Qur’ān 12-21

QUR'ĀN TRANSLATIONS IN EUROPE, 12^th - 21^st c.

Note [original edition] : A. L. M.] For the meaning of these letters the reader is referred to the Preliminary Discourse, §. III.

Note [original edition] : Wherein are some verses clear to be understood, - and others are parabolical.] This passage is translated according to the exposition of al Zamakhshari and al Beidâwi, which seems to be the truest. The contents of the Korân are here distinguished into such passages as are to be taken in the literal sense, and such as require a figurative acceptation. The former being plain and obvious to be understood, compose the fundamental part, or, as the original expresses it, the mother of the book, and contain the principal doctrines and precepts; agreeably to and consistently with which, those passages which are wrapt up in metaphors, and delivered in an enigmatical, allegorical style, are always to be interpreted. ¹

• 1 See Preliminary Disc. §. III

Note [original edition] : Ye have already had a miracle shewn you in two armies, &c.] The sign or miracle here meant, was the victory gained by Mohammed in the second year of the Hejra, over the idolatrous Meccans, headed by Abu Sofiân, in the valley of Bedr, which is situate near the sea, between Mecca and Medina. Mohammed’s forces consisted of no more than three hundred and nineteen men, but the enemy’s army of near a thousand, notwithstanding which odds he put them to flight, having killed seventy of the principal Koreish, and taken as many prisoners, with the loss of only fourteen of his own men¹. This was the first victory obtained by the prophet, and though it may seem no very considerable action, yet it was of great advantage to him, and the foundation of all his future power and success. For which reason it is famous in the Arabian history, and more than once vaunted in the Korân ², as an effect of the divine assistance. The miracle, it is said, consisted in three things: 1. Mohammed, by the direction of the angel Gabriel, took a handful of gravel and threw it toward the enemy in the attack, saying, May their faces be confounded; whereupon they immediately turned their backs and fled. But tho’ the prophet seemingly threw the gravel himself, yet it is told in the Korân ³, that it was not he, but God, who threw it, that is to say, by the ministry of his angel. 2. The Mohammedan troops seemed to the infidels to be twice as many in number as themselves, which greatly discouraged them. And 3. God sent down to their assistance first a thousand and afterwards three thousand angels, led by Gabriel, mounted on his horse Haizûm; and, according to the Korân ⁴, these celestial auxiliaries really did all the execution, tho’ Mohammed’s men imagined themselves did it, and fought stoutly at the same time

• 1 See Elmacin. p. 5. Hottinger. Hist. Orient. l. 2, c. 4. Abulfed. vit. Moham. p. 56, &c. Prideaux’s Life of Mahom. p. 71, &c.
• 2 See this chap. below, & chap. 8 & 32.
• 3 Chap. 8, not far from the beginning.
• 4 Ibid.

Note [original edition] : Islâm] The proper name of the Mohammedan religion, which signifies the resigning or devoting one’s self entirely to God and his service. This they say is the religion which all the prophets were send to teach, being founded on the unity of God ⁵

• 5 Jallalo’ddin, Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : The ignorant;] i.e. The pagan Arabs, who had no knowledge of the scriptures¹.

• 1 Idem.

Note [original edition] : those unto whom part of the scripture was given;] That is, the Jews.

Note [original edition] : They were called unto the book of God;] This passage was revealed on occasion of a dispute Mohammed had with some Jews, which is differently related by the commentators. Al Beidâwi says that Mohammed going one day into a Jewish synagogue, Naïm Ebn Amru and al Hareth Ebn Zeid asked him what religion he was of? To which he answering, "Of the religion of Abraham;" they replied, "Abraham was a Jew." But on Mohammed’s proposing that the Pentateuch might decide the question, they would by no means agree to it. But Jallalo’ddin tells us that two persons of the Jewish religion having committed adultery, their punishment was referred to Mohammed, who gave sentence that they should be stoned, according to the law of Moses. This the Jews refused to submit to, alleging there was no such command in the Pentateuch; but on Mohammed’s appealing to the book, the said law was found therein. Whereupon the criminals were stoned, to the great mortification of the Jews. It is very remarkable that this law of Moses concerning the stoning of adulterers is mentioned in the New Testament ² (tho’ I know some dispute the authentickness of that whole passage), but is not now to be found, either in the Hebrew or Samaritan Pentateuch, or in the Septuagint; it being only said that such shall be put to death ³. This omission is insisted on by the Mohammedans as one instance of the corruption of the law of Moses by the Jews. It is also observable that there was a verse once extant in the Korân, commanding adulterers to be stoned; and the commentators say the words only are abrogated, the sense or law still remaining in force⁴.

