The Speeches & Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad by Muhammad ibn 'Abd Allah (classic english novels TXT) 📕
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When God created Paradise, He said to Gabriel, “Go and look at it,” then Gabriel went and looked at it and at the things which God had prepared for the people of it. After that Gabriel came and said, “O my Lord! I swear by thy glory no one will hear a description of Paradise but will be ambitious of entering it.” After that God surrounded Paradise with distress and troubles, and said, “O Gabriel, go and look at Paradise.” And he went and looked, and then returned and said, “O my Lord, I fear that verily no one will enter it.” And when God created Hell Fire He said to Gabriel, “Go and take a look at it.” And he went and looked at it, and returned and said, “O my Lord, I swear by thy glory that no one who shall hear a description of Hell Fire will wish to enter it.” Then God surrounded it with sins, desires, and vices, after that said to Gabriel, “Go and look at Hell Fire,” and he went and looked at it, and said, “O my Lord, I swear by thy glory I am afraid that every one will enter Hell, because sins are so sweet that there is none but will incline to them.”
If ye knew what I know of the condition of the resurrection and futurity, verily ye would weep much and laugh little.
Then I said, “O messenger of God! shall we perish while the virtuous are amongst us?” He said, Yes, when the wickedness shall be excessive, verily there will be tribes of my sects that will consider the wearing of silks and drinking liquor lawful, and will listen to the lute: and there will be men with magnificent houses, and their milch animals will come to them in the evening, full of milk, and a man will come begging a little and they will say, Come to-morrow. Then God will quickly send a punishment upon them, and will change others into the shape of monkeys and swine, unto the Day of Resurrection.
Verily among the signs of the Resurrection will be the taking away of knowledge from amongst men; and their being in great ignorance and much wickedness and much drinking of liquor, and diminution of men, and there being many women; to such a degree that there will be fifty women to one man, and he will work for a livelihood for the women.
How can I be happy, when Isrāfīl hath put the trumpet to his mouth to blow it, leaning his ear towards the true God for orders, and hath already knit his brow, waiting in expectation of orders to blow it?
The hearts of men are at the disposal of God like unto one heart, and He turneth them about in any way that He pleaseth. O Director of hearts, turn our hearts to obey Thee.
The first thing which God created was a pen, and He said to it, “Write.” It said, “What shall I write?” And God said, “Write down the quantity of every separate thing to be created.” And it wrote all that was and all that will be to eternity.
There is not one among you whose sitting-place is not written by God whether in the fire or in Paradise. The Companions said, “O Prophet! since God hath appointed our place, may we confide in this and abandon our religious and moral duty?” He said, “No, because the happy will do good works, and those who are of the miserable will do bad works.”
The Prophet of God said that Adam and Moses (in the world of spirits) maintained a debate before God, and Adam got the better of Moses; who said, “Thou art that Adam whom God created by the power of His hands, and breathed into thee from His own spirit, and made the angels bow before thee, and gave thee an habitation in His own Paradise: after that thou threwest man upon the earth, from the fault which thou committedst.” Adam said, “Thou art that Moses whom God elected for His prophecy, and to converse with, and He gave to thee twelve tables, in which are explained everything, and God made thee His confidant, and the bearer of His secrets: then how long was the Bible written before I was created?” Moses said, “Forty years.” Then Adam said, “Didst thou see in the Bible that Adam disobeyed God?” He said, “Yes.” Adam said, “Dost thou then reproach me on a matter which God wrote in the Bible forty years before creating me?”
'Aïsha relates that the Prophet said to her, “Do you know, O 'Aïsha! the excellence of this night?” (the fifteenth of Ramadān.) I said, “What is it, O Prophet?” He said, “One thing in this night is, that all the children of Adam to be born in the year are written down; and also those who are to die in it, and all the actions of the children of Adam are carried up to heaven in this night; and their allowances are sent down.” Then I said, “O Prophet, do none enter Paradise except by God’s mercy?” He said, “No, none enter except by God’s favour:” this he said thrice. I said, “You, also, O Prophet! will you not enter into Paradise, excepting by God’s compassion?” Then the Prophet put his hand on his head, and said, “I shall not enter, except God cover me with His mercy:” this he said thrice.
A man asked the Prophet what was the mark whereby a man might know the reality of his faith. He said, “If thou derive pleasure from the good which thou hast done, and be grieved for the evil which thou hast committed, thou art a true believer.” The man said, “What doth a fault really consist in?” He said, “When anything pricketh thy conscience forsake it.”
I am no more than man: when I order you anything with respect to religion, receive it, and when I order you about the affairs of the world then I am nothing more than man.
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:—
The effect of which may be thus roughly preserved in English:—
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.
P. 5. The Country.—The two highways: the steep one to heaven, and the smooth one to hell.
P. 6. The people of the right hand—those that receive the book of the record of their actions in their right hand—the blessed. Contrariwise—the people of the left hand—the damned.
P. 7. The Smiting.—One of many similar names for the Day of Judgment. The Bottomless Pit, “El-Hāwiyeh,” is the lowest stage of the Hell of the Korān.
P. 8. The Quaking.—Burdens, i.e. the dead. Her tidings: “The tidings of the earth are these—she will bear witness to the actions of every man and woman done upon her surface.”—Tradition of Mohammad.
P. 9. The Rending Asunder.—Reporters: two angels who note respectively the good and the evil deeds and words of every man.
P. 13. The Backbiter.—This speech is said to have been levelled at a personal enemy.
Blasting Hell, “El-Hutameh,” is the third stage of the Mohammadan Inferno.
P. 14. The Splendour of Morning.—Evidently uttered in a time of despondency and with the intention of self-encouragement.
P. 15. The Most High.—The books of eld. Mohammad asserted that his doctrine was a revival of the religion of Abraham and the patriarchs, as it was before the Jews corrupted it.
P. 17. The Wrapping.—A simile from the wrapping of a head in a turban.
Camels ten months gone with young were the Arabs’ most valuable property.
The child that was buried alive. Infanticide of female children was among the crimes of the ancient Arab.
The Books—in which men’s actions are recorded.
Stars that hide, i.e. that set; or, as others say, “that retrogress,” i.e. the planets.
P. 18. Mad. The people commonly believed Mohammad to be possessed with a jinni (or genius).
Pelted devil. The evil jinn or devils are supposed to act the eavesdropper on the confines of heaven, and to be driven away by shooting stars.
A reminder, scil., of the true religion of Abraham and the prophets, which men had forgotten. Cf. Lane: Selections from the Kur-ān, lxxxi. 15, 47, 48 (2d ed., Trübner’s Oriental Series).
P. 19. The News.—One of the many names which Mohammad employed to bring home to his people the reality and fearfulness of the Last Day.
Tent-pegs. Mountains were believed to keep the earth steady, as pegs do a tent.
P. 22. The Fact.—One of the names of the Last Day: the event which must inevitably happen.
Abasing the sinners, and
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