that any final disposal before the day of
judgment would be anticipatory of that great event, if, indeed, it would
not render it needless. As to the resurrection, some believe it to be
merely spiritual, others corporeal; the latter asserting that the os
coccygis, or last bone of the spinal column, will serve, as it were, as
a germ, and that, vivified by a rain of forty days, the body will sprout
from it. Among the signs of the approaching resurrection will be the
rising of the sun in the West. It will be ushered in by three blasts of
a trumpet: the first, known as the blast of consternation, will shake
the earth to its centre, and extinguish the sun and stars; the second,
the blast of extermination, will annihilate all material things except
Paradise, hell, and the throne of God. Forty years subsequently, the
angel Israfil will sound the blast of resurrection. From his trumpet
there will be blown forth the countless myriads of souls who have taken
refuge therein or lain concealed. The day of judgment has now come. The
Koran contradicts itself as to the length of this day; in one place
making it a thousand, in another fifty thousand years. Most Mohammedans
incline to adopt the longer period, since angels, genii, men, and
animals have to be tried. As to men, they will rise in their natural
state, but naked; white winged camels, with saddles of gold, awaiting
the saved. When the partition is made, the wicked will be oppressed with
an intolerable heat, caused by the sun, which, having been called into
existence again, will approach within a mile, provoking a sweat to issue
from them, and this, according to their demerits, will immerse them from
the ankles to the mouth; but the righteous will be screened by the
shadow of the throne of God. The judge will be seated in the clouds, the
books open before him, and everything in its turn called on to account
for its deeds. For greater dispatch, the angel Gabriel will hold forth
his balance, one scale of which hangs over Paradise and one over hell.
In these all works are weighed. As soon as the sentence is delivered,
the assembly, in a long file, will pass over the bridge Al-Sirat. It is
as sharp as the edge of a sword, and laid over the mouth of hell.
Mohammed and his followers will successfully pass the perilous ordeal;
but the sinners, giddy with terror, will drop into the place of torment.
The blessed will receive their first taste of happiness at a pond which
is supplied by sil