CHAP. XX.
Intitled,
T. H.
[a]
; revealed at Mecca.
In the name of the most merciful God.
[a] The signification of these letters, which being prefixed to the chapter are therefore taken for the title, is uncertain [1] . Some, however, imagine they stand for Ya rajol, i.e. O man! which interpretation, seeming not easily to be accounted for from the Arabic, is by a certain tradition deduced from the Ethiopic [2] : or for Ta, i.e. tread; telling us that Mohammed, being employed in watching and prayer the night this passage was revealed, stood on one foot only, but was hereby commanded to ease himself by setting both feet to the ground. Others fancy the first letter stands for Tûba, beatitude; and the latter for Hawiyat, the name of the lower apartment of hell. Tah is also an interjection commanding silence, and may properly enough be used in this place.
[1] See the Prel. Disc. III. p. 59, &c.
[2] Moham. Ebn Abd al Baki, ex trad. Acremæ Ebn Abi Sofian.
[b] We have not sent down the Korân unto thee, that thou shouldest be unhappy;] Either by reason of thy zealous solicitude for the conversion of the infidels, or thy fatiguing thyself by watching and other religious exercises; for, it seems, the Koreish urged the extraordinary fatigues he underwent in those respects, as the consequence of his having left their religion [3] .
[3] Al Beidawi.
[c] See chap. 7. p. 136, and chap. 17. p. 237.
[d] The relation of the story of Moses, which takes up the greatest part of this chapter, was designed to incourage Mohammed, by his example, to discharge the prophetic office with firmness of mind, as being assured of receiving the like assistance from God: for it is said this chapter was one of the first that were revealed [4] .
[4] Idem.
[e] When he saw fire, &c.] The commentators say, that Moses having obtained leave of Shoaib, or Jethro, his father-in-law, to visit his mother, departed with his family from Midian towards Egypt; but coming to the valley of Towa, wherein mount Sinai stands, his wife fell in labour, and was delivered of a son, in a very dark and snowy night; he had also lost his way, and his cattle were scattered from him; when on a sudden he saw a fire by the side of a mountain, which on his nearer approaching he found burning in a green bush [5] .
[5] Idem.
[f] Put off thy shoes;] This was a mark of humility and respect: tho’ some fancy there was some uncleanness in the shoes themselves, because they were made of the skin of an ass not dressed [6] .
[6] Idem.
[a] And I have other uses for it;] As to drive away wild beasts from my flock, to carry my bottle of water on, to stick up and hang my upper garment on to shade me from the sun; and several other uses enumerated by the commentators.
[b] It became a serpent;] Which was at first no bigger than the rod, but afterwards swelled to a prodigious size [1] .
[1] Idem.
[c] Take hold on it, and fear not;] When Moses saw the serpent move about with great nimbleness, and swallow stones and trees, he was greatly terrified, and fled from it; but recovering his courage at these words of God, he had the boldness to take the serpent by the jaws [2] .
[2] Idem.
[d] See chap. 7. p. 128.
[e] Loose the knot of my tongue, &c.] For Moses had an impediment in his speech, which was occasioned by the following accident. Pharaoh one day carrying him in his arms, when a child, he suddenly laid hold of his bear, and plucked it in a very rough manner, which put Pharaoh into such a passion, that he ordered him to be put to death: but Asia, his wife, representing to him that he was but a child, who could not distinguish between a burning coal and a ruby, he ordered the experiment to be made; and a live coal and a ruby being set before Moses, he took the coal and put it into his mouth, and burnt his tongue; and thereupon he was pardoned. This is a Jewish story a little altered [3] .
[3] V. Shalsh. Hakkab. p. 11.
[f] A counsellor;] The Arabic word is Wazîr, which signifies one who has the chief administration of affairs under a prince.
[g] When we revealed unto thy mother, &c.] The commentators are not agreed by what means this revelation was made; whether by private inspiration, by a dream, by a prophet, or by an angel.
[h]
Put him into the ark, &c.] The commentators say, that his mother accordingly made an ark of the
papyrus, and pitched it, and put in some cotton; and having laid the child
therein, committed it to the river, a branch of which went into Pharaoh’s
garden: that the stream carried the ark thither into a fishpond, at the head
of which Pharaoh was then sitting, with his wife Asia, the daughter of
Mozâhem; and that the king, having commanded it to be taken up and opened, and
finding in it a beautiful child, took a fancy to it, and ordered it to be
brought up
[1]
.
Some writers mention a miraculous preservation of Moses before he was
put into the ark; and tell us, that his mother having hid him from Pharaoh’s
officers in an oven, his sister, in her mother’s absence, kindled a large fire
in the oven to heat it, not knowing the child was there, but that he was
afterwards taken out unhurt
[2]
.
[1] Al Beidawi.
[2] Abulfeda, &c.
[a] I bestowed on thee love from me;] That is, I inspired the love of thee into the hearts of those who saw thee, and particularly into the heart of Pharaoh.
