Part 17
Nothing hindered us from sending thee with the power of working miracles, except that the peoples of old treated them as lies. We gave to Themoud19 the she-camel before their very eyes, yet they maltreated her! We send not a prophet with miracles but to strike terror.
And remember when we said to thee, Verily, thy Lord is round about mankind; we ordained the vision20 which we shewed thee, and likewise the cursed tree of the Koran, only for men to dispute of; we will strike them with terror; but it shall only increase in them enormous wickedness:
And when we said to the Angels, "Prostrate yourselves before Adam:" and they all prostrated them, save Eblis. "What!" said he, "shall I bow me before him whom thou hast created of clay?
Seest thou this man whom thou hast honoured above me? Verily, if thou respite me till the day of Resurrection, I will destroy his offspring, except a few."
He said, "Begone; but whosoever of them shall follow thee, verily, Hell shall be your recompense; an ample recompense!
And entice such of them as thou canst by thy voice; assault them with thy horsemen and thy footmen;21 be their partner in their riches and in their children, and make them promises: but Satan shall make them only deceitful promises.
As to my servants, no power over them shalt thou have; And thy Lord will be their sufficient guardian."
It is your Lord who speedeth onward the ships for you in the sea, that ye may seek of his abundance; for he is merciful towards you.
When a misfortune befalleth you out at sea, they whom ye invoke are not to be found: God alone is there: yet when he bringeth you safe to dry land, ye place yourselves at a distance from Him. Ungrateful is man.
What! are ye sure, then, that he will not cleave the sides of the earth for you? or that he will not send against you a whirlwind charged with sands? Then shall ye find no protector.
Or are ye sure that he will not cause you to put back to sea a second time, and send against you a storm blast, and drown you, for that ye have been thankless? Then shall ye find no helper against us therein.
And now have we honoured the children of Adam: by land and by sea have we carried them: food have we provided for them of good things, and with endowments beyond many of our creatures have we endowed them.
One day we will summon all men with their leaders: they whose book shall be given into their right hand, shall read their book, and not be wronged a thread:
And he who has been blind here, shall be blind hereafter, and wander yet more from the way.
And, verily, they had well nigh beguiled thee from what we revealed to thee, and caused thee to invent some other thing in our name: but in that case they would surely have taken thee as a friend;22
And had we not settled thee, thou hadst well nigh leaned to them a little:
In that case we would surely have made thee taste of woe23 in life and of woe in death: then thou shouldest not have found a helper against us.
And truly they had almost caused thee to quit the land, in order wholly to drive thee forth from it:24 but then, themselves should have tarried but a little after thee.
This was our way with the Apostles we have already sent before thee, and in this our way thou shalt find no change.
Observe prayer at sunset, till the first darkening of the night, and the daybreak reading-for the daybreak reading hath its witnesses,
And watch unto it in the night: this shall be an excess in service:25 it may be that thy Lord will raise thee to a glorious station:
And say, "O my Lord, cause me to enter26 with a perfect entry, and to come forth with a perfect forthcoming, and give me from thy presence a helping power:"
And SAY: Truth is come and falsehood is vanished. Verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth.
And we send down of the Koran that which is a healing and a mercy to the faithful: But it shall only add to the ruin of the wicked.
When we bestow favours on man, he withdraweth and goeth aside; but when evil toucheth him, he is despairing.
SAY: Every one acteth after his own manner: but your Lord well knoweth who is best guided in his path.
And they will ask thee of the Spirit.27 SAY: The Spirit proceedeth at my Lord's command: but of knowledge, only a little to you is given.
If we pleased, we could take away what we have revealed to thee: none couldst thou then find thee to undertake thy cause with us,
Save as a mercy from thy Lord; great, verily, is his favour towards thee.
SAY: Verily, were men and Djinn assembled to produce the like of this Koran, they could not produce its like, though the one should help the other.
And of a truth we have set out to men every kind of similitude in this Koran, but most men have refused everything except unbelief.
And they say, "By no means will we believe on thee till thou cause a fountain to gush forth for us from the earth;
Or, till thou have a garden of palm-trees and grapes, and thou cause forth- gushing rivers to gush forth in its midst;
Or thou make the heaven to fall on us, as thou hast given out, in pieces; or thou bring God and the angels to vouch for thee;
Or thou have a house of gold; or thou mount up into Heaven; nor will we believe in thy mounting up, till thou send down to us a book which we may read." SAY: Praise be to my Lord! Am I more than a man, an apostle?
And what hindereth men from believing, when the guidance hath come to them, but that they say, "Hath God sent a man as an apostle?"
SAY: Did angels walk the earth as its familiars, we had surely sent them an angel-apostle out of Heaven.
