against GOD and His Apostle and run after evil in the earth is that they be killed, or that they be crucified, or that their hands and their feet be cut off on opposite sides, or that they be banished from the land. That is their punishment in this world, and for them in the world to come there shall be great torture." This verse was written in the year 627 (A.H. 6), the year of the massacre of the Bani Quraidhah, and declares, it is

Final Stage.

said, the treatment to be meted out to idolaters, not to Jews or Christians. But the third and final stage is reached in Suratu't Taubah¹ (Surah IX.), which was, we are told, the last Surah revealed to Muhammad, and that only a few months before his death. And in this, the last Surah which fell from the lips of him who claimed to be the Apostle of GOD, what do we find? In it he enjoined that, after the expiration of the four sacred months of that year (A. H. 11), no agreement was to be kept with the Polytheists (vv. 1-4). "When the holy months shall be past," he says (v. 5), " then slay ( )

the Polytheists wherever ye find them, and seize them and besiege them, and lie in ambush for them in every ambuscade." The only condition upon which they are to be spared is that of paying the legal alms and observing the fixed times of prayer and repenting, i.e. becoming Muslims (v. 5). The fate of the "People of the Book" was to be a little less severe, for concerning them the command is (v. 29), "Fight¹ ye against those who believe not in GOD nor in the last day, nor forbid what GOD and His Apostle have forbidden, nor profess the true religion, from among those who have been brought the Book" (i.e. the Bible), "until they give the tribute (jizyah) out of hand and be brought low." We cannot misunderstand such a command as this. Muhammadans are commanded never to sheathe the sword until all who

Obligation to Persecute.

have not already embraced the Religion of Islam either do so or are conquered and obliged to pay tribute. This obligation to persecute is still incumbent upon Muslims, and is faithfully observed even up to the present in every country where Muhammadanism reigns supreme. The law of the land in Muhammadan realms is still, and must ever be so long as the Qur'an is revered, that any Muslim who