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

It is just possible that the act of Koleib, chief of the Banu Taghlib tribe, in killing the milch camel of Basűs, a female relative of his wife of Bani-Bakr lineage-which led to a forty years' war between these two tribes, A.D. 490-may have been worked up by Muhammad into this account of the persecutions of Saleh.

21 See Sura xxiv. 176, p. 109.

22 This verse may contain an implied reference to the famine with which Mecca had been visited, and fix the date of this part of the Sura. Comp. verse 127.

23 Lit. plot, stratagem.

24 Comp. the passage from Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 48, who makes Moses perform this miracle in the presence of Pharaoh, which the Scripture (Ex. vii.) account does not. The Muhammadan tradition is that Moses was a black.

25 Lit. cause him to hope, temporise with him.

26 Lit. male ominati sunt. Mar. They traced their calamities to Moses. So Sale. Kas. But Ullmann. renders, they attributed their misfortunes to the predictions of Moses.

27 In Suras [lxvii.] xvii. and [lxviii.] Muhammad speaks of nine plagues. The flood is not mentioned in the Scripture.

28 Lit. when we removed from them the plague until a period at which they should arrive.

29 Lit. that in which these are.

30 Lit. the set time of his Lord was fulfilled in forty nights.

31 Sale and others render having a body, corporeal, of which the commentators give no satisfactory explanation. I have adopted that given by Freytag in v. That the calf lowed in consequence of Samal having entered into it, is one of the traditions of the Talmud. Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 45.

32 Compare Sura [lxxxi.] xxix. 47, [xciv.] lxxii. 2, [xci.] ii. 73. The word ummyy is derived from ummah, a nation, and means Gentile; it here refers to Muhammad's ignorance, previous to the revelation of Islam, of the ancient Scriptures. It is equivalent to the Gr. laic, ethnic, and to the term gojim, as applied by the Jews to those unacquainted with the Scriptures. There can, however, be no doubt that Muhammad-in spite of his assertions to the contrary, with the view of proving his inspiration-was well acquainted with the Bible histories. He wished to appear ignorant in order to raise the elegance of the Koran into a miracle. For the passages of Scripture said to foretel Muhammad, see Pocock's Sp. Hist. Ar. p. 188, ed. White.

33 If these words, as Nöldeke supposes, contain an allusion to the Ansars, it is likely that this verse was added at Medina. The epithet Al-Ummy (the unlettered) does not, thus, occur in Meccan Suras.

34 The Koran.

35 Pirke R. Eliezer, 45, explains Ex. xxxii. 26, of the tribe of Levi, as not having been implicated with the other tribes in the sin of the golden calf.

36 The Jews changed hittat, absolution, indulgence, into habbat, corn.

37 This and the next six verses are supposed to have been added at Medina.

38 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 61. No trace of this legend is to be found in the Talmudists. The city is said to have been Aila (Elath) on the Red Sea.

39 Perhaps in allusion to Deut. xxviii. 49, 50.

40 As bribes to pervert Scripture, etc.

41 Sinai-which, however, is not mentioned in the Koran as the place where the law was given. Comp. "I will cover you with the mountain like a roof." Abodah Sar. 2, 2. Thus also in Tract Sabbath, f. 88, 1, "R. Avdimi . . . saith, These words teach us that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the mountain over them like a vessel, and said to them, If ye will receive the law, well; but if not, there shall be your grave." This tradition is still held by the Jews. See D. Lewis Pent. Prayers, fol. 150. Its origin is a misunderstanding of Ex. xix. 17, rightly rendered in the E. version at the nether part of the mountain.

42 To the Jews.

43 Balaam. But according to others, a Jew who renounced his faith in Muhammad.

44 The 99 titles of God, taken from the Koran, are to be found in Maracci, vol. 11, p. 414, or in Macbride's Religion of the Mohammedans, p. 121. To facilitate the repetition of these names, the Muslims use a rosary.

45 In altering the names of God, changing allah into Allat, Elaziz into Alozza, Mennan into Menat, etc.

46 Lit. and in what declaration after it will they believe?

47 That is, it weighs heavily on the hopes and fears of men, djinn, and angels.

48 Probably the usual final clause, whence ye looked not for it, should here be added to make good the rhyme, which is otherwise interrupted in the original.

49 Some render salihan, well made, rightly shaped; others, virtuous, morally perfect.

50 And their idolatrous posterity. Beidh.

51 Take or use indulgence; i.e. take men and their actions as they are, and make all due allowances. Some understand it, of Muhammad's accepting such voluntary and superfluous alms as the people could spare.

52 That is, those under Satanic influence.

53 Collected or sought it out. Beidh.

SURA XLVI.-AL AHKAF [LXXXVIII.]

MECCA.-35 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HA. MIM.1 The Revelation (sending down) of this Book is from the Mighty, the
Wise!

We have not created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is between them otherwise than in truth and for a settled term. But they who believe not, turn away from their warning.

SAY: What think ye? As for those whom ye invoke beside God, shew me what part of the earth it is which they have created? Had they a share in the Heavens? Bring me a Book sent down by them before this Koran, or traces of their knowledge;2-if ye are men of truth.

