heaven, he 'saw Gabriel in the form of a winged man, with his feet on the horizon.'

That the things which Mohammed heard and saw had no objective reality, but were merely the subjective workings of an overwrought and morbidly excitable imagination, seems also to be confirmed by his own statement, 'To whichever side I directed my looks, I still saw the angel before me.' For if Gabriel had really been standing with his feet on the horizon, like any ordinary object of the senses, it would have been quite possible to look away from him; but if, on the contrary, he had no existence except in Mohammed's own vision, then he was naturally seen by Mohammed's eyes in whichever direction they might be turned. It can be easily conceived that the more uncommon and abnormal the experience was, the easier it became for Mohammed and his friends either sincerely to form, or interestedly to feign, a belief in its supernatural origin; and the heavenly character of the vision once assumed and abetted, Mohammed could come before his countrymen with the claims of a divinely commissioned ambassador and prophet. This was quite enough to begin with. First let him be widely recognised as the Prophet speaking in the name of heaven and it will become easy, ere long, to assert himself as the paramount authority and irresponsible dictator on the earth.

His clear-headed and affectionate wife Khadija naturally employed all her influence to have her husband's ecstatic visions regarded as a Divine call to become the religious and political reformer of his nation, rather than allow them to be looked upon as indications of his being a sorcerer and possessed by demons, which would have been the only other alternative according to the prevalent Arab notions in those days. Thus Mohammed became persuaded by the help of his circumspect and kind-hearted wife to look upon his dreams and hallucinations as Divine revelations, and on himself as a heaven-commissioned ambassador and chosen prophet.

This may be called the fourth and final stage of his development into a prophet. His prophetic character appeared now indubitably established, being based upon the extra

ordinary experience of what looked like a direct call and commission from heaven.

But it was not without great difficulty that Mohammed maintained himself on the height of this elevated position. His Arab biographers narrate that a cessation of those visions took place, lasting for a number of days, according to some account; or for longer periods, varying up to three years, according to other accounts. He, therefore, fell a prey to doubts again, being afraid lest Gabriel might have altogether deserted him. So great became his grief and despondency that he contemplated suicide, and repeatedly went to the neighbouring mountains, intending to cast himself over some precipice. It is plain that his whole soul was now possessed with this one idea and that his life had no longer any value for him, unless he could become the prophet he wished to be. No wonder that this all-absorbing desire soon issued in a fresh hallucination. According to the Rawzet ul Ahbab, he narrated it in these words: 'Walking in the way, I suddenly heard a voice from heaven; and lifting up my head, I saw the angel who had come to me in the cave of Hira, sitting upon a throne between earth and heaven and saying to me, "O Mohammed, thou verily art the apostle of God!"' According to Ibn Ishak, the angel further addressed to him the following words, which were afterwards embodied in the Koran as the 93rd Surah: 'By the morning brightness and by the night when it darkeneth! Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, neither hath He been displeased. And surely the Future shall be better for thee than the Past; and soon shall thy Lord give thee, and thou shalt be satisfied. Did He not find thee an orphan and gave thee a home? and found thee erring and guided thee? and found thee needy and enriched thee? 'Ibn Ishak explains the promised gift which shall 'satisfy' him, by 'Victory in this life and reward in the next.' Thus he suggests that from the very first beginning of Islam worldly conquests, power and riches, entered the contemplation and hope of its exponents, and that their realisation in Medina was nothing but the natural unfolding of these early germs.

After this fresh hallucination, as his biographers inform us, the revelations succeeded each other without further interruption, which we must take to mean, if we adopt the inter-