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Is it possible that my friend knows not, said Eber, that this tradition was told among the Jews many hundred years before Mohammed entered the world? The torment of the grave is by them called 'the beating of the sepulchre;' and they believe that all men must undergo it, but those only who die on the evening of the Sabbath, or who have dwelt in the land of Israel.
But, replied Havilah, to what Jew was it ever given to know whither the spirit departs till the day of the resurrection[1]? Who but Mohammed beheld how the prophets enter at once on the bliss of Paradise; and how the Faithful are at peace under the care of God, while the wicked are thrown into a dungeon in the lowest earth? Who but Mohammed knew when the spirits hovered near the graves, so that he might salute them; and gave assurance that his salutations were heard by the dead as well as the living, though they could not answer?
The Christians thus believed before Mohammed was born, answered Eber; and it was their custom first to pray, and afterwards to offer gifts at the tombs of holy persons: and thus arose
- ↑ Prelim. Dissert. page 77-78.
