These four foundations,--the QURAN, the SUNNAT, IJMA' and QIAS--form in orthodox Muslim opinion and belief a perfect basis of a perfect religion and polity. They secure the permanence of the system, but they repress an intelligent growth. The bearing of all this on modern politics is very plain. Take again the case of Turkey. The constitution of the Government is theocratic. The germs of freedom are wanting there as they have never been wanting in any other country in Europe. The ruling power desires no change; originality of thought, independence of judgment is repressed. Nothing good has the Turk ever done for the world.[33] This rule has been one continued display of brute {30} force unrelieved by any of the reflected glory which shone for a while in Cordova and in Baghdad. No nation can possibly progress, the foundations of whose legal and theocratic system are what has been described in this chapter. When brought into diplomatic and commercial intercourse with States possessing the energy and vigour of a national life and liberal constitution, Muslim kingdoms must, in the long run, fail and pass away. It has been well said that "Spain is the only instance of a country once thoroughly infused with Roman civilisation which has been actually severed from the empire; and even then the severance, though of long duration, was but partial and temporary. After a struggle of nearly eight centuries, the higher form of social organisation triumphed over the lower and the usurping power of Islam was expelled." So it ought to be, and so indeed it must ever be, for despotism must give way to freedom; the life latent in the subject Christian communities must sooner or later cast off the yoke of a barbarian rule, which even at its best is petrified and so is incapable of progress. However low a Christian community may have fallen, there is always the possibility of its rising again. A lofty ideal is placed before it. All its most cherished beliefs point forward and upward. In Islam there is no regenerative power. Its golden age was in the past. When the work of conquest is done, when a Muhammadan nation has to live by industry, intelligence and thrift, it always miserably fails. In this chapter which must now draw to a close, I have tried to prove from authentic and authoritative sources that {31} the Quran alone is to no Muslim the sole guide of life. The fetters of a dogmatic system fasten alike around the individual and the community. Islam is sterile, it gives no new birth to the spirit of a man, leads him not in search of new forms of truth, and so it can give no real life, no lasting vitality to a nation.[34] {32} NOTE TO CHAPTER I. IJTIHAD.