206 The CORÂN

Note, that the Tourât is in this text again called "The Book of God,"— كتاب الله

CXXV.—SURA V., v. 68[59].

سورة المائدة

قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ هَلْ تَنقِمُونَ مِنَّا إِلاَّ أَنْ آمَنَّا بِاللّهِ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْنَا وَمَا أُنزِلَ مِن قَبْلُ وَأَنَّ أَكْثَرَكُمْ فَاسِقُونَ

Say,—O People of the Book! is there any other cause of your enmity against us, but that we believe in God, and in that which hath been revealed unto us, and in that which hath been revealed from before?—but the most of you are evil doers.

Mahomet and his followers were believers in that Scripture revealed before the Corân. No one therefore can make pretension to be a true disciple of the Prophet now, unless he also "believe in that which hath been revealed from before" the Corân.

CXXVI.—SURA V., v. 74[65-66].

سورة المائدة

وَلَوْ أَنَّ أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ آمَنُواْ وَاتَّقَوْاْ لَكَفَّرْنَا عَنْهُمْ سَيِّئَاتِهِمْ وَلأدْخَلْنَاهُمْ جَنَّاتِ النَّعِيمِ
وَلَوْ أَنَّهُمْ أَقَامُواْ التَّوْرَاةَ وَالإِنجِيلَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيهِم مِّن رَّبِّهِمْ لأكَلُواْ مِن فَوْقِهِمْ وَمِن تَحْتِ أَرْجُلِهِم مِّنْهُمْ أُمَّةٌ مُّقْتَصِدَةٌ وَكَثِيرٌ مِّنْهُمْ سَاء مَا يَعْمَلُونَ

TESTIMONY TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES 207

And if the People of the Book believe and fear God, we shall expiate their sins, and introduce them into gardens of delight: 
and if they set up (or observe) the Tourât and the Gospel and that which hath been revealed unto them from their Lord, they shall eat both from above, and from under their feet. Among them there is a righteous people, but evil is that which many of them do.

Note, that the "setting up" or "careful observance of the Tourât and of the Gospel," as well as of the Corân, by Jews and Christians, is insisted upon in this text as elsewhere. To the Jews and Christians who shall thus carefully maintain the ordinances of the Old and New Testaments, as well as of the Corân, the choicest blessings are here guaranteed:— pardon of sin; —entrance into gardens of delight;—an abundant provision "from above, and from beneath their feet." Some of these Jews and Christians are praised as a "righteous and upright people" (أمة مقتصدة) Would not such Jews and Christians act up to the description given of them by the Prophet, and hand down uncorrupted to their posterity those Sacred books by the careful observance of which they had merited so high a distinction and so rich a reward?

Alas! how differently from their Prophet do many of his followers in the present day, speak of these same Scriptures!

CXXVII.—SURA V., v. 77[68].

سورة المائدة

قُلْ يَا أَهْلَ الْكِتَابِ لَسْتُمْ عَلَى شَيْءٍ حَتَّىَ تُقِيمُواْ التَّوْرَاةَ وَالإِنجِيلَ وَمَا أُنزِلَ إِلَيْكُم مِّن رَّبِّكُمْ