Chapter III: The Argumentative Period (3)

A bier was passing, and the Prophet stood up for it; and we stood with him and said, “O Prophet! verily this bier is of a Jewish woman; we must not respect it.” Then the Prophet said, “Verily death is dreadful: therefore when ye see a bier stand up.”

* * * * *

Do not abuse or speak ill of the dead, because they have arrived at what they sent before them; they have received the rewards of their actions; if the reward is good, you must not mention them as sinful; and if it is bad, perhaps they may be forgiven, but if not, your mentioning their badness is of no use.

* * * * *

Sit not upon graves, nor say your prayers fronting them.

* * * * *

Whoso consoleth one in misfortune, for him is a reward equal to that of the sufferer.

* * * * *

Whoso comforteth a woman who has lost her child will be covered with a garment in Paradise.

* * * * *

The Prophet passed by graves in Medina, and turned his face towards them, and said, “Peace be to you, O people of the graves. God forgive us and you! Ye have passed on before us, and we are following you.”

* * * * *

_Of the State after Death._

To whomsoever God giveth wealth, and he doth not perform the charity due from it, his wealth will be made into the shape of a serpent on the Day of Resurrection, which shall not have any hair upon its head, and this is a sign of its poison and long life, and it hath two black spots upon its eyes, and it will be twisted round his neck like a chain on the Day of Resurrection; then the serpent will seize the man’s jaw-bones, and will say, “I am thy wealth, the charity for which thou didst not give, and I am thy treasure, from which thou didst not separate any alms.”

* * * * *

The Prophet asked us, “Did any one of you dream?” We said, “No.” He said, “But I did. Two men came to me and took hold of my hands, and carried me to a pure land: and behold, there was a man sitting and another standing: the first had an iron hook in his hand, and was hooking the other in the lip, and split it to the back of the neck, and then did the same with the other lip. While this was doing the first healed, and the man kept on from one lip to the other.” I said, “What is this?” They said, “Move on,” and we did so till we reached a man sleeping on his back, and another standing at his head with a stone in his hand, with which he was breaking the other’s head, and afterwards rolled the stone about and then followed it, and had not yet returned, when the man’s head was healed and well. Then he broke it again, and I said, “What is this?” They said, “Walk on,” and we walked, till we came to a hole like an oven, with its top narrow and its bottom wide, and fire was burning under it, and there were naked men and women in it; and when the fire burnt high the people mounted also, and when the fire subsided they subsided also. Then I said “What is this?” They said, “Move on,” and we went on till we came to a river of blood, with a man standing in the middle of it, and another man on the bank, with stones in his hands: and when the man in the river attempted to come out, the other threw stones in his face, and made him return. And I said, “What is this?” They said, “Advance,” and we moved forward, till we arrived at a green garden, in which was a large tree, and an old man and children sitting on the roots of it, and near it was a man lighting a fire. Then I was carried upon the tree, and put into a house which was in the middle of it,--a better house I have never seen: and there were old men, young men, women, and children. After that they brought me out of the house and carried me to the top of the tree, and put me into a better house, where were old men and young men. And I said to my two conductors, “Verily ye have shown me a great many things to-night, then inform me of what I have seen.” They said, “Yes: as to the man whom you saw with split lips, he was a liar, and will be treated in that way till the Day of Resurrection; and the person you saw getting his head broken is a man whom God taught the Korān, and he did not repeat it in the night, nor practice what is in it by day, and he will be treated as you saw till the Day of Resurrection; and the people you saw in the oven are adulterers; and those you saw in the river are receivers of usury; and the old man you saw under the tree is Abraham; and the children around them are the children of men: and the person who was lighting the fire was Mālik, the keeper of hell; and the first house you entered was for the common believers; and as to the second house, it is for the martyrs: and we who conducted you are one of us Gabriel, and the other Michael; then raise up your head;” and I did so, and saw above it as it were a cloud: and they said, “That is your dwelling.” I said, “Call it here, that I may enter it;” and they said, “Verily your life remaineth, but when you have completed it, you will come into your house.”

