The Quran — Selected Surahs

SURA LXXIV.-THE ENWRAPPED1 [II.]

MECCA.-55 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

O THOU, ENWRAPPED in thy mantle!

Arise and warn!

Thy Lord-magnify Him!

Thy raiment-purify it!

The abomination-flee it!

And bestow not favours that thou mayest receive again with increase;

And for thy Lord wait thou patiently.

For when there shall be a trump on the trumpet,2

That shall be a distressful day,

A day, to the Infidels, devoid of ease.

Leave me alone to deal with him3 whom I have created,

And on whom I have bestowed vast riches,

And sons dwelling before him,

And for whom I have smoothed all things smoothly down;-

Yet desireth he that I should add more!

But no! because to our signs he is a foe

I will lay grievous woes upon him.

For he plotted and he planned!

May he be cursed! How he planned!

Again, may he be cursed! How he planned!

Then looked he around him,

Then frowned and scowled,

Then turned his back and swelled with disdain,

And said, “This is merely magic that will be wrought;

It is merely the word of a mortal.”

We will surely cast him into Hell-fire.

And who shall teach thee what Hell-fire is?

It leaveth nought, it spareth nought,

Blackening the skin.

Over it are nineteen angels.

None but angels have we made guardians of the fire:4 nor have we made this to

be their number but to perplex the unbelievers, and that they who possess the

Scriptures may be certain of the truth of the Koran, and that they who

believe may increase their faith;

And that they to whom the Scriptures have been given, and the believers, may

not doubt;

And that the infirm of heart and the unbelievers may say, What meaneth God by

this parable?

Thus God misleadeth whom He will, and whom He will doth He guide aright: and

none knoweth the armies of thy Lord but Himself: and this is no other than a

warning to mankind.

Nay, by the Moon!

By the Night when it retreateth!

By the Morn when it brighteneth!

Hell is one of the most grievous woes,

Fraught with warning to man,

To him among you who desireth to press forward, or to remain behind.5

For its own works lieth every soul in pledge. But they of God’s right hand

In their gardens shall ask of the wicked;-

“What hath cast you into Hell-fire?”6

They will say, “We were not of those who prayed,

And we were not of those who fed the poor,

And we plunged into vain disputes with vain disputers,

And we rejected as a lie, the day of reckoning,

Till the certainty7 came upon us”-

And intercession of the interceders shall not avail them.

Then what hath come to them that they turn aside from the Warning

As if they were affrighted asses fleeing from a lion?

And every one of them would fain have open pages given to him out of Heaven.

It shall not be. They fear not the life to come.

It shall not be. For this Koran is warning enough. And whoso will, it

warneth him.

But not unless God please, shall they be warned. Meet is He to be feared.

Meet is forgiveness in Him.

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1 This Sura is placed by Muir in the “second stage” of Meccan Suras, and

twenty-first in chronological order, in the third or fourth year of the

Prophet’s career. According, however, to the chronological list of Suras

given by Weil (Leben M. p. 364) from ancient tradition, as well as from the

consentient voice of tradionists and commentaries (v. Nöld. Geschichte, p.

69; Sprenger’s Life of Mohammad, p. 111) it was the next revealed after the

Fatrah, and the designation to the prophetic office. The main features of

the tradition are, that Muhammad while wandering about in the hills near

Mecca, distracted by doubts and by anxiety after truth, had a vision of the

Angel Gabriel seated on a throne between heaven and earth, that he ran to his

wife, Chadijah, in the greatest alarm, and desired her, perhaps from

superstitious motives (and believing that if covered with clothes he should

be shielded from the glances of evil spirits-comp. Stanley on I Cor. xi. 10),

to envelope him in his mantle; that then Gabriel came down and addressed him

as in v. I. This vision, like that which preceded Sura xcvi., may actually

have occurred during the hallucinations of one of the epileptic fits from

which Muhammad from early youth appears to have suffered. Hence Muhammad in

Sura lxxxi. appeals to it as a matter of fact, and such he doubtless believe

it to be. It may here be observed, that however absurd the Muslim traditions

may be in many of their details, it will generally be found that where there

is an ancient and tolerably universal consent, there will be found at the

bottom a residuum of fact and historical truth. At the same time there can

be no doubt but that the details of the traditions are too commonly founded

upon the attempt to explain or to throw light upon a dark passage of the

Koran, and are pure inventions of a later age.

2 The Arabic words are not those used in later Suras to express the same

idea.

3 Said to be Walid b. Mogheira, a person of note among the unbelieving

Meccans. This portion of the Sura seems to be of a different date from the

first seven verses, though very ancient, and the change of subject is similar

to that at v. 9 of the previous Sura.

4 This and the three following verses wear the appearance of having been

inserted at a later period to meet objections respecting the number of the

angels who guard hell, raised by the Jews; perhaps at Medina, as the four

classes of persons specified are those whom Muhammad had to deal with in that

city, viz., the Jews, Believers, the Hypocrites, or undecided, and Idolaters.

These are constantly mentioned together in the Medina Suras.

5 That is, who believe, and do not believe.

6 As the word sakar disturbs the rhyme, it may have been inserted by a

mistake of the copyist for the usual word, which suits it.

7 That is, death. Beidh. Comp. Sura xv. 99.

SURA LXXIII. THE ENFOLDED1 [III.]

MECCA. 20 Verses.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

O THOU ENFOLDED in thy mantle,

Stand up all night, except a small portion of it, for prayer:

Half; or curtail the half a little,-

Or add to it: And with measured tone intone the Koran,2

For we shall devolve on thee weighty words.

Verily, at the oncoming of night are devout impressions strongest, and words

are most collected;3

But in the day time thou hast continual employ-

And commemorate the name of thy Lord, and devote thyself to Him with entire

devotion.

Lord of the East and of the West! No God is there but He! Take Him for thy

protector,

And endure what they say with patience, and depart from them with a decorous

departure.

And let Me alone with the gainsayers, rich in the pleasures of this life; and

bear thou with them yet a little while:

For with Us are strong fetters, and a flaming fire,

And food that choketh, and a sore torment.

The day cometh when the earth and the mountains shall be shaken; and the

mountains shall become a loose sand heap.

Verily, we have sent you an Apostle to witness against you, even as we sent

an Apostle to Pharaoh:

But Pharaoh rebelled against the Apostle, and we therefore laid hold on him

with a severe chastisement.

And how, if ye believe not, will you screen yourselves from the day that

shall turn children greyheaded?

The very heaven shall be reft asunder by it: this threat shall be carried

into effect.

Lo! this is a warning. Let him then who will, take the way to his Lord.

Of a truth,4 thy Lord knoweth that thou prayest almost two-thirds, or half,

or a third of the night, as do a part of thy followers. But God measureth the

night and the day: He knoweth that ye cannot count its hours aright, and

therefore, turneth to you mercifully. Recite then so much of the Koran as may

be easy to you. He knoweth that there will be some among you sick, while

others travel through the earth in quest of the bounties of God; and others

do battle in his cause. Recite therefore so much of it as may be easy. And

observe the Prayers and pay the legal Alms,5 and lend God a liberal loan: for

whatever good works ye send on before for your own behoof, ye shall find with

God. This will be best and richest in the recompense. And seek the

forgiveness of God: verily, God is forgiving, Merciful.

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1 From the first line of this Sura, and its expressions concerning the Koran,

Prayer, and Future Punishment: from the similarity of the tradition with

regard to its having been preceded by a vision of Gabriel (Beidh., etc.), it

seems to belong to, or at least to describe, a period, perhaps immediately

succeeding the Fatrah, during which the hours of night were spent by Muhammad

in devotion and in the labour of working up his materials in rhythmical and

rhyming Suras, and in preparation for the public assumption of the prophetic

office. Comp. especially verses 11, 19, 20, at the end, with 11, 54, 55, of

the preceding Sura.

2 Singe den Koran laut. H.v.P. Psalle Alcoranum psallendo. Mar. Singe den

Koran mit singender und lauter Stimme ab. Ullm.

3 Lit. most firm, perhaps, distinct.

4 This verse, according to a tradition of Ayesha, was revealed one year later

than the previous part of the Sura. Nöldeke says it is "offenbar ein

Medinischer."

5 The reader will not be surprised to find in the very outset of Muhammad's

career a frequent mention of Alms, Prayer, Heaven, Hell, Judgment, Apostles,

etc., in their usual sense, when he remembers that Judaism was extensively

naturalised in Arabia, and Christianity, also, although to a smaller extent.

The words and phrases of these religions were doubtless familiar to the

Meccans, especially to that numerous body who were anxiously searching after

some better religion than the idolatries of their fathers (v. on Sura iii.

19, 60), and provided Muhammad with a copious fund from which to draw.

SURA XCIII.1-THE BRIGHTNESS [IV.]

MECCA.-11 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the noon-day BRIGHTNESS,

And by the night when it darkeneth!

Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither hath he been displeased.

And surely the Future shall be better for thee than the Past,

And in the end shall thy Lord be bounteous to thee and thou be satisfied.

Did he not find thee an orphan2 and gave thee a home?

And found thee erring and guided thee,3

And found thee needy and enriched thee.

As to the orphan therefore wrong him not;

And as to him that asketh of thee, chide him not away;

And as for the favours of thy Lord tell them abroad.

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1 This and the six following Suras are expressions of a state of deep mental

anxiety and depression, in which Muhammad seeks to reassure himself by

calling to mind the past favours of God, and by fixing his mind steadfastly

on the Divine Unity. They belong to a period either before the public

commencement of his ministry or when his success was very dubious, and his

future career by no means clearly marked out.

2 The charge of the orphaned Muhammad was undertaken by Abd-al-Mutalib, his

grandfather, A.D. 576. Hishami, p. 35; Kitab al Wakidi, p. 22, have preserved

traditions of the fondness with which the old man of fourscore years treated

the child, spreading a rug for him under the shadow of the Kaaba, protecting

him from the rudeness of his own sons, etc.

3 Up to his 40th year Muhammad followed the religion of his countrymen. Waq.

Tabari says that when he first entered on his office of Prophet, even his

wife Chadijah had read the Scriptures, and was acquainted with the History of

the Prophets. Spreng. p. 100. But his conformity can only have been partial.

SURA XCIV.-THE OPENING [V.]

MECCA.-8 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HAVE we not OPENED thine heart for thee?

And taken off from thee thy burden,

Which galled thy back?

And have we not raised thy name for thee?

Then verily along with trouble cometh ease.

Verily along with trouble cometh ease.

But when thou art set at liberty, then prosecute thy toil.

And seek thy Lord with fervour.

SURA CXIII.-THE DAYBREAK [VI.]

MECCA OR MEDINA.-5 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

SAY: I betake me for refuge to the Lord of the DAY BREAK

Against the mischiefs of his creation;

And against the mischief of the night when it overtaketh me;

And against the mischief of weird women;1

And against the mischief of the envier when he envieth.

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1 Lit. who blow on knots. According to some commentators an allusion to a

species of charm. Comp. Virg.Ec. vi. But the reference more probably is to

women in general, who disconcert schemes as thread is disentangled by blowing

upon it. Suras cxiii. are called the el mouwwidhetani, or preservative

chapters, are engraved on amulets,etc.

SURA CXIV.-MEN [VII.]

MECCA OR MEDINA.-6 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

SAY: I betake me for refuge to the Lord of MEN,

The King of men,

The God of men,

Against the mischief of the stealthily withdrawing whisperer,1

Who whispereth in man's breast-

Against djinn and men.

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1 Satan.

SURA I.1 [VIII.]

MECCA.-7 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

PRAISE be to God, Lord of the worlds!

The compassionate, the merciful!

King on the day of reckoning!

Thee only do we worship, and to Thee do we cry for help.

Guide Thou us on the straight path,2

The path of those to whom Thou hast been gracious;-with whom thou art not

angry, and who go not astray.3

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1 This Sura, which Nöldeke places last, and Muir sixth, in the earliest class

of Meccan Suras, must at least have been composed prior to Sura xxxvii.

182,where it is quoted, and to Sura xv. 87, which refers to it. And it can

scarcely be an accidental circumstance that the words of the first, second,

and fifth verses do not occur in any other Suras of the first Meccan period

as given by N”ldeke, but frequently in those of the second, which it

therefore, in N”ldeke, opinion, immediately precedes. But this may be

accounted for by its having been recast for the purposes of private and

public devotion by Muhammad himself, which is the meaning probably of the

Muhammadan tradition that it was revealed twice. It should also be observed

that, including the auspicatory formula, there are the same number of

petitions in this Sura as in the Lord's Prayer. It is recited several times

in each of the five daily prayers, and on many other occassions, as in

concluding a bargain, etc. It is termed "the Opening of the Book," "the

Completion," "the Sufficing Sura," the Sura of Praise, Thanks, and Prayer,"

"the Healer," "the Remedy," "the Basis," "the Treasure," "the Mother of the

Book," "the Seven Verses of Repetition." The Muhammadans always say "Amen"

after this prayer, Muhammad having been instructed, says the Sonna, to do so

by the Angel Gabriel.

2 Islam

3 The following transfer of this Sura from the Arabic into the corresponding

English characters may give some idea of the rhyming prose in which the Koran

is written:

Bismillahi 'rahhmani 'rrahheem.

El-hamdoo lillahi rabi 'lalameen.

Arrahhmani raheem.

Maliki yowmi-d-deen.

Eyaka naboodoo, wa‚yaka nest aeen.

Ihdina 'ssirat almostakeem.

Sirat alezeena anhamta aleihim, gheiri-'l mughdoobi aleihim, wala dsaleen.

Ameen.

SURA CIX.-UNBELIEVERS [IX.]

MECCA.-6 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

SAY: O ye UNBELIEVERS!

I worship not that which ye worship,

And ye do not worship that which I worship;

I shall never worship that which ye worship,

Neither will ye worship that which I worship.

To you be your religion; to me my religion.1

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1 This Sura is said to have been revealed when Walîd urged Muhammad to

consent that his God should be worshipped at the same time with the old

Meccan deities, or alternately every year. Hishâmi, p. 79; Tabari, p. 139. It

is a distinct renunciation of Meccan idolatry, as the following Sura is a

distinct recognition of the Divine Unity.

SURA CXII.-THE UNITY [X.]

MECCA.-4 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

SAY: He is God alone:

God the eternal!

He begetteth not, and He is not begotten;

And there is none like unto Him.

SURA CXI. ABU LAHAB [XI.]

MECCA. 5 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

LET the hands of ABU LAHAB1 perish,and let himself perish!

His wealth and his gains shall avail him not.

Burned shall he be at the fiery flame,2

And his wife laden with fire wood,-

On her neck a rope of palm fibre.

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1 Undoubtedly one of the earliest Suras, and refers to the rejection of

Muhammad's claim to the prophetic office by his uncle, Abu Lahab, at the

instigation of his wife, Omm Djemil, who is said to have strewn the path of

Muhammad on one occasion with thorns. The following six Suras, like the two

first, have special reference to the difficulties which the Prophet met with

the outset of his career, especially from the rich.

2 In allusion to the meaning of Abu Lahab, father of flame.

SURA CVIII.-THE ABUNDANCE [XII.]

MECCA.-3 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

TRULY we have given thee an ABUNDANCE;

Pray therefore to the Lord, and slay the victims.

Verily whoso hateth thee shall be childless.1

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1 A reply to those who had taunted Muhammad with the death of his sons, as a

mark of the divine displeasure.

SURA CIV.-THE BACKBITER [XII.]

MECCA.-9 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Woe to every BACKBITER, Defamer!

Who amasseth wealth and storeth it against the future!

He thinketh surely that his wealth shall be with him for ever.

Nay! for verily he shall be flung into the Crushing Fire;

And who shall teach thee what the Crushing Fire is?

It is God's kindled fire,

Which shall mount above the hearts of the damned;

It shall verily rise over them like a vault,

On outstretched columns.

SURA CVII.-RELIGION [XIV.]

MECCA.-7 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHAT thinkest thou of him who treateth our RELIGION as a lie?

He it is who trusteth away the orphan,

And stirreth not others up to feed the poor.

Woe to those who pray,

But in their prayer are careless;

Who make a shew of devotion,

But refuse help to the needy.

SURA CII.-DESIRE [XV.]

MECCA.-8 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

THE DESIRE of increasing riches occupieth you,

Till ye come to the grave.

Nay! but in the end ye shall know

Nay! once more,in the end ye shall know your folly.

Nay! would that ye knew it with knowledge of certainty!

Surely ye shall see hell-fire.

Then shall ye surely see it with the eye of certainty;

Then shall ye on that day be taken to task concerning pleasures.

SURA XCII.-THE NIGHT [XVI.]

MECCA.-21 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the NIGHT when she spreads her veil;

By the Day when it brightly shineth;

By Him who made male and female;

At different ends truly do ye aim!1

But as to him who giveth alms and feareth God,

And yieldeth assent to the Good;

To him will we make easy the path to happiness.

But as to him who is covetous and bent on riches,

And calleth the Good a lie,

To him will we make easy the path to misery:

And what shall his wealth avail him when he goeth down?

Truly man’s guidance is with Us

And Our’s, the Future and the Past.

I warn you therefore of the flaming fire;

None shall be cast to it but the most wretched,-

Who hath called the truth a lie and turned his back.

But the God-fearing shall escape it,-

Who giveth away his substance that he may become pure;2

And who offereth not favours to any one for the sake of recompense,

But only as seeking the face of his Lord the Most High.

And surely in the end he shall be well content.

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1 See Pref., p. 5, line I.

2 Comp. Luke xi. 41. Muhammad perhaps derived this view of the meritorious

anture of almsgiving from the Jewish oral law.

SURA LXVIII.-THE PEN [XVII.]

Mecca.-52 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Nun.1 By the PEN2 and by what they write,

Thou, O Prophet; by the grace of thy Lord art not possessed!3

And truly a boundless recompense doth await thee,

For thou art of a noble nature.4

But thou shalt see and they shall see Which of you is the demented.

Now thy Lord! well knoweth He the man who erreth from his path, and well doth

he know those who have yielded to Guidance;

Give not place, therefore, to those who treat thee as a liar:

They desire thee to deal smoothly with them: then would they be smooth as oil

with thee:

But yield not to the man of oaths, a despicable person,

Defamer, going about with slander,

Hinderer of the good, transgressor, criminal,

Harsh-beside this, impure by birth,

Though a man of riches and blessed with sons.

Who when our wondrous verses are recited to him saith-"Fables of the

ancients."

We will brand him on the nostrils.

Verily, we have proved them (the Meccans) as we proved the owners of the

garden, when they swore that at morn they would cut its fruits;

But added no reserve.5

Wherefore an encircling desolation from thy Lord swept round it while they

slumbered,

And in the morning it was like a garden whose fruits had all been cut.

Then at dawn they called to each other,

"Go out early to your field, if ye would cut your dates."

So on they went whispering to each other,

"No poor man shall set foot this day within your garden;"

And they went out at daybreak with this settled purpose.

But when they beheld it, they said, "Truly we have been in fault:

Yes! we are forbidden our fruits."

The most rightminded of them said, "Did I not say to you, Will ye not give

praise to God?"

They said, "Glory to our Lord! Truly we have done amiss."

And they fell to blaming one another:

They said, "Oh woe to us! we have indeed transgressed!

Haply our Lord will give us in exchange a better garden than this: verily we

crave it of our Lord."

Such hath been our chastisement-but heavier shall be the chastisement of the

next world. Ah! did they but know it.

Verily, for the God-fearing are gardens of delight in the presence of their

Lord.

Shall we then deal with those who have surrendered themselves to God, as with

those who offend him?

What hath befallen you that ye thus judge?

Have ye a Scripture wherein ye can search out

That ye shall have the things ye choose?

Or have ye received oaths which shall bind Us even until the day of the

resurrection, that ye shall have what yourselves judge right?

Ask them which of them will guarantee this?

Or is it that they have joined gods with God? let them produce those

associate-gods of theirs, if they speak truth.

On the day when men's legs shall be bared,6 and they shall be called upon to

bow in adoration, they shall not be able:

Their looks shall be downcast: shame shall cover them: because, while yet in

safety, they were invited to bow in worship, but would not obey.

Leave me alone therefore with him who chargeth this revelation with

imposture. We will lead them by degrees to their ruin; by ways which they

know not;

Yet will I bear long with them; for my plan is sure.

Askest thou any recompense from them? But they are burdened with debt.

Are the secret things within their ken? Do they copy them from the Book of

God?

Patiently then await the judgment of thy Lord, and be not like him who was in

the fish,7 when in deep distress he cried to God.

Had not favour from his Lord reached him, cast forth would he have been on

the naked shore, overwhelmed with shame:

But his Lord chose him and made him of the just.

Almost would the infidels strike thee down with their very looks when they

hear the warning of the Koran. And they say, "He is certainly possessed."

Yet is it nothing less than a warning for all creatures.

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1 It has been conjectured that as the word Nun means fish, there may be a

reference to the fish which swallowed Jonas (v. 48). The fact, however, is

that the meaning of this and of the similar symbols, throughout the Koran,

was unknown to the Muhammadans themselves even in the first century. Possibly

the letters Ha, Mim, which are prefixed to numerous successive Suras were

private marks, or initial letters, attached by their proprietor to the copies

furnished to Said when effecting his recension of the text under Othman. In

the same way, the letters prefixed to other Suras may be monograms, or

abbreviations, or initial letters of the names of the persons to whom the

copies of the respective Suras belonged.

addenda: The symbol nun may possibly refer to this letter as forming the

Rhyme in most of the verses of this Sura.

2 This Sura has been supposed by ancient Muslim authorities to be, if not the

oldest, the second revelation, and to have followed Sura xcvi. But this

opinion probably originated from the expression in v. 1 compared with Sura

xcvi. 4. Verses 17-33 read like a later addition, and this passage, as well

as verse 48-50, has been classed with the Medina revelations. In the absence

of any reliable criterion for fixing the date, I have placed this Sura with

those which detail the opposition encountered by the Prophet at Mecca.

3 By djinn. Comp. Sur. xxxiv. 45.

4 In bearing the taunts of the unbelievers with patience.

5 They did not add the restriction, if God will.

6 An expression implying a grievous calamity; borrowed probably from the

action of stripping previous to wrestling, swimming, etc.

7 Lit. the companion of the fish. Comp. on Jonah Sura xxxvii. 139-148, and

Sura xxi. 87.

SURA XC.-THE SOIL [XVIII.]

MECCA.-20 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I NEED not to swear by this SOIL,

This soil on which thou dost dwell,

Or by sire and offspring!1

Surely in trouble have we created man.

What! thinketh he that no one hath power over him?

"I have wasted," saith he, "enormous riches!"

What! thinketh he that no one regardeth him?

What! have we not made him eyes,

And tongue, and lips,

And guided him to the two highways?2

Yet he attempted not the steep.

And who shall teach thee what the steep is?

It is to ransom the captive,3

Or to feed in the day of famine,

The orphan who is near of kin, or the poor that lieth in the dust;

Beside this, to be of those who believe, and enjoin stedfastness on each

other, and enjoin compassion on each other.

These shall be the people of the right hand:

While they who disbelieve our signs,

Shall be the people of the left.

Around them the fire shall close.

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1 Lit. and begetter and what he hath begotten

2 Of good and evil.

3 Thus we read in Hilchoth Matt'noth Aniim, c. 8, "The ransoming of captives

takes precedence of the feeding and clothing of the poor, and there is no

commandment so great as this."

SURA CV.-THE ELEPHANT [XIX.]

MECCA.-5 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HAST thou not seen1 how thy Lord dealt with the army of the ELEPHANT?

Did he not cause their stratagem to miscarry?

And he sent against them birds in flocks (ababils),

Claystones did they hurl down upon them,

And he made them like stubble eaten down!

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1 This Sura is probably Muhammad's appeal to the Meccans, intended at the

same time for his own encouragement, on the ground of their deliverance from

the army of Abraha, the Christian King of Abyssinia and Arabia Felix, said to

have been lost in the year of Muhammad's birth in an expedition against Mecca

for the purpose of destroying the Caaba. This army was cut off by small-pox

(Wakidi; Hishami), and there is no doubt, as the Arabic word for small-pox

also means "small stones," in reference to the hard gravelly feeling of the

pustules, what is the true interpretation of the fourth line of this Sura,

which, like many other poetical passages in the Koran, has formed the

starting point for the most puerile and extravagant legends. Vide Gibbon's

Decline and Fall, c. 1. The small-pox first shewed itself in Arabia at the

time of the invasion by Abraha. M. de Hammer Gemaldesaal, i. 24. Reiske

opusc. Med. Arabum. Hal‘, 1776, p. 8.

SURA CVI.-THE KOREISCH [XX.]

MECCA.-4 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

For the union of the KOREISCH:-

Their union in equipping caravans winter and summer.

And let them worship the Lord of this house, who hath provided them with food

against hunger,

And secured them against alarm.1

_______________________

1 In allusion to the ancient inviolability of the Haram, or precinct round

Mecca. See Sura, xcv. n. p. 41. This Sura, therefore, like the preceding, is

a brief appeal to the Meccans on the ground of their peculiar privileges.

SURA XCVII.-POWER [XXI.]

MECCA.-5 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

VERILY, we have caused It1 to descend on the night of POWER.

And who shall teach thee what the night of power is?

The night of power excelleth a thousand months:

Therein descend the angels and the spirit by permission of their Lord for

every matter;2

And all is peace till the breaking of the morn.

_______________________

1 The Koran, which is now pressed on the Meccans with increased prominence,

as will be seen in many succeeding Suras of this period.

2 The night of Al Kadr is one of the last ten nights of Ramadhan, and as is

commonly believed the seventh of those nights reckoning backward. See Sura

xliv. 2. "Three books are opened on the New Year's Day, one of the perfectly

righteous, one of the perfectly wicked, one of the intermediate. The

perfectly righteous are inscribed and sealed for life," etc. Bab. Talm. Rosh.

Hash., § I.

SURA LXXXVI. THE NIGHT-COMER [XXII.]

MECCA. 17 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the heaven, and by the NIGHT-COMER!

But who shall teach thee what the night-comer is?

'Tis the star of piercing radiance.

Over every soul is set a guardian.

Let man then reflect out of what he was created.

