The angels are neither females nor males, and are pure of all depravity and sins. Some of the first rank among them are entranced in the contempla­tion of the divine perfection which they witness, so that they are not aware of God Almighty having created the world and mankind. The second order of angels are the ministers of bodies and gigantic forms; the revolution of the heavens is their office; and with every drop of rain an angel comes down, and no leaf appears without an angel fostering it. But among the angels four are distinguished, namely: Jabrîl, Isráfîl, Mâîkáíl, and Azráîl. The message of revelation is the business of Jabrîl; to sound the trumpet belongs to Isráfîl; the surety of professions is Mâikáil's; and Azráil seizes the souls. Four angels are the appointed guardians of mankind, and write down the good and the bad; two of them are occupied with this business during the day, and two during the night. The writers of the good keep the right side, those of the bad the left. The angels can in some form appear to men;

“Especially to the eyes of the guides of the ways,

From among the possessors of constancy,* the prophets and apostles.”

The prophets are the select of God from among all the children of Adam and of the exalted angels, and the spirit of Satan can never hurt them, if, by an extraordinary emergency, one of them commits a fault, it is reckoned to be for giving good advice.

“Adam, at the moment when he tasted wheat,*

Received the seed for the propagation of mankind;

From the grain which he ate sprang up a tree;

Life in me and in thee is its fruit.”

Although there be among the prophets, as com­pared with each other, a higher and a lower rank in their exaltation, yet Muhammed the Arabian (may the blessing of God, the high and omnipotent, be upon him!) is the noble and excelling prophet, who unites all virtues and perfections.

“Before the intelligent, there is no messenger

But Muhammed for all mankind.”

He is the seal of God's prophets, and after him no other shall come, and when at the end of time the Messiah shall descend, he shall adopt the law of Muhammed; he shall convoke the nations to his religion; the law of the prophet shall cancel all other laws.

“If the decision of the law of the sovereign (Muhammed) happens to be

Corresponding with another law,

There is no obedience whatever due to the latter,

Except from the circumstance of its being right according to the law of the prophet.”

The ascent of the prophet* with his body hap­pened during his being awake, as far as the mosque Aksa; there he mounted on the back of Borák,* and passed above the heavens. He saw all the prophets, and the stories of the heavens and the hells; in the heavenly mansion of Jabrîl (God be praised!) the angel remained behind him; then, by means of the arch he proceeded further.

“There was no confident but God;

He saw what was to be seen, he heard what was to be heard;

From thence he turned his face towards his dwelling;

His place of repose had not yet become cold.”

If this supernatural event was associated with the claim of prophecy, so was it a miracle, and if not, so was it divine favour; in the existence of the Lord prophet (the blessing and peace of God be with him) was a great number of miracles attesting his mission to the nations, and such ones as are not to be found with other prophets. There are many books attributed to God Almighty, and in their whole number one hundred and four are approved; but they are not confined to this number, and some of those which are known, are not praised.

“Every book which God has sent,

Is received by the believing as revealing God's perfection.

Such is the Tawrit (the Old Testament) this book of the Merciful,

Which by tradition and writing came to Ibrahim.”

“Another is the Gospel, which came down

By the Messiah, and the psalms by Dáúd.

A summary of all these four is the Koran,

Which Muhammed has composed,

The sense and the text of which is a wonder.

When the eloquent men of Arabia united

Breathe enchantment into the sounds of words,

They become weak, defective, and vile

Altogether, in comparison with the shortest Súrah.”*

As the book of God contains divine words, it is ancient, and the letters and sounds are new; the novelty of an old meaning is like a dress.

“If the dress be perpetually with the heart,

How can the person who possesses the dress be disturbed?”

The Muhammedan religion is among the most excellent and most noble religions, and the father of this religion, the prophet of Arabia, is the best and the most eminent among the saints of the religions; there is a number of prophets, particularly the friends and the posterity of the prophet, but none is higher than he, the prophet.

