Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/108

 90 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

pass when they journeyed from the beginning (East), that is to say, when they withdrew themselves from Him Who is the beginning of the world." Muhammad says of these people l that they built an (idolatrous) symbol on every high place in order to play there (i.e. to practice idolatry). And the Eabbis tell us 2 that the race of the dispersion contemplated building a tower and putting an idol on its summit. Resemblances are also to be found with reference to the punishment which overtook them. Muhammad tells us 3 they were followed in this world by a curse, and that they shall be followed by the same on the day of resurrection, and the Eabbis say 4 that the race of the dispersion had no part in the next world, for the twice-mentioned dispersion applies to this world and the other. In Muhammad's treatment the essential point of the punishment is lost sight of, for instead of describing it as a simple dispersion and confusion of tongues, he speaks of an absolute annihilation of the sinners by a poisonous wind. 5 One sees at once the mistaken source from which this change is derived. We recognize partly from our knowledge of Muhammad's motives in making the alteration, and partly from the minuteness with which

1 Sura XXVI. 128. $& HTj g*, JSJ ^y^f Compare to play, Exodus, xxxii. 6.

Sura XI. 63. XsJT ' Il*5 f^

4 Mishna Sanhedrin X. 3. Genesis, xi. 8, 9.

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5 Suras XLT. 15, XLVI. 23 ff. LI. 41, LIV. 19, LXIX. 6 ff.