Part 9
And I said, Beg forgiveness of your Lord, for He is ready to forgive.
He will send down the very Heaven upon you in plenteous rains;
And will increase you in wealth and children; and will give you gardens, and will give you watercourses:-
What hath come to you that ye hope not for goodness from the hand of God?
For He it is who hath formed you by successive steps.1
See ye not how God hath created the seven heavens one over the other?
And He hath placed therein the moon as a light, and hath placed there the sun as a torch;
And God hath caused you to spring forth from the earth like a plant;
Hereafter will He turn you back into it again, and will bring you forth anew-
And God hath spread the earth for you like a carpet,
That ye may walk therein along spacious paths."'
Said Noah, "O my Lord! they rebel against me, and they follow those whose riches and children do but aggravate their ruin."
And they plotted a great plot;
And they said, "Forsake not your Gods; forsake not Wadd nor Sowah,
Nor Yaghuth and Yahuk and Nesr;"
And they caused many to err;2-and thou, too, O Muhammad! shalt be the means of increasing only error in the wicked-
Because of their sins they were drowned, and made to go into the Fire;
And they found that they had no helper save God.
And Noah said, "Lord, leave not one single family of Infidels on the Earth:
For if thou leave them they will beguile thy servants and will beget only sinners, infidels.
O my Lord, forgive me, and my parents, and every one who, being a believer, shall enter my house, and believers men and women: and add to the wicked nought but perdition."
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1 See Sura xxii. 5.
2 Or, the idols had seduced many. Thus Kas. Beidh. gives both interpp.-See on these idols Freytag's Einleitung, p. 349.
SURA LXXVI.-MAN [LII.]
MECCA.-31 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Doth not a long time pass over MAN, during which he is a thing unremembered?1
We have created man from the union of the sexes that we might prove him; and hearing, seeing, have we made him:
In a right way have we guided him, be he thankful or ungrateful.
For the Infidels we have got ready chains and collars and flaming fire.
But a wine cup tempered at the camphor fountain2 the just shall quaff:
Fount whence the servants of God shall drink, and guide by channels from place to place;
They who fulfilled their vows, and feared the day whose woes will spread far and wide;
Who though longing for it themselves, bestowed their food on the poor and the orphan and the captive:
"We feed you for the sake of God: we seek from you neither recompense nor thanks:3
A stern and calamitous day dread we from our Lord."
From the evil therefore of that day hath God delivered them and cast on them brightness of face and joy:
And hath rewarded their constancy, with Paradise and silken robes:
Reclining therein on bridal couches, nought shall they know of sun or piercing cold:
Its shades shall be close over them, and low shall its fruits hang down:
And vessels of silver and goblets like flagons shall be borne round among them:
Flagons of silver whose measure themselves shall mete.
And there shall they be given to drink of the cup tempered with zendjebil (ginger)
From the fount therein whose name is Selsebil (the softly flowing).
Aye-blooming youths go round among them. When thou lookest at them thou wouldest deem them scattered pearls;
And when thou seest this, thou wilt see delights and a vast kingdom:
Their clothing green silk robes and rich brocade: with silver bracelets shall they be adorned; and drink of a pure beverage shall their Lord give them.
This shall be your recompense. Your efforts shall meet with thanks.
We ourselves have sent down to thee the Koran as a missive from on high.
Await then with patience the judgments of thy Lord, and obey not the wicked among them and the unbelieving:
And make mention of the name of thy Lord at morn, at even,
And at night. Adore him, and praise him the livelong night.
But these men love the fleeting present, and leave behind them the heavy day of doom.
Ourselves have we created them, and strengthened their joints; and when we please, with others like unto themselves will we replace them.
This truly is a warning: And whoso willeth, taketh the way to his Lord;
But will it ye shall not, unless God will it, for God is Knowing, Wise.
He causeth whom He will to enter into his mercy. But for the evil doers, He hath made ready an afflictive chastisement.
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1 When in the womb.
2 With (the water of) Kafoor. Lane.
3 Desire no recompense from you.
SURA XLIV.-SMOKE [LIII.]
MECCA.-59 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Ha. Mim.1 By this clear Book!
See! on a blessed night2 have we sent it down, for we would warn mankind:
On the night wherein all things are disposed in wisdom,3
By virtue of our behest. Lo! we have ever sent forth Apostles,
A mercy from thy Lord: he truly heareth and knoweth all things-
Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth and of all that is between them,-if ye be firm in faith-
There is no God but He!-He maketh alive and killeth!-Your Lord and the Lord of your sires of old!
Yet with doubts do they disport them.
But mark them on the day when the Heaven shall give out a palpable SMOKE,
Which shall enshroud mankind: this will be an afflictive torment.
