STRAIGHT PATH 81
3. Permissible or allowed acts: do as you please; acts of this kind are neither punishable nor rewarded.
4. Disapproved acts: not punishable.
5. Forbidden acts: punishable; abstinence brings reward.
The ideas of sin that Moslems have are very definite. Sins are divided into two classes: great sins and little sins. The seven great sins are sometimes described as: idolatry, murder, false charge of adultery, wasting the estate of orphans, taking interest on money, desertion from holy war, and disobedience to parents. Sometimes the use of intoxicating liquors is included, as well as adultery. All small sins are easily forgiven. Sins are acts that God forbids, regardless of what one's own reason may have to say about the matter. It is as much a sin to pray without washing one's feet in the proper manner as to tell a lie. To the pious Moslem the ceremonial and the moral law are one and the same. A man who has broken the seventh commandment is considered no worse than one who has defiled himself by eating a piece of bacon. As one young Moslem put it who was offered wine to drink by an American host, "It would be as wrong for me to drink wine as to murder my motEer.**
Mohammed provides the standard for ideal character in Islam. No stream can rise higher than its source. To understand Moslem character and conditions in Moslem lands one must go back to Mohammed,
