sought his society. Mohammed, as I have learned, is reported to have said, "I have not called any one to Islam who had not first his doubts, hesitation, and gainsaying, except Abu Bekr, who showed no objection and no hesitation."'

If Abu Bekr is here represented as already fully prepared for the adoption of Islam, the explanatory cause was no doubt this, that he now had likewise joined the Hanifite fraternity, who, for some time, had relinquished idol-worship in favour of Deism. Such an assumption is quite natural, because of his intimate connection with Khadija's family where Hanifdom had so strong a footing. The new doctrine of Islam, that Mohammed was its heaven-sent apostle, presented no serious difficulty to the affectionate regard in which Abu Bekr held his visionary friend. Their friendship had long been so close that it could not but favour a gradual approximation of thoughts and ideas; and Abu Bekr's superiority of judgment and forethought necessarily must have had a great influence on his impressible friend and on the religion offered by him to his heathen countrymen. These two men were, from the first, joined in Islam, and treated it as their common cause and as the highest object of their aspirations, with which all their personal and private interests became inseparably interwoven.

Nothing can be more certain than that Islam is not the product of Mohammed alone, but that he was materially influenced and assisted in its concoction by others, notably by Abu Bekr and Omar, besides sundry renegade Christians and Jews whom he used as channels of information. How dependent Mohammed ordinarily was on his friends Abu Bekr and Omar, is well illustrated by the following statement of Ali: 'The prophet always said, "I, Abu Bekr, and Omar went to, or came from, such and such a place; I, Abu Bekr, and Omar have done such and such a thing."' There is also a tradition, mentioned by Sprenger, according to which Mohammed declared: 'Every prophet has two heavenly and two earthly Viziers: my heavenly Viziers are Gabriel and Michael, and my earthly Viziers Abu Bekr and Omar.' As Omar's courage and strength, so Abu Bekr's knowledge and wealth, were made subservient to Islam, and had no small share in its rise and progress.

It is recorded of Abu Bekr that he possessed a fortune of 40,000 dirhams, but that he so liberally devoted it to the promotion of the new religion that, at the time of the Hegira, it had dwindled down to 5,000 dirhams. By his early proselytising efforts, Othman, Zobeir, Abd Errahman, Saad, and Talha embraced Islam, some of whom were mere lads, and all were related either to Mohammed's or to Abu Bekr's family. At a time, therefore, when Mohammed himself could only boast of three male converts (viz., Ali, Zeid, and Abu Bekr), Abu Bekr had succeeded in gaining no less than five. Ibn Ishak says concerning these early converts: 'These eight men preceded all the rest in Islam. They prayed, believed in Mohammed, and accepted his revelation as Divine.'

(3.) A further Increase in the Number of Converts emboldens Mohammed, but, at the same time, arouses Persecution.

After enumerating these eight precursors of the Moslem converts, Ibn Ishak gives a list of the names of 44 persons — viz., 35 men and 9 women — who gradually followed their example by likewise embracing Islam. At first Mohammed and his converts provoked no opposition or persecution; that is, so long as they cautiously and timidly abstained from coming forward with the claims of their new religion. It is expressly stated that, at that time, the people did not keep aloof from the prophet or refute him. But as soon as they opposed others, they were opposed in return. Ibn Ishak, who tells us that Mohammed concealed his faith for three years after he had received the supposed mission from heaven, also informs us that the prophet, whilst enjoying the protection of his influential family, quietly and one by one, gained upwards of forty adherents whose religious devotion naturally still further encouraged him and strengthened his position. It is significant that only after this, the historian assures us, 'Mohammed obeyed the command of God, and suffered himself to be detained by nothing in revealing his faith.'

This frankness in opposing a new religion to the old, and the one Allah to the idols, slow as it had been in coming, at once led to a change in the conduct of the general public