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Section 13 of 15 - Table of Contents
Chapter XI.
Mohammed and Islam.
Sec. 1. Recent Works on the Life of Mohammed.
Sec. 2. The Arabs and Arabia.
Sec. 3. Early Life of Mohammed, to the Hegira.
Sec. 4. Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira.
Sec. 5. Religious Doctrines and Practices among the Mohammedans.
Sec. 6. The Criticism of Mr. Palgrave on Mohammedan Theology.
Sec. 7. Mohammedanism a Relapse; the worst Form of Monotheism, and a
retarding Element in Civilization.
Note.
Sec. 1. Recent Works on the Life of Mohammed.
Dr. Samuel Johnson once declared, "There are two objects of curiosity, the
Christian world and the Mohammedan world; all the rest may be considered
as barbarous." Since Dr. Johnson's time we have learned to be curious
about other forms of human thought, and regard the famous line of Terence
as expressing more accurately the proper frame of mind for a Christian
philosopher. Nevertheless, Mohammedanism still claims a special interest
and excites a peculiar curiosity. It is the only religion which has
threatened Christianity with a dangerous rivalry. It is the only other
religion, whose origin is in the broad daylight of history. Its author is
the only one among the great men of the world who has at the same time
founded a religion, formed a people, and established an empire. The
marvellous spread of this religion is a mystery which never ceases to
stimulate the mind to new inquiry. How was it that in the short space of a
century the Arab tribes, before always at war among themselves, should
have been united into an irresistible power, and have conquered Syria,
Persia, the whole of Northern Africa and Spain? And with this religious
outbreak, this great revival of monotheism in Asia, there came also as
remarkable a renaissance of learning, which made the Arabs the teachers of
philosophy and art to Europe during a long period. Arab Spain was a focus
of light while Christian Europe lay in mediaeval darkness. And still more
interesting and perplexing is the character of Mohammed himself. What was
he,--an impostor or a prophet? Did his work advance or retard human
progress? What is his position in history? Such are some of the questions
on which we shall endeavor to throw light in the present chapter.
Within a few years new materials for this study have been made accessible
by the labors of Weil, Caussin de Perceval, Muir, Sprenger, Doellinger, and
Arnold. Dr. Gustav Weil published his work[383] in 1843. It was drawn from
Arabic manuscripts and the Koran. When Weil began his studies on Mohammed
in 1837, he found no book except that of Gagnier, published in 1732, from
which he could derive substantial aid. But Gagnier had only collected,
without any attempt at criticism, the traditions and statements concerning
Mohammed believed by orthodox Moslems. Satisfied that a literary want
existed at this point, Dr. Weil devoted himself to such studies as should
enable him to supply it; and the result was a work concerning which Milman
says that "nothing has escaped" the diligence of its author. But four
years after appeared the book of M. Caussin de Perceval,[384] a work of
which M. Saint-Hilaire says that it marks a new era in these studies, on
account of the abundance and novelty of its details, and the light thrown
on the period which in Arabia preceded the coming of Mohammed. Dr. A.
Sprenger, an eminent German scholar, early determined to devote himself to
the study of Oriental literature in the East. He spent a long time in
India, and was for twelve years principal of a Mohammedan school in Delhi,
where he established, in 1845, an illustrated penny magazine in the Hindoo
language. After returning to Europe with a vast number of Oriental
manuscripts, he composed his Life of Mohammed,[385] the result of
extensive studies. Among the preparations for this work we will cite only
one. Dr. Sprenger edited in Calcutta the first volume of the Icaba, which
contains the names and biographies of _eight thousand_ persons who were
personally acquainted with Mohammed.[386] But, as if to embarrass us with
riches, comes also Mr. Muir[387] and presents us with another life of the
prophet, likewise drawn from original sources, and written with learning
and candor. This work, in four volumes, goes over the whole ground of the
history of Arabia before the coming of the prophet, and then, from Arabic
sources, narrates the life of Mohammed himself, up to the era of the
Hegira. The result of these researches is that we know accurately what Mr.
Hallam in his time despaired of knowing,--all the main points of the
history of Mohammed. There is no legend, no myth, to trouble us. M.
Saint-Hilaire says that the French are far less acquainted with
Charlemagne than the Moslems are with their prophet, who came two
centuries earlier.
A Mohammedan writer, Syed Ahmed Khan Bahador, has lately published, in
English, a series of Essays on the life of Mohammed, Arabia, the Arabs,
Mohammedan traditions, and kindred topics, written from the stand-point of
a believer in Islam.[388] He is dissatisfied with all the recent works on
Mohammed, including those of Dr. Sprenger and Mr. Muir. He believes that
the Arabic sources from which these biographies are derived are not the
most authentic. The special objections, however, which this able
Mohammedan urges against these European biographies by Sprenger and Muir
do not affect any of the important points in the history, but only details
of small moment. Notwithstanding his criticisms, therefore, we may safely
assume that we are in a condition to understand the actual life and
character of Mohammed. All that the Syed says concerning the duty of an
impartial and friendly judgment of Islam and its author is, of course,
true. We shall endeavor in our treatment of Mohammed to follow this
exhortation.
Something, however, is always gained by hearing what the believers in a
system have to say in its behalf, and these essays of the Mohammedan
scholar may help us in this way. One of the most curious parts of the
volume is that in which he treats of the prophecies concerning Mohammed in
the Old and New Testament. Most of our readers will be surprised at
learning that any such prophecies exist; and yet some of them are quite as
striking as many of those commonly adduced by writers on prophecy as
referring to Jesus Christ. For example (Deut. xviii. 15, 18), when Moses
predicts that the Lord will raise up a prophet for the Jews, _from among
their brethren_; by emphasizing this latter clause, and arguing that the
Jews had no brethren except the Ishmaelites, from whom Mohammed was born,
an argument is derived that the latter was referred to. This is
strengthened by the declaration of Moses, that this prophet should be
"_like unto me_," since Deuteronomy xxxiv. 10 declares that "there arose
no prophet _in Israel_ like unto Moses."
Habakkuk iii. 3 says: "The Holy One came from Mount Paran." But Mount
Paran, argues our friend, is the mountain of Mecca.
The Hebrew word translated "desire" in Haggai ii. 7, "The desire of all
nations shall come," is said by Bahador to be the same word as the name
Mohammed. He is therefore predicted by his name in this passage.
When Isaiah says (xxi. 7), according to the Septuagint translation, that
he "saw two riders, one on an ass and one on a camel," Bahador argues that
the rider on the ass is Jesus, who so entered Jerusalem, and that the
rider on the camel is Mohammed.
When John the Baptist was asked if he were the Christ, or Elijah, or "that
prophet," Mohammedans say that "that prophet," so anticipated, was their
own.
Sec. 2. The Arabs and Arabia.
The Arabs are a Semitic people, belonging to the same great ethnologic
family with the Babylonians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, Hebrews, Ethiopians,
and Carthaginians. It is a race which has given to civilized man his
literature and his religion; for the alphabet came from the Phoenicians,
and the Bible from the Jews. In Hannibal, it produced perhaps the greatest
military genius the world has seen; and the Tyrian merchants,
circumnavigating Africa, discovering Great Britain, and trading with
India, ten centuries before Christ, had no equals on the ocean until the
time of the Portuguese discoveries, twenty-five centuries after. The Arabs
alone, of the seven Semitic families, remained undistinguished and unknown
till the days of Mohammed. Their claim of being descended from Abraham is
confirmed by the unerring evidence of language. The Arabic roots are, nine
tenths of them, identical with the Hebrew; and a similarity of grammatical
forms shows a plain glossological relation. But while the Jews have a
history from the days of Abraham, the Arabs had none till Mohammed. During
twenty centuries these nomads wandered to and fro, engaged in mutual wars,
verifying the prediction (Gen. xvi. 12) concerning Ishmael: "He will be a
wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man's hand against
him." Wherever such wandering races exist, whether in Arabia, Turkistan,
or Equatorial Africa, "darkness covers the earth, and gross darkness the
people." The earth has no geography, and the people no history. During all
this long period, from the time of Abraham to that of Mohammed, the Arabs
were not a nation, but only a multitude of tribes, either stationary or
wandering. But of these two the nomad or Bedouin is the true type of the
race as it exists in Northern Arabia. The Arab of the South is
in many respects different,--in language, in manners, and in
character,--confirming the old opinion of a double origin. But the
Northern Arab in his tent has remained unchanged since the days of the
Bible. Proud of his pure blood, of his freedom, of his tribe, and of his
ancient customs, he desires no change. He is, in Asia, what the North
American Indian is upon the western continent. As the Indian's, his chief
virtues are courage in war, cunning, wild justice, hospitality, and
fortitude. He is, however, of a better race,--more reflective, more
religious, and with a thirst for knowledge. The pure air and the simple
food of the Arabian plains keep him in perfect health; and the necessity
of constant watchfulness against his foes, from whom he has no defence of
rock, forest, or fortification, quickens his perceptive faculties. But the
Arab has also a sense of spiritual things, which appears to have a root in
his organization. The Arabs say: "The children of Shem are prophets, the
children of Japhet are kings, and the children of Ham are slaves." Having
no temples, no priesthood, no religious forms, their religion is less
formal and more instinctive, like that of children. The Koran says: "Every
child is born into the religion of nature; its parents make it a Jew, a
Christian, or a Magian." But when Mohammed came, the religion of the Arabs
was a jumble of monotheism and polytheism,--Judaism, Christianity,
idolatry, and fetichism. At one time there had been a powerful and
intolerant Jewish kingdom in one region. In Yemen, at another period, the
king of Abyssinia had established Christianity. But neither Judaism nor
Christianity had ever been able to conquer the peninsula; and at the end
of the sixth century idolatry was the most prevailing form of worship.