* * * * *

When God created Paradise, He said to Gabriel, “Go and look at it,” then Gabriel went and looked at it and at the things which God had prepared for the people of it. After that Gabriel came and said, “O my Lord! I swear by thy glory no one will hear a description of Paradise but will be ambitious of entering it.” After that God surrounded Paradise with distress and troubles, and said, “O Gabriel, go and look at Paradise.” And he went and looked, and then returned and said, “O my Lord, I fear that verily no one will enter it.” And when God created Hell Fire He said to Gabriel, “Go and take a look at it.” And he went and looked at it, and returned and said, “O my Lord, I swear by thy glory that no one who shall hear a description of Hell Fire will wish to enter it.” Then God surrounded it with sins, desires, and vices, after that said to Gabriel, “Go and look at Hell Fire,” and he went and looked at it, and said, “O my Lord, I swear by thy glory I am afraid that every one will enter Hell, because sins are so sweet that there is none but will incline to them.”

* * * * *

If ye knew what I know of the condition of the resurrection and futurity, verily ye would weep much and laugh little.

* * * * *

Then I said, “O messenger of God! shall we perish while the virtuous are amongst us?” He said, Yes, when the wickedness shall be excessive, verily there will be tribes of my sects that will consider the wearing of silks and drinking liquor lawful, and will listen to the lute: and there will be men with magnificent houses, and their milch animals will come to them in the evening, full of milk, and a man will come begging a little and they will say, Come to-morrow. Then God will quickly send a punishment upon them, and will change others into the shape of monkeys and swine, unto the Day of Resurrection.

* * * * *

Verily among the signs of the Resurrection will be the taking away of knowledge from amongst men; and their being in great ignorance and much wickedness and much drinking of liquor, and diminution of men, and there being many women; to such a degree that there will be fifty women to one man, and he will work for a livelihood for the women.

* * * * *

How can I be happy, when Isrāfīl hath put the trumpet to his mouth to blow it, leaning his ear towards the true God for orders, and hath already knit his brow, waiting in expectation of orders to blow it?

* * * * *

_Of Destiny._

The hearts of men are at the disposal of God like unto one heart, and He turneth them about in any way that He pleaseth. O Director of hearts, turn our hearts to obey Thee.

* * * * *

The first thing which God created was a pen, and He said to it, “Write.” It said, “What shall I write?” And God said, “Write down the quantity of every separate thing to be created.” And it wrote all that was and all that will be to eternity.

* * * * *

There is not one among you whose sitting-place is not written by God whether in the fire or in Paradise. The Companions said, “O Prophet! since God hath appointed our place, may we confide in this and abandon our religious and moral duty?” He said, “No, because the happy will do good works, and those who are of the miserable will do bad works.”

* * * * *

The Prophet of God said that Adam and Moses (in the world of spirits) maintained a debate before God, and Adam got the better of Moses; who said, “Thou art that Adam whom God created by the power of His hands, and breathed into thee from His own spirit, and made the angels bow before thee, and gave thee an habitation in His own Paradise: after that thou threwest man upon the earth, from the fault which thou committedst.” Adam said, “Thou art that Moses whom God elected for His prophecy, and to converse with, and He gave to thee twelve tables, in which are explained everything, and God made thee His confidant, and the bearer of His secrets: then how long was the Bible written before I was created?” Moses said, “Forty years.” Then Adam said, “Didst thou see in the Bible that Adam disobeyed God?” He said, “Yes.” Adam said, “Dost thou then reproach me on a matter which God wrote in the Bible forty years before creating me?”

* * * * *

'Aïsha relates that the Prophet said to her, “Do you know, O 'Aïsha! the excellence of this night?” (the fifteenth of Ramadān.) I said, “What is it, O Prophet?” He said, “One thing in this night is, that all the children of Adam to be born in the year are written down; and also those who are to die in it, and all the actions of the children of Adam are carried up to heaven in this night; and their allowances are sent down.” Then I said, “O Prophet, do none enter Paradise except by God’s mercy?” He said, “No, none enter except by God’s favour:” this he said thrice. I said, “You, also, O Prophet! will you not enter into Paradise, excepting by God’s compassion?” Then the Prophet put his hand on his head, and said, “I shall not enter, except God cover me with His mercy:” this he said thrice.

