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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by 
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value
+       A Rational And Pyschological Study
+
+Author: Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+Release Date: November 23, 2011 [EBook #38114]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: UTF-8
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Anne Grieve and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+    ISLAM
+
+    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE
+
+
+
+
+    ISLAM
+
+    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE
+
+    A Rational and Psychological Study
+
+
+    By
+    MAJOR ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD
+
+    LATE 2ND BATT. EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
+
+    _Author of “The Camel, Its Uses and Management,” “How we made
+    Rhodesia,” “The Lower Niger and its Tribes”_
+
+
+    With a Foreword by
+    SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E.
+
+    _Author of “The Spirit of Islam,” “Life and Teachings of Mohammed,”
+    “Mohammedan Law,” “Personal Law of the
+    Mohammedans,” etc._
+
+
+    LONDON
+    LUZAC & CO
+    46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
+    1909
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+I am glad to introduce this book with an expression of the pleasure and
+interest with which I have read Major Leonard’s admirable psychological
+study of a subject, the importance of which it is hardly possible to
+overrate.
+
+Unfortunately it has been too common hitherto to regard Islam as an
+antagonistic force to Christendom; to depreciate its Founder and to
+discount its Ideals. As the author justly observes, it is hardly
+possible for a student really anxious to acquaint himself with the inner
+spirit of another Faith, to gain an insight into its true character
+until he has divested himself of ancient prejudices that narrow his
+perspective and prevent his taking a broad view of the aims and
+aspirations of the great men who from time to time have tried to uplift
+humanity.
+
+Major Leonard has dealt with his subject in this broad spirit; he has
+approached it with sympathy born of intimate acquaintance with races
+and peoples who profess the Faith of Islam. His is eminently a
+philosophical study of its Founder, of its true moral and spiritual
+utility, and of the great impetus it gave to the progress of the world.
+
+In the eight chapters that constitute this book he has discussed the
+entire range of questions affecting the personality of Mohammed and the
+tendency of his religion. In his treatment he shows himself a
+philosophical rationalist animated with a reverence for the Arabian
+Teacher--the evident outcome of a true appreciation of the mainspring of
+his actions.
+
+In the first chapter the author has applied himself to expose the
+absurdity and hollowness of the Pan-Islamic “bogey.” That the growing
+_rapprochement_ between Moslem communities, hitherto divided by
+sectarian feuds, should be viewed with disfavour by Europe as indicating
+a danger to its predominance and selfish ambitions is intelligible. But
+that it should be regarded as a deliberate challenge to, or intended as
+a hostile demonstration against Christendom, is a mere chimera. Major
+Leonard proves conclusively that the Pan-Islamic movement is no modern
+political movement; but that morally and spiritually Islam, in its very
+essence, is Pan-Islamic; in other words, a creed that recognizes in
+practice the brotherhood of man to a degree unknown in any other
+religion, and admits in its commonwealth no difference of race, colour
+or rank.
+
+Moslems, laymen and scholars, will probably not agree with some of Major
+Leonard’s remarks in his outline of the Prophet’s character and
+temperament; but they must all acknowledge his sincerity. He describes
+Mohammed as a great and true man--great not only as a teacher, but as a
+patriot and statesman; a material as well as a spiritual builder, who
+constructed a nation and an enduring Faith, which holds, to a greater
+degree than most others, the hearts of millions of human beings; a man
+true to himself and his people, but above all to his God.
+
+The author has gone to the Koran itself for the animating purpose of
+Mohammed’s strenuous and noble life. He believes that the national good
+to be obtained only by the recognition of the conception of a God who is
+both “national and universal” was the dominant idea that impelled and
+inspired the Prophet of Arabia. In his appreciation of Mohammed’s
+teachings, Major Leonard has grasped the real spirit of Islam; and both
+as regards his moral and spiritual precepts, as also the enunciations
+respecting the duties of every-day life, the author has given the
+Arabian Prophet his due. He dwells on Mohammed’s affection and sympathy
+for the weak, the afflicted and suffering, with the orphan and the
+stricken; on his humanity to the dumb creatures of God; on the duties of
+parents to children, and of children to parents; on his burning
+denunciations of the terrible crime of female infanticide.
+
+In the eighth and last chapter Major Leonard speaks of the debt Europe
+owes to Islam, and endeavours to show that the religion of Mohammed, far
+from being antagonistic to human development, has materially helped in
+the progress of the world. It is part of Major Leonard’s thesis that
+Christianity and Islam belong to “different spheres of influence”; in
+other words, whilst Christianity is suited to certain races, Islam is
+peculiarly suited to others. Races and peoples adapt their religions to
+their own respective advancement, and the same religion varies among
+different communities according to the stage of their development. The
+Christianity of the barbarous South American Gaucho is not the same as
+that of the cultured Englishman, nor is the Islam of the cultivated
+Moslem identical with that professed by ignorant followers of the Faith.
+But it would be hard to say that philosophical Christianity exactly
+answers the needs of the lower strata of Christendom to whom the
+positive directions of a simple practical faith might appeal with
+greater force. Might not Islam, with its emphatic prohibition of drink,
+the primary cause of all the vice and crime in Europe, prove a far
+greater civilizing agency in the slums of European cities, and do far
+more good in reclaiming the debased, than a religion which does not
+possess that positive character and is only adapted for idealistic
+minds?
+
+Whatever view a rationalist may hold on this point, I feel that Major
+Leonard has laid the world of literature under a debt for his admirable
+monograph on a peculiarly interesting subject.
+
+    AMEER ALI.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                    PAGE
+
+    CHAPTER I
+
+    THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!                      13
+
+
+    CHAPTER II
+
+    AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED’S TEMPERAMENT
+    AND CHARACTERISTICS                               23
+
+
+    CHAPTER III
+
+    THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED             51
+
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+
+    MOHAMMED’S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS                 71
+
+
+    CHAPTER V
+
+    THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET’S
+    CHARACTER                                         84
+
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+
+    A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED’S WORK
+    AND WORTH                                        101
+
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+
+    MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM’S ATTITUDE
+    TOWARDS ISLAM                                    121
+
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+
+    EUROPE’S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF
+    INFLUENCE                                        142
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!
+
+
+For some time past, but more especially during the last year or two, it
+has become quite the fashion in Europe to rail at and to suspect the
+good faith and motives of the Moslem world. If we are to believe the
+European Press, Europe is in deadly danger. The “_Yellow Peril_” of a
+few years ago has, by means of the juggling of modern journalism,
+cleverly transformed itself into the “_Moslem Menace_.” According to
+this trenchant successor of the ancient oracle, there is unrest and
+seething turmoil everywhere. In Egypt, a national confederation; in
+Morocco, a crisis; in the heart of Africa, the Senussi movement; in
+Turkey and Arabia, secret associations and agitation; in Persia even,
+disaffection but co-operation. In one word, Europe--Christian, civilized
+and unoffending Europe--is confronted with a Pan-Islamic confederation,
+that is co-operating to achieve the unity and the nationalization of all
+Islam, with the express object of ultimately turning upon Christendom,
+and rending her into a thousand tattered fragments.
+
+That there has been no revival of “the chronic conspiracy” within our
+Indian Empire, is, however, easily explained. This, which purposed to be
+a religious agitation among Indian Moslems, was an expression more
+familiar twenty-five years ago and was attributed to the influence of
+Wahabite oratory. It is, of course, possible that the present agitation
+and unrest among the Hindus generally, but the Bengalis in particular,
+has for the time being at all events diverted the attention of the
+outside world in other directions. But it is also more or less generally
+taken for granted that the Moslem population of India has sunk into a
+state of political lethargy, which if it does not betoken loyalty,
+obviously demonstrates a dumb and passive revolutionary torpor that is
+tantamount to it.
+
+That agitation and unrest exist throughout the Moslem world would be
+nothing either new or unusual. In a human sense, Islam is identical with
+Christendom. She too has her social functions, her political parties,
+associations, confederations and societies. She has her religious sects
+and denominations. As with us, so with Islam, there are affinities, and
+antipathies, emulations and jealousies, competitions and rivalries,
+likes and dislikes, envy, malice, hatred and all uncharitableness. The
+interest of self predominates before all else. In kind there is
+certainly no difference, in degree it is possible that Europe may be a
+step or two higher. But this is not the point that I would here
+emphasize. To fall back on the time-honoured maxim, immortalized by
+Shakespeare, comparisons of this kind are incompatible if not odious.
+Besides, recrimination is as futile as it is injudicious and
+undignified.
+
+It is not of moral discrepancies on either side that I would speak. Nor
+have I any wish to rake up the low-lying sediment, or to disturb the
+still waters which are running deep in the great ocean of Moslem life.
+Under the conditions that prevail, it is assuredly best to let sleeping
+dogs lie. Left alone they are much less troublesome. There is always the
+possibility that they may oversleep themselves and fall into a dormant
+and inactive state. In this way the still waters of sedition and
+agitation soon find their own level--the embers of revolt may at times
+flare up, but they soon flicker out.
+
+It is of the moral and spiritual utility, with the soul of Islam, that I
+am now about to deal. For Islam, believe me, has a soul--a sincere and
+earnest soul, a great and profound soul--that is worth knowing. It is in
+this soul that the whole kernel and essence of Islam lies. A thorough
+knowledge and a clear comprehension of this great spirit will alone
+enable the statesmen and thinkers of Europe to understand the complex
+problems of so-called Pan-Islamism. To obtain this grasp, however,
+certain qualifications are absolutely essential. It is necessary--e.g.,
+to approach the subject from a rational and reasonable standpoint--to
+detach the mind from all preconceived dogmas and opinions; to lay aside
+all prejudices, racial, religious, social and otherwise, and all
+bigotries and intolerance; to be confined to no one creed, sect or
+denomination of any kind, sort or description, but the one great world
+of Humanity that, in the eyes of Nature, is of one soul and body. This
+may be a large, or as cousin Jonathan would call it, a tall, order. It
+bulks big and sounds ponderous. In face of what human nature is, it
+appears impracticable. But even in human nature there are exceptions and
+possibilities. An aspect such as this, then, though improbable, is
+certainly possible, if exceptional. Let us presume at least that in this
+instance it is so. It is, at all events, on these broad lines that the
+following pages have been written. It is the true spirit of human
+sympathy and fellowship that has moved me--the sympathy and fellowship
+that would draw together, or at least nearer to each other, the worlds
+of Christendom and Islam.
+
+The better to achieve my object, I have consulted no works on either
+Mohammed or Islam, but have gone straight to the source or fountain
+head--to Mohammed himself, the Koran, and to Moslems of various
+nationalities with whom I have been brought into close and personal
+touch during a wide and a varied experience. It is here in the man and
+his work that the true soul of Islam is to be found. Just as in its
+founders and foundations lies the heart and essence of Christianity, it
+is in and out of the merits as well as demerits of Mohammed’s work, that
+we shall form the true estimate of Islamic utility. By their fruits ye
+shall know them. Men do not gather figs of thorns, or grapes of
+thistles. Mohammed most certainly did not. As he sowed, so he has
+reaped! So he is still reaping. The Koran was the immediate consequence
+of his concentration and communion with Nature and Nature’s God: Islam
+the natural result. In other words, Islam is the devotion of Moslems to
+Mohammed and the Koran--his work, plus their patient resignation and
+entire submission to God, His will and His service! The man of fixed and
+unchanging purpose has a supreme contempt for obstacles. But when, as in
+Mohammed’s case, that purpose is the glorification of God, he has at
+hand a lever that can move the world. In this peculiar sense the great
+Prophet of Arabia was self-contained. He had everything within himself:
+that everything centred in God and Arabian unity. He sought only what he
+needed. This was to unify God and his country. How he succeeded is a
+matter of history.
+
+D’Aubigné in his history of the Reformation, speaking of Luther, says:
+“Men, when designed by God to influence their contemporaries, are first
+seized and drawn along by the peculiar tendencies of their age.”
+Undoubtedly this, in a great measure, is so. It is quite evident that
+Mohammed was influenced in this way. Yet it is also obvious that he was
+not so much seized by the peculiar tendencies of his age (for in many
+ways he was far in advance of it), as that he was obsessed and dominated
+by the energy or spirit of God, and utilized these special features with
+the design of disseminating this overmastering God possession to others.
+
+“There are but three sorts of persons,” Pascal used to say: “those who
+serve God, having found Him; those who employ themselves in seeking Him,
+not having found Him; and those who live without seeking Him or having
+found Him. The first are reasonable and happy; the last are mad and
+miserable; the intermediate are miserable and reasonable.”
+
+If ever man on this earth found God, if ever man devoted his life to
+God’s service with a good and a great motive, it is certain that the
+Prophet of Arabia was that man. That on the whole and in the truest
+sense of the word he was reasonable, is best seen in the result which
+his labour achieved. That he was happy, is quite another matter. Real as
+is our existence, happiness at best is but an ephemeral phase of it. Yet
+there is much truth in the assertion, that gaiety seeks the crowd, while
+happiness loves silence and solitude as Mohammed himself did. In any
+case, if the satisfaction which ensues as the consequence of duty done,
+and well done, is happiness; if the consciousness that he has done his
+best in all sincerity and conscientiousness, gives happiness to the ego,
+then it is possible to assume that in bequeathing the grand heritage of
+Islam to posterity, Mohammed must have gone to his final rest in a state
+of supreme happiness.
+
+Self-belief--“that thing given to man by his Creator,” as Carlyle calls
+it--was, as I shall show, a salient feature in Mohammed’s character.
+More than half a Bedawin (or what was practically the same thing,
+passing a great part of his life in deserts), this was only natural. But
+he did not allow this self-consciousness to degenerate, either into
+vanity or egotism. It neither spoilt nor conquered him. He knew his own
+weakness--none better--therefore relied all the more on the power of
+God. It was this outside influence which reacted on him so powerfully
+from within. It was this judicious blend or amalgam of two seemingly
+different thought-currents, which were in reality only a bifurcation of
+the same current, that gave him all his strength. It was this unique
+combination of an apparent dualism (through intense mental
+concentration) in one divine Monism that gave Mohammed victory over
+every obstacle. It was this compressed one-ness--the most sublime
+triumph of individual concentration in the world’s history--that carried
+Islam into the uttermost parts of the earth. It was this centralization
+of moral or religious gravity that swelled the belief of one man--a
+modest camel-driving trader only--into the perfervid belief of hundreds
+of millions. “For given a sincere man, you have given a thing worth
+attending to. Since sincerity, what is it but a divorce from earth and
+earthly feelings?”
