Part 19

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 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 she conceived him; and she retired with him [yet unborn] to a distant place _far from her family_; and the pains of childbirth urged her to repair to the trunk of a palm-tree _that she might lean against it_. _And she gave birth to the child, which was conceived and formed and born in an hour._[330] She said, Oh! would that I had died before this _event_, and had been a thing forgotten [and] unnoticed!—But he who was below her (_namely Gabriel, who was on a lower place than she_) called to her, Grieve not. God hath made below thee a rivulet: and shake thou towards thee the trunk of the palm-tree (_which was dried-up_); it shall let fall upon thee ripe dates, fresh-gathered: therefore eat _of the dates_, and drink _of the water of the rivulet_, and be of cheerful eye _on account of the child_: and if thou see any one of mankind, _asking thee concerning the child_, say, I have vowed unto the Compassionate an abstinence _from speech with mankind respecting him and other matters_; therefore I will not speak to-day unto a man _after this_.

And she brought him [namely the child] unto her people, carrying him. They said, O Mary, thou hast done a strange thing. O sister of Aaron, (_he was a righteous man; and the meaning is, O thou who art like him in chastity_,[331]) thy father was not a man of wickedness, nor was thy mother a harlot. _Then whence gottest thou this child?_—And she made a sign _to them_, [pointing] towards him, [namely the child, as though she would say,] _Speak ye unto him._ They said, How shall we speak unto him who is in the cradle, an infant? He [however] said, Verily I am the servant of God:[332] He hath given me the book _of the Gospel_, and hath appointed me a prophet; and He hath made me blessed wherever I shall be, and hath commanded me to observe prayer and give alms as long as I shall live, and _hath made me_ dutiful to my mother, and hath not made me proud [nor] wicked. And peace _from God_ [was] on me on the day when I was born, and [will be] on the day when I shall die, and on the day when I shall be raised to life.—This [was] Jesus the son of Mary. _I have spoken_ the saying of truth, concerning which they (_namely the Christians_) doubt, _saying that Jesus is the son of God_. It is not [meet] for God to get a son. Extolled be His purity _from that_ [imputation]! When He decreeth a thing _that He desireth to bring into existence_, He only saith unto it, Be,—and it is: _and thus He created Jesus the son of Mary without a father_.—And _say_, Verily God is my Lord and your Lord: therefore worship ye Him: this is a right way, _leading to Paradise_. But the sects have differed among themselves; _that is, the Christians have differed concerning Jesus, as to whether he be the son of God, or a deity with Him, or the third of three_. And woe unto them who have disbelieved _in that which hath been stated, or in other matters_, on account of the assembly of a great day, _the day of resurrection, and its terrors_. How will they hear, and how _will they_ see, on the day when they shall come unto Us _in the world to come_! But the offenders to-day (_that is, in the present world_) are in a manifest error: _they are deaf, so that they hear not the truth; and blind, so that they see it not_. And do thou, _O Moḥammad_, warn them (_namely the unbelievers of Mekkeh_) of the day of sighing (_the day of resurrection, when the evil-doer shall sigh for his having neglected to do good in the present world_), when the command _for their punishment_ shall be fulfilled, while they (_in the present world_) are in a state of heedlessness _with respect to it_, and while they believe not _therein_. Verily We shall inherit the earth and whomsoever are upon it (_the heedless and others; they being destroyed_); and unto Us shall they be brought back _to be recompensed_.

(xix. 16-41.)

