To dwell therein for ever and for aye; they shall not fr a patron or a helper!

On the day when their faces shall writhe in the fire they shall say, 'O, would that we had obeyed God and obeyed the Apostle!'

And they shall say, 'Our Lord! verily, we obeyed o chiefs and our great men and they led us astray from the path Our Lord! give them double torment and curse the with a great curse!'

O ye who believe! be not like those who annoyed Moses; but God cleared him of what they said, and he was regarded in the sight of God."

O ye who believe! fear God and speak a straightforward speech. He will correct for you your works, and pardca you your sins; for he who obeys God and His Apostle has attained a mighty happiness.

Verily, we offered the trust to the heavens and the earth and the mountains, but they refused to bear it, and shrank from it; but man bore it: verily, he is ever unjust and ignorant. That God may torment the hypocritical men and hypocritical women, and the idolaters and idolatresses; and that God may turn relenting towards the believing men and believing women; verily, God is ever forgiving, merciful.

THE CHAPTER OF PROHIBITION'

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God. O thou prophet! wherefore dost thou prohibit what God has made lawful to thee, craving to please thy wives? but God is forgiving, compassionate!

82 The occasion of the revelation of this verse is said to have been that Mohammed being accused of unfairly dividing certain spoils, said, God, have mercy on my brother Moses; he was wronged more than this, and bore it patiently.' 38 That is, the faith.'

1 This chapter was occasioned by Mohammed's liaison with the Copte girl Mary, with whom he lay on the day due to 'Ayeshah or 'Hafsah. The latter was greatly enraged, and Mohammed to pacify her swore never to touch the girl again, and enjoined 'Hafsah to keep the matter secret from the rest of his wives. She, however, revealed it in confidence to 'Ayeshah; when Mohammed, annoyed at finding his confidence betrayed, not only divorced her, but separated himself from his other wives for the space of a month, which time he passed in Mary's apartment. The chapter is intended to free him from his oath respecting Mary, and to reprove his wives for their conduct.

God has allowed you to expiate your oaths; for God is your sovereign, and He is the knowing, the wise!

And when the prophet told as a secret to one of his wives a recent event, and when she gave information thereof and exposed it, he acquainted her with some of it and avoided part of it. But when he informed her of it, she said, 'Who told thee this?' he said, 'The wise one, the well-aware informed me.

'If ye both turn repentant unto God,-for your hearts have swerved!-but if ye back each other up against him, -verily, God, He is the sovereign; and Gabriel and the righteous of the believers, and the angels after that, will back him up.

'It may be that his Lord if he divorce you will give him in exchange wives better than you, Muslims, believers, devout, repentant, worshipping, given to fasting-such as have known men and virgins too.'

O ye who believe! save yourselves and your families from the fire, whose fuel is men and stones;-over it are angels stout and stern; they disobey not God in what He bids them, but they do what they are bidden!

O ye who disbelieve! excuse not yourselves to-day;—ye shall only be rewarded for that which ye have done.

O ye who believe! turn repentant to God with sincere repentance; it may be that thy Lord will cover for you your offences and will bring you into gardens beneath which rivers flow!-the day God will not disgrace the Prophet nor those who believe with him; their light shall run on before them, and at their right hands! they shall say, 'Our Lord! perfect for us our light and forgive us; verily, Thou art mighty over all!'

O thou prophet! fight strenuously against the misbelievers and hypocrites and be stern towards them; for their resort is heli and an evil journey shall it be!

God strikes out a parable to those who misbelieve: the wife of Noah and the wife of Lot; they were under two of our righteous servants, but they betrayed them: and they availed them nothing against God; and it was said, 'Enter the fire with those who enter.'

And God strikes out a parable for those who believe: the

wife of Pharaoh, when she said, 'My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his works, and save me from the unjust people!'

And Mary, daughter of Imrân, who guarded her private parts, and we breathed therein of our spirit and she verified the words of her Lord and His books, and was of the devout.

THE CHAPTER OF THE TABLE

In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. O ye who believe! fulfil your compacts.-Lawful for you are brute beasts, save what is here recited to you, not allowing you the chase while ye are on pilgrimage; verily, God ordaineth what He will.

O ye who believe! do not deem the monuments of God to be lawful, nor the sacred month, nor the offering, nor its neck garlands, nor those who sojourn at the sacred house, craving grace from their Lord and His pleasure.

