. ■ ?■&■** ■■ ■ • "57 „< *< »•»<*« s, m sgJflX PRINCETON, N. J. fc Shelf. '.vision t~? ...F7. ..V.O..S r / Di Section... Number ■ / (MESTOMTHIA BAIDiWIA^A THE COMMENTARY OF EL-BAIDAWI ON SURA III TRANSLATED AND EXPLAINED FOR THE USE OF STUDENTS OF ARABIC BY D. S. MARGOLIOUTH , M. A. LAUDIAN PROFESSOR OF ARABIC IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD , MEMBER OF THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY , THE SOCIETE ASIATIQUE , AND THE DEUTSCHE MORGENLAENDISCHE GESELLSCHAFT. LONDON LUZAC & Co. PUBLISHERS TO THE INDIA OFFICE 46 Great Russell Street 4894. To Oh. RIEU Esq. Ph.D. etc. etc. THIS LITTLE WORK IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED. PREFACE. El-Baidawi's Commentary on the Qur'an has been printed at Leipsic, 1846 (edited by H. L. Fleischer), at Boulak, 1263 A.H. (on the margin of Shaykh Zadeh's gloss), and 1283 A.H. (on the margin of El-Khafaji's gloss) , and Constantinople, 1303 A.H. (with the commentary of the Jalalain on the margin) ; and lithographed at Lucknow (2 nd edition 1282 A.H.), and Constantinople (1300 A.H. ; on the margin of the Qur'an) l . Of these editions the most easily procurable is the small edition of 1303, at about £ 1, issued simultaneously in Cairo and Constantinople. As however it teems with misprints , a collation of it with the careful recension of H. L. Fleischer has been appended to this Chrestomathy , from which the student will do well before he commences the study of Sura III to correct his copy. Part of the commentary on Sura II has been translated into French and explained by S. de Sacy in his Anthologie Grammaticale ; the whole of the commentary on Sura X was edited, but without explanation, in Henzius' Frag- menta Arabica (Dorpat , 1832). Fragments of it are rende- red into English in Hughes's Dictionary of Islam and other works by English scholars. 1) This list is not intended to be exhaustive. Y! PREFACE. The translation offered to students in this Chrestomathy is based on the following works; A. Supercommentaries. Some glosses by El-Baidawi on his commentary are occasionally quoted; and owing to its great popularity, it acquired a great number of super- commentators, of whom lists are given by the biblio- grapher Hajji Khalfah and by Ahlwardt in his Catalogue of the University Library at Berlin. The Library of the India Office and the Khedivial Library at Cairo are also rich in this literature. The following three published glosses have been used for the present work; 1. The gloss of ShihaJb el-din El-Khafdjl, who died in Egypt in 1069 A.H. He held the office of sl^ai! ^^j and is known to scholars by his commentary on the bjo of Hariri (published at Constantinople) , and his literary history called slsWl wW. (printed repeatedly at Cairo), at the end of which he gives a short autobiography. His gloss on Baidawi called ^oLaJI JCjLc is a compilation, em- bodying the contents of the earlier glosses and enriched by learned grammatical and rhetorical disquisitions by the author. It occupies 8 volumes fol. 2. The gloss of ShayJch Zadeh (Mohammed b. Muslih el din Mustafa El-Kuhi) who died 951 A.H. This was published at Boulak in 4 folio volumes in 1283 A.H. It is mainly theological and consists largely in quotations from Fakhr el-din's commentary. 3. The gloss of the Lucknow edition. This edition is provided with marginal and interlinear notes, as well as with figures to guide the reader in referring the prono- minal affixes, the work of some very competent scholars. Most of the glosses occur word for word in the work of El-Khafajl, but not all. Were the lithography of this edi- PREFACE. VII tion somewhat clearer, it would be the most useful for the student. B. Other commentaries on the Qur'an. The ''amoaru 3 Uanzll is said to be a compilation of the commentaries of El-Raghib (circ. 500), El-Zamakhshari (467—528 ; called olLIa*J are enumera- ted by H. Kh. PREFACE. IX called ^a-J! J; *lo^f , published by Wiistenfeld (Gottingen , 1860). There are many other works on this subject of ancient and modern date ; the life called s^ ,3 o}**^ qI*~j' O yolll uxa$\ by Ali B. Burhan el-din El-Halabi is a useful compilation; while in English and German the works of Muir and Sprenger still hold the field; indeed no more instructive work than Sprenger's (das Leben mid die Lehre des Muhammad, 1870) has ever been written on the origins of Mohammedanism. For notices of the Prophet's followers reference has been made to the biographical dictionary of Ibn El-Athir (ob. 630) called wL£>JI XSyw ^ KjLaJI O^J (5 volumes, Boulak, 1286). Another dictionary on a vast scale called 'sJuS$\ by Ibn Hajar (IX*h century) has been published in the Bibliotheca Indica. — Much connected with the Tradition properly so called has recently been elucidated by the publication of the w^Ai' of El-Suyuti (Cairo, 1307), and the 2 nd part of I. Goldziher's Moham- madanische Studien. Scholars have now the advantage of studying the most important collections in type or litho- graph. Numerous editions have been published of the Sahlh of El-Bukhari (ob. 256) with the very valuable commentary of El-Qastalani (ob. 923), known also as the author of a work on Mohammed called aLoAJJI v^V' (published at Cairo 1278 with the commentary of El-Zurqani in 8 volumes fol.). l The later editions of Qastalani's commentary on Bukharl have on their margin the Sahlh. of Muslim with the commentary of El-Nawawi; there is also a beautifully 1) B. does not always follow Bukharl's traditions: e.g. the account given of the verses LSlxJ' v_jLxJji J»S>t L) iii. 57 in the § on ^'y^ J**H^ (Qastalani ed. 6, vii. p. 68) is not noticed by him. Had Krehl's edition of the Sahlh been finished we might have had an index, which would be of help in tracing the passages of the Qur'an elucidated. X PREFACE. printed edition of Muslim bearing the date 1287. Of El- Tirmidhi, Abu Dawud, El-Nasa'i and Ibn Majah there are Indian lithographs with judiciously excerpted glosses. El- Baidawi himself commented ontheiLuJI goLa* ofEl-Baghaw^ a convenient summary of authentic tradition, to which therefore reference has frequently been made. b. Law. El-Baidawi belonged to the school of El-Shaft !, which, like that of Abu Hanifah, possesses a very co- pious literature, while the schools of Malik and Ahmad B. Hanbal are less voluminous. Of these schools sketches which, though somewhat fanciful, are brilliant, are to be found in von Kremer's Culturgeschichte unter den Khalifen. El-Baidawi himself wrote a manual of Law called Ju,L*il ^yaalK Eeference has been made in the notes to the (jfcJiy -LgJL* of El-Nawawi (ob. 676), a code of great authority, which has been published with a valuable French translation by van den Berg (Batavia, 1882); the recent Oairene edition with the very copious commentary of El-Khatib El-Sharbini called —LgJLt* 'iifA if gJU^I ^m is also very useful, while the earlier edition containing the gloss of Mahalli with supercommentaries is of use only to experts. For the comparison of different systems reference is sometimes made to the work called i^j-JH q'j^I' of El-Sha c ram , published together with the somewhat sim- pler work called '»*S\ 'ify c. Principles of Jurisprudence (»ss6\ Jiyol). Works on this subject deal with the sources of Law and the Logic to be applied to them. The main treatise was the \ (Malekite) by Shihab el-din El-Qirafi (ob. 684; Cairo 1306, etc.), the vJLaJL^U'JI LiLxj \JLsJi&xN u^ (Hanefite, Lucknow 1876 A. D.), the f>*j&i with commen- tary called f^oyi by El-Taftazani (ob. 792) published at Kazan; and o^iSI JLm./c with commentary (Lucknow 1878 A. D.); to the last reference has occasionally been made. d. Scholastic Theology, (£$$), or the philosophical basis of religion. B. as an orthodox Muslim belonged to the school of Abu'l-Hasan El- 3 Ash c ari. He himself wrote two treatises on this subject; one called J^i\ x$^o, of which there are several MS. copies in Oxford, in all of which however the text is imperfectly given; another called -La^!' which is rare. No manual ever acquired as great popularity as the oistyj of c Adud el-din El- D Iji (ob. 756) which with the commentary of El-Jurjanl (ob. 816) has often been printed and lithographed; the last two 'stations' treating of 'divinity' were published separately by Soerensen. The Indian lithograph to which reference has ordinarily been made bears the date 1284. e. Mystical Theology (or Sufism). To this El-Baidawl shows not a few leanings, a fact which agrees with what we know of his life. The leading work on this subject is iLJCit oL>y£jl, of Ibn c Arabi (ob. 638), described by von Kremer in his Herrschende Ideen des Islams. It has been published at Cairo in 8 imperial quartos, and is very te- dious reading. An abstract of it by El-Sha c rani called jS^^Jtj \BMj>\yA\ ujUs' is less trying. Besides these disciplines three more require to be mentioned; Xn PREFACE. /. Technicalities of the Qur^an. These are dealt with by El-Suyuti in his interesting work called qUJ ( *Jlc & qU^ published in the Bibliotheca Indica and also at Cairo. The text of the Qur'an was to a certain extent officially fixed by the Caliph TJthman ; but from the nature of the Arabic writing employed at the time this text admitted of consi- derable diversity of interpretation, and, as Sprenger says, every possible interpretation of it was advanced by some reader or other. Of c Uthman's text five copies (according to the authority cited by Suyuti p. 141) were sent to the chief Mohammedan cities, Mecca, Damascus, Basra, Cufa, Medina; and the pronunciation of seven readers belonging to these capitals at some time in the second century acquired general recognition for orthodoxy; each of these readers is known by two reporters (•}., plural sU,); their names were : Nafi c of Medina (ob. 169) recorded by Qalun and Warsh. Ibn Kathir of Mecca (ob. 120) recorded by Qunbul and El-Bazzi. Abu c Amr of Basra (ob. 154) recorded by El-Burl and El-Susl. Ibn c 2mir of Damascus (ob. 118) recorded by Hisham and Ibn, Bhakwan. c lsim of Cufa (ob. 127 or 128) recorded by Abu Bahr B. c Ayyash and JSafs. Eamza of Cufa (ob. 156) recorded by Khalaf and Khallad. El-Kistfi of Cufa (ob. 189) recorded by El-Bari and Abul- Sarith. To these seven Baidawi adds an eighth, Ytfqiib of Basra, ob. 205, whose reporters were Ruwais and Ruh, while others speak of ten orthodox readers, adding Abu Jcffar Yazld of Medina , and Khalaf B. Hisham of Cufa, ob. 229. The names of other readers of eminence are given by Suyuti p. 171; and to their readings reference is occasi- PKEFACE. Xni onally made by B. , more frequently by Zam. Many books containing collections of readings are to be found in the Khedivial Library and elsewhere; Suyuti p. 173 mentions a few of them ; the most popular is the «v*^J °f El-Dani (ob. 444) reduced into verse by El-Shatibi. Punctuation or pause (*j£j}\) is the subject of special treatises, such as the ^Js^JI ,Lu of El-Ishmuni (published at Cairo). The readings , which for the most part concern questions of grammar and dialect, depend partly on tradition, and partly on criticism; El-Dani in the treatise referred to gives the names of the readers through whom each of the seven obtained his information, while in F. D.'s commen- tary critical grounds are given that may be urged in fa- vour of or against different readings. (j. Grammar. El-Baidawl wrote a treatise on this subject, viz. a commentary on the '&*$£ of Ibn El-Hajib. The gram- matical statements in the commentary come for the most part directly from Zam., whose grammar called J^ail is still one of the most popular manuals of the subject, and has been edited several times with great care by J. P. Broch at Christiania (ed. 2. 1879). To this reference has regularly been made in the notes; and, where necessary, to the verbose commentary on it by Ibn Ya c ish published for the German Oriental Society by G. Jahn. The Mufassal is an abridgment of the vjlxi' ot Sibawaihi, published in Paris by H. Derenbourg and made by the learned Jesuit Vernier the basis of his excellent grammar; a translation of the original by Dr. G. Jahn is in course of publication. h. Rhetoric. The most popular work on this subject is the gloss called J^d' by Sa c d el-din El-Taftazani on the -Uftii \jaa&ki of Jalal el-din Mahmud El-Qazwini (ob. 739), which has been lithographed at Lucknow. XIV PREFACE. The regiou therefore which is not indeed covered , but occasionally invaded by B.'s commentary on the Qur'an is a very wide one; and the advantage of the study of it is that it leads the student directly into all the best culti- vated fields of Mohammedan thought. This is why it has been set as a subject for the Oxford Oriental school, for the needs of which this Chrestomathy is primarily intended. CHIEF ABBREVIATIONS EMPLOYED. B. = El-Baidawi '. F. = El-Farra El-Baghawi. F. D. = Fakhr el-din El-Kazl. F. M. = The fulnhat makkvyyah of Ibn 'Arabi. Gl. = Gloss of the Lucknow edition. Muf. = The mufassal of El-Zamakhshari. S. Z. = Shaykh Zadeh's gloss. Sharb. = El-Khatib El-Sharbim. Shih. = Shihab el-din El-Khafaji's gloss. Zam. = The hashshaf of El-Zamakhshari. In the transliteration of Arabic words compound letters (ff/i, Jch, etc.) are underlined; in proper names the underline and the signs of lengthening etc. are frequently omitted. In the transliteration of the article it is difficult to de- cide whether to imitate the orthography or the pronun- ciation ; the former has , with some reluctance , been followed. 1) His full name was Ndsir el-d'in Abu Said AbdalUh B. Omar El-Baidp,wi, Qildi l-Qudilt. His death-date is variously given 682. 685 and 691. Baida is is a town in Persia eight parasangs from Shiraz, where B. was Qadi. He died at Tabriz. Besides the works mentioned in the Preface he also wrote a general history in Persian, of which the portion dealing with China has been published (Abdallae Beidavaei historia Sinensis persice et latine edita ab An- drea MulUro Greifenhagio printed at Berlin 1677 , and published at Jena 1679). Considering his fame, it is remarkable that the biographers have next to nothing to tell us about him. SURA III. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF 1MRAN. Revealed at Medina. Its verses are two hundred in number. 1. °Alif Lam Mint God — there is no god but He; the final m of the word mini was given the vowel fatha in the vulgate ', although it would naturally have had no vowel 2 , owing to the vowel of the hamza of °lldhu being transferred to it 3 ; which was to show that the hamza of Hlahu is virtually imelided 4 being here elided for the sake of abbreviation 5 , and not because it occurs in the middle of a sentence 6 ; for the m is virtually in pause. The abbreviation is similar to that in the enumeration wahi-dithnan 7 , where the vowel of the hamza at the be- ginning of 3 itknan is transferred to the final d of wahid. The fatha is not due to the 'concurrence of vowelless con- sonants' 3 , for to this there is no objection when the sec- ond of those consonants is in pause 9 : for which reason the m of lam (the second of the introductory letters) has no vowel 10 . — There was another reading 11 mlmi ^llahu, where the i is due to the supposed 'concurrence of vowel- l 2 sura in. less consonants' ; and Abu Bakr read mim without final vowel, and made what follows a fresh sentence, in which the liamza of °llahu received its natural vowel. the living, the sustaining; it is recorded 12 that the Prophet said : The Mightiest name of God 13 is to be found in three Suras; II. 256; III. 1; XX. 110. 2. He has revealed unto thee the Book; the Qur 3 an, text by text 14 . with truth; with justice 15 ; or, with truth in its narra- tives; or, with arguments that demonstrate that it is from God. The word is in place of a circumstantial phrase ,6 . confirming what was before it ; the Books that were before it. and He sent down the Law and the Gospel ; in a body to Moses and Jesus respectively. The derivation of these words from waray 'to strike a light' and najala 'to draw water' giving them the measures taf c ilatun and °if c ilun 17 respectively is forced, since they are both foreign, as is confirmed by the fact that some read ^anjllun, which is not an Arabic formation. 3 Abu c Amr, Ibn Dhakwan, and El-Kisa 3 ! read el-tauratu with ^imala throughout the Qur D an 18 . Hamza and Nafi c gave it the intermediate pronunciation l9 ; except Qalun 2o , who pronounced it with fatha like the rest of the readers. beforehand; before he revealed the Qur 3 an. a guidance to mankind; mankind generally, if we suppose ourselves bound by the code of our predecessors 21 ; other- wise the Jews and Christians are meant. and He revealed the Criterion; meaning the Divine Books generally 22 ; since they distinguish between true and false 23 . He mentions this after mentioning the three books, in order to include others besides the three; as much as to say 'and He sent down all the means whereby the true is SURA OP THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 3 distinguished from the false.' Or he may mean the Psalms 24 ; or, the Qur D an; thus mentioning the Qur D an again, under an epithet , to exalt and magnify it , and to show its superi- ority over the others , in as much as it resembles them in being a revelation sent down, but is distinguished from them as being a miracle 85 , whereby the speaker of truth is distinguished from the speaker of falsehood. Or, he may mean the miracles 26 . 3. Verily those who disbelieve the signs of God; such as the Books which He sends down, and others. for them is a terrible punishment; on account of their unbelief. and God is mighty; victorious; He cannot be prevented from punishing. lord of vengeance; such as no avenger can wreak 27 . Niqmatun is the punishment of the sinner, from which comes the verb naqama or naqima 28 . The passage is a menace introduced after the affirmation of the unity and the al- lusion to the basis of Mohammed's prophetic claim, in order to magnify the matter and to warn mankind against neglecting it. 4. Ferily nothing is concealed from God in earth or in heaven- i. e. Nothing which comes to pass in the world, be it universal or particular M , faith or unbelief. He expresses this by the terms heaven and earth, becauses the senses cannot go beyond them; and he mentions the earth first, in order to ascend from lower to higher, and because what is intended to be mentioned is what is committed on earth. The verse is, as it were, a proof that He is alive; whereas the following He it is who forms you in the wombs as He will • — i. e. out of the different forms — is , as it were , a proof 30 8CRA in. of His quality of sustainer, and is like an argument that He is wise, based upon the perfection of His work in creating and forming the embryo 31 . Others read tasaw- warakum 'formed you for Himself and for His worship.' there is no God but He; since none except Him knows what He knows or can do what He does. the Mighty, the Wise; indication of the perfection of His power and the absoluteness of His wisdom 32 . — It has been said that this passage is an argument against those who say Jesus is Lord; for when the envoys from Najran argued with the Prophet on this matter, the Sura was revealed as far as past the 80 th verse, to confirm the arguments which he used against them and his answers to their quibbles 33 . 5. He it is who sent down unto thee the Book wherein are elaborate verses; elaborately expressed in that they are preserved from ambiguity and obscurity. they are the mother of the Book; its foundation, to which other texts are referred. Analogy would suggest °ummahatu in the plural; the singular implies that hunna is to be in- terpreted 'each one of them', or that all these verses count as one verse. and others equivocal; ambiguous, whose drift is not clear, owing to their generality 34 , or to their contradicting some clear text, except by examination and study, in order that the excellence of the learned may be displayed over them , and that their zeal may be increased for their study and for the acquisition of the sciences on which the evolu- tion of their meaning is based, and that they may rise to the highest ranks by employing their talents in educing their meaning and harmonizing them with the elaborate texts. As for the expression (XI. 1) 'a book of which the SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C 1MRAN. 5 texts are elaborate' the meaning is that they are preserved from false notions and improper phrases; while the expres- sion (XXXIX. 24) 'an equivocal book' means that it is uniform throughout in correctness of idea and beauty of language, ^ukharu is plural of %khray and is diptote as being 1) an adjective, 2) altered from eVukhray; and this latter fact does not render it necessarily definite; since the expression 'altered' means that whereas by analogy it should have the article, it is without it; not, that it means the same as the form with the article. Or, it may be altered from ^akharu min 35 . and as for those in whose hearts is apostasy ; rejection of the truth, like the schismatics. they follow those that are equivocal; and adhere to their letter, or to a false interpretation of them. seeking to apostatize; seeking to draw men away from their religion by suggesting doubts and difficulties, and making the equivocal texts contradict the elaborate. and seeking to explain it; seeking to explain it to mean what they want. Now it is possible that the cause of their following the equivocal texts may be both these desires together, or each of them alternately; now the first cor- responds with the case of the hardened opponent, while the latter suits the fool. and none knows its explanation; the explanation according to which it is to be taken. except God and those who are firm in knoioledge ; those who are steadfast in it and have possession of it. Those who stop at *itta °llahu explain the equivocal part as refer- ring to what God has reserved for His own knowledge, e. g. the duration of the world , and the time of the arrival of the Hour 1C , and the properties of the numbers , such as 6 sura in. the number of the warders of Hell 37 , or as referring to those texts of which the letter is shown by decisive argu- ments not to be the meaning, while there is no other in- dication of what their meaning is 38 . they say We believe Herein; a fresh sentence explaining the conduct of those who are firm; or else a hal depending on the word rasihhuna; or else predicate, if you make el-rasikkuna subject. all is from our Lord; both the elaborate and the equi- vocal are from Him. yet there reflect not save those that are possessed of in- tellects ; tribute of praise to the fine intellect and careful study of the firm, and indication of the apparatus with which they provide themselves in order to be guided to its interpretation ; viz. the abstraction of the intellect from the clouds of sense. The connexion of this verse with what precedes lies in the fact that it deals with the information of the spirit and its decoration while the former deals with the formation and decoration of the body — or else in the fact that it is an answer to the Christians, when they take hold of such phrases as 'His word which he cast into Mary and a spirit from Him' (IV. 169), just as the former passage is an answer to their assertion 'he has no father but God, consequently it is clear that God must be his father', by showing that God can form the embryos as He will, and therefore can form them with or without the father's seed, and by showing that God formed him in the womb, and the former is not father to the formed. 6. Our Lord do not divert our- hearts; part of the speech of the 'firm' ; according to others a fresh sentence 39 . The meaning is: Do not divert our hearts from the path of truth to follow the equivocal texts according to interpre- SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 7 tations which do not please thee. The Prophet 40 said: The heart of man is between two of the fingers of the Merciful ; if He will , He establishes him in the truth , and if He will , He diverts him from it. Others 4 ' make the meaning : Do not try us with afflictions wherein our hearts will go astray. after that thou hast guided us; to the truth ; or, to belief in both portions. ba c da is in the accusative of the vessel 42 , and *idh virtually in the genitive after it 43 ; others say *idh stands for *an 44 . and give us kindness from with thee ; which shall bring us near thee, and which we shall possess with thee 43 ; or else help towards abiding in the truth; or, forgiveness of sins. verily thou art the giver; of all requests 46 . Here is evi- dence that guidance and misdirection come from God, and that He does a favour when He does good to His servants and that nothing is obligatory upon Him 47 . 7. Our Lord, verily thou shall gather mankind for a day; for the reckoning of a day; or, for the recompense of a day. wherein is no doubt; no doubt of its occurrence, or of the gathering and the recompense taking place thereon. They call attention by their words to the fact that their chief aim in their two prayers is what concerns the future world, for that future world is the aim and the result. verily God will not break the appointment ; for His divinity contradicts such a notion 48 . And in order to call attention to this, and to magnify that which is promised, there is a change of person 49 . The Wa'idites used this verse as evi- dence of their doctrine 30 ; the answer given them is that the menace to the evildoers is conditional on their not being forgiven , as is shown by special proofs , just as it is conditional on non-repentance, as we are all agreed. 8. Verily those that disbelieve; this may refer to the un- 8 sue a m. believers generally; others say to the envoys from Najran, or the Jews, or the polytheist Arabs. there shall not . avail them their goods nor their children instead of God at all; i. e. instead of His mercy; or, instead of obedience to Him; giving min the sense of 'instead of 51 . Or, against His punishment 52 . and those are the food of the fire; i. e. what is to be burnt therein. Others read wuqudu meaning 'fit to be burned in it'. 9. Like the fashion of the people of Pharaoh; connected with the previous words, meaning 'it shall not avail them, just as it did not avail those'; or, 'it shall be kindled upon them, as it shall be kindled upon those'; or, a new clause , virtually in the nominative 53 , of which the full force is 'their fashion is like the fashion of the others in respect of unbelief and punishment' ; da bun is the infinitive of da aba, meaning 'to take trouble in work', whence it was transferred to the sense of 'business' 54 . and those that were before them; connected by the con- junction with 'people of Pharaoh'; or, some say, a fresh sentence. they belied our signs, and God took them for their sins; either a Ml in which qad is suppressed M ; or, a fresh sentence, to explain their character; or, predicate, if you make 'those that were before' subject. and God is a severe punisher ; showing the terrible nature of the punishment, and offering an additional menace to the unbelievers. 10. Say to them that disbelieve Ye shall be overcome and gathered into Hell; i.e. tell the polytheists of Mecca: Ye shall be conquered , on the day of Badr 56 . Others say : Tell the Jews; for the Prophet assembled them after Badr SURA OP THE FAMILY OF IMRAN. 9 in the street of the Banu Qainuqa 57 , where he warned them that the same would befall them as had befallen the Quraish ; and they said : 'Be not deceived because thou hast overcome tiros, who have no knowledge of war; if thou fight with us, thou shalt know that we are men'. Then this text was revealed r,s . And God ratified his promise by the slaughter of the Banu Quraizah 59 , and the exile of the Banu Nadir 60 , and the taking of Khaibar 61 , and the imposition of the tribute on the rest. And this is one of the evidences of Mohammed's mission 62 . Hamza and El-Kisa D i read 'they shall be conquered and gathered', making God command Mohammed to deliver to them the menace to them in the same words in which it was delivered to Mohammed. and a bad bed it is ; the end of the menace to them ; or else a fresh sentence. The complete expression would be 'a bad bed is Hell' or 'is what they have made for them- selves' 63 . 