and hath forbidden you to associate with GGD that concerning which he hath sent you down no authority, or to speak of GOD that which ye know not. Unto every nation there is a prefixed term; therefore when their term is expired, they shall not have respite for an hour, neither shall they be anticipated. O children of Adam, verily apostles from among you shall come unto you, who shall expound my signs unto you: whosoever therefore shall fear God and amend, there shall come no fear on them, neither shall they be grieved. But they who shall accuse our signs of falsehood, and shall proudly reject them, they shall be the companions of hell fire; they shall remain therein for ever. And who is more unjust than he who deviseth a lie concerning GoD, or accuseth his signs of imposture? Unto these shall be given their portion of worldly happiness, according to what is written in the book of God's decrees, until our messengers » come unto them, and shall cause them to die; saying, Where are the idols which ye called upon, besides God? They shall answer, They have disappeared from us. And they shall bear witness against themselves that they were unbelievers. God shall say unto them at the resurrection, Enter ye with the nations which have preceded you, of genii and of men, into hell fire: so often as one nation shall enter, it shall curse its sister, until they shall all have successively entered therein. The latter of them shall say of the former of them: O LORD, these have seduced us; therefore inflict on them a double punishment of the fire of hell. God shall answer, It shall be doubled unto all : but ye know it not: and the former of them shall say unto the latter of them, Ye have not therefore any favour above us; taste the punishment for that which ye have gained. Verily they who shall charge our signs with falsehood, and shall proudly reject them, the gates of heaven shall not be opened unto them, neither shall they enter into paradise, until a camel pass through the eye of a needle,' and thus will we reward the wicked doers. Their couch shall be in hell, and over them shall be coverings of fire; and thus will we reward the unjust. But they who believe, and do that which is right (we will not load any soul but according to its ability,) they shall be the companions of paradise; they shall remain therein for ever. And we will remove all grudges from their minds; rivers shall run at their feet, n "The term of life is fixed. No one can either anticipate or protract it for a single instant."-Savary. viz. The angel of death and his assistants. That is, the nation whose example betrayed them into their idolatry and other wickedness. Unto those who set the example, because they not only transgressed themselves, but were also the occasion of the others' transgression; and unto those who followed them, because of their own infidelity, and their imitating an ill example. That is, when their souls shall, after death, ascend to heaven, they shall not be admitted, but shall be thrown down into the dungeon under the seventh earth. This expression was probably taken from our Saviour's words in the gospel; though it be proverbial in the east. So that whatever differences or animosities there had been between them in their life time, they shall now be forgotten, and give place to sincere love and amity. This Ali is Jallalo'ddin, al Beidâwi. Matt. xix. 24. Jallalo'ddin. See the Prelim. Disc. ubi sup. p. 56, and they shall say, Praised be God, who hath directed us unto this felicity. for we should not have been rightly directed, if God had not directed us. now are we convinced by demonstration that the apostles of our LORD came unto us with truth. And it shall be proclaimed unto them, This is paradise, whereof ye are made heirs, as a reward for that which ye have wrought. And the inhabitants of paradise shall call out to the inhabitants of hell fire, saying, Now have we found that which our LORD promised us to be true: have ye also found that which your LORD promised you to be true? They shall answer, Yea. And a crier shall proclaim between them, The curse of GoD shall be on the wicked; who turn men aside from the way of GoD, and seek to render it crooked, and who deny the life to come. And between the blessed and the damned there shall be a veil; and men shall stand on Al Arâf who shall know every one of them by their marks; and shall call unto the inhabitants of paradise, saying, Peace be upon you: yet they shall not enter therein, although they earnestly desire it. And when they shall turn their eyes towards the companions of hell fire, they say, O LORD, place us not with the ungodly people! And those who stand on Al Arâf shall call unto certain men, whom they shall know by their marks, and shall say, What hath your gathering of riches availed you, and that ye were puffed up with pride? Are these the men on whom ye sware that God would not bestow mercy? Enter ye into paradise; there shall come no fear on you, neither shall ye be grieved. And the inhabitants of hell fire shall call unto the inhabitants of paradise, saying, Pour upon us some water, or of those refreshments which God hath bestowed on you.' They shall answer, Verily God hath forbidden them unto the unbelievers; said to have hoped would prove true to himself and his inveterate enemies, Othmân, Telha, and al Zobeir." This crier, some say, will be the angel Israfil. Al Arâf is the name of the wall or partition which, as Mohammed taught, will separate paradise from hell. But as to the persons who are to be placed thereon, the commentators differ, as has been elsewhere observed.' ai. e. Who shall distinguish the blessed from the damned by their proper characteristics; such as the whiteness and splendour of the faces of the former, and the blackness of those of the latter." From this circumstance it seems that their opinion is the most probable who make this intermediate partition a sort of purgatory for those who, though they deserve not to be sent to hell, yet have not merits sufficient to gain them immediate admittance into paradise, and will be tantalized here for a certain time with a bare view of the felicity of that place. That is, the chiefs and ringleaders of the infidels.' These were the inferior and poorer among the believers, whom they despised in their lifetimes as unworthy of God's favour. • These words are directed, by an apostrophe, to the poor and despised believers abovementioned. Some commentators however imagine these and the next preceding words are to be understood of those who will be confined in Al Arâf; and that the damned will, in return for their reproachful speech, swear that they shall never enter paradise themselves; whereupon God of his mercy shall order them to be admitted by these words.