The Quran (Koran), 1st translation - - (top 100 novels .txt) 📗

But no army sent we down out of heaven after his death, nor were we then sending down our angels-

There was but one shout from Gabriel, and lo! they were extinct.

Oh! the misery that rests upon my servants! No apostle cometh to them but they laugh him to scorn.

See they not how many generations we have destroyed before them?

Not to false gods is it that they shall be brought9 back,

But all, gathered together, shall be set before Us.

Moreover, the dead earth is a sign to them: we quicken it and bring forth the grain from it, and they eat thereof:

And we make in it gardens of the date and vine; and we cause springs to gush forth in it;

That they may eat of its fruits and of the labour of their hands. Will they not therefore be thankful?

Glory be to Him, who hath created all the sexual pairs of such things as
Earth produceth,10 and of mankind themselves; and of things beyond their ken!

A sign to them also is the Night. We withdraw the day from it, and lo! they are plunged in darkness;

And the Sun hasteneth to her place of rest. This, the ordinance of the
Mighty, the Knowing!

And as for the Moon, We have decreed stations for it, till it change like an old and crooked palm branch.

To the Sun it is not given to overtake the Moon, nor doth the night outstrip the day; but each in its own sphere doth journey on.

It is also a sign to them that we bare their posterity in the full-laden Ark;

And that we have made for them vessels like it on which they embark;

And if we please, we drown them, and there is none to help them, and they are not rescued,

Unless through our mercy, and that they may enjoy themselves for yet awhile.

And when it is said to them, Fear what is before you and what is behind you,11 that ye may obtain mercy. . . .

Aye, not one sign from among the signs of their Lord dost thou bring them, but they turn away from it!

And when it is said to them, Give alms of what God hath bestowed on you,12 they who believe not say to the believers, "Shall we feed him whom God can feed if He will? Truly ye are in no other than a plain error."

And they say, "When will this promise be fulfilled, if what ye say be true?"

They await but a single blast: as they are wrangling shall it assail them:

And not a bequest shall they be able to make, nor to their families shall they return.

And the trumpet shall be blown, and, lo! they shall speed out of their sepulchres to their Lord:

They shall say, "Oh! woe to us! who hath roused us from our sleeping place?
'Tis what the God of Mercy promised; and the Apostles spake the truth."

But one blast shall there be,13 and, lo! they shall be assembled before us, all together.

And on that day shall no soul be wronged in the least: neither shall ye be rewarded but as ye shall have wrought.

But joyous on that day shall be the inmates of Paradise, in their employ;

In shades, on bridal couches reclining, they and their spouses:

Therein shall they have fruits, and shall have whatever they require-

"Peace!" shall be the word on the part of a merciful Lord.

"But be ye separated this day, O ye sinners!

Did I not enjoin on you, O sons of Adam, 'Worship not Satan, for that he is your declared foe,'

But 'Worship Me: this is a right path'?

But now hath he led a vast host of you astray. Did ye not then comprehend?

This is Hell with which ye were threatened:

Endure its heat this day, for that ye believed not."

On that day will we set a seal upon their mouths; yet shall their hands speak unto us, and their feet14 shall bear witness of that which they shall have done.

And, if we pleased, we would surely put out their eyes: yet even then would they speed on with rivalry in their path: but how should they see?

And, if we pleased, we would surely transform them as they stand,15 and they would not be able to move onward, or to return.

Him cause we to stoop through age whose days we lengthen. Will they not understand?

We have not taught him (Muhammad) poetry,16 nor would it beseem him. This
Book is no other than a warning and a clear Koran,

To warn whoever liveth; and, that against the Infidels sentence may be justly given.

See they not that we have created for them among the things which our hands have wrought, the animals of which they are masters?

And that we have subjected them unto them? And on some they ride, and of others they eat;

And they find in them profitable uses and beverages:

Yet have they taken other gods beside God that they might be helpful to them.

No power have they to succour them: yet are their votaries an army at their service.

Let not their speech grieve thee: We know what they hide and what they bring to light.

Doth not man perceive that we have created him of the moist germs of life?
Yet lo! is he an open caviller.

And he meeteth us with arguments,17 and forgetteth his creation: "Who," saith he, "shall give life to bones when they are rotten?"

SAY: He shall give life to them who gave them being at first, for in all creation is he skilled:

Who even out of the green tree hath given you fire18, and lo! ye kindle flame from it.

What! must not He who hath created the Heavens and the Earth be mighty enough to create your likes? Yes! and He is the skilful creator.

His command when He willeth aught, is but to say to it, BE, and IT IS.

So glory be to Him in whose hand is sway over all things! And to Him shall ye be brought back.

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1 This Sura is said to have been termed by Muhammad "the heart of the Koran." It is recited in all Muhammadan countries to the dying, at the tombs of saints, etc. On Ya. Sin, see Sura lxviii. p. 32.

