The Quran (Koran), 1st translation by - (inspirational books to read txt) 📖

them, "Where are they whom ye made the objects of joint worship with God?" They shall say, "They have vanished away from us. Yea, it was nought on which we called heretofore." Thus God leadeth the unbelievers astray.

-"This for you, because of your unrighteous insolence and immoderate joys on earth.

Enter ye the portals of Hell to abide therein for ever. And, wretched the abode of the haughty ones!"

Therefore be thou steadfast in patience: for the promise of God is truth: and whether we shall make thee see part of the woes with which we threatened them, or whether we cause thee first to die, unto us shall they be brought back.

And we have already sent apostles before thee: of some we have told thee, and of others we have told thee nothing:10 but no apostle had the power to work a miracle unless by the leave of God. But when God's behest cometh, everything will be decided with truth: and then they perish who treated it as a vain thing.

It is God who hath given you the cattle that on some of them ye may ride, and of some may eat:

(Other advantages too do ye derive from them)-and that by them ye may effect the projects ye cherish in your breasts; for on them, and on ships are ye borne:

And He sheweth you His signs: which, then, of the signs of God will ye deny?

Have they not journeyed in this land, and seen what hath been the end of those who flourished before them? More were they than these in number and mightier in strength, and greater are the traces of their power remaining in the land:11 yet their labours availed them nothing.

And when their apostles had come to them with the tokens of their mission, they exulted in what they possessed of knowledge; but that retribution at which they scoffed, encompassed them.

And when they beheld our vengeance they said, "We believe in God alone, and we disbelieve in the deities we once associated with Him."

But their faith, after they had witnessed our vengeance, profited them not.
Such the procedure of God with regard to his servants who flourished of old.
And then the unbelievers perished.

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1 See Sura 1xviii. 1, p. 32.

2 The Cherubic beings of Scripture are said to be above the throne of God (Is. vi. 1), beneath it (Ezek. x.); and the mystical beasts in the Revelations are said to be in the midst of the throne and round about it.

3 Probably the union of life and death in the womb, and the subsequent life followed by death.

4 See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 76.

5 Thus Sura [lxxix.] xxviii 20, and Sura [lx.] xxxvi. 19, we have a similar character introduced into the narrative.

6 Comp. Acts v. 38, 39.

7 These tribes no doubt constantly formed temporary alliances. Muhammad implies that they were confederate against their prophets.

8 Haman, the favourite of Ahasuerus and the enemy of the Jews, is thus made the vizier of Pharaoh. The Rabbins make this vizier to have been Korah, Jethro, or Balaam. Midr. Jalkut on Ex. ch. 1, Sect. 162-168; and Tr. Solah, fol. 11. See Sura [lxxix.] xxviii. 5.

9 Thy remissness in propagating Islam. Beidh.

10 It is possible that Muhammad, conscious of his ignorance of Jewish history, intends in this verse to screen himself from the charge of passing over the histories of many of their prophets.

11 The wealth of Mecca, although it still numbered about 12,000 inhabitants (as well as of Arabia generally), had much declined at the time of Muhammad, owing mainly to the navigation of the Red Sea, under the Roman dominion over Egypt, which of course impoverished the tribes situated on the line of the old mercantile route southward. Mecca, however, was still to a certain extent prosperous. Comp. Sura [lxi.] xliii. 28.

SURA XXVIII.-THE STORY [LXXIX.]

MECCA.-88 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

TA. SIN. MIM.1 These are the signs of the lucid Book.

We will recite to thee portions of the History of Moses and Pharaoh with truth, for the teaching of the faithful.

Now Pharaoh lifted himself up in the earth, and divided his people into parties: one portion of them he brought low-He slew their male children, and let their females only live; for he was one of those who wrought disorders.

And we were minded to shew favour to those who were brought low in the land, and to make them spiritual chiefs,2 and to make them Pharaoh's heirs,

And to stablish them in the land;3 and to make Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts, the eye-witnesses of what they dreaded from them.

And we said by revelation to the mother of Moses, "Give him suck; and if thou fearest for him, launch him on the sea; and fear not, neither fret; for we will restore him to thee, and make him one of the apostles."

And Pharaoh's family took him up to be a foe and a sorrow to them, for sinners were Pharaoh and Haman and their hosts!

And Pharaoh's wife said, "Joy of the eye4 to me and thee! put him not to death: haply he will be useful to us, or we may adopt him as a son." But they knew not what they did.

And the heart of Moses' mother became a blank through fear: and almost had she discovered him, but that we girt up her heart with constancy, in order that she might be one of those who believe.

She said to his sister, "Follow him." And she watched him from afar: and they perceived it not.

And we caused him to refuse the nurses,5 until his sister came and said, Shall I point out to you the family of a house that will rear him for you, and will be careful of him?

