The Islamic Review June 1942

RULES FOR THE CONDUCT OF THE STATE It may be considered strange that one should find.in the Qur-an germs of international law and provisions for the guidance of the State in times of war peace and neutrality but we have to remember that the Prophet himself wa's responsible for the creation of a State out of the anarchy prevailing in Arabia and the unification of the Arab tribes under one sole 1 [...] The institution of a surplus tax (zakat) and the restrictions on the power of testmentary disposition of one's property in order to safguard the rights of near relatives the declaration of the statutory rights of the poor in the state income and above all the prohibition of usury all tend to the same objective. [...] The spiritual experience of the man who sits in his chair and that of the man who rests his back on the seat and forehead on the pew must indeed be different to each other in the same way as the experience of the man who stands on one leg will do to that of the other who kneels on the bare floor. [...] He is the symbol of the day-to-day natural life of man----` A fiery mass of life cast up from the bosom of nature herself.' He who has on the one hand crossed the bounds of the universe and reached the Presence of the Creator who has helped man to immortalise himself drinking deep from the fount of the Elixir of spiritual uplifment who has declared " My message is the religious doctrine my [...] He is the Light of the Heavens and the Earth the Merciful the Compassionate the Glorious the Magnificent the Beautiful the Eternal the Infinite the First and the Last.