* i. e. Of the other liquors or fruits of paradise. Compare this passage with the parable of Dives and Lazarus. Al Beidâwi. 'Idem. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. 'See ibid. • Al Beidâwi. • Idem. who made a laughing-stock and a sport of their religion, and whom the life of the world hath deceived: therefore this day will we forget them, as they did forget the meeting of this day, and for that they denied our signs to be from God. And now have we brought unto those of Mecca a book of divine revelations we have explained it with knowledge; a direction and mercy unto people who shall believe. Do they wait for any other than the interpretation thereof? On the day whereon the interpretation thereof shall come, they who had forgotten the same before shall say, Now are we con vinced by demonstration that the messengers of our LORD came unto us with truth shall we therefore have any intercessors, who will intercede for us? or shall we be sent back into the world, that we may do other works than what we did in our life-time? But now have they lost their souls; and that which they impiously imagined hath fled from them. Verily you. LORD is GOD, who created the heavens and the earth in six days; and then ascended his throne: he causeth the night to cover the day; it succeedeth the same swiftly: he also created the sun and the moon, and the stars, which are absolutely subject unto his command. Is not the whole creation, and the empire thereof, his? Blessed be GoD, the LORD of all creatures! Call unto your LORD humbly and in secret; for he loveth not those who transgress. And act not corruptly in the earth, after its reformation; and call upon him with fear and desire: for the mercy of God is near unto the righteous. It is he who sendeth the winds, spread abroad before his mercy," , until they bring a cloud heavy with rain, which we drive into a dead country; and we cause water to descend thereon, by which we cause all sorts of fruits to spring forth. Thus will we bring forth the dead from their graves; that peradventure ye may consider. From a good country shall its fruit spring forth abundantly, by the permission of its LORD; but from the land which is bad, it shall not spring forth otherwise than scarcely. Thus do we explain the signs of divine providence unto people who are thankful. We formerly sent Noah unto his people: and he said, That is, the event of the promises and menaces therein. See ch. 6, p. 100, note z. "Call upon the Lord, in public and private, but avoid ostentation. He hateth the haughty."-Savary. Behaving themselves arrogantly while they pray; or praying with an obstreperous voice, or a multitude of words and vain repetitions." i. e. After that God hath sent his prophets, and revealed his laws, for the reformation and amendment of mankind. Or ranging over a large extent of land. Some copies, instead of noshram, which is the reading I have here followed, have boshran, which signifies good tidings; the rising of the wind in such a manner being the forerunner of rain. That is, rain. For the east wind, says Al Beidâwi, raises the clouds, the north wind drives them together, the south wind agitates them, so as to make the rain fall, and the west wind disperses them again." "Or a dry and parched land. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. Noah, the son of Lamech, according to the Mohammedan writers, was one of the six principal prophets, though he had no written revelations delivered to him, and the first who • Vide Reland. de 'A' Beidâwi. Relig. Moh. p. 34. • Idem. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. i. Verily I O my people, worship GoD: ye have no other God than him. fear for you the punishment of the great day. The chiefs of his people answered him, We surely perceive thee to be in a manifest error. He replied, O my people, there is no error in me; but I am a messenger from the LORD of all creatures. I bring unto you the messages of my LORD; and I counsel you aright: for I know from GoD, that which ye know not. Do ye wonder that an admonition hath come unto you from your LORD by a Inan from among you, to warn you, that ye may take heed to yourselves, and that peradventure ye may obtain mercy? And they accused him of imposture: but we delivered him and those who were with him in the ark, and we drowned those who charged our signs with falsehood; for they were a blind people. And unto the tribe of Ad" we sent their brother Hud. He said, O my people, worship GoD: ye have no other GoD than him; will ye not fear him? The chiefs of those among his people who believed not,' answered, Verily we perceive that thou art guided by folly; and we appeared after his great-grandfather Edris or Enoch. They also say he was by trade a carpenter, which they infer from his building the ark, and that the year of his mission was the fiftieth, or, as others say, the fortieth of his age. 9 That Noah was a preacher of righteousness unto the wicked antediluvians is testified by scripture. The eastern Christians say, that when God ordered Noah to build the ark, he also directed him to make an instrument of wood, such as they make use of, at this day, in the east, instead of bells, to call the people to church, and named in Arabic Nâkus, and in modern Greek, Semandra; on which he was to strike three times every day, not only to call together the workmen that were building the ark, but to give him an opportunity of daily admonishing his people of the impending danger of the deluge, which would certainly destroy them if they did not repent.2 Some Mohammedan authors pretend that Noah was sent to convert Zohák, one of the Persian kings of the first race, who refused to