The Quran (Koran), 1st translation, - [red queen free ebook txt] 📗

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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 Maktűm, 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.

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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?

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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.

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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.

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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