an infidel, he saith, "I share not thy guilt:5 verily, I fear God the Lord of
the Worlds."
Of both, therefore, shall the end be that they dwell for ever in the fire:
This is the recompense of the evil doers.
O ye who believe! fear God. And let every soul look well to what it sendeth
on before for the morrow. And fear ye God: Verily, God is cognisant of what
ye do.
And be ye not like those who forget God, and whom He hath therefore caused to
forget their proper selves. Such men are the evil doers.
The inmates of the Fire and the inmates of Paradise are not to be held equal.
The inmates of Paradise only shall be the blissful.
Had we sent down this Koran on some mountain, thou wouldst certainly have
seen it humbling itself6 and cleaving asunder for the fear of God. Such are
the parables we propose to men in order that they may reflect.
He is God beside whom there is no god. He knoweth things visible and
invisible: He is the Compassionate, the Merciful.
He is God beside whom there is no god: He is the King, the Holy, the
Peaceful, the Faithful, the Guardian, the Mighty, the Strong, the Most High!
Far be the Glory of God from that which they unite with Him!
He is God, the Producer, the Maker, the Fashioner! To Him are ascribed
excellent titles. Whatever is in the Heavens and in the Earth praiseth Him.
He is the Mighty, the Wise!
_______________________
1 The Jews of Nadhir, three miles from Medina, had broken a treaty made with
Muhammad, and in the month RabΠof the fourth year of the Hejira were
besieged by him and driven first to the Jews of Kainoka, who had emigrated
previously, under compulsion, after the battle of Bedr, and subsequently out
of Arabia. Weil, Life of M. p.137.n.
2 On which account these spoils were entirely assigned to Muhammad, and not
divided in the usual manner. See Sura [xcv.] viii. 42. Weil, p. 138, 184.
3 To the Jews of the tribe of Nadhir.
4 The idolaters slain at Bedr (Djal.) or the Jews of Kainoka, who had been
plundered previously to those of Nadhir.
5 Lit. I am clear of thee.
6 This may be derived from the Rabbinical idea that Mount Sinai was chosen,
on account of its lowness, to be the scene of the revelation to Moses, in
order to shew that God loves the humble.
SURA XXXIII.-THE CONFEDERATES1 [CIII.]
MEDINA.-73 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
O PROPHET, fear thou God, and obey not the unbelievers and the hypocrites;-
Truly God is Knowing, Wise:
But follow what is revealed to thee from thy Lord: Cognisant truly is He of
all your actions-
And put thou thy trust in God, for a sufficient guardian is God.
God hath not given a man two hearts within him; neither hath he made your
wives whom ye divorce2 to be as your mothers; nor hath he made your adopted
sons to be as your own sons. Such words are indeed in your mouths; but God
speaketh the truth, and in the right way He guideth.
Name them after their fathers: this will be more right before God. But if ye
know not who their fathers are, then let them be your brethren in the faith,
and your comrades. And unless made with intent of heart, mistakes in this
matter shall be no crime in you: for God is Lenient, Merciful.
Nearer of kin to the faithful is the Prophet, than they are to their own
selves. His wives are their mothers. According to the Book of God, they who
are related by blood, are nearer the one to the other than other believers,
and than those who have fled their country3 for the cause of God: but
whatever kindness ye shew to your kindred, shall be noted down in the Book.
And remember that we have entered into covenant with the Prophets, and with
thee, and with Noah, and Abraham, and Moses, and Jesus, Son of Mary: and we
formed with them a strict covenant,
That God may question the men of truth as to their truth.4 But a sore torment
hath He prepared for the unbelievers.
O believers!5 remember the goodness of God towards you, when the armies came
against you, and we sent against them a blast, and hosts that ye saw not; for
the eye of God was upon your doings:
When they assailed you from above you, and from below you,6 and when your
eyes became distracted, and your hearts came up into your throat, and ye
thought divers thoughts of God:
Then were the faithful tried, and with strong quaking did they quake:
And when the disaffected and the diseased7 of heart said, "God and his
Apostle have made us but a cheating promise:"
And when a party of them said, "O people of Yathrib!8 there is no place of
safety for you here;9 therefore return into the city." And another party of
you asked the prophet's leave to return, saying, "Our houses are left
defenceless." No! they were not left defenceless: but their sole thought was
to flee away.
