________________
cxii
ABSTRACT OF THE CONTENTS
LIII. THE CHAPTER OF THE STAR. (Mecca.) Oath by the star' that Mohammed's vision of his ascent to heaven was not a delusion. Description of the same. The amended passage relating to Allât, El 'Huzzah, and Manât". Wickedness of asserting the angels to be females. God's omniscience. Rebuke of an apostate who paid another to take upon him his burden at the judgment day. Definition of the true religion, and enumeration of God's attributes.
LIV. THE CHAPTER OF THE MOON. (Mecca.) "The splitting asunder of the moon.' Mohammed accused of imposture. The Meccans warned by the stories of Noah and the deluge, of Thamad, the people of Sodom, and Pharaoh. The sure coming of the judgment.
LV. The CHAPTER OF THE MERCIFUL. (Mecca.) An enumeration of the works of the Lord, ending with a description of heaven and hell. A refrain runs throughout this chapter, * Which then of your Lord's bounties do ye twain deny?'
LVI. THE CHAPTER OF THE INEVITABLE. (Mecca.) Terrors of the inevitable day of judgment: description of heaven and hell. Proofs in nature. None but the clean may touch the Qur'ân. The condition of a dying man.
LVII. THE CHAPTER OF IRON. (Medînah.) God the controller of all nature. Exhortation to embrace Islâm. Those who do so before the taking of Mecca are to have the precedence. Discomfiture of the hypocrites and unbelievers at the last day. The powers vouchsafed to former apostles.
LVIII. THE CHAPTER OF THE WRANGLER. (Medînah.) Abolition of the idolatrous custom of divorcing women with the formula 'thou art to me as my mother's back.' God's omniscience and omnipresence: He knows the secret plottings of the disaffected. Discourse on the duties of true believers. Denunciation of those who oppose the Apostle.
LIX. THE CHAPTER OF THE EMIGRATION. (Medînah.) The chastisements of the Jews who would not believe in the
- See Introduction, pp. xxvi, xxvii.
Digized by Google
