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

458
AL KORAN.
hell fire, witli those who enter therein. God also propoundeth as a simi-
litude unto those who believe, the wife of Pharaoh ;"* when she said, Lord^
huild me a house with thee in paradise ; and deliver me from Pharaoh and
his doings, and deliver me from the unjust people : and Mary the daughter
of Imran ; who preserved her chastity, and into whose womb we breathed
of our spirit,^* and who believed in the words of her Lord, and hia
scriptures, and was a devout and obedient person/
CHAPTER LXVII.
INTITLED, THE KINGDOM; » REVEALED AT MECCA.
IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.
[*XXIX.] Blessed be he in whose hand is the kingdom, for he i»
almighty !t Who hath created death and life, that he might prove you,
which of you is most rigliteoua in his actions : and he is mighty, and ready
to forgive. Who hath created seven heavens, one above another ; thou canst
not see in a creature of the most Merciful any unfitness or disproportion.
Lift up thine eyes again to heaven, and look whether thou seest any flaw:
then take two other views ; and thy sight shall return unto thee dull and
fatigued. Moreover we have adorned the lowest heaven with lamps, and
liave appointed them to be darted at the devils,*^ for whom we have prepared
the torment of burning fire; and for those who believe not in their Lord
is also prepared the torment of hell ; an ill journey shall it be thither. When
they shall be thrown thereinto, they shall hear it bray like an ass;' and it
infidels of his time had no reason to expect any mitigation of their punishment, oa
account of their relation to himself and the rest of the true believers.
^ Viz. Asia the daughter of Mozahem. The commentators relate, that because she
believed in Moses, her husband cruelly tormented her, fastening her hands and feet
to four stakes, and laying a large millstone on her breast; her face, at the same time,
being exposed to the scorching beams of the sun: these pains, however, were alle-
viated by the angels shading her with their wings, and the view of the mansion
prepared for her in paradise, which was exhibited to hur on her pronouncing the
prayer in the text: at length God received her soul; or, as some say, she was taken
up alive into paradise, where she eats and drinks.^**
• See chap. 19, p. 249, &c.
• " Who preserved her virginity. Gabriel transmitted unto her the breath of the
Lord." — Savary.
^ On occasion of the honourable mention here made of these two extraordinary
women, the commentators introduce a saying of their prophet. That among men then
had been many perfect, but no more than four of the other sex had attained perfection;
to wit, Asia the wife of Pharaoh, Mary the daughter of Imrdn, Khndijah the daughter
of K/wwaiied (ths prophet's first wife), and Fdtema the daughter of Mohammed.
e It is also entitled by some The iSaving, or The Delivering, because, say they, it
will save him who reads it from the torture of the sepulchre.
f " Blessed is he who holdeth the reins of the universe, and whose power hath lio
bounds." — Savary.
^ See chap. 15, p. 210.
1 See chap. 31, p. 337.
^° Jallalo'ddin, al Zamakhi