CHAPTER XV.

ENTITLED SURAT AL HAJR.

Revealed at Makkah.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS chapter differs little from the two preceding it. The only passage of peculiar importance is that contained in vers. 94-96, which Sprenger (Life of Moh., p. 177) thinks should be referred to Muhammad's first public preaching at Makkah. This view, however, is

quite untenable, as will be seen a little farther on.

As usual, the Quraish are warned against idolatry. The signs of God's power, wisdom, and goodness as seen in Nature are held up before them; and, finally, they are threatened with the judgments of God which fell upon those who rejected the former prophets. On the other hand, the Prophet is exhorted to proclaim his message boldly and to put his trust in God.

Probable Date of the Revelations.

On the ground of Ibn Hisham's statements, some would assign this chapter to the fourth year of Muhammad's ministry. But this opinion, though adopted by Sprenger, and apparently by Rodwell, is held by Noeldeke to be untenable. His reasons may be briefly stated thus: (1) Ibn Hishám, who in one place attributes vers. 9496 to Muhammad's early preaching, gives in another place (272) a better explanation of those verses. (2) These verses are closely connected with others treating of the adversaries and persecutions of Muhammad, which circumstance points to a later date; and (3) The style of this passage differs from that of the earlier chapters, besides certain phrases and expressions, e.g.,

and

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فسيح محمد

which never occur in the chapters of the earlier period. It is, therefore, more rational to assign this chapter to the later years of Muhammad's ministry at Makkah.

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Principal Subjects.

Unbelievers will one day wish themselves Muslims

Every nation has its day of grace.

Muhammad charged with demoniacal possession

The unbelievers say a true prophet would have come with a

company of angels

Angels are not sent to gratify curiosity, but to minister judg

ment

God the author and preserver of the Qurán .
The former prophets were laughed to scorn.
The scoffing Quraish judicially blinded

God declares his glory in the heaven and the earth

He is active in every part of Nature
He is the God of life, death, and judgment.
Men created of clay-the genii of fire.

Iblis among the angels refuses to worship Adam.
He is cursed and respited until the judgment
Satan declares to God his purpose to seduce men.
The elect are safe from Satan's power

The seven gates of hell will receive Satan's followers
Paradise joys in store for true believers

VERSES

I-3

4, 5

6

7

8

9

10, II

12-15

16-20

The scoffing inhabitants of Al Hajr reject their prophets

though accompanied with miracles

Rock-hewn houses fail to save them

The heaven and earth created in righteousness
Command to repeat the seven verses

Muhammad not to envy the prosperity of infidels
The enemies of God will surely be punished
Muhammad commanded to preach boldly

He is exhorted to praise and serve God until death

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

(1) A. L. R. These are the signs of the book, and of the perspicuous Qurán.

(1) A. L. R. See Prelim. Disc., pp. 100-102.

The signs. This expression, so often recurring in the Qurán, seems to be used particularly of the various portions or verses of the Quran. Observe, however, that the words book and Qurán are used to designate a complete volume.

SIPARA.

|| (2) The time may come when the unbelievers shall FOURTEENTH wish that they had been Muslims. (3) Suffer them to eat, and to enjoy themselves in this world; and let hope entertain them, but they shall hereafter know their folly. (4) We have not destroyed any city, but a fixed term of repentance was appointed them. (5) No nation shall be punished before their time shall be come; neither shall they be respited after. (6) The Makkans say, O thou to whom the admonition hath been sent down, thou art certainly possessed with a devil: (7) wouldest thou not have come unto us with an attendance of angels if thou hadst spoken truth? (8) Answer, We send not down the angels unless on a just occasion; nor should they be then respited any longer. (9) We have surely sent down the Qurán, and we will certainly preserve the same from corruption. (10) We have heretofore sent apostles before thee among

(2) The time may come, &c., i.e., "when they shall see the success and prosperity of the true believers, or when they shall come to die, or at the resurrection."-Sale.

Rodwell's translation agrees with the Urdu, which makes the passage read, "Many a time will the infidels wish," &c.

(4) A fixed term. See notes on chap. x. 50.

(6) The admonition, i.e., "the revelations which Qurán."-Sale.

compose the

Possessed with a devil. Literally, a jinn, or genius. This opinion was no doubt based upon the epileptic fits to which Muhammad was subject.

(8) Unless on a just occasion. "When the divine wisdom shall judge it proper to use their ministry, as in bearing his revelations to the prophets, and the executing his sentence on wicked people; but not to humour you with their appearance in visible shapes, which, should your demand be complied with, would only increase your confusion, and bring God's vengeance on you the sooner.' Sale.