They will cry, "Our Lord! relieve us from this torment: see! we are believers."
But how did warning avail them, when an undoubted apostle had come to them;
And they turned their backs on him, and said, "Taught by others, possessed?"
Were we to relieve you from the plague even a little, ye would certainly relapse.4
On the day when we shall fiercely put forth our great fierceness, we will surely take vengeance on them!
Of old, before their time, had we proved the people of Pharaoh, when a noble apostle presented himself to them.
"Send away with me," cried he, "the servants of God; for I am an apostle worthy of all credit:
And exalt not yourselves against God, for I come to you with undoubted power;
And I take refuge with Him who is my Lord and your Lord, that ye stone me not:
And if ye believe me not, at least separate yourselves from me."
And he cried to his Lord, "That these are a wicked people."
"March forth then, said God, with my servants by night, for ye will be pursued.
And leave behind you the cleft sea: they are a drowned host."
How many a garden and fountain did they quit!
And corn fields and noble dwellings!
And pleasures in which they rejoiced them!
So was it: and we gave them as a heritage to another people.
Nor Heaven nor Earth wept for them, nor was their sentence respited;
And we rescued the children of Israel from a degrading affliction-
From Pharaoh, for he was haughty, given to excess.
And we chose them, in our prescience, above all peoples,5
And we shewed them miracles wherein was their clear trial.
Yet these infidels say,
"There is but our first death, neither shall we be raised again:
Bring back our sires, if ye be men of truth."
Are they better than the people of Tobba,6
And those who flourished before them whom we destroyed for their evil deeds?
We have not created the Heavens and the Earth and whatever is between them in sport:
We have not created them but for a serious end:7 but the greater part of them understand it not.
Verily the day of severing8 shall be the appointed time of all:
A day when the master shall not at all be aided by the servant, neither shall they be helped;
Save those on whom God shall have mercy: for He is the mighty, the merciful.
Verily the tree of Ez-Zakkoum9
Shall be the sinner's10 food:
Like dregs of oil shall it boil up in their bellies,
Like the boiling of scalding water.
"-Seize ye him, and drag him into the mid-fire;
Then pour on his head of the tormenting boiling water.
-'Taste this:' for thou forsooth art the mighty, the honourable!
Lo! this is that of which ye doubted."
But the pious shall be in a secure place,
Amid gardens and fountains,
Clothed in silk and richest robes, facing one another:
Thus shall it be: and we will wed them to the virgins with large dark eyes:
Therein shall they call, secure, for every kind of fruit;
Therein, their first death passed, shall they taste death no more; and He shall keep them from the pains of Hell:-
'Tis the gracious bounty of thy Lord! This is the great felicity.
We have made this Koran easy for thee in thine own tongue, that they may take the warning.
Therefore wait thou, for they are waiting.11
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1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.
2 Of the 23rd and 24th of Ramadhan, in which, according to the Muslim creed, all the events of the year subsequent are arranged. See Sura xcvii. n. 2, p. 27.
3 Lit. We settle each wise affair-called wise, because proceeding direct from the will of Him who is absolute wisdom.
4 Beidh, and others suppose this verse to have been revealed at Medina. This opinion, however, is based upon the supposition that it refers to the famine with which Mecca was visited after the Hejira.
5 Comp. Ex. xx. 20; Deut. viii. 16.
6 Tobba, i.e. Chalif or successor, is the title of the Kings of Yemen; or of Hadramont, Saba, and Hamyar.-See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar. p. 60.
7 Lit. in truth.
8 That is, Of the good from the bad.
9 See Sura xxxvii. 60, p. 81.
10 The commentators suppose this sinner to be Abu Jahl, one of the chief of the Koreisch, and the bitter enemy of Muhammad.
11 To see the turn which events may take.
SURA L.-KAF [LIV.]
MECCA.-45 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
Kaf1. By the glorious Koran:
They marvel forsooth that one of themselves hath come to them charged with warnings. "This," say the infidels, "is a marvellous thing:
What! when dead and turned to dust shall we. . . .? Far off is such a return as this?"
Now know we what the earth consumeth of them, and with us is a Book in which account is kept.
But they have treated the truth which hath come to them as falsehood; perplexed therefore is their state.
Will they not look up to the heaven above them, and consider how we have reared it and decked it forth, and that there are no flaws therein?
And as to the earth, we have spread it out, and have thrown the mountains upon it, and have caused an upgrowth in it of all beauteous kinds of plants,
For insight and admonition to every servant who loveth to turn to God:
And we send down the rain from Heaven with its blessings, by which we cause gardens to spring forth and the grain of harvest,
And the tall palm trees with date-bearing branches one above the other
For man's nourishment: And life give we thereby to a dead country. So also shall be the resurrection.
