And thy Lord shall come and the angels rank on rank,
And Hell on that day shall be moved up,3–Man shall on that day remember
himself. But how shall remembrance help him?
He shall say, Oh! would that I had prepared for this my life! On that day
none shall punish as God punisheth,
And none shall bind with such bonds as He.
Oh, thou soul which art at rest,
Return to thy Lord, pleased, and pleasing him:
Enter thou among my servants,
And enter thou my Paradise.
_______________________
1 Of the sacred month Dhu'lhajja.
2 Or, poured on them the mixed cup of chastisement.
3 The orthodox Muhammadans take this passage literally. Djelal says that hell
will "be dragged up by 70,000 chains, each pulled by 70,000 angels," as if it
were an enormous animal or locomotive engine.
SURA LXXV.–THE RESURRECTION [XL.]
MECCA.–40 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
It needeth not that I swear by the day of the RESURRECTION,
Or that I swear by the self-accusing soul.
Thinketh man that we shall not re-unite his bones?
Aye! his very finger tips are we able evenly to replace.
But man chooseth to deny what is before him:
He asketh, "When this day of Resurrection?"
But when the eye shall be dazzled,
And when the moon shall be darkened,
And the sun and the moon shall be together,1
On that day man shall cry, "Where is there a place to flee to?"
But in vain–there is no refuge–
With thy Lord on that day shall be the sole asylum.
On that day shall man be told of all that he hath done first and last;
Yea, a man shall be the eye witness against himself:
And even if he put forth his plea. . . .2
(Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this revelation:3
For we will see to the collecting and the recital of it;
But when we have recited it, then follow thou the recital,
And, verily, afterwards it shall be ours to make it clear to thee.)
Aye, but ye love the transitory,
And ye neglect the life to come.
On that day shall faces beam with light,
Outlooking towards their Lord;
And faces on that day shall be dismal,
As if they thought that some great calamity would befal them.
Aye, when the soul shall come up into the throat,
And there shall be a cry, "Who hath a charm that can restore him?"
And the man feeleth that the time of his departure is come,
And when one leg shall be laid over the other,4
To thy Lord on that day shall he be driven on;
For he believed not, and he did not pray,
But he called the truth a lie and turned his back,
Then, walking with haughty men, rejoined his people.
That Hour is nearer to thee and nearer,5
It is ever nearer to thee and nearer still.
Thinketh man that he shall be left supreme?
Was he not a mere embryo?6
Then he became thick blood of which God formed him and fashioned him;
And made him twain, male and female.
Is not He powerful enough to quicken the dead?
_______________________
1 Lit. shall be united. In the loss of light, or in the rising in the west.–
Beidh.
2 Supply, it shall not be accepted.
3 Verses 16-19 are parenthetic, and either an address to Muhammad by Gabriel
desiring him (I) not to be overcome by any fear of being unable to follow and
retain the revelation of this particular Sura; (2) or, not to interrupt him,
but to await the completion of the entire revelation before he should proceed
to its public recital. In either case we are led to the conclusion that, from
the first, Muhammad had formed the plan of promulging a written book. Comp.
Sura xx. 112.
4 In the death-struggle.
5 Or, Therefore woe to thee, woe! And, again, woe to thee, woe. Thus Sale,
Ullm. Beidhawi; who also gives the rendering in the text, which is that of
Maracci.
6 Nonne fuit humor ex spermate quod spermatizatur.
SURA LXXXIII.–THOSE WHO STINT [XLI.]
MECCA.–36 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Woe to those who STINT the measure:
Who when they take by measure from others, exact the full;
But when they mete to them or weigh to them, minish–
What! have they no thought that they shall be raised again
For the great day?
The day when mankind shall stand before the Lord of the worlds.
Yes! the register of the wicked is in Sidjin.1
And who shall make thee understand what Sidjin is?
It is a book distinctly written.
Woe, on that day, to those who treated our signs as lies,
Who treated the day of judgment as a lie!
None treat it as a lie, save the transgressor, the criminal,
Who, when our signs are rehearsed to him, saith, "Tales of the Ancients!"
Yes; but their own works have got the mastery over their hearts.
Yes; they shall be shut out as by a veil from their Lord on that day;
Then shall they be burned in Hell-fire:
Then shall it be said to them, "This is what ye deemed a lie."
Even so. But the register of the righteous is in Illiyoun.
And who shall make thee understand what Illiyoun is?
A book distinctly written;
The angels who draw nigh unto God attest it.
