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Books: The Koran

U >> Unknown >> The Koran




2 Vide Abulfarag, p. 168. 3 Al Shahrest. al Mawâkef, et Ebn al
Kossá, apud Poc. ibid. p. 238, &c. 4 Al Shahrest. al Motarezzi, et Ebn
al Kossá, apud eund. p. 239, 243, &c. 5 Idem, ibid. p. 260. 6 Al
Shahrest.
7 Ebn al Kossá, et al Mawâkef. 1 Ebn al Kossá apud Poc. ubi sup.
p. 240. 2 Al Shahrest. apud eund. p. 245.
3 Idem, ibid.



be no injustice.4 And in this particular, likewise, they agree with the
Ashárians, who assert the same,5 and say that reward is a favour from GOD, and
punishment a piece of justice; obedience being by them considered as a sign
only of future reward, and transgression as a sign of future punishment.6
5. The Morgians; who are said to be derived from the Jabarians.7 These
teach that the judgment of every true believer, who hath been guilty of a
grievous sin, will be deferred till the resurrection; for which reason they
pass no sentence on him in this world, either of absolution or condemnation.
They also hold that disobedience with faith hurteth not; and that, on the
other hand, obedience with infidelity profiteth not.1 As to the reason of
their name the learned differ, because of the different significations of its
root, each of which they accommodate to some opinion of the sect. Some think
them so called because they postpone works to intention, that is, esteem works
to be inferior in degree to intention and profession of the faith;2 others,
because they allow hope, by asserting that disobedience with faith hurteth
not, &c.; others take the reason of the name to be, their deferring the
sentence of the heinous sinner till the resurrection;3 and others, their
degrading of Ali, or removing him from the first degree to the fourth:4 for
the Morgians, in some points relating to the office of Imâm, agree with the
Khârejites, the Kadarians, or the Jabarians, are distinguished as Morgians of
those sects, and the fourth is that of the pure Morgians; which last species
is again subdivided into five others.5 The opinions of Mokâtel and Bashar,
both of a sect of the Morgians called Thaubanians, should not be omitted. The
former asserted that disobedience hurts not him who professes the unity of
GOD, and is endued with faith; and that no true believer shall be cast into
hell: he also taught that GOD will surely forgive all crimes besides
infidelity; and that a disobedient believer will be punished, at the day of
resurrection, on the bridge6 laid over the midst of hell, where the flames of
hell fire shall catch hold on him, and torment him in proportion to his
disobedience, and that he shall then be admitted into paradise.7 The latter
held that if GOD do cast the believers guilty of grievous sins into hell, yet
they will be delivered thence after they shall have been sufficiently
punished; but that it is neither possible nor consistent with justice that

4 Abulfarag, p. 168, &c. 5 Al Shahrestani, ubi sup. p. 252, &c.
6 Sharh al Tawâlea, ibid. To the same effect writes the Moorish author
quotes above, from whom I will venture to transcribe the following passage,
with which he concludes his Discourse on Freewill. "Intellectus ferè lumine
naturali novit Deum esse rectum judicem et justum, qui non aliter afficit
creaturam quàm juste: etiam Deum esse absolutum Dominum, et hanc orbis
machinam esse ejus, et ab eo creatam; Deum mullis debere rationem reddere, cùm
quicquid agat, agat jure proprio sibi: et ita absolute poterit afficere præmio
vel pona quem vult, cùm omnis creatura sit ejus, nec facit cuiquam injuriam,
etsi eam tormentis et ponis æternis afficiat: plus enim boni et commodi
accepit creatura quando accepit esse a suo creatore, quàm incommodi et damni
quando ab eo damnata est et affecta tormentis et ponis. Hoc autem
intelligitur si Deus absolute id faceret. Quando enim Deus, pietate et
misericordia motus, eligit aliquos ut ipsi serviant, Dominus Deus gratiâ suâ
id facit ex infinitâ bonitate; et quando aliquos derelingquit, et ponis et
tormentis afficit, ex justitia et rectitudine. Et tandem dicimù omnes ponas
esse justas quæ a Deo Veniunt, et nostrâ tantùm culpâ, et omnia bona esse à
pietate et misericordia ejus infinita." 7 Al Shahrest. ubi sup. p.
256. 1 Abulfar. p. 169.
2 Al Firauz. 3 Ebn al Athîr, al Motarrezi. 4 Al
Shahrest. ubi sup. p. 254, &c. 5 Idem, ibid. 6 See
before, Sect. IV. p. 71. 7 al Shahrest. ubi sup. p. 257.



they should remain therein for ever; which, as has been observed, was the
opinion of al Ashári.
III. The Khârejites are they who depart or revolt from the lawful prince
established by public consent; and thence comes their name, which signifies
revolters or rebels.8 The first who were so called were twelve thousand men
who revolted from Ali, after they had fought under him at the battle of
Seffein, taking offence at his submitting the decision of his right to the
Khalîfat, which Moâwiyah disputed with him, to arbitration, though they
themselves had first obliged him to it.1 These were also called Mohakkemites,
or Judiciarians; because the reason which they gave for their revolt was, that
Ali had referred a matter concerning the religion of GOD to the judgment of
men, whereas the judgment, in such case, belonged only unto GOD.2 The heresy
of the Khârejites consisted chiefly in two things. I. In that they affirmed
a man might be promoted to the dignity of the Imâm, or prince, though he was
not of the tribe of Koreish, nor even a freeman, provided he was a just and
pious person, and endued with the other requisite qualifications; and also
held that if the Imâm turned aside from the truth, he might be put to death or
deposed; and that there was no absolute necessity for any Imâm at all in the
world. 2. In that they charged Ali with sin, for having left an affair to
the judgment of men, which ought to have been determined by GOD alone; and
went so far as to declare him guilty of infidelity, and to curse him on that
account.3 In the 38th year of the Hejra, which was the year following the
revolt, all these Khârejites who persisted in their rebellion, to the number
of four thousand, were cut to pieces by Ali, and, as several historians4
write, even to a man: but others say nine of them escaped, and that two fled
into Omân, two into Kermân, two into Sejestân, two into Mesopotamia, and one
to Tel Mawrûn; and that these propagated their heresy in those places, the
same remaining there to this day.5 The principal sects of the Khârejites,
besides the Mohakkemites above mentioned, are six; which, though they greatly
differ among themselves in other matters, yet agree in these, viz., that they
absolutely reject Othmân and Ali, preferring the doing of this to the greatest
obedience, and allowing marriages to be contracted on no other terms; that
they account those who are guilty of grievous sins to be infidels; and that
they hold it necessary to resist the Imâm when he transgresses the law. One
sect of them deserves more particular notice, viz.-
The Waïdians, so called from al Waïd, which signifies the threats denounced
by GOD against the wicked. These are the antagonists of the Morgians, and
assert that he who is guilty of a grievous sin ought to be declared an infidel
or apostate, and will be eternally punished in hell, though he were a true
believer:6 which opinion of theirs, as has been observed, occasioned the first
rise of the Mótazalites. One Jaafar Ebn Mobashshar, of the sect of the
Nodhâmians, was yet more severe than the Waïdians, pronouncing him to be a
reprobate and an apostate who steals but a grain of corn.1

8 Idem, ibid. p. 269. 1 See Ockley's Hist. of the Sarac. vol.
i. p. 60, &c. 2 Al Shahrest. ubi sup. p. 270.
3 Idem, ibid. 4 Abulfeda, al Jannâbi, Elmacinus, p. 40.
5 Al Shahrestani. See Ockley's Hist. of the Saracens, ubi sup. p. 63.
6 Abulfar. p. 169. Al Shahrest. apud Poc. Spec. p. 256. 1
Vide Poc. ibid. p. 257



