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

2em">SURA CXI. ABU LAHAB [XI.]

MECCA. 5 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

LET the hands of ABU LAHAB1 perish,and let himself perish!

His wealth and his gains shall avail him not.

Burned shall he be at the fiery flame,2

And his wife laden with fire wood,-

On her neck a rope of palm fibre.

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1 Undoubtedly one of the earliest Suras, and refers to the rejection of Muhammad's claim to the prophetic office by his uncle, Abu Lahab, at the instigation of his wife, Omm Djemil, who is said to have strewn the path of Muhammad on one occasion with thorns. The following six Suras, like the two first, have special reference to the difficulties which the Prophet met with the outset of his career, especially from the rich.

2 In allusion to the meaning of Abu Lahab, father of flame.

SURA CVIII.-THE ABUNDANCE [XII.]

MECCA.-3 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

TRULY we have given thee an ABUNDANCE;

Pray therefore to the Lord, and slay the victims.

Verily whoso hateth thee shall be childless.1

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1 A reply to those who had taunted Muhammad with the death of his sons, as a mark of the divine displeasure.

SURA CIV.-THE BACKBITER [XII.]

MECCA.-9 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Woe to every BACKBITER, Defamer!

Who amasseth wealth and storeth it against the future!

He thinketh surely that his wealth shall be with him for ever.

Nay! for verily he shall be flung into the Crushing Fire;

And who shall teach thee what the Crushing Fire is?

It is God's kindled fire,

Which shall mount above the hearts of the damned;

It shall verily rise over them like a vault,

On outstretched columns.

SURA CVII.-RELIGION [XIV.]

MECCA.-7 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

WHAT thinkest thou of him who treateth our RELIGION as a lie?

He it is who trusteth away the orphan,

And stirreth not others up to feed the poor.

Woe to those who pray,

But in their prayer are careless;

Who make a shew of devotion,

But refuse help to the needy.

SURA CII.-DESIRE [XV.]

MECCA.-8 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

THE DESIRE of increasing riches occupieth you,

Till ye come to the grave.

Nay! but in the end ye shall know

Nay! once more,in the end ye shall know your folly.

Nay! would that ye knew it with knowledge of certainty!

Surely ye shall see hell-fire.

Then shall ye surely see it with the eye of certainty;

Then shall ye on that day be taken to task concerning pleasures.

SURA XCII.-THE NIGHT [XVI.]

MECCA.-21 Verses

In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

BY the NIGHT when she spreads her veil;

By the Day when it brightly shineth;

By Him who made male and female;

At different ends truly do ye aim!1

But as to him who giveth alms and feareth God,

And yieldeth assent to the Good;

To him will we make easy the path to happiness.

But as to him who is covetous and bent on riches,

And calleth the Good a lie,

To him will we make easy the path to misery:

And what shall his wealth avail him when he goeth down?

Truly mans guidance is with Us

And Ours, the Future and the Past.

I warn you therefore of the flaming fire;

None shall be cast to it but the most wretched,-

Who hath called the truth a lie and turned his back.

But the God-fearing shall escape it,-

Who giveth away his substance that he may become pure;2

And who offereth not favours to any one for the sake of recompense,

But only as seeking the face of his Lord the Most High.

And surely in the end he shall be well content.

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1 See Pref., p. 5, line I. 2 Comp. Luke xi. 41. Muhammad perhaps derived this view of the meritorious anture of almsgiving from the Jewish oral law.

SURA LXVIII.-THE PEN [XVII.]

Mecca.-52 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

Nun.1 By the PEN2 and by what they write,

Thou, O Prophet; by the grace of thy Lord art not possessed!3

And truly a boundless recompense doth await thee,

For thou art of a noble nature.4

But thou shalt see and they shall see Which of you is the demented.

Now thy Lord! well knoweth He the man who erreth from his path, and well doth he know those who have yielded to Guidance;

Give not place, therefore, to those who treat thee as a liar:

They desire thee to deal smoothly with them: then would they be smooth as oil with thee:

But yield not to the man of oaths, a despicable person,

Defamer, going about with slander,

Hinderer of the good, transgressor, criminal,

Harsh-beside this, impure by birth,

Though a man of riches and blessed with sons.

Who when our wondrous verses are recited to him saith-"Fables of the ancients."

We will brand him on the nostrils.

Verily, we have proved them (the Meccans) as we proved the owners of the garden, when they swore that at morn they would cut its fruits;

But added no reserve.5

Wherefore an encircling desolation from thy Lord swept round it while they slumbered,

And in the morning it was like a garden whose fruits had all been cut.

Then at dawn they called to each other,

"Go out early to your field, if ye would cut your dates."

So on they went whispering to each other,

"No poor man shall set foot this day within your garden;"

And they went out at daybreak with this settled purpose.

But when they beheld it, they said, "Truly we have been in fault:

Yes! we are forbidden our fruits."

The most rightminded of them said, "Did I not say to you, Will ye not give praise to God?"