+
+One thing more. To thoroughly comprehend the spirit of Mohammed or the
+soul of Islam, the student himself must be thoroughly in earnest and
+sincere. He must in addition possess that moral, mental and intellectual
+sympathy which gives the ego an insight into human subtleties as well as
+simplicities. He must take Mohammed and Islam as he finds them--in the
+same intensely sincere spirit that constituted the one and inculcated
+the other. He must at the outset recognize that Mohammed was no mere
+spiritual pedlar, no vulgar time-serving vagrant, but one of the most
+profoundly sincere and earnest spirits of any age or epoch. A man not
+only great, but one of the greatest--i.e. truest--men that Humanity has
+ever produced. Great, i.e. not simply as a prophet, but as a patriot and
+a statesman: a material as well as a spiritual builder who constructed a
+great nation, a greater empire, and more even than all these, a still
+greater Faith. True, moreover, because he was true to himself, to his
+people, and above all to his God. Recognizing this, he will thus
+acknowledge that Islam is a profound and true cult, which strives to
+uplift its votaries from the depths of human darkness upwards into the
+higher realm of Light and Truth. It is in this deep sense of
+earnestness, and in this tense but even-minded spirit of equity, that I
+have endeavoured to make my study both rational and psychological: in
+other words, reasonable and true to the spirit. Naturally, therefore, I
+have avoided those narrow and devilish pitfalls of racial, creedal and
+colour prejudices--that awful curse of Humanity, that insuperable
+barrier to the cult of Humanitarianism--which leads to the deadly cancer
+of _Misconception_. Finally--making due allowance for space
+limitations--I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to get to the
+root of all that is good and great in the immortal work of this leader
+of men who was so good and so great in every sense. In this way only is
+it possible to get at the truth. Shallow, superficial and paradoxical
+inquiries are mere empty vanities as utterly useless, from a human
+standpoint, as those which are biassed and one-sided. To reach the
+depths, to touch the bottom, to get to the root of any true man’s
+motives, sincerity and thoroughness are as essential as intellectual
+acumen and profundity.
+
+In this short study my one idea all through has been to delineate
+Mohammed as he was and Islam as she is. For this reason I have neither
+painted them with my own colouring, nor introduced into their natural
+complexion any outside flesh tints. In plain English, I have not placed
+upon their beliefs and principles a construction that, being ethnically
+foreign to the entire sociological system upon which they are based,
+would have been a fundamental error, at complete variance with them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED’S TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS
+
+
+One of the first thoughts that a very careful perusal of the Koran
+brings home to me, is the intense humanity of Mohammed and his work. The
+more one studies the various motives that led to his so-called
+revelations, the more one is struck by the strong associations that
+connect these divine messages and ordinances with the actions and
+movements that were going on all round him, as well as in his own
+mind--owing in a great measure to his own preaching.
+
+In estimating the moral value of either Christianity or Islam, it is
+necessary to take into consideration, also to make allowance for, the
+times in which their founders lived. To attempt to judge one or other of
+them from the scientific standpoint of modern culture and civilization
+would be not only uneven but impossible. To gauge the standard of their
+mental and moral attainments, the student must investigate their work,
+and compare, then contrast, it with the general intellectual level of
+their own age. When this has been done, he should try and, if possible,
+realize what effect the advent and the doctrines advocated by them (in
+the one case some 1,900 years, and in the other 1,300 years ago) would
+now produce. In this way only is it feasible to arrive at a true and
+legitimate conclusion. But in doing so, the inquirer must divest,
+certainly dissociate himself, from all existing ideas on the subject,
+and deal with it as it is, and not what he thinks it ought to be.
+
+The more one studies the Koran, the more obvious does it become that
+Mohammed had a powerfully receptive mind, and a specially retentive
+memory. Notwithstanding that he was illiterate, unable even to read and
+write, it is clear that he was well versed in all the tenets and
+traditions of his own people and of the Jews; and that in addition he
+had made himself acquainted with some of the doctrines and dogmas of the
+Christian Gospels. It is above all certain that for a great number of
+years Mohammed concentrated his mind thereon with the force and
+intensity of a sincere and ardent nature. But first and foremost the one
+great idea of the being, unity and providence of God predominated all
+his thoughts. Acting on a temperament that was highly emotional, and
+perceptibly neurotic or melancholic, the revelations embodied in the
+Koran were the natural result of so long and continuous a
+concentration. Still it is equally obvious that combining with this
+emotionalism and neurasthenia was a strong vein of commercialism and
+common sense, also marked political and administrative ability. It is
+further evident that in Mohammed’s character there commingled a very
+curious and conflicting number of elements and tendencies. Dominating
+all of these, however, was an intense zeal, an insatiable ambition, an
+overpowering individuality and egotism, and an inflexible doggedness and
+determination to attain his own ends. To convert, that is, the weakness
+and disintegration of the various tribes that composed the Arab nation
+into the union of one consolidated whole, with himself and family at its
+head, as a human representation of the unity and supremacy of the one
+and only God. This latter, as we know, was in no way original. It is
+clear all throughout that he had profited from his knowledge of Jewish
+tradition and experience, and that he based his theory on the dogmas of
+Moses and Abraham. He had long since realized that it was the worship of
+their own tribal and communal gods by the members of the various Arab
+tribes and communities that accentuated the differences and divisions
+between them. He determined, therefore, as the Jewish leaders long
+before him had attempted, to consolidate and weld them into a single
+nation, through the worship of the one supreme and indivisible God. It
+was on and through this divine indivisibility that he decided to base
+and construct the unity and nationalization of the people.
+
+Unquestionably Mohammed’s movement was as much political as it was
+religious, as much material as it was spiritual. But being of a
+profoundly reflective, at the same time of a practical, turn of mind, he
+chose religion as the only possible and thoroughly reliable means of
+achieving his great and noble ends; not only possible and thorough,
+however, but the most potential. Mohammed, in fact, judged the capacity
+and characteristics of his countrymen to a nicety. Unconsciously--for
+legislation to him was a natural heritage--he followed the example of
+the most famous legislators, and instituted such laws as at the time
+were the best that the people were capable of receiving. Tactful and
+diplomatic to a degree, it was policy on his part to retain a certain
+number of the old beliefs and customs in order to satisfy the people. He
+knew, none better, the fierce and turbulent temper of his countrymen,
+and how it was most politic to deal with them. In making this concession
+he showed his political wisdom, if not a certain breadth and greatness
+of statecraft. After all it was, from an independent standpoint, but a
+small concession as compared to the prize that he got in return for it.
+It was a compromise in other words. Yet this and his own evidence in the
+Koran is important as showing that Mohammed was not so much in a strict
+sense the originator of a new creed as he was a reformer and the
+renovator of an old one. It was the impress of his great personality,
+distinguished as this was by the intense sincerity and earnestness of
+his nature, that has left its mark on human history.
+
+Mohammed was a thinker and a worker not only for his own, but for all
+time. He recognized that man was equally a political and religious
+product of God’s creation. He understood that as a counterpoise to man’s
+materialism and to the destructive in his nature, is that indefinable
+essence which we call the spiritual and the constructive. The more one
+looks into and understands the Koran, the more obvious is it that
+Mohammed concentrated all the active and vigorous energies of his vivid
+and powerful imagination, also his virile mentality, on the
+accomplishment of his great design. For design it certainly was. The
+wish undoubtedly was father to the thought. Not, however, in an
+invidious sense, but in the firm conviction that design and not accident
+or chance is one of the controlling principles of God and His creation,
+and that, consistent with this principle, he, Mohammed, had been chosen
+as the divine agent. Personal ambition and aggrandizement never for a
+moment entered his head, or formed part of it. The national good, to be
+attained only by a national or universal God--the one and only God of
+the universe--was the one great ambition that inspired and impelled him.
+Because although every one for himself and God for us all is presumably
+a natural law, Mohammed managed to evade it. But in evading it, he was
+not revolutionary. On the contrary, in this way he rose one step upward
+above the lower human level towards that higher humanity which
+approaches the divine.
+
+This design, as I have just said, originated from the doctrine of divine
+unity attributed to Moses and Abraham. Indeed, as one reads the Koran
+carefully and steadily through from beginning to end, it is manifested
+in every surah--almost, in fact, on every page. The whole work, in fact,
+is saturated with the one idea, inspired by the one thought. Everywhere
+there is evidence of the final object in view, the unconquerable will,
+the inflexible resolve, the fixed purpose, the indomitable perseverance,
+the unyielding persistency, the infinite and interminable patience, the
+calm endurance, the irresistible courage, and the grim tenacity of the
+ego. So much so is this evident, that when I compare this determinism
+with the neurotic element in Mohammed’s character, I am obliged to
+admit that the balance remains with the former. Yet--and this I think is
+the strangest feature about this strange but commanding
+personality--there is no getting away from the fact that he was much
+under the influence of the latter.
+
+It is, of course, possible that Mohammed was what in Arabia is called a
+“Saudawi,” or person of melancholy temperament--what nowadays would be
+called a hypochondriacal dyspeptic. Melancholia is a complaint that the
+Arabs are subject to, students, philosophers and literary men more
+especially. A distaste for society, a longing for solitude, an unsettled
+habit of mind, and a neglect of worldly affairs are always attributed to
+it. It is very probably--to some extent at least--as Burton suggests,
+the effect of overworking the brain in a hot, dry atmosphere; also due
+in some measure to the highly nervous and bilious temperament
+constitutional to the Arabs: a temperament that in Mohammed’s case was
+aggravated by excessive emotionalism.
+
+It is clear that once Mohammed got hold of, or was obsessed by, the idea
+that he was God’s chosen messenger, and that his sayings were inspired
+by God (a very old and primitive belief remember): or rather as soon as
+ever Khadija and others of his household were imbued with the idea, then
+he never relaxed his hold of it for a moment. The confidence of those
+about him, his faithful spouse more especially, gave him confidence in
+himself. Confidence engendered conviction, and conviction led to the
+Koran and the ultimate triumph of his cause. That he was sincere in all
+this, there is not the slightest doubt, but in taking the measure of his
+sincerity we must be guided entirely by the fact that he was essentially
+a man who had long before made up his mind to bring about the unity of
+his country. Indeed the whole history of Khadija’s association with the
+matter shows this. To be a prophet in his own country or household, a
+man must inspire respect, or the still greater feeling of veneration. No
+man, unless he is earnest and devout, could possibly impress the members
+of his family. They are bound to find him out. This applies all the more
+forcibly to an eastern household in which polygamy prevails, and that is
+made up of so many opposing elements and conflicting interests, the
+atmosphere of which is only too often one necessarily of envies,
+jealousies, rivalries, suspicions, intrigues, and even conspiracies. If
+Mohammed had been insincere, if instead of convictions, his belief had
+been a mere profession or a sham; if it had not been one of austere,
+rigid practice and self-denial, then those about him would neither have
+been impressed, nor would they have espoused his cause as warmly and
+valiantly as they did. Not only were they impressed, however, but
+convinced, and it was their convictions that strengthened and confirmed
+his own faith. But once he had gained their confidence, his mission was
+assured. There was no doubt whatever then in his own mind that he was
+God’s chosen apostle, to whom God had revealed His word--the words of
+truth and life. From this out, his own vigour, his own extraordinary
+individuality and inflexibility carried him through from beginning to
+end. Once others believed in and relied on him, his own latent
+self-reliance grew into a living and active factor that carried all
+before it. But as he looked at it, all his strength was from God. God
+was at his elbow and in his heart, therefore he could not fail. Nothing,
+in fact, shows better than this aspect of the matter how very wise and
+all-knowing (his constant refrain about God in the Koran) Mohammed
+himself was. How tactful and diplomatic, but above all, how deep his
+knowledge of human nature. Had Khadija and his household not believed in
+him, it is safe to assume that then there would have been no Prophet and
+no Islam. As Novalis says: “My conviction gains infinitely the moment
+another soul will believe in it.” So it was with Mohammed. So it is with
+us all. So Carlyle pithily observes: “A false man found a religion? Why
+a false man cannot build a brick house!” I have already shown that
+Mohammed was not false. But neither did he found a religion. Apart from
+the fact that he was a reality, and as true as any of the world’s great
+prophets, Mohammed was unable to perform the impossible. Religion as a
+natural product was beyond his comprehension and potentialities. Islam
+like Christianity was a creed--a human or artificial development--the
+healthy and vigorous offspring of a noble and sublime, yet in no sense
+original conception. But there was no demerit in this want of
+originality. Because as Carlyle says: “The merit of originality is not
+novelty; it is sincerity”: and with regard to Mohammed, this has been
+more than once acknowledged.
+
+Launched upon the world of Arabia in no false and unreal spirit, but
+with the spirit of grim sincerity and earnestness, Islam has proved its
+stability spiritually and materially, the present result of which speaks
+for itself. It is enough to say that a creed whose followers now number
+over 250,000,000, or some 15 per cent. of the human race (an under-
+rather than an over-estimate), could have sprung from a healthy and
+vigorous seed only--a seed that has been nourished and kept alive by the
+vital spark of human sympathies, hopes and aspirations.
+
+What appears to me as so remarkable and so significant, so truly
+characteristic of the man, is the way in which he never lets go his grip
+of the central idea and purpose, but follows it up step by step. And as
+he follows, he makes every point that he can, seizes every opportunity,
+takes every advantage of every ordinary event and occurrence that is
+going on around him, makes the best of every reverse, turns even his
+set-backs and reverses into moral victories; and accepts it all as
+inevitable with the calmness of a philosophy that emanated from his own
+wondrous egoism and that inexhaustible fund of patience and reserve of
+courage which so distinguishes his character. In this respect alone
+Mohammed truly was a remarkable man--a man infinitely above, not only
+his surroundings, but his age. With Mohammed, not only was the great
+fact of his own existence great to him, but in almost every page of the
+Koran it is obvious that God’s omnipresence and omnipotence had made a
+profound and lasting impression on him. Everywhere and in everything--in
+natural objects more especially--he saw and felt the hand and the power
+of God. And to him it was a power so overwhelmingly terrific and
+transcendent in all its aspects, that it defied description and
+demonstrated the insignificance and impotence of man. In more senses
+than one he was a pantheist. To him, either God was Nature and Nature
+God, or God was in Nature and Nature was in God. At bottom of him the
+old primitive belief was there, but in unity and concentration he saw
+strength. In his mind there was no room, no place, for lesser deities.
+The power and the splendour of the one creative God--who lived and moved
+and had His being throughout the universe, overshadowed, or, rather, had
+absorbed, them all. In the grim silence of the desert, in the vastness
+of the heavens, in the great infinity of space, in the scintillation of
+the stars, in every fibre of his own consciousness, God was with him. To
+Mohammed God was not a personal being but the God and Maker of the
+universe and all mankind. With him the entire theme and volume of his
+stream of thought was God and his religion. Coming from the core and
+centre of him as it did, even through the long vista of thirteen
+centuries, one can picture this overmastering element in every line of
+his stern-set and yet gentle face: a face reflective and speaking, that
+not only had a history stamped upon every feature, but a great, a
+strenuous, and a commanding history. _In vino veritas_ is as true to-day
+as when first it was uttered. So too the saw, that “mastership like wine
+unmasks the man.” But Mohammed needed no unmasking. God and the
+truth--the truth about God as it dominated him--was the rich, strong
+wine which coursed through every vein and fibre of his mental organism,
+stimulating and spurring him onwards to a sustained and continuous
+effort that ended only in death. A sincere and earnest man, a natural,
+therefore a deeply religious man, to him God was also a Dayyan (one of
+the ninety-nine epithets of God), i.e. “A weigher of good and evil”; One
+who computed and settled accounts; the holder of the even balance and
+scales of justice, the Judge and Arbiter of all mankind.
