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

on\p. XXX. AL KORAN. 331
nearest part of the Ian J ; *' but after their defeat, they shall overcome the
others in their turn, within a few years. Unto God belongeth the disposal
a^this matter, both for what is past, and for what is to come : and on that
day shall the believers rejoice in the success granted by God ; for he
granteth success unto whom he pleaseth, and he is the mighty, the mer-
ciful. This is the promise of God : God will not act contrary to his pro-
mise j but the greater part of men know not the veracity of God. Thej
know the outward appearance of this present life ; but they are careless aa
to the life to come.t Do they not consider within themselves that
God hath not created the heavens and the earth, and whatever is between
them, otherwise than in truth, and hath set them a determined period 1
Verily a great number of men reject the belief of their future meeting their
Lord at the resurrection. Do they not pass through the earth, and see
what hath been the end of those who were before them 1 They excelled tlie
Meccas in strength, and broke up the earth, |'' and inhabited it in greater
affluence and prosperity than they inhabit the same : and their apostles
came unto them with evident miracles ; and GoD was not disposed to
treat them unjustly, but they injured their own souls hy their obstinate
infidelity ; and the end of tliose who had done evil, was evil, because they
charged the signs of God with falsehood, and laughed the same to scorn.
God produceth creatures, and will hereafter restore them to life: then shall
ye return unto him. And on the day whereon the hour shall come,
the wicked shall be struck dumb for despair : and they shall have no
intercessors from among the idols which they associated with God. And
they shall deny thefcdse gods which they associated with hiiii. On the day
wher?on the hour shall come, on that day shall the true believers and the
infidels be separated : and they who shall have believed, and wrought
righteousness, shall take their pleasure in a delightful meadow ; but as for
those who shall have disbelieved, and rejected our signs, and the meeting
of the next life, they shall be delivered up to punishment. Wherefore
glorify God, when the evening overtaketh you, and when ye rise in
to quit the territories of the empire, by carrying the war into their own countr}-,
but drove them to the last extremity, and spoiled the capital city al Madayen; He-
raclius enjoying, thenceforward, a continuea series of good fortune, to the deposi-
tion and death of Khosru. For more exact information on these m-atters, and more
nicely fixing the dates, either so as to correspond with, or to overturn this pretended
prophecy (neither of which is my business here), the reader may have recourse to
the historians ami chronologers.*
* " They have been defeated on the frontier." — Savary
' Some interpreters, supposing that the land here meant is the land of Arabia, or
else that of the Greeks, place the scene of action in the confines of Arabia and Syria,
near Bostra and Adhraat;* others imagine the land of Persia is intended, and lay
the scene in Mesopotamia, on the frontiers of that kingdom:^ but Ebn Abbas, with
more probability, thinks it was in Palestine.
t " Intoxicated with earthly pleasures, men forget the life which is to come." —
Savary.
X " Have they not traversed the earth? Have they not seen what hath been the
fate of the ancient nations? More powerful than they are, those nations have left
there monuments of their greatness. They have dwelt "there for a longer period." —
Savary.
^ To dig for water and minerals, end to till the ground for seed, kc.^
' Vide etiara Asseman. Bibl. Orient, t. 3, part 1, p. 411. &c. et Eoulainv. Vie do
Moham. p. 3.33, &c. » Yahya, al Beidawi. ^ Mojahed, apud Zamakh. ^ Al Beid&wu