foundations are too strongly laid for any power other than a spiritual one to uproot. They were men of good position in life, voluminous writers, profound admirers of Aristotle, and "more or less devoted to science, especially to medicine." Yet they did not advance philosophy, and science they left much as they found it. They preserved something of what Grecian thought had achieved, and so far their labour is not lost. Thus Islam has, as a religion, no right to claim any of the glory which Muslim philosophers are supposed to have shed around it. {186} The founders of Islam, the Arabs, produced but one philosopher of note.[184] The first impetus to the study was given by heretical Khalifs employing Christians at Baghdad to translate Greek books; whilst in Spain, where philosophy most flourished, it was due largely to the contact of intelligent Muslims with learned Jews. Even there, the philosophers were, as a rule, the objects of bitter persecution. Now and again, a liberal minded Khalif arose, but a system such as Islam survives the liberal tendencies of a generation. From the close of the twelfth century (A.D.) downwards it would be difficult to point to any Muslim Philosopher, much more to an Arab one, whose work is of any real value to the human race. For four hundred years the contest raged, a contest such as Islam has never since seen. This great effort to bring it into accordance with the main stream of human thought, to introduce into it some element of progress utterly failed. The lesson is plain. Any project of reform in Islam which admits in any degree its fundamental principles must fail. Revolution, not reform, is the only hope for the permanence of an independent Muslim state when it enters into the circle of civilized nations. {187} * * * * * CHAPTER V. THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF ISLAM. The portion of the creed considered in the last chapter was connected with Iman (faith); the remaining portion is connected with Din (practical religion). The five principal acts are called Irkan-i-Din, pillars of religion. They are: (1) The recital of the Kalima, or short confession of faith; (2) Sulat, the five stated periods of prayer; (3) Roza, the thirty days' fast of Ramazan; (4) Zakat, legal alms; (5) Hajj, the pilgrimage to Mecca. These are all _farz_ duties, being based on a Nass-i-Zahir, or "obvious," sentence of the Quran, a proof derived from which is called dalil-i-qata'i. This is the strongest of all kinds of proofs.