Part 10
They said, "We will not have more regard to thee than to the clear tokens which have come to us, or than to Him who hath made us: doom the doom thou wilt: Thou canst only doom as to this present life: of a truth we have believed on our Lord that he may pardon us our sins and the sorcery to which thou hast forced us, for God is better, and more abiding than thou.15
As for him who shall come before his Lord laden with crime-for him verily is Hell: he shall not die in it and he shall not live.
But he who shall come before Him, a believer, with righteous works,-these! the loftiest grades await them:
Gardens of Eden, beneath whose trees16 the rivers flow: therein shall they abide for ever. This, the reward of him who hath been pure."
Then revealed we to Moses, "Go forth by night with my servants and cleave for them a dry path in the sea;
Fear not thou to be overtaken, neither be thou afraid."
And Pharaoh followed them with his hosts, and the whelming billows of the sea overwhelmed them,17 for Pharaoh misled his people, and did not guide them.
O children of Israel! we rescued you from your foes; and We appointed a meeting with you on the right side of the mountain; and We caused the manna and the quail to descend upon you:
"Eat," said We, "of the good things with which we have supplied you; but without excess, lest my wrath fall upon you; for on whom my wrath doth fall, he perisheth outright.
Surely however will I forgive him who turneth to God and believeth, and worketh righteousness, and then yieldeth to guidance.
But what hath hastened thee on apart from thy people,18 O Moses?"
He said, "They are hard on my footsteps: but to thee, O Lord, have I hastened, that thou mightest be well pleased with me."
He said, "Of a truth now have we proved thy people since thou didst leave them, and Samiri19 had led them astray."
And Moses returned to his people, angered, sorrowful.
He said, "O my people! did not your Lord promise you a good promise? Was the time of my absence long to you? or desired ye that wrath from your Lord should light upon you, that ye failed in your promise to me?"
They said, "Not of our own accord have we failed in the promise to thee, but we were made to bring loads of the people's trinkets, and we threw them into the fire and Samiri likewise cast them in, and brought forth to them a corporeal lowing20 calf: and they said, "This is your God and the God of Moses, whom he hath forgotten."'
What! saw they not that it returned them no answer, and could neither hurt nor help them?
And Aaron had before said to them, "O my people! by this calf are ye only proved: surely your Lord is the God of Mercy: follow me therefore and obey my bidding."
They said, "We will not cease devotion to it, till Moses come back to us."
He said, "O Aaron! when thou sawest that they had gone astray, what hindered thee from following me? Hast thou then disobeyed my command?"
He said, "O Son of my mother! seize me not by my beard, nor by my head: indeed I feared lest thou shouldst say,
Thou hast rent the children of Isreal asunder, and hast not observed my orders."'
He said, "And what was thy motive, O Samiri?" He said, "I saw what they saw not: so I took a handful of dust from the track21 of the messenger of God, and flung it into the calf, for so my soul prompted me."
He said, "Begone then: verily thy doom even in this life shall be to say, 'Touch me not.'22 And there is a threat against thee, which thou shalt not escape hereafter. Now look at thy god to which thou hast continued so devoted: we will surely burn it and reduce it to ashes, which we will cast into the sea.
Your God is God, beside whom there is no God: In his knowledge he embraceth all things."
Thus do We recite to thee histories of what passed of old; and from ourself have we given thee admonition.
Whoso shall turn aside from it shall verily carry a burden on the day of Resurrection:
Under it shall they remain: and grievous, in the day of Resurrection, shall it be to them to bear.
On that day there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and We will gather the wicked together on that day with leaden23 eyes:
They shall say in a low voice, one to another,-"Ye tarried but ten days on earth."
We are most knowing with respect to that which they will say when the most veracious24 of them will say. "Ye have not tarried above a day."
And they will ask thee of the mountains: SAY: scattering my Lord will scatter them in dust;
And he will leave them a level plain: thou shalt see in it no hollows or jutting hills.
On that day shall men follow their summoner25-he marcheth straight on: and low shall be their voices before the God of Mercy, nor shalt thou hear aught but the light footfall.
No intercession shall avail on that day, save his whom the God of Mercy shall allow to intercede, and whose words he shall approve.
He knoweth their future and their past; but in their own knowledge they comprehend it not:-
And humble shall be their faces before Him that Liveth, the Self-subsisting: and undone he, who shall bear the burden of iniquity;
But he who shall have done the things that are right and is a believer, shall fear neither wrong nor loss.
Thus have We sent down to thee an Arabic Koran, and have set forth menaces therein diversely, that haply they may fear God, or that it may give birth to reflection in them.
Exalted then be God, the King, the Truth! Be not hasty in its recital26 while the revelation of it to thee is incomplete. Say rather, "O my Lord, increase knowledge unto me."