If the enemy had effected an entry at all points, and they (the disaffected)
had been asked to promote confusion, they would have done so; but only a
short time would they have remained in it.-(Medina).10
They had before pledged themselves to God that they would not turn their
backs; and a pledge given to God must be enquired of.
SAY: Flight shall not profit you; if ye have fled the death or the slaughter,
yet even then, but a little while shall ye enjoy your good things!
SAY: Who is he that will screen you from God, whether He choose to bring evil
on you, or to shew you mercy? None beside God shall they find to be their
patron or helper.
God well knoweth those among you who cause hindrances, and those who say to
their brethren, "Come hither to us;" and who come not to the fight except a
little.
It is out of covetousness in your regard: for when an alarm cometh, thou
mayest see them look to thee, and roll their eyes like him on whom the
shadows of death have fallen! Yet, when the alarm is passed, with sharp
tongues will they assail you, covetous of the best of the spoil. No faith
have these! God will make their doings of no avail! And easy is this with
God.
They thought that the CONFEDERATES would never retire:11 and were the
confederates to come again, they would fain be dwelling among the Arabs of
the desert, and there ask news about you! for though they were with you, they
fought not except a little.
A noble pattern had ye in God's Apostle, for all who hope in God, and in the
latter day, and oft remember God!
And when the faithful saw the confederates, they said, "This is what God and
His Apostle promised us,12 and God and His Apostle spoke truly:" and it only
increased their faith and self-devotion.
Some were there among the faithful who made good what they had promised to
God. Some have fulfilled their course, and others await its fulfilment, and
have not been changelings who change-
That God may reward the faithful for their faithfulness, and may punish the
hypocrites, if He so please, or be turned unto them: for God is Forgiving,
Merciful.
And God drove back the infidels in their wrath; they won no advantage; God
sufficed the faithful in the fight: for God is Strong, Mighty!
And He caused those of the people of the Book (the Jews), who had aided the
confederates, to come down out of their fortresses, and cast dismay into
their hearts: some ye slew, others ye took prisoners.13
And He gave you their land, and their dwellings, and their wealth, for an
heritage-even a land on which ye had never set foot: for the might of God is
equal to all things.
O Prophet! say to thy wives,14 If ye desire this present life and its
braveries, come then, I will provide for you, and dismiss you with an
honourable dismissal.
But if ye desire God and His Apostle, and a home in the next life, then,
truly, hath God prepared for those of you who are virtuous, a great reward.
O wives of the Prophet! should any of you be guilty of a proven lewdness,
doubly shall her chastisement be doubled: and with God this is easy.
But whoever of you shall obey God and His Apostle, and shall do that which is
right, twice over will we give her her reward, and we have prepared for her a
noble provision.
O wives of the Prophet! ye are not as other women. If ye fear God, be not too
complaisant of speech, lest the man of unhealthy heart should lust after you,
but speak with discreet speech.
And abide still in your houses, and go not in public decked as in the days of
your former ignorance,15 but observe prayer, and pay the impost, and obey God
and the Apostle: for God only desireth to put away filthiness from you16 as
his household, and with cleansing to cleanse you.
And recollect what is rehearsed to you in your houses of the Book of God, and
of wisdom: for God is keen-sighted, cognisant of all.
Truly the men who resign themselves to God (Muslims), and the women who
resign themselves, and the believing men and the believing women, and the
devout men and the devout women, and the men of truth, and the women of
truth, and the patient men and the patient women, and the humble men and the
humble women, and the men who give alms and the women who give alms, and the
men who fast and the women who fast, and the chaste men and the chaste women,
and the men and the women who oft remember God: for them hath God prepared
forgiveness and a rich recompense.
And it is not for a believer, man or woman, to have any choice in their
affairs, when God and His Apostle have decreed a matter: and whoever
disobeyeth God and His Apostle, erreth with palpable error.
And, remember, when thou saidst to him unto whom God had shewn favour,17 and
to whom thou also hadst shewn favour, "Keep thy wife to thyself, and fear
God;" and thou didst hide in thy mind what God would bring to light.18 and
thou didst fear man; but more right had it been to fear God. And when Zaid
had settled concerning her to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it
might not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted
sons, when they have settled the affair concerning them. And the behest of
God is to be performed.
No blame attacheth to the prophet where God hath given him a permission. Such
was the way of God with those prophets who flourished before thee; for God's
behest is a fixed decree-
Who fulfilled the mission with which God had charged them,19 and feared Him,
and feared none but God. And God taketh a sufficient account.
