day of resurrection; and he who shall be far removed from hell fire, and shall be admitted into paradise, shall be happy; but the present life is only a deceitful provision. (187) Ye shall surely be proved in your possessions, and in your persons; and ye shall bear from those unto whom the scripture was delivered before you, and from the idolaters, much hurt; but if ye be patient and fear God, this is a matter that is absolutely determined. (188) And when GOD accepted the covenant of those to whom the book of the law was given, saying, Ye shall surely publish it unto mankind, ye shall not hide it: yet they threw it behind their backs, and sold it for a small price: but woful is the price for which they have sold it. (189) Think not that they who rejoice at what they have done, and expect to

trump all angels will die, including Isráfíl, who will blow the trumpet. God will then raise Isráfíl, who will again sound the trump, and all the dead will rise to judgment.

Shall be admitted into paradise, i.e., at the resurrection. For the state of the dead between death and the resurrection, see Prelim. Disc., pp. 127-138.

(187) Proved in your possessions, &c. The Tafsir-i-Raufi refers this passage to the loss of property at the flight from Makkah, and the loss of life in the wars for the faith. It seems to me, however, the passage better applies to the temporary ascendancy of the Jews and hypocrites of Madina after the battle of Ohod.

(188) Ye shall surely publish it, i.e., the prophecies concerning Muhammad contained in the Pentateuch. The claim set up here is virtually this, that the great burden of prophecy was the advent of Muhammad, just as Christians regard the spirit of prophecy to be the testimony of God to Jesus as the Christ. It would appear from this passage that Muhammad, consciously or unconsciously,-being deceived by designing converts from Judaism,—had conceived that the prophecies of the Old Testament concerning the Coming One related to him. Accordingly, those Jewish Rabbies who denied the existence of any prophecies relating to him are here stigmatised as having sold themselves to the work of perverting their Scriptures so as to oppose him.

Let it again be observed that the charge of corruption is not laid upon the volume of Scriptures extant in the days of Muhammad, but against the living interpreters of those Scriptures.

Woful is the price. "Whoever concealeth the knowledge which God has given him," says Muhammad, "God shall put on him a bridle of fire on the day of resurrection."- Sale.

(189) They who rejoice, &c., i.e., who think they have done a com

be praised for what they have not done; think not, O prophet, that they shall escape from punishment, for they shall suffer a painful punishment.

Ꭱ Ꭾ

|| (190) And unto GOD belongeth the kingdom of heaven Rif. and earth: GOD is almighty. (191) Now in the creation of heaven and earth, and the vicissitude of night and day, are signs unto those who are endued with understanding; (192) who remember GOD standing, and sitting, and lying on their sides; and meditate on the creation of heaven and earth, saying, O LORD, thou hast not created this in vain; far be it from thee: therefore deliver us from the torment of hell fire: (193) O LORD, surely whom thou shalt throw into the fire, thou wilt also cover with shame: nor shall the ungodly have any to help them. (194) O LORD, we have heard a preacher inviting us to the faith and saying, Believe in your LORD: and we believed. O LORD, forgive us therefore our sins, and expiate our evil

mendable deed in concealing and perverting the testimonies in the Pentateuch concerning Muhammad, and in disobeying God's commands to the contrary. "It is said that Muhammad once asking some Jews concerning a passage in their law, they gave him an answer very different from the truth, and were mightily pleased that they had, as they thought, deceived him. Others, however, think this passage relates to some pretended Muhammadans who rejoiced in their hypocrisy and expected to be commended for their wickedness."-Sale, Baidháwi.

(191) This verse belongs to the Makkan revelations. Comp. chap. ii. 165.

(192) Who remember God standing, &c., viz., "at all times and in all postures. Al Baidhawi mentions a saying of Muhammad to one Imrán Ibn Husain, to this purpose: Pray standing, if thou art able; if not, sitting; and if thou canst not sit up, then as thou liest along.' Al Shafa'i directs that the sick should pray lying on their right side."-Sale.

This passage describes the character of those mentioned in the previous verse.

(194) A preacher. This is the name which Muhammad constantly assumed at Makkah. See chap. vii. 2, chap. xiii. 29, 40, chap. xvi. 84, &c. Nought but the political power acquired at Madina changed the preacher into a soldier.

And expiate. The word used here is kaffara, which is the cognate of the Hebrew, to cover, to expiate. While, however, the language suggests atonement by sacrifice (and the idea was not

deeds from us, and make us to die with the righteous. (195) O LORD, give us also the reward which thou hast promised by thy apostles; and cover us not with shame.

foreign to Muhammad's mind, for he offered sacrifices himself), yet in his teaching he everywhere as studiously denied the doctrine of salvation by atonement as he did the doctrine of the divinity of Christ. And yet he had the daring to appeal to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures as bearing witness to his prophetic pretensions, and to claim for his Quran the excellency that it attested the doctrines of all the prophets.

It cannot be claimed for Muhammad that he was ignorant of Jewish belief and practice in respect to atoning sacrifices, for during his first year's residence at Madina "Mahomet kept the great day of atonement, with its sacrifices of victims, in conformity with the practice of the Jews; and had he continued on a friendly footing with them, he would probably have maintained this rite."-Muir's Life of Mahomet, vol. iii. p. 51. According to this author, Muhammad abandoned this Jewish rite in the second year of the Hijra, owing to his failure to win the Jews over to his cause. He then offered sacrifices himself. The following is the story of this transaction:-"After a service resembling that on the breaking of the fast, two fatted sucking kids with budding horns were placed before the prophet. Seizing a knife, he sacrificed one with his own hand, saying, O Lord! I sacrifice this for my whole people; all those that bear testimony to thy unity and to my mission. Then he called for the other, and slaying it likewise, said, 'O Lord! this is for Mahomet, and for the family of Mahomet.' Of the latter kid both he and his family partook, and what was over he gave to the poor. The double sacrifice seems in its main features to have been founded on the practice of the Jewish priest at the Feast of the Atonement, when he sacrificed first for his own sins, and then for the people's' (Heb. vii. 27). This ceremony was repeated by Mahomet every year of his residence at Medina, and it was kept up there after his decease."-Life of Mahomet, vol. iii. pp. 52, 53.

