“So be it, then, most faithful,” said the prophet.  “O Zeid, my more than son, a glorious reward is withheld for you.”

Then, as ever, a revelation of the Koran came seasonably ere another day, to remove every impediment to the union of Mohammed and Zeinab.

“But when Zeid had determined the matter concerning her, and had resolved to divorce her, we joined her in marriage unto thee, lest a crime should be charged on the true believers in marrying the wives of their adopted sons:  and the command of God is to be performed.  No crime is to be charged on the prophet as to what God hath allowed him.”

There were those in Medina who resented Mohammed’s selfishness in thus appropriating Zeinab to himself, and there were those who questioned the honor of such a proceeding; but this questioning went on mostly among the few Bedouin adherents who had flocked into the town in his service, for the most sacred oath of the highest class of Bedouins has long been, “By the honor of my women!”

In none did the prophet’s action inspire more disgust than in our two friends, Yusuf and Amzi.  Amzi had long since lost all faith in the prophet as a divine representative; and this marriage with Zeinab only confirmed his distrust.

“Pah!” he said to Yusuf, “he not only lets his own impulses sway him, but he uses the sanction of heaven to authorize the satisfaction of every desire, no matter who is trampled upon in the proceeding.  Was there ever such sacrilege?”

Yusuf returned:  “For this I am thankful, brother:  that you at last apply the term ‘sacrilege’ to the claims of this impostor.”

“Think you he is no longer in earnest at all for the raising of his countrymen from idolatry?”

“He seeks to throw down idols, but to raise himself in their stead.  Cupidity and ambition, Amzi, have well-nigh smothered every struggling seed of good in Mohammed’s haughty bosom.”

“Do you not think that, at the beginning, he imagined himself inspired?”

“Mohammed is strangely visionary.  At the beginning he, doubtless, thought he saw visions, but, if the man thinks himself inspired now, he is mad.”

“Yet what a personality he has!” said Amzi, musingly.  “What a charm he bears!  How his least word is sufficient to move this crowd of howling fanatics!”

“A man who might be an angel of light, were he truly under divine guidance,” returned Yusuf.  “And, mark me, Amzi, his influence will not stop with this generation.  The influence of every man on God’s earth goes on ever-rolling, ever-unceasing, down the long tide of eternity; but, in every age, there are those who, like Mohammed, possess such an individuality, such a personality, that their power goes on increasing, crashing like the avalanche down my native mountains.”

“How eloquently such a thought appeals to right impulse, right action!” said Amzi, thoughtfully.  “Did a man realize its import fully, he would surely be spurred on to act, not to sit idly letting the world drift by.”