nOf exalted grade, of the throne possessed, He sendeth forth the Spirit at His\nown behest on whomsoever of His servants He pleaseth, that He may warn of the\nday of meeting,\n\nThe day when they shall come forth from their graves, when nought that\nconcerneth them shall be hidden from God. With whom shall be the power\nsupreme on that day? With God, the One, the Almighty.\n\nOn that day shall every soul be recompensed as it hath deserved: no injustice\non that day! Verily, God will be swift to reckon.\n\nWarn them, then, of the approaching day, when men's hearts shall rise up,\nchoking them, into their throats.\n\nThe evil-doers shall have no friend or intercessor who shall prevail.\n\nGod knoweth the deceitful of eye, and what men's breasts conceal.\n\nAnd everything will God decide with truth: But nothing shall those gods whom\nmen call on beside him, decide. Verily, God! the Hearer, the Beholder, He!\n\nHave they never journeyed in this land, and seen what hath been the end of\nthose who flourished before them? Mightier were they in strength than these\nMeccans, and their traces remain in the land: Yet God took them in their\nsins, and there was none to defend them against God.\n\nThis, because their apostles had come to them with proofs of their mission,\nand they believed not: so God took them in hand; for He is mighty, vehement\nin punishing.\n\nMoreover we had sent Moses of old with our signs and with clear authority.\n\nTo Pharaoh, and Haman, and Karun:4 and they said, \"Sorcerer, impostor.\"\n\nAnd when he came to them from our presence with the truth, they said, \"Slay\nthe sons of those who believe as he doth, and save their females alive;\" but\nthe stratagem of the unbelievers issued only in failure.\n\nAnd Pharaoh said, \"Let me alone, that I may kill Moses; and let him call upon\nhis Lord: I fear lest he change your religion, or cause disorder to shew\nitself in the land.\"\n\nAnd Moses said, \"I take refuge with my Lord and your Lord from every proud\none who believeth not in the day of reckoning.\"\n\nAnd a man of the family of Pharaoh, who was a BELIEVER,5 but hid his faith,\nsaid, \"Will ye slay a man because he saith my Lord is God, when he hath\nalready come to you with proofs of his mission from your Lord? and if he be a\nliar, on him will be his lie:6 but if he be a man of truth, part at least of\nwhat he threateneth will fall upon you. Truly God guideth not him who is a\ntransgressor, a liar.\n\nO my people! this day is the kingdom yours, the eminent of the earth! but who\nshall defend us from the vengeance of God if it come on us?\" Pharaoh said, \"I\nwould have you see only what I see; and in a right way only will I guide\nyou.\"\n\nThen said he who believed, \"O my people! truly I fear for you the like of the\nday of the allies,7\n\nThe like of the state of the people of Noah and Ad and Themoud,\n\nAnd of those who came after them; yet God willeth not injustice to his\nservants.\n\nAnd, O my people! I indeed fear for you the day of mutual outcry-\n\nThe day when ye shall be turned back from the Judgment into hell. No\nprotector shall ye have then against God. And he whom God shall mislead no\nguide shall there be for him.\n\nMoreover, Joseph had come to you before with clear tokens, but ye ceased not\nto doubt of the message with which he came to you, until when he died, ye\nsaid, 'God will by no means raise up an apostle after him.' \" Thus God\nmisleadeth him who is the transgressor, the doubter.\n\nThey who gainsay the signs of God without authority having come to them, are\ngreatly hated by God and by those who believe. Thus God sealeth up every\nproud, contumacious heart.\n\nAnd Pharaoh said, \"O Haman,8 Build for me a tower that I may reach the\navenues,\n\nThe avenues of the heavens, and may mount to the God of Moses, for I verily\ndeem him a liar.\"\n\nAnd thus the evil of his doings was made fair-seeming to Pharaoh, and he\nturned away from the path of truth; but the artifice of Pharaoh ended only in\nhis ruin.\n\nAnd he who believed said, \"O my people! follow me: into the right way will I\nguide you.\n\nO my people! this present life is only a passing joy, but the life to come is\nthe mansion that abideth.\n\nWhoso shall have wrought evil shall not be recompensed but with its like; but\nwhoso shall have done the things that are right, whether male or female, and\nis a believer-these shall enter paradise: good things unreckoned shall they\nenjoy therein.\n\nAnd, O my people! how is it that I bid you to salvation, but that ye bid me\nto the fire?\n\nYe invite me to deny God, and to join with him gods of whom I know nothing;\nbut I invite you to the Mighty, the Forgiving.\n\nNo doubt is there that they to whom ye invite me are not to be invoked either\nin this world or in the world to come: and that unto God is our return, and\nthat the transgressors shall be the inmates of the fire.\n\nThen shall ye remember what I am saying unto you: and to God commit I my\ncase: Verily, God beholdeth his servants.\"\n\nSo God preserved him from the evils which they had planned, and the woe of\nthe punishment encompassed the people of Pharaoh.\n\nIt is the fire to which they shall be exposed morning and evening, and on the\nday when \"the Hour\" shall arrive-\"Bring in the people of Pharaoh into the\nseverest punishment.\"\n\nAnd when they shall wrangle together in the fire, the weak shall say to those\nwho had borne themselves so proudly, \"It is you we followed: will ye\ntherefore relieve us from aught of the fire?\"\n\nAnd those proud ones shall say, \"Verily we are all in it; for now hath God\njudged between his servants.\"\n\nAnd they who are in the fire shall say to the keepers of Hell, \"Implore your\nLord that he would give us ease but for one day from this torment.\"\n\nThey shall say, \"Came not your apostles to you with the tokens?\" They shall\nsay, \"Yes.\" They shall say, \"Cry ye then aloud for help:\" but the cry of the\nunbelievers shall be only in vain.\n\nAssuredly, in this present life will we succour our apostles and those who\nshall have believed, and on the day when the witnesses shall stand forth;\n\nA day whereon the plea of the evil doers shall not avail them; but theirs\nshall be a curse, and theirs the woe of the abode in Hell.\n\nAnd of old gave we Moses the guidance, and we made the children of Israel the\nheritors of the Book,-a guidance and warning to men endued with\nunderstanding.\n\nTherefore be steadfast thou and patient; for true is the promise of God: and\nseek pardon for thy fault,9 and celebrate the praise of thy Lord at evening\nand at morning.\n\nAs to those who cavil at the signs of God without authority having reached\nthem, nought is there but pride in their breasts: but they shall not succeed.\nFly thou for refuge then to God, for He is the Hearer, the Beholder.\n\nGreater surely than the creation of man is the creation of the heavens and of\nthe earth: but most men know it not.\n\nMoreover, the blind and the seeing, and the evil doer and they who believe\nand do the things that are right, shall not be deemed equal. How few ponder\nthis!\n\nAye, \"the Hour\" will surely come: there is no doubt of it: but most men\nbelieve it not.\n\nAnd your Lord saith, \"Call upon me-I will hearken unto you: but they who turn\nin disdain from my service shall enter Hell with shame.\"\n\nIt is God who hath ordained the night for your rest, and the day to give you\nlight: verily God is rich in bounties to men: but most men render not the\ntribute of thanks.\n\nThis is God your Lord, Creator of all things: no god is there but He: why\nthen do ye turn away from Him?\n\nYet thus are they turned aside who gainsay the signs of God.\n\nIt is God who hath given you the earth as a sure foundation, and over it\nbuilt up the Heaven, and formed you, and made your forms beautiful, and\nfeedeth you with good things. This is God your Lord. Blessed then be God the\nLord of the Worlds!\n\nHe is the Living One. No God is there but He. Call then upon Him and offer\nHim a pure worship. Praise be to God the Lord of the Worlds!\n\nSAY: Verily I am forbidden to worship what ye call on beside God, after that\nthe clear tokens have come to me from my Lord, and I am bidden to surrender\nmyself to the Lord of the Worlds.\n\nHe it is who created you of the dust, then of the germs of life, then of\nthick blood, then brought you forth infants: then he letteth you reach your\nfull strength, and then become old men (but some of you die first), and reach\nthe ordained term. And this that haply ye may understand.\n\nIt is He who giveth life and death; and when He decreeth a thing, He only\nsaith of it, \"Be,\" and it is.\n\nSeest thou not those who cavil at the signs of God? how are they turned\naside!\n\nThey who treat \"the Book,\" and the message with which we have sent our Sent\nOnes, as a lie, shall know the truth hereafter,\n\nWhen the collars shall be on their necks and the chains to drag them into\nHell: then in the fire shall they be burned.\n\nThen shall it be said to them, \"Where are they whom ye made the objects of\njoint worship with God?\" They shall say, \"They have vanished away from us.\nYea, it was nought on which we called heretofore.\" Thus God leadeth the\nunbelievers astray.\n\n-\"This for you, because of your unrighteous insolence and immoderate joys on\nearth.\n\nEnter ye the portals of Hell to abide therein for ever. And, wretched the\nabode of the haughty ones!\"\n\nTherefore be thou steadfast in patience: for the promise of God is truth: and\nwhether we shall make thee see part of the woes with which we threatened\nthem, or whether we cause thee first to die, unto us shall they be brought\nback.\n\nAnd we have already sent apostles before thee: of some we have told thee, and\nof others we have told thee nothing:10 but no apostle had the power to work a\nmiracle unless by the leave of God. But when God's behest cometh, everything\nwill be decided with truth: and then they perish who treated it as a vain\nthing.\n\nIt is God who hath given you the cattle that on some of them ye may ride, and\nof some may eat:\n\n(Other advantages too do ye derive from them)-and that by them ye may effect\nthe projects ye cherish in your breasts; for on them, and on ships are ye\nborne:\n\nAnd He sheweth you His signs: which, then, of the signs of God will ye deny?\n\nHave they not journeyed in this land, and seen what hath been the end of\nthose who flourished before them? More were they than these in number and\nmightier in strength, and greater are the traces of their power remaining in\nthe land:11 yet their labours availed them nothing.\n\nAnd when their apostles had come to them with the tokens of their mission,\nthey exulted in what they possessed of knowledge; but that retribution at\nwhich they scoffed, encompassed them.\n\nAnd when they beheld our vengeance they said, \"We believe in God alone, and\nwe disbelieve in the deities we once associated with Him.\"\n\nBut their faith, after they had witnessed our vengeance, profited them not.\nSuch the procedure of God with regard to his servants who flourished of old.\nAnd then the unbelievers perished.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura 1xviii. 1, p. 32.\n\n2 The Cherubic beings of Scripture are said to be above the throne of God\n(Is. vi. 1), beneath it (Ezek. x.); and the mystical beasts in the\nRevelations are said to be in the midst of the throne and round about it.\n\n3 Probably the union of life and death in the womb, and the subsequent life\nfollowed by death.\n\n4 See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 76.\n\n5 Thus Sura [lxxix.] xxviii 20, and Sura [lx.] xxxvi. 19, we have a similar\ncharacter introduced into the narrative.\n\n6 Comp. Acts v. 38, 39.\n\n7 These tribes no doubt constantly formed temporary alliances. Muhammad\nimplies that they were confederate against their prophets.\n\n8 Haman, the favourite of Ahasuerus and the enemy of the Jews, is thus made\nthe vizier of Pharaoh. The Rabbins make this vizier to have been Korah,\nJethro, or Balaam. Midr. Jalkut on Ex. ch. 1, Sect. 162-168; and Tr. Solah,\nfol. 11. See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 5.\n\n9 Thy remissness in propagating Islam. Beidh.\n\n10 It is possible that Muhammad, conscious of his ignorance of Jewish\nhistory, intends in this verse to screen himself from the charge of passing\nover the histories of many of their prophets.\n\n11 The wealth of Mecca, although it still numbered about 12,000 inhabitants\n(as well as of Arabia generally), had much declined at the time of Muhammad,\nowing mainly to the navigation of the Red Sea, under the Roman dominion over\nEgypt, which of course impoverished the tribes situated on the line of the\nold mercantile route southward. Mecca, however, was still to a certain extent\nprosperous. Comp. Sura [lxi.] xliii. 28.\n\n\nSURA XXVIII.-THE STORY [LXXIX.]\n\nMECCA.-88 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTA. SIN. MIM.1 These are the signs of the lucid Book.\n\nWe will recite to thee portions of the History of Moses and Pharaoh with\ntruth, for the teaching of the faithful.\n\nNow Pharaoh lifted himself up in the earth, and divided his people into\nparties: one portion of them he brought low-He slew their male children, and\nlet their females only live; for he was one of those who wrought disorders.\n\nAnd we were minded to shew favour to those who were brought low in the land,\nand to make them spiritual chiefs,2 and to make them Pharaoh's heirs,\n\nAnd to stablish them in the land;3 and to make Pharaoh and Haman and their\nhosts, the eye-witnesses of what they dreaded from them.\n\nAnd we said by revelation to the mother of Moses, \"Give him suck; and if thou\nfearest for him, launch him on the sea; and fear not, neither fret; for we\nwill restore him to thee, and make him one of the apostles.\"\n\nAnd Pharaoh's family took him up to be a foe and a sorrow to them, for\nsinners were Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts!\n\nAnd Pharaoh's wife said, \"Joy of the eye4 to me and thee! put him not to\ndeath: haply he will be useful to us, or we may adopt him as a son.\" But they\nknew not what they did.\n\nAnd the heart of Moses' mother became a blank through fear: and almost had\nshe discovered him, but that we girt up her heart with constancy, in order\nthat she might be one of those who believe.\n\nShe said to his sister, \"Follow him.\" And she watched him from afar: and they\nperceived it not.\n\nAnd we caused him to refuse the nurses,5 until his sister came and said,\nShall I point out to you the family of a house that will rear him for you,\nand will be careful of him?\n\nSo we restored him to his mother, to be the joy of her eyes, and that she\nmight not fret, and that she might know that the promise of God was true. But\nmost men knew it not.\n\nAnd when he had reached his age of strength, and had become a man, we\nbestowed on him wisdom and knowledge; for thus do we reward the righteous.\n\nAnd he entered a city at the time when its inhabitants would not observe\nhim,6 and found therein two men fighting: the one, of his own people; the\nother, of his enemies. And he who was of his own people asked his help\nagainst him who was of his enemies. And Moses smote him with his fist and\nslew him. Said he, \"This is a work of Satan; for he is an enemy, a manifest\nmisleader.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord, I have sinned to mine own hurt:7 forgive me.\" So God\nforgave him; for He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.\n\nHe said, \"Lord, because thou hast showed me this grace, I will never again be\nthe helper of the wicked.\"\n\nAnd in the city at noon he was full of fear, casting furtive glances round\nhim: and lo! the man whom he had helped the day before, cried out to him\nagain for help. Said Moses to him, \"Thou art plainly a most depraved person.\"\n\nAnd when he would have laid violent hands on him who was their common foe, he\nsaid to him, \"O Moses, dost thou desire to slay me, as thou slayedst a man\nyesterday? Thou desirest only to become a tyrant in this land, and desirest\nnot to become a peacemaker.\"\n\nBut a man came running up from the city's end. He said, \"O Moses, of a truth,\nthe nobles consult to slay thee-Begone then-I counsel thee as a friend.\"\n\nSo forth he went from it in fear, looking warily about him. He said, \"O Lord,\ndeliver me from the unjust people.\"\n\nAnd when he was journeying toward Madian, he said, \"Haply my Lord will direct\nme in an even path.\"\n\nAnd when he arrived at the water of Madian, he found at it a company of men\nwatering.\n\nAnd he found beside them, two women8 keeping back their flock: \"Why do ye,\"\nsaid he, \"thus?\" They said \"We shall not water till the shepherds shall have\ndriven off; for our father is very aged.\"\n\nSo he watered for them-then retired to the shade and said, \"O my Lord, of the\ngood thou hast caused me to meet with I stand in need.\"9\n\nAnd one of them came to him, walking bashfully. Said she, \"My father calleth\nthee, that he may pay thee wages for thy watering for us.\" And when he came\nto him and had told him his STORY, \"Fear not,\" said he, \"thou hast escaped\nfrom an unjust people.\"\n\nOne of them said, \"O my father, hire him: for the best thou canst hire is the\nstrong, the trusty.\"\n\nHe said, \"Truly to one of these my two daughters I desire to marry thee, if\nfor eight years thou wilt be my hired servant:10 and if thou fulfil ten, it\nshall be of thine own accord, for I wish not to deal hardly with thee. Thou\nwilt find me, if God will, one of the upright.\"\n\nHe said, \"Be it so between me and thee: Whichever of the two terms I fulfil,\nthere will be no injustice to me. And God is witness of what we say.\"\n\nAnd when Moses had fulfilled the term, and was journeying with his family, he\nperceived a fire on the mountain side. He said to his family, \"Wait ye, for I\nperceive a fire. Haply I may bring you tidings from it, or a brand from the\nfire to warm you.\"\n\nAnd when he came up to it, a Voice cried to him11 out of the bush from the\nright side of the valley in the sacred hollow, \"O Moses, I truly am God, the\nLord of the Worlds:\n\nThrow down now thy rod.\" And when he saw it move as though it were a serpent,\nhe retreated and fled and returned not. \"O Moses,\" cried the Voice, \"draw\nnear and fear not, for thou art in safety.\n\nPut thy hand into thy bosom; it shall come forth white, but unharmed: and\ndraw back thy hand12 to thee without fear. These shall be two signs from thy\nLord to Pharaoh and his nobles; for they are a perverse people.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! truly I have slain one of them, therefore fear I lest\nthey slay me.\n\nMy brother Aaron is clearer of speech than I. Send him, therefore, with me as\na help, and to make good my cause, for I fear lest they treat me as an\nimpostor.\"\n\nHe said, \"We will strengthen thine arm with thy brother, and we will give\npower unto you both, and they shall not equal you in our signs. Ye twain and\nthey who shall follow you, shall gain the day.\"\n\nAnd when Moses came to him with our demonstrative signs they said, \"This is\nnought but magical device. We never heard the like among our sires of old.\"\n\nAnd Moses said, \"My Lord best knoweth on whom He hath bestowed His guidance,\nand whose shall be the recompense of the abode of Paradise. Verily, the\nwicked shall not prosper.\"\n\nAnd Pharaoh said, \"O ye nobles, ye have no other God that I know of but\nmyself. Burn me then, Haman, bricks of clay,13 and build me a tower that I\nmay mount up to the God of Moses, for in sooth, I deem him a liar.\"\n\nAnd he and his hosts behaved themselves proudly and unjustly on the earth,\nand thought that they should never be brought back to us.\n\nBut we seized on him and his hosts and cast them into the sea: Behold, then,\nthe end of the wrongful doers:\n\nAnd we made them im\u00e2ms who invite to the fire of hell, and on the day of\nResurrection they shall not be helped.\n\nWe followed them with a curse in this world, and covered shall they be with\nshame on the day of Resurrection.\n\nAnd after we had destroyed the former generations, we gave the book of the\nLaw to Moses for man's enlightening, and a guidance and a mercy, that haply\nthey might reflect.\n\nAnd thou wast not on the western slope of Sinai when we laid his charge on\nMoses, nor wast thou one of the witnesses;\n\nBut we raised up generations after Moses, men whose days were lengthened;14\nneither didst thou dwell among the inhabitants of Madian to rehearse to them\nour signs, but we sent Apostles to them.15\n\nNor wast thou on the slope of Sinai when we called to Moses, but it is of the\nmercy of thy Lord that thou warnest a people, to whom no warner had come\nbefore thee, to the intent that they should reflect:\n\nAnd that they should not say when a calamity shall befal them for their\nprevious handy work, \"O our Lord! why hast thou not sent an Apostle to us?\nThen we should have followed thy signs and have been of the believers.\"\n\nYet when the truth came to them from our very presence, they said, \"Unless\nthe like powers be given to him that were given to Moses. . . .\"16 But did\nthey not disbelieve in what of old was given to Moses? They said, \"Two works\nof sorcery17 have helped each other;\" and they said, \"We disbelieve them\nboth.\"\n\nSAY: Bring then a Book from before God which shall be a better guide than\nthese, that I may follow it; if ye speak the truth.\n\nAnd if they answer thee not, then know that verily they are following their\nown caprices: and who goeth more widely astray than he who followeth his own\ncaprice without guidance from God? for God guideth not the wicked.\n\nAnd now have we caused our word to come unto them, that they may be warned:\n\nThey18 to whom we gave the Scriptures before IT, do in IT believe.\n\nAnd when it is recited to them they say, \"We believe in it, for it is the\ntruth from our Lord. We were Muslims before it came.\"\n\nTwice shall their reward be given them, for that they suffered with patience,\nand repelled evil with good, and gave alms out of that with which we provided\nthem.\n\nAnd when they hear light discourse they withdraw from it, and say, \"Our works\nfor us and your works for you! Peace be on you! We are not in quest of\nfools!\"\n\nThou truly canst not guide whom thou desirest; but God guideth whom He will;\nand He best knoweth those who yield to guidance.\n\nBut they say, \"If we follow the way in which thou art guided,19 we shall be\ndriven from our country.\" But have we not established for them a sacred\nsecure precinct, to which fruits of every kind, our gift for their support,\nare gathered together? But most of them have no knowledge.\n\nAnd how many cities have we destroyed that flourished in wanton ease! And\nthese their dwellings have not been inhabited since their time save by a few,\nand it is we who became their heirs.\n\nBut thy Lord did not destroy the cities till He had sent an apostle to their\nmother-city to rehearse our signs to its people: nor did we destroy the\ncities unless its people were unjust.\n\nAnd all that hath been bestowed on you is merely for enjoyment and pomp of\nthis life present: but that which is with God is better and more lasting.\nWill ye not be wise?\n\nShall he then to whom we have promised a goodly promise and who obtaineth it,\nbe as he on whom we have bestowed the enjoyments of this life present, and\nwho on the day of Resurrection shall be brought up for punishment?\n\nOn that day will God cry to them and say, \"Where are my companions, as ye\nsupposed them?\"\n\nThey on whom doom shall be justly pronounced will say, \"O our Lord! these are\nthey whom we led astray: we led them astray even as we had been led astray\nourselves: Thou hast no cause of blame against us: It was not we whom they\nworshipped.20\n\nAnd it shall be said, \"Call now on those whom ye made God's companions:\" and\nthey shall call on them, but they will not answer them. And they shall see\nthe punishment, and wish that they had been guided aright.\n\nAnd on that day shall God call to them and say, \"How answered ye the\napostles?\"\n\nBut on that day they shall be too blinded with confusion to give an\naccount,21 nor shall they ask it of one another.\n\nYet as to him who shall turn to God and believe and do the thing that is\nright, it may come to pass that he shall be among the happy.\n\nAnd thy Lord createth what he will and hath a free choice. But they, the\nfalse gods, have no power to choose. Glory be to God! and high let him be\nexalted above those whom they associate with him.\n\nAnd thy Lord knoweth what their breasts conceal and what they bring to light.\n\nAnd He is God! There is no god but He! His, all praise in this life and in\nthe next, and His the power supreme,22 and to Him shall ye be brought back!\n\nSAY: What think ye? If God should enshroud you with a long night until the\nday of resurrection, what god beside God would bring you light? Will ye not\nthen hearken?\n\nSAY: What think ye? If God should make it one long day for you until the day\nof resurrection, what god but God could bring you the night in which to take\nyour rest? Will ye not then see?\n\nOf His mercy he hath made for you the night that ye may take your rest in it;\nand the day that ye may seek what ye need out of his bounteous supplies, and\nthat ye may give thanks.\n\nOne day God will call to them and say, \"Where are my companions as ye\nsupposed them?\n\nAnd we will bring up a witness out of every nation and say, \"Bring your\nproofs.\" And they shall know that the truth is with God alone, and the gods\nof their own devising shall desert them.\n\nNow Korah23 was of the people of Moses: but he behaved haughtily toward them;\nfor we had given him such treasure that its keys would have burdened a\ncompany of men of strength. When his people said to him, \"Exult not, for God\nloveth not those who exult;\n\nBut seek, by means of what God hath given thee, to attain the future Mansion;\nand neglect not thy part in this world, but be bounteous to others as God\nhath been bounteous to thee, and seek not to commit excesses on the earth;\nfor God loveth not those who commit excesses:\"\n\nHe said, \"It hath been given me only on account of the knowledge that is in\nme.\" Did he not know that God had destroyed before him generations that were\nmightier than he in strength and had amassed more abundant wealth? But the\nwicked shall not be asked of their crimes.\n\nAnd Korah went forth to his people in his pomp. Those who were greedy for\nthis present life said, \"Oh that we had the like of that which hath been\nbestowed on Korah! Truly he is possessed of great good fortune.\"\n\nBut they to whom knowledge had been given said, \"Woe to you! the reward of\nGod is better for him who believeth and worketh righteousness, and none shall\nwin it but those who have patiently endured.\"\n\nAnd we clave the earth for him and for his palace, and he had no forces, in\nthe place of God,24 to help him, nor was he among those who are succoured.\n\nAnd in the morning those who the day before had coveted his lot said, \"Aha!\nGod enlargeth supplies to whom he pleaseth of his servants, or is sparing.\nHad not God been gracious to us, He had caused it to cleave for us. Aha! the\nungrateful can never prosper.\"\n\nAs to this future mansion, we will bestow it on those who seek not to exalt\nthem in the earth or to do wrong: And there is a happy issue for the God-\nfearing.\n\nWhoso doeth good shall have reward beyond its merits, and whoso doeth evil,\nthey who do evil shall be rewarded only as they shall have wrought.\n\nHe who hath sanctioned the Koran to thee will certainly bring thee to thy\nhome.25 SAY: My Lord best knoweth who hath guidance, and who is in undoubted\nerror.\n\nThou didst never expect that the Book would be given thee. Of thy Lord's\nmercy only hath it been sent down. Be not thou helpful then to the\nunbelievers:\n\nNeither let them turn thee aside from the signs of God after they have been\nsent down to thee, but bid men to thy Lord; and be not among those who add\ngods to God:\n\nAnd call not on any other god with God. There is no god but He! Everything\nshall perish except Himself! Judgment is His, and to Him shall ye return!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.\n\n2 Lit. Im\u00e2ms.\n\n3 Comp. [xci.] ii. 58.\n\n4 That is, This child will be a comfort to us. See Sura [lviii.] xix. 26.\n\n5 \"Why must the nurse be a Hebrew woman? (Ex. ii. 7.) This shews that he\nrefused the breast of all the Egyptian women. For the Holy, blessed be He,\nhad said, Shall the mouth that is to speak with me suck an unclean thing?\"\nSotah. xii. 2.\n\n6 Lit. in the time of neglect on the part of its people, i.e. at the hour of\nthe noon sleep.\n\n7 Lit. I have acted unjustly to my soul.\n\n8 Comp. Ex. ii. 16, 17, where the daughters are said to be seven.\n\n9 That is, of a wife.\n\n10 The compact (Gen. xxix. 15-39) between Laban and Jacob must have been\npresent to the mind of Muhammad when composing this tale.\n\n11 Lit. he was cried to. According to Muhammad, Moses had resolved to quit\nMadian previously to the Vision of the Bush, which, according to Ex. iii.,\nwas the real occasion.\n\n12 Lit. thy wing.\n\n13 Lit. kindle upon the clay. Comp. [lxxviii.] xl. 38-49. \"He (Pharaoh) said\nto them: From the first have ye spoken an untruth, for Lord of the Worlds am\nI. I created myself and the Nile, as it is said (Ez. xxix. 3), 'My river is\nmine own and I have made it for myself.\"' (E.T.) Mid. Rab. on Ex. Par. 5.\n\n14 So that the oral traditions would be easily handed down.\n\n15 Or, yet have we sent thee as an Apostle to them.\n\n16 Supply, we will not believe.\n\n17 That is, the Pentateuch and the Koran.\n\n18 The Meccan Jews and Christians who had formerly embraced Islam, and could\nnow affirm that they had always held the same faith. This passage could not\nhave been written after Muhammad's experience of Jewish unbelief at Medina.\n\n19 Lit. the guidance with thee.\n\n20 But their own imaginations and passions.\n\n21 Lit. the account shall be blind or dark to them. Sie werden vor Best\u00fcrzung\nkeine Rechenschaft geben. Ullm.\n\n22 Potestas judiciaria. Mar. Richteramt. Ullm.\n\n23 Ar. Karun. \"Joseph concealed three treasures in Egypt, one of which became\nknown to Korah . . . the keys of Korah's treasure chambers were a burden for\n300 white mules.\" Midr. Jalkut on Eccl. v. 12, \"Riches kept for the owners\nthereof to their hurt,\"-which may have furnished Muhammad with the nucleus of\nthis story. Compare also Tract. Psachim. fol. 119 a.\n\n24 Or, against God.\n\n25 Probably to Paradise, according to others to Mecca, as a conqueror. But\nthis latter interpretation involves the revelation of this verse at least, at\nMedina.\n\n\nSURA XXXIX.-THE TROOPS [LXXX.]\n\nMECCA.-75 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTHE Book1 sent down from God, the Mighty, the Wise!\n\nWe have sent down the Book to thee with the truth: serve thou God then, and\nbe sincere in thy worship:\n\nIs not a sincere worship due to God?\n\nBut they who take others beside him as lords saying, \"We serve them only that\nthey may bring us near to God\"-God will judge between them and the faithful,\nconcerning that wherein they are at variance.\n\nVerily God will not guide him who is a liar, an infidel.\n\nHad God desired to have had a son, he had surely chosen what he pleased out\nof his own creation. But praise be to Him! He is God, the One, the Almighty.\n\nFor truth2 hath he created the Heavens and the Earth: It is of Him that the\nnight returneth upon the day and that the day returneth upon the night: and\nHe controlleth the sun and the moon so that each speedeth to an appointed\ngoal. Is He not the Mighty, the Gracious?\n\nHe created you all of one man, from whom He afterwards formed his wife; and\nof cattle He hath sent down to you four pairs.3 In the wombs of your mothers\ndid He create you by creation upon creation in triple darkness. It is He who\nis God your Lord: the kingdom is His: There is no God but He. How then are ye\nso turned aside from Him?\n\nSuppose ye render him no thanks! yet forsooth is God rich without you: but He\nis not pleased with thanklessness in His servants: yet if ye be thankful He\nwill be pleased with you. The soul burdened with its own works shall not be\nburdened with the burden of another: hereafter shall ye return to your Lord,\nand he will tell you of all your works,\n\nFor he knoweth the very secrets of your breasts.\n\nWhen some trouble toucheth a man, he turneth to his Lord and calleth on him:\nyet no sooner hath He enriched him with his favour than he forgetteth Him on\nwhom he before had called, and setteth up peers with God, that he may beguile\nothers from His way. SAY: Enjoy thou thyself yet a little in thine\ningratitude! but thou shalt surely be one of the inmates of the fire.\n\nShall he who observeth the hours of the night, prostrate or standing in\ndevotion, heedful of the life to come, and hoping for the mercy of his Lord .\n. .? SAY: Shall they who have knowledge and they who have it not, be treated\nalike? In sooth, men of understanding only will take the warning.\n\nSAY: O my believing servants, fear your Lord. For those who do good in this\nworld there is good: and broad is God's earth4-verily those who endure with\npatience shall be repaid: their reward shall not be by measure.\n\nSAY: I am bidden to serve God with a sincere worship: and I am bidden to be\nthe first of those who surrender themselves to him (Muslims).\n\nSAY: Verily I fear if I rebel against my Lord the punishment of a great day.\n\nSAY: God will I serve, presenting him with a sincere worship:\n\nAnd serve ye what ye choose beside Him. SAY: The losers truly will they be\nwho shall lose their own souls and their families on the day of resurrection:\nIs not this the clear ruin?\n\nCanopies of fire shall be over them, and floors of fire beneath them. With\nthis doth God alarm his servants: Fear ye me, then, O my servants!\n\nBut good tidings are there for those who shun the worship of Thagout and are\nturned to God. Cheer then with good tidings those my servants who hearken to\nmy word and follow its excellence. These are they whom God guideth, and these\nare men of insight.\n\nHim then on whom the sentence of punishment hath justly lighted-him who is\ndoomed to the fire canst thou rescue?\n\nBut for those who fear their Lord are storied pavilions beneath which shall\nthe rivers flow: it is the promise of God, and God will not fail in his\npromise.\n\nSeest thou not that God sendeth down water from heaven, and guideth it along\nso as to form springs in the earth-then bringeth forth by it corn of varied\nsorts-then causeth he it to wither, and thou seest it become yellow-then\ncrumbleth it away? Lo! herein is teaching for men of insight.\n\nShall he then whose breast God hath opened to Islam, and who hath light from\nhis Lord . . .? But woe to those whose hearts are hardened against the\nremembrance of God! They plainly err.\n\nThe best of recitals hath God sent down a book in unison with itself, and\nteaching by iteration.5 The very skins of those who fear their Lord do creep\nat it! Then do their skins and their hearts soften at the remembrance of\ntheir Lord! This is God's guidance: by it will He guide whom He pleaseth;\nand, whom God shall mislead, no guide shall there be for him.\n\nShall he who shall have nought but his own face to shelter him with from the\ntorment of the punishment on the day of the resurrection . . .? Aye, to the\nevil doers it shall be said, \"Taste what ye have earned.\"\n\nThey who were before them said it was a lie; but a punishment came upon them\nwhence they looked not for it:\n\nAnd God made them taste humiliation in this present life: but greater surely\nwill be the punishment of the life to come. Did they but know it!\n\nNow have we set before man in this Koran every kind of parable for their\nwarning:\n\nAn Arabic Koran, free from tortuous wording, to the intent that they may fear\nGod.\n\nGod setteth forth the comparison of a man with associates6 at variance among\nthemselves, and of a man devoted wholly to a man. Are these to be held alike?\nNo, praise be to God! But the greater part of them understand not.\n\nThou truly shall die, O Muhammad, and they too shall die:\n\nThen, at the day of resurrection, ye shall wrangle with one another in the\npresence of your Lord.\n\nAnd who acteth more unjustly than he who lieth of God, and treateth the truth\nwhen it cometh to him as a lie? Is there not a dwelling-place in Hell for the\ninfidels?\n\nBut he who bringeth the truth, and he who believeth it to be the truth: these\nare the God-fearing.\n\nWhatever they shall desire, awaiteth them with their Lord! This is the reward\nof the righteous;\n\nThat God may do away the guilt of their worst actions, and for their best\nactions render them their reward.\n\nIs not God all-sufficient for his servant? Yet would they scare thee by their\nidols. But no guide shall there be for him whom God misleadeth:\n\nAnd he whom God guideth shall have none to mislead him. Is not God, all-\nmighty, able to revenge?\n\nAnd if thou ask them who hath created the Heavens and the Earth, they will\nsurely answer, God. SAY: Think ye, then, that they7 on whom ye call beside\nGod, if God choose to afflict me, could remove his affliction? or if he\nchoose to show me mercy, could they withhold His mercy? SAY: God sufficeth\nme: in Him let the trusting trust.\n\nSAY: O my people, act your part as best ye can, I too will act mine; and in\nthe end ye shall know\n\nOn whom shall light a punishment that shall shame him, and on whom a lasting\npunishment shall fall.\n\nAssuredly we have sent down the Book to thee for man and for the ends of\ntruth. Whoso shall be guided by it-it will be for his own advantage, and\nwhoso shall err, shall only err to his own loss. But not to thy keeping are\nthey entrusted.\n\nGod taketh souls unto Himself at death; and during their sleep those who do\nnot die:8 and he retaineth those on which he hath passed a decree of death,\nbut sendeth the others back till a time that is fixed. Herein are signs for\nthe reflecting.\n\nHave they taken aught beside God as intercessors? SAY: What! though they have\nno power over anything, neither do they understand?\n\nSAY: Intercession is wholly with God:9 His the kingdom of the Heavens and of\nthe Earth! To him shall ye be brought back hereafter!\n\nBut when the One God is named, the hearts of those who believe not in the\nlife to come, shrivel up: but when the deities who are adored beside Him are\nnamed, lo! they are filled with joy.\n\nSAY: O God, creator of the Heaven and of the Earth, who knowest the hidden\nand the manifest, thou shalt judge between thy servants as to the subject of\ntheir disputes.\n\nIf the wicked possessed all that is in the earth and as much again therewith,\nverily they would ransom themselves with it from the pain of the punishment\non the day of the resurrection; and there shall appear to them, from God,\nthings they had never reckoned on:\n\nAnd their own ill deeds shall be clearly perceived by them, and that fire at\nwhich they mocked shall encircle them on every side.\n\nWhen trouble befalleth a man he crieth to Us; afterwards, when we have\nvouchsafed favour to him, he saith, \"God knew that I deserved it.\"10 Nay, it\nis a trial. But the greater part of them knew it not.\n\nThe same said those who flourished before them; but their deeds profited them\nnot.\n\nAnd their own ill deeds recoiled upon them. And whoso among these (Meccans)\nshall do wrong, on them likewise their own misdeeds shall light, neither\nshall they invalidate God.\n\nKnow they not that God giveth supplies with open hand, and that He is sparing\nto whom He will? Of a truth herein are signs to those who believe.\n\nSAY: O my servants who have transgressed to your own hurt,11 despair not of\nGod's mercy, for all sins doth God forgive. Gracious, Merciful is He!\n\nAnd return ye to your Lord, and to Him resign yourselves, ere the punishment\ncome on you, for then ye shall not be helped:\n\nAnd follow that most excellent thing which hath been sent down to you from\nyour Lord, ere the punishment come on you suddenly, and when ye look not for\nit:\n\nSo that a soul say, \"Oh misery! for my failures in duty towards God! and\nverily I was of those who scoffed:\"\n\nOr say, \"Had God guided me, I had surely been of those who feared Him:\"\n\nOr say, when it seeth the punishment, \"Could I but return, then I would be of\nthe righteous.\"\n\nNay! my signs had already come to thee, and thou didst treat them as\nuntruths, and wast arrogant, and becamest of those who believed not.\n\nAnd on the resurrection day, thou shalt see those who have lied of God, with\ntheir faces black. Is there not an abode in Hell for the arrogant?\n\nBut God shall rescue those who fear him into their safe retreat: no ill shall\ntouch them, neither shall they be put to grief.\n\nGod is the creator of all things, and of all things is He the guardian! His\nthe keys of the Heavens and of the Earth! and-who believe not in the signs of\nGod-these! they shall perish!\n\nSAY: What! do ye then bid me worship other than God, O ye ignorant ones?\n\nBut now hath it been revealed to thee and to those who flourished before\nthee,-\"Verily, if thou join partners with God, vain shall be all thy work,\nand thyself shalt be of those who perish.\n\nNay, rather worship God! and be of those who render thanks.\"\n\nBut they have not deemed of God as is His due;12 for on the resurrection day\nthe whole Earth shall be but his handful, and in his right hand shall the\nHeavens be folded together. Praise be to Him! and high be He uplifted above\nthe partners they join with Him!\n\nAnd there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and all who are in the Heavens and\nall who are in the Earth shall expire, save those whom God shall vouchsafe to\nlive. Then shall there be another blast on it, and lo! arising they shall\ngaze around them:\n\nAnd the earth shall shine with the light of her Lord, and the Book shall be\nset, and the prophets shall be brought up, and the witnesses; and judgment\nshall be given between them with equity; and none shall be wronged:\n\nAnd every soul shall receive as it shall have wrought, for well knoweth He\nmen's actions.\n\nAnd by TROOPS shall the unbelievers be driven towards Hell, until when they\nreach it, its gates shall be opened, and its keepers shall say to them, \"Came\nnot apostles from among yourselves to you, reciting to you the signs of your\nLord, and warning you of the meeting with Him on this your day?\"13 They shall\nsay, \"Yes.\" But just is the sentence of punishment on the unbelievers.\n\nIt shall be said to them, \"Enter ye the gates of Hell, therein to dwell for\never;\" and wretched the abode of the arrogant!\n\nBut those who feared their Lord shall be driven on by troops to Paradise,\nuntil when they reach it, its gates shall be opened, and its keepers shall\nsay to them, \"All hail! virtuous have ye been: enter then in, to abide herein\nfor ever.\"\n\nAnd they shall say, \"Praise be to God, who hath made good to us His promise,\nand hath given to us the earth as our heritage, that we may dwell in Paradise\nwherever we please!\" And goodly is the reward of those who travailed\nvirtuously.\n\nAnd thou shalt see the Angels circling around the Throne with praises of\ntheir Lord: and judgment shall be pronounced between them with equity: and it\nshall be said, \"Glory be to God the Lord of the Worlds.\"\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. the sending down, or revelation, of the Book is, etc.\n\n2 Lit. in truth, i.e. for a serious and earnest purpose, and not as mere\npastime.\n\n3 That is, camels, oxen, sheep and goats.\n\n4 The wording of this verse would seem to indicate a period when Muhammad was\nmeditating flight from Mecca. Comp. [lxxxi.] xxix. 56.\n\n5 See on the word Mathani, Sura xv. 87, p. 116. Or, by rhyming couplets.\n\n6 The word associates contains an implied allusion to the deities associated\nwith God, and who distract the idolaters in their worship.\n\n7 In the fem. gender in the Ar. This passage was revealed shortly after the\ncircumstances mentioned, liii. 20, n. p. 70.\n\n8 See Sura [lxxxix.] vi. 60.\n\n9 That is, none may intercede with Him but those whom He permits to do so.\n\n10 Lit. It was only given to me on account of knowledge. Mar. Deus sciebat me\nesse dignum eo. Thus Sale.\n\n11 By becoming apostates from Islam. Comp. Sura [lxxiii.] xvi. 108. This and\nthe two following verses are said to have originated at Medina. His 230, Wah.\nOmar ben Muhammad. Beidh. Itq. 19.\n\n12 Lit. they have not esteemed God according to the truth of His estimation.\n\n13 Adventum diei hujus. Mar.\n\n\nSURA XXIX.-THE SPIDER [LXXXI.]\n\nMECCA-69 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM.1 Think men that when they say, \"We believe,\" they shall be\nlet alone and not be put to proof?\n\nWe put to proof those who lived before them; for God will surely take\nknowledge of those who are sincere, and will surely take knowledge of the\nliars.\n\nThink they who work evil that they shall escape Us? Ill do they judge.\n\nTo him who hopeth to meet God, the set time of God will surely come. The\nHearer, the Knower, He!\n\nWhoso maketh efforts for the faith, maketh them for his own good only. Verily\nGod is rich enough to dispense with all creatures.\n\nAnd as to those who shall have believed and done the things that are right,\ntheir evil deeds will we surely blot out from them, and according to their\nbest actions will we surely reward them.\n\nMoreover we have enjoined on man to shew kindness to parents: but if they\nstrive with thee that thou join that with Me of which thou hast no\nknowledge,2 obey them not. To me do ye return, and then will I tell you of\nyour doings:\n\nAnd those who shall have believed and done the things that are right, we will\nsurely give them an entering in among the just.\n\nBut some men say, \"We believe in God,\" yet when they meet with sufferings in\nthe cause of God, they regard trouble from man as chastisement from God. Yet\nif a success come from thy Lord they are sure to say, \"We were on your side!\"\nDoth not God well know what is in the breasts of his creatures?\n\nYes, and God well knoweth those who believe, and He well knoweth the\nHypocrites.\n\nThe unbelievers say to the faithful, \"Follow ye our way, and we will surely\nbear your sins.\" But not aught of their sins will they bear-verily they are\nliars!\n\nBut their own burdens, and burdens beside their own burdens shall they surely\nbear: and inquisition shall be made of them on the day of Resurrection as to\ntheir false devices.\n\nOf old sent we Noah to his people: a thousand years save fifty did he tarry\namong them; and the flood overtook them in their wrongful doings:\n\nBut we rescued him and those who were in the vessel; and we made it a sign to\nall men:\n\nAnd Abraham; when he said to his people, \"Worship God and fear Him. This will\nbe best for you, if ye have knowledge;\"\n\nYe only worship idols beside God, and are the authors of a lie. Those whom ye\nworship beside God can give you no supplies: seek, then, your supplies from\nGod; and serve Him and give Him thanks. To Him shall ye return.\n\nSuppose that ye treat me as a liar! nations before you have treated God's\nmessenger as a liar; but open preaching is his only duty.\n\nSee they not how God bringeth forth creation? and then causeth it to return\nagain? This truly is easy for God.\n\nSAY,3 Go through the earth, and see how he hath brought forth created beings.\nHereafter, with a second birth will God cause them to be born again; for God\nis Almighty.\n\nWhom He pleaseth will He chastise, and on whom He pleaseth will He have\nmercy, and to Him shall ye be taken back.\n\nAnd ye shall not invalidate his power either in the Earth or in the Heaven:4\nand, save God, ye shall have neither patron nor helper.\n\nAs for those who believe not in the signs of God, or that they shall ever\nmeet him, these of my mercy shall despair, and these doth a grievous\nchastisement await.\"\n\nAnd the only answer of his people was to say, \"Slay him or burn him.\" But\nfrom the fire did God save him! Verily, herein are signs to those who\nbelieve.\n\nAnd Abraham said, \"Of a truth ye have taken idols along with God as your bond\nof union5 in this life present;\n\nBut on the day of resurrection some of you shall deny the others, and some of\nyou shall curse the others; and your abode shall be the fire, and ye shall\nhave none to help.\"\n\nBut Lot believed on him,6 and said, \"I betake me to my Lord, for He truly is\nthe Mighty, the Wise.\"\n\nAnd we bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob,7 and placed the gift of prophecy and\nthe Scripture among his posterity; And we gave him his reward in this world,\nand in the next he shall be among the just.\n\nWe sent also Lot: when he said to his people, \"Proceed ye to a filthiness in\nwhich no people in the world hath ever gone before you?\n\nProceed ye even to men? attack ye them on the highway? and proceed ye to the\ncrime in your assemblies?\" But the only answer of his people was to say,\n\"Bring God's chastisement upon us, if thou art a man of truth.\"\n\nHe cried: My Lord! help me against this polluted people.\n\nAnd when our messengers came to Abraham with the tidings of a son, they said,\n\"Of a truth we will destroy the in-dwellers in this city, for its in-dwellers\nare evil doers.\"\n\nHe said, \"Lot is therein.\" They said, \"We know full well who therein is. Him\nand his family will we save, except his wife; she will be of those who\nlinger.\n\nAnd when our messengers came to Lot, he was troubled for them, and his arm\nwas too weak8 to protect them; and they said, \"Fear not, and distress not\nthyself, for thee and thy family will we save, except thy wife; she will be\nof those who linger.9\n\nWe will surely bring down upon the dwellers in this city vengeance from\nHeaven for the excesses they have committed.\"\n\nAnd in what we have left of it is a clear sign to men of understanding.\n\nAnd to Madian we sent their brother Shoaib. And he said, \"Oh! my people!\nworship God, and expect the latter day, and enact not in the land deeds of\nharmful excess.\"\n\nBut they treated him as an impostor: so an earthquake assailed them; and at\nmorn they were found prostrate and dead in their dwellings.\n\nAnd we destroyed Ad and Themoud. Already is this made plain to you in the\nruins of their dwellings. For Satan had made their own works fair seeming to\nthem, and drew them from the right path, keen-sighted though they were.\n\nAnd Corah and Pharaoh and Haman. With proofs of his mission did Moses come to\nthem, and they behaved proudly on the earth; but us they could not\noutstrip;10\n\nFor, every one of them did we seize in his sin. Against some of them did\nwesend a stone-charged wind: Some of them did the terrible cry of Gabriel\nsurprise: for some of them we cleaved the earth; and some of them we drowned.\nAnd it was not God who would deal wrongly by them, but they wronged\nthemselves.\n\nThe likeness for those who take to themselves guardians instead of God is the\nlikeness of the SPIDER who buildeth her a house: But verily, frailest of all\nhouses surely is the house of the spider. Did they but know this!\n\nGod truly knoweth all that they call on beside Him; and He is the Mighty, the\nWise.\n\nThese similitudes do we set forth to men: and none understand them except the\nwise.\n\nGod hath created the Heavens and the Earth for a serious end.11 Verily in\nthis is a sign to those who believe.\n\nRecite the portions of the Book which have been revealed to thee and\ndischarge the duty of prayer: for prayer restraineth from the filthy and the\nblame-worthy. And the gravest duty is the remembrance of God; and God knoweth\nwhat ye do.\n\nDispute not, unless in kindly sort, with the people of the Book;12 save with\nsuch of them as have dealt wrongfully with you: And say ye, \"We believe in\nwhat hath been sent down to us and hath been sent down to you. Our God and\nyour God is one, and to him are we self-surrendered\" (Muslims).\n\nThus have we sent down the Book of the Koran to thee: and they to whom we\nhave given the Book of the law believe in it: and of these Arabians there are\nthose who believe in it: and none, save the Infidels, reject our signs.\n\nThou didst not recite any book (of revelation) before it: with that right\nhand of thine thou didst not transcribe one: else might they who treat it as\na vain thing have justly doubted:\n\nBut it is a clear sign in the hearts of those whom \"the knowledge\" hath\nreached. None except the wicked reject our signs.\n\nAnd they say, \"Unless a sign be sent down to him from his Lord. . . .\" SAY:\nSigns are in the power of God alone. I am only a plain spoken warner.\n\nIs it not enough for them that we have sent down to thee the Book to be\nrecited to them? In this verily is a mercy and a warning to those who\nbelieve.\n\nSAY: God is witness enough between me and you.\n\nHe knoweth all that is in the Heavens and the Earth, and they who believe in\nvain things13 and disbelieve in God-these shall be the lost ones.\n\nThey will challenge thee to hasten the punishment: but had there not been a\nseason fixed for it, that punishment had already come upon them. But it shall\novertake them suddenly when they look not for it.\n\nThey will challenge thee to hasten the punishment: but verily Hell shall be\nround about the infidels.\n\nOne day the punishment shall wrap them round, both from above them and from\nbeneath their feet; and God will say, \"Taste ye your own doings.\"\n\nO my servants who have believed! Vast truly is my Earth:14 me, therefore! yea\nworship me.\n\nEvery soul shall taste of death. Then to us shall ye return.\n\nBut those who shall have believed and wrought righteousness will we lodge in\ngardens with palaces, beneath which the rivers flow. For ever shall they\nabide therein. How goodly the reward of those who labour,\n\nWho patiently endure, and put their trust in their Lord!\n\nHow many animals are there which provide not15 their own food! God feedeth\nthem and you. He Heareth, Knoweth all things.\n\nIf thou ask them who hath created the Heavens and the Earth, and hath imposed\nlaws on the sun and on the moon, they will certainly say, \"God.\" How then can\nthey devise lies?\n\nGod lavisheth supplies on such of his servants as He pleaseth or giveth to\nthem by measure. God knoweth all things.\n\nIf thou ask them who sendeth rain from heaven, and by it quickeneth the\nearth, after it hath been dead, they will certainly answer, \"God.\" SAY:\nPraise be to God! Yet most of them do not understand.\n\nThis present life is no other than a pastime and a disport: but truly the\nfuture mansion is life indeed! Would that they knew this!\n\nLo! when they embark on shipboard, they call upon God, vowing him sincere\nworship, but when He bringeth them safe to land, behold they join partners\nwith Him.\n\nIn our revelation they believe not, yet take their fill of good things. But\nin the end they shall know their folly.\n\nDo they not see that we have established a safe precinct16 while all around\nthem men are being spoiled? Will they then believe in vain idols, and not own\nthe goodness of God?\n\nBut who acteth more wrongly than he who deviseth a lie against God, or calls\nthe truth when it hath come to him, a lie? Is there not an abode for the\ninfidels in Hell?\n\nAnd whoso maketh efforts for us, in our ways will we guide them: for God is\nassuredly with those who do righteous deeds.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. p. 32. The first ten verses of this Sura were revealed at\nMedina, after the battles of Bedr and Ohod. N\u00f6ld. p. 115.\n\n2 Deities for whose worship thou canst shew no authority. Comp. Tr.\nJebhamoth, fol. 6. If a father saith to his son, \"Defile thyself,\" or saith,\n\"Make not restitution,\" shall he obey him? It is said (Lev. xix. 3), Let\nevery man reverence his father and mother, but keep my Sabbaths all of you:\nye are all bound to honour me. Thus also Midr. Jalkut, 604. Comp. next Sura,\nv. 13.\n\n3 The word SAY-the usual address of God or Gabriel to Muhammad-must either be\nconsidered as spoken by God to Abraham, in which case we have a curious\ninstance of the manner in which Muhammad identifies himself with Abraham, and\nmakes Abraham speak in words which he constantly elsewhere uses himself; or,\nwith Wahl, we must suppose that from v. 17 to v. 22 are misplaced.\n\n4 Comp. Ps. cxxxix. 7.\n\n5 Lit. for love among yourselves, or as an object of love, i.e. devout\nworship.\n\n6 Thus Sura [lxv.] xxi. 71. The Midr. Rabbah on Gen. Par. 18, says that\nHaran, the father of Lot, was brought by Abraham's deliverance from the\nfurnace to the adoption of his doctrines. Muhammad may have transferred this\nidea to Lot.\n\n7 The following passages deserve to be compared, as shewing the loose way in\nwhich Muhammad could speak of the relationship subsisting between Abraham and\nthe other Patriarchs. See 38 below. Sura [xci.] ii. 127; [lxxxix.] vi. 84;\n[lviii.] xix. 50; [lxv.] xxi. 72; [lxxvii.] xii. 6. It is a curious\ncoincidence that in the Sonna 398, 400, Joseph is said to be the Grandson,\nand Jacob the Son, of Abraham.\n\n8 Lit. was straitened in regard to them.\n\n9 See [lxxv.] xi. 83.\n\n10 So as to fly from our vengeance.\n\n11 Lit. in truth.\n\n12 With the Jews. This passage is quoted by modern Muslims in justification\nof their indifference with respect to the propagation of their religion. \"The\nnumber of the faithful,\" said one of them to Mr. Lane, \"is decreed by God,\nand no act of man can increase or diminish it.\" Mod. Egypt. i. p. 364.\nN\u00f6ldeke supposes this verse to have been revealed at Medina, and renders,\nContend not except in the best way, i.e. not by words but by force.\n\n13 Idols.\n\n14 That is, you may find places of refuge where you may worship the true God\nin some other parts of the earth, if driven forth from your native city. This\nverse is very indicative of a late Meccan origin. Flight from Mecca must have\nbeen imminent when Muhammad could thus write.\n\n15 Lit. carry not. Comp. Matth. vi. 26; Luke xii. 24.\n\n16 At Mecca.\n\n\nSURA XXXI.-LOKMAN1 [LXXXII.]\n\nMECCA.-34 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM.2 These are the verses (signs) of the wise Book,\n\nA guidance and a mercy to the righteous,\n\nWho observe prayer, and pay the impost,3 and believe firmly in the life to\ncome:-\n\nThese rest on guidance from their Lord, and with these it shall be well.\n\nBut a man there is4 who buyeth an idle tale, that in his lack of knowledge he\nmay mislead others from the way of God, and turn it to scorn. For such is\nprepared a shameful punishment!\n\nAnd when our signs are rehearsed to him, he turneth away disdainfully, as\nthough he heard them not,-as though his ears were heavy with deafness.\nAnnounce to him therefore tidings of an afflictive punishment!\n\nBut they who shall have believed and wrought good works, shall enjoy the\ngardens of delight:\n\nFor ever shall they dwell therein: it is God's true promise! and He is the\nMighty, the Wise.\n\nWithout pillars that can be seen hath He created the heavens, and on the\nearth hath thrown mountains lest it should move with you;5 and He hath\nscattered over it animals of every sort: and from the Heaven we send down\nrain and cause every kind of noble plant to grow up therein.\n\nThis is the creation of God: Shew me now what others than He have created.\nAh! the ungodly are in a manifest delusion.\n\nOf old we bestowed wisdom upon LOKMAN, and taught him thus-\"Be thankful to\nGod: for whoever is thankful, is thankful to his own behoof; and if any shall\nbe thankless . . .  God truly is self-sufficient, worthy of all praise!\"\n\nAnd bear in mind when Lokman said to his son by way of warning, \"O my son!\njoin not other gods with God, for the joining gods with God is the great\nimpiety.\"\n\n(We have commanded6 man concerning his parents. His mother carrieth him with\nweakness upon weakness; nor until after two years is he weaned.7 Be grateful\nto me, and to thy parents. Unto me shall all come.\n\nBut if they importune thee to join that with Me of which thou hast no\nknowledge, obey them not: comport thyself towards them in this world as is\nmeet and right; but follow the way of him who turneth unto me. Unto me shall\nye return at last, and then will I tell you of your doings;)\n\n\"O my son! verily God will bring everything to light, though it were but the\nweight of a grain of mustard-seed, and hidden in a rock or in the heavens or\nin the earth; for, God is subtile, informed of all.\n\nO my son! observe prayer, and enjoin the right and forbid the wrong, and be\npatient under whatever shall betide thee: for this is a bounden duty.\n\nAnd distort not thy face at men; nor walk thou loftily on the earth; for God\nloveth no arrogant vain-glorious one.\n\nBut let thy pace be middling; and lower thy voice: for the least pleasing of\nvoices is surely the voice of asses.\"\n\nSee ye not how that God hath put under you all that is in the heavens and all\nthat is on the earth, and hath been bounteous to you of his favours, both for\nsoul and body.8 But some are there who dispute of God without knowledge, and\nhave no guidance and no illuminating Book:\n\nAnd when it is said to them, Follow ye what God hath sent down, they say,\n\"Nay; that religion in which we found our fathers will we follow.\" What!\nthough Satan bid them to the torment of the flame?\n\nBut whoso setteth his face toward God with self-surrender, and is a doer of\nthat which is good, hath laid hold on a sure handle; for unto God is the\nissue of all things.\n\nBut let not the unbelief of the unbelieving grieve thee: unto us shall they\nreturn: then will we tell them of their doings; for God knoweth the very\nsecrets of the breast.\n\nYet a little while will we provide for them: afterwards will we force them to\na stern punishment.\n\nIf thou ask them who hath created the heavens and the earth, they will\ncertainly reply, \"God.\" SAY: God be praised! But most of them have no\nknowledge.\n\nGod's, whatever is in the Heavens and the Earth! for God, He is the Rich,9\nthe Praiseworthy.\n\nIf all the trees that are upon the earth were to become pens, and if God\nshould after that swell the sea into seven seas of ink, His words would not\nbe exhausted: for God is Mighty, Wise.10\n\nYour creation and your quickening hereafter, are but as those of a single\nindividual. Verily, God Heareth, Seeth!\n\nSeest thou not that God causeth the night to come in upon the day, and the\nday to come in upon the night? and that he hath subjected the sun and the\nmoon to laws by which each speedeth along to an appointed goal? and that God\ntherefore is acquainted with that which ye do?\n\nThis, for that God is the truth; and that whatever ye call upon beside Him is\na vain thing; and that God-He is the High, the Great.\n\nSeest thou not how the ships speed on in the sea, through the favour of God,\nthat he may shew you of his signs? for herein are signs to all patient,\ngrateful ones.\n\nWhen the waves cover them like dark shadows they call upon God as with\nsincere religion; but when He safely landeth them, some of them there are who\nhalt between two opinions.11 Yet none reject our signs but all deceitful,\nungrateful ones.\n\nO men! fear ye your Lord, and dread the day whereon father shall not atone\nfor son, neither shall a son in the least atone for his father.\n\nAye! the promise of God is a truth. Let not this present life then deceive\nyou; neither let the deceiver deceive you concerning God.\n\nAye! God!-with Him is the knowledge of the Hour: and He sendeth down the\nrain-and He knoweth what is in the wombs-but no soul knoweth what it shall\nhave gotten on the morrow: neither knoweth any soul in what land it shall\ndie. But God is knowing, informed of all.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Nothing certain is known concerning the history of this fabulist and\nphilosopher. The opinion most generally received is that Lokman is the same\nperson whom the Greeks, not knowing his real name, have called \u00c6sop, i.e.,\n\u00c6thiops. This Sura shews the high degree of respect entertained for Lokman in\nArabia at the time of Muhammad, who doubtless aimed to promote the interests\nof his new religion by connecting the Koran with so celebrated a name.\n\n2 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.\n\n3 Beidh. and Itq. suppose this verse to have been revealed at Medina, on\naccount of the precept to pay the impost, required by Muhammad of his\nfollowers as a religious duty, and different from the alms. The former is\nusually coupled with the duty of observing prayer. Mar. renders, sacrum\ncensum in marg.\n\n4 Nodhar Ibn El Hareth, who had purchased in Persia the romance of Roustem\nand Isfendiar, two of the most famous heroes of that land, which he recited\nto the Koreisch as superior to the Koran.\n\n5 Comp. Ps. civ. 5.\n\n6 This verse and the verse following would seem more naturally to follow\nverse 18, where Wahl has placed them. See preceding Sura, v. 7.\n\n7 Comp. Talm. Kethuboth, 60, 1, \"A woman is to suckle her child two years.\"\nComp. Jos. Ant. ii. 9, 6.\n\n8 Or, the seen and unseen, lit., outwardly and inwardly.\n\n9 Or as rendered in verse 11, \"the self-sufficient.\"\n\n10 Wah. Omar ben Muhammad, Zam. and Beidh. suppose this and the three\nfollowing verses to have been revealed at Medina, in answer to the Jews, who\nhad affirmed that all knowledge was contained in their own Law. But the\naccuracy of this supposition is very doubtful, if considered with regard to\nthe preceding and following context.\n\n11 Between idolatry and Islam.\n\n\nSURA XLII.-COUNSEL [LXXXIII.]\n\nMECCA.-53 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHA. MIM. AIN. SIN. KAF.1 Thus unto thee as unto those who preceded thee doth\nGod, the Mighty, the Wise, reveal!\n\nAll that is in the Heavens and all that is in the Earth is His: and He is the\nHigh, the Great!\n\nReady are the Heavens to cleave asunder from above for very awe: and the\nangels celebrate the praise of their Lord, and ask forgiveness for the\ndwellers on earth: Is not God the Indulgent, the Merciful?\n\nBut whose take aught beside Him as lords-God watcheth them! but thou hast\nthem not in thy charge.\n\nIt is thus moreover that we have revealed to thee an Arabic Koran, that thou\nmayest warn the mother city2 and all around it, and that thou mayest warn\nthem of that day of the Gathering, of which there is no doubt-when part shall\nbe in Paradise and part in the flame.\n\nHad God so pleased, He had made them one people and of one creed: but He\nbringeth whom He will within His mercy; and as for the doers of evil, no\npatron, no helper shall there be for them.\n\nWill they take other patrons than Him? But God is man's only Lord: He\nquickeneth the dead; and He is mighty over all things.\n\nAnd whatever the subject of your disputes, with God doth its decision rest.\nThis is God, my Lord: in Him do I put my trust, and to Him do I turn in\npenitence;\n\nCreator of the Heavens and of the Earth! he hath given you wives from among\nyour own selves, and cattle male and female-by this means to multiply you:\nNought is there like Him! the Hearer, the Beholder He!\n\nHis, the keys of the Heavens and of the Earth! He giveth with open hand, or\nsparingly, to whom He will: He knoweth all things.\n\nTo you hath He prescribed the faith which He commanded unto Noah, and which\nwe have revealed to thee, and which we commanded unto Abraham and Moses and\nJesus, saying, \"Observe this faith, and be not divided into sects therein.\"\nIntolerable to those who worship idols jointly with God\n\nIs that faith to which thou dost call them. Whom He pleaseth will God choose\nfor it, and whosoever shall turn to Him in penitence will He guide to it.\n\nNor were they divided into sects through mutual jealousy, till after that\n\"the knowledge\" had come to them: and had not a decree from thy Lord gone\nforth respiting them to a fixed time, verily, there had at once been a\ndecision between them.3 And they who have inherited \"the Book\" after them,\nare in perplexity of doubt concerning it.\n\nFor this cause summon thou them to the faith, and go straight on as thou hast\nbeen bidden, and follow not their desires: and SAY: In whatsoever Books God\nhath sent down do I believe: I am commanded to decide justly between you: God\nis your Lord and our Lord: we have our works and you have your works: between\nus and you let there be no strife: God will make us all one: and to Him shall\nwe return.\n\nAnd as to those who dispute about God, after pledges of obedience given to\nHim,4 their disputings shall be condemned by their Lord, and wrath shall be\non them, and theirs shall be a sore torment.\n\nIt is God who hath sent down the Book with truth, and the Balance:5 but who\nshall inform thee whether haply \"the Hour\" be nigh?\n\nThey who believe not in it, challenge its speedy coming:6 but they who\nbelieve are afraid because of it, and know it to be a truth. Are not they who\ndispute of the Hour, in a vast error?\n\nBenign is God towards his servants: for whom He will doth He provide: and He\nis the Strong, the Mighty.\n\nWhoso will choose the harvest field of the life to come, to him will we give\nincrease in this his harvest field: and whoso chooseth the harvest field of\nthis life, thereof will we give him: but no portion shall there be for him in\nthe life to come.7\n\nIs it that they have gods who have sanctioned for them aught in the matter of\nreligion which God hath not allowed? But had it not been for a decree of\nrespite till the day of severance, judgment had ere now taken place among\nthem; and assuredly the impious shall undergo a painful torment.\n\nOn that day thou shalt see the impious alarmed at their own works, and the\nconsequence thereof shall fall upon them: but they who believe and do the\nthings that are right, shall dwell in the meadows of paradise: whatever they\nshall desire awaiteth them with their Lord. This, the greatest boon.\n\nThis is what God announceth to his servants who believe and do the things\nthat are right. SAY: For this ask I no wage of you, save the love of my kin.\nAnd whoever shall have won the merit of a good deed, we will increase good to\nhim therewith; for God is forgiving, grateful.\n\nWill they say he hath forged a lie of God? If God pleased,\n\nHe could then seal up thy very heart.8 But God will bring untruth to nought,\nand will make good the truth by his word: for He knoweth the very secrets of\nthe breast.\n\nHe it is who accepteth repentance from his servants, and forgiveth their sins\nand knoweth your actions:\n\nAnd to those who believe and do the things that are right will he hearken,\nand augment his bounties to them:9 but the unbelievers doth a terrible\npunishment await.\n\nShould God bestow abundance upon his servants, they might act wantonly on the\nearth: but He sendeth down what He will by measure; for he knoweth, beholdeth\nhis servants.\n\nHe it is who after that men have despaired of it, sendeth down the rain, and\nspreadeth abroad his mercy: He is the Protector, the Praiseworthy.\n\nAmong his signs is the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth, and the\ncreatures which he hath scattered over both: and, for their gathering\ntogether when he will, He is allpowerful!\n\nNor happeneth to you any mishap, but it is for your own handy-work: and yet\nhe forgiveth many things.\n\nYe cannot weaken him on the earth: neither, beside God, patron or helper\nshall ye have.\n\nAmong his signs also are the sea-traversing ships like mountains: if such be\nhis will, He lulleth the wind, and they lie motionless on the back of the\nwaves:-truly herein are signs to all the constant, the grateful;-\n\nOr if, for their ill deserts, He cause them to founder, still He forgiveth\nmuch:\n\nBut they who gainsay our signs shall know that there will be no escape for\nthem.\n\nAll that you receive is but for enjoyment in this life present: but better\nand more enduring is a portion with God, for those who believe and put their\ntrust in their Lord;\n\nAnd who avoid the heinous things of crime, and filthiness, and when they are\nangered, forgive;\n\nAnd who hearken to their Lord, and observe prayer, and whose affairs are\nguided by mutual COUNSEL, and who give alms of that with which we have\nenriched them;\n\nAnd who, when a wrong is done them, redress themselves:\n\n-Yet let the recompense of evil be only a like evil but he who forgiveth and\nis reconciled, shall be rewarded by God himself; for He loveth not those who\nact unjustly.\n\nAnd there shall be no way open against those who, after being wronged, avenge\nthemselves;\n\nBut there shall be a way open against those who unjustly wrong others, and\nact insolently on the earth in disregard of justice. These! a grievous\npunishment doth await them.\n\nAnd whoso beareth wrongs with patience and forgiveth;-this verily is a\nbounden duty;\n\nBut he whom God shall cause to err, shall thenceforth have no protector. And\nthou shalt behold the perpetrators of injustice,\n\nExclaiming, when they see the torment, \"Is there no way to return?\"\n\nAnd thou shalt see them when set before it, downcast for the shame: they\nshall look at it with stealthy glances: and the believers shall say, \"Truly\nare the losers they who have lost themselves and their families on the day of\nResurrection! Shall not the perpetrators of injustice be in lasting torment?\"\n\nAnd no other protectors shall there be to succour them than God; and no\npathway for him whom God shall cause to err.\n\nHearken then to your Lord ere the day come, which none can put back when God\ndoth ordain its coming. No place of refuge for you on that day! no denying\nyour own works!\n\nBut if they turn aside from thee, yet we have not sent thee to be their\nguardian. 'Tis thine but to preach. When we cause man to taste our gifts of\nmercy, he rejoiceth in it; but if for their by-gone handy-work evil betide\nthem, then lo! is man ungrateful.\n\nGod's, the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth! He createth what He will!\nand he giveth daughters to whom He will, and sons to whom He will:\n\nOr He giveth them children of both sexes, and He maketh whom He will to be\nchildless; for He is Wise, Powerful!\n\nIt is not for man that God should speak with him but by vision, or from\nbehind a veil:\n\nOr, He sendeth a messenger to reveal, by his permission, what He will: for He\nis Exalted, Wise!\n\nThus have we sent the Spirit (Gabriel10) to thee with a revelation, by our\ncommand. Thou knewest not, ere this, what \"the Book\" was, or what the faith.\nBut we have ordained it for a light: by it will we guide whom we please of\nour servants. And thou shalt surely guide into the right way,\n\nThe way of God, whose is all that the Heaven and the Earth contain. Shall not\nall things return to God?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.\n\n2 Mecca.\n\n3 Jews and Christians.\n\n4 Or, nachdem ihm (Mohamed) die Lehre geworden. Ullm. Postquam responsum fuit\nilli (id est, Mahumeto de Religione manifestanda). Mar.\n\n5 The law contained in the Koran.\n\n6 Isai. v. 19.\n\n7 Comp. Gal. vi. 7, 8.\n\n8 That is, deprive thee of the Prophetic mission; or, fortify thee with\npatience against the calumny of forging lies of God. Thus Mar. If this latter\ninterpretation be adopted, the remainder of the verse must be rendered: And\nGod will abolish the lie and, etc.\n\n9 Lit. he will increase them. Comp. Ps. cxv. 14.\n\n10 Thus Beidhawi.\n\n\nSURA X.-JONAH, PEACE BE ON HIM! [LXXXIV.]\n\nMECCA.-109 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. RA.1 These are the signs of the wise Book!\n\nA matter of wonderment is it to the men of Mecca, that to a person among\nthemselves We revealed, \"Bear warnings to the people: and, to those who\nbelieve, bear the good tidings that they shall have with their Lord the\nprecedence merited by their sincerity.\" The unbelievers say, \"Verily this is\na manifest sorcerer.\"\n\nVerily your Lord is God who hath made the Heavens and the Earth in six days-\nthen mounted his throne to rule all things: None can intercede with him till\nafter his permission: This is God your Lord: therefore serve him: Will ye not\nreflect?\n\nUnto Him shall ye return, all together: the promise of God is sure: He\nproduceth a creature, then causeth it to return again-that he may reward\nthose who believe and do the things that are right, with equity: but as for\nthe infidels!-for them the draught that boileth and an afflictive torment-\nbecause they have not believed.\n\nIt is He who hath appointed the sun for brightness, and the moon for a light,\nand hath ordained her stations that ye may learn the number of years and the\nreckoning of time. God hath not created all this but for the truth.2 He\nmaketh his signs clear to those who understand.\n\nVerily, in the alternations of night and of day, and in all that God hath\ncreated in the Heavens and in the Earth are signs to those who fear Him.\n\nVerily, they who hope not to meet Us, and find their satisfaction in this\nworld's life, and rest on it, and who of our signs are heedless;-\n\nThese! their abode the fire, in recompense of their deeds!\n\nBut they who believe and do the things that are right, shall their Lord\ndirect aright because of their faith. Rivers shall flow at their feet in\ngardens of delight:\n\nTheir cry therein, \"Glory be to thee, O God!\" and their salutation therein,\n\"Peace!\"\n\nAnd the close of their cry, \"Praise be to God, Lord, of all creatures!\"\n\nShould God hasten evil on men as they fain would hasten their good, then were\ntheir end decreed! So leave we those who hope not to meet Us, bewildered in\ntheir error.\n\nWhen trouble toucheth a man, he crieth to us, on his side, or sitting, or\nstanding; and when we withdraw his trouble from him, he passeth on as though\nhe had not called on us against the trouble which touched him! Thus are the\ndeeds of transgressors pre-arranged for them.\n\nAnd of old destroyed we generations before you, when they had acted wickedly,\nand their Apostles had come to them with clear tokens of their mission, and\nthey would not believe:-thus reward we the wicked.\n\nThen we caused you to succeed them on the earth, that we might see how ye\nwould act.\n\nBut when our clear signs are recited to them, they who look not forward to\nmeet Us, say, \"Bring a different Koran from this, or make some change in it.\"\nSAY: It is not for me to change it as mine own soul prompteth. I follow only\nwhat is revealed to me: verily, I fear, if I rebel against my Lord, the\npunishment of a great day.\n\nSAY: Had God so pleased, I had not recited it to you, neither had I taught it\nto you. Already have I dwelt among you for years, ere it was revealed to me.\nUnderstand ye not?\n\nAnd who is more unjust than he who coineth a lie against God, or treateth his\nsigns as lies? Surely the wicked shall not prosper!\n\nAnd they worship beside God, what cannot hurt or help them; and say, \"These\nare our advocates with God!\" SAY: Will ye inform God of aught in the Heavens\nand in the Earth which he knoweth not? Praise be to Him! High be He exalted\nabove the deities they join with Him!\n\nMen were of one religion only:3 then they fell to variance: and had not a\ndecree (of respite) previously gone forth from thy Lord, their differences\nhad surely been decided between them!\n\nThey say: \"Unless a sign be sent down to him from his Lord. . . .\" But SAY:\nThe hidden is only with God: wait therefore: I truly will be with you among\nthose who wait.\n\nAnd when after a trouble which you befallen them,4 we caused this people to\ntaste of mercy, lo! a plot on their part against our signs! SAY: Swifter to\nplot is God! Verily, our messengers note down your plottings.\n\nHe it is who enableth you to travel by land and sea, so that ye go on board\nof ships-which sail on with them, with favouring breeze in which they\nrejoice. But if a tempestuous gale overtake them, and the billow come on them\nfrom every side, and they think that they are encompassed therewith, they\ncall on God, professing sincere religion:-\"Wouldst thou but rescue us from\nthis, then will we indeed be of the thankful.\"\n\nBut when we have rescued them, lo! they commit unrighteous excesses on the\nearth! O men! assuredly your self-injuring excess is only an enjoyment of\nthis life present: soon ye return to us: and we will let you know what ye\nhave done!\n\nVerily, this present life is like the water which we send down from Heaven,\nand the produce of the earth, of which men and cattle eat, is mingled with\nit, till the earth hath received its golden raiment, and is decked out: and\nthey who dwell on it deem that they have power over it! but, Our behest\ncometh to it by night or by day, and we make it as if it had been mown, as if\nit had not teemed only yesterday! Thus make we our signs clear to those who\nconsider.\n\nAnd God calleth to the abode of peace;5 and He guideth whom He will into the\nright way.\n\nGoodness6 itself and an increase of it for those who do good! neither\nblackness nor shame shall cover their faces! These shall be the inmates of\nParadise, therein shall they abide for ever.\n\nAnd as for those who have wrought out evil, their recompense shall be evil of\nlike degree, and shame shall cover them-no protector shall they have against\nGod: as though their faces were darkened with deep murk of night! These shall\nbe inmates of the fire: therein they shall abide for ever.\n\nAnd on that day will we gather them all together: then will we say to those\nwho added gods to God, \"To your place, ye and those added gods of yours!\"\nThen we will separate between them: and those their gods shall say, \"Ye\nserved us not:7\n\nAnd God is a sufficient witness between us and you: we cared not aught for\nyour worship.\"\n\nThere shall every soul make proof of what itself shall have sent on before,\nand they shall be brought back to God, their true lord, and the deities of\ntheir own devising shall vanish from them.\n\nSAY: Who supplieth you from the Heaven and the Earth? Who hath power over\nhearing and sight? And who bringeth forth the living from the dead, and\nbringeth forth the dead from the living? And who ruleth all things? They will\nsurely say, \"God:\" then SAY: \"What! will ye not therefore fear him?\n\nThis God then is your true Lord: and when the truth is gone, what remaineth\nbut error? How then are ye so perverted?\n\nThus is the word of thy Lord made good on the wicked, that they shall not\nbelieve.\n\nSAY: Is there any of the gods whom ye add to God who produceth a creature,\nthen causeth it to return to him? SAY: God produceth a creature, then causeth\nit to return to Him: How therefore are ye turned aside?\n\nSAY: Is there any of the gods ye add to God who guideth into the truth? SAY:\nGod guideth into the truth. Is He then who guideth into the truth the more\nworthy to be followed, or he who guideth not unless he be himself guided?\nWhat then hath befallen you that ye so judge?\n\nAnd most of them follow only a conceit:-But a conceit attaineth to nought of\ntruth! Verily God knoweth what they say.\n\nMoreover this Koran could not have been devised by any but God: but it\nconfirmeth what was revealed before it, and is a clearing up of the\nScriptures-there is no doubt thereof-from the Lord of all creatures.\n\nDo they say, \"He hath devised it himself?\" SAY: Then bring a Sura like it;\nand call on whom ye can beside God, if ye speak truth.\n\nBut that which they embrace not in their knowledge have they charged with\nfalsehood, though the explanation of it had not yet been given them. So those\nwho were before them brought charges of imposture: But see what was the end\nof the unjust!\n\nAnd some of them believe in it, and some of them believe not in it. But thy\nLord well knoweth the transgressors.\n\nAnd if they charge thee with imposture, then SAY: My work for me, and your\nwork for you! Ye are clear of that which I do, and I am clear of that which\nye do.\n\nAnd some of them lend a ready ear to thee: But wilt thou make the deaf to\nhear even though they understand not?\n\nAnd some of them look at thee: But wilt thou guide the blind even though they\nsee not?\n\nVerily, God will not wrong men in aught, but men will wrong themselves.\n\nMoreover, on that day, He will gather them all together: They shall seem as\nthough they had waited but an hour of the day! They shall recognise one\nanother! Now perish they who denied the meeting with God, and were not guided\naright!\n\nWhether we cause thee to see some of our menaces against them fulfilled, or\nwhether we first take thee to Ourself,8 to us do they return. Then shall God\nbear witness of what they do.\n\nAnd every people hath had its apostle.9 And when their apostle came, a\nrightful decision took place between them, and they were not wronged.\n\nYet they say, \"When will this menace be made good? Tell us if ye speak\ntruly.\"\n\nSAY: I have no power over my own weal or woe, but as God pleaseth. Every\npeople hath its time: when their time is come, they shall neither retard nor\nadvance it an hour.\n\nSAY: How think ye? if God's punishment came on you by night or by day, what\nportion of it would the wicked desire to hasten on?\n\nWhen it falleth on you, will ye believe it then? Yes! ye will believe it\nthen. Yet did ye challenge its speedy coming.\n\nThen shall it be said to the transgressors, \"Taste ye the punishment of\neternity! Shall ye be rewarded but as ye have wrought?\"\n\nThey will desire thee to inform them whether this be true? SAY: Yes! by my\nLord it is the truth: and it is not ye who can weaken Him.\n\nAnd every soul that hath sinned, if it possessed all that is on earth, would\nassuredly ransom itself therewith; and they will proclaim their repentance\nwhen they have seen the punishment: and there shall be a rightful decision\nbetween them, and they shall not be unjustly dealt with.\n\nIs not whatever is in the Heavens and the Earth God's? Is not then the\npromise of God true? Yet most of them know it not.\n\nHe maketh alive and He causeth to die, and to Him shall ye return.\n\nO men! now hath a warning come to you from your Lord, and a medicine for what\nis in your breasts, and a guidance and a mercy to believers.\n\nSAY: Through the grace of God and his mercy! and in this therefore let them\nrejoice: better is this than all ye amass.\n\nSAY: What think ye? of what God hath sent down to you for food, have ye made\nunlawful and lawful? SAY: Hath God permitted you? or invent ye on the part of\nGod?\n\nBut what on the day of Resurrection will be the thought of those who invent a\nlie on the part of God? Truly God is full of bounties to man; but most of\nthem give not thanks.\n\nThou shalt not be employed in affairs, nor shalt thou read a text out of the\nKoran, nor shall ye work any work, but we will be witnesses over you when ye\nare engaged therein: and not the weight of an atom on Earth or in Heaven\nescapeth thy Lord; nor is there aught that is less than this or greater, but\nit is in the perspicuous Book.\n\nAre not the friends of God, those on whom no fear shall come, nor shall they\nbe put to grief?\n\nThey who believe and fear God-\n\nFor them are good tidings in this life, and in the next! There is no change\nin the words of God! This, the great felicity!\n\nAnd let not their discourse grieve thee: for all might is God's: the Hearer,\nthe Knower, He!\n\nIs not whoever is in the Heavens and the Earth subject to God? What then do\nthey follow who, beside God, call upon deities they have joined with Him?\nThey follow but a conceit, and they are but liars!\n\nIt is He who hath ordained for you the night wherein to rest, and the\nlightsome day. Verily in this are signs for those who hearken.\n\nThey say, \"God hath begotten children.\" No! by his glory! He is the self-\nsufficient. All that is in the Heavens and all that is in the Earth is His!\nHave ye warranty for that assertion? What! speak ye of God that which ye know\nnot?\n\nSAY: Verily, they who devise this lie concerning God shall fare ill.\n\nA portion have they in this world! Then to us they return! Then make we them\nto taste the vehement torment, for that they were unbelievers.\n\nRecite to them the history of Noah,10 when he said to his people,-If, O my\npeople! my abode with you, and my reminding you of the signs of God, be\ngrievous to you, yet in God is my trust: Muster, therefore, your designs and\nyour false gods, and let not your design be carried on by you in the dark:\nthen come to some decision about me, and delay not.\n\nAnd if ye turn your backs on me, yet ask I no reward from you: my reward is\nwith God alone, and I am commanded to be of the Muslims.\n\nBut they treated him as a liar: therefore we rescued him and those who were\nwith him in the ark, and we made them to survive the others; and we drowned\nthose who charged our signs with falsehood. See, then, what was the end of\nthese warned ones!\n\nThen after him, we sent Apostles to their peoples, and they came to them with\ncredentials; but they would not believe in what they had denied aforetime:\nThus seal we up the hearts of the transgressors!\n\nThen sent we, after them, Moses and Aaron to Pharaoh and his nobles with our\nsigns; but they acted proudly and were a wicked people:\n\nAnd when the truth came to them from us, they said, \"Verily, this is clear\nsorcery.\"\n\nMoses said: \"What! say ye of the truth after it hath come to you, 'Is this\nsorcery?' But sorcerers shall not prosper.\"\n\nThey said: \"Art thou come to us to pervert us from the faith in which we\nfound our fathers, and that you twain shall bear rule in this land? But we\nbelieve you not.\"\n\nAnd Pharaoh said: \"Fetch me every skilled magician.\" And when the magicians\narrived, Moses said to them, \"Cast down what ye have to cast.\"\n\nAnd when they had cast them down, Moses said, \"Verily, God will render vain\nthe sorceries which ye have brought to pass: God prospereth not the work of\nthe evildoers.\n\nAnd by his words will God verify the Truth, though the impious be averse to\nit.\n\nAnd none believed on Moses but a race among his own people, through fear of\nPharaoh and his nobles, lest he should afflict them: For of a truth mighty\nwas Pharaoh in the land, and one who committed excesses.\n\nAnd Moses said: \"O my people! if ye believe in God, then put your trust in\nHim-if ye be Muslims.\"\n\nAnd they said: \"In God put we our trust. O our Lord! abandon us not to trial\nfrom that unjust people,\n\nAnd deliver us by thy mercy from the unbelieving people.\"\n\nThen thus revealed we to Moses and to his brother: \"Provide houses for your\npeople in Egypt, and in your houses make a Kebla, and observe prayer and\nproclaim good tidings to the believers.\"\n\nAnd Moses said: \"O our Lord! thou hast indeed given to Pharaoh and his nobles\nsplendour and riches in this present life: O our Lord! that they may err from\nthy way! O our Lord! confound their riches, and harden their hearts that they\nmay not believe till they see the dolorous torment.\"\n\nHe said: \"The prayer of you both is heard: pursue ye both therefore the\nstraight path, and follow not the path of those who have no knowledge.\"\n\nAnd we led the children of Israel through the sea; and Pharaoh and his hosts\nfollowed them in eager and hostile sort until, when the drowning overtook\nhim, he said, \"I believe that there is no God but he on whom the children of\nIsrael believe, and I am one of the Muslims.\"\n\n\"Yes, now,\" said God: \"but thou hast been rebellious hitherto, and wast one\nof the wicked doers.\n\nBut this day will we rescue thee with thy body that thou mayest be a sign to\nthose who shall be after thee:11 but truly, most men are of our signs\nregardless!\"\n\nMoreover we prepared a settled abode for the children of Israel, and provided\nthem with good things: nor did they fall into variance till the knowledge\n(the Law) came to them: Truly thy Lord will decide between them on the day of\nResurrection concerning that in which they differed.\n\nAnd if thou art in doubt as to what we have sent down to thee, inquire at\nthose who have read the Scriptures before thee.12 Now hath the truth come\nunto thee from thy Lord: be not therefore of those who doubt.\n\nNeither be of those who charge the signs of God with falsehood, lest thou be\nof those who perish.\n\nVerily they against whom the decree of thy Lord is pronounced, shall not\nbelieve,\n\nEven though every kind of sign come unto them, till they behold the dolorous\ntorment!\n\nWere it otherwise, any city, had it believed, might have found its safety in\nits faith. But it was so, only with the people of JONAS. When they believed,\nwe delivered them from the penalty of shame in this world, and provided for\nthem for a time.\n\nBut if thy Lord had pleased, verily all who are in the earth would have\nbelieved together. What! wilt thou compel men to become believers?\n\nNo soul can believe but by the permission of God: and he shall lay his wrath\non those who will not understand.\n\nSAY: Consider ye whatever is in the Heavens and on the Earth: but neither\nsigns, nor warners, avail those who will not believe!\n\nWhat then can they expect but the like of such days of wrath as befel those\nwho flourish before them? SAY: WAIT; I too will wait with you:\n\nThen will we deliver our apostles and those who believe. Thus is it binding\non us to deliver the faithful.\n\nSAY: O men! if ye are in doubt as to my religion, verily I worship not what\nye worship beside God; but I worship God who will cause you to die: and I am\ncommanded to be a believer.\n\nAnd set thy face toward true religion, sound in faith, and be not of those\nwho join other gods with God:\n\nNeither invoke beside God that which can neither help nor hurt thee: for if\nthou do, thou wilt certainly then be one of those who act unjustly.\n\nAnd if God lay the touch of trouble on thee, none can deliver thee from it\nbut He: and if He will thee any good, none can keep back his boons. He will\nconfer them on such of his servants as he chooseth: and He is the Gracious,\nthe Merciful!\n\nSAY: O men! now hath the truth come unto you from your Lord. He therefore who\nwill be guided, will be guided only for his own behoof: but he who shall err\nwill err only against it; and I am not your guardian!\n\nAnd follow what is revealed to thee: and persevere steadfastly till God shall\njudge, for He is the best of Judges.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura 1xviii. n. 3, p. 32.\n\n2 That is, for a serious end, to manifest the Divine Unity.\n\n3 Gen. xi. 1.\n\n4 This refers to the seven years of scarcity with which Mecca had been\nvisited.\n\n5 Paradise.\n\n6 Verses 27, 28 are to be noted, as defining the proportion to be observed in\nrewards and punishments, the severity of the latter being only in proportion\nto the crime, the excellence of the former being above and beyond its strict\nmerits.\n\n7 But rather your own lusts. The Muhammadans believe that idols will be\ngifted with speech at the day of judgment.\n\n8 The ordinary Arabic word for to die seems to be avoided in speaking of\nJesus and Muhammad.\n\n9 This is the doctrine of the Rabbins. Comp. Midrasch Rabba, and Midr. Jalkut\non Numb. xxii. 2.\n\n10 The preaching of Noah is mentioned by the Rabbins. Sanhedrin, 108. Comp.\nMidr. Rabbah on Gen. Par. 30 and 33, on Eccl. ix. 14, and in the probably\nsub. Apostolic 2 Pet. ii. 5.\n\n11 This is in accordance with Talmudic legend. \"Recognise the power of\nrepentance, in the case of Pharaoh, King of Egypt, who rebelled excessively\nagainst the most High; Who is God that I should hearken to his voice? (Ex. v.\n2). But with the same tongue that sinned he did penance: Who is like thee, O\nLord, among the Gods? (xv. 11). The Holy One, Blessed be He, delivered him\nfrom the dead, . . . so that he should not die (ix. 15, 16).-For now have I\nstretched forth my hand, and verily thee have I raised up from among the\ndead, to proclaim my might.\" Ex. ix. 15, 16. A strange comment! Pirke R.\nEliezer, \u00a7 43. Comp. Midr. on Ps. cvi. Midr. Jalkut, ch. 238.\n\n12 That is, whether thou art not foretold in the Law and Gospel, and whether\nthe Koran is not in unison with, and confirmatory of, them.\n\n\nSURA XXXIV.-SABA1 [LXXXV.]\n\nMECCA.-54 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nPRAISE be to God! to whom belongeth all that is in the Heavens and all that\nis on the Earth; and to Him be praise in the next world: for he is the All-\nwise, the All-informed!\n\nHe knoweth what entereth into the earth, and what proceedeth from it; and\nwhat cometh down from heaven, and what goeth up into it: and He is the\nMerciful, the Forgiving!\n\n\"Never,\" say the unbelievers, \"will the Hour come upon us!\" SAY: Yea, by my\nLord who knoweth the unseen, it will surely come upon you! not the weight of\na mote either in the Heavens or in the Earth escapeth him; nor is there aught\nless than this or aught greater, which is not in the clear Book;-\n\nTo the intent that God may reward those who have believed and done the things\nthat are right: Pardon and a noble provision shall they receive:\n\nBut as for those who aim to invalidate our signs,-a chastisement of painful\ntorment awaiteth them!\n\nAnd they to whom knowledge hath been given see that what hath been sent down\nto thee from thy Lord is the truth, and that it guideth into the way of the\nGlorious one, the Praiseworthy.\n\nBut the unbelievers say to those whom they fall in with, \"Shall we shew you a\nman who will foretell you that when ye shall have been utterly torn and rent\nto pieces, ye shall be restored in a new form?\n\nHe deviseth a lie about God, or there is a djinn in him,\" but they who\nbelieve not in the next life, shall incur the chastisement, and be lost in\nthe mazes of estrangement from God.\n\nWhat! have they never contemplated that which is before them and behind them,\nthe Heaven and the Earth? If such were our pleasure, we could sink them into\nthat Earth, or cause a portion of that Heaven to fall upon them! herein truly\nis a sign for our every returning servant.\n\nOf old bestowed we on David a gift, our special boon:-\"Ye mountains and ye\nbirds answer his songs of praise.\" And we made the iron soft for him:-\"Make\ncoats of mail, and arrange its plates; and work ye righteousness; for I\nbehold your actions.\"\n\nAnd unto Solomon did we subject the wind, which travelled in the morning a\nmonth's journey, and a month's journey in the evening. And we made a fountain\nof molten brass to flow for him. And of the Djinn were some who worked in his\npresence, by the will of his Lord; and such of them as swerved from our\nbidding will we cause to taste the torment of the flame.\n\nThey made for him whatever he pleased, of lofty halls, and images, and dishes\nlarge as tanks for watering camels, and cooking pots that stood firmly.\n\"Work,\" said we, \"O family of David with thanksgiving:\" But few of my\nservants are the thankful!\n\nAnd when we decreed the death of Solomon, nothing shewed them that he was\ndead but a reptile of the earth that gnawed the staff which supported his\ncorpse.2 And when it fell, the Djinn perceived that if they had known the\nthings unseen, they had not continued in this shameful affliction.3\n\nA sign there was to SABA, in their dwelling places:-two gardens, the one on\nthe right hand and the other on the left:-\"Eat ye of your Lord's supplies,\nand give thanks to him: Goodly is the country, and gracious is the Lord!\"\n\nBut they turned aside: so we sent upon them the flood of Irem;4 and we\nchanged them their gardens into two gardens of bitter fruit and tamarisk and\nsome few jujube trees.\n\nSuch was our retribution on them for their ingratitude: but do we thus\nrecompense any except the ungrateful?\n\nAnd we placed between them and the cities which we have blessed, conspicuous\ncities, and we fixed easy stages: \"Travel ye through them by night and day,\nsecure.\"\n\nBut they said, \"O Lord! make the distance between our journeys longer,\"5-and\nagainst themselves did they act unjustly: so we made them a tale, and\nscattered them with an utter scattering. Truly herein are signs to everyone\nthat is patient, grateful.\n\nAnd Eblis found that he had judged truly of them: and they all except a\nremnant of the faithful, followed him:\n\nYet no power had he over them. Only we would discern him who believed in the\nlife to come, from him who doubted of it; for thy Lord watcheth all things.\n\nSAY: Call ye upon those whom ye deem gods, beside God: their power in the\nHeavens and in the Earth is not the weight of an atom-neither have they any\nshare in either; nor hath He a helper from among them.\n\nNo intercession shall avail with Him but that which He shall Himself allow.\nUntil when at last their hearts shall be relieved from terror, they shall\nsay, \"What saith your Lord?\" they shall say, \"The Truth; and He is the High,\nthe Great.\"\n\nSAY: Who supplieth you out of the Heavens and the Earth? SAY: God. And either\nwe or ye have guidance, or are in palpable error!\n\nSAY: Not as to our faults shall ye be questioned; neither shall we be\nquestioned as to your actions.\n\nSAY: Our Lord will gather us together: then will He judge between us in\njustice; for He is the Judge, the Knowing!\n\nSAY: Shew me those whom ye have united with Him as associates: Nay, rather,\nHe is God, the Mighty, the Wise!\n\nAnd we have sent thee to mankind at large, to announce and to threaten. But\nmost men understand not.\n\nAnd they say, \"When will this threat come to pass? Tell us, if ye be men of\ntruth.\"\n\nSAY: Ye are menaced with a day, which not for an hour shall ye retard or\nhasten on.\n\nThe unbelievers say, \"We will not believe in this Koran, nor in the Books\nwhich preceded it.\" But couldst thou see when the wicked shall be set before\ntheir Lord! With reproaches will they answer one another. The weak shall say\nto the mighty ones, \"But for you we had been believers:\"\n\nThen shall the mighty ones say to the weak, \"What! was it we who turned you\naside from the guidance which had reached you? Nay, but ye acted wickedly\nyourselves.\"\n\nAnd the weak shall say to the mighty ones, \"Nay, but there was a plot by\nnight and by day, when ye bad us believe not in God, and gave him peers.\" And\nthey shall proclaim their repentance after they have seen the punishment! And\nyokes will we place on the necks of those who have not believed! Shall they\nbe rewarded but as they have wrought?\n\nAnd never have we sent a warner to any city whose opulent men did not say,\n\"In sooth we disbelieve your message.\"\n\nAnd they said, \"We are the more abundant in riches and in children, nor shall\nwe be among the punished.\"\n\nSAY: Of a truth my Lord will be liberal or sparing in his supplies to whom he\npleaseth: but the greater part of men acknowledge it not.\n\nNeither by your riches nor by your children shall you bring yourselves into\nnearness with Us; but they who believe and do the thing that is right shall\nhave a double reward for what they shall have done: and in the pavilions of\nParadise shall they dwell secure!\n\nBut they who shall aim to invalidate our signs, shall be consigned to\npunishment.\n\nSAY: Of a truth my Lord will be liberal in supplies to whom he pleaseth of\nhis servants, or will be sparing to him: and whatever ye shall give in alms\nhe will return; and He is the best dispenser of gifts.\n\nOne day he will gather them all together: then shall he say to the angels,\n\"Did these worship you?\"\n\nThey shall say, \"Glory be to thee! Thou art our master, not these! But they\nworshipped the Djinn: it was in them that most of them believed.\n\nOn this day the one of you shall have no power over others for help or hurt.\nAnd we will say to the evil doers, \"Taste ye the torment of the fire, which\nye treated as a delusion.\"\n\nFor when our distinct signs are recited to them, they say, \"This is merely a\nman who would fain pervert you from your father's Worship.\" And they say,\n\"This (Koran) is no other than a forged falsehood.\" And the unbelievers say\nto the truth when it is presented to them, \"Tis nothing but palpable\nsorcery.\"\n\nYet have we given them no books in which to study deeply, nor have we sent\nany one to them before thee, charged with warnings.\n\nThey also flourished before them, treated our apostles as impostors in like\nsort: but not to the tenth part of what we bestowed on them,6 have these\nattained. And yet when they charged my apostles with deceit, how terrible was\nmy vengeance:\n\nSAY: One thing in sooth do I advise you:-that ye stand up before God two and\ntwo, or singly,7 and then reflect that in your fellow citizen is no djinn:8\nhe is no other than your warner before a severe punishment.\n\nSAY: I ask not any wage from you: keep it for yourselves: my wage is from God\nalone. And He is witness over all things!\n\nSAY: Truly my Lord sendeth forth the Truth:-Knower of things unseen!\n\nSAY: Truth is come, and falsehood shall vanish and return no more.\n\nSAY: If I err, verily to my own cost only shall I err: but if I have\nguidance, it will be of my Lord's revealing, for He is the Hearer, the near\nat hand.\n\nCouldst thou see how they shall tremble and find no escape, and be taken\nforth from the place that is so near;9\n\nAnd shall say, \"We believe in Him!\" But how, in their present distance, shall\nthey receive the faith,\n\nWhen they had before denied it, and aimed their shafts at the mysteries from\nafar?10\n\nAnd a gulf shall be between them and that which they shall desire-\n\nAs was done unto their likes of old, who were lost in the questionings of\ndoubt.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 In Arabia Felix, three days' journey from Sanaa.\n\n2 The Talmud mentions the worm Shameer, used by Solomon to cut the stones for\nbuilding the temple. Pirke Aboth. v. See Buxt. Lex. Talmud, p. 2456. Tr.\nGittin, fol. 68; and Midr. Jalkut on 1 Kings, vi. 7. This passage of\nScripture may have suggested the idea that Solomon built, etc., by the aid of\nSpirits. 3 That is, in their difficult toils.\n\n4 See M. Caussin de Perceval Hist. des Arabes, vol. iii., who, as well as M.\nde Sacy, fix this event in the second century of our era.\n\n5 The Saba, of verse 14 formed an important branch of the trading population\nof Yemen. This whole passage, 14-18, alludes to the cessation of traffic\nbetween them and Syria, which led to the desire to lengthen the stages and\ndiminish the expense of the journey. See Muir's Life of Muhammad, i. p.\ncxxxix. Muhammad attributes this desire to covetousness.\n\n6 That is, of strength and material prosperity.\n\n7 That is, so as to form a judgment free from the influence of others.\n\n8 It is very remarkable, that when the power of Muhammad became firmly\nestablished, he never reverts to the insinuations against the soundness of\nhis mind which in the earlier Suras he so often rebuts.\n\n9 That is, their graves. Mar. So called because there is but a step into it\nfrom the surface of the earth. Ullm.\n\n10 That is, when in this life.\n\n\nSURA XXXV.-THE CREATOR, OR THE ANGELS [LXXXVI.]\n\nMECCA.-45 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nPRAISE be to God, Maker of the Heavens and of the Earth! Who employeth the\nANGELS as envoys, with pairs of wings, two, three, and four: He addeth to his\ncreature what He will! Truly God hath power for all things.\n\nThe mercy which God layeth open for man, no one can keep back; and what He\nshall keep back, none can afterwards send forth. And He is the Mighty, the\nWise.\n\nO men! bear in mind the favour of God towards you. Is there a creator other\nthan God, who nourisheth you with the gifts of heaven and earth? There is no\nGod but He! How then are ye turned aside from Him?\n\nIf they treat thee as an impostor, then before thee have apostles been\ntreated as impostors. But to God shall all things return.\n\nO men! assuredly the promise of God is true: let not then the present life\ndeceive you: and let not the Deceiver deceive you as to God.\n\nYes, Satan is your foe. For a foe then hold him. He calleth his followers to\nhim that they may become inmates of the flame.\n\nThe unbelievers,-for them a terrible punishment!\n\nBut believers and doers of good works, for them is mercy, and a great reward!\n\nShall he, the evil of whose deeds are so tricked out to him that he deemeth\nthem good, be treated like him who seeth things aright? Verily God misleadeth\nwhom He will, and guideth whom He will. Spend not thy soul in sighs for them:\nGod knoweth their doings.\n\nIt is God who sendeth forth the winds which raise the clouds aloft: then\ndrive we them on to some land dead from drought,1 and give life thereby to\nthe earth after its death. So shall be the resurrection.\n\nIf any one desireth greatness, all greatness is in God. The good word riseth\nup to Him, and the righteous deed will He exalt. But a severe punishment\nawaiteth the plotters of evil things; and the plots of such will He render\nvain.\n\nMoreover, God created you of dust-then of the germs of life-then made you two\nsexes: and no female conceiveth or bringeth forth without his knowledge; and\nthe aged ageth not, nor is aught minished from man's age, but in accordance\nwith the Book. An easy thing truly is this to God.\n\nNor are the two seas2 alike: the one fresh, sweet, pleasant for drink, and\nthe other salt, bitter; yet from both ye eat fresh fish, and take forth for\nyou ornaments to wear, and thou seest the ships cleaving their waters that ye\nmay go in quest of his bounties, and that ye may be thankful.\n\nHe causeth the night to enter in upon the day, and the day to enter in upon\nthe night; and He hath given laws to the sun and to the moon, so that each\njourneyeth to its appointed goal: This is God your Lord: All power is His:\nBut the gods whom ye call on beside Him have no power over the husk of a date\nstone!\n\nIf ye cry to them they will not hear your cry; and if they heard they would\nnot answer you, and in the day of resurrection they will disown your joining\nthem with God: and none can instruct thee like Him who is informed of all.\n\nO men! ye are but paupers in need of God; but God is the Rich, the\nPraiseworthy!\n\nIf He please, He could sweep you away, and bring forth a new creation!\n\nNor will this be hard for God.\n\nAnd the burdened soul shall not bear the burden of another: and if the heavy\nladen soul cry out for its burden to be carried, yet shall not aught of it be\ncarried, even by the near of kin! Thou shalt warn those who fear their Lord\nin secret, and observe prayer. And whoever shall keep himself pure, he\npurifieth himself to his own behoof: for unto God shall be the final\ngathering.\n\nAnd the blind and the seeing are not alike; neither darkness and light; nor\nthe shade and the hot wind;\n\nNor are the living and the dead the same thing! God indeed shall make whom He\nwill to hearken, but thou shalt not make those who are in their graves to\nhearken; for only with warning art thou charged.\n\nVerily we have sent thee with the truth; a bearer of good tidings and a\nwarner; nor hath there been a people unvisited by its warner.\n\nAnd if they treat thee as a liar, so did those who were before them threat\ntheir Apostles who came to them with the proofs of their mission, and with\nthe Scriptures and with the enlightening Book:3\n\nThen chastised I the unbelievers: and how great was my vengeance!\n\nSeest thou not how that God sendeth down water from the Heaven, and that by\nit we cause the up-growth of fruits of varied hues, and that on the\nmountains4 are tracks of varied hues, white and red, and others are of a\nraven black? And of men and reptiles and animals, various likewise are the\nhues. Such only of his servants as are possessed of knowledge fear God. Lo!\nGod is Mighty, Gracious!\n\nVerily they who recite the Book of God, and observe prayer, and give alms in\npublic and in private from what we have bestowed upon them, may hope for a\nmerchandise that shall not perish:\n\nGod will certainly pay them their due wages, and of his bounty increase them:\nfor He is Gracious, Grateful.\n\nAnd that which we have revealed to thee of the Book is the very Truth,\nconfirmatory of previous Scriptures: for God knoweth and beholdeth his\nservants.\n\nMoreover, we have made the Book an heritage to those of our servants whom we\nhave chosen. Some of them injure themselves by evil deeds; others keep the\nmidway between good and evil; and others, by the permission of God, outstrip\nin goodness; this is the great merit!\n\nInto the gardens of Eden shall they enter: with bracelets of gold and pearl\nshall they be decked therein, and therein shall their raiment be of silk:\n\nAnd they shall say, \"Praise be to God who hath put away sorrow from us.\nVerily our Lord is Gracious, Grateful,\n\nWho of His bounty hath placed us in a manison that shall abide for ever:\ntherein no toil shall reach us, and therein no weariness shall touch us.\"\n\nBut for infidels is the fire of Hell; to die shall never be decreed them, nor\nshall aught of its torment be made light to them. Thus reward we every\ninfidel!\n\nAnd therein shall they cry aloud, \"Take us hence, O our Lord! righteousness\nwill we work, and not what we wrought of old.\"-\"Prolonged we not your days\nthat whoever would be warned might be warned therein? And the preacher came\nto you-\n\nTaste it then.\"-There is no protector for the unjust.\n\nGod truly knoweth the hidden things both of the Heavens and of the Earth: for\nHe knoweth the very secrets of the breast.\n\nHe hath appointed you his vicegerents in the earth: And whoever believeth\nnot, on him shall be his unbelief; and their unbelief shall only increase for\nthe unbelievers, hatred at the hands of their Lord:-and their unbelief shall\nonly increase for the unbelievers their own perdition!\n\nSAY: What think ye of the gods whom ye invoke beside God? Shew me what part\nof the earth they have created? Had they a share in the creation of the\nHeavens? Have we given them a Book in which they can find proofs that they\nare to be called on? Nay, the wicked promise one another only deceits.\n\nVerily God holdeth fast the Heavens and the Earth that they pass not away:\nand if they were passing away none could hold them back but He: for He is\nKind, Gracious.\n\nThey swore by God with their mightiest oath that should a preacher come to\nthem they would yield to guidance more than any people: but when the preacher\ncame to them it only increased in them their estrangement,\n\nTheir haughtiness on earth and their plotting of evil! But the plotting of\nevil shall only enmesh those who make use of it.5 Look they then for aught\nbut God's way6 of dealing with the peoples of old? Thou shalt not find any\nchange in the way of God,-\n\nYea, thou shalt not find any variableness in the way of God.\n\nHave they never journeyed in the land and seen what hath been the end of\nthose who flourished before them, though mightier in strength than they? God\nis not to be frustrated by aught in the Heavens or in the Earth; for He is\nthe All-knowing, the All-mighty.\n\nIf, moreover, God should chastise men according to their deserts, He would\nnot leave even a reptile on the back of the earth! But to an appointed time\ndoth He respite them.\n\nAnd when their time shall come, then verily God's eye is on his servants.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See note at Sura [xcvii.] iii. 18. This is one of the passages said to have\noriginated with Zayd.\n\n2 Not only seas, properly so called, but the great masses of fresh water in\nthe Nile, Tigris, inland lakes, etc. 3 The Gospel.\n\n4 This idea was probably suggested by Muhammad's reminiscences of the view\nfrom the Cave of Hira, to the north and west of which there is a prospect\nthus described by Burckhardt (Travels, p. 176). \"The country before us had a\ndreary aspect, not a single green spot being visible; barren, black, and grey\nhills, and white sandy valleys were the only objects in sight.\"\n\n5 Lit. shall encompass its people.\n\n6 Method of dealing, i.e., first warning, then punishing.\n\n\nSURA VII.-AL ARAF [LXXXVII.]\n\nMECCA.-205 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM. SAD.1 A Book hath been sent down to thee: therefore let there\nbe no difficulty in thy breast concerning it: to the intent that thou mayest\nwarn thereby, and that it may be a monition to the faithful.\n\nFollow ye what hath been sent down to you from your Lord; and follow no\nmasters beside Him. How little will ye be monished!\n\nHow many cities have we destroyed! By night, or while they were in their\nmidday slumber, did our wrath reach them!\n\nAnd what was their cry when our wrath reached them, but to say, \"Verily, we\nhave been impious.\"\n\nSurely, therefore, will we call those to account, to whom an Apostle hath\nbeen sent, and of the sent ones themselves will we certainly demand a\nreckoning.\n\nAnd with knowledge will we tell them of their deeds, for we were not absent\nfrom them.\n\nThe weighing2 on that day, with justice! and they whose balances shall be\nheavy, these are they who shall be happy.\n\nAnd they whose balances shall be light, these are they who have lost their\nsouls, for that to our signs they were unjust:\n\nAnd now have we stabilished you on the earth, and given you therein the\nsupports of life. How little do ye give thanks!\n\nWe created you; then fashioned you; then said we to the angels, \"Prostrate\nyourselves unto Adam: and they prostrated them all in worship, save Eblis: He\nwas not among those who prostrated themselves.\n\nTo him said God: \"What hath hindered thee from prostrating thyself in worship\nat my bidding?\" He said, \"Nobler am I than he: me hast thou created of fire;\nof clay hast thou created him.\"\n\nHe said, \"Get thee down hence: Paradise is no place for thy pride: Get thee\ngone then; one of the despised shalt thou be.\"\n\nHe said, \"Respite me till the day when mankind shall be raised from the\ndead.\"\n\nHe said, \"One of the respited shalt thou be.\"\n\nHe said, \"Now, for that thou hast caused me to err, surely in thy straight\npath will I lay wait for them:\n\nThen will I surely come upon them from before, and from behind, and from\ntheir right hand, and from their left, and thou shalt not find the greater\npart of them to be thankful.\"\n\nHe said, \"Go forth from it, a scorned, a banished one! Whoever of them shall\nfollow thee, I will surely fill hell with you, one and all.\n\nAnd, O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in Paradise, and eat ye whence ye will,\nbut to this tree approach not, lest ye become of the unjust doers.\"\n\nThen Satan whispered them to shew them their nakedness, which had been hidden\nfrom them both. And he said, \"This tree3 hath your Lord forbidden you, only\nlest ye should become angels, or lest ye should become immortals.\"\n\nAnd he sware to them both, \"Verily I am unto you one who counselleth aright.\"\n\nSo he beguiled them by deceits: and when they had tasted of the tree, their\nnakedness appeared to them, and they began to sew together upon themselves\nthe leaves of the garden. And their Lord called to them, \"Did I not forbid\nyou this tree, and did I not say to you, 'Verily, Satan is your declared\nenemy.' \"\n\nThey said, \"O our Lord! With ourselves have we dealt unjustly: if thou\nforgive us not and have pity on us, we shall surely be of those who perish.\"\n\nHe said, \"Get ye down, the one of you an enemy4 to the other; and on earth\nshall be your dwelling, and your provision for a season.\"\n\nHe said, \"On it shall ye live, and on it shall ye die, and from it shall ye\nbe taken forth.\"\n\nO children of Adam! now have we sent down to you raiment to hide your\nnakedness, and splendid garments; but the raiment of piety-this is best. This\nis one of the signs of God, that man haply may reflect.\n\nO children of Adam! let not Satan bring you into trouble, as he drove forth\nyour parents from the Garden, by despoiling them of their raiment, that he\nmight cause them to see their nakedness: He truly seeth you, he and his\ncomrades, whence ye see not them. Verily, we have made the Satans tutelars of\nthose who believe not.\n\nAnd when the wicked commit some filthy deed, they say, \"We found our fathers\npractising it, and to us hath God commanded it\"-SAY: God enjoineth not filthy\ndeeds. Will ye speak of God ye know not what?\n\nSAY: My Lord hath enjoined what is right. Turn your faces therefore towards\nevery place where he is worshipped5 and call upon him with sincere religion.\nAs he created you, to him shall ye return: some hath he guided, and some hath\nhe justly left in error, because they have taken the Satans as their tutelars\nbeside God, and have deemed that they were guided aright.\n\nO children of Adam! wear your goodly apparel when ye repair to any mosque,6\nand eat ye and drink; but exceed not, for He loveth not those who exceed.\n\nSAY: Who hath prohibited God's goodly raiment, and the healthful viands which\nHe hath provided for his servants? SAY: These are for the faithful in this\npresent life, but above all on the day of the resurrection. Thus make we our\nsigns plain for people of knowledge.\n\nSAY: Truly my Lord hath forbidden filthy actions whether open or secret, and\niniquity, and unjust violence, and to associate with God that for which He\nhath sent down no warranty, and to speak of God that ye know not.\n\nEvery nation hath its set time. And when their time is come, they shall not\nretard it an hour; and they shall not advance it.\n\nO children of Adam! there shall come to you Apostles from among yourselves,\nrehearsing my signs to you; and whoso shall fear God and do good works, no\nfear shall be upon them, neither shall they be put to grief.\n\nBut they who charge our signs with falsehood, and turn away from them in\ntheir pride, shall be inmates of the fire: for ever shall they abide therein.\n\nAnd who is worse than he who deviseth a lie of God, or treateth our signs as\nlies? To them shall a portion here below be assigned in accordance with the\nBook of our decrees, until the time when our messengers,7 as they receive\ntheir souls, shall say, \"Where are they on whom ye called beside God?\" They\nshall say: \"Gone from us.\" And they shall witness against themselves that\nthey were infidels.\n\nHe shall say, \"Enter ye into the Fire with the generations of Djinn and men\nwho have preceded you. So oft as a fresh generation entereth, it shall curse\nits sister, until when they have all reached it, the last comers shall say to\nthe former, 'O our Lord! these are they who led us astray: assign them\ntherefore a double torment of the fire:\"' He will say, \"Ye shall all have\ndouble.\" But of this are ye ignorant.\n\nAnd the former of them shall say to the latter, \"What advantage have ye over\nus? Taste ye therefore the torment for that which ye have done.\"\n\nVerily, they who have charged our signs with falsehood and have turned away\nfrom them in their pride, Heaven's gates shall not be opened to them, nor\nshall they enter Paradise, until the camel8 passeth through the eye of the\nneedle. After this sort will we recompense the transgressors.\n\nThey shall make their bed in Hell, and above them shall be coverings of fire!\nAfter this sort will we recompense the evil doers.\n\nBut as to those who have believed and done the things which are right (we\nwill lay on no one a burden beyond his power) These shall be inmates of\nParadise: for ever shall they abide therein;\n\nAnd we will remove whatever rancour was in their bosoms: rivers shall roll at\ntheir feet: and they shall say, \"Praise be to God who hath guided us hither!\nWe had not been guided had not God guided us! Of a surety the Apostles of our\nLord came to us with truth.\" And a voice shall cry to them, \"This is\nParadise, of which, as the meed of your works, ye are made heirs.\"\n\nAnd the inmates of Paradise shall cry to the inmates of the fire, \"Now have\nwe found what our Lord promised us to be true. Have ye too found what your\nLord promised you to be true?\" And they shall answer, \"Yes.\" And a Herald\nshall proclaim between them: \"The curse of God be upon the evil doers,\n\nWho turn men aside from the way of God, and seek to make it crooked, and who\nbelieve not in the life to come!\"\n\nAnd between them shall be a partition; and on the wall AL ARAF9 shall be men\nwho will know all,10 by their tokens, and they shall cry to the inmates of\nParadise, \"Peace be on you!\" but they shall not yet enter it, although they\nlong to do so.\n\nAnd when their eyes are turned towards the inmates of the Fire, they shall\nsay, \"O our Lord! place us not with the offending people.\"\n\nAnd they who are upon Al Araf shall cry to those whom they shall know by\ntheir tokens, \"Your amassings and your pride have availed you nothing.\n\nAre these they on whom ye sware God would not bestow mercy? Enter ye11 into\nParadise! where no fear shall be upon you, neither shall ye be put to grief.\"\n\nAnd the inmates of the fire shall cry to the inmates of Paradise: \"Pour upon\nus some water, or of the refreshments12 God hath given you?\" They shall say,\n\"Truly God hath forbidden both to unbelievers,\n\nWho made their religion a sport and pastime, and whom the life of the world\nhath deceived.\" This day therefore will we forget them, as they forgot the\nmeeting of this their day, and as they did deny our signs.\n\nAnd now have we brought them the Book: with knowledge have we explained it; a\nguidance and a mercy to them that believe.\n\nWhat have they to wait for now but its interpretation? When its\ninterpretation13 shall come, they who aforetime were oblivious of it shall\nsay, \"The Prophets of our Lord did indeed bring the truth; shall we have any\nintercessor to intercede for us? or could we not be sent back? Then would we\nact otherwise than we have acted.\" But they have ruined themselves; and the\ndeities of their own devising have fled from them!\n\nYour Lord is God, who in six days created the Heavens and the Earth, and then\nmounted the throne: He throweth the veil of night over the day: it pursueth\nit swiftly: and he created the sun and the moon and the stars, subjected to\nlaws by His behest: Is not all creation and its empire His? Blessed be God\nthe Lord of the Worlds!\n\nCall upon your Lord with lowliness and in secret, for He loveth not\ntransgressors.\n\nAnd commit not disorders on the earth after it hath been well ordered; and\ncall on Him with fear and longing desire: Verily the mercy of God is nigh\nunto the righteous.\n\nAnd He it is who sendeth forth the winds as the heralds of his compassion,14\nuntil they bring up the laden clouds, which we drive along to some dead land\nand send down water thereon, by which we cause an upgrowth of all kinds of\nfruit.-Thus will we bring forth the dead. Haply ye will reflect.\n\nIn a rich soil, its plants spring forth abundantly by the will of its Lord,\nand in that which is bad, they spring forth but scantily. Thus do We\ndiversify our signs for those who are thankful.\n\nOf old sent We Noah to his people,15 and he said, \"O my people! worship God.\nYe have no God but Him: indeed I fear for you the chastisement of the great\nday.\"\n\nThe chiefs of his people said, \"We clearly see that thou art in a palpable\nerror.\"\n\nHe said, \"There is no error in me, O my people! but I am a messenger from the\nLord of the Worlds.\n\nI bring to you the messages of my Lord, and I give you friendly counsel; for\nI know from God what ye know not.\n\nMarvel ye that a Warning should come to you from your Lord through one of\nyourselves, that he may warn you, and that ye may fear for yourselves, and\nthat haply ye may find mercy?\"\n\nBut they treated him as a liar: so we delivered him and those who were with\nhim in the ark, and we drowned those who charged our signs with falsehood;\nfor they were a blind people.\n\nAnd to Ad16 we sent their brother Houd.17 \"O my people!\" said he, \"worship\nGod: ye have no other god than Him: Will ye not then fear Him?\"\n\nSaid the unbelieving chiefs among his people, \"We certainly perceive that\nthou art unsound of mind; and we surely deem thee an impostor.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my people! it is not unsoundness of mind in me, but I am an\nApostle from the Lord of the Worlds.\n\nThe messages of my Lord do I announce to you, and I am your faithful18\ncounsellor.\n\nMarvel ye that a warning hath come to you from your Lord through one of\nyourselves that He may warn you? Remember how he hath made you the successors\nof the people of Noah, and increased you in tallness of stature. Remember\nthen the favours of God, that it may haply be well with you.\"\n\nThey said, \"Art thou come to us in order that we may worship one God alone,\nand leave what our fathers worshipped? Then bring that upon us with which\nthou threatenest us, if thou be a man of truth.\"\n\nHe said, \"Vengeance and wrath shall suddenly light on you from your Lord. Do\nye dispute with me about names that you and your fathers have given your\nidols, and for which God hath sent you down no warranty? Wait ye then, and I\ntoo will wait with you.\"\n\nAnd we delivered him, and those who were on his side, by our mercy, and we\ncut off, to the last man, those who had treated our signs as lies, and who\nwere not believers.\n\nAnd to Themoud we sent their brother Saleh.19 He said, O my people! worship\nGod: ye have no other god than Him: now hath a clear proof of my mission come\nto you from your Lord, this she-camel of God being a sign to you: therefore\nlet her go at large to pasture on God's earth: and touch her not to harm her,\nlest a grievous chastisement seize you.\n\nAnd remember how he hath made you successors to the Adites, and given you\ndwellings on the earth, so that on its plains ye build castles, and hew out\nhouses in the hills. And bear in mind the benefits of God, and lay not the\nearth waste with deeds of licence.\n\nSaid the chiefs of his people puffed up with pride, to those who were\nesteemed weak, even to those of them who believed, \"What! know ye for certain\nthat Saleh is sent by his Lord?\" They said, \"Truly we believe in that with\nwhich he hath been sent.\"\n\nThen said those proud men, \"Verily, we reject that in which ye believe.\"\n\nAnd they ham-strung the she-camel, and rebelled against their Lord's command,\nand said, \"O Saleh, let thy menaces be accomplished upon us if thou art one\nof the Sent Ones.\"\n\nThen the earthquake surprised them; and in the morning they were found dead\non their faces in their dwellings.\n\nSo he turned away from them, and said, \"O my people! I did indeed announce to\nyou the message of my Lord: and I gave you faithful counsel, but ye love not\nfaithful counsellors.20\n\nWe also sent Lot, when he said to his people, commit ye this filthy deed in\nwhich no creature hath gone before you?\n\nCome ye to men, instead of women, lustfully? Ye are indeed a people given up\nto excess.\n\nBut the only answer of his people was to say, \"Turn them out of your city,\nfor they are men who vaunt them pure.\"\n\nAnd we delivered him and his family, except his wife; she was of those who\nlingered:\n\nAnd we rained a rain upon them: and see what was the end of the wicked!\n\nAnd we sent to Madian21 their brother Shoaib. He said, \"O my people! worship\nGod; ye have no other God than Him: now hath a clear sign come to you from\nyour Lord: give therefore the full in measures and weights; take from no man\nhis chattels, and commit no disorder on the earth after it has been made so\ngood. This will be better for you, if you will believe it.\n\nAnd lay not in ambush by every road in menacing sort; nor mislead him who\nbelieveth in God, from His way, nor seek to make it crooked; and remember\nwhen ye were few and that he multiplied you, and behold what hath been the\nend of the authors of disorder!\n\nAnd if a part of you believe in that with which I am sent, and a part of you\nbelieve not, then wait steadfastly until God shall judge between us, for He\nis the best of judges.\"\n\nSaid the chiefs of his people puffed up with pride, \"We will surely banish\nthee, O Shoaib, and thy fellow-believers from our cities, unless indeed ye\nshall come back to our religion.\" \"What!\" said he, \"though we abhor it?\n\nNow shall we have devised a lie concerning God, if after he hath delivered us\nfrom your religion we shall return to it; nor can we return to it, unless by\nthe will of God our Lord: our Lord embraceth all things in his ken. In God\nhave we put our trust: O our Lord! decide between us and between our people,\nwith truth; for the best to decide art Thou.\"\n\nAnd the chiefs of his people who believed not, said, \"If ye follow Shoaib, ye\nshall then surely perish.\"\n\nAn earthquake therefore surprised them, and they were found in the morning\ndead on their faces, in their dwellings.\n\nThose who had treated Shoaib as an impostor, became as though they had never\ndwelt in them: they who treated Shoaib as an impostor, were they that\nperished.\n\nSo he turned away from them and said, O my people! I proclaimed to you the\nmessages of my Lord, and I counselled you aright; but how should I be grieved\nfor a people who do not believe?\n\nNor did we ever send a prophet to any city without afflicting its people with\nadversity and trouble, that haply they might humble them.22\n\nThen changed we their ill for good, until they waxed wealthy, and said, \"Of\nold did troubles and blessings befall our fathers:\" therefore did we seize\nupon them suddenly when they were unaware.\n\nBut if that the people of these cities had believed and feared us, we would\nsurely have laid open to them blessings out of the Heaven and the Earth: but\nthey treated our signs as lies, and we took vengeance on them for their\ndeeds.\n\nWere the people, therefore, of those cities secure that our wrath would not\nlight on them by night, while they were slumbering?\n\nWere the people of those cities secure that our wrath would not light on them\nin broad day, while they were disporting themselves?\n\nDid they, therefore, deem themselves secure from the deep counsel23 of God?\nBut none deem themselves secure from the deep counsel of God, save those who\nperish.\n\nIs it not proved to those who inherit this land after its ancient occupants,\nthat if we please we can smite them for their sins, and put a seal upon their\nhearts, that they hearken not?\n\nWe will tell thee the stories of these cities. Their apostles came to them\nwith clear proofs of their mission; but they would not believe in what they\nhad before treated as imposture.-Thus doth God seal up the hearts of the\nunbelievers-\n\nAnd we found not of their covenant in most of them; but we found most of them\nto be perverse.\n\nThen after them we sent Moses with our signs to Pharaoh and his nobles, who\nacted unjustly in their regard. But see what was the end of the corrupt\ndoers!\n\nAnd Moses said, \"O Pharaoh! verily I am an apostle from the Lord of the\nWorlds.\n\nNothing but truth is it right for me to speak of God. Now am I come to you\nfrom your Lord with a proof of my mission; send away, therefore, the children\nof Israel with me.\" He said, \"If thou comest with a sign, shew it if thou art\na man of truth.\"\n\nSo he threw down his rod, and lo! it distinctly became a serpent.\n\nThen drew he forth his hand, and lo! it was white24 to the beholders.\n\nThe nobles of Pharaoh's people said, \"Verily, this is an expert enchanter:\n\nFain would he expel you from your land: what then do ye order to be done?\"\n\nThey said, \"Put25 him and his brother off awhile, and send round men to your\ncities who shall muster\n\nAnd bring to thee every skilled enchanter.\"\n\nAnd the enchanters came to Pharaoh. Said they, \"Shall we surely be rewarded\nif we prevail?\"\n\nHe said, \"Yes; and ye certainly shall be near my person.\"\n\nThey said, \"O Moses! either cast thou down thy rod first, or we will cast\ndown ours.\"\n\nHe said, \"Cast ye down.\" And when they had cast them down they enchanted the\npeople's eyes, and made them afraid; for they had displayed a great\nenchantment.\n\nThen spake we unto Moses, \"Throw down thy rod;\" and lo! it devoured their\nlying wonders.\n\nSo the truth was made strong, and that which they had wrought proved vain:\n\nAnd they were vanquished on the spot, and drew back humiliated.\n\nBut the other enchanters prostrated themselves adoring:\n\nSaid they, \"We believe on the Lord of the Worlds,\n\nThe Lord of Moses and Aaron.\"\n\nSaid Pharaoh, \"Have ye believed on him, ere I have given you leave? This\ntruly is a plot which ye have plotted in this my city, in order to drive out\nits people. But ye shall see in the end what shall happen.\n\nI will surely cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides; then will I have\nyou all crucified.\"\n\nThey said, \"Verily, to our Lord do we return;\n\nAnd thou takest vengeance on us only because we have believed on the signs of\nour Lord when they came to us. Lord! pour out constancy upon us, and cause us\nto die Muslims.\"\n\nThen said the chiefs of Pharaoh's people-\"Wilt thou let Moses and his people\ngo to spread disorders in our land, and desert thee and thy gods?\" He said,\n\"We will cause their male children to be slain and preserve their females\nalive: and verily we shall be masters over them.\"\n\nSaid Moses to his people, \"Cry unto God for help, and bear up patiently, for\nthe earth is God's: to such of His servants as He pleaseth doth He give it as\na heritage; and for those that fear Him is a happy issue.\"\n\n\"We have been oppressed,\" they said, \"before thou camest to us, and since\nthou hast been with us:\" \"Perhaps,\" said he, \"your Lord will destroy your\nenemy, and will make you his successors in the land, and He will see how ye\nwill act therein.\"\n\nAlready had we chastised the people of Pharaoh with dearth and scarcity of\nfruits, that haply they might take warning:\n\nAnd when good fell to their lot they said, \"This is our due.\" But if ill\nbefel them, they regarded Moses and his partisans as (the birds) of evil\nomen.26 Yet, was not their evil omen from God? But most of them knew it not.\n\nAnd they said, \"Whatever sign thou bring us for our enchantment, we will not\nbelieve on thee.\"\n\nAnd we sent upon them the flood and the locusts and the kummal (lice) and the\nfrogs and the blood,-clear signs27-but they behaved proudly, and were a\nsinful people.\n\nAnd when any plague fell upon them, they said, \"O Moses! pray for us to thy\nLord, according to that which he hath covenanted with thee: Truly if thou\ntake off the plague from us, we will surely believe thee, and will surely\nsend the children of Israel with thee.\" But when we had taken off the plague\nfrom them, and the time which God had granted them had expired,28 behold!\nthey broke their promise.\n\nTherefore we took vengeance on them and drowned them in the sea, because they\ntreated our signs as falsehoods and were heedless of them.\n\nAnd we gave to the people who had been brought so low, the eastern and the\nwestern lands, which we had blessed as an heritage: and the good word of thy\nLord was fulfilled on the children of Israel because they had borne up with\npatience: and we destroyed the works and the structures of Pharaoh and his\npeople:\n\nAnd we brought the children of Israel across the sea, and they came to a\npeople who gave themselves up to their idols. They said, \"O Moses! make us a\ngod, as they have gods.\" He said, \"Verily, ye are an ignorant people:\n\nFor the worship they practise29 will be destroyed, and that which they do, is\nvain.\"\n\nHe said, \"Shall I seek any other god for you than God, when it is He who hath\npreferred you above all other peoples?\"\n\nAnd remember when we rescued you from the people of Pharaoh they had laid on\nyou a cruel affliction; they slew your sons, and let only your daughters\nlive, and in this was a great trial from your Lord.\n\nAnd we appointed a meeting with Moses for thirty nights, which we completed\nwith ten other nights, so that his whole time with his Lord30 amounted to\nforty nights. Then said Moses to his brother Aaron, \"Take thou my place among\nmy people, and act rightly, and follow not the way of the corrupt doers.\"\n\nAnd when Moses came at our set time and his Lord spake with him, he said, \"O\nLord, shew thyself to me, that I may look upon thee.\" He said, \"Thou shalt\nnot see Me; but look towards the mount, and if it abide firm in its place,\nthen shalt thou see Me.\" And when God manifested Himself to the mountain he\nturned it to dust! and Moses fell in a swoon.\n\nAnd when he came to himself, he said, \"Glory be to thee! To thee do I turn in\npenitence, and I am the first of them that believe.\"\n\nHe said, \"O Moses! thee above all men have I chosen by my commissions, and by\nmy speaking to thee. Take therefore what I have brought thee, and be one of\nthose who render thanks.\n\nAnd we wrote for him upon the tables a monition concerning every matter, and\nsaid, \"Receive them thyself with steadfastness, and command thy people to\nreceive them for the observance of its most goodly precepts:-I will shew you\nthe abode of the wicked.\"\n\nThe unjustly proud ones of the earth will I turn aside from my signs, for\neven if they see every sign they will not believe them; and if they see the\npath of uprightness, they will not take it for their path, but if they see\nthe path of error, for their path will they take it.\n\nThis,-for that they treated our signs as lies, and were heedless of them.\n\nVain will be the works of those who treated our signs, and the meeting of the\nlife to come, as lies! Shall they be rewarded but as they have wrought?\n\nAnd the people of Moses took during his absence a calf made of their\nornaments, and ruddy like gold, and lowing.31 Saw they not that it could not\nspeak to them, nor guide them in the way?\n\nYet they took if for a God and became offenders!\n\nBut when they repented, and saw that they had erred, they said, Truly if our\nLord have not mercy on us, and forgive us, we shall surely be of those who\nperish.\n\nAnd when Moses returned to his people, wrathful, angered, he said, \"Evil is\nit that ye have done next upon my departure. Would ye hasten on the judgments\nof your Lord?\" And he threw down the tables, and seized his brother by the\nhead and dragged him unto him. Said he, \"Son of my mother! the people thought\nme weak, and had well nigh slain me. Make not mine enemies to rejoice over\nme, and place me not among the wrong doers.\"\n\nHe said, \"O Lord, forgive me and my brother, and bring us into thy mercy; for\nof those who shew mercy thou art the most merciful.\"\n\nVerily as to those who took the calf as a god, wrath from their Lord shall\novertake them, and shame in this present life: for thus recompense we the\ndevisers of a lie.\n\nBut to those who have done evil, then afterwards repent and believe, thy Lord\nwill thereafter be Lenient, Merciful.\n\nAnd when the anger of Moses was stilled, he took up the tables; and in their\nwriting was guidance and mercy for those who dread their Lord.\n\nAnd Moses chose seventy men of his people for a meeting appointed by us. And\nwhen the earthquake overtook them, he said, \"O my Lord! if it had been thy\npleasure, thou hadst destroyed them and me ere this! wilt thou destroy us for\nwhat our foolish ones have done? It is nought but thy trial: thou wilt\nmislead by it whom thou wilt, and guide whom thou wilt. Our guardian, thou!\nForgive us then and have mercy on us; for of those who forgive art thou the\nbest:\n\nAnd write down for us what is good in this world, as well as in the world to\ncome, for to thee are we guided.\" He said, \"My chastisement shall fall on\nwhom I will, and my mercy embraceth all things, and I write it down for those\nwho shall fear me, and pay the alms, and believe in our signs,\n\nWho shall follow the Apostle, the unlettered32 Prophet-whom they shall find\ndescribed with them in the Law and Evangel. What is right will he enjoin\nthem, and forbid them what is wrong, and will allow them healthful viands and\nprohibit the impure, and will ease them of their burden, and of the yokes\nwhich were upon them; and those who shall believe in him, and strengthen him,\nand help him,33 and follow the light34 which hath been sent down with him,-\nthese are they with whom it shall be well.\"\n\nSAY to them: O men! Verily I am God's apostle to you all;\n\nWhose is the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth! Therefore believe on\nGod but He! He maketh alive and killeth! Therefore believe on God, and his\nApostle-the unlettered Prophet-who believeth in God and his word. And follow\nhim that ye may be guided aright.\n\nAnd among the people of Moses there is a certain number35 who guide others\nwith truth, and practise what is right according to it.\n\nAnd we divided the Israelites into twelve tribes, as nations; and we revealed\nunto Moses when the people asked drink of him-\"Strike the rock with thy\nstaff:\" and there gushed forth from it twelve fountains-the men all knew\ntheir drinking places. And we caused clouds to overshadow them, and sent down\nupon them the manna and the quails. . . .  \"Eat of the good things with which\nwe have supplied you.\" But it was not us whom they injured, but they injured\ntheir own selves:\n\nAnd when it was said to them, \"Dwell in this city, and eat therefrom what ye\nwill, and say 'Hittat' (forgiveness), and enter the gate with prostrations;\nthen will we pardon your offences,-we will give increase to the doers of\ngood:\"\n\nBut the ungodly ones among them changed that word into another than that\nwhich had been told them:36 therefore sent we forth wrath out of Heaven upon\nthem for their wrong doings.\n\nAnd37 ask them about the city that stood by the sea, when its inhabitants\nbroke the Sabbath; when their fish came to them on their Sabbath day\nappearing openly, but came not to them on the day when they kept no Sabbath.\nThus did we make trial of them, for that they were evildoers.38\n\nAnd when some of them said, why warn ye those whom God would destroy or\nchastise with terrible chastisement? they said, For our own excuse with your\nLord; and that they may fear Him.\n\nAnd when they forgot their warnings, we delivered those who had forbidden\nevil; and we inflicted a severe chastisement on those who had done wrong, for\nthat they were evil doers.\n\nBut when they proudly persisted in that which was forbidden, we said to them,\n\"Become scouted apes;\" and then thy Lord declared that until the day of the\nresurrection, he would surely send against them39 (the Jews) those who should\nevil entreat and chastise them: for prompt is thy Lord to punish; and He is\nForgiving, Merciful.\n\nAnd we have divided them upon the Earth as peoples: some of them are upright\nand some are otherwise; and by good things and by evil things have we proved\nthem, to the intent that they might return to us.\n\nAnd they have had successors to succeed them: they have inherited the Book:\nthey have received the passing good things of this lower world,40 and say,\n\"It will be forgiven us.\" Yet if the like good things came to them again,\nthey would again receive them. But hath there not been received on their part\na covenant through the Scripture that they should speak nought of God but the\ntruth? And yet they study its contents. But the mansion of the next world\nhath more value for those who fear God-Do ye not then comprehend?-\n\nAnd who hold fast the Book, and observe prayer: verily, we will not suffer\nthe reward of the righteous to perish.\n\nAnd when we shook the mount41 over them as if it had been a shadow, and they\nthought it falling upon them, . . .  \"Receive, said we, with steadfastness\nwhat we have brought you, and remember what is therein to the end that ye may\nfear God.\"\n\nAnd when thy Lord brought forth their descendants from the reins of the sons\nof Adam and took them to witness against themselves, \"Am I not,\" said He,\n\"your Lord?\" They said, \"Yes, we witness it.\" This we did, lest ye should say\non the day of Resurrection, \"Truly, of this were we heedless, because\nuninformed;\"\n\nOr lest ye should say, \"Our fathers, indeed, aforetime joined other gods with\nour God, and we are their seed after them: wilt thou destroy us for the\ndoings of vain men?\"\n\nThus make we our signs clear: that haply they may return to God.\n\nRecite to them42 the history of him43 to whom we vouchsafed our signs, and\nwho departed from them, so that Satan followed him, and he became one of the\nseduced.\n\nHad we pleased, we had certainly thereby exalted him; but he crouched to the\nearth and followed his own lust: his likeness, therefore, is as that of the\ndog which lolls out his tongue, whether thou chase him away, or leave him\nalone! Such is the likeness of those who treat our signs as lies. Tell them\nthis tale then, that they may consider.\n\nEvil the likeness of those who treat our signs as lies! and it is themselves\nthey injure.\n\nHe whom God guideth is the guided, and they whom he misleadeth shall be the\nlost.\n\nMany, moreover, of the Djinn and men have we created for Hell. Hearts have\nthey with which they understand not, and eyes have they with which they see\nnot, and ears have they with which they hearken not. They are like the\nbrutes: Yea, they go more astray: these are the heedless.\n\nMost excellent titles hath God:44 by these call ye on Him, and stand aloof\nfrom those who pervert45 his titles. For what they have done shall they be\nrepaid!\n\nAnd among those whom we have created are a people who guide others with\ntruth, and in accordance therewith act justly.\n\nBut as for those who treat our signs as lies, we will gradually bring them\ndown by means of which they know not:\n\nAnd though I lengthen their days, verily, my stratagem shall prove effectual.\n\nWill they not bethink them that their companion Muhammad is not djinn-\npossessed? Yes, his office is only that of plain warner.\n\nWill they not look forth on the realms of the Heaven and of the Earth, and on\nall things which God hath made, to see whether haply their end be not drawing\non? And in what other book will they believe46 who reject the Koran?