He was created of the poured-forth germs,

Which issue from the loins and breastbones:

Well able then is God to restore him to life,-

On the day when all secrets shall be searched out,

And he shall have no other might or helper.

I swear by the heaven which accomplisheth its cycle,

And by the earth which openeth her bosom,

That this Koran is a discriminating discourse,

And that it is not frivolous.

They plot a plot against thee,

And I will plot a plot against them.

Deal calmly therefore with the infidels; leave them awhile alone.

SURA XCI.-THE SUN [XXIII.]

MECCA.-15 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the SUN and his noonday brightness!

By the Moon when she followeth him!

By the Day when it revealeth his glory!

By the Night when it enshroudeth him!

By the Heaven and Him who built it!

By the Earth and Him who spread it forth!

By a Soul and Him who balanced it,

And breathed into it its wickedness and its piety,

Blessed now is he who hath kept it pure,

And undone is he who hath corrupted it!

Themoud1 in his impiety rejected the message of the Lord,

When the greatest wretch among them rushed up:-

Said the Apostle of God to them,-"The Camel of God! let her drink."

But they treated him as an impostor and hamstrung her.

So their Lord destroyed them for their crime, and visited all alike:

Nor feared he the issue.

_______________________

1 See Sura vii. 33, for the story of Themoud.

SURA LXXX.-HE FROWNED [XXIV.]

MECCA.-42 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HE FROWNED, and he turned his back,1

Because the blind man came to him!

But what assured thee that he would not be cleansed by the Faith,

Or be warned, and the warning profit him?

As to him who is wealthy-

To him thou wast all attention:

Yet is it not thy concern if he be not cleansed:2

But as to him who cometh to thee in earnest,

And full of fears-

Him dost thou neglect.

Nay! but it (the Koran) is a warning;

(And whoso is willing beareth it in mind)

Written on honoured pages,

Exalted, purified,

By the hands of Scribes, honoured, righteous.

Cursed be man! What hath made him unbelieving?

Of what thing did God create him?

Out of moist germs.3

He created him and fashioned him,

Then made him an easy passage from the womb,

Then causeth him to die and burieth him;

Then, when he pleaseth, will raise him again to life.

Aye! but man hath not yet fulfilled the bidding of his Lord.

Let man look at his food:

It was We who rained down the copious rains,

Then cleft the earth with clefts,

And caused the upgrowth of the grain,

And grapes and healing herbs,

And the olive and the palm,

And enclosed gardens thick with trees,

And fruits and herbage,

For the service of yourselves and of your cattle.

But when the stunning trumpet-blast shall arrive,4

On that day shall a man fly from his brother,

And his mother and his father,

And his wife and his children;

For every man of them on that day his own concerns shall be enough.

There shall be faces on that day radiant,

Laughing and joyous:

And faces on that day with dust upon them:

Blackness shall cover them!

These are the Infidels, the Impure.

_______________________

1 We are told in the traditions, etc., that when engaged in converse with

Walid, a chief man among the Koreisch, Muhammad was interrupted by the blind

Abdallah Ibn Omm Maktûm, who asked to hear the Koran. The Prophet spoke very

roughly to him at the time, but afterwards repented, and treated him ever

after with the greatest respect. So much so, that he twice made him Governor

of Medina.

2 That is, if he does not embrace Islam, and so become pure from sin, thou

wilt not be to blame; thou art simply charged with the delivery of a message

of warning.

3 Ex spermate.

4 Descriptions of the Day of Judgment now become very frequent. See Sura

lxxxv. p. 42, and almost every Sura to the lv., after which they become

gradually more historical.

SURA LXXXVII.-THE MOST HIGH [XXV.]

MECCA.-19 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

PRAISE the name of thy Lord THE MOST HIGH,

Who hath created and balanced all things,

Who hath fixed their destinies and guideth them,

Who bringeth forth the pasture,

And reduceth it to dusky stubble.

We will teach thee to recite the Koran, nor aught shalt thou forget,

Save what God pleaseth; for he knoweth alike things manifest and hidden;

And we will make easy to thee our easy ways.

Warn, therefore, for the warning is profitable:

He that feareth God will receive the warning,-

And the most reprobate only will turn aside from it,

Who shall be exposed to the terrible fire,

In which he shall not die, and shall not live.

Happy he who is purified by Islam,

And who remembereth the name of his Lord and prayeth.

But ye prefer this present life,

Though the life to come is better and more enduring.

This truly is in the Books of old,

The Books of Abraham1 and Moses.

_______________________

1 Thus the Rabbins attribute the Book Jezirah to Abraham. See Fabr. Cod.

Apoc. V. T. p. 349.

SURA XCV.-THE FIG [XXVI.]

MECCA.-8 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I SWEAR by the FIG and by the olive,

By Mount Sinai,

And by this inviolate soil!1

That of goodliest fabric we created man,

Then brought him down to be the lowest of the low;-

Save who believe and do the things that are right, for theirs shall be a

reward that faileth not.

Then, who after this shall make thee treat the Judgment as a lie?

What! is not God the most just of judges?

_______________________

1 In allusion to the sacredness of the territory of Mecca. This valley in

about the fourth century of our ‘ra was a kind of sacred forest of 37 miles

in circumference, and called Haram a name applied to it as early as the time

of Pliny (vi. 32). It had the privilege of asylum, but it was not lawful to

inhabit it, or to carry on commerce within its limits, and its religious

ceremonies were a bond of union to several of the Bedouin tribes of the

Hejaz. The Koreisch had monopolised most of the offices and advantages of the

Haram in the time of Muhammad. See Sprenger's Life of Mohammad, pp. 7 20.

SURA CIII.-THE AFTERNOON [XXVII.]

MECCA.-3 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I SWEAR by the declining day!

Verily, man's lot is cast amid destruction,1

Save those who believe and do the things which be right, and enjoin truth and

enjoin stedfastness on each other.

_______________________

1 Said to have been recited in the Mosque shortly before his death by

Muhammad. See Weil, p. 328.

SURA LXXXV.-THE STARRY [XXVIII.]

MECCA.-22 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the star-bespangled Heaven!1

By the promised Day!

By the witness and the witnessed!2

Cursed the masters of the trench3

Of the fuel-fed fire,

When they sat around it

Witnesses of what they inflicted on the believers!

Nor did they torment them but for their faith in God, the Mighty, the

Praiseworthy:4

His the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth; and God is the witness of

everything.

Verily, those who vexed the believers, men and women, and repented not, doth

the torment of Hell, and the torment of the burning, await.

But for those who shall have believed and done the things that be right, are

the Gardens beneath whose shades the rivers flow. This the immense bliss!

Verily, right terrible will be thy Lord's vengeance!

He it is who produceth all things, and causeth them to return;

And is He the Indulgent, the Loving;

Possessor of the Glorious throne;

Worker of that he willeth.

Hath not the story reached thee of the hosts

Of Pharaoh and Themoud?

Nay! the infields are all for denial:

But God surroundeth them from behind.

Yet it is a glorious Koran,

Written on the preserved Table.

_______________________

1 Lit. By the Heaven furnished with towers, where the angels keep watch;

also, the signs of the Zodiac: this is the usual interpretation. See Sura xv.

15.

2 That is, by Muhammad and by Islam; or, angels and men. See, however, v. 7.

3 Prepared by Dhu Nowas, King of Yemen, A.D. 523, for the Christians. See

Gibbon's Decline and Fall, chap. xii. towards the end. Pocock Sp. Hist. Ar.

p. 62. And thus the comm. generally. But Geiger (p. 192) and Nöldeke (p. 77

n.) understand the passage of Dan. iii. But it should be borne in mind that

the Suras of this early period contain very little allusion to Jewish or

Christian legends.

4 Verses 8-11 wear the appearance of a late insertion, on account of their

length, which is a characteristic of the more advanced period. Observe also

the change in the rhymes.

SURA CI.-THE BLOW [XXIX.]

MECCA.-8 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

THE BLOW! what is the Blow?

Who shall teach thee what the Blow is?

The Day when men shall be like scattered moths,

And the mountains shall be like flocks of carded wool,

Then as to him whose balances are heavy-his shall be a life that shall please

him well:

And as to him whose balances are light-his dwelling-place1 shall be the pit.

And who shall teach thee what the pit (El-Hawiya) is?

A raging fire!

_______________________

1 Lit. Mother.

SURA XCIX.-THE EARTHQUAKE [XXX.]

MECCA.-8 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHEN the Earth with her quaking shall quake

And the Earth shall cast forth her burdens,

And man shall say, What aileth her?

On that day shall she tell out her tidings,

Because thy Lord shall have inspired her.

On that day shall men come forward in throngs to behold their works,

And whosoever shall have wrought an atom's weight of good shall behold it,

And whosoever shall have wrought an atom's weight of evil shall behold it.

SURA LXXXII.-THE CLEAVING [XXXI.]

MECCA.-19 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHEN the Heaven shall CLEAVE asunder,

And when the stars shall disperse,

And when the seas1 shall be commingled,

And when the graves shall be turned upside down,

Each soul shall recognise its earliest and its latest actions.

O man! what hath misled thee against thy generous Lord,

Who hath created thee and moulded thee and shaped thee aright?

In the form which pleased Him hath He fashioned thee.

Even so; but ye treat the Judgment as a lie.

Yet truly there are guardians over you-

Illustrious recorders-

Cognisant of your actions.

Surely amid delights shall the righteous dwell,

But verily the impure in Hell-fire:

They shall be burned at it on the day of doom,

And they shall not be able to hide themselves from it.

Who shall teach thee what the day of doom is?

Once more. Who shall teach thee what the day of doom is?

It is a day when one soul shall be powerless for another soul: all

sovereignty on that day shall be with God.

_______________________

1 Salt water and fresh water.

SURA LXXXI.-THE FOLDED UP [XXXII.]

MECCA.-29 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHEN the sun shall be FOLDED UP,1

And when the stars shall fall,

And when the mountains shall be set in motion,

And when the she-camels shall be abandoned,

And when the wild beasts shall be gathered together,2

And when the seas shall boil,

And when souls shall be paired with their bodies,

And when the female child that had been buried alive shall be asked

For what crime she was put to death,3

And when the leaves of the Book shall be unrolled,

And when the Heaven shall be stripped away,4

And when Hell shall be made to blaze,

And when Paradise shall be brought near,

Every soul shall know what it hath produced.

It needs not that I swear by the stars5 of retrograde motions

Which move swiftly and hide themselves away,

And by the night when it cometh darkening on,

And by the dawn when it brighteneth,

That this is the word of an illustrious Messenger,6

Endued with power, having influence with the Lord of the Throne,

Obeyed there by Angels, faithful to his trust,

And your compatriot is not one possessed by djinn;

For he saw him in the clear horizon:7

Nor doth he grapple with heaven's secrets,8

Nor doth he teach the doctrine of a cursed9 Satan.

Whither then are ye going?

Verily, this is no other than a warning to all creatures;

To him among you who willeth to walk in a straight path:

But will it ye shall not, unless as God willeth it,10 the Lord of the worlds.

_______________________

1 Involutus fuerit tenebris. Mar. Or, thrown down.

2 Thus Bab. Talm. Erchin, 3. "In the day to come (i.e., of judgment) all the

beasts will assemble and come, etc."

3 See Sura xvi. 61; xvii. 33.

4 Like a skin from an animal when flayed. The idea is perhaps borrowed from

the Sept. V. of Psalm civ. 2. Vulg. sicut pellem.

5 Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Mars, Saturn.

6 Gabriel; of the meaning of whose name the next verse is probably a

paraphrase.

7 Sura 1iii. 7.

8 Like a mere Kahin, or soothsayer.

9 Lit. stoned. Sura iii. 31. This vision or hallucination is one of the few

clearly stated miracles, to which Muhammad appeals in the Koran. According to

the tradition of Ibn-Abbas in Waquidi he was preserved by it from committing

suicide by throwing himself down from Mount Hira, and that after it, God

cheered him and strengthened his heart, and one revelation speedily followed

another.

10 Comp. the doctrine of predestination in Sura 1xxvi. v. 25 to end.

SURA LXXXIV.-THE SPLITTING ASUNDER [XXXIII.]

MECCA.-25 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHEN the Heaven shall have SPLIT ASUNDER

And duteously obeyed its Lord;1

And when Earth shall have been stretched out as a plain,

And shall have cast forth what was in her and become empty,

And duteously obeyed its Lord;

Then verily, O man, who desirest to reach thy Lord, shalt thou meet him.

And he into whose right hand his Book shall be given,

Shall be reckoned with in an easy reckoning,

And shall turn, rejoicing, to his kindred.

But he whose Book shall be given him behind his back2

Shall invoke destruction:

But in the fire shall he burn,

For that he lived joyously among his kindred,

Without a thought that he should return to God.

Yea, but his Lord beheld him.

It needs not therefore that I swear by the sunset redness,

And by the night and its gatherings,

And by the moon when at her full,

That from state to state shall ye be surely carried onward.3

What then hath come to them that they believe not?

And that when the Koran is recited to them they adore not?

Yea, the unbelievers treat it as a lie.

But God knoweth their secret hatreds:

Let their only tidings4 be those of painful punishment;

Save to those who believe and do the things that be right.

An unfailing recompense shall be theirs.

_______________________

1 Lit. and obeyed its Lord, and shall be worthy, or capable, i.e., of

obedience.

2 That is, into his left hand. The Muhammadans believe that the right hand of

the damned will be chained to the neck; the left chained behind the back.

3 From Life to Death, from the Grave to Resurrection, thence to Paradise.

4 The expression is ironical. See Freyt. on the word. Lit. tell them glad

tidings.

SURA C.-THE CHARGERS [XXXIV.]

Mecca.-11 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By the snorting CHARGERS!

And those that dash off sparks of fire!

And those that scour to the attack at morn!

And stir therein the dust aloft;

And cleave therein their midway through a host!

Truly, Man is to his Lord ungrateful.

And of this he is himself a witness;

And truly, he is vehement in the love of this world's good.

Ah! knoweth he not, that when that which is in the graves shall be laid bare,

And that which is in men's breasts shall be brought forth,

Verily their Lord shall on that day be informed concerning them?

SURA LXXIX.1-THOSE WHO DRAG FORTH [XXXV.]

MECCA.-46 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By those angels who DRAG FORTH souls with violence,

And by those who with joyous release release them;

By those who swim swimmingly along;

By those who are foremost with foremost speed;2

By those who conduct the affairs of the universe!

One day, the disturbing trumpet-blast shall disturb it,

Which the second blast shall follow:

Men's hearts on that day shall quake:-

Their looks be downcast.

The infidels will say, "Shall we indeed be restored as at first?

What! when we have become rotten bones?"

"This then," say they, "will be a return to loss."

Verily, it will be but a single blast,

And lo! they are on the surface of the earth.

Hath the story of Moses reached thee?

When his Lord called to him in Towa's holy vale:

Go to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:

And say, "Wouldest thou become just?

Then I will guide thee to thy Lord that thou mayest fear him."

And he showed him a great miracle,-

But he treated him as an impostor, and rebelled;

Then turned he his back all hastily,

And gathered an assembly and proclaimed,

And said, "I am your Lord supreme."

So God visited on him the punishment of this life and of the other.

Verily, herein is a lesson for him who hath the fear of God.

Are ye the harder to create, or the heaven which he hath built?

He reared its height and fashioned it,

And gave darkness to its night, and brought out its light,

And afterwards stretched forth the earth,-

He brought forth from it its waters and its pastures;

And set the mountains firm

For you and your cattle to enjoy.

But when the grand overthrow shall come,

The day when a man shall reflect on the pains that he hath taken,

And Hell shall be in full view of all who are looking on;

Then, as for him who hath transgressed

And hath chosen this present life,

Verily, Hell-that shall be his dwelling-place:

But as to him who shall have feared the majesty of his Lord, and shall have

refrained his soul from lust,

Verily, Paradise-that shall be his dwelling-place.

They will ask thee of "the Hour," when will be its fixed time?

But what knowledge hast thou of it?

Its period is known only to thy Lord;

And thou art only charged with the warning of those who fear it.

On the day when they shall see it, it shall seem to them as though they had

not tarried in the tomb, longer than its evening or its morn.

_______________________

1 This Sura obviously consists of three portions, verses 1-14, 15-26, 27-46,

of which the third is the latest in point of style, and the second, more

detailed than is usual in the Suras of the early period, which allude to

Jewish and other legend only in brief and vague terms. It may therefore be

considered as one of the short and early Suras.

2 Or, By those angels which precede, i.e., the souls of the pious into

Paradise. Or, are beforehand with the Satans and djinn in learning the

decrees of God.

SURA LXXVII.-THE SENT [XXXVI.]

MECCA.-50 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By the train of THE SENT ones,1

And the swift in their swiftness;

By the scatterers who scatter,

And the distinguishers who distinguish;

And by those that give forth the word

To excuse or warn;

Verily that which ye are promised is imminent.

When the stars, therefore, shall be blotted out,

And when the heaven shall be cleft,

And when the mountains shall be scattered in dust,

And when the Apostles shall have a time assigned them;

Until what day shall that time be deferred?

To the day of severing!

And who shall teach thee what the day of severing is?

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

Have we not destroyed them of old?

We will next cause those of later times to follow them.2

Thus deal we with the evil doers.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

Have we not created you of a sorry germ,

Which we laid up in a secure place,

Till the term decreed for birth?

Such is our power! and, how powerful are We!

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

Have we not made the earth to hold

The living and the dead?

And placed on it the tall firm mountains, and given you to drink of sweet

water.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

Begone to that Hell which ye called a lie:-

Begone to the shadows that lie in triple masses;

"But not against the flame shall they shade or help you:"-

The sparks which it casteth out are like towers-

Like tawny camels.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

On that day they shall not speak,

Nor shall it be permitted them to allege excuses.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

This is the day of severing, when we will assemble you and your ancestors.

If now ye have any craft try your craft on me.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

But the god-fearing shall be placed amid shades and fountains,

And fruits, whatsoever they shall desire:

"Eat and drink, with health,3 as the meed of your toils."

Thus recompense we the good.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

"Eat ye and enjoy yourselves a little while. Verily, ye are doers of evil."

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!

For when it is said to them, bend the knee, they bend it not.

Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture

In what other revelation after this will they believe?

_______________________

1 Lit. by the sent (fem.) one after another. Per missas. Mar. Either angels

following in a continued series; or, winds, which disperse rain over the

earth; or the successive verses of the Koran which disperse truth and

distinguish truth from error.

2 Sura xliv. 40.

3 Maimonides says that the majority of the Jews hope that Messiah shall come

and "raise the dead, and they shall be gathered into Paradise, and there

shall eat and drink and be in good health to all eternity."-Sanhedrin, fol.

119, col. I.

SURA LXXVIII.-THE NEWS [XXXVII.]

MECCA.-41 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Of what ask they of one another?

Of the great NEWS.1

The theme of their disputes.

Nay! they shall certainly knows its truth!

Again. Nay! they shall certainly know it.

Have we not made the Earth a couch?

And the mountains its tent-stakes?

We have created you of two sexes,

And ordained your sleep for rest,

And ordained the night as a mantle,

And ordained the day for gaining livelihood,

And built above you seven solid2 heavens,

And placed therein a burning lamp;

And we send down water in abundance from the rain-clouds,

That we may bring forth by it corn and herbs,

And gardens thick with trees.

Lo! the day of Severance is fixed;

The day when there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and ye shall come in

crowds,

And the heaven shall be opened and be full of portals,

And the mountains shall be set in motion, and melt into thin vapour.

Hell truly shall be a place of snares,

The home of transgressors,

To abide therein ages;

No coolness shall they taste therein nor any drink,

Save boiling water and running sores;

Meet recompense!

For they looked not forward to their account;

And they gave the lie to our signs, charging them with falsehood;

But we noted and wrote down all:

"Taste this then: and we will give you increase of nought but torment."

But, for the God-fearing is a blissful abode,

Enclosed gardens and vineyards;

And damsels with swelling breasts, their peers in age,

And a full cup:

There shall they hear no vain discourse nor any falsehood:

A recompense from thy Lord-sufficing gift!-

Lord of the heavens and of the earth, and of all that between3 them lieth-the

God of Mercy! But not a word shall they obtain from Him.

On the day whereon the Spirit4 and the Angels shall be ranged in order, they

shall not speak: save he whom the God of Mercy shall permit, and who shall

say that which is right.

This is the sure day. Whoso then will, let him take the path of return to his

Lord.

Verily, we warn you of a chastisement close at hand:

The day on which a man shall see the deeds which his hands have sent before

him; and when the unbeliever shall say, "Oh! would I were dust!"

_______________________

1 Of the Resurrection. With regard to the date of this Sura, we can only be

guided (I) by the general style of the earlier portion (to verse 37, which is

analogous to that of the early Meccan Suras; (2) by verse 17, which pre-

supposes lxxvii. 12; (3) by the obviously later style of verse 37 to the end.

2 See Sura ii. 27. This is the title given by the Talmudists to the fifth of

the seven heavens.

3 This phrase is of constant recurrence in the Talmud. Maimonides, Yad Hach.

i. 3, makes it one of the positive commands of the Rabbins to believe "that

there exists a first Being . . . and that all things existing, Heaven and

Earth, and whatever is between them, exist only through the truth of his

existence."

4 Gabriel.

SURA LXXXVIII.-THE OVERSHADOWING [XXXVIII.]

MECCA.-26 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Hath the tidings of the day that shall OVERSHADOW, reached thee?

Downcast on that day shall be the countenances of some,

Travailing and worn,

Burnt at the scorching fire,

Made to drink from a fountain fiercely boiling.

No food shall they have but the fruit of Darih,1

Which shall not fatten, nor appease their hunger.

Joyous too, on that day, the countenances of others,

Well pleased with their labours past,

In a lofty garden:

No vain discourse shalt thou hear therein:

Therein shall be a gushing fountain,

Therein shall be raised couches,

And goblets ready placed,

And cushions laid in order,

And carpets spread forth.

Can they not look up to the clouds, how they are created;

And to the heaven how it is upraised;

And to the mountains how they are rooted;

And to the earth how it is outspread?

Warn thou then; for thou art a warner only:

Thou hast no authority over them:

But whoever shall turn back and disbelieve,

God shall punish him with the greater punishment.

Verily to Us shall they return;

Then shall it be Our's to reckon with them.

_______________________

1 The name of a bitter, thorny shrub.

SURA LXXXIX.-THE DAYBREAK [XXXIX.]

MECCA.-30 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By the DAYBREAK and ten nights.1

By that which is double and that which is single,

By the night when it pursues its course!

Is there not in this an oath becoming a man of sense?

Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with Ad,

At Irem adorned with pillars,

Whose like have not been reared in these lands!

And with Themoud who hewed out the rocks in the valley;

And with Pharaoh the impaler;

Who all committed excesses in the lands,

And multiplied wickedness therein.

Wherefore thy Lord let loose on them the scourge of chastisement,2

For thy Lord standeth on a watch tower.

As to man, when his Lord trieth him and honoureth him and is bounteous to

him,

Then saith he, "My Lord honoureth me:"

But when he proveth him and limiteth his gifts to him,

He saith, "My Lord despiseth me."

Aye. But ye honour not the orphan,

Nor urge ye one another to feed the poor,

And ye devour heritages, devouring greedily,

And ye love riches with exceeding love.

Aye. But when the earth shall be crushed with crushing, crushing,

And thy Lord shall come and the angels rank on rank,

And Hell on that day shall be moved up,3-Man shall on that day remember

himself. But how shall remembrance help him?

He shall say, Oh! would that I had prepared for this my life! On that day

none shall punish as God punisheth,

And none shall bind with such bonds as He.

Oh, thou soul which art at rest,

Return to thy Lord, pleased, and pleasing him:

Enter thou among my servants,

And enter thou my Paradise.

_______________________

1 Of the sacred month Dhu'lhajja.

2 Or, poured on them the mixed cup of chastisement.

3 The orthodox Muhammadans take this passage literally. Djelal says that hell

will "be dragged up by 70,000 chains, each pulled by 70,000 angels," as if it

were an enormous animal or locomotive engine.

SURA LXXV.-THE RESURRECTION [XL.]

MECCA.-40 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

It needeth not that I swear by the day of the RESURRECTION,

Or that I swear by the self-accusing soul.

Thinketh man that we shall not re-unite his bones?

Aye! his very finger tips are we able evenly to replace.

But man chooseth to deny what is before him:

He asketh, "When this day of Resurrection?"

But when the eye shall be dazzled,

And when the moon shall be darkened,

And the sun and the moon shall be together,1

On that day man shall cry, "Where is there a place to flee to?"

But in vain-there is no refuge-

With thy Lord on that day shall be the sole asylum.

On that day shall man be told of all that he hath done first and last;

Yea, a man shall be the eye witness against himself:

And even if he put forth his plea. . . .2

(Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this revelation:3

For we will see to the collecting and the recital of it;

But when we have recited it, then follow thou the recital,

And, verily, afterwards it shall be ours to make it clear to thee.)

Aye, but ye love the transitory,

And ye neglect the life to come.

On that day shall faces beam with light,

Outlooking towards their Lord;

And faces on that day shall be dismal,

As if they thought that some great calamity would befal them.

Aye, when the soul shall come up into the throat,

And there shall be a cry, "Who hath a charm that can restore him?"

And the man feeleth that the time of his departure is come,

And when one leg shall be laid over the other,4

To thy Lord on that day shall he be driven on;

For he believed not, and he did not pray,

But he called the truth a lie and turned his back,

Then, walking with haughty men, rejoined his people.

That Hour is nearer to thee and nearer,5

It is ever nearer to thee and nearer still.

Thinketh man that he shall be left supreme?

Was he not a mere embryo?6

Then he became thick blood of which God formed him and fashioned him;

And made him twain, male and female.

Is not He powerful enough to quicken the dead?

_______________________

1 Lit. shall be united. In the loss of light, or in the rising in the west.-

Beidh.

2 Supply, it shall not be accepted.

3 Verses 16-19 are parenthetic, and either an address to Muhammad by Gabriel

desiring him (I) not to be overcome by any fear of being unable to follow and

retain the revelation of this particular Sura; (2) or, not to interrupt him,

but to await the completion of the entire revelation before he should proceed

to its public recital. In either case we are led to the conclusion that, from

the first, Muhammad had formed the plan of promulging a written book. Comp.

