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1 Poc. ubi sup. p. 247. 2 Ibid. p. 248. Consonant hereto are the
Jewish notions of the souls of the just being on high, under the throne of
glory. Vide ibid. p. 156. 3 Ibid. p. 250. 4 Al Beidâwi.
Vide Poc. ubi sup. p. 252.
5 Or, as we corruptly name him, Avicenna. 6 Kenz al afrâr.
7 Vide Poc. ubi sup. p. 254.
1 Idem, ibid. p. 255, &c. 2 Bereshit. rabbah, &c. Vide Poc. ubi
sup. p. 117, &c.

secret to all but GOD alone: the angel Gabriel himself acknowledging his
ignorance on 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.3
The lesser signs are: I. They decay of faith among men.4 2. The
advancing of the meanest persons to eminent dignity. 3. That a maid-servant
shall become the mother of her mistress (or master); by which is 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 originally
did.5
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.6
3. War with the Greeks, and the taking of Constantinople by 70,000 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 the 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

3 Ibid. p. 258, &c. 4 See Luke xviii. 8. 5 See Whiston's
Theory of the Earth, bk. ii. p. 98, &c.
6 Chap. xiii.

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 Khorasân; they add that he is to ride
on an ass, that he will be followed by 70,000 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 Anti-
christs, 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 near
the white tower to the east of Damascus, when the people are returned from 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',1 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.2
6. War with the Jews; of whom the Mohammedans are to make a religious
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.
7. 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,3 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;4 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.5
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 decrease of every one in whose
heart there was faith equal to the 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.

1 Al Thalabi, in Kor. c. 4. 2 See Isaiah xi. 6, &c.
3 Cap. 18 and 21. 4 See Ezek. xxxix. 9; Rev. xx. 8. 5 See
Kor. c. 44, and the notes thereon. Compare also Joel ii. 30, and Rev. ix. 2.

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.1
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 Mohammed
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 that succession. He was born at Sermanrai in the
255th year of the Hejra.2 From this tradition, it is to be presumed, an
opinion pretty current among the Christians took its rise, that the
Mohammedans are 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 their hearts, as has been mentioned under the tenth sign.
These are the greater signs, which, according to their doctrine, are to
precede the resurrection, but still leave the hour of it uncertain: for the
immediate sign of its being come will be the first blast of the trumpet; which
they believe will be sounded three times. The first they call the blast of
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 buildings, but the
very mountains levelled; that the heavens shall melt, the sun be darkened, the
stars fall, on the death of the angels, who, as some imagine, hold them
suspended between heaven and earth, and the sea shall be troubled and dried
up, or, according ot others, turned into flames, the sun, moon, 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 utterly neglected. A
farther effect of this blast will be that concourse of beasts mentioned in the
Korân,1 though some doubt whether it be to precede the resurrection or not.
They who suppose it will precede, think that ll kinds of animals, forgetting
their respective natural fierceness and timidity, will run together into one
place, being terrified by the sound of 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 examination,2 when all creatures, both in heaven
and earth, shall die or be annihilated, except those which GOD shall please to
exempt from the common fate;3 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 throne of
glory.4 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 time by Israfîl, who, together with Gabriel
and Michael, will be previously restored to life, and standing on the rock of
the temple of Jerusalem,5 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 will 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, 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,6 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 last day of judgment the Korân in one place tells
us that it will last 1,000 years,1 and in another 50,000.2 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

2 Several writers, however, make no distinction between this blast and the
first, supposing the trumpet will sound but twice. See the notes to Kor. c.
39. 3 Kor. c 39. 4 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.
5 In this circum-cumstance the Mohammedans follow the Jews, who also
agree that the trumpet will sound more than once. Vide R. Bechai in Biur
hattorah, and Otioth shel R. Akiba. 6 Elsewhere (see before p. 61) 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. c. 32. 2 Ibid. c. 70.

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 support
by the authority of the Korân, 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 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 in 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;1 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 or 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 day, distinguished into three classes.
The first, of those who go on foot; the second, of those who ride; and the
third, of those who creep groveling 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 their
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;2 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 are 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

3 See the notes to Kor. c. 81, and the preceding page. 1 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 buried in their
clothes should rise with them. Gemar. Sanhedr. fol. 90. 2 See
before, Sect. I. p. 16.

who glory in their own works: the sixth will gnaw their tongues, which will
hang down upon their breasts, corrupted blood flowing from their mouths like
spittle, so that everybody 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 Korân has this
expression, "on the day wherein the earth shall be changed into another
earth."1
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,2 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.3
As to mankind, they hold that when they are all assembled 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 300, nay, some say no
less than 50,000 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

1 Cap. 14. 2 Kor. c. 6. Vide Maimonid. More Nev. part iii. c.
17. 3 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, 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 ye 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 be said concerning brutes deserving future reward and
punishment. See Bayle, Dict. Hist. Art. Rorarius, Rem. D. &c.

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, 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 signification of which
is ambiguous, than the length of a bodkin. So that their skulls will boil
like a pot,1 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."2 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 from its sheath, in which it is now put
up, lest it should destroy all things by its excessive heat.3
When those who have risen shall have waited the limited time, the
Mohammedans believe GOD will at length appear to judge them; Mohammed
undertaking the office of intercessor, after it shall have been declined by
Adam, Noah, Abraham, 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,4 and will command the prophets
to bear witness against those to whom they have been respectively sent. Then
every one will be examined concerning 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 enumerated 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, wherein 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 70,000 of his followers should be permitted to
enter paradise without any previous examination, which seems to be
contradictory to what is said above. To the questions we have mentioned each
person shall answer, and make his defence in the best manner he can,
endeavouring to excuse himself by casting the blame of his evil deeds on
others, so 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

1 Al Ghazâli. 2 Idem. 3 Vide Pocock, not. in Port. Mosis,
p. 277. 4 See before, p. 56.

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:5 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 the two milkings of a she-camel.1 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.2
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,3 which will be bound behind their backs, their right hand
being tied up to their necks.4
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 weighted. 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 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