\n\nNo other guide for him whom God shall mislead! He will leave them distraught\nin their wanderings.\n\nThey will ask thee of the Hour-for what time is its coming fixed? SAY: The\nknowledge of it is only with my Lord: none shall manifest it in its time but\nHe: it is the burden47 of the Heavens and of the Earth: not otherwise than on\na sudden will it come on you.48\n\nThey will ask thee as if thou wast privy to it: SAY: The knowledge of it is\nwith none but God. But most men know not this.\n\nSAY: I have no control over what may be helpful or hurtful to me, but as God\nwilleth. Had I the knowledge of his secrets, I should revel in the good, and\nevil should not touch me. But I am only a warner, and an announcer of good\ntidings to those who believe.\n\nHe it is who hath created you from a single person, and from him brought\nforth his wife that he might dwell with her: and when he had known her, she\nbore a light burden, and went about with it; and when it became heavy, they\nboth cried to God their Lord, \"If thou give us a perfect child we will surely\nbe of the thankful.\"\n\nYet when God had given them a perfect child,49 they50 joined partners with\nHim in return for what he had given them. But high is God above the partners\nthey joined with Him!\n\nWhat! Will they join those with Him who cannot create anything, and are\nthemselves created, and have no power to help them, or to help themselves?\n\nAnd if ye summon them to \"the guidance,\" they will not follow you! It is the\nsame to them whether ye summon them or whether ye hold your peace!\n\nTruly they whom ye call on beside God, are, like yourselves, His servants!\nCall on them then, and let them answer you, if what ye say of them be true!\n\nHave they feet to walk with? Have they hands to hold with? Have they eyes to\nsee with? Have they ears to hear with? SAY: Call on these joint gods of\nyours; then make your plot against me, and delay it not.\n\nVerily, my Lord is God, who hath sent down \"the Book;\" and He is the\nprotector of the righteous.\n\nBut they whom ye call on beside Him, can lend you no help, nor can they help\nthemselves:\n\nAnd if ye summon them to \"the guidance,\" they hear you not: thou seest them\nlook towards thee, but they do not see!\n\nMake the best of things;51 and enjoin what is just, and withdraw from the\nignorant:\n\nAnd if stirrings to evil from Satan stir thee, fly thou for refuge to God: He\nverily heareth, knoweth!\n\nVerily, they who fear God, when some phantom from Satan toucheth them,\nremember Him, and lo! they see clearly.\n\nTheir Brethren52 will only continue them in error, and cannot preserve\nthemselves from it.\n\nAnd when thou bringest not a verse (sign) of the Koran to them, they say,\n\"Hast thou not yet patched it up?53 SAY: I only follow my Lord's utterances\nto me. This is a clear proof on the part of your Lord, and a guidance and a\nmercy for those who believe.\n\nAnd when the Koran is read, then listen ye to it and keep silence, that haply\nye may obtain mercy.\n\nAnd think within thine own self on God, with lowliness and with fear and\nwithout loud spoken words, at even and at morn; and be not one of the\nheedless.\n\nVerily they who are round about thy Lord disdain not His service. They praise\nHim and prostrate themselves before Him.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The initial letters, it has been conjectured, of (Amara li Muhammad\nsahdiq), thus spake to me Muhammad the truthful. But see Sura 1xviii. p. 32.\nThe first part of this Sura was perhaps revealed when the Arabians were\nassembled at the Pilgrimage. See verse 29.\n\n2 A figure of frequent occurence in the Talmud. See Tr. Rosh. Haschana, 17a.\n\n3 Comp. Sura xx. 118, p. 101.\n\n4 Gen. iii. 15.\n\n5 Lit. towards each Mosque, i.e. towards the kibla of each Mosque. The word\nmosque, mesjid, however, is usually applied only to that of Mecca. The common\nterm in use for larger places of worship is djami, a word unknown, in that\nsense, to the Koran.\n\n6 For full information as to the clothing of the ancient Arabians see Freyt.\nEinl. pp. 295 327. The Koreisch (we are told in Sirat Arrasul, fol. 26, and\nBeidh.), in order to instil a deep respect for the Caaba and other holy\nplaces into the minds of the Arabians, had forbidden all food during the\nprocessions, and required that no clothes, except those borrowed from\nMeccans, should be worn, or that those who wore their own should devote them\nto God as holy vestments. The consequence was that most of the pilgrims\nvisited the holy places in perfect nudity. Hence the precept in the text.\n\n7 The Angels of Death.\n\n8 Comp. Matth. xix. 24; Mark x. 25; Luke xviii. 25. By the change of a single\nvowel in the Arabic word for camel, we obtain the rendering, cable. In the\nRabbinic form of the proverb, however, the elephant is substituted for the\ncamel, which confirms the usual rendering and reading.\n\n9 \"On this wall (the name of which is derived from Arafa, 'to know,' with\nallusion to the employment of those upon it) will stand those whose good and\nevil works are equal, and are not, therefore, deserving of either Paradise or\nGehenna. The idea, which is analogous to that of Purgatory, may be derived\nfrom the Talmud. Thus in the Midrasch on Eccl. vii. 14, 'How much space is\nthere between the two' (Paradise and Hell)? R. Jochanan saith, a wall; R.\nAcha, a span: others hold them to be so close that a person may see from one\ninto the other.\" See Plato's Phaed. 62.\n\n10 That is, they will know the inmates of Paradise by their whiteness, and\nthe people of Hell by the blackness of their faces.\n\n11 That is, ye believers: to whom the speakers on Al Araf are supposed to\nturn.\n\n12 The fruits of Paradise. Comp. Luke xvi. 19.\n\n13 The fulfilment of its promises and threats.\n\n14 The rain. Thus, the Rabbins call the rain \"the might and power of God,\"\nComp. Tract Tanith, fol. I, and connect it with the Resurrection, Tract\nBerachoth, fol. 33.\n\n15 The Rabbins in like manner describe the mission of Noah. Comp. Sanhedr.\n108. Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 30, 33; and on Eccl. 9, 14. See Sura [lxxv.]\nxi. 40.\n\n16 The two tribes of Ad and Themoud-the latter of whom is mentioned by Diod.\nSic. and Ptolemy-lay to the north of Mecca in the direct line of traffic\nbetween the countries to the north and to the south, and both probably\ndisappeared with its cessation, when the Arabs were no longer held in check\nby the Romans. The traditions adopted by Muhammad attribute this to the\ndivine vengeance, throughout the Koran, and were derived by him from the\npopular legends of Arabia. See Freyt. Einl. p. 12.\n\n17 On Houd, see Geiger, pp. 113 119. He supposes him to be the Eber of the\nBible. But Mr. Muir suggests that both Houd and Saleh may have been\npersecuted Jewish or Christian emissaries and teachers, whose rejection was\nthus recast by Muhammad. See note on verse 71.\n\n18 Or, entrusted, i.e. with the office of apostle.\n\n19 Saleh-according to Bochart, the Peleg of Gen. xi. 16. D'Herbelot, B. O.\n740, makes him the Schelah of Gen. xi. 13. See v. 63, n. and p. 220, n.\n\n20 It is just possible that the act of Koleib, chief of the Banu Taghlib\ntribe, in killing the milch camel of Bas\u00fbs, a female relative of his wife of\nBani-Bakr lineage-which led to a forty years' war between these two tribes,\nA.D. 490-may have been worked up by Muhammad into this account of the\npersecutions of Saleh.\n\n21 See Sura xxiv. 176, p. 109.\n\n22 This verse may contain an implied reference to the famine with which Mecca\nhad been visited, and fix the date of this part of the Sura. Comp. verse 127.\n\n23 Lit. plot, stratagem.\n\n24 Comp. the passage from Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 48, who makes Moses perform\nthis miracle in the presence of Pharaoh, which the Scripture (Ex. vii.)\naccount does not. The Muhammadan tradition is that Moses was a black.\n\n25 Lit. cause him to hope, temporise with him.\n\n26 Lit. male ominati sunt. Mar. They traced their calamities to Moses. So\nSale. Kas. But Ullmann. renders, they attributed their misfortunes to the\npredictions of Moses.\n\n27 In Suras [lxvii.] xvii. and [lxviii.] Muhammad speaks of nine plagues. The\nflood is not mentioned in the Scripture.\n\n28 Lit. when we removed from them the plague until a period at which they\nshould arrive.\n\n29 Lit. that in which these are.\n\n30 Lit. the set time of his Lord was fulfilled in forty nights.\n\n31 Sale and others render having a body, corporeal, of which the commentators\ngive no satisfactory explanation. I have adopted that given by Freytag in v.\nThat the calf lowed in consequence of Sama\u2030l having entered into it, is one\nof the traditions of the Talmud. Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 45.\n\n32 Compare Sura [lxxxi.] xxix. 47, [xciv.] lxxii. 2, [xci.] ii. 73. The word\nummyy is derived from ummah, a nation, and means Gentile; it here refers to\nMuhammad's ignorance, previous to the revelation of Islam, of the ancient\nScriptures. It is equivalent to the Gr. laic, ethnic, and to the term gojim,\nas applied by the Jews to those unacquainted with the Scriptures. There can,\nhowever, be no doubt that Muhammad-in spite of his assertions to the\ncontrary, with the view of proving his inspiration-was well acquainted with\nthe Bible histories. He wished to appear ignorant in order to raise the\nelegance of the Koran into a miracle. For the passages of Scripture said to\nforetel Muhammad, see Pocock's Sp. Hist. Ar. p. 188, ed. White.\n\n33 If these words, as N\u00f6ldeke supposes, contain an allusion to the Ansars, it\nis likely that this verse was added at Medina. The epithet Al-Ummy (the\nunlettered) does not, thus, occur in Meccan Suras.\n\n34 The Koran.\n\n35 Pirke R. Eliezer, 45, explains Ex. xxxii. 26, of the tribe of Levi, as not\nhaving been implicated with the other tribes in the sin of the golden calf.\n\n36 The Jews changed hittat, absolution, indulgence, into habbat, corn.\n\n37 This and the next six verses are supposed to have been added at Medina.\n\n38 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 61. No trace of this legend is to be found in the\nTalmudists. The city is said to have been Aila (Elath) on the Red Sea.\n\n39 Perhaps in allusion to Deut. xxviii. 49, 50.\n\n40 As bribes to pervert Scripture, etc.\n\n41 Sinai-which, however, is not mentioned in the Koran as the place where the\nlaw was given. Comp. \"I will cover you with the mountain like a roof.\" Abodah\nSar. 2, 2. Thus also in Tract Sabbath, f. 88, 1, \"R. Avdimi . . . saith,\nThese words teach us that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the mountain\nover them like a vessel, and said to them, If ye will receive the law, well;\nbut if not, there shall be your grave.\" This tradition is still held by the\nJews. See D. Lewis Pent. Prayers, fol. 150. Its origin is a misunderstanding\nof Ex. xix. 17, rightly rendered in the E. version at the nether part of the\nmountain.\n\n42 To the Jews.\n\n43 Balaam. But according to others, a Jew who renounced his faith in\nMuhammad.\n\n44 The 99 titles of God, taken from the Koran, are to be found in Maracci,\nvol. 11, p. 414, or in Macbride's Religion of the Mohammedans, p. 121. To\nfacilitate the repetition of these names, the Muslims use a rosary.\n\n45 In altering the names of God, changing allah into Allat, Elaziz into\nAlozza, Mennan into Menat, etc.\n\n46 Lit. and in what declaration after it will they believe?\n\n47 That is, it weighs heavily on the hopes and fears of men, djinn, and\nangels.\n\n48 Probably the usual final clause, whence ye looked not for it, should here\nbe added to make good the rhyme, which is otherwise interrupted in the\noriginal.\n\n49 Some render salihan, well made, rightly shaped; others, virtuous, morally\nperfect.\n\n50 And their idolatrous posterity. Beidh.\n\n51 Take or use indulgence; i.e. take men and their actions as they are, and\nmake all due allowances. Some understand it, of Muhammad's accepting such\nvoluntary and superfluous alms as the people could spare.\n\n52 That is, those under Satanic influence.\n\n53 Collected or sought it out. Beidh.\n\n\nSURA XLVI.-AL AHKAF [LXXXVIII.]\n\nMECCA.-35 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nHA. MIM.1 The Revelation (sending down) of this Book is from the Mighty, the\nWise!\n\nWe have not created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is between them\notherwise than in truth and for a settled term. But they who believe not,\nturn away from their warning.\n\nSAY: What think ye? As for those whom ye invoke beside God, shew me what part\nof the earth it is which they have created? Had they a share in the Heavens?\nBring me a Book sent down by them before this Koran, or traces of their\nknowledge;2-if ye are men of truth.\n\nAnd who erreth more than he who, beside God, calleth upon that which shall\nnot answer him until the day of Resurrection? Yes, they regard not their\ninvocations;\n\nAnd when mankind shall be assembled together, they will become their enemies,\nand ungratefully disown their worship.\n\nAnd when our clear signs are recited to them, they who believe not say of the\ntruth when it cometh to them, \"This is plain sorcery.\"\n\nWill they say, \"He hath devised It?\" SAY: If I have devised the Koran, then\nnot one single thing shall ye ever obtain for me from God! He best knoweth\nwhat ye utter in its regard! Witness enough is He between me and you! And He\nis the Gracious, the Merciful.\n\nSAY: I am no apostle of new doctrines: neither know I what will be done with\nme or you. Only what is revealed to me do I follow, and I am only charged to\nwarn openly.\n\nSAY: What think ye? If this Book be from God, and ye believe it not, and a\nwitness of the children of Israel3 witness to its conformity with the Law,\nand believe, while ye proudly disdain it . . . ? Ah! God guideth not the\npeople guilty of such a wrong!\n\nBut the infidels say of the believers, \"If it were a good Book they would not\nhave been before us in believing it:\"4 And not having submitted to guidance,\nthey proceed to say, \"It is an old lying legend!\"\n\nBut before the Koran was the Book of Moses, a rule and a mercy; and this Book\nconfirmeth it (the Pentateuch)-in the Arabic tongue-that those who are guilty\nof that wrong may be warned, and as glad tidings to the doers of good.\n\nAssuredly they who say, \"Our Lord is God,\" and take the straight way to Him-\nno fear shall come on them, neither shall they be put to grief:\n\nThese shall be the inmates of Paradise to remain therein for ever,-the\nrecompense of their deeds!\n\nMoreover, we have enjoined on man to shew kindness to his parents. With pain\nhis mother beareth him; with pain she bringeth him forth: and his bearing and\nhis weaning is thirty months; until when he attaineth his strength, and\nattaineth to forty years,5 he saith, \"O my Lord! stir me up to be grateful\nfor thy favours wherewith thou hast favoured me and my parents, and to do\ngood works which shall please thee: and prosper me in my offspring: for to\nthee am I turned, and am resigned to thy will\" (am a Muslim).\n\nThese are they from whom we will accept their best works, and whose evil\nworks we will pass by; among the inmates shall they be of Paradise:-a true\npromise which they are promised.\n\nBut he who saith to his parents, \"Fie on you both! Promise ye me that I shall\nbe taken forth from the grave alive, when whole generations have already\npassed away before me?\" But they both will implore the help of God, and say,\n\"Alas for thee! Believe: for the promise of God is true.\" But he saith, \"It\nis no more than a fable of the ancients.\"\n\nThese are they in whom the sentence passed on the nations, djinn and men, who\nflourished before them, is made good. They shall surely perish.6\n\nAnd there are grades for all, according to their works, that God may repay\nthem for their works; and they shall not be dealt with unfairly.\n\nAnd they who believe not shall one day be set before the fire. \"Ye made away\nyour precious gifts during your life on earth; and ye took your fill of\npleasure in them: This day, therefore, with punishment of shame shall ye be\nrewarded, for that ye behaved you proudly and unjustly on the earth, and for\nthat ye were given to excesses.\"\n\nRemember, too, the brother of Ad7 when he warned his people in AL AHKAF8-and\nbefore and since his time there have been warners-\"Worship none but God:\nverily I fear for you the punishment of the great day.\"\n\nThey said, \"Art thou come to us to turn us away from our Gods? Bring on us\nnow the woes which thou threatenest if thou speakest truth.\"\n\n\"That knowledge,\" said he, \"is with God alone: I only proclaim to you the\nmessage with which I am sent. But I perceive that ye are a people sunk in\nignorance.\"\n\nSo when they saw a cloud coming straight for their valleys, they said, \"It is\na passing cloud that shall give us rain.\" \"Nay, it is that whose speedy\ncoming ye challenged a blast wherein is an afflictive punishment:-\n\nIt will destroy everything at the bidding of its Lord!\" And at morn nought\nwas to be seen but their empty dwellings! Thus repay we a wicked people.\n\nWith power had we endued them, even as with power have we endued you; and we\nhad given them ears and eyes and hearts: yet neither their eyes, nor their\nears, nor their hearts aided them at all, when once they gainsaid the signs\nof God; but that punishment which they had mocked at enveloped them on all\nsides.\n\nOf old, too, did we destroy the cities which were round about you; and, in\norder that they might return to us, we varied our signs before them.\n\nBut did those whom they took for gods beside God as his kindred deities, help\nthem?9 Nay, they withdrew from them. Such was their delusion, and their\ndevice!\n\nAnd remember when we turned aside a company of the djinn to thee, that they\nmight hearken to the Koran: and no sooner were they present at its reading\nthan they said to each other, \"Hist;\" and when it was ended, they returned to\ntheir people with warnings.\n\nThey said, \"O our people! verily we have been listening to a book sent down\nsince the days of Moses, affirming the previous scriptures; it guideth to the\ntruth, and to the right way.\n\nO our people! Obey the Summoner of God, and believe in him, that He may\nforgive your sins, and rescue you from an afflictive punishment.\n\nAnd he who shall not respond to God's preacher, yet cannot weaken God's power\non earth, nor shall he have protectors beside Him. These are in obvious\nerror.\"\n\nSee they not that God who created the Heavens and the Earth, and was not\nwearied with their creation, is of power to quicken the dead? Yea, he is for\nall things Potent.\n\nAnd a day is coming when the infidels shall be set before the fire. \"Is not\nthis it in truth?\" They shall say, \"Aye, by our Lord.\" He said, \"Taste then\nthe punishment for that ye would not believe.\"\n\nBear thou up, then, with patience, as did the Apostles endued with firmness,\nand seek not to accelerate their doom. For, on the day when they shall see\nthat with which they have been menaced,\n\nIt shall be as though they had waited but an hour of the day. Enough! shall\nany perish save they who transgress?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura lxviii. p. 32.\n\n2 Of a divine revelation, authorising the worship of other gods than God\n\n3 Abdallah bin Salma, say the commentators.\n\n4 Comp. John vii. 48.\n\n5 Thus Mischn. Aboth, v. 21, \"at forty years of age a man comes to\nintelligence.\" This verse refers, it is said by the Sonnites, to Abu Bekr,\nafterwards Chalif, who embraced Islam in his 40th year. But this\ninterpretation was probably invented after his accession to power.\n\n6 Lit. suffer loss.\n\n7 The Prophet Houd.\n\n8 That is, Sandhills; at Taief, to which Muhammad had retired in consequence\nof the opposition, etc., of the Meccans. Verses 20-31 are probably misplaced,\nas they interrupt the connection between 19 and 32, but appear to belong to\nthe same period as the rest of the Sura.\n\n9 Thus Ullm. als naheverwandte G\u00f6tter. But Wahl, denen sie sich mit\ngottesdienstlichen Opfer n\u00e4herten. Ad appropinquandum (magis ipsi Deo), by\nintercession. Mar. Beidh.\n\n\nSURA VI.-CATTLE [LXXXIX.]\n\nMECCA.-165 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nPRAISE be to God, who hath created the Heavens and the Earth, and ordained\nthe darkness and the light! Yet unto their Lord do the infidels give peers!\n\nHe it is who created you of clay then decreed the term of your life: and with\nHim is another prefixed term for the resurrection. Yet have ye doubts\nthereof!\n\nAnd He is God in the Heavens and on the Earth! He knoweth your secrets and\nyour disclosures! and He knoweth what ye deserve.\n\nNever did one single sign from among the signs of their Lord come to them,\nbut they turned away from it;\n\nAnd now, after it hath reached them, have they treated the truth itself as a\nlie. But in the end, a message as to that which they have mocked, shall reach\nthem.\n\nSee they not how many generations we have destroyed before them? We had\nsettled them on the earth as we have not settled you, and we sent down the\nvery heavens upon them in copious rains, and we made the rivers to flow\nbeneath their feet: yet we destroyed them in their sins, and raised up other\ngenerations to succeed them.\n\nAnd had we sent down to thee a Book written on parchment, and they had\ntouched it with their hands, the infidels had surely said, \"This is nought\nbut plain sorcery.\"\n\nThey say, too, \"Unless an angel be sent down to him. . . .\" But if we had\nsent down an angel, their judgment would have come on them at once,1 and they\nwould have had no respite:\n\nAnd if we had appointed an angel, we should certainly have appointed one in\nthe form of a man, and we should have clothed him before them in garments\nlike their own.2\n\nMoreover, apostles before thee have been laughed to scorn: but that which\nthey laughed to scorn encompassed the mockers among them!\n\nSAY: Go through the land: then see what hath been the end of those who\ntreated them as liars.\n\nSAY: Whose is all that is in the Heavens and the Earth?\n\nSAY: God's. He had imposed mercy on Himself as a law. He will surely assemble\nyou on the Resurrection day; there is no doubt of it. They who are the\nauthors of their own ruin, are they who will not believe.\n\nHis, whatsoever hath its dwelling in the night and in the day! and He, the\nHearing, the Knowing!\n\nSAY: Other than God shall I take as Lord, maker of the Heavens and of the\nEarth, who nourisheth all, and of none is nourished? SAY: Verily, I am bidden\nto be the first of those who surrender them to God (profess Islam): and, be\nnot thou of those who join gods with God.\n\nSAY: Verily, I fear, should I rebel against my Lord, the punishment of the\ngreat day.\n\nFrom whomsoever it shall be averted on that day, He will have had mercy on\nhim: and this will be the manifest bliss.\n\nIf God touch thee with trouble, none can take it off but He: and if He visit\nthee with good-it is He whose power is over all things;\n\nAnd He is the Supreme over his servants; and He is the Wise, the Cognisant!\n\nSAY: What thing is weightiest in bearing witness? SAY: God is witness between\nme and you; and this Koran hath been revealed to me that I should warn you by\nit, and all whom it shall reach. What! will ye really bear witness that there\nare other gods with God? SAY: I bear no such witness. SAY: Verily, He is one\nGod, and truly am guiltless of what ye join with Him.\n\nThey to whom we have given the Book, recognise him (Muhammad) as they do\ntheir own children:3 but they who are the authors of their own perdition are\nthey who will not believe.\n\nAnd who more wicked than he who inventeth a lie concerning God, or who\ntreateth our signs as lies? Verily those wicked ones shall not prosper.4\n\nAnd on \"the Day\" we will gather them all together: then will we say to those\nwho joined gods with God, \"Where are those companion-gods of yours, as ye\nsupposed them?\"\n\nThen shall they find no other excuse than to say, \"By God our Lord! we joined\nnot companions with Him.\"\n\nBehold! how they lie against themselves-and the gods of their own inventing\ndesert them!\n\nSome among them hearken unto thee: but we have cast veils over their hearts\nthat they should not understand the Koran, and a weight into their ears: and\nthough they should see all kinds of signs, they will refuse all faith in\nthem, until when they come to thee, to dispute with thee, the infidels say,\n\"Verily, this is nothing but fables of the ancients.\"\n\nAnd they will forbid it, and depart from it:-but they are only the authors of\ntheir own perdition, and know it not.\n\nIf thou couldst see when they shall be set over the fire, and shall say, \"Oh!\nwould we might be sent back! we would not treat the signs of our Lord as\nlies! we would be of the believers.\"\n\nAye! that hath become clear5 to them which they before concealed; but though\nthey should return, they would surely go back to that which was forbidden\nthem; for they are surely liars!\n\nAnd they say, \"There is no other than our life in this world, neither shall\nwe be raised again.\"\n\nBut if thou couldest see when they shall be set before their Lord! He shall\nsay to them, \"Is not this it6 in truth?\" They shall say, \"Yea, by our Lord!\"\n\"Taste then,\" saith He, \"the torment, for that ye believed not!\"\n\nLost are they who deny the meeting with God until \"the Hour\" cometh suddenly\nupon them! Then will they say, \"Oh, our sighs for past negligence of this\nhour!\" and they shall bear their burdens on their back! Will not that be evil\nwith which they shall be burdened?\n\nThe life in this world is but a play and pastime; and better surely for men\nof godly fear will be the future mansion! Will ye not then comprehend?\n\nNow know we that what they speak vexeth thee:7 But it is not merely thee whom\nthey charge with falsehood, but the ungodly gainsay the signs of God.\n\nBefore thee have apostles already been charged with falsehood: but they bore\nthe charge and the wrong with constancy, till our help came to them;-for none\ncan change the words of God. But this history of His Sent Ones hath already\nreached thee.\n\nBut if their estrangement be grievous to thee, and if thou art able to seek\nout an opening into the earth or a ladder into Heaven,8 that thou mightest\nbring them a sign. . . .  Yes! But if God pleased, He would surely bring\nthem, one and all, to the guidance! therefore be not thou one of the\nignorant.\n\nTo those only who shall lend an ear will He make answer: as for the dead, God\nwill raise them up; then unto Him shall they return.\n\nThey say, \"Unless a sign be sent down to him from his Lord. . . .\"  SAY:\nVerily, God is able to send down a sign; but the greater part of them know it\nnot.\n\nNo kind of beast is there on earth nor fowl that flieth with its wings, but\nis a folk9 like you: nothing have we passed over in the Book:10 then unto\ntheir Lord shall they be gathered.\n\nThey who gainsay our signs are deaf, and dumb, in darkness: God will mislead\nwhom He pleaseth, and whom He pleaseth He will place upon the straight path.\n\nSAY: What think ye? If the punishment of God were to come upon you, or \"the\nHour\" were to come upon you, will ye cry to any other than God? Tell me, if\nye speak the truth?\n\nYes! to Him will ye cry: and if He please He will deliver you from that ye\nshall cry to Him to avert, and ye shall forget the partners ye joined with\nHim.\n\nAlready have we sent apostles to nations that were before thee, and we laid\nhold on them with troubles and with straits in order that they might humble\nthemselves:\n\nYet, when our trouble came upon them, they did not humble themselves; but\ntheir hearts were hardened, and Satan pre-arranged for them11 their course of\nconduct.\n\nAnd when they had forgotten their warnings, we set open to them the gates of\nall things, until, as they were rejoicing in our gifts, we suddenly laid hold\nupon them, and lo! they were plunged into despair,\n\nAnd the uttermost part of that impious people was cut off. All praise be to\nGod, the Lord of the Worlds!\n\nSAY: What think ye? If God should take away your hearing and your sight and\nset a seal upon your hearts, what god beside God would restore them to you?\nSee! how we vary our wondrous verses (signs)! yet they turn away from them!\n\nSAY: What think ye? If the punishment of God come on you suddenly or\nforeseen,12 shall any perish except the impious?\n\nWe send not our Sent Ones but as heralds of good news and warners; and whoso\nshall believe and amend, on them shall come no fear, neither shall they be\nsorrowful:\n\nBut whoso shall charge our signs with falsehood, on them shall fall a\npunishment for their wicked doings.\n\nSAY: I say not to you, \"In my possession are the treasures of God;\" neither\nsay I, \"I know things secret;\" neither do I say to you, \"Verily, I am an\nangel:\" Only what is revealed to me do I follow. SAY: Shall the blind and the\nseeing be esteemed alike? Will ye not then reflect?\n\nAnd warn those who dread their being gathered to their Lord, that patron or\nintercessor they shall have none but Him,-to the intent that they may fear\nHim!\n\nAnd thrust not thou away those who cry to their Lord at morn and even,\ncraving to behold his face. It is not for thee in anything to judge of their\nmotives, nor for them in anything to judge of thee. If thou thrust them away\nthou wilt be of the doers of wrong.\n\nThus have we made proof of some of them by others, that they may say, \"Are\nthese they among us to whom God hath been gracious?\" Doth not God best know\nthe thankful?\n\nAnd when they who believe in our signs come to thee, SAY: Peace be upon you!\nYour Lord hath laid down for himself a law of mercy; so that if any one of\nyou commit a fault through ignorance, and afterwards turn and amend, He\nsurely will be Gracious, Merciful.\n\nThus have we distinctly set forth our signs, that the way of the wicked might\nbe made known.\n\nSAY: Forbidden am I to worship those whom ye call on beside God. SAY: I will\nnot follow your wishes; for then should I have gone astray, and should not be\nof the guided.\n\nSAY: I act upon proofs from my Lord, but ye treat them as falsehoods. That\npunishment which ye desire to be hastened is not in my power; judgment is\nwith God only: He will declare the truth; and He is the best settler of\ndisputes.\n\nSAY: If what ye would hasten on, were in my power, the matter between me and\nyou had been decided: but God best knoweth the impious.\n\nAnd with Him are the keys13 of the secret things; none knoweth them but He:\nHe knoweth whatever is on the land and in the sea; and no leaf falleth but He\nknoweth it; neither is there a grain in the darknesses of the earth, nor a\nthing green or sere, but it is noted in a distinct writing.14\n\nIt is He who taketh your souls at night,15 and knoweth what ye have merited\nin the day: then he awaketh you therein, that the set life-term may be\nfulfilled: then unto Him shall ye return; and then shall be declare to you\nthat which ye have wrought.\n\nSupreme over his servants, He sendeth forth guardians who watch over you,\nuntil, when death overtaketh any one of you, our messengers take his soul,\nand fail not:\n\nThen are they returned to God their Lord, the True. Is not judgment His?\nSwiftest He, of those who take account!\n\nSAY: Who rescueth you from the darkness of the land and of the sea, when\nhumbly and secretly ye cry to Him-\"If thou rescue us from this, we will\nsurely be of the thankful?\"\n\nSAY: God rescueth you from them, and from every strait: yet afterwards ye\ngive Him companions!\n\nSAY: It is He who hath power to send on you a punishment from above you, or\nfrom beneath your feet, or to clothe you with discord,16 and to make some of\nyou to taste the violence of others. See how variously we handle the wondrous\nverses, that haply they may become wise!\n\nBut thy people hath accused the Koran of falsehood, though it be the truth:\nSAY: I am not in charge of you: To every prophecy is its set time, and bye-\nand-bye ye shall know it!\n\nAnd when thou seest those who busy themselves with cavilling at our signs,\nwithdraw from them till they busy themselves in some other subject: and if\nSatan cause thee to forget this, sit not, after recollection, with the\nungodly people:17\n\nNot that they who fear God are to pass any judgment upon them, but the object\nof recollection is that they may continue to fear Him.\n\nAnd quit those who make their religion a sport and a pastime, and whom this\npresent life hath deceived: warn them hereby that every soul will be\nconsigned to doom for its own works: patron or intercessor, beside God, shall\nit have none: and could it compensate with fullest compensation, it would not\nbe accepted from it. They who for their deeds shall be consigned to doom-for\nthem are draughts of boiling water, and a grievous torment; for that they\nbelieved not!\n\nSAY: Shall we, beside God, call upon those who can neither help nor hurt us?\nShall we turn upon our heel after that God hath guided us? Like some\nbewildered man whom the Satans have spell-bound in the desert, though his\ncompanions call him to the true guidance, with, \"Come to us!\" SAY: Verily,\nguidance from God, that is the true guidance; and we are commanded to\nsurrender ourselves to the Lord of the Worlds.\n\nAnd observe ye the times of prayer, and fear ye God: for it is He to whom ye\nshall be gathered.\n\nAnd it is He who hath created the Heavens and the Earth, in truth, and when\nHe saith to a thing, \"Be,\" it is.\n\nHis word is the truth: and His the kingdom, on the day when there shall be a\nblast on the trumpet: He knoweth alike the unseen and the seen: and He is the\nWise, the Cognisant.\n\nAnd remember when Abraham said to his father Azar,18 Takest thou images as\ngods? Verily, I see that thou and thy people are in manifest error.\n\nAnd thus did we shew Abraham the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth,19\nthat he might be stablished in knowledge.\n\nAnd when the night overshadowed him, he beheld a star. \"This,\" said he, \"is\nmy Lord:\" but when it set, he said, \"I love not gods which set.\"\n\nAnd when he beheld the moon uprising, \"This,\" said he, \"is my Lord:\" but when\nit set, he said, \"Surely, if my Lord guide me not, I shall surely be of those\nwho go astray.\"\n\nAnd when he beheld the sun uprise, he said, \"This is my Lord; this is\ngreatest.\" But when it set, he said, \"O my people! I share not with you the\nguilt of joining gods with God;\n\nI turn my face to him who hath created the Heavens and the Earth, following\nthe right religion:20 I am not one of those who add gods to God.\"\n\nAnd his people disputed with him.-He said: \"Dispute ye with me about God,\nwhen He hath guided me? And I fear not the deities whom ye join with Him, for\nonly by the will of my Lord have they any power:21 My Lord embraceth all\nthings in His knowledge. Will ye not then consider?\n\nAnd how should I fear what ye have joined with God, since ye fear not for\nhaving joined with Him that for which He hath sent you down no warranty?\nWhich, therefore, of the two parties is more worthy of safety? Know ye that?\n\nThey who believe, and who clothe not their faith with error.22 theirs is\nsafety, and they are guided aright.\"\n\nThis is our reasoning with which we furnished Abraham against his people: We\nuplift to grades of wisdom whom we will; Verily thy Lord is Wise, Knowing.\n\nAnd we gave him Isaac and Jacob, and guided both aright; and we had before\nguided Noah; and among the descendants of Abraham, David and Solomon, and Job\nand Joseph, and Moses and Aaron: Thus do we recompense the righteous:\n\nAnd Zachariah, John, Jesus, and Elias: all were just persons:\n\nAnd Ismael and Elisha and Jonas and Lot: all these have we favoured above\nmankind:\n\nAnd some of their fathers, and of their offspring, and of their brethren: and\nwe chose them, and guided them into the straight way.\n\nThis is God's guidance: He guideth by it such of his servants as he will: But\nif they join others god with Him, vain assuredly shall be all their works.\n\nThese are they to whom we gave the Scripture and Wisdom and Prophecy: but if\nthese their posterity believe not therein, we will entrust these gifts to a\npeople who will not disbelieve therein.\n\nThese are they whom God hath guided: follow therefore their guidance. SAY: No\npay do I ask of you for this:23 Verily it is no other than the teaching for\nall creatures.\n\nNo just estimate do they form of God when they say, \"Nothing hath God sent\ndown to man.\" SAY: Who sent down the Book which Moses brought, a light and\nguidance to man, which ye set down on paper, publishing part, but concealing\nmost: though ye have now been taught that which neither ye nor your fathers\nknew? SAY: It is God: then leave them in their pastime of cavillings.24\n\nAnd this Book which we have sent down is blessed, confirming that which was\nbefore it; and in order that thou mightest warn the mother-city and those who\ndwell round about it. They who believe in the next life will believe in It,\nand will keep strictly to their Prayers.\n\nBut is any more wicked than he who deviseth a lie of God, or saith, \"I have\nhad a revelation,\" when nothing was revealed to him?25 And who saith, \"I can\nbring down a book like that which God hath sent down\"? But couldst thou see\nwhen the ungodly are in the floods of death, and the angels reach forth their\nhands, saying, \"Yield up your souls:-this day shall ye be recompensed with a\nhumiliating punishment for your untrue sayings about God, and for proudly\nrejecting his signs!\"\n\n\"And now are ye come back to us, alone, as we created you at first, and ye\nleave behind you the good things which we had given you, and we see not with\nyou your intercessors whom ye regarded as the companions of God among you.\nThere is a severance between you now, and those whom ye regarded as partners\nwith God have deserted you.\"\n\nVerily God causeth the grain and the date stone to put forth: He bringeth\nforth the living from the dead, and the dead from the living! This is God!\nWhy, then, are ye turned aside from Him?\n\nHe causeth the dawn to appear, and hath ordained the night for rest, and the\nsun and the moon for computing time! The ordinance of the Mighty, the Wise!\n\nAnd it is He who hath ordained the stars for you that ye may be guided\nthereby in the darknesses of the land and of the sea! clear have we made our\nsigns to men of knowledge.\n\nAnd it is He who hath produced you from one man, and hath provided for you an\nabode and resting-place!26 Clear have we made our signs for men of insight.\n\nAnd it is He who sendeth down rain from Heaven: and we bring forth by it the\nbuds of all the plants, and from them bring we forth the green foliage, and\nthe close growing grain, and palm trees with sheaths of clustering dates, and\ngardens of grapes, and the olive and the pomegranate, like and unlike.27 Look\nye on their fruits when they fruit and ripen. Truly herein are signs unto\npeople who believe.\n\nYet have they assigned the Djinn to God as his associates, though He created\nthem; and in their ignorance have they falsely ascribed to him sons and\ndaughters. Glory be to Him! And high let Him be exalted above that which they\nattribute to Him!\n\nSole maker of the Heavens and of the Earth! how, when He hath no consort,\nshould He have a son? He hath created everything, and He knoweth everything!\n\nThis is God your Lord. There is no God but He, the creator of all things:\ntherefore worship Him alone;-and He watcheth over all things.\n\nNo vision taketh in Him, but He taketh in all vision:28 and He is the\nSubtile, the All-informed.\n\nNow have proofs that may be seen, come to you from your Lord; whoso seeth\nthem, the advantage will be his own: and whoso is blind to them, his own will\nbe the loss: I am not made a keeper over you.\n\nThus variously do we apply our signs,29 that they may say, \"Thou hast studied\ndeep:\" and that to people of understanding we may make them clear.\n\nFollow thou that which hath been revealed to thee by thy Lord: there is no\ngod but He! and withdraw from those who join other gods with Him.\n\nHad God pleased, they had not joined other gods with Him: and we have not\nmade thee keeper over them, neither art thou a guardian over them.\n\nRevile not those whom they call on beside God,30 lest they, in their\nignorance, despitefully revile Him. Thus have we planned out their actions\nfor every people; then shall they return to their Lord, and He will declare\nto them what those actions have been.\n\nWith their most solemn oath have they sworn by God, that if a sign come unto\nthem they will certainly believe it; SAY: Signs are in the power of God\nalone; and He teacheth you not thereby, only because when they were wrought,\nye did not believe.31\n\nAnd we will turn their hearts and their eyes away from the truth, because\nthey did not believe therein at first, and we will leave them in their\ntransgressions, wandering in perplexity.\n\nAnd though we had sent down the angels to them, and the dead had spoken to\nthem, and we had gathered all things about them in tribes, they had not\nbelieved, unless God had willed it! but most of them do not know it.\n\nThus have we given an enemy to every prophet Satans among men and among\nDjinn: tinsel discourses do they suggest the one to the other, in order to\ndeceive: and had thy Lord willed it, they would not have done it. Therefore,\nleave them and their vain imaginings-\n\nAnd let the hearts of those who believe not in the life to come incline\nthereto, and let them find their content in this, and let them gain what they\nare gaining.\n\nWhat! shall I seek other judge than God, when it is He who hath sent down to\nyou the distinguishing Book? They to whom we have given the Book know that it\nis sent down from thy Lord with truth. Be not thou then of those who doubt.\n\nAnd the words of thy Lord are perfect in truth and in justice: none can\nchange his words: He is the Hearing, Knowing.\n\nBut if thou obey most men in this land, from the path of God will they\nmislead thee: they follow but a conceit, and they are only liars.\n\nThy Lord! He best knoweth those who err from his path, and He knoweth the\nrightly guided.\n\nEat32 of that over which the name of God hath been pronounced, if ye believe\nin his signs.\n\nAnd why eat ye not of that over which the name of God hath been pronounced,\nsince He hath made plain to you what He hath forbidden you, save as to that\nwhich is forced upon you? But indeed many mislead others by their appetites,\nthrough lack of knowledge. Verily, thy Lord! He best knoweth the\ntransgressors.\n\nAnd abandon the semblance of wickedness, and wickedness itself.33 They,\nverily, whose only acquirement is iniquity, shall be rewarded for what they\nshall have gained.\n\nEat not therefore of that on which the name of God has not been named, for\nthat is assuredly a crime: the Satans will indeed suggest to their votaries\nto wrangle with you; but if ye obey them, ye will indeed be of those who join\ngods with God.\n\nShall the dead, whom we have quickened, and for whom we have ordained a light\nwhereby he may walk among men, be like him, whose likeness is in the\ndarkness, whence he will not come forth? Thus have the doings of the\nunbelievers been prepared for them.\n\nEven so have we placed in every city, ringleaders of its wicked ones, to\nscheme therein: but only against themselves shall they scheme! and they know\nit not.\n\nAnd when a sign cometh to them they say, \"We will not believe, till the like\nof what was accorded to the apostles of God, be accorded to us.\" God best\nknoweth where to place his mission. Disgrace with God, and a vehement\npunishment shall come on the transgressors for their crafty plottings.\n\nAnd whom God shall please to guide, that man's breast will He open to Islam;\nbut whom He shall please to mislead, strait and narrow will He make his\nbreast, as though he were mounting up into the very Heavens! Thus doth God\ninflict dire punishment on those who believe not.\n\nAnd this is the right way of thy Lord. Now have we detailed our signs unto\nthose who will consider.\n\nFor them is a dwelling of peace with their Lord! and in recompense for their\nworks, shall he be their protector.\n\nOn the day whereon God shall gather them all together . . .  \"O race of\nDjinn,\" will He say, \"much did ye exact from mankind.\" And their votaries\nfrom among men shall say, \"O our Lord! we rendered one another mutual\nservices: but we have reached our set term, which thou hast set for us.\" He\nwill say, \"Your abode the fire! therein abide ye for ever: unless as God\nshall will.\" Verily, thy Lord is Wise, Knowing.\n\nEven thus place we some of the wicked over others, as the meed of their\ndoings.\n\nO race of Djinn and men! came not apostles to you from among yourselves,\nrehearsing my signs to you, and warning you of the meeting of this your day?\nThey shall say, \"We bear witness against ourselves.\" This world's life\ndeceived them; and they shall bear witness against themselves that they were\ninfidels:-\n\nThis,34 because thy Lord would not destroy the cities in their sin, while\ntheir people were yet careless.\n\nAnd for all, are grades of recompense as the result of their deeds; and of\nwhat they do, thy Lord is not regardless.\n\nAnd thy Lord is the Rich one, full of compassion! He can destroy you if He\nplease, and cause whom He will to succeed you, as he raised you up from the\noffspring of other people:\n\nVerily, that which is threatened you shall surely come to pass, neither shall\nye weaken its might.\n\nSAY: O my people! Act as ye best can: I verily will act my part, and\nhereafter shall ye know\n\nWhose will be the recompense of the abode! Verily, the ungodly shall not\nprosper.\n\nMoreover, they set apart a portion of the fruits and cattle35 which he hath\nproduced, and say, \"This for God\"-so deem they-\"And this for his companions,\nwhom we associate with Him.\" But that which is for these companions of\ntheirs, cometh not to God; yet that which is for God, cometh to the\ncompanions! Ill do they judge.\n\nThus have the companion-gods induced many of these, who join them with God,\nto slay their children, that they might ruin them, and throw the cloak of\nconfusion over their religion. But if God had pleased, they had not done\nthis. Therefore, leave them and their devices.\n\nThey also say, \"These cattle and fruits are sacred: none may taste them but\nwhom we please:\" so deem they-\"And there are cattle, whose backs should be\nexempt from labour.\" And there are cattle over which they do not pronounce\nthe name of God: inventing in all this a lie against Him. For their\ninventions shall He reward them.\n\nAnd they say, \"That which is in the wombs of these cattle is allowed to our\nmales, and forbidden to our wives;\" but if it prove abortive, both partake of\nit. God shall reward them for their distinctions! Knowing, Wise is He.\n\nLost are they who, in their ignorance, have foolishly slain their children,\nand have forbidden that which God hath given them for food, devising an\nuntruth against God! Now have they erred; and they were not rightly guided.\n\nHe it is who produceth gardens of the vine trellised and untrellised, and the\npalm trees, and the corn of various food, and olives, and pomegranates, like\nand unlike. Eat of their fruit when they bear fruit, and pay the due thereof\non the day of its ingathering: and be not prodigal, for God loveth not the\nprodigal.\n\nAnd there are cattle for burdens and for journeys. Eat of what God hath given\nyou for food; and follow not the steps of Satan, for he is your declared\nenemy.\n\nYou have four sorts of cattle in pairs: of sheep a pair, and of goats a pair.\nSAY: Hath He forbidden the two males or the two females; or that which the\nwombs of the two females enclose? Tell me with knowledge, if ye speak the\ntruth:\n\nAnd of camels a pair, and of oxen a pair. SAY: Hath He forbidden the two\nmales or the two females; or that which the wombs of the two females\nenclose?36 Were ye witnesses when God enjoined you this? Who then is more\nwicked than he who, in his ignorance, inventeth a lie against God, to mislead\nmen? God truly guideth not the wicked.\n\nSAY: I find not in what hath been revealed to me aught forbidden to the eater\nto eat, except it be that which dieth of itself, or blood poured forth, or\nswine's flesh; for this is unclean or profane, being slain in the name of\nother than God. But whoso shall be a forced partaker, if it be without\nwilfulness, and not in transgression,-verily, thy Lord is Indulgent,\nMerciful!\n\nTo the Jews did we forbid every beast having an entire hoof, and of both\nbullocks and sheep we forbade them the fat, save what might be on their\nbacks, or their entrails, and the fat attached to the bone. With this have we\nrecompensed them, because of their transgression: and verily, we are indeed\nequitable.\n\nIf they treat thee as an impostor, then SAY: Your Lord is of all-embracing\nmercy: but his severity shall not be turned aside from the wicked.\n\nThey who add gods to God will say, \"If God had pleased, neither we nor our\nfathers had given him companions, nor should we have interdicted anything.\"\nThus did they who flourished before them charge with imposture, until they\nhad tasted our severity! SAY: Have ye any knowledge that ye can produce to\nus? Verily, ye follow only a conceit: ye utter only lies!\n\nSAY: Peremptory proof is God's! Had He pleased He had guided you all aright.\n\nSAY: Bring hither your witnesses who can witness that God hath forbidden\nthese animals; but if they bear witness, witness not thou with them, nor\nwitness to the conceits of those who charge our signs with falsehood, and who\nbelieve not in the life to come, and give equals to our Lord.\n\nSAY: Come, I will rehearse what your Lord hath made binding on you-that ye\nassign not aught to Him as partner; and that ye be good to your parents; and\nthat ye slay not your children, because of poverty: for them and for you will\nwe provide:37 and that ye come not near to pollutions, outward or inward:38\nand that ye slay not anyone whom God hath forbidden you, unless for a just\ncause. This hath he enjoined on you, to the intent that ye may understand.\n\nAnd come not nigh to the substance of the orphan, but to improve it, until he\ncome of age: and use a full measure, and a just balance: We will not task a\nsoul beyond its ability. And when ye give judgment, observe justice, even\nthough it be the affair of a kinsman, and fulfil the covenant of God. This\nhath God enjoined you for your monition-\n\nAnd, \"this is my right way.\" Follow it then; and follow not other paths lest\nye be scattered from His path. This hath he enjoined you, that ye may fear\nHim.\n\nThen39 gave we the Book to Moses-complete for him who should do right, and a\ndecision for all matters, and a guidance, and a mercy, that they might\nbelieve in the meeting with their Lord.\n\nBlessed, too, this Book which we have sent down. Wherefore follow it and fear\nGod, that ye may find mercy:\n\nLest ye should say, \"The Scriptures were indeed sent down only unto two\npeoples before us, but we were not able to go deep into their studies:\"40\n\nOr lest ye should say, \"If a book had been sent down to us, we had surely\nfollowed the guidance better than they.\" But now hath a clear exposition come\nto you from your Lord, and a guidance and a mercy. Who then is more wicked\nthan he who treateth the signs of God as lies, and turneth aside from them?\nWe will recompense those who turn aside from our signs with an evil\npunishment, because they have turned aside.\n\nWhat wait they for, but the coming of the angels to them, or the coming of\nthy Lord Himself, or that some of the sings of the Lord should come to pass?\nOn the day when some of thy Lord's signs shall come to pass, its faith shall\nnot profit a soul which believed not before, nor wrought good works in virtue\nof its faith. SAY: Wait ye. Verily, we will wait also.\n\nAs to those who split up their religion and become sects, have thou nothing\nto do with them: their affair is with God only. Hereafter shall he tell them\nwhat they have done.\n\nHe who shall present himself with good works shall receive a tenfold reward;\nbut he who shall present himself with evil works shall receive none other\nthan a like punishment: and they shall not be treated unjustly.\n\nSAY: As for me, my Lord hath guided me into a straight path; a true religion,\nthe creed of Abraham, the sound in faith; for he was not of those who join\ngods with God.\n\nSAY: My prayers and my worship and my life and my death are unto God, Lord of\nthe Worlds. He hath no associate. This am I commanded, and I am the first of\nthe Muslims.\n\nSAY: Shall I seek any other Lord than God, when He is Lord of all things? No\nsoul shall labour but for itself; and no burdened one shall bear another's\nburden. At last ye shall return to your Lord, and he will declare that to you\nabout which you differ.\n\nAnd it is He who hath made you the successors of others on the earth, and\nhath raised some of you above others by various grades, that he may prove you\nby his gifts. Verily thy Lord is swift to punish. But He is also Gracious,\nMerciful!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Lit. their affair would have been decided. In that case there would no\nlonger have been an opportunity for the warnings of the prophets and for\nrepentance, but the angels would at once have executed the divine judgments.\n\n2 See Sura xli. 13, p. 193.\n\n3 See Sura [xc.] xiii. 36.\n\n4 This denunciation is repeated in eleven other passages of the Koran, and\ncoupled with the known reverence of the early Muslims for what they\nconsidered as the word of God, must have greatly tended to secure the\nrevelations of the Prophet from being in any way tampered with and corrupted.\n\n5 They are self-convicted of their own hypocrisy and of the hollowness of\ntheir professions.\n\n6 The Resurrection, etc.\n\n7 Abu Jahl had said: \"Muhammad speaks truth, and he never said a falsehood;\nbut, if the Banu Chosai, who enjoy already the offices of bearing the\nstandard, of providing the pilgrims with water, and of keeping the keys of\nthe Kaaba, should also obtain the Prophetship, what would remain for the\nother Koreisch.\" Kashaf in 1.\n\n8 See Sura lii. 38, p. 65. These passages may allude to the ladder set up in\na tower by Wacih ben Salamah, one of the ancient doorkeepers of the Caaba, by\nwhich he professed to mount up to God and receive divine Oracles. Freyt.\nEinl. p. 371.\n\n9 A community. Comp. Prov. xxx. 25, 26. Animals as well as mankind are under\nthe control of God, are held within the limits of his decrees, are\naccountable to him, and will stand before him in the judgment.\n\n10 Of the Eternal decrees.\n\n11 Or, embellished, made it fair-seeming.\n\n12 Lit. openly, i.e. preceded by some sign.\n\n13 The Rabbins speak of the three keys in the hand of God. Tr. Tanith, fol.\nx.\n\n14 On the preserved tablet, on which are written the decrees of God.\n\n15 That is, during sleep. See Sura xxxix. 43, p. 258. Or, layeth to rest.\nMar. renders literally, defungi faciet vos, id est, obdormiscere. Thus also\nBeidh. But see the use of the same word in the next verse.\n\n16 Or, to perplex you (by dividing you into) sects.\n\n17 Comp. Sura [cx.] 1x. 13.\n\n18 Azar. This form is probably borrowed from Athar, as Terah is called by\nEusebius. See Maracci Prodr. iv. 90. Compare a similar narrative (Midr.\nRabbah on Gen. par. 17) in which Abraham is given over by his idolatrous\nfather Zarah to Nimrod, who says, \"We will adore the Fire:\" \"Rather,\" said\nAbraham, \"the water which puts out fire.\" \"The Water then\"-\"Rather the clouds\nthat bear the water.\" \"The Clouds then\"-\"Rather the wind which scatters the\nclouds.\" \"The Wind then\"-\"Rather man who endures the wind.\" Whereupon Abraham\nwas thrown into the furnace. It is quite possible that in what follows,\nMuhammad may have intended to imply that Abraham had renounced the Sabian\nstarworship of his fathers, and to vindicate him from the habit of consulting\nthe stars attributed to him by the Talmudists. Shabbath, fol. 156, col. 1.\n\"Abraham replied, I have consulted my Astrology.\" Comp. Rashi on Gen. xv. 5.\nSee Maim. Yad Hachaz. vii. 6.\n\n19 Comp. Gen. xv. 5.\n\n20 See Sura xxi. 52.\n\n21 Lit. unless that my Lord shall will anything.\n\n22 Or, confuse not their faith with wrong, injustice, i.e. idolatry.\n\n23 Koran.\n\n24 This verse and the following were probably added at Medina after the\nHejira; at least it is difficult to conceive that Muhammad would have\nventured thus to have written at Mecca.\n\n25 This verse is said to have been revealed at Medina and to be aimed at the\nfalse prophets Moseilama, Aswad and Amsi; also at Abdallah Ibn Saad,\nMuhammad's secretary, who for corrupting the sacred text and apostacy, was\none of the ten proscribed at the taking of Mecca.\n\n26 In the womb.\n\n27 Of all sorts.\n\n28 Lit. attaineth to.  Mr. Lane renders, \"the eyes see not Him, but He seeth\nthe eyes.\"\n\n29 The verses of the Koran.\n\n30 Comp. Ex. xxii. 28.\n\n31 Notwithstanding this disclaimer, the Muslim tradition, etc. speak of many\nof their Prophet's miracles. See Maracci's Prodr. p. ii. p. 16, and 30 46.\n\n32 Verses 118-121 seem misplaced, and should probably follow 154.\n\n33 Lit. the outside of iniquity and its inside. Some understand these words\nof open sins, and secret sins.\n\n34 That is, God's method of dealing with the guilty was to send apostles\nprevious to the execution of his judgments.\n\n35 It appears to have been the custom of the idolatrous Arabs to set apart\none portion of their fields for the Supreme God, and the other for the\ninferior gods represented by their idols. If any of the fruit happened to\nfall from the part consecrated to the idols into that consecrated to God,\nthey restored it, but if the reverse occurred, they gave it to the idols.\nGod, said they, is rich and can dispense with it. The secret, however, was\nthat the idols' portion was reserved for the priests, Beidhawi. Freytag\nmentions the names of 73 idols worshipped by the Arab tribes, previous to\nIslam (Einl. pp. 270 and 342 357) and generally with Allah, as Supreme God.\n\n36 Comp. Sura [cxiv.] v. 102.\n\n37 Comp. Sura xvii. 33, p. 167.\n\n38 See verse 120 above.\n\n39 This very abrupt transition to Jewish history seems to indicate that a\npassage between this and the preceding verse is lost.\n\n40 Lit. we were careless of their studies\n\n\nSURA XIII.-THUNDER [XC.]\n\nMECCA.-43 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM. RA.1 These, the signs of the Book! And that which hath been\nsent down to thee from thy Lord is the very truth: But the greater part of\nmen will not believe.\n\nIt is God who hath reared the Heavens without pillars thou canst behold; then\nmounted his throne, and imposed laws on the sun and moon: each travelleth to\nits appointed goal. He ordereth all things. He maketh his signs clear, that\nye may have firm faith in a meeting with your Lord.\n\nAnd He it is who hath outstretched the earth, and placed on it the firm\nmountains, and rivers: and of every fruit He hath placed on it two kinds: He\ncauseth the night to enshroud the day. Verily in this are signs for those who\nreflect.\n\nAnd on the earth hard by each other are its various portions: gardens of\ngrapes and corn, and palm trees single or clustered. Though watered by the\nsame water, yet some make we more excellent as food than other: Verily in all\nthis are signs for those who understand.\n\nIf ever thou dost marvel, marvellous surely is their saying, \"What! when we\nhave become dust, shall we be restored in a new creation?\"\n\nThese are they who in their Lord believe not: these! the collars shall be on\ntheir necks; and these shall be inmates of the fire, to abide therein for\naye.\n\nTo hasten evil rather than good will they challenge thee: but, before their\ntime have been like examples. Full, truly, of mercy is thy Lord unto men,\ndespite their sins; but verily, thy Lord is right vehement to punish.\n\nAnd they who believe not say: \"If a sign from his Lord be not sent down to\nhim . . . !\" Thou art a warner only. And every people hath its guide.\n\nGod knoweth the burden of every female, and how much their wombs lessen and\nenlarge: with Him everything is by measure:\n\nKnower of the Hidden and the Manifest! the Great! the Most High!\n\nAlike to Him is that person among you who concealeth his words, and he that\ntelleth them abroad: he who hideth him in the night, and he who cometh forth\nin the day.\n\nEach hath a succession of Angels before him and behind him, who watch over\nhim by God's behest. Verily, God will not change his gifts to men, till they\nchange what is in themselves: and when God willeth evil unto men, there is\nnone can turn it away, nor have they any protector beside Him.\n\nHe it is who maketh the lightning to shine unto you; for fear and hope: and\nwho bringeth up the laden clouds.\n\nAnd the THUNDER uttereth his praise, and the Angels also, for awe of Him: and\nhe sendeth his bolts and smiteth with them whom he will2 while they are\nwrangling about God! Mighty is he in prowess.\n\nPrayer is His of right: but these deities to whom they pray beside Him give\nthem no answer, otherwise than as he is answered who stretcheth forth his\nhands to the water that it may reach his mouth, when it cannot reach it! The\nprayer of the Infidels only wandereth, and is lost.\n\nAnd unto God doth all in the Heavens and on the Earth bow down in worship,\nwillingly or by constraint: their very shadows also morn and even!\n\nSAY: Who is Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth? SAY: God. SAY: Why then\nhave ye taken beside Him protectors, who even for their own selves have no\npower for help or harm? SAY: What! shall the blind and the seeing be held\nequal? Shall the darkness and the light be held equal? Or have they given\nassociates to God who have created as He hath created, so that their creation\nappear to them like His? SAY: God is the Creator of all things! He is the\nOne! the Conquering!\n\nHe sendeth down the rain from Heaven: then flow the torrents in their due\nmeasure, and the flood beareth along a swelling foam. And from the metals\nwhich are molten in the fire for the sake of ornaments or utensils, a like\nscum ariseth. In this way doth God depict (set forth) truth and falsehood. As\nto the foam, it is quickly gone: and as to what is useful to man, it\nremaineth on the earth. Thus doth God set forth comparisons! To those who\nrespond to their Lord shall be an excellent reward; but those who respond not\nto his call, had they all that the earth containeth twice over, they would\nsurely give it for their ransom. Evil their reckoning! and Hell their home!\nAnd wretched the bed!\n\nShall he then who knoweth that what hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord\nis the truth, act like him who is blind? Men of insight only will bear this\nin mind,\n\nWho fulfil their pledge to God, and break not their compact:\n\nAnd who join together what God hath bidden to be joined, and who fear their\nLord, and dread an ill reckoning;\n\nAnd who, from desire to see the face of their Lord, are constant amid trials,\nand observe prayer and give alms, in secret and openly, out of what we have\nbestowed upon them, and turn aside evil by good: for these is the recompense\nof that abode,\n\nGardens of Eden-into which they shall enter together with the just of their\nfathers, and their wives, and their descendants: and the angels shall go in\nunto them at every portal:\n\n\"Peace be with you!\" say they, \"because ye have endured all things!\" Charming\nthe recompense of their abode!\n\nBut those who, after having contracted it, break their covenant with God, and\ncut asunder what God hath bidden to be united, and commit misdeeds on the\nearth, these, a curse awaiteth them, and an ill abode!\n\nGod is open-handed with supplies to whom he will, or is sparing. They rejoice\nin the life that now is, but this present life is but a passing good, in\nrespect of the life to come!3\n\nAnd they who believe not say, \"Unless a sign be sent down to him from his\nLord. . . .\" SAY: God truly will mislead whom he will; and He will guide to\nHimself him who turneth to Him,\n\nThose who believe, and whose hearts rest securely on the thought of God.\nWhat! Shall not men's hearts repose in the thought of God? They who believe\nand do the things that be right-blessedness awaiteth them, and a goodly home.\n\nThus have we sent thee to a people whom other peoples have preceded, that\nthou mightest rehearse to them our revelations to thee. Yet they believe not\non the God of Mercy.4 SAY: He is my Lord. There is no God but He. In Him do I\nput my trust. To Him must I return.\n\nIf there were a Koran by which the mountains could be set in motion, or the\nearth cleft, or the dead be made to speak  ! But all sovereignty is in the\nhands of God. Do then believers doubt5 that had He pleased God would\ncertainly have guided all men aright?\n\nMisfortune shall not cease to light on the unbelievers for what they have\ndone, or to take up its abode hard by their dwellings, until the threat of\nGod come to pass. Verily, God will not fail his plighted word.\n\nBefore thee indeed have apostles been mocked at; but though I bore long with\nthe unbelievers, at last I seized upon them;-and how severe was my\npunishment!\n\nWho is it then that is standing over every soul to mark its actions? Yet have\nthey set up associates with God. SAY: Name them. What! Would ye inform God of\nthat which He knoweth not on the Earth? Or are they not a mere empty name?\nBut prepared of old for the infidels was this fraud of theirs; and they are\nturned aside from the path; and whom God causeth to err, no guide shall there\nbe for him!\n\nChastisement awaiteth them in this present life, and more grievous shall be\nthe chastisement of the next: and none shall screen them from God.\n\nA picture of the Paradise which God hath promised to them that fear Him. The\nrivers flow beneath its bowers: its food and its shades are perpetual. This\nis the reward of those who fear God; but the reward of the unbelievers is the\nFire.\n\nThey to whom we have given the Book rejoice6 in what hath been sent down to\nthee; yet some are banded together who deny a part of it. SAY: I am commanded\nto worship God, and not to associate any creature with Him. On Him do I call,\nand to Him shall I return.\n\nThus, then, as a code in the Arabic tongue have we sent down the Koran; and\ntruly, if after the knowledge that hath reached thee thou follow their\ndesires, thou shalt have no guardian nor protector against God.\n\nApostles truly have we already sent before thee, and wives and offspring have\nwe given them. Yet no apostle had come with miracles unless by the leave of\nGod. To each age its Book.\n\nWhat He pleaseth will God abrogate or confirm: for with Him is the source of\nrevelation.7\n\nMoreover, whether we cause thee to see the fulfilment of part of our menaces,\nor whether we take thee hence, verily, thy work is preaching only, and ours\nto take account.\n\nSee they not that we come into their land and cut short its borders?8 God\npronounceth a doom, and there is none to reverse his doom. And swift is He to\ntake account.\n\nThose who lived before them made plots: but all plotting is controlled by\nGod: He knoweth the works of every one, and the infidels shall know whose\nwill be the recompense of the abode.\n\nThe infidels, moreover, will say; Thou art not sent of God. SAY: God is\nwitness enough betwixt me and you, and, whoever hath knowledge of the Book.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 See Sura 1xviii. p. 32.\n\n2 This is said by the traditionists and commentators generally, to refer to\nAmir and Arbad ben Kais, who in the year 9 or 10 conspired against Muhammad's\nlife, and were struck dead by lightning. See the authorities in N\u00f6ld. p. 120:\nWeil, 256; Caussin, iii. 295. But this explanation may have been suggested by\nthe words of the text, which must, if the comment be correct, have been\nrevealed at Medina.\n\n3 Thus, \"one hour of bliss in the world to come is better than all life in\nthis world.\" Mischnah Aboth, iv. 17. Comp. Sura [cxiii.] ix. 38.\n\n4 See Sura xvii. 109. This verse is said to have been occasioned by the\nrefusal of the Meccans at Hudaibiya to adopt the formula prescribed by\nMuhammad-In the Name of the God of Mercy, the Merciful-declaring that they\nknew not who the God of Mercy (Arrahman) was. This was in Hej. 6. See n. p.\n173.\n\n5 Lit. despair.\n\n6 That is, the Jews, who at this period of Muhammad's prophetic function,\nmust have been highly gratified at the strong leaning towards, and respect\nfor, their Scriptures and Histories, which shews itself increasingly in the\nlater Meccan Suras.\n\n7 Lit. Mother, or Prototype of the Book. Either God's knowledge or\nPrescience, or the fabled preserved tablet, on which is written the original\nof the Koran, and all God's decrees. The Jews have a tradition that the Law\nexisted before the Creation. Midr. Jalkut, 7.\n\n8 That is, the progressive conquests of the Muslims trench more and more on\nthe territories of the idolatrous Arabians.\n\n\nSURA II.-THE COW1 [XCI.]\n\nMEDINA.-286 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM.2 No doubt is there about this Book: It is a guidance to the\nGod-fearing,\n\nWho believe in the unseen,3 who observe prayer, and out of what we have\nbestowed on them, expend for God;\n\nAnd who believe in what hath been sent down to thee, and in what hath been\nsent down before thee, and full faith have they in the life to come:\n\nThese are guided by their Lord; and with these it shall be well.\n\nAs to the infidels, alike is it to them whether thou warn them or warn them\nnot-they will not believe:\n\nTheir hearts and their ears hath God sealed up; and over their eyes is a\ncovering. For them, a severe chastisement!\n\nAnd some4 there are who say, \"We believe in God, and in the latter day:\" Yet\nare they not believers!\n\nFain would they deceive God and those who have believed; but they deceive\nthemselves only, and know it not.\n\nDiseased are their hearts! And that disease hath God increased creased to\nthem. Their's a sore chastisement, for that they treated their prophet as a\nliar!\n\nAnd when it is said to them, \"Cause not disorders in the earth:\" they say,\n\"Nay, rather do we set them right.\"\n\nIs it not that they are themselves the authors of disorder? But they perceive\nit not!\n\nAnd when it is said to them, \"Believe as other men have believed;\" they say,\n\"Shall we believe as the fools have believed?\" Is it not that they are\nthemselves the fools? But they know it not!\n\nAnd when they meet the faithful they say, \"We believe;\" but when they are\napart with their Satans5 they say, \"Verily we hold with you, and at them we\nonly mock.\"\n\nGod shall mock at them, and keep them long in their rebellion, wandering in\nperplexity.\n\nThese are they who have purchased error at the price of guidance: but their\ntraffic hath not been gainful, neither are they guided at all.\n\nThey are like one6 who kindleth a fire, and when it hath thrown its light on\nall around him. . . .  God taketh away their light and leaveth them in\ndarkness-they cannot see!-\n\nDeaf, dumb, blind: therefore they shall not retrace their steps from error!\n\nOr like those who, when there cometh a storm-cloud out of the Heaven, big\nwith darkness thunder and lightning, thrust their fingers into their ears\nbecause of the thunder-clap, for fear of death! God is round about the\ninfidels.\n\nThe lightning almost snatcheth away their eyes! So oft as it gleameth on them\nthey walk on in it, but when darkness closeth upon them, they stop! And if\nGod pleased, of their ears and of their eyes would he surely deprive them:\nverily God is Almighty! O men of Mecca7 adore your Lord, who hath created you\nand those who were before you: haply ye will fear Him\n\nWho hath made the earth a bed for you, and the heaven a covering, and hath\ncaused water to come down from heaven, and by it hath brought forth fruits\nfor your sustenance! Do not then wittingly give peers to God.\n\nAnd if ye be in doubt as to that which we have sent down to our servant, then\nproduce a Sura like it, and summon your witnesses, beside God, if ye are men\nof truth:\n\nBut if ye do it not, and never shall ye do it, then fear the fire prepared\nfor the infidels, whose fuel is men and stones:8\n\nBut announce to those who believe and do the things that are right, that for\nthem are gardens 'neath which the rivers flow! So oft as they are fed\ntherefrom with fruit for sustenance, they shall say, \"This same was our\nsustenance of old:\" And they shall have its like given to them.9 Therein\nshall they have wives of perfect purity, and therein shall they abide for\never.\n\nVerily God is not ashamed to set forth as well the instance of a gnat10 as of\nany nobler object: for as to those who have believed, they know it to be the\ntruth from their Lord; but as to the unbelievers, they will say, \"What\nmeaneth God by this comparison?\" Many will He mislead by such parables and\nmany guide: but none will He mislead thereby except the wicked,\n\nWho, after its establishment, violate the covenant of God,11 and cut in\nsunder what God hath bidden to be joined, and act disorderly on the Earth.\nThese are they who shall suffer loss!\n\nHow can ye withhold faith from God? Ye were dead and He gave you life; next\nHe will cause you to die; next He will restore you to life: next shall ye\nreturn to Him!\n\nHe it is who created for you all that is on Earth, then proceeded to the\nHeaven, and into seven12 Heavens did He fashion it: and He knoweth all\nthings.\n\nWhen thy Lord said to the angels, \"Verily, I am about to place one in my\nstead on earth,\"13 they said, \"Wilt thou place there one who will do ill\ntherein and shed blood, when we celebrate thy praise and extol thy holiness?\"\nGod said, \"Verily, I know what ye know not.\"\n\nAnd he taught Adam the names of all things, and then set them before the\nangels,14 and said, \"Tell me the names of these, if ye are endued with\nwisdom.\"15\n\nThey said, \"Praise be to Thee! We have no knowledge but what Thou hast given\nus to know. Thou! Thou art the Knowing, the Wise.\"\n\nHe said, \"O Adam, inform them of their names.\" And when he had informed them\nof their names, He said, \"Did I not say to you that I know the hidden things\nof the Heavens and of the Earth, and that I know what ye bring to light, and\nwhat ye hide?\"\n\nAnd when we said to the angels, \"Bow down and worship Adam,\" then worshipped\nthey all, save Eblis.16 He refused and swelled with pride, and became one of\nthe unbelievers.\n\nAnd we said, \"O Adam! dwell thou and thy wife in the Garden, and eat ye\nplentifully therefrom wherever ye list; but to this tree come not nigh, lest\nye become of the transgressors.\"\n\nBut Satan17 made them slip from it, and caused their banishment from the\nplace in which they were. And we said, \"Get ye down, the one of you an enemy\nto the other: and there shall be for you in the earth a dwelling-place, and a\nprovision for a time.\"\n\nAnd words of prayer learned Adam from his Lord: and God turned to him; for He\nloveth to turn, the Merciful.\n\nWe said, \"Get ye down from it, all together: and if\n\nGuidance shall come to you from me, whoso shall follow my guidance, on them\nshall come no fear, neither shall they be grieved:\n\nBut they who shall not believe, and treat our signs as false-hoods, these\nshall be inmates of the fire; in it shall they remain for ever.\"\n\nO children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I shewed favour upon you,\nand be true to your covenant with me; I will be true to my covenant with you;\nme therefore, revere me! and believe in what I have sent down confirming your\nScriptures, and be not the first to disbelieve it, neither for a mean price\nbarter my signs: me therefore, fear ye me!\n\nAnd clothe not the truth with falsehood, and hide not the truth when ye know\nit:18\n\nAnd observe prayer and pay the legal impost, and bow down with those who bow.\n\nWill ye enjoin what is right upon others, and forget yourselves? Yet ye read\nthe Book: will ye not understand?\n\nAnd seek help with patience and prayer: a hard duty indeed is this, but not\nto the humble,\n\nWho bear in mind that they shall meet their Lord, and that unto Him shall\nthey return.\n\nO children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I shewed favour upon you;\nfor verily to you above all human beings have I been bounteous.\n\nAnd fear ye the day when soul shall not satisfy for soul at all, nor shall\nany intercession be accepted from them, nor shall any ransom be taken,\nneither shall they be helped.\n\nAnd remember when we rescued you from the people of Pharaoh, who had laid on\nyou a cruel chastisement. They slew your male children, and let only your\nfemales live: and in this was a great trial from your Lord:\n\nAnd when we parted the sea for you, and saved you, and drowned the people of\nPharaoh, while ye were looking on:\n\nAnd when we were in treaty with Moses forty nights: then during his absence\ntook ye the calf and acted wickedly:\n\nYet after this we forgave you, that ye might be grateful:\n\nAnd when we gave Moses the Book and the Illumination19 in order to your\nguidance:\n\nAnd remember when Moses said to his people, \"O my people! verily ye - have\nsinned to your own hurt, by your taking the calf to worship it: Be turned\nthen to your creator, and slay the guilty among you;20 this will be best for\nyou with your creator:\" Then turned He unto you, for He is the one who\nturneth, the Merciful:\n\nAnd when ye said, \"O Moses! we will not believe thee until we see God\nplainly;\" the thunderbolt fell upon you while ye were looking on:\n\nThen we raised you to life after ye had been dead,21 that haply ye might give\nthanks:\n\nAnd we caused the clouds to overshadow you, and we sent down manna and quails\nupon you;-\"Eat of the good things we have give you for sustenance;\"-and they\ninjured not us but they injured themselves.22\n\nAnd when we said, \"Enter this city,23 and eat therefrom plentifully, at your\nwill, and enter the gate with prostrations, and say, 'Forgiveness;' and we\nwill pardon you your sins, and give an increase to the doers of good:\"-\n\nBut the evil-doers changed that word into another than that spoken to them,24\nand we sent down upon those evil-doers wrath from heaven, for that they had\ndone amiss:\n\nAnd when Moses asked drink for his people, we said, \"Strike the rock with thy\nrod;\" and from it there gushed twelve fountains: each tribe25 knew their\ndrinking-place:-\"Eat and drink,\" said we, \"of what God hath supplied, and do\nno wrong on the earth by licentious deeds:\"\n\nAnd when ye said, \"O Moses! we will not put up with one sort of food: pray,\ntherefore, thy Lord for us, that He would bring forth for us of that which\nthe earth groweth, its herbs and its cucumbers and its garlic and its lentils\nand its onions:\" He said, \"What! will ye exchange that which is worse for\nwhat is better? Get ye down into Egypt;-for ye shall have what ye have\nasked:\" Vileness and poverty were stamped upon them, and they returned with\nwrath from God: This, for that they disbelieved the signs of God, and slew\nthe Prophets26 unjustly: this, for that they rebelled and transgressed!\n\nVerily, they who believe (Muslims), and they who follow the Jewish religion,\nand the Christians, and the Sabeites27-whoever of these believeth in God and\nthe last day, and doeth that which is right, shall have their reward with\ntheir Lord: fear shall not come upon them, neither shall they be grieved.\n\nCall to mind also when we entered into a covenant with you, and lifted up the\nmountain28 over you:-\"Take hold,\" said we, \"on what we have revealed to you,\nwith resolution, and remember what is therein, that ye may fear:\"\n\nBut after this ye turned back, and but for God's grace and mercy toward you,\nye had surely been of the lost! Ye know too those of you who transgressed on\nthe Sabbath, and to whom we said, \"Be changed into scouted apes:\"29\n\nAnd we made them a warning to those of their day, and to those who came after\nthem, and a caution to the God-fearing:\n\nAnd when Moses said to his people, \"Verily, God bids you sacrifice a COW;\"30\nthey said, \"Makest thou a jest of us?\" He said, \"God keep me from being one\nof the foolish.\" They said, \"Call on thy Lord for us that He would make plain\nto us what she is.\" He said, \"God saith, 'She is a cow neither old nor young,\nbut of the middle age between the two:' do therefore what ye are bidden.\"\n\nThey said, \"Call on your Lord for us, that he would make plain to us what is\nher colour.\" He said, \"God saith, 'She is a fawn-coloured cow; her colour is\nvery bright; she rejoiceth the beholders.' \"\n\nThey said, \"Call on they Lord for us that He would make plain to us what cow\nit is-for to us are cows alike,-and verily, if God please, we shall be guided\nrightly:\"\n\nHe said, \"God saith, 'She is a cow not worn by ploughing the earth or\nwatering the field, sound, no blemish in her.' \" They said, \"Now hast thou\nbrought the truth:\" Then they sacrificed her; Yet nearly had they done it\nnot:\n\nAnd when ye slew a man, and strove among yourselves about him, God brought to\nlight what he had hidden:\n\nFor we said, \"Strike the corpse with part of her.\" So God giveth life to the\ndead, and sheweth you his signs, that haply ye may understand.\n\nThen after that your hearts became hard like rocks, or harder still: for\nverily, from rocks have rivers gushed; others, verily, have been cleft, and\nwater hath issued from them; and others, verily, have sunk down through fear\nof God: And God is not regardless of your actions.\n\nDesire ye then that for your sakes31 the Jews should believe? Yet a part of\nthem heard the word of God, and then, after they had understood it, perverted\nit, and knew that they did so.\n\nAnd when they fall in with the faithful, they say, \"We believe;\" but when\nthey are apart32 one with another, they say, \"Will ye acquaint them with what\nGod hath revealed to you, that they may dispute with you about it in the\npresence of your Lord?\" Understand ye their aim?\n\nKnow they not that God knoweth what they hide, as well as what they bring to\nlight?\n\nBut there are illiterates among them who are unacquainted with the Book,33\nbut with lies only, and have but vague fancies. Woe to those who with their\nown hands transcribe the Book corruptly, and then say, \"This is from God,\"\nthat they may sell it for some mean price! Woe then to them for that which\ntheir hands have written! and, Woe to them for the gains which they have\nmade!\n\nAnd they say, \"Hell fire shall not touch us, but for a few days:\"34 SAY: Have\nye received such a promise from God? for God will not revoke his promise: or,\nSpeak ye of God that which ye know not?\n\nBut they whose only gains are evil works, and who are environed by their\nsins,-they shall be inmates of the fire, therein to abide for ever:\n\nBut they who have believed and done the things that be right, they shall be\nthe inmates of Paradise,-therein to abide for ever.\n\nAnd when we entered into covenant with the children of Israel, we said,\n\"Worship none but God, and be good to your parents and kindred, and to\norphans, and to the poor, and speak with men what is right, and observe\nprayer, and pay the stated alms.\" Then turned ye away, except a few of you,\nand withdrew afar off.\n\nAnd when we made a covenant with you that ye should not shed your own\nblood,35 nor expel one another from your abodes, then ye ratified it and\nyourselves were witnesses.\n\nThen were ye the very persons who slew one another; and ye drove out a part\nof your own people from their abodes; ye lent help against them with wrong\nand hatred; but if they come captives to you, ye redeem them!-Yet it was\nforbidden you to drive them out.36 Believe ye then part of the Book, and deny\npart? But what shall be the meed of him among you who doth this, but shame in\nthis life? And on the day of the Resurrection they shall be sent to the most\ncruel of torments, for God is not regardless of what ye do.\n\nThese are they who purchase this present life at the price of that which is\nto come: their torment shall not be lightened, neither shall they be helped.\n\nMoreover, to Moses gave we \"the Book,\" and we raised up apostles after him;\nand to Jesus, son of Mary, gave we clear proofs of his mission, and\nstrengthened him by the Holy Spirit.37 So oft then as an apostle cometh to\nyou with that which your souls desire not, swell ye with pride, and treat\nsome as impostors, and slay others?\n\nAnd they say, \"Uncircumcised are our hearts.\" Nay! God hath cursed them in\ntheir infidelity: few are they who believe!\n\nAnd when a Book had come to them from God, confirming that which they had\nreceived already-although they had before prayed for victory over those who\nbelieved not-yet when that Koran come to them, of which they had knowledge,\nthey did not recognise it. The curse of God on the infidels!\n\nFor a vile price have they sold themselves, by not believing what God hath\nsent down, envious of God's sending down his grace on such of his servants as\nhe pleaseth:38 and they have brought on themselves wrath upon wrath. And for\nthe unbelievers is a disgraceful chastisement.\n\nAnd when it is said to them, \"Believe in what God hath sent down,\" they say,\n\"In that which hath been sent down to us we believe:\" but what hath since\nbeen sent down they disbelieve, although it be the truth confirmatory of\ntheir own Scriptures. SAY: Why then have ye of old slain God's prophets,39 if\nye are indeed believers?\n\nMoreover, Moses came unto you with proofs of his mission. Then in his absence\nye took the calf for your God, and did wickedly.\n\nAnd when we accepted your covenant, and uplifted40 the mountain over you, we\nsaid, \"Take firm hold on what we have given you, and hearken.\" They said, \"We\nhave hearkened and have rebelled:\" then were they made to drink down the calf\ninto their hearts for their ingratitude. SAY: A bad thing hath your faith\ncommanded you, if ye be indeed believers.\n\nSAY: If the future dwelling place with God be specially for you, but not for\nthe rest of mankind, then wish for death, if ye are sincere:\n\nBut never can they wish for it, because of that which their own hands have\nsent on before them!41 And God knoweth the offenders.\n\nAnd thou wilt surely find them of all men most covetous of life, beyond even\nthe polytheists. To be kept alive a thousand years might one of them desire:\nbut that he may be preserved alive, shall no one reprieve himself from the\npunishment! And God seeth what they do.\n\nSAY: Whoso is the enemy of Gabriel-For he it is who by God's leave hath\ncaused the Koran to descend on thy heart, the confirmation of previous\nrevelations, and guidance, and good tidings to the faithful-\n\nWhoso is an enemy to God or his angels, or to Gabriel, or to Michael, shall\nhave God as his enemy: for verily God is an enemy to the Infidels.\n\nMoreover, clear signs have we sent down to thee, and none will disbelieve\nthem but the perverse.\n\nOft as they have formed an engagement with thee, will some of them set it\naside? But most of them believe not.\n\nAnd when there came to them an apostle from God, affirming the previous\nrevelations made to them, some of those to whom the Scriptures were given,\nthrew the Book of God behind their backs as if they knew it not:\n\nAnd they followed what the Satans read42 in the reign of Solomon: not that\nSolomon was unbelieving, but the Satans were unbelieving. Sorcery did they\nteach to men, and what had been revealed to the two angels, Harut and Marut,\nat Babel. Yet no man did these two teach until they had said, \"We are only a\ntemptation. Be not then an unbeliever.\" From these two did men learn how to\ncause division between man and wife: but unless by leave of God, no man did\nthey harm thereby. They learned, indeed, what would harm and not profit them;\nand yet they knew that he who bought that art should have no part in the life\nto come! And vile the price for which they have sold themselves,-if they had\nbut known it!\n\nBut had they believed and feared God, better surely would have been the\nreward from God,-if they had but known it!\n\nO ye who believe! say not to our apostle, \"Raina\"43 (Look at us); but say,\n\"Ondhorna\" (Regard us). And attend to this; for, the Infidels shall suffer a\ngrievous chastisement.\n\nThe unbelievers among the people of the Book, and among the idolaters, desire\nnot that any good should be sent down to you from your Lord: but God will\nshew His special mercy to whom He will, for He is of great bounty.\n\nWhatever verses we cancel,44 or cause thee to forget, we bring a better or\nits like. Knowest thou not that God hath power over all things?\n\nKnowest thou not that the dominion of the Heavens and of the Earth is God's?\nand that ye have neither patron nor helper, save God?\n\nWould ye ask of your apostle what of old was asked of Moses? But he who\nexchangeth faith for unbelief,45 hath already erred from the even way.\n\nMany of the people of the Book desire to bring you back to unbelief after ye\nhave believed, out of selfish envy, even after the truth hath been clearly\nshewn them. But forgive them, and shun them till God shall come in with His\nworking. Truly God hath power over all things.\n\nAnd observe prayer and pay the legal impost:46 and whatever good thing ye\nhave sent on before for your soul's sake, ye shall find it with God. Verily\nGod seeth what ye do.\n\nAnd they say, \"None but Jews or Christians shall enter Paradise:\" This is\ntheir wish. SAY: Give your proofs if ye speak the truth.\n\nBut they who set their face with resignation Godward, and do what is right,-\ntheir reward is with their Lord; no fear shall come on them, neither shall\nthey be grieved.\n\nMoreover, the Jews say, \"The Christians lean on nought:\" \"On nought lean the\nJews,\" say the Christians: Yet both are readers of the Book. So with like\nwords say they who have no knowledge.47 But on the resurrection day, God\nshall judge between them as to that in which they differ.\n\nAnd who committeth a greater wrong than he who hindereth God's name from\nbeing remembered in his temples, and who hasteth to ruin them?48 Such men\ncannot enter them but with fear. Their's is shame in this world, and a severe\ntorment in the next.\n\nThe East and the West is God's: therefore, whichever way ye turn, there is\nthe face of God:49 Truly God is immense and knoweth all.\n\nAnd they say, \"God hath a son:\" No! Praise be to Him!  But-His, whatever is\nin the Heavens and the Earth! All obeyeth Him,\n\nSole maker of the Heavens and of the Earth! And when He decreeth a thing, He\nonly saith to it, \"Be,\" and it is.\n\nAnd they who have no knowledge say, \"Unless God speak to us, or thou shew us\na sign . . . !\"  So, with like words, said those who were before them: their\nhearts are alike: Clear signs have we already shewn for those who have firm\nfaith:\n\nVerily, with the Truth have we sent thee, a bearer of good tidings and a\nwarner: and of the people of Hell thou shalt not be questioned.\n\nBut until thou follow their religion, neither Jews nor Christians will be\nsatisfied with thee. SAY: Verily, guidance of God,-that is the guidance! And\nif, after \"the Knowledge\" which hath reached thee, thou follow their desires,\nthou shalt find neither helper nor protector against God.\n\nThey to whom we have given the Book, and who read it as it ought to be read,-\nthese believe therein: but whoso believeth not therein, shall meet with\nperdition.\n\nO children of Israel! remember my favour wherewith I have favoured you, and\nthat high above all mankind have I raised you:\n\nAnd dread the day when not in aught shall soul satisfy for soul, nor shall\nany ransom be taken from it, nor shall any intercession avail, and they shall\nnot be helped.\n\nWhen his Lord made trial of Abraham by commands which he fulfilled, He said,\n\"I am about to make thee an Im\u00e2m to mankind:\" he said, \"Of my offspring\nalso:\" \"My covenant,\" said God, \"embraceth not the evil doers.\"\n\nAnd remember when we appointed the Holy House50 as man's resort and safe\nretreat, and said, \"Take ye the station of Abraham for a place of prayer:\"\nAnd we commanded Abraham and Ismael, \"Purify my house for those who shall go\nin procession round it, and those who shall abide there for devotion, and\nthose who shall bow down and prostrate themselves.\"\n\nAnd when Abraham said, \"Lord! make this secure land, and supply its people\nwith fruits, such of them as believe in God and in the last day:\" He said,\n\"And whoso believeth not, for a little while will I bestow good things on\nhim; then will I drive him to the torment of the Fire!\" An ill passage!\n\nAnd when Abraham, with Ismael, raised the foundations51 of the House, they\nsaid, \"O our Lord! accept it from us; for thou art the Hearer, the Knower.\n\nO our Lord! make us also Muslims, and our posterity a Muslim people; and\nteach us our holy rites, and be turned towards us, for thou art He who\nturneth, the Merciful.\n\nO our Lord! raise up among them an apostle52 who may rehearse thy signs unto\nthem, and teach them 'the Book,' and Wisdom, and purify them: for thou art\nthe Mighty, the Wise.\"\n\nAnd who but he that hath debased his soul to folly will mislike the faith of\nAbraham, when we have chosen him in this world, and in the world to come he\nshall be of the Just?\n\nWhen his Lord said to him, \"Resign thyself to me,\" he said, \"I resign myself\nto the Lord of the Worlds.\"\n\nAnd this to his children did Abraham bequeath, and Jacob also, saying, \"O my\nchildren! truly God hath chosen a religion for you; so die not unless ye be\nalso Muslims.\"\n\nWere ye present when Jacob was at the point of death?53 when he said to his\nsons, \"Whom will ye worship when I am gone?\" They said, \"We will worship thy\nGod and the God of thy fathers Abraham and Ismael and Isaac, one God, and to\nHim are we surrendered (Muslims).\"\n\nThat people have now passed away; they have the reward of their deeds, and ye\nshall have the meed of yours: but of their doings ye shall not be questioned.\n\nThey say, moreover, \"Become Jews or Christians that ye may have the true\nguidance.\" SAY: Nay! the religion of Abraham, the sound in faith,54 and not\none of those who join gods with God!\n\nSay ye: \"We believe in God, and that which hath been sent down to us, and\nthat which hath been sent down to Abraham and Ismael and Isaac and Jacob and\nthe tribes: and that which hath been given to Moses and to Jesus, and that\nwhich was given to the prophets from their Lord. No difference do we make\nbetween any of them: and to God are we resigned (Muslims).\"\n\nIf therefore they believe even as ye believe, then have they true guidance;\nbut if they turn back, then do they cut themselves off from you: and God will\nsuffice to protect thee against them, for He is the Hearer, the Knower.55\n\nIslam is the Baptism of God,56 and who is better to baptise than God? And Him\ndo we serve.\n\nSAY: Will ye dispute with us about God? when He is our Lord and your Lord! We\nhave our works and ye have your works; and we are sincerely His.\n\nWill ye say, \"Verily Abraham, and Ismael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the\ntribes, were Jews or Christians?\" SAY: Who knoweth best, ye, or God? And who\nis more in fault than he who concealeth the witness which he hath from God?\nBut God is not regardless of what ye do.\n\nThat people have now passed away: they have the reward of their deeds, and\nfor you is the meed of yours; but of their doings ye shall not be questioned.\n\nThe foolish ones will say, \"What hath turned them from the kebla which they\nused?\" SAY: The East and the West are God's. He guideth whom he will into the\nright path.\n\nThus have we made you a central people,57 that ye may be witnesses in regard\nto mankind, and that the apostle may be a witness in regard to you.\n\nWe appointed the kebla which thou formerly hadst, only that we might know him\nwho followeth the apostle, from him who turneth on his heels: The change is a\ndifficulty, but not to those whom God hath guided. But God will not let your\nfaith58 be fruitless; for unto man is God Merciful, Gracious.\n\nWe have seen thee turning thy face towards every part of Heaven; but we will\nhave thee turn to a kebla which shall please thee. Turn then thy face towards\nthe sacred Mosque,59 and wherever ye be, turn your faces towards that part.\nThey, verily, to whom \"the Book\" hath been given, know this to be the truth\nfrom their Lord: and God is not regardless of what ye do.\n\nEven though thou shouldest bring every kind of sign to those who have\nreceived the Scriptures, yet thy kebla they will not adopt; nor shalt thou\nadopt their kebla; nor will one part of them adopt the kebla of the other.\nAnd if, after the knowledge which hath come to thee, thou follow their\nwishes, verily then wilt thou become of the unrighteous.\n\nThey to whom we have given the Scriptures know him-the apostle-even as they\nknow their own children: but truly a part of them do conceal the truth,\nthough acquainted with it.60\n\nThe truth is from thy Lord. Be not then of those who doubt.\n\nAll have a quarter of the Heavens to which they turn them; but wherever ye\nbe, hasten emulously after good: God will one day bring you all together;\nverily, God is all-powerful.\n\nAnd from whatever place thou comest forth, turn thy face toward the sacred\nMosque; for this is the truth from thy Lord; and God is not inattentive to\nyour doings.\n\nAnd from whatever place thou comest forth, turn thy face toward the sacred\nMosque; and wherever ye be, to that part turn your faces, lest men have cause\nof dispute against you: but as for the impious among them, fear them not; but\nfear me, that I may perfect my favours on you, and that ye may be guided\naright.\n\nAnd we sent to you an apostle from among yourselves to rehearse our signs\nunto you, and to purify you, and to instruct you in \"the Book,\" and in the\nwisdom, and to teach you that which ye knew not:\n\nTherefore remember me: I will remember you; and give me thanks and be not\nungrateful.\n\nO ye who believe! seek help with patience and with prayer, for God is with\nthe patient.\n\nAnd say not of those who are slain on God's path61 that they are Dead; nay,\nthey are Living! But ye understand not.\n\nWith somewhat of fear and hunger, and loss of wealth, and lives, and fruits,\nwill we surely prove you: but bear good tidings to the patient,\n\nWho when a mischance chanceth them, say, \"Verily we are God's, and to Him\nshall we return:\"62\n\nOn them shall be blessings from their Lord, and mercy: and these!-they are\nthe rightly guided.\n\nVerily, Safa and Marwah63 are among the monuments of God: whoever then maketh\na pilgrimage to the temple, or visiteth it, shall not be to blame if he go\nround about them both. And as for him who of his own accord doeth what is\ngood-God is Grateful, Knowing.\n\nThey who conceal aught that we have sent down, either of clear proof or of\nguidance, after what we have so clearly shewn to men in the Book,64 God shall\ncurse them, and they who curse shall curse them.\n\nBut as for those who turn to me, and amend and make known the truth, even\nunto them will I turn me, for I am He who Turneth, the Merciful.\n\nVerily, they who are infidels and die infidels,-these! upon them shall be the\nmalison of God and of angels and of all men:\n\nUnder it shall they remain for ever: their torment shall not be lightened,\nand God will not even look upon them!\n\nYour God is one God:65 there is no God but He, the Compassionate, the\nMerciful.\n\nAssuredly in the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth; and in the\nalternation of night and day; and in the ships which pass through the sea\nwith what is useful to man; and in the rain which God sendeth down from\nHeaven, giving life by it to the earth after its death, and by scattering\nover it all kinds of cattle; and in the change of the winds, and in the\nclouds that are made to do service between the Heaven and the Earth;-are\nsigns for those who understand.\n\nYet there are men who take to them idols along with God, and love them with\nthe love of God: But stronger in the faithful is the love of God. Oh! the\nimpious will see, when they see their chastisement, that all power is God's,\nand that God is severe in chastising.\n\nWhen those who have had followers66 shall declare themselves clear from their\nfollowers after that they have seen the chastisement, and when the ties\nbetween them shall be cut asunder;\n\nThe followers shall say, \"Could we but return to life we would keep ourselves\nclear from them, as they have declared themselves clear of us.\" So will God\nshew them their works! Sighing is upon them! but, forth from the fire they\ncome not.\n\nOh men! eat of that which is lawful and good on the earth, but follow not the\nsteps of Satan, for he is your avowed enemy:\n\nHe only enjoineth you evil and wickedness, and that ye should aver of God\nthat which ye know not.\n\nAnd when it is said to them, \"Follow ye that which God hath sent down;\" they\nsay, \"Nay, we follow the usages which we found with our fathers.\" What!\nthough their fathers were utterly ignorant and devoid of guidance?\n\nThe infidels resemble him who shouteth aloud to one who heareth no more than\na call and cry! Deaf, Dumb, blind: therefore they have no understanding.\n\nO ye who believe! eat of the good things with which we have supplied you, and\ngive God thanks if ye are His worshippers.\n\nBut that which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine's flesh, and that over\nwhich any other name than that of God hath been invoked, is forbidden you.\nBut he who shall partake of them by constraint, without lust or wilfulness,\nno sin shall be upon him. Verily God is Indulgent, Merciful.\n\nThey truly who hide the Scriptures which God hath sent down, and barter them\nfor a mean price-these shall swallow into their bellies nought but fire. God\nwill not speak to them, or assoil them, on the day of the Resurrection: and\ntheirs shall be a grievous torment.\n\nThese are they who have bartered guidance for error, and pardon for torment;\nBut how great their endurance in fire!67\n\nThis shall be their doom, because God had sent down \"the Book\" with the very\ntruth. And verily they who dispute about that Book are in a far-gone\nseverance from it.\n\nThere is no piety in turning your faces toward the east or the west, but he\nis pious who believeth in God, and the last day, and the angles, and the\nScriptures, and the prophets; who for the love of God disburseth his wealth\nto his kindred, and to the orphans, and the needy, and the wayfarer, and\nthose who ask, and for ransoming; who observeth prayer, and payeth the legal\nalms, and who is of those who are faithful to their engagements when they\nhave engaged in them, and patient under ills and hardships, and in time of\ntrouble: these are they who are just, and these are they who fear the Lord.\n\nO believers! retaliation for bloodshedding is prescribed to you: the free man\nfor the free, and the slave for the slave, and the woman for the woman: but\nhe to whom his brother shall make any remission,68 is to be dealt with\nequitably; and to him should he pay a fine with liberality.\n\nThis is a relaxation69 from your Lord and a mercy. For him who after his\nshall transgress,70 a sore punishment!\n\nBut in this law of retaliation is your security for life, O men of\nunderstanding! to the intent that ye may fear God.\n\nIt is prescribed to you, when any one of you is at the point of death, if he\nleave goods, that he bequeath equitably to his parents and kindred. This is\nbinding on those who fear God. But as for him who after he hath heard the\nbequest shall change it, surely the wrong of this shall be on those who\nchange it: verily, God Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nBut he who feareth from the testator any mistake or wrong, and shall make a\nsettlement between the parties-that shall be no wrong in him: verily, God is\nLenient, Merciful.\n\nO believers! a Fast is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before\nyou, that ye may fear God,\n\nFor certain days. But he among you who shall be sick, or on a journey, shall\nfast that same number of other days: and as for those who are able to keep it\nand yet break it, the expiation of this shall be the maintenance of a poor\nman. And he who of his own accord performeth a good work, shall derive good\nfrom it: and good shall it be for you to fast if ye knew it.\n\nAs to the month Ramadhan in which the Koran was sent down to be man's\nguidance, and an explanation of that guidance, and of that illumination,71 as\nsoon as any one of you observeth the moon, let him set about the fast; but he\nwho is sick, or upon a journey, shall fast a like number of other days. God\nwisheth you ease, but wisheth not your discomfort, and that you fulfil the\nnumber of days, and that you glorify God for his guidance, and that you be\nthankful.\n\nAnd when my servants ask thee concerning me, then will I be nigh unto them. I\nwill answer the cry of him that crieth, when he crieth unto me: but let them\nhearken unto me, and believe in me, that they may proceed aright.\n\nYou are allowed on the night of the fast to approach your wives: they are\nyour garment and ye are their garment.72 God knoweth that ye defraud\nyourselves therein, so He turneth unto you and forgiveth you! Now, therefore,\ngo in unto them with full desire for that which God hath ordained for you;\nand eat and drink until ye can discern a white thread from a black thread73\nby the daybreak: then fast strictly till night, and go not in unto them, but\nrather pass the time in the Mosques. These are the bounds set up by God:\ntherefore come not near them. Thus God maketh his signs clear to men that\nthey may fear Him.74\n\nConsume not your wealth among yourselves in vain things, nor present it to\njudges that ye may consume a part of other men's wealth unjustly, while ye\nknow the sin which ye commit.\n\nThey will ask thee of the new moons. SAY: They are periods fixed for man's\nservice and for the Pilgrimage. There is no piety in entering your houses at\nthe back,75 but piety consists in the fear of God. Enter your houses then by\ntheir doors; and fear God that it may be well with you.\n\nAnd fight for the cause of God against those who fight against you: but\ncommit not the injustice of attacking them first: God loveth not such\ninjustice:\n\nAnd kill them wherever ye shall find them, and eject them from whatever place\nthey have ejected you; for civil discord76 is worse than carnage: yet attack\nthem not at the sacred Mosque, unless they attack you therein; but if they\nattack you, slay them. Such the reward of the infidels.\n\nBut if they desist, then verily God is Gracious, Merciful.\n\nFight therefore against them until there be no more civil discord, and the\nonly worship be that of God: but if they desist, then let there be no\nhostility, save against the wicked.\n\nThe sacred month and the sacred precincts are under the safeguard of\nreprisals:77 whoever offereth violence to you, offer ye the like violence to\nhim, and fear God, and know that God is with those who fear Him.\n\nGive freely for the cause of God, and throw not yourselves with your own\nhands into ruin;78 and do good, for God loveth those who do good.\n\nAccomplish the Pilgrimage and the Visitation79 of the holy places in honour\nof God: and if ye be hemmed in by foes, send whatever offering shall be the\neasiest: and shave not your heads until the offering reach the place of\nsacrifice. But whoever among you is sick, or hath an ailment of the head,\nmust satisfy by fasting, or alms, or an offering. And when ye are safe from\nfoes, he who contents himself with the Visitation of the holy places, until\nthe Pilgrimage, shall bring whatever offering shall be the easiest. But he\nwho findeth nothing to offer, shall fast three days in the Pilgrimage itself,\nand seven days when ye return: they shall be ten days in all. This is binding\non him whose family shall not be present at the sacred Mosque. And fear God,\nand know that God is terrible in punishing.\n\nLet the Pilgrimage be made in the months already known:80 whoever therefore\nundertaketh the Pilgrimage therein, let him not know a woman, nor transgress,\nnor wrangle in the Pilgrimage. The good which ye do, God knoweth it. And\nprovide for your journey; but the best provision is the fear of God: fear me,\nthen, O men of understanding!\n\nIt shall be no crime in you if ye seek an increase from your Lord;81 and when\nye pour swiftly on from Arafat, then remember God near the holy monument; and\nremember Him, because He hath guided you who before this were of those who\nwent astray:\n\nThen pass on quickly82 where the people quickly pass, and ask pardon of God,\nfor God is Forgiving, Merciful.\n\nAnd when ye have finished your holy rites, remember God as ye remember your\nown fathers, or with a yet more intense remembrance! Some men there are who\nsay, \"O our Lord! give us our portion in this world:\" but such shall have no\nportion in the next life:\n\nAnd some say, \"O our Lord! give us good in this world and good in the next,\nand keep us from the torment of the fire.\"\n\nThey shall have the lot which they have merited: and God is swift to reckon.\n\nBear God in mind during the stated days: but if any haste away83 in two days,\nit shall be no fault in him: And if any tarry longer, it shall be no fault in\nhim, if he fear God. Fear God, then, and know that to Him shall ye be\ngathered.\n\nA man there is84 who surpriseth thee by his discourse concerning this life\npresent. He taketh God to witness what is in his heart; yet is he the most\nzealous in opposing thee:\n\nAnd when he turneth his back on thee, he runneth through the land to enact\ndisorders therein, and layeth waste the fields and flocks: but God loveth not\nthe disorder.\n\nAnd when it is said to him, \"Fear God,\" the pride of sin seizeth him: but he\nshall have his fill of Hell; and right wretched the couch!\n\nA man, too, there is85 who selleth his very self out of desire to please God:\nand God is good to his servants.\n\nO believers! enter completely into the true religion, and follow not the\nsteps of Satan, for he is your declared enemy.\n\nBut if ye lapse after that our clear signs86 have come to you, know that God\nis Mighty, Wise.\n\nWhat can such expect but that God should come down to them overshadowed with\nclouds, and the angels also, and their doom be sealed? And to God shall all\nthings return.\n\nAsk the children of Isreal how many clear signs we have given them. But if\nany man shall alter the boon87 of God after it shall have reached him,\nassuredly God will be vehement in punishing him.\n\nThis present life is prepared for those who believe not, and who mock at the\nfaithful. But they who fear God shall be above them on the day of\nresurrection; and God is bounteous without measure to whom He will.\n\nMankind was but one people;88 and God sent prophets to announce glad tidings\nand to warn; and He sent down with them the Book of Truth, that it might\ndecide the disputes of men; and none disputed but those to whom the Book had\nbeen given, after the clear tokens had reached them,-being full of mutual\njealousy. And God guided those who believed to the truth of that about which,\nby his permission, they had disputed; for God guideth whom he pleaseth into\nthe straight path.\n\nThink ye to enter Paradise, when no such things have come upon you, as on\nthose who flourish before you? Ills and troubles tried them; and so tossed\nwere they by trials, that the Apostle and they who shared his faith, said,\n\"When will the help of God come?\"-Is not the help of God nigh?\n\nThey will ask thee what they shall bestow in alms. SAY: Let the good which ye\nbestow be for parents, and kindred, and orphans, and the poor, and the\nwayfarer; and whatever good ye do, of a truth God knoweth.\n\nWar is prescribed to you: but from this ye are averse.\n\nYet haply ye are averse from a thing, though it be good for you, and haply ye\nlove a thing though it be bad for you: And God knoweth; but ye, ye know not.\n\nThey will ask thee concerning war in the Sacred Month. SAY: To war therein is\nbad, but to turn aside from the cause of God, and to have no faith in Him,\nand in the Sacred Temple, and to drive out its people, is worse in the sight\nof God; and civil strife is worse than bloodshed. They will not cease to war\nagainst you until they turn you from your religion, if they be able: but\nwhoever of you shall turn from his religion and die an infidel, their works\nshall be fruitless in this world, and in the next: they shall be consigned to\nthe fire; therein to abide for aye.\n\nBut they who believe, and who fly their country, and fight in the cause of\nGod may hope for God's mercy: and God is Gracious, Merciful.\n\nThey will ask thee concerning wine89 and games of chance. SAY: In both is\ngreat sin, and advantage also, to men; but their sin is greater than their\nadvantage. They will ask thee also what they shall bestow in alms:\n\nSAY: What ye can spare. Thus God sheweth you his signs that ye may ponder\n\nOn this present world, and on the next. They will also ask thee concerning\norphans. SAY: Fair dealing with them is best;\n\nBut if ye mix yourselves up (in their affairs)-they are your brethren: God\nknoweth the foul dealer from the fair: and, if God pleased, he could indeed\nafflict you! Verily, God is Mighty, Wise.\n\nMarry not idolatresses until they believe; a slave who believeth is better\nthan an idolatress, though she please you more. And wed not your daughters to\nidolaters until they believe; for a slave who is a believer, is than better\nan idolater, though he please you.\n\nThey invite to the Fire; but God inviteth to Paradise, and to pardon, if he\nso will, and maketh clear his signs to men that they may remember.\n\nThey will also question thee as to the courses of women. SAY: They are a\npollution. Separate yourselves therefore from women and approach them not,\nuntil they be cleansed. But when they are cleansed, go in unto them as God\nhath ordained for you. Verily God loveth those who turn to Him, and loveth\nthose who seek to be clean.\n\nYour wives are your field: go in, therefore, to your field as ye will; but do\nfirst some act for your souls' good: and fear ye God, and know that ye must\nmeet Him; and bear these good tidings to the faithful.\n\nSwear not by God, when ye make oath, that ye will be virtuous and fear God,\nand promote peace among men; for God is He who Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nGod will not punish you for a mistake in your oaths: but He will punish you\nfor that which your hearts have done. God is Gracious, Merciful.\n\nThey who intend to abstain from their wives shall wait four months; but if\nthey go back from their purpose, then verily God is Gracious, Merciful:\n\nAnd if they resolve on a divorce, then verily God is He who Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nThe divorced shall wait the result, until they have had their courses thrice,\nnor ought they to conceal what God hath created in their wombs, if they\nbelieve in God and the last day; and it will be more just in their husbands\nto bring them back when in this state, if they desire what is right. And it\nis for the women to act as they (the husbands) act by them, in all fairness;\nbut the men are a step above them. God is Mighty, Wise.\n\nYe may divorce your wives twice: Keep them honourably, or put them away with\nkindness. But it is not allowed you to appropriate to yourselves aught of\nwhat ye have given to them, unless both fear that they cannot keep within the\nbounds90 set up by God. And if ye fear that they cannot observe the\nordinances of God, no blame shall attach to either of you for what the wife\nshall herself give for her redemption. These are the bounds of God: therefore\noverstep them not; for whoever oversteppeth the bounds of God, they are evil\ndoers.\n\nBut if the husband divorce her a third time, it is not lawful for him to take\nher again, until she shall have married another husband; and if he also\ndivorce her, then shall no blame attach to them if they return to each other,\nthinking that they can keep within the bounds fixed by God. And these are the\nbounds of God; He maketh them clear to those who have knowledge.\n\nBut when ye divorce women, and the time for sending them away is come, either\nretain them with generosity, or put them away with generosity: but retain\nthem not by constraint so as to be unjust towards them. He who doth so, doth\nin fact injure himself. And make not the signs of God a jest; but remember\nGod's favour toward you, and the Book and the Wisdom which He hath sent down\nto you for your warning, and fear God, and know that God's knowledge\nembraceth everything.\n\nAnd when ye divorce your wives, and they have waited the prescribed time,\nhinder them not from marrying their husbands when they have agreed among\nthemselves in an honourable way. This warning is for him among you who\nbelieveth in God and in the last day. This is most pure for you, and most\ndecent. God knoweth, but ye know not.\n\nMothers, when divorced, shall give suck to their children two full years,91\nif the father desire that the suckling be completed; and such maintenance and\nclothing as is fair for them, shall devolve on the father. No person shall be\ncharged beyond his means. A mother shall not be pressed unfairly for her\nchild, nor a father for his child: And the same with the father's heir. But\nif they choose to wean the child by consent and by bargain, it shall be no\nfault in them. And if ye choose to have a nurse for your children, it shall\nbe no fault in you, in case ye pay what ye promised her according to that\nwhich is fair. Fear God, and know that God seeth what ye do.\n\nIf those of you who die leave wives, they must await their state during four\nmonths and ten days; and when this their term is expired, you shall not be\nanswerable for the way in which they shall dispose of themselves fairly. And\nGod is cognisant of what ye do.\n\nAnd then shall no blame attach to you in making proposals of marriage92 to\nsuch women, or in keeping such intention to yourselves? God knoweth that ye\nwill not forget them. But promise them not in secret, unless ye speak\nhonourable words;\n\nAnd resolve not on the marriage tie until the prescribed time be reached; and\nknow that God knoweth what is in your minds: therefore, beware of Him; and\nknow that God is Gracious, Mild!\n\nIt shall be no crime in you if ye divorce your wives so long as ye have not\nconsummated the marriage, nor settled any dowry on them. And provide what is\nneedful for them he who is in ample circumstances according to his means, and\nhe who is straitened, according to his means-with fairness: This is binding\non those who do what is right.\n\nBut if ye divorce them before consummation, and have already settled a dowry\non them, ye shall give them half of what ye have settled, unless they make a\nrelease, or he make a release in whose hand is the marriage tie. But if ye\nmake a release, it will be nearer to piety. And forget not generosity in your\nrelations one towards another; for God beholdeth your doings.\n\nObserve strictly the prayers, and the middle93 prayer, and stand up full of\ndevotion towards God.\n\nAnd if you have any alarm, then pray on foot or riding: but when you are\nsafe, then remember God, how he hath made you to know what ye knew not.\n\nAnd94 such of you as shall die and leave wives, shall bequeath their wives a\nyear's maintenance without causing them to quit their homes; but if they quit\nthem of their own accord, then no blame shall attach to you for any\ndisposition they may make of themselves in a fair way. And God is Mighty,\nWise.\n\nAnd for the divorced let there be a fair provision. This is a duty in those\nwho fear God.\n\nThus God maketh his signs clear to you that ye may understand.\n\nHast thou not thought on those who quitted their dwellings-and they were\nthousands-for fear of death?95 God said to them, \"Die:\" then He restored them\nto life, for full of bounty towards man is God. But most men give not thanks!\n\nFight for the cause of God; and know that God is He who Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nWho is he that will lend to God a goodly loan? He will double it to him again\nand again: God is close, but open handed also: and to Him shall ye return.\n\nHast thou not considered96 the assembly of the children of Israel after the\ndeath of Moses, when they said to a prophet of theirs, \"Set up for us a king;\nwe will do battle for the cause of God?\" He said, \"May it not be that if to\nfight were ordained you, ye would not fight?\" They said, \"And why should we\nnot fight in the cause of God, since we and our children are driven forth\nfrom our dwellings?\" But when fighting was commanded them, they turned back,\nsave a few of them: But God knew the offenders!\n\nAnd their prophet said to them, \"Now hath God set (Talout) Saul king over\nyou.\" They said, \"How shall he reign over us, when we are more worthy of the\nkingdom than he, and of wealth he hath no abundance?\" He said, \"Verily God\nhath chosen him to be over you, and hath given him increase in knowledge and\nstature; God giveth his kingdom to whom he pleaseth; and God is Liberal,\nKnowing!\"\n\nAnd their prophet said to them, \"Verily, the sign of his kingship shall be\nthat the Ark shall come to you: in it is a pledge of security97 from your\nLord and the relics98 left by the family of Moses, and the family of Aaron;\nthe angels shall bear it: Truly herein shall be a sign indeed to you if ye\nare believers.\"\n\nAnd when Saul marched forth with his forces, he said, \"God will test you by a\nriver: He who drinketh of it shall not be of my band; but he who shall not\ntaste it, drinking a drink out of the hand excepted, shall be of my band.\"99\nAnd, except a few of them, they drank of it. And when they had passed it, he\nand those who believed with him, the former said, \"We have no strength this\nday against (Djalout) Goliath and his forces:\" But they who held it as\ncertain that they must meet God, said, \"How oft, by God's will, hath a small\nhost vanquished a numerous host! and God is with the steadfastly enduring.\"\n\nAnd when they went forth against Goliath and his forces, they said, \"O our\nLord! pour out steadfastness upon us, and set our feet firm, and help us\nagainst the infidels!\"\n\nAnd by the will of God they routed them; and (Daood) David slew Goliath; and\nGod gave him the kingship and wisdom, and taught him according to His will:\nand were it not for the restraint of one by means of the other, imposed on\nmen by God, verily the earth had been utterly corrupted. But God is bounteous\nto his creatures.\n\nSuch are the signs of God: with truth do we rehearse them to thee, for one of\nthe Sent Ones art Thou.\n\nSome of the apostles we have endowed more highly than others: Those to whom\nGod hath spoken, He hath raised to the loftiest grade, and to Jesus the Son\nof Mary we gave manifest signs, and we strengthened him with the Holy\nSpirit.100 And if God had pleased, they who came after them would not have\nwrangled, after the clear signs had reached them. But into disputes101 they\nfell: some of them believed, and some were infidels; yet if God had pleased,\nthey would not have thus wrangled: but God doth what he will.\n\nO Believers! give alms of that with which we have supplied you, before the\nday cometh when there shall be no trafficking, nor friendship, nor\nintercession. And the infidels are the wrong-doers.\n\nGod! There is no God but He; the Living, the Eternal; Nor slumber seizeth\nHim, nor sleep; His, whatsoever is in the Heavens and whatsoever is in the\nEarth! Who is he that can intercede with Him but by His own permission? He\nknoweth what hath been before them and what shall be after them; yet nought\nof His knowledge shall they grasp, save what He willeth. His Throne reacheth\nover the Heavens and the Earth, and the upholding of both burdeneth Him not;\nand He is the High, the Great!\n\nLet there be no compulsion in Religion.102 Now is the right way made distinct\nfrom error. Whoever therefore shall deny Thagout103 and believe in God-he\nwill have taken hold on a strong handle that shall not be broken: and God is\nHe who Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nGod is the patron of believers: He shall bring them out of darkness into\nlight:\n\nAs to those who believe not, their patrons are Thagout: they shall bring them\nout of light into darkness: they shall be given over to the fire: they shall\nabide therein for ever.\n\nHast thou not thought on him104 who disputed with Abraham about his Lord,\nbecause God had given him the kingdom? When Abraham said, \"My Lord is He who\nmaketh alive and cause to die:\" He said, \"It is I who make alive and cause to\ndie!\" Abraham said, \"Since God bringeth the sun from the East, do thou, then,\nbring it from the West.\" The infidel was confounded; for God guideth not the\nevil doers:\n\nOr how he105 demeaned him who passed by a city which had been laid in\nruins.106 \"How,\" said he, \"shall God give life to this city, after she hath\nbeen dead?\" And God caused him to die for an hundred years, and then raised\nhim to life. And God said, \"How long hast thou waited?\" He said, \"I have\nwaited a day or part of a day.\" He said, \"Nay, thou hast waited an hundred\nyears. Look on thy food and thy drink; they are not corrupted; and look on\nthine ass: we would make thee a sign unto men: And look on the bones of thine\nass, how we will raise them, then clothe them with flesh.\" And when this was\nshewn to him, he said, \"I acknowledge that God hath power to do all things.\"\n\nWhen Abraham said, \"O Lord, shew me how thou wilt give life to the dead!\" He\nsaid, \"Hast thou not believed?\"\n\nHe said, \"Yes; but I have asked thee, that my heart may be well assured.\" He\nsaid, \"Take, then, four birds,107 and draw them towards thee, and cut them in\npieces; then place a part of them on every mountain; then call them and they\nshall come swiftly to thee: and know thou that God is Might, Wise!\"\n\nThe likeness of those who expend their wealth for the cause of God, is that\nof a grain of corn which produceth seven ears, and in each ear a hundred\ngrains; and God will multiply to whom He pleaseth: God is Liberal, Knowing!\n\nThey who expend their wealth for the cause of God, and never follow what they\nhave laid out with reproaches or harm, shall have their reward with their\nLord; no fear shall come upon them, neither shall they be put to grief.\n\nA kind speech and forgiveness is better than alms followed by injury. God is\nRich, Clement.\n\nO ye who believe! make not your alms void by reproaches and injury, like him\nwho spendeth his substance to be seen of men, and believeth not in God and in\nthe latter day. The likeness of such an one is that of a rock with a thin\nsoil upon it, on which a heavy rain falleth but leaveth it hard: No profit\nfrom their works shall they be able to gain; for God guideth not the\nunbelieving people.\n\nAnd the likeness of those who expend their substance from a desire to please\nGod, and for the stablishing of their souls, is as a garden on a hill, on\nwhich the heavy rain falleth, and it yieldeth its fruits twofold; and even if\na heavy rain fall not on it, yet is there a dew: God beholdeth your actions.\n\nDesireth any one of you a garden of palms and vines through which rivers\nflow, in which he may have every fruit, and that old age should surprise him\nthere, and that his offspring should be weakly, and that then a fiery violent\nwind shall strike it so that it shall be burned? Thus God maketh plain his\nsigns to you that ye may reflect.\n\nO ye who believe! bestow alms of the good things which ye have acquired, and\nof that which we have brought forth for you out of the earth, and choose not\nthe bad for almsgiving,\n\nSuch as ye would accept yourselves only by connivance: and know that God is\nRich, Praiseworthy.\n\nSatan menaceth you with poverty,108 and enjoineth base actions: but God\npromiseth you pardon from himself and abundance: God is All-bounteous,\nKnowing.\n\nHe giveth wisdom to whom He will: and he to whom wisdom is given, hath had\nmuch good given him; but none will bear it in mind, except the wise of heart.\n\nAnd whatever alms ye shall give, or whatever vow ye shall vow, of a truth God\nknoweth it: but they who act unjustly shall have no helpers. Give ye your\nalms openly?109 it is well. Do ye conceal them and give them to the poor?\nThis, too, will be of advantage to you, and will do away your sins: and God\nis cognisant of your actions.\n\nTheir guidance is not thine affair, O Muhammad; but God guideth whom he\npleaseth. And the good that ye shall give in alms shall redound unto\nyourselves; and ye shall not give but as seeking the face of God; and\nwhatever good thing ye shall have given in alms, shall be repaid you, and ye\nshall not be wronged. There are among you the poor, who being shut up to\nfighting for the cause of God, have it not in their power to strike out into\nthe earth for riches. Those who know them not, think them rich because of\ntheir modesty. By this their token thou shalt know them-they ask not of men\nwith importunity: and of whatever good thing ye shall give them in alms, of a\ntruth God will take knowledge.\n\nThey who give away their substance in alms, by night and day, in private and\nin public, shall have their reward with their Lord: no fear shall come on\nthem, neither shall they be put to grief.\n\nThey who swallow down usury, shall arise in the resurrection only as he\nariseth whom Satan hath infected by his touch. This, for that they say,\n\"Selling is only the like of usury:\" and yet God hath allowed selling, and\nforbidden usury. He then who when this warning shall come to him from his\nLord, abstaineth, shall have pardon for the past, and his lot shall be with\nGod. But they who return to usury, shall be given over to the fire; therein\nshall they abide for ever.\n\nGod will bring usury to nought, but will increase alms with usury, and God\nloveth no infidel, or evil person. But they who believe and do the things\nthat are right, and observe the prayers, and pay the legal impost, they shall\nhave their reward with their Lord: no fear shall come on them, neither shall\nthey be put to grief.\n\nO believers! fear God and abandon your remaining usury, if ye are indeed\nbelievers.\n\nBut if ye do it not, then hearken for war on the part of God and his apostle:\nyet if ye repent, ye shall have the principal of your money. Wrong not, and\nye shall not be wronged.\n\nIf any one find difficulty in discharging a debt, then let there be a delay\nuntil it be easy for him: but if ye remit it as alms it will be better for\nyou, if ye knew it.\n\nFear the day wherein ye shall return to God: then shall every soul be\nrewarded according to its desert, and none shall have injustice done to them.\n\nO ye who believe! when ye contract a debt (payable) at a fixed date, write it\ndown, and let the notary faithfully note between you: and let not the notary\nrefuse to note, even as God hath taught him; but let him note it down, and\nlet him who oweth the debt dictate, and let him fear God his Lord, and not\ndiminish aught thereof. But if he who oweth the debt be foolish or weak, or\nbe not able to dictate himself, let his friend dictate for him with fairness;\nand call to witness two witnesses of your people: but if there be not two\nmen, let there be a man, and two women of those whom ye shall judge fit for\nwitnesses: if the one of them should mistake, the other may cause her to\nrecollect. And the witnesses shall not refuse, whenever they shall be\nsummoned. And disdain not to put the debt in writing, be it large or small,\nwith its time of payment: this will be more just for you in the sight of God,\nbetter suited for witnessing, and the best for avoiding doubt. But if the\ngoods be there present, and ye pass them from hand to hand-then it shall be\nno fault in you not to write it down. And have witnesses when ye sell, and\nharm not writer or witness: it will be a crime in you to do this. But fear\nGod and God will give you knowledge, for God hath knowledge of all things.\n\nAnd if ye be on a journey and shall find no notary, let pledges be taken: but\nif one of you trust the other, let him who is trusted, restore what he is\ntrusted with, and fear God his Lord. And refuse not to give evidence. He who\nrefuseth is surely wicked at heart: and God knoweth your deeds.\n\nWhatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth is God's: and whether ye bring\nforth to light what is in your minds or conceal it, God will reckon with you\nfor it; and whom He pleaseth will He forgive, and whom He pleaseth will He\npunish; for God is All-powerful.\n\nThe apostle believeth in that which hath been sent down from his Lord, as do\nthe faithful also. Each one believeth in God, and His Angels, and His Books,\nand His Apostles: we make no distinction between any of His Apostles.110 And\nthey say, \"We have heard and we obey. Thy mercy, Lord! for unto thee must we\nreturn.\"\n\nGod will not burden any soul beyond its power. It shall enjoy the good which\nit hath acquired, and shall bear the evil for the acquirement of which it\nlaboured. O our Lord! punish us not if we forget, or fall into sin; O our\nLord! and lay not on us a load like that which thou hast laid on those who\nhave been before us; O our Lord! and lay not on us that for which we have not\nstrength: but blot out our sins and forgive us, and have pity on us. Thou art\nour protector: give us victory therefore over the infidel nations.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The greater part of this, the oldest of the Medina Suras, was revealed in\nthe early part of the second year of the Hejira and previously to the battle\nof Bedr.-The Hejira took place in the beginning of Muharram, or middle of\nApril, A.D. 622. The numbers who emigrated with Muhammad at first, were about\n150 persons. Medina is 250 miles north of Mecca, and ten days' journey.\n\n2 Said to mean A mara li Muhammad, i.e. at the command of Muhammad; but see\nSura 1xviii. p. 32.\n\n3 Death, Resurrection, Judgment, etc.\n\n4 The Jews.\n\n5 The Jews and Christians, hostile to the mission of Muhammad.\n\n6 Lit. the similitude of them is as the similitude of, etc.\n\n7 The people of Medina are generally addressed with \"O ye who believe;\" the\nMeccans, with \"O men.\" Hence it has been inferred that from verse 19 (O men)\nto 37 inclusively, is of the Meccan period. The subjects treated of also lead\nto this conclusion.\n\n8 The statues of false gods.\n\n9 It will be an agreeable surprise to the blessed to have fruits, which at\nfirst sight resemble those of earth, but are infinitely more delicious,.\n\n10 Muhammad had been reproached for having drawn illustrations from the Ant,\nBee, Spider, etc.\n\n11 Concerning faith in Muhammad. See verse 39 below, note.\n\n12 The number of the Heavens is borrowed from the Talmud, or traditions based\nupon it; but the idea probably has its root in the Scriptural expression,\n\"Heaven of Heavens.\"\n\n13 Lit. a caliph, vicegerent. \"When the Holy One, Blessed be He, would create\nman, He took counsel with the Angels and said to them, We will make man in\nour image.\" Midr. Rabbah on Numb. iv. par. 19. Comp. Midr. on Gen. 1, par. 8,\n17. Sanhedr. 38.\n\n14 \"God said to the Angels, 'His wisdom is greater than yours.' Then brought\nhe before them beasts, cattle, and birds, and asked for their names, but they\nknew them not. But when he had created man,\" etc. Midr. as above.\n\n15 Or, if ye are truthful, or can make good a better claim to the\nvicegerency.\n\n16 In the name Eblis (diabolos) and in the honour claimed for Adam as a kind\nof Godman, there are traces of a Christian original, as well as in the\nidentification of the serpent with Satan. Comp. Ps. civ. 4; Heb. i. 6. The\nTalmudists also enlarge on the honour paid to Adam. \"Adam sat in the garden\nand the Angels brought him flesh and cooling wine.\" Sanhedr. 29. \"In the hour\nwhen the Holy One, Blessed be He, created man, the Angels went astray in\nregard to him, and essayed to say before him, 'O Holy One!' then God\npermitted sleep to fall on him, and all knew that he was of earth.\" Midr.\nRabbah on Gen. par. 8. It is possible that the Arabic word balas, a\nprofligate, wicked person, may have influenced Muhammad in the formation of\nthe word Eblis. See note, p. 185. Eblis is used in the Arabic version of the\nNew Testament, for the probable date of which, see Tischendorf, Prol. p. 78.\n\n17 Observe the change from Eblis, the calumniator, to Satan, the hater.\n\n18 Muhammad rarely accused the Jews and Christians of corrupting, but often\nof misinterpreting, their Sacred Books, in order to evade his claims. His\ncharges, however, are always very vaguely worded, and his utterances upon\nthis subject are tantamount to a strong testimony in favour of the\nunimpeachable integrity of the sacred books, both of the Jews and Christians,\nso far as he knew them. See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 168, and v. 73 below.\n\n19 See Sura [lxv.] xxi. 49.\n\n20 Lit. slay one another.\n\n21 The Talmudists relate how the Israelites who had died, on hearing the\ndivine voice, etc., were restored by the intercession of the Law itself.\nSanh. 5.\n\n22 By storing them up in violation of God's command.\n\n23 Jericho according to some commentators, Jerusalem according to others, but\nsee verse 58.\n\n24 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 162.\n\n25 Lit. all men. This incident is perhaps inadvertently borrowed from Ex. xv.\n27.\n\n26 This passage (comp. xxvi. 59) is one of the numerous anachronisms which\nabound in the Koran and prove the gross ignorance of the Arabian Prophet.\n\n27 The Sabeites are identical with the Mendaites, or so-called Christians of\nS. John, residing in the marshy district at the mouth of the Euphrates, but\nare not the same with the star-worshipping Sabians of Harran in Mesopotamia.\nSee D'Herbelot, Bibl. Or. under the word Sabi; Assemani, Bibl. Or. iii. 2,\n609. For curious details as to the elements of the Sabeite religion, see\nChwolson's SSabier and SSabaismus I.\n\n28 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 170.\n\n29 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 164.\n\n30 Compare Numb. xix.; Deut. xxii. 1-9. The cow was to be sacrificed in order\nthat a murderer might be discovered through the miracle to be wrought on the\ncorpse by a piece of her flesh.\n\n31 To please you, O Muslims.\n\n32 This is one of the passages which shews great familiarity with the habits\nof the Jews, on the part of Muhammad. See Maracci's Prodr. i. 44. Wahl's\nEinleitung, xxx. xxxv.\n\n33 The Pentateuch. This passage shews that the art of writing was known in\nMedina shortly after the Hejira.\n\n34 Forty days; the period during which they worshipped the calf.\n\n35 The blood of those who are as your own flesh.\n\n36 Two Jewish tribes (Koreidha and Nadhir) in alliance with certain Arab\ntribes who were at war, destroyed one another's abodes, but redeemed the\nJewish captives, professing that they were commanded to do this by the Law.\nSo the commentators.\n\n37 Gabriel. Muhammad either knowingly rejected the divinity of the Holy\nGhost, or confounded Gabriel announcing the conception, with the Holy Spirit\nthat overshadowed Mary. It is probable that Muhammad's ideas of the Spirit\nwere at first indefinite, but that the two expressions, Gabriel and the Holy\nSpirit, became ultimately synonymous. See note on Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 87.\nGeiger (p. 82) quotes an instance in which the Jewish expositors understand\nthe distinctly-speaking Spirit (Sanhedr. 44) of Gabriel.\n\n38 The gift of the prophetic office, etc., to a pagan Arab and not to a Jew.\n\n39 Matt. xxiii. 37.\n\n40 See Sura vii. 170, p. 309.\n\n41 Comp. 1 Tim. v. 24.\n\n42 In Solomon's Books of Magic. This story has been supposed to be of Persian\norigin. See Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers. ch. xii. But from a passage in the Midr.\nAbhkhir quoted in the Midr. Jalkut, ch. 44, and from a quotation in Maracci's\nProdr. iv. 82, Geiger infers that Muhammad has transferred to the time of\nSolomon, the Rabbinic traditions concerning the influence of angels upon men\nat the time of the Deluge. p. 106. \"Babel is regarded by the Muslims as the\nfountain head of the science of magic. They suppose Haroot and Maroot to be\ntwo angels who, in consequence of their want of compassion for the frailties\nof mankind, were sent down to earth to be tempted. They both sinned; and\nbeing permitted to choose whether they would be punished now or hereafter,\nchose the former, and are still suspended by the feet at Babel in a rocky\npit, and are the great teachers of magic.\" (Lane on ch. iii. note 14 of the\n1001 Nights.)\n\n43 Raina, as pronounced in Hebrew, \"our bad one;\" but in Arabic, \"look upon\nus,\" a kind of salutation of the same signification as ondhorna, which,\nhowever, does not admit of any secondary bad sense like raina.\n\n44 Comp. Sura xvi. 103; iv. 84. The Muslims admit that there are 225 verses\ncancelled by later ones. The doctrine of \"abrogation\" is taught in the\nTalmud. Thus Hilchoth Mamrim, ii. 1, 2, etc.\n\n45 That is, does not weigh the evidence for Muhammad's mission already given,\nbut demands, as the Jews did, to see God himself.\n\n46 In all Muhammadan countries the first time of prayer is the moghreb or\nsunset, or rather, four minutes later; the second the eshe, when it has\nbecome quite dark; the third the soobh or fegr, the daybreak; the fourth,\ndoohr, or a little after noon, when the sun has begun to decline; the fifth,\nthe asr, midway between noon and nightfall. The obligatory legal alms or\nimpost are called, as here, zekah (lit. purity), the voluntary, sudackah. It\nis, however, left to the conscience of individuals to give and to apply them\nas they think fit.\n\n47 The idolatrous Arabs.\n\n48 If this verse is aimed at the Meccans who, in the 6th year of the Hejira,\nforbad Muhammad and his followers to enter the temple of Mecca in the\nexpedition of Hodeibiya, it is misplaced here.\n\n49 Abrogated by verse 139 below.\n\n50 The Caaba.\n\n51 Freytag (Einl. p. 339) says that there is no good reason for doubting that\nthe Caaba was founded as stated in this passage. See note on Sura [xcvii.]\niii. 90.\n\n52 Deut. xviii. 15.\n\n53 \"At the time when our father Jacob quitted this world, be summoned his\ntwelve sons and said to them, Hearken to your father Israel (Gen. xlix. 2).\nHave ye any doubts in your hearts concerning the Holy One, Blessed be He!\nThey said, Hear, O Israel, our Father. As there is no doubt in thy heart, so\nneither is there in ours. For the Lord is our God, and He is one.\" Midr.\nRabbah on Gen. par. 98, and on Deut. par. 2. Comp. also Targ. Jer. on Deut.\nvi. 4. Tract. Pesachim, 56.\n\n54 See Sura [lxxiii.] xvi. 121, n., p. 209.\n\n55 Ibn Batutah assures us (vol. ii. 10) that when in the 14th century he\nvisited Basra, he saw in the mosque the copy of the Koran which the Caliph\nOthman had in his hands when murdered, and that the marks of his blood were\nstill visible at the words of this verse. Othman's originals are also said to\nbe preserved in Egypt, Morocco, Damascus, Mecca, and Medina. See M.\nQuatremere in Journ. Asiatique, Juillet, 1838.\n\n56 The original simply has Baptism of God. This may be understood either of\nIslam generally, or, with Ullmann, in the more restricted sense of\ncircumcision. Perhaps Muhammad used the word advisedly as a hint to the\nChristians of his land, that in the reception of his religion consisted the\ntrue new birth.\n\n57 Or, intermediate, i.e., according to the commentators, not addicted to\nexcess, just. Ullm. ein vermittelndes Volk, zwischen Juden und Christen die\nMitte haltend.\n\n58 In having prayed towards Jerusalem.\n\n59 Of Mecca. This change of the Kebla from Jerusalem to Mecca shows that this\npart of the Sura was revealed at a time when the breach between Muhammad and\nthe Jews was past healing; i.c. in the first half of the second year of the\nHejira. See Thilo's. Cod. Apoc. p. 21, n.\n\n60 That is, the Jews are really convinced of the truth of Muhammad's mission.\n\n61 That is, warring with the infidels. The precise date of verses 148-152\ndepends upon whether this passage refers to the battle of Bedr or Ohod.\n\n62 These words are constantly used by the pious Muslims when in any trouble.\n\n63 Hills in the sacred territory of Mecca, which had long been objects of\nsuperstitious reverence to the idolatrous Arabs, on which account the Muslims\nwere at first unwilling to include them among the sacred places.\n\n64 The Pentateuch. See verse 141.\n\n65 This and the three following verses are probably Meccan, as also verses\n167-171.\n\n66 The ringleaders of infidelity and idolatrous faiths.\n\n67 Freyt. Lex. vol. ii. p. 477 Quid eos agere coegit quemadmodum damnati\nagunt? But Mar. Quanta erit sustinentia corum!\n\n68 To whom his brother, that is, any Arab or believer, shall remit the\npenalty of death.\n\n69 Of the stricter Mosaic lex talionis, as well of the ante-Islamitic Arabian\ncustom, by which the killing of a slave was avenged by the death of a free\nman, and the killing of a woman by taking the life of a man. See Freyt. Einl.\np. 193. Comp. Ex. xxi. 23.\n\n70 That is, by killing the manslayer.\n\n71 On the word Furquan, see Sura [1xv.] xxi. 49.\n\n72 A mutual comfort to each other.\n\n73 Thus Misch. Berachoth, 1, 2, \"Prayer is to be said as soon as one can\ndistinguish between a blue and white thread.\"\n\n74 Judging from the minuteness of the precepts laid down in this and the\nfollowing verses to 193, it would appear that they were added at a late\nperiod of Muhammad's residence at Medina.\n\n75 Such appears to have been the superstitious custom of the Arabs after\ntheir return from pilgrimages to Mecca.\n\n76 Their driving you out of Mecca; or, the temptation (to idolatry).\n\n77 Lit. the sacred month for the sacred month, and the sacred precincts or\nthings (for) reprisals. The meaning of this difficult passage is that in wars\nfor the cause of religion, the sacred month and the temple of Mecca may be\nmade the time and scene of contests, which then and there are usually\nprohibited. For the most accurate information as to the Pilgrimage, see\nFreytag, Einl. 418.\n\n78 This shows that Muhammad inculcated the doctrine of entire freedom of the\nwill.\n\n79 The greater Pilgrimage, which every Muslim is bound to perform once in his\nlife, is the Hadjat el Farz (the one obligatory Pilgrimage), or the Hadjat el\nIslam. The Umrah, or little pilgrimage, may be performed at any time except\nthe pilgrimage season, and its ceremonies are much fewer. They are described\nby Lieut. Burton in his \"Pilgrimage,\" vol. iii. ch. xxviii.\n\n80 Namely, Shaw\u00e2l, Dhu'lkaada, and Dhu'lhajja.\n\n81 By trading during the Hadj.\n\n82 The pilgrims move on very rapidly when in the immediate neighbourhood of\nthe Holy Places.\n\n83 From the valley of Mina.\n\n84 Said to have been one Al Akhnas Ibn Shoraik, a dissembler with Muhammad.\n\n85 Sohaib, when he joined the standard of Muhammad, left all his property in\nthe hands of the infidels.\n\n86 Verses 204-210 are probably addressed to those Muslims who were desirous\nto observe certain parts of the Jewish law.\n\n87 The Koran.\n\n88 That is, there was originally but one religion in the world.\n\n89 Comp. Sura [c.] iv. 42, and [cxiv.] v. 99, 100.\n\n90 Limits, fences. The word is Talmudic. Thus Pirke Aboth, i. \"The men of the\ngreat synagogue said . . . Make a fence for the law;\" and iii. 13, \"Tradition\nis a fence to the law.\"\n\n91 Comp. Sura [lxxxii.] xxxi. 13.\n\n92 Within the four months and ten days.\n\n93 Either the asr, midway between noon and nightfall (see verse 104 above) or\nthe prayer immediately after midday. See note on Sura [c.] iv. 46.\n\n94 This verse is certainly older than the commencement of Sura iv. which\nalters the law here laid down.\n\n95 Comp. Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10. These Jews are said by some commentators to have\nabandoned their dwellings through fear of a pestilence (comp. Talmud Sanhed.\n92); by others, for fear of being compelled to serve in the wars of God.\n\n96 This and the seven following verses shew that Muhammad, foreseeing an open\nrupture with the people of Medina at no distant period, felt it necessary to\nstimulate the zeal and courage of his partisans by examples from Jewish\nhistory.\n\n97 Ar. Shechinah. See Freytag Lex. in v. This word, as well as the Arabic\nword for ark (p. 95, n.) betray in their form a Rabbinic origin.\n\n98 The shoes and rod of Moses, the mitre of Aaron, the vase of manna, the\nfragments of the two tables of the law.\n\n99 Observe the confusion between Gideon and Saul.\n\n100 See verse 81.\n\n101 The drift of these words, which are of such frequent recurrence in the\nKoran, is, that the former revelations had been abused, and instead of\nleading them to Islam broke them up into sects and dissentient parties.\n\n102 This verse must have been revealed before Muhammad felt himself secure in\nhis new position at Medina.\n\n103 A name applied to an idol or idols especially Allat and Ozza, the ancient\nidols of the Meccans. The termination of the word Thagout is more Hebraic\nthan pure Arabic, and literally means error.\n\n104 Nimrod.\n\n105 Ozair or Esdras doubted whether Jerusalem could be rebuilt after its\ndestruction by Nebuchadnezzar, and the miracle here narrated, was wrought for\nhis assurance. The fable has its origin in the circuit made by Nehemiah\naround the ruined city. Neh. ii. 13.\n\n106 Lit. it was falling on its roofs.\n\n107 Comp. Gen. xv. 9.\n\n108 That is, Satan would dissuade you from liberal contributions by\ninstilling the fear of poverty.\n\n109 Comp. Matt. vi. 3, 4. 110 This contradicts verse 254, as well as several\nverses in Sura [1viii.] xix.\n\n\nSURA XCVIII.-CLEAR EVIDENCE [XCII.]\n\nMEDINA.-8 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTHE unbelievers among the people of the Book, and the Polytheists, did not\nwaver, until the CLEAR EVIDENCE had come to them;\n\nA messenger from God, reciting to them the pure pages wherein are true\nScriptures!\n\nNeither were they to whom the Scriptures were given divided into sects, till\nafter this clear evidence had reached them!\n\nYet was not aught enjoined on them but to worship God with sincere religion,\nsound in faith; and to observe prayer and pay the stated alms. For this is\ntrue religion.\n\nBut the unbelievers among the people of the Book, and among the Polytheists,\nshall go into the fire of Gehenna to abide therein for aye. Of all creatures\nare they the worst!\n\nBut they who believe and do the things that are right-these of all creatures\nare the best!\n\nTheir recompense with their Lord shall be gardens of Eden, 'neath which the\nrivers flow, in which they shall abide for evermore.\n\nGod is well pleased in them and they in Him! This, for him who feareth his\nLord.\n\n\nSURA LXIV.-MUTUAL DECEIT [XCIII.]\n\nMEDINA.1-18 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nALL that is in the Heavens, and all that is in the Earth, praiseth God: His\nthe Kingdom and His the Glory! And He hath power over all things!\n\nIt is He who hath created you all; yet some of you are infidel and others\nbelievers: but God beholdeth all your actions.\n\nHe hath created the Heavens and the Earth in Truth; and He hath fashioned you\nand given you goodly forms; and to Him must ye all return.\n\nHe knoweth all that passeth in the Heavens and in the Earth; and He knoweth\nwhat ye hide and what ye bring to light; and God knoweth the very secrets of\nmen's breasts.\n\nHath not the story reached you of those who disbelieved of yore, and\ntherefore tasted the evil consequences of their doings? And a sore punishment\ndoth await them.\n\nThis, for that when their apostles came to them with the clear tokens, they\nsaid, \"What! shall men be our guides?\" And they believed not and turned their\nbacks. But God can dispense with them; for God is the Rich, the Praiseworthy!\n\nThe infidels pretend that they shall not be raised from the dead. SAY: Yea,\nby my Lord, ye shall surely be raised; then shall ye surely be told of your\ndeeds! And easy is this for God.\n\nBelieve then in God and his apostle and in the light which we have sent down;\nfor God is fully aware of all ye do.\n\nThe day when He shall gather you together for the day of mutual gathering,\nwill be the day of MUTUAL DECEIT,2 and whoso shall have believed in God and\ndone what is right, for him will He cancel his deeds of evil; and He will\nbring him into the gardens beneath whose shades the rivers flow, to abide\ntherein for evermore. This will be the great bliss!\n\nBut the unbelieving-those who gave the lie to our signs-shall be the inmates\nof the fire, wherein they shall remain for ever. And a wretched passage\nthither!\n\nNo mischance chanceth but by God's permission; and whoso believeth in God,\nthat man's heart will he guide: and God knoweth all things.\n\nObey God then and obey the apostle: but if ye turn away, our apostle is not\nto blame, for he is only charged with plain preaching.\n\nGod! there is no God but He! On God, then, let the faithful trust.\n\nO ye who believe! Verily, in your wives and your children ye have an enemy:\nwherefore beware of them. But if ye pass it3 over and pardon, and are\nlenient, then God too is Lenient, Merciful.\n\nYour wealth and your children are only a source of trial! but God! with Him\nis the great recompense.\n\nFear God, then, with all your might, and hear and obey: and give alms for\nyour own weal; for such as are saved from their own greed, shall prosper.\n\nIf ye lend God a generous loan, He will double it to you and will forgive\nyou, for God is Grateful, Long-suffering.\n\nHe knoweth alike the Hidden and the Manifest: the Mighty, the Wise!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The first verse of this Sura, and the phrase obey God and the Apostle\n(verses 8, 12), which usually occurs only in Medina Suras, the phrases in\nverse 16 compared with Sura [cii.] lix. 9, as well as the subject matter,\nincline me to follow those Muslim commentators who are of opinion that the\nwhole Sura was revealed at Medina. Weil and Muir suppose it to be Meccan.\n\n2 That is, the day on which it will be found that if the just had been wicked\nthey would have taken the place of the reprobates, while the reprobates will\nsee that if they had been just persons they would have gone to Paradise.\n\n3 Their occasionally beguiling you from your duty, especially that of\ncontending for the faith. Comp. 1 Cor. vii. 32.\n\n\nSURA LXII.-THE ASSEMBLY [XCIV.]\n\nMEDINA.-II Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nALL that is in the Heavens, and all that is on the Earth, uttereth the Praise\nof God, the King! the Holy! the Mighty! the Wise!\n\nIt is He who hath sent to the pagan folk (Arabs) an Apostle from among\nthemselves, to rehearse His signs to them, and to purify them, and to impart\nto them a knowledge of \"the Book\" and wisdom; for aforetime were they in\nmanifest error.\n\nAnd others among them have not yet overtaken those who preceded them in the\nfaith. But He is the Mighty, the Wise!\n\nThis is the goodness of God: He bestoweth it on whom He will: God is of\nimmense goodness!\n\nThey on whom the burden of the law was laid, and would not bear it, are like\nan ass beneath a load of books. A sorry likeness this, for the people who\ngive the lie to the signs of God! God guideth not the people who do this\nwrong!\n\nSAY: O ye Jews, if ye profess that ye rather than other men are the friends\nof God, then wish for death if ye are men of truth.\n\nBut never on account of their previous handywork will they wish for it, and\nGod knoweth the wrong doers.\n\nSAY: Verily the death from which ye flee will surely meet you. Then shall ye\nbe brought back to Him who knoweth alike the things done in secret and\nopenly: and He will tell you of your actions.\n\nO ye who believe! When ye are summoned to prayer on the day of THE ASSEMBLY,1\nhaste to the commemoration of God, and quit your traffic. This, if ye knew\nit, will be best for you.\n\nAnd when the Prayer is ended, then disperse yourselves abroad and go in quest\nof the bounties of God; and, that it may be well with you, oft remember God.\n\nBut when they get a sight of merchandise or sport, they disperse after it,\nand leave thee standing alone.2 SAY: God hath in reserve what is better than\nsport or wares. And God is the best provider!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Friday; the day on which Muhammad made his first entry into Medina, and the\nday on which creation was finished.\n\n2 It is said that when Muhammad was preaching, Dahya Alkalbi, while yet a\nheathen, came, on a Friday, into Medina at the head of a caravan, and that\nall the congregation, attracted by the music of the tambours which preceded\nit, left the sermon for the spectacle. Muqu\u00e2til ap. Alfarr\u00e2. If this account\nbe accurate, we may approximate to the date of this Sura as in Hej. 5\n(towards the close). Dahya is known to have fought in the ranks of the\nMuslims at the battle of the Ditch. And as the former part is aimed at the\nJews, it is probably of the same period as Sura [xci.] ii.\n\n\nSURA VIII.-THE SPOILS1 [XCV.]\n\nMEDINA.-76 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nTHEY will question thee about THE SPOILS. SAY: The spoils are God's and the\napostle's. Therefore, fear God, and settle this among yourselves; and obey\nGod and his apostle, if you are believers.\n\nBelievers are they only whose hearts thrill with fear when God is named, and\nwhose faith increaseth at each recital of his signs, and who put their trust\nin their Lord;\n\nWho observe the prayers, and give alms out of that with which we have\nsupplied them;\n\nThese are the believers: their due grade awaiteth them in the presence of\ntheir Lord, and forgiveness, and a generous provision.\n\nRemember how thy Lord caused thee to go forth from thy home2 on a mission of\ntruth, and part of the believers were quite averse to it:\n\nThey disputed with thee about the truth3 which had been made so clear, as if\nthey were being led forth to death, and saw it before them:\n\nAnd remember when God promised you that one of the two troops4 should fall to\nyou, and ye desired that they who had no arms should fall to you: but God\npurposed to prove true the truth of his words, and to cut off the uttermost\npart ofthe infidels;\n\nThat he might prove his truth to be the truth, and bring to nought that which\nis nought,5 though the impious were averse to it:\n\nWhen ye sought succour of your Lord, and he answered you, \"I will verily aid\nyou with a thousand6 angels, rank on rank:\"\n\nAnd God made this promise as pure good tidings, and to assure your hearts by\nit: for succour cometh from God alone! Verily God is Mighty, Wise.\n\nRecollect when sleep, a sign of security from Him, fell upon you, and he sent\ndown upon you water from Heaven that he might thereby cleanse you, and cause\nthe pollution of Satan to pass from you, and that he might gird up your\nhearts, and stablish your feet by it:\n\nWhen thy Lord spake unto the angels, \"I will be with you: therefore stablish\nye the faithful. I will cast a dread into the hearts of the infidels.\" Strike\noff their heads then, and strike off from them every finger-tip.\n\nThis, because they have opposed God and his apostle: And whoso shall oppose\nGod and his apostle. . . .  Verily, God will be severe in punishment.\n\n\"This for you! Taste it then! and for the infidels is the torture of the\nfire!\"\n\nO ye who believe! when ye meet the marshalled hosts of the infidels, turn not\nyour backs to them:\n\nWhoso shall turn his back to them on that day, unless he turn aside to fight,\nor to rally to some other troop, shall incur wrath from God: Hell shall be\nhis abode and wretched the journey thither!\n\nSo it was not ye who slew them, but God slew them; and those shafts were\nGod's, not thine!7 He would make trial of the faithful by a gracious trial\nfrom Himself: Verily, God Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nThis befel, that God might also bring to nought the craft of the infidels.\n\nO Meccans! if ye desired a decision, now hath the decision come to you.8 It\nwill be better for you if ye give over the struggle. If ye return to it, we\nwill return; and your forces, though they be many, shall never avail you\naught, for God is with the faithful.\n\nO ye faithful! obey God and his apostle, and turn not away from Him, now that\nye hear the truth;\n\nAnd be not like those who say \"We hear,\" when they hear not;\n\nFor the vilest beasts in God's sight, are the deaf, the dumb, who understand\nnot.\n\nHad God known any good in them, he would certainly have made them hear. But\neven if He had made them hear, they would certainly have turned back and\nwithdrawn afar.\n\nO ye faithful! make answer to the appeal of God and his apostle when he\ncalleth you to that which giveth you life. Know that God cometh in between a\nman and his own heart, and that to him shall ye be gathered.\n\nAnd be afraid of temptation: the evil doers among you will not be the only\nones on whom it will light: And know ye that God is severe in punishment.\n\nAnd remember when ye were few, and reputed weak in the land:9 ye feared lest\nmen should pluck you away; then was it that He took you in and strengthened\nyou with his help, and supplied you with good things, that haply ye might\ngive thanks.\n\nO ye who believe! deal not falsely with God and his apostle; and be not false\nin your engagements, with your own knowledge:\n\nAnd know that your wealth and your children are a temptation; and that God!\nwith Him is a glorious recompense.\n\nO ye who believe! if ye fear God he will make good your deliverance, and will\nput away your sins from you, and will forgive you. God is of great\nbounteousness!\n\nAnd call to mind when the unbelievers plotted against thee, to detain thee\nprisoner, or to kill thee, or to banish thee: They plotted-but God plotted:\nand of plotters is God the best!\n\nAnd oft as our signs were rehearsed to them, they said, \"Now have we heard:\nif we pleased we could certainly utter its like! Yes, it is mere tales of the\nancients.\"\n\nAnd when they said, \"God! if this be the very truth from before thee, rain\ndown stones upon us from Heaven, or lay on us some grievous chastisement.\"\n\nBut God chose not to chastise them while thou wast with them, nor would God\nchastise them when they sued for pardon.\n\nBut because they debarred the faithful from the holy temple, albeit they are\nnot its guardians, nothing is there on their part why God should not chastise\nthem. The Godfearing only are its guardians; but most of them know it not.\n\nAnd their prayer at the house of God is no other than whistling through the\nfingers and clapping of the hands-\"Taste then the torment, for that ye have\nbeen unbelievers.\"\n\nThe infidels spend their riches10 with intent to turn men aside from the way\nof God: spend it they shall; then shall sighing be upon them, and then shall\nthey be overcome.\n\nAnd the infidels shall be gathered together into Hell,\n\nThat God may separate the bad from the good, and put the bad one upon the\nother, and heap them all up and put them into Hell! These are they who shall\nbe lost.\n\nSAY to the infidels: If they desist from their unbelief, what is now past\nshall be forgiven them; but if they return to it, they have already before\nthem11 the doom of the ancients!\n\nFight then against them till strife be at an end, and the religion be all of\nit God's. If they desist, verily God beholdeth what they do:\n\nBut if they turn their back, know ye that God is your protector: Excellent\nprotector! excellent helper!\n\nAnd know ye, that when ye have taken any booty, a fifth12 part belongeth to\nGod and to the Apostle, and to the near of kin, and to orphans, and to the\npoor, and to the wayfarer, if ye believe in God, and in that which we have\nsent down to our servant on the day of the victory,13 the day of the meeting\nof the Hosts. Over all things is God potent.\n\nWhen ye were encamped on the near side of the valley, and they were on the\nfurther side, and the caravan was below you, if ye had made an engagement to\nattack ye would have failed the engagement; but ye were led into action\nnotwithstanding, that God might accomplish the thing destined to be done:\n\nThat he who should perish might perish with a clear token14 before him, and\nthat he who liveth might live with it. And verily, God Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nRemember when God shewed them to thee in thy dream, as few: Had he shown them\nnumerous, ye would certainly have become fainthearted, and would certainly\nhave disputed about the matter-But from this God kept you-He knoweth the very\nsecrets of the breast-\n\nAnd when, on your meeting, he made them to appear to your eyes as few, and\ndiminished you in their eyes, that God might carry out the thing that was to\nbe done.15 To God do all things return.\n\nBelievers! when ye confront a troop, stand firm and make frequent mention of\nthe name of God, that it may fare well with you:\n\nAnd obey God and his Apostle; and dispute not, lest ye become fainthearted\nand your success go from you; but endure with steadfastness, for God is with\nthe steadfastly enduring.\n\nAnd be not like those Meccans who came out of their houses insolently and to\nbe seen of men, and who turn others from the way of God: God is round about\ntheir actions.\n\nWhen Satan prepared their works for them, and said, \"No man shall conquer you\nthis day; and verily I will be near to help you:\" But when the two armies\ncame in sight, he turned on his heel and said, \"Ay, I am clear of you: ay, I\nsee what ye see not:16 ay, I fear God; for God is severe in punishing.\"\n\nWhen the hypocrites and the diseased of heart said, \"Their Religion hath\nmisled the Muslims:17 But whoso putteth his trust in God. , , ,  Yes, verily\nGod is Mighty, Wise!\n\nIf thou didst see, when the angels cause the infidels to die! They smite\ntheir faces and their backs, and-\"Taste ye the torture of the burning:\n\nThis, for what your hands have sent on before you:\"-and God is not unjust to\nhis servants.\n\nTheir state is like that of the people of Pharaoh and of those before them\nwho believed not in the signs of God: therefore God seized upon them in their\nsin! God is Mighty, severe in punishing.\n\nThis, because God changeth not the favour with which he favoureth a people,\nso long as they change not what is in their hearts; and for that God Heareth,\nKnoweth.\n\nTheir state is like that of the people of Pharaoh, and of those before them\nwho treated their Lord's signs as lies. We therefore destroyed them in their\nsins, and we drowned the people of Pharaoh; for they were all doers of wrong.\n\nThe worst beasts truly in the sight of God are the thankless who will not\nbelieve;\n\nThey with whom thou hast leagued, and who are ever breaking their league, and\nwho fear not God!\n\nIf thou take them in war, then, by the example of their fate, scatter those\nwho shall follow them-that they may be warned:\n\nOr if thou fear treachery from any people, throw back their treaty to them as\nthou fairly mayest,18 for God loveth not the treacherous.\n\nAnd think not that the infidels shall escape Us! They shall not weaken God.\n\nMake ready then against them what force ye can, and strong squadrons whereby\nye may strike terror into the enemy of God and your enemy, and into others\nbeside them whom ye know not, but whom God knoweth. All that you shall expend\nfor the cause of God shall be repaid you; and ye shall not be wronged.\n\nAnd if they lean to peace, lean thou also to it; and put thy trust in God:\nfor He is the Hearing, the Knowing.\n\nBut if they seek to betray thee, God will be all-sufficient for thee. He it\nis who hath strengthened thee with His help, and with the faithful, and hath\nmade their hearts one. Hadst thou spent all the riches of the earth, thou\ncouldst not have united their hearts; but God hath united them, for He is\nMighty, Wise.\n\nO prophet! God, and such of the faithful as follow thee, will be all-\nsufficient for thee.\n\nO prophet! stir up the faithful to the fight. Twenty of you who stand firm\nshall vanquish two hundred: and if there be a hundred of you they shall\nvanquish a thousand of the infidels, for they are a people devoid of\nunderstanding.\n\nNow hath God made your work easy, for he knoweth how weak ye are. If there be\nan hundred of you who endure resolutely, they shall vanquish two hundred; and\nif there be a thousand of you, they shall vanquish two thousand19 by God's\npermission; for God is with those who are resolute to endure.\n\nNo prophet hath been enabled to take captives until he had made great\nslaughter in the earth. Ye desire the passing fruitions of this world, but\nGod desireth the next life for you. And God is Mighty, Wise.\n\nHad there not been a previous ordinance20 from God, a severe chastisement had\nbefallen you, for the ransom which ye took.\n\nEat therefore of the spoils ye have taken what is lawful and good; and fear\nGod: God is Gracious, Merciful.\n\nO prophet! say to the captives who are in your hands, \"If God shall know\ngood21 to be in your hearts, He will give you good beyond all that hath been\ntaken from you, and will forgive you: for God is Forgiving, Merciful.\"\n\nBut if they seek to deal treacherously with you-they have already dealt\ntreacherously22 with God before! Therefore hath He given you power over them.\nGod is Knowing, Wise.\n\nVerily, they who have believed and fled their homes and spent their substance\nfor the cause of God, and they who have taken in the prophet and been helpful\nto him, shall be near of kin the one to the other. And they who have\nbelieved, but have not fled their homes, shall have no rights of kindred with\nyou at all, until they too fly their country. Yet if they seek aid from you\non account of the faith, your part it is to give them aid, except against a\npeople between whom and yourselves there shall be a treaty. And God beholdeth\nyour actions.\n\nThe infidels lend one another mutual help. Unless ye do the same, there will\nbe discord in the land and great corruption.\n\nBut as for those who have believed and fled their country, and fought on the\npath of God, and given the prophet an asylum, and been helpful to him, these\nare the faithful; Mercy is their due and a noble provision.\n\nAnd they who have believed and fled their country since, and have fought at\nyour side, these also are of you. Those who are united by ties of blood23 are\nthe nearest of kin to each other. This is in the Book of God. Verily, God\nknoweth all things.\n\n_______________________\n\n1 On this Sura, which relates mainly to the battle of Bedr, see Weil's M. der\nProphet, p. 268.\n\n2 At Medina.\n\n3 The necessity for the combat and its probable result.\n\n4 Muhammad had conceived the design of attacking an unarmed caravan belonging\nto the Koreisch on its way from Syria to Mecca. Abu Sofian, who had charge of\nit, sent to Mecca for succour, whence a body of nearly 1000 armed men at once\nset out to his assistance. Some of the Muslims were anxious to attack the\ncaravan: others, notwithstanding the disparity of numbers, proposed to throw\nthemselves upon the succours.\n\n5 Idolatry.\n\n6 In Sura [xcvii.] iii. the angels are said to be 3000.\n\n7 Lit. thou didst not cast when thou didst cast, but God cast. This is\nexplained of the miracle of the gravelstones and sand cast by God into the\neyes of the Meccans at Bedr.\n\n8 That is, by our victory over you.\n\n9 Muhammad specially addresses the Mohadjers in this verse, i.e. those who\nhad fled with him to Medin.\n\n10 Twelve of the Koreisch had given camels and a large sum of money in aid of\nthe Meccan succours.\n\n11 Lit. hath preceded.\n\n12 Before Islam it had been the custom among the Arabians to assign a fourth\npart of the booty to the leader of an expedition. See Freyt. Einl. p. 266.\n\n13 That is, on the day of the battle of Bedr. See Sura xxi. 49, p. 154.\n\n14 The mission of Gabriel to Muhammad with the promise of victory.\n\n15 Compare the different account in Sura [xcvii.] iii. II. The commentators,\nhowever, get over the discropancy by explaining the apparent diminution of\nthe Muslims at the commencement only of the battle, which had the effect of\ndrawing on the enemy in self-confidence.\n\n16 The angels fighting for the Muslims.\n\n17 By inducing them to attack so greatly superior a force.\n\n18 Thus Beidh. Or, more simply, render them the like.\n\n19 Comp. Lev. xxvi. 8; Josh. xxiii. 10.\n\n20 Authorising the ransom of captives.\n\n21 That is, a disposition to become Muslims.\n\n22 That is, on account of their infidelity.\n\n23 See Weil. Life of M. p. 84, n.\n\n\nSURA1 XLVII.-MUHAMMAD [XCVI.]\n\nMEDINA.-40 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHOSO believe not, and prevent others from the way of God-their works will He\ncause to miscarry;2\n\nBut whoso believe, and do things that are right, and believe in what hath\nbeen sent down to MUHAMMAD-for it is the truth from their Lord-their sins\nwill He cancel, and dispose their hearts aright.\n\nThis-because the infidels followed vanity, while those who believe, followed\nthe truth from their Lord. Thus to men doth God set forth their likenesses.\n\nWhen ye encounter the infidels,3 strike off their heads till ye have made a\ngreat slaughter among them, and of the rest make fast the fetters.\n\nAnd afterwards let there either be free dismissals or ransomings, till the\nwar hath laid down its burdens. Thus do. Were such the pleasure of God, he\ncould himself take vengeance upon them: but He would rather prove the one of\nyou by the other. And whoso fight for the cause of God, their works he will\nnot suffer to miscarry;\n\nHe will vouchsafe them guidance, and dispose their hearts aright;\n\nAnd he will bring them into the Paradise, of which he hath told them.\n\nBelievers! if ye help God, God will help you, and will set your feet firm:\n\nBut as for the infidels, let them perish: and their works shall God bring to\nnought:\n\nThis-because they were averse from the command which God sent down;\nFruitless, therefore, shall their works become!\n\nHave they not journeyed through the land, and seen what hath been the end of\nthose who flourished before them? God brought destruction on them: and the\nlike of this doth await the infidels.\n\nThis-because God is the protector of those who believe, and because the\ninfidels have no protector.\n\nVerily God will bring those who believe, and do the things that are right,\ninto the Gardens, beneath whose shades the rivers flow: but they who believe\nnot, take their fill, and eat as the beasts eat! And their dwelling-place the\nfire!\n\nAnd how many cities were mightier in strength than thy city, which hath\nthrust thee forth!4 We destroyed them, and there was none to help them.\n\nShall he who followeth the clear teaching of his Lord be as he, the evil of\nwhose doings hath been made to seem good to him, or like those who follow\ntheir own lusts?\n\nA picture of the Paradise which is promised to the God-fearing! Therein are\nrivers of water, which corrupt not: rivers of milk, whose taste changeth not:\nand rivers of wine, delicious to those who quaff it;\n\nAnd rivers of honey clarified: and therein are all kinds of fruit for them\nfrom their Lord! Is this like the lot of those who must dwell for ever in the\nfire? and shall have draughts of boiling water forced on them which will rend\ntheir bowels asunder?\n\nSome of them indeed hearken to thee, until when they go out from thee, they\nsay with sneers to those to whom \"the knowledge\" hath been given, \"What is\nthis he said?\" These are they whose hearts God hath sealed up, and who follow\ntheir own lusts.\n\nBut as to those who have the guidance, He will increase their guidance, and\nHe will teach them what to fear.\n\nFor what do the infidels wait, but that the Hour come suddenly on them?\nAlready are its signs come,5 and when it hath come on them indeed, how can\nthey be warned then?\n\nKnow, then, that there is no god but God: and ask pardon for thy sin, and for\nbelievers, both men and women. God knoweth your busy movements, and your\nfinal resting-places.\n\nThe believers say, \"Oh, would that a Sura were sent down!\"6 but when a\nperemptory Sura is revealed, whose burden is war, thou mayest see the\ndiseased of heart look toward thee, with a look of one on whom the shadows of\ndeath have fallen! But better in them would be obedience and becoming\nlanguage.\n\nAnd if, when the command for war is issued, they are true to God, it will be\nassuredly best for them.\n\nWere ye not ready, if ye had turned back from Him, to spread disorder in the\nland, and violate the ties of blood?\n\nThese are they whom God hath cursed, and made deaf, and blinded their eyes!\n\nWill they not then meditate on the Koran? Are locks upon their hearts?\n\nBut as to those who return to their errors after \"the guidance\" hath been\nmade plain to them, Satan shall beguile them, and fill them with his\nsuggestions.\n\nThis-because they say to those who abhor what God hath sent down, \"We will\ncomply with you in part of what ye enjoin.\" But God knoweth their secret\nreservations.\n\nBut how? When the angels, in causing them to die, shall smite them on the\nface and back!\n\nThis because they follow that which angereth God, and abhor what pleaseth\nHim: therefore will He make their works fruitless.\n\nThink these men of diseased hearts, that God will not bring out their malice\nto light?\n\nIf such were our pleasure, we could point them out to thee, and thou surely\nknow them by their tokens: and know them thou shalt, by the strangeness of\ntheir words.7 God knoweth your doings.\n\nAnd we will surely test you, until we know the valiant and the steadfast\namong you: and we will test the reports of your conduct.\n\nVerily they who believe not, and turn others from the way of God, and\nseparate from the Apostle after that \"the guidance\" hath been clearly shewn\nthem, shall in no way injure God: but their works shall he bring to nought.\n\nBelievers! obey God and the Apostle: and render not your works vain.\n\nVerily those who believe not, and who pervert others from the way of God, and\nthen die in unbelief, God will not forgive.\n\nBe not fainthearted then; and invite not the infidels to peace when ye have\nthe upper hand: for God is with you, and will not defraud you of the\nrecompense of your works.\n\nSurely this present life is only a play, and pastime! but if ye believe, fear\nGod; He will give you your rewards: but He will not ask all your riches of\nyou.\n\nShould He ask them of you, and urge you, ye would shew yourself niggards: and\nHe would bring your grudges to light.\n\nLo! ye are they, who are called to expend for the cause of God: and some of\nyou are niggards: but whoso is niggardly shall be niggard only to his own\nloss; for God is the Rich, and ye are the poor: and if ye turn back, He will\nchange you for another people,8 and they shall not be your like!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura was revealed at a period after the victory at Bedr, when there\nwas still some hesitation on the part of Muhammad's followers to take decided\nsteps for securing their position. See 37.\n\n2 Lit. will He cause to wander, that is, from their proper aim and end, the\nrewards of Paradise. See verse 5 ad f.\n\n3 The Meccans and other unbelievers of Muhammad's time. The Hanefites suppose\nthis law to apply only to the battle of Bedr. The Shiites take it as of\nuniversal obligation.\n\n4 This verse is said (by Omar b. Muhammad, and Itq. 43) to be the expression\nof Muhammad's feelings at the injuries inflicted on Mecca. He is reported to\nhave wept over it.\n\n5 The first sign being the mission of Muhammad; the second, the splitting of\nthe moon; the third, the smoke mentioned in Sura xliv. p. 89.\n\n6 That is, commanding war against the infidels.\n\n7 Unintelligible or affected words, applied to the new religion in contempt.\nSee Sura [xci.] ii. 56, p. 343.\n\n8 Matt. xxi. 43.\n\n\nSURA III.-THE FAMILY OF IMRAN1 [XCVII.]\n\nMEDINA.-200 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nELIF. LAM. MIM.2 God! there is no god but He, the Living, the Merciful!\n\nIn truth hath He sent down to thee \"the Book,\" which confirmeth those which\nprecede it: For He had sent down the Law, and the Evangel aforetime, as man's\nGuidance; and now hath He sent down the \"Illumination.\"3 (Furkan.)\n\nVerily for those who believe not in the signs of God, is a severe\nchastisement! And God is Mighty, the Avenger!\n\nGod! nought that is in Earth or that is in Heaven, is hidden unto Him. He it\nis who formeth you in your mothers' wombs. There is no god but He; the\nMighty, the Wise!\n\nHe it is who hath sent down to thee \"the Book.\" Some of its signs are of\nthemselves perspicuous;-these are the basis4 of the Book-and others are\nfigurative. But they whose hearts are given to err, follow its figures,\ncraving discord, craving an interpretation; yet none knoweth its\ninterpretation but God. And the stable in knowledge say, \"We believe in it:\nit is all from our Lord.\" But none will bear this in mind, save men endued\nwith understanding.\n\nO our Lord! suffer not our hearts to go astray after that thou hast once\nguided us, and give us mercy from before thee; for verily thou art He who\ngiveth.\n\nO our Lord! For the day of whose coming there is not a doubt, thou wilt\nsurely gather mankind together. Verily, God will not fail the promise.\n\nAs for the infidels, their wealth, and their children, shall avail them\nnothing against God. They shall be fuel for the fire.\n\nAfter the wont of the people of Pharaoh, and of those who went before them,\nthey treated our signs as falsehoods. Therefore God laid hold of them in\ntheir sins; and God is severe in punishing!\n\nSay to the infidels: ye shall be worsted, and to Hell shall ye be gathered\ntogether; and wretched the couch!\n\nYe have already had a sign5 in the meeting of the two hosts. The one host\nfought in the cause of God, and the other was infidel. To their own eyesight,\nthe infidels saw you twice as many as themselves: And God aided with his\nsuccour whom He would: And in this truly was a lesson for men endued with\ndiscernment.\n\nFair-seeming to men is the love of pleasures from women and children, and the\ntreasured treasures of gold and silver, and horses of mark, and flocks, and\ncornfields! Such the enjoyment of this world's life. But God! goodly the home\nwith Him.\n\nSAY: Shall I tell you of better things than these, prepared for those who\nfear God, in His presence? Theirs shall be gardens, beneath whose pavilions\nthe rivers flow, and in which shall they abide for aye: and wives of\nstainless purity, and acceptance with God: for God regardeth his servants-\n\nWho say, \"O our Lord! we have indeed believed; pardon us our sins, and keep\nus from the torment of the fire;\"-\n\nThe patient, and the truthful, the lowly, and the charitable, and they who\nseek pardon at each daybreak.\n\nGod witnesseth that there is no god but He: and the angels, and men endued\nwith knowledge, stablished in righteousness, proclaim \"There is no god but\nHe, the Mighty, the Wise!\"\n\nThe true religion with God is Islam: and they to whom the Scriptures had been\ngiven, differed not till after \"the knowledge\"6 had come to them, and through\nmutual jealousy. But as for him who shall not believe in the signs of God-God\nwill be prompt to reckon with him!\n\nIf they shall dispute with thee, then SAY: I have surrendered myself to God,\nas have they who follow me.\n\nSAY to those who have received the Book, and to the common folk, Do ye\nsurrender yourselves unto God?7 If they become Muslims, then are they guided\naright: but if they turn away-thy duty is only preaching; and God's eye is on\nHis servants.\n\nBut to those who believe not in the signs of God, and unjustly slay the\nprophets, and slay those men who enjoin uprightness,-announce an afflictive\nchastisement.\n\nThese are they whose works come to nought in this world, and in the next; and\nnone shall they have to help them!\n\nHast thou not marked those who have received a portion of the Scriptures,\nwhen they are summoned to the Book of God, that it may settle their\ndifferences? Then did a part of them turn back, and withdrew far off.\n\nThis-because they said, \"The fire shall by no means touch us, but for certain\ndays:\"-Their own devices have deceived them in their religion.\n\nBut how, when we shall assemble them together for the day of (which) whose\ncoming there is no doubt, and when every soul shall be paid what it hath\nearned, and they shall not be wronged?\n\nSAY: O God, possessor of all power,8 thou givest power to whom thou wilt, and\nfrom whom thou wilt, thou takest it away! Thou raisest up whom thou wilt, and\nwhom thou wilt thou dost abase! In thy hand is good; for thou art over all\nthings potent.\n\nThou causest the night to pass into the day, and thou causest the day to pass\ninto the night. Thou bringest the living out of the dead, and thou bringest\nthe dead out of the living; and thou givest sustenance to whom thou wilt,\nwithout measure.\n\nLet not believers take infidels for their friends rather than believers:\nwhoso shall do this hath nothing to hope from God-unless, indeed, ye fear a\nfear from them: But God would have you beware of Himself; for to God ye\nreturn. SAY: Whether ye hide what is in your breasts, or whether ye publish\nit abroad, God knoweth it: He knoweth what is in the heavens and what is in\nthe earth; and over all things is God potent.\n\nOn that day shall every soul find present to it, whatever it hath wrought of\ngood: and as to what it hath wrought of evil, it will wish that wide were the\nspace between itself and it! But God would have you beware of Himself; for\nGod is kind to His servants.\n\nSAY: If ye love God, then follow me: God will love you, and forgive your\nsins, for God is Forgiving, Merciful. SAY: Obey God and the Apostle; but if\nye turn away, then verily, God loveth not the unbelievers.\n\nVerily above all human beings did God choose Adam, and Noah, and the family\nof Abraham, and the family of IMRAN, the one the posterity of the other: And\nGod Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nRemember when the wife of Imran9 said, \"O my Lord! I vow to thee what is in\nmy womb, for thy special service. Accept it from me, for thou Hearest,\nKnowest!\" And when she had given birth to it, she said, \"O my Lord! Verily I\nhave brought forth a female,\"-God knew what she had brought forth; a male is\nnot as a female10-\"and I have named her Mary, and I take refuge with thee for\nher and for her offspring, from Satan the stoned.\"11\n\nSo with goodly acceptance did her Lord accept her, and with goodly growth did\nhe make her grow.12 Zacharias reared her. So oft as Zacharias went in to Mary\nat the sanctuary, he found her supplied with food.13 \"Oh, Mary!\" said he,\n\"whence hast thou this?\" She said, \"It is from God; for God supplieth whom He\nwill, without reckoning!\"\n\nThere did Zacharias call upon his Lord: \"O my Lord!\" said he, \"vouchsafe me\nfrom thyself good descendants,14 for thou art the hearer of prayer.\" Then did\nthe angels call to him, as he stood praying in the sanctuary:15\n\n\"God announceth John (Yahia) to thee, who shall be a verifier of the word\nfrom God, and a great one, chaste, and a prophet of the number of the just.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord! how shall I have a son, now that old age hath come upon\nme, and my wife is barren?\" He said, \"Thus will God do His pleasure.\"\n\nHe said, \"Lord! give me a token.\" He said, \"Thy token shall be, that for\nthree days thou shalt speak to no man but by signs: But remember thy Lord\noften, and praise him at even and at morn:\"\n\nAnd remember when the angels said, \"O Mary! verily hath God chosen thee,16\nand purified thee, and chosen thee above the women of the worlds!\n\nO Mary! be devout towards thy Lord,17 and prostrate thyself, and bow down\nwith those who bow.\"\n\nThis is one of the announcements of things unseen by thee: To thee, O\nMuhammad! do we reveal it; for thou wast not with them when they cast lots\nwith reeds18 which of them should rear Mary; nor wast thou with them when\nthey disputed about it.\n\nRemember when the angel said, \"O Mary! Verily God announceth to thee the Word\nfrom Him: His name shall be, Messiah Jesus the son of Mary,19 illustrious in\nthis world, and in the next, and one of those who have near access to God;\n\nAnd He shall speak to men alike when in the cradle and when grown up; And he\nshall be one of the just.\"\n\nShe said, \"How, O my Lord! shall I have a son, when man hath not touched me?\"\nHe said, \"Thus: God will create what He will; When He decreeth a thing, He\nonly saith, 'Be,' and it is.\"\n\nAnd he will teach him the Book, and the Wisdom, and the Law, and the Evangel;\nand he shall be an apostle to the children of Israel. \"Now have I come,\" he\nwill say, \"to you with a sign from your Lord: Out of clay will I make for\nyou, as it were, the figure of a bird: and I will breathe into it, and it\nshall become, by God's leave, a bird.20 And I will heal the blind, and the\nleper; and by God's leave will I quicken the dead; and I will tell you what\nye eat, and what ye store up in your houses! Truly in this will be a sign for\nyou, if ye are believers.\n\nAnd I have come to attest the law which was before me; and to allow you part\nof that which had been forbidden you; and I come to you with a sign from your\nLord: Fear God, then, and obey me; of a truth God is my Lord, and your Lord:\nTherefore worship Him. This is a right way.\"\n\nAnd when Jesus perceived unbelief on their part, He said, \"Who my helpers\nwith God?\"20-21 The apostles21 said, \"We will be God's helpers! We believe in\nGod, and bear thou witness that we are Muslims.\n\nO our Lord! we believe in what thou hast sent down, and we follow the\napostle; write us up, then, with those who bear witness to him.\"\n\nAnd the Jews plotted, and God plotted: But of those who plot is God the best.\n\nRemember when God said, \"O Jesus! verily I will cause thee to die,22 and will\ntake thee up to myself and deliver thee from those who believe not; and I\nwill place those who follow thee above those who believe not, until the day\nof resurrection. Then, to me is your return, and wherein ye differ will I\ndecide between you.\n\nAnd as to those who believe not, I will chastise them with a terrible\nchastisement in this world and in the next; and none shall they have to help\nthem.\"\n\nBut as to those who believe, and do the things that are right, He will pay\nthem their recompense. God loveth not the doers of evil.\n\nThese signs, and this wise warning do we rehearse to thee.\n\nVerily, Jesus is as Adam in the sight of God.23 He created him of dust: He\nthen said to him, \"Be\"-and he was.\n\nThe truth from thy Lord! Be not thou, therefore, of those who doubt.\n\nAs for those 24 who dispute with thee about Him, after \"theknowledge\" hath\ncome to thee, SAY: Come,25 let us summon our sons and your sons, our wives\nand your wives, and ourselves and yourselves. Then will we invoke and lay the\nmalison of God on those that lie!\n\nThis recital is very truth, and there is no god but God; and verily God is\nthe Mighty, the Wise.\n\nBut if they turn away, then verily God hath knowledge of the corrupt doers.\n\nSAY: O people of the Book! come ye to a just judgment between us and you-That\nwe worship not aught but God, and that we join no other god with Him, and\nthat the one of us take not the other for lords,26 beside God. Then if they\nturn their backs, SAY: Bear ye witness that we are Muslims.\n\nO people of the Book! Why dispute about Abraham,27 when the Law and the\nEvangel were not sent down till after him? Do ye not then understand?\n\nLo! ye are they who dispute about that in which ye have knowledge; 28 but why\ndispute ye about that of which ye have no knowledge? God hath knowledge, but\nye know nothing.\n\nAbraham was neither Jew nor Christian; but he was sound in the faith,29 a\nMuslim; and not of those who add gods to God.\n\nThey among men, who are nearest of kin to Abraham, are surely those who\nfollow him, and this prophet Muhammad, and they who believe on him. And God\nis the protector of the faithful.\n\nA party among the people of the Book would fain mislead you: but they only\nmislead themselves, and perceive it not.\n\nO people of the Book! why disbelieve the signs of God, of which yourselves\nhave been witnesses?\n\nO people of the Book! why clothe ye the truth with falsehood? Why wittingly\nhide the truth?\n\nOthers of the people of the Book say: \"Believe in what hath been sent down to\nthe believers, at daybreak, and deny it at its close\"-Thus do they go back-\n\n\"And believe in those only who follow your Religion.\" SAY: True guidance is\nguidance from God-that to others may be imparted the like of what hath been\nimparted to you. Will they wrangle then with you in the presence of their\nLord? SAY: Plenteous gifts are in the hands of God: He imparteth them unto\nwhom He will, and God is Bounteous, Wise.\n\nHe will vouchsafe His mercy to whom He will, for God is of great\nbounteousness.\n\nAmong the people of the Book are some, to one of whom if thou entrust a\nthousand dinars, he will restore them to thee: And there is of them to whom\nif thou entrust a dinar, he will not restore it to thee, unless thou be ever\ninstant with him.\n\nThis-because they say, \"We are not bound to keep faith with the ignorant\n(Pagan) folk, and they utter a lie against God, and know they do so:\"\n\nBut whoso is true to his engagement, and feareth God,-verily God loveth those\nthat fear Him.\n\nVerily they who barter their engagement with God, and their oaths, for some\npaltry price-These! no portion for them in the world to come! and God will\nnot speak to them, and will not look on them, on the day of resurrection, and\nwill not assoil them! for them, a grievous chastisement!\n\nAnd some truly are there among them who torture the Scriptures with their\ntongues, in order that ye may suppose it to be from the Scripture, yet it is\nnot from the Scripture. And they say, \"This is from God;\" yet it is not from\nGod: and they utter a lie against God, and they know they do so.\n\nIt beseemeth not a man, that God should give him the Scriptures and the\nWisdom, and the gift of prophecy, and that then he should say to his\nfollowers, \"Be ye worshippers of me, as well as of God;\" 30 but rather, \"Be\nye perfect in things pertaining to God, since ye know the Scriptures, and\nhave studied deep.\"\n\nGod doth not command you to take the angels or the prophets as lords.31 What!\nwould he command you to become infidels after ye have been Muslims?\n\nWhen God entered into covenant with the prophets,32 he said, \"This is the\nBook and the Wisdom which I give you. Hereafter shall a prophet came unto you\nto confirm the Scriptures already with you. Ye shall surely believe on him,\nand ye shall surely aid him. Are ye resolved?\" said he, \"and do ye accept the\ncovenant on these terms?\" They said, \"We are resolved;\" \"Be ye then the\nwitnesses,\" said he, \"and I will be a witness as well as you.\n\nAnd whoever turneth back after this, these are surely the perverse.\"\n\nOther religion than that of God desire they? To him doth everything that is\nin the Heavens and in the Earth submit, in willing or forced obedience! and\nto Him do they return.\n\nSAY: We believe in God, and in what hath been sent down to us, and what hath\nbeen sent down to Abraham, and Ismael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes,\nand in what was given to Moses, and Jesus, and the Prophets, from their Lord.\nWe make no difference between them. And to Him are we resigned (Muslims).\n\nWhoso desireth any other religion than Islam, that religion shall never be\naccepted from him, and in the next world he shall be among the lost.\n\nHow shall God guide a people who, after they had believed and bore witness\nthat the apostle was true, and after that clear proofs of his mission had\nreached them, disbelieved? God guideth not the people who transgress.\n\nThese! their recompense, that the curse of God, and of angels, and of all\nmen, is on them!\n\nUnder it shall they abide for ever; their torment shall not be assuaged! nor\nshall God even look upon them!-\n\nSave those who after this repent and amend; for verily God is Gracious,\nMerciful!\n\nAs for those who become infidels, after having believed, and then increase\ntheir infidelity-their repentance shall never be accepted. These! they are\nthe erring ones.\n\nAs for those who are infidels, and die infidels, from no one of them shall as\nmuch gold as the earth could contain be accepted, though he should offer it\nin ransom. These! a grievous punishment awaiteth them; and they shall have\nnone to help them.\n\nYe shall never attain to goodness till ye give alms of that which ye love;\nand whatever ye give, of a truth God knoweth it.\n\nAll food was allowed to the children of Israel, except what Jacob forbad\nhimself, ere the law was sent down; SAY: Bring ye then the law and read it,\nif ye be men of truth.\n\nAnd whoso after this inventeth the lie about God: These are evil doers.\n\nSAY: God speaketh truth. Follow, therefore, the religion of Abraham, the\nsound in faith, who was not one of those who joined other gods to God.\n\nThe first temple that was founded for mankind, was that in Becca,33-Blessed,\nand a guidance to human beings.\n\nIn it are evident signs, even the standing-place34 of Abraham: and he who\nentereth it is safe. And the pilgrimage to the temple, is a service due to\nGod from those who are able to journey thither.\n\nAnd as to him who believeth not-verily God can afford to dispense with all\ncreatures!\n\nSAY: O people of the Book! why disbelieve ye the signs of God? But God is\nwitness of your doings.\n\nSAY: O people of the Book! why repel believers from the way of God? Ye fain\nwould make it crooked, and yet ye are its witnesses! But God is not\nregardless of what ye do.\n\nO believers! if ye obey some amongst those who have received the Scripture,\nafter your very Faith will they make you infidels!\n\nBut how can ye become infidels, when the signs of God are recited to you, and\nhis prophet is among you? Whoever holdeth fast by God, is already guided to a\nstraight path.\n\nO ye believers! fear God as He deserveth to be feared! and die not till ye\nhave become Muslims.\n\nAnd hold ye fast by the cord 35 of God, all of you, and break not loose from\nit; and remember God's goodness towards you, how that when ye were enemies,\nHe united your hearts, and by his favour ye became brethren;\n\nAnd when ye were on the brink of the pit of fire, he drew you back from it.\nThus God clearly sheweth you his signs that ye may be guided;\n\nAnd that there may be among you a people who invite to the Good, and enjoin\nthe Just, and forbid the Wrong. These are they with whom it shall be well.\n\nAnd be ye not like those who have formed divisions, and fallen to variance\nafter the clear proofs have come to them. These! a terrible chastisement doth\nawait them,\n\nOn THE DAY when faces shall turn white, and faces shall turn black! And as to\nthose whose faces shall have turned black \". . . .What! after your belief\nhave ye become infidels? Taste then the chastisement, for that ye have been\nunbelievers.\"\n\nAnd as to those whose faces shall have become white, they shall be within the\nmercy of God: therein shall they abide for ever.\n\nThese are the signs of God: we recite them to thee in truth: And God willeth\nnot injustice to mankind.\n\nWhatever is in the Heavens, and whatever is on the Earth, is God's. And to\nGod shall all things return.\n\nYe are the best folk that hath been raised up unto mankind. Ye enjoin the\nJust, and ye forbid the Evil, and ye believe in God: And if the people of the\nBook had believed, it had surely been better for them! Believers there are\namong them, but most of them are perverse.\n\nThey will never inflict on you but a trifling damage; and if they do battle\nwith you, they shall turn their backs to you: then they shall not be\nsuccoured.\n\nShame shall be stamped upon them36 wherever found, unless they ally them with\nGod and men! And the wrath of God will they incur, and poverty shall be\nstamped upon them! This-for that they believed not in the signs of God, and\nslew the prophets unjustly: This-because they rebelled, and became\ntransgressors.\n\nYet all are not alike: Among the people of the Book is an upright folk, who\nrecite the signs of God in the night-season, and adore:\n\nThey believe in God and in the latter day, and enjoin justice, and forbid\nevil, and speed on in good works. These are of the righteous.\n\nAnd of whatever good ye do, ye shall not be denied the meed. God knoweth\nthose who fear Him.\n\nBut as for the infidels, their wealth, and their children shall avail them\nnothing against God. They shall be the inmates of the fire, to abide therein\neternally.\n\nThe alms which they bestow in this present life, are like a freezing wind,\nwhich falleth upon and destroyeth the cornfields of a people who have been to\nthemselves unjust. God doeth them no injustice, but to themselves are they\nunjust.\n\nO ye who have believed! form not intimacies among others than yourselves.\nThey will not fail to corrupt you. They long for your ruin. Hatred hath\nalready shewn itself out of their mouths, but more grievous is what their\nbreasts conceal. The tokens thereof we have already made plain to you, if ye\nwill comprehend.\n\nSee now! ye love them, but they love not you. Ye believe the entire Book. And\nwhen they meet you, they say, \"We believe;\" but when they are apart, they\nbite their fingers' ends at you, out of wrath. SAY: \"Die in your wrath!\" God\ntruly knoweth the very recesses of your breasts.\n\nIf good befalleth you it grieveth them, and when ill lighteth on you, they\nrejoice in it. But if ye be steadfast and fear God, their craft shall in no\nway harm you. For God is round about their doings.\n\nAnd remember when thou didst leave thy household at early morn, that thou\nmightest prepare the faithful a camp for the war;37-God heard, knew it-\n\nWhen two troops of you became full of anxious thoughts, and lost heart, and\nwhen God became the protector of both! In God, then, let the faithful trust.\n\nGod had already succoured you at Bedr, when ye were the weaker! Fear God,\nthen, that ye may be thankful.\n\nThen thou didst say to the faithful, \"Is it not enough for you that your Lord\naideth you with three thousand angels sent down from on high?\"\n\nAye: but ye if be steadfast and fear God, and the foe come upon you in hot\nhaste, your Lord will help you with five thousand angels in their\ncognisances!38\n\nThis, as pure good tidings for you, did God appoint, that your hearts might\nbe assured-for only from God, the Mighty, the Wise, cometh the Victory-and\nthat He might cut off the uttermost part of those who believed not, or cast\nthem down so that they should be overthrown, defeated without resource.\n\nIt is none of thy concern whether He be turned unto them in kindness or\nchastise them: for verily they are wrongful doers.\n\nWhatever is in the Heavens and the Earth is God's! He forgiveth whom He will,\nand whom He will, chastiseth: for God is Forgiving, Merciful.\n\nO ye who believe! devour not usury, doubling it again and again! But fear\nGod, that ye may prosper.\n\nAnd fear the fire which is prepared for them that believe not; and obey God\nand the apostle, that ye may find mercy:\n\nAnd vie in haste for pardon from your Lord, and a Paradise, vast as the\nHeavens and the Earth, prepared for the God-fearing.\n\nWho give alms, alike in prosperity and in success, and who master their\nanger, and forgive others! God loveth the doers of good.\n\nThey who, after they have done a base deed or committed a wrong against their\nown selves, remember God and implore forgiveness of their sins-and who will\nforgive sins but God only?-and persevere not in what they have wittingly done\namiss.\n\nAs for these! Pardon from their Lord shall be their recompense, and gardens\n'neath which the rivers flow; for ever shall they abide therein: And goodly\nthe reward of those who labour!\n\nAlready, before your time, have examples been made! Traverse the earth, then,\nand see what hath been the end of those who treat prophets as liars.\n\nThis Koran is a manifest to man, and a guidance, and a warning to the God-\nfearing!\n\nAnd be not fainthearted, and be not sorrowful: For ye shall gain the upper\nhand if ye be believers.39\n\nIf a wound hath befallen you, a wound like it hath already befallen others:\nwe alternate these days of successes and reverses among men, that God may\nknow those who have believed, and that He may take martyrs from among you,-\nbut God loveth not the wrongful doers-\n\nAnd that God may test those who believe, and destroy the infidels.\n\nThought ye that ye should enter Paradise ere God had taken knowledge of those\namong you who did valiantly, and of those who steadfastly endure?\n\nYe had desired death ere ye met it. But ye have now seen it-and ye have\nbeheld it-and fled from it!\n\nMuhammad is no more than an apostle; other apostles have already passed away\nbefore him: if he die, therefore,40 or be slain, will ye turn upon your\nheels?41 But he who turneth on his heels shall not injure God at all: And God\nwill certainly reward the thankful!\n\nNo one can die except by God's permission, according to the Book that fixeth\nthe term of life.42 He who desireth the recompense of this world, we will\ngive him thereof; And he who desireth the recompense of the next life, we\nwill give him thereof! And we will certainly reward the thankful.\n\nHow many a prophet hath combated those who had with them many myriads! Yet\nwere they not daunted at what befel them on the path of God, nor were they\nweakened, nor did they basely submit! God loveth those who endure with\nsteadfastness,\n\nNor said they more than this:43 \"O our Lord! forgive us our sins and our\nmistakes in this our work; and set our feet firm; and help us against the\nunbelieving people.\" And God gave them the recompense of this world, and the\nexcellence of the recompense of the next. For God loveth the doers of what is\nexcellent.\n\nO ye who have believed! if ye obey the infidels, they will cause you to turn\nupon your heels,44 and ye will fall back into perdition:\n\nBut God is your liege lord, and He is the best of helpers.\n\nWe will cast a dread into hearts of the infidels because they have joined\ngods with God without warranty sent down; their abode shall be the fire; and\nwretched shall be the mansion of the evil doers.\n\nAlready had God made good to you His promise, when by His permission ye\ndestroyed your foes, until your courage failed you, and ye disputed about the\norder,45 and disobeyed, after that the Prophet had brought you within view of\nthat for which ye longed.46\n\nSome of you were for this world, and some for the next.47 Then, in order to\nmake trial of you, He turned you to flight from them,-yet hath He now\nforgiven you; for all-bounteous is God to the faithful-\n\nWhen ye came up the height48 and took no heed of any one, while the Prophet\nin your rear was calling you to the fight! God hath rewarded you with trouble\nupon trouble, that ye might learn not to be chagrined at your loss of booty,\nor at what befel you! God is acquainted with your actions.\n\nThen after the trouble God sent down security upon you. Slumber fell upon a\npart of you: as to the other part-their own passions stirred them up to think\nunjustly of God with thoughts of ignorance! They said-What gain we by this\naffair? SAY: Verily the affair resteth wholly with God. They hid in their\nminds what they did not speak out to thee, saying, \"Were we to have gained\naught in this affair, none of us had been slain at this place.\" SAY: Had ye\nremained in your homes, they who were decreed to be slain would have gone\nforth to the places where they lie:-in order that God might make trial of\nwhat was in your breasts, and might discover what was in your hearts, for God\nknoweth the very secrets of the breast.\n\nOf a truth it was Satan alone who caused those of you to fail in duty who\nturned back on the day when the hosts met, for some of their doings! But now\nhath God pardoned them; For God is Forgiving, Gracious.\n\nO ye who believe! be not like the infidels, who said of their brethren when\nthey had travelled by land or had gone forth to war, \"Had they kept with us,\nthey had not died, and had not been slain!\" God purposed that this affair\nshould cause them heart sorrow! God maketh alive and killeth; and God\nbeholdeth your actions.\n\nAnd if ye shall be slain or die on the path of God, then pardon from God and\nmercy is better than all your amassings;\n\nFor if ye die or be slain, verily unto God shall ye be gathered.\n\nOf the mercy of God thou hast spoken to them in gentle terms. Hadst thou been\nsevere and harsh-hearted, they would have broken away from thee. Therefore,\nforgive and ask for pardon for them, and consult them in the affair of war,\nand when thou art resolved, then put thou thy trust in God, for God loveth\nthose who trust in Him.\n\nIf God help you, none shall overcome you; but if He abandon you, who is he\nthat shall help you when He is gone? In God, then, let the faithful trust.\n\nIt is not the Prophet who will defraud you;49-But he who shall defraud, shall\ncome forth with his defraudings on the day of the resurrection: then shall\nevery soul be paid what it hath merited, and they shall not be treated with\ninjustice.\n\nShall he who hath followed the good pleasure of God be as he who hath brought\non himself wrath from God, and whose abode shall be Hell? and wretched the\njourney thither!\n\nThere are varying grades with God: and God beholdeth what ye do.\n\nNow hath God been gracious to the faithful, when he raised up among them an\napostle out of their own people, to rehearse unto them his signs, and to\ncleanse them, and to give them knowledge of the Book and of Wisdom: for\nbefore they were in manifest error.\n\nWhen a reverse hath befallen you,50 the like of which ye had before\ninflicted, say ye, \"Whence is this?\" SAY: It is from yourselves. For God hath\npower over all things.\n\nAnd that which befel you on the day when the armies met, was certainly by the\nwill of God, and that he might know the faithful, and that he might know the\nhypocrites! And when the word was \"Advance, fight on the path of God, or\ndrive back the foe,\"-they said, \"Had we known how to fight, we would have\nfollowed you.\" Nearer were some of them on that day to unbelief, than to\nfaith:\n\nThey said with their lips what was not in their hearts! But God knew what\nthey concealed,\n\nWho said of their brethren while themselves sat at home,\n\n\"Had they obeyed us, they had not been slain.\" SAY: Keep back death from\nyourselves if ye speak truth.\n\nAnd repute not those slain on God's path to be dead.51 Nay, alive with their\nLord, are they richly sustained;\n\nRejoicing in what God of his bounty hath vouchsafed them, filled with joy for\nthose who follow after them, but have not yet overtaken them, that on them\nnor fear shall come, nor grief;\n\nFilled with joy at the favours of God, and at his bounty: and that God\nsuffereth not the reward of the faithful to perish.\n\nAs to those who after the reverse52 which befel them, respond to God and the\nApostle-such of them as do good works and fear God, shall have a great\nreward:\n\nWho, when men said to them, \"Now are the Meccans mustering against you;\ntherefore fear them!\" it only increased their faith, and they said, \"Our\nsufficiency is God, and He is an excellent protector.\"\n\nThey returned, therefore, with the favour of God, enriched by Him, and\nuntouched by harm; and they followed what was well pleasing to God. And God\nis of great Munificence.\n\nOnly would that Satan53 instil the fear of his adherents: Fear them not, but\nfear me if ye are believers.\n\nLet not those who vie in haste after infidelity grieve thee: Verily not one\nwhit shall they injure God! God will refuse them all part in the life to\ncome: a severe chastisement shall be their lot.\n\nThey truly who purchase infidelity at the price of their faith, shall not\ninjure God one whit! and a grievous chastisement shall be their lot.\n\nLet not the infidels deem that the length of days we give them is good for\nthem! We only give them length of days that they may increase their sins! and\na shameful chastisement shall be their lot.\n\nIt is not in God to leave the faithful in the State in which they are, until\nhe sever the bad from the good:\n\nNor is God minded to lay open the secret things to you, but God chooseth whom\nhe will of his apostles to know them.54 Believe, therefore, in God and his\napostles: and if ye believe and fear God, a great reward awaiteth you.\n\nAnd let not those who are niggard of what God hath vouchsafed them in his\nbounty, think that this will be good for them-Nay, it will be bad for them-\n\nThat of which they have been niggard shall be their collar on the day of the\nresurrection. God's, the heritage of the Heavens and of the Earth! And God is\nwell-informed of all ye do.\n\nNow hath God heard the saying of those who said: \"Aye, God is poor and we are\nrich.\"55 We will surely write down their sayings, and their unjust slaughter\nof the prophets; and and we will say, \"Taste ye the torment of the burning.\n\nThis, for what your hands have sent before you; and because God will not\ninflict a wrong upon his servants!\"\n\nTo those who say, \"Verily, God hath enjoined us that we are not to credit an\napostle until he present us a sacrifice which fire out of Heaven shall\ndevour,\"\n\nSAY: Already have apostles before me come to you with miracles, and with that\nof which ye speak. Wherefore slew ye them? Tell me, if ye are men of truth.\n\nAnd if they treat thee as a liar, then verily apostles have been treated as\nliars before thee, though they came with clear proofs of their mission, and\nwith Scriptures, and with the light-giving Book.\n\nEvery soul shall taste of death: and ye shall only receive your recompenses\non the day of resurrection. And whoso shall scape the fire, and be brought\ninto Paradise, shall be happy. And the life of this world is but a cheating\nfruition!\n\nYe shall assuredly be tried in your possessions and in yourselves. And many\nhurtful things shall ye assuredly hear from those to whom the Scriptures were\ngiven before you, and from those who join other gods with God. But if ye be\nsteadfast, and fear God this verily is needed in the affairs of life.\n\nMoreover, when God entered into a convenant with those to whom the Scriptures\nhad been given, and said, \"Ye shall surely make it known to mankind and not\nhide it,\" they cast it behind their backs, and sold it for a sorry price! But\nvile is that for which they have sold it.\n\nSuppose not that they who rejoice in what they have brought to pass, and love\nto be praised for what they have not done56-suppose not they shall escape the\nchastisement. An afflictive chastisement doth await them,\n\nFor the Kingdom of the Heavens and the Earth is God's, and God hath power\nover all things.\n\nVerily, in the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth, and in the\nsuccession of the night and of the day, are signs for men of understanding\nheart;\n\nWho standing, and sitting, and reclining, bear God in mind, and muse on the\ncreation of the Heavens and of the Earth. \"O our Lord!\" say they, \"thou hast\nnot created this in vain. No. Glory be to Thee! Keep us, then, from the\ntorment of the fire.\n\nO our Lord! surely thou wilt put him to shame whom thou shalt cause to enter\ninto the Fire, and the wrong-doers shall have none to help them.\n\nO our Lord! we have indeed heard the voice of one that called. He called us\nto the faith-\u2019Believe on your Lord\u2019-and we have believed.\n\nO our Lord! forgive us then our sin, and hide away from us our evil deeds,\nand cause us to die with the righteous.\n\nO our Lord! and give us what thou hast promised us by thine apostles, and put\nus not to shame on the day of the resurrection. Verily, Thou wilt not fail\nthy promise.\"\n\nAnd their Lord answereth them, \"I will not suffer the work of him among you\nthat worketh, whether of male or female, to be lost. The one of you is the\nissue of the other.57\n\nAnd they who have fled their country and quitted their homes and suffered in\nmy cause, and have fought and fallen, I will blot out their sins from them,\nand I will bring them into gardens beneath which the streams do flow.\"\n\nA recompense from God! and God! with His is the perfection of recompense!\n\nLet not prosperity in the land58 on the part of those who believe not,\ndeceive thee. 'Tis but a brief enjoyment! Then shall Hell be their abode; and\nwretched the bed!\n\nBut as to those who fear their Lord-for them are the gardens 'neath which the\nrivers flow: therein shall they abide for aye. Such their reception with God-\nand that which is with God is best for the righteous.\n\nAmong the people of the Book are those who believe in God, and in what He\nhath sent down to you, and in what He hath sent down to them, humbling\nthemselves before God. They barter not the signs of God for a mean price.\n\nThese! their recompense awaiteth them with their Lord: aye! God is swift to\ntake account.\n\nO ye who believe! be patient, and vie in patience, and be firm, and fear God,\nthat it may be well with you.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Verses 1-87 probably belong to the period between the battle of Bedr and\nHej. 6.-Muhammad supposed Imran or Amran to be the father of the Virgin Mary\n(Sura [cix.] lxvi. 12)-Mary and Elizabeth to be sisters; who, with Jesus,\nJohn, and Zacharias, make up the family of Imran. It is difficult to avoid\nthe conclusion that Muhammad is guilty of the anachronism of confounding\nMiriam with the Virgin Mary. On the other hand is the difficulty of\nconceiving that as the sequence of time and fact is observed with tolerable\naccuracy in regard to the main features of Jewish and Christian History, he\nshould have fallen into so serious an error, or have so inadvertently\nadopted, as Mr. Muir supposes, the phraseology of his Jewish informants\n(amongst whom the only well-known Mary (Miriam) was the daughter of Imran and\nthe sister of Moses) as to have overlooked the discrepancy in their\nrespective dates. But it is possible that Muhammad believed, as some Muslim\nwriters assert, that Miriam's soul and body were miraculously preserved till\nthe time of Jesus in order to become Mary his mother. Certainly the\nTalmudists fabled that the Angel of Death and the worm of corruption had no\npower over Miriam. Comp. Babha Bathra, 17. Jos. Ant. iv. 4, 6.\n\n2 See note, p. 32.\n\n3 See Sura xxi. 49, p. 154, n.\n\n4 Lit. mother.\n\n5 In the battle of Bedr, Muhammad, with 319 followers routed 1000 Meccans,\nA.H. 2.\n\n6 That is, knowledge, or revelation, became the cause of disputings.\n\n7 That is, will ye receive Islam? The Ummiin, or common folk, the heathen\nArabians destitute of Revelation. In the earliest extant biography of\nMuhammad by Ibn Ishaq, we find these words addressed by Zaid, previous to the\nassumption of the prophetic office by Muhammad, to the Koreisch. This is one\nof the facts which shew that the way was to a great extent prepared for\nIslam. This whole address of Zaid's-which contains not less than six passages\nafterwards repeated in the Koran-may be seen in Dr. Sprenger's Life of M. p.\n42. The instances of others who had learned to disbelieve in idolatry, and\nhad either become Jews or Christians, or held their minds in suspense, might\neasily be multiplied. Comp. Sharastani, p. 437. Masudi, ch. 6.\n\n8 The King of the Kingdom, or, Lord of Might. This verse and the following\nare either fragments of some lost Sura, or belonging to one of the Meccan\nSuras. At any rate, they are misplaced, interrupting as they do the\nconnection of the preceding and subsequent verses.\n\n9 The wife of Imran is Hannah or Anne. Comp. Protev. Jac. iv. [greek text].-\nEvang. de Nat. Mar. 1: Voverunt tamen (Mari\u2018 parentes) si forte donaret eis\nDeus sobolem, eam se Dni servitio mancipaturos.-Although Muhammad had no\ndirect access to the Apocryphal Gospels, yet these may have influenced, or at\nany rate, contained much in common with, the ordinary traditions of S. Syria.\nAnd of this, the Immaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary, supposed by Gibbon\n(ch. 50) to have been \"borrowed from the Koran,\" probably formed a part.\n\n10 That is, the female could not become a priest.\n\n11 See note, p. 114.\n\n12 According to a tradition of Muhammad every new-born child is touched by\nSatan, with the exception of Mary and her Son, between whom and Satan God\ninterposed a veil. (Djelal. Beidh.) Hence this passage may imply the\nImmaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary. See v. 37 below.\n\n13 Evang. de Nat. Mar. 7: Quotidie ab angelis frequentabatur, quotidie divin\u00e2\nvisione fruebatur, queam a malis omnibus custodiebat et bonis omnibus\nredundare faciebat. Protev. Jac. 8: [greek text]. Hist. Nativ. Mar. 6:\nQuotidie esc\u00e2, quam de manu angeli accipiebat, ips\u00e2 tantum reficiebatur.\n\n14 The word rendered descendants is a collective noun. Gerock (p. 20) thinks\nthat Zacharias' prayer was not for a son of his own, but for an adopted son-\nas, for instance, the future husband of Mary who might become his heir, and\nhence accounts for his surprise and unbelief at the announcement of John.\n\n15 Lit. chamber. By this may be meant an [greek text] of the Temple Comp.\nLuke i. 21.\n\n16 Luke i. 28.\n\n17 Hist. de Nativ. Mar. 6: Abierunt simul Joachim et Anna uxor ejus ad\ntemplum domini, et . . . tradiderunt . . . Mariam in contubernio virginum qu\u2018\ndie noctuque in Dei laudibus manebant.\n\n18 These reeds, say the commentators, were written over with passages from\nthe law, and cast into Jordan. That of Zacharias alone swam, and was the\ntoken that the charge of Mary was to devolve on him. Others render, their\ndivining arrows. See a detailed account of the manner in which this matter\nwas settled by [greek text], virgae, in Protev. Jac. Thilo. p. 204. Hist.\nNat. Mar. ib. p. 359 sqq.\n\n19 Ar. El-Mesich Isa ben Mariam, illustrious in this world as a Prophet, in\nthe next as an Intercessor. Beidh.\n\n20 Evang. Thom\u2018, ch. 2 (Thilo. p. 281) and Evang. Infanti\u00e6 Arab. ch. 36, 46.\n(Thilo. p. 111, 123.)\n\n20-21a (0) Addenda: Lit. who my helpers unto God?  i.e., helpers of his\nreligion (Beidh).  If Muhammad had become, by any means, acquainted with the\nuse of the \u00c6th. radeh, helper or disciple, we have herein a probable\ninterpretation of this passage, as well as of the word Ansar.\n\n21 See Sura [cxiv.] v. 111.\n\n22 Muhammad probably believed that God took the dead body of Jesus to Heaven-\nfor three hours according to some-while the Jews crucified a man who\nresembled him. Sura [c.] iv. 156. The word motewaffika (comp. Sura [lxxx.]\nxxxix. 156) means, in speaking of God, to cause to die, take to himself. It\nwould also seem from Sura [lviii.] xix. 34, that Muhammad supposed Jesus to\nhave died a natural death, though it is nowhere said how long he continued in\nthat state. The Muhammadans believe that Jesus on his return to earth at the\nend of the world will slay the Antichrist, die, and be raised again. A vacant\nplace is reserved for his body in the Prophet's tomb at Medina. See Lieut.\nBurton's Pilgrimage, vol. ii.\n\n23 Lit. verily the similitude or analogy of Isa is as the similitude or\nanalogy of Adam, i.e. neither of them had a human father.\n\n24 This refers to an embassy from the Christians in Nedjran in Arabia, with\ntheir Bishop, Abu Hareth, at their head, to Muhammad at Medina, who had now\nacquired political power. The embassy declined to be parties to the strange\nmode of settling the dispute here proposed, but consented to pay tribute on\ncondition of not being molested in their religion or lands.