; the moral duties, such as justice,
temperance, etc., promises of everlasting felicity to the obedient,
dissuasives from sin, threatenings of the punishments of hell to the
unbelieving and disobedient. Many of the threatenings are levelled
against particular persons, and those sometimes of Mahomet's own family,
who had opposed him in propagating his religion.
In the _Koran_ God is brought in saying, "We have given you a book." By
this it appears that the impostor published early, in writing, some of
his principal doctrines, as also some of his historical relations. Thus,
in his life of himself we find his disciples reading the twentieth
chapter of the _Koran_, before his flight from Mecca; after which he
pretended many of the revelations in other chapters were brought to him.
Undoubtedly, all those said to be revealed at Medina must be posterior
to what he had then published at Mecca; because he had not yet been at
Medina. Many parts of the _Koran_ he declared were brought to him by the
angel Gabriel, on special occasions, of which we have already met with
several instances in his biography.
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