116

IT has been already observed more than once, that the fundamental position on which Muhammad erected the superstructure of his religion was, that from the beginning to the end of the world there has been, and for ever will be, but one true orthodox belief, consisting, as to matter of faith, in the acknowledging of the only true GOD, and the believing in and obeying such messengers or prophets as he should from time to time send, with proper credentials, to reveal his will to mankind; and as to matter of practice, in the observance of the immutable and eternal laws of right and wrong, together with such other precepts and ceremonies as GOD should think fit to order for the time being, according to the different dispensations in different ages of the world; for these last he allowed were things indifferent in their own nature, and became obligatory by GOD'S positive precept only, and were therefore temporary, and subject to alteration according to his will and pleasure. And to this religion he gives the name of Islam, which word signifies resignation, or submission to the service and commands of GOD,¹ and is used as the proper name of the Muhammadan religion, which they will also have

¹ The root Salama, from whence Islam is formed, in the first and fourth conjugations, signifies also to be saved, or to enter into a state of salvation; according to which, Islam may be translated the religion or state of salvation; but the other sense is more approved by the Muhammadans, and alluded to in the Quran itself. See c. 2. V. 111, and c. 3, V. 19, notes.

to be the same at bottom with that of all the prophets from Adam.

Under pretext that this eternal religion was in his time corrupted, and professed in its purity by no one sect of men, Muhammad pretended to be a prophet sent by GOD to reform those abuses which had crept into it, and to reduce it to its primitive simplicity; with the addition, however, of peculiar laws and ceremonies, some of which had been used in former times, and others were now first instituted. And he comprehended the whole substance of his doctrine under these two propositions or articles of faith, viz., that there is but one GOD, and that himself was the apostle of GOD; in consequence of which latter article, all such ordinances and institutions as he thought fit to establish must be received as obligatory and of divine authority.

The Muhammadans divide their religion, which; as I just now said, they call Islam, into two distinct parts: Iman, i.e., faith or theory, and Din, i.e., religion or practice; and teach that it is built on five fundamental points, one belonging to faith, and the other four to practice.

The first is that confession of faith which I have already mentioned, that "there is no god but the true GOD, and that Muhammad is his apostle," under which they comprehend six distinct branches, viz., 1. Belief in GOD; 2. In his angels; 3. In his Scriptures; 4. In his prophets; 5. In the resurrection and day of judgment; and, 6. In GOD'S absolute decree and predetermination both of good and evil.

The four points* relating to practice are: 1. Prayer, under which are comprehended those washings or purifica-

* To these should be added the duty of Jihad, or war against infidels, which our author places under the head of Civil Laws, see Chap. vi. All Muslims regard this as a religious duty, which they enumerate along with the four mentioned in the text. E.M.W.

tions which are necessary preparations required before prayer; 2. Alms; 3. Fasting; and, 4. The pilgrimage to Makkah. Of each of these I shall speak in their order.

That both Muhammad and those among, his followers who are reckoned orthodox had and continue to have just and true notions of GOD and his attributes (always excepting their obstinate and impious rejecting of the Trinity), appears so plain from the Quran itself and all the Muhammadan divines, that it would be loss of time to refute those who suppose the GOD of Muhammad to be different from the true GOD, and only a fictitious deity, or idol of his own Creation.¹* Nor shall I here enter into any of the Muhammadan controversies concerning the divine nature and attributes, because I shall have a more proper opportunity of doing it elsewhere.²

The existence of angels and their purity are absolutely required to be believed in the Quran, and he is reckoned an infidel who denies there are such beings, or hates any

* The God of Islam is undoubtedly the only true God, inasmuch as he is represented as a personal God, the Creator and Preserver of all things, as a prayer-hearing God, and as possessing many other characteristics of the God of the Bible.

And yet we have other objections to the Muslim conception of God, besides that of its "impious rejecting of the Trinity." We object to its having exalted His omnipotence over all other attributes; to its lowering of His character for holiness, nothing being said of God in the Quran which might not be said of a holy man; to its limiting the goodness of God to Muslims, no matter what their character, relegating even infants of unbelievers to hell-fire; to its sacrifice of God's justice by denying the necessity for any atonement for sin; and, finally, to its limitation of the truth of God by its sanctification of a lie, if it only be spoken in self-defence or for the advancement of Islam. It should never be forgotten that the God of Islam is not merely the Allah described in the Quran, but the God who speaks in every word, syllable, and letter of the Quran. We must not therefore separate what we conceive to have special reference to God in its teaching, from what we may conceive to have been used

¹ Marrac in Alc., p.102.

of them,¹ or asserts any distinction of sexes among them. They believe them to have pure and subtle bodies, created of fire;² that they neither eat nor drink, nor propagate their species; that they have various forms and offices; some adoring GOD in different postures, others singing praises to him, or interceding for mankind. They hold that some of them are employed in writing down the actions of men; others in carrying the throne of GOD and other services.

The four angels whom they look on as more eminently in GOD'S favour, and often mention on account of the offices assigned them, are Gabriel, to whom they give several titles, particularly those of the holy spirit³ and the angel of revelations,⁴ supposing him to be honoured by GOD with a greater confidence than any other, and to be employed in writing down the divine decrees;⁵ Michael, the friend and protector of the Jews;⁶ Azaël,* the angel of death, who separates men's souls from their bodies;⁷

by Muhammad for the furtherance of his private or political purposes; for, according to Islam, Muhammad was but the mouthpiece of Divinity. If then, we would get a correct idea of the Allah of Islam, we must take into account all that was done by Muhammad under the sanction of the Quran. Let this be done, and it will appear that what we have said above is by no means extravagant.

A true conception of Islam and its doctrines can never be formed by looking at the Quran from the standpoint of the "unbelievers," who regard it as the work of Muhammad; but by rooking at it as the Muslim does, who believes it to be not only God's word, but as being I from eternity recorded on the "Preserved Table," kept close by the throne of God.

We would refer the reader to Palgrave's criticism on Muhammadan theology. For further information on this subject, see his Travels in Arabia E.M.W.

* Muslims pronounce these names Jibrail, Mikail, and Israfil. E.M.W.

¹ Quran, C. 2, VV. 31-34.

² Ibid. c. 7, v. 12, and c. 38, v. 77.

³ Ibid., c. 2, v. 97.

⁴ See the notes, ibid., vv. 97, &C.

⁵ Vide Hyde, Hist. Rel. Vet. Pers., p. 262.

⁶ Vide ibid., p.271, and note in Quran, C. 2, vv. 97, &C

⁷ Vide note, ibid., v.2, V.30.

and Israfil, whose office it will be to sound the trumpet at the resurrection.¹ The Muhammadans also believe that two guardian angels attend on every man to observe and write down his actions,² being changed every day, and therefore called al Muaqqibat, or the angels who continually succeed one another.

This whole doctrine concerning angels Muhammad and his disciples have borrowed from the Jews, who learned the names and offices of those beings from the Persians, as themselves confess.³ The ancient Persians firmly believed the ministry of angels, and their superintendence over the affairs of this world (as the Magians still do), and therefore assigned them distinct charges and provinces, giving their names to their months and the days of their months. Gabriel they called Sarosh and Ravan Bakhsh, or the giver of souls, in opposition to the contrary office of the angel of death, to whom among other names they gave that of Murdad, or the giver of death; Michael they called Beshter, who according to them provides sustenance for mankind.⁴ The Jews teach that the angels were created of fire;⁵ that they have several offices⁶ that they intercede for men,⁷ and attend them.⁸ The angel of death they name Duma, and say he calls dying persons by their respective names at their last hour.⁹

The devil, whom Muhammad names Iblis, from his despair, was once one of those angels who are nearest to GOD'S presence, called Azazil,¹⁰ and fell, according to the

¹ Quran, c. 6, 13, and 86. The offices of these four angels are described almost in the same manner in the apocryphal Gospel of Barnabas, where it is said that Gabriel reveals the secrets of God, Michael combats against his enemies, Raphael receives the souls of those who die, and Uriel is to call every one to judgment on the last day. See the Menagiana, tom. iv. p.333.

² Quran, c. 50, v. 16.

³ Talmud Hieros. in Rosh hashan.

⁴ Vide Hide, ubi sup., C. 19 and 20.

⁵ Gemar. in Hagig. and Bereshit rabbah, &C Vide Psalm civ. 4.

⁶ Yalkut hadash.

⁷ Gemar. in Shebet, and Bava Bathra, &C.

⁸ Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni.

⁹ Gemar. Berachoth.

¹⁰ Vide Reland, De Rel. Moh., p.&C.

doctrine of the Quran, for refusing to pay homage to Adam at the command of GOD.¹

Besides angels and devils, the Muhammadans are taught by the Quran to believe in an intermediate order of creatures, which they call Jin or Genii, created also of fire,² but of a grosser fabric than angels, since they eat and drink, and propagate their species, and are subject to death.³ Some of these are supposed to be good and others bad, and capable of future salvation or damnation, as men are; whence Muhammad pretended to be sent for the conversion of genii as well as men.⁴ The Orientals pretend that these genii inhabited the world for many ages before Adam was created, under the government of several successive princes, who all bore the common name of Solomon; but falling at length into all almost general corruption, Iblis was sent to drive them into a remote part of the earth, there to be confined; that some of that generation still remaining, were by Tahmurath, one of the ancient kings of Persia, who waged war against them, forced to retreat into the famous mountains of Qaf. Of which successions and wars they have many fabulous and romantic stories. They also make different ranks and degrees among these beings (if they be not rather supposed to be of a different species), some being called absolutely Jin, some Pari or fairies, some Dev or giants, other Taqwims or fates.⁵

The Muhammadan notions concerning these genii agree almost exactly with what the Jews write of a sort of demons called Shedim, whom some fancy to have been begotten by two angels, named Aza and Azaël, on Naamah, the daughter of Lamech, before the Flood.⁶ However, the Shedim, they tell us, agree in three things with the

¹ Quran, c. 2, vv. 31-34. See also C 7, V.12; c.38, V.77, &C.

² Quran, c. 55, v. 14. See the notes there.

³ Jalaluddin, in Quran, c.2, v.101, and c. 18, v.48.

⁴ Vide Quran, c. 55, v.31; c.72, vv. 1-14; and c.74.

⁵ See D'Herbelot, Bibl. Orient., pp.369, 820, &C.

⁶ In libro Zohar.

ministering angels, for that, like them, they have wings, and fly from one end of the world to the other, and have some knowledge of futurity; and in three things they agree with men, like whom they eat and drink, are propagated, and die.¹ They also say that some of them believe in the law of Moses, and are consequently good, and that others of them are infidels and reprobates.²

As to the Scriptures, the Muhammadans are taught by the Quran that GOD, in diverse ages of the world, gave revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every word of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Muslim to believe. The number of these sacred books were, according to them, one hundred and four. Of which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Idris or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Quran, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad; which last being the seal of the prophets, those revelations are now closed, and no more are to be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they agree to be now entirely lost, and their contents unknown, though the Sabians have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of those four, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, they say, have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that though there may possibly be some part of the true Word of GOD therein, yet no credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians. The Jews in particular are frequently reflected on in the Quran for falsifying and corrupting their copies of their law;* and some instances of such

* A careful study of the passages alluded to here will show that the alterations and "corruptions" charged against Jews and Christians in the Quran do not refer to the text of their Scriptures. Muir,

¹ Gemara, in Hagiga.

² Igrat Baale hayyim., C. 15.

pretended corruptions, both in that book and the two others, are produced by Muhammadan writers, wherein they merely follow their own prejudices, and the fabulous accounts of spurious legends. Whether they have any copy of the Pentateuch among them different from that of the Jews or not, I am not entirely satisfied, since a person who travelled into the East was told that they had the books of Moses, though very much corrupted;¹ but I know nobody that has ever seen them. However, they certainly have and privately read a book which they call the Psalms of David in Arabic and Persian, to which are added some prayers of Moses, Jonas, and others.² This Mr. Reland supposes to be a translation from our copies (though no doubt falsified in more places than one); but M D'Herbelot says it contains not the same Psalms which are in our Psalter, being no more than an extract from thence mixed with other very different pieces.³ The easiest way to reconcile these two learned gentlemen is to presume that they speak of different copies.

The Muhammadans have also a Gospel in Arabic, attributed Barnabas, wherein the history of Jesus Christ is Gospel of related in a manner very different from what we find in the true Gospels, and correspondent to those traditions which Muhammad has followed in his Quran.* Of this Gospel the Moriscoes in Africa have a translation in

in his treatise on The Testimony Borne by the Coran to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures, clearly proves that- "The strongest and most unequivocal testimony is borne by the Coran to the Jewish and Christian Scriptures as current in the time of Mahomet; that the evidence extends equally to their genuineness and authority; and that there is not a hint anywhere to be found of their concealment or interpolation." - Life of Mahomet, vol. ii. p.297. E.M.W.

* See page 10, Preface to Preliminary Discourse.

¹ Terry's Voyage to the East Indies p.277.

² De Rel. Moham., p.23.

³ A copy of this kind, he tells us, is in the library of the Duke of Tuscany, Bibl. Orient., p.924.

Spanish;¹ and there is in the library of Prince Eugene of Savoy a manuscript of some antiquity containing an Italian translation of the same Gospel,² made, it is to be supposed, for the use of renegades. This book appears to be no original forgery of the Muhammadans though they have no doubt interpolated and altered it since, the better to serve their purpose; and in particular, instead of the Paraclete or Comforter,³ they have in this apocryphal Gospel inserted the word Periclyte, that is, the famous or illustrious, by which they pretend their prophet was foretold by name, that being the signification of Muhammad in Arabic;⁴ and this they say to justify that passage of the Quran⁵ where Jesus Christ is formally asserted to have foretold his coming, under his other name of Ahmad, which is derived from the same root as Muhammad, and of the same import.

From these or some other forgeries of the same stamp it is that the Muhammadans quote several passages of which there are not the least footsteps in the New Testament. But after all, we must not hence infer that the Muhammadans, much less all of them, hold these copies of theirs to be the ancient and genuine Scriptures themselves. If any argue, from the corruption which they insist has happened to the Pentateuch and Gospel, that the Quran may, possibly be corrupted also, they answer that GOD has promised that he will take care of the latter, and preserve it from any addition or diminution;⁶ but that he left the two other to the care of men. However, they confess there are some various readings in the Quran,⁷ as has been observed.

Besides the books above mentioned, the Muhammadans also take notice of the writings of Daniel and several other

¹ Reland, ubi supra.

² Menagian, tom. iv. p. 321,

³ John xiv. 16, 26, XV. 26,and xvi, 7, compared with Luke xxiv. 49.

⁴ See Toland's Nazarenus, the first eight chapters.

⁵ Cap. 61, V.6.

⁶ Quran, c. 15, v.9.

⁷ Reland, ubi supra, pp.24, 27.

prophets, and even make quotations thence; but these they do not believe to be divine scripture, or of any authority in matters of religion.¹

The number of the prophets which have been from time to time sent by GOD into the world amounts to no less than 224,000, according to one Muhammadan tradition, or to 124,000 according to another; among whom 313 were apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition, and six of them brought new laws or dispensations, which successively abrogated the preceding: these were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammad. All the prophets in general the Muhammadans believe to have been free from great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is, Islam, not withstanding the different laws and institutions they observed. They allow of degrees among them, and hold some of them to be more excellent and honourable than others.² The first place they give to the revealers and establishers of new dispensations, and the next to the apostles.

In this great number of prophets they not only reckon divers patriarchs and persons named in Scripture, but not recorded to have been prophets (wherein the Jewish and Christian writers have sometimes led the way³), as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ismail, Nun, Joshua, &c., and introduce some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called in the Quran Idris, Hud, and Shuaib, but several others whose very names do not appear in Scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on), as Salih, Khidhar, Dhu'l Kifl, &c Several of their fabulous traditions concerning these prophets we shall occasionally mention in the notes on the Quran.

¹ Reland, ubi supra, p.41.

² Quran, c.2, V.253, &c.

³ Thus Heber is said to have been a prophet by the Jews (Seder Olam., p. 2), and Adam by Epiphanius (Adv. Hæres., p. 6). See also Joseph., Ant. I. 1, c.2.

As Muhammad acknowledged the divine authority of the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, he often appeals to the consonancy of the Quran with those writings, and the prophecies which he pretended were therein concerning him self, as proofs of his mission; and he frequently charges the Jews and Christians with stifling the passages which bear witness to him.¹ His followers also fail not to produce several texts even from our present copies of the Old and New Testament to support their master's cause.²*

The next article of faith required by the Quran is the belief of a general resurrection and a future judgment.But before we consider the Muhammadan tenets in those points, it will be proper to mention what they are taught to believe concerning the intermediate state, both of the body and of the soul, after death.

* For example, Deut. xviii. 15-18, where the Lord promises to raise up a prophet for the children of Israel from among their brethren. Muslims argue that the Israelites had no brethren excepting the Ismailites, from whom Muhammad was descended. This argument is strengthened, they say, by the further statement that this prophet should be Like unto Moses. Again, Deut. xxxiv. 10, declares that "there arose no prophet in Israel like unto Moses;" Habakkuk iii. 3 says, "The Holy One came from Mount Paran" Mount Paran is declared by the Muslims to be Makkah!

The Hebrew word translated desire in Hag. ii. 7, is said to be the same as the name Muhammad. The same word is translated beloved in Cant. ii 3. Wherefore we are called upon to behold the very name of the Arabian prophet in the Bible!

When we read in Isaiah, in the Septuagint version, chap. xxi. 7, that he saw "two riders, one on an ass and one on a camel," we are to understand the rider on the ass to refer to Jesus, who so entered Jerusalem, while the rider on a camel refers to Muhammad. When John the Baptist was asked if he were the Christ, or Elijah, or "that prophet," Muhammadans claim that the words "that prophet" refer to Muhammad, &c., &c. See Essays on the Life of Muhammad, by Syed Ahmed Khan Bahadr; C.S.I. E.M.W.

¹ Quran, c. 2, vv. 41, 78; C. 3, II.

² Some of these texts are produced by Dr. Prideaux at the end of his Life of Mahomet, and more by Marracci in Alcor., p.26, &C

When a corpse is laid in the grave, they say he is received by an angel, who gives him notice of the coming of the two examiners, who are two black, livid angels, of a terrible appearance, named Munkir and Nakir. These order the dead person to sit upright, and examine him concerning his faith, as to the unity of GOD and the mission of Muhammad: if he answer rightly, they suffer the body to rest in peace, and it is refreshed by the air of paradise; but if not, they beat him on the temples with iron maces, till he roars out for anguish so loud, that he is heard by all from east to west, except men and genii. Then they press the earth on the corpse, which is gnawed and stung till the resurrection by ninety-nine dragons, with seven heads each; or, as others say, their sins will become venomous beasts, the grievous ones stinging like dragons, the smaller like scorpions, and the others like serpents: circumstances which some understand in a figurative sense.¹

The examination of the sepulcher is not only founded on an express tradition of Muhammad, but is also plainly hinted at, though not directly taught, in the Quran,² as the commentators agree. It is therefore believed by the orthodox Muhammadans in general, who take care to have their graves made hollow, that they may sit up with more ease while they are examined by the angels;³ but is utterly rejected by the sect of the Mutazilites, and perhaps by some others.

These notions Muhammad certainly borrowed from the Jews, among whom they were very anciently received. They say that the angel of death coming and sitting on the grave, the soul immediately enters the body and raises it on his feet; that he then examines the departed person, and strikes him with a chain half of iron and half of fire;

¹ Al Ghazali. Vide Poc., not. in Port. Mosis, p. 241, &C.

² Cap. 8, V.52, and C. 47, V.29, &C.

³ Smith, De Morib. et Instit. Turcar. Ep. 2, p.57.

⁴ Vide Hyde, in Notis ad Bobov de Visit. Ægrot., p.19.

at the first blow all his limbs are loosened, at the second his bones are scattered, which are gathered together again by angels, and the third stroke reduces the body to dust and ashes, and it returns into the grave. This rack or torture they call Hibbut haqqebar, or the beating of the sepulchre, and pretend that all men in general must undergo it, except only those who die on the evening of the Sabbath, or have dwelt in the land of Israel.¹

If it be objected to the Muhammadans that the cry of the persons under such examination has never been heard, or if they be asked how those can undergo it whose bodies are burnt or devoured by beasts or birds, or otherwise consumed without burial; they answer, that it is very possible notwithstanding, since men are not able to perceive what is transacted on the other side the grave, and that it is sufficient to restore to life any part of the body which is capable of understanding the questions put by the angels.²

As to the soul, they hold that when it is separated from the body by the angel of death, who performs his office with ease and gentleness towards the good and with violence towards the wicked,³ it enters into that state which they call Al Barzakh,⁴ or the interval between death and the resurrection. If the departed person was a believer, they say two angels meet it, who convey it to heaven, that its place there may be assigned, according to its merit and degree. For they distinguish the souls of the faithful into three classes: the first of prophets, whose souls are admitted into paradise immediately; the second of martyrs, whose spirits, according to a tradition of Muhammad, rest in the crops of green birds which eat of the fruits and drink of the rivers of paradise; and the third of other

¹ Elias, in Tishbi. See also Buxtorf, Synag. Judaic, and Lexic Talmud.

² Vide Poc., ubi sup. say the same, in Nishmat bayim., f. 77.

³ Quran, c. 79, v. 1. The Jews

⁴ Vide Quran c. 23, V. 101, and not ib.

believers, concerning the state of whose souls before the resurrection there are various opinions. For, 1. Some say they stay near the sepulchres, with liberty, however, of going wherever they please; which they confirm from Muhammad's manner of saluting them at their graves, and his affirming that the dead heard those salutations as well as the living, though they could not answer. Whence perhaps proceeded the custom of visiting the tombs of relations, so common among the Muhammadans.¹ 2. Others imagine they are with Adam in the lowest heaven, and also support their opinion by the authority of their prophet, who gave out that in his return from the upper heavens in his pretended night journey, be saw there the souls of those who were destined to paradise on the right hand of Adam, and of those who were condemned to hell on his left.² 3. Others fancy the souls of believers remain in the well Zamzam, and those of infidels in a certain well in the province of Hadramaut, called Burhut; but this opinion is branded as heretical. 4. Others say they stay near the graves for seven days; but that whither they go afterwards is uncertain. 5. Others that they are all in the trumpet whose sound is to raise the dead. 6. And others that the souls of the good dwell in the forms of white birds under the throne of GOD.³ As to the condition of the souls of the wicked, besides the opinions that have been already mentioned, the more orthodox hold that they are offered by the angels to heaven, from whence being repulsed as stinking and filthy, they are offered to earth, and being also refused a place there, are carried down to the seventh earth, and thrown into a dungeon, which they call Sajin, under a green rock, or, according to a tradition of Muhammad, under the devil's jaw,⁴ to be

¹ Poc., ubi sup., 247.

² Ibid., p. 248. Consonant hereto are the Jewish notions of the souls of the just being on high, under the throne of glory. Vide ibid., p. 156.

³ Ibid., p. 250.

⁴ Al Baidhawi. Vide Poc., ubi sup., p. 252.

there tormented till they are called up to be joined again to their bodies.

Though some among the Muhammadans have thought that the resurrection will be merely spiritual, and no more than the returning of the soul to the place whence it first came (an opinion defended by Ibn Sina,¹ and called by some the opinion of the philosophers)² and others, who allow man to consist of body only, that it will be merely corporeal; the received opinion is, that both body and soul will be raised, and their doctors argue strenuously for the possibility of the resurrection of the body, and dispute with great subtlety concerning the manner of it.³ But Muhammad has taken care to preserve one part of the body, whatever becomes of the rest, to serve for a basis of the future edifice, or rather a leaven for the mass which is to be joined to it. For he taught that a man's body was entirely consumed by the earth, except only the bone called al Ajb, which we name the os coccygis, or rump-bone; and that as it was the first formed in the human body, it will also remain uncorrupted till the last day, as a seed from whence the whole is to be renewed and this he said would be effected by a forty days' rain which GOD should send, and which would cover the earth to the height of twelve cubits, and cause the bodies to sprout forth like plants.⁴ Herein also is Muhammad beholden to the Jews, who say the same things of the bone Luz,⁵ excepting that what he attributes to a great rain will be effected, according to them, by a dew impregnating the dust of the earth.

The time of the resurrection the Muhammadans allow to be a perfect secret to all but GOD alone: the angel Gabriel himself acknowledging his ignorance on this point

¹ Or, as we corruptly name him, Avicenna.

² Kenz al airar.

³ Vide Poc., ubi sup., P. 254.

⁴ Idem, ibid., p.255, &c.

⁵ Bereshit. rabbah, &c Vide Poc., ubi sup., p. 117, &c.

when Muhammad asked him about it. However, they say the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to precede it. These signs they distinguish into two sorts - the lesser and the greater - which I shall briefly enumerate after Dr. Pocock.¹

The lesser signs are: 1. The decay of faith among men.² 2. The advancing of the meanest persons to eminent dignity. 3. That a maid-servant shall become the mother of her mistress (or master), by which is meant either that towards the end of the world men shall be much given to sensuality, or that the Muhammadans shall then take many captives. 4. Tumults and seditions. 5. A war with the Turks. 6. Great distress in the world, so that a man when he passes by another's grave shall say, "Would to GOD I were in his place." 7. That the provinces of Irak and Syria shall refuse to pay their tribute. And, 8. That the buildings of Madina shall reach to Ahab or Yahab.

The greater signs are:-

1. The sun's rising in the west, which some have imagined it originally did.³

2. The appearance of the beast, which shall rise out of the earth, in the temple of Makkah, or on Mount Safa', or in the territory of Tayif, or some other place. This beast they say is to be sixty cubits high: though others, not satisfied with so small a size, will have her reach to the clouds and to heaven when her head only is out; and that she will appear for three days, but show only a third part of her body. They describe this monster, as to her form, to be a compound of various species, having the head of a bull, the eyes of a hog, the ears of an elephant, the horns of a stag, the neck of an ostrich, the breast of a lion, the colour of a tiger, the back of a cat, the tail of a ram, the legs of a camel, and the voice of an ass. Some say this beast is

¹ Vide Poc., ubi sup., p. 258, &C.

² See Luke xviii 8.

³ See Whiston's Theory of the Earth, bk. ii. p.98, &C.

to appear three times in several places, and that she will bring with her the rod of Moses and the seal of Solomon; and being so swift that none can overtake or escape her, will with the first strike all the believers on the face and mark them with the word Mumin, i.e., believer; and with the latter will mark the unbelievers, on the face likewise, with the word Kafir, i.e., infidel, that every person may be known for what he really is. They add that the same beast is to demonstrate the vanity of all religions except Islam, and to speak Arabic. All this stuff seems to be the result of a confused idea of the beast in the Revelation.¹

3. War with the Greeks, and the taking of Constantinople by 70,000 of the posterity of Isaac, who shall not win that city by force of arms, but the walls shall fall down while they cry out, "There is no god but GOD: GOD is most great!" As they are dividing the spoil, news will come to them of the appearance of Antichrist, whereupon they shall leave all, and return back.

4. The coming of Antichrist, whom the Muhammadans call al Masih al Dajjal, i.e., the false or lying Christ, and simply al Dajjal. He is to be one-eyed, and marked on the forehead with the letters K.F.R., signifying Kafir, or infidel. They say that the Jews give him the name of Messiah Ben David, and pretend he is to come in the last days and to be lord both of land and sea, and that he will restore the kingdom to them. According to the traditions of Muhammad, he is to appear first between Irak and Syria, or according to others, in the province of Khurasan; they add that he is to ride on an ass, that he will be followed by 70,000 Jews of Ispahan, and continue on earth forty days, of which one will be equal in length to a year, another to a month, another to a week, and the rest will be common days; that he is to lay waste all places, but will not enter Makkah or Madina, which are to be guarded by angels;

¹ Chap. xiii.

and that at length he will be slain by Jesus, who is to encounter him at the gate of Lud. It is said that Muhammad foretold several Antichrists, to the number of about thirty, but one of greater note than the rest.

5. The descent of Jesus on earth. They pretend that he is to descend near the white tower to the east of Damascus, when the people are returned from the taking of Constantinople; that he is to embrace the Muhammadan religion, marry a wife, get children, kill Antichrist, and at length die after forty years, or, according to others, twenty-four years',¹ continuance on earth. Under him they say there will be great security and plenty in the world, all hatred and malice being laid aside; when lions and camels, bears and sheep, shall live in peace, and a child shall play with serpents unhurt.²

6. War with the Jews, of whom the Muhammadans are to make a religious slaughter, the very trees and stones discovering such of them as hide themselves, except only the tree called Gharkad, which is the tree of the Jews.

7. The eruption of Gog and Magog, or, as they are called in the East, Yajuj and Majuj, of whom many things are related in the Quran³ and the traditions of Muhammad. These barbarians, they tell us, having passed the lake of Tiberias, which the vanguard of their vast army will drink dry, will come to Jerusalem, and there greatly distress Jesus and his companions; till at his request GOD will destroy them, and fill the earth with their carcases, which after some time GOD will send birds to carry away, at the prayers of Jesus and his followers. Their bows, arrows, and quivers the Muslims will burn for seven years together;⁴ and at last GOD will send a rain to cleanse the earth, and to make it fertile.

8. A smoke which shall fill the whole earth.⁵

¹ Al Thalabi, in Quran, c. 4.

² See Isaiah xi. 6, &C

³ Cap. 18, v.96, and 21, v. 96.

⁴ Ezek. xxxix 9; Rev. xx. 8, 20, and Rev. ix. 2.

⁵ See Quran, c. 44, v 10, and the notes thereon. Compare also Joel ii.

9. An eclipse of the moon. Muhammad is reported to have said that there would be three eclipses before the last hour; one to be seen in the East, another in the West, and the third in Arabia.

10. The returning of the Arabs to the worship of al Lat and al Uzza and the rest of their ancient idols, after the decease of every one in whose heart there was faith equal to a grain of mustard-seed, none but the very worst of men being left alive. For GOD, they say, will send a cold odoriferous wind, blowing from Syria Damascena, which shall sweep away the souls of all the faithful, and the Quran itself, so that men will remain in the grossest ignorance for a hundred years.

11. The discovery of a vast heap of gold and silver by the retreating of the Euphrates, which will be the destruction of many.

12. The demolition of the Kaabah or temple of Makkah by the Ethiopians.¹

13. The speaking of beasts and inanimate things.

14. The breaking out of fire in the province of Hijaz; or, according to others, in Yaman.

15. The appearance of a man of the descendants of Qahtan, who shall drive men before him with his staff.

16. The coming of the Mahdi or director, concerning whom Muhammad prophesied that the world should not have an end till one of his own family should govern the Arabians, whose name should be the same with his own name, and whose father's name should also be the same with his father's name, who should fill the earth with righteousness *

This person the Shiites believe to be now

* An account of a remarkable movement among Indian Muslims, aroused during the eleventh century (A.H.) by the expected advent of the Imam Mahdi, is given in F. Talboy Wheeler's History of India, VOL iv. part i pp. 151-153. E.M.W.

¹ See post, in this section

alive, and concealed in some secret place till the time of his manifestation; for they suppose him to be no other than the last of the twelve Imams, named Muhammad Abu'l Qasim, as their prophet was, and the son of Hasan al Askari, the eleventh of that succession. He was born at Sarmanrai the 255th year of the Hijra¹. From this tradition, it is to be presumed, an opinion pretty current among the Christians took its rise, that the Muhammadans are in expectation of their prophet's return.

17. A wind which shall sweep away the souls of all who have but a grain of faith in their hearts, as has been mentioned under the tenth sign.

These are the greater signs, which, according to their doctrine, are to precede the resurrection, but still leave the hour of it uncertain: for the immediate sign of its being come will be the first blast of the trumpet, which they believe will be sounded three times. The first they call the blast of consternation at the hearing of which all creatures in heaven and earth shall be struck with terror, except those whom GOD shall please to exempt from it.

The effects attributed to this first sound of the trumpet are very wonderful; for they say the earth will be shaken, and not only all buildings, but the very mountains levelled; that the heavens shall melt, the sun be darkened, the stars fall, on the death of the angels, who, as some imagine, hold them suspended between heaven and earth, and the sea shall be troubled and dried up, or, according to others, turned into flames, the sun, moon, and stars being thrown into it: the Quran, to express the greatness of the terror of that day, adds that women who give suck shall abandon the care of their infants, and even the she-camels which have gone ten months with young (a most valuable part of the substance of that nation) shall be utterly neglected. A further effect of this blast will be that concourse of beasts mentioned in the Quran,² though

¹ Vide D'Herbel., Bibl. Orient., p.531.

