Charles Thomson

“ In fine, it is justly observed, that whatever Mahomet proposed to do, he always brought in heaven approving it, and framed some chapter of his Alcoran to countenance his design. If any objection against him or his religion were to be answered, any doubt to he solved, any discontent among his people to be quieted, any scandal to be removed, or whatever else was to be done for the interest and promotion of his imposture, his constant recourse was to the angel Gabriel for a new revelation. ”

“ But for their comfort, he added, “That as they died fighting for the faith, they had obtained the crown of martyrdom, and were now alive with God in Paradise in a state of everlasting bliss, which was infinitely to be preferred before this life, and all the satisfaction the world afforded.” And these doctrines he found so strengthened the courage and resolution of his disciples, that he did not fail to inculcate them ever after. ”

“ His trading into Egypt, Palestine, and Syria, made him well acquainted both with Jews and Christians; and observing that each of them were divided into several sects, he concluded that nothing would be more likely to raise him a party, and to accomplish his designs, than the framing and advancing of a new religion. For such a change he judged the inhabitants of Mecca might be well disposed, as their traffic and frequent converse with the Christians had abated somewhat of their zeal for that gross idolatry, to which they had been hitherto addicted ”

“ In like manner, Solomon was sent to manifest the Wisdom, the Glory, and the Majesty of God; and Moses, to show his Providence and his clemency; none of whom having a power to force men to believe, miracles were necessary to convince them of the truth of their missions: but Mahomet, say they, was a prophet sent principally to manifest the fortitude of God by the power of the sword; which alone being sufficient to compel men to the faith, he wrought no miracles, as not wanting their assistance to accomplish the will of heaven. ”

“ The Mahometans look upon circumcision rather as a mark of obedience to their religion, than an essential law, and that it is not absolutely necessary to salvation, though the omission is generally esteemed sinful, and believe that children may be saved without it.
The Mahometans regard Friday above other days of the week and regularly attend their places of public worship at noon, and some of them will do no business all that day, because they believe it was on Friday that Mahomet, being persecuted by the idolatrous inhabitants of Mecca was forced to fly for safety from that city to Medina. ”

“ Mahomet, having now fixed himself at Medina, gave his daughter Fatima in marriage to his cousin Ali, the son of his deceased uncle. She being the only child then living of six, which he had by his first wife; and indeed the only one that survived him, notwithstanding the many wives that he took; and from her alone all those derive their pedegree, which pretend are of the family of Mahomet. Her father used to reckon her among the most perfect of women, and of which sort he held that there were never more than four from the beginning of the world ”

“ And accordingly in most Mahometan countries, to this very day, the inhabitants of a different persuasion pay a certain tax or duty for being tolerate in the exercise of their religion.
The first enterprizes of Mahomet, after his taking up the sword, look more like so many robberies than warlike expeditions; much less are they confident with his specious pretence of fighting for the cause of God. He began by ordering one of his uncles with a party of thirty horse, to intercept and plunder the caravan of Mecca, that was on the road in their return from Syria. ”

“ On his first appearing publickly as a prophet, the people laughed at him; and some called him Magician, Liar, Impostor, and the like opprobrious names, of which he often complains in the Alcoran; so that for a year or two he made very little progress, and scarce met with any thing but scorn and contempt for his pains. This however, did not discourage him from pursuing his design, which he did in a manner the most likely to obtain success: for he was a man of ready wit, and very engaging address, bearing all affronts, without shewing the least resentment ”

“ Here he saw more angels than in all the other heavens put together, and among them, a very extraordinary one, having seventy thousand heads, and in every head as many tongues, and every tongue uttering, as many distinct voices at once, which he continued day and night, incessantly praising and glorifying the great Creator. ”

“ But be that as it may, in the thirteenth year of Mahomet’s pretended mission, there came seventy-three men and two women from Medina to Mahomet at Mecca, and embraced his religion; out of which number he chose twelve, and having given them proper instructions, sent them back again to their own country to propagate his doctrine; in which they laboured with such success, that they soon brought over great part of the inhabitants. ”

“ However Mahomet’s troops gained a very considerable booty, which had like to have been the occasion of breeding a fatal quarrel among them: for the army consisting of two parties, the men of Medina, who had given him so kind a reception, and those of Mecca, who had been the companions of his flight, the former insisting on a larger share than the latter. In order to put an end to this controversy, Mahomet thought proper to compose the eighth chapter of his Alcoran; whereby he allots the fifth part of the spoil to himself, and the rest to be equally divided between the contending parties. ”

“ Under his protection therefore Mahomet went boldly on to preach to the people in the publick places of the city, and to publish his revelations, as he pretended they were brought him from time to time by the angel Gabriel.
The main arguments he made use of to delude men into a belief of his imposture, were his threats and promises, as being those which most easily work upon the minds of the vulgar. His promises were chiefly of a paradise, which he cunningly framed as to make it consist wholly of such pleasures and delights as were best suited to the taste of the Arabians ”

“ MAhomet was born at Mecca in Arabia, in the year of our Lord 571. He was of the tribe of the Korashites, esteemed the noblest in all that country, and was descended in a direct line, from Pher Koraish, the first founder of it. Hence it appears, that Mahomet was not of such mean parentage as some have asserted, being of the noblest tribe of all Arabia, and his family the most considerable of that tribe, as having had the chief rule over it for several descents together. However, in the beginning of his life, he was in a very poor and despicable condition ”

“ If one worship the God of Mahomet, he is immortal and lives for ever; but as for Mahomet, he is certainly dead.” And then cited several passages from the Alcoran, to prove that he must die as other men. Whereupon Omar and his party were satisfied, and believed their prophet was dead, not to come to life again, till the general resurrection.
No sooner was this dispute ended, but another arose about the place of his burial; for those who fled with him from Mecca, insisted that he should be buried there ”

“ Hence it comes to pass, that many give a fourth of what they are worth, others a third, and some give half of their estates once in their lifetime; nay, there have been instances of men who have given all their fortunes to the poor, and lived ever after upon alms themselves. There is no people in the world among whom poverty is so honourable as among the Mahometans, who say of a person that makes a voluntary profession of it, “That as he possesses nothing, so he is professed by nothing;” ”

“ Accordingly he tells his followers, “They shall enter into pleasant gardens, watered by rivulets and fountains, near which they shall repose themselves upon the softest beds, adorned with all manner of precious stones, under the shade of trees that shall continually yield all manner of the most agreeable fruits; and that there they shall enjoy women ever young and beautiful, with large black eyes, and complexions always fresh and charming as polished pearls ”

“ The next year Mahomet made war upon a tribe of Jewish Arabs in the neighbourhood of Medina, whom he forced to fly towards Syria; but a party of his troops overtaking them near the border of that country, put them every man to the sword, one only excepted, who had the good fortune to escape. ”

“ Adding, that Ishmael, when he first planted himself in Arabia, instructed the people in the same religion he had received from Abraham; but their posterity afterwards corrupted it into idolatry, which God had now sent him to destroy, and once again to restore the religion of Ishmael. Therefore, according to his own account, the Jews do not improperly call the religion of Mahomet by the name of Ishmaelism. ”

“ They scarce perform any act of devotion without washing: their prayers are vain and criminal that are offered up with unwashed hands; and it is the highest profanation to touch the Alcoran in such a state of uncleanness. When the Mahometans go to ease nature, they always furnish themselves with two cloths which they hang at their girdle, or carry across their arm, as a butler does his napkin ”

“ When a Mahometan has tasted the least drop of wine, he thinks the crime will be no greater if he drinks a gallon, and therefore if they once begin, they swallow it down so plentifully, that they are usually intoxicated before they desist ”

“ The Mahometans believe, “That what defiles the body is capable also of defiling the soul: and that which purifies the one, will in like manner purify the other.” For this reason, they lay great stress upon keeping their bodies clean and unpolluted, and accordingly observe their washings or oblations with the greatest exactness. ”

“ Some think a man is obliged to give annually a tenth part of his substance to the poor; others say that a fortieth, and some that a hundredth is sufficient. The truth is, they are commanded to give different proportions of different sorts of goods, and are also advised to regard no limits in their liberality to the necessitous. ”

“ Hence it hath become the universal doctrine of the Mahometans, that their religion is to be propagate by the sword, and all the faithful (Mahometans) are bound to fight in its defence.
In the eighth year of his pretended mission, his party growing formidable at Mecca, the citizens passed a decree, whereby they directly forbade every one to follow him for the future. ”

“ Prideaux observes, Mahomet was out of his mathematicks, for the distance between a man's eye’s, being in proportion to his height, but as one to seventy two, at this rate the height of the angel must have been fourteen thousand years journey, which is four times as much as the height of all his heavens put together. ”

“ By this means, being rendered equal in wealth to the greatest in the city; his ambition made him aspire to the sovereignty which his ancestors had enjoyed, and of which he himself had been deprived, only by being an orphan before the death of his grand-father. ”

“ On account of such stories as these, which he frequently inculcated to the people, his enemies called him “A teller of old Fables;” but by these artifices, his party continued to increase, which was at last joined by two of his uncles, though severals of them continued to oppose him, as a man who carried on designs that tended to the prejudice of his country. ”

“ That they shall suffer an unconceivable thirst, and should have nothing to drink but boiling and stinking water; that they should dwell for ever in continual fire, and be surrounded with a black hot, and salt smoke ”