5664. On the other side, in the border region where Christianity ends, many, up to a hundred thousand, stayed on. They were worshiping that Mohammed as God and did not think about the Lord and scarcely about the God of the universe. They were all zealously working to loose Mohammed from the chains and restore him again to his original station. And when they had tried this in vain, they made another individual Mohammed, first from among themselves. But when this did not succeed, they chose someone in a high mountain above Christianity, with whom they took counsel and whom they obeyed just as they had the previous Mohammed. But that gang, which was like this, was not content with this. On the counsel of their new Mohammed they also began to move themselves into the Christian world and in various ways and by various tricks began to claim power for themselves there. They streamed in among certain ones and injured Christians; and they also sent the cleverest of them to me, and he got himself into possession of the province of my left ear and hid himself some time and in this way from that position strengthened them so that eventually they could scarcely be resisted.
5665[a]. But when this was discovered, an investigation was then made and it was found that this [had been done] by those Mohammedans who were within the borders in the western part; and what they were like and why they had done such a thing was looked into since they had not set themselves against Christianity at an earlier time. It was then found that that gang had been like this because they worshiped Mohammed as a sort of God and that they had no thought about the Lord in harmony with their own religious belief. What kind of mental image they had of God the Father was also investigated, [and it was found that] that they had no other than as of the created universe, and that it was a mental image without a human mental image, as it was with the rest, consequently that they had no mental image of God the Father. They said that from their own religious belief they could have thought about the Lord if they wanted, and gone to Him rather than Mohammed who to them from a religious viewpoint was a minor prophet. But they said they could not do this, because in the world they had rejected this thought on account of Christians, who were enemies to them. It was learned subsequently that they were an aimless people: they had no desire either to do anything or to be of service to any kind of undertaking, just like those in the mountains there, who have bureaucratic controls and bureaucracies [5060].
5666[a]. Because that gang was such that they worshiped Mohammed so much, I found out what the case was of Mohammed himself. The Mohammed who wrote the Koran and was buried in Mecca was taken away from his own place where he was, he was deep down in a place a little behind the right foot, and was raised up above to the left of my head and appeared to them there. He appeared a rough type, dressed in black, like people who are concerned with bodily things and who have little life. Those who are there are almost stupid. He spoke with them a little and said that he was of such a nature and that he was among those who are concerned with bodily things. And after this he withdrew to his own place.
5667[a]. After this another Mohammed who was in chains [and] whom they were seeking was brought out, and it was found out who he had been in the world, namely, that he had been born in Saxony and then became a ship's captain, and was taken captive by Algerians and freed by them; and that because he there adopted the Mohammedan religion, he was trusted so that he again was a ship's captain and then was captured by the Genoans and set free by them too, and that he had been steeped in both the Christian and the Mohammedan religion and had occupied a place in the Christian world, about which above [5600]. And when he had convinced those who were in the border region that he was Mohammed, being possessed by the desire of ruling, he ruled them for quite a considerable time, acknowledging the Lord from the Christian religion, and as a result was able to be led by the Lordתconcerning this see many things above 2. And there was also another Mohammed who was a Christian from Greece who had a place behind him, and he, because he sometimes carried out his duties and worked diligently, was kept from going away and was acknowledged by certain of them who had thought about many Mohammeds and so about another one too.
5268.
Footnotes:
2. 5600.
5668[a]. As regards the others who are in the mountains there, when they come into the other life they of course first think about Mohammed, but after this they leave him and think about God the Father, the creator of the universe, and about the Lord, that He was the greatest Prophet, the wisest of men, and the Son of God. An exploration was made of the nature of the mental image they had of the one God, the Creator of the universe, and it was found that it was as of something human, and not as with the former ones as of the universe.
5669[a]. Some of the Mohammedans, when they heard many things about the Lord, wanted to come to that Church. But they were told that they can stay in their own religion provided that they think about the Lord, from their doctrine from the Koran, that He was the greatest Prophet, the Son of God and the wisest of men. This is because they cannot acknowledge His Divinity in their heart, only some of them with the mouth and intellectually, since from childhood they had steeped themselves in faith in such things, and [their] spiritual goodness was formed of the kinds of things that were the constituents of their faith in the world, and which cannot be extinguished so suddenly by a new article of faith. And provided they live in accord with their own sense of good, do what is honest and just, and know that all justice is Divine, as a result of this they can still live happily in their own way and gradually be led to the Lord. It was added that they who live in accord with justice and their own sense of goodness can be better than Christians because these diminish all that is Divine in the Lord. The greatest part of Christians, who are called papists, claim all the power of the Lord in heaven and on earth to themselves and in this way take everything Divine from Him and no longer recognize its existence in Him but in themselves. And the rest of the Christians, who are called reformed, certainly know, and from their doctrine confess, that what is Divine is in the Lord and that He is one with the Father, but still when they think about the Lord, they do not think otherwise than as they do about a common human person like themselves, and then they think nothing about His Divinity, on which account they also go to the Father, that He may act on account of the Son, and they do not go to the Lord. The mental image of these Christians is also of such a nature. From this they saw that good Mohammedans in their hearts think better about the Lord than do Christians.
[marginal note] They also acknowledge Moses as a great Prophet but less than the Lord; but they no longer think about Moses.
5664. When they see spots on their clothes, it is a sign that they have been thinking ill, and that they have done something which ought not to be done. The spots cannot be washed out, as from clothes in the world. When they find out what they have thought and done - for, at such a time, they always think about that - they, then, see their blemishes and their evils. If they then get the better of them again, the spots disappear from the clothes of their own accord. In like manner, when they see in their chamber that any one of their clothes is missing, they then immediately know that they have done amiss. Hence is their self-examination; and, if they do not themselves know [what is wrong], a wife comes, who tells them. If they see that there is a new garment in their chamber, they then inwardly rejoice, because they know that they have done well.
5664. Quando vident maculas in vestibus suis signum est quod cogitaverint malum, et quod aliqua fecerint quod non faciendum, et maculae non abstergi possunt sicut e vestibus in mundo: cum reperiant quid cogitaverunt et fecerunt, nam semper tunc cogitant de eo, 1
tunc vident naevos suos et mala sua, si tunc resipiscunt ab illis, maculae ex vestibus ex se evanescunt. Similiter cum vident in conclavi suo aliquam ex vestibus deesse, tunc sciunt illico quod malefecerint, inde illis animadvertentia, et si non ipsae sciant, venit uxor, quae illis dicit; si vident quod nova vestis sit in suo conclavi, tunc gaudent intime, quia sciunt quod bene egerint.
Footnotes:
1. Sidebar: INFORMATIO