PART THE SECOND. PROPHETS, APOSTLES, AND DIVINE BOOKS1 SAY YE, We believe in God, and in that which hath been sent down unto us (namely, the Kur-án), and what hath been sent down unto Abraham (the ten books), and Ishmael, and Isaac, and Jacob, and the tribes, his children, and what 1 The number of the prophets which have been from time to time sent by God into the world amounts to no less than 224,000, according to one Moḥammadan tradition, or to 124,000 according to another; among whom 313 were apostles, sent with special commissions to reclaim mankind from infidelity and superstition; and six of them brought new laws or dispensations, which successively abrogated the preceding: these were Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Moḥammad. All the prophets in general the Moḥammadans believe to have been free from great sins and errors of consequence, and professors of one and the same religion, that is, El-Islám, notwithstanding the different laws and institutions which they observed. In this great number of prophets, they not only reckon divers patriarchs and persons named in Scripture but not recorded to have been prophets (wherein the Jewish and Christian writers have sometimes led the way), as Adam, Seth, Lot, Ishmael, Nun, Joshua, &c., and introduce some of them under different names, as Enoch, Heber, and Jethro, who are called in the Kur-án, Idrees, Hood, and Sho'eyb; but several others whose very names do not appear in Scripture (though they endeavour to find some persons there to fix them on), as Sáliḥ, El-Khiḍr, Dhu-l-Kifl. As to the Scriptures, the Moḥammadans are taught by the Kurán that God, in divers ages of the world, gave revelations of His will in writing to several prophets, the whole and every word of which it is absolutely necessary for a good Muslim to believe. The number of these sacred books was, according to them, 104; of which ten were given to Adam, fifty to Seth, thirty to Idrees or Enoch, ten to Abraham; and the other four, being the Pentateuch, the Psalms, the Gospel, and the Ķur-án, were successively delivered to Moses, David, Jesus, and Moḥammad; which last being the seal of Moses received (namely, the Pentateuch), and Jesus (namely, the Gospel), and what the prophets received from their Lord (namely, books and signs): we make no separation of any of them, believing in some, and disbelieving in some, like the Jews and the Christians; and we resign ourselves unto Him. (ii. 130.) the prophets, those revelations are now closed and no more are to be expected. All these divine books, except the four last, they agree to be now entirely lost and their contents unknown; though the Sabians have several books which they attribute to some of the antediluvian prophets. And of those four, the Pentateuch, Psalms, and Gospel, they say, have undergone so many alterations and corruptions, that though there may possibly be some part of the true word of God therein, yet no credit is to be given to the present copies in the hands of the Jews and Christians.-S. ADAM AND EVE. Remember, O Mohammad, when thy Lord said unto the angels, I am about to place in the earth a vicegerent to act for me in the execution of my ordinances therein, namely, Adam, they said, Wilt Thou place in it one who will corrupt in it by disobediences, and will shed blood (as did the sons of El-Jánn,1 who were in it; wherefore, when they acted corruptly, God sent to them the angels, who drove them away to the islands and the mountains), when we [on the contrary] celebrate the divine perfection, occupying ourselves with Thy praise, and extol Thy holiness? Therefore we are more worthy of the vicegerency.—God replied, Verily, I know that which ye know not, as to the affair of appointing Adam vicegerent, and that among his posterity will be the obedient and the rebellious, and the just will be manifest among them. And He created Adam from the surface of the earth, taking a handful of every colour that it comprised, which was kneaded with various waters; and He completely formed it, and breathed into it the soul: so it became an animated sentient being. And He taught Adam the names of all things, infusing the knowledge of them into his heart. Then He showed them (namely, the things) to the angels, and said, Declare unto me the names of these things, if ye say truth in your assertion that I will not create any more knowing than ye, and that ye are more worthy of the vicegerency. They replied, [ We extol] Thy perfection! We have 2 1 'El-Jánn' is here used as a name of Iblees, the father of the jinn. It also signifies the jinn themselves. 2 According to a tradition of the Prophet, the height of Adam was equal to that of a tall palm-tree. D |