[591] The obscurity which the reader may find in this paragraph proceeds from the strangeness of the doctrine itself, and can be cleared up only by bestowing upon it more attentive study than it perhaps deserves. [592] Upon _mâsum_, see note, p. 386. [593] It is meant probably “two points of view,” and the passage above relates to the 219th verse of the IInd chapter of the Koran, which is as follows: “They will ask thee concerning wine, and lots; answer: In both there is great sin, and also some things of use unto men; but their sinfulness is greater than their use.” And again, the 67th verse of the XVIth sura: “And of the fruits of palm-trees and grapes ye obtain inebriating drink, and also good nourishment.” Yet the verses 92 and 93 of the Vth sura are decidedly against wine, viz.: “O true believers, surely wine, and lots, and images, and divining arrows, are an abomination of the work of Satan; therefore avoid them, that you may prosper.”――93. “Satan seeketh to sow discussion and hatred among you, by means of wine and lots, and to divert you from remembering God, and from prayer; will ye not, therefore, abstain from them?”――(_Sale’s translation._) [594] _Jâfer_, surnamed _S adik_, “the Just,” was the eldest son of Muhammed Baker, the fifth Imám. Jâfer was born in Medina, in the year of the Hejira 83, A. D. 702; he is acknowledged the síxth Imám, and of great authority in religious matters among the Muselmans. He died in his native town, under the khalifate of Abú Jâfer Almansor, the second khalif of the Abbasides, in the year of the Hejira 148, A. D. 764, in his sixty-second year. The two eldest of his seven sons were Ismâil and Mussa. Ismâil, the elder of the two, having died during his father’s life, the latter appointed Mussa his successor, which gave rise to the contest above mentioned, and to several sects, as well as to two great dynasties. The Fatimite khalifs in Egypt are considered as descendants of the branch of Ismáil, called Ismâilahs, of Africa, but the Suffavean monarchs of Asia claim to derive their origin from Mussa, and strenuously support his title to the seventh Imám. [595] Muhammed had, during twenty years of wedlock with Khádija, never another wife; nor gave Alí a partner to his spouse Fatimá, the prophet’s daughter, during her life.