the following words: 'In the name of the most merciful God. Say, God is one God, the eternal God; He begetteth not, neither is He begotten, and there is not any one like unto him.' This doctrine is the foundation of the belief of the Mahometans, whose creed is: 'There is no God but God, and Mahomet is the prophet of God.'
The heaven and hell of the Moslems is also described. The former is a place of purely material and sensual delights, full of soft couches, shady gardens, and murmuring streams, doubtless attractive enough to the dwellers in a burning desert: while of hell the Koran says: 'The wicked shall be cast into scorching fire; they shall have no food but dry thorns and thistles. … They shall dwell amidst burning winds and scalding water, under the shadow of a black smoke.'
Heaven is only for true believers, and not at once even for them. Christians, Jews, idolaters, are all sunk into one or other of the seven hells; the lowest of all being reserved for hypocrites. Then the believers will be judged by their actions. All must pass over the bridge, sharper than a sword edge, finer than a hair, which, spanning the abyss of hell, leads to Paradise beyond. The innocent, treading in the footsteps of Mahomet, will pass over in safety, while the guilty will fall into the first and mildest of the seven hells, which is a purgatory where their sins are expiated by suffering for periods varying from 900 to 7,000 years.
The Koran recognises four chief angels or archangels: Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation; Michael, the champion of the faith, and the friend of the Jews; Azrael, the angel of death, and Israfil, who is to sound
