Part 203

Have they feet to walk with? Have they hands to hold with? Have they eyes to see with? Have they ears to hear with? SAY: Call on these joint gods of yours; then make your plot against me, and delay it not.

Verily, my Lord is God, who hath sent down "the Book;" and He is the protector of the righteous.

But they whom ye call on beside Him, can lend you no help, nor can they help themselves:

And if ye summon them to "the guidance," they hear you not: thou seest them look towards thee, but they do not see!

Make the best of things;51 and enjoin what is just, and withdraw from the ignorant:

And if stirrings to evil from Satan stir thee, fly thou for refuge to God: He verily heareth, knoweth!

Verily, they who fear God, when some phantom from Satan toucheth them, remember Him, and lo! they see clearly.

Their Brethren52 will only continue them in error, and cannot preserve themselves from it.

And when thou bringest not a verse (sign) of the Koran to them, they say, "Hast thou not yet patched it up?53 SAY: I only follow my Lord's utterances to me. This is a clear proof on the part of your Lord, and a guidance and a mercy for those who believe.

And when the Koran is read, then listen ye to it and keep silence, that haply ye may obtain mercy.

And think within thine own self on God, with lowliness and with fear and without loud spoken words, at even and at morn; and be not one of the heedless.

Verily they who are round about thy Lord disdain not His service. They praise Him and prostrate themselves before Him.

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1 The initial letters, it has been conjectured, of (Amara li Muhammad sahdiq), thus spake to me Muhammad the truthful. But see Sura 1xviii. p. 32. The first part of this Sura was perhaps revealed when the Arabians were assembled at the Pilgrimage. See verse 29.

2 A figure of frequent occurence in the Talmud. See Tr. Rosh. Haschana, 17a.

3 Comp. Sura xx. 118, p. 101.

4 Gen. iii. 15.

5 Lit. towards each Mosque, i.e. towards the kibla of each Mosque. The word mosque, mesjid, however, is usually applied only to that of Mecca. The common term in use for larger places of worship is djami, a word unknown, in that sense, to the Koran.

6 For full information as to the clothing of the ancient Arabians see Freyt. Einl. pp. 295 327. The Koreisch (we are told in Sirat Arrasul, fol. 26, and Beidh.), in order to instil a deep respect for the Caaba and other holy places into the minds of the Arabians, had forbidden all food during the processions, and required that no clothes, except those borrowed from Meccans, should be worn, or that those who wore their own should devote them to God as holy vestments. The consequence was that most of the pilgrims visited the holy places in perfect nudity. Hence the precept in the text.

7 The Angels of Death.

8 Comp. Matth. xix. 24; Mark x. 25; Luke xviii. 25. By the change of a single vowel in the Arabic word for camel, we obtain the rendering, cable. In the Rabbinic form of the proverb, however, the elephant is substituted for the camel, which confirms the usual rendering and reading.

9 "On this wall (the name of which is derived from Arafa, 'to know,' with allusion to the employment of those upon it) will stand those whose good and evil works are equal, and are not, therefore, deserving of either Paradise or Gehenna. The idea, which is analogous to that of Purgatory, may be derived from the Talmud. Thus in the Midrasch on Eccl. vii. 14, 'How much space is there between the two' (Paradise and Hell)? R. Jochanan saith, a wall; R. Acha, a span: others hold them to be so close that a person may see from one into the other." See Plato's Phaed. 62.

10 That is, they will know the inmates of Paradise by their whiteness, and the people of Hell by the blackness of their faces.

11 That is, ye believers: to whom the speakers on Al Araf are supposed to turn.

12 The fruits of Paradise. Comp. Luke xvi. 19.

13 The fulfilment of its promises and threats.

14 The rain. Thus, the Rabbins call the rain "the might and power of God," Comp. Tract Tanith, fol. I, and connect it with the Resurrection, Tract Berachoth, fol. 33.

15 The Rabbins in like manner describe the mission of Noah. Comp. Sanhedr. 108. Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 30, 33; and on Eccl. 9, 14. See Sura [lxxv.] xi. 40.