54 THE CORÂN.
taint from the Fall is nowhere admitted. Adam fell, it is true, by eating the forbidden fruit; but his fall (as it would appear) was the consequence, not the cause, of the proneness of his nature to sin. All men have sinned, but it has been each his own fault, acting independently, and not because of anything antecedent.1 Influenced by these considerations, some have come to the conclusion that Mahomet holds predestination only in the modified sense that some are elected to a knowledge of the truth, while others are left in darkness and consequent unbelief; that grace is given where God sees the will inclined to what is good, and that it is withheld where the inclination is towards evil;2 in short, that, so far from being

1 Passages on the universal depravity of man are not numerous; but the following is explicit: "If God should punish men for their iniquity, he would not leave on the earth any moving thing."—Sura XVI., 61. See also Suras XLVII., 20; XLVIII., 2, as to Mahomet's own liability to sin.
2 "If God had known any good in them, he would certainly have caused them to hear," &c.—Sura VIII., 22[23]. But passages of this kind are few and vague. See V., 18 ; XIII., 29; XIV., 26; XVI., 108; XLVII., 18.
THE TEACHING OF THE CORÂN. 55
an absolute predestinarian, Mahomet was nearer to Pelagius even than to Augustine.1  But this must be rejected as a paradox, based on no sufficient ground. To have carried out predestination to its logical conclusion would have reduced man to a mere machine, a simple instrument in the hand of God. That Mahomet has stopped short of a conclusion which would have stultified his whole mission as a warner and preacher of righteousness, does not extenuate his downright and unqualified inculcation of blind destiny. To compare such a system with the Christian doctrine is to compare things which have but little in common. Where, for instance, shall we find in the Bible words answering to these: "If thy Lord pleased, He had made all men of one religion . . . . . but unto this hath He created them, for the word of the Lord shall be fulfilled, Verily, I will fill Hell altogether with men and Genii."2 And, on the other hand, we may in vain search the Corân from beginning to end for any such declaration as this: "The Lord is not willing that any should perish"; or, "Who will have all men to be saved"; or again, "As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his way and live."

When the Caliph Omar journeyed to Jerusalem to receive its surrender, he delivered an address, in the

1 Dr. Weil's "Einleitung," 2nd edition, p. III.
2 When Satan refused to fall down and worship Adam, God is represented as using these words: Suras VII., 180; XXXII., 14;[13] XXXVII., 85; XI., 119; and the divine misdirection of the reprobate is in immediate fulfilment of this threat.