ABSTRACT
The injunctions of the Koran are not confined to moral and religious duties. “From the Atlantic to the Ganges,” says Gibbon, “the Koran is acknowledged as the fundamental code, not only of theology, but of civil and criminal jurisprudence, and the laws which regulate the actions and the property of mankind are governed by the immutable sanction of the will of God.” The Koran consequently differs materially from the Christian Bible, which, according to Combe, “contains no system of theology, but is composed chiefly of narratives, descriptions, sublime effusions, of devotional emotions, and much sound morality, bound together by no striking logical connexion.” “Islam recognizes no distinction of race or colour; black or white, citizens or soldiers, rulers or subjects, they are perfectly equal, not in theory only, but in practice. Respect is not only enjoined upon every true believer to his mother, but kindness and justice required to be shown to all of the weaker sex.
