Introduction

The time for prayer is called from the minarets of the mosques by Mu’eDHDHins or 'criers,' in the following words: 'God is great!' (four times). 'I bear witness that there is no god but God' (twice). 'I bear witness that Mohammed is the Apostle of God' (twice). 'Come hither to prayers!' (twice). 'Come hither to salvation!' (twice). 'God is great! There is no other god but God!' and in the early morning the crier adds, 'Prayer is better than sleep!' This formula appears to have been used by Bilâl, Mohammed's own crier, on the establishment of the first mosque in Medînah. It is called the aDHân or 'call.' The word 'mosque' is a corruption of masgid, 'a place of adoration' (sigdah), and is applied to the whole precincts of a Muslim place of worship. Another name is gâmi’h, 'the assembling,' especially applied to a cathedral mosque. The mosques are always open for public prayers, but on Fridays a special service is held, followed by a 'Hutbah or 'homily.' Another of the duties incumbent on every believer p. lxxiii is that of fasting between dawn and sunset throughout Rama.dhân, the ninth month of the Muslim year. The fast is a most rigorous one, not even a drop of water being allowed to pass the lips even when Rama.dhân occurs in the hot season. Only the sick and infirm are allowed exemption. One night between the twenty-first and twenty-ninth of Rama.dhân, the exact date being uncertain, is called the Lailat el Qadr or 'night of power;' in it the Qur’ân was said to have been revealed 1.

One night between the twenty-first and twenty-ninth of Rama.dhân, the exact date being uncertain, is called the Lailat el Qadr or 'night of power;' in it the Qur’ân was said to have been revealed 1. Zakât, 'almsgiving 2' or 'poor rate,' must be given either in money, stock, or goods, and consists of the bestowal in charity of about one-fortieth of all such property as shall have been a year in the owner's possession. In Mohammed's time the zakât was a contribution by his followers to the expenses of the war against the infidels. Sadaqah is the name applied to any charitable gifts beyond that prescribed by law, especially to the offerings on the ’hîd al fitr, or 'feast of breaking fast,' at the expiration of Rama.dhân. Waqf is a religious bequest or endowment. The ‘Hagg or 'pilgrimage,' the last of the five incumbent practices of the religion, is a very ancient institution, and one which, as we have seen, Mohammed could not, if he would, have abolished. The ceremonies observed during the season of the pilgrimage are as follows: Arrived at the last of the mîqât, or six stages in the immediate vicinity of Mecca, the pilgrim divests himself of his ordinary clothes and assumes the i‘hrâm or 'garb of sanctity.' This consists of two wrappers without seams, one of which is bound round the waist, and the other thrown loosely over the shoulders, the head being left uncovered. After putting on this it is unlawful to anoint the head, shave this or any other part of the body, pare the nails, or wear any other garment than the i'hrâm.

p. lxxiv On reaching Mecca he performs the legal ablutions, proceeds to the Sacred Mosque, and having saluted the 'black stone,' makes the tawâf or circuit of the Kaabah seven times, three times quickly and four times at a slow walk. He then visits the Maqâm Ibrâhîm or Abraham's station, and afterwards returns and kisses the black stone. Passing through the gate of the haram leading to Mount Zafâ, he runs seven times between the summit of that hill and that of Merwah 1. On the eighth day, called tarwî‘h, the pilgrims assemble in the valley of Minâ, where they pass the night. As soon as morning prayers are over they 'rush tumultuously' to Mount Arafât, stay there until sunset, and then proceed to a place called Muzdalifeh, where they again pass the night. The next day is the ’Hîd al Az‘hâ, when the pilgrims again repair to the valley of Minâ, and go through the ceremony of throwing stones at three pillars, called Gamrah. This is in commemoration of Abraham, or, as some say, of Adam, who, meeting the devil at the same spot, drove him away with stones. The next ceremony is the sacrifice of some animal, a camel, sheep, or goat, in Minâ; after which they divest themselves of the pilgrim garb and get themselves shaved, their nails pared, &c. The pilgrim should then rest at Mecca for the three following days, the âiyâm et tasrîq or 'days of drying up,' scil. the blood of the sacrifices.

The pilgrim should then rest at Mecca for the three following days, the âiyâm et tasrîq or 'days of drying up,' scil. the blood of the sacrifices. The sacrifice is said to have been instituted in commemoration of Abraham's proposed sacrifice of his son Ishmael (not Isaac as in the Bible) in accordance with the divine command. The pilgrimage must be performed from the seventh to the tenth of the month DHu’l ‘Higgeh. A visit at any other time of the year is termed ’Homrah, 'visitation,' and though meritorious, has not the same weight as the ‘Hagg itself. p. lxxv The Kaabah is revisited before the pilgrim leaves Mecca, and the ceremony of the Tawâf again performed. From Mecca the pilgrim proceeds to Medînah to visit the tomb of the prophet. He is then entitled to assume the title of El ‘Hâgg (in Persian and Hindustânî corrupted into ‘Hâgî.). It is worth remarking that the word ‘Hagg is identical with the Hebrew word used in Exodus x. 9, where the reason assigned for the departure of the Israelites is that they may 'hold a feast (‘hagg) unto the Lord' in the wilderness. Islâm inculcates the doctrine of predestination every act of every living being having been written down from all eternity in the Lau’h el Ma’hfûth, 'the preserved tablet.' This predestination is called taqdîr, 'meting out,' or qismeh, 'apportioning.' The reconciliation of such a doctrine with the exercise of free-will, and the difficulty, if it be accepted, of avoiding the ascription of evil as well as good to God. have furnished materials for never-ending disputes amongst Muslim theologians, and have given rise to innumerable heresies. As the present introduction is only intended to furnish the reader with the necessary information to enable him to understand the Qur’ân and its system, I will not dwell upon these and kindred matters which belong to the later history of the creed.

One of the greatest blots on El Islâm is that it keeps the women in a state of degradation, and therefore effectually prevents the progress of any race professing the religion. For this Mohammed is only so far responsible that he accepted without question the prevalent opinion of his time. which was not in favour of allowing too great freedom to women, so that when he had ameliorated their condition by modifying the unjust laws of divorce, by enjoining kindness and equity upon his followers in the treatment of their wives, and by sternly repressing the barbarous custom of female infanticide, he thought, no doubt, that he had done enough for them. Similarly he provided for the better and kinder treatment of slaves, but it' could never enter his mind that slavery was in itself a wrong or impolitic institution. p. lxxvi [paragraph continues] The real fault lies in the unelastic nature of the religion: in his desire to shield it from change and to prevent his followers from 'dividing into sects,' the founder has made it impossible for Islâm to throw off certain customs and restrictions which, however convenient and even necessary to the Arabs at the time, became grievous and unsuitable for other nations at distant periods and in distant lands. The institution of the ‘Hagg pilgrimage, for example, was an admirable one for consolidating the Arab tribes, but it is burdensome and useless to the Muslim communities now that they extend over nearly half the civilized world.

That Mohammed had a due respect for the female sex, as far as was consistent with the prevailing state of education and opinion, is evident both from his own faithful affection to his first wife ‘Hadîgah, and from the fact that 'believing women' are expressly included in the promises of a reward in the future life which the Qur’ân makes to all who acknowledge one God and do good works. The language of the Qur’ân is universally acknowledged to be the most perfect form of Arab speech. The Qurâis, as the guardians of the national temple and the owners of the territory in which the great fairs and literary festivals of all Arabia were held, would naturally absorb into their own dialect many of the words and locutions of other tribes, and we should consequently expect their language to be more copious and elegant than that of their neighbours. At the same time we must not forget that the acknowledged claims of the Qur’ân to be the direct utterance of the divinity have made it impossible for any Muslim to criticise the work, and it became, on the contrary, the standard by which other literary compositions had to be judged. Grammarians, lexicographers, and rhetoricians started with the presumption that the Qur’ân could not be wrong, and other works therefore only approached excellence in proportion as they, more or less, successfully imitated its style. Regarding it, however, from a perfectly impartial and unbiassed standpoint, we find that it