Surely, among delights shall the righteous dwell!
Seated on bridal couches they will gaze around;
Thou shalt mark in their faces the brightness of delight;
Choice sealed wine shall be given them to quaff,
The seal of musk. For this let those pant who pant for bliss–
Mingled therewith shall be the waters of Tasnim–2
Fount whereof they who draw nigh to God shall drink.
The sinners indeed laugh the faithful to scorn:
And when they pass by them they wink at one another,–
And when they return to their own people, they return jesting,
And when they see them they say, "These are the erring ones."
And yet they have no mission to be their guardians.
Therefore, on that day the faithful shall laugh the infidels to scorn,
As reclining on bridal couches they behold them.
Shall not the infidels be recompensed according to their works?
_______________________
1 Sidjin is a prison in Hell which gives its name to the register of actions
there kept, as Illiyoun, a name of the lofty apartments of Paradise, is
transferred to the register of the righteous.
2 Derived from the root sanima, to be high: this water being conveyed to the
highest apartments in the Pavilions of Paradise.
SURA LXIX.–THE INEVITABLE [XLII.]
MECCA.–52 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
The INEVITABLE!
And who shall make thee comprehend what the Inevitable is?
Themoud and Ad treated the day of Terrors1 as a lie.
So as to Themoud,2 they were destroyed by crashing thunder bolts;
And as to Ad, they were destroyed by a roaring and furious blast.
It did the bidding of God3 against them seven nights and eight days together,
during which thou mightest have seen the people laid low, as though they had
been the trunks of hollow palms;
And couldst thou have seen one of them surviving?
Pharaoh also, and those who flourished before him, and the overthrown cities,
committed sin,–
And disobeyed the Sent one of their Lord; therefore did he chastise them with
an accumulated chastisement.
When the Flood rose high, we bare you in the Ark,
That we might make that event a warning to you, and that the retaining ear
might retain it.
But when one blast shall be blown on the trumpet,
And the earth and the mountains shall be upheaved, and shall both be crushed
into dust at a single crushing,
On that day the woe that must come suddenly shall suddenly come,4
And the heaven shall cleave asunder, for on that day it shall be fragile;
And the angels shall be on its sides, and over them on that day eight shall
bear up the throne of thy Lord.
On that day ye shall be brought before Him: none of your hidden deeds shall
remain hidden:
And he who shall have his book given to him in his right hand, will say to
his friends, "Take ye it; read ye my book;
I ever thought that to this my reckoning I should come."
And his shall be a life that shall please him well,
In a lofty garden,
Whose clusters shall be near at hand:
"Eat ye and drink with healthy relish, as the meed of what ye sent on
beforehand in the days which are past."
But he who shall have his book given into his left hand, will say, "O that my
book had never been given me!
And that I had never known my reckoning!
O that death had made an end of me!
My wealth hath not profited me!
My power hath perished from me!"
"Lay ye hold on him and chain him,
Then at the Hell-fire burn him,
Then into a chain whose length is seventy cubits thrust him;
For he believed not in God, the Great,
And was not careful to feed the poor;
No friend therefore shall he have here this day,
Nor food, but corrupt sores,
Which none shall eat but the sinners."
It needs not that I swear by what ye see,
And by that which ye see not,
That this verily is the word of an apostle worthy of all honour!
And that it is not the word of a poet–how little do ye believe!
Neither is it the word of a soothsayer (Kahin)–how little do ye receive
warning!
It is a missive from the Lord of the worlds.
But if Muhammad had fabricated concerning us any sayings,
We had surely seized him by the right hand,
And had cut through the vein of his neck.5
Nor would We have withheld any one of you from him.
But, verily, It (the Koran) is a warning for the God-fearing;
And we well know that there are of you who treat it as a falsehood.
But it shall be the despair of infidels,
For it is the very truth of sure knowledge.
Praise, then, the name of thy Lord, the Great.
_______________________
1 Thus Beidh., Sale, etc. But with reference to another sense of the root
karaa, it may be rendered the day of decision, the day on which man's lot
shall be decided.
2 On Ad and Themoud. See Sura vii. 63-77.
3 Lit. God subjected it to himself, availed himself of it against them.
4 El-wakia, the sudden event, the calamity; the woe that must break in upon
Heaven and Earth. The same word is used, Sura lvi. 1, and ci. 1, for the
Resurrection and Day of Judgment.
5 In allusion to the mode of executing criminals in many eastern countries.
SURA LI.–THE SCATTERING [XLIII.]
