Part 19
They are those who believe not in the signs of the Lord, or that they shall ever meet him. Vain, therefore, are their works; and no weight will we allow them on the day of resurrection.
This shall be their reward-Hell.20 Because they were unbelievers, and treated my signs and my Apostles with scorn.
But as for those who believe and do the things that are right, they shall have the gardens of Paradise21 for their abode:
They shall remain therein for ever: they shall wish for no change from it.
SAY: Should the sea become ink, to write the words of my Lord, the sea would surely fail ere the words of my Lord would fail, though we brought its like in aid.
SAY: In sooth I am only a man like you. It hath been revealed to me that your God is one only God: let him then who hopeth to meet his Lord work a righteous work: nor let him give any other creature a share in the worship of his Lord.
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1 Lit. hath not put crookedness into it.
2 The valley, or mountain, in which the Cave of the Seven Sleepers was situated. Comp. Fundgreiben des Orients, iii. 347-381. Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. xxxiii., especially the concluding sentences.
3 Because they slept with their eyes open. Beidh.
4 The Muhammadans believe that this dog will be admitted into Paradise. One of its traditional names is Katmir, a word whose letters, it should be observed, are with one exception identical with Rakim.
5 Lit. dispute not about them unless with clear disputation.
6 Muhammad had omitted to use the qualifying phrase when, in reply to the Jews who asked for the History of the Seven Sleepers, he simply promised to give it on the morrow; hence, this verse. Comp. James iv. 13-15.
7 They entered the cavern under Decius and awoke in the time of Theodosius, according to the tradition; which cannot be reconciled with the number of years given in the text.
8 Thus Ullm. But the words may be taken with Beidh. and Sale, as ironical. Make thou him to see and hear.
9 Said to have been promulgated at Medina. Nöld. p. 106
10 Omaya Ibn Chalf, who advised Muhammad to cast off all his poorer followers, out of respect to the Koreisch.
11 It is probable that this and the numerous similar descriptions of the enjoyments in Paradise are based upon Muhammad's knowledge, or possibly personal observation, of the luxurious habits of the Persians, to whom many Arabian tribes owed allegiance, and with whom they had mercantile transactions by means of caravans. The word Paradise, the names of cups and brocade in Sura lvi. pp. 66, 67, and the word sundus in this passage, are all Persian.
12 Lit ex spermate.
13 Comp. Isai. xl. 4, etc.
14 Muhammad appears, according to this text, to have considered Eblis not only as the father of the Djinn, but as one of their number. The truth appears to be that Muhammad derived his doctrines of the Genii from the Persian and Indian mythology, and attempted to identify them with the Satan and demons of the Semitic races. Both the Satans and Djinn represent in the Koran the principle of Evil. See Sura [xci.] ii. 32, n.
15 The sea of Greece and the sea of Persia. But as no literal interpretation of the passage seems satisfactory, the Commentators have devised a spiritual or metaphorical one, and explain it of the two oceans of natural and supernatural knowledge. There is no trace of this legend in the Rabbinic writings.
16 The loss of our fish is a sign to us of our finding him whom we seek, namely, El-Khidr, or El-Khadir, the reputed vizier of Dhoulkarnain, and said to have drunk of the fountain of life, by virtue of which he still lives, and will live till the day of judgment. He is also said to appear, clad in green robes, to Muslims in distress, whence his name. Perhaps the name Khidr is formed from Jethro.
17 Probably Alexander the Great-so called from his expeditions to the East and West. He seems to be regarded in this passage as invested with a divine commission for the extirpation of impiety and idolatry. Comp. Dan. viii. and Tr. Tanith, fol. 32. Hottinger Bibl. Orient. 109.
18 Ar. Yadjoudj and Madjoudj-the barbarous people of E. Asia. See Ibn Batoutah's Travels, iv. p. 274 (Par.ed.)
19 This rampart has been identified with fortifications which extended from the W. shore of the Caspian Sea to the Pontus Euxinus, made, as it is said, by Alexander, and repaired by Yezdegird II. Caussin de Perceval, vol.i.p. 66. See Sura [lxv.] xxi. 96
20 The form of this word in the Arabic, with the h in the second syllable and the final m, shews that the word was borrowed from the Hebrew, and not from the Greek or Syriac.
21 Observe in this expression the same admixture of the Semitic and Indo- Persian elements as was noticed above in the identification of Satans and Djinn, verse 48.
SURA XXXII.-ADORATION [LXX.]
MECCA.-30 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
ELIF. LAM. MIM.1 This Book is without a doubt a Revelation sent down from the Lord of the Worlds.
