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' 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." 6. War with the Jews; of whom the Mohammedans are to make a prodigious 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. 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, 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; 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.' 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 decease of every one in whose heart there was faith equal to a 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. 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.2 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 two hundred and fifty-fifth Al Thalabi, in Kor. chap. 4. See Isaiah xi. 6, &c. Chap. 18. and 21. 'See Korân, chap. 44. and the notes thereon. See after, in this section. year of the Hejra. From this tradition, it is to be presumed, an opini n pretty current among the Christians took its rise, that the Mohammodans are in expectation of their prophet's return. 17. A wind which thall 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 gror ter 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 reing come will be the first blast of the trumpet, which they believe will fe sounded three times. The first they call the bias! of consternation; at the hearing of which all creatures in heaven and earth shall be struck with terror, except those whom God shall lease 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 le darkened, the stars fall, on the death of the angels, who as some imagin hold them suspended between heaven and earth, and the sea shall be trou bled and dried up, or, according to 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 ut terly neglected. A farther effect of this blast will be that concourse of beasts mentioned in the Korân, though some doubt whether it be to precede the resurrection or not. They who suppose it will precedc, think that all kinds of animals, forgetting their respective natural fierce.css 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 exanimation; 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; 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 the throne of glory. 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 Israfil, who, together with Gabriel and Michael, will be previously restored to life, and standing on the rock of the temple of Jerusalem, 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 shall 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, 4 • Chap. 81. Vide D'Herbel. Bibl. Orient. p. 531. Several writers however make no distinction between this blest and the first, supposing the trumpet will sound but twice. See the notes to Kor. chap. 39. Kor. chap. 39. 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. In this circumstance 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. 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 conti nually for forty years, 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 day of judgment, the Korân in one place tells us that it will last one thousand years, and in another fifty thousand. 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 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 suppor by the authority of the Korân; though that passage which is produced to prove the resurrection of brutes be otherwise interpreted by some. The manner of their resurrection will be very different. Those who arg destined to be partakers of eternal happiness will arise in honour aud 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; 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 Jay, distinguished into three classes. The first, of those who go on foot; Elsewhere (see before, p. 56) 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. Kor. chap. 32. 2 Ib. chap. 70. See the notes to Kor. chap. 81. and ae preceding page. 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 burica a their clothes should rise with them. Gemar. Sanhedr. fol. 90. the second, of those who ride; and the third, of those who creep grovelling with their fi.ces 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 the 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; 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 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 who glory in their works: the sixth will gnaw their tongues, which will hang down upon their breasts, corrupted blood flowing from their mouths like spittle, so that every body 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 inhabi tants 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." 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 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. See before, sect. i. p. 15. Chap. 14. Kor. chap. 6. Vide Maimonid. More Nev part 3, chap. 17. 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 judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he-goats.-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 you 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 he said concerning brutes deserving future reward and punishment. See Bayle, Dict. Hist. Art. Rorarius, Rem. D. &c. F As to mankind, they hold that when they are all assemb.ed 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 three hundred, nay some say no less than fifty thousand 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 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, and 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 sig nification of which is ambiguous), than the length of a bodkin. So that their skulls will boil like a pot, 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. 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 forth from its sheath, in wh.ch it is now put up, lest it should destroy all things by its excessive heat. 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,' 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 enume. rated them, are; of their time, how they spent it; of their wealth, by what Teans 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 seventy thousand of his followers should be permitted to • Al Ghazali. before, p. 51 ' Idem. Vide Pocock, Not. in Port, Mosis, p. 277. * See |