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

CHAP. n. AL KOKAir, 115
*]i,at ye may hnow that this is my right way : therefore follow it, aud
t)llow not the path of others, lest ye be scattered from the path of God.
Tliishath he commanded you that ye may take heed. We gave also unto
Moses the book of the Law ; a perfect rale unto him who should do right,
and a determination concerning all things needful, and a direction, and
mercy; that the children oflsrad might believe the meeting of tlieir Lord.
And this book which we have now sent down is blessed ; therefore follow
it, and fear God that ye may obtain mercy ; lest ye should say, The scrip-
tures were only sent down unto two people"^ before us; and we neglected
to peruse them with attention:" or lest ye should say, If a book of divine
revelatio7is had been sent down unto us, we would surely have been better
directed than they.'' And now hath a manifest declaration come unto you
from your Lord, and a direction and mercy : and who is more unjust than
he who deviseth lies against the signs of God, and turneth aside from
them ? "We will reward those who turn aside from our signs with a
grievous punishment, because they have turned aside. Do they wait for
any other than that the angels should come unto them, to part their souls
from their bodies ; or that thy Lord should come to jjunish them ; or that
some of the signs of thy Lord should come to pass, showing tlie day of judg-
ment to he at hand 1"^ On the day whereon some of thy Lord's signs shall
come to pass, its faith shall not profit a soul which believed not before, or
wrought not good in its faith/ Say, "Wait ^&f>r this day; we surely do wait
for it. They who make a division in their religion,^ and become sectaries,
have thou nothing to do with them ; their affair helongeth only unto God.
Hereafter shall he declare unto them that which they have done. He who
shall appear with good works, shall receive a tenfold recompense for the
same ; but he who shall appear with evil works, shall receive only an equal
punishment for the same; and they shall not be treated unjustly. Say,
Verily my Lord hath directed me into a right way, a true religion, the sect
of Abraham the orthodox; and he was no idolater. Say, Verily my
prayers, and my worship, and my life, and my death are dedicated unto
God, the Lord of all creatures : he hath no companion. This have I been
° That is, the Jews and the Christians.
° Either because we knew nothing of them, or did not understand the language
wherein they were written.
p Because of the acuteness of our wit, the clearness of our understanding, and
our facility of learning sciences; as appears from our excelling in history, poetry,
and oratory, notwithstanding we are an illiterate people.^
1 Al Beidawi, from a tradition of Mohammed, says that ten signs will precede
the last day ; viz. the smoke, the beast of the earth, an eclipse in the east, another
in the west, and a third in the peninsula of Arabia, the appearance of Antichrist,
the sun's rising in the west, the irruption of Gog and Magog, the descent of Jesus
on the earth, and fire which shall break forth from Aden.*
' For faith in the next life will be of no advantage to those who have not believed
in this ; nor yet faith in this life, without good works.
•That is, who believe in part of it, and disbelieve other part of it; or who form
schisms therein. Mohammed is reported to have declared, that the Jews were
divided into seventy-one sects, and the Christians into seventy-two: and that his
own followers would be split into seventy-three sects; and that all of them would
be damned, except only one of each.*
1 Al Beidawi. » See the Prelim. Disc, sect iv. » Al Beidawi.