+
+But apart from these functions, the power and sublimity of the Supreme
+Being, as he saw it expressed in the silent grandeur of the desert, the
+death-like stillness of the sandy sea, the frowning ruggedness and
+majesty of the mountains, the immense universality of Nature, was always
+before his eyes and in all his thoughts. Full of this feeling, of the
+awe and veneration innate in man and co-existent with the eternal ages,
+he bursts out in the second surah: “God! there is no God but He; the
+living, the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizeth Him; to
+Him _belongeth_ whatsoever is in heaven, and on earth. Who is he that
+can intercede with Him, but through His good pleasure? He knoweth that
+which is past, and that which is to come unto them, and they shall not
+comprehend anything of His knowledge, but so far as He pleaseth. His
+throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both
+is no burden unto Him. He is the high and mighty.”
+
+As a natural outburst of emotions and convictions that had been pent up
+within his own inner consciousness, that were the offspring of some
+twenty years of journeyings to and fro across the deserts where “Amin”
+the faithful one was in direct and constant contact with Nature, and
+often in silent communion with the Infinite, these few words are truly
+magnificent and sublime; magnificent not only for the boldness and
+sublimity of their imagery and conception, but magnificent also with the
+intensity and profundity of true sincerity. Few, but all the more pithy
+for that, these words are from the heart and soul of the man--a man who
+speaks not unadvisedly with his lips, but who feels with every nerve and
+fibre of his intensely emotional being. They are (as he himself feels)
+the outpouring of an insignificant and impotent atom, yet of a sincere
+and earnest man approaching in all humility and veneration, and with the
+loyalty and allegiance of a true believer and servant, the great,
+invisible He, who holds him and all creatures in the hollow of His
+mighty hand.
+
+In a conversation that Luther had one day with some friends at table, he
+spoke of the world as a vast and magnificent pack of cards composed of
+emperors, kings, princes and so forth. For several ages these had been
+vanquished by the Pope. Then God had come upon the scene, and chosen the
+“ace,” the very smallest card in the pack--himself, in a word--and
+overthrown this conqueror of worldly powers and principalities.
+Mohammed, as much as Luther, was one of “God’s Aces.” Seldom, indeed, in
+the history of the world, has so great a human river flowed from a
+source so puny. Never did the divine manifest itself in a single pip, so
+seemingly small and insignificant as a cause, yet so pre-eminently and
+consistently great as an effect!
+
+“Men,” says Dumas in one of his historico-romantic masterpieces, “are
+visible, palpable, moral. You can meet, attack, subdue them; and when
+they are subdued you can subject them to trial and hang them. But ideas
+you cannot oppose in that way. They glide unseen; they penetrate; they
+hide themselves especially from the sight of those who would destroy
+them. Hidden in the depths of the soul, they there throw out deep roots.
+The more you cut off the branches which imprudently appear, the more
+powerful and inextirpable become the roots below.
+
+“An idea is a young giant which must be watched night and day; for the
+idea which yesterday crawled at your feet, to-morrow will dispose of
+your head. An idea is a spark falling upon straw.” ... “For the mind of
+man is no inert receptacle of knowledge, but absorbs and incorporates
+into its own constitution the ideas which it receives.” Thus it was with
+Mohammed. God was the spark, the vital spark of spiritual flame, and
+this humble but honest Arab trader was the straw, that after twenty
+years of silent but tenacious smouldering God had set a light to.
+
+The better, however, to understand his character and purpose, we must
+divide his life into two sections. The first when, as trader from the
+age of thirteen up to forty, first for his uncle and then for Khadija,
+he was the man of business. Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas
+and ideals that he kept to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+For not until the time was ripe and the hour had come, not until he felt
+the call--felt, that is, that he was ready and able to begin--did he
+confide even in Khadija. The second section when, as the apostle of God,
+he worked with all the fiery fervour yet steady zeal of a true prophet,
+to put his ideas into practice. But there was this difference with
+regard to Mohammed as a theorist. He was not a man of many ideas. In
+reality one central idea alone inspired him. But great and magnificent
+as that was, it was equal to a multitude. It was a growing and a
+spreading giant which, like the prolific banyan tree, threw out branch
+and root with such extravagant luxuriance, that it completely
+overshadowed and predominated the entire expanse of his mental area. We
+know what this idea was. We know that round and out of the central stem
+of God’s overmastering unity Mohammed had determined to construct an
+Arabian nation--possibly something even greater. We know, too, that the
+one was but the offspring of the other. Or it may be that they were the
+twin offspring of all this profound and concentrated contemplation. But
+we do not know how this great idea first took root. Let us, however, try
+and trace it to its source as nearly as we can.
+
+With still greater emphasis than Chrysostom, who asserted that “the true
+Shekinah is man,” Carlyle says: “the essence of our being, the mystery
+in us that calls itself ‘I,’ is a breath of heaven; the highest Being
+reveals Himself in man.” An idea such as this would never have occurred
+to Mohammed. The fatherhood of God in its accepted human sense was
+repugnant to him. The mere thought was sacrilege!
+
+His conception of God was much too exalted, much too divine for this.
+God and humanity could have no possible connexion. God was the
+Creator--the Potter, who out of the clay or matter in chaos had made
+the world and all therein. Humanity was but a small part only of His
+creation. Men were but as clay in His hands--mere creatures of His.
+Beyond this hard and fast line there could be no relationship between
+God and man. Association was as impossible as comparison was
+objectionable. God, as supreme Creator and Director of the universe, was
+a Being altogether distinct and apart from His own creation. Yet as such
+He was the soul or spirit of it, the breath of life to all that lived,
+and of death to all that died. Man was as evil, as puny, and as weak as
+God was great and good and strong. God was too exalted and glorious for
+words. Incomprehensible and inscrutable, He was beyond the power of
+language, outside the narrow limitations of thought to imagine. Just as
+the heavens were divided from the earth by boundless space, so far apart
+was God from man. The endless immensity of everything was insufficient
+to express His omnipotence--fell far short of the unthinkable reality.
+Even the heavens and earth as His handiwork did not convey as completely
+as it might appear to do the capacity of the power that belonged to Him.
+To Mohammed, in every vibrating star an all-seeing eye and glory of the
+great Creator, God, was visible; in every tiny blade of grass, in every
+spring of water, He was manifest and tangible. So some eleven centuries
+after Mohammed was laid to rest, a poor, struggling, but undaunted
+artist-poet, looking from his mean London garret with the eyes of a
+dreamer-mystic into the great invisible above and beyond him (just as
+Amin the faithful one had done), yearned:
+
+    “To see the world in a grain of sand,
+    And a heaven in a wild flower;
+    Hold Infinity in the palm of “his” hand,
+    And eternity in an hour.”
+
+And in the middle of the late departed century--which rushed across the
+great void of Time like a hissing meteor--thus Tennyson:
+
+    “Flower in the crannied wall,
+    I pluck you out of the crannies,
+    I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
+    Little flower; but if I could understand
+    What you are, root and all, and all in all,
+    I should know what God and man is.”
+
+While to Wordsworth, with a faith in Nature and Nature’s God as deep as
+Mohammed, the meanest flower that blows, gave thoughts that often lay
+too deep for words.
+
+Society is only too apt to judge or condemn facts and men; also to
+ridicule the age and its spirit. This drastic method saves the trouble
+of comprehending them. The society of keen Arab traders and wily
+Bedouins which environed Mohammed did not comprehend him. To them he
+was not so much like a fish out of water, as a land quadruped at sea,
+altogether out of his element as well as out of his depth--a flotsam
+struggling to get to dry land as a jetsam.
+
+Immeasurably above and beyond his social contemporaries either morally
+or spiritually, to them Mohammed was an enigma and a mystery. “Scenting
+a mystery is like the first bite at a piece of scandal, and holy souls
+do not detest it. In the secret compartments of bigotry there is some
+curiosity for scandal.” But among Mohammed’s opponents--the Koreish more
+particularly--it was not merely scandal that moved them: it was
+jealousy, envy, malice, and in the end sheer diabolical hatred. In
+describing the state of a mind that is advancing, we must remember that
+all progress is not made in one march or even series of marches.
+Mohammed’s march was entirely uphill, dead against the collar, the whole
+way and all the time, except, perhaps, just towards the end. Yet each
+day’s march brought him nearer to the goal of his desires. Slowly but
+surely he made progress, and with it reputation. The slowness of his
+movement, his advance, made progress and reputation all the more not a
+dead, but a living certainty. But there is always anarchy in reputation.
+It was this reputation--this individuality that dared to insolently
+assert itself in the overthrow of their ancestral gods--which explained
+Koreish hostility.
+
+Mohammed was a calm, yet by no means an unprogressive agent of
+Providence. Brains that are absorbed either in mania or wisdom, or, as
+often happens, in both at once, are permeated very very slowly by the
+things of this world. But even admitting that there was melancholia,
+there was no mania about Mohammed. If ever a man was sane and healthy,
+he was. “You grant a devout man, you grant a wise man: no man has a
+seeing eye without first having had a seeing heart.” This fits his case
+to a nicety. A more devout man than Mohammed never lived. He was as
+pre-eminently wise as he was devout. He utilized his wisdom to the
+fullest extent of his capacity, and he proved his devoutness by putting
+his beliefs to the infallible test of stern and rigid practice. A trader
+to his finger tips, a clear-sighted man of business, and a statesman
+with prophetic instincts, who profited by the past, utilized the
+present, and prepared for the future, in this sense he was a
+contradiction. The being absorbed in wisdom did not prevent him from
+carrying on his worldly duties in the most conscientious and thorough
+manner. _Per contra_, his worldly duties did not prevent him from
+philosophical absorption. The one was his duty, the other the breath of
+life to him. His veneration of God gradually crystallized the religion
+in him into a creed. This is generally the result of concentration. His
+absorption of God ended in God’s absorption of him. It was a long and
+gradual process which occupied twenty years. During this period of
+embryonic development he withdrew, as it were, into himself. Then when
+the crisis arrived, it came out of him, as a river flows out of a
+spring, and was called Islam. “Our chimeras,” says Victor Hugo, “are the
+things which most resemble ourselves, and each man dreams of the
+unknown, and the impossible according to his nature.” Mohammed’s
+chimera, as we know, was God and Arabian unity. But there was nothing
+chimerical about the former, and with this invincible lever, the latter
+too was a distinct probability. For although he was doubtless
+superstitious--that is natural--and wrestled with shadows and visions,
+Mohammed dealt in realities. To him God was the most real thing, the
+sternest reality of all in the universe. God, in fact, was the Universe.
+These, which to another would have been the unknown and the impossible,
+were to him the possible and the inevitable. The nature that was in him
+was the nature of God and the universe. There is a point where
+profundity is oblivion, when light becomes extinguished. Though from a
+literary aspect Mohammed was not profound, in a religious sense his
+profundity, centring as it did in God, burst forth into the Cimmerian
+darkness which enveloped his country with the brilliancy of a meteor
+that illumines the blackest night.
+
+There is too a way of encountering error by going all the way to meet
+the truth, also by a sort of violent good faith which accepts everything
+unconditionally. There was nothing violent (certainly not for a long
+period), but there was everything that stands for goodness and stability
+in Mohammed’s faith. It was thus--in the spirit of a hero and the valour
+of a Paladin--he encountered the error and opposition of his enemies by
+first of all going out of his way to meet the truth; then, in spite of
+themselves and their hostility, by enforcing it upon those who would not
+be persuaded. According to Fontenelle, “there is only truth that
+persuades, and even without requiring to appear with all its proofs. It
+makes its way so naturally into the mind, that when it is heard for the
+first time, it seems as if one were only remembering.” This was very
+much the case with Mohammed. This was why he tried at first to lead and
+not to drive his countrymen to the truth. To him who saw the truth of
+God’s existence, His mercy written as plainly in the falling raindrop as
+His power of retribution is in the lightning that flashes across the sky
+as if it would rend it, their stubbornness in rejecting God was utterly
+incomprehensible. His mind had two attitudes. The one was turned to God,
+the other to man. In contemplating God, he but studied man’s interests
+and his own. But contemplation with Mohammed did not end by becoming a
+form of indolence. Imaginative--visionary, in fact--as he was, he did
+not allow his imagination to play tricks with him. He did not fancy that
+he wanted for nothing. Even when married to Khadija, and in tolerable
+affluence, there was obviously a great void in his life. This want of
+course was spiritual. Exact and punctilious as he was in his temporal
+duties, his whole bent and inclination was towards the former. As a
+younger and poorer man, he had looked so much at the humanity around him
+that he saw right down into its very soul. With the same fervent
+intensity he had looked into nature until he saw or rather felt the
+creator and controller thereof. “There are times when the unknown
+reveals itself in a mysterious way to the spirit of man. A sudden rent
+in the veil of darkness will make manifest things hitherto unseen, and
+then close again upon the mysteries within. Such visions have
+occasionally the power to effect a transfiguration in those whom they
+visit. They convert a poor camel-driver into a Mahomet; a peasant girl
+tending her goats into a Joan of Arc.” A conscientious and faithful
+worker, Mohammed was at the same time a dreamer. But his dreams were but
+the reflex of his work and of his ideas. These came to him like
+mountainous waves, or the swell of an angry surf as it thunders on the
+beach with a threatening roar, a mass of water that would submerge the
+very earth. His ideas did not, however, submerge him. Nor did they
+destroy or bury him. Out of their unknown and bosky depths Mohammed
+invariably rose to the surface with the buoyancy of a life-belt, calm
+and unmoved, for his spiritual centre of gravity always held him up. He
+dreamt of man, but chiefly of God--of God’s goodness and greatness, of
+man’s impotence and frailty. He looked at the solid earth on which he
+stood, with its stones and its sand, its wheat and its tares, its joys
+and sorrows, but particularly its suffering children and helpless women.
+Then he looked at the vast void above, with its star-spangled sky, its
+sun and moon, and the God that made all and was in all. This led him to
+think of the void that was in himself, and to compare the one with the
+other. Then he pondered and compared. The greatness of it all passed
+into him and he dreamt again. There was no void above, for God filled
+it. So too his own emptiness gave place to the Supreme. All at once a
+great feeling of tenderness was aroused within him. From the egotism of
+the _genus vir_, he passed to the contemplation of the _genus homo_, the
+man who contemplates and feels. God had touched his heart. In
+forgetfulness of self was born a great compassion for all. For years and
+years Mohammed lived with his neck in a noose of obstacles composed of
+human thorns and millstones. He was, so to speak, an outcast, thrown on
+the dung heap, and into the brambles; at times even in the mud. Yet no
+mud clung to him, not even to his feet. His head at all events was
+always in the light, his hand always resting on the omnipotence of the
+Almighty. Invariably gentle, attentive, serious, benevolent, easily
+satisfied, he remained serene and peaceful. It was only in the last
+extremity, when all his persuasive earnestness failed him, that his
+enemies stirred him to wrath. But it was a just and dispassionate wrath;
+it was the wrath of God. For whether they liked or no, Mohammed in his
+dual capacity as God’s agent and Arabian patriot had made up his mind
+that they should have God. On this point he was inexorable. Feeling that
+there is an eternity in justice, he felt that in justice to God, and to
+themselves, and in spite of themselves, it was his duty to proclaim the
+truth. Many a less tenaciously sincere man, many a real hero, would have
+shrunk from and have succumbed before an ordeal so terrific, a contest
+so supremely Titanic. But Mohammed was made of sterner stuff, of the
+spirit that gods are made of. Failure was a word that he did not
+recognize. With God at his back, success was an absolute certainty--a
+foregone conclusion.
