DOCTRINE AND PRACTICE. Like every organized religion, lslatu, as developed by the Mohammedan theologians, presents two sides—the theoretical part, known as 'amnia, 'faith.' and the practieal part called din, 'religion.' The doetrine concern ing God, Ilis nature and attributes, voineides with the .Jewish and Christian in so far as lie is by both taught to be the Creator of all things in and who rules and preserves all things, without beginning, omnipotent. omnis cient, omnipresent, and foil of mercy. But, ac cording to the Mohammedan belief, Ile has no offspring. -resits is regarded. like Adam. Abra ham, and Moses, as a prophet and apostle, al though his birth is said to have been dine to a divine intervention; as the Koran superseded the Gospel, an Mohammed superseded Christ and all preceding prophets. Next to the belief in God. that in angels forms a prominent dogma. and, like the former, mat' be traced back directly to Jewish and Christian amid in a smaller degree to J'ersian influences. Created of fire and endowed with a kind of incorporeal body, angels stand be tween (od and man. There are four chief angels: Gabriel, the angel I if revelation: the special protector and guardian of the Jews; Azrael, the angel of lsratil (Uriel), whose office it will be to sound the trumpet at the resur rection. Itesides angels there are good and evil genii (Pins, q.v.), of a grosser fabric than the former and subject to death. They have different 11:1100S and offices (piris, fairies: domes, giants; takirins, fates, etc.), and are much like the sio'diru in the Talmud and Midrash and the de mons 44 other peoples. The chief of the evil genii is Bili.s (q.v.), once called Azozih, who, refusing to pay homage to Adam. was rejected by God. A third belief is that in certain divinely given scriptures, revealed successively to the different prophets. Originally there were 104 sacred books, but only four have survived. viz.: the Pentateuch, the Psalms. the Gospel, and the Koran, and the first three are in a mutilated and falsified condi tion. The number of prophets sent at different times. is stated variously at between 200,000 and 300,000. Among them 313 were apostles, and six were specially commissioned to proclaim new laws and dispensations, which abrogated the preceding ones. These were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jesus, and :11ohamned—the last the greatest of them all, and the propagator of the final dis pensation. The belief in the resurrrrlion and 1 he final judgment is an important article of faith, which in the writings, later than Mo hammed. is elaborately developed. The condition of the dead in the future world and the punish ment of the wicked are pictured with a great multiplicity of details. The dead are reeeived in their graves by an angel announcing the ecsoing of the two examiners, Munkar (1:nknovr') and Nakir ('Repudiating'). who, described as two black angels with hime eyes, put 11110,41011ti to the dead respecting his belief in God and Alohammed, and in accordance with the answers. either tor ture or comfort him. The soul, awaiting a gen eral resurrection, is treated according to its rank; prophets enter immediately into Paradise; mar tyrs, in the shape of a green bird, partake of the delights of the abode of bliss: common believers either stay near the grave. or are with Adam in the lowest ltenvcn, or r011011 /1 in the well 7:0111 Z0111 or in the trumpet of the resurreet ion. or rest in the shape of a white bird under the throne of God. The souls of infidels dwell in a certain well in the province of Iladraninut (interpreted as Chamber of Death), or, being first offered to heaven, then to earth, and rejected by both. are subject to unspeakable tortures until the day of resurreet Coneerning the latter. considerable diserepancy reigns among the Mohammedan the ologians. Mohammed himself seems to have held that both soul and body will be raised, and it is said that the rumplione will remain uneo-ruptetl till the last day. and from it the whole body will spring anew, nfter a forty days' rain. Among the signs by which the approach of the last day may he known nre the deeay of faith nmong inen, the advancing of the meanest persons to the high est dignities, wars, sedition:, and tumults, and consequent dire distress. Certain provinces shall revolt. and the buildings of Medina shall reach to Mecca. These :Ire the eight 'lesser' signs; of
`greater' signs there are no less than 17; the sun will rise in the west, the Beast will appear. Con stantinople will be taken by the descendants of Isaac, the Antichrist will come and be killed by Jesus at Lud ( Lydda ). Fin-tiler there will come a war with the Jews, Gog and Magog's (lajiij and Majuj) eruption, a great smoke, an eclipse, tile Mohammedans will return to idolatry. a great treasure will be found in the Euphrates, the Kaaba will he destroyed by the Ethiopians, beasts and inanimate things will speak, and final ly, a wind will sweep away the souls of those who have faith, even if equal only to a grain of mustard seed, so that the world shall be left in ignorance. The time of the resurrection even Mohammed conld not learn from Gahriel; it is a mystery. Three blasts will announce it ; that of consternation. of such ter lid power that moth ers will neglect the babes on their breasts, and heaven and earth will melt ; that of examination, which will annihilate all things and beings, even the angel of death. save paradise and hell and their inhabitants; and, forty years later, that of resurrection, when all men, Mohammed first. shall have their souls breathed into their restored and will sleep in their sepulchres until the final doom has been passed upon them. The day of judgment, lasting from one thousand to fifty thousand years, will call up angels, genii, men. and animals. The trial over, the righteous will enter paradise, to the right hand, and the wicked will pass to the left, into hell; hoth, how ever have first to go over the bridge laid over the midst of hell, finer than a hair, sharper than the edge of a sword, and beset with thorns on either side. The rig,litemis will pro ceed on their path with ease and swiftness, hut the wicked will fall headlong. /10/ is divided into seven stories or apartments, respectively as signed 1 o Mohammedans, Jews,Christ bins, Sabians. Ma?da us, idolaters, and—the lowest of all—to the hypocrites, who. outwardly professing a religion. in reality had none. The degrees of pain—chief ly consisting in incense heat and cold —VII ry ; hut the lohammedans. and all those who professed the unity of God, will finally be released. while unbelievers and idolaters will he condemned to dermal punishment. Paradise is divided from hell by a partition (`all) in which a certain number of half-saints will find place. The blessed, destined for the abode of eternal delight (.1 I-Jaw/all, Heb. Gan-Et/en). will first drink of the pond of the Prophet. which is supplied from the rivers of Paradise, whiter than milk, and more odoriferous than musk. Arrived nt one of the eight gates, they will he met by beautiful youths and angels; and their degree of righteous (prophets. religious teaehers, martyrs. he lievers) will proeure for them the corresponding Ivgree of happiness. Mankind 011 the last day will he assembled in three classes: ( 1 ) Those who go on foot, believers whose good works have been few; (2) those who ride. believers ;temptable in the eyes of God; and (3) those who creep, the unbelievers. The various felicities which nwait the pious represent a eonglomeration of Jew ish, Christian. Zoroastrian, and other fancier to which the Prophet's own sensual imagination has added very considerably. Feasting in the most gorgeous and delicious variety, the most costly and brilliant garments, odors, and music of the most ravishing nature. and, above all, the enjoy ment of the !fur al-`uyrin, the black-eyed (laugh tern of Paradise (see Houtu), created of pure musk, are held out as a reward to the commonest inhabitant of Paradise, who will always remain in the full vigor of youth mid manhood. For those deserving a higher degree of reeompense, rewards will be prepared of a purely spiritual kind—i.e. the 'beholding of God's face' (She ehinah) by night and by day. The last of the precepts of pure faith taught by Aloha mmedan ism is the full and unconditional sa/miission to God's decree, and the predestination of good and evil, which is found from the beginning inscribed on a 'preserved table.' Not only a man's fortunes, hut his deeds, and consequently Ids future re ward or punishment, are irrevocably, and thus unavoidably, pre-ordained; a doctrine which is not, however, taken literally by all Aloslems.