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

3bb AL KOKAN. oiiAP. xxxvu.
an admonition ; verily youi- God is one : * the Lord of heaven and earth,
and of whatever is between them, and the Lord of the east.' We have
adorned the lower heaven with the ornament of the stars : and we have
placed therein a guard against eveiy rebellious devil ; that they may
not listen to the discourse of the exalted princes (for they are darted at from
every side, to repel iheiii, and a lasting torment is prepared for them) ; ex-
cept him who catcheth a word by stealth, and is pursued by a shining
dame.t'' Ask t/ie Meccans, therefore, whether they be stronger by uatui-e,
or the angels, whom we have created ? We have surely created them of
stiff 'clay. Thou wonderest at God's power, and their obstinacy; but they
mock at the arguments urged to convince tliem : when they are warned, they
do not take warning ; and when they see any sign, they scoff thereat, and
say, This is no other than manifest sorcery : after we shall be dead,
and become dust and bones, shall we be really raised to life, and our fore-
fathers also ? Answer, Yea : and ye shall then be despicable. There
shall be but one blast of the trujnjjet, and they shall see tliemselves raised :
and they shall say, Alas for us ! this is the day of judgment ; this is
the day of distinction between the righteous and the wicked, which ye rejected
as a falsehood. Gather together those who have acted imjustly, and their
conu'ades, and the idols which they worshipped besides God, and direct
them in the way to hell ; and set them before God's tribunal; for they shall
be called to account. What aileth you that ye defend not one another ?
But on this day they shall submit themselves to the judgment of God : and
they shall draw nigh unto one another, and shall dispute among them-
teelves. And the seduced shall say u?ito those who seduced them, Verily ye
came unto us ■svith presages of prosperity ; and the seducers shall answer,
Nay, rather ye were not true believers : for we had no power over you
to compel you ; but ye were people who voluntarily transgressed : where-
fore the sentence of our Lord hath been justly pronounced against us, and
we shall surely taste his vengeance. We seduced you ; but we also erred
ourselves. They shall both therefore be made partakers of the same punish-
ment on that day. Thus will we deal with the wicked : because, when
it is said unto them, There is no god besides the true God, they swell with
an-ogance, and say, Shall we abandon our gods for a distracted poet? Nay :
he Cometh with the truth, and beareth witness to the former apostles. Ye
* " I swear by the bands of angels, by those who threaten, by those who read,'
your God is the only God." — Savary.
' The original word, being in the plural number, is supposed to signify the dif-
ferent points of the horizon from whence tbe sun rises in the course of the year,
which are in number three hundred and sixty (equal to the number of days in the
old civil year), and have as many corresponding points where it successively sets,
during that space.* Marracci groundlessly imagines this interpretation to be
built on the error of the plurality of worlds.*
t " One of them approached by stealth the celestial spheres, but a penetrating
flame ]irecipitated him down." — Savary.
"■ See chap. 15, p. 210.
' Literally, from the right hand. The words may also be rendered, with force, to
Xmpel us ; or, with an each, swearing that ye were in the right.
* '* The angels who read the Koran are here meant." — Savary.
* Al Beidawi, Yahya. » Marracc. in Ale. p. 680.