The Koran Part 165

G.o.d will not punish you for a mistaken word in your oaths: but he will punish you in regard to an oath taken seriously.33 Its expiation shall be to feed ten poor persons with such middling food as ye feed your own families with, or to clothe them; or to set free a captive. But he who cannot find means, shall fast three days. This is the expiation of your oaths when ye shall have sworn. Keep then your oaths. Thus G.o.d maketh his signs clear to you, that ye may give thanks.

O believers! surely wine and games of chance,34 and statues, and the divining arrows, are an abomination of Satan's work! Avoid them, that ye may prosper.

Only would Satan sow hatred and strife among you, by wine and games of chance, and turn you aside from the remembrance of G.o.d, and from prayer: will ye not, therefore, abstain from them? Obey G.o.d and obey the Apostle, and be on your guard: but if ye turn back, know that our Apostle is only bound to deliver a plain announcement.

No blame shall attach to those who believe and do good works, in regard to any food they have taken, in case they fear G.o.d and believe, and do the things that are right, and shall still fear G.o.d and believe, and shall still fear him, and do good; for G.o.d loveth those who do good.

O ye who believe! G.o.d will surely make trial of you with such game as ye may take with your hands, or your lances, that G.o.d may know who feareth him in secret: and whoever after this transgresseth, shall suffer a grievous chastis.e.m.e.nt.

O believers!35 kill no game while ye are on pilgrimage. Whosoever among you shall purposely kill it, shall comsent pensate for it in domestic animals of equal value (according to the judgment of two just persons among you), to be brought as an offering to the Caaba; or in expiation thereof shall feed the poor; or as the equivalent of this shall fast, that he may taste the ill consequence of his deed. G.o.d forgiveth what is past; but whoever doth it again, G.o.d will take vengeance on him; for G.o.d is mighty and vengeance is His.

It is lawful for you to fish in the sea, and to eat fish, as provision for you and for those who travel; but it is unlawful for you to hunt by land while ye are still on pilgrimage: fear ye G.o.d, therefore, before whom ye shall be a.s.sembled.

G.o.d hath appointed the Caaba,36 the sacred house, to be a station for mankind, and the sacred month, and the offering, and its ornaments. This, that ye may know that G.o.d knoweth all that is in the heavens and on the earth, and that G.o.d hath knowledge of everything. Know that G.o.d is severe in punis.h.i.+ng, and that G.o.d is Forgiving, Merciful.

The Apostle is only bound to preach: and G.o.d knoweth what ye bring to light, and what ye conceal.

SAY: The evil and the good shall not be valued alike, even though the abundance of evil please thee; therefore fear G.o.d, O ye of understanding!

that it may be well with you.

O believers! ask us not of things which if they were told might only pain you; but if ye ask of such things when the entire Koran shall have been sent down, they will be declared to you: G.o.d will pardon you for this, for G.o.d is Forgiving, Gracious. They who were before you, asked concerning such things, and afterwards quickly disbelieved therein

G.o.d hath not ordained anything on the subject. of Bahira, or Saba, or Wasila, or Hami;37 but the unbelievers have invented this lie against G.o.d: and most of them had no understanding.

And when it was said to them, "Accede to that which G.o.d hath sent down, and to the Apostle:" they said, "Sufficient for us is the faith in which we found our fathers." What! though their fathers knew nothing, and had no guidance?

O believers! take heed to yourselves.38 He who erreth shall not hurt you when ye have the "guidance:" to G.o.d shall ye all return, and He will tell you that which ye have done.

O believers! let there be witnesses between you, when death draweth nigh to any of you, at the time of making the testament; two witnesses-just men from among yourselves, or two others of a different tribe from yourselves-if ye be journeying in the earth, and the calamity of death surprise you. Ye shall shut them both up, after the prayer; and if ye doubt them, they shall swear by G.o.d, "We will not take a bribe though the party be of kin to us, neither will we conceal the testimony of G.o.d, for then we should be among the wicked."

But if it shall be made clear that both have been guilty of a falsehood, two others of those who have convicted them thereof, the two nearest in blood shall stand up in their place, and they shall swear by G.o.d, "Verily our witness is more true than the witness of these two; neither have we advanced anything untrue, for then should we be of the unjust."

Thus will it be easier for men to bear a true39 witness, or fear lest after their oath another oath be given. Therefore fear G.o.d and hearken; for G.o.d guideth not the perverse.

One day will G.o.d a.s.semble the Apostles, and say, "What reply was made to you?" They shall say, "We have no knowledge, but Thou art the Knower of Secrets."