11. There has been a sign to you in two parties; addressed to the Quraish, or, the Jews, or, the Believers. that met together ; on the day of Badr. a party that fought in God's way, and another unbelieving who thought them twice their size; the Unbelievers thought the Believers twice the number of the Unbelievers, the numbers of the latter being nearly 1000; or, twice the number of the Muslims, who were somewhat over 310; this was after God had made the latter look less in the eyes of the former G4 , so that they were encouraged to attack them; but when they encountered them, the latter were multiplied in the eyes of the Unbelievers, so that they conquered, God thus reinforcing the Believers. — Or, the Believers thought the Unbelievers twice 10 SUEA III. the number of the Believers , when they were really three times their number, so that they faced them, and felt confident of the succour which God had promised them in the words 'if a hundred of you be patient, they shall conquer two hundred' (VIII. 67); and this is supported by the reading of Nafi c and Ya c qub 'whom ye thought'. 65 There are also two other readings : 'they or ye were made to see them' , meaning God made them (or you) see that by His power 66 . Some read jfatin (a party) in the geni- tive as permutative of jfataini (two parties), others jfatan as specializing accusative 67 ; or as a circumstantial phrase referring to the subject of 'met together' 68 . with the sight of the eye ; with clear face-to-face vision. and God supports with his succour whom He wishes; to aid, just as He supported the soldiers at Badr. Verily therein; in the diminution and multiplication of their numbers ; or , in the fact that a small number without equipment overcame a large number of well-armed men. The designation of it as 'sign' as well 69 will allow either of these interpretations, as well as a third viz. the event *alling out according to the Apostle's prophecy. there is indeed a warning to those that have eyes; an admonition to those who are possessed of intelligence; others sav, to those who saw them. 12. There has been beautified for men the love of lusts; i. e. of the objects of desire which he calls lusts for rheto- rical effect, and to indicate that they are so sunk in the love of them that they love the lust after them; as in XXXVIII. 31 'I love the love of good'. The beautifier is God in as much as he creates the acts and the motives ; and perhaps He beautifies them in order to try men, or that they may be a means of obtaining happiness in the SURA UP THE FAMILY OP C IMRAN. 11 next world, if carried out in a way which pleases God, or because that love is one of the causes of the maintenance of life and of the species. Others say the beautifier is Satan, 70 because the verse implies disapproval. El-Jubba'i made a distinction between the licit and the illicit 71 . such as women children talents of full weight of gold and silver fine horses and cattle and land; illustrations of the 'lusts', qmtarun means a large sum of money, some say 100,000 dinars 72 ; others an ox-hide-full. 73 It is a question whether the form is jilalun from qantara, or fin c dlun from qatara 74 . muqantaratun is derived from it and added for the sake of strengthening like badratun mubaddaratun for 'a complete badratun 75 . musawwamatun means 'marked' from saumatun 'a mark' ; or 'well-fed' from ^asdma or saw- wama 'to feed cattle'; or 'of strong build'. Cattle ^an c amun) includes camels, oxen, and sheep. that is the provision of the present existence ; 'that' the things mentioned. hut toith God is the best return; the words are an ex- hortation to commute empty and perishing lusts for the real and eternal pleasures that are with Him. 13. Sat/ : Shall I tell you of something better than that? confirmation of the fact that God's recompense is better than the pleasures of the world. for them that fear there are toith their Lord gardens beneath tvhich rivers flow, to abide for ever therein; a fresh sentence to illustrate the thing that is better. Or the 'for' of 'for them' may depend on 'better', so that 'gardens' in the nominative will imply the omission of the nominal- subject 'it is\ This latter view is supported by the reading janncdin (gardens) in the genitive, as a permutative of 'something better'. 12 sura. in. and wives that are cleansed ; from female pollution. and good will from God ; c Asim according to the record of Abu Bakr read rudwdnun for ridwanun (good will) throughout the Qur'an except the second time the word is used in Sura V (V. 18). These are optional forms. 76 and God has an eye to His servants', over their deeds, to reward the well-doer, and punish the ill-doer. Or, over the character of those who fear , and for this reason has prepared 'gardens' for them. And he calls attention in this verse to God's favours, of which the lowest is the provision of this world, and the highest the good will of God; as he says (IX. 73) 'and good will from God is greater' ; and the Garden with its delights is intermediate. 14. {Those) who say: our Lord, verily we believe, so forgive us our sins and keep from us the punishment of Hell ; epithet of 'those that fear', or of 'the servants', or accusative of praise 77 or nominative of praise. Their basing their request on the mere fact of their faith shows that faith is sufficient to merit forgiveness, or to prepare oneself for it 78 . 15. Who are patient, and who speak the truth and who obey and who spend their goods , and who ash forgiveness in the mornings', an inclusive account of the stages through which the religious man passes , excellently arranged. 79 His dealings with God are either acts of conciliation, or requests: the former are either in the soul, and consist in keeping it from vice, and attaching it to virtue — these are included in 'patience' ; or in the body, being either verbal (speaking the truth), or practical (obedience), or having to do with wordly goods (spending money in right ways); their requests are represented by the prayer for for- giveness ; since forgiveness is the greatest of the things they SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 13 ask, or rather includes them all. — The insertion of and before each member is to show that each of these acts is independent, and that they are perfect in it 80 ; or else is due to the fact that the persons described are not in all cases the same ; and the mornings are particularized because prayer then is more likely to be answered, worship being then more troublesome, and the soul purer 81 , and the mind more collected, especially in the case of the 'vigilant', who, it is said, used to pray until morning and then ask forgiveness and invoke blessings 82 . 16. God is witness that there is no God but He; He proves His unity by establishing the evidences which in- dicate it, and by revealing the texts that declare it. and the Angels; by confessing it. and those that a,re possessed of knowledge ; by faith therein , and by arguing it out. He compares these acts to the evidence of a witness, because by them the fact is made clear and evident. abiding by justice; causing justice to be established, in His distribution (of goods) and His judgments, qaiman (abiding) is in the accusative as being a circumstantial phrase of 'God' in the words 'God is witness'; and it is permissible to give the word 'God' a circumstantial phrase which does not apply to the other words connected with it, while you could not say 'Zaid and 'Amr came to me riding' (singular, applying to Zaid only), because in the present case there can be no confusion, just as there is none in Sura XXI. 72 83 . — Or, qaiman may be dependent upon 'He', governed either by a verb implied in the sen- tence, e. g. 'He stands alone, abiding', or '/ know Him, abiding', as being a confirmatory circumstantial phrase 84 . — Or, it may be the accusative of praise 85 ; or an adjective 14 SURA III. agreeing with °ilaha (God) the accusative after the nega- tive 8e ; but this is improbable , owing to the intervention of words between them 87 . If regarded either as an epithet of °Uaha, or as a circumstantial phrase depending upon huwa (He), it becomes part of the proposition to which witness is borne. — Others read ^Iqaimu (He who abides) either as permutative of huwa (He), or as the predicate of an understood subject. there is no God but He; repeated for the sake of em- phasis, and to make us more careful to know 88 the proof of the unity and acknowledge it when the evidence thereof is established; and also in order to help the construction of the following words the mighty, the wise; so that we might know that it is God to whom they apply. 'The mighty' is put first , because the knowledge of His power is prior to the knowledge of His wisdom; and the words are in the nominative as permu- tative of huwa, or as epithet of the subject of s/jahida. In reference to the importance of this text it is recorded 89 that the Prophet said: He that knows this text shall be brought on the day of the Eesurrection and God shall say 'This servant of mine has a convenant with me, and none keeps a covenant more faithfully than I: take my servant in to the Garden'. The verse shows the importance of the science of 'the Articles of Eeligion' 90 and the excellence of its professors. 17. Verily religion with God is Islam; fresh sentence, confirmatory of the last; no religion is acceptable with God save Islam, which consists in acknowledging the unity and embracing the code which Mohammed brought. El-Kisa 3 ! read *anna ('that' for 'verily'), making the sen- tence a permutative of *annahu (that there is) above; if SURA OF THE FAMILY OF IMRAN. 15 Islam be explained to mean 'faith' or what is implied by faith, the permutative will be coextensive 91 ; but if it be explained 'the Islamic code', then it will be comprehensive 92 . — Others read °innahu (verily there is) and °anna (that religion), making the latter sentence 'that religion before God is Islam' the object of the verb 'witnesses', all between being parenthetical; or else giving shahida (witness) the construction of quia (says) with the first 93 , that of c alima (knows) with the second sentence , since shahida has both these meanings. and those to whom the Book ivas given did not differ; those, i. e. Jews and Christians, or the possessors of the previous books , 'did not differ' i. e. concerning the Islamic religion, some saying it was the truth, others that it concerned the Arabs only, others absolutely rejecting it ; or else concerning the doctrine of the unity, since the Christians believe in three Persons, and the Jews say Ezra is the son of Grod 94 . Others say the people who dif- fered were the followers of Moses, who disputed after his death 95 ; others make them the Christians , who differed concerning the nature of Jesus. save after that knowledge had come to them; after they had learnt the truth of the matter, or become possessed of the means of knowing it , by texts and arguments. out of jealousy of each other ; envy of each other and desire for the supremacy, not because of any doubt or obscurity in the thing itself. and for him, that disbelieves the texts of God, verily God is quick at reckoning ; a warning to such of them as disbelieve. 18. So if they wrangle with thee ; on the subject of reli- gion , and contend with thee after thou hast established the evidences. 16 suka in. say : I have resigned my face to God ; I have given over my whole soul and all my person to Him : I give none other a share therein. This is the right religion whereof the evidences were established and to which the texts and the apostles summoned. 'Face' is used to express 'self, because the face is the most honourable of the external mem- bers of the body , and the theatre of the faculties and senses. and who so follows me ; connected by the conjunction with T ; an allowable construction 96 owing to the intervention of the word wajhl ; or else comitative accusative 97 . 19. And say to them to whom the Booh was given and to the illiterate; i. e. who have no book, such as the Arabian Polytheists. have ye resigned!' as I did, when the evidence was made clear to you. — Or, are ye still unbelievers? A similar passage is Y. 93 'and will ye stop' ? 98 The words contain a reproach to them for their folly or opposition. Then if they resign, they are guided; i.e. they have benefited their souls by withdrawing them from error. and if they turn bach, then thou hast only to preach; i. e. they will do thee no harm, since thou hast nought to do save to deliver thy message, and thou wilt have delivered it. and God is watchful over His servants; a promise and a threat. 20. Verily those that disbelieve the texts of God and hill the prophets without justice and slay those among 7nen who enjoin the right, announce to them a terrible punishment; 'those' are the people of the Book of his time; their ancestors had killed the Prophets and their followers, and they approved thereof and attempted to kill the Prophet and the Believers; only God protected them. A similar SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 17 passage occurs in the preceding sura. Hamza read wayuqatiluna (and fight with). Sibawaihi forbids the introduction of fa before the predicate of ^inna, as before that of laita and la c alla ; hence some make the predicate what follows 21. They are those whose works are lost in this world and in the next; making the sentence like 'Zaid — now mark — is a just man'. The difference however between °inna and those other particles is that 'inna does not alter the import of the nominal sentence , whereas they do alter it ". and they have no helpers; to avert punishment from them. 22. Hast thou not looked at those to whom a portion of the Booh has been brought? i.e. the Law, or the heavenly books generally. The min may be either partitive or speci- fying. The omission of the article with 'a portion' may be either honorific or contemptuous l0 °. They are called to the Book of God to judge between them ; the person who 'calls' them is Mohammed, and 'the Book of God' the Qur'an; or the Torah, according to the tradition 101 that he entered their Beth-hammidrash , where Nu c aim B. c Amr and El-Harith B. Zaid said to him: 'Of what religion art thou?' He answered: 'Of the religion of Abraham'. They said to him: 'But Abraham was a Jew'. He said: 'Bring me the Torah, for it shall judge between us'. This they refused to do. Then this verse was revealed. Others say , it was revealed at the stoning 102 . — Others read: liyuhkama (that judgment be made) with the pas- sive pointing, in which case the reference will be to their mutual disputes ,03 . The verse gives proof that oral evidences may be used as arguments on the principles of religion 104 . Then a section of them turn back; expression of sur- prise 105 at their turning back, when they know that it is their duty to return to it. 2 18 SURA III. being such as swerve aside; persons whose habit is to turn aside. The sentence is a circumstantial phrase depend- ing on 'a section', which is only permitted because that word is specialised by the epithet 'of them' loe . 23. That; their turning back, or their swerving aside. is because they said: The fire shall not touch us save for certain days ; because of their making light of the nature of the punishment, in accordance with this delusive belief and vain desire. and they were deceived in their religion by that which they were fabricating ; such as the fiction that the fire would not touch them save a few days; or that their fathers, the Prophets , would intercede for them ; or that God promised Jocob that he would not punish his children save so far as the fulfilment of His oath required ln7 . 24. And how , when we shall have assembled them for a day wherein is no doubt; figure expressing the greatness of the evil which shall encompass them and refuting their assertion 'the fire shall not touch us save a few days'. It is recorded that the first standard of the Infidels that shall be raised on the day of Judgment is the standard of the Jews 108 ; then God shall upbraid them in the presence of the witnesses and then order them to Hell. and every soul shall be paid what it wrought ; the recom- pense of what it wrought. This verse shows that service done is not lost; and the Believer will not be kept for ever in Hell, since the payment for his faith and his works cannot be given him in Hell nor before he enters it; con- sequently it must be given him after he is released from it ,09 . and they shall not be wronged; the pronoun refers to 'every soul', in accordance with the sense, since these words mean 'every man'. SURA OF TEE FAMILY OF "iMRAN. 19 25. Say: God! The m in illdrhumma (0 God!) is a substitute for the interjection yd, and for this reason the two are never found together un . This is one of the pecu- liarities of the name of God , as is the employment of yd ■with it while it has the article with fixing of its hamza and the prefixing to it of the t of adjuration m . Others m say , the original expression meant : '0 God , bring us what is good' ; then the yd , the affixes depending on the verb , and its hamza were dropped. owner of the sovereignty ; who controllest whatever can be controlled, like its owner. A second invocation 113 accord- ing to Sibawaihi in whose opinion the m of illdhumma prohibits its being regarded as an epithet. thou givest the sovereignty to whom thou wilt and with- drawest the sovereignty from whom thou wilt; thou givest thereof such portion as thou wilt to them, and likewise doest take it back. Sovereignty in the first case is universal, in the two last a portion of the first. Others say mulk means 'the prophetic office' 114 , and the withdrawal of it its transference from one nation to another 115 . and thou magnifiest whom thou wilt, and humblest whom thou toilt; in this world, or in the next, or in both, by giving victory and defeat, assistance and desertion. in thy hand is good , verily thou hast power over everything ; he mentions good only, since that is decreed essentially, whereas evil is only decreed per accidens UG , as there is no particular evil which does not contain some universal good. — Or in order to maintain due reverence in his address to the Deity m ; or because the subject which gave rise to this discourse was good 118 ; since it is recorded 119 that , when the Prophet marked out the Ditch 12 °, assigning forty cubits to each party of ten, and they began to dig, 20 stjra in. and a tremendous rock was found there on which the pickaxe had no effect, and they sent Salman m to the Pro- phet to tell him about it, then the Prophet came and took the pickaxe from him , and struck the rock a blow that split it, and a flash came forth therefrom which lighted up the space between the two La'ba's m of Medina , like a lamp in the middle of a dark room. The Prophet cried: Allah akbar , which the Muslims repeated after him ; then he said : 'The palaces of Hira m shine out before me by this light like dogs' teeth'. Then he struck a second blow, and said: 'The red palaces of the land of Greece shine out before me'. Then he struck a third blow and said: 'The palaces of San c a m shine out before me; and Gabriel has told me that my people shall conquer them all; receive ye the glad tidings.' Then said the Hypocrites : 'Are ye not amazed how he entices you and promises you false, telling you that he sees from Yathrib 125 the palaces of Hira , and that they are to be taken by you, while you are digging a trench in fear ?' Then the verse was revealed. — However he indicates that evil also is in His hand , by the addition : 'Thou hast power over everything'. 26. Thou plungest night into day and day into night , and extracted living from dead and dead from living, and feedest whom thou wilt, without reckoning; he subjoins a demonstra- tion of His power to alternate night and day, death and life, and of the extent of His goodness, in order to show that one who is able to do this is also able to alternate humility and greatness , and to give sovereignty and with- draw it. The verb walaja means 'to enter a narrow place' ; so that 'plunging' (squeezing) 'night into day' means intro- ducing one into the other alternately or gradually m ; while the extraction of living from dead and vice versa SURA OF THE FAMILY OF °IMRAN. 21 means the production of animals out of matter, and their destruction; or else the production of the animal from the seed, and the seed from the animal. — Others make it the production of the Believer out of the Unbeliever and the Unbeliever out of the Believer. — Ibn Kathir, Ibn c Amir Abu c Amr, and Abu Bakr read mayta (dead) in the shortened form. 27. Let not the Believers take to themselves the Unbelievers as friends; they are forbidden to befriend them in virtue of any relationship or friendship etc., dating from the days of Ignorance, in order that their loves and hates may be all in God; or to ask their aid in forays or other religious affairs 127 . in preference to the Believers ; indicating that the latter have the better claim to alliance, and that alliance with them renders alliance with the Unbelievers unnecessary. and who so does this; i. e. takes them for friends. is not in respect of God in anything ; in respect of alliance with God stands in no relation worthy to be called alliance. For alliance with two opponents canot have place in the same person. A poet says 12J : 'Thou lovest my enemy and pretendest that I am thy friend; folly is not far from thee'. unless ye fear from them a fear ; unless ye fear from them what it is necessary to beware of; or tuqatan may be infinitive 129 ; while min is employed to help the government of the verb, which has here the sense of hadhira or khafa 13 °. Ya'qub 131 read taqiyyatan. He forbids alliance with them , either ostensible , or real , at all times , except time of danger, when ostensible alliance is permit- ted, just as Jesus said: 'Be in the middle, but walk on one side' 13S . 22 sura in. and God bids you beware of Himself, and to Him is the rever- sion; so do not expose yourselves to His wrath by breaking His commandments and allying yourselves with His enemies. A powerful menace, showing the extreme wickedness of the thing forbidden. And he mentions Himself to let us know that the thing against which we are warned is a punishment to issue from Himself, in preference to which the danger threatened by the Unbelievers should not be considered. Say : If ye hide what is in your breasts , or reveal it , God knows it ; i. e. He knows your innermost intentions such as alliance with the Unbelievers and all else, whether you hide them or reveal them. and He knows what is in the heavens and what is on the earth ; so that He knows your secrets and what you manifest. and God is powerful over everything ; so that He is able to punish you if you do not refrain from what is forbidden you. The verse is an expansion of the words : 'God bids you beware of Himself, as though he had said 'He bids you beware of Himself, because that self has as one of its attributes essential knowledge, which comprehends all knowable things, and essential power, including all pos- sible things; venture not therefore to offend Him, since there is no offence which He does not know , and is not able to punish'. 28. The day whereon each soul shall find any good she did set before her, and any evil that she did, she shall wish there were between her and it a wide space ; yauma (day) is in the accusative of time after tawaddu , i. e. 'each soul on the day whereon " she finds the records (or the rewards) of her good and bad actions set before her, shall wish there were between her and that day with its terror a wide space', 133 or after a SURA OF THE FAMILY OF °IMRAN. 23 verb to be supplied like 'mention' 134 ; in which case tawaddu will be a hal depending on the pronoun in the second c amilat f 135 or else the predicate of ma c amilat, the force of 'shall find' being restricted to 'any good she did'; ma cannot be conditional, since tawaddu is in the indic- ative 13c . — Others read waddat, in which case ma may be conditional ; however the predicative construction ' 37 gives a more forcible sense, as being the narration of an actual event l38 , and corresponds better with the vulgate text. and God bids you beware of Himself ; repeated for emphasis and to impress it on the memory. and God is kindly to His servants; indication that God forbids them and warns them only out of mercy towards them and care for their welfare; or that He is capable both of forgiving and punishing, so that His mercy may be hoped for and His vengeance feared. 29. Say: If ye love God, then follow me; 'love' means the inclination of the soul towards anything, owing to some perfection perceived in it , great enough to incite the soul to a course which will bring it near to that thing I39 . And when a man knows that true perfection is in God only, and that anything in his soul or elsewhere which he regards as perfection is from God , in God and returning to God no , this necessitates the desire to obey Him, and the desire to do what will bring him near. For this reason 'love' has been interpreted 'desire to obey' i41 , and has been made M2 a ground for following the Prophet in worshipping God, and for eagerness to obey Him. God will love you and forgive you your sins ; apodosis to the imperative 'follow me', i. e. God will be satisfied with you and lift the veil from your hearts, by passing over your inadvertencies , and will bring you near to His glorious 24 btjea m. might , and restore you to the neighbourhood of His holi- ness. This he expresses by the word 'love' by way of metaphor or analogy. and God is forgiving, merciful; to those who have endeared themselves to Him by obeying Him and following the Prophet. — It is recorded that this text was revealed when the Jews said : 'We are the children of God and His beloved'; by others, that it was revealed in reference to the envoys of Najran, when they said: 'We worship Christ only out of love to God' ; others say , in reference to cer- tain contemporaries of the Prophet , who asserted that they loved God and were ordered to confirm their profession by their practice. Say: Obey God and the Apostle and if ye [or they] turn aside, verily God does not love the Unbelievers ; is not satis- fied with them and does not commend them. He does not say 'does not love them! for the sake of generalization^ 43 , and in order to show that 'turning aside' is unbelief, and from this aspect forfeits God's love; and that His love is the peculiar possession of the Believers. 30. Verily God chose Adam and Noah and the family of Abraham and the family of c Imran out of the worlds ; i. e. to be his Apostles and to possess certain spiritual and corporeal 144 privileges. Hence they were able to do things which were impossible for all besides them. After enjoining obedience to the Apostles and showing that such obedience attracts the love of God, he proceeds to enumerate their exploits, in order to encourage the hearer to obey. Some have used this text to prove that the Prophets are superior to the Angels. 145 By the family of Abraham are meant Ishmael, Isaac and their children, into the number of whom the Prophet Mohammed enters. The family of c Imran are Moses and SURA OF THE FAMILY OF "iMRAN. 