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their respite, the punishment had come upon them before this; but it shall surely overtake them suddenly, and they shall not foresee it. They urge thee to bring down vengeance swiftly upon them: but hell shall surely encompass the unbelievers. On a certain day their punishment shall suddenly assail them, both from above them, and from under their feet; and God shall say, Taste ye the reward of that which ye have wrought. O my servants who have believed, verily my earth is spacious; wherefore serve me. Every soul shall taste death: afterwards shall ye return unto us; and as for those who shall have believed, and wrought righteousness, we will surely lodge them in the higher apartments of paradise;* rivers shall flow beneath them, and they shall continue therein for ever. How excellent will be the reward of the workers of righteousness; who persevere with patience, and put their trust in the LORD! How many beasts are there, which provide not their food? It is GOD who provideth for them, and for you; and he both heareth and knoweth. Verily, if thou ask the Meccans, who hath created the heavens and the earth, and hath obliged the sun and the moon to serve in their courses? they will answer, GOD. How therefore do they lie, in acknowledging of other gods? GOD maketh abundant provision for such of his servants as he pleaseth; and is sparing unto him, if he pleaseth: for GOD knoweth all things.d Verily if thou ask them, who sendeth rain from heaven, and thereby quickeneth the earth, after it hath been dead? they will answer, GOD. Say, GOD be praised! But the greater part of them do not understand. This present life is no other than a toy, and a plaything; but the future mansion of paradise is life indeed: if they knew this they would not prefer the former to the latter. When they sail in a ship, they call upon GOD, sincerely exhibiting unto him the true religion: but when he bringeth them safe to land, behold, they return to their idolatry; to show themselves ungrateful for that which we have bestowed on them, and that they may enjoy the delights of this life; but they shall hereafter know the issue. Do they not see that we have made the territory of Mecca an inviolable and secure asylum, when men are spoiled in the countries round about them?t Do they therefore believe in that which is vain, and acknowledge not the goodness of GOD? But who is more unjust than he who deviseth a lie against GOD, or denieth the truth, when it hath come unto him? Is there not in hell an abode for the unbelievers ? Whoever do their utmost endeavour to promote our true religion, we will direct them into our ways; for GOD is with the righteous.

That is If ye cannot serve me in one city or country, fly into another, where yo may profess the true religion in safety; for the earth is wide enough, and ye may easily find places of refuge. Mohammed is said to have declared, That whoever flies for the sake of his religion, though he stir but the distance of a span, merits paradise, and shall be the companion of Abraham and of himself.10

"Those who shall have professed Islamism, and practised charity, shall dwell eternally in the garden of delights, through which rivers flow."-Savary.

And particularly who will make a good, and who will make a bad, use of their riches.

"See they not that we have given unto them a secure asylum, while the men who dwell around them are led away captive?"—Savary.

10 Al Beidâwi.

CHAPTER XXX.

INTITLED, THE GREEKS; REVEALED AT MECCA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

A. L. M. The Greeks have been overcome by the Persians in the

• The original word is al Rum; by which the later Greeks, or subjects of the Constantinopolitan empire, are here meant; though the Arabs give the same name also to the Romans, and other Europeans.

Some except the verse beginning at these words, Praise be unto God.

See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iii. p. 42, &c.

The accomplishment of the prophecy contained in this passage, which is very famous among the Mohammedans, being insisted on by their doctors as a convincing proof that the Korân really came down from heaven, it may be excusable to be a little particular.

The passage is said to have been revealed on occasion of a great victory obtained by the Persians over the Greeks, the news whereof coming to Mecca, the infidels became strangely elated, and began to abuse Mohammed and his followers, imagining that this success of the Persians, who, like themselves, were idolaters, and supposed to have no scriptures, against the Christians, who pretended, as well as Mohammed, to worship one God, and to have divine scriptures, was an earnest of their own future successes against the prophet and those of his religion: to check which vain hopes, it was foretold, in the words of the text, that how improbable soever it might seem, yet the scale should be turned in a few years, and the vanquished Greeks prevail as remarkably against the Persians.

That this prophecy was exactly fulfilled, the commentators fail not to observe, though they do not exactly agree in the accounts they give of its accomplishment; the number of years between the two actions being not precisely determined. Some place the victory gained by the Persians in the fifth year before the Hejra, and their defeat by the Greeks in the second year after it, when the battle of Bedr was fought: others place the former in the third or fourth year before the Hejra, and the latter in the end of the sixth, or beginning of the seventh year after it, when the expedition of al Hodeibivah was undertaken.2

The date of the victory gained by the Greeks, in the first of these accounts, interferes with a story which the commentators tell, of a wager laid by Abu Beer with Obba Ebn Khalf, who turned this prophecy into ridicule. Abu Becr at first laid ten young camels that the Persians should receive an overthrow within three years; but on his acquainting Mohammed with what he had done, that prophet told him that the word bed, made use of in this passage, signified no determinate number of years, but any number from three to nine (though some suppose the tenth year is included), and therefore advised him to prolong the time, and to raise the wager; which he accordingly proposed to Obba, and they agreed that the time assigned should be nine years, and the wager a hundred camels. Before the time was elapsed, Obba died of a wound received at Ohod, in the third year of the Hejra; but the event afterwards showing that Abu Becr had won, he received the camels of Obba's heirs, and brought them in triumph to Mohammed.*

