The Quran. Allah

1. The Koran, which is now pressed on the Meccans with increased prominence, as will be seen in many succeeding Suras of this period.

2. The night of Al Kadr is one of the last ten nights of Ramadhan, and as is commonly believed the seventh of those nights reckoning backward. See Sura xliv. 2. "Three books are opened on the New Year's Day, one of the perfectly righteous, one of the perfectly wicked, one of the intermediate. The perfectly righteous are inscribed and sealed for life," etc. Bab. Talm. Rosh. Hash., § I.

      SURA XXII. THE NIGHT-COMER

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      MECCA. 17 Verses

      In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

      BY the heaven, and by the NIGHT-COMER!

      But who shall teach thee what the night-comer is?

      'Tis the star of piercing radiance.

      Over every soul is set a guardian.

      Let man then reflect out of what he was created.

      He was created of the poured-forth germs,

      Which issue from the loins and breastbones:

      Well able then is God to restore him to life,-

      On the day when all secrets shall be searched out,

      And he shall have no other might or helper.

      I swear by the heaven which accomplisheth its cycle,

      And by the earth which openeth her bosom,

      That this Koran is a discriminating discourse,

      And that it is not frivolous.

      They plot a plot against thee,

      And I will plot a plot against them.

      Deal calmly therefore with the infidels; leave them awhile alone.

      SURA XXIII. THE SUN

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      MECCA.-15 Verses

      In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

      BY the SUN and his noonday brightness!

      By the Moon when she followeth him!

      By the Day when it revealeth his glory!

      By the Night when it enshroudeth him!

      By the Heaven and Him who built it!

      By the Earth and Him who spread it forth!

      By a Soul and Him who balanced it,

      And breathed into it its wickedness and its piety,

      Blessed now is he who hath kept it pure,

      And undone is he who hath corrupted it!

Themoud1 in his impiety rejected the message of the Lord,

      When the greatest wretch among them rushed up:-

      Said the Apostle of God to them,-"The Camel of God! let her drink."

      But they treated him as an impostor and hamstrung her.

      So their Lord destroyed them for their crime, and visited all alike:

      Nor feared he the issue.

1. See Sura vii. 33, for the story of Themoud.

      SURA XXIV. HE FROWNED

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      MECCA.-42 Verses

      In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful

HE FROWNED, and he turned his back,1

      Because the blind man came to him!

      But what assured thee that he would not be cleansed by the Faith,

      Or be warned, and the warning profit him?

      As to him who is wealthy-

      To him thou wast all attention:

Yet is it not thy concern if he be not cleansed:2

      But as to him who cometh to thee in earnest,

      And full of fears-

      Him dost thou neglect.

      Nay! but it (the Koran) is a warning;

      (And whoso is willing beareth it in mind)

      Written on honoured pages,

      Exalted, purified,

      By the hands of Scribes, honoured, righteous.

      Cursed be man! What hath made him unbelieving?

      Of what thing did God create him?

Out of moist germs.3

      He created him and fashioned him,

      Then made him an easy passage from the womb,

      Then causeth him to die and burieth him;

      Then, when he pleaseth, will raise him again to life.

      Aye! but man hath not yet fulfilled the bidding of his Lord.

      Let man look at his food:

      It was We who rained down the copious rains,

      Then cleft the earth with clefts,

      And caused the upgrowth of the grain,

      And grapes and healing herbs,

      And the olive and the palm,

      And enclosed gardens thick with trees,

      And fruits and herbage,

      For the service of yourselves and of your cattle.

But when the stunning trumpet-blast shall arrive,4

      On that day shall a man fly from his brother,

      And his mother and his father,

      And his wife and his children;

      For every man of them on that day his own concerns shall be enough.

      There shall be faces on that day radiant,

      Laughing and joyous:

      And faces on that day with dust upon them:

      Blackness shall cover them!

      These are the Infidels, the Impure.

1. We are told in the traditions, etc., that when engaged in converse with Walid, a chief man among the Koreisch, Muhammad was interrupted by the blind Abdallah Ibn Omm Maktûm, who asked to hear the Koran. The Prophet spoke very roughly to him at the time, but afterwards repented, and treated him ever