. neither compulfion, nor free liberty \ A tenet of the Khattdbiam
or difciples of one Abu l Kha ttdb, is too peculiar to be omitted.
Thefe maintained paradife to be no other than the pleafure's of this
world., and hell-fire to be the pains thereof, and that the world will
never decay: which propofition being firft laid down, it is no wonder
they went farther, and declared it lawful to indulge themfelves
in drinking wine and whoring, and to do other things forbidden by
the law, and allb to omit doing the things commanded by the law2,
Many o f the Shiites carried their veneration for Alt and’ his defendants
fo far, that they tranfgrelfed all bounds of reafon and decency;
though fome o f them were lefs extravagant than others. The Gho-
lelites, who had their name from their exceffive zeal for their Imams,
were fo highly tranfported therewith, that they raifed them above
the degree of created beings, and attributed divine properties to them;
■ tranfgreffing on either hand, by deifying of mortal men, and by
making G od corporeal : for one while they liken one of their Imams
to G od, and another while they liken G od to a creature V The
feds of thefe are various, and have various appellations in different
countries. Abd'allah .Ebn Saba (who had been a Jew, and had aliened
the fame thing of Jofhua the fon of Nun) was the ring-leader
of one of them. This man gave the following falutation to Alt,
viz. I ’hou art Khou, i. e. Thou art G o d : and hereupon the ;Gho-
laites became divided into feveral fpecies j fome maintaining the
fame thing, or fomething like it, of Alt, and others of fome of one
o f his defendants; affirming that he was not dead, but would return
again in the clouds, and fill the earth with juftice.+. But howmuch-
foever they difagreed in other things, they unanimoully held a me-
tempfyehofis, and what they call al Holul, or the defeent of G o d on
his creatures; meaning thereby that G od is prefent in every place,
and fpeaks with every tongue, and appears in fome individual per-
fon 5- and hence fome of them afferted their Imams to be prophets,
and at length gods 6, . The Nofairians and the IJhdkians taught that
fpiritual fubftances appear in grolfer bodies; and that the angels and
the devil have appeared in this manner. They alfo alfert that G od
hath appeared in the form of certain men; and fince, after Mohammed,
there hath been no man more excellent than AH, and, after
him, his fohs have excelled all other men, that G od hath appeared
in their form, fpoken with their tongue, and made ufe .of their
1 ' Al Shahreft. ib. p. 263. 1 Idem, & Ebn al Koffi, ib. p. 260, &c. 3 Idem, ibid '
4 Idem, ib. p. 1264. V. Marracc. Prodr. part. iii. p. 80, &c. 1 Idem, ib d 2 6 V.
D’HefbeL Bibl. Or. Art. Hakem beamrillah. ’ !>•
hands,
hands, for which reafon, fay they, we attribute divinity to them
And to fupport thefe blafphemies, they tell feveral miraculous things
of Alt, as his moving the gates of Khaibar % which they urge as a
plain proof that he was endued with a particle of divinity and with
fovereign power, and that he was the perfon in whofe form G o d
appeared, with whofe hands he created all things, and with whofe
tongue he publiffied his commands; and therefore they fay he was
in being before the creation of heaven and earth k In fo impious
a manner do they feem to wreft thofe things which are faid in ferip-
ture of C h r 1 s t , by applying them to A li. Thefe extravagant
fancies o f the Shiites, however, in making their Imams partakers of
; the divine nature, and the impiety of fome of thofe Imams in lay-
; ing claim thereto, are fo far from being peculiar to this fed:, that
moft of the other Mohammedan feds are tainted with the fame mad-
I nefs; there being many found among them, and among the Sufis
[efpecially, who pretend to be nearly related to heaven, and who
boaft of ftrange revelations before the credulous people 4. It may
not be amifs to hear what al Ghazali has written on this occafion.
Matters are come to that pafs, fays he, that fome boafi o f an. union
With G o d , and o f difeourfing familiarly with him, without the interpofi-
tion o f a vail, faying, It hath been thus faid to us, and We have thus
fpoken; affeSling to imitate Hofein al Hallaj, who was put to death fo r
tfime words oj this kind uttered by him, he having- faid (as was proved
by credible witneffes,) I am the Truth k or Abu Yaz?d al Baftami, o f
Unborn it is related that he often ufed the expreffion, Sobhani, i. e. Praife
I be unto me 6 1 But this way of talking is the caufe o f great mifehief
I atpo'ng the common people ; infomuch that husbandmen, negleSting the
[tillage o f their land, have pretended to the like privileges ■, nature being
j tickled with difeourfes o f this kind, which furnifh men with an excufe
mr leaving their occupations, under pretence o f purifying their fouls,
and attaining I know not what degrees and conditions. Nor is there any
thing to hinder the mofi Jlupid fellows from forming the like pretenfions,
and catching at fuch vain exprefiioris : for whenever what they fay is
denied' to be true, they fa il not to reply, that our unbelief proceeds from
learning and logic; affirming learning to be a vail, and logic the work o f
the mind; whereas what they tell us appears only within, being difeovered
by the light of truth. But this is that truth the fparks whereof have
I ' I,dem> E l Abulfar. p. 169. 2 See Prii. Life of Mah. p. 93. 3 Al Shah, ubi fupr.
m m „ * Pococt. Spec. p. 267. 2 V. D’Herbel. Bibl. Orient. Art. Hallage. « V.
ADia. Art. Baftham.
a a jlown