• 2 John viii. 5.
• 3 Lev. xx. 10. See Whiston’s Essay towards restoring the true text of the Old Test. p. 99, 100.
• 4 See the Prelim. Disc. §. 3.

Note [original edition] : A certain number of days;] i.e. Forty; the time their forefathers worshipped the calf⁵. Al Beidâwi adds, that some of them pretended their punishment was to last but seven days, that is, a day for every thousand years which they supposed the world was to endure; and that they imagined they were to be so mildly dealt with, either by reason of the intercession of their fathers the prophets, or because God had promised Jacob that his offspring should be punished but slightly.

• 5 See before p. 11. Not. b.

Note [original edition] : How will it be with them, &c.] The Mohammedans have a tradition that the first banner of the infidels that shall be set up, on the day of judgment, will be that of the Jews; and that God will first reproach them with their wickedness, over the heads of those who are present, and then order them to hell⁶.

• 6 Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : Thou bringest forth the living out of the dead, and the dead out of the living;] As a man from seed, and a bird from an egg; and vice versâ ¹.

• 1 Jallalo’ddin.

Note [original edition] : Imrân,] Or Amrân, is the name of two several persons, according to the Mohammedan tradition. One was the father of Moses and Aaron; and the other was the father of Moses and Aaron; and the other was the father of the Virgin Mary ²; but he is called by some Christian writers Joachim. The commentators suppose the first, or rather both of them, to be meant in this place; however, the person intended in the next passage, it is agreed, was the latter; who besides Mary the mother of Jesus, had also a son named Aaron ³, and another sister, named Ishá (or Elizabeth), who married Zacharias, and was the mother of John the Baptist; whence that prophet and Jesus are usually called by the Mohammedans, The two sons of the aunt, or the cousin germans. From the identity of names it has been generally imagined by Christian writers ⁴ that the Korân here confounds Mary the mother of Jesus, with Mary or Miriam the sister of Moses and Aaron; which intolerable anachronism, if it were certain, is sufficient of itself to destroy the pretended authority of this book. But tho’ Mohammed may be supposed to have been ignorant enough in ancient history and chronology to have committed so gross a blunder, yet I do not see how it can be made out from the words of the Korân. For it does not follow, because two persons have the same name, and have each a father and brother who bear the same names, that they must therefore necessarily be the same person: besides, such a mistake is inconsistent with a number of other places in the Korân, whereby it manifestly appears that Mohammed well knew and asserted that Moses preceded Jesus several ages. And the commentators accordingly fail not to tell us that there had passed about one thousand eight hundred years between Amrân the father of Moses, and Amrân the father of the virgin Mary: they also make them the sons of different persons; the first, they say, was the son of Yeshar, or Izhar (tho’ he was really his brother)⁵, the son of Kâhath, the son of Levi; and the other was the son of Mathân ⁶, whose genealogy they trace, but in a very corrupt and imperfect manner, up to David, and thence to Adam ⁷. It must be observed that tho’ the virgin Mary is called in the Korân ¹ the sister of Aaron, yet she is nowhere called the sister of Moses; however, some Mohammedan writers have imagined that the same individual Mary, the sister of Moses, was miraculously preserved alive from his time till that of Jesus Christ, purposely to become the mother of the latter².

• 2 Al Zamakhshari, al Beidawi.
• 3 Korân, c. 19.
• 4 V. Reland. de rel. Moh. p. 211. Marracc. in Alc. p. 115, &c. Prideaux, Letter to the Deists, p. 185.
• 5 Exod. vi. 18.
• 6 Al Zamakh. al Beidawi.
• 7 V. Reland. ubi sup. D’Herbelot, Bibl. Orient. p. 583.
• 1 Chap. 19.
• 2 V. Guadagnol. Apolog. pro rel. Christ. contra Ahmed Ebn Zein al Abedin. p. 279.

Note [original edition] : The wife of Imrân.] The Imrân here mentioned was the father of the virgin Mary, and his wife’s name was Hannah, or Ann, the daughter of Fakudh. This woman, say the commentators, being aged and barren, on seeing a bird feed her young ones, became very desirous of issue, and begged a child of God, promising to consecrate it to his service in the temple; whereupon she had a child, but it proved a daughter³.

• 3 Al Beidâwi, al Thalabi.

Note [original edition] : Dedicated to thy service.] The Arabic word is free, but here signifies particularly one that is free or detached from all worldly desires and occupations, and wholly devoted to God’s service⁴.

• 4 Jallalo’ddin, al Zamakhshari.

Note [original edition] : A male is not as a female;] Because a female could not minister in the temple as a male could⁵.

• 5 Jallalo’ddin.

Note [original edition] : Satan driven away with stones.] This expression alludes to a tradition, that Abraham, when the devil tempted him to disobey God in not sacrificing his son, drove the fiend away by throwing stones at him; in memory of which, the Mohammedans, at the pilgrimage of Mecca, throw a certain number of stones at the devil, with certain ceremonies, in the valley of Mina⁶. It is not improbable that the pretended immaculate conception of the virgin Mary is intimated in this passage; for according to a tradition of Mohammed, every person that comes into the world is touched at his birth by the devil, and therefore cries out: Mary and her son only excepted, between whom and the evil spirit God placed a veil, so that his touch did not reach them⁷. And for this reason, they say, neither of them were guilty of any sin, like the rest of the children of Adam ⁸: which peculiar grace they obtained by virtue of this recommendation of them by Hannah to God’s protection.

• 6 See the Prelim. Dis. §. 4.
• 7 Jallalo’ddin, al Beidâwi.
• 8 Kitada

Note [original edition] : The Lord accepted her, &c.] Though the child happened not to be a male, yet her mother presented her to the priests who had the care of the temple, as one dedicated to God; and they having received her, she was committed to the care of Zacharias, as will be observed by-and-bye, and he built her an apartment in the temple, and supplied her with necessaries⁹.

• 9 Jallalo’ddin, al Beidawi. V. Lud. de Dieu, in not. ad Hist. Christi Xaverii, p. 542.

Note [original edition] : Whenever Zacharias went into the chamber to her, he found provisions with her, &c.] The commentators say that none went into Mary’s apartment but Zacharias himself, and that he locked seven doors upon her, yet he found she had always winter fruits in summer, and summer fruits in winter¹⁰.

• 10 Al Beidâwi. V. de Dieu, ubi sup. p. 548.

Note [original edition] : There is a story of Fâtema, Mohammed’s daughter, that she once brought two loaves and a piece of flesh to her father, who returned them to her, and having called for her again, when she uncovered the dish, it was full of bread and meat; and on Mohammed’s asking her whence she had it, she answered in the words of this passage: This is from God; for God provideth for whom he pleaseth without measure. Whereupon he blessed God, who thus favoured her, as he had the most excellent of the daughters of Israel ¹.

• 1 Al Beidâwi

Note [original edition] : The Angels;] Tho’ the word be in the plural, yet the commentators say it was the angel Gabriel only. The same is to be understood where it occurs in the following passages.

Note [original edition] : The word;] That is, Jesus, who, al Beidâwi says, is so called because he was conceived by the word or command of God without a father.

Note [original edition] : Chast.] The original word signifies one who refrains not only from women, but from all other worldly delights and desires. Al Beidâwi mentions a tradition, that during his childhood some boys invited him to play, but he refused, saying that he was not created to play.

Note [original edition] : When old age hath overtaken me, &c.] Zacharias was then ninety-nine years old, and his wife eighty-nine².

• 2 Idem.

Note [original edition] : Thou shalt speak unto no man for three days;] Tho’ he could not speak to anybody else, yet his tongue was at liberty to praise God as he is directed to do by the following words.

Note [original edition] : When they threw in their rods, &c.] When Mary was first brought to the temple, the priests, because she was the daughter of one of their chiefs, disputed among themselves who should have the education of her. Zacharias insisted that he ought to be preferred, because he had married her aunt; but the others not consenting that it should be so, they agreed to decide the matter by casting of lots; whereupon twenty seven of them went to the river Jordan and threw in their rods (or arrows without heads or feathers, such as the Arabs used for the same purpose), on which they had written some passages of the law; but they all sank except that of Zacharias, which floated on the water; and he had thereupon the care of the child committed to him³.

• 3 Idem, Jallalo’ddin.

Note [original edition] : He shall speak unto men in the cradle.] Besides an instance of this given in the Korân itself¹, which I shall not here anticipate, a Mohammedan writer, (of no very great credit, indeed) tells two stories, one of Jesus’s speaking while in his mother’s womb, to reprove her cousin Joseph for his unjust suspicions of her²; and another of his giving an answer to the same person soon after he was born. For Joseph being sent by Zacharias to seek Mary (who had gone out of the city by night to conceal her delivery) and having found her began to expostulate with her, but she made no reply; whereupon the child spoke these words: Rejoice, O Joseph, and be of good cheer; for God hath brought me forth from the darkness of the womb, to the light of the world; and I shall go to the children of Israel, and invite them to the obedience of God ³. These seem all to have been taken from some fabulous traditions of the eastern Christians, one of which is preserved to us in the spurious gospel of the Infancy of Christ; where we read that Jesus spoke while yet in the cradle, and said to his mother, Verily I am Jesus the Son of God, the word which thou hast brought forth, as the angel Gabriel did declare unto thee; and my father hath sent me to save the world ⁴.

• 1 Chap. 19.
• 2 V. Sikii notas in Evang. Infant. p. 5.
• 3 Al Kessai, apud eundem.
• 4 Evang. Infant. p.5.

Note [original edition] : And when he is grown up.] The Arabic word properly signifies a man in full age, that is, between thirty or thirty-four, and fifty-one; and the passage may relate to Christ’s preaching here on earth. But as he had scarce attained this age when he was taken up into heaven, the commentators chuse to understand it of his second coming⁵.

• 5 Jallalo’ddin, Al Beidâwi.

Note [original edition] : I will make the figure of a bird, &c.] Some say it was a bat⁶, though others suppose Jesus made several birds of different sorts⁷. This circumstance is also taken from the following fabulous tradition, which may be found in the spurious gospel above mentioned. Jesus being seven years old, and at play with several children of his age, they made several figures of birds and beasts, for their diversion, of clay; and each preferring his own workmanship, Jesus told them, that he would make his walk and leap; which accordingly, at his command, they did. He made also several figures of sparrows and other birds, which flew about or stood on his hands as he ordered them, and also ate and drank when he offered them meat and drink. The children telling this to their parents, were forbidden to play any more with Jesus, whom they held to be a sorcerer⁸.

• 6 Jallalo’ddin.
• 7 Al Thalabi.
• 8 Evang. Infant. p. 111, &c.

Note [original edition] : By the permission of God.] The commentators observe that these words are added here, and in the next sentence, lest it should be thought Jesus did these miracles by his own power, or was God ⁹.

• 9 Al Beidawi, &c.

Note [original edition] : I will raise the dead, &c.] Jallalo’ddin mentions three persons whom Christ restored to life, and who lived several years after, and had children; viz. Lazarus, the widow’s son, and the publican’s (I suppose he means the ruler of the synagogue’s) daughter. He adds that he also raised Shem the son of Noah, who, as another writes ¹⁰ thinking he had been called to judgment, came out of his grave with his head half grey, whereas men did not grow grey in his days; after which he immediately died again.

• 10 Al Thalabi.

Note [original edition] : And to allow you part of that which hath been forbidden you;] Such as the eating of fish that have neither fins nor scales, the caul and fat of animals, and camel’s flesh, and to work on the sabbath. These things, say the commentators, being arbitrary institutions in the law of Moses, were abrogated by Jesus; as several of the same kind, instituted by the latter, have been since abrogated by Mohammed ¹.

• 1 Al Beidawi, Jallalo’ddin.

Note [original edition] : The apostles;] In Arabic, al Hawâriyûn; which word they derive from Hâra, to be white, and suppose the apostles were so called either from the candor and sincerity of their minds, or because they were princes and wore white garments, or else because they were by trade fullers ². According to which last opinion, their vocation is thus related; that as Jesus passed by the seaside, he saw some fullers at work, and accosting them, said, Ye cleanse these clothes, but cleanse not your hearts; upon which they believed on him. But the true etymology seems to be from the Ethiopic verb Hawyra, to go; whence Hawârya signifies one that is sent, a messenger or apostle ³.

• 2 Idem.
• 3 V. Ludolfi Lexic. Æthiop. col. 40, & Golii notas ad cap. 61 Korâni, p. 205.

Note [original edition] : the Jews devised a stratagem against him;] i.e. They laid a design to take away his life.

Note [original edition] : But God devised a stratagem against them;] This stratagem of God’s was the taking of Jesus up into heaven, and stamping his likeness on another person, who was apprehended and crucified in his stead. For it is the constant doctrine of the Mohammedans that it was not Jesus himself who underwent that ignominious death, but somebody else in his shape and resemblance⁴. The person crucified some will have to be a spy that was sent to entrap him; others, that it was one Titian, who by the direction of Judas entered in at a window of the house where Jesus was, to kill him; and others that it was Judas himself, who agreed with the rulers of the Jews to betray him for thirty pieces of silver, and led those who were sent to take him. They add, that Jesus after his crucifixion in effigy, was sent down again to the earth, to comfort his mother and disciples and acquaint them how the Jews were deceived; and was then taken up a second time into heaven⁵. It is supposed by several that this story was an original invention of Mohammed’s; but they are certainly mistaken; for several sectaries held the same opinion, long before his time. The Basilidians ⁶, in the very beginning of Christianity, denied that Christ himself suffered, but that Simon the Cyrenean was crucified in his place. The Cerinthians before them, and the Carpocratians next (to name no more of those who affirmed Jesus to have been a mere man), did believe the same thing; that it was not himself, but one of his followers very like him that was crucified. Photius tells us, that he read a book intitled, The Journeys of the Apostles, relating the acts of Peter, John, Andrew, Thomas and Paul; and among other things contained therein, this was one, that Christ, was not crucified but another in his stead, and that therefore he laughed at his crucifiers ⁷, or those who thought they had crucified him⁸. I have in another place ⁹ mentioned an apocryphal gospel of Barnabas, a forgery originally of some nominal Christians, but interpolated since by Mohammedans; which gives this part of the history of Jesus with circumstances too curious to be omitted. It is therein related, that the moment the Jews were going to apprehend Jesus in the garden, he was snatched up into the third heaven by the ministry of four angels, Gabriel, Michael, Raphael and Uriel; that he will not die till the end of the world, and that it was Judas who was crucified in his stead; God having permitted that traitor to appear so like his master, in the eyes of the Jews, that they took and delivered him to Pilate. That this resemblance was so great, that it deceived the Virgin Mary and the Apostles themselves; but that Jesus Christ afterward obtained leave of God to go and comfort them. That Barnabas having then asked him, why the divine goodness had suffered the mother and disciples of so holy a prophet to believe even for one moment that he had died in so ignominious a manner? Jesus returned the following answer. "O Barnabas, believe me that every sin, how small soever, is punished by God with great torment, because God is offended with sin. My mother therefore and faithful disciples, having loved me with a mixture of earthly love, the just God has been pleased to punish this love with their present grief, that they might not be punished for it hereafter in the flames of hell. And as for me, though I have myself been blameless in the world, yet other men having called me God and the Son of God; therefore God, that I might not be mocked by the devils at the day of judgment, has been pleased that in this world I should be mocked by men with the death of Judas, making everybody believe that I died upon the cross. And hence it is that this mocking is still to continue till the coming of Mohammed, the messenger of God; who, coming into the world, will undeceive every one who shall believe in the law of God from this mistake"¹.

• 4 See Korân, c. 4.
• 5 V. Marracc. in Alc. p. 113, &c. & in Prodr. part. 3. p. 63, &c.
• 6 Irenæus, l. 1, c. 23, &c. Epiphan. Hæres. 24, num. 3.
• 7 Photius, Bibl. Cod. 114, col. 291.
• 8 Toland’s Nararenus, p 17, &c.
• 9 Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 74.
• 1 See the Menagiana, tom. 4. p. 326, &c.

