A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran: Comprising Sale's Translation ...

now hath he seduced a great multitude of you: did ye not therefore understand? (63) This is hell, with which ye were threatened: (64) be ye cast into the same this day to be burned, for that ye have been unbelievers. (65) On this day we will seal up their mouths, that they shall not open them in their own defence; and their hands shall speak unto us, and their feet shall bear witness of that which they have committed. (66) If we pleased we could put out their eyes, and they might run with emulation in the way they use to take; and how should they see their error? (67) And if we pleased we could transform them into other shapes, in their places when they should be found; and they should not be able to depart, neither should they repent.

(68) Unto whomsoever we grant a long life, him do we cause to bow down his body through age. Will they not therefore understand? (69) We have not taught Muhammad the art of poetry; nor is it expedient for him. to be a poet. This book is no other than an admonition from God, and a perspicuous Qurán, (70) that he may warn him who is living; and the sentence of condemnation

See Prelim. Disc., pp.

(63) Hell. See note on chap. ii. 38. (65) That which they have committed. 142, 143. The verse does not teach, as Brinckman supposes (Notes on Islám), that the wicked will not speak in the judgment, but that they shall be rendered speechless by the testimony of their own members. By their testimony their mouths shall be stopped. This conceit was borrowed from the Jews. See Rodwell in loco.

(67) Neither should they repent. "That is, they deserve to be thus treated for their infidelity and disobedience; but we bear with them out of mercy, and grant them respite."-Sale.

(69) We have not taught, &c. "That is, in answer to the infidels, who pretended the Quran was only a poetical composition."-Sale. See notes on chap. xxvi. pp. 224–228.

Nor is it expedient, i.e., for the reason that the Qurán might be attributed to his poetic genius, and not to inspiration (wahi) of God. See Tafsir-i-Raufi.

This book is... an admonition from God. See notes on chaps. iv. 162, 163, vi. 19, vii. 2, and xviii. 26.

(70) Him who is living, i.e., "endued with understanding, the stupid and careless being like dead persons."-Sale, Baidháwi.

will be justly executed on the unbelievers. (71) Do they not consider that we have created for them, among the things which our hands have wrought, cattle of several kinds, of which they are possessors; (72) and that we have put the same in subjection under them? Some of them are for their riding, and on some of them do they feed; (73) and they receive other advantages therefrom and of their milk do they drink. Will they not, therefore, be thankful? (74) They have taken other gods besides GOD, in hopes that they may be assisted by them; (75) but they are not able to give them any assistance : yet are they a party of troops ready to defend them. (76) Let not their speech, therefore, grieve thee: we know that which they privately conceal, and that which they publicly discover. (77) Doth not man know that we have created him of seed? yet behold, he is an open disputer against the resurrection; (78) and he propoundeth unto us a comparison, and forgetteth his creation. He saith, Who shall restore bones to life when they are rotten? (79) Answer, He shall restore them to life who produced them the first time; for he is skilled in every kind of creation, (80) who giveth you fire out of the green tree, and behold, ye kindle your fuel from thence. (81) Is not he who hath created the heavens and the earth able to create new creatures like unto them? Yea, certainly; for he is the wise Creator. (82) His command, when he willeth a thing, is only that he saith unto it, Be; and it is. (83) Wherefore praise be

(71-78) Compare chap. xvi. 1-22.

(80) Who giveth fire out of the green tree. "The usual way of striking fire in the East is by rubbing together two pieces of wood, one of which is commonly of the tree called markh, and the other of that called afár; and it will succeed even though the wood be green and wet.”—Sale; Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers., c. 25.

(82) Be; and it is. The Arabic of this famous passage is kun fayakuna. It is the watchword of the orthodox who believe in the eternity of the Qurán. Their argument is that God created the world by means of the word Be. If, therefore, this word were created, then one created thing would have created another! The Mutazilites, on the other hand, argued that if Be is eternal, then there are two

unto him in whose hand is the kingdom of all things, and unto whom ye shall return at the last day.

Eternals, which is surely a satisfactory reply to the orthodox dogma, which gains all its force from the consideration that the word Be is a thing possessing creative power, whereas, in fact, this power was God uttering this word-not in eternity, for then the worlds must have existed from eternity, but in time; and therefore being, like the worlds, created, it is not itself eternal.

In addition to this argument against the eternity of the Qurán, the Mutazalites urge the following: "(1.) It is written in Arabic; it descended, is read, is heard, and is written. It was the subject of a miracle; it is divided into parts, and some verses are abrogated by others. (2.) Events are described in the past tense, but if the Qurán had been eternal the future tense would have been used. (3.) The Qurán contains commands and prohibitions; if it is eternal, who were commanded and who were admonished? (4.) If it has existed from eternity, it must exist to eternity; and so even in the last day and in the next world men will be under the obligation of performing the same religious duties as they do now, and of keeping all the outward precepts of the law."-Sell's Faith of Islám, pp. 136, 137.

There can be no doubt that the Mutazilites, as against the orthodox, were right on this point. The above is especially interesting in the light of the fact that in India some of the most enlightened Muslims avow themselves to be Mutazilites, and therefore we may hope that they are prepared to subject the Qurán, like other books, to criticism.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

ENTITLED SURAT US SÁFÁT (THE RANKS).

Revealed at Makkah.

INTRODUCTION.

THIS chapter owes its title to the statement with which it begins. In matter and style it does not differ much from other chapters belonging to the earlier stages of Muhammad's mission. Like the earliest chapters, it begins with a number of oaths, as though violent assertion would sufficiently attest the prophetic character of the Qurán and its author in the absence of the ordinary signs of prophecy and inspiration.

The principal object of the revelations of this chapter, as in chap. xi., is to establish the claims of Muhammad to be a prophet of God, and to convince the people of Makkah of the folly of idolatry and the need of receiving the one true God as the sole object of their worship. Muhammad likens himself to the former prophets, whose history he relates as a warning to his townsmen. The former prophets had preached against idols and endeavoured to lead their people to believe in the true God, but they had been rejected as impostors by an unbelieving people, who were destroyed by divine judgments on account of their infidelity, while the prophets were blessed and their names were made honourable to the latest posterity. These narratives seem to have been given in answer to the demand of the unbelievers at Makkah (compare ver. 69 with 165).

As observed in regard to the preceding chapter, the great subjects of dispute were the doctrines of the resurrection and the final judgment. The possibility of the resurrection is established by Muhammad on the ground that an Almighty Creator can surely re-create. He who is the Author of life and being can give life to the dead.

Probable Date of the Revelations.

All authorities agree that this chapter, in its entirety, is Makkan. Noëldeke shows that it is connected in all its parts, and therefore may be regarded as a complete discourse. We have no data wherewith to determine the date of this chapter beyond what may be gathered from its style and contents. The opening words are in the style of the earliest chapters. The matter is that of simple discourse, no violent opposition on the part of the Prophet's hearers is apparent. The spirit of the discourse points to a time when Muhammad's preaching was met by a stolid and contemptuous opposition on the part of his hearers (see vers. 11-15 and 34, 35), which time would be about the end of the third stage, or say the fourth year of Muhammad's mission (B.H. 9).

Principal Subjects.

The Prophet swears that God is one

The devils not permitted to hear the discourse of heaven

The audacity of the Makkan infidels

They scoff at the Qurán as the product of sorcery

They reject the doctrine of the resurrection.

The despair of the infidels on the judgment-day
Idolaters and their idols and gods to be called to account
They will dispute among themselves and reproach one
another.

18-21

22-24