\n\n25 If this be not a mere figure of speech, it must mean let us call over and\ncurse the names, the persons being at a distance.\n\n26 As the Christians do their Bishops and Priests.\n\n27 Whether he were a Jew or Christian.\n\n28 About Moses and Jesus, and their respective faiths.\n\n29 See Sura xvi. 121, p. 209, note.\n\n30 Muhammad insinuates that the claim to be equal with God could never have\nbeen made by Jesus himself, but by his followers, in ignorance of the\nScriptures and of his true nature.\n\n31 That is, to call them rabb-a title due only to God.\n\n32 Assembled on Mount Sinai. Compare the Jewish legend, that all the\nprophets, even those who were not yet born, were present on Mount Sinai, when\nGod gave the law to Moses. See Shemoth Rabba. Parashah 28, according to\nwhich, not only the Prophets but the Rabbis of every generation, were present\nat the giving of the Law.\n\n33 Becca, place of crowding, i.e. Mecca. This sentence, together with other\nSuras-the Cave, Mary, Imran, Repentance, T, H, are woven into the Kiswah or\ncovering of the Caaba, which is renewed annually.\n\n34 The Makam Ibrahim (praying place of Abraham) is a small building supported\nby six pillars about 8 ft. high, four of which are surrounded from top to\nbottom by a fine iron railing, while they leave the space between the two\nhind pillars open; within the railing is a frame about 5 ft. square, said to\ncontain the sacred stone on which Ibrahim stood when he built the Caaba.\nBurckhardt. Lieut. Burton (Pilgrimage, iii. 336) says that as the Arab\ntradition speaks clearly and consistently as to the fact of Abraham having\nvisited Mecca to build the Caaba, it may be considered an open question. Thus\nalso Dr. G. W. Freytag (Einl.).\n\n35 The Koran.\n\n36 Or, they are smitten with. Sale. S'etendra comme une tente. Kas.\n\n37 This probably refers to the battle of Ohod.\n\n38 The Arabic word occurs at verse 13 of horses as known by certain marks. So\nhere these angels would be known by their accoutrements, etc.\n\n39 This and the following verses to 154 were probably revealed shortly after\nthe reverse of Ohod.\n\n40 This verse and xxxix. 31 (p.257) were recited at Muhammad's death by Abu\nBekr, in order to convince Omar and the other Muslims of the possibility of\nthat event. It has been supposed that these passages were invented by Abu\nBekr on this occasion, and inserted into the Koran. But this is more than\ndoubtful. See N\u00f6ldeke, pp. 199-201.\n\n41 That is, return to idolatry. A report had been spread in the battle of\nOhod that Muhammad had been slain.\n\n42 Lit. according to a writing (i.e. of God) definite. The Rabbins also teach\n(Com. Tract. Rosch. Haschanah) that there are books in which God has written\ndown the lifetime of every individual. Lit. No soul can die.\n\n43 Lit. and their saying was no other than that they said.\n\n44 To relapse into infidelity. The Koreisch attempted to seduce the Muslims\nto renounce their faith after the battle of Ohod.\n\n45 The command to abstain from taking the spoils. This disobedience turned\nthe scale of victory against the Muslims.\n\n46 Victory and plunder.\n\n47 Some took to flight, others stood firm, and were not careful of their\nlives.\n\n48 That is, in confused rout.\n\n49 Muhammad had been accused of having secretly appropriated a portion of the\nspoil.\n\n50 At Ohod.\n\n51 See Sura [xci.] ii. 149.\n\n52  At Ohod; lit. wound.\n\n53 Lit. that Satan. Said to refer to Noaim, or Abu Sofian, the leader of the\nKoreisch.\n\n54 This is an answer to the taunt that Muhammad could not distinguish true\nbelievers from hypocrites.\n\n55 This was the taunt of the Jews of the tribe of Kainoka, when Muhammad\ndemanded tribute of them in the name of God.\n\n56 That is, who rejoice in their successful corruptions of their own sacred\nbooks, especially the testimony of Moses to Muhammad, and in their own\nfancied righteousness. Thus some of the commentators.\n\n57 Lit. some of you are from others. These words were occasioned by one of\nthe Prophet's wives having told him that God often praised the men, but not\nthe women, who had fled their country for the faith. Beidh.\n\n58 Lit. their movements, their comings and goings. Hence, the success of the\nMeccans in their trading journeys. This may point to the comparative freedom\nfrom trade and general independence of the Meccans after the affair at Ohod.\n\n\nSURA LXI.-BATTLE ARRAY [XCVIII.]\n\nMEDINA.-14 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nALL that is in the Heavens and all that is on the Earth praiseth God. He is\nthe Mighty, the Wise!\n\nBelievers! why profess ye that which ye practise not?1\n\nMost hateful is it to God that ye say that which ye do not.\n\nVerily God loveth those who, as though they were a solid wall, do battle for\nhis cause in serried lines!\n\nAnd bear in mind when Moses said to his people, \"Why grieve ye me, O my\npeople, when ye know that I am God's apostle unto you?\" And when they went\nastray, God led their hearts astray; for God guideth not a perverse people:\n\nAnd remember when Jesus the son of Mary said, \"O children of Israel! of a\ntruth I am God's apostle to you to confirm the law which was given before me,\nand to announce an apostle that shall come after me whose name shall be\nAhmad!\"2 But when he (Ahmad) presented himself with clear proofs of his\nmission, they said, \"This is manifest sorcery!\"\n\nBut who more impious than he who when called to Islam deviseth a falsehood\nconcerning God? God guideth not the wicked!\n\nFain would they put out the light of God with their mouths! but though the\nInfidels hate it, God will perfect his light.\n\nHe it is who hath sent his apostle with guidance and the religion of truth,\nthat, though they hate it who join other gods with God, He may make it\nvictorious over every other religion.\n\nO ye who believe! shall I shew you a merchandise that shall deliver you from\nthe sore torment?\n\nBelieve in God and his apostle, and do valiantly in the cause of God with\nyour wealth and with your persons! This, did ye but know it, will be best for\nyou.\n\nYour sins will He forgive you, and He will bring you into gardens beneath\nwhose shades the rivers flow-into charming abodes in the gardens of Eden:\nThis shall be the great bliss.-\n\nAnd other things which ye desire will he bestow, Help from God and speedy\nconquest!3 Bear thou these tidings to the faithful.\n\nO ye who believe! be helpers (ansars) of God; as said Jesus the son of Mary\nto his apostles, \"Who will come to the help of God?\" \"We,\" said the apostles,\n\"will be helpers of God.\" And a part of the children of Israel believed, and\na part believed not. But to those who believed gave we the upperhand over\ntheir foes, and soon did they prove victorious.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Addressed to the Muslims who had turned their backs to the enemy at Ohod.\n\n2 Muhammad had no doubt heard that Jesus had promised a Paracletos, John xvi.\n7. This title, understood by him, probably from the similarity of sound, as\nequivalent to Periclytos, he applied to himself with reference to his own\nname Muhammad (i.e. praised, glorified) from the same root and of the same\nmeaning as Ahmad, also one of the Prophet's names. It may be here remarked\nthat the name Muhammad, if pronounced Muhammed, \"might be understood by an\nArab in an active instead of a passive sense.\" (Lane, Kor. p. 52.) Other\npassages of Scripture understood by Muslims of their Prophet are Deut.\nxxxiii. 2, where Paran is said to mean Islam; Isai. xxi. 6, where the \"rider\non the ass\" is Jesus, the \"rider on the camel\" Muhammad; Matt. xx. 1-16,\nwhere the morning, noon, and even are Judaism, Christianity, and Islam; John\niv. 21; 1 John iv. 2, 3, where Muhammad is said to be \"the spirit that is of\nGod,\" because he proclaimed that Jesus was a true man and not God.\n\n3 If this allude to a meditated attack on the Banu Nadir (see Sura [cii.]\nlix.) we have a clue to the probable date of the Sura. The promise, however,\nmay be general. But the tone of verse 9 evidently points to a period when, as\nat Medina, the prospects of Islam were becoming hopeful.\n\n\nSURA LVII.-IRON [XCIX.]\n\nMEDINA.1-29 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nALL that is in the Heavens and in the Earth praiseth God, and He is the\nMighty, the Wise!\n\nHis the Kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth; He maketh alive and killeth;\nand He hath power over all things!\n\nHe is the first and the last; the Seen and the Hidden;2 and He knoweth all\nthings!\n\nIt is He who in six days created the Heavens and the Earth, then ascended His\nthrone. He knoweth that which entereth the earth, and that which goeth forth\nfrom it, and what cometh down from Heaven, and what mounteth up to it; and\nwherever ye are, He is with you; and God beholdeth all your actions!\n\nHis the kingdom of the Heavens and the Earth; and to God shall all things\nreturn!\n\nHe causeth the night to pass into the day, and He causeth the day to pass\ninto the night: and He knoweth the very secrets of the bosom!\n\nBelieve in God and his apostle, and bestow in alms of that whereof God hath\nmade you heirs: for whoever among you believe and give alms-their's shall be\na great recompense.\n\nWhat hath come to you that ye believe not in God, although the apostle\nexhorteth you to believe in your Lord, and He hath accepted your alliance-if\nye are true believers?\n\nHe it is who hath sent down clear tokens upon His servant, that He may bring\nyou out of darkness into light; and truly, Kind, Merciful to you is God.\n\nAnd what hath come to you that ye expend not for the cause of God? since the\nheritage of the Heavens and of the Earth is God's only! Those among you who\ncontributed before the victory, and fought, shall be differently treated from\ncertain others among you! Such shall have a nobler grade than those who\ncontributed and fought after it. But a goodly recompense hath God promised to\nall; and God is fully informed of your actions.\n\nWho is he that will lend a generous loan to God? So will He double it to him,\nand he shall have a noble reward.\n\nOne day thou shalt see the believers, men and women, with their light running\nbefore them, and on their right hand.3 The angels shall say to them, \"Good\ntidings for you this day of gardens beneath whose shades the rivers flow, in\nwhich ye shall abide for ever!\" This the great bliss!\n\nOn that day the hypocrites, both men and women, shall say to those who\nbelieve, \"Tarry for us, that we may kindle our light at yours.\" It shall be\nsaid, \"Return ye back, and seek light for yourselves.\" But between them shall\nbe set a wall with a gateway, within which shall be the Mercy, and in front,\nwithout it, the Torment. They shall cry to them, \"Were we not with you?\" They\nshall say, \"Yes! but ye led yourselves into temptation, and ye delayed, and\nye doubted, and the good things ye craved deceived you, till the doom of God\narrived:-and the deceiver deceived you in regard to God.\"\n\nOn that day, therefore, no ransom shall be taken from you or from those who\nbelieve not:-your abode the fire!-This shall be your master!4 and wretched\nthe journey thither!\n\nHath not the time come, for those who believe, to humble their hearts at the\nwarning of God and at the truth which he hath sent down? and that they be not\nas those to whom the Scriptures were given heretofore, whose lifetime was\nprolonged, but whose hearts were hardened, and many of them were perverse?\n\nKnow that God quickeneth the earth after its death! Now have we made these\nsigns clear to you, that ye may understand.\n\nVerily, they who give alms, both men and women, and they who lend a generous\nloan to God,-doubled shall it be to them-and they shall have a noble\nrecompense.\n\nAnd they who believed in God and his apostle are the men of truth, and the\nwitnesses in the presence of their Lord;5 They shall have their recompense\nand their light: But as for the infidels, and those who give the lie to our\nsigns, these shall be the inmates of Hell.\n\nKnow ye that this world's life is only a sport, and pastime, and show, and a\ncause of vainglory among you! And the multiplying of riches and children is\nlike the plants which spring up after rain-Their growth rejoiceth the\nhusband-man; then they wither away, and thou seest them all yellow; then they\nbecome stubble. And in the next life is a severe chastisement,\n\nOr else pardon from God and His satisfaction: and this world's life is but a\ncheating fruition.6\n\nVie in hasting after pardon from your Lord, and Paradise-whose outspread is\nas the outspread of the Heaven and of the Earth: Prepared is it for those who\nbelieve in God and His apostles: Such is the bounty of God: to whom He will\nHe giveth it: and of immense bounty is God!\n\nNo mischance chanceth either on earth or in your own persons, but ere we\ncreated them, it was in the Book;7-for easy is this to God-\n\nLest ye distress yourselves if good things escape you, and be over joyous for\nwhat falleth to your share. God loveth not the presumptuous, the boaster,\n\nWho are covetous themselves and incite others to covetousness. But whose\nturneth away from almsgiving-Ah! God is the Rich, the Praiseworthy.\n\nWe have sent our apostles with the clear tokens, and we have caused the Book\nand the balance8 to descend with them, that men might observe fairness. And\nwe have sent down IRON. Dire evil9 resideth in it, as well as advantage, to\nmankind! God would know who will assist Him and his apostle in secret.\nVerily, God is Powerful, Strong.\n\nAnd of old sent we Noah and Abraham, and on their seed conferred the gift of\nprophecy, and the Book; and some of them we guided aright; but many were evil\ndoers.\n\nThen we caused our apostles to follow in their footsteps; and we caused Jesus\nthe son of Mary to follow them; and we gave him the Evangel,10 and we put\ninto the hearts of those who followed him kindness and compassion: but as to\nthe monastic life, they invented it themselves. The desire only of pleasing\nGod did we prescribe to them, and this they observed not as it ought to have\nbeen observed: but to such of them as believed gave we their reward, though\nmany of them were perverse.\n\nO ye who believe! fear God and believe in his apostle: two portions of his\nmercy will He give you. He will bestow on you light to walk in, and He will\nforgive you: for God is Forgiving, Merciful;\n\nThat the people of the Book may know that they have no control over aught of\nthe favours of God, and that these gifts of grace11 are in the hands of God,\nand that He vouchsafeth them to whom he will; for God is of immense bounty.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The general tone of this Sura shews it to have been revealed at Medina, and\nfrom verse 22 it may be inferred that its true date lies between the battle\nof Ohod and the battle of the Ditch.\n\n2 Lit. the exterior and the interior.\n\n3 To guide them on their route to paradise.\n\n4 Patronus. Mar. Beschutzer. Ullm. Or, what ye have deserved.\n\n5 Against the infidels.\n\n6 Supellex deceptionis. Mar.\n\n7 Of our eternal decrees.\n\n8 Brought by Gabriel to Noah, who imparted its use to his posterity. So say\nthe commentators. But the expression seems rather to be figurative. Comp.\nSura lv. 6, p. 74.\n\n9 Or, mighty warlike strength, but the antithesis requires the rendering\ngiven in the text. Comp. Gen. iv. 22, and Michna Tr. Aboth, 5, 9.\n\n10 We are not to understand by the word Evangel the actual volume of the New\nTestament, or any one of its component parts, but rather the revelation made\nto Jesus by God himself, which Muhammad may have imagined to have been\ncommitted to writing subsequently, in the same way as his own Koran.\n\n11 The word in the original is the same for favours, gifts of grace, bounty.\nThe reference is to the gift of prophecy (Beidh.) mentioned verse 27.\n\n\nSURA IV.-WOMEN1 [C.]\n\nMEDINA.-175 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO MEN! fear your Lord, who hath created you of one man (nafs, soul), and of\nhim created his wife, and from these twain hath spread abroad so many men and\nWOMEN. And fear ye God, in whose name ye ask mutual favours,-and reverence\nthe wombs that bare you. Verily is God watching over you!\n\nAnd give to the orphans their property; substitute not worthless things of\nyour own for their valuable ones, and devour not their property after adding\nit to your own; for this is a great crime.\n\nAnd if ye are apprehensive that ye shall not deal fairly with orphans, then,\nof other women who seem good in your eyes, marry but two, or three, or four;2\nand if ye still fear that ye shall not act equitably, then one only; or the\nslaves whom ye have acquired: this will make justice on your part easier.\nGive women their dowry freely; but if of themselves they give up aught\nthereof to you, then enjoy it as convenient, and profitable:\n\nAnd entrust not to the incapable the substance which God hath placed with you\nfor their support; but maintain them therewith, and clothe them, and speak to\nthem with kindly speech.\n\nAnd make trial of orphans until they reach the age of marriage; and if ye\nperceive in them a sound judgment, then hand over their substance to them;\nbut consume ye it not wastefully, or by hastily entrusting it to them;\n\nBecause they are growing up. And let the rich guardian not even touch it; and\nlet him who is poor use it for his support (eat of it) with discretion.\n\nAnd when ye make over their substance to them, then take witnesses in their\npresence: God also maketh a sufficient account.\n\nMen ought to have a part of what their parents and kindred leave; and women3\na part of what their parents and kindred leave: whether it be little or much,\nlet them have a stated portion.\n\nAnd when they who are of kin are present at the division, and the orphans and\nthe poor, let them too have a share; and speak to them with kindly speech.\n\nAnd let those be afraid to wrong the orphans, who, should they leave behind\nthem weakly offspring, would be solicitous on their account. Let them,\ntherefore, fear God, and let them propose what is right.\n\nVerily they who swallow the substance of the orphan wrongfully, shall swallow\ndown only fire into their bellies, and shall burn in the flame!\n\nWith regard to your children, God commandeth you to give the male the portion\nof two females; and if they be females more than two, then they shall have\ntwo-thirds of that which their father hath left: but if she be an only\ndaughter, she shall have the half; and the father and mother of the deceased\nshall each of them have a sixth part of what he hath left, if he have a\nchild; but if he have no child, and his parents be his heirs, then his mother\nshall have the third: and if he have brethren, his mother shall have the\nsixth, after paying the bequests he shall have bequeathed, and his debts. As\nto your fathers, or your children, ye know not which of them is the most\nadvantageous to you. This is the law of God. Verily, God is Knowing, Wise!\n\nHalf of what your wives leave shall be your's, if they have no issue; but if\nthey have issue, then a fourth of what they leave shall be your's, after\npaying the bequests they shall bequeath, and debts.\n\nAnd your wives shall have a fourth part of what ye leave, if ye have no\nissue; but if ye have issue, then they shall have an eighth part of what ye\nleave, after paying the bequests ye shall bequeath, and debts.\n\nIf a man or a woman make a distant relation their heir, and he or she have a\nbrother or a sister, each of these two shall have a sixth; but if there are\nmore than this, then shall they be sharers in a third, after payment of the\nbequests he shall have bequeathed, and debts,\n\nWithout loss to any one. This is the ordinance of God, and God is Knowing,\nGracious!\n\nThese are the precepts of God; and whoso obeyeth God and his prophet, him\nshall God bring into gardens beneath whose shades the rivers flow, therein to\nabide for ever: and this, the great blessedness!\n\nAnd whoso shall rebel against God and his apostle, and shall break His\nbounds, him shall God place in the fire to abide therein for ever; and his\nshall be a shameful torment.\n\nIf any of your women be guilty of whoredom, then bring four witnesses against\nthem from among yourselves; and if they bear witness to the fact, shut them\nup within their houses till death release them,4 or God make some way for\nthem.\n\nAnd if two men among you commit the same crime, then punish them both; but if\nthey turn and amend, then let them be: for God is He who turneth, Merciful!\n\nWith God himself will the repentance of those who have done evil ignorantly,\nand then turn speedily unto Him, be accepted. These! God will turn unto\nthem:for God is Knowing, Wise!\n\nBut no place of repentance shall there be for those who do evil, until, when\ndeath is close to one of them, he saith, \"Now verily am I turned to God;\" nor\nto those who die unbelievers. These! we have made ready for them a grievous\ntorment!\n\nO believers! it is not allowed you to be heirs of your wives against their\nwill; nor to hinder them from marrying, in order to take from them part of\nthe dowry you had given them, unless they have been guilty of undoubted\nlewdness; but associate kindly with them: for if ye are estranged from them,\nhaply ye are estranged from that in which God hath placed abundant good.\n\nAnd if ye be desirous to exchange one wife for another, and have given one of\nthem a talent, make no deduction from it. Would ye take it by slandering her,\nand with manifest wrong?\n\nHow, moreover, could ye take it, when one of you hath gone in unto the other,\nand they have received from you a strict bond of union?\n\nAnd marry not women whom your fathers have married: for this is a shame, and\nhateful, and an evil way: though what is past5 may be allowed.\n\nForbidden to you are your mothers, and your daughters, and your sisters, and\nyour aunts, both on the father and mother's side, and your nieces on the\nbrother and sister's side, and your foster-mothers, and your foster-sisters,\nand the mothers of your wives, and your step-daughters who are your wards,\nborn of your wives to whom ye have gone in: (but if ye have not gone in unto\nthem, it shall be no sin in you to marry them;) and the wives of your sons\nwho proceed out of your loins; and ye may not have two sisters; except where\nit is already done. Verily, God is Indulgent, Merciful!\n\nForbidden to you also are married women, except those who are in your hands\nas slaves: This is the law of God for you. And it is allowed you, beside\nthis, to seek out wives by means of your wealth, with modest conduct, and\nwithout fornication. And give those with whom ye have cohabited their dowry.\nThis is the law. But it shall be no crime in you to make agreements over and\nabove the law. Verily, God is Knowing, Wise!\n\nAnd whoever of you is not rich enough to marry free believing women, then let\nhim marry such of your believing maidens as have fallen into your hands as\nslaves; God well knoweth your faith. Ye are sprung the one from the other.\nMarry them, then, with the leave of their masters, and give them a fair\ndower: but let them be chaste and free from fornication, and not entertainers\nof lovers.\n\nIf after marriage they commit adultery, then inflict upon them half the\npenalty enacted for free married women. This law is for him among you who is\nafraid of doing wrong:6 but if ye abstain,7 it will be better for you. And\nGod is Lenient, Merciful.\n\nGod desireth to make this known to you, and to guide you into the ways of\nthose who have been before you, and to turn Him unto you in mercy. And God is\nKnowing, Wise!\n\nGod desireth thus to turn him unto you: but they who follow their own lusts,\ndesire that with great swerving should ye swerve! God desireth to make your\nburden light: for man hath been created weak.\n\nO believers! devour not each other's substance in mutual frivolities;8 unless\nthere be a trafficking among you by your own consent: and commit not\nsuicide:-of a truth God is merciful to you.\n\nAnd whoever shall do this maliciously and wrongfully, we will in the end cast\nhim into the fire; for this is easy with God.\n\nIf ye avoid the great sins which ye are forbidden, we will blot out your\nfaults, and we will cause you to enter Paradise with honourable entry.\n\nCovet not the gifts by which God hath raised some of you above others. The\nmen shall have a portion according to their deserts, and the women a portion\naccording to their deserts. Of God, therefore, ask his gifts. Verily, God\nhath knowledge of all things.\n\nTo every one have we appointed kindred, as heirs of what parents and\nrelatives, and those with whom ye have joined right hands in contract, leave.\nGive therefore, to each their portion. Verily, God witnesseth all things.\n\nMen are superior to women on account of the qualities with which God hath\ngifted the one above the other, and on account of the outlay they make from\ntheir substance for them. Virtuous women are obedient, careful, during the\nhusband's absence, because God hath of them been careful.9 But chide those\nfor whose refractoriness ye have cause to fear; remove them into beds apart,\nand scourage them: but if they are obedient to you, then seek not occasion\nagainst them: verily, God is High, Great!\n\nAnd if ye fear a breach between man and wife, then send a judge chosen from\nhis family, and a judge chosen from her family: if they are desirous of\nagreement, God will effect a reconciliation between them; verily, God is\nknowing, apprised of all!\n\nWorship God, and join not aught with Him in worship. Be good to parents,10\nand to kindred, and to orphans, and to the poor, and to a neighbour, whether\nkinsman or new-comer, and to a fellow traveller, and to the wayfarer, and to\nthe slaves whom your right hands hold; verily, God loveth not the proud, the\nvain boaster,\n\nWho are niggardly themselves, and bid others be niggards, and hide away what\nGod of his bounty hath given them. We have made ready a shameful chastisement\nfor the unbelievers,\n\nAnd for those who bestow their substance in alms to be seen of men, and\nbelieve not in God and in the last day. Whoever hath Satan for his companion,\nan evil companion hath he!\n\nBut what blessedness would be theirs, if they should believe in God and in\nthe last day, and bestow alms out of what God hath vouchsafed them; for God\ntaketh knowledge of them!\n\nGod truly will not wrong any one of the weight of a mote; and if there be any\ngood deed, he will repay it doubly; and from his presence shall be given a\ngreat recompense.\n\nHow! when we shall bring up against them witnesses from all peoples, and when\nwe shall bring thee up as witness against these? On that day they who were\nInfidels and rebelled against the prophet, shall wish that the earth were\nlevelled with them! But nothing shall they hide from God.\n\nO ye true believers,11 come not to prayer when ye are drunken, but wait till\nye can understand what ye utter; nor when ye are polluted, unless ye be\ntravelling on the road, until ye have washed you. If ye be sick, or on a\njourney, or have come from the unclean place, or have touched a woman, and ye\nfind not water, then rub pure sand, and bathe your face and your hands with\nit: verily, God is Lenient, Merciful.\n\nHast thou not remarked those12 to whom a part of the Scriptures hath been\ngiven? Vendors are they of error, and are desirous that ye go astray from the\nway. But God knoweth your enemies; and God is a sufficient patron, and God is\na sufficient helper!\n\nAmong the Jews are those who displace the words of their Scriptures, and say,\n\"We have heard, and we have not obeyed. Hear thou, but as one that heareth\nnot; and LOOK AT US;\"13 perplexing with their tongues, and wounding the Faith\nby their revilings.\n\nBut if they would say, \"We have heard, and we obey; hear thou, and REGARD\nUS;\" it were better for them, and more right. But God hath cursed them for\ntheir unbelief. Few only of them are believers!\n\nO ye to whom the Scriptures have been given! believe in what we have sent\ndown confirmatory of the Scripture which is in your hands, ere we efface your\nfeatures, and twist your head round backward, or curse you as we cursed the\nsabbath-breakers:14 and the command of God was carried into effect.\n\nVerily, God will not forgive the union of other gods with Himself! But other\nthan this will forgive to whom He pleaseth. And He who uniteth gods with God\nhath devised a great wickedness.\n\nHast thou not marked those who hold themselves to be righteous? But God\nholdeth righteous whom He will; and they shall not be wronged the husk of a\ndate stone.\n\nBehold how they devise a lie of God! Therein is wickedness manifest enough!\n\nHast thou not observed those to whom a part of the Scriptures hath been\ngiven?15 They believe in Djibt and Thagout, and say of the infidels, \"These\nare guided in a batter path than those who hold the faith.\"\n\nThese are they whom God hath cursed: and for him whom God hath cursed, thou\nshalt by on means find a helper.\n\nShall they have a share in the kingdom who would not bestow on their fellow\nmen even the speck in a date stone?\n\nEnvy they other men what God of his bounty hath given them? We gave of old\nthe Scriptures and wisdom to the line of Abraham, and we gave them a grand\nkingdom:\n\n-Some of them believe on the prophet and some turn aside from him:-the flame\nof Hell is their sufficing punishment!\n\nThose who disbelieve our signs we will in the end cast into the fire: so oft\nas their skins shall be well burnt,16 we will change them for fresh skins,\nthat they may taste the torment. Verily God is Mighty, Wise!\n\nBut as for those who have believed, and done the things that are right, we\nwill bring being them into gardens 'neath which the rivers flow therein to\nabide eternally;-therein shall they have wives of stainless purity: and we\nwill bring them into aye-shadowing shades.\n\nVerily, God enjoineth you to give back your trusts to their owners, and when\nye judge between men, to judge with fairness. Excellent is the practice to\nwhich God exhorteth you. God Heareth, Beholdeth!\n\nO ye who believe! obey God and obey the apostle, and those among you invested\nwith authority; and if in aught ye differ, bring it before God and the\napostle, if ye believe in God and in the latter day. This is the best and\nfairest way of settlement.\n\nHast thou not marked those who profess that they believe in what hath been\nsent down to thee, and what hath been sent down before thee? Fain would they\nbe judged before Thagout, though commanded not to believe in him; and fain\nwould Satan make them wander with wanderings wide of truth.\n\nAnd when it is said to them, \"Accede to that which God hath sent down, and to\nthe apostle,\" thou seest the hypocrites avert them from thee with utter\naversion.\n\nBut how, when some misfortune shall fortune them, for their previous\nhandywork? Then will they come to thee, swearing by God, \"We desire nothing\nbut to promote good and concord!\"\n\nThese are they whose hearts God knoweth. Therefore break off from them, and\nwarn them, speak words that may penetrate their souls.\n\nWe have not sent any apostle but to be obeyed, it God so will: but if they,\nafter they have sinned to their own hurt by unbelief, come to thee and ask\npardon of God, and the apostle ask pardon for them, they shall surely find\nthat God is He who turneth unto man, Merciful.\n\nAnd they will not-I swear by thy Lord-they will not believe, until they have\nset thee up as judge between them on points where they differ. Then shall\nthey not find in their own minds any difficulty in thy decisions, and shall\nsubmit with entire submission.\n\nHad we laid down such a law for them as \"Kill yourselves, or abandon your\ndwellings,\" but few of them would have done it. But had they done that to\nwhich they were exhorted, better and it been for them, and stronger for the\nconfirmation of their faith.\n\nIn that case we had surely given them from ourself a great recompense, and on\nthe straight path should we surely have guided them.\n\nAnd whoever shall obey God and the Apostle, these shall be with those of the\nProphets, and of the Sincere, and of the Martyrs, and of the Just, to whom\nGod hath been gracious. These are a goodly band!\n\nThis is the bounty of God; and in knowledge doth God suffice.\n\nO ye who believe! make use of precautions; and advance in detachments, or ,\nadvance in a body.\n\nThere is of you who will be a laggard: and if a reverse befall you he saith,\n\"Now hath God dealt graciously with me, since I was not with you in the\nfight:\"\n\nBut if a success from God betide you, he will say, as if there had never been\nany friendship between you and him, \"Would I had been with them! a rich prize\nshould I have won!\"\n\nLet those then fight on the path of God, who barter this present life for\nthat which is to come; for whoever fighteth on God's path, whether he be\nslain or conquer, we will in the end give him a great reward.\n\nBut what hath come to you that ye fight not on the path of God, and for the\nweak among men, women and children, who say, \"O our Lord! bring us forth from\nthis city17 whose inhabitants are oppressors; give us a champion from thy\npresence; and give us from thy presence a defender.\"\n\nThey who believe, fight on the path of God; and they who believe not, fight\non the path of Thagout: Fight therefore against the friends of Satan. Verily\ncraft of Satan shall be powerless!\n\nHast thou not marked those to whom it was said, \"Withhold your hands awhile\nfrom war; and observe prayer, and pay the stated alms.\" But when war is\ncommanded them, lo! a portion of them fear men as with the fear of God, or\nwith a yet greater fear, and say: \"O our Lord! why hast thou commanded us\nwar? Couldst thou not have given us respite till our not distant end?\" SAY:\nSmall the fruition of this world; but the next life is the true good for him\nwho feareth God! and ye shall not be wronged so much as the skin of a date\nstone.\n\nWherever ye be, death will overtake you-although ye be in lofty towers! If\ngood fortune betide them, they say, \"This is from God;\" and if evil betide\nthem, they say, \"This is from thee.\" SAY: All is from God: But what hath come\nto these people that they are not near to understanding what is told them?\n\nWhatever good betideth thee is from God, and whatever betideth thee of evil\nis from thyself; and we have sent thee to mankind as an apostle: God is thy\nsufficing witness.\n\nWhoso obeyeth the Apostle, in so doing obeyeth God: and as to those who turn\nback from thee, we have not sent thee to be their keeper.\n\nMoreover, they say: \"Obedience!\" but when they come forth from thy presence,\na party of them brood by night over other than thy words; but God writeth\ndown what they brood over: therefore separate thyself from them, and put thou\nthy trust in God. is a sufficient protector!\n\nCan they not consider the Koran? Were it from any other than God, they would\nsurely have found in it many contradictions.\n\nAnd when tidings, either of security or alarm, reach them, they tell them\nabroad; but if they would report them to the apostle, and to those who are in\nauthority among them, those who desire information would learn it from them.\nBut for the goodness and mercy of God towards you, ye would have followed\nSatan except a few!\n\nFight, therefore, on God's path: lay not burdens on any but thyself; and stir\nup the faithful. The might of the infidels haply will god restrain, for God\nis the stronger in prowess, and the stronger to punish.\n\nHe who shall mediate between men for a good purpose shall be the gainer by\nit. But he who shall mediate with an evil mediation shall reap the fruit of\nit. And God keepeth watch over everything.\n\nIf ye are greeted with a greeting, then greet ye with a better greeting, or\nat least return it: God taketh count of all things.\n\nGod! there is no god but He! He will certainly assemble you on the day of\nresurrection. There is no doubt of it. And whose word is more true than\nGod's?\n\nWhy are ye two parties on the subject of the hypocrites, when God hath cast\nthem off for their doings? Desire ye to guide those whom god hath led astray?\nBut for him whom God leadeth astray, thou shalt by no means find a pathway.\n\nThey desire that ye should be infidels as they are infidels, and that ye\nshould be alike. Take therefore none of them for friends, till they have fled\ntheir homes for the cause of God. If they turn back, then seize them, and\nslay them wherever ye find them; but take none of them as friends or helpers,\n\nExcept those who shall seek and asylum among your allies, and those who come\nover to you-their hearts forbidding them to make war on you, or to make war\non their own people. Had God pleased, he would have given them power against\nyou, and they would have made war upon you! But, if they depart from you, and\nmake not war against you and offer you peace, the God alloweth you no\noccasion against them.\n\nYe will find others who seek to gain your confidence as well as that of their\nown people: So oft as they return to sedition, they shall be overthrown in\nit: But if they leave you not, nor propose terms or peace to you nor withhold\ntheir hands, then seize them, and slay them, wherever ye find them. Over\nthese have we given you undoubted power.\n\nA believer killeth not a believer but by mischance: and whoso killeth a\nbeliever by mischance shall be bound to free a believer from slavery; and the\nblood-money shall be paid to the family of the slain, unless they convert it\ninto alms. But if the slain believer be of a hostile people, then let him\nconfer freedom on a slave who is a believer; and if he be of a people between\nwhom and yourselves there is an alliance, then let the blood-money be paid to\nhis family, and let him set free a slave who is a believer: and let him who\nhath not the means, fast two consecutive months. This is the penance enjoined\nby God; and God is Knowing, Wise!\n\nBut whoever shall kill a believer of set purpose, his recompense shall be\nhell; for ever shall he abide in it; God shall be wrathful with him, and\nshall curse him, and shall get ready for him a great torment.\n\nO believers! when ye go forth to the fight for the cause of God, be\ndiscerning, and say not to every one who meeteth you with a greeting, \"Thou\nart not a believer\"18 in your greed after the chance good things of this\npresent life! With God are abundant spoils. Such hath been your wont in times\npast; but god hath been gracious to you. Be discerning, then, for God well\nknoweth what ye do.\n\nThose believers who sit at home free from trouble, and those who do valiantly\nin the cause of God with their substance and their persons, shall not be\ntreated alike. God hath assigned to those who contend earnestly with their\npersons and with their substance, a rank above those who sit at home. Goodly\npromises hath He made to all. But God hath assigned to the strenuous a rich\nrecompense, above those who sit still at home,\n\nRank of his own bestowal, and forgiveness, and mercy; for God is Indulgent,\nMerciful.\n\nThe angels,19 when they took the souls of those who had been unjust to their\nown weal, demanded, \"What hath been your state?\"20 They said, \"We were the\nweak ones21 of the earth.\" They replied, \"Was not God's earth broad enough\nfor you to flee away in?\" These! their home shall be Hell, and evil the\npassage to it-\n\nExcept the men and women and children who were not able, through their\nweakness, to find the means of escape, and were not guided on their way.\nThese haply God will forgive: for God is Forgiving, Gracious.\n\nWhoever flieth his country for the cause of God, will find in the earth many\nunder like compulsion, and abundant resources; and if any one shall quit his\nhome and fly to God and his apostle, and then death overtake him,-his reward\nfrom God is sure: for God is Gracious, Merciful!\n\nAnd when ye go forth to war in the land, it shall be no crime in you to cut\nshort your prayers,22 if ye fear lest the infidels come upon you; Verily, the\ninfidels are your undoubted enemies!\n\nAnd when thou, O apostle! shalt be among them, and shalt pray with them, then\nlet a party of them rise up with thee, but let them take their arms; and when\nthey shall have made their prostrations, let them retire to your rear: then\nlet another party that hath not prayed come forward, and let them pray with\nyou; but let them take their precautions and their arms. Pleased would the\ninfidels be for you to neglect your arms and your baggage, that they might\nturn upon you at once! And it shall be no crime in you to lay down your arms\nif rain annoy you, or if ye be sick. But take your precautions.23 Verily, God\nhath made ready a shameful torment for the infidels.\n\nAnd when ye shall have ended the prayer, make mention of God, standing, and\nsitting, and reclining: and as soon as ye are secure, observe prayer; for to\nthe faithful, prayer is a prescribed duty, and for stated hours.\n\nSlacken not in pursuit of the foe. If ye suffer, assuredly they suffer also\nas ye suffer; but ye hope from God for what they cannot hope! And God is\nKnowing, Wise!\n\nVerily, we have sent down the Book to thee with the truth, thou that mayest\njudge between men according as God hath given thee insight: But with the\ndeceitful ones dispute not: and implore pardon of God. Verily, God is\nForgiving, Merciful.24\n\nAnd plead not with us for those who are self-deceivers; for God loveth not\nhim who is deceitful, criminal.\n\nFrom men they hide themselves; but they cannot hide themselves from God: and\nwhen they hold nightly discourses which please Him not, He is with them. God\nis round about their doings!\n\nOh! ye are they who plead in their favour in this present life; but who shall\nplead with God for them on the day of the resurrection? Who will be the\nguardian over them?\n\nYet he who doth evil, or shall have acted against his own weal, and then\nshall ask pardon of God, will find God Forgiving, Merciful:\n\nAnd whoever committeth a crime, committeth it to his own hurt. And God is\nKnowing, Wise!\n\nAnd whoever committeth an involuntary fault or a crime, and then layeth it on\nthe innocent, shall surely bear the guilt of calumny and of a manifest crime.\n\nBut for the grace and mercy of God upon thee, a party among them had resolved\nto mislead thee, but they shall only mislead themselves; nor in aught shall\nthey harm thee. God hath caused the Book and the wisdom to descend upon thee:\nand what thou knowest not He hath caused thee to know: and the grace of God\ntoward thee hath been great.\n\nIn most of their secret talk is nothing good; but only in his who enjoineth\nalmsgiving, or that which is right, or concord among men. Whoso doth this,\nout of desire to please God, we will give him at the last a great reward:\n\nBut whoso shall sever himself from the prophet after that \"the guidance\" hath\nbeen manifested to him, and shall follow any other path than that of the\nfaithful, we will turn our back on him as he hath turned his back on us, and\nwe will cast him into Hell;-an evil journey thither!\n\nGod truly will not forgive the joining other gods with Himself. Other sins He\nwill forgive to whom He will: but he who joineth gods with God, hath erred\nwith far-gone error.\n\nThey call, beside Him, upon mere goddesses! they invoke a rebel Satan!\n\nOn them is the malison of God. For he said, \"A portion of thy servants will I\nsurely take, and will lead them astray, and will stir desires within them,\nand will command them and they shall cut the ears of animals;25 and I will\ncommand them, and they shall alter the creation of God.\"26 He who taketh\nSatan rather than God for his patron, is ruined with palpable ruin:\n\nHe hath made them promises, and he hath stirred desires within them; but\nSatan promiseth, only to beguile!\n\nThese! their dwelling Hell! no escape shall they find from it!\n\nBut they who believe and do the things that are right, we will bring them\ninto gardens beneath which the rivers flow; For ever shall they abide\ntherein. Truly it is the promise of God: And whose word is more sure than\nGod's?\n\nNot according to your wishes, or the wishes of the people of the Book, shall\nthese things be. He who doth evil shall be recompensed for it. Patron or\nhelper, beside God, shall he find none.\n\nBut whoso doth the things that are right, whether male or female, and he or\nshe a believer,-these shall enter Paradise, nor shall they be wronged the\nskin of a date stone.\n\nAnd who hath a better religion than he who resigneth himself to God, who doth\nwhat is good, and followeth the faith of Abraham in all sincerity? And God\ntook Abraham for his friend.\n\nAll that is in the Heavens and all that is on the Earth is God's: and God\nencompasseth all things!\n\nMoreover, they will consult thee in regard to women: SAY: God hath instructed\nyou about them; and His will is rehearsed to you, in the Book, concerning\nfemale orphans to whom ye give not their legal due, and whom ye refuse to\nmarry; also with regard to weak children; and that ye deal with fairness\ntowards orphans. Ye cannot do a good action, but verily God knoweth it.\n\nAnd if a wife fear ill usage or aversion on the part of her husband, then\nshall it be no fault in them if they can agree with mutual agreement, for\nagreement is best. Men's souls are prone to avarice; but if ye act kindly and\nfear God, then, verily, your actions are not unnoticed by God!\n\nAnd ye will not have it at all in your power to treat your wives alike, even\nthough you fain would do so; but yield not wholly to disinclination, so that\nye leave one of them as it were in suspense; if ye come to an understanding,\nand fear God, then, verily, God is Forgiving, Merciful;\n\nBut if they separate, God can compensate both out of His abundance; for God\nis Vast, Wise;\n\nAnd whatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth is God's! We have already\nenjoined those to whom the Scriptures were given before you, and yourselves,\nto fear God. But if ye become unbelievers, yet know that whatever is in the\nHeavens and in the Earth is God's: and God is Rich, Praiseworthy.\n\nAll that is in Heaven and all that is in Earth is God's! God is a sufficient\nprotector!\n\nIf he pleased, he could cause you to pass away, O mankind! and create others\nin your stead: for this hath God power.\n\nIf any one desire the reward of this world, yet with God is the reward of\nthis world and of the next! And God Heareth, Beholdeth.\n\nO ye who believe! stand fast to justice, when ye bear witness before God,\nthough it be against yourselves, or your parents, or your kindred, whether\nthe party be rich or poor. God is nearer than you to both. Therefore follow\nnot passion, lest ye swerve from truth. And if ye wrest your testimony or\nstand aloof, God verily is well aware of what ye do.\n\nO ye who believe! believe in God and his Apostle, and the Book which he hath\nsent down to his Apostle, and the Book which he hath sent down aforetime.\nWhoever believeth not on God and his Angels and his Books and his Apostles,\nand in the last day, he verily hath erred with far-gone error.\n\nVerily, they who believed, then became unbelievers, then believed, and again\nbecame unbelievers, and then increased their unbelief-it is not God who will\nforgive them or guide them into the way.\n\nAnnounce27 to the hypocrites that a dolorous torment doth await them.\n\nThose who take the unbelievers for friends besides the faithful-do they seek\nhonour at their hands? Verily, all honour belongeth unto God!\n\nAnd already hath He sent this down to you in the Book28 \"WHEN YE SHALL HEAR\nTHE SIGNS OF GOD THEY SHALL NOT BE BELIEVED BUT SHALL BE MOCKED AT.\" Sit ye\nnot therefore with such, until they engage in other discourse; otherwise, ye\nwill become like them. Verily God will gather the hypocrites and the infidels\nall together in Hell.\n\nThey watch you narrowly. Then if God grant you a victory, they say, \"Are we\nnot with you?\" and if the infidels meet with a success, they say to them,\n\"Were we not superior to you: and did we not defend you from those\nbelievers?\" God shall judge betwixt ye on the day of the resurrection, and\nGod will by no means make a way for the infidels over the believers.\n\nThe hypocrites would deceive God, but He will deceive them! When they stand\nup for prayer, they stand carelessly, to be seen of men, and they remember\nGod but little:\n\nWavering between the one and the other-belonging neither to these nor those!\nand by no means shalt thou find a path for him whom God misleadeth.\n\nO believers! take not infidels for friends rather than believers. Would ye\nfurnish God with clear right to punish you?\n\nVerily the hypocrites shall be in the lowest abyss of the fire: and, by no\nmeans shalt thou find a helper for them;\n\nSave for those who turn and amend, and lay fast hold on God, and approve the\nsincerity of their religion to God; these shall be numbered with the\nfaithful, and God will at last bestow on the faithful a great reward.\n\nWhy should God inflict a chastisement upon you, if ye are grateful, and\nbelieve? God is Grateful, Wise!\n\nGod loveth not that evil be matter of public talk, unless any one hath been\nwronged: God it is who Heareth, Knoweth!\n\nWhether ye publish what is good, or conceal it, or pardon evil, verily God is\nPardoning, Powerful!\n\nOf a truth they who believe not on God and his Apostles, and seek to separate\nGod from his Apostles, and say, \"Some we believe, and some we believe not,\"\nand desire to take a middle way;\n\nThese! they are veritable infidels! and for the infidels have we prepared a\nshameful punishment.\n\nAnd they who believe on God and his Apostles, and make no difference between\nthem these! we will bestow on them their reward at last. God is Gracious,\nMerciful!\n\nThe people of the Book will ask of thee to cause a Book to come down unto\nthem out of Heaven. But a greater thing than this did they ask of Moses! for\nthey said, \"Shew us God plainly!\" and for this their wickedness did the fire-\nstorm lay hold on them. Then took they the calf as the object of their\nworship, after that our clear tokens had come to them; but we forgave them\nthis, and conferred on Moses undoubted power.\n\nAnd we uplifted the mountain 29 over them when we made a covenant with them,\nand we said to them, \"Enter the gate adoring:\"and we said to them,\n\"Transgress not on the Sabbath,\" and we received from them a strict covenant.\n\nSo, for that they have broken their covenant, and have rejected the signs of\nGod, and have put the prophets to death unjustly, saying the while, \"Our\nhearts are uncircumcised,\"-Nay, but God hath sealed them up for their\nunbelief, so that but few believe.\n\nAnd for their unbelief,-and for their having spoken against Mary a grievous\ncalumny,-\n\nAnd for their saying, \"Verily we have slain the Messiah, Jesus the son of\nMary, an Apostle of God.\" Yet they slew him not, and they crucified him not,\nbut they had only his likeness.30 And they who differed about him were in\ndoubt concerning him: No sure knowledge had they about him, but followed only\nan opinion, and they did not really slay him, but God took him up to Himself.\nAnd God is Mighty, Wise!\n\nThere shall not be one of the people of the Book but shall believe in Him\nbefore his death, and in the day of resurrection, He will be a witness\nagainst them.\n\nFor the wickedness of certain Jews, and because they turn many from the way\nof God, we have forbidden them goodly viands which had been before allowed\nthem.\n\nAnd because they have taken usury, though they were forbidden it, and have\ndevoured men's substance in frivolity, we have got ready for the infidels\namong them a grievous torment.\n\nBut their men of solid knowledge, and the believers who believe in that which\nhath been sent down to thee, and in what hath been sent down before thee, and\nwho observe prayer, and pay the alms of obligation, and believe in God and\nthe latter day,-these! we will give them a great reward.\n\nVerily we have revealed to thee as we revealed to Noah and the Prophets after\nhim, and as we revealed to Abraham, and Isma\u00ebl, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the\ntribes, and Jesus, and Job, and Jonah, and Aaron, and Solomon; and to David\ngave we Psalms.\n\nOf some apostles we have told thee before: of other apostles we have not told\nthee-And discoursing did God discourse with Moses-\n\nApostles charged to announce and to warn, that men, after those apostles,\nmight have no plea against God. And God is Mighty, Wise!\n\nBut God is himself witness of what He hath sent down to thee: In His\nknowledge hath He sent it down to thee. The angels are also its witnesses:\nbut God is a sufficient witness!\n\nVerily, they who believe not and pervert from the way of God, have indeed\nerred with error wide of truth.\n\nVerily, those who believe not, and act wrongfully, God will never pardon, and\nnever will he guide them on path,\n\nThan the path to Hell, in which they shall abide for ever! And this is easy\nfor God.\n\nO men! now hath an apostle come to you with truth from your Lord. Believe\nthen, it will be better for you. But if ye believe not, then, all that is in\nthe Heavens and the Earth is God's; and God is Knowing, Wise!\n\nO ye people of the Book! overstep not bounds in your religion;31 and of God,\nspeak only truth. The Messiah, Jesus, son of Mary, is only an apostle of God,\nand his Word which he conveyed into Mary, and a Spirit32 proceeding from\nhimself. Believe therefore in God and his apostles, and say not, \"Three:\"\n(there is a Trinity)-Forbear-it will be better for you. God is only one God!\nFar be it from His glory that He should have a son! His, whatever is in the\nHeavens, and whatever is in the Earth! And God is a sufficient Guardian.\n\nThe Messiah disdaineth not to be a servant of God, nor do the angels who are\nnigh unto Him.\n\nAnd whoso disdaineth His service, and is filled with pride, God will gather\nthem all to Himself.\n\nAnd to those who believe and do the things that are right, will He pay them\ntheir due recompense, and out of His bounty will He increase them: but as for\nthose who are disdainful and proud, with a grievous chastisement will He\nchastise them;\n\nAnd none beside God shall they find to protect or to help them.\n\nO men! now hath a proof come to you from your Lord, and we have sent down to\nyou a clear light. As to those who believe in God and lay fast hold on Him,\nthese will He cause to enter into his mercy and grace, and along the straight\nway unto Himself will He guide them.\n\nThey will consult thee. SAY: God instructeth you as to distant kindred. If a\nman die childless, but have a sister, half what he shall have shall be her's;\nand if she die childless he shall be her heir. But if there be two sisters,\ntwo-third parts of what he shall have shall be theirs; and if there be both\nbrothers and sisters, the male shall have the portion of two females. God\nteacheth you plainly, that ye err not! God knoweth all things.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Most of the events alluded to in this Sura fall between the end of the\nthird and the close of the fifth year after the Flight to Medina.\n\n2 Muhammad assumed to himself the privilege of having a yet greater number of\nwives. But in doing so, he was probably actuated by a desire for male\noffspring. Chadijah was his only wife until quite a late period of his\ncareer. Comp. Arbah Turim. Ev. Hazaer 1, \"A man may marry many wives, for\nRabba saith it is lawful to do so, if he can provide for them. Nevertheless,\nthe wise men have given good advice, that a man should not marry more than\nfour wives.\" See also Yad Hachazakah Hilchoth Ishuth. 14, 3.\n\n3 Verses 8 and 12 are said by the commentators to have been revealed in\nconsequence of the complaints of Omm Kuhha that, in accordance with the ante-\nIslamitic custom, she had been excluded from any portion of her deceased\nhusband's property. The unsatisfactory nature of the Muhammadan traditions\nmay be inferred from the fact, that no less than six different names are\nassigned to him. It is, however, probable that these and similar laws\nrelative to inheritances were given at a time when many heads of families had\nfallen, as at Ohod, in battle. This remark applies to verses 33-45.\n\n4 Women found guilty of adultery and fornication were punished at the first\nrise of Islam, by being literally immured. But this was exchanged, in the\ncase of a maiden, for one year's banishment and 100 stripes; and in the case\nof a married woman, for stoning.\n\n5 What took place in the times of ignorance, previous to the revelation of\nthe Koran. See Freytag's Einl. p. 201, as to the incestuous nature of the\nante-Islamitic Arabian marriages.\n\n6 By marrying without means adequate to the support of a free wife, or by\nremaining single.\n\n7 From marrying slaves.\n\n8 Games of chance, usury, etc.\n\n9 By providing for them a home and the protection of a husband. Or, of that\nwhich God would have them care for.\n\n10 An undutiful child is very seldom heard of among the Egyptians, or the\nArabs in general. Sons scarcely ever sit, or sit, or eat, or smoke, in the\npresence of the father unless bidden to do so; and they often wait upon him\nand upon his guests at meals and on other occasions: they do not cease to act\nthus when they have become men. Lane's Mod. Egypt. vol. i. p. 69.\n\n11 The Koranic precepts as to prayer savour of Jewish origin. Thus, \"Prayer\nshould be said standing\" is a Rabbinic precept.-Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 240.-\nMisch.Berachoth 10-may be shortened in dangerous places, ib. iv. 10-is\nforbidden to the drunken, ib. 31, 2. Erubin, 64-and to the polluted;\nBerachoth iii. 4-and is to be preceded, in this case, by washings with water\nor sand. See Sura xvii. 110, note 2, p. 173. 1 Cor. xi. 21.\n\n12 The Jews and their Rabbis.\n\n13 See Sura [xci.] ii. 98.\n\n14 Lit. the companions of the sabbath. See [xci.] ii. 61.\n\n15 This refers to certain renegade Jews, who out of hatred against Muhammad,\nwent over to the Koreisch. See N\u00f6ldeke. p. 149.\n\n16 Lit. ripened.\n\n17 Mecca.\n\n18 And therefore a fit subject for plunder.\n\n19 Some of the Meccans after embracing Islam did not thoroughly break with\nthe infidels and fly their country. These persons were miraculously slain by\nangels at Bedr. Others suppose the angels to be Nakir and Monkir, who examine\nthe dead in the grave.\n\n20 That is, to what religion did ye belong?\n\n21 And therefore could not resist the unbelievers.\n\n22 Thus the Rabbins Tr. Berachoth, iv. 4, \"He that goeth in a dangerous place\nmay pray a short prayer.\"\n\n23 See Mischna Tr. Berachoth, 10.\n\n24 This verse is said to have been revealed when Muhammad was about to acquit\na Muslim who had committed theft, and laid the guilt at the door of a Jew.\nBut the particulars are given in a very contradictory manner. See N\u00f6ldeke, p.\n151.\n\n25 In allusion to an idolatrous and superstitious custom of the old Arabians.\n\n26 By the mutilation of slaves, branding their bodies, filing the teeth, etc.\n\n27 See Sura lxxxiv. 24, p. 47, note.\n\n28 Sura vi.\n\n29 See Sura [xci.] ii.7.\n\n30 Lit. one was made to appear to them like (Jesus). Comp. [xcvii.] iii.48.\nPhotius, Bibl. Cod. cxiv.says that the Apocr. Book, [Greek text]-This\nindividual according to the Basilidans was-Simon of Cyrene; according to the\nEvang. Barnab\u2018, Judas.-Mani, Ep. Fund. ap. Evodium: \"Princeps itaque\ntenebrarum cruci est affixus, idemque coronam spineam portavit.\"\n\n31 By believing too much, like the Christians who regarded Jesus as God; or\ntoo little, like the Jews who would not believe on Muhammad.\n\n32 That is, a Being possessing a Spirit.\n\n\nSURA LXV.-DIVORCE1 [CI.]\n\nMECCA.-12 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO PROPHET! when ye divorce women, divorce them at their special times. And\nreckon those times exactly, and fear God your Lord. Put them not forth from\ntheir houses, nor allow them to depart, unless they have committed a proven\nadultery. This is the precept of God; and whoso transgresseth the precept of\nGod, assuredly imperilleth his own self. Thou knowest not whether, after\nthis, God may not cause something new to occur which may bring you together\nagain.\n\nAnd when they have reached their set time, then either keep them with\nkindness, or in kindness part from them. And take upright witnesses from\namong you, and bear witness as unto God. This is a caution for him who\nbelieveth in God and in the latter day. And whoso feareth God, to him will He\ngrant a prosperous issue, and will provide for him whence he reckoned not\nupon it.\n\nAnd for him who putteth his trust in Him will God be all-sufficient. God\ntruly will attain his purpose. For everything hath God assigned a period.\n\nAs to such of your wives as have no hope of the recurrence of their times, if\nye have doubts in regard to them, then reckon three months, and let the same\nbe the term of those who have not yet had them. And as to those who are with\nchild, their period shall be until they are delivered of their burden. God\nwill make His command easy to him who feareth Him.\n\nThis is God's command which He hath sent down to you: Whoso feareth God, his\nevil deeds will He cancel and will increase his reward.\n\nLodge the divorced wherever ye lodge, according to your means; and distress\nthem not by putting them to straits. And if they are pregnant, then be at\ncharges for the them till they are delivered of their burden; and if they\nsuckle your children, then pay them their hire and consult among yourselves,\nand act generously: And if herin ye meet with obstacles, then let another\nfemale suckle for him.\n\nLet him who hath abundance of his abundance; let him, too, whose store is\nscanty, give of what God hath vouchsafed to him. God imposeth burdens only\naccording to the means which He hath given. God will cause ease to succeed\ndifficulties.\n\nHow many cities have turned aside from the command of their Lord and of his\napostles! Therefore did we reckon with them in a severe reckoning, and\nchastised them with a stern chastisement;\n\nAnd they tasted the harmfulness of their own conduct: and the end of their\nconduct was ruin.\n\nA vehement chastisement hath God prepared for them! Fear God, then, O ye men\nof understanding!2\n\nBelievers! Now hath God sent down to you a warning! a prophet, who reciteth\nto you the clear signs of God, that he may bring those who believe, and do\nthe things that are right, out of the darkness into the light. And-whoso\nbelieveth in God, and doeth the things that are right, God will cause them to\nenter the gardens beneath which the rivers flow, to remain therein for aye! A\ngoodly provision now hath God made for him.\n\nIt is God who hath created seven heavens and as many earths.3 The Divine\ncommand cometh down through them all, that ye may know that God hath power\nover all things, and that God in his knowledge embraceth all things!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 228, which this Sura is perhaps intended to\nsupplement. Wahidi and Beidhawi state that it was revealed on account of Ibn\nOmar who had divorced his wife at improper time, and was obliged to take her\nagain.\n\n2 In order to make good the rhyme, verse 10 ought to be continued to the end\nof the first clause of verse II.\n\n3 Lit. and of the earth, their likes. The style of this verse resembles that\nof the Meccan Suras. Hence, probably; a tradition in Omar ben Muhammad makes\nthe whole Sura Meccan.\n\n\nSURA LIX.-THE EMIGRATION [CII.]\n\nMEDINA.-24 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nALL that is in the Heavens and all that is on the Earth praiseth God! He, the\nMighty, the Wise!\n\nHe it is who caused the unbelievers among the people of the Book to quit\ntheir homes and join those who had EMIGRATED previously.1 Ye did not think\nthat they would quit them; and they on their part thought that their\nfortresses would protect them against God: But God came upon them whence they\nlooked not for Him, and cast such fear into their hearts that by their own\nhands as well as by the hands of the victorious believers they demolished\ntheir houses! Profit by this example ye who are men of insight!\n\nAnd were it not that God had decreed their exile, surely in this world would\nhe have chastised them: but in the world to come the chastisement of the fire\nawaiteth them.\n\nThis because they set them against God and his apostle; and whoso setteth him\nagainst God. . . . ! God truly is vehement in punishing.\n\nYour cutting down some of their palm trees and sparing others was by God's\npermission, and to put the wicked to shame.\n\nAfter the spoils of these Jews which God hath assigned to his apostle, ye\npressed not with horse or camel.2 But God giveth his apostles power over what\nhe will. God is Almighty.\n\nThe spoil taken from the people of the towns and assigned by God to his\napostle, belongeth to God, and to the apostle, and to his kindred, and to the\norphan, and to the poor, and to the wayfarer, that none of it may circulate\namong such of you only as are rich: What the apostle hath given you, take:\nWhat he hath refused you, refuse: And fear ye God, for God is severe in\npunishing.\n\nTo the poor refugees (Mohadjerin) also doth a part belong, who have been\ndriven from their homes and their substance, and who seek favour from God and\nhis goodwill, and aid God and his apostle. These are the men of genuine\nvirtue.\n\nThey of Medina who had been in possession of their abodes and embraced the\nfaith before them, cherish those who take refuge with them; and they find not\nin their breasts any desire for what hath fallen to their share: they prefer\nthem before themselves, though poverty be their own lot. And with such as are\npreserved from their own covetousness shall it be well.\n\nAnd they who have come after them into the faith say, \"O our Lord! forgive us\nand our brethren who have preceded us in the faith, and put not into our\nhearts ill-will against those who believe. O our Lord! thou verily art Kind,\nMerciful.\"\n\nHast thou not observed the disaffected saying to their unbelieving brethren3\namong the people of the Book, \"If ye be driven forth, we will go forth with\nyou; and in what concerneth you, never will we obey any one; and if ye be\nattacked we will certainly come to your help.\" But God is witness that they\nare liars.\n\nNo! if they were driven forth, they would not share their banishment; if they\nwere attacked they would not help them, or if they help them they will surely\nturn their backs: then would they remain unhelped.\n\nAssuredly the fear of you is more intense in their hearts than the fear of\nGod! This because they are a people devoid of discernment.\n\nThey (the Jews) will not fight against you in a body except in fenced towns\nor from behind walls. Mighty is their valour among themselves! thou thinkest\nthem united-but their hearts are divided. This for that they are a people who\nunderstand not.\n\nThey act like those who lately preceded them,4 who also tasted the result of\ntheir doings; and a grievous chastisement awaiteth them-\n\nLike Satan when he saith to a man, \"Be an infidel:\" and when he hath become\nan infidel, he saith, \"I share not thy guilt:5 verily, I fear God the Lord of\nthe Worlds.\"\n\nOf both, therefore, shall the end be that they dwell for ever in the fire:\nThis is the recompense of the evil doers.\n\nO ye who believe! fear God. And let every soul look well to what it sendeth\non before for the morrow. And fear ye God: Verily, God is cognisant of what\nye do.\n\nAnd be ye not like those who forget God, and whom He hath therefore caused to\nforget their proper selves. Such men are the evil doers.\n\nThe inmates of the Fire and the inmates of Paradise are not to be held equal.\nThe inmates of Paradise only shall be the blissful.\n\nHad we sent down this Koran on some mountain, thou wouldst certainly have\nseen it humbling itself6 and cleaving asunder for the fear of God. Such are\nthe parables we propose to men in order that they may reflect.\n\nHe is God beside whom there is no god. He knoweth things visible and\ninvisible: He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.\n\nHe is God beside whom there is no god: He is the King, the Holy, the\nPeaceful, the Faithful, the Guardian, the Mighty, the Strong, the Most High!\nFar be the Glory of God from that which they unite with Him!\n\nHe is God, the Producer, the Maker, the Fashioner! To Him are ascribed\nexcellent titles. Whatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth praiseth Him.\nHe is the Mighty, the Wise!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The Jews of Nadhir, three miles from Medina, had broken a treaty made with\nMuhammad, and in the month Rab\u0152 of the fourth year of the Hejira were\nbesieged by him and driven first to the Jews of Kainoka, who had emigrated\npreviously, under compulsion, after the battle of Bedr, and subsequently out\nof Arabia. Weil, Life of M. p.137.n.\n\n2 On which account these spoils were entirely assigned to Muhammad, and not\ndivided in the usual manner. See Sura [xcv.] viii. 42. Weil, p. 138, 184.\n\n3 To the Jews of the tribe of Nadhir.\n\n4 The idolaters slain at Bedr (Djal.) or the Jews of Kainoka, who had been\nplundered previously to those of Nadhir.\n\n5 Lit. I am clear of thee.\n\n6 This may be derived from the Rabbinical idea that Mount Sinai was chosen,\non account of its lowness, to be the scene of the revelation to Moses, in\norder to shew that God loves the humble.\n\n\nSURA XXXIII.-THE CONFEDERATES1 [CIII.]\n\nMEDINA.-73 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO PROPHET, fear thou God, and obey not the unbelievers and the hypocrites;-\nTruly God is Knowing, Wise:\n\nBut follow what is revealed to thee from thy Lord: Cognisant truly is He of\nall your actions-\n\nAnd put thou thy trust in God, for a sufficient guardian is God.\n\nGod hath not given a man two hearts within him; neither hath he made your\nwives whom ye divorce2 to be as your mothers; nor hath he made your adopted\nsons to be as your own sons. Such words are indeed in your mouths; but God\nspeaketh the truth, and in the right way He guideth.\n\nName them after their fathers: this will be more right before God. But if ye\nknow not who their fathers are, then let them be your brethren in the faith,\nand your comrades. And unless made with intent of heart, mistakes in this\nmatter shall be no crime in you: for God is Lenient, Merciful.\n\nNearer of kin to the faithful is the Prophet, than they are to their own\nselves. His wives are their mothers. According to the Book of God, they who\nare related by blood, are nearer the one to the other than other believers,\nand than those who have fled their country3 for the cause of God: but\nwhatever kindness ye shew to your kindred, shall be noted down in the Book.\n\nAnd remember that we have entered into covenant with the Prophets, and with\nthee, and with Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, Son of Mary: and we\nformed with them a strict covenant,\n\nThat God may question the men of truth as to their truth.4 But a sore torment\nhath He prepared for the unbelievers.\n\nO believers!5 remember the goodness of God towards you, when the armies came\nagainst you, and we sent against them a blast, and hosts that ye saw not; for\nthe eye of God was upon your doings:\n\nWhen they assailed you from above you, and from below you,6 and when your\neyes became distracted, and your hearts came up into your throat, and ye\nthought divers thoughts of God:\n\nThen were the faithful tried, and with strong quaking did they quake:\n\nAnd when the disaffected and the diseased7 of heart said, \"God and his\nApostle have made us but a cheating promise:\"\n\nAnd when a party of them said, \"O people of Yathrib!8 there is no place of\nsafety for you here;9 therefore return into the city.\" And another party of\nyou asked the prophet's leave to return, saying, \"Our houses are left\ndefenceless.\" No! they were not left defenceless: but their sole thought was\nto flee away.\n\nIf the enemy had effected an entry at all points, and they (the disaffected)\nhad been asked to promote confusion, they would have done so; but only a\nshort time would they have remained in it.-(Medina).10\n\nThey had before pledged themselves to God that they would not turn their\nbacks; and a pledge given to God must be enquired of.\n\nSAY: Flight shall not profit you; if ye have fled the death or the slaughter,\nyet even then, but a little while shall ye enjoy your good things!\n\nSAY: Who is he that will screen you from God, whether He choose to bring evil\non you, or to shew you mercy? None beside God shall they find to be their\npatron or helper.\n\nGod well knoweth those among you who cause hindrances, and those who say to\ntheir brethren, \"Come hither to us;\" and who come not to the fight except a\nlittle.\n\nIt is out of covetousness in your regard: for when an alarm cometh, thou\nmayest see them look to thee, and roll their eyes like him on whom the\nshadows of death have fallen! Yet, when the alarm is passed, with sharp\ntongues will they assail you, covetous of the best of the spoil. No faith\nhave these! God will make their doings of no avail! And easy is this with\nGod.\n\nThey thought that the CONFEDERATES would never retire:11 and were the\nconfederates to come again, they would fain be dwelling among the Arabs of\nthe desert, and there ask news about you! for though they were with you, they\nfought not except a little.\n\nA noble pattern had ye in God's Apostle, for all who hope in God, and in the\nlatter day, and oft remember God!\n\nAnd when the faithful saw the confederates, they said, \"This is what God and\nHis Apostle promised us,12 and God and His Apostle spoke truly:\" and it only\nincreased their faith and self-devotion.\n\nSome were there among the faithful who made good what they had promised to\nGod. Some have fulfilled their course, and others await its fulfilment, and\nhave not been changelings who change-\n\nThat God may reward the faithful for their faithfulness, and may punish the\nhypocrites, if He so please, or be turned unto them: for God is Forgiving,\nMerciful.\n\nAnd God drove back the infidels in their wrath; they won no advantage; God\nsufficed the faithful in the fight: for God is Strong, Mighty!\n\nAnd He caused those of the people of the Book (the Jews), who had aided the\nconfederates, to come down out of their fortresses, and cast dismay into\ntheir hearts: some ye slew, others ye took prisoners.13\n\nAnd He gave you their land, and their dwellings, and their wealth, for an\nheritage-even a land on which ye had never set foot: for the might of God is\nequal to all things.\n\nO Prophet! say to thy wives,14 If ye desire this present life and its\nbraveries, come then, I will provide for you, and dismiss you with an\nhonourable dismissal.