Allah has sent prayer to His servants as one of His most salutary favours. Five times daily, devotion brings absolute rest to Believers; that is to say, complete interruption of the feelings that stir them, whether an excess of joy leading to ruin in the aberrations of debauchery, or an excess of sadness causing them to perish in the madness of despair. Five times daily, prayer forces them by its accompanying ablutions, to call to mind the cleanliness of the body, at the same time as the purity of the soul. The day after his vision, the Prophet, beaming with delight, was met by his mortal enemy, Abu Jahal, who addressed him ironically: 'O Mohammad! hast thou not one of those marvellous tales which we are used to hear from thee to tell us this morning?'--'Indeed I have!' replied the Prophet. 'Between yesternight and this morning I have been to Jerusalem and back.'--'Gather round quickly, O Quraish! Hasten and hearken to the wonderful adventure of the nocturnal journey undertaken by Mohammad!' shouted Abu Jahal. The crowd soon grew, and the Prophet gave out the narrative we have just set forth. Most of his hearers, belonging to the clan of the idol-worshippers, followed the example of their chieftain and received it with outbursts of the coarsest merriment. Some clapped their hands; others held their heads in their hands as if to stop their brains from bursting. As for the Believers, one party was undecided whether to put faith in the story or not; and the remainder, unsettled by the attitude of the public, dared not manifest their confidence openly. Profiting by the confusion, Abu Jahal hastened to speak to Abu Bakr. 'Maybe thou dost not know the last extraordinary adventure of thy Prophet? He pretends to have accomplished in the night the journey from the "Holy Temple" of Makkah to the "Faraway Temple" of Jerusalem--there and back!' Abu Jahal was full of glee, in anticipation, at the thought of the vexation and bewilderment which were sure to be seen in the face of his fellow-citizen. Contrary to Abu Jahal's expectations, however, Abu Bakr replied without uneasiness: 'Whatever Mohammad asserts is true and I believe it. If he maintains that he went up to the seventh Heaven in an hour and came back in the same space of time, I should still have faith in his declarations.' Such dependable testimony caused the Faithful to take heart; thus it turned out that Abu Jahal, by trying to instil incredulity in men's minds, only succeeded in strengthening their beliefs. Desirous of catching the Prophet redhanded as a cheat, Abu Jahal interrogated him concerning the Temple of Jerusalem, calling on him for a description thereof. But he was utterly routed when Mohammad, whom his foe thought had never set foot in Jerusalem, except during this nocturnal vision, described the city in all its peculiarities and with great accuracy, endorsed by all among those assembled who had ever undertaken that journey.