DICTIONARY OF ISLĀM. (continued 30)

“In the soorahs of the Medina period these faults reach their climax. We read a singularly varied collection of criminal laws, social regulations, orders for battle, harangues to the Jews, first conciliatory, then denunciatory, and exhortations to spread the faith, and such-like heterogeneous matters. Happily the Jewish stories disappear in the latest soorahs, but their place is filled by scarcely more palatable materials. The chapters of this period are interesting chiefly as containing the laws which have guided every Muslim state, regulated every Muslim society, and directed in their smallest acts every Moḥammadan man and woman in all parts of the world from the Prophet’s time till now. The Medina part of the Ḳur-án is the most important part for Islám, considered as a scheme of ritual and a system of manners; the earliest Mekka revelations are those which contain what is highest in a great religion and what was purest in a great man.”

Mr. Rodwell, in his Introduction to his Qurʾān, says:—

“The contrast between the earlier, middle, and later Suras is very striking and interesting, and will be at once apparent from the arrangement here adopted. In the Suras as far as the 54th, we cannot but notice the entire predominance of the poetical element, a deep appreciation (as in Sura xci.) of the beauty of natural objects, brief fragmentary and impassioned utterances, denunciations of woe and punishment, expressed for the most part in lines of extreme brevity. With a change, however, in the position of Muhammad when he openly assumes the office of ‘public warner,’ the Suras begin to assume a more prosaic and didactic tone, though the poetical ornament of rhyme is preserved throughout. We gradually lose the Poet in the missionary aiming to convert, the warm asserter of dogmatic truths; the descriptions of natural objects, of the judgment, of heaven and hell, make way for gradually increasing historical statements, first from Jewish, and subsequently from Christian histories; while, in the 29 Suras revealed at Medina, we no longer listen to vague words, often as it would seem without positive aim, but to the earnest disputant with the enemies of his faith, the Apostle pleading the cause of what he believes to be the Truth of God. He who at Mecca is the admonisher and persuader, at Medina is the legislator and warrior, who dictates obedience, and uses other weapons than the pen of the Poet and the Scribe. When business pressed, as at Medina, Poetry makes way for prose, and although touches of the Poetical element occasionally break forth, and he has to defend himself up to a very late period against the charge of being merely a Poet, yet this is rarely the case in the Medina Suras; and we are startled by finding obedience to God and the Apostle, God’s gifts and the Apostle’s, God’s pleasure and the Apostle’s, spoken of in the same breath, and epithets and attributes elsewhere applied to Allah openly applied to himself, as in Sura ix. 118, 129.

“The Suras, viewed as a whole, strike me as being the work of one who began his career as a thoughtful enquirer after truth, and an earnest asserter of it in such rhetorical and poetical forms as he deemed most likely to win and attract his countrymen, and who gradually proceeded from the dogmatic teacher to the politic founder of a system for which laws and regulations had to be provided as occasions arose. And of all the Suras it must be remarked that they were intended not for readers but for hearers—that they were all promulgated by public recital—and that much was left, as the imperfect sentences shew, to the manner and suggestive action of the reciter. It would be impossible, and indeed it is unnecessary, to attempt a detailed life of Muhammad within the narrow limits of a Preface. The main events thereof with which the Suras of the Koran stand in connection, are—The visions of Gabriel, seen, or said to have been seen, at the outset of his career in his 40th year, during one of his seasons of annual monthly retirement, for devotion and meditation to Mount Hirâ, near Mecca,—the period of mental depression and re-assurance previous to the assumption of the office of public teacher—the Fatrah or pause during which he probably waited for a repetition of the angelic vision—his labours in comparative privacy for three years, issuing in about 40 converts, of whom his wife Chadijah was the first, and Abu Bekr the most important; (for it is to him and to Abu Jahl the Sura xcii. refers)—struggles with Meccan unbelief and idolatry followed by a period during which probably he had the second vision, Sura liii. and was listened to and respected as a person ‘possessed’ (Sura lxix. 42, lii. 29)—the first emigration to Abyssinia in A.D. 616, in consequence of the Meccan persecutions brought on by his now open attacks upon idolatry (Taghout)—increasing reference to Jewish and Christian histories, shewing that much time had been devoted to their study—the conversion of Omar in 617—the journey to the Thaquifites at Taief in A.D. 620—the intercourse with pilgrims from Medina, who believed in Islam, and spread the knowledge thereof in their native town, in the same year—the vision of the midnight journey to Jerusalem and the Heavens—the meetings by night at Acaba, a mountain near Mecca, in the 11th year of his mission, and the pledges of fealty there given to him—the command given to the believers to emigrate to Yathrib, henceforth Medinat-en-nabi (the city of the Prophet), or El-Medina (the city), in April of A.D. 622—the escape of Muhammad and Abu Bekr from Mecca to the cave of Thaur—the FLIGHT to Medina in June 20, A.D. 622—treaties made with Christian tribes—increasing, but still very imperfect acquaintance with Christian doctrines—the Battle of Bedr in Hej. 2, and of Ohod—the coalition formed against Muhammad by the Jews and idolatrous Arabians, issuing in the siege of Medina, Hej. 5 (A.D. 627)—the convention, with reference to the liberty of making the pilgrimage, of Hudaibiya, Hej. 6—the embassy to Chosroes King of Persia in the same year, to the Governor of Egypt and to the King of Abyssinia, desiring them to embrace Islam—the conquest of several Jewish tribes, the most important of which was that of Chaibar in Hej. 7, a year marked by the embassy sent to Heraclius, then in Syria, on his return from the Persian campaign, and by a solemn and peaceful pilgrimage to Mecca—the triumphant entry into Mecca in Hej. 8 (A.D. 630), and the demolition of the idols of the Caaba—the submission of the Christians of Nedjran, of Aila on the Red Sea, and of Taief, etc., in Hej. 9, called ‘the year of embassies or deputations,’ from the numerous deputations which flocked to Mecca proffering submission—and lastly in Hej. 10, the submission of Hadhramaut, Yemen, the greater part of the southern and eastern provinces of Arabia—and the final solemn pilgrimage to Mecca.

“While, however, there is no great difficulty in ascertaining the Suras which stand in connection with the more salient features of Muhammad’s life, it is a much more arduous, and often impracticable, task, to point out the precise events to which individual verses refer, and out of which they sprung. It is quite possible that Muhammad himself, in a later period of his career, designedly mixed up later with earlier revelations in the same Suras—not for the sake of producing that mysterious style which seems so pleasing to the mind of those who value truth least when it is most clear and obvious—but for the purpose of softening down some of the earlier statements which represent the last hour and awful judgment as imminent; and thus leading his followers to continue still in the attitude of expectation, and to see in his later successes the truth of his earlier predictions. If after-thoughts of this kind are to be traced, and they will often strike the attentive reader, it then follows that the perplexed state of the text in individual Suras is to be considered as due to Muhammad himself, and we are furnished with a series of constant hints for attaining to chronological accuracy. And it may be remarked in passing, that a belief that the end of all things was at hand, may have tended to promote the earlier successes of Islam at Mecca, as it unquestionably was an argument with the Apostles, to flee from ‘the wrath to come.’ It must be borne in mind that the allusions to contemporary minor events, and to the local efforts made by the new religion to gain the ascendant are very few, and often couched in terms so vague and general, that we are forced to interpret the Koran solely by the Koran itself. And for this, the frequent repetitions of the same histories and the same sentiments, afford much facility: and the peculiar manner in which the details of each history are increased by fresh traits at each recurrence, enables us to trace their growth in the author’s mind, and to ascertain the manner in which a part of the Koran was composed. The absence of the historical element from the Koran as regards the details of Muhammad’s daily life, may be judged of by the fact, that only two of his contemporaries are mentioned in the entire volume, and that Muhammad’s name occurs but five times, although he is all the way through addressed by the Angel Gabriel as the recipient of the divine revelations, with the word Say. Perhaps such passages as Sura ii. 15 and v. 246, and the constant mention of guidance, direction, wandering, may have been suggested by reminiscences of his mercantile journeys in his earlier years.”

Dr. Steingass, the learned compiler of the English-Arabic and Arabic-English Dictionaries (W. H. Allen & Co.), has obligingly recorded his opinion as follows:—

Invited to subjoin a few further remarks on the composition and style of the Qurʾān, in addition to the valuable and competent opinions contained in the above extracts, I can scarcely introduce them better than by quoting the striking words of Göthe, which Mr. Rodwell places by way of motto on the reverse of the title page of his Translation. These words seem to me so much the more weighty and worthy of attention, as they are uttered by one who, whatever his merits or demerits in other respects may be deemed to be, indisputably belongs to the greatest masters of language of all times, and stands foremost as a leader of modern thought and the intellectual culture of modern times. Speaking of the Qurʾān in his West-Oestlicher Divan, he says: “However often we turn to it, at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence.… Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim, is stern, grand, terrible—ever and anon truly sublime.… Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence.”

A work, then, which calls forth so powerful and seemingly incompatible emotions, even in the distant reader—distant as to time, and still more so as to mental development—a work which not only conquers the repugnance with which he may begin its perusal, but changes this adverse feeling into astonishment and admiration, such a work must be a wonderful production of the human mind indeed, and a problem of the highest interest to every thoughtful observer of the destinies of mankind. Much has been said in the preceding pages, to acknowledge, to appreciate, and to explain the literary excellencies of the Qurʾān, and a more or less distinct admission that Buffon’s much-quoted saying: “Le style c’est l’homme,” is here more justified than ever, underlies all these various verdicts. We may well say the Qurʾān is one of the grandest books ever written, because it faithfully reflects the character and life of one of the greatest men that ever breathed. “Sincerity,” writes Carlyle, “sincerity, in all senses, seems to me the merit of the Koran.” This same sincerity, this ardour and earnestness in the search for truth, this never-flagging perseverance in trying to impress it, when partly found, again and again upon his unwilling hearers, appears to me as the real and undeniable “seal of prophecy” in Muḥammad.

