The courageous independence with which Nánac announced his religion to the Muhammedans, is a favourite topic with his biographers. He was one day abused, and even struck, as one of these relates, by a Moullah, for lying on the ground with his feet in the direction of the sacred temple of Mecca. "How darest thou, infidel!" said the offended Muhammedan priest, "turn thy feet towards the house of God!"--"Turn them, if you can," said the pious but indignant Nánac, "in a direction where the house of God is not." Nánac did not deny the mission of Muhammed. "That prophet was sent," he said, "by God, to this world, to do good, and to disseminate the knowledge of one God through means of the Korán; but he, acting on the principle of free-will, which all human beings exercise, introduced oppression, and cruelty, and the slaughter of cows[108], for which he died.--I am now sent," he added, "from heaven, to publish unto mankind a book, which shall reduce all the names given unto God to one name, which is God; and he who calls him by any other, shall fall into the path of the devil, and have his feet bound in the chains of wretchedness. You have," said he to the Muhammedans, "despoiled the temples, and burnt the sacred Védas, of the Hindús; and you have dressed yourselves in dresses of blue, and you delight to have your praises sung from house to house: but I, who have seen all the world, tell you, that the Hindús equally hate you and your mosques. I am sent to reconcile your jarring faiths, and I implore you to read their scriptures, as well as your own: but reading is useless without obedience to the doctrine taught; for God has said, no man shall be saved except he has performed good works. The Almighty will not ask to what tribe or persuasion he belongs. He will only ask, What has he done? Therefore those violent and continued disputes, which subsist between the Hindús and Moslemans, are as impious as they are unjust." Such were the doctrines, according to his disciples, which Nánac taught to both Hindús and Muhammedans. He professed veneration and respect, but refused adoration to the founders of both their religions; for which, as for those of all other tribes, he had great tolerance. "A hundred thousand of Muhammeds," said Nánac, "a million of Brahmás, Vishnus, and a hundred thousand Rámas, stand at the gate of the Most High. These all perish; God alone is immortal. Yet men, who unite in the praise of God, are not ashamed of living in contention with each other; which proves that the evil spirit has subdued all. He alone is a true Hindú whose heart is just; and he only is a good Muhammedan whose life is pure."