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.

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.2 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, mcn, and animals, is the received opinion, which they support by the authority of the Koran; though that passage which is produced to prove the resurrection of brutes be otherwise interpreted by some.3

The manner of their resurrection will be very different. Those who are destined to be partakers of eternal happiness will arise in honour aud security; and those who are doomed to misery, in disgrace and under dis. mal 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 in that condition: but he answered her, that the business of the Jay 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 wil! rise again in the same state as to his faith or infidelity, his knowledge ot 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. 1 Kor. chap. 32. 3 See the notes to Kor. chap. 81. and ac

preceding page.

2 Ib. chap. 70.

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 burica a their clothes should rise with them. Gemar. Sanhedr. fol. 90.

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 the 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 Arabians; 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 day fix certain discretory marks. The first will appear in the form of apes; these are the professors of Zendicism: the second in that of swine; these 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 works: the sixth will gnaw their tongues, which will hang down upon their breasts, corrupted blood flowing from their mouths like spittle, so that every body 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 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 Korân and the traditions of Mohammed 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, without inhabitants or any signs of buildings. Al Ghazâli 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 Koran has this expression, "on the day wherein the earth shall be changed into another earth."

The end of the resurrection the Mohammedans 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 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.

'See before, sect. i. p. 15. Chap. 14. Kor. chap. 6. Vide Maimonid. More Nev part 3, chap. 17. 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 judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he-goats.-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 you 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, 20, 21, 22. Much might he said concerning brutes deserving future reward and punishment. See Bayle, Dict. Hist. Art. Rorarius, Rem. D. &c.

F

As to mankind, they hold that when they are all assemb.ed 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, others three hundred, nay some say no less than fifty thousand 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, and 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 sig nification of which is ambiguous), than the length of a bodkin. So that their skulls will boil like a pot, 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. What they fable of the extraordinary heat of the sun on this occasion, the Mohammedans certainly borrowed from the Jews, who say that, for the punishment of the wicked on the last day, that planet shall be drawn forth from its sheath, in wh.ch it is now put up, lest it should destroy all things by its excessive heat.

When those who have risen shall have waited the limited time, the Mohammedans believe God will at length appear to judge them, Mo. hammed undertaking the office of intercessor, after it shall have been declined by Adam, Noah, Abrahain, 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,' and will command the prophets to bear witness against those to whom they have been respectively sent. Then every one will be examined concern. ing 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 Mohammed himself enume rated 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, where. in they exercised them; of their knowledge and learning, what use they made of them. It is said however that Mohammed has affirmed that no less than seventy thousand of his followers should be permitted to Vide Pocock, Not. in Port, Mosis, p. 277.

• Al Ghazali. before, p. 51

' Idem.

• See

anter paradise without any previous examination; which seems to be con. tradictory to what is said above. To the questions it is said each person shall answer, and make his defence in the best manner he can, endeavourng to excuse himself by casting the blame of his evil deeds on others; sc that a dispute shall arise even between the soul and 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, 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 Mohammedans from the Jews. 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 Mohammedans 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, and, according to an expression of Mohammed, familiar enough to the Arabs, will last no longer than while one may milk an ewe, or than the space between two milkings of a she-camel.5 Some, explaining those words so frequently used in the Korân, "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. 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, which will be bound behind their back, their right hand being tied up to their necks.8

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

Gemara, Sanhedr. chap. xi. R. Jos. Albo, Serm. 4. chap, xxxiii. See also Epiphan. in Ancorat. sect. lxxxix. The Arabs use, after they have drawn some milk from the camel, to wait awhile, and let her young one suck a little, that she may give down her milk more plentifully at the second milking. Pocock Not. in Port. Mosis, p. 278-282 See also Kor. chap. 2. p. 24 Kor. chap. 17, 18, 69, and 84. Jallalo'ddin.

some are willing to understand what is said in the Korân 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 actions 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.' 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,' as of the balance wherein they shall be weighed; and the scripture itself seems to have given the first notion of both. But what the Persian Magi believe of the balance comes nearest to the Mohammedan opinion. They hold that on the day of judgment two angels, named Mihr and Sorûsh, will stand on the bridge we shall describe by and by, to examine every person as he passes; that the former, who represents the divine mercy, will hold a halance 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.

This examination being past, 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 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 him, 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 bcth. This will be the method of God's dealing with mankind. As to brutes, after they shall have likewise taken vengeance of one another, as we have mentioned above, he will command them to be changed into dust; wicked men being reserved to more grievous punishment: so that they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence pronounced on the brutes, "Would to God that we were dust also!" As to the genii, many Mohammedans are of opinion that such of them as are true believers will undergo the same

chap. 3.

2 Gemar. Rev. xx. 12, &c. and Yet they say the dog will, by peculiar favour,

Kor. chap. 33, 7, &c. Midrasn, Yalkut Shemuni, fol. 153, Sanhedr. f. 91, &c. Exod. xxxii. 32, 33. Dan, vii. 10. Dan. v. 27. Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 245, 401, &c. of the seven sleepers, and Ezra's ass, which was raised to life, be admitted into paradise. See Kor. chap. 18, and chap. 3.