+
+Whatever might be his desire to remain where he was and cling to it, he
+was impelled to advance, to continue, to go on further and still
+further. Yet to think and to ask himself where it was all going to lead
+him to? But although he thought, he never hesitated, never turned back.
+His hand was to the plough--the plough God. God was the goal, the end,
+the summit of human existence and ambition. Humanity was the soil, and
+to get there he must furrow his way through its enmities and affections.
+Firm and exceptional natures are thus moulded out of miseries,
+misfortunes and afflictions. As a result of his work history shows us
+more and more that Mohammed was firm and exceptional to the very highest
+degree. Yet there was nothing of that hypocrisy which Victor Hugo calls
+supreme cynicism about him. He was too human, too much in earnest, to be
+anything but Amin the Faithful. There is, after all, more in a name than
+meets the eye. In some names there is history and the tragedy of
+history. In others there is the might and majesty of a commanding
+magnetism, which recognizes the sublimity of truth. In Mohammed’s case,
+even to this day over two hundred and fifty million human beings bow the
+knee through him to God. Yes, there is much--a world of meaning--that is
+inexpressible in a name--a magic and a _je ne sais quoi_ which under the
+label of Napoleon led men to the Kingdom Come of glory--in other words,
+to destruction and the devil--but that with Mohammed was the open sesame
+to the glory and power of God. A rose by any other name may smell as
+sweet. But Islam without the halo of time-honoured sanctity that
+attaches to the name of Mohammed, would sound as but a hollow brass or a
+tinkling cymbal. Just, in fact, as the man himself was sincere and
+faithful, there is, and there will continue to be, a magic in his
+name--more so even than that of Christ has for the Christian--drawing
+men to God, as he in person drew them not alone by sheer force of will
+and character, but by a force which was even stronger, the force of
+sincerity and truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED
+
+
+A true son of the desert, it is impossible to understand the powerful
+and complex personality of Mohammed, unless we can appreciate the
+peculiar character and genius of the desert. More so in some ways even
+than the seaman, the dweller or sojourner in the desert is distinct and
+unique in himself. Possessing the courage of the Fatalist, and as free
+as the roving winds of heaven, he is all the same of a shrinking and
+timorous nature, confronted as he often is by certain aspects and
+phenomena that imperil his life and strike down to the very roots of his
+moral consciousness.
+
+In the desert there is, comparatively speaking, little life. Unlike the
+forest region, it is naked and almost destitute. There, as at sea, man
+is face to face not only with the great elements, but with the greater
+Infinite and Invisible. He is nearer to God and the immensity of Nature.
+There is nothing--or little at least--to distract his attention--nothing
+between him and the ever watchful Inscrutable. There is no shade from
+the sun by day, no protection from the moon and stars at night. They
+look down on him as from the pinnacle of the sublimest elevation. The
+fiercer glory of the sun by day burns into his very soul, consumes his
+very marrow. The milder effulgence of the moon by night throws its
+silvery glamour over all his senses. The lesser and more distant
+splendour of the stars--those watch-fires of angelic spirits--in their
+countless myriads awe and bewilder him. In the choking breath of the
+simoom he feels the potentialities of God, and his own helpless
+impotence. Struck all of a heap by its stifling blast, he is filled with
+fear and trembling in the presence of a Power invisible yet tangible and
+deadly. Whether he wills or not, the fear of God--of the Inexorable and
+Inevitable--enters into his heart and takes possession of his inmost
+soul. Call it the fear of God or not, it is practically one and the same
+feature--the mere human label makes no difference to this awful and
+unseen reality--the same fear of the Unknown, the Unexpected and the
+Inevitable: the Inevitable that is always with us, the agnostic and the
+sophist no less than with the theologian, yet unseen, incomprehensible
+and omnipotent. But more than anything, it is the awful and impenetrable
+silence that impresses and appals the silent and dignified nomad of the
+desert.
+
+To those who have never been outside the confines of civilization, it is
+not logically possible even to guess at the extraordinary influence--a
+fascination amounting to witchery--that the silence and solitude of the
+desert exercises over one. Yet if I were asked to define the essence and
+subtlety of this influence, I could but answer that it is indefinable;
+all the same a glamour that, like the force of gravity, is irresistible.
+Free and open like the sea (but fresh only at night), it is not the
+witchery of the soft blue sky, for the sky of the desert is hard and
+steely; it is not the fierce white heat of the fervid sun that melts
+into the very marrow of one’s bones; but rather is it the soothing magic
+of the moon at night, under the brilliant canopy of the heavens, when
+the earth, cooling rapidly, is lulled into eternal silence, that one
+falls under the magic spell of its wondrous influence. But even the
+glamour of the moon is out-glamoured by the darkness of the night under
+whose funereal pall even the great suns and planets hide their
+diminished heads. There is in the darkness and the silence of the night
+a mystery and a profundity that arouses the sluggish, even the stagnant
+consciousness of the dullard--that much more so attracts the quickening
+soul of the mystic and visionary, which springs to it with the same
+eager avidity that a lean and hungry trout leaps at the first fly which
+he sees after a long and enforced abstinence. It is in this darkness and
+silence of the night, rather than in the fierce glare of the midday sun,
+that the fear of the great Infinite comes to man. For if we but think of
+it, what a spectre-teeming spectacle is night. We hear strange, weird
+sounds. We know not whence they come or whither they go. Or it may be
+that all around us is as the silence of the grave--of eternal death. We
+see the evening star looming large like a great world on fire. The blue
+of the sky looms black. The stars seem to speak to us; the whole scene
+is impressive--a sight for the gods. In the desert, however, and to the
+earnest thinker whose centre of gravity is God, night is something more
+than a mere spectacle--a something greater, grander and more terrifying
+than a simple impression--a feeling deeper and sublimer even than a
+conviction: a revelation of the Unseen Unknown which is all the time
+behind that which he sees and knows.
+
+Full as night is of phantoms, shades, sounds and silence, it is no
+illusive mirage, no mere empty simulacrum. But in every way it is a
+reality and a substance which is tangible, that touches one not only on
+the spot, on the raw, but everywhere; that fills one with vague fears,
+and brings even the proudest and the sternest to their knees before the
+power of the great Omnipotence. The very stars which hang out in the
+great firmament appear as God’s sign-posts--great all-seeing eyes that
+are ever upon us--or like eternal watch-fires which contrast the
+eternity of God with the momentary mortality of man; they enhance the
+blackness of the blue. Peering as they do into the awesome watcher’s
+inmost soul, they either drive him headlong into the blackness and
+terrors of evil, or lead him by their kindly light into the glory of the
+Almighty Presence. Unquestionably the night is either diabolical or
+sacred. Not only this, she is the brooder and breeder of all primitive
+doctrines, the conceiver and the mother of all human creeds. In her
+immense womb there is a latent light, a smouldering volcano full of
+ashes, cinders, and dead men’s bones; yet full also of fire-sparks that
+are capable of flashing into luminosity, even of bursting into hissing,
+leaping and devouring flames. It was thus that Christianity and Islam
+came into being. It was thus out of the primeval sacrifices, the shadows
+and silence of death and darkness, that all creeds have crept into and
+out of the minds of men. Tortuous human ant-heaps bored and tunnelled
+through and through by human ideas, human hopes, and human aspirations;
+worlds in the low-lying limbo of the fœtus stage, fecundating in all
+directions into beliefs, faiths, creeds, sects, denominations,
+quackeries, dissimulations and charlatanism. Labyrinthine, subterranean,
+and full of subtleties as all these creeds appear to be, they are easy
+enough to comprehend. They have all sprung from the same simple seed if
+we would but recognize it. If we but looked at this vista of the past as
+through a mental telescope, if we but grasped the substance and not the
+shadow, went straight to the simple root instead of to the theological
+and metaphysical subtleties of it all, we would find it absolutely
+simple. If we would but for a moment drop from our eyes the dense scales
+of dogma, bigotry and prejudice, there would be no difficulty in tracing
+back all these enigmatic ramifications and gloomy obscurities of
+pristine darkness and chaos to the one central germ idea, the one
+vitalizing spark that inspires and illumines them all.
+
+It is obvious that Wordsworth, when he speaks of only “two voices,” the
+one “of the sea,” the other “of the mountains”--“each a mighty voice,”
+quite overlooked the bleakness and silence of the desert. This
+overpowering blackness that pervades the very soul, creeps through every
+vent into the bones and chills one to the very marrow. This sublime
+silence, that speaks to one as the still small voice of God spoke to
+Moses, and that fills the thinker with even greater awe and veneration
+than the crashing and rolling thunder. This silence which is of
+eternity, therefore golden, while speech is of to-day and only silvern,
+for as Carlyle reminds us: “After speech has done its best, silence has
+to include all that speech has forgotten or cannot express.”
+
+Speaking for myself, who have passed many days of my existence at sea,
+and many more still in the desert, there is that in the latter which
+always reminds me of the former. To be sure, the ever restless sea with
+its almost myriad moods--its calm, its motion, its rippling smiles, its
+wavy undulations, its heights and depths, its fickleness and treachery,
+its dazzling beauties, its fierce turbulence--is as unlike the desert,
+with its grim stiff grandeur and appalling sameness as it well could be:
+still--
+
+    “Tho’ inland far we be,
+    Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
+    Which brought us thither.”
+
+There is no music in it by day or by night, only the dead still hush of
+silence. Yet the desert has its aspects, if it has not its moods and
+contrasts--as singular as they are striking. See, or rather feel it
+under the fierce and scorching glare of the fiery sun, that almost
+shrivels you into a mummy; see it also under the softer spell of the
+silvery orb, when the air is balmy, if not fresh, and you will at once
+imagine yourself to be in an altogether different and enchanted world.
+Then again, lose yourself in the desert on a dark night when for once in
+a way the stars are dim or obscured by clouds, and you will realize as
+you never before have done, the awesome reality of the sense of
+loneliness--a feeling which can only be compared to that felt by the
+hunted criminal hiding in a city, and against whom every man’s hand is
+raised.
+
+But there is besides in the desert the fateful mirage that, like the
+ocean sirens, has lured so many to their doom. Finally there is the
+oasis which stands out of the sea of shimmering sand, like an island
+paradise that towers over the waste of seething waters which encircle
+it. The desert too, like the sea, has its ships and its men. Ships that
+pass by day as well as by night. Ships that stride across the great
+sandy wastes, grunting and gawky, with unwearying patience, unyielding
+tenacity, and unerring instinct. As are the ships, so are the men. But
+in place of gawkiness and grunts, the golden virtue of silence, and the
+conscious pride of natural dignity. Men who in their very port and
+carriage are the very spirit and personification of the desert. Men who
+represent not the genii, but the genius of the great dry sea of sand
+and silence. Indeed, if ever men on this planet of ours were
+patriarchal, if ever men bore themselves with the gait and the simple
+dignity of free men, the Bedawins of Arabia and the North African
+deserts do. With the lynx-like, yet enigmatic expression that calls to
+mind a combination of eagle keenness and owl-like solemnity, there is
+about them a freedom of manner and bearing, a dignity of carriage, an
+independence of character, that are the peculiarly glorious and
+distinctive heirlooms of the air, expanse and grandeur of these inland
+seas. In every sense, moral and physical, they are the products of an
+unrestricted environment that has made them what they are--wanderers on
+the face of the earth. But wanderers from choice. Untrammelled even to
+licence; giving an unbridled rein to their spirit of independence.
+Regarding with supreme contempt the luxuries and even necessaries of
+civilization. Yet with it all slaves to the spiritual fears that haunt
+them. Relics of a primitive and old-world civilization, there is about
+these Bedawins a flavour of antiquity, of a past that is hoary with the
+hoariness of eternal age, so distant that we cannot conjecture about it,
+even in the vaguest of terms. In addition to this everlasting antiquity
+and conservatism, there is about these patriarchs a naturally dignified
+reticence, and an air of calm, quiet assurance and authority, that are
+peculiarly their own personal property. But there is even more than
+this. There is that same universal concept--common to all primitive
+people who have not outlived it--of belief in the fear of a supreme
+power. That same awe and reverence for the patriarchal authority
+connected with that of the ancestors which has preceded it; that calm
+and philosophical acceptation of Karma or Fatalism; that same dread of
+consequences; that identical terror of malignant demons; that same
+shrinking from the inevitable, which is the heritage of all natural
+people. Inherent instincts that even twelve centuries of Islam have
+scarcely modified. When we get underneath the surface of human nature as
+represented by the Arab, whether he came from the east, the west, the
+south, or the centre, it is obvious that the underlying motive for most,
+if not all, of his social customs is inspired by that personal or
+religious instinct which is so closely allied to the primary instincts
+of all. Out of such fundamental material did Mohammed emerge!
+
+Nevertheless, with all its drawbacks, there is about the desert, only in
+a different degree, the pleasure of the pathless woods, the rapture of
+the lonely shore. Just as by the deep and rolling sea whose very roar is
+music, there is a society where none intrudes, so with the desert.
+Right in the very core and centre of its silence and solitude, the man
+whose ears and eyes are open to receive impressions, finds himself in
+the presence of that invisible but omniscient power of Nature. The power
+that, while it causes the earnest thinker to pause and reflect, makes
+the average human being yearn for the companionship of his own kind. But
+it was not so with Mohammed. Mohammed was not as other men are. He was a
+thought leader. Not a deep thinker by any means; but profoundly in
+earnest. Few men in the world’s history--judging at least by
+results--have been more in earnest than he was. In Hannibal there is the
+same earnest fixity of purpose, only different in kind, the same
+unquenchable ardour, and the same iron will that kept him faithful to
+the sacred vow of undying vengeance against the Romans, that his father
+exacted from him on the altar of their ancestral gods. In William the
+Silent too, but also in another direction, we find the same relentless
+purpose and the same inflexible sincerity to attain the independence and
+autonomy of the United Provinces. Cromwell likewise gave his life and
+his services--all that was best in him in fact--in the firm and sincere
+conviction that he was God’s chosen instrument. But in none of these
+men, not even in the great and heroic Ironside, was there the same
+fervent godliness, i.e. the fear and veneration of God. It was Luther
+most of all who approached Mohammed in the sincerity of his purpose,
+i.e. of his religion. For although Luther was essentially a priest, and
+did not found a new creed, his sincerity showed itself as a Protestant
+and Reformer. In his whole life the fear and veneration of God as the
+motive factor of his existence was manifest.