“Among them all there was, in truth,

None more apt for the khalifat than Sidík (Abu beker);

And to succeed him, there was among the noble

None more worthy of the office than Fárúk (Omar);

After Fárúk, from none more than Zo-ul Narain (Osman)

Did the state of religion find ornament;

After them all, by knowledge and faith,

Was Asad Allah (Ali) the seal of the khalifs.”*

“Do not bestow veneration upon other names but theirs;

To none offer greater honors than to them.”

When thou findest one of the people of the Kibla (the true faith) in a sin and fault, accuse him not of infidelity, and number him not among the people of damnation; in like manner, consider not a fit and good man, although he be removed from sins, as belonging to the inhabitants of heaven.

“Whoever is an unbeliever with a zunar,

Do not consider him for certain as belonging to the inhabitants of hell.”

Having found the happy tidings that ten person­ages* have entered into heaven, do not however include him in their number.

“Because they are all formed of the pure offspring,

They received also the happy tidings of going to heaven.”

When any body is placed in the tomb, then two angels of a frightful appearance ask him: “Who was thy God, thy prophet, what thy creed?” If he give a right answer, then they keep his grave open, and make a window from heaven to it, that he may behold his future dwelling. But if his answer does not prove satisfactory, they beat his face soft with a club, and close the grave so tight upon him, that a noise issues from the compression of his sides; they also open a window from hell to him, so that he may there see his fate and his habita­tion. When the period of the world shall be ter­minated, the name of God shall not be pronounced by any tongue; then, by God's orders, shall Israfíl sound the trumpet, and extinguish all like lamps; afterwards, during ages, there shall be no motion upon the face of the earth, until Israfíl shall again, at God's order, by a blast of the trumpet blow the souls into the dispersed parts of their bodies, so that all shall revive. Afterwards, at the last judgment, the angels shall place the journal of actions recorded at the right hand of the virtuous, and at the left of the iniquitous. If the balance is weighed down by the good actions of a person, he goes to heaven; but if the scale, heavy with sins weighs down the other, hell awaits the sinner. This being brought to a close, an invisible bridge is thrown over hell; this bridge is sharper than the edge of a sword and thinner than a hair, and the believers and unbe­lievers are to be driven over it.

“When any unbeliever puts his foot upon it,

The abyss of hell shall be his habitation.”

The believer also shall, according to his knowledge and his actions, sooner or later pass over it; a weak faith shall not easily cross it.

“But he shall find salvation at the end of the business,

Although he may see many difficulties.”

There are fifty stations in the space on which the obedient and the rebels shall stop: upon each sta­tion another question is asked:

“He who gives a right answer

Crosses each station with rapidity.

But if not, in each, from a distressing condition,

He suffers pain and grief during one thousand years.”

The unbeliever shall suffer the torment of hell eternally; and the iniquitous believer shall remain in it, according to the estimation of his crimes.

“Either the entreaty of the intercessors

Shall liberate him from the retribution and punishment,

Or if, by intercession, the door of liberation does not open,

The most merciful of the merciful shall bestow salvation.”

When they come out of hell, they wash them­selves clean of smoke in the Kawser.* There are eight gradations, or steps, in heaven; and every man, according to his knowledge and conduct, shares a place in them, and enjoys eternal beatitude. The highest of blessings is the sight of God, the Almighty, whom the good behold as the moon of four­teen nights. This is upon the authority of the lord Mulána Abd-ul rahmen Jami.* It is written in an esteemed book, that there are in hell eight steps, in which men are placed according to the estimation of their sins.

Here is a short account of what I have learned from the speeches of intelligent men of the right faith. It is contained in their books that the first being created was the spirit of Muhammed.

“The first creature of God was my soul.”

To this allusion is made in the words quoted from the Koran. Then all the spirits of mankind were brought forth; these, before being united with bodies, remained four thousand years in the vicinity of the grace of the most high God:

“God created the souls four thousand years before the bodies.”

The heavens are understood to be the heavenly bodies of the sphere which is over our heads, and this has seven circles; the earth is the cover of the tortoise which is beneath our feet. There are seven earths:

“Who created seven heavens and earths like them.”