History informs us that the successes of Khosru Parviz, king of Persia, who carried on a terrible war against the Greek empire, to revenge the death of Maurice his father-in-law, slain by Phocas, were very great, and continued in an uninterrupted course for two-and-twenty years. Particularly in the year of Christ 615, about the beginning of the sixth year before the Hejra, the Persians, having the preceding year conquered Syria, made themselves masters of Palestine, and took Jerusalem: which seems to be that signal advantage gained over the Greeks mentioned in this passage, as agreeing best with the terms here used, and most likely to alarm the Arabs by reason of their vicinity to the scene of action; and there was so little probability, at that time, of the Greeks being able to retrieve their losses, much less to distress the Persians, that in the following years the arms of the latter made still farther and more considerable progresses, and at length they laid siege to Constantinople itself. But in the year 625, in which the fourth year of the Hejra began, about ten years after the taking of Jerusalem, the Greeks, when it was least expected, gained a remarkable victory over the Persians, and not only obliged them

1 Jallalo'ddin, &c. Beidâwi, Jallalo'ddin, &c.

Al Zamakh. al Beidâwi.

See page 298, note TM. · ΑΙ

nearest part of the land; *1 but after their defeat, they shall overcome the others in their turn, within a few years. Unto GOD belongeth the disposal of this matter, both for what is past, and for what is to come: and on that day shall the believers rejoice in the success granted by GOD; for he granteth success unto whom he pleaseth, and he is the mighty, the merciful. This is the promise of GOD: GOD will not act contrary to his promise; but the greater part of men know not the veracity of God. They know the outward appearance of this present life; but they are careless as to the life to come.t Do they not consider within themselves that GOD hath not created the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between them, otherwise than in truth, and hath set them a determined period? Verily a great number of men reject the belief of their future meeting their LORD at the resurrection. Do they not pass through the earth, and see what hath been the end of those who were before them? They excelled the Meccas in strength, and broke up the earth,‡* and inhabited it in greater affluence and prosperity than they inhabit the same: and their apostles came unto them with evident miracles; and GOD was not disposed to treat them unjustly, but they injured their own souls by their obstinate infidelity; and the end of those who had done evil, was evil, because they charged the signs of GOD with falsehood, and laughed the same to scorn. GOD produceth creatures, and will hereafter restore them to life: then shall ye return unto him. And on the day whereon the hour shall come, the wicked shall be struck dumb for despair: and they shall have no intercessors from among the idols which they associated with God. And they shall deny the false gods which they associated with him. On the day whereon the hour shall come, on that day shall the true believers and the infidels be separated: and they who shall have believed, and wrought righteousness, shall take their pleasure in a delightful meadow; but as for those who shall have disbelieved, and rejected our signs, and the meeting of the next life, they shall be delivered up to punishment. Wherefore glorify GOD, when the evening overtaketh you, and when ye rise in to quit the territories of the empire, by carrying the war into their own country, but drove them to the last extremity, and spoiled the capital city al Madâyen; Heraclius enjoying, thenceforward, a continued series of good fortune, to the deposition and death of Khosru. For more exact information on these matters, and more nicely fixing the dates, either so as to correspond with, or to overturn this pretended prophecy (neither of which is my business here), the reader may have recourse to the historians and chronologers."

"They have been defeated on the frontier."-Savary.

Some interpreters, supposing that the land here meant is the land of Arabia, or else that of the Greeks, place the scene of action in the confines of Arabia and Syria, near Bostra and Adhraât; others imagine the land of Persia is intended, and lay the scene in Mesopotamia, on the frontiers of that kingdom: but Ebn Abbas, with more probability, thinks it was in Palestine.

“Intoxicated with earthly pleasures, men forget the life which is to come.”—

Savary.

"Have they not traversed the earth? Have they not seen what hath been the fate of the ancient nations? More powerful than they are, those nations have left there monuments of their greatness. They have dwelt there for a longer period.”— Savary.

To dig for water and minerals, and to till the ground for seed, &c.3

Vide etiam Asseman. Bibl. Orient. t. 3, part 1, p. 411. &c. et Boulainv. Vie de Moham. p. 333, &c. 6 Yahya, al Beidâwi. 7 Mojahed, apud Zamakh. Al Beidâwi.

:

the morning and unto him be praise in heaven and earth; and at sunset, and when ye rest at noon.' He bringeth forth the living out of the dead, and he bringeth forth the dead out of the living ;" and he quickeneth the earth after it hath been dead: and in like manner shall ye be brought forth from your graves. Of his signs one is, that he hath created you of dust; and behold, ye are become men, spread over the face of the earth. And of his signs, another is, that he hath created you, out of yourselves, wives, that ye may cohabit with them; and hath put love and compassion between you verily herein are signs unto people who consider. And of his signs are also the creation of the heavens and the earth, and the variety of your languages, and of your complexions:" verily herein are signs unto men of understanding. And of his signs are your sleeping by night and by day, and your seeking to provide for yourselves of his abundance: verily herein are signs unto people who hearken. Of his signs others are, that he showeth you the lightning, to strike terror, and to give hope of rain, and that he sendeth down water from heaven, and quickeneth thereby the earth, after it hath been dead: verily herein are signs unto people who understand. And of his signs this also is one, namely, that the heaven and the earth stand firm at command: hereafter, when he shall call you out of the earth at one summons, behold ye shall come forth. Unto him are subject whosoever are in the heavens and on earth: all are obedient unto him. It is he who originally produceth a creature, and afterwards restoreth the same to life and this is most easy with him. He justly challengeth the most exalted comparison, in heaven and earth; and he is the mighty, the wise. He propoundeth unto a comparison taken from yourselves. Have ye, among the slaves whom your right hands possess, any partner in the substance which we have bestowed on you, so that ye become equal sharers therein with them, or that ye fear them as ye fear one another?P Thus we distinctly explain our signs unto people who understand. But those who act unjustly, by attributing companions unto God, follow their own lusts, without knowledge and who shall direct him whom GOD shall cause to err? They shall have none to help them. Wherefore be thou orthodox, and set thy face towards the true religion, the institution of GOD, to which he hath created mankind disposed:* there is no change in what God hath created. This

1 Some are of opinion that the five times of prayer are intended in this passage; the evening including the time both of the prayer of sunset, and of the evening prayer properly so called, and the word I have rendered at sunset, marking the hour of afternoon prayer, since it may be applied also to the time a little before sunset. See chap. 3, p. 38.

Which are certainly most wonderful, and, as I conceive, very hard to be ac counted for, if we allow the several nations in the world to be all the offspring of one man, as we are assured by scripture they are, without having recourse to the immediate omnipotency of God.

• That is, in speaking of him we ought to make use of the most noble and magnificent expressions we can possibly devise.

P See chap. 16, p. 220.

"Open thy heart to Islamism; it is the work of God, who bath created men to embrace it: it is the holy and eternal faith; but the greatest part of mankind are plunged into ignorance."-Savary.

i. e. The immutable law, or rule, to which man is naturally disposed to conform, and which every one would embrace, as most fit for a rational creature, if it were

And be ye

is the right religion; but the greater part of men know it not. turned unto him, and fear him, and be constant at prayer, and be not idolaters. Of those who have made a schism in their religion, and are divided into various sects, every sect rejoice in their own opinion. When adversity befalleth men, they call upon their LORD, turning unto him: afterwards, when he hath caused them to taste of his mercy, behold, a part of them associate other deities with their LORD: to show themselves ungrateful for the favours which we have bestowed on them. Enjoy therefore the vain pleasures of this life; but hereafter shall ye know the consequence. Have we sent down unto them any authority, which speaketh of the false gods which they associate with him?" When we cause men to taste mercy, they rejoice therein; but if evil befalleth them, for that which their hands have before committed, behold, they despair. Do they not see that GOD bestoweth provision abundantly on whom he pleaseth, and is sparing unto whom he pleaseth? Verily herein are signs unto people who believe. Give unto him who is of kin to thee his reasonable due; and also to the poor, and the stranger: this is better for those who seek the face of GOD; and they shall prosper. Whatever ye shall give in usury, to be an increase of men's substance, shall not be increased by the blessing of GOD; but whatever ye shall give in alms, for God's sake, they shall receive a twofold reward.* It is GOD who hath created you, and hath provided food for you hereafter will he cause you to die; and after that will he raise you again to life. Is there any of your false gods, who is able to do the least of these things? Praise be unto him; and far be he removed from what they associate with him! Corruption" hath appeared by land and by sea, for the crimes which men's hands have committed; that it might make them to taste a part of the fruits of that which they have wrought, that peradventure they might turn from their evil ways. Say, Go through the earth, and see what hath been the end of those who have been before you: the greater part of them were idolaters. Set thy face therefore towards the right religion, before the day cometh, which none can put back from GOD. On that day shall they be separated into two companies: whoever shall have been an unbeliever, on him shall his unbelief be charged; and whoever shall have done that which is right, shall spread themselves couches of repose in paradise; that he may reward those who shall believe, and work righteousness, of his abundant liberality; for he loveth not the unbelievers. Of his signs one is, that he sendeth the winds, bearing welcome tidings of

not for the prejudices of education. The Mohammedans have a tradition that their prophet used to say, That every person is born naturally disposed to become a Moslem ; but that a man's parents make him a Jew, a Christian, or a Magian.

That is, have we either by the mouth of any prophet, or by any written revelation commanded or encouraged the worship of more gods than one?

And seek not to regain the favour of God by timely repentance.

Or by way of bribe. The word may include any sort of extortion or illicit gain. "The alms which ye shall give, in the hope of deserving to view his presence, shall be multiplied a hundred fold."-Savary.

"Viz., mischief and public calamities; such as famine, pestilence, droughts, shipwrecks, &c., or erroneous doctrines, or a general depravity of manners,

* Some copies read, in the first person plural, That we might cause them to taste, &c.

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