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Homer - "The Iliad"

Carolyn Wells - "Patty's Suitors"

Thomas Hardy - "A Laodicean"

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Books: The Koran

U >> Unknown >> The Koran




5 Gemara, Sanhed. c. II. R. Jos. Albo, Serm. iv. c. 33. See also
Epiphan. in Ancorat. sect. 89. 1 The Arabs use, after they have
drawn some milk from the camel, to wait a while and let her young one suck a
little, that she may give down her milk more plentifully at the second
milking. 2 Pocock, not. in Port. Mosis, p. 278-282. See also Kor.
c. 2, p. 21.
3 Kor. c. 17, 18, 69, and 84. 4 Jallalo'ddin.




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 balance laden
with their good works shall be heavy, will be saved, but those whose balances
are light will be condemned.5 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,6 as of the balance wherein
they shall be weighed;7 and the scripture itself seems to have given the first
notion of both.8 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-bye, to examine every person as he passes; that the former, who represents
the divine mercy, will hold a balance 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.1
This examination being passed, 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 both. 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;2 wicked men being reserved to more grievous punishment: so that
they shall cry out, on hearing this sentence passed 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 fate as the
irrational animals, and

5 Kor. c. 23, 7, &c. 6 Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni, f. 153, c. 3.
7 Gemar. Sanhedr. f. 91, &c.
8 Exod. xxxii. 32, 33, Dan. vii. 10, Revel. xx. 12, &c., and Dan. v. 27.
1 Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 245, 401, &c.
2 Yet they say the dog of the seven sleepers, and Ezra's ass, which was
raised to life, will, by peculiar favour, be admitted into paradise. See Kor.
c. 18, and c. 3.




have no other reward than the favour of being converted into dust; and for
this they quote the authority of their prophet. But this, however, is judged
not so very reasonable, since the genii, being capable of putting themselves
in the state of believers as well as men, must consequently deserve, as it
seems, to be rewarded for their faith, as well as to be punished for
infidelity. Wherefore some entertain a more favourable opinion, and assign
the believing genii a place near the confines of paradise, where they will
enjoy sufficient felicity, though they be not admitted into that delightful
mansion. But the unbelieving genii, it is universally agreed, will be
punished eternally, and be thrown into hell with the infidels of mortal race.
It may not be improper to observe, that under the denomination of unbelieving
genii, the Mohammedans comprehend also the devil and his companions.1
The trials being over and the assembly dissolved, the Mohammedans hold that
those who are to be admitted into paradise will take the right-hand way, and
those who are destined to hell fire will take the left; but both of them must
first pass the bridge, called in Arabic al Sirât, which they say is laid over
the midst of hell, and described to be finer than a hair, and sharper than the
edge of a sword: so that it seems very difficult to conceive how any one shall
be able to stand upon it: for which reason most of the sect of the Mótazalites
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 hooked thorns; which will, however, be no impediment to the good,
for they shall pass with wonderful ease and swiftness, like lightning or the
wind, Mohammed 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.2
This circumstance Mohammed seems also to have borrowed from the Magians,
who teach that on the last day all mankind will be obliged to pass a bridge
which they call Pûl Chînavad, or Chînavar, that is, the straight bridge,
leading directly into the other world; on the midst of which they suppose the
angels, appointed by GOD to perform that office, will stand, who will require
of every one a strict account of his actions, and weigh them in the manner we
have already mentioned.3 It is true the Jews speak likewise of the bridge of
hell, which they say is no broader than a thread; but then they do not tell us
that any shall be obliged to pass it, except the idolaters, who will fall
thence into perdition.1
As to the punishment of the wicked, the Mohammedans 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.2 The first which they
call Jehennam, they say, will be the receptacle of those who acknowledged one
GOD, that is, the wicked Mohammedans,

1 Vide Kor. c. 18. 2 Pocock. ubi sup. p. 282-289. 3
Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 245, 402, &c.
1 Midrash, Yalkut Reubeni. § Gehinnom. 2 Kor. c. 15.




who after having there been punished according to their demerits, will at
length be released. The second, uamed Ladhâ, they assign to the Jews; the
third, named al Hotama, to the Christians; the fourth named al Säir, to the
Sabians; the fifth, named Sakar, to the Magians; the sixth, named al Jahîm, to
the idolaters; and the seventh, which is the lowest and worst of all, and is
called al Hâwiyat, to the hypocrites, or those who outwardly professed some
religion, but in their hearts were of none.3 Over each of these apartments
they believe there will be set a guard of angels,4 nineteen in number;5 to
whom the damned will confess the just judgment of GOD, and beg them to
intercede with him for some alleviation of their pain, or that they may be
delivered by being annihilated.6
Mohammed has, in his Korân 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 cauldron. 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 Korân, "they must remain
therein for ever." 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 contrary of either of these opinions is reckoned heretical;
for it is the constant orthodox doctrine of the Mohammedans that no unbeliever
or idolater will ever be released, nor any person who in his lifetime
professed an believed the unity of GOD be condemned to eternal punishment. As
to the time and manner of the deliverance of those believers whose evil
actions shall outweigh their good, there is a tradition of Mohammed that they
shall be released after they shall have been scorched and their skins burnt
black, and shall afterwards be admitted into paradise; and when the
inhabitants of that place shall, in contempt, call them infernals, GOD will,
on their prayers, take from them that opprobrious appellation. Others say he
taught that while they continue in hell they shall be deprived of life, or (as
his words are otherwise interpreted) be cast into a most profound sleep, that
they may be the less sensible of their torments; and that they shall
afterwards be received into paradise, and there revive on their being washed
with the water of life; though some suppose they will