MECCA.–60 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
By the clouds1 which scatter with SCATTERING,
And those which bear their load,
And by those which speed lightly along,
And those which apportion by command!
True, indeed, is that with which ye are threatened,
And lo! the judgment will surely come.2
By the star-tracked heaven!
Ye are discordant in what ye say;
But whose turneth him from the truth, is turned from it by a divine decree.
Perish the liars,
Who are bewildered in the depths of ignorance!
They ask, "When this day of judgment?"
On that day they shall be tormented at the fire.
"Taste ye of this your torment, whose speedy coming ye challenged."
But the God-fearing shall dwell amid gardens and fountains,
Enjoying what their Lord hath given them, because, aforetime they were well-
doers:
But little of the night was it that they slept,
And at dawn they prayed for pardon,
And gave due share of their wealth to the suppliant and the outcast.
On Earth are signs for men of firm belief,
And also in your own selves: Will ye not then behold them?
The Heaven hath sustenance for you, and it containeth that which you are
promised.
By the Lord then of the heaven and of the earth, I swear that this is the
truth, even as ye speak yourselves.3
Hath the story reached thee of Abraham's honoured guests?4
When they went in unto him and said, "Peace!" he replied, "Peace:–they are
strangers."
And he went apart to his family, and brought a fatted calf,
And set it before them. He said, "Eat ye not?"
And he conceived a fear of them. They said to him, "Fear not;" and announced
to him a wise son.
His wife came up with outcry: she smote her face and said, "What I, old and
barren!"
They said, "Thus saith thy Lord. He truly is the Wise, the Knowing."
Said he, "And what, O messengers, is your errand?"
They said, "To a wicked people are we sent,
To hurl upon them stones of clay,
Destined5 by thy Lord for men guilty of excesses."
And we brought forth the believers who were in the city:
But we found not in it but one family of Muslims.
And signs we left in it for those who dread the afflictive chastisement,–
And in Moses: when we sent him to Pharaoh with manifest power:
But relying on his forces6 he turned his back and said, "Sorcerer, or
Possessed."
So we seized him and his hosts and cast them into the sea; for of all blame
was he worthy.
And in Ad: when we sent against them the desolating blast:
It touched not aught over which it came, but it turned it to dust.
And in Themoud:7 when it was said to them, "Enjoy yourselves for yet a
while."
But they rebelled against their Lord's command: so the tempest took them as
they watched its coming.8
They were not able to stand upright, and could not help themselves.
And we destroyed the people of Noah, before them; for an impious people were
they.
And the Heaven–with our hands have we built it up, and given it its expanse;
And the Earth–we have stretched it out like a carpet; and how
smoothly have we spread it forth!
And of everything have we created pairs: that haply ye may reflect.
Fly then to God: I come to you from him a plain warner.
And set not up another god with God: I come to you from him a plain warner.
Even thus came there no apostle to those who flourished before them, but they
exclaimed, "Sorcerer, or Possessed."
Have they made a legacy to one another of this scoff? Yes, they are a rebel
people.
Turn away, then, from them, and thou shalt not incur reproach:
Yet warn them, for, in truth, warning will profit the believers.
I have not created Djinn and men, but that they should worship me:
I require not sustenance from them, neither require I that they feed me:
Verily, God is the sole sustainer: possessed of might: the unshaken!
Therefore to those who injure thee shall be a fate like the fate of
their fellows of old. Let them not challenge me to hasten it.
Woe then to the infidels, because of their threatened day.
_______________________
1 Lit. (I swear) by those which scatter (i.e., the rain) with a scattering,
(2) and by those which carry a burden, (3) and by those which run lightly,
(4) and by those which divide a matter, or by command. The participles are
all in the feminine: hence some interpret verse 1 of winds; verse 2 of
clouds; verse 3 of ships; verse 4 of angels.
2 Comp. note at Sura lvi. 1, p. 65.
3 That is, this oath is for the confirmation of the truth, as ye are wont to
confirm things one among another by an oath.
4 Comp. Sura xi. 72, and xv. 51. From the want of connection with what
precedes, it is highly probable that the whole passage from verse 24 60 did
not originally form a part of this Sura, but was added at a later period,
perhaps in the recension of the text under Othman.
5 Lit. marked, with the names of the individuals to be slain, say the
commentators.
6 Or, with his nobles.
7 For Ad and Themoud, see Sura xi.
8 That is, in broad daylight. Thus Beidh. Comp. Sura xlvi. 22.
SURA LII.–THE MOUNTAIN [XLIV.]