Muhammad is not the father of any man among you, but he is the Apostle of
God, and the seal of the prophets: and God knoweth all things.
O Believers! remember God with frequent remembrance, and praise Him morning
and evening.
He blesseth you, and His angels intercede for you, that He may bring you
forth out of darkness into light: and Merciful is He to the Believers.
Their greeting on the day when they shall meet Him shall be "Peace!" And He
hath got ready for them a noble recompense.
O Prophet ! we have sent thee to be a witness, and a herald of glad tidings,
and a warner;
And one who, through His own permission, summoneth to God, and a light-giving
torch.
Announce, therefore, to believers, that great boons do await them from God;
And obey not the Infidels and Hypocrites-yet abstain from injuring them: and
put thou thy trust in God, for God is a sufficient guardian.
O Believers! when ye marry believing women, and then divorce them before ye
have consummated the marriage, ye have no term prescribed you, which ye must
fulfil towards them: provide for them, and dismiss them with a reputable
dismissal.
O Prophet! we allow thee thy wives whom thou hast dowered, and the slaves
whom thy right hand possesseth out of the booty which God hath granted thee,
and the daughters of thy uncle, and of thy paternal and maternal aunts who
fled with thee to Medina, and any believing woman who hath given herself up
to the Prophet, if the Prophet desired to wed her-a Privilege for thee above
the rest of the Faithful.
We well know what we have settled for them, in regard to their wives and to
the slaves whom their right hands hold, that there may be no fault on thy
part:20 and God is Indulgent, Merciful!
Thou mayst decline for the present whom thou wilt of them, and thou mayest
take to thy bed her whom thou wilt, and whomsoever thou shalt long for of
those thou shalt have before neglected; and this shall not be a crime in
thee. Thus will it be easier to give them the desire of their eyes, and not
to put them to grief, and to satisfy them with what thou shalt accord to each
of them. God knoweth what is in your hearts, and God is Knowing, Gracious.
It is not permitted thee to take other wives hereafter,21 nor to change thy
present wives for other women, though their beauty charm thee, except slaves
whom thy right hand shall possess.22 And God watcheth all things.
O Believers! enter not into the houses of the Prophet,23 save by his leave,
for a meal, without waiting his time. When ye are invited then enter, and
when ye have eaten then disperse at once.24 And engage not in familiar talk,
for this would cause the Prophet trouble, and he would be ashamed to bid you
go; but God is not ashamed to say the truth. And when ye would ask any gift
of his wives, ask it from behind a veil. Purer will this be for your hearts
and for their hearts. And ye must not trouble the Apostle of God, nor marry
his wives, after him, for ever. This would be a grave offence with God.
Whether ye bring a matter to the light or hide it, God truly hath knowledge
of all things.
No blame shall attach to them (your wives) for speaking to their fathers
unveiled, or to their sons, or to their brothers, or to their brothers' sons,
or to their sisters' sons, or to their women, or to the slaves whom their
right hands hold. And fear ye God: for God witnesseth all things.
Verily, God and His Angels bless the Prophet! Bless ye Him, O Believers, and
salute Him with salutations of Peace.
Verily, they who affront God and His Apostle, the curse of God is on them in
this world, and in the world to come: and He hath prepared for them a
shameful chastisement.
And they who shall affront believing men and believing women, for no fault of
theirs, they shall surely bear the guilt of slander, and of a clear wrong.
O Prophet! speak to thy wives and to thy daughters,25 and to the wives of the
Faithful, that they let their veils fall low. Thus will they more easily be
known, and they will not be affronted. God is Indulgent, Merciful!
If the Hypocrites, and the men of tainted heart, and the stirrers of sedition
in Medina desist not, we will surely stir thee up against them. Then shall
they not be suffered to dwell near thee therein, but a little while:
Cursed wherever they are found; they shall be seized and slain with
slaughter!
Such hath been the way of God with those who lived before them; and no change
canst thou find in the way of God.
Men will ask thee of "the Hour." SAY: The knowledge of it is with God alone:
and who can tell thee whether haply the Hour be not nigh at hand?
Verily, God hath cursed the Infidels, and hath got ready for them the flame:
For aye shall they abide therein; none to befriend them, no helper shall they
find!
