The Project Gutenberg ebook of The Koran
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| And they will say: "Why see we not the men whom we numbered among the wicked�
Whom we used to treat with scorn? Have they escaped our eyes?"17 Verily this is truth�the wrangling together of the people of the fire. SAY: I am but a warner; and there is no God but God the One, the Almighty! Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that is between them,18 the Potent, the Forgiving! SAY: this is a weighty message,19 From which ye turn aside! Yet had I no knowledge of what passed among the celestial chiefs when they disputed,20 �Verily, it hath been revealed to me only because I am a public preacher� When thy Lord said to the angels, "I am about to make man of clay,21 And when I have formed him and breathed my spirit into him, then worshipping fall down before him." And the angels prostrated themselves, all of them with one accord, Save Eblis. He swelled with pride, and became an unbeliever. "O Eblis," said God, "what hindereth thee from prostrating thyself before him whom my hands have made? Is it that thou are puffed up with pride? or art thou a being of lofty merit?"
clay hast thou created him."
Hell, and with such of them as shall follow thee, one and all. Say: I ask no wage of you for this, nor am I one who intermeddleth. Of a truth the Koran is no other than a warning to all creatures. And after a time shall ye surely know its message. _______________________ 1 The letter S. See Sura lxviii. p. 32. 2 These verses are said to have been revealed when, upon the conversion of Omar, the Koreisch went in a body to Abu Talib and requested him to withdraw his protection from Muhammad, but being put to silence by the latter, departed in great confusion. Wah. Beidh. 3 That is, in the Christian religion, which teaches, Muhammad ironically implies, a plurality of Gods. 4 This may allude to the so-called "confederacy" of the Koreisch against Muhammad. 5 This term is also applied to Pharaoh, Sura lxxxix. 9, p. 54. He is said to have fastened the Israelites to stakes, and then subjected them to various torments.
stakes (comp. li. 39 in Ar.), i.e., Forces. Dr. Sprenger ingenuously suggests that Muhammad�s Jewish informant may have described Pharaoh as rich in neçyb, i.e., fortresses; whereas, in Ar., naçyb, means an erection, pillar, etc., for which Muhammad substituted the word for tent stakes. Vol. i. (470). 6 Prćditi (manibus) virtute. Mar. 7 Comp. Ps. cxlviii. 9, 10. 8 Two angels who pretended to appeal to David in order to convince him of his sin in the matter of Uriah's wife. Comp. I Sam. xii. 9 The Psalms, if we suppose with Nöldeke, p. 99, that David is still addressed: the Koran, if with Sale we refer the passage to Muhammad. 10 The Commentators say that the word used in the original implies that the mares stood on three feet, and touched the ground with the edge of the fourth foot.
David's or his own conquests, forgot the hour of evening prayer, and when aware of his fault commenced their slaughter. The Tr. Sanhedr. fol. 21, mentions Solomon's love for horses, and that he determined to have a large stud; yet not to send the people to Egypt (Deut. xvii. 16) but to have them brought to him out of Egypt (I Kings x. 28). 12 One of the Djinn. The absurd fiction may be seen in extenso in Sale. Compare Tr. Sanhedr. fol. 20, b. and Midr. Jalkut on I Kings vi. § 182. 13 Thus the second Targum on Esther i. 2, mentions the four different kinds of Demons which were "given into the hand" of Solomon�a legend derived from a misunderstanding of Eccl. ii. 8.
allusion. 15 Thy wife;�on whom he had sworn that he would inflict an hundred blows, because she had absented herself from him when in need of her assistance, or for her words (Job ii. 9). The oath was kept, we are told, by his giving her one blow with a rod of a hundred stalks. This passage is often quoted by the Muslims as authorising any similar manner of release from an oath inconsiderately taken. 16 Lit. men of hand and of sight. 17 Lit. or do our eyes wander from them. 18 See verses 9, 26, above. It seems to have been one of the peculiarities of Muhammad, as a person very deficient in imagination, to dwell upon and repeat the same ideas, with an intensity which is at once an evidence of deep personal conviction and consciousness, of the simple Arabian especially. 19 The connection between the concluding episode and the preceding part of the Sura does not seem very clear. It probably originated at a different but uncertain period.