* * * * *

A man asked the Prophet what was the mark whereby a man might know the reality of his faith. He said, “If thou derive pleasure from the good which thou hast done, and be grieved for the evil which thou hast committed, thou art a true believer.” The man said, “What doth a fault really consist in?” He said, “When anything pricketh thy conscience forsake it.”

* * * * *

I am no more than man: when I order you anything with respect to religion, receive it, and when I order you about the affairs of the world then I am nothing more than man.

NOTES.

THE MEKKA SPEECHES. I.--THE POETIC PERIOD.

The rhyming prose in which the Korān is written may be seen to best advantage in this earliest phase of Mohammad’s oratory, when the sentences are short and the rhythm more _chantant_ than in the later speeches. “The Smiting” (p. 7), will serve as a specimen of the sound of the original Arabic, as far as it can be represented in Roman characters:--

_Bismi-llahi-r-rahmāni-r-rahīm_
_El-kāri'atu mā-l-kāri'ah_
_Wa-mā adrāka mā-l-kāri'ah_
_Yawma yekūnu-n-nāsu ke-l-farāsi-l-mabthūth_
_Wa-tekūnu-l-jibālu ke-l-'ihni-l-manfūsh_
_Fe-amma men thekulet mawāzīnuhu fe-huwa fī 'īshetin rādiyeh_
_Wa-amma men khaffet mawāzīnuhu fe-ummuhu hāwiyeh_
_Wa-mā adrāka mā hiyeh_
_Nārun hāmiyeh_

The effect of which may be thus roughly preserved in English:--

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
The Smiting! What is the Smiting?
And what shall teach thee what is the Smiting?
The Day when men shall be like moths adrift,
And the hills shall be like wool-flocks rift:
Then as for him whose scales are heavy, his shall be a life of
bliss:
And as for him whose scales are light, a place in the Pit is his:
And what shall teach thee what that place is--
A Fire that blazes!

* * * * *

P. 3. THE NIGHT.--The formula “_In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful_,” precedes all the chapters of the Korān but one. _We._--God speaks in the plural in the Korān.

* * * * *

P. 5. THE COUNTRY.--_The two highways_: the _steep one_ to heaven, and the smooth one to hell.

P. 6. _The people of the right hand_--those that receive the book of the record of their actions in their right hand--the blessed. Contrariwise--_the people of the left hand_--the damned.

* * * * *

P. 7. THE SMITING.--One of many similar names for the Day of Judgment. _The Bottomless Pit_, “El-Hāwiyeh,” is the lowest stage of the Hell of the Korān.

* * * * *

P. 8. THE QUAKING.--_Burdens_, _i.e._ the dead. _Her tidings_: “The tidings of the earth are these--she will bear witness to the actions of every man and woman done upon her surface.”--Tradition of Mohammad.

* * * * *

P. 9. THE RENDING ASUNDER.--_Reporters_: two angels who note respectively the good and the evil deeds and words of every man.

* * * * *

P. 13. THE BACKBITER.--This speech is said to have been levelled at a personal enemy.

_Blasting Hell_, “El-Hutameh,” is the third stage of the Mohammadan Inferno.

* * * * *

P. 14. THE SPLENDOUR OF MORNING.--Evidently uttered in a time of despondency and with the intention of self-encouragement.

* * * * *

P. 15. THE MOST HIGH.--_The books of eld._ Mohammad asserted that his doctrine was a revival of the religion of Abraham and the patriarchs, as it was before the Jews corrupted it.

* * * * *

P. 17. THE WRAPPING.--A simile from the wrapping of a head in a turban.

_Camels ten months_ gone with young were the Arabs’ most valuable property.

_The child that was buried alive._ Infanticide of female children was among the crimes of the ancient Arab.

_The Books_--in which men’s actions are recorded.

_Stars that hide_, _i.e._ that set; or, as others say, “that retrogress,” _i.e._ the planets.

P. 18. _Mad._ The people commonly believed Mohammad to be possessed with a jinni (or genius).

_Pelted devil._ The evil jinn or devils are supposed to act the eavesdropper on the confines of heaven, and to be driven away by shooting stars.

_A reminder_, _scil._, of the true religion of Abraham and the prophets, which men had forgotten. Cf. LANE: _Selections from the Kur-ān_, lxxxi. 15, 47, 48 (2d ed., Trübner’s Oriental Series).

