the whole body of orthodox Muslim theology we do not find even the very slightest approach to an acceptance of the doctrine that, as far at least as concerns the human spirit and mind, GOD created Man in His own¹ image. Of any kinship between GOD and Man, of the very possibility of any genuine sympathy between the Creator and His creatures, Muhammad had not the least idea. Tennyson² grandly sings:—

"Speak to Him thou, for He hears, and spirit with spirit can meet:
Closer is He than breathing, and nearer than hands and feet:"

but few orthodox Muslims would accept the teaching of the latter portion of the first line, though the Qur'an, in accordance with the second, asserts that GOD "is³

Agnosticism.

near to everything that hath a being; nay, nearer to men than their jugular veins." Except what has been revealed in the Qur'an and through His prophets, Man cannot know anything whatever of GOD. His intentions dominant religion of fully one half of the entire continent, and is still spreading there to a very

and his conscience cannot enable him to judge of any professed revelation. Nor can any inquiry into the constitution of the Universe enable Man to understand anything of the mind and will of its Maker.

Philosophers of old had taught men that the first thing to be done in searching for a knowledge of GOD was to learn to know¹ oneself. Such an idea would have seemed impious to Muhammad, if it had occurred to him. Hence "there² is no creed the inner life of which has been so completely crushed under an inexorable weight of ritual. For that deep, impassable gulf which divides Man from GOD empties all religious acts of spiritual life and meaning, and reduces them to rites and ceremonies. They are laws to be obeyed. They do not imply that a way has been opened out between the visible and the invisible world." It is because of this extreme contrast between the human nature³ and the Divine that the Qur'an so frequently and in such eloquent terms celebrates the greatness of GOD'S exaltation above all created