PART THE SECOND. (continued 2)

(xx. 8-50.)

Then We sent after them, namely the apostles before mentioned [who were Sho´eyb and his predecessors], Moses, with Our signs unto Pharaoh and his nobles, and they acted unjustly with respect to them, disbelieving in the signs: but see what was the end of the corrupt doers. And Moses said, O Pharaoh, verily I am an apostle from the Lord of the worlds unto thee. But he charged him with falsehood: so he said, I am right not to say of God aught but the truth. I have come unto you with a proof from your Lord: therefore send with me to Syria the children of Israel.—Pharaoh said unto him, If thou hast come with a sign confirmatory of thy pretension, produce it, if thou be of those who speak truth, So he cast down his rod; and lo, it was a manifest serpent.271 And he drew forth his hand from his bosom; and lo, it was white and radiant unto the beholders.272 The nobles of the people of Pharaoh said, Verily this is a knowing enchanter: he desireth to expel you from your land. What then do ye command?—They answered, Put off for a time him and his brother, and send unto the cities collectors [of the inhabitants], that they may bring unto thee every knowing enchanter. And the enchanters came unto Pharaoh. They said, Shall we surely have a reward if we be the party who overcome? He answered, Yea; and verily ye shall be of those who are admitted near [unto my person]. They said, O Moses, either do thou cast down thy rod, or we will cast down what we have with us. He replied, Cast ye. And when they cast down their cords and their rods, they enchanted the eyes of the men, diverting them from the true perception of them; and they terrified them; for they imagined them to be serpents running; and they performed a great enchantment.273 And We spake by revelation unto Moses, [saying,] Cast down thy rod. And lo, it swallowed up what they had caused to appear changed.274 So the truth was confirmed, and that which they had wrought became vain; and they were overcome there, and were rendered contemptible. And the enchanters cast themselves down prostrate:275 they said, We believe in the Lord of the worlds, the Lord of Moses and Aaron. Pharaoh said, Have ye believed in Him before I have given you permission? Verily this is a plot that ye have contrived in the city, that ye may cause its inhabitants to go forth from it. But ye shall know what shall happen unto you at my hand. I will assuredly cut off your hands and your feet on the opposite sides—the right hand of each and his left foot: then I will crucify you all.—They replied. Verily unto our Lord shall we return, after our death, of whatever kind it be; and thou dost not take vengeance on us but because we believed in the signs of our Lord when they came unto us. O our Lord, pour upon us patience, and cause us to die Muslims!276

(vii. 101-123.)

And Pharaoh said, Let me alone, that I may kill Moses, (for they had diverted him from killing him,) and let him call upon his Lord to defend him from me. Verily I fear lest he change your religion, and prevent your worshipping me, or that he may cause corruption to appear in the earth (that is, slaughter, and other offences).—And Moses said unto his people, having heard this, Verily I have recourse for defence unto my Lord and your Lord from every proud person who believeth not in the day of account. And a man [who was] a believer, of the family of Pharaoh (it is said that he was the son of his paternal uncle,)277 who concealed his faith, said, Will ye kill a man because he saith, My Lord is God,—when he hath come unto you with evident proofs from your Lord? And if he be a liar, on him [will be] the evil consequence of his lie; but if he be a speaker of truth, somewhat of that punishment with which he threateneth you will befall you speedily. Verily God directeth not him who is a transgressor, or polytheist, [and] a liar. O my people, ye have the dominion to-day, being overcomers in the land of Egypt; but who will defend us from the punishment of God if ye kill his favourite servants, if it come unto us?278—Pharaoh said, I will not advise you to do [aught] save what I see to be advisable, which is, to kill Moses; and I will not direct you save into the right way. And he who had believed said, O my people, verily I fear for you the like of the day of the confederates,279 the like of the condition of the people of Noah and ´Ád and Thamood and those who [have lived] after them: and God willeth not injustice unto [His] servants. And, O my people, verily I fear for you the day of calling (that is, the day of resurrection, when the people of Paradise and those of Hell shall often call one to another). On the day when ye shall turn back from the place of reckoning unto hell, ye shall have no protector against God. And he whom God shall cause to err shall have no director. Moreover, Joseph (who was Joseph the son of Jacob according to one opinion, and who lived unto the time of Moses; and Joseph the son of Abraham the son of Joseph the son of Jacob, according to another opinion) came unto you before Moses, with evident miraculous proofs; but ye ceased not to be in doubt respecting that wherewith he came unto you, until, when he died, ye said without proof God will by no means send an apostle after him. Thus God causeth to err him who is a transgressor, or polytheist, [and] a sceptic. They who dispute respecting the signs of God, without any convincing proof having come unto them, their disputing is very hateful with God and with those who have believed. Thus God sealeth every heart (or the whole heart) of a proud contumacious person.

And Pharaoh said, O Hámán, build for me a tower, that I may reach the avenues, the avenues of the heavens, and ascend unto the God of Moses;280 but verily I think him, namely Moses, a liar in his assertion that he hath any god but myself. And thus the wickedness of his deed was made to seem comely unto Pharaoh, and he was turned away from the path of rectitude; and the artifice of Pharaoh [ended] not save in loss. And he who had believed said, O my people, follow me: I will direct you into the right way. O my people, this present life is only a temporary enjoyment; but the world to come is the mansion of firm continuance. Whosoever doeth evil, he shall not be recompensed save with the like of it; and whosoever doeth good, whether male or female, and is a believer, these shall enter Paradise; they shall be provided for therein without reckoning. And, O my people, how is it that I invite you unto salvation, and ye invite me unto the Fire? Ye invite me to deny God, and to associate with Him that of which I have no knowledge; but I invite you unto the Mighty, the Very Forgiving. [There is] no doubt but that the [false gods] to the worship of which ye invite me are not to be invoked in this world, nor in the world to come, and that our return [shall be] unto God, and that the transgressors [shall be] the companions of the Fire. And ye shall remember, when ye see the punishment, what I say unto you; and I commit my case unto God; for God seeth [His] servants.—This he said when they threatened him for his opposing their religion. Therefore God preserved him from the evils which they had artfully devised (namely slaughter), and a most evil punishment encompassed the people of Pharaoh,281 with Pharaoh himself (namely the drowning); then they shall be exposed to the Fire morning and evening;282 and on the day when the hour [of judgment] shall come, it shall be said unto the angels, Introduce the people of Pharaoh into the most severe punishment.

(xl. 27-49.)

And the nobles of the people of Pharaoh said unto him, Wilt thou let Moses and his people go that they may act corruptly in the earth, by inviting to disobey thee, and leave thee and thy gods? (For he had made for them little idols for them to worship, and he said, I am your Lord and their Lord;—and therefore he said, I am your Lord the Most High.) He answered, We will slaughter their male children and will suffer their females to live: and verily we shall prevail over them. And thus they did unto them; wherefore the children of Israel complained, and Moses said unto his people, Seek aid of God, and be patient; for the earth belongeth unto God: He causeth whomsoever He will of His servants to inherit it; and the prosperous end is for those who fear God. They replied, We have been afflicted before thou camest unto us and since thou hast come unto us. He said, Perhaps your Lord will destroy your enemy and cause you to succeed [him] in the earth, and He will see how ye will act therein.—And We had punished the family of Pharaoh with dearth and with scarcity of fruits, that they might be admonished and might believe. But when good betided them, they said, This is ours:—that is, we deserve it;—and they were not grateful for it; and if evil befell them, they ascribed it to the ill luck of Moses and those believers who were with him. Nay, their ill luck was only with God: He brought it upon them: but the greater number of them know not this. And they said unto Moses, Whatsoever sign thou bring unto us, to enchant us therewith, we will not believe in thee. So he uttered an imprecation upon them, and We sent upon them the flood, which entered their houses and reached to the throats of the persons sitting, seven days,283 and the locusts, which ate their corn and their fruits, and the ḳummal, or grubs, or a kind of tick, which sought after what the locusts had left, and the frogs, which filled their houses and their food, and the blood in their waters; distinct signs: but they were proud, refusing to believe in them, and were a wicked people. And when the punishment fell upon them, they said, O Moses, supplicate for us thy Lord, according to that which He hath covenanted with thee, namely that He will withdraw from us the punishment if we believe: verily, if thou remove from us the punishment, we will assuredly believe thee, and we will assuredly send with thee the children of Israel. But when We removed from them the punishment until a period at which they should arrive, lo, they brake their promise. Wherefore We took vengeance on them, and drowned them in the sea, because they charged our signs with falsehood and were heedless of them. And We caused the people who had been rendered weak, by being enslaved, to inherit the eastern parts of the earth and its western parts,284 which we blessed with water and trees, (namely Syria); and the gracious word of thy Lord was fulfilled on the children of Israel, because they had been patient; and We destroyed the structures which Pharaoh and his people had built and what they had erected.285

(vii. 124-133.)

We brought the children of Israel across the sea, and Pharaoh and his troops pursued them with violence and hostility, until, when drowning overtook him, he said, I believe that there is no deity but He in whom the children of Israel believe, and I am [one] of the Muslims. But Gabriel thrust into his mouth some of the mire of the sea, lest mercy should be granted him, and said, Now thou believest, and thou hast been rebellious hitherto, and wast [one] of the corrupters. But to-day we will raise thee with thy lifeless body from the sea, that thou mayest be a sign unto those [who shall come] after thee. (It is related, on the authority of Ibn-´Abbás, that some of the children of Israel doubted his death; wherefore he was brought forth to them that they might see him.)286 But verily many men are heedless of Our signs.

(x. 90-92.)

And We brought the children of Israel across the sea; and they came unto a people who gave themselves up to the worship of idols belonging to them;287 [whereupon] they said, O Moses, make for us a god (an idol for us to worship), like as they have gods. He replied, Verily ye are a people who are ignorant, since ye have requited God’s favour towards you with that which ye have said; for that [religion] in which these are [occupied shall be] destroyed, and vain is that which they do. He said, Shall I seek for you any other deity than God, when He hath preferred you above the peoples of your time?

(vii. 134-136.)

And We caused the thin clouds to shade you from the heat of the sun in the desert, and caused the manna and the quails288 to descend upon you, and said, Eat of the good things which We have given you for food, and store not up.—But they were ungrateful for the benefit, and stored up; wherefore it was cut off from them. And they injured not Us thereby; but they did injure their own souls.

(ii. 54.)

[Remember, O children of Israel,] when ye said, O Moses, we will not bear patiently the having one kind of food, the manna and the quails; therefore supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may produce for us somewhat of that which the earth bringeth forth, of its herbs and its cucumbers and its wheat and its lentils and its onions:—he said unto them, Will ye take in exchange that which is worse for that which is better?—But they refused to recede; therefore he supplicated God, and He said, Get ye down into a great city;289 for ye shall have therein what ye have asked.—And the marks of abjection and poverty were stamped upon them: so these characteristics necessarily belong to them, even if they are rich, as necessarily as the stamped coin belongeth to its die; and they returned with indignation from God. This was because they did disbelieve in the signs of God, and slay the prophets (as Zechariah and John) unjustly: this was because they rebelled and did transgress.

(ii. 58.)

And remember when Moses asked drink for his people, who had become thirsty in the desert, and We said, Strike with thy rod the stone. (It was the stone that fled away with his garment:290 it was light, square, like the head of a man, marble or kedhdhán.291) Accordingly he struck it; and there gushed out from it twelve fountains, according to the number of the tribes, all men (each tribe of them) knowing their drinking-place. And We said unto them, Eat ye and drink of the supply of God, and commit not evil in the earth, acting corruptly.

(ii. 57.)

Remember also when We obtained your bond that ye would do according to that which is contained in the Law, and had lifted up over you the mountain [namely Mount Sinai], pulled it up by the roots and raised it over you when ye had refused to accept the Law, and We said, Receive that which We have given you, with resolution, and remember that which is contained in it, to do according thereto: peradventure ye will fear the Fire, or acts of disobedience.—Then ye turned back after that; and had it not been for the grace of God towards you and His mercy, ye had certainly been of those who perish. And ye know those of you who transgressed on the Sabbath, by catching fish, when We had forbidden them to do so (and they were the people of Eyleh292,) and We said unto them, Be ye apes, driven away from the society of men.—Thereupon they became such, and they perished after three days.—And We made it (namely that punishment) an example unto those who were contemporary with them and those who came after them, and a warning to the pious.

(ii. 60-62.)

And We appointed unto Moses thirty nights, at the expiration of which We would speak to him, on the condition of his fasting during them; and they were [the nights of the month of] Dhu-l-Ḳaạdeh; and he fasted during them: but, when they were ended, he disliked the smell of his breath; so he used a tooth-stick; whereupon God commanded him to fast ten other nights, that He might speak to Him with the odour of his breath,293 as He whose name be exalted hath said,—and We completed them by [adding] ten nights of Dhu-l-Ḥijjeh: so the stated time of his Lord was completed, forty nights. And Moses said unto his brother Aaron, at his departure to the mountain for the private collocution, Be thou my deputy among my people, and act rightly, and follow not the way of the corrupt doers by agreeing with them in acts of disobedience. And when Moses came at Our appointed time, and his Lord spake unto him without an intermediary, he said, O my Lord, show me Thyself, that I may see Thee. He replied, Thou shalt not see Me: but look at the mountain, which is stronger than thou; and if it remain firm in its place, then shalt thou see Me. And when his Lord displayed Himself to the mountain (that is, when there appeared, of His light, half of the tip of His little finger, as related in a tradition which El-Ḥákim hath verified), He reduced it to powder, levelling it even with the ground around it; and Moses fell down in a swoon. And when he recovered, he said, Extolled be Thy perfection! I turn unto Thee repenting, and I am the first of the believers in my time.—God said unto him, O Moses, I have chosen thee above the people of thy time [by honouring thee] by My commissions and by My speaking unto thee: therefore receive what I have given thee, and be of those who are grateful. And We wrote for him upon the tables of the Law294 (which were of the lote-tree of Paradise, or of chrysolite, or of emerald; in number seven, or ten) an admonition concerning every requisite matter of religion, and a distinct explanation of everything; and said, Therefore receive it with resolution, and command thy people to act according to the most excellent [precepts] thereof.

(vii. 138-142.)

And the people of Moses, after it (that is, after his departure for the private collocution), made, of their ornaments (which they had borrowed of the people of Pharaoh), a corporeal calf295 which Es-Sámiree cast for them,296 and which lowed; for he had the faculty of doing so in consequence of their having put into its mouth some dust taken from [beneath] the hoof of the horse of Gabriel; and they took it as a god. Did they not see that it spake not to them, nor directed them in the way? They took it as a god, and were offenders. But when they repented, and saw that they had erred, which was after the return of Moses, they said, Verily if our Lord do not have mercy upon us and forgive us, we shall assuredly be of those who perish.

(vii. 146-148.)

And Moses returned unto his people297 enraged against them, exceedingly sorrowful. He said, O my people, did not your Lord promise you a good true promise, that He would give you the Law? But did the time of my absence seem tedious to you, or did ye desire that indignation from your Lord should befall you, and therefore did ye break your promise to me, and abstain from coming after one?—They answered, We did not break our promise to thee of our own authority; but we were made to carry loads of the ornaments of the people of Pharaoh (which the children of Israel had borrowed of them under pretence of [requiring them for] a wedding, and which remained in their possession), and we cast them into the fire, by order of Es-Sámiree. And in like manner also Es-Sámiree cast their ornaments which he had, and some of the dust which he had taken from the traces of the hoofs of the horse of Gabriel; and he produced unto them a corporeal calf, of flesh and blood, which lowed, by reason of the dust, the property of which is to give life to that into which it is put; and he had put it, after he had moulded the calf, into its mouth. And they (namely, Es-Sámiree and his followers) said, This is your god, and the god of Moses; but he hath forgotten his lord here, and gone to seek him. God saith, But did they not see that it returned them not an answer, nor was able to cause them hurt or profit? And Aaron had said unto them, before the return of Moses, O my people, ye are only tried by it; and verily your Lord is the Compassionate; therefore follow me, by worshipping Him, and obey my command. They replied, We will by no means cease to be devoted to the worship of it until Moses return unto us. Moses said after his return, O Aaron, what hindered thee, when thou sawest that they had gone astray, from following me? Hast thou then been disobedient to my command, by remaining among them who worshipped another than God? —He answered, O son of my mother, seize me not by my beard (for he had taken hold of his beard with his left hand), nor by [the hair of] my head (for he had taken hold of his hair with his right hand, in anger). Verily I feared lest if I followed thee (for a company of those who worshipped the calf would inevitably have followed me) thou shouldst say, Thou hast made a division among the children of Israel, and hast not waited for my sentence. Moses said, And what was thy motive for doing as thou hast, O Sámiree? He answered, I saw that which they saw not;298 therefore I took a handful of dust from the foot-marks of the horse of the apostle Gabriel, and cast it into the molten calf; and thus my soul allured me to take a handful of the dust above-mentioned, and to cast it upon that which had no life, that it might have life; and I saw that thy people had demanded of thee that thou wouldst make them a god; so my soul suggested to me that this calf should be their god. Moses said unto him, Then get thee gone from among us, and [the punishment] for thee during the period of thy life [shall be], that thou shalt say unto whomsoever thou shalt see, Touch me not:—(so he used to wander about the desert, and when he touched any one, or any one touched him, they both became affected with a burning fever:) and verily for thee is a threat which thou shalt by no means find to be false. And look at thy god, to the worship of which thou hast continued devoted. We will assuredly burn it: then we will assuredly reduce it to powder and scatter it in the sea. (And Moses, after he had slaughtered it, did this.) Your deity is God only, except whom there is no deity. He comprehendeth all things by His knowledge.—Thus, O Moḥammad, do We relate unto thee accounts of what hath happened heretofore; and We have given thee, from Us, an admonition; namely the Ḳur-án.

