elief is, however, that the Traditions were Wahi
inspiration, and thus they come to be as authoritative as the Quran.
Sharastani speaks of "the signs (sayings) of the Prophet which have the
marks of Wahi."[41] This opinion is said by some Muslim theologians to be
supported by the first verse of the fifty-third Sura, entitled the Star.
"By the Star when it setteth; your companion Muhammad _erreth not_, nor is
he _led astray_, neither doth he _speak of his own will_. It is none other
than a revelation which hath been revealed to him." In any case the
inspiration of Muhammad is something quite different from the Christian
idea of inspiration, which is to Musalmans a very imperfect mode of
transmitting a revelation of God's will.

That there should be a human as well as a divine side to inspiration is an
idea not only foreign, but absolutely repugnant to Muhammadans. The Quran
is not a book of principles. It is a book of directions. The Quran
describes the revelation given to Moses thus:--"We wrote for him upon the
tables a monition concerning every matter and said: 'Receive them thyself
with steadfastness, and command thy people to receive them for the
observance of its most goodly precepts.'" (Sura vii. 142). It is such an
inspiration as this the Quran claims for itself. Muhammad's idea was that
it should be a complete and final code of directions in every matter for
all mankind. It is not the word of a prophet enlightened by God. It
proceeds immediately from God, and the word 'say' or 'speak' precedes, or
is understood to precede, every sentence. This to a Muslim is the highest
form of inspiration; this alone stamps a book as {39} divine. It is
acknowledged that the Injil--the Gospel--was given by Jesus; but as that,
too, according to Muslim belief, was brought down from heaven by the angel
Gabriel during the month of Ramazan, it is now asserted that it has been
lost, and that the four Gospels of the New Testament are simply Traditions
collected by the writers whose names they bear. Their value is, therefore,
that of the second foundation of the Islamic system.

The question next arises as to the exact way in which Gabriel made known
his message to Muhammad. The Mudarij-un-Nabuwat, a standard theological
work, gives some details on this point.[42] Though the Quran is all of God,
both as to matter and form, yet it was not all made known to the Prophet in
one and the same manner. The following are some of the modes:--

1.