IV. The Shiites are the opponents of the Khârejites: their name properly
signifies sectaries or adherents in general, but is peculiarly used to denote
those of Ali Ebn Tâleb; who maintain him to be lawful Khalîf and Imâm, and
that the supreme authority, both in spirituals and temporals, of right belongs
to his descendants, notwithstanding they may be deprived of it by the
injustice of others, or their own fear. They also teach that the office of
Imâm is not a common thing, depending on the will of the vulgar, so that they
may set up whom they please; but a fundamental affair of religion, and an
article which the prophet could not have neglected, or left to the fancy of
the common people:2 nay, some, thence called Imâmians, go so far as to assert,
that religion consists solely in the knowledge of the true Imâm.3 The
principal sects of the Shiites are five, which are subdivided into an almost
innumerable number; so that some understand Mohammed's prophecy of the seventy
odd sects, of the Shiites only. Their general opinions are-I. That the
peculiar designation of the Imâm, and the testimonies of the Korân and
Mohammed concerning him, are necessary points. 2. That the Imâms ought
necessarily to keep themselves free from light sins as well as more grievous.
3. That every one ought publicly to declare who it is that he adheres to, and
from whom he separates himself, by word, deed, and engagement; and that herein
there should be no dissimulation. But in this last point some of the
Zeidians, a sect so named from Zeid, the son of Ali surnamed Zein al âbedîn,
and great-grandson of Ali, dissented from the rest of the Shiites.4 As to
other articles, wherein they agreed not, some of them came pretty near to the
notions of the Mótazalites, others to those of the Moshabbehites, and others
to those of the Sonnites.5 Among the latter of these Mohammed al Bâker,
another son of Zein al âbedîn's, seems to claim a place: for his opinion as to
the will of GOD was, that GOD willeth something in us, and something from us,
and that what he willeth from us he hath revealed to us; for which reason he
thought it preposterous that we should employ our thoughts about those things
which GOD willeth in us, and neglect those which he willeth from us: and as to
GOD'S decree, he held that the way lay in the middle, and that there was
neither compulsion nor free liberty.1 A tenet of the Khattâbians, or
disciples of one Abu'l Khattab, is too peculiar to be omitted. These
maintained paradise to be no other than the pleasures of this world, and hell
fire to be the pains thereof, and that the world will never decay: which
proposition being first laid down, it is no wonder they went farther, and
declared it lawful to indulge themselves in drinking wine and whoring, and to
do other things forbidden by the law, and also to omit doing the things
commanded by the law.2
Many of the Shiites carried their veneration for Ali and his descendants so
far, that they transgressed all bounds of reason and decency; though some of
them were less extravagant than others. The Gholâïtes, who had their name
from their excessive zeal for their Imâms, were so highly transported
therewith, that they raised them above the degree of created beings, and
attributed divine properties to them; trans-

2 Al Shahrest. ibid. p. 261. Abulfar. p. 169. 3 Al Shahrest.
ibid. p. 262. 4 Idem, ibid. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art.
Schiah. 5 Vide Poc. ibid. 1 Al Shahrest. ibid. p.
263. 2 Idem. et Ebn al Kossá, ibid. p. 260, &c.



