SHO'EYB.

And we sent unto Midian [Medyen] their brother Sho'eyb.1 He said, O my people, worship God; assert His unity. Ye have no other deity but Him. And give not short measure and weight. Verily I see you [to be] in a state of prosperity that placeth you above the need of doing so; and verily I fear for you, if ye believe not, the punishment of a day that will encompass you with destruction. And, O my people, give full measure and weight with equity; and diminish not unto men aught of their things nor commit injustice in the earth, acting corruptly, by murder or other offences. The residue of God (His supply that remaineth to you after the completion of the measure) will be better for you than diminution, if ye be believers. And I am not a guardian over you, to recompense you for your actions: I have only been sent as an admonisher.— They replied, in mockery, O Sho'eyb, do thy prayers command thee that we are to leave what our fathers worshipped, or cease to do with our riches what we please? Verily thou art the mild, the right director. This they said in mockery.—He said, O my people, tell me, if I act according to an evident proof from my Lord, and He hath supplied me with a good lawful provision, shall I mix it up with what is forbidden, and shall I not desire to

1 The commentators generally suppose him to be the same person with the father-in-law of Moses, who is named in Scripture Reuel or Raguel, and Jethro. But Aḥmad Ibn-'Abd-ElHaleem charges those who entertain this opinion with ignorance. They say (after the Jews) that he gave his

son-in-law [Moses] that wonder-working rod with which he performed all those miracles in Egypt and the Desert, and also excellent advice and instructions; whence he had the surname of 'Khateeb-el-Ambiya,' or 'the Preacher to the Prophets.'--S.

oppose you, and shall I betake myself to that which I forbid you? I desire not [aught] but your reformation, as far as I am able [to effect it], and my help is not [in any] but in God: on Him do I rely, and unto Him do I turn me. And, O my people, let not the opposition of me procure for you the befalling you of the like of that which befell the people of Noah or the people of Hood or the people of Sáliḥ. And the abodes of the people of Lot [are] not distant from you: (or the time of their destruction was not long ago:) therefore be admonished. And ask ye forgiveness of your Lord, and turn unto Him with repentance; for my Lord is merciful to the believers, loving to them. They replied, O Sho'eyb, we understand not much of what thou sayest, and verily we see thee to be weak1 among us; and were it not for thy family, we had stoned thee; for thou art not, in our estimation, an honourable person : thy family only are the honourable. He said, O my people, are my family more honourable in your estimation than God, and do ye abstain from slaying me for their sake, and not preserve me for God, and have ye cast Him behind you as a thing neglected? Verily my Lord comprehendeth that which ye do, and He will recompense you. And, O my people, act ye according to your condition: verily I will act according to mine. Ye shall know on whom shall come a punishment that shall render him vile, and who is a liar: and await ye the issue of your case: verily I await with you. And when Our degree for their destruction came [to be executed], we delivered Sho'eyb and those who believed with him, in our mercy, and the cry of Gabriel assailed those who had offended, so that in the morning they were in their abodes prostrate and dead, as though they had not dwelt therein. Was not Midian removed as Thamood had been removed? (xi. 85-98.)

1 The Arabic word da'eef' Midianites objected that to him as (weak) signifying also in the Him- a defect which disqualified him for yaritic dialect 'blind,' some suppose the prophetic office.-S. that Sho'eyb was so, and that the

MOSES AND HIS PEOPLE.

We will rehearse unto thee, [O Moḥammad, somewhat] of the history of Moses [Moosá] and Pharaoh [Fir❜own or Far'oon], with truth, for the sake of people who believe. Verily Pharaoh exalted himself in the land of Egypt, and divided its inhabitants into parties to serve him. He rendered weak one class of them, namely the children of Israel, slaughtering their male children, and preserving alive their females, because one of the diviners said unto him, A child will be born among the children of Israel, who will be the means of the loss of thy kingdom;—for he was [one] of the corrupt doers. And We desired to be gracious unto those who had been deemed weak in the land, and to make them models of religion, and to make them the heirs of the possessions of Pharaoh, and to establish them in the land of Egypt, and in Syria, and to show Pharaoh and Hámán 2 and their forces what

1 Which of the kings of Egypt this Pharaoh of Moses was is uncertain. Not to mention the opinions of the European writers, those of the East generally suppose him to have been El-Weleed, who according to some was an Arab of the tribe of 'Ád, or according to others the son of Muş'ab the son of Er-Reiyán the son of El-Weleed the Amalekite. There are historians, however, who suppose Káboos the brother and predecessor of El-Weleed was the prince we are speaking of, and pretend he lived six hundred and twenty years and reigned four hundred. Which is more reasonable, at least, than the opinion of those who imagine it was his father Muş'ab or grandfather Er-Reiyán. Abu-l-Fida

says that Muş'ab, being one hundred and seventy years old and having no child, while he kept the herds saw a cow calve, and heard her say at the same time, 'O Muş'ab, be not grieved, for thou shalt have a wicked son, who will be at length cast into hell.' And he accordingly had this Weleed, who afterwards coming to be king of Egypt proved an impious tyrant.— S. (A.F., Z.)

