Chapter 77

ENTITLED, THE STEPS; REVEALED AT MECCA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

ONE demanded and called for vengeance to fall on the unbelievers:e there shall be none to avert the same from being inflicted by GOD, the possessor of the steps:f by which the angels ascend unto him, and the spirit Gabriel also, in a day whose space is fifty thousand years:g wherefore bear the insults of the Meccans with becoming patience; for they see their punishment afar off, but we see it nigh at hand. On a certain day the heaven shall become like molten brass, and the mountains like wool of various colours, scattered abroad by the wind: 10 and a friend shall not ask a friend concerning his condition, although they see one another. The wicked shall wish to redeem himself from the punishment of that day, by giving up his children, and his wife, and his brother, and his kindred who showed kindness unto him, and all who are in the earth; and that this might deliver him: by no means: for hell fire, dragging them by their scalps, shall call him who shall have turned his back, and fled from the faith, and shall have amassed riches, and covetously hoarded them. Verily man is created extremely impatient:h 20 when evil toucheth him, he is full of complaint;

e The person here meant is generally supposed to have been al Nodar Ebn al Hareth, who said, O GOD, if what Mohammed preaches be the truth from thee, rain down upon us a shower of stones, or send some dreadful judgment to punish us.1 Others, however, think it was Abu Jahl, who challenged Mohammed to cause a fragment of heaven to fall on them.2 f By which prayers and righteous actions ascend to heaven; or by which the angels ascend to receive the divine commands, or the believers will ascend to paradise. Some understand thereby the different orders of angels; or the heavens, which rise gradually one above another. g This is supposed to be the space which would be required for their ascent from the lowest part of creation to the throne of GOD, if it were to be measured; or the time which it would take a man up to perform that journey; and this is not contradictory to what is said elsewhere3 (if it be to be interpreted of the ascent of the angels), that the length of the day whereon they ascend is one thousand years; because that is meant only of their ascent from earth to the lower heaven, including also the time of their descent. But the commentators generally taking the day spoken of in both these passages to be the day of judgment, have recourse to several expedients to reconcile them, some of which we have mentioned in another place;4 and as both passages seem to contradict what the Mohammedan doctors teach, that GOD will judge all creatures in the space of half a day,5 they suppose those large number of years are designed to express the time of the previous attendance of those who are to be judged;6 or else to the space wherein GOD will judge the unbelieving nations, of which they say there will be fifty, the trial of each nation taking up one thousand years, though that of the true believers will be over in the short space above mentioned.7 h See chapter 17, p. 208.

1 Al Zamakh., al Beidâwi. 2 Al Beidâwi. 3 Cap. 32, p. 310. 4 Prelim. Disc. Sect. IV. p. 65. 5 See ibid. p. 69. 6 See ibid. p. 67. 7 Al Zamakh.

but when good befalleth him, he becometh niggardly: except those who are devoutly given, and who persevere in their prayers; and those of whose substance a due and certain portion is ready to be given unto him who asketh, and him who is forbidden by shame to ask: and those who sincerely believe the day of judgment, and who dread the punishment of their LORD: (for there is none secure from the punishment of their LORD:) and who abstain from the carnal knowledge of women 30 other than their wives, or the slaves which their right hands possess: (for as to them they shall be blameless; but whoever coveteth any woman besides these, they are transgressors:) and those who faithfully keep what they are intrusted with, and their covenant; and who are upright in their testimonies, and who carefully observe the requisite rites in their prayers: these shall dwell amidst gardens, highly honoured. What aileth the unbelievers, that they run before thee in companies, on the right hand and on the left? Doth every man of them wish to enter into a garden of delight? By no means: verily we have created them of that which they know.i 40 I sweark by the LORD of the east and of the west,l that we are able to destroy them, and to substitute better than them in their room; neither are we to be prevented, if we shall please so to do. Wherefore suffer them to wade in vain disputes, and to amuse themselves with sport: until they meet their day with which they have been threatened; the day whereon they shall come forth hastily from their graves, as though they were troops hastening to their standard: their looks shall be downcast; ignominy shall attend them. This is the day with which they have been threatened.

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