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

give them a double chastisement, and curse them with a heavy curse."

O Believers! be not like those who affronted Moses.26 But God cleared him from what they said of him, and of God was he highly esteemed.

O Believers! fear God, and speak with well-guided speech.

That God may bless your doings for you, and forgive you your sins. And whoso obeyeth God and His Apostle with great bliss shall be blessed.

Verily, we proposed to the Heavens, and to the Earth, and to the Mountains to receive the Faith, but they refused the burden, and they feared to receive it. Man undertook to bear it, but hath proved unjust, senseless!

Therefore will God punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women, and the men and the women who join gods with God; but to the believing men and women will God turn him: for God is Indulgent, Merciful!

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1 Medina was besieged, when this Sura was revealed, by certain confederate tribes at the instigation of the Jews, an. Hej. 5. The first nine verses, however, have no immediate reference to this event, but to Muhammad's cotemporary marriage with Zeinab. See below, verse 37.

2 The Arabians had been accustomed, before the time of Muhammad, to divorce their wives with the words,-thy back be to me as the back of my mother. The drift and motive of this passage is explained by verse 37 below. It had also been the custom to hold adopted sons to be as nearly related to them as their natural ones. See Sura lviii. 2, p. 451.

3 The Mohadjers-those who had emigrated with Muhammad from Mecca. This verse abrogates Sura [xcv.] viii. 73.

4 How they have discharged their prophetic functions.

5 Verses 9-33 have reference to the events of the year Hej. 5, towards the close. See next note. His. 688; Waq. 4 f.

6 In the engagement which took place under the walls of Medina, some of the enemy were posted on a height to the east of the city, others in a valley on the west. The besiegers were 12,000, the Muslims 3,000 strong, when a violent storm, which upset the tents, put out the camp fires, and blinded the eyes of the confederates with sand, turned the scale of victory against them. Muhammad ascribes the storm to angelic agency.

7 That is, with infidelity.

8 The ancient name of El-Medina.

9 In the trenches which had been dug around the city by the advice of Salmân, the Persian.

10 They would speedily have quitted the city to attack the faithful in the trenches.

11 That is, raise the siege.

12 That is, that through trials we should attain to Paradise, v. 29.

13 After the siege of Medina had been raised, Muhammad made a successful expedition against the Jews of Koreidha, for their treason and violation of treaties.

14 Muhammad's wives having caused him much annoyance by demands of rich dresses, etc., he gave them the choice of continuing with him as before, or of divorce. They chose the former. See Abulfeda's Hist. Moh. p. 77, and Gagnier's Vie de Moh. i. 4, chap. ii.

15 That is, Idolatry. Acts xvii. 30. Freytag (Einl. p. 453) thinks that previous to Islam, the Arabian women went in public unveiled.

16 The pronoun is in the pl. masc., whereas the pl. fem. is used in the previous part of the verse. The partisans of Ali quote this passage to prove the intimate union of Ali and his posterity with the Prophet.

17 That is, to Zaid. The favour of God to Zaid consisted in having caused him to become a Muslim: the favour of Muhammad in adopting him as his son. Zaid and Abu Lahab (Sura cxi. p. 29) are the only contemporaries of Muhammad mentioned by name in the Koran.

18 Thy plan to obtain Zeinab, or Zenobia, Zaid's wife, as thy wife.

19 Lit, who brought the messages of God.

20 If thou makest use of the special prerogative (conferred in verse 49).

21 He had nine wives at this period, beside slaves. The number of wives allowed to the faithful is four. See note, p. 411. 22 The first slave whom Muhammad took to wife was Raihana, at the conquest of the Banu Koreidha. His. 693. Weil, 170.

23 Verses 53-55 refer to the conduct of the guests at Muhammad's house after his marriage with Zeinab. Albuhari passim. Muslim i. 824 ff. Wah. Comp. Caussir, iii. 151.

24 Ullmann, p. 263, quotes a similar precept from the Talmud, "Do all that the master of the house biddeth, but wait not to be asked to depart."

25 This verse cannot be of later date than Hej. 8, when Muhammad's daughter Omm Kulthum died. leaving only Fatima.

26 This may refer to the charge of adultery said by the Rabbins to have been brought by Korah against Moses. Comp. Tr. Sanhedrin, fol. 110a. and Numbers xii. 1. The verse is said to have been revealed on account of aspersions thrown on Muhammad for unfairly dividing spoils, whereupon he said, "God be merciful to my brother Moses. He was wronged more than this, and bore it with patience."

SURA LXIII.1-THE HYPOCRITES [CIV.]

MEDINA.-11 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHEN the Hypocrites come to thee, they say, "We bear witness that thou art the Sent One of God." God knoweth that thou art His Sent One: but God beareth witness that the HYPOCRITES do surely lie.

Their faith2 have they used as a cloak, and they turn aside others from the way of God! Evil are all their doings.

This, for that they believed, then became unbelievers!Therefore hath a seal been set upon their hearts, and they understand not.

