J. F. Campbell Collection > Koran: or, Alcoran of Mohammed

G^ PRELIMINARY DISCOURSE. sect. ir.
As to mankind, they hold that when they are all assembled together,
they will not be immediately brought to judgment, but the angels will keep
tlieui in their ranks and order while they attend for that purpose: and this
ictendance some say is to last forty yeai's, othei-s seventy, others three
hundred ; nay, some say no less than fifty thousand years, each of them
vouching their jjrophet's authority. During this space they will stand
h)okiug 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 gloi-iously, and their sufferings shall be light in
comparison, and shall last no longer than the time necessary to say theaj^
pointed prayers; but the latter will have their faces obscured with black-
ness, 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 crea-
tures mutually pressing and treading on one another's feet, but by the
near and unusual approach of the sun, which will he then no fiu'ther from
them than the distance of a mile, or (as some translate the word, the sig-
nification of which is ambiguou.-,) 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 its from this anguish, though thou send us into hdl-Jire} What
they fable of the extraordinary heat of the sun on this occasion, the Moham-
medans certainly borrowed from the Jews, who say that, for the punishment
of the wicked on the last day, that planet shall be drawn forth fi'om its
sheath, in which 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, Moham-
med undertaking the ofiice 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
whei'ein 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 woi-ds 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 par-
ticulars 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
means 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 afiirmed
that no less than seventy thousand of his followers should be permitted to
» Al Ghazali. ^ Idem. > Vide Pocock, Not. in Port. Mosis, p. 277 » gj^
before, p. 51.