Page:The young Moslem looks at life (1937).djvu/60

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but his will is arbitrary and determines everything apart from intrinsic moral and spiritual values. To be sure, one will find some modern Moslems with Western education who would seriously object to this last statement, but it is nevertheless the commonly accepted view in Islam, and in Moslem countries one very frequently meets the tradition that when Allah had prepared the clay for the creation of mankind he separated it into two parts, saying as he did so, "This portion for hell and I care not; and this portion for heaven and I care not."

God's will is supreme. Man must believe in him or suffer eternal punishment in the final judgment. So far as Islam is concerned mankind has nothing more to anticipate, for the final revelation from God has been delivered. "He leaves to stray whom he wills and whom he wills he guides aright." One very common view of God is that we can know nothing at all about him, for "he is the high, the mighty." This rhyme is frequently heard in Cairo:

No thought that comes into your mind Has permanence of any kind; Nor can you say I tell you flat That God is this or God is that.

Nevertheless, one of the great realities to the Moslem is the fact of God: a God of mighty power, from whom we came and to whom we return when death summons us.

2. "/ believe in his angels" To Moslems these are not meaningless words, for they hold that there are


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