and when He now creates man, all the various changes and stages of development prior to birth occur in their regular and necessary order and sequence in virtue of, and in consequence of, the single word 'Be', which is simply the expression of the divine purpose, and the assertion of His will. Were any further passage necessary to show that natural generation in all its stages, is regarded in the Qur'an as being a creative act of God, we shall find it in the words 'He formeth you in the wombs of your mothers, by several gradual formations (literally "creation after creation") within three veils of darkness [Suratu'z-Zumar (xxxix) 8].

We find, then, that the Qur'an teaches, That God formed the body of Adam, and then breathed into it of His Spirit, whence Adam became truly a human being; and that similarly, but by another process, He forms the bodies of Adam's descendants and breathes into them also of His Spirit, and thus they too become living human beings.

The doctrine of the Qur'an, in regard to the creation of man, may thus be said to be 'Creationism', in contrast on the one hand to 'Traducianism', and on the other hand to the theory of the pre-existence of the soul; and all that we shall see in our consideration of the teaching of the Qur'an as to the moral qualities and characteristics of human nature, and specially in our consideration of its teaching concerning sin, will bear out this view as to its conception of the origin of the individual soul.

The question is not one on which Muhammadan theologians appear to have spent much thought. They have not developed it and stated it precisely and clearly;

yet here it stands at the commencement of our study of Qur'anic teaching, and the effects of its tacit acceptance show themselves through the whole circle of Muhammadan theology.

Humanity is not really and essentially one. There is, in fact, no such thing as humanity; there is only the human race, and the only true solidarity of the race is to be seen on its corporeal side. The bodies of the innumerable members of the human race have something in common, because they are all descended from Adam; but the individual soul is the direct creation of God implanted by a divine act in the body which is descended from the first parents.

This common descent is sometimes spoken of as an act of creation, but it is so indirectly, in the same sense in which the springing up of every seed, and the blooming and fruit-bearing of every tree, and the falling of every drop of dew on the thirsty land, are acts of God.

Thus far we have dealt with the teaching of the Qur'an on creation in respect of the origin of the human race, or the individual members of that race only. There is, however, another side, and that a very important one, to the question of creation; namely, the teaching of the Qur'an with regard to creation in general; but it should come up for consideration more naturally elsewhere in connexion with the doctrine of God, and His relation to the world.