Page:Islam, Turkey, and Armenia, and How They Happened.djvu/48

42 Ramazan is believed to be the month in which the Koran descended from the seventh to the first heaven, and in which Mohamet had a nights journey to heaven. In the fourteenth night of that month the archangel Gabriel aroused him by gently touching his side and led him out of his house, where a winged mule waited for them. They both rode the animal, which took them in a moment to the top of Mount Sinai; the next moment they were in the Temple of Jerusalem, at the gate of which they left the mule, and Gabriel, carrying Mohamet upon his wings, put him on the threshold of heaven. After visiting all the seven stages of heaven he approached to the throne of the Almighty and saw the eternal plate upon which "the Word of Ages" was written. Mohamet testifies that upon each gate of heaven he saw the Arabic inscription, "There is no deity but Allah, and Mohamet is the Apostle of Allah." After this miraculous visit and glorious vision he was taken home by the same route. In this illustrious night, "El Kadr," there was an extraordinary calmness on the earth, so that the roaring streams kept still, the winds did not blow, the poisonous serpents and the ferocious animals were motionless in their dens, the robbers could not go out to their business, and the diseases and the evil spirits were controlled.

3. Pilgrimage to the Sacred Kabeh at Mecca. This is a duty put upon those who can afford the expenses and bear the troubles of the long and tiresome journey. If one can not go himself he may send a