Truth, and above all religious truth, can only be one. Christianity may duly rejoice in the thought that, at the very moment when the representative of the greatest Empire of the ancient world mockingly or despairingly put forth the question, “What is truth?” this one eternal truth was about to be written down with the blood of the Divine Redeemer in the salvation deed of our race, Christ’s glorious and holy Gospel. But the approaches to truth are many, and he who devoted all his powers and energies, with untiring patience and self-denial, to the task of leading a whole nation by one of these approaches, from a coarse and effete idolatry, to the worship of the living God, has certainly a strong claim to our warmest sympathies as a faithful servant and noble champion of truth.

It is, however, not my intention to dwell here any longer upon this side of the question. Praise has been bestowed in this work on the Qurʾān and its author without stint or grudge, and the unanimity of so many distinguished voices in this respect will no doubt impress the general reader in favour of the sacred book of the Muḥammadans, which until now he may have known only by name. At the same time, it will be noticed that no less unanimity prevails in pointing out the inferiority of the later portions of the Qurʾān in comparison with the earlier Sūrahs; a falling off, as it were, from the original poetical grandeur and loftiness of its composition into prose and common-place. Göthe, we have seen, uses such a strong word as disgust, again and again experienced by him at the very outset of its repeated reading.

Not being an Arabic scholar himself, he knew the Qurʾān only through the translations existing at the time, which follow throughout the order of the received text. Thus he was made to pass, roughly speaking, from the later to the earlier Madīnah Sūrahs, and from these again to the Sūrahs given at Makkah at the various stages which mark Muḥammad’s ministry, while he was yet staying in his irresponsive parent town. In other words, he would have proceeded from the utterances of the worldly ruler and lawgiver to those of the inspired Divine, who had just succeeded in laying the foundation-stones of a new religion, under fierce struggles and sufferings, but in obedience to a call which, in his innermost heart, he felt had gone out to him, and which he had accepted with awe, humility, and resignation. While, therefore, in the beginning of his studies, Göthe may have met with a number of details in the vast structure raised by Muḥammad which appeared distasteful to the refined scion of the nineteenth century, his interest must have been awakened, his admiration kindled and kept increasing, the more he became acquainted, through the work itself, with the nature and personality of its creator, and with the purity and exalted character of the main-spring of his motives.

Those critics, on the other hand, who view the Qurʾān with regard to the chronological order of its constituents, follow the descending scale in their estimate. Speaking at first highly—nay, frequently with enthusiasm—of the earlier parts, they complain more and more of the growing tediousness and wearisomeness of the Sūrahs of later origin.

Nöldeke, for instance, the learned and ingenious author of Geschichte des Qorâns, speaking of the deficiencies in style, language, and treatment of the subject matter, which, in his opinion, characterise the second and third period of the Makkan revelations, and in general the Madīnah Sūrahs, pointedly terminates his indictment by the sentence, “if it were not for the exquisite flexibility and vigour (die ungemeine Feinheit und Kraft) of the Arabic language itself, which, however, is to be attributed more to the age in which the author lived than to his individuality, it would scarcely be bearable to read the later portions of the Qurʾān a second time.”

But if we consider the variety and heterogeneousness of the topics on which the Qurʾān touches, uniformity of style and diction can scarcely be expected; on the contrary, it would appear to be strangely out of place. Let us not forget that in the book, as Muḥammad’s newest biographer, Ludolf Krehl (Das Leben des Muhammed, Leipzig, 1884), expresses it, “there is given a complete code of creed and morals, as well as of the law based thereupon. There are also the foundations laid for every institution of an extensive commonwealth, for instruction, for the administration of justice, for military organization, for the finances, for a most careful legislation for the poor: all built up on the belief in the one God, who holds man’s destinies in His hand.” Where so many important objects are concerned, the standard of excellence by which we have to gauge the composition of the Qurʾān as a whole must needs vary with the matter treated upon in each particular case. Sublime and chaste, where the supreme truth of God’s unity is to be proclaimed; appealing in high-pitched strains to the imagination of a poetically-gifted people, where the eternal consequences of man’s submission to God’s holy will, or of rebellion against it, are pictured; touching in its simple, almost crude, earnestness, when it seeks again and again encouragement or consolation for God’s messenger, and a solemn warning for those to whom he has been sent, in the histories of the prophets of old: the language of the Qurʾān adapts itself to the exigencies of every-day life, when this every-day life, in its private and public bearings, is to be brought in harmony with the fundamental principles of the new dispensation.

Here, therefore, its merits as a literary production should, perhaps, not be measured by some preconceived maxims of subjective and æsthetic taste, but by the effects which it produced in Muḥammad’s contemporaries and fellow-countrymen. If it spoke so powerfully and convincingly to the hearts of his hearers as to weld hitherto centrifugal and antagonistic elements into one compact and well-organised body, animated by ideas far beyond those which had until now ruled the Arabian mind, then its eloquence was perfect, simply because it created a civilized nation out of savage tribes, and shot a fresh woof into the old warp of history.

Nöldeke’s above-quoted remark, it seems to me, raises, however, a very important question. It must, of course, be admitted that the Arabic language, which is now so greatly and deservedly admired, cannot be attributed to Muḥammad individually, but originated in and was at his time the common property of the Arabic-speaking section of the human race, or, more accurately, of its Semitic branch, who were then living within the Peninsula and in some of the neighbouring countries. But we may well ask ourselves, what would in all probability have become of this language without Muḥammad and his Qurʾān? This is not at all an idle and desultory speculation. It is true the Arabic language had already produced numerous fine specimens of genuine and high-flown poetry, but such poetry was chiefly, if not exclusively, preserved in the memory of the people, for the art of writing was certainly very little known, and still less practised.

Moreover, poetry is not tantamount to literature; it may lead to it, and will always form a most essential part of it; but it will live on, and perhaps die, in solitary isolation, unless it becomes, as it were, as Brahmans say, “twice-born,” by participating in a literary development of vaster dimensions and a more general character. Divided among themselves into numerous tribes, who were engaged in a perpetual warfare against each other, the Arabs, and with them their various dialects, would more and more have drifted asunder, poetry would have followed in the wake, and the population of Arabia would have broken up into a multitude of clans, with their particular bards, whose love- and war-songs enterprising travellers of our days might now collect, like the popular songs of the Kosaks of the steppe, or the Kalmuks and similar nationalities, vegetating for centuries in a more or less primitive state of existence.

It seems, then, that it is only a work of the nature of the Qurʾān which could develop ancient Arabic into a literary language, notwithstanding the fact that it had already been admirably handled by local poets. As this book places the national life of the Arabs upon an entirely new basis, giving it at the same time a much-needed centre and a wonderful power of expansion, it became a matter of the utmost importance, nay, of urgent necessity, that the contents of the volume should be preserved with scrupulous accuracy and undisputable conformity. This again was only possible by fixing upon one dialect, which by its recognized excellence commended itself to general acceptance, and also by establishing a written text.

But not only by raising a dialect, through its generalization, to the power of a language, and by rendering the adoption of writing indispensable, has the Qurʾān initiated the development of an Arabic literature; its composition itself has contributed two factors absolutely needful to this development: it has added to the existing poetry the origins of rhetoric and prose.

Although the decidedly poetical character of the earlier Sūrahs is obvious, they differ in two important points from the hitherto acknowledged form of poetry, which is that of the Qaṣīdah. This form consists of baits, or distichs, measured by some variation of one of the fifteen (or sixteen) principal metres, and each containing two half-lines, the same rhyme running through both hemistichs of the first bait, and through every second one of the following. For instance:

1. Qifā nabki min ẕikrā ḥabībin wa-manzilī

Bi-siqti ʾl-liwā baina ʾd-dak͟hūli wa-ḥaumalī

2. Fa-tūẓiḥa fa ʾl-maqrāti lam yaʿfu rasmuhā

Li-mā nasajat-hā min junūbin wa­shamʾalī

which would scan:

⏑ – Qifā – nab- | ⏑ ki – min – – ẕikrā | ⏑ – – ḥabībin | ⏑ – ⏑ – wamanzilī &c.

and belongs to the first variation of the metre T̤awīl.

Emancipating himself from the fetters of metre, and gradually also of the uniform rhyme, Muḥammad created what is now called sajʿ, that is to say, a rhythmical prose, in which the component parts of a period are balanced and cadenced by a varying rhyme, and of which e.g. the Sūratu ʾl-Qiyāmah (lxxv.) offers some fair examples; as (5–10):—

Bal yurīdu ʾl-insānu li-yafjura amāmah,

Yasʾalu aiyāna yaumu ʾl-qiyāmah,

Fa-iẕā bariqa ʾl-baṣar,

Wa-k͟hasafa ʾl-qamar

Wa-jumiʿa ʾsh-shamsu wa ʾl-qamar

Yaqūlu ʾl-insānu yaumaʾiẕin aina ʾl-mafarr.

(But man chooseth to go astray as to his future;

He asketh, “When this Day of Resurrection?”

When the eye-sight shall be dazzled,

And the moon shall be darkened,

And the sun and the moon shall be together,

On that day man shall cry, “Where is there a place to flee to?”)

And again (22–30):

Wa-wujūhin yaumaʾiẕin nāẓirah

Ilā rabbi-hā nāz̤irah,

Wa-wujūhin yaumaʾiẕin bāsirah

Taz̤annu an yufʿala bi-hā fāqirah.

Kallā iẕā balag͟hati ʾt-tarāqiya

Wa-qīla man rāq

Wa-z̤anna annahu ʾl-firāq

Wa ʾl-taffati ʾs-sāqu bi ʾs-sāq

Ilā rabbi-ka yaumaʾiẕini ʾl-masāq.

(On that day shall faces beam with light,

Out-looking towards their lord;

And faces on that day shall be dismal,

As if they thought that some calamity would therein befall them.

