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

92 AL KORAN. CHAP. v.
cliiklren of Israel, serve God, my Lord and your Lord ; whoever sliall
give a companion unto God, God shall exclude him from paradise, and his
habitation shall be hell fire ; and the ungodly shall have none to help them.
They are certainly infidels, who say, God is the third of three : " for there
is no God, besides one God ; and if they refrain not fi-om what they say, a
painJ'ul torment shall surely be inflicted on such of them as are unbelievers.
Will they not therefore be turned imto God, and ask pardon of him ?
since God is gracious and merciful. Christ the son of Maiy is no more
than an apostle ; other apostles have preceded him ; and his mother was a
woman of veracity :° they both ate food.^ Behold, how we declare unto
them tlie signs of God's unity ; and then behold, how they turn aside /row
the truth. Say unto them, Will ye worship, besides God, that which can
cause you neither harm nor profit? God is he who heareth and seeth.
Saj, O ye who have received the scriptures, exceed not the just bounds in
your religion,'^ by speaking beside the truth ; neither follow the desires of
people who have heretofore erred, and who have seduced many, and have
gone astray from the straight path.'' Those amoug the childi-en of Israel
who believed not were ctu'sed by the tongue of David, and of Jesus the son
of Mary.^ Tliis befell them because they were rebellious and transgressed :
they forbade not one another the wickedness which they committed ; and
woe unto them for what they committed. Thou shalt see many of them
viike for their friends those who believe not. Woe unto them for what their
souls have sent before them,* for that God is incensed against them, and
they shall remain in torment ybr ever. But, if they had believed in God,
and the prophet, and that which hath been revealed unto him, they had
not taken them for their fi'iends ; but many of them are evil doers. Thou
shalt surely find the most violent of all men in enmity against the true
believers to be the Jews, and the idolaters : and thou shalt surely find those
among them to be the most inclinable to entertaiii friendship for the ti"ue
believers, who say. We are Christians. This cometh to pass, because there
are priests and monks among them ; and because they are not elated with
pride -.^ * [VII.] and when they hear that which hath been sent down to
the apostle read unto them, thou shalt see their eyes overflow with tears,
because of the truth which they perceive therein,^ saying, O Lord, we
" See chap. iv. p. 80.
Never pretending to partake of the divine nature, or to be the mother of God.^
p Being obliged to support their lives hj the same means, and bting subject to the
same necessities and infirmities as the rest of mankind, and therefore no gods.^
1 See chap. iv. p. 80. But here the words are principally directed to the Chris-
tians.
r That is, of their prelates and predecessors, who erred in ascribing divinity to
Christ, before the mission of Mohammed.'
» See before, p. 90. note z.
« See chap. ii. p. 13, note r.
" Having not that high conceit of themselves, as the Jews have ; but being humble
and well disposed to receive the truth; qualities, says Al Beidawi, which are to be
commended even in infidels.
" The persons directly intended in this passage were, either Ashama, king of
Ethiopia, and several bishops and priests, who being assembled for that purpose,
1 Jallalo'ddin. ' Ideir A] Isidawi. ' lidem.