2 This name is given to Pharaoh's chief minister; from whence it is generally inferred that Mohammad has here made Haman the favourite of Ahasuerus king of Persia, and who indisputably lived many years after Moses, to be that prophet's contemporary.-S.

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they feared from them. And We said, by revelation, unto the mother of Moses, the child above-mentioned, of whose birth none knew save his sister, Suckle him; and when thou fearest for him cast him in the river Nile, and fear not his being drowned, nor mourn for his separation; for We will restore him unto thee, and will make him [one] of the apostles.1 So she suckled him three months, during which he wept not; and then she feared for him, wherefore she put him into an ark pitched within and furnished with a bed for him, and she closed it and cast it in the river Nile by night. And the family (or servants) of Pharaoh lighted upon him in the ark on the morrow of that night; 2 so they put it before him, and it was opened, and Moses was taken forth from it, sucking milk from his thumb: [this happened] that he might be unto them eventually an enemy (slaying their men) and an affliction (making slaves of their women); for Pharaoh and Hámán (his Wezeer) and their forces were sinners; wherefore they were punished by his hand. And the wife of Pharaoh said, when he and his servants had proposed to kill him, He is delight of the eye unto me and unto thee: do not ye kill him: peradventure he may be serviceable unto us, or we may adopt him as a son. And

1 It is related that the midwife appointed to attend the Hebrew women, terrified by a light which appeared between the eyes of Moses at his birth, and touched with an extraordinary affection for the child, did not discover him to the officers, so that his mother kept him in her house, and nursed him three months; after which it was impossible for her to conceal him any longer, the king then giving orders to make the searches more strictly.-S. (B.)

2 The commentators say that his mother made an ark of the papyrus, and pitched it, and putin some cotton; and having laid the child therein, committed it to the river, a branch of which went into Pharaoh's garden:

that the stream carried the ark thither into a fishpond, at the head of which Pharaoh was then sitting with his wife Ásiyeh the daughter of Muzáhem; and that the king, having commanded it to be taken up and opened, and finding in it a beautiful child, took a fancy to it, and ordered it to be brought up.-Some writers mention a miraculous preservation of Moses before he was put into the ark; and tell us, that his mother having hid him from Pharaoh's officers in an oven, his sister, in her mother's absence, kindled a large fire in the oven to heat it, not knowing the child was there; but that he was afterwards taken out unhurt.-S. (B., A. F.)

they complied with her desire; and they knew not the consequence.

And the heart of the mother of Moses, when she knew of his having been lighted upon, became disquieted; and she had almost made him known to be her son, had We not fortified her heart with patience, that she might be [one] of the believers in Our promise. And she said unto his sister Maryam [or Mary], Trace him, that thou mayest know his case. And she watched him from a distance, while they knew not that she was his sister and that she was watching him. And We forbade him the breasts, preventing him from taking the breast of any nurse except his mother, before his restoration to her: so his sister said, Shall I direct you unto the people of a house who will nurse him for you, and who will be faithful unto him? And her offer was accepted; therefore she brought his mother, and he took her breast: so she returned with him to her house, as God hath said,—And We restored him to his mother, that her eye might be cheerful and that she might not grieve, and that she might know that the promise of God to restore him unto her was true: but the greater number of them (that is, of mankind) know not this. And it appeared not that this was his sister and this his mother; and he remained with her until she had weaned him; and her hire was paid her, for every day a deenár, which she took [without scruple] because it was the wealth of a hostile person. She then brought him unto Pharaoh, and he was brought up in his abode, as God hath related of him in the Chapter of the Poets, 1 [where Pharaoh said unto Moses,] Have we not brought thee up among us a child, and hast thou not dwelt among us [thirty] years of thy life?

1

And when he had attained his age of strength (thirty years or thirty and three), and had become of full age (forty years), We bestowed on him wisdom and knowledge in religion, before he was sent as a prophet; and thus do

1 Kur. xxvi. 17.