_And when God sent him_ [Jesus] _to the children of Israel, he said unto them, Verily I am the apostle of God unto you_; for I have come unto you with a sign from your Lord; for I will make for you of earth the similitude of a bird, and will breathe into it, and it shall be a bird,[333] by the permission (_or will_) of God;[334] (_and he made for them a bat; for it is the most perfect of birds in make; and it flew, while they looked at it; but when it had gone out of their sight, it fell down dead_;) and I will cure the blind from his birth, and the leper; (_and he cured in one day fifty thousand, by prayer, on the condition of faith_;) and I will raise to life the dead, by the permission of God; (_this he repeated to deny his divinity: and he raised to life ´Áriz_ [Lazarus] _a friend of his; and a son of the old woman, and the daughter of the publican; and they lived, and children were born to them; and Shem the son of Noah, who died immediately_;) and I will tell you what ye eat and what ye store up in your houses. Verily therein will be a sign unto you, if ye be believers. And _I have come unto you_ as a verifier of that which was before me, of the Law, and to make lawful unto you part of what was made unlawful to you _therein_; (_and he made lawful to them, of fish and fowls, whatsoever is without fin or spur; and it is said that he made lawful all, and that ‘part’ is used in the sense of ‘the whole:’_) and I have come unto you with a sign from your Lord; therefore fear ye God, and obey me _in that which I command you, as to the confession of the unity of God and the service of Him_. Verily God is my Lord and your Lord; therefore worship Him. This is [the] right way. _But they accused him of falsehood and believed not in him._ And when Jesus perceived their unbelief, he said, Who [will be] my helpers for God? The apostles[335] answered, We [will be] the helpers of God. We have believed in God; and bear thou witness, _O Jesus_, that we are Muslims [or resigned]. O our Lord, we have believed in that which Thou hast sent down _of the Gospel_, and we have followed the Apostle, _Jesus_; therefore write us down among those who bear witness _of Thy unity and of the truth of Thine apostle_.—And they (_that is, the unbelievers among the children of Israel_) devised a stratagem _against Jesus, to slay him treacherously_; but God devised a stratagem _against them; for He put the likeness of Jesus upon one who intended his slaughter, and they slew him; and Jesus was taken up_ [into heaven],[336] and God is the best of those who devise stratagems.... _It is related that God sent a cloud to Jesus, and it took him up; but his mother clung unto him and wept: whereupon he said unto her, Verily the resurrection will unite us.—It is also related that he will descend shortly before the resurrection and judge according to the law of our prophet_ [Moḥammad], _slay Antichrist and the swine, break the cross, and impose the capitation-tax_ [on unbelievers].—_Also, that he will remain, according to one tradition, seven years; according to another, forty years; and die, and be prayed over: but it is probable that_ [by the latter period] _is meant the whole time of his tarrying upon the earth, before the ascension and after_.

(iii. 43—47.)

_Remember_ when the apostle said, O Jesus, son of Mary, is thy Lord able to cause a table to descend unto us from heaven?[337] He replied, Fear God, _in demanding signs_, if ye be believers. They said, We desire that we may eat therefrom, and that our hearts may be at ease _in consequence of additional evidence_, and we may know, _with increased knowledge_, that thou hast spoken truth unto us _in asserting thyself to be a prophet_, and may be witnesses thereof.—Jesus the son of Mary said, O God, our Lord, cause a table to descend unto us from heaven, that it (_namely the day of its descent_) may be unto us a festival,[338] unto the first of us and the last of us (_or those who shall come after us_), and a sign from Thee _of Thy power, and of my prophetic office_; and provide us with food _thereby_; for Thou art the best of providers.—God said, _in reply to him_, Verily I will cause it to descend unto you; but whosoever of you shall disbelieve after _its descent_, I will surely punish him with a punishment wherewith I will not punish any [other] of the peoples.—_And the angels descended with it from heaven: upon it were seven cakes of bread and seven fishes; and they ate of them until they were satisfied. And in a tradition related by Ibn-´Abbás it is said that the table brought down from heaven bread and flesh, and they were commanded not to act deceitfully, nor to store up for the morrow; but they_ [that is, some of the people] _did so, and were transformed into apes and swine_.

(v. 112-115.)

