ABSTRACT

The J$:.ur'an prohibits the drinking of wine and all intoxicating liquors in these words :-" 0 true believers, surely wine, and lots, and images, and divining arrows are an abomination of the work of Satan; therefore avoid ye them, that ye may prosper"; and again, "They will ask thee concerning wine and lots: Answer, in both there is great sin, and also some things of use unto men; but their sinrulness is greater than their use." Strict MUQammadans abjure the use of opium and l:1ashish, or Indian hemp (cannabis Indica), which when taken in excess practically makes a man mad, * and they are bidden to avoid all gaming and gambling, and divination and magic. Tobacco is used freely everywhere, and of course coffee, but many learned MUQammadans have doubted the legality of the use of either of these. When not corrupted by intercourse with Western peoples, the Mul}ammadans are probably the most abstemious people in the East. The duties of a man to his neighbour are laid down at length by MUQammadan teachers, and in great detail, and we may see from the J$:.ur'an that the observance of most of the virtues beloved by Western nations is also strictly inculcated by them. In the matter of Polygamy and Divorce, however, their morality is exceedingly lax, and there is no doubt that the

domestic habits of the Arab nations have seriously hampered their progress among the peoples of the earth. Mul,1ammad said, "If ye fear that ye shall not act with equity towards orphans [of the female sex], take in marriage of such [ other] women as please you, two, or three, or four," (Stlra IV); but the example which he himself set was an unfortunate one, and has been the cause of much misery to the Arabs. Among poor folk want of means is the great deterrent to polygamy, and many men, therefore, marry only one wife; but the laws relating to divorce are so loose, that a man with money can generally find or buy an excuse for getting rid of his wife and for taking a new one. The children of concubines or slaves are held to be legitimate, and the Prophet did a good deed when he put a stop to the inhuman custom among the pagan Arabs of burying their daughters alive. It is said that the girl who was intended to die was allowed to live until she was six years old, when she was perfumed and dressed in fine raiment, and taken to a pit dug for that purpose; the father then stood behind her, and pushed her in, and had the pit filled up at once. The punishment for murder is death, but it may, if all parties concerned agree, be compounded by the payment of money, and by the freeing of a Mul}ammadan from captivity; Manslaughter may be compounded by a fine and by the freeing of a Mul,1ammadan from captivity. Theft, if the object stolen be worth more than £2, is punished by the loss of a member :-for the first offence, the right hand; for the second, the left foot; for the third, the left hand; for the fourth, the right foot. In recent years beating and hard labour have taken the place of the punishment of mutilation. Adultery is punished by death by stoning if the charge against the woman be established by four eye-witnesses; the extreme penalty of the law is, naturally, carried out but rarely. Drunkenness is punished by flogging. Blasphemy of God, or Christ, or

MU~1ammad, is ordered to be punished by death; the same punishment has been inflicted upon women for Apostasy.