Unto God belongeth the sovereignty of the Heavens and of the Earth, and of all that they contain; and He hath power over all things.
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1 The garlands, etc., attached to the victims offered at Mecca.
2 When you have again returned to your common and everyday life by laying aside the ihram, or pilgrim's robe. This generally consists of two pieces of cotton, or linen, or woollen cloth, without seam or ornament, one of which is wrapped round the loins, and the other thrown over the shoulders. The instep, heel, and head must be bare.
3 The Koreisch sent to meet Muhammad, who was on his way to visit the Caaba with 1400 men, at Hudaibiya (An. Hej. 6) to prohibit his nearer approach. A truce for ten years was ultimately concluded.
4 By making war in the holy month.
5 Comp. Tract Cholin, c. 3.
6 Lit. on blocks or shafts of stone. These were set up by the pagan Arabs in front of their houses for the purpose of sacrificing thereon. See Freytag's Einl. p. 462, and Tr. Cholin, p. 39, 40, 41.
7 It was the custom to draw lots for joints of a camel with arrows, some feathered and others unfeathered, kept for this purpose in the temple of Mecca. See Pocock, Spec. Hist. Ar., under the word Hobal.
8 In the sense of sound, healthful.
9 Thus Talm. Tr. Berachoth, 46.
10 This refers to the oath of fidelity which Muhammad's followers took at Al Akaba. Abulf. Vit.Moh.p.43.
11 It is quite uncertain to what events this refers. The commentators narrate, and have doubtless invented, various incidents as having occasioned it.
12 Verses 15-38 belong probably to the period shortly before the taking of Chaibar in the beginning of Hej. 7. It is remarkable that Muhammad, although he has invented these twelve leaders of tribes, should nowhere mention the number of the Apostles. There is no doubt, however, from the ancient biographies, that he chose twelve assistants for the propagation of Islam. See Gagnier, Vie de M. ii. xvi.
13 The space between the mission of different prophets.
14 Called by the Arabians Habeel and Kabeel. The dialogue between Cain and Abel is slightly varied from that given in Targ. Jerus. on Gen. iv. 8, and Jonath. Ben Uzziel.
15 Or, the sin against me, i.e. of slaying me.
16 In the Jewish tradition the raven shews the mode of burial to Adam, not to Cain. Pirke R. Elieser, c. 21. Midr. fol. II ap. Weil (Legenden, p. 39).
17 Or, corpse.
18 Thus Mischn. Sanhedr. iv. 5, "We find it said in the case of Cain who murdered his brother–'The voice of thy brother's bloods crieth'–It is not said, blood of thy brother, but bloods, i.e. his blood and the blood of his seed. Therefore was man created single, in order to shew that to him who kills a single individual of Israel it shall be reckoned as if he had slain the whole race, and that he, etc." precisely as in the text. Comp. also the same form of expression in Bab. Tal, Kidush, § 1, "If one fulfil but one commandment, he causes the scale of innocence to preponderate for himself and the whole world; but if he commit one sin, he causes the scale of guilt to preponderate for himself and the whole world.
19 Muhammad is said by the early traditionists to have punished a woman who had been guilty of theft in this manner while on the route to Mecca previous to its capture. We are, therefore, able to fix the date of verses 39-44.
20 Usury, bribes.
21 Ex. xxi. 23-27.
22 This may refer to proposals made to the Muslims to enter into alliance with the Jews and Christians against the heathen, after the reverse at Ohod. Lane observes (Mod. Egyptians, i. 358) with regard to this precept, that "of the leading features of the character of the Mooslims none is more remarkable than their religious pride. They regard persons of every other faith as the children of perdition; and such the Mooslim is early taught to despise." They are, however, "as remarkable for their toleration as for their contempt of unbelievers."
23 Weil suggests that verses 64-88 were revealed subsequently to contests with the Jews, but before Muhammad had broken with the Christians, i.e. between Hej. 4 and 8.
24 That is, God has ceased to be bounteous. The Muslims believe that at the day of judgment all the Jews will appear with the right hand tied to the neck.
25 That is, the Koran. The Jew was to retain a faith in the Towrât, or Law; the Christian in the Injil, or Gospel; but both Jews and Christians were to receive the Koran as the complement of both.
26 See Sura [xci.] ii. 59, p. 344.
27 I Thess. ii. 15.
28 Did not give herself out to be a goddess. Djelal.
29 That is, were human beings, and subject to the usual wants and liabilities of ordinary persons.
30 See Sura ii. 61, p. 344. Mark viii. 30.
31 Geiger derives both the Arabic words from Syriac terms, and renders elders and clerics, p. 51. But the root of the Arabic word rendered monk is generally said to be rahaba, to fear.
32 Comp. Sura [cix.] 1xvi. 2. The date of verses 89-91 is therefore probably Hej. 7.
33 If you violate it.
34 See verse 4. Tradition has expanded the word ansab, so as to include all figures, and hence the strict observers of the letter of the Koran forbid the game of chess. The Persians, however, and Indians generally interpret this verse more liberally.
35 This and the two following verses are placed by the commentators in the year of Hudaibiya, as also 98, 99, 100.
36 That is, Cube-House. Maison Carrée. It is also commonly called the Bait Ullah, House of God. The Caaba is an oblong massive structure 55 ft. in length, 45 in breadth, and the height somewhat greater than the length. At the S.E. corner is the famous Hajar El-Aswad, or Black Stone, according to Lieut. Burton, an undoubted aerolite. It is figured in Mr. Muir's "Life of Mahomet." The Caaba stands in an open parallelogram of about 500 ft. by 530 ft. and is surrounded by colonnades, the pillars of which, made of various marbles, some Egyptian but mostly Meccan, stand in a quadruple row on the east side, and three deep on the other sides, and amount to 554. It has been rebuilt several times, but has not been materially altered since A.H. 1040.
37 Names given to the sacred animals which were marked and allowed to range for pasture at liberty. The dedicated mother-camel was the Saiba; the Wasila included also goats or ewes; the eleventh female offspring of the camel was Bahira; the dedicated stallion was Hami. These forms of superstition grew up, obviously, from a remote period, out of the intense affection of the Bedouin for his flocks, especially his horses and camels.
38 Lit. on you your souls.
39 Lit. upon its face, i.e. according to its plain scope.
40 See Evang. Infant. c. 1, Invenimus in libro Josephi Pontificis qui vixit tempore Christi, Jesum locutum esse, et quidem cum in cunis jaceret, etc. The date of verse 108 to the end is uncertain.
41 Precisely the same expression is applied to our Lord in the Arabic Evang. Infantiæ, c. 36 at the end, which also relates the story of the Birds.
42 Ar. El-hawariyin, a different word from that used for Jesus, Hud, Saleh, and the other apostles par excellence. The root of the word is the Æthiopic hawyra, to go, send; hence the Church is called in Æthiopic the Beth chrestyan ant hawariyat, i.e. Apostolic. See, however, the note on Thilo's Cod. Apoc. p. 152, who derives from the root hur, to be white, pure; hence, friends, helpers.
43 Comp. 1 Cor. xi. 27, sqq.–Muhammad obviously refers to the Eucharist.
44 Thou hast a right to do so as their Lord.