Ere the days of these (Meccans) the people of Noah, and the men of Rass2 and Themoud, treated their prophets as impostors:
And Ad and Pharaoh, and the brethren of Lot and the dwellers in the forest, and the people of Tobba,3 all gave the lie to their prophets: justly, therefore, were the menaces inflicted.
Are we wearied out with the first creation? Yet are they in doubt with regard to a new creation!4
We created man: and we know what his soul whispereth to him, and we are closer to him than his neck-vein.
When the two angels charged with taking account shall take it, one sitting on the right hand, the other on the left:
Not a word doth he utter, but there is a watcher with him ready to note it down:
And the stupor of certain death cometh upon him: "This is what thou wouldst have shunned"-
And there shall be a blast on the trumpet,-it is the threatened day!
And every soul shall come,-an angel with it urging it along, and an angel to witness against it5-
Saith he, "Of this day didst thou live in heedlessness: but we have taken off thy veil from thee, and thy sight is becoming sharp this day."
And he who is at this side6 shall say, "This is what I am prepared with against thee."
And God will say, "Cast into Hell, ye twain, every infidel, every hardened one,
The hinderer of the good, the transgressor, the doubter,
Who set up other gods with God. Cast ye him into the fierce torment."
He who is at his side shall say, "O our Lord! I led him not astray, yet was he in an error wide of truth."
He shall say, "Wrangle not in my presence. I had plied you beforehand with menaces:
My doom changeth not, and I am not unjust to man."
On that day will we cry to Hell, "Art thou full?" And it shall say, "Are there more?"7
And not far from thence shall Paradise be brought near unto the Pious:
- "This is what ye have been promised: to every one who hath turned in penitence to God and kept his laws;
Who hath feared the God of Mercy in secret, and come to him with a contrite heart:
Enter it in peace: this is the day of Eternity."
There shall they have all that they can desire: and our's will it be to augment their bliss:
And how many generations have we destroyed ere the days of these (Meccans), mightier than they in strength! Search ye then the land. Is there any escape?
Lo! herein is warning for him who hath a heart, or giveth ear, and is himself an eye-witness.8
We created the heavens and the earth and all that is between them in six days, and no weariness touched us.9
Wherefore put up with what they say, and celebrate the praise of thy Lord before sunrise and before sunset:
And praise Him in the night: and perform the two final prostrations.
And list for the day whereon the crier shall cry from a place near to every one alike:
The day on which men shall in truth hear that shout will be the day of their coming forth from the grave.
Verily, we cause to live, and we cause to die. To us shall all return.
On the day when the earth shall swiftly cleave asunder over the dead, will this gathering be easy to Us.
We know best what the infidels say: and thou art not to compel them.
Warn then by the Koran those who fear my menace.
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1 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32.
2 See [lxvi.] xxv. 40.
3 See xliv. 36, p. 90.
4 The Resurrection.
5 Lit. a driver and a witness.
6 The Satan who is chained to him. Sura [lxxi.] xli. 24.
7 Lit. is there any addition? which some explain as if Hell enquired whether, being already full, any addition could be made to its size. Comp. Prov. xxx. 15, and Othioth Derabbi Akiba, 8, 1: "That the Prince of Hell saith daily, Give me food enough, is clear from what is said (Is. v. 14). Therefore Shaol hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure, etc."
8 That is, of the ruins of the destroyed cities, etc.
9 This verse is said (by Omar b. Muhammad, Itq. 36, Djelal Eddin, ap. Maracc. and Beidh.) to have been revealed in answer to the Jews who told the Prophet that if God rested on the Sabbath, it was because he was weary. But a connection with verse 14 seems more natural.
SURA XX.1-TA. HA. [LV.]
MECCA.-135 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
TA. HA.2 Not to sadden thee have we sent down this Koran to thee,
But as a warning for him who feareth;
It is a missive from Him who hath made the earth and the lofty heavens!
The God of Mercy sitteth on his throne:
His, whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth, and whatsoever is between them both, and whatsoever is beneath the humid soil!
Thou needest not raise thy voice:3 for He knoweth the secret whisper, and the yet more hidden.
God! There is no God but He! Most excellent His titles!
Hath the history of Moses reached thee?
When he saw a fire, and said to his family, "Tarry ye here, for I perceive a fire:
Haply I may bring you a brand from it, or find at the fire a guide."4
And when he came to it, he was called to, "O Moses!
Verily, I am thy Lord:. therefore pull off thy shoes: for thou art in the holy valley of Towa.
And I have chosen thee: hearken then to what shall be revealed.
Verily, I am God: there is no God but me: therefore worship me, and observe prayer for a remembrance of me.
