3 Or, they invent not (concerning Him). Comp. Rev. iv. 8.
4 Lit. they precede him not in speech.
5 Lit. before thee, which might seem to imply that the grant of immortality had been made to Muhammad. I have therefore rendered, as in the text, to avoid the ambiguity. Comp. Suras [xcvii.] iii. 182; [lxxxi.] xxix. 57, and Weil's Life of Mohammad, p. 350.
6 Comp. Matt. xvi. 28; Heb. ii. 9. Hist. Josephi Fabr. Lign. c. 22 at the end.
7 See the index under the word Man. The Rabbins teach that man was created with innate evil propensities. See Schr der's Talm. Rabb.- Judenthum, p. 378. 8 That is, my teaching as to the future lot of the infidels, etc.
9 Muhammad appeals to the rapid progress of Islam as a proof of his divine mission.
10 Ar. furquan-a derived by Muhammad from the Jews, constantly used in the Talmud, and meaning as in Syr. and Æth. deliverance, liberation. Thus, Sura viii. 29, 42, and hence, illumination, revelation, generally. The usual interpretation here and in other passages is the distinction, i.e. between good and evil, lawful and unlawful. The title is applied to the Koran and Pentateuch alike.
11 This story is taken in part verbatim from Midr. Rabbah on Gen. par. 17. See also Schalscheleth Hakabala, 2; Maimon de Idol. ch. 1; and Yad Hachazakah, vii. 6, who makes Abraham-in his 40th year-renounce star-worship, break images, escape the wrath of the king by a miracle, and preach that there is one God of the whole universe.
12 Lit. sie neigten sich nach ihren Kopfen. They were turned down upon their heads. Ullm. and Sale in notes. But Ullm. in the text, verfielen sie wieder in ihren Aberglauben.
13 The Rabbins make Nimrod to have been the persecutor of Abraham. Comp. Targ. Jon. on Gen. xv. 7. Tr. Bava Bathra, fol. 91 a. Maimon. More Nevochim, iii. 29. Weil, Legenden, p. 74.