alms worthless by reminding (people of them) or by injury, like a man who giveth what he hath as a spectacle unto men, and believeth not in GOD and in the Last Day." Muhammad taught that the

What is  righteousness?

service acceptable to GOD was not merely outward, by saying (Surah ii., v. 172):—" It¹ is not righteousness for you to turn your faces towards the east and the west, but righteousness is his who believeth in GOD and the Last Day and the Angels, and the Book and the Prophets, and who giveth his wealth through his love to his relatives and the orphans and the poor and the traveller and beggars and those in bondage, and who offereth up prayer, and who giveth the legal alms; and it is theirs who perform their covenants when they have made them, and theirs who are patient in misfortune and distress and in time of adversity: these are they who speak the truth, and these are the pious." Muhammad rightly enough felt and taught that no amount of outward devotion

would deceive GOD into accepting one who did not believe, and also that true belief in GOD and the teachings of His prophets must have some effect upon the conduct of those in whose hearts it reigned. His belief in Predestination and in GOD's arbitrariness also made him see that no man could claim an entrance into Paradise merely on the ground of his own good works.

Therefore tradition¹ informs us that on one occasion when ‘Ayishah asked him whether

None righteous.

he at least would not be admitted on account of his merits, the "Prophet" three times over answered that not even he himself would enter Paradise unless through the mercy of GOD. Although almost all Muslims now believe that they will be saved, as a last resource, through Muhammad's²

Sin—how done away  with.

intercession for them, and many also hold that others of their saints³ perform the same office, yet in the Qur'an the possibility of this is distinctly denied.⁴

Some passages in the Qur'an clearly affirm that