[b] When thy sister went, &c.] The Mohammedans pretend that several nurses were brought, but the child refused to take the breast of any, till his sister Miriam, who went to learn news of him, told them she would find a nurse, and brought his mother [3] .
[3] Al Beidawi.
[c]
Thou slewest a soul, and we
delivered thee from trouble;] Moses killed an Egyptian, in defence of an Israelite, and escaped the
danger of being punished for it, by flying to Midian, which was eight days’
journey distant from Mesr
[4]
.
The Jews pretend he was actually imprisoned for the fact, and condemned
to be beheaded, but that, when he should have suffered, his neck became as
hard as ivory, and the sword rebounded on the executioner
[5]
.
[4] Idem.
[5] Idem.
[d] We proved thee by various trials;] For he was obliged to abandon his country and his friends, and to travel several days, in great terror and want of necessary provisions, to seek a refuge among strangers; and was afterwards forced to serve for hire, to gain a livelihood.
[e] Some years;] i.e. Ten [6] .
[6] Al Beidawi.
[f] Go thou and thy brother;] Aaron being by this time come out to meet his brother, either by divine inspiration, or having notice of his design to return to Egypt [7] ..
[7] Idem.
[g] What is the condition of the former generations?] viz. As to happiness or misery after death.
[a] The day of your solemn feast;] Which was probably the first day of their new year.
[b] Do not devise a lie against God;] By saying the miracles performed in his name are the effects of magic.
[c] Their cords and their rods appeared unto him, by their enchantment, to run about like serpents;] They rubbed them over with quicksilver, which being wrought upon by the heat of the sun, caused them to move [1] . See chap. 7. p. 128.
[1] Idem.
[d] See Ibid.
[a] Gardens of perpetual abode;] Literally, gardens of Eden; See chap. 9. p. 158.
[b] A dry path through the sea;] The expositors add, that the sea was divided into twelve separate paths, one for each tribe [1] : a fable borrowed from the Jews [2] .
[1] Idem, Abulfed. in Hist.
[2] V. R. Eliezer, Pirke, c. 42.
[c] See chap. 2. p. 7.
[d] Transgress not therein;] By ingratitude, excess, or insolent behaviour.
[e] What hath caused thee to hasten from thy people, &c.] For Moses, it seems, outwent the seventy elders, who had been chosen, in obedience to the divine command, to accompany him to the mount [3] , and appeared before God while they were at some, tho’ no great, distance behind him.
[3] See chap. 2. p. 7. chap. 7. p. 133, &c.
[f] Since thy departure;] They continued in the worship of the true God for the first twenty days of Moses’s absence, which, by taking the nights also into their reckoning, they computed to be forty, and at their expiration concluded they had stayed the full time which Moses had commanded them, and so fell into the worship of the golden calf [4] .
[4] Al Beidawi.
[g]
Al Sâmeri;] This was not his proper name, but he had this appellation because he
was of a certain tribe among the Jews called Samaritans (wherein the
Mohammedans strangely betray their ignorance in history;) tho’ some say he
was a proselyte, but a hypocritical one, and originally of Kirmân, or some
other country. His true name was Moses, or Mûsa, Ebn Dhafar
[1]
.
Selden is of opinion that this person was no other than Aaron himself,
(who was really the maker of the calf,) and that he is here called al Sâmeri,
from the Hebrew verb shamar, to keep
[2]
.; because he was the Keeper or Guardian
of the children of Israel during his brother’s absence in the mount; which is
a very ingenious conjecture, not absolutely inconsistent with the text of the
Korân (tho’ Mohammed seems to have mistaken al Sâmeri for the name of a
different person,) and offers a much more probable origin of that appellation,
than to derive it, as the Mohammedans do, from the Samaritans, who were not
formed into a people, nor bore that name till many ages after.
[1] Idem.
[2] Selden, de Diis Syris, Synt. I, c. 4.
[a] Moses returned unto his people;] viz. After he had completed his forty days’ stay in the mount, and had received the law [4] .
[4] Idem. V. D’Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 650, and Kor. chap. 2. p. 6, &c.
[b] A most excellent promise;] i.e. The law, containing a light and certain direction to guide you in the right way.
[c]
The ornaments of the people;] These ornaments were rings, bracelets, and the like, which the
Israelities had borrowed of the Egyptians, under pretence of decking
themselves out for some feast, and had not returned to them; or, as some
think, what they had stripped from the dead bodies of the Egyptians, cast on
shore by the sea: and al Sâmeri, conceiving them unlawful to be kept, and the
occasion of much wickedness, persuaded Aaron to let him collect them from the
people; which being done, he threw them all into the fire, to melt them down
into one mass
[3]
.
It is observable, that the Mohammedans generally suppose the cast
metal’s coming forth in the shape of a calf, was beside the expectation of al
Sâmeri, who had not made a mould of that figure: and that when Aaron excuses
himself to his brother, in the Pentateuch, he seems as if he would persuade
him it was an accident
[5]
.
