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Christians; the fourth, named al Sair, to the Sabians; the fifth, named Sakar, 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 Hawyat, to the hypocrites, or those who outwardly professed some religion, but in their hearts were of none. each of these apartments they believe there will be set a guard of

cult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand upon it; for which reason most of the sect of the Motazalites 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 hook-angels, nineteen in number; to ed thorns, which will, however, whom the damned will confess the be no impediment to the good; just judgment of God, and beg

for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning, or the wind, Mahomet and his Moslems 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.

As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mahometans are taught, that hell is divided into seven stories or apartments, one below another, designed for the reception of as many distinct classes of the damned.

The first, which they call Jehennan, they say, will be the receptacle of those who acknowledged one God, that is, the wicked Mahometans; who, after having been punished according to their demerits, will at length be released; the second, named Ladha, they assign to the Jews; the third, named al Hotama, to the

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them to intercede with him for some alleviation of their pain, or that they may be delivered by being annihilated.

Mahomet has, in his Koran 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 Koran, they must remaintherein forever. It must be remarked, however, that the infidels alone will be liable to eternity of damnation; for the Moslems, 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 time which these believers shall be detained there, according to a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not be less than nine hundred years, nor more than seven thousand. 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 released by the mercy of God, at the intercession of Mahomet 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.

The righteous, as the Mahometans are taught to believe, having surmounted the difficulties, and passed the sharp bridge abovementioned, 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 Caw

thar, 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. 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 the Koran, yet it is a dispute among the Mahometans, whether it be already created, or to be created hereafter; the Motazalites 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 situated 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 are 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 tree, they fable, that it stands in the

mortal women are, but of pure musk; being, as their prophet often affirms in his Koran, 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

palace of Mahomet, though a branch of it will reach to the house of every true believer; 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 immedi-some traditions have it, one of

ately be presented 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 one hundred years.

As plenty of water is one of the greatest additions to the pleasantness of any place, the Koran 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. But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent and ravishing girls of paradise, called, from their large black eyes, Hur aloyun, the enjoyment of whose company will be a principal felicity of the faithful. These, they say, are created not of clay, as

them will be no less than four parasangs (or, as others say, sixty miles) long and as many broad.

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The name which the Mahometans usually give to this happy mansion is al Jannat, or, "the garden;" and sometimes they call it, with an addition, Jannat al Ferdaws, "the garden of paradise;" Jannat Aden, "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 al Mawa, "the garden of abode;" Jannat al 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 one 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 Mahomet declared that, in order to qualify the blessed for a full enjoyment of them, God will give to every one the abilities of one hundred men. 6. God's absolute decree and predestination both of good and

evil. 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; 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.

II. Religious practice. 1. The first point is prayer, under which are also comprehended those legal washings or purifications which are necessary preparations there

to.

For the regular performance of the duty of prayer among the Mahometans, it is requisite, while they pray, to turn their faces to wards the temple of Mecca; the quarter where the same is situated being, for that reason, pointed out within their mosques by a niche, which they call al Mehrab; 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 Keblah, or part towards which they ought to pray, in places where they have no other direction.

2. Alms 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 zacat, and the latter sadakat, though this name be also frequently given to the legal alms. They are called zacat, either because they increase a man's store by drawing down a blessing thereon, and produce in his soul the virtue of liberality; or because they purify the remaining part of one's substance from pollution, and the soul from the filth of avarice; and sadakat, 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.

3. Fasting is a duty of so great moment, that Mahomet 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 Mahometan divines, there are three degrees of fasting: 1. 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.-3. The fasting of the heart from worldly cares, and restraining the thought from every thing besides God.

4. The pilgrimage to Mecca is so necessary a point of practice, that, according to a tradition of Mahomet, he who dies without performing it may as well die a Jew or a Christian; and the same is expressly commanded in the Koran. See PILGRIMAGE.

III. Mahometanism, causes of the success of. The rapid success which attended the propagation of this new religion was owing to causes that are plain and evident, and must remove, or rather prevent, our surprise, when they are attentively considered. The terror of Mahomet's arms, and the repeated victories which were gained by him and his successors, were, no doubt, the irresistible arguments that persuaded such multitudes to embrace his religion, and submit to his dominion. Besides, his law was artfully and marvellously adapted to the corrupt nature of man; and, in a more particular manner, to the manners and opinions of the Eastern nations, and the vices to which they were naturally adicted: for the articles of faith which it proposed were few in number, and extremely simple; and the duties it required were neither many nor difficult, nor such as were incompatible with the empire of appetites and passions. It is to be observed farther, that the gross ignorance under which the Arabians, Syrians, Persians, and the greatest part of the Eastern nations, laboured at this time, rendered many an easy prey to the artifice and eloquence of this bold adventurer. To these causes of the progress of Maliometism we may add the bitter dissensions and cruel animosities that VOL. II.

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reigned among the Christian sects, particularly the Greeks, Nestorians, Eutychians, and Monophysites; dissensions that filled agreat part of the East with carnage, assassinations, and such detestable enormities, as rendered the very name of Christianity odious to many. We might add here, that the Monophysites and Nestorians, full of resentment against the Greeks, from whom they had suffered the bitterest and most injurious treatment, assisted the Arabians in the conquest of several provinces, into which, of consequence, the religion of Mahomet was afterwards introduced. Other causes of the sudden progress of that religion will naturally occur to such as consider attentively its spirit and genius, and the state of the world at this time.

IV. Mahometanism, subversion of. Of things yet to come it is difficult to say any thing with precision. We have, however, some reason to believe, from the aspect of scripture prophecy, that, triumphant as this sect has been, it shall at last come to nought. As it arose as a scourge to Christendom about the time that Antichrist obtained a temporal dominion, so it is not improbable but they will have their downfall nearly at the same period. The ninth chapter of Revelations seems to refer wholly to this imposture: "The four angels, were loosed," says the prediction, 15th verse, "which were prepared for an hour, and a day, and a month, and a year, for to slay the third part of men." This period, in the language of prophecy, makes 391

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