these were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. All the prophets in general the Mohammedans believe to have been free from great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is Islâm, notwithstanding the different laws and institutions which they observed. They allow of degrees among them, and hold some of them to be more excellent and honourable than others.6 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 way1), as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ismael, Nun, Joshua, &c., and introduce some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called in the Korân, Edrîs, Hûd, and Shoaib; but several others whose very names do not appear in scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on), as Saleh, Khedr, Dhu'lkefl, &c. Several of their fabulous traditions concerning these prophets we shall occasionally mention in the notes on the Korân. As Mohammed acknowledged the divine authority of the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, he often appeals to the consonancy of the Korân with those writings, and to the prophecies which he pretended were therein concerning himself, as proofs of his mission; and he frequently charges the Jews and Christians with stifling the passages which bear witness to him.2 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.3 The next article of faith required by the Korân is the belief of a general resurrection and a future judgment. But before we consider the Mohammedan 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. 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 Monker and Nakîr. These order the dead person to sit upright, and examine him concerning his faith, as to the unity of GOD, and the mission of Mohammed: 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
5 Idem, ibid. p. 41. 6 Kor. c 2, p. 27, &c. 1 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. l. I, c. 2. 2 Kor. c. 2, p. 5, 10, 16; c. 3, &c. 3 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.
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.4 The examination of the sepulchre is not only founded on an express tradition of Mohammed, but is also plainly hinted at, though not directly taught, in the Korân,1 as the commentators agree. It is therefore believed by the orthodox Mohammedans 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;2 but is utterly rejected by the sect of the Mótazalites, and perhaps by some others. These notions Mohammed certainly borrowed from the Jews, among whom they were very anciently received.3 They say that the angel of death coming and sitting on the grave, the soul immediately enters the body and raises it on its feet; that he then examines the departed person, and strikes him with a chain half of iron and half of fire; at the first blow all his limbs are loosened, at the second his bones are scattered, which are gathered together again by the angels, and the third stroke reduces the body to dust and ashes, and it returns into the grave. This rack or torture they call Hibbût hakkeber, 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.4 It it be objected to the Mohammedans that the cry of the persons under such examination has been never 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.5 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,6 it enters into that state which they call Al Berzakh,7 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 Mohammed, rest in the crops of green birds which eat of the fruits and drink of the rivers of paradise; and the third of other believers, concerning the state of whose souls before the resurrection there are various opinions. For, I. Some say they stay near the sepulchres, with liberty, however, of going wherever they please; which they confirm with Mohammed's manner of saluting
4 Al Ghazâli. Vide Poc. not. in Port. Mosis, p. 241, &c. 1 Cap. 8 and 47, &c. 2 Smith, de Morib. et Instit. Turcar. Ep. 2, p. 57. 3 Vide Hyde, in Notisad Bobov. de Visit. Ægrot. p. 19. 4 R. Elias, in Tishbi. See also Buxtorf. Synag. Judaic. and Lexic. Talmud. 5 Vide Poc. ubi sup. 6 Kor. c. 79. The Jews say the same, in Nishmat bayim. f. 77. 7 Vide Kor. c. 23, and not. ib.
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 Mohammedans.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, 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.2 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 Borhût; 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.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 the earth, and being also refused a place there, are carried down to the seventh earth, and being also refused a place there, are carried down to the seventh earth, and thrown into a dungeon, which they call Sajîn, under a green rock, or according to a tradition of Mohammed, under the devil's jaw,4 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,5 and called by some the opinion of the philosophers6); 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.7 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 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.1 Herein also is Mohammed also beholden to the Jews, who say the same things of the bone Luz,2 excepting that what he attributes to a great rain, will be effected according to them by a dew, impregnating the dust of the earth.