Selections from the Kur-an

[271] The Arab writers tell enormous fables of this serpent or dragon. For they say that he was hairy and of so prodigious a size that when he opened his mouth his jaws were fou...

Verily God causeth the grain to come forth, and the date-stone: He bringeth forth the living from the dead,[43] and He bringeth forth the dead from the living:[44] This is God;...

Mekka was the centre of this trading life, the typical Arab city of old times—a stirring little town, with its caravans bringing the silks and woven stuffs of Syria and the far-...

[212] Some tell us that Nimrod, on seeing this miraculous deliverance from his palace, cried out that he would make an offering to the God of Abraham; and that he accordingly sa...

It was during this year of expectation that the Prophet’s celebrated ‘Night Journey’ took place. This Mi´ráj has been the subject of extravagant embellishments on the part of th...

The taking of Mekka was soon followed by the adhesion of all Arabia. Every reader knows the story of the spread of Islám. The tribes of every part of the peninsula sent embassie...

O thou enwrapped in thy mantle Arise and warn! And thy Lord,—magnify Him! And thy raiment,—purify it! And the abomination,—flee it! And bestow not favours that thou mayest recei...

The feeling lasted even under the debased rule of Muslim despots; for it is related that a governor was once ordering-out some prisoners to execution, when one of them asked for...

And so is it in the East. Yet it would be hard to lay the blame altogether on Moḥammad. The real roots of the degradation of women lie much deeper. When Islám was instituted, po...

And the earth shall shine with the light of its Lord. And the book shall be placed, and the prophets shall be brought and the witnesses, and judgment shall be given between them...

It was a singular system these early revisers went upon. They seem, indeed, to have established the authenticity of each saying satisfactorily; but in the arrangement of them th...

HON. DOCTOR OF LITERATURE, LEYDEN; CORRESPONDENT OF THE INSTITUTE OF FRANCE; HON. MEMBER OF THE GERMAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY, THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY, THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATU...

Relate in the book (_that is, the Ḳur-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 h...

Ḳároon[301] [or Korah] was of the people of Moses (_he was the son of his paternal uncle, and the son of his maternal aunt, and he believed in him_); but he behaved insolently t...

We bestowed on David and Solomon knowledge _in judging men and in the language of the birds and other matters_; and they said, Praise be to God who hath made us to excel many of...

We created you; _that is, your father Adam_: then we formed you; _we formed him, and you in him_: then We said unto the angels, Prostrate yourselves unto Adam, _by way of saluta...

[23] It may be interesting to some readers to judge for themselves of the different characteristics of these four groups of soorahs; and though in a series of translated selecti...

We will rehearse unto thee, [O Moḥammad, somewhat] of the history of Moses [Moosá] and Pharaoh [Fir´own or Far´oon],[255] with truth, for _the sake of_ people who believe. Veril...

Relate _unto them_, in the book (_that is, the Ḳur-án_), _the history of_ Abraham. Verily he was a person of great veracity, a prophet. When he said unto his father _A´zar, who...

And Pharaoh said, O Hámán, build for me a tower, that I may reach the avenues, the avenues of the heavens, and ascend unto the God of Moses;[280] but verily I think him, _namely...

And the king of _Egypt,[232] Er-Reiyán the son of El-Weleed_ said, Verily I saw [in a dream] seven fat kine which seven lean _kine_ devoured, and seven green ears of corn and _s...

[335] In Arabic, ‘el-Ḥawáreeyoon;’ which word they derive from ‘ḥára,’ ‘to be white’ [or rather, ‘to whiten’ clothes], and suppose the apostles were so called either from the _c...

It is too often forgotten how much there is in the Ḳur-án of the loving-kindness of God, but it must be allowed that these are not the main thoughts in Moḥammad’s teaching. It i...