areer, and while he enjoined the necessity of Holy Wars,[1] he
permitted the people of the book to be admitted to tribute.[2] In one
passage he even seems to allow the possibility of salvation to Jews,
Christians, and Sabians: "Verily they who believe, and those who
Judaize, and the Sabians, and the Christians--whoever of these believeth
in God and the last day, and doeth that which is right--there shall come
no fear on them, neither shall they be grieved."[3] And there is one
remarkable text to find in the mouth of Mohammed, "Let there be no
violence in religion." [4]

Moreover, some of the best Mohammedan rulers that have ever lived upheld
the same principle of toleration. Abbas II., one of the Persian Sufis,
is reported to have said: "It is for God, not for me, to judge of men's
consciences, and I will never interfere with what belongs to the
tribunal of the great Creator and Lord of the Universe."[5] Again,
Akbar, one of the greatest kings that ever lived, followed in practice
the principle thus expressed by his minister, Abul Fazl: "Persecution
after all defeats its own ends; it obliges men to conceal their
opinions, but produces no change in them."[6] Noble sentiments surely,
and such as we should expect from followers of Christ rather than of
Mohammed!

[1] Tradition attributes even stronger approval of Holy Wars to
Mohammed than can be found in the Koran,--_e.g._, "The sword is
the key of Paradise and Hell. A drop of blood shed in the cause
of God, a night spent in arms, are of more avail than two
months of fasting and prayer. Whoever falls in battle against
the infidel, his sins are forgiven him."

[2] Koran, xlvii., ad init.

[3] Koran, v., v. 73. This may be said in the general sense of
Acts x. 35.

[4] Koran, ii., v. 258.

[5] See Freeman's "Saracens," p. 230; from Malcolm's "Persia,"
i. p 583.

[6] _Ibid._, from "Ayeen Akbery," p. 11.

Yet far too often have portions of the Christian Church been conspicuous
for intolerance rather than tolerance. Alcuin, indeed, does say in his
letter to Aquila, Bishop of Winchester, that he does not approve of
punishing heresy with death, because God, by the mouth of His prophet,
had said: "I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the
wicked turn from his way and live;"[1] but Alcuin was a man of unusual
mildness and sweet reasonableness, as his letters to Felix and Elipandus
testify. On the other