wife of Pharaoh, when she said, 'My Lord, build for me a house with Thee in Paradise, and save me from Pharaoh and his works, and save me from the unjust people!'

And Mary, daughter of Imran, who guarded her private parts, and we breathed therein of our spirit and she verified the words of her Lord and His books, and was of the devout.

THE CHAPTER OF THE TABLE

In the name of the merciful and compassionate God. O ye who believe! fulfil your compacts.-Lawful for you are brute beasts, save what is here recited to you, not allowing you the. chase while ye are on pilgrimage; verily, God ordaineth what He will.

O ye who believe! do not deem the monuments of God to be lawful, nor the sacred month, nor the offering, nor its neck garlands, nor those who sojourn at the sacred house, craving grace from their Lord and His pleasure.

But when ye are in lawful state again, then chase; and let not ill-will against the people who turned you from the Sacred Mosque1 make you transgress; but help one another in righteousness and piety, and do not help one another to sin and enmity; but fear God,-verily, God is keen to punish.

Forbidden to you is that which dies of itself, and blood, and the flesh of swine, and that which is devoted to other than God, and the strangled and the knocked down, and that which falls down, and the gored, and what wild beasts have eaten-except what ye slaughter in time-and what is sacrificed to idols, and dividing carcases by arrows.3

To-day shall those who disbelieve in your religion despair; do ye not then fear them, but fear me- To-day is perfected for you your religion, and fulfilled upon you is my favour, and I am pleased for you to have Islâm for a religion. But he who is forced by hunger, not inclined wilfully to sin, verily, God is forgiving, compassionate.

They will ask thee what is lawful for them? say, 'Lawful 1 The Quraish, who sent to meet Mohammed with 1400 men at 'Hudaibiyeh to prevent him from approaching Mecca, A. H. 6.

2 Literally, stones set up,' Dolmens and the like, which are so common throughout Arabia. By the game of mâisar.

for you are good things and what ye have taught beasts of prey (to catch), training them like dogs;-ye teach them as God taught you;-so eat of what they catch for you, and mention the name of God over it, and fear God, for verily, God is swift in reckoning up.'

Lawful for you to-day are good things, and the food of those to whom the Book has been given is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them; and chaste women of those who believe, and chaste women of those to whom the Book has been given before you,-when you have given them their hire, living chastely and not fornicating, and not taking paramours. But whoso disbelieves in the faith, of a truth his work is vain, and he shall be in the next life of those who lose.

O ye who believe! when ye rise up to prayer wash your faces, and your hands as far as the elbows, and wipe your heads, and your feet down to the ankles. And if ye are polluted, then purify yourselves. But if ye are sick, or on a journey, or if one of you comes from the privy, or if ye have touched women and cannot find water, then take fine surface sand and wipe your faces and your hands therewith. God does not wish to make any hindrance for you; but he wishes to purify you and to fulfil his favour upon you; haply ye may give thanks.

Remember the favour of God to you and His covenant which He covenanted with you, when ye said, 'We hear and we obey*;' and fear God, verily, God knows the nature of men's breasts.

O ye who believe! stand steadfast to God as witnesses with justice; and let not ill-will towards people make you sin by not acting with equity. Act with equity, that is nearer to piety, and fear God; for God is aware of what ye do.

God has promised to those who believe and work righteousness, that for them is pardon and a mighty hire. But those who disbelieve and call our signs lies, these are the fellows of hell.

O ye who believe! remember God's favour towards you, when a people intended to stretch their hands against you,

Referring to the oath of fidelity which Mohammed's adherents took at 'Akabah.

HC XLV (17)

but He withheld their hands from you'; and upon it God let believers rely.

God did take a compact from the children of Israel, and raised up of them twelve wardens; and God said, 'Verily, I am with you, if ye be steadfast in prayer, and give alms, and believe in my apostles, and assist them, and lend to God a goodly loan; then will I cover your offences and make you enter gardens beneath which rivers flow: and whoso disbelieves after that, he hath erred from the level way.'

And for that they broke their compact, we cursed them, and placed in their hearts hardness, so that they perverted the words from their places, and forgot a portion of what they were reminded of.®

But thou wilt not cease to light upon treachery amongst them, save a few of them; but pardon them and shun them; verily, God loves the kind.

And of those who say, 'Verily, we are Christians,' we have taken a compact; but they have forgotten a portion of what they were reminded of; wherefore have we excited amongst them enmity and hatred till the resurrection day; but God will tell them of what they have done.

