Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/57

 puted fully to instruct the favoured Arabians by the Koran, to supply the deficiencies of former revelations, and to close the book of prophecy. The Arabians prided themselves in their descent from Ishmael, and the antiquity of the temple at Mecca: in accordance with these feelings he states, that it was built by angels for the Patriarch Abraham, after the pattern of that in which Adam had worshipped God in Paradise, and that it is placed under its arche-type in heaven (consequently they consider Paradise in heaven,) and that Abraham and Ishmael worshipped there; that in process of time idolatry prevailed, from which he was commissioned to rescue them: he further designates his faith as a republication of that of Abraham, who, he says, was neither Jew nor Christian, but a Musulman ; he allows the missions of former Prophets to an extent almost bordering on