+
+It is, of course, just possible, as Tennyson surmises, that:
+
+    “... Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
+    And the thoughts of men are widen’d with the process of the suns.”
+
+This, however, is vague and brings us no nearer to an exact
+comprehension of the matter. The better to understand this feeling of
+fear that so dominated men of the Numa, Buddha, Luther, John Knox,
+Cromwell and Mohammed type, it is essential that the student grasps and
+measures the actual measure of difference that divides religion from
+creed. It is but meet that we should accept the rational axiom, that
+religion is natural, and creed the egotistical and personal
+interpretation placed upon religion by human beings. As Draper says:
+“When natural causes suffice, it is needless to look for supernatural.”
+So Bacon, looking with the insight of true genius into the Book of
+Nature, up to Nature’s God, said in that immortal aphorism which opens
+the _Novum Organum_, “Homo Naturæ minister et interpres”--man is the
+servant and interpreter of Nature. This will make it easier to get at
+the root of this dual feeling of fear and veneration. But to do so it is
+necessary for the student to look as far back into the past as he can.
+In every ancient cult that has ever existed, in the Chaldæan, the
+Egyptian, the Aryan, the various (so-called Pagan) African, for example,
+the same overmastering element predominates. In Grecian annals and
+literature--in the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_, Hesiod’s _Theogony_, in the
+great tragedies of Æschylus, in Plutarch and other writers--Fear is not
+merely reverenced as “_Holy_,” but in Greece, as elsewhere, altars were
+erected and worship offered to her as a goddess.
+
+It is in its definition and conception of religion that humanity has
+gone astray. By general acceptation religion and creed have always been
+confounded. Natural religion is spoken of as a something different and
+widely apart from Christianity, as a religion revealed. This is not so.
+There is no difference between them. Christianity is but the development
+of natural religion on the lines and ideas of certain individuals. There
+is no such thing as revelation. Religion is an evolution. It is natural.
+It comes to us from Nature, i.e. from the God out of which Nature has
+evolved. Hence its constructive and destructive dualism. It is a living
+and vital force that is innate in man as being one with Nature.
+Obviously this veneration, this fear of the Unseen, the Unexpected and
+the Inevitable (which I have spoken of), is one of the root instincts
+out of which it unfolds itself. Most unquestionably it is the outward
+and visible expression of the inner consciousness or spirit that moves
+man to the adoration of veneration in the constructive direction, and of
+fear in the destructive. This varies in the individual. Thus on the one
+hand we have a Mohammed; on the other a Napoleon. From the very
+beginning of human existence right down until now this fear of God has
+predominated. It still exists. It will go on existing. Religion is as
+much a part of the human constitution as the primal instincts. Creed is
+acquired. It is environment and education that makes or forms creed. The
+child becomes what his teacher makes him, as he can neither distinguish,
+discriminate nor judge for himself. But to make him Jew, Gentile or
+Christian, the religion must be in him. Creed, in a word, is but the
+view that is taken of natural religion by the ego. But a matter so
+important as this, however, cannot here be entered into.
+
+As it has been with all the great religious leaders of history, so too
+it was with Mohammed. Fearing, yet venerating, the might, the majesty
+and the goodness of God, the companionship that he most wanted was not
+human but divine. Communion with Him, through his own thought and
+through the great Infinity around him, was what his heart most desired.
+A town Arab by birth and breeding, a Bedawin by feeling and instinct, he
+was something more than a mere native of Arabia. Rather a son of men, an
+apostle chosen out specially from among men, that he might bear to them
+the message and truth of God.
+
+“Men,” says Victor Hugo, “talk to themselves, speak to themselves, but
+the external silence is not interrupted. There is a grand tumult;
+everything speaks within us, excepting the mouth. The realities of the
+soul, for all they are not visible and palpable, are not the less
+realities.” The great reality, as I have shown, that obsessed Mohammed
+was God. Though invisible in person or even in spirit, God was none the
+less visible and palpable to him as much in the finest speck of sand as
+in the consuming glory of the sun. In the mocking spectres of the night,
+as well as in the shifting shadows of the morning, the might and majesty
+of Allah was supreme. In the dead silence of human solitude, the grand
+tumult within him was only grand and tumultuous because God talked to
+him and he to God in the suppressed sibilance of hushed and awesome
+whisperings. “Diamonds are only found in the darkness of the earth;
+truths are only found in the depths of the thought.” As it seemed to
+Father Madeline, the ex-convict Jean Valjean, so it appeared to
+Mohammed, “that after descending into these depths, after groping for
+some time in the densest of this darkness, he had found one of these
+diamonds, one of these truths, which he held in his hand, and which
+dazzled his eyes when he looked at it.” The brilliant which Mohammed
+searched for was the truth--the greatest brilliant of all! The truth
+that he found as it appeared to him was God. Thus he immolated his whole
+being to the will of God, as to the truth which resides in Him alone.
+Like Pascal, Mohammed believed that “one can be quite sure that there is
+a God without knowing what He is.” Or in the words of Hobbes: “Forasmuch
+as God Almighty is incomprehensible, it follows that we can have no
+conception or image of the Deity, except only this, that _there is a
+God_.” This in sense if not in word was Mohammed’s idea of God as he
+tried to conceive Him. For him it was sufficient that God was the only
+God--the Creator and the Controller of the universe! “There are touching
+illusions which are perhaps sublime realities.” But to Mohammed, God was
+not even “the Great Illusion,” but a stern as well as a sublime reality!
+To him the desert and lone places were God’s dwelling-place--as far
+away from the busy hum and haunts of men as He could get. But only
+because of the delightful charm of golden silence and solitude--only
+because in the midst thereof, as in the heavenly paradise, God dwelt
+there. The one fair spirit that he dwelt and communed with--not in close
+proximity however, but with a great gulf fixed between--was the one and
+only God, who had at last constituted him His minister and apostle,
+because of his great love and devotion to Him. It was for this that
+Mohammed sought the desert. It was there under the stars--the flashing
+forget-me-nots of God’s great power--that alone with Nature and his own
+thoughts, he sought God. Who is there of us can say that he did or did
+not find Him? Can we, or can we not, by searching find God? Whether we
+can or no, however, is not the question--is not for us to decide! But
+one fact is certain--one fact is obvious. It was in the core and centre
+of the eternal silence and solitude of mountain fastnesses and desert
+expanses that the spirit of Islam had its origin. It was there, as it
+were under the myriad eyes of the great and infinite God, under the
+fiery blaze of the burning sun, under the cooler and more clinging
+glamour of the mellow moon, under the dimmer gloom and mystery of
+darkness, there with his face to the red-hot furnace blasts and
+suffocation of the simoom, that the message came to him. Alone with his
+thoughts:
+
+    “Alone, alone, all all alone,
+    Alone on a wide wide sea!”
+
+No mere saint, but God Himself, “took pity on” his “soul in agony.” He
+was not alone, for God was with him. This self-communion of Mohammed
+with his thoughts, was to him none other than communion with God,
+because his thoughts were concentrated on Him with all the soul and
+strength he was humanly capable of.
+
+The power of persuasion does not always lie in the flow and eloquence of
+speech. The strongest are often the most silent. God never speaks but in
+the still small voice of consciousness, that comes to every man in the
+dark watches of the night, when the hum and movement of life is hushed
+into the silence of sleep!
+
+Solitude, too, that twin-sister of Silence, “though,” as De Quincey
+says, “it may be silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of
+agencies; for solitude is essential to man.” But if essential to the
+ordinary man, it is as the breath of life to men of God and prophets.
+Solitude, in fact, sinks deep into a pure and simple nature, and changes
+him in a great measure. Unconsciously it intensifies him to a
+superlative degree, and inspires him with an awe of itself that becomes
+sacred to him. Within himself the recluse feels weak, unstable and
+inconsistent. Without he is strong in the consciousness of the
+omnipotence and supremacy of the Infinite. “Solitude generates a certain
+amount of sublime exaltation. It is like the smoke arising from the
+burning bush. A mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts the
+student into the seer, and the poet into a prophet.” In a word, there is
+an enthusiasm, an influence, and a power in solitude that the civilized
+man, or the man who has never been subjected to it, cannot form the
+slightest or faintest conception of. For the silence of solitude and the
+solitude of silence is a state (common to all primitive people) in which
+the being believes himself to be not only “πλήρης θεοῦ,” i.e.
+full of God, but that the God predominates. Hence the enthusiasm, the
+rapture, and the power to divine and speak in divers tongues.
+
+Surely, if ever man was in deadly earnest, this faithful son of Arabia
+was. If ever man opened his heart and soul to the Father and Mother of
+all things, this Mohammed, the merchant, did. Truly if ever the great
+Author of our being responded to a soul in silent agony, i.e. in
+conflict, in a struggle for victory, it was to this great descendant of
+the bond-woman Hagar! For in Islam, and the soul of Islam, such as he
+inculcated, the victory was greater than any Marathon or Thermopylæ.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MOHAMMED’S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS
+
+
+Mohammed, as I have more than once said, was all for unity and cohesion,
+therefore against division and disintegration of any kind. Concentration
+was as the breath of life to him. Dissension a deadly evil. In his
+scheme of religion and politics there was no place for schism. Schism
+meant discord, and discord the devil. To him discord was as Ate, the
+mother of dissension. He recognized, as Spenser evidently did, that
+“discord harder is to end than to begin”:
+
+    “For all her studie was, and all her thought,
+    How she might overthrow the things that concord wrought.”
+
+And above all things, this Statesman Prophet was the essence and
+personification of centralization and concord. For unity alone rendered
+Islam feasible. Thus in the second Surah he insists that mankind was of
+one faith from the beginning. Thus too as a just, faithful and
+consistent man, he is opposed to violence and taking the offensive, even
+in the name and under the cloak of religion; he constantly advocates
+and authorizes (that is, has God’s authority for) the defensive. He even
+recommends, at the same time that he excuses, war and retaliation on the
+unbeliever and infidel. On the whole, however, I am bound to admit that
+Mohammed disapproves of and discountenances violence in religion. He, in
+fact, distinctly forbids his followers from enforcing it. Their own
+persecution was to be met by patience. Apostates and unbelievers were to
+be given time meet for repentance. Yet to him, fanatic as he was with
+regard to religion, Islam was the only true Faith, the covenant, the
+sure ark of God that alone could secure salvation. Of this and of God he
+was no more than an Apostle--i.e. a messenger; also an expounder--but as
+such he obviously tried to live up to his name of Faithful. This speaks
+volumes for his toleration and humanity in an age when neither one nor
+the other of these attributes were much in repute; when both, in fact,
+were at a low ebb. Yet it shows us how intensely human the Prophet was.
+A man of great patience, prudence and trustworthiness, of retentive
+memory, strong character, and with the disposition of a judge--a very
+commander of men. Thus he acknowledges the divinity of God in forgiving,
+and the humanity of man in demanding reparation and restitution. Here
+the moral excellence of Mohammed shines out as a brilliant. In Surah
+xiv., “a grievous punishment is _prepared_ for the unjust. But they who
+shall have believed and wrought righteousness, shall be introduced into
+gardens, wherein rivers flow; they shall remain therein _for ever_ by
+the permission of their Lord, and their salutation therein _shall be_
+Peace.” From this and many other similar passages, it would seem that
+Mohammed, by his constant reiteration of _Promises_ and _Threats_, by
+his determined insistence thereon, hoped ultimately to convince even his
+enemies of his sincerity also of the fact that Islam, as the creed of
+the one and only God, was the true Faith. Again in this passage (Surah
+vi.), “God causeth the grain and the date-stone to put forth, He
+bringeth forth the living from the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead
+from the living. This is God,” etc., etc.; we get a clear insight into
+the intensity and comprehensiveness of the divine conception as it
+appeared to him. A little further on in the same passage he speaks of
+God as “He who hath produced you from one soul; and hath provided for
+you a sure receptacle and a repository,” namely in the loins of your
+fathers, and the womb of your mothers--one of those gleams of pantheism
+that I have already alluded to.
+
+But of all the passages in the Koran, the following is, in many ways,
+one of the most significant: “Whatever good befalleth thee, O man, it is
+from God; and whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself.” It is
+obvious from this that the prophet believed evil to be a human weakness
+with man as an active and self-willed agent. Sale in a note thereon
+says: “These words are not to be understood as contradicting the
+preceding verse, that all is from God, since the evil that befalls
+mankind, though ordered by God, is yet the consequence of their own
+wicked actions.” But as Mohammed regarded the sublime divinity of God,
+it would be more accurate to interpret the _evil_ not as being ordained
+or even sanctioned by God, but as being permitted, or rather not
+prevented by Him as a thing inevitable. To him the purity, sanctity and
+inviolability of God was of such vast moment, that it was unjust--a
+mortal sin--to devise even a lie against Him. “And who is more unjust
+than he who deviseth a lie against God, that he may seduce men without
+understanding?” The frequent repetition of this and other like passages
+is significant of Mohammed’s sincerity, also of his moral persistence
+and tenacity. It was from his point of view bad enough to have doubt
+thrown on the authenticity of his mission. This he could to some extent
+put up with. But it was as naught compared to the reflection, the crime
+of perjury committed against the Almighty. To cast a slur on His
+holiness in this audacious way, was nothing short of blasphemy, a crime
+worthy of eternal hell fire and damnation. Few men in the world’s
+history were as loyal to their God as this grim but faithful product of
+Arabia the Stony. In this respect, and particularly with regard to the
+depth and intensity of their religious zeal and fervour, there was a
+strong resemblance between Cromwell and Mohammed. To both of these moral
+ironsides, those who did not believe as they believed were unbelievers,
+and as such outside the pale of God’s mercy. For believers, however,
+nothing was too good. To such an extent did these principles influence
+the latter, that he even went so far as to promise that all grudges
+should be removed from the minds of the faithful. Here again we have
+evidence of Mohammed’s unquestionable humanity; also of civilization to
+a marked degree. For a grudge, although fundamentally and
+characteristically human, was at the same time, and still is among the
+Bedawins, a peculiarly Arabian idiosyncrasy; associated as it was, and
+often culminating as it did, in acts of vengeance identical to the
+Corsican vendetta, “the terrible blood feud which even the most reckless
+fear for their posterity.”
