The Dabistan

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other prophets. For if it were stated in the book of
Jesus, that at the determined time, as we have just
shown, there shall appear a person whose name in
Arabia shall be Muhammed, sprang from the father
Abd 'ulla and the mother Amina, from the children
Hashem and Koresh, inhabitants of Mecca; and he
shall be the last prophet of the age; all the Chris-
tians should acknowledge and believe in him. And
in the same manner there should have been, in the
book of Moses, a prediction of Jesus, and a further
account of events which took place at his appearance.
But this is not the case, except that the followers of
Jesus seize, in figurative language, on whatever may
suit their persuasion. Thus it happened that one
of the Afghans applied the words: " Say, there is
" but one God/' to himself.

He further said: " If I agree to their prophetic
mission., whence was it shown that this people were
prophets? for, if pursuant to their claim to prophe-
tic office and legislation, we adopt what at every
time is held out as legal, why are their fundamental
articles of faith in contradiction to each other with
respect to the knowledge of the self-existent Being?
Thus, in the Pentateuch of the Jews, God has a
body, and corporeity; and the Christians believe
Jesus a son of God, and the Muhaminedans accord-
ing to the Koran believe God to be without an equal,
and not to be described. If God be similar to what