Chapter 88

ENTITLED, THE FOLDING UP; REVEALED AT MECCA.

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

WHEN the sun shall be folded up;p and when the stars shall fall; and when the mountains shall be made to pass away; and when the camels ten months gone with young shall be neglected;q and when the wild beasts shall be gathered together;r and when the seas shall boil;s and when the souls shall be joined again to their bodies; and when the girl who hath been buried alive shall be asked for what crime she was put to death;t 10 and when the books shall be laid open; and when the heaven shall be removed;u and when hell shall burn fiercely; and when paradise shall be brought near; every soul shall know what it hath wrought.

p As a garment that is laid by. q See the Prelim. Disc. Sect. IV. p. 64. r See ibid. p. 64 and 67. s See ibid. p. 64. t For it was customary among the ancient Arabs to bury their daughters alive as soon as they were born; for fear they should be impoverished by providing for them, or should suffer disgrace on their account. See chapter 16, p. 199. u Or plucked away from its place, as the skin is plucked off from a camel which is flaying; for that is the proper signification of the verb here used. Marracci fancies the passage alludes to that in the Psalms,2 where, according to the versions of the Septuagint and the Vulgate, GOD is said to have stretched out the heaven like a skin. 1 Al Zamakh. 2 Psalm civ. 2.

Verily I swearx by the stars which are retrograde, which move swiftly, and which hide themselves;y and by the night, when it cometh on; and by the morning, when it appeareth; these these are the words of an honourable messenger,z 20 endued with strength, of established dignity in the sight of the possessor of the throne, obeyed by the angels under his authority, and faithful: and your companion Mohammed is not distracted. He had already seen him in the clear horizon:a and he suspected notb the secrets revealed unto him. Neither are these the words of an accursed devil.c Whither, therefore, are you going? This is no other than an admonition unto all creatures; unto him among you who shall be willing to walk uprightly: but ye shall not will, unless GOD willeth, the LORD of all creatures.

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