178 A I K O R A N . CHAp.ir.
ceive that ye are ignorant men. O my people, who lhall a ffift me againft
G o d , if I drive them away ? Will ye not therefore confider? I fay notun
to you, The treafures of G o d are in my power ; neither do 1/ay, I know the
fecrets o f G od : neither do I fay, Verily I am an angel *; neither do I fay o f thofe whom your eyes do contemn, G o d will by no means beftow good
on them : ( G o d bell knoweth that which is in their fouls;) for then Ihould
I certainly be owe of the unjuft. They anfwered, O N o a h , thou haft already
difputed with us, and haft multiplied difputes with us ; now therefore do thou
bring that pmifhment upon us wherewith thou haft threatened us, if thou
lpeakeft truth. N oah faid, Verily G o d alone lhall bring it upon you, if he
pleafeth ; and ye lhall not prevail againft him, fo as to efcape the fame. Neither
lhall my counfel profit you, although I endeavour to counfel you aright, if G o d lhall pleafe to lead you into error. He is your L o r d , and unto him
lhall ye return. Will the M e ccan s fay, ATohammed hath forged the K oran!
Anfwer, If I have forged it, on me be my guilt; and let me be clear of that
which ye are guilty of. And it was revealed unto N o a h , faying, Verilv i
none of thy people lhall believe, except he who hath already believed:be
not therefore grieved, for that which they are doing. But make an ark in
our prefence, according to the fo rm and dimenfions which we have revealed
unto thee: and fpeak not unto me in behalf of thofe who have afted unjuftly;
for they are doomed to be drowned, j And he built the ark ; and fo often as a'
company of his people pafied by him, they derided him b: t o he faid, Though
ye feoff at us now, we will feoff at you hereafter, as ye feoff at u s ; and ye M
furely know on whom a punilhment lhall be infli&ed, which lhall cover
him with lhame, and on whom a lafting punilhment lhall fall. Thus inert
they imployed until our fentence was put in execution, and the oven poured
forth w a te r '. A n d we faid unto N oah, Carry into the ark of every fpecits
of'i
demanded of Mohammed, but he was forbidden
to comply with their requeft 1.
a See chap. 6. p. 103.
b They derided him;] For building a veiTel in
an inland country, and fo far from the lea; and
for that he was turned carpenter, after he had
fet up for a prophet *.
c And the oven poured forth water j] Or, as the
original literally fignifies, boiled over; which is
confonant to what the Rabbins fay, that the
waters of the deluge were boiling hot.
This oven was, as fome fay, at Cdfa, in a fpot
whereon a mofque now ftands ; or, as others rather
think, in a certain place in India, or elfe at
Ain warda in Mefopotamia 3 ; and its exundation
was the fign by which Noah knew the flood was
coming4-. Some pretend that it was the fame
1 See chap. (s.p. 103. 2 Al B e i d a w i . 3 Idem. * J a l l a l o ’ d d i n , & c. * V. D’Hbr*
belot, Bibl.Orient, art. Noah, 6 V. H y d e de tel. vet. Per far. and L o r d V account of
the reltg. o f tty Perfees, p. 9.
/
oven which Eve made ufe of to bake her bread
in, being of a form different from thofe we ufe,
having the mouth in the upper part, and that it
defeended from patriarch to patriarch, till it
came to Noah 5. It is remarkable that Mohammed,
in all probability, borrowed.this circura-
flance from the Perfian Magi, who alfo fancied
that the firft waters of the deluge gulhed out of
the oven of a certain old woman named Zala
Cufa 6.
But the word tannur, which is here tranllated
oven, alfo fignifying the fuperficies of the earth,
or a place whence waters fpring forth, or where
they are collectedfome fuppofe it means no more
in this paffage, than the fpot or fiffure whence
the firft eruption of waters brake forth.
