There is nothing in our book, the Koran, that teaches us to suffer peacefully. Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peace...ful, be courteous, obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, send him to the cemetery. That's a good religion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Awareness of the stars and their light pervades the Koran, which reflects the brightness of the heavenly bodies in many verses. Th...e blossoming of mathematics and astronomy was a natural consequence of this awareness. Understanding the cosmos and the movements of the stars means understanding the marvels created by Allah. There would be no persecuted Galileo in Islam, because Islam, unlike Christianity, did not force people to believe in a "fixed" heaven.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The next work of Carlyle will be entitled "Bow-Wow," and the title-page will have a motto from the opening chapter of the Koran: "...There is no error in this Book."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
This sand seemed to us the connecting link between land and water. It was a kind of water on which you could walk, and you could s...ee the ripple-marks on its surface, produced by the winds, precisely like those at the bottom of a brook or lake. We had read that Mussulmans are permitted by the Koran to perform their ablutions in sand when they cannot get water, a necessary indulgence in Arabia, and we now understand the propriety of this provision.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Muhammad brought down from heaven and put into the Koran not religious doctrines only, but political maxims, criminal and civil la...ws, and scientific theories. The Gospels, on the other hand, deal only with the general relations between man and God and between man and man. Beyond that, they teach nothing and do not oblige people to believe anything. That alone, among a thousand reasons, is enough to show that Islam will not be able to hold its power long in ages of enlightenment and democracy, while Christianity is destined to reign in such ages, as in all others.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »