Page:Thomas Patrick Hughes - Notes on Muhammadanism - 2ed. (1877).djvu/120

 Rh is not only urged as a source of consolation in every trial, but as a palliation of every crime. "It was written in my taqdír" (fate), is an excuse familiar to every European who has had much intercourse with Muslim servants or soldiers.

The following is a translation of an Arabic treatise on the subject: "Faith in the decrees of God, is that we believe in our heart and confess with our tongue that the most High God hath decreed all things so that nothing can happen in the world, whether it respects the conditions and operations of things, or good and evil, or obedience and disobedience, or faith and infidelity, or sickness and health, or riches and poverty, or life and death, that is not contained in the written tablet of the decrees of God. But God hath so decreed good works, obedience, and faith, that He ordains and wills them, and that they may be under His decree, His salutary direction, His good pleasure and command. On the contrary, God hath decreed, and does ordain and determine evil, disobedience, and infidelity; yet without His salutary direction, good pleasure and command, but being only by way