The Koran Part 8

Verily, we have proved them (the Meccans) as we proved the owners of the garden, when they swore that at morn they would cut its fruits;

But added no reserve.5

Wherefore an encircling desolation from thy Lord swept round it while they slumbered,

And in the morning it was like a garden whose fruits had all been cut.

Then at dawn they called to each other,

"Go out early to your field, if ye would cut your dates."

So on they went whispering to each other,

"No poor man shall set foot this day within your garden;"

And they went out at daybreak with this settled purpose.

But when they beheld it, they said, "Truly we have been in fault:

Yes! we are forbidden our fruits."

The most rightminded of them said, "Did I not say to you, Will ye not give praise to G.o.d?"

They said, "Glory to our Lord! Truly we have done amiss."

And they fell to blaming one another:

They said, "Oh woe to us! we have indeed transgressed!

Haply our Lord will give us in exchange a better garden than this: verily we crave it of our Lord."

Such hath been our chastis.e.m.e.nt-but heavier shall be the chastis.e.m.e.nt of the next world. Ah! did they but know it.

Verily, for the G.o.d-fearing are gardens of delight in the presence of their Lord.

Shall we then deal with those who have surrendered themselves to G.o.d, as with those who offend him?

What hath befallen you that ye thus judge?

Have ye a Scripture wherein ye can search out

That ye shall have the things ye choose?

Or have ye received oaths which shall bind Us even until the day of the resurrection, that ye shall have what yourselves judge right?

Ask them which of them will guarantee this?

Or is it that they have joined G.o.ds with G.o.d? let them produce those a.s.sociate-G.o.ds of theirs, if they speak truth.

On the day when men's legs shall be bared,6 and they shall be called upon to bow in adoration, they shall not be able:

Their looks shall be downcast: shame shall cover them: because, while yet in safety, they were invited to bow in worship, but would not obey.

Leave me alone therefore with him who chargeth this revelation with imposture. We will lead them by degrees to their ruin; by ways which they know not;

Yet will I bear long with them; for my plan is sure.

Askest thou any recompense from them? But they are burdened with debt.

Are the secret things within their ken? Do they copy them from the Book of G.o.d?

Patiently then await the judgment of thy Lord, and be not like him who was in the fish,7 when in deep distress he cried to G.o.d.

Had not favour from his Lord reached him, cast forth would he have been on the naked sh.o.r.e, overwhelmed with shame:

But his Lord chose him and made him of the just.

Almost would the infidels strike thee down with their very looks when they hear the warning of the Koran. And they say, "He is certainly possessed."

Yet is it nothing less than a warning for all creatures.

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1 It has been conjectured that as the word Nun means fish, there may be a reference to the fish which swallowed Jonas (v. 48). The fact, however, is that the meaning of this and of the similar symbols, throughout the Koran, was unknown to the Muhammadans themselves even in the first century. Possibly the letters Ha, Mim, which are prefixed to numerous successive Suras were private marks, or initial letters, attached by their proprietor to the copies furnished to Said when effecting his recension of the text under Othman. In the same way, the letters prefixed to other Suras may be monograms, or abbreviations, or initial letters of the names of the persons to whom the copies of the respective Suras belonged.

addenda: The symbol nun may possibly refer to this letter as forming the Rhyme in most of the verses of this Sura.

2 This Sura has been supposed by ancient Muslim authorities to be, if not the oldest, the second revelation, and to have followed Sura xcvi. But this opinion probably originated from the expression in v. 1 compared with Sura xcvi. 4. Verses 17-33 read like a later addition, and this pa.s.sage, as well as verse 48-50, has been cla.s.sed with the Medina revelations. In the absence of any reliable criterion for fixing the date, I have placed this Sura with those which detail the opposition encountered by the Prophet at Mecca.

3 By djinn. Comp. Sur. x.x.xiv. 45.

4 In bearing the taunts of the unbelievers with patience.

5 They did not add the restriction, if G.o.d will.

6 An expression implying a grievous calamity; borrowed probably from the action of stripping previous to wrestling, swimming, etc.

7 Lit. the companion of the fish. Comp. on Jonah Sura x.x.xvii. 139-148, and Sura xxi. 87.

SURA XC.-THE SOIL [XVIII.]

MECCA.-20 Verses

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

I NEED not to swear by this SOIL,