MOHAMMEDANISM. 



works or merits that can gain any man admittance 

 to the place of everlasting happiness ; that this 

 will come of God's mercy alone ; and that God is 

 very merciful, and will shew mercy to all whose 

 good, by how little soever, exceeds their evil. In 

 the final accounting, according to a common 

 belief, a process of adjustment, as between indi- 

 viduals, will have place : from those who have 

 committed injuries, a portion of their stock of 

 merit will be transferred to those whom they 

 have injured ; and according to the result found 

 after this process has been completed according, 

 that is, as, in each case, the good which remains 

 outweighs or is outweighed by the evil, will be 

 the judgment that will be given. Angels, genii, 

 men, and animals all who have ever lived 

 will appear for judgment. The trial over, the 

 righteous will take the right-hand way, which 

 leads to Paradise, and the wicked will pass to 

 the left into hell. Both, however, have to go over 

 the bridge Al Sirat, which is laid over the midst 

 of hell, which is finer than a hair, and sharper 

 than the edge of a sword, and beset with thorns 



on either side. This the righteous will cross 

 with ease and swiftness. The wicked will fall 

 from it into hell, and pass to the depth therein 

 to which their careers have condemned them. 

 For of hell, as Mohammedans conceive of it, there 



. are seven stages, one below the other, each lower 

 involving severer punishment than that which is 

 above it. These are assigned, in their descending 

 order, to Mohammedans, Jews, Christians, Sabians. 

 Magians, idolaters, and hypocrites respectively ; 

 the place of hypocrites who made a profession of 

 religion while they had none, being the lowest 

 and worst of all. Intense heat and cold will be 

 the means of producing the suffering endured in 

 hell. Mohammedans, and all who professed the 

 unity of God, will eventually be delivered from 

 it ; but the punishment of unbelievers and idol- 

 aters will be eternal. As to the righteous, des- 

 tined for the abodes of eternal delight (Jannat 

 Aden), after drinking of the Pond of the Prophet, 

 which is supplied from the rivers of Paradise, 

 whiter than milk and more odoriferous than musk, 

 they will go on their way to the gates of Paradise, 

 where they will be welcomed by beautiful youths 

 and angels ; and then they will enter upon an 

 existence of happiness corresponding to the 

 degree of righteousness (whether that of prophet, 

 teacher, martyr, or believer) to which each has 

 attained. Of the felicity that will be enjoyed by 

 the blessed, about a hundred different degrees 

 have been described. Nearly all consist in sen- 

 suous delights ; and the capacity of language has 

 been exhausted in the description of them. Suffice 

 it, that the most gorgeous and delicious feasts, at 

 which wine, exhilarating, yet not intoxicating, will 

 not be wanting, the most costly and brilliant 

 garments, odours and music the most exquisite, 

 and, above all, the enjoyment of the Hur Al 

 Oyun, the black-eyed daughters of Paradise, 

 created of pure musk, and free from all the bodily 

 weaknesses of women, will be the portion of the 

 commonest inhabitant of Paradise. Purely spirit- 

 ual enjoyments will be provided for the higher 

 natures, which deserve and can appreciate them. 



' They will see God's face night and day. A 

 separate abode of happiness will be reserved for 

 women ; but of the nature of their enjoyments 

 the disclosure has been meagre. The notion that 



Mohammedans hold that women have no souls, 

 is entirely unfounded. 



The time of the resurrection, according to 

 Mohammedan views, no man knows. It is a 

 mystery ; Mohammed himself could not learn it 

 from the angel Gabriel But it will be foreshad- 

 owed by fearful signs and wonders. As to what 

 shall arise at the day of judgment, Mohammed- 

 anism, like Christianity, has its controversies. 

 Some theologians believe that the spirit only, 

 others, that the body only, will be raised ; while 

 a third opinion, which seems to have been that 

 of Mohammed himself, asserts the resurrection 

 of both soul and body. On the place of the soul, 

 and its state after death and until the resur- 

 rection, also, opinions to some extent differ. All 

 believe, however, that a dead person, when laid in 

 his grave, is received by an angel, who announces 

 to him the coming of the examiners, Monker 

 and Nakir, and that by them he is thereafter 

 examined respecting his belief in God and in 

 Mohammed, and according to his answers, either 

 tortured, so that all beings except men and genii 

 can hear his cries of anguish, or soothed and 

 refreshed with the air of Paradise. 



That all good and evil is absolutely and irrevo- 

 cably preordained, and that the duty of man is 

 absolute acquiescence in, and submission to 

 whatever happens, as being the will of God, 

 is another leading doctrine of Mohammedanism. 

 A man's fortunes in this world, his actions, his 

 beliefs, and, of consequence, his lot in the future 

 state, are considered as unalterably predestined ; 

 no man can, by taking thought, change the nature 

 of what lies before him in the slightest degree. In 

 the Koran, this doctrine is not to be found in the 

 consistent form which it has assumed in Moham- 

 medan theology, though expressions constantly 

 occur which tend towards it, and from which, 

 without violence, it might be deduced. There can 

 be no doubt that Mohammedanism, during the 

 ages of its greatness, owed much to the courage 

 which its soldiers derived from the belief that 

 their destiny was irrevocably fixed, and by no 

 means to be avoided by flinching from any duty. 



To the dogmatical part of their religious system, 

 of which a summary has now been given, Mo- 

 hammedans give the name of Iman, or faith. 

 The name religion, Din, they reserve for its prac- 

 tical side, which contains the ritual and moral 

 laws, and lays down precepts of practice, both 

 positive and prohibitory, declaring what the 

 believer must do, and what he must avoid. 



Of positive duties, the chief inculcated are 

 prayer, almsgiving, fasting, and pilgrimage. 



Prayer, 'the key of Paradise,' stands foremost 

 among them. The practice of religion being 

 regarded as founded on cleanliness, without which 

 prayer will not be heard by God, certain bodily 

 purifications are indispensable preliminaries to, 

 and are held to be included in, prayer. Washing 

 of the hands, face, ears, and of the feet up to the 

 ankles, accompanied at each stage of the process 

 by pious recitations, is the preparation for prayer 

 in ordinary cases ; but there are special occasions 

 which require immersion of the whole body. 

 The ground or carpet on which the believer prays 

 must also be as clean as possible ; and before 

 praying he must, in token of humility, put aside 

 all costly or sumptuous articles of dress. Prayers 

 are said five times in the twenty-four hours : 



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