p. lxxvii expresses the thoughts and ideas of a Bedawî Arab in Bedawî language and metaphor. The language is noble and forcible, but it is not elegant in the sense of literary refinement. To Mohammed's hearers it must have been startling, from the manner in which it brought great truths home to them in the language of their every-day life. There was nothing antiquated in the style or the words, no tricks of speech, pretty conceits, or mere poetical embellishments; the prophet spoke with rude, fierce eloquence in ordinary language. The only rhetorical ornament he allowed himself was that of making his periods more or less rhythmical, and most of his clauses rhyme,--a thing that was and still is natural to an Arab orator, and the necessary outcome of the structure of the Arabic tongue 1. It is often difficult to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the old Arab poets, Mohammed's contemporaries or immediate predecessors, because we cannot completely realise the feelings that actuated them or identify ourselves with the society in which they moved. For this reason they have always something remote and obsolete about them, however clear their language and meaning may be. With the Qur’ân it is not so. Mohammed speaks with a living voice, his vivid word-painting brings at once before the mind the scene he describes or conjures up, we can picture his very attitude when, having finished some marvellously told story of the days of yore, uttered some awful denunciation, or given some glorious promise, he pauses suddenly and says, with bitter disappointment, 'These are the true stories, and there is no god but God and yet ye turn aside!'

To translate this worthily is a most difficult task. To imitate the rhyme and rhythm would be to give the English an artificial ring from which the Arabic is quite free; and the same objection lies against using the phraseology of our authorised version of the Bible: to render it by fine or stilted language would be quite as foreign to the spirit of p. lxxviii the original: while to make it too rude or familiar would be to err equally on the other side. I have, therefore, endeavoured to take a middle course; I have translated each sentence as literally as the difference in structure between the two languages would allow, and when possible I have rendered it word for word. Where a rugged or commonplace expression occurs in the Arabic I have not hesitated to render it by a similar English one, even where a literal rendering may perhaps shock the reader. To preserve this closeness of rendering, I have had in several instances to make use of English constructions which, if not incorrect from a strictly grammatical point of view, are, I am aware, often inelegant. Thus a peculiarity of the Arabic is to use the same preposition with a passive verb as the active and transitive verb required; for instance, ghaẓaba ’halâihi, 'he was angered against him,' in the passive, ghuẓiba ’halâihi, 'he was angered-against,' and the preservation of this construction is often absolutely necessary to retain the force of the original.

An instance of this occurs in the Opening Chapter, where the words ellaDHîna an’hamta ’halâihim, ghâiral maghẓûbi ’halâihim are rendered, 'of those thou art gracious to, not of those thou art wroth with;' in Sale's translation, 'of those to whom thou hast been gracious, not of those against whom thou art incensed;' the placing the preposition before the verb gives a completely different ring to the English to that of the Arabic, to say nothing of the absence of that colloquial freedom which distinguishes the original. I have, as far as possible, rendered an Arabic word by the same English word wherever it occurs; in some cases, however, where the Arabic word has more than one signification, or where it would distort the sense to retain the same expression, I have not scrupled to alter it. Some of the Arabic words that occur in the Qur’ân are ambiguous, and have given rise to numerous differences of opinion among commentators. Thus the word istawâ is applied to God, and is interpreted in some passages to p. lxxix mean 'he directed himself by his will to the heaven' (Lane), and in others to mean 'he stood straight or erect' (Lane). The expression occurs often in the Qur’ân as descriptive of God's taking up a certain position with regard to the throne or highest heaven, and Muslim theologians have never ceased to debate concerning the exact nature of this position. El Ghazzâli says that He 'istawâ' upon the throne in the manner he has himself described, and in the sense He himself means, but not by actual contact or local situation, while the throne itself is sustained by Him. To render it then by 'sitting' or 'ascending' would be to adopt a particular view of a very debatable question, and to give to the Arabic word a precision of meaning which it does not possess. The root of the word contains the notions of 'equality of surface' or 'uniformity,' of 'making' or 'fashioning,' and of 'being or going straight.' I have, therefore, adopted a rendering which has a similar confusion of significations, and translated it 'made for,' as in Chapter II, ver. 27, 'He made for the heavens.' Where no question can arise concerning its interpretation, as, for instance, when it is used of a rider balancing himself on the back of his camel, I have rendered it simply 'settled 1.'