In answer to the question why Muhammad should have ignored the doctrine of salvation by atonement, there is available no definite reply. It was, however, probably due to a variety of reasons. First, such a doctrine would contradict Muhammad's idea of a sovereign God. Such being the case, his conformity to Jewish and Arab practice was simply a matter of policy. Or again, we may well believe that the opposition by the Jews estranged him from everything distinctively Jewish. To accept the doctrine of the divinity of Christ would not only have seemed to militate against his idea of God's unity, but also would logically have led to a rejection of his prophetic claim. In like manner, the adoption of the doctrine of atoning sacrifices as necessary to salvation would not only have contradicted Muhammad's notion of God's sovereignty, but would logically have led to his adopting Judaism or Christianity as his

on the day of resurrection: for thou art not contrary to

the promise.

(196) Their LORD therefore answered them, saying, I SULS. will not suffer the work of him among you who worketh to be lost, whether he be male or female: the one of you is from the other. They therefore who have left their country, and have been turned out of their houses, and have suffered for my sake, and have been slain in battle; verily I will expiate their evil deeds from them, and I will surely bring them into gardens watered by rivers; a reward from GOD; and with GOD is the most excellent

religion, either of which conclusions would have rendered him unpopular with the Arabs, who, since the break with the Jews, had been constituted his chosen people. Either of these reasons would satisfactorily account for the fact that the doctrine of atonement as necessary to salvation is wanting in the teaching of Muhammad. When, however, he represents his own doctrine as that of all former prophets, and when, in all his allusions to the teaching of these prophets, he uniformly ignores the doctrine of salvation by atonement, we cannot but believe he did so deliberately. This is the rock upon which the cause of Islám falls, only to be dashed in pieces. The signal failure of the Qurán to attest this central doctrine of both the Old and New Testament Scriptures proves the Qurán, on its own testimony, to be a forgery, and Muhammad to be an impostor.

(196) Male or female. "These words were added, as some relate. on Omm Salma, one of the prophet's wives, telling him that she had observed God often made mention of the men who fled their country for the sake of their faith, but took no notice of the women." -Sale, Baidhawi.

The one of you, &c., i.e., the one is born of the other. Rodwell translates "the one of you is the issue of the other." The teaching of the passage is that all, whether male or female, will be rewarded according to their works. Women are not by any means excluded from the blessings of Islám, and they have formed by no means the least devoted followers of Muhammad.

Verily I will expiate, &c. The word used here for expiate is the same as that used in ver. 194 (see note there). The idea attached to it here is that of removal.

Gardens watered by rivers. The imagery of paradise is coloured by Arab ideas of beauty and pleasure. Heaven is likened to a beautiful oasis carpeted in green, with its sparkling fountains, limpid streams, shady trees, and delicious fruits. On the question as to whether these earthly surroundings are to be understood in a literal or figurative sense, see note on ver. 15.

reward. (197) Let not the prosperous dealing of the unbelievers in the land deceive thee; it is but a slender provision; and then their receptacle shall be hell; an unhappy couch shall it be. (198) But they who fear the LORD shall have gardens through which rivers flow; they shall continue therein for ever: this is the gift of GOD; for what is with GOD shall be better for the righteous. than short-lived worldly prosperity. (199) There are some of those who have received the scriptures who believe in GOD, and that which hath been sent down unto you, and that which hath been sent down to them, submitting themselves unto GOD; they sell not the signs of GOD for a small price: these shall have their reward with their

(197) An unhappy couch. This expression, used so frequently in the Qurán to describe the torment of hell, is probably used in contrast with the carnal and sensual delights of the Muslim heaven. There "they shall repose themselves on most delicate beds, adorned with gold and precious stones, under the shadow of the trees of paradise, which shall continually yield them all manner of delicious fruits; and there they shall enjoy most beautiful women, pure and clean, having black eyes, &c." But here, the couch shall be in the midst of fire, and be surrounded by smoke as with a coverlid, with nothing to eat "but the fruit of the tree Zaqún, which should be in their bellies like burning pitch," and nothing to drink "but boiling and stinking water," nor should they breathe ought but "exceeding hot winds," &c. (Prideaux, Life of Mahomet, p. 22).

(198) See notes on ver. 196.

For what is with God, &c. This passage, vers. 196-198, is said to have been revealed to comfort the Muslims, who, being in poverty and want, were surrounded by prosperous enemies.

(199) Some... who believe. The persons here meant some will have to be Abdullah Ibn Salám and his companions; others suppose they were forty Arabs of Najrán, or thirty-two Ethiopians, or else eight Greeks, who were converted from Christianity to Muhammadanism; and others say this passage was revealed in the ninth year of the Hijra, when Muhammad, on Gabriel's bringing him the news of the death of Ashámah, king of Ethiopia, who had embraced the Muhammadan religion some years before, prayed for the soul of the departed, at which some of his hypocritical followers were displeased, and wondered that he should pray for a Christian proselyte whom he had never seen."-Sale, Jalaluddin. Baidhawi.

See also verse 113, and note there.