‘And their Lord answereth them: I will not suffer the work of him among you that worketh, whether of male or female, to be lost.’... ‘O My servant, who have transgressed to your own injury, despair not of God’s mercy, for all sins doth God forgive, gracious and merciful is He.’[16] ‘Seek pardon of your Lord and be turned unto Him, verily my Lord is merciful, loving.’[17] ‘And your Lord saith, “Call upon Me and I will hearken unto you.”’[18] This is the pivot on which the Islâmic doctrine of future life turns, and it is the only doctrinal point an Islâmist is required to accept. ‘All the other elements caught up and syncretised from the floating traditions of the races and peoples of the time are mere accessories.’[19] Nor is the Islâmic belief in disharmony with scientific thought. To quote a recent writer, ‘The religious doctrine of ceaseless moral accountability is identical with the scientific doctrine of ceaseless cause and effect. As science postulates matter and force are indestructible, so religion postulates that the human soul is indestructible.’[20] =Suicide Unusual in Islâm.=—The belief that the human soul will have to render to its Creator an account of how it has carried out in this life the duties imposed on it has had one important result on Moslem society, the significance of which has often escaped the notice of non-Moslem writers. It has inspired the Moslem with a sense of dignity and feeling of responsibility, which have made self-destruction practically unknown in Islâm. Suicide was as common among the pagan Arabs as it is now in Christendom. Ecclesiasticism attempted to prevent self-destruction by attaching the most cruel penalties to the offence. The body of a _felo-de-se_ could not be interred in consecrated ground; it could only be buried surreptitiously in the dark hours of the night by the roadside where four cross roads met, with a stake through it; his family were subjected to ignominy. None of these forcible rules are needed in Islâm. The belief that divine help is always nigh to relieve the distressed, to help the suffering, to assist the forsaken, arrests the hand of the most despondent or desperate, the most sick and weary with life, from taking his or her own life. Whilst the idea of appearing in the presence of the Almighty Judge before the Summons has come acts as the strongest deterrent to self-destruction. The Moslem will fight even unto death, but will never take his own life, which he regards as a trust from God. Never backward or hesitant in the performance of his duty, he considers it an act of cowardice to fly from personal danger or present unhappiness by putting an end to his existence.