"

The latter part of the verse carries with it the idea that angels are only sent when judgment is determined upon the unbelievers. (9) We will certainly preserve the same. The word translated Quran in the text is Dhikr, and is translated in the Urdu instruction, by Rodwell warning, and by Palgrave reminder. The Persian translator and Abdul Qadir agree with Sale in translating it Qurán, which is certainly intended. The commentators understand the passage to teach that God will not permit his Qurán to be corrupted or changed. But this seems to me to be very far fetched. A better meaning,

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the ancient sects: (11) and there came no apostle unto them, but they laughed him to scorn. (12) In the same manner will we put it into the hearts of the wicked Makkans to scoff at their prophet: (13) they shall not believe on him; and the sentence of the nations of old hath been executed heretofore. (14) If we should open a gate in the heaven above them, and they should ascend thereto all the day long, (15) they should rather say, Our eyes are only dazzled; or rather, we are a people deluded by enchantments.

|| (16) We have placed the twelve signs in the heaven, and have set them out in various figures, for the observation of spectators: (17) and we guard them from every devil driven away with stones, (18) except him who listeneth by stealth, at whom a visible flame is darted. (19) We

guaranteed by what follows, is that God will preserve the warning and threatening of this book from failure to come to pass.

Considering the doctrine of abrogation taught in chaps. ii. 105 and xvi. 103, and the various readings of the earliest manuscripts requiring the recension of Othmán, not to mention the variations in the various copies now used among Muslims, the commentators could hardly prove their interpretation by reference to the facts. See also notes on chaps. vi. 115 and xi. 2, and Prelim. Disc., pp. 122-124.

(12) In the same manner. Here again Muhammad first represents the former prophets as being in the same circumstances and suffering the same kind of opposition and persecution as himself, and, secondly, he puts into the mouth of God a prophecy concerning himself which represented the exact treatment he was at the time enduring.

(13) They shall not believe on him. Most of them, however, did believe on him. The passage marks the period when Muhammad despaired of the people of Makkah.

(14) They should ascend, i.e., "the incredulous Makkans themselves; or, as others rather think, the angels in visible forms."-Sale. (17) We guard them from every devil. "For the Muhammadans imagine that the devils endeavour to ascend to the constellations, to pry into the actions and overhear the discourse of the inhabitants of heaven, and to tempt them. They also pretend that these evil spirits had the liberty of entering any of the heavens till the birth of Jesus, when they were excluded three of them; but that on the birth of Muhammad they were forbidden the other four."-Sale. Driven away with stones. See note on chap. iii. 36.

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(18) A visible flame is darted. For when a star seems to fall or shoot, the Muhammadans suppose the angels, who keep guard in

have also spread forth the earth, and thrown thereon stable mountains, and we have caused every kind of vegetable to spring forth in the same, according to a determinate weight: (20) and we have provided therein necessaries of life for you, and for him whom ye do not sustain. (21) There is no one thing but the storehouses thereof are in our hands; and we distribute not the same otherwise than in a determinate measure. (22) We also send the winds driving the pregnant clouds, and we send down from heaven water, whereof we give you to drink, and which ye keep not in store. (23) Verily we give life, and we put to death: and we are the heirs of all things. (24) We know those among you who go before; and we know those who stay behind. (25) And thy LORD shall gather

the constellations, dart them at the devils who approach too near." -Sale.

The Qurán is responsible for this superstition, and Muslims must believe it so long as they believe the Qurán to be the word of God.

(19) Thrown thereon stable mountains. It must not be imagined that the Quran may be vindicated from the charge of astronomical and geological error on the ground that the sacred writer uses the language of men, which is necessarily imperfect. For the words of the Qurán claim to be the very words of God. God is the speaker, and the language he uses is the language of the Preserved Table, and therefore a perfect language. The earth is represented as a vast plain, and the mountains have been placed on it to balance it. See chap. xvi. 15.

(20) Him whom ye do not sustain, viz., "your family, servants, and slaves, whom ye wrongly imagine that ye feed yourselves: though it is God who provides for them as well as you: or, as some rather think, the animals, of whom men take no care."-Sale, Baidhawi, Jalaluddin.

(23) See Rodwell's note here.

The heirs, i.e., " alone surviving when all creatures shall be dead and annihilated."-Sale. Muslims believe that every living thing, angels included, shall die. The last to die will be the angel of death, and the first to rise will be Israfil, who will sound the resurrection trumpet.

(24) "What these words particularly drive at is uncertain. Some think them spoken of the different times of men's several entrance into this world, and their departure out of it; others of the respective forwardness and backwardness of Muhammad's men in battle; and a third says the passage was occasioned by the different behaviour of Muhammad's followers on seeing a very beautiful woman at prayers behind the Prophet, some of them going out of the mosque

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