Sura xx. 112.

4 In the death-struggle.

5 Or, Therefore woe to thee, woe! And, again, woe to thee, woe. Thus Sale,

Ullm. Beidhawi; who also gives the rendering in the text, which is that of

Maracci.

6 Nonne fuit humor ex spermate quod spermatizatur.

SURA LXXXIII.-THOSE WHO STINT [XLI.]

MECCA.-36 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Woe to those who STINT the measure:

Who when they take by measure from others, exact the full;

But when they mete to them or weigh to them, minish-

What! have they no thought that they shall be raised again

For the great day?

The day when mankind shall stand before the Lord of the worlds.

Yes! the register of the wicked is in Sidjin.1

And who shall make thee understand what Sidjin is?

It is a book distinctly written.

Woe, on that day, to those who treated our signs as lies,

Who treated the day of judgment as a lie!

None treat it as a lie, save the transgressor, the criminal,

Who, when our signs are rehearsed to him, saith, "Tales of the Ancients!"

Yes; but their own works have got the mastery over their hearts.

Yes; they shall be shut out as by a veil from their Lord on that day;

Then shall they be burned in Hell-fire:

Then shall it be said to them, "This is what ye deemed a lie."

Even so. But the register of the righteous is in Illiyoun.

And who shall make thee understand what Illiyoun is?

A book distinctly written;

The angels who draw nigh unto God attest it.

Surely, among delights shall the righteous dwell!

Seated on bridal couches they will gaze around;

Thou shalt mark in their faces the brightness of delight;

Choice sealed wine shall be given them to quaff,

The seal of musk. For this let those pant who pant for bliss-

Mingled therewith shall be the waters of Tasnim-2

Fount whereof they who draw nigh to God shall drink.

The sinners indeed laugh the faithful to scorn:

And when they pass by them they wink at one another,-

And when they return to their own people, they return jesting,

And when they see them they say, "These are the erring ones."

And yet they have no mission to be their guardians.

Therefore, on that day the faithful shall laugh the infidels to scorn,

As reclining on bridal couches they behold them.

Shall not the infidels be recompensed according to their works?

_______________________

1 Sidjin is a prison in Hell which gives its name to the register of actions

there kept, as Illiyoun, a name of the lofty apartments of Paradise, is

transferred to the register of the righteous.

2 Derived from the root sanima, to be high: this water being conveyed to the

highest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise.

SURA LXIX.-THE INEVITABLE [XLII.]

MECCA.-52 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The INEVITABLE!

And who shall make thee comprehend what the Inevitable is?

Themoud and Ad treated the day of Terrors1 as a lie.

So as to Themoud,2 they were destroyed by crashing thunder bolts;

And as to Ad, they were destroyed by a roaring and furious blast.

It did the bidding of God3 against them seven nights and eight days together,

during which thou mightest have seen the people laid low, as though they had

been the trunks of hollow palms;

And couldst thou have seen one of them surviving?

Pharaoh also, and those who flourished before him, and the overthrown cities,

committed sin,-

And disobeyed the Sent one of their Lord; therefore did he chastise them with

an accumulated chastisement.

When the Flood rose high, we bare you in the Ark,

That we might make that event a warning to you, and that the retaining ear

might retain it.

But when one blast shall be blown on the trumpet,

And the earth and the mountains shall be upheaved, and shall both be crushed

into dust at a single crushing,

On that day the woe that must come suddenly shall suddenly come,4

And the heaven shall cleave asunder, for on that day it shall be fragile;

And the angels shall be on its sides, and over them on that day eight shall

bear up the throne of thy Lord.

On that day ye shall be brought before Him: none of your hidden deeds shall

remain hidden:

And he who shall have his book given to him in his right hand, will say to

his friends, "Take ye it; read ye my book;

I ever thought that to this my reckoning I should come."

And his shall be a life that shall please him well,

In a lofty garden,

Whose clusters shall be near at hand:

"Eat ye and drink with healthy relish, as the meed of what ye sent on

beforehand in the days which are past."

But he who shall have his book given into his left hand, will say, "O that my

book had never been given me!

And that I had never known my reckoning!

O that death had made an end of me!

My wealth hath not profited me!

My power hath perished from me!"

"Lay ye hold on him and chain him,

Then at the Hell-fire burn him,

Then into a chain whose length is seventy cubits thrust him;

For he believed not in God, the Great,

And was not careful to feed the poor;

No friend therefore shall he have here this day,

Nor food, but corrupt sores,

Which none shall eat but the sinners."

It needs not that I swear by what ye see,

And by that which ye see not,

That this verily is the word of an apostle worthy of all honour!

And that it is not the word of a poet-how little do ye believe!

Neither is it the word of a soothsayer (Kahin)-how little do ye receive

warning!

It is a missive from the Lord of the worlds.

But if Muhammad had fabricated concerning us any sayings,

We had surely seized him by the right hand,

And had cut through the vein of his neck.5

Nor would We have withheld any one of you from him.

But, verily, It (the Koran) is a warning for the God-fearing;

And we well know that there are of you who treat it as a falsehood.

But it shall be the despair of infidels,

For it is the very truth of sure knowledge.

Praise, then, the name of thy Lord, the Great.

_______________________

1 Thus Beidh., Sale, etc. But with reference to another sense of the root

karaa, it may be rendered the day of decision, the day on which man's lot

shall be decided.

2 On Ad and Themoud. See Sura vii. 63-77.

3 Lit. God subjected it to himself, availed himself of it against them.

4 El-wakia, the sudden event, the calamity; the woe that must break in upon

Heaven and Earth. The same word is used, Sura lvi. 1, and ci. 1, for the

Resurrection and Day of Judgment.

5 In allusion to the mode of executing criminals in many eastern countries.

SURA LI.-THE SCATTERING [XLIII.]

MECCA.-60 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By the clouds1 which scatter with SCATTERING,

And those which bear their load,

And by those which speed lightly along,

And those which apportion by command!

True, indeed, is that with which ye are threatened,

And lo! the judgment will surely come.2

By the star-tracked heaven!

Ye are discordant in what ye say;

But whose turneth him from the truth, is turned from it by a divine decree.

Perish the liars,

Who are bewildered in the depths of ignorance!

They ask, "When this day of judgment?"

On that day they shall be tormented at the fire.

"Taste ye of this your torment, whose speedy coming ye challenged."

But the God-fearing shall dwell amid gardens and fountains,

Enjoying what their Lord hath given them, because, aforetime they were well-

doers:

But little of the night was it that they slept,

And at dawn they prayed for pardon,

And gave due share of their wealth to the suppliant and the outcast.

On Earth are signs for men of firm belief,

And also in your own selves: Will ye not then behold them?

The Heaven hath sustenance for you, and it containeth that which you are

promised.

By the Lord then of the heaven and of the earth, I swear that this is the

truth, even as ye speak yourselves.3

Hath the story reached thee of Abraham's honoured guests?4

When they went in unto him and said, "Peace!" he replied, "Peace:-they are

strangers."

And he went apart to his family, and brought a fatted calf,

And set it before them. He said, "Eat ye not?"

And he conceived a fear of them. They said to him, "Fear not;" and announced

to him a wise son.

His wife came up with outcry: she smote her face and said, "What I, old and

barren!"

They said, "Thus saith thy Lord. He truly is the Wise, the Knowing."

Said he, "And what, O messengers, is your errand?"

They said, "To a wicked people are we sent,

To hurl upon them stones of clay,

Destined5 by thy Lord for men guilty of excesses."

And we brought forth the believers who were in the city:

But we found not in it but one family of Muslims.

And signs we left in it for those who dread the afflictive chastisement,-

And in Moses: when we sent him to Pharaoh with manifest power:

But relying on his forces6 he turned his back and said, "Sorcerer, or

Possessed."

So we seized him and his hosts and cast them into the sea; for of all blame

was he worthy.

And in Ad: when we sent against them the desolating blast:

It touched not aught over which it came, but it turned it to dust.

And in Themoud:7 when it was said to them, "Enjoy yourselves for yet a

while."

But they rebelled against their Lord's command: so the tempest took them as

they watched its coming.8

They were not able to stand upright, and could not help themselves.

And we destroyed the people of Noah, before them; for an impious people were

they.

And the Heaven-with our hands have we built it up, and given it its expanse;

And the Earth-we have stretched it out like a carpet; and how

smoothly have we spread it forth!

And of everything have we created pairs: that haply ye may reflect.

Fly then to God: I come to you from him a plain warner.

And set not up another god with God: I come to you from him a plain warner.

Even thus came there no apostle to those who flourished before them, but they

exclaimed, "Sorcerer, or Possessed."

Have they made a legacy to one another of this scoff? Yes, they are a rebel

people.

Turn away, then, from them, and thou shalt not incur reproach:

Yet warn them, for, in truth, warning will profit the believers.

I have not created Djinn and men, but that they should worship me:

I require not sustenance from them, neither require I that they feed me:

Verily, God is the sole sustainer: possessed of might: the unshaken!

Therefore to those who injure thee shall be a fate like the fate of

their fellows of old. Let them not challenge me to hasten it.

Woe then to the infidels, because of their threatened day.

_______________________

1 Lit. (I swear) by those which scatter (i.e., the rain) with a scattering,

(2) and by those which carry a burden, (3) and by those which run lightly,

(4) and by those which divide a matter, or by command. The participles are

all in the feminine: hence some interpret verse 1 of winds; verse 2 of

clouds; verse 3 of ships; verse 4 of angels.

2 Comp. note at Sura lvi. 1, p. 65.

3 That is, this oath is for the confirmation of the truth, as ye are wont to

confirm things one among another by an oath.

4 Comp. Sura xi. 72, and xv. 51. From the want of connection with what

precedes, it is highly probable that the whole passage from verse 24 60 did

not originally form a part of this Sura, but was added at a later period,

perhaps in the recension of the text under Othman.

5 Lit. marked, with the names of the individuals to be slain, say the

commentators.

6 Or, with his nobles.

7 For Ad and Themoud, see Sura xi.

8 That is, in broad daylight. Thus Beidh. Comp. Sura xlvi. 22.

SURA LII.-THE MOUNTAIN [XLIV.]

MECCA.-49 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the MOUNTAIN,

And by the Book written

On an outspread roll,

And by the frequented fane,1

And by the lofty vault,

And by the swollen sea,

Verily, a chastisement from thy Lord is imminent,

And none shall put it back.

Reeling on that day the Heaven shall reel,

And stirring shall the mountains stir.2

And woe, on that day, to those who called the apostles liars,

Who plunged for pastime into vain disputes-

On that day shall they be thrust with thrusting to the fire of Hell:-

"This is the fire which ye treated as a lie.

What! is this magic, then? or, do ye not see it?

Burn ye therein: bear it patiently or impatiently 'twill be the same to you:

for ye shall assuredly receive the reward of your doings."

But mid gardens and delights shall they dwell who have feared God,

Rejoicing in what their Lord hath given them; and that from the pain of hell-

fire hath their Lord preserved them.

"Eat and drink with healthy enjoyment, in recompense for your deeds."

On couches ranged in rows shall they recline; and to the damsels with large

dark eyes will we wed them.

And to those who have believed, whose offspring have followed them in the

faith, will we again unite their offspring; nor of the meed of their works

will we in the least defraud them. Pledged to God is every man for his

actions and their desert.3

And fruits in abundance will we give them, and flesh as they shall desire:

Therein shall they pass to one another the cup which shall engender no light

discourse, no motive to sin:

And youths shall go round among them beautiful as imbedded pearls:

And shall accost one another and ask mutual questions.

"A time indeed there was," will they say, "when we were full of care as to

the future lot of our families;

But kind hath God been to us, and from the pestilential torment hath he

preserved us;

For, heretofore we called upon Him-and He is the Beneficent, the Merciful."

Warn thou, then. For thou by the favour of thy Lord art neither soothsayer

nor possessed.

Will they say, "A poet! let us await some adverse turn of his fortune?"

SAY, wait ye, and in sooth I too will wait with you.

Is it their dreams which inspire them with this? or is it that they are a

perverse people?

Will they say, "He hath forged it (the Koran) himself?" Nay, rather it is

that they believed not.

Let them then produce a discourse like it, if they speak the Truth.

Were they created by nothing? or were they the creators of themselves?

Created they the Heavens and Earth? Nay, rather, they have no faith.

Hold they thy Lord's treasures? Bear they the rule supreme?

Have they a ladder for hearing the angels? Let any one who hath heard them

bring a clear proof of it.

Hath God daughters and ye sons?

Asketh thou pay of them? they are themselves weighed down with debts.

Have they such a knowledge of the secret things that they can write them

down?

Desire they to lay snares for thee? But the snared ones shall be they who do

not believe.

Have they any God beside God? Glory be to God above what they join with Him.

And should they see a fragment of the heaven falling down, they would say,

"It is only a dense cloud."

Leave them then until they come face to face with the day when they shall

swoon away:

A day in which their snares shall not at all avail them, neither shall they

be helped.

And verily, beside this is there a punishment for the evildoers: but most of

them know it not.

Wait thou patiently the judgment of thy Lord, for thou art in our eye; and

celebrate the praise of thy Lord when thou risest up,

And in the night-season: Praise him when the stars are setting.

_______________________

1 Of the Caaba.

2 Comp. Psalm lxviii. 9.

3 The more prosaic style of this verse indicates a later origin than the

context. Muir places the whole Sura in what he terms the fourth stage of

Meccan Suras.

SURA LVI.-THE INEVITABLE [XLV.]

MECCA.-96 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHEN the day that must come shall have come suddenly,1

None shall treat that sudden coming as a lie:

Day that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!

When the earth shall be shaken with a shock,

And the mountains shall be crumbled with a crumbling,

And shall become scattered dust,

And into three bands shall ye be divided:2

Then the people of the right hand3-Oh! how happy shall be the people of the

right hand!

And the people of the left hand-Oh! how wretched shall be the people of the

left hand!

And they who were foremost on earth-the foremost still.4

These are they who shall be brought nigh to God,

In gardens of delight;

A crowd of the former

And few of the latter generations;

On inwrought couches

Reclining on them face to face:

Aye-blooming youths go round about to them

With goblets and ewers and a cup of flowing wine;

Their brows ache not from it, nor fails the sense:

And with such fruits as shall please them best,

And with flesh of such birds, as they shall long for:

And theirs shall be the Houris, with large dark eyes, like pearls hidden in

their shells,

In recompense of their labours past.

No vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor charge of sin,

But only the cry, "Peace! Peace!"

And the people of the right hand-oh! how happy shall be the people of the

right hand!

Amid thornless sidrahs5

And talh6 trees clad with fruit,

And in extended shade,

And by flowing waters,

And with abundant fruits,7

Unfailing, unforbidden,

And on lofty couches.

Of a rare creation have we created the Houris,

And we have made them ever virgins,

Dear to their spouses, of equal age with them,8

For the people of the right hand,

A crowd of the former,

And a crowd of the latter generations.9

But the people of the left hand-oh! how wretched shall be the people of the

left hand!

Amid pestilential10 winds and in scalding water,

And in the shadow of a black smoke,

Not cool, and horrid to behold.11

For they truly, ere this, were blessed with worldly goods,

But persisted in heinous sin,

And were wont to say,

"What! after we have died, and become dust and bones, shall we be raised?

And our fathers, the men of yore?"

SAY: Aye, the former and the latter:

Gathered shall they all be for the time of a known day.

Then ye, O ye the erring, the gainsaying,

Shall surely eat of the tree Ez-zakkoum,

And fill your bellies with it,

And thereupon shall ye drink boiling water,

And ye shall drink as the thirsty camel drinketh.

This shall be their repast in the day of reckoning!

We created you, will ye not credit us?12

What think ye? The germs of life13-

Is it ye who create them? or are we their creator?

It is we who have decreed that death should be among you;

Yet are we not thereby hindered14 from replacing you with others, your likes,

or from producing you again in a form which ye know not!

Ye have known the first creation: will ye not then reflect?

What think ye? That which ye sow-

Is it ye who cause its upgrowth, or do we cause it to spring forth?

If we pleased we could so make your harvest dry and brittle that ye would

ever marvel and say,

"Truly we have been at cost,15 yet are we forbidden harvest."

What think ye of the water ye drink?

Is it ye who send it down from the clouds, or send we it down?

Brackish could we make it, if we pleased: will ye not then be thankful?

What think ye? The fire which ye obtain by friction-

Is it ye who rear its tree, or do we rear it?

It is we who have made it for a memorial and a benefit to the wayfarers of

the desert,

Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.

It needs not that I swear by the setting of the stars,

And it is a great oath, if ye knew it,

That this is the honourable Koran,

Written in the preserved Book:16

Let none touch it but the purified,17

It is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.

Such tidings as these will ye disdain?

Will ye make it your daily bread to gainsay them?

Why, at the moment when the soul of a dying man shall come up into his

throat,

And when ye are gazing at him,

Though we are nearer to him than ye, although ye see us not:-

Why do ye not, if ye are to escape the judgment,

Cause that soul to return? Tell me, if ye speak the truth.

But as to him who shall enjoy near access to God,

His shall be repose, and pleasure, and a garden of delights.

Yea, for him who shall be of the people of the right hand,

Shall be the greeting from the people of the right hand-"Peace be to thee."

But for him who shall be of those who treat the prophets as deceivers,

And of the erring,

His entertainment shall be of scalding water,

And the broiling of hell-fire.

Verily this is a certain truth:

Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.

_______________________

1 The renderings of Mar. cum inciderit casura, or as in Sur. lxix, 15,

ingruerit ingruens nearly express the peculiar force of the Arabic verb and

of the noun formed from it; i.e. a calamity that falls suddenly and surely.

Weil renders, ween der Auferstehung's Tag eintritt (p. 389). Lane, when the

calamity shall have happened.

2 Comp. Tr. Rosch Haschanah, fol. 16, 6.

3 Lit., the companions of the right hand, what shall be the companions of the

right hand! and thus in verses 9, 37, 40.

4 Lit., the preceders, the preceders.

5 See Sura liii. 14, p. 69.

6 Probably the banana according to others, the acacia gummifera.

7 "A Muslim of some learning professed to me that he considered the

descriptions of Paradise in the Koran to be, in a great measure, figurative;

'like those,' said he, 'in the book of the Revelation of St. John;' and he

assured me that many learned Muslims were of the same opinion." Lane's Modern

Egyptians, i. p. 75, note.

8 Like them, grow not old.

9 This seems a direct contradiction to verse 14, unless we suppose with

Beidhawi that an inferior and more numerous class of believers are here

spoken of.

10 Or, scorching.

11 Lit., not noble, agreeable in appearance.

12 As to the resurrection.

13 Lit., semen quod emittitis.

14 Lit., forestalled, anticipated.

15 Lit, have incurred debt.

16 That is, The Prototype of the Koran written down in the Book kept by God

himself.

17 This passage implies the existence of copies of portions at least of the

Koran in common use. It was quoted by the sister of Omar when at his

conversion be desired to take her copy of Sura xx. into his hands.

SURA1-LIII. THE STAR [XLVI.]

MECCA.-62 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By the STAR when it setteth,

Your compatriot erreth not, nor is he led astray,

Neither speaketh he from mere impulse.

The Koran is no other than a revelation revealed to him:

One terrible in power2 taught it him,

Endued with wisdom. With even balance stood he

In the highest part of the horizon:

Then came he nearer and approached,

And was at the distance of two bows, or even closer,-

And he revealed to his servant what he revealed.

His heart falsified not what he saw.

What! will ye then dispute with him as to what he saw?

He had seen him also another time,

Near the Sidrah-tree, which marks the boundary.3

Near which is the garden of repose.

When the Sidrah-tree4 was covered with what covered it,5

His eye turned not aside, nor did it wander:

For he saw the greatest of the signs of his Lord.

Do you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza,6

And Manat the third idol besides?7

What? shall ye have male progeny and God female?

This were indeed an unfair partition!

These are mere names: ye and your fathers named them thus: God hath not sent

down any warranty in their regard. A mere conceit and their own impulses do

they follow. Yet hath "the guidance" from their Lord come to them.

Shall man have whatever he wisheth?

The future and the present are in the hand of God:

And many as are the Angels in the Heavens, their intercession shall be of no

avail8

Until God hath permitted it to whom he shall please and will accept.

Verily, it is they who believe not in the life to come, who name the angels

with names of females:

But herein they have no knowledge: they follow a mere conceit; and mere

conceit can never take the place of truth.

Withdraw then from him who turneth his back on our warning and desireth only

this present life.

This is the sum of their knowledge. Truly thy Lord best knoweth him who

erreth from his way, and He best knoweth him who hath received guidance.

And whatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth is God's that he may reward

those who do evil according to their deeds: and those who do good will He

reward with good things.

To those who avoid great crimes and scandals but commit only lighter faults,

verily, thy Lord will be diffuse of mercy. He well knew you when he produced

you out of the earth, and when ye were embryos in your mother's womb. Assert

not then your own purity. He best knoweth who feareth him.

Hast thou considered him who turned his back?

Who giveth little and is covetous?

Is it that he hath the knowledge and vision of the secret things?

Hath he not been told of what is in the pages of Moses?

And of Abraham faithful to his pledge?

That no burdened soul shall bear the burdens of another,

And that nothing shall be reckoned to a man but that for which he hath made

efforts:

And that his efforts shall at last be seen in their true light:

That then he shall be recompensed with a most exact recompense,

And that unto thy Lord is the term of all things,

And that it is He who causeth to laugh and to weep,

And that He causeth to die and maketh alive,

And that He hath created the sexes, male and female,

From the diffused germs of life,9

And that with Him is the second creation,

And that He enricheth and causeth to possess,

And that He is the Lord of Sirius,10

And that it was He who destroyed the ancient Adites,

And the people of Themoud and left not one survivor,

And before them the people of Noah who were most wicked and most perverse.

And it was He who destroyed the cities that were overthrown.

So that that which covered them covered them.

Which then of thy Lord's benefits wilt thou make a matter of doubt?11

He who warneth you is one of the warners of old.

The day that must draw nigh, draweth nigh already: and yet none but God can

reveal its time.

Is it at these sayings that ye marvel?

And that ye laugh and weep not?

And that ye are triflers?

Prostrate yourselves then to God and worship.

_______________________

1 This Sura was revealed at about the time of the first emigration of

Muhammad's followers to Abyssinia, A. 5. The manner in which the Prophet

cancelled the objectionable verses 19, 20, is the strongest proof of his

sincerity (as also is the opening of Sura 1xxx.) at this period. Had he not

done so, nothing would have been easier for him than to have effected a

reconciliation with the powerful party in Mecca, who had recently compelled

his followers to emigrate.

2 The Angel Gabriel, to the meaning of whose name, as the strong one of God,

these words probably allude.

3 That is, Beyond which neither men nor angels can pass (Djelal). The

original word is also rendered, the Lote-Tree of the extremity, or of the

loftiest spot in Paradise, in the seventh Heaven, on the right hand of the

throne of God. Its leaves are fabled to be as numerous as the members of the

whole human family, and each leaf to bear the name of an individual. This

tree is shaken on the night of the 15th of Ramadan every year a little after

sunset, when the leaves on which are inscribed the names of those who are to

die in the ensuing year fall, either wholly withered, or with more or less

green remaining, according to the months or weeks the person has yet to live.

4 The Sidrah is a prickly plum, which is called Ber in India, the zizyphus

Jujuba of Linnæus. A decoction of the leaves is used in India to wash the

dead, on account of the sacredness of the tree.

5 Hosts of adoring angels, by which the tree was masked.

6 Al-Lat or El-Lat, probably the Alilat of Herodotus (iii. 8) was an idol at

Nakhlah, a place east of the present site of Mecca. Al-Ozza was an idol of

the Kinanah tribe; but its hereditary priests were the Banu Solaym, who were

stationed along the mercantile road to Syria in the neighbourhood of Chaibar.

7 When at the first recital of this Sura, the prophet had reached this verse,

he continued,

These are the exalted females, [or, sublime swans, i.e., mounting nearer and

nearer to God]

And truly their intercession may be expected.

These words, however, which were received by the idolaters with great

exultation, were disowned by Muhammad in the course of a few days as a

Satanic suggestion, and replaced by the text as it now stands. The

probability is that the difficulties of his position led him to attempt a

compromise of which he speedily repented. In the Suras subsequent to this

period the denunciations of idolatry become much sterner and clearer. The

authorities are given by Weil, Sprenger and Muir. See Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 74-

76.

8 Verses 26-33 are probably later than the previous part of the Sura, but

inserted with reference to it. Some (as Omar b. Muhammad and 1tq.) consider

verse 33, or (as Itq.36) verses 34-42, or (as Omar b. Muhammad) the whole

Sura, to have originated at Medina.

9 Ex spermate cum seminatum fuerit.

10 The Dog-star, worshipped by the Arabians.

11 Compare the refrain in Sura lv. p. 74.

SURA LXX.-THE STEPS OR ASCENTS [XLVII.]

MECCA.-44 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

A SUITOR sued1 for punishment to light suddenly

On the infidels: none can hinder

God from inflicting it, the master of those ASCENTS,

By which the angels and the spirit ascend to him in a day, whose length is

fifty thousand years.2

Be thou patient therefore with becoming patience;

They forsooth regard that day as distant,

But we see it nigh:

The day when the heavens shall become as molten brass,

And the mountains shall become like flocks of wool:

And friend shall not question of friend,

Though they look at one another. Fain would the wicked redeem himself from

punishment on that day at the price of his children,

Of his spouse and his brother,

And of his kindred who shewed affection for him,

And of all who are on the earth that then it might deliver him.

But no. For the fire,

Dragging by the scalp,

Shall claim him who turned his back and went away,

And amassed and hoarded.

Man truly is by creation hasty;

When evil befalleth him, impatient;

But when good falleth to his lot, tenacious.

