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

CHIP. Ti. AL KORAN. 107
tlism both : and Noah had we before diiected, and of his posterity** David
and Solomon ; and Job, ' and Joseph, and Moses, and Aai'on : thus do we
reward the righteous : and Zacharias, and John, and Je.siis, and Elias;* all
of tlieni were upright men : and Ismael, and Elisha,' and Jonas," and Lot;^
all these have we favoured above the rest of the world ; and also divers
of their fathers, and their issue, and their brethi-en ; and we chose them,
and directed them into the right way. This is the direction of God,
he directeth thereby such of his servants as he please th ; but if they had
been guilty of idolatry, that w^hich they wrought would have become utterly
fruitless unto thertu Those v)ere tlie persons unto whom we gave the
scripture, and wisdom, and prophecy ; but if these ^ believe not therein, we
will commit the cai-e of them to a people who shall not disbelieve the same.
Those were tlie persons whom God hath directed, therefore follow their
direction. Say unto tlie inhabitants of Mecca, I ask of you no recompense
for preaching tlie Koran; it is no other than an admonition unto all
creatures. They make not a due estimation of God, ^ when they say, God
hath not sent down imto man any thing at all : * Say, "Who sent down the
book which Moses brought, a light and a direction unto men ; which ye
transcribe on papers, whereof ye publish some part, and great part wJiereof
ye conceal 1 and ye have been taught hy Mohammed what ye knew not,
neither your fathers. Say, God sent it down : then leave them to amuse
themselves with their vain discourse. This book which we have sent do^\^l
is blessed ; confirming that which was revealed before it ; and is delivered
unto thee that thou mayest preach it xmto the metropolis of Mecca and to
those who are round about it. And they who believe in the next life will
believe therein, and they will diligently observe their times of prayer.
Who is more wicked than he who forgeth a lie concerning God ? ** * oi
1 Some refer the relative his to Abraham, the person chiefly spoken of in thit
passage ; some to Noah, the next antecedent, because Jonas and Lot were not (say
they) of Abraham's seed: and others suppose the persons named in this and the
next verse are to be understood as the descendants of Abraham, and those in the
following verse as those of Noah.»
» The Jlohammedans say he was of the race of Esau. See chap. xxi. and xxxviii
• See chap, xxxvii.
* This prophet was the successor of Elias, and, as the commentators will have it, the
Bon of Okhtiib ; though the scripture makes him the son of Shaphat.
" See chap, x., xxi., and xxxvii. » See chap, vii., &c.
y That is, the Koreish.^
» That is, they know him not truly, nor have just notions of his goodness and
mercy towards man. The persons here meant, according to some commentators, are
the Jews, and according to others, the idoU\ters.*
This verse and the two next, as Jallalo'ddin thinks, were revealed at Medina.
• By these words the Jews (if they were the persons meant) chiefly intended tc
deny the Koran to be of divine revelation : though they might in strictness insist
that God never revealed, or sent down, as the Koran expresses it, any real compo-
sition or material writing from heaven, in the manner that Mohammed pretended
his revelations were delivered,' if we except only the decalogue; God having left to
the inspired penmen, not only the labour of writing, but the liberty, in a great mea-
Bure at least, of putting the truths into their own words and manner of expression.
'' Falsely pretending to have received revelations from him ; as did Moseilama,
al As wad al Ansi, and others.
* " What can be more impious than to make God the accomplice of a falsehood?"
•~Savary.
• Al Bcidawi. i Idem. * idem. » See the Prelim. Disc. sect. iii.