O ye people of the Book! our Apostle has come to you to explain to you much of what ye had hidden of the Book, and to pardon much. There has come to you from God a light, and a perspicuous Book; God guides thereby those who follow His pleasure to the way of peace, and brings them into a right way.

They misbelieve who say, 'Verily, God is the Messiah the son of Mary;' say, 'Who has any hold on God, if he wished to destroy the Messiah the son of Mary, and his mother, and those who are on earth altogether?'

God's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth and what is between the two; He createth what He will, for God is mighty over all!

But the Jews and the Christians say, 'We are the sons of God and His beloved.' Say, 'Why then does He punish you for your sins? nay, ye are mortals of those whom He

Various stories are told in explanation of this passage, but they are all obviously apocryphal, the angel Gabriel intervening to prevent some mischief either to the Apostle or his followers.

That is, the text foretelling the coming of Mohammed.

has created! He pardons whom He pleases, and punishes whom He pleases; for God's is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth, and what is between the two, and unto Him the journey is.'

O people of the Book! our Apostle has come to you, explaining to you the interval of apostles; lest ye say, 'There came not to us a herald of gląd tidings nor a warner.' But there has come to you now a herald of glad tidings and a warner, and God is mighty over all!

When Moses said to his people, 'O my people! remember the favour of God towards you when He made amongst you prophets, and made for you kings, and brought you what never was brought to anybody in the worlds. O my people! enter the Holy Land which God has prescribed for you; and be ye not thrust back upon your hinder parts and retreat losers:' They said, 'O Moses! verily, therein is a people, giants; and we will surely not enter therein until they go out from thence; but if they go out then we will enter in.' Then said two men of those who fear,God had been gracious to them both, 'Enter ye upon them by the door, and when ye have entered it, verily, ye shall be vie torious; and upon God do ye rely if ye be believers.' They said, 'O Moses! we shall never enter it so long as they are therein; so, go thou and thy Lord and fight ye twain ; verily, we will sit down here.' Said he, 'My Lord, verily, I can control only myself and my brother; therefore part us from these sinful people.' He said, 'Then, verily, it is forbidden them; for forty years shall they wander about in the earth; so vex not thyself for the sinful people.'

Recite to them the story of the two sons of Adam; truly when they offered an offering and it was accepted from one of them, and was not accepted from the other, that one said, I will surely kill thee;' he said, God only accepts from those who fear. If thou dost stretch forth to me thine hand to kill me, I will not stretch forth mine hand to kill thee; verily, I fear God the Lord of the worlds; verily, I wish that thou mayest draw upon thee my sin and thy sin, and be of the fellows of the Fire, for that is the reward of the unjust.' But his soul allowed him to slay his brother, and he slew him, and in the morning he was of those who

lose. And God sent a crow to scratch in the earth and show him how he might hide his brother's shame, he said, Alas, for me! Am I too helpless to become like this crow and hide my brother's shame?' and in the morning he was of those who did repent.

For this cause have we prescribed to the children of Israel that whoso kills a soul, unless it be for another soul or for violence in the land, it is as though he had killed men altogether; but whoso saves one, it is as though he saved men altogether.

Our apostles came to them with manifest signs; then, verily, many of them did after that commit excesses in the earth.

The reward of those who make war against God and His Apostle, and strive after violence in the earth, is only that they shall be slaughtered or crucified, or their hands cut off and their feet on alternate sides, or that they shall be banished from the land; that is a disgrace for them in this world, and for them in the next is mighty woe; save for those who repent before ye have them in your power, for know ye that God is forgiving, merciful.

O ye who believe! fear God and crave the means to approach Him, and be strenuous in His way, haply ye will prosper then.

Verily, those who disbelieve, even though they had what is in the earth, all of it, and the like thereof with it, to offer as a ransom from the punishment of the resurrection day, it would not be accepted from them; but for them is grievous woe. They may wish to go forth from the Fire, but they shall not go forth therefrom, for them is lasting

woe.

The man thief and the woman thief, cut off the hands of both as a punishment, for that they have erred;—an example from God, for God is mighty, wise.

But whoso turns again after his injustice and acts aright, verily, God will turn to him, for, verily, God is forgiving, merciful.

Do ye not know that God, His is the kingdom of the heavens and the earth; He punishes whom He pleases, and forgives whom He pleases, for God is mighty over all?