Propound unto them, as an example, the inhabitants of the city _of Antioch_, when the apostles _of Jesus_ came unto it;[339] when We sent unto them two,[340] and they charged them with falsehood; wherefore We strengthened _them_ with a third;[341] and they said, Verily we are sent unto you. They replied, Ye are not [aught] save men like us, and the Compassionate hath not revealed anything: ye do nothing but lie. They said, Our Lord knoweth that we are indeed sent unto you; and naught is imposed on us but the delivering of a plain message, _shown to be true by manifest proofs, namely the cure of him who hath been born blind and of the leper and the sick, and the raising of the dead_. [The people of Antioch] said, Verily we presage evil from you; _for the rain is withheld from us on your account_: if ye desist not, we will assuredly stone you, and a painful punishment shall surely betide you from us. [The apostles] replied, Your evil luck is with you _because of your unbelief_. If ye have been warned, _will ye presage evil and disbelieve_? Nay, ye are an exorbitant people.—And there came from the furthest part of the city a man (_namely Ḥabeeb the carpenter, who had believed in the apostles_) running: he said, O my people, follow the apostles: follow those who ask not of you a recompense, and who are rightly directed. _And it was said unto him, Art thou of their religion? He replied_, And why should I not worship Him who hath created me, and unto whom ye shall be brought back _after death_? Shall I take deities beside Him? If the Compassionate be pleased to afflict me, their intercession will not avert from me aught, nor will they deliver. Verily, in that case (_if I worshipped aught but God_), I should be in a manifest error. Verily I believe in your Lord; therefore hear ye me.—_But they stoned him, and he died;[342] and_ it was said _unto him at his death_, Enter thou into Paradise. _And it is said that he entered it alive._ He said, O would that my people knew my Lord’s forgiveness of me and His having made me [one] of those who are honoured?—And We sent not down against his people after him (_that is, after his death_) an army _of angels_ from heaven _to destroy them_, nor were We sending down _angels to destroy any one_. It (_namely their punishment_) was naught but one cry _which Gabriel uttered against them_; and lo, they were extinct.

(xxxvi. 12-28.)

_We have cursed the Jews_ ... for their disbelief _in Jesus_ and their uttering against Mary a great calumny and their saying, We have killed the Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, the apostle of God,—Yet they killed him not nor crucified him; but one (_namely the person whom they crucified_) was made to appear to them like _Jesus_; and verily those who disagreed respecting him were in doubt concerning him, _or his slaughter; for some of them said, when they saw the slain person, The face is the face of Jesus; but the body is not his body:—and others said, It is he_:[343]—they had no knowledge of him; but only followed an opinion. And they did not really kill him; but God took him up unto Himself; and God is mighty [and] wise. And there is not of the people of the Scripture _one_ but he shall assuredly believe in him (_namely Jesus_) before his death; _that is, before his own death, or before the death of Jesus, when he descendeth shortly before the resurrection_;[344] and on the day of resurrection he (_namely Jesus_) shall be a witness against them.

(iv. 155-157.)

When God shall say, _on the day of resurrection_, O Jesus, son of Mary, hast thou said unto men, Take me and my mother as two deities, beside God?—_Jesus_ shall answer, _after being agitated_ (_or after it shall have thundered_), Extolled be Thy purity _from the imputation of aught that is unsuitable to Thee, as the having a partner, and other things_! It is not for me to say that which is not right for me. Had I said it, Thou hadst known it. Thou knowest what is in me; but I know not what is in Thee; for Thou well-knowest things unseen. I said not unto them aught but that which Thou commandedst me; _namely_ Worship ye God, my Lord and your Lord;—and I was a watcher over them, _commanding them to abstain from what they said_, while I remained among them: but since Thou hast taken me to Thyself,[345] Thou hast been the watcher over them, and Thou art the witness of all things. If Thou punish them, (_that is, such of them as have continued in unbelief_,) they are Thy servants _and Thou mayest do with them as Thou pleasest_; and if Thou forgive them, (_that is, such of them as have believed_,) Thou art the Mighty, the Wise.

(v. 116-118.)

