take the form of a denial of His existence; or it may resolve itself into the worship of others along with the one true God; or, again, it may manifest itself in practical opposition to God and His claims, while accepting and acknowledging the fact of His existence. This latter form or manifestation of opposition to God's will and revelation, shows itself in the assertion, avowedly by word, or virtually by deed alone, that man is not responsible to Him for his actions, that there is no resurrection, and that consequently there is no day of judgment. We deem it unnecessary to quote passages from the Qur'an in support of the foregoing statement; for the book is so full of this thought that any one who intelligently reads it, even casually, cannot but be struck by the important place which this truth holds in the teaching of Muhammad.

The necessity for a belief in God, as sole Creator and Ruler of the universe, is by all recognized as the main point on which Muhammad insisted; and without this faith in Him, he argues it is impossible to please Him. And as this is the first and foremost requisite for religion, so the absence of it is the spring and fount of all sin. But along with this belief in God, there must be something more—submission to Him, that is, a general resolve on the part of the believer to direct his conduct, alike in matters of ceremonial as in matters of faith and morals, by God's will, in so far as it is known. And it is claimed that this is sufficiently, nay, fully known in the Qur'an. These two—faith in God, and submission to Him—were enough to transfer one from the class of unbelievers to the class of believers, using the word in a general sense.

Yet this was not all that was considered as necessary to man's salvation in its full meaning. After this stage is reached, a man's salvation, or rather the degree of reward to which he shall attain hereafter, depends very largely on the extent to which he succeeds in overcoming the tendencies towards evil which weigh him down. Thus we read: 'But whosoever shall do good works, being a true believer, shall not fear any injustice; or any diminution of his reward from God.' ¹ This point must be considered in detail in discussing the Qur'anic teaching on salvation.² We bring it up here merely to throw a side-light on the teaching of the book on sin. For from this it is evident that no act or word, which does not involve the denial of God's existence, or a final and absolute opposition to God's will, can exclude a man from the category of the believer. Hence sin is really, in essence, unbelief in God and determined opposition to His will.

Hence, too, springs the division of sins into great and little. This distinction, as we have seen, is clearly found in the Qur'an, and though it may not be clearly defined and developed so as to distinguish unmistakably which sins are great and which are little, the Muhammadan theologians are undoubtedly following in the footsteps of the Prophet when they distinguish between great and little sins. Whether their classification is correct from the point of view of the Qur'an is another question which does not come up for consideration here. This much, however, may be said with confidence: determined unbelief is recognized in the Qur'an as a sin