SAY: God is witness enough between you and me. His servants He scanneth, eyeth.
And He whom God shall guide will be guided indeed; and whom he shall mislead thou shalt find none to assist, but Him: and we will gather them together on the day of the resurrection, on their faces, blind and dumb and deaf: Hell shall be their abode: so oft as its fires die down, we will rekindle the flame.
This shall be their reward for that they believed not our signs and said, "When we shall have become bones and dust, shall we surely be raised a new creation?"
Do they not perceive that God, who created the Heavens and the Earth, is able to create their like? And he hath ordained them a term; there is no doubt of it: but the wicked refuse everything except unbelief.
SAY: If ye held the treasures of my Lord's mercy ye would certainly refrain from them through fear of spending them: for man is covetous.
We therefore gave to Moses nine clear signs. Ask thou, therefore, the children of Israel how it was when he came unto them, and Pharaoh said to him, "Verily, I deem thee, O Moses, a man enchanted."
Said Moses, "Thou knowest that none hath sent down these clear signs but the Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth; and I surely deem thee, O Pharaoh, a person lost."
So Pharaoh sought to drive them out of the land; but we drowned him and all his followers.
And after his death, we said to the children of Israel, "Dwell ye in the land:" and when the promise of the next life shall come to pass, we will bring you both up together to judgment. In truth have we sent down the Koran, and in truth hath it descended, and we have only sent thee to announce and to warn.
And we have parcelled out the Koran into sections, that thou mightest recite it unto men by slow degrees, and we have sent it down piecemeal.
SAY: Believe ye therein or believe ye not? They verily to whom knowledge had been given previously, fall on their faces worshipping when it is recited to them, and say: "Glory be to God! the promise of our Lord is made good!"
They fall down on their faces weeping, and It increaseth their humility.
SAY: Call upon God (Allah),28 or call upon the God of Mercy (Arrahman), by whichsoever ye will invoke him: He hath most excellent names. And be not loud in thy prayer, neither pronounce it too low;29 but between these follow a middle way:
And SAY: Praise be to God who hath not begotten a son, who hath no partner in the Kingdom, nor any protector on account of weakness. And magnify him by proclaiming His greatness.30
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1 Verses 12, 23-41, 75-82, 87, are supposed by many commentators to have originated at Medina.
2 Waquidy says the night-journey took place on the 17th of Rabhy' 1, a twelvemonth before the Hejira.
3 Of Jerusalem; and thence through the seven heavens to the throne of God on the back of Borak, accompanied by Gabriel, according to some traditions; while others, and those too of early date, regard it as no more than a vision. It was, however, in all probability a dream. Muir ii. 219; Nöld. p. 102, who give the Muhammadan sources of information.
4 It is probable that as this verse has no real or apparent connection with the preceding, a verse may have been lost, and that verse 1 has been placed at the head of the Sura merely because the night-journey is elsewhere alluded to in it.
5 According to the commentators the slaughter of Isaiah and the imprisonment of Jeremiah, punished by the invasion of the Assyrians.
6 Over Sennacherib.
7 The slaying Zacharias, John Baptist, and Jesus, punished by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Comp. Tr. Gittin, fol. 57, where we read of the sufferings drawn down upon the Jews in consequence of the former of these crimes.
8 That is, if ye return to sin, we will return to punish.
9 Lit. bird.
10 Comp. Mischnah Aboth, 3, 20.
11 Comp. in Heb. Isai. liii. 3.
12 Lit. lower a wing of humility.
13 Comp. Sura [lxxxix.] vi. 151; lxxxi. 8, p. 45. Zaid, the sceptical seeker after truth, is reported to have discouraged the killing of daughters, saying, "I will support them." Kitâb al Wackidi, p. 255. See note at Sura [xcvii.] iii. 18.
14 Or, next of kin.
15 Or, run not after vain things which will avail nought. Or, accuse not any of a crime if thou art not sure of his guilt.
16 Used a variety of arguments and illustrations.
17 Thus Tr. Chagiga, fol. 9 b. "There are seven heavens (rakian): the veil, the firmament, the clouds, the habitation, the abode, the fixed seat, the araboth." See Wetst. on 2 Cor. xii. 2.
18 In obvious allusion to the saint-worship of the Christians.
19 See Sura [lxxxvii.] vii. 71.
20 See note on v. 1. The tree is Zakkoum, Sura [xlv.] lvi. The Rabbins teach that food of the bitterest herbs is one of the punishments of Hell. See Schröder's Rabb. und. Talm. Judenthum, p. 403.