Assuredly when the soul shall come up to the breast-bone,

And there shall be a cry, “Who is the magician to restore him?”

And the man feeleth that the time of his departure is come,

And when one leg shall be enlaced with the other,

To thy Lord on that day shall he be driven on.)

This kind of rhetorical style, the peculiarity of which Professor Palmer, in the passage quoted, p. 523, aptly explains from the etymological structure of Arabic, has become the favourite model of oratorical and ornate language with the later Arabs. It is frequently employed in ordinary narratives, such as the tales of the Arabian Nights, whenever the occasion requires a more elevated form of speech; it is the usual garb of that class of compositions, which is known by the name of Maqāmāt, and even extensive historical works, as the Life of Timur, by ʿArab Shāh, are written in it throughout.

But Muḥammad made a still greater and more decisive step towards creating a literature for his people. In those Sūrahs, in which he regulated the private and public life of the Muslim, he originated a prose, which has remained the standard of classical purity ever since.

With regard to this point, however, it has been stated, seemingly in disparagement of the later Arabic authors, that their accepting Muḥammad’s language as a perfect standard, from which no deviation is admissible, has led them to adopt an artificial style, as unnatural “as though Englishmen should still continue to follow Chaucer as their model, in spite of the changes which their language has undergone.” But is such a parallel justified in facts? In English, as amongst modern nations in general, the written language has always kept in close contact with the spoken language; the changes which the former has undergone are simply the registration and legalisation of the changes which in course of time had taken place in the latter. Not so in Arabic. From the moment when, at the epoch of its fullest and richest growth, it was, through the composition of the Qurʾān, invested with the dignity of a literary language, it was, by its very nature, for many centuries to come, precluded from any essential change, whether this be considered as an advantage or not.

The reason for this lies in the first instance in the triliteral character of the Semitic roots, referred to by Professor Palmer, which allows such a root to form one, two, or three syllables, according to the pronunciation of each letter, with or without a vowel. Let us take as an example once more the root ẓ-r-b (ضرب‎), which conveys the idea of “beating,” and serves in Arabic grammars, like the Greek τυπτω, to form paradigms, by way of a wholesome admonition, I suppose, to the youthful student. The first of these three consonants can only remain quiescent, i.e. vowel-less, if it is preceded by a vowel, as in the Imperative i-ẓrib (اِضْرِبْ‎), “beat thou,” where the root appears as a monosyllable, or in the aorist ya-ẓribu (يَضْرِبُ‎), “he beats or will beat,” where it takes together with the final u a disyllabic form. If we leave the second consonant quiescent and pronounce the first with a, we have ẓarb, with the nominative termination ẓarbun (ضَرْبٌ‎), the verbal noun “beating” or infinitive “to beat.” Vocalising both the first letters, we may obtain ẓārib, the active participle “beating,” or ẓurūb, plural of the last mentioned ẓarb, with the nominative termination ẓāribun (ضَارِبٌ‎) and ẓurūbun (ضُرُوبٌ‎). If we read all three consonants with vowels, it may be ẓaraba (ضَرَبَ‎), “he did beat,” or ẓarabū (ضَرَبُوا‎), “they did beat.” Taking, again, the two forms ẓaraba, “he did beat,” and yaẓribu, “he beats or will beat,” a simple change of vowels suffices to transform the active into the passive: ẓuriba (ضُرِبَ‎), “he was beaten,” and yuẓrabu (يُضْرَبُ‎), “he is beaten or will be beaten.” Lastly, it must be noticed, that the distinction between the two fundamental tenses of the Arabic verb rests on the principle that the affixes, representing the personal pronouns, are in the preterite placed at the end, in the aorist at the beginning of the root: ẓarab-nā, “we did beat,” but na-ẓribu, “we beat or will beat.”

From all this it will be easily understood that any essential change in the written language must deeply affect the whole system of Arabic accidence, and that this language will, therefore, naturally be averse to such changes. But, moreover, this system stands in closest connection with and dependence on the syntactical structure of the language, which is equally “conservative,” if I may use this expression, in its fundamental principles. The Arabic syntax knows only two kinds of sentences (jumlah), one called nominal (ismīyah), because it begins with a noun, the other verbal (fiʿlīyah), because it begins with a verb. Reduced to their shortest expression, an example of the first would be: Zaidun ẓāribun (زَيْدٌ ضَارِبٌ‎), “Zaid (is) beating”; of the second: ẓaraba zaidun (ضَرَبَ زَيْدٌ‎), “(there) did beat Zaid.” The constituent parts of the nominal sentence, which we would call subject and predicate, are termed mubtadaʾ, “incipient,” and k͟habar, “report,” meaning that which is enounced or stated of the subject. The k͟habar need not be an attributive, as in the sentence given above, but it may be another clause, either nominal or verbal, and if it is the former, its own mubtadaʾ admits even of a third clause as a second k͟habar for its complement. The subject of the verbal sentence is called agent, or fāʿil, and, as mentioned before, follows the verb, fiʿl, in the nominative.

The verb with its agent (fiʿl and fāʿil), or the subject with its predicate (mubtadaʾ and k͟habar), form the essential elements of the Arabic sentence. But there are a great many accidental elements, called faẓlah, “what is superabundant or in excess,” which may enter into the composition of a clause, and expand it to considerable length. Such are additional parts of speech expressing the various objective relations (mafʿūl) in which a noun may stand to an active verb, or the condition (ḥāl) of the agent at the moment when the action occurred, or circumstances of time and place (z̤arf) accompanying the action, or specificative distinctions (tamyīz) in explanation of what may be vague in a noun, or the dependence of one noun upon another (iẓāfah) or upon a preposition (k͟hafẓ), or the different kinds of apposition (tawābiʿ) in which a noun may be joined to another, either in the subject or the predicate, and so on.

All these numerous component parts of a fully-developed sentence are influenced by certain ruling principles (ʿawāmil, or “regents”), some merely logical, but most of them expressed in words and particles, which determine the iʿrāb, that is, the grammatical inflection of nouns and verbs, and bring into play those various vowel-changes, of which we have above given examples with regard to the interior of roots, and which, we must now add, apply equally to the terminations employed in declension and conjugation.

The subject and predicate, for instance, of the nominal sentence stand originally, as it is natural, both in the nominative. There are, however, certain regents called nawāsik͟h, “effacing ones,” which, like the particle inna, “behold,” change the nominative of the subject into the accusative, while others, like the verb kāna, “he was,” leave the subject unaltered, but place the predicate in the objective case: zaid-un ẓārib-un becomes thus either inna zaid-an ẓārib-un, or kāna zaid-un ẓārib-an.

Again, we have seen that the aorist proper of the third person singular terminates in u (yaẓrib-u). But under the influence of one class of regents this vowel changes into a (yaẓrib-a); under that of others it is dropped altogether, and in both cases the meaning and grammatical status of the verb is thereby considerably modified. If we consider the large number of these governing parts of speech—a well-known book treats of the “hundred regents,” but other grammarians count a hundred and fifteen and more—it will be seen what delicate and careful handling the Arabic syntax requires, and how little scope there is left for the experiments of wilful innovators.

At the time of Muḥammad this then was, apart from some slight dialectical differences, the spoken language of his people. He took it, so to say, from the mouth of his interlocutors, but, wielding it with the power of a master-mind, he made in the Qurʾān such a complete and perfect use of all its resources as to create a work that, in the estimation of his hearers, appeared worthy to be thought the word of God Himself.

When a long period of conquests scattered the Arabs to the farthest East and to the farthest West, their spoken language might deviate from its pristine purity, slurring over unaccented syllables and dropping terminations. But the fine idiom of their fore-fathers, as deposited in the Qurʾān, remained the language of their prayer and their pious meditation, and thus lived on with them, as a bond of unity, an object of national love and admiration, and a source of literary development for all times.

AL-QURʾĀNU ʾL-ʿAZ̤ĪM (القران العظيم‎). Lit. “The Exalted Reading.” A title given to the Introductory Chapter of the Qurʾān by Muhammad. (Mishkāt, book viii. ch. i. pt. 1.)

QURBĀN (قربان‎), Lit. “Approaching near.” Heb. ‏קָרְבָּן‎ korbān. A term used in the Qurʾān and in the Traditions for a sacrifice or offering. Sūrah v. 30: “Truly when they (Cain and Abel) offered an offering.” [SACRIFICE.]

QURBU ʾS-SĀʿAH (قرب الساعة‎). “An hour which is near.” A term used for the Day of Resurrection and Judgment.

QUST̤ANT̤ĪNĪYAH (قسطنطينية‎). The word used in the Traditions and in Muḥammadan history for Constantinople. (See Ḥadīs̤u ʾt-Tirmiẕī.) Istambūl (استمبول‎), is the word generally used by modern Muslims.

QUT̤B (قطب‎). Lit. “A stake, an axis, a pivot.” The highest stage of sanctity amongst Muslim saints. A higher position than that of g͟hauṣ. According to the Kashshāfu ʾl-Iṣt̤ilāḥāt, a qut̤b is one who has attained to that degree of sanctity which is a reflection of the heart of the Prophet himself. Qut̤bu ʾd-Dīn, “the axis of religion,” a title given to eminent Muslim divines. [FAQIR.]

R.

AR-RABB (الرب‎). “The Lord,” “The Sustainer,” “The Supporter.” A title frequently used in the Qurʾān for the Divine Being, e.g.:—

Sūrah iii. 44: “God (Allāh) is my Lord (Rabb) and your Lord (Rabb).”

Sūrah xviii. 13: “Our Lord (Rabb) is the Lord (Rabb) of the heavens and the earth.”

