SURA VII.-AL ARAF [LXXXVII.]
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Rodwell, J. M. (John Medows)
33 If these words, as Nöldeke supposes, contain an allusion to the Ansars, it is likely that this verse was added at Medina. The epithet Al-Ummy (the unlettered) does not, thus, occur in Meccan Suras.
34 The Koran.
35 Pirke R. Eliezer, 45, explains Ex. xxxii. 26, of the tribe of Levi, as not having been implicated with the other tribes in the sin of the golden calf.
36 The Jews changed hittat, absolution, indulgence, into habbat, corn.
37 This and the next six verses are supposed to have been added at Medina.
38 Comp. Sura [xci.] ii. 61. No trace of this legend is to be found in the Talmudists. The city is said to have been Aila (Elath) on the Red Sea.
39 Perhaps in allusion to Deut. xxviii. 49, 50.
40 As bribes to pervert Scripture, etc.
41 Sinai-which, however, is not mentioned in the Koran as the place where the law was given. Comp. "I will cover you with the mountain like a roof." Abodah Sar. 2, 2. Thus also in Tract Sabbath, f. 88, 1, "R. Avdimi . . . saith, These words teach us that the Holy One, blessed be He, turned the mountain over them like a vessel, and said to them, If ye will receive the law, well; but if not, there shall be your grave." This tradition is still held by the Jews. See D. Lewis Pent. Prayers, fol. 150. Its origin is a misunderstanding of Ex. xix. 17, rightly rendered in the E. version at the nether part of the mountain.
42 To the Jews.
43 Balaam. But according to others, a Jew who renounced his faith in Muhammad.
44 The 99 titles of God, taken from the Koran, are to be found in Maracci, vol. 11, p. 414, or in Macbride's Religion of the Mohammedans, p. 121. To facilitate the repetition of these names, the Muslims use a rosary.
45 In altering the names of God, changing allah into Allat, Elaziz into Alozza, Mennan into Menat, etc.
46 Lit. and in what declaration after it will they believe?
47 That is, it weighs heavily on the hopes and fears of men, djinn, and angels.
48 Probably the usual final clause, whence ye looked not for it, should here be added to make good the rhyme, which is otherwise interrupted in the original.
49 Some render salihan, well made, rightly shaped; others, virtuous, morally perfect.
50 And their idolatrous posterity. Beidh.
51 Take or use indulgence; i.e. take men and their actions as they are, and make all due allowances. Some understand it, of Muhammad's accepting such voluntary and superfluous alms as the people could spare.
52 That is, those under Satanic influence.
53 Collected or sought it out. Beidh.