² Chap. 81, v.5.

some doubt whether it be to precede the resurrection or not. They who suppose it will precede, think that all kinds of animals, forgetting their respective natural fierceness and timidity, will run together into one place, being terrified by the sound of the trumpet and the sudden shock of nature.

The Muhammadans believe that this first blast will be followed by a second, which they call the blast of examination¹, when all creatures, both in heaven and earth, shall die or be annihilated, except those which GOD shall please to exempt from the common fate² and this, they say, shall happen in the twinkling of an eye, nay; in an instant, nothing surviving except GOD alone, with paradise and hell, and the inhabitants of those two places, and the throne of glory.³ The last who shall die will be the angel of death.

Forty years after this will be heard the blast of resurrection when the trumpet shall be sounded the third time by Israfil, who, together with Gabriel and Michael, will be previously restored to life, and standing on the rock of the temple of Jerusalem,⁴ shall, at GOD'S command, call together all the dry and rotten bones, and other dispersed parts of the bodies, and the very hairs, to judgment. This angel having, by the divine order, set the trumpet to his mouth, and called together all the souls from all parts, will throw them into his trumpet, from whence, on his giving the last sound, at the command of GOD, they will fly forth like bees, and fill the whole space between heaven and earth, and then repair to their respective bodies, which

¹ Several writers, however, make no distinction between this blast and the first, supposing the trumpet will sound but twice. See the notes to Quran, C. 39, v.68.

² Quran C. 30, V.14.

³ To these some add the spirit who bears the waters on which the throne is placed, the preserved table wherein the decrees of God are registered, and the pen wherewith they are written; all which things the Muhammadans imagine were created before the world.

⁴ In this circumstance the Muhammadans follow the Jews, who also agree that the trumpet will sound more than once. Vide R. Bechai in Biur hattorah, and Otioth shel Akiba.

the opening earth will suffer to arise; and the first who shall so arise, according to a tradition of Muhammad, will be himself. For this birth the earth will be prepared by the rain above mentioned, which is to fall continually for forty years,¹ and will resemble the seed of a man,- and be supplied from the water under the throne of GOD, which is called living water; by the efficacy and virtue of which the dead bodies shall spring forth from their graves, as they did in their mother's womb, or as corn sprouts forth by common rain, till they become perfect; after which breath will be breathed into them, and they will sleep in their sepulchres till they are raised to life at the last trump.

As to the length of the day of judgment, the Quran in one place tells us that it will last 1000 years,² and in another 50,000.³ To reconcile this apparent contradiction, the commentators use several shifts: some saying they know not what measure of time GOD intends in those passages; others, that these forms of speaking are figurative and not to be strictly taken, and were designed only to express the terribleness of that day, it being usual for the Arabs to describe what they dislike as of long continuance, and what they like as the contrary; and others suppose them spoken only in reference to the difficulty of the business of the day, which, if GOD should commit to any of his creatures, they would not be able to go through it in so many thousand years; to omit some other opinions which we may take notice of elsewhere.

Having said so much in relation to the time of the resurrection, let us now see who are to be raised from the dead, in what manner and form they shall be raised, in what place they shall be assembled, and to what end, according to the doctrine of the Muhammadans.

¹ Elsewhere (see supra, p.130) this rain is said to continue only forty days; but it rather seems that it is to fall during the whole interval between the second and third blasts.

² Quran, c. 32, V.4.

³ Ibid., c. 70, V.4.

That the resurrection will be general, and extend to all creatures, both angels, genii, men, and animals, is the received opinion, which they support by the authority of the Quran, though that passage which is produced to prove the resurrection of brutes be otherwise interpreted by some.¹

The manner of their resurrection will be very different. Those who are destined to be partakers of eternal happiness will arise in honour and security; and those who are doomed to misery, in disgrace and under dismal apprehensions. As to mankind, they say that they will be raised perfect in all their parts and members, and in the same state as they came out of their mother's wombs, that is, barefooted, naked, and uncircumcised; which circumstances when Muhammad was telling his wife Ayesha, she, fearing the rules of modesty might be thereby violated, objected that it would be very indecent for men and women to look upon one another in that condition; but he answered her, that the business of the day would be too weighty and serious to allow them the making use of that liberty. Others, however, allege the authority of their prophet for a contrary opinion as to their nakedness, and pretend he asserted that the dead should arise dressed in the same clothes in which they died²; unless we interpret these words, as some do, not so much of the outward dress of the body, as the inward clothing of the mind, and understand thereby that every person will rise again in the same state as to his faith or infidelity, his knowledge or ignorance, his good or bad works. Muhammad is also said to have further taught, by another tradition, that mankind shall be assembled at the last day distinguished into three classes. The first, of those who go on

¹ See the notes to Quran, c. 81, v.5, and supra, page 136.

² In this also they follow their old guides, the Jews, who say that if the wheat which is sown naked rise clothed, it is no wonder the pious who are buried in their clothes, should rise with them. Gemar. Sanhedr., fol. 90.

foot; the second, of those who ride; and the third, of those who creep grovelling with their faces on the ground. The first class is to consist of those believers whose good works have been few; the second of those who are in greater honour with GOD, and more acceptable to him; whence Ali affirmed that the pious when they come forth from their sepulchres shall find ready prepared for them white-winged camels with saddles of gold, wherein are to be observed some footsteps of the doctrine of the ancient Arabians¹ and the third class, they say, will be composed of the infidels, whom GOD shall cause to make their appearance with their faces on the earth, blind, dumb, and deaf. But the ungodly will not be thus only distinguished; for, according to a tradition of the prophet, there will be ten sorts of wicked men on whom GOD shall on that days certain discretory remarks. The first will appear in the form of apes; these are the professors of Zendicism: the second in that of swine; these are they who have been greedy of filthy lucre and enriched themselves by public oppression: the third will be brought with their heads reversed and their feet distorted; these are the usurers: the fourth will wander about blind; these are unjust judges: the fifth will be deaf, dumb, and blind, understanding nothing; these are they who glory in their own works: the sixth will gnaw their tongues, which will hang down upon their breasts, corrupted blood flowing from their mouths like spittle, so that everybody shall detest them; these are the learned men and doctors, whose actions contradict their sayings: the seventh will have their hands and feet cut off; these are they who have injured their neighbours the eighth will be fixed to the trunks of palm trees or stakes of wood; these are the false accusers and informers: the ninth will stink worse than a corrupted corpse; these are they who have indulged their passions and voluptuous appetites, but refused GOD

¹ See supra, Sect. I., p.43.

such part of their wealth as was due to him: the tenth will be clothed with garments daubed with pitch; and these are the proud, the vainglorious, and the arrogant.

As to the place where they are to be assembled to judgment, the Quran and the traditions of Muhammad agree that it will be on the earth, but in what part of the earth it is not agreed. Some say their prophet mentioned Syria for the place; others, a white and even tract of land, with-out inhabitants or any signs of buildings. Al Ghazali imagines it will be a second earth, which he supposes to be of silver; and others, an earth which has nothing in common with ours but the name; having, it is possible, heard something of the new heavens and new earth mentioned in Scripture: whence the Quran has this expression, "On the day wherein the earth shall be changed into another earth."¹

The end of the resurrection the Muhammadans declare to be, that they who are so raised may give an account of their actions and receive the reward thereof. And they believe that not only mankind, but the genii and irrational animals also,² shall be judged on this great day, when the unarmed cattle shall take vengeance on the horned, till entire satisfaction shall be given to the injured.³

As to mankind, they hold that when they are all assembled together, they will not be immediately brought to judgment, but the angels will keep them in their ranks and order while they attend for that purpose; and this attendance some say is to last forty years, others seventy,

¹ Cap. 14, v.49.

² Quran, c. 6, v.37. Vide Maimonid., More Nev., part iii. C. 17.

³ This opinion the learned Greaves supposed to have taken its rise from the following words of Ezekiel, wrongly understood: "And as for ye, O my flock, thus saith the Lord God, Behold I even I, will judge between the fat cattle, and between the lean cattle; because ye have thrust with side and with shoulder, and pushed all the diseased with your horns, till ye have scattered them abroad; therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey, and I will judge between cattle and cattle," &c. (Ezek. xxxiv.17, 2:22). Much might be said of concerning brutes deserving future reward and punishment. See Bayle, Dict. Hist. Art. Rorarius, Rem. D., &C

others 300, nay, some say no less than 50,000 years, each of them vouching their prophet's authority. During this space they will stand looking up to heaven, but without receiving any information or orders thence, and are to suffer grievous torments, both the just and the unjust, though with manifest difference. For the limbs of the former, particularly those parts which they used to wash in making the ceremonial ablution before prayer, shall shine gloriously, and their sufferings shall be light in comparison, and shall last no longer than the time necessary to say the appointed prayers; but the latter will have their faces obscured with blackness, and disfigured with all the marks of sorrow and deformity. What will then occasion not the least of their pain is a wonderful and incredible sweat, which will even stop their mouths, and in which they will be immersed in various degrees according to their demerits, some to the ankles only, some to the knees, some to the middle, some so high as their mouth, and others as their ears. And this sweat, they say, will be provoked not only by that vast concourse of all sorts of creatures mutually pressing and treading on one another's feet, but by the near and unusual approach of the sun, which will be then no farther from them than the distance of a mile, or, as some translate the word, the signification of which is ambiguous, than the length of a bodkin. So that their skulls will boil like a pot,¹ and they will be all bathed in sweat. From this inconvenience, however, the good will be protected by the shade of GOD'S throne; but the wicked will be so miserably tormented with it, and also with hunger, and thirst, and a stifling air, that they will cry out, "Lord, deliver us from this anguish, though thou send us into hell-fire."² What they fable of the extraordinary heat of the sun on this occasion, the Muhammadans certainly borrowed from the Jews, who say, that for the punishment of the wicked on the last day that planet shall be drawn from its sheath,

¹ Al. Ghazali.

² Idem.

in which it is now put up, lest it should destroy all things by its excessive heat.¹

When those who have risen shall have waited the limited time, the Muhammadans believe GOD will at length appear to judge them; Muhammad undertaking the office of intercessor, after it shall have been declined by Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Jesus, who shall beg deliverance only for their own souls.

They say that on this solemn occasion GOD will come in the clouds, surrounded by angels, and will produce the books wherein the actions of every person are recorded by their guardian angels,² and will command the prophets to bear witness against those to whom they have been respectively sent. Then every one will be examined concerning all his words and actions, uttered and done by him in this life; not as if GOD needed any information in those respects, but to oblige the person to make public confession and acknowledgment of GOD's justice. The particulars of which they shall give an account, as Muhammad himself enumerated them, are of their time, how they spent it; of their wealth, by what means they acquired it and how they employed it; of their bodies, wherein they exercised them; of their knowledge and learning, what use they made of them. It is said, however, that Muhammad has affirmed that no less than 70,000 of his followers should be permitted to enter paradise without any previous examination, which seems to be contradictory to what is said above. To the questions we have mentioned each person shall answer, and make his defence in the best manner he can, endeavouring to excuse himself by casting the blame of his evil deeds on others, so that a dispute shall arise even between the soul arid the body, to which of them their guilt ought to be imputed, the soul saying, "O Lord, my body I received from thee; for thou createdst me without a hand to lay hold with,

¹ Vide Pocock, not. in Port. Mosis, p.277.

² See supra, p.120.

a foot to walk with, an eye to see with, or an understanding to apprehend with, till I came and entered into this body; therefore, punish it eternally, but deliver me." The body, on the other side, will make this apology :- "O Lord, thou createdst me like a stock of wood, having neither hand that I could lay hold with, nor foot that I could walk with, till this soul, like a ray of light entered into me, and my tongue began to speak, my eye to see, and my foot to walk; therefore, punish it eternally, but deliver me." But GOD will propound to them the following parable of the blind man and the lame man, which, as well as the preceding dispute, was borrowed by the Muhammadans from the Jews:¹ - A certain king, having a pleasant garden, in which were ripe fruits, set two persons to keep it one of whom was blind and the other lame, the former not being able to see the fruit nor the latter to gather it; the lame man, however, seeing the fruit, persuaded the blind man to take him upon his shoulders; and by that means he easily gathered the fruit, which they divided between them. The lord of the garden, coming some time after, and inquiring after his fruit, each began to excuse himself; the blind man said he had no eyes to see with, and the lame man that he had no feet to approach the trees. But the king, ordering the lame man to be set on the blind, passed sentence on and punished them both. And in the same manner will GOD deal with the body and the soul. As these apologies will not avail on that day, so will it also be in vain for any one to deny his evil actions, since men and angels and his own members, nay, the very earth itself, will be ready to bear witness against him

Though the Muhammadans assign so long a space for the attendance of the resuscitated before their trial, yet they tell us the trial itself will be over in much less time,

¹ Gemara, Sanhedr. c. II ; R. Jos. Albo, Serm. iv. C. 33. See also Epiphan. in Ancorat., sect. 89.

and, according to an expression of Muhammad, familiar enough to the Arabs, will last no longer than while one may milk an ewe, or than the space between the two milkings of a she-camel.¹ Some, explaining those words so frequently used in the Quran, "GOD will be swift in taking an account," say that he will judge all creatures in the space of half a day, and others that it will be done in less time than the twinkling of an eye.²

At this examination they also believe that each person will have the book wherein all the actions of his life are written delivered to him; which books the righteous will receive in their right hand, and read with great pleasure and satisfaction, but the ungodly will be obliged to take them against their wills in their left,³ which will be bound behind their backs, their right hand being tied up to their necks.⁴

To show the exact justice which will be observed on this great day of trial, the next thing they describe is the balance wherein all things shall be weighed. They say it will be held by Gabriel, and that it is of so vast a size, that its two scales, one of which hangs over paradise, and the other over hell, are capacious enough to contain both heaven and earth. Though some are willing to under-stand what is said in the Quran concerning this balance allegorically, and only as a figurative representation of GOD'S equity, yet the more ancient and orthodox opinion is that it is to be taken literally; and since words and actions, being mere accidents, are not capable of being themselves weighed, they say that the books wherein they are written will be thrown into the scales, and according as those wherein the good or the evil action,

¹ The Arabs use, after they have some milk from the camel, to wait a while and let her young one suck a little, that she may give down her milk more plentifully at the second milking.

² Pocock, not. in Port. Mosis, pp. 278-282. See also Quran, c. 2, V. 201.

³ Quran, c. 17, V. 16; c. 18, v. 47; C. 69, V. 25; and c. 84, vv. 7, 8.

⁴ Jalaluddin.

are recorded shall preponderate, sentence will be given; those whose balances laden with their good works shall be heavy will be saved, but those whose balances are light will be condemned.¹ Nor will any one have cause to complain that GOD suffers any good action to pass unrewarded, because the wicked for the good they do have their reward in this life, and therefore can expect no favour in the next.

The old Jewish writers make mention as well of the books to be produced at the last day, wherein men's actions are registered,² as of the balance wherein they shall be weighed;³ and the Scripture itself seems to have given the first notion of both.⁴ But what the Persian Magi believe of the balance comes nearest to the Muhammadan opinion. They hold that on the day of judgment two angels, named Mihr and Sarosh, will stand on the bridge we shall describe by and by, to examine every person as he passes; that the former, who represents theme mercy, will hold a balance in his hand to weigh the actions of men; that according to the report he shall make thereof to GOD, sentence will be pronounced, and those whose good works are found more ponderous, if they turn the scale but by the weight of a hair, will be permitted to pass forward to paradise; but those whose good works shall be found light will be by the other angel, who represents GOD'S justice, precipitated from the bridge into hell.⁵

This examination being passed, and every one's works weighed in a just balance, that mutual retaliation will follow, according to which every creature will take vengeance one of another, or have satisfaction made them for the injuries which they have suffered. And since

¹ Quran, c. 23, v.103; c. 7, v. 8, &C.

² Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni, f. 153, c. 3.

³ Gemar. Sanhedr., f. 91, &C.

⁴ Exod. xxxii. 32, 33; Dan. vii. 10; Rev. xx. 12, &C and Dan. v. 27.

⁵ Hyde, De Rel. Vet. Pers., pp. 245, 401, &C.

there will then be no other way of returning like for like, the manner of giving this satisfaction will be by taking away a proportionable part of the good works of him who offered the injury, and adding it to those of him who suffered it. Which being done, if the angels (by whose ministry this is to be performed) say, "Lord, we have given to every one his due, and there remaineth of this person's good works so much as equalleth the weight of an ant," GOD will of his mercy cause it to be doubled unto him3 that he may be admitted into paradise; but if, on the contrary, his good works be exhausted, and there remain evil works only, and there be any who have not yet received satisfaction from him, GOD will order that an equal weight of their sins be added unto his, that he may be punished for them in their stead, and he will be sent to hell laden with both. This will be the method of GOD'S the dealing with mankind.

As to brutes, after they shall and have likewise taken vengeance of one another, as we have mentioned above, he will command them to be changed into dust;¹ wicked men being reserved to more grievous punishment, so that they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence passed on the brutes, "Would to GOD that we were dust also!" As to the genii, many Muhammadans are of opinion that such of them as are true believers will undergo the same fate as the irrational animals, and have no other reward than the favour of being converted into dust; and for this they quote the authority of their prophet. But this, however, is judged not so very reason-able, since the genii, being capable of putting themselves in the state of believers as well as men, must consequently deserve, as it seems, to be rewarded for their faith, as well as to be punished for infidelity. Wherefore some entertain a more favourable opinion, and assign the believing genii a place near the confines of paradise, where they will

¹ They say the dog of the favor, even sleepers and Ezra's ass, which was raised to life, will, by peculiar favor be admitted into paradise. See Quran, c. 18, vv. 8-24, and c.3.

enjoy sufficient felicity, though they be not admitted into that delightful mansion. But the unbelieving genii, it is universally agreed, will be punished eternally, and be thrown into hell with the infidels of mortal race. It may of be improper to observe, that under the denomination unbelieving genii, the Muhammadans comprehend also the devil and his companions.²

The trials being over and the assembly dissolved, the Muhammadans hold that those who are to be admitted into paradise will take the right-hand way, and those who are destined to hell-fire will take the left; but both of them must first pass the bridge, called in Arabic al Sirat, which they say is laid over the midst of hell, and described to be finer than a hair and sharper than the edge of a sword, so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason most of the sect of the Mutazilites reject it as a fable, though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of this article that it was seriously affirmed by him who never asserted a falsehood, meaning their prophet, who, to add to the difficulty of the passage, has likewise declared that this bridge is beset on each side with briars and hooked thorns, which will, however, be no impediment to the good, for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning or the wind, Muhammad and his Muslims leading the way; whereas the wicked, what with the slipperiness and extreme narrowness of the path, the entangling of the thorns, and the extinction of the light which directed the former to paradise, will soon miss their footing, and fall down headlong into hell, which is gaping beneath them.²

This circumstance Muhammad seems also to have borrowed from the Magians, who teach that on the last day all mankind will be obliged to pass a bridge which they call Pul Chinavad or Chinavar, that is, the straight

¹ Vide Quran, c. 18, v 48.

² Pocock, ubi sup., pp. 282-289.

bridge, leading directly into the other world; on the midst of which they suppose the angels, appointed by GOD to perform that office, will stand, who will require of every one a strict account of his actions, and weigh them in the manner we have already mentioned.¹ It is true the Jews speak likewise of the bridge of hell, which they say is no broader than a thread; but then they do not tell us that any shall be obliged to pass it except the idolaters, who will fall thence into perdition.²

As to the punishment of the wicked, the Muhammadans are taught that hell is divided into seven storeys, or apartments, one below another, designed for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned.³ The first, of those they call Jahannam, they say will be the receptacle of those who acknowledged one GOD, that is, the wicked Muhammadans, who, after having there been punished according to their demerits, will at length be released. The second, named Ladhwa, they assign to the Jews; the third, named Hutama, to the Christians; the fourth, named al Sair, to the Sabians; the fifth, named Saqar, to the Magians; the sixth, named al Jahim, to the idolaters; and the seventh, which is the lowest and worst of all, and is called al Hawiya, to the hypocrites, or those who outwardly professed some religion, but in their hearts were of none.⁴ Over each of these apartments they believe there will be set a guard of angels,⁵ nineteen in

¹ Hyde, De Rel. Vet. Pers.,pp. 245, 402, &c.

² Midrash, Yalkut Reubeni, § Gehinnom.

³ Quran, c. 15, v.14.

⁴ Others fill these apartments with different company. Some place in the second the idolaters; in the Gog and Magog, &c.; in the fourth, the devils; in the fifth, those who neglect alms and prayers; and crowd the Jews, Christians, and Magians together in the sixth. Some, again, will have the first to be prepared for the Dahrians, or those who deny the creation and believe the eternity of the world; the second, for the Dualists, or Manichees, and the idolatrous Arabs; the third, for the Brahmins of the Indies; the fourth, for the Jews; the fifth, for the Christians; and the sixth, for the Magians. But all agree in third, assigning the seventh to the hypocrites. Vide Millium, De Mohammedismo ante Moham., p. 412;- D'Herbel., Bibl. Orient., p. 368, &C.

⁵ Quran, c. 40, v. 52; c.43, v.77; v.74, v.30, &. C.

number,¹ to whom the damned will confess the just judgment of GOD, and beg them to intercede with him for some alleviation of their pain, or that they may be delivered by being annihilated.²

Muhammad has, in his Quran and traditions, been very exact in describing the various torments of hell, which, according to him, the wicked will suffer both from intense heat and excessive cold. We shall, however, enter into no detail of them here, but only observe that the degrees of these pains will also vary, in proportion to the crimes of the sufferer and the apartment he is condemned to; and that he who is punished the most lightly of all will be shod with shoes of fire, the fervour of which will cause his skull to boil like a caldron. The condition of these unhappy wretches, as the same prophet teaches, cannot be properly called either life or death; and their misery will be greatly increased by their despair of being ever delivered from that place, since, according to that frequent expression in the Quran, "they must remain therein for ever." it must be remarked, however, that the infidels alone will be liable to eternity of damnation, for the Muslims, or those who have embraced the true religion, and have been guilty of heinous sins, will be delivered thence after they shall have expiated their crimes by their sufferings. The contrary of either of these opinions is reckoned heretical; for it is the constant orthodox doctrine of the Muhammadans that no unbeliever or idolater will ever be released, nor any person who in his lifetime professed and believed the unity of GOD be condemned to eternal punishment.

As to the time and manner of the deliverance of those believers whose evil actions shall outweigh their good, there is a tradition of Muhammad that they shall be released after they shall have been scorched and their skins burnt black, and shall afterwards be admitted into paradise; and when the inhabitants of

¹ Quran, c. 74, v.30.

² Ibid., c. 40, v.52; c. 43, v 77.

that place shall, in contempt, call them infernals, GOD will, on their prayers, take from them that opprobrious appellation. Others say he taught that while they continue in hell they shall be deprived of life, or (as his words are otherwise interpreted) be cast into a most profound sleep, that they may be the less sensible of their torments; and that they shall afterwards be received into paradise,

and there revive on their being washed with the water of the life; though some suppose they will be restored to life before they come forth from their place of punishment, that at their bidding farewell to their pains they may have some little taste of them. The time which these believers shall be detained there, according to a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not be less than 900 years, nor more than 7000. And as to the manner of their delivery, they say that they shall be distinguished by the marks of prostration on those parts of their bodies with which they used to touch the ground in prayer, and over which the fire will, therefore, have no power; and that being known by this characteristic, they will be relieved by the mercy of GOD, at the intercession of Muhammad and the blessed; whereupon those who shall have been dead will be restored to life, as has been said, and those whose bodies shall have contracted any sootiness or filth from the flames and smoke of hell will be immersed in one of the rivers of paradise, called the river of life, which will wash them whiter than pearls.¹

For most of these circumstances relating to hell and the state of the damned, Muhammad was likewise, in all probability, indebted to the Jews, and in part to the Magians, both of whom agree in making seven distinct apartments in hell,² though they vary in other particulars. The former place an angel as a guard over each of these infernal apartments, and suppose he will intercede for the

¹ Poc., not. in Port. Mosis pp. 289-291.

² Nishmat hayim, f. 32; Gemar. in Arubin, f. 19; Zohar. ad Exod xxvi. 2, &C ; and Hyde, De Rel. Vet. Pers., p.245.

miserable wretches there imprisoned, who will openly acknowledge the justice of GOD in their condemnation.¹ They also teach that the wicked will suffer a diversity of punishments, and that by intolerable cold² as well as heat, and that their faces shall become black;³ and believe those of their own religion shall also be punished in hell hereafter, according to their crimes (for they hold that few or none will be found so exactly righteous as to deserve no punishment at all), but will soon be delivered thence, when they shall be sufficiently purged from their sins by their father Abraham, or at the intercession of him or some other of the prophets.⁴ The Magians allow but one angel to preside over all the seven hells, who is named by them Yanand Yazad, and, as they teach, assigns punishments proportionate to each person's crimes, restraining also the tyranny and excessive cruelty of the devil, who would, if left to himself, torment the damned beyond their sentence.⁵ Those of this religion do also mention and describe various kinds of torments, wherewith the wicked will be punished in the next life, among which, though they reckon extreme cold to be one, yet they do not admit fire, out of respect, as it seems, to that element, which they take to be the representation of the divine nature; and, therefore, they rather choose to describe the damned souls as suffering by other kinds of punishments, such as an intolerable stink, the stinging and biting of serpents and wild beasts, the cutting and tearing of the flesh by he devils, excessive hunger and thirst, and the like.⁶

Before we proceed to a description of the Muhammadan paradise, we must not forget to say something of the wall or partition which they imagine to be between that place and hell, and seems to be copied from the great gulf of

¹ Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni, part II, f. 116.

² Zohar. ad Exod. xix.

³ Yalkut Shemuni, ubi sup., f. 86.

⁴ Nishmat hayim, f. 82; Gemar. Arubin, f. 19. Vide Quran, c. 2, v. 79, and c.3, v. 24, and notes there.

⁵ Hyde, De Rel. Vet. Peru., p. 182.

⁶ Vide eundem, ibid., p.399, &C.

separation mentioned in Scripture.¹ They call it al Urf, and more frequently in the plural al Araf, a word derived from the verb arafa, which signifies to distinguish between things, or to part them; though some commentators give another reason for the imposition of this name, because, they say, those who stand on this partition will know and distinguish the blessed from the damned by their respective marks or characteristics;² and others say the word properly intends anything that is high raised or elevated, as such a wall of separation must be supposed to be.³ The Muhammadan writers greatly differ as to the persons who are to be found on al Araf. Some imagine it to be a sort of limbo for the patriarchs and prophets, or for the martyrs and those who have been most eminent for sanctity, among whom, they say, there will be also angels in the form of men. Others place here such whose good and evil works are so equal that they exactly counterpoise each other, and therefore deserve neither reward nor punishment; and these, they say, will, on the last day, be admitted into paradise, after they shall have performed an act of adoration, which will be imputed to them as a merit, and will make the scale of their good works to overbalance. Others suppose this intermediate space will be a receptacle for those who have gone to war without their parents' leave, and therein suffered martyrdom, being excluded paradise for their disobedience, and escaping hell because they are martyrs. The breadth of this partition wall cannot be supposed to be exceeding great, since not only those who shall stand thereon will hold conference with the inhabitants both of paradise and of hell, but the blessed and the damned themselves will also be able to talk to one another.⁴

If Muhammad did not take his notions of the partition we have been describing from Scripture, he must at least

¹ Luke xvi. 26.

² Jalaluddin Vide Quran c. 7, vv. 47-50.

³ Al Baidhawi.

⁴ Quran, ubi sup Vide D'Herbel, Bibl. Orient., p.121, &C.

have borrowed it at second-hand from the Jews, who mention a thin wall dividing paradise from hell.¹

The righteous, as the Muhammadans are taught to believe, having surmounted the difficulties and passed the sharp bridge above mentioned, before they enter paradise will be refreshed by drinking at the pond of their prophet, who describes it to be an exact square, of a month's journey in compass: its water, which is supplied by two pipes from al Kauthar, one of the rivers of paradise, being whiter than milk or silver and more odoriferous than musk, with as many cups set around it as there are stars in the firmament, of which water whoever drinks will thirst no more for ever.² This is the first taste which the blessed will have of their future and now near-approaching felicity.

Though paradise be so very frequently mentioned in lie Quran, yet it is a dispute among the Muhammadans whether it be already created, or be to be created hereafter: the Mutazilites and some other sectaries asserting that there is not at present any such place in nature, and that the paradise which the righteous will inhabit in the next life will be different from that from which Adam was expelled. However, the orthodox profess the contrary, maintaining that it was created even before the world, and describe it from their prophet's traditions, in the following manner.

They say it is situate above the seven heavens (or in the seventh heaven) and next under the throne of GOD; and to express the amenity of the place, tell us that the earth of it is of the finest wheat flour, or of the purest musk, or, as others will have it, of saffron; that its stones re pearls and jacinths; the walls of its buildings enriched with gold and silver, and that the trunks of all its trees are of gold, among which the most remarkable is the tree called Tuba, or the tree of happiness. Concerning this

¹ Midrash, Yalkut Sioni, f. II.

² Al Ghazali.

tree they fable that it stands in the palace of Muhammad, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer¹ that it will be laden with pomegranates, grapes, dates, and other fruits of surprising bigness, and of tastes unknown to mortals. So that if a man desire to eat of any particular kind of fruit, it will immediately be presented to him, or if he choose flesh, birds ready dressed will be set before him according to his wish. They add that the boughs of this tree will spontaneously bend down to the hand of the person who would gather of its fruits, and that it will supply the blessed not only with food, but also with silken garments, and beasts to ride on ready saddled and bridled, and adorned with rich trappings, which will burst forth from its fruits; and that this tree is so large, that a person mounted on the fleetest horse would not be able to gallop from one end of its shade to the other in a hundred years.²

As plenty of water is one of the greatest additions to the pleasantness of any place, the Quran often speaks of the rivers of paradise as a principal ornament thereof. Some of these rivers, they say, flow with water, some with milk, some with wine, and others with honey, all taking their rise from the root of the tree Tuba: two of which rivers, named al Kauthar and the river of life, we have already mentioned. And lest these should not be sufficient, we are told this garden is also watered by a great number of lesser springs and fountains, whose pebbles are rubies and emeralds, their earth of camphire, their beds of musk, and their sides of saffron, the most remarkable among them being Salsabil and Tasnim.

But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent and ravishing girls of paradise, called, from their large black eyes, Hur al oyun, the enjoyment of whose company will be a principal felicity of the faithful. These, they say, are created not of clay, as mortal women are,

¹ Yabya, in Quran, c. 13.

² Jabaluddin, ibid.

but of pure musk, being, as their prophet often affirms in his Quran, free from all natural impurities, defects, and inconveniences incident to the sex, of the strictest modesty, and secluded from public view in pavilions of hollow pearls, so large, that, as some traditions have it, one of them will be no less than four parasangs, (or, as others say, sixty miles) long, and as many broad.

The name which the Muhammadans usually give to this happy mansion is al Jannat, or the garden; and sometimes they call it, with an addition, Jannat-ul Firdaus, the garden of paradise, Jannat-ul-Adan, the garden of Eden (though they generally interpret the word Eden, not, according to its acceptation in Hebrew, but according to its meaning in their own tongue, wherein it signifies a settled or perpetual habitation), Jannat-ul-Mawa the garden of abode, Jannat-ul-Naim, the garden of pleasure, and the like; by which several appellations some understand so many different gardens, or at least places of different degrees of felicity (for they reckon no less than a hundred such in all), the very meanest whereof will afford its inhabitants so many pleasures and delights, that one would conclude they must even sink under them, had not Muhammad declared, that in order to qualify the blessed for a full enjoyment of them, GOD will give to every one the abilities of a hundred men.

We have already described Muhammad's pond, whereof the righteous are to drink before their admission into this the gate of delicious seat; besides which some authors¹ mention two fountains springing from under a certain tree near the gate of paradise, and say that the blessed will also drink of one of them, to purge their bodies and carry off all excrementitious dregs, and will wash themselves in the other. When they are arrived at the gate itself, each person will there be met and saluted by the beautiful youths appointed to serve and wait upon him, one of them

¹ Al Ghazali, Kanz al Afrar.

running before, to carry the news of his arrival to the wives destined for him; and also by two angels, bearing the presents sent him by GOD, one of whom will invest him with a garment of paradise, and the other will put a ring on each of his fingers, with inscriptions on them alluding to the happiness of his condition By which of the eight gates (for so many they suppose paradise to have) they are respectively to enter, is not worth inquiry; but it must be observed that Muhammad has declared that no person's good works will gain him admittance, and that even himself shall be saved, not by his merits, but merely by the mercy of GOD.

It is, however, the of God the constant doctrine of the Quran that the felicity of each person will be proportioned to his deserts, and that there will be abodes of different degrees of happiness; the most eminent degree being reserved for the prophets, the second for the doctors and teachers of GOD'S worship, the next for the martyrs, and the lower for the rest of the righteous, according to their several merits. There will also some distinction be made in respect to the time of their admission, Muhammad (to whom, if you will believe him, the gates will first be opened) having affirmed that the poor will enter paradise five hundred years before the rich: nor is this the only privilege which they will enjoy in the next life, since the same prophet has also declared, that when he took a view of paradise, he saw the majority of its inhabitants to be the poor, and when he looked down into hell, he saw the greater part of the wretches confined there to be women.

For the first entertainment of the blessed on their admission, they fable that the whole earth will then as one loaf of bread, which GOD will reach to them with his hand, holding it like a cake; and that for meat they will have the ox Balam and the fish Nun, the lobes of whose livers will suffice 70,000 men, being, as some imagine, to be set before the principal guests, viz., those who, to that number, will be admitted into paradise without

examination;¹ though others suppose that a definite number is here put for an indefinite, and that nothing more is meant thereby than to express a great multitude of people.

From this feast every one will be dismissed to the mansion designed for him, where (as has been said) he will enjoy such a share of felicity as will be proportioned to his merits, but vastly exceed comprehension or expectation, since the very meanest in paradise (as he who, it is pretended, must know best has declared) will have eighty thousand servants, seventy-two wives of the girls of paradise, besides the wives he had in this world, and a tent erected for him of pearls, jacinths, and emeralds, of a very large extent; and, according to another tradition, will be waited on by three hundred attendants while he eats, will be served in dishes of gold, whereof three hundred shall be set before him at once, containing each a different kind of food, the last morsel of which will be as grateful as the first; and will also be supplied with as many sorts of liquors in vessels of the same metal; and, to complete the entertainment, there will be no want of wine, which, though forbidden in this life, will yet be freely allowed to be drunk in the next, and without danger, since the wine of paradise will not inebriate, as that we drink here. The flavour of this wine we may conceive to be delicious with-out a description, since the water of Tasnim and the other fountains which will be used to dilute it is said to be wonderfully sweet and fragrant. If any object to these pleasures, as an impudent Jew did to Muhammad, that so much eating and drinking must necessarily require proper evacuations, we answer, as the prophet did, that the inhabitants of paradise will not need to ease them-selves, nor even to blow their nose, for that all superfluities will be discharged and carried off by perspiration, or a sweat as odoriferous as musk, after which their appetite shall return afresh.

¹ See supra, p.142.

The magnificence of the garments and furniture promised by the Quran to the godly in the next life is answerable to the delicacy of their diet; for they are to be clothed in the richest silks and brocades, chiefly of green which will burst forth from the fruits of paradise, and will be also supplied by the leaves of the tree Taba; they will be adorned with bracelets of gold and silver, and crowns set with pearls of incomparable lustre; and will make use of silken carpets, litters of a prodigious size, couches, pillows, and other rich furniture embroidered with gold and precious stones.

That we may the more readily believe what has been mentioned of the extraordinary abilities of the inhabitants of paradise to taste these pleasures in their height, it is said they will enjoy a perpetual youth; that in whatever age they happen to die, they will be raised in their prime and vigour, that is, of about thirty years of age, which age they will never exceed (and the same they say of the damned); and that when they enter paradise they will be of the same stature with Adam, who, as they fable, was no less than sixty cubits high. And to this age and stature their children, if they shall desire any (for otherwise their wives will not conceive), shall immediately attain, according to that saying of their prophet, "If any of the faithful in paradise be desirous of issue, it shall be conceived, born, and grown up within the space of an hour." And in the same manner, if any one shall have a fancy to employ himself in agriculture (which rustic pleasure may suit the wanton fancy of some), what he shall sow will spring up and come to maturity in a moment.

Lest any of the senses should want their proper delight, we are told the ear will there be entertained, not only with the ravishing songs of the angel Israfil, who has the most melodious voice of all GOD'S creatures, and of the daughters of paradise; but even the trees themselves will celebrate the divine praises with a harmony exceeding what ever mortals have heard; to which will be joined the

sound of the bells hanging on the trees, which will be put in motion by the wind proceeding from the throne of GOD, so often as the blessed wish for music; nay, the very clashing of the golden-bodied trees, whose fruits are pearls and emeralds, will surpass human imagination; so that the pleasures of this sense will not be the, least of the enjoyments of paradise.

The delights we have hitherto taken a view of, it is said, will be common to all the inhabitants of paradise, even those of the lowest order. What then, think we, must they enjoy who shall obtain a superior degree of honour and felicity? To these, they say, there are prepared, besides all this, "such things as eye hath not seen, nor hath ear heard, nor bath it entered into the heart of man to conceive;" an expression most certainly borrowed from Scripture.¹ That we may know wherein the felicity of those who shall attain the highest degree will consist, Muhammad is reported to have said that the meanest of the inhabitants of paradise will see his gardens, wives, servants, furniture, and other possessions take up the space of a thousand years' journey (for so far and farther will the blessed see in the next life), but that be will be in the highest honour with GOD who shall behold his face morning and evening; and this favour al Ghazali supposes to be that additional or superabundant recompense promised in the Quran,² which will give such exquisite delight, that in respect thereof all the other pleasures of paradise will be forgotten and lightly esteemed; and not without reason, since, as the same author says, every other enjoyment is equally tasted by the very brute beast who is turned loose into luxuriant pasture.³ The reader will observe, by the way, that this is a full confutation of those who pretend that the Muhammadans admit of no spiritual

¹ Isa lxiv. 4; I Cor. ii. 9.

² Cap. 10, V.9, &c.

³ Vide Poc., in not. ad Port. Mosia, p.305.

pleasure in the next life, but make the happiness of the blessed to consist wholly in corporeal enjoyments.¹*

Whence Muhammad took the greatest part of his paradise it is easy to show. The Jews constantly describe the future mansion of the just as a delicious garden, and make it also reach to the seventh heaven.² They also say it has three gates,³ or, as others will have it, two;⁴ and four rivers (which last circumstance they copied, to be sure, from those of the Garden of Eden),⁵ flowing with milk, wine, balsam, and honey.⁶ Their Behemoth and Leviathan, which they pretend will be slain for the entertainment of the blessed,⁷ are so apparently the Balam and Nun of Muhammad, that his followers themselves confess he is obliged to them for both.⁸ The Rabbins likewise mention seven different degrees of felicity,⁹ and say that the highest will be of those who perpetually contemplate the face of GOD.¹⁰ The Persian Magi had also an idea of the future happy estate of the good, very little different from that of Muhammad. Paradise they called Bahisht, and Minu, which signifies crystal, where they believe the righteous shall enjoy all manner of delights, and particularly the company of the Huran-i-bahisht, or black-eyed nymphs of paradise,¹¹ the care of whom, they say, is committed to the angel Zamiyad;¹² and hence Muhammad seems to have taken the first hint of his paradisiacal ladies.

It is not improbable, however, but that he might have been obliged, in some respect, to the Christian accounts of

* We find no authority for such spiritual blessing in the Quran. But see post, p. 162. E.M.W

¹ Vide Reland, De Rel. Moh., I.2, § 17.

² Vide Gemar Tanith, f. 25, Beracoth, f. 34, snd Midrash Babboth, f. 37.

³ Megillah, Amkoth, p.78.

⁴ Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni.

⁵ Gen. ii 10, &c.

⁶ Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni.

⁷ Gemar. Bava Bathra, f. 78; Rashi, in Job i.

⁸ Vide Poc., not. in Port. Mosis, p. 298.

⁹ Nishmat hayim, f. 32.

¹⁰ Midrash, Tehillim, f. II.

¹¹ Sadder, porta 5.

¹² Hyde,De Rel. Vet. Pers., p.225.

the felicity of the good in the next life.*

As it is scarce possible to convey, especially to the apprehensions of the generality of mankind, an idea of spiritual pleasures without introducing sensible objects, the Scriptures have been obliged to represent the celestial enjoyments by corporeal images, and to describe the mansion of the blessed as a glorious and magnificent city, built of gold and precious stones, with twelve gates, through the streets of which there runs a river of water of life, and having on either side the tree of life, which bears twelve sorts of fruits and leaves of a healing virtue.¹ Our Saviour likewise speaks of the future state of the blessed as of a kingdom where they shall eat and drink at his table.² But then these descriptions have none of those puerile imaginations which reign throughout that of Muhammad, much less any the most distant intimation of sensual delights, which he was so fond of; on the contrary, we are expressly assured that "in the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be as the angels of GOD

* As all the doctrines of Muhammad concerning the future state were proclaimed in Makkan suras before the tenth year of his mission, and as almost no reference had yet been made to Christianity, it seems quite certain that he was ignorant of the Christian Scriptures; and inasmuch as he everywhere evinces in the Quran his almost entire ignorance of Christian doctrine, we may safely conclude that he owed little or nothing to Christianity for his ideas of heaven and hell. E.M.W.

¹ Rev. xxi. 10, &c., and xxii. I, 2.

² Luke xxii 29, 30, &C.

³ I would not, however, undertake to defend all the Christian writers in this particular; witness that one passage of Irenaeus wherein he introduces a tradition to St. John that our Lord should say, "The days shall come, in which there shall be vines, which shall have each ten thousand branches, and every one of those branches shall have ten thousand lesser branches, and every one of these branches shall have ten thousand twigs, and every one of these twigs shall have ten thousand clusters of grapes, and in every one of these clusters there shall be ten thousand grapes, and every one of these grapes being pressed shall yield two hundred and seventy-five gallons of wine; and when a man take hold of one of these sacred bunches, another bunch shall cry out, I am a better bunch: take me, and bless the Lord by me," Iren., I 5, C. 33.

in heaven."¹ Muhammad, however, to enhance the value of paradise with his Arabians, chose rather to imitate the indecency of the Magians than the modesty of the Christians in this particular, and lest his beatified Muslims should complain that anything was wanting, bestows on them wives, as well as the other comforts of life; judging, it is to be presumed, from his own inclinations, that, like Panurgus's ass,² they would think all other enjoyments not worth their acceptance if they were to be debarred from this.

Had Muhammad, after all, intimated to his followers, that what he had told them of paradise was to be taken, not literally, but in a metaphorical sense (as it is said the Magians do the description of Zoroaster's³), this might, perhaps, make some atonement; but the contrary is so evident from the whole tenor of the Quran, that although some Muhammadans, whose understandings are too refined to admit such gross conceptions, look on their prophet's descriptions as parabolical, and are willing to receive them in an allegorical or spiritual acceptation,⁴ yet the general and orthodox doctrine is, that the whole is to be strictly believed in the obvious and literal acceptation; to prove which I need only urge the oath they exact from Christians (who they know abhor such fancies) when they would bind them in tile most strong and sacred manner; for in such a case they make them swear that if they falsify their engagement, they will affirm that there will be black-eyed girls in the next world and corporeal pleasures.⁵

Before we quit this subject it may not be improper

¹ Matt. xxii. 30.

² Vide Rabelais, Pantagr., I 5, c. 7. A better authority than this might, however, be alleged in favor of Muhammad's judgment in this respect; I mean that of Plato, who is said to have proposed, in his ideal commonwealth, as the reward of valiant men and consummate soldiers, the kisses of boys and beauteous damsels. Vide Gell. Noct. Att., I. 18, c. 2.

³ Vide Hyde, De Rel. Vet. Pers, p. 266.

⁴ Vide eund., in not. ad Bobov. Lit. Turcar., p. 21.

⁵ Poc. ad Port. Mosis, p.305.

to observe the falsehood of a vulgar imputation on the Muhammadans, who are by several writers² reported to hold that women have no souls, or; if they have, that they will perish, like those of brute beasts, and will not be rewarded in the next life. But whatever may be the opinion of some ignorant people among them, it is certain that Muhammad had too great a respect for the fair sex to teach such a doctrine; and there are several passages in the Quran which affirm that women, in the next life, will not only be punished for their evil actions, but will also receive the rewards of their good deeds, as well as

the men, and that in this case GOD will make no distinction of sexes.² It is true the general notion is that they will not be admitted into the same abode as the men are, because their places will be supplied by the paradisiacal females (though some allow that a man will there also have the company of those who were his wives in this world, or at least such of them as he shall desire³), but that good women will go into a separate place of happiness, where they will enjoy all sorts of delights;⁴ but whether one of those delights will be the enjoyment of agreeable paramours created for them, to complete the economy of the Muhammadan system, is what I have nowhere found decided. One circumstance relating to these beatified females, conformable to what he had asserted of the men, he acquainted his followers with in the answer he returned to an old woman, who, desiring him to intercede with GOD that she might be admitted into paradise, he told her that no old woman would enter that place; which setting the poor man a crying, he explained himself by saying that GOD would then make her young again.⁵

¹ Hornbek, Sum. Contr., p. 16. Grelot, Voyage de Constant., p.275. Ricaut's Present State of the Ottoman Empire, 1.2, c. 21.

² See Qurdn, c. 3, v. 126; C. 4, v. -126, &c.; and also c. 13, v.23; c.16, 40, 48, 57, & Vide etiam Reland, De Rel. Moh., 1.2, § 18; and Hyde, in not. ad Bohov. de. Visit. Aegr., p. 21.

³ See supra, p.157.

⁴ Vide Chardin, Voy., tom. 2, p. 328; and Bayle, Dict. Hist. Art. Mahomet, Rem. Q.

⁵ See Quran, c.56, v.36, and the notes there; and Gagnier, not. in Abulfeda, Vit. Moh., p. 145.

The sixth great point of faith which the Muhammadans are taught by the Quran to believe is GOD'S absolute decree and predestination both of good and evil; for the orthodox doctrine is, that whatever hath or shall come to pass in this world, whether it be good or whether it be bad, proceedeth entirely from the divine will, and is irrevocably fixed and recorded from all eternity in the preserved table.¹ GOD having secretly predetermined not only the adverse and prosperous fortune of every person in this world, in the most minute particulars, but also his faith or infidelity, his obedience or disobedience, and consequently his everlasting happiness or misery after death, which fate or predestination it is not possible by any foresight or wisdom to avoid.

Of this doctrine Muhammad makes great use in his of this doctrine by Quran for the advancement of his designs, encouraging his followers to fight without fear, and even desperately, for the propagation of their faith, by representing to them that all their caution could not avert their inevitable destiny or prolong their lives for a moment,² and deterring them from disobeying or rejecting him as an impostor by setting before them the danger they might thereby incur of being, by the just judgment of GOD, abandoned to seduction, hardness of heart, and a reprobate mind, as a punishment for their obstinacy.³

As this doctrine of absolute election and reprobation has been thought by many of the Muhammadan divines to be derogatory to the goodness and justice of GOD, and to make GOD the author of evil, several subtle distinctions have been invented and disputes raised to explicate or soften it, and different sects have been formed, according to their several opinions or methods of explaining this point, some of them going so far as even to hold the

¹ See supra, p. 108.

¹ Quran, c. 3, v.144; c. 4, v. 77

³ Ibid., c. 4, vv. 134-144; c. 2, vv. 6-20, &C., passim.

direct contrary position of absolute free will in man, as we shall see hereafter.¹

Of the four fundamental points of religious practice required by the Quran, the first is prayer, under which, as has been said, are also comprehended those legal washings or purifications which are necessary preparations thereto.

Of these purifications there are two degrees, one called Ghusl, being a total immersion or bathing of the body in water, and the other called Wadhu (by the Persians Abdast), which is the washing of their faces, hands, and feet after a certain manner. The first is required in some extraordinary cases only, as after having lain with a woman, or being polluted by emission of seed, or by approaching a dead body; women also being obliged to it after their courses or childbirth. The latter is the ordinary ablution in common cases and before prayer, and must necessarily be used by every person before he can enter upon that duty.² It is performed with certain formal ceremonies, which have been described by some writers, but are much easier apprehended by seeing them done than by the best description.