21 That is, with all thy might.
22 Zamakshary relates that this passage was revealed when the Thaqyfites in framing the document of agreement between themselves and Muhammad, required that the words requiring the prostrations in worship should not be added. The writer looked at the prophet, who stood by in silence, when Omar stood up and drew his sword with menacing words. They replied, We speak not thee but to Muhammad. Then this verse was revealed. Thus Dr. Sprenger. Life, p. 186. He renders the last clause, but at the right moment a friend reprehended thee.
23 Lit. weakness, languors.
24 "The Jews, envious of Muhammad's good reception and stay there, told him, by way of counsel, that Syria was the land of the Prophets, and that if he was really a prophet, he ought to go there." Sale from Djelal Eddin ap. Mar. Geiger, p. 12, quotes a Talmudical saying to the same effect, but without any reference.
25 A work of supererogation, and therefore doubly meritorious. Thus Tr. Berachoth, fol. 4. The word station (mekam) is still used of the nearness to God, attained in spiritual ecstacies, etc.
26 That is, to enter the Grave or Mecca. Lit. with an entry of truth.
27 The word spirit is probably to be understood of the Angel Gabriel. Comp. 1 Kings xxii. 21. Others understand it of the immaterial soul of man. See note on Sura [xci.] ii. 81.
28 The infidels hearing Muhammad say, Ya Allah! Ya Rahman! in his prayers, imagined that he was addressing two Deities; hence this passage. Comp. [lxxiii.] xvi. 52; [lxvi.] xxv. 61. As this title of God (Rahman) disappears from the later Suras, it has been inferred that Muhammad's original intention was to have combined it with Allah, but that through fear lest Allah and Arrahman should be supposed to be two Gods, he dropped the latter.-This title was applied to their deities by the Himyarites; and it occurs in Ps. lxxviii. 38, and Ex. xxxiv. 6. The root is not found in Æthiopic.
29 The Talm. Tr. Berachoth, 31, 2, forbids loudness in prayer by the example of Hannah.
30 Lit. magnify Him by magnifying.
SURA XXVII.-THE ANT [LXVIII.]
MECCA.-95 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
TA. SAD.1 These are the signs (verses) of the Koran and of the lucid Book;
Guidance and glad tidings to the believers who observe prayer and pay the stated alms, and believe firmly-do they-in the life to come.
As to those who believe not in the life to come, we have made their own doings fair seeming to them, and they are bewildered therein.
These are they whom the woe of chastisement awaiteth; and in the next life they shall suffer-yes shall they-greatest loss;
But thou hast certainly received the Koran from the Wise, the Knowing.
Bear in mind when Moses said to his family, "I have perceived a fire;
I will bring you tidings from it, or will bring you a blazing brand, that ye may warm you."
And when he came to it, he was called to, "Blessed, He who is in the fire, and He who is about it; and glory be to God, the Lord of the worlds!
O Moses! verily, I am God, the Mighty, the Wise!
Throw down now thy staff." And when he saw that it moved itself as though it were a serpent, he retreated backward and returned not. "O Moses, fear not; for the Sent Ones fear not in my presence,
Save he who having done amiss shall afterwards exchange the evil for good; for I am Forgiving, Merciful.
Put now thy hand into thy bosom: it shall come forth white, yet free from hurt:2 one of nine signs to Pharaoh and his people; for a perverse people are they."
And when our signs were wrought in their very sight,3 they said, "This is plain magic."
And though in their souls they knew them to be true, yet in their wickedness and pride they denied them. But see what was the end of the corrupt doers!
And of old we gave knowledge to David and Solomon: and they said, "Praise be to God, who hath made us to excel many of his believing servants!"
And in knowledge Solomon was David's heir. And he said, "O men, we have been taught the speech of birds,4 and are endued with everything. This is indeed a clear boon from God."
And to Solomon were gathered his hosts of Djinn5 and men and birds, and they were marched on in bands,
Till they reached the Valley of Ants. Said AN ANT, "O ye ants, enter your dwellings, lest Solomon and his army crush you and know it not."
Then smiled Solomon, laughing at her words, and he said, "Stir me up, O Lord, to be thankful for thy favour which thou hast shewed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteousness that shall be well pleasing to thee, and bring me in, by thy mercy, among thy servants the righteous."
And he reviewed the birds, and said, "How is it that I see not the lapwing? Is it one of the absent?
Surely, with a severe chastisement will I chastise it, or I will certainly slaughter it, unless it bring me a clear excuse."
Nor tarried it long ere it came and said, "I have gained the knowledge that thou knowest not, and with sure tidings have I come to thee from Saba:
I found a woman reigning over them, gifted with everything, and she hath a splendid throne;
And I found her and her people worshipping the sun instead of God; and Satan hath made their works fair seeming to them, so that he hath turned them from the Way: wherefore they are not guided,
To the worship of God, who bringeth to light the secret things of heaven and earth, and knoweth what men conceal and what they manifest:
God! there is no god but He! the lord of the glorious throne!"
