God, was guilty of this very sin. Abraham is held by all Muslims to have been a prophet, and they consider it very wicked to deny that all prophets are sinless (معصومون). Although it is the unpardonable sin to worship any other but God, yet the Qur'an teaches that 'Azazil or Iblis was cast out of God's favour because he refused to worship Adam (Surahs ii 31; vii. 10; xvii. 63; xviii. 48; xx. 115).

The Qur'an rightly condemns hypocrisy (Surahs ii. 78; iv. 137; ix. 65-69; lviii. 13). It states that the lowest stage in Hell is reserved for hypocrites (Surah iv. 144). Now it will be admitted that people who through compulsion pretend to change their religion, and who thus profess with their lips what in their hearts they do not believe, are hypocrites. But the Qur'an commands Muslims to force men to accept Islam, that is to say, to become hypocrites. For we find several passages which make fighting in a Jihad incumbent on Muslims under certain circumstances. They must then fight until all their heathen opponents are compelled to embrace Islam, unless the latter prefer to be killed. The "People of the Book", however, may be spared, if they "pay tribute out of hand, and are brought low" (Surah ix. 5, 29, 41; compare Surahs v. 39; lxi. 11; xxii. 77). To condemn hypocrisy, and yet to command Muslims to force men to become hypocrites, seems to the minds of most men self-contradictory.

The Qur'an in some measure condemns lust, for in Surah lxxix. 40 we read: "Whoso hath feared the place of his Lord and hath restrained himself from desire, then verily Paradise is the abode" for him. Yet elsewhere the same book permits to Muslims polygamy, divorce, and the use of female slaves as concubines (Surah iv. 29). To Muhammad himself, moreover, special marital indulgence was permitted (Surah xxxiii. 37, 38, 49-51), doubtless in consequence of certain inclinations of his regarding which the Traditions speak too plainly for us to quote them here. Even to those who are not slaves of lust here on earth, the

chief reward promised in Paradise, if they are faithful Muslims, is unlimited indulgence in that vileness (Surahs lv. 46-78; lvi. 11-39; see also Mishkatu'l Masabih, "Sifatu'l Jannat'').¹ In this matter there is something far worse than contradiction, but there is undoubtedly the latter also. Surely if lust is wrong on earth and hateful to God, the Holy One, it cannot be pleasing to Him in Paradise.

Wine is forbidden to Muslims here on earth (Surah v. 92; compare Surah ii. 216), but in Paradise rivers of wine are promised them (Surahs xlvii. 16; lxxvi. 5; lxxxiii. 25).

The Qur'an's statements about the Lord Jesus Christ cannot be said to be free from contradiction. Some passages speak of Him as a mere man and a prophet, like any other of the chief prophets, entirely denying His Deity (Surahs iii. 52; v. 19, 109, 110; xliii. 59). Others, however, give Him higher titles than are given to any other human being, some of them—as, for example, "The Word of God." (كلمة الله, compare Surah iv. 169)—being such that they cannot rightly be assigned to any creature. Regarding Christ only does the Qur'an say that He was born of a Virgin (Surah xxi. 91), that He was "illustrious in this world and in the next" (Surah iii. 40).² The words used in Surah iii. 31 are explained by the Tradition quoted by Muslim and referred to by Al Ghazzali, that Satan was present at the birth of every child born into the world except Jesus and His mother (Mishkatu'l Masabih, Kitab i, Bab iii. 1, and Kitab xxv, Bab i. 1). The Qur'an testifies to Christ's miracles (Surah ii. 254, &c.), and