From its frequent occurrence in the Qurʾān, it would seem to occupy the place of the Hebrew ‏יְהֹוָה‎ Jehovah, the Κύριος of the LXX., the Dominus of the Vulgate, and the Lord of the English Bible; but all Muslim writers say that whilst Allāh is the Ismu ʾẕ-Ẕāt, or “Essential name of God,” ar-Rabb, “the Lord,” is but an Ismu Ṣifah, or attribute, of the Almighty.

Al-Baiẓāwī, the commentator (p. 6, line 10, of Flügel’s edition), says, “rabb, in its literal meaning, is ‘to bring up,’ that is, to bring or educate anything up to its perfect standard, by slow degrees, and inasmuch as the Almighty is He who can bring everything to perfection, the word الرب‎ ar-Rabb, is especially applied to God.”

It is the Hebrew ‏רַב‎ Rab, which enters into the composition of many names of dignity and office in the Bible.

In Muslim works of theology, the word occurs with the following combination:—

Rabbu ʾl-ʿIzzah Lord of Glory.

Rabbu ʾl-ʿĀlamīn Lord of the Universe.

Rabbu ʾl-Arbāb Lord of Lords.

Rabbu ʾl-ʿĪbād Lord of (His) Servants.

The word is also used for a master or owner, e.g.:—

Rabbu ʾd-Dār The Master of the house.

Rabbu ʾl-Arẓ A landowner.

Rabbu ʾl-Māl A possessor of property.

Rabbu ʾs-Salaf A person who pays in advance for an article.

RABBU ʾN-NAUʿ (رب النوع‎). The “Lord of the Species.” An angel who is said to preside over the animate and inanimate creation, viz.: nabātāt, “vegetable”; ḥaiwānāt, “animal”; jamādāt, “inanimate” (stones, earth, &c.), called al-ʿālamu ʾs-suflī, “the lower creation,” as distinguished from al-ʿālamu ʾl-ʿulwī, “the heavenly world.” (See G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah.)

RABĪʿU ʾL-ĀK͟HIR (ربيع الاخر‎). “The last spring month.” The fourth month of the Muḥammadan year. [MONTHS.]

RABĪʿU ʾL-AWWAL (ربيع الاول‎). “The first spring month.” The third month of the Muḥammadan year. [MONTHS.]

In India, the word rabīʿ is used for spring harvest, or crop sown after the rains.

RACHEL. Arabic Rāḥīl (راحيل‎). Heb. ‏רָחֵל‎, Rahel. The wife of Jacob and the mother of Joseph. Not mentioned in the Qurʾān, but the name occurs in commentaries.

The English form Rachel is a strange error on the part of our translators, who almost invariably represent the Hebrew ‏ח‎ by the letter h. The correct form, Rahel, which is the form familiar to Muslim writers, occurs once in the English Bible, Jer. xxxi. 15.

AR-RAʿD (الرعد‎). “Thunder.” The title of the XIIIth Sūrah of the Qurʾān, in the 14th verse of which the word occurs. “The thunder celebrates his praise.”

AR-RADD (الرد‎). Rejection, repulsion, refutation, reply; repeal, abrogation, making null and void; sometimes, erasure. In Muḥammadan law it applies especially to the return or surplus of an inheritance which remains after the legal portions have been distributed among the sharers, and which, in default of a residuary heir, returns, or is to be divided amongst the original sharers.

RADDU ʾS-SALĀM (رد السلام‎). The returning of a salutation which is an incumbent duty upon one Muslim to another. [SALUTATION.]

AR-RĀFIʿ (الرافع‎). “The Exalter.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. The word occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iii. 48: “When God said, O Jesus! I will make thee die and will take thee up again to myself” (رافعك الى‎).

RĀFIʿ IBN K͟HADĪJ (رافع بن خديج‎). One of the Ṣaḥābah. He was too young to be present at Badr, but he accompanied Muḥammad at Uḥud and was wounded with an arrow, on which occasion the Prophet said to him, “I will answer for you in the Day of Judgment.” He died at al-Madīnah, A.H. 73, aged 86.

RĀFIẒĪ (رافضى‎). Lit. “A forsaker.” Synonymous with Rāfiẓah (pl. Rawāfiẓ). A term used for a body of soldiers who have deserted their commander and turned back again, applied to a sect of Shīʿahs who joined Zaid the son of ʿAlī, the son of al-Ḥusain, the second son of the K͟halīfah ʿAlī, who, when they had submitted to Zaid, demanded that he should abuse Abū Bakr and ʿUmar, the first two K͟halīfahs of the Sunnīs; but Zaid refused to do so, for he said, “They were both Wazīrs of my forefather Muḥammad.” Upon this they forsook the party of Zaid, and were called Rāfiẓah. Zaid had then only fourteen faithful companions left, and he was soon surrounded by al-Ḥajjāj ibn Yūsuf, the general of the Imām Jaʿfar’s army, and fell at the head of his brave companions, not one of them surviving him.

(2) The term Rāfiẓī is used by Sunnī Muslims for any sect of Shīʿahs.

RAHBĀNĪYAH (رهبانية‎). [MONASTICISM.]

RĀHIB (راهب‎), pl. Ruhbān. A Christian monk. Mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah v. 85: “Thou wilt find the nearest in love to those who believe to be those who say, ‘We are Christians’; that is, because there are amongst them priests (qissīsūn) and monks (ruhbān), and because they are not proud.” [MONASTICISM.]

RAḤĪL (رحيل‎). Lit. “That which is fit for travelling.” A small book-stand made so as to fold up for convenience in travelling, but now generally used as a book-stand in mosques and Muslim schools to support the Qurʾān and other books as the student reads his lesson from them. They are also used in private dwellings.

AR-RAḤĪM (الرحيم‎). “The Compassionate.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It generally occurs in conjunction with the attribute ar-Raḥmān, e.g. Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 158: “The Merciful, The Compassionate.” [RAHMAN.]

RAḤMAH (رحمة‎), Heb. ‏רִחַם‎ riham. “Mercy, compassion.” The attribute of mercy is frequently dwelt upon in the Qurʾān, e.g.:—

Sūrah vii. 54: “The mercy of God is nigh unto those who do well.”

Sūrah x. 58: “A guidance and a mercy to believers.”

Sūrah vi. 133: “Thy Lord is the rich one, full of compassion.”

Ar-Raḥmān, “The Merciful,” is one of the chief attributes of the Almighty.

AR-RAḤMĀN (الرحمان‎), Heb. ‏רַחוּם‎ rahūm. “The Merciful.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It generally occurs in conjunction with the attribute ar-Raḥīm, e.g. Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 159: “Your God is one God. There is no god but He, the Merciful, the Compassionate.” It also occurs in the initial formula, placed at the commencement of each Sūrah, with the exception of the IXth, “In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate.”

Al-Baiẓāwī says that ar-Raḥmān is a more exalted attribute than ar-Raḥīm, because it not only contains five letters whilst Raḥīm only has four, but it expresses that universal attribute of mercy which the Almighty extends to all mankind, the wicked and the good, believers and unbelievers.

RAHN (رهن‎). Pledging or pawning. A legal term which signifies the detention of a thing on account of a claim which may be answered by means of that thing; as in the case of debt. This practice of pawning and pledging is lawful in Islām, for it is related that the Prophet, in a bargain with a Jew for grain, gave his coat of mail in pledge for the payment. It is also said in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 283: “Let pledges be taken.” The word is used in the Qurʾān in its plural form, rihān. (For further information on the subject of Pawning, see Hamilton’s Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 188.)

RAIḤĀNAH (ريحانة‎). A Jewess whose husband had been cruelly murdered in the massacre of the Banū Quraiz̤ah. Muḥammad offered to marry her if she would embrace Islām; but she refused to forsake the faith of her forefathers, and consented to become his concubine instead of his wife.

RAIN. Arabic mat̤ar (مطر‎), Heb. ‏מָטָר‎ mātor. Mentioned in the Qurʾān as one of God’s special mercies. Sūrah vii. 55: “He it is who sends forth the winds as heralds before His mercy; until when they left the heavy cloud which We drive to a dead land, and send down thereon water, and bring forth therewith every kind of fruit.”

Prayers for rain are called Ṣalātu ʾl-Istisqāʾ, and consist of two rakʿah prayers. Anas says that on one occasion they were caught in the rain, and the Prophet took off his garment until he got wet, and they said, “O Prophet, why have you done this?” He replied, “This is fresh rain from our Lord.” (Mishkāt, book iv. ch. liii.)

RĀʿINĀ (راعنا‎). A word the use of which is forbidden in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 98: “O ye who believe! say not to the Apostle ‘Rāʿinā’ (i.e. ‘Look at us’), but say, ‘Unz̤urnā’ (i.e. ‘Regard us’).” These two words have both the same signification; but Muḥammad had a great aversion to the use of the word rāʿinā, because it had also a bad meaning in Hebrew (see al-Baiẓāwī, in loco), alluding, perhaps, to the Hebrew verb ‏רוּעַ‎ rūaʿ, which signifies “to be mischievous or bad.”

RAINBOW. Arabic qausu quzaḥ (قوس قزح‎), Heb. ‏קֶשֶׁת‎ kesheth. Lit. “The bow of many colours.” Not mentioned in the Qurʾān, but in the Traditions. In the book entitled an-Nihāyah, it is said that Muḥammad forbade his people calling the rainbow qausu quzaḥ, because quzaḥ is one of the names of Satan (one who can assume many characters in order to tempt the sons of men). He enjoined them to call it Qausu ʾllāh, “God’s bow,” because by it God has promised to protect the world from a second deluge. (Majmaʿu ʾl-Biḥār, vol. ii. p. 142.)

The Persians call it Kamān-i-Rustum, “the bow of Rustum.” (See Muntaha ʾl-ʿArab, in loco.)

RAIYĀN (ريان‎). Lit. “One whose thirst is quenched.” The gate of Paradise through which, it is said, the observers of the month of Ramaẓān will enter. It is mentioned in the Traditions (Mishkāt, book vi. ch. vii. pt. 1), but not in the Qurʾān.