* * * * *

P. 19. THE NEWS.--One of the many names which Mohammad employed to bring home to his people the reality and fearfulness of the Last Day.

_Tent-pegs._ Mountains were believed to keep the earth steady, as pegs do a tent.

* * * * *

P. 22. THE FACT.--One of the names of the Last Day: the event which must inevitably happen.

_Abasing_ the sinners, and _exalting_ the righteous.

_Three kinds_: the “outstrippers,” the “people of the right hand,” and the “people of the left hand.” In the original the same word means “right hand” and “happiness,” or “good omen;” contrariwise, “left hand” and “misfortune.” Cp. the use of _dexter_ and _sinister_. An instance of Mohammad’s practice of playing upon the different senses of a word.

_The outstrippers_, _i.e._ those who are the first to adopt the true religion--the prophets and apostles, who shall be rewarded by being allowed to stand nearest to God in the next world. The following fifteen lines describe their happy fate; after which, fourteen refer to the _people of the right hand_, or ordinary believers; and then seventeen lines to the _people of the left hand_, or damned.

P. 24. _Zakkūm_: A thorny tree with a bitter fruit, which grows up from the bottomless pit.

P. 26. _Preserved Book._--Mohammad taught that every “revelation” in the Korān was but a transcript from the pages of a great book, known as the “_Mother of the Book_,” “preserved” under the throne of God. The sentence, _Let none touch it but the purified_, is commonly inscribed upon the cover of the Korān.

_Those brought nearest_, _i.e._ the _outstrippers_, or prophets.

* * * * *

P. 27. THE MERCIFUL.--_Then which of the bounties_, etc. A refrain or burden of this kind is rare in the Korān, and is in no other instance so often repeated. The _twain_ are mankind and the jinn (or genii). “Jinn,” it may be remarked, is a plural, and the singular is “jinni” (a genius), for the masculine, and “jinnīyeh” for the feminine.

_The two Easts._ The rising-places of the sun in summer and winter; _the two Wests_, the corresponding setting-places.

P. 28. _Two notables_, or “weighty ones,” _i.e._ men and jinn.

* * * * *

P. 32. THE UNITY.--This profession of faith is held by Muslims to be equal in value to a third of the whole Korān.

* * * * *

P. 33. THE FĀTIHAH, or “Opening” chapter, so called because it is placed at the beginning of the authorised arrangement of the Korān. It is the _Paternoster_ of Islam, and is repeated many times in the five daily prayers of the Muslims, and on every solemn occasion.

THE MEKKA SPEECHES. II.--THE RHETORICAL PERIOD.

P. 39. THE KINGDOM. _Say_: _i.e._ God bids Mohammad say. It must never be forgotten that Mohammad is only supposed to recite what God wrote in the Preserved Book (see note to p. 26) before the world began.

* * * * *

P. 41. THE MOON.--_Sign_, _i.e._ miracle, which Mohammad insistently declared his inability to work.

_The Summoner_: the archangel Isrāfīl.

_Called it a lie_, _i.e._ denied the doctrine of one God and of a Day of Judgment.

P. 42. _Ad_: an ancient Arab people, destroyed in prehistoric days. See LANE: _Selections from the Kur-ān_, 60-62.

_Thamūd_: another tribe, which experienced a similar fate. See LANE, _ibid._

* * * * *

P. 45. K.--As to the meaning of this letter of the Arabic alphabet, which gives a title to this speech, in the words of the Muslim commentator, “God alone knoweth what He meaneth by it.”

_A warner from among themselves._ The Mekkans were offended that an angel was not sent to them as an apostle, instead of a mere man.

_Marvellous thing_: the Resurrection.

P. 46. _The people of Tubba'_: the Himyarites of Arabia Felix.

_A driver and a witness._--Two angels, who are supposed to carry on the ensuing colloquy with God.

