2 By the Persians; probably in Palestine in the 6th year before the Hejira, under Khosrou Parviz. (Ann. 615. See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, ch. xlvi.) The sympathies of Muhammad would naturally be enlisted on the side of the Christians rather than on that of the idolatrous fire-worshippers, with whom Islam had nothing in common.
3 This alludes to the defeat of the Persians by Heraclius, ann. 625. The Muhammadans appeal to this passage as a clear proof of the inspiration of their prophet. But it should be borne in mind that the vowel points of the consonants of the Arabic word for defeated in verse 1, not being originally written, and depending entirely on the speaker or reader, would make the prophecy true in either event, according as the verb received an active or passive sense in pronunciation. The whole passage was probably constructed with the view of its proving true in any event.
4 Comp. Psalm xc. 30, in the Arabic version.
5 The Talmudists apply the description of God of the sender of the rain to the divine command which shall cause the dead to arise. Taanith (init.).
6 Lit. from yourselves, i.e. either from the side of Adam or of human, and of no other kind of being. Beidh.
7 By worshipping idols conjointly with God.
8 Lit. as a Hanyf. See note on the preceding Sura, 121, p. 209.
9 Peculiar to and distinctive of themselves. Muhammad had a just appreciation of that narrowness of mind which is the characteristic of sectarians in every age, who seize upon some one point of truth, through inability to grasp the whole in its due proportions and bearing, and glory in it, as if the fragment were the whole.
10 Comp. Ps. xv. 5.
11 Lit. which none can put back from God.