i 34 A I K O R A N . C hap.7.
dom of heaven and earth; there is no G od but he ; he giveth life, and he
caufeth to die. Believe therefore in G o d and his apoftle, the illiterate pro-
phet, who believeth in G od and his word j and follow him, that ye may be
rightly direfted. Of the people of M oses there it a party * who' direft others
with truth, and adt juftly according to the fame. And we divided them into
twelves tribes, as into fo many nations.: And we fpake by revelation unto
M oses, when his people asked drink of him, and we- [aid, Strike the rock
with thy rod f and there gufhed thereout twelve fountainsb, «and men knew
their refpedive drinking place. And we caufed clouds to overfhadow them
and manna and quails c to defcend upon them, faying, Eat o f the good things
which we have .given you for food: and they injured not us, but tflfey injured
their own fouls. And call to mind when it was laid unto them, Dwell in this
cityd, and eat of the provifions thereof where-ever ye will, and fay, Forgive-
riefs! and enter the gate worlhipping : we will pardon you your fins, and
will give encreafe unto the well-doers. But they who were ungodly among them
changed the expreffion into another', which had not been fpoken unto them.
Wherefore we fent down upon them indignation from heaven, becaufe they
had tranfgrefled. And a(k them concerning the city ', which was fituate on
the fea, when they tranfgrefled on the. fabbath day-: when their filh came
unto.them on their fahbath day, appearing openly on the water-, but- on the
day whereon they celebrated no fabbath, they came not unto them: Thus did
we prove them, becaufe they were wicked doers. And when a party of
them 8 faid unto the others. Why do ye warn a people whom G o d will deftroy,
or will punifh with a grievous puniihment ? They anfwered, This is an excufe
for us unto your L ord h -, and peradventure they will beware. But when they
' had
1 O f the people e f Mofes there is a party who di- fefior Site fays, thatbeing prone to leave fpiritna!
reft others withtruth, &c.J Viz. thofe Jews who for worldly ‘ matters, inftead of Hiitaton they
feemed better difpofed than the reft of their bre- faid Hintaton, which figni (its wheat*, and comes
thren to receive Mohammed's law; or perhaps much nearer the true word than the expreffion I
fuch of them as had actually received It. Some have in the place laft quoted, fet down from
imagine they were a fewifh nation dwelling Jallalo'ddin. Whether he took this from the
fomewhere beyond China, which Mohammed (zw fame commentator or not, does not certainly ap-
the night he made his journey to heaven, and pear, tho’ he mentions him juft before; but if he
who believed on him 1. did, his copy muft difFer from that which I have
And there gufhed. thereout twelve fountains, followed.
. &c ] See chap. 2. p. 8. * And ask them concerning the city, &c.] This
T o what is faid in the notes there we may add, city wasAilah or Elath, on the red fea; tho’ fome
that, according to a certain tradition,the ftone,on pretend it was Midiati, and others Tiberias.
which this miracle was Wrought, was thrown The whole ftory is already given in the notes to
down from paradife by Adam, and came into the chap. z. p. 9. Some fuppofe the following live or
poffeffion of Sboaib, -who gave it with the rod to eight verfes to have been revealed at Medina.
Mofes; and that, according to another, the wa- s A party of them i j v iz The religious perfons
ter iflired thence by three orifices oh each of among them, who ftridly obferved the fabbath,
the four fides of the ftone, making twelve in all, and endeavoured to reclaim the others, till they
and that it ran, in fo many rivulets, to the quar- defpaired of fuccefs. But fome' think thefe words
ter of each tribe in the camp 4. were fpoken by the offenders, in anfwer to the
* See chap. 2. p. 7. admonitions of the others.'
d See thispaffage explained, ibid. - h An excufe for us, &c.] Th'at we have-done
* Changed the expreffion into another, &c.] Pro- our duty in diffuading them froih their wickednefs.
