Sura 28

1. See Sura lxviii. 1.

2. Lit. Imâms.

3. Comp. ii. 58.

4. That is, This child will be a comfort to us. See Sura. xix. 26.

5. “Why must the nurse be a Hebrew woman? (Ex. ii. 7.) This shows that he refused the breast of all the Egyptian women. For the Holy, blessed be He, had said, Shall the mouth that is to speak with me suck an unclean thing?” Sotah, xii. 2.

6. Lit. in the time of neglect on the part of its people, i.e. at the hour of the noon sleep.

7. Lit. I have acted unjustly to my soul.

8. Comp. Ex. ii. 16, 17, where the daughters are said to be seven.

9. That is, of a wife.

10. The compact (Gen. xxix. 15-39) between Laban and Jacob must have been present to the mind of Muhammad when composing this tale.

11. Lit. he was cried to. According to Muhammad, Moses had resolved to quit Madian previously to the Vision of the Bush, which, according to Ex. iii., was the real occasion.

12. Lit. thy wing.

13. Lit. kindle upon the clay. Comp. xl. 38-49. “He (Pharaoh) said to them: From the first have ye spoken an untruth, for Lord of the Worlds am I. I created myself and the Nile, as it is said (Ez. xxix. 3), ‘My river is mine own and I have made it for myself.’” (E.T.) Mid. Rab. on Ex. Par. 5.

14. So that the oral traditions would be easily handed down.

15. Or, yet have we sent thee as an Apostle to them.

16. Supply, we will not believe.

17. That is, the Pentateuch and the Koran.

18. The Meccan Jews and Christians who had formerly embraced Islam, and could now affirm that they had always held the same faith. This passage could not have been written after Muhammad’s experience of Jewish unbelief at Medina.

19. Lit. the guidance with thee.

20. But their own imaginations and passions.

21. Lit. the account shall be blind or dark to them. Sie werden vor Besturzung keine Rechenschaft geben. Ullm.

22. Potestas judiciaria. Mar. Richteramt. Ullm.

23. Ar. Karun. “Joseph concealed three treasures in Egypt, one of which became known to Korah . . . the keys of Korah’s treasure chambers were a burden for 300 white mules.” Midr. Jalkut on Eccl. v. 12, “Riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt,”— which may have furnished Muhammad with the nucleus of this story. Compare also Tract. Psachim fol. 119 a.

24. Or, against God.

25. Probably to Paradise, according to others to Mecca, as a conqueror. But this latter interpretation involves the revelation of this verse at least, at Medina.