the last day.—He mentioned them peculiarly in the prayer agreeably with the saying of God, My covenant doth not apply to the offenders.-God replied, And I will supply him who disbelieveth: I will make him to enjoy a supply of food in this world, a little while: then I will force him, in the world to come, to the punishment of the fire; and evil shall be the transit. (ii. 118-120.)

1

And remember when Abraham was raising the foundations of the House 1 (that is, building it), together with Ishmael, and they said, O our Lord, accept of us our building; for Thou art the Hearer of what is said, the Knower of what is done. O our Lord, also make us resigned 2 unto Thee, and make from among our offspring a people resigned unto Thee, and show us our rites (the ordinances of our worship, or our pilgrimage), and be propitious towards us; for Thou art the Very Propitious, the Merciful. (They begged Him to be propitious to them, notwithstanding their honesty, from a motive of humility, and by way of instruction to their offspring.) O our Lord, also send unto them (that is, the people of the House) an apostle from among them (and God hath answered their prayer by sending Moḥammad), who shall recite unto them Thy signs (the Kurán), and shall teach them the book (the Kurán), and the knowledge that it containeth, and shall purify them from polytheism; for Thou art the Mighty, the Wise.— And who will be averse from the religion of Abraham but he who maketh his soul foolish, who is ignorant that it is God's creation, and that the worship of Him is incumbent on it; or who lightly esteemeth it and applieth it to vile purposes; when We have chosen him in this world as an apostle and a friend, and he shall be in the world to come one of the righteous for whom are high ranks?—And

1 Namely, the Kaabeh.

2 In the original, Muslims,' which is the peculiar and very appropriate title of the believers in

the religion taught by Moḥammad;

and as he professed not to teach a religion essentially new, this title is given to all true believers before him.

remember when his lord said unto him, Resign thyself: he replied, I resign myself unto the Lord of the worlds.And Abraham commanded his children to follow it (namely, the religion); and Jacob, his children; saying, O my children, verily God hath chosen for you the religion of El-Islám; therefore die not without your being Muslims. -It was a prohibition from abandoning El-Islám and a command to persevere therein unto death. (ii. 121-126.)

When the Jews said, Abraham was a Jew, and we are of his religion, and the Christians said the like, [the following] was revealed :-O people of the Scripture, wherefore do ye argue respecting Abraham, asserting that he was of your religion, when the Pentateuch and the Gospel were not sent down but after him a long time? Do ye not then understand the falsity of your saying? So ye, O people, have argued respecting that of which ye have knowledge, concerning Moses and Jesus, and have asserted that ye are of their religion: then wherefore do ye argue respecting that of which ye have no knowledge, concerning Abraham? But God knoweth his case, and ye know it not. Abraham was not a Jew nor a Christian: but he was orthodox, a Muslim [or one resigned], a unitarian, and he was not of the polytheists. (iii. 58-60.)

1 'El-Islam' signifies the resign- all the prophets before him had ing oneself to God and to His service, taught, and he restored; the and is the name given by Mohammad foundation of which was the unity to that religion which, he asserted, of God.

E

JACOB, JOSEPH AND HIS BRETHREN.

Remember, when Joseph [Yoosuf] said unto his father, O my father, verily I saw in sleep eleven stars and the sun and the moon: I saw them making obeisance unto me. He replied, O my child, relate not thy vision to thy brethren, lest they contrive a plot against thee, knowing its interpretation to be that they are the stars and that the sun is thy mother and the moon thy father; for the devil is unto man a manifest enemy. And thus, as thou sawest, thy Lord will choose thee, and teach thee the interpretation of events, or dreams, and will accomplish his favour upon thee by the gift of prophecy, and upon the family of Jacob, as He accomplished it upon thy fathers before, Abraham and Isaac; for thy Lord is knowing [and] wise.-Verily in the history of Joseph and his brethren are signs to the inquirers.—When they (the brethren of Joseph) said, one to another, Verily Joseph and his brother Benjamin are dearer unto our father than we, and we are a number of men; verily our father is in a manifest error; slay ye Joseph, or drive him away into a distant land; so the face of your father shall be directed alone unto you, regarding no other, and ye shall be after it a just people:-a speaker among them, namely, Juulah, said, Slay not Joseph, but throw him to the bottom of the well; then some of the travellers may light upon him, if ye do this. And they were satisfied therewith. They said, O our father, wherefore dost thou not intrust us with Joseph, when verily we are faithful unto him? Send him with us to-morrow into the plain, that he may divert himself and sport; and we will surely take care of him. He replied, Verily your taking him

