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, he 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. 3. Others fancy the souls of believers remain in the well Zemzem, and those of infidels in a certain well in the province of Hadramaut, called Borbût; 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. And, 6. Others that the souls of the good dwell in the forms of white birds, under the throne of God. 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 the earth, and being also refused a place there, are carried down to the seventh earth, and thrown into dungeon, which they call Sajîn, under a green rock, or according to a tradition of Mohammed, under the devil's jaw," to be there tormented, till they are called up to be joined again to their bodies. Though some among the Mohammedans 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 Ebn Sina, and called by some the opinion of the philosophers'); 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. But Mohammed 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 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 will 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. Herein also is Mohammed beholden to the Jews; who say the same things of the bone Luz,' 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 Mohammedans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone; the angel Gabriel himself acknowledging his ignorance in this point when Mohammed 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.2 The lesser signs are, 1. The decay of faith among men.3 2. The advancing of the meanest persons to eminent dignity. 3. That a maidservant shall become the mother of her mistress (or master); by which is Consonant hereto are the Jewish notions of the souls of the Vide ibid p. 156. • Ibid p. 250. Al Or, as we corruptly name him Avicenna. Idem, ibid p. 255, & c. 1 BereIidem p. 258, &c. 'See Poc. ubi sup. p. 248. Vide Poc. ubi sup. p. 254. meant either that towards the end of the world men shall be much given to sensuality, or that the Mohammedans 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 Irâk and Syria shall refuse to pay their tribute. And, 8. That the buildings of Medina shall reach to Ahâb, or Yahâb. The greater signs are, 1. The sun's rising in the west. Which some have imagined it origin. ally did. 2. The appearance of the beast, which shall rise out of the earth, in the temple of Mecca, or on mount Safâ, or in the territory of Tâyef, 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 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 Mûmen, i. e. believer; and with the latter will mark the unbelievers on the face likewise, with the word Câfer, 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 Islâm, and to speak Arabic. All this stuff seems to be the result of a confused idea of the beast in the Revelations." 3. War with the Greeks, and the taking of Constantinople by seventy thousand 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 Mohammedans call al Masîh al Dajjâl, i. e. the false or lying Christ, and simply al Dajjâl. He is to be one-eyed, and marked on the forehead with the letters C. F. R. signifying Câfer, 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 Mohammed, he is to appear first between Irâk and Syria, or according to others, in the province of Khorasan; they add that he is to ride on an ass; that he will be followed by seventy thousand Jews of Ispahân, 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 Mecca or Medina, which are to be guarded by angels; and that at length he will be slain by Jesus, who is to encounter him at the gate of Lud. It is said that Mohammed 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 • See Whiston's Theory of the Earth, bcoz ii. p. 98, &c. ⚫ Chap. 13. near the white tower to the east of Damascus, when the people are returned fror the taking of Constantinople; that he is to embrace the Mohammedan religion, marry a wife, get children, kill Antichrist, and at length die after forty years', or according to others twenty-four years' 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." 6. War with the Jews; of whom the Mohammedans are to make a prodigious 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. The eruption of Gog and Magog, or, as they are called in the east, Yâjûj and Mâjûj; of whom many things are related in the Korân, and the traditions of Mohammed. 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 carcasses, 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 Moslems will burn for seven years together; 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.' 9. An eclipse of the moon. Mohammed 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 Allât 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 Korân 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 Caaba, or temple of Mecca, by the Ethiopians.2 13. The speaking of beasts and inanimate things. 14. The breaking out of fire in the province of Hejâz; or, according to others, in Yaman. 15. The appearance of a man of the descendants of Kahtân, who shall drive men before him with his staff. 16. The coming of the Mohdi, or director; concerning whom Moham. med 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; and who should fill the earth with righteousness. This person the Shiites believe to be now 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 Imâms, named Mohammed Abu'lkasem, as their prophet was, and the son of Hassan al Askeri, the eleventh of tha succession. He was born at Sermanrai in the two hundred and fifty-fifth Al fhalabi, in Kor. chap. 4. "See Isaiah xi. 6, &c. Chap. 18 and 21. 'See Korân, chap. 44. and the notes thereon. See after, in this section. year of the Hejra. From this tradition, it is to be presumed, an opini n pretty current among the Christians took its rise that the Mohammodans ere 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 thr hearts, as has been mentioned under the teoth sign. These are the grester signs which, according to their doctrine, are to pre. cede the resurrection, but still leave the hour of it uncertain for the im. mediate sign of its reing come will be the first blast of the trumpet, which they believe will be sounded three times. The first they call the bias! f 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 build ings, but the very mountains, levelled; that the heavens shall melt, the sur Le darkened, the stars fall, on the death of the angels, who as some imagin hold them suspended between heaven and earth, and the sea shall be trou bled and dried up, or, according to others, turned into flames, the sun, moor and stars being thrown into it: the Korân, 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 ut terly neglected. A farther effect of this blast will be that concourse of beasts mentioned in the Korân, though some doubt whether it be to precede the resurrection or not. They who suppose it will precedc, think that all kinds of animals, forgetting their respective natural fierce.css and timidity, will run together into one place, being terrified by the sounde the trumpet and the sudden shock of nature. The Mohammedans believe that this first blast will be followed by a second, which they call the blast of eranimation; when all creatures bcth in heaven and earth shall die or be annihilated, except those which God shall please to exempt from the common fate; 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. 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 titne by Israfil, who, together with Gabriel and Michael, will be previously restored to life, and standing on the rock of the temple of Jerusalem, 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 shall fly forth like bees, and fill the whole space between heaven and earth, and then repair to their respective bodies, which the opening earth will suffer to arise; and the first who shall so arise, Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 531. Chap. 81. Several writers however make no distinction between this blast and the first, supposing the trumpet will sound but twice. See the notes to Kor. chap. 39. Kor. chap. 39. 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 Mohammedans imagine were created before the world. In this circumstance the Mohammedans follow the Jews, who also agree that the trumpet will sound more than once. Vide R. Bechai in Biur hattorah, and Ổtioth shel R. Akiba. according to a tradition of Mohammed, will be himself. For this birth the earth will be prepared by the rain above-mentioned, which is to fall continually for forty years, 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. 1 As to the length of the day of judgment, the Korân in one place tells us that it will last one thousand years, and in another fifty thousand. 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 Mohammedans. That the resurrection will be general, and extend to all creatures, both angels, genii, men, and animals, is the received opinion, which they suppor by the authority of the Korân; though that passage which is produced to prove the resurrection of brutes be otherwise interpreted by some. 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 Mohammed 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 ir 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 died; 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 of ignorance, his good or bad works. Mohammed is also said to have farther taught, by another tradition, that mankind shall be assembled at the last Jay, distinguished into three classes. The first, of those who go on foot; Elsewhere (see before, p. 56) 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. Kor. chap. 32. 2 Ib. chap. 70. See the notes to Kor. chap. 81. and a preceding page. In this also they follow their old guides, the Jews; who say that f the wheat which is sown naked rise clothed, it is no wonder the pious who are buried a their clothes should rise with them. Gemar. Sanhedr. fol. 2. |