RAIYĀN IBN AL-WALĪD (ريان بن الوليد‎). The King of Egypt in the time of Joseph. (See al-Baiẓāwī on Sūratu Yūsuf in the Qurʾān.)

RAJAB (رجب‎). Lit. “The honoured month.” The seventh month of the Muḥammadan year. So called because of the honour in which it was held in the “Time of Ignorance,” i.e. before Islām. It is called Rajabu Muẓar, because the Muẓar tribe honoured it more than any other month. [MONTHS.]

RAJʿAH (رجعة‎). “Restitution.” Receiving back a wife who has been divorced, before the time has fully elapsed when the divorce must of necessity take place. In other words, the continuance of the marriage bond. (Hidāyah, vol. i. p. 289.)

RAJĪM (رجيم‎). Lit. “One who is stoned.” A name given to Satan in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iii. 31: “I have called her Mary, and I seek refuge in Thee for her and for her seed from Satan, the pelted one” (Min ash-Shait̤āni ʾr-Rajīmi).

Muḥammad taught that the devil and his angels listen at the gates of heaven for scraps of information regarding the things of futurity, and when detected by the angels of heaven they are pelted with shooting stars. Abraham is also said to have driven the devil away by pelting him with stones, which legend is expressed in the throwing stones at the pillars at Minā. [PILGRIMAGE.]

RAJM (رجم‎). “Lapidation.” [STONING TO DEATH.]

RAKʿAH (ركعة‎). From Rukūʿ, “to bow, to prostrate one’s self.” A section of the Muḥammadan daily prayers. [PRAYERS.]

RAMAẒĀN (رمضان‎). The ninth month of the Muḥammadan year, which is observed as a strict fast from dawn to sunset of each day in the month. The word Ramaẓān is derived from ramẓ, “to burn.” The month is said to have been so called either because it used (before the change of the calendar) to occur in the hot season, or because the month’s fast is supposed to burn away the sins of men. (G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah, in loco.)

The observance of this month is one of the five pillars of practice in the Muslim religion, and its excellence is much extolled by Muḥammad, who said that during Ramaẓān “the gates of Paradise are open, and the gates of hell are shut, and the devils are chained by the leg, and only those who observe it will be permitted to enter at the gate of heaven called Raiyān.” Those who keep the fast “will be pardoned all their past venial sins.” (Mishkāt, book vii. ch. i. pt. 1.)

The express injunctions regarding the observance of this month are given in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 179–184:—

“O believers! a Fast is prescribed to you as it was prescribed to those before you, that ye may fear God, for certain days. But he among you who shall be sick, or on a journey, shall fast that same number of other days: and as for those who are able to keep it and yet break it, the expiation of this shall be the maintenance of a poor man. And he who of his own accord performeth a good work, shall derive good from it: and good shall it be for you to fast—if ye knew it. As to the month Ramaẓān in which the Qurʾān was sent down to be man’s guidance, and an explanation of that guidance, and of that illumination, as soon as any one of you observeth the moon, let him set about the fast; but he who is sick, or upon a journey, shall fast a like number of other days. God wisheth you ease, but wisheth not your discomfort, and that you fulfil the number of days, and that you glorify God for his guidance, and that you be thankful. And when my servants ask thee concerning me, then will I be nigh unto them. I will answer the cry of him that crieth, when he crieth unto me: but let them hearken unto me, and believe in me, that they may proceed aright. You are allowed on the night of the fast to approach your wives: they are your garment and ye are their garment. God knoweth that ye defraud yourselves therein, so He turneth unto you and forgiveth you! Now, therefore, go in unto them with full desire for that which God hath ordained for you; and eat and drink until ye can discern a white thread from a black thread by the daybreak: then fast strictly till night, and go not in unto them, but rather pass the time in the Mosques. These are the bounds set up by God: therefore come not near them. Thus God maketh His signs clear to men that they may fear Him.”

From the preceding verses it will be seen that fast does not commence until some Muslim is able to state that he has seen the new moon. If the sky be over-clouded and the moon cannot be seen, the fast begins upon the completion of thirty days from beginning of the previous month.

It must be kept by every Muslim, except the sick, the infirm, and pregnant women, or women who are nursing their children. Young children, who have not reached the age of puberty, are exempt, and also travellers on a journey of more than three days. In the case of a sick person or traveller, the month’s fast must be kept as soon as they are able to perform it. This act is called Qaẓāʾ, or expiation.

The fast is extremely rigorous and mortifying, and when the Ramaẓān happens to fall in the summer and the days are long, the prohibition even to drink a drop of water to slake the thirst is a very great hardship. Muḥammad speaks of this religious exercise as “easy” (Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 181), as most probably it was when compared with the ascetic spirit of the times. Sir William Muir (Life of Mahomet, vol. iii. 49) thinks Muḥammad did not foresee that, when he changed the Jewish intercalary year for the lunar year, the fast would become a grievous burden instead of an easy one; but Muḥammadan lexicographers say the fast was established when the month occurred in the hot season (see G͟hiyās̤u ʾl-Lug͟hah).

During the month of Ramaẓān twenty additional rakʿahs, or forms of prayer, are repeated after the night-prayer. These are called Tarāwīḥ.

Devout Muslims seclude themselves for some time in the Mosque during this month, and abstain from all worldly conversation, engaging themselves in the reading of the Qurʾān. This seclusion is called Iʿtikāf. Muḥammad is said to have usually observed this custom in the last ten days of Ramaẓān. The Lailatu ʾl-Qadr, or the “night of power,” is said by Muḥammad to be either on the twenty-first, twenty-third, or twenty-fifth, or twenty-seventh, or twenty-ninth of the month of Ramaẓān. The exact date of this solemn night has not been discovered by any but the Prophet himself, and some of the Companions, although the learned doctors believe it to be on the twenty-seventh of this night. Muḥammad says in the Qurʾān (Sūratu ʾl-Qadr):—

“Verily we have caused it (the Qurʾān) to descend on the night of power.

And who shall teach thee what the night of power is?

The night of power excelleth a thousand months;

Therein descend the angels and the spirit by permission

Of their Lord in every matter;

And all is peace till the breaking of the morn.”

By these verses the commentator Ḥusain understands that on this night the Qurʾān came down entire in one volume to the lowest heaven, from whence it was revealed by Gabriel in portions, as the occasion required. The excellences of this night are said to be innumerable, and it is believed that during it the whole animal and vegetable kingdom bow in humble adoration to the Almighty, and the waters of the sea become sweet in a moment of time! This night is frequently confounded with the Shab-i-Barāt, but even the Qurʾān itself is not quite clear on the subject, for in Sūrah xliv. 1 it reads, “By this clear book. See on a blessed night have we sent it down, for we would warn mankind, on the night wherein all things are disposed in wisdom.” From which it appears that “the blessed night,” or the Lailatu ʾl-mubārakah, is both the night of record and the night upon which the Qurʾān came down from heaven, although the one is the twenty-seventh day of Ramaẓān and the other the fifteenth of Shaʿbān.

M. Geiger identifies the Ramaẓān with the fast of the tenth (Leviticus xxiii. 27); but it is probable that the fast of the Tenth is identical with the ʿĀshurāʾ, not only because the Hebrew Asūr, “ten,” is retained in the title of that Muḥammadan fast, but also because there is a Jewish tradition that creation began upon the Jewish fast of the Tenth, which coincides with the Muḥammadan day, ʿĀshurāʾ being regarded as the day of creation. Moreover, the Jewish Asūr and the Muslim ʿĀshurāʾ are both fasts and days of affliction. It is more probable that Muḥammad got his idea of a thirty days’ fast from the Christian Lent. The observance of Lent in the Eastern Church was exceedingly strict, both with regard to the nights as well as the days of that season of abstinence; but Muḥammad entirely relaxed the rules with regard to the night, and from sunset till the dawn of day the Muslim is permitted to indulge in any lawful pleasures, and to feast with his friends; consequently large evening dinner-parties are usual in the nights of the Ramaẓān amongst the better classes. This would be what Muḥammad meant when he said, “God would make the fast an ease and not a difficulty,” for, notwithstanding its rigour in the day-time, it must be an easier observance than the strict fast observed during Lent by the Eastern Christians of Muḥammad’s day.

The following sayings of Muḥammad regarding the fast of Ramaẓān are found in the Traditions (see Mishkāt, Arabic Ed., Kitābu ʾṣ-Ṣaum).

“The difference between our fast and that of the people of the book (i.e. Jews and Christians) is eating only before the first dawn of day (and not afterwards).”

“Keep not the fast till you see the new moon, and if the moon be hidden from you by clouds, count the days.” And in one tradition it is thus:—“A month is twenty-nine nights, then keep not the fast till you see the new moon, which, if she be hid from you by clouds, then complete thirty days.”

“When the darkness of the night advances from the west and the day departs from the east, and the sun sets, then the keeper of the fast may begin to eat.”

“There are eight doors in Paradise, and one is called Raiyān, by which only the keepers of the fast shall enter.”

“When the month Ramaẓān arrives the doors of Heaven are opened” (in another tradition it is said, the doors of Paradise are opened), “and the doors of hell are shut, and the devils are chained” (in one tradition it is said, the doors of God’s mercy are opened).

“The person who fasts in the month of Ramaẓān on account of belief in God and in obedience to His command, shall be pardoned of all his past sins, and the person who says the night prayers of the Ramaẓān shall be pardoned all his past sins, and the person who says the prayers on the Lailatu ʾl-Qadr with faith and the hope of reward shall be pardoned of all his past sins.”

“If a keeper of fast does not abandon lying, God cares not about his leaving off eating and drinking.”

“There are many keepers of fast who gain nothing by fasting but thirst, and there are many risers up at night and performers of prayers who gain nothing by their rising but wakefulness.”