gressing on either hand, by deifying of mortal men, and by making GOD
corporeal: for one while they liken one of their Imâms to GOD, and another
while they liken GOD to a creature.3 The sects of these are various, and have
various appellations in different countries. Abd'allah Ebn Saba (who had been
a Jew, and had asserted the same thing of Joshua the son of Nun) was the
ringleader of one of them. This man gave the following salutation to Ali,
viz., "Thou art Thou," i.e., Thou art GOD: and hereupon the Gholâïtes became
divided into several species; some maintaining the same thing, or something
like it, of Ali, and others of some of one of his descendants; affirming that
he was not dead, but would return again in the clouds, and fill the earth with
justice.4 But howmuchsoever they disagreed in other things, they unanimously
held a metempsychosis, and what they call al Holûl, or the descent of GOD on
his creatures; meaning thereby that GOD is present in every place, and speaks
with every tongue, and appears in some individual person:5 and hence some of
them asserted their Imâms to be prophets, and at length gods.6 The Nosairians
and the Ishâkians taught that spiritual substances appear in grosser bodies;
and that the angels and the devil have appeared in this manner. They also
assert that GOD hath appeared in this manner. They also assert that GOD hath
appeared in the form of certain men; and since, after Mohammed, there hath
been no man more excellent than Ali, and, after him, his sons have excelled
all other men, that GOD hath appeared in their form, spoken with their tongue,
and made use of their hands; for which reason, say they, we attribute divinity
to them.1 And to support these blasphemies, they tell several miraculous
things of Ali, as his moving the gates of Khaibar,2 which they urge as a plain
proof that he was endued with a particle of divinity and with sovereign power,
and that he was the person in whose form GOD appeared, with whose hands he
created all things, and with whose tongue he published his commands; and
therefore they say he was in being before the creation of heaven and earth.3
In so impious a manner do they seem to wrest those things which are said in
scripture of CHRIST by applying them to Ali. These extravagant fancies of the
Shiites, however, in making their Imâms in laying claim thereto, are so far
from being peculiar to this sect, that most of the other Mohammedan sects are
tainted with the same madness; there being many found among them, and among
the Sûfis especially, who pretend to be nearly related to heaven, and who
boast of strange revelations before the credulous people.4 It may not be
amiss to hear what al Ghazâli has written on this occasion. "Matters are come
to that pass," says he, "that some boast of an union with GOD, and of
discoursing familiarly with him, without the interposition of a veil, saying,
'It hath been thus said to us,' and 'We have thus spoken;' affecting to
imitate Hosein al Hallâj, who was put to death for some words of this kind
uttered by him, he having said (as was proved by credible witnesses), 'I am
the Truth,'5 or Abu Yazîd al Bastâmi, of whom it is related that he often used
the expression,

3 Idem, ibid. 4 Idem, ibid. p. 264. Vide Marracc. Prodr. part iii.
p. 80, &c. 5 Idem, ibid. p. 265.
6 Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Or. Art. Hakem Beamrillah. 1 Idem, ibid.
Abulfar. p. 169. 2 See Prid. Life of Mah. p. 93.
3 Al Shah. ubi sup. p. 266. 4 Poc. Spec. p. 267. 5 Vide
D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Hallage.



'Sobhâni,' i.e., 'Praise be unto me!'6 But this way of talking is the cause
of great mischief among the common people; insomuch that husbandmen,
neglecting the tillage of their land, have pretended to the like privileges;
nature being tickled with discourses of this kind, which furnish men with an
excuse for leaving their occupations, under pretence of purifying their souls,
and attaining I know not what degrees and conditions. Nor is there anything
to hinder the most stupid fellows from forming the like pretensions and
catching at such vain expressions: for whenever what they say is denied to be
true, they fail not to reply that our unbelief proceeds from learning and
logic; affirming learning to be a veil, and logic the work of the mind;
wherein what they tell us appears only within, being discovered by the light
of truth. But this is that truth the sparks whereof have flown into several
countries and occasioned great mischiefs; so that it is more for the advantage
of GOD'S true religion to put to death one of those who utter such things than
to bestow life on ten others."1
Thus far have we treated of the chief sects among the Mohammedans of the
first ages, omitting to say anything of the more modern sects, because the
same are taken little or no notice of by their own writers, and would be of no
use to our present design.2 It may be proper, however, to mention a word or
two of the great schism at this day subsisting between the Sonnites and the
Shiites, or partisans of Ali, and maintained on either side with implacable
hatred and furious zeal. Though the difference arose at first on a political
occasion, it has, notwithstanding, been so well improved by additional
circumstances and the spirit of contradiction, that each party detest and
anathematize the other as abominable heretics, and farther from the truth than
either the Christians or the Jews.3 The chief points wherein they differ are-
I. That the Shiites reject Abu Becr, Omar, and Othmân, the three first
Khalîfs, as usurpers and intruders; whereas the Sonnites acknowledge and
respect them as rightful Imâms. 2. The Shiites prefer Ali to Mohammed, or,
at least, esteem them both equal; but the Sonnites admit neither Ali nor any
of the prophets to be equal to Mohammed. 3. The Sonnites charge the Shiites
with corrupting the Korân and neglecting its precepts, and the Shiites retort
the same charge on the Sonnites. 4. The Sonnites receive the Sonna, or book
of traditions of their prophet, as of canonical authority; whereas the Shiites
reject it as apocryphal and unworthy of credit. And to these disputes, and
some others of less moment, is principally owing to the antipathy which has
long reigned between the Turks, who are Sunnites, and the Persians, who are of
the sect of Ali. It seems strange that Spinosa, had he known of no other
schism among the Mohammedans, should yet never have heard of one so publicly
notorious as this between the Turks and Persians; but it is plain he did not,
or he would never have assigned it as the reason of his preferring the order
of the Mohammedan church to that of the Roman, that there have arisen no
schisms in the former since its birth.4

