I 44. THE KORAN AND THE BIBLE. 181
verba, with their crowd of prefixes and affixes, each of them affirming its own position, while consciously bearing upon and influencing the central root, which they envelop like a garment of many folds, or as chosen courtiers move round the anointed person of the king." E. II. Palmer says that the claim of the Koran to miraculous eloquence, however absurd it may sound to Western ears, was and is to the Arab incontrovertible, and he accounts for the immense influence which it has always exercised upon the Arab mind, by the fact, " that it consists not merely of the enthusiastic utterances of an individual, but of the popu lar sayings, choice pieces of eloquence, and favorite legends cur rent among the desert tribes for ages before this time. Arabic authors speak frequently of the celebrity attained by the ancient Arabic orators, such as Shaiban Wail; but unfortunately no specimens of their works have come down to us. The Qur'an, however, enables us to judge of the speeches which took so strong a hold upon their countrymen."1
Of all books, not excluding the Vcdas, the Koran is the most powerful rival of the Bible, but falls infinitely below it in con tents and form.
Both contain the moral and religious code of the nations which own it; the Koran, like the Old Testament, is also a civil and political code. Both are oriental in style and imagery. Both have the fresh character of occasional composition growing out of a definite historical situation and specific wants. But the Bible is the genuine revelation of the only true God in Christ, reconciling the world to himself; the Koran is a mock-revela tion without Christ and without atonement. Whatever is true in the Koran is borrowed from the Bible ; what is original, is false or frivolous. The Bible is historical and embodies the noblest aspirations of the human race in all ages to the final consummation ; the Koran begins and stops with Mohammed. The Bible combines endless variety with unity, universal appli-
1 The Qur'dn, Introd. I., p. 1.
182 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
cability with local adaptation; the Koran is uniform and mono tonous, confined to one country, one state of society, and one class of minds. The Bible is the book of the world, and is constantly travelling to the ends of the earth, carrying spiritual food to all races and to all classes of society; the Koran stays in the Orient, and is insipid to all who have once tasted the true word of the living God.1 Even the poetry of the Koran never rises to the grandeur and sublimity of Job or Isaiah, the lyric beauty of the Psalms, the sweetness and loveliness of the Song of Solomon, the sententious wisdom of the Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.
A few instances must suffice for 'illustration.
The first Sura, called " the Sura of Praise and Prayer," which is recited by the Mussulmans several times in each of the five daily devotions, fills for them the place of the Lord's Prayer, and contains the same number of petitions. We give it in a rhymed, and in a more literal translation :
" In the name of Allah, the Merciful, the Compassionate I Praise be to Allah, who the three worlds made, The Merciful, the Compassionate, The King of the day of Fate,
Thee alone do we worship, and of Thee alone do we ask aid. Guide us to the path that is straight — The path of those to whom Thy love is great, Not those on whom is hate, Nor they that deviate ! Amen. " 2
" In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds ! The Compassionate, the Merciful ! King on the day of judgment !
Thee only do we worship, and to Thee do we cry for help. Guide Thou us on the right path, The path of those to whom Thou art gracious ; Not of those with whom Thou art angered, Nor of those who go astray." 3
1 On this difference Ewald makes some good remarks in the first volume of his Biblical Theology (1871), p. 418.
2 Translated by Lieut. Burton.
3 Rodwell, The Koran (2nd ed., 1876), p. 10.