confirmed by many splendid prodigies; and Mahomet was repeatedly urged,
by the inhabitants of Mecca and Medina, to produce a similar evidence of
his divine legation; to call down from heaven the angel or the volume
of his revelation, to create a garden in the desert, or to kindle a
conflagration in the unbelieving city. As often as he is pressed by
the demands of the Koreish, he involves himself in the obscure boast of
vision and prophecy, appeals to the internal proofs of his doctrine, and
shields himself behind the providence of God, who refuses those signs
and wonders that would depreciate the merit of faith, and aggravate
the guilt of infidelity But the modest or angry tone of his apologies
betrays his weakness and vexation; and these passages of scandal
established, beyond suspicion, the integrity of the Koran. The votaries
of Mahomet are more assured than himself of his miraculous gifts; and
their confidence and credulity increase as they are farther removed from
the time and place of his spiritual exploits. They believe or affirm
that trees went forth to meet him; that he was saluted by stones; that
water gushed from his fingers; that he fed the hungry, cured the sick,
and raised the dead; that a beam groaned to him; that a camel complained
to him; that a shoulder of mutton informed him of its being poisoned;
and that both animate and inanimate nature were equally subject to the
apostle of God. His dream of a nocturnal journey is seriously described
as a real and corporeal transaction. A mysterious animal, the Borak,
conveyed him from the temple of Mecca to that of Jerusalem: with his
companion Gabriel he successively ascended the seven heavens, and
received and repaid the salutations of the patriarchs, the prophets,
and the angels, in their respective mansions. Beyond the seventh heaven,
Mahomet alone was permitted to proceed; he passed the veil of unity,
approached within two bow-shots of the throne, and felt a cold that
pierced him to the heart, when his shoulder was touched by the hand
of God. After this familiar, though important conversation, he again
descended to Jerusalem, remounted the Borak, returned to Mecca, and
performed in the tenth part of a night the journey of many thousand
years. According to another legend, the apostle confounded in a national
assembly the malicious challenge of the Koreish. His resistless word
split asunder the orb of the moon: the obedient planet stooped from her
station in the sky, accomplished the seven revolutions round the Caaba,
saluted Mahomet in the Arabian tongue, and, suddenly contracting her
dimensions, entered at the collar, and issued forth through the sleeve,
of his shirt. The vulgar are amused with these marvellous tales; but the
gravest of the Mussulman doctors imitate the modesty of their master,
and indulge a latitude of faith or interpretation. They might speciously
allege, that in preaching the religion it was needless to violate the
harmony of nature; that a creed unclouded with mystery may be excused
from miracles; and that the sword of Mahomet was not less potent than
the rod of Moses.
The polytheist is oppressed and distracted by the variety of
superstition: a thousand rites of Egyptian origin were interwoven
with the essence of the Mosaic law; and the spirit of the gospel had
evaporated in the pageantry of the church. The prophet of Mecca was
tempted by prejudice, or policy, or patriotism, to sanctify the rites
of the Arabians, and the custom of visiting the holy stone of the
Caaba. But the precepts of Mahomet himself inculcates a more simple and
rational piety: prayer, fasting, and alms, are the religious duties of a
Mussulman; and he is encouraged to hope, that prayer will carry him half
way to God, fasting will bring him to the door of his palace, and alms
will gain him admittance. I. According to the tradition of the nocturnal
journey, the apostle, in his personal conference with the Deity, was
commanded to impose on his disciples the daily obligation of fifty
prayers. By the advice of Moses, he applied for an alleviation of this
intolerable burden; the number was gradually reduced to five; without
any dispensation of business or pleasure, or time or place: the devotion
of the faithful is repeated at daybreak, at noon, in the afternoon, in
the evening, and at the first watch of the night; and in the present
decay of religious fervor, our travellers are edified by the profound
humility and attention of the Turks and Persians. Cleanliness is the key
of prayer: the frequent lustration of the hands, the face, and the body,
which was practised of old by the Arabs, is solemnly enjoined by the
Koran; and a permission is formally granted to supply with sand the
scarcity of water. The words and attitudes of supplication, as it is
performed either sitting, or standing, or prostrate on the ground, are
prescribed by custom or authority; but the prayer is poured forth in
short and fervent ejaculations; the measure of zeal is not exhausted
by a tedious liturgy; and each Mussulman for his own person is invested
with the character of a priest. Among the theists, who reject the use
of images, it has been found necessary to restrain the wanderings of
the fancy, by directing the eye and the thought towards a _kebla_,
or visible point of the horizon. The prophet was at first inclined to
gratify the Jews by the choice of Jerusalem; but he soon returned to
a more natural partiality; and five times every day the eyes of the
nations at Astracan, at Fez, at Delhi, are devoutly turned to the holy
temple of Mecca. Yet every spot for the service of God is equally pure:
the Mahometans indifferently pray in their chamber or in the street. As
a distinction from the Jews and Christians, the Friday in each week is
set apart for the useful institution of public worship: the people is
assembled in the mosch; and the imam, some respectable elder, ascends
the pulpit, to begin the prayer and pronounce the sermon. But the
Mahometan religion is destitute of priesthood or sacrifice; and the
independent spirit of fanaticism looks down with contempt on the
ministers and the slaves of superstition. II. The voluntary penance
of the ascetics, the torment and glory of their lives, was odious to
a prophet who censured in his companions a rash vow of abstaining from
flesh, and women, and sleep; and firmly declared, that he would suffer
no monks in his religion. Yet he instituted, in each year, a fast of
thirty days; and strenuously recommended the observance as a discipline
which purifies the soul and subdues the body, as a salutary exercise
of obedience to the will of God and his apostle. During the month
of Ramadan, from the rising to the setting of the sun, the Mussulman
abstains from eating, and drinking, and women, and baths, and perfumes;
from all nourishment that can restore his strength, from all pleasure
that can gratify his senses. In the revolution of the lunar year, the
Ramadan coincides, by turns, with the winter cold and the summer heat;
and the patient martyr, without assuaging his thirst with a drop
of water, must expect the close of a tedious and sultry day. The
interdiction of wine, peculiar to some orders of priests or hermits,
is converted by Mahomet alone into a positive and general law; and a
considerable portion of the globe has abjured, at his command, the use
of that salutary, though dangerous, liquor. These painful restraints
are, doubtless, infringed by the libertine, and eluded by the hypocrite;
but the legislator, by whom they are enacted, cannot surely be accused
of alluring his proselytes by the indulgence of their sensual appetites.
III. The charity of the Mahometans descends to the animal creation; and
the Koran repeatedly inculcates, not as a merit, but as a strict and
indispensable duty, the relief of the indigent and unfortunate. Mahomet,
perhaps, is the only lawgiver who has defined the precise measure of
charity: the standard may vary with the degree and nature of property,
as it consists either in money, in corn or cattle, in fruits or
merchandise; but the Mussulman does not accomplish the law, unless he
bestows a _tenth_ of his revenue; and if his conscience accuses him
of fraud or extortion, the tenth, under the idea of restitution, is
enlarged to a _fifth_. Benevolence is the foundation of justice, since
we are forbid to injure those whom we are bound to assist. A prophet may
reveal the secrets of heaven and of futurity; but in his moral precepts
he can only repeat the lessons of our own hearts.
The two articles of belief, and the four practical duties, of Islam, are
guarded by rewards and punishments; and the faith of the Mussulman
is devoutly fixed on the event of the judgment and the last day.
The prophet has not presumed to determine the moment of that awful
catastrophe, though he darkly announces the signs, both in heaven and
earth, which will precede the universal dissolution, when life shall
be destroyed, and the order of creation shall be confounded in the
primitive chaos. At the blast of the trumpet, new worlds will start into
being: angels, genii, and men will arise from the dead, and the human
soul will again be united to the body. The doctrine of the resurrection
was first entertained by the Egyptians; and their mummies were embalmed,
their pyramids were constructed, to preserve the ancient mansion of
the soul, during a period of three thousand years. But the attempt is
partial and unavailing; and it is with a more philosophic spirit
that Mahomet relies on the omnipotence of the Creator, whose word can
reanimate the breathless clay, and collect the innumerable atoms, that
no longer retain their form or substance. The intermediate state of
the soul it is hard to decide; and those who most firmly believe her
immaterial nature, are at a loss to understand how she can think or act
without the agency of the organs of sense.
The reunion of the soul and body will be followed by the final judgment
of mankind; and in his copy of the Magian picture, the prophet has too
faithfully represented the forms of proceeding, and even the slow
and successive operations, of an earthly tribunal. By his intolerant
adversaries he is upbraided for extending, even to themselves, the hope
of salvation, for asserting the blackest heresy, that every man who
believes in God, and accomplishes good works, may expect in the last day
a favorable sentence. Such rational indifference is ill adapted to the
character of a fanatic; nor is it probable that a messenger from heaven
should depreciate the value and necessity of his own revelation. In
the idiom of the Koran, the belief of God is inseparable from that of
Mahomet: the good works are those which he has enjoined, and the two
qualifications imply the profession of Islam, to which all nations and
all sects are equally invited. Their spiritual blindness, though excused
by ignorance and crowned with virtue, will be scourged with everlasting
torments; and the tears which Mahomet shed over the tomb of his mother
for whom he was forbidden to pray, display a striking contrast of
humanity and enthusiasm. The doom of the infidels is common: the measure
of their guilt and punishment is determined by the degree of evidence
which they have rejected, by the magnitude of the errors which they
have entertained: the eternal mansions of the Christians, the Jews, the
Sabians, the Magians, and idolaters, are sunk below each other in the
abyss; and the lowest hell is reserved for the faithless hypocrites who
have assumed the mask of religion. After the greater part of mankind
has been condemned for their opinions, the true believers only will be
judged by their actions. The good and evil of each Mussulman will be
accurately weighed in a real or allegorical balance; and a singular
mode of compensation will be allowed for the payment of injuries: the
aggressor will refund an equivalent of his own good actions, for the
benefit of the person whom he has wronged; and if he should be destitute
of any moral property, the weight of his sins will be loaded with an
adequate share of the demerits of the sufferer. According as the shares
of guilt or virtue shall preponderate, the sentence will be pronounced,
and all, without distinction, will pass over the sharp and perilous
bridge of the abyss; but the innocent, treading in the footsteps of
Mahomet, will gloriously enter the gates of paradise, while the guilty
will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells. The term of
expiation will vary from nine hundred to seven thousand years; but the
prophet has judiciously promised, that all his disciples, whatever may
be their sins, shall be saved, by their own faith and his intercession
from eternal damnation. It is not surprising that superstition should
act most powerfully on the fears of her votaries, since the human fancy
can paint with more energy the misery than the bliss of a future life.
With the two simple elements of darkness and fire, we create a sensation
of pain, which may be aggravated to an infinite degree by the idea of
endless duration. But the same idea operates with an opposite effect on
the continuity of pleasure; and too much of our present enjoyments is
obtained from the relief, or the comparison, of evil. It is natural
enough that an Arabian prophet should dwell with rapture on the groves,
the fountains, and the rivers of paradise; but instead of inspiring
the blessed inhabitants with a liberal taste for harmony and science,
conversation and friendship, he idly celebrates the pearls and diamonds,
the robes of silk, palaces of marble, dishes of gold, rich wines,
artificial dainties, numerous attendants, and the whole train of sensual
and costly luxury, which becomes insipid to the owner, even in the short
period of this mortal life. Seventy-two _Houris_, or black-eyed girls,
of resplendent beauty, blooming youth, virgin purity, and exquisite
sensibility, will be created for the use of the meanest believer;
a moment of pleasure will be prolonged to a thousand years; and his
faculties will be increased a hundred fold, to render him worthy of his
felicity. Notwithstanding a vulgar prejudice, the gates of heaven will
be open to both sexes; but Mahomet has not specified the male companions
of the female elect, lest he should either alarm the jealousy of their
former husbands, or disturb their felicity, by the suspicion of an
everlasting marriage. This image of a carnal paradise has provoked the
indignation, perhaps the envy, of the monks: they declaim against the
impure religion of Mahomet; and his modest apologists are driven to
the poor excuse of figures and allegories. But the sounder and more
consistent party adhere without shame, to the literal interpretation of
the Koran: useless would be the resurrection of the body, unless it were
restored to the possession and exercise of its worthiest faculties; and
the union of sensual and intellectual enjoyment is requisite to complete
the happiness of the double animal, the perfect man. Yet the joys of the
Mahometan paradise will not be confined to the indulgence of luxury
and appetite; and the prophet has expressly declared that all meaner
happiness will be forgotten and despised by the saints and martyrs, who
shall be admitted to the beatitude of the divine vision.
The first and most arduous conquests of Mahomet were those of his wife,
his servant, his pupil, and his friend; since he presented himself as a
prophet to those who were most conversant with his infirmities as a man.
Yet Cadijah believed the words, and cherished the glory, of her husband;
the obsequious and affectionate Zeid was tempted by the prospect
of freedom; the illustrious Ali, the son of Abu Taleb, embraced the
sentiments of his cousin with the spirit of a youthful hero; and the
wealth, the moderation, the veracity of Abubeker confirmed the religion
of the prophet whom he was destined to succeed. By his persuasion, ten
of the most respectable citizens of Mecca were introduced to the private
lessons of Islam; they yielded to the voice of reason and enthusiasm;
they repeated the fundamental creed, "There is but one God, and Mahomet
is the apostle of God;" and their faith, even in this life, was rewarded
with riches and honors, with the command of armies and the government
of kingdoms. Three years were silently employed in the conversion of
fourteen proselytes, the first-fruits of his mission; but in the fourth
year he assumed the prophetic office, and resolving to impart to his
family the light of divine truth, he prepared a banquet, a lamb, as it
is said, and a bowl of milk, for the entertainment of forty guests of
the race of Hashem. "Friends and kinsmen," said Mahomet to the assembly,
"I offer you, and I alone can offer, the most precious of gifts, the
treasures of this world and of the world to come. God has commanded me
to call you to his service. Who among you will support my burden? Who
among you will be my companion and my vizier?" No answer was returned,
till the silence of astonishment, and doubt, and contempt, was at length
broken by the impatient courage of Ali, a youth in the fourteenth year
of his age. "O prophet, I am the man: whosoever rises against thee, I
will dash out his teeth, tear out his eyes, break his legs, rip up his
belly. O prophet, I will be thy vizier over them." Mahomet accepted his
offer with transport, and Abu Taled was ironically exhorted to respect
the superior dignity of his son. In a more serious tone, the father of
Ali advised his nephew to relinquish his impracticable design. "Spare
your remonstrances," replied the intrepid fanatic to his uncle and
benefactor; "if they should place the sun on my right hand, and the moon
on my left, they should not divert me from my course." He persevered
ten years in the exercise of his mission; and the religion which has
overspread the East and the West advanced with a slow and painful
progress within the walls of Mecca. Yet Mahomet enjoyed the satisfaction
of beholding the increase of his infant congregation of Unitarians,
who revered him as a prophet, and to whom he seasonably dispensed the
spiritual nourishment of the Koran. The number of proselytes may be
esteemed by the absence of eighty-three men and eighteen women, who
retired to ∆thiopia in the seventh year of his mission; and his party
was fortified by the timely conversion of his uncle Hamza, and of the
fierce and inflexible Omar, who signalized in the cause of Islam the
same zeal, which he had exerted for its destruction. Nor was the charity
of Mahomet confined to the tribe of Koreish, or the precincts of Mecca:
on solemn festivals, in the days of pilgrimage, he frequented the
Caaba, accosted the strangers of every tribe, and urged, both in private
converse and public discourse, the belief and worship of a sole Deity.
Conscious of his reason and of his weakness, he asserted the liberty of
conscience, and disclaimed the use of religious violence: but he called
the Arabs to repentance, and conjured them to remember the ancient
idolaters of Ad and Thamud, whom the divine justice had swept away from
the face of the earth.
Chapter L: Description Of Arabia And Its Inhabitants.--Part V.
The people of Mecca were hardened in their unbelief by superstition and
envy. The elders of the city, the uncles of the prophet, affected to
despise the presumption of an orphan, the reformer of his country: the
pious orations of Mahomet in the Caaba were answered by the clamors of
Abu Taleb. "Citizens and pilgrims, listen not to the tempter, hearken
not to his impious novelties. Stand fast in the worship of Al L‚ta and
Al Uzzah." Yet the son of Abdallah was ever dear to the aged chief: and
he protected the fame and person of his nephew against the assaults of
the Koreishites, who had long been jealous of the preÎminence of
the family of Hashem. Their malice was colored with the pretence of
religion: in the age of Job, the crime of impiety was punished by the
Arabian magistrate; and Mahomet was guilty of deserting and denying the
national deities. But so loose was the policy of Mecca, that the leaders
of the Koreish, instead of accusing a criminal, were compelled to employ
the measures of persuasion or violence. They repeatedly addressed Abu
Taleb in the style of reproach and menace. "Thy nephew reviles our
religion; he accuses our wise forefathers of ignorance and folly;
silence him quickly, lest he kindle tumult and discord in the city. If
he persevere, we shall draw our swords against him and his adherents,
and thou wilt be responsible for the blood of thy fellow-citizens."
The weight and moderation of Abu Taleb eluded the violence of religious
faction; the most helpless or timid of the disciples retired to
∆thiopia, and the prophet withdrew himself to various places of strength
in the town and country. As he was still supported by his family,
the rest of the tribe of Koreish engaged themselves to renounce all
intercourse with the children of Hashem, neither to buy nor sell,
neither to marry not to give in marriage, but to pursue them with
implacable enmity, till they should deliver the person of Mahomet to the
justice of the gods. The decree was suspended in the Caaba before the
eyes of the nation; the messengers of the Koreish pursued the Mussulman
exiles in the heart of Africa: they besieged the prophet and his most
faithful followers, intercepted their water, and inflamed their mutual
animosity by the retaliation of injuries and insults. A doubtful
truce restored the appearances of concord till the death of Abu Taleb
abandoned Mahomet to the power of his enemies, at the moment when he
was deprived of his domestic comforts by the loss of his faithful and
generous Cadijah. Abu Sophian, the chief of the branch of Ommiyah,
succeeded to the principality of the republic of Mecca. A zealous
votary of the idols, a mortal foe of the line of Hashem, he convened an
assembly of the Koreishites and their allies, to decide the fate of the
apostle. His imprisonment might provoke the despair of his enthusiasm;
and the exile of an eloquent and popular fanatic would diffuse the
mischief through the provinces of Arabia. His death was resolved; and
they agreed that a sword from each tribe should be buried in his heart,
to divide the guilt of his blood, and baffle the vengeance of the
Hashemites. An angel or a spy revealed their conspiracy; and flight was
the only resource of Mahomet. At the dead of night, accompanied by
his friend Abubeker, he silently escaped from his house: the assassins
watched at the door; but they were deceived by the figure of Ali, who
reposed on the bed, and was covered with the green vestment of the
apostle. The Koreish respected the piety of the heroic youth; but some
verses of Ali, which are still extant, exhibit an interesting picture
of his anxiety, his tenderness, and his religious confidence. Three days
Mahomet and his companion were concealed in the cave of Thor, at the
distance of a league from Mecca; and in the close of each evening,
they received from the son and daughter of Abubeker a secret supply of
intelligence and food. The diligence of the Koreish explored every haunt
in the neighborhood of the city: they arrived at the entrance of the
cavern; but the providential deceit of a spider's web and a pigeon's
nest is supposed to convince them that the place was solitary and
inviolate. "We are only two," said the trembling Abubeker. "There is
a third," replied the prophet; "it is God himself." No sooner was the
pursuit abated than the two fugitives issued from the rock, and
mounted their camels: on the road to Medina, they were overtaken by the
emissaries of the Koreish; they redeemed themselves with prayers and
promises from their hands. In this eventful moment, the lance of an Arab
might have changed the history of the world. The flight of the prophet
from Mecca to Medina has fixed the memorable Êra of the _Hegira_, which,
at the end of twelve centuries, still discriminates the lunar years of
the Mahometan nations.