The Korān is capable of adequate representation in small compass
and approximately chronological order. The original audience of
Mohammad’s speeches: Arabian characteristics in desert-life and
town-life, poetry and religion. Mohammad’s early life, person
and habits, call to preach, and work at Mekka. The three periods
of Mekka speeches. Change of position at Medina, and consequent
change in oratory. The Medina speeches. Incompleteness of the law
of the Korān. The Traditions or Table-talk.
References lvi
Analytical Table of Contents lvii
THE SPEECHES AT MEKKA
I.--_THE POETIC PERIOD._ Aet. 40-44, A.D. 609-613 1
THE NIGHT (xcii.) 3
The difference between the good and the wicked in their lives and
their future states; warning of hell and promise of heaven.
THE COUNTRY (xc) 5
The steep road to the life to come is by charity and faith.
THE SMITING (ci.) 7
The terrors of the Judgment Day and the Bottomless Pit.
THE QUAKING (xcix.) 8
Signs of the Last Day, when all secrets shall be revealed.
THE RENDING ASUNDER (lxxxii.) 9
Signs of the Last Day; man’s unbelief; angels record his actions,
by which his fate shall be decided.
THE CHARGERS (c.) 11
Man’s ingratitude towards God will be exposed on the Last Day.
SUPPORT (cvii.) 12
Uncharitable hypocrites denounced.
THE BACKBITER (civ.) 13
The covetous slanderer shall be cast into Blasting Hell.
THE SPLENDOUR OF MORNING (xciii.) 14
The goodness of God towards Mohammad must be imitated towards
others.
THE MOST HIGH (lxxxvii.) 15
God the Creator is to be magnified. Mohammad is enjoined to
admonish the people; the opposite fates of those who hearken
and those who turn away; the message is the same as that
delivered by Abraham and Moses.
THE WRAPPING (lxxxi.) 17
Signs of the Last Day. Authenticity of the Korān: Mohammad
neither mad nor possessed. The Korān a reminder, but man is
powerless to follow it except by God’s decree.
THE NEWS (lxxviii.) 19
Men dispute about the Last Day: yet it shall come as surely as
God created all things. The last trump and the gathering of
mankind to judgment. Description of the torments of Hell and
the delights of Paradise.
THE FACT (lvi.) 22
Signs of the Last Day. The three kinds of men--prophets,
righteous, and wicked--and the future state of each. The power
of God shown in creation. The Korān true and sacred. The state
after death.
THE MERCIFUL (lv.) 27
A _Benedicite_ reciting the works of God, and the Judgment and
Paradise and Hell, with a refrain challenging genii and mankind
to deny His signs.
THE UNITY (cxii.) 32
A profession of faith in one God.
THE FĀTIHAH (i.) 33
A prayer for guidance and help: the Muslim _Paternoster_.
THE SPEECHES AT MEKKA
II.--_THE RHETORICAL PERIOD._ Aet. 44-46, A.D. 613-615 35
THE KINGDOM (lxvii.) 37
The power of God shown in creation; Hell the reward of those who
disbelieve in God’s messengers and discredit His signs. None
but God knows when the Last Day will be.
THE MOON (liv.) 41
The Judgment approaches, but men will not heed the warning, and
call it a lie and magic. Even so did former generations reject
their apostles: the people of Noah, Ad, Thamūd, Lot, Pharaoh;
and there came upon all of them a grievous punishment. Neither
shall the men of Mekka escape. Refrain: the certainty of
punishment and the heedlessness of man.
K. (l.) 45
Why is the Resurrection so incredible? Does not God continually
create and re-create? Former generations were equally
incredulous, but they all found the threat of punishment was
true. So shall it be again. The recording angels shall bear
witness, and hell shall be filled. Who can escape God, who
created all things, and to whom all things must one day return?
Y.S. (xxxvi.) 49
Mohammad a true messenger from God to warn the people, whose
ancestors would not be warned. God hardens their hearts so that
they cannot believe. Everything is written down in the Book
of God. Just so did the people of Antioch reject the apostles
of Jesus, and stoned the only convert among themselves; and
there came a shout from heaven and exterminated them. Why do
not men reflect on such warnings? Signs of the Resurrection are
seen in the revival of spring and the growth of plants, and
the alternations of night and day, and the changes of the sun
and moon, and the ships that sail on the sea. Yet they are not
convinced! The Last Day shall come upon them suddenly. Paradise
and Hell. The Korān not a poem, but a plain warning of God’s
might and judgment to come. Their idols need protection instead
of giving it. God who first made life can quicken it again: his
“Fiat” is instantly carried out.
THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL (xvii.) 57
The dream of the journey to Jerusalem. The two sins of the
children of Israel and their punishments. The Korān gives
promise of a great reward for righteousness and an aching
torment for disbelief. Each man shall be judged by his own
deeds, and none shall be punished for another’s sin; nor was
any folk destroyed without warning. Kindness and respect to
parents, and duty to kinsfolk and travellers and the poor;
hospitality, yet without waste; faithfulness in engagements,
and honesty in trading, enjoined. Idolatry, infanticide,
inchastity, homicide (except in a just cause and in fair
retaliation), and abusing orphans’ trust, and pride, forbidden.
The angels are not the daughters of God: He has no partner,
and the whole creation worships Him. But God hardens people’s
hearts so that they turn away from the Korān. The Resurrection
is nearer than they think. The faithful must speak pleasantly
and not wrangle. Mohammad has no power to compel belief. The
false gods themselves dread God’s torment. The power of working
miracles was not given to Mohammad, because the people of yore
always disbelieved in them: so Thamūd with the miraculous
camel. The story of the devil’s original enmity to Adam; but
the devil cannot protect his followers against God, to whom
belongs all power on land and sea, and whose is the Judgment.
Mohammad nearly tempted to temporize. Prayer at sunset and dawn
and night vigils commended. Man’s insincerity. The spirit sent
from God. The Korān inimitable. The demand for miracles and for
angelic messengers repudiated. The fate of those who disbelieve
in the resurrection. Moses and Pharaoh: the consequences of
unbelief. The Korān divided for convenience. The solace of the
faithful. God and the Merciful the same deity.
THE SPEECHES AT MEKKA
III.--_THE ARGUMENTATIVE PERIOD._ Aet. 46-53, A.D. 615-622 73
THE BELIEVER (xl.) 75
The revelation is from God. Former generations rejected their
apostles and were punished. The angels praise God. The despair
of the damned. The great tryst: the judgment of God is
unerring. The generations of yore were greater than those of
to-day: yet nothing could save them from God. The history of
Moses and Pharaoh and the Egyptian convert, and the evil fate
of the infidels. The proud shall not win in the end. Praise
of God in His attributes. Hell is the goal of idolaters and
polytheists. Patience enjoined upon Mohammad. The signs of
God’s might and the dire consequences of doubting it.
JONAH (x.) 87
Repudiation of sorcery. Signs of God’s power, and the
consequences of believing and disbelieving them. Insincerity
of man: but former generations were destroyed for unbelief.
Mohammad has no power to speak the Korān save as God reveals
it. Idolatry ridiculed. Miracles disclaimed. Man believes when
he is in danger, and disbelieves when he is rescued. The life
of this world like grass that will be mown to-morrow. The
reward of well and evil doing and the judgment of idolaters.
God’s might in creation. The Korān no forgery, as will be
plainly seen one day. Every nation has its apostle and its
appointed term, which cannot be hastened or retarded. Now the
people are warned, and all they do is seen of God. God’s power:
He has no Son. The story of Noah and the ark, and Moses and the
magicians, and the passage of the Red Sea, and the establishing
of the Children of Israel. The people of Jonah. God compels
unbelief or belief as He pleases, and none can believe without
His permission. The signs of God are in the heavens and the
earth. True worship.
THUNDER (xiii.) 104
The mighty works of God. The punishment of unbelief. Miracles
disclaimed. The omniscience and unvariableness of God, the
hurler of thunder and lightning and the giver of rain. The
reward of the faithful; the torment of apostates. God misleads
whom He will, and, if He pleased, could guide all mankind
aright. Apostles have been mocked at before: and the mockers
were punished. Paradise. Mohammad’s task is only to warn: it is
God’s business to punish.
SPEECHES OF MEDINA
_THE PERIOD OF HARANGUE._ Aet. 53-63, A.D. 622-632 113
DECEPTION (lxiv.) 115
God’s power in creation. Former apostles were rejected. The
resurrection, though disbelieved, is a fact--a day when people
shall find their hopes are deceptive. Paradise and Hell. All
things are ordained by God. Obedience to God and the apostle
enjoined. The pleasures of this world are to be distrusted, but
the fear of God and almsgiving commendable.
IRON (lvii.) 118
Praise of God and exhortation to belief and almsgiving and
fighting for the faith. The future state of the faithful and
of the hypocrites. The charitable shall be doubly rewarded.
The present life only a pastime and delusion. Everything
predestined. The sending of the apostles, of Noah, Abraham, and
Jesus. Asceticism repudiated. Exhortation to faith and fear.
THE VICTORY (xlviii.) 124
A victory was given to encourage the faithful. Commendation of
those who pledged themselves to support Mohammad and rebuke
to the desert Arabs who held aloof (on the occasion of the
expedition to Hudeybia); they shall not share in the spoil
(of Khaibar). Promise of booty. The truce (of Hudeybia).
The opposition to Mohammad’s pilgrimage to Mekka shall be
withdrawn; and a victory shall soon be won. The devotion of the
faithful and their likeness.
HELP (cx.) 130
Exhortation to praise God in the hour of triumph.