P. 48. _A tyrant._--Mohammad was sent to warn, not to compel the obedience and faith of his people.

* * * * *

P. 49. Y. S.--See note to K above, and to p. 87 below.

P. 50. _Plain Exemplar_: the _Preserved Book_, mentioned above (note to p. 26).

P. 51. _Enter into Paradise_: the people had stoned him to death.

P. 52. _Her resting-place._--The sun is feminine in Arabic, and the moon masculine.

P. 55. _Poetry._--It was a common charge against Mohammad that he was a mad poet.

* * * * *

P. 57. THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, otherwise called THE NIGHT JOURNEY, from the reference in the first verse to a dream in which Mohammad saw himself carried from the Kaaba (the _Sacred Mosque_) at Mekka, to the Temple (the _Furthest Mosque_) at Jerusalem; upon which Mohammadan theologians have raised a noble superstructure of fable. The first verse is probably later than the rest. The _two sins_ and punishments of the Jews have also greatly exercised the commentators’ minds. What they were Mohammad probably did not very precisely know himself.

P. 60. _The son of the road_, _i.e._ the traveller.

P. 61. _A just cause_: apostacy, adultery, or murder.

P. 62. _Daughters from among the angels._--The Arabs worshipped the angels and jinn as daughters of God; and it is against this polytheism and blasphemous relationship that Mohammad protests, whilst he never denies but contrariwise admits the existence of such spirits. Further on (p. 64) he refers to these angels and other Arabian divinities, as beings who are not to be invoked, since they can have no influence for good or ill, and who themselves are in hope and fear of God’s mercy and torment, like human beings. It should be noticed that hitherto Mohammad has directed his preaching against disbelief in the One God, but has not pointedly attacked the idolatry of the Mekkans. In Y. S., however, he begins to speak of _other gods_ (p. 55), and in the Third or Argumentative Period, the angels and jinn which the Mekkans worshipped, and represented in the shape of idols, are frequently denounced, especially under the name of _Partners_ (see pp. 76, 84, 90, 92, 93, 97, 98, 103, 106, etc.)

P. 65. _The accursed tree_: Zakkūm, see note to p. 24. The full Koranic history of Adam and Eve, and how Iblīs, the father of the devils, refused to do homage to the father of mankind, may be read in LANE’S _Selections_, pp. 49-52.

P. 67. _Well-nigh tempted_: referring apparently to an inclination of Mohammad to temporize with idolatry on a special occasion.

P. 68. _The Spirit_: Gabriel, the teacher of Mohammad, and the bearer of revelations from God to His prophet.

P. 71. _Call upon God, or call upon the Merciful._--Mohammad’s use of two general names for God had apparently caused some confusion among the faithful, which this verse removed.

The “Children of Israel” speech is especially important, since it contains more definite regulations of conduct than any other of the orations delivered at Mekka.

THE MEKKA SPEECHES. III.--THE ARGUMENTATIVE PERIOD.

P. 76. THE BELIEVER. _Twice hast thou given us death_, etc.--Referring to the absence of life before birth, and the deprivation of it at death, and to the being quickened at birth, and raised again after death.

P. 78. _Their footprints_, or vestiges: _i.e._ their buildings and public works.

_Moses._ For the Koranic history of the Israelites, see LANE’S _Selections_, pp. 97-131.

P. 84. _I am bidden to resign myself_: _i.e._ I am bidden to become a Muslim, for _Muslim_ (Moslem or Musulman) means “one who is resigned,” and _Islām_, belonging to the same root, signifies “resignation,” or “self-surrender.” This is the correct name of the religion taught by the Arabian prophet, who would have regarded the epithet “Mohammadan,” as applied to the creed, or the professor thereof, as nothing short of blasphemy.

* * * * *

JONAH. P. 87. A. L. R.--Letters the import of which is as mysterious as K. and Y. S. before, and A. L. M. R. afterwards. Nöldeke believes them to be abbreviations of the names of the first reporters of the speeches.

P. 89. _I had dwelt a lifetime_: _i.e._ I should not have waited till I was forty before I began preaching, if I was the designing impostor you take me for.

P. 90. _Ye are in ships--and they run with them._--The reader must have observed that sudden transitions from the second to the third person, and from the singular to the plural, are very common in the Korān. They may perhaps be regarded as convincing evidence of the fidelity of Mohammad’s reporters.