And of old We made a covenant with Adam; but he forgat it; and we found no firmness of purpose in him.
And when We said to the angels, "Fall down and worship Adam," they worshipped all, save Eblis, who refused: and We said, "O Adam! this truly is a foe to thee and to thy wife. Let him not therefore drive you out of the garden, and ye become wretched;
For to thee is it granted that thou shalt not hunger therein, neither shalt thou be naked;
But Satan whispered him: said he, "O Adam! shall I shew thee the tree of Eternity,27 and the Kingdom that faileth not?"
And they both ate thereof, and their nakedness appeared to them, and they began to sew of the leaves of the Garden to cover them, and Adam disobeyed his Lord and went astray.
Afterwards his Lord chose him for himself, and was turned towards him, and guided him.
And God said, "Get ye all down hence, the one of you a foe unto the other. Hereafter shall guidance come unto you from me;
And whoso followeth my guidance shall not err, and shall not be wretched:
But whoso turneth away from my monition, his truly shall be a life of misery:
And We will assemble him with others on the day of Resurrection, blind."28
He will say, "O my Lord! why hast thou assembled me with others, blind? whereas I was endowed with sight."
He will answer, "Thus is it, because our signs came unto thee and thou didst forget them, and thus shalt thou be forgotten this day."
Even thus will We recompense him who hath transgressed and hath not believed in the signs of his Lord; and assuredly the chastisement of the next world will be more severe and more lasting.
Are not they, who walk the very places where they dwelt, aware how many generations we have destroyed before them? Verily in this are signs to men of insight.
And had not a decree of respite from thy Lord first gone forth, their chastisement had at once ensued. Yet the time is fixed.
Put up then with what they say; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord before the sunrise, and before its setting; and some time in the night do thou praise him, and in the extremes29 of the day, that thou haply mayest please Him.
And strain not thine eye after what We have bestowed on divers of them-the braveries of this world-that we may thereby prove them. The portion which thy Lord will give, is better and more lasting.
Enjoin prayer on thy family, and persevere therein. We ask not of thee to find thine own provision-we will provide for thee, and a happy issue shall there be to piety.
But they say, "If he come not to us with a sign from his Lord . . .!"30 But have not clear proofs for the Koran come to them, in what is in the Books of old?
And had We destroyed them by a chastisement before its time, they would surely have said, "O our Lord! How could we believe if thou didst not send unto us an Apostle that we might follow thy signs ere that we were humbled and disgraced."
SAY: Each one of us awaiteth the end. Wait ye then, and ye shall know which of us have been followers of the even way, and who hath been the rightly guided.
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1 The first 14 or 16 verses of this Sura are said to have induced Omar to embrace Islam (His. 226. Ibn Sâd, i. and v. Comp. Weil, p. 60. Causs. i. 396 ff.) in the sixth year before the Hejira.
2 Freytag supposes these letters to mean, Hush! but see Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.
3 Lit. if thou raise thy voice.
4 Lit. guidance. Moses had lost his way, say the Commentators, when journeying to Egypt to visit his mother.
5 The Muhammadan Commentators tell how Moses when a child burnt his tongue with a live coal. The same story is found in Midr. Jalkut on Ex. c. 166, and in Shalsheleth Hakabalah, p. 5, b. Ed. Amsterd.
6 Lit vizir.
7 Or, strengthen my back.
8 The form of the word in the original is not the pure Hebraic, but the later Rabbinic form.
9 See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 11, 12.
10 What is their condition after their death as to happiness or misery. Beidh. whom Sale follows. But the word state, which Mar. renders mens, refers rather to their creed. "How," enquires Pharaoh, "do you explain the fact that the generations of men have always practised a different worship?"
11 Lit. pairs.
12 The Midrasch Tanchumah on Ex. vii. gives a very similar dialogue between Pharaoh and Moses.
13 Lit. the day of ornament.
14 In punishing. Beidh.
15 To recompense. Beidh.
16 As the garden is said in Sura lxxxviii. to be lofty in point of situation, this frequently recurring phrase may mean that rivers run at its base. The Commentators, however, generally understand it to imply that the rivers flow beneath its shades or pavilions.