Not so the prayerful,

Who are ever constant at their prayers;

And of whose substance there is a due and stated portion

For him who asketh, and for him who is ashamed3 to beg;

And who own the judgment-day a truth,

And who thrill with dread at the chastisement of their Lord-

For there is none safe from the chastisement of their Lord-

And who control their desires,

(Save with their wives or the slaves whom their right hands have won, for

there they shall be blameless;

But whoever indulge their desires beyond this are transgressors);

And who are true to their trusts and their engagements,

And who witness uprightly,

And who keep strictly the hours of prayer:

These shall dwell, laden with honours, amid gardens.

But what hath come to the unbelievers that they run at full stretch around

thee,

On the right hand and on the left, in bands?

Is it that every man of them would fain enter that garden of delights?

Not at all. We have created them, they know of what.

It needs not that I swear by the Lord of the East and of the West4 that we

have power.

To replace them with better than themselves: neither are we to be hindered.

Wherefore let them flounder on and disport them, till they come face to face

with their threatened day,

The day on which they shall flock up out of their graves in haste like men

who rally to a standard:-

Their eyes downcast; disgrace shall cover them. Such their threatened day.

_______________________

1 Lit. asking one asked; probably some unbeliever, with reference to the

opening of Sura lvi., p. 60, or like statements in some previous Sura.

2 The expression is hyperbolical, and, as such, identical with Sura [lxx.]

xxxii. 4. Compare also Sura xcvii., p. 37. where the descent is said to take

place in a single night.

3 Lit. forbidden or prevented by shame.

4 See next Sura. v. 16.

SURA LV.-THE MERCIFUL [XLVIII.]

MECCA.-78 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The God of MERCY hath taught the Koran,

Hath created man,

Hath taught him articulate speech,

The Sun and the Moon have each their times,

And the plants and the trees bend in adoration.

And the Heaven, He hath reared it on high, and hath appointed the balance;

That in the balance ye should not transgress.

Weigh therefore with fairness, and scant not the balance.

And the Earth, He hath prepared it for the living tribes:

Therein are fruits, and the palms with sheathed clusters,

And the grain with its husk, and the fragrant plants.

Which then of the bounties of your Lord will ye twain1 deny?

He created man of clay like that of the potter.

And He created the djinn of pure fire:

Which then of the bounties, etc.

He is the Lord of the East,2

He is the Lord of the West:

Which, etc.

He hath let loose the two seas3 which meet each other:

Yet between them is a barrier which they overpass not:

Which, etc.

From each he bringeth up pearls both great and small:

Which, etc.

And His are the ships towering up at sea like mountains:

Which, etc.

All on the earth shall pass away,

But the face of thy Lord shall abide resplendent with majesty and glory:

Which, etc.

To Him maketh suit all that is in the Heaven and the Earth. Every day doth

some new work employ Him:

Which, etc.

We will find leisure to judge you, O ye men and djinn:4

Which, etc.

O company of djinn and men, if ye can overpass the bounds of the Heavens and

the Earth, then overpass them. But by our leave only shall ye overpass them:

Which, etc.

A bright flash of fire shall be hurled at you both, and molten brass, and ye

shall not defend yourselves from it:

Which, etc.

When the Heaven shall be cleft asunder, and become rose red, like stained

leather:

Which, etc.

On that day shall neither man nor djinn be asked of his sin:

Which, etc.

By their tokens shall the sinners be known, and they shall be seized by their

forelocks and their feet:

Which, etc.

"This is Hell which sinners treated as a lie."

To and fro shall they pass between it and the boiling water:

Which, etc.

But for those who dread the majesty of their Lord shall be two gardens:

Which, etc.

With o'erbranching trees in each:

Which, etc.

In each two kinds of every fruit:

Which, etc.

On couches with linings of brocade shall they recline, and the fruit of the

two gardens shall be within easy reach:

Which, etc.

Therein shall be the damsels with retiring glances, whom nor man nor djinn

hath touched before them:

Which, etc.

Like jacynths and pearls:

Which, etc.

Shall the reward of good be aught but good?

Which, etc.

And beside these shall be two other gardens:5

Which, etc.

Of a dark green:

Which, etc.

With gushing fountains in each:

Which, etc.

In each, fruits and the palm and the pomegranate:

Which, etc.

In each, the fair, the beauteous ones:

Which, etc.

With large dark eyeballs, kept close in their pavilions:

Which, etc.

Whom man hath never touched, nor any djinn:6

Which, etc.

Their spouses on soft green cushions and on beautiful carpets shall recline:

Which, etc.

Blessed be the name of thy Lord, full of majesty and glory.

_______________________

1 Men and djinn. The verb is in the dual.

2 Lit. of the two easts, of the two wests, i.e., of all that lies between the

extreme points at which the sun rises and sets at the winter and summer

solstices.

3 Lit. he hath set at large, poured forth over the earth the masses of fresh

and salt water which are in contact at the mouths of rivers, etc. See Sura

[lxviii.] xxvii. 62; [lxxxvi.] xxxv. 13.

4 Lit. O ye two weights; hence, treasures; and, generally, any collective

body of men or things.

5 One for men, the other for the Genii; or, two for each man and Genius; or,

both are for the inferior classes of Muslims. Beidh.

6 It should be remarked that these promises of the Houris of Paradise are

almost exclusively to be found in Suras written at a time when Muhammad had

only a single wife of 60 years of age, and that in all the ten years

subsequent to the Hejira, women are only twice mentioned as part of the

reward of the faithful. Suras ii. 23 and iv. 60. While in Suras xxxvi. 56;

xliii. 70; xiii. 23; xl. 8 the proper wives of the faithful are spoken of as

accompanying their husbands into the gardens of bliss.

SURA LIV.-THE MOON [XLIX.]

MECCA.-55 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

The hour hath approached and the MOON hath been cleft:

But whenever they see a miracle they turn aside and say, This is well-devised

magic.

And they have treated the prophets as impostors, and follow their own lusts;

but everything is unalterably fixed.

A message of prohibition had come to them-

Consummate wisdom-but warners profit them not.

Quit them then. On the day when the summoner shall summon to a stern

business,

With downcast eyes shall they come forth from their graves, as if they were

scattered locusts,

Hastening to the summoner. "This," shall the infidels say, "is the

distressful day."

Before them the people of Noah treated the truth as a lie. Our servant did

they charge with falsehood, and said, "Demoniac!" and he was rejected.

Then cried he to his Lord, "Verily, they prevail against me; come thou

therefore to my succour."

So we opened the gates of Heaven with water which fell in torrents,

And we caused the earth to break forth with springs, and their waters met by

settled decree.

And we bare him on a vessel made with planks and nails.

Under our eyes it floated on: a recompence to him who had been rejected with

unbelief.

And we left it a sign: but, is there any one who receives the warning?

And how great was my vengeance and my menace!

Easy for warning have we made the Koran-but, is there any one who receives

the warning?

The Adites called the truth a lie: but how great was my vengeance and my

menace;

For we sent against them a roaring wind in a day of continued distress:

It tore men away as though they were uprooted palm stumps.

And how great was my vengeance and my menace!

Easy for warning have we made the Koran-but, is there any one who receives

the warning?

The tribe of Themoud treated the threatenings as lies:

And they said, "Shall we follow a single man from among ourselves? Then

verily should we be in error and in folly.

To him alone among us is the office of warning entrusted? No! he is an

impostor, an insolent person."

To-morrow shall they learn who is the impostor, the insolent.

"For we will send the she-camel to prove them: do thou mark them well, O

Saleh, and be patient:

And foretell them that their waters shall1 be divided between themselves and

her, and that every draught shall come by turns to them."

But they called to their comrade, and he took a knife and ham-strung her.

And how great was my vengeance and my menance!

We sent against them a single shout; and they became like the dry sticks of

the fold-builders.

Easy have we made the Koran for warning-but, is there any one who receives

the warning?

The people of Lot treated his warning as a lie;

But we sent a stone-charged wind against them all, except the family of Lot,

whom at daybreak we delivered,

By our special grace-for thus we reward the thankful.

He, indeed, had warned them of our severity, but of that warning they

doubted.

Even this guess did they demand: therefore we deprived them of sight,

And said, "Taste ye my vengeance and my menace;"

And in the morning a relentless punishment overtook them.

Easy have we made the Koran for warning but, is there any one who receives

the warning?

To the people of Pharaoh also came the threatenings:

All our miracles did they treat as impostures. Therefore seized we them as he

only can seize, who is the Mighty, the Strong.

Are your infidels, O Meccans, better men than these? Is there an exemption

for you in the sacred Books?

Will they say, "We are a host that lend one another aid?"

The host shall be routed, and they shall turn them back.

But, that Hour is their threatened time, and that Hour shall be most severe

and bitter.

Verily, the wicked are sunk in bewilderment and folly.

On that day they shall be dragged into the fire on their faces. "Taste ye the

touch of Hell."

All things have we created after a fixed decree:

Our command was but one word, swift as the twinkling of an eye.

Of old, too, have we destroyed the like of you-yet is any one warned?

And everything that they do is in the Books;2

Each action, both small and great, is written down.

Verily, amid gardens3 and rivers shall the pious dwell.

In the seat of truth, in the presence of the potent King.

_______________________

1 See Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 155; also Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 71.

2 Kept by the Guardian Angels.

3 The Talmudic descriptions of the Gardens-for the later Jews believed in

more than one Paradise-and of the rivers and trees therein, will be found in

Schr der Talm. Rabb. Judenthum, pp. 418-432.

SURA XXXVII.-THE RANKS [L.]

MECCA.-182 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

By the angels ranged in order for Songs of Praise,

And by those who repel demons,1

And by those who recite the Koran for warning,

Truly your God is but one,

Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them, and

Lord of the East.2

We have adorned the lower heaven with the adornment of the stars.

They serve also as a guard against every rebellious Satan,

That they overhear not what passeth in the assembly on high, for they are

darted at from every side,3

Driven off and consigned to a lasting torment;

While, if one steal a word by stealth, a glistening flame pursueth him.

Ask the Meccans then, Are they, or the angels whom we have made, the stronger

creation? Aye, of coarse clay have we created them.

But while thou marvellest they mock;

When they are warned, no warning do they take;

And when they see a sign, they fall to mocking,

And say, "This is no other than clear sorcery:

What! when dead, and turned to dust and bones, shall we indeed be raised?

Our sires also of olden times?"

Say, Yes; and ye shall be covered with disgrace.

For, one blast only, and lo! they shall gaze around them, And shall say, "Oh!

woe to us! this is the day of reckoning; This is the day of decision which ye

gainsaid as an untruth."

Gather together those who have acted unjustly, and their consorts,4 and the

gods whom they adored

Beside God; and guide them to the road for Hell.

Set them forth: they shall be questioned.

"How now, that ye help not one another?"

But on this day they shall submit themselves to God,

And shall address one another with mutual reproaches.

They shall say, "In sooth, ye came to us in well-omened sort:"5

But they will answer, "Nay, it was ye who would not believe; and we had no

power whatever over you. Nay, ye were people given to transgress;

Just, therefore, is the doom which our Lord hath passed upon us.6 We shall

surely taste it:

We made you err, for we had erred ourselves."

Partners therefore shall they be in punishment on that day.

Truly, thus will we deal with the wicked,

Because when it was said to them, There is no God but God, they swelled with

pride,

And said, "Shall we then abandon our gods for a crazed poet?"

Nay, he cometh with truth and confirmeth the Sent Ones of old.

Ye shall surely taste the painful punishment,

And ye shall not be rewarded but as ye have wrought,

Save the sincere servants of God!

A stated banquet shall they have

Of fruits; and honoured shall they be

In the gardens of delight,

Upon couches face to face.

A cup shall be borne round among them from a fountain,

Limpid, delicious to those who drink;

It shall not oppress the sense, nor shall they therewith be drunken.

And with them are the large-eyed ones with modest refraining glances, fair

like the sheltered egg.7

And they shall address one another with mutual questions.

Saith one of them, "I truly had a bosom friend,

Who said, 'Art thou of those who credit it?

What! when we shall have died, and become dust and bones, shall we indeed be

judged?"'

He shall say to those around him, "Will ye look?"

And he shall look and see him in the midst of Hell.

And he shall say to him, "By God, thou hadst almost caused me to perish;

And, but for the favour of my Lord, I had surely been of those who have been

brought with thee into torment."

"But do we not die," say the blessed,

"Any other than our first death? and have we escaped the torment?"8

This truly is the great felicity!

For the like of this should the travailers travail!

Is this the better repast or the tree Ez-zakkoum?

Verily, we have made it for a subject of discord to the wicked.

It is a tree which cometh up from the bottom of hell;

Its fruits is as it were the heads of Satans;

And, lo! the damned shall surely eat of it and fill their bellies with it:

Then shall they have, thereon, a mixture of boiling water:

Then shall they return to hell.

They found their fathers erring,

And they hastened on in their footsteps.

Also before them the greater number of the ancients had erred.

Though we had sent warners among them.

But see what was the end of these warned ones,

Except of God's true servants.

Noah called on us of old, and right prompt were we to hear him,9

And we saved him and his family out of the great distress,

And we made his offspring the survivors;

And we left for him with posterity,

"Peace be on Noah throughout the worlds!"

Thus do we reward the well-doers,

For he was one of our believing servants;-

And the rest we drowned.

And truly, of his faith was Abraham,

When he brought to his Lord a perfect heart,

When he said to his father and to his people, "What is this ye worship?

Prefer ye with falsehood gods to God?

And what deem ye of the Lord of the worlds?"

So gazing he gazed towards the stars,

And said, "In sooth I am ill:10

And they turned their back on him and departed.

He went aside to their gods and said, "Do ye not eat?

What aileth you that ye do not speak?"

He broke out upon them, with the right hand striking:

When his tribesmen came back to him with hasty steps

He said, "Worship ye what ye carve,

When God hath created you, and that ye make?"

They said, "Build up a pyre for him and cast him into the glowing flame."

Fain would they plot against him, but we brought them low.

And he said, "Verily, I repair to my Lord who will guide me:

O Lord give me a son, of the righteous."

We announced to him a youth of meekness.

And when he became a full-grown youth,11

His father said to him, "My son, I have seen in a dream that I should

sacrifice thee; therefore, consider what thou seest right."

He said, "My father, do what thou art bidden; of the patient, if

God please, shalt thou find me."

And when they had surrendered them to the will of God, he laid him down upon

his forehead:

We cried unto him, "O Abraham!

Now hast thou satisfied the vision." See how we recompense the righteous.

This was indeed a decisive test.

And we ransomed his son with a costly12 victim,

And we left this13 for him among posterity,

"PEACE BE ON ABRAHAM!"

Thus do we reward the well-doers,

For he was of our believing servants.

And we announced Isaac to him-a righteous Prophet-

And on him and on Isaac we bestowed our blessing. And among their offspring

were well-doers, and others, to their own hurt undoubted sinners.

And of old,14 to Moses and to Aaron shewed we favours:

And both of them, and their people, we rescued from the great distress:

And we succoured them, and they became the conquerors:

And we gave them (Moses and Aaron) each the lucid book:

And we guided them each into the right way:

And we left this for each among posterity,

"PEACE BE ON MOSES AND AARON."

Thus do we reward the well-doers,

For they were two of our believing servants.

And Elias truly was of our Sent Ones,

When he said to his people, "Fear ye not God?

Invoke ye Baal and forsake ye the most skilful Creator?

God is your Lord, and the Lord of your sires of old?"

But they treated him as a liar, and shall therefore be consigned to

punishment,

Except God's faithful servants.

And we left this for him among posterity,

"PEACE BE ON ELIASIN!"15

Thus do we reward the well-doers,

For he was one of our believing servants.

And Lot truly was of our Sent Ones,

When we rescued him and all his family,

Save an aged woman among those who tarried.

Afterward we destroyed the others.

And ye indeed pass by their ruined dwellings at morn

And night: will ye not then reflect?

Jonas, too, was one of the Apostles,

When he fled unto the laden ship,

And lots were cast,16 and he was doomed,

And the fish swallowed him, for he was blameworthy.

But had he not been of those who praise Us,

In its belly had he surely remained, till the day of resurrection.

And we cast him on the bare shore-and he was sick;-

And we caused a gourd-plant to grow up over him,

And we sent him to a hundred thousand persons, or even more,

And because they believed, we continued their enjoyments for a season.

Inquire then of the Meccans whether thy Lord hath daughters, and they, sons?

Have we created the angels females? and did they witness it?

Is it not a falsehood of their own devising, when they say,

"God hath begotten"? They are indeed liars.

Would he have preferred daughters to sons?

What reason have ye for thus judging?

Will ye not then receive this warning?

Have ye a clear proof for them?

Produce your Book if ye speak truth.

And they make him to be of kin with the Djinn: but the Djinn have long known

that these idolaters shall be brought up before God.

Far be the glory of God from what they impute to him.

"His faithful servants do not thus.

Moreover, ye and what ye worship

Shall not stir up any against God,17

Save him who shall burn in Hell.

And verily each one of us hath his appointed place,

And we range ourselves in order,

And we celebrate His praises."18

And if those infidels say,

"Had we a revelation transmitted to us from those of old,19

We had surely been God's faithful servants."

Yet they believe not the Koran. But they shall know its truth at last.

Our word came of old to our servants the apostles,

That they should surely be the succoured,

And that our armies should procure the victory for them.

Turn aside therefore from them for a time,

And behold them, for they too shall in the end behold their doom.

Would they then hasten our vengeance?

But when it shall come down into their courts, an evil morning shall it be to

those who have had their warning.

Turn aside from them therefore for a time.

And behold; for they too shall in the end behold their doom.

Far be the glory of thy Lord, the Lord of all greatness, from what they

impute to him,

And peace be on his Apostles!

And praise be to God the Lord of the worlds.

_______________________

1 I have given in the text the sense of these first two verses according to

the Muhammadan commentators. The original, literally translated, viz. By the

ranks which rank themselves, and by the repellers who repel, would not convey

an intelligible idea to the English reader. Mar. renders, Per ordinantes

ordinando et agitantes agitando.

2 Ar. Easts. Errat in pluralitate mundorum. Mar. But the allusion probably is

to the different points of the horizon at which the sun rises and sets in the

course of the year.

3 See Sura [lvii.] xv. 18.

4 Or, comrades, i.e. the demons.

5 Lit. on the right hand, the side of good omen i.e. with semblance of truth.

6 See Sura [lx.] xxxvi. 6.

7 The ostrich egg carefully protected from dust.

8 Lit. and are we not among the punished?

9 Lit. et sane euge auditores. Mar.

10 And therefore unable to assist at your sacrifices.

11 Lit. cum igitur pervenisset cum eo ad ‘tatem cui competit operandi

studium. Mar. Beidh. When he had attained to the age when he could work with

him. Lane.

12 Brought, says Rabbi Jehoshua, from Paradise by an angel. Midr. fol.

13 This salutation.

14 The Arabic particle which is here and elsewhere rendered of old (also,

already, certainly) serves to mark the position of a past act or event as

prior to the time present, and in all such passages merely gives a fulness

and intensity to our perfect, or pluperfect tense.

15 The form of this word is altered in the original for the sake of the

rhyme.

16 Lit. he cast lots (with the sailors).

17 Nequequam vos ad illud colendum estis Seducturi. Mar.

18 This verse and the six preceding are the words of the Angel.

19 Compare verse 69.

SURA LXXI.-NOAH [LI.]

MECCA.-29 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

We sent NOAH to his people, and said to him, "Warn thou thy people ere there

come on them an afflictive punishment."

He said, "O my people! I come to you a plain-spoken warner:

Serve God and fear Him, and obey me:

Your sins will He forgive you, and respite you till the fixed Time; for when

God's fixed Time hath come, it shall not be put back. Would that ye knew

this!"

He said, "Lord I have cried to my people night and day; and my cry doth but

make them flee from me the more.

So oft as I cry to them, that thou mayest forgive them, they thrust their

fingers into their ears, and wrap themselves in their garments, and persist

in their error, and are disdainfully disdainful.

Then I cried aloud to them:

Then again spake I with plainness, and in private did I secretly address

them:

And I said, Beg forgiveness of your Lord, for He is ready to forgive.

He will send down the very Heaven upon you in plenteous rains;

And will increase you in wealth and children; and will give you gardens, and

will give you watercourses:-

What hath come to you that ye hope not for goodness from the hand of God?

For He it is who hath formed you by successive steps.1

See ye not how God hath created the seven heavens one over the other?

And He hath placed therein the moon as a light, and hath placed there the sun

as a torch;

And God hath caused you to spring forth from the earth like a plant;

Hereafter will He turn you back into it again, and will bring you forth anew-

And God hath spread the earth for you like a carpet,

That ye may walk therein along spacious paths."'

Said Noah, "O my Lord! they rebel against me, and they follow those whose

riches and children do but aggravate their ruin."

And they plotted a great plot;

And they said, "Forsake not your Gods; forsake not Wadd nor Sowah,

Nor Yaghuth and Yahuk and Nesr;"

And they caused many to err;2-and thou, too, O Muhammad! shalt be the means

of increasing only error in the wicked-

Because of their sins they were drowned, and made to go into the Fire;

And they found that they had no helper save God.

And Noah said, "Lord, leave not one single family of Infidels on the Earth:

For if thou leave them they will beguile thy servants and will beget only

sinners, infidels.

O my Lord, forgive me, and my parents, and every one who, being a believer,

shall enter my house, and believers men and women: and add to the wicked

nought but perdition."

_______________________

1 See Sura xxii. 5.

2 Or, the idols had seduced many. Thus Kas. Beidh. gives both interpp.-See

on these idols Freytag's Einleitung, p. 349.

SURA LXXVI.-MAN [LII.]

MECCA.-31 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Doth not a long time pass over MAN, during which he is a thing unremembered?1

We have created man from the union of the sexes that we might prove him; and

hearing, seeing, have we made him:

In a right way have we guided him, be he thankful or ungrateful.

For the Infidels we have got ready chains and collars and flaming fire.

But a wine cup tempered at the camphor fountain2 the just shall quaff:

Fount whence the servants of God shall drink, and guide by channels from

place to place;

They who fulfilled their vows, and feared the day whose woes will spread far

and wide;

Who though longing for it themselves, bestowed their food on the poor and the

orphan and the captive:

"We feed you for the sake of God: we seek from you neither recompense nor

thanks:3

A stern and calamitous day dread we from our Lord."

From the evil therefore of that day hath God delivered them and cast on them

brightness of face and joy:

And hath rewarded their constancy, with Paradise and silken robes:

Reclining therein on bridal couches, nought shall they know of sun or

piercing cold:

Its shades shall be close over them, and low shall its fruits hang down:

And vessels of silver and goblets like flagons shall be borne round among

them:

Flagons of silver whose measure themselves shall mete.

And there shall they be given to drink of the cup tempered with zendjebil

(ginger)

From the fount therein whose name is Selsebil (the softly flowing).

Aye-blooming youths go round among them. When thou lookest at them thou

wouldest deem them scattered pearls;

And when thou seest this, thou wilt see delights and a vast kingdom:

Their clothing green silk robes and rich brocade: with silver bracelets shall

they be adorned; and drink of a pure beverage shall their Lord give them.

This shall be your recompense. Your efforts shall meet with thanks.

We ourselves have sent down to thee the Koran as a missive from on high.

Await then with patience the judgments of thy Lord, and obey not the wicked

among them and the unbelieving:

And make mention of the name of thy Lord at morn, at even,

And at night. Adore him, and praise him the livelong night.

But these men love the fleeting present, and leave behind them the heavy day

of doom.

Ourselves have we created them, and strengthened their joints; and when we

please, with others like unto themselves will we replace them.

This truly is a warning: And whoso willeth, taketh the way to his Lord;

But will it ye shall not, unless God will it, for God is Knowing, Wise.

He causeth whom He will to enter into his mercy. But for the evil doers, He

hath made ready an afflictive chastisement.

_______________________

1 When in the womb.

2 With (the water of) Kafoor. Lane.

3 Desire no recompense from you.

SURA XLIV.-SMOKE [LIII.]

MECCA.-59 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ha. Mim.1 By this clear Book!

See! on a blessed night2 have we sent it down, for we would warn mankind:

On the night wherein all things are disposed in wisdom,3

By virtue of our behest. Lo! we have ever sent forth Apostles,

A mercy from thy Lord: he truly heareth and knoweth all things-

Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all that is between them,-if ye

be firm in faith-

There is no God but He!-He maketh alive and killeth!-Your Lord and the Lord

of your sires of old!

Yet with doubts do they disport them.

But mark them on the day when the Heaven shall give out a palpable SMOKE,

Which shall enshroud mankind: this will be an afflictive torment.

They will cry, "Our Lord! relieve us from this torment: see! we are

believers."

But how did warning avail them, when an undoubted apostle had come to them;

And they turned their backs on him, and said, "Taught by others, possessed?"

Were we to relieve you from the plague even a little, ye would certainly

relapse.4

On the day when we shall fiercely put forth our great fierceness, we will

surely take vengeance on them!

Of old, before their time, had we proved the people of Pharaoh, when a noble

apostle presented himself to them.

"Send away with me," cried he, "the servants of God; for I am an apostle

worthy of all credit:

And exalt not yourselves against God, for I come to you with undoubted power;

And I take refuge with Him who is my Lord and your Lord, that ye stone me

not:

And if ye believe me not, at least separate yourselves from me."

And he cried to his Lord, "That these are a wicked people."

"March forth then, said God, with my servants by night, for ye will be

pursued.

And leave behind you the cleft sea: they are a drowned host."

How many a garden and fountain did they quit!

And corn fields and noble dwellings!

And pleasures in which they rejoiced them!

So was it: and we gave them as a heritage to another people.

Nor Heaven nor Earth wept for them, nor was their sentence respited;

And we rescued the children of Israel from a degrading affliction-

From Pharaoh, for he was haughty, given to excess.

And we chose them, in our prescience, above all peoples,5

And we shewed them miracles wherein was their clear trial.

Yet these infidels say,

"There is but our first death, neither shall we be raised again:

Bring back our sires, if ye be men of truth."

Are they better than the people of Tobba,6

And those who flourished before them whom we destroyed for their evil deeds?

We have not created the Heavens and the Earth and whatever is between them in

sport:

We have not created them but for a serious end:7 but the greater part of them

understand it not.

Verily the day of severing8 shall be the appointed time of all:

A day when the master shall not at all be aided by the servant, neither shall

they be helped;

Save those on whom God shall have mercy: for He is the mighty, the merciful.

