compofed of members or parts, either fpiritual or corporeal, and capable
of local motion, of afcent and defcent, & c Some of this
fedt inclined to the opinion of the Holûlians, who believed that the
divine nature might be united with the human in the fame perfon ;
for they granted it poffible that G od might appear in a human
form, as Gabriel did : and to confirm their opinion they alledge Mohammed’s
words, that he faw his L ord in a mojl beautiful form, and
Mofes’s talking with G od face to face p And
3. The Kefâmians, or followers of Mohammed Ebn Kerâm, called
alfo Mojajfemians, or Corporalifis ; who not only admitted a refemblance
between G od and created beings, but declared G od. to be corporeal
3. The more fober among them, indeed, when they applied
the word body to G od, would be underftood to mean, that he is a
feif-fubfjling being, which with them is the definition of body: but
yet fome of them affirmed him to be finite, and eircumferibed either
on all fides, or on fome only, (as beneath, for example,) according to-
different opinions ♦ ; and others allowed that he might be felt by the
hand, and feen by the eye. Nay, one David al faw dri went fo far
as to fay, that his deity was a body compofed of flefh and: blood,,
and that he had members, as hands, feet, a head, a tongue, eyes,
and ears; but that he was a body, however, not like other bodies,
neither was he like to any created being : he is alfo faid farther to
have affirmed that from the crown of the head to the breaft he was
hollow, and from the breaft downward folid, and that he had black
curled hair K Thefe moft blafphemous and monftrous notions were
the confequence of the literal acceptation of thofe paflages in the
Koran which figuratively attribute corporeal addons to G o d , and
of the words of Mohammed, when he faid, that G od created man
in his own image, and that himfelf had fe lt the fingers o f God, which
he laid on his back, to be cold: befides which, this fedt are charged
with fathering on their prophet a great number of fpurious and
forged traditions to fupport their opinion, the greater part whereof
they borrowed from the fews, who are accufed as naturally prone
to affimilate G od to men, fo that thëy defcribe him a9 weeping for
Noah’s flood till his eyes were fore 6. And indeed, though we grant
the few s may have impofed on Mohammed and his followers in
many inftances, and told them as folemn truths things which, them-
felves believed not or had invented, yet many expreffions of this-
T Al Shahreft. apud eund. ib. p. 226. 2 V. Marracc. Prodr. partiii. p. 76; 3 AlShahseft.
ubi iupra» 4 Idem, ib. p. 225, * Idem,, ib. p. 226, 227. 6 Idem,, ib. p. 227, 228.
kind are to be found in their writings; as when they introduce G o d
roaring like a lyon at every watch of the night, and'crying, Alas!
that I have laid wafie my houfe, and fupjered my temple toa be burnt,
and fent my children into banijhment among the heathen, &c V
4. The fabarians ; who are the diredt opponents o f the Kada-
rians, denying free agency in man, and afcribing his adtions wholly
unto G o d 2. They take their denomination from al Jabr, which
fignifies necefjity, or compulfion; becaufe they hold man to be necefja-
rily -and inevitably conflrained to adt as he does, by force of G o d ’s
eternal and immutable decree 3. This fedt is diftinguiffied into fe-
veral fpecies; fome being more rigid and extream in their opinion,
who are thence called pure fabarians, and others more moderate,
who.are therefore called middle fabarians. The former will not allow
men to be faid either to aB, or to have any power at all, either
operative or acquiring; afierting that man can do nothing, but produces
all his adtions by necefjity, having neither pow£r, nor will, nor
choice, any more than an inanimate agent: they alfo declare that rewarding
and punifhing are alfo the effedts o f necefjity ; and the fame •
they fay of the impofing of commands. This was the dodtrine of
the fahmians, the followers of fahm Ebn Safwan, who- likewife
held that paradife and hell will vaniffi, or be annihilated, after thofe
who are deftined thereto refpedtively (hall have entred them, fo that
at laft there will remain no exifting being befides G o d 4; fuppofing
thofe words of the Koran, which declare that the inhabitants o f paradife
and of hell Jhall remain therein forever, to be hyperbolical qnly,
and intended for corroboration, and not to denote an eternal duration
in reality 5. The moderate fabarians are they who afcribe fome
power to man, but fuch a power as hath no influence on the adtion:
for as to thofe who grant the power of man to have a certain influence
on the adtion, which influence is called Acquifition, fome 6 will
not admit them to be called fabarians-, though others reckon thofe
alfo to be called middle fabarians, and to contend for the middle
opinion between abfolute necefjity and abfolute liberty,-who attribute to man
acquifition, or concurrence in producing the adtion, whereby he gaineth
commendation or blame, (yet without admitting it to have any influence
on the adtion,) and therefore make the Ajharians a branch o f
this ledt 7. Having again mentioned the term Acquifition, we may
1 Talm. Berachoth, c. i . V. Poe. ubi fupra, p
. 228. 2 V. Abulfarag. p. 168. 3 Al Shah-
. 238, &c. 4 Al Shahreft. al Motarezzi, &
Iidepi, ib p. 260. $ Al Shahrelh . 7 Ebn
al Mawakef, & Ebn al Koffa, apud Poe. ib. p
Ebn al Kofla, apud eund. p. 239, 243, &c. v