6 Vide Ibid. Art. Bastham. 1 Al Ghazâli, apud Poc. ubi sup.
2 The reader may meet with some account of them in Ricaut's State of
the Ottom. Empire, l. 2, c. 12. 3 Vide ibid. c. 10, and Chardin,
Voy. de Perse, t. ii. p. 169, 170, &c.
4 The words of the Spinosa are: "Ordinem Romanæ ecclesiæ-politicum et
plurimis lucrosum esse fateor; nec ad decipiendam plebem, et hominum animos
coercendrum commo-



As success in any project seldom fails to draw in imitators, Mohammed's
having raised himself to such a degree of power and reputation by acting the
prophet, induced others to imagine they might arrive at the same height by the
same means. His most considerable competitors in the prophetic office were
Moseilama and al Aswad, whom the Mohammedans usually call the two liars.
The former was of the tribe of Honeifa, who inhabited the province of
Yamâma, and a principal man among them. He headed an embassy sent by his
tribe to Mohammed in the ninth year of the Hejra, and professed himself a
Moslem:1 but on his return home, considering that he might possibly share with
Mohammed in his power, the next year he set up for a prophet also, pretending
to be joined with him the commission to recall mankind from idolatry to the
worship of the true GOD;2 and he published written revelations, in imitation
of the Korân, of which Abulfargius3 has preserved the following passage, viz.:
"now hath GOD been gracious unto her that was with child, and hath brought
forth from her the soul, which runneth between the peritonæum and the bowels."
Moseilama, having formed a considerable party among those of Honeifa, began to
think himself upon equal terms with Mohammed, and sent him a letter, offering
to go halves with him,4 in these words: "From Moseilama the apostle of GOD, to
Mohammed the apostle of GOD. Now let the earth be half mine, and half thine."
But Mohammed, thinking himself too well established to need a partner, wrote
him this answer: "From Mohammed the apostle of GOD, to Moseilama the liar.
The earth is GOD'S: he giveth the same for inheritance unto such of his
servants as he pleaseth; and the happy issue shall attend those who fear
him."5 During the few months which Mohammed lived after this revolt,
Moseilama rather gained than lost ground, and grew very formidable; but Abu
Becr, his successor, in the eleventh year of the Hejra, sent a great army
against him, under the command of that consummate general, Khâled Ebn al
Walîd, who engaged Moseilama in a bloody battle, wherein the false prophet,
happening to be slain by Wahsha, the negro slave who had killed Hamza at Ohod,
and by the same lance,6 the Moslems gained an entire victory, ten thousand of
the apostates being left dead on the spot, and the rest returning to
Mohammedism.7
Al Aswad, whose name was Aihala, was of the tribe of Ans, and governed that
and the other tribes of Arabs descended from Madhhaj.1 This man was likewise
an apostate from Mohammedism, and set up for himself the very year that
Mohammed died.2 He was surnamed Dhu'lhemâr, or the master of the ass, because
he used frequently to say, "The master of the ass is coming unto me;"3 and
pretended to receive his revelations from two angels, named Sohaik and
Shoraik.4 Having a good hand at legerdemain, and a smooth tongue, he gained
mightily on the multitude by the strange feats which he showed them,

diorem isto crederem, ni ordo Mahumedanæ ecclesiæ esset, qui longè eundem
antecellit. Nam à quo tempore hæc superstitio incepit, nulla in eorum
ecclesia schismata orta sunt." Opera Posth. p. 613. 1 Abulfed. p.
160. 2 Idem, Elmac. p. 9.
3 Hist. Dynast. p. 164. 4 Abulfed. ubi sup. 5 Al
Beidâwi, in Kor. c. 5. 6 Abulfed. ubi sup.
7 Idem, ibid. Abulfarag, p. 173. Elmac. p. 16, &c. See Ockley's Hist. of the
Saracens, vol. i. p. 15, &c. 1 Al Soheili, apud Gagnier. in not. ad
Abulf. Vit. Moh. p. 158. 2 Elmac. p. 9. 3 Abulfed ubi
sup. 4 Al Soheili, ubi sup.



and the eloquence of his discourse:5 by these means he greatly increased his
power, and having made himself master of Najrân, and the territory of al
Tâyef,6 on the death of Badhân, the governor of Yaman for Mohammed, he seized
that province also, killing Shahr, the son of Badhân, and taking to wife his
widow, whose father, the uncle of Firûz the Deilamite, he had also slain.7
These news being brought to Mohammed, he sent to his friends, and to those of
Hamdân, a party of whom, conspiring with Kais Ebn Abd'al Yaghûth, who bore Al
Aswad a grudge, and with Firûz, and al Aswad's wife, broke by night into his
house, where Firûz surprised him and cut off his head. While he was
dispatching he roared like a bull; at which his guards came to the chamber
door, but were sent away by his wife, who told them the prophet was only
agitated by the divine inspiration. This was done the very night before
Mohammed died. The next morning the conspirators caused the following
proclamation to be made, viz.: "I bear witness that Mohammed is the apostle of
GOD, and that Aihala is a liar;" and letters were immediately sent away to
Mohammed, with an account of what had been done: but a messenger from heaven
outstripped them, and acquainted the prophet with the news, which he imparted
to his companions but a little before his death; the letters themselves not
arriving till Abu Becr was chosen Khalîf. It is said that Mohammed, on this
occasion, told those who attended him that before the day of judgment thirty
more impostors, besides Moseilama and al Aswad, should appear, and every one
of them set up for a prophet. The whole time, from the beginning of al
Aswad's rebellion to his death, was about four months.8
In the same eleventh year of the Hejra, but after the death of Mohammed, as
seems most probable, Toleiha Ebn Khowailed set up for a prophet, and Sejâj
Bint al Mondar1 for a prophetess.
Toleiha was of the tribe of Asad, which adhered to him, together with great
numbers of the tribes of Ghatfân and Tay. Against them likewise was Khâled
sent, who engaged and put them to flight, obliging Toleiha, with his shattered
troops, to retire into Syria, where he stayed till the death of Abu Becr: then
he went to Omar and embraced Mohammedism in his presence, and, having taken
the oath of fidelity to him, returned to his own country and people.2
Sejâj, surnamed Omm Sâder, was of the tribe of Tamîm, and the wife of Abu
Cahdala, a soothsayer of Yamâma. She was followed not only by those of her
own tribe, but by several others. Thinking a prophet the most proper husband
for her, she went to Moseilama, and married him; but after she had stayed with
him three days, she left him and returned home.3 What became of her
afterwards I do not find. Ebn Shohnah has given us part of the conversation
which passed at the interview between those two pretenders to inspiration; but
the same is a little too immodest to be translated.
In succeeding ages several impostors from time to time started up most of
whom quickly came to nothing: but some made a considerable figure, and
propagated sects which continued long after their decease.