fac-similé
Sale, 1734
CHAP. XXVI.
Intitled, The Poets
[a]
; revealed at Mecca
[b]
.
In the name of the most merciful God.
notes originales
[a] The chapter bears this inscription because at the conclusion of it the Arabian poets are severely censured.
[b] The five last verses, beginning at these words, And those who err follow the poets, &c., some take to have been revealed at Medina.
[c] See the Prelim. Disc. §. III. p. 59, &c.
[d] See chap. 20. p. 257.
[e] A crime;] viz. The having killed an Egyptian [1] .
[1] See chap. 28.
[f] The apostle;] The word is in the singular number in the original; for which the commentators give several reasons.
[g] For several years;] It is said that Moses dwelt among the Egyptians thirty years, and then went to Midian, where he stayed ten years; after which he returned to Egypt, and spent thirty years in endeavouring to convert them; and that he lived after the drowning of Pharaoh fifty years [2] .
[2] Al Beidawi.
[a] I was one of those who erred;] Having killed the Egyptian undesignedly.
[b] Your apostle is distracted;] Pharaoh, it seems, thought Moses had given but wild answers to his question; for he wanted to know the person and true nature of the God whose messenger Moses pretended to be; whereas he spoke of his works only. And because this answer gave so little satisfaction to the king, he is therefore supposed by some to have been a Dahrite, or one who believed the eternity of the world [1] .
[1] Idem.
[c] If thou take any god besides me;] From this and a parallel expression in the 28th chapter, it is inferred that Pharaoh claimed the worship of his subjects, as due to his supreme power.
[d] I will make thee one of those who are imprisoned;] These words, says al Beidâwi, were a more terrible menace than if he had said I will imprison thee; and gave Moses to understand that he must expect to keep company with those wretches whom the tyrant had thrown, as was his custom, into a deep dungeon, where they remained till they died.
[a] Who hath taught you magic;] But has reserved the most efficacious secrets to himself [1] .
[1] Idem.
[b] See chap. 7. p. 128, &c.
[c] We made the children of Israel to inherit the same;] Hence some suppose the Israelites, after the destruction of Pharaoh and his host, returned to Egypt, and possessed themselves of the riches of that country [2] . But others are of opinion that the meaning is no more than that God gave them the like possessions and dwellings in another country [3] .
[2] Jallalo’ddin, Yahya.
[3] Al Zamakh. See chap. 7. p. 131.
[d] Grant that I may be spoken of with honour;] Literally, Grant me a tongue of truth, that is, a high encomium. The same expression is used in chap. 19. p. 252.
[e] And forgive my father, &c.] By disposing him to repentance, and the receiving of the true faith. Some suppose Abraham pronounced this prayer after his father’s death, thinking that possibly he might have been inwardly a true believer, but have concealed his conversion for fear of Nimrod, and before he was forbidden to pray for him [4] .
[4] See chap. 9. p. 164. and chap. 14. p. 209.
[a] See chap. 21. p. 273.
[b] I have no knowledge of that which they did;] i.e. Whether they have embraced the faith which I have preached, out of the sincerity of their hearts, or in prospect of some worldly advantage.
[c] See chap. 11. p. 177.
[d] Do ye build a landmark on every high place, to divert your selves?] Or to mock the passengers; who direct themselves in their journeys by the stars, and have no need of such buildings [1] ?
[1] Al Beidawi.
[e] Do ye exercise it with cruelty and rigour? ] Putting to death, and inflicting other corporal punishments without mercy, and rather for the satisfaction of your passion than the amendment of the sufferer [2] .
[2] Idem.
[a] Behaving with insolence;] Or, as the original word may also be rendered, showing art and ingenuity in your work.
[b] She shall have her portion of water, and ye shall have your portion of water alternately, on a several day appointed for you;] That is, they were to have the use of the water by turns, the camel drinking one day, and the Thamudites drawing the other day; for when this camel drank, she emptied the wells or brooks for that day. See chap. 7. p. 124.
