And for the advantage which ye receive from them, give them their reward, according to what is ordained: but it shall be no crime in you to make any other agreement among yourselves, after the ordinance shall be complied with; for GOD is knowing and wise. (24) Whoso among you hath not means sufficient that he may marry free women, who are believers, let him marry with such of

(23) Their reward, i.e., their dowry, which is everywhere in the Qurán spoken of in this fashion. The allusion is very suggestive of the character of the marriage bond. The power of the bond of that pure and holy love which unites the Christian wife to her husband is unknown to Islám. If ever found in a Muslim household, it is there, not because of Islám, but in spite of it.

Any other arrangement. The amount of dowry may be increased or diminished at any time subsequent to marriage by the consent of the parties. A wife may remit the whole amount.

(24) Whoso... hath not means, i.c., he who is too poor to support a wife, who is free, and therefore does not possess slave girls of his own, may marry slave women with the consent of their masters. In this case the dowry is fixed by the master.-Tafsir-i-Raufi.

Such as are true believers. This is not the only passage antagonistic to Mr. R. Bosworth Smith's statements (Muhammad and Muhammadanism, p. 243) that Muhammad "laid down the principle that the captive who embraced Islám should be ipso facto free."

The Qurán provides not only for enslaving conquered infidels, thus justifying the cruellest war ever waged by Arab slave-traders in the heart of Africa, but it provides for their retention even when converted, and, although masters are forbidden to maltreat them, yet they are enjoined to sell them in case they are displeased with them. See Muir's Life of Mahomet, vol. iv. p. 239. "As regards female slaves." says the same author (vol. iii. p. 305) "under the thraldom of Mahometan masters, it is difficult to conceive more signal degradation of the human species; they are treated as an inferior class of beings. Equally restricted as if they had entered the marriage state, they are expressly excluded from any title to conjugal rights. They are purely at the disposal of their proprietors." Here the learned author is compelled to stop, being unable to say more without offence to morality, adding, that "the reader must believe at second-hand that the whole system is vile and revolting."

That system of slavery prevalent among the so-called Christian nations was utterly opposed to the clearest precepts of the Bible, and cannot be fairly compared with the system of slavery sanctioned by the Qurán, even granting the claim that the rigour of the latter is less than that of the former. The abolition of slavery by Christian nations was the natural result of obedience to the teaching of the Bible, applying in practice the doctrine of man's common brotherhood, and the duty of loving our neighbour as ourselves. The

your maid-servants whom your right hands possess, as are true believers; for GOD well knoweth your faith. Ye are the one from the other: therefore marry them with the consent of their masters; and give them their dower according to justice; such as are modest, not guilty of whoredom, nor entertaining lovers. And when they are married, if they be guilty of adultery, they shall suffer half the punishment which is appointed for the free women. This is allowed unto him among you who feareth to sin by marrying free women; but if ye abstain from marrying slaves, it will be better for you; GOD is gracious and merciful.

|| (25) GOD is willing to declare these things unto you, and to direct you according to the ordinances. of those who have gone before you, and to be merciful

abolition of slavery in Muslim states would be equivalent to the abrogation of a large part of the teaching of the Quran. As a matter of fact, Muslim states never did anything voluntarily towards abolishing slavery, and we may safely predict that they never will. The social interest in slave women is too great, and too firmly rooted in the Qurán to permit it.

One from the other. "Being alike descended from Adam, and of the same faith."-Sale, Baidhawi.

Such as are modest, &c.—These crimes would cause them to forfeit their dowry.

Half the punishment.-"The reason of this is because they are not presumed to have had so good education. A slave, therefore, in such a case, is to have fifty stripes, and to be banished for half a year; but she shall not be stoned, because it is a punishment which cannot be inflicted by halves."-Sale, Baidhawi.

Who feareth to sin. Not merely by marrying free women when unable to support them or pay the dowry, but also by remaining unmarried.-Tafsir-i-Raufi.

If ye abstain, &c. "Because he could not marry a free woman and a slave" (AÁbdul Qádir), i.e., no free woman would consent to be co-wife with a slave, but he could easily divorce the slave wife, and so avoid the difficulty.

The Tafsir-i-Raufi says the reason why abstaining from marrying slaves is here recommended is because of the "stain of slavery which would belong to the children."

(25) The ordinances, &c. The claim here made is that these laws concerning marriage are in accord with the teaching of the former prophets. I think we have here a declaration clearly indicating the source from which Muhammad drew his inspiration on this point. He does not, however, scruple to represent this new law as coming

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unto you. GOD is knowing and wise. (26) GOD desireth to be gracious unto you; but they who follow their lusts, desire that ye should turn aside from the truth with great deviation. (27) GOD is minded to make his religion light unto you; for man was created weak. (28) O true believers, consume not your wealth among yourselves in vanity, unless there be merchandising among you by mutual consent: neither slay yourselves; for GOD is merciful towards you: (29) and whoever doth this maliciously and wickedly, he will surely cast him to be broiled in hell fire; and this is easy with GOD. (30) If ye turn aside from the grievous sins of those which ye

from God and place himself in the position of a disciple learning for the first time that this new revelation is in accord "with the ordinances of those who have gone before." (26) They who follow their lusts. "Some commentators suppose that these words have a particular regard to the Magians, who formerly were frequently guilty of incestuous marriages, their prophet Zerdusht having allowed them to take their mothers and sisters to wife; and also to the Jews, who likewise might marry within some of the degrees here prohibited."-Sale, Baidhawi.

According to the Tafsir-i-Raufi, the allusion is to the Jews.

(27) God is minded, &c. The spirit of this verse, as well as the opinions of the commentators, clearly shows that the legislation in the preceding verses was intended to remove the temptation to fornication and adultery by facilitating marriage and concubinage.

God created man weak. This sentence indicates a low conception of morals, not to say of God's holiness. Man's immorality is excused on the ground that God made him liable to sins of incontinency. This doctrine plainly makes God the author of sin.

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(28) Consume not your wealth, &c., i.e., " employ it not in things prohibited by God, such as usury, extortion, rapine, gaming, and the like."-Sale.

Unless there be merchandising. The merchant's calling receives the imprimatur of the Qurán. The faithful are encouraged to unite together for purposes of trade.

Neither slay yourselves. This is understood to forbid suicide, which the heathen were in the habit of committing in honour of the idols (Tafsir-i-Raufi); or it may be understood in a spiritual sense, as an exhortation to avoid all sin. The words may be translated slay not your souls (see Sale). Abdul Qadir understands the command to be not to slay one another.

(29) And whosoever doeth this. This statement best agrees with Abdul Qadir's interpretation, and therefore teaches that those who maliciously slay their brethren in the faith are doomed to hell fire.

(30) If ye turn aside, &c. Sins are divided by this and other pas

are forbidden to commit, we will cleanse you from your smaller faults, and will introduce you into paradise with an honourable entry. (31) Covet not that which God hath bestowed on some of you preferably to others. Unto the men shall be given a portion of what they shall have gained, and unto the women shall be given a portion of what they shall have gained: therefore ask GOD of his bounty; for GOD is omniscient. (32) We have appointed unto every one kindred, to inherit part of what their parents and relations shall leave at their deaths. And unto those with whom your right hands have made an alliance, give their part of the inheritance; for GOD is witness of all things.

sages into two classes, kabira and saghira, or great and small. The commentators differ as to which are great. Some say they are seven : idolatry, murder, false charge of adultery against virtuous women, wasting the substance of orphans, usury, desertion in time of a religious war, and disobedience to parents (Sale in loco). Others enumerate seventeen (see Hughes's Notes, p. 139). Still others say there are as many as seven hundred great sins. The majority regard only those sins as kabira which are described in the Quran as meriting hell fire, the chief of all great sins being idolatry, or the associating of any thing with God so as to express or imply a participation in the attributes of God.

Muhammad's teaching must lead his followers to carelessness in regard to all sins except those regarded as kabira. As a matter of fact, this is true. Lying, deception, anger, lust, &c., are all numbered among the smaller and lighter offences. All such sins will be forgiven if men only keep clear of the great sins. Such passages exhibit to the Christian the sad fact that Muhammad had no true conception of the nature of sin. Great sins and small sins alike spring from an evil heart. But Muhammad seems not to have ascribed any moral character to simple states of the heart; the sins here described are the doing of what is forbidden. The Christian regards all such sin as rebellion against God, but Muhammad conceived of only a portion of these as great, which, if forgiven, would predicate the forgiveness of the smaller crimes also.

(31) Covet not, &c. "Such as honour, power, riches, and other worldly advantages. Some, however, understand this of the distribution of inheritances according to the preceding determinations, whereby some have a larger share than others."-Sale.

What they shall have gained, i.e., "What is gained by men in their warring for the faith and in other good works; by women, in their chaste behaviour, and in submission to the will of their husbands." -Tafsir-i-Raufi in loco.

(32) Those with whom . . . an alliance. "A precept conformable

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|| (33) Men shall have the pre-eminence above women, because of those advantages wherein GOD hath caused the one of them to excel the other, and for that which they expend of their substance in maintaining their wives. The honest women are obedient, careful in the absence of their husbands, for that GOD preserveth them, by committing them to the care and protection of the men. But those whose perverseness ye shall be apprehensive of, rebuke; and remove them into separate apartments, and chastise them. But if they shall be obedient unto you, seek not an occasion of quarrel against them: for GOD

to an old custom of the Arabs, that where persons mutually entered into a strict friendship or confederacy, the surviving friend should have a sixth part of the deceased's estate. But this was afterwards abrogated, according to Jalaluddin and al Zamakhshari, at least as to infidels. The passage may likewise be understood of a private contract, whereby the survivor is to inherit a certain part of the substance of him that dies first."-Sale, Baidhawi.

Abdul Qadir says this law had relation to the circumstances which grew out of the "brotherhood" established by Muhammad soon after his arrival in Madína, whereby "each of the refugees selected one of the citizens as his brother. The bond was of the closest description, and involved not only a peculiar devotion to each other's interests in the persons thus associated, but in case of the death it superseded the claims of blood, the 'brother' becoming exclusive heir to all the property of the deceased.”—Muir's Life of Mahomet, vol. iii. p. 17.

The custom was abolished after the lapse of eighteen months. It ha-, therefore, no present application to Muslims.

(33) Men shall have the pre-eminence. The ground of the preeminence of man over woman is here said to be man's natural superiority over woman. Women are an inferior class of human beings. "The advantages wherein God hath caused the one of them to excel the other" are said by the commentators to be "superior understanding and strength, and the other privileges of the male sex," e.g., ruling in church and state, warring for the faith, and receiving double portions of the estates of deceased ancestors (see Sale in loco). Men are the lords of the women, and women become the virtual slaves of the men. The holy, happy estate of Eve in Eden can never be even approximately secured for her daughters under Islám.

Careful to preserve their husband's property and their own chastity. -Sale, Baidhawi.

Those whose perverseness, &c. Recreant wives are to be punished in three degrees: (1) They are to be rebuked, (2) if they remain rebellious, they are to be assigned separate apartments, and so be