Page images
PDF
EPUB

while performing those difficult works as they were accustomed to do, not knowing of his death, until the worm ate his staff, whereupon he fell down, nothing showed them his death. but the eating reptile (the worm) that ate his staff.1 And when he fell down, the jinn plainly perceived that if they had known things unseen (of which things was the death of Solomon), they had not continued in the ignominious affliction (that is, in their difficult works), imagining that he was alive, inconsistently with their opinion that they knew things unseen. And that the period was a year was known by calculating what the worm had eaten of his staff since his death in each day and night or other space of time. (xxxiv. 11-13.)

1 The commentators to explain this passage tell us that David, having laid the foundations of the Temple of Jerusalem, which was to be in lieu of the tabernacle of Moses, when he died, left it to be finished by his son Solomon, who employed the genii in the work; that Solomon, before the edifice was quite completed, perceiving his end drew nigh, begged of God that his death might be concealed from the genii till they had entirely finished it; that God there

fore so ordered it that Solomon died as he stood at his prayers, leaning on his staff, which supported the body in that posture a full year; and the genii, supposing him to be alive, continued their work during that term, at the expiration whereof, the temple being perfectly completed, a worm, which had gotten into the staff, ate it through, and the corpse fell to the ground and discovered the king's death.-S. (B., Jelál.)

K

JONAH.

Verily Jonah [Yoonus] was one of the apostles. [Remember] when he fled unto the laden ship, being angry with his people, because the punishment wherewith he had threatened them did not fall upon them; wherefore he embarked in the ship; and it became stationary in the midst of the sea: so the sailors said, Here is a slave who hath fled from his master, and the lot will discover him :—and he cast lots with those who were in the ship, and he was [the] one upon whom the lot fell. They therefore cast him into the sea, and the fish swallowed him; and he was reprehensible, for having gone to the sea, and embarked in the ship, without the permission of his Lord. And had he not been of those who glorified God (by his saying often in the belly of the fish, There is no god but Thou! I extol Thy perfection! Verily I have been of the offenders!), he had remained in his belly until the day of resurrection.1 And We cast him on the plain land, the same day, or after three or seven days, or twenty or forty days; and he was sick; and We caused a gourd plant to grow up over him, to shade him. It had a trunk, contrary to what is the case of gourds in general, being miraculously produced for him.3 And a wild she-goat came

2

1 It is said that the fish, after it had swallowed Jonah, swam after the ship with its head above water, that the prophet might breathe; who continued to praise God till the fish came to land and vomited him out.-S.

2 Sale states that some imagine Jonah's plant to have been a fig; and others, the móz (or banana), which

bears very large leaves and excellent fruit.

3 The commentators add that this plant withered the next morning, and that Jonah being much concerned at it God made a remonstrance to him in behalf of the Ninevites, agreeably to what is recorded in Scripture.-S.

to him evening and morning, of whose milk he drank until he became strong. And We sent him after that, as before, unto his people in Nineveh, in the land of El-Moşil, a hundred thousand, or they were a greater number by twenty or thirty or seventy thousand; and they believed on beholding the punishment wherewith they had been threatened ; wherefore We allowed them enjoyment of their goods for a time, until the expiration of their terms of life. (xxxvii. 139-148.)

1 When he first began to exhort them to repentance, instead of hearkening to him, they used him very ill, so that he was obliged to leave the city, threatening them at his departure that they should be destroyed within three days, or, as others say, within forty. But when the time drew near, and they saw the heavens overcast with a black cloud which shot forth fire and filled the

1

air with smoke and hung directly over the city, they were in a terrible consternation, and getting into the fields, with their families and cattle, they put on sackcloth and humbled themselves before God, calling aloud for pardon and sincerely repenting of their past wickedness. Whereupon God was pleased to forgive them, and the storm blew over.-S. (B., Jelál, A.F.)

EZRA.

[Hast thou not considered] him who passed by a city (which was Jerusalem), riding upon an ass, and having with him a basket of figs and a vessel of the juice of grapes (and he was 'Ozeyr [Ezra]), and it was falling down upon its roofs, Nebuchadnezzar having ruined it? He said, wondering at the power of God, How will God quicken this after its death?—And God caused him to die for a hundred years. Then He raised him to life: [and] He said unto him, How long hast thou tarried here?-He answered I have tarried a day, or part of a day.—For he slept in the first part of the day, and was deprived of his life, and was reanimated at sunset. He said Nay, thou hast tarried a hundred years: but look at thy food and thy drink: they have not become changed by time: and look at thine ass. -And he beheld it dead, and its bones white and shining.— We have done this that thou mayest know, and that We may make thee a sign of the resurrection unto men. And look at the bones of thine ass, how We will raise them; then We will clothe them with flesh.-So he looked at them, and they had become put together, and were clothed with flesh, and life was breathed into it, and it brayed. Therefore when it had been made manifest to him he said, I know that God is able to accomplish everything.

(ii. 261.)

THE MESSIAH.

Remember when the wife of 'Imrán1 said, (when she had become aged, and desired offspring, wherefore she supplicated God, and became sensible of pregnancy,) O my Lord, verily I devote unto Thee what is in my womb, to be dedicated to the service of Thy holy house: then accept [it] from me; for Thou art the Hearer of prayer, the Knower of intentions. And 'Imrán perished while she was pregnant. And when she gave birth to it, (namely her daughter ; and she was hoping that it might be a boy; since none but boys were dedicated,) she said, O my Lord, verily I have brought forth a female, (and God well knew what she had brought forth,) and the male is not as the female, the latter not being fit for the service [of the temple]; and I have named her Mary [Maryam]; and I beg thy protection for her and her offspring from the accursed devil.2 (In the traditions [it is said], No child is born but the devil hath touched it at the time of its birth, wherefore it first raiseth its voice by crying, excepting Mary and her son.3) And her Lord accepted her (that is, He accepted Mary from her mother) with a gracious acceptance, and caused her to grow with an excellent growth, as though she grew in a day as a child [generally] groweth in a month. Her mother took her to the doctors, the keepers of the Holy House, and said, Receive

1 'Imrán, as observed by Sale, is the name of two several persons according to the Muslims: one was the father of Moses and Aaron, and the other was the father of the Virgin Mary. The latter is here meant, and his wife's name was Hannah.

2 Or the devil driven away with stones.-See note I., p. 7.

3 And for this reason, they say, neither of them was guilty of any sin, like the rest of the children of Adam.-S. (Ķatádeh.)

« PreviousContinue »