(20) For unto GOD belongeth the kingdom of heaven and earth, and whatsoever is contained between them; he createth what he pleaseth, and GOD is almighty. (21) The Jews and the Christians say, We are the children of GOD and his beloved. Answer, Why therefore doth he punish you for your sins? Nay, but ye are men, of those whom he hath created. He forgiveth whom he pleaseth, and punisheth whom he pleaseth; and unto GOD belongeth the kingdom of heaven and earth, and of what is contained between them both; and unto him shall all things return. (22) O ye who have received the scriptures, now is our apostle come unto you, declaring unto you the true religion, during the cessation of apostles, lest ye should say, There came unto us no bearer of good tidings, nor any warner: but now is a bearer of good tidings and a warner come unto you; for GOD is almighty.

and as being most easily reconciled with traditions which accredit Muhammad with a knowledge of Christianity even before he claimed to be a prophet, and which even declare his wife Khadijah to have been a Christian.

If he pleased to destroy Christ. This passage decidedly proves that whatever purpose Muhammad had in using the terms" Word of God," ," "Spirit from God," &c. (see chaps. ii. 86 and iii. 39), he certainly never intended to sanction the doctrine of Christ's divinity in any

way.

(21) Why... doth he punish you? Compare with Heb. xii. 5-8. This verse shows that Muhammad, while using the phraseology of Christians, did not understand its import. A son of God seemed to him to certainly express the idea of a divine nature, hence he says, "Nay, but ye are men," &c.

(22) The cessation of the apostles. "The Arabic word al fatra signifies the intermediate space of time between two prophets, during which no new revelation or dispensation was given; as the interval between Moses and Jesus, and between Jesus and Muhammad, at the expiration of which last Muhammad pretended to be sent."-Sale.

The Tafsir-i-Raufi says there were one thousand prophets intervening successively between Moses and Jesus, but none between Jesus and Muhammad. During the whole period of 2300 years, according to Arab reckoning, between Moses and Muhammad, no prophet appeared among the children of Ishmáil. Surely the promise was to Isaac, even on Muslim showing.

|| (23) Call to mind when Moses said unto his people, R O my people, remember the favour of GOD towards you, since he hath appointed prophets among you, and constituted you kings, and bestowed on you what he hath given to no other nation in the world. (24) O my people, enter the holy land, which GOD hath decreed you, and turn not your backs, lest ye be subverted and perish. (25) They answered, O Moses, verily there are a gigantic people in the land; and we will by no means enter it, until they depart thence; but if they depart thence, then will we enter therein. (26) And two men of those who feared GOD, unto whom GOD had been gracious, said, Enter ye upon them suddenly by the gate of the city; and when ye shall have entered the same, ye shall surely be victorious: therefore trust in GOD, if ye are true believers. (27) They replied, O Moses, we will never enter the land while they remain therein: go therefore thou and thy LoRD

(23) Kings. There is almost certainly an anachronism here; but Muslims regard the words as a prophecy of Moses concerning kings to come, or they understand by the expression that God had "made them kings or masters of themselves by delivering them from Egyptian bondage" (Sale).

What he hath given, &c. Baidhawi says, "Having divided the Red Sea for you, and guided you by a cloud, and fed you with quails and manna, &c." The allusion is with more probability assigned to the peculiar blessings of Israel as the chosen people of God.

(24) Holy land. This expression, like the language of the previous verse, was received from the vocabulary of contemporary Jews or Christians. But it is here put in the mouth of Moses.

(25) Gigantic people. See note on ver. 13.

(26) Two men. Caleb and Joshua.

Enter... by the gate. This illustrates Muhammad's idea of the mission of the Israelites to Canaan, and of Joshua's resources in his efforts to conquer Jericho. He is confident of success through stratagem. Yet this whole caricature of the history of the rebellion of the children of Israel at Kadesh Barnea is put in the mouth of God and related as authentic story. What can account for such a phenomenon but satanic possession or wilful imposture ? Certainly nothing from a Christian standpoint. The only other possible supposition is the faith of the Muslim that this is inspired history, and that everything contradictory to it is false.

VOL. II.

I

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and fight; for we will sit here. (28) Moses said, O LORD, surely I am not master of any except myself and my brother; therefore make a distinction between us and the ungodly people. (29) GOD answered, Verily, the land shall be forbidden them forty years; during which time they shall wander like men astonished on the earth; therefore be not thou solicitous for the ungodly people.

(30) Relate unto them also the history of the two sons of Adam, with truth. When they offered their offering, and it was accepted from one of them, and was not accepted from the other, Cain said to his brother, I will

(28) Except myself and my brother. Moses would seem to have forgotten Caleb and Joshua. The author of the Tafsir-i-Raufi conjectures that it is Aaron who is called Lord in ver. 27; but this theory is contrary to the dignity bestowed on Moses every where in the Qurán. Therefore make a distinction, &c. Compare Numb. xiv. 11-20. (29) They shall wander. "The commentators pretend that the Israelites, while they thus wandered in the desert, were kept within the compass of about eighteen (or, as some say, twenty-seven) miles; and that though they travelled from morning to night, yet they constantly found themselves the next day at the place from whence they set out."-Sale.

(30) Relate with . . . truth. See note on chap. ii. 145.

The two sons of Adam, Cain and Abel; called by Muhammadans Kábíl and Hábíl.

When they offered, &c. "The occasion of their making this offering is thus related, according to the common tradition in the East. Each of them being born with a twin sister, when they were grown up, Adam, by God's direction, ordered Cain to marry Abel's twin sister, and that Abel should marry Cain's (for it being the common opinion that marriages ought not to be had in the nearest degrees of consanguinity, since they must necessarily marry their sisters, it seemed reasonable to suppose they ought to take those of the remoter degree; but this Cain refusing to agree to, because his own sister was the handsomest, Adam ordered them to make their offerings to God, thereby referring the dispute to his determination. The commentators say Cain's offering was a sheaf of the very worst of his corn, but Abel's a fat lamb, of the best of his flock."-Sale, Baidhawi, Jalaluddin.

"The offering of Abel was accepted by fire descending from heaven and consuming it, while that of Cain was untouched."-Tafsir-iRaufi, Tafsir-i-Husaini.

Abel answered, &c. "This conversation between the two brothers," says Sale, "is related somewhat to the same purpose in the Jerusalem Targum and that of Jonathan ben Uzziel."

certainly kill thee. Abel answered, GOD only accepteth the offering of the pious;

(31) If thou stretchest forth thy hand against me, to NISF. slay me, I will not stretch forth my hand against thee, to slay thee; for I fear GOD, the LORD of all creatures. (32) I choose that thou shouldest bear my iniquity and thine own iniquity; and that thou become a companion of hell fire; for that is the reward of the unjust. (33) But his soul suffered him to slay his brother, and he slew him; wherefore he became of the number of those who perish. (34) And GOD sent a raven, which scratched the earth, to show him how he should hide the shame of his brother, and he said, Woe is me! am I unable to be like this raven,

(31) I will not stretch forth my hand, &c. Baidhawi says Abel was much stronger than Cain, and that he could easily have prevailed against him if he had chosen to fight.

(32) A companion of hell fire. This fierce revengeful spirit comports well with the character of the Arabian Prophet, but comes far short of the truth when applied to the brother of Cain.

(33) He slew him. The commentators say he did not know how to kill his brother until the devil, appearing in human form, killed in his sight a bird by laying its head on one stone and smiting it with another. Cain then went at night-time to his brother, who was sleeping with his head pillowed on a stone, and striking him on the head with a stone, slew him (Tafsir-i-Raufi).

(34) A raven .. to show him, &c. The Jewish tradition, which makes Adam to be indebted to a raven for his knowledge as to how to dispose of the body of his murdered son, is here so distorted as actually to make God to sympathise with the murderer in his anxiety to conceal the corpse of his victim.

"Cain, having committed this fratricide, became exceedingly troubled in his mind, and carried the dead body about on his shoulders for a considerable time, not knowing where to conceal it, till it stank horridly; and then God taught him to bury it by the example of a raven, who having killed another raven in his presence, dug a pit with his claws and beak, and buried him therein.”—Sale, Baidhawi.

The commentators say that, previous to the burial, Cain carried the body of his brother about for forty days (others say a year), ever struggling to keep off birds of prey and ravenous beasts; that his skin became black, and a voice ever shouted in his ears, “Be thou for ever in terror," and that at last he was murdered by his own son. The punishment of Cain is said to be equal to half the punishment of all the rest of mankind. His repentance was therefore in vain. See the Tafsir-i-Raufi in loco.

that I may hide my brother's shame? and he became one of those who repent. (35) Wherefore we commanded the children of Israel, that he who slayeth a soul, without having slain a soul, or committed wickedness in the earth, shall be as if he had slain all mankind: but he who saveth a soul alive, shall be as if he had saved the lives of all mankind. (36) Our apostles formerly came unto them, with evident miracles; then were many of them after this transgressors on the earth. (37) But the recompense of those who fight against GOD and his apostle, and study to act corruptly in the earth, shall be, that they shall be slain, or crucified, or have their hands and their feet cut off on the opposite sides, or be banished the land. This shall be their disgrace in this world, and in the next

(35) Without having slain a soul. From this the inference is drawn that a murderer may be slain without crime (Abdul Qúdir).

Wickedness in the earth, "Such as idolatry or robbing on the highway."-Sale, Bardhawi.

All mankind. See Rodwell's note here, showing the Jewish origin of this sentiment.

(37) The recompense, &c. A party of eight Bedouin Arabs, having professed Islám at Madina, was appointed to guard the camels of Muhammad sent to graze at Ayr, near Madína. The Bedouins drove off the camels and wounded some herdsmen who had gone in pursuit, killing one in a barbarous manner. Muhammad, having been informed of this transaction, sent twenty horsemen in pursuit, who captured the robbers, recovering all the camels but one. In punishment Muhammad ordered the arms and legs of the eight men to be cut off, their eyes to be put out, and their trunks to be impaled until life was extinct. This horrible barbarity seems to have appeared excessive, and accordingly this verse was revealed. (See Muir's Life of Mahomet, vol. iv. pp. 19 and 20.) The barbarities herein sanctioned are still practised in every Muhammadan country. As to the infliction of these punishments, Sale, on the authority of Baidhawi and others, says, "The lawyers are not agreed. But the commentators suppose that they who commit murder only are to be put to death in the ordinary way; those who murder and rob too, to be crucified; those who rob without committing murder, to have their right hand and their left foot cut off; and they who assault persons and put them in fear, to be banished. It is also a doubt whether they who are crucified shall be crucified alive, or be first put to death, or whether they shall hang on the cross till they die."