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

CHAi'. XVII. AL KORAN. 233
mises :*) as to my servants, thou shalt have no power over tbem; for thy
Lord is a sufficient protector of those who trust in him. It is your Lord
who driveth forward the ships for you in the sea, that ye may seek to
enrich yourselves of his abundance by commerce; for he is merciful
towards you. When a misfortune befalleth you at sea, the false deities
whom ye invoke are forgotten by you, except him alone : yet when he
bringeth you safe to dry land, ye retire afar off from him, and return,
to your idols; for man is ungrateful" Are ye therefore secure that he
will not cause the dry land to swallow you up, or that he will not send
against you a whirlwind driving the sands to overwhelm you ? Then
shall ye find none to protect you.t Or are ye secure that he will not
cause you again to commit yourselves to tlie sea another time, and
send against you a tempestuous wind, and drown you ; for that ye have
been ungrateful ? then shall ye find none to defend you against us, in that
distress. And now have we honoured the children of Adam by suyidry
peculiar privileges and endoumients ; and we have given them conveniences
of carnage by land and by sea, and have provided food for them of good
things ; and we have preferred them before many of our creatures which
we have created, by granting them great prerogatives. On a certain day we
will call all men to judgment with their respective leader:^ and whosoever
shall have his book given him into his right hand, they shall read their book
with joy and satisfaction ;^ and they shall not be wronged a hair.^ And
whoever hath been blind in this life shall be also blind in the next, and
shall wander more widely from the path of salvation. It wanted little
but the unbelievers had tempted thee to swerve from the instructions which
we had revealed unto thee, that thou shouldest de-vise concerning us
a different thing;' and then would they have taken thee for their friend:
vice and superstition; and tempting them to incestuous mixtures, and to give their
children names in honour of their idols, as Abd Yaghuth, Abd' al Uzza, &C.'''
* " Render men docile to thy voice; attack them with thy legions; increase their
riches and the number of their children ; flatter them with delightful hopes. Thy
promises shall be delusive." — Savory. i
° See chap. 10, p. 168.
t " Think ye that ye have a shelter from his wrath? Can he not open an abyss
under your feet, or cause a cloud laden with stones to burst upon your heads?
Where would ye find refuge ? " — Savary.
'' Some interpret this of the prophet sent to every people; others of the heads of
sects ; others, of the various religions professed in the world ; others, of the books
which shall be given to every man at the resurrection, containing a register of their
good and bad actions. ^
* See the Prelim. Disc. sect. 4, p. 64.
^ See chap. 4, p. 67, note ".
'■ These are generally supposed to have been the tribe of Thakif, the inhabitants of
al Tayef, who insisted on Mohammed's granting them several very extraordinary
privileges, as the terms of their submission to him ; for they demanded that they
might be free from the legal contribution of alms, and from observing the appointed
times of prayer ; that they might be allowed to keep their idol Allat for a certain
time,' and that their territory might be declared a place of security, and not be
violated, like that of Mecca, &c. And they added, that if the other Arabs asked hirn
the reason of these concessions, he should say, that God had commanded him so to
do.' According to which explication it is plain this verse must have been revealed
long after the Hejra.
Some, however, will have the passage to have been revealed at Mecca, on occa-
1" Al Beidawi. i Idem. « See the Prelim. Disc. p. 13. ' Al Beiduwi.
Jallalo'ddin. Vide Abulf. Vit. Moham. p. 1:26, &c.