Chap. LXXII. WHO IS A MOSLIM ? 
63 
Meanwhile, Sidi Mohammed had made a serious 
attack upon my religion, and called me always a kafir. 
But I told him that I was a real Moslim, the pure Islam, 
the true worship of the one God, dating from the time 
of Adam, and not from the time of Mohammed; 
and that thus, while adhering to the principle of 
the unity, and the most spiritual and sublime nature, 
of the Divine Being, I was a Moslim, professing the 
real Islam, although not adopting the worldly statutes 
of Mohammed, who, in everything that contained a 
general truth, only followed the principles established 
long before his time. I likewise added, that even 
they themselves regarded Plato and Aristotle as Mos- 
lemin, and that thus I myself was to be regarded as 
a Moslim, in a much stricter sense than these two 
pagan philosophers. I concluded by stating that 
the greater part of those who called themselves Mos- 
lemin did not deserve that name at all, but ought 
rather to be called Mohammedan, such as we named 
them, because they had raised their prophet above 
the Deity itself. 
Being rather irritated and exasperated by the fre- 
quent attacks of Sidi Mohammed and Alawdte, I de- 
livered my speech with great fervour and animation ; 
and when 1 had concluded, Sidi Mohammed, who could 
not deny that the Kuran itself states that IsMm dates 
from the creation of mankind, was not able to say a 
word in his defence. As for El Bakdy, he was 
greatly delighted at this clear exposition of my re- 