These purifications were perhaps borrowed by Muhammad from the Jews; at least they agree in a great measure with those used by that nation,³ who in process of time burdened the precepts of Moses in this point with so many traditionary ceremonies, that whole books have been written about them, and who were so exact and superstitious therein, even in our Saviour's time, that they are often reproved by him for it.⁴ But as it is certain that the pagan Arabs used lustrations of this kind ⁵ long before the time of Muhammad, as most nations did, and still do in the East, where the warmth of the climate

¹ Sect. VIII.

² Quran, c. 4, v.42, and c. 5, v.7. Vide Reland, De Rel. Moh., I. 1, &c 8.

³ Poc., not. in Port. Mosis, p.356, &C.

⁴ Mark vii. 3, &c.

⁵ Vide Herodot., 1.3, C. 198.

requires a greater nicety and degree of cleanliness than these colder parts, perhaps Muhammad only recalled his countrymen to a more strict observance of those purifying rites, which had been probably neglected by them, or at least performed in a careless and perfunctory manner. The Muhammadans, however, will have it that they are as ancient as Abraham,¹ who, they say, was enjoined by GOD to observe them, and was shown the manner of making the ablution by the Angel Gabriel in the form of a beautiful youth.² Nay, some deduce the matter higher, and imagine that these ceremonies were taught our first parents by the angels.³

That his followers might be the more punctual in this duty, Muhammad is said to have declared, that "the practice of religion is founded on cleanliness," which is the one-half of the faith and the key of prayer, without which it will not be heard by GOD.⁴ That these expressions may be the better understood, al Ghazali reckons four degrees of purification, of which the first is, the cleansing of the body from all pollution, filth, and excrements; the second, the cleansing of the members of the body from all wickedness and unjust actions; the third, the cleansing of the heart from all blamable inclinations and odious vices; and the fourth, the purging a man's secret thoughts from all affections which may divert their attendance on GOD: adding, that the body is but as the outward shell in respect to the heart, which is as the kernel. And for this reason he highly complains of those who are superstitiously solicitous in exterior purifications, avoiding those persons as unclean who are not so scrupu-

¹ Al Jannabi in Vita Abrah. Vide Poc. Spec., p.303.

² Herewith agrees the spurious Gospel of St. Barnabas, the Spanish translation of which (cap. 29) has these words: Dixo Abraham, Que haré yo para server al Dios de los sanctos y phophetas? Respondiò el angel, Ve e aquellu fuente y lavate, porque Dios quire hablar contigo. Dixo Abraham, Como tengo de lavarme? Luego et angelise le appareciò como uno bello-mancebo, y se lavò en la fuente, y le dixo, Abraham, haz como yo. Y. Abraham se lavò, & c.

³ Al Kessai, Vide Reland, De. Rel. Moham., p. 81.

⁴ Al Ghazali, Ibn al Athir.

lously nice as themselves, and at the same time have, their minds lying waste, and overrun with pride, ignorance, and hypocrisy.¹ Whence it plainly appears with how little foundation the Muhammadans have been charged by some writers² with teaching or imagining that these formal washings alone cleanse them from their sins.³

Lest so necessary a preparation to their devotions should be omitted, either where water cannot be had, or when it may be of prejudice to a person's health, they are allowed in such cases to make use of fine sand or dust in lieu of it⁴ and then they perform this duty by clapping their open hands on the sand, and passing them over the parts, in the same manner as if they were dipped in water. But for this expedient Muhammad was not so much indebted to his own cunning⁵ as to the example of the Jews, or perhaps that of the Persian Magi, almost as scrupulous as the Jews themselves in their lustrations, who both of them prescribe the same method in cases of necessity;⁶ and there is a famous instance in ecclesiastical history of sand being used, for the same reason, instead of water, in the administration of the Christian sacrament of baptism, many years before Muhammad's time.⁷

Neither are the Muhammadans contented with bare washing, but think themselves obliged to several other necessary points of cleanliness, which they make also parts of this duty; such as combing the hair, cutting the beard, paring the nails, pulling out the hairs of their armpits,- shaving their private parts, and circumcision;⁸ of

¹ Vide Poc. Spec., p.302, &c.

² Barthol. Edegsen. Confut. Hagaren., p.360. G. Sionita and J. Hesronita, in Tract. de Urb. and Morib. Orient. ad Calcem Geogr. Nubiens., C. 15. Du Ryer, dans le de la Rel. des Turcs, mis à tête de sa version de l'Alcor. St. Olon, Desor. du Royaume de Maroc, c. 2. Hyde, in not. ad Bobov. de Prec. Moh., p. I. Smith, de Morib. et Instit. Turcar., Ep. I, p.32.

³ Vide Reland, De Rel. Moh., 1. 2, C. II.

⁴ Quran, c. 4, v. 42, and c. 5, v.7.

⁵ Vide Smith, ubi sup.

⁶ Gemar. Berachoth, C. 2. Vide Poc. not. ad Port. Mosis, p. 380. Sadder, porta 84.

⁷ Cedren., p. 250.

⁸ Vide Poc. Spec., p.303.

which last I will add a word or two, lest I should not find a more proper place.

Circumcision, though it be not so much as once mentioned in the Quran, is yet held by the Muhammadans to be an ancient divine institution, confirmed by the religion of Islam, and though not so absolutely necessary but that it may be dispensed with in some cases,¹ yet highly proper and expedient. The Arabs used this rite for many ages before Muhammad, having probably learned it from Ismail, though not only his descendants, but the Himyarites,² and other tribes, practised the same. The Ismailites, we are told,³ used to circumcise their children, not on the eighth day, as is the custom of the Jews, but when about twelve or thirteen years old, at which age their father underwent that operation;⁴ and the Muhammadans imitate them so far as not to circumcise children before they be able, at least, distinctly to pronounce that profession of their faith, "There is no god but GOD; Muhammad is the apostle of GOD;⁵" but pitch on what age they please for the purpose, between six and sixteen or thereabouts.⁶ Though the Muslim doctors are generally of opinion, conformably to the Scripture, that this precept was originally given to Abraham, yet some have imagined that Adam was taught it by the Angel Gabriel, to satisfy an oath he had made to cut off that flesh which, after his fall, had rebelled against his spirit; whence an odd argument has been drawn for the universal obligation of circumcision.⁷ Though I cannot say the Jews led the Muhammadans the way here, yet they seem so unwilling to believe any of the principal

¹ Vide Bobov. de Circumcis., p. 22.

² Philostorg., Hist. Ecci., I. 3.

³ Joseph., Ant., 1 I, c. 23.

⁴ Gen xvii. 25.

⁵ Vide Bobov., ubi sup., and Poc. Spec., p.319.

⁶ Vide Reland, De Rel. Moh., I., I, p.75.

⁷ This is the substance of the following passage of the Gospel of Barnabas (cap. 23), viz., Entonces dixo Jesus; Adam el primer hombre aviendo comido por engano de- monio la comida prohibida por Dios en el parayso, se le rebelò su carne à su espiritu; por lo qual jurò dizwiedo, Por Dios que yo te quiero cortar; y rompiendo una piedra tomò su carne para cortarla con el corte de la piedra.

patriarchs or prophets before Abraham were really uncircumcised, that they pretend several of them, as well as some holy men who lived after his time, were born ready circumcised, or without a foreskin, and that Adam, in particular, was so created;¹ whence the Muhammadans affirm the same thing of their prophet.²

Prayer was by Muhammad thought so necessary a duty, that he used to call it the pillar of religion and the key of paradise; and when the Thakifites, who dwelt at Tayif, sending in the ninth year of the Hijra to make their submission to the prophet, after the keeping of their favourite idol had been denied them,³ begged, at least, that they might be dispensed with as to their saying of the appointed prayers, he answered, "That there could be no good in that religion wherein was no prayer."⁴

That so important a duty, therefore, might not be neglected, Muhammad obliged his followers to pray five times every twenty-four hours, at certain stated times; viz., I. In the morning, before sunrise; 2. When noon is past, and the sun begins to decline from the meridian; 3. In the afternoon, before sunset; 4. In the evening, after sunset, and before day be shut in; and 5. After the day is shut in, and before the first watch of the night.⁵ For this institution he pretended to have received the divine command from the throne of GOD himself, when he took his night journey to heaven; and the observing of the stated times of prayer is frequently insisted on in the Quran, though they be not particularly prescribed therein. Accordingly, at the aforesaid times, of which public notice is given by the Muadhdhins, or Criers, from the steeples

Por loquat fue reprehendido del angel Gabriel, y el le dixo; Yo he jurado por Dios que lo de cortar, y men tiros no lo seré jamas. Ala hora el angel le enseno la superfluided de su carne, y a quella cortò. De manerà que ansi como todo hombre tome carne de Adam, ansi esta obligato a cumplir aquello que Adam, con juramento promotiò.

¹ Shaishel. hakkabala Vide Poc. Spec., p. 320; Gagnier, not in Abulfed., Vit. Moh., p. 2.

² Vide Poc. Spec., p. 304.

³ See supra, p. 39

⁴ Abulfed. Vit. Moh. P, 127.

⁵ Vide ibid., pp.38, 39.

of their mosques (for they use no bell), every conscientious Muslim prepares himself for prayer, which he performs either in the mosque or any other place, provided it be clean, after a prescribed form and with a certain number of phrases or ejaculations (which the more scrupulous count by a string of beads) and using certain postures of worship; all which have been particularly set down and described, though with some few mistakes, by other writers,¹ and ought not to be abridged, unless in some special cases, as on a journey, on preparing for battle, &c.

For the regular performance of the duty of prayer among the Muhammadans, besides the particulars above mentioned, it is also requisite that they turn their faces, while they pray, towards the temple of Makkah,² the quarter where the same is situate being, for that reason, pointed out within their mosques by a niche, which they call al Mihrab, and without by the situation of the doors opening into the galleries of the steeples: there are also tables calculated for the ready finding out their Qibla, or part towards which they ought to pray, in places where they have no other direction.³

But what is principally to be regarded in the discharge of this duty, say the Muslim doctors, is the inward disposition of the heart, which is the life and spirit of prayer;⁴ the most punctual observance of the external rites and ceremonies before mentioned being of little or no avail, if performed without due attention, reverence, devotion, and hope;⁵ so that we must not think the Muhammadans, or the considerate part of them at least, content themselves with the mere opus operatum, or imagine their whole religion to be placed therein.⁶

¹ Vide Hotting., Hist. Eceles., tom. 8, pp.470-529; Boboy. in Liturg. Turcic., p. I, &c.; Grelot, Voyage de Constant., pp. 253-264; Chardin, Voy. de. Perse, tom. 2, p. 382, &c.; and Smith, de Moribus ac Instit. Turcar., Ep. 1, p.33, &c.

² Quran c. 2, V.142. See the notes there.

³ Vide Hyde, De Rel. Vet. Pers., pp. 8, 9, and 126

⁴ Al Ghazali.

⁵ Vide Poe. Spec., p.305.

⁶ Vide Smith, ubi sup., p.40.

I had like to have omitted two things which in my mind deserve mention on this head, and may, perhaps, be better defended than our contrary practice. One is, that the Muhammadans never address themselves to GOD in sumptuous apparel, though they are obliged to be decently clothed, but lay aside their costly habits and pompous ornaments, if they wear any, when they approach the divine presence, lest they should seem proud and arrogant.¹ The other is, that they admit not their women to pray with them in public, that sex being obliged to perform their devotions at home, or if they visit the mosques, it must be at a time when the men are not there; for the Muslims are of opinion that their presence inspires a different kind of devotion from that which is requisite in a place dedicated to the worship of GOD.²

The greater part of the particulars comprised in the Muhammadan institution of prayer their prophet seems to have copied from others, and especially the Jews, exceeding their institutions only in the number of daily prayers.³ The Jews are directed to pray three times a day,⁴ in the morning, in the evening, and within night, in imitation of Abraham,⁵ Isaac,⁶ and Jacob;⁷ and the practice was as early, at least, as the time of Daniel.⁸ The several postures used by the Muhammadans in their prayers

¹ Reland, De Rel. Moh., p.96. See Quran, c. 7, v.32.

² A Moor, named Abmad Ibn Abdalla, in a Latin epistle by him, written to Maurice, Prince of Orange and Emanuel, Price of Portugal, containing a censure of the Christian religion (a copy of which, once belonging to Mr. Selden, who has thence transcribed a considerable passage in his treatise De Synedriis vett. Ebraeor.,l. I, c. 12, is now in the Bodleiau Library), finds great fault with the unedifying manner in which mass is said among the Roman Catholics, for this very reason among others. His words are: Ubicunque congregantur simul viri et foeminoe, ibi mens non est intenta et devota: nam inter celebrandum missam et sacrificial, foeminoe et viri mutuis aspectibus, signis acnutibus accendunt pravorum appetitum, et desideriorum quorum ignes; et quando hoc non fieret, saltem humana fragilitas declectatur mutuo et reciproco aspectu; et ita non potest esse mens quieta, attenta, et devota.

³ The Sabians, according to some, exceed the Muhammadans in this point, praying seven times a day. See supra, p.34, note.

⁴ Gemar. Berachoth.

⁵ Gen. xix. 27.

⁶ Gen. xxiv. 63.

⁷ Gen. xxviii. II, &c.

⁸ Dan. vi. 10.

are also the same with those prescribed by the Jewish Rabbins, and particularly the most solemn act of adoration, by prostrating themselves so as to touch the ground with their forehead;¹ notwithstanding, the latter pretend the practice of the former, in this respect, to be a relic of their ancient manner of paying their devotions to Baalpeor.² The Jews likewise constantly pray with their faces turned towards the temple of Jerusalem,³ which has their Qibla from the time it was first dedicated by Solomon;⁴ for which reason Daniel, praying in Chaldea, had the windows of his chamber open towards that city;⁵ and the same was the Qibla of Muhammad and his followers for six or seven months,⁶ and till he found himself obliged to change it for the Kaabah. The Jews, moreover, are obliged by the precepts of their religion to be careful that the place they pray in, and the garments they have on when they perform their duty, be clean:⁷ the men and women also among them pray apart (in which particular they were imitated by the Eastern Christians); and several other conformities might be remarked between the Jewish public worship and that of the Muhammadans.⁸

The next point of the Muhammadan religion is the giving of alms, which are of two sorts, legal and voluntary. The legal alms are of indispensable obligation, being commanded by the law, which directs and determines both the portion which is to be given and of what things it ought to be given; but the voluntary alms are left to every one's liberty, to give more or less as he shall see fit. The former kind of alms some think to be properly called Zakat and the latter Sadaqa, though this name be also

¹ Vide Millium, De Mohammedismo ante Moham., p.427, &c, and Hyde, De Rel. Vet. Pers., p.5, &c.

² Maimonid. in Epist. ad Proselyt. Vide Poc. Spec., p. 306.

³ Gemar. Bava Bathra, and Berachoth.

⁴ I Kings viii. 29, &c.

⁵ Dan. vi. 10.

⁶ Some say eighteen months. Vide Abulfed., Vit. Moh., p.54.

⁷ Maimon. in Halachoth Tephilla,c. 9, § 8, 9. Menura hammeor, fol. 28, 2.

⁸ Vide Millium, ubi pup., p. 424

frequently given to the legal alms. They are called Zakat, either because they increase a man's store, by drawing down a blessing thereon, and produce in his soul the virtue of liberality,¹ or because they purify the remaining part of one's substance from pollution and the soul from the filth of avarice;² and Sadaqa, because they are a proof of a man's sincerity in the worship of GOD. Some writers have called the legal alms tithes, but improperly, since in some cases they fall short, and in others exceed that proportion.

The giving of alms is frequently commanded in the Quran, and often recommended therein jointly with prayer; the former being held of great efficacy in causing the latter to be heard of GOD: for which reason the Khalifah Omar Ibn Abd al Aziz used to say "that prayer carries us half-way to GOD, fasting brings us to the door of his palace, and alms procures us admission."³ The Muhammadans, therefore, esteem alms deeds to be highly meritorious, and many of them have been illustrious for the exercise thereof. Hasan, the son of Ali and grandson of Muhammad; in particular, is related to have thrice in his life divided his substance equally between himself and the poor, and twice to have given away all he had;⁴ and the generality are so addicted to the doing of good, that they extend their charity even to brutes.⁵ *

Alms, according to the prescriptions of the Muhammadan law, are to be given of five things: 1. Of cattle, that is to say, of camels, kine, and sheep; 2. Of money;

*A few years' residence among Muslims will serve to materially modify this statement. E.M.W.

