O people of the Scripture (_that is, of the Gospel_), exceed not the just bounds in your religion,[349] nor say of God [aught] but the truth. The Messiah, Jesus the son of Mary, [was] only the apostle of God, and His Word, which he transmitted unto Mary, and a spirit (_that is, a being possessing a spirit_) from Him. (_He is mentioned in conjunction with God, in order to show him honour, and is not, as ye assert, the son of God, or a God with Him, or the third of three; for the being possessing a spirit is compound, and the Deity must be confessed to be pure from the imputation of composition and the relationship of a compound being to Him._) Therefore believe in God and His apostles, and say not, _There are_ three _gods, God and Jesus and his mother_.[350] Abstain _from this, and say what will be_ better for you; _that is, assert the unity of God_. God is only one god. Extolled be His purity from the imputation of His having a son! To Him belongeth whatsoever is in the heavens and whatsoever is in the earth: and God is a sufficient witness _thereof_. The Messiah doth not disdain to be a servant unto God, nor do the angels who are admitted near _unto Him_. (iv. 169, 170.)
[4] This and the other verses quoted in this chapter are taken from the translations of old Arab poetry contributed by Mr. C. J. Lyall to the _Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal (Translations from the Hamâseh and the Aghânî; The Mo`allaqah of Zuheyr)_. They imitate the metres of the original Arabic verse, but are nevertheless as literal as need be. The transliteration of proper names in the verses (and in other quotations) has been assimilated to the system adopted by Mr. Lane, from which in this work I only depart in the case of names which by frequent use have become almost the property of the English language.
[6] The subject of the poem, mentioned in the second hemistich of the third verse as ‘thou,’ whose death the supposed author (‘one valiant’) avenged.
[7] For these and other stories about Ḥátim, see Caussin de Perceval’s _Essai sur l’Histoire des Arabes_, ii. 607-628: a book which is a treasury of Arab life, and abounds in those anecdotes which reveal more of the character of the people than whole volumes of ethnological treatise.