language, Muhammad had in mind any thought of evolution; yet it is plain, and worth noting in passing, that the words are not inconsistent with a theory of evolution, and a Muhammadan may, therefore, believe in evolution and claim that in this verse there is a statement which fully justifies him in doing so.

The second part in the creation of man, then, is according to the Qur'an the bestowal on the body of a soul which is not of the earth, earthly, but is akin to the Creator Himself, for it comes into existence and takes up its dwelling in the body, which was till then only something in fashion as a man, by the direct breathing into that body of the divine Spirit; 'and shall have breathed of my Spirit into Him.'

Whether, according to the mind of Muhammad, there is a phase in the creation of man, which is passed by in the Qur'an in silence, is uncertain. Whether this spirit, which is bestowed by the inbreathing of the Creator Himself, enters into man with the life or after the life, is not clearly explained. Yet there is much to lead us to suppose that Muhammad considered man as being not simply dual in his nature, but as possessing a nature which is tripartite. The question naturally arises in our minds, and the teaching of the Qur'an is not explicit on the point. That the inbreathing of the divine Spirit implies something more than the giving to the body of the lifespirit, or principle of physical life, is certain. It was because man possessed, or rather was, something nobler and higher than even the highest of the angels, that the Qur'an represents the Creator as commanding them to bow down before him in reverence. Man is body, spirit, and soul. In the Old Testament the soul is the life

principle, the spirit is the more ethereal substance. We cannot say that in the Qur'an this distinction is clearly made; but the tripartite nature of man may be said to be assumed. Muhammad was no metaphysician and was not so careful in the use of his words that we can claim that one word denotes particularly the one principle, or element, and another the other. Yet that such a tripartite distinction of the nature of man is not foreign to the genius of the Qur'an may be safely maintained and the language of not only Muslim theologians, but of Muhammadans in general, as well as the commonly accepted belief of Muhammadans, shows this. It is common Muhammadan belief that man consists of body, soul, and spirit (to use the terms of the Old Testament), and it is the absence of the subtler element of his nature which causes or explains madness. The spirit of the madman is with God; and the man thus deprived becomes a simple human animal without moral responsibility, and is then, in some special sense, under the divine protection and guidance.

Thus far we have dealt only with the teaching of the Qur'an on the creation of Adam, the first man. We must now proceed to consider what it has to say on the 'creation' of the other members of the human family.

From Adam, the first man, God created directly Hawa (Eve) the first woman. 'O men, fear your Lord, Who hath created you out of one man, and out of him created his wife' [Suratu'n-Nisa' (iv) 1]. The Qur'an thus teaches the solidarity, on its corporeal side at least, of the human race, which, in this sense, may be said to have existed potentially in Adam. The question which arises here is, Does the Qur'an teach that the