move swiftly. each in its respective orb. We have not granted unto any inau before thee eternal permanency in this world; if thou die, therefore, will they be immortal? Every soul shall taste of death: and we will prove you with evil, and with good, for a trial of you; and unto us shall ye return. When the unbelievers see thee, they receive thee only with scoffing, saying, Is this he who mentioneth your gods with contempt? Yet themselves believe not what is mentioned to them of the Merciful.s* Man is created of precipitation. Hereafter will I show you my signs, so that ye shall not wish them to be hastened. They say, When will this threat be accomplished, if ye speak truth? If they who believe not knew that the time will surely come, when they shall not be able to drive back the fire of hell from their faces, nor from their backs, neither shall they be helped, they would not hasten it. But the day of vengeance shall come upon them suddenly, and shall strike them with astonishment: they shall not be able to avert it, neither shall they be respited. Other apostles have been mocked before thee; but the punishment which they scoffed at fell upon such of them as mocked. Say unto the scoffers, Who shall save you by night and by day from the Merciful? Yet they utterly neglect the remembrance of their LORD. Have they gods who will defend them, besides us? They are not able to help themselves; neither shall they be assisted against us by their companions. But we have permitted these men and their fathers to enjoy worldly prosperity, so long as life was continued unto them. Do they not perceive that we come unto the land of the unbelievers, and straiten the borders thereof? Shall they therefore be the conquerors? Say, I only preach unto you the revelation of God: but the deaf will not hear thy call, whenever they are preached unto. Yet if the least breath of the punishment of thy LORD touch them, they will surely say, Alas for us! verily we have been unjust. We will appoint just balances for the day of resur rection; neither shall any soul be injured at all: although the merit or guilt of an action be of the weight of a grain of mustard-seed only, we will produce it publicly; and there will be sufficient accountants with us. We formerly gave unto Moses and Aaron the law, being a distinction" between good and evil, and a light and admonition unto the pious; who fear their LORD in secret, and who dread the hour of judgment. And this book also is a blessed admonition, which we have sent down from heaven: will ye therefore deny it? And we gave unto Abraham his direction heretofore,

This passage was revealed when the infidels said, We expect to see Mohammed die, like the rest of mankind.

Denying his unity; or rejecting his apostles and the scriptures which were given for their instruction, and particularly the Koran.

"And they dare to insult the Merciful!"-Savary.

Being hasty and inconsiderate.

It is said this passage was revealed on account of al Nodar Ebn al Haretn, when he desired Mohammed to hasten the divine vengeance with which he threatened the unbelievers.'

• Arab, al Forkân. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iii. p. 40.

* vis. The ten books of divine revelations which were given him."

See chap. 17, p. 228, &c. • Al Beidâwi. See the Prelim. Disc. sect iv. p. 52

and we knew him to be worthy of the revelations wherewith he was favoured Remember when he said unto his father, and his people, What are these images, to which ye are so entirely devoted? They answered, We found our fathers worshipping them. He said, Verily both ye and your fathers have been in a manifest error. They said, Dost thou seriously tell us the truth, or art thou one who jestest with us? He replied, Verily your LORD is the LORD of the heavens and the earth; it is he who hath created them: and I am one of those who bear witness thereof. By Gon, I will surely devise a plot against your idols, after ye shall have retired from them, and shall have turned your backs. And in the people's absence he went into the temple where the idols stood, and he brake them all in pieces, except the biggest of them; that they might lay the blame upon that." And when they were returned, and saw the havoc which had been made, they said, Who hath done this to our gods? He is certainly an impious person. And certain of them answered, We heard a young man speak reproachfully of them: he is named Abraham. They said, Bring him therefore before the people, that they may bear witness against him. And when he was brought before the assembly, they said unto him, Hast thou done this unto our gods, O Abraham? He answered, Nay, that biggest of them hath done it: but ask them, if they can speak. And they returned unto themselves," and said the one to the other, Verily ye are the impious persons. Afterwards they relapsed into their former obstinacy, and said, Verily thou knowest that these speak not. Abraham answered, Do ye therefore worship, besides GOD, that which cannot profit you at all, neither can it hurt you? Fie on you: and upon that which ye worship besides GOD! Do ye not understand? They said, Burn him, and avenge your gods: if ye do this it will be well. And when Abraham was cast into

See chap. 6, p. 105, &c., chap. 19, p. 251, and chap. 2, p. 31.

Abraham took his opportunity to do this while the Chaldeans were abroad in the fields, celebrating a great festival; and some say he hid himself in the temple; and when he had accomplished his design, that he might the more evidently convince them of their folly in worshipping them, he hung the axe, with which he had hewn and broken down the images, on the neck of the chief idol, named by some writers Baal, as if he had been the author of all the mischief. For this story, which, though it be false, is not ill invented, Mohammed stands indebted to the Jews, who tell it with a little variation: for they say Abraham performed this exploit in his father's shop, during his absence; that Terah, on his return, demanding the occasion of the disorder, his son told him that the idols had quarrelled and fallen together by the ears about an offering of fine flour, which had been brought them by an old woman; and that the father, finding he could not insist on the impossibility of what Abraham pretended, without confessing the impotence of his gods, fell into a violent passion, and carried him to Nimrod, that he might be exemplarily punished for his insolence."

That is, They became sensible of their folly.

"Having awoke to a sense of their error, they exclaimed, We were unjust. '-Savary. Literally, They were turned down upon their heads.

Perceiving they could not prevail against Abraham by dint of argument, says al Beidawi, they had recourse to persecution and torments. The same commentator tells us the person who gave this counsel was a Persian Curd,' named Heyyûn, and that the earth opened and swallowed him up alive: some, however, say it was Andeshân, a Magian priest;' and others, that it was Nimrod himself.

• R. Geda

Al Beidâwi, Jallalo'ddin, &c. Vide Hyde de Rel. vet. Pers. c. 2. in Shalshel. hakkab. p. 8. Vide Maimon. Yad hazzaka, c. 1, de idol. 1 Vade D'Herbe. Bibl. Orient. Art Dhokak. et Schultens, Indic. Geogr. in Vit. Saladim, voce Curdi Vide D'Herbel. p. 115.

the burning pile, we said, O fire, be thou cold, and a preservation unto Abraham. And they sought to lay a plot against him but we caused them to be the sufferers. And we delivered him, and Lot, by bringing them into the land wherein we have blessed all creatures. And we bestowed on him Isaac and Jacob, as an additional gift: and we made al' of them righteous persons. We also made them models of religion,s* that they might direct others by our command: and we inspired into them the doing of good works, and the observance of prayer, and the giving of alms;

The commentators relate that, by Nimrod's order, a large space was inclosed at Cutha, and filled with a vast quantity of wood, which being set on fire, burned so fiercely, that none dared to venture near it: then they bound Abraham, and putting him into an engine (which some suppose to have been of the devil's invention), shot him into the midst of the fire, from which he was preserved by the angel Gabriel, who was sent to his assistance; the fire burning only the cords with which he was bound. They add that the fire having miraculously lost its heat, in respect to Abraham, became an odoriferous air, and that the pile changed to a pleasant meadow; though it raged so furiously otherwise, that according to some writers, about two thousand of the idolaters were consumed by it."

This story seems to have no other foundation than that passage of Moses, where God is said to have brought Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees, misunderstood: which words the Jews, the most trifling interpreters of scripture, and some moderns who have followed them, have translated, out of the fire of the Chaldees; taking the word Ur, not for the proper name of a city, as it really is, but for an appellative, signifying fire. However, it is a fable of some antiquity, and credited, not only by the Jews, but by several of the eastern Christians; the twenty-fifth of the second Canun, or January, being set apart in the Syrian calendar, for the commemoration of Abraham's being cast into the fire."

The Jews also mention some other persecutions which Abraham underwent on account of his religion, particularly a ten years' imprisonment: some saying he was imprisoned by Nimrod; and others, by his father Terah.10

• Some tell us that Nimrod, on seeing this miraculous deliverance from his palace, cried out, that he would make an offering to the God of Abraham; and that he accordingly sacrificed four thousand kine.' But, if he ever relented, he soon relapsed into his former infidelity: for he built a tower that he might ascend to heaven to see Abraham's God; which being overthrown,2 still persisting in his design, he would be carried to hea ven in a chest borne by four monstrous birds; but after wandering for some time through the air, he fell down on a mountain with such a force. that he made it shake, whereto (as some fancy) a passage in the Korân alludes, which may be translated, although their contrivances be such, as to make the mountains tremble.

