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 [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 was reanimated at sunset. 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.

(ii. 261.)

THE MESSIAH.

Remember when the wife of 'Imrán1 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 'Imrán 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 [Maryam]; and I beg thy protection for her and her offspring from the accursed devil.2 (In the traditions [it is said], No child is born but the devil hath touched it at the time of its birth, wherefore it first raiseth its voice by crying, excepting Mary and her son.) And her Lord accepted her (that is, He accepted Mary from her mother) with a gracious acceptance, and caused her to grow with an excellent growth, as though she grew in a day as a child [generally] groweth in a month. Her mother took her to the doctors, the keepers of the Holy House, and said, Receive

1 'Imrán, 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.

2 Or the devil driven away with stones.-See note I., p. 7.

3 And for this reason, they say, neither of them was guilty of any sin, like the rest of the children of Adam.-S. (Ķatádeh.)

me.

ye this devoted child. And they eagerly desired her, because she was the daughter of their chief. But Zechariah said, I am more worthy of having her; for her maternal aunt is with They however replied, Nay, but we will cast lots.So they departed (and they were nine and twenty) to the river Jordan, and cast their divining arrows on the understanding that he whose arrow should become steady in the water and rise should be [acknowledged] most worthy of her; and the arrow of Zechariah became steady, and he took her, and built for her a chamber in the temple, with stairs to which no one ascended but himself. And he used to bring her her food and her drink and her ointment; and used to find with her the fruits of winter in summer, and the fruits of summer in winter, as He-whose name be exalted !-hath said, And Zechariah maintained her. Whenever Zechariah went in to her in the chamber, he found with her provisions. He said, O Mary, whence came to thee this? She answered, (being then a little child,) It is from God: He bringeth it to me from Paradise: for God supplieth whom He pleaseth without reckoning.

Then, when he saw this, and knew that He who was able to produce a thing out of its season was able to give a child in old age, (and the people of his house had become extinct,) Zechariah supplicated his Lord, when he had entered the chamber to pray in the latter part of the night. He said, O my Lord, give me from Thee a good offspring (a righteous son); for Thou art the Hearer of prayer. And the angels (by which is meant Gabriel) called to him as he stood praying in the chamber (that is, the temple), saying, God promiseth thee John [Yaḥyá], who shall be a verifier of [the] Word which cometh from God, (that is, Jesus ['Eesa]; for he is the Spirit of God, and was named [the] Word because he was created by the word Be,) and a chief, (or one followed,) and chaste, and a prophet, of the righteous. (It is related that he neither did any sin nor intended any.)— He said, O my Lord, how shall I have a son, when old

age hath come upon me, when I have attained the utmost age, a hundred and twenty years, and my wife is barren, and hath attained the age of eight and ninety ?—He answered, It shall be thus. God will do what He pleaseth. He said, O my Lord, give me a sign. He replied, Thy sign [shall be] that thou shalt not speak unto men for three days, except by signal; but remember thy Lord often, and glorify [Him] in the evening and in the morning. (iii. 31-36.) And he went forth unto his people from the chamber, and made a sign unto them, [as though he would say] Glorify [God] in the morning and in the evening as usual. And he knew by his being prevented from speaking unto them that his wife had conceived John. by some years, God said unto him, O (that is, the Law) with resolution. him wisdom (the gift of prophecy) [when he was yet] a child, three years of age, and compassion from Us for mankind, and [a disposition to bestow] alms upon them. And he was pious, and dutiful to his parents, and was not proud [nor] rebellious toward his Lord; and peace from Us [was] on him on the day when he was born, and on the day of his death, and [shall be] on the day when he shall be raised to life. (xix. 12–15.)

And after his birth, John, receive the book And We bestowed on

And remember when the angels (that is, Gabriel) said, O Mary, verily God hath chosen thee and hath purified thee and hath chosen thee above the women of the peoples of thy time. O Mary, be devout towards thy Lord and prostrate thyself and bow down with those who bow down: pray with those who pray.-This is [one] of the announcements of things unseen by thee: We reveal it unto thee, O Mohammad; for thou wast not with them when they cast their divining arrows that it might appear to them which of them should rear Mary, and thou wast not with them when they disputed together as to rearing her.—Remember when the angels (that is, Gabriel) said, O

Mary, verily God promiseth thee [the] Word from Him, whose name [shall be] the Messiah [El-Meseeḥ], Jesus the son of Mary, honourable in this world by his prophetic office, and in the world to come by his intercession and high stations, and of those admitted near unto God; and he shall speak unto men in the cradle, and when of full age, and [he shall be] of the righteous.

1

She said, O

my Lord, how shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me?-He answered, It shall be thus ; God will create what He pleaseth: when He determineth a thing, He only saith unto it, Be,-and it is. And He will teach him writing and wisdom and the Law and the Gospel, and constitute him an apostle to the children of Israel, in youth or after adolescence. And Gabriel breathed into the bosom of her shift; whereupon she conceived; and those events of her history which are related in the Soorat Maryam [Kur. xix.] happened. (iii. 37-43.)

Relate in the book (that is, the Kur-án) the history of Mary, when she retired from her family to a place towards the east, in the house, and she took a veil [to conceal herself] from them; and We sent unto her our spirit Gabriel, and he appeared unto her as a perfect man. She said, I beg the Compassionate to preserve me from thee! If thou be a pious person, thou wilt withdraw from me.—He replied, I am only the messenger of thy Lord [to inform thee] that He will give thee a pure son, endowed with the gift of prophecy. She said, How shall I have a son, when a man hath not touched me, and I am not a harlot ? He answered, Thus shall it be: a son shall be created unto thee without a father. Thy Lord saith, This is easy unto Me; and thus shall it be that We may make him a sign unto men, showing Our power, and a mercy from Us unto him who shall believe in him: for it is a thing decreed.—And

1 That is, between thirty, or thirty-four, and fifty-one: and the passage may relate to Christ's preaching here on earth. But as he had

scarce attained this age when he was taken up into heaven, the commentators choose to understand it of his second coming.-S.