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

CHAF. Ti. AL KORAN. 103
whoso shall accuse our signs of falsehood, a punishment shall fall on them,
because thev have done wickedly. Say, I say uob unto you, The treasures
of God are in my power : neither do I say, I know the secrets of God:
neither do I say unto you, Verily I am an angel : I follow only that which
is revealed unto me. Say, Shall the blind and the seeing be held equal ?
do ye not therefore consider ? Preach it unto those who fear that they
shall be assembled befoi-e their Lord : they shall have no patron nor inter-
cessor, except him ; that peradventure they may take heed to themselves.
Drive not away those who call upon their Lord morning and evening,
desiring to see his face;' it belongeth not unto thee to pass any judgment
on them," nor doth it belong uuto them to pass any judgment on thee :
therefore if thou drive them away, thou wilt become one of the unjust.
Thus have we proved some part of them by other part, that they may
say, Are these tloe people among us unto whom God hath been gracious]'
Doth not God most truly know tlwse wlw are thankful 1 And when they
who believe in our signs shall come unto thee, say, Peace he upon you.
Your Lord hath prescribed unto himself mercy ; so whoever among you
worketh evil through ignorance, and afterwards repenteth and amendeth;
unto him will he surely be gracious and merciful. Thus have we distinctly
propounded our signs, that the path of the wicked might be made known.
Say, Verily I am forbidden to worship the false deities which ye invoke,
besides God. Say, I will not follow your desires; for then should I err,
neither should I be one of those who are rightly directed. Say, I behave
according to the plain declaration, which I have received from my liORD ;
but ye have forged lies concerning him. That which ye desire should be
hastened, is not in my power :^ judgment hehngeth only unto GoD ; he will
determine the truth ; and he is the best discerner. Say, If what ye desire
should be hastened were in my power, the matter had been determined
between me and you :^ but God well knoweth the unjust. With him are
the keys of the secret things; none knoweth them besides himself: he
knoweth that which is on the dry land and in the sea ; there falleth no
' These words were occasioned when the Koreish desired Mohammed not to ad-
mit the poor or more inferior people, such as Ammar. Soheib, Khobbab, and Salman,
into his company, pretending that then they would come and discourse with him;
but he refuj^ing to turn away any believers, they insisted at least that he should
order them to rise up and withdraw when they came, which he agreed to do. Others
Bay, that the chief men of Mecca expelled all the poor out of their city, bidding them
go" to Mohammed ; which they did, and offered to embrace his religion; but he made
some difficulty to receive them, suspecting their motive to be necessity, and not
real conviction;* whereupon this passage was revealed.
'i. e. Rashly to decide whether their intentions be sincere or not ; since thou
canst not know their heart, and their faith may possibly be more firm than that of
those who would persuade thee to discard them.
« That is to say, the noble by those of mean extraction, and the rich by the poor;
in that God chose to call the latter to the faith by the former.^
" This passage is an answer to the audacious defiances of the infidels, who bid
Mohammed, if he were a true prophet, to call for a shower of stones from heaven,
or some other sudden and miraculous punishment, to destroy thera,^
'■ For I should ere now have destroyed you, out of zeal for God's honour, had it
been in my power.'
« Al Beidawi, Jallalo'ddin. ^ lidem. « Al Eeidawi. » Idem.