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

CHAP. V. AL KORAN. 97
holy spirit,"^ that tliou shoulJest speak unto men in the cradle, and when
thou wast grown up / and when I taught tliee the scripture, and wiadom,
and the law, and the gospel ; and when thou didst create of clay as it were
the figure of a bird, by my permission, and didst breathe thereon, and it
became a bird, by my permission : and tliou didst heal one blind from his
birth, and the leper, by my permission ; and when thou didst bring forth
the dead from, their graves by my permission;'" and when I withheld the
children of Israel from kiUing thee,^ when thou hadst come unto them with
evident miracles, and such of them as believed not said, This is nothing
but manifest sorcery. And when I commanded the apostles of Jesus
saying, Believe in me, and in my messenger; they answered, We do
believe ; and do thou bear witness that we ai-e resigned unto thee. Re-
member when the apostles said, Jesus son of Mary, is thy Lord able to
cause a table to descend unto us from heaven ?'^ He answered, Fear God,
if ye be true believers. They said, We desire to eat thereof, and that our
hearts may rest at ease, and that we may know that thou hast told us the
truth, and that we may be witnesses thereofi Jesus, the son of Mary said,
O God oar Lord, cause a table to descend unto us from heaven, that the
day of its descent may become a festival day* unto us, unto the first of us,
and unto the last of us, and a sign from thee ; and do thou provide food
for us, for thou art the best provider. God said, Yerily I will cause it to
^ See chap. ii. p. 12. " See chap. iii. p. 41. f See ibid. s See ibid. p. 42.
•" This miracle is tlms related by the commentators. Jesus having, at the request
of his followers, asked it of God, a red table immediately descended, in their sight,
between two clouds, and was set before them ; whereupon he rose up, and having
made the ablution, prayed, and then took off the cloth which covered the table,
saying. In the name of God, the best provider of food. What the provisions were,
with which this table was furnished, is a matter wherein the expositors are not
agreed. One will have them to be nine cakes of bread and nine fishes; another,
bread and flesh ; another, all sorts of food except flesh ; another, all sorts of food,
except bread and flesh ; another, all except brend and fish ; another, one fish, which
had the taste of all manner of food ; and another, fruits of paradise : but the most
received tradition is, that when the table was uncovered, there appeared a fish ready
dressed, without scales or prickly fins, dropping with fat, having salt placed at its
Lead, and vinegar at its tail, and round it all sorts of herbs, except leeks, and five
loaves of bread, on one of which there were olives, on the second honey, on the third
butter, on the fourth cheese, and on the fifth dried flesh. They add, that Jesus,
at the request of the apostles, showed them another miracle, by restoring the fish
to life, and causing its scales and fins to return to it; at which the standers-by
being affrighted, he caused it to become as it was before : that one thousand three
hundred men and women, all afflicted with bodily infirmities or poverty, ate of these
provisions, and were satisfied ; the fish remaining whole as it was at first : that then
the table flew up to heaven in the siirlit of all ; and everyone who had partaken of this
food were delivered from their infirmities and misfortunes: and that it continued
to descend for forty days together, at dinner-time, and stood on the ground till the
6un declined, and was then taken up into the clouds. Some of the Mohammedan
writers are of opinion that this table did not really descend, but that it was only a
parable ; but most think the words of the Koran are plain to the contrary. A fur-
ther tradition is. that several men were changed into swine for disbelieving this
miracle and attributing it to magic art; or, as others pretend, for stealing some of
the victuals from off it.* Several other fabulous circumstances are also told, which
are scarce worth transcribing.*
' Some say the table descended on a Sunday, which was the reason of tha
Christians observing that day as sacred. Others pretend that this day is still kept
among them as a very great festival ; and it seems as if the story had its rise from
an imperfect notion of Christ's last supper, and the institution of the Eucharist.
* Al Beidawi, al ITialabi. * A^ide Marracc. in Ale. p. 238, ho