On My First Son

Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sin was too much hope of thee, loved boy:
Seven years thou' wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O could I lose all father now! for why
Will man lament the state he should envy,
To have so soon 'scaped world's and flesh's rage,
And, if no other misery, yet age?
Rest in soft peace, and asked, say, "Here doth lie
Ben Jonson his best piece of poetry."
For whose sake henceforth all his vows be such
As what he loves may never like too much.

Angels, and the Spirit ascend to God,

The angels and
The Spirit ascend
Unto Him in a Day
The measure whereof
Is (as) fifty thousand years:

Ruh: "The Spirit"., "the Spirit and the
angels", and, "the angels and the Spirit".
We have translated Ruh by "inspiration". Some Commentators
understand the angel Gabriel by "the Spirit". But I think
a more general meaning is possible, and fits the context better.


It is God Who has
Created the heavens
And the earth, and all
Between them, in six Days,
Then He established Himself
On the Throne:
Ye have none, besides Him,
To protect or intercede (for you):
Will ye not then
Receive admonition

He directs the affairs
From the heavens
To the earth: then
It ascends
Unto Him, on a Day
The measure of which is
A thousand years
Of your reckoning.

Six Days: The "Day" does not mean
a day as we reckon it., one apparent course of the sun
round the earth, for it refers to conditions which began
before the earth and the sun were created.
A Day is compared to a thousand years of our
reckoning, 4 to 50,000 years. These figures "as
we reckon" have no relation to "timeless Time", and must
be taken to mean very long Periods, or Ages, or AEons.

God created to World as we see it in six
great Stages. But after the initial creation, He is still in
authority and directs and controls all affairs. He has not
delegated His powers to others, and Himself retired.

How could the immense mystery of Time behind our ideas of it be
on our minds better? Our Day may be a thousand or fifty thousand
years, and our years in proportion. In the immense Past was God's
act of creation: it still continues, for He guides, rules, and controls all
affairs: and in the immense Future all affairs will go up to Him, for
He will be the Judge, and His restoration of all values will be as in
a Day or an Hour or the Twinkling of an eye; and yet to our ideas
it will be as a thousand years!

Angels, Gabriel and Michael,

Say: Whoever is an enemy
To Gabriel- for he brings down
The (revelation) to thy heart
By God's will, a confirmation
Of what went before,
And guidance and glad tidings
For those who believe,-

Whoever is an enemy to God
And His angels and prophets,
To Gabriel and Michael,-
Lo! God is an enemy to those
Who reject Faith.


A party of the Jews in the time of Muhammad ridiculed
the Muslim belief that Gabriel brought down to Muhammad
Al-Mustafa. Michael was called in their books "the great
prince which standeth of thy people":.
The vision of Gabriel inspired fear.
But this pretence-that Michael was their friend and
Gabriel their enemy-was merely a manifestation of
their unbelief in angels, Prophet and God Himself; and
such unbelief could not win the love of God. In any
case it was disingenuous to say that they believed in
one angel and not in another. Muhammad's inspiration
was through visions of Gabriel. Muhammad had been
helped to the highest spiritual light, and the message
which he delivered and his spotless integrity who were
obstinate and perverse. Besides, the verses of the Qur-an
were in themselves reasonable and clear.

To His Scribe Adam

Adam scrivain, if evere it thee bifalle
Boece or Troilus for to writen newe,
Under thy longe lokkes thou moste have the scalle,
But after my making thou write more trewe,
So ofte a day I moot thy werk renewe,
It to correcte, and eek to rubbe and scrape:
And al is thurgh thy necligence and rape.

fai if without fighting,

What God has bestowed
On His Messenger (and taken
Away) from the people
Of the townships,- belongs
To God,-to His Messenger,
And to kindred and orphans,
The needy and the wayfarer;
In order that it may not
(Merely) make a circuit
Between the wealthy among you.
So take what the Messenger
Gives you, and
Refrain from what
He prohibits you.
And fear God; for God
Is strict in Punishment.

(Some part is due)
To the indigent Muhajirs,
Those who were expelled
From their homes and their
property,
While seeking Grace from God
And (His) Good Pleasure,
And aiding God and His Messenger:
Such are indeed
The truthful;-


The Jews had originally come from outside Arabia, and
seized on the land near Madinah. They refused to adapt
themselves to the people of Arabia, and were in fact a
thorn in the side of the genuine Arabs of Madinah. Their
dispossession is therefore a restoration of the land to
its original people. But the word "Fat" is here understood
in a technical sense, as meaning property abandoned by
the enemy or taken from him without a formal war. In
that sense it is distinguished from "Anfal", or spoils, taken
after actual fighting,

"The people of the townships": the townships were the
Jewish settlements round Madinah, of the Banu Nadhir,
and possibily of other tribes. "townships" mentioned
The reference cannot be to the Wadi-ul-Qura
(Valley of Towns), now Madain Salih, which was subjugated
after khaibar and Fadak in A.H. 7, unless this verse
is later that the rest of the Sura.

"Belongs to God": i.e., to God's Cause; and the beneficiaries
are further detailed. No shares are fixed; they depend upon
circumstances, and are left to the judgement of the Leader.
Compare a similar list to those entitled to Charity,
but the two lists refer to different circumstances and have
different beneficiaries in addition to the portion common
to both.

The Muhajir are those who forsook their homes and
property in Makkah in order to assist the holy Prophet
in his migration to Madinah (Hijrat). Their devotion
and sincerity were proved beyond doubt by their
self-denial, and they were now to be rewarded.