down" the books in question, or "the books descended"¹ from Him. The number of books

Number of  Inspired Books.

which tradition relates as having "descended upon," or having been revealed to, the prophets is one hundred and four, out of which ten were entrusted to Adam, fifty to Seth, to Idris thirty, to Abraham ten, to Moses one, to David one, to Jesus one, and to Muhammad² one.

Muhammadans are convinced that each and all of the Prophets bore witness to Muhammad and believed in him. They say that when any one revelation became lost or corrupted a new message was sent down. The last of all the Prophets, according to them, is Muhammad,³ and the final and most perfect Revelation is that contained in the Qur'an. They hold that it is incumbent upon all men therefore to accept their creed under penalty of eternal punishment in one

or other of the seven¹ divisions of Hell. Although theoretically professing to believe in all that the

earlier Prophets taught, the Muhammadans say that such inspired books as still remain, that is the Torah (Law), the Zabur (Psalms) and the Injil (Gospel), are to be

Qur'an and Bible.

interpreted by the Qur'an and understood only by means of the explanation which this final Revelation gives of their teaching. Many of them assert that this is the reason why the title of the Furqan ("Distinction" or "means of distinguishing," i.e. between good and evil) is given to the Qur'an,² entirely ignoring the fact that the same title is given to the Law of Moses also in the Qur'an itself.³

Those who hold this view say that the Qur'an enables them to distinguish the true meaning of the teaching of the Prophets from our erroneous⁴ interpretations and explanations of it. The most learned and thoughtful Muslims in India at the present day adopt this opinion, in preference to the older and perhaps still more prevalent idea that