Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAPTER CVIII.: ENTITLED SURAT AL KAUTHAR (ABUNDANCE). Revealed at Makkah. - The Quran, vol. 4

Return to Title Page for The Quran, vol. 4

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Religion

CHAPTER CVIII.: ENTITLED SURAT AL KAUTHAR (ABUNDANCE). Revealed at Makkah. - Mohammed, The Quran, vol. 4 [1896]

Edition used:

A Comprehensive Commentary on the Quran: Comprising Sale’s Translation and preliminary Discourse, with Additional Notes and Emendations (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, and Co., 1896). 4 vols.

Part of: The Quran, 4 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


CHAPTER CVIII.

ENTITLED SURAT AL KAUTHAR (ABUNDANCE).

Revealed at Makkah.

INTRODUCTION.

These three verses are said by the best authorities to have been revealed to comfort Muhammad on account of an insult offered him by al Ás Ibn Waíl, who called Muhammad a tailless man, i.e., one having no sons. The opinion of those, who regard the chapter to be Madínic, because they think it refers to the death of Muhammad’s son Ibrahím, is wrong. In such a case the taunt would be ridiculous.

Probable Date of the Revelations.

This chapter is one of the oldest in the Qurán, and therefore it must be placed among the early Makkan Suras.

Principal Subject.

verses
Muhammad comforted with abundance of goods1-3

IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL GOD.

R

∥ (1) Verily we have given thee al Kauthar. (2) Wherefore pray unto thy Lord, and slay the victims. (3) Verily he who hateth thee shall be childless.

[(1) ]Al Kauthar. “This word signifies abundance, especially of good, and thence the gift of wisdom and prophecy, the Qurán, the office of intercessor, &c. Or it may imply abundance of children, followers, and the like. It is generally, however, expounded of a river in Paradise of that name, whence the water is derived into Muhammad’s pond, of which the blessed are to drink before their admission into that place. According to a tradition of the Prophet’s, this river, wherein his Lord promised him abundant good, is sweeter than honey, whiter than milk, cooler than snow, and smoother than cream; its banks are of chrysolites, and the vessels to drink thereout of silver; and those who drink of it shall never thirst.”—Sale.

See also Prelim. Disc., p. 153.

This latter interpretation of Kauthar as a river of Paradise, though old, is, according to Noëldeke, certainly wrong. The word is in reality an adjective meaning “much, ample, in abundance,” and not a proper noun.

[(2) ]Slay the victims. “Which are to be sacrificed at the pilgrimage in the valley of Mina. Al Baidháwi explains the words thus: Pray with fervency and intense devotion, not out of hypocrisy; and slay the fatted camels and oxen, and distribute the flesh among the poor; for he says this chapter is the counterpart of the preceding, exhorting to those virtues which are opposite to the vices there condemned.”—Sale.