Part 213

SAY: My prayers and my worship and my life and my death are unto God, Lord of the Worlds. He hath no associate. This am I commanded, and I am the first of the Muslims.

SAY: Shall I seek any other Lord than God, when He is Lord of all things? No soul shall labour but for itself; and no burdened one shall bear another's burden. At last ye shall return to your Lord, and he will declare that to you about which you differ.

And it is He who hath made you the successors of others on the earth, and hath raised some of you above others by various grades, that he may prove you by his gifts. Verily thy Lord is swift to punish. But He is also Gracious, Merciful!

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1 Lit. their affair would have been decided. In that case there would no longer have been an opportunity for the warnings of the prophets and for repentance, but the angels would at once have executed the divine judgments.

2 See Sura xli. 13, p. 193.

3 See Sura [xc.] xiii. 36.

4 This denunciation is repeated in eleven other passages of the Koran, and coupled with the known reverence of the early Muslims for what they considered as the word of God, must have greatly tended to secure the revelations of the Prophet from being in any way tampered with and corrupted.

5 They are self-convicted of their own hypocrisy and of the hollowness of their professions.

6 The Resurrection, etc.

7 Abu Jahl had said: "Muhammad speaks truth, and he never said a falsehood; but, if the Banu Chosai, who enjoy already the offices of bearing the standard, of providing the pilgrims with water, and of keeping the keys of the Kaaba, should also obtain the Prophetship, what would remain for the other Koreisch." Kashaf in 1.

8 See Sura lii. 38, p. 65. These passages may allude to the ladder set up in a tower by Wacih ben Salamah, one of the ancient doorkeepers of the Caaba, by which he professed to mount up to God and receive divine Oracles. Freyt. Einl. p. 371.

9 A community. Comp. Prov. xxx. 25, 26. Animals as well as mankind are under the control of God, are held within the limits of his decrees, are accountable to him, and will stand before him in the judgment.

10 Of the Eternal decrees.

11 Or, embellished, made it fair-seeming.

12 Lit. openly, i.e. preceded by some sign.

13 The Rabbins speak of the three keys in the hand of God. Tr. Tanith, fol. x.

14 On the preserved tablet, on which are written the decrees of God.

15 That is, during sleep. See Sura xxxix. 43, p. 258. Or, layeth to rest. Mar. renders literally, defungi faciet vos, id est, obdormiscere. Thus also Beidh. But see the use of the same word in the next verse.

16 Or, to perplex you (by dividing you into) sects.

17 Comp. Sura [cx.] 1x. 13.

18 Azar. This form is probably borrowed from Athar, as Terah is called by Eusebius. See Maracci Prodr. iv. 90. Compare a similar narrative (Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 17) in which Abraham is given over by his idolatrous father Zarah to Nimrod, who says, "We will adore the Fire:" "Rather," said Abraham, "the water which puts out fire." "The Water then"-"Rather the clouds that bear the water." "The Clouds then"-"Rather the wind which scatters the clouds." "The Wind then"-"Rather man who endures the wind." Whereupon Abraham was thrown into the furnace. It is quite possible that in what follows, Muhammad may have intended to imply that Abraham had renounced the Sabian starworship of his fathers, and to vindicate him from the habit of consulting the stars attributed to him by the Talmudists. Shabbath, fol. 156, col. 1. "Abraham replied, I have consulted my Astrology." Comp. Rashi on Gen. xv. 5. See Maim. Yad Hachaz. vii. 6.

19 Comp. Gen. xv. 5.

20 See Sura xxi. 52.

21 Lit. unless that my Lord shall will anything.

22 Or, confuse not their faith with wrong, injustice, i.e. idolatry.

23 Koran.

24 This verse and the following were probably added at Medina after the Hejira; at least it is difficult to conceive that Muhammad would have ventured thus to have written at Mecca.