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and abet in diminishing the rank of prophets, or excite any idea of inferiority or diminution in their rank, among those who were chary of receiving what was not perfectly clear. Another opinion is, that the Prophet did not abstain from a positive definition herein, but for this reason :-he dreaded lest the matter thus put in men's minds should stir up any strife or dissension among Jews and Moslems;-but God knows.

Ibn Abbas says, Admire how that the Right of Friendship belongs to Abraham, the Speech to Moses, the Seen Vision to Muhammad. The Spoken Word of God unto Moses is peculiar to him. God spake to Moses, and Moses heard the words of God uninjured; and his words were far from such as can be expressed by letters and vowels, just as when the Moslems shall behold God on the day of judgment: he shall be very different from any objects towards which our eye can be directed, or our eye-sight embrace. This is a most excellent opinion, well worthy of true acceptance.

Now for his compassion towards the Moslem people, and his pity with regard to them :--This consisted in the remission of the original number of prayers imposed, which was lowered from fifty to five. Now for some of the miracles of Moses: -When Pharaoh's guards, commissioned to sacri

fice all the male children of Israel, came unto his mother, his sister said, O mother! the guards are at the doors. Then his mother rolled him in a cloth, and put him in the oven, which was then blazing, not understanding what she was doing. The guards then came, and found the oven blazing. The mother did not change colour, or make any sign which might discover her son. So they went away, and, her senses returning unto her, she said unto Moses's sister, Where is the little boy? So she said, I know not. But hearing a weeping voice in the oven, she opened it, and lo! God had made the fire blazing around him cool and safe. Many other remarkable and eminent wonders and miracles were performed by him, which are enumerated among the miracles of the prophets. He was named Moses for this reason: -After his mother had cast him into the sea, he was found in the water and among the trees of Pharaoh's demesne. Then they asked Asíat, Pharaoh's wife, to name him; when she said, I name him Moses; for in the Egyptian language is the name of water, and is the name of a tree.

مو (موسي)

سي

When Moses died, no one of the children of Israël knew where his tomb was, or whither he had departed therefore the people were all in a swelling tumult, and wandered about hither and

thither, sleeping neither day nor night: and on the third day there came unto them, in the evening, rapidly passing over them, a swiftly-moving cloud, wherein was a crier, who cried with a very loud voice, "Moses is dead; but his soul is not dead." This he repeated three times, so that all aight understand, and know that he was dead; but that no mortals knew where he was. Again the Prophet said, No one can attain to the tomb of Moses but the vulture (or pelican), and God hath bereft her of understanding, lest she should show any one the way thereunto. This is found in a comment upon the verse, "O ye, who believe, be not like unto those who troubled Moses, saying, He had killed Aaron his brother; and unto this Moses did angels reveal the time of his death; nor does any one know where his tomb is but the pelican. This was done by God, your ineffable Lord." Moses died at the age of 120 years. Aaron died one year before Moses; being older than Moses by one year. Moses died on the seventh of Adar, and was buried in the valley where he died. Aaron was born a year before Moses; and it is said that death abstained from cutting off the old men of the sons of Israël : therefore the Egyptian chiefs said unto Pharaoh, Death abstains from those people; therefore very soon will they become great and opulent; there

fore slay the infants. Then he commanded that they should slay one year, and spare the next. And Aaron was born in the year of indulgence, and Moses in the year of slaughter.

Now with respect to Moses' entreaty to be brought within a stone's throw near unto the Holy Land, &c. &c.-First, Moses, it is said, prayed unto God, saying, O Lord! let me die within a stone's throw of the Holy Land! Muhammad also said, “ If I had not conversed with him, certainly I would have shown you his tomb, by the side of the road, adjoining a red sand-mound." Now Moses, some say, did not ask permission to breathe in the Holy Land; nor did he request any fixed and known spot to be appropriated unto him, which men should have cognizance of; but he besought to be buried a stone's throw from the Holy Land. To this it is replied, that he wished to be buried a stone's throw from it, that he might look down upon it; and wished not the place to be known, lest men should adore it. Also, the great multitude of traditions assert nothing about this stone's-throw cast, (as applying to his tomb). One of these is, that his tomb is now to be seen in the Holy Abode; for (the tradition states) Moses besought of God one thing; and God gave him a gift far beyond and above his request. And this is surely the usual

custom of the generous, to grant more than the petitioner requests. To this day, all the people of the Baitu-1-Mukaddas, and others, act upon this last ancient tradition; for they consider that he was buried in the Holy Land, and that his tomb is a fit point of direction for Pilgrimage unto the chapel mentioned before. Hither, then, they bring pieces of cloth of gold; and here they pass the night, doubly sounding the praise of God. Here they also barter their property for meat and drink, and permission to observe this custom. This is done both by the men and women, natives of the Holy Land, and the visiters thereunto. They cease not unto this day. Thus asserts the historian Dhi-Addín-Al-Mukaddisí :— It is said that this tomb, thus remarkably signalised, is to be found in the Holy Land, near Jericho. Hard by is a red sand-mound, by the side of the public road.--But God knows :-I have done.

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