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

292 AL KORAN. CHAP. xxiv.
seek the ca,sna\ advantage of this present life : but whoever shall compel them
thereto, verily God will be gi-acious and merciful u7ito such women after
their compulsion.*^ And now have we revealed unto you evident signs, and
history like unto some of the histories of those who have gone before you/
and an admonition unto the pious. God is the light of heaven and earth :
the similitude of his light is as a niche in a wall, wherein a lamp is placed,
and the lamp inclosed in a case of glass ; the glass appears as it were a
shining star. It is lighted with the oil of a blessed tree, an olive neither
of the east nor of the west :^ it wanteth little but that the oil thereof
would give light, although no fire touched it.* This is liglit added unto
light.' God will direct unto his light whom he pleaseth. God pro-
poundeth parables unto men ; for God knoweth all things. In the houses
which God hath permitted to be raised," and that his name be comme-
morated therein ! men celebrate his praise in the same, morning and
evening, whom neither merchandizing nor selling diverteth from the
remembering of God, and the observance of prayer, and the giving of
alms ; fearing the day whereon mens hearts and eyes shall be troubled ;
that God may recompense them according to the utmost merit of what
they shall have wrought, and may add unto them of his abundance a more
excellent reward; for GoD bestoweth on whom he pleaseth without measure.
But as to the unbelievers, their works are like the vapour in a plain,^ which
the thirsty traveller thinketh to be water, until, when he cometh thereto,
them a part of their ransom. Some suppose these words are directed, not to the
masters only, but to all Moslems in general; recommending it to them to assist
those who have obtained their freedom, and paid their ransom, either out of their
own stock, or by admitting them to have a share in the public alms.*
■> It seems Abd'allah Ebn Obba had six women slaves, on whom he had laid a
certain tax, which he obliged them to earn by the prostitution of their bodies : and
one of them made her complaint to Mohammed, which occasioned the revelation of
this passage.*
' i. e. The story of the false accusation of Ayesha, which resembles those of Joseph
and the Virgin Mary.^
• But of a more excellent kind. Some think the meaning to be that the tree gro^rs
neither in the eastern parts nor the western parts, but in the midst of the world,
namely, in Syria, where the best olives grow.^
• " The oil of which is lighted up at the slightest nppro;icii of fire, and produces
rays which are incessantly renewed." — Savory.
* Or a light whose brightness is doubly increased by the circnrustances above-
mentioned.
The commentators explain this allegory, and every particular of it, with great
subtlety; interpreting the light here described, to be the lif/ht revealed in the Koran,
or God's enlighiening gruce in the heart of man, and in divers other manners.
" The connexion of these words is not very obvious. Some suppose they ought
to be joined with the preceding words. Like a niche, or. It is lighted in the houses,
&c., and that the comparison is more strong and just, by being made to the lamps
in mosques, which are larger than those in private houses. Some think they are
rather to be connected with the following words, Mm praise, &c. And others are
of opinion they are an imperfect beginning of a sentence, and that the words. Praise
ye God, or the like, are to be understood. However, the houses here intended are
those set apart for divine worship; or particularly the three principal temples of
Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem.^
* The Arabic word Serdb signifies that false appearance which, in the eastern
countries, is often seen in sandy plains about noon, resembling a large lake of water
in motion, and is occasioned by the reverberation of the sunbeams. It sometimes
fi Al Beidawi. • Idem, Jallalo'ddin. ^ lidem. « lidem. » Al Beid&wL