25 Aaron, sons of Tmran B. Yashur, B. Kahath, B. Lawi, B. Jacob 146 ; or Jesus and his mother Maryam , daughter of c Imran B. Matthan, B. El- C azar, B. Abihud, B. Zarbabel, B. Salyan, B. Yuhanna, B. Ushia, B. Amun, B. Manashkan, B. Hazqa, B. Shaz, B. Yutham, B. c 0ziya, B. Yuram, B. Safat, B. Isha, B. Kaflm, B, Sulaiman, B. Dawud, B. Ishai, B. c Ubid, B. Salman, B. Ba c az, B. Nahshun, B. c Amyad, B. Earn, B. Hasrum, B. Faris, B. Yahudha, B. Jacob 147 . Between the two c Imran's there were 1800 years. descendants one from another ; hal or permutative of the word 'family', which occurs twice; or, of 'the two famil- ies' and Noah; meaning that the two were one stock, the former branching out from the latter. Others make the words 'one from another' refer to religion. U8 — dhwrrvyya- tun signifies 'offspring' and may be applied to one or many ; it is either of the form fvFliyyatun from the root dharra , 'to scatter', or fu c idatun from dharcba , 'to create', with substitution of y for the hamza , transformation of the w to y, and contraction of the two y'a. and God is one who hears and hioivs ; men's words and deeds, so that He chooses those whose words and deeds are right. — Or, one who heard the words of c Imran's wife, and knew her intention 31. When Q Imrdn , s wife said: Lord I vow to thee what is in my womb ; — in which case ^idh will be accusative after •heard and knew'. Others however make it accusative after a verb 'mention' to be supplied 149 . The woman referred to is Hannah, daughter of Faqudha , grandmother of Jesus. Now c Imran B. Yashur had a daughter Maryam older than Aaron, so that some suppose him to be the person whose wife is meant. But this is refuted by the fact that the guardian of this Maryam was Zacharia, who was a con- 26 SURA III. temporary of c Imran B. Matthan, and husband of his daughter D Isha c 15 °, Yahya and Jesus being sons of sisters on the father's side. — It is recorded 151 that she was old and barren, and while she was under the shade of a tree she saw a bird feeding its young ; and then she longed and yearned for a child, and said '0 God, I make this yow to thee; if thou providest me with a child, I will bestow him on the Temple , and he shall be one of its servants'. Then she conceived Maryam, and c Imran died. This form of vow was legal in their time in the case of boys; perhaps she made the vow on the assumption that it would be a male child, or asked for a male child 152 . set free ; set at liberty for its service. I will not occupy him with ought else. — Or, given up to worship. The word is accusative as being a hal. and accept from me; what I have vowed. verily thou art He that hears and knows; my speech and thought. and when she bore her, she said: My Lord, verily I have born her, a female ; 'her' refers to 'what was in her womb' above. The pronoun is feminine because the subject was female; and 'a female' is allowed to be in the accusative of the Ml after it, since the subject of the pronoun is known from the word 'female' to be female I53 ; for the circum- stantial phrase and that to which the circumstantial phrase belongs are essentially one 154 . — Or because 'her' is to be interpreted as referring to some feminine word like 'soul' or 'embryo'. — This she says to express her grief and anguish to her Lord, for she had hoped that it would be male, and for this reason vowed to free it. and God knew best what she bore; knew best about the thing which she had born 155 . Fresh proposition in the SURA OF THE FAMILY OF 'iMRAN. 27 mouth of God, intended to glorify the child, and show that the mother knew nothing of its worth. — Ibn c Amir, Abu Bakr after c Asim and Ya c qub read 'what I have born', making the sentence part of Hannah's speech, consoling herself, meaning: 'perhaps God has some mystery therein, or the female may be better'. — Others ,56 read 'what thou hast born', making the words an address from God to her. and the male is not as the female ; interpretation of the words 'and God knew best', meaning that the male she desired was not as the female she got; the article being that of familiarity in both cases — Or the words may be Hannah's, with the sense: 'the male and the female are not indifferent 157 in the matter of my vow' ; in which case the articles will be generic. and I call her Mary am ; connected by the conjunction with Hannah's foregoing words , all between being parenthe- tical. She states this to her Lord only in order to intercede with Him and beg that He will protect and prosper the child , so that her acts may correspond with her name : for 'Maryam' in their language means 'the worshipper' I58 . The passage proves that the name, the person named and the naming are different things 159 . and verily, I put her and her seed under thy protection from Satan the accursed; the rejected; rajama originally means 'to pelt with stones' 16 °. It is recorded 161 that the Prophet said: 'not a child is born, but Satan touches it, when it is born, so that it bursts into a cry; except Maryam and her son'. The meaning is that Satan desires to mislead every child that is born in such a way that the child is affected thereby, except Maryam and her son, whom God protected by virtue of this invocation ,e2 . 28 sura in. 32. And her Lord accepted her ; and was satisfied with her in place of the male for the fulfilment of the vow. with a fair acceptance ; meaning 163 a fair way of accepting offerings , with reference to her being substituted for a male child , or her being received shortly after her birth , before she was big enough to be keeper of the Temple. — It is recorded 164 that when Hannah bore her she wrapped her in swaddling clothes and carrying her to the place of worship, set her before the Doctors , saying : 'Take this offering'. The Doctors then strove with one another for her , because she was the daughter of their highpriest and sacrificer; now the family of Matthan were the chiefs and kings of the children of Israel. Then Zacharia said : 'I have the best right to her , since her mother's sister is my wife'. But they refused to listen to anything but the lot; now they were 27 in number. Then they went off to a river and threw in their pens, and the pen of Zacharia floated, whereas the others sank. So he became her guardian. — The word qabulan may be infinitive if we supply something for it to depend on, e. g. 'with something which contained a fair welcome' ; and taqabbala may stand for istaqbala, like taqassay &n&ta c ajjala for the X th form of those verbs, meaning 'He welcomed her as soon as she was born with a fair welcome' 165 . and reared her well ; metaphorical expression, 16e signifying that she was brought up in a way that would prosper her in all her concerns. and Zacharia was her guardian; Hamza, El-Kisa'l and c lsim read kaffala and ZaJcariyya (except c isim according to Ibn c Ayyash), making God agent, and Zacharia object, the whole meaning that God made him guardian to her, and manager of her affairs; the remaining readers read kafala and Zakariyycfu. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 29 whenever Zacharia came unto her to the shrine ; the chamber which had been built for her ; or, the place of worship ; or, the most holy and exalted place therein , called mihrabun, because it was the place where Satan was fought with 187 . We are to suppose that she was placed in the holiest part of the Temple. he found provision by her ; apodosis of kullama (whenever), which is put in the accusative after it. — It is recorded that no one save him went to see her, and that, when he went out, he would lock seven doors upon her; and he used to find by her the fruits of the winter in summer, and vice versa. he said: Mart/ am, whence hast thou this? this provision, which comes in the wrong season , while the doors are locked upon thee. — This is evidence of the possibility of spon- taneous miracles being wrought for the benefit of the saints. The theory that it was Zacharia's miracle is refuted by the fact that he was puzzled by it ,68 . She said: This is from God; so be not surprised. It is said that she spoke, when small 169 , like Jesus, and never sucked the breast; her nourishment being sent down from Paradise. verily God provides for whom Re will without reckoning ; without fixing its amount; or, without its being earned, as a free gift. This may be part of Maryam's speech, or of God's. — It is recorded that Fatima brought the Prophet two cakes and a piece of meat, which the Prophet gave back to her, saying: 'Take them, my daughter'; then she uncovered the dish , and , lo , it was full of bread and meat. He said to her: 'Whence hast thou this?' She said: 'It is from God ; verily God provides for whom He will, without reckoning.' He said : Praise be to God , who has made thee 30 sura in. like the chief of the women of Israel. Then he gathered c Ali and El-Hasan and El-Husain and all his household, and they ate their fill, and the food still remained undiminished, so that Fatima gave of it to her neighbours. 33. There Zacharia invoked his Lord; in that place , or time; since the words huna (here), tkamma (there), haitku (where), may all he metaphorically applied to time; signifying, when he saw the miracle performed for Maryam's sake and her rank with God. saying: My Lord give me from thee good offspring ; as thoa gavest the old and barren Hannah. It is said that, when he saw the fruits at the wrong reason, he awoke to the possibility of children being born to an old man and a barren woman; so he prayed, saying: 'My Lord, give it me from thee', because it would not be given in the or- dinary ways or by the accustomed means. verily, thou art the hearer of prayer ; the answerer of it. then the angels called to him ; i. e. some of the class of the angels; like the expression: 'Zaid rides (the) horses', i.e. certain of them. The one who called him was Gabriel only 17 °. Hamza and El-Kisa/ 5 ! read fanddiihu with modifica- tion in the masculine. while he was standing praying in the shrine ; standing in prayer. 'Praying' is either an epithet of 'standing', or a second predicate 171 , or circumstantial phrase, or a circumstantial phrase depending on the pronoun in qofimun (standing). 34. That God announces unto thee Yahya; object of 'called'. — Nafi c , Hamza and Ibn c lmir read *inna, 'verily', supplying in thought the word 'saying', or making 'calling' a species of utterance 172 . Hamza and El-Kisa'i read yabshuruka. Yahya is a foreign name; if it be regarded as Arabic , then it is diptote as being 1) defined, 2) a verbal form. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 31 who shall confess to a word from God; i.e. Jesus; called 'a word', because he came into existence by God's com- mand m without a father, so that he resembled the new creations , who are the world of command 174 . — Or 'con- fess to God's book', which is called a word, just as a poem of Huwaidirah 173 was called his 'word'. and shall be a Lord; shall be chief of his people and surpass them. And indeed he was superior to all mankind in that he never had an evil thought. and continent; shall preserve his soul to the utmost from lusts and enjoyments. It is recorded that in his youth he passed by some lads who asked him to play with them; but he said: 'I was not created for play'. 176 and a Prophet of the pious ; sprung from them; or, one of those who commit neither capital nor minor offences. 35. He said: My Lord, whence shall there be to me a boy? regarding it as improbable ; or, marvelling and wondering ; or, asking how it should come about. when old age has reached me ; overtaken me and left its mark on me. He was 99 years old, and his wife 98. and my wife is barren; from c aqara to cut off; such a woman being 'cut off' " 7 from child-bearing. he said: Like that God does what He will; He does mir- acles like that deed , viz. the production of children from a decayed old man and a barren old woman; or, 'even so', i. e. : whilst thou and thy wife are old and childless as ye are, God will do what He will in the way of creating chil- dren; or, 'like that' and 'God' are predicate and subject, meaning 'God is of this sort', of which 'He does what He will' is an explanation; or, 'like that' is predicate of an omitted subject, meaning 'the matter is so'; of which the words: 'God does what He will' are an explanation. 32 SURA III. 36. He said: My Lord, give me a sign; whereby I shall know of the conception and may welcome it with cheerful- ness and gratitude, and which may allay the pain of expectation. he said: Thy sign is that thou shalt not speak to mankind three days; that thou shalt not be able to speak to them for three days. He refrained from addressing mankind during that time, in order to devote it all to making mention of and thanking Glod, in order to pay his obligation; in other words: 'thy sign is, that thou shalt refrain thy tongue from all but thanksgiving'. Now the best sort of answer is that which is derived from the question. m save by gestures; with the hand, for example, or the head; ramzun means properly 'motion', whence ramuzun is applied to the sea. The exception is 'heterogeneous' 179 ; some however say it is 'homogeneous', interpreting 'speech' as anything that indicates the thought; — others read: ramazan, 'making signs', plural of ramizun, like kkadamun of kkddimun, or rumuzan, plural of ramuzun, like rusulun of rasulun; making the word a hal referring to both 'him' and 'mankind', with the sense 'making signs to each other' ; the construction being like that of the verse : 'whensoever thou meetest me , both alone , the extrem- ities of thy buttocks shake and tremble'. 18 ° and make much mention of thy Lord; in the days when thy tongue is tied; confirming what preceded, and explain- ing the object of the injunction. The qualification of the command by 'much' shows that the imperative by itself does not imply repetition. ,8 ' and praise Him in the evenings; from the afternoon until sunset; others say: from the time when the sun be- comes red, or sunset, until the first part of the night is past. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF °IMRAN. 33 and the morning j from the rise of dawn until midday. Some read °abkari which would be plural of bakarwi like ^ashurun from saharun. 37. And when the angels said: Mary am, verily God has chosen thee and purified thee and chosen thee above the women of the worlds ; they addressed her face to face , thereby per- forming a spontaneous miracle in her honour ; those however who deny the doctrine of spontaneous miracles maintain that this was Zacharia's miracle 182 , or a sign 183 foresho- wing the Prophetic office of Jesus , since it is agreed that God never gave the right of prophecy to a woman 184 , owing to the words in xii. 109 'we have sent none before thee but men'. — Others say the angels put it into her thoughts. — The first 'chosen' refers to God's receiving her from her mother whereas no female had been accepted before her, and her being given up to the divine service and her being rendered independent of labour by sustenance from paradise ; her 'being purified' refers to purification from female pollution; the second choosing refers to her being guided, and the mission of the angels to her, and her beiug distinguished by certain privileges, such as parturi- tion without a father, and her being declared innocent of the accusations launched at her by the Jews through the child being made to speak 185 and her and her son being made a sign to the worlds. 38. Mary am , obey thy Lord and prostrate thyself and incline with them that incline; she is enjoined to pray in public 186 , and the canons ,87 of prayer are mentioned in order to say stress on their accurate observance. — The 'prostration' is put before the 'inclination' 188 either because that was the rule in their law; or to call attention to the fact that the copulative conjunction does not necessarily 34 stjka in. imply order 189 ; or to couple the word 'incline' with the words 'with those that incline' in order to show that those who do not 'incline' in their prayer do not really pray. 19 ° — Some say that qunutun signifies 'constant service' as in xxxix. 12 l91 , sujudun 'prayer' as in l. 39, and ruku'un 'humility' and resignation. 39. This is one of the secret histories we reveal it unto thee; i. e. the histories we have recorded are mysteries which thou knowest only by revelation. and thou wast not with them when they cast their reeds; their arrows wherewith they drew lots. Some say they cast lots with the pens wherewith they wrote the Law, for luck. The purpose of the verse is to enforce the fact of its being revelation, by ridiculing those who deny this; for the only ways in which events can be known are witnessing them or hearing of them; now that Mohammed had not heard of them was well known, nor did the unbe- lievers question it; consequently they must have imagined it possible that he had witnessed them; which however no rational being could suppose. which of them should be Mary 'am '$ guardian; depending on a verb omitted l92 , but suggested by the word 'cast their reeds', i. e. i in order to know which of them' etc.; or, 'saying ,93 which of them shall be Maryam's guardian?' nor toast thou ivith them when they wrangled ; each desiring to be her guardian. 40. When the angels said ; permutative of the first 'when the angels said', the intervening words being a digression; or of c when they wrangled', meaning that the occurrence of the wrangling and the annunciation took place over an extended period, as when you say 'I met him in such- and-such a year' ,94 . SURA OP THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 35 Mary am verily God announces unto thee a word from Him whose name is the Messiah 'Isd son of Mary am ; 'the Messiah' is his surname, being a title of honour, like El- siddlq 195 . Its original form in Hebrew ,96 is mashiha, meaning 'the blessed', and ( Isa is an arabized form of Ishu' l97 . The derivations of the two words from masaha Ho rub' because he was anointed with a blessing ,08 , or with something that cleansed him from sin, or because he traversed the earth, not remaining in one place, or because Gabriel caressed him, and of 'Isa from 'ayasnn which means white with a shade of red '" are tours de force of no value ; and since 'Son of Maryam' is an epithet which distinguishes in the same way as a name distinguishes, it is treated as a name; nor is a multitude of predicates inconsistent with a subject in the singular; for that is a common noun annexed to a genitive 20 °. — It is also pos- sible that the meaning may be that that whereby he is to be known and distinguished from others consists in these three; for the name is the badge of the thing named, and that which distinguishes it from all else. — It is also possible that 'Isa is predicate of an omitted subject 201 , and that 'son of Maryam' is an epithet of it 202 . 'Son of Maryam' is said , although she is the person addressed , only to call attention to the fact that he will be born without a father, since children are called after the father, and not the mother, except where the father is not known 203 . eminent in this loorld and the next ; potential hal 204 , depen- ding upon 'a word', which has epithets attached, although it has not the article 205 ; in the masculine according to the sense. The 'eminence' in this world is the prophetic office , in the next the right of intercession 206 . and one of those who are brought near; unto God. Ac- 36 SURA III. cording to some what is intended is the high place he is to have in paradise; or his being raised to heaven, and the society of the angels 207 . and he shall speak to mankind in the cradle and grown up ; i. e. in the condition of an infant and in that of a grown man he shall speak to them the language of the prophets without variation 208 . mahdun is properly an infinitive, turned into a noun, meaning the bed laid for an infant. It is said that he was taken into heaven when a child, so that the words 'and when he is grown up' mean after his descent 209 . He specifies the different stages of his existence, in order to show that he is destitute of divinity. and one of the saints; third hal of 'a word' ; or hal of the pronoun in 'he shall speak' which refers to it. 42. She said: my Lord, whence shall I have a child, when no man has touched me ; expression of natural surprise or of abhorrence , or inquiry whether it would be by wedlock or how. He 'said: Like that God creates what He will; the speaker is Gabriel or God 210 ; in the latter case Gabriel will be narrating to her the words of God. when He decides a matter He merely says to it Be and it is; to show that just as G-od is able to create things in stages by causes and with matter, so He is able to create them directly without. 43. And we shall teach him the writing and toisdom and the Law and the Gospel; a fresh topic, introduced to ease her mind and to banish fears of censure that may have troubled her when she knew that she should bear without a husband; — or, annexed by the conjunction to 'announce marriage; or to 'eminent'. — The 'writing' means 'the art of writing', or the revealed books generally, of SUKA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 37 which two owing to their preeminence are afterwards spe- cialised. Nafi' and 'Asim read 'and he shall teach him' in the 3 rd person. and an Apostle to the Children of Israel: that I have brought yon a sign from your Lord; rasulan is in the accu- sative after a suppressed verb , with the sense of the verb 'to say' ; when the full expression will be 'and he shall say And I am sent as a messenger with the news that I have brought you' 211 ; or, as being connected by the conjunction with the preceding hals, itself containing the sense 'pronouncing' ; in other words , 'and pronouncing that I am come'. — The children of Israel are particularized owing to his mission being peculiarly to them , or to refute those who asserted that he was sent to others 212 . that I will create for yon out of the clay like the form of a bird 213 ; either accusative as permutative of the pre- ceding 'that', or genitive as permutative of 'a sign', or nominative if we make the construction 'that sign is that I have brought'. — The meaning is 'I will form and fashion 214 for you something like the form of a bird'. Nan' read } » 'verily I' for 'that I'. and I will blow upon it; the pronoun refers to the thing 'like' ; i. e. I will blow upon that counterfeit. and it shall become a bird by the will of God ; and it shall become alive and flying by God's command. He indicates thereby that it is God , not he, who makes it live. Nafi' read here and in Sura V tairun for tayrun. and I will heal the blind and the leprous ; the born blind, or one whose eye is affected 2I5 . It is recorded that thousands of the sick used to gather to him ; those of them who were able , came to him , while to those who were unable Jesus came; and he healed by prayer only. 38 SURA III. and I will raise the dead to life by the will of God ; he repeats 'by the will of God' in order to refute the fancy of those who maintain his divinity. For raising to life does not belong to the class of human actions 2 ' 6 . and I will tell you of what ye eat, and tohat ye store up in your houses ; i. e. your most secret affairs concerning which you do not doubt. verily therein is a sign for you, if ye he believers ; if ye be guided to faith. Others are not helped by the miracles. — Or, confessors of the truth, not opponents of it. 44. And confessing to the Law that was before me; con- nected by the conjunction with 'an Apostle', however that be taken; or, accusative after a suppressed verb, in- dicated by 'I am come to you', i. e. 'and I am come to you confessing'. and to make laioful for you; to be interpreted by the suppression of such a verb; or, to be referred back to the words 'that I have brought you a sign' 2I7 ; or, connected by the conjunction with the sense of the word 'confessing', as when you say 'I have come to you excusing myseli and to satisfy you' 218 . part of that which was made unlawful for you ; in the Law of Moses; such as the suet, the fat about the entrails 219 , fish, camel's flesh and work on the sabbath-day. This shows that his Code superseded that of Moses. This does not prevent its 'confirming the Law', just as the fact that parts of the Qur'an supersede each other does not make it self-contradicting, and self-destructive; for 'superseding' in reality means explanation , and specification of the time to which a command applies 220 . and I have brought you a sign from your Lord: so fear God and obey me; verily God is my Lord and your Lord, SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 39 so serve Him; this is a straight path; i.e. I have brought you another sign, which your Lord taught me; and that is my saying 'God is my Lord and yours'; for that is the true proclamation, whereon the apostles are agreed, and which distinguishes the Prophet from the sorcerer. — Or, I have brought you a sign to prove S21 that God is my Lord and yours, in which case the words 'so fear God and obey me' will be parenthetical. Most probably they are a repetition of the words above 'I have brought you', i. e. I have brought you sign after sign, such as I have men- tioned to you; the first being to prepare the way for the argument, and the second to bring it into proximity with the injunction; and for this reason he appends the latter to the former by the particle fa c so', saying 'so fear God', i. e. since I have brought you convincing miracles and evident signs, therefore fear God in case you disobey, and obey me in that to which I invite you. — Then he com- mences the invitation which is indicated by the concise expression 'verily God is my Lord and your Lord', implying that they should seek to perfect their intellectual power by the true belief, the sum of which is the doctrine of the Unity; adding 'so serve him', to indicate that they should endeavour to perfect their practical abilities, which is to be done by assiduous piety, consisting in performance of the commands, and abstinence from things forbidden. Then he emphasizes this by explaining that the conjunction of these two things is the 'path' which he testifies to be 'straight'. — Similar to this is the saying of the Prophet 222 . 'Say I believe in God: then keep straight'. 45. And when Jesus perceived unbelief on their part; when he was convinced of their unbelief with the conviction of a thing perceived by the senses. 40 sura m. he said: who are my helpers unto Gocll i. e. 'fleeing unto God', or 'going unto Him', or 'joining unto Him' 223 — ; or, the preposition may depend on 'my helpers', if that word contain the idea of attaching, i. e. who are those who attach themselves to God in giving me aid 224 . — Others give 'unto' here the meaning 'with' 225 or 'in' or 'belonging to'. the Apostles said; a man's hawari Zi% is his sincere friend , taken from kawarun which means 'pure white'. Thence too come hawariyyatun applied to the women of the cities, owing to the clearness of ther complexions. The followers of Jesus were so named owing to the purity of their minds and the holiness of their thoughts. — Others say they were Jewish princes, clad in white, whose assistance Jesus invoked; others say 'fullers', who cleansed garments, i.e. whitened them. 227 We are the helpers of God; i.e. helpers of His religion. we believe in God and bear thou witness that we are Muslims ; do thou bear witness for us on the day of the Resurrec- tion when the Apostles testify for or against their peoples. 228 46. Our Lord we believe in what thou hast revealed, and toe follow the Apostle, so write us with them that testify; with those that testify to thy unity. — Or with the Pro- phets who testify to their followers; or, with the people ot Mohammed ; for they are witnesses against mankind. 229 47. And they plotted; those of the Jews whose unbelief he had perceived; by putting him in the charge of one who should kill him treacherously. and God plotted; in raising Jesus 23 °, and throwing the semblance of him upon him who plotted his destruction, who was killed. Now 'plotting' in so far as it properly signifies forming a scheme whereby some one else is drawn SURA OF THE FAMILY OF "iMRAN. 41 into mischief cannot be ascribed to God except by way of correspondence and combination. 231 and God is the best of plotters; the most powerful of them in plotting , and the best able to produce the mischief whence it is not expected. 232 48. When God said; temporal clause depending on 'plotted', 'best of plotters', or a suppressed clause like 'this hap- pened when'. Jesus verily I will achieve thee; i. e. achieve the whole of thy term, and cause thee to tarry till thy appointed end, by protecting thee from their murderous onslaught- 233 — ■ Or, 'take thee from the earth', the verb in the text being used in the sense of calling in money. — Or, 'take thee to myself, sleeping', since it is recorded that he was taken up sleeping. 