SURA XXXVI.�YA. SIN [LX.] MECCA.�83 Verses In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful YA. SIN.1 By the wise Koran! Surely of the Sent Ones, Thou, Upon a right path! A revelation of the Mighty, the Merciful, That thou shouldest warn a people whose fathers were not warned and therefore lived in heedlessness! Just, now, is our sentence2 against most of them; therefore they shall not believe.
their heads:
shrouded them in a veil, so that they shall not see. Alike is it to them if thou warn them or warn them not: they will not believe.
God of mercy in secret: him cheer with tidings of pardon, and of a noble recompense. Verily, it is We who will quicken the dead, and write down the works which they have sent on before them, and the traces which they shall have left behind them: and everything have we set down in the clear Book of our decrees.3 Set forth to them the instance of the people of the city4 when the Sent Ones came to it. When we sent two unto them and they charged them both with imposture� therefore with a third we strengthened them: and they said, "Verily we are the Sent unto you of God."
Ye do nothing but lie." They said, "Our Lord knoweth that we are surely sent unto you; To proclaim a clear message is our only duty." They said, "Of a truth we augur ill from you:5 if ye desist not we will surely stone you, and a grievous punishment will surely befall you from us." They said, "Your augury of ill is with yourselves. Will ye be warned?6 Nay, ye are an erring people." Then from the end of the city a man came running:7 He said, "O my people! follow the Sent Ones; Follow those who ask not of you a recompense, and who are rightly guided. And why should I not worship Him who made me, and to whom ye shall be brought back?
their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver:
people knew How gracious God hath been to me, and that He hath made me one of His honoured ones." But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels� There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct. Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn. See they not how many generations we have destroyed before them? Not to false gods is it that they shall be brought9 back, But all, gathered together, shall be set before Us. Moreover, the dead earth is a sign to them: we quicken it and bring forth the grain from it, and they eat thereof: And we make in it gardens of the date and vine; and we cause springs to gush forth in it; That they may eat of its fruits and of the labour of their hands. Will they not therefore be thankful? Glory be to Him, who hath created all the sexual pairs of such things as Earth produceth,10 and of mankind themselves; and of things beyond their ken! A sign to them also is the Night. We withdraw the day from it, and lo! they are plunged in darkness; And the Sun hasteneth to her place of rest. This, the ordinance of the Mighty, the Knowing! And as for the Moon, We have decreed stations for it, till it change like an old and crooked palm branch. To the Sun it is not given to overtake the Moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day; but each in its own sphere doth journey on. It is also a sign to them that we bare their posterity in the full-laden Ark; And that we have made for them vessels like it on which they embark; And if we please, we drown them, and there is none to help them, and they are not rescued, Unless through our mercy, and that they may enjoy themselves for yet awhile. And when it is said to them, Fear what is before you and what is behind you,11 that ye may obtain mercy. . . . Aye, not one sign from among the signs of their Lord dost thou bring them, but they turn away from it! And when it is said to them, Give alms of what God hath bestowed on you,12 they who believe not say to the believers, "Shall we feed him whom God can feed if He will? Truly ye are in no other than a plain error."