So we restored him to his mother, to be the joy of her eyes, and that she might not fret, and that she might know that the promise of God was true. But most men knew it not.

And when he had reached his age of strength, and had become a man, we bestowed on him wisdom and knowledge; for thus do we reward the righteous.

And he entered a city at the time when its inhabitants would not observe him,6 and found therein two men fighting: the one, of his own people; the other, of his enemies. And he who was of his own people asked his help against him who was of his enemies. And Moses smote him with his fist and slew him. Said he, "This is a work of Satan; for he is an enemy, a manifest misleader."

He said, "O my Lord, I have sinned to mine own hurt:7 forgive me." So God forgave him; for He is the Forgiving, the Merciful.

He said, "Lord, because thou hast showed me this grace, I will never again be the helper of the wicked."

And in the city at noon he was full of fear, casting furtive glances round him: and lo! the man whom he had helped the day before, cried out to him again for help. Said Moses to him, "Thou art plainly a most depraved person."

And when he would have laid violent hands on him who was their common foe, he said to him, "O Moses, dost thou desire to slay me, as thou slayedst a man yesterday? Thou desirest only to become a tyrant in this land, and desirest not to become a peacemaker."

But a man came running up from the city's end. He said, "O Moses, of a truth, the nobles consult to slay thee-Begone then-I counsel thee as a friend."

So forth he went from it in fear, looking warily about him. He said, "O Lord, deliver me from the unjust people."

And when he was journeying toward Madian, he said, "Haply my Lord will direct me in an even path."

And when he arrived at the water of Madian, he found at it a company of men watering.

And he found beside them, two women8 keeping back their flock: "Why do ye," said he, "thus?" They said "We shall not water till the shepherds shall have driven off; for our father is very aged."

So he watered for them-then retired to the shade and said, "O my Lord, of the good thou hast caused me to meet with I stand in need."9

And one of them came to him, walking bashfully. Said she, "My father calleth thee, that he may pay thee wages for thy watering for us." And when he came to him and had told him his STORY, "Fear not," said he, "thou hast escaped from an unjust people."

One of them said, "O my father, hire him: for the best thou canst hire is the strong, the trusty."

He said, "Truly to one of these my two daughters I desire to marry thee, if for eight years thou wilt be my hired servant:10 and if thou fulfil ten, it shall be of thine own accord, for I wish not to deal hardly with thee. Thou wilt find me, if God will, one of the upright."

He said, "Be it so between me and thee: Whichever of the two terms I fulfil, there will be no injustice to me. And God is witness of what we say."

And when Moses had fulfilled the term, and was journeying with his family, he perceived a fire on the mountain side. He said to his family, "Wait ye, for I perceive a fire. Haply I may bring you tidings from it, or a brand from the fire to warm you."

And when he came up to it, a Voice cried to him11 out of the bush from the right side of the valley in the sacred hollow, "O Moses, I truly am God, the Lord of the Worlds:

Throw down now thy rod." And when he saw it move as though it were a serpent, he retreated and fled and returned not. "O Moses," cried the Voice, "draw near and fear not, for thou art in safety.

Put thy hand into thy bosom; it shall come forth white, but unharmed: and draw back thy hand12 to thee without fear. These shall be two signs from thy Lord to Pharaoh and his nobles; for they are a perverse people."

He said, "O my Lord! truly I have slain one of them, therefore fear I lest they slay me.

My brother Aaron is clearer of speech than I. Send him, therefore, with me as a help, and to make good my cause, for I fear lest they treat me as an impostor."

He said, "We will strengthen thine arm with thy brother, and we will give power unto you both, and they shall not equal you in our signs. Ye twain and they who shall follow you, shall gain the day."

And when Moses came to him with our demonstrative signs they said, "This is nought but magical device. We never heard the like among our sires of old."

And Moses said, "My Lord best knoweth on whom He hath bestowed His guidance, and whose shall be the recompense of the abode of Paradise. Verily, the wicked shall not prosper."

And Pharaoh said, "O ye nobles, ye have no other God that I know of but myself. Burn me then, Haman, bricks of clay,13 and build me a tower that I may mount up to the God of Moses, for in sooth, I deem him a liar."

And he and his hosts behaved themselves proudly and unjustly on the earth, and thought that they should never be brought back to us.

But we seized on him and his hosts and cast them into the sea: Behold, then, the end of the wrongful doers:

And we made them imâms who invite to the fire of hell, and on the day of
Resurrection they shall not be helped.

We followed them with a curse in this world, and covered shall they be with shame on the day of Resurrection.

And after we had destroyed the former generations, we gave the book of the Law to Moses for man's enlightening, and a guidance and a mercy, that haply they might reflect.

And thou wast not on the western slope of Sinai when we laid his charge on
Moses, nor wast thou one of the witnesses;

But we raised up generations after Moses, men whose days were