Note [original edition] : I will cause thee to die, &] It is the opinion of a great many Mohammedans that Jesus was taken up into heaven without dying; which opinion is consonant to what is delivered in the spurious gospel above mentioned. Wherefore several of the commentators say that there is a hysteron proteron in these words, I will cause thee to die, and I will take thee up unto me; and that the copulative does not import order, or that he died before his assumption; the meaning being this, viz. that God would first take Jesus up to heaven, and deliver him from the infidels, and afterwards cause him to die; which they suppose is to happen when he shall return into the world again, before the last day². Some, thinking the order of the words is not to be changed, interpret them figuratively, and suppose their signification to be that Jesus was lifted up while he was asleep, or that God caused him to die a spiritual death to all worldly desires. But others acknowledge that he actually died a natural death, and continued in that state three hours, or, according to another tradition, seven hours; after which he was restored to life, and then taken up to heaven³.

• 2 See the Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 81.
• 3 Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : And I will take thee up unto me;] Some Mohammedans say this was done by the ministry of Gabriel; but others that a strong whirlwind took him up from Mount Olivet ⁴.

• 4 Al Thalabi, See 2 Kings ii. I, II

Note [original edition] : I will place those who follow thee above the unbelievers, until the day of resurrection.] That is, they who believe in Jesus (among whom the Mohammedans reckon themselves) shall be for ever superior to the Jews, both in arguments and in arms. And accordingly, says al Beidâwi, to this very day the Jews have never prevailed either against the Christians or Moslems, nor have they any kingdom or established government of their own.

Note [original edition] : Jesus in the sight of God is as Adam;] He was like to Adam in respect of his miraculous production by the immediate power of God ¹.

• 1 Jallalo’ddin, &c.

Note [original edition] : Him;] Namely, Jesus.

Note [original edition] : Let us call together our sons, &c. and imprecate the curse of God on those who lie.] To explain this passage their commentators tell the following story. That some Christians, with their bishop named Abu Hareth, coming to Mohammed as ambassadors from the inhabitants of Najrân, and entering into some disputes with him touching religion and the history of Jesus Christ, they agreed the next morning to abide the trial here mentioned, as a quick way of deciding which of them were in the wrong. Mohammed met them accordingly, accompanied by his daughter Fâtima, his son in law Ali, and his two grandsons, Hasan and Hosein, and desired them to wait till he had said his prayers. But when they saw him kneel down, their resolution failed them, and they durst not venture to curse him, but submitted to pay him tribute².

• 2 Jallalo’ddin, Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : Let us come to a just determination between us and you, &c.] That is, to such terms of agreement as are indisputably consonant to the doctrine of all the prophets and scriptures, and therefore cannot be reasonably rejected³.

• 3 Iidem.

Note [original edition] : And that the one of us take not the other for lords, &c.] Besides other charges of idolatry on the Jews and Christians, Mohammed accused them of paying too implicit an obedience to their priests and monks, who took upon them to pronounce what things were lawful, and what unlawful, and to dispense with the laws of God ⁴.

• 4 Iidem.

Note [original edition] : Why do ye dispute concerning Abraham?;] viz. By pretending him to have been of your religion.

Note [original edition] : Ye dispute concerning that which ye have some knowledge in; why therefore do you dispute concerning that which ye have no knowledge of?] i.e. Ye perversely dispute even concerning those things which ye find in the Law and the Gospel, whereby it appears they were both sent down long after Abraham’s time; why then will ye offer to dispute concerning such points of Abraham’s religion, of which your scriptures say nothing, and of which ye consequently can have no knowledge⁵?

• 5 Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : Some of those to whom scriptures were given to seduce you, &c.] This passage was revealed when the Jews endeavoured to pervert Hodheifa, Ammâr, and Moâdh to their religion¹.

• 1 Idem.

Note [original edition] : Why do you clothe truth with vanity, and knowingly hide the truth?] The Jews and Christians are again accused of corrupting the scriptures and stifling the prophecies concerning Mohammed.

Note [original edition] : The commentators, to explain this passage, say that Caab Ebn al Ashraf and Malec Ebn al Seif (two Jews of Medina) advised their companions, when the Keblah was changed², to make as if they believed it was done by the divine direction, and to pray towards the Caaba in the morning, but that in the evening they should pray, as formerly, towards the temple of Jerusalem; that Mohammed’s followers, imagining the Jews were better judges of this matter than themselves, might imitate their example. But others say these were certain Jewish priests of Khaibar, who directed some of their people to pretend in the morning that they had embraced Mohammedism, but in the close of the day to say that they had looked into their books of scripture, and consulted their Rabbins, and could not find that Mohammed was the person described and intended in the law, by which trick they hoped to raise doubts in the minds of the Mohammedans ³.

• 2 See before, c. 2. p. 17.
• 3 Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : There is of those who have received the scriptures, unto whom if thou trust a talent he will restore it;] As an instance of this, the commentators bring Abd’allah Ebn Salâm, a Jew, very intimate with Mohammed ⁴, to whom one of the Koreish lent 1,200 ounces of gold, which he very punctually repaid at the time appointed⁵.

• 4 See Prideaux’s Life of Mahom. p. 33.
• 5 Al Beidawi, Jallalo’ddin.

Note [original edition] : There is also of them, unto whom if thou trust a dinâr, he will not restore it, &c.] Al Beidâwi produces an example of such a piece of injustice in one Phineas Ebn Azûra, a Jew, who borrowed a dinâr, which is a gold coin worth about ten shillings, of a Koreishite, and afterwards had the conscience to deny it. But the person more directly struck at in this passage was the above- mentioned Caab Ebn al Ashraf, a most inveterate enemy of Mohammed and his religion, of whom Jallalo’ddin relates the same story as al Beidâwi does of Phineas. This Caab, after the battle of Bedr, went to Mecca, and there, to excite the Koreish to revenge themselves, made and recited verses lamenting the death of those who were slain in that battle, and reflecting very severely on Mohammed; and he afterwards returned to Medina, and had the boldness to repeat them publicly there also, at which Mohammed was so exceedingly provoked that he proscribed him, and sent a party of men to kill him, and he was circumvented and slain by Mohammed Ebn Moslema, in the third year of the Hejra ¹. Dr. Prideaux ² has confounded the Caab we are now speaking of with another very different person of the same name, and a famous poet, but who was the son of Zohair, and no Jew, as a learned gentleman has already observed³. In consequence of which mistake, the doctor attributes what the Arabian historians write of the latter to the former, and wrongly affirms that he was not put to death by Mohammed. Some of the commentators, however, suppose that in the former part of this passage the Christians are intended, who, they say, are generally people of some honour and justice; and in the latter part the Jews, who, they think, are more given to cheating and dishonesty⁴.

• 1 Al Jannâbi, Elmacin.
• 2 Life of Mahom. p. 78, &c.
• 3 V. Gagnier, in Not. ad Abulfed. Vit. Moh. p. 64, & 122.
• 4 Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : It is not fit for a man, &c.] This passage was revealed, say the commentators, in answer to the Christians, who insisted that Jesus had commanded them to worship him as God. Al Beidâwi adds that two Christians, named Abu Râfé al Koradhi and al Seyid al Najrâni, offered to acknowledge Mohammed for their Lord, and to worship him; to which he answered, God forbid that we should worship any besides God.

Note [original edition] : When God accepted the covenant of the prophets, &c.] Some commentators interpret this of the children of Israel themselves, of whose race the prophets were. But others say the souls of all the prophets, even of those who were not then born, were present on Mount Sinai when God gave the law to Moses, and that they entered into the covenant here mentioned with him. A story borrowed by Mohammed from the Talmudists, and therefore most probably his true meaning in this place.

Note [original edition] : See before, ch. 2, p. 8, Not. d.

Note [original edition] : All food was permitted unto the children of Israel, except what Israel forbade unto himself.] This passage was revealed on the Jews reproaching Mohammed and his followers with their eating of the flesh and milk of camels¹, which they said was forbidden Abraham, whose religion Mohammed pretended to follow. In answer to which he tells them that God ordained no distinction of meats before he gave the law to Moses, though Jacob voluntarily abstained from the flesh and milk of camels; which some commentators say was the consequence of a vow made by that patriarch, when afflicted with the sciatica, that if he were cured he would eat no more of that meat which he liked best; and that was camel’s flesh: but others suppose he abstained from it by the advice of physicians only². This exposition seems to be taken from the children of Israel’s not eating of the sinew on the hollow of the thigh, because the angel, with whom Jacob wrestled at Peniel, touched the hollow of his thigh in the sinew that shrank ³.

• 1 See Lev. xi. 4. Deut. xiv. 7.
• 2 Al Beidawi, Jallalo’ddin.
• 3 Gen. xxxii. 32.

Note [original edition] : Before the Pentateuch was sent down;] Wherein the Israelites, because of their wickedness and perverseness, were forbidden to eat certain animals which had been allowed their predecessors⁴.

• 4 Koran. c. 4. See the notes there.

Note [original edition] : The first house appointed unto men to worship in was that which was in Becca.] Mohammed received this passage when the Jews said that their Keblah, or the temple of Jerusalem, was more ancient than that of the Mohammedans, or the Caaba ⁵. Becca is another name of Mecca ⁶. Al Beidâwi observes that the Arabs used the "M" and "B" promiscuously in several words.

• 5 Al Beidawi, Jallalo’ddin.
• 6 See the Prelim. Disc. §. I. p. 3.

Note [original edition] : A direction to all creatures:] i.e. The Kebla, towards which they are to turn their faces in prayer.

Note [original edition] : Therein are manifest signs;] Such is the stone wherein they shew the print of Abraham’s feet, and the inviolable security of the place immediately mentioned; that the birds light not on the roof of the Kaaba, and wild beasts put off their fierceness there; that none who came against it in a hostile manner ever prospered¹, as appeared particularly in the unfortunate expedition of Abraha al Ashram ²; and other fables of the same stamp which the Mohammedans are taught to believe.

• 1 Jallalo’ddin, Al Beidawi.
• 2 See Korân, c. 105.

Note [original edition] : Those who are able to go thither;] According to an exposition of this passage attributed to Mohammed, he is supposed to be able to perform the pilgrimage, who can supply himself with provisions for the journey, and a beast to ride upon. Al Shâfeï has decided that those who have money enough, if they cannot go themselves, must hire some other to go in their room. Malec Ebn Ans thinks he is to be reckoned able who is strong and healthy, and can bear the fatigue of the journey on foot, if he has no beast to ride, and can also earn his living by the way. But Abu Hanîfa is of opinion that both money sufficient and health of body are requisite to make the pilgrimage a duty³.

• 3 Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : If ye obey some of those who have received the scripture, &c.] This passage was revealed on occasion of a quarrel excited between the tribes of al Aws and al Khazraj, by one Shâs Ebn Kais, a Jew; who, passing by some of both tribes as they were sitting and discoursing familiarly together, and being inwardly vexed at the friendship and harmony which reigned among them on their embracing Mohammedism, whereas they had been, for 120 years before, most inveterate and mortal enemies, though descendants of two brothers; in order to set them at variance, sent a young man to sit down by them, directing him to relate the story of the battle of Boâth (a place near Medina), wherein, after a bloody fight, al Aws had the better of al Khazraj, and to repeat some verses on that subject. The young man executed his orders; whereupon those of each tribe began to magnify themselves, and to reflect on and irritate the other, till at length they called to arms, and great numbers getting together on each side, a dangerous battle had ensued, if Mohammed had not stepped in and reconciled them; by representing to them how much they would be to blame if they returned to paganism, and revived those animosities which Islâm had composed; and telling them that what had happened was a trick of the devil to disturb their present tranquility⁴.

• 4 Idem.

Note [original edition] : And cleave all of you unto the covenant of God, &c.] Literally, Hold fast by the cord of God. That is, Secure yourselves by adhering to Islâm, which is here metaphorically expressed by a cord, because it is as sure a means of saving those who profess it from perishing hereafter, as holding by a rope is to prevent one’s falling into a well, or other like place. It is said that Mohammed used for the same reason to call the Korân, Habl Allah al matîn, i.e. the sure cord of God ⁵.

• 5 Idem.

Note [original edition] : And be not as those who are divided, &c.] i.e. As the Jews and Christians, who dispute concerning the unity of God, the future state, &c ¹.

• 1 Al Beidawi.

Note [original edition] : On the day of resurrection some faces shall become white, &c.] See the Preliminary Discourse, §. IV.