MECCA.–49 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
BY the MOUNTAIN,
And by the Book written
On an outspread roll,
And by the frequented fane,1
And by the lofty vault,
And by the swollen sea,
Verily, a chastisement from thy Lord is imminent,
And none shall put it back.
Reeling on that day the Heaven shall reel,
And stirring shall the mountains stir.2
And woe, on that day, to those who called the apostles liars,
Who plunged for pastime into vain disputes–
On that day shall they be thrust with thrusting to the fire of Hell:–
"This is the fire which ye treated as a lie.
What! is this magic, then? or, do ye not see it?
Burn ye therein: bear it patiently or impatiently 'twill be the same to you:
for ye shall assuredly receive the reward of your doings."
But mid gardens and delights shall they dwell who have feared God,
Rejoicing in what their Lord hath given them; and that from the pain of hell-
fire hath their Lord preserved them.
"Eat and drink with healthy enjoyment, in recompense for your deeds."
On couches ranged in rows shall they recline; and to the damsels with large
dark eyes will we wed them.
And to those who have believed, whose offspring have followed them in the
faith, will we again unite their offspring; nor of the meed of their works
will we in the least defraud them. Pledged to God is every man for his
actions and their desert.3
And fruits in abundance will we give them, and flesh as they shall desire:
Therein shall they pass to one another the cup which shall engender no light
discourse, no motive to sin:
And youths shall go round among them beautiful as imbedded pearls:
And shall accost one another and ask mutual questions.
"A time indeed there was," will they say, "when we were full of care as to
the future lot of our families;
But kind hath God been to us, and from the pestilential torment hath he
preserved us;
For, heretofore we called upon Him–and He is the Beneficent, the Merciful."
Warn thou, then. For thou by the favour of thy Lord art neither soothsayer
nor possessed.
Will they say, "A poet! let us await some adverse turn of his fortune?"
SAY, wait ye, and in sooth I too will wait with you.
Is it their dreams which inspire them with this? or is it that they are a
perverse people?
Will they say, "He hath forged it (the Koran) himself?" Nay, rather it is
that they believed not.
Let them then produce a discourse like it, if they speak the Truth.
Were they created by nothing? or were they the creators of themselves?
Created they the Heavens and Earth? Nay, rather, they have no faith.
Hold they thy Lord's treasures? Bear they the rule supreme?
Have they a ladder for hearing the angels? Let any one who hath heard them
bring a clear proof of it.
Hath God daughters and ye sons?
Asketh thou pay of them? they are themselves weighed down with debts.
Have they such a knowledge of the secret things that they can write them
down?
Desire they to lay snares for thee? But the snared ones shall be they who do
not believe.
Have they any God beside God? Glory be to God above what they join with Him.
And should they see a fragment of the heaven falling down, they would say,
"It is only a dense cloud."
Leave them then until they come face to face with the day when they shall
swoon away:
A day in which their snares shall not at all avail them, neither shall they
be helped.
And verily, beside this is there a punishment for the evildoers: but most of
them know it not.
Wait thou patiently the judgment of thy Lord, for thou art in our eye; and
celebrate the praise of thy Lord when thou risest up,
And in the night-season: Praise him when the stars are setting.
_______________________
1 Of the Caaba.
2 Comp. Psalm lxviii. 9.
3 The more prosaic style of this verse indicates a later origin than the
context. Muir places the whole Sura in what he terms the fourth stage of
Meccan Suras.
SURA LVI.–THE INEVITABLE [XLV.]
MECCA.–96 Verses
In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
WHEN the day that must come shall have come suddenly,1
None shall treat that sudden coming as a lie:
Day that shall abase! Day that shall exalt!
When the earth shall be shaken with a shock,
And the mountains shall be crumbled with a crumbling,
And shall become scattered dust,
And into three bands shall ye be divided:2
Then the people of the right hand3–Oh! how happy shall be the people of the
right hand!
And the people of the left hand–Oh! how wretched shall be the people of the
left hand!
And they who were foremost on earth–the foremost still.4
These are they who shall be brought nigh to God,
In gardens of delight;
A crowd of the former
And few of the latter generations;
On inwrought couches
Reclining on them face to face:
Aye-blooming youths go round about to them
With goblets and ewers and a cup of flowing wine;
Their brows ache not from it, nor fails the sense:
And with such fruits as shall please them best,
And with flesh of such birds, as they shall long for:
And theirs shall be the Houris, with large dark eyes, like pearls hidden in
their shells,
In recompense of their labours past.