(xx. 88-99.)

And they were made to drink down the calf into their hearts,299 (that is, the love of it mingled with their hearts as drink mingleth,) because of their unbelief.

(ii. 87.)

[Remember, O children of Israel,] when Moses said unto his people who worshipped the calf, O my people, verily ye have injured your own souls by your taking to yourselves the calf as a god; therefore turn with repentance unto your Creator from the worship of it, and slay one another: (that is, let the innocent among you slay the criminal:) this will be best for you in the estimation of your Creator. And He aided you to do that, sending upon you a black cloud, lest one of you should see another and have compassion on him, until there were slain of you about seventy thousand. And thereupon He became propitious towards you, accepting your repentance; for He is the Very Propitious, the Merciful.

(ii. 51.)

[Remember also, O children of Israel,] when ye said, having gone forth with Moses to beg pardon of God for your worship of the calf, and having heard his words, O Moses, we will not believe thee until we see God manifestly:—whereupon the vehement sound assailed you, and ye died, while ye beheld what happened to you. Then We raised you to life after ye had been dead, that peradventure ye might give thanks.300

(ii. 52, 53.)

And Moses chose from his people seventy men, of those who had not worshipped the calf, by the command of God, at the time appointed by Us for their coming to ask pardon for their companions’ worship of the calf; and he went forth with them; and when the convulsion (the violent earthquake) took them away (because, saith Ibn-´Abbás, they did not separate themselves from their people when the latter worshipped the calf), Moses said, O my Lord, if Thou hadst pleased, Thou hadst destroyed them before my going forth with them, that the children of Israel might have beheld it and might not suspect me; and me [also]. Wilt Thou destroy us for that which the foolish among us have done? It is naught but Thy trial: Thou wilt cause to err thereby whom Thou pleasest, and Thou wilt rightly guide whom Thou pleasest. Thou art our guardian; and do Thou forgive us and have mercy upon us; for Thou art the best of those who forgive: and appoint for us in this world what is good, and in the world to come; for unto Thee have we turned with repentance.—God replied, I will afflict with My punishment whom I please, and My mercy extendeth over everything in the world; and I will appoint it, in the world to come, for those who fear and give the legal alms, and those who believe on Our signs, who shall follow the apostle, the illiterate [or Gentile, i.e., Arab] prophet, Moḥammad, whom they shall find written down with them in the Pentateuch and the Gospel, by his name and his description. He will command them that which is right, and forbid them that which is evil; and will allow them as lawful the good things among those forbidden in their law, and prohibit them the impure, as carrion and other things, and will take off from them their burden and the yokes that were upon them, as the slaying of a soul [for an atonement] in repentance, and the cutting off of the mark left by impurity. And those who shall believe in him and honour him and assist him and follow the light which shall be sent down with him, namely the Ḳur-án, these shall be the prosperous.

(vii. 154-156).

And remember when Moses said unto his people, O my people, remember the favour of God towards you, since He hath appointed prophets from among you, and made you princes (masters of servants and other attendants), and given you what He hath not given any [other] of the peoples (as the manna and the quails and other things). O my people, enter the Holy Land which God hath decreed for you (namely Syria), and turn not back, lest ye turn losers.—They replied, O Moses, verily there is in it a gigantic people, of the remains of the tribe of ´Ád, and we will not enter it until they go forth from it; but if they go forth from it, then we will enter.—[Thereupon] two men, of those who feared to disobey God, namely Joshua and Caleb, of the chiefs whom Moses sent to discover the circumstances of the giants, and upon whom God had conferred favour, and who had concealed what they had seen of the state of the giants, excepting from Moses, wherefore the other chiefs became cowardly, said unto them, Enter ye upon them through the gate of the city, and fear them not; for they are bodies without hearts; and when ye enter it, ye overcome; and upon God place your dependence, if ye be believers.—[But] they said, O Moses, we will never enter it while they remain therein. Therefore go thou and thy Lord, and fight: for we remain here.—Then Moses said, O my Lord, verily I am not master of any but myself and my brother: therefore distinguish between us and the unrighteous people.—God replied, Verily it (namely the Holy Land) shall be forbidden them forty years; they shall wander in perplexity in the land: and be not thou solicitous for the unrighteous people.—The land [through which they wandered] was [only] nine leagues [in extent]. They used to journey during the night with diligence; but in the morning they found themselves in the place whence they had set forth; and they journeyed during the day in like manner. Thus they did until all of them had become extinct, excepting those who had not attained the age of twenty years; and it is said that they were six hundred thousand. Aaron and Moses died in the desert; and mercy was their lot: but punishment was the lot of those. And Moses begged his Lord, when he was about to die, that He would bring him as near as a stone’s throw to the Holy Land: wherefore He did so. And Joshua was made a prophet after the forty [years], and he gave orders to fight against the giants. So he went with those who were with him, and fought against them: and it was Friday; and the sun stood still for him awhile, until he had made an end of fighting against them.

(v. 23-29).

Ḳároon301 [or Korah] was of the people of Moses (he was the son of his paternal uncle, and the son of his maternal aunt, and he believed in him); but he behaved insolently towards them; for We had bestowed upon him such treasures that their keys were heavy burdens for a company of men endowed with strength, in number, as some say, seventy; and some, forty; and some, ten; and some, another number. Remember when his people (the believers among the children of Israel) said unto him, Rejoice not exultingly in the abundance of thy wealth; for God loveth not those who so rejoice; but seek to attain, by means of the wealth which God hath given thee, the latter abode [of Paradise], by expending thy wealth in the service of God; and neglect not thy part in this world, to work therein for the world to come; but be beneficent unto mankind, by bestowing alms, as God hath been beneficent unto thee; and seek not to act corruptly in the earth; for God loveth not the corrupt doers. He replied, I have only been given it on account of the knowledge that I possess. For he was the most learned of the children of Israel in the Law, after Moses and Aaron. God saith, Did he not know that God had destroyed before him, of the generations, those that were mightier than he in strength and who had amassed more abundance of wealth? And the wicked shall not be asked respecting their sins, because God knoweth them: therefore they shall be sent into the Fire without a reckoning. And Ḳároon went forth unto his people in his pomp, with his many dependants mounted, adorned with garments of gold and silk, upon decked horses and mules. Those who desired the present life said, O would that we had the like of that which hath been bestowed on Ḳároon in this world! Verily he is possessed of great good fortune!—But those unto whom knowledge of what God hath promised in the world to come had been given, said unto them, Woe to you! The reward of God in the world to come (which is Paradise) is better for him who believeth and worketh righteousness than that which hath been bestowed on Ḳároon in the present world; and none shall receive it but the patient in the service of God. And We caused the earth to cleave asunder and swallow up him and his mansion,302 and he had no forces to defend him, in the place of God, nor was he of the [number of the] saved. And the next morning, those who had wished for his place the day before said, Aha! God enlargeth provision unto whom He pleaseth of His servants, and is sparing of it unto whom He pleaseth! Had not God been gracious unto us, He had caused [the earth] to cleave asunder and swallow up us! Aha! the ungrateful for His benefits do not prosper!

(xxviii. 76-82.)

Remember, [O children of Israel,] when Moses said unto his people (when one of them had been slain, whose murderer was not known, and they asked him to beg God that He would discover him to them, wherefore he supplicated Him), Verily God commandeth you to sacrifice a cow. They said, Dost thou make a jest of us? He said, I beg God to preserve me from being one of the foolish. So when they knew that he decidedly intended [what he had ordered], they said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what she is; that is, what is her age. Moses replied, He saith, She is a cow neither old nor young; but of a middle age, between those two: therefore do as ye are commanded. They said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what is her colour. He replied, He saith, She is a red303 cow: her colour is very bright: she rejoiceth the beholders. They said, Supplicate for us thy Lord, that He may manifest to us what she is, whether she be a pasturing or a working cow; for cows of the description mentioned are to us like one another; and we, if God please, shall indeed be rightly directed to her. (In a tradition it is said, Had they not said, ‘If God please,’—she had not ever been manifested to them.) He replied, He saith, She is a cow not subdued by work that plougheth the ground, nor doth she water the field: [she is] free from defects and the marks of work; there is no colour in her different from the rest of her colour. They said, Now thou hast brought the truth. And they sought her, and found her in the possession of the young man who acted piously towards his mother, and they bought her for as much gold as her hide would contain.304 Then they sacrificed her; but they were near to leaving it undone, on account of the greatness of her price. (And in a tradition it is said, Had they sacrificed any cow whatever, He had satisfied them: but they acted hardly towards themselves; so God acted hardly towards them.) And when ye slew a soul, and contended together respecting it, (and God brought forth [to light] that which ye did conceal—this is the beginning of the story [and was the occasion of the order to sacrifice this particular cow,]) We said, Strike him (that is, the slain person) with part of her. So he was struck with her tongue, or the root of her tail, or, as some say, with her right thigh; whereupon he came to life, and said, Such-a-one and such-a-one slew me,—to the two sons of his uncle. And he died. They two [the murderers] were therefore deprived of the inheritance, and were slain.305 Thus God raiseth to life the dead, and showeth you His signs (the proof of His power), that peradventure ye may understand, and know that He who is able to raise to life one soul is able to raise to life many souls. Then your hearts became hard, O ye Jews, so as not to accept the truth, after that, and they [were] as stones, or more hard: for of stones there are indeed some from which rivers gush forth; and of them there are indeed some that cleave asunder and water issueth from them; and of them there are indeed some that fall down through fear of God; whereas your hearts are not impressed, nor do they grow soft, nor do they become humble. But God is not heedless of that which ye do: He only reserveth you unto your time.

(ii. 63-69.)

Remember when Moses said to his young man Joshua the son of Nun, who served him and acquired knowledge from him, I will not cease to go forward until I reach the place where the two seas (the Sea of Greece and the Sea of Persia) meet, or travel for a long space of time. And when they reached the place where they (the two seas) met they forgot their fish: Joshua forgot to take it up, on their departure; and Moses forgot to remind him; and it made its way in the sea by a hollow passage, God withholding the water from it. And when they had passed beyond that place, and proceeded until the time of the morning-meal on the following day, [Moses] said unto his young man, Bring us our morning-meal: we have experienced fatigue from this our journey. He replied, What thinkest thou? When we repaired to the rock to rest at that place, I forgot the fish, and none made me forget to mention it but the devil; and it made its way in the sea in a wonderful manner.—Moses said, That (namely our loss of the fish) is what we were desiring; for it is a sign unto us of our finding him whom we seek. And they returned by the way that they had come, following the footsteps, and came to the rock. And they found one of Our servants (namely El-Khiḍr306) unto whom We had granted mercy from Us (that is the gift of prophecy in the opinion of some, and the rank of a saint according to another opinion which most of the learned hold), and whom We had taught knowledge from Us respecting things unseen.—El-Bukháree hath related a tradition stating that Moses performed the office of a preacher among the children of Israel, and was asked who was the most knowing of men; to which he answered, I:—whereupon God blamed him for this, because he did not refer the knowledge thereof to Him. And God said unto him by revelation, Verily I have a servant at the place where the two seas meet, and he is more knowing than thou. Moses said, O my Lord, and how shall I meet with him? He answered, Thou shalt take with thee a fish, and put it into a measuring-vessel, and where thou shalt lose the fish, there is he. So he took a fish, and put it into a vessel. Then he departed, and Joshua the son of Nun departed with him, until they came to the rock, where they laid down their heads and slept. And the fish became agitated in the vessel, and escaped from it, and fell into the sea, and it made its way in the sea by a hollow passage, God withholding the water from the fish so that it became like a vault over it: and when Moses’ companion awoke, he forgot to inform him of the fish.

Moses said unto him [namely El-Khiḍr], Shall I follow thee, that thou mayest teach me [part] of that which thou hast been taught, for a direction unto me? He answered, Verily thou canst not have patience with me. For how canst thou be patient with respect to that whereof thou comprehendest not the knowledge?—He replied, Thou shalt find me, if God please, patient; and I will not disobey any command of thine. He said, Then if thou follow me, ask me not respecting anything: but be patient until I give thee an account thereof. And Moses assented to his condition. And they departed, walking along the shore of the sea, until, when they embarked in the ship that passed by them, he (El-Khiḍr) made a hole in it, by pulling out a plank or two planks from it on the outside by means of an axe when it reached the middle of the sea. Moses said unto him, Hast thou made a hole in it that thou mayest drown its people? Thou hast done a grievous thing.—(But it is related that the water entered not the hole.) He replied, Did I not say that thou couldst not have patience with me? [Moses] said, Chastise me not for my forgetfulness, nor impose on me a difficulty in my case.—And they departed, after they had gone forth from the vessel, walking on, until, when they found a boy who had not attained the age of knowing right and wrong, playing with other children, and he was the most beautiful of them in countenance, and he (El-Khiḍr) slew him, Moses said unto him, Hast thou slain an innocent soul, without his having slain a soul? Thou hast done an iniquitous thing.—He replied, Did I not say that thou couldst not have patience with me? [Moses] said, If I ask thee concerning anything after this time, suffer me not to accompany thee. Now hast thou received from me an excuse for thy separating thyself from me.—And they departed [and proceeded] until, when they came to the people of a city (which was Antioch307), they asked food of its people; but they refused to entertain them: and they found therein a wall, the height whereof was a hundred cubits, which was about to fall down; whereupon he (El-Khiḍr) set it upright with his hand. Moses said unto him, If thou wouldst, thou mightest have obtained pay for it, since they did not entertain us, notwithstanding our want of food. El-Khiḍr said unto him, This shall be a separation between me and thee; but before my separation from thee, I will declare unto thee the interpretation of that which thou couldst not bear with patience.

As to the vessel, it belonged to ten poor men,308 who pursued their business on the sea; and I desired to render it unsound; for there was behind them a king, an unbeliever, who took every sound vessel by force. And as to the boy, his parents were believers, and we feared that he would transgress against them rebelliously and impiously: for, according to a tradition related by Muslim, he was constituted by nature an unbeliever, and had he lived he had so acted; wherefore we desired that their Lord should create for them a better than he in virtue, and [one] more disposed than he to filial piety. And God created for them a daughter, who married a prophet, and gave birth to a prophet, by means of whom God directed a people to the right way. And as to the wall, it belonged to two orphan youths in the city, and beneath it was a treasure buried, of gold and silver, belonging to them; and their father was a righteous man; and thy Lord desired that they should attain their age of strength and take forth their treasure through the mercy of thy Lord. And I did it not (namely what hath been mentioned) of mine own will, but by direction of God. This is the interpretation of that which thou couldst not bear with patience. (Chap. xviii. 59-81.)

SAUL, DAVID, SOLOMON.

Hast thou not considered the assembly of the children of Israel after the death of Moses, when they said unto a prophet of theirs, namely Samuel, Set up for us a king, under whom we will fight in the way of God? He said unto them, If fighting be prescribed as incumbent on you, will ye, peradventure, abstain from fighting? They replied, And wherefore should we not fight in the way of God, since we have been expelled from our habitations and our children by their having been taken prisoners and slain?—The people of Goliath [Jáloot] had done thus unto them.—But when fighting was commanded them, they turned back, excepting a few of them, who crossed the river with Saul [Ṭáloot], as will be related. And God knoweth the offenders. And the prophet begged his Lord to send a king; whereupon he consented to send Saul. And their prophet said unto them, Verily God hath set up Saul as your king. They said, How shall he have the dominion over us, when we are more worthy of the dominion than he, (for he was not of the royal lineage, nor of the prophetic, and he was a tanner, or a tender of flocks or herds,) and he hath not been endowed with ample wealth? He replied, Verily God hath chosen him as king over you, and increased him in largeness of knowledge and of body, (for he was the wisest of the children of Israel at that time, and the most comely of them, and the most perfect of them in make,) and God giveth his kingdom unto whom He pleaseth; and God is ample in His beneficence, knowing with respect to him who is worthy of the kingdom.—And their prophet said unto them, when they demanded of him a sign in proof of his kingship, Verily the sign of his kingship shall be that the ark shall come unto you (in it were the images of the prophets: God sent it down unto Adam, and it passed into their possession; but the Amalekites took it from them by force: and they used to seek victory thereby over their enemy, and to advance it in the fight, and to trust in it, as He—whose name be exalted!—hath said); therein [shall be] tranquillity from your Lord,309 and relics of what the family of Moses and the family of Aaron have left: namely, the two shoes (or sandals) of Moses, and his rod, and the turban of Aaron, and a measure of the manna that used to descend upon them, and the fragments of the tables [of the Law]: the angels shall bear it. Verily in this shall be a sign unto you of his kingship, if ye be believers. Accordingly the angels bore it between heaven and earth, while they looked at it, until they placed it by Saul; whereupon they acknowledged his kingship, and hastened to the holy war; and he chose of their young men seventy thousand.

