kals of gold (which comes to about four mashas in Pakistani weight) into his Bait al-Adal (Treasury), and go on his way. In English weight a mtskal is equal to 4.6 grams only. This ridiculous punishment may cause some embarrassment to the poorer people, but it cannot certainly act as a deterrant for the rich and the wealthy who will, on the other hand, be encouraged to violate the honour of a person at the paltry cost of nine miskals of
46 gold. It will, however, be a good source of income to the Bahai Bait al-Adal, if it should ever come into existence; for, so important an institution as it is, the Bait al-Adal which was to replace the Islamic Bait al-Mal, has not, for a hundred years, come into being. Bahaullah's aim, it appears, was not the regeneration and reform of a fallen humanity nor their moral and spiritual uplift. He wanted, by these means, to gain a cheap popularity for his movement among the Western nations, addicted to the two great vices of wine and woman. (4) The food which a man uses it has now been accepted by medical science also, produces an effect not only on his constitution but also on the building up of his character. It was for this reason that the Holy Quran had directed (2: 172) :
who believe, eat of the good things that We have provided you with and give thanks to Allah, if Him it is that you serve. He has only forbidden you that which dies of itself, and blood and flesh of swine, and that over which any other name than that of Allah has been invoked. Intoxicants and games and sacrificing to stones set up and the divining arrows
are only an uncleanliness, the devil's work; shun it, therefore, that you may be successful. (5: 90). Bahaullah set aside and smashed all these limits, and taught:
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"From the very first day of Ridzwan when We manifested ourselves with excellent names and elegant attributes unto ourcreatures, all things have been immersed and washed in the sea of cleanliness and purity. This is my grace which encompasses all the worlds." Abdul Baha, when beseeched by the Bahais of America to give them a law regarding food, said in simple, plain language~ olL;.!...l. _ ~
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"We interfere not in your physical food; our concern is only with your spiritual sustenance. " That the Western world may not be offend. ed and displeased, Bahaullah avoided scrupulously to interdict the use of intoxicants and
pork. The taking of opium, however, has been forbidden twice. It sounds like swallowing a -camel and straining at a gnat. (5) The Holy Quran, for the purpose of calculation, had divided a year into twelve months: Surely the number of months with Allah is twelve months by Allah's ordinance since the day when He created the heavens and the earth (9: 36). This natural division Bahaullah changed vindictively into nineteen months, and wrote in his law:
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HThe number of months in the Book of Allah (i.e., Kitab al-Aqdas) is nineteen." This division which is neither in accerdance with the solar system nor with that of the moon, is incongruous and absurd. The Bahai month, according to this ingenious computation, will have 19 days only, and the five days that will, thus be left over, have not been taken into any consideration. Bahaullah's ruling on this point states:
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"These days will not be counted in year .and months." What a perfect Arithmetic it is that the Bahai God Incarnate has conferred
upon the human race in supersession of the eimple, natural Quranic calculation. It is what Shakespeare has said "confusion worse confounded." (6) Usury is forbidden in the Law of Islam in very strict terms; for, it annihilates .all sympathetic affection and leads to the extreme of miserliness. It allows the rich to .grow richer by reducing the poor to still greater poverty. It is indeed a great social -evil. "Those who swallow usury", warned the Most High God in the Holy 