At this time Mohammed appeared, and in a few years united in one faith all
the warring tribes of Arabia; consolidated them into a single nation, and
then wielded their mighty and enthusiastic forces against Syria, Persia,
and North Africa, triumphant wherever they moved. He, certainly, if ever
man possessed it, had the rare gift of natural empire. To him, more than
to any other of whom history makes mention, was given
"The monarch mind, the mystery of commanding,
The birth-hour gift, the art Napoleon,
Of wielding, moulding, gathering, welding, banding,
The hearts of thousands till they moved as one."
Sec. 3. Early Life of Mohammed, to the Hegira.
But it was not as a soldier or ambitious conqueror that Mohammed began his
career. The first forty years of his life were passed in the quiet
pursuits of trade, or taking care of the property of Khadijah. Serious,
thoughtful, devout, he made friends of all about him. His youth was
unstained by vice, and his honorable character early obtained for him the
title, given him by common consent, of Al Amin, "the faithful." At one
time he tended sheep and goats on the hills near Mecca. At Medina, after
he became distinguished he referred to this, saying, "Pick me the blackest
of those berries; they are such as I used to gather when I fed the flocks
at Mecca. Verily, no prophet has been raised up who has not performed the
work of a shepherd." When twenty-five years of age, he entered into the
service of Khadijah, a rich widow, as her agent, to take charge of her
merchandise and to sell it at Damascus. When the caravan returned, and his
adventure had proved successful, Khadijah, then forty years old, became
interested in the young man; she was wise, virtuous, and attractive; they
were married, and, till her death, Mohammed was a kind and loving husband.
Khadijah sympathized with her husband in his religious tendencies, and was
his first convert. His habit was to retire to a cave on Mount Hira to pray
and to meditate. Sadness came over him in view of the evils in the world.
One of the Suras of the Koran, supposed to belong to this period, is as
follows:--
_Sura 103._
"By the declining day I swear!
Verily, man is in the way of ruin;
Excepting such as possess faith,
And do the things which be right,
And stir up one another to truth and steadfastness."
About this time he began to have his visions of angels, especially of
Gabriel. He saw a light, and heard a voice, and had sentences like the
above put into his mind. These communications were accompanied by strong
convulsions (epilepsy, says Weil), in which he would fall to the ground
and foam at the mouth. Sprenger considers it to have been a form of
hysteria, with a mental origin, perhaps accompanied with catalepsy. The
prophet himself said: "Inspiration descends on me in two ways. Sometimes
Gabriel cometh and communicateth the revelation, as one man to another.
This is easy. But sometimes it is as the ringing of a bell, which rends me
in pieces, and grievously afflicts me." One day, when Abu Bakr and Omar
sat in the Mosque at Medina, Mohammed came suddenly upon them, lifting up
his beard and looking at it; and Abu Bakr said, "Ah thou, for whom I would
sacrifice father and mother; white hairs are hastening upon thee!" "Yes,"
said the prophet, "Hud" (Sura 11) "and its sisters have hastened my white
hairs." "And who," asked Abu Bakr, "are its sisters?" "The _Inevitable_"
(Sura 56) "and the _Striking_" (Sura 101), replied Mohammed. These three
are called the "terrific Suras."
But these last Suras came later than the period now referred to. At this
time his visions and revelations possessed _him_; he did not possess nor
control _them_. In later years the spirit of the prophet was more subject
to the prophet. But the Koran is an unintelligible book unless we can
connect it with the biography of its writer. All the incidents of his life
took shape in some revelation. A separate revelation was given to
encourage or to rebuke him; and in his later years the too subservient
inspiration came to appease the jealousy of his wives when a new one was
added to their number. But, however it may have been afterward, in the
beginning his visions were as much a surprise to him as to others. A
careful distribution of the Suras, according to the events which befell
him, would make the Koran the best biography of the prophet. As we said of
David and his Psalms, so it may be said of Mohammed, that his life hangs
suspended in these hymns, as in votive pictures, each the record of some
grave experience.[389]
Now, it is impossible to read the detailed accounts of this part of the
life of Mohammed, and have any doubt of his profound sincerity. His
earliest converts were his bosom-friends and the people of his household,
who were intimately acquainted with his private life. Nor does a man
easily begin an ambitious course of deception at the age of forty; having
lived till that time as a quiet, peaceful, and unobtrusive citizen,[390]
what was he to gain by this career? Long years passed before he could make
more than a handful of converts. During these weary years he was the
object of contumely and hatred to the ruling tribe in Mecca. His life was
hardly safe from them. Nothing could be more hopeless than his position
during the first twelve years of his public preaching. Only a strong
conviction of the reality of his mission could have supported him through
this long period of failure, loneliness, and contempt. During all these
years the wildest imagination could not have pictured the success which
was to come. Here is a Sura in which he finds comfort in God and his
promises.--
_Sura 93._
"By the rising sunshine!
By the night when it darkeneth!
Thy Lord hath not removed from thee, neither hath he been displeased.
And verily the future shall be better than the past....
What! did he not find thee an orphan, and give thee a home?
And found thee astray, and directed thee?"
In this Sura, Mohammed refers to the fact of the death of his mother,
Amina, in his seventh year, his father having died a few months before. He
visited her tomb many years after, and lifted up his voice and wept. In
reply to the questions of his companions, he said: "This is the grave of
my mother; the Lord hath permitted me to visit it, and I asked leave to
pray for her, and it was not granted. So I called my mother to
remembrance, and the tender memory of her overcame me, and I wept." The
child had been taken by his grandfather, Abd al Mut-talib, then eighty
years old, who treated him with the greatest indulgence. At his death,
shortly after, Mohammed was adopted by his uncle, Abu Talib, the chief of
the tribe. Abu Talib brought him up like his own son, making him sleep by
his bed, eat by his side, and go with him wherever he went. And when
Mohammed, assuming his inspired position, declared himself a prophet, his
uncle, then aged and universally respected, protected him from his
enemies, though Abu himself never accepted his teaching. Mohammed
therefore had good reason to bless the Providence which had provided such
protectors for his orphaned infancy.
Among the earliest converts of Mohammed, after Khadijah, were his two
adopted children, Ali and Zeid. Ali was the son of his guardian, Abu
Talib, who had become poor, and found it hard to support his family.
Mohammed, "prompted by his usual kindness and consideration," says Mr.
Muir, went to his rich uncle Abbas, and proposed that each of them should
adopt one of Abu Talib's children, which was done. His other adopted son,
Zeid, belonged to a Syrian tribe, and had been taken captive by marauders,
sold into slavery, and given to Khadijah, who presented him to her
husband. After a while the father of Zeid heard where he was, and coming
to Mecca offered a large sum as ransom for his son. Mohammed had become
very fond of Zeid, but he called him, and gave him his choice to go or
stay. Zeid said, "I will not leave thee; thou art in the place to me of
father and mother." Then Mohammed took him to the Kaaba, and touching the
Black Stone said, "Bear witness, all here! Zeid is my son. I shall be his
heir, and he mine." So the father returned home contented, and Zeid was
henceforth known as "Zeid ibn Mohammed,"--Zeid, the son of Mohammed.
It is reported that when Ali was about thirteen years old Mohammed was one
day praying with him in one of the retired glens near Mecca, whither they
had gone to avoid the ridicule of their opponents. Abu Talib, passing by,
said, "My nephew! what is this new faith I see thee following?" "O my
uncle," replied Mohammed, "it is the religion of God, his angels and
prophets, the religion of Abraham. The Lord hath sent me as his apostle;
and thou, uncle, art most worthy to be invited to believe." Abu Talib
replied, "I am not able, my nephew, to separate from the customs of my
forefathers, but I swear that while I live no one shall trouble thee."
Then he said to Ali, "My son, he will not invite thee to anything which is
not good; wherefore thou art free to cleave to him."
Another early and important convert was Abu Bakr, father of Mohammed's
favorite wife, Ayesha, and afterward the prophet's successor. Ayesha said
she "could not remember the time when both her parents were not true
believers." Of Abu Bakr, the prophet said, "I never invited any to the
faith who did not show hesitation, except Abu Bakr. When I proposed Islam
to him he at once accepted it." He was thoughtful, calm, tender, and firm.
He is still known as "Al Sadich," the true one. Another of his titles is
"the Second of the Two,"--from having been the only companion of Mohammed
in his flight from Mecca. Hassan, the poet of Medina, thus says of him:--
"And the second of the two in the glorious cave, while the foes were
searching around, and they two were in the mountain,--
And the prophet of the Lord, they well knew, loved him more than all
the world; he held no one equal unto him."[391]
Abu Bakr was at this time a successful merchant, and possessed some forty
thousand dirhems. But he spent most of it in purchasing and giving freedom
to Moslem slaves, who were persecuted by their masters for their religion.
He was an influential man among the Koreish. This powerful tribe, the
rulers of Mecca, who from the first treated Mohammed with contempt,
gradually became violent persecutors of him and his followers. Their main
wrath fell on the unprotected slaves, whom they exposed to the scorching
sun, and who, in their intolerable thirst, would sometimes recant, and
acknowledge the idols. Some of them remained firm, and afterward showed
with triumph their scars. Mohammed, Abu Bakr, Ali, and all who were
connected with powerful families, were for a long time safe. For the
principal protection in such a disorganized society was the principle that
each tribe must defend every one of its members, at all hazards. Of
course, Mohammed was very desirous to gain over members of the great
families, but he felt bound to take equal pains with the poor and
helpless, as appears from the following anecdote: "The prophet was engaged
in deep converse with the chief Walid, for he greatly desired his
conversion. Then a blind man passed that way, and asked to hear the Koran.
But Mohammed was displeased with the interruption, and turned from him
roughly."[392] But he was afterward grieved to think he had slighted one
whom God had perhaps chosen, and had paid court to a reprobate. So his
remorse took the form of a divine message and embodied itself as
follows:--
"The prophet frowned and turned aside
Because the blind man came to him.
Who shall tell thee if he may not be purified?
Or whether thy admonition might not profit him?
The rich man
Thou receivest graciously,
Although he be not inwardly pure.
But him who cometh earnestly inquiring,
And trembling with anxiety,
Him thou dost neglect."[393]
Mohammed did not encourage his followers to martyrdom. On the contrary, he
allowed them to dissemble to save themselves. He found one of his
disciples sobbing bitterly because he had been compelled by ill-treatment
to abuse his master and worship the idols. "But how dost thou find thy
heart?" said the prophet. "Steadfast in the faith," said he. "Then,"
answered Mohammed, "if they repeat their cruelty, thou mayest repeat thy
words." He also had himself an hour of vacillation. Tired of the severe
and seemingly hopeless struggle with the Koreish, and seeing no way of
overcoming their bitter hostility, he bethought himself of the method of
compromise, more than seven centuries before America was discovered. He
had been preaching Islam five years, and had only forty or fifty converts.
Those among them who had no protectors he had advised to fly to the
Christian kingdom of Abyssinia. "Yonder," said he, pointing to the west,
"lies a land wherein no one is wronged. Go there and remain until the Lord
shall open a way for you." Some fifteen or twenty had gone, and met with a
kind reception. This was the first "Hegira," and showed the strength of
faith in these exiles, who gave up their country rather than Islam. But
they heard, before long, that the Koreish had been converted by Mohammed,
and they returned to Mecca. The facts were these.
One day, when the chief citizens were sitting near the Kaaba, Mohammed
came, and began to recite in their hearing one of the Suras of the Koran.
In this Sura three of the goddesses worshipped by the Koreish were
mentioned. When he came to their names he added two lines in which he
conceded that their intercession might avail with God. The Koreish were so
delighted at this acknowledgment of their deities, that when he added
another line calling on them to worship Allah, they all prostrated
themselves on the ground and adored God. Then they rose, and expressed
their satisfaction, and agreed to be his followers, and receive Islam,
with this slight alteration, that their goddesses and favorite idols were
to be respected. Mohammed went home and began to be unhappy in his mind.
The compromise, it seems, lasted long enough for the Abyssinian exiles to
hear of it and to come home. But at last the prophet recovered himself,
and took back his concession. The verse of the Sura was cancelled, and
another inserted, declaring that these goddesses were only names, invented
by the idolaters. Ever after, the intercession of idols was condemned with
scorn. But Mohammed records his lapse thus in the seventeenth Sura of the
Koran:--
"And truly, they were near tempting thee from what we taught thee, that
thou shouldst invent a different revelation; and then they would have
inclined unto thee.
And if we had not strengthened thee, verily thou hadst inclined to them
a little.
Then thou shouldst not have found against us any helper."
After this, naturally, the persecution became hotter than ever. A second
body of exiles went to Abyssinia. Had not the venerable Abu Talib
protected Mohammed, his life might have been lost. As it was, the
persecutors threatened the old man with deadly enmity unless he gave up
Mohammed. But Abu Talib, though agreeing with them in their religion, and
worshipping their gods, refused to surrender his nephew to them. Once,
when Mohammed had disappeared, and his uncle suspected that the Koreish
had seized him, he armed a party of Hashimite youths with dirks, and went
to the Kaaba, to the Koreish. But on the way he heard that Mohammed was
found. Then, in the presence of the Koreish, he told his young men to draw
their dirks, and said, "By the Lord! had ye killed him, not one of you had
remained alive." This boldness cowed their violence for a time. But as the
unpopularity of Mohammed increased, he and all his party were obliged to
take refuge with the Hashimites in a secluded quarter of the city
belonging to Abu Talib. The conversion of Omar about this time only
increased their rage. They formed an alliance against the Hashimites,
agreeing that they would neither buy nor sell, marry, nor have any
dealings with them. This oath was committed to writing, sealed, and hung
up in the Kaaba. For two or three years the Hashimites remained shut up in
their fortress, and often deprived of the necessaries of life. Their
friends would sometimes secretly supply them with provisions; but the
cries of the hungry children would often be heard by those outside. They
were blockaded in their intrenchments. But many of the chief people in
Mecca began to be moved by pity, and at last it was suggested to Abu Talib
that the bond hung up in the Kaaba had been eaten by the ants, so as to be
no longer valid. This being found to be the case, it was decided that the
league was at an end, and the Hashimites returned to their homes. But
other misfortunes were in store for Mohammed. The good Abu Talib soon
died, and, not long after, Khadijah. His protector gone, what could
Mohammed do? He left the city, and went with only Zeid for a companion on
a mission to Tayif, sixty or seventy miles east of Mecca, in hopes of
converting the inhabitants. Who can think of the prophet, in this lonely
journey, without sympathy? He was going to preach the doctrine of One God
to idolaters. But he made no impression on them, and, as he left the town,
was followed by a mob, hooting, and pelting him with stones. At last they
left him, and in the shadow of some trees he betook himself to prayer. His
words have been preserved, it is believed by the Moslems, and are as
follows: "O Lord! I make my complaint unto thee of the feebleness of my
strength, and the weakness of my plans. I am insignificant in the sight of
men. O thou most merciful! Lord of the weak! Thou art my Lord! Do not
abandon me. Leave me not a prey to these strangers, nor to my foes. If
thou art not offended, I am safe. I seek refuge in the light of thy
countenance, by which all darkness is dispersed, and peace comes. There is
no power, no help, but in thee." In that hour of prayer, the faith of
Mohammed was the same as that of Luther praying for protection against the
Pope. It was a part of the universal religion of human nature. Certainly
this man was no impostor. A man, going alone to summon an idolatrous city
to repentance, must at least have believed in his own doctrine.
But the hour of success was at hand. No amount of error, no bitterness of
prejudice, no vested interest in falsehood, can resist the determined
conviction of a single soul. Only believe a truth strongly enough to hold
it through good report and ill report, and at last the great world of
half-believers comes round to you. And usually the success comes suddenly
at last, after weary years of disappointment. The great tree, which seems
so solid and firm, has been secretly decaying within, and is hollow at
heart; at last it falls in a moment, filling the forest with the echoes of
its ruin. The dam, which seems strong enough to resist a torrent, has been
slowly undermined by a thousand minute rills of water; at last it is
suddenly swept away, and opens a yawning breach for the tumbling cataract.
And almost as suddenly came the triumph of Mohammed.
At Medina and in its neighborhood there had long been numerous and
powerful tribes of Jewish proselytes. In their conflicts with the
idolaters, they had often predicted the speedy coming of a prophet like
Moses. The Jewish influence was great at Medina, and that of the idolaters
was divided by bitter quarrels. Now it must be remembered that at this
time Mohammed taught a kind of modified Judaism. He came to revive the
religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He continually referred to the Old
Testament and the Talmud for authority. He was a prophet and inspired, but
not to teach anything new. He was to restore the universal religion which
God had taught to man in the beginning,--the religion of all true
patriarchs and prophets. Its essential doctrine was the unity of God, and
his supremacy and providence. Its one duty was Islam, or submission to the
Divine will. Its worship was prayer and almsgiving. At this time he did
not make belief in himself the main point; it was to profess the unity of
God, and to submit wholly to God. So that the semi-Judaized pilgrims from
Medina to Mecca were quite prepared to accept his teachings. Mohammed, at
the time of the pilgrimage, met with many of them, and they promised to
become his disciples. The pledge they took was as follows: "We will not
worship any but the one God; we will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor
kill our children (female): we will not slander at all, nor disobey the
prophet in anything that is right." This was afterward called the "Pledge
of Women," because it did not require them to fight for Islam. This faith
spread rapidly among the idolaters at Medina,--much more so than the
Jewish system. The Jews required too much of their proselytes; they
insisted on their becoming Jews. They demanded a change of all their
previous customs. But Mohammed only asked for submission.
About this time Mohammed had his famous dream or vision, in which he was
carried by Gabriel on a winged steed to Jerusalem, to meet all the
prophets of God and be welcomed by them to their number, and then to the
seventh heaven into the presence of God. It was so vivid that he deemed it
a reality, and maintained that he had been to Jerusalem and to heaven.
This, and the Koran itself, were the only miracles he ever claimed.
The Medina Moslems having entered into a second pledge, to receive
Mohammed and his friends, and to protect them, the prophet gave orders to
his followers to leave Mecca secretly in small parties, and repair to
Medina. As the stout sea-captain remains the last on a sinking vessel,
Mohammed stayed quietly at Mecca till all the others had gone. Only Abu
Bakr's family and his own remained. The rest of the believers, to the
number of about two hundred, had disappeared.
The Koreish, amazed at these events, knew not what to do. Why had the
Moslems gone? and why had Mohammed remained? How dared he to stay,
unprotected, in their midst? They might kill him;--but then his tribe
would take a bloody vengeance on his murderers. At last they proposed to
seize him, and that a number of men, one from each tribe and family,
should at the same moment drive their dirks into him. Or perhaps it might
be better to send an assassin to waylay him on his way to Medina. While
they were discussing these alternatives, news was brought to them that
Mohammed also had disappeared, and Abu Bakr with him. They immediately
went to their houses. In that of Mohammed they found the young Ali, who,
being asked where his father was, replied, "I do not know. I am not his
keeper. Did you not order him to go from the city? I suppose he is gone."
Getting no more information at the house of Abu Bakr, they sent out
parties of armed men, mounted on swift horses and camels, to search the
whole route to Medina, and bring the fugitives back. After a few days the
pursuers returned, saying that there were no signs of any persons having
gone in that direction. If they had gone that way they would certainly
have overtaken them.
Meantime where were the fugitives? Instead of going north to Medina, they
had hidden in a cave on a mountain, about five or six miles to the south
of Mecca. Here they remained concealed three days and nights, in imminent
danger from their pursuers, who once, it is said, came to the mouth of the
cave, but, seeing spiders' webs spun across the opening, concluded no one
could have gone in recently. There was a crevice in the roof through which
the morning light entered, and Abu Bakr said, "If one of them were to
look down, he would see us." "Think not so, Abu Bakr," said the prophet.
"We are two, but God is in the midst, a third."
The next day, satisfied that the heat of the pursuit had abated, they took
the camels which had privately been brought to them from the city by the
son of Abu Bakr, and set off for Medina, leaving Mecca on the right. By
the calculations of M. Caussin de Perceval, it was on the 20th of June,
A.D. 622.
Sec. 4. Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira.
From the Hegira the Mohammedan era begins; and from that point of the
prophet's history his fortunes rise, but his character degenerates. He has
borne adversity and opposition with a faith and a patience almost sublime;
but prosperity he will not bear so well. Down to that time he had been a
prophet, teaching God's truth to those who would receive it, and by the
manifestation of that truth commending himself to every man's conscience.
Now he was to become a politician, the head of a party, contriving
expedients for its success. Before, his only weapon was truth; now, his
chief means was force. Instead of convincing his opponents, he now
compelled them to submit by the terror of his power. His revelations
changed their tone; they adapted themselves to his needs, and on all
occasions, even when he wanted to take an extra wife, inspiration came to
his aid.
What sadder tragedy is there than to see a great soul thus conquered by
success? "All these things," says Satan, "I will give thee, if thou wilt
fall down and worship me." When Jesus related his temptation to his
disciples he put it in the form of a parable. How could they, how can we,
understand the temptations of a nature like that of Christ! Perhaps he saw
that he could have a great apparent success by the use of worldly means.
He could bring the Jew and the Gentile to acknowledge and receive his
truth. Some slight concession to worldly wisdom, some little compromise
with existing errors, some hardly perceptible variation from perfect
truthfulness, and lo! the kingdom of God would come in that very hour,
instead of lingering through long centuries. What evils might not be
spared to the race, what woes to the world, if the divine gospel of love
to God and man were inaugurated by Christ himself! This, perhaps, was one
of the temptations. But Jesus said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He would
use only good means for good ends. He would take God's way to do God's
work. He would die on the cross, but not vary from the perfect truth. The
same temptation came to Mohammed, and he yielded. Up to the Hegira,
Mohammed might also have said, "My kingdom is not of this world." But now
the sword and falsehood were to serve him, as his most faithful servants,
in building up Islam. His _ends_ were the same as before. His object was
still to establish the service of the one living and true God. But his
_means_, henceforth, are of the earth, earthy.
What a noble religion would Islam have been, if Mohammed could have gone
on as he began! He accepted all the essential truths of Judaism, he
recognized Moses and Christ as true teachers. He taught that there was one
universal religion, the substance of which was faith in one Supreme Being,
submission to his will, trust in his providence, and good-will to his
creatures. Prayer and alms were the only worship which God required. A
marvellous and mighty work, says Mr. Muir, had been wrought by these few
precepts. From time beyond memory Mecca and the whole peninsula had been
steeped in spiritual torpor. The influences of Judaism, Christianity, and
philosophy had been feeble and transient. Dark superstitions prevailed,
the mothers of dark vices. And now, in thirteen years of preaching, a body
of men and women had risen, who rejected idolatry; worshipped the one
great God; lived lives of prayer; practised chastity, benevolence, and
justice; and were ready to do and to bear everything for the truth. All
this came from the depth of conviction in the soul of this one man.
To the great qualities which Mohammed had shown as a prophet and
religious teacher were now added those of the captain and statesman. He
had at last obtained a position at Medina whence he could act on the Arabs
with other forces than those of eloquence and feeling. And now the man who
for forty years had been a simple citizen and led a quiet family life--who
afterward, for thirteen years, had been a patient but despised teacher of
the unity of God--passed the last ten years of his strange career in
building up a fanatical army of warriors, destined to conquer half the
civilized world. From this period the old solution of the Mohammedan
miracle is in order; from this time the sword leads, and the Koran
follows. To this familiar explanation of Mohammedan success, Mr. Carlyle
replies with the question: "Mohammedanism triumphed with the sword? But
where did it get its sword?" We can now answer that pithy inquiry. The
simple, earnest zeal of the original believers built up a power, which
then took the sword, and conquered with it. The reward of patient,
long-enduring faith is influence; with this influence ambition serves
itself for its own purpose. Such is, more or less, the history of every
religion, and, indeed, of every political party. Sects are founded, not by
politicians, but by men of faith, by men to whom ideas are realities, by
men who are willing to die for them. Such faith always triumphs at last;
it makes a multitude of converts; it becomes a great power. The deep and
strong convictions thus created are used by worldly men for their own
purposes. That the Mohammedan impulse was thus taken possession of by
worldly men is the judgment of M. Renan.[394] "From all sides," says he,
"we come to this singular result: that the Mussulman movement was started
almost without religious faith; that, setting aside a small number of
faithful disciples, Mahomet really wrought very little conviction in
Arabia." "The party of true Mussulmans had all their strength in Omar; but
after his assassination, that is to say, twelve years after the death of
the prophet, the opposite party triumphed by the election of Othman."
"The first generation of the Hegira was completely occupied in
exterminating the primitive Mussulmans, the true fathers of Islamism."
Perhaps it is bold to question the opinions of a Semitic scholar of the
force of M. Renan, but it seems to us that he goes too far in supposing
that such a movement as that of Islam could be _started_ without a
tremendous depth of conviction. At all events, supported by such writers
as Weil, Sprenger, and Muir, we will say that it was a powerful religious
movement founded on sincerest conviction, but gradually turned aside, and
used for worldly purposes and temporal triumphs. And, in thus diverting it
from divine objects to purely human ones, Mohammed himself led the way. He
adds another, and perhaps the greatest, illustration to the long list of
noble souls whose natures have become subdued to that which they worked
in; who have sought high ends by low means; who, talking of the noblest
truths, descend into the meanest prevarications, and so throw a doubt on
all sincerity, faith, and honor. Such was the judgment of a great
thinker--Goethe--concerning Mohammed. He believes him to have been at
first profoundly sincere, but he says of him that afterward "what in his
character is earthly increases and develops itself; the divine retires and
is obscured: his doctrine becomes a means rather than an end. All kinds of
practices are employed, nor are horrors wanting." Goethe intended to write
a drama upon Mohammed, to illustrate the sad fact that every man who
attempts to realize a great idea comes in contact with the lower world,
must place himself on its level in order to influence it, and thus often
compromises his higher aims, and at last forfeits them[395]. Such a man,
in modern times, was Lord Bacon in the political world; such a man, among
conquerors, was Cromwell; and among Christian sects how often do we see
the young enthusiast and saint end as the ambitious self-seeker and
Jesuit! Then we call him a hypocrite, because he continues to use the
familiar language of the time when his heart was true and simple, though
indulging himself in luxury and sin. It is curious, when we are all so
inconsistent, that we should find it so hard to understand inconsistency.
We, all of us, often say what is right and do what is wrong; but are we
deliberate hypocrites? No! we know that we are weak; we admit that we are
inconsistent; we say amen to the "video meliora, proboque,--deteriora
sequor," but we also know that we are not deliberate and intentional
hypocrites. Let us use the same large judgment in speaking of the faults
of Cromwell, Bacon, and Mohammed.
No one could have foreseen the cruelty of which Mohammed, hitherto always
a kind-hearted and affectionate man, was capable toward those who resisted
his purpose. This first showed itself in his treatment of the Jews. He
hoped to form an alliance with them, against the idolaters. He had
admitted the divine authority of their religion, and appealed to their
Scriptures as evidence of the truth of his own mission. He conformed to
their ritual and customs, and made Jerusalem his Kibla, toward which he
turned in prayer five times a day. In return for this he expected them to
receive him as a prophet; but this they refused to do. So he departed by
degrees from their customs, changed his Kibla to Mecca, and at last
denounced the Jews as stiff-necked unbelievers. The old quarrel between
Esau and Jacob could not be appeased, nor an alliance formed between them.
M. Saint-Hilaire[396] does not think that the character of Mohammed
changed when he became the founder of a state and head of a conquering
party. He thinks "that he only yielded to the political necessities of his
position." Granted; but yielding to those necessities was the cause of
this gradual change in his character. The man who lies and murders from
the necessity of his political position can hardly remain a saint.
Plunder, cold-blooded execution of prisoners, self-indulgence, became the
habit of the prophet henceforth, as we shall presently see.
The first battle against the Koreish, that of Badr, took place in January,
A.D. 624. When Mohammed had drawn up his army, he prayed earnestly for
the victory. After a desperate struggle, the Koreish fled. Mohammed
claimed, by a special revelation, the fifth part of the booty. As the
bodies of his old opponents were cast into a pit, he spoke to them
bitterly. When the prisoners were brought before him he looked fiercely at
one of them. "There is death in that glance," said the unhappy man, and
presently the prophet ordered him to be beheaded. Two days after, another
was ordered for execution. "Who will take care of my little girl?" said
he. "Hell-fire," replied Mohammed, and ordered him to be cut down. Shortly
after the battle, a Jewess who had written verses against Mohammed, was
assassinated by one of his followers; and the prophet praised him for the
deed in the public mosque. Another aged Jew, for the same offence, was
murdered by his express command. A quarrel between some Jews and Moslems
brought on an attack by Mohammed upon the Jewish tribe. They surrendered
after a siege of fifteen days, and Mohammed ordered all the prisoners to
be killed; but at last, at the urgent request of a powerful chief in
Medina, allowed them to go into exile, cursing them and their intercessor.
Mr. Muir mentions other cases of assassination of the Jews by the command
of the prophet. All these facts are derived from contemporaneous Moslem
historians, who glorify their prophet for this conduct. The worst action
perhaps of this kind was the deliberate execution of seven or eight
hundred Jewish prisoners, who had surrendered at discretion, and the sale
of their wives and children into slavery. Mohammed selected from among
these women one more beautiful than the rest, for his concubine. Whether
M. Saint-Hilaire considers all this as "yielding to the political
necessities of his position," we do not know. But this man, who could
stand by and see hundreds of captives slaughtered in cold blood, and then
retire to solace himself with the widow of one of his victims, seems to us
to have retained little of his early purity of soul.
About this time Mohammed began to multiply wives, and to receive
revelations allowing him to do so beyond the usual limit of his law. He
added one after another to his harem, until he had ten wives, besides his
slaves. His views on such subjects are illustrated by his presenting three
beautiful female slaves, taken in war, one to his father-in-law, and the
others to his two sons-in-law.
So, in a series of battles, with the Jewish tribes, the Koreish, the
Syrians, passed the stormy and triumphant years of the Pontiff King. Mecca
was conquered, and the Koreish submitted in A.D. 630. The tribes
throughout Arabia acquiesced, one by one, in the prophet's authority. All
paid tribute, or accepted Islam. His enemies were all under his feet; his
doctrines accepted; the rival prophets, Aswad and Museilama, overcome.
Then, in the sixty-third year of his age, death drew near. On the last day
of his life, he went into the mosque to attend morning prayer, then back
to the room of his favorite wife, Ayesha, and died in her arms. Wild with
grief, Omar declared he was not dead, but in a trance. The grave Abu Bakr
composed the excited multitude, and was chosen caliph, or successor to the
prophet. Mohammed died on June 8, A.D. 632, and was buried the next day,
amid the grief of his followers. Abu Bakr and Omar offered the prayer:
"Peace be unto thee, O prophet of God; and the mercy of the Lord, and his
blessing! We bear testimony that the prophet of God hath delivered the
message revealed to him; hath fought in the ways of the Lord until God
crowned his religion with victory; hath fulfilled his words commanding
that he alone is to be worshipped in unity; hath drawn us to himself, and
been kind and tender-hearted to believers; hath sought no recompense for
delivering to us the faith, neither hath sold it for a price at any time."
And all the people said, "Amen! Amen!"
Concerning the character of Mohammed, enough has been already said. He was
a great man, one of the greatest ever sent upon earth. He was a man of the
deepest convictions, and for many years of the purest purposes, and was
only drawn down at last by using low means for a good end. Of his visions
and revelations, the same explanation is to be given as of those received
by Joan of Arc, and other seers of that order. How far they had an
objective basis in reality, and how far they were the result of some
abnormal activity of the imagination, it is difficult with our present
knowledge to decide. But that these visionaries fully believed in their
own inspiration, there can be little doubt.
Sec. 5. Religious Doctrines and Practices among the Mohammedans.
As to the religion of Mohammed, and its effects on the world, it is easier
to come to an opinion than concerning his own character. Its essential
doctrine, as before indicated, is the absolute unity and supremacy of God,
as opposed to the old Arab Polytheism on the one hand and the Christian
Trinity on the other. It however admits of angels and genii. Gabriel and
Michael are the angels of power; Azriel, angel of death; Israfeel, angel
of the resurrection. Eblis, or Satan, plays an important part in this
mythology. The Koran also teaches the doctrine of Eternal Decrees, or
absolute Predestination; of prophets before Mohammed, of whom he is the
successor,--as Adam, Noah, Moses, and Jesus; of sacred books, of which all
that remain are the Pentateuch, Psalms, Gospels, and Koran; of an
intermediate state after death; of the resurrection and judgment. All
non-believers in Islam go into eternal fire. There are separate hells for
Christians, Jews, Sabians, Magians, idolaters, and the hypocrites of all
religions. The Moslem is judged by his actions. A balance is held by
Gabriel, one scale hanging over heaven and another over hell, and his good
deeds are placed in one and his bad ones in the other. According as his
scale inclines, he goes to heaven or hell. If he goes to heaven, he finds
there seventy-two Houris, more beautiful than angels, awaiting him, with
gardens, groves, marble palaces, and music. If women are true believers
and righteous, they will also go to heaven, but nothing is said about
husbands being provided for them. Stress is laid on prayer, ablution,
fasting, almsgiving, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Wine and gaming are
forbidden. There is no recognition, in the Koran, of human brotherhood. It
is a prime duty to hate infidels and make war on them. Mohammed made it a
duty for Moslems to betray and kill their own brothers when they were
infidels; and he was obeyed in more cases than one. The Moslem sects are
as numerous as those of Christians. The Dabistan mentions seventy-three.
The two main divisions are into Sunnites and Shyites. The Persians are
mostly Shyites, and refuse to receive the Sunnite traditions. They accept
Ali, and denounce Omar. Terrible wars and cruelties have taken place
between these sects. Only a few of the Sunnite doctors acknowledge the
Shyites to be Moslems. They have a saying, "to destroy a Shyite is more
acceptable than to kill seventy other infidels of whatever sort."