P. 97. _God hath taken Him a son_: referring to the Christian doctrine.

P. 100. _Kibla_: The point towards which prayer must be said. See p. 134.

P. 101. _Now!_--The angel Gabriel is credited with this taunt.

* * * * *

THUNDER. P. 104. A. L. M. R.--Mystic letters as above; perhaps for AL-MogheyReh, as the first reporter of this particular speech.

P. 106. _Patrons_, _i.e._ Idols.

P. 108. _Join what God hath bidden to be joined_: _i.e._ believe in the whole series of prophets, and join good works to faith.

P. 111. _Mother of the Book._--The Preserved Book mentioned before in THE FACT (see note to p. 26).

THE MEDINA SPEECHES. THE PERIOD OF HARANGUE.

DECEPTION. P. 117. _Obey God and obey the Apostle._--This is a sure indication of the Medina origin of at least this verse, for the self-importance of the phrase would have been inappropriate in Mohammad’s weak and insignificant position at Mekka. (The speech is, however, by some ascribed to the Mekka division.) Further on the words _Believe in God and His Apostle_ (in IRON, p. 118), and _They who swear fealty to thee do but swear fealty to God_ (in VICTORY, p. 125), indicate the same spirit of self-exaltation which began with the prophet’s prosperity at Medina.

* * * * *

IRON. P. 119. _Manifest signs_: the revelations contained in the Korān.

P. 122. _It is written in the Book_: _i.e._ Every event is set down in the Preserved Book before the event itself is created.

_God is rich_: _i.e._ He has no need of your grudging alms.

* * * * *

VICTORY. P. 124.--The victory in question was probably the peaceful but real triumph of the Truce of Hudeybia, in A.H. 6; though some commentators prefer to regard the speech as prophetical of the conquest of Mekka two years later.

P. 125. _The Arabs of the desert who were left behind_ were certain tribes who held aloof from the pilgrimage towards Mekka, which ended in the Truce of Hudeybia. Mohammad punished them by refusing to allow them to share in the booty which soon after fell to the faithful in the Khaibar expedition; hence the reference on p. 126.

P. 128. _In the valley of Mekka_: referring to the Truce of Hudeybia. _Kept you away from the Sacred Mosque_: the Koreysh refused to allow Mohammad and his followers to enter Mekka or perform the pilgrimage; whereupon the truce was concluded, by which the pilgrimage was to take place (_Ye shall surely enter the Sacred Mosque_) in the following year (see Introduction, p. xlv.)

P. 129. _Traces_: _i.e._ dust from touching the ground.

* * * * *

P. 130. HELP.--Revealed after the conquest of Mekka, and shortly before Mohammad’s death, and believed to have given him warning of it.

THE LAW GIVEN AT MEDINA.

The forty paragraphs arranged on pp. 133-144, contain, it is believed, all the definite ordinances of Mohammad as set forth in the Medina speeches, with the exception of some regulations relating to women. The bulk of the Medina speeches are indeed rather collections of separate decisions or “rulings” put together for convenience of reference by the Muslims themselves than separate and complete orations. But as the practical teaching is interspersed with frequent and verbose prophetical legends of the kind with which the reader is already perhaps only too familiar and with animadversions on the political parties of Medina, and similar ephemeral matters, it has been thought best to extract the marrow of these lengthy and composite harangues, and place them in some sort of connected order. Chapter II., for instance, “The Cow,” contains 286 verses; the first half is filled with the usual arguments and illustrations, and the old stories about Adam and Moses; whilst the second half contains a certain number of laws and precepts mixed with many repetitions of the proofs and appeals to reason which occur in most of the preceding speeches: altogether, 29 verses out of 286 are needed for the purpose of showing what Mohammad actually prescribed in civil and religious law. For an account of the modern interpretation of this law, see LANE’S _Modern Egyptians_, 5th ed. Ch. III.; SELL’S _Faith of Islam_; and HUGHES’ _Notes on Mohammadanism_, 2d ed. 1877.