agreed to put They pulled

away will grieve me, and I fear lest the wolf devour him while ye are heedless of him. They said, Surely if the wolf devour him, when we are a number of men, we shall in that case be indeed weak. So he sent him with them. And when they went away with him, and him at the bottom of the well, they did so.1 off his shirt, after they had beaten him and had treated him with contempt and had desired to slay him; and they let him down; and when he had arrived half-way down the well they let him fall, that he might die; and he fell into the water. He then betook himself to a mass of rock; and they called to him; so he answered them, imagining that they would have mercy upon him. They however desired to crush him with a piece of rock; but Judah prevented them. And We said unto him by revelation, while he was in the well (and he was seventeen years of age, or less), to quiet his heart, Thou shalt assuredly declare unto them this their action, and they shall not know thee at the time.? And they came to their father at nightfall weeping. They said, O our father, we went to run races, and left Joseph with our clothes, and the wolf devoured him; and thou wilt not

1 This well, say some, was a certain well near Jerusalem, or not far from the river Jordan; but others call it the well of Egypt, or Midian. The commentators tell us that when the sons of Jacob had gotten Joseph with them in the field, they began to abuse and to beat him so unmercifully that they had killed him had not Judah on his crying out for help insisted on the promise they had made not to kill him but to cast him into the well. Whereupon they let him down a little way; but as he held by the sides of the well, they bound him, and took off his inner garment, designing to stain it with blood to deceive their father. Joseph begged hard to have his garment returned to him, but to no purpose, his brothers telling him, with a sneer,

3

that the eleven stars and the sun and the moon might clothe him and keep him company.-S. (B., Z.)

2 The commentators pretend that Gabriel also clothed him in the well with a garment of silk of Paradise. For they say that when Abraham was thrown into the fire by Nimrod, he was stripped; and that Gabriel brought him this garment and put it on him; and that from Abraham it descended to Jacob, who folded it up and put it into an amulet, which he hung about Joseph's neck, whence Gabriel drew it out.-S. (B., Z.)

3 These races they used by way of exercise; and the commentators generally understand here that kind of race wherein they also showed their dexterity in throwing darts, which is still used in the East.-S.

believe us, though we speak truth. And they brought false blood upon his shirt. Jacob said unto them, Nay, your minds have made a thing seem pleasant unto you, and ye have done it;1 but patience is seemly, and God's assistance is implored with respect to that which ye relate.

4

And travellers came on their way from Midian (Medyen) to Egypt, and alighted near the well; 2 and they sent their drawer of water,3 and he let down his bucket into the well: so Joseph caught hold upon it, and the man drew him forth; and when he saw him, he said, O good news! This is a young man !—And his brethren thereupon knew his case; wherefore they came unto him, and they concealed his case, making him as a piece of merchandise; for they said, He is our slave who hath absconded. And Joseph was silent, fearing lest they should slay him. And God knew that which they did. And they sold him for a mean price, [for] some dirhems counted down, twenty, or two-and-twenty; and they were indifferent to him. The travellers then brought him to Egypt, and he who had bought him sold him for twenty deenárs and a pair of shoes and two garments. And the Egyptian who bought him, namely, Kitfeer,5 said unto his wife Zeleekha, Treat him hospitably; peradventure he may

they might keep him to themselves; pretending that some people of the place had given him to them to sell for them in Egypt. And they who prefer the latter opinion tell us that

1 This Jacob had reason to suspect, because when the garment was brought to him, he observed that, though it was bloody, yet it was not torn.-S. (B.) 2 Three days after Joseph had been Judah carried victuals to Joseph every thrown into it.-S.

3 The commentators are so exact as to give us the name of this man, who as they pretend, was Málik IbnDoar, of the tribe of Khuzá'ah.-S. (B.)

4 The expositors are not agreed whether the pronoun they relates to Málik and his companions, or to Joseph's brethren. They who espouse the former opinion say that those who came to draw water concealed the manner of their coming by him from the rest of the caravan, that

day while he was in the well; but not finding him there on the fourth day, he acquainted his brothers with it: whereupon they all went to the caravan and claimed Joseph as their slave, he not daring to discover that he was their brother, lest something worse should befall him; and at length they agreed to sell him to them.-S. (B.)

5 A corruption of Potiphar. He was a man of great consideration, being superintendent of the royal treasury.-S. (B.)