[3] Al Beidawi.
[5] See Exod. xxxii. 24.
[d] See chap. 7. p. 132. not. f.
[e] That thou didst not follow me;] By these words Moses reprehends Aaron for not seconding his zeal in taking arms against the idolaters; or for not coming after him to the mountain, to acquaint him with their rebellion.
[a] Lest thou shouldest say, Thou hast made a division among the children of Israel, and thou hast not observed my saying;] i.e. Lest if I had taken arms against the worshippers of the calf, thou shouldest say that I had raised a sedition; or if I had gone after thee, thou shouldest blame me for abandoning my charge, and not waiting thy return to rectify what was amiss.
[b] I saw that which they saw not;] Or, I knew that which they knew not; viz. That the messenger sent to thee from God was a pure spirit, and that his footsteps gave life to whatever they touched; being no other than the angel Gabriel, mounted on the horse of life: and therefore I made use of the dust of his feet to animate the molten calf. It is said al Sâmeri knew the angel, because he had saved and taken care of him when a child and exposed by his mother for fear of Pharaoh [1] .
[1] Al Beidawi, Jallalo’ddin.
[c] See chap. 2. p. 7.
[d]
Thou shalt say unto those who shall meet thee, Touch me not;] Lest they infect thee with a burning fever: for that was the
consequence of any man’s touching him, and the same happened to the persons he
touched; for which reason he was obliged to avoid all communication with
others, and was also shunned by them, wandering in the desart like a wild
beast
[2]
.
Hence, it is concluded that a tribe of Samaritan Jews, said to inhabit a
certain isle in the Red Sea, are the descendants of our al Sâmeri; because it
is their peculiar mark of distinction, at this day, to use the same words,
viz. La mesâs, i.e. Touch me not, to those they meet
[3]
.
It is not improbable
that this story may owe its rise to the known hatred borne by the Samaritans
to the Jews, and their superstitiously avoiding to have any commerce with
them, or any other strangers
[4]
.
[2] Iidem.
[3] V. Geogr. Nub. p. 45.
[4] V. Selden. ubi sup.
[e] We will burn it;] Or, as the word may also be translated, We will file it down; but the other is the more received interpretation.
[f] See chap. 6. p. 101.
[g] Having grey eyes;] For this, with the Arabs, is one mark of an enemy, or a person they abominate; to say a man has a black liver (tho’ I think we express our aversion by the term white-livered,) reddish whiskers, and grey eyes, being a periphrasis for a foe, and particularly a Greek, which nation were the most inveterate enemies of the Arabs, and have usually hair and eyes of those colours [5] . The original word, however, signifies also those who are squint- eyed, or even blind of a suffusion.
[5] Al Beidawi, Jawhari, in Lex.
[h] Ye have not tarried;] viz. In the world; or, in the grave.
[a] See the Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 82.
[b] See ibid. p. 84.
[c] Except the intercession of him;] Or, Except unto him, &c. See chap. 19. p. 255.
[d] Their faces shall be humbled;] The original word properly expresses the humility and dejected looks of captives in the presence of their conqueror.
[e] Be not overhasty in receiving or repeating the Koran, &c.] Mohammed is here commanded not to be impatient at any delay in Gabriel’s bringing the divine revelations, or not to repeat it too fast after the angel, so as to overtake him before he had finished the passage. But some suppose the prohibition relates to the publishing any verse before the same was perfectly explained to him [1] .
[1] Al Beidawi, Jallalo’ddin.
[f] He forgot;] Adam’s so soon forgetting the divine command, has occasioned some Arab etymologists to derive the word Insân, i.e. man, from nasiya, to forget; and has also given rise to the following proverbial saying, Awwalo nâsin awwalo’nnâsi, that is, The first forgetful person was the first of men; alluding to the like sound of the words
[g] See chap. 2. p. 4, &c. chap. 7. p. 117, &c.
[a] See chap. 7. p. 118.
[b] See chap. 2. p. 6.
[c] See the Prelim. Disc. §. IV. p. 85.
[d] In whose dwellings they walk;] Seeing the footsteps of their destruction; as of the tribes of Ad, and Thamûd.
[e] The extremities of the day;] i.e. Evening and morning; which times are repeated as the principal hours of prayer. But some suppose these words intend the prayer of noon; the first half of the day ending, and the second half beginning at that time [1] .
[1] Iidem.
[f] Cast not thine eyes on that which we have granted divers of them to enjoy, &c.] That is, do not envy or covet their pomp and prosperity in this world [2] .
[2] See chap. 15. p. 213.
[g] The provision of thy Lord;] viz. The reward laid up for thee in the next life: or the gift of prophecy, and the revelations with which God had favoured thee.
[h] It is said that when Mohammed’s family were in any strait or affliction, he used to order them to go to prayers, and to repeat this verse [3] .
[3] Al Beidawi.