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
