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 PERFECT RELIGION 51

There are stories of the prophets and apostles from Adam to Moses, and from David and Solomon to Jesus; it contains laws for the regulation of family life, and for the ordering of personal, tribal, and national affairs; it abounds in sermons, exhortations to good works, warnings for evildoers, and vivid descriptions of the sensual delights of heaven and the fearful torments of hell. In places the sublimity of its thought and language reminds one of the impassioned utterances of the ancient Hebrew Tophets. The following are excellent illustrations:

The Light Verse

God is the Light of the Heavens and of the Earth.

His light is like a niche in which is a lamp

The lamp encased in glass

The glass, as it were, a glistening star.

From a blessed tree is it lighted,

The olive neither of the East nor of the West,

Whose oil would well-nigh shine out,

Even though fire touched it not!

It is light upon light.

God guideth whom he will to his light,

And God setteth forth parables to men,

For God knoweth all things. 1

Sura XXIV

The Fatiha (Opening Chapter)

Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds! The compassionate, the merciful! King on the day of reckoning!

J. M. RodwelPs translation of the Koran, pp. 46-47. New York, E. P. Button & Co., 1909.