In each earth there are creatures, and among these creatures propagating inhabitants. The width of each earth is five hundred journeys of travel. The compartments of heaven are round; but in the middle of the circle is the tent of majesty; and in each sphere is an order of angels occupied with the worship and adoration of the divinity; one troop standing somewhat erect; another multitude inclined (with their hands on their knees); a number prostrated, with the forehead touching the ground; others sitting; some carry the throne of God; and every angel has a place and a post determined, which he cannot leave.

“Their place is a place known.”

From sphere to sphere there is a distance to be traversed in five hundred years of travelling; in each heaven is one of the seven planets, all the other stars are in the first heaven, which is the next to the world of mankind.

“We have adorned the inferior heaven with the ornament of stars,

And we have preserved it from all obstinate demons.”

The borders of heaven are upon the mount Kaf, and the throne of God* is higher than the seven spheres.

“He created the heavens and the earths.”

Above the throne of God is the ninth sphere (ârsh).

“He created the heavens and the earths in ten days, and then took rest upon his throne.”

The throne of God, the seven stories of heaven, and the seven âshîánah (nests, houses) of the earth are firm, and having taken their rest, do not move in any way, and are absolutely without motion.

All that has been enumerated did not exist in the beginning; the Almighty God created them without elementary matter by the action of his wisdom and absolute power. When the day of resurrection arrives, he shall fold together the heavens, and change the earth for another earth, and plunge the heavenly sphere and the earth into nothing. The earth of the resurrection will be like an earth of pure silver, and in this earth nobody shall have committed a crime. As the happy Abd ullah says:

“On the day when the earth shall be changed for another earth, that is, shall be changed for an earth of white silver, where no blood shall be shed, and no crimes shall be committed.”

On the day of resurrection, heaven and hell shall be made ready; the dispersed members shall again form their body and be reunited; and the soul shall again take possession of them. Some shall be car­ried to heaven, others to hell. The first of man­kind who was created was Adam; he was the father of men; his body was of earth; Adam was the father of all bodies, and Muhammed the father of all spirits.

“I was a prophet and a man, between water and earth;”

and all existence was brought forth according to, and in dependance upon, the existence of the prophet Muhammed.

The angels have wings to fly, with which they cross in one minute a distance of one thousand years' journey. Satan was brought forth from fire, and was accursed on account of disobedience.*

This is the greatest part of the creed professed by the people of Islam. They are divided into many sects. According to the account of some belonging to the persuasion of the Sonna and the Jamáât, the Mulla Muhammed Mâsúm, of Kashghar,* was a learned and virtuous man, and one of those who followed the doctrine of Hanefí, to whom he attached himself so much as to choose him for his master. His origin was from Badkahshán, and his name Shaikh Hossan; he always studied the Koran, the traditions, and other books of religion and law, and regulated his conduct after them; in such way he passed the day; he kept frequent fasts, never read poems nor listened to stories, and if any body uttered before him speeches of worldly people, he became angry. He was very cautious with the Shiâhs, and admitted them not to his house. The author of this book asked him, in Lahore: “What is the cause of the aversion which you always show to the Shiâhs. He replied: “I was origi­nally a Shiâh, and therefore conformed myself to that creed. One night I saw in a dream the lord Imâm Hossen, the son of the lord Alí, the son of Abí Taleb, and asked him about the real truth of religion; he enjoined me; ‘Be a Sonni, and keep away from the inconstant, for they are here­tics and idolators of my person, and then utter unbecoming words against the heads of reli­gion, Abubekr, Omar, and Osman, and by such an illusion they lost the right way: the way of truth is the doctrine of the Sonnites and the Jamáât.’”

Here follows what I have learned from the Shaikh Hossen, as well as from Mulla Aádil. A Shiâh is no Muselman, and when he brings forth his faith, it is not right, according to the saying of the prophet:

“Reviling the two shaikhs is an infidelity without repentance (remission).”

I heard from Mulla Yâkub Tarfánî, that these words for restraining the tongue exceed all bounds, and are an exaggeration in the veneration of the two Shaikhs (the grace of God be upon them); that yet repentance (remission) is admitted; he said besides that it is agreed, reviling is no infidelity.

Shaikh Manśur Máterîdî* became a follower of the lord Imám Abú Hanífa of Kufa, and Hujjet ul islam, “the proof of Islam,” the Imám Muhammed Gha­záli,* who was a traveller on the same road with the lord Jmám Sháfâyat* (the peace of God be upon them!) said in their literary compositions, and in books we read, that the root and the foundation of the seventy and two branches of religion are six doctrines, namely: the Tashbíah, Tâtîl, Jaber, Kadr, Rafs, and Naseb.*

In the âmedat ul mâtekad, “the pillar of believers,” composed by Shaháb ul hak, “flame of truth,” Shaikh of Islamism and of the Muselmans, Abu abd ulla Faselella , son of the Imám, the blessed, whom God has taken in his mercy, and whose sins are forgiven, Taj eddin, “the crown of the faith,” Abu Sâid al Hassan, son of Hassan, son of Yúsef al Súrí, is to be found, that the Tashbîhîan, “assimilators,” have attached to the most high God improper and unsuitable attri­butes, inasmuch as they have connected his creation partly with an elementary principle, and partly with accidents. The Tâtîlîan, “the indifferent,”* have denied God and his attributes. In the before-men­tioned book we find, the creed of this sect is, that the world has no Creator, and that it always was such as it is, and that, except what is surely per­ceived, there is no other existence.

We have also heard from Shaikh Hossen, that the Tâťíl maintain what some philosophers asserted, that God is the cause of things, and that the matter of the world was always in him. We learned also from Azîzî, that, according to this sect, God, the Almighty, when he created the world, attached its destiny to every thing that appeared, and that now, with­out God's taking any active part in it, every thing exists or perishes.*

The sect of the Jaberiah, “the compelled,” having given up, and denying, freedom of action in men, attach all their deeds to God.*

The Kadariah, “the powerful,” affect God in themselves, and reckon themselves the creators of all their actions.*

The Rafs, “heretics,” profess their devotion to Alí (the peace of God be with him!), and in the exag­geration of their affection, they make an unbecoming use of their tongue in reviling the illustrious Abu­bekr, Omar, and Osman (the peace of God be upon them!); they rebelled, and went so far that, who­ever did not, after the prophet of Arabia, without hesitation acknowledge the supremacy of Alí (the grace of God be with him!) and profess his being the chief of the faith and substitute of the prophet, was not reckoned by them among the Muselmans.

The Nawaséb, “enemies,” are devoted to Abu­bekr and Omar, and having prevailed in this devo­tion, they rejected Alí (the mercy of God be upon him!) and proceeded so far that, whoever did not, after the great prophet, plainly and decidedly acknowledge Abubekr and Omar (the grace of God be with them!) as khalifs of the prophet, and as Imáms, was by them excluded from the circle of the right faith.

Each of these six sects was subdivided into twelve, whence seventy and two sects arose.* All are in the fire of hell, by the precepts of the sayings of the prophet:

“My nation is divided into seventy and three sects, who are all in the fire of hell, except one.”

And those only who are without these seventy and two sects belong to the people of salvation, because they are of the true religion and upon the right road; but the true religion is that which is not to be found among the sects mentioned, and in which those six religions are not likely not to be, because these six religions did not exist in the time of the prophet and in the last will of the apostle. After him inno­vations took place, so that it is not unknown, in what time, and in what place or town, and by whom they became manifest, and from what cause they origi­nated. By concordance of the people of Islam, the right road and the true religion is that which Muhammed (blessing be upon him!) and after him the noble companions professed, and this faith is that of the Sonnites and the Jamáât. This is in sub­stance the creed of Shaíkh Mansúr, and of Hajet ul islám Abu Abd'ulla:* We are informed by the learned of the Hanefî persuasion, and by Mulla Yakúb Tur­khanî , who was an assistant and companion of Mulla Adil, that the religion of the Sonnites and the Jamâát is divided into four branches, which are the four sides of the city of the law of Muhammed, namely, the Hanefîah, Málkîah, Sháfâya, Hambalîah,* and the wanderer in these four religions is liberated.