And when Saul went forth with the troops from Jerusalem, and it was violently hot weather, and they demanded of him water, he said, Verily God will try you by a river, that the obedient among you, and the disobedient, may appear, (and it was between the Jordan and Palestine,) and whoso drinketh thereof, he is not of my party (but he who tasteth not thereof, he is of my party), excepting him who taketh forth a draught in his hand, and is satisfied therewith, not adding to it; for he is of my party;—then they drank thereof abundantly, excepting a few of them, who were content only with the handful of water. It is related that it sufficed them for their own drinking and for their beasts, and they were three hundred, and somewhat more than ten. And when he had passed over it, he and those who believed with him, they (that is, those who had drunk [plentifully]) said, We have no power to-day to contend against Goliath and his troops. And they were cowardly, and passed not over it. They [however] who held it as certain that they should meet God at the resurrection (and they were those who had passed over it) said, How many a small body of men hath overcome a great body by the permission (or will) of God! And God is with the patient, to defend and aid.—And when they went forth to battle against Goliath and his troops, they said, O our Lord, pour upon us patience, and make firm our feet, by strengthening our hearts for the holy war, and help us against the unbelieving people!—And they routed them by the permission (or will) of God, and David [Dáwood, vulg. Dáood], who was in the army of Saul, slew Goliath. And God gave him (David) the kingship over the children of Israel, and wisdom (that is prophecy), after the death of Samuel and Saul, and they [namely these two gifts] had not been given together to any one before him; and He taught him what He pleased,310 as the art of making coats of mail, and the language of birds. And were it not for God’s repelling men, one by another, surely the earth had become corrupt by the predominance of the polytheists and the slaughter of the Muslims and the ruin of the places of worship: but God is beneficent to the peoples, and hath repelled some by others.

(ii. 247-252.)

Hath the story of the two opposing parties come unto thee, O Moḥammad, when they ascended over the walls of the oratory of David, having been prevented going in unto him by the door, because of his being engaged in devotion? When they went in unto David, and he was frightened at them, they said, Fear not: we are two opposing parties. It is said that they were two parties of more than one each; and it is said that they were two individuals, angels, who came as two litigants, to admonish David, who had ninety-nine wives, and had desired the wife of a person who had none but her, and married her and taken her as his wife.311 [One of them said,] One of us hath wronged the other; therefore judge between us with truth, and be not unjust, but direct us into the right way. Verily this my brother in religion had nine-and-ninety ewes, and I had one ewe; and he said, Make me her keeper. And he overcame me in the dispute.—And the other confessed him to have spoken truth.—[David] said, Verily he hath wronged thee in demanding thy ewe to add her to his ewes; and verily many associates wrong one another, except those who believe and do righteous deeds: and few indeed are they.—And the two angels said, ascending in their [proper or assumed] forms to heaven, The man hath passed sentence against himself. So David was admonished. And David perceived that We had tried him by his love of that woman; wherefore he asked pardon of his Lord, and fell down bowing himself (or prostrating himself), and repented. So We forgave him that; and verily for him [was ordained] a high rank with Us (that is, an increase of good fortune in this world), and [there shall be for him] an excellent retreat in the world to come.

(xxxviii. 20-24.)

We compelled the mountains to glorify Us, with David, and the birds also, on his commanding them to do so, when he experienced languor; and We did this. And We taught him the art of making coats of mail (for before his time plates of metal were used) for you among mankind in general, that they might defend you from your suffering in warring with your enemies.—Will ye then, O people of Mekkeh, be thankful for My favours, believing the apostles?—And We subjected unto Solomon [Suleymán] the wind, blowing strongly, and being light at his desire, which ran at his command312 to the land that We blessed (namely Syria);313 and We knew all things (knowing that what We gave him would stimulate him to be submissive to his Lord). And We subjected, of the devils, those who should dive for him in the sea and bring forth from it jewels for him, and do other work besides that; that is, building, and performing other services; and We watched over them, that they might not spoil what they executed; for they used, when they had finished a work before night, to spoil it, if they were not employed in something else.

(xxi. 79-82.)

We gave unto David Solomon his son. How excellent a servant was he! For he was one who earnestly turned himself unto God, glorifying and praising Him at all times. [Remember] when, in the latter part of the day, after the commencement of the declining of the sun, the mares standing on three feet and touching the ground with the edge of the fourth foot, swift in the course, were displayed before him. They were a thousand mares, which were displayed before him after he had performed the noon-prayers, on the occasion of his desiring to make use of them in a holy war; and when nine hundred of them had been displayed, the sun set, and he had not performed the afternoon-prayers. So he was grieved, and he said, Verily I have preferred the love of [earthly] goods above the remembrance of my Lord, (that is, the performance of the afternoon-prayers,) so that the sun is concealed by the veil. Bring them (namely the horses) back unto me. Therefore they brought them back. And he began to sever with his sword the legs and the necks, slaughtering them, and [then] cutting off their legs, as a sacrifice unto God, and gave their flesh in alms; and God gave him in compensation what was better than they were and swifter, namely the wind, which travelled by his command whithersoever he desired.—And We tried Solomon by depriving him of his kingdom. This was because he married a woman of whom he became enamoured, and she used to worship an idol in his palace without his knowledge. His dominion was in his signet; and he pulled it off once and deposited it with his wife, who was named El-Emeeneh; and a jinnee came unto her in the form of Solomon, and took it from her. And We placed upon his throne a [counterfeit] body; namely that jinnee, who was Ṣakhr, or another. He sat upon the throne of Solomon, and the birds and other creatures surrounded him; and Solomon went forth, with a changed appearance, and saw him upon his throne, and said unto the people, I am Solomon:—but they denied him. Then he returned unto his kingdom, after some days, having obtained the signet and put it on, and seated himself upon his throne.314 He said, O my Lord, forgive me, and give me a dominion that may not be to any one after me (or beside me); for Thou art the Liberal Giver. So We subjected unto him the wind, which ran gently at his command whithersoever he desired; and the devils [also], every builder of wonderful structures, and diver that brought up pearls from the sea, and others bound in chains which connected their hands to their necks. And We said unto him, This is Our gift, and bestow thou thereof upon whomsoever thou wilt, or refrain from bestowing, without rendering an account. And verily for him [was ordained] a high rank with Us, and an excellent retreat.

(xxxviii. 29-39.)

We bestowed on David and Solomon knowledge in judging men and in the language of the birds and other matters; and they said, Praise be to God who hath made us to excel many of His believing servants, by the gift of prophecy and by the subjection of the jinn and mankind and the devils. And Solomon inherited from David the gift of prophecy and knowledge; and he said, O men, we have been taught the language of the birds,315 and have had bestowed on us of everything wherewith prophets and kings are gifted. Verily this is manifest excellence.—And his armies of jinn and men and birds were gathered together unto Solomon, and they were led on in order, until, when they came unto the valley of ants, (which [was] at Eṭ-Ṭáïf or in Syria, the ants whereof [were] small or great,) an ant (the queen of the ants), having seen the troops of Solomon, said, O ants, enter your habitations, lest Solomon and his troops crush you violently, while they perceive not. And Solomon smiled, afterwards laughing at her saying, which he heard from the distance of three miles, the wind conveying it to him: so he withheld his forces when he came in sight of their valley, until the ants had entered their dwellings: and his troops were on horses and on foot in this expedition. And he said, O my Lord, inspire me to be thankful for Thy favour which Thou hast bestowed upon me and upon my parents, and to do righteousness which Thou shalt approve, and admit me, in Thy mercy, among Thy servants, the righteous, the prophets and the saints.

And he examined the birds,316 that he might see the lapwing, that saw the water beneath the earth, and directed to it by pecking the earth, whereupon the devils used to draw it forth when Solomon wanted it [to perform the ablution] for prayer; but he saw it not: and he said, Wherefore do I not see the lapwing? Is it [one] of the absent?—And when he was certain of the case he said, I will assuredly punish it with a severe punishment, by plucking out its feathers and its tail and casting it in the sun so that it shall not be able to guard against excessive thirst; or I will slaughter it; or it shall bring me a manifest convincing proof showing its excuse.—And it tarried not long before it presented itself unto Solomon submissively, and raised its head and relaxed its tail and its wings: so he forgave it; and he asked it what it had met with during its absence; and it said, I have become acquainted with that wherewith thou hast not become acquainted, and I have come unto thee from Seba (a tribe of El-Yemen) with a sure piece of news. I found a woman reigning over them, named Bilḳees, and she hath been gifted with everything that princes require, and hath a magnificent throne. (Its length was eighty cubits; and its breadth, forty cubits; and its height, thirty cubits: it was composed of gold and silver set with fine pearls and with rubies and chrysolites, and its legs were of rubies and chrysolites and emeralds: upon it [were closed] seven doors: to each chamber [through which one passed to it was] a closed door.) I found her and her people worshipping the sun instead of God, and the devil hath made their works to seem comely unto them, so that he hath hindered them from the right way, wherefore they are not rightly directed to the worship of God, who produceth what is hidden (namely the rain and vegetables) in the heavens and the earth, and knoweth what they [that is, mankind and others] conceal in their hearts, and what they reveal with their tongues. God: there is no deity but He, the Lord of the magnificent throne, between which and the throne of Bilḳees is a vast difference.

