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9
REESE
LIBRARY
F THE
UNIVERSITY
CALIFORNIA
THE QUR'A N.
THE CHAPTER OF THE NIGHT JOURNEY1. (XVII. Mecca.)
IN the name of the merciful and compassionate God.
Celebrated be the praises of Him who took His servant a journey by night from the Sacred Mosque to the Remote Mosque 3, the precinct of which we have blessed, to show him of our signs! verily, He both hears and looks.
And we gave Moses the Book and made it a guidance to the children of Israel: 'Take ye to no guardian but me.'
Seed of those we bore with Noah (in the ark)! verily, he was a thankful servant!
And we decreed to the children of Israel in the Book, 'Ye shall verily do evil in the earth twice, and ye shall rise to a great height (of pride).'
1 Also called 'The Children of Israel.' The subject of Mohammed's miraculous journey in one night from Mecca to Jerusalem, and his ascent into heaven, will be found discussed in the Introduction. 2 The Kaabah at Mecca. The Temple at Jerusalem.
The Mohammedan commentators interpret this as referring the first to either Goliath, Sennacherib, or Nebuchadnezzar, and the latter to a second Persian invasion. The two sins committed by. the Jews, and for which these punishments were threatened and executed, were, first, the murder of Isaiah and the imprisonment of Jeremiah, and the second, the murder of John the Baptist. Mohammedan views of ancient history are, however, vague.
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