s harem was made up for the most part of women who were refused and
scorned by other men; widows of his friends. And the fact that the prophet
was a man of the most abstemious habits argues the claim that compassion
and kindness was the motive in most instances where he took to himself
another and yet another wife.

However, the points which we are here dealing with, are those which
directly relate to Mohammed's unquestioned illumination and the spirit of
his utterances as contained in the Ku-ran, corroborate the experience of
Buddha, of Jesus, and of all whose illumination has resulted in the
establishment of a religious system.

Mohammed taught, first of all, the fact of the one God. "There is no God
but Allah," was his cry, and, following the example, or at least
paralleling the example of Jesus, he "destroyed their idols" and
substituted the worship of one God, in place of the tribal deities, which
were a constant source of disputation among the clans.

Compare the following, which is one of the five daily prayers of the
faithful Muslim, with the Lord's prayer as used in Christian theology.

"In the name of God, the compassionate--the merciful.
Praise be to God, the Lord of the worlds,
The compassionate, the merciful.
The king of the day of judgment.
Thee do we worship and of Thee do we beg assistance.
Guide us in the right way,
The way of those to whom Thou hast been gracious,
Not of those with whom Thou art wroth, nor of the erring."

Mohammed never tired of telling his disciples and followers that God was
"The Very-Forgiving." Among the many and sometimes strangely varied
attributes of God (The Absolute), we find this characteristic most strongly
and persistently dwelt upon--the ever ready forgiveness and mercifulness of
God.

Every _soorah_ of the _Kur-an_ begins with the words: "In the name of God,
the compassionate, the merciful," but, even as Jesus laid persistent
emphasis upon the _love_ of God, and yet up to very recent times,
Christianity taught the _fear and wrath_ of God, losing sight of the one
great and important fact that _God is love_, and that _love is God_, so the
Muslims overlooked the _real_ message, and the greatness and the power and
the fearfulness of God, is the incentive of the followers of the Illumined
Mohammed.

The following extracts from the Kur-an are almost identical with many
passages in the Holy Scriptures of the Christian, and are comparable with
the sayin