Will they say, He hath forged it? Nay, it is the truth from thy Lord that thou mayest warn a people to whom no warner hath come before thee, that haply they may be guided.
God it is who hath created the Heavens and the Earth and all that is between them in six days; then ascended his throne. Save Him ye have no patron, and none to plead for you. Will ye not then reflect?
From the Heaven to the Earth He governeth all things: hereafter shall they come up to him on a day whose length shall be a thousand of such years as ye reckon.2
This is He who knoweth the unseen and the seen; the Mighty, the Merciful,
Who hath made everything which he hath created most good; and began the creation of man with clay;
Then ordained his progeny from germs of life,3 from sorry water:
Then shaped him, and breathed of His Spirit into him, and gave you hearing and seeing and hearts: what little thanks do ye return!
And they say, "What! when we shall have lain hidden in the earth, shall we become a new creation?"
Yea, they deny that they shall meet their Lord.
SAY: The angel of death who is charged with you shall cause you to die: then shall ye be returned to your Lord.
Couldst thou but see when the guilty shall droop their heads before their Lord, and cry, "O our Lord! we have seen and we have heard: return us then to life: we will do that which is right. Verily we believe firmly!"
(Had we pleased we had certainly given to every soul its guidance. But true shall be the word which hath gone forth from me-I will surely fill hell with Djinn and men together.)
"Taste then the recompense of your having forgotten the meeting with this your day. We, too, we have forgotten you: taste then an eternal punishment for that which ye have wrought."
They only believe in our signs, who, when mention is made of them, fall down in ADORATION, and celebrate the praise of their Lord, and are not puffed up with disdain:
Who, as they raise them4 from their couches, call on their Lord with fear and desire, and give alms of that with which we have supplied them.
No soul knoweth what joy of the eyes is reserved for the good in recompense of their works.
Shall he then who is a believer be as he who sinneth grossly? they shall not be held alike.
As to those who believe and do that which is right, they shall have gardens of eternal abode as the meed of their works:
But as for those who grossly sin, their abode shall be the fire: so oft as they shall desire to escape out of it, back shall they be turned into it. And it shall be said to them, Taste ye the torment of the fire, which ye treated as a lie.
And we will surely cause them to taste a punishment yet nearer at hand, besides the greater punishment, that haply they may turn to us in penitence.
Who acteth worse than he who is warned by the signs of his Lord, then turneth away from them? We will surely take vengeance on the guilty ones.
We heretofore gave the Book of the law to Moses: have thou no doubt as to our meeting with him:5 and we appointed it for the guidance of the children of Israel.
And we appointed Imâms from among them who should guide after our command when they had themselves endured with constancy, and had firmly believed in our signs.
Now thy Lord! He will decide between them on the day of resurrection as to the subject of their disputes.
Is it not notorious to them how many generations, through whose abodes they walk, we have destroyed before them? Truly herein are sings: will they not then hear?
See they not how we drive the rain to some parched land and thereby bring forth corn of which their cattle and themselves do eat? Will they not then behold?
They say, "When will this decision take place? Tell us, if ye are men of truth?"
SAY: On the day of that decision, the faith of infidels shall not avail them, and they shall have no further respite.
Stand aloof from them then, and wait thou, for they too wait.6
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1 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.
2 Comp. Sura [cvii.] xxii. 46, and Ps. xc. 4, which is taken literally by many of the Talmudists. Comp. e.g. Sanhed. 96, 2.
3 Lit. ex spermate genitali.
4 Lit. their sides are raised.
5 Nöldeke thinks that the word for meeting is used here in the same sense as in v. 10 above and Sura [lxxi.] xli. 54, and that the clause does not belong to this verse, p. 108, n.
6 Wait thou for their punishment as they wait for thy downfall.
SURA1 XLI.-THE MADE PLAIN [LXXI.]
MECCA.-54 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
HA. MIM.2 A Revelation from the Compassionate, the Merciful!
A Book whose verses (signs) are MADE PLAIN-an Arabic Koran, for men of knowledge;
Announcer of glad tidings and charged with warnings! But most of them withdraw and hearken not:
And they say, "Our hearts are under shelter from thy teachings, and in our ears is a deafness, and between us and thee there is a veil. Act as thou thinkest right: we verily shall act as we think right."
SAY: I am only a man like you.3 It is revealed to me that your God is one God: go straight then to Him, and implore his pardon. And woe to those who join gods with God;
Who pay not the alms of obligation, and in the life to come believe not!
But they who believe and do the things that are right shall receive a perfect4 recompense.
SAY: Do ye indeed disbelieve in Him who in two days created the earth? and do ye assign Him peers? The Lord of the worlds is He!
And he hath placed on the earth the firm mountains which tower above it; and He hath blessed it, and distributed food throughout it, for the cravings of all alike, in four days:
Then He applied himself to the Heaven, which then was but smoke: and to it and to the Earth He said, "Come ye, whether in obedience or against your will?" and they both said, "We come obedient."
And He made them seven heavens in two days, and in each heaven made known its office: And we furnished the lower heaven with lights and guardian angels. This, the disposition of the Almighty, the All-knowing.
If they turn away, then SAY: I warn you of a tempest, like the tempest of Ad and Themoud!
When the apostles came to them on every side,5 saying, "Worship none but God," they said, "Had our Lord been pleased to send down, He had surely sent down angels; and in sooth, your message we do not believe."
As to Ad, they bore them proudly and unjustly in the land, and said, "Who more mighty than we in prowess?" Saw they not that God their creator was mightier than they in prowess? And they rejected our signs.
Therefore on ill-omened days did we send against them an impetuous blast that we might make them taste the chastisement of shame in this world:-but more shameful shall be the chastisement of the life to come; and they shall not be protected.
And as to Themoud, we had vouchsafed them guidance; but to guidance did they prefer blindness; wherefore the tempest of a shameful punishment overtook them for their doings:
But we rescued the believing and the God-fearing:
And warn of the day when the enemies of God shall be gathered6 unto the fire urged on in bands:
Until when they reach it, their ears and their eyes and their skins shall bear witness against them of their deeds:
And they shall say to their skins, "Why witness ye against us?" They shall say, "God, who giveth a voice to all things, hath given us a voice: He created you at first, and to Him are ye brought back.
And ye did not hide yourselves so that neither your ears nor your eyes nor your skins should witness against you: but ye thought that God knew not many a thing that ye did!
And this your thought which ye did think of your Lord hath ruined you, so that ye are become of those who perish."
And be they patient, still the fire shall be their abode: or if they beg for favour, yet shall they not be of favoured.
And we will appoint Satans as their fast companions; for it was they who made their present and future state seem fair and right to them; and the sentence passed on the peoples of Djinn and men who flourished before them hath become their due, and they shall perish.
Yet the unbelievers say, "Hearken not to this Koran, but keep up a talking, that ye may overpower the voice of the reader."
Surely therefore will we cause the unbelievers to taste a terrible punishment;
And recompense them according to the worst of their actions.
This the reward of the enemies of God,-the Fire! it shall be their eternal abode, in requital for their gainsaying our signs.
And they who believed not shall say, "O our Lord! shew us those of the Djinn and men who led us astray: both of them will we put under out feet, that they may be of the humbled."
But as for those who say, "Our Lord is God;" and who go straight to Him,7 angels shall descend to them and say, "Fear ye not, neither be ye grieved, but rejoice ye in the paradise which ye have been promised.
We are your guardians in this life and in the next: your's therein shall be your soul's desire, and your's therein whatever ye shall ask for,
The hospitality of a Gracious, a Merciful One."
And who speaketh fairer than he who biddeth to God and doth the thing that is right, and saith, "I for my part am of the Muslims"?
Moreover, good and evil are not to be treated as the same thing. Turn away evil by what is better, and lo! he between whom and thyself was enmity, shall be as though he were a warm friend.
But none attain to this save men steadfast in patience, and none attain to it except the most highly favoured.8
And if an enticement from Satan entice thee, then take refuge in God, for He is the Hearing, the Knowing.
And among his signs are the night, and the day, and the sun, and the moon. Bend not in adoration to the sun or the moon, but bend in adoration before God who created them both, if ye would serve Him.
But if they are too proud for this, yet they who are with thy Lord do celebrate His praises night and day,9 and cease not.
And among His signs is this, that thou seest the earth drooping: but, when we send down the rain upon it, it is stirred and swelleth; verily He who giveth it life, will surely give life to the dead; for His might extendeth over all things.10
They truly who with obloquy disown our signs are not hidden from us. Is he then who shall be cast into the fire, or he who shall come forth secure on the day of resurrection, in the better position? Do what ye will: but His eye is on all your doings.
Verily, they who believe not in "the warning," after it hath come to them . . . and yet the Koran is a glorious book!
Falsehood, from whatever side it cometh, shall not come night it;11 it is a missive down from the Wise, the Praiseworthy.
Nothing hath been said to thee which hath not been said of old to apostles before thee. Verily with thy Lord is forgiveness, and with Him is terrible retribution.
Had we made it a Koran in a foreign tongue, they had surely said, "Unless its signs be made clear . . . !12 What! in a foreign tongue? and the people Arabian?" SAY: It is to those who believe a guide and a medicine;13 but as to those who believe not, there is a thickness in their ears, and to them it is a blindness: they are like those who are called to from afar.