17 Lit. and there overwhelmed them of the sea that which overwhelmed them.
18 The 70 elders who were to have accompanied him.
19 That is, the Samaritan. This rendering, which is probably the true explanation of the word Samiri, involves a grievous ignorance of history on the part of Muhammad. Selden (de diis Syr. Syn. i. ch. 4) supposes that Samiri is Aaron himself, the Shomeer, or keeper of Israel during the absence of Moses. Many Arabians identify him with the Micha of Judges xvii. who is said to have assisted in making the calf (Raschi, Sanhedr. 102, 2 Hottinger Hist. Orient. p. 84). Geiger suggests that Samiri may be a corruption of Samael. See next note. But it is probable that the name and its application in the present instance, is to be traced to the old national feud between the Jews and Samaritans. See De Sacy, Chrestom. i. p. 189, who quotes Abu Rihan Muhammad as stating that the Samaritans were called Al-limsahsit, the people who say, "Touch me not" (v. 97, below), and Juynboll Chron. Sam. (Leid. 1848) p. 113. Sale also mentions a similar circumstance of a tribe of Samaritan Jews dwelling on one of the islands in the Red Sea.
20 "The calf came forth (Ex. xxxii. 24) lowing and the Israelites beheld it. R. Jehuda saith, Samuel entered into it and lowed in order to mislead Israel." Pirke R. Eliezer, § 45.
21 From the track of Gabriel's horse, or of Gabriel himself.
22 Lit. no touch.
23 I have adopted the word leaden as expressive of the idea implied in the original word, viz. grey or greyish blue; hence, dulled, dimmed. The Arabians have a great aversion to blue and grey eyes as characteristic of their enemies the Greeks. The word, however, may also mean blind. Comp. v. 124, 5.
24 Lit. the most excellent or just of them in his way: dignitate, Mar. But Kam. in Freyt. (iii. 150) justissimus eorum, simillimus veracibus. The sense of the last clause is, "Yes have not tarried even so much as ten days, such, now that we look back upon it, is the brevity of life." See Sura [lxiv.] xxiii. 115.
25 The angel Israfil.
26 Compare Sura lxxv. 16-19, p. 56.
27 It should be observed that here and in Sura vii. 19, Muhammad seems unaware of the distinction between the tree of knowledge, and the tree of life, as given in Gen. ii. 9, and iii. 5.
28 From the intensity of the light, mentioned Sura [1xxx.] xxxix. 69.
29 In order to reconcile this passage with the prescribed hours, some understand the extremes to mean the mid-day, when the day is as it were divided.
30 Supply, we will not believe.
SURA XXVI.-THE POETS1 [LVI.]
MECCA.-228 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Ta. Sin. Mim.2 These are the signs of the lucid Book.
Haply thou wearest thyself away with grief because they will not believe.
Were it our will we could send down to them a sign from Heaven, before which they would humbly bow.3
But from each fresh warning that cometh to them from the God of Mercy they have only turned aside,
And treated it as a lie: But tidings shall reach them which they shall not laugh to scorn.
Have they not beheld the earth-how we have caused every kind of noble plant to spring up therein?
Verily, in this is a sign: but most of them believe not.
And assuredly, thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
And remember when thy Lord called to Moses, "Go to the wicked people,
The people of Pharaoh. What! will they not fear me?"
He said, "My Lord, in sooth I fear lest they treat me as a liar:
And my breast is straitened, and I am slow of speech:4 send therefore to Aaron to be my helpmate.
For they have a charge5 against me, and I fear lest they put me to death."
He said, "Surely not. Go ye therefore with our signs: we will be with you and will hearken.
And go to Pharaoh and say: 'Verily we are the messengers of the Lord of the worlds-
Send forth with us the children of Israel."'
He said, "Did we not rear thee among us when a child? And hast thou not passed years of thy life among us?
And yet what a deed is that which thou hast done!6 Thou art one of the ungrateful."
He said, "I did it indeed, and I was one of those who erred: And I fled from you because I feared you; but my Lord hath given me wisdom and hath made me one of his Apostles.
And is this the favour thou hast conferred on me, that thou hast enslaved the children of Israel?"
Said Pharaoh, "Who then is the Lord of the Worlds?"
He said, "The Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all that is between them, if only ye believe it."
Said Pharaoh to those around him, "Hear ye this?"
"Your Lord," said Moses, "and the Lord of your sires of old."
"In sooth, your Apostle whom He hath sent to you," said Pharaoh, "is certainly possessed."
He said, "Lord is He of the East and of the West, and of all that is between them, if ye can understand."
He said, "If ye take any God beside me, I will surely put thee in ward."
Said Moses, "What! if I shew thee that which shall be a proof of my mission?"
He said, "Forth with it then, if thou speakest truth."
Then threw he down his staff, and lo! an undoubted serpent:
And he drew out his hand, and lo! it was white7 to the beholders.
He said to his nobles around him. "This truly is a right cunning sorcerer:
Fain would he drive you out of your land by his Sorcery. But what do ye suggest?"
They said, "Put him and his brother off awhile, and send summoners to all the cities,
Who shall bring to thee every cunning magician."
So the magicians were mustered at a set time, on a solemn day:
And it was said to the people, "Are ye all assembled?"
-"Yes! and we will follow the magicians if they gain the day."