RAMYU ʾL-JIMĀR (رمى الجمار‎). The throwing of pebbles at the pillars, or Jumrah, at Makkah. A religious ceremony during the Pilgrimage. [PILGRIMAGE.]

RAQABAH (رقبة‎). Lit. “The Neck”; pl. riqāb. A term used in the Qurʾān for a captive slave. Sūrah iv. 94: “Whosoever kills a believer by mistake, then let him free a believing neck.”

The word is used in India for an enclosed area of land. (See Wilson’s Glossary of Indian Terms.)

AR-RAQĪB (الــرقـيـب‎). “The Watcher over.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of the Almighty. The word occurs in the Qurʾān, e.g. Sūrah iv. 1: “Verily God doth watch over you.”

AR-RAQĪM (الرقيم‎). A word which occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah xviii. 8: “Hast thou reckoned that the Fellows of the cave and the Raqīm were a wonder amongst our signs?” The commentators are not agreed as to the meaning of this word. The Jalālān say, it was a brass plate or stone-table, on which the names of the Fellows of the Cave were written. The Kamālān say it was either the name of the dog which belonged to the young men, or of the valley in which the cave was situated.

AR-RASHĪD (الرشـيـد‎). “The Rightly Directing.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. The word occurs once in the Qurʾān, but it is not there used for the Almighty. See Sūrah xi. 80: “Is there not among you one who can rightly direct?”

RASM (رسم‎), pl. Rusūm. Lit. “That which is stamped or sealed.” According to the Qāmūs, it is a very ancient word used in Arabia before the days of the Prophet for custom and law, the ancient records of the people being entitled Rawāsīm (رواسيم‎). It is a word which is very common in Hindustan for the customs and usages of the people.

AR-RASS (الرس‎). A word which occurs twice in the Qurʾān, the meaning of which is uncertain.

Sūrah xxv. 40: “The people of ʿĀd, and S̤amūd, the people of the Rass.”

Sūrah l. 12: “Before them the people of Noah and the fellows of the Rass and S̤amūd and ʿĀd and Pharaoh, called the Apostles liars.”

According to the commentators al-Jalālān, it is the name of a well near Midian. Some take it to be the name of a town in Yamāmah.

RASŪL (رسول‎), pl. Rusul. “An Apostle.” A title specially applied to Muḥammad, but used also for all Prophets who brought inspired books. [PROPHET.]

RAT̤L, RIT̤L (رطل‎). (1) A certain thing which one weighs. A weight or measure. (See The Mug͟hrib of al-Mut̤arrizī, in loco.) (2) That which is chaste. (See the Tāju ʾl-ʿArūs, in loco).

(1) According to the standard of Bag͟hdād, a weight of 12 ounces, and as a measure of capacity, a pint. (Lane’s Arabic Dictionary.) Muḥammad used to give a rat̤l of silver as a marriage present, which has given rise to the expression, As-sunnatu fī ʾn-nikāḥi rit̤lun (السنة فى النكاح رطل‎). Professor Wilson says that at Bombay the ratal is equal to 36 Surat rupees, and in the Red Sea the rottolo, as it is corruptly called, varies from 10 to 20 ounces avoirdupois.

(2) A boy not having arrived at puberty.

(3) An aged man.

AR-RAʾUF (الروف‎). “The Kind.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It occurs frequently in the Qurʾān, e.g. Sūrah ii. 138: “God is kind and merciful with mankind.”

AR-RAUẒAH (الروضة‎). Lit. “The Garden.” The garden in which is situated the tomb of Muḥammad at al-Madīnah. The name is also given to the tomb itself by some writers.

RAVEN. Arabic g͟hurāb (غراب‎). Heb. ‏עֹרֵב‎ ʿoreb. Mentioned once in the Qurʾān, Sūrah v. 34: “Am I too helpless to become like this raven and hide my brother’s shame.” The raven is not lawful food according to the Muslim law. (Durru ʾl-Muk͟htār, vol. iv. p. 523.)

RAWĀ (روا‎). A Persian word for that which is lawful. [LAW.]

AR-RAZZĀQ (الرزاق‎). “The Provider with Food.” One of the ninety-nine names or attributes of God. It occurs in the Qurʾān once. Sūrah li. 58: “Verily God; He is the Provider.”

REBEL. Arabic bāg͟hī (باغى‎), pl. bug͟hāt. A legal term for a person, or a body of people, who withdraw themselves from obedience to the rightful Imām. In case of rebellion, the Imām must first call the rebels to his allegiance and show them what is right, and if they refuse to obey, he must use force of arms. (Hidāyah, vol. ii. 248.)

RECORDING ANGELS, The. [KIRAMU ʾL-KATIBIN.]

RED SEA. Arabic al-Baḥru ʾl-Aḥmar (البحر الاحمر‎). Mentioned in the Qurʾān as al-Baḥr, “the Sea.”

Sūrah i. 47: “When we divided for you the sea, and saved you and drowned Pharaoh’s people.”

Sūrah x. 90: “And We brought the Children of Israel across the sea.”

In Muḥammadan works it is known as the Baḥru ʾl-Qulzum, or Qalzam. Jalālu ʾd-Dīn, the commentator, says the town of Qulzum is the same as Ailah (the Elath of the Bible, Deut. ii. 8), a town at the head of the Arabian Gulf. The Αἴλανα of Strabo (xvi. p. 768). It is referred to in the Qurʾān, Sūrah vii. 163: “Ask them about the city which stood by the sea.” Elath was at one time a place of importance, but it has now become quite insignificant.

RELIGION. The religion of Muḥammadans is called Islām (اسلام‎), and the laws of God Sharīʿah (شريعة‎). There are three words used by Muslim writers for the word religion, namely, Dīn, Millah, and Maẕhab. In the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt, the difference between these words is as follows:—

Dīn (دين‎) is used for religion as it stands in relation to God, e.g. Dīnu ʾllāh, “the religion of God.”

Millah (ملة‎), as it stands in relation to the Prophet or lawgiver, e.g. Millatu Ibrāhīm, “the religion of Abraham,” or Millatu ʾr-Rasūl, “the Prophet’s religion.”

Maẕhab (مذهب‎), as it stands in relation to the decisions of the Mujtahidūn, e.g. Muẕhabu Abī Ḥanīfah.

The expression Dīn, however, is of general application, whilst Millah and Maẕhab are restricted in their use. [ISLAM.]

RELIGIOUS DUTIES, The performance of. Strictly according to Muḥammadan law, it is not lawful to accept any remuneration for the performance of religious duties. But these injunctions are now totally disregarded, and fees are taken for almost every religious duty performed by an Imām. The teaching of the Hidāyah on the subject is as follows:—

“It is not lawful to accept a recompense for summoning the people to prayers, or for the performance of a pilgrimage, or of the duties of an Imam, or for teaching the Koran, or the law; for it is a general rule, with our doctors, that no recompense can be received for the performance of any duty purely of a religious nature. According to Shafei, it is allowed to receive pay for the performance of any religious duty which is not required of the hireling in virtue of a divine ordinance, as this is only accepting a recompense for a certain service; and as the acts above described are not ordained upon the hireling, it is consequently lawful to receive a recompense for them. The arguments of our doctors upon this point are twofold. First, the prophet has said, ‘Read the Koran, but do not receive any recompense for so doing’; and he also directed Othman-bin-Abeeyas, that if he were appointed a Mawzin [a cryer to prayer] he should not take any wages. Secondly, where an act of piety is performed, it springs solely from the performer (whence regard is had to his competency), and consequently he is not entitled to any recompense from another, as in the cases of fasting or prayer. A teacher of the Koran, moreover, is incapable of instructing another in it, but by means of qualities existing in his scholar, namely, capacity and docility, and therefore undertakes a thing the performance of which does not depend upon himself, which is consequently invalid. Some of our modern doctors, however, hold it lawful to receive wages for teaching the Koran in the present age, because an indifference has taken place with respect to religion, whence if people were to withhold from paying a recompense for instruction in the sacred writings, they would in time be disregarded;—and decrees pass accordingly.

“It is not lawful to receive wages for singing or lamentation, or for any other species of public exhibition, as this is taking a recompense for an act which is of a criminal nature, and acts of that nature do not entitle to a recompense in virtue of a contract.”

RE-MARRIAGE. Re-marriage may take place with the divorcer before or after the completion of the ʿiddah, provided only the first or second sentence of divorce has been pronounced, but it cannot take place after a three-fold divorce until the divorced wife is married to another man and is divorced by him after the second marriage has been consummated. This is both Sunnī and Shīʿah law. (Tagore Law Lectures.)

A widow can marry again at the expiration of four months and ten days after the death of her former husband. There is no restriction as to the period for a widower.

RENTAL. Arabic ijārah (اجارة‎). [HIRE.]

REPENTANCE. Arabic taubah (توبة‎). Lit. “The turning of the heart from sin.” (An-Nawawī’s Commentary on Muslim, vol. ii. p. 354.) It is frequently enjoined in the Qurʾān, e.g.:—

Sūrah iv. 20: “If they repent and amend let them be. Verily God is he who relenteth. He is merciful.”

Sūrah xxiv. 32: “Be ye wholly turned to God, O ye believers, and it shall be well with you.”

Sūrah xxv. 71: “Whoso hath repented and hath done what is right, he verily it is who turneth to God with a true conversion.” [PARDON.]

RESIDUARIES. Arabic ʿaṣabah (عصبة‎), pl. ʿaṣabāt. According to Muḥammadan law, residuaries in their own right are divided into four classes:—

(1) The offspring of the deceased.

(2) The ascendants (such as father, grandfather, &c.).

(3) The offspring of his father, viz. the brothers and their descendants.

(4) The offspring of his grandfather. (Syed Ameer Ali’s Personal Law, p. 49.) [INHERITANCE.]

