Such enumerations of God's bounties in Creation are frequent in the Qur'an. We may take one more example from Surah lxxviii. vv. 6-16:

Have we not made the earth a wide expanse
And the mountains as pillars?
We have created you in pairs.
We have appointed your sleep for rest.
We have appointed the night for a covering.
We have appointed the day for a livelihood.
We have built above you seven firmaments.
We have set a light burning.
We have sent down from the storm-clouds water in torrents,
Thereby to cause to spring up grain and vegetation
And gardens luxuriant.

Alongside these evidences of God's power and bounty in inanimate Nature there appears another proof to which Muhammad frequently returns. That is the generation of life, and especially the life of man. In some passages he describes the process of the formation of the embryo in the womb with a detail which implies considerable knowledge. The wonder of it had evidently made a deep impression upon his mind as in fact it did upon the Arab mind in general. This is of interest to us here because it is another mark of Muhammad's independence of direct Biblical influence, at the outset of his career. In Surah xcvi., which is so generally regarded as the earliest passage of the Qur'an, God is spoken of as the Creator who has created man. But it is not the Biblical account of the Creation which

is there referred to. For God is said to have created man from 'alaq, and when we compare other passages it becomes clear that 'alaq denotes the first stage in the formation of the embryo in the womb. At a later period, when Muhammad had got to know something of the Old Testament, he refers, as we might expect, to the creation of man from clay. But in the earliest passages that does not occur. It is the wonder of the process by which the human body and soul is formed afresh in each infant that comes to the birth, which has impressed him, and which is used as a proof of God's bountiful power. For it is as a proof of God's goodness that the idea seems to have affected Muhammad himself, and to have been first used by him. But very soon, when he encountered opposition, it became a cogent argument for God's power over man in respect of judgement and punishment; and when the scoffers ask how dust and mouldering bones can be punished, the reply is that if God has power to call man to life the first time from a drop of water, He can as easily call him to life a second time to receive the reward of his deeds.

It is upon reliance on the goodness of God that Muhammad falls back amid the discouragements of his task. There are various little fragments among the short surahs at the end of the Qur'an which appear to be of the nature of self-encouragements, and base themselves upon the recollection of God's bounty and goodwill towards himself personally. Thus in Surah xciv. we find the following apparently addressed to himself: