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

desire? Here is our money returned to us; we will provide corn for our families, and will take care of our brother, and shall receive a camel's burden more of corn. This is an easy quantity."17

He said, "I will not send him with you but on your oath before God that ye will, indeed, bring him back to me, unless hindrances encompass you." And when they had given him their pledge, he said, "God is witness of what we say."

And he said, "O, my sons! Enter not by one gate, but enter by different gates.18 Yet can I not help you against aught decreed by God: judgment belongeth to God alone. In Him put I my trust, and in Him let the trusting trust."

And when they entered as their father had bidden them, it did not avert from them anything decreed of God; but it only served to satisfy a desire in the soul of Jacob which he had charged them to perform; for he was possessed of knowledge which we had taught him; but most men have not that knowledge.

And when they came in to Joseph, he took his brother to him. He said,
"Verily, I am thy brother. Be not thou grieved for what they did."19

And when he had provided them with their provisions, he placed his drinking cup in his brother's camel-pack. Then a crier cried after them, "O travellers! ye are surely thieves."

They turned back to them and said, "What is that ye miss?"

"We miss," said they, "the prince's cup. For him who shall restore it, a camel's load of corn! I pledge myself for it."

They said, "By God! ye know certainly that we came not to do wrong20 in the land and we have not been thieves."

"What," said the Egyptians, "shall be the recompense of him who hath stolen it, if ye be found liars?"

They said, "That he in whose camel-pack it shall be found be given up to you in satisfaction for it. Thus recompense we the unjust."

And Joseph began with their sacks, before the sack of his brother, and then from the sack of his brother he drew it out. This stratagem did we suggest to Joseph. By the King's law he had no power to seize his brother, had not God pleased. We uplift into grades of wisdom whom we will. And there is one knowing above every one else endued with knowledge.

They said, "If he steal, a brother of his hath stolen heretofore."21 But Joseph kept his secret, and did not discover it to them. Said he, aside, "Ye are in the worse condition. And God well knoweth what ye state."

They said, "O Prince! Verily he hath a very aged father; in his stead, therefore, take one of us, for we see that thou art a generous person."

He said, "God forbid that we should take but him with whom our property was found, for then should we act unjustly."

And when they despaired of Benjamin, they went apart for counsel. The eldest of them said, "Know ye not how that your father hath taken a pledge from you before God, and how formerly ye failed in duty with regard to Joseph? I will not quit the land till my father give me leave, or God decide for me; for of those who decide is He the best.

Return ye to your father and say, 'O our father! Verily, thy son hath stolen: we bear witness only of what we know: we could not guard against the unforeseen.

Enquire for thyself in the city where we have been, and of the caravan with which we have arrived; and we are surely speakers of the truth.'

He said, "Nay, ye have arranged all this among yourselves: But patience is seemly: God, may be, will bring them back to me together; for he is the Knowing, the Wise."

And he turned away from them and said, "Oh! how I am grieved for Joseph!" and his eyes became white with grief, for he bore a silent sorrow.

They said, "By God thou wilt only cease to think of Joseph when thou art at the point of death, or dead."

He said, "I only plead my grief and my sorrow to God: but I know from God what ye know not:22

Go, my sons, and seek tidings of Joseph and his brother, and despair not of
God's mercy, for none but the unbelieving despair of the mercy of God."

And when they came in to Joseph, they said, "O Prince, distress hath reached us and our family, and little is the money that we have brought. But give us full measure, and bestow it as alms, for God will recompense the almsgivers."

He said, "Know ye what ye did to Joseph and his brother in your ignorance?"

They said, "Canst thou indeed be Joseph?" He said, "I am Joseph, and this is my brother. Now hath God been gracious to us. For whoso feareth God and endureth. . . . God verily will not suffer the reward of the righteous to perish!"

They said, "By God! now hath God chosen thee above us, and we have indeed been sinners!"

He said, "No blame be on you this day. God will forgive you, for He is the most merciful of those who shew mercy.

Go ye with this my shirt and throw it on my father's face, and he shall recover his sight: and bring me all your family."

And when the caravan was departed, their father said, "I surely perceive the smell of Joseph:23 think ye that I dote?"

They said, "By God, it is thy old mistake."

And when the bearer of good tidings came, he cast it on his face, and Jacob's eyesight returned."

Then he said, "Did I not tell you that I knew from God what ye knew not?"

They said, "Our father, ask pardon for our crimes for us, for we have indeed been sinners."

He said, "I will ask your pardon of my Lord, for he is Gracious, Merciful."

And when they came into Joseph he took his parents24 to him, and said, "Enter ye Egypt, if God will, secure."

And he raised his parents to the seat of state, and they fell down bowing themselves unto him. Then said he, "O my father, this is the meaning of my dream of old. My Lord hath now made it true, and he hath surely been gracious to me, since he took me forth from the prison, and hath brought you up out of the desert, after that Satan had stirred up strife between me and my brethren; for my Lord is gracious to whom He will; for He is the Knowing, the Wise.

O my Lord, thou hast given me dominion, and hast taught me to expound dark sayings. Maker of the Heavens and of the Earth! My guardian art thou in this world and in the next! Cause thou me to die a Muslim, and join me with the just."

This is one of the secret histories25 which we reveal unto thee. Thou wast not present with Joseph's brethren when they conceived their design and laid their plot: but the greater part of men, though thou long for it, will not believe.

Thou shalt not ask of them any recompense for this message. It is simply an instruction for all mankind.

And many as are the signs in the Heavens and on the Earth, yet they will pass them by, and turn aside from them:

And most of them believe not in God, without also joining other deities with
Him.

What! Are they sure that the overwhelming chastisement of God shall not come upon them, or that that Hour shall not come upon them suddenly, while they are unaware?

SAY: This is my way: resting on a clear proof, I call you to God, I and whoso followeth me: and glory be to God! I am not one of those who add other deities to Him.

Never before thee have we sent any but men, chosen out of the people of the cities, to whom we made revelations. Will they not journey through the land, and see what hath been the end of those who were before them? But the mansions of the next life shall be better for those who fear God. Will they not then comprehend?

When at last the Apostles lost all hope, and deemed that they were reckoned as liars, our aid reached them, and we delivered whom we would; but our vengeance was not averted from the wicked.

Certainly in their histories is an example for men of understanding. This is no new tale of fiction, but a confirmation of previous scriptures, and an explanation of all things, and guidance and mercy to those who believe.

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1 See Sura lxviii. p. 32. In no other Sura beside this is one subject treated of throughout. It was recited to the first eight of the Ansars who were converted, and clearly proves that Muhammad must have been in confidential intercourse with learned Jews.

2 The word Koran is here used in the same sense as Sura.

3 Muhammad was either unaware of the previous dream mentioned, Gen. xxxvii. 7, or passes it by in silence.

4 The captious and unbelieving Koreisch.

5 Wir mussten denn zuerst das Leben einbüssen. Wahl. Ullm. Maracci.

6 Lit. your minds have made a thing seem pleasant to you.

7 According to Gen. xxxvii. 24, the well or pit had "no water in it.

8 Some take the Arabic Boshra as the proper name of the person who accompanied the drawer of water.

9 The apparition of his father, who said, "Hereafter shall the names of thy brethren, engraven on precious stones, shine on the breast of the High Priest. Shall thine be blotted out?" Tr. Sotah, fol. 36. Comp. Weil, Legenden, p. 109, n.

10 Lit. that he be imprisoned.

11 An infant in the cradle. Sepher Hadjascher, as below on v. 31.

12 Instead of their food, through surprise at his beauty. Seph. Hadj. in Midr. Jalkut. See also Midr. Abkhir, ib. ch. 146.

13 It is curious to observe how Muhammad, in this and the following verse, puts his own doctrine and convictions into the mouth of Joseph.

14 Satan induced Joseph to place his confidence in man, rather than in God alone, in punishment of which sin the imprisonment was continued. Thus Midr. Rabba. Gen. Par. 89. Midr. Jalkut, ib. ch. 147.

15 In Gen. xli. 14, Joseph is released from prison before the interpretation of the dreams. But the Koran makes him decline to quit it till his character is cleared.

16 According to Gen. xli. 39, Pharaoh of his own accord sets Joseph over his house and land.

17 For the king to bestow.

18 Thus we read in Mid. Rab. on Gen. Par. 91, "Jacob said to them, Enter ye not all by one gate." See also Midr. Jalkut, ch. 148.

19 Thus also, in the Sepher Hadjaschar, Joseph first discovers himself to Benjamin, in opposition to Gen. xlv. 1.

20 Comp. Gen. xlii. 9.

21 Joseph is said by the Muhammadan commentators to have stolen an idol of gold belonging to his mother's father, which he broke, that he might not worship it. But this comment, as well as the text of the Koran, is probably based upon some such tradition as that of Midr. Rabba, Par. 92, "He is a thief and the son of a thief" (Comp. Gen. xxxi. 19)-spoken of Benjamin.

22 That is, that Joseph was still alive. Thus Midr. Tanchumah on Gen. xlii. 1.

23 Comp. Gen. xxvii. 27.

24 Joseph's mother had long been dead. See Gen. xxxv. 19. But the object of Muhammad was probably to bring the event into strict accordance with the prediction of the dream. Gen. xxxvii. 10. Some, however, suppose that Bilhah is here meant, and her appearance before Joseph is also asserted to be the fulfilment of the dream by some of the Rabbins. Comp. Raschi on Gen. xxxvii. 10.

25 Lit. This is of the announcements of the things unseen (by thee, Muhammad). Compare the manner in which the story of the Creation and of Moses in the mount is introduced. Sura xxxviii. 70; xxviii. 45. Mr. Muir thinks that Muhammad must at this period, while recasting and working up these materials, have entered upon a course of wilful dissimulation and deceit (although the end would justify to him the means employed) in