\n\nBut if ye desire God and His Apostle, and a home in the next life, then,\ntruly, hath God prepared for those of you who are virtuous, a great reward.\n\nO wives of the Prophet! should any of you be guilty of a proven lewdness,\ndoubly shall her chastisement be doubled: and with God this is easy.\n\nBut whoever of you shall obey God and His Apostle, and shall do that which is\nright, twice over will we give her her reward, and we have prepared for her a\nnoble provision.\n\nO wives of the Prophet! ye are not as other women. If ye fear God, be not too\ncomplaisant of speech, lest the man of unhealthy heart should lust after you,\nbut speak with discreet speech.\n\nAnd abide still in your houses, and go not in public decked as in the days of\nyour former ignorance,15 but observe prayer, and pay the impost, and obey God\nand the Apostle: for God only desireth to put away filthiness from you16 as\nhis household, and with cleansing to cleanse you.\n\nAnd recollect what is rehearsed to you in your houses of the Book of God, and\nof wisdom: for God is keen-sighted, cognisant of all.\n\nTruly the men who resign themselves to God (Muslims), and the women who\nresign themselves, and the believing men and the believing women, and the\ndevout men and the devout women, and the men of truth, and the women of\ntruth, and the patient men and the patient women, and the humble men and the\nhumble women, and the men who give alms and the women who give alms, and the\nmen who fast and the women who fast, and the chaste men and the chaste women,\nand the men and the women who oft remember God: for them hath God prepared\nforgiveness and a rich recompense.\n\nAnd it is not for a believer, man or woman, to have any choice in their\naffairs, when God and His Apostle have decreed a matter: and whoever\ndisobeyeth God and His Apostle, erreth with palpable error.\n\nAnd, remember, when thou saidst to him unto whom God had shewn favour,17 and\nto whom thou also hadst shewn favour, \"Keep thy wife to thyself, and fear\nGod;\" and thou didst hide in thy mind what God would bring to light.18 and\nthou didst fear man; but more right had it been to fear God. And when Zaid\nhad settled concerning her to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it\nmight not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted\nsons, when they have settled the affair concerning them. And the behest of\nGod is to be performed.\n\nNo blame attacheth to the prophet where God hath given him a permission. Such\nwas the way of God with those prophets who flourished before thee; for God's\nbehest is a fixed decree-\n\nWho fulfilled the mission with which God had charged them,19 and feared Him,\nand feared none but God. And God taketh a sufficient account.\n\nMuhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the Apostle of\nGod, and the seal of the prophets: and God knoweth all things.\n\nO Believers! remember God with frequent remembrance, and praise Him morning\nand evening.\n\nHe blesseth you, and His angels intercede for you, that He may bring you\nforth out of darkness into light: and Merciful is He to the Believers.\n\nTheir greeting on the day when they shall meet Him shall be \"Peace!\" And He\nhath got ready for them a noble recompense.\n\nO Prophet ! we have sent thee to be a witness, and a herald of glad tidings,\nand a warner;\n\nAnd one who, through His own permission, summoneth to God, and a light-giving\ntorch.\n\nAnnounce, therefore, to believers, that great boons do await them from God;\n\nAnd obey not the Infidels and Hypocrites-yet abstain from injuring them: and\nput thou thy trust in God, for God is a sufficient guardian.\n\nO Believers! when ye marry believing women, and then divorce them before ye\nhave consummated the marriage, ye have no term prescribed you, which ye must\nfulfil towards them: provide for them, and dismiss them with a reputable\ndismissal.\n\nO Prophet! we allow thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the slaves\nwhom thy right hand possesseth out of the booty which God hath granted thee,\nand the daughters of thy uncle, and of thy paternal and maternal aunts who\nfled with thee to Medina, and any believing woman who hath given herself up\nto the Prophet, if the Prophet desired to wed her-a Privilege for thee above\nthe rest of the Faithful.\n\nWe well know what we have settled for them, in regard to their wives and to\nthe slaves whom their right hands hold, that there may be no fault on thy\npart:20 and God is Indulgent, Merciful!\n\nThou mayst decline for the present whom thou wilt of them, and thou mayest\ntake to thy bed her whom thou wilt, and whomsoever thou shalt long for of\nthose thou shalt have before neglected; and this shall not be a crime in\nthee. Thus will it be easier to give them the desire of their eyes, and not\nto put them to grief, and to satisfy them with what thou shalt accord to each\nof them. God knoweth what is in your hearts, and God is Knowing, Gracious.\n\nIt is not permitted thee to take other wives hereafter,21 nor to change thy\npresent wives for other women, though their beauty charm thee, except slaves\nwhom thy right hand shall possess.22 And God watcheth all things.\n\nO Believers! enter not into the houses of the Prophet,23 save by his leave,\nfor a meal, without waiting his time. When ye are invited then enter, and\nwhen ye have eaten then disperse at once.24 And engage not in familiar talk,\nfor this would cause the Prophet trouble, and he would be ashamed to bid you\ngo; but God is not ashamed to say the truth. And when ye would ask any gift\nof his wives, ask it from behind a veil. Purer will this be for your hearts\nand for their hearts. And ye must not trouble the Apostle of God, nor marry\nhis wives, after him, for ever. This would be a grave offence with God.\n\nWhether ye bring a matter to the light or hide it, God truly hath knowledge\nof all things.\n\nNo blame shall attach to them (your wives) for speaking to their fathers\nunveiled, or to their sons, or to their brothers, or to their brothers' sons,\nor to their sisters' sons, or to their women, or to the slaves whom their\nright hands hold. And fear ye God: for God witnesseth all things.\n\nVerily, God and His Angels bless the Prophet! Bless ye Him, O Believers, and\nsalute Him with salutations of Peace.\n\nVerily, they who affront God and His Apostle, the curse of God is on them in\nthis world, and in the world to come: and He hath prepared for them a\nshameful chastisement.\n\nAnd they who shall affront believing men and believing women, for no fault of\ntheirs, they shall surely bear the guilt of slander, and of a clear wrong.\n\nO Prophet! speak to thy wives and to thy daughters,25 and to the wives of the\nFaithful, that they let their veils fall low. Thus will they more easily be\nknown, and they will not be affronted. God is Indulgent, Merciful!\n\nIf the Hypocrites, and the men of tainted heart, and the stirrers of sedition\nin Medina desist not, we will surely stir thee up against them. Then shall\nthey not be suffered to dwell near thee therein, but a little while:\n\nCursed wherever they are found; they shall be seized and slain with\nslaughter!\n\nSuch hath been the way of God with those who lived before them; and no change\ncanst thou find in the way of God.\n\nMen will ask thee of \"the Hour.\" SAY: The knowledge of it is with God alone:\nand who can tell thee whether haply the Hour be not nigh at hand?\n\nVerily, God hath cursed the Infidels, and hath got ready for them the flame:\n\nFor aye shall they abide therein; none to befriend them, no helper shall they\nfind!\n\nOn the day when their faces shall be rolled in the fire, they shall cry: \"Oh!\nwould that we had obeyed God, and obeyed the Apostle!\"\n\nAnd they shall say: \"Oh our Lord! indeed we obeyed our chiefs and our great\nones, and they misled us from the way of God-\n\nO our Lord! give them a double chastisement, and curse them with a heavy\ncurse.\"\n\nO Believers! be not like those who affronted Moses.26 But God cleared him\nfrom what they said of him, and of God was he highly esteemed.\n\nO Believers! fear God, and speak with well-guided speech.\n\nThat God may bless your doings for you, and forgive you your sins. And whoso\nobeyeth God and His Apostle with great bliss shall be blessed.\n\nVerily, we proposed to the Heavens, and to the Earth, and to the Mountains to\nreceive the Faith, but they refused the burden, and they feared to receive\nit. Man undertook to bear it, but hath proved unjust, senseless!\n\nTherefore will God punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women,\nand the men and the women who join gods with God; but to the believing men\nand women will God turn him: for God is Indulgent, Merciful!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Medina was besieged, when this Sura was revealed, by certain confederate\ntribes at the instigation of the Jews, an. Hej. 5. The first nine verses,\nhowever, have no immediate reference to this event, but to Muhammad's\ncotemporary marriage with Zeinab. See below, verse 37.\n\n2 The Arabians had been accustomed, before the time of Muhammad, to divorce\ntheir wives with the words,-thy back be to me as the back of my mother. The\ndrift and motive of this passage is explained by verse 37 below. It had also\nbeen the custom to hold adopted sons to be as nearly related to them as their\nnatural ones. See Sura lviii. 2, p. 451.\n\n3 The Mohadjers-those who had emigrated with Muhammad from Mecca. This verse\nabrogates Sura [xcv.] viii. 73.\n\n4 How they have discharged their prophetic functions.\n\n5 Verses 9-33 have reference to the events of the year Hej. 5, towards the\nclose. See next note. His. 688; Waq. 4 f.\n\n6 In the engagement which took place under the walls of Medina, some of the\nenemy were posted on a height to the east of the city, others in a valley on\nthe west. The besiegers were 12,000, the Muslims 3,000 strong, when a violent\nstorm, which upset the tents, put out the camp fires, and blinded the eyes of\nthe confederates with sand, turned the scale of victory against them.\nMuhammad ascribes the storm to angelic agency.\n\n7 That is, with infidelity.\n\n8 The ancient name of El-Medina.\n\n9 In the trenches which had been dug around the city by the advice of Salm\u00e2n,\nthe Persian.\n\n10 They would speedily have quitted the city to attack the faithful in the\ntrenches.\n\n11 That is, raise the siege.\n\n12 That is, that through trials we should attain to Paradise, v. 29.\n\n13 After the siege of Medina had been raised, Muhammad made a successful\nexpedition against the Jews of Koreidha, for their treason and violation of\ntreaties.\n\n14 Muhammad's wives having caused him much annoyance by demands of rich\ndresses, etc., he gave them the choice of continuing with him as before, or\nof divorce. They chose the former. See Abulfeda's Hist. Moh. p. 77, and\nGagnier's Vie de Moh. i. 4, chap. ii.\n\n15 That is, Idolatry. Acts xvii. 30. Freytag (Einl. p. 453) thinks that\nprevious to Islam, the Arabian women went in public unveiled.\n\n16 The pronoun is in the pl. masc., whereas the pl. fem. is used in the\nprevious part of the verse. The partisans of Ali quote this passage to prove\nthe intimate union of Ali and his posterity with the Prophet.\n\n17 That is, to Zaid. The favour of God to Zaid consisted in having caused him\nto become a Muslim: the favour of Muhammad in adopting him as his son. Zaid\nand Abu Lahab (Sura cxi. p. 29) are the only contemporaries of Muhammad\nmentioned by name in the Koran.\n\n18 Thy plan to obtain Zeinab, or Zenobia, Zaid's wife, as thy wife.\n\n19 Lit, who brought the messages of God.\n\n20 If thou makest use of the special prerogative (conferred in verse 49).\n\n21 He had nine wives at this period, beside slaves. The number of wives\nallowed to the faithful is four. See note, p. 411. 22 The first slave whom\nMuhammad took to wife was Raihana, at the conquest of the Banu Koreidha. His.\n693. Weil, 170.\n\n23 Verses 53-55 refer to the conduct of the guests at Muhammad's house after\nhis marriage with Zeinab. Albuhari passim. Muslim i. 824 ff. Wah. Comp.\nCaussir, iii. 151.\n\n24 Ullmann, p. 263, quotes a similar precept from the Talmud, \"Do all that\nthe master of the house biddeth, but wait not to be asked to depart.\"\n\n25 This verse cannot be of later date than Hej. 8, when Muhammad's daughter\nOmm Kulthum died. leaving only Fatima.\n\n26 This may refer to the charge of adultery said by the Rabbins to have been\nbrought by Korah against Moses. Comp. Tr. Sanhedrin, fol. 110a. and Numbers\nxii. 1. The verse is said to have been revealed on account of aspersions\nthrown on Muhammad for unfairly dividing spoils, whereupon he said, \"God be\nmerciful to my brother Moses. He was wronged more than this, and bore it with\npatience.\"\n\n\nSURA LXIII.1-THE HYPOCRITES [CIV.]\n\nMEDINA.-11 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHEN the Hypocrites come to thee, they say, \"We bear witness that thou art\nthe Sent One of God.\" God knoweth that thou art His Sent One: but God beareth\nwitness that the HYPOCRITES do surely lie.\n\nTheir faith2 have they used as a cloak, and they turn aside others from the\nway of God! Evil are all their doings.\n\nThis, for that they believed, then became unbelievers!Therefore hath a seal\nbeen set upon their hearts, and they understand not.\n\nWhen thou seest them, their persons make thee marvel; and if they speak, thou\nlistenest with pleasure to their discourse. Like timbers are they leaning\nagainst a wall!3 They think that every shout is against them. They are\nenemies-Beware of them then-God do battle with them! How false are they!\n\nAnd when it is said to them, \"Come, the Apostle of God will ask pardon for\nyou,\" they turn their heads aside, and thou seest them withdraw in their\npride.\n\nAlike shall it be to them whether thou ask forgiveness for them, or ask it\nnot. By no means will God forgive them: God hath no guidance for a perverse\npeople.\n\nThese are they who say to you of Medina, \"Spend not aught upon those who are\nwith the Apostle of God, and they will be forced to quit him.\" Yet the\ntreasures of the Heavens and of the Earth are God's! But the Hypocrites have\nno understanding.\n\nThey say: \"If we return to the city, the mightier will assuredly drive out\nthe weaker from it.\" But might is with God, and with the Apostle, and with\nthe Faithful! Yet the Hypocrites understand not.\n\nO ye who believe! let not your wealth and your children delude you into\nforgetfulness of God. Whoever shall act thus, shall surely suffer loss.\n\nAnd expend in the cause of God out of that with which we have supplied you,\nere death surprise each one of you, and he say, \"O Lord! wilt thou not\nrespite me to a term not far distant, that I may give alms, and become one of\nthe just?\"\n\nAnd by no means will God respite a soul when its hour hath come! And God is\nfully cognisant of what ye do.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Revealed shortly after the expedition against the Banu 'l Mustaliq in Hej.\n6. See N\u00f6ld. p. 156 n. The \"Hypocrites\" mentioned in the later Suras are the\ndisaffected portion of the population of Medina, who covertly opposed the\nclaims of Muhammad to temporal authority over that city. They were gradually\nabsorbed, as the authority of Islam increased.\n\n2 Or, in accordance with another reading, oaths. Comp. Ps. cix. 18.\n\n3 Like timbers or joists supported in a wall or leaned against it, i.e.,\ntheir persons are bulky, but their hearts so hypocritical and cowardly that\nthey are afraid of the slightest noise. In the original, sa\u00efkat is perhaps an\nallusion to the shout of Gabriel, that is to exterminate the wicked.\n\n\nSURA XXIV.-LIGHT [CV.]\n\nMEDINA.-64 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nA SURA which we have sent down and sanctioned! Clear signs have we sent down\ntherein, that ye may take warning.\n\nThe whore and the whoremonger-scourge each of them with an hundred stripes;\nand let not compassion keep you from carrying out the sentence of God, if ye\nbelieve in God and the last day: And let some of the faithful witness their\nchastisement.1\n\nThe whoremonger shall not marry other than a whore or an idolatress; and the\nwhore shall not marry other than a whoremonger or an idolater. Such alliances\nare forbidden to the faithful.\n\nThey who defame virtuous women,2 and bring not four witnesses, scourge them\nwith fourscore stripes, and receive ye not their testimony for ever, for\nthese are perverse persons-\n\nSave those who afterwards repent and live virtuously; for truly God is\nLenient, Merciful!\n\nAnd they who shall accuse their wives, and have no witnesses but themselves,\nthe testimony of each of them shall be a testimony by God four times\nrepeated, that he is indeed of them that speak the truth.3\n\nAnd the fifth time that the malison of God be upon him, if he be of them that\nlie.\n\nBut it shall avert the chastisement from her if she testify a testimony four\ntimes repeated, by God, that he is of them that lie;\n\nAnd a fifth time to call down the wrath of God on her, if he have spoken the\ntruth.\n\nAnd but for the goodness and mercy of God towards you, and that God is He who\nloveth to turn, Wise . . . . !\n\nOf a truth, they who advanced that lie4 were a large number of you; but\nregard it not as an evil to you. No, it is an advantage to you.5 To every man\namong them shall it be done according to the offence he hath committed; and\nas to that person6 among them who took on himself to aggravate it, a sore\npunishment doth await him.\n\nDid not the faithful of both sexes, when ye heard of this, form a favourable\njudgment in their own minds, and say,\n\n\"This is a manifest lie?\"\n\nHave they brought four witnesses of the fact? If they cannot produce the\nwitnesses, they are the liars in the sight of God.\n\nAnd but for the goodness of God towards you, and His mercy in this world and\nin the next, a severe punishment had come upon you for that which ye spread\nabroad, when ye uttered with your tongues, and spake with your mouths that of\nwhich ye had no knowledge. Ye deemed it to be a light matter, but with God it\nwas a grave one.\n\nAnd did ye say when ye heard it, \"It is not for us to talk of this affair! O\nGod! By thy Glory, this is a gross calumny?\"\n\nGod hath warned you that ye go not back to the like of this for ever, if ye\nbe believers:\n\nAnd God maketh His signs clear to you: for God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nBut as for those who love that foul calumnies should go forth against those\nwho believe, a grievous chastisement awaits them\n\nIn this world and in the next. And God hath knowledge, but ye have not.\n\nAnd but for the goodness of God towards you and His Mercy, and that God is\nKind, Merciful . . . !\n\nO ye who believe! follow not the steps of Satan, for whosoever shall follow\nthe steps of Satan, he will enjoin on him what is base and blameworthy; and\nbut for the goodness of God towards you,7 and His mercy, no one of you had\nbeen cleansed for ever: but God maketh whom He will to be clean, and God\nHeareth, Knoweth.\n\nAnd let not persons of wealth and means among you swear that they will not\ngive to their kindred, to the poor, and to those who have fled their homes in\nthe cause of God; let them rather pardon and pass over the offence.8 Desire\nye not that God should forgive you? And God is Gracious, Merciful!\n\nVerily, they who throw out charges against virtuous but careless women, who\nyet are believers, shall be cursed in this world and in the world to come;\nand a terrible punishment doth await them.\n\nTheir own tongues, and hands, and feet, shall one day bear witness against\nthem of their own doings.9\n\nOn that day will God pay them their just due, and they shall know that God is\nthe clear Truth itself.\n\nBad women for bad men, and bad men for bad women; but virtuous women for\nvirtuous men, and virtuous men for virtuous women! These shall be cleared\nfrom calumnies; theirs shall be forgiveness and an honourable provision.\n\nO ye who believe! enter not into other houses10 than your own, until ye have\nasked leave, and have saluted its inmates. This will be best for you: haply\nye will bear this in mind.\n\nAnd if ye find no one therein, then enter it not till leave be given you; and\nif it be said to you, \"Go ye back,\" then go ye back. This will be more\nblameless in you, and God knoweth what ye do.\n\nThere shall be no harm in your entering houses in which no one dwelleth, for\nthe supply of your needs: and God knoweth what ye do openly and what ye hide.\n\nSpeak unto the believers that they restrain their eyes and observe\ncontinence. Thus will they be more pure. God is well aware of what they do.\n\nAnd speak to the believing women that they refrain their eyes, and observe\ncontinence; and that they display not their ornaments, except those which are\nexternal; and that they throw their veils over their bosoms, and display not\ntheir ornaments, except to their husbands or their fathers, or their\nhusbands' fathers, or their sons, or their husbands' sons, or their brothers,\nor their brothers' sons, or their sisters' sons, or their women, or their\nslaves, or male domestics who have no natural force, or to children who note\nnot women's nakedness. And let them not strike their feet together, so as to\ndiscover their hidden ornaments.11 And be ye all turned to God, O ye\nBelievers! that it may be well with you.\n\nAnd marry those among you who are single, and your good servants, and the\nhandmaidens. If they are poor, God of His bounty will enrich them. God is\nall-bounteous, Knowing.\n\nAnd let those who cannot find a match12 live in continence till God of His\nbounty shall enrich them. And to those of your slaves who desire a deed of\nmanumission, execute it for them, if ye know good in them, and give them a\nportion of the wealth of God which He hath given you.13 Force not your female\nslaves into sin, in order that ye may gain the casual fruitions of this\nworld, if they wish to preserve their modesty. Yet if any one compel them,\nthen Verily to them, after their compulsion, will God be Forgiving, Merciful.\n\nAnd now have we sent down to you clear signs, and an instance from among\nthose who flourished before you, and a caution for the God-fearing.14\n\nGod is the LIGHT of the Heavens and of the Earth. His Light is like a niche\nin which is a lamp-the lamp encased in glass-the glass, as it were, a\nglistening star. From a blessed tree is it lighted, the olive neither of the\nEast nor of the West, whose oil would well nigh shine out, even though fire\ntouched it not! It is light upon light. God guideth whom He will to His\nlight, and God setteth forth parables to men, for God knoweth all things.\n\nIn the temples which God hath allowed to be reared, that His name may therein\nbe remembered, do men praise Him morn and even.\n\nMen whom neither merchandise nor traffic beguile from the remembrance of God,\nand from the observance of prayer, and the payment of the stated alms,\nthrough fear of the day when hearts shall throb and eyes shall roll:\n\nThat for their most excellent works may God recompense them, and of His\nbounty increase it to them more and more: for God maketh provision for whom\nHe pleaseth without measure.\n\nBut as to the infidels, their works are like the vapour in a plain which the\nthirsty dreameth to be water, until when he cometh unto it, he findeth it not\naught, but findeth that God is with him; and He fully payeth him his account:\nfor swift to take account is God:\n\nOr like the darkness on the deep sea when covered by billows riding upon\nbillows, above which are clouds: darkness upon darkness. When a man reacheth\nforth his hand, he cannot nearly see it! He to whom God shall not give light,\nno light at all hath he!\n\nHast thou not seen how all in the Heavens and in the Earth uttereth the\npraise of God?-the very birds as they spread their wings? Every creature\nknoweth its prayer and its praise! and God knoweth what they do.\n\nGod's, the Kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth: and unto God the final\nreturn!\n\nHast thou not seen that God driveth clouds lightly forward, then gathereth\nthem together, then pileth them in masses? And then thou seest the rain\nforthcoming from their midst; and He causeth clouds like mountains charged\nwith hail, to descend from the heaven, and He maketh it to fall on whom He\nwill, and from whom He will He turneth it aside.-The brightness of His\nlightning all but taketh away the sight!\n\nGod causeth the day and the night to take their turn. Verily in this is\nteaching for men of insight. And God hath created every animal of water.15\nSome go upon the belly; some go upon two feet; some go upon four feet. God\nhath created what He pleased. Aye, God hath power over all things.\n\nNow have we sent down distinct signs.-And God guideth whom He will into the\nright path:\n\nFor there are who say \"We believe on God and on the Apostle, and we obey;\"\nyet, after this, a part of them turn back.16 But these are not of the\nfaithful.\n\nAnd when they are summoned before God and His Apostle that He may judge\nbetween them, lo! a part of them withdraw:\n\nBut had the truth been on their side, they would have come to Him, obedient.\n\nWhat! are they diseased of heart? Do they doubt? Are they afraid that God and\nHis Apostles will deal unfairly with them? Nay, themselves are the unjust\ndoers.\n\nThe words of the believers, when called to God and His Apostle that He may\njudge between them, are only to say, \"We have heard, and we obey:\" these are\nthey with whom it shall be well.\n\nAnd whoso shall obey God, and His Apostle, and shall dread God and fear Him,\nthese are they that shall be the blissful.\n\nAnd they have sworn by God, with a most solemn oath, that if thou give them\nthe word, they will certainly march forth. Say: swear ye not: of more worth\nis obedience. Verily, God is well aware of what ye do.\n\nSAY: Obey God and obey the Apostle. Suppose that ye turn back, still the\nburden of his duty is on him only, and the burden of your duty rests on you.\nIf ye obey Him, ye shall have guidance: but plain preaching is all that\ndevolves upon the Apostle.\n\nGod hath promised to those of you who believe and do the things that are\nright, that He will cause them to succeed others in the land, as He gave\nsuccession to those who were before them, and that He will establish for them\nthat religion which they delight in, and that after their fears He will give\nthem security in exchange. They shall worship Me: nought shall they join with\nMe: And whoso, after this, believe not, they will be the impious.\n\nBut observe prayer, and pay the stated alms, and obey the Apostle, that haply\nye may find mercy.\n\nLet not the Infidels think that they can weaken God on His own Earth: their\ndwelling place shall be the Fire! and right wretched the journey!\n\nO ye who believe! let your slaves, and those of you who have not come of age,\nask leave of you, three times a day, ere they come into your presence;-before\nthe morning prayer, and when ye lay aside your garments at mid-day, and after\nthe evening prayer. These are your three times of privacy. No blame shall\nattach to you or to them, if after these times, when ye go your rounds of\nattendance on one another, they come in without permission. Thus doth God\nmake clear to you His signs: and God is Knowing, Wise!\n\nAnd when your children come of age, let them ask leave to come into your\npresence, as they who were before them asked it. Thus doth God make clear to\nyou his signs: and God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nAs to women who are past childbearing, and have no hope of marriage, no blame\nshall attach to them if they lay aside their outer garments, but so as not to\nshew their ornaments. Yet if they abstain from this, it will be better for\nthem: and God Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nNo crime17 shall it be in the blind, or in the lame, or in the sick, to eat\nat your tables: or in yourselves, if ye eat in your own houses, or in the\nhouses of your fathers, or of your mothers, or of your brothers, or of your\nsisters, or of your uncles on the father's side, or of your aunts on the\nfather's side, or of your uncles on the mother's side, or of your aunts on\nthe mother's side, or in those of which ye possess the keys, or in the house\nof your friend. No blame shall attach to you whether ye eat together or\napart.\n\nAnd when ye enter houses, salute one another with a good and blessed greeting\nas from God. Thus doth God make clear to you His signs, that haply ye may\ncomprehend them.\n\nVerily, they only are believers who believe in God and His Apostle, and who,\nwhen they are with him upon any affair of common interest, depart not until\nthey have sought his leave. Yes, they who ask leave of thee, are those who\nbelieve in God and His Apostle. And when they ask leave of Thee on account of\nany affairs of their own, then grant it to those of them whom thou wilt, and\nask indulgence for them of God: for God is Indulgent, Merciful.\n\nAddress not the Apostle as ye address one another.18 God knoweth those of you\nwho withdraw quietly from the assemblies, screening themselves behind others.\nAnd let those who transgress his command beware, lest some present trouble\nbefall them, or a grievous chastisement befall them, hereafter.\n\nIs not whatever is in the Heavens and the Earth God's? He knoweth your state;\nand one day shall men be assembled before Him, and He will tell them of what\nthey have done: for God knoweth all things.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 With this verse commences the reference to the scandal against Ayesha, to\nwhich verses 6-9 read like a later addition. See His. 731 ff. Albuhari,\npassim. Muslim ii. 628 ff. Tirm. 524. Tabari and Weil, p. 151.\n\n2 Said to refer to Hilal ben Umaiya (Muslim i. 886. Tirm. 523. Annasai, 409\nf. Assamarq.) who had accused his wife of adultery. Two of these\ncommentators, however, give the name of another Muslim as the person\nintended.\n\n3 Comp. Numb. v. ii, 31, with which Muhammad must have been acquainted.\n\n4 The rumour of improper intimacy between Ayesha and Safwan Ibn El Moattal,\nduring Muhammad's return from the expedition against the tribe of Mostaliq\n(an. Hej. 9), in which he was separated from her for an entire day, which she\npassed in the company of Safwan, who had found her when accidentally left\nbehind. Verses 4-26 were revealed shortly after the return.\n\n5 Whose characters are cleared.\n\n6 Abdallah Ibn Obba. (Abulf. p. 83.)\n\n7 Comp. verse 10, 11 (n.).\n\n8 Abubekr had been desirous to punish one of his relatives, Mestah, who had\npropagated the scandal against Ayesha, by refusing him gifts or alms.\n\n9 \"The very members of a man shall testify against him, for thus we read\n(Jer. xliii. 12), Ye are yourselves my witnesses saith the Lord.\" Chagiga,\n16. Thaanith, 11a.\n\n10 It was the custom in Arabia, before Islam, to enter houses without\npermission. Freyt. Einl. p. 216.\n\n11 That is, the anklets. Comp. Isai. iii. 16, 18\n\n12 On account of poverty.\n\n13 Comp. Deut. xv. 12 15.\n\n14 The meaning probably is, that the scandal raised against Ayesha resembled\nthe scandal in the case of Joseph in Egypt, and of the Virgin Mary, detailed\nin previous suras.\n\n15 An idea perhaps derived from Gen. i. 20, 21. Comp. Tr. Cholin, fol. 27a.\n\n16 Verses 46-56 obviously refer to a period, perhaps that between the battle\nof Ohod and the end of the war of the Ditch, when Muhammad's prospects were\noverclouded and the confidence of his followers shaken.\n\n17 This verse was intended to relieve the scruples of the Muslims, who.\nfollowing the superstitious customs of the Arabs, thought that they ought not\nto admit the blind, etc. to their tables, to eat alone, or in a house of\nwhich they were entrusted with the key, etc.\n\n18 Lit. make not the calling of the Apostle among you, like the calling of\nsome of you to others, i.e., address him by some respectful and honourable\ntitle. Thus in the Talmud, \"It is forbidden to a disciple to call his Rabbi\nby name even when he is not in his presence;\" and again: \"Neither is he to\nsalute his Rabbi, nor to return his salutation, in the same way that\nsalutations are given and returned among friends.\" \"Whoever despises the wise\nmen hath no portion in the world to come.\" See Hilchoth Torah, c.5.\n\n\nSURA LVIII.-SHE WHO PLEADED [CVI.]\n\nMEDINA.-22 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nGod hath heard the words of HER1 WHO PLEADED with thee against her husband,\nand made her plaint to God; and God hath heard your mutual intercourse: for\nGod Heareth, Beholdeth.\n\nAs to those of you who put away their wives by saying, \"Be thou to me as my\nmother's back\" their mothers2 they are not; they only are their mothers who\ngave them birth! they certainly say a blameworthy thing and an untruth:\n\nBut truly, God is Forgiving, Indulgent.\n\nAnd those who thus put away their wives, and afterwards would recall their\nwords, must free a captive before they can come together again. To this are\nye warned to conform: and God is aware of what ye do.\n\nAnd he who findeth not a captive to set free, shall fast two months in\nsuccession before they two come together. And he who shall not be able to do\nso, shall feed sixty poor men. This, that he may believe in God and His\nApostle. These are the statutes of God: and for the unbelievers is an\nafflictive chastisement!\n\nTruly they who oppose God and His Apostle shall be brought low, as those who\nwere before them were brought low. And now have we sent down demonstrative\nsigns: and, for the Infidels is a shameful chastisement.\n\nOn the day when God shall raise them all to life, and shall tell them of\ntheir doings. God hath taken count of them, though they have forgotten them!\nand God is witness over all things.\n\nDost thou not see that God knoweth all that is in the Heavens and all that is\nin the Earth? Three persons speak not privately together, but He is their\nfourth; nor five, but He is their sixth; nor fewer nor more, but wherever\nthey be He is with them. Then on the day of resurrection He will tell them of\ntheir deeds: for God knoweth all things.\n\nHast thou not marked those who have been forbidden secret talk, and return to\nwhat they have been forbidden, and talk privately together with wickedness,\nand hate, and disobedience towards the Apostle? And when they come to thee,\nthey greet thee not as God greeteth thee:3 and they say among themselves,\n\"Why doth not God punish us for what we say?\" Hell shall be their meed:4 they\nshall be burned at its fire: and a wretched passage thither!\n\nO Believers! when ye hold private converse together, let it not be with\nwickedness, and hate, and disobedience towards the Apostle; but let your\nprivate talk be with justice and the fear of God: aye, fear ye God unto whom\nye shall be gathered!\n\nOnly of Satan is this clandestine talk, that he may bring the faithful to\ngrief: but, unless by God's permission, not aught shall he harm them! in God\nthen let the faithful trust.\n\nO ye who believe! when it is said to you, \"Make room in your assemblies,\"\nthen make ye room. God will make room for you in Paradise! And when it is\nsaid to you, \"Rise up,\" then rise ye up. God will uplift those of you who\nbelieve, and those to whom \"the Knowledge\" is given, to lofty grades! and God\nis cognisant of your actions.\n\nO ye who believe! when ye go to confer in private with the Apostle, give alms\nbefore such conference. Better will this be for you, and more pure. But if ye\nhave not the means, then truly God is Lenient, Merciful.\n\nDo ye hesitate to give alms previously to your private conference? Then if ye\ndo it not (and God will excuse it in you), at least observe prayer, and pay\nthe stated impost, and obey God and His Apostle: for God is cognisant of your\nactions.\n\nHast thou not remarked those who make friends of that people with whom God is\nangered? They are neither of your party nor of theirs; and they swear to a\nlie,5 knowing it to be such.\n\nGod hath got ready for them a severe torment: for, evil is that they do.\n\nThey make a cloak of their faith, and turn others aside from the way of God:\nwherefore a shameful torment awaiteth them.\n\nNot at all shall their wealth or their children avail them aught against God.\nCompanions shall they be of the fire: they shall abide therein for ever.\n\nOn the day when God shall raise them all, they will swear to Him as they now\nswear to you, deeming that it will avail them.  Are they not-yes they-the\nliars?\n\nSatan hath gotten mastery over them, and made them forget the remembrance of\nGod. These are Satan's party. What! shall not verily the party of Satan be\nfor ever lost.\n\nVerily, they who oppose God and His Apostle shall be among the most vile. God\nhath written this decree: \"I will surely prevail, and my Apostles also.\"\nTruly God is Strong, Mighty.\n\nThou shalt not find that any of those who believe in God, and in the last\nday, love him who opposeth God and His Apostle, even though they be their\nfathers, or their sons, or their brethren, or their nearest kin. On the\nhearts of these hath God graven the Faith, and with His own Spirit hath He\nstrengthened them; and He will bring them into gardens, beneath whose shades\nthe rivers flow, to remain therein eternally. God is well pleased in them,\nand they in Him. These are God's party! Shall not, of a truth, a party of God\nbe for ever blessed?\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Khaula, daughter of Thalaba, who had been divorced by the formula in verse\n2, which was understood among the Arabs to imply perpetual separation. This\nMuhammad had asserted in her case; but in consequence of the woman's prayers,\netc., a relaxation of the law, on fulfilment of the conditions mentioned in\nverses 4, 5, was hereby allowed. None of the earlier traditions fix any date\nfor this Sura, though later authorities (Weil, 184) fix the end of Hej. 6, or\nthe beginning of Hej. 7.-The subject matter is in part similar to that of\nSura xxiv.\n\n2 See Sura [ciii.] xxxiii. 4.\n\n3 Instead of saying, Es-salam aleika, \"Peace be on thee,\" the Infidels and\nJews said, Es-sam aleika, \"a plague, or poison on thee.\" See Geiger, p. 18.\n\n4 Lit. sufficiency.\n\n5 The Jews swear that they are Muslims.\n\n\nSURA XXII.-THE PILGRIMAGE [CVII.]\n\nMEDINA.1-78 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO MEN of Mecca, fear your Lord. Verily, the earthquake of the last Hour will\nbe a tremendous thing!\n\nOn the day when ye shall behold it, every suckling woman shall forsake her\nsucking babe; and every woman that hath a burden in her womb shall cast her\nburden; and thou shalt see men drunken, yet are they not drunken: but it is\nthe mighty chastisement of God!\n\nThere is a man2 who, without knowledge, wrangleth about God, and followeth\nevery rebellious Satan;\n\nConcerning whom it is decreed, that he shall surely beguile and guide into\nthe torment of the Flame, whoever shall take him for his Lord.\n\nO men! if ye doubt as to the resurrection, yet, of a truth, have We created\nyou of dust, then of the moist germs of life, then of clots of blood, then of\npieces of flesh shapen and unshapen, that We might give you proofs of our\npower! And We cause one sex or the other, at our pleasure, to abide in the\nwomb until the appointed time; then We bring you forth infants; then permit\nyou to reach your age of strength; and one of you dieth, and another of you\nliveth on to an age so abject that all his former knowledge is clean\nforgotten!3 And thou hast seen the earth dried up and barren: but when We\nsend down the rain upon it, it stirreth and swelleth, and groweth every kind\nof luxuriant herb.\n\nThis, for that God is the Truth, and that it is He who quickeneth the dead,-\nand that He hath power over everything:\n\nAnd that \"the Hour\" will indeed come-there is no doubt of it-and that God\nwill wake up to life those who are in the tombs.\n\nA man there is who disputeth about God without knowledge or guidance or\nenlightening Book,\n\nTurning aside in scorn to mislead others from the way of God! Disgrace shall\nbe his in this world; and on the day of the resurrection, We will make him\ntaste the torment of the burning:-\n\n\"This, for thy handywork of old! for God is not unjust to His servants.\"\n\nThere are some who serve God in a single point. If good come upon one of\nthem, he resteth in it; but if trial come upon him, he turneth him round (to\ninfidelity) with the loss both of this world and of the next! This same is\nthe clear ruin!\n\nHe calleth upon that beside God which can neither hurt him nor profit him.\nThis same is the far-gone error!\n\nHe calleth on him who would sooner hurt than profit him. Surely, bad the\nlord, and, surely, bad the vassal!\n\nBut God will bring in those who shall believe and do the things that are\nright, into gardens 'neath which the rivers flow: for God doth that which He\npleaseth.\n\nLet him who thinketh that God will not help His Apostle in this world and in\nthe next, stretch a cord aloft as if to destroy himself; then let him cut it,\nand see whether his devices can bring that4 to nought at which he was angry!\n\nThus send we down the Koran with its clear signs (verses): and because God\nguideth whom He pleaseth.\n\nAs to those who believe, and the Jews, and the Sabeites,5 and the Christians,\nand the Magians, and those who join other gods with God, of a truth, God\nshall decide between them on the day of resurrection: for God is witness of\nall things.\n\nSeest thou not that all in the Heavens and all on the Earth adoreth God? the\nsun and the moon and the stars, and the mountains, and the trees, and the\nbeasts, and many men? But of many is chastisement the due:\n\nAnd whom God shall disgrace there shall be none to honour: God doth that\nwhich pleaseth Him.\n\nThese, the Faithful and the Infidels, are the two disputants who dispute\nconcerning their Lord: but for those who have disbelieved, garments of fire\nshall be cut out; the boiling water shall be poured down upon their heads:\n\nAll that is in their bowels, and their skins, shall be dissolved: and there\nare maces of iron for them!\n\nSo oft as they, for very anguish, would fain come forth thence, back shall\nthey be turned into it: and-\"Taste ye the torment of the burning.\"\n\nBut God will bring in those who shall have believed, and done the things that\nare right, into gardens 'neath which the rivers flow. Adorned shall they be\ntherein with golden bracelets and with pearls, and their raiment therein\nshall be of silk;\n\nFor they were guided to the best of words; guided to the glorious path!\n\nBut those who believe not, and seduce others from the way of God, and from\nthe Holy Mosque which we have appointed to all men, alike for those who abide\ntherein, and for the stranger;\n\nAnd those who seek impiously to profane it, we will cause to taste a grievous\npunishment.\n\nAnd call to mind when we assigned the site of the House6 to Abraham and said:\n\"Unite not aught with Me in worship, and cleanse My House for those who go in\nprocession round it, and who stand or bow in worship:\"-\n\nAnd proclaim to the peoples a PILGRIMAGE: Let them come to thee on foot and\non every fleet7 camel, arriving by every deep defile:\n\nThat they may bear witness of its benefits to them, and may make mention of\nGod's name on the appointed days,8 over the brute beasts with which He hath\nsupplied them for sustenance: Therefore eat thereof yourselves, and feed the\nneedy, the poor:\n\nThen let them bring the neglect of their persons to a close,9 and let them\npay their vows, and circuit the ancient House.\n\nThis do. And he that respecteth the sacred ordinances of God, this will be\nbest for him with his Lord. The flesh of cattle is allowed you, save of those\nalready specified to you. Shun ye, therefore, the pollutions of idols; and\nshun ye the word of falsehood;\n\nSound in faith Godward, uniting no god with Him; for whoever uniteth gods\nwith God, is like that which falleth from on high, and the birds snatch it\naway, or the wind wafteth it to a distant place.\n\nThis do. And they who respect the rites of God, perform an action which\nproceedeth from piety of heart.\n\nYe may obtain advantages from the cattle up to the set time for slaying them:\nthen, the place for sacrificing them is at the ancient House.\n\nAnd to every people have we appointed rites, that they may commemorate the\nname of God over the brute beasts which He hath provided for them. And your\nGod is the one God. To Him, therefore, surrender yourselves: and bear thou\ngood tidings to those who humble them,-\n\nWhose hearts, when mention is made of God, thrill with awe; and to those who\nremain steadfast under all that be-falleth them, and observe prayer, and give\nalms of that with which we have supplied them.\n\nAnd the camels have we appointed you for the sacrifice to God: much good have\nye in them. Make mention, therefore, of the name of God over them when ye\nslay them, as they stand in a row; and when they are fallen over on their\nsides, eat of them, and feed him who is content and asketh not, and him who\nasketh. Thus have We subjected them to you, to the intent ye should be\nthankful.10\n\nBy no means can their flesh reach unto God, neither their blood; but piety on\nyour part reacheth Him. Thus hath He subjected them to you, that ye might\nmagnify God for His guidance: moreover, announce to those who do good deeds-\n\nThat God will ward off mischief from believers: for God loveth not the false,\nthe Infidel.\n\nA sanction is given to those who, because they have suffered outrages, have\ntaken up arms; and verily, God is well able to succour them:\n\nThose who have been driven forth from their homes wrongfully, only because\nthey say \"Our Lord is the God.\" And if God had not repelled some men by\nothers, cloisters, and churches, and oratories, and mosques, wherein the name\nof God is ever commemorated, would surely have been destroyed. And him who\nhelpeth God will God surely help:11 for God is right Strong, Mighty:-\n\nThose who, if we establish them in this land, will observe prayer, and pay\nthe alms of obligation, and enjoin what is right, and forbid what is evil.\nAnd the final issue of all things is unto God.\n\nMoreover, if they charge thee with imposture, then already, before them, the\npeople of Noah, and Ad and Themoud, and the people of Abraham, and the people\nof Lot, and the dwellers in Madian, have charged their prophets with\nimposture! Moses, too, was charged with imposture! And I bore long with the\nunbelievers; then seize on them: and how great was the change I wrought!\n\nAnd how many cities which had been ungodly, and whose roofs are now laid low\nin ruin, have We destroyed! And wells have been abandoned and lofty castles!\n\nHave they not journeyed through the land? Have they not hearts to understand\nwith, or ears to hear with? It is not that to these sights their eyes are\nblind, but the hearts in their breasts are blind!\n\nAnd they will bid thee to hasten the chastisement. But God cannot fail His\nthreat. And verily, a day with thy Lord is as a thousand years,12 as ye\nreckon them!\n\nHow many cities have I long borne with, wicked though they were, yet then\nlaid hold on them to chastise them! Unto Me shall all return.\n\nSAY: O men! I am only your open warner:\n\nAnd they who believe and do the things that are right, shall have forgiveness\nand an honourable provision;\n\nBut those who strive to invalidate our signs shall be inmates of Hell.\n\nWe have not sent any apostle or prophet before thee, among whose desires\nSatan injected not some wrong desire, but God shall bring to nought that\nwhich Satan had suggested. Thus shall God affirm His revelations13 for God is\nKnowing, Wise!\n\nThat He may make that which Satan hath injected, a trial to those in whose\nhearts is a disease, and whose hearts are hardened.-Verily, the wicked are in\na far-gone severance from the truth!-\n\nAnd that they to whom \"the Knowledge\" hath been given, may know that the\nKoran is the truth from thy Lord, and may believe in it, and their hearts may\nacquiesce in it: for God is surely the guider of those who believe, into the\nstraight path.\n\nBut the Infidels will not cease to doubt concerning it, until \"the Hour\" come\nsuddenly upon them, or until the chastisement of the day of desolation come\nupon them.\n\nOn that day the Kingdom shall be God's: He shall judge between them: and they\nwho shall have believed and done the things that are right, shall be in\ngardens of delight:\n\nBut they who were Infidels and treated our signs as lies-these then-their's a\nshameful chastisement!\n\nAnd as to those who fled their country for the cause of God, and were\nafterwards slain, or died, surely with goodly provision will God provide for\nthem! for verily, God! He, surely, is the best of providers!\n\nHe will assuredly bring them in with an in-bringing that shall please them\nwell: for verily, God is right Knowing, Gracious.\n\nSo shall it be. And whoever in making exact reprisal for injury done him,\nshall again be wronged, God will assuredly aid him: for God is most Merciful,\nGracious.\n\nSo shall it be; for that God causeth the night to enter in upon the day, and\nHe causeth the day to enter in upon the night: and for that God Heareth,\nSeeth.\n\nSo shall it be, for that God is the truth; and because what they call on\nbeside Him is vanity: and because God is the Lofty, the Mighty!\n\nSeest thou not that God sendeth down water from Heaven, and that on the\nmorrow the earth is clad with verdure? for God is benignant, cognisant of\nall.\n\nHis, all in the Heavens and all on Earth: and verily, God! He assuredly is\nthe Rich, the Praiseworthy!\n\nSeest thou not that God hath put under you whatever is in the earth; and the\nships which traverse the sea at His bidding? And He holdeth back the heaven\nthat it fall not on the earth, unless He permit it! for God is right Gracious\nto mankind, Merciful.\n\nAnd He it is who hath given you life, then will cause you to die, then will\ngive you life-of a truth man is all ungrateful.\n\nTo every people have we appointed observances which they observe. Therefore,\nlet them not dispute this matter with thee, but bid them to thy Lord, for\nthou art on the right way:\n\nBut if they debate with thee, then Say: God best knoweth what ye do!\n\nGod will judge between you on the day of resurrection, as to the matters\nwherein ye differ.\n\nKnowest thou not that God knoweth whatever is in the Heaven and on the Earth?\nThis truly is written in the Book: this truly is easy for God.\n\nThey worship beside God, that for which He hath sent down no warranty, and\nthat of which they have no knowledge: but for those who commit this wrong, no\nhelper!\n\nAnd when our clear signs are rehearsed to them, thou mayst perceive disdain\nin the countenances of the Infidels. Scarce can they refrain from rushing to\nattack those who rehearse our signs to them! SAY: Shall I tell you of worse\nthan this? The fire which God hath threatened to those who believe not!\nWretched the passage thither!\n\nO men! a parable is set forth to you, wherefore hearken to it. Verily, they\non whom ye call beside God, cannot create a fly, though they assemble for it;\nand if the fly carry off aught from them, they cannot take it away from it!\nWeak the suppliant and the supplicated!\n\nUnworthy the estimate they form of God!14 for God is right Powerful, Mighty!\n\nGod chooseth messengers from among the angels and from among men: verily, God\nHeareth, Seeth.\n\nHe knoweth what is before them and what is behind them; and unto God shall\nall things return.\n\nBelievers! bow down and prostrate yourselves and worship your Lord, and work\nrighteousness that you may fare well.\n\nAnd do valiantly in the cause of God as it behoveth you to do for Him. He\nhath elected you, and hath not laid on you any hardship in religion, the\nFaith of your father Abraham. He hath named you the Muslims\n\nHeretofore and in this Book, that the Apostles may be a witness against you,\nand that ye may be witnesses against the rest of mankind. Therefore observe\nprayer, and pay the legal impost, and cleave fast to God. He is your liege\nLord-a goodly Lord, and a goodly Helper!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura is generally said to have been revealed at Mecca,-but this is\nprobably only the case with verses 1-24; 43-56; 60-65; 67-75. Mr. Muir places\nit at the close of the Meccan Suras of the fifth period. See N\u00f6ld, p. 158.\n\n2 Said to be Abu Jahl. See Sura xcvi. p. 20, n. 2.\n\n3 Lit. so that after knowledge he knoweth not aught.\n\n4 The teachings and progress of Islam.\n\n5 See Sura [xci.] ii. 59. The Sabeites were probably Hanyfs. See Pref.\n\n6 The Kaaba. Sharastani informs us that there was an opinion prevalent among\nthe Arabs, that the walking round the Kaaba, and other ceremonies, were\nsymbolic of the motion of the planets and of other astronomical facts.\nWatwat, Mabahij al Fikr., Lib. i., c. 2, says that \"most Arabic tribes were\noriginally star-worshippers, Sabeans. The people of Saba worshipped the Sun,\nthe tribes of Asad and Kaninah the Moon, etc. etc. At a later period they all\nsunk into idolatry, and in the time of Muhammad, the idols round the Kaaba\namounted to 360.\"\n\n7 Lit. thin, with the implied sense of fleet.\n\n8 The ten first days of the Dhu'lhajja. For the ceremonies, see Freytag's\nEinleitung, p. 418; Burton's Pilgrimage, vol. iii.; Sale's Notes and Prelim.\nDisc.\n\n9 That is, the uncut beards, nails, etc.\n\n10 Offerings of animals are by no means confined to Mecca and the Pilgrimage.\n\"It is not uncommon,\" says Mr. Lane, \"without any definite view but that of\nobtaining general blessings, to make vows (of animals): and sometimes a\npeasant vows that he will sacrifice, for the sake of a saint, a calf which he\npossesses, as soon as it is grown and fatted. It is let loose, by consent of\nall his neighbours, to pasture where it will, even in fields of young wheat;\nand at last, after it has been sacrificed, a public feast is made of its\nmeat. Many a large bull is thus given away.\" Modern Egyptians, i. 307.\nCompare Dr. Gobat's Abyssinia, p. 294, 7, for similar customs among\nChristians of probably Arabian extraction. Five or six thousand animals are\nsaid to have been slain in the valley of Mina by the pilgrims of the year\n1854. (See Lieut. Burton's Pilgrimage, iii. p. 313.) The victim is considered\nby the devout as an expression of their conviction that death is their desert\nat the hands of God.\n\n11 See Ibn Batoutah, iv. 106. (Par. ed.)\n\n12 Comp. Sur. xxxii. 4, p. 190.\n\n13 The ayats, signs or verses of the Koran. It is said by tradition that\nMuhammad was consoled by this revelation for the Satanic suggestion mentioned\nSur. liii. 20, p. 70 (n.). But in this view of the text, for among whose\ndesires, or affections, we should render when he recited.\n\n14 Lit. they measure not God with truth of His measurement.\n\n\nSURA XLVIII.-THE VICTORY [CVIII.]\n\nMEDINA.-29 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nVerily, We have won for thee an undoubted VICTORY1-\n\nIn token that God forgiveth thy earlier and later faults, and fulfilleth His\ngoodness to thee, and guideth thee on the right way,\n\nAnd that God succoureth thee with a mighty succour.\n\nHe it is who sendeth down a spirit of secure repose into the hearts of the\nfaithful that they might add faith to their faith; (for God's are the armies\nof the Heavens and of the Earth: and God is Knowing, Wise:)\n\nAnd that He may bring the believing men and the believing women into gardens\n'neath whose trees the rivers flow, to dwell therein for ever, and that He\nmay cancel their evil deeds: for this is the great bliss with God:\n\nAnd that He may punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women, and\nthe men and women who join other gods with God, and think evil thoughts of\nHim. Theirs shall be a round of evil; and God is angry with them and curseth\nthem, and hath prepared Hell for them: and, an evil journey thither!\n\nThe armies of the Heavens and of the Earth are God's, and God is Mighty,\nWise!\n\nVerily, we have sent thee to be a witness and a herald of good (an\nannouncer), and a warner,\n\nThat ye may believe on God and on His Apostle; and may assist Him, and honour\nHim, and praise him, morning and evening.\n\nIn truth, they who plighted fealty to thee, really plighted that fealty to\nGod: the hand of God was over their hands! Whoever, therefore, shall break\nhis oath shall only break it to his own hurt; but whoever shall be true to\nhis engagement with God, He will give him a great reward.\n\nThe Arabs who took not the field with you,2 will say to thee,3 \"We were\nengaged with our property and our families; therefore ask thou pardon for\nus.\" They speak with their tongues what is not in their hearts. SAY: And who\ncan have any power over God in your behalf, whether he will you some loss, or\nwhether he will you an advantage? Yes, God is acquainted with your doings.\n\nBut ye thought that the Apostle and the faithful could never more come back\nto their families; and your hearts were pleased at this; and ye thought an\nevil thought of this expedition, and ye became an undone people:\n\nFor, whoso believeth not in God, and His Apostle. . . .  Verily, we have got\nready the flame for the Infidels!\n\nAnd God's is the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth: Whom He will He\nforgiveth, and whom He will He punisheth: and God is Gracious, Merciful!\n\nThey who took not the field with you will say, when ye go forth to the spoil\nto take it, \"Let us follow you.\" Fain would they change the word of God.4\nSAY: Ye shall by no means follow us: thus hath God said already. They will\nsay, \"Nay, ye are jealous of us.\" Nay! they are men of little understanding.\n\nSAY to those Arabs of the desert, who took not the field, ye shall be called\nforth against a people of mighty valour. Ye shall do battle with them, or\nthey shall profess Islam. If ye obey, a goodly recompense will God give you;\nbut if ye turn back, as ye turned back aforetime, He will chastise you with a\nsore chastisement.\n\nIt shall be no crime on the part of the blind, the lame, or the sick, if they\ngo not to the fight. But whoso shall obey God and His Apostle, he shall bring\nhim into the gardens 'neath which the rivers flow: but whoso shall turn back,\nHe will punish him with a sore punishment.\n\nWell pleased now hath God been with the believers when they plighted fealty\nto thee under the tree;5 and He knew what was in their hearts: therefore did\nHe send down upon them a spirit of secure repose, and rewarded them with a\nspeedy victory,\n\nAnd with the rich booty which they took: for God is Mighty, Wise!\n\nGod promised you the taking of a rich booty6 and sped it to you; and He\nwithheld men's hands from you, for a sign to the faithful, and that He might\nguide you along the right way:-\n\nAnd other booty, over which ye have not yet had power: but now hath God\ncompassed them for you; for God is over all things Potent.\n\nIf the Infidels shall fight against you, they shall assuredly turn their\nbacks; then, neither protector nor helper shall they find!\n\nSuch is God's method carried into effect of old; no change canst thou find in\nGod's mode of dealing.\n\nAnd He it was who held their hands from you and your hands from them in the\nvalley of Mecca,7 after that He had given you the victory over them: for God\nsaw what ye did.\n\nThese are they who believed not, and kept you away from the sacred Mosque, as\nwell as the offering which was prevented from reaching the place of\nsacrifice. And had it not been that ye would have trodden down believers,\nboth men and women, whom ye knew not, so that a crime might have lighted on\nyou without your knowledge on their account, and that God would bring whom He\nwill within His mercy, this would have been otherwise ordered. Had they been\napart,8 we had surely punished such of them as believed not, with a sore\npunishment.\n\nWhen the unbelievers had fostered rage in their hearts-the rage of ignorance\n(of heathens)-God sent down His peace on His Apostle and on the faithful, and\nstablished in them the word of piety, for they were most worthy and deserving\nof it: and God knoweth all things.\n\nNow hath God in truth made good to His Apostle the dream9 in which he said,\n\"Ye shall surely enter the sacred Mosque, if God will, in full security,\nhaving your heads shaved and your hair cut: ye shall not fear; for He knoweth\nwhat ye know not; and He hath ordained you, beside this, a speedy victory.\"\n\nIt is He who hath sent His Apostle with \"the Guidance,\" and the religion of\ntruth, that He may exalt it above every religion. And enough for thee is this\ntestimony on the part of God.\n\nMuhammad is the Apostle of God; and his comrades are vehement against the\ninfidels, but full of tenderness among themselves. Thou mayst see them bowing\ndown, prostrating themselves, imploring favours from God, and His acceptance.\nTheir tokens10 are on their faces, the marks of their prostrations. This is\ntheir picture in the Law, and their picture in the Evangel:11 they are as the\nseed which putteth forth its stalk; then strengtheneth it, and it groweth\nstout, and riseth upon its stem,12 rejoicing the husbandman-that the infidels\nmay be wrathful at them. To such of them as believe and do the things that\nare right, hath God promised forgiveness and a noble recompense.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura was probably revealed shortly after the peace of Hudaibiya. Ann.\nHej. 6. Some commentators, however, understand the Victory of the taking of\nMecca two years-later the preterite being used in the prophetic style for the\nfuture-others of the taking of Chaibar, or Muta (?), a town of the Roman\nempire.\n\n2 Lit. were left behind.\n\n3 On the return to Medina. See Weil's Leben M. p. 173 (n.).\n\n4 The law relative to booty, viz. that those who were not at Hudaibiya should\nhave no share in the booty to be obtained from the Jews at Chaibar. Muhammad\nmarched against them in Hej. 7.\n\n5 When the rumour reached Muhammad at Hudaibiya that Othman Ibn Affan, whom\nhe had sent to inform the Meccans that he was merely coming to visit their\ntemple, and with peaceable intentions, had been slain by them.\n\n6 At Chaibar.\n\n7 The valley of Mecca may mean Hudaibiya. But the commentators explain this\nverse of different events. It probably, however, refers to the 50 (according\nto Djalalein 80) prisoners whom Muhammad dismissed freely at Hudaibiya.\n\n8 Had the believers been separate from the infidels.\n\n9 This dream Muhammad had at Medina, before he set out for al Hudaibiya. His\nfollowers expected its fulfilment within the year, but when the truce\nfrustrated their hopes, this verse was revealed to pacify them.\n\n10 Dust from the pavement. The Muhammadans who say their prayers on carpets\noften place little bricks before them which they touch in prostration with\ntheir forehead.\n\n11 Comp. Mark iv. 28.\n\n12 Lit. legs.\n\n\nSURA LXVI.-THE FORBIDDING [CIX.]\n\nMEDINA.-12 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHY,1 O Prophet! dost thou hold that to be FORBIDDEN which God hath made\nlawful to thee, from a desire to please thy wives, since God is Lenient,\nMerciful?\n\nGod hath allowed you release from your oaths; and God is your master: and He\nis the Knowing, Wise.\n\nWhen the prophet told a recent occurrence as a secret to one of his wives,\nand when she divulged it and God informed him of this, he acquainted her with\npart and withheld part.2 And when he had told her of it, she said, \"Who told\nthee this?\" He said, \"The Knowing, the Sage hath told it me.\n\n\"If ye both be turned to God in penitence, for now have your hearts gone\nastray . . . .3 but if ye conspire against the Prophet, then know that God is\nhis Protector, and Gabriel, and every just man among the faithful; and the\nangels are his helpers besides.\n\n\"Haply if he put you both away, his Lord will give him in exchange other\nwives better than you, Muslims, believers, devout, penitent, obedient,\nobservant of fasting, both known of men and virgins.\"\n\nO Believers! save yourselves and your families from the fire whose fuel is\nmen and stones, over which are set angels fierce and mighty: they disobey not\nGod in what He hath commanded them, but execute His behests.\n\nO ye Infidels! make no excuses for yourselves this day; ye shall surely be\nrecompensed according to your works.\n\nO Believers! turn to God with the turning of true penitence; haply your Lord\nwill cancel your evil deeds, and will bring you into the gardens 'neath which\nthe rivers flow, on the day when God will not shame the Prophet, nor those\nwho have shared his faith: their light shall run before them, and on their\nright hands! they shall say, \"Lord perfect our light, and pardon us: for thou\nhast power over all things.\"\n\nO Prophet! make war on the infidels and hypocrites, and deal rigorously with\nthem. Hell shall be their abode! and wretched the passage to it!\n\nGod setteth forth as an example to unbelievers the wife of Noah and the wife\nof Lot; they were under two of our righteous servants, both of whom they\ndeceived: but their husbands availed them nought against God: and it shall be\nsaid \"Enter ye into the fire with those who enter.\"\n\nGod also holdeth forth to those who believe the example of the wife of\nPharaoh,4 when she said, \"Lord, build me an house with thee in Paradise, and\ndeliver me from Pharaoh and his doings; and deliver me from the wicked:\"\n\nAnd Mary, the daughter of Imran, who kept her maidenhood, and into whose\nwomb5 we breathed of our spirit, and who believed in the words of her Lord\nand His Scriptures, and was one of the devout.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The first verses of this Sura were revealed (Hej. 7.) on occasion of\nMuhammad's reviving affection for Mary, a Copt slave sent him by the governor\nof Egypt, from whom he had recently (verse 3) sworn to his wife Hafsa to\nseparate entirely. Hafsa, who had been greatly incensed at their amour, of\nwhich Muhammad had himself informed her, communicated the matter in\nconfidence to Ayesha, from whose altered manner, probably, the prophet found\nthat his secret had been betrayed. To free Muhammad from his obligation to\nHafsa was the object of this chapter.\n\n2 Muhammad withheld the fact that Ayesha, as well as God, was his informant,\nbut taxed Hafsa with not having kept his secret.\n\n3 Supply God will pardon you.\n\n4 Asia, a name, perhaps, corrupted from that of Pharaoh's daughter Bithiah. 1\nChron. iv.18.\n\n5 See Sura xxi. 91. Lit. quae rimam suam tuita est, in quam (rimam)\ninflavimus Spiritus nostri partem. Thus Beidh.\n\n\nSURA1 LX.-SHE WHO IS TRIED [CX.]\n\nMEDINA.-13 Versus\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO YE who believe! take not my foe2 and your foe for friends, shewing them\nkindness, although they believe not that truth which hath come to you: they\ndrive forth the Apostles and yourselves because ye believe in God your Lord!\nIf ye go forth to fight on my way, and from a desire to please me, and shew\nthem kindness in private, I well know what ye conceal, and what ye discover!\nWhoso doth this hath already gone astray from the even way.\n\nIf they meet with you they will prove your foes: hand and tongue will they\nput forth for your hurt, and will desire that you become infidels again.\n\nNeither your kindred nor your children shall at all avail you on the day of\nthe resurrection. A severance between you will it make! and your actions doth\nGod behold.\n\nA good example had ye in Abraham,3 and in those who followed him, when they\nsaid to their people, \"Verily, we are clear of you, and of what ye worship\nbeside God: we renounce you: and between us and hath hatred and enmity sprung\nup for ever, until ye believe in God alone.\" Yet imitate not the language of\nAbraham to his Father, \"I will pray for thy forgiveness, but not aught shall\nI obtain for thee from God.\"4 O our Lord! in thee do we trust! to thee do we\nturn! to thee we shall come back at the last.\n\nO our Lord! expose us not for trial to the unbelievers, and forgive us: for\nthou art the Mighty, the Wise!\n\nA good example had ye in them, for all who hope in God and in the last day.\nBut let who will turn back, God truly is the Rich, the Praiseworthy!\n\nGod will, perhaps, establish good will between yourselves and those of them\nwhom ye take to be your enemies:5 God is Powerful: and God is Gracious,\nMerciful.\n\nGod doth not forbid you to deal with kindness and fairness toward those who\nhave not made war upon you on account of your religion, or driven you forth\nfrom your homes: for God loveth those who act with fairness.>Only doth God\nforbid you to make friends of those who, on account of your religion, have\nwarred against you, and have driven you forth from your homes, and have aided\nthose who drove you forth: and whoever maketh friends of them are wrong-\ndoers.\n\nO Believers!6 when believing women come over to you as refugees (Mohadjers),\nthen make TRIAL of them. God best knoweth their faith; but if ye have also\nascertained their faith, let them not go back to the infidels; they are not\nlawful for them, nor are the unbelievers lawful for these women. But give\nthem back what they have spent for their dowers. No crime shall it be in you\nto marry them, provided ye give them their dowers. Do not retain any right in\nthe infidel women, but demand back what you have spent for their dowers, and\nlet the unbelievers demand back what they have spent for their wives.7 This\nis the ordinance of God which He ordaineth among you: and God is Knowing,\nWise.\n\nAnd if any of your wives escape from you to the Infidels from whom ye\nafterwards take any spoil, then give to those whose wives shall have fled\naway, the like of what they shall have spent for their dowers; and fear God\nin whom ye believe.\n\nO Prophet! when believing women come to thee, and pledge themselves that they\nwill not associate aught with God, and that they will not steal or commit\nadultery, nor kill their children, nor bring scandalous charges,8 nor disobey\nthee in what is right, then plight thou thy faith to them, and ask pardon for\nthem of God: for God is Indulgent, Merciful!\n\nO Believers! enter not into amity with those against whom God is angered;\nthey despair of the life to come, even as the Infidels despair of the inmates\nof the tombs.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Revealed probably as far as verse 9 (Ramadhan Hej. 8) shortly before the\ntaking of Mecca.\n\n2 Haleb (?) Ben Abu Baltaa had informed the Koreisch of an intended surprise\nof Mecca on the part of Muhammad, with the view of making terms for his own\nfamily who had been left there. The offence was pardoned, but the revelation\nwas nevertheless published with the view of preventing similar acts of\ntreachery in future.\n\n3 Speaking of the representatives of the different religious systems\nprevalent in the Roman Empire, as Orpheus, Abraham, Christ, Apollonius of\nTyana, enshrined among the household deities of Alexander Severus, Mr. Milman\nremarks (Hist. of Christianity, ii. p. 231) that \"It is singular that\nAbraham, rather than Moses, was placed at the head of Judaism: it is possible\nthat the traditionary sanctity which attached to the first parent of the\nJewish people, and of many of the Arab tribes, and which was afterwards\nembodied in the Koran, was floating in the East, and would comprehend, as it\nwere, the opinions, not only of the Jews, but of a much wider circle of the\nSyrian natives.\"\n\n4 Sura [cxiii.] ix. 115.\n\n5 That is, by their conversion hereafter.\n\n6 Said (see N\u00f6ld. p. 163) to have been revealed at, or shortly after, the\npeace of Hudaibiya. According to the terms then agreed upon, a mutual\nrestitution of property was to take place.\n\n7 Who are converted to Islam.\n\n8 Lit. with a calumny which they have devised between their hands and their\nfeet. Said to have been revealed at the taking of Mecca. Tab. Beidh.\n\n\nSURA1 CX.-HELP [CXI.]\n\nMEDINA.-3 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nWHEN the HELP of God and the victory arrive,\n\nAnd thou seest men entering the religion of God by troops;\n\nThen utter the praise of thy Lord, implore His pardon; for He loveth to turn\nin mercy.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 This Sura was revealed at the taking of Mecca, and is supposed to have\ngiven Muhammad warning of his death.\n\n\nSURA XLIX.-THE APARTMENTS [CXII.]\n\nMEDINA.-18 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO BELIEVERS! enter not upon any affair ere God and His Apostle1 permit you;\nand fear ye God: for God Heareth, Knoweth.2\n\nO Believers! raise not your voices above the voice of the Prophet, neither\nspeak loud to him as ye speak loud one to another, lest your works come to\nnought, and ye unaware of it.\n\nThey who lower their voices in the presence of the Apostle of God, are the\npersons whose hearts God hath inclined to piety. Forgiveness shall be theirs\nand a rich reward.\n\nThey who call out to thee while thou art within3 thine APARTMENTS, have most\nof them no right perception of what is due to thee.\n\nBut if they wait patiently till thou come forth to them, it were far better\nfor them. But God is Indulgent, Merciful.\n\nO Believers! if any bad man4 come to you with news, clear it up at once, lest\nthrough ignorance ye harm others, and speedily have to repent of what ye have\ndone.\n\nAnd know that an Apostle of God is among you! should he give way to you in\nmany matters ye would certainly become guilty of a crime. But God hath\nendeared the faith to you, and hath given it favour in your hearts, and hath\nmade unbelief, and wickedness, and disobedience hateful to you. Such are they\nwho pursue a right course.\n\nThrough the bounty and grace which is from God: and God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nIf two bodies of the faithful are at war, then make ye peace between them:5\nand if the one of them wrong the other, fight against that party which doth\nthe wrong, until they come back to the precepts of God: if they come back,\nmake peace between them with fairness, and act impartially; God loveth those\nwho act with impartiality.\n\nOnly the faithful are brethren; wherefore make peace between your brethren;\nand fear God, that ye may obtain mercy.\n\nO Believers! let not men laugh men to scorn who haply may be better than\nthemselves; neither let women laugh women to scorn who may haply be better\nthan themselves!6 Neither defame one another, nor call one another by\nnicknames. Bad is it to be called wicked after having professed the faith:7\nand whoso repent not of this are doers of wrong.\n\nO Believers! avoid frequent suspicions, for some suspicions are a crime; and\npry not: neither let the one of you traduce another in his absence. Would any\none of you like to eat the flesh of his dead brother? Surely ye would loathe\nit. And fear ye God: for God is Ready to turn, Merciful.\n\nO men! verily, we have created you of a male and a female; and we have\ndivided you into peoples and tribes that ye might have knowledge one of\nanother. Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of God is he who\nfeareth Him most.8 Verily, God is Knowing, Cognisant.\n\nThe Arabs of the desert9 say, \"We believe.\" Say thou: Ye believe not; but\nrather say, \"We profess Islam;\" for the faith hath not yet found its way into\nyour hearts. But if ye obey God and His Apostle, he will not allow you to\nlose any of your actions: for God is Indulgent, Merciful.\n\nThe true believers are those only who believe in God and His Apostle, and\nafterwards doubt not; and who contend with their substance and their persons\non the path of God. These are the sincere.\n\nSAY: Will ye teach God about your religion? when God knoweth whatever is in\nthe Heavens and on the Earth: yea, God hath knowledge of all things.\n\nThey taunt thee with their having embraced Islam.10 SAY: Taunt me not with\nyour having embraced Islam: God rather taunteth you with His having guided\nyou to the faith: acknowledge this if ye are sincere.\n\nVerily, God knoweth the secrets of the Heavens and of the Earth: and God\nbeholdeth what ye do.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 Or anticipate not, take not the lead of God and His Apostle.\n\n2 All the ancient Interpreters (as His. 933 ff., Ibn Sa'd. 320, Tab. Ag\u00e2n\u00ed.\n116 f.-comp. also Weil 244 ff., Caussin, iii. 271) refer from 1-5 to the\ndisrespectful demeanour, in Muhammad's presence, of the envoys of the Banu\nTamim in Hej. 9 or 10.\n\n3 Lit. from without.\n\n4 The commentators mentioned in the last note, as well as others, explain\nthis verse of Al Walid ben Uqba, who had brought a false report of the\nrefusal of the Banu'lmustaliq to pay certain alms which Muhammad had sent him\nto demand. This Al Walid became governor of Kufa under Othman. He probably\nwas never really converted to Islam.\n\n5 Upon this passage 91-2, die Muslimen, says N\u00f6ldeke, verschiedene\nGeschichten erz\u00e4hlen, so dass sich Nichts sicher bestimmen I\u00e4sst, p. 164.\nThis remark applies to the great mass of Muhammadan comment.\n\n6 Said to refer to Safia, one of Muhammad's wives. who had been taunted by\nhis other wives with being a Jewess.\n\n7 Lit. Bad the name, wickedness, after faith.\n\n8 That is, not the most nobly born, like the Koreisch. This verse is said to\nhave been revealed in Mecca on the day of its conquest. See Weil, Leben,\np.372, and n.\n\n9 The Ban\u00fb Asad had come to Medina in a year of famine to seek support for\nthemselves and families, and made profession of Islamism. Beidh.-Thus, also\nIbn Sad. Tabari. Wah.\n\n10 As if by so doing they had conferred a favour on the Prophet.\n\n\nSURA IX.1-IMMUNITY [CXIII.]\n\nMEDINA.-130 Verses\n\nAn IMMUNITY from God and His Apostle to those with whom ye are in league,\namong the Polytheist Arabs! (those who join gods with God).\n\nGo ye, therefore, at large in the land four months: but know that God ye\nshall not weaken;2 and that those who believe not, God will put to shame-\n\nAnd a proclamation on the part of God and His Apostle to the people on the\nday of the greater pilgrimage, that God is free from any engagement with the\nvotaries of other gods with God as is His Apostle! If, therefore, ye turn to\nGod it will be better for you; but if ye turn back, then know that ye shall\nnot weaken God: and to those who believe not, announce thou a grievous\npunishment.\n\nBut this concerneth not those Polytheists with whom ye are in league, and who\nshall have afterwards in no way failed you, nor aided anyone against you.\nObserve, therefore, engagement with them through the whole time of their\ntreaty: for God loveth those who fear Him.\n\nAnd when the sacred months3 are passed, kill those who join other gods with\nGod wherever ye shall find them; and seize them, besiege them, and lay wait\nfor them with every kind of ambush: but if they shall convert, and observe\nprayer, and pay the obligatory alms, then let them go their way, for God is\nGracious, Merciful.\n\nIf any one of those who join gods with God ask an asylum of thee, grant him\nan asylum, that he may hear the Word of God, and then let him reach his place\nof safety. This, for that they are people devoid of knowledge.\n\nHow shall they who add gods to God be in league with God and with His\nApostle, save those with whom ye made a league at the sacred temple? So long\nas they are true to you, be ye true to them; for God loveth those who fear\nHim.\n\nHow can they? since if they prevail against you, they will not regard in you\neither ties of blood or faith. With their mouths will they content you, but\ntheir hearts will be averse. The greater part of them are perverse doers.\n\nThey sell the signs of God for a mean price, and turn others aside from his\nway: evil is it that they do!\n\nThey regard not in a believer either ties of blood or faith; these are the\ntransgressors!\n\nYet if they turn to God and observe prayer, and pay the impost, then are they\nyour brethren in religion. We make clear our signs to those who understand.\n\nBut if, after alliance made, they break their oaths and revile your religion,\nthen do battle with the ring-leaders of infidelity-for no oaths are binding\nwith them that they may desist.\n\nWhat! will ye not fight against those Meccans who have broken their oaths and\naimed to expel your Apostle, and attacked you first? Will ye dread them? God\nis more worthy of your fear, if ye are believers!\n\nSo make war on them: By your hands will God chastise them, and will put them\nto shame, and will give you victory over them, and will heal the bosoms of a\npeople who believe;\n\nAnd will take away the wrath of their hearts. God will be turned unto whom He\nwill: and God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nThink ye that ye shall be forsaken as if God did not yet know those among you\nwho do valiantly, and take none for their friends beside God, and His\nApostle, and the faithful? God is well apprised of your doings.\n\nIt is not for the votaries of other gods with God, witnesses against\nthemselves of infidelity, to visit the temples of God. These! vain their\nworks: and in the fire shall they abide for ever!\n\nHe only should visit the temples of God who believeth in God and the last\nday, and observeth prayer, and payeth the legal alms, and dreadeth none but\nGod. These haply will be among the rightly guided.\n\nDo ye place the giving drink to the pilgrims, and the visitation of the\nsacred temple,4 on the same level with him who believeth in God and the last\nday, and fighteth on the way of God? They shall not be held equal by God: and\nGod guideth not the unrighteous.\n\nThey who have believed, and fled their homes, and striven with their\nsubstance and with their persons on the path of God, shall be of highest\ngrade with God: and these are they who shall be happy!\n\nTidings of mercy from Himself, and of His good pleasure, doth their Lord send\nthem, and of gardens in which lasting pleasure shall be theirs;\n\nTherein shall they abide for ever; for God! with Him is a great reward.\n\nO Believers! make not friends of your fathers or your brethren if they love\nunbelief above faith: and whoso of you shall make them his friends, will be\nwrong doers.\n\nSAY: If your fathers, and your sons, and your brethren, and your wives, and\nyour kindred, and the wealth which ye have gained, and merchandise which ye\nfear may be unsold, and dwellings wherein ye delight, be dearer to you than\nGod and His Apostle and efforts on his Path, then wait until God shall\nHimself enter on His work:5 and God guideth not the impious.\n\nNow hath God helped you in many battlefields, and, on the day of Honein,6\nwhen ye prided yourselves on your numbers; but it availed you nothing; and\nthe earth, with all its breadth, became too straight for you:7 then turned ye\nyour backs in flight:\n\nThen did God send down His spirit of repose8 upon His Apostle, and upon the\nfaithful, and He sent down the hosts which ye saw not, and He punished the\nInfidels: This, the Infidels' reward!\n\nYet, after this, will God be turned to whom He pleaseth; for God is Gracious,\nMerciful!\n\nO Believers! only they who join gods with God are unclean! Let them not,\ntherefore, after this their year, come near the sacred Temple. And if ye fear\nwant,9 God, if He please, will enrich you of His abundance: for God is\nKnowing, Wise.\n\nMake war upon such of those to whom the Scriptures have been given as believe\nnot in God, or in the last day, and who forbid not that which God and His\nApostle have forbidden, and who profess not the profession of the truth,\nuntil they pay tribute out of hand,10 and they be humbled.11\n\nThe Jews say, \"Ezra (Ozair) is a son of God\";12 and the Christians say, \"The\nMessiah is a son of God.\" Such the sayings in their mouths! They resemble the\nsaying of the Infidels of old! God do battle with them! How are they\nmisguided!\n\nThey take their teachers, and their monks, and the Messiah, son of Mary, for\nLords13 beside God, though bidden to worship one God only. There is no God\nbut He! Far from His glory be what they associate with Him!\n\nFain would they put out God's light with their mouths: but God only desireth\nto perfect His light, albeit the Infidels abhor it.\n\nHe it is who hath sent His Apostle with the Guidance and a religion of the\ntruth, that He may make it victorious14 over every other religion, albeit\nthey who assign partners to God be averse from it.\n\nO Believers! of a truth, many of the teachers and monks do devour man's\nsubstance in vanity, and turn them from the Way of God. But to those who\ntreasure up gold and silver and expend it not in the Way of God, announce\ntidings of a grievous torment.\n\nOn that day their treasures shall be heated in hell fire, and their\nforeheads, and their sides, and their backs, shall be branded with them. . .\n. \"This is what ye have treasured up for yourselves: taste, therefore, your\ntreasures!\"\n\nTwelve months is the number of months with God,15 according to God's book,\nsince the day when He created the Heavens and the Earth: of these four are\nsacred: this is the right usage: But wrong not yourselves therein; attack\nthose who join gods with God in all, as they attack you in all: and know that\nGod is with those who fear Him.\n\nTo carry over a sacred month to another, is only a growth of infidelity. The\nInfidels are led into error by it. They allow it one year, and forbid it\nanother, that they may make good the number of months which God hath\nhallowed, and they allow that which God hath prohibited. The evil of their\ndeeds hath been prepared for them by Satan: for God guideth not the people\nwho do not believe.\n\nO Believers! what possessed you, that when it was said to you, \"March forth\non the Way of God,\" ye sank heavily earthwards? What! prefer ye the life of\nthis world to the next? But the fruition of this mundane life, in respect of\nthat which is to come, is but little.16\n\nUnless ye march forth, with a grievous chastisement will He chastise you; and\nHe will place another people in your stead, and ye shall in no way harm Him:\nfor over everything is God potent.\n\nIf ye assist not your Prophet . . . God assisted him formerly, when the\nunbelievers drove him forth, in company with a second only!17 when they two\nwere in the cave; when the Prophet said to his companion, \"Be not distressed;\nverily, God is with us.\" And God sent down His tranquillity upon him, and\nstrengthened him with hosts ye saw not, and made the word of those who\nbelieved not the abased, and the word of God was the exalted: for God is\nMighty, Wise.\n\nMarch ye forth the light and heavy armed,18 and contend with your substance\nand your persons on the Way of God. This, if ye know it, will be better for\nyou.\n\nHad there been a near advantage and a short journey, they would certainly\nhave followed thee; but the way seemed long to them.19 Yet will they swear by\nGod, \"Had we been able, we had surely gone forth with you:\" they are self-\ndestroyers! And God knoweth that they are surely liars!\n\nGod forgive thee! Why didst thou give them leave to stay behind, ere they who\nmake true excuses had become known to thee, and thou hadst known the liars?\n\nThey who believe in God and in the last day will not ask leave of thee to be\nexempt from contending with their substance and their persons. But God\nknoweth those who fear Him!\n\nThey only will ask thy leave who believe not in God and the last day, and\nwhose hearts are full of doubts, and who are tossed up and down in their\ndoubtings.\n\nMoreover, had they been desirous to take the field, they would have got ready\nfor that purpose the munitions of war.20  But God was averse to their\nmarching forth, and made them laggards; and it was said, \"Sit ye at home with\nthose who sit.\"\n\nHad they taken the field with you, they would only have added a burden to\nyou, and have hurried about among you, stirring you up to sedition; and some\nthere are among you who would have listened to them: and God knoweth the evil\ndoers.\n\nOf old aimed they at sedition, and deranged thy affairs, until the truth\narrived, and the behest of God became apparent, averse from it though they\nwere.\n\nSome of them say to thee, \"Allow me to remain at home, and expose me not to\nthe trial.\" Have they not fallen into a trial already? But verily, Hell shall\nenviron the Infidels!\n\nIf a success betide thee, it annoyeth them: but if a reverse betide thee,\nthey say, \"We took our own measures before:\" and they turn their backs and\nare glad.\n\nSAY: Nothing can befall us but what God hath destined21 for us. Our liege-\nlord is He; and on God let the faithful trust!\n\nSAY: Await ye for us, other than one of the two best things?22 But we await\nfor you the infliction of a chastisement by God, from himself, or at our\nhands. Wait ye then; we verily will wait with you.\n\nSAY: Make ye your offerings willingly or by constraint; it cannot be accepted\nfrom you, because ye are a wicked people:\n\nAnd nothing hindreth the acceptance of their offerings, but that they believe\nnot in God and His Apostle, and discharge not the duty of prayer but with\nsluggishness, and make not offerings but with reluctance.\n\nLet not, therefore, their riches or their children amaze thee. God is only\nminded to punish them by means of these, in this life present, and that their\nsouls may depart while they are unbelievers.23\n\nAnd they swear by God that they are indeed of you, yet they are not of you,\nbut they are people who are afraid of you:\n\nIf they find a place of refuge, or caves, or a hiding place, they assuredly\nturn towards it and haste thereto.\n\nSome of them also defame thee in regard to the alms; yet if a part be given\nthem, they are content, but if no part be given them, behold, they are angry!\n\nWould that they were satisfied with that which God and His Apostle had given\nthem, and would say \"God sufficeth us! God will vouchsafe unto us of His\nfavour, and so will His Apostle: verily unto God do we make our suit!\"\n\nBut alms are only to be given to the poor and the needy,24 and those who\ncollect them, and to those25 whose hearts are won to Islam, and for ransoms,\nand for debtors, and for the cause of God, and the wayfarer. This is an\nordinance from God: and God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nThere are some of them who injure26 the Prophet and say, \"He is all ear.\"\nSay: An ear of good to you! He believeth in God, and believeth the believers:\nand is a mercy to such of you as believe:\n\nBut they who injure the Apostle of God, shall suffer a dolorous chastisement.\n\nThey swear to you by God to please you; but worthier is God, and His Apostle,\nthat they should please Him, if they are believers.\n\nKnow they not, that for him who opposeth God and His Apostle, is surely the\nfire of Hell, in which he shall remain for ever? This is the great ignominy!\n\nThe hypocrites are afraid lest a Sura should be sent down concerning them, to\ntell them plainly what is in their hearts.  SAY: Scoff ye; but God will bring\nto light that which ye are afraid of.\n\nAnd if thou question them, they will surely say, \"We were only discoursing\nand jesting.\" SAY: What! do ye scoff at God, and His signs, and His Apostle?\n\nMake no excuse: from faith ye have passed to infidelity! If we forgive some\nof you, we will punish others: for that they have been evil doers.\n\nHypocritical men and women imitate one another.27 They enjoin what is evil,\nand forbid what is just, and shut up their hands.28 They have forgotten God,\nand He hath forgotten them. Verily, the hypocrites are the perverse doers.\n\nGod promiseth the hypocritical men and women, and the unbelievers, the fire\nof Hell-therein shall they abide-this their sufficing portion! And God hath\ncursed them, and a lasting torment shall be theirs.\n\nYe act like those who flourished before you. Mightier were they than you in\nprowess, and more abundant in wealth and children, and they enjoyed their\nportion: so ye also enjoy your portion, as they who were before you enjoyed\ntheirs; and ye hold discourses like their discourses. These! vain their works\nboth for this world and for that which is to come! These! they are the lost\nones.\n\nHath not the history reached them of those who were before them?-of the\npeople of Noah,29 and of Ad, and of Themoud, and of the people of Abraham,\nand of the inhabitants of Madian, and of the overthrown cities? Their\napostles came to them with clear proofs of their mission: God would not deal\nwrongly by them, but they dealt wrongly by themselves.\n\nThe faithful of both sexes are mutual friends: they enjoin what is just, and\nforbid what is evil; they observe prayer, and pay the legal impost, and they\nobey God and His Apostle. On these will God have mercy: verily, God is\nMighty, Wise.\n\nTo the faithful, both men and women, God promiseth gardens 'neath which the\nrivers flow, in which they shall abide, and goodly mansions in the gardens of\nEden. But best of all will be God's good pleasure in them. This will be the\ngreat bliss.\n\nO Prophet! contend against the infidels and the hypocrites, and be rigorous\nwith them: Hell shall be their dwelling place! Wretched the journey thither!\n\nThey swear by God that they said no such thing: yet spake they the word of\ninfidelity, and from Muslims became unbelievers! They planned what they could\nnot effect;30 and only disapproved of it because God and His Apostle had\nenriched them by His bounty! If they repent it will be better for them; but\nif they fall back into their sin, with a grievous chastisement will God\nchastise them in this world and the next, and on earth they shall have\nneither friend nor protector!\n\nSome there are of them who made this agreement with God-\"If truly He give us\nof His bounties, we will surely give alms and surely be of the righteous.\"\n\nYet when he had vouchsafed them of His bounty, they became covetous thereof,\nand turned their backs, and withdrew afar off:\n\nSo He caused hypocrisy to take its turn in their hearts, until the day on\nwhich they shall meet Him-for that they failed their promise to God, and that\nthey were liars!\n\nKnow they not that God knoweth their secrets and their private talk, and that\nGod knoweth the secret things?\n\nThey who traduce such of the faithful as give their alms freely, and those\nwho find nothing to give but their earnings, and scoff at them, God shall\nscoff at them; and there is a grievous torment in store for them.\n\nAsk thou forgiveness for them, or ask it not, it will be the same. If thou\nask forgiveness for them seventy times, God will by no means forgive them.\nThis, for that they believe not in God and His Apostle! And God guideth not\nthe ungodly people.\n\nThey who were left at home were delighted to stay behind God's Apostle, and\nwere averse from contending with their riches and their persons for the cause\nof God, and said, \"March not out in the heat.\" SAY: A fiercer heat will be\nthe fire of Hell.\" Would that they understood this.\n\nLittle, therefore, let them laugh, and much let them weep, as the meed of\ntheir doings!\n\nIf God bring thee back from the fight to some of them, and they ask thy leave\nto take the field, SAY: By no means shall ye ever take the field with me, and\nby no means shall ye fight an enemy with me: ye were well pleased to sit at\nhome at the first crisis: sit ye at home, then, with those who lag behind.\n\nNever pray thou over anyone of them who dieth, or stand at his grave31-\nbecause they believed not in God and His Apostle, and died in their\nwickedness.\n\nLet not their riches or their children astonish thee: through these God is\nfain only to punish them in this world, and that their souls should depart\nwhile they are still infidels.\n\nWhen a Sura was sent down with \"Believe in God and go forth to war with His\nApostle,\" those of them who are possessed of riches demanded exemption, and\nsaid, \"Allow us to be with those who sit at home.\n\nWell content were they to be with those who stay behind: for a seal hath been\nset on their hearts so that they understand not:-\n\nBut the Apostle and those who share his faith, contend for the faith with\npurse and person; and these! all good things await them: and these are they\nwho shall be happy.\n\nGod hath made ready for them gardens 'neath which the rivers flow, wherein\nthey shall remain for ever: this will be the great bliss.\n\nSome Arabs of the desert came with excuses, praying exemption; and they who\nhad gainsaid God and His Apostle sat at home: a grievous punishment shall\nlight on such of them as believe not.\n\nIt shall be no crime in the weak, and in the sick, and in those who find not\nthe means of contributing, to stay at home, provided they are sincere with\nGod and His Apostle. Against those who act virtuously, there is no cause of\nblame: and God is Gracious, Merciful:-\n\nNor against those, to whom when they came to thee that thou shouldst mount\nthem, thou didst say \"I find not wherewith to mount you,\" and they turned\naway their eyes shedding floods of tears for grief, because they found no\nmeans to contribute.\n\nOnly is there cause of blame against those who, though they are rich, ask\nthee for exemption. They are pleased to be with those who stay behind; and\nGod hath set a seal upon their hearts: they have no knowledge.\n\nThey will excuse themselves to you when ye come back to them. SAY: Excuse\nyourselves not; we cannot believe you: now hath God informed us about you:\nGod will behold your doings, and so will His Apostle: to Him who knoweth\nalike things hidden and things manifest shall ye hereafter be brought back:\nand He will tell you what ye have done.\n\nThey will adjure you by God when ye are come back to them, to withdraw from\nthem: Withdraw from them, then, for they are unclean: their dwelling shall be\nHell, in recompense for their deserts.\n\nThey will adjure you to take pleasure in them; but if ye take pleasure in\nthem, God truly will take no pleasure in those who act corruptly.\n\nThe Arabs of the desert are most stout in unbelief and dissimulation; and\nlikelier it is that they should be unaware of the laws which God hath sent\ndown to His Apostle: and God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nOf the Arabs of the desert there are some who reckon what they expend in the\ncause of God as tribute, and wait for some change of fortune to befall you: a\nchange for evil shall befall them! God is the Hearer, the Knower.\n\nAnd of the Arabs of the desert, some believe in God and in the last day, and\ndeem those alms an approach to God and to the Apostle's prayers. Are they not\ntheir approach? Into His mercy shall God lead them: yes, God is Indulgent,\nMerciful.\n\nAs for those who led the way, the first of the Mohadjers,32 and the Ansars,\nand those who have followed their noble conduct, God is well pleased with\nthem, and they with Him: He hath made ready for them gardens under whose\ntrees the rivers flow: to abide therein for aye: this shall be the great\nbliss:\n\nAnd of the Arabs of the desert round about you, some are hypocrites: and of\nthe people of Medina, some are stubborn in hypocrisy. Thou knowest them not,\nMuhammad: we know them: twice33 will we chastise them: then shall they be\ngiven over to a great chastisement.\n\nOthers have owned their faults, and with an action that is right they have\nmixed another that is wrong. God will haply be turned to them: for God is\nForgiving, Merciful.\n\nTake alms of their substance,34 that thou mayst cleanse and purify them\nthereby, and pray for them; for thy prayers shall assure their minds: and God\nHeareth, Knoweth.\n\nKnow they not that when his servants turn to Him with repentance, God\naccepteth it, and that He accepteth alms, and that God is He who turneth, the\nMerciful?\n\nSAY: Work ye: but God will behold your work, and so will His Apostle, and the\nfaithful: and ye shall be brought before Him who knoweth alike the Hidden and\nthe Manifest, and He will tell you of all your works.\n\nAnd others await the decision of God; whether He will punish them, or whether\nHe will be turned unto them: but God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nThere are some35 who have built a Mosque for mischief36 and for infidelity,\nand to disunite the faithful, and in expectation of him37 who, in time past,\nwarred against God and His Apostle. They will surely swear, \"Our aim was only\ngood:\" but God is witness that they are liars.\n\nNever set thou foot in it.38 There is a Mosque39 founded from its first day\nin piety. More worthy is it that thou enter therein: therein are men who\naspire to purity, and God loveth the purified.\n\nWhich of the two is best? He who hath founded his building on the fear of God\nand the desire to please Him, or he who hath founded his building on the\nbrink of an undermined bank washed away by torrents, so that it rusheth with\nhim into the fire of Hell? But God guideth not the doers of wrong.\n\nTheir building which they40 have built will not cease to cause uneasiness in\ntheir hearts, until their hearts are cut in pieces.41 God is Knowing, Wise.\n\nVerily, of the faithful hath God bought their persons and their substance, on\ncondition of Paradise for them in return: on the path of God shall they\nfight, and slay, and be slain: a Promise for this is pledged in the Law, and\nin the Evangel, and in the Koran-and who more faithful, in to his engagement\nthan God? Rejoice, therefore, in the contract that ye have contracted: for\nthis shall be the great bliss.\n\nThose who turn to God, and those who serve, who praise, who fast, who bow\ndown, who prostrate themselves, who enjoin what is just and forbid what is\nevil, and keep to the bounds42 of God . . .43 Wherefore bear these good\ntidings to the faithful.\n\nIt is not for the prophet or the faithful to pray for the forgiveness of\nthose, even though they be of kin, who associate other beings with God, after\nit hath been made clear to them that they are to be the inmates of Hell.\n\nFor neither did Abraham ask forgiveness for his father, but in pursuance of a\npromise which he had promised to him: but when it was shewn him that he was\nan enemy to God, he declared himself clear of him. Yet Abraham was pitiful,\nkind.\n\nNor is it for God to lead a people into error, after he hath guided them\naright, until that which they ought to dread hath been clearly shewn them.\nVerily, God knoweth all things.\n\nGod! His the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth! He maketh alive and\nkilleth! Ye have no patron or helper save God.\n\nNow hath God turned Him unto the Prophet and unto the refugees (Mohadjers),\nand unto the helpers (Ansars)44, who followed him in the hour of distress,\nafter that the hearts of a part of them had well nigh failed them45. Then\nturned He unto them, for He was Kind to them, Merciful.\n\nHe hath also turned Him unto the three46 who were left behind, so that the\nearth, spacious as it is, became too strait for them; and their souls became\nso straitened within them, that they bethought them that there was no refuge\nfrom God but unto Himself. Then was He turned to them, that they might be\nturned to Him, for God is He that turneth, the Merciful.\n\nBelievers!47 fear God, and be with the sincere.\n\nNo cause had the people of Medina and the Arabs of the desert around them, to\nabandon God's Apostle, or to prefer their own lives to his; because neither\nthirst, nor the labour nor hunger, could come upon them when on path of\nGod;48 neither do they step a step which may anger the unbelievers, neither\ndo they receive from the enemy any damage, but it is written down to them as\na good work. Verily, God suffereth not the reward of the righteous to perish.\n\nNor give they alms either small or great, nor traverse they a torrent, but it\nis thus reckoned to them; that God may reward them with better than they have\nwrought.\n\nThe faithful must not march forth all together to the wars: and if a party of\nevery band of them march not out, it is that they may instruct themselves in\ntheir religion, and may warn their people when they come back to them, that\nthey take heed to themselves.\n\nBelievers! wage war against such of the infidels as are your neighbours, and\nlet them find you rigorous: and know that God is with those who fear him.\n\nWhenever a Sura is sent down, there are some of them who say, \"Whose faith\nhath it increased?\" It will increase the faith of those who believe, and they\nshall rejoice.\n\nBut as to those in whose hearts is a disease, it will add doubt to their\ndoubt, and they shall die infidels.\n\nDo they not see that they are proved every year once or twice? Yet they turn\nnot, neither are they warned.\n\nAnd whenever a Sura is sent down, they look at one another. . . .  \"Doth any\none see you?\" then turn they aside. God shall turn their hearts aside,\nbecause they are a people devoid of understanding.\n\nNow hath an Apostle come unto you from among yourselves: your iniquities\npress heavily upon him. He is careful over you, and towards the faithful,\ncompassionate, merciful.\n\nIf they turn away, SAY: God sufficeth me: there is no God but He. In Him put\nI my trust. He is the possessor of the Glorious Throne!\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The \"Immunity\" is said by some commentators to have formed originally one\nSura with the eighth, p.375, and that on this account the usual formula of\ninvocation is not prefixed. The Caliph Othman accounted for this omission of\nthe Bismillah from the fact of this Sura having been revealed, with the\nexception of a few verses, shortly before the prophet's death, who left no\ninstructions on the subject. (Mishcat 1, p. 526.) The former verses from 1-\n12, or, according to other traditions, from 1-40, were recited to the\npilgrims at Mecca by Ali, Ann. Hej. 9.\n\n2 Lit. that ye cannot weaken God.\n\n3 Shaw\u00e2l, Dhu'lkaada, Dhu'lhajja, Muharram. These months were observed by the\nArabians previous to the time of Muhammad.\n\n4 Al Abbas, Muhammad's uncle, when taken prisoner, had defended his unbelief,\nand declared that he had performed these two important duties. Beidh.\n\n5 Or, shall issue his behest.\n\n6 At the battle of Honein, a valley three miles from Mecca (A.H. 8), the\nMuhammadans, presuming upon the great superiority of their numbers, 12,000\nmen, over the enemy who were only 4000 strong, were seized with a panic\nthroughout their ranks. Order was restored and victory obtained through the\nbravery and presence of mind of Muhammad and his kindred.\n\n7 The enemy attacked and routed you on all sides.\n\n8 See ii. 249, p. 365.\n\n9 Through the breaking off commercial relations.\n\n10 Or, by right of subjection, Sale; in cash, Wahl.; all without exception,\nK. i.e. as if by counting hands.\n\n11 Thus Hilchoth Melachim, vi. 4. The Jews are commanded, in case of war with\nthe Gentiles, to offer peace on two conditions:-that they become tributaries,\nand renounce idolatry. Thus also chap. viii. 4.\n\n12 The Muhammadan tradition is that Ezra was raised to life after he had been\n100 years dead, and dictated from memory the whole Jewish law, which had been\nlost during the captivity, to the scribes. That the Jews regarded Ezra as a\nson of God is due to Muhammad's own invention. See Sonna, 462 v. H. v.\nPurgstall's Fundgruben des Orients, i. 288. The Talmudists, however, use very\nexaggerated language concerning him. Thus, Sanhedrin, 21, 22. \"Ezra would\nhave been fully worthy to have been the lawgiver, if Moses had not preceded\nhim.\" Josephus, Ant. xi. 5, 5, speaks of his high repute ([greek text]) with\nthe people, and of his honourable burial. Muhammad probably represents the\nJews as having deified Ezra with the view of showing that they, as well as\nthe Christians, had tampered with the doctrine of the Divine unity.\n\n13 An allusion to the word Rabbi, used by Jews and Christians, of their\npriests, etc., but in Arabic of God only. Comp. Matt. xxiii. 7, 8.\n\n14 See Sur. [cxiv.] v. 85.\n\n15 The intercalation of a month every third year, in order to reduce the\nlunar to the solar years, is justified by the Muhammadans from this passage.\n\n16 See Sur. xiii. 26, p. 336 (n.).\n\n17 With Abubekr. lit. second of two.\n\n18 Wahk. reich oder arm. Savary, young or old. Ibn Hisam (924) pronounces\nthis to be the oldest verse of the Sura.\n\n19 This refers to the expedition of Tabouk, a town half-way between Medina\nand Damascus, against the Greeks, A.H. 9. Muhammad was now at the head of an\narmy of 30,000 men. Verses 42-48 are said to have been revealed during the\nmarch.\n\n20 Lit. prepared a preparation.\n\n21 Lit. written.\n\n22 That is, victory or martyrdom.\n\n23 Compare Sura iii. 172. Geiger, p. 76, shews that this is precisely the\nteaching of the Talmudists with regard to the wicked.\n\n24 The poor, i.e. absolute paupers; the needy i.e. those in some temporary\ndistress.\n\n25 The petty Arab chiefs with whom Muhammad made terms after the battle of\nHonein, in order to secure their followers.\n\n26 There seems to be a play, in the original, upon the similarity of the\nwords for injure and ear.\n\n27 Lit. (are) the one from the other.\n\n28 From giving alms.\n\n29 Comp. Sura liv. 15, p. 77. The traditions as to the collection of pitch\nfrom wood of the Ark, in the time of Berosus (B.C. 250?) for amulets, and of\nthe wood itself, in the time of Josephus (Ant. i. 3, 6, c. Apion, i. 19) must\nhave reached Muhammad through his Jewish informants. Fragments are said to\nhave existed in the days of Benjamin of Tudela, and to have been carried away\nby the Chalif Omar, from the mountain al Djoudi to the mosque of Gazyrat Ibn\nOmar.\n\n30 To kill Muhammad. The circumstances are given in a tradition preserved ap.\nWeil, p. 265, note. The meaning is, that the people of Medina, who had become\nenriched by Muhammad's residence among them, had no better motive for\ndisapproving the attempt upon his life. Lit. they had nothing to avenge but\nthat, etc.\n\n31 Prayers for the dead were customary among the Arabians before Muhammad.\nSee Freyt. Einl. p. 221.\n\n32 The Mohadiers were those who fled with Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, the\nAnsars his auxiliaries in Medina.\n\n33 The commentators are not agreed as to the nature of this double\npunishment.\n\n34 The fine of a third part of all their substance was imposed upon seven of\nthose who had held back from the expedition to Tabouk. This is the fault\nspoken of in the preceding verse.\n\n35 The tribe of Beni Ganim had built a mosque, professedly from religious\nmotives, which they invited Muhammad on his way to Tabouk to dedicate by a\nsolemn act of prayer. Muhammad, however, discovered that the real motive of\nthe Beni Ganim was jealousy of the tribe of Beni Amru Ibn Auf, and of the\nmosque at Kuba, and that there existed and understanding between them and his\nenemy the monk Abu Amir, who was then in Syria, for the purpose of urging the\nGreeks to attack the Muslims and their mosque. It is to him that the word\nirs\u00e2dan refers.\n\n36 To the dwellers at Kuba. Verses 108-111 were probably promulged on the\nreturn from Tabouk previous to the entry into Medina.\n\n37 Abu Amir.\n\n38 Or, never stand thou in it (to pray).\n\n39 The mosque of Kuba, about three miles S.S.E. of Medina. The spot where\nthis verse was revealed is still pointed out, and called \"Makam el Ayat,\" or\n\"the place of signs.\" Burton's \"Pilgrimage,\" ii. p. 214.Muhammad laid the\nfirst brick, and it was the first place of public prayer in El Islam. Ib. p.\n209.\n\n40 The Beni Ganim.\n\n41 That is, up to the time of their death they will never reflect on what\nthey have done without bitter pangs of conscience. See Weil's M. der Prophet,\npp. 268, 269, and note.\n\n42 Lit. limits, i.e. laws.\n\n43 Shall have their recompense.\n\n44 See verse 101.\n\n45 Lit. turned aside, swerved.\n\n46 Three Ansars who did not accompany Muhammad to Tabouk, and who on his\nreturn were put under interdict, and not released from it till after fifty\ndays of penance.\n\n47 Verses 120-128 probably belong to the period after the return from Tabouk\nto Medina.\n\n48 While fighting for the cause of God.\n\n\nSURA V.-THE TABLE [CXIV.]\n\nMEDINA.-120 Verses\n\nIn the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful\n\nO BELIEVERS! be faithful to your engagements. You are allowed the flesh of\ncattle other than what is hereinafter recited, except game, which is not\nallowed you while ye are on pilgrimage. Verily, God ordaineth what he\npleaseth.\n\nO Believers! violate neither the rites of God, nor the sacred month Muharram,\nnor the offering, nor its ornaments1, nor those who press on to the sacred\nhouse seeking favour from their Lord and his good pleasure in them.\n\nBut when all is over2, then take to the chase: and let not ill will at those3\nwho would have kept you from the sacred mosque lead you to transgress4, but\nrather be helpful to one another according to goodness and piety, but be not\nhelpful for evil and malice: and fear ye God. Verily, God is severe in\npunishing!\n\nThat which dieth of itself, and blood, and swine's flesh, and all that hath\nbeen sacrificed under the invocation of any other name than that of God, and\nthe strangled, and the killed by a blow, or by a fall, or by goring5, and\nthat which hath been eaten by beasts of prey, unless ye make it clean by\ngiving the death-stroke yourselves, and that which hath been sacrificed on\nthe blocks of stone6, is forbidden you: and to make division of the slain by\nconsulting the arrows,7 is impiety in you. Woe this day on those who forsake\nyour religion! And fear them not, but fear Me.\n\nThis day have I perfected your religion for you, and have filled up the\nmeasure of my favours upon you: and it is my pleasure that Islam be your\nreligion; but whoso without wilful leanings to wrong shall be forced by\nhunger to transgress, to him,verily, will God be Indulgent, Merciful.\n\nThey will ask thee what is made lawful for them. Say: Those things which are\ngood8 are legalised to you, and the prey of beasts of chase which ye have\ntrained like dogs, teaching them as God hath taught you. Eat, therefore, of\nwhat they shall catch for you, and make mention of the name of God over it,\nand fear God: Verily, Swift is God to reckon:\n\nThis day, things healthful are legalised to you, and the meats of those who\nhave received the Scriptures are allowed to you, as your meats are to them.\nAnd you are permitted to marry virtuous women who are believers, and virtuous\nwomen of those who have received the Scriptures before you, when you shall\nhave provided them their portions, living chastely with them without\nfornication, and without taking concubines. Vain the works of him who shall\nrenounce the faith! and in the next world he shall be of the lost.\n\nO Believers! when ye address yourselves to prayer, wash your faces, and your\nhands up to the elbow, and wipe your heads, and your feet to the ankles.\n\nAnd if ye have become unclean, then purify yourselves. But if ye are sick, or\non a journey, or if one of you come from the place of retirement, or if ye\nhave touched women, and ye find no water, then take clean sand and rub your\nfaces and your hands with it.9 God desireth not to lay a burden upon you, but\nhe desireth to purify you, and He would fill up the measure of His favour\nupon you, that ye may be grateful.\n\nAnd remember the favour of God upon you, and His covenant which He hath\ncovenanted with you, when ye said, \"We have heard and will obey;\"10 and fear\nGod; verily, God knoweth the very secrets of the breast.\n\nO Believers! stand up as witnesses for God by righteousness: and let not ill-\nwill at any, induce you not to act uprightly. Act uprightly. Next will this\nbe to the fear of God. And fear ye God: verily, God is apprised of what ye\ndo.\n\nGod hath promised to those who believe, and do the things that are right,\nthat for them is pardon and a great reward.\n\nBut they who are Infidels and treat our signs as lies-these shall be mated\nwith Hell fire.\n\nO Believers! recollect God's favour upon you, when11 certain folk were minded\nto stretch forth their hands against you, but He kept their hands from you.\nFear God then: and on God let the faithful trust.\n\nOf old did God accept the covenant of the children of Israel,12 and out of\nthem we raised up twelve leaders, and God said, \"Verily, I will be with you.\nIf ye observe prayer and pay the obligatory alms, and believe in my Apostles\nand help them, and lend God a liberal loan, I will surely put away from you\nyour evil deeds, and I will bring you into gardens 'neath which the rivers\nflow! But whoso of you after this believeth not, hath gone astray from the\neven path.\"\n\nBut for their breaking their covenant we have cursed them, and have hardened\ntheir hearts. They shift the words of Scripture from their places, and have\nforgotten part of what they were taught. Thou wilt not cease to discover\ndeceit on their part, except in a few of them. But forgive them, and pass it\nover: verily, God loveth those who act generously!\n\nAnd of those who say, \"We are Christians,\" have we accepted the covenant. But\nthey too have forgotten a part of what they were taught; wherefore we have\nstirred up enmity and hatred among them that shall last till the day of the\nResurrection; and in the end will God tell them of their doings.\n\nO people of the Scriptures! now is our Apostle come to you to clear up to you\nmuch that ye concealed of those Scriptures, and to pass over many things. Now\nhath a light and a clear Book come to you from God, by which God will guide\nhim who shall follow after his good pleasure, to paths of peace, and will\nbring them out of the darkness to the light, by his will: and to the straight\npath will he guide them.\n\nInfidels now are they who say, \"Verily God is the Messiah Ibn Maryam (son of\nMary)! SAY: And who could aught obtain from God, if he chose to destroy the\nMessiah Ibn Maryam, and his mother, and all who are on the earth together?\n\nFor with God is the sovereignty of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all\nthat is between them! He createth what He will; and over all things is God\npotent.\n\nSay the Jews and Christians, \"Sons are we of God and his beloved.\" SAY: Why\nthen doth he chastise you for your sins? Nay! ye are but a part of the men\nwhom he hath created! He will pardon whom he pleaseth, and chastise whom he\npleaseth, and with God is the sovereignty of the Heavens and of the Earth,\nand of all that is between them, and unto Him shall all things return.\n\nO people of the Book! now hath our Apostle come to you to clear up to you the\ncessation13 of Apostles, lest you should say, \"There hath come to us no\nbearer of good tidings, nor any warner.\" But now hath a bearer of good\ntidings and a warner reached you. And God is Almighty.\n\nAnd remember when Moses said to his people, \"O my people! call to mind the\ngoodness of God towards you when he appointed Prophets among you, and\nappointed you kings, and gave you what never had been given before to any\nhuman beings:\n\nEnter, O my people! the holy land which God hath destined for you. Turn not\nback, lest ye be overthrown to your ruin.\"\n\nThey said, \"O Moses! Therein are men of might. And verily, we can by no means\nenter it till they be gone forth. But if they go forth from it, then verily\nwill we enter in.\"\n\nThen said two men of those who feared their Lord and to whom God had been\ngracious, \"Enter in upon them by the gate: and when ye enter it, ye overcome!\nIf ye be believers, put ye your trust in God.\"\n\nThey said, \"O Moses! never can we enter while they remain therein. Go thou\nand thy Lord and fight; for here will we sit us down.\"\n\nHe said, \"O my Lord, Verily of none am I master but of myself and my brother:\nput thou therefore a difference between us and this ungodly people.\"\n\nHe said, \"Verily the land shall be forbidden them forty years: they shall\nwander in the earth perplexed. Fret not thyself therefore for the ungodly\npeople.\"\n\nRelate to them exactly the story of the sons of Adam14 when they each offered\nan offering; accepted from the one of them, and not accepted from the other.\nThe one said, \"I will surely slay thee.\" Said the other, \"God only accepted\nfrom those that fear Him.\n\n\"Even if thou stretch forth thine hand against me to slay me, I will not\nstretch forth my hand against thee to slay thee. Truly I fear God the Lord of\nthe Worlds.\n\n\"Yea, rather would I that thou shouldest bear my sin15 and thine own sin, and\nthat thou become an inmate of the Fire: for that is the recompense of the\nunjust doers.\"\n\nAnd his passion led him to slay his brother: and he slew him; and he became\none of those who perish.\n\nAnd God sent a raven which scratched upon the ground, to shew him16 how he\nmight hide his brother's wrong.17 He said: \"O woe is me! am I too weak to\nbecome like this raven, and to hide away my brother's wrong?\" And he became\none of the repentant.\n\nFor this cause have we ordained to the children of Israel that he who slayeth\nany one, unless it be a person guilty of manslaughter, or of spreading\ndisorders in the land, shall be as though he had slain all mankind; but that\nhe who saveth a life, shall be as though he had saved all mankind alive.18\n\nOf old our Apostles came to them with the proofs of their mission; then\nverily after this most of them committed excesses in the land.\n\nOnly, the recompense of those who war against God and his Apostle, and go\nabout to commit disorders on the earth, shall be that they shall be slain or\ncrucified, or have their alternate hands and feet cut off, or be banished the\nland: This their disgrace in this world, and in the next a great torment\nshall be theirs-\n\nExcept those who, ere you have them in your power, shall repent; for know\nthat God is Forgiving, Merciful.\n\nO ye who believe! fear God. Desire union with Him. Contend earnestly on his\npath, that you may attain to happiness.\n\nAs to the infidels-if that they had twice the riches of the earth to be their\nransom from torment on the day of resurrection, it should not be accepted\nfrom them! And a dolorous torment shall be their's.\n\nFain would they come forth from the Fire; but forth from it they shall not\ncome: and a lasting torment shall be their's.\n\nAs to the thief, whether man or woman, cut ye off their hands in recompense\nfor their doings.19 This is a penalty by way of warning from God himself. And\nGod is Mighty, Wise.\n\nBut whoever shall turn him to God after this his wickedness, and amend, God\ntruly will be turned to him: for God is Forgiving, Merciful.\n\nKnowest thou not that the sovereignty of the Heavens and of the Earth is\nGod's? He chastiseth whom He will, and whom He will He forgiveth. And God\nhath power over all things.\n\nO Apostle! let not those who vie with one another in speeding to infidelity\nvex thee;-of those who say with their mouths, \"We believe,\" but whose hearts\nbelieve not;-or of the Jews listeners to a lie-listeners to others-but who\ncome not to thee. They shift the words of the law from their places, and say,\n\"If this be brought to you, receive it; but if this be not brought to you,\nthen beware of it.\" For him whom God would mislead, thou canst in no wise\nprevail with God! They whose hearts God shall not please to cleanse, shall\nsuffer disgrace in this world, and in the next a grievous punishment;\n\nListeners to a falsehood and greedy devourers of the forbidden!20 If,\ntherefore, they have recourse to thee, then judge between them, or withdraw\nfrom them. If thou withdraw from them, then can they have no power to injure\nthee. But if thou judge, then judge between them with equity. Verily, God\nloveth those who deal equitably.\n\nBut how shall they make thee their judge, since they possess already the Law,\nin which are the behests of God, and have not obeyed it? After this, they\nwill turn their backs; but such are not believers.\n\nVerily, we have sent down the law (Towrat) wherein are guidance and light. By\nit did the prophets who professed Islam judge the Jews; and the doctors and\nthe teachers judged by that portion of the Book of God, of which they were\nthe keepers and the witnesses. Therefore, O Jews! fear not men but fear Me;\nand barter not away my signs for a mean price! And whoso will not judge by\nwhat God hath sent down-such are the Infidels.\n\nAnd therein21 have we enacted for them, \"Life for life, and eye for eye, and\nnose for nose, and ear for ear, and tooth for tooth, and for wounds\nretaliation:\"-Whoso shall compromise it as alms shall have therein the\nexpiation of his sin; and whoso will not judge by what God hath sent down-\nsuch are the transgressors.\n\nAnd in the footsteps of the prophets caused we Jesus, the son of Mary, to\nfollow, confirming the law which was before him: and we gave him the Evangel\nwith its guidance and light, confirmatory of the preceding Law; a guidance\nand warning to those who fear God;-\n\nAnd that the people of the Evangel may judge according to what God hath sent\ndown therein. And whoso will not judge by what God hath sent down-such are\nthe perverse.\n\nAnd to thee we have sent down the Book of the Koran with truth, confirmatory\nof previous Scriptures, and their safeguard. Judge therefore between them by\nwhat God hath sent down, and follow not their desires by deserting the truth\nwhich hath come unto thee. To every one of you have we given a rule and a\nbeaten track.\n\nAnd if God had pleased He had surely made you all one people; but He would\ntest you by what He hath given to each. Be emulous, then, in good deeds. To\nGod shall ye all return, and He will tell you concerning the subjects of your\ndisputes.\n\nWherefore do thou judge between them, by what God hath sent down, and follow\nnot their wishes! but be on thy guard against them lest they beguile thee\nfrom any of those precepts which God hath sent down to thee; and if they turn\nback, then know thou that for some of their crimes doth God choose to punish\nthem: for truly most men are perverse.\n\nDesire they, therefore, the judgments of the times of(pagan) ignorance? But\nwhat better judge can there be than God for those who believe firmly?\n\nO Believers! take not the Jews or Christians22 as friends. They are but one\nanother's friends. If any one of you taketh them for his friends, he surely\nis one of them! God will not guide the evil doers.\n\nSo shalt thou see the diseased at heart speed away to them, and say, \"We fear\nlest a change of fortune befall us.\" But haply God will of himself bring\nabout some victory or event of His own ordering: then soon will they repent\nthem of their secret imaginings.\n\nThen will the faithful say, \"What! are these they who swore, by their most\nsolemn oath, that they were surely with you?\" Vain their works; and\nthemselves shall come to ruin.\n\nO ye who believe! should any of you desert His religion, God will then raise\nup a people loved by Him, and loving Him, lowly towards the faithful, haughty\ntowards the Infidels. For the cause of God will they contend, and not fear\nthe blame of the blamer. This is the Grace of God! On whom He will He\nbestoweth it! God is Vast, Omniscient!\n\nVerily, your protector is God and His Apostle, and those who believe, who\nobserve prayer, and pay the alms of obligation, and who bow in worship.\n\nAnd whoso take God and His Apostle, and those who believe for friends, they\ntruly are the people of God; they shall have the upper hand.\n\nO ye who believe! take not such of those who have received the Scriptures\nbefore you, as scoff and jest at your religion, or the Infidels, for your\nfriends, but fear God if ye are believers:\n\nNor those who when ye call to prayer, make it an object of raillery and\nderision. This they do because they are a people who understand not.\n\nSAY:23 O people of the Book! do ye not disavow us only because we believe in\nGod, and in what He hath sent down to us, and in what He hath sent down\naforetime, and because most of you are doers of ill?\n\nSAY: Can I announce to you any retribution worse than that which awaiteth\nthem with God? They whom God hath cursed and with whom He hath been angry-\nsome of them hath He changed into apes and swine; and they who worship\nThagout are in evil plight, and have gone far astray from the right path!\n\nWhen they presented themselves to you they said, \"We believe;\" but Infidels\nthey came in unto you, and Infidels they went forth! God well knew what they\nconcealed.\n\nMany of them shalt thou see hastening together to wickedness and malice, and\nto eat unlawful things. Shame on them for what they have done!\n\nHad not their doctors and teachers forbidden their uttering wickedness, and\ntheir eating unlawful food, bad indeed would have been their doings!\n\n\"The hand of God,\" say the Jews, \"is chained up.\"24 Their own hands shall be\nchained up-and for that which they have said shall they be cursed. Nay!\noutstretched are both His hands! At His own pleasure does He bestow gifts.\nThat which hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord will surely increase the\nrebellion and unbelief of many of them; and we have put enmity and hatred\nbetween them that shall last till the day of the Resurrection. Oft as they\nkindle a beacon fire for war shall God quench it! and their aim will be to\nabet disorder on the earth: but God loveth not the abettors of disorder.\n\nBut if the people of the Book believe and have the fear of God, we will\nsurely put away their sins from them, and will bring them into gardens of\ndelight: and if that they observe the law and the Evangel, and what hath been\nsent down to them from their Lord, they shall surely have their fill of good\nthings from above them and from beneath their feet. Some there are among them\nwho act aright; but many of them-how evil are their doings!\n\nO Apostle! proclaim all that hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord: for\nif thou do it not, thou hast not proclaimed His message at all. And God will\nprotect thee from evil men: verily, God guideth not the unbelievers.\n\nSAY: O people of the Book! ye have no ground to stand on, until ye observe\nthe Law and the Evangel, and that which hath been sent down to you from your\nLord.25 The Book which hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord will\ncertainly increase the rebellion and unbelief of many of them; but, be not\nthou troubled for the unbelievers.\n\nVerily, they who believe, and the Jews, and the Sabeites,26 and the\nChristians-whoever of them believeth in God and in the last day, and doth\nwhat is right, on them shall come no fear, neither shall they be put to\ngrief.\n\nOf old we accepted the covenant of the children of Israel, and sent Apostles\nto them. Oft as an Apostle came to them with that for which they had no\ndesire, some they treated as liars, and some they slew;27\n\nAnd they reckoned that no harm would come of it:-but they became blind and\ndeaf! Then was God turned unto them: then many of them again became blind and\ndeaf! but God beheld what they did.\n\nInfidels now are they who say, \"God is the Messiah, Son of Mary;\" for the\nMessiah said, \"O children of Israel! worship God, my Lord and your Lord.\"\nWhoever shall join other gods with God, God shall forbid him the Garden, and\nhis abode shall be the Fire; and the wicked shall have no helpers.\n\nThey surely are Infidels who say, \"God is the third of three:\" for there is\nno God but one God: and if they refrain not from what they say, a grievous\nchastisement shall light on such of them as are Infidels.\n\nWill they not, therefore, be turned unto God, and ask pardon of Him? since\nGod is Forgiving, Merciful!\n\nThe Messiah, Son of Mary, is but an Apostle; other Apostles have flourished\nbefore him; and his mother was a just28 person: they both ate food.29 Behold!\nhow we make clear to them the signs! then behold how they turn aside!\n\nSAY: Will ye worship, beside God, that which can neither hurt nor help? But\nGod! He only Heareth, Knoweth.\n\nSAY: O people of the Book! outstep not bounds of truth in your religion;\nneither follow the desires of those who have already gone astray, and who\nhave caused many to go astray, and have themselves gone astray from the\nevenness of the way.\n\nThose among the children of Israel who believed not were cursed by the tongue\nof David,30 and of Jesus, Son of Mary. This, because they were rebellious,\nand became transgressors: they forbade not one another the iniquity which\nthey wrought! detestable are their actions!\n\nThou shalt see many of them make friends of the infidels. Evil the actions\nwhich their own passions have sent on beforehand; for God is angry with them,\nand in torment shall they abide for ever:\n\nBut, if they had believed in God, and the Prophet, and the Koran which hath\nbeen sent down to him, they had not taken them for their friends; but\nperverse are most of them.\n\nOf all men thou wilt certainly find the Jews, and those who join other gods\nwith God, to be the most intense in hatred of those who believe; and thou\nshalt certainly find those to be nearest in affection to them who say, \"We\nare Christians.\" This, because some of them are priests and monks,31 and\nbecause they are free from pride.\n\nAnd when they hear that which hath been sent down to the Apostle, thou seest\ntheir eyes overflow with tears at the truth they recognise therein, saying,\n\"O our Lord! we believe; write us down therefore with those who bear witness\nto it.\n\nAnd why should we not believe in God, and in the truth which hath come down\nto us, and crave that our Lord would bring us into Paradise with the Just?\"\n\nTherefore hath God rewarded them for these their words, with gardens 'neath\nwhich the rivers flow; they shall abide therein for ever: this the reward of\nthe righteous! But they who believe not and treat our signs as lies shall be\nthe inmates of Hell-fire.\n\nO ye who believe! interdict not the healthful viands which God hath allowed\nyou; go not beyond this limit. God loveth not those who outstep it.32\n\nAnd eat of what God hath given you for food, that which is lawful and\nwholesome: and fear God, in whom ye believe.\n\nGod will not punish you for a mistaken word in your oaths: but he will punish\nyou in regard to an oath taken seriously.33 Its expiation shall be to feed\nten poor persons with such middling food as ye feed your own families with,\nor to clothe them; or to set free a captive. But he who cannot find means,\nshall fast three days. This is the expiation of your oaths when ye shall have\nsworn. Keep then your oaths. Thus God maketh his signs clear to you, that ye\nmay give thanks.\n\nO believers! surely wine and games of chance,34 and statues, and the divining\narrows, are an abomination of Satan's work! Avoid them, that ye may prosper.\n\nOnly would Satan sow hatred and strife among you, by wine and games of\nchance, and turn you aside from the remembrance of God, and from prayer: will\nye not, therefore, abstain from them? Obey God and obey the Apostle, and be\non your guard: but if ye turn back, know that our Apostle is only bound to\ndeliver a plain announcement.\n\nNo blame shall attach to those who believe and do good works, in regard to\nany food they have taken, in case they fear God and believe, and do the\nthings that are right, and shall still fear God and believe, and shall still\nfear him, and do good; for God loveth those who do good.\n\nO ye who believe! God will surely make trial of you with such game as ye may\ntake with your hands, or your lances, that God may know who feareth him in\nsecret: and whoever after this transgresseth, shall suffer a grievous\nchastisement.\n\nO believers!35 kill no game while ye are on pilgrimage. Whosoever among you\nshall purposely kill it, shall comsent pensate for it in domestic animals of\nequal value (according to the judgment of two just persons among you), to be\nbrought as an offering to the Caaba; or in expiation thereof shall feed the\npoor; or as the equivalent of this shall fast, that he may taste the ill\nconsequence of his deed. God forgiveth what is past; but whoever doth it\nagain, God will take vengeance on him; for God is mighty and vengeance is\nHis.\n\nIt is lawful for you to fish in the sea, and to eat fish, as provision for\nyou and for those who travel; but it is unlawful for you to hunt by land\nwhile ye are still on pilgrimage: fear ye God, therefore, before whom ye\nshall be assembled.\n\nGod hath appointed the Caaba,36 the sacred house, to be a station for\nmankind, and the sacred month, and the offering, and its ornaments. This,\nthat ye may know that God knoweth all that is in the heavens and on the\nearth, and that God hath knowledge of everything. Know that God is severe in\npunishing, and that God is Forgiving, Merciful.\n\nThe Apostle is only bound to preach: and God knoweth what ye bring to light,\nand what ye conceal.\n\nSAY: The evil and the good shall not be valued alike, even though the\nabundance of evil please thee; therefore fear God, O ye of understanding!\nthat it may be well with you.\n\nO believers! ask us not of things which if they were told might only pain\nyou; but if ye ask of such things when the entire Koran shall have been sent\ndown, they will be declared to you: God will pardon you for this, for God is\nForgiving, Gracious. They who were before you, asked concerning such things,\nand afterwards quickly disbelieved therein\n\nGod hath not ordained anything on the subject. of Bahira, or Sa\u00efba, or\nWasila, or Hami;37 but the unbelievers have invented this lie against God:\nand most of them had no understanding.\n\nAnd when it was said to them, \"Accede to that which God hath sent down, and\nto the Apostle:\" they said, \"Sufficient for us is the faith in which we found\nour fathers.\" What! though their fathers knew nothing, and had no guidance?\n\nO believers! take heed to yourselves.38 He who erreth shall not hurt you when\nye have the \"guidance:\" to God shall ye all return, and He will tell you that\nwhich ye have done.\n\nO believers! let there be witnesses between you, when death draweth nigh to\nany of you, at the time of making the testament; two witnesses-just men from\namong yourselves, or two others of a different tribe from yourselves-if ye be\njourneying in the earth, and the calamity of death surprise you. Ye shall\nshut them both up, after the prayer; and if ye doubt them, they shall swear\nby God, \"We will not take a bribe though the party be of kin to us, neither\nwill we conceal the testimony of God, for then we should be among the\nwicked.\"\n\nBut if it shall be made clear that both have been guilty of a falsehood, two\nothers of those who have convicted them thereof, the two nearest in blood\nshall stand up in their place, and they shall swear by God, \"Verily our\nwitness is more true than the witness of these two; neither have we advanced\nanything untrue, for then should we be of the unjust.\"\n\nThus will it be easier for men to bear a true39 witness, or fear lest after\ntheir oath another oath be given. Therefore fear God and hearken; for God\nguideth not the perverse.\n\nOne day will God assemble the Apostles, and say, \"What reply was made to\nyou?\" They shall say, \"We have no knowledge, but Thou art the Knower of\nSecrets.\"\n\nWhen He shall say: O Jesus! Son of Mary! call to mind my favour upon thee and\nupon thy mother, when I strengthened thee with the Holy Spirit, that thou\nshouldest speak40 to men alike in the cradle, and when grown up;-\n\nAnd when I taught thee the Scripture, and Wisdom, and the Law, and the\nEvangel: and thou didst create of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by\nmy leave, and didst breathe into it, and by my leave it became a bird; and\nthou didst heal the blind and the leper, by my leave; and when, by my leave,\nthou didst bring forth the dead; and when I withheld the children of Israel\nfrom thee, when thou hadst come to them with clear tokens: and such of them\nas believed not said, \"This is nought but plain sorcery;\"41\n\nAnd when I revealed unto the Apostles, \"Believe on me and on my Sent One,\"\nthey said, \"We believe; and bear thou witness that we are Muslims.\"\n\nRemember when the Apostles42 said-\"O Jesus, Son of Mary! is thy Lord able to\nsend down a furnished TABLE to us out of Heaven?\" He said-\"Fear God if ye be\nbelievers.\"\n\nThey said-\"We desire to eat therefrom, and to have our hearts assured; and to\nknow that thou hast indeed spoken truth to us, and to be witnesses thereof.\"\n\nJesus, Son of Mary, said-\"O God, our Lord! send down a table to us out of\nHeaven, that it may become a recurring festival to us, to the first of us and\nto the last of us, and a sign from thee; and do thou nourish us, for thou art\nthe best of nourishers.\"\n\nAnd God said-Verily, I will cause it to descend unto you; but whoever among\nyou after that shall disbelieve, I will surely chastise him with a\nchastisement, wherewith I will not chastise any other creature.43\n\nAnd when God shall say-\"O Jesus, Son of Mary: hast thou said unto mankind-\n'Take me and my mother as two Gods, beside God?\"' He shall say-\"Glory be unto\nThee! it is not for me to say that which I know to be not the truth; had I\nsaid that, verily thou wouldest have known it: Thou knowest what is in me,\nbut I know not what is in Thee; for Thou well knowest things unseen!\n\n\"I spake not to them aught but that which thou didst bid me-'Worship God, my\nLord and your Lord;' and I was a witness of their actions while I stayed\namong them; but since thou hast taken me to Thyself, Thou hast Thyself\nwatched them, and Thou art witness of all things:\n\n\"If Thou punish them, they are Thy servants, and if Thou forgive them. . .\n.44 Thou, verily, art the Mighty, the Wise!\"\n\nGod will say-This day shall their truth advantage the truthful. Gardens shall\nthey have 'neath which the rivers flow, and remain therein for ever: God is\nwell pleased with them and they with Him. This shall be the great bliss.\n\nUnto God belongeth the sovereignty of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of\nall that they contain; and He hath power over all things.\n\n\n_______________________\n\n1 The garlands, etc., attached to the victims offered at Mecca.\n\n2 When you have again returned to your common and everyday life by laying\naside the ihram, or pilgrim's robe. This generally consists of two pieces of\ncotton, or linen, or woollen cloth, without seam or ornament, one of which is\nwrapped round the loins, and the other thrown over the shoulders. The instep,\nheel, and head must be bare.\n\n3 The Koreisch sent to meet Muhammad, who was on his way to visit the Caaba\nwith 1400 men, at Hudaibiya (An. Hej. 6) to prohibit his nearer approach. A\ntruce for ten years was ultimately concluded.\n\n4 By making war in the holy month.\n\n5 Comp. Tract Cholin, c. 3.\n\n6 Lit. on blocks or shafts of stone. These were set up by the pagan Arabs in\nfront of their houses for the purpose of sacrificing thereon. See Freytag's\nEinl. p. 462, and Tr. Cholin, p. 39, 40, 41.\n\n7 It was the custom to draw lots for joints of a camel with arrows, some\nfeathered and others unfeathered, kept for this purpose in the temple of\nMecca. See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar., under the word Hobal.\n\n8 In the sense of sound, healthful.\n\n9 Thus Talm. Tr. Berachoth, 46.\n\n10 This refers to the oath of fidelity which Muhammad's followers took at Al\nAkaba. Abulf. Vit.Moh.p.43.\n\n11 It is quite uncertain to what events this refers. The commentators\nnarrate, and have doubtless invented, various incidents as having occasioned\nit.\n\n12 Verses 15-38 belong probably to the period shortly before the taking of\nChaibar in the beginning of Hej. 7. It is remarkable that Muhammad, although\nhe has invented these twelve leaders of tribes, should nowhere mention the\nnumber of the Apostles. There is no doubt, however, from the ancient\nbiographies, that he chose twelve assistants for the propagation of Islam.\nSee Gagnier, Vie de M. ii. xvi.\n\n13 The space between the mission of different prophets.\n\n14 Called by the Arabians Habeel and Kabeel. The dialogue between Cain and\nAbel is slightly varied from that given in Targ. Jerus. on Gen. iv. 8, and\nJonath. Ben Uzziel.\n\n15 Or, the sin against me, i.e. of slaying me.\n\n16 In the Jewish tradition the raven shews the mode of burial to Adam, not to\nCain. Pirke R. Elieser, c. 21. Midr. fol. II ap. Weil (Legenden, p. 39).\n\n17 Or, corpse.\n\n18 Thus Mischn. Sanhedr. iv. 5, \"We find it said in the case of Cain who\nmurdered his brother-'The voice of thy brother's bloods crieth'-It is not\nsaid, blood of thy brother, but bloods, i.e. his blood and the blood of his\nseed. Therefore was man created single, in order to shew that to him who\nkills a single individual of Israel it shall be reckoned as if he had slain\nthe whole race, and that he, etc.\" precisely as in the text. Comp. also the\nsame form of expression in Bab. Tal, Kidush, \u00a7 1, \"If one fulfil but one\ncommandment, he causes the scale of innocence to preponderate for himself and\nthe whole world; but if he commit one sin, he causes the scale of guilt to\npreponderate for himself and the whole world.\n\n19 Muhammad is said by the early traditionists to have punished a woman who\nhad been guilty of theft in this manner while on the route to Mecca previous\nto its capture. We are, therefore, able to fix the date of verses 39-44.\n\n20 Usury, bribes.\n\n21 Ex. xxi. 23-27.\n\n22 This may refer to proposals made to the Muslims to enter into alliance\nwith the Jews and Christians against the heathen, after the reverse at Ohod.\nLane observes (Mod. Egyptians, i. 358) with regard to this precept, that \"of\nthe leading features of the character of the Mooslims none is more remarkable\nthan their religious pride. They regard persons of every other faith as the\nchildren of perdition; and such the Mooslim is early taught to despise.\" They\nare, however, \"as remarkable for their toleration as for their contempt of\nunbelievers.\"\n\n23 Weil suggests that verses 64-88 were revealed subsequently to contests\nwith the Jews, but before Muhammad had broken with the Christians, i.e.\nbetween Hej. 4 and 8.\n\n24 That is, God has ceased to be bounteous. The Muslims believe that at the\nday of judgment all the Jews will appear with the right hand tied to the\nneck.\n\n25 That is, the Koran. The Jew was to retain a faith in the Towr\u00e2t, or Law;\nthe Christian in the Injil, or Gospel; but both Jews and Christians were to\nreceive the Koran as the complement of both.\n\n26 See Sura [xci.] ii. 59, p. 344.\n\n27 I Thess. ii. 15.\n\n28 Did not give herself out to be a goddess. Djelal.\n\n29 That is, were human beings, and subject to the usual wants and liabilities\nof ordinary persons.\n\n30 See Sura ii. 61, p. 344. Mark viii. 30.\n\n31 Geiger derives both the Arabic words from Syriac terms, and renders elders\nand clerics, p. 51. But the root of the Arabic word rendered monk is\ngenerally said to be rahaba, to fear.\n\n32 Comp. Sura [cix.] 1xvi. 2. The date of verses 89-91 is therefore probably\nHej. 7.\n\n33 If you violate it.\n\n34 See verse 4. Tradition has expanded the word ansab, so as to include all\nfigures, and hence the strict observers of the letter of the Koran forbid the\ngame of chess. The Persians, however, and Indians generally interpret this\nverse more liberally.\n\n35 This and the two following verses are placed by the commentators in the\nyear of Hudaibiya, as also 98, 99, 100.\n\n36 That is, Cube-House. Maison Carr\u00e9e. It is also commonly called the Bait\nUllah, House of God. The Caaba is an oblong massive structure 55 ft. in\nlength, 45 in breadth, and the height somewhat greater than the length. At\nthe S.E. corner is the famous Hajar El-Aswad, or Black Stone, according to\nLieut. Burton, an undoubted aerolite. It is figured in Mr. Muir's \"Life of\nMahomet.\" The Caaba stands in an open parallelogram of about 500 ft. by 530\nft. and is surrounded by colonnades, the pillars of which, made of various\nmarbles, some Egyptian but mostly Meccan, stand in a quadruple row on the\neast side, and three deep on the other sides, and amount to 554. It has been\nrebuilt several times, but has not been materially altered since A.H. 1040.\n\n37 Names given to the sacred animals which were marked and allowed to range\nfor pasture at liberty. The dedicated mother-camel was the Saiba; the Wasila\nincluded also goats or ewes; the eleventh female offspring of the camel was\nBahira; the dedicated stallion was Hami. These forms of superstition grew up,\nobviously, from a remote period, out of the intense affection of the Bedouin\nfor his flocks, especially his horses and camels.\n\n38 Lit. on you your souls.\n\n39 Lit. upon its face, i.e. according to its plain scope.\n\n40 See Evang. Infant. c. 1, Invenimus in libro Josephi Pontificis qui vixit\ntempore Christi, Jesum locutum esse, et quidem cum in cunis jaceret, etc. The\ndate of verse 108 to the end is uncertain.\n\n41 Precisely the same expression is applied to our Lord in the Arabic Evang.\nInfanti\u00e6, c. 36 at the end, which also relates the story of the Birds.\n\n42 Ar. El-hawariyin, a different word from that used for Jesus, Hud, Saleh,\nand the other apostles par excellence. The root of the word is the \u00c6thiopic\nhawyra, to go, send; hence the Church is called in \u00c6thiopic the Beth\nchrestyan ant hawariyat, i.e. Apostolic. See, however, the note on Thilo's\nCod. Apoc. p. 152, who derives from the root hur, to be white, pure; hence,\nfriends, helpers.\n\n43 Comp. 1 Cor. xi. 27, sqq.-Muhammad obviously refers to the Eucharist.\n\n44 Thou hast a right to do so as their Lord.","title":"The Koran (Al-Qur'an)","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":203205}