M O II

MOH 581

MOHAMMEDANISN, the system of religion broached byMohammed, and still adhered to by his followers. See Moham-med, and Alcoran. Mohammedanism is professed by the’ urks, Persians , and several nations among the Africans, and ma-ty in the East Indies. The Mohammedans divide their religion intotwo general parts, faith and practice: of which the first is divided* n to six distinct branches: Belief in God , in his angels, his scrip-hn'es, his prophets, in the resurrection and final judgement, and in^od’s absolute decrees. The points relating to practice are,prayer, with washings, &c. alms, fasting, pilgrimage to Mecca ,End circumcision.

, Mohammedanism Articles of Faith in. 1 . The Mo-nammedans, at least those who are reckoned orthodox, profess tobelieve in and worship the true God, the God of the Jews and'-Bristians. 2. The existence and purity of angels are requiredi Be believed in the Koran ; and he is reckoned an infidel whodenies there are such beings, or hates any of them, or asserts anydistinction of sexes among them. They believe them to havetyre and subtile bodies, created of fire; that they neither eat nordnnk, nor propagate their species; that they have various formsEnd offices, some adoring God in different postures, others- singingprais es to him, or interceding for mankind. They hold, thats °Uui of them are employed in writing down the actions of men ;jtyers in carrying the throne of God , and other services. The°"r angels, whom they look on as more eminently in God ’s fa-tyur, are, Gabriel , to whom they give several titles, particularlynose of the holy spirit, and the angel of revelations, supposing0l| n to be honoured by God with a greater confidence than any°|der, and to be employed in writing down the divine decrees ; Mi-I ae b the friend and protector of the Jews ; Azrael, the angel of® at B, who separates men’s souls-from their bodies; and Irasil,., v d°se office it will be to sound the trumpet at the resurrection,j ’ey a i s0 believe, that two guardian angels attend on every,’ ail > to observe and write down his actions, being changed every^. a y> and therefore called al Moakkibat, or “ the angels who con-tyally succeed one another.” The devil, whom Mohammed, tyes Eblis, from his despair, was once one of those angels .vhoj* e Dearest to God ’s presence, called Azazil; and fell, for refusingd Pay homage to Adam at the command of God . Besides angelsdd devils, the Mohammedans believe in an intermediate order, creatures, which they call jin or genii, created also of fire, buta grosser fabric than angels, as they eat and drink, and propa-'p e their species, and are subject to death. Some of these are^ Pposed to he good and others bad, and capable of salvation orfiliation, as men are ; whence Mohammed pretended to be senttur the conversion of genii as well as men. 3. As to the scrip-’ es . the Koran, teaches, that God , in divers ages of the world,^,,'c revelations of his will in writing to several prophets, the^j’ole and every one of which it is absolutely necessary lor a goods to believe. The number of these sacred books were,

^ jtyding to (hem, 10-4; of which 10 were given to Adam, 50 tob .'■ 30 to Edris or Enoch, 10 to Abraham ; and the other four,Jty the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Koran ,ill r f successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus , and Moham-ar. ”’ w Bich last being the seal of the prophets, those revelationsj’°w closed, and no more are to he expected. All these divineti, tyb except the four last, they agree to he now entirely lost, andcontents unknown ; though the Sabians have several booksf 0 ’*ty they attribute to the antediluvian prophets. And of thoseg 0 r * the Pentateuch , Psalms, and Gospel, they say, have under-1 "so many alterations and corruptions, that, though there mayCfed' • Be some part of the true word of God therein, yet noEnd *° B p given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews a^t r -| Bristians. The Mohammedans have also a gospel in Arabic ,Bay' to Bt- Barnabas. Of this gospel the Moriscoes in Africa of a translation in Spanish . It appears to be no original forgerys ’Dcp ft Mohammedans ; though they have, no doubt, altered itthis ’ e ' &■ instead of the Paraclete, or Comforter, they have inla 0ll a P 0ci 'yphal gospel inserted the word Periclyte, i. e. the fa-told ] 0r illustrious ; bv which they prelend their prophet vvasfore-bi c . name, that being the signification of Mohammed in Ara-J S8 -tynd this they say to justify that passage of the Koran , where'■tidy , .Brist is formally asserted to have foretold his coming,

toot a ot Ber name ofAhmed, which is.derived from the same'm s Mohammed, and of the same import. From these, or-no. 146.