Verily the tree of Ez-Zakkoum9

Shall be the sinner's10 food:

Like dregs of oil shall it boil up in their bellies,

Like the boiling of scalding water.

"-Seize ye him, and drag him into the mid-fire;

Then pour on his head of the tormenting boiling water.

-'Taste this:' for thou forsooth art the mighty, the honourable!

Lo! this is that of which ye doubted."

But the pious shall be in a secure place,

Amid gardens and fountains,

Clothed in silk and richest robes, facing one another:

Thus shall it be: and we will wed them to the virgins with large dark eyes:

Therein shall they call, secure, for every kind of fruit;

Therein, their first death passed, shall they taste death no more; and He

shall keep them from the pains of Hell:-

'Tis the gracious bounty of thy Lord! This is the great felicity.

We have made this Koran easy for thee in thine own tongue, that they may take

the warning.

Therefore wait thou, for they are waiting.11

_______________________

1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.

2 Of the 23rd and 24th of Ramadhan, in which, according to the Muslim creed,

all the events of the year subsequent are arranged. See Sura xcvii. n. 2, p.

27.

3 Lit. We settle each wise affair-called wise, because proceeding direct from

the will of Him who is absolute wisdom.

4 Beidh, and others suppose this verse to have been revealed at Medina. This

opinion, however, is based upon the supposition that it refers to the famine

with which Mecca was visited after the Hejira.

5 Comp. Ex. xx. 20; Deut. viii. 16.

6 Tobba, i.e. Chalif or successor, is the title of the Kings of Yemen; or of

Hadramont, Saba, and Hamyar.-See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar. p. 60.

7 Lit. in truth.

8 That is, Of the good from the bad.

9 See Sura xxxvii. 60, p. 81.

10 The commentators suppose this sinner to be Abu Jahl, one of the chief of

the Koreisch, and the bitter enemy of Muhammad.

11 To see the turn which events may take.

SURA L.-KAF [LIV.]

MECCA.-45 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.

Kaf1. By the glorious Koran:

They marvel forsooth that one of themselves hath come to them charged with

warnings. "This," say the infidels, "is a marvellous thing:

What! when dead and turned to dust shall we. . . .? Far off is such a return

as this?"

Now know we what the earth consumeth of them, and with us is a Book in which

account is kept.

But they have treated the truth which hath come to them as falsehood;

perplexed therefore is their state.

Will they not look up to the heaven above them, and consider how we have

reared it and decked it forth, and that there are no flaws therein?

And as to the earth, we have spread it out, and have thrown the mountains

upon it, and have caused an upgrowth in it of all beauteous kinds of plants,

For insight and admonition to every servant who loveth to turn to God:

And we send down the rain from Heaven with its blessings, by which we cause

gardens to spring forth and the grain of harvest,

And the tall palm trees with date-bearing branches one above the other

For man's nourishment: And life give we thereby to a dead country. So also

shall be the resurrection.

Ere the days of these (Meccans) the people of Noah, and the men of Rass2 and

Themoud, treated their prophets as impostors:

And Ad and Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot and the dwellers in the forest,

and the people of Tobba,3 all gave the lie to their prophets: justly,

therefore, were the menaces inflicted.

Are we wearied out with the first creation? Yet are they in doubt with regard

to a new creation!4

We created man: and we know what his soul whispereth to him, and we are

closer to him than his neck-vein.

When the two angels charged with taking account shall take it, one sitting on

the right hand, the other on the left:

Not a word doth he utter, but there is a watcher with him ready to note it

down:

And the stupor of certain death cometh upon him: "This is what thou wouldst

have shunned"-

And there shall be a blast on the trumpet,-it is the threatened day!

And every soul shall come,-an angel with it urging it along, and an angel to

witness against it5-

Saith he, "Of this day didst thou live in heedlessness: but we have taken off

thy veil from thee, and thy sight is becoming sharp this day."

And he who is at this side6 shall say, "This is what I am prepared with

against thee."

And God will say, "Cast into Hell, ye twain, every infidel, every hardened

one,

The hinderer of the good, the transgressor, the doubter,

Who set up other gods with God. Cast ye him into the fierce torment."

He who is at his side shall say, "O our Lord! I led him not astray, yet was

he in an error wide of truth."

He shall say, "Wrangle not in my presence. I had plied you beforehand with

menaces:

My doom changeth not, and I am not unjust to man."

On that day will we cry to Hell, "Art thou full?" And it shall say, "Are

there more?"7

And not far from thence shall Paradise be brought near unto the Pious:

- "This is what ye have been promised: to every one who hath turned in

penitence to God and kept his laws;

Who hath feared the God of Mercy in secret, and come to him with a contrite

heart:

Enter it in peace: this is the day of Eternity."

There shall they have all that they can desire: and our's will it be to

augment their bliss:

And how many generations have we destroyed ere the days of these (Meccans),

mightier than they in strength! Search ye then the land. Is there any escape?

Lo! herein is warning for him who hath a heart, or giveth ear, and is himself

an eye-witness.8

We created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six

days, and no weariness touched us.9

Wherefore put up with what they say, and celebrate the praise of thy Lord

before sunrise and before sunset:

And praise Him in the night: and perform the two final prostrations.

And list for the day whereon the crier shall cry from a place near to every

one alike:

The day on which men shall in truth hear that shout will be the day of their

coming forth from the grave.

Verily, we cause to live, and we cause to die. To us shall all return.

On the day when the earth shall swiftly cleave asunder over the dead, will

this gathering be easy to Us.

We know best what the infidels say: and thou art not to compel them.

Warn then by the Koran those who fear my menace.

_______________________

1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.

2 See [lxvi.] xxv. 40.

3 See xliv. 36, p. 90.

4 The Resurrection.

5 Lit. a driver and a witness.

6 The Satan who is chained to him. Sura [lxxi.] xli. 24.

7 Lit. is there any addition? which some explain as if Hell enquired whether,

being already full, any addition could be made to its size. Comp. Prov. xxx.

15, and Othioth Derabbi Akiba, 8, 1: "That the Prince of Hell saith daily,

Give me food enough, is clear from what is said (Is. v. 14). Therefore Shaol

hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, etc."

8 That is, of the ruins of the destroyed cities, etc.

9 This verse is said (by Omar b. Muhammad, Itq. 36, Djelal Eddin, ap. Maracc.

and Beidh.) to have been revealed in answer to the Jews who told the Prophet

that if God rested on the Sabbath, it was because he was weary. But a

connection with verse 14 seems more natural.

SURA XX.1-TA. HA. [LV.]

MECCA.-135 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

TA. HA.2 Not to sadden thee have we sent down this Koran to thee,

But as a warning for him who feareth;

It is a missive from Him who hath made the earth and the lofty heavens!

The God of Mercy sitteth on his throne:

His, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and

whatsoever is between them both, and whatsoever is beneath the humid soil!

Thou needest not raise thy voice:3 for He knoweth the secret whisper, and the

yet more hidden.

God! There is no God but He! Most excellent His titles!

Hath the history of Moses reached thee?

When he saw a fire, and said to his family, "Tarry ye here, for I perceive a

fire:

Haply I may bring you a brand from it, or find at the fire a guide."4

And when he came to it, he was called to, "O Moses!

Verily, I am thy Lord:. therefore pull off thy shoes: for thou art in the

holy valley of Towa.

And I have chosen thee: hearken then to what shall be revealed.

Verily, I am God: there is no God but me: therefore worship me, and observe

prayer for a remembrance of me.

Verily the hour is coming:-I all but manifest it-

That every soul may be recompensed for its labours.

Nor let him who believeth not therein and followeth his lust, turn thee aside

from this truth, and thou perish.

Now, what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?"

Said he, "It is my staff on which I lean, and with which I beast down leaves

for my sheep, and I have other uses for it."

He said, "Cast it down, O Moses!"

So he cast it down, and lo! it became a serpent that ran along.

He said, "Lay hold on it, and fear not: to its former state will we restore

it."

"Now place thy right hand to thy arm-pit: it shall come forth white, but

unhurt:-another sign!-

That We may shew thee the greatest of our signs.

Go to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds."

He said, "O my Lord! enlarge my breast for me,

And make my work easy for me,

And loose the knot of my tongue,5

That they may understand my speech.

And give me a counsellor6 from among my family,

Aaron my brother;

By him gird up my loins,7

And make him a colleague in my work,

That we may praise thee oft and oft remember thee,

For thou regardest us."

He said, "O Moses, thou hast obtained thy suit:

Already, at another time, have we showed thee favour,

When we spake unto thy mother what was spoken:

'Cast him into the ark:8 then cast him on the sea [the river], and the sea

shall throw him on the shore: and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall

take him up.' And I myself have made thee an object of love,

That thou mightest be reared in mine eye.

When thy sister went and said, 'Shall I shew you one who will nurse him?'9

Then We returned thee to thy mother that her eye might be cheered, and that

she might not grieve. And when thou slewest a person, We delivered thee from

trouble, and We tried thee with other trial.

For years didst thou stay among the people of Midian; then camest thou hither

by my decree, O Moses:

And I have chosen thee for Myself.

Go thou and thy brother with my signs and be not slack to remember me.

Go ye to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:

But speak ye to him with gentle speech; haply he will reflect or fear."

They said, "O our Lord! truly we fear lest he break forth against us, or act

with exceeding injustice."

He said, "Fear ye not, for I am with you both. I will hearken and I will

behold.

Go ye then to him and say, 'Verily we are Sent ones of thy Lord; send

therefore the children of Israel with us and vex them not: now are we come to

thee with signs from thy Lord, and, Peace shall be on him who followeth the

right guidance.

For now hath it been revealed to us, that chastisement shall be on him who

chargeth with falsehood, and turneth him away."'

And he said, "Who is your Lord, O Moses?"

He said, "Our Lord is He who hath given to everything its form and then

guideth it aright."

"But what," said he, "was the state of generations past?"10

He said, "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in the Book of his decrees.

My Lord erreth not, nor forgetteth.

He hath spread the earth as a bed, and hath traced out paths for you therein,

and hath sent down rain from Heaven, and by it we bring forth the kinds11 of

various herbs:

-'Eat ye, and feed your cattle.' Of a truth in this are signs unto men endued

with understanding.

From it have we created you, and into it will we return you, and out of it

will we bring you forth a second time."12

And we shewed him all our signs: but he treated them as falsehoods, and

refused to believe.

He said, "Hast thou come, O Moses, to drive us from our land by thine

enchantments?

Therefore will we assuredly confront thee with like enchantments: so appoint

a meeting between us and you-we will not fail it, we, and do not thou-in a

place alike for both."

He said, "On the feast day13 be your meeting, and in broad daylight let the

people be assembled."

And Pharaoh turned away, and collected his craftsmen and came.

Said Moses to them, "Woe to you! devise not a lie against God:

For then will he destroy you by a punishment. They who have lied have ever

perished."

And the magicians discussed their plan, and spake apart in secret:

They said, "These two are surely sorcerers: fain would they drive you from

your land by their sorceries, and lead away in their paths your chiefest men:

So muster your craft: then come in order: well this day shall it be for him,

who shall gain the upper hand."

They said, "O Moses, wilt thou first cast down thy rod, or shall we be the

first who cast?"

He said, "Yes, cast ye down first." And lo! by their enchantment their cords

and rods seemed to him as if they ran.

And Moses conceived a secret fear within him.

We said, "Fear not, for thou shalt be the uppermost:

Cast forth then what is in thy right hand: it shall swallow up what they have

produced: they have only produced the deceit of an enchanter: and come where

he may, ill shall an enchanter fare."

And the magicians fell down and worshipped. They said,

"We believe in the Lord of Aaron and of Moses."

Said Pharaoh, "Believe ye on him ere I give you leave? He, in sooth, is your

Master who hath taught you magic. I will therefore cut off your hands and

your feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you on trunks of the palm,

and assuredly shall ye learn which of us is severest in punishing, and who is

the more abiding."14

They said, "We will not have more regard to thee than to the clear tokens

which have come to us, or than to Him who hath made us: doom the doom thou

wilt: Thou canst only doom as to this present life: of a truth we have

believed on our Lord that he may pardon us our sins and the sorcery to which

thou hast forced us, for God is better, and more abiding than thou.15

As for him who shall come before his Lord laden with crime-for him verily is

Hell: he shall not die in it and he shall not live.

But he who shall come before Him, a believer, with righteous works,-these!

the loftiest grades await them:

Gardens of Eden, beneath whose trees16 the rivers flow: therein shall they

abide for ever. This, the reward of him who hath been pure."

Then revealed we to Moses, "Go forth by night with my servants and cleave for

them a dry path in the sea;

Fear not thou to be overtaken, neither be thou afraid."

And Pharaoh followed them with his hosts, and the whelming billows of the sea

overwhelmed them,17 for Pharaoh misled his people, and did not guide them.

O children of Israel! we rescued you from your foes; and We appointed a

meeting with you on the right side of the mountain; and We caused the manna

and the quail to descend upon you:

"Eat," said We, "of the good things with which we have supplied you; but

without excess, lest my wrath fall upon you; for on whom my wrath doth fall,

he perisheth outright.

Surely however will I forgive him who turneth to God and believeth, and

worketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.

But what hath hastened thee on apart from thy people,18 O Moses?"

He said, "They are hard on my footsteps: but to thee, O Lord, have I

hastened, that thou mightest be well pleased with me."

He said, "Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst leave

them, and Samiri19 had led them astray."

And Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.

He said, "O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise? Was the

time of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord

should light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?"

They said, "Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to thee, but

we were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw them into

the fire and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to them a

corporeal lowing20 calf: and they said, "This is your God and the God of

Moses, whom he hath forgotten."'

What! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither hurt

nor help them?

And Aaron had before said to them, "O my people! by this calf are ye only

proved: surely your Lord is the God of Mercy: follow me therefore and obey my

bidding."

They said, "We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to us."

He said, "O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what hindered

thee from following me? Hast thou then disobeyed my command?"

He said, "O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head:

indeed I feared lest thou shouldst say,

Thou hast rent the children of Isreal asunder, and hast not observed my

orders."'

He said, "And what was thy motive, O Samiri?" He said, "I saw what they saw

not: so I took a handful of dust from the track21 of the messenger of God,

and flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me."

He said, "Begone then: verily thy doom even in this life shall be to say,

'Touch me not.'22 And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not

escape hereafter. Now look at thy god to which thou hast continued so

devoted: we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast

into the sea.

Your God is God, beside whom there is no God: In his knowledge he embraceth

all things."

Thus do We recite to thee histories of what passed of old; and from ourself

have we given thee admonition.

Whoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day of

Resurrection:

Under it shall they remain: and grievous, in the day of Resurrection, shall

it be to them to bear.

On that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and We will gather the

wicked together on that day with leaden23 eyes:

They shall say in a low voice, one to another,-"Ye tarried but ten days on

earth."

We are most knowing with respect to that which they will say when the most

veracious24 of them will say. "Ye have not tarried above a day."

And they will ask thee of the mountains: SAY: scattering my Lord will scatter

them in dust;

And he will leave them a level plain: thou shalt see in it no hollows or

jutting hills.

On that day shall men follow their summoner25-he marcheth straight on: and

low shall be their voices before the God of Mercy, nor shalt thou hear aught

but the light footfall.

No intercession shall avail on that day, save his whom the God of Mercy shall

allow to intercede, and whose words he shall approve.

He knoweth their future and their past; but in their own knowledge they

comprehend it not:-

And humble shall be their faces before Him that Liveth, the Self-subsisting:

and undone he, who shall bear the burden of iniquity;

But he who shall have done the things that are right and is a believer, shall

fear neither wrong nor loss.

Thus have We sent down to thee an Arabic Koran, and have set forth menaces

therein diversely, that haply they may fear God, or that it may give birth to

reflection in them.

Exalted then be God, the King, the Truth! Be not hasty in its recital26 while

the revelation of it to thee is incomplete. Say rather, "O my Lord, increase

knowledge unto me."

And of old We made a covenant with Adam; but he forgat it; and we found no

firmness of purpose in him.

And when We said to the angels, "Fall down and worship Adam," they worshipped

all, save Eblis, who refused: and We said, "O Adam! this truly is a foe to

thee and to thy wife. Let him not therefore drive you out of the garden, and

ye become wretched;

For to thee is it granted that thou shalt not hunger therein, neither shalt

thou be naked;

But Satan whispered him: said he, "O Adam! shall I shew thee the tree of

Eternity,27 and the Kingdom that faileth not?"

And they both ate thereof, and their nakedness appeared to them, and they

began to sew of the leaves of the Garden to cover them, and Adam disobeyed

his Lord and went astray.

Afterwards his Lord chose him for himself, and was turned towards him, and

guided him.

And God said, "Get ye all down hence, the one of you a foe unto the other.

Hereafter shall guidance come unto you from me;

And whoso followeth my guidance shall not err, and shall not be wretched:

But whoso turneth away from my monition, his truly shall be a life of misery:

And We will assemble him with others on the day of Resurrection, blind."28

He will say, "O my Lord! why hast thou assembled me with others, blind?

whereas I was endowed with sight."

He will answer, "Thus is it, because our signs came unto thee and thou didst

forget them, and thus shalt thou be forgotten this day."

Even thus will We recompense him who hath transgressed and hath not believed

in the signs of his Lord; and assuredly the chastisement of the next world

will be more severe and more lasting.

Are not they, who walk the very places where they dwelt, aware how many

generations we have destroyed before them? Verily in this are signs to men of

insight.

And had not a decree of respite from thy Lord first gone forth, their

chastisement had at once ensued. Yet the time is fixed.

Put up then with what they say; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord before

the sunrise, and before its setting; and some time in the night do thou

praise him, and in the extremes29 of the day, that thou haply mayest please

Him.

And strain not thine eye after what We have bestowed on divers of them-the

braveries of this world-that we may thereby prove them. The portion which thy

Lord will give, is better and more lasting.

Enjoin prayer on thy family, and persevere therein. We ask not of thee to

find thine own provision-we will provide for thee, and a happy issue shall

there be to piety.

But they say, "If he come not to us with a sign from his Lord . . .!"30 But

have not clear proofs for the Koran come to them, in what is in the Books of

old?

And had We destroyed them by a chastisement before its time, they would

surely have said, "O our Lord! How could we believe if thou didst not send

unto us an Apostle that we might follow thy signs ere that we were humbled

and disgraced."

SAY: Each one of us awaiteth the end. Wait ye then, and ye shall know which

of us have been followers of the even way, and who hath been the rightly

guided.

_______________________

1 The first 14 or 16 verses of this Sura are said to have induced Omar to

embrace Islam (His. 226. Ibn Sâd, i. and v. Comp. Weil, p. 60. Causs. i. 396

ff.) in the sixth year before the Hejira.

2 Freytag supposes these letters to mean, Hush! but see Sura lxviii. 1, p.

32.

3 Lit. if thou raise thy voice.

4 Lit. guidance. Moses had lost his way, say the Commentators, when

journeying to Egypt to visit his mother.

5 The Muhammadan Commentators tell how Moses when a child burnt his tongue

with a live coal. The same story is found in Midr. Jalkut on Ex. c. 166, and

in Shalsheleth Hakabalah, p. 5, b. Ed. Amsterd.

6 Lit vizir.

7 Or, strengthen my back.

8 The form of the word in the original is not the pure Hebraic, but the later

Rabbinic form.

9 See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 11, 12.

10 What is their condition after their death as to happiness or misery.

Beidh. whom Sale follows. But the word state, which Mar. renders mens, refers

rather to their creed. "How," enquires Pharaoh, "do you explain the fact that

the generations of men have always practised a different worship?"

11 Lit. pairs.

12 The Midrasch Tanchumah on Ex. vii. gives a very similar dialogue between

Pharaoh and Moses.

13 Lit. the day of ornament.

14 In punishing. Beidh.

15 To recompense. Beidh.

16 As the garden is said in Sura lxxxviii. to be lofty in point of situation,

this frequently recurring phrase may mean that rivers run at its base. The

Commentators, however, generally understand it to imply that the rivers flow

beneath its shades or pavilions.

17 Lit. and there overwhelmed them of the sea that which overwhelmed them.

18 The 70 elders who were to have accompanied him.

19 That is, the Samaritan. This rendering, which is probably the true

explanation of the word Samiri, involves a grievous ignorance of history on

the part of Muhammad. Selden (de diis Syr. Syn. i. ch. 4) supposes that

Samiri is Aaron himself, the Shomeer, or keeper of Israel during the absence

of Moses. Many Arabians identify him with the Micha of Judges xvii. who is

said to have assisted in making the calf (Raschi, Sanhedr. 102, 2 Hottinger

Hist. Orient. p. 84). Geiger suggests that Samiri may be a corruption of

Samael. See next note. But it is probable that the name and its application

in the present instance, is to be traced to the old national feud between the

Jews and Samaritans. See De Sacy, Chrestom. i. p. 189, who quotes Abu Rihan

Muhammad as stating that the Samaritans were called Al-limsahsit, the people

who say, "Touch me not" (v. 97, below), and Juynboll Chron. Sam. (Leid. 1848)

p. 113. Sale also mentions a similar circumstance of a tribe of Samaritan

Jews dwelling on one of the islands in the Red Sea.

20 "The calf came forth (Ex. xxxii. 24) lowing and the Israelites beheld it.

R. Jehuda saith, Samuel entered into it and lowed in order to mislead

Israel." Pirke R. Eliezer, § 45.

21 From the track of Gabriel's horse, or of Gabriel himself.

22 Lit. no touch.

23 I have adopted the word leaden as expressive of the idea implied in the

original word, viz. grey or greyish blue; hence, dulled, dimmed. The Arabians

have a great aversion to blue and grey eyes as characteristic of their

enemies the Greeks. The word, however, may also mean blind. Comp. v. 124, 5.

24 Lit. the most excellent or just of them in his way: dignitate, Mar. But

Kam. in Freyt. (iii. 150) justissimus eorum, simillimus veracibus. The sense

of the last clause is, "Yes have not tarried even so much as ten days, such,

now that we look back upon it, is the brevity of life." See Sura [lxiv.]

xxiii. 115.

25 The angel Israfil.

26 Compare Sura lxxv. 16-19, p. 56.

27 It should be observed that here and in Sura vii. 19, Muhammad seems

unaware of the distinction between the tree of knowledge, and the tree of

life, as given in Gen. ii. 9, and iii. 5.

28 From the intensity of the light, mentioned Sura [1xxx.] xxxix. 69.

29 In order to reconcile this passage with the prescribed hours, some

understand the extremes to mean the mid-day, when the day is as it were

divided.

30 Supply, we will not believe.

SURA XXVI.-THE POETS1 [LVI.]

MECCA.-228 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ta. Sin. Mim.2 These are the signs of the lucid Book.

Haply thou wearest thyself away with grief because they will not believe.

Were it our will we could send down to them a sign from Heaven, before which

they would humbly bow.3

But from each fresh warning that cometh to them from the God of Mercy they

have only turned aside,

And treated it as a lie: But tidings shall reach them which they shall not

laugh to scorn.

Have they not beheld the earth-how we have caused every kind of noble plant

to spring up therein?

Verily, in this is a sign: but most of them believe not.

And assuredly, thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

And remember when thy Lord called to Moses, "Go to the wicked people,

The people of Pharaoh. What! will they not fear me?"

He said, "My Lord, in sooth I fear lest they treat me as a liar:

And my breast is straitened, and I am slow of speech:4 send therefore to

Aaron to be my helpmate.

For they have a charge5 against me, and I fear lest they put me to death."

He said, "Surely not. Go ye therefore with our signs: we will be with you and

will hearken.

And go to Pharaoh and say: 'Verily we are the messengers of the Lord of the

worlds-

Send forth with us the children of Israel."'

He said, "Did we not rear thee among us when a child? And hast thou not

passed years of thy life among us?

And yet what a deed is that which thou hast done!6 Thou art one of the

ungrateful."

He said, "I did it indeed, and I was one of those who erred: And I fled from

you because I feared you; but my Lord hath given me wisdom and hath made me

one of his Apostles.

And is this the favour thou hast conferred on me, that thou hast enslaved the

children of Israel?"

Said Pharaoh, "Who then is the Lord of the Worlds?"

He said, "The Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all that is between

them, if only ye believe it."

Said Pharaoh to those around him, "Hear ye this?"

"Your Lord," said Moses, "and the Lord of your sires of old."

"In sooth, your Apostle whom He hath sent to you," said Pharaoh, "is

certainly possessed."

He said, "Lord is He of the East and of the West, and of all that is between

them, if ye can understand."

He said, "If ye take any God beside me, I will surely put thee in ward."

Said Moses, "What! if I shew thee that which shall be a proof of my mission?"

He said, "Forth with it then, if thou speakest truth."

Then threw he down his staff, and lo! an undoubted serpent:

And he drew out his hand, and lo! it was white7 to the beholders.

He said to his nobles around him. "This truly is a right cunning sorcerer:

Fain would he drive you out of your land by his Sorcery. But what do ye

suggest?"

They said, "Put him and his brother off awhile, and send summoners to all the

cities,

Who shall bring to thee every cunning magician."

So the magicians were mustered at a set time, on a solemn day:

And it was said to the people, "Are ye all assembled?"

-"Yes! and we will follow the magicians if they gain the day."

And when the magicians were arrived they said to Pharaoh, "Shall we have a

reward if we gain the day?"

He said, "Yes. And verily in that case ye shall be of those who are near my

person."

Moses said to them, "Throw down what ye have to throw."

So they cast down their ropes and rods, and said, "By Pharaoh's might we

shall surely win."

Then Moses threw down his rod, and lo! it swallowed up their cheating

wonders.

Then the magicians threw themselves down in worship:

They said, "We believe on the Lord of the Worlds,

The Lord of Moses and of Aaron."

Said Pharaoh, "Have ye then believed on him ere I gave you leave? He truly is

your master who hath taught you magic.8 But bye and bye ye shall surely know

my power.

I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you all

crucified."

They said, "It cannot harm us, for to our Lord shall we return:

Assuredly we trust that our Lord will forgive us our sins, since we are of

the first who believe."

Then revealed we this order to Moses: "Go forth by night with my servants,

for ye will be pursued."