234 — Or , destroy in thee the lusts which hinder ascent to the world of spirits. 235 — Some say that God let him die for seven hours, and then raised him to heaven; and this is held by the Christians. and raise thee unto me ; to the place of my glory 236 and the abode of my angels. and cleanse thee from those toho disbelieve; from their unkindness, or their assaults. and set those who followed thee above those who disbelieved until the Bay of the Restirrection ; they shall prevail over them by argument or by the sword in the majority of cases. 'Those who followed him' are the Muslims and Christians who believed in his mission, and to this day we have never heard of the Jews prevailing over them, neither have they ever obtained sovereignty or empire. then your return shall be to me; 'your' means thai of Jesus, his followers and those who disbelieved in him. The second person is given the preference over the third. 237 42 SURA III. and I will judge between you of that wherein ye were at variance; in religious questions. 49. And as for those that disbelieved I shall punish them severely in this world and the next, and they shall have no helpers; 50 but as for them that believed and wrought righteous- ness , we shall pay them their rewards; interpretation and partition of the 'judgment'. Hafe read 'he shall pay them'. and God does not love the wrong-doers • confirmation of the preceding. 51. That; referring to the stories of Jesus etc. which preceded. It is a subject of which what follows we read it to thee - is predicate; and what follows of the signs ; is a hal depending on the pronoun 'it'. Or '[is] of the signs' may he predicate, and 'we read it to thee' [= being read unto thee] a hal, governed by the idea of 'we point to' contained in the demonstrative 'that'. 238 — Or, both may be predicates. — Or, 'that' may be virtually in the accusative after a suppressed verb , to be supplied from 'we read it'. 239 and the wise record; i. e. the record which embraces various forms of wisdom; or the 'elaborate', which is di- vinely guarded 240 against the intrusion of flaws. — He means thereby the Qur'an or the Tablet. 52. Verily the likeness of Jesus with God is as the likeness of Adam; his wonderful nature is like that of Adam. God formed 7dm from mould; sentence explaining the comparison and showing wherein the resemblance lay; and this is his being created without a father, just as Adam was created without father or mother. God compares his nature to a thiug yet stranger, in order to silence the opponent , and to destroy the ground for false conceptions. — The meaning is he created his frame from the mould 241 . SURA OF THE FAMLY OF 'iMIlAN. 43 then He said to him Be; he created him a man, as he says 'then we produced him with a fresh creation' (xxiii. 14). Or, he ordained his formation out of mould, then formed him 242 . Possibly 'then' refers to the interval in the nar- ration rather than between the events narrated 243 . and he shall be ; the speaker puts himself into the past time. 53. The truth from thy Lord; predicate of an omitted subject, viz 'that' is. Others make 'the truth' subject, and 'from thy Lord' predicate , i. e. the truth that has been related is from God. so be not one of those who doubt ; address to the Prophet, urging him to still greater steadfastness 244 ; or, to every hearer. 54. And they that argue with thee; those Christians that do so. concerning him; Jesus. after the knoivledge that has come to thee; the clear evi- dences which necessitate knowledge. say to them Come; bring hither your opinion and your resolve 24s . let us call our sons and your sons , our wives and your wives , ourselves and yourselves ; let each of us summon him- self and the most precious of his household, and those of them that are nearest to his heart, to a mutual execration, and set about it 2A6 . And he mentions them before the man's self, because a man will stake his life for their sake, and fight to defend them. then let us curse each other; let us make a mutual exe- cration by cursing the one of us that lies, bahlatun or buhlatun means 'a curse' , its original meaning being 'to leave' U7 , as when one leaves a she-camel without an udder-band. 44 sura m. and set the curse of God upon the liars; explanatory ad- dition. It is recorded 248 that when they were challenged to the mutual execration , they said 'let us consider' ; and when they had conferred they said to their vice-roy 249 , who was their counsellor, what thinkest thou? He said 'By Allah ye know that he is a Prophet and he has brought you the truth concerning the nature of your master 250 ; by Allah , no nation has ever execrated a Prophet hut has perished. If therefore you refuse to do aught but maintain 250 your religion 251 , then make terms with the man'. Then they left him, and came to the Prophet, who had started out, with Husain in his arms, and holding Hasan by the hand , with Fatima walking behind , and Ali behind her. And he was saying 'when I call, then say Amen'. Then their Bishop 253 said: Ye company of Christians , I see persons, who, if they asked God to remove a moun- tain from its place, God would remove it. Do not there- fore execrate each other and perish. So when they humbled themselves before the Prophet of God, and gave him the tribute, two thousand red chemises and thirty breastplates of steel, the Prophet said: By Him in whose hand is my soul, if they had execrated, they would have been transformed into monkeys and swine; the valley would have been kindled into fire upon them, and God would have rooted out Najran and its people, to the trees. This is evidence of his prophetic power, and of the excellence of those members of his household whom he brought. 254 55. Verily this; the account of Jesus and Maryam just given. it [is] the true narrative; the words taken together may be the predicate oVinna 255 , or else huwa may be the separating pronoun , showing that his account of the nature of Jesus SURA OF THE FAMILY OF °IMRAN. 45 is the truth rather than their account, what follows huwa being the predicate. The I is prefixed to the separating pronoun, because it is nearer to the inchoative than the predicate is, and it naturally should be prefixed to the inchoative 250 . and there is no God but God; the full form 2 " with the mm which is added for universalization is here employed in order to emphasize the refutation of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. and verily God is the mighty, the wise; there is none beside Him to equal Him in perfect power and consum- mate wisdom, so as to be His partner in the godhead. 56. And if they decline, well, God is cognizant of the corrupters ; menace to them. The substantive (/the corrupters') is substituted for the pronoun ('them') in order to show that to reject the evidences and to repudiate the doctrine of the Unity constitute corruption 238 of religion and faith , which leads to corruption of the soul, and, indeed, to the destruction of the world. 57. Say: ye people of the Book; including the people of both Books. Some say he means the envoys from Najran, or the Jews of Medina. come to a loord that is equal between us and you ; wherein there is no variance between the Apostles and the Books; explained by what follows. that we shall worship none but God; that we shall proclaim His unity in our worship and worship sincerely. and that we shall associate nothing with Him; we shall make none other His fellow in deserving worship, nor regard any other as fit to be worshipped. and that we shall not adopt each other as lords besides God; and not say that Ezra is the son of God, nor that Christ is the son of God nor obey the Jewish doctors in 46 STJRA III. their inventions concerning things lawful and unlawful ; for each one of them is only one of us, and human like us. It is recorded 239 that when the verse (ix. 31) 'They have adopted their doctors and their monks as lords beside God' was revealed, 'Adi B. Hatim 260 said We are not wont to worship them, Apostle of God. Mohammed answered Used they not to declare some things lawful and others unlawful for you, and did you not hold to their word? He said Yes; Mohammed said That is it. and if they reject; the doctrine of the Unity. then say Bear witness that we are Muslims ; the argument holds you , so confess that we rather than you are Muslims. Or, Confess that you disbelieve what the Books declare, and that on which the Apostles are agreed. Note. Observe in this story the catechetical skill employed and the beau- tiful stages in the polemizing process. First he explains the circumstances of Jesus, and the events passing over him which contradict his godhead. Then he states what will solve their difficulties and clear away their false notions. Then , when he sees their opposition and litigiousness, he invites them to the mutual execration , with a rhetorical figure 201 . Then, when they declined that, and partly yielded, he once more endeavoured to instruct them, going an easier and more convincing way, by summoning them to accept the doctrine whereon he , Jesus , the Gospel and all the Books and Apostles were agreed; but when this too did not help them, and he knew that signs and preaching would not avail them, he relinquished the task, saying merely, Bear witness that we are Muslims. 58. Ye people of the Bool, wherefore wrangle ye concerning Abraham, when the Law and the Gospel loere not revealed save after him? The Jews 2G2 and Christians quarreled SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IM11AN. 47 over Abraham, each sect maintaining that he belonged to them; so they referred the matter to the Prophet, when the text was revealed. The meaning is that Judaism and Christianity were instituted by the revelation of the Law and the Gospel to Moses and Jesus respectively; now Abraham lived 1000 years before Moses and 2000 before Jesus 263 . How then can he have belonged to either sect? will ye not understand? but proclaim an absurdity. 59. See, ye are these, who have argued concerning that whereof ye have knowledge : so ivhy should ye argue concerning that whereof ye have no knowledge? ha is a particle ot calling attention. Their attention is called by it to their condition, of which they were careless. 'Ye' is subject, 'these' predicate, and 'ye have argued' another sentence explaining the first , i. e. 'ye are such fools' 2fU . And the explanation of their folly is 'Ye have contended concerning that whereof ye have knowledge', viz. what ye have found in the Law and the Gospel, in order to oppose, or, what you profess to be recorded therein; why then should you argue concerning that whereof you have no knowledge, and which is not recorded in your book, such as the religion of Abraham ? Others 265 say haulai has here the sense of elladlmia, and that hajajtum is its relative clause. — Others 266 say haantum is for ^a'antum, being a question of surprise at their folly, the hamza being turned into h 2G7 . Nan' and Abu 'Amr read hantum wherever it occurs , with madda and without hamza ; Warsh 268 with a less protracted madda , Qunbul 269 with hamza without elit after the h (liaantuni), the rest with madda and hamza (haantum), El-Bazzi with the ordinary pronunciation of the madda • 70 . and God knoivs • that concerning which ye dispute. 48 SURA III. and ye know not; and ye are ignorant about it. 60. Abraham was not a Jew, nor yet a Christian' clear statement of the result of the arguments established. but he was a Hantf 271 ; one who rejected false doctrines. a Muslim; one who obeyed God. The meaning is not that he belonged to the Islamitic sect; otherwise he would be liable to the same refutation 272 . and he was not one of those that associate; insinuation that they do 'associate' with God Ezra, or Christ. An answer to the pretension of the Polytheists that they follow the sect of Abraham. 61. Verily the nearest of mankind to Abraham; the men to whom he most belongs, and who are nearest of kin to him from walay which means 'to be near'. 273 are those that followed him • of his people. 274 and this Prophet, and they that believe; since they agree with him in most of what was commanded them afresh. 275 — Others read 'Prophet' in the accusative making it coupled by the conjunction with 'him'; others read the genitive, coupling it with 'Abraham'. and God is the ally of the Believers; helps them and gives them good recompense for their faith. 62. Fain would a party of the people of the Booh mislead you; revealed concerning the Jews when they invited yudhaifa 276 , 'Ammar and Mu'adh to Judaism, lau has here the sense of °an 277 . but they shall mislead none save themselves ; their misleading shall not go beyond them, and the evil thereof shall not redound upon others , since their punishment shall be doubled thereby. — Or , they shall mislead none but those like them. but they do not feel; the sin thereof, and how the mischief falls peculiarly on them. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 49 63. Ye people of the Booh , ivhij do ye disbelieve the signs of God? what the Law and the Gospel utter, proving the mission of Mohammed. while ye testify ; that they are the signs of God. — Or, the Qur'an, when ye have before you the description thereof 278 in the two books, — Or, when ye know by miracles that it is true. 64. Ye people of the Book, why confuse ye the true with the false? by mutilating it, and publishing the false in its form. Or, by insufficiently distinguishing between the two. — Others read the II nd conjugation , or the intransitive of the I 8t , with the meaning 'why put ye on the true with the false', like the words of the Prophet 'like him that putteth on two garments of falsehood' 279 . and hide the truth; the mission of Mohammed and the description of him 280 . when ye know; are cognizant of what ye hide. 65. And a party of the people of the Book said Believe ye in that which ivas revealed to the Believers at the beginning of the day ; display your belief in the Qur'an at the be- ginning of the day. and disbelieve at the end of it. Perhaps they will return; and disbelieve it at the end thereof. Perhaps they will feel doubts concerning their religion , thinking that ye have come back owing to some flaw which ye have perceived therein. The party referred-to are Ka'b 281 B. El-Ashraf, and Malik B. Es-saif, who said to their fellows when the Qiblah was changed 282 Believe what has been revealed to them concerning prayer towards the Ka'bah and pray facing it at the beginning of the day , then at the end of the day pray facing the Eock 283 ; perhaps they may say 'They know better than we, and have gone back', and so will 50 sura m. go back too. — Others say that twelve of the doctors of Khaibar took counsel to join Islam at the beginning of the day, and to say at the end of it 'We have looked in our Book, and have consulted our scholars, but have not found Mohammed to correspond to the description which is recorded in the Law', hoping that his followers might begin to doubt about him. 66. And believe not save to those that follow your religion; Confess not with conviction, save to the people of your religion 284 . Or, Display not your faith at the beginning of the day save to your former co-religionists, for there is more hope that they will return, and more consequence in their doing so. Say Verily the guidance is God's guidance ; He will guide whom He will to the Faith and establish him therein. that one should have brought him anything like what has been brought to you; depending on a verb omitted: i.e. l Ye have planned this and said it, because of one having brought him', meaning that envy has urged them to do this. — Or , dependent on 'Believe not' : i. e. Display not your belief that one can have brought him' etc. except to your co-religionists; do not reveal it to the Muslims lest it should increase their steadfastness, nor to the Poly- theists lest it should encourage them to become Muslims. The words 'Say — guidance' are then a parenthesis, implying that their craft will produce no profit. — Or, 'that one should have brought him' may be the predicate of Hnna, if we make 'God's guidance' permutative of 'the guidance' 285 . — The reading of Ibn Kathir a an yutay with a reproachful interrogation is in favour of the first view 'Is it because one has brought him that ye have planned' ? — Others read , in 'not', in which case the words SU11A OF THE FAMILY OP "iMRAN. 51 will be part of the speech of the 'party', i. e. do not con- fess save to those who follow your religion; and say to them 'None shall have brought him'. or that they should contend with you hefore your Lord ; connected by the conjunction with 'that one should have brought him' according to the first two interpretations; but according to the third we should render 'until they contend with you and invalidate your argument'. 286 — The pronoun 'they' refers to 'one', which in the previous text has a plural sense, as it means 'those who are not their followers'. Say: Bounty is in the hand of God, He gives it to whom He will, and God is broad, hnoioing. 67. He bestows His mercy on whom He will. And God is the author of the great bounty; a clear argument whereby their pretension is answered and confuted. 68. And among the people of the Book are those who , if you trust them with a talent, will pay it back to you; like Abdallah B. Salam 287 , with whom a Qurashite deposited 1200 ounces 183 of gold, and who returned them to him. and among them are those who , if you trust them with a dinar, will not return it to you; like Finhas B. 'Izura', with whom another Qurashite deposited a dinar, which he disclaimed. — Others say that those who may be trusted with a great deal are the Christians, since they are for the most part honest; while those who deceive in a little are the Jews, who are for the most part dishonest. Hamza, Abu Bakr, and Abu 'Amr read yudih, dropping the vowel of the h; Qalun shortened 289 the vowel of the h, which according to the tradition was the pronunciation of Hisham 290 ; the rest lengthened the Kesra. except so long as thou slandest firm upon him; except 52 SURA III. during the period of thy remaining at his head , vigorously- demanding it of him by litigation, appeals and production of evidence. 69. That ; referring to the refusal to pay indicated by the words 'shall not return it'. is because they say There is no way against us among the unlearned; there is no reproach or blame attaching to us in the matter of those who are not people of the Book, and are not of our religion. but they speak a lie against God; in this pretension. and they know; that they are liars. Because they regard it as lawful to oppress those who differ from them, and say this is not forbidden in the Law. — It is said that the Jews had dealings with certain Qurashites , and when they became Muslims the latter demanded their money of the former, then the Jews said 'Your right is invalidated by your abandoning your religion' ; and they asserted that it was so in their Book. And it is recorded M ' that the Pro- phet said on the occasion of the revelation of this text 'The enemies of God lie; there is nothing that was done in the days of Ignorance but is under my feet 292 , except deposits; for they are to be paid to good and bad'. 70. Aye; confirmation of what they deny; 'on the con- trary, there is a path against them in their dealings with the others'. whoso keeps 293 his covenant and fears — well God loves them that fear ; fresh sentence confirming the sentence of which the place is supplied by 'Aye'. 'His' covenant is .either that of the subject of the sentence, or God's; and the collective 'them that fear' serves instead of the pronoun which in the apodosis should refer to the subject of the protasis , and suggests that 'fear' is the main thing , which SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 53 includes 'keeping' and other duties such as paying one's debts, and abstaining from things forbidden. 71. Verily they that purchase; take in exchange. with the covenant of God; for that which they have promised God 294 in the way of believing the Apostle and returning deposits. and their oath; that to which they swore when they said By Allah, we will believe in him and help him. a small price ; the goods of this world. they have no portion in the next world and God shall not address them ; with anything that will comfort them 295 ; or, with any words at all, for the angels will ask them the questions on the day of the Kesurrection. — Or, they shall derive no profit from the words of God and from his signs. — Most probably it is an indirect phrase 2f ' 6 to express His wrath against them, since there follows and He shall not look upon them on the day of the Re- surrection; for whoever is wroth with any one else and despises him , turns away from him and from speaking with him and looking in his direction; just as he who makes much of any one talks with him and looks fre- quently at him. and will not justify them ; eulogize them. and for them is terrible punishment j for what they have done. — Said to have been revealed in reference to certain Jewish doctors 297 who mutilated the law , and altered the account of Mohammed 298 , and the law of deposits and certain other things, for which they received a bribe. — According to others 2 " , in reference to a man who exposed some goods in the market and swore that he had bought them for a sum for which he had not bought them 30 °. — Others so! say in reference to a question between Ash c ath 302 54 sura in. B. Qais and a Jew about a well or a field , when the Jew had to swear. 72. And verily of t/iem; i.e. those that mutilate, like Ka'b, Malik and Huyyai. is a parly who twist their tongues in the Book ; turn 303 them in reading it, and divert them from the revealed words to the fabricated. — Or, involve 304 them in the counterfeit of the Book. — Others read yaluna with a change of waw with clamma to hcmza 305 , which is then thrown out, and its vowel transferred to the preceding vowelless consonant. that you may think it of the Book when it is not of the Book; the pronoun 'it' refers to the fabricated part, indicated by the words 'who twist'. Others read 'that they may think it', in which case 'they' will still refer to the Muslims. and they say it is from God, when it is not from God; a confirmation of the statement 'it is not of the Book', and a reproach to them; and also a declaration that they assert this openly and not by insinuation. — The meaning is, it is not revealed by God; but this does not evince that the work of man is not the work of God 306 . and they tell a lie against God when they know it; corroboration and confirmation of the fact that they lie against God, and do so purposely. 73. It was not for a man to be given by God the Book and the Judgment 307 and the mission and then to say to mankind Be servants to me instead of God ; contradiction and refutation of the worshippers of Jesus. And it is said that Abu Ran El-Qurazi and El-Sayyid El-Najrani said '0 Mohammed dost thou wish that we should serve thee and take thee for our Lord'? Then he said 'God forbid that we should serve any but God , or enjoin the service of any but God. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 55 God did not send me with such a message or give me such a command'. Then the text was revealed. — Others say that a man said to Mohammed '0 Prophet of God, we greet each other ; ought we not to how down to thee' ? He said : 'It is not meet to bow down to any besides God ; nevertheless honour your Prophet, and acknowledge each person's right'. but rather be divines; but rather to say 308 'be divines'. rabbanl is a relative adjective of rabbun 'Lord' with the augment an like lihjanl and raqabanl 309 . It means one who is perfect in theory and practice 3, °. seeing that ye teach the Booh and seeing that ye read it; for the advantage of teaching and study is knowledge of the truth and of what is best to believe and do. IbnKathir, Nafi c , Abu c Amr and Ya r qub read taHamuna meaning 'ye know' ; other readings were tudarrisuna und tudrisuna 'ye teach' (for the IV th form with the sense of the II nd compare karrama and "akrama ('he honoured'); and this may be the meaning of the ordinary reading, if we give it the force 'ye read it to mankind'. 74. And he shall not bid you take the Angels and the Prophets for Lords; Ibn c lmir, Hamza, c Isim and Ya c qub pointed ycfmura 'to order', connecting it by the conjunction with 'to say' above ; in that case la (not) will be otiose , inserted in order to confirm the negative idea in the words 'it was not for a man', the sense being 'It was not for a man to be made a Prophet by God, and then to bid mankind serve him and bid them take the angels and the Prophets for Lords' 3 ". Or, not otiose, with the meaning 'It was not for him to order himself to be worshipped, while 312 he did not ordain that his peers be adopted as Lords , but on the contrary forbad it' ; which were a minor 56 sura in. offence than commanding them to worship himself 313 . — The remaining readers pointed yobmuru 'he shall command', making it a fresh sentence, or possibly a hal 3U . — Abu c Amr according to the tradition of El-Duri 315 followed his principle in shortening the damma of yamurukum. will he enjoin on you unbelief? Question expecting the answer 'no'. 'He' refers to 'a man' above; others say to God. after that ye are Muslims; evidence that the persons addressed are the Muslims, and that they are those who ask leave to bow down to him. 75. And when God took the Covenant of the Prophets — verily whenever I give you any book or wisdom , then there comes to you a Prophet confessing to what is with you, ye shall believe him and help him; some say 'the Prophets' is to be taken literally; [and if this was the law for the Prophets, still more was it binding on their peoples. — Others say it means that God took the covenant from the Prophets and their peoples; and then made the mention of the Prophets serve for the mention of the peoples as well. — Others say the genitive 'of the Prophets' after 'the covenant' is a subjective genitive, meaning the covenant which the Prophets laid upon their peoples. — Others say the meaning is 'the children of the Prophets', with omission of the word 'children', 'the children of the Prophets' being the children of Israel. ■ — Or, that he calls them Prophets ironically, because they used to say We have a better claim to be Prophets than Mohammed, since we are the people of the Book, and the Prophets were from among us. — The la in lama prepares the way for the oath 31G , since 'taking the covenant' has the sense of 'making to swear'. — ma may be conditional, in which case 'ye shall believe' serves as apodosis to both the oath and the SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMKAN. 57 condition 317 . Or, it may be predicative 318 (i.e. 'that which I have given you'). — ■ Ilamza read lima with kesra, making ma infinitival, i. e. 'because of my giving you certain books and then of the coming of an apostle , confirming, God took the covenant that you should believe him and assist him'. — Or, making it relative 'God took the covenant for that which I have brought you , and there has come an apostle corroborating it'. Others read lemma 'when I gave you', or 'verily because I have given you', deriving it from la min ma 319 , making the n coalesce with the m, and then dropping one of the three mlm for abbreviation. Nafi c read *ataynakwm 'we have given you'. He said: Have ye consented , and taken my bond thereunto? i. e. my covenant ; called 'bond' because it is 'bound' i. e. made secure. Others read °usri which is either another form (cp. c ubrun for c ibrun S2a ) or the plural of °isdrun , meaning 'a band'. They said: We consent. He said: Then testify ; let some of you testify against the others that they have consented. — Others say the words are addressed to the angels. and I am with you of them that testify ; and I too am witness to your consenting and testifying of each other. Confirmation and severe warning. 