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

CHAP. XVIII. AL KOKAN. 241
years over.*" Say, God best knowetli liow long thej continued there :
unto him are the secrets of heaven and earth known; do thou make him
to see and to hear.^ The inhabitants thereof have no protector besides him ;
neither doth he suffer any one to have a share in tJie establishment or know-
ledge of his decree. E-ead that which hath been revealed unto thee, of the
book of thy Lord, without presuming to make any change therein : ° there
is none who hath power to change his words ; and thou shalt not find any
k) fly to, besides him, if thou attempt it. Behave thyself with constancy
towards those who call upon their Lord morning and evening, and who
seek his favour; and let not thine eyes be turned away from them, seeking
the pomp of this life/ neither obey him whose heart we have caused to
neglect the remembrance of us,^ and who foUoweth his lusts,']" and leaveth
t]i£ ii-uth behind him. And say. The truth is from your Lord ; wherefore
let him who will, believe, and let him who will, be incredulous. We have
surely prepared for the unjust hell fire, the flame and smoke whereof shall
"nn-ound him like a pavilion : and if they beg relief, they shall be relieved
with water like molten brass, which shall scald their faces; O how miserable
a portion, and how unhappy a couch ! As to those who believe, and do
good works, we will not suffer the reward of him who shall work righteous-
ness to perish : for them are prepared gardens of eternal abode,'' which
shall be watered by riA ers; they shall be adorned therein with bracelets of
gold, and they shall be clothed in green garments of fine silk and brocades;
reposing themselves therein on thrones.;}; O how happy a reward, and how
e;isy a couch ! And propound unto them as a parable two men :^ on the
one of whom we had bestowed two vineyards, and had surrounded them
with palm-trees, and had caused com to grow between them. Each of the
• "These youths remaired three hundred and seven years in the ch\g." —Savari/.
" Jallalo'ddin supposes the whole space was three hundred solar years, and that
the odd nine are added to reduce them to lunar years.
Some think these words are introduced as spoken by the Christians, who differed
among themselves about the time; one saying it was three hundred years, and an-
other, three hundred and nine years.' The interval between the reign of Decius,
and that of Theodosius the younger, in whose time the sleepers are said to have
awaked, will not allow them to have slept quite two hundred years; though Moham-
med is somewhat excusable, since the number assigned by Simeon Metaphrastes ' is
three hundred and seventy-two years.
■^ This is an ironical expression, intimating the folly and madness of man's pre-
suming to instruct God.*
" As the unbelievers would persuade thee to do.^"
' That is, despise not the poor believers because of their meanness, nor honour
the rich because of their wealth and grandeur.
^ The person more particularly intended here, it is said, was Ommeya Ebn Khalf,
who desired Mohammed to discard his indigent companions, out of respect to tha
Koreish. See chap. 6, p. 103.
t " Follow not him whose heart hath forgotten us, and who hath no other guide
than his desires and his unbridled passions." — Savary.
" Literally of Eden. See chap. 9, p. 167.
* "Possessor of the garden of Eden, tluough which rivers flow, adorned with
golden bracelets, clothed in green garments woven in silk and in gold, resplendent
with glory, he shall repose on the nuptial couch, the happy reward of the abode of
delights." — Savary.
' 'J'hough these seem to be general characters only, designed to represent the dii-
ferpjit end of the wicked, and of the good; yet it is supposed by some, that two
' Al EeiJawi. 8 yV\ sup. » AI Bcidawi, Jallalo'ddin. " lidem.