When the son of Mary was proposed as an instance (_when the saying of God was revealed, Verily ye and what ye worship beside God_ [shall be] _fuel of hell_ [Kur. xxi. 98], _and the polytheists said, We are content for our gods to be with Jesus, for he hath been worshipped beside God_,[346]) lo, thy people, _the polytheists_, cried out _in joy_ thereat, and they said, [Are] our gods better, or [is] he? _We are content for our gods to be with him._—They proposed not it (_namely the instance_) unto thee otherwise than as a cause of dispute (_knowing that the word ‘what’ applieth to that which is not endowed with reason; so that it doth not reflect upon Jesus, on whom be peace!_): yea, they are a contentious people. He (_namely Jesus_) is no other than a servant whom We favoured _with the gift of prophecy_; and We proposed him, _by reason of his having come into existence without a father_, as an instance _of the divine power_ unto the children of Israel. And if We pleased, We would substitute for you angels to succeed in the earth.[347] And verily he (_namely Jesus_) _shall be_ a sign of the [last] hour:[348] _it shall be known by his descending_: wherefore doubt not thereof.—And _say unto them_, Follow ye me _in confessing the unity of God_: this, _which I command you to follow_, is a right way. And let not the devil turn you away _from the religion of God_; for he is unto you a manifest enemy.—And when Jesus came with manifest proofs (_with miracles and ordinances_), he said, I have come unto you with wisdom (_with prophecy and with the ordinances of the Gospel_), and to explain unto you part of [the things] concerning which ye disagree: therefore fear ye God, and obey me. Verily God is my Lord and your Lord; wherefore worship ye Him: this is a right way.—But the parties disagreed among themselves _respecting Jesus, whether he were God, or the son of God, or the third of three_: and woe unto them that transgressed _in that which they said respecting Jesus_, because of the punishment of an afflicting day!

(xliii. 57-65.)

Verily the similitude of Jesus in the sight of God is as the similitude of Adam. He created him (_Adam_) of earth: then He said unto him, Be,—and he was. _In like manner he said unto Jesus, Be, without a father,—and he was. This is_ the truth from thy Lord: therefore be not thou of those who doubt. And whosoever _of the Christians_ argueth with thee respecting him, after the knowledge that hath come unto thee _concerning him_, say, Come ye, let us call our sons and your sons and our wives and your wives, and ourselves and yourselves _will assemble_: then we will invoke, and will lay the curse of God on those who lie, _saying, O God, curse the liar respecting the nature of Jesus!—And the prophet invited a company from Nejrán to do so, when they had argued with him respecting Jesus; and they said_, [Wait] _until we consider our case: then we will come unto thee. And their counsellor said, Ye know his prophetic office, and that no people have execrated a prophet but they have perished. They however quieted the man, and departed, and came unto the prophet. And he had come forth, having with him El-Ḥasan and El-Ḥoseyn and Fáṭimeh and ´Alee; and he said unto them, When I pray, say ye Amen. But they refused to execrate, and made peace with him on the condition of their paying tribute._—Verily this is indeed the true history, and there is no deity but God, and verily God is indeed the Mighty, the Wise.

(iii. 52-55.)

O people of the Scripture (_that is, of the Gospel_), exceed not the just bounds in your religion,[349] nor say of God [aught] but the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, [was] only the apostle of God, and His Word, which he transmitted unto Mary, and a spirit (_that is, a being possessing a spirit_) from Him. (_He is mentioned in conjunction with God, in order to show him honour, and is not, as ye assert, the son of God, or a God with Him, or the third of three; for the being possessing a spirit is compound, and the Deity must be confessed to be pure from the imputation of composition and the relationship of a compound being to Him._) Therefore believe in God and His apostles, and say not, _There are_ three _gods, God and Jesus and his mother_.[350] Abstain _from this, and say what will be_ better for you; _that is, assert the unity of God_. God is only one god. Extolled be His purity from the imputation of His having a son! To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth: and God is a sufficient witness _thereof_. The Messiah doth not disdain to be a servant unto God, nor do the angels who are admitted near _unto Him_. (iv. 169, 170.)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] See prefatory note, p. 2.

[2] _i.e._, the glory of the clan.

[3] Battles.

[4] This and the other verses quoted in this chapter are taken from the translations of old Arab poetry contributed by Mr. C. J. Lyall to the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal (Translations from the Hamâseh and the Aghânî; The Mo`allaqah of Zuheyr)_. They imitate the metres of the original Arabic verse, but are nevertheless as literal as need be. The transliteration of proper names in the verses (and in other quotations) has been assimilated to the system adopted by Mr. Lane, from which in this work I only depart in the case of names which by frequent use have become almost the property of the English language.

[5] A tribe.

[6] The subject of the poem, mentioned in the second hemistich of the third verse as ‘thou,’ whose death the supposed author (‘one valiant’) avenged.

[7] For these and other stories about Ḥátim, see Caussin de Perceval’s _Essai sur l’Histoire des Arabes_, ii. 607-628: a book which is a treasury of Arab life, and abounds in those anecdotes which reveal more of the character of the people than whole volumes of ethnological treatise.

[8] The later Arabic poets were mostly incapable of the genius of the old singers: the times had changed, and the ancient poetry appeared almost as exotic to their ideas as it does to our own. No greater mistake can be made than to judge of the old poets by such a writer as Behá-ed-deen Zoheyr, of whom Professor E. H. Palmer has lately given us so beautiful a version. There is nothing in common between El-Behá and ´Antarah—scarcely even the language.

[9] Deutsch, _Lit. Remains_, 453, 454: cp. Nöldeke, _Beiträge zur Kennt. d. Poesie d. alten Araber_, xxiii., xxiv.

[10] Ezekiel xxvii. 19-24. The identifications of the various names with Arabian towns are partly conjectural, but the general reference is clearly to Arabia. Cf. the ‘Speaker’s’ _Commentary_, vi. 122; and the interpretations of Hitzig, Movers, Tuch, and Ménant.

[11] C. P. Tiele, _Outlines of the History of Religion_: tr. J. E. Carpenter, p. 63.

[12] Deutsch. _Lit. Remains_, pp. 70-72.

[13] R. Bosworth Smith, _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_, 2d ed. p. 131.

[14] Or ‘read,’ ‘recite.’ These lines are the beginning of the 96th Soorah of the Ḳur-án.

[15] Sir W. Muir,_ Life of Mahomet_, 402.

[16] The following is an abridgment: cp. Muir 485, and the _Seeret-er-Rasool_, tr. Weil, ii. 316, 317.

[17] An attempt has been made to explain away Moḥammad’s fidelity to Khadeejeh, by adducing the motive of pecuniary prudence. Moḥammad, they say, was a poor man, Khadeejeh rich and powerfully connected; any _affaire de cœur_ on the husband’s part would have been followed by a divorce and the simultaneous loss of property and position. It is hardly necessary to point out that the fear of poverty—a matter of little consequence in Arabia and at that time—would not restrain a really sensual man for five-and-twenty years; especially when it is by no means certain that Khadeejeh, who loved him with all her heart in a motherly sort of way, would have procured a divorce for any cause soever. And this explanation leaves Moḥammad’s loving remembrance of his old wife unaccounted for. If her money alone had curbed him for twenty-five years, one would expect him at her death to throw off the cloak, thank Heaven for the deliverance, and enter at once upon the rake’s progress. He does none of those things. The story of Zeyneb, the divorced wife of Zeyd, is a favourite weapon with Moḥammad’s accusers. It is not one to enter upon here; but I may say that the lady’s own share in the transaction has never been sufficiently considered. In all probability Zeyd, the freed slave, was glad enough to get rid of his too well-born wife, and certainly he bore no rancour against Moḥammad. The real point of the story is the question of forged revelations, which is discussed below.

[18] ‘The Prophet said: Whosoever shall bear witness that there is one God; and that Moḥammad is His servant and messenger; and that Jesus Christ is His servant and messenger, and that he is the son of the hand-maid of God, and that he is the Word of God, the word which was sent to Mary, and Spirit from God; and [shall bear witness] that there is truth in Heaven and Hell, will enter into paradise, whatever sins he may be chargeable with.’—_Mishkát-el-Masábeeh_, i. 11.

[19] R. Bosworth Smith: _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_, 2d ed., 255-257.

[20] _The People of Turkey_, by a Consul’s Daughter, preface, xxii.

[21] _Mishkát-el-Masábeeh_, i. 46, 51.

[22] Dr. E. Blyden. See his article on Mohammadanism in Western Africa in _The People of Africa_. (New York, 1871.)