/
Chap. it* K 0 RA N* *79
animals one pair1 ; and thy family6, ("except him on whom a previous fen-
°lnce of deftruclion hath paffed',) and thofe who believe d. But there believ- i 0£ with him, except a few'. And N oah faid, Embark thereon, in the
name of G o d ; while it moveth forward, and while it ftandeth ftill ’ ; for my
I o r d is gracious and merciful. And the ark fwam with them between waves
like mountains E: and N o a h called unto his fon \ who was feparated from
him faiint, Embark with us, my fon, and ftay not with the unbelievers. He
mm J J & a „ „ iinfwpred.
a o ne pair.»] Or, as the words may alfo be
rendred, and fome commentators think they
ought, two pair, that is, two males, and two females
of each fpecies; wherein they partly agree
with divers Jewijh and Chriftian writers J, who
from the Hebrew expreflion, /even and /even, and
two and two, the male and his female 2, fuppofe
there went into the ark fourteen pair of every
clean, and two pair of every unclean fpe-
cies. There is a tradition that G o d gathered
together unto Noah, all forts of beafts, birds and
other animals, (it being indeed difficult to conceive
how he Ihould come by them all, without
fome fupernatural afliftance,) and that as he laid
hold on them, his right hand conftantly fell on
the male, and his left on the female 3.
b Thy family;] Namely thy wife j and thy
fons, and their wives 4.
c Except him on whom a previous fentence of
ieftruBion hath paffed;] This was an unbelieving
fon of Noah *, named Canaan 6, or Tam 7 Jtho’
others fay he was,not the fon of Noah, but his
grandfon by his fon Ham, or his wife’s fon by
another husband; nay fome pretend he was related
to him no farther than by having been educated
and brought up in his houfe 8. The beft
commentators add, that Noah's wife,* named
Waila, who was an infidel, was alfo comprehended
in this exception, and perilhed with her
fon 9.
d And thofe who believe.] Noah's family being
mentioned before, it is fuppofed that by thefe
words are intended the other believers, who were
his profelytès, but not of his family: whence
the common opinion among the Mohammedans,
of a greater number than eight being faved in
the ark, feems to have taken its rife 10.
e There believed not with him except a few »]
viz. His other wife, who was a true believer,"
his three fons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, and
their wives, and feventy two perfons more 1
f Embark thereon, in the name of G o d , while
it moveth forward, and while it Jlandeth f i l l f\
That is, omit no opportunity of getting on
board. According to a different reading, the
latter words may be rendred, Who fhall caufe it
to move forward, and to flop, as there lhall be oc-
cafion. The commentators tell us that the ark
moved forwards, or ftood ftill, as Noah would
have it, on his pronouncing only the words, In
the name o f G od 1 2 .
It is to be obferved that the more judicious
commentators make the dimenfions of the ark to
be the fame with thofe afligned by Mofes 13 i not-
withftanding others have enlarged them moft ex-*
travagantly I4-, as fome Chriftian writers 1 * have
alfo done. They likewife tell us that Noah was
two years in building the ark, which was framed
of Indian plane tree 16, that it was divided into
three ftories, of which the lower was defigned
for the beafts, the middle one for the men and
women, and the upper for the birds 17 ; and
that the men were feparated from the women by
the body of Adam, which Noah had taken into
the ark lS . This laft is a tradition of the eaft-
ern Chriftians 19, fome of whom pretended that
the matrimonial duty was fuperfeded and fuf-
pended during the time Noah and his family were
in the ark 20 j tho’ Ham has been accufed of not
obferving continency on that occafion, his wife,
it feems, bringing forth Canaan in the very ark 2I*
s Between waves like mountains;] The waters
prevailing fifteen cubits above the mountains 22v
h See above, not. c.
1 Aben Ezr.a, Justin Martyr, Origen, 2 Genef. vii. z. 3 Jallalo’ddin.
^ A l Beidawi. * Yahya. ^ Jallalo’ddin, A l Beidawi. 7 Ebn Shohnah.
8 ^/Zamakhshari. V. D’H erbel. Bibi. Orient.p. 676. 9 Jallalo’ddin, A l Zamakhbhari,
<7/Beidawi. . 10 See chap.y.p. 123. 11 See ibid. not. a. 12 A l Beidawi, & c.
Idem, & c. I+ Yahya. V. Marracc. in Alcor. p. 340. Origen, contr. Celf.
I 4. V. Kircher. de Area Noe, c. 8. ?6 A l Beidawi. F . D’Herbel. p. 675. and Eutych.
^• 34* 17 ^ /B eidawi. V. Eutych. annal. p. 34. 18 Yahya. 19 Jacob. Edesse-
»us, apud Barcepham de parad. part 1. c. 14. Eutych. ubi fup. V. etiam Eliezer. pirke c. 2$.
20 Ambros, de Noa arca, c. 21. 21 V* HEiDEcbER. H i f t . Patriarchar. v. i.p . 409-
22 -^Beidawi.