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 one] 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 [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 conducteth 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-'Abbas, he cannot come upon them from 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, despised, 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 men. (Chap. vii. vv. 10—17.)

3. And we said, O Adam, dwell thou and thy wife (Howwa [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

* Chap. xv. v. 38.

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 ye* 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 The 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 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. (Chap. ii. vv. 33-37.)

"The Moḥammadans say, that 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 his repentance, conducted by the 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." (Sale, from D'Herbelot.)

+ Chap. vii. v. 22.

"This word has various significations in the Ķur-án; 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." (Sale.)

§ VIII. OF ABEL AND CAIN.

Recite, O Mohammad, unto them (that is, to thy people) the history of the two sons of Adam, namely, Abel and Cain, with truth. When they offered [their] offering to God+ (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

*Called, in Arabia, Hábeel and Ķábeel.

"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 twin-sister, and that Abel should 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 necessarily marry their sisters, it 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.2 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." (Sale.)

1 Vide Abu-l-Faraj, p. 6, 7; Eutychii Annal. p. 15, 16; and D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient art. Cabil. 2 El-Beydáwee.

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 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, Oh! 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 dug [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, [should be regarded] as though he had saved alive all mankind. (Chap. v. vv. 30-35.)

* "The conversation between the two brothers is related somewhat to the same purpose in the Jerusalem Targum and that of Jonathan ben Uzziel." (Idem.)

"For this circumstance of the raven Moḥammad was beholden to the Jews, who tell the same story, except only that they make the raven to appear to Adam, and that he thereupon buried his son."1 (Sale.)

1 Vide R. Eliezer, Pirke, c. 20.

SIX. OF NOAH AND THE FLOOD.

¶ 1. We formerly sent Noah unto his people, saying, Verily I am unto you a plain admonisher that ye worship not [any] but God. Verily I fear for you, if ye worship any other, the punishment of an afflictive day in this world and in the world to come.-But the chiefs who disbelieved among his people replied, We see thee not to be other than a man, like unto us; and we see not any to have followed thee except the most mean of us, as the weavers and the coblers, at first thought (or rashly), nor do we see you to have any excellence above us: nay, we imagine you to be liars in your claim to the apostolic commission. He said, O my people, tell me, if I have an evident proof from my Lord, and He hath bestowed on me mercy (the gift of prophecy) from Himself, which is hidden from you, shall we compel you to receive it, when ye are averse thereto ? We cannot do so. And, O my people, I ask not of you any riches for it; namely for delivering my message. My reward is not due from any but God; and I will not drive away those who have believed as ye have commanded me [because they are poor people]. Verily they shall meet their Lord at

*Called, in Arabic, Nooh.