Arabia who used this habit; for many of them were descended from the Pharisees, of whom our Saviour said:— "They love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men."¹ Thus the Companions of Muhammad looking upon the Jews as the People of the Book and children of father Abraham, regarded such practices as having descended from him, and so adopted, and have continued them to the present day, as we see, unchanged, though they are no longer kept up by the Jews themselves.

Does it not seem strange to the Reader, that although the Qur'an repeatedly attests our Scriptures as the Word of God, yet but one quotation is taken from them; viz. Surah xxi. 105, — Verily we have written in the Psalms after the mention (of the Law) that my servants the righteous shall inherit the earth; an evident reference to Psalm xxxvii. 11; — "But the meek shall inherit the earth."

Two other matters borrowed from the Jews. Every Muslim thinks the Qur'an to have been on the heavenly Table (Lauh) from before the creation of the world, as is mentioned in a passage already quoted:— Truly it is the glorious Qur'an, on a preserved Table.²  Now before saying anything about this Table, one may ask, was the Book of the Psalms in existence before the Qur'an or not? For we have given above a verse in which is revealed the inheritance given by the Lord to his servants, as mentioned in the Psalms before the Qur'an was revealed. The Qur'an quotes from the Psalms: is it not clear, therefore, that the Psalms were before

the Qur'an? How then could the Qur'an, produced so late in the world, have been placed on the heavenly Table?

Now let us hear what Tradition tells us about this Table:—

One tells us that the Throne is made out of a pearl, as is also the Preserved Table, the height of which is 700 years' journey, and its breadth 300. All around it is adorned with rubies. The Lord commanded that there should be written upon it what he had wrought in Creation, and onwards till the Day of Judgment:- "In the name of the Lord, the Compassionate and Merciful. I am God and there is none else beside me. He that accepts my decree, is patient at my punishment, and thankful at my mercies, I will write and place him along with the righteous; he that doth not accept my decree, let him go forth from beneath my heaven," etc.

At that time the Lord said unto me, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first, and come up unto me into the mount, and make thee an ark of wood. And I will write on the tables the words that were in the first tables which thou brakest, and thou shalt put them in the ark. And I made an ark of shittim wood, and hewed two tables of stone like unto the first, and went up into the mount, having the two tables in mine hand. And he wrote on the tables, according to the first writing, the ten commandments, which the Lord spake unto you in the mount out of the midst of the fire in the day of the assembly: and the Lord gave them unto me. And I turned myself and came down from the mount, and put the tables in the ark which I had made; and there they be, as the Lord commanded me.