WOMEN UNDER POLYGAMY
had led a temperate and almost ascetic youth. His diet was spare, and he often shared his meals with poorer brethren.
Antagonists in the matter of belief have united in according fervent sincerity to Mohammed. Wellhausen says rightly that the prophet's sheer honesty of aim is proved by his voluntary subjection to the prejudice and the persecution of the people of Mecca, his native city. His virtues were courage, determination, humility in the hour of greatness, courtesy, and generosity.
Judged from the standpoint of Christian monogamic principles, the marriage rules of Mohammed "render the Christian ideal of domestic life an impossibility." Such is the view of Mr. J. W. H. Stobart, the author of "Islam and its Founder." We have seen, however, that "the ideal of domestic life" as upheld in Egypt, was humane, and perhaps the best that the world has known.
But let us examine the position of women in polygamy as permitted by the founder of the Moslem religion. It is commonly declared that women are excluded from the Paradise of the Mohammedans. This is untrue. We are told distinctly that "God will lead the believers of both sexes to the gardens of delight."
The law of the Koran referring to adultery is per-
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