come forth white, without any hurt: and draw back thy hand* unto thee
which tbou JlretcheJl forth for fear. Thefe fhall be two evident figns from
thy L ord, unto P haraoh and his princes; for they are a wicked people
M oses faid, O L ord, verily I have flain one of them ; and I fear they will
put me to death: but my brother A aron is of a more eloquent tongue than
I am ; wherefore fend him with me for an afliftant, that he may gain me
credit; for I fear left they accufe me of impofture. G od faid, We will
ftrengthen thine arm by thy brother, and we will give each Of you extraordinary
power, fo that they fhall not come up to you, in our figns. Ye two
and whoever fhall follow you, Jhall he the conquerors. And when M oses
came unto them with our evident figns, they faid, This is no other than a
deceitful piece of.forcery: neither have we heard of any thing Hie this among
our fore-fathers. And M oses faid, My L ord beft knoweth who cometh
with a direction from him; and who fhall have fuccefs in this life, as well
as the next: but the unjuft fhall not.profper. And Pharaoh faid, O princes,
I did not know that ye had any other god befides meb. Wherefore do thou
O H am an, burn me clay into bricks ; and'build me a high tower % that I
may afcend unto the G od of M oses : for I verily believe him to be a liar.
And both he and his forces behaved themfelves infolently and unjuftly in the
earth ; and imagined that they fhould not be brought before us-fa be juditl
Wherefore we took Him and his forces, and call them into the fea. Behold,
■ therefore, what was the end of the unjuft. And we made them deceitful guides,
inviting their followers to hell fire ; and on the day of refurredtion they (hall
not be fcreened from punifhmcnt. We purfued them with a curfe in this life; and
on the day of refurredtion they Jhall be fhamefully rejedted.. And we gave
the book »/ the law unto M oses, after we had deftroyed the former generations,
to enlighten the minds of men, and for a diredtion, and a mercy;
that peradventure they might confider. Thou, O prophet, waft not on the
weft fide of mount Sinai, when we delivered M oses iri commiffion : neither
waft thou eKf of thofe who were prefent at his receiving it: but we raifed up
feveral generations after M oses ; and life was prolonged unto them. Neither
didft thou dwell among the inhabitants of M ad ian , rehearfing unto them
our figns; but we have fent thee fully injtrufled in every particular. Nor
.waft thou prefent on the fide of the mount, when we called unto M oses ; but
-thou art fent as a mercy from thy L ord ; that thou mighteft preach unto a
people
a Draw back tby band;] Literally, thy wing •
the exprefiion alludes to the afiion of birds,
which ftretch forth their wings to fly away
. when they are frighted, and fold them together
again when they think themfelves fecure 1.
b See chap. 26. p. 303.
c A high tower j] ' It is faid that Hamdn, havin
g prepared bricks and other materials, employe
d no lefs than fifty thoufand men, befides la-
*bourgrs, in the building; which they carried to
fo immenfe a height that the workmen could no
longer Hand on it: that Pharaoh, amending
this tower, threw a javelin towards heaven»
which fell back again ftained with blood, whereupon
he impioufly boafted that he had killed the
God of Mofes; but at fun-let God fent the
angel Gabriel, who with one ftroke of his wing
demoliihed the tower, a part whereof, falling
on the king’s army, deftroyed a million of
men
1 A l Beidawi. * ^ / Z amakhshari .
people to whom no preacher hath come before thee*, that peradventure they
may be warned ; and left, if a calamity had befallen them, for that which
their hands had previoufiy committed, they fhould have faid, O L ord,
fince thou haft not fent an apoftle unto us, that we might follow thy figns,
and become true believers, are we not excufable ? Yet when the truth is
come unto them from before us, they fay, Unlefs he receive the fame
power to work miracles as Moses received, we will not believe. Have they
not likewife rejedted the revelation which was heretofore given unto M oses ?
They fay, Two cunning impofturesb have mutually afiifted one another:
and they fay, Verily we rejedt them both. Say, Produce therefore a book
from God, which is more right than thefe two, that I may follow it ; if ye
fpeak truth. But if they return thee no anfwer, know that they only follow
their own defires: and who erreth more widely from the truth than
he who followeth his own defire, without a diredtion from God ? verily G od
diredteth not the unjuft people. And now have we caufed our word to come
unto them, that they may be admonifhed. They unto whom we have
given the fcriptures which were revealed before it, believe in the fame ; and
when it is read unto them, fay, We believe therein ; it is certainly the truth
from our L ord : verily we were Modems before thisc. Thefe fhall receive
their reward twice *, becaufe they have perfevered, and repel evil by good,
and diftribute alms out of that which we have bellowed on them ; and
when they hear Vain difcourfe, avoid the fame, faying, We have our works,
and ye have your works: peace be on you e; we covet not the acquaintance
of the ignorant. Verily thou canft not diredt whom thou wilt: but
God diredleth whom he pleafeth ; and he beft knoweth thofe who will fub-
mit to be diredled. The M eccans fay, If we follow the fame diredtion
with thee, we fhall be forcibly expelled our landf. Have we not eftablifh-
ed for them a fecure afylum8; to which fruits of every fort are brought, as
a provifion of our bounty ? but the greater part of them do not underftand.
How many cities have we deftroyed, whofe inhabitants lived in eafe and plenty?
and thefe their dwellings are not inhabited after them, unlefs For a
T c , little
a Unto a people to whom no preacher hath come
before thee;] That is, to the Arabians ;to whom
no prophet had been lent, at leaft fince Ifmael.
b Two cunning impoftures j] v iz . The Pentateuch
and the Koran. Some copies read, Two
impoflors, meaning Mofes and Mohammed.
c We were Moftems'before this i] Holding the
lame faith in fundamentals, before the revelation
of the Koran, which we receive becaufe it
is confonant to the fcriptures, and attefted to
by th§m. The paflage intends thofe ffews and
Shrift ians who had embraced Mohammedifm.
d Thefe Jhall receive their reward twice ;] Becaufe
they,, have believed both in their own
fcriptures, and in the Koran,
e See chap. 25. p. 301. not. d.
f I f we follow tby dire ft ion, we fhall be forcibly
expelled our land]] This objeftion was made by
A l Hareth Ebn Othman Ebn Nawfal Ebn Abd
Mendf, who came to Mohammed and told him,
that the Koreijh believed he preached the truth*
but were apprehenfive, that, if they made the
Arabs their enemies by quitting their religion,
they would be obliged likewife to quit Mecca,
being but a handful of men, in comparifon to
the whole nation 1.
g Have we not eftablifhed for them a fecure afylum
?] By giving them for their habitation the
facred territory o f Mecca, a place protected by
God, and reverenced by man.
A l Beidawi,