The notes that I have appended are only such as are absolutely necessary for understanding the text; for a full account of all the historical allusions, Arabic, Jewish, and Magian legends, with which the native commentators illustrate the Qur’ân, the reader is referred to the notes in Sale's translation. The version of that eminent scholar fully deserves the consideration it has so long enjoyed, but from the large amount of exegetical matter which he has incorporated in his text, and from the style of language employed, which differs widely from the nervous energy and rugged simplicity of the original, his work can scarcely be regarded as a fair representation of the Qur’ân. Rodwell's version approaches nearer to the Arabic, but even in that there is too much assumption of the literary p. lxxx style. The arrangement of the Sûrahs in chronological order, too, though a help to the student, destroys the miscellaneous character of the book, as used by the Muslims, and as Mohammed's successors left it. In my rendering I have, for the most part, kept to the interpretation of the Arabic commentator Bâi.dhâvî, and have only followed my own opinion in certain cases where a word or expression, quite familiar to me from my experience of every-day desert life, appeared to be somewhat strained by these learned schoolmen. Chapter XXII, ver. 64, is an instance in which a more simple rendering would be preferable, though I have only ventured to suggest it in a note 1.

I am fully sensible of the shortcomings of my own version, but if I have succeeded in my endeavour to set before the reader plainly what the Qur’ân is, and what it contains, my aim will have been accomplished. E. H. PALMER. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, March, 1880. xiii:1 Genesis xxviii. 13-19. xvi:1 See Qur’ân II, 129. xx:1 In Arabic iqra’; a great difference of opinion exists even among Mohammedans about the exact meaning of this word. I have followed the most generally accepted tradition that it has its ordinary signification of 'reading,' and this is supported by the reference immediately afterwards to writing; others take it to mean 'recite!' Sprenger imagines it to mean 'read the Jewish and Christian scriptures,' which, however ingenious, is, as an Arab would say, bârid, singularly frigid and foreign to the spirit of the language. xxii:1 Sûrah LXXIV, 1-7. xxix:1 See Part I, p. 74, note 2. xxix:2 See Chapter XXXIII, ver. 36, note. xxxviii:1 See Chapter III, vers. 115-168. xxxix:1 Chapter XXXIII. xl:1 See Chapter LXVI. lii:1 See note to vol. ii, p. 110, of Burton's 'Pilgrimage to El Medina and Mecca. lvi:1 Geschichte des Qorâns, p. 43. lvi:2 Mohammed may well have repudiated the charge of being a poet, for he is only credited with one verse, and that an involuntary one: Ana ’nnabîyu lâ KaDHib; Ana ’bnu ‘Abd el Muttalib. I am the prophet who lies not; I am the son of Abd el Muttalib.'

lxii:1 See Part II, p. 13, note 1. lxvi:1 See my Arabic Grammar, p. 256. lxvii:1 See Chapter VII, ver. 179. lxix:1 See Part I, p. 13, note 2. lxix:2 Mâlik is evidently identical with Moloch, as Gehennum, hell, is the same as the Gehenna of the Bible. lxix:3 See Part I, p. 138, note 1. lxix:4 See Chapter II, ver. 32. lxx:1 See above, p. xxx. lxx:2 Cf. Chapter XV, ver. 44. lxxi:1 See Part II, p. 25. lxxii:1 'The lowering of the head, by a person praying [or in prayer], after the act of standing, in which the recitation [of portions of the Ḳur-án] is performed, so that the palms of the hand reach the knees, or so that the back becomes depressed,' Lane's Arabic-English Lexicon. lxxiii:1 Cf. Chapter XCVII, ver. 1. lxxiii:2 The word originally meant 'purity.' lxxiv:1 See p. xiii and Chapter II, ver. 153. lxxvii:1 How natural this was to an Arab may be inferred from the anecdote related in Part I, note 2, p. 126; see also p. lv. lxxix:1 See Chapter XLIII, ver. 12. lxxx:1 See Part II, p. 63, note.