And Pharaoh sent summoners through the cities:-

"These Israelites," said they, "are a scanty band;

Yet are they enraged against us-

But we truly are numerous, wary."

Thus we caused them to quit gardens and fountains,

And treasures and splendid dwellings;

So was it; and we gave them to the children of Israel for an heritage.9

Then at sunrise the Egyptians followed them:

And when the hosts came in view of one another, the comrades of Moses said,

"We are surely overtaken."

He said, "By no means:-for my Lord is with me-He will guide me."

And we revealed this order to Moses, "Strike the sea with thy rod." And it

clave asunder, and each part became like a huge mountain.

Then made we the others to draw on;

And we saved Moses, and those who were with him, all;

But we drowned the others.

Truly in this was a sign; but most of them did not believe.

But verily thy Lord,-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!

And recite to them the story of Abraham

When he said to his Father and to his people, "What worship ye?"

They said, "We worship idols, and constant is our devotion to them."

He said, "Can they hear you when ye cry to them?

Or help you or do you harm?"

They said, "But we found our Fathers do the like."

He said, "How think ye? They whom ye worship,

Ye and your fathers of early days,

Are my foes: but not so10 the Lord of the Worlds,

Who hath created me, and guideth me,

Who giveth me food and drink;

And when I am sick, he healeth me,

And who will cause me to die and again quicken me,

And who, I hope, will forgive me my sins in the day of reckoning.

My Lord! bestow on me wisdom and join me to the just,

And give me a good name11 among posterity,

And make me one of the heirs of the garden of delight,

And forgive my father, for he was one of the erring,

And put me not to shame on the day when mankind shall be raised up,

The day when neither wealth nor children shall avail,

Save to him who shall come to God with a sound heart:

When Paradise shall be brought near the pious,

And Hell shall lay open for those who have gone astray.

And it shall be said to them, 'Where are they whom ye worshipped

Beside God? Can they harm you or help themselves?'

And they shall be cast into it-the seducers and the seduced,

And all the host of Eblis.

They shall say, as they wrangle therein together,

'By God, we were in a plain error,

When we equalled you with the Lord of the Worlds:

And none misled us but the wicked,

And we have none to plead for us,

Nor friend who careth for us.

Could we but return, we would be of the believers."'

Verily, in this was a sign: but most of them believed not.

And truly thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!

The people of Noah gainsaid the Apostles,

When their brother Noah said to them, "Will ye not fear God?

Of a truth am I your faithful Apostle;

Fear God then and obey me.

I ask of you no reward for this, for my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds

alone:

Fear God then and obey me."

They said, "Shall we believe on thee when the meanest only are thy

followers?"

He said, "But I have no knowledge of that they did:12

To my Lord only must their account be given: would that ye understood this!

And I will not thrust away those who believe,

For I am only one charged with plain warnings."

They said, "Now unless thou desist, O Noah, one of the stoned shalt thou

surely be."

He said, "Lord! my people treat me as a liar:

Decide thou therefore a decision between me and them, and rescue me and the

faithful who are with me."

So we saved him and those who were with him in the fully-laden ark,

And afterwards we drowned the rest.

Herein truly was a sign, but most of them believed not.

But thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful.

The Adites13 treated their Apostles as liars,

When their brother Houd said to them, "Will ye not fear God?

I am your Apostle, worthy of all credit;

Fear God then and obey me:

I ask for no reward for this; for my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds

alone.

What! build ye landmarks on all heights in mere pastime?

And raise ye structures to be your lasting abodes?14

And when ye put forth your power do ye put it forth with harshness?

Fear ye God then and obey me;

And fear ye Him who hath plenteously betowed on you ye well know what:

Plenteously bestowed on you flocks and children,

And gardens and fountains;

Indeed I fear for you the punishment of a tremendous day."

They said, "It is the same to us whether thou warn or warn us not.

This is but a tale of the ancients,

And we are not they who shall be punished."

And they charged him with imposture; and we destroyed them. In this was a

sign: but most of them believed not.

But thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!

The Themoudites also treated their Apostles as liars,

When their brother Saleh said to them, "Will ye not fear God?

I am your Apostle worthy of all credit:

Fear God, then, and obey me.

I ask of you no reward for this: my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds

alone.

Shall ye be left secure amid these things here?

Amid gardens and fountains,

And corn-fields and palm-trees, with flower-sheathing branches?

And, insolent that ye are, will ye hew out your dwellings in the mountains?

But fear God and obey me,

And obey not the bidding of those who commit excess,

Who act disorderly on the earth and reform it not."

They said, "Certainly thou art a person bewitched;

Thou art only a man like us: produce now a sign if thou art a man of truth."

He said, "This she-camel, then-drink shall there be for her, and drink shall

there be for you, on a several day for each.

But harm her not, lest the punishment of a tremendous day overtake you."

But they ham-strung her, and repented of it on the morrow;

For the punishment overtook them. In this truly was a sign, but most of them

believed not.

But thy Lord!-He is the Powerful, the Merciful!

The people of Lot treated their apostles as liars,

When their brother Lot said to them, "Will ye not fear God?

I am your Apostle worthy of all credit:

Fear God, then, and obey me.

For this I ask you no reward: my reward is of the Lord of the worlds alone.

What! with men, of all creatures, will ye have commerce?

And leave ye your wives whom your Lord hath created for you? Ah! ye are an

erring people!"

They said, "O Lot, if thou desist not, one of the banished shalt thou surely

be."

He said, "I utterly abhor your doings:

My Lord! deliver me and my family from what they do."

So we delivered him and his whole family-

Save an aged one among those who tarried-

Then we destroyed the rest-

And we rained a rain upon them, and fatal was the rain to those whom we had

warned.

In this truly was a sign; but most of them did not believe.

But thy Lord! He is the Powerful, the Merciful!

The dwellers in the forest of Madian15 treated the Apostles as liars.

When Shoaib their brother said to them, "Will ye not fear God?

I truly am your trustworthy Apostle.

Fear God, then, and obey me:

No reward ask I of you for this: my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds

alone.

Fill the measure, and be not of those who minish:

Weigh with exact balance:

And defraud not men in their substance, and do no wrong on the earth by deeds

of licence;

And fear Him who made you and the races of old."

They said, "Certainly thou art a person bewitched.

Thou art but a man like us, and we deem thee liar-

Make now a part of the heaven to fall down upon us, if thou art a man of

truth."

He said, "My Lord best knoweth your doings."

And when they treated him as a liar, the chastisement of the day of cloud

overtook them. This truly was the chastisement of a dreadful day!

In this was a sign, but most of them believed not.

But thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!

Verily from the Lord of the Worlds hath this Book come down;

The faithful spirit16 hath come down with it

Upon thy heart, that thou mightest become a warner-

In the clear Arabic tongue:

And truly it is foretold in the Scriptures of them of yore.17

Was it not a sign to them18 that the learned among the children of Israel

recognised it?

If we had sent it down unto any foreigner,

And he had recited it to them, they had not believed.

In such sort have we influenced19 the heart of the wicked ones,

That they will not believe it till they see the grievous chastisement?

And it shall come upon them on a sudden when they look not for it:

And they will say, "Can we be respited?"

What! will they seek to hasten on our chastisement?

How thinkest thou? If after we have given them their fill for years,

That with which they are menaced come upon them at last,

Of what avail will their enjoyments be to them?

We never destroyed a city which had not first its warners

With admonition; nor did we deal unjustly.

The Satans were not sent down with this Koran:

It beseemed them not, and they had not the power,

For they are far removed from hearing it.20

Call not thou on any other god but God, lest thou be of those consigned to

torment:

But warn thy relatives of nearer kin,21

And kindly lower thy wing over the faithful who follow thee.

And if they disobey thee, then say: "I will not be answerable for your

doings;"-

And put thy trust in Him that is the Mighty, the Merciful,

Who seeth thee when thou standest in prayer,

And thy demeanour amongst those who worship;

For He heareth, knoweth all.

Shall I tell you on whom Satan descend?

They descend on every lying, wicked person:

They impart what they have heard;22-but most of them are liars.

It is the POETS23 whom the erring follow:

Seest thou not how they rove distraught in every valley?

And that they say that which they do not?

Save those who believe and do good works, and oft remember God;

And who defend themselves when unjustly treated. But they who treat them

unjustly shall find out what a lot awaiteth them.

_______________________

1 This Sura belongs to about the seventh year of Muhammad's prophetic life.

2 See Sura 1xviii. I, p. 32.

3 Lit. to which their necks would humble themselves.

4 Lit. my tongue is not free. This verse appears to be a studied

simplification of Ex. iv. 10-13.

5 The murder of the Egyptian. See Geiger, 159.

6 Lit. and thou hast done thy deed which thou hast done. See xxviii. 15.

7 Thus Pirke R. Elieser § 48. "He placed his hand in his bosom, and drew it

forth, white as snow with leprosy."

8 "The Pharaoh who lived in the days of Moses was a great magician." Mid.

Jalkut, c. 182. Comp. Sura xxviii. 38, where, in accordance with the Rabbinic

traditions Pharaoh claims to be a God.

9 See ii. 58, and Midr. Jalkut on Ex. xii. c. 208.

10 Lit. except.

11 Lit. a tongue of truth, i.e. high repute. Or, grant that my words may be

believed among posterity. See [lviii.] xix. 47.

12 Of their motives in embracing Islam.

13 The Adites are mentioned in vii. and xi.

14 This is to be understood of the small forts erected by the nomades of the

Hejaz along the route of the caravans to guarantee their safety. Comp. Gen.

xi. 1-10, and Sura lxxxix. 6, p. 54.

15 The Madian and the El-Aika of other Suras are unquestionably one and the

same place, as they have the same prophet Shoaib (or Sho'eyb), the Jethro of

Scripture-a name perhaps altered from Hobab (Numb. x. 29)-and because the

same sin is laid to the charge of both. See Winer's Realw”rterbuch on Jethro.

The Midr. Rabbah on Ex. ii. I6, Par. I, makes Jethro renounce idolatry, and

his office of Priest, and undergo banishment from the Midianites.

16 Gabriel. See Sura lxxxi. 19, p. 46.

17 See Sura xiii. 36. This verse is said to have been revealed at Medina by

Itq. 34.

18 The unbelieving Meccans. Lit. that the knowing (Doctors, Uhlemas) knew it.

19 Lit. have introduced it, i.e. infidelity; or, the Koran. Beidh. The latter

interpretation seems most accordant with the context.

20 Comp. Sura xxxvii. 7, 8, p. 79.

21 It is probable that within three or four years from his entry upon the

prophetic office, Muhammad had made about 40 converts. Some biographers refer

to this passage, and not to Sura lxiv. I, as the first call to preach. But

this Sura is itself late, and bears evidence of the opposition to which the

prophet had become exposed, and of adherents to his cause, now become

numerous. The diffuseness and feeblenss of the style clearly point to a late

origin.

22 They impart to their votaries on earth what they have learned by stealth

and partially, in heaven.

23 Muhammad found it necessary to employ the pens of certain poets to defend

himself and his religion from the ridicule and satire of other poets, whose

productions were recited at the great annual fair held at Okatz, the Olympus

of the Hejaz. The poems which were judged the best were written up in letters

of gold, or suspended (hence called Moallakat) in the Caaba. These poetical

contests were subsequently suppressed by Muhammad, as offering openings for

discussions which might prove inconvenient, and dangerous to his rising

claims.

SURA XV.-HEDJR1 [LVII.]

MECCA.-99 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

ELIF. LAM. RA.2 These are the signs of the Book, and of a lucid recital

[Koran].

Many a time will the infidels wish that they had been Muslims.

Let them feast and enjoy themselves, and let hope beguile them: but they

shall know the truth at last.

We never destroyed a city whose term was not perfixed:3

No people can forestall or retard its destiny.

They say: "O thou to whom the warning hath been sent down, thou art surely

possessed by a djinn:

Wouldst thou not have come to us with the angels, if thou wert of those who

assert the truth?"

-We will not send down the angels without due cause.4 The Infidels would not

in that case have been respited.

Verily, We have sent down the warning, and verily, We will be its guardian;

And already have We sent Apostles, before thee, among the sects of the

ancients;

But never came Apostles to them whom they did not deride.

In like manner will We put it into the hearts of the sinners of Mecca to do

the same:

They will not believe on him though the example of those of old hath gone

before.

Even were We to open above them a gate in Heaven, yet all the while they were

mounting up to it,

They would surely say: It is only that our eyes are drunken: nay, we are a

people enchanted.

We have set the signs of the zodiac5 in the Heavens, and adorned and decked

them forth for the beholders,

And We guard them from every stoned6 Satan,

Save such as steal a hearing:7 and him doth a visible flame pursue.

And the Earth have We spread forth, and thrown thereon the mountains, and

caused everything to spring forth in it in balanced measure:

And We have provided therein sustenance for you, and for the creatures which

not ye sustain:

And no one thing is there, but with Us are its storehouses; and We send it

not down but in settled measure:

And We send forth the fertilising winds, and cause the rain to come down from

the heaven, and give you to drink of it; and it is not ye who are its

storers:

And We cause to live and We cause to die,8 and We are the heir of all things:

We know those of you who flourish first and We know those who come later:

And truly thy Lord will gather them together again, for He is Wise, Knowing.

We created man of dried clay, of dark loam moulded;

And the djinn had We before created of subtle fire.

Remember when thy Lord said to the Angels, "I create man of dried clay, of

dark loam moulded:

And when I shall have fashioned him and breathed of my spirit into him, then

fall ye down and worship him."

And the Angels bowed down in worship, all of them, all together,

Save Eblis: he refused to be with those who bowed in worship.

"O Eblis,"9 said God, "wherefore art thou not with those who bow down in

worship?"

He said, "It beseemeth not me to bow in worship to man whom thou hast created

of clay, of moulded loam."

He said, "Begone then hence; thou art a stoned one,10

And the curse shall be on thee till the day of reckoning."

He said, "O my Lord! respite me till the day when man shall be raised from

the dead."

He said, "One then of the respited shalt thou be

Till the day of the predestined time."

He said, "O my Lord! because thou hast beguiled me, I will surely make all

fair seeming to them11 on the earth; I will surely beguile them all;

Except such of them as shall be thy sincere servants."

He said, "This is the right way with me;

For over none of my servants shalt thou have power, save those beguiled ones

who shall follow thee."

And verily, Hell is the promise for them one and all.

It hath seven Portals;12 at each Portal is a separate band of them;

But 'mid gardens and fountains shall the pious dwell:

"Enter ye therein in peace, secure-"

And all rancour will We remove from their bosoms: they shall sit as brethren,

face to face, on couches:

Therein no weariness shall reach them, nor forth from it shall they be cast

for ever.

Announce to my servants that I am the Gracious, the Merciful,

And that my chastisement is the grievous chastisement.

And tell them of Abraham's guests.

When they entered in unto him, and said, "Peace."

"Verily," said he, "We fear you."

They said, "Fear not, for of a sage son we bring thee tidings."

He said, "Bring ye me such tidings now that old age hath come upon me? What,

therefore, are your tidings really?"

They said, "We announce them to thee in very truth. Be not then one of the

despairing."

"And who," said he, "despaireth of the mercy of his Lord, but they who err?"

He said, "What is your business then, O ye Sent Ones?"

They said, "We are sent unto a people who are sinners,

Except the family of Lot, whom verily we will rescue all,

Except his wife. We have decreed that she shall be of those who linger."

And when the Sent Ones came to the family of Lot

He said, "Yes; are persons unknown to me."

They said, "Yes; but we have come to thee for a purpose about which thy

people doubt:

We have come to thee with very truth, and we are truthful envoys.

Lead forth therefore thy family in the dead of the night; follow thou on

their rear: and let no one of you turn round, but pass ye on whither ye are

bidden."

And this command we gave him because to the last man should these people be

cut off at morning.

Then came the people of the city rejoicing at the news13-

He said, "These are my guests: therefore disgrace me not.

And fear God and put me not to shame."

They said, "Have we not forbidden thee to entertain any one whatever?"14

He said, "Here are my daughters, if ye will thus act."

As thou livest, O Muhammad, they were bewildered in the drunkenness of their

lust.

So a tempest overtook them at their sunrise,

And we turned the city upside down, and we rained stones of baked clay upon

them.

Verily, in this are signs for those who scan heedfully;

And these cities lay on the high road.15

Verily, in this are signs for the faithful.

The inhabitants also of El Aika16 were sinners:

So we took vengeance on them, and they both became a plain example.

And the people of HEDJR treated God's messengers as liars.

And we brought forth our signs to them, but they drew back from them:

And they hewed them out abodes in the mountains to secure them:

But a tempest surprised them at early morn,

And their labours availed them nothing.

We have not created the heavens and the earth and all that between them is,

but for a worthy end.17 And verily, "the hour" shall surely come. Wherefore

do thou, Muhammad, forgive with kindly forgiveness,

For thy Lord! He is the Creator, the Wise.

We have already given thee the seven verses of repetition18 and the glorious

Koran.

Strain not thine eyes after the good things we have bestowed on some of the

unbelievers: afflict not thyself on their account, and lower thy wing to the

faithful.19

And SAY: I am the only plain-spoken warner.

We will punish those who foster divisions,20

Who break up the Koran into parts:

By thy Lord! we will surely take account from them one and all,

Concerning that which they have done.

Profess publicly then what thou hast been bidden,21 and withdraw from those

who join gods to God.

Verily, We will maintain thy cause against those who deride thee,

Who set up gods with God: and at last shall they know their folly.

Now know We that thy heart is distressed22 at what they say:

But do thou celebrate the praise of thy Lord, and be of those who bow down in

worship;

And serve thy Lord till the certainty23 o'ertake thee.

_______________________

1 Hedjr, a valley in the route between Medina and Syria, originally the

country of the Themoudites.

2 See Sura lxviii. p. 32.

3 Lit. which had not a known writing.

4 That is, not merely to gratify the curiosity of the doubting, but to

execute prompt punishment. It might also be rendered, save with justice

5 Ar. bourdj, Gr. [greek text], towers, i.e. Signs of the Zodiac.

6 See Sura xv. 34; and note p. 114.

7 Comp. Sura xxxvii. 6, p. 79. In Chagiga 16, 1, the Demons (schedim) are

said to learn the secrets of the future by listening behind the veil

(pargôd).

8 Compare precisely a similar association of subjects, the Rain, Food, God,

as Lord of life and death in Tr. Taanith, fol. 1 a.

9 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 32. There is much in this dialogue between Eblis and

Allah which reminds of the dialogue between Jehovah and Satan in the opening

of the Book of Job.

10 That is, accursed. According to the Muhammadan tradition, Abraham drove

Satan away with stones when he would have hindered him from sacrificing

Ismael. Hence the custom during the pilgrimage of throwing a certain number

of stones-the Shafeis, 49; the Hanafis, 70-as if at Satan, in the valley of

Mina, near Mecca. The spot where the apparition of Satan to Abraham took

place is marked by three small pillars, at which the stones are now thrown.

Comp. Gen. xv. II.

11 Lit. I will embellish, prepare.

12 Thus, in Sota, 10, David is said to have rescued Absalom from "the seven

dwellings of Hell;" in Midr. on Ps. xi. "There are seven houses of abode for

the wicked in Hell;" and in Sohar ii. 150, "Hell hath seven gates."

13 At the arrival of strangers.

14 Comp. Midr. Rabbah on Gen. Par. 50.

15 From Arabia to Syria. The pronoun in the fem. sing. may refer to the

Pentapolis as to a single city, or to Sodom alone.

16 See Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 176.

17 See Sura [lxxiii.] xvi. 3.

18 That is, the seven verses of Sura 1, p. 28. Others understand, the seven

long Suras; or, the fifteen Suras which make a seventh of the whole; or, this

Sura (Hedjr) as originally the seventh. Mathani is an allusion, according to

some, to the frequency with which the fatthah is to be repeated; or, to the

frequent repetitions of great truths, etc., in order to impress them on the

memory of the hearer and reader; or, to the manner in which waid and wa'd,

promises and threatenings, alternate and balance each other in the same or

subsequent verses and Suras, in pairs. This verse and Sura x. 10 shew that a

part at least of the Koran was known under that name and existed as a whole

in the time of Muhammad. Geiger's interpretations at pp. 59, 60 (and in the

note) seem very forced.

19 Comp. Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 215, i.e. demean thyself gently.

20 Lit. as we sent down upon the dividers, i.e. the Jews and Christians, who

receive part of the Scriptures and reject part. Others render obstructors and

explain the passage of twelve idolaters, who in order to intimidate the

Meccans, seized upon the public revenues of Mecca during the pilgrimage.

21 In this, the fourth year of his mission, Muhammad is said to have hazarded

the step of mounting the Safa, a slight eminence in one of the streets of

Mecca, and publicly preached to the Koreisch. The authorities are given in

Sprenger (Life of M. p. 177, 8).

22 Lit. contracted.

23 Death.

SURA XIX.1-MARY [LVIII.]

MECCA.-98 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

KAF. HA. YA. AIN. SAD.2 A recital of thy Lord's mercy to his servant

Zachariah;

When he called upon his Lord with secret calling,

And said: "O Lord, verily my bones are weakened, and the hoar hairs glisten

on my head,

And never, Lord, have I prayed to thee with ill success.

But now I have fears for my kindred after me;3 and my wife is barren:

Give me, then, a successor as thy special gift, who shall be my heir and an

heir of the family of Jacob: and make him, Lord, well pleasing to thee."

-"O Zachariah! verily we announce to thee a son,-his name John:

That name We have given to none before him."4

He said: "O my Lord! how when my wife is barren shall I have a son, and when

I have now reached old age, failing in my powers?"

He said: So shall it be. Thy Lord hath said, Easy is this to me, for I

created thee aforetime when thou wast nothing."

He said: "Vouchsafe me, O my Lord! a sign." He said: "Thy sign shall be that

for three nights, though sound in health, thou speakest not to man."

And he came forth from the sanctuary to his people, and made signs to them to

sing praises morn and even.

We said: "O John! receive the Book with purpose of heart:"5-and We bestowed

on him wisdom while yet a child;

And mercifulness from Ourself, and purity; and pious was he, and duteous to

his parents; and not proud, rebellious.

And peace was on him on the day he was born, and the day of his death, and

shall be on the day when he shall be raised to life!

And make mention in the Book, of Mary, when she went apart from her family,

eastward,6

And took a veil to shroud herself from them:7 and we sent our spirit8 to her,

and he took before her the form of a perfect man.9

She said: "I fly for refuge from thee to the God of Mercy! If thou fearest

Him, begone from me."

He said: "I am only a messenger of thy Lord, that I may bestow on thee a holy

son."

She said: "How shall I have a son, when man hath never touched me? and I am

not unchaste."

He said: "So shall it be. Thy Lord hath said: 'Easy is this with me;' and we

will make him a sign to mankind, and a mercy from us. For it is a thing

decreed."

And she conceived him,10 and retired with him to a far-off place.

And the throes came upon her11 by the trunk of a palm. She said: "Oh, would

that I had died ere this, and been a thing forgotten, forgotten quite!"

And one cried to her from below her:12 "Grieve not thou, thy Lord hath

provided a streamlet at thy feet:-

And shake the trunk of the palm-tree toward thee:13 it will drop fresh ripe

dates upon thee.

Eat then and drink, and be of cheerful eye:14 and shouldst thou see a man,

Say,-Verily, I have vowed abstinence to the God of mercy.-To no one will I

speak this day."

Then came she with the babe to her people, bearing him. They said, "O Mary!

now hast thou done a strange thing!

O sister of Aaron!15 Thy father was not a man of wickedness, nor unchaste thy

mother."

And she made a sign to them, pointing towards the babe. They said, "How shall

we speak with him who is in the cradle, an infant?"

It said,16 "Verily, I am the servant of God; He hath given me the Book, and

He hath made me a prophet;

And He hath made me blessed wherever I may be, and hath enjoined me prayer

and almsgiving so long as I shall live;

And to be duteous to her that bare me: and he hath not made me proud,

depraved.

And the peace of God was on me the day I was born, and will be the day I

shall die, and the day I shall be raised to life."

This is Jesus, the son of Mary; this is a statement of the truth concerning

which they doubt.

It beseemeth not God to beget a son. Glory be to Him! when he decreeth a

thing, He only saith to it, Be, and it Is.17

And verily, God is my Lord and your Lord; adore Him then. This is the right

way.

But the Sects have fallen to variance among themselves about Jesus: but woe,

because of the assembly of a great day, to those who believe not!

Make them hear, make them behold the day when they shall come before us! But

the offenders this day are in a manifest error.

Warn them of the day of sighing when the decree shall be accomplished, while

they are sunk in heedlessness and while they believe not.

Verily, we will inherit the earth and all who are upon it. To us shall they

be brought back.

Make mention also in the Book of Abraham; for he was a man of truth, a

Prophet.18

When he said to his Father, "O my Father! why dost thou worship that which

neither seeth nor heareth, nor profiteth thee aught?

O my Father! verily now hath knowledge come to me which hath not come to

thee. Follow me therefore-I will guide thee into an even path.

O my Father! worship not Satan, for Satan is a rebel against the God of

Mercy.

O my Father! indeed I fear lest a chastisement from the God of Mercy light

upon thee, and thou become Satan's vassal."

He said, "Castest thou off my Gods, O Abraham? If thou forbear not, I will

surely stone thee. Begone from me for a length of time."

He said, "Peace be on thee! I will pray my Lord for thy forgiveness, for he

is gracious to me:

But I will separate myself from you, and the gods ye call on beside God, and

on my Lord will I call. Haply, my prayers to my Lord will not be with ill

success."

And when he had separated himself from them and that which they worshipped

beside God, we bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, and each of them we made a

prophet:

And we bestowed gifts on them in our mercy, and gave them the lofty tongue of

truth."19

And commemorate Moses in "the Book;" for he was a man of purity: moreover he

was an Apostle, a Prophet:

From the right side of the mountain we called to him, and caused him to draw

nigh to us for secret converse:

And we bestowed on him in our mercy his brother Aaron, a Prophet.

And commemorate Ismael in "the Book;" for he was true to his promise, and was

an Apostle, a Prophet;

And he enjoined prayer and almsgiving on his people, and was well pleasing to

his Lord.

