SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 2w , 1923.,
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
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the picturet of that evil, grinning trouble with the present day Moslems
phantam in the corner, strumming a is that thousands of them still believe
wild tune on a lute. Look at the leer- literally everything that Mohammed
ing, evil lines of his face, at the twist- said. To doubt him is to doubt the
ing, flame-like growth that springs Word of God. Hell is today a part
irom his deformed head, at those of Mohammedanism, not vaguely as
puffy rwhite hands with their little, we sometimes see it persisting, but
F pointed fingers. You-shudder and locok vividly ,aod specifically and immiet-
away but he haunts you. The twist- ly. The following eventsofa sinner's
ed body seems to crawl towards you torture are gathered together from
and the sharp tongue to move angrl- various Moslem beliefs and practical-
ly. But he is still there, his pointed ly every one can be found mentioned
fingers plucking out unearthly tunes accurately in the Koran. The quota-
while the girl moves slowly, as if in tions included are identified by Sura
a trance-his slave, flesh and bones. number (Chapter- number) and line
You are not horrified or afraid but number. The translation used is
fascinated, a fascination that repels Sale's.
while it entices. You will fall in with When a sinner dies, his soul is cruel-
that slow sway of the body a feve ly torn from his body by the Angel
will mount in you and soon you will of Death and is carted off to Hell
drop burned out. You cannot attain where the demons pinch their own
the pure evil, noses and motion it away. Thence
And there-what an imperfect, what it is taken to heaven where God
a shamefully inadequate expression sneers and condemns it back to Hell
of the emotions Aubrey Beardsley's again. Then the soul goes back to its
drawings produce! If I let myself be body in the grave to await cross-ex-
absorbed by them, the suffused emo- amination on the day of judgment.
tion hounds in my ears and seems Every soul, good or bad, mst lie pa-
about to burst its gates and flood into tiently in the grave waiting for this,
-where? Haven't I answered that? but the trial is easy and brief for the
Surely Beardsley has not produced good man, though most horrible for
emotions for their own sake. He was the wicked. Pretty soon a couple of
striving to reach a clear, cool realiza- awful angels (black with blue eyes-
tion of an unearthly ideal. In doing a hideous combination) named Munkar
so he had to purge hhnself of emotions and Nekir come and start questioning
and the only way to do that was to the descended about his faith. They
burn the emotions out. The purging ask him who God is and how many
process and the attainment of the gods there are, whatehis raigion is,
ideals are both in his drawings. He and who the great prophet was; but,
travels a lonely, strange road whose of course, being a sinner, he is not
dangers stop many. Beardsley was informed on these judicious matters,
fearless and he reached the end. If so his sentence is prepared.
we too are fearless we can find the Hell seems to draw near to him.
end in his drawings. What the term- He hears the sizzling swashbucklers
ination of that terrible journey may scream. The red coals-glow and he-
be we cannot know. Surely something s.
listhere.th sees 'their refection. Steam shots
What I have written is like the mo- ff.Thehot air dries u and shrinks
notonous tapping of a foot where no him. Then Devils come and beat him
music can be heard. But there is the with iron clubs, and make him gen-
music and it is to be found In Beards- orally miserable until the Judgment
ey's drawings, day. Proof that all this is so Is
offgred in the fact that eamels and
VARIATIONS asses often bak when passing over
(Cont inued on Page.Five) the-graves of dead inners;- becaud
would see it 'during their own life- they hear the- commotion going on
time. Tousaauch a bhgef is ridiculous, below.
but totheMoslem it--was and is-new f . a
a paramount truth. Horror of hell- At last the judgment day begins to
fire and of sizzling corpses no longes arrive. The "Blat .of'Qstnation"
deprecates -t-he .peace of oar mindsi is heard and the twenty-four signs ft
because the society into which we the coIing round-gpre.gvs,Thpse
have been. opnas-recently changed signs are didl into "leser" signs
its opinion about the world's imols and '"greater" signs (eight of the
nent danger, and is now imbued withformer and sixteen of-the hatter). One
the Idea of Progress. But the Idea Jexcellent referdnce to them in the
of Progress has not yet penetrated Koran is the .chapter entitled, "The
Islam. The hell idea is still the main- Folding Up". (Sura ,,LXXXI):.It reads:
spring of Moslem morality. "When ,the sun ,hall be folded
.up; and wheo the stars-shall fall;
We are not justified, I. think, in and when the iouatins s hall be
laughing too heartily at their delus' made to pass away; ,and when the
ions; for we must remember that we, camels ten month-gSno with young
.ourselves, have only just dispersed shall be neglected;and when the
them. As Mr. J. B. Bury has so salen- hdbeasts shall be gathered to'
didly indicated, the. Idea of Progress gether; and when the seas shall
is quite recent in its development and boil; and when the souls shall be
even as late as Francis Bacon, think-j joined again to their bodies; and
ing men spoke of the end of thej when the girl who bath been buried
world as close by. They regarded life alive shall be asked for what crime
as delicate and almost inconsequen she was put todeath; and when the
tial. Wrote Pascal: "Between us and books shall be laid open;-and when
heaven and hell there is only life, the heaven shall be removed; and
which is the frailest thing in theI when hell shall burn- fiercely; and
world." Is it any wonder that a physi- when paradise -shall be broght
cal conception of Immorality was pre near; every soul shall know what it
dominant? When life beyond the I hath wrought!"
grave was so dangerously near, could When suitable preparations ars
it very well be spiritualized? The made and all men and women stand
spiritualization of the Scriptures and Iaked before God, then comes the
later of the Koran is of late growth, electrifying judgment. god's book-
Death today tends to be minimized, keepers come forth with their ledgers
but in Mohammed's time and for long in which appear all the deeds of
after it was the most important thing men; and for each individual these are
in the world. To them, death was a weighed in a balance. The book of
great close catastrophe in view of! good Is placed on one side of the
which every one lived in fear. -The scales and the evil book is placed on
tendency even yet persists. Says the other, and the reading is take.
George Santayana, speaking of the "Those whose balaces shall be
tendency: "Dying is something ghast'- heavy with good- works shl be
ly, as being born is something ridi- Ihappy; but those -whose belalee
culous." shall -be light are those who shall
Mohammed's fancy ran wild when lose their so ls -and shall -rejmain
he depicted hell; but this is largely in hell forever." (23:114)
excusable -as I have suggested. The Finally, after th' weiging is done,