acknowledging in the presence of his opponents that three of their goddesses were worthy of honour and would intercede effectually with GOD. On that occasion, deserted by almost all his followers (whom he had sent to take refuge in Abyssinia), and almost despairing of success in his mission, Muhammad went to pray in the Ka'abah, the great national sanctuary at Mecca. There, when repeating the Chapter of the Star (Surah LIII.), when he had recited vv. 19 and 20, "Have ye not then seen Al-lat and Al-'Uzza' and Manat the other the third?" he added—at the instigation of Satan, as the Muslims confess,—the words, "These are the exalted beauties, and verily their intercession may indeed be hoped for." But hardly had the Meccans accepted the admission when Muhammad 

declared that he had been misled, and instead of these words of compromise he substituted those now found in that Surah, "Have ye male (issue) and hath He (i.e. God) female?¹ That indeed were an unfair division. They are nought but names which ye and your fathers have named."²

Soon after Khadijah's death the leaders

A.D. 616.

of the Quraish came to Abu Talib, Muhammad's uncle and protector, and induced him to invite Muhammad to a friendly meeting with them in order to come to an agreement. When they met and suggested that he should tolerate their continuing their ancestral worship on the condition of their not interfering with his religious teaching, Muhammad bravely and firmly declared that he would be satisfied only on condition of their repeating the words La ilaha illa’ llahu, &c. ("There is no God but GOD") and putting away whatever else they worshipped.³

From that time Muhammad never wavered in his firm adherence to his faith in the Unity of God.