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of the serpent, as the scripture of Barnabas relates, but that the Evil Spirit had possessed him?
The gospel of Barnabas is not the scripture in which I believe, replied Eber; and our Book relates nothing of an evil spirit being in the serpent: nor can I think but that evil as well as good comes from Him whose will is done in all the heaven and all the earth, and that to no one has he given power to afflict those in whose very souls he abides. What says the Book, which is your Gospel, when some complained that Mohammed had brought evil upon them? 'If good befall them, they say, 'This is from God,' but if evil befall them, they say, 'This is from thee, O Mohammed!' — say, 'All is from God.'[1]
Nay, but, said Havilah, how do we go on to read in the Book? 'Whatever good befalleth thee, O man, it is from God; and whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself.' This evil is that which the Despairing One brings up from the depths of the heart.
Eber replied, My religion teaches me that God alone beholds the hearts of men; Mohammed also taught that 'None either in heaven or
- ↑ Koran, chap. iv.
