Part 7
Fly then to God: I come to you from him a plain warner.
And set not up another god with God: I come to you from him a plain warner.
Even thus came there no apostle to those who flourished before them, but they exclaimed, "Sorcerer, or Possessed."
Have they made a legacy to one another of this scoff? Yes, they are a rebel people.
Turn away, then, from them, and thou shalt not incur reproach:
Yet warn them, for, in truth, warning will profit the believers.
I have not created Djinn and men, but that they should worship me:
I require not sustenance from them, neither require I that they feed me:
Verily, God is the sole sustainer: possessed of might: the unshaken!
Therefore to those who injure thee shall be a fate like the fate of
their fellows of old. Let them not challenge me to hasten it.
Woe then to the infidels, because of their threatened day.
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1 Lit. (I swear) by those which scatter (i.e., the rain) with a scattering, (2) and by those which carry a burden, (3) and by those which run lightly, (4) and by those which divide a matter, or by command. The participles are all in the feminine: hence some interpret verse 1 of winds; verse 2 of clouds; verse 3 of ships; verse 4 of angels.
2 Comp. note at Sura lvi. 1, p. 65.
3 That is, this oath is for the confirmation of the truth, as ye are wont to confirm things one among another by an oath.
4 Comp. Sura xi. 72, and xv. 51. From the want of connection with what precedes, it is highly probable that the whole passage from verse 24 60 did not originally form a part of this Sura, but was added at a later period, perhaps in the recension of the text under Othman.
5 Lit. marked, with the names of the individuals to be slain, say the commentators.
6 Or, with his nobles.
7 For Ad and Themoud, see Sura xi.
8 That is, in broad daylight. Thus Beidh. Comp. Sura xlvi. 22.
SURA LII.-THE MOUNTAIN [XLIV.]
MECCA.-49 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
BY the MOUNTAIN,
And by the Book written
On an outspread roll,
And by the frequented fane,1
And by the lofty vault,
And by the swollen sea,
Verily, a chastisement from thy Lord is imminent,
And none shall put it back.
Reeling on that day the Heaven shall reel,
And stirring shall the mountains stir.2
And woe, on that day, to those who called the apostles liars,
Who plunged for pastime into vain disputes-
On that day shall they be thrust with thrusting to the fire of Hell:-
"This is the fire which ye treated as a lie.
What! is this magic, then? or, do ye not see it?
Burn ye therein: bear it patiently or impatiently 'twill be the same to you: for ye shall assuredly receive the reward of your doings."
But mid gardens and delights shall they dwell who have feared God,
Rejoicing in what their Lord hath given them; and that from the pain of hell- fire hath their Lord preserved them.
"Eat and drink with healthy enjoyment, in recompense for your deeds."
On couches ranged in rows shall they recline; and to the damsels with large dark eyes will we wed them.
And to those who have believed, whose offspring have followed them in the faith, will we again unite their offspring; nor of the meed of their works will we in the least defraud them. Pledged to God is every man for his actions and their desert.3
And fruits in abundance will we give them, and flesh as they shall desire:
Therein shall they pass to one another the cup which shall engender no light discourse, no motive to sin:
And youths shall go round among them beautiful as imbedded pearls:
And shall accost one another and ask mutual questions.
"A time indeed there was," will they say, "when we were full of care as to the future lot of our families;
But kind hath God been to us, and from the pestilential torment hath he preserved us;
For, heretofore we called upon Him-and He is the Beneficent, the Merciful."
Warn thou, then. For thou by the favour of thy Lord art neither soothsayer nor possessed.
Will they say, "A poet! let us await some adverse turn of his fortune?"
SAY, wait ye, and in sooth I too will wait with you.
Is it their dreams which inspire them with this? or is it that they are a perverse people?
Will they say, "He hath forged it (the Koran) himself?" Nay, rather it is that they believed not.
Let them then produce a discourse like it, if they speak the Truth.
Were they created by nothing? or were they the creators of themselves?
Created they the Heavens and Earth? Nay, rather, they have no faith.
Hold they thy Lord's treasures? Bear they the rule supreme?
Have they a ladder for hearing the angels? Let any one who hath heard them bring a clear proof of it.
Hath God daughters and ye sons?
Asketh thou pay of them? they are themselves weighed down with debts.
Have they such a knowledge of the secret things that they can write them down?
Desire they to lay snares for thee? But the snared ones shall be they who do not believe.
Have they any God beside God? Glory be to God above what they join with Him.
And should they see a fragment of the heaven falling down, they would say, "It is only a dense cloud."
Leave them then until they come face to face with the day when they shall swoon away:
A day in which their snares shall not at all avail them, neither shall they be helped.
And verily, beside this is there a punishment for the evildoers: but most of them know it not.
