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

108 AL KORAN. CHAP. vi.
saith, This was revealed unto me ; -when notbing hath been revealed unto
him?'^ and who saith, I will produce a revelation like unto that which
God hath sent down 1^ If thou didst see when the ungodly are in the
pangs of death, and the angels^ reach out their hands saying, Cast forth
your souls; this day shall ye receive an ignominious punishment for that
which ye have wisely spoken concerning God ; and because ye have
proudly rejected his signs. And now are ye come tmto us alone, ^ as
we created you at first, -' and ye have left that which we had bestowed on
you, behind your backs ; neither do we see with you joir intercessors, ^
whom ye thought to have been partners vnth God among you : now is the
relation between you cut off, and what ye imagined hath deceived you.*
God causeth the grain and the date-stone to put forth : he bx-ingeth forth
the living from the dead, and he bringeth forth the dead from the living. ^
This is God. Why therefore are ye turned a-way from him ? He causeth
the morning to appear ; and hath ordained the night for rest, and the sim
and the moon for the comfjuting of time* This is the disposition of the
mighty, the wise God. It is he who hath ordained the stara for you, that
ye may be directed thereby in the darkness of the land and of the sea. We
have clearly shown forth our signs, unto people who understand. It is he
who hath produced you from one soul ; and hath provided for you a sure
receptacle and a repository. ' We have clearly shown forth our signs, unto
people who are wise. It is he who .sendeth down water from heaven, and
we have thereby produced the springing buds of all things, and have there-
out produced the gi-een thing, from which we produce the grain growing in
rows, and palm-trees from whose branches proceed clusters of dates hanging
close together ; and gardens of gi-apes, and olives, and pomegranates, both
like and unlike to one another. Look on their fruits, when they bear fruit,
and their gi'owing to matui'ity. Verily herein are signs, unto people who
« As did Abda'Uah Ebn Saad Ebn Abi Sarah, who for some time was the prophet's
amanuensis, and when these words were dictated to him as revealed, viz. We created
man of a purer kind of clay, ^c* cried out, by way of admiration. Blessed be God,
the best Creator J and being ordered by Mohammed to write these words down also,
as part of the inspired passage, began to think himself as great a prophet as his
master." Whereupon he took upon himself to corrupt and alter the Koran according
to his own fancy, and at length apostatizing, was one of the ten who were proscribed
at the taking of Mecca,* and narrowly escaped with life on his recantation, by the
interposition of Othman Ebn Affan, whose foster-brother he was.^
^ For some Arabs, it seems, had the vanity to imagine, and gave out, that if they
pleased, they could write a book nothing inferior to the Koran.
* See before, p. 104, note ■.
^That is, without your wealth, your children, or your friends, which ye so much
depended on in your lifetime.
e i. e. Naked and helpless.
•■ Or false gods.
' Concerning the intercession of your idols, or the disbelief of future rewards and
punishments.
'' See chap. iii. p. 38.
* " He is your Lord. How can he deceive you ? He divideth the dawn from the
darkness. He hath appointed the night for rest. The sun and the moon mark the
course of time." — Savary.
1 Namely, in the loins of your fathers, and the wombs of your mothers.'
* Koran, c. 23. " Al Beidawi. * gpg j},g Prelim. Disc, end of sect. ii.
' Vide Abu'lfed. Vide Moh. p. 109. »A1 Beidawi.