of a past act or event as prior to the time present, and in all such passages merely gives a fulness and intensity to our perfect, or pluperfect tense.
15. The form of this word is altered in the original for the sake of the rhyme.
16. Lit. he cast lots (with the sailors).
17. Nequequam vos ad illud colendum estis Seducturi. Mar.
18. This verse and the six preceding are the words of the Angel.
19. Compare verse 69.
SURA LI. NOAH
MECCA.-29 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
We sent NOAH to his people, and said to him, "Warn thou thy people ere there come on them an afflictive punishment."
He said, "O my people! I come to you a plain-spoken warner:
Serve God and fear Him, and obey me:
Your sins will He forgive you, and respite you till the fixed Time; for when God's fixed Time hath come, it shall not be put back. Would that ye knew this!"
He said, "Lord I have cried to my people night and day; and my cry doth but make them flee from me the more.
So oft as I cry to them, that thou mayest forgive them, they thrust their fingers into their ears, and wrap themselves in their garments, and persist in their error, and are disdainfully disdainful.
Then I cried aloud to them:
Then again spake I with plainness, and in private did I secretly address them:
And I said, Beg forgiveness of your Lord, for He is ready to forgive.
He will send down the very Heaven upon you in plenteous rains;
And will increase you in wealth and children; and will give you gardens, and will give you watercourses:-
What hath come to you that ye hope not for goodness from the hand of God?
For He it is who hath formed you by successive steps.1
See ye not how God hath created the seven heavens one over the other?
And He hath placed therein the moon as a light, and hath placed there the sun as a torch;
And God hath caused you to spring forth from the earth like a plant;
Hereafter will He turn you back into it again, and will bring you forth anew-
And God hath spread the earth for you like a carpet,
That ye may walk therein along spacious paths."'
Said Noah, "O my Lord! they rebel against me, and they follow those whose riches and children do but aggravate their ruin."
And they plotted a great plot;
And they said, "Forsake not your Gods; forsake not Wadd nor Sowah,
Nor Yaghuth and Yahuk and Nesr;"
And they caused many to err;2-and thou, too, O Muhammad! shalt be the means of increasing only error in the wicked-
Because of their sins they were drowned, and made to go into the Fire;
And they found that they had no helper save God.
And Noah said, "Lord, leave not one single family of Infidels on the Earth:
For if thou leave them they will beguile thy servants and will beget only sinners, infidels.
O my Lord, forgive me, and my parents, and every one who, being a believer, shall enter my house, and believers men and women: and add to the wicked nought but perdition."
1. See Sura xxii. 5.
2. Or, the idols had seduced many. Thus Kas. Beidh. gives both interpp.-See on these idols Freytag's Einleitung, p. 349.
SURA LII. MAN
MECCA.-31 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful
Doth not a long time pass over MAN, during which he is a thing unremembered?1
We have created man from the union of the sexes that we might prove him; and hearing, seeing, have we made him:
In a right way have we guided him, be he thankful or ungrateful.
For the Infidels we have got ready chains and collars and flaming fire.
But a wine cup tempered at the camphor fountain2 the just shall quaff:
Fount whence the servants of God shall drink, and guide by channels from place to place;
They who fulfilled their vows, and feared the day whose woes will spread far and wide;
Who though longing for it themselves, bestowed their food on the poor and the orphan and the captive:
"We feed you for the sake of God: we seek from you neither recompense nor thanks:3
A stern and calamitous day dread we from our Lord."
From the evil therefore of that day hath God delivered them and cast on them brightness of face and joy:
And hath rewarded their constancy, with Paradise and silken robes:
Reclining therein on bridal couches, nought shall they know of sun or piercing cold:
Its shades shall be close over them, and low shall its fruits hang down:
And vessels of silver and goblets like flagons shall be borne round among them:
Flagons of silver whose measure themselves shall mete.
And there shall they be given to drink of the cup tempered with zendjebil (ginger)
From the fount therein whose name is Selsebil (the softly flowing).
Aye-blooming youths go round among them. When thou lookest at them thou wouldest deem them scattered pearls;
And when thou seest this, thou wilt see delights and a vast kingdom:
Their clothing green silk robes and rich brocade: with silver bracelets shall they be adorned; and drink of a pure beverage shall their Lord give them.
This shall be your recompense. Your efforts shall meet with thanks.
We ourselves have sent down to thee the Koran as a missive from on high.
Await then with patience the judgments of thy Lord, and obey not the wicked among them and the unbelieving: