no knowledge excepting what Thou hast taught us; for Thou art the Knowing, the Wise.-God said, O Adam, tell them their names. And when he had told them their names, God said, Did I not say unto you that I know the secrets of the heavens and the earth, and know what ye reveal of your words, saying, Wilt thou place in it, etc., and what ye did conceal of your words, saying, He will not create any more generous towards Him than we, nor any more knowing? (ii. 28-31.)

We created you; that is, your father Adam: then we formed you; we formed him, and you in him: then We said unto the angels, Prostrate yourselves unto Adam, by way of salutation; whereupon they prostrated themselves, except Iblees, the father of the jinn, who was amid the angels: he was not of those who prostrated themselves. God said, What hath hindered thee from prostrating thyself, when I commanded thee? He answered, I am better than he : Thou hast created me of fire, and Thou hast created him of earth. [God] said, Then descend thou from it; that is, from Paradise; or, as some say, from the heavens; for it is not fit for thee that thou behave thyself proudly therein so go thou forth: verily thou [shalt be] of the contemptible. He replied, Grant me respite until the day when they (that is, mankind) shall be raised from the dead. He said, Thou shalt be of those [who are] respited: and, in another verse [in xv. 38, it is said], until the day of the known period; that is, until the period of the first blast [of the trumpet]. [And the devil] said, Now, as Thou hast led me into error, I will surely lay wait for them (that is, for the sons of Adam) in Thy right way, the way that leadeth to Thee: then I will surely come upon them, from before them, and from behind them, and from their right hands, and from their left, and hinder them from pursuing the way (but, saith Ibn-'Abbús, he cannot come upon them above, lest he should intervene between the servant and God's mercy), and Thou shalt not find the greater number of them grateful, or believing. [God] said, Go forth from it, de

spised and driven away from mercy. Whosoever of them (that is, of mankind) shall follow thee, I will surely fill hell with you all; with thee, and thy offspring, and with (vii. 10-17.)

men.

And we said, O Adam, dwell thou and thy wife (Howwá [or Eve], whom God created from a rib of his left side) in the garden, and eat ye therefrom plentifully, wherever ye will; but approach ye not this tree, to eat thereof; (and it was wheat, or the grape-vine, or some other tree;) for if ye do so, ye will be of the number of the offenders. But the devil, Iblees, caused them to slip from it, that is, from the garden, by his saying unto them, Shall I show you the way to the tree of eternity? And he swore to them by God that he was one of the faithful advisers to them: so they ate of it, and He ejected them from that state of delight in which they were. And We said, Descend ye1 to the earth, ye two with the offspring that ye comprise [yet unborn], one of you (that is, of your offspring) an enemy to another; and there shall be for you, in the earth, a place of abode, and a provision, of its vegetable produce, for a time, until the period of the expiration of your terms of life. And Adam learned, from his Lord, words, which were these:-O Lord, we have acted unjustly to our own souls, and if Thou do not forgive us, and be merciful unto us, we shall surely be of those who suffer loss. And he prayed in these words; and He became propitious towards him, accepting his repentance; for He is the Very Propitious, the Merciful. We said, Descend ye from it (from the garden) altogether; and if there come unto you from Me a direction (a book and an apostle), those

1 The Moḥammadans say, that his repentance, conducted by the when they were cast down from Paradise [which is in the seventh heaven], Adam fell on the isle of Ceylon, or Sarandeeb, and Eve near Juddah (the port of Mekkeh) in Arabia; and that, after a separation of two hundred years, Adam was, on

angel Gabriel to a mountain near Mekkeh, where he found and knew his wife, the mountain being thence named 'Arafát; and that he afterwards retired with her to Ceylon.-S. 2 The prayer is inserted by the commentary from Ķur. vii. 22.

who follow my direction, there shall come no fear on them, nor shall they grieve in the world to come; for they shall enter paradise: but they who disbelieve and accuse our signs of falsehood, these shall be the companions of the fire: they shall remain therein for ever. (ii. 33-37.)

1 This word has various significations in the Kurán; sometimes, as in this passage, it signifies divine revelation, or scripture in general;

sometimes the verses of the Kur-án

in particular; and at other times, visible miracles. But the sense is easily distinguished by the context. -S.

ABEL AND CAIN.

Recite, O Moḥammad, unto them (that is, to thy people) the history of the two sons of Adam, namely, Abel and Cain,1 with truth. When they offered [their] offering to God2 (Abel's being a ram, and Cain's being produce of the earth), and it was accepted from one of them (that is, from Abel; for fire descended from heaven, and devoured his offering), and it was not accepted from the other, Cain was enraged; but he concealed his envy until Adam performed a pilgrimage, when he said unto his brother, I will assuredly slay thee. Abel said, Wherefore? Cain answered, Because of the acceptance of thine offering to the exclusion of mine. Abel replied, God only accepteth from the pious. If thou stretch forth to me thy hand to slay me, I will not stretch forth to thee my hand to slay thee; for I fear God, the Lord of the worlds. I desire that thou shouldst bear the sin [which thou intendest to commit] against me, by slaying me, and thy sin which thou hast committed before, and

1 Called in Arabic Hábeel and cessarily marry their sisters, it Kábeel. seemed reasonable to suppose they ought to take those of the remoter degree ;) but this Cain refusing to agree to, because his own sister was the handsomest, Adam ordered them to make their offerings to God, thereby referring the dispute to His determination. The commentators say Cain's offering was a sheaf of the very worst of his corn; but Abel's a fat lamb of the best of his flock.-S.

2 The occasion of their making this offering is thus related, according to the common tradition in the East. Each of them being born with a twin-sister, when they were grown up, Adam by God's direction ordered Cain to marry Abel's twinsister, and Abel to marry Cain's; (for it being the common opinion that marriages ought not to be had in the nearest degrees of consanguinity, since they must ne

thou wilt be of the companions of the fire.-And that is the recompense of the offenders.-But his soul suffered him to slay his brother: so he slew him; and he became of [the number of] those who suffer loss. And he knew not what to do with him; for he was the first dead person upon the face of the earth of the sons of Adam. So he carried him upon his back. And God sent a raven, which scratched up the earth with its bill and its talons and raised it over a dead raven that was with it until it hid it, to show him how he should hide the corpse of his brother. He said, O my disgrace! Am I unable to be like this raven, and to hide the corpse of my brother?—And he became of [the number of] the repentant. And he digged [a grave] for him, and hid him.-On account of this which Cain did We commanded the children of Israel that he who should slay a soul (not for the latter's having slain a soul or committed wickedness in the earth, such as infidelity, or adultery, or intercepting the way, and the like) [should be regarded] as though he had slain all mankind; and he who saveth it alive, by abstaining from slaying it, as though he had saved alive all mankind.

(v. 30-35.)