Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/136

 118 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

passage, 1 to wit, that " Most commentators say that by these are meant his father and his aunt Leah, his mother having died at the birth of Benjamin." It is quite in accordance with Muhammad's usual procedure to put into Joseph's mouth a long discourse on the unity of God and the doctrine of a future life. This is given before the interpretation of the dreams of his two fellow-prisoners. 2 With Joseph we finish the first period, for between Joseph and Moses Muhammad mentions no one else. It almost seems as if, with Justin, Muhammad regarded Moses as Joseph's son, although of course we cannot seriously attribute such an opinion to him.

SECOND OHAPTBB.

Second Part. Moses and Us Time,

The history of the earlier times was preserved only in brief outlines, and was not so important either in itself, or in the influence which it exerted on the subsequent

Sura XII. 100. &\ e^tfj U &A\ } ty] ys gij-JU^ fi\ Jtt

2 The Arabian commentators, who are quite conscious of this unsuitability explain it away very cleverly by saying that Joseph made this digression, because it grieved him to be obliged to foretell evil to one of his fellow-prisoners. Elpherar comments on verse 37 as follows :

" After they had told him the dream, he was unwilling to give them the explanation for which they had asked him, because he recognised in it something that would be disagreeable to one of them. For this reason he put aside their question, and began a different discourse, in which he taught them about the gift of miracle-working and exhorted them to belief in the Unity of God,