When He shall say: O Jesus! Son of Mary! call to mind my favour upon thee and upon thy mother, when I strengthened thee with the Holy Spirit, that thou shouldest speak40 to men alike in the cradle, and when grown up;-

And when I taught thee the Scripture, and Wisdom, and the Law, and the Evangel: and thou didst create of clay, as it were, the figure of a bird, by my leave, and didst breathe into it, and by my leave it became a bird; and thou didst heal the blind and the leper, by my leave; and when, by my leave, thou didst bring forth the dead; and when I withheld the children of Israel from thee, when thou hadst come to them with clear tokens: and such of them as believed not said, "This is nought but plain sorcery;"41

And when I revealed unto the Apostles, "Believe on me and on my Sent One,"

they said, "We believe; and bear thou witness that we are Muslims."

Remember when the Apostles42 said-"O Jesus, Son of Mary! is thy Lord able to send down a furnished TABLE to us out of Heaven?" He said-"Fear G.o.d if ye be believers."

They said-"We desire to eat therefrom, and to have our hearts a.s.sured; and to know that thou hast indeed spoken truth to us, and to be witnesses thereof."

Jesus, Son of Mary, said-"O G.o.d, our Lord! send down a table to us out of Heaven, that it may become a recurring festival to us, to the first of us and to the last of us, and a sign from thee; and do thou nourish us, for thou art the best of nourishers."

And G.o.d said-Verily, I will cause it to descend unto you; but whoever among you after that shall disbelieve, I will surely chastise him with a chastis.e.m.e.nt, wherewith I will not chastise any other creature.43

And when G.o.d shall say-"O Jesus, Son of Mary: hast thou said unto mankind- 'Take me and my mother as two G.o.ds, beside G.o.d?"' He shall say-"Glory be unto Thee! it is not for me to say that which I know to be not the truth; had I said that, verily thou wouldest have known it: Thou knowest what is in me, but I know not what is in Thee; for Thou well knowest things unseen!

"I spake not to them aught but that which thou didst bid me-'Wors.h.i.+p G.o.d, my Lord and your Lord;' and I was a witness of their actions while I stayed among them; but since thou hast taken me to Thyself, Thou hast Thyself watched them, and Thou art witness of all things:

"If Thou punish them, they are Thy servants, and if Thou forgive them...

.44 Thou, verily, art the Mighty, the Wise!"

G.o.d will say-This day shall their truth advantage the truthful. Gardens shall they have 'neath which the rivers flow, and remain therein for ever: G.o.d is well pleased with them and they with Him. This shall be the great bliss.

Unto G.o.d belongeth the sovereignty of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that they contain; and He hath power over all things.

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1 The garlands, etc., attached to the victims offered at Mecca.

2 When you have again returned to your common and everyday life by laying aside the ihram, or pilgrim's robe. This generally consists of two pieces of cotton, or linen, or woollen cloth, without seam or ornament, one of which is wrapped round the loins, and the other thrown over the shoulders. The instep, heel, and head must be bare.

3 The Koreisch sent to meet Muhammad, who was on his way to visit the Caaba with 1400 men, at Hudaibiya (An. Hej. 6) to prohibit his nearer approach. A truce for ten years was ultimately concluded.

4 By making war in the holy month.

5 Comp. Tract Cholin, c. 3.

6 Lit. on blocks or shafts of stone. These were set up by the pagan Arabs in front of their houses for the purpose of sacrificing thereon. See Freytag's Einl. p. 462, and Tr. Cholin, p. 39, 40, 41.

7 It was the custom to draw lots for joints of a camel with arrows, some feathered and others unfeathered, kept for this purpose in the temple of Mecca. See Poc.o.c.k, Spec. Hist. Ar., under the word Hobal.

8 In the sense of sound, healthful.

9 Thus Talm. Tr. Berachoth, 46.

10 This refers to the oath of fidelity which Muhammad's followers took at Al Akaba. Abulf. Vit.Moh.p.43.

11 It is quite uncertain to what events this refers. The commentators narrate, and have doubtless invented, various incidents as having occasioned it.

12 Verses 15-38 belong probably to the period shortly before the taking of Chaibar in the beginning of Hej. 7. It is remarkable that Muhammad, although he has invented these twelve leaders of tribes, should nowhere mention the number of the Apostles. There is no doubt, however, from the ancient biographies, that he chose twelve a.s.sistants for the propagation of Islam.

See Gagnier, Vie de M. ii. xvi.

13 The s.p.a.ce between the mission of different prophets.

14 Called by the Arabians Habeel and Kabeel. The dialogue between Cain and Abel is slightly varied from that given in Targ. Jerus. on Gen. iv. 8, and Jonath. Ben Uzziel.

15 Or, the sin against me, i.e. of slaying me.

16 In the Jewish tradition the raven shews the mode of burial to Adam, not to Cain. Pirke R. Elieser, c. 21. Midr. fol. II ap. Weil (Legenden, p. 39).

17 Or, corpse.