The Mekka Speeches — II — The Rhetorical Period
P. 39. The Kingdom. Say: i.e. God bids Mohammad say. It must never be forgotten that Mohammad is only supposed to recite what God wrote in the Preserved Book (see note to p. 26) before the world began.
P. 41. The Moon.—Sign, i.e. miracle, which Mohammad insistently declared his inability to work.
The Summoner: the archangel Isrāfīl.
Called it a lie, i.e. denied the doctrine of one God and of a Day of Judgment.
P. 42. Ad: an ancient Arab people, destroyed in prehistoric days. See Lane: Selections from the Kur-ān, 60-62.
Thamūd: another tribe, which experienced a similar fate. See Lane, ibid.
P. 45. K.—As to the meaning of this letter of the Arabic alphabet, which gives a title to this speech, in the words of the Muslim commentator, “God alone knoweth what He meaneth by it.”
A warner from among themselves. The Mekkans were offended that an angel was not sent to them as an apostle, instead of a mere man.
Marvellous thing: the Resurrection.
P. 46. The people of Tubba’: the Himyarites of Arabia Felix.
A driver and a witness.—Two angels, who are supposed to carry on the ensuing colloquy with God.
P. 48. A tyrant.—Mohammad was sent to warn, not to compel the obedience and faith of his people.
P. 49. Y. S.—See note to K above, and to p. 87 below.
P. 50. Plain Exemplar: the Preserved Book, mentioned above (note to p. 26).
P. 51. Enter into Paradise: the people had stoned him to death.
P. 52. Her resting-place.—The sun is feminine in Arabic, and the moon masculine.
P. 55. Poetry.—It was a common charge against Mohammad that he was a mad poet.
P. 57. The Children of Israel, otherwise called The Night Journey, from the reference in the first verse to a dream in which Mohammad saw himself carried from the Kaaba (the Sacred Mosque) at Mekka, to the Temple (the Furthest Mosque) at Jerusalem; upon which Mohammadan theologians have raised a noble superstructure of fable. The first verse is probably later than the rest. The two sins and punishments of the Jews have also greatly exercised the commentators’ minds. What they were Mohammad probably did not very precisely know himself.
P. 60. The son of the road, i.e. the traveller.
P. 61. A just cause: apostacy, adultery, or murder.
P. 62. Daughters from among the angels.—The Arabs worshipped the angels and jinn as daughters of God; and it is against this polytheism and blasphemous relationship that Mohammad protests, whilst he never denies but contrariwise admits the existence of such spirits. Further on (p. 64) he refers to these angels and other Arabian divinities, as beings who are not to be invoked, since they can have no influence for good or ill, and who themselves are in hope and fear of God’s mercy and torment, like human beings. It should be noticed that hitherto Mohammad has directed his preaching against disbelief in the One God, but has not pointedly attacked the idolatry of the Mekkans. In Y. S., however, he begins to speak of other gods (p. 55), and in the Third or Argumentative Period, the angels and jinn which the Mekkans worshipped, and represented in the shape of idols, are frequently denounced, especially under the name of Partners (see pp. 76, 84, 90, 92, 93, 97, 98, 103, 106, etc.)
P. 65. The accursed tree: Zakkūm, see note to p. 24. The full Koranic history of Adam and Eve, and how Iblīs, the father of the devils, refused to do homage to the father of mankind, may be read in Lane’s Selections, pp. 49-52.
P. 67. Well-nigh tempted: referring apparently to an inclination of Mohammad to temporize with idolatry on a special occasion.
P. 68. The Spirit: Gabriel, the teacher of Mohammad, and the bearer of revelations from God to His prophet.
P. 71. Call upon God, or call upon the Merciful.—Mohammad’s use of two general names for God had apparently caused some confusion among the faithful, which this verse removed.
The “Children of Israel” speech is especially important, since it contains more definite regulations of conduct than any other of the orations delivered at Mekka.
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