14 Lit. his arm was straitened concerning them.
15 Lit. column.
16 With the name, it is said, of the person each should strike.
17 See Sura [lvi.] xxvi. 176.
18 That is, after giving fair measure.
19 Seizure, for punishment. Hence, the punishment itself.
20 In the later period of his life Muhammad attributed his gray hairs to the effect produced upon him by this Sura and its "Sisters." While Abu Bekr and Omar sat in the mosque at Medina, Muhammad suddenly came upon them from the door of one of his wives' houses. . . . And Abu Bekr said, "Ah! thou for whom I would sacrifice father and mother, white hairs are hastening upon thee!" And the Prophet raised up his beard with his hand and gazed at it; and Abu Bekr's eyes filled with tears. "Yes," said Muhammad, "Hûd and its sisters have hastened my white hairs." "And what," asked Abu Bekr, "are its sisters?" "The Inevitable (Sura lvi.) and the Blow (Sura ci.)." Kitâb al Wackidi, p. 84, ap. Muir.
SURA XIV.-ABRAHAM, ON WHOM BE PEACE [LXXVI.]
MECCA.-52 Verses
In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful