The Koran Part 61

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.

See they not that we have created for them among the things which our hands have wrought, the animals of which they are masters?

And that we have subjected them unto them? And on some they ride, and of others they eat;

And they find in them profitable uses and beverages:

Yet have they taken other G.o.ds beside G.o.d that they might be helpful to them.

No power have they to succour them: yet are their votaries an army at their service.

Let not their speech grieve thee: We know what they hide and what they bring to light.

Doth not man perceive that we have created him of the moist germs of life?

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.

What! must not He who hath created the Heavens and the Earth be mighty enough to create your likes? Yes! and He is the skilful creator.

His command when He willeth aught, is but to say to it, BE, and IT IS.

So glory be to Him in whose hand is sway over all things! And to Him shall ye be brought back.

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1 This Sura is said to have been termed by Muhammad "the heart of the Koran."

It is recited in all Muhammadan countries to the dying, at the tombs of saints, etc. On Ya. Sin, see Sura lxviii. p. 32.

2 Sura x.x.xviii. 85, p. 129.

3 Lit. in the clear prototype, that is, in the Preserved Table, on which all the actions of mankind are written down.

4 Antioch, to which Jesus is said to have sent two disciples to preach the unity of G.o.d, 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 pa.s.sage, the word augur refers to the mode of divination practised previous to Islam, by the flight of birds.

6 Lit. if ye have been warned (will ye still disbelieve?).

7 Habib, the carpenter, who, as implied at verse 25, was martyred, and whose tomb at Antioch is still an object of veneration to the Muhammadans.

8 Ullm. following Wahl, renders, Als sie (die stadtlente) darauf ihn schandlich behandleten. The verb in the original is thus used in the 4th conj. Noldeke 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.

11 The chastis.e.m.e.nts of this world and of the next.

12 On account of this precept, Itq. 35, and Omar b. Muhammad suppose the verse to have originated at Medina.

13 The Muhammadans affirm that a s.p.a.ce 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 G.o.d."

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.

15 Lit. in their place.

16 See Sura xxvi. 225, p. III.

17 Lit. he setteth forth to us comparisons.

18 The form of the Arabic word is Rabbinic Hebrew.

SURA XLIII.-ORNAMENTS OF GOLD [LXI.]

MECCA.-89 Verses.

In the Name of G.o.d, the Compa.s.sionate, 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 s.e.xual couples, all of them, and hath made for you the s.h.i.+ps and beasts whereon ye ride: