The Koran Part 141

For the Kingdom of the Heavens and the Earth is G.o.d's, and G.o.d hath power over all things.

Verily, in the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth, and in the succession of the night and of the day, are signs for men of understanding heart;

Who standing, and sitting, and reclining, bear G.o.d in mind, and muse on the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth. "O our Lord!" say they, "thou hast not created this in vain. No. Glory be to Thee! Keep us, then, from the torment of the fire.

O our Lord! surely thou wilt put him to shame whom thou shalt cause to enter into the Fire, and the wrong-doers shall have none to help them.

O our Lord! we have indeed heard the voice of one that called. He called us to the faith-'Believe on your Lord'-and we have believed.

O our Lord! forgive us then our sin, and hide away from us our evil deeds, and cause us to die with the righteous.

O our Lord! and give us what thou hast promised us by thine apostles, and put us not to shame on the day of the resurrection. Verily, Thou wilt not fail thy promise."

And their Lord answereth them, "I will not suffer the work of him among you that worketh, whether of male or female, to be lost. The one of you is the issue of the other.57

And they who have fled their country and quitted their homes and suffered in my cause, and have fought and fallen, I will blot out their sins from them, and I will bring them into gardens beneath which the streams do flow."

A recompense from G.o.d! and G.o.d! with His is the perfection of recompense!

Let not prosperity in the land58 on the part of those who believe not, deceive thee. 'Tis but a brief enjoyment! Then shall h.e.l.l be their abode; and wretched the bed!

But as to those who fear their Lord-for them are the gardens 'neath which the rivers flow: therein shall they abide for aye. Such their reception with G.o.d- and that which is with G.o.d is best for the righteous.

Among the people of the Book are those who believe in G.o.d, and in what He hath sent down to you, and in what He hath sent down to them, humbling themselves before G.o.d. They barter not the signs of G.o.d for a mean price.

These! their recompense awaiteth them with their Lord: aye! G.o.d is swift to take account.

O ye who believe! be patient, and vie in patience, and be firm, and fear G.o.d, that it may be well with you.

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1 Verses 1-87 probably belong to the period between the battle of Bedr and Hej. 6.-Muhammad supposed Imran or Amran to be the father of the Virgin Mary (Sura [cix.] lxvi. 12)-Mary and Elizabeth to be sisters; who, with Jesus, John, and Zacharias, make up the family of Imran. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Muhammad is guilty of the anachronism of confounding Miriam with the Virgin Mary. On the other hand is the difficulty of conceiving that as the sequence of time and fact is observed with tolerable accuracy in regard to the main features of Jewish and Christian History, he should have fallen into so serious an error, or have so inadvertently adopted, as Mr. Muir supposes, the phraseology of his Jewish informants (amongst whom the only well-known Mary (Miriam) was the daughter of Imran and the sister of Moses) as to have overlooked the discrepancy in their respective dates. But it is possible that Muhammad believed, as some Muslim writers a.s.sert, that Miriam's soul and body were miraculously preserved till the time of Jesus in order to become Mary his mother. Certainly the Talmudists fabled that the Angel of Death and the worm of corruption had no power over Miriam. Comp. Babha Bathra, 17. Jos. Ant. iv. 4, 6.

2 See note, p. 32.

3 See Sura xxi. 49, p. 154, n.

4 Lit. mother.

5 In the battle of Bedr, Muhammad, with 319 followers routed 1000 Meccans, A.H. 2.

6 That is, knowledge, or revelation, became the cause of disputings.

7 That is, will ye receive Islam? The Ummiin, or common folk, the heathen Arabians dest.i.tute of Revelation. In the earliest extant biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq, we find these words addressed by Zaid, previous to the a.s.sumption of the prophetic office by Muhammad, to the Koreisch. This is one of the facts which shew that the way was to a great extent prepared for Islam. This whole address of Zaid's-which contains not less than six pa.s.sages afterwards repeated in the Koran-may be seen in Dr. Sprenger's Life of M. p.

42. The instances of others who had learned to disbelieve in idolatry, and had either become Jews or Christians, or held their minds in suspense, might easily be multiplied. Comp. Sharastani, p. 437. Masudi, ch. 6.

8 The King of the Kingdom, or, Lord of Might. This verse and the following are either fragments of some lost Sura, or belonging to one of the Meccan Suras. At any rate, they are misplaced, interrupting as they do the connection of the preceding and subsequent verses.

9 The wife of Imran is Hannah or Anne. Comp. Protev. Jac. iv. [greek text].- Evang. de Nat. Mar. 1: Voverunt tamen (Mari' parentes) si forte donaret eis Deus sobolem, eam se Dni servitio manc.i.p.aturos.-Although Muhammad had no direct access to the Apocryphal Gospels, yet these may have influenced, or at any rate, contained much in common with, the ordinary traditions of S. Syria.

And of this, the Immaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary, supposed by Gibbon (ch. 50) to have been "borrowed from the Koran," probably formed a part.

10 That is, the female could not become a priest.

11 See note, p. 114.

12 According to a tradition of Muhammad every new-born child is touched by Satan, with the exception of Mary and her Son, between whom and Satan G.o.d interposed a veil. (Djelal. Beidh.) Hence this pa.s.sage may imply the Immaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary. See v. 37 below.

13 Evang. de Nat. Mar. 7: Quotidie ab angelis frequentabatur, quotidie divina visione fruebatur, queam a malis omnibus custodiebat et bonis omnibus redundare faciebat. Protev. Jac. 8: [greek text]. Hist. Nativ. Mar. 6: Quotidie esca, quam de manu angeli accipiebat, ipsa tantum reficiebatur.

14 The word rendered descendants is a collective noun. Gerock (p. 20) thinks that Zacharias' prayer was not for a son of his own, but for an adopted son- as, for instance, the future husband of Mary who might become his heir, and hence accounts for his surprise and unbelief at the announcement of John.

15 Lit. chamber. By this may be meant an [greek text] of the Temple Comp.

Luke i. 21.

16 Luke i. 28.

17 Hist. de Nativ. Mar. 6: Abierunt simul Joachim et Anna uxor ejus ad templum domini, et ... tradiderunt ... Mariam in contubernio virginum qu'

die noctuque in Dei laudibus manebant.

18 These reeds, say the commentators, were written over with pa.s.sages from the law, and cast into Jordan. That of Zacharias alone swam, and was the token that the charge of Mary was to devolve on him. Others render, their divining arrows. See a detailed account of the manner in which this matter was settled by [greek text], virgae, in Protev. Jac. Thilo. p. 204. Hist.

Nat. Mar. ib. p. 359 sqq.

19 Ar. El-Mesich Isa ben Mariam, ill.u.s.trious in this world as a Prophet, in the next as an Intercessor. Beidh.

20 Evang. Thom', ch. 2 (Thilo. p. 281) and Evang. Infantiae Arab. ch. 36, 46.

(Thilo. p. 111, 123.)

20-21a (0) Addenda: Lit. who my helpers unto G.o.d? i.e., helpers of his religion (Beidh). If Muhammad had become, by any means, acquainted with the use of the aeth. radeh, helper or disciple, we have herein a probable interpretation of this pa.s.sage, as well as of the word Ansar.

21 See Sura [cxiv.] v. 111.

22 Muhammad probably believed that G.o.d took the dead body of Jesus to Heaven- for three hours according to some-while the Jews crucified a man who resembled him. Sura [c.] iv. 156. The word motewaffika (comp. Sura [lx.x.x.]

x.x.xix. 156) means, in speaking of G.o.d, to cause to die, take to himself. It would also seem from Sura [lviii.] xix. 34, that Muhammad supposed Jesus to have died a natural death, though it is nowhere said how long he continued in that state. The Muhammadans believe that Jesus on his return to earth at the end of the world will slay the Antichrist, die, and be raised again. A vacant place is reserved for his body in the Prophet's tomb at Medina. See Lieut.

Burton's Pilgrimage, vol. ii.

23 Lit. verily the similitude or a.n.a.logy of Isa is as the similitude or a.n.a.logy of Adam, i.e. neither of them had a human father.

24 This refers to an emba.s.sy from the Christians in Nedjran in Arabia, with their Bishop, Abu Hareth, at their head, to Muhammad at Medina, who had now acquired political power. The emba.s.sy declined to be parties to the strange mode of settling the dispute here proposed, but consented to pay tribute on condition of not being molested in their religion or lands.

25 If this be not a mere figure of speech, it must mean let us call over and curse the names, the persons being at a distance.

26 As the Christians do their Bishops and Priests.

27 Whether he were a Jew or Christian.

28 About Moses and Jesus, and their respective faiths.