Solomon said to the lapwing, We will see whether thou hast spoken truth or whether thou art of the liars. Then the lapwing guided them to the water, and it was drawn forth [by the devils]; and they quenched their thirst and performed the ablution and prayed. Then Solomon wrote a letter, the form whereof was this:—From the servant of God, Solomon the son of David, to Bilḳees the queen of Seba. In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Peace be on whomsoever followeth the right direction. After [this salutation, I say], Act ye not proudly towards me; but come unto me submitting.—He then sealed it with musk, and stamped it with his signet, and said unto the lapwing, Go with this my letter and throw it down unto them (namely Bilḳees and her people): then turn away from them, but stay near them, and see what reply they will return. So the lapwing took it, and came unto her, and around her were her forces; and he threw it down into her lap; and when she saw it, she trembled with fear. Then she considered what was in it, and she said unto the nobles of her people, O nobles, an honourable (sealed) letter hath been thrown down unto me. It is from Solomon; and it is this:—In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Act ye not proudly towards me: but come unto me submitting.—She said, O nobles, advise me in mine affair. I will not decide upon a thing unless ye bear me witness.—They replied, We are endowed with strength and endowed with great valour; but the command [belongeth] to thee; therefore see what thou wilt command us to do, and we will obey thee. She said, Verily kings, when they enter a city, waste it, and render the mighty of its inhabitants abject; and thus will they do who have sent the letter. But I will send unto them with a gift, and I will see with what the messengers will return, whether the gift will be accepted, or whether it will be rejected. If he be [merely] a king, he will accept it; and if he be a prophet, he will not accept it.—And she sent male and female servants, a thousand in equal numbers [five hundred of each sex], and five hundred bricks of gold, and a crown set with jewels, and musk and ambergris and other things, by a messenger with a letter.317 And the lapwing hastened unto Solomon, to tell him the news; on hearing which, he commanded that bricks of gold and silver should be cast, and that a horse-course should be extended to the length of nine leagues from the place where he was, and that they should build around it a wall with battlements, of gold and silver, and that the handsomest of the beasts of the land and of the sea should be brought with the sons of the jinn on the right side of the horse-course and on its left.

And when the messenger came with the gift, and with him his attendants, unto Solomon, he [Solomon] said, Do ye aid me with wealth? But what God hath given me (namely the gift of prophecy and the kingdom) is better than what He hath given you, of worldly goods; yet ye rejoice in your gift, because ye glory in the showy things of this world. Return unto them with the gift that thou hast brought; for we will surely come unto them with forces with which they have not power [to contend], and we will surely drive them out from it, (that is, from their country, Seba, which was named after the father of their tribe,) abject and contemptible, if they come not unto us submitting. And when the messenger returned unto her with the gift, she placed her throne within seven doors, within her palace, and her palace was within seven palaces; and she closed the doors, and set guards to them, and prepared to go unto Solomon, that she might see what he would command her to do. She departed with twelve thousand kings, each king having with him many thousands, and proceeded until she came as near to him as a league’s distance; when he knew of her [approach,] he said, O nobles, which of you will bring unto me her throne before they come unto me submitting? An ´efreet, of the jinn, answered, I will bring it unto thee before thou shalt arise from thy place wherein thou sittest to judge from morning until mid-day; for I am able to do it, [and] trustworthy with respect to the jewels that it compriseth and other matters. Solomon said, I desire it more speedily. [And thereupon] he with whom was knowledge of the revealed scripture (namely [his Wezeer] Áṣaf the son of Barkhiya, who was a just person, acquainted with the most great name of God, which ensured an answer to him who invoked thereby318) said, I will bring it unto thee before thy glance can be withdrawn from any object. And he said unto him, Look at the sky. So he looked at it; then he withdrew his glance, and found it placed before him: for during his look towards the sky, Áṣaf prayed, by the most great name, that God would bring it; and it so happened, the throne passing under the ground until it came up before the throne of Solomon. And when he saw it firmly placed before him, he said, This is of the favour of my Lord, that He may try me, whether I shall be thankful or whether I shall be unthankful. And he who is thankful is thankful for the sake of his own soul, which will have the reward of his thankfulness; and [as to] him who is ungrateful, my Lord is independent [and] bountiful.

[Then Solomon] said, Alter ye her throne so that it may not be known by her, that we may see whether she be rightly directed to the knowledge thereof, or whether she be of those who are not rightly directed to the knowledge of that which is altered. He desired thereby to try her intelligence. So they altered it, by adding to it, or taking from it, or in some other manner. And when she came, it was said unto her, Is thy throne like this? She answered, As though it were the same. (She answered them ambiguously like as they had questioned her ambiguously, not saying, Is this thy throne?—and had they so said, she had answered, Yes.) And when Solomon saw her knowledge, he said, And we have had knowledge bestowed on us before her, and have been Muslims. But what she worshipped instead of God hindered her from worshipping Him; for she was of an unbelieving people.—It was said unto her also, Enter the palace. It had a floor of white, transparent glass, beneath which was running water, wherein were fish. Solomon had made it on its being said unto him that her legs and feet were [hairy] like the legs of an ass. And when she saw it, she imagined it to be a great water, and she uncovered her legs, that she might wade through it; and Solomon was on his throne at the upper end of the palace, and he saw that her legs and her feet were handsome. He said unto her, Verily it is a palace evenly spread with glass. And he invited her to embrace El-Islám, [whereupon] she said, O my Lord, verily I have acted unjustly towards mine own soul, by worshipping another than Thee, and I resign myself, with Solomon, unto God, the Lord of the worlds. And he desired to marry her; but he disliked the hair upon her legs; so the devils made for him the depilatory of quick-lime, wherewith she removed the hair, and he married her; and he loved her, and confirmed her in her kingdom. He used to visit her every month once, and to remain with her three days; and her reign expired on the expiration of the reign of Solomon. It is related that he began to reign when he was thirteen years of age, and died at the age of three and fifty years. Extolled be the perfection of Him to the duration of whose dominion there is no end!

(xxvii. 15-45.)

We subjected unto Solomon the wind, which travelled in the morning (unto the period when the sun began to decline) the distance of a month’s journey, and in the evening from the commencement of the declining of the sun into its setting a month’s journey. And We made the fountain of molten brass to flow for him three days with their nights [in every month], as water floweth;319 and the people worked until the day [of its flowing], with that which had been given into Solomon. And of the jinn [were] those who worked in his presence, by the will of his Lord; and such of them as swerved from obedience to Our command We will cause to taste of the punishment of hell in the world to come (or, as it is said by some, We cause to taste of its punishment in the present world, an angel beating them with a scourge from hell, the stripe of which burneth them). They made for him whatever he pleased, of lofty halls (with steps whereby to ascend to them), and images (for they were not forbidden by his law320), and large dishes, like great tanks for watering camels, around each of which assembled a thousand men, eating from it, and cooking-pots standing firmly on their legs, cut out from the mountains in El-Yemen, and to which they ascended by ladders. And We said, Work, O family of David, in the service of God, with thanksgiving unto Him for what He hath given you:—but few of My servants are the thankful. And when We decreed that he (namely, Solomon) should die, and he died, and remained standing, and leaning upon his staff for a year, dead, the jinn meanwhile performing those difficult works as they were accustomed to do, not knowing of his death, until the worm ate his staff, whereupon he fell down, nothing showed them his death but the eating reptile (the worm) that ate his staff.321 And when he fell down, the jinn plainly perceived that if they had known things unseen (of which things was the death of Solomon), they had not continued in the ignominious affliction (that is, in their difficult works), imagining that he was alive, inconsistently with their opinion that they knew things unseen. And that the period was a year was known by calculating what the worm had eaten of his staff since his death in each day and night or other space of time. (xxxiv. 11-13.)

JONAH.

Verily Jonah [Yoonus] was one of the apostles. [Remember] when he fled unto the laden ship, being angry with his people, because the punishment wherewith he had threatened them did not fall upon them; wherefore he embarked in the ship; and it became stationary in the midst of the sea: so the sailors said, Here is a slave who hath fled from his master, and the lot will discover him:—and he cast lots with those who were in the ship, and he was [the] one upon whom the lot fell. They therefore cast him into the sea, and the fish swallowed him; and he was reprehensible, for having gone to the sea, and embarked in the ship, without the permission of his Lord. And had he not been of those who glorified God (by his saying often in the belly of the fish, There is no god but Thou! I extol Thy perfection! Verily I have been of the offenders!), he had remained in his belly until the day of resurrection.322 And We cast him on the plain land, the same day, or after three or seven days, or twenty or forty days; and he was sick; and We caused a gourd plant323 to grow up over him, to shade him. It had a trunk, contrary to what is the case of gourds in general, being miraculously produced for him.324 And a wild she-goat came to him evening and morning, of whose milk he drank until he became strong. And We sent him after that, as before, unto his people in Nineveh, in the land of El-Moṣil, a hundred thousand, or they were a greater number by twenty or thirty or seventy thousand; and they believed on beholding the punishment wherewith they had been threatened;325 wherefore We allowed them enjoyment of their goods for a time, until the expiration of their terms of life. (xxxvii. 139-148.)

EZRA.

