[121] Qur’ān, chap. lxxxv., the name of which literally means ”the Towers,” but is also applied to the Signs of the Zodiac. These Christians were the people of Nejrān in south-western Arabia; their persecutor Dhū-Nuwās, a Jew, king of Yaman, some time before Muhammed.
[122] “Gardens beneath which rivers flow” is a frequently recurring expression in the Qur’ān. Some have special names.
[123] See Qur’ān xxxv. 29: “Then we caused” thee “to inherit the Scripture.“
[124] In Qur’ān ii. 132, Islām is termed ”God’s Baptism.“In ii. 156, and again in vii. 42, and xi. 21, “God’s curse” is invoked on sinners.
[125] This is the story alluded to in Qur’ān lxxxv., quoted above. In traditions, Dhū-Nuwās was the name of the Jewish king of Yaman, who burnt the Christians of Nejrān in a fiery trench on their refusing to forsake their faith. The idol is imaginary; from Nebuchadnezzar.
[126] Qur’ān xvi. 41; xxxvii. 72; xl. 76; speaks of the “Gates of Hell;” and a commentary to the last says they are held to be seven.
[127] Abū-Jahl was a surname given by Muhammed to one of his most inveterate enemies of the Quraysh, killed at Badr. The word means: “Father of Ignorance,” and here indicates fleshly pride. He had formerly borne the surname of Abū-’l-Hakem, which means: Father of the Arbitrator.
[128] In Qur’ān xxi. 69, is related the miracle by which Abraham was saved from the fire into which he was cast by Nimrod for his refusal to worship an image.
[129] The word “Muslim,” whence the corruption Moslem, means, in Arabic, “one who acquiesces in the truth and will of God.” As such, Muslims have existed under every dispensation.
[130] The creaking, leaky water-wheel, the Persian wheel, is well known in the East.