44 THE QUR'ANIC DOCTRINE OF GOD

you that which had never been given before to any human beings."' 1 ' And hold ye fast by the cord 2 of God all of you, and break not loose from it; and remember God's goodness towards you how that when ye were enemies, He united your hearts, and by His favour ye became brethren; and when ye were on the brink of the pit of fire, He drew you back from it. Thus God clearly showeth you His signs that ye may be guided.' 3

The most marked manifestation of the goodness of God is that He revealed His will through Muhammad, and has promised to those who follow him and obey God's will, a special light which will guide them. 'O ye who believe! fear God and believe in His apostle: two portions of His mercy will He give you. He will bestow on you light to walk in, and He will forgive you: for God is Forgiving, Merciful; that the people of the Book may know that they have no control over aught of the favours of God, and that these gifts of grace are in the hands of God, and that He vouchsafeth them to whom He will; for God is of immense bounty.' 4

Acceptance by Him and the forgiveness of sin are further marks of His goodness, for they are wholly of His goodness and mercy. 'Say: Verily, I fear, should I rebel against my Lord, the punishment of the great day. From whomsoever it shall be averted on that day, He will have had mercy on him: and this will be

1 Suratu'l-Ma'ida (v) 23; cf. v. 10.
2 RODWELL, The Koran, note in loco.
 3 Suratu Ali 'Imran (iii) 98, 99; cf. xii. 38.
4 Suratu Hadid (lvii) 28, 29; cf. iii. 158; lxii. 2.
THE CHARACTER AND ATTRIBUTES OF GOD 45

the manifest bliss.' 1 ' . . . and but for the goodness of God towards you, and His Mercy, no one of you had been cleansed for ever.' 2

This leads to the further thought of the reward which God has prepared for those who obey Him. The reward and the blessedness in store is boundless as God's goodness. All that can make the blessed happy, shall be granted in full abundance. 'And whoever shall obey God and the Apostle, these shall be with those of the Prophets, and of the Sincere, and of the Martyrs, and of the Just, to whom God hath been gracious. These are a goodly band! This is the bounty of God; and in knowledge doth God suffice.' 3 'Vie in hasting after pardon from your Lord, and Paradise — whose outspread is as the outspread of the Heaven and of the Earth prepared is it for those who believe in God and His apostles: such is the bounty of God: to whom He will He giveth it: and of immense bounty is God.' 4

8. When the Qur'an has so much to say of the goodness, the kindness and the mercy of God, it is remarkable that it does not speak of the love of God with any fulness, and when it does employ the word love, it does not do so in the same sense in which it is used in the Christian writings.

The love of God which is spoken of in the Qur'an is not what is meant in the Bible by the expression 'the love of God'. In the first place, it does not express an attribute of God Himself, but a relation which He assumes towards men conditioned by their attitude to

1 Suratu'l-An'am (vi) 15, 16.   2 Suratu'n-Mr (xxiv) 21.
3 Suratu'n-Nisa' (iv) 71, 72.     4 Suratu'l-Hadid (lvii) 21.