210 THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY AND

needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God." Very similar words occur also in Matt. xix. 24, and Mark x. 25.

In the Traditions, moreover, there is one striking instance of a quotation from the Epistles, and it is a favourite with many thoughtful Muslims, who have not the slightest idea that it comes from the Bible. Abu Hurairah is reported 1 to have attributed to Muhammad the statement that God Most High had said: I have prepared for My righteous servants what eye hath not seen nor ear heard, nor hath it occurred to the heart of a human being." It will be readily recognized that these words are a quotation from 1 Cor. ii. 9. Whether Abu Hurairah, surnamed the Liar, has spoken the truth in asserting that he heard this passage quoted by Muhammad may well be doubted. Yet the passage in Surah LXXV., 22, 23, "Faces in that day shall be brightened, gazing at their Lord," which refers to the Beatific Vision 2, and is a reminiscence of 1 John iii. 2, and 1 Cor. xiii. 12, lends some support to his statement.

From a careful examination of the whole subject dealt with in this chapter we therefore conclude that the influence of true and genuine Christian teaching upon the Qur'an and upon Islam in general has been very slight indeed, while on the
1 Mishkatu'l Masabih, p. 487.
99 On the Muhammadan idea of this, vide The Religion of the Crescent, pp. 116, 118.
CHRISTIAN APOCRYPHAL BOOKS. 211

other hand apocryphal traditions and in certain respects heretical doctrines have a claim to be considered as forming one of the original sources of the Muhammadan faith 1.
1 In his Muhammadanische Studien (vol. II, pp. 382 sqq.) Professor Goldziher has an interesting account of the way in which in later times "Traditions" were borrowed from Christian sources. But this lies beyond our present inquiry.