On the day when their faces shall be rolled in the fire, they shall cry: "Oh!
would that we had obeyed God, and obeyed the Apostle!"
And they shall say: "Oh our Lord! indeed we obeyed our chiefs and our great
ones, and they misled us from the way of God-
O our Lord! give them a double chastisement, and curse them with a heavy
curse."
O Believers! be not like those who affronted Moses.26 But God cleared him
from what they said of him, and of God was he highly esteemed.
O Believers! fear God, and speak with well-guided speech.
That God may bless your doings for you, and forgive you your sins. And whoso
obeyeth God and His Apostle with great bliss shall be blessed.
Verily, we proposed to the Heavens, and to the Earth, and to the Mountains to
receive the Faith, but they refused the burden, and they feared to receive
it. Man undertook to bear it, but hath proved unjust, senseless!
Therefore will God punish the hypocritical men and the hypocritical women,
and the men and the women who join gods with God; but to the believing men
and women will God turn him: for God is Indulgent, Merciful!
_______________________
1 Medina was besieged, when this Sura was revealed, by certain confederate
tribes at the instigation of the Jews, an. Hej. 5. The first nine verses,
however, have no immediate reference to this event, but to Muhammad's
cotemporary marriage with Zeinab. See below, verse 37.
2 The Arabians had been accustomed, before the time of Muhammad, to divorce
their wives with the words,-thy back be to me as the back of my mother. The
drift and motive of this passage is explained by verse 37 below. It had also
been the custom to hold adopted sons to be as nearly related to them as their
natural ones. See Sura lviii. 2, p. 451.
3 The Mohadjers-those who had emigrated with Muhammad from Mecca. This verse
abrogates Sura [xcv.] viii. 73.
4 How they have discharged their prophetic functions.
5 Verses 9-33 have reference to the events of the year Hej. 5, towards the
close. See next note. His. 688; Waq. 4 f.
6 In the engagement which took place under the walls of Medina, some of the
enemy were posted on a height to the east of the city, others in a valley on
the west. The besiegers were 12,000, the Muslims 3,000 strong, when a violent
storm, which upset the tents, put out the camp fires, and blinded the eyes of
the confederates with sand, turned the scale of victory against them.
Muhammad ascribes the storm to angelic agency.
7 That is, with infidelity.
8 The ancient name of El-Medina.
9 In the trenches which had been dug around the city by the advice of Salmân,
the Persian.
10 They would speedily have quitted the city to attack the faithful in the
trenches.
11 That is, raise the siege.
12 That is, that through trials we should attain to Paradise, v. 29.
13 After the siege of Medina had been raised, Muhammad made a successful
expedition against the Jews of Koreidha, for their treason and violation of
treaties.
14 Muhammad's wives having caused him much annoyance by demands of rich
dresses, etc., he gave them the choice of continuing with him as before, or
of divorce. They chose the former. See Abulfeda's Hist. Moh. p. 77, and
Gagnier's Vie de Moh. i. 4, chap. ii.
15 That is, Idolatry. Acts xvii. 30. Freytag (Einl. p. 453) thinks that
previous to Islam, the Arabian women went in public unveiled.
16 The pronoun is in the pl. masc., whereas the pl. fem. is used in the
previous part of the verse. The partisans of Ali quote this passage to prove
the intimate union of Ali and his posterity with the Prophet.
17 That is, to Zaid. The favour of God to Zaid consisted in having caused him
to become a Muslim: the favour of Muhammad in adopting him as his son. Zaid
and Abu Lahab (Sura cxi. p. 29) are the only contemporaries of Muhammad
mentioned by name in the Koran.
18 Thy plan to obtain Zeinab, or Zenobia, Zaid's wife, as thy wife.
19 Lit, who brought the messages of God.
20 If thou makest use of the special prerogative (conferred in verse 49).
21 He had nine wives at this period, beside slaves. The number of wives
allowed to the faithful is four. See note, p. 411. 22 The first slave whom
Muhammad took to wife was Raihana, at the conquest of the Banu Koreidha. His.
693. Weil, 170.
23 Verses 53-55 refer to the conduct of the guests at Muhammad's house after
his marriage with Zeinab. Albuhari passim. Muslim i. 824 ff. Wah. Comp.
Caussir, iii. 151.
24 Ullmann, p. 263, quotes a similar precept from the Talmud, "Do all that
the master of the house biddeth, but wait not to be asked to depart."
