Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

148 STUDIES IN A MOSQUE.
Verily, Grod it is who cleaves out the grain and the date-stone ;
he brings forth the living from the dead, and it is he who
brings the dead from the living. There is God ! How then
can ye be beguiled ?
It is he who cleaves out the morning, and makes night a repose,
and the sun and the moon two reckonings—that is the
decree of the mighty, the Avise !
There is Grod for you, your Lord ! There is no God but he,
the Creator of everything ; then worship Him, for he o'er
everything keeps guard !"
Sight perceives Him not, but he perceives men's sights ; for he
is the subtle, the aware.
Say, " Verily, my prayers and my devotion and my life and my
death belong to God, the Lord of the worlds."
Very little is added to the definiteness of the moral
teaching in the third period. " Verily God bids you
do justice and good, and give to kindred their due,
and he forbids you to sin and do wrong and oppress,"
is as detailed a commandment as Mohammad generally
cares to give. A list of prohibited meats, indeed, is
given in chapter xvi. ; usury is added to the practices
already forbidden ; useless asceticism is discouraged ;
certain unimportant Arab customs are abolished; but
nothing of real consequence is added to the moral law
or the ritual of Islam. The whole duty of man is still
capable of expression in few words :
Come !
—
I will recite what your Lord has forbidden you :—that
ye may not associate aught with Him, and may show kindness
to your parents, and not kill your children through poverty;
we will provide for you and them ;—and draw not nigh to
flagrant sins, either apparent or concealed, and kill not the
soul, which God hath forbidden, save by right ; that is what
God ordains you, haply ye may understand. And draw not
nigh to the wealth of the orphan, save so as to better it, until
he i-eaches full age; and give weight and measure with justice.
We do not compel the soul save what it can compass ; and
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