No vain discourse shall they hear therein, nor charge of sin,
But only the cry, "Peace! Peace!"
And the people of the right hand–oh! how happy shall be the people of the
right hand!
Amid thornless sidrahs5
And talh6 trees clad with fruit,
And in extended shade,
And by flowing waters,
And with abundant fruits,7
Unfailing, unforbidden,
And on lofty couches.
Of a rare creation have we created the Houris,
And we have made them ever virgins,
Dear to their spouses, of equal age with them,8
For the people of the right hand,
A crowd of the former,
And a crowd of the latter generations.9
But the people of the left hand–oh! how wretched shall be the people of the
left hand!
Amid pestilential10 winds and in scalding water,
And in the shadow of a black smoke,
Not cool, and horrid to behold.11
For they truly, ere this, were blessed with worldly goods,
But persisted in heinous sin,
And were wont to say,
"What! after we have died, and become dust and bones, shall we be raised?
And our fathers, the men of yore?"
SAY: Aye, the former and the latter:
Gathered shall they all be for the time of a known day.
Then ye, O ye the erring, the gainsaying,
Shall surely eat of the tree Ez-zakkoum,
And fill your bellies with it,
And thereupon shall ye drink boiling water,
And ye shall drink as the thirsty camel drinketh.
This shall be their repast in the day of reckoning!
We created you, will ye not credit us?12
What think ye? The germs of life13–
Is it ye who create them? or are we their creator?
It is we who have decreed that death should be among you;
Yet are we not thereby hindered14 from replacing you with others, your likes,
or from producing you again in a form which ye know not!
Ye have known the first creation: will ye not then reflect?
What think ye? That which ye sow–
Is it ye who cause its upgrowth, or do we cause it to spring forth?
If we pleased we could so make your harvest dry and brittle that ye would
ever marvel and say,
"Truly we have been at cost,15 yet are we forbidden harvest."
What think ye of the water ye drink?
Is it ye who send it down from the clouds, or send we it down?
Brackish could we make it, if we pleased: will ye not then be thankful?
What think ye? The fire which ye obtain by friction–
Is it ye who rear its tree, or do we rear it?
It is we who have made it for a memorial and a benefit to the wayfarers of
the desert,
Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.
It needs not that I swear by the setting of the stars,
And it is a great oath, if ye knew it,
That this is the honourable Koran,
Written in the preserved Book:16
Let none touch it but the purified,17
It is a revelation from the Lord of the worlds.
Such tidings as these will ye disdain?
Will ye make it your daily bread to gainsay them?
Why, at the moment when the soul of a dying man shall come up into his
throat,
And when ye are gazing at him,
Though we are nearer to him than ye, although ye see us not:–
Why do ye not, if ye are to escape the judgment,
Cause that soul to return? Tell me, if ye speak the truth.
But as to him who shall enjoy near access to God,
His shall be repose, and pleasure, and a garden of delights.
Yea, for him who shall be of the people of the right hand,
Shall be the greeting from the people of the right hand–"Peace be to thee."
But for him who shall be of those who treat the prophets as deceivers,
And of the erring,
His entertainment shall be of scalding water,
And the broiling of hell-fire.
Verily this is a certain truth:
Praise therefore the name of thy Lord, the Great.
_______________________
1 The renderings of Mar. cum inciderit casura, or as in Sur. lxix, 15,
ingruerit ingruens nearly express the peculiar force of the Arabic verb and
of the noun formed from it; i.e. a calamity that falls suddenly and surely.
Weil renders, ween der Auferstehung's Tag eintritt (p. 389). Lane, when the
calamity shall have happened.
2 Comp. Tr. Rosch Haschanah, fol. 16, 6.
3 Lit., the companions of the right hand, what shall be the companions of the
right hand! and thus in verses 9, 37, 40.
4 Lit., the preceders, the preceders.
5 See Sura liii. 14, p. 69.
6 Probably the banana according to others, the acacia gummifera.
7 "A Muslim of some learning professed to me that he considered the
descriptions of Paradise in the Koran to be, in a great measure, figurative;
'like those,' said he, 'in the book of the Revelation of St. John;' and he
assured me that many learned Muslims were of the same opinion." Lane's Modern
Egyptians, i. p. 75, note.
8 Like them, grow not old.
9 This seems a direct contradiction to verse 14, unless we suppose with
Beidhawi that an inferior and more numerous class of believers are here
spoken of.
10 Or, scorching.