25 This verse cannot be of later date than Hej. 8, when Muhammad's daughter
Omm Kulthum died. leaving only Fatima.
26 This may refer to the charge of adultery said by the Rabbins to have been
brought by Korah against Moses. Comp. Tr. Sanhedrin, fol. 110a. and Numbers
xii. 1. The verse is said to have been revealed on account of aspersions
thrown on Muhammad for unfairly dividing spoils, whereupon he said, "God be
merciful to my brother Moses. He was wronged more than this, and bore it with
patience."
SURA LXIII.1-THE HYPOCRITES [CIV.]
MEDINA.-11 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
WHEN the Hypocrites come to thee, they say, "We bear witness that thou art
the Sent One of God." God knoweth that thou art His Sent One: but God beareth
witness that the HYPOCRITES do surely lie.
Their faith2 have they used as a cloak, and they turn aside others from the
way of God! Evil are all their doings.
This, for that they believed, then became unbelievers!Therefore hath a seal
been set upon their hearts, and they understand not.
When thou seest them, their persons make thee marvel; and if they speak, thou
listenest with pleasure to their discourse. Like timbers are they leaning
against a wall!3 They think that every shout is against them. They are
enemies-Beware of them then-God do battle with them! How false are they!
And when it is said to them, "Come, the Apostle of God will ask pardon for
you," they turn their heads aside, and thou seest them withdraw in their
pride.
Alike shall it be to them whether thou ask forgiveness for them, or ask it
not. By no means will God forgive them: God hath no guidance for a perverse
people.
These are they who say to you of Medina, "Spend not aught upon those who are
with the Apostle of God, and they will be forced to quit him." Yet the
treasures of the Heavens and of the Earth are God's! But the Hypocrites have
no understanding.
They say: "If we return to the city, the mightier will assuredly drive out
the weaker from it." But might is with God, and with the Apostle, and with
the Faithful! Yet the Hypocrites understand not.
O ye who believe! let not your wealth and your children delude you into
forgetfulness of God. Whoever shall act thus, shall surely suffer loss.
And expend in the cause of God out of that with which we have supplied you,
ere death surprise each one of you, and he say, "O Lord! wilt thou not
respite me to a term not far distant, that I may give alms, and become one of
the just?"
And by no means will God respite a soul when its hour hath come! And God is
fully cognisant of what ye do.
_______________________
1 Revealed shortly after the expedition against the Banu 'l Mustaliq in Hej.
6. See Nöld. p. 156 n. The "Hypocrites" mentioned in the later Suras are the
disaffected portion of the population of Medina, who covertly opposed the
claims of Muhammad to temporal authority over that city. They were gradually
absorbed, as the authority of Islam increased.
2 Or, in accordance with another reading, oaths. Comp. Ps. cix. 18.
3 Like timbers or joists supported in a wall or leaned against it, i.e.,
their persons are bulky, but their hearts so hypocritical and cowardly that
they are afraid of the slightest noise. In the original, saïkat is perhaps an
allusion to the shout of Gabriel, that is to exterminate the wicked.
SURA XXIV.-LIGHT [CV.]
MEDINA.-64 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
A SURA which we have sent down and sanctioned! Clear signs have we sent down
therein, that ye may take warning.
The whore and the whoremonger-scourge each of them with an hundred stripes;
and let not compassion keep you from carrying out the sentence of God, if ye
believe in God and the last day: And let some of the faithful witness their
chastisement.1
The whoremonger shall not marry other than a whore or an idolatress; and the
whore shall not marry other than a whoremonger or an idolater. Such alliances
are forbidden to the faithful.
They who defame virtuous women,2 and bring not four witnesses, scourge them
with fourscore stripes, and receive ye not their testimony for ever, for
these are perverse persons-
Save those who afterwards repent and live virtuously; for truly God is
Lenient, Merciful!
And they who shall accuse their wives, and have no witnesses but themselves,
the testimony of each of them shall be a testimony by God four times
repeated, that he is indeed of them that speak the truth.3
And the fifth time that the malison of God be upon him, if he be of them that
lie.
But it shall avert the chastisement from her if she testify a testimony four
times repeated, by God, that he is of them that lie;
And a fifth time to call down the wrath of God on her, if he have spoken the
truth.
And but for the goodness and mercy of God towards you, and that God is He who
loveth to turn, Wise . . . . !