And when the magicians were arrived they said to Pharaoh, "Shall we have a reward if we gain the day?"
He said, "Yes. And verily in that case ye shall be of those who are near my person."
Moses said to them, "Throw down what ye have to throw."
So they cast down their ropes and rods, and said, "By Pharaoh's might we shall surely win."
Then Moses threw down his rod, and lo! it swallowed up their cheating wonders.
Then the magicians threw themselves down in worship:
They said, "We believe on the Lord of the Worlds,
The Lord of Moses and of Aaron."
Said Pharaoh, "Have ye then believed on him ere I gave you leave? He truly is your master who hath taught you magic.8 But bye and bye ye shall surely know my power.
I will cut off your hands and feet on opposite sides, and I will have you all crucified."
They said, "It cannot harm us, for to our Lord shall we return:
Assuredly we trust that our Lord will forgive us our sins, since we are of the first who believe."
Then revealed we this order to Moses: "Go forth by night with my servants, for ye will be pursued."
And Pharaoh sent summoners through the cities:-
"These Israelites," said they, "are a scanty band;
Yet are they enraged against us-
But we truly are numerous, wary."
Thus we caused them to quit gardens and fountains,
And treasures and splendid dwellings;
So was it; and we gave them to the children of Israel for an heritage.9
Then at sunrise the Egyptians followed them:
And when the hosts came in view of one another, the comrades of Moses said, "We are surely overtaken."
He said, "By no means:-for my Lord is with me-He will guide me."
And we revealed this order to Moses, "Strike the sea with thy rod." And it clave asunder, and each part became like a huge mountain.
Then made we the others to draw on;
And we saved Moses, and those who were with him, all;
But we drowned the others.
Truly in this was a sign; but most of them did not believe.
But verily thy Lord,-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!
And recite to them the story of Abraham
When he said to his Father and to his people, "What worship ye?"
They said, "We worship idols, and constant is our devotion to them."
He said, "Can they hear you when ye cry to them?
Or help you or do you harm?"
They said, "But we found our Fathers do the like."
He said, "How think ye? They whom ye worship,
Ye and your fathers of early days,
Are my foes: but not so10 the Lord of the Worlds,
Who hath created me, and guideth me,
Who giveth me food and drink;
And when I am sick, he healeth me,
And who will cause me to die and again quicken me,
And who, I hope, will forgive me my sins in the day of reckoning.
My Lord! bestow on me wisdom and join me to the just,
And give me a good name11 among posterity,
And make me one of the heirs of the garden of delight,
And forgive my father, for he was one of the erring,
And put me not to shame on the day when mankind shall be raised up,
The day when neither wealth nor children shall avail,
Save to him who shall come to God with a sound heart:
When Paradise shall be brought near the pious,
And Hell shall lay open for those who have gone astray.
And it shall be said to them, 'Where are they whom ye worshipped
Beside God? Can they harm you or help themselves?'
And they shall be cast into it-the seducers and the seduced,
And all the host of Eblis.
They shall say, as they wrangle therein together,
'By God, we were in a plain error,
When we equalled you with the Lord of the Worlds:
And none misled us but the wicked,
And we have none to plead for us,
Nor friend who careth for us.
Could we but return, we would be of the believers."'
Verily, in this was a sign: but most of them believed not.
And truly thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful!
The people of Noah gainsaid the Apostles,
When their brother Noah said to them, "Will ye not fear God?
Of a truth am I your faithful Apostle;
Fear God then and obey me.
I ask of you no reward for this, for my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds alone:
Fear God then and obey me."
They said, "Shall we believe on thee when the meanest only are thy followers?"
He said, "But I have no knowledge of that they did:12
To my Lord only must their account be given: would that ye understood this!
And I will not thrust away those who believe,
For I am only one charged with plain warnings."
They said, "Now unless thou desist, O Noah, one of the stoned shalt thou surely be."
He said, "Lord! my people treat me as a liar:
Decide thou therefore a decision between me and them, and rescue me and the faithful who are with me."
So we saved him and those who were with him in the fully-laden ark,
And afterwards we drowned the rest.
Herein truly was a sign, but most of them believed not.
But thy Lord!-He is the Mighty, the Merciful.
The Adites13 treated their Apostles as liars,
When their brother Houd said to them, "Will ye not fear God?
I am your Apostle, worthy of all credit;
Fear God then and obey me:
I ask for no reward for this; for my reward is of the Lord of the Worlds alone.
What! build ye landmarks on all heights in mere pastime?
And raise ye structures to be your lasting abodes?14
And when ye put forth your power do ye put it forth with harshness?
Fear ye God then and obey me;
And fear ye Him who hath plenteously betowed on you ye well know what:
Plenteously bestowed on you flocks and children,