Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/59

 FURQA.N. - - 41

not found in the Rabbinical Writings, 1 still the Jews in Arabia seem to have used it to denote the worship of false gods, for it appears in the Qurdn 2 in this sense. 3

Furqdn, 4 : deliverance, 5 redemption. This is a very important word, and it is one which in my opinion has till now been quite misunderstood. In the primary meaning it occurs in the 8th Sura : " true believers t if ye fear God, He will grant you a deliverance 6 and will expiate your sins, etc." Elpherar gives five different explanations to this verse, each as unsuitable as "Wahl's translation, and the passage seems to me truly classical for the primary meaning of the word. This meaning appears also in Sura VIII. 42, where the day of the Victory of Badr is called the day of deliverance, 7 and in Sura II. 181 where this name is given to the month Ramadhan as the month of redemption and deliverance from sin. Muhammad entirely diverging from Jewish ideas, intended to establish his religion as that of the world in general; further he condemned the earlier times altogether calling them times of ignorance. 8 He declared his creed to have been revealed through Grod's Apostles from the earliest times, and to have been only renewed and put into a clearer and

1 It is to be observed however that the Targums frequently use this word in the plural NH^*:? ^ the idols themselves, but not for idolatry. 8 Sdras II. 257, 259, IT. 63, XVI. 38, XXXIX. 19. 3 M\*$ as Elpherar explains it,. 5 jo;

4 0V 1ICT 1 ? ;

Ibn Said according to Elpherar explains this word as follows : " Furqan is help against the enemy." Sura XXI. 49. 6 Sura VIII. 29. Gtfji

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