Wait thou patiently the judgment of thy Lord, for thou art in our eye; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord when thou risest up,
And in the night-season: Praise him when the stars are setting.
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1 Of the Caaba.
2 Comp. Psalm lxviii. 9.
3 The more prosaic style of this verse indicates a later origin than the context. Muir places the whole Sura in what he terms the fourth stage of Meccan Suras.
SURA LVI.-THE INEVITABLE [XLV.]
MECCA.-96 Verses
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
WHEN the day that must come shall have come suddenly,1
None shall treat that sudden coming as a lie:
Day that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!
When the earth shall be shaken with a shock,
And the mountains shall be crumbled with a crumbling,
And shall become scattered dust,
And into three bands shall ye be divided:2
Then the people of the right hand3-Oh! how happy shall be the people of the right hand!
And the people of the left hand-Oh! how wretched shall be the people of the left hand!
And they who were foremost on earth-the foremost still.4
These are they who shall be brought nigh to God,
In gardens of delight;
A crowd of the former
And few of the latter generations;
On inwrought couches
Reclining on them face to face:
Aye-blooming youths go round about to them
With goblets and ewers and a cup of flowing wine;
Their brows ache not from it, nor fails the sense:
And with such fruits as shall please them best,
And with flesh of such birds, as they shall long for:
And theirs shall be the Houris, with large dark eyes, like pearls hidden in their shells,
In recompense of their labours past.
No vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor charge of sin,
But only the cry, "Peace! Peace!"
And the people of the right hand-oh! how happy shall be the people of the right hand!
Amid thornless sidrahs5
And talh6 trees clad with fruit,
And in extended shade,
And by flowing waters,
And with abundant fruits,7
Unfailing, unforbidden,
And on lofty couches.
Of a rare creation have we created the Houris,
And we have made them ever virgins,
Dear to their spouses, of equal age with them,8
For the people of the right hand,
A crowd of the former,
And a crowd of the latter generations.9
But the people of the left hand-oh! how wretched shall be the people of the left hand!
Amid pestilential10 winds and in scalding water,
And in the shadow of a black smoke,
Not cool, and horrid to behold.11
For they truly, ere this, were blessed with worldly goods,
But persisted in heinous sin,
And were wont to say,
"What! after we have died, and become dust and bones, shall we be raised?
And our fathers, the men of yore?"
SAY: Aye, the former and the latter:
Gathered shall they all be for the time of a known day.
Then ye, O ye the erring, the gainsaying,
Shall surely eat of the tree Ez-zakkoum,
And fill your bellies with it,
And thereupon shall ye drink boiling water,
And ye shall drink as the thirsty camel drinketh.
This shall be their repast in the day of reckoning!
We created you, will ye not credit us?12
What think ye? The germs of life13-
Is it ye who create them? or are we their creator?
It is we who have decreed that death should be among you;
Yet are we not thereby hindered14 from replacing you with others, your likes, or from producing you again in a form which ye know not!
Ye have known the first creation: will ye not then reflect?
What think ye? That which ye sow-
Is it ye who cause its upgrowth, or do we cause it to spring forth?
If we pleased we could so make your harvest dry and brittle that ye would ever marvel and say,
"Truly we have been at cost,15 yet are we forbidden harvest."
What think ye of the water ye drink?
Is it ye who send it down from the clouds, or send we it down?
Brackish could we make it, if we pleased: will ye not then be thankful?
What think ye? The fire which ye obtain by friction-
Is it ye who rear its tree, or do we rear it?
It is we who have made it for a memorial and a benefit to the wayfarers of the desert,
Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.
It needs not that I swear by the setting of the stars,
And it is a great oath, if ye knew it,
That this is the honourable Koran,
Written in the preserved Book:16
Let none touch it but the purified,17
It is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.
Such tidings as these will ye disdain?
Will ye make it your daily bread to gainsay them?
Why, at the moment when the soul of a dying man shall come up into his throat,
And when ye are gazing at him,
Though we are nearer to him than ye, although ye see us not:-
Why do ye not, if ye are to escape the judgment,
Cause that soul to return? Tell me, if ye speak the truth.
But as to him who shall enjoy near access to God,
His shall be repose, and pleasure, and a garden of delights.
Yea, for him who shall be of the people of the right hand,
Shall be the greeting from the people of the right hand-"Peace be to thee."
But for him who shall be of those who treat the prophets as deceivers,
And of the erring,
His entertainment shall be of scalding water,
And the broiling of hell-fire.
Verily this is a certain truth:
Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.
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1 The renderings of Mar. cum inciderit casura, or as in Sur. lxix, 15, ingruerit ingruens nearly express the peculiar force of the Arabic verb and of the noun formed from it; i.e. a calamity that falls suddenly and surely. Weil renders, ween der Auferstehung's Tag eintritt (p. 389). Lane, when the calamity shall have happened.