Verily the hour is coming:-I all but manifest it-
That every soul may be recompensed for its labours.
Nor let him who believeth not therein and followeth his lust, turn thee aside from this truth, and thou perish.
Now, what is that in thy right hand, O Moses?"
Said he, "It is my staff on which I lean, and with which I beast down leaves for my sheep, and I have other uses for it."
He said, "Cast it down, O Moses!"
So he cast it down, and lo! it became a serpent that ran along.
He said, "Lay hold on it, and fear not: to its former state will we restore it."
"Now place thy right hand to thy arm-pit: it shall come forth white, but unhurt:-another sign!-
That We may shew thee the greatest of our signs.
Go to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds."
He said, "O my Lord! enlarge my breast for me,
And make my work easy for me,
And loose the knot of my tongue,5
That they may understand my speech.
And give me a counsellor6 from among my family,
Aaron my brother;
By him gird up my loins,7
And make him a colleague in my work,
That we may praise thee oft and oft remember thee,
For thou regardest us."
He said, "O Moses, thou hast obtained thy suit:
Already, at another time, have we showed thee favour,
When we spake unto thy mother what was spoken:
'Cast him into the ark:8 then cast him on the sea [the river], and the sea shall throw him on the shore: and an enemy to me and an enemy to him shall take him up.' And I myself have made thee an object of love,
That thou mightest be reared in mine eye.
When thy sister went and said, 'Shall I shew you one who will nurse him?'9 Then We returned thee to thy mother that her eye might be cheered, and that she might not grieve. And when thou slewest a person, We delivered thee from trouble, and We tried thee with other trial.
For years didst thou stay among the people of Midian; then camest thou hither by my decree, O Moses:
And I have chosen thee for Myself.
Go thou and thy brother with my signs and be not slack to remember me.
Go ye to Pharaoh, for he hath burst all bounds:
But speak ye to him with gentle speech; haply he will reflect or fear."
They said, "O our Lord! truly we fear lest he break forth against us, or act with exceeding injustice."
He said, "Fear ye not, for I am with you both. I will hearken and I will behold.
Go ye then to him and say, 'Verily we are Sent ones of thy Lord; send therefore the children of Israel with us and vex them not: now are we come to thee with signs from thy Lord, and, Peace shall be on him who followeth the right guidance.
For now hath it been revealed to us, that chastisement shall be on him who chargeth with falsehood, and turneth him away."'
And he said, "Who is your Lord, O Moses?"
He said, "Our Lord is He who hath given to everything its form and then guideth it aright."
"But what," said he, "was the state of generations past?"10
He said, "The knowledge thereof is with my Lord in the Book of his decrees. My Lord erreth not, nor forgetteth.
He hath spread the earth as a bed, and hath traced out paths for you therein, and hath sent down rain from Heaven, and by it we bring forth the kinds11 of various herbs:
-'Eat ye, and feed your cattle.' Of a truth in this are signs unto men endued with understanding.
From it have we created you, and into it will we return you, and out of it will we bring you forth a second time."12
And we shewed him all our signs: but he treated them as falsehoods, and refused to believe.
He said, "Hast thou come, O Moses, to drive us from our land by thine enchantments?
Therefore will we assuredly confront thee with like enchantments: so appoint a meeting between us and you-we will not fail it, we, and do not thou-in a place alike for both."
He said, "On the feast day13 be your meeting, and in broad daylight let the people be assembled."
And Pharaoh turned away, and collected his craftsmen and came.
Said Moses to them, "Woe to you! devise not a lie against God:
For then will he destroy you by a punishment. They who have lied have ever perished."
And the magicians discussed their plan, and spake apart in secret:
They said, "These two are surely sorcerers: fain would they drive you from your land by their sorceries, and lead away in their paths your chiefest men:
So muster your craft: then come in order: well this day shall it be for him, who shall gain the upper hand."
They said, "O Moses, wilt thou first cast down thy rod, or shall we be the first who cast?"
He said, "Yes, cast ye down first." And lo! by their enchantment their cords and rods seemed to him as if they ran.
And Moses conceived a secret fear within him.
We said, "Fear not, for thou shalt be the uppermost:
Cast forth then what is in thy right hand: it shall swallow up what they have produced: they have only produced the deceit of an enchanter: and come where he may, ill shall an enchanter fare."
And the magicians fell down and worshipped. They said,
"We believe in the Lord of Aaron and of Moses."
Said Pharaoh, "Believe ye on him ere I give you leave? He, in sooth, is your Master who hath taught you magic. I will therefore cut off your hands and your feet on opposite sides, and I will crucify you on trunks of the palm, and assuredly shall ye learn which of us is severest in punishing, and who is the more abiding."14