[a] See chap. 15. p. 213. Shoaib being not called the brother of these people, which would have preserved the conformity between this passage and the preceding, it has been thought they were not Midianites, but of another race; however, we find the prophet taxes them with the same crimes as he did those of Midian [1] .
[1] See chap. 7. p. 211.
[b] The shadowing cloud;] God first plagued them with such intolerable heat for seven days that all their waters were dried up, and then brought a cloud over them, under whose shade they ran, and were all destroyed by a hot wind and fire which proceeded from it [2] .
[2] Al Beidawi.
[c] The faithful spirit;] i.e. Gabriel; who is instrusted with the divine secrets and revelations.
[d] Do they therefore desire our punishment to be hastened?] The infidels were continually defying Mohammed to bring some signal and miraculous destruction on them, as a shower of stones, &c.
[e] See chap. 15. p. 211.
[a] Preach to thy near relations;] The commentators suppose the same command to have been virtually contained in the seventy fourth chapter, which is prior to this in point of time [1] . It is said that Mohammed, on receiving the passage before us, went up immediately to mount Safâ, and having called the several families to him, one by one, when they were all assembled, asked them whether, if he should tell them that mountain would bring forth a smaller mountain, they would believe him; to which they answering in the affirmative, Verily, says he, I am a warner sent unto you, before a severe chastisement [2] .
[1] See the notes thereon, and the Prelim. Disc. §. II. p. 43.
[2] Al Beidawi.
[b] Behave thy self with meekness;] Literally, Lower thy wing.
[c] Who seeth thee when thou risest up, and thy behaviour among those who worship;] i.e. Who seeth thee when thou risest up to watch and spend the night in religious exercises, and observeth thy anxious care for the Moslems’ exact performance of their duty. It is said that the night on which the precept of watching was abrogated. Mohammed went privately from one house to another, to see how his companions spent the time; and that he found them so intent in reading the Korân, and repeating their prayers, that their houses, by reason of the humming noise they made, seemed to be so many nests of hornets [3] . Some commentators, however, suppose that by the prophet’s behaviour, in this place, are meant the various postures he used in praying at the head of his companions; as standing, bowing, prostration, and sitting [4] .
[3] Idem.
[4] Idem, Jallalo’ddin.
[d] The devils descend upon every lying and wicked person;] The prophet, having vindicated himself from the charge of having communication with the devils, by the opposition between his doctrine and their designs, and their inability to compose so consistent a book as the Korân, proceeds to shew that the persons most likely to a correspondence with those evil spirits were liars and slanderers, that is, his enemies and opposers.
[e] They learn what is heard;] i.e. They are taught by the secret inspiration of the devils, and receive their idle and inconsistent suggestions for truth. It being uncertain whether the slanderers or the devils be the nominative case to the verb, the words may also be rendered, They impart what they hear; that is, The devils acquaint their correspondents on earth with such incoherent scraps of the angels’ discourse as they can hear by stealth [5] .
[5] Iidem.
[f] They rove as bereft of their senses through every valley, &c.] Their compositions being as wild as the actions of a distracted man: for most of the ancient poetry was full of vain imaginations; as fabulous stories and descriptions, love verses, flattery, excessive commendations of their patrons, and as excessive reproaches of their enemies, incitements to vicious actions, vainglorious vauntings, and the like [6] .
[6] Iidem.
[g] Except those who believe, &c.] That is, such poets as had embraced Mohammedism; whose works, free from the profaneness of the former, run chiefly on the praises of God, and the establishing his unity, and contain exhortations to obedience and other religious and moral virtues, without any satirical invectives, unless against such as have given just provocations, by having first attacked them, or some others of the true believers, with the same weapons. In this last case Mohammed saw it was necessary for him to borrow assistance from the poets of his party, to defend himself and religion from the insults and ridicule of the others, for which purpose he employed the pens of Labid Ebn Rabîa [1] , Abda’llah Ebn Rawâha, Hassân Ebn Thabet, and the two Caabs. It is related that Mohammed once said to Caab Ebn Malec, Ply them with satires; for, by him in whose hand my soul is, they wound more deeply than arrows [2] .
[1] See the Prelim. Disc. p. 61.
[2] Al Beidawi.