Verily, Hell-that shall be his dwelling-place:
But as to him who shall have feared the majesty of his Lord, and shall have refrained his soul from lust,
Verily, Paradise-that shall be his dwelling-place.
They will ask thee of "the Hour," when will be its fixed time?
But what knowledge hast thou of it?
Its period is known only to thy Lord;
And thou art only charged with the warning of those who fear it.
On the day when they shall see it, it shall seem to them as though they had not tarried in the tomb, longer than its evening or its morn.
_______________________
1 This Sura obviously consists of three portions, verses 1-14, 15-26, 27-46, of which the third is the latest in point of style, and the second, more detailed than is usual in the Suras of the early period, which allude to Jewish and other legend only in brief and vague terms. It may therefore be considered as one of the short and early Suras.
2 Or, By those angels which precede, i.e., the souls of the pious into Paradise. Or, are beforehand with the Satans and djinn in learning the decrees of God.
MECCA.-50 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
By the train of THE SENT ones,1
And the swift in their swiftness;
By the scatterers who scatter,
And the distinguishers who distinguish;
And by those that give forth the word
To excuse or warn;
Verily that which ye are promised is imminent.
When the stars, therefore, shall be blotted out,
And when the heaven shall be cleft,
And when the mountains shall be scattered in dust,
And when the Apostles shall have a time assigned them;
Until what day shall that time be deferred?
To the day of severing!
And who shall teach thee what the day of severing is?
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
Have we not destroyed them of old?
We will next cause those of later times to follow them.2
Thus deal we with the evil doers.
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
Have we not created you of a sorry germ,
Which we laid up in a secure place,
Till the term decreed for birth?
Such is our power! and, how powerful are We!
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
Have we not made the earth to hold
The living and the dead?
And placed on it the tall firm mountains, and given you to drink of sweet water.
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
Begone to that Hell which ye called a lie:-
Begone to the shadows that lie in triple masses;
"But not against the flame shall they shade or help you:"-
The sparks which it casteth out are like towers-
Like tawny camels.
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
On that day they shall not speak,
Nor shall it be permitted them to allege excuses.
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
This is the day of severing, when we will assemble you and your ancestors.
If now ye have any craft try your craft on me.
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
But the god-fearing shall be placed amid shades and fountains,
And fruits, whatsoever they shall desire:
"Eat and drink, with health,3 as the meed of your toils."
Thus recompense we the good.
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
"Eat ye and enjoy yourselves a little while. Verily, ye are doers of evil."
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture!
For when it is said to them, bend the knee, they bend it not.
Woe on that day to those who charged with imposture
In what other revelation after this will they believe?
_______________________
1 Lit. by the sent (fem.) one after another. Per missas. Mar. Either angels following in a continued series; or, winds, which disperse rain over the earth; or the successive verses of the Koran which disperse truth and distinguish truth from error.
2 Sura xliv. 40.
3 Maimonides says that the majority of the Jews hope that Messiah shall come and "raise the dead, and they shall be gathered into Paradise, and there shall eat and drink and be in good health to all eternity."-Sanhedrin, fol. 119, col. I.
MECCA.-41 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Of what ask they of one another?
Of the great NEWS.1
The theme of their disputes.
Nay! they shall certainly knows its truth!
Again. Nay! they shall certainly know it.
Have we not made the Earth a couch?
And the mountains its tent-stakes?
We have created you of two sexes,
And ordained your sleep for rest,
And ordained the night as a mantle,
And ordained the day for gaining livelihood,
And built above you seven solid2 heavens,
And placed therein a burning lamp;
And we send down water in abundance from the rain-clouds,
That we may bring forth by it corn and herbs,
And gardens thick with trees.
Lo! the day of Severance is fixed;
The day when there shall be a blast on the trumpet, and ye shall come in crowds,
And the heaven shall be opened and be full of portals,
And the mountains shall be set in motion, and melt into thin vapour.
Hell truly shall be a place of snares,
The home of transgressors,
To abide therein ages;
No coolness shall they taste therein nor any drink,
Save boiling water and running sores;
Meet recompense!
For they looked not forward to their account;
And they gave the lie to our signs, charging them with falsehood;
But we noted and wrote down all:
"Taste this then: and we will give you increase of nought but torment."
But, for the God-fearing is a blissful abode,
Enclosed gardens and vineyards;
And damsels with swelling breasts, their peers in age,
And a full cup:
There shall they hear no vain discourse nor any falsehood:
A recompense from thy Lord-sufficing gift!-
Lord of the heavens and of the earth, and of all that between3 them lieth-the
God of Mercy! But not a word shall they obtain from Him.
On the day whereon the Spirit4 and the Angels shall be ranged in order, they shall not speak: save he whom the God of Mercy shall permit, and who shall say that which is right.
This is the sure day. Whoso then will, let him take the path of return to his
Lord.
Verily, we warn you of a chastisement close at hand:
The day on which a man shall see the deeds which his hands have sent before him; and when the unbeliever shall say, "Oh! would I were dust!"
_______________________
1 Of the Resurrection. With regard to the date of this Sura, we can only be guided (I) by the general style of the earlier portion (to verse 37, which is analogous to that of the early Meccan Suras; (2) by verse 17, which pre- supposes lxxvii. 12; (3) by the obviously later style of verse 37 to the end.
2 See Sura ii. 27. This is the title given by the Talmudists to the fifth of the seven heavens.
3 This phrase is of constant recurrence in the Talmud. Maimonides, Yad Hach. i. 3, makes it one of the positive commands of the Rabbins to believe "that there exists a first Being . . . and that all things existing, Heaven and Earth, and whatever is between them, exist only through the truth of his existence."
4 Gabriel.
MECCA.-26 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Hath the tidings of the day that shall OVERSHADOW, reached thee?
Downcast on that day shall be the countenances of some,
Travailing and worn,
Burnt at the scorching fire,
Made to drink from a fountain fiercely boiling.
No food shall they have but the fruit of Darih,1
Which shall not fatten, nor appease their hunger.
Joyous too, on that day, the countenances of others,
Well pleased with their labours past,
In a lofty garden:
No vain discourse shalt thou hear therein:
Therein shall be a gushing fountain,
Therein shall be raised couches,
And goblets ready placed,
And cushions laid in order,
And carpets spread forth.
Can they not look up to the clouds, how they are created;
And to the heaven how it is upraised;
And to the mountains how they are rooted;
And to the earth how it is outspread?
Warn thou then; for thou art a warner only:
Thou hast no authority over them:
But whoever shall turn back and disbelieve,
God shall punish him with the greater punishment.
Verily to Us shall they return;
Then shall it be Our's to reckon with them.
_______________________
1 The name of a bitter, thorny shrub.
MECCA.-30 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
By the DAYBREAK and ten nights.1
By that which is double and that which is single,
By the night when it pursues its course!
Is there not in this an oath becoming a man of sense?
Hast thou not seen how thy Lord dealt with Ad,
At Irem adorned with pillars,
Whose like have not been reared in these lands!
And with Themoud who hewed out the rocks in the valley;
And with Pharaoh the impaler;
Who all committed excesses in the lands,
And multiplied wickedness therein.
Wherefore thy Lord let loose on them the scourge of chastisement,2
For thy Lord standeth on a watch tower.
As to man, when his Lord trieth him and honoureth him and is bounteous to him,
Then saith he, "My Lord honoureth me:"
But when he proveth him and limiteth his gifts to him,
He saith, "My Lord despiseth me."
Aye. But ye honour not the orphan,
Nor urge ye one another to feed the poor,
And ye devour heritages, devouring greedily,
And ye love riches with exceeding love.
Aye. But when the earth shall be crushed with crushing, crushing,
And thy Lord shall come and the angels rank on rank,
And Hell on that day shall be moved up,3-Man shall on that day remember himself. But how shall remembrance help him?
He shall say, Oh! would that I had prepared for this my life! On that day none shall punish as God punisheth,
And none shall bind with such bonds as He.
Oh, thou soul which art at rest,
Return to thy Lord, pleased, and pleasing him:
Enter thou among my servants,
And enter thou my Paradise.
_______________________
1 Of the sacred month Dhu'lhajja.
2 Or, poured on them the mixed cup of chastisement.
3 The orthodox Muhammadans take this passage literally. Djelal says that hell will "be dragged up by 70,000 chains, each pulled by 70,000 angels," as if it were an enormous animal or locomotive engine.
MECCA.-40 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
It needeth not that I swear by the day of the RESURRECTION,
Or that I swear by the self-accusing soul.
Thinketh man that we shall not re-unite his bones?
Aye! his very finger tips are we able evenly to replace.
But man chooseth to deny what is before him:
He asketh, "When this day of Resurrection?"
But when the eye shall be dazzled,
And when the moon shall be darkened,
And the sun and the moon shall be together,1
On that day man shall cry, "Where is there a place to flee to?"
But in vain-there is no refuge-
With thy Lord on that day shall be the sole asylum.
On that day shall man be told of all that he hath done first and last;
Yea, a man shall be the eye witness against himself:
And even if he put forth his plea. . . .2
(Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this revelation:3
For we will see to the collecting and the recital of it;
But when we have recited it, then follow thou the recital,
And, verily, afterwards it shall be ours to make it clear to thee.)
Aye, but ye love the transitory,
And ye neglect the life to come.
On that day shall faces beam with light,
Outlooking towards their Lord;
And faces on that day shall be dismal,
As if they thought that some great calamity would befal them.
Aye, when the soul shall come up into the throat,
And there shall be a cry, "Who hath a charm that can restore him?"
And the man feeleth that the time of his departure is come,
And when one leg shall be laid over the other,4
To thy Lord on that day shall he be driven on;
For he believed not, and he did not pray,
But he called the truth a lie and turned his back,
Then, walking with haughty men, rejoined his people.
That Hour is nearer to thee and nearer,5
It is ever nearer to thee and nearer still.
Thinketh man that he shall be left supreme?
Was he not a mere embryo?6
Then he became thick blood of which God formed him and fashioned him;
And made him twain, male and female.
Is not He powerful enough to quicken the dead?
_______________________
1 Lit. shall be united. In the loss of light, or in the rising in the west.- Beidh.
2 Supply, it shall not be accepted.
3 Verses 16-19 are parenthetic, and either an address to Muhammad by Gabriel desiring him (I) not to be overcome by any fear of being unable to follow and retain the revelation of this particular Sura; (2) or, not to interrupt him, but to await the completion of the entire revelation before he should proceed to its public recital. In either case we are led to the conclusion that, from the first, Muhammad had formed the plan of promulging a written book. Comp. Sura xx. 112.
4 In the death-struggle.
5 Or, Therefore woe to thee, woe! And, again, woe to thee, woe. Thus Sale, Ullm. Beidhawi; who also gives the rendering in the text, which is that of Maracci.
6 Nonne fuit humor ex spermate quod spermatizatur.
MECCA.-36 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Woe to those who STINT the measure:
Who when they take by measure from others, exact the full;
But when they mete to them or weigh to them, minish-
What! have they no thought that they shall be raised again
For the great day?
The day when mankind shall stand before the Lord of the worlds.
Yes! the register of the wicked is in Sidjin.1
And who shall make thee understand what Sidjin is?
It is a book distinctly written.
Woe, on that day, to those who treated our signs as lies,
Who treated the day of judgment as a lie!
None treat it as a lie, save the transgressor, the criminal,
Who, when our signs are rehearsed to him, saith, "Tales of the Ancients!"
Yes; but their own works have got the mastery over their hearts.
Yes; they shall be shut out as by a veil from their Lord on that day;
Then shall they be burned in Hell-fire:
Then shall it be said to them, "This is what ye deemed a lie."
Even so. But the register of the righteous is in Illiyoun.
And who shall make thee understand what Illiyoun is?
A book distinctly written;
The angels who draw nigh unto God attest it.
Surely, among delights shall the righteous dwell!
Seated on bridal couches they will gaze around;
Thou shalt mark in their faces the brightness of delight;
Choice sealed wine shall be given them to quaff,
The seal of musk. For this let those pant who pant for bliss-
Mingled therewith shall be the waters of Tasnim-2
Fount whereof they who draw nigh to God shall drink.
The sinners indeed laugh the faithful to scorn:
And when they pass by them they wink at one another,-
And when they return to their own people, they return jesting,
And when they see them they say, "These are the erring ones."
And yet they have no mission to be their guardians.
Therefore, on that day the faithful shall laugh the infidels to scorn,
As reclining on bridal couches they behold them.
Shall not the infidels be recompensed according to their works?
_______________________
1 Sidjin is a prison in Hell which gives its name to the register of actions there kept, as Illiyoun, a name of the lofty apartments of Paradise, is transferred to the register of the righteous.
2 Derived from the root sanima, to be high: this water being conveyed to the highest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise.
MECCA.-52 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The INEVITABLE!
And who shall make thee comprehend what the Inevitable is?
Themoud and Ad treated the day of Terrors1 as a lie.
So as to Themoud,2 they were destroyed by crashing thunder bolts;
And as to Ad, they were destroyed by a roaring and furious blast.
It did the bidding of God3 against them seven nights and eight days together, during which thou mightest have seen the people laid low, as though they had been the trunks of hollow palms;
And couldst thou have seen one of them surviving?
Pharaoh also, and those who flourished before him, and the overthrown cities, committed sin,-
And disobeyed the Sent one of their Lord; therefore did he chastise them with an accumulated chastisement.
When the Flood rose high, we bare you in the Ark,
That we might make that event a warning to you, and that the retaining ear might retain it.
But when one blast shall be blown on the trumpet,
And the earth and the mountains shall be upheaved, and shall both be crushed into dust at a single crushing,
On that day the woe that must come suddenly shall suddenly come,4
And the heaven shall cleave asunder, for on that day it shall be fragile;
And the angels shall be on its sides, and over them on that day eight shall bear up the throne of thy Lord.
On that day ye shall be brought before Him: none of your hidden deeds shall remain hidden:
And he who shall have his book given to him in his right hand, will say to his friends, "Take ye it; read ye my book;
I ever thought that to this my reckoning I should come."
And his shall be a life that shall please him well,
In a lofty garden,
Whose clusters shall be near at hand:
"Eat ye and drink with healthy relish, as the meed of what ye sent on beforehand in the days which are past."
But he who shall have his book given into his left hand, will say, "O that my book had never been given me!
And that I had never known my reckoning!
O that death had made an end of me!
My wealth hath not profited me!
My power hath perished from me!"
"Lay ye hold on him and chain him,
Then at the Hell-fire burn him,
Then into a chain whose length is seventy cubits thrust him;
For he believed not in God, the Great,
And was not careful to feed the poor;
No friend therefore shall he have here this day,
Nor food, but corrupt sores,
Which none shall eat but the sinners."
It needs not that I swear by what ye see,
And by that which ye see not,
That this verily is the word of an apostle worthy of all honour!
And that it is not the word of a poet-how little do ye believe!
Neither is it the word of a soothsayer (Kahin)-how little do ye receive warning!
It is a missive from the Lord of the worlds.
But if Muhammad had fabricated concerning us any sayings,
We had surely seized him by the right hand,
And had cut through the vein of his neck.5
Nor would We have withheld any one of you from him.
But, verily, It (the Koran) is a warning for the God-fearing;
And we well know that there are of you who treat it as a falsehood.
But it shall be the despair of infidels,
For it is the very truth of sure knowledge.
Praise, then, the name of thy Lord, the Great.
_______________________
1 Thus Beidh., Sale, etc. But with reference to another sense of the root karaa, it may be rendered the day of decision, the day on which man's lot shall be decided.
2 On Ad and Themoud. See Sura vii. 63-77.
3 Lit. God subjected it to himself, availed himself of it against them.
4 El-wakia, the sudden event, the calamity; the woe that must break in upon Heaven and Earth. The same word is used, Sura lvi. 1, and ci. 1, for the Resurrection and Day of Judgment.
5 In allusion to the mode of executing criminals in many eastern countries.
MECCA.-60 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
By the clouds1 which scatter with SCATTERING,
And those which bear their load,
And by those which speed lightly along,
And those which apportion by command!
True, indeed, is that with which ye are threatened,
And lo! the judgment will surely come.2
By the star-tracked heaven!
Ye are discordant in what ye say;
But whose turneth him from the truth, is turned from it by a divine decree.
Perish the liars,
Who are bewildered in the depths of ignorance!
They ask, "When this day of judgment?"
On that day they shall be tormented at the fire.
"Taste ye of this your torment, whose speedy coming ye challenged."
But the God-fearing shall dwell amid gardens and fountains,
Enjoying what their Lord hath given them, because, aforetime they were well- doers:
But little of the night was it that they slept,
And at dawn they prayed for pardon,
And gave due share of their wealth to the suppliant and the outcast.
On Earth are signs for men of firm belief,
And also in your own selves: Will ye not then behold them?
The Heaven hath sustenance for you, and it containeth that which you are promised.
By the Lord then of the heaven and of the earth, I swear that this is the truth, even as ye speak yourselves.3
Hath the story reached thee of Abraham's honoured guests?4
When they went in unto him and said, "Peace!" he replied, "Peace:-they are strangers."
And he went apart to his family, and brought a fatted calf,
And set it before them. He said, "Eat ye not?"
And he conceived a fear of them. They said to him, "Fear not;" and announced to him a wise son.
His wife came up with outcry: she smote her face and said, "What I, old and barren!"
They said, "Thus saith thy Lord. He truly is the Wise, the Knowing."
Said he, "And what, O messengers, is your errand?"
They said, "To a wicked people are we sent,
To hurl upon them stones of clay,
Destined5 by thy Lord for men guilty of excesses."
And we brought forth the believers who were in the city:
But we found not in it but one family of Muslims.
And signs we left in it for those who dread the afflictive chastisement,-
And in Moses: when we sent him to Pharaoh with manifest power:
But relying on his forces6 he turned his back and said, "Sorcerer, or
Possessed."
So we seized him and his hosts and cast them into the sea; for of all blame was he worthy.
And in Ad: when we sent against them the desolating blast:
It touched not aught over which it came, but it turned it to dust.
And in Themoud:7 when it was said to them, "Enjoy yourselves for yet a while."
But they rebelled against their Lord's command: so the tempest took them as they watched its coming.8
They were not able to stand upright, and could not help themselves.
And we destroyed the people of Noah, before them; for an impious people were they.
And the Heaven-with our hands have we built it up, and given it its expanse;
And the Earth-we have stretched it out like a carpet; and how
smoothly have we spread it forth!
And of everything have we created pairs: that haply ye may reflect.
Fly then to God: I come to you from him a plain warner.
And set not up another god with God: I come to you from him a plain warner.
Even thus came there no apostle to those who flourished before them, but they exclaimed, "Sorcerer, or Possessed."
Have they made a legacy to one another of this scoff? Yes, they are a rebel people.
Turn away, then, from them, and thou shalt not incur reproach:
Yet warn them, for, in truth, warning will profit the believers.
I have not created Djinn and men, but that they should worship me:
I require not sustenance from them, neither require I that they feed me:
Verily, God is the sole sustainer: possessed of might: the unshaken!
Therefore to those who injure thee shall be a fate like the fate of
their fellows of old. Let them not challenge me to hasten it.
Woe then to the infidels, because of their threatened day.
_______________________
1 Lit. (I swear) by those which scatter (i.e., the rain) with a scattering, (2) and by those which carry a burden, (3) and by those which run lightly, (4) and by those which divide a matter, or by command. The participles are all in the feminine: hence some interpret verse 1 of winds; verse 2 of clouds; verse 3 of ships; verse 4 of angels.
2 Comp. note at Sura lvi. 1, p. 65.
3 That is, this oath is for the confirmation of the truth, as ye are wont to confirm things one among another by an oath.
4 Comp. Sura xi. 72, and xv. 51. From the want of connection with what precedes, it is highly probable that the whole passage from verse 24 60 did not originally form a part of this Sura, but was added at a later period, perhaps in the recension of the text under Othman.
5 Lit. marked, with the names of the individuals to be slain, say the commentators.
6 Or, with his nobles.
7 For Ad and Themoud, see Sura xi.
8 That is, in broad daylight. Thus Beidh. Comp. Sura xlvi. 22.
MECCA.-49 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
BY the MOUNTAIN,
And by the Book written
On an outspread roll,
And by the frequented fane,1
And by the lofty vault,
And by the swollen sea,
Verily, a chastisement from thy Lord is imminent,
And none shall put it back.
Reeling on that day the Heaven shall reel,
And stirring shall the mountains stir.2
And woe, on that day, to those who called the apostles liars,
Who plunged for pastime into vain disputes-
On that day shall they be thrust with thrusting to the fire of Hell:-
"This is the fire which ye treated as a lie.
What! is this magic, then? or, do ye not see it?
Burn ye therein: bear it patiently or impatiently 'twill be the same to you: for ye shall assuredly receive the reward of your doings."
But mid gardens and delights shall they dwell who have feared God,
Rejoicing in what their Lord hath given them; and that from the pain of hell- fire hath their Lord preserved them.
"Eat and drink with healthy enjoyment, in recompense for your deeds."
On couches ranged in rows shall they recline; and to the damsels with large dark eyes will we wed them.
And to those who have believed, whose offspring have followed them in the faith, will we again unite their offspring; nor of the meed of their works will we in the least defraud them. Pledged to God is every man for his actions and their desert.3
And fruits in abundance will we give them, and flesh as they shall desire:
Therein shall they pass to one another the cup which shall engender no light discourse, no motive to sin:
And youths shall go round among them beautiful as imbedded pearls:
And shall accost one another and ask mutual questions.
"A time indeed there was," will they say, "when we were full of care as to the future lot of our families;
But kind hath God been to us, and from the pestilential torment hath he preserved us;
For, heretofore we called upon Him-and He is the Beneficent, the Merciful."
Warn thou, then. For thou by the favour of thy Lord art neither soothsayer nor possessed.
Will they say, "A poet! let us await some adverse turn of his fortune?"
SAY, wait ye, and in sooth I too will wait with you.
Is it their dreams which inspire them with this? or is it that they are a perverse people?
Will they say, "He hath forged it (the Koran) himself?" Nay, rather it is that they believed not.
Let them then produce a discourse like it, if they speak the Truth.
Were they created by nothing? or were they the creators of themselves?
Created they the Heavens and Earth? Nay, rather, they have no faith.
Hold they thy Lord's treasures? Bear they the rule supreme?
Have they a ladder for hearing the angels? Let any one who hath heard them bring a clear proof of it.
Hath God daughters and ye sons?
Asketh thou pay of them? they are themselves weighed down with debts.
Have they such a knowledge of the secret things that they can write them down?
Desire they to lay snares for thee? But the snared ones shall be they who do not believe.
Have they any God beside God? Glory be to God above what they join with Him.
And should they see a fragment of the heaven falling down, they would say,
"It is only a dense cloud."
Leave them then until they come face to face with the day when they shall swoon away:
A day in which their snares shall not at all avail them, neither shall they be helped.
And verily, beside this is there a punishment for the evildoers: but most of them know it not.
Wait thou patiently the judgment of thy Lord, for thou art in our eye; and celebrate the praise of thy Lord when thou risest up,
And in the night-season: Praise him when the stars are setting.
_______________________
1 Of the Caaba.
2 Comp. Psalm lxviii. 9.
3 The more prosaic style of this verse indicates a later origin than the context. Muir places the whole Sura in what he terms the fourth stage of Meccan Suras.
MECCA.-96 Verses
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
WHEN the day that must come shall have come suddenly,1
None shall treat that sudden coming as a lie:
Day that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!
When the earth shall be shaken with a shock,
And the mountains shall be crumbled with a crumbling,
And shall become scattered dust,
And into three bands shall ye be divided:2
Then the people of the right hand3-Oh! how happy shall be the people of the right hand!
And the people of the left hand-Oh! how wretched shall be the people of the left hand!
And they who were foremost on earth-the foremost still.4
These are they who shall be brought nigh to God,
In gardens of delight;
A crowd of the former
And few of the latter generations;
On inwrought couches
Reclining on them face to face:
Aye-blooming youths go round about to them
With goblets and ewers and a cup of flowing wine;
Their brows ache not from it, nor fails the sense:
And with such fruits as shall please them best,
And with flesh of such birds, as they shall long for:
And theirs shall be the Houris, with large dark eyes, like pearls hidden in their shells,
In recompense of their labours past.
No vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor charge of sin,
But only the cry, "Peace! Peace!"
And the people of the right hand-oh! how happy shall be the people of the right hand!
Amid thornless sidrahs5
And talh6 trees clad with fruit,
And in extended shade,
And by flowing waters,
And with abundant fruits,7
Unfailing, unforbidden,
And on lofty couches.
Of a rare creation have we created the Houris,
And we have made them ever virgins,
Dear to their spouses, of equal age with them,8
For the people of the right hand,
A crowd of the former,
And a crowd of the latter generations.9
But the people of the left hand-oh! how wretched shall be the people of the left hand!
Amid pestilential10 winds and in scalding water,
And in the shadow of a black smoke,
Not cool, and horrid to behold.11
For they truly, ere this, were blessed with worldly goods,
But persisted in heinous sin,
And were wont to say,
"What! after we have died, and become dust and bones, shall we be raised?
And our fathers, the men of yore?"
SAY: Aye, the former and the latter:
Gathered shall they all be for the time of a known day.
Then ye, O ye the erring, the gainsaying,
Shall surely eat of the tree Ez-zakkoum,
And fill your bellies with it,
And thereupon shall ye drink boiling water,
And ye shall drink as the thirsty camel drinketh.
This shall be their repast in the day of reckoning!
We created you, will ye not credit us?12
What think ye? The germs of life13-
Is it ye who create them? or are we their creator?
It is we who have decreed that death should be among you;
Yet are we not thereby hindered14 from replacing you with others, your likes, or from producing you again in a form which ye know not!
Ye have known the first creation: will ye not then reflect?
What think ye? That which ye sow-
Is it ye who cause its upgrowth, or do we cause it to spring forth?
If we pleased we could so make your harvest dry and brittle that ye would ever marvel and say,
"Truly we have been at cost,15 yet are we forbidden harvest."
What think ye of the water ye drink?
Is it ye who send it down from the clouds, or send we it down?
Brackish could we make it, if we pleased: will ye not then be thankful?
What think ye? The fire which ye obtain by friction-
Is it ye who rear its tree, or do we rear it?
It is we who have made it for a memorial and a benefit to the wayfarers of the desert,
Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.
It needs not that I swear by the setting of the stars,
And it is a great oath, if ye knew it,
That this is the honourable Koran,
Written in the preserved Book:16
Let none touch it but the purified,17
It is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.
Such tidings as these will ye disdain?
Will ye make it your daily bread to gainsay them?
Why, at the moment when the soul of a dying man shall come up into his throat,
And when ye are gazing at him,
Though we are nearer to him than ye, although ye see us not:-
Why do ye not, if ye are to escape the judgment,
Cause that soul to return? Tell me, if ye speak the truth.
But as to him who shall enjoy near access to God,
His shall be repose, and pleasure, and a garden of delights.
Yea, for him who shall be of the people of the right hand,
Shall be the greeting from the people of the right hand-"Peace be to thee."
But for him who shall be of those who treat the prophets as deceivers,
And of the erring,
His entertainment shall be of scalding water,
And the broiling of hell-fire.
Verily this is a certain truth:
Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.
_______________________
1 The renderings of Mar. cum inciderit casura, or as in Sur. lxix, 15, ingruerit ingruens nearly express the peculiar force of the Arabic verb and of the noun formed from it; i.e. a calamity that falls suddenly and surely. Weil renders, ween der Auferstehung's Tag eintritt (p. 389). Lane, when the calamity shall have happened.
2 Comp. Tr. Rosch Haschanah, fol. 16, 6.
3 Lit., the companions of the right hand, what shall be the companions of the right hand! and thus in verses 9, 37, 40.
4 Lit., the preceders, the preceders.
5 See Sura liii. 14, p. 69.
6 Probably the banana according to others, the acacia gummifera.
7 "A Muslim of some learning professed to me that he considered the descriptions of Paradise in the Koran to be, in a great measure, figurative; 'like those,' said he, 'in the book of the Revelation of St. John;' and he assured me that many learned Muslims were of the same opinion." Lane's Modern Egyptians, i. p. 75, note.
8 Like them, grow not old.
9 This seems a direct contradiction to verse 14, unless we suppose with Beidhawi that an inferior and more numerous class of believers are here spoken of.
10 Or, scorching.
11 Lit., not noble, agreeable in appearance.
12 As to the resurrection.
13 Lit., semen quod emittitis.
14 Lit., forestalled, anticipated.
15 Lit, have incurred debt.
16 That is, The Prototype of the Koran written down in the Book kept by God himself.
17 This passage implies the existence of copies of portions at least of the Koran in common use. It was quoted by the sister of Omar when at his conversion be desired to take her copy of Sura xx. into his hands.
MECCA.-62 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
By the STAR when it setteth,
Your compatriot erreth not, nor is he led astray,
Neither speaketh he from mere impulse.
The Koran is no other than a revelation revealed to him:
One terrible in power2 taught it him,
Endued with wisdom. With even balance stood he
In the highest part of the horizon:
Then came he nearer and approached,
And was at the distance of two bows, or even closer,-
And he revealed to his servant what he revealed.
His heart falsified not what he saw.
What! will ye then dispute with him as to what he saw?
He had seen him also another time,
Near the Sidrah-tree, which marks the boundary.3
Near which is the garden of repose.
When the Sidrah-tree4 was covered with what covered it,5
His eye turned not aside, nor did it wander:
For he saw the greatest of the signs of his Lord.
Do you see Al-Lat and Al-Ozza,6
And Manat the third idol besides?7
What? shall ye have male progeny and God female?
This were indeed an unfair partition!
These are mere names: ye and your fathers named them thus: God hath not sent down any warranty in their regard. A mere conceit and their own impulses do they follow. Yet hath "the guidance" from their Lord come to them.
Shall man have whatever he wisheth?
The future and the present are in the hand of God:
And many as are the Angels in the Heavens, their intercession shall be of no avail8
Until God hath permitted it to whom he shall please and will accept.
Verily, it is they who believe not in the life to come, who name the angels with names of females:
But herein they have no knowledge: they follow a mere conceit; and mere conceit can never take the place of truth.
Withdraw then from him who turneth his back on our warning and desireth only this present life.
This is the sum of their knowledge. Truly thy Lord best knoweth him who erreth from his way, and He best knoweth him who hath received guidance.
And whatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth is God's that he may reward those who do evil according to their deeds: and those who do good will He reward with good things.
To those who avoid great crimes and scandals but commit only lighter faults, verily, thy Lord will be diffuse of mercy. He well knew you when he produced you out of the earth, and when ye were embryos in your mother's womb. Assert not then your own purity. He best knoweth who feareth him.
Hast thou considered him who turned his back?
Who giveth little and is covetous?
Is it that he hath the knowledge and vision of the secret things?
Hath he not been told of what is in the pages of Moses?
And of Abraham faithful to his pledge?
That no burdened soul shall bear the burdens of another,
And that nothing shall be reckoned to a man but that for which he hath made efforts:
And that his efforts shall at last be seen in their true light:
That then he shall be recompensed with a most exact recompense,
And that unto thy Lord is the term of all things,
And that it is He who causeth to laugh and to weep,
And that He causeth to die and maketh alive,
And that He hath created the sexes, male and female,
From the diffused germs of life,9
And that with Him is the second creation,
And that He enricheth and causeth to possess,
And that He is the Lord of Sirius,10
And that it was He who destroyed the ancient Adites,
And the people of Themoud and left not one survivor,
And before them the people of Noah who were most wicked and most perverse.
And it was He who destroyed the cities that were overthrown.
So that that which covered them covered them.
Which then of thy Lord's benefits wilt thou make a matter of doubt?11
He who warneth you is one of the warners of old.
The day that must draw nigh, draweth nigh already: and yet none but God can reveal its time.
Is it at these sayings that ye marvel?
And that ye laugh and weep not?
And that ye are triflers?
Prostrate yourselves then to God and worship.
_______________________
1 This Sura was revealed at about the time of the first emigration of Muhammad's followers to Abyssinia, A. 5. The manner in which the Prophet cancelled the objectionable verses 19, 20, is the strongest proof of his sincerity (as also is the opening of Sura 1xxx.) at this period. Had he not done so, nothing would have been easier for him than to have effected a reconciliation with the powerful party in Mecca, who had recently compelled his followers to emigrate.
2 The Angel Gabriel, to the meaning of whose name, as the strong one of God, these words probably allude.
3 That is, Beyond which neither men nor angels can pass (Djelal). The original word is also rendered, the Lote-Tree of the extremity, or of the loftiest spot in Paradise, in the seventh Heaven, on the right hand of the throne of God. Its leaves are fabled to be as numerous as the members of the whole human family, and each leaf to bear the name of an individual. This tree is shaken on the night of the 15th of Ramadan every year a little after sunset, when the leaves on which are inscribed the names of those who are to die in the ensuing year fall, either wholly withered, or with more or less green remaining, according to the months or weeks the person has yet to live.
4 The Sidrah is a prickly plum, which is called Ber in India, the zizyphus Jujuba of Linnæus. A decoction of the leaves is used in India to wash the dead, on account of the sacredness of the tree.
5 Hosts of adoring angels, by which the tree was masked.
6 Al-Lat or El-Lat, probably the Alilat of Herodotus (iii. 8) was an idol at Nakhlah, a place east of the present site of Mecca. Al-Ozza was an idol of the Kinanah tribe; but its hereditary priests were the Banu Solaym, who were stationed along the mercantile road to Syria in the neighbourhood of Chaibar.
7 When at the first recital of this Sura, the prophet had reached this verse, he continued,
These are the exalted females, [or, sublime swans, i.e., mounting nearer and nearer to God]
And truly their intercession may be expected.
These words, however, which were received by the idolaters with great exultation, were disowned by Muhammad in the course of a few days as a Satanic suggestion, and replaced by the text as it now stands. The probability is that the difficulties of his position led him to attempt a compromise of which he speedily repented. In the Suras subsequent to this period the denunciations of idolatry become much sterner and clearer. The authorities are given by Weil, Sprenger and Muir. See Sura [lxvii.] xvii. 74- 76.
8 Verses 26-33 are probably later than the previous part of the Sura, but inserted with reference to it. Some (as Omar b. Muhammad and 1tq.) consider verse 33, or (as Itq.36) verses 34-42, or (as Omar b. Muhammad) the whole Sura, to have originated at Medina.
9 Ex spermate cum seminatum fuerit.
10 The Dog-star, worshipped by the Arabians.
11 Compare the refrain in Sura lv. p. 74.
MECCA.-44 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
A SUITOR sued1 for punishment to light suddenly
On the infidels: none can hinder
God from inflicting it, the master of those ASCENTS,
By which the angels and the spirit ascend to him in a day, whose length is fifty thousand years.2
Be thou patient therefore with becoming patience;
They forsooth regard that day as distant,
But we see it nigh:
The day when the heavens shall become as molten brass,
And the mountains shall become like flocks of wool:
And friend shall not question of friend,
Though they look at one another. Fain would the wicked redeem himself from punishment on that day at the price of his children,