2 Comp. Tr. Rosch Haschanah, fol. 16, 6.
3 Lit., the companions of the right hand, what shall be the companions of the right hand! and thus in verses 9, 37, 40.
4 Lit., the preceders, the preceders.
5 See Sura liii. 14, p. 69.
6 Probably the banana according to others, the acacia gummifera.
7 "A Muslim of some learning professed to me that he considered the descriptions of Paradise in the Koran to be, in a great measure, figurative; 'like those,' said he, 'in the book of the Revelation of St. John;' and he assured me that many learned Muslims were of the same opinion." Lane's Modern Egyptians, i. p. 75, note.
8 Like them, grow not old.
9 This seems a direct contradiction to verse 14, unless we suppose with Beidhawi that an inferior and more numerous class of believers are here spoken of.
10 Or, scorching.
11 Lit., not noble, agreeable in appearance.
12 As to the resurrection.
13 Lit., semen quod emittitis.
14 Lit., forestalled, anticipated.
15 Lit, have incurred debt.
16 That is, The Prototype of the Koran written down in the Book kept by God himself.
17 This passage implies the existence of copies of portions at least of the Koran in common use. It was quoted by the sister of Omar when at his conversion be desired to take her copy of Sura xx. into his hands.
SURA1-LIII. THE STAR [XLVI.]
MECCA.-62 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
By the STAR when it setteth,
Your compatriot erreth not, nor is he led astray,
Neither speaketh he from mere impulse.
The Koran is no other than a revelation revealed to him:
One terrible in power2 taught it him,
Endued with wisdom. With even balance stood he
In the highest part of the horizon:
Then came he nearer and approached,
And was at the distance of two bows, or even closer,-
And he revealed to his servant what he revealed.
His heart falsified not what he saw.
What! will ye then dispute with him as to what he saw?
He had seen him also another time,
Near the Sidrah-tree, which marks the boundary.3
Near which is the garden of repose.
When the Sidrah-tree4 was covered with what covered it,5
His eye turned not aside, nor did it wander:
For he saw the greatest of the signs of his Lord.
Do you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza,6
And Manat the third idol besides?7
What? shall ye have male progeny and God female?
This were indeed an unfair partition!
These are mere names: ye and your fathers named them thus: God hath not sent down any warranty in their regard. A mere conceit and their own impulses do they follow. Yet hath "the guidance" from their Lord come to them.
Shall man have whatever he wisheth?
The future and the present are in the hand of God:
And many as are the Angels in the Heavens, their intercession shall be of no avail8
Until God hath permitted it to whom he shall please and will accept.
Verily, it is they who believe not in the life to come, who name the angels with names of females:
But herein they have no knowledge: they follow a mere conceit; and mere conceit can never take the place of truth.
Withdraw then from him who turneth his back on our warning and desireth only this present life.
This is the sum of their knowledge. Truly thy Lord best knoweth him who erreth from his way, and He best knoweth him who hath received guidance.
And whatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth is God's that he may reward those who do evil according to their deeds: and those who do good will He reward with good things.
To those who avoid great crimes and scandals but commit only lighter faults, verily, thy Lord will be diffuse of mercy. He well knew you when he produced you out of the earth, and when ye were embryos in your mother's womb. Assert not then your own purity. He best knoweth who feareth him.
Hast thou considered him who turned his back?
Who giveth little and is covetous?
Is it that he hath the knowledge and vision of the secret things?
Hath he not been told of what is in the pages of Moses?
And of Abraham faithful to his pledge?
That no burdened soul shall bear the burdens of another,
And that nothing shall be reckoned to a man but that for which he hath made efforts:
And that his efforts shall at last be seen in their true light:
That then he shall be recompensed with a most exact recompense,
And that unto thy Lord is the term of all things,
And that it is He who causeth to laugh and to weep,
And that He causeth to die and maketh alive,
And that He hath created the sexes, male and female,
From the diffused germs of life,9
And that with Him is the second creation,
And that He enricheth and causeth to possess,
And that He is the Lord of Sirius,10
And that it was He who destroyed the ancient Adites,
And the people of Themoud and left not one survivor,
And before them the people of Noah who were most wicked and most perverse.
And it was He who destroyed the cities that were overthrown.
So that that which covered them covered them.
Which then of thy Lord's benefits wilt thou make a matter of doubt?11
He who warneth you is one of the warners of old.
The day that must draw nigh, draweth nigh already: and yet none but God can reveal its time.
Is it at these sayings that ye marvel?
And that ye laugh and weep not?
And that ye are triflers?
Prostrate yourselves then to God and worship.
