Consequently, it was with the most perfect faith that he felt boundless admiration for the Qur'an; that is to say for the Words of Allah. Had not Allah revealed to him these verses: "_Say: Then bring ten Surahs like it of your devising, and call whom ye can to your aid beside Allah, if ye are men of truth._" (THE QUR'AN, XI, 16). Convinced of their powerlessness, "The Unlettered Prophet", (THE QUR'AN, VII, 156), challenged the most celebrated poets, giving them the right to call him a cheat, if they could compose ten Surahs resembling his. To doubt the absolute and strangely moving sincerity of Mohammad and picture him as a vulgar, but clever, ambitious man, as some modern historians have done, one must be blinded by preconceived ideas, worthy of the days of the Inquisition. Carlyle, in his book, "On Heroes," treated such fanaticism or stupidity as it deserved: "A false man found a religion?" he exclaims, speaking of Mohammad. "Why a false man cannot build a brick house! If he do not know and follow truly the properties of mortar, burnt clay and what else he works in, it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish-heap. It will not stand for twelve centuries, to lodge a hundred-and-eighty millions; it will fall straightway." [Sidenote: HOW IT WAS FORBIDDEN TO LISTEN TO THE QUR'AN] Being powerless to struggle against the irresistible effect produced by the recitation of the Qur'an, the Quraish idol-worshippers resolved to forbid people to listen to it. By threats, the tribesmen frightened those who tried to approach the Prophet, when as was his wont, he recited, on the threshold of the Ka'bah, a few passages of the Revealed Book. So as not to hear him, they put their fingers in their ears; or else, to drown his voice, they whistled, clapped their hands, or bawled, as loudly as they could, scraps of doggerel composed by idolater-poets. The unexpected result was that the very men who had made it a crime to listen to the celebrated verses, were moved by that unconquerable curiosity which attracts weak mortals towards forbidden things. One night, Abu Sufyan, Abu Jahal and Al-Akhnas went out of their houses, bending their steps, each unknown to the other, towards the dwelling of the Prophet. Once there, their ears glued to the wall, they tried to overhear the recital of some of the Divine Surahs. In the darkness of the night, they did not see one another. But when day dawned, they came face to face on their homeward road, and blamed each other mutually: 'What would our partisans think, if they had caught us doing this thing?' And they took a solemn oath never to be so imprudent again. But the next night and the night after that, the same thing occurred, followed by the same exchange of reproaches. [Illustration: (Calligraphy) _O thou enwrapped in thy mantle! * Arise and warn! * And thy Lord--magnify Him!_] [Illustration: (Ornamental page) CHAPTER THE FOURTH] [Illustration: _Ar Ruku, or Inclination._]