The gods are the Suras and the demons the Asuras or “non-gods”.
Further, we learn that when a sacrifice was performed the Asuras put the offerings into their own mouths, while the Suras (gods) gave the offerings they received to one another.
I witnessed the great tumult of Suras and Asuras or the Gods and demi-gods, in uprooting and uplifting the Mandara mountain, for churning out the last ambrosia from underneath the ocean for twelve times over.
Again this quality of positive goodness comprises the Suras or gods Hara and others of the first class that are purely and truly good.
Next in importance to this is the abolition of infanticide, which is condemned even in early Suras of the Koran.
Of the war of words we have an imperfect record in the Meccan suras of the Koran, which occasionally state the objections urged by the opponents.
The suras of this time resound with words of encouragement and confidence.
During these four years the suras of the first Meccan period were revealed, and enough may be gathered from them to judge both the limits of Mahomet's preaching and the attitude towards it on the part of the Kureisch.
But no lack of poetic fire is discernible in the suras immediately following his call to the prophetic office, and from them much may be gathered as to the depth and intensity of his faith.
We have seen how large a space Jewish legend and history fill in the contemporary suras of the Kuran, and Mahomet's friendship with Israel increased noticeably during his last two years at Mecca.
The suras indicate the attitude of indifference borne by the Kureisch towards Mahomet's mission at its inception.
The suras of the period are full of revilings and threats against them, and form a greater contrast coming after the later Meccan suras wherein Israel was honoured and its heroes held up as examples.
The suras of this period show some of the discouragement he felt at the time, but through them all beats a note of endurance and confidence: God is continually behind his cause, therefore that cause will prevail against all obstacles.
Through it all runs the fire of his genius; in the later suras it is the reflection of his energy that looks out from the pages; the flame itself has now lighted his actions and inspired his dreams of conquest.
After Mahomet's mandate to preach and warn his fellow-men of their peril, the suras continue intermittently throughout his life.
His character now exhibited more than ever the marks of the poet and seer; the time was at hand when all the subdued enthusiasm of his mind was to break forth in the opening Suras of the Kuran.
After a time he is encouraged by new suras to preach publicly, and does so.
These are the suras which threw the prophet into such excitement and distress that his hair turned white.
When read in their historical order, the suras can be read with pleasure by the student as showing the growth of the prophet's ideas and of his cause.
Mr. Muir places it at the close of the Meccan Suras of the fifth period.
This fact is further admitted by all the Mohammadan commentators and English translators of the Koran, who render the word in its original and literal meaning in all the Meccan and in the early Medinite Suras or Chapters of the Koran.
In the summaries which follow, numerals following the paragraphs indicate the number of the sura or suras in the Arabic text as well as in Sale's translation.
Still less vehement and more restrained are the suras of the third Mekkan period--i.
The earliest native writers and commentators on the Koran arranged its suras in two main classes: (1) Those uttered at Mekka before the flight in A.
The suras of the second period, the following two years of the prophet's mission (e.
In these suras the style is grander, more passionate, and fuller of poetry.
One day, when the chief citizens were sitting near the Kaaba, Mohammed came, and began to recite in their hearing one of the Suras of the Koran.
But these last Suras came later than the period now referred to.
One of the Suras of the Koran, supposed to belong to this period, is as follows:-- Sura 103.
By his wives, Kasyapa was the father of Suras and Asuras, of elementals, vegetables, animals and men.
Along the road at convenient distances there were Suras for the convenience of travellers, which people in England, when speaking of Eastern lands, call Caravanserais.
One of his earliest suras reads: “He is God alone, God the eternal.
The large inscriptions in blue of the five bands reproduceSuras of the Koran, and pious sentences in one of the small ones on the upper part.
The inscription reproduces several Suras of the Koran, and the arms of the house of Aragon were probably added when the casket came into the possession of some person belonging to the family.
The Arabic words are not those used in later Suras to express the same idea.
The "Hypocrites" mentioned in the later Suras are the disaffected portion of the population of Medina, who covertly opposed the claims of Muhammad to temporal authority over that city.
Possibly the letters Ha, Mim, which are prefixed to numerous successive Suras were private marks, or initial letters, attached by their proprietor to the copies furnished to Said when effecting his recension of the text under Othman.
In the Suras subsequent to this period the denunciations of idolatry become much sterner and clearer.
The contrast between the earlier, middle, and laterSuras is very striking and interesting, and will be at once apparent from the arrangement here adopted.
It is very remarkable, that when the power of Muhammad became firmly established, he never reverts to the insinuations against the soundness of his mind which in the earlier Suras he so often rebuts.
But it should be borne in mind that the Suras of this early period contain very little allusion to Jewish or Christian legends.
According, however, to the chronological list ofSuras given by Weil (Leben M.
This remark applies to what Nöldeke terms "the Suras of the First Period.
This purpose he ultimately relinquished, but it is just in the suras of the second period that the use of Rahman is specially frequent.
For we cannot suppose that he knew the longer suras by heart so perfectly that he was able after a time to lay his finger upon any particular passage.
The suras are very edifying for one who is already reconciled to their import, but to us at least they do not seem very well fitted to carry conviction to the minds of unbelievers.
If the list which gives the order of its suras is correct, it must have contained substantially the same materials as our text; in that case Ubay ibn Ka'b must have used the original collection of Zaid.
The individual suras are separated simply by the superscription: "In the name of God, the compassionate Compassioner," which is wanting only in the ninth.
The pieces were accordingly arranged in indiscriminate order, the only rule observed being to place the long suras first and the shorter towards the end, and even that was far from strictly adhered to.
At the head of twenty-nine of the suras stand certain initial letters, from which no clear sense can be obtained.
In short, however imperfectly the Koran may have been redacted, in the majority of cases the present suras are identical with the originals.
However, the suras of this period are not all so wild as these; and those which are conceived in a calmer mood appear to be the oldest.
It is the same with other allusions in the Meccan suras to occurrences whose chronology can be partially ascertained.
That impression, however, is not correct, for in reality the demonstrations of these longer Meccan suras appear to have been peculiarly influential for the propagation of Islam.
Many suras treat of a single topic, others embrace several.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "suras" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
