Christian saint. This one fact speaks volumes.

Every action was performed in God or with reference to God--an
oft-repeated idea in either religion. There is a continual hatred of
the world and a continual fear that it may imperil a man's soul. Hence
the sense of vast responsibility felt by the officials, a sense which
finds expression even in the ordinary official correspondence of the
authorities which papyri have preserved for us. The phraseology is
often stereotyped, but as such, expresses a special theory of life.
This responsibility is represented as weighing with especial severity
upon a pious Caliph. Upon election to the throne he accepts office
with great reluctance protesting his unworthiness with tears. The West
can relate similar stories of Gregory the Great and of Justinian.

Exhortations are frequent ever to remember the fact of death and to
repent and bewail past sins. When a mention of the last Judgment
occurs in the reading of passages from the Bible or Qoran, the
auditors burst into tears. Upon one occasion a man was praying upon
the roof of his house and wept so bitterly over his sins, that the
tears ran down the waterspout and flooded the rooms below. This
hyperbolical statement in a typical life of a saint shows the high
value attributed to tears in the East. It is, however, equally a
Christian characteristic. The gracious gift of tears was regarded by
mediaeval Christianity as the sign of a deeply religious nature.
Gregory VII is said to have wept daily at the sacrifice of the Mass
and similar accounts are given to the credit of other famous
Christians.

While a man should weep for his own sins, he is not to bewail any
misfortune or misery which may befall him. In the latter case it is
his duty to collect his strength, to resign himself and to praise God
even amid his sufferings. Should he lose a dear relative by death, he
is not to break out with cries and lamentations like the heathen.
Lamentation for the dead is most strictly forbidden in Islam. "We are
God's people and to God we return" says the pious Muslim on receiving
the unexpected news of a death. Resignation and patience in these
matters is certainly made the subject of eloquent exhortation in the
Qoran, but the special developments of tradition betray Christian
influence.

Generally speaking, the whole ethical system of the two religions is
based upon the contrast between God and the world, though Muhammedan
philosophy will recogniz