Of old we gave the Book to Moses, and disputes arose about it: and if a decree of respite from thy Lord had gone before, there would surely have been a decision between them: for great were their doubts and questionings about it.14
He who doth right-it is for himself:15 and he who doth evil-it is for himself: and thy Lord will not deal unfairly with his servants.
With Him alone16 is the knowledge of "the Hour." No fruit cometh forth from its coverings, neither doth any female conceive, nor is she delivered, but with His knowledge. And on that day He shall call men to Him, saying, "Where are the companions ye gave me?" They shall say, "We own to thee, there is no one of us can witness for them."
And what they erst called on shall pass away from them, and they shall perceive that there will be no escape for them.
Man ceaseth not to pray for good: but if evil betide him he despondeth, despairing.
And if we cause him to taste our mercy after affliction hath touched him, he is sure to say, "This is my due: and I take no thought of the Hour of Resurrection: and if I be brought back to my Lord, I shall indeed attain with Him my highest good." But we will then certainly declare their doings to the Infidels, and cause them to taste a stern punishment.
When we are gracious to man, he withdraweth and turneth him aside: but when evil toucheth him, he is a man of long prayers.
SAY: What think ye? If this Book be from God and ye believe it not, who will have gone further astray than he who is at a distance from it?
We will shew them our signs in different countries and among themselves, until it become plain to them that it is the truth. Is it not enough for thee that thy Lord is witness of all things?
Are they not in doubt as to the meeting with their Lord? But doth he not encompass all things?
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1 In some MSS. this Sura is entitled Adoration. Thus Beidh. According to His. 186, comp. Caussin 1, 375 f., Muhammad's aim in this Sura was the conversion of a noble Meccan, Utba ben Rabia, to Islam. The precise year is uncertain.
2 See Sura lxviii. 1, p. 32.
3 Thus SS. Paul and Barnabas, Acts xiv. 15.
4 Or, never failing.
5 Lit. from before them and from behind them.
6 See Sura [lx.] xxxvi. 64, n.
7 Comp. Sura [lxxxviii.] xlvi. 12.
8 Lit. the possessor of great good fortune.
9 Comp. Rev. iv. 8 in the original.
10 Thus Tr. Taanith (init.).
11 Lit. vanity shall not come to it from before it, or from behind it.
12 We will not receive it. The literal rendering of the following words is what! foreign and Arabian?
13 Comp. Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 83, 84.
14 Lit. verily they were in suspicious doubting about it.
15 Lit. for his soul. See next Sura, v. 14.
16 Lit. to Him is referred.
SURA XLV.-THE KNEELING [LXXII.]
MECCA.-36 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
HA. MIM.1 This Book is sent down2 from God, the Mighty, the Wise!
Assuredly in the Heavens and the Earth are signs for those who believe:
And in your own creation, and in the beasts which are scattered abroad are signs to the firm in faith:
And in the succession of night and day, and in the supply which God sendeth down from the Heaven whereby He giveth life to the earth when dead, and in the change of the winds, are signs for a people of discernment.
Such are the signs of God: with truth do we recite them to thee. But in what teaching will they believe, if they reject3 God and his signs?
Woe to every lying sinner,
Who heareth the signs of God recited to him, and then, as though he heard them not, persisteth in proud disdain! Apprise him of an afflictive punishment.
And when he becometh acquainted with any of our signs he turneth them into ridicule. These! a shameful punishment for them!
Hell is behind them! and neither their gains nor the lords whom they have adopted beside God shall avail them in the least: and theirs, a great punishment!
This is "Guidance:" and for those who disbelieve the signs of their Lord is the punishment of an afflictive torment.
It is God who hath subjected the sea to you that the ships may traverse it at his bidding, and that ye may go in quest of the gifts of his bounty, and that ye may be thankful.
And he hath subjected to you all that is in the Heavens and all that is on the Earth: all is from him. Verily, herein are signs for those who reflect.
Tell the believers to pardon those who hope not for the days of God4 in which He purposeth to reward men according to their deeds.
He who doth that which is right, doth it to his own behoof, and whoso doth evil, doth it to his own hurt. Hereafter, to your Lord shall ye be brought back.
To the children of Israel gave we of old the Book and the Wisdom, and the gift of Prophecy, and we supplied them with good things, and privileged them above all peoples:
And we gave them clear sanctions for our behests: neither did they differ, through mutual envy, till after they had become possessed of knowledge; but thy Lord will judge between them on the day of resurrection, as to the subject of their disputes.
Afterwards we set thee over our divine law:5 follow it then: and follow not the wishes of those who have no knowledge,