P. 134. _Observe the prayer, and the middle prayer._ It is not easy to make out the five daily prayers of Islam in the Korān. In the speech entitled “Hūd” (Mekka, Third Period, xi. 116) it is enjoined: “Observe prayer at two ends of the day, and at two parts of the night”; and again, in “T. H.” (xx. 130), the praises of God are to be celebrated “before the rising of the sun and before its setting, and at times of the night and at the ends of the day”; and in “The Greeks” (xxx. 17) praise is ordained “in the evening and in the morning, and at the evening and at noon.” The Muslim commentators differ as to the application of these injunctions to the five times of prayer recognized throughout the Mohammadan world; which are (1) just after sunset, (2) at nightfall, (3) at daybreak, (4) just after noon, and (5) in the middle of the afternoon.

_Turn thy face towards the Sacred Mosque_: _i.e._ towards the Kaaba of Mekka. Originally Mohammad placed the Kibla, or direction of prayer, at Jerusalem; but after his disagreement with the Jews of Medina he reverted to the old Mekkan temple as the focus of Islām.

P. 135. It is enacted (ii. 183) that the fast is to be observed from the time when you can distinguish a white thread from a black thread in the morning, till night; but from nightfall till dawn the Muslim may eat and drink and enjoy himself.

P. 136. _Make mention of God’s name over the beasts_: _i.e._ Sacrifice them, saying, “In the name of God.”

P. 140. The Korān contains a list of prohibited degrees (“Women,” iv. 26, 27), which comprises mothers and stepmothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces, fostermothers, fostersisters, mothers-in-law, stepdaughters, daughters-in-law, and two sisters, and other men’s wives.

P. 142. _Keep the women in houses._ Immuring was afterwards changed to stoning both the man and the woman.

TABLE-TALK OF MOHAMMAD.

P. 147. _Retaliation is equal._--It is worth noticing, that while sin is requited with equal punishment or with forgiveness, good deeds are rewarded tenfold.

P. 150. _Rising or setting of the sun._--The exact moment was forbidden, for fear of even the suspicion of sun-worship.

P. 164. It is recorded of the prophet, that when, being on a journey, he alighted at any place, he did not say his prayers until he had unsaddled his camel.

INDEX OF CHAPTERS OF THE KORĀN TRANSLATED IN THIS VOLUME.

i. The Fātihah, p. 33.
x. Jonah, 87.
xiii. The Thunder, 104.
xvii. The Children of Israel, 57.
xxxvi. Y. S., 49.
xl. The Believer, 75.
xlviii. The Victory, 124.
l. K., 45.
liv. The Moon, 41.
lv. The Merciful, 27.
lvi. The Fact, 22.
lvii. Iron, 118.
lxiv. Deception, 115.
lxvii. The Kingdom, 37.
lxxviii. The News, 19.
lxxxi. The Wrapping, 17.
lxxxii. The Rending Asunder, 9.
lxxxvii. The Most High, 15.
xc. The Country, 5.
xcii. The Night, 3.
xciii. The Splendour of Morning, 14.
xcix. The Quaking, 8.
c. The Chargers, 11.
ci. The Smiting, 7.
civ. The Backbiter, 13.
cvii. Support, 12.
cx. Help, 130.
cxii. The Unity, 32.

PORTIONS OF CHAPTERS, pp. 133-144.

ii. The Cow, 133-144.
iii. The Family of Imrān, 133.
iv. Women, 139, 140, 142-144.
v. The Table, 138,140.
ix. Immunity, 136, 144.
xxii. The Pilgrimage, 136.
xxiv. The Light, 140, 141, 144.
lxii. The Congregation, 134.

THE END.

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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE

This book was written with many words which are archaic or obsolete by today's standards. However, all such words (other than transliterations of Arabic) are listed in O.E.D., and have been maintained in this book as they were in the original. The only changes to the text were inserting omitted section and chapter titles in the Analytical Table of Contents and in the Notes chapter, and correcting such titles in those two locations when they did not match the corresponding titles elsewhere in the text.

The line _In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful_ is used as an introduction or prolog to all the chapters of the Koran, with two exceptions: This line does not appear at the beginning of chapter ix. (which does not appear in this book). And in the case of the first chapter, Fatihah (which does appear in this book), this line is part of the poetry, not a prolog or introduction. I have left the line in the book at the beginning of Fatihah separated from the rest of the chapter because that is the way it appeared in the original text. This representation is incorrect, there should be no break from the rest of the chapter.