George Sale, The Koran, commonly called the Alcoran of Mohammed, translated into English immediately from the original Arabic; with Explanatory Notes, taken from the most approved Commentators. To which is prefixed A Preliminary Discource (1734)
and honey 1. Their Behemoth and Leviathan, which they pretend will be slain for the entertainment of the blessed 2, are so apparently the Balâm and Nûn of Mohammed, that his followers themselves confess he is obliged to them for both 3. The Rabbins likewise mention seven different degrees of felicity 4, and say that the highest will be of those who perpetually contemplate the face of God 5. The Persian Magi had also an idea of the future happy estate of the good, very little different from that of Mohammed. Paradise they call Behisht, and Mînu, which signifies crystal, where they believe the righteous shall enjoy all manner of delights, and particularly the company of the Hurâni behisht, or black-eyed nymphs of paradise 6, the care of whom they say is committed to the angel Zamiyâd 7; and hence Mohammed seems to have taken the first hint of his paradisiacal ladies.
It is not improbable, however, but that he might have been obliged, in some respect, to the Christian accounts of the felicity of the good in the next life. As it is scarce possible to convey, especially to the apprehensions of the generality of mankind, an idea of spiritual pleasures without introducing sensible objects, the scriptures have been obliged to represent the celestial enjoyments by corporeal images; and to describe the mansion of the blessed as a glorious and magnificent city, built of gold and precious stones, with twelve gates; through the streets of which there runs a river of water of life, and having on either side the tree of life, which bears twelve sorts of fruits, and leaves of a healing virtue 8. Our Saviour likewise speaks of the future state of the blessed as of a kingdom, where they shall eat and drink at his table 9. But then these descriptions have none of those puerile imaginations 10 which reign throughout that of Mohammed, much less any the most distant intimation of sensual delights, which he was so fond of; on the contrary, we are exprelly assured, that in the resurrection they will neither marry nor be given in marriage, but will be as the angels of God in heaven 11. Mohammed, however,
1 Midrash, Yalk. Shem.
2 Gemar. Bava Bathra. f. 78. Rashi, in Job i.
3 V. Poc. not. in. Port. Mosis, p. 298.
4 Nishmat hayim, f. 32.
5 Midrash, Tehillim, f. 11.
6 Sadder, porta 5.
7 Hyde, de rel. vet. Pers. p. 265.
8 Revel. xxi 10, &c and xxii. 1, 2.
9 Luke, xxii. 29, 30, &c.
10 I would not, however, undertake to defend all the Christian writers in this particular; witness that one passage of Irenæus, wherein he introduces a tradition of St. John, that our Lord should say, The days fall come, in which there shall be vines, which shall have each ten thousand branches, and every of those branches shall have ten thousand lesser branches, and every of those branches shall have ten thousand twigs, and every one of these twigs shall have ten thousand clusters of grapes, and in every one of these clusters there shall be ten thousand grapes, and every one of these grapes being pressed shall yield two hundred and seventy five gallons of wine; and when a man shall take hold of one of these sacred bunches, another bunch shall cry out, I am a better bunch, take me, and bless the Lord by me, &c. Iren. l. 5. c. 33.
11 Matth. xxii. 30.