Nimrod, disappointed in his design of making war with God, turned his arms against Abraham, who, being a great prince, raised forces to defend himself; but God, dividing Nimrod's subjects, and confounding their language, deprived him of the greater part of his people, and plagued those who adhered to him by swarms of guats, which destroyed almost all of them and one of those gnats having entered into the nostril, or ear, of Nimrod, penetrated to one of the membranes of his brain, where, growing bigger every day, it gave him such intolerable pain, that he was obliged to cause his head to be beaten with a mallet, in order to procure some ease, which torture he suffered four hundred years; God being willing to punish, by one of the smallest of his creatures, him who insolently boasted himself to be lord of all. A Syrian calendar places the death of Nimrod, as if the time were well known, on the 8th of Thamûz, or July.

' i. e. Palestine; in which country the greater part of the prophets appeared. See chap. 2, p. 16.

* “ We established them as our vicars, to lead the people according to the divine law.' --Savary.

• Gen. xv. 7.

Al Beidâwi, Jallalo'ddin, &c. Vide Morgan's Mohammedism Expl. v. i. chap. 4. The MS. Gospel of Barnabas, chap. 28. Vide Targ, Jonath. et Hierosol. in Genes. c. 11 et 15, et Hyde, de Rel. vet. Pers. p. 74, &c. Vide Hyde, ibid. p. 73. R. Eliez. Pirke, c. 26, &c. Vide Maim. More Nev. lib. iii. c. 29. Glossa Talmud. in Gemar. Bava bathra, 91, 1. 10 In Aggada. Al Beidâwi e chap. 16, p. 216. See chap. 14. p. 209. • Vide D'Herbel Bibl. Orient. Art. Nemrod Hyde, ubi supra. Vide Hyde, ibid. p. 74.

and they served us. And unto Lot we gave wisdom and knowledge, and we delivered him out of the city which committed filthy crimes; for they were a wicked and insolent people; and we led him into our mercy; for he was an upright person. And remember Noah, when he called for destruction on his people,' before the prophets above-mentioned: and we heard him, and delivered him and his family from a great strait: and we protected him from the people who accused our signs of falsehood; for they were a wicked people, wherefore we drowned them all. And remember David and Solomon, when they pronounced judgment concerning a field, when the sheep of certain people had fed therein by night, having no shepherd; and we were witnesses of their judgment: and we gave the understanding thereof unto Solomon. And on all of them we bestowed wisdom, and knowledge. And we compelled the mountains to praise us, with David; and the birds also:1 and we did this. And we taught him the art of making coats of mail for you," that they may defend you in your wars: will ye therefore be thankful? And unto Solomon we subjected a strong wind:* it ran at his command to the land whereon we had bestowed our blessing and we knew all things. And we also subjected unto his command divers of the devils, who might dive to get pearls for him, and perform other work besides this ;P and we watched over them.

:

See chap. 7, p. 125, &c., and chap. 11, p. 183.
See chap. 8, p. 146, note r.

And remember

Some sheep, in their shepherd's absence, having broken into another man's field (or vineyard, say others) by night, and eaten up the corn, a dispute arose thereupon: and the cause being brought before David and Solomon, the former said that the owner of the land should take the sheep, in compensation of the damage which he had sustained: bat Solomon, who was then but eleven years old, was of opinion that it would be more just for the owner of the field to take only the profit of the sheep, viz. their milk, lambs, and wool, till the shepherd should, by his own labour and his own expense, put the field into as good condition as when the sheep entered it; after which the sheep might be returned to their master. And this judgment of Solomon was approved by David himself, as better than his own."

'Mohammed, it seems, taking the visions of the Talmudists for truth, believed that when David was fatigued with singing psalms, the mountains, birds, and other parts of the creation, both animate and inanimate, relieved him in chanting the divine praises. This consequence the Jews draw from the words of the psalmist, when he calls on the several parts of nature to join with him in celebrating the praise of God; it being their perverse custom to expound passages in the most literal manner, which cannot bear a literal sense without a manifest absurdity; and, on the contrary, to turn the plainest pas. sages into allegorical fancies.

m

Men, before his inventing them, using to arm themselves with broad plates of metal. Lest this fable should want something of the marvellous, one writer tells us, that the iron which David used became soft in his hands like wax."

* "Solomon received from heaven the power of commanding the winds. He caused them to blow at his will on the blessed land. Our knowledge has no bounds.”—Savary. Which transported his throne with prodigious swiftness. Some say, this wind was violent or gentle, just as Solomon pleased.'

viz. Palestine, whither the wind brought back Solomon's throne in the evening, after having carried it to a distant country in the morning.

Such as the building of cities and palaces, the fetching of rare pieces of art from foreign countries, and the like.

Lest they should swerve from his orders, or do mischief according to their natura.

• Al Beidâwi, Jallalo'ddin, &c.

D'Herbel. p. 284.

"See Psalm cxlviii.

⚫ See chap. 27.

Tarikh Montakkab. Via

Job; when he cried unto his LORD, saying, Verily evil hath afflicted me: but thou art the most merciful of those who show mercy. Wherefore we heard him, and relieved him from the evil which was upon him: and we restored unto him his family, and as many more with them, through our mercy, and for an admonition unto those who serve God. And remember Ismael, and Edris,' and Dhu'lkefl.* All these were patient persons; wherefore we led them into our mercy; for they were righteous doers. And remember Dhu'lnun," when he departed* in wrath, and thought that we could not exercise our power over him. And he cried out in the darkness," saying, There is no GOD, besides thee: praise be unto thee! Verily I have been one of the unjust. Wherefore we heard him, and delivered him from

inclinations. Jallalo'ddin says, that when they had finished any piece of building, they pulled it down before night, if they were not employed in something new.

The Mohammedan writers tell us that Job was of the race of Esau, and was blessed with a numerous family, and abundant riches: but that God proved him, by taking away all that he had, even his children, who were killed by the fall of a house; notwithstanding which he continued to serve God, and to return him thanks, as usual: that he was then struck with a filthy disease, his body being full of worms, and so offensive, that as he lay on the dunghill none could bear to come near him that his wife, however (whom some call Rahmat the daughter of Ephraim the son of Joseph, and others Makhir the daughter of Manasses), attended him with great patience, supporting him with what she earned by her labour; but that the devil appearing to her one day, after having reminded her of her past prosperity, promised her that if she would worship him, he would restore all they had lost; whereupon she asked her husband's consent, who was so angry at the proposal, that he swore, if he recovered, to give his wife a hundred stripes: that Job having pronounced the prayer recorded in this passage, God sent Gabriel, who, taking him by the hand, raised him up; and at the same time a fountain sprang up at his feet, of which having drunk, the worms fell off his body, and washing therein he recovered his former health and beauty: that God then restored all to him double; his wife also becoming young and handsome again, and bearing him twenty-six sons: and that Job, to satisfy his oath, was directed by God to strike her one blow with a palm-branch having a hundred leaves. Some, to express the great riches that were bestowed on Job after his sufferings, say he had two threshing-floors, one for wheat, and the other for barley, and that God sent two clouds which rained gold on the one, and silver on the other, till they ran over. The traditions differ as to the continuance of Job's calamities; one will have it to be eighteen years, another thirteen, another three, and another exactly seven years, seven months, and seven hours.

See chap. 19, p. 252.

Who this prophet was is very uncertain. One commentator will have him to be Elias, or Joshua, or Zacharias: another supposes him to have been the son of Job, and to have dwelt in Syria; to which some add, that he was first a very wicked man, but afterwards repenting, died; upon which these words appeared miraculously written over his door, Now hath God been mercifal unto Dhu'lkefl: and a third tells us he was a person of great strictness of life, and one who used to decide causes to the satisfaction of all parties, because he was never in a passion; and that he was called Dhu'lkefl from his continual fasting, and other religious exercises.'

This is the surname of Jonas; which was given him because he was swallowed by the fish. See chap. 10, p. 173.

* "Remember Jonas, when he departed with regret, and believed himself to be sheltered from our power."-Savary.

Some suppose Jonas's anger was against the Ninevites, being tired with preaching to them for so long a time, and greatly disgusted at their obstinacy and ill usage of him; but others, more agreeably to scripture, say the reason of his ill humour was God's pardoning of that people on their repentance, and averting the judgment which Jonas had threatened them with, so that he thought he had been made a liar.s

i. e. Out of the belly of the fish.

Al Beidâwi, Jallalo'ddin, Abu'lfeda, &c. See D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Aioub. Jallalo'ddin 3 Al Beidâwi. • Abu'lfeda. • Jallalo'ddin. Al Beidâwi.