76. And whosoever turns aside thereafter ; after the covenant and the confirmation by their consent and testifying. those are the evildoers; the contumacious unbelievers. 77. And do they seek another religion than God's? Con- nected by the conjunction with the previous sentence, the interrogative particle being inserted between the two to express disapproval 321 . — Or, with an omitted member of the force 'Will they turn aside and seek'. The accusative is put first because that is the object of the disapproval :m . — 58 SUKA III. The verb is in the third person according to Abu c Amr and c Asim as recorded by Hafs and Ya c qub, in the second according to the rest, with which reading 'and say unto them' must be supplied. and to Him have submitted whosoever is in the heavens and the earth, of obedience or against their will; obeying, through study and following the evidence; or against their will, by reason of the sword and being brought face to face with what forced them to take refuge in resignation, such as the uplifting of the mountain 323 , and being over- taken by drowning 324 , and being at the gate of death ; — or 325 , of their free will , like the angels and the believers , and forced, like the unbelievers; for the latter are unable to keep themselves from what is decreed for them. and to Him ye shall be brought back; another reading 326 is 'they shall be brought back' , the pronoun referring to 'whosoever'. 78. Say: We believe in God and what has been revealed to us, and what was revealed to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Tribes, and what was given to Moses and Jesus and the Prophets from, their Lord ; injunction to the Prophet to declare the faith of himself and his followers; since the Quran is revealed to them by the medium of his communication as much as it is revealed to him; and further that which is ascribed to one of a number is ascribed to the whole 327 . — Or, an injunction to speak of himself after the fashion of kings , to do him honour. — The verb nazala is construed with Hay since the revelation reaches to the Apostles, but also with c #% since it comes from above 328 . — He mentions that which has been revealed to him before that which was revealed to the rest of the Apostles, because the former is what SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 59 gives the latter its title and is the standard by which the latter is tested. we distinguish not between any of them; by believing one and disbelieving another 329 . but we submit to Him ; we obey ; or, serve Him purely 33 °. 79. And whoso seeks a religion other than Islam ; other than the confession of the unity, and obedience to the Law of God. it shall in no wise be received of him, and he in the newt world is of the losers; of those that fall into ruin. The meaning is that whoso abandons 'Resignation' and seeks another religion loses the profit and falls into misfortune, by defacing the perfect nature wherein man was created. — The passage was used as evidence to show that 'faith' meant 'resignation' 331 , since, if it were anything else, it would not be received. The answer is that the text denies the acceptability of any religion which differs therefrom, not of everything that differs therefrom. And perhaps 'reli- gion' also refers to works 332 . 80. How shall God guide people who have disbelieved after their believing, and they have testified that the Apostle is true , and the evidences have come to them ? Assertion of the improbability of God's leading them; for he who turns aside from the truth after it has been made clear to him is sunk in error and far from guidance. — Others say, a denial and rejection of that notion : but this would make it certain that the repentance of the apostate will not be accepted 33:t . — 'Have testified' is connected by the conjunction with the finite verbal idea contained in 'their believing' ; a similar construction is to be found in L\iu 10 334 . — Or else it is a hal with suppression of aad dependent on 'have disbelieved' 33r> . In either case the 60 SURA III. passage thows that consent with the tongue differs from genuine belief 336 . And God does not guide the people that wrong ; that wrong themselves by neglecting to meditate and by substituting unbelief for faith. How much less then those to whom the truth has come , who have known it , and who then discard it. 81. The recompense of these is that upon them is the curse of God and of the Angels and of all men; the passage indicates, by what it states, that to curse them is lawful ; and, by what it implies 337 , forbids the cursing of any one else. And perhaps the difference is that they 338 are formed for unbelief, precluded from guidance, beyond hope of mercy from the first, unlike others. By 'men' he means the Believers or the generality of men. For the Unbeliever also curses him that denies the truth, and apostatizes from it, only he does not know the truth specifically 339 . abiding therein ; in the curse ; or, the punishment ; or, Hell-fire , since , although they has not been mentioned , they are indicated by the context. the punishment shall not be lightened for them, nor shall they be delayed. 83. But those that repent after that; after apostasy. and make good ; the harm they have done. Or, possibly, no object need be supplied, the meaning being 'and enter into a right state'. then verily God is forgiving; will accept their repentance. merciful; will be gracious to them. It is said that the text was revealed concerning El-Harith B. Suwaid 34 °, when he repented of his apostasy , and sent to his people , saying Ask whether there is any repentance for me? Then his brother El-Jallas 341 sent this text to him; so he returned to Medina and repented. SI' I! A OF THE FAMILY OF C IM11AN. 61 84. Verily those that disbelieve after they have lelieved and then increase in unbelief ; like the Jews who dishelieved in Jesus and the Gospel after believing in Moses and the Law, then disbelieved yet more in Mohammed and the Qur'an; or, who disbelieved Mohammed after believing in him prior to his mission, and then increased in unbelief by obstinacy, opposition, and accusing the Prophet, diver- ting others from the faith, and breaking their covenant; or like certain who apostatized, and went to Mecca, and then increased in unbelief inasmuch as they said : 'Let us watch for what time may bring forth 342 against Moham- med'; or, 'Let us go back to him and deceive him by a display of faith'. their repentance shall not be received 343 ; because they will not repent 344 , or, will only repent when they are face to face with destruction. He expresses their non-repentance by the phrase 'their repentance shall not be accepted' in order to aggravate their case , and to represent their condition as the condition of those who despair of mercy. — Or, because their repentance is only hypocrisy, and not owing to their apostasy and increased unbelief; and for this reason the fa of the apodosis is not employed 34 \ and these are they that go astray; that persist in error 346 . 85. Verily those that disbelieve and die while unbelieving, an earthful of gold shall not be taken from one of them; since their death in unbelief is the reason why the acceptance of the ransom is precluded , the fa of the apodosis is here employed to indicate it. The 'fullness' of anything is 'enough to fill it', dhahaban is an accusative of limitation 347 . Others read dhahabun in the nominative as permutative oimilaun 348 (fullness), or as predicate of an omitted subject. although he offered it as a ransom; construed according 62 SURA III. to the sense 349 , as though, he had said : 'And a ransom shall not he received from any one of them, even though an earthful of gold were his ransom'; or, connected by the conjunction with a suppressed verb, to be supplied as follows : 'There shall not be received from any of them an earthful of gold, though he were to give it in alms in this world, and though he were to ransom himself there- with from punishment in the next'. — Or, the meaning may be 'even though he redeemed himself with as much again' like (v. 40) 'and although the evil-doers had all that is upon the earth and as much again with it'. The words 'the like of it' are frequently omitted and inserted redun- dantly because the two similar things are virtually one thing 35 °. those — for them is terrible punishment ; a violent menace ; and destruction of all hope ; for those from whom no ransom is taken might sometimes be forgiven gratis. and they have no helpers; to avert the punishment, min is added to make the negation universal 351 . 86. Ye shall not acquire charity; ye shall not attain to the reality of charity, which is the perfection of good. — Or, ye shall not gain the charity of God , i. e. mercy and good will and Paradise 352 . until ye spend of what ye love ; i. e. wealth and all that term includes, and other things, such as sacrificing one's dignity in aiding people, and one's body in the service of God, and one's blood in His path. — It is recorded that when the text was revealed Abu Talha 353 came and said : '0 Apostle of God, lo, the dearest to me of my possessions is Bairaha 354 ; do thou deposit it where God will'. Then he said : 'Bravo 335 , that is profitable wealth 356 ; and I would have thee deposit it among thy next of kin'. — Then SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IM11AN. 63 came Zaid 357 son of Haritha with a mare of which he was fond, saying: 'This is for the path of God'; then Mohammed set upon it 'Usama 358 , son of Zaid. Then said Zaid: 'I wanted to give it in alms'; the Prophet answered 'God has accepted it of thee'. This shows that spending the dearest of one's possessions on one's nearest kin is most acceptable , and that the verse regards both necessary 359 and commendable expenditure. — Some read 'part of what ye love', which indicates that min (of) in the ordinary reading is partitive; but it may be explanatory ('such things as ye love') 36 °. and whatever ye spend of anything ; whether what ye spend be a thing beloved or anything else, min (of) is here ex- planatory. verily God is cognizant thereof; and will reward you accordingly. 87. All the food; i.e. all the foods 361 ; the meaning is the eating of them. was lawful to the children of Israel ; hillun is an infinitive employed as an adjective , and for this reason singular and plural, masculine and feminine are the same 361 . So in Sura lx. 10 it is construed with the feminine plural. save what Israel; Jacob. made unlatvful for himself, such as the flesh and milk of the camel; it is said that he suffered in the sciatic nerve, and made a vow, that, if he were cured , he would never eat the food he liked best , and that was what he liked most. — Others say he did so to cure himself by the advice of the physicians. The passage has been used as an argument by those who give the Prophet the right of initiation 303 ; whereas those that deny this right can say this act of Jacob was done with 64 SURA III. the divine consent, so that it was as though it had from the beginning been declared unlawful. before the Tora/i was revealed; before it was sent down, embracing the laws by which certain things were declared unlawful for them , by way of punishment and severity , owing to their wrong-doing and oppressing. — The verse is an answer to the Jewish pretension of innocence of the crimes imputed to them in the words 'by reason of the injustice of those who became Jews we made good things unlawful for them' (iv. 158), and the words 'and for those who became Jews we made unlawful every animal with claws' (yi. 147), to the end of the two texts, when they said 'We are not the first to whom they were made unlawful ; on the contrary they were made unlawful for Noah and Abraham and his followers until it came to us, and they were made unlawful for us as they had been for those who were before us'. — And also an answer to their rejection of the theory of supersession 364 , and to their objection to the Prophet's declaration that he agreed with Abraham in regarding the flesh and milk of the camel as lawful. Say: Then bring the Torah and read it, if ye be veracious; He commands him to refute them out of their Book, and reduce them to silence with the statement contained therein that on account of their evil doings things which had not been declared unlawful were declared so. It is recorded 365 that when the Prophet recited it to them, they were put to silence and did not venture to produce the Law. And herein was a proof of his mission. 88. And whoso invents a lie against God; has fabricated one , in asserting that it was declared unlawful, before the revelation of the Torah , for the children of Israel and their predecessors. after that; after the evidence has held them. SURA OP THE FAMILY OF 'TMRAN. 65 those are they that do wrong; who will not do justice of themselves , and resist the truth after it has been made clear. 89. Say God speaks true; insinuation that they lie. In other words, it stands firm that God speaks true in what He has revealed, and you are the liars. so follow the sect of Abraham, he being a Hanlf; i. e. the sect of D Islam which is essentially the sect of Abraham or like his sect ; that ye may keep clear of Judaism whicli has forced you to fabrication and obstinacy in order to com- pass your worldly ends, and has compelled you to declare unlawful good things which God made lawful for Abraham and his followers. and was not one of the Polytheists; indication of the fact that it is necessary to follow him in holding the pure doctrine of the unity, and in keeping steadfast in religion, and in avoiding doing too much or too little 366 ; and in_ sinuation that the Jews are polytheists. 90. Verily the first house set up for men; set up for worship and made a conventicle for them. The 'setter up' is God as is shown by the other reading wada'a (he set up). is that which is in Bakka; another form for Makka, like Nabit and Namlt 367 , ratib aud ralim 368 , lazib and lazim 369 . — Some say 'Bakka' is the place of the mosque, and 'Makka' the town from bakk 'to jostle' or 'to knock'; for Bakka 'strikes' the necks of tyrants 37 °. — It is recorded 371 that the Apostle was asked concerning the first house set up for men, and he answered 'The Most Holy Mosque, then the Temple'. When asked how long had been the interval between them, he said '40 years'. — It is said that the first builder was Abraham ; that it was afterwards destroyed and rebuilt by certain Jurhumites 372 , then by the Amale- kites, then by the Quraish; others say it was the first 66 SURA III. house built by Adam , which perished in the Deluge , and that then Abraham built it; others, that on its site before Adam was a house called El-durah 373 , round which the angels made their circuit; and when Adam was ejected, he was commanded to go on a pilgrimage thither, and make a circuit round it. At the time of the flood it was lifted to the Fourth Heaven , and the angels of the heavens make circuit round it. This however does not suit the letter of the verse 374 . — Others say the meaning is, the first house in dignity, not in time. a blessed one- rich in blessings and advantages to those who go on the greater or the lesser pilgrimage 375 thither, and linger 376 near it , and go round it. — The word mubarakan ('being blessed') is a circumstantial phrase at- tached to the subject concealed in the adverbial clause ('in Bakka') 3 ". and guidance to the worlds; as being their Qibla and their place of worship, and because there are wonderful signs there, as follows. 91. Therein are perspicuous signs; such as the birds declining to come directly over it during all these years, and the fact that within the sacred confines the wild beasts mix with their prey and do not seek to hurt them, and that every tyrant who has attempted to do it any harm has been overpowered, like the people of the elephant 378 . The sentence is explanatory of the 'guidance' or else is a second circumstantial phrase (wherein are etc.). the station of Abraham; subject of which the predicate is omitted , i. e. 'among them is the station of Abraham' ; or, permutative for 'signs', permutative of part for whole. Others make it an 'explanatory appendage' 379 , supposing the thing meant by the 'signs' to be the print of the foot SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 67 in the hard rock, and its sinking therein as far as the ball, and the fact of the rock having been softened unlike other rocks , and the footprint having been preserved unlike all the footprints of the Prophets, and its having been preserved in spite of the number of Abraham's enemies some thousands of years. This view is supported by the reading 38 ° ^ayatun bayyinatun in the singular. The occasion 381 of this footprint was that when the building of the Ka c ba rose, he stood upon this stone in order to be able to lift the stones, and his feet sank therein. and he that enters it is secure ; either a nominal sentence 382 , or a conditional sentence, annexed by the conjunction, ac- cording to the sense , to 'the station of Abraham', meaning 'and the security of him that entered it', i. e. 'and of those signs was the security of him that entered it'; or, 'therein are clear signs , the station of Abraham and the security of him that entered it'. — He mentions these two only out of the many signs, and omits the rest, as in the saying of the Prophet: 'Three things out of this world of yours have been endeared to me; scent, women, and my comfort is in prayer' 383 — because these two make the mention of the rest of the signs in the two worlds , e. g. the persistence of the footprint through all time , and security from punishment on the Day of Judgment, unnecessary. — The Prophet said 384 : 'Whoso dies within the boundary of the two sanctuaries 385 shall be raised on the Day of Judgment secure'. According to Abu Hanifah whoever has incurred the penalty of death by apostasy or having committed murder or any other crime is not as- sailed therein but is forced to come out 386 . And to God is owing from men the Pilgrimage to the House; visiting it according to the prescribed manner. 68 SURA III. Hamza, El-Kisa D i, and c Isim according to the record of Hafs read hijju (for hajju) which is the peculiar form of the people of Najd. whosoever hath in his power a path thereunto • permutative of 'men', which it specializes. 'Hath in his power' was interpreted 387 by the Prophet to mean food and a beast to ride. This supports the opinion of Shah"! that it refers to money ; 388 and for this reason he commands the infirm to send substitutes when they can find the hire of a sub- stitute. — Malik referred it to the person; in which case any one able to walk and to earn his living on the way will be forced to make the pilgrimage. Abu Hanifah said it referred to ability in both these matters 389 . 'There' in 'thereunto' refers to the House; or else to 'the pilgrimage; for every means of coming to a thing may be described as its path. 92. And whose disbelieves — well, God is independent of the worlds; he makes 'disbelieves' synonymous with 'does not go on pilgrimage' in order to enforce its necessity, and to express displeasure at those who neglect it. For this reason the Prophet said 39 ° : 'Whoso dies without .having made the Pilgrimage , let him die , if he will , a Jew or a Christian'. And in this text he emphasizes the importance of the Pilgrimage in several ways ; by asserting its necessity in the form of a statement 39 ' ; by expressing the proposition in the form of a nominal sentence 392 ; by introducing it in such a manner as conveys the idea that it is a right of God binding on the necks of men 393 ; by making it universal first, and afterwards specializing 394 , which is like, elucidating after expressing a thing vaguely, and like doubling and iterating the idea ; by calling neglect of the Pilgrimage Unbelief, as being the act of unbelievers; SUKA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 69 and by mentioning God's independence which in this place suggests disapproval and abandonment by God of the offenders; and by the use of the words 'of the worlds' (instead of 'of him'), since those words convey an emphatic generalization, and prove by a syllogism that God is in- dependent of him 395 , and point to the violence of God's wrath; all because the pilgrimage is a difficult duty, combining contrition of soul and affliction of body, ex- penditure of money, abandonment of pleasures and turning to God 39G . — It is said that when the first half of the text was revealed , the Prophet collected the heads of the sects 397 , and addressed them , saying 'God has prescribed the Pilgrimage for you, so observe it'. Then one sect believed therein and five disbelieved. Thereupon 'and whoso disbelieves' etc. was revealed. 93. Say: Ye people of the Book, wherefore do ye disbelieve the signs of God; signs traditional and intellectual 398 which point to the veracity of Mohammed in his assertions of the duty of pilgrimage etc. The fact that the people of the Book in particular are addressed is evidence that their unbelief was more heinous , and that , although they asserted that they believed the Law and the Gospel , they nevertheless disbelieved in both. while God is witness of what ye do; the condition being that He is witness , i. e. cognizant of their works , and will recompense them therefor, so that perversion and concealment will not avail them. 94. Say: Ye people of the Book, wherefore do ye divert from the path of God him that believes!' He repeats the vocative and the question, in order the more emphatically to upbraid them, and deny them all excuse, and to make it felt that each of these two things is disgraceful 70 SURA III. in itself and sufficient to bring on punishment. The 'path of God' is His true religion, which we are ordered to follow , i. e. 'Islam. It is said 3 " that they used to create schisms among the Believers and sow dissensions among them , and indeed , came to the tribes of El-Aus and El- Khazraj , and reminded them of their mutual enmity and warfare during the time of the Ignorance, in order that they might return to that condition; and that they used to plot to turn them from the way. seeling for it crookedness wo ; circumstantial phrase depen- ding upon 'ye'; i.e., by confusing it before mankind, and making them think that it contains apostasy from the truth , by rejecting the doctrine of supersession and altering the description of the Prophet , etc. — Or , by stirring up dissensions between the Believers in order to make their language discordant and to produce flaws in their belief. when ye are witnesses: that it is the Path of God, and that to turn people from it is to err and to cause to err# — Or, when you are men of honour in the eyes of your co-religionists , so that they trust your words and em- ploy your witness in trials. and God is not negligent of what ye do; a menace to them. The crime complained of in the former verse being their unbelief, which they proclaimed openly, he ended that verse with the words 'God is witness'; the crime complained of in this verse being their seducing the Believers from Islam, which they did secretly and by guile, he says 'and God is not negligent of what ye do'. 95. ye that have believed, if ye obey a portion of those to whom the Booh was given , they will render you unbelievers after that ye have believed; revealed concerning a party of El-Aus and El-Khazraj who were sitting talking, when SURA OF THE FAMILY OF 'iMRAN 71 Shas B. Qais 401 the Jew passed by them, who, being vexed by their unity and concord, commanded a Jewish boy to sit with them , and remind them of the day of Bu'ath 402 , and recite to them some of the poems composed about it — now El-Aus were the victors on that day. So he did it; and the people began to wrangle and boast and to grow angry with one another and to call 'to arms , to arms' ; till a large number of both tribesmen gathered together. Then the Prophet with his followers came up to them , and said 'Do ye cry the cry of the time of Ignorance 403 , while I am among you, after that God has honoured you with Islam'? Then they knew that this was a suggestion of Satan and a plot of their enemy , and throwing down their arms, they asked forgiveness, embraced each other, and went off with the Prophet. — God here addresses them in person, after bidding the Prophet address the People of the Book, in order to show the superiority of the former, and to point out that they are the persons who deserve best that God should address them and hold converse with them. 96. And how can ye disbelieve, after the texts of God are read to you and among you is His Apostle? Expression of disapproval and surprise at their unbelief when they had united every motive which should prompt belief and prevent unbelief. now he that takes hold of God ; takes hold of His religion and resorts to Him in all his affairs. has been guided into a straight path ; has received guidance without a doubt. 97. ye that believe , fear God as He ought to be feared; to the full extent His fear involves i. e. exhausting your power in abiding by His mandates and abstaining 72 SURA ID. from what He has forbidden; compare 'and fear God as far you can' (lxiv. 16) 404 . — According to Ibn Mas c ud 405 the meaning is that He should be obeyed and not dis- obeyed; thanked and not treated with ingratitude; remem- bered and not forgotten. — Others say it means abstracting the act of piety from attention 406 and expectation of recompense on its account. And in this command the veto on obeying the People of the Book is confirmed. The origi- nal form of tuqatun is wuqayatun in which the w was changed to t as in tu'adatun and tukhamatun and the y into elif* 07 . and ye must not die unless token ye are Muslims; ye must not be in any other condition than that of 'resignation' when death overtakes you. For the veto against that which is limited by a circumstantial phrase or anything else is sometimes directed against the act, sometimes against the limitation , sometimes against the two together, and neither separately. The same is the case with negations 408 . 98. And take hold of the rope of God; His religion of Islam; or, God's book, since the Prophet said: 'the Qur 3 an is God's firm rope'. — He employs for this the image of 'the rope', inasmuch as taking hold of it is a means of safety from evil, just as taking hold of a rope is a means of saving one self from falling ; and he employs to express 'confidence in it' and 'reliance upon it' the words 'take hold of, in order to carry out the metaphor 409 . all of you; with one consent. and do not separate; yourselves from the truth by allowing differences to come between you , like the People of the Book. Or, Do not separate from each other as you did in the days of Ignorance, when you were each warring with the other. Or, Do not mention what will bring about discord and spoil the unity. SURA OP THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 73 and remember the mercy of God towards you; in which is included the guidance and. the divine aid towards 'resignation' which has led to unity and the cessation of ill-feeling. since ye were enemies ; in the days of the Ignorance , lighting with one another. and He united your hearts ; hy Islam. and ye found yourselves by His grace brethren; loving one another 4I °, united in brotherhood in God. — Others say that El-'Aus and El-Khazraj were brothers by both parents ; then there came discord between their children , and the wars between them lasted 120 years, until God extinguished them by Islam and united them by His Prophet. 99. And ye were on the edge of a gulf of fire ; ready to fall into the Fire of Hell owing to your Unbelief: since, had death overtaken you whilst you were in that state, you would have fallen into Hell. and He saved you therefrom; by Islam; the feminine pronoun refers to the 'gulf, or the 'fire', or to the 'edge' which may be attracted to the gender of the word to which it is annexed 4 "; or, the feminine pronoun may be employed because shafa means 'the lip', shafa and shafatun as applied to a well both meaning its edge , like jdnibun andjdnibatun. The original form was shafatvun, but the third radical was changed to elif in the masculine, and elided in the feminine. like that; with demonstration like that does God shoto you His signs; His evidences perhaps ye may be guided ; desiring 4I2 you to be stead- fast 413 in the guidance and to increase therein. 