A man asked the Prophet what was the mark whereby a man might know the reality of his faith. He said, “If thou derive pleasure from the good which thou hast done, and be grieved for the evil which thou hast committed, thou art a true believer.” The man said, “What doth a fault really consist in?” He said, “When anything pricketh thy conscience forsake it.” * * * * * I am no more than man: when I order you anything with respect to religion, receive it, and when I order you about the affairs of the world then I am nothing more than man. NOTES. THE MEKKA SPEECHES. I.--THE POETIC PERIOD. The rhyming prose in which the Korān is written may be seen to best advantage in this earliest phase of Mohammad’s oratory, when the sentences are short and the rhythm more _chantant_ than in the later speeches. “The Smiting” (p. 7), will serve as a specimen of the sound of the original Arabic, as far as it can be represented in Roman characters:-- _Bismi-llahi-r-rahmāni-r-rahīm_ _El-kāri'atu mā-l-kāri'ah_ _Wa-mā adrāka mā-l-kāri'ah_ _Yawma yekūnu-n-nāsu ke-l-farāsi-l-mabthūth_ _Wa-tekūnu-l-jibālu ke-l-'ihni-l-manfūsh_ _Fe-amma men thekulet mawāzīnuhu fe-huwa fī 'īshetin rādiyeh_ _Wa-amma men khaffet mawāzīnuhu fe-ummuhu hāwiyeh_ _Wa-mā adrāka mā hiyeh_ _Nārun hāmiyeh_ The effect of which may be thus roughly preserved in English:-- In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. The Smiting! What is the Smiting? And what shall teach thee what is the Smiting? The Day when men shall be like moths adrift, And the hills shall be like wool-flocks rift: Then as for him whose scales are heavy, his shall be a life of bliss: And as for him whose scales are light, a place in the Pit is his: And what shall teach thee what that place is-- A Fire that blazes! * * * * * P. 3. THE NIGHT.--The formula “_In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful_,” precedes all the chapters of the Korān but one. _We._--God speaks in the plural in the Korān. * * * * * P. 5. THE COUNTRY.--_The two highways_: the _steep one_ to heaven, and the smooth one to hell. P. 6. _The people of the right hand_--those that receive the book of the record of their actions in their right hand--the blessed. Contrariwise--_the people of the left hand_--the damned. * * * * * P. 7. THE SMITING.--One of many similar names for the Day of Judgment. _The Bottomless Pit_, “El-Hāwiyeh,” is the lowest stage of the Hell of the Korān. * * * * * P. 8. THE QUAKING.--_Burdens_, _i.e._ the dead. _Her tidings_: “The tidings of the earth are these--she will bear witness to the actions of every man and woman done upon her surface.”--Tradition of Mohammad. * * * * *