3 Others fill these apartments with different company. Some place in the
second, the idolaters; in the third, Gog and Magog, &c.; in the fourth, the
devils; in the fifth, those who neglect alms and prayers; and crowd the Jews,
Christians, and Magians together in the sixth. Some, again, will have the
first to be prepared for the Dahrians, or those who deny the creation, and
believe the eternity of the world; the second, for the Dualists, or Manichees,
and the idolatrous Arabs; the third, for the Bramins of the Indies; the
fourth, for the Jews; the fifth, for the Christians; and the sixth, for the
Magians. But all agree in assigning the seventh to the hypocrites. Vide
Millium, de Mohammedismo ante Moham. p. 412; D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 368,
&c. 4 Kor. c. 40, 43, 74, &c.
5 Ibid. c. 74. 6 Ibid. c. 40, 43.




be restored to life before they come forth from their place of punishment,
that at their bidding farewell to their pains, they may have some little taste
of them. The time which these believers shall be detained there, according to
a tradition handed down from their prophet, will not be less than 900 years,
nor more than 7,000. 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 relieved by the mercy of GOD, at the intercession
of Mohammed 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.1
For most of these circumstances relating to hell and the state of the
damned, Mohammed was likewise, in all probability, indebted to the Jews, and
in part to the Magians; both of whom agree in making seven distinct apartments
in hell,2 though they vary in other particulars. The former place an angel as
a guard over each of these infernal apartments, and suppose he will intercede
for the miserable wretches there imprisoned, who will openly acknowledge the
justice of GOD in their condemnation.1 They also teach that the wicked will
suffer a diversity of punishments, and that by intolerable cold2 as well as
heat, and that their faces shall become black;3 and believe those of their own
religion shall also be punished in hell hereafter, according to their crimes
(for they hold that few or none will be found so exactly righteous as to
deserve no punishment at all), but will soon be delivered thence, when they
shall be sufficiently purged from their sins, by their father Abraham, or at
the intercession of him or some other of the prophets.4 The Magians allow but
one angel to preside over all the seven hells, who is named by them Vanánd
Yezád, and, as they teach, assigns punishments proportionate to each person's
crimes, restraining also the tyranny and excessive cruelty of the devil, who
would, if left to himself, torment the damned beyond their sentence.5 Those
of this religion do also mention and describe various kinds of torments,
wherewith the wicked will be punished in the next life; among which though
they reckon extreme cold to be one, yet they do not admit fire, out of
respect, as it seems, to that element, which they take to be the
representation of the divine nature; and, therefore, they rather choose to
describe the damned souls as suffering by other kinds of punishments: such as
an intolerable stink, the stinging and biting of serpents and wild beasts, the
cutting and tearing of the flesh by the devils, excessive hunger and thirst,
and the like.6
Before we proceed to a description of the Mohammedan paradise, we must not
forget to say something of the wall or partition which they imagine to be
between that place and hell, and seems to be copied

1 Poc. not. in Port. Mosis, p. 289-291. 2 Nishmat hayim, f. 32;
Gemar. in Arubin, f. 19; Zohar. ad Exod. xxvi. 2, &c.; and Hyde, de Rel. Vet.
Pers. p. 245. 1 Midrash, Yalkut Shemuni, part II, f. 116. 2
Zohar. ad Exod. xix.
3 Yalkut Shemuni, ubi sup. f. 86. 4 Nishmat hayim, f. 83; Gemar.
Arubin, f. 19. Vide Kor. c. 2, p. 10, and 3, p. 34, and notes there.
5 Hyde, de Rel. Vet. Pers. p. 182. 6 Vide Eundem, ibid. p.




from the great gulf of separation mentioned in scripture.7 They call it al
Orf, and more frequently in the plural, al Arâf, a word derived from the verb
arafa, which signifies to distinguish between things, or to part them; though
some commentators give another reason for the imposition of this name,
because, they say, those who stand on this partition will know and distinguish
the blessed from the damned, by their respective marks or characteristics:8
and others say the word properly intends anything that is high raised or
elevated, as such a wall of separation must be supposed to be.9 The
Mohammedan writers greatly differ as to the persons who are to be found on al
Arâf. Some imagine it to be a sort of limbo for the patriarchs and prophets,
or for the martyrs and those who have been most eminent for sanctity, among
whom, they say, there will be also angels in the form of men. Others place
here such whose good and evil works are so equal that they exactly
counterpoise each other, and, therefore, deserve neither reward nor
punishment; and these, they say, will, on the last day, be admitted into
paradise, after they shall have performed an act of adoration, which will be
imputed to them as a merit, and will make the scale of their good works to
overbalance. Others suppose this intermediate space will be a receptacle for
those who have gone to war without their parents' leave, and therein suffered
martyrdom; being excluded paradise for their disobedience, and escaping hell
because they are martyrs. The breadth of this partition wall cannot be
supposed to be exceeding great, since not only those who shall stand thereon
will hold conference with the inhabitants both of paradise and of hell, but
the blessed and the damned themselves will also be able to talk to one
another.1
If Mohammed did not take his notions of the partition we have been
describing from scripture, he must at least have borrowed it at second-hand
from the Jews, who mention a thin wall dividing paradise form hell.2
The righteous, as the Mohammedans are taught to believe, having surmounted
the difficulties, and passed the sharp bridge above mentioned, 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 Cawthar, 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.3 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 Korân, yet it is a
dispute among Mohammedans whether it be already created, or be to be created
hereafter: the Mótazalites 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 form that form
which Adam was expelled. However, the orthodox profess the contrary,
maintaining that it was created even

7 Luke xvi. 26. 8 Jallalo'ddin. Vide Kor. c.7. 9 Al
Beidâwi. 1 Kor. ubi sup Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 121, &c.
2 Midrash. Yalkut Sioni. f. II. 3 Al Ghazâli.




before the world, and describe it, from their prophet's traditions, in the
following manner.
They say it is situate 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 Tûba, or the tree of happiness. Concerning this tree they
fable that it stands in the palace of Mohammed, though a breach of it will
reach to the house of every true believer;1 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 immediately 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 a hundred years.2
As plenty of water is one of the greatest additions to the pleasantness of
any place, the Korân 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
roof of the tree Tûba: two of which rivers, named al Cawthar and the river of
life, we have already mentioned. And lest these should not be sufficient, we
are told this garden is also watered by a great number of lesser springs and
fountains, whose pebbles are rubies and emeralds, their earth of camphire,
their beds of musk, and their sides of saffron, the most remarkable among them
being Salsabîl and Tasnîm.
But all these glories will be eclipsed by the resplendent and ravishing
girls of paradise, called, from their large black eyes, Hûr al oyûn, the
enjoyment of whose company will be a principal felicity of the faithful.
These, they say, are created not of clay, as mortal women are, but of pure
musk: being, as their prophet often affirms in his Korân, 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 some traditions have it, one of them will be no
less than four parasangs (or, as others say, sixty miles) long, and as many
broad.
The name which the Mohammedans 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, Jannet 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

1 Yahya, in Kor.c. 13. 2 Jallal'oddin, ibid.




own tongue, wherein it signifies a settled or perpetual habitation), Jannat al
Máwa, the garden of abode, Jannat al Naïm, 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 a 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 Mohammed declared, that in order to qualify the
blessed for a full enjoyment of them, GOD will give to every one the abilities
of a hundred men.
We have already described Mohammed's pond, whereof the righteous are to
drink before their admission into this delicious seat; besides which some
authors1 mention two fountains, springing from under a certain tree near the
gate of paradise, and say, that the blessed will also drink of one of them, to
purge their bodies and carry off all excrementitious dregs, and will wash
themselves in the other. When they are arrived at the gate itself, each
person will there be met and saluted by the beautiful youths appointed to
serve and wait upon him, one of them running before, to carry the news of his
arrival to the wives destined for him; and also by two angels, bearing the
presents sent him by GOD, one of whom will invest him with a garment of
paradise, and the other will put a ring on each of his fingers, with
inscriptions on them alluding to the happiness of his condition. By which of
the eight gates (for so many they suppose paradise to have) they are
respectively to enter, is not worth inquiry; but it must be observed that
Mohammed has declared that no person's good works will gain him admittance,
and that even himself shall be saved, not by his merits, but merely by the
mercy of GOD. It is, however, the constant doctrine of the Korân, that the
felicity of each person will be proportioned to this deserts, and that there
will be abodes of different degrees of happiness; the most eminent degree
being reserved for the prophets, the second for the doctors and teachers of
God's worship, the next for the martyrs, and the lower for the rest of the
righteous, according to their several merits. There will also some
distinction be made in respect to the time of their admission; Mohammed (to
whom, if you will believe him, the gates will first be opened) having
affirmed, that the poor will enter paradise five hundred years before the
rich: nor is this the only privilege which they will enjoy in the next life;
since the same prophet has also declared, that when he took a view of
paradise, he saw the majority of its inhabitants to be the poor, and when he
looked down into hell, he saw the greater part of the wretches confined there
to be women.
For the first entertainment of the blessed on their admission, they fable
that the whole earth will then be as one loaf of bread, which GOD will reach
to them with his hand, holding it like a cake; and that for meat they will
have the ox Balâm, and the fish Nûn, the lobs of whose livers will suffice
70,000 men, being, as some imagine to be set before the principal guests,
viz., those who, to that number, will be admitted into paradise without
examination;2 though others suppose that a definite number is here put for an
indefinite, and that