100. And let there be of you a nation summoning to good, and enjoining right , and forbidding wrong ; min (of) is par- 74 sura in. titive , meaning 'out of you' ; since enjoining right and forbidding wrong are duties obligatory on the community as a whole 414 , and because not every one is fit for this task , since the undertaking of it requires certain conditions in which the whole nation does not share, such as know- ledge of the laws, and of the gradations in the process of enjoining and forbidding 415 , and of the way to enforce them, and power to maintain them. He addresses the whole community, but demands the action of part of it only: in order to show that this requirement is so far binding on the community that were they entirely to neglect it, they would all be guilty, but that it is satisfied by the action of some. The same is the case with all duties that are binding on the community as a whole. — Or min (of) may be explanatory with the meaning 'and be ye a nation', agreeing with the words of the Qur'an : 'Ye were the best nation produced for mankind, enjoining right' (iii. 106). 'Summoning to good' includes invitation to conduct leading to prosperity both worldly and spiri- tual. The appending of 'enjoining right' etc. to 'summo- ning to good' is a case of appending the special to the general in order to call attention to the importance of the former. and those are the prosperous; those whose privilege is perfect prosperity 416 . — It is recorded that the Prophet was asked Who is the best of men ? He answered : He who most enjoins right, most forbids wrong, fears God most, and is most observant of the ties of kindred. 'Enjoining right' is necessary or commendable according to the thing prescribed 417 ; 'forbidding wrong' is on the other hand always necessary, since everything which the Code forbids is prohibited 418 . It is most probable that the transgressor SURA OF THE FAMILY OF ^MRAN. 75 is bound to forbid what he is himself in the habit of committing, since he is bound both to abandon those practices and to discourage them; and his neglect of one of these duties does not render the other less binding. 101. And be not like those that split into sects and were at variance; like the Jews and the Christians who are divided concerning the Unity, the Abstraction 419 and the Future Life, as you know. after that the evidences came to them; the signs and proofs which evince the truth and necessitate agreement concerning it, — It is most probable 42 ° that the prohibition only applies to division concerning the Principles of Eeligion , as opposed to the branches (i. e. the legal codes); according to the words of the Prophet 421 'the Variance of my people is mercy'; and 'whoso inquires for himself and succeeds has a double reward and he that fails has a single reward'. and they have a terrible punishment; a threat to those that are divided and a warning against imitating them. 102. On a day whereon faces shall turn white and faces shall turn black ; yauma (a day) is in the accusative either after the verbal idea contained in lahum (to them = they have), or after a suppressed 'make mention of. — The whiteness and blackness of the face are symbolical expressions for the appearance therein of the brightness of joy and the gloom of fear. Others say, the followers of the truth shall be distinguished by whiteness of face and complexion 422 and brightness of skin, and the waving of light in front of them, whereas the followers of falsehood shall be dis- tinguished by the contrary. and as for those whose faces are blackened — 'Did ye disbelieve after believing ? i. e. 'Did ye disbelieve' ? etc. 76 STJKA III. shall be said to them 42 \ The sign of interrogation here expresses reproach and surprise at their conduct. They are the apostates, or 'the people of the Book' who disbelieved the Prophet after believing in him previous to his mission — or, all the unbelievers , who had acknowledged him when he made them testify concerning themselves 424 ; or, after they had it in their power to believe by studying the evidences and the signs. so taste the punishment ; contemptuous command. for your disbelieving • on account of your unbelief, or as the recompense for it 425 . 103. And as for those whose faces are whitened, they are in the mercy of God ; he means in Paradise and the eternal recompense. He expresses this by the word 'mercy', to show that although the Believer be devoted throughout his life to the service of God, yet he cannot enter Paradise save by His mercy and beneficence 42G . According to the natural order 427 he should have mentioned them first ; however he desired to make the beginning and end of the discourse the character and the reward of the Believers. they abide therein • introduced as a fresh clause 428 for emphasis. It is as though he had been asked How shall they be therein? To which he answers 'abiding therein for ever'. 104. Those signs of God; which are revealed concerning the promises of reward and punishment. we read them unto thee with truth; clothed with truth, with no doubt therein. and God would not injure the worlds ; since such injury on His part is an absurdity, since He has no duties 429 , in which it would be unjust in Him to fall short, nor is He precluded from anything, so that it would be unjust in SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMUAN. 77 Him to commit it; inasmuch as He is absolute master, as follows 105. And God's is all that is in the heavens and in the earth, and to God shall the things be brought back; so that He will recompense every one according" to His promises and threats. 106. Ye were the best nation; the words imply that they were the best in past time, but do not imply that they have since ceased to be so ; as in iv. 27 'and God was for- giving, merciful'. — Others 43() say: 'Ye were' means 'in the knowledge of God', or 'on the Table', or, 'among past nations'. produced to men; shown to them. ye enjoined right and forbad wrong ; fresh clause explaining how they were the best nation;, or, second predicate to kuntum (ye were). and believed in God ; comprising belief in everything in which belief is necessary; since belief in God is a duty and of consequence only when it implies belief in every- thing wherein belief is enjoined 43 \ This is put at the end when it would have naturally been placed at the begin- ning 432 , because he means, by mentioning it, to show that they enjoined right and forbad wrong because they had faith in God, and believed in Him, and in order to assist His religion. — The verse has been used to prove that the agreement of the Believers is a source of Law 433 ; for the verse makes it certain that they enjoined everything right and forbad everything wrong, the article being here uni- versalizing. Now were they to agree to what is false, their conduct would be the reverse 434 . and if the people of the Book believed; as they should 435 . it would be better for them; that belief would be better tor them than their present state. 78 SURA III. of them are the Believers ; such as Abdallah B. Salam 436 and his fellows. and the most of them are the evil-doers; who are pertinacious in unbelief. This sentence and the following are digressive 437 . 107. They shall not harm you save a hurt; a slight harm, such as an accusation or a menace. and if they fight with you , they will turn you their backs ; they will flee and not harm you by slaying or taking captive. then they shall not be helped ; there shall not be one to help them against you, or to avert your violence from them. He denies that they can do any harm except by speech; and he confirms this by stating that if they have courage to fight, the rout shall be theirs. — Then he states 438 that their end shall be infirmity and isolation. — Others read la yunsaru (they shall not be helped) in the jussive, connected by the conjunction with yuwallu (they shall turn), supposing the word fhumma (then) to imply an interval in the importance of the events; and with this reading their not being helped will be conditional upon their fighting 439 . — This is one of the Prophetic texts which were corroborated by the event; since such was the case with the tribes Quraiza and Nadir, the Banu Qainuqa and the Jews of Khaibar. 108. There has been set 44 ° upon them affliction; waste of life and goods and ruin of family, or, the aflliction which consists in adhering to falsehood and paying tribute. wheresoever they are found; except by a cord from God and a cord from men; exception from the more comprehensive of comprehensive conditions 441 ; i. e. affliction is set upon them in all their conditions except when they take refuge in or put upon themselves the protection of God, or of SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 79 His Book which has come to them, and the protection of the Muslims; or His religion Islam and following the path of the Believers. and they have brought back wrath from God ; earning it. and poverty has been set upon them; so that it surrounds them as a tent that has heen pitched surrounds the owners. The Jews are for the most part poor and destitute. that; referring to the setting of baseness and poverty, and the bringing back of wrath. is because they used to disbelieve the signs of God and slay the Prophets without justice ; .... The limitation 'without justice' is added, although the murder of the Prophets is without justice from the nature of the case, in order to show that it was so even according to their belief. that,- the unbelief and the slaughter. was because they rebelled and transgressed ; because of their rebelling and transgressing the ordinances of God; for pertinacity in small offences leads to great offences and continuance in great offences to unbelief. — Others say the meaning is that the setting of affliction upon them in this world and their earning wrath in the next world, as they have for one cause their unbelief and murder of the Prophets , so they have for another cause 442 their rebellion and trans- gression, inasmuch as the secondary precepts are binding on them also 443 . 109. They are not equal; in their evil conduct 444 ; 'they' are the people of the Book. of the people of the Booh there is a party that stands ; asyndeton, to explain why 'equality' is denied them. 'That stands' means that is straight and just; from qama used in the phrase 'I set the stick up and it stood (qama)'. They are those who became Muslims. 80 stjra m. who read the texts of God in the hours of night , and they prostrate themselves; they read the Qur'an while they keep watch 445 ; which he expresses by the phrase 'reading in the hours of night together with prostration', in order to make the matter clearer and to bestow on them the greater praise 416 . — Others say, the night-prayer m is meant since the people of the Book do not pray at that time , since there is a tradition that the Prophet postponed it and then went out, and found the people were expecting the prayer; then he said Is it not true that none of the followers of the religions make mention of God at this hour except you? 110. Who believe in God and the Last Bay, who enjoin right and forbid wrong , and are eager for those things which are right; further descriptive clauses of 'a party'. He attri- butes to them characteristics not to be found among the Jews, who decline from the right, who do not worship in the night, who associate others with God, give him im- proper epithets, describe the last day falsely, are too soft in their censure of other men's acts 448 , and slow to do what is good. and they are of the prosperous ; those to whom these epithets belong are of those whose affairs have prospered with God, and who have earned His favour and His praise. 111. Whatever good ye do it shall not be disclaimed for you ; i. e. it shall not be lost , nor the reward of it be lessened at all. This is called 'disclaiming' just as the payment of the reward is elsewhere called 'thanks'. It is made to govern two objects owing to its containing the sense of the verb 'deprive'. — Hamza, El-Kisa D i and Hafs read the verbs in the third person, the rest in the 2 nd person. SURA OP THE FAMILY OF C IMRAM. 81 and God is cognizant of them that fear • encouragement to them and admonition 449 that fear is the commencement of good and of right dealing, and that they are 'those that fear' who prosper with God. 112. Verily those that disbelieve, their goods and their children shall not avail them, against God a bit ; i. e. of punishment, or of availing; in the latter case it will be a cognate accusative 45 °. and they are the people of the Fire ; belonging to it. they shall abide therein. 113. The likeness of what they spend • of what the Un- believers spend to gain God's favour, or out of pride or for fame, or, the Hypocrites, for appearance' sake or from fear. in this present life is as the likeness of a wind wherein is bitter cold; the word sirrun is commonly applied to a cold wind, like sarsarun; originally it was a masdar, turned into an epithet; or, an epithet combined by a rhetorical figure with the word 'cold', like the phrase bardun baridwi (severe , lit. cold , cold) 45 ' . which strikes the ploughed land of people that have wronged themselves ; by unbelief and transgression. and destroys it; as a punishment to them. For destruction when occasioned by the Divine wrath is severer than any other 452 . He means to compare what they spend in respect of its futility with the agriculture of Unbelievers which a cold wind strikes and annihilates, so that no use remains to them therein in this world or the next. It is a com- pound simile 453 , and hence he does not mind letting the particle of comparison be followed by 'wind' rather than by 'agriculture'. Or perhaps we may supply 'as the likeness of that which is destroyed by a wind', 'that' being the agriculture. 82 suka m. And God does not wrong them , rather they wrong them- selves • He did not wrong those who spent by the waste of what they spent, rather they wronged themselves by not spending it in a way which would be reckoned; or, God did not wrong the people of the ploughed land by ruining it , rather they wronged themselves by committing offences whereby they merited punishment. — Others read lakinna (but) in which case the accusative after lakinna is permissible in poetry only, as in the verse 'but whoso- ever beholds thy eyelids , loves' 454 . 114. ye that believe , take not a lining • i. e. an intimate friend ; one to whom a man tells his secrets in confidence : — compared to the lining of a garment, as such were compared to the inner garment in the words of the Prophet 'The Ansar are the inner garment and mankind the outer'. from outside yourselves; to the exclusion of the Muslims. The words depend either on 'take not', or on an omitted word e. g. 'a lining coming from'. they shall not fail you in harm ; the verb °ald (to come short) ought properly to take prepositions 455 after it ; however it is also construed with two accusatives as in the phrase la ^aluka nashan (I shall not fail thee in advice) owing to its containing the ideas of 'preventing' or 'dim- inishing'. they would like that you should come to harm; c anatun means excessive harm and misery 456 . ma has the infinitival sense 457 . their hatred has shown itself from their mouths • from their words; since they cannot control themselves owing to their extreme hatred. and what their breasts conceal is yet greater • than what is revealed. For the display of it is not deliberate and of choice. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 83 we have made clear to you the signs; which point out the duty of sincere attachment to the Believers and of opposition to the Unbelievers. if ye have understood ; what has been made clear to you. The four sentences are independent and convey the reason for the previous proposition. Possibly the three first are descriptive clauses of bitanatan (a lining) 458 . 115. Behold ye are these , ye love them and they love you not ; ye are these 459 , who offend in being attached to the Unbelievers. 'Ye love them' etc. is an explanation of their sin in being attached to them, or a second predicate of 'ye'; or predicate of 'these', the whole sentence being predicate of 'ye', like 'thou art Zaid who lovest him'; or the sentence may be a relative clause attached to 'ye'; or, a circumstantial phrase ('loving them'), governed by the idea of pointing out in 'behold'; and ^aiilai (these) may be in the accusative after a verb explained by what fol- lows 4G0 in which case the sentence will be predicate (of 'ye'). while ye believe in the Booh, the whole of it; the article is here generic 461 . The sentence is a circumstantial phrase depending on 'they love you not'. The meaning is that they love you not, while you believe in their Book as well; why then do you love them, when they do not believe in your Book? The words contain a taunt, that they are more obstinate in their falsehood than you are in your truth. and when they meet you, they say: We believe; out of hypocrisy and deceit. but when they are by themselves they bite their finger-tips out of spite against you ; out of vexation and annoyance that they cannot find any way of gratifying themselves. 84 sura in. say: Die in your anger • an imprecation that their wrath may continue and increase as the power of Islam and its followers doubles itself, until they perish thereby 4G2 . verily God is cognizant of that which is in the breasts; so that he knows the anger and spite that is in their breasts. Possibly the words may be part of the message; 'Say, God knows what is yet more hidden than your secret biting of your finger-tips out of spite' ; or they may be not part of the message, meaning 'tell them this, and be not amazed that I tell thee their secrets, for I know the most hidden thing, their thoughts'. 116. If a good thing touch yon, it hurts them - and if evil befall you, they rejoice thereat; explanation of the fact that their hatred reaches such a pitch that they envy any good and any profit which befalls the Believers , and rejoice at any harm or mischief that befalls them. 'To touch' is used metaphorically for 'to befall'. but if ye persist • in enmity to them , or, in the painful duties imposed upon you. and fear; association with them; or, those acts which God has forbidden you. their guile shall not hurt you at all • by the mercy of God, and His performance of His promise to those who persist and fear; and because whoever is zealous in the matter and accustoms himself to caution and persistance will suffer little and be bold against the enemy. The second u in yadurrukum 463 (shall hurt you) is due to the attraction of the previous u like that in muddu 4G4 (stretch out). Ibn Kathir, Nafi c , Abu c Amr and Ya c qub read yadirhum from dara with the same meaning. Verily God comprehends what ye do • what ye do in the way of patience , fear , etc. Literally , 'causes His knowledge SUE A OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 85 to surround', so that He will recompense you according to what you deserve. — Others read 'what they do', i. e. in their enmity against you; so that He will punish them therefor. 117. And when thou didst go forth early • mention the time when 465 . from thy family ; from the chamber of c 5. 3 isha. bringing the Believers ; bringing them down to , or arranging and preparing for them ; which latter explanation is supported by the reading Uhmiminina seats for the battle • places where they should stand 4e6 and stations for it ; the words maq c adun and maqamun are used loosely for 'places' as in the words of the Quran 'in the place of truth' (liv. 55), and 'before thou risest from thy place' (xxvn. 39). and God had hearing ; for their words. and knowledge; of their intent. — It is recorded 467 that the Idolaters encamped at Uhud on Wednesday the 12 th of Shawwal in the 3 rd year of the Hijra ; and that the Prophet called a council of his Companious among whom he sum- moned Abdallah B. Ubayy 468 , whom he had not summoned before. Then he, and most of the Helpers said Abide, Prophet of God, in Medina, and go not out unto them; for, by Allah, we have never gone out from Medina against an enemy but he has defeated us; and no enemy has ever entered Medina to attack us , but we have defeated him. How much more then when thou art amongst us? So let them alone; for if they abide, they shall abide in the worst of prisons 4G9 ; and if they enter Medina , the men will fight with them, while the women and children pelt them with stones; and if they go back, they will go back disappointed. — Others advised a sally 470 . — Then the Prophet said : I saw in my dream oxen slaughtered 86 sura m. around me 471 , which I interpret good; and I saw a dint in the edge of my sword, which I interpret defeat 472 ; and I saw myself, as it were , putting my hand into a coat ot mail, which I interpret Medina. And if ye see fit to abide in Medina and to let them alone, well. — Then said certain men who had missed Badr , hut whom God honoured with martyrdom on the day of "Uhud c Take us out to our enemies' ; and they urged him until he went in and put on his coat of mail. And when they saw that , they repented that they had urged him and said '0 Prophet of God do what thou seest fit'. Then he said 'It is not meet for a Prophet to put on a coat of mail and then put it off, until he have fought'. Then he started out after the prayer of the Friday 473 , and was in the pass of Uhud on the Saturday morning. Then he stationed his force in the side 474 of the valley and placed his rear and his camp towards Uhud, and straightened the line , giving Abdallah B. Jubair 475 command of the archers, saying 'Defend us with your arrows, let them not attack us from behind'. 118. When there considered; dependent on the words 'had hearing' and 'had knowledge'; or, permutative of 'When thou didst go forth'. two parties of you ; the Banu Salima of El-Khazraj , and the Banu Ilaritha of El-Aus. These occupied the two flanks. that they would flag ; that they would be cowardly and weak. — It is recorded that the Apostle started out with about 1000 men, and promised them victory if they persevered , but when they reached El-Shaut 476 , Ibn Ubayy with 300 deserted, saying 'Why should we slay ourselves and our children'? Then they were followed by c Amr B. Hazm the Ansarl 477 , who said 'I adjure you by God and Islam to think of your Prophet and yourselves'. Then said Ibn SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 87 Ubayy 'If we knew how to fight we should follow you'. Then the two tribes 478 thought of following him, but God restrained them , and they went on with the Apostle. Itis clear however that it was not an intention 479 , as is shown by what follows. and God was their friend • restrained them from following that suggestion. Or the meaning may be 'but God was their helper, so why should they flag'? and upon God let the Believers rely, let them rely on no other to help them as He did at Badr. 119. And God did help you at Badr; calling to their memory an occasion on which reliance on God had been of use to them. — Badr is a spring between Mecca and Medina which belonged to a man named Badr and was called after him. when ye were humble; circumstantial phrase depending on 'you' in 'did help you'. He says "adhillatun 48 ° rather than dhalailu 481 to point to the paucity of their numbers together with their humility , by which is meant their feeble condition and the poverty of their mounts and armour. so fear God; in keeping your station. perhaps ye may be grateful ; for the help conferred upon you , by showing fear — or, perhaps God may be merciful to you, so that you will be thankful; and he substitutes the gratitude for the benefit , because the latter is the cause of the former. 120. When thou saidsl to the Believers ; temporal clause after 'did help you'; others say, a second permutative of 'when thou wentest forth' above; supposing that he said it to them on the day of Uhud, but on the conditions of persistence and abstinence from disobedience; so that when they did not restrain themselves from plundering and disobeyed the Prophet, the angels were not sent down. 88 sura m. will it not suffice you that your Lord reinforce you with 3000 of the Angels sent down? rejection of the idea that that number would not suffice them. Ian 482 is employed to point out that they were like people who despaired of help owing to their weakness and paucity, and the strength and number of the enemy. — It is said that on the day of Badr God helped them first with 1000 angels, who then became 3000, and afterwards 5000. — Ibn c lmir read munazzallna, meaning either 'sent down in numbers', or, 'sent down gradually' 483 . 121. Aye! confirmation of the sentence following Ian (not), i. e. 'Aye truly it will suffice you'. Then he promises them increase of help on condition of perseverance and obedience, in order to encourage them to these courses, and to strengthen their hearts, saying: if ye persevere and fear and they come to you : the Polytheists. at this moment of theirs • the word faurun (moment) is originally infinitive of the verb fara (to boil) applied to a pot, and metaphorically used of 'speed', then applied to an occasion about which there is no delay nor lingering. The meaning is If they come to you at once. your Lord will assist you with 5000 Angels • at the moment of their coming, without lingering or procrastination. marked; from sawwama which signifies to exhibit the badge of anything; this interpretation corresponds with the saying of the Prophet to his followers 'Put on your badges, for the Angels have put on theirs' i9t . — Or, despatched, from conjugation II in the sense of conjuga- tion IV. — Ibn Kathir, Abu c Amr, c Asim and Ya c qub read musawwimina * 85 . 122. And God has not decreed this; that you should be reinforced by Angels. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF "iMRAN. 89 but to encourage you; with tidings of help. and that your hearts might thereby be quieted; might acquiesce therein from fear. and the help comes not except from God ; not from ar- maments and numbers; signifying that there was no need of reinforcements in order to help them; and that God reinforced them and promised them reinforcement only in order to encourage them and strengthen their hearts, inas- much as the vulgar look more to the immediate causes ; and exhorting them not to care who left them in the lurch. the mighty ; who cannot be thwarted in His decisions. the wise; who helps and abandons with or without means; according to the dictates of wisdom and utility. that He may cut off some of them that disbelieve; depen- dent on 'He helped you' 486 above ; or, upon 'the help comes not' if the article in 'the help' be that of famili- arity ; 487 the meaning is to lessen their numbers by kil- ling some and taking others captive; and this was what took place on the day of Badr, when of their leaders * 83 70 were killed and 70 taken captive. or may abase them; i. e. 'make them ashamed: kabt means 'violent anger' or faint ness falling on the heart. 'Or' is here rather specificative 439 than alternative. and that they may be turned back disappointed ; and that they way be routed in despair. 