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

Their building which they40 have built will not cease to cause uneasiness in their hearts, until their hearts are cut in pieces.41 God is Knowing, Wise.

Verily, of the faithful hath God bought their persons and their substance, on condition of Paradise for them in return: on the path of God shall they fight, and slay, and be slain: a Promise for this is pledged in the Law, and in the Evangel, and in the Koran-and who more faithful, in to his engagement than God? Rejoice, therefore, in the contract that ye have contracted: for this shall be the great bliss.

Those who turn to God, and those who serve, who praise, who fast, who bow down, who prostrate themselves, who enjoin what is just and forbid what is evil, and keep to the bounds42 of God . . .43 Wherefore bear these good tidings to the faithful.

It is not for the prophet or the faithful to pray for the forgiveness of those, even though they be of kin, who associate other beings with God, after it hath been made clear to them that they are to be the inmates of Hell.

For neither did Abraham ask forgiveness for his father, but in pursuance of a promise which he had promised to him: but when it was shewn him that he was an enemy to God, he declared himself clear of him. Yet Abraham was pitiful, kind.

Nor is it for God to lead a people into error, after he hath guided them aright, until that which they ought to dread hath been clearly shewn them. Verily, God knoweth all things.

God! His the kingdom of the Heavens and of the Earth! He maketh alive and killeth! Ye have no patron or helper save God.

Now hath God turned Him unto the Prophet and unto the refugees (Mohadjers), and unto the helpers (Ansars)44, who followed him in the hour of distress, after that the hearts of a part of them had well nigh failed them45. Then turned He unto them, for He was Kind to them, Merciful.

He hath also turned Him unto the three46 who were left behind, so that the earth, spacious as it is, became too strait for them; and their souls became so straitened within them, that they bethought them that there was no refuge from God but unto Himself. Then was He turned to them, that they might be turned to Him, for God is He that turneth, the Merciful.

Believers!47 fear God, and be with the sincere.

No cause had the people of Medina and the Arabs of the desert around them, to abandon God's Apostle, or to prefer their own lives to his; because neither thirst, nor the labour nor hunger, could come upon them when on path of God;48 neither do they step a step which may anger the unbelievers, neither do they receive from the enemy any damage, but it is written down to them as a good work. Verily, God suffereth not the reward of the righteous to perish.

Nor give they alms either small or great, nor traverse they a torrent, but it is thus reckoned to them; that God may reward them with better than they have wrought.

The faithful must not march forth all together to the wars: and if a party of every band of them march not out, it is that they may instruct themselves in their religion, and may warn their people when they come back to them, that they take heed to themselves.

Believers! wage war against such of the infidels as are your neighbours, and let them find you rigorous: and know that God is with those who fear him.

Whenever a Sura is sent down, there are some of them who say, "Whose faith hath it increased?" It will increase the faith of those who believe, and they shall rejoice.

But as to those in whose hearts is a disease, it will add doubt to their doubt, and they shall die infidels.

Do they not see that they are proved every year once or twice? Yet they turn not, neither are they warned.

And whenever a Sura is sent down, they look at one another. . . . "Doth any one see you?" then turn they aside. God shall turn their hearts aside, because they are a people devoid of understanding.

Now hath an Apostle come unto you from among yourselves: your iniquities press heavily upon him. He is careful over you, and towards the faithful, compassionate, merciful.

If they turn away, SAY: God sufficeth me: there is no God but He. In Him put
I my trust. He is the possessor of the Glorious Throne!

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1 The "Immunity" is said by some commentators to have formed originally one Sura with the eighth, p.375, and that on this account the usual formula of invocation is not prefixed. The Caliph Othman accounted for this omission of the Bismillah from the fact of this Sura having been revealed, with the exception of a few verses, shortly before the prophet's death, who left no instructions on the subject. (Mishcat 1, p. 526.) The former verses from 1- 12, or, according to other traditions, from 1-40, were recited to the pilgrims at Mecca by Ali, Ann. Hej. 9.

2 Lit. that ye cannot weaken God.

3 Shawâl, Dhu'lkaada, Dhu'lhajja, Muharram. These months were observed by the Arabians previous to the time of Muhammad.

4 Al Abbas, Muhammad's uncle, when taken prisoner, had defended his unbelief, and declared that he had performed these two important duties. Beidh.

5 Or, shall issue his behest.

6 At the battle of Honein, a valley three miles from Mecca (A.H. 8), the Muhammadans, presuming upon the great superiority of their numbers, 12,000 men, over the enemy who were only 4000 strong, were seized with a panic throughout their ranks. Order was restored and victory obtained through the bravery and presence of mind of Muhammad and his kindred.

7 The enemy attacked and routed you on all sides.

8 See ii. 249, p. 365.

9 Through the breaking off commercial relations.

10 Or, by right of subjection, Sale; in cash, Wahl.; all without exception, K. i.e. as if by counting hands.

11 Thus Hilchoth Melachim, vi. 4. The Jews are commanded, in case of war with the Gentiles, to offer peace on two conditions:-that they become tributaries, and renounce idolatry. Thus also chap. viii. 4.