. V °h. IU.-.

some other forgeries of the same stamp, the Mohammedans quoteseveral passages, of which there are not the least vestiges in tliftNew Testament . The number of the prophets, from time totime sent by God into the world, amounts to no less than 224,000,according to ope Mohammedan tradition ; or to 124,000, accord-ing to another: among whom 313 were apostles, sent with specialcommissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition ;and six of them brought new laws or dispensations, which succes-sively abrogated the preceding: these were Adam, Noah, Abra-ham, Moses, Jesus , and Mohammed. AH the prophets in general,the Mohammedans believe to have been free from great sins, andprofessors of the same religion, viz. Islam , notwithstanding thedifferent laws and institutions which they observed. 4. They' be-lieve in a general resurrection and a future judgement. Wlien acorpse is laid in the grave, they say lie is received by an angel,who gives him notice of ttye coming of the two examiners; whoare two black livid angels, of a terrible appearance, named Mon-ker and Nakir. These order the dead person to sit upright, andexamine him concerning his faith, as to the unity oi God , andthe mission of Mohammed: if he answer rightly, they suffer thebody to rest in peace, and it is refreshed by the air of paradise;but, ifnot, they beat him on the temples, with iron-maces, til] heroars out for anguish so loud, that he is heard by ail from east towest, except men and genii. They then press the earth on thecorpse, which is gnawed and stung fill the resurrection by 99dragons, with seven heads eacli; or, as others say, their sins becomevenomous beasts, the grievous ones stinging like dragons, thesmaller like scorpions, and the others like serpents: circumstanceswhich some understand in a figurative sense. As to the soul theyhold, that, when it is separated from the body by the angel ofdeath, who performs his office with ease and gentleness towards thegood, and with violence towards the wicked, it enters into thatwhich they call al berzakii, or the interval between death and theresurrection. If the departed person was a believer, they say twoangels meet it, who convey it to heaven, that its place there mayhe assigned, according, to its merit and degree. For they dis-tinguish the souls of the faithful into three classes: viz. 1st, pro-phets, whose souls are admitted into paradise immediately ; 2d,martyrs, whose spirits, according to a tradition of Mohammed,rest in the crops of green birds, which eat of the fruits and drinkof the rivers of paradise; and 3d, other believers, concerning thestate of whose souls before the resurrection there are various opi-nions. The time of the resurrection the Mohammedans allow tobe a perfect secret to all but God alone ; the angel Gabriel him-self acknowledging bis ignorance in this point, when Mohammedasked him about it. However, they say, the approach of that daymay be known from certain signs which are to precede it. 5.When those who have risen shall have waited the limited time,the Mohammedans believe God will at length appear to judgethem; Mohammed undertaking the office of intercessor, after itshall 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, sur-rounded by angels, and will produce the books wherein tiie ac-tions of every person .are recorded by their guardian angels, andwill command the - prophets to bear witness against those to whomthey have been respectively sent. Then every one wijl be ex-amined concerning all his words and actions uttered and done byhim in this life; not as if God needed any information in theserespects, but to oblige the person to make public confession andacknowledgment ,-of God ’s justice. r l lie particulars, of whichthey shall give an account, as Mohainmrd himself enumeratedthem, are, of their time, how they spent it; of (heir wealth, bywhat means they acquired it, and how they employed it; of theirbodies', wherein they exercised them; of their knowledge andlearning, what use they made of them. 6. ! he trials being over,these who are to be admitted into paradise will take the right-handwav, and those who are destined to hell-lire will take the left; butboth must first pass the bridge called in Arabic al Sirat, whichthey say is laid over the midst of hell, and describe to be finerthan a hair, and sharper than the edge of a sword; so that it seemsvery difficult to conceive how any one shall be able to stand up-on it: for which reason, the Motazahtes reject it as a fable;though the orthodox think it a sufficient proof of the truth of thisarticle,.that it was seriously affirmed by him wlto never asserted- 7 I . ... a false-