$ XVIII. OF JONAS.

Verily Jonas* [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 deity but Thou! I extol Thy perfection! Verily I have been [one] of the offenders!), he had remained in his belly until the day of resurrection. 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

* Called in Arabic " Yoonus."

"It is said that the fish, after it had swallowed Jonas, 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." (Sale.)

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.† And a wild she-goat came 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. (Chap. xxxvii. vv. 139-148.)

Sale states, that some imagine Jonas's plant to have been a fig; and others, the móz1 (or banana), which bears very large leaves, and excellent fruit.

"The commentators add, that this plant withered the next morning, and that Jonas being much concerned at it, God made a remonstrance to him in behalf of the Ninevites, agreeable to what is recorded in Scripture." (Sale.)

‡ “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 air with smoke, and hung directly over their 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." (Idem, in a note to chap. x.)

1 El-Beyḍáwee.

and Abu-1-Fida.

2 See Jonah, iii. 4.

3 El Beyḍáwee, Jelál-ed-Deen

§ XIX. OF CERTAIN ISRAELITES IN THE TIME OF EZEKIEL.

Hast thou not considered those who went forth from their habitations, and they were thousands (four, or eight, or ten, or thirty, or forty, or seventy, thousand), through fear of death? They were a people of the children of Israel, in whose country a pestilence happened, wherefore they fled.* And God said unto them, Die:and they died. Then he raised them to life, after eight days, or more, at the prayer of their prophet Ezekiel ; and they lived a long time, bearing the traces of death, wearing no garment but it became like grave-clothing; and it remained [so] with their descendants. (Chap. ii. v. 244.)

* "Or, as others say, to avoid serving in a religious war: but as they fled, God struck them all dead in a certain valley. About eight days or more after, when their bodies were corrupted, the prophet Ezekiel the son of Buzi, happening to pass that way, at the sight of their bones, wept; whereupon God said to him, 'Call to them, O Ezekiel, and I will restore them to life.' And accordingly on the prophet's call, they all arose1.. This story seems to have been taken from Ezekiel's vision of the resurrection of dry bones." (Sale.)

"Some of the Moḥammadan writers will have Ezekiel to have been one of the Judges of Israel, and to have succeeded Othoniel the son of Caleb. They also call this prophet Ibn-El-'Ajooz,' or the Son of the Old Woman;' because, they say, his mother obtained him by her prayers in her old age." (Idem.)

1 Yahya, Abu-l-Fida, &c. Aboo-Is-hák, &c.

2 Ezek. xxxvii. 1-10.

3 Eth-Thaalebee,

§ XX. OF 'OZEYR, OR 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 [or 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 reanimated at sun-set. 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.* (Chap. ii. v. 261.)

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*Sale thinks, that this story may perhaps have taken its rise from Nehemiah's viewing of the ruins of Jerusalem."-Respecting Ezra, see a note to ¶ 3 of § iii.

1 Nehem. ii. 12, &c.

XXI. OF THE MESSIAH.

¶ 1. Remember when the wife of 'Emrán* 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 'Emrán 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 ;† and I beg thy protection for her and her offspring from the accursed devil. (In the traditions [it is said], No child is born but the devil hath touched it at the time of

* 'Emrán, 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, or Ann.

+ Called by the Arabs" Maryam.”

Or, the devil driven away with stones.-See a note to ¶ 11 of § iii.