2 Sura xxxviii. 85, p. 129.

3 Lit. in the clear prototype, that is, in the Preserved Table, on which all the actions of mankind are written down.

4 Antioch, to which Jesus is said to have sent two disciples to preach the unity of God, and subsequently Simon Peter. This vague story, and that of the seven sleepers in Sura xviii. are the only traces to be found in the Koran of any knowledge, on the part of Muhammad, of the history of the Church subsequent to the day of Pentecost, or of the spread of the Christian religion.

5 Comp. Sura xxvii. 48; vii. 128, where, as in this passage, the word augur refers to the mode of divination practised previous to Islam, by the flight of birds.

6 Lit. if ye have been warned (will ye still disbelieve?).

7 Habib, the carpenter, who, as implied at verse 25, was martyred, and whose tomb at Antioch is still an object of veneration to the Muhammadans.

8 Ullm. following Wahl, renders, Als sie (die stadtlente) darauf ihn schändlich behandleten. The verb in the original is thus used in the 4th conj. Nöldeke supposes that words to this effect have been lost from the text. But of this there is no trace in the Commentators.

9 Or, the Apostles shall not return to them again. Ullm.

10 For instance, date trees, the female blossoms of which were carefully impregnated, when requisite, by branches of the male plant. See Freyt. Einl. p. 271.

11 The chastisements of this world and of the next.

12 On account of this precept, Itq. 35, and Omar b. Muhammad suppose the verse to have originated at Medina.

13 The Muhammadans affirm that a space of forty years will intervene between two blasts of the Trumpet. Maracci suggests that the idea of the two blasts is derived from 1 Thess. iv. 16, "the voice of the archangel and . . . the trump of God."

14 Thus Chagiga, 16; Taanith, 11. "The very members of a man bear witness against him, for thus is it written (Is. xliii. 12), Ye yourselves are my witnesses, saith the Lord." See also Sura [lxxi.] xli. 19, 20.

15 Lit. in their place.

16 See Sura xxvi. 225, p. III.

17 Lit. he setteth forth to us comparisons.

18 The form of the Arabic word is Rabbinic Hebrew.

MECCA.-89 Verses.

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Ha. Mim.1 By the Luminous Book!

We have made it an Arabic Koran that ye may understand:

And it is a transcript of the archetypal Book,2 kept by us; it is lofty, filled with wisdom,

Shall we then turn aside this warning from you because ye are a people who transgress?

Yet how many prophets sent we among those of old!

But no prophet came to them whom they made not the object of their scorn:

Wherefore we destroyed nations mightier than these Meccans in strength; and the example of those of old hath gone before!

And if thou ask them who created the Heavens and the Earth, they will say:
"The Mighty, the Sage, created them both,"

Who hath made the Earth as a couch for you, and hath traced out routes therein for your guidance;

And who sendeth down out of Heaven the rain in due degree, by which we quicken a dead land; thus shall ye be brought forth from the grave:

And who hath created the sexual couples, all of them, and hath made for you the ships and beasts whereon ye ride:

That ye may sit balanced on their backs and remember the goodness of your Lord as ye sit so evenly thereon, and say: "Glory to Him who hath subjected these to us! We could not have attained to it of ourselves:

And truly unto our Lord shall we return."

Yet do they assign to him some of his own servants for offspring! Verily man is an open ingrate!

Hath God adopted daughters from among those whom he hath created, and chosen sons for you?

But when that3 is announced to any one of them, which he affirmeth to be the case with the God of Mercy,4 his face settleth into darkness and he is silent-sad.

What! make they a being to be the offspring of God who is brought up among trinkets, and is ever contentious without reason?

And they make the angels who are the servants of God of Mercy, females. What! did they witness their creation? Their witness shall be taken down, and they shall hereafter be enquired at.

And they say: "Had the God of Mercy so willed it we should never have worshipped them." No knowledge have they in this: they only lie.

Have we ere this given them a Book?5 and do they possess it still?

But say they: "Verily we found our fathers of that persuasion, and verily, by their footsteps do we guide ourselves."

And thus never before thy time did we send a warner to any city but its wealthy ones said: "Verily we found our fathers with a religion, and in their tracks we tread."

SAY,-such was our command to that apostle-"What! even if I bring you a religion more right than that ye found your fathers following?" And they said, "Verily we believe not in your message."

Wherefore we took vengeance on them, and behold what hath been the end of those who treated our messengers as liars!

And bear in mind when Abraham said to his father and to his people, "Verily I am clear of what ye worship,

Save Him who hath created me; for he will vouchsafe me guidance."

And this he established as a doctrine that should abide among his posterity, that to God might they be turned.

In sooth to these idolatrous Arabians and to their fathers did I allow their full enjoyments, till the truth should come to them, and an undoubted apostle: