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THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE.
ment with the teaching of all other rational religions of the world.
From the practical side of the question, also, the doctrine of transmigration furnishes an explanation of all those hard problems of philosophy which have proved insoluble from the standpoint of theology, and which involve it in endless contradictions. It is more satisfactory to accept the blame for one's present condition one-self tban to throw it on a being who creates imperfect beings and then expects them to be perfect. It is also more wholesome to believe that the sojourn of the wicked in hell, in spite of the enormity of their sins, shall have an end, sooner or later, when one or more human incarnations will furnish them with the opportunity to manifest their hidden divinity, in the fullest degree of perfection.
When setting themselves in opposition to the theory of transmigration, modern exponents of Muslim theology generally forget that their noble Propbet has acknowledged the fact that no origin can be ascribed to the soul. The following note of Sale, based on ‘Al Beidawi,' is highly relevant to the point in issue :---
"It is said that the Jews bid the Koreish ask Mahomed to relate the history of those who slept in the cave and of Dhu'l Karnein, and to give them an account of the soul of man, adding, that if he pretended to answer all the three questions, or could answer none of them, they might be sure he was no prophet; but if he gave an answer to one or two of the questions and was silent as to the other, he was really a prophet. Accordingly, when they propounded the questions to him, he told them the two histories, but acknowledged his ignorance as to the origin of the human soul."**
**The Koran' by Sale, p. 214 (note a.)
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