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

in God, and His Angels, and His Books, and His Apostles: we make no distinction between any of His Apostles.110 And they say, "We have heard and we obey. Thy mercy, Lord! for unto thee must we return."

God will not burden any soul beyond its power. It shall enjoy the good which it hath acquired, and shall bear the evil for the acquirement of which it laboured. O our Lord! punish us not if we forget, or fall into sin; O our Lord! and lay not on us a load like that which thou hast laid on those who have been before us; O our Lord! and lay not on us that for which we have not strength: but blot out our sins and forgive us, and have pity on us. Thou art our protector: give us victory therefore over the infidel nations.

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1 The greater part of this, the oldest of the Medina Suras, was revealed in the early part of the second year of the Hejira and previously to the battle of Bedr.-The Hejira took place in the beginning of Muharram, or middle of April, A.D. 622. The numbers who emigrated with Muhammad at first, were about 150 persons. Medina is 250 miles north of Mecca, and ten days' journey.

2 Said to mean A mara li Muhammad, i.e. at the command of Muhammad; but see Sura 1xviii. p. 32.

3 Death, Resurrection, Judgment, etc.

4 The Jews.

5 The Jews and Christians, hostile to the mission of Muhammad.

6 Lit. the similitude of them is as the similitude of, etc.

7 The people of Medina are generally addressed with "O ye who believe;" the Meccans, with "O men." Hence it has been inferred that from verse 19 (O men) to 37 inclusively, is of the Meccan period. The subjects treated of also lead to this conclusion.

8 The statues of false gods.

9 It will be an agreeable surprise to the blessed to have fruits, which at first sight resemble those of earth, but are infinitely more delicious,.

10 Muhammad had been reproached for having drawn illustrations from the Ant, Bee, Spider, etc.

11 Concerning faith in Muhammad. See verse 39 below, note.

12 The number of the Heavens is borrowed from the Talmud, or traditions based upon it; but the idea probably has its root in the Scriptural expression, "Heaven of Heavens."

13 Lit. a caliph, vicegerent. "When the Holy One, Blessed be He, would create man, He took counsel with the Angels and said to them, We will make man in our image." Midr. Rabbah on Numb. iv. par. 19. Comp. Midr. on Gen. 1, par. 8, 17. Sanhedr. 38.

14 "God said to the Angels, 'His wisdom is greater than yours.' Then brought he before them beasts, cattle, and birds, and asked for their names, but they knew them not. But when he had created man," etc. Midr. as above.

15 Or, if ye are truthful, or can make good a better claim to the vicegerency.

16 In the name Eblis (diabolos) and in the honour claimed for Adam as a kind of Godman, there are traces of a Christian original, as well as in the identification of the serpent with Satan. Comp. Ps. civ. 4; Heb. i. 6. The Talmudists also enlarge on the honour paid to Adam. "Adam sat in the garden and the Angels brought him flesh and cooling wine." Sanhedr. 29. "In the hour when the Holy One, Blessed be He, created man, the Angels went astray in regard to him, and essayed to say before him, 'O Holy One!' then God permitted sleep to fall on him, and all knew that he was of earth." Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 8. It is possible that the Arabic word balas, a profligate, wicked person, may have influenced Muhammad in the formation of the word Eblis. See note, p. 185. Eblis is used in the Arabic version of the New Testament, for the probable date of which, see Tischendorf, Prol. p. 78.

17 Observe the change from Eblis, the calumniator, to Satan, the hater.

18 Muhammad rarely accused the Jews and Christians of corrupting, but often of misinterpreting, their Sacred Books, in order to evade his claims. His charges, however, are always very vaguely worded, and his utterances upon this subject are tantamount to a strong testimony in favour of the unimpeachable integrity of the sacred books, both of the Jews and Christians, so far as he knew them. See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 168, and v. 73 below.

19 See Sura [lxv.] xxi. 49.

20 Lit. slay one another.

21 The Talmudists relate how the Israelites who had died, on hearing the divine voice, etc., were restored by the intercession of the Law itself. Sanh. 5.

22 By storing them up in violation of God's command.

23 Jericho according to some commentators, Jerusalem according to others, but see verse 58.

24 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 162.

25 Lit. all men. This incident is perhaps inadvertently borrowed from Ex. xv. 27.

26 This passage (comp. xxvi. 59) is one of the numerous anachronisms which abound in the Koran and prove the gross ignorance of the Arabian Prophet.

27 The Sabeites are identical with the Mendaites, or so-called Christians of S. John, residing in the marshy district at the mouth of the Euphrates, but are not the same with the star-worshipping Sabians of Harran in Mesopotamia. See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Or. under the word Sabi; Assemani, Bibl. Or. iii. 2, 609. For curious details as to the elements of the Sabeite religion, see Chwolson's SSabier and SSabaismus I.

28 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 170.

29 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 164.

30 Compare Numb. xix.; Deut. xxii. 1-9. The cow was to be sacrificed in order that a murderer might be discovered through the miracle to be wrought on the corpse by a piece of her flesh.

31 To please you, O Muslims.

32 This is one of the passages which shews great familiarity with the habits of the Jews, on the part of Muhammad. See Maracci's Prodr. i. 44. Wahl's Einleitung, xxx. xxxv.

33 The Pentateuch. This passage shews that the art of writing was known in Medina shortly after the Hejira.

34 Forty days; the period during which they worshipped the calf.

35 The blood of those who are as your own flesh.

36 Two Jewish tribes (Koreidha and Nadhir) in alliance with certain Arab tribes who were at war, destroyed one another's abodes, but redeemed the Jewish captives, professing that they were commanded to do this by the Law. So the commentators.

