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1036
"All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword' (Matthew, XXVI. 52).
THE KEY OF KNOWLEDGE,
(7) The perpetuation of slavery is certainly against the divine origin of the Qur'an, and the authorship of the passages countenancing and legalising it must be ascribed to Mahomed, the lawgiver, not to Mahomed, the Seer.
(8) The punishment of theft and other offences provided for in the Qur'an is also against the dictates of conscience. This also cannot be said to have been prescribed by Mahomed, the Prophet.
(9) The same is the case with regard to the laws of marriage and the libertinism allowed by the Qur'an. Possibly, the rules laid down by Mahomed with respect to these matters were intended only to control the greater laxity and wholesale libertinism which might have prevailed in Arabia in his time. It might also be that political considerations did not permit the imposition of greater restrictions on the people. Mahomed's fault, however, is that he openly countenanced evil. He should not have compromised matters. The excuse that the exigencies of a life constantly imperilled by circumstances beyond his control justified this kind of legislation, might be open to a politician, but it is no defence for a prophet. The fact is that Islam has always looked upon marriage as a civil contract, never as a sacred relation formed for life. Disregardful of the opinion of the outside world, which it defied with the sword, it framed its laws only to prevent internal friction and lawlessness. Hence the following in the Sura Maarij:
"And who abstain from the carnal knowledge of women other than their wives, or the slaves which their right hands possess
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