R 17 what they read to be really in the scriptures, yet it is not in the scripture; and they say, This is from GOD; but it is not from GOD: and they speak that which is false concerning GOD, against their own knowledge. (78) It is not fit for a man that GOD should give him a book of revelations, and wisdom, and prophecy; and then he should say unto men, Be ye worshippers of me, besides GOD; but he ought to say, Be ye perfect in knowledge and in works, since ye know the scriptures, and exercise yourselves therein. (79) GOD hath not commanded you to take the angels and the prophets for your lords: Will he command you to become infidels after ye have been true believers? (80) And remember when GOD accepted the covenant of the prophets, saying, This verily is the scripture and that Jews and Christians misrepresent the teaching of their own Scriptures. The author of the notes on the Roman Urdú Qurán thinks this passage and others like it show the eagerness of Muhammad to find a sanction for his prophetic claims in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. When, however, the Jews frankly told him what their Scriptures taught, he charged them with wicked concealment of the prophecies concerning himself. It is possible that Muhammad was himself the victim of misrepresentation on this subject by interested parties. This passage, too, shows beyond dispute that Muhammad regarded the Scriptures in the hands of the Jews and Christians as credible. No charge is ever brought against the Scriptures, but invariably against the interpreters. (78) It is not fit, &c. This verse is evidently directed against Christians, who worship Jesus. Sale says, "This passage was revealed, say the commentators, in answer to the Christians, who insisted that Jesus had commanded them to worship him as God." Worshippers of me besides God. Here again we see that Muhammad's conception of Christian theology was all wrong. (79) The angels. The idolaters of Makkah worshipped angels. The prophets for your lords, e.g., the Jews worship Ezra and the Christians worship Jesus.-Tafsir-i-Raufi. were. (80) The covenant of the prophets. "Some commentators interpret this of the children of Israel themselves, of whose race the prophets But others say the souls of all the prophets, even of those who were not then born, were present on Mount Sinai when God gave the law to Moses, and that they entered into the covenant here mentioned with him. A story borrowed by Muhammad from the the wisdom which I have given you: hereafter shall an apostle come unto you, confirming the truth of that scripture which is with you; ye shall surely believe in him, and ye shall assist him. GOD said, Are ye firmly resolved, and do ye accept my covenant on this condition? They answered, We are firmly resolved: God said, Be ye therefore witnesses; and I also bear witness with you: (81) and whosoever turneth back after this, they are surely the transgressors. (82) Do they therefore seek any other religion but GOD's? since to him is resigned whosoever is in heaven or on earth, voluntarily or of force: and to him shall they return. (83) Say, We believe in GOD, Talmudists, and therefore most probably his true meaning in this place.”—Sale. The prophecy alluded to here is probably the general promise of the Messiah contained in such passages as Deut. xviii. 15-18, and which constituted the spirit of prophecy. The only direct statement in the Qurán giving the very words of prophecy is found in chap. lxi. 6, where the allusion is to the Paraclete. In either case the prophet of Arabia made a serious mistake. The desperation of his followers to find the prophecies of the Bible relating to him is manifested at one time by their attempts to disprove the genuineness of the same, at another time by their endeavours to show that Deut. xviii. 15–18, John xiv. 16, 26, and xvi. 13, &c., really refer to their prophet. For a specimen of the latter the reader is referred to Essays on the Life of Mohammad by Sayd Ahmad Khan, Bahadur, C.S.I. (82) Resigned voluntarily or of force. The idea of converting men by force is here said to have belonged to the covenant of Sinai. The verse, however, conveys a threat against unbelieving Arabs. (83) This verse very well illustrates the kind of attestation borne to the former Scriptures and to the prophetic character of the prophets by whom they were revealed. An array of names and a general statement declaring their truly prophetic character is given, but everywhere their doctrine is ignored or rejected when conceived of as in conflict with the Qurán and the Arabian prophet. Now, Muhammad must be regarded as either making a statement of fact as to the oneness of his faith with that of the persons he mentions, or he was ignorant of what he here states as a fact. In either case he seems to me fairly chargeable with imposture. For even if he were ignorant of what he pretends to know, his pretence is a deception, and no reasonable apology can be offered for his putting a statement of this character in the mouth of God. How, then, Mr. Smith (Muhammad and Muhammadanism, p. 25) can so positively assert the impossibility of any longer regarding Muhammad as an impostor, and that which hath been sent down unto us, and that which was sent down unto Abraham, and Ismail, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, and that which was delivered to Moses, and Jesus, and the prophets from their LORD; we make no distinction between any of them; and to him are we resigned. (84) Whoever followeth any other religion than Islám, it shall not be accepted of him: and in the next life he shall be of those who perish. (85) How shall GOD direct men who have become infidels after they had believed, and borne witness that the apostle was true, and manifest declarations of the divine will had come unto them? for GOD directeth not the ungodly people. (86) Their reward shall be, that on them shall fall the curse of GOD, and of angels, and of all mankind: (87) they shall remain under the same for ever; their torment shall not be mitigated, neither shall they be regarded; (88) except those who repent after this and