know and feel in their hearts that what they are is of God's mercy alone, and that without His grace they would not differ from the others. They do not will to accept God's grace because they are elect; but they feel that they are elect because they have willed to believe and accept the message of that grace. 'Praised be God, who hath directed us unto this (felicity), for we should not have been (rightly) guided, if God had not directed us' [Suratu'l-A'raf (vii) 41].

The offer of God's grace and His direction has a two-fold result according to the reception it meets with on the part of those who receive it. 'Answer, it is unto those who believe a sure guide and a remedy (for doubt and uncertainty); but unto those who believe not, (it is) [Rodwell, ''there is"] a thickness of hearing in their ears, and a darkness which covereth them: these are (as they who are) called from a distant place' [Suratu'l-Fussilat (xli) 44]. 'It will increase the faith of those who believe, and they shall rejoice: but unto those in whose hearts there is an infirmity, it will add (further) doubt unto their (present) doubt: and they shall die in their infidelity' [Suratu't-Tauba (ix) 125; see Suras ii. 24; xvii. 84].

The opportunities which man, as an individual, enjoys of accepting or rejecting God's mercy, are confined to the period of his existence here on earth. After death there is no further probation. This is in agreement with the teaching which we have already noted, that man's life on earth is a period of testing or trial. To every test or trial there must be set a time limit. It cannot continue indefinitely. The new point we desire to bring forward here is that, according

to the Qur'an, the time of probation is limited by the death of the individual. 'On that day their excuses shall not avail those who have acted unjustly; neither shall they be invited (any more) to make themselves acceptable (unto God)' [Suratu'n-Rum (xxx) 57]. 'Answer, On the day of (that) decision, the faith of those who shall have disbelieved, shall not avail them; neither shall they be respited (any longer)' [Suratu's-Saida (xxxii) 229; see Suras lvii. 14; xxxv. 34].

Such passages as these make it clear that the Qur'an holds out no hope of any future probation, and this is in accordance with what it teaches as to the purpose of man's creation and the period of his life on earth. 'On the day when some of thy Lord's signs shall come to pass, its faith shall not profit a soul which believed not before, or wrought not good in its faith' [Suratu'lAn'am (vi) 159]. As a man sows in this life, so shall he reap hereafter.

There is yet one more point which we shall consider, and with this close our study of the teaching of the Qur'an on Man, though much more might be said on the subject.

We have already seen that Muhammad recognizes that man has been created with a capacity for religion, and a power of recognizing and, to some extent at least, realizing God. The power of recognizing and realizing God, is what differentiates him from his fellow-creatures, the brute beasts, and exists in virtue of the fact that God in the creation of man breathes into him of His Own Spirit. The lower animals, it is true, nay, all nature is represented in the Qur'an as acknowledging and worshipping God. Suratu'r-Ra'd (xiii) 16 says,