37 Gabriel. Muhammad either knowingly rejected the divinity of the Holy Ghost, or confounded Gabriel announcing the conception, with the Holy Spirit that overshadowed Mary. It is probable that Muhammad's ideas of the Spirit were at first indefinite, but that the two expressions, Gabriel and the Holy Spirit, became ultimately synonymous. See note on Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 87. Geiger (p. 82) quotes an instance in which the Jewish expositors understand the distinctly-speaking Spirit (Sanhedr. 44) of Gabriel.

38 The gift of the prophetic office, etc., to a pagan Arab and not to a Jew.

39 Matt. xxiii. 37.

40 See Sura vii. 170, p. 309.

41 Comp. 1 Tim. v. 24.

42 In Solomon's Books of Magic. This story has been supposed to be of Persian origin. See Hyde de Rel. Vet. Pers. ch. xii. But from a passage in the Midr. Abhkhir quoted in the Midr. Jalkut, ch. 44, and from a quotation in Maracci's Prodr. iv. 82, Geiger infers that Muhammad has transferred to the time of Solomon, the Rabbinic traditions concerning the influence of angels upon men at the time of the Deluge. p. 106. "Babel is regarded by the Muslims as the fountain head of the science of magic. They suppose Haroot and Maroot to be two angels who, in consequence of their want of compassion for the frailties of mankind, were sent down to earth to be tempted. They both sinned; and being permitted to choose whether they would be punished now or hereafter, chose the former, and are still suspended by the feet at Babel in a rocky pit, and are the great teachers of magic." (Lane on ch. iii. note 14 of the 1001 Nights.)

43 Raina, as pronounced in Hebrew, "our bad one;" but in Arabic, "look upon us," a kind of salutation of the same signification as ondhorna, which, however, does not admit of any secondary bad sense like raina.

44 Comp. Sura xvi. 103; iv. 84. The Muslims admit that there are 225 verses cancelled by later ones. The doctrine of "abrogation" is taught in the Talmud. Thus Hilchoth Mamrim, ii. 1, 2, etc.

45 That is, does not weigh the evidence for Muhammad's mission already given, but demands, as the Jews did, to see God himself.

46 In all Muhammadan countries the first time of prayer is the moghreb or sunset, or rather, four minutes later; the second the eshe, when it has become quite dark; the third the soobh or fegr, the daybreak; the fourth, doohr, or a little after noon, when the sun has begun to decline; the fifth, the asr, midway between noon and nightfall. The obligatory legal alms or impost are called, as here, zekah (lit. purity), the voluntary, sudackah. It is, however, left to the conscience of individuals to give and to apply them as they think fit.

47 The idolatrous Arabs.

48 If this verse is aimed at the Meccans who, in the 6th year of the Hejira, forbad Muhammad and his followers to enter the temple of Mecca in the expedition of Hodeibiya, it is misplaced here.

49 Abrogated by verse 139 below.

50 The Caaba.

51 Freytag (Einl. p. 339) says that there is no good reason for doubting that the Caaba was founded as stated in this passage. See note on Sura [xcvii.] iii. 90.

52 Deut. xviii. 15.

53 "At the time when our father Jacob quitted this world, be summoned his twelve sons and said to them, Hearken to your father Israel (Gen. xlix. 2). Have ye any doubts in your hearts concerning the Holy One, Blessed be He! They said, Hear, O Israel, our Father. As there is no doubt in thy heart, so neither is there in ours. For the Lord is our God, and He is one." Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 98, and on Deut. par. 2. Comp. also Targ. Jer. on Deut. vi. 4. Tract. Pesachim, 56.

54 See Sura [lxxiii.] xvi. 121, n., p. 209.

55 Ibn Batutah assures us (vol. ii. 10) that when in the 14th century he visited Basra, he saw in the mosque the copy of the Koran which the Caliph Othman had in his hands when murdered, and that the marks of his blood were still visible at the words of this verse. Othman's originals are also said to be preserved in Egypt, Morocco, Damascus, Mecca, and Medina. See M. Quatremere in Journ. Asiatique, Juillet, 1838.

56 The original simply has Baptism of God. This may be understood either of Islam generally, or, with Ullmann, in the more restricted sense of circumcision. Perhaps Muhammad used the word advisedly as a hint to the Christians of his land, that in the reception of his religion consisted the true new birth.

57 Or, intermediate, i.e., according to the commentators, not addicted to excess, just. Ullm. ein vermittelndes Volk, zwischen Juden und Christen die Mitte haltend.

58 In having prayed towards Jerusalem.

59 Of Mecca. This change of the Kebla from Jerusalem to Mecca shows that this part of the Sura was revealed at a time when the breach between Muhammad and the Jews was past healing; i.c. in the first half of the second year of the Hejira. See Thilo's. Cod. Apoc. p. 21, n.

60 That is, the Jews are really convinced of the truth of Muhammad's mission.

61 That is, warring with the infidels. The precise date of verses 148-152 depends upon whether this passage refers to the battle of Bedr or Ohod.

62 These words are constantly used by the pious Muslims when in any trouble.

63 Hills in the sacred territory of Mecca, which had long been objects of superstitious reverence to the idolatrous Arabs, on which account the Muslims were at first unwilling to include them among the sacred places.

64 The Pentateuch. See verse 141.

65 This and the three following verses are probably Meccan, as also verses 167-171.

66 The ringleaders of infidelity and idolatrous faiths.

67 Freyt. Lex. vol. ii. p. 477 Quid eos agere coegit quemadmodum damnati agunt? But Mar. Quanta erit sustinentia corum!

68 To