The Koran Part 59

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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 G.o.ds.

4 This may allude to the so-called "confederacy" of the Koreisch against Muhammad.

5 This term is also applied to Pharaoh, Sura lx.x.xix. 9, p. 54. He is said to have fastened the Israelites to stakes, and then subjected them to various torments.

addenda: This is the usual interpretation. Lit. Lord of, or, possessor of 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 necyb, i.e., fortresses; whereas, in Ar., nacyb, means an erection, pillar, etc., for which Muhammad subst.i.tuted the word for tent stakes. Vol.

i. (470).

6 Praediti (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 Noldeke, p. 99, that David is still addressed: the Koran, if with Sale we refer the pa.s.sage 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.

11 Solomon, in his admiration of these horses, the result, we are told, of 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.

14 The fountain which had sprung up. To this history the Talmudists have no 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 a.s.sistance, 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 pa.s.sage 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.

20 About the creation of man.

21 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 28, ff.

22 Comp. Ps. civ. 4.

23 Lit. stoned. See Sura xv. 34, p. 114.

SURA x.x.xVI.-YA. SIN [LX.]

MECCA.-83 Verses

In the Name of G.o.d, the Compa.s.sionate, 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.

On their necks have we placed chains which reach the chin, and forced up are their heads:

Before them have we set a barrier and behind them a barrier, and we have 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.

Him only shalt thou really warn, who followeth the monition and feareth the G.o.d of mercy in secret: him cheer with tidings of pardon, and of a n.o.ble 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 G.o.d."

They said, "Ye are only men like us: Nought hath the G.o.d of Mercy sent down.

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;