Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

142 STUDIES IN A MOSQUE.
And we have destroyed the like of you,
—
And everything that they do is in the Books,
Everything, little and great, is written down.
Verily the pious shall be amid gardens and rivers,
but cloth anyone mind?
In the seat of truth before the King Omnipotent.
A great many of the Hebrew legends are brought
in, as in the example just quoted, by an allusion to
the charge of madness or sorcery, which was then
much in vogue as a weapon among the Prophet's
opponents. " That is what the people of old said
against former Apostles," is Mohammad's retort,
*' and see what befell them !
" and then he relates the
story. He has become much more definite as to his
own position and the nature of his revelation. He
rejDudiates all superhuman powers. " I am only in-
spired that I am a plain warner," is his constant
reminder. He will not be held responsible for his
people ;
they may believe or disbelieve, as they please,
or rather as God pleases. " Whoso will, let him take
the road unto his Lord : but ye will not will it
except God will it." Thus Mohammad ventures on
the dangerous ground of free-will and predestination,
on which he uttered many contradictory statements,
with an unmistakable leaning towards the doctrine
of election.
" He whom God leads astray," he says,
" there is no guide for him." The Koran is not a
compulsion to save men against their will ; it is only
*' a memorial—a reminder—a plain Koran to warn
him who is living." They may take their choice, if
God pleases.
The Hebrew legends occupy nearly half of the con-
tents of the second group of Mekkan chapters ; indeed