RESIGNATION. The literal meaning of Islām is a state or condition in which a believer becomes “resigned” to the will of God, a “Muslim” being one who is “resigned.” But in the Qurʾān, the grace of resignation is more frequently expressed by the word ṣabr, “patience,” e.g. Sūrah ii. 150: “Give good tidings to the patient, who when there falls on them a calamity, say, ‘Verily we are God’s and verily to Him do we return.’ ”

The word Taslīm, which the compiler of the Kitābu ʾt-Taʿrīfāt says means to place one’s neck under the commands of God, seems to express the English word “resignation.”

It occurs in the Qurʾān, Sūrah iv. 68: “They submit with submission.”

The author of the Ak͟hlāq-i-Jalālī says Taslīm is to “acquiesce in and receive with satisfaction (although, perhaps, repugnant to the inclination) the commands of God,” as exemplified in the verse above quoted.

Riẓāʾ, is also a word which expresses resignation, and is defined as being pleased with the inevitable decrees of God, whatever they may be.

RESURRECTION. Belief in al-yaumu ʾl-āk͟hir (اليوم الاخر‎), “the Last Day,” is an article of the Muḥammadan Faith. The terms used in the Qurʾān are:—

Yaumu ʾ-Qiyāmah, “Day of Standing up” (Sūrah ii. 79).

Yaumu ʾl-Faṣl, “Day of Separation” (Sūrah lxxvii. 14).

Yaumu ʾl-Ḥisāb, “Day of Reckoning” (Sūrah xl. 28).

Yaumu ʾl-Baʿs̤, “Day of Awakening” (Sūrah xxx. 56).

Yaumu ʾd-Dīn, “Day of Judgment” (Sūrah i. 3).

Al-Yaumu ʾl-Muḥīt̤, “The Encompassing Day” (Sūrah xi. 85).

As-Sāʿah, “The Hour” (Sūrah viii. 186).

There are very graphic descriptions of the Last Day in the poetical Sūrahs of the Qurʾān. The five following belong to an early period in Muḥammad’s mission:—

Sūrah lxxv.:—

“It needeth not that I swear by the day of the Resurrection,

Or that I swear by the self-accusing soul.

Thinketh man that we shall not re-unite his bones?

Aye! his very finger tips are we able evenly to replace.

But man chooseth to deny what is before him:

He asketh, ‘When this day of Resurrection?’

But when the eye shall be dazzled,

And when the moon shall be darkened,

And the sun and the moon shall be together,

On that day man shall cry, ‘Where is there a place to flee to?’

But in vain—there is no refuge—

With thy Lord on that day shall be the sole asylum.

On that day shall man be told of all that he hath done first and last;

Yea, a man shall be the eye-witness against himself:

And even if he put forth his plea …

(Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this revelation:

For we will see to the collecting and the recital of it;

But when we have recited it, then follow thou the recital,

And, verily, afterwards it shall be ours to make it clear to thee.)

Aye, but ye love the transitory,

And ye neglect the life to come.

On that day shall faces beam with light,

Outlooking towards their Lord;

And faces on that day shall be dismal,

As if they thought that some great calamity would befall them.

Aye, when the soul shall come up into the throat,

And there shall be a cry, ‘Who hath a charm that can restore him?’

And the man feeleth that the time of his departure is come,

And when one leg shall be laid over the other,

To thy Lord on that day shall he be driven on;

For he believed not, and he did not pray,

But he called the truth a lie and turned his back,

Then, walking with haughty mien, rejoined his people.

That Hour is nearer to thee and nearer,

It is ever nearer to thee and nearer still.

Thinketh man that he shall be left supreme?

Was he not a mere embryo?

Then he became thick blood of which God

formed him and fashioned him;

And made him twain, male and female.

Is not He powerful enough to quicken the dead?”

Sūrah lxxxi. 1–19:—

“When the sun shall be folded up,

And when the stars shall fall,

And when the mountains shall be set in motion,

And when the she-camels shall be abandoned,

And when the wild beasts shall be gathered together,

And when the seas shall boil,

And when souls shall be paired with their bodies,

And when the female child that had been buried alive shall be asked

For what crime she was put to death,

And when the leaves of the Book shall be unrolled,

And when the Heaven shall be stripped away,

And when Hell shall be made to blaze,

And when Paradise shall be brought near,

Every soul shall know what it hath produced.

It needs not that I swear by the stars of retrograde motion,

Which move swiftly and hide themselves away,

And by the night when it cometh darkening on,

And by the dawn when it brighteneth,

That this is the word of an illustrious Messenger.”

Sūrah lxxxii.:—

“When the Heaven shall cleave asunder,

And when the stars shall disperse,

And when the seas shall be commingled,

And when the graves shall be turned upside down,

Each soul shall recognize its earliest and its latest actions.

O man! what hath misled thee against thy generous Lord,

Who hath created thee and moulded thee and shaped thee aright?

In the form which pleased Him hath He fashioned thee.

Even so; but ye treat the Judgment as a lie.

Yet truly there are guardians over you—

Illustrious recorders—

Cognizant of your actions.

Surely amid delights shall the righteous dwell,

But verily the impure in Hell-fire:

They shall be burned at it on the day of doom,

And they shall not be able to hide themselves from it.

Who shall teach thee what the day of doom is?

Once more Who shall teach thee what the day of doom is?

It is a day when one soul shall be powerless for another soul: all sovereignty on that day shall be with God.”

Sūrah lxxxiii. 4–20:—

“What! have they no thought that they shall be raised again

For the great day?

The day when mankind shall stand before the Lord of the worlds.

Yes! the register of the wicked is in Sijjīn.

And who shall make thee understand what Sijjīn is?

It is a book distinctly written.

Woe, on that day, to those who treated our signs as lies,

Who treated the day of judgment as a lie!

None treat it as a lie, save the transgressor, the criminal,

Who, when our signs are rehearsed to him, saith, ‘Tales of the Ancients!’

Yes; but their own works have got the mastery over their hearts.

Yes; they shall be shut out as by a veil from their Lord on that day;

Then shall they be burned in Hell-fire:

Then shall it be said to them, ‘This is what ye deemed a lie.’

Even so. But the register of the righteous is in ʿIllīyūn.

And who shall make thee understand what ʿIllīyūn is?

A book distinctly written.”

Sūrah lxxxiv. 1–19:—

“When the Heaven shall have split asunder

And duteously obeyed its Lord;

And when Earth shall have been stretched out as a plain,

And shall have cast forth what was in her and become empty,

And duteously obeyed its Lord;

Then verily, O man, who desirest to reach thy Lord, shalt thou meet him.

And he into whose right hand his Book shall be given,

Shall be reckoned with in an easy reckoning,

And shall turn, rejoicing, to his kindred.

But he whose Book shall be given him behind his back

Shall invoke destruction:

But in the fire shall he burn,

For that he lived joyously among his kindred,

Without a thought that he should return to God.

Yea, but his Lord beheld him.

It needs not therefore that I swear by the sunset redness,

And by the night and its gatherings,

And by the moon when at her full,

That from state to state shall ye be surely carried onward.”

The following description belongs to a much later period than the former Sūrahs already quoted, and occurs in Sūrah xxii. 1–7, which was given at Al-Madīnah not long before Muḥammad’s death:—

“O men (of Makkah) fear your Lord. Verily the Earthquake of the Hour will be a tremendous thing!

“On the day when ye shall behold it, every suckling woman shall forsake her sucking babe; and every woman that hath a burden in her womb shall cast her burden; and thou shalt see men drunken, yet are they not drunken: but it is the mighty chastisement of God!

“There is a man who, without knowledge, wrangleth about God, and followeth every rebellious Satan;

“Concerning whom it is decreed, that he shall surely beguile and guide into the torment of the Flame, whoever shall take him for his lord.

“O men! if ye doubt as to the resurrection, yet, of a truth, have We created you of dust, then of the moist germs of life, then of clots of blood, then of pieces of flesh shapen and unshapen, that We might give you proofs of our power! And We cause one sex or the other, at our pleasure, to abide in the womb until the appointed time; then We bring you forth infants; then permit you to reach your age of strength; and one of you dieth, and another of you liveth on to an age so abject that all his former knowledge is clean forgotten! And thou hast seen the earth dried up and barren: but when We send down the rain upon it, it stirreth and swelleth, and groweth every kind of luxuriant herb.

“This, for that God is the Truth, and that it is He who quickeneth the dead, and that He hath power over everything:

“And that ‘the Hour’ will indeed come—there is no doubt of it—and that God will wake up to life those who are in the tombs.”

Very lengthy accounts of the Day of Resurrection, and of the signs preceding it, are given in all books of tradition, and works on dogmatic theology. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī, Arabic Ed. Kitābu ʾl-Fitan, p. 1045; Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Muslim, Arabic Ed. vol. ii. p. 388; Mishkātu ʾl-Maṣābiḥ, Arabic Ed. Kitābu ʾl-Fitan; Sharḥu ʾl-Muwāqif, p. 579.)

The following, collected by Mr. Sale from various writers, is given, with some alterations, additions, and references.

It is the received opinion amongst Muslims of all sects that at the Resurrection the body will be raised and united to its soul, and that one part of the body, namely, the lower part of the spine, the os sacrum, in Arabic called ʿAjbu ʾẕ-Ẕanab, “the root of the tail,” will be preserved as a basis of the future edifice. (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. ix.)

This bone, it is said, will remain uncorrupted till the last day, as a germ from whence the whole is to be renewed. This will be effected by a forty days’ rain which God will send, and which will cover the earth to the height of twelve cubits, and cause the bodies to sprout forth like plants. For this doctrine Muḥammad is beholden to the Jews, who say the same things of the bone Lūz, excepting that what he attributes to a great rain will be effected, according to them, by a dew, impregnating the dust of the earth. (Bereshit rabbah.)

The time of the Resurrection the Muḥammadans allow to be a perfect secret to all but God alone; the Angel Gabriel himself acknowledged his ignorance on this point when Muḥammad asked him about it. (Mishkāt, book i. ch. i.) However, they say the approach of that day may be known from certain signs which are to precede it. These signs are distinguished into “the lesser” and “the greater.”

