Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/91

 STORIES BORROWED FROM JUDAISM. 73

wealth which he loves avails not, he cannot give to Grod a ransom for him, for the redemption of their soul is costly and must be let alone for ever ; but enter thou into peace, rest in thy lot till the end of days. 1 May thy part be with the righteous/ When the man sees this, he collects his treasures and says to them : ' I have laboured for you day and night, and I pray you redeem and deliver me from this death ' ; but they answer : ' Hast thou not heard that riches profit not in the day of wrath ? } 2 So then he collects his good works and says to them : ' Then you come and deliver me from this death, support me, let me not go out of this world, for you still have hope in me if I am delivered.' They answer : ' Enter into peace ! but before thou departest we will hasten before thee; as it is written, Thy righteousness shall go before thee, the glory of the Lord shall be thy reflrward. ' " 3

SECOND SECTION.

Chapter II. Stories borrowed from Judaism,

This division will prove to be the largest, partly, because these narratives, draped in the most marvellous garb of fiction, lived mostly in the mouth of the people ; partly, because this fairy-tale form appealed to the poetic fancy of Muhammad, and suited the childish level of his contempo- raries. In the case of the Old Testament narratives, which are seldom related soberly, but are for the most part embellished, it needs scarcely a question, or the most cursory enquiry, as to whether or no they have passed from the Jews to Muhammad ; for the Christians, the only other possible source to which they could be attributed, bestowed very little attention in those days on the Old Testament, but in their narratives kept to what is strictly

1 Daniel, xii. 13. * Proverbs, xi. 4. 3 Isaiah, Iviii. 8.

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