by one or both of them saying “Justice is against me”; often after this
they recite together the first chapter of the Kur-ân; and then,
sometimes, embrace and kiss one another. If a similar custom prevailed
here there would be little serious quarrelling; for the men would all
avoid disputes save with pretty girls and charming women, and would
always make it up very quickly with them. The Muslim believes that there
have been six great Prophets and Apostles—Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses,
Jesus, Mohammed; each of whom received a revealed law or system of
religion and morality, each of the first five abrogated and superseded
by the next, though all were the same in essentials. Thus the Jews from
the time of Moses to that of Christ, and the Christians (if they did not
accept the corrupt and idolatrous doctrine of the divinity of Jesus)
from the time of Christianity to that of Mohammed, were true believers.
Of course the last is the greatest Prophet, and since his revelation the
Muslims only have been the faithful. The Pentateuch, Psalms and Gospels,
though of divine origin, have been so much altered as to contain very
little of the true Word of God; but the Kur-ân is supposed to have
suffered no essential change whatever. Jesus was born of a pure virgin
by the miraculous operation of God, without any father human or divine.
When he had fulfilled the object of his mission, he was taken up to God
from the Jews who sought to slay him, and another man, on whom God had
stamped the likeness of Jesus, was crucified in his stead. He will come
again upon earth, to establish the Muslim religion and perfect peace and
security, after having killed Anti-Christ, and to be a sign of the
approach of the last day. In all these doctrines the Muslims are
decidedly more consistent and liberal, as well as somewhat less
superstitious than the Christians, with their God-man and trinity in
unity, their damnation of Mohammed as a mere impostor and of his
religion, El Islam, as a vile fabrication of stolen materials. “The
Egyptians pay a superstitious reverence not to imaginary beings alone:
they extend it to certain individuals of their own species; and often to
those who are justly the least entitled to such respect. An _idiot_ or a
_fool_ is vulgarly regarded by them as a being whose mind is in heaven,
while his grosser part mingles among ordinary mortals; consequently, he
is considered an especial favorite of heaven. Whatever enormities a
reputed saint may commit (and there are many who are constantly
infringing precepts of their religion) such acts do not affect his fame
for sanctity: for they are considered as the results of the abstraction
of his mind from worldly things; his soul, or reasoning faculties, being
wholly absorbed in devotion, so that his passions are left without
control. Lunatics who are dangerous to society are kept in confinement;
but those who are harmless are generally regarded as saints. _Most of
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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