When thou seest them, their persons make thee marvel; and if they speak, thou listenest with pleasure to their discourse. Like timbers are they leaning against a wall!3 They think that every shout is against them. They are enemies-Beware of them then-God do battle with them! How false are they!

And when it is said to them, "Come, the Apostle of God will ask pardon for you," they turn their heads aside, and thou seest them withdraw in their pride.

Alike shall it be to them whether thou ask forgiveness for them, or ask it not. By no means will God forgive them: God hath no guidance for a perverse people.

These are they who say to you of Medina, "Spend not aught upon those who are with the Apostle of God, and they will be forced to quit him." Yet the treasures of the Heavens and of the Earth are God's! But the Hypocrites have no understanding.

They say: "If we return to the city, the mightier will assuredly drive out the weaker from it." But might is with God, and with the Apostle, and with the Faithful! Yet the Hypocrites understand not.

O ye who believe! let not your wealth and your children delude you into forgetfulness of God. Whoever shall act thus, shall surely suffer loss.

And expend in the cause of God out of that with which we have supplied you, ere death surprise each one of you, and he say, "O Lord! wilt thou not respite me to a term not far distant, that I may give alms, and become one of the just?"

And by no means will God respite a soul when its hour hath come! And God is fully cognisant of what ye do.

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1 Revealed shortly after the expedition against the Banu 'l Mustaliq in Hej. 6. See Nöld. p. 156 n. The "Hypocrites" mentioned in the later Suras are the disaffected portion of the population of Medina, who covertly opposed the claims of Muhammad to temporal authority over that city. They were gradually absorbed, as the authority of Islam increased.

2 Or, in accordance with another reading, oaths. Comp. Ps. cix. 18.

3 Like timbers or joists supported in a wall or leaned against it, i.e., their persons are bulky, but their hearts so hypocritical and cowardly that they are afraid of the slightest noise. In the original, saďkat is perhaps an allusion to the shout of Gabriel, that is to exterminate the wicked.

SURA XXIV.-LIGHT [CV.]

MEDINA.-64 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

A SURA which we have sent down and sanctioned! Clear signs have we sent down therein, that ye may take warning.

The whore and the whoremonger-scourge each of them with an hundred stripes; and let not compassion keep you from carrying out the sentence of God, if ye believe in God and the last day: And let some of the faithful witness their chastisement.1

The whoremonger shall not marry other than a whore or an idolatress; and the whore shall not marry other than a whoremonger or an idolater. Such alliances are forbidden to the faithful.

They who defame virtuous women,2 and bring not four witnesses, scourge them with fourscore stripes, and receive ye not their testimony for ever, for these are perverse persons-

Save those who afterwards repent and live virtuously; for truly God is
Lenient, Merciful!

And they who shall accuse their wives, and have no witnesses but themselves, the testimony of each of them shall be a testimony by God four times repeated, that he is indeed of them that speak the truth.3

And the fifth time that the malison of God be upon him, if he be of them that lie.

But it shall avert the chastisement from her if she testify a testimony four times repeated, by God, that he is of them that lie;

And a fifth time to call down the wrath of God on her, if he have spoken the truth.

And but for the goodness and mercy of God towards you, and that God is He who loveth to turn, Wise . . . . !

Of a truth, they who advanced that lie4 were a large number of you; but regard it not as an evil to you. No, it is an advantage to you.5 To every man among them shall it be done according to the offence he hath committed; and as to that person6 among them who took on himself to aggravate it, a sore punishment doth await him.

Did not the faithful of both sexes, when ye heard of this, form a favourable judgment in their own minds, and say,

"This is a manifest lie?"

Have they brought four witnesses of the fact? If they cannot produce the witnesses, they are the liars in the sight of God.

And but for the goodness of God towards you, and His mercy in this world and in the next, a severe punishment had come upon you for that which ye spread abroad, when ye uttered with your tongues, and spake with your mouths that of which ye had no knowledge. Ye deemed it to be a light matter, but with God it was a grave one.

And did ye say when ye heard it, "It is not for us to talk of this affair! O
God! By thy Glory, this is a gross calumny?"

God hath warned you that ye go not back to the like of this for ever, if ye be believers:

And God maketh His signs clear to you: for God is Knowing, Wise.

But as for those who love that foul calumnies should go forth against those who believe, a grievous chastisement awaits them

In this world and in the next. And God hath knowledge, but ye have not.

And but for the goodness of God towards you and His Mercy, and that God is
Kind, Merciful . . . !

O ye who believe! follow not the steps of Satan, for whosoever shall follow the steps of Satan, he will enjoin on him what is base and blameworthy; and but for the goodness of God towards you,7 and His mercy, no one of you had been cleansed for ever: but God maketh whom He will to be clean, and God Heareth, Knoweth.

And let not persons of wealth and means among you swear that they will not give to their kindred, to the poor, and to those who have fled their homes in the cause of God; let them rather pardon and pass over the offence.8 Desire ye not that God should forgive you? And God is Gracious, Merciful!

Verily, they who throw out charges against virtuous but careless women, who yet are believers, shall be cursed in this world and in the world to