The Turks are the most zealous of the Moslems. On Friday, which is the
Sabbath of Islam, all business is suspended. Prayers are read and sermons
preached in the mosques. No one is allowed to be absent. The Ramadan fast
is universally kept. Any one who breaks it twice is considered worthy of
death. The fast lasts from sunrise to sunset. But the rich feast in the
night, and sleep during the day. The Turks have no desire to make
proselytes, but have an intolerant hatred for all outside of Islam. The
Kalif is the Chief Pontiff. The Oulema, or Parliament, is composed of the
Imans, or religious teachers, the Muftis, or doctors of law, and Kadis, or
ministers of justice. The priests in Turkey are subordinate to the civil
magistrate, who is their diocesan, and can remove them at pleasure. The
priests in daily life are like the laity, engage in the same business, and
are no more austere than they.
Mr. Forster says, in regard to their devotion: "When I contrast the
silence of a Turkish mosque, at the hour of public prayer, with the noise
and tumult so frequent in Christian temples, I stand astonished at the
strange inversion, in the two religions, of the order of things which
might naturally be expected." "I have seen," says another, "a congregation
of at least two thousand souls assembled in the mosque of St. Sophia, with
silence so profound, that until I entered the body of the building I was
unaware that it contained a single worshipper."
Bishop Southgate, long a missionary bishop of the Episcopal Church of the
United States, says: "I have often met with Mussulmans who seem to possess
deep religious feeling, and with whom I could exercise something of a
religious communion. I have sometimes had my own mind quickened and
benefited by the reverence with which they spoke of the Deity, and have
sometimes mingled in harmonious converse with them on holy things. I have
heard them insist with much earnestness on the duty of prayer, when they
appeared to have some spiritual sense of its nature and importance. I have
sometimes found them entertaining elevated views of moral duty, and
looking with contempt on the pleasures of this world. These are indeed
rare characters, but I should do injustice to my own conviction if I did
not confess that I had found them. In these instances I have been
uniformly struck with a strong resemblance to patriarchal piety." He
continues: "When we sat down to eat, the old Turkish Bey implored a
blessing with great solemnity, and rendered his thanks when we arose.
Before he left us he spread his carpet, and offered his evening devotions
with apparent meekness and humility; and I could not but feel how
impressive are the Oriental forms of worship when I saw his aged head
bowed to the earth in religious homage."
Bishop Southgate adds further: "I have never known a Mussulman, sincere in
his faith and devout and punctilious in his religious duties, in whom
moral rectitude did not seem an active quality and a living principle."
In seasons of plague "the Turks appear perfectly fearless. They do not
avoid customary intercourse and contact with friends. They remain with and
minister to the sick, with unshrinking assiduity.... In truth, there is
something imposing in the unaffected calmness of the Turks at such times.
It is a spirit of resignation which becomes truly noble when exercised
upon calamities which have already befallen them. The fidelity with which
they remain by the bedside of a friend is at least as commendable as the
almost universal readiness among the Franks to forsake it."
Five times a day the Mezzuin proclaims the hour of prayer from the
minaret in these words: "There is no God but God. Mohammed is his prophet.
Come to prayer." In the morning call he adds, "Prayer is better than
sleep." Immediately every Mussulman leaves his occupation, and prostrates
himself on the floor or ground, wherever he may he. It is very
disreputable to omit this.
An interesting account is given of the domestic life of Moslem women in
Syria, by Miss Rogers, in her little book called "Domestic Life in
Palestine," published in 1862.
Miss Rogers travelled in Palestine with her brother, who was British
consul at Damascus. The following passage illustrates the character of the
women (Miss Rogers was obliged to sleep in the same room with the wives of
the governor of Arrabeh, near Naplous):--
"When I began to undress the women watched me with curiosity; and when I
put on my night-gown they were exceedingly astonished, and exclaimed,
'Where are you going? Why is your dress white?' They made no change for
sleeping, and there they were, in their bright-colored clothes, ready for
bed in a minute. But they stood round me till I said 'Good night,' and
then all kissed me, wishing me good dreams. Then I knelt down, and
presently, without speaking to them again, got into bed, and turned my
face to the wall, thinking over the strange day I had spent. I tried to
compose myself to sleep, though I heard the women whispering together.
When my head had rested about five minutes on the soft red silk pillow, I
felt a hand stroking my forehead, and heard a voice saying, very gently,
'Ya Habibi,' i.e. 'O beloved.' But I would not answer directly, as I did
not wish to be roused unnecessarily. I waited a little while, and my face
was touched again. I felt a kiss on my forehead, and a voice said,
'Miriam, speak to us; speak, Miriam, darling.' I could not resist any
longer; so I turned round and saw Helweh, Saleh Bek's prettiest wife,
leaning over me. I said, 'What is it, sweetness, what can I do for you?'
She answered, 'What did you do just now, when you knelt down and covered
your face with your hands?' I sat up, and said very solemnly, 'I spoke to
God, Helweh.' 'What did you say to him?' said Helweh. I replied, 'I wish
to sleep. God never sleeps. I have asked him to watch over me, and that I
may fall asleep, remembering that he never sleeps, and wake up remembering
his presence. I am very weak. God is all-powerful. I have asked him to
strengthen me with his strength.' By this time all the ladies were sitting
round me on the bed, and the slaves came and stood near. I told them I did
not know their language well enough to explain to them all I thought and
said. But as I had learned the Lord's Prayer, by heart, in Arabic, I
repeated it to them, sentence by sentence, slowly. When I began, 'Our
Father who art in heaven,' Helweh directly said, 'You told me your father
was in London.' I replied, 'I have two fathers, Helweh; one in London, who
does not know that I am here, and cannot know till I write and tell him;
and a Heavenly Father, who is here now, who is with me always, and sees
and hears us. He is your Father also. He teaches us to know good from
evil, if we listen to him and obey him.'
"For a moment there was perfect silence. They all looked startled, and as
if they felt that they were in the presence of some unseen power. Then
Helweh said, 'What more did you say?' I continued the Lord's Prayer, and
when I came to the words, 'Give us day by day our daily bread,' they said,
'Cannot you make bread yourself?' The passage, 'Forgive us our trespasses,
as we forgive those who trespass against us,' is particularly forcible in
the Arabic language; and one of the elder women, who was particularly
severe and relentless-looking, said, 'Are you obliged to say that every
day?' as if she thought that sometimes it would be difficult to do so.
They said, 'Are you a Moslem?' I said, 'I am not called a Moslem. But I am
your sister, made by the same God, who is the one only God, the God of
all, my Father and your Father.' They asked me if I knew the Koran, and
were surprised to hear that I had read it. They handed a rosary to me,
saying, 'Do you know that?' I repeated a few of the most striking and
comprehensive attributes very carefully and slowly. Then they cried
out, 'Mashallah, the English girl is a true believer'; and the
impressionable, sensitive-looking Abyssinian slave-girls said, with one
accord, 'She is indeed an angel.'
"Moslems, men and women, have the name of Allah constantly on their lips,
but it seems to have become a mere form. This may explain why they were so
startled when I said, 'I was speaking to God.'" She adds that if she had
only said, "I was saying my prayers," or, "I was at my devotions," it
would not have impressed them."
Next morning, on awaking, Miss Rogers found the women from the
neighborhood had come in "to hear the English girl speak to God," and
Helweh said, "Now, Miriam, darling, will you speak to God?" At the
conclusion she asked them if they could say Amen, and after a moment of
hesitation they cried out, "Amen, amen!" Then one said, "Speak again, my
daughter, speak about _the bread_." So she repeated the Lord's Prayer with
explanations. When she left, they crowded around affectionately, saying,
"Return again, O Miriam, beloved!"
After this pleasant little picture, we may hear something on the other
side. Two recent travellers, Mr. Palgrave and Mr. Vambery, have described
the present state of Mohammedanism in Central Arabia and Turkistan, or
Central Asia. Barth has described it as existing among the negroes in
North Africa. Count Gobineau has told us of Islam as it is in Persia at
the present day[397]. Mr. MacFarlane, in his book "Kismet, or the Doom of
Turkey," has pointed out the gradual decay of that power, and the utter
corruption of its administration. After reading such works as these,--and
among them let us not forget Mr. Lane's "Modern Egyptians,"--the
conclusion we must inevitably come to is, that the worst Christian
government, be it that of the Pope or the Czar, is very much better than
the best Mohammedan government. Everywhere we find arbitrary will taking
the place of law. In most places the people have no protection for life
or property, and know the government only through its tax-gatherers. And
all this is necessarily and logically derived from the fundamental
principle of Mohammedan theology. God is pure will, not justice, not
reason, not love. Christianity says, "God is love"; Mohammedanism says,
"God is will." Christianity says, "Trust in God"; Mohammedanism says,
"Submit to God." Hence the hardness, coldness, and cruelty of the system;
hence its utter inability to establish any good government. According to
Mr. MacFarlane, it would be a blessing to mankind to have the Turks driven
out of Europe and Asia Minor, and to have Constantinople become the
capital of Russia. The religion of Islam is an outward form, a hard shell
of authority, hollow at heart. It constantly tends to the two antagonistic
but related vices of luxury and cruelty. Under the profession of Islam,
polytheism and idolatry have always prevailed in Arabia. In Turkistan,
where slavery is an extremely cruel system, they make slaves of Moslems,
in defiance of the Koran. One chief being appealed to by Vambery (who
travelled as a Dervish), replied, "We buy and sell the Koran itself, which
is the holiest thing of all; why not buy and sell Mussulmans, who are less
holy?"