¹ Al Baidhawi See Quran, C. 2, vv.261-274.

² Idem. Compare this with what our Saviour says (Luke xi. 41), "Give alms of such things as ye have; and behold, all things are clean unto you."

³ D'Herbel., Bibl. Orient., p.5.

⁴ Ibid., p .422.

⁵ Vide Busbeq., Epist 3, p.178. Smith, de Morib. Turc., Ep. I, p.66, &C Compare Eccles. xi. I and Prov. xii. l0,

3. Of corn; 4. Of fruits, viz., dates and raisins; and 5. Of wares sold. Of each of these a certain portion is to be given in alms, being usually one part in forty, or two and a half per cent. of the value. But no alms are due for them, unless they amount to a certain quantity or number; nor until a man has been in possession of them eleven months, he not being obliged to give alms thereout before the twelfth month is begun; nor are alms due for cattle employed in tilling the ground or in carrying of burdens. In some eases a much larger portion than the before-mentioned is reckoned due for alms: thus of what is gotten out of mines, or the sea, or by any art or profession over and above what is sufficient for the reasonable support of a man's family, and especially where there is a mixture or suspicion of unjust gain, a fifth part ought to be given in alms. Moreover, at the end of the fast of Ramadhan, every Muslim is obliged to give in alms for himself and for every one of his family, if he has any, a measure ¹ of wheat, barley, dates, raisins, rice, or other provisions commonly eaten.²

The legal alms were at first collected by Muhammad himself, who employed them as he thought fit, in the relief of his poor relations and followers, but chiefly applied them to the maintenance of those who served in his wars, and fought, as he termed it, in the way of GOD. His successors continued to do the same, till, in process of time, other taxes and tributes being imposed for the support of the government, they seem to have been weary of acting as almoners to their subjects, and to have left the paying them to their consciences.

In the foregoing rules concerning alms we may observe also footsteps of what the Jews taught and practised in respect thereto. Alms, which they also call Sedaka, i.e.,

¹ This measure is a Sad, and contains about six or seven pounds weight.

² Vide Reland, De Rel. Mahommed, I 1, p.99, &c. Chardin, Voy. de Perse, tom. 2, p.415, &c.

justice or righteousness,¹ are greatly recommended by their Rabbins, and preferred even to sacrifices,² as a duty the frequent exercise whereof will effectually free a man from hell-fire,³ and merit everlasting life;⁴ wherefore, besides the corners of the field and the gleanings of their harvest and vineyard, commanded to be left for the poor and the stranger by the law of Moses,⁵ a certain portion of their corn and fruits is directed to be set apart for their relief, which portion is called the tithes of the poor.⁶ The Jews likewise were formerly very conspicuous for their charity. Zaccheus gave the half of his goods to the poor;⁷ and we are told that some gave their whole substance: so that their doctors at length decreed that no man should give above a fifth part of his goods in alms.⁸ There were also persons publicly appointed in every synagogue to collect and distribute the people's contributions.⁹

The third point of religious practice is fasting, a duty of so great moment, that Muhammad used to say it was "the gate of religion," and that "the odour of the mouth of him who fasteth is more grateful to GOD than that of musk;" and al Ghazali reckons fasting one-fourth part of the faith. According to the Muhammadan divines, there are three degrees of fasting: I. The restraining the belly and other parts of the body from satisfying their lusts; 2. The restraining the ears, eyes, tongue, hands, feet, and other members from sin; and 3. The fasting of the heart from worldly cares, and refraining the thoughts from everything besides GOD.¹⁰

¹ Hence alms are in the New Testament termed . Matt. vi. I (ed. Steph.), and 2 Cor. ix 10.

² Gemar. in Bava Bathra.

³ Ibid., in Gittin.

⁴ Ibid., in Rosh hashana.

⁵ Levit. xix. 9, 10; Deut. xxiv 19, &c.

⁶ Vide Gemar. Hierosol. in Peah, and Maimon. in Halachoth matanoth Aniyyim., c. 6. Conf. Pirke Avoth, v.9.

⁷ Luke xix. 8.

⁸ Vide Reland, Ant. Sacr. Vet. Hebr.,p. 402.

⁹ Vide ibid., p.138.

¹⁰ Al Ghazali, Al Mustatraf.

The Muhammadans are obliged, by the express command of the Quran, to fast the whole month of Ramadhan, from the time the new moon first appears till the appearance of the next new moon; during which time they must abstain from eating, drinking, and women, from day break till night,¹ or sunset. And this injunction they observe so strictly, that while they fast they suffer nothing to enter their mouths, or other parts of their body, esteeming the fast broken and null if they smell perfumes, take a clyster or injection, bathe, or even purposely swallow their spittle; some being so cautious that they will not open their mouths to speak, lest they should breathe the air too freely :² the fast is also deemed void if a man kiss touch a woman, or if he vomit designedly. But after sunset they are allowed to refresh themselves, and to eat and drink, and enjoy the company of their wives till daybreak;³ though the more rigid begin the fast again at midnight.⁴ This fast is extremely rigorous and mortifying when the month of Ramadhan happens to fall in summer, for the Arabian year being lunar,⁵ each month runs through all the different seasons in the course of

¹ Quran, c. 2, vv. 185-195.

² Hence we read that the Virgin Mary, to avoid answering the reflections cast on her for bringing home a child, was advised by the Angel Gabriel to feign she had vowed a fast, and therefore she ought not to speak. See Quran, C. 19, v.27.

³ The words of the Quran (cap. 2, V. 187) are "Until ye can distinguish a white thread from a black thread by the daybreak" - a form of speaking borrowed by Muhammad from the Jews, who determine the time when they are to begin their morning lesson to be so soon as a man can discern blue from white, i.e., the blue threads from the white threads in the fringes of their garments. But this explication the commentators do not approve, pretending that by the white thread and the black thread are to be understood the light and dark streaks of the daybreak; and they say the passage was at first revealed without the words "of the daybreak"; but Muhammad's followers, taking the expression in the first sense, regulated their practice accordingly, and continued eating and drinking till they could distinguish a white thread from a black thread, as they lay before them - to prevent which for the future, the words "of the daybreak" were added as explanatory of the former. Al Badhawi. Vide Pocock, not. In Carmen Tograi, p.89, &C Chardin, Voy. de Perse, tom. 2, p. 423.

⁴ Vide Chardin, ibid., p.421, &c. Reland, De Relig. Moh, p.109, &c.

⁵ See post, Sect. VI.

thirty-three years, the length and heat of the days making the observance of it much more difficult and uneasy then than in winter.

The reason given why the month of Ramadhan was pitched on for this purpose is, that on that month the Quran was sent down from heaven.¹ Some pretend that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus received their respective revelations in the same month.²

From the fast of Ramadhan none are excused, except only travellers and sick persons (under which last denomination the doctors comprehend all whose health would manifestly be injured by their keeping the fast; as women with child and giving suck, ancient people, and young children); but then they are obliged, as soon as the impediment is removed, to fast an equal number of other days: and the breaking the fast is ordered to be expiated by giving alms to the poor.³

Muhammad seems to have followed the guidance of the Jews in his ordinances concerning fasting, no less than in the former particulars. That nation, when they fast, abstain not only from eating and drinking, but from men, and from anointing themselves,⁴ from daybreak until sunset, and the stars begin to appear,⁵ spending the night in taking what refreshments they please.⁶ And they allow women with child and giving suck, old persons, and young children to be exempted from keeping most of the public fasts.⁷

Though my design here be briefly to treat of those points only which are of indispensable obligation on a Muslim, and expressly required by the Quran, without entering into their practice as to voluntary and super-

¹ Quran, c. 2, V. 185. See also c. 97.

² Al Baidhawi, ex Trad. Mohammedis.

³ See Quran, c.2, v. 185.

⁴ Siphra, f. 252, 2.

⁵ Tosephoth ad Gemar. Yoma, f. 34.

⁶ Vide Gemar. Yoma, f. 40, and Maimon. in Halachoth Tanioth, c. 5, § 5.

⁷ Vide Gemar. Tanith, f. 12, and Yoma, f. 83, and Es Hayim, Tanith, c.1.

erogatory works; yet, to show how closely Muhammad's institutions follow the Jewish, I shall add a word or two of the voluntary fasts of the Muhammadans.

These are such as have been recommended either by the example or approbation of their prophet; and especially certain days of those months which they esteem sacred: there being a tradition that he used to say, That a fast of one day in a sacred month was better than a fast of thirty days in another month, and that the fast of one day in Ramadhan was more meritorious than a fast of thirty days in a sacred month.¹

Among the more commendable days is that of Ashura, the tenth of Muharram, which, though some the Jewish writers tell us it was observed by the Arabs, and particularly the tribe of Quraish, before Muhammad's time,² yet, as others assure us, that prophet borrowed both the name and the fast from the Jews, it being with them the tenth of the seventh month, or Tisri, and the great day of expiation commanded to be kept by the law of Moses.³ Al Kazwini relates that when Muhammad came to Madina, and found the Jews there fasted on the day of Ashura, he asked them the reason of it; and they told him it was because on that day Pharaoh and his people were drowned, Moses and those who were with him escaping: whereupon he said that he bore a nearer relation to Moses than they, and ordered his followers to fast on that day. However, it seems afterwards he was not so well pleased in having imitated the Jews herein; and therefore declared that, if he lived another year, he would alter the day, and fast on the ninth, abhorring so near an agreement with them.⁴

The pilgrimage to Makkah is so necessary a point of practice that, according to a tradition of Muhammad, he who dies without performing it may as well die a Jew or

¹ Al Ghazali.

² Al Barezi in Comment. ad Orat. Ibn Nobatae.

³ Levit. xvi 29, and xxiii 27.

⁴ Ibn al Athir. Vide Poc. Spec., p. 309.

a Christian;¹ and the same is expressly commanded in the Quran.² Before I speak of the time and manner of performing this pilgrimage, it may be proper to give a short account of the temple of Makkah, the chief scene of the Muhammadan worship; in doing which I need be the less prolix, because that edifice has been already described by several writers,³ though they, following different relations, have been led into some mistakes, and agree not with one another in several particulars: nor, indeed, do the Arab authors agree in all things, one great reason whereof is their speaking of different times.

The temple of Makkah stands in the midst of the city, and is honoured with the title of Masjid al Haram; i.e. the sacred or inviolable temple. What is principally reverenced in this place, and gives sanctity to the whole, is a square stone building called the Kaabah, as some fancy, from its height, which surpasses that of the others; buildings in Makkah,⁴ but more probably from its quadrangular form, and Bait Allah, i.e., the house of GOD, being peculiarly hallowed and set apart for his worship. The length of this edifice, from north to south, is twenty-four cubits, its breadth from east to west twenty-three cubits, and its height twenty-seven cubits: the door, which is on the east side, stands about four cubits from the ground; the floor being level with the bottom of the door.⁵ In the corner next this door is the black stone, of which I shall take notice by and by. On the north side of the Kaabah, within a semicircular enclosure fifty cubits long, lies the white stone, said to be the sepulchre of Ismail, which receives the rain-water that falls off the Kaabah by a spout, formerly of wood,⁶ but now of gold.

¹ Al Ghazali.

² Cap. 3, V.97. See also C. 22, v. 36, and C. 2, V. 125, &c.

³ Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. 2, p. 428, &C.; Bremond, Descrittioni dell' Egitto, &C 1.1, C. 29; Pitts' Account of the Rel., &c., of the Mohammedans, p. 98, &c.; and Boulainvilliers, Vie de Mah. p.54, &C which last author is the most particular.

⁴ Ahmad Ibn Yusaf.

⁵ Sharif al Edrisi, and Kitab Masalik, apud Poc. Spec., p 125, &c.

⁶ Sharif al Edrisi, ibid.

The Kaabah has a double roof, supported within by three octangular pillars of aloes wood, between which, on a bar of iron, hang some silver lamps. The outside is covered with rich black damask, adorned with an embroidered band of gold, which is changed every year, and was formerly sent by the Khalifahs, afterwards by the Sultans of Egypt, and is now provided by the Turkish emperors.* At a small distance from the Kaabah, on the east side, is the Station or Place of Abraham, where is another stone much respected by the Muhammadans, of which some thing will be said hereafter.

The Kaabah, at some distance, is surrounded, but not entirely, by a circular enclosure of pillars, joined towards the bottom by a low balustrade, and towards the top by bars of silver. Just without this inner enclosure, on the south, north, and west sides of the Kaabah, are three buildings which are the oratories, or places where three of the orthodox sects assemble to perform their devotions (the fourth sect, viz., that of al Shafai, making use of the Station of Abraham for that purpose), and towards the

* "The interior of the Caaba consists of a single room, the roof of which is supported by two columns, and it has no other light than what is received by the door. The ceiling, the upper half of the two columns, and the side walls to within about five feet of the floor, are hung with a thick stuff of red silk, richly interwoven with flowers and inscriptions in large characters of silver. The lower part of each pillar is lined with sweet aloe wood; and that part of the walls below the silk hangings is lined with fine white marble, ornamented with inscriptions cut in relief, and with elegant arabesques; the whole being of exquisite workmanship. The floor, which is upon a level with the door, and therefore about seven feet above the level of the area of the mosque, is laid with marble of different colours. Between the pillars numerous lamps are suspended - donations of the faithful, and said to be of solid gold. In the north-west corner of the chamber is a small gate, which leads up to the flat roof of the building. The interior ornaments are coeval with the restoration of the Caaba, which took place A.D. 1627." - Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, quoted from Lane's Kuram, p.7.

E.M.W.

south-east stands the edifice which covers the well Zamzam, the treasury, and the cupola of al Abbas.¹

All these buildings are enclosed, a considerable distance, by a magnificent piazza, or square colonnade, like that of the Royal Exchange in London, but much larger, covered with small domes or cupolas, from the four corners whereof rise as many minarets or steeples, with double galleries, and adorned with gilded spires and crescents, as are the cupolas which cover the piazza and the other buildings. Between the pillars of both enclosures hang a great number of lamps, which are constantly lighted at night. The first foundations of this outward enclosure were laid by Omar, the second Khalifah, who built no more than a low wall, to prevent the court of the Kaabah, which before lay open, from being encroached on by private buildings; but the structure has been since raised, by the liberality of many succeeding princes and great men, to its present lustre.²

This is properly all that is called tbe temple, but the whole territory of Makkah being also Haram or sacred, there is a third enclosure, distinguished at certain distances by small turrets, some five, some seven, and others ten miles distant from the city.³ Within this compass of ground it is not lawful to attack an enemy, or even to hunt or fowl, or cut a branch from a tree: which is the true reason why the pigeons at Makkah are reckoned sacred, and not that they are supposed to be of the race of that imaginary pigeon which some authors, who should have known better, would persuade us Muhammad made pass for the Holy Ghost.⁴

¹ Sharif al Edrisi, ibid.

² Poc. Spec., p. 116.

³ Gol. not. in Alfrag., p.99. [The present limits extend much farther. Burckhardt's Travels in Arabia, p. 466.]

⁴ Gab. Sionita et Joh. Hesronita, de nonnullis Orient. urbib. ad calc. Geogr. Nub., p .21. Al Mughultai in his Life of Muhammad, says the pigeons of the temple of Makkah are of the best breed of those which laid their eggs at the mouth of the cave where the prophet and Abu Baqr hid themselvses when they fled from that city. See ante, p.86.

The temple of Makkah was a place of worship, and in singular veneration with the Arabs from great antiquity, and many centuries before Muhammad. Though it was most probably dedicated at first to an idolatrous use ¹ yet the Muhammadans are generally persuaded that the Kaabah is almost coeval with the world: for they say that Adam, after his expulsion from paradise, begged of GOD that he might erect a building like that he had seen there, called Bait al Mamur, or the frequented house, and al Durah, towards which he might direct his prayers, and which be might compass, as the angels do the celestial one. Whereupon GOD let down a representation of that house in curtains of light,² and set it in Makkah, perpendicularly under its original,³ ordering the patriarch to turn towards it when he prayed, and to compass it by way of devotion.⁴ After Adam's death, his son Seth built a house in the same form of stones and clay, which being destroyed by the Deluge, was rebuilt by Abraham and Ismail,⁵ at GOD'S command, in the place where the former had stood, and after the same model, they being directed therein by revelation.⁶

After this edifice had undergone several reparations, it was, a few years after the birth of Muhammad, rebuilt by the Quraish on the old foundation,⁷ and afterwards repaired

¹ See ante, p. 38.

