48 THE MECCAN PERIOD

It needs not that I swear by the stars of retrograde motion,
Which move swiftly and hide themselves away,
And by the night when it cometh darkening up,
And by the dawn when it brighteneth,
That this is the word of an illustrious messenger,
Endued with power, having influence with our Lord of the throne,
Obeyed there by angels, faithful to his trust,
And your compatriot is not one possessed by jinn. Sura At-Takwir (lxxxi) 15-22.
The Qur'an is no other than a revelation revealed to him,
One terrible in power taught it him.1 Sura An-Najm (liii) 5.
It needs not that I swear by the setting of the stars,
And it is a great oath, if ye know it,
That this is the honourable Qur'an,
Written on the preserved table.
Let none touch it but the purified. Sura Al-Waqi'ah (lvi) 74-8.
We ourselves have sent down to thee the Qur'an as a missive from on high. Sura Ad-Dahr (lxxvi) 23.
By the luminous Book!
We have made it an Arabic Qur'an that ye may understand;
And it is a transcript of the archetypal Book 2 kept by us.

1 The commentators say that this is Gabriel.
2 ام الكتاب mother of the Book. Husain says:—
در اصل همة كتب سماوي يعنى در لوح محفوظ كة ايمن است از تغير
'The original of all the heavenly books is kept safe from change in the preserved table.' Tafsir-i-Husaini vol. ii, p. 300.
Baidawi calls it اصل الكتب السماوية —'the original of the heavenly books.' We are not told what the original language is, but only that it is 'lofty, wise,' which is interpreted to mean that it is the most glorious of books and that it is wise in its diction, perspicuous and not cancelled by any other.
DENIAL OF FORGERY 49

It is lofty, filled with wisdom. Sura Az-Zukhruf (xliii) 1-3.
And the infidels say, 'This Qur'an is a mere fraud of his own devising, and others have helped him with it, who had come hither by outrage and lie.'
And they say, 'Tales of the Ancients that he hath put in writing! and they were dictated to him morning and evening.'
Say: 'He hath sent it down who knoweth the secrets of the Heavens and of the Earth.'
Then said the Apostle, 'O my Lord! truly my people have esteemed this Qur'an to be vain babbling.' Sura Al-Furqan (xxv) 5-7, 32.
Will they say, he has forged it? Nay it is the truth from the Lord that thou mayest warn a people to whom no warner hath come before thee, that haply they may be guided. Sura As-Sajdah (xxxii) 2.
Say, the Holy Spirit hath brought it down
With truth from thy Lord. Sura An-Nahl (xvi) 104.

Sura Az-Zumar (xxxix) was probably revealed about the time of the first flight to Abyssinia. It emphasizes the statement that the Qur'an came direct from God, and records the terrifying effect of such a mode of revelation:—

We have sent down to thee this book with the truth, serve thou God then. 2.
The best of recitals hath God sent down, a book in unison with itself, and teaching by iteration.1 The very skins of those who fear the Lord do creep at it. 24.
1 The expression مثانى (literally by twos, in pairs,) is translated by Sale as 'containing repeated (admonition); 'by Palgrave and by Palmer as 'repeating;' by Rodwell as in the text See Sura Al-Hijr (xv) 87, and the note thereon in Rodwell's Qur'an, p. 126. An Urdu translation gives ايكث مدعا كئى طرح تقرير كيا —' a claimant narrated in diverse ways.' The same word is used in Sura Al-Hijr (xv) 87, 'we have already given thee the seven verses of repetition' (مثانى ). This refers to the seven verses of Sura Al-Fatihah which are to be repeated frequently.
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