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1021
manufactures coagulated blood, etc., etc., as briefly described in the passage under consideration. The last sentence in the text, viz. :
"Then we produced the same by another creation."is too significant to be overlooked. The commentators understand it to mean "the production of a perfect man composed of soul and body," but that cannot be the idea of the author, as his language signifies. The author of the original text had not before his mind the idea of completion, but of another creation; while the commentators ignore the notion of another creation, and talk of completion. The fact seems to be that in his ardour and zeal to differ from the creed of the 'idolatrous heretics, and, thus, unable to make sense out of a passage which is capable of interpretation only on the lines of reincarnationistic philosophy, the first pious commentator grabbed at the first idea which entered his head; and since the generality of the followers of Islam are not given to the study of philosophy, the opinion thus ventured acquired currency, and prevails to this day. The Prophet of Arabia had to contend against deep-rooted prejudices among the men of his time, and it might be that the use of guarded language the sense of which is obvious to the wise but mystifying and obscure to the uninitiated, was necessitated by the exigencies of a life constantly imperilled by the turbulent circumstances of the time.
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RECONCILIATION.
In the sixth chapter, the Lord is made to say :"It is he who hath produced you from one soul; and hath provided for you a sure receptacle and a repository."-('Al Koran,' Eng. Trans. by Sale, p. 98).
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