420 THE KORAN ON THE SEQUENCE OF THE SEASONS. 



stone to bud. He bringeth forth the living from the dead, 

 and He bringeth forth the dead from the living. He causeth 

 the morning to break, and He hath made the night for 

 rest, and the sun and moon for the reckoning of time. This 

 is the arranging of The Mighty and The Wise and it is 

 He that hath made for you the stars, to direct you thereby, 

 in the darkness by land and sea. It is He who sendeth 

 down rain from Heaven, and we have produced thereby the 

 budding of all things : and from out thereof we have made 

 to spring the green herb, and from it we produce grain: one 

 grain set compact upon another ; and palm trees, with clusters 

 of dates hanging from their branches : and gardens of grapes, 

 and olives, and pomegranites, of kinds alike and unlike."* 



Then the Scriptures, in one of those highly dramatic 

 word-pictures with which the Book of Job is literally 

 filled, alluding to the ephemeral nature of human exist- 

 ence, as contrasted with this luxuriant springing up 

 of vegetation under the influence of water out of the 

 apparently dead, parched-up surface of these desert 

 lands, gives the following description of these pheno- 

 mena, 



7 For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it 

 will sprout again, 



And that the tender branch thereof will not cease. 



8 Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the 

 stock thereof die in the ground. 



9 Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring 

 forth boughs like a plant. 



10 But, man dieth, and wasteth away: 



Yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he? 



11 As waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth, and 

 drieth up : 



* El Koran Sura vi., p. 96. From "Extracts from the Koran," by 

 Sir Wm. Muir, K.C.S.i., Principal of Edinburgh University, 1888, 2nd 

 Edit., p. II. 



