in this w o r ld ; and ye alfo enjoy your portion here , as they who have pre
ceded you, enjoyed their portion. And ye engage your felves in vain difcourfes'
like unto thofe wherein they engaged themfelves. The works of thefe are
vain both in this world, and in that which is to come ; and thefe are they who
perilh. Have they not been acquainted,with the hiftory of thofe who have
been before them? of the people of N oah, and of A d, and of T hamud
and of the peopleof A b r ah am , and of the inhabitants of M a d ia n , and of
the cities which were overthrown * ? Their-apoftles came unto them with evi
dent demonftrations : and G od was not difpofed to treat them unjuftly • but
they dealt unjuftly with their own fouls. And the faithful men, and the faith-
ful women are friends one to another: they command that which is juft and
they forbid that which.is evil; and they are conftant at prayer, and pay'their
appointed alms ; and they obey G od, and his apoftle : unto thefe will God
be merciful; for he is mighty and wile. G od promifeth unto the true be
lievers, both men and women, gardens through which rivers flow, wherein
they fhall remain for ever; and delicious, .dwellings in gardens of per-
petual abodeb : but good will from G od /hall be their moil excellent reward
This w ill be great felicity. O prophet, wage war againft the unbelievers and
the hypocrites, and be fevere unto them.:'for their dwelling fhall be hell•
an Unhappy journey Jball. it be th ith e r ! They fwear by G od that they laid
not what they are charged w ith : yet they fpake the word of infidelity and
became unbelievers, after they had embraced Islam c. And they defigned
that which they could not efted“ ; and they did not difapprove t L d e fm fe r
any other reafon, than becaufe G od and his apoftle had inriched them of his
bountye. If they repent, it will be better for them ; but if they relapfe,
• ' 1' God
a The cities which were overthrown;] Namely,
Sodom .and Gomorrah, and the other cities which
Shared their fate, and are thence called a l Mota-
Ikifat, ox the fubverted1.
b Gardens of perpetual abode ;] Literally, gardens
of Eden ; but the commentators do not
take the word Eden in the fenfe which it bears
in Hebrew, as has been elfewhere obferved a.
c They fwear by G od that they faid not what
they are charged with, &c.] It is related, that al
J alias Ebn Soweid, hearing fome paflages of
this chapter, which lharply reprehend thofe
who refufed to go on the abovementioned expedition
of Tab'uc, declared, that if what Mohammed
faid of his brethren was true, they
were worfe than alfes. Which coming to the
-prophet’s ear, he fent for him ; and he denied
the words upon oath. But on the immediate
revelation of this paflage* he confelTed his
fault, and his repentance was accepted
d They dejigned what they could not effedt, &c.]'
The commentators tells us, that fifteen men
.confpired to kill Mohammed in his return from
Tabuc, by pufhing him from his camel into a
precipice, as he rode by night over the higheft
part of al Akaba. But when they were going to
execute their defign, Hodbeifa, yvho followed and
drorc the prophet’s camel, which was led by
Ammar Ebn YaJer, hearing the tread of camels
and the clafhing of arms, gave the alarm, upon
which they fled. Some however fuppofe the
defign here meant was a plot to expel Mohammed
from Medina 4.
Becaufe God and his apojlles had inricbel
them ; J For Mohammed's refiding at Medina was
of great advantage to the place, the inhabitants
being generally poor, and in want of mofl con-
veniencies of life ; but on the prophet’s coining
among them, they became poflefled of large
•herds of cattle, and money alfo. Ah Beidawi
fays, that the above named al f alias, in particular,
having a fer-vant killed, received, by Mohammed's
order, no lefs than ten thoufand dir-
'hems, or about three hundred pounds, as a fine
for the redemption of his blood.
God will punifti them with a grievous torment, in this 'world and in the
next ; and they fhall have no patron on earth, nor any protestor. There
are fome of them who made a covenant with G od* faying, Verily if he give
us of his abundance, we will give alms, and become righteous people *. Yet
when he had given unto them of his abundance, they became covetous thereof,
and turned back, and retired afar off. Wherefore he hath caufed hypocri-
fy to fucceed in their hearts, until the day whereon they fhall meet him ;
for that they failed to perform unto G od that which they had promifed him, and
for that they prevaricated. Do they not know that G od knoweth whatever
they conceal, and their private difcourfes s and that G od is the knower of fecrets?
