Or, if he be of those who say it is a lie,-who err! then an entertainment of boiling water! and broiling in hell! Verily, this is surely certain truth!

So celebrate the grand name of thy Lord!

THE CHAPTER OF THE STAR

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God. By the star when it falls, your comrade errs not, nor is he deluded! nor speaks he out of lust! It is but an inspiration inspired! One mighty in power' taught him, endowed with sound understanding, and appeared, he being in the loftiest tract.

Then drew he near and hovered o'er! until he was two bows' length off or nigher still! Then he inspired his servant what he inspired him; the heart belies not what he saw! What, will ye dispute with him on what he saw?

And he saw him another time, by the lote tree none may pass; near which is the garden of the Abode! When there covered the lote tree what did cover it! The sight swerved not nor wandered. He saw then the greatest of the signs of his Lord.

Have ye considered Allât and Al 'Huzzâ, and Manât the other third? Shall there be male offspring for Him and female for you? That were an unfair division! They are but names which ye have named, ye and your fathers! God has sent down no authority for them! They do but follow suspicion and what their souls lust after!—And yet there has come to them guidance from their Lord.

Shall man have what he desires? But God's is the hereafter and the present!

How many an angel in the heaven!-their intercession avails not at all, save after God has given permission to whomsoever He will and is pleased with!

Verily, those who believe not in the hereafter do surely name the angels with female names!--but they have no

1 The angel Gabriel, who appeared twice to Mohammed in his natural form, namely, on the occasion of the Night Journey,' to which this passage refers, and on the first revelation of the Qur'ân.

knowledge thereof; they do but follow suspicion, and, verily, suspicion shall not avail against the truth at all!

But turn aside from him who turns his back upon our remembrance and desires naught but this world's life! This is their sum of knowledge; verily, thy Lord knows best who has erred from His way, and He knows best who is guided!

God's is what is in the heavens and what is in the earth, that He may reward those who do evil for what they have done; and may reward those who do good with good! those who shun great sins and iniquities,-all but venial faults,— verily, thy Lord is of ample forgiveness; He knows best about you, when He produced you from the earth, and when ye were embryos in the wombs of your mothers.

Make not yourselves out, then, to be pure; He knows best who it is that fears.

Hast thou considered him who turns his back? who gives but little and then stops? Has he then the knowledge of the unseen, so that he can see?

Has he not been informed of what is in the pages of Moses and Abraham who fulfilled his word?-that no burdened soul shall bear the burden of another? and that man shall have only that for which he strives; and that his striving shall at length be seen? Then shall he be rewarded for it with the most full reward; and that unto thy Lord is the limit; and that it is He who makes men laugh and weep; and that it is He who kills and makes alive; and that He created pairs, male and female, from a clot when it is emitted; and that for Him is the next production; and that He enriches and gives possession; and that He is the Lord of the Dog-star,' and that He it was who destroyed ‘Ad of yore, and Thamûd, and left none of them; and the people of Noah before them,-verily, they were most unjust and outrageous!

This passage refers to one El Walid ibn Mughâirah, who being abused for following Mohammed and forsaking the religion of the Qurâis, answered that he had done so to escape divine vengeance. Thereupon an idolater offered to take on himself El Walid's sin for a certain sum of money. The offer was accepted, and Walid apostatized from El Islâm, paying down a portion of the amount agreed upon at the time. Later on he refused to pay the balance on the ground that he had already paid enough. I. e. the resurrection.

Sirius, or the Dog-star, was an object of worship amongst the ancient Arabs.

And the overthrown (cities)" He threw down; and there covered them what did cover them!

Which then of your Lord's benefits do ye dispute?

This is a warner, one of the warners of yore!

The approaching day approaches; there is none to discover it but God.

At this new discourse then do ye wonder? and do ye laugh and not weep? and ye divert yourselves the while! But adore God and serve (Him)."

THE CHAPTER OF THE MERCIFUL

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.
The Merciful taught the Qur'ân;

He created man, taught him plain speech.

The sun and the moon have their appointed time;

The herbs and the trees adore;

And the heavens, He raised them and set the balance, that ye should not be outrageous in the balance;

But weigh ye aright, and stint not the balance.

And the earth He has set it for living creatures; therein are fruits and palms, with sheaths; and grain with chaff and frequent shoots;

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? He created men of crackling clay like the potters. And He created the ginn from smokeless fire.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
The Lord of the two easts' and the Lord of the two wests!
Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
He has let loose the two seas that meet together; between
them is a barrier they cannot pass!

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
He brings forth from each pearls both large and small!
Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
His are the ships which rear aloft in the sea like mountains.
Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?

Sodom, Gomorrah, &c.

At this verse the Qurais, who were present at the first reading of this chapter when their gods were spoken well of, fell down adoring with Mohammed.

1I. e. the east and west, though some understand it of the two solstices.

Every one upon it is transient, but the face of thy Lord endowed with majesty and honour shall endure.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? Of Him whosoever is in the heaven and the earth does beg; every day He is in (some fresh) business!

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? We shall be at leisure for you, O ye two weighty ones! Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? O assembly of ginns and mankind! if ye are able to pass through the confines of heaven and earth then pass through them!-ye cannot pass through save by authority! Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? There shall be sent against you a flash of fire, and molten copper, and ye shall not be helped!

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? And when the heaven is rent asunder and become rosy red

-(melting) like grease!

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? On that day neither man nor ginn shall be asked about his crime!

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? The sinners shall be known by their marks, and shall be seized by the forelock and the feet!

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? This is hell, which the sinners did call a lie! they shall circulate between it and water boiling quite !'

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? But for him who fears the station of his Lord are gardens twain !

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? Both furnished with branching trees.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
In each are flowing springs.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
In each are, of every fruit, two kinds.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? Reclining on beds the linings of which are of brocade, and the fruit of the two gardens within reach to cull.

2 The earth.

I. e. mankind and the ginn; the meaning is, that God will have leisure to judge them both. The word is also said to mean red leather.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? Therein are maids of modest glances whom no man nor ginn has deflowered before.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? As though they were rubies and pearls.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? Is the reward of goodness aught but goodness?

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? And besides these are gardens twain,

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? With dark green foliage.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? In each two gushing springs.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny? In each fruit and palms and pomegranates.

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
In them maidens best and fairest!

Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
Bright and large-eyed maids kept in their tents.
Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
Whom no man nor ginn has deflowered before them.
Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
Reclining on green cushions and beautiful carpets.
Then which of your Lord's bounties will ye twain deny?
Blessed be the name of thy Lord possessed of majesty and
honour!

THE CHAPTER OF THE POETS

IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God. T. S. M. Those are the signs of the perspicuous Book; haply thou art vexing thyself to death that they will not be believers!

If we please we will send down upon them from the heaven a sign, and their necks shall be humbled thereto. But there comes not to them any recent Reminder from the Merciful One that they do not turn away from. They have called (thee) liar! but there shall come to them a message of that at which they mocked.

For the inferior inhabitants of Paradise.