² Some say that the Bait al Mamur itself was the Kaabah of Adam, which, having been let down to him from heaven, was, at the Flood, taken up again into heaven, and is there kept. Al Zamakh, in Quran, C. 2.

³ Al Juzi, ex Trad. Ibn Abbas. It has been observed that the primitive Christian Church held a parallel opinion as to the situation of the celestial Jerusalem with respect to the terrestrial; for in the apocryphal book of the Revelations of St. Peter (cap. 27), after Jesus has mentioned unto Peter the creation of the seven heavens-whence, by the way, it appears that this number of heavens was not devised by Muhammad - and of the angels, begins the description of the heavenly Jerusalem in these words: "We have created the upper Jerusalem above the waters, which are above the third heaven, hanging directly over the lower Jerusalem," &c. Vide Gagnier, not. ad Abulfed. Vit. Moh., p. 28.

⁴ Al Shahristani.

⁵ Vide Quran C. 2, v. 125.

⁶ Al Jannabi, in Vita Abraham.

⁷ Vide Abulfed Vit. Moh., p.13.

by Abdullah Ibn Zubair, the Khalifah of Makkah, and at length again rebuilt by al Hajaj Ibn Yusaf, in the seventy-fourth year of the Hijra, with some alterations, in the form wherein it now remains.¹ Some years after, however, the Khalifah Harun al Rashid (or, as others write, is father, al Muhdi, or his grandfather al Mansur) intended again to change what had been altered by al Hajaj, and to reduce the Kaabah to the old form in which it was left by Abdullah, but was dissuaded from meddling with it, lest so holy a place should become the sport of princes, and being new modelled after every one's fancy, should lose that reverence which was justly paid it.² But notwithstanding the antiquity and holiness of this building, they have a prophecy, by tradition from Muhammad, that in the last times the Ethiopians shall come and utterly demolish it, after which it will not be rebuilt again for ever.³

Before we leave the temple of Makkah, two or three particulars deserve further notice. One is the celebrated black stone, which is set in silver, and fixed in the south-east corner of the Kaabah,* being that which looks towards

* "At the (north) east corner of the Kaaba, near the door, is the famous 'black stone;' it forms a part of the sharp angle of the building, at four or five feet above the ground. It is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter, with an undulated surface, composed of about a dozen smaller stones of different sizes and shapes, well joined together with a small quantity of cement, and perfectly smoothed; it looks as if the whole had been broken into many pieces by a violent blow, and then united again. It is very difficult to determine accurately the quality of this stone, which has been worn to its present surface by the millions of touches and kisses it has received. It appears to me like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and a yellowish substance. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black; it is surrounded on all sides by a border, composed of a substance which

¹ Abulfed. in Hist. Gen. al Janabi &c.

² Al Jannabi.

³ Idem, Abmad Ibn Yusaf. Vide Poc. Spec., p. 115, &c.

Basra, about two cubits and one-third, or, which is the same thing, seven spans from the ground. This stone is exceedingly respected by the Muhammadans, and is kissed by the pilgrims with great devotion, being called by some the right hand of GOD on earth. They fable that it is one of the precious stones of paradise, and fell down to the earth with Adam, and being taken up again, or otherwise preserved at the Deluge, the Angel Gabriel afterwards brought it back to Abraham when he was building the Kaabah. It was at first whiter than milk, but grew black long since by the touch of a menstruous woman, or, as others tell us, by the sins of mankind,¹ or rather by the touches and kisses of so many people, the superficies only being black, and the inside still remaining white.² When the Karinatians,³ among other profanations by them offered to the temple of Makkah, took away this stone, they could not be prevailed on, for love or money, to restore it, though, those of Makkah offered no less than five thousand pieces of gold for it.⁴ However, after they had kept it twenty-two years, seeing they could not thereby draw the pilgrims from Makkah, they sent it back of their own accord, at the same time bantering its devotees by telling them it was not the true stone; but, as it is said, it was proved to be no counterfeit by its peculiar quality of swimming on water.⁵

I took to be a close cement of pitch and gravel, of a similar, but not quite the same, brownish colour. This border serves to support its detached pieces; it is two or three inches in breadth, and rises a little above the surface of the stone." Burckhardt, pp.137, 138, quoted in Muir's Life of Mahomet, vol. ii. chap. ii.
Burton thinks it is an aerolite. E. M. W.

¹ Al Zamakh, &C in Quran. Ahmad Ibn Yusaf.

² Poc. Spec., p.117, &C

³ These Karinatians were a sect which arose in the year of the Hijra 278, and whose opinions overturned the fundamental points of Muhammadism. See D'Herbel, Bibl. Orient. Art. Carmath, and hereafter § viii.

⁴ D'Herbel., p.40.

⁵ Ahmad Iba Yusaf, Abulfeda. Vide Poc. Spec., p. 119.

Another thing observable in this temple is the stone in Abraham's Place, wherein they pretend to show his footsteps, telling us he stood on it when he built the Kaabah,¹ and that it served him for a scaffold, rising and falling of itself as he had occasion,² though another tradition says he stood upon it while the wife of his son Ismail, whom he paid a visit to, washed his head ³. It is now enclosed in an iron chest, out of which the pilgrims drink the water of Zamzam,⁴ and are ordered to pray at it by the Quran.⁵ The officers of the temple took care to hide this stone when the Karmatians took the other.⁶

The last thing I shall take notice of in the temple is the well Zamzam, on the east side of the Kaabah, and which is covered with a small building and cupola. The Muhammadans are persuaded it is the very spring which gushed out for the relief of Ismail, when Hagar his mother wandered with him in the desert;⁷ and some pretend it was so named from her calling to him, when she spied it, in the Egyptian tongue, Zam zam, that is, "Stay, stay,"⁸ though it seems rather to have had the name from the murmuring of its waters. The water of this well is reckoned holy, and is highly reverenced, being not only drunk with particular devotion by the pilgrims, but also sent in bottles, as a great rarity, to most parts of the Muhammadan dominions. Abdullah, surnamed al Hafidh, from his great memory, particularly as to the traditions of Muhammad, gave out that he acquired that faculty by drinking large draughts of Zamzam water,⁹ to which I really believe it as efficacious as that of Helicon to the inspiring of a poet.

To this temple every Muhammadan, who has health and means sufficient ¹⁰ ought once, at least, in his life to go on

¹ Abulfeda.

² Vide Hyde, De ReL Vet. Pers, p. 35.

³ Ahmad Ibn Yusaf, Safiu'ddin.

⁴ Ahmad Ibn Yusaf.

⁵ Cap. 2, v. 125.

⁶ Vide Poc. Spec., p. 120,&c.

⁷ Gen. xxi. 19.

⁸ G. Sionit. et J. Hesr. de non. urb. Orient., p.19.

⁹ D'Herhel., p.5.

¹⁰ See Quran c. 3, v. 97, and the notes thereon.

pilgrimage; nor are women excused from the performance of this duty. The pilgrims meet at different places near Makkah, according to the different parts from whence they come,¹ during the months of Shawwa'l and Dhu'l Qaada, being obliged to be there by the beginning of Dhu'l Hajja, which month, as its name imports, is peculiarly set apart for the celebration of this solemnity.

At the places above mentioned the pilgrims properly commence the sacred rites. The men put on the Ihram, or sacred habit, which consists only of two woollen wrappers, one wrapped about the middle to cover their shame, and the other thrown over their shoulders, having their heads bare, and a kind of slippers which cover neither the heel nor the instep, and so enter the sacred territory on their way to Makkah. While they have this habit on they must neither hunt nor fowl ² (though they are allowed to fish ³), which precept is so punctually observed, that they will not kill even a louse or a flea, if they find them on their bodies: there are some noxious animals, however, which they have permission to kill during the pilgrimage, as kites, ravens, scorpions, mice, and dogs given to bite.⁴ During the pilgrimage it behoves a man to have a constant guard over his words and actions, and to avoid all quarreling or ill language, and all converse with women and obscene discourse, and to apply his whole intention to the good work he is engaged in.

The pilgrims, being arrived at Makkah, immediately visit the temple, and then enter on the performances of the prescribed ceremonies, which consist chiefly in going in procession round the Kaabah, in running between the Mounts Safa' and Marwa, in making the station on Mount Arafat, and slaying the victims, and shaving their heads in the valley of Mina. These ceremonies have been so particularly described by others,⁵ that I may be excused

¹ Vide Bobov. do Peregr. Meec., p. 12, &C.

² Quran c. 5, vv. 95-97.

³ Ibid.

⁴ Al Baid.

⁵ Bobov. de Peregr. Mecc., p. 11. &c.; Chardin, Voy. de Perse, t. 2.

if I but just mention the most material circumstances thereof.

In compassing the Kaabah, which they do seven times, beginning at the corner where the black stone is fixed, they use a short, quick pace the three first times they go round it, and a grave, ordinary pace the four last; which, it is said, was ordered by Muhammad, that his followers might show themselves strong and active, to cut off the hopes of the infidels, who gave out that the immoderate heats of Madina had rendered them weak.¹ But the aforesaid quick pace they are not obliged to use every time they perform this piece of devotion, but only at some particular times.² So often as they pass by the black stone, they either kiss it, or touch it with their hand, and kiss that.

The running between Safa and Marwa ³ is also performed seven times, partly with a slow pace, and partly running;⁴ for they walk gravely till they come to a place between two pillars; and there they run, and afterwards walk again; sometimes looking back, and sometimes stopping, like one who has lost something, to represent Hagar seeking water for her son;⁵ for the ceremony is said to be as ancient as her time.⁶ On the ninth of Dhu'l Hajja, after morning prayer, the pilgrims leave the valley of Mina, whither they come the day before, and proceed in a tumultuous and rushing manner to Mount Arafat,⁷ where they stay to perform their devotions till sunset: then they go to Muzdalifah, an oratory between Arafat and Mina, and there spend the night in prayer and reading the Quran. The next morning, by daybreak, they visit al Mashar al Haram, or the

p.440, &c See also Pitts' Account of the Rel., &C of the Muhammadans, p.92, &c.; Gagnier, Vie de Moh., t. 2, p.258, &c.; Abulfed., Vit. Muh., p.130, &c; and Reland, De Rel. Moh., p.113, &c.

¹ Ibn al Athir.

² Vide Poc. Spec., p.314.

³ See ante, p.42.

⁴ Al Ghazali.

⁵ Reland, De Rel. Moh., p.121.

⁶ Ibn al Athir.

⁷ See Quran, c. 2, v.198, and note there.

sacred monument,¹ and departing thence before sunrise, haste by Batn Muhassir to the valley of Mina, where they throw seven stones ² at three marks or pillars, in imitation of Abraham, who, meeting the devil in that place, and being by him disturbed in his devotions, or tempted to disobedience, when he was going to sacrifice his son, was commanded by GOD to drive him away by throwing stones at him;³ though others pretend this rite to be as old as Adam, who also put the devil to flight in the same place and by the same means.⁴

This ceremony being over, on the same day, the tenth of Dhu'l Hajja, the pilgrims slay their victims in the said valley of Mina, of which they and their friends eat part, and the rest is given to the poor. These victims must be either sheep, goats, kine, or camels; males if of either of the two former kinds, and females if of either of the latter, and of a fit age.⁵ The sacrifices being over, they shave their heads and cut their nails, burying them in the same place: after which the pilgrimage is looked on as completed,⁶ though they again visit the Kaabah to take their leave of that sacred building.

The above-mentioned ceremonies, by the confession of the Muhammadans themselves, were almost all of them observed by the pagan Arabs many ages before their prophet's appearance; and particularly the compassing of the Kaabah, the running between Safa and Marwa, and the throwing of the stones in Mina; and were confirmed by Muhammad, with some alterations in such points as seemed most exceptionable: thus, for example, he ordered that when they compassed the Kaabah they should be clothed;⁷ whereas, before his time, they performed that

¹ See Quran, c. 2, v. 188. M. Gagnier has been guilty of a mistake in confounding this monument with the sacred enclosure of the Kaabah. Vide Gagn. not ad Abulfed Vit. Moh., p. 131, and Vie de Moh., t. 2, p.262.

² Dr. Pocock, from al Ghazali, says seventy, at different times and places. Poc. Spec., p.315.

³ Al Ghazali, Ahmad Ibn Yusaf.

⁴ Ibn al Athir.

⁵ Vide Roland, ubi sup., p. 117.

⁶ See Quran, c. 2, v.196.

⁷ Quran, c. 7, v. 27, 32.

piece of devotion naked, throwing off their clothes as a mark that they had cast off their sins,¹ or as signs of their disobedience towards GOD.²

It is also acknowledged that the greater part of these rites are of no intrinsic worth, neither affecting the soul nor agreeing with natural reason, but altogether arbitrary, and commanded merely to try the obedience of mankind, without any further view, and are therefore to be complied with; not that they are good in themselves, but because God has so appointed.³ Some, however, have endeavoured to find out some reasons for the abitrary injunctions of this kind; and one writer,⁴ supposing men ought to imitate the heavenly bodies, not only in their purity but in their circular motion, seems to argue the procession round the Kaabah to be therefore a rational practice. Reland ⁵ has observed that the Romans had something like this in their worship, being ordered by Numa to use a circular motion in the adoration of the gods, either to represent the orbicular motion of the world, or the perfecting the whole office of prayer to that GOD who is maker of the universe, or else in allusion to the Egyptian wheels, which were hieroglyphics of the instability of human fortune.⁶

The pilgrimage to Makkah, and the ceremonies prescribed to those who perform it, are, perhaps, liable to greater exception than other of Muhammad's institutions, not only as silly and ridiculous in themselves, but as relics of idolatrous superstition.⁷ Yet whoever seriously considers how difficult it is to make people submit to the

¹ Al Faik, de Tempore Ignor. Arabum, apud Mill. de Mohammed, ante Moh.,p.322. Comp. Isa. lxiv.6.

² Jalal. al Baid. This notion comes very near if it be not the same with that of the Adamites.

³ Al Ghazali. Vide Abulfar. Hist. Dyn., p. 171.

⁴ Abu Jaafar Ibn Thfail, in Vita Hai Ibn Yukdhan, p.151. See Mr. Ockley's English translation thereof, p. 117.

⁵ De Rel. Moh.,p. 123.

⁶ Plutarch. in Numa.

⁷ Maimonides (in Epist. ad Prosel. Rel.) pretends that the worship of Mercury was performed by throwing of stones, and that of Chemosh by making bare the head and putting on unsewn garments.

abolishing of ancient customs, how unreasonable soever, which they are fond of, especially where the interest of a considerable party is also concerned, and that a man may with less danger change many things than one great one,¹ must excuse Muhammad's yielding some points of less moment to gain the principal. The temple of Makkah was held in excessive veneration by all the Arabs in I general (if we except only the tribes of Tay and Khuza'ah and some of the posterity of al Harith Ibn Qaab,² who used not to go in pilgrimage thereto), and especially by those of Makkah, who had a particular interest to support that veneration; and as the most silly and insignificant things are generally the objects of the greatest superstition,

Muhammad found it much easier to abolish idolatry itself than to eradicate the superstitious bigotry with which they were addicted to that temple and the rites performed there; wherefore, after several fruitless trials to wean them therefrom,³ he thought it best to compromise the matter, and rather than to frustrate his whole design, to allow them to go on pilgrimage thither, and to direct their prayers thereto, contenting himself with transferring the devotions there paid from their idols to the true GOD, and changing such circumstances therein as he judged might give scandal. And herein he followed the example of the most famous legislators, who instituted not such laws as were absolutely the best in themselves, but the best their people were capable of receiving; and we find GOD himself had the same condescendence for the Jews, whose hardness of heart he humoured in many things, giving them therefore statutes that were not good, and judgments whereby they should not live.⁴ *

* For a clear and accurate description of the rites and ceremonies of the Muslim religion, the reader is referred to Hughes' Notes on Muhammadanism. E.M.W.

¹ According to the maxim, Tutius est multa mutate quan unum magnum.

² Al Shahristani.

³ See Quran, c.2, v.147, &c.

⁴ Ezek. xx 25. Vide Spencer de Urim et Thummin, c.4, § 7.

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