But when ye are in lawful state again, then chase; and let not ill-will against the people who turned you from the Sacred Mosque1 make you transgress; but help one another in righteousness and piety, and do not help one another to sin and enmity; but fear God,-verily, God is keen to punish.

Forbidden to you is that which dies of itself, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that which is devoted to other than God, and the strangled and the knocked down, and that which falls down, and the gored, and what wild beasts have eaten-except what ye slaughter in time-and what is sacrificed to idols, and dividing carcases by arrows.

To-day shall those who disbelieve in your religion despair; do ye not then fear them, but fear me. To-day is perfected for you your religion, and fulfilled upon you is my favour, and I am pleased for you to have Islâm for a religion. But he who is forced by hunger, not inclined wilfully to sin, verily, God is forgiving, compassionate.

They will ask thee what is lawful for them? say, 'Lawful The Quraish, who sent to meet Mohammed with 1400 men at Hudaibiyeh to prevent him from approaching Mecca, A. H. 6.

Literally, stones set up,' Dolmens and the like, which are so common throughout Arabia. By the game of maisar.

for you are good things and what ye have taught beasts of prey (to catch), training them like dogs;-ye teach them as God taught you;-so eat of what they catch for you, and mention the name of God over it, and fear God, for verily, God is swift in reckoning up.'

Lawful for you to-day are good things, and the food of, those to whom the Book has been given is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them; and chaste women of those who believe, and chaste women of those to whom the Book has been given before you,-when you have given them their hire, living chastely and not fornicating, and not taking paramours. But whoso disbelieves in the faith, of a truth his work is vain, and he shall be in the next life of those who lose.

O ye who believe! when ye rise up to prayer wash your faces, and your hands as far as the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet down to the ankles. And if ye are polluted, then purify yourselves. But if ye are sick, or on a journey, or if one of you comes from the privy, or if ye have touched women and cannot find water, then take fine surface sand and wipe your faces and your hands therewith. God does not wish to make any hindrance for you; but he wishes to purify you and to fulfil his favour upon you; haply ye may give thanks.

Remember the favour of God to you and His covenant which He covenanted with you, when ye said, 'We hear and we obey';' and fear God, verily, God knows the nature of men's breasts.

O ye who believe! stand steadfast to God as witnesses with justice; and let not ill-will towards people make you sin by not acting with equity. Act with equity, that is nearer to piety, and fear God; for God is aware of what ye do.

God has promised to those who believe and work righteousness, that for them is pardon and a mighty hire. But those who disbelieve and call our signs lies, these are the fellows of hell.

O ye who believe! remember God's favour towards you, when a people intended to stretch their hands against you,

Referring to the oath of fidelity which Mohammed's adherents took at 'Akabah.

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but He withheld their hands from you; and upon it God let believers rely.

God did take a compact from the children of Israel, and raised up of them twelve wardens; and God said, 'Verily, I am with you, if ye be steadfast in prayer, and give alms, and believe in my apostles, and assist them, and lend to God a goodly loan; then will I cover your offences and make you enter gardens beneath which rivers flow: and whoso disbelieves after that, he hath erred from the level way.'

And for that they broke their compact, we cursed them, and placed in their hearts hardness, so that they perverted the words from their places, and forgot a portion of what they were reminded of."

But thou wilt not cease to light upon treachery amongst them, save a few of them; but pardon them and shun them; verily, God loves the kind.

And of those who say, 'Verily, we are Christians,' we have taken a compact; but they have forgotten a portion of what they were reminded of; wherefore have we excited amongst them enmity and hatred till the resurrection day; but God will tell them of what they have done.

O ye people of the Book! our Apostle has come to you to explain to you much of what ye had hidden of the Book, and to pardon much. There has come to you from God a light, and a perspicuous Book; God guides thereby those who follow His pleasure to the way of peace, and brings them into a right way.

They misbelieve who say, 'Verily, God is the Messiah the son of Mary;' say, 'Who has any hold on God, if he wished to destroy the Messiah the son of Mary, and his mother, and those who are on earth altogether?'

God's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between the two; He createth what He will, for God is mighty over all!

But the Jews and the Christians say, 'We are the sons of God and His beloved.' Say, 'Why then does He punish you for your sins? nay, ye are mortals of those whom He

Various stories are told in explanation of this passage, but they are all obviously apocryphal, the angel Gabriel intervening to prevent some mischief either to the Apostle or his followers.

That is, the text foretelling the coming of Mohammed.