He said, "We shall see whether thou hast spoken truth, or whether thou art of them that lie.
Go with this my letter and throw it down to them: then turn away from them and await their answer."
She said, "O my nobles! an honourable letter hath been thrown down to me:
It is from Solomon; and it is this: 'In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful!
Set not up yourselves against me, but come to me submitting (Muslims).' "
She said, "O my nobles, advise me in mine affair: I decide it not without your concurrence."6
They said, "We are endued with strength and are endued with mighty valour.- But to command is thine: See therefore what thou wilt command us."
She said, "Kings when they enter a city spoil it, and abase the mightiest of its people: and in like manner will these also do.
But I will send to them with a gift, and await what my envoys bring back."
And when the messenger came to Solomon, he said, "Aid ye me with riches? But what God hath given to me is better than what he hath given you: yet ye glory in your gifts:
Return to them: for we will surely come to them with forces which they cannot withstand, and we will drive them from their land humbled and contemptible."
Said he, "O nobles, which of you will bring me her throne before they come to me, submitting? (Muslims)."
An Efreet7 of the Djinn said: "I will bring it thee ere thou risest from thy place: I have power for this and am trusty."
And one who had the knowledge of Scripture said, "I will bring it to thee in the twinkling of an eye."8 And when he saw it set before him, he said, "This is of the favour of my Lord, to try me whether I will be thankful or unthankful. And he who is thankful is thankful to his own behoof; and as for him who is unthankful-truly my Lord is self-sufficient, bounteous!"
Said he, "Make her throne so that she know it not: we shall see whether she hath or not guidance."
And when she came he said, "Is thy throne like this?" She said, "As though it were the same." "And we," said he, "have had knowledge given us before her, and have been Muslims."
But the gods she had worshipped instead of God had led her astray: for she was of a people who believe not.
It was said to her,"Enter the Palace:" and when she saw it, she thought it a lake of water, and bared her legs. He said, "It is a palace paved with glass."
She said, "O my Lord! I have sinned against my own soul, and I resign myself, with Solomon, to God the Lord of the Worlds."
And of old we sent to Themoud their brother Saleh, with "Serve ye God:"but lo! they became two sets of disputants wrangling with each other.
He said, "O my people, why, if ye ask not pardon of God that ye may find mercy, hasten ye on evil rather than good?"
They said,"We augur9 ill concerning thee and those who are with thee." He said, "The ills of which ye augur10 depend on God. But ye are a people on your trial."
And there were in the city nine persons who committed excesses in the land and did not that which is right.
They said, "Swear ye to one another by God that we will surely fall on him and on his family by night: then will be say to the avenger of blood, we witnessed not the destruction of his family: and verily we speak the truth."
And they devised a device, and we devised a device, and they were not aware of it-
And see what was the end of their device! We destroyed them and their whole people:
And for their sin these their houses are empty ruins: Verily in this is a sign to those who understand;
And we delivered those who believed and feared.
And Lot, when he said to his people, "What! proceed ye to such filthiness with your eyes open?
What! come ye with lust unto men rather than to women? Surely ye are an ignorant people."
And the answer of his people was but to say, "Cast out the family of Lot from your city: they, forsooth, are men of purity!"
So we rescued him and his family: but as for his wife, we decreed her to be of them that lingered:
And we rained a rain upon them, and fatal was the rain to those who had had their warning.
SAY: Praise be to God and peace be on His servants whom He hath chosen! Is God the more worthy or the gods they join with Him?
Is not He who hath made the Heavens and the Earth, and hath sent down rain to you from Heaven, by which we cause the luxuriant groves to spring up! It is not in your power to cause its trees to spring up! What! A god with God? Yet they find equals for Him!
Is not He, who hath set the earth so firm, and hath made rivers in its midst, and hath placed mountains upon it, and put a barrier between the two seas?11 What! a god with God? Yet the greater part of them have no knowledge!
Is not He the more worthy who answereth the oppressed when they cry to him, and taketh off their ills, and maketh you to succeed your sires on the earth? What! a god with God? How few bear these things in mind!
Is not He, who guideth you in the darkness of the land and of the sea, and who sendeth forth the winds as the forerunners of His mercy? What! a god with God? Far from God be what ye join with Him!
Is not He, who created a Being, then reneweth it, and who supplieth you out of the Heaven and the Earth? What! a god with God? SAY: Bring forth your proofs if you speak the truth.
SAY: None either in the Heavens or in the Earth knoweth the unseen but God. And they know not