The Koran Part 75

And say, "O my Lord, cause me to enter26 with a perfect entry, and to come forth with a perfect forthcoming, and give me from thy presence a helping power:"

And SAY: Truth is come and falsehood is vanished. Verily, falsehood is a thing that vanisheth.

And we send down of the Koran that which is a healing and a mercy to the faithful: But it shall only add to the ruin of the wicked.

When we bestow favours on man, he withdraweth and goeth aside; but when evil toucheth him, he is despairing.

SAY: Every one acteth after his own manner: but your Lord well knoweth who is best guided in his path.

And they will ask thee of the Spirit.27 SAY: The Spirit proceedeth at my Lord's command: but of knowledge, only a little to you is given.

If we pleased, we could take away what we have revealed to thee: none couldst thou then find thee to undertake thy cause with us,

Save as a mercy from thy Lord; great, verily, is his favour towards thee.

SAY: Verily, were men and Djinn a.s.sembled to produce the like of this Koran, they could not produce its like, though the one should help the other.

And of a truth we have set out to men every kind of similitude in this Koran, but most men have refused everything except unbelief.

And they say, "By no means will we believe on thee till thou cause a fountain to gush forth for us from the earth;

Or, till thou have a garden of palm-trees and grapes, and thou cause forth- gushing rivers to gush forth in its midst;

Or thou make the heaven to fall on us, as thou hast given out, in pieces; or thou bring G.o.d and the angels to vouch for thee;

Or thou have a house of gold; or thou mount up into Heaven; nor will we believe in thy mounting up, till thou send down to us a book which we may read." SAY: Praise be to my Lord! Am I more than a man, an apostle?

And what hindereth men from believing, when the guidance hath come to them, but that they say, "Hath G.o.d sent a man as an apostle?"

SAY: Did angels walk the earth as its familiars, we had surely sent them an angel-apostle out of Heaven.

SAY: G.o.d is witness enough between you and me. His servants He scanneth, eyeth.

And He whom G.o.d shall guide will be guided indeed; and whom he shall mislead thou shalt find none to a.s.sist, but Him: and we will gather them together on the day of the resurrection, on their faces, blind and dumb and deaf: h.e.l.l shall be their abode: so oft as its fires die down, we will rekindle the flame.

This shall be their reward for that they believed not our signs and said, "When we shall have become bones and dust, shall we surely be raised a new creation?"

Do they not perceive that G.o.d, who created the Heavens and the Earth, is able to create their like? And he hath ordained them a term; there is no doubt of it: but the wicked refuse everything except unbelief.

SAY: If ye held the treasures of my Lord's mercy ye would certainly refrain from them through fear of spending them: for man is covetous.

We therefore gave to Moses nine clear signs. Ask thou, therefore, the children of Israel how it was when he came unto them, and Pharaoh said to him, "Verily, I deem thee, O Moses, a man enchanted."

Said Moses, "Thou knowest that none hath sent down these clear signs but the Lord of the Heavens and of the Earth; and I surely deem thee, O Pharaoh, a person lost."

So Pharaoh sought to drive them out of the land; but we drowned him and all his followers.

And after his death, we said to the children of Israel, "Dwell ye in the land:" and when the promise of the next life shall come to pa.s.s, we will bring you both up together to judgment. In truth have we sent down the Koran, and in truth hath it descended, and we have only sent thee to announce and to warn.

And we have parcelled out the Koran into sections, that thou mightest recite it unto men by slow degrees, and we have sent it down piecemeal.

SAY: Believe ye therein or believe ye not? They verily to whom knowledge had been given previously, fall on their faces worshipping when it is recited to them, and say: "Glory be to G.o.d! the promise of our Lord is made good!"

They fall down on their faces weeping, and It increaseth their humility.

SAY: Call upon G.o.d (Allah),28 or call upon the G.o.d of Mercy (Arrahman), by whichsoever ye will invoke him: He hath most excellent names. And be not loud in thy prayer, neither p.r.o.nounce it too low;29 but between these follow a middle way:

And SAY: Praise be to G.o.d who hath not begotten a son, who hath no partner in the Kingdom, nor any protector on account of weakness. And magnify him by proclaiming His greatness.30

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1 Verses 12, 23-41, 75-82, 87, are supposed by many commentators to have originated at Medina.

2 Waquidy says the night-journey took place on the 17th of Rabhy' 1, a twelvemonth before the Hejira.

3 Of Jerusalem; and thence through the seven heavens to the throne of G.o.d on the back of Borak, accompanied by Gabriel, according to some traditions; while others, and those too of early date, regard it as no more than a vision. It was, however, in all probability a dream. Muir ii. 219; Nold. p.

102, who give the Muhammadan sources of information.

4 It is probable that as this verse has no real or apparent connection with the preceding, a verse may have been lost, and that verse 1 has been placed at the head of the Sura merely because the night-journey is elsewhere alluded to in it.

5 According to the commentators the slaughter of Isaiah and the imprisonment of Jeremiah, punished by the invasion of the a.s.syrians.

6 Over Sennacherib.

7 The slaying Zacharias, John Baptist, and Jesus, punished by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans. Comp. Tr. Gittin, fol. 57, where we read of the sufferings drawn down upon the Jews in consequence of the former of these crimes.

8 That is, if ye return to sin, we will return to punish.

9 Lit. bird.

10 Comp. Mischnah Aboth, 3, 20.

11 Comp. in Heb. Isai. liii. 3.

12 Lit. lower a wing of humility.

13 Comp. Sura [lx.x.xix.] vi. 151; lx.x.xi. 8, p. 45. Zaid, the sceptical seeker after truth, is reported to have discouraged the killing of daughters, saying, "I will support them." Kitab al Wackidi, p. 255. See note at Sura [xcvii.] iii. 18.

14 Or, next of kin.

15 Or, run not after vain things which will avail nought. Or, accuse not any of a crime if thou art not sure of his guilt.

16 Used a variety of arguments and ill.u.s.trations.

17 Thus Tr. Chagiga, fol. 9 b. "There are seven heavens (rakian): the veil, the firmament, the clouds, the habitation, the abode, the fixed seat, the araboth." See Wetst. on 2 Cor. xii. 2.

18 In obvious allusion to the saint-worship of the Christians.