And commemorate Edris20 in "the Book;" for he was a man of truth, a Prophet:

And we uplifted him to a place on high.21

These are they among the prophets of the posterity of Adam, and among those

whom we bare with Noah, and among the posterity of Abraham and Israel, and

among those whom we have guided and chosen, to whom God hath shewed favour.

When the signs of the God of Mercy were rehearsed to them, they bowed them

down worshipping and weeping.

But others have come in their place after them: they have made an end of

prayer, and have gone after their own lusts; and in the end they shall meet

with evil:-

Save those who turn and believe and do that which is right, these shall enter

the Garden, and in nought shall they be wronged:

The Garden of Eden, which the God of Mercy hath promised to his servants,

though yet unseen:22 for his promise shall come to pass:

No vain discourse shall they hear therein, but only "Peace;" and their food

shall be given them at morn and even:

This is the Paradise which we will make the heritage of those our servants

who fear us.

We23 come not down from Heaven but by thy Lord's command. His, whatever is

before us and whatever is behind us, and whatever is between the two! And thy

Lord is not forgetful,-

Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them!

Worship Him, then, and abide thou steadfast in his worship. Knowest thou any

other of the same name?24

Man saith: "What! after I am dead, shall I in the end be brought forth

alive?"

Doth not man bear in mind that we made him at first, when he was nought?

And I swear by thy Lord, we will surely gather together them and the Satans:

then will we set them on their knees round Hell:

Then will we take forth from each band those of them who have been stoutest

in rebellion against the God of Mercy:

Then shall we know right well to whom its burning is most due:

No one is there of you who shall not go down unto it25-This is a settled

decree with thy Lord-

Then will we deliver those who had the fear of God, and the wicked will we

leave in it on their knees.

And when our clear signs are rehearsed to them, the infidels say to those who

believe: "Which of the two parties26 is in the best plight? and which is the

most goodly company?"

But how many generations have we brought to ruin before them, who surpassed

them in riches and in splendour!

SAY: As to those who are in error, the God of Mercy will lengthen out to them

a length of days

Until they see that with which they are threatened, whether it be some

present chastisement, or whether it be "the Hour," and they shall then know

which is in the worse state, and which the more weak in forces:

But God will increase the guidance of the already guided.

And good works which abide, are in thy Lord's sight better in respect of

guerdon, and better in the issue than all worldly good.

Hast thou marked him who believeth not in our signs, and saith, "I shall

surely have riches and children bestowed upon me?"

Hath he mounted up into the secrets of God? Hath he made a compact with the

God of Mercy?

No! we will certainly write down what he saith, and will lengthen the length

of his chastisement:

And we will inherit what he spake of, and he shall come before us all alone.

They have taken other gods beside God to be their help.27

But it shall not be. Those gods will disavow their worship and will become

their enemies.

Seest thou not that we send the Satans against the Infidels to urge them into

sin?

Wherefore be not thou in haste with them;28 for a small number of days do we

number to them.

One day we will gather the God-fearing before the God of Mercy with honours

due:29

But the sinners will we drive unto Hell, like flocks driven to the watering.

None shall have power to intercede, save he who hath received permission at

the hands of the God of Mercy.

They say: "The God of Mercy hath gotten offspring." Now have ye done a

monstrous thing!

Almost might the very Heavens be rent thereat, and the Earth cleave asunder,

and the mountains fall down in fragments,

That they ascribe a son to the God of Mercy, when it beseemeth not the God of

Mercy to beget a son!

Verily there is none in the Heavens and in the Earth but shall approach the

God of Mercy as a servant. He hath taken note of them, and numbered them with

exact numbering:

And each of them shall come to Him, on the day of Resurrection, singly:

But love will the God of Mercy vouchsafe to those who believe and do the

things that be right.

Verily we have made this Koran easy and in thine own tongue, that thou mayest

announce glad tidings by it to the God-fearing, and that thou mayest warn the

contentious by it.

How many generations have we destroyed before them! Canst thou search out one

of them? or canst thou hear a whisper from them?

_______________________

1 Comp. the first 37 verses of this Sura with Sura iii. 35-57 with reference

to the different style adopted by Muhammad in the later Suras, probably for

the purpose of avoiding the imputation of his being merely a poet, a

sorcerer, or person possessed. Sura lii. 29, 30; xxi. 5; lxviii. 2, 51. This

Sura is one of the fullest and earliest Koranic Gospel Histories, and was

recited to the Nagash or King of Æthiopia, in the presence of the ambassadors

of the Koreisch. His. 220; Caussin, i. 392; Sprenger (Life of M.) p. 193.

2 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32. Golius conjectured that these letters represent

coh ya'as, thus he counselled, and that they were added by some Jewish

scribe. Sprenger (Journ. of As. Soc. of Bengal, xx. 280) arranges them as

Ain, Sad, Kaf, Ha, Ya, and supposes them to be taken from the Arabic words

for Aisa (Jesus) of the Nazarenes, King of the Jews. But we can hardly

imagine that Muhammad would ascribe such a title to our Lord, and the word

which Dr. Sprenger uses for Jews is not the form peculiar to the Koran.

3 Lest they should desert the worship of the God of Israel.

4 Ar. Yahia. It may be true that the name in this form had never been given.

Otherwise, we have in this passage a misunderstanding of Luke i. 61, as well

as ignorance of the Jewish Scriptures. Comp. 2 Kings xxv. 23; 1 Chron. iii.

16; Ezra viii. 12; Jerem. xl. 8. Some commentators try to avoid the

difficulty by rendering samiyan, deserving of the name.

5 Or, with firm resolve. See Sura [xcvii.] iii. 36. The speaker is God.

6 To an eastern chamber in the temple to pray. Or it may mean, to some place

eastward from Jerusalem, or from the house of her parents.

7 Thus the Protev. Jac. c. 12 says that Mary, although at a later period,

[greek text] But Wahl, she laid aside her veil.

8 Gabriel.

9 See Sura [lxxxix.] vi. 9.

10 It is quite clear from this passage, and from verse 36, that Muhammad

believed Jesus to have been conceived by an act of the divine will. Comp.

Sura [xcvii.] iii. 52; see also note at Sura [xci.] ii. 81.

11 Or, the throes urged her to the trunk of, etc.

12 This was either the Infant which spoke as soon as born, or Gabriel. Comp.

Thilo Cod. Apoc. 136-139 on this passage. Beidhawi explains: from behind the

palm tree.

13 See Thilo Cod. Apoc. N. T. p. 138, and the Hist. Nat. Mar. c. 20, which

connects similar incidents with the flight into Egypt. Thus also Latona,

[greek text], Call. H. in Apoll. and [greek text], H. in Delum.

14 Or, settle, calm thine eye, refresh thine eye. The birth of a son is still

called korrat ol ain.

15 The anachronism is probably only apparent. See Sura iii. 1, n. Muhammad

may have supposed that this Aaron (or Harun) was the son of Imran and Anna.

Or, if Aaron the brother of Moses be meant Mary may be called his sister,

either because she was of the Levitical race, or by way of comparison.

16 See Sura [cxiv.] v. 109.

17 From the change in the rhyme, and from the more polemical tone of the

following five verses, it may be inferred that they were added at a somewhat

later period.

18 The title Nabi, prophet, is used of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as

depositaries of the worship of the one true God, but with a mission

restricted to their own families; whereas Houd, Saleh, Shoaib, etc., are

designated as (Resoul) apostles and envoys, charged with a more extended

mission to the tribes of Arabia. In Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad, etc., are

united the office and gift both of prophet (nabi) and apostle (resoul).

19 Made them to be highly praised. Beidh.

20 Enoch. Beidhawi derives the name Edris from the Ar. darasa, to search out,

with reference to his knowledge of divine mysteries. The Heb. Enoch, in like

manner, means initiated.

21 Comp. Gen. v. 24, and the tract Derek Erez in Midr. Jalkut, c. 42, where

Enoch is reckoned among the nine according to other Talmudists, thirteen

(Schroeder's Talm. und Rabb. Judenthum)-individuals who were exempted from

death and taken straight to Paradise. It should be observed that both here

and Sura xxi. 85, Edris is named after Ismael.

22 Maracci and Beidhawi, in absentid. Sale, as an object of faith. Beidhawi

ad f. in reward for their secret faith. Ullmann für die verborgene Zukunft.

23 This verse is to be understood as an answer on the part of Gabriel to

Muhammad's complaints of the long intervals between the revelations.

24 The idolaters called their deities Gods, but as Polytheists were unused to

the singular Allah, God.

25 Even the pious on their way to Paradise are to pass the confines of Hell.

26 The Koreisch, or the Muslims.

27 Or, glory, strength.

28 To call down judgments upon them.

29 As ambassadors come into the presence of a prince. Sale. This is implied

in the original.

SURA XXXVIII.-SAD [LIX.]

MECCA.-88 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

SAD.1 By the Koran full of warning! In sooth the Infidels are absorbed in

pride, in contention with thee.

How many generations have we destroyed before them! And they cried for mercy

but no time was it of escape!

And they marvel that a warner from among themselves hath come to them; and

the Infidels say, "This is a sorcerer, a liar:

Maketh he the gods to be but one god? A strange thing forsooth is this!"

And their chiefs took themselves off. "Go, said they, and cleave steadfastly2

to your gods. Ye see the thing aimed at.

We heard not of this in the previous creed.3 It is but an imposture:

To him alone of us all hath a book of warning been sent down?" Yes! they are

in doubt as to my warnings, for they have not yet tasted my vengeance.

Are the treasures of the mercy of thy Lord, the Mighty, the bounteous, in

their hands?

Is the kingdom of the heavens and of the earth and of all that is between

them theirs? Then let them mount up by cords!

Any army of the confederates4 shall here be routed.

Before them the people of Noah and Ad and Pharaoh the impaler5 treated their

prophets as impostors;

And Themoud, and the people of Lot, and the dwellers in the forest: these

were the confederates.

Nought did they all but charge the apostles with falsehood: Just, therefore,

the retribution.

And these (Meccans) await but one single trumpet blast-There shall be no

delaying it-

Yet they dare to say, "O our Lord! hasten our lot to us, before the day of

reckoning."

Put thou up with what they say: and remember our servant David, a man strong

of hand6, one who turned him to Us in penitence:

We constrained the mountains7 to join with him in lauds at even and at

sunrise;

And the birds which flocked to him, and would all return to him oft;

And we stablished his kingdom: and wisdom, and skill to pronounce clear

decisions, did we bestow on him.

Hath the story of the two pleaders8 reached thee, O Muhammad, when they

mounted the walls of his closet?

When they entered in upon David, and he was frightened at them, they said,

"Be not afraid; we are two opposing parties: one of us hath wronged the

other. Judge therefore with truth between us, and be not unjust, but guide us

to the right way.

Now this my brother had ninety and nine ewes, and I had but a single ewe; and

he said, make me her keeper. And he over-persuaded me in the dispute."

He said, "Certainly he hath wronged thee in asking for thine ewe to add her

to his own ewes: and truly many associates do one another wrong-except those

who believe and do the things that are right; and few indeed are they!" And

David perceived that we had tried him; so he asked pardon of his Lord, and

fell down and bowed himself and repented.

So we forgave him that his sin; and truly he shall have a high rank with Us,

and an excellent retreat in Paradise.

O David! verily we have made thee our vicegerent upon earth. Judge therefore

between men with truth, and follow not thy passions, lest they cause thee to

err from the way of God. For they who err from the way of God shall meet with

a grievous chastisement, for that they have forgotten the day of reckoning.

We have not created the heaven and the earth and what is between them for

nought. That is the thought of infidels; but woe to the infidels because of

the fire!

Shall we treat those who believe and do the things that are right like those

who propagate evil on earth? Shall we treat the God-fearing like the impious?

A blessed Book9 have we sent down to thee, that men may meditate its verses,

and that those endued with understanding may bear it in mind.

And Solomon gave we unto David. An excellent servant, for he loved to turn

him Godward.

Remember when at eventide the prancing10 chargers were displayed before him,

And he said, "Truly I have loved the love of earthly goods above the

remembrance of my Lord, till the sun hath been hidden by the veil of

darkness.11

Bring them back to me." And he began to sever the legs and necks.

We also made trial of Solomon, and placed a phantom12 on his throne:

whereupon he returned to Us (in penitence).

He said, O my Lord! pardon me, and give me a dominion that may not be to any

one beside me, for thou art the liberal giver.

So we subjected the wind to him; it ran softly at his bidding, whithersoever

he directed it:

And the Satans-every builder and diver-

And others bound in chains:13

"This," said we, "is our gift: be bounteous then, or withhold thy favours; no

account shalt thou render."

And his rank also is high with Us, and an excellent retreat.

And remember our servant Job when he cried to his Lord, "Verily, Satan hath

laid on me disease and pain."

"Stamp," said we, "with thy foot. This14 is to wash with; cool, and to

drink."

And we gave him back his family, and as many more with them in our mercy; and

for a monition to men of judgment.

And we said, "Take in thine hand a rod, and strike15 with it, nor break thine

oath." Verily, we found him patient!

How excellent a servant, one who turned to Us was he!

And remember our servants Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, men of might and

vision.16

With this cleansing did we cleanse them the remembrance of the abode of

Paradise.

And verily, they were, in our sight, of the elect and of the good.

And remember Ishmael and Elisha and Dhoulkefl, for all these were of the

just.

This is a monition: and verily, the pious shall have a goodly retreat:

Gardens of Eden, whose portals shall stand open to them:

Therein reclining, they shall there call for many a fruit and drink:

And with them shall be virgins of their own age, with modest retiring

glances:

"This is what ye were promised at the day of reckoning."

"Yes! this is our provision: it shall never fail."

Even so. But for the evil doers is a wretched home-

Hell-wherein they shall be burned: how wretched a bed!

Even so. Let them then taste it-boiling water and gore,

And other things of kindred sort!

To their leaders it shall be said, "This company shall be thrown in headlong

with you. No greetings shall await them, for they shall be burned in the

fire."

They shall say: "But ye, too! there shall be no welcome for you. It was ye

who prepared this for us, and wretched is the abode!"

They will say: "O our Lord! increase twofold in the fire, the punishment of

him who hath brought this upon us."

And they will say: "Why see we not the men whom we numbered among the wicked-

Whom we used to treat with scorn? Have they escaped our eyes?"17

Verily this is truth-the wrangling together of the people of the fire.

SAY: I am but a warner; and there is no God but God the One, the Almighty!

Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them,18 the

Potent, the Forgiving!

SAY: this is a weighty message,19

From which ye turn aside!

Yet had I no knowledge of what passed among the celestial chiefs when they

disputed,20

-Verily, it hath been revealed to me only because I am a public preacher-

When thy Lord said to the angels, "I am about to make man of clay,21

And when I have formed him and breathed my spirit into him, then worshipping

fall down before him."

And the angels prostrated themselves, all of them with one accord,

Save Eblis. He swelled with pride, and became an unbeliever.

"O Eblis," said God, "what hindereth thee from prostrating thyself before him

whom my hands have made?

Is it that thou are puffed up with pride? or art thou a being of lofty

merit?"

He said: "I am more excellent than he; me hast thou created of fire:22 of

clay hast thou created him."

He said: "Begone then hence: thou art accursed,23

And lo! my ban shall be on thee till the day of the reckoning."

He said: "O my Lord! respite me till the day of Resurrection."

He said, "One then of the respited shalt thou be,

Till the day of the time appointed."

He said: "I swear by thy might then that all of them will I seduce,

Save thy sincere servants among them."

He said: "It is truth, and the truth I speak. From thee will I surely fill

Hell, and with such of them as shall follow thee, one and all.

Say: I ask no wage of you for this, nor am I one who intermeddleth.

Of a truth the Koran is no other than a warning to all creatures.

And after a time shall ye surely know its message.

_______________________

1 The letter S. See Sura lxviii. p. 32.

2 These verses are said to have been revealed when, upon the conversion of

Omar, the Koreisch went in a body to Abu Talib and requested him to withdraw

his protection from Muhammad, but being put to silence by the latter,

departed in great confusion. Wah. Beidh.

3 That is, in the Christian religion, which teaches, Muhammad ironically

implies, a plurality of Gods.

4 This may allude to the so-called "confederacy" of the Koreisch against

Muhammad.

5 This term is also applied to Pharaoh, Sura lxxxix. 9, p. 54. He is said to

have fastened the Israelites to stakes, and then subjected them to various

torments.

addenda: This is the usual interpretation. Lit. Lord of, or, possessor of

stakes (comp. li. 39 in Ar.), i.e., Forces. Dr. Sprenger ingenuously

suggests that Muhammad’s Jewish informant may have described Pharaoh as rich

in neçyb, i.e., fortresses; whereas, in Ar., naçyb, means an erection,

pillar, etc., for which Muhammad substituted the word for tent stakes. Vol.

i. (470).

6 Præditi (manibus) virtute. Mar.

7 Comp. Ps. cxlviii. 9, 10.

8 Two angels who pretended to appeal to David in order to convince him of his

sin in the matter of Uriah's wife. Comp. I Sam. xii.

9 The Psalms, if we suppose with Nöldeke, p. 99, that David is still

addressed: the Koran, if with Sale we refer the passage to Muhammad.

10 The Commentators say that the word used in the original implies that the

mares stood on three feet, and touched the ground with the edge of the fourth

foot.

11 Solomon, in his admiration of these horses, the result, we are told, of

David's or his own conquests, forgot the hour of evening prayer, and when

aware of his fault commenced their slaughter. The Tr. Sanhedr. fol. 21,

mentions Solomon's love for horses, and that he determined to have a large

stud; yet not to send the people to Egypt (Deut. xvii. 16) but to have them

brought to him out of Egypt (I Kings x. 28).

12 One of the Djinn. The absurd fiction may be seen in extenso in Sale.

Compare Tr. Sanhedr. fol. 20, b. and Midr. Jalkut on I Kings vi. § 182.

13 Thus the second Targum on Esther i. 2, mentions the four different kinds

of Demons which were "given into the hand" of Solomon-a legend derived from a

misunderstanding of Eccl. ii. 8.

14 The fountain which had sprung up. To this history the Talmudists have no

allusion.

15 Thy wife;-on whom he had sworn that he would inflict an hundred blows,

because she had absented herself from him when in need of her assistance, or

for her words (Job ii. 9). The oath was kept, we are told, by his giving her

one blow with a rod of a hundred stalks. This passage is often quoted by the

Muslims as authorising any similar manner of release from an oath

inconsiderately taken.

16 Lit. men of hand and of sight.

17 Lit. or do our eyes wander from them.

18 See verses 9, 26, above. It seems to have been one of the peculiarities of

Muhammad, as a person very deficient in imagination, to dwell upon and repeat

the same ideas, with an intensity which is at once an evidence of deep

personal conviction and consciousness, of the simple Arabian especially.

19 The connection between the concluding episode and the preceding part of

the Sura does not seem very clear. It probably originated at a different but

uncertain period.

20 About the creation of man.

21 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 28, ff.

22 Comp. Ps. civ. 4.

23 Lit. stoned. See Sura xv. 34, p. 114.

SURA XXXVI.-YA. SIN [LX.]

MECCA.-83 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

YA. SIN.1 By the wise Koran!

Surely of the Sent Ones, Thou,

Upon a right path!

A revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful,

That thou shouldest warn a people whose fathers were not warned and therefore

lived in heedlessness!

Just, now, is our sentence2 against most of them; therefore they shall not

believe.

On their necks have we placed chains which reach the chin, and forced up are

their heads:

Before them have we set a barrier and behind them a barrier, and we have

shrouded them in a veil, so that they shall not see.

Alike is it to them if thou warn them or warn them not: they will not

believe.

Him only shalt thou really warn, who followeth the monition and feareth the

God of mercy in secret: him cheer with tidings of pardon, and of a noble

recompense.

Verily, it is We who will quicken the dead, and write down the works which

they have sent on before them, and the traces which they shall have left

behind them: and everything have we set down in the clear Book of our

decrees.3

Set forth to them the instance of the people of the city4 when the Sent Ones

came to it.

When we sent two unto them and they charged them both with imposture-

therefore with a third we strengthened them: and they said, "Verily we are

the Sent unto you of God."

They said, "Ye are only men like us: Nought hath the God of Mercy sent down.

Ye do nothing but lie."

They said, "Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you;

To proclaim a clear message is our only duty."

They said, "Of a truth we augur ill from you:5 if ye desist not we will

surely stone you, and a grievous punishment will surely befall you from us."

They said, "Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned?6 Nay,

ye are an erring people."

Then from the end of the city a man came running:7 He said, "O my people!

follow the Sent Ones;

Follow those who ask not of you a recompense, and who are rightly guided.

And why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought

back?

Shall I take gods beside Him? If the God of Mercy be pleased to afflict me,

their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:

Truly then should I be in a manifest error.

Verily, in your Lord have I believed; therefore hear me."8

-It was said to him, "Enter thou into Paradise:" And he said, "Oh that my

people knew

How gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His

honoured ones."

But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then

sending down our angels-

There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.

Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but

they laugh him to scorn.

See they not how many generations we have destroyed before them?

Not to false gods is it that they shall be brought9 back,

But all, gathered together, shall be set before Us.

Moreover, the dead earth is a sign to them: we quicken it and bring forth the

grain from it, and they eat thereof:

And we make in it gardens of the date and vine; and we cause springs to gush

forth in it;

That they may eat of its fruits and of the labour of their hands. Will they

not therefore be thankful?

Glory be to Him, who hath created all the sexual pairs of such things as

Earth produceth,10 and of mankind themselves; and of things beyond their ken!

A sign to them also is the Night. We withdraw the day from it, and lo! they

are plunged in darkness;

And the Sun hasteneth to her place of rest. This, the ordinance of the

Mighty, the Knowing!

And as for the Moon, We have decreed stations for it, till it change like an

old and crooked palm branch.

To the Sun it is not given to overtake the Moon, nor doth the night outstrip

the day; but each in its own sphere doth journey on.

It is also a sign to them that we bare their posterity in the full-laden Ark;

And that we have made for them vessels like it on which they embark;

And if we please, we drown them, and there is none to help them, and they are

not rescued,

Unless through our mercy, and that they may enjoy themselves for yet awhile.

And when it is said to them, Fear what is before you and what is behind

you,11 that ye may obtain mercy. . . .

Aye, not one sign from among the signs of their Lord dost thou bring them,

but they turn away from it!

And when it is said to them, Give alms of what God hath bestowed on you,12

they who believe not say to the believers, "Shall we feed him whom God can

feed if He will? Truly ye are in no other than a plain error."

And they say, "When will this promise be fulfilled, if what ye say be true?"

They await but a single blast: as they are wrangling shall it assail them:

And not a bequest shall they be able to make, nor to their families shall

they return.

And the trumpet shall be blown, and, lo! they shall speed out of their

sepulchres to their Lord:

They shall say, "Oh! woe to us! who hath roused us from our sleeping place?

'Tis what the God of Mercy promised; and the Apostles spake the truth."

But one blast shall there be,13 and, lo! they shall be assembled before us,

all together.

And on that day shall no soul be wronged in the least: neither shall ye be

rewarded but as ye shall have wrought.

But joyous on that day shall be the inmates of Paradise, in their employ;

In shades, on bridal couches reclining, they and their spouses:

Therein shall they have fruits, and shall have whatever they require-

"Peace!" shall be the word on the part of a merciful Lord.

"But be ye separated this day, O ye sinners!

Did I not enjoin on you, O sons of Adam, 'Worship not Satan, for that he is

your declared foe,'

But 'Worship Me: this is a right path'?

But now hath he led a vast host of you astray. Did ye not then comprehend?

This is Hell with which ye were threatened:

Endure its heat this day, for that ye believed not."

On that day will we set a seal upon their mouths; yet shall their hands speak

unto us, and their feet14 shall bear witness of that which they shall have

done.

And, if we pleased, we would surely put out their eyes: yet even then would

they speed on with rivalry in their path: but how should they see?

And, if we pleased, we would surely transform them as they stand,15 and they

would not be able to move onward, or to return.

Him cause we to stoop through age whose days we lengthen. Will they not

understand?

We have not taught him (Muhammad) poetry,16 nor would it beseem him. This

Book is no other than a warning and a clear Koran,

To warn whoever liveth; and, that against the Infidels sentence may be justly

given.

See they not that we have created for them among the things which our hands

have wrought, the animals of which they are masters?

And that we have subjected them unto them? And on some they ride, and of

others they eat;

And they find in them profitable uses and beverages:

Yet have they taken other gods beside God that they might be helpful to them.

No power have they to succour them: yet are their votaries an army at their

service.

Let not their speech grieve thee: We know what they hide and what they bring

to light.

Doth not man perceive that we have created him of the moist germs of life?

Yet lo! is he an open caviller.

And he meeteth us with arguments,17 and forgetteth his creation: "Who," saith

he, "shall give life to bones when they are rotten?"

SAY: He shall give life to them who gave them being at first, for in all

creation is he skilled:

Who even out of the green tree hath given you fire18, and lo! ye kindle flame

from it.

What! must not He who hath created the Heavens and the Earth be mighty enough

to create your likes? Yes! and He is the skilful creator.

His command when He willeth aught, is but to say to it, BE, and IT IS.

So glory be to Him in whose hand is sway over all things! And to Him shall ye

be brought back.

_______________________

1 This Sura is said to have been termed by Muhammad "the heart of the Koran."

It is recited in all Muhammadan countries to the dying, at the tombs of

saints, etc. On Ya. Sin, see Sura lxviii. p. 32.

2 Sura xxxviii. 85, p. 129.

3 Lit. in the clear prototype, that is, in the Preserved Table, on which all

the actions of mankind are written down.

4 Antioch, to which Jesus is said to have sent two disciples to preach the

unity of God, and subsequently Simon Peter. This vague story, and that of the

seven sleepers in Sura xviii. are the only traces to be found in the Koran of

any knowledge, on the part of Muhammad, of the history of the Church

subsequent to the day of Pentecost, or of the spread of the Christian

religion.

5 Comp. Sura xxvii. 48; vii. 128, where, as in this passage, the word augur

refers to the mode of divination practised previous to Islam, by the flight

of birds.

6 Lit. if ye have been warned (will ye still disbelieve?).

7 Habib, the carpenter, who, as implied at verse 25, was martyred, and whose

tomb at Antioch is still an object of veneration to the Muhammadans.

8 Ullm. following Wahl, renders, Als sie (die stadtlente) darauf ihn

schändlich behandleten. The verb in the original is thus used in the 4th

conj. Nöldeke supposes that words to this effect have been lost from the

text. But of this there is no trace in the Commentators.

9 Or, the Apostles shall not return to them again. Ullm.

10 For instance, date trees, the female blossoms of which were carefully

impregnated, when requisite, by branches of the male plant. See Freyt. Einl.

p. 271.

11 The chastisements of this world and of the next.

12 On account of this precept, Itq. 35, and Omar b. Muhammad suppose the

verse to have originated at Medina.

13 The Muhammadans affirm that a space of forty years will intervene between

two blasts of the Trumpet. Maracci suggests that the idea of the two blasts

is derived from 1 Thess. iv. 16, "the voice of the archangel and . . . the

trump of God."

14 Thus Chagiga, 16; Taanith, 11. "The very members of a man bear witness

against him, for thus is it written (Is. xliii. 12), Ye yourselves are my

witnesses, saith the Lord." See also Sura [lxxi.] xli. 19, 20.

15 Lit. in their place.

16 See Sura xxvi. 225, p. III.

17 Lit. he setteth forth to us comparisons.

18 The form of the Arabic word is Rabbinic Hebrew.

SURA XLIII.-ORNAMENTS OF GOLD [LXI.]

MECCA.-89 Verses.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ha. Mim.1 By the Luminous Book!

We have made it an Arabic Koran that ye may understand:

And it is a transcript of the archetypal Book,2 kept by us; it is lofty,

filled with wisdom,

Shall we then turn aside this warning from you because ye are a people who

transgress?

Yet how many prophets sent we among those of old!

But no prophet came to them whom they made not the object of their scorn:

Wherefore we destroyed nations mightier than these Meccans in strength; and

the example of those of old hath gone before!

And if thou ask them who created the Heavens and the Earth, they will say:

"The Mighty, the Sage, created them both,"

Who hath made the Earth as a couch for you, and hath traced out routes

therein for your guidance;

And who sendeth down out of Heaven the rain in due degree, by which we

quicken a dead land; thus shall ye be brought forth from the grave:

And who hath created the sexual couples, all of them, and hath made for you

the ships and beasts whereon ye ride:

That ye may sit balanced on their backs and remember the goodness of your

Lord as ye sit so evenly thereon, and say: "Glory to Him who hath subjected

these to us! We could not have attained to it of ourselves:

And truly unto our Lord shall we return."

Yet do they assign to him some of his own servants for offspring! Verily man

is an open ingrate!

Hath God adopted daughters from among those whom he hath created, and chosen

sons for you?

But when that3 is announced to any one of them, which he affirmeth to be the

case with the God of Mercy,4 his face settleth into darkness and he is

silent-sad.

What! make they a being to be the offspring of God who is brought up among

trinkets, and is ever contentious without reason?

And they make the angels who are the servants of God of Mercy, females. What!

did they witness their creation? Their witness shall be taken down, and they

shall hereafter be enquired at.

And they say: "Had the God of Mercy so willed it we should never have

worshipped them." No knowledge have they in this: they only lie.

Have we ere this given them a Book?5 and do they possess it still?

But say they: "Verily we found our fathers of that persuasion, and verily, by

their footsteps do we guide ourselves."

And thus never before thy time did we send a warner to any city but its

wealthy ones said: "Verily we found our fathers with a religion, and in their

tracks we tread."

SAY,-such was our command to that apostle-"What! even if I bring you a

religion more right than that ye found your fathers following?" And they

said, "Verily we believe not in your message."

Wherefore we took vengeance on them, and behold what hath been the end of

those who treated our messengers as liars!

And bear in mind when Abraham said to his father and to his people, "Verily I

am clear of what ye worship,

Save Him who hath created me; for he will vouchsafe me guidance."

And this he established as a doctrine that should abide among his posterity,

that to God might they be turned.

In sooth to these idolatrous Arabians and to their fathers did I allow their

full enjoyments, till the truth should come to them, and an undoubted

apostle:

But now that the truth hath come to them, they say, "'Tis sorcery, and we

believe it not."

And they say, "Had but this Koran been sent down to some great one of the two

cities6 . . .!"

Are they then the distributors of thy Lord's Mercy?7 It is we who distribute

their subsistence among them in this world's life; and we raise some of them

by grades above others, that the one may take the other to serve him: but

better is the mercy of thy Lord than all their hoards.

But for fear that all mankind would have become a single people of

unbelievers, verily we would certainly have given to those who believe not in

the God of Mercy roofs of silver to their houses, and silver stairs to ascend

by;

And doors of silver to their houses, and couches of silver to recline on;

And ORNAMENTS OF GOLD: for all these are merely the good things of the

present life; but the next life doth thy Lord reserve for those who fear Him.

And whoso shall withdraw from the Warning of the God of Mercy, we will chain

a Satan to him, and he shall be his fast companion:

For the Satans will turn men aside from the Way, who yet shall deem

themselves rightly guided;

Until when man shall come before us, he shall say, "O Satan, would that

between me and thee were the distance of the East and West."8 And a wretched

companion is a Satan.

But it shall not avail you on that day, because ye were unjust: partners

shall ye be in the torment.

What! Canst thou then make the deaf to hear, or guide the blind and him who

is in palpable error?

Whether therefore we take thee off by death, surely will we avenge ourselves

on them;

Or whether we make thee a witness of the accomplishment of that with which we

threatened them, we will surely gain the mastery over them.9

Hold thou fast therefore what hath been revealed to thee, for thou art on a

right path:

For truly to thee and to thy people it is an admonition; and ye shall have an

account to render for it at last.10

And ask our Sent Ones whom we have sent before thee,

"Appointed we gods beside the God of Mercy whom they should worship?"11

Of old sent we Moses with our signs to Pharaoh and his nobles: and he said,

"I truly am the Apostle of the Lord of the worlds."

And when he presented himself before them with our signs, lo! they laughed at

them,

Though we shewed them no sign that was not greater than its fellow:12 and

therefore did we lay hold on them with chastisement, to the intent that they

might be turned to God.

Then they said, "O Magician! call on thy Lord on our behalf to do as he hath

engaged with thee, for truly we would fain be guided."

But when we relieved them from the chastisement, lo! they broke their pledge.

And Pharaoh made proclamation among his people. Said he, "O my people! is not

the kingdom of Egypt mine, and these rivers which flow at my feet?13 Do ye

not behold?

Am I not mightier than this despicable fellow,

And who scarce can speak distinctly?

Have bracelets of gold14 then been put upon him, or come there with him a

train of Angels?"

And he inspired his people with levity, and they obeyed him; for they were a

perverse people:

And when they had angered us, we took vengeance on them, and we drowned them

all.

And we made them a precedent and instance of divine judgments to those who

came after them.

And when the Son of Mary was set forth as an instance of divine power, lo!

thy people cried out for joy thereat:

And they said, "Are our gods or is he the better?"15 They put this forth to

thee only in the spirit of dispute. Yea, they are a contentious people.

Jesus is no more than a servant whom we favoured, and proposed as an instance

of divine power to the children of Israel.

(And if we pleased, we could from yourselves bring forth Angels to succeed

you on earth:)16

And he shall be a sign of the last hour;17 doubt not then of it, and follow

ye me: this is the right way;

And let not Satan turn you aside from it, for he is your manifest foe.

And when Jesus came with manifest proofs, he said, "Now am I come to you with

wisdom; and a part of those things about which ye are at variance I will

clear up to you; fear ye God therefore and obey me.

Verily, God is my Lord and your Lord; wherefore worship ye him: this is a

right way."

But the different parties18 fell into disputes among themselves; but woe to

those who thus transgressed, because of the punishment of an afflictive day!

For what wait they but for the hour "to come suddenly on them, while they

expect it not?"

Friends on that day shall become foes to one another, except the God-

fearing:-

"O my servants! on this day shall no fear come upon you, neither shall ye be

put to grief,

Who have believed in our signs and become Muslims:

Enter ye and your wives into Paradise, delighted."

Dishes and bowls of gold shall go round unto them: there shall they enjoy

whatever their souls desire, and whatever their eyes delight in; and therein

shall ye abide for ever.

This is Paradise, which ye have received as your heritage in recompense for

your works;

Therein shall ye have fruits in abundance, of which ye shall eat.

But in the torment of Hell shall the wicked remain for ever:

It shall not be mitigated to them, and they shall be mute for despair

therein,

For it is not we who have treated them unjustly, but it was they who were

unjust to themselves.

And they shall cry: "O Malec!19 would that thy Lord would make an end of us!"

He saith: "Here must ye remain."

We have come to you with the truth (O Meccans), but most of you abhor the

truth.

Have they drawn tight their toils for thee?20 We too will tighten ours.

Think they that we hear not their secrets and their private talk? Yes, and

our angels who are at their sides write them down.

SAY: If the God of Mercy had a son, the first would I be to worship him:

But far be the Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, the Lord of the Throne,

from that which they impute to Him!

Wherefore let them alone, to plunge on, and sport, until they meet the day

with which they are menaced.

He who is God in the Heavens is God in earth also: and He is the Wise, the

Knowing.

And Blessed be He whose is the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth and of

all that is between them; for with Him is the knowledge of the Hour, and to

Him shall ye be brought back.

The gods whom they call upon beside Him shall not be able to intercede for

others: they only shall be able who bore witness to the truth and21 knew it."

If thou ask them who hath created them, they will be sure to say, "God." How

then hold they false opinions?

And one22 saith, "O Lord! verily these are people who believe not."

Turn thou then from them, and say, "Peace:" In the end they shall know their

folly.

_______________________

1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.

2 Lit. it is in the Mother of the Book, i.e. the original of the Koran,

preserved before God.

3 That is, of the birth of a female.

4 Lit. which he imputeth to the God of Mercy, as his likeness.

5 To authorise angel-worship.

6 Supply, Mecca and Taief, we would have received it.

7 Lit. mercy, i.e. the gift and office of prophecy.

8 Lit. the two Easts, by which some understand the distance between the two

solstices.

9 Comp. Suras xl. 77; xxiii. 97; x. 47; xxix. 53; xxxvii. 179; xiii. 42.

These passages clearly show that Muhammad had at this period-towards the

close of his Meccan period-full faith in his ultimate success, and in the

fulfilment of his menaces against the unbelievers.

10 Lit. ye shall be examined in the end.

11 This verse is said (see Nöld. p. 100, n.) to have been revealed in the

temple at Jerusalem on the occasion of the night journey thither. See also

Weil's Muhammed der Prophet, p. 374.

12 Lit. sister.

13 See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 39, n.

14 Comp. Gen. xli. 42.

15 This was a captious objection made to Muhammad by the idolaters of Mecca

when he condemned their gods (Sura xxi. 98), as if they had said, "Jesus is

worshipped as a God by the Christians: does he come under your anathema

equally with our idols? we shall be content for our gods to be with him."

16 That is, as we caused Jesus to be born without a human father.

17 At his return to this earth. Some refer this to the Koran as revealing the

last Hour. Lit. He (or It) is for knowledge of the Hour.

18 Jewish and Christian sects.

19 Malec is one of the keepers of Hell, who specially presides over the

torments of the damned.

20 Lit. if they have twisted tight or set firmly the affair, i.e. their plots

against thee and the truth.

21 Or, and they (the Infidels). The Commentators say that Jesus, Ezra, and

the angels, will be allowed to intercede.

22 Muhammad.

SURA LXXII.-DJINN [LXII.]

MECCA.-28 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

SAY: It hath been revealed to me that a company of

DJINN1 listened, and said,-"Verily, we have heard a marvellous discourse

(Koran);

It guideth to the truth; wherefore we believed in it, and we will not

henceforth join any being with our Lord;

And He,-may the majesty of our Lord be exalted!-hath taken no spouse neither

hath he any offspring.

But the foolish among us hath spoken of God that which is unjust:

And we verily thought that no one amongst men or Djinn would have uttered a

lie against God.

There are indeed people among men, who have sought for refuge unto people

among Djinn: but they only increased their folly:

And they thought, as ye think, that God would not raise any from the dead.

And the Heavens did we essay, but found them filled with a mighty garrison,

and with flaming darts;

And we sat on some of the seats to listen, but whoever listeneth findeth an

ambush ready for him of flaming darts.

And truly we know not whether evil be meant for them that are on earth, or

whether their Lord meaneth guidance for them.

And there are among us good, and others among us of another kind;-we are of

various sorts:

And verily we thought that no one could weaken God on earth, neither could we

escape from him by flight:

Wherefore as soon as we had heard 'the guidance' we believed in it; and

whoever believeth in his Lord, need not fear either loss or wrong.

There are some among us who have resigned themselves to God (the Muslims);

and there are others of us who have gone astray. And whoso resigneth himself

to God pursueth the way of truth;

But they who go astray from it shall be fuel for Hell."

Moreover, if they (the Meccans) keep straight on in that way, we will surely

give them to drink of abundant waters,

That we may prove them thereby: but whoso withdraweth from the remembrance of

his Lord, him will He send into a severe torment.

It is unto God that the temples are set apart: call not then on any other

therein with God.

When the servant of God stood up to call upon Him, the djinn almost jostled

him by their crowds.

SAY: I call only upon my Lord, and I join no other being with Him.

SAY: No control have I over what may hurt or benefit you.

SAY: Verily none can protect me against God;

Neither shall I find any refuge beside Him.

My sole work is preaching from God, and His message: and for such as shall

rebel against God and his apostle is the fire of Hell! they shall remain

therein alway,-for ever!

Until they see their threatened vengeance they will be perverse! but then

shall they know which side was the weakest in a protector and the fewest in

number.

SAY: I know not whether that with which ye are threatened be nigh, or whether

my Lord hath assigned it to a distant day: He knoweth the secret, nor doth He

divulge his secret to any,

Except to that Apostle who pleaseth Him; and before him and behind him He

maketh a guard to march:

That He may know if his Apostles have verily delivered the messages of their

Lord: and He embraceth in his knowledge all their ways, and taketh count of

all that concerneth them.

_______________________

1 This interview with the Djinn took place at Nakhla, probably the "Wady

Mohram" of Burckhardt, midway between Mecca and Ta‹ef, when Muhammad was

driven from Mecca. A.D. 620.

SURA LXVII.-THE KINGDOM [LXIII.]

MECCA.- 30 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BLESSED be He is whose hand is the KINGDOM! and over all things is He potent:

Who hath created death and life to prove which of you will be most righteous

in deed; and He is the Mighty, the Forgiving!

Who hath created seven Heavens one above another: No defect canst thou see in

the creation of the God of Mercy: Repeat the gaze: seest thou a single flaw?

Then twice more repeat the gaze: thy gaze shall return to thee dulled and

weary.

Moreover we have decked the lowest heaven with lights, and have placed them

there to be hurled at the Satans, for whom we have prepared the torment of

the flaming fire.

And for those who believe not in their Lord is the torment of Hell; and

horrid the journey thither!

When they shall be thrown into it, they shall hear it braying:1 and it shall

boil-

Almost shall it burst for fury. So oft as a crowd shall be thrown into it,

its keepers shall ask them, "Came not the warner to you?"

They shall say, Yes! there came to us one charged with warnings; but we

treated him as a liar, and said, "Nothing hath God sent down: ye are in

nothing but a vast delusion."

And they shall say, "Had we but hearkened or understood, we had not been

among the dwellers in the flames;"

And their sin shall they acknowledge: but, "Avaunt, ye dwellers in the

flame."

But pardon and a great reward for those who fear their Lord in secret!

Be your converse hidden or open, He truly knoweth the inmost recess of your

breasts!

What! shall He not know who hath created? for He is the Subtil,2 the

Cognizant.

It is He who hath made the earth level for you: traverse then its broad

sides, and eat of what He hath provided.-Unto Him shall be the resurrection.

What! are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not cleave the Earth beneath

you? And lo, it shall quake.

Or are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not send against you a stone-

charged whirlwind? Then shall ye know what my warning meant!

And verily, those who flourish before you treated their prophets as liars:

and how grievous my wrath!

Behold they not the birds over their heads, outstretching and drawing in

their wings? None, save the God of Mercy, upholdeth them: for he regardeth

all things.

Who is he that can be as an army to you, to succour you, except the God of

Mercy? Truly, the infidels are in the merest delusion.

Or who is he that will furnish you supplies, if He withhold His supplies? Yet

do they persist in pride and in fleeing from Him!

Is he who goeth along grovelling on his face, better guided than he who goeth

upright on a straight path?

SAY: It is He who hath brought you forth, and gifted you with hearing and

sight and heart: yet how few are grateful!

SAY: It is He who hath sown you in the earth, and to Him shall ye be

gathered.

And they say, "When shall this threat be put in force, if ye speak the

truth?"

SAY: Nay truly, this knowledge is with God alone: and I am only an open

warner.

But when they shall see it nigh, sad shall wax the countenances of the

infidels: and it shall be said, "This is what ye have been calling for."

SAY: What think ye? Whether God destroy me or not, and those who follow me,

or whether he have mercy on us, yet who will protect the infidels from a

woeful torment?

SAY: He is the God of Mercy: in Him do we believe, and in Him put we our

trust; and ye shall know hereafter who is in a manifest error.

SAY: What think ye? If at early morn your waters shall have sunk away, who

then will give you clear running water?

_______________________

1 Thus Shakespeare uses the word braying of clamours of Hell; and Milton

speaks of braying horrible discord. Comp. Sura xxv. 12-21.

2 Der alles durchdringt. Ullm.; perspicax. Mar.; sagacious. Sale. The primary

meaning of the Arabic root is to draw near; hence the above signification, in

the sense of God's presence as interpenetrating all things: hence also the

other sense of benign, as in Sura [lxxxiii.] xlii. 18.

SURA XXIII.-THE BELIEVERS [LXIV.]

MECCA.1-118 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HAPPY now the BELIEVERS,

Who humble them in their prayer,

And who keep aloof from vain words,2

And who are doers of alms deeds,

And who restrain their appetites,

(Save with their wives, or the slaves whom their right hands possess: for in

that case they shall be free from blame:

But they whose desires reach further than this are transgressors:)

And who tend well their trusts and their covenants,

And who keep them strictly to their prayers:

These shall be the heritors,

Who shall inherit the paradise, to abide therein for ever.

Now of fine clay have we created man:

Then we placed him, a moist germ,3 in a safe abode;

Then made we the moist germ a clot of blood: then made the clotted blood into

a piece of flesh; then made the piece of flesh into bones: and we clothed the

bones with flesh: then brought forth man of yet another make4-Blessed

therefore be God, the most excellent of Makers5-

Then after this ye shall surely die:

Then shall ye be waked up on the day of resurrection.

And we have created over you seven heavens:6-and we are not careless of the

creation.

And we send down water from the Heaven in its due degree, and we cause it to

settle on the earth;-and we have power for its withdrawal:-

And by it we cause gardens of palm trees, and vineyards to spring forth for

you, in which ye have plenteous fruits, and whereof ye eat;

And the tree that groweth up on Mount Sinai; which yieldeth oil and a juice

for those who eat.

And there is a lesson for you in the cattle: We give you to drink of what is

in their bellies, and many advantages do ye derive from them, and for food

they serve you;

And on them and on ships are ye borne.

We sent Noah heretofore unto his people, and he said, "O my people! serve

God: ye have no other God than He: will ye not therefore fear Him?

But the chiefs of the people who believed not said, "This is but a man like

yourselves: he fain would raise himself above you: but had it pleased God to

send, He would have sent angels: We heard not of this with our sires of old;-

Verily he is but a man possessed; leave him alone therefore for a time."

He said, "O my Lord! help me against their charge of imposture."

So we revealed unto him, "Make the ark under our eye, and as we have taught,

and when our doom shall come on, and the earth's surface shall boil up,7

Carry into it of every kind a pair, and thy family, save him on whom sentence

hath already passed: and plead not with me for the wicked, for they shall be

drowned.

And when thou, and they who shall be with thee, shall go up into the ark;

say, 'Praise be unto God, who hath rescued us from the wicked folk.'

And say, 'O my Lord! disembark me with a blessed disembarking: for thou art

the best to disembark."'

Verily in this were signs, and verily we made proof of man.

We then raised up other generations after them;

And we sent among them an apostle from out themselves, with, "Worship ye God!

ye have no other God than He: will ye not therefore fear Him?"

And the chiefs of His people who believed not, and who deemed the meeting

with us in the life to come to be a lie, and whom we had richly supplied in

this present life, said, "This is but a man like yourselves; he eateth of

what ye eat,

And he drinketh of what ye drink:

And if ye obey a man like yourselves, then ye will surely be undone.

What! doth he foretell you, that after ye shall be dead and become dust and

bones, ye shall be brought forth?

Away, away with his predictions!

There is no life beyond our present life; we die, and we live, and we shall

not be quickened again!

This is merely a man who forgeth a lie about God: and we will not believe

him."

He said, "O my Lord! help me against this charge of imposture."

He said, "Yet a little, and they will soon repent them!"

Then did the shout of the destroying angel in justice surprise them, we made

them like leaves swept down by a torrent. Away then with the wicked people!

Then raised we up other generations after them-

Neither too soon, nor too late, shall a people reach its appointed time-

Then sent we our apostles one after another. Oft as their apostle presented

himself to a nation, they treated him as a liar; and we caused one nation to

follow another; and we made them the burden of a tale. Away then with the

people who believe not!

Then sent we Moses and his brother Aaron, with our signs and manifest power,

To Pharaoh and his princes; but they behaved them proudly, for they were a

haughty people.

And they said, "Shall we believe on two men like ourselves, whose people are

our slaves?"

And they treated them both as impostors; wherefore they became of the

destroyed.

And we gave Moses the Book for Israel's guidance.

And we appointed the Son of Mary, and His mother for a sign; and we prepared

an abode for both in a lofty spot,8 quiet, and watered with springs.

"O ye apostles! eat of things that are good: and do that which is right: of

your doings I am cognisant.

And truly this your religion is the one religion;9 and I am your Lord:

therefore fear me."

But men have rent their great concern, one among another, into sects; every

party rejoicing in that which is their own;

Wherefore leave them till a certain time, in their depths of error.

What! think they that what we largely, bestow on them of wealth and children,

We hasten to them for their good? Nay, they have no knowledge.

But they who are awed with the dread of their Lord,

And who believe in the signs of their Lord,

And who join no other gods with their Lord,

And who give that which they give with hearts thrilled with dread because

they must return unto their Lord,

These hasten after good, and are the first to win it.

We will not burden a soul beyond its power: and with us is a book, which

speaketh the truth; and they shall not be wronged:

But as to this Book, their hearts are plunged in error, and their works are

far other than those of Muslims, and they will work those works,

Until when we lay hold on their affluent ones with punishment; lo! they cry

for help:

-"Cry not for help this day, for by Us ye shall not be succoured:

Long since were my signs rehearsed to you, but ye turned back on your heels,

Puffed up with pride, discoursing foolishly by night."

Do they not then heed the things spoken-whether that hath come to them which

came not to their fathers of old?

Or do they not recognise their apostle; and therefore disavow him?

Or say they, "A Djinn is in him?" Nay! he hath come to them with the truth;

but the truth do most of them abhor.

But if the truth had followed in the train of their desires, the heavens and

the earth, and all that therein is, had surely come to ruin! But we have

brought them their warning; and from their warning they withdraw.

Dost thou ask them for remuneration? But, remuneration from thy Lord is best;

and He is the best provider.

And thou indeed biddest them to the right path;

But verily they who believe not in the life to come, from that path do surely

wander!

And if we had taken compassion on them, and relieved them from their trouble,

they would have plunged on in their wickedness, wildly wandering.10

We formerly laid hold on them with chastisement, yet they did not humble them

to their Lord, nor did they abase them;

Until, when we have opened upon them the door of a severe punishment, lo!

they are in despair at it.

It is He who hath implanted in you hearing, and sight, and heart; how few of

you give thanks!

It is He who hath caused you to be born on the earth: and unto Him shall ye

be gathered.

And it is He who maketh alive and killeth, and of Him is the change of the

night and of the day: Will ye not understand?

But they say, as said those of old:-

They say,"What! When we shall be dead, and have become dust and bones, shall

we, indeed, be waked to life?

This have we been promised, we and our fathers aforetime: but it is only

fables of the ancients."

SAY: Whose is the earth, and all that is therein;-if ye know?

They will answer, "God's." SAY: Will ye not, then reflect?

SAY: Who is the Lord of the seven heavens, and the Lord of the glorious

throne?

They will say, "They are God's". SAY: Will ye not, then, fear Him?

SAY: In whose hand is the empire of all things, who protecteth but is not

protected? if ye know:

They will answer, "In God's." SAY: How, then, can ye be so spell-bound?

Yea, we have brought them the truth; but they are surely liars:

God hath not begotten offspring; neither is there any other God with Him:

else had each god assuredly taken away that which he had created,11 and some

had assuredly uplifted themselves above others! Far from the glory of God, be

what they affirm of Him!

He knoweth alike the unseen and the seen: far be He uplifted above the gods

whom they associate with Him!

SAY: O my Lord! If thou wilt let me witness the infliction of that with which

they have been threatened!

O my Lord! place me not among the ungodly people.

Verily, we are well able to make thee see the punishment with which we have

threatened them.

Turn aside evil with that which is better: we best know what they utter

against thee.

And SAY: "O my Lord! I betake me to Thee, against the promptings of the

Satans:

And I betake me to Thee, O my Lord! that they gain no hurtful access to me."

When death overtaketh one of the wicked, he saith, "Lord, send me back again,

That I may do the good which I have left undone."12 "By no means." These are

the very words which he shall speak:

But behind them shall be a barrier, until the day when they shall be raised

again.

And when the trumpet shall be sounded, the ties of kindred between them shall

cease on that day; neither shall they ask each other's help.

They whose balances shall be heavy, shall be the blest.

But they whose balances shall be light,-these are they who shall lose their

souls, abiding in hell for ever: