Part 245

For the Kingdom of the Heavens and the Earth is God's, and God hath power over all things.

Verily, in the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth, and in the succession of the night and of the day, are signs for men of understanding heart;

Who standing, and sitting, and reclining, bear God in mind, and muse on the creation of the Heavens and of the Earth. "O our Lord!" say they, "thou hast not created this in vain. No. Glory be to Thee! Keep us, then, from the torment of the fire.

O our Lord! surely thou wilt put him to shame whom thou shalt cause to enter into the Fire, and the wrong-doers shall have none to help them.

O our Lord! we have indeed heard the voice of one that called. He called us to the faith-’Believe on your Lord’-and we have believed.

O our Lord! forgive us then our sin, and hide away from us our evil deeds, and cause us to die with the righteous.

O our Lord! and give us what thou hast promised us by thine apostles, and put us not to shame on the day of the resurrection. Verily, Thou wilt not fail thy promise."

And their Lord answereth them, "I will not suffer the work of him among you that worketh, whether of male or female, to be lost. The one of you is the issue of the other.57

And they who have fled their country and quitted their homes and suffered in my cause, and have fought and fallen, I will blot out their sins from them, and I will bring them into gardens beneath which the streams do flow."

A recompense from God! and God! with His is the perfection of recompense!

Let not prosperity in the land58 on the part of those who believe not, deceive thee. 'Tis but a brief enjoyment! Then shall Hell be their abode; and wretched the bed!

But as to those who fear their Lord-for them are the gardens 'neath which the rivers flow: therein shall they abide for aye. Such their reception with God- and that which is with God is best for the righteous.

Among the people of the Book are those who believe in God, and in what He hath sent down to you, and in what He hath sent down to them, humbling themselves before God. They barter not the signs of God for a mean price.

These! their recompense awaiteth them with their Lord: aye! God is swift to take account.

O ye who believe! be patient, and vie in patience, and be firm, and fear God, that it may be well with you.

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1 Verses 1-87 probably belong to the period between the battle of Bedr and Hej. 6.-Muhammad supposed Imran or Amran to be the father of the Virgin Mary (Sura [cix.] lxvi. 12)-Mary and Elizabeth to be sisters; who, with Jesus, John, and Zacharias, make up the family of Imran. It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that Muhammad is guilty of the anachronism of confounding Miriam with the Virgin Mary. On the other hand is the difficulty of conceiving that as the sequence of time and fact is observed with tolerable accuracy in regard to the main features of Jewish and Christian History, he should have fallen into so serious an error, or have so inadvertently adopted, as Mr. Muir supposes, the phraseology of his Jewish informants (amongst whom the only well-known Mary (Miriam) was the daughter of Imran and the sister of Moses) as to have overlooked the discrepancy in their respective dates. But it is possible that Muhammad believed, as some Muslim writers assert, that Miriam's soul and body were miraculously preserved till the time of Jesus in order to become Mary his mother. Certainly the Talmudists fabled that the Angel of Death and the worm of corruption had no power over Miriam. Comp. Babha Bathra, 17. Jos. Ant. iv. 4, 6.

2 See note, p. 32.

3 See Sura xxi. 49, p. 154, n.

4 Lit. mother.

5 In the battle of Bedr, Muhammad, with 319 followers routed 1000 Meccans, A.H. 2.

6 That is, knowledge, or revelation, became the cause of disputings.

7 That is, will ye receive Islam? The Ummiin, or common folk, the heathen Arabians destitute of Revelation. In the earliest extant biography of Muhammad by Ibn Ishaq, we find these words addressed by Zaid, previous to the assumption of the prophetic office by Muhammad, to the Koreisch. This is one of the facts which shew that the way was to a great extent prepared for Islam. This whole address of Zaid's-which contains not less than six passages afterwards repeated in the Koran-may be seen in Dr. Sprenger's Life of M. p. 42. The instances of others who had learned to disbelieve in idolatry, and had either become Jews or Christians, or held their minds in suspense, might easily be multiplied. Comp. Sharastani, p. 437. Masudi, ch. 6.

8 The King of the Kingdom, or, Lord of Might. This verse and the following are either fragments of some lost Sura, or belonging to one of the Meccan Suras. At any rate, they are misplaced, interrupting as they do the connection of the preceding and subsequent verses.

9 The wife of Imran is Hannah or Anne. Comp. Protev. Jac. iv. [greek text].- Evang. de Nat. Mar. 1: Voverunt tamen (Mari‘ parentes) si forte donaret eis Deus sobolem, eam se Dni servitio mancipaturos.-Although Muhammad had no direct access to the Apocryphal Gospels, yet these may have influenced, or at any rate, contained much in common with, the ordinary traditions of S. Syria. And of this, the Immaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary, supposed by Gibbon (ch. 50) to have been "borrowed from the Koran," probably formed a part.

10 That is, the female could not become a priest.

11 See note, p. 114.

12 According to a tradition of Muhammad every new-born child is touched by Satan, with the exception of Mary and her Son, between whom and Satan God interposed a veil. (Djelal. Beidh.) Hence this passage may imply the Immaculate Conception of the B. V. Mary. See v. 37 below.