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ZOROASTRIAN
ELEMENTS IN THE QUR'AN |
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mentioned in the Qur'an ,
where we are told that they were made of fire ,
as were the angels and the demons. The word itself seems
to be Persian, for the singular Jinni is the
Avestic Jaini ,
a wicked (female) spirit.
In examining the question of the origin of the Muhammadan
legend regarding the "Balance," we saw that
it is stated in the Traditions that in his Mi'raj
Muhammad saw Adam weeping in heaven when he looked at
the "Black
Figures" (al aswidah) on his left hand,
but rejoicing when his glance rested on those which
stood at his right.
These black figures were the spirits of his descendants
as yet unborn. They are generally termed "The
Existent Atoms" (adu dharratu'l kainat).
They differ from the beings mentioned in the "Testament
of Abraham" (from which the main features of that
portion of the tale are borrowed) in the fact that,
in the latter book, Abraham sees the spirits of his
descendants who had died, while in the Muhammadan
tradition he sees those of men not yet born,
in the form of "Existent Atoms." The name
by which these beings are known in Muhammadan religious
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TRADITIONS OF ISLAM. |
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is undoubtedly a purely Arabic one. But the idea
seems to have been derived from the Zoroastrians, among
whom these beings were called fravashis
in Avestic and feruhars in Pahlavi. Some have
fancied that possibly the Persians adopted this idea
from the ancient Egyptians, but this hardly seems probable.
Whether it be so or not, the Muslims are indebted for
their belief in the preexistence of men's spirits to
the Zoroastrians.
The Muslims speak of the Angel of Death very much
as the Jews do, though the latter say that his name
is Sammael, while the former call him 'Azrail. But this
latter name is not Arabic but Hebrew, once more
showing the extent of the influence exercised by the
Jews upon nascent Islam. As this angel's name is not
mentioned in the Bible, it is evident that what the
Jews and the Muslims say about him must be borrowed
from some other source. This is probably Persian, for
the Avesta tells us of an angel called Astovidhotus
or Vidhatus, "the divider," whose duty
it is to separate body and spirit. If a man fell into
fire or water and was burnt to death or drowned, the
Zoroastrians held that his death could not be due to
the fire or to the water — for |
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