+
+In spite, however, of his eagerness and zeal for conversion, consistent
+as this was with his idea of national autonomy, in nothing did Mohammed
+show his sincerity so much as in his thoroughness and honesty. He was
+nothing if not thorough. The long and arduous probation he passed
+through in preparing and fitting himself for his mission--the mental
+concentration, the wrestlings with all that is evil and inexorable in
+man’s nature, the night watches, the agonies, the communings with
+God--all go to prove this. And if to be outspoken and candid is honesty,
+then indeed no one has surpassed him in that respect. In his eyes a true
+disciple of Islam meant a man who lived and acted up to the tenets and
+principles of its faith. For instance, with him there was no such fiasco
+as a death-bed repentance. “But no repentance _shall be accepted_ from
+those who do evil until _the time_ when death presenteth itself unto one
+of them, _and he_ saith verily I repent now; nor unto those who die
+unbelievers: for them have we prepared a grievous punishment.” Such an
+act was wholly repugnant to the fine sense of equity and justice that he
+possessed, advocating as he so strenuously did the use of “a full
+measure and just balance.” As one who had given practically his whole
+life to the service and adoration of God, his soul rose in revolt and
+abhorred so vile a subterfuge. It was adding insult to injury. A mere
+sneaking stratagem of priestly artifice, held out as an alluring but
+offensive bait. A despicable and devilish cunning on the part of the
+unbeliever, who would endeavour to throw dust into the sun-piercing
+vision of the Most High, all unconscious of the thinness and
+transparency of his device and of God’s searching penetration, that
+could pierce through all eternity even unto the uttermost ends of His
+mighty universe! To serve mammon a lifetime, and then at the last
+moment, when on the brink of death’s unending precipice, to turn to God
+and expect to reap the same reward of eternal bliss as the whole-hearted
+believer who has given all or a great part of his life to God’s service,
+was impossible. The very thought of it was monstrous. The choice lay
+with the ego himself! Evil was his own doing! Good also lay within his
+reach. It was in a great measure a matter of choice. Every man was more
+or less responsible for his own undoing. To a life of evil, a death-bed
+repentance was not capable of producing more than its own equivalent of
+happiness, i.e. the merest possible fragment. This was in accordance
+with God’s principle of the scales of justice and an even balance. Yet
+Mohammed was not against repentance and contrition when sincere and made
+in due and proper time. Over and over again he holds out the olive
+branch, and reiterates the forgiveness and mercy of God, as attributes
+that belonged to Him alone. Mercy, indeed, was not so much an
+_attribute_ as a _monopoly_. “He hath prescribed unto Himself mercy,” as
+compatible with the fact that He was the final Court of Appeal. However
+adversely the theologian may criticize this from the modern Christian
+standpoint, it is clear and direct proof of Mohammed’s whole-hearted
+sincerity. Further it is equally direct and tangible evidence of the
+ardour and zeal that was in him as a prophet and reformer.
+
+God, with all His sternness and inflexibility, as He appeared to
+Mohammed, was just and merciful. A strict comparison between Yahveh and
+Allah certainly inclines the balance in favour of the latter. Jehovah at
+His best was a God of blood and vengeance, at His worst a voracious
+monster. In Allah, stern and avenging God as He was, there was at least
+compassion and mercy and forgiveness. He was not inexorable. He would
+listen to reason. Mohammed himself was a distinct advance on the founder
+of the ancient Jewish faith. He was more humane, a man of broader and
+deeper sympathies. Stern and hard to a degree where God and the Faith
+was concerned; where men, but especially women and children, were
+concerned, he was all tenderness and pity.
+
+Dutiful and obedient to his uncle who had been a father to him, he was a
+faithful servant, an exemplary husband, a kind father, a good master.
+The very name of Faithful, by which he was always distinguished, proves
+beyond a doubt what manner of man he was. An orphan himself in
+childhood, early inured to poverty, his heart went out to all those who
+had the misfortune to be similarly situated. For the poor, the weak, the
+helpless, he had a fellow-feeling. The degraded or at least dependent
+and unprotected position of women, their moral and legal helplessness
+most of all, appealed to him. But in no sense because he was sensual.
+Sensuality was not one of his many failings. A man from top to bottom,
+by birth, breeding and environment Mohammed was an Arab and a Patriarch.
+As such he only naturally liked women and children. To men and for the
+Faith a strong hard man, to the weak and helpless he was tender and
+affectionate. As he was strong, so he was merciful and full of human
+sympathies. His long and happy union with Khadija shows not only that he
+was faithful to a degree, but a man of high moral fibre. A man too full
+of the gravity of life to squander his substance in mere sensuality. But
+in all eastern and African countries where polygamy prevails, marriage
+is a pure matter of political convenience. Mohammed knew this. He
+recognized that marriage was a very important factor in securing
+influence and power. It threw out octopean feelers at various tangents
+and established certain associations and connexions to which it clung,
+as a limpet to a rock or a devil-fish to its victim. The same principle
+down almost to our own day has been a powerful factor in European
+statecraft. Even the earlier practice of keeping mistresses, so much
+indulged in by the sovereign holders of so-called “divine rights,” had
+much in common with this custom. It was undoubtedly this motive more
+than any other which influenced Mohammed. It was an essential feature in
+his great design. For in spite of his overwhelming devotion to God,
+notwithstanding God’s obsession of him, Mohammed was essentially human.
+There was room and sorrow in his heart for human frailties. His desire
+was strong to remedy them. He too like Luther was a Protestant, and a
+Reformer.
+
+As to the soulless theory regarding the fair sex, which has been
+literally thrust upon the Moslem world by an antipathetic if not
+inimical Christendom, I quite agree with Burton. “The Moslems never went
+so far.” At all events if some of them have done so, “Certain ‘_Fathers
+of the Church_,’ it must be remembered, did not believe that women have
+souls.” Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in one of that inimitable series of
+letters which she wrote, admits as much. In this particular letter
+written from Constantinople on May 29, 1717 (O.S.), to the Abbé Conti,
+she says: “Our vulgar notion that they (the Turks) do not own women to
+have any souls is a mistake.” And then she continues, but in not so
+accurate a vein: “’Tis true, they say they are not of so elevated a
+kind, and therefore must not hope to be admitted into the paradise
+appointed for the men, who are to be entertained by celestial beauties.
+But there is a place of happiness destined for souls of the inferior
+order, where all good women are to be in eternal bliss.” It is in no
+sense surprising, therefore, that to Mohammed Allah was the merciful. So
+in the sixth surah, he writes: “We (as if identifying himself with God)
+will not impose a task on any soul beyond its ability. For this
+self-same reason, God is minded to make _his religion_ light unto you:
+for man was created weak.” Strong and enduring as sincerity and
+conviction made him, Mohammed knew his own weakness. Hence with a
+clemency that was divine he made concessions such as these. In these he
+acknowledged that, “to err is human, to forgive divine.” All the more,
+however, we cannot but admire his candour. Even as regards himself, his
+shortcomings and inadequacies, he speaks with an openness and
+straightforwardness that disarms suspicion--that forces the inquirer to
+respect him with all the greater reverence as a great leader of men. “So
+say I not unto you, the treasures of God are in my power; neither _do I
+say_, I know the secrets _of God_, neither do I say unto you, Verily I am
+an angel: I follow only that which is revealed unto me.” Indeed the more
+closely and carefully I look into his words in comparison with his life
+and acts, the more obvious do his candour and sincerity become. The more
+obvious is it to me that although essentially the product of a grim and
+petrified environment, he himself was unique. A man in advance of his
+time and people. For deep down in the soul of him, the rich milk of
+human kindness welled up out of the same eternal source from which he
+derived his fear and veneration for the Supreme! Truly the Prophet and
+spiritual ruler of the East and polygamy, as Christ stands for the West
+and monogamy!
+
+It was with these weapons, combined with the tenacity of an elastic and
+imperishable patience, that Mohammed fought the Koreish and other
+tribes, and it was with them he finally conquered. Had he been
+insincere, there would have been no Islam. Had there been no spirit of a
+divine moral conception such as he infused into the creed (which came
+through him from the great fountain head of God and Nature), Islam
+would have withered and perished from sheer exhaustion and debility.
+From the standpoint of physical and moral purity, Mohammed was in every
+sense an Essene. Not only therefore was cleanliness of the body an
+absolute essential, but cleanliness of mind. Filthy immoral actions and
+depravities that he knew existed, unjust violence and iniquities,
+whether openly done or in concealment, were condemned and forbidden in
+scathing terms as a violation of God’s express command. The sophistry
+that would make an evil to be no crime unless found out, he denounced
+with all the fiery ardour of his fervent nature. From God there was no
+concealment. In his eyes it was a crime all the same--greater, in fact,
+because of attempted concealment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET’S CHARACTER
+
+
+In refuting those sceptics who have doubted the truth and sincerity of
+Islam, Carlyle condemns scepticism (rather too hastily it seems to me)
+as an indication of spiritual paralysis. Most unquestionably he was
+right in denouncing the former as an idiotic and godless theory. But
+scepticism itself in a general sense is not necessarily an evil. On the
+contrary, it is a natural tendency that arises out of the instinct of
+curiosity. Knowledge is not an inert and passive principle, but an
+active and dynamic force. Buckle in his history speaks of scepticism as
+stimulating curiosity. But he has put the cart before the horse. It is
+curiosity that excites scepticism. Curiosity is an animal instinct--the
+basis of all science. It exists in the lower animal creation--scepticism
+only in the upper human section. It is a higher or further development,
+a tendency that is certainly strengthened, if not acquired through
+education.
+
+According to Lecky, “The first stage to toleration in England was due to
+the spirit of scepticism encroaching upon the doctrine of exclusive
+salvation”; and “the extinction of the spirit of intolerance both in
+Catholic and Protestant countries--due to the spirit of rationalism--was
+the noblest of all the conquests of civilization.” But as rationalism
+itself is chiefly the consequence of scepticism and the result of
+inquiry, it is obvious that in a deeply fundamental sense, the world is
+very considerably indebted to science or the spirit of scepticism.
+Indeed all knowledge has arisen from experience, and the desire to
+search into the root of things--to know what is what. Without curiosity
+and scepticism, human thought would have long since stagnated and the
+world remained sunk in ignorance. As Ghazali says, “No knowledge without
+assurance deserves the name of knowledge.” Seeing is not always
+devouring. Curiosity is not necessarily gluttony, or “scepticism, that
+curse of the intellect,” as Victor Hugo calls it. Gluttony is unnatural,
+unwholesome, and bestial. It is not so much overdoing, as a flagrant
+abuse and outrage of a natural appetite. It is a kicking against the
+pricks--a flying in the face of Providence. But curiosity as an instinct
+direct from Nature is healthy, therefore the use of it as also wholesome
+stands in need of stimulus and encouragement.
+
+So Tennyson said of Shelley:--
+
+    “There lives more faith in honest doubt,
+    Believe me, than in half the creeds.”
+
+In this righteous sense Mohammed was curious. As one of her own
+selection, Nature had specially endowed him with curiosity. He was one
+of her human, sensitive plants. As an observer, all his senses were
+developed and on the alert. He not only saw, but felt every vibration
+that thrilled, as it were, the very soul of the first great mother. In
+every flitting cloud, as in every fugitive thought, he was conscious of
+an unseen Power. A look-out man rather than a prophet, it was thus he
+groped or rather felt his way until he felt God. “I feel that there is a
+God,” said La Bruyère, “and I do not feel that there is none: that is
+enough for me; the reasoning of the world is useless to me: I conclude
+that God exists.” It was in much the same vein of self-argument that
+Mohammed communed to himself. Having felt God, God became for him a
+necessity: more so even, an essential--an absolutism which banished all
+else from his mind. The thought that there was no God did not occur to
+him. But the thought that other gods could exist in the same universe
+with the one omnipotence was to him as monstrous as it was unthinkable.
+Besides Him there was no room for any other. The very thought in his
+estimation perished from inanition and sheer inability of conception!
+The trinity of Christianity was to him as impossible and unacceptable
+as the antediluvian or later polytheism of his own countrymen.
+
+All active minds are sceptical. Carlyle himself--although he appears to
+have been unconscious of the fact--was himself a sceptic. But it was
+peculiarly characteristic of the antagonistic dualism of his nature on
+the one hand to hurl innuendoes, anathemas (and every kind of mental
+brickbat that he could lay hold of) at what he called scepticism or
+unbelief. On the other hand, to hold up belief as absolutely essential
+to human existence. But like all theoretical crotchets, he carried his
+philosophical speculations too far. In other words, he sometimes
+overreached himself. According to his particular dogma, in his opinion,
+the life of man cannot subsist on doubt or denial, it subsists only on
+belief. But this is altogether beside the mark. Scepticism does not
+necessarily imply doubt or denial. Belief itself cannot exist without
+it. It is out of the ashes of scepticism that the immortal Phœnix of
+belief arises. It is out of the doubt and denial of accepted doctrines
+that all creeds (including Christianity and Islam) have grown into
+being. The doubt engendered by scepticism is after all only an
+investigation or leading into, an analysis of the nature of dogmas,
+doctrines or creeds. It is an investigation that may or may not have a
+result. It is but a search for or groping after the truth, as the
+consequence of moral, intellectual or spiritual dissatisfaction. It is
+also the desire to know, to find out the pros and cons of all the sides
+to a question. The spirit or element of doubt is the necessary, the
+essential precursor of improvement and progress. Hence the immense
+importance and significance of Scepticism. It is the very sum and
+substance of all human knowledge. As the acorn is to the oak, scepticism
+is to knowledge--the seed from which has sprung up all we know, and ever
+shall know. The ever fluent channel through which all the great
+intellectual giants and reformers of the world have poured out the
+glowing flash-lights of their intellect into the normal darkness of
+human minds. It is the moral effluvium out of which our modern
+civilization has constructed itself. Without it, the dense gloom and
+black obscurity of ignorance would have reigned supreme. Confused,
+chaotic, and enigmatic as the world now is--even in the full glare of
+its sunlight--without it (if it were possible to imagine such a state)
+the world would have been an enigma, a chaos and confusion worse
+confounded. For scepticism is, as it were, the sun in all its glory, as
+compared to the black oblivion of eternal night. If neither Luther nor
+Mohammed had been sceptics, there would have been no Reformation and no
+Islam. They did not take everything for granted. They were not satisfied
+with things as they were. They looked into the heart of them and found
+much room for improvement. They examined what they could, rejected that
+which was spiritually objectionable to them, but made use of what was
+most appropriate to their respective situations. It was only those
+features that best suited the exigencies of the case that they were
+prompt to lay hold of.
+
+Yet Mohammed was not of vigorous intellectuality, nor in any sense an
+original thinker. The constant repetition of formulas and reiteration of
+the same ideas that occur throughout the Koran show this. It is
+extremely probable that his mentality was at times overshadowed either
+by neurasthenic tendencies, or a predisposition to melancholia, and this
+was more than likely heightened by a life of excessive mental
+concentration combined with asceticism.
+
+But sincere as he was, Mohammed would not have been a true Arabian, had
+he not been diplomatic. Thus the commencement of the fourteenth surah is
+a clever but obvious device on his part; a meeting of his enemies with
+their own weapons, a flinging back to them of their own words and
+objections to the truth in their own teeth. It is clear too that here,
+for the time being, he has resolved on a change of tactics and of front.
