3 The usual rendering is read. But the word qaraa, which is the root of the word Koran, a.n.a.logous to the Rabbinic mikra, rather means to address, recite; and with regard to its etymology and use in the kindred dialects to call, cry aloud, proclaim. Compare Isai. lviii. 1; 1 Kings xviii. 37; and Gesen.
Thesaur. on the Hebrew root. I understand this pa.s.sage to mean, "Preach to thy fellow men what thou believest to be true of thy Lord who has created man from the meanest materials, and can in like manner prosper the truth which thou proclaimest. He has taught man the art of writing (recently introduced at Mecca) and in this thou wilt find a powerful help for propagating the knowledge of the divine Unity." The speaker in this, as in all the Suras, is Gabriel, of whom Muhammad had, as he believed, a vision on the mountain Hira, near Mecca. See note 1 on the next page. The details of the vision are quite unhistorical.
4 This, and the following verses, may have been added at a later period, though previous to the Flight, and with special reference, if we are to believe the commentators Beidhawi, etc., to the opposition which Muhammad experienced at the hands of his opponent, Abu Jahl, who had threatened to set his foot on the Prophet"s neck when prostrate in prayer. But the whole pa.s.sage admits of application to mankind in general.
5 That is Muhammad. Noldeke, however, proposes to render "a slave." And it is certain that the doctrines of Islam were in the first instance embraced by slaves, many of whom had been carried away from Christian homes, or born of Christian parents at Mecca. "Men of this description," says Dr. Sprenger (Life of Mohammad. Allahabad. p. 159), "no doubt prepared the way for the Islam by inculcating purer notions respecting G.o.d upon their masters and their brethren. These men saw in Mohammad their liberator; and being superst.i.tious enough to consider his fits as the consequence of an inspiration, they were among the first who acknowledged him as a prophet.
Many of them suffered torture for their faith in him, and two of them died as martyrs. The excitement among the slaves when Mohammad first a.s.sumed his office was so great, that Abd Allah bin Jod"an, who had one hundred of these sufferers, found it necessary to remove them from Makkah, lest they should all turn converts." See Sura xvi. 105, 111; ii. 220.
6 Lit. hast thou seen if he be upon the guidance.
7 The princ.i.p.al men of the Koreisch who adhered to Abu Jahl.
8 During a period variously estimated from six months to three years from the revelation of this Sura, or of its earliest verses, the prophetic inspiration and the revelation of fresh Suras is said to have been suspended. This interval is called the Fatrah or intermission; and the Meccan Suras delivered at its close show that at or during this period Muhammad had gained an increasing and more intimate acquaintance with the Jewish and Christian Scriptures. "The accounts, however," says Mr. Muir (vol. ii. 86) "are throughout confused, if not contradictory; and we can only gather with certainty that there was a time during which his mind hung in suspense, and doubted the divine mission." The idea of any supernatural influence is of course to be entirely excluded; although there is no doubt that Muhammad himself had a full belief in the personality and influence of Satans and Djinn. Profound meditation, the struggles of an earnest mind anxious to attain to truth, the morbid excitability of an epileptic subject, visions seen in epileptic swoons, disgust at Meccan idolatry, and a desire to teach his countrymen the divine Unity will sufficiently account for the period of indecision termed the Fatrah, and for the determination which led Muhammad, in all sincerity, but still self-deceived, to take upon himself the office and work of a Messenger from G.o.d. We may perhaps infer from such pa.s.sages as Sura ii. 123, what had ever been the leading idea in Muhammad"s mind.
SURA LXXIV.-THE ENWRAPPED1 [II.]
MECCA.-55 Verses
In the Name of G.o.d, the Compa.s.sionate, the Merciful
O THOU, ENWRAPPED in thy mantle!
Arise and warn!
Thy Lord-magnify Him!
Thy raiment-purify it!
The abomination-flee it!
And bestow not favours that thou mayest receive again with increase;
And for thy Lord wait thou patiently.
For when there shall be a trump on the trumpet,2
That shall be a distressful day,
A day, to the Infidels, devoid of ease.
Leave me alone to deal with him3 whom I have created,
And on whom I have bestowed vast riches,
And sons dwelling before him,
And for whom I have smoothed all things smoothly down;-
Yet desireth he that I should add more!
But no! because to our signs he is a foe
I will lay grievous woes upon him.
For he plotted and he planned!
May he be cursed! How he planned!
Again, may he be cursed! How he planned!
Then looked he around him,
Then frowned and scowled,
Then turned his back and swelled with disdain,
And said, "This is merely magic that will be wrought;
It is merely the word of a mortal."
We will surely cast him into h.e.l.l-fire.
And who shall teach thee what h.e.l.l-fire is?
It leaveth nought, it spareth nought,
Blackening the skin.
Over it are nineteen angels.
None but angels have we made guardians of the fire:4 nor have we made this to be their number but to perplex the unbelievers, and that they who possess the Scriptures may be certain of the truth of the Koran, and that they who believe may increase their faith;
And that they to whom the Scriptures have been given, and the believers, may not doubt;
And that the infirm of heart and the unbelievers may say, What meaneth G.o.d by this parable?
Thus G.o.d misleadeth whom He will, and whom He will doth He guide aright: and none knoweth the armies of thy Lord but Himself: and this is no other than a warning to mankind.
Nay, by the Moon!
By the Night when it retreateth!
By the Morn when it brighteneth!
h.e.l.l is one of the most grievous woes,
Fraught with warning to man,
To him among you who desireth to press forward, or to remain behind.5