The first of these, as considered from a religious point of view, is that Muhammad had to be followed by Khalifas, or successors. Had he been the founder of a religion only, there would have been no need of Khalifas after him, but merely of teachers to propagate his tenets, and of people to practise them; just as the Lord Jesus Christ left no Khalifa to succeed Him, but only a number of preachers and teachers, through whose instrumentality His religion spread far and wide, by its own inherent power as such, and its adaptation to human nature. Jesus Christ, as the Founder of Christianity, could have no successor, because He himself has effected, once for all, a complete salvation for the race, leaving nothing to be done except to receive it with true and living faith; and He needs no successor for the further reason, that having risen from the dead, He is still Himself invisibly present with His Church, and with every individual believer, as the Lord and ruler of their hearts. But, because Muhammad founded not merely a religion but also a worldly empire, which could not exist without a visible head, therefore he had to be succeeded by Khalifas. Muhammad being at the same time the Prophet and Sultan of his followers, his second successor, 'Umar, could consistently assume for his title Amiru'l-Mu'minun i.e. the Commander of the Faithful. Mixed up as religion and politics are in Islam, it cannot be denied that it was fully in accordance with its spirit that the

Khalifas claimed the obedience of subjects from all Muslims, and that the latter should wish to be governed only by the rightful successors of their Prophet. But by doing so the Khalifas and Muhammadans outstepped the limits of religion, and passed into the domain of worldly government, the unavoidable consequence of which was, that they had to participate in the ordinary fate of political institutions. Being then not mere teachers of religion, but secular sovereigns, the Khalifas exposed themselves to the intrigues and hostilities common in the world, but alien to the spirit of true religion, till, ere long, it was not uncommon to see the Muslim world divided into hostile camps, leading to the actual effusion of blood, so that, e.g. in the 'battle of the Camel', only twenty-five years after Muhammad's death, 10,000 Muslims were slain by fellow-believers. It is also well known, that no less than three of the first four Khalifas suffered a violent death, one being stabbed by a Persian wishing to avenge the wrongs of his country, and the two others falling by the hands of Muslims, from political reasons; while the last of these, 'Ali, though the Prophet's nephew and son-in-law, never succeeded in subduing Mu'awiya and the Muhammadans of Syria who rejected his government; and, after his death, his son Hasan found it impossible to succeed his father in the Khalifate, and had to leave it to his rival. It is also notorious that the right of the first four Khalifa's