Note [édition originale] : Direct us in the right way, &c.]
This last sentence contains a petition, that
God would lead the
supplicants into the true religion, by which is meant the
Mohammedan, in the
Korân often called
the right way; in this place more particularly defined to
be,
the way of those to whom God hath been gracious, that is, of the prophets
and faithful who preceded
Mohammed; under which appellations are also
comprehended the
Jews and
Christians, such as they were in the times of their
primitive purity, before they had deviated from their respective institutions;
not the way of the modern Jews, whose signal calamities are marks of the just
anger of
God against them for their obstinacy and disobedience:
nor of the
Christians
of this age, who have departed from the true doctrine of
Jesus, and
are bewildered in a labyrinth of
error
4.
This is the common exposition of the passage; tho’
al Zamakhshari, and
some others, by a different application of the negatives, refer the whole to
the true believers; and then the sense will run thus:
The way of those to whom
thou hast been gracious, against whom thou art not incensed, and who have not
erred. Which translation the original will very well bear.
-
4
Jallalo’ddin. Al Beidawi, &c.