ABSTRACT
Islam, as is well known, condemns only the infidel and the polytheist to eternal punishment; the true believer, however sinning, will one day see an end to his suffering. And even this temporary torture may be alleviated by the prayers of those on earth. Suyuti, with many other authors, has left us a collection of authoritative texts on this point.' These show that prayer, almsgiving, pilgrimage, fasting, and even such pious or merely beneficent works as the erection and endowment of mosques, hostels, schools, or the construction of bridges and irrigation works, all serve to influence the lot of the soul; but special importance is attached to the offering up of prayers on Fridays on the tomb of the deceased. Thus Islam, in adopting the milder views of a minority of Eastern churchmen, may have been the medium through which this belief was transmitted to the West after it. had been unanimously rejected as heretical by the Councils, the Fathers, and the Doctors of the Roman Church.
