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

CHAP. VT. AL KORAN. 109
beJievo. Yet they hare set up the genii™ as partners with God, although
he created them : and they have falsely attributed unto him sons and
daughters," without knowledge. Praise be unto him ; and far be that
from him which they attribute unto him! He is the maker of heaven
and earth: how should he have issue since he hath no consort? he hath
created all things, and he is omniscient. This is God your Lord; there ia
no God but he, the creator of all things; therefore serve him: for he
taketh care of all things. The sight coniprehendeth him not, but he com-
prehendeth the sight; he is the gracious," the wise. Now have evident
demonstrations come unto you from your Lord; whoso seeth theTn, the
advantage thereof vnll redound,io his own soul : and whoso is wilfully blind,
the consequence will he to himself. I am not a keeper over you. Thus do
we variously explain our signs; that they may say, Thou hast studied
diligently ;P and that we may declare them unto people of understanding.
Follow that which hath been revealed unto thee from thy Lord ; there ia
no God but he : retire therefore from the idolaters. If God had so pleased,
they had not been guilty of idolatry. "We have not appointed thee a
keeper over them ; neither art thou a guardian over them. Revile not the
idols which they invoke besides God, lest they maliciously revile God,
without knowledge. Thus have we prepared for every nation their works :
hereafter unto God shall they return, and he shall declare unto them that
which they have done. They have sworn by God, by the most solemn
oath, that if a sign came unto them, they would certainly believe therein:
Say, Verily signs are in the power of God alone ; and he permitteth you
not to understand, that when they come, they will not believe.** And we
Mali turn aside their hearts and their sight/rom tlie truth, as they believed
not therein"^ the first time; and we will leave them to wander in their
error. [*YIII] And though we had sent down angels unto them,
and the dead had spoken unto them, and we had gathered together
before them all things in one view;" they would not have believed,
™ This signifies properly the genus of rational, invisible beings, whether angela,
devils, or that intermediate species usually called genii. Some of the commentators,
therefore, in this place, understand the angels, whom the pagan Arabs worshipped;
and others the devils, either because they became their servants by adoring idols at
their instigation, or else because, according to the Magian system, they looked on
the devil as a sort of creator, making him the author and principle of all evil, and
God the author of good only.*
» See the Prelim. Discourse, sect. i. and sect. ii.
Or, as the word may be translated, the incomprehensible}
P That is, thou hast been instructed by the Jews and Christians in these matters,
and only retailest to us what thou hast learned of them. For this the infidels objected
to Mohammed, thinking it impossible for him to discourse on subjects of so high a
nature, and in so clear and pertinent a manner, without being well versed in the
doctrines and sacred writings of those people.
"J In this passage Mohammed endeavours to excuse his inability of working a
miracle, as had been demanded of him ; declaring that God did not think lit to
comply -with their desires; and that if he had so thought fit, yet it had been in vain,
because if they were not convinced by the Koran, they would not be convinced by
the greatest miracle.'
"■ i. e. In the Koran.
• For the Meccans required that Mohammed should either show them an angel
descending from heaven in their sight, or raise their dead fathers, that they might
discourse with them, or prevail on God and his angels to appear to them in a body.
• Al BeidawL ^ Idem. » Confer Luke xvi. 31.