Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/89

 VIEWS OP LIFE. 71

" Say not of any matter, ( I will, surely do this to- morrow/ unless thou add, ' If God please. ' " l Pull under- standing is first imputed to a man when he is forty yeara old,, 2 and it is said in the Mishna : "At forty years of age a man comes to intelligence. " So the hunting for some particular persons, to whom this sentence of the Quran shall apply, as the Arabic Commentators do, appears altogether unnecessary ; it is also rendered very dubious by the wide differences between the various opinions.

In the Quran a comparison is found between those who bear a burden without understanding the nature of it and who thus carry without profit, and an ass carrying books. 3

" He who intercedeth (between men) with a good inter- cession shall have a portion thereof. " 4 TMs saying is very similar to the Hebrew one : " He who asks for mercy for another while he needs the same thing himself obtains help

1 Sura XVIII. 23. "

y\ \ iU3 Jcli J>\ Of. the Hebrew expression D$n nSp; ON

f, _ _ -GS j

-Sura XLVL 14.

That full understanding is not reached until the completion of the- fortieth year is observed also by Philo (eKTrj 8e (e/38ofJ,dSi)> <; ttK^vj), who here takes the forty-second year, only because- he attaches particular virtue to the number 7, in which Solon also agrees^ w-ith him fVid. Philo, de Opificio Miindij P. 70-72, Ed. Pfeifer I)

3 Sura LXII. 5. Cf. the Hebrew

Cf. BabaKamma92.
 * Sura IV. 87, l^ s-^ ^ (^ ^- le&Jb

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