in the Mahometan theology, the partition wall that separates heaven from hell. The word is plural, and properly written *al araf*; in the singular it is written *al arf*. It is derived from the Arabic verb *arafa*, to distinguish. Alaraf gives the denomination to the seventh chapter of the Alcoran, wherein mention is made of this wall. Mahomet seems to have copied his Alaraf, either from the great gulf of separation, mentioned in the New Testament, or from the Jewish writers, who also speak of a thin wall dividing heaven from hell. Mahometan writers differ extremely as to the persons who are to be found on Alaraf. Some take it for a fort of limbus for the patriarchs, prophets, &c.; others place here such whose good and evil works to exactly balance each other, that they deserve neither reward nor punishment. Others imagine this intermediate space to be possessed by those who, going to war without their parents leave, and suffering martyrdom there, are excluded paradise for their disobedience, yet escape hell because they are martyrs.