The Mohammedans In The Spiritual World

(Selection from)

True Christian Religion

Containing
the universal theology of the new church
foretold by the Lord in Daniel 7:13-14
and Revelation 21:1-2

Emanuel Swedenborg

The Mohammedans in the spiritual world appear behind the Papists in the west, and form as it were a border around them. They appear next behind the Christians because they acknowledge our Lord to be the greatest prophet, the wisest of all men, who was sent into the world to teach men, and also that He is the Son of God. In that world everyone dwells at such a distance from the central region, where the Christians are, as accords with their confession of the Lord and of one God; for that confession is what conjoins minds with heaven, and determines distance from the east, above which quarter is the Lord.

Because religion has its seat in the highest things in man, and the lower things in him have life and light from the highest, and because Mohammed is always associated with religion in the minds of Mohammedans, some Mohammed is always kept before their sight; and in order that they may turn their faces toward the east, over which is the Lord, he is placed beneath the Christian center. This is not the Mohammed who wrote the Koran, but another person who fills his office; nor is it always the same person; but he is changed. Formerly it was a man from Saxony who had been taken prisoner by the Algerines, and had become a Mohammedan; and having once been a Christian he was sometimes moved to speak to them about the Lord, saying that He was not Joseph's son but the Son of God Himself. Other Mohammedans afterward succeeded this one. In the place where that representative Mohammedan has his station; there appears a fire like a small torch to distinguish him; but that fire is invisible to all but Mohammedans

The Mohammed who wrote the Koran is not seen at the present day. I was told that in former times he presided over them; but because he desired to rule as God over all things pertaining to their religion he was ejected from his seat, which he had beneath the Papists, and was sent down to the right side near the south. A certain society of Mohammedans was once incited by some malicious spirits to acknowledge Mohammed as God. To quiet this disturbance, Mohammed was brought up from the lower earth and shown to them; and at that time I also saw him. He looked like those corporeal spirits who have no interior perception, with a face inclined to black. I heard him utter these words, "I am your Mohammed;" and immediately he seemed to sink down.

The Mohammedans are hostile to the Christians mainly because of the Christian belief in three Divine persons and the consequent worship of three Gods, and as many Creators; and still more hostile to the Roman Catholics, because of their bending the knee before images; and for this reason they call them idolaters; and the former they call fanatics, declaring that they make God a three-headed being, also that they say one and mutter three, and consequently divide up omnipotence, and from one and of one make three; therefore they are like fauns with three horns, one for each God, and at the same time three for one; and so they pray, so they sing, and so they harangue from their pulpits.

The Mohammedans, like all nations who acknowledge one God, love justice and do good from religion, have their own heaven, but it is outside of the Christian heaven. The Mohammedan heaven, however, is divided into two. In the lower they live uprightly with several wives; but only those who give up their concubines and acknowledge the Lord our Savior, and also His dominion over heaven and hell, are raised up from this into their higher heaven. I have heard that it is impossible for them to conceive of God the Father and our Lord as one, but that it is possible for them to believe that the Lord rules over the heavens and the hells because He is the Son of God the Father. It is because of their holding this belief that it is granted them by the Lord to ascend into the higher heaven.

That the Mohammedan religion is received by more nations than the Christian religion, may be a stumbling-block to those who meditate upon the Divine Providence and believe at the same time that only those who are born Christians can be saved. But the Mohammedan religion is not a stumbling-block to those who believe that all things are of the Divine Providence. Such inquire how this is, and they find out. It is this, that the Mohammedan religion acknowledges the Lord as the greatest prophet, the wisest of men, and also the Son of God. But as they have made the Koran the only book of their religion, and as in consequence the Mohammed who wrote it resides in their thoughts, and upon him they bestow some worship, they think but little about our Lord. To make it clearly known that this religion was raised up by the Divine Providence of the Lord to blot out the idolatry of many nations, it shall be set forth somewhat in order; but first, as to the origin of all idolatries.

[2] Previous to that religion idolatrous worship was spread over very many kingdoms of the world. This was so because the churches that existed before the Lord's coming were all representative churches. Such was the Israelitish church. The tabernacle there, the garments of Aaron, the sacrifices, all things belonging to the temple at Jerusalem, and even the statutes, were representative. And among the ancients there was a knowledge of correspondences (which is also the knowledge of representatives), the very knowledge of knowledges. It was cultivated especially in Egypt, and from it came their hieroglyphics. From that knowledge the signification of all kinds of animals and all kinds of trees was known, also of mountains, hills, rivers, and springs, and of the sun, moon, and stars. Through that knowledge they also had a knowledge of spiritual things, because these representations had their origin in the things they represented, which were such as pertain to spiritual wisdom among the angels in heaven.

[3] And as all their worship was representative, consisting of mere correspondences, so they worshiped on mountains and hills, as also in groves and gardens, and sanctified fountains, and moreover made sculptured horses, oxen, calves, and lambs, and also birds, fishes, and serpents, and placed them near their temples and in the courts thereof, and likewise in their houses, arranging them in an order that was in accord with the spiritual things of the church to which they corresponded or which they represented and therefore signified. After a time, when the knowledge of correspondences had been forgotten, their posterity began to worship the sculptured images themselves as in themselves holy, not being aware that the ancients, their forefathers, saw nothing holy in them, but only that they represented, in accordance with their correspondences, what is holy.

[4] Such was the origin of the idolatries that had filled so many kingdoms of the world. To uproot these idolatries, by the Lord's Divine Providence it came to pass that a new religion adapted to the genius of the Orientals was introduced, in which there was something from the Word of both Testaments, and which taught that the Lord came into the world, and that He was the greatest prophet, the wisest of men, and the Son of God. This was effected through Mohammed, from whom that religion was named. From all this it is clear that this religion was raised up by the Divine Providence of the Lord, and as before said, was adapted to the genius of the Orientals, in order that it might blot out the idolatries of so many nations and give them some knowledge of the Lord previous to their entering the spiritual world, which they do after death. And this religion would not have been received by so many kingdoms, and could not have uprooted their idolatries, if it had not been made conformable to the ideas of their thought, and especially if polygamy had not been permitted, for the reason that the Orientals without that permission would have been inflamed with filthy adulteries more than the Europeans, and would have perished.

It was once granted me to perceive the nature of the heat of their polygamic love. I had a talk with one who had occupied the place of Mohammed, and after some conversation with him at a distance this substitute sent to me an ebony spoon and some other things, which were proofs that they came from him; and at the same time there were opened from various places outlets for the heat of their polygamic love. From some of these this was felt to be like the heat in bathing rooms after bathing, from some like the heat in kitchens where meats are boiling, from some like the heat in eating-houses where strong-smelling food is exposed for sale, from some like the heat in apothecaries' cellars, where emulsions and such things are prepared, from some like the heat in stews and brothels, and from others like the heat in stores where skins, leather, and shoes are sold. There was also something rank, harsh, and burning in the heat, arising from jealousy. But the heat in the Christian heavens, when the delight of their love is perceived as an odor, is fragrant like the odor in gardens, vineyards, and rose-gardens, in some places like that where spices are sold, and in others like that of wine-presses and wine-cellars. That the delights from loves in the spiritual world are frequently perceived as odors has been shown throughout my Memorable Relations which follow the chapters.

True Christian Religion 828 - 834