They said, "Glory to our Lord! Truly we have done amiss."

And they fell to blaming one another:

They said, "Oh woe to us! we have indeed transgressed!

Haply our Lord will give us in exchange a better garden than this: verily we crave it of our Lord."

Such hath been our chastisement-but heavier shall be the chastisement of the next world. Ah! did they but know it.

Verily, for the God-fearing are gardens of delight in the presence of their
Lord.

Shall we then deal with those who have surrendered themselves to God, as with those who offend him?

What hath befallen you that ye thus judge?

Have ye a Scripture wherein ye can search out

That ye shall have the things ye choose?

Or have ye received oaths which shall bind Us even until the day of the resurrection, that ye shall have what yourselves judge right?

Ask them which of them will guarantee this?

Or is it that they have joined gods with God? let them produce those associate-gods of theirs, if they speak truth.

On the day when men's legs shall be bared,6 and they shall be called upon to bow in adoration, they shall not be able:

Their looks shall be downcast: shame shall cover them: because, while yet in safety, they were invited to bow in worship, but would not obey.

Leave me alone therefore with him who chargeth this revelation with imposture. We will lead them by degrees to their ruin; by ways which they know not;

Yet will I bear long with them; for my plan is sure.

Askest thou any recompense from them? But they are burdened with debt.

Are the secret things within their ken? Do they copy them from the Book of
God?

Patiently then await the judgment of thy Lord, and be not like him who was in the fish,7 when in deep distress he cried to God.

Had not favour from his Lord reached him, cast forth would he have been on the naked shore, overwhelmed with shame:

But his Lord chose him and made him of the just.

Almost would the infidels strike thee down with their very looks when they hear the warning of the Koran. And they say, "He is certainly possessed."

Yet is it nothing less than a warning for all creatures.

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1 It has been conjectured that as the word Nun means fish, there may be a reference to the fish which swallowed Jonas (v. 48). The fact, however, is that the meaning of this and of the similar symbols, throughout the Koran, was unknown to the Muhammadans themselves even in the first century. Possibly the letters Ha, Mim, which are prefixed to numerous successive Suras were private marks, or initial letters, attached by their proprietor to the copies furnished to Said when effecting his recension of the text under Othman. In the same way, the letters prefixed to other Suras may be monograms, or abbreviations, or initial letters of the names of the persons to whom the copies of the respective Suras belonged.

addenda: The symbol nun may possibly refer to this letter as forming the Rhyme in most of the verses of this Sura.

2 This Sura has been supposed by ancient Muslim authorities to be, if not the oldest, the second revelation, and to have followed Sura xcvi. But this opinion probably originated from the expression in v. 1 compared with Sura xcvi. 4. Verses 17-33 read like a later addition, and this passage, as well as verse 48-50, has been classed with the Medina revelations. In the absence of any reliable criterion for fixing the date, I have placed this Sura with those which detail the opposition encountered by the Prophet at Mecca.

3 By djinn. Comp. Sur. xxxiv. 45.

4 In bearing the taunts of the unbelievers with patience.

5 They did not add the restriction, if God will.

6 An expression implying a grievous calamity; borrowed probably from the action of stripping previous to wrestling, swimming, etc.

7 Lit. the companion of the fish. Comp. on Jonah Sura xxxvii. 139-148, and Sura xxi. 87.

SURA XC.-THE SOIL [XVIII.]

MECCA.-20 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

I NEED not to swear by this SOIL,

This soil on which thou dost dwell,

Or by sire and offspring!1

Surely in trouble have we created man.

What! thinketh he that no one hath power over him?

"I have wasted," saith he, "enormous riches!"

What! thinketh he that no one regardeth him?

What! have we not made him eyes,

And tongue, and lips,

And guided him to the two highways?2

Yet he attempted not the steep.

And who shall teach thee what the steep is?

It is to ransom the captive,3

Or to feed in the day of famine,

The orphan who is near of kin, or the poor that lieth in the dust;

Beside this, to be of those who believe, and enjoin stedfastness on each other, and enjoin compassion on each other.

These shall be the people of the right hand:

While they who disbelieve our signs,

Shall be the people of the left.

Around them the fire shall close.

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1 Lit. and begetter and what he hath begotten

2 Of good and evil.

3 Thus we read in Hilchoth Matt'noth Aniim, c. 8, "The ransoming of captives takes precedence of the feeding and clothing of the poor, and there is no commandment so great as this."

SURA CV.-THE ELEPHANT [XIX.]

MECCA.-5 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HAST thou not seen1 how thy Lord dealt with the army of the ELEPHANT?

Did he not cause their stratagem to miscarry?

And he sent against them birds in flocks (ababils),

Claystones did they hurl down upon them,

And he made them like stubble eaten down!

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1 This Sura is probably Muhammad's appeal to the Meccans, intended at the same time for his own encouragement, on the ground of their deliverance from the army of Abraha, the Christian King of Abyssinia and Arabia Felix, said to have been lost in the year of Muhammad's birth in an