The Koran Part 117

Einl. pp. 295 327. The Koreisch (we are told in Sirat Arrasul, fol. 26, and Beidh.), in order to instil a deep respect for the Caaba and other holy places into the minds of the Arabians, had forbidden all food during the processions, and required that no clothes, except those borrowed from Meccans, should be worn, or that those who wore their own should devote them to G.o.d as holy vestments. The consequence was that most of the pilgrims visited the holy places in perfect nudity. Hence the precept in the text.

7 The Angels of Death.

8 Comp. Matth. xix. 24; Mark x. 25; Luke xviii. 25. By the change of a single vowel in the Arabic word for camel, we obtain the rendering, cable. In the Rabbinic form of the proverb, however, the elephant is subst.i.tuted for the camel, which confirms the usual rendering and reading.

9 "On this wall (the name of which is derived from Arafa, 'to know,' with allusion to the employment of those upon it) will stand those whose good and evil works are equal, and are not, therefore, deserving of either Paradise or Gehenna. The idea, which is a.n.a.logous to that of Purgatory, may be derived from the Talmud. Thus in the Midrasch on Eccl. vii. 14, 'How much s.p.a.ce is there between the two' (Paradise and h.e.l.l)? R. Jochanan saith, a wall; R.

Acha, a span: others hold them to be so close that a person may see from one into the other." See Plato's Phaed. 62.

10 That is, they will know the inmates of Paradise by their whiteness, and the people of h.e.l.l by the blackness of their faces.

11 That is, ye believers: to whom the speakers on Al Araf are supposed to turn.

12 The fruits of Paradise. Comp. Luke xvi. 19.

13 The fulfilment of its promises and threats.

14 The rain. Thus, the Rabbins call the rain "the might and power of G.o.d,"

Comp. Tract Tanith, fol. I, and connect it with the Resurrection, Tract Berachoth, fol. 33.

15 The Rabbins in like manner describe the mission of Noah. Comp. Sanhedr.

108. Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 30, 33; and on Eccl. 9, 14. See Sura [lxxv.]

xi. 40.

16 The two tribes of Ad and Themoud-the latter of whom is mentioned by Diod.

Sic. and Ptolemy-lay to the north of Mecca in the direct line of traffic between the countries to the north and to the south, and both probably disappeared with its cessation, when the Arabs were no longer held in check by the Romans. The traditions adopted by Muhammad attribute this to the divine vengeance, throughout the Koran, and were derived by him from the popular legends of Arabia. See Freyt. Einl. p. 12.

17 On Houd, see Geiger, pp. 113 119. He supposes him to be the Eber of the Bible. But Mr. Muir suggests that both Houd and Saleh may have been persecuted Jewish or Christian emissaries and teachers, whose rejection was thus recast by Muhammad. See note on verse 71.

18 Or, entrusted, i.e. with the office of apostle.

19 Saleh-according to Bochart, the Peleg of Gen. xi. 16. D'Herbelot, B. O.

740, makes him the Schelah of Gen. xi. 13. See v. 63, n. and p. 220, n.

20 It is just possible that the act of Koleib, chief of the Banu Taghlib tribe, in killing the milch camel of Ba.s.s, a female relative of his wife of Bani-Bakr lineage-which led to a forty years' war between these two tribes, A.D. 490-may have been worked up by Muhammad into this account of the persecutions of Saleh.

21 See Sura xxiv. 176, p. 109.

22 This verse may contain an implied reference to the famine with which Mecca had been visited, and fix the date of this part of the Sura. Comp. verse 127.

23 Lit. plot, stratagem.

24 Comp. the pa.s.sage from Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 48, who makes Moses perform this miracle in the presence of Pharaoh, which the Scripture (Ex. vii.) account does not. The Muhammadan tradition is that Moses was a black.

25 Lit. cause him to hope, temporise with him.

26 Lit. male ominati sunt. Mar. They traced their calamities to Moses. So Sale. Kas. But Ullmann. renders, they attributed their misfortunes to the predictions of Moses.

27 In Suras [lxvii.] xvii. and [lxviii.] Muhammad speaks of nine plagues. The flood is not mentioned in the Scripture.

28 Lit. when we removed from them the plague until a period at which they should arrive.

29 Lit. that in which these are.

30 Lit. the set time of his Lord was fulfilled in forty nights.

31 Sale and others render having a body, corporeal, of which the commentators give no satisfactory explanation. I have adopted that given by Freytag in v.

That the calf lowed in consequence of Samal having entered into it, is one of the traditions of the Talmud. Pirke R. Eliezer, c. 45.

32 Compare Sura [lx.x.xi.] xxix. 47, [xciv.] lxxii. 2, [xci.] ii. 73. The word ummyy is derived from ummah, a nation, and means Gentile; it here refers to Muhammad's ignorance, previous to the revelation of Islam, of the ancient Scriptures. It is equivalent to the Gr. laic, ethnic, and to the term gojim, as applied by the Jews to those unacquainted with the Scriptures. There can, however, be no doubt that Muhammad-in spite of his a.s.sertions to the contrary, with the view of proving his inspiration-was well acquainted with the Bible histories. He wished to appear ignorant in order to raise the elegance of the Koran into a miracle. For the pa.s.sages of Scripture said to foretel Muhammad, see Poc.o.c.k's Sp. Hist. Ar. p. 188, ed. White.

33 If these words, as Noldeke supposes, contain an allusion to the Ansars, it is likely that this verse was added at Medina. The epithet Al-Ummy (the unlettered) does not, thus, occur in Meccan Suras.

34 The Koran.

35 Pirke R. Eliezer, 45, explains Ex. x.x.xii. 26, of the tribe of Levi, as not having been implicated with the other tribes in the sin of the golden calf.

36 The Jews changed hittat, absolution, indulgence, into habbat, corn.

37 This and the next six verses are supposed to have been added at Medina.

38 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 61. No trace of this legend is to be found in the Talmudists. The city is said to have been Aila (Elath) on the Red Sea.

39 Perhaps in allusion to Deut. xxviii. 49, 50.

40 As bribes to pervert Scripture, etc.

41 Sinai-which, however, is not mentioned in the Koran as the place where the law was given. Comp. "I will cover you with the mountain like a roof." Abodah Sar. 2, 2. Thus also in Tract Sabbath, f. 88, 1, "R. Avdimi ... saith, These words teach us that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the mountain over them like a vessel, and said to them, If ye will receive the law, well; but if not, there shall be your grave." This tradition is still held by the Jews. See D. Lewis Pent. Prayers, fol. 150. Its origin is a misunderstanding of Ex. xix. 17, rightly rendered in the E. version at the nether part of the mountain.

42 To the Jews.

43 Balaam. But according to others, a Jew who renounced his faith in Muhammad.

44 The 99 t.i.tles of G.o.d, taken from the Koran, are to be found in Maracci, vol. 11, p. 414, or in Macbride's Religion of the Mohammedans, p. 121. To facilitate the repet.i.tion of these names, the Muslims use a rosary.

45 In altering the names of G.o.d, changing allah into Allat, Elaziz into Alozza, Mennan into Menat, etc.

46 Lit. and in what declaration after it will they believe?

47 That is, it weighs heavily on the hopes and fears of men, djinn, and angels.

48 Probably the usual final clause, whence ye looked not for it, should here be added to make good the rhyme, which is otherwise interrupted in the original.

49 Some render salihan, well made, rightly shaped; others, virtuous, morally perfect.

50 And their idolatrous posterity. Beidh.

51 Take or use indulgence; i.e. take men and their actions as they are, and make all due allowances. Some understand it, of Muhammad's accepting such voluntary and superfluous alms as the people could spare.

52 That is, those under Satanic influence.