J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

CHAP. XXXII. AL KORAN. 339
sider ? He governetL all things from heaven even to the earth : hereafter
shall they return unto him, on the day whose length shall be a thousani'
years," of those which ye compute. This is he who knoweth the future, anA
the present; the mighty, the merciful. It is he who hath made eveiy thing
which he hath created exceeding good ; and first created man of clay, and
afterwards made his posterity of an extract of despicable water ;^ and then
formed him into proper shape, and breathed of his spirit into him ; and hath
given you the senses 0/ hearing and seeing, and hearts to understand. How
small thanks do ye return ! And they say, when we shall lie hidden in
the earth, shall we be raised thence a new creature 1 Yea, they deny the
meeting of their Lord at the resurrection. Say, The angel of death,"^ who
is set over you, shall cause you to die : then shall ye be brought back unto
your Lord. If thou couldest see, when the wicked shall bow down their
heads before their Lord, saying, O Lord, we have seen and have heai'd :
suffer us therefore to retiUTi into the zcorl-d, and we will work that which is
right; since we are now certain of the truth of wluit hath been preached to
us : thou wouldest see an amazing sight. If we had pleased we had certainly
given unto every soul its direction : but the word which hath proceeded
from me must necessarily be fulfilled, when I said, Verily I will fill hell with
genii and men, altogether.^ Taste therefore the torment prepared for you,
because ye have forgotten the coming of this your day : we also have for-
gotten yoii ; taste therefore the punishment of eternal duration, for that
which ye have wrought. Verily they only believe in our signs, who, when
they are warned thereby, fall down adoring, and celebrate the praise of their
Lord, and are not elated with pride : their sides are raised from their beds
calling on their Lord with fear and with hope ; and they distribute alms
out of what we have bestowed on them. No soul^ knoweth the complete
satisfaction ^ which is secretly prepared for them, as a reward for that which
they have -wi-ought. Shall he, therefore, who is a true believer, he as he
° As to the reconciliation of this passage with another,^ which seems contradic-
tory, see the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. p. 60.
Some, however, do not interpret the passage before us of the resurrection, but
suppose that the words here descrihe the making and executing of the decrees of
God, which are sent down from heaven to earth, and are returned (or ascend, as
the verb properly signifies,) back to him, after they have been put in execution; and
present themselves, as it were, so executed, to his knowledge, in the space of a
day with God, but with man, of a thousand years. Others imagine this s|)ace to
be the time which the angels, who carry the divine decrees, and bring them back
executed, take in descending and re-ascending, because the distance from heaven
to earth is a journey of five hundred years: and others fancy that the angels bring
down at once decrees for a thousand years to come, which being expired, they
return back for fresh orders, &c.*
^ i. e. Seed.
"" See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. p. 51.
* See chap. 7, p 119, and chap. 11, p. 186.
y Not even an angel of those who approach nearest God's throne, nor any prophet
who hath been sent by him.^
* Literally, 'The joy of the eyes. The commentators fail not, on occasion of this
passage, to produce that saying of their prophet, which was originally none of his
own : God saith, I have prepared for my Tighteous servants what eye hath not seen,
nor hath ear heard, nor hath entered into the heart of man to conceive.
8 Chap. 70. 9 Al Beid^wi, ^ Idem.