count he Jhall lead a pleafing life, in a lofty garden, the fruits whereof fhall
be near to gather. Eat and drink with eafy digeftion •, becaufe of thé good
■ works which, ye fent before you, in the days which are paft. But he who
fhall have his book delivered into his left hand, fhall fay, O that I had not
received this my book •, and that I had not known what this my account
■ was! O that death.had made an end of me! My riches have not profited
me; and my power is paffed from me. rfnd God Jhall fay to the keepers of
hell, Take him, and bind him, and caft him into hell to be burned ; then
put him into a chain of the length of feventy cubits9: becaufe- he believed
not in the great God ; and was not follicitous to feed the poor: wherefore this
day he fhall have no friend here; nor any food, but the filthy corruption
flowing from .the bodies of the damned, which none fhall eat but the finners.
I fwearb by that which ye fee, and that which ye fee not, that this is the dif-
courfe of an honourable apoftle, and not the difcourfe of a poet: how little
do ye believe ! Neither is it the difcourfe of a foothfayer : how little are ye
admonifhed ! I t is a revelation from the L ord of all creatures. If Mohammed
had forged any part of thefe difcourfes concerning us, verily we had taken
him by the right hand, and had cut in funder the vein of his heart; neither
would we have withheld any of you from chajlijlng him. And verily this
book is an admonition unto the pious; and we. well know that there are fame of
you who charge the fame with impofture: but it fhall furely be an occafion of
grievous fighing unto the infidels ; for it iT the truth of a certainty. Wherefore
praife the name o f thy L ord, the great God.
* Pat him inlc a chain, See. ] i. e. Wrap him b I fwear i f Or, I w ill not fwear. See chapS.
round with it, fo that he may not he able 56*.p. 436. not. f.
to ftir.
CHAP. LXX.
Intitled, The Steps; revealed at Mecca.
In the name of the moll merciful G od.
ON E demanded and called for vengeance to fall on the unbelievers2:
there fhall be none to avert the fame from being inflifted by God, J the
poffeffor
a One called for thepunifoment to be inflifted on us a flower of ft onesr or fend fame dreadful judg-
the unbelievers;] The perfon here meant is ge- ment to punifh u s1. Others, however, think
nerally fuppofed to have been ab Nodar Ebn al it was Abu Jabl, who challenged Mohammed
Haretht who faid, O G od, i f what Mohammed to caufe a fragment of heaven to fall on them 2.
preaches be the truth from thee, rain down upon
1 A l Z amakh. ^ /Beidawi. 2 A l Bbidawi.
poffefTor of the ftepsa; by which 'the.angels afeend unto him, and the
fpiric G a b r ie l alfo, in'a day whofe fpace is fifty thoufand years b: wherefore
bear the infultsof the Meccans with becoming patience ; for they fee
their• punifhment off, but we fee it nigh at hand. On a certain day the
heaven fhall .become like molten brafs, and the mountains like wool of various
colours, fe altered abroad by the wind: and a friend fhall not ask a
friend-concerning hjs- condition, although they fee one another. 'Jhe wicked
fhall wifh to redeem himfelf from the punifhment of that day, by giving up
his children, and .his wife* and his brother, and his kindred who fhewed kind-
nefs unto him, and all who are in the earth *, and that this might deliver him :
by no means : for hell fire, dragging them by their fealps, fhall call him who
fhall have turned his back, and fled from the faith, and fhall have amaffed
riches, and.covetoufly hoarded -them- Verily man is created extreamly imp
a t ie n tc: when evil toucheth him, he is full of complaint; but when good
befalleth him, he. hecometh niggardly : except thofe who are devoutly given,
and who perfevere. in their prayers •, and thofe of whofe fubftance a due and
certain portion is ready to be given unto him who asketh, and him who is forbidden
by Jhameto ask : nd thofe who fincerely believe the day of judgment,
and who dread the punifhment of their L ord ( fqr there is none fecure from
the punifhment of their L ord :-) and who abftain from the carnal knowledge
of women other than their wives, or the Jlaves which their right hands poffefs ; (for
as to them they fhall beblamelefs | but whoever coveteth any woman befides thefe,
they are tranfgreffors :) and thofe who faithfully keep what they are intruded
with, and t^heif covenant; and who are upright in their teflimonies, and who carefully
obferve the requifite rites in their prayers : thefe Jhall dwell amidft gardens,
highly honoured. What aileth the unbelievers, that they run before
thee in companies, on the right hand and on the left ? Doth every man of
O o o them
a The fteps 5.] By which prayers and righteous
aftions afeend to heaven ; or by which the angels
afeend to receive the divine commands, or
the believers will afeend to paradife. Some
underftand thereby the different orders of angels;
or the heavens, which rife gradually one
above another.
* A day whofe fpace is fifty thoufand years ; ]
This is fuppofed to be the fpace which
would be required ' for their afeent from the
loweft part of the creation to the throne of
God, if it were to be fneafured; or the time
which it would take a man up. *0 perform that
journey : and this is not contradictory to what
is faid elfewhere (if- it" be to be interpreted
of the afeent of the angels,) that the length
«f the,day whereoh they afeend is ‘i.o’oo years ;
becaufe that is meant only of their afeent from
earth to the lower heaven, including alfo the
time of their defeent.
But the commentators generally taking the
day fpoken of in both thefe paffages,, to be the
day of Judgment, have recourfe to feveral expedients
to reconcile them, fome of which we
have mentioned in another place 2 : and as both
paffages feem to contradift what the Moham
medan doctors teach, that G od will judge al l
creatures in the fpace of half a day 3, they fup-
-pöfe thofe large numbers of years are defigoed
to exprefs the time of the previous attendance
of thofe who are to be judged 4 ; or elfe to the
fpace wherein G od will judge the unbelieving
nations, of which, thëy fay, there will be fifty,,
the trial of each nation taking up 1000 years,
though that of the true believers will be over in
the iliort fpace abovemèntioned *.
wl See chap. 17. p. 228.
1 Chap. 32. p. 338. 2 Prelim. Difc. §. IV. /u 84,
ib. p.. 86. 5 A l Z amakh,
■5 S e e i b . p , 88, 8p. 4 See