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1 This Sura was revealed at about the time of the first emigration of Muhammad's followers to Abyssinia, A. 5. The manner in which the Prophet cancelled the objectionable verses 19, 20, is the strongest proof of his sincerity (as also is the opening of Sura 1xxx.) at this period. Had he not done so, nothing would have been easier for him than to have effected a reconciliation with the powerful party in Mecca, who had recently compelled his followers to emigrate.
2 The Angel Gabriel, to the meaning of whose name, as the strong one of God, these words probably allude.
3 That is, Beyond which neither men nor angels can pass (Djelal). The original word is also rendered, the Lote-Tree of the extremity, or of the loftiest spot in Paradise, in the seventh Heaven, on the right hand of the throne of God. Its leaves are fabled to be as numerous as the members of the whole human family, and each leaf to bear the name of an individual. This tree is shaken on the night of the 15th of Ramadan every year a little after sunset, when the leaves on which are inscribed the names of those who are to die in the ensuing year fall, either wholly withered, or with more or less green remaining, according to the months or weeks the person has yet to live.
4 The Sidrah is a prickly plum, which is called Ber in India, the zizyphus Jujuba of Linnæus. A decoction of the leaves is used in India to wash the dead, on account of the sacredness of the tree.
5 Hosts of adoring angels, by which the tree was masked.
6 Al-Lat or El-Lat, probably the Alilat of Herodotus (iii. 8) was an idol at Nakhlah, a place east of the present site of Mecca. Al-Ozza was an idol of the Kinanah tribe; but its hereditary priests were the Banu Solaym, who were stationed along the mercantile road to Syria in the neighbourhood of Chaibar.
7 When at the first recital of this Sura, the prophet had reached this verse, he continued,
These are the exalted females, [or, sublime swans, i.e., mounting nearer and nearer to God]
And truly their intercession may be expected.
These words, however, which were received by the idolaters with great exultation, were disowned by Muhammad in the course of a few days as a Satanic suggestion, and replaced by the text as it now stands. The probability is that the difficulties of his position led him to attempt a compromise of which he speedily repented. In the Suras subsequent to this period the denunciations of idolatry become much sterner and clearer. The authorities are given by Weil, Sprenger and Muir. See Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 74- 76.
8 Verses 26-33 are probably later than the previous part of the Sura, but inserted with reference to it. Some (as Omar b. Muhammad and 1tq.) consider verse 33, or (as Itq.36) verses 34-42, or (as Omar b. Muhammad) the whole Sura, to have originated at Medina.
9 Ex spermate cum seminatum fuerit.
10 The Dog-star, worshipped by the Arabians.
11 Compare the refrain in Sura lv. p. 74.
SURA LXX.-THE STEPS OR ASCENTS [XLVII.]
MECCA.-44 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
A SUITOR sued1 for punishment to light suddenly
On the infidels: none can hinder
God from inflicting it, the master of those ASCENTS,
By which the angels and the spirit ascend to him in a day, whose length is fifty thousand years.2
Be thou patient therefore with becoming patience;
They forsooth regard that day as distant,
But we see it nigh:
The day when the heavens shall become as molten brass,
And the mountains shall become like flocks of wool:
And friend shall not question of friend,
Though they look at one another. Fain would the wicked redeem himself from punishment on that day at the price of his children,
Of his spouse and his brother,
And of his kindred who shewed affection for him,
And of all who are on the earth that then it might deliver him.
But no. For the fire,
Dragging by the scalp,
Shall claim him who turned his back and went away,
And amassed and hoarded.
Man truly is by creation hasty;
When evil befalleth him, impatient;
But when good falleth to his lot, tenacious.
Not so the prayerful,
Who are ever constant at their prayers;
And of whose substance there is a due and stated portion
For him who asketh, and for him who is ashamed3 to beg;
And who own the judgment-day a truth,
And who thrill with dread at the chastisement of their Lord-
For there is none safe from the chastisement of their Lord-
And who control their desires,
(Save with their wives or the slaves whom their right hands have won, for there they shall be blameless;
But whoever indulge their desires beyond this are transgressors);
And who are true to their trusts and their engagements,
And who witness uprightly,
And who keep strictly the hours of prayer:
These shall dwell, laden with honours, amid gardens.
But what hath come to the unbelievers that they run at full stretch around thee,
On the right hand and on the left, in bands?
Is it that every man of them would fain enter that garden of delights?
Not at all. We have created them, they know of what.
It needs not that I swear by the Lord of the East and of the West4 that we have power.
To replace them with better than themselves: neither are we to be hindered.
Wherefore let them flounder on and disport them, till they come face to face with their threatened day,
The day on which they shall flock up out of their graves in haste like men who rally to a standard:-