The outstrippers, i.e. those who are the first to adopt the true religion—the prophets and apostles, who shall be rewarded by being allowed to stand nearest to God in the next world. The following fifteen lines describe their happy fate; after which, fourteen refer to the people of the right hand, or ordinary believers; and then seventeen lines to the people of the left hand, or damned.
P. [24]. Zakkūm: A thorny tree with a bitter fruit, which grows up from the bottomless pit.
P. [26]. Preserved Book.—Mohammad taught that every “revelation” in the Korān was but a transcript from the pages of a great book, known as the “Mother of the Book,” “preserved” under the throne of God. The sentence, Let none touch it but the purified, is commonly inscribed upon the cover of the Korān.
Those brought nearest, i.e. the outstrippers, or prophets.
P. [27]. The Merciful.—Then which of the bounties, etc. A refrain or burden of this kind is rare in the Korān, and is in no other instance so often repeated. The twain are mankind and the jinn (or genii). “Jinn,” it may be remarked, is a plural, and the singular is “jinni” (a genius), for the masculine, and “jinnīyeh” for the feminine.
The two Easts. The rising-places of the sun in summer and winter; the two Wests, the corresponding setting-places.
P. [28]. Two notables, or “weighty ones,” i.e. men and jinn.
P. [32]. The Unity.—This profession of faith is held by Muslims to be equal in value to a third of the whole Korān.