[Hast thou not considered] him who passed by a city (which was Jerusalem), riding upon an ass, and having with him a basket of figs and a vessel of the juice of grapes (and he was ´Ozeyr [Ezra]), and it was falling down upon its roofs, Nebuchadnezzar having ruined it? He said, wondering at the power of God, How will God quicken this after its death?—And God caused him to die for a hundred years. Then He raised him to life: [and] He said unto him, How long hast thou tarried here?—He answered I have tarried a day, or part of a day.—For he slept in the first part of the day, and was deprived of his life, and was reanimated at sunset. He said Nay, thou hast tarried a hundred years: but look at thy food and thy drink: they have not become changed by time: and look at thine ass.—And he beheld it dead, and its bones white and shining.—We have done this that thou mayest know, and that We may make thee a sign of the resurrection unto men. And look at the bones of thine ass, how We will raise them; then We will clothe them with flesh.—So he looked at them, and they had become put together, and were clothed with flesh, and life was breathed into it, and it brayed. Therefore when it had been made manifest to him he said, I know that God is able to accomplish everything. (ii. 261.)

THE MESSIAH.

Remember when the wife of ´Imrán326 said, (when she had become aged, and desired offspring, wherefore she supplicated God, and became sensible of pregnancy,) O my Lord, verily I devote unto Thee what is in my womb, to be dedicated to the service of Thy holy house: then accept [it] from me; for Thou art the Hearer of prayer, the Knower of intentions. And ´Imrán perished while she was pregnant. And when she gave birth to it, (namely her daughter; and she was hoping that it might be a boy; since none but boys were dedicated,) she said, O my Lord, verily I have brought forth a female, (and God well knew what she had brought forth,) and the male is not as the female, the latter not being fit for the service [of the temple]; and I have named her Mary [Maryam]; and I beg thy protection for her and her offspring from the accursed devil.327 (In the traditions [it is said], No child is born but the devil hath touched it at the time of its birth, wherefore it first raiseth its voice by crying, excepting Mary and her son.328) And her Lord accepted her (that is, He accepted Mary from her mother) with a gracious acceptance, and caused her to grow with an excellent growth, as though she grew in a day as a child [generally] groweth in a month. Her mother took her to the doctors, the keepers of the Holy House, and said, Receive ye this devoted child. And they eagerly desired her, because she was the daughter of their chief. But Zechariah said, I am more worthy of having her; for her maternal aunt is with me. They however replied, Nay, but we will cast lots.—So they departed (and they were nine and twenty) to the river Jordan, and cast their divining arrows on the understanding that he whose arrow should become steady in the water and rise should be [acknowledged] most worthy of her; and the arrow of Zechariah became steady, and he took her, and built for her a chamber in the temple, with stairs to which no one ascended but himself. And he used to bring her her food and her drink and her ointment; and used to find with her the fruits of winter in summer, and the fruits of summer in winter, as He—whose name be exalted!—hath said, And Zechariah maintained her. Whenever Zechariah went in to her in the chamber, he found with her provisions. He said, O Mary, whence came to thee this? She answered, (being then a little child,) It is from God: He bringeth it to me from Paradise: for God supplieth whom He pleaseth without reckoning.

Then, when he saw this, and knew that He who was able to produce a thing out of its season was able to give a child in old age, (and the people of his house had become extinct,) Zechariah supplicated his Lord, when he had entered the chamber to pray in the latter part of the night. He said, O my Lord, give me from Thee a good offspring (a righteous son); for Thou art the Hearer of prayer.—And the angels (by which is meant Gabriel) called to him as he stood praying in the chamber (that is, the temple), saying, God promiseth thee John [Yaḥyá], who shall be a verifier of [the] Word which cometh from God, (that is, Jesus [´Eesa]; for he is the Spirit of God, and was named [the] Word because he was created by the word Be,) and a chief, (or one followed,) and chaste, and a prophet, of the righteous. (It is related that he neither did any sin nor intended any.)—He said, O my Lord, how shall I have a son, when old age hath come upon me, when I have attained the utmost age, a hundred and twenty years, and my wife is barren, and hath attained the age of eight and ninety?—He answered, It shall be thus. God will do what He pleaseth.—He said, O my Lord, give me a sign.—He replied, Thy sign [shall be] that thou shalt not speak unto men for three days, except by signal; but remember thy Lord often, and glorify [Him] in the evening and in the morning. (iii. 31-36.)

And he went forth unto his people from the chamber, and made a sign unto them, [as though he would say] Glorify [God] in the morning and in the evening as usual. And he knew by his being prevented from speaking unto them that his wife had conceived John. And after his birth, by some years, God said unto him, O John, receive the book (that is, the Law) with resolution. And We bestowed on him wisdom (the gift of prophecy) [when he was yet] a child, three years of age, and compassion from Us for mankind, and [a disposition to bestow] alms upon them. And he was pious, and dutiful to his parents, and was not proud [nor] rebellious toward his Lord; and peace from Us [was] on him on the day when he was born, and on the day of his death, and [shall be] on the day when he shall be raised to life. (xix. 12-15.)

And remember when the angels (that is, Gabriel) said, O Mary, verily God hath chosen thee and hath purified thee and hath chosen thee above the women of the peoples of thy time. O Mary, be devout towards thy Lord and prostrate thyself and bow down with those who bow down: pray with those who pray.—This is [one] of the announcements of things unseen by thee: We reveal it unto thee, O Moḥammad; for thou wast not with them when they cast their divining arrows that it might appear to them which of them should rear Mary, and thou wast not with them when they disputed together as to rearing her.—Remember when the angels (that is, Gabriel) said, O Mary, verily God promiseth thee [the] Word from Him, whose name [shall be] the Messiah [El-Meseeḥ], Jesus the son of Mary, honourable in this world by his prophetic office, and in the world to come by his intercession and high stations, and of those admitted near unto God; and he shall speak unto men in the cradle, and when of full age,329 and [he shall be] of the righteous.—She said, O my Lord, how shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me?—He answered, It shall be thus; God will create what He pleaseth: when He determineth a thing, He only saith unto it, Be,—and it is. And He will teach him writing and wisdom and the Law and the Gospel, and constitute him an apostle to the children of Israel, in youth or after adolescence. And Gabriel breathed into the bosom of her shift; whereupon she conceived; and those events of her history which are related in the Soorat Maryam [Ḳur. xix.] happened. (iii. 37-43.)

Relate in the book (that is, the Ḳur-án) the history of Mary, when she retired from her family to a place towards the east, in the house, and she took a veil [to conceal herself] from them; and We sent unto her our spirit Gabriel, and he appeared unto her as a perfect man. She said, I beg the Compassionate to preserve me from thee! If thou be a pious person, thou wilt withdraw from me.—He replied, I am only the messenger of thy Lord [to inform thee] that He will give thee a pure son, endowed with the gift of prophecy. She said, How shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me, and I am not a harlot? He answered, Thus shall it be: a son shall be created unto thee without a father. Thy Lord saith, This is easy unto Me; and thus shall it be that We may make him a sign unto men, showing Our power, and a mercy from Us unto him who shall believe in him: for it is a thing decreed.—And she conceived him; and she retired with him [yet unborn] to a distant place far from her family; and the pains of childbirth urged her to repair to the trunk of a palm-tree that she might lean against it. And she gave birth to the child, which was conceived and formed and born in an hour.330 She said, Oh! would that I had died before this event, and had been a thing forgotten [and] unnoticed!—But he who was below her (namely Gabriel, who was on a lower place than she) called to her, Grieve not. God hath made below thee a rivulet: and shake thou towards thee the trunk of the palm-tree (which was dried-up); it shall let fall upon thee ripe dates, fresh-gathered: therefore eat of the dates, and drink of the water of the rivulet, and be of cheerful eye on account of the child: and if thou see any one of mankind, asking thee concerning the child, say, I have vowed unto the Compassionate an abstinence from speech with mankind respecting him and other matters; therefore I will not speak to-day unto a man after this.