Sec. 6. The Criticism of Mr. Palgrave on Mohammedan Theology.
Mr. Palgrave, who has given the latest and best account of the condition
of Central and Southern Arabia,[398] under the great Wahhabee revival,
sums up all Mohammedan theology as teaching a Divine unity of pure will.
God is the only force in the universe. Man is wholly passive and impotent.
He calls the system, "A pantheism of force." God has no rule but arbitrary
will. He is a tremendous unsympathizing autocrat, but is yet jealous of
his creatures, lest they should attribute to themselves something which
belongs to him. He delights in making all creatures feel that they are his
slaves. This, Mr. Palgrave asserts, is the main idea of Mohammedanism,
and of the Koran, and this was what lay in the mind of Mohammed. "Of
this," says he, "we have many authentic samples: the Saheeh, the
Commentaries of Beydawee, the Mishkat-el-Mesabeeh, and fifty similar
works, afford ample testimony on this point. But for the benefit of my
readers in general, all of whom may not have drunk equally deep at the
fountain-heads of Islamitic dogma, I will subjoin a specimen, known
perhaps to many Orientalists, yet too characteristic to be here omitted, a
repetition of which I have endured times out of number from admiring and
approving Wahhabees in Nejed.
"Accordingly, when God--so runs the tradition,--I had better said the
blasphemy--resolved to create the human race, he took into his hands a
mass of earth, the same whence all mankind were to be formed, and in which
they after a manner pre-existed; and, having then divided the clod into
two equal portions, he threw the one half into hell, saying, 'These to
eternal fire, and I care not'; and projected the other half into heaven,
adding, 'And these to paradise, and I care not.'
"Commentary would here be superfluous. But in this we have before us the
adequate idea of predestination, or, to give it a truer name,
pre-damnation, held and taught in the school of the Koran. Paradise and
hell are at once totally independent of love and hatred on the part of the
Deity, and of merits and demerits, of good or evil conduct, on the part of
the creature; and, in the corresponding theory, rightly so, since the very
actions which we call good or ill deserving, right or wrong, wicked or
virtuous, are in their essence all one and of one, and accordingly merit
neither praise nor blame, punishment nor recompense, except and simply
after the arbitrary value which the all-regulating will of the great
despot may choose to assign or impute to them. In a word, he burns one
individual through all eternity, amid red-hot chains and seas of molten
fire, and seats another in the plenary enjoyment of an everlasting
brothel, between forty celestial concubines, just and equally for his own
good pleasure, and because he wills it.
"Men are thus all on one common level, here and hereafter, in their
physical, social, and moral light,--the level of slaves to one sole
master, of tools to one universal agent. But the equalizing process does
not stop here: beasts, birds, fishes, insects, all participate of the same
honor or debasement; all are, like man, the slaves of God, the tools and
automata of his will; and hence Mahomet is simply logical and
self-consistent when in the Koran he informs his followers that birds,
beasts, and the rest are 'nations' like themselves, nor does any intrinsic
distinction exist between them and the human species, except what
accidental diversity the 'King,' the 'Proud One,' the 'Mighty,' the
'Giant,' etc., as he styles his God, may have been pleased to make, just
as he willed it, and so long as he may will it."
"The Wahhabee reformer," continues Mr. Palgrave, "formed the design of
putting back the hour-hand of Islam to its starting-point; and so far he
did well, for that hand was from the first meant to be fixed. Islam is in
its essence stationary, and was framed thus to remain. Sterile like its
God, lifeless like its First Principle and Supreme Original, in all that
constitutes true life,--for life is love, participation, and progress, and
of these the Koranic Deity has none,--it justly repudiates all change, all
advance, all development. To borrow the forcible words of Lord Houghton,
the 'written book' is the 'dead man's hand,' stiff and motionless;
whatever savors of vitality is by that alone convicted of heresy and
defection.
"But Christianity, with its living and loving God, begetter and begotten,
spirit and movement; nay more,--a Creator made creature, the Maker and the
made existing in one; a Divinity communicating itself by uninterrupted
gradation and degree, from the most intimate union far off to the faintest
irradiation, through all that it has made for love and governs in love;
one who calls his creatures not slaves, not servants, but friends,--nay
sons,--nay gods: to sum up, a religion in whose seal and secret 'God in
man is one with man in God,' must also be necessarily a religion of
vitality, of progress, of advancement. The contrast between it and Islam
is that of movement with fixedness, of participation with sterility, of
development with barrenness, of life with petrifaction. The first vital
principle and the animating spirit of its birth must, indeed, abide ever
the same, but the outer form must change with the changing days, and new
offshoots of fresh sap and greenness be continually thrown out as
witnesses to the vitality within; else were the vine withered and the
branches dead. I have no intention here--it would be extremely out of
place--of entering on the maze of controversy, or discussing whether any
dogmatic attempt to reproduce the religious phase of a former age is
likely to succeed. I only say that life supposes movement and growth, and
both imply change; that to censure a living thing for growing and changing
is absurd; and that to attempt to hinder it from so doing by pinning it
down on a written label, or nailing it to a Procrustean framework, is
tantamount to killing it altogether. Now Christianity is living, and,
because living, must grow, must advance, must change, and was meant to do
so: onwards and forwards is a condition of its very existence; and I
cannot but think that those who do not recognize this show themselves so
far ignorant of its true nature and essence. On the other hand, Islam is
lifeless, and, because lifeless, cannot grow, cannot advance, cannot
change, and was never intended so to do; stand-still is its motto and its
most essential condition; and therefore the son of Abd-el-Wahhab, in
doing his best to bring it back to its primal simplicity, and making its
goal of its starting-point, was so far in the right, and showed himself
well acquainted with the nature and first principles of his religion."
Sec. 7. Mohammedanism a Relapse; the worst Form of Monotheism, and a
retarding Element in Civilization.
According to this view, which is no doubt correct, the monotheism of
Mohammed is that which makes of God pure will; that is, which exaggerates
personality (since personality is in will), making the Divine One an
Infinite Free Will, or an Infinite I. But will divorced from reason and
love is wilfulness, or a purely arbitrary will.
Now the monotheism of the Jews differed from this, in that it combined
with the idea of will the idea of justice. God not only does what he
chooses, but he chooses to do only what is right. Righteousness is an
attribute of God, with which the Jewish books are saturated.
Still, both of these systems leave God outside of the world; _above_ all
as its Creator and Ruler, _above_ all as its Judge; but not _through_ all
and _in_ all. The idea of an Infinite Love must be added and made supreme,
in order to give us a Being who is not only above all, but also through
all and in all. This is the Christian monotheism.
Mohammed teaches not only the unity but also the spirituality of God, but
his idea of the divine Unity is of a numeric unity, not a moral unity; and
so his idea of divine spirituality is that of an abstract
spirituality,--God abstracted from matter, and so not to be represented by
pictures and images; God withdrawn out of the world, and above all,--in a
total separation.
Judaism also opposed idolatry and idol-worship, and taught that God was
above all, and the maker of the world; but it conceived of God as _with_
man, by his repeated miraculous coming down in prophets, judges, kings;
also _with_ his people, the Jews, mysteriously present in their tabernacle
and temple. Their spirituality was not quite as abstract then as that of
the Mohammedans.
But Christianity, as soon as it became the religion of a non-Semitic race,
as soon as it had converted the Greeks and Romans, not only imparted to
them its monotheism, but received from them their strong tendencies to
pantheism. They added to the God "above all," and the God "with all," the
God "in us all." True, this is also to be found in original Christianity
as proceeding from the life of Jesus. The New Testament is full of this
kind of pantheism,--God _in_ man, as well as God _with_ man. Jesus made
the step forward from God with man to God in man,--"I in them, thou in
me." The doctrine of the Holy Spirit is this idea, of God who is not only
will and power, not only wisdom and law, but also love; of a God who
desires communion and intercourse with his children, so coming and
dwelling in them. Mohammed teaches a God above us; Moses teaches a God
above us, and yet with us; Jesus teaches God above us, God with us, and
God in us.
According to this view, Mohammedanism is a relapse. It is going back to a
lower level. It is returning from the complex idea to the simple idea. But
the complex is higher than the simple. The seed-germ, and the germ-cell,
out of which organic life comes, is lower than the organizations which are
developed out of it. The Mollusks are more complex and so are higher than
the Radiata, the Vertebrata are more complex than the Mollusks. Man is the
most complex of all, in soul as well as body. The complex idea of God,
including will, thought, and love, in the perfect unity, is higher than
the simplistic unity of will which Mohammed teaches. But the higher ought
to come out of and conquer the lower. How, then, did Mohammedanism come
out of Christianity and Judaism?
