--"If anything of the matter had happened unto us, we had
not been slain here. Answer; If ye had been in your houses, verily they
would have gone forth to fight, whose slaughter was decreed, to the
places where they died." (Sale's Koran, c. iii. p. 54.)
6. In warm regions, the appetite of the sexes is ardent, the passion for
inebriating liquors moderate. In compliance with this distinction,
although Mahomet laid a restraint upon the drinking of wine, in the use
of women he allowed an almost unbounded indulgence. Four wives, with the
liberty of changing them at pleasure, (Sale's Koran, c. iv. p. 63.)
together with the persons of all his captives, (Gibbon, vol. ix. p. 225.)
was an irresistible bribe to an Arabian warrior. "God is minded," says
he, speaking of this very subject, "to make his religion light unto
you; for man was created weak." How different this from the
unaccommodating purity of the Gospel! How would Mahomet have succeeded
with the Christian lesson in his mouth.--"Whosoever looketh upon a woman
to lust after her, hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart"? It must be added, that Mahomet did not venture upon the
prohibition of wine till the fourth year of the Hegira, or the
seventeenth of his mission, when his military successes had completely
established his authority.
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