they return. And the trumpet shall be blown, and, lo! they shall speed out of their sepulchres to their Lord: They shall say, "Oh! woe to us! who hath roused us from our sleeping place? 'Tis what the God of Mercy promised; and the Apostles spake the truth." But one blast shall there be,13 and, lo! they shall be assembled before us, all together. And on that day shall no soul be wronged in the least: neither shall ye be rewarded but as ye shall have wrought. But joyous on that day shall be the inmates of Paradise, in their employ; In shades, on bridal couches reclining, they and their spouses: Therein shall they have fruits, and shall have whatever they require� "Peace!" shall be the word on the part of a merciful Lord. "But be ye separated this day, O ye sinners! Did I not enjoin on you, O sons of Adam, 'Worship not Satan, for that he is your declared foe,' But 'Worship Me: this is a right path'? But now hath he led a vast host of you astray. Did ye not then comprehend? This is Hell with which ye were threatened: Endure its heat this day, for that ye believed not." On that day will we set a seal upon their mouths; yet shall their hands speak unto us, and their feet14 shall bear witness of that which they shall have done.
they speed on with rivalry in their path: but how should they see? And, if we pleased, we would surely transform them as they stand,15 and they would not be able to move onward, or to return. Him cause we to stoop through age whose days we lengthen. Will they not understand? We have not taught him (Muhammad) poetry,16 nor would it beseem him. This Book is no other than a warning and a clear Koran, To warn whoever liveth; and, that against the Infidels sentence may be justly given.
have wrought, the animals of which they are masters?
others they eat; And they find in them profitable uses and beverages: Yet have they taken other gods beside God that they might be helpful to them. No power have they to succour them: yet are their votaries an army at their service.
to light.
Yet lo! is he an open caviller. And he meeteth us with arguments,17 and forgetteth his creation: "Who," saith he, "shall give life to bones when they are rotten?" SAY: He shall give life to them who gave them being at first, for in all creation is he skilled: Who even out of the green tree hath given you fire18, and lo! ye kindle flame from it.
to create your likes? Yes! and He is the skilful creator.
be brought back. _______________________
It is recited in all Muhammadan countries to the dying, at the tombs of saints, etc. On Ya. Sin, see Sura lxviii. p. 32.
the actions of mankind are written down. 4 Antioch, to which Jesus is said to have sent two disciples to preach the unity of God, and subsequently Simon Peter. This vague story, and that of the seven sleepers in Sura xviii. are the only traces to be found in the Koran of any knowledge, on the part of Muhammad, of the history of the Church subsequent to the day of Pentecost, or of the spread of the Christian religion. 5 Comp. Sura xxvii. 48; vii. 128, where, as in this passage, the word augur refers to the mode of divination practised previous to Islam, by the flight of birds.
tomb at Antioch is still an object of veneration to the Muhammadans. 8 Ullm. following Wahl, renders, Als sie (die stadtlente) darauf ihn schändlich behandleten. The verb in the original is thus used in the 4th conj. Nöldeke supposes that words to this effect have been lost from the text. But of this there is no trace in the Commentators. 9 Or, the Apostles shall not return to them again. Ullm. 10 For instance, date trees, the female blossoms of which were carefully impregnated, when requisite, by branches of the male plant. See Freyt. Einl. p. 271.
verse to have originated at Medina. 13 The Muhammadans affirm that a space of forty years will intervene between two blasts of the Trumpet. Maracci suggests that the idea of the two blasts is derived from 1 Thess. iv. 16, "the voice of the archangel and . . . the trump of God." 14 Thus Chagiga, 16; Taanith, 11. "The very members of a man bear witness against him, for thus is it written (Is. xliii. 12), Ye yourselves are my witnesses, saith the Lord." See also Sura [lxxi.] xli. 19, 20.
SURA XLIII.�ORNAMENTS OF GOLD [LXI.] MECCA.�89 Verses. In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful Ha. Mim.1 By the Luminous Book! We have made it an Arabic Koran that ye may understand: And it is a transcript of the archetypal Book,2 kept by us; it is lofty, filled with wisdom, Shall we then turn aside this warning from you because ye are a people who transgress? Yet how many prophets sent we among those of old! But no prophet came to them whom they made not the object of their scorn: Wherefore we destroyed nations mightier than these Meccans in strength; and the example of those of old hath gone before! And if thou ask them who created the Heavens and the Earth, they will say: "The Mighty, the Sage, created them both," Who hath made the Earth as a couch for you, and hath traced out routes therein for your guidance; And who sendeth down out of Heaven the rain in due degree, by which we quicken a dead land; thus shall ye be brought forth from the grave: And who hath created the sexual couples, all of them, and hath made for you the ships and beasts whereon ye ride: That ye may sit balanced on their backs and remember the goodness of your Lord as ye sit so evenly thereon, and say: "Glory to Him who hath subjected these to us! We could not have attained to it of ourselves:
is an open ingrate! Hath God adopted daughters from among those whom he hath created, and chosen sons for you? But when that3 is announced to any one of them, which he affirmeth to be the case with the God of Mercy,4 his face settleth into darkness and he is silent-sad.
trinkets, and is ever contentious without reason? And they make the angels who are the servants of God of Mercy, females. What! did they witness their creation? Their witness shall be taken down, and they shall hereafter be enquired at.
worshipped them." No knowledge have they in this: they only lie. Have we ere this given them a Book?5 and do they possess it still? But say they: "Verily we found our fathers of that persuasion, and verily, by their footsteps do we guide ourselves." And thus never before thy time did we send a warner to any city but its wealthy ones said: "Verily we found our fathers with a religion, and in their tracks we tread."
religion more right than that ye found your fathers following?" And they said, "Verily we believe not in your message."
those who treated our messengers as liars! And bear in mind when Abraham said to his father and to his people, "Verily I am clear of what ye worship, Save Him who hath created me; for he will vouchsafe me guidance." And this he established as a doctrine that should abide among his posterity, that to God might they be turned. In sooth to these idolatrous Arabians and to their fathers did I allow their full enjoyments, till the truth should come to them, and an undoubted apostle:
believe it not." And they say, "Had but this Koran been sent down to some great one of the two cities6 . . .!" Are they then the distributors of thy Lord's Mercy?7 It is we who distribute their subsistence among them in this world's life; and we raise some of them by grades above others, that the one may take the other to serve him: but better is the mercy of thy Lord than all their hoards. But for fear that all mankind would have become a single people of unbelievers, verily we would certainly have given to those who believe not in the God of Mercy roofs of silver to their houses, and silver stairs to ascend by;
And ORNAMENTS OF GOLD: for all these are merely the good things of the present life; but the next life doth thy Lord reserve for those who fear Him. And whoso shall withdraw from the Warning of the God of Mercy, we will chain a Satan to him, and he shall be his fast companion: For the Satans will turn men aside from the Way, who yet shall deem themselves rightly guided; Until when man shall come before us, he shall say, "O Satan, would that between me and thee were the distance of the East and West."8 And a wretched companion is a Satan.
shall ye be in the torment. What! Canst thou then make the deaf to hear, or guide the blind and him who is in palpable error? Whether therefore we take thee off by death, surely will we avenge ourselves on them;
threatened them, we will surely gain the mastery over them.9
right path: For truly to thee and to thy people it is an admonition; and ye shall have an account to render for it at last.10 And ask our Sent Ones whom we have sent before thee, "Appointed we gods beside the God of Mercy whom they should worship?"11 Of old sent we Moses with our signs to Pharaoh and his nobles: and he said, "I truly am the Apostle of the Lord of the worlds." And when he presented himself before them with our signs, lo! they laughed at them,
therefore did we lay hold on them with chastisement, to the intent that they might be turned to God. Then they said, "O Magician! call on thy Lord on our behalf to do as he hath engaged with thee, for truly we would fain be guided." But when we relieved them from the chastisement, lo! they broke their pledge. And Pharaoh made proclamation among his people. Said he, "O my people! is not the kingdom of Egypt mine, and these rivers which flow at my feet?13 Do ye not behold?
train of Angels?" And he inspired his people with levity, and they obeyed him; for they were a perverse people: And when they had angered us, we took vengeance on them, and we drowned them all.
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