Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/68

 50 JUDAISM AND

behind hand, for we read in one passage that 1 " it (hell) hath seven gates, unto every gate a distinct company of them shall be assigned." According to the Jews, a tree stands at the entrance to hell : 2 " Two date palms grow in the valley of Ben Hinnom, smoke issues from between them and this is the entrance to hell " j but Muhammad knows a tree of hell called Al Zaqq-dm 3 which serves sinners for food, about which he has much to relate. The step from such a definite idea of hell to the notion of a personality connected with it is an easy one, and we find such an individual mentioned by the Eabbis as the " prince of Grehinnom ; " 4 he is called however in the Quran simply Jahannam. In one Babbinical book 5 we find the following : " That the prince of hell saya daily, Give me food to satisfy me, comes from Isaiah, v. 14. " Muhammad says similarly: 6 " On that day We will say unto hell, ( Art thou full ? ' and it shall say ' Are there more ' ? "

When the conceptions of Paradise and hell became so definite, and their names were no longer general terms for reward and punishment, a third destination had to be provided for those whose conduct had not been such as to

a

Sftra XV. 44.

Sukkab32.

3 \ s S4ras XXXVII. 60, XLIV. 43,

4

6 OtMoth Derabbi.Akiba, 8. 1. D'SH^. trf JTltjJ

6 Sura L. 29. & y* JA jyiTj y)b^ JJb "