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Nakir

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is the name of one of the angels or daemons who attend the dead at burial, according to the belief of the Inhdian Mussulmans. The Nakir and Monkir, as these angels are called, attend the body soon after it is interred, set it upright in the grave, and question. the soul, which it is believed they have power to recall to the corpse for the sake of examination. The question from the angels is, Who is thy Lord, and who is thy prophet, and what is thy religion? They who can answer in the orthodox formula, "There is no god but God, and Mohammed is his prophet," are dismissed with honor, and their rest is visited with sweet airs from paradise. The unbelievers are beaten with iron maces, and gnawed by dragons, till they fill the cemeteries with howlings, which are audible alike to angels and jins, but mercifully withheld from men, whose nerves might be less equal to the sound, or their hearts more moved to compassion. See Trevor, India, its Natives and Missions, pages 149, 227.