The explanation is to be found in the law of reaction and relapse.
Reaction is going back to a lower ground, to pick up something which has
been dropped, forgotten, left behind, in the progress of man. The
condition of progress is that nothing shall be lost. The lower truth must
be preserved in the higher truth; the lower life taken up into the higher
life. Now Christianity, in going forward, had accepted from the
Indo-Germanic races that sense of God in nature, as well as God above
nature, which has always been native with those races. It took up natural
religion into monotheism. But in taking it up, it went so far as to lose
something of the true unity of God. Its doctrine of the Trinity, at least
in its Oriental forms, lost the pure personal monotheism of Judaism. No
doubt the doctrine of the Trinity embodies a great truth, but it has been
carried too far. So Mohammedanism came, as a protest against this tendency
to plurality in the godhead, as a demand for a purely personal God It is
the Unitarianism of the East. It was a new assertion of the simple unity
of God, against polytheism and against idolatry.
The merits and demerits, the good and evil, of Mohammedanism are to be
found in this, its central idea concerning God. It has taught submission,
obedience, patience; but it has fostered a wilful individualism. It has
made social life lower. Its governments are not governments. Its virtues
are stoical. It makes life barren and empty. It encourages a savage pride
and cruelty. It makes men tyrants or slaves, women puppets, religion the
submission to an infinite despotism. Time is that it came to an end. Its
work is done. It is a hard, cold, cruel, empty faith, which should give
way to the purer forms of a higher civilization.
No doubt, Mohammedanism was needed when it came, and has done good service
in its time. But its time is almost passed. In Europe it is an anachronism
and an anomaly, depending for its daily existence on the support received
from Christian powers, jealous of Russian advance on Constantinople. It
will be a blessing to mankind to have the capital of Russia on the
Bosphorus. A recent writer on Turkey thus speaks:--
"The military strength of Mohammedanism was in its steady and
remorseless bigotry. Socially, it won by the lofty ideality of its
precepts, without pain or satiety. It accorded well, too, with the
isolate and primitive character of the municipalities scattered over
Asia. Resignation to God--a motto well according with Eastern
indolence--was borne upon its banners, while in the profusion of
delight hereafter was promised an element of endurance and courage. It
had, too, one strikingly Arabic characteristic,--simplicity.
"One God the Arabian prophet preached to man;
One God the Orient still
Adores, through many a realm of mighty span,--
God of power and will.
"A God that, shrouded in his lonely light,
Rests utterly apart
From all the vast creations of his might,
From nature, man, and art.
"A Power that at his pleasure doth create
To save or to destroy;
And to eternal pain predestinate,
As to eternal joy.
"It is the merit and the glory of Mohammed that, beside founding
twenty spiritual empires and providing laws for the guidance through
centuries of millions of men, he shook the foundations of the faith of
heathendom. Mohammed was the impersonation of two principles that reign
in the government of God,--destruction and salvation. He would receive
nations to his favor if they accepted the faith, and utterly destroy
them if they rejected it. Yet, in the end, the sapless tree must fall."
M. H. Blerzey,[399] in speaking of Mohammedanism in Northern Africa,
says:--
"At bottom there is little difference between the human sacrifices
demanded by fetichism and the contempt of life produced by the
Mussulman religion. Between the social doctrines of these Mohammedan
tribes and the sentiments of Christian communities there is an immense
abyss."
And again:---
"The military and fanatic despotism of the Arabs has vested during many
centuries in the white autochthonic races of North Africa, without any
fusion taking place between the conquering element and the conquered,
without destroying at all the language and manners of the subject
people, and, in a word, without creating anything durable. The Arab
conquest was a triumph of brute force, and nothing further."
And M. Renan, a person well qualified to judge of the character of this
religion by the most extensive and impartial studies, gives this
verdict:[400]--
"Islamism, following as it did on ground that was none of the best,
has, on the whole, done as much harm as good to the human race. It has
stifled everything by its dry and desolating simplicity."
Again:--
"At the present time, the essential condition of a diffused
civilization is the destruction of the peculiarly Semitic element, the
destruction of the theocratic power of Islamism, consequently the
destruction of Islamism itself."[401]
Again:--
"Islamism is evidently the product of an inferior, and, so to speak, of
a meagre combination of human elements. For this reason its conquests
have all been on the average plane of human nature. The savage races
have been incapable of rising to it, and, on the other hand, it has not
satisfied people who carried in themselves the seed of a stronger
civilization."[402]
Note to the Chapter on Mohammed.
We give in this note further extracts from Mr. Palgrave's description of
the doctrine of Islam.
"This keystone, this master thought, this parent idea, of which all the
rest is but the necessary and inevitable deduction, is contained in the
phrase far oftener repeated than understood, 'La Ilah illa Allah,' 'There
is no God but God.' A literal translation, but much too narrow for the
Arab formula, and quite inadequate to render its true force in an Arab
mouth or mind.
"'There is no God but God' are words simply tantamount in English to the
negation of any deity save one alone; and thus much they certainly mean in
Arabic, but they imply much more also. Their full sense is, not only to
deny absolutely and unreservedly all plurality, whether of nature or of
person, in the Supreme Being, not only to establish the unity of the
Unbegetting and Unbegot, in all its simple and uncommunicable Oneness, but
besides this the words, in Arabic and among Arabs, imply that this one
Supreme Being is also the only Agent, the only Force, the only Act
existing throughout the universe, and leave to all beings else, matter or
spirit, instinct or intelligence, physical or moral, nothing but pure,
unconditional passiveness, alike in movement or in quiescence, in action
or in capacity. The sole power, the sole motor, movement, energy, and deed
is God; the rest is downright inertia and mere instrumentality, from the
highest archangel down to the simplest atom of creation. Hence, in this
one sentence,' La Ilah illa Allah,' is summed up a system which, for
want of a better name, I may be permitted to call the Pantheism of Force,
or of Act, thus exclusively assigned to God, who absorbs it all, exercises
it all, and to whom alone it can be ascribed, whether for preserving or
for destroying, for relative evil or for equally relative good. I say
'relative,' because it is clear that in such a theology no place is left
for absolute good or evil, reason or extravagance; all is abridged in the
autocratic will of the one great Agent: 'sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro
ratione voluntas'; or, more significantly still, in Arabic, 'Kema
yesha'o,' 'as he wills it,' to quote the constantly recurring expression
of the Koran.
"Thus immeasurably and eternally exalted above, and dissimilar from, all
creatures, which lie levelled before him on one common plane of
instrumentality and inertness, God is one in the totality of omnipotent
and omnipresent action, which acknowledges no rule, standard, or limit
save his own sole and absolute will. He communicates nothing to his
creatures, for their seeming power and act ever remain his alone, and in
return he receives nothing from them; for whatever they may be, that they
are in him, by him, and from him only. And secondly, no superiority, no
distinction, no pre-eminence, can be lawfully claimed by one creature over
its fellow, in the utter equalization of their unexceptional servitude and
abasement; all are alike tools of the one solitary Force which employs
them to crush or to benefit, to truth or to error, to honor or shame, to
happiness, or misery, quite independently of their individual fitness,
deserts, or advantage, and simply because he wills it, and as he wills it.
"One might at first think that this tremendous autocrat, this uncontrolled
and unsympathizing power, would be far above anything like passions,
desires, or inclinations. Yet such is not the case, for he has with
respect to his creatures one main feeling and source of action, namely,
jealousy of them lest they should perchance attribute to themselves
something of what is his alone, and thus encroach on his all-engrossing
kingdom. Hence he is ever more prone to punish than to reward, to inflict
than to bestow pleasure, to ruin than to build. It is his singular
satisfaction to let created beings continually feel that they are nothing
else than his slaves, his tools, and contemptible tools also, that thus
they may the better acknowledge his superiority, and know his power to be
above their power, his cunning above their cunning, his will above their
will, his pride above their pride; or rather, that there is no power,
cunning, will, or pride save his own.
"But he himself, sterile in his inaccessible height, neither loving nor
enjoying aught save his own and self-measured decree, without son,
companion, or counsellor, is no less barren for himself than for his
creatures, and his own barrenness and lone egoism in himself is the cause
and rule of his indifferent and unregarding despotism around. The first
note is the key of the whole tune, and the primal idea of God runs through
and modifies the whole system and creed that centres in him.
"That the notion here given of the Deity, monstrous and blasphemous as it
may appear, is exactly and literally that which the Koran conveys, or
intends to convey, I at present take for granted. But that it indeed is
so, no one who has attentively perused and thought over the Arabic text
(for mere cursory reading, especially in a translation, will not suffice)
can hesitate to allow. In fact, every phrase of the preceding sentences,
every touch in this odious portrait, has been taken, to the best of my
ability, word for word, or at least meaning for meaning, from the 'Book,'
the truest mirror of the mind and scope of its writer.
"And that such was in reality Mahomet's mind and idea is fully confirmed
by the witness-tongue of contemporary tradition."
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