The lesser signs (Ishārātu ʾs-Sāʿah) are as follows:—

(1.) The decay of faith among men.

(2.) The advancing of the meanest persons to eminent dignity.

(3.) A maid-servant shall become the mother of her mistress (or master); by which is meant either that towards the end of the world men shall be much given to sensuality, or that the Muḥammadans shall then take many captives.

(4.) Tumults and seditions.

(5.) A war with the Greeks or Romans.

(6.) Great distress in the world, so that a man, when he passeth by another’s grave, shall say, “Would to God I were in his place!”

(7.) The provinces of al-ʿIrāq and Syria shall refuse to pay their tribute.

(8.) The buildings of al-Madīnah or Yas̤rib shall reach to Makkah. (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. iii.)

The greater signs (ʿAlāmātu ʾṣ-Ṣāʿah) are as follows:—

(1.) The sun’s rising in the west, which some have imagined it originally did.

(2.) The appearance of the Dābbatu ʾl-Arẓ, or “beast,” which shall rise out of the earth, in the temple of Makkah, or on Mount aṣ-Ṣafā. This beast will be sixty cubits high, and will be a compound of various species, having the head of a bull, the eyes of a hog, the ears of an elephant, the horns of a stag, the neck of an ostrich, the breast of a lion, the colour of a tiger, the back of a cat, the tail of a ram, the legs of a camel, and the voice of an ass. She will appear three times in several places, and will bring with her the rod of Moses and the seal of Solomon; and, being so swift that none can overtake her or escape her, will with the first strike all the believers on the face, and mark them with the word Muʾmin, “believer,” and with the latter will mark the unbelievers on the face likewise with the word kāfir, “infidel,” that every person may be known for what he really is. The same beast is to demonstrate the vanity of all religions except Islām, and to speak Arabic. [DABBATU ʾL-ARZ.]

(3.) War with the Romans or Greeks, and the taking of Constantinople by seventy thousand of the posterity of Isaac, who shall not win that city by force of arms, but the walls shall fall down while they cry out, “There is no deity but God! God is most great!” As they are dividing the spoil, news will come to them of the appearance of Antichrist, whereupon they shall leave all and return back.

(4.) The coming of Antichrist, whom the Muḥammadans call al-Masīḥu ʾd-Dajjāl, “the false or lying Christ.” He is to be one-eyed, and marked on the forehead with the letters ك ف ر‎ K F R, signifying kāfir, “infidel.” He will appear first between al-ʿIrāq and Syria, or, according to others, in the province of K͟horasān. He is to ride on a white ass, be followed by seventy thousand Jews of Ispahān, and continue on earth forty days, of which one will be equal in length to a year, another to a month, another to a week, and the rest will be common days. He will lay waste all places, but will not enter Makkah or al-Madīnah, which are to be guarded by angels; and at length he will be slain by Jesus, who is to encounter him at the gate of Lud. [MASIHU ʾD-DAJJAL.]

(5.) The descent of Jesus on earth. He is to descend near the white tower to the east of Damascus, when the people have returned from the taking of Constantinople. He is to embrace the Muḥammadan 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, and be buried at Al-Madīnah. Under him 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. (See Ṣaḥīḥu ʾl-Buk͟hārī.)

(6.) War with the Jews, of whom the Muḥammadans are to make a prodigious slaughter, the very trees and stones discovering such of them as hide themselves, except only the tree called G͟harqad, which is the tree of the Jews.

(7.) The appearance of Gog and Magog, or, as they are called, Yaʾjūj and Maʾjūj. These barbarians, 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 Muslims will burn seven years together; and at last God will send a rain to cleanse the earth, and to make it fertile. [GOG AND MAGOG.]

(8.) A smoke which shall fill the whole earth.

(9.) An eclipse of the moon. Muḥammad 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 al-Lāt and al-ʿUzzā, 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, which shall sweep away the souls of the faithful, and the Qurʾān 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 Kaʿbah in the Makkan temple by the Ethiopians.

(13.) The speaking of beasts and inanimate things.

(14.) The breaking out of fire in the province of al-Ḥijāz, or, according to others, in al-Yaman.

(15.) The appearance of a man of the descendants of Kahtan, who shall drive men before him with his staff.

(16.) The coming of al-Mahdī, “the director,” concerning whom Muḥammad 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 shall fill the earth with righteousness. This person the Shīʿahs 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 Imāms, named Muḥammad Abū ʾl-Qāsim, as their prophet was. [SHIʿAH, MAHDI.]

(17.) A wind which shall sweep away the souls of all who have but a grain of faith in their hearts, as has been mentioned under the tenth sign. (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. iv.)

These are the greater signs which, according to Muḥammadan traditions, are to precede the Resurrection, but still leave the hour of it uncertain; for the immediate sign of its being come will be the first blast of the trumpet, which they believe will be sounded three times. The first, “the blast of consternation,” at the hearing of which all creatures in heaven and earth shall be struck with terror, except those whom God shall please 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 be darkened, the stars fall on the death of the angels, who, as some imagine, hold them suspended between heaven and earth, and the sea shall be troubled and dried up, or, according to others, turned into flames, the sun, moon, and stars being thrown into it; the Qurʾān, 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 utterly neglected. (Qurʾān, Sūrah lxxxi.) A further effect of this blast will be that concourse of beasts mentioned in the Qurʾān, though some doubt whether it be to precede the Resurrection or not. They who suppose it will precede, think that all kinds of animals, forgetting their respective natural fierceness and timidity, will run together into one place, being terrified by the sound of the trumpet and the sudden shock of nature.

This first blast will be followed by a second, the “blast of examination,” 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 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. (Malaku ʾl-Maut.) (1 Cor. xv. 26.)

Forty years after this will be heard the “blast of resurrection,” when the trumpet shall be sounded the third time by Isrāfīl, who, together with Gabriel and Michael, will be previously restored to life, and, standing on the rock of the temple of Jerusalem (aṣ-Ṣak͟hrah), 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, according to a tradition of Muḥammad, will be himself. For this the earth will be prepared by the rain above-mentioned, which is to fall continually 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 Qurʾān in one place (Sūrah xxxii. 4) tells us that it will last one thousand years, and in another (Sūrah lxx. 4) 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.

That the resurrection will be general, and extend to all creatures, both angels, genii, men, and animals, is the received opinion, and according to the teaching of the Qurʾān. (See Sūrah lxxxi.)

In the resurrection those who are destined to be partakers of eternal happiness will arise in honour and security, and those who are doomed to misery, in disgrace and under dismal apprehensions. As to mankind, they will be raised perfect in all their parts and members, and in the same state as they came out of their mothers’ wombs, that is, barefooted, naked, and uncircumcised; which circumstances, when Muḥammad was telling his wife ʿĀyishah, 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 say he asserted that the dead should arise dressed in the same clothes in which they died; although some interpret these words, 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, knowledge or ignorance, his good or bad works.

Muḥammad taught (Mishkāt, book xxiii. ch. x) that mankind shall be assembled at the last day, and shall be distinguished into three classes. The first, those who go on foot; the second, those who ride; and the third, those who creep, grovelling with their faces 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 ʿAlī 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 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 the commentator al-Baiẓāwī (vol. ii. p. 480), 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 backbiters. 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 everybody 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. The tenth will be clothed with garments daubed with pitch; and these are the proud, the vain-glorious, and the arrogant.

In the Traditions, Muḥammad is related to have said:—

“The first person who shall receive sentence on the Day of Resurrection will be a martyr, who will be brought into the presence of the Almighty: then God will make known the benefits which were conferred on him in the world, and the person will be sensible of them and confess them; and God will say, ‘What didst thou do in gratitude for them?’ He will reply, ‘I fought in Thy cause till I was slain.’ God will say, ‘Thou liest, for thou foughtest in order that people might extol thy courage.’ Then God will order them to drag him upon his face to hell. The second, a man who shall have obtained knowledge and instructed others, and read the Qurʾān. He will be brought into the presence of God, and will be given to understand the benefits he had received, which he will be sensible of and acknowledge; and God will say, ‘What didst thou do in gratitude thereof?’ He will reply, ‘I learned knowledge and taught others, and I read the Qurʾān to please Thee.’ Then God will say, ‘Thou liest, for thou didst study that people might call thee learned, and thou didst read the Qurʾān for the name of the thing.’ Then God will order him to be dragged upon his face and precipitated into hell. The third, a man to whom God shall have given abundant wealth; and he shall be called into the presence of God, and will be reminded of the benefits which he received, and he will acknowledge and confess them; and God will say, ‘What return didst thou in return for them?’ He will say, ‘I expended my wealth to please thee, in all those ways which Thou hast approved.’ God will say, ‘Thou liest, for thou didst it that people might extol thy liberality’; after which he will be drawn upon his face and thrown into the fire.”

As to the place where they are to be assembled to Judgment, the Qurʾān and Traditions agree that it will be on the earth, but in what part of the earth is not agreed. Some say their Prophet mentioned Syria for the place; others, a white and even tract of land, without inhabitants or any signs of buildings. Al-G͟hazzālī 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 (Rev. xxi. 1); whence the Qurʾān has this expression, “on the day wherein the earth shall be changed into another earth.” (Sūrah xiv. 49.)

The end of the Resurrection the Muḥammadans declare to be, that they who are so raised may give an account of their actions, and receive the reward thereof. And that not only mankind, but the genii and irrational animals also shall be judged on this great day; when the unhorned cattle shall take vengeance on the horned, till entire satisfaction shall be given to the injured.

As to mankind, when they are all assembled 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 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 signification 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, 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 Muḥammadans certainly borrowed from the Jews, who say that, for the punishment of the wicked in the Last Day, that planet shall be drawn forth from its sheath, in which it is now put up, lest it should destroy all things by its excessive heat.