hearken to him; and that he afterwards preached God's unity publicly." From these words, and other passages of the Koran where Noah's preaching is mentioned, it appears that, according to Mohammed's opinion, a principal crime of the antediluvians was idolatry. viz. Either the day of resurrection, or that whereon the flood was to begin. For, said they, if God had pleased, he would have sent an angel, and not a man, since we never heard of such an instance in the times of our fathers." That is, those believed in him, and entered into that vessel with him. Though there be a tradition among the Mohammedans, said to have been received from the prophet himself, and conformable to the scripture, that eight persons and no more were saved in the ark, yet some of them report the number variously. One says they were but six, another ten, another twelve, another seventy-eight, and another fourscore, half men and half women; and that one of them was the elder Jorham,' the preserver, as some pretend, of the Arabian language. "Ad was an ancient and potent tribe of Arabs, and zealous idolaters. They chiefly worshipped four deities, Sâkia, Hâfedha, Râzeka, and Sâlema; the first, as they imagined. supplying them with rain, the second preserving them from all dangers abroad, the third providing food for their sustenance, and the fourth restoring them to health when afflicted with sickness; according to the signification of the several names. Generally supposed to be the same person with Heber; but others say he was the son of Abd'allah, the son of Ribâh, the son of Kholûd, the son of Ad, the son of Aws or Uz, the son of Aram, the son of Sem. These words were added because some of the principal men among them believed on Hûd, one of whom was Morthed Ebn Saad. 12 Pet. ii. 5. • Al Zamakhshari. D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 675. • Al Beidâwi. Eutych. Ann. p. 37. • Vide See ch. 61, and the Prelim. Disc. sect. i. Al Zamakhshari, Jallalo'ddin, Ebn Shohnah. 1 lidem. Vide Pocock. Orat. præfix. Carm. Tograi. Vide. D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. • Al Beidâwi. • Idem. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. i. 1 Abulfeda. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. i. certainly esteem thee to be one of the liars. He replied, O my people, I am not guided by folly; but I am a messenger unto you from the LORD of ali creatures: I bring unto you the messages of my LORD; and I am a faithfu! counsellor unto you. Do ye wonder that an admonition hath come unte you from your LORD, by a man from among you, that he may warn you? Call to mind how he hath appointed you successors unto the people of Noah, and hath added unto you in stature largely.* Remember the benefits of God, that ye may prosper. They said, Art thou come unto us, that we should worship GoD alone, and leave the deities which our fathers worshipped? Now bring down that judgment upon us, with which thou threatenest us, if thou speakest truth. Hud answered, Now shall there suddenly fall upon you from your LORD vengeance and indignation. Will ye dispute with me concerning the names which ye have named, and your fathers; as to which God hath not revealed unto you any authority? Do ye wait therefore, and I will be one of those who wait with you. And we delivered him, and then who believed with him by our mercy; and we cut off the uttermost part of those who charged our signs with falsehood, and were not believers. And unto the tribe of Thamûd we sent their brother Sâleh. He said, O my people, worship GoD: ye have no God besides him. Now hath a manifest proof come unto you Dwelling in the habitations of the antediluvians, who preceded them not many cen. turies; or having the chief sway in the earth after them. For the kingdom of Shedâd, the son of Ad, is said to have extended from the sands of Alaj to the trees of Omân. See the Prelim. Disc. p. 5. ***And that multiplied you, and increased your power."-Savary. That is, concerning the idols and imaginary objects of your worship, to which ye wickedly give the names, attributes, and honour due to the only true God. + Wait! I shall soon be spectator of your ruin."-Savary. The dreadful destruction of the Adites we have mentioned in another place," and shall only add here some further circumstances of that calamity, and which differ a little from what is there said; for the Arab writers acknowledge many inconsistencies in the histories of these ancient tribes." The tribe of Ad having been for their incredulity previously chastised with a three years' drought, sent Kail Ebn Ithar and Morthed Ebn Saad, with seventy other principal men, to the temple of Mecca to obtain rain. Mecca was then in the hands of the tribe of Amalek, whose prince was Moawiyah Ebn Beer; and he being without the city when the ambassadors arrived, entertained them there for a month in so hospitable a manner, that they had forgotten the business they came about, had not the king reminded them of it, not as from himself, lest they should think he wanted to be rid of them, but by some verses which he put into the mouth of a singing-woman. At which being roused from their lethargy, Morthed told them, the only way they had to obtain what they wanted would be to repent and obey their prophet: but this displeasing the rest, they desired Moawiyah to imprison him, lest he should go with them; which being done, Kail with the rest entering Mecca, begged of God that he would send rain to the people of Ad. Whereupon three clouds appeared, a white one, a red one. and a black one; and a voice from heaven ordered Kail to choose which he would. Kail failed not to make choice of the last, thinking it to be loaden with the most rain; but when this cloud passed over them. it proved to be fraught with the divine vengeance, and a tempest broke forth from it which destroyed them all." Thamid was another tribe of the ancient Arabs who fell into idolatry. See the Prelim. Disc. sect. i. Al Beidâwi deduces his genealogy thus. Sâleh, the son of Obeid, the son of Asaf, the son of Masekh, the son of Obeid, the son of Hâdher, the son of Thamûd.' • Al Beidawi. Prelim. Disc. sect. i. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Saleh. Orient. Art. Houd. |