Sura 11

1. See Sura lxviii.

2. Or, will bestow his grace on every gracious one, or will bestow his abundance on every one who hath abundance (of merit). The difficulty of rendering this passage arises from the word fadhl, which means merit as applied to man, favor as applied to God.

3. That is, before the Creation. Precisely the same statement occurs in Raschi on Gen. i. 2, as also in the modern catechism. Tsenah ur’enah b’noth Tsion, authoritatively put forth by the Polish and German Talmudist Rabbins. “At the first creation of Heaven and Earth. . . the throne of glory of the Blessed God stood in the air above the waters.” Comp. Ps. civ. 3.

4. Men, heaven, and earth. Comp. Tr. Aboth, v. Mischna 1.

5. Comp. verse 37 and Sura ii. 21. It should be observed that the challenge in these passages is not to produce a book which shall equal the Koran in point of poetry or rhetoric, but in the importance of its subject­matter, with reference to the Divine Unity, the future retribution, etc. Upon these topics Muhammad well knew that he had preoccupied the ground. And we may infer from the fragments of the Revelations of Musailima and Sajâh (Hisam. 946; Attabâri (ed. Kosegarten) i. 134, 136, 152; Tab. Agâni, 339), which are mere imitations of the Koran, that he felt this to be the case.

6. “They laughed and jeered at him in their words.” Midr. Tanchuma. “The passage Job xii. 5, refers to the righteous Noah who taught them and spake to them words severe as flames: but they scorned him, and said, ‘Old man! for what purpose is this ark?’” Sanhedr. 108. Midr. Rabbah on Gen. 30, and 33 on EccI. ix. 14.

7. Or, oven: according to others, reservoir. Geiger thinks that the expression the oven boiled up may be a figurative mode of expressing the Rabbinic idea that “the generation of the Deluge were punished by hot water.” Rosch. Haschanah, 16, 2; Sanhedr. 108. Comp. Weil's Legenden, p. 44.

8. The Montes Gordyoei, perhaps.

9. According to another reading: He hath done amiss. The origin of this story is probably Gen. ix. 20-25.

10. A Prophet, so far as we know, of Muhammad's own invention, unless Muir's conjecture be admitted that he was a Christian or Jewish missionary whose adventures and persecution were recast into this form.— The name may have been suggested by, Methusaleh, upon whose piety the Midrasch enlarges.

11. That is, we had intended to make thee our chief. Beidh.

12. Thus, in contradiction to Gen. xviii. 8, the Rabbins; comp. Tr. Baba Mezia, fol. 86, “They made as though they ate.”

13. Or, menstrua passa est, in token of the possibility of her bearing a child.

14. Lit. his arm was straitened concerning them.

15. Lit. column.

16. With the name, it is said, of the person each should strike.

17. See Sura xxvii. 176.

18. That is, after giving fair measure.

19. Seizure, for punishment. Hence, the punishment itself.

20. In the later period of his life Muhammad attributed his gray hairs to the effect produced upon him by this Sura and its “Sisters.” While Abu Bekr and Omar sat in the mosque at Medina, Muhammad suddenly came upon them from the door of one of his wives' houses. . . And Abu Bekr said, “Ah! thou for whom I would sacrifice father and mother, white hairs are hastening upon thee!” And the Prophet raised up his beard with his hand and gazed at it; and Abu Bekr's eyes filled with tears. “Yes,” said Muhammad, “Hud and its sisters have hastened my white hairs.” “And what,” asked Abu Bekr, “are its sisters?” “The Inevitable (Sura lvi.) and the Blow (Sura ci.).” Kitab al Wackidi, p. 84, ap. Muir.