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sider? He governeth all things from heaven even to the earth: hereafter shall they return unto him, on the day whose length shall be a thousand years," of those which ye compute. This is he who knoweth the future, and the present; the mighty, the merciful. It is he who hath made every thing which he hath created exceeding good; and first created man of clay, and afterwards made his posterity of an extract of despicable water; and then formed him into proper shape, and breathed of his spirit into him; and hath given you the senses of hearing and seeing, and hearts to understand. How small thanks do ye return! And they say, when we shall lie hidden in the earth, shall we be raised thence a new creature? Yea, they deny the meeting of their LORD at the resurrection. Say, The angel of death," who is set over you, shall cause you to die: then shall ye be brought back unto your LORD. If thou couldest see, when the wicked shall bow down their heads before their LORD, saying, O LORD, we have seen and have heard: suffer us therefore to return into the world, and we will work that which is right; since we are now certain of the truth of what hath been preached to us: thou wouldest see an amazing sight. If we had pleased we had certainly given unto every soul its direction: but the word which hath proceeded from me must necessarily be fulfilled, when I said, Verily I will fill hell with genii and men, altogether. Taste therefore the torment prepared for you, because ye have forgotten the coming of this your day: we also have forgotten you; taste therefore the punishment of eternal duration, for that which ye have wrought. Verily they only believe in our signs, who, when they are warned thereby, fall down adoring, and celebrate the praise of their LORD, and are not elated with pride: their sides are raised from their beds calling on their LORD with fear and with hope; and they distribute alms out of what we have bestowed on them. No soul knoweth the complete satisfaction which is secretly prepared for them, as a reward for that which they have wrought. Shall he, therefore, who is a true believer, be as he

As to the reconciliation of this passage with another, which seems contradictory, see the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. p. 60.

Some, however, do not interpret the passage before us of the resurrection, but suppose that the words here describe the making and executing of the decrees of God, which are sent down from heaven to earth, and are returned (or ascend, as the verb properly signifies,) back to him, after they have been put in execution; and present themselves, as it were, so executed, to his knowledge, in the space of a day with God, but with man, of a thousand years. Others imagine this space to be the time which the angels, who carry the divine decrees, and bring them back executed, take in descending and re-ascending, because the distance from heaven to earth is a journey of five hundred years: and others fancy that the angels bring down at once decrees for a thousand years to come, which being expired, they return back for fresh orders, &c.9

▾ i. e. Seed.

See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. p. 51.

* See chap. 7, p. 119, and chap. 11, p. 186.

Not even an angel of those who approach nearest God's throne, nor any prophet who hath been sent by him.1

Literally, The joy of the eyes. The commentators fail not, on occasion of this passage, to produce that saying of their prophet, which was originally none of his own: God saith, I have prepared for my righteous servants what eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive.

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who is an impious transgressor? They shall not be held equal. As to those who believe and do that which is right, they shall have gardens of perpetual abode, an ample recompence for that which they shall have wrought but as for those who impiously transgress, their abode shall be hell fire; so often as they shall endeavour to get thereout, they shall be dragged back into the same, and it shall be said unto them, Taste ye the torment of hell fire, which ye rejected as a falsehood. And we will cause them to taste the nearer punishment of this world, beside the more grievous punishment of the next; peradventure they will repent. Who is more unjust than he who is warned by the signs of his LORD, and then turneth aside from the same? We will surely take vengeance on the wicked. We heretofore delivered the book of the law unto Moses; wherefore be not thou in doubt as to the revelation thereof:a and we ordained the same to be a direction unto the children of Israel; and we appointed teachers from among them, who should direct the people at our command, when they had persevered with patience, and had firmly believed in our signs. Verily thy LORD will judge between them, on the day of resurrection, concerning that wherein they have disagreed. Is it not known unto them how many generations we have destroyed before them, through whose dwellings they walk? Verily herein are signs: will they not therefore hearken? Do they not see that we drive rain unto a land bare of grass and parched up, and thereby produce corn, of which their cattle eat, and themselves also? Will they not therefore regard? The infidels say to the true believers, When will this decision be made between us, if ye speak truth? Answer, On the day of that decision, the faith of those who shall have disbelieved shall not avail them; neither shall they be respited any longer. Wherefore avoid them, and expect the issue: verily they expect to obtain some advantage over thee

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Or, as some interpret it, of the revelation of the Koran to thyself; since the delivery of the law to Moses proves that the revelation of the Koran to thee is not the first instance of the kind. Others think the words should be translated thus, Be not thou in doubt as to thy meeting of that prophet, supposing that the interview between Moses and Mohammed in the sixth heaven, when the latter took his night journey thither, is here intended."

The Meccans frequently passing by the places where the Adites, Thamudites, Midianites, Sodomites, &c., once dwelt.

That is, on the day of judgment: though some suppose the day here intended to be that of the victory at Bedr, or else that of the taking of Mecca, when several of those who had been proscribed, were put to death without remission.3

• Al Beidâwi.

See the Prelim. Disc. sect. ii. p. 39.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

INTITLED, THE CONFEDERATES; REVEALED AT MEDINA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

O PROPHET, fear GOD, and obey not the unbelievers and the hypocrites:" verily GOD is knowing and wise. But follow that which is revealed unto thee from thy LORD; for GOD is well acquainted with that which ye do: and put thy trust in GoD; for GOD is a sufficient protector.* GOD hath not given a man two hearts within him; neither hath he made your wives (some of whom ye divorce, regarding them thereafter as your mothers) your true mothers; nor hath he made your adopted sons your true sons. This is your saying in your mouths: but GOD speaketh the truth; and he directed the right way. Call such as are adopted, the sons of their natural fathers: this will be more just in the sight of GOD. And if ye know not their fathers, let them be as your brethren in religion, and your companions: and it shall be no crime in you, that ye err in this matter; † but that shall be criminal which your hearts purposely design; for GOD is gracious and merciful. The prophet is nigher unto the true believers than their own

Part of this chapter was revealed on occasion of the war of the Ditch, which happened in the fifth year of the Hejra, when Medina was besieged, for above twenty days, by the joint and confederate forces of several Jewish tribes, and of the inhabitants of Mecca, Najd, and Tehâma, at the instigation of the Jews of the tribe of Nadhir, who had been driven out of their settlement near Medina, by Mohammed, the year before.1

It is related that Abu Sofiân, Acrema Ebn Abi Jahl, and Abu'l A'war al Salami, having an amicable interview with Mohammed, at which were present also Abdallah Ebn Obba, Moatteb Ebn Kosheir, and Jadd Ebn Kais, they proposed to the prophet, that if he would leave off preaching against the worship of their gods, and acknowledge them to be mediators, they would give him and his Lord no farther disturbance; upon which these words were revealed."

"Put thy confidence in him. His protection is a powerful shield."-Savary. This passage was revealed to abolish two customs among the old Arabs. This first was their manner of divorcing their wives, when they had no mind to let them go out of their house, or to marry again: and this the husband did by saying to the woman, Thou art henceforward to me as the back of my mother; after which words pronounced he abstained from her bed, and regarded her in all respects as his mother, and she became related to all his kindred in the same degree as if she had been really so. The other custom was the holding their adopted sons to be as nearly related to them as their natural sons, so that the same impediments of marriage arose from that supposed relation, in the prohibited degrees, as it would have done in the case of a genuine son. The latter Mohammed had a peculiar reason to abolish, viz., his marrying the divorced wife of his freedman Zeid, who was also his adopted son; of which more will be said by and by. By the declaration which introduces this passage, that God has not given a man two hearts, is meant, that a man cannot have the same affection for supposed parents, and adopted children, as for those who are really so. They tell us the Arabs used to say, of a prudent and acute person, that he had two hearts; whence one Abu Mâmer, or, as others write, Jemil Ebn Asad al Fihri, was surnamed Dhu❜lkalbein, or the man with two hearts."

Through ignorance or mistake; or, that ye have erred for the time past. +"Restore your adopted sons unto their fathers. This action is equitable in the sight of God. If ye know not the authors of their existence, let religion impel you to cherish them as your brothers, as your kindred. If by an involuntary error ye deviate from the precept, it shall not render you culpable."-Savary.

* Vide Abu'lfedæ Vit. Moh. p. 73, et Gagnier, Vie de Mohammed, lib. 4, c. 1. • Al Beidâwi. * Idem, Jallalo'ddin, &c.

souls; and his wives are their mothers. Those who are related by consanguinity are nigher of kin the one of them unto the others, according to the book of GOD, than the other true believers, and the Mohâjerûn : unless that ye do what is fitting and reasonable to your relations in general. This is written in the book of God. Remember when we accepted their covenant from the prophets," and from thee, O Mohammed, and from Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus the son of Mary, and received from them a firm covenant;" that God may examine the speakers of truth concerning their veracity: and he hath prepared a painful torment for the unbelievers. O true believers, remember the favour of GOD towards you when armies of infidels came against you, and we sent against them a wind, and hosts of angels which ye saw not:9 and GOD beheld that

Commanding them nothing but what is for their interest and advantage, and being more solicitous for their present and future happiness even than themselves; for which reason he ought to be dear to them, and deserves their utmost love and respect. In some copies these words are added, And he is a father unto them; every prophet being the spiritual father of his people, who are therefore brethren. It is said that this passage was revealed on some of Mohammed's followers telling him, when he summoned them to attend him in the expedition of Tabuc,7 that they would ask leave of their fathers and mothers.8

"The prophet loveth the true believers more than they love themselves."— Savary.

Though the spiritual relation between Mohammed and his people, declared in the preceding words, created no impediment to prevent his taking to wife such women among them as he thought fit; yet the commentators are of opinion that they are here forbidden to marry any of his wives.

These words, which also occur, excepting the latter part of the sentence, in the eighth chapter, abrogate that law concerning inheritances published in the same chapter, whereby the Mohâjerûn and Ansârs were to be the heirs of one another, exclusive of their nearer relations who were infidels.1

1i. e. In the preserved Table, or the Korân; or, as others suppose, in the Pentateuch.

m Jallalo'ddin supposes this covenant was made when Adam's posterity were drawn forth from his loins, and appeared before God like small ants; but Marracci conjectures that the covenant here meant was the same which the Talmudists pretend all the prophets entered into with God on Mount Sinai, where they were all assembled in person with Moses."