And she brought him [namely the child] unto her people, carrying him. They said, O Mary, thou hast done a strange thing. O sister of Aaron, (he was a righteous man; and the meaning is, O thou who art like him in chastity,331) thy father was not a man of wickedness, nor was thy mother a harlot. Then whence gottest thou this child?—And she made a sign to them, [pointing] towards him, [namely the child, as though she would say,] Speak ye unto him. They said, How shall we speak unto him who is in the cradle, an infant? He [however] said, Verily I am the servant of God:332 He hath given me the book of the Gospel, and hath appointed me a prophet; and He hath made me blessed wherever I shall be, and hath commanded me to observe prayer and give alms as long as I shall live, and hath made me dutiful to my mother, and hath not made me proud [nor] wicked. And peace from God [was] on me on the day when I was born, and [will be] on the day when I shall die, and on the day when I shall be raised to life.—This [was] Jesus the son of Mary. I have spoken the saying of truth, concerning which they (namely the Christians) doubt, saying that Jesus is the son of God. It is not [meet] for God to get a son. Extolled be His purity from that [imputation]! When He decreeth a thing that He desireth to bring into existence, He only saith unto it, Be,—and it is: and thus He created Jesus the son of Mary without a father.—And say, Verily God is my Lord and your Lord: therefore worship ye Him: this is a right way, leading to Paradise. But the sects have differed among themselves; that is, the Christians have differed concerning Jesus, as to whether he be the son of God, or a deity with Him, or the third of three. And woe unto them who have disbelieved in that which hath been stated, or in other matters, on account of the assembly of a great day, the day of resurrection, and its terrors. How will they hear, and how will they see, on the day when they shall come unto Us in the world to come! But the offenders to-day (that is, in the present world) are in a manifest error: they are deaf, so that they hear not the truth; and blind, so that they see it not. And do thou, O Moḥammad, warn them (namely the unbelievers of Mekkeh) of the day of sighing (the day of resurrection, when the evil-doer shall sigh for his having neglected to do good in the present world), when the command for their punishment shall be fulfilled, while they (in the present world) are in a state of heedlessness with respect to it, and while they believe not therein. Verily We shall inherit the earth and whomsoever are upon it (the heedless and others; they being destroyed); and unto Us shall they be brought back to be recompensed. (xix. 16-41.)

And when God sent him [Jesus] to the children of Israel, he said unto them, Verily I am the apostle of God unto you; for I have come unto you with a sign from your Lord; for I will make for you of earth the similitude of a bird, and will breathe into it, and it shall be a bird,333 by the permission (or will) of God;334 (and he made for them a bat; for it is the most perfect of birds in make; and it flew, while they looked at it; but when it had gone out of their sight, it fell down dead;) and I will cure the blind from his birth, and the leper; (and he cured in one day fifty thousand, by prayer, on the condition of faith;) and I will raise to life the dead, by the permission of God; (this he repeated to deny his divinity: and he raised to life ´Áriz [Lazarus] a friend of his; and a son of the old woman, and the daughter of the publican; and they lived, and children were born to them; and Shem the son of Noah, who died immediately;) and I will tell you what ye eat and what ye store up in your houses. Verily therein will be a sign unto you, if ye be believers. And I have come unto you as a verifier of that which was before me, of the Law, and to make lawful unto you part of what was made unlawful to you therein; (and he made lawful to them, of fish and fowls, whatsoever is without fin or spur; and it is said that he made lawful all, and that ‘part’ is used in the sense of ‘the whole:’) and I have come unto you with a sign from your Lord; therefore fear ye God, and obey me in that which I command you, as to the confession of the unity of God and the service of Him. Verily God is my Lord and your Lord; therefore worship Him. This is [the] right way. But they accused him of falsehood and believed not in him. And when Jesus perceived their unbelief, he said, Who [will be] my helpers for God? The apostles335 answered, We [will be] the helpers of God. We have believed in God; and bear thou witness, O Jesus, that we are Muslims [or resigned]. O our Lord, we have believed in that which Thou hast sent down of the Gospel, and we have followed the Apostle, Jesus; therefore write us down among those who bear witness of Thy unity and of the truth of Thine apostle.—And they (that is, the unbelievers among the children of Israel) devised a stratagem against Jesus, to slay him treacherously; but God devised a stratagem against them; for He put the likeness of Jesus upon one who intended his slaughter, and they slew him; and Jesus was taken up [into heaven],336 and God is the best of those who devise stratagems.... It is related that God sent a cloud to Jesus, and it took him up; but his mother clung unto him and wept: whereupon he said unto her, Verily the resurrection will unite us.—It is also related that he will descend shortly before the resurrection and judge according to the law of our prophet [Moḥammad], slay Antichrist and the swine, break the cross, and impose the capitation-tax [on unbelievers].—Also, that he will remain, according to one tradition, seven years; according to another, forty years; and die, and be prayed over: but it is probable that [by the latter period] is meant the whole time of his tarrying upon the earth, before the ascension and after. (iii. 43—47.)

Remember when the apostle said, O Jesus, son of Mary, is thy Lord able to cause a table to descend unto us from heaven?337 He replied, Fear God, in demanding signs, if ye be believers. They said, We desire that we may eat therefrom, and that our hearts may be at ease in consequence of additional evidence, and we may know, with increased knowledge, that thou hast spoken truth unto us in asserting thyself to be a prophet, and may be witnesses thereof.—Jesus the son of Mary said, O God, our Lord, cause a table to descend unto us from heaven, that it (namely the day of its descent) may be unto us a festival,338 unto the first of us and the last of us (or those who shall come after us), and a sign from Thee of Thy power, and of my prophetic office; and provide us with food thereby; for Thou art the best of providers.—God said, in reply to him, Verily I will cause it to descend unto you; but whosoever of you shall disbelieve after its descent, I will surely punish him with a punishment wherewith I will not punish any [other] of the peoples.—And the angels descended with it from heaven: upon it were seven cakes of bread and seven fishes; and they ate of them until they were satisfied. And in a tradition related by Ibn-´Abbás it is said that the table brought down from heaven bread and flesh, and they were commanded not to act deceitfully, nor to store up for the morrow; but they [that is, some of the people] did so, and were transformed into apes and swine. (v. 112-115.)

Propound unto them, as an example, the inhabitants of the city of Antioch, when the apostles of Jesus came unto it;339 when We sent unto them two,340 and they charged them with falsehood; wherefore We strengthened them with a third;341 and they said, Verily we are sent unto you. They replied, Ye are not [aught] save men like us, and the Compassionate hath not revealed anything: ye do nothing but lie. They said, Our Lord knoweth that we are indeed sent unto you; and naught is imposed on us but the delivering of a plain message, shown to be true by manifest proofs, namely the cure of him who hath been born blind and of the leper and the sick, and the raising of the dead. [The people of Antioch] said, Verily we presage evil from you; for the rain is withheld from us on your account: if ye desist not, we will assuredly stone you, and a painful punishment shall surely betide you from us. [The apostles] replied, Your evil luck is with you because of your unbelief. If ye have been warned, will ye presage evil and disbelieve? Nay, ye are an exorbitant people.—And there came from the furthest part of the city a man (namely Ḥabeeb the carpenter, who had believed in the apostles) running: he said, O my people, follow the apostles: follow those who ask not of you a recompense, and who are rightly directed. And it was said unto him, Art thou of their religion? He replied, And why should I not worship Him who hath created me, and unto whom ye shall be brought back after death? Shall I take deities beside Him? If the Compassionate be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver. Verily, in that case (if I worshipped aught but God), I should be in a manifest error. Verily I believe in your Lord; therefore hear ye me.—But they stoned him, and he died;342 and it was said unto him at his death, Enter thou into Paradise. And it is said that he entered it alive. He said, O would that my people knew my Lord’s forgiveness of me and His having made me [one] of those who are honoured?—And We sent not down against his people after him (that is, after his death) an army of angels from heaven to destroy them, nor were We sending down angels to destroy any one. It (namely their punishment) was naught but one cry which Gabriel uttered against them; and lo, they were extinct. (xxxvi. 12-28.)

We have cursed the Jews ... for their disbelief in Jesus and their uttering against Mary a great calumny and their saying, We have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle of God,—Yet they killed him not nor crucified him; but one (namely the person whom they crucified) was made to appear to them like Jesus; and verily those who disagreed respecting him were in doubt concerning him, or his slaughter; for some of them said, when they saw the slain person, The face is the face of Jesus; but the body is not his body:—and others said, It is he:343—they had no knowledge of him; but only followed an opinion. And they did not really kill him; but God took him up unto Himself; and God is mighty [and] wise. And there is not of the people of the Scripture one but he shall assuredly believe in him (namely Jesus) before his death; that is, before his own death, or before the death of Jesus, when he descendeth shortly before the resurrection;344 and on the day of resurrection he (namely Jesus) shall be a witness against them (iv. 155-157.)

When God shall say, on the day of resurrection, O Jesus, son of Mary, hast thou said unto men, Take me and my mother as two deities, beside God?—Jesus shall answer, after being agitated (or after it shall have thundered), Extolled be Thy purity from the imputation of aught that is unsuitable to Thee, as the having a partner, and other things! It is not for me to say that which is not right for me. Had I said it, Thou hadst known it. Thou knowest what is in me; but I know not what is in Thee; for Thou well-knowest things unseen. I said not unto them aught but that which Thou commandedst me; namely Worship ye God, my Lord and your Lord;—and I was a watcher over them, commanding them to abstain from what they said, while I remained among them: but since Thou hast taken me to Thyself,345 Thou hast been the watcher over them, and Thou art the witness of all things. If Thou punish them, (that is, such of them as have continued in unbelief,) they are Thy servants and Thou mayest do with them as Thou pleasest; and if Thou forgive them, (that is, such of them as have believed,) Thou art the Mighty, the Wise. (v. 116-118.)