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

84 AL KORAN. CHAP. t.
and to pass over** many things. Now is light and a perspicuous book of
revelations come unto you from God. Thereby will GoD direct him who
shall follow his good pleasure, into the paths of peace; and shall lead them
out of darkness into light, by his will, and shall direct them in the right
way. They are infidels, who say. Verily God is Christ the sou of Mary.
Say unto them, And who could obtain any thing from God to the contrary,
if he pleased to destroy Christ the son of Mary, and his mother, and all
those who are on the earth 1 For unto God bdongeth the kingdom of
heaven and earth, and whatsoever is cooiUdncd between them ; he createth
what he pleaseth, and God is almighty. The Jews and the Christians say,
AVe are the children of God, and his beloved. Answer, Why therefore doth
he punish you for your sins? Nay, but ye are men, of those whom he
hath created. He forgiveth whom he pleaseth, and punisheth whom he
])leaseth; and unto God belongeth the kingdom of heaven and earth, and oi
whati* coTi/ai'nec/ between them both; and unto him shall all things retiirn.
O ye who have received the scriptures, now is our apostle come unto you,
declaring unto you the true religion, during the cessation of apostles,® lest
ye should say. There came unto us no bearer of good tidings, nor any
■Warner : but now is a bearer of good tidings, and a warner come unto you;
for God is almighty. Call to mind when Moses said unto his peojile, O ray
people, remember the favour of God towards you, since he hath appointed
prophets among you, and constituted you kings,'' and bestowed on you
what he hath given to no other nation in the world.^ O my people, enter
the holy land, whicli God liath decreed you, and turn not your backs, lest
ye be subverted and perish. They answered, O Moses, verily there are a
gigantic people in the land;^ and we will by no means enter it, until they
depart thence; but if they depart thence, then will we enter thereiii. And
two men' of those who feared God, unto whom God had been gracious,
said. Enter ye upon them suddenly by the gate of tlie city ; and when ye
shall have entered the same, ye shall surely be victorious: therefore trust
in God, if ye are true believers. They replied, O Moses, we will never
enter </ie land, while they remain therein: go therefore thou, and thy Lord,
and fight ; for we will sit here. Moses said, O Lord, surely I am not
master of any except myself, and my brother; therefore make a distinction
* t. e. Those which it was not necessarj' to restore.
• The Arabic word al Fatra signifies the intermediate space of time between two
prophets ; during which no new revelation or dispensation was given : as the interval
between Moses and Jesus, and between Jesus and Mohammed, at the expiration of
which last, Mohammed pretended to be sent.
'This was fulfilled either by God's giving them a kingdom, and a long s^eries of
princes; or by his having made them kings or masters of themselves, by delivering
them from the Egyptian bondage.
e Having divided the Red Sea for you, and guided you by a cloud, and fed you
with quails and manna, &c.s
■^ The largest of these giants, the commentators say, was Og the son of Anak;
concerning whose enormous stature, his escaping the flood, and the manner of his
being slain by Moses, the Mohammedans relate several absurd fables.*
' JSamely, Caleb and Joshua.
' Al Beidawi. * Vide Marraee. in Akor. p. 231, &c D' Ilerbel. Bibl. Orient-
D. 336.