amend; for GOD is gracious and merciful. (89) Moreover they who become infidels after they have believed, and yet increase in infidelity, their repentance shall in nowise be accepted, and they are those who go astray. (90) Verily they who I can only understand by supposing him to be blinded to the faults of his hero by the glory of his own ideal. See also notes on chap. ii. 61. Whosoever.. any other religion. Islám is here contemplated by the prophet as equivalent, or rather as identical with, the true religion of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. Were Islám so identified with the one true religion of God, then all might assent to the statement of the text; but as a matter of fact there never was any such recognition of Judaism or Christianity in practice among Muslims. They have never been the preservers of the Scriptures herein attested as the Word of God; and any man preferring either religion to Islám is thereby stigmatised as an infidel. (85-89) How shall God direct . . . infidels, &c. This passage seems to teach that apostasy from Islám can never be repented of. Such a person is a reprobate. See Tafsir-i-Raufi in loco. God is merciful to forgive those who repent in time, but for those who "yet increase in infidelity," i.e., go on in an obstinate course of apostasy, there is no forgiveness. (90) For his ransom. The punishment of infidels is eternal and without remedy. The idea of a ransom for a sinner is recognised believe not, and die in their unbelief, the world full of gold shall in nowise be accepted from any of them, even though he should give it for his ransom; they shall suffer a grievous punishment, (91) and they shall have none to help them. SIPARA. || (92) Ye will never attain unto righteousness until ye FOURTH give in alms of that which ye love: and whatever ye give, GOD knoweth it. (93) All food was permitted unto here only to be rejected. Yet this passage obscurely recognises the "This exposition seems to be taken from the children of Israel's not eating of the sinew on the hollow of the thigh, because the angel with whom Jacob wrestled at Peniel touched the hollow of his thigh in the sinew that shrank (Gen. xxxii. 32).” Bring hither the Pentateuch and read it. This is a clear acknowledgment that the Pentateuch, which the Qurán attests as the Word of God, was in the possession of the Jews in the time of Muhammad. Yet, while the Prophet was ever ready to challenge Jews and Christians to bring their Scriptures that he might therewith prove to them his apostleship, it is a remarkable fact that he never permitted his own followers to read or hear those Scriptures. The Mishqat-ul-Masabih (Book i. chap. vi. part 2, Matthews' translation, vol. i. p. 53) contains the following tradition, on the authority of JÁBIRJábir said, Verily OMAR IBN-AL-KHATTAB brought a copy of the Pentateuch to the Prophet, and said, 'This is copy of the Pentateuch.' Muhammad was silent, and Omar was very near reading part of it, and the face of the Prophet changed; when Abu Baqr said: "Your mother weeps for you. Do you not look on the Prophet's face?' Then Omar looked and said, 'God protect me from the anger of God and his Prophet. I am satisfied with this, that God is my cherisher, and Islám my religion, and Muhammad my prophet.' Then Muhammad said, 'If Moses were alive and found my prophecy, he would follow me.' R 10. the children of Israel, except what Israel forbade unto himself before the Pentateuch was sent down. Say unto the Jews, Bring hither the Pentateuch and read it, if ye speak truth. (94) Whoever therefore contriveth a lie against GOD after this, they will be evil-doers. (95) Say, GOD is true follow ye therefore the religion of Abraham the orthodox; for he was no idolater. (96) Verily the first house appointed unto men to worship in was that which was in Bakkah; blessed, and a direction to all creatures. (97) Therein are manifest signs: the place where Abraham Matthews gives another tradition of similar import in vol. i. p. 50. A remarkable tradition, on the authority of ABU HURAIRAH, states that the Jews and Christians had translated the Scriptures from the Hebrew, for the benefit of "the people of Islám." It is as follows :— "Abu Hurairah said there were people of the book who read the Bible in Hebrew and translated it into Arabic for the people of Islám. And the Prophet said, 'Do not consider them liars or tellers of truth; but say to them, We believe in God and that which is sent to us, and what was sent to Moses and Jesus.'"'”— Mishqát-ul-Masábih, book i. chap. vi. part 1. From these traditions it is quite clear that Muhammad was not sincere in his claim that the former Scriptures testified concerning his apostleship. Had he been sincere, how very easy it would have been to confirm the faith of his own disciples as well as to convince all sincere Jews and Christians that he was the prophet of God foretold by Moses and Jesus! Instead of this, however, he forbade his disciples investigating this matter for themselves, even in his presence; and when Jews and Christians declared what was written in their Scriptures, he charged them with dishonesty in translation. Controversy from the Jewish or Christian standpoint was, therefore, quite out of the question. (95) Abraham the orthodox. In Arabic, Haníf. There seems to have been a sect of deistic Arabs before Muhammad declared himself a prophet, who called themselves by this title, and claimed to be the followers of the religion of Abraham. Sprenger gives the names of four of these, viz., Waraqa, Othmán, Obaid, and Zaid (R. B. Smith's Muhammad and Muhammadanism, pp. 108, 109). This is one of Sprenger's arguments to prove that Muhammadanism existed prior to Muhammad, as the Reformation existed prior to Luther. (96) The first house . . . in Bakkah, i.e., Makkah. Baidhawi says m and b are frequently interchanged (Sale in loco). The first house was the Kaabah. See notes on chap. ii. 125, 142–146. (97) Manifest signs. "Such as the stone wherein they show the print of Abraham's feet, and the inviolable security of the place, immediately mentioned; that the birds light not on the roof of the |