And who erreth more than he who, beside God, calleth upon that which shall not answer him until the day of Resurrection? Yes, they regard not their invocations;

And when mankind shall be assembled together, they will become their enemies, and ungratefully disown their worship.

And when our clear signs are recited to them, they who believe not say of the truth when it cometh to them, "This is plain sorcery."

Will they say, "He hath devised It?" SAY: If I have devised the Koran, then not one single thing shall ye ever obtain for me from God! He best knoweth what ye utter in its regard! Witness enough is He between me and you! And He is the Gracious, the Merciful.

SAY: I am no apostle of new doctrines: neither know I what will be done with me or you. Only what is revealed to me do I follow, and I am only charged to warn openly.

SAY: What think ye? If this Book be from God, and ye believe it not, and a witness of the children of Israel3 witness to its conformity with the Law, and believe, while ye proudly disdain it . . . ? Ah! God guideth not the people guilty of such a wrong!

But the infidels say of the believers, "If it were a good Book they would not have been before us in believing it:"4 And not having submitted to guidance, they proceed to say, "It is an old lying legend!"

But before the Koran was the Book of Moses, a rule and a mercy; and this Book confirmeth it (the Pentateuch)-in the Arabic tongue-that those who are guilty of that wrong may be warned, and as glad tidings to the doers of good.

Assuredly they who say, "Our Lord is God," and take the straight way to Him- no fear shall come on them, neither shall they be put to grief:

These shall be the inmates of Paradise to remain therein for ever,-the recompense of their deeds!

Moreover, we have enjoined on man to shew kindness to his parents. With pain his mother beareth him; with pain she bringeth him forth: and his bearing and his weaning is thirty months; until when he attaineth his strength, and attaineth to forty years,5 he saith, "O my Lord! stir me up to be grateful for thy favours wherewith thou hast favoured me and my parents, and to do good works which shall please thee: and prosper me in my offspring: for to thee am I turned, and am resigned to thy will" (am a Muslim).

These are they from whom we will accept their best works, and whose evil works we will pass by; among the inmates shall they be of Paradise:-a true promise which they are promised.

But he who saith to his parents, "Fie on you both! Promise ye me that I shall be taken forth from the grave alive, when whole generations have already passed away before me?" But they both will implore the help of God, and say, "Alas for thee! Believe: for the promise of God is true." But he saith, "It is no more than a fable of the ancients."

These are they in whom the sentence passed on the nations, djinn and men, who flourished before them, is made good. They shall surely perish.6

And there are grades for all, according to their works, that God may repay them for their works; and they shall not be dealt with unfairly.

And they who believe not shall one day be set before the fire. "Ye made away your precious gifts during your life on earth; and ye took your fill of pleasure in them: This day, therefore, with punishment of shame shall ye be rewarded, for that ye behaved you proudly and unjustly on the earth, and for that ye were given to excesses."

Remember, too, the brother of Ad7 when he warned his people in AL AHKAF8-and before and since his time there have been warners-"Worship none but God: verily I fear for you the punishment of the great day."

They said, "Art thou come to us to turn us away from our Gods? Bring on us now the woes which thou threatenest if thou speakest truth."

"That knowledge," said he, "is with God alone: I only proclaim to you the message with which I am sent. But I perceive that ye are a people sunk in ignorance."

So when they saw a cloud coming straight for their valleys, they said, "It is a passing cloud that shall give us rain." "Nay, it is that whose speedy coming ye challenged a blast wherein is an afflictive punishment:-

It will destroy everything at the bidding of its Lord!" And at morn nought was to be seen but their empty dwellings! Thus repay we a wicked people.

With power had we endued them, even as with power have we endued you; and we had given them ears and eyes and hearts: yet neither their eyes, nor their ears, nor their hearts aided them at all, when once they gainsaid the signs of God; but that punishment which they had mocked at enveloped them on all sides.

Of old, too, did we destroy the cities which were round about you; and, in order that they might return to us, we varied our signs before them.

But did those whom they took for gods beside God as his kindred deities, help them?9 Nay, they withdrew from them. Such was their delusion, and their device!

And remember when we turned aside a company of the djinn to thee, that they might hearken to the Koran: and no sooner were they present at its reading than they said to each other, "Hist;" and when it was ended, they returned to their people with warnings.

They said, "O our people! verily we have been listening to a book sent down since the days of Moses, affirming the previous scriptures; it guideth to the truth, and to the right way.

O our people! Obey the Summoner of God, and believe in him, that He may forgive your sins, and rescue you from an afflictive punishment.

And he who shall not respond to God's preacher, yet cannot weaken God's power on earth, nor shall he have protectors beside Him. These are in obvious error."

See they not that God who created the Heavens and the Earth, and was not wearied with their creation, is of power to quicken the dead? Yea, he is for all things Potent.

And a day is coming when the infidels shall be set before the fire. "Is not this it in truth?" They shall say, "Aye, by our Lord." He said, "Taste then the punishment for that ye