adultery. She had come to him three years previously, confessing her adultery, and asking him to make her pure from her sin, that is, to deal with her according to law. He asked her whether she was with child, and on her answering in the affirmative, he directed her to be kept till the child was born, exhorting her, at the same time, to repent, and ask pardon of God. When the child was born, Mohammed said, "It will not do to make the child destitute; let her suckle it." When it was weaned, the mother took it to Mohammed, telling him that she had weaned it, and adding, "It is for thee to give further orders." Mohammed gave the child to some Mussulman, ordered the woman to be buried, up to her chest, and then stoned to death. Khalid threw the first stone on her, so that some drops of her blood soiled him, for which he reviled her. But Mohammed said to him, "O Khalid, do not revile her; by Him in Whose mighty hand my soul is, this woman has made such repentance and penance, that if any one who has committed even a greater crime, makes a like repentance, he will surely be forgiven." After this, he ordered her to be dug out, washed, wrapt in a winding-sheet, and buried with prayers.' (R.)

(32.) They publicly invited the Jews to believe in their heavenly mission and to embrace the religion they preached; but met only with partial success.

a. 'Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people' (Matt. iv. 23).
'Jesus answered and said unto them [the Jews], This is the work of God, that ye believe in him whom he hath sent' (John vi. 29). Compare John v. 24, vii. 14-37.
'Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life' (John viii. 12).
'O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and

will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them' (John xvii. 25, 26).

b. 'Mohammed called upon the Jews, the possessors of holy books, to embrace Islam, and endeavoured to gain them for it, threatening them with the punishment and vengeance of God, in case of refusal. Rafi Ibn Kharija and Malik Ibn Awf made answer to him thus, "We remain in that in which we have found our fathers, who were better and more learned than we are."

'When God had visited the Koreish on the day of the battle of Bedr, Mohammed gathered together the Jews in the Bazaar of the Beni Keinoka, as soon as he had returned to Medina, and said to them, "O ye Jews, embrace Islam, before God visits you, as He visited the Koreish." But they answered, etc.

'Once Mohammed went into a Jewish synagogue and called upon the assembled Jews to believe in God. On being asked by them, what religion he had, he replied, "The religion of Abraham." They said, "Abraham was a Jew." But when Mohammed proposed to submit the question to the decision of the Torah, they declined. When some of them were converted to Islam, the unbelieving Rabbis said, "Only the bad amongst us follow Mohammed and believe in him; if they belonged to the better ones amongst us, they would not forsake the faith of their fathers and embrace another.

'On one occasion, when speaking with the Rabbis of the Jews, Mohammed addressed them thus, "O ye Jews, fear God, and become Moslems: by God, ye know that my revelation is true." They replied, "This is exactly what we do not know;" and they denied what they knew, and continued in unbelief. Then God revealed this, "O ye men of the Book, believe in our revelation, which confirms what you have, before we destroy their faces and turn them backwards, or curse them, as we cursed the Sabbath-breakers, and God's behest was carried out forthwith.' (Ibn Ishak and Ibn Hisham.)