CHAP. LXXXI.
Intitled, The Folding up; revealed at Mecca.
In the name of the most merciful God.
[a] When the sun shall be folded up;] As a garment that is to be laid by.
[b] See the Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 82.
[c] See ibid. p. 83 and 86.
[d] See ibid. p. 82.
[e] The damsel who hath been buried alive;] For it was customary among the ancient Arabs to bury their daughters alive as soon as they were born; for fear they should be impoverished by providing for them, or should suffer disgrace on their account. See chap. 16. p. 218.
[f] When the heaven shall be removed,] Or plucked away from its place, as the skin is plucked off from a camel which is flaying; for that is the proper signification of the verb here used. Marracci fancies the passage alludes to that in the Psalms [1] , where, according to the versions of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, God is said to have stretched out the heaven like a skin. [2]
[1] Psalm civ. 2.
[g] I swear;] Or, I will not swear, &c. See chap. 56. p. 436. not. f.
[h] By the stars which are retrograde, &c.] Some understand hereby the stars in general, but the more exact commentators, five of the planets, viz. the two which accompany the sun, and the three superior planets; which have both a retrograde and a direct motion, and hide themselves in the rays of the sun, or when they set.
[i] An honourable messenger;] i.e. Gabriel.
[k] See chap. 53. p. 426.
[l] He suspected not;] Some copies, by a change of one letter only, instead of dhanînin, read danînin; and then the words should be rendered, He is not tenacious of, or grudges not to communicate to you, the secret revelations which he has received.
[a] Neither are these the words of an accursed devil,] Who has overheard, by stealth, the discourse of the angels. The verse is an answer to a calumny of the infidels, who said the Korân was only a piece of divination, or magic; for the Arabs suppose the soothsayer, or magician, receives his intelligence from those evil spirits, who are continually listening to learn what they can from the inhabitants of heaven.