But the Qur'anic doctrine of works does not stop here. It proceeds further until good works are regarded as being not merely the signs of an advance in spiritual life, that is, the fruit of the reformed life, but as a means of actually acquiring merit for the doer of them.

Good works, thus, come to be regarded as an atonement for evil deeds which have gone before, as well as for those which, so to speak, accompany them. Thus we find such passages as the following, 'Give ye your alms openly, it is well. Do not conceal them, and give them to the poor? This, too, will be of advantage to you and will do away your sins.' ¹

It is usually alms-giving which is thus spoken of as being an atonement for wrongs done or for sin committed.² But the merit gained by good deeds in general is of value also as a counterpoise to the demerit of evil deeds.

We have already seen that even the true believer is not expected constantly to keep up to the ideal which he sets or which is set before him. It cannot but be that he fail and fall. Thus he has to his credit many good deeds but also on the other side of his account there stand against him many evil deeds. 'On that day men shall go forward in distinct classes, that they may behold their works. And whoever shall have wrought an atom's weight of good, shall behold it. And whoever shall have wrought an atom's weight of evil, shall behold it.' ³

The life of the believer may be represented as a balance in which in the one scale there are good deeds

and in the other scale evil deeds. And as the one or the other scale is the heavier, so will the life and character and position of man be judged in the final account. It is difficult to believe that this way of judging is to be taken so mechanically as it often apparently is taken by the commentators and other expounders of the teaching of Muhammad. We must remember that the language used is figurative not to say poetical. The good deeds and the evil deeds are set one against the other, and the result, on the day of judgment, will depend on which outweigh the other. There is a certain modicum of absolute truth in this representation of things, if it be once admitted that one's fate or future depends on actual achievement, or, at least, on attempt at achievement. For in such a case it is absolutely necessary to strike a balance or average. The man's character is to be judged by the predominance of the good or the evil deeds. He whose evil deeds prevail over his good deeds is a wicked man, of evil character, even though now and then he may have done good deeds. He whose good deeds outweigh his evil actions is a good man, of good character, even though at times, or even frequently, he may have done evil deeds. The predominance of the good or evil actions furnishes the judge with a means of estimating what, in the main, and on the whole, has been the character of the man, and according to that character is he judged, and commended or condemned.

Another figure employed in the Qur'an is that in which a man's good deeds are represented as being heavy and his evil deeds light. According to this figure, the greater the number of good deeds a man has to his credit the heavier will be his weight, his worth. 'The weighing