_______________________
1 This Sura is said to have been termed by Muhammad "the heart of the Koran." It is recited in all Muhammadan countries to the dying, at the tombs of saints, etc. On Ya. Sin, see Sura lxviii. p. 32.
2 Sura xxxviii. 85, p. 129.
3 Lit. in the clear prototype, that is, in the Preserved Table, on which all the actions of mankind are written down.
4 Antioch, to which Jesus is said to have sent two disciples to preach the unity of God, and subsequently Simon Peter. This vague story, and that of the seven sleepers in Sura xviii. are the only traces to be found in the Koran of any knowledge, on the part of Muhammad, of the history of the Church subsequent to the day of Pentecost, or of the spread of the Christian religion.
5 Comp. Sura xxvii. 48; vii. 128, where, as in this passage, the word augur refers to the mode of divination practised previous to Islam, by the flight of birds.
6 Lit. if ye have been warned (will ye still disbelieve?).
7 Habib, the carpenter, who, as implied at verse 25, was martyred, and whose tomb at Antioch is still an object of veneration to the Muhammadans.
8 Ullm. following Wahl, renders, Als sie (die stadtlente) darauf ihn schändlich behandleten. The verb in the original is thus used in the 4th conj. Nöldeke supposes that words to this effect have been lost from the text. But of this there is no trace in the Commentators.
9 Or, the Apostles shall not return to them again. Ullm.