Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/69

 AL-A'RAJ. 51

entitle them to the former nor condemn them to the latter place. Thus while the righteous * found their place in Paradise, and the sinners had their portion in hell, those who belonged to neither class were placed in a space between Paradise and Hell, of which it is said in the Midrash on Ecclesiastes, vii. 14: 2 " How much room is there between them ? Eabbi Jochanan says a wall ; B. Acha says a span ; other teachers however hold that they are so close together that people can see from one into the other. " 3 The idea just touched upon in this passage is most poetically worked out in Sura YII. 44, 4 "And between the blessed and the damned there shall be a veil j

1 D^T?? righteous, Q'tyffi sinners. Q'O'fo^Sl those who staad between.

2

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3 Concerning this intermediate place S'adi cleverly remarks that it seems to the blessed as hell, to the lost as paradise (D'Herbelot Bibliotheque Orientale under A'raf. page 113).


 * Elpherar comments on this passage as follows :

" These are those whose good and evil deeds are so evenly balanced that the latter preclude them from paradise, while the former save them from hell, therefore they remain standing here until Gcd has declared His pleasure concerning them." And later, when he gives our explanation of verse 45 in a long chain of traditions, he says :

" Those whose good and evil deeds are equal are the middle men and stand on the road. Thence they can see at once the inhabitants ot paradise and those of hell ; if they turn to the former, they cry ' Peace be unto you :' if to the latter " etc. .....