123. Thoti hast nought of the matter ; parenthesis. or He may turn again to them or He may punish them; connected by the conjunction with 'may abase them'; 490 the meaning being that God is controller of their fate, and will either destroy them or abase them, or turn again to them, if they become Muslims, or punish them, if they are obstinate. Thou hast nought of their concern and 90 stjra in. art merely a servant ordered to warn them and to contend with them. — Or possibly it way be connected with 'of the matter', or with 'nought', supposing the conjunction 'that' to be omitted, so that the sense will be 'or with His turning again towards them or with His punishing them'; or, nothing of their concern is thine, neither His turning again to them nor His punishing them. — Or again, 'aw (or) may have the meaning 'except that', * 91 so that the sense will be 'thou hast nought to do with them, unless God turn again to them, so that thou wilt rejoice, or punish them , in which case thou wilt be avenged' 492 . — It is recorded that on the day of Uhud c Utbah 493 B. Abi Waqqas wounded the Prophet in the head and broke his side-tooth , so that he began to wipe the blood off his face , saying 'How can people prosper who have dyed their Pro- phet's face with blood'? — Then the text was revealed. And it is said 494 that he thought of cursing them, only God restrained him, knowing that there were future be- lievers among them. for they are wrong- doers ; who have merited punishment by the wrong which they have done. 124. And God's is whatsoever is in the heaven and on the earth ; as His creation and possession ; and His is the whole concern. He forgives whom He will and punishes whom He will ; a plain declaration * 95 that the punishment is not obliga- tory; and to make repentance or non-repentance a condition is to contradict this text. and God is ready to forgive , merciful; to His servants. Do not therefore curse them hastily. 125. ye that believe, eat not the Interest times redoubled ; i. e. do not increase it over and over again. Possibly the SURA OF THE FAMILY OF < TMRAN. 91 specialization 496 is in reference to what actually occurred ; inasmuch as a man would lend on interest for a given term , and then increase it, until by a small debt he swallowed up all the property of the debtor. Ibn Kathir, Ibn c lmir and Ya'qub read the participle in the II nd conjugation. and fear God; in what He has forbidden you. perhaps ye may prosper ; in hope that ye may. 126. And take heed of the fire which has been prepared for the unbelievers ; by guarding yourselves against imitating them or practising their actions. The verse indicates that the fire has been prepared essentially for the unbelievers, and per accidens for the transgressors. 497 and obey God and the Apostle , perhaps ye may find mercy ; he appends to the warning a promise, in order to deter them from disobedience and encourage them to obedience. The words c asay (perchance) and la'alla (perhaps) show that the cases are rare in which the predicate of these words is realised. 127. And hasten; hurry and go forward towards forgiveness from, your Lord; to those courses whereby forgiveness is earned, such as resignation, repen- tance and sincerity. — Nafi c and Ibn c Amir read 'hasten' without the conjunction. and toioards a Garden whose width is the heavens and the earth ; i. e. as wide as they. Its width is mentioned in order to give by way of comparison a powerful conception of its vastness, for the width of a thing is usually less than its length. A tradition after Ibn c Abbas makes its width like the seven heavens and the seven earths connected together. which is prepared for them that fear ; made ready for them. Herein is evidence that the Garden is created ,98 and is outside this world. *" 92 SURA III. 128. They who spend; laudatory epithet of 'them that fear' ; or , expression of praise either in the nominative or accusative. in weal and woe; in times of comfort and of distress; or, under all circumstances, since man is always either in joy or in distress. The sense is that in no state do they fail to expend what they can, whether much or little. and who suppress their wrath; who keep it back; who refrain from giving it vent while they have the power to do so ; from Jcazama applied to the act of filling a milkskin and tying up the mouth. — It is recorded that the Prophet said: 'If any man repress his wrath when able to give it vent, God will fill his heart with comfort and faith'. and who forgive people ; who omit to punish those whom they have a right to punish. It is recorded that the Pro" phet said : 'These last among my people are few, save those whom God assists; but in the nations that are past there were many'. and God loves the welldoers; the article way be generic, in which case the classes above mentioned will be included in the term; or that of familiarity, in which case the reference will be to them. 129. And those who, when they commit a crime; an action of extreme foulness, such as fornication. or wrong themselves; by committing a sin, of whatever sort it be. Some say the 'crime' is a capital offence, and the 'self-wronging' a minor offence. Possibly the 'crime' is an act which affects others , and 'self-wronging' an act which does not. remember God ; recollect His warning or His mighty right. and ash forgiveness for their sins; by remorse and re- pentance. SURA OP THE FAMILY OF f IMRAN. 93 and who shall forgive sins but God ? interrogation expec- ting a negative answer, interposed parenthetically between the two sentences that are connected by the conjunctions. He means to predicate of God width of mercy and com- prehensive forgiveness, and to encourage people to ask His pardon and to promise that their repentance will be accepted. and are not obstinate in what they do; i. e. do not per- sist in sins without asking forgiveness; compare the saying of the Prophet 'He is not hardened wo asks forgiveness though he repeat the sin seventy times in the day. while they know; i. e. do not adhere knowingly to a foul course of conduct. 130. Those their recompense is forgiveness from their Lord, and gardens beneath which rivers flow , wherein they abide ; predicate of 'those who' in verse 129 , if that be regarded as subject; or fresh sentence explanatory of the preceding if 'those who' etc. be connected by the conjunction with 'those that fear' of verse 127, or 'those who spend' of verse 128. It does not follow 500 from the fact that the Garden has been prepared as a recompense for the pious and the repentant that the obstinate will not enter it, just as it does not follow from the fact that the fire has been pre- pared as a recompense for the unbelievers that no others will enter it. If we make the words predicate of 'those who' (v. 129) , the omission of the article before 'Gardens' shows that what is prepared for these is less than that what has been prepared for 'those that fear', who are described by the epithets mentioned in the preceding verse 5()1 . And it is a sufficient distinction between the two parties that he supplements the text dealing with them by stating that they 'do good' and earn the love of God 94 stjka in. by observing the ordinances of the Law, and endeavour to possess themselves of His favours ; while he supplements the text dealing with the latter class by the words and blessed are the wages of them that toil ; since he who endeavours to make up for his short-comings is like one who labours to regain something which he has allowed to escape him; and how great is the difference between him that does good and him that makes reparation, and between the beloved and the hireling! It may be that the substi- tution of the word 'wages' for 'recompense' is for this point; the object of praise 502 is here omitted, the Ml force being are those i. e. forgiveness and the Garden. 131. There have passed before you dealings 503 ; events decreed by God against the peoples that disbelieved; com- pare xxxiii . 61 'and they were utterly slain, the dealing of God with them that passed before'; — others say 'na- tions' as in the verse 'mankind have seen no excellence such as yours , nor did they find the like thereof in bygone nations' (sunan) 503 . so march in the earth and see how was the end of the unbelievers; that ye may take warning by the, vestiges ot their destruction which ye shall see. 132. This a demonstration to mankind and guidance and warning to them that fear ; 'this' refers to the words 'there have passed' or to the sense of the words 'and see'; not only is it a demonstration to the unbelievers, but conveys additional instruction and is a warning to them that fear; or, it refers to the above summary of the state of them that fear and them that repent, the words 'There have passed' etc. being a parenthesis exhorting to faith and repentance. — Others say 'this' refers to the Qur'an. 133. And faint not neither grieve; consolation to them SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C MItAN. 95 for what had befallen them on the day of Uhud; the meaning being 'Be not discouraged by what has befallen you and mourn not over your slain'. when ye are the uppermost; the circumstances being such that you are more exalted than they in dignity, since you are on the side of truth, and fight for God, and your slain are in Paradise, whereas they are on the side of falsehood, their fighting is for Satan, and their dead are in Hell. — Or , since you took more of them on the day 01 Badr than they took of you this day 505 . — Or, when you are superior to them in the long run; in which case the words will be a promise of help and victory to them. if ye believe; depending 506 on the prohibition: i. e. faint not, if your faith be firm'; since faith necessitates stout- ness of heart, through reliance on God, — Or, dependent on 'ye are the uppermost'. 134. If a sore touch you, a sore like it has already tou- ched the people; Hamza, El-Kisa'i and Ibn c Ayyash after c Asim read jurhun (sore), the rest jarhun; they are opti- onal forms like dufun and dafun (weakness) ; others make the form with a mean wounds, the form with u the pain they cause. — The meaning is 'if they have overcome you on the day of Uhud, you overcame them on the day of Badr; yet they did not become discouraged or faint- hearted, and you are still more bound not to flag; for you hope to receive from God what they hope not'. — Others make both 'touchings' refer to the day of Uhud, since the Muslims were victorious until they disobeyed the Prophet's command. now those days we alternate among mankind; we change them about between them; we give the victory one time to these, another to those; as in the verse 507 . 'One day 96 sura in. against us to and one day for us; so one day we are grieved and one day are made merry'. — Dawala is in sense Like 'awara 508 , you say, using the III nd and VI th forms 'I alternated a thing between them and each got his share'. — 'Days' {el-ayyama) may he either an epi- thet 5 " 9 , or predicate (rendering 'those are the days') and 'we alternate them' may be either predicate or circum- stantial phrase. The meaning is 'times of help and victory'. and that God may know those who believe; connected by the conjunction with an omitted cause; 'we alternate them in order that such-and-such may take place, and in order that God may know', suggesting that the cause thereof is not one only, and that the advantages which accrue there- from to the Believers are unknowable. Or, the verb on which this final sentence depends may be omitted, to be supplied thus; 'and in order that those who are firm in their faith might be distinguished from those who are on the margin we have done this . The import of such phrases and their contrary 610 is not God's knowing or not knowing, but the establishment or the contrary of the thing already know by God by a demonstrative process. — Others say the meaning is, that He might know them with a knowledge whereon recompense would depend; and that is knowledge of a thing when already come to pass. and that He might take to himself of you martyrs ; and might honour some of you with martyrdom. 5H He means the martyrs of Uhud. Or, might take from among you 'witnesses' 512 proved true by the steadfastness and endu- rance of tribulation which they then displayed. and God loves not them that do injury: who keep in their bosoms the contrary of what they display 5l3 . — Or, the Unbelievers. — The verse notifies that God does not SURA OP THE FAMILY OF °IMRAN. 97 really help the Unbelievers, but gives them the victory sometimes merely to tempt them and to try the Believers. 135. And that God may prove them that believe; may cleanse and purify them from their sins if the event go against them. and may waste the Unbelievers away ; may destroy them, if the event go against them, mahaqa means to diminish a thing little by little. 136. Or think ye that ye shall enter Paradise? nay, think ye? 5H — The meaning is think not. When God Jcnoweth not those of you who have fought ; i. e. when some of you have not yet fought 515 . This shows that the command to fight is addressed to the community as a whole 516 . The difference between the negatives lamma and lam is that the former implies that the action which it denies is expected in the future 517 . Some read ya c lama supposing that the original form was yaHaman with n elided. nor does He know the patient; ya c lama is in the subjunc- tive after a suppressed 3 an (that), the waw (and) according to this reading having comitative force 518 . — Others read ya c lamu (indicative), making the waw circumstantial 519 , the sense being 'Ye have not yet fought being patient'. 137. And formerly ye desired death; i. e. war, which is one of the causes of death. Or, the death of martydom. The persons addressed are those who were not present at Badr, but desired to be present with the Apostle at a sacred battle, in order to gain the distinction which the heroes of Badr obtained; and so urged him to go out on the day of Uhud. before ye met it ; before ye faced it and learned its terror. and now ye have seen it, looking thereon; ye have seen it face to face when such of your brethren as were slain 7 98 sura m. were slain while you escaped. The verse upbraids them with having desired war and brought it on, and then having fainted and fled from the field; or, with desiring martyrdom; a desire which by implication is a desire for the victory of the Unbelievers 53 °. 138. And Muhammad is only an apostle before whom the apostles have passed away ; and he will pass away as they have passed by death or murder. and if he die or be slain , will ye retrace your steps? Disapproval of any apostasy or abandonment of religion on their part owing to his passing away by death or murder, when they knew how the Apostles had passed away before him, but their religion remained an object ot adherence. Others 531 make the conjunction causative , and the interrogation express disapproval of their making the fact that the Apostles before him had passed away a rea- son for backsliding after his death. It is recorded that when Abdallah B. Qamfah the Harithite 632 threw the stone at the Prophet, breaking his side- tooth and wounding his face, his standard-bearer Mus c ab B. c Umair 523 protected the Prophet until slain by Ibn Qamfah; who thinking that he had slain the Prophet , said 'I have killed Mohammed' ; ome one then shouted aloud 'Mohammed is slain', and his followers took to flight. The Prophet then began to cry out 'servants of God, to me', when thirty of his followers gathered to him and protected him, until they had rid him of the Polytheists; the rest were dispersed, some saying 'would that Ibn Ubayy 524 might get an amnesty for us from Abu Sufyan' 525 . Some of the Hypocrites said 'Had he been a Prophet, he had not been killed; return therefore to your brethren and your religion'. Anas B. El- Nadr 526 however the uncle of Anas B. Malik 537 said 'Good SURA OP THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 99 people, if Mohammed be killed, Mohammed's Lord is alive and immortal; and what will ye do with life after he is gone? So fight for the cause for which he fought'. Then he said '0 God, I ask thy pardon for what they say, and am innocent thereof. So he set to work with his sword and fought till he was killed. Then the text was revealed. and tohoso turns upon his heels shall not hurt God at all; by his apostasy, but rather hurts himself. and God will reward them that are grateful ; for the be- nefit of Islam by adhering to it, like Anas and those like him. 139. No soul has power to die but by the permission of God; save by His will 528 ; or by His permitting the Angel of Death to seize the spirit. The meaning is that each soul has a term named in the knowledge and ordi- nance of God; they cannot delay it nor anticipate it by one hoar by keeping away from battle or plunging into it 529 . The words are meant to encourage and embolden them to fight, and promise the Apostle that he shall be protected, and his end postponed. in writing ; confirmatory infinitive 53 ° ; the meaning being death is written in writing. dated; epithet of hitaban (writing); meaning 'fixed for a time'; death shall not come before nor after that time. and whoso desires the recompense of this world , we shall give him thereof ; side glance at those who were occupied with the plunder on the day of Uhud; for the Muslims on that day attacked the Polytheists and put them to flight and commenced plundering; then when the archers saw this , they made for the plunder , leaving their places ; thereupon the Polytheists , taking advantage of the 100 sura in. opportunity, attacked them in the rear and routed them. and whoso desires the recompense of the next , we shall give him thereof; of its recompense. and we shall reward them that are grateful; those who were thankful for God's mercy and were not diverted by anything from fighting. 140. And how many; ha ay y in, originally °ayyun with ha prefixed, 'like what' coming to have the meaning of ham (how many); the in being the tanwin , maintained in writing contrary to analogy. Ibn Kathir read ha in 531 the account of this form being that the word has undergone the permutations to which a single word is liable as when you say ra c amll for laamrl, whence it became Jcayfin; then the second y was thrown out for abbreviation, and the other y changed into a as in taiyyun 532 . a prophet; explanation of ha'ayyin have many ribbiyyun fought with; ribbiyyuna for rabbis; learned and pious men; or, worshippers of their Lord; others say 'companies', making ribbiyyuna relative adjective of ribbatun 'a company', used as an emphatic form of that word: 533 Ibn Kathir, Nafi c , Abu c Amr and Ya c qub read qutila 'was slain' which may be referred either to ribbiy- yuna or to the pronoun referring to 'the Prophet', in which case 'while ribbiyyuna were with him' will be a circum- stantiar phrase belonging to that pronoun. The former view is supported by the reading quttila 'were massacred'. 534 rabbiyyuna is also read, which would be the original form; also rubbiyyuna with u, which would be a change not un- common in a relative adjective, 535 as would also be the case with the form with i. and they fainted not for what befell them in the path of God; they flagged not, nor was their zeal diminished by SURA OF THE FAMILY OF ^MltAN. 101 the death of their prophet and of some of themselves, or any such disaster. nor did they fail; to meet the enemy; or, in their faith. nor did they yield; humble themselves before the enemy; istakanu, originally istakanu from sakana (to be quiet); for he that bows down is silent before his master, to let him do with him what he will ; according to this account the a has received an irrational lengthening; or, from haun (to be) , originally istaJcwanu , because he that humbles him- self desires that his soul shall belong to him to whom be bows down. 536 The verse alludes to what befell them at the time of the false rumour of Mohammed's death. and God loves those that endure; and accordingly helps them and exalts their station. 141. And no words did they utter save that they said: Our Lord , forgive us our sins and our excess in our conduct and establish our feet and help us against the evil-doing folk; in spite of their steadfastness and their strength in their faith and their being worshippers, their language was nothing but this, viz. the ascription of sins and excess to themselves by way of self-abasement, and of what befell them to the wickedness of their actions; a prayer for for- giveness thereof; then a request that they might be esta- blished in their battle-stations, and aided against the foe; and that request is put last 537 in order that it may appear to proceed from humility and purity and be most likely to be answered. — He makes the words 'their speech' predicate of hana (was) instead of subject, because 'that they said' is more definite, since it points out the nature of the relation 53S and the time of the occurrence. so God gave them the reward of this world, and the fair reward of the next ivorld , and God loves them that do well; 102 sura m. so God gave them, by reason of their imploring forgive- ness and taking refuge with Him, victory and spoil and honour and good name in this world, and Paradise and delights in the next world. And the recompense of the next world is particularised as 'fair' in order to point to its excellence and to the fact that it only is of consequence with God. 142. ye that believe, if ye obey them which disbelieve, they will send you back upon your heels, and ye shall be turned away losers; revealed with reference to the words of the Hypocrites to the Believers during the rout Eeturn to your religion and your brethren , and Had Mohammed been a Prophet, he had not been slain. Others make the meaning 'If ye humble yourselves before Abu Sufyan and his followers and capitulate to them, they will bring you back to their religion'. Others refer it generally to obeying the unbelievers and accepting their decisions; which leads to agreement with them. 143. Nay rather, God is your ally ; your helper. Others read the accusative with the force 'Nay rather obey God, your ally'. and He is the best of helpers; so through Him dispense with the alliance of others and their assistance. 144. We shall cast into the hearts of those that disbelieve terror; referring to the terror cast into their hearts on the day of Uhud, so that they left off fighting and retreated without cause ; 539 then Abu Sufyan cried out 'Our rendez- vous is the fair of Badr for next year, if thou wilt, Mohammed' and the Prophet answered 'If God will'. — Others say that when they had retreated, and were half way , they repented and bethought them of returning to fight the Believers in order to annihilate then, but God STJKA OP THE FAMILY OF "iMRAN. 103 threw fear into their hearts. Ibu c Amir, El-Kisa D i and Ya c qub read ru c uban (with two u'&), the original form 540 throughout the Qur'an. because they associated with God beings for whom God had not revealed authority ; Gods for whose association with God there was no evidence , nor had God revealed any authority. The phrase resembles the verse 'and thou seest not the lizard retreat therein' 541 — The root saltanah means 'power' ; hence is derived salit 'olive-oil' owing to the force with which it burns, and salatah 'sharpness of tongue'. and their home is the fire , and a bad home is that of the wrong-doers; i. e. their home. 'The wrong-doers' is substituted for 'their' to add harshness to the expression, and to sug- gest the ground of the proposition. 145. And God has ratified His promise to them; His promise of assistance to them on condition of obedience and endurance. Now this was so until the archers disobeyed, for, when the Polytheists advanced, the archers began to shoot them, and the rest to strike them with the sword, till they were routed with the Muslims behind them. when ye were slaying them by His leave; from hassa , meaning to stun the senses. until, when ye flagged; when ye became cowardly and your counsel failed ; or 'turned to the spoil', for covetousness comes from weakness of intellect. and ye strove with one another in the matter ; referring to the dispute of the archers, when the Polytheists fled, and some said 'Why stop we here'? but others said 'Let us not disobey the command of the Apostle'; so their commander " 2 remained in his place with a number under ten , and the rest made for the booty, which is the meaning of what follows. 104 SURA III. and ye rebelled after He had shown you what ye like ; in the way of victory and booty and rout of the enemy. The apodosis of 3 idM (when) is omitted, it should be 'ye were tried'. 543 146. Among you were those that desired this present world; these were they who left their station for the plunder. and among you were those that desired the next world ; those that kept their places, observing the command of the Prophet. then he diverted you from them ; restrained you from them until the tables were turned and they defeated you. that He might try you; by misfortune 544 , and test the endurance of your faith therein. and He has forgiven you ; out of generosity, and because He knew how you repented of your disobedience. and God is full of merey for them that believe ; He freely bestows His forgiveness upon them. — Or, at all times, whether the issue be for or against them; since 'trial' is mercy also. 147. When ye departed; depending on 'He diverted you', or , 'that He might try you' ; or , on a verb to be supplied like 'Remember'. °as°ada means 'to depart' or 'go far into the land'; it is used of going from Mecca to Medina. and ye turned not to any; no one stood still for any other, nor waited for him. while the Apostle was calling you; was saying 'Hither, hither, ye servants of God. I am the Apostle of God; he that turns against them shall have Paradise'. in your rear ; the hinder portion and the other company of you. and He recompensed you with trouble for trotible that ye might not grieve over what had escaped you neither over what had overtaken you; connected by the conjunction with 'He SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 105 diverted you', meaning 'and God rewarded your flagging and your disobedience with trouble following upon trouble', referring to their vexation at the carnage and the wounds they received , the victory of the Idolaters and the rumour of the death of the Prophet. Or, and God rewarded you with sorrow, owing to the sorrow which you had made the Prophet endure by your disobedience to him, that you might accustom yourselves to endurance in tribulations, and not grieve thereafter over advantages which escaped you , nor to harm which befell you. — Others say la (not) is otiose and that the sense is 'that ye might grieve over the victory and spoil which ye had lost, and over the wounds and defeat which had befallen you as a punishment to you' — Others say the pronoun in 'and he recompensed you' refers to the Apostle, meaning 'and he imitated you in your grief and was vexed at what had befallen you, just as you were grieved at what had befallen him, and did not reproach you for your disobedience, in order to comfort you , and that you might not mourn over the succour which you had lost, and the rout that had befallen you'. and God is aware of what ye do; is cognizant of your acts and what ye intended thereby. 148. Then He sent down upon you after your grief security, slumber ; God sent down upon you such security that slumber seized you. It is recorded 545 that Abu Talhah said : 'Slumber overcame us in our stations, so that the sword would fall out of a man's hand, and he would pick it up again' 'amanatun means security' and is in the accusative of the direct object 546 , and 'slumber' its permutative, or, perhaps, the latter is the direct object , and 'amanatan' in security' is a circumstantial phrase referring to it, and placed before it 5 ' 17 ; or, an accusative of the cause, 'out of security.' — 106 SURA III. Or, a circumstantial phrase referring to the persons ad- dressed , and meaning 'while you were secure' ; which will also he the meaning if 'amanatun be regarded as plural of 'dminun like bdrrun, plural bararatun. — Others read 'um- nalan 548 as nomen vicis of 'umnun. overcoming a portion of you • i. e. slumber overcame. Hamza and El-Kisa 3 ! read the feminine form of the verb which they refer to 'amanaian (security). The portion are the true believers. and a portion; the Hypocrites. whose souls had thrown them into anxiety ; or who had no concern save for their lives and the desire to preserve them 549 . thinking concerning God other than the truth , thoughts of the Ignorant; second descriptive clause of 'the portion'; or circumstantial phrase (while thinking) referring to them; or fresh sentence (they thought) explaining what pre- ceded; 'other than the truth' is an infinitival accusative; i. e. they thought concerning Glod other thoughts than the true thoughts which it is proper to think concerning Him. 