The Speeches & Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad · Prophet Muhammad
THE MEKKA SPEECHES. I.--THE POETIC PERIOD.
The rhyming prose in which the Korān is written may be seen to best advantage in this earliest phase of Mohammad’s oratory, when the sentences are short and the rhythm more _chantant_ than in the later speeches. “The Smiting” (p. 7), will serve as a specimen of the sound of the original Arabic, as far as it can be represented in Roman characters:-- _Bismi-llahi-r-rahmāni-r-rahīm_ _El-kāri'atu mā-l-kāri'ah_ _Wa-mā adrāka mā-l-kāri'ah_ _Yawma yekūnu-n-nāsu ke-l-farāsi-l-mabthūth_ _Wa-tekūnu-l-jibālu ke-l-'ihni-l-manfūsh_ _Fe-amma men thekulet mawāzīnuhu fe-huwa fī 'īshetin rādiyeh_ _Wa-amma men khaffet mawāzīnuhu fe-ummuhu hāwiyeh_ _Wa-mā adrāka mā hiyeh_ _Nārun hāmiyeh_ The effect of which may be thus roughly preserved in English:-- In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. The Smiting! What is the Smiting? And what shall teach thee what is the Smiting? The Day when men shall be like moths adrift, And the hills shall be like wool-flocks rift: Then as for him whose scales are heavy, his shall be a life of bliss: And as for him whose scales are light, a place in the Pit is his: And what shall teach thee what that place is-- A Fire that blazes! * * * * * P. 3. THE NIGHT.--The formula “_In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful_,” precedes all the chapters of the Korān but one. _We._--God speaks in the plural in the Korān.
_The outstrippers_, _i.e._ those who are the first to adopt the true religion--the prophets and apostles, who shall be rewarded by being allowed to stand nearest to God in the next world. The following fifteen lines describe their happy fate; after which, fourteen refer to the _people of the right hand_, or ordinary believers; and then seventeen lines to the _people of the left hand_, or damned. P. 24. _Zakkūm_: A thorny tree with a bitter fruit, which grows up from the bottomless pit. P. 26. _Preserved Book._--Mohammad taught that every “revelation” in the Korān was but a transcript from the pages of a great book, known as the “_Mother of the Book_,” “preserved” under the throne of God. The sentence, _Let none touch it but the purified_, is commonly inscribed upon the cover of the Korān. _Those brought nearest_, _i.e._ the _outstrippers_, or prophets. * * * * * P. 27. THE MERCIFUL.--_Then which of the bounties_, etc. A refrain or burden of this kind is rare in the Korān, and is in no other instance so often repeated. The _twain_ are mankind and the jinn (or genii). “Jinn,” it may be remarked, is a plural, and the singular is “jinni” (a genius), for the masculine, and “jinnīyeh” for the feminine. _The two Easts._ The rising-places of the sun in summer and winter; _the two Wests_, the corresponding setting-places.
P. 28. _Two notables_, or “weighty ones,” _i.e._ men and jinn. * * * * * P. 32. THE UNITY.--This profession of faith is held by Muslims to be equal in value to a third of the whole Korān. * * * * * P. 33. THE FĀTIHAH, or “Opening” chapter, so called because it is placed at the beginning of the authorised arrangement of the Korān. It is the _Paternoster_ of Islam, and is repeated many times in the five daily prayers of the Muslims, and on every solemn occasion.
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