Part 266

And when ye enter houses, salute one another with a good and blessed greeting as from God. Thus doth God make clear to you His signs, that haply ye may comprehend them.

Verily, they only are believers who believe in God and His Apostle, and who, when they are with him upon any affair of common interest, depart not until they have sought his leave. Yes, they who ask leave of thee, are those who believe in God and His Apostle. And when they ask leave of Thee on account of any affairs of their own, then grant it to those of them whom thou wilt, and ask indulgence for them of God: for God is Indulgent, Merciful.

Address not the Apostle as ye address one another.18 God knoweth those of you who withdraw quietly from the assemblies, screening themselves behind others. And let those who transgress his command beware, lest some present trouble befall them, or a grievous chastisement befall them, hereafter.

Is not whatever is in the Heavens and the Earth God's? He knoweth your state; and one day shall men be assembled before Him, and He will tell them of what they have done: for God knoweth all things.

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1 With this verse commences the reference to the scandal against Ayesha, to which verses 6-9 read like a later addition. See His. 731 ff. Albuhari, passim. Muslim ii. 628 ff. Tirm. 524. Tabari and Weil, p. 151.

2 Said to refer to Hilal ben Umaiya (Muslim i. 886. Tirm. 523. Annasai, 409 f. Assamarq.) who had accused his wife of adultery. Two of these commentators, however, give the name of another Muslim as the person intended.

3 Comp. Numb. v. ii, 31, with which Muhammad must have been acquainted.

4 The rumour of improper intimacy between Ayesha and Safwan Ibn El Moattal, during Muhammad's return from the expedition against the tribe of Mostaliq (an. Hej. 9), in which he was separated from her for an entire day, which she passed in the company of Safwan, who had found her when accidentally left behind. Verses 4-26 were revealed shortly after the return.

5 Whose characters are cleared.

6 Abdallah Ibn Obba. (Abulf. p. 83.)

7 Comp. verse 10, 11 (n.).

8 Abubekr had been desirous to punish one of his relatives, Mestah, who had propagated the scandal against Ayesha, by refusing him gifts or alms.

9 "The very members of a man shall testify against him, for thus we read (Jer. xliii. 12), Ye are yourselves my witnesses saith the Lord." Chagiga, 16. Thaanith, 11a.

10 It was the custom in Arabia, before Islam, to enter houses without permission. Freyt. Einl. p. 216.

11 That is, the anklets. Comp. Isai. iii. 16, 18

12 On account of poverty.

13 Comp. Deut. xv. 12 15.

14 The meaning probably is, that the scandal raised against Ayesha resembled the scandal in the case of Joseph in Egypt, and of the Virgin Mary, detailed in previous suras.

15 An idea perhaps derived from Gen. i. 20, 21. Comp. Tr. Cholin, fol. 27a.

16 Verses 46-56 obviously refer to a period, perhaps that between the battle of Ohod and the end of the war of the Ditch, when Muhammad's prospects were overclouded and the confidence of his followers shaken.

17 This verse was intended to relieve the scruples of the Muslims, who. following the superstitious customs of the Arabs, thought that they ought not to admit the blind, etc. to their tables, to eat alone, or in a house of which they were entrusted with the key, etc.

18 Lit. make not the calling of the Apostle among you, like the calling of some of you to others, i.e., address him by some respectful and honourable title. Thus in the Talmud, "It is forbidden to a disciple to call his Rabbi by name even when he is not in his presence;" and again: "Neither is he to salute his Rabbi, nor to return his salutation, in the same way that salutations are given and returned among friends." "Whoever despises the wise men hath no portion in the world to come." See Hilchoth Torah, c.5.

SURA LVIII.-SHE WHO PLEADED [CVI.]

MEDINA.-22 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

God hath heard the words of HER1 WHO PLEADED with thee against her husband, and made her plaint to God; and God hath heard your mutual intercourse: for God Heareth, Beholdeth.

As to those of you who put away their wives by saying, "Be thou to me as my mother's back" their mothers2 they are not; they only are their mothers who gave them birth! they certainly say a blameworthy thing and an untruth: