Page:The Mohammedan system of theology (IA mohammedansyste00neal).pdf/58

 licence, reserving however to himself the superiority. Various accounts are adapted, partly from the Scriptures, and partly from other sources, to shew the vengeance of God upon such as slighted former messengers. He gave them to understand that the old world was destroyed by a deluge, for disobedience to Noah, that Sodom was consumed by fire and brimstone for its treatment of Lot, and the Egyptians were drowned in the Red Sea for rejecting the mission of Moses, and also that Ad and Thamud, two ancient Arabian tribes, were swept away from the face of the earth for neglecting the warning of Saleh ; he proclaimed also the joys of heaven and the torments of hell, to all who should receive or reject his mission.

During his residence at Mecca, it is universally allowed that his general conduct was