1 A l Beidawj. 4 Idem. 3 Sike, innot.adEvang.Infasit.p.fi.
C hap. 7.. A I K O R A N . 1 3 5
h d forgotten the admonitions which had been given them, we delivered thofe
who forbade thepi to do evil ; and we inflidted on thofe who had tranfgrefled,
fevere puniihment, becaufe they had a died wickedly. And when they
proudly refufed to deftjl from what had, been forbidden them, we faid unto
them fie ye transformed into apes', driven away from thefociety of men.. And
remember when thy L o r d declared that he would furely fend againft the J ew s , u n t i l the day of refurredtion, fome nation who lhould afflidkthem with a
g r i e v o u s oppreffion a: for thy. L o r d isffwift inpunifljing, and h*e is alfo ready
to forgive and merciful : and we difperfed them among the nations in the earth.
Some of them are upright, perfons, an&fome of them are otherwife'. ‘ And we
p r o v e d them .with, profperity and with adverflty,. that they might return from
their chfohedience -, and a fucceffiono f their pofterity hath fucceeded after them,
who have inherited the book o f the law, who receive the temporal goods of this,
w o r l d 6, and fay, It will furely be forgiven us: and if a temporal advantage l i k e the former be offered them, they accept it alfo. Is not the covenant of the
b o o k of the law eftablifhed with them, that they fhould nofc fpeak of G o d
ought but the truth '.? Yet they diligently read that which is therein. But
t h e injoymentof the next life w ill he better for thofe, who fear G od than the
•wicked gains o f thefe people (Do ye not therefore underftand?) and for thofe
who hold faff the book o f the law, and are conftant at prayer: for we will by
n o means fuffer the reward of the righteous to perifh. And, when we fhook
t h e mountain o f S i r a i over themd, as though it had been a covering, and
t h e y imagined that it was falling upon them ; and we fa id , Receive thc law w h i c h we have brought you, with reverence; and remember that which is
I contained therein, that ye may take heed. And when thy L o r d drew forth
t h e i r pofterity from the loins of the fonsof A d a m ' , and took them to wit-
n e f s againft themfelyes, faying, Am not I your L o r d ,? They anfwered, Yea:
we dq bear witnefs. ‘hits was done left ye fhould fay , at'the day of refur-
reftion, Verily we were negligent as to this matter, becaufe We were not apprized
thereof: or left ye fhould fay, Verily our fathers were formerly guilty of idol
a t r y , and we are their pofterity who have fucceeded them ; wilt- thou theref
o r e deftroy us for 'that which vain men have committed? Thus do we ex-
' pl&irl
* See chap. 5. p. 91. not..h. , ’ , back,_ and extracted from "his loins his whole,
k And received th e temporal goods o f th i s w o r ld i\ pofterity, which lhould come into the world un-
By accepting of bribes for wrefting judgment, til the refurre&ion, one. generation after ano-
and for corrupting the copies of the P en ta teu ch ', ther; that thefe men were actually affembled
and by extorting of ufury, tA c 1. ; ^ all together in the lhape of fmaU ants, .which were
c That they fh o u ld not fp ea k o f God ought, b u t , endued with undemanding; and that after they
the tr u th ;] Particularly by giving out that God had, in the prefence of the angels, confeffed-
w,ill forgive their corruption without fincere re- their dependance on God, they! were again
peutance and amendment. caufed to return intQ the loins of their great and
See chap. 2. p. 9. not. a. ceftor 4. From this fiftion it appears that the
' An d when thy Lord drew f o r t h th e ir pofte rity doctrine of pre-exiftence is not unknown to the,
from the loins o f th e fon s o f Adam, £5V.] This Mohammedans \\ and there is-Lome;little confer-.,
was done in the plain of D a h ia in In d ia , or, as mity between it and the modern theory of gene-,
others imagine, in a valley, n t u M e c c a . The ration e x an im alculis in f em n e m a r iim . .
commentators tell us that- G od ftroked A d am 's - .,. .
1 A lBeidawi. 4 Id em , jALLALO.’DDiNj Yah-ya. V . D'Herbelot, JBibl, O r ie n t , p . 54-
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