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

CHAP. Lxxxi. AL KORAN. 481
months gone with young shall be neglected;^ and when the wild beasts
shall be gathered together;^ and when the seas shall boil ^ and wlien the
souls shall be joined again to tlieir bodies ; and when the girl who hath been
buried alive shall be asked for what ci-ime she was put to death ;" and
when the books shall be laid open ; and when the heavens shall be re-
moved ;^ and when hell shall burn fiercely ; and when paradise shall be
brought near ; every soul shall know what it hath wi-ought. Verily I
swear" by the stars which are retrograde, which move swiftly, anc? which
hide themselves ; *" and by the night, when it cometh on; and by the
morning, when it appeareth ; * that these are the words of an honourable
messenger,^ endued with strength, of established dignity in the sight of
the possessor of the throne, obeyed hy the angels under his authority, and
faithful : and your companion Mohammed is not distracted. He had
already seen him in the clear horizon :^ and he suspected not' the secrets
revealed unto him. Neither are these the words of an accursed devU,''
"WTiither, therefore, are you going 1 This is no other than an admonition
unto all creatures ; unto him among you who shall be willing to walk
uprightly : but ye shall not will, unless God willeth, the Loed of all
creatures.
" See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iv. p. 59.
* See ibid. pp. 59 and 61.
*■ See ibid. p. 59.
« For it was customary among^ the ancient Arabs to bury their daughters alive,
as soon as they were bom, for fear they should be impoverished by providing for
them, or should suffer disgrace on their account. See chap. 16, p. "218.
^ Or plucked away from its place, as the skin ist plucked ojf from a camel which is
flaying; for that is the proper signification of the verb here used. Marracci fancies
the passage alludes to that in the Psalms,' where, according to the versions of the
Septuagint and Vulgate, God is said to have stretched out the heaven like a skin.
* Or, / will not swear, &c. See chap. 56, p. 437, note *. (Savary prefers this
reading.)
' Some understand hereby the stars in general; but the more exact commentators
five of the planets, viz., the two which accompany the sun, and the three superior
planets, which have both a retrograde and a direct motion, and hide themselves in
the rays of the sun, or when they set.
* " By the night, when it spreads its shades ; by the dawn, when it expands in
new-bom fires." — Savmy.
s I. «., Gabriel.
■" See chap. 53, p. 427.
' Some copies, by a change of one letter only, instead of dhannntn, read daninin;
and then the words should be rendered. He is not tenacious of, or grudges not to
communicate to you, the secret revelations which he has received.
- Who has overheard, by stealth, the discourse of the angels. The verse is an
answer to a calumny of the infidels, who said the Koran was only a piece of divina-
tion, or magic; for the Arabs suppose the soothsayer, or magician, receives hia
intelligence from those evil spirits who are continually listening to leam what they
can from tlie inhabitants of heaven.
'* Psalm civ. S.