is wrong to gain money by money as a direct agency.
Suppose, then, for example, that the charge for changing a shilling is one
farthing. It is unlawful for the money-changer to give four three-penny
pieces for one shilling plus one farthing, for then he will have sinned
against the laws anent usury by gaining money (one farthing) by money; but
if he gives three three-penny pieces plus two pence three farthings in
copper the transaction will be lawful, as his profit of one farthing is
then gained by selling as merchandize certain pieces of silver and copper
for one shilling, and not by exactly changing the shilling.

Again, pictures or representations of living creatures are unlawful; and
so, when British rupees were first circulated in India, good Muslims
doubted whether they could use them, but after a long consultation the
'Ulama declared that, as the eye of His Majesty was so small as not to be
clearly visible, the use of such coins was legal. This kind of casuistry is
very common and very demoralizing; but it shows how rigid the law is.

[30] "Authority becomes sacred because sanctioned by heaven. Despotism,
being the first form of consolidated political authority, is thus rendered
unchangeable and identical in fact with Government at large." "Supreme
Government has four stages: (1) where the absolute Prince (Muhammad) is
among them concentrating in his own person the four cardinal virtues, and
this we call the reign of wisdom; (2) where the Prince appears no longer,
neither do these virtues centre in any single person: but are found in four
(Abu Bakr, Omar, Osman and 'Ali), who govern in concert with each other, as
if they were one, and this we call the reign of the pious; (3) where none
of these is to be found any longer, but a chief (Khalif) arises with a
knowledge of the rules propounded by the previous ones, and with judgment
enough to apply and explain them, and this we call the reign of the Sunnat;
(4) Where these latter qualities, again, are not to be met with in a single
person, but only in a variety who govern in concert; and this we call the
reign of the Sunnat-followers.--Akhlak-i-Jalali, pp. 374. 378.

[31] Life of Muhammad, by Syed Amir 'Ali, p. 289.

[32] The Muslim 'Ulama are certainly much fettered by their religion in the
pursuit of some of the paths of learning; and superstition sometimes
decides a point which has been controverted for centuries. Lane's Modern
Egyptians, vol. i. p. 269.

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