The Name Of God Is Coupled With Every Trifling
Incident In Life, And They Believe In The Continual Action Of
Divine Special Interference.
Should a famine afflict the country,
it is expressed in the stern language of the Bible--"The Lord has
Sent a grievous famine upon the land;" or, "The Lord called for
a famine, and it came upon the land." Should their cattle fall
sick, it is considered to be an affliction by Divine command; or
should the flocks prosper and multiply particularly during one
season, the prosperity is attributed to special interference.
Nothing can happen in the usual routine of daily life without a
direct connexion with the hand of God, according to the Arab's
belief.
This striking similarity to the descriptions of the Old Testament
is exceedingly interesting to a traveller when residing among
these curious and original people. With the Bible in one hand,
and these unchanged tribes before the eyes, there is a thrilling
illustration of the sacred record; the past becomes the present;
the veil of three thousand years is raised, and the living
picture is a witness to the exactness of the historical
description. At the same time, there is a light thrown upon many
obscure passages in the Old Testament by the experience of the
present customs and figures of speech of the Arabs which are
precisely those that were practised at the periods described. I
do not attempt to enter upon a theological treatise, therefore it
is unnecessary to allude specially to these particular points.
The sudden and desolating arrival of a flight of locusts, the
plague, or any other unforeseen calamity, is attributed to the
anger of God, and is believed to be an infliction of punishment
upon the people thus visited, precisely as the plagues of Egypt
were specially inflicted upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians.
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