'Thoughts of the Ignorant', permutative of 'other than the truth', mean such thoughts as belong peculiarly to the Ignorant school and its followers. saying ; i. e. to the Apostle. The word is permutative of 'thinking'. Have we anything at all of the matter? Have we any portion at all in the succour and the victory which God ordained and promised? — It is said that Ibn Ubayy being told of the slaughter of the Banu Khazraj said this , meaning 'we are not allowed to look after ourselves or to dispose of our lives according to our discretion; so that nothing of the matter remains to us' or else 'will this violence cease, so that we shall have something of the matter'? SURA OF THE FAMILY OF "TMRAN. 107 say: The whole matter is God's; the real victory is to God and His allies ; for the party of God are the victors. — . Or, the decision is His; He does what He will and decides as He pleases, and decrees what He chooses. The words are parenthetical. — Abu 'Arnr and Ya c qub read kulluhu 550 rendering 'the matter — the whole of it is God's'. hiding in their souls what they divulge not to thee; cir- cumstantial phrase, referring to the pronoun in 'saying' above ; i. e. they say, while ostensibly asking for direction and praying for help, but inwardly harbouring disapproval and unbelief. they say; to themselves; or, when they are alone with one another; permutative of 'hiding', or fresh clause ex- plaining it. Had we had any of the matter; as Mohammed promised, declaring that the whole matter was God's and His friends'; or, Had we had any discretion and disposition and had not moved, as was the counsel of Ibn Ubayy and others. we had not been slain here; we had not been overcome and some of us killed on this battlefield 551 . Say Had ye been in your houses , those for whom slaughter was written would have come forth to their beds ; those for whom God had ordained slaughter and written it on the 'Preserved Table' would have come forth to the places where they were slain, nor would it have availed them to stay in Medina nor would one of them have escaped. For He ordained the events and disposed them in His original plan, and none can reverse His judgment. and that God might try what was in your breasts; that He might examine what was in your breasts and reveal their secrets , i. e. their sincerity 552 or hypocrisy ; it is a final clause attached to an omitted verb i. e. 'and He 108 sura m. wrought that'. — Or, it may be connected by the conjunc- tion with an omitted clause 'they would have come forth in order that fate might be accomplished, and that God might try'. — Or, it may be connected by the conjunc- tion with 'that ye might not grieve'. and that He might purify what is in your hearts ; reveal it , and distinguish it, or purify it from Satan's suggestions. and God is cognizant of that which is in the breasts; of their hidden things before they are disclosed. The words contain a promise and a warning; and a notification that God can dispense with experiment, and did this merely to practise the Believers and to disclose the character of the Hypocrites. 149. Verily those of you who turned bach on the day whereon the two companies met, it was only Satan that caused them to slip with some of what they had committed; he means that in the case of those who fled on the day of Uhud, the cause of their fleeing was only that Satan desired that they should stumble, so they obeyed him and committed sins, in that they disobeyed the Apostle in leaving their posts and hasting after booty or life; and they forfeited the divine aid and strength of heart. — Others say Satan's causing them to stumble refers to their turning aside which was because of sins they had pre- viously committed, since each transgression induces ano- ther. Others say he caused them to slip by reminding them of sins they had committed, so that they wished not to be slain before they had sincerely repented and abandoned evil-doing. and God has forgiven them; owing to their repenting and asking pardon. verily God is full of forgiveness ; of sins. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF e IMRAN 109 gentle; He does not hasten the punishment of the sinner, in order that he may repent. 150. ye that believe be not like unto them that believed not; meaning the Hypocrites. and said of their brethren; on account of them and con- cerning them m . The meaning of their brotherhood is their union in descent or in religion. when they wander about the earth; travel there and go far away for merchandise or some other purpose. The na- tural particle would have been' idh (when); since 'they said' is in the perfect; however' idha is used to throw the hearer back into the past 554 . or go on forays ; ghuzzan 'foraying', plural of ghazin like %ffan plural of c afn 555 . Had they been with us they were not dead neither had they been slain; object of qcilu 'they said'. This shows that their brethren were not the persons addressed. that God may make that a sorroio in their hearts; depen- ding upon they 'said', if the li (that) be that of conse- quence 556 , as it is in XXVIII. 7 'that it 557 might be an enemy and a grief to them'. Or, 'Be not like them in uttering these words and in believing this, in order that God may make it a sorrow in their hearts only'. 'That' refers to the belief indicated by their words; or, accor- ding to others , to the result indicated by the prohibition : i. e. 'Be not like them, so that God may make your failing to be like them a pang in their hearts'. For their being opposed and thwarted is a thing that would grieve them. and God gives life and slays ; refutation of their words. It is He who is the operator in the matter of life and death, not staying at home, or going out. For at times 110 sura m. He keeps alive one that travels and goes on expeditions and slays some that remain sitting at home. and God is watchful over what ye do; a warning to the Believers not to imitate the others. Ibn Kathir, Hamza and El-Kisa 3 ! read 'what they do', making it a menace to 'them that disbelieved'. 151. And verily if ye be slain in the path of God or die; die in His path. Hamza and El-Kisa 3 ! read mittum from mata , yamatu B58 . there is forgiveness from God and mercy , better than what ye amass; apodosis of the oath, which serves as apodosis to the conditional sentence 559 . The meaning is that mar- ching and campaigning is not a thing that induces death or hastens the end; but if that should occur in the path of God, then the forgiveness and mercy which ye will obtain by death are better than what ye would amass of this world and its comforts were ye not to die. Hafs read 'they amass'. 152. And verily if ye die or are slain 560 ; howsoever your destruction come about. unto God shall ye be gathered; unto the object of your worship unto whom ye aspire and for whose face ye have given your lives , not unto any other shall ye be gathered , without doubt; and He will pay you your recompense and increase your reward. — Nafi c , Hamza and El-Kisa D i read mittum with Kesra. 153. And through mercy from God thou hast been gentle with them; ma is added for emphasis and to show that his leniency with them was only 561 due to mercy from Grod. — The 'mercy' consisted in His calming the Prophet's emotion , and aiding the Prophet to be gentle with them so that he was even sorry for them after they had disobeyed him. SURA OF THE FAMILY OF "iMRAN. Ill and hadst thou been rough; of a cruel disposition and violent. hard hearted, they would have dispersed fiom around thee; and would not have taken refuge with thee. so forgive them; so far as concerns thee. and ash pardon for them; for that which concerns God. and consult them in the matter; in the matter of war, since that is the subject of discussion; or, in matters in which it is proper that they should be consulted , in order to gain the advantage of their advice, and gratify them, and establish the practice of deliberation in the nation 662 . and when thou determinest ; settest thy heart on any course after consultation 563 . then rely upon God; to bring thy business about as is best for thee; for none but He knows that. Another reading 5W is c azamtu in the first person ; i. e. when I have determined upon any course for thee and marked it out for thee, then rely upon Me and consult no other about it. verily God loves them that rely; and helps them and guides them to prosperity. 154. If God help you; as he did on the day of Badr. then there is no conqueror of you ; no one can conquer you. and if He abandon you ; as he did on the day of Uhud. then who is there that will help you thereafter ? after His desertion; or after God; meaning 'if ye go beyond Him, ye have no helper.' — The passage is to notify the reason which makes reliance necessary, and to encourage to that course which will earn God's help , and to deter from that course which will bring about His withdrawal of it. and upon God let the believers rely; let them rely upon Him alone. Knowing that they have no helper but Him , and believing on Him. 155. And it was not for a Prophet to cheat ; it was not 112 sura in. proper for a Prophet's office is incompatible with chea- ting 565 . You say ghalla in the I st or the IV* conjugation of any one who takes booty secretly. The intention is either to declare the Prophet innocent of that of which he was suspected — since it is recorded that a red nightgown was missed on the day of Badr 566 , and some of the Hy- pocrites said 'Perhaps the Prophet of God has taken it', or of what the archers thought about him on the day of Uhud when they left their stations for the sake of plunder saying 'we fear that the Prophet will say whoso has taken anything, it is his, and will not divide the plunder'. — Or else it is an express prohibition to the Prophet, ac- cording to a story that he sent out exploring parties, and after sending them took some plunder which he dis- tributed to those that remained with him, and not to the exploring parties, when the text was revealed. — The designation of the act of depriving of their share some of those who had merited one as 'cheating' will in that case be an intentionally harsh phrase, and a second mode of strengthening the veto 567 . — Nafi s , Ibn c Amir, Hamza, El-Kisa'i and Ya c qub read 'm yughalla in the passive, with the meaning It is not proper for a Prophet to be found stealing 568 , or to be described by the epithet 'thief 569 . and he that steals shall bring what he has stolen on the Bay of Judgment; he shall come with what he has stolen, carrying it upon his neck , as is stated in the tradition 57 ° ; or , with the curse and the sin thereof wherewith he shall be loaded. then every soul shall be paid what it has committed • shall be given the recompense of what it has committed com- plete. It would have corresponded exactly with the pre- SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 113 ceding if he had said 'Then he shall be paid 571 what he has committed' ; however he makes the proposition general so that it becomes as it were a demonstration of the pro- position intended; for, if every one who commits is to be rewarded according to his work, he that steals, con- sidering the enormity of his crime , is most likely to be so. and they shall not be wronged; the reward of such of them as are pious shall not be diminished, nor the pu- nishment of the evildoers among than increased. 156. And shall he that follows the favour of God; by obedience. be as he that returns with anger from God? On account of his transgressions. and whose home is Gehenna and an evil issue is his; the difference between the 'issue' and the 'return' is that the issue must necessarily be different from the original state, whereas the returning is not so 572 . they are stages with God; they are compared to stages, owing to the diversity between them in reward and pu- nishment. — Or, 'they are possessed of stages'. and God is vigilant over what they do; is cognizant of their works and the degrees thereof proceeding from them, and will recompense them on account of them. 158. Verily God has been gracious to the Believers ; has conferred benefits on those of the Prophet's people who have believed with him; and they are specialized, not- withstanding that the benefit of the mission is universal, 573 because they more than any others profit thereby. — Others read lamin manni 3 lldhi (verily of the favour of God) as predicate of an omitted subject such as 'is His favour' or 'is His sending'. since He has sent among them an Apostle of themselves; 8 114 sura in. of the same family, 574 or race with them, an Arab, so that they might understand his language easily, and might be cognizant of his character for truth and trustworthi- ness , and boast of him. — Some B75 read °anfasihim 'of the most noble of them', and indeed the Prophet was of the noblest tribe and family of Arabia. to read to them His signs; the Qur'an, after they had been ignorant and had never heard revelation. and purify them; and cleanse them from the corruption of their nature and from their evil beliefs and works. 576 and teach them the Book and the Wisdom; the Qur'an and the Sunna. and verily they were beforehand in clear error; °m (verily) is here the abbreviated form of °inna , and la 577 the dis- tinguishing particle ; the meaning being 'and the fact is , 578 they were before the sending of the Apostle in obvious error'. 159. And when there befell yon a loss double whereof ye had inflicted, did ye say Whence is this? The interrogation is affirmative and reproachful. The 'and' connects the sen- tence with the story of Uhud which preceded; or with an omitted verb like 'did ye do so and so and say' ? And of this 579 lamma 'when' which is annexed to 'there befell you' is the temporal clause ; i. e. Did ye say , when an afflic- tion, viz. the loss of 70 men on the day of Uhud, befell you, the case being that you had gained twice as much on the day of Badr, when you slew 70 and took 70 pri- soners 'Whence has this befallen us, when God promised us the victory' ? Say : This is from themselves ; owing to what they them- selves committed in disobeying the command, and leaving their station: for the promise was conditioned by their remaining steadfast and obeying ; or , in choosing to go forth SURA OF THE FAMILY OF 'iMRAN. 115 from Medina ; or , according to Ali (whose face God ennoble) by your choosing to take ransoms on the day of Badr. 58 ° Verily God has power over everything; so that He is able to give succour and withdraw it , to make you victors and to defeat you. 160. And that which befell you on the day when the tioo companies met; the company of Muslims and the company of Polytheists; he means the day of Uhud. was by the permission of God ; took place by His ordi- nance , or by His leaving the Unbelievers free. This he calls 'permission' because the former followed on the latter. 681 and that He might know the Believers and know them which simulated ; and that the Believers and the Hypocrites might be discriminated , and the faith of the one party and the unbelief of the other made clear. and it was said to them; i. e. 'and to whom it was said', connected by the conjunction with 'which simulated', and so part of the relative clause; or else a fresh sentence. Come, fight in the path of God or defend ; option given to them and choice between fighting for the next world or in defence of their lives and possessions. — Others make the meaning 'Fight with the Unbelievers, or else repel them by increasing the mass of the fighters' ; for multi- tude is a thing which frightens the enemy and causes him to retreat. they said: If we knew of a battle, we should follow you/ if we knew of anything worthy to be called a battle we should have followed you thither; but what you are en- gaged in is not a battle , but casting your lives to destruc- tion. Or, if we were good at fighting we should follow you. — This they said out of unwillingness to fight, and in mockery. 116 sura m. they were nearer that day to unbelief than to belief ; 582 as shown by their desertion and this speech; for these were the signs displayed by them which gave evidence of their unbelief. Others say they were nearer (kinder) in giving aid to the Unbelievers than to the Believers; since their desertion and their speech strengthened the Idolaters and betrayed the Believers. 161. They speak tvith their mouths what is not in their hearts; they display the opposite of what they think. Their hearts do not correspond with their tongues in faith. 'Speech' is attributed to the mouth for emphasis and to give a graphic description. 583 and God knows better what they hide; their hypocrisy and what they say in secret to one another. For He knows it distinctly by necessary knowledge; whereas you know it summarily by outward signs. 162. Who say; either nominative as permutative of 'they' (in 'they side'), or accusative of reproach, or accusative in apposition with 'them which simulated' of verse 160; or genitive as permutative of the pronoun in 'their hearts' as in the verse 'In a condition in which had Hatim been with the people, he would have stinted the water in spite of his goodness , Hatim's'. 584 to their brethren; i. e. on account of their brethren, meaning those of their relations or of their race who were killed or the day of Uhud. when they had sat down; circumstantial phrase with the particle aad to be supplied. 585 They said this when they had kept aloof from the battle. had they obeyed us; in sitting down in Medina they had not been killed; even as we have not been killed. Hisham read quttilu (had not been massacred). SURA OF THE FAMILY OP °IMRAN. 117 Say Then avert death from yourselves , if ye speak true ; i.e. if ye say truly that ye can avert slaughter from those for whom it is decreed, then avert death and the causes of it from yourselves; for that is fitter for you. The mea- ning is that 'sitting down' is not sufficient; for the causes of death are many; just as fighting may be a cause of ruin and sitting still a cause of safety, so the matter may be reversed. 163. And count not those who were slain in the path of God, dead; revealed concerning the martyrs of Uhud; according to others concerning those of Badr. 586 The per- son addressed is either the Apostle or each individual. — Others read 'and let him not count' referring it to the Prophet, or to 'him that thinketh', or to 'those who were slain' 587 , in which case the first object, originally the subject of a nominal sentence, will have been omitted, as it may be , when the context suggests it. 588 — Ibn c imir read quttilu (were massacred) owing to the number of those that were killed. nay alive; they are alive. Others read the word in the accusative after 'count them'. with their Lord ; near Him. they are provided; out of Paradise; confirmation of the statement that they are alive. 164. Rejoicing in what He has given them of His munificence ; the glory of martyrdom, the possession of eternal life, nearness to God, and the enjoyment of the pleasures of Paradise. and they congratulate themselves concerning those that have not followed them ; concerning their believing brethren who have not been slain nor joined them. behind them ; i. s. that are behind them in time or in rank. 118 sura. m. that there is no fear for them, neither do they mourn; permutative of 'concerning those that have not followed them'. The meaning is that they are gladdened by the knowledge that has come to them of the condition of the next world and the state of the believers whom they have left behind; that knowledge being that when they die, or are slain , they are alive with a life which is not clouded by the fear of the occurrence of anything which they dislike or grief at the loss of what they like. The verse proves that man is not the sensible frame 589 , but a substance essentially capable of perception, which does not perish with the destruction of the body, and whose powers of perception and of feeling pain and pleasure are not depen- dent on the body. 59 ° This is supported by the words of God concerning the people of Pharaoh (xi. 49) 'the fire — they shall be exposed to it', and the words of the Prophet 591 recorded by Ibn c Abbas 'The spirits of the martyrs are in the bodies of green birds 593 , which go down to the rivers of Paradise and eat of its fruits and nestle under lamps suspended under the shadow of the throne'. — Those however who deny this and regard the spirit as a breath and an accident say they are alive on the Day of Judgment, and are only said to be alive now because of the certainty and the vicinity of that day; or, alive in remembrance; or, in faith. 593 — The words are an exhortation to struggle and an encouragement to martyrdom, and an admonition to increase in piety, and an encomium 594 on those who desire for their brethren benefits similar to those conferred upon themselves and a promise to the Believers of success. 165. They congratulate themselves; repeated for emphasis, and in order to append to it what will illustrate the words 'there is no fear for them'. 595 It is possible that the first SURA OF THE FAMILY OF °IMRAN. 119 congratulation (v. 164) refers to the condition of their brethren, the latter to their own condition. upon munificence from God; being the recompense of their works. and bounty ; and an increment thereto; like the words (x. 27) c To them that have done good shall there be good and an increment'. The omission of the article gives the sense of magnitude. 596 and that God wastes not the reward of the Believers; part of that whereon they congratulate themselves ; joined by the conjunction to 'bounty'. — El-Kisa 3 ! read wainna (and verily; for 'and that'), making this a new sentence, paren- thetical 597 , showing that this is a reward to them owing to their faith , and indicating that the works of him who has no faith are lost and his reward wasted. 598 166. Who answered God and the Apostle ofier that the wounds had befallen them; description of the Believers; or, accusative of praise; or subject (they who answered) of which the whole of what follows is predicate. 5 " to those of them that do good and fear there is a mighty reward; 'of in 'of them' is explanatory 60 °. The purpose of mentioning these two qualities 601 is to praise them and to give the ground of their being rewarded, not to limit; for all those 'who answered' were also persons who did good and feared. — It is recorded 603 that when Abu Sufyan and his followers retreated and reached Eauha 603 , they repented and thought of returning; this reached the Apostle and he called his followers to go out in search of Abu Sufyan; and he said 'None shall go out with us unless he was with us in our battle yesterday' m . Then the Apostle went out with a company until they reached Hamra-el-asad , eight miles from Medina ; now his followers 120 SURA III. were smarting from their wounds; nevertheless they bore up, in order that they might not lose their reward; and God cast terror into the heart of the Polytheists, who fled. Then the verse was revealed. 167. To whom the people said; he means the riders who met them from 'Abd Qais; or, Nu c aim B. Mas c ud El- D Ashja c i 605 , of whom 'people' is used loosely, because he is one of the class; as you say 'So-and-so rides horses', though he may have only one horse; or because certain of the people of Medina joined themselves to him and cir- culated his words. Verily they have gathered a company for you , so beware of them; referring to Abu Sufyan and his friends. — It is recorded that when he went away from Uhud 606 , he cried out 'Mohammed , our rendez-vous is the fair of Badr next year, if thou wilt'; the Apostle answered 'If God will'. And when the next year came, he went out with the people of Mecca , till he alighted at Marra Zahran , where God cast terror into his heart and he bethought him of going back. And some riders from 'Abd Qais passed by him , making for Medina to get provisions ; and Abu Sufyan promised them a camel's burden of raisins if they discou- raged the Muslims. — Others say he met Nu'aim B. Mas'ud who had come to Mecca for the lesser Pilgrimage, and asked him to do this; and undertook to give him ten camels. Then Nu c aim went out of Mecca and found the Muslims making preparations. He said to them 'When they came against you in your houses not one of you escaped except some solitary ones; do you intend then to go out to them when they have gathered an army against you'? Then the people were discouraged; but the Apostle said 'By Him in whose hand is my life I will go out, SURA OF THE FAMILY OF C IMRAN. 121 although no-one go with me'. Then he went out with 70 riders, saying 'God suffices us'. and it increased their faith ; the pronoun virtually con- tained in zada (it increased) G07 refers to what they said or to the infinitive of 'said' (in 'to whom the people said'), or to the subject of 'people said' if by 'people' be meant Nu c aim B. Mas c ud only; while 'they' in 'their faith' refers to those to whom it was said. The meaning is that they did not attend to it, nor were discouraged thereby, but on the contrary their confidence in God was confirmed, and their faith increased; and they displayed the zeal of Islam, and remained sincere inspite thereof. This is evidence that faith increases and diminishes 608 , which is supported by the saying of Ibn Omar, 609 We said '0 Apostle of God, does faith increase and diminish'? He said 'Yes, it in- creases till it brings its possessor into Paradise and de- creases till it brings him into Hell'. And this is clear, it pious acts be reckoned part of the thing called faith, and no less so, if they be not so reckoned; for certainty is increased by familiarity and frequent reflection and the mutual assistance of the evidences. and they said God is sufficient for us; God suffices us and protects us; from 3 a7isaba in the sense of 'to suffice' with accusative of the person. That hasbun has in this phrase the meaning muhsibun is shown by the fact that it does not become defined by being annexed in the phrase hadha rajulun hasbuka 'this is a man sufficient for thee'. 61 °. and a good trustee is He j a good object of confidence is He. 168. So they returned; from Badr. 6n . with a blessing from God; safety and stability and increase in faith. and an increment; and gain in merchandise; for when 122 sura ni. they came to Badr they found a fair there and they did business and gained money. no evil having touched them; in the way of wounds; or of treachery on the enemy's part. and they followed the favour of God; whereon depends the acquisition of the best of both worlds, in their daring and readiness to go forth. and God is of mighty munificence; God was munificent to them in confirming and increasing their faith and aiding them towards hastening to the fray, and remaining firm in their religion and displaying courage against the enemy, and preserving them from anything that might hurt them, and causing them to acquire worldly gain together with assurance of their reward; so that they returned with a blessing from God and an increment. The words contain a reproach 612 to those that remained behind and show the folly of their counsel in forfeiting what the others acquired. 169. Verily that was the Devil; 'that' means the person who discouraged them — Nu c aim or Abu Sufyan. 'The Devil' is predicate to 'that', what follows being an expla- nation of his diabolic nature ; or, 'the Devil' is an epithet 613 , what follows being predicate. Or it is possible that the word 'that' refers to what he said, if we supply a word before 'the Devil' i. e. 'that was the language of the Devil', meaning Satan. he frightened his friends ; who kept aloof from going out with the Apostle of God; or, 'making you fear his friends' viz. Abu Sufyan and his followers 614 . and fear ye them not ; 'them' refers to the second 'people' in v. 168 615 , according to the former interpretation; to