They who traduce fuch of the believers as are liberal in giving alms beyond
•what they are obliged, and thofe who find nothing to giv e , but what they gain
by their induftryb; and therefore feoff at them: G od fhall feoff at them, and
they fhall fuffer a grievous punilhment. Afk forgivenefs for them, or do not
alk forgivenefs for them ■, it w ill be equal, If thou afk forgivenefs for themfeventy
times, G od will by no means forgive them'. This is the divine pleafure, for that
they believe not in G od, and his apoftle ; and G od direfteth not the ungodly
people. They who were left at home in the expedition o f T n w c , were glad of
their
a There are fome o f them who made a covenant
vjith G od, & c.] An inftance of this is given
in Thalab'd Ebn Hateb, who came to Mohammed,
and delire,d him to beg of G od, that he would
beftow riches on him. The prophet at firft
advifed him rather to be thankful for the little
he. had, than . to covet more, which might become
a: temptation-to him ; but on Thälaba's repeated
jequeft and folemn promife that he would
make a good ufe of his riches, he was at length
prevailed ‘on, and preferred the petition to
God. Thalaba in. a.fhort time grew vaftly rich,
which Mohammed being acquainted with, fent
two colleftors1 to gather the alms ; other people
readily paid them, but when they came to' Thalaba,
and read the injiihflion to him out of the
Koran, he tola them that it Was not alms, but
tribute, or next kiri to‘ tribute, and bid them go
back till he had better corifidered of it. Upon
which this paflage wiäs. revealed; arid when
Thalaba came afterwards and brought his alms,
Mohammed told him that G od had commanded
him not to accept it, and threw duft upon his
“Cad, faying, This is what fhoii haß deferved.
fie then offered his alms0 to Abu Beer, who re-
mfed to accept the'rii; as did Ömarfome years
after, when he was K h a lif1.
Who trddnee fffth of th 'e believer's as are libe-
rai'» &c ] A l Beidawi relates, that Mohammed
exhorting his followers to voluntary alms, among
others, Abdajr'abriiäri Ebn Awf gaVe four thou-
jand dirhems; which was' one' half of what he
la<J J Afem Ebn Adda gave an hundred beaft’s
Idem. a A bu l fed. . vi't.Moh. p. 123.
loads of dates; and Abu Okail a Sad, which is
no more than a fixtieth part of a load, of the
fame fruit, but was !the half of what he had
earned by a night’s hard work. This Mohammed
accepted: whereupon the hypocrites
faid that Abda'lrahman arid Afem gave what they
did out of oftentation, and that G od and his
apoftle might well have excufed Abu Okail's
mice; which occafioned this paflage. -
I fuppofe this collection was made to defray
the charge of the expedition of Tabuci towards
which, as another writer tells us,. Abu Beer contributed
all that he had, arid Oilman very largely,
v iz. as it is faid, three hundred camels for
flaughter, arid a t'ho.ufand dinars of gold 2
c Ask forgivenefs for fkem,. &c.J In the lift
fickriefs of Abda'llab Ebn Obba the hypocrite,
(who died in the ninth year of the Hejra} his
fo'n, named alfo Abda'llab, came and asked Mohammed
to beg pardon of G od for him ; which
he did, arid thereupon tne, former part of this
verfe was revealed. But the prophet, not taking
that for a r'epulfe, faid he. would pray feventy times
for him; upon which the latter part of the verfe
was revealed, declaring ic would be.abfolutely
in vain. It may be obferved that the numbers
feven, and feventy> and’ /even hundred, are frequently
ufed by the ealiern writers to figniiy,
not fo many' precifely, but orily an indefinite
number, either greaterrorIdler 3; feveral e x amples
of which are to be met with in the i'erip-
ture 4.
3 ^ / B etdawi . Matth, xviii, 22.;