But the sinners will we drive unto Hell, like flocks driven to the watering. None shall have power to intercede, save he who hath received permission at the hands of the God of Mercy. They say: "The God of Mercy hath gotten offspring." Now have ye done a monstrous thing! Almost might the very Heavens be rent thereat, and the Earth cleave asunder, and the mountains fall down in fragments, That they ascribe a son to the God of Mercy, when it beseemeth not the God of Mercy to beget a son! Verily there is none in the Heavens and in the Earth but shall approach the God of Mercy as a servant. He hath taken note of them, and numbered them with exact numbering: And each of them shall come to Him, on the day of Resurrection, singly: But love will the God of Mercy vouchsafe to those who believe and do the things that be right. Verily we have made this Koran easy and in thine own tongue, that thou mayest announce glad tidings by it to the God-fearing, and that thou mayest warn the contentious by it. How many generations have we destroyed before them! Canst thou search out one of them? or canst thou hear a whisper from them? _______________________ 1 Comp. the first 37 verses of this Sura with Sura iii. 35-57 with reference to the different style adopted by Muhammad in the later Suras, probably for the purpose of avoiding the imputation of his being merely a poet, a sorcerer, or person possessed. Sura lii. 29, 30; xxi. 5; lxviii. 2, 51. This Sura is one of the fullest and earliest Koranic Gospel Histories, and was recited to the Nagash or King of Æthiopia, in the presence of the ambassadors of the Koreisch. His. 220; Caussin, i. 392; Sprenger (Life of M.) p. 193. 2 See Sura lxviii. I, p. 32. Golius conjectured that these letters represent coh ya'as, thus he counselled, and that they were added by some Jewish scribe. Sprenger (Journ. of As. Soc. of Bengal, xx. 280) arranges them as Ain, Sad, Kaf, Ha, Ya, and supposes them to be taken from the Arabic words for Aisa (Jesus) of the Nazarenes, King of the Jews. But we can hardly imagine that Muhammad would ascribe such a title to our Lord, and the word which Dr. Sprenger uses for Jews is not the form peculiar to the Koran. 3 Lest they should desert the worship of the God of Israel. 4 Ar. Yahia. It may be true that the name in this form had never been given. Otherwise, we have in this passage a misunderstanding of Luke i. 61, as well as ignorance of the Jewish Scriptures. Comp. 2 Kings xxv. 23; 1 Chron. iii. 16; Ezra viii. 12; Jerem. xl. 8. Some commentators try to avoid the difficulty by rendering samiyan, deserving of the name. 5 Or, with firm resolve. See Sura [xcvii.] iii. 36. The speaker is God. 6 To an eastern chamber in the temple to pray. Or it may mean, to some place eastward from Jerusalem, or from the house of her parents. 7 Thus the Protev. Jac. c. 12 says that Mary, although at a later period, [greek text] But Wahl, she laid aside her veil. 8 Gabriel.