The Koran (Al-Qur'an)

Muhammad (Al-Qur'an content traditionally attributed; Rodwell as translator) · c. 610–632 CE (revelations compiled into the Qur'an after the prophet’s death) primary

passage 89 of 326 · Book carefully concocted from various sources, and with much extraneous aid, and published as a divine oracle, then it would seem that the author is at once open to the charge of the grossest imposture, and even of impious blasphemy. The evidence rather shews, that in all he did and wrote, Muhammad was actuated by a sincere desire to deliver his countrymen from the grossness of its debasing idolatries–that he was urged on by an intense desire to proclaim that great truth of the Unity of the Godhead which had taken full possession of his own soul–that the end to be attained justified to his mind the means he adopted in the production of his Suras–that he worked himself up into a belief that he had received a divine call–and that he was carried on by the force of circumstances, and by gradually increasing successes, to believe himself the accredited messenger of Heaven. The earnestness of those convictions which at Mecca sustained him under persecution, and which perhaps led him, at any price as it were, and by any means, not even excluding deceit and falsehood, to endeavour to rescue his countrymen from idolatry,–naturally stiffened at Medina into tyranny and unscrupulous violence. At the same time, he was probably, more or less, throughout his whole career, the victim of a certain amount of self-deception. A cataleptic13 subject from his early youth, born–according to the traditions–of a highly nervous and excitable mother, he would be peculiarly liable to morbid and fantastic hallucinations, and alternations of excitement and depression, which would win for him, in the eyes of his ignorant countrymen, the credit of being inspired. It would be easy for him to persuade himself that he was "the seal of the Prophets," > Book is no other than a warning and a clear Koran, (7/104)

in brief

Sura 67 continues with threats of earth-quaking and stone-charged whirlwind, rebukes earlier peoples for rejecting prophets, uses birds as proof of God’s sustaining power, and calls humans to trust God’s revelation about promised judgment.

What! are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not cleave the Earth beneath you? And lo, it shall quake.

Or are ye sure that He who is in Heaven will not send against you a stone- charged whirlwind? Then shall ye know what my warning meant!

And verily, those who flourish before you treated their prophets as liars: and how grievous my wrath!

Behold they not the birds over their heads, outstretching and drawing in their wings? None, save the God of Mercy, upholdeth them: for he regardeth all things.

Who is he that can be as an army to you, to succour you, except the God of Mercy? Truly, the infidels are in the merest delusion.

Or who is he that will furnish you supplies, if He withhold His supplies? Yet do they persist in pride and in fleeing from Him!

Is he who goeth along grovelling on his face, better guided than he who goeth upright on a straight path?

SAY: It is He who hath brought you forth, and gifted you with hearing and sight and heart: yet how few are grateful!

SAY: It is He who hath sown you in the earth, and to Him shall ye be gathered.

And they say, "When shall this threat be put in force, if ye speak the truth?"

SAY: Nay truly, this knowledge is with God alone: and I am only an open warner.

But when they shall see it nigh, sad shall wax the countenances of the infidels: and it shall be said, "This is what ye have been calling for."

SAY: What think ye? Whether God destroy me or not, and those who follow me, or whether he have mercy on us, yet who will protect the infidels from a woeful torment?

SAY: He is the God of Mercy: in Him do we believe, and in Him put we our trust; and ye shall know hereafter who is in a manifest error.

SAY: What think ye? If at early morn your waters shall have sunk away, who then will give you clear running water?

1 Thus Shakespeare uses the word braying of clamours of Hell; and Milton speaks of braying horrible discord. Comp. Sura xxv. 12-21.

2 Der alles durchdringt. Ullm.; perspicax. Mar.; sagacious. Sale. The primary meaning of the Arabic root is to draw near; hence the above signification, in the sense of God's presence as interpenetrating all things: hence also the other sense of benign, as in Sura [lxxxiii.] xlii. 18.

SURA XXIII.–THE BELIEVERS [LXIV.]

MECCA.1–118 Verses

In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HAPPY now the BELIEVERS,

Who humble them in their prayer,

And who keep aloof from vain words,2

And who are doers of alms deeds,

And who restrain their appetites,

(Save with their wives, or the slaves whom their right hands possess: for in that case they shall be free from blame:

But they whose desires reach further than this are transgressors:)

And who tend well their trusts and their covenants,

And who keep them strictly to their prayers:

These shall be the heritors,

Who shall inherit the paradise, to abide therein for ever.

Now of fine clay have we created man:

Then we placed him, a moist germ,3 in a safe abode;

Then made we the moist germ a clot of blood: then made the clotted blood into a piece of flesh; then made the piece of flesh into bones: and we clothed the bones with flesh: then brought forth man of yet another make4–Blessed therefore be God, the most excellent of Makers5–

Then after this ye shall surely die:

Then shall ye be waked up on the day of resurrection.

And we have created over you seven heavens:6–and we are not careless of the creation.

And we send down water from the Heaven in its due degree, and we cause it to settle on the earth;–and we have power for its withdrawal:–

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topics: fate, destiny, and necessity · judgment, heaven, and hell · weather, storms, and the seasons

The Koran (Al-Qur'an) · Muhammad (Al-Qur'an content traditionally attributed; Rodwell as translator) · 610–632