"Whereby they undertook to execute their several commissions, and promised to preach the religion commanded them by God.

i. e. That he may at the day of judgment demand of the prophets in what manner they executed their several commissions, and how they were received by their people: or, as the words may also import, that he may examine those who believed on them, concerning their belief, and reward them accordingly.

P These were the forces of the Koreish and the tribe of Ghatfân, confederated with the Jews of al Nadhir and Koreidha, who besieged Medina to the number of twelve thousand men, in the expedition called the war of the ditch.

On the enemies' approach, Mohammed, by the advice of Salman the Persian, ordered a deep ditch or entrenchment to be dug round Medina, for the security of the city, and went out to defend it with three thousand men. Both sides remained

in their camps near a month, without any other acts of hostility than shooting of arrows and slinging of stones; till, in a winter's night, God sent a piercing cold east wind, which benumbed the limbs of the confederates, blew the dust in their faces, extinguished their fires, overturned their tents, and put their horses in disorder, the angels at the same time crying Allah acbar round about their camp; whereupon Toleiha Ebn Khowailed, the Asadite, said aloud, Mohammed is going to attack you with enchantments, wherefore provide for your safety by flight: and accordingly the Koreish first, and afterwards the Ghatfanites, broke up the siege, and returned home; which retreat was also not a little owing to the dissensions among the confederate forces, the raising and fomenting whereof the Mohammedans also ascribe

7 See chap. 9, p. 154.

1 See chap. 8, p. 147.

8 Al Beidawi. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. vi. p. 98. 2 See chap. 7, p. 135. See chap. 3, p. 46.

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which ye did. When they came against you from above you, and from below you, and when your sight became troubled, and your hearts came even to your throats for fear, and ye imagined of GOD various imaginations. There were the faithful tried, and made to tremble with a violent trembling. And when the hypocrites, and those in whose heart was an infirmity, said, GOD and his apostles have made you no other than a fallacious promise. And when a party of them" said, O inhabitants of Yathreb, there is no place of security for you here; wherefore return home. And a part of them asked leave of the prophet to depart, saying, Verily our houses are defenceless and exposed to the enemy : but they were not defenceless; and their intention was no other than to fly. If the city had been entered upon them by the enemy from the parts adjacent, and they had been asked to desert the true believers and to fight against them; they had surely consented thereto : but they had not, in such case, remained in the same, but a little while. They had before made a covenant with GOD that they would not turn their backs: and the performance of their covenant with GOD shall be examined into hereafter. Say, Flight shall not profit you, if ye fly from death or from slaughter: and if it would, yet shall ye not enjoy this world but a little.* Say, who is he who shall defend you against GOD, if he is pleased to bring evil on you, or is pleased to show mercy towards you? They shall find none to patronize or protect them, besides GOD. GOD already knoweth those among you who hinder others from following his apostle, and who say unto their brethren, Come hither unto us; and who come not to battle, except a little: being

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to God. It is related that when Mohammed heard that his enemies were retired, he said, I have obtained success by means of the east wind; and Ad perished by the west wind.

The Ghatfânites pitched on the east side of the town, on the higher part of the valley; and the Koreish on the west side, on the lower part of the valley.

The sincere and those who were more firm of heart fearing they should not be able to stand the trial; and the weaker-hearted and hypocrites thinking themselves delivered up to slaughter and destruction.

The person who uttered these words, it is said, was Moatteb Ebn Kosheir, who told his fellows that Mohammed had promised them the spoils of the Persians and the Greeks, whereas now not one of them dared to stir out of their intrenchment." "Viz., Aws Ebn Keidhi, and his adherents.

This was the ancient and proper name of Medina, or of the territory wherein it stands. Some suppose the town was so named from its founder, Yathreb, the son of Kâbiya, the son of Mahlayel, the son of Aram, the son of Sem, the son of Noah: though others tell us it was built by the Amalekites.?

i. e. In the city; or, in their apostasy and rebellion, because the Moslems would surely succeed at last.

The persons meant here were Banu, Hareth, &c., who having behaved very ill and run away on a certain occasion, promised they would do so no more.8

"Say unto them, Flight will be useless unto you. You have believed that you could avoid death, by shunning the battle; but little shall ye benefit by your cowardice."-Savary.

Either coming to the army in small numbers; or staying with them but a little while, and then returning on some feigned excuse: or behaving ill in time of action. Some expositors take these words to be part of the speech of the hypocrites, reflecting on Mohammed's companions for lying idle in the trenches, and not attacking the enemy.

5 Idem.

Al Beidâwi, Abulf. Vit. Moh. p. 77, &c.
Al Beidâwi.
Abulf. ubi sup. p. 76. 7 Ahmed Ebn Yusof. See the Prelim. Disc. p. 3.
Beidawi.

Vide

8 Al

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