12 The Muhammadan tradition is that Ezra was raised to life after he had been 100 years dead, and dictated from memory the whole Jewish law, which had been lost during the captivity, to the scribes. That the Jews regarded Ezra as a son of God is due to Muhammad's own invention. See Sonna, 462 v. H. v. Purgstall's Fundgruben des Orients, i. 288. The Talmudists, however, use very exaggerated language concerning him. Thus, Sanhedrin, 21, 22. "Ezra would have been fully worthy to have been the lawgiver, if Moses had not preceded him." Josephus, Ant. xi. 5, 5, speaks of his high repute ([greek text]) with the people, and of his honourable burial. Muhammad probably represents the Jews as having deified Ezra with the view of showing that they, as well as the Christians, had tampered with the doctrine of the Divine unity.

13 An allusion to the word Rabbi, used by Jews and Christians, of their priests, etc., but in Arabic of God only. Comp. Matt. xxiii. 7, 8.

14 See Sur. [cxiv.] v. 85.

15 The intercalation of a month every third year, in order to reduce the lunar to the solar years, is justified by the Muhammadans from this passage.

16 See Sur. xiii. 26, p. 336 (n.).

17 With Abubekr. lit. second of two.

18 Wahk. reich oder arm. Savary, young or old. Ibn Hisam (924) pronounces this to be the oldest verse of the Sura.

19 This refers to the expedition of Tabouk, a town half-way between Medina and Damascus, against the Greeks, A.H. 9. Muhammad was now at the head of an army of 30,000 men. Verses 42-48 are said to have been revealed during the march.

20 Lit. prepared a preparation.

21 Lit. written.

22 That is, victory or martyrdom.

23 Compare Sura iii. 172. Geiger, p. 76, shews that this is precisely the teaching of the Talmudists with regard to the wicked.

24 The poor, i.e. absolute paupers; the needy i.e. those in some temporary distress.

25 The petty Arab chiefs with whom Muhammad made terms after the battle of Honein, in order to secure their followers.

26 There seems to be a play, in the original, upon the similarity of the words for injure and ear.

27 Lit. (are) the one from the other.

28 From giving alms.

29 Comp. Sura liv. 15, p. 77. The traditions as to the collection of pitch from wood of the Ark, in the time of Berosus (B.C. 250?) for amulets, and of the wood itself, in the time of Josephus (Ant. i. 3, 6, c. Apion, i. 19) must have reached Muhammad through his Jewish informants. Fragments are said to have existed in the days of Benjamin of Tudela, and to have been carried away by the Chalif Omar, from the mountain al Djoudi to the mosque of Gazyrat Ibn Omar.

30 To kill Muhammad. The circumstances are given in a tradition preserved ap. Weil, p. 265, note. The meaning is, that the people of Medina, who had become enriched by Muhammad's residence among them, had no better motive for disapproving the attempt upon his life. Lit. they had nothing to avenge but that, etc.

31 Prayers for the dead were customary among the Arabians before Muhammad. See Freyt. Einl. p. 221.

32 The Mohadiers were those who fled with Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, the Ansars his auxiliaries in Medina.

33 The commentators are not agreed as to the nature of this double punishment.

34 The fine of a third part of all their substance was imposed upon seven of those who had held back from the expedition to Tabouk. This is the fault spoken of in the preceding verse.

35 The tribe of Beni Ganim had built a mosque, professedly from religious motives, which they invited Muhammad on his way to Tabouk to dedicate by a solemn act of prayer. Muhammad, however, discovered that the real motive of the Beni Ganim was jealousy of the tribe of Beni Amru Ibn Auf, and of the mosque at Kuba, and that there existed and understanding between them and his enemy the monk Abu Amir, who was then in Syria, for the purpose of urging the Greeks to attack the Muslims and their mosque. It is to him that the word irsâdan refers.

36 To the dwellers at Kuba. Verses 108-111 were probably promulged on the return from Tabouk previous to the entry into Medina.

37 Abu Amir.

38 Or, never stand thou in it (to pray).

39 The mosque of Kuba, about three miles S.S.E. of Medina. The spot where this verse was revealed is still pointed out, and called "Makam el Ayat," or "the place of signs." Burton's "Pilgrimage," ii. p. 214.Muhammad laid the first brick, and it was the first place of public prayer in El Islam. Ib. p. 209.

40 The Beni Ganim.

41 That is, up to the time of their death they will never reflect on what they have done without bitter pangs of conscience. See Weil's M. der Prophet, pp. 268, 269, and note.

42 Lit. limits, i.e. laws.

43 Shall have their recompense.

44 See verse 101.

45 Lit. turned aside, swerved.

46 Three Ansars who did not accompany Muhammad to Tabouk, and who on his return were put under interdict, and not released from it till after fifty days of penance.

47 Verses 120-128 probably belong to the period after the return from Tabouk to Medina.

48 While fighting for the cause of God.

MEDINA.-120 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

O BELIEVERS! be faithful to your engagements. You are allowed the flesh of cattle other than what is hereinafter recited, except game, which is not allowed you while ye are on pilgrimage. Verily, God ordaineth what he pleaseth.

O Believers! violate neither the rites of God, nor the sacred month Muharram, nor the offering, nor its ornaments1, nor those who press on to the sacred house seeking favour from their Lord and his good pleasure in them.

But when all is over2, then take to the chase: and let not ill will at those3 who would have kept you from