+To prove to them that he is as of old the man to be trusted, he
+endeavours to disarm their incredulity by his own outspokenness and
+candour. As the sequel showed, he clearly demonstrates his own
+perspicacity and knowledge of human nature. He saw that by arguing with
+his countrymen, by always opposing their doubts with sophistry and
+argument, would be of little avail--useless, in fact. Such a course
+would but have encouraged and stimulated their opposition, on the ground
+that their beliefs, as worth refuting, were also based on truth or at
+least on strong evidence. Besides, Mohammed was painfully conscious of
+his own disability and helplessness to convince them by the performance
+of anything purporting to be miraculous. That on occasions he displayed
+artfulness and guile--duplicity, in fact--is not to be denied. The
+invention, e.g., of his night journey from Mecca to heaven viâ
+Jerusalem, was one of them. When he gave out that Gabriel had revealed
+to him the conspiracy that had been formed against him, which through
+ordinary means he had discovered, was another of these pious frauds. But
+after all, what are these trifles compared with those that in their
+myriads have been perpetrated by the great Church of Christendom? What
+are they as compared to a long life of strenuous sincerity, great
+nobility and earnest effort in the cause of humanity? It is impossible
+to lose sight of the fact that in working for God, he was all the time
+raising his countrymen from a lower to a higher level. Besides, the
+necessity of dissimulation, which is one of the heaviest taxes on a
+king, and the prerogative of a priest, is one of those idiosyncrasies
+that human flesh being heir to, even a prophet cannot at times escape
+from. We are reminded of the phrase: “Qui scit dissimulare, scit
+regnare”--He is a ruler who can conceal his thoughts--attributed to the
+Emperor Sigismund by that cultured and ambitious but false and subtle
+Pontiff Pius II, known as Æneas Sylvius (Pius Æneas): also the identical
+answer that Louis XI is said to have made to those who urged him to give
+his son Charles a better education, in order that the boy might in his
+day become a good king.
+
+It was not only that Mohammed’s enemies were sceptical of his powers and
+his mission, but they mistrusted his intentions. This, indeed, to a
+sincere and earnest man like himself, was a bitter pill; a pill he found
+it hard to swallow. For he was conscious of his own sincerity, and as
+time went on, an increasing following gave him greater confidence in the
+reality of his mission. Indeed in proportion as his self-confidence
+developed, his conviction in the power and unity of God became an ever
+increasing quantity. This increasing consciousness of God’s power and
+his own sincerity had the gradual effect of making him bolder and more
+aggressive, so that this outspokenness was a direct outcome of it, until
+at last Mohammed felt that it was his duty not merely to announce
+“Islam”--“_the true Faith_,” but to enforce its acceptance on the
+people. This, of course, as we know, was after his flight to Medina.
+True his own people, the Koreish, had driven him out with scorn and
+violence, had cast contumely and dishonour on him, by rejecting the
+word, while strangers had hearkened unto him and accepted it. It is
+equally true that the sustained vindictiveness shown by the Koreish was
+sufficient in itself to excite the spirit of retaliation, even in a man
+of Mohammed’s patient and tenacious character. But suggestive as this
+may be, it is quite certain that he acted on conviction in assuming the
+offensive. It is obvious, too, that in doing so, he felt that he was
+acting under divine compulsion. In any case, we must allow that “a man
+is really of weight in the balance of Fate, only when he has the right
+on his own account to cause men to be slain.” In Mohammed’s case,
+however, if conviction counts for anything, his right was a divine
+right. According to Dumas: “In human nature there are antipathies to be
+overcome--_sympathies which may be forced_.” (The italics are mine.)
+“Iron is not the loadstone; but by rubbing it with a loadstone we make
+it, in its turn, attract iron.” This may be, but it is not in reality
+so. It is but a mere figure of speech that the great novelist makes use
+of, and which he puts into the mouth of René, the poisoner, in support
+of some theory or argument. It is, of course, possible that antipathies
+may be overcome by sympathy. This, however, depends entirely on the
+power of the one and the weakness of the other. But sympathy cannot be
+forced. To endeavour to force sympathy is to attempt the unnatural. The
+most that can be expected from such a cause is dissimulation. This
+certainly was Mohammed’s experience. Although ultimately he and his
+successors forced the word of God on these his inveterate enemies, he
+never succeeded in forcing his sympathies upon them. Death and Time
+alone accomplished what his own personality failed to do. Through the
+victory he gained by them, he now lives enshrined in the sanctified halo
+of a sympathy that, emanating from every Moslem heart, forms with his
+own the great and throbbing soul of Islam.
+
+But Mohammed was not only spiritual. He, like every human being, had a
+material side to his character. Not only was he a preacher and a
+prophet; not only was he a lawgiver--a law and a light unto his people
+to this very day; but as one who himself rigidly practised self-denial
+and economy and condemned extravagance, who possessed the organizing
+ability to administer the estate of others, and who could command
+preferably in peace, but if necessary in war, he was a statesman and an
+economist. Unquestionably too he looked ahead--he made provision for the
+future. His whole apostolic life was one long and arduous preparation
+for coming events. As an instance of this, the ordering of the yearly
+pilgrimage to Mecca was as much a political as a religious ordinance. By
+this measure of policy--this master stroke of psychologic insight into
+human eventualities, Mohammed showed his natural genius. For without a
+doubt he aimed at preserving to Arabia the point and focus of a
+religious centre, that would make for national consolidation and unity,
+and serve as the sacred réduit and rallying ground for the world of
+Islam. So too he showed his capacity for system and organization in
+legalizing the fifth part of all booty and property confiscated to be
+paid into the public treasury. In the same way he insisted on the giving
+of Zakat or alms for charitable purposes, apart from those contributions
+he received from his followers for maintenance. In making these
+ordinances appear as divine injunctions, Mohammed showed no more
+insincerity or inconsistence than he did in claiming the whole Koran as
+a series of revelations. The political and economic factors were as much
+a radical part of his entire design, as the religious. The one could not
+exist without the other. Statesman as he was, he recognized that
+religious unity could only be firmly established through political
+co-operation, and that to secure national stability the sinews of war
+were essential.
+
+It is all through quite obvious that he had the trading instinct of his
+people. In any case the training he received at the hands and in the
+employ of his uncle Abu Talib, as well as the subsequent management of
+Khadija’s business, had imbued him very powerfully with business
+principles and practical ideas. Abu Talib, like his father and
+grandfather before him, carried on a considerable trade with Syria and
+Yemen. He carried to Damascus, to Basra and other places in Syria, the
+dates of Hijaz and Hijr, and the perfumes of Yemen, bringing back with
+him in return the products of the Byzantine Empire. Mohammed, as is
+known, accompanied him, and without doubt laid the foundation of an
+economic experience, that subsequently proved valuable.
+
+Commerce has always been the greatest of civilizing factors. According
+to Buckle: “Among the accessories of modern civilization there is none
+of greater moment than Trade.” So too Hallam says: “Under a second
+class of events that contributed to destroy the spirit of the Feudal
+system, we may reckon the abolition of villenage, the increase of
+commerce, and consequent opulence of merchants and artisans, and
+especially the institution of free cities and boroughs. This is one of
+the most important and interesting steps in the progress of society
+during the Middle Ages, and deserves particular consideration.” But this
+is all the more important as showing that trade was in reality a more
+powerful factor for civilization than Christianity, which after several
+centuries of hold on the people of Europe, had done little more than
+inflame them with a zeal and a zest for fighting. It is significant also
+that while Rome rose to her greatest eminence under the Ancestral
+worship of her founders, when she became Christian, Christianity did not
+prevent her from declining and falling into pieces. But it is equally
+significant that while the opulence conferred by commerce on Rome,
+eventually brought reaction and ruin upon her people, the effect it had
+upon the barbarians who overthrew the Eternal City, was sufficiently
+stimulating to encourage them to invade a degenerate empire. For the
+desire of wealth and plunder was but the first awakening of the spirit
+of commerce. To be sure the crusades gave a great stimulus to trade.
+But there was more of the militant spirit than Christianity about them.
+Besides, although commercial prosperity often accompanies war, reaction
+is certain to supervene. Obviously the essential importance of trade was
+a truth that the Merchant-Prophet soon recognized. Intuitively, and with
+the keenness of perception that marked him, he naturally utilized every
+lesson that it taught him and every advantage that it gave him. Nor has
+he been the only theologian who saw its utility in a religious light.
+The Jesuits long afterwards recognized the agency of commerce in
+promoting and diffusing religious belief, and became great merchants as
+well as great missionaries. So too it was through commerce, as Draper
+points out, “that the Papacy first learned to turn to art. The ensuing
+development of Europe” (in the Renaissance) “was really based on the
+commerce of _upper_ Italy, and not on the Church. The statesmen of
+Florence were the inventors of the balance of power.”
+
+Quoting from Syed Ameer Ali’s _Spirit of Islam_, Fihr, surnamed Koreish,
+a descendant of Maad--who flourished in the third century--was the
+ancestor of the tribe that gave to Arabia her prophet and legislator.
+This fact, trifling as it may appear, is, however, remarkable, if not
+significant. For this word “Koreish” is derived from “Karash,” to
+trade; and it appears that Fihr and his descendants were always devoted
+to commerce. From this it is safe to assume that trading was an inherent
+instinct in Mohammed.
+
+This apart, to him personally Islam was a something more than a mere
+creed or belief. It was God’s own religion sealed and delivered to him
+by God. Not to deliver it to his people as commanded, not to carry it
+through--by persuasion first of all, by fire and sword if man’s
+obstinacy and rejection of it made it necessary--would mean that he had
+failed in his duty to the Most High. The sense and spirit of duty was
+stronger in Mohammed than in Nelson. In him it was not simply an active
+and vital principle. It was an impelling force. So inseparable from God,
+that to him it appeared as God Himself. But with him God always came
+first. His duty to his country was subordinate to his duty to his Maker.
+His duty to Him, therefore, was his duty to his country. So in surah xi.
+he says: “O my people, do ye work according to your condition; I will
+surely work according to my duty,” i.e. according to God. In numerous
+passages he points out that God was absolutely averse to profusion and
+extravagance, equally so to meanness. True liberality in his opinion
+consisted in the happy mean between the two extremes. “And waste not
+thy substance profusely; for the profuse are brethren of the devils: and
+the devil was ungrateful unto his Lord” (surah xvii.). Again in the
+sixth, “But be not profuse, for God loveth not those who are too
+profuse”; and in the following the economic instinct shows itself most
+significantly: “O true believers, consume not your wealth among
+yourselves in vanity; unless there be merchandizing among you by mutual
+consent.” Once more Mohammed demonstrates his great profundity and
+insight into the character, the customs and traditions of his
+countrymen. All Oriental and African nations from time immemorial have
+been notably extravagant, especially in regard to marriage ceremonials
+and funeral rites. Even to this day among the Hindus and most African
+tribes, it is a code of honour, a sacred injunction of their religion,
+to spend profusely on marriage and burial feasts. Indeed this is
+frequently done to the impoverishment, and, in the latter case, even to
+the ruination of whole families or households. The Arabs, it appears,
+were no exception to this. At the same time they were a curious blend of
+meanness and extravagance. To Mohammed, rigid economist as he was, and
+inspired to the core by the duty that had been intrusted to him, this
+prodigality was a great sin. Not only did his countrymen squander away
+their substance in folly and luxury, but they were particularly guilty
+of extravagance in killing camels, and distributing them by lot merely
+out of vanity and ostentation. Worse even than this, they were given to
+the destruction of their female children. Against this evil Mohammed
+sternly set his face. This in itself shows his great moral superiority
+over his countrymen. It shows also the possession of a higher and more
+refined yet practical intelligence, that was able to grasp the economic
+possibilities which were bound to ensue from the preservation of female
+children. Essentially an Arab patriarch at heart (which he in some
+measure proved by his marriages), Mohammed, however, was still more
+essentially a Humanist. With the moral greatness of a good man, and the
+mental perception of genius, he felt and recognized that it was against
+all the laws of God to destroy the fecundity of and the productive in
+nature. Thus it was that he placed the divine tabu on the abuse and
+destruction of all that was beneficial to humanity, but especially on
+men, animals and the produce of the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED’S WORK AND WORTH
+
+
+Taken as a whole, the Koran is certainly not a work of literary art.
+Mohammed, in a literary sense, was neither a poet nor a writer. He was,
+as he says of himself, only an illiterate apostle. This, from an
+artistic point of view, is of course regrettable. In his mother tongue
+he had a rich and splendid medium. A language of high philosophical and
+poetical character, that “follows the mind,” as Burton says, and gives
+birth to its offspring: that is free from the “luggage of particles”
+which clogs our modern tongues--leaves a mysterious vagueness between
+the relation of word to word, which materially assists the sentiment,
+not the sense of the poet. A language too that luxuriates in “rich and
+varied synonyms, illustrating the finest shades of meaning,” that are
+artfully used--“now scattered to startle us by distinctness, now to form
+as it were a star about which dimly seen satellites revolve.” Finally
+which revels in a wealth of rhyme that leaves the poet almost
+unfettered to choose the desired or exact expression. Undoubtedly in a
+literary sense, here at hand, was a mighty and magnificent weapon. A
+quiverful of musical arrows, quivering as they waited for the poetic
+muse--the fine frenzy, the seething imagination, the running ready
+fire--to launch them forth into the humming haunts and hearts of men.
+But in no sense was this Merchant-Prophet a knight-errant. Kindly and
+tender as he was towards women and children, he was not addicted (as his
+countrymen were) to chivalry in any form. The race of heroines of Al
+Islam had no attraction for him. The “Hawa (or ‘Ishk’) uzri,”
+“pardonable love,” of the Bedawin, a certain species of platonic
+affection, did not exist for him. He had no room for such trivialities
+in his life. It was too serious and pre-occupied. Too much occupied with
+the affairs of his Master, and worldly business matters that had to be
+attended to. So that he had no time to waste on such pleasantries.
+Trifles that were as light as air in contrast to the stern and deadly
+realities of existence. Yet without doubt he must have attended the
+annual fairs that were held at various places, at “Zul Mejaz,” at Majna,
+and at Okadh. The latter, Syed Ameer Ali tells us, was a place famous in
+Arab tradition. It was the Olympia of Yemen. The fair held here in the
+sacred month of “Zu’lkada,” was a great national gathering. A sort of
+“God’s truce” was then proclaimed. War and the shedding of human blood
+was forbidden. To it came merchants with their wares from all parts of
+Arabia and other distant lands; also the poets and heroes of the desert.
+These (many of whom were disguised from the avengers of blood feuds in
+masks or veils) recited their poems, displayed their literary talents,
+and sang of their glory and their prowess. But Mohammed’s aims and
+inclinations did not lie in this direction. He was too much of a working
+philosopher to be a mere poetic dreamer or play actor. His genius lay in
+his profound earnestness, his great moral strength, his capacity for
+work, his political foresight and acumen, his iron will and his
+inexhaustible patience. It is certain that he believed (in the
+philosophic principle) that “everything comes to him who waits.” For he
+himself says: “Wait therefore the event, for I also will wait it with
+you.” Obviously he was imbued with the same tenacity, and many of the
+imperturbable characteristics of the camel of his own Arabian deserts.
+Unquestionably he knew how “_to wait_,” recognized that the essence of
+all human wisdom lies in this single feature, and that the greatest, the
+strongest and the most successful is he who waits and watches. It was
+thus that he waited with the unvarying purpose and pertinacity of a man
+who knew and appreciated his own value at its proper worth. For he felt
+in every nerve and fibre of his consciousness, that as God makes no man
+or no thing in vain, the future must have some (great) thing, some great
+prize, in reserve for him. We know what that prize was. We know also
+that it only came to him after a life of unwearied toil, and assiduous
+devotion to his great and noble purpose, and then only in reality
+through the moral and spiritual victory which death gave him.
+
+Yet, in spite of its artistic defects, Mohammed’s work turned out, as we
+know, into a success that even he himself could never have anticipated.
+But in a spiritual sense, judging merely by results, the Koran has lost
+nothing because of its lack of literary art and beauty. Had it gushed
+all over with the eastern music of the Songs of Solomon, had it arrested
+the attention by the same aphoristic wisdom of the Proverbs, thrilled
+its readers by the recital of a tragedy so intensely powerful, so
+realistic and majestic as the drama of Job, and appealed to them through
+the joys, the sorrows and the grand poetry of the Psalms! Had it, in
+fact, sparkled all over with those beauties of language and metaphor
+that distinguish the Bible, the result that it might have attained could
+scarcely have been greater than that which it has accomplished without
+these trappings. It is, in fact, probable that it might have lost. It is
+just possible that what it would have gained as an ornate work, it would
+have lost in sincerity. The Koran, in fact, was essentially the
+offspring of Mohammed’s own unique personality. This, as I have tried to
+show, was the peculiar outcome of his dual environment--the frowning,
+rugged and arid aspect of stony mountains and sandy wastes, plus the
+commercial and political instincts that were inherent as well as
+developed on his trade journeys and at the various towns and marts which
+he visited. Nevertheless there was in this Semitic Puritan, as there is
+in almost every Arab, a certain rugged vein of poetry--the wild song of
+freedom--that bursts out here and there. But only now and then like the
+thunderstorm that is so great a rarity in the desert. For the gravity
+and over-concentration of his thoughts on the one definite object,
+oppressed him so weightily, that it left no time for others. Just as
+fast as rain is swallowed up by the parched and thirsty sand after a
+long spell of drought, so his soul, thirsting as it did after God,
+gulped and kept down the poetry and sentiment at bottom of him. All the
+same, if a book is to be gauged by its net results--by the effect it has
+produced on all that is deepest and best in human nature--then the
+Koran must necessarily take high rank as one of the world’s greatest
+works. In much the same way, only in another and more material
+direction, the _Wealth of Nations_ has also left its impress on the
+shaping of human destinies.
+
+Mohammed’s sincerity and fixity of purpose is a fact we cannot get away
+from. It is this which has chained his followers as with the sure cord
+of God to the Faith. Islam, in a word, is a creed of practice not
+theory. By practice it was formed. On practice it has lived. It was
+because Mohammed practised what he preached, that the small seed of his
+original idea blossomed at last into the mighty “Igdrasil” of the
+East--the great banyan tree of existence. Verily this sun-burnt son of
+Arabia Petræa was a tangible reality and no desert simulacrum. A reality
+that lives in the soul of Islam. A reality that will endure until the
+end of all things human. It is not manners that maketh the man. It is
+man that makes the manners. It is the nature that is around him, the
+nature that is in him, and that comes out of him as mental and moral
+energies, that makes the man. Town bred as he was, it was the desert in
+all its naked and silent grandeur that made Mohammed, that inspired him
+with all the might and majesty of God, and turned him into a prophet.
+Yet it was his career as a trader and the inherent tribal instinct that
+developed the political element in him. As Longfellow says: “Glorious
+indeed is the world of God around us; but more glorious is the world of
+God within us. There lies the land of song, there lies the poet’s native
+land.” But in Mohammed’s case, as in the case of all great workers and
+thinkers, the world that is around us, is the world of our inner
+consciousness. The two are synonymous if not one. Only with him the
+native earth was religion, and he was the Prophet, not the Poet of it.
+“It is Nature’s highest reward to a true, simple, great soul, that he
+gets thus to be _a part of herself_.” It was thus with Mohammed.
+Thought, though changeable, is eternal. It never dies. So the one idea
+that possessed Mohammed now possesses (differing only in merely
+superficial degrees) some two hundred and fifty millions.
+
+Carlyle is mistaken, certainly much too premature, when he says: “Even
+in Arabia, as I compute, Mahommet will have exhausted himself and become
+obsolete, while this Shakespeare, this Dante may still be young; while
+this Shakespeare may still pretend to be a priest of mankind, of Arabia
+as of other places, for unlimited periods to come.” Religion is
+entirely an universal matter, Thought a question of environment. Roughly
+speaking, the world of Thought is divided into two camps of east and
+west. To the former belongs Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam; to the latter
+Christianity and the growing cult of Rationalism. It is impossible to
+predict or in any way to foreshadow any fusion of these hostile
+elements. The day when humanism--i.e. the religion of humanity, as the
+natural product of her highest intellectual effort--shall have fused and
+humanized all the nations of the Earth into one great civilized family,
+is too far distant and beyond the present scope of human speculation.
+
+If men are to be regarded especially as to the weight and power with
+which they operate on the minds of their fellow-men, then this
+camel-driving trader must without question be estimated as a great
+man--a man a long way above his fellows. Assuredly too it is chiefly
+through the Koran that his great and God-like thoughts, crystallized
+into greater motives and actions, have filtered down through the events
+and developments of thirteen centuries, as a purifying, fertilizing, and
+elevating factor.
+
+Looking at him and his work from every aspect, Mohammed was not merely a
+heroic prophet. He was much more. A king and a leader of men. A ruler
+and a judge over them. If we are to judge of him, to take him for what
+he is worth, by his work--the rich ripe fruit of his rare and strenuous
+effort--the Koran on the one hand, and, on the other, the mighty
+spiritual force he has left behind him in the Church of Islam, we must
+pronounce him to have been a great and remarkable man. A man who, when
+his true value is understood and appreciated, will stand out in history
+as a political and religious reformer of a virile and heroic type. A man
+who will be regarded in even a greater light than he now is, when
+humanity shall have become less denominational and more rationally
+humanitarian. In reality Mohammed was an ultra great man. The difference
+(as it appears to me) between other great men and himself was wide. The
+ordinary type of great man--a John Knox for example--is a patriot
+essentially. He is for his country first, then for God and humanity. As
+I have shown, with Mohammed it was just the reverse. An Arab by accident
+of birth, he put God and nature before everything. It was this that made
+him a humanist; this that placed him before his age. For Mohammed,
+without a shadow of a doubt, was centuries before his age. In his God
+concept, in his rejection of the ancient myth of immaculate conception,
+in his refusing to acknowledge Christ’s divinity, he was essentially a
+modern--a modern of the twentieth century. It was this catholicity
+therefore that made Islam blossom into a spiritual energy that embraces
+so many national units.
+
+Mohammed fought with all his might and main. In exact proportion to his
+labour he has prevailed. Prevailed over the issues of life and death.
+Death had no terrors for him. Life alone was full of terror--i.e. of the
+fear of God. In death there was no sting. In the grave there was no
+victory. Death but killed the mortal part of him. The spiritual it has
+increased and multiplied out of all proportion. The present soul of
+Islam is the spirit of Mohammed. Only when this exhausts itself will
+Islam wither and die! To this day he is, and for many æons to come he
+will be in spirit, the ruler and judge over Islam. In spite of sects and
+theological speculators, as long as Islam lasts, his spirit will
+continue to preside over its destinies. His spirit lives in the spirit
+of the creed that he bequeathed as a divine legacy to humanity--i.e. to
+those sections of it which have been nurtured in the system and
+adoration of the Patriarch. For though the material part of him is dead,
+the spiritual still speaks with a voice that is myriad-tongued. As God’s
+word, there is a sanctity in the Koran for every Moslem that exceeds
+the reverence of the Christian for the Bible, as much as the fiery
+splendour of the sun surpasses the cold pale glamour of the moon--which
+is but a shadow, a pale reflection of the substance and reality. There
+is, in fact, on the part of the Moslem a veneration accorded to the
+Koran that practically equals the veneration of the African or the Irish
+for their land. Compatible with this, there is for the Moslem but one
+Prophet. As God’s chosen agent for the dissemination of His word,
+Mohammed stands alone and aloof on a pinnacle that is humanly
+unapproachable. Many faults have been imputed to him, many charges
+brought against him. To the average, indeed even to the educated
+Christian, Mohammed is nothing but the very strangest compound of right
+and wrong, of error and truth, the abolisher of superstition according
+to his own showing, yet a believer in charms, dreams, omens, and jinns.
+But what of all this? Does not reasoning such as this itself prove how
+very inconsequent and inconsistent is man, even though he be a European
+and a Christian? Is not superstition of the same kind as rife at this
+very moment in Europe, nay in the very centres and strongholds of
+Christendom? What about the ikons, the charms, the amulets, the sacred
+relics and the images of the Greek and Romish Churches? Is not this but
+a form of materialism which itself is a phase or part--a very large
+part--of Nature? Did not superstition (derived from “super,” above or
+beyond measure, and “sto,” to stand) originally imply excess of scruple,
+or of ceremonial observances in religion? Did it not describe a
+superfluity of worship that exceeded what was either enjoined or
+fitting? What does Cicero say of it in his treatise on _The Nature of
+the Gods_? (I quote from an old translation): “Not only Philosophers,
+but all our forefathers dydde ever separate _superstition_ from true
+religion. For they whiche prayed all day that theyr children might
+overlyve (superstites essent), were called _superstitious_; which name
+after was larger extended.” Is not this thing we call superstition--this
+belief in the super or rather outside natural as distinguished from the
+vague and merely vulgar absurdities that are so common--but the result
+of inherent instincts that humanity, as simply one form of natural
+development, derives direct from Nature? Is not this Naturism more or
+less developed in us all--more in the ignorant, less in the educated,
+and least of all in the scientist; the sceptic who knows most, because
+he has looked and searched more into the truth and reality of things;
+because he has learnt by experience, fact, knowledge, therefore a
+greater intelligence to discriminate which from what and why from
+wherefore? In any case, does not the fact that Mohammed was
+superstitious all the more clearly prove that he was no mere vulgar
+designer who practised self-deception and pretensions with regard to his
+mission, but that he was thoroughly sincere in believing himself to be
+the specially selected Apostle of the Great Designer and Controller of
+the universe?
+
+But it is not to Mohammed’s faults that we must look. All great men are
+moulded out of faults. It is in his virtues and greatnesses--and they
+are many--that we will find the true man. In this Carlyle was a right
+guide, and showed his own breadth of mind and greatness. These prove
+Mohammed to have been one of humanity’s greatest constructors. It is
+true that he destroyed, but on a small scale comparatively in proportion
+to the immensity of his constructive labour. As evidence of this, the
+physical, the moral and the spiritual wealth of Islam speaks in round
+numbers and solid realities. In another of his great romances, Dumas,
+speaking of John Knox, says: “He who had raised such a storm had need to
+be, and he was, a Titan; indeed John Knox was one of those men whom
+great religious and political revolutions invariably beget. Born in
+Scotland or England during the Presbyterian Reformation, they are
+called John Knox or Oliver Cromwell; born in France, in the time of
+political reform, they are called Mirabeau or Danton.” Mohammed was, in
+every sense of the word, more titanic than a Cromwell or a Mirabeau. He
+was not by nature or at heart a destroyer. When he destroyed it was only
+because his hand was forced by the crass and obstinate antagonism of
+those upon whom his sincerity and persuasiveness had aroused an envious
+and deadly hatred. The whole aim, end and object of his existence was to
+develop the adoration and religion of God. The storm he raised was
+conjured into being by the God that obsessed him. Hence the soul and
+constructiveness in it. Hence the mighty spirit of Islam, measurable
+only by a soul capacity which has never ceased to expand and develop. No
+sane man surely can deny that Islam was and is a great work? The moral
+figs and grapes that she has achieved are not such as could have been
+gathered from the thorn and thistle of human effort. Yet curiously
+enough, as I have shown, the environment in which it was born was
+strangely stern and sterile! This, however, is one of those natural
+anomalies that we would do well to leave alone. One of those paradoxes,
+those mysteries which Nature teems with, that are altogether beyond
+human comprehension.
+
+Whether or not he had made a study of the Socratic precept “Γνῶθι σεαυτόν”
+“know thyself,” Mohammed knew himself as thoroughly as it is possible for
+a man to do. Early in life he took his own measure. Gauged his own strength
+and weakness. Estimated the breadth, the length, and the depth to which he
+could go. As a result of this moral estimate, he felt that his resources
+without God were as slender as a broken reed buffeted by storm winds. He
+knew that his real strength lay in the knowledge and power of God and of
+Nature. The temperament and character of the Psalmist--he who looked on
+God as the strong tower and rock of his defence, his refuge, not however
+in time of trouble alone, but at all times--was strongly developed in him.
+The genius of the whole Semitic race was centred in Mohammed. It was this,
+amounting as it does to the sublimest egotheism, that gave him confidence,
+then conviction. It was this righteous conviction that carried him as it
+were on the wings of the wind--immortal breath and soul, as he pictured
+it--of the living and eternal God. Through this feeling he converted the
+innate fear and veneration that inspired him into the hand and power of
+the Almighty. If genius implies a keen psychological insight into the
+nature and inner consciousness of life’s issues, added to inexhaustible
+energy, capacity for work and patience, then Mohammed was a genius.
+Certainly, if we accept Buffon’s definition of genius, as, “but a greater
+aptitude for perseverance,” he was without doubt a genius of the highest
+degree. The founder of a faith--one of the greatest the world has
+produced--spiritual commander of the faithful, his genius was
+essentially moral and religious. His whole life was one long labour of
+love and devotion to achieve his object, i.e. to proclaim God to the
+nations of the earth: the first half of it passed in secular work but in
+silent contemplation; the second half, itself divisible into two
+periods, twelve years of persuasion, followed to the close by active
+aggression and battle.
+
+Impulsive, passionate, and spontaneous Mohammed may have been, for like
+all great leaders he was many-sided. But in no sense of the word can
+Islam be said to have been the outcome of spontaneity. On the contrary,
+it was in every way the result of calm and deliberate reflection, of
+long and continuous contact with the forces and phenomena of Nature; but
+above all of an unceasing concentration and communion with the unseen
+power that controls them. Stretching over some twenty years, it went on
+uninterrupted by domestic cares or trade transactions. All these were
+secondary matters and had to give way to the central idea that occupied
+his whole mind, that revolved around his work and his thoughts, as the
+earth gyrates about the sun. His centre of gravity was God. This gravity
+formed his character, gave him courage and endurance in all his trials
+and afflictions, counselled and guided him in his ordinary vocations. It
+was this gravity and concentration that commanded the respect and trust
+of all who knew him and came under his magnetic influence.
+
+But Mohammed was not infallible. Dogma--everything human in fact--is
+open and liable to error. Even infallibility itself--as we speak of
+it--is fallible. As Draper so aptly remarks: “He who is infallible, must
+needs be immutable.” In many of the ordinary ways of life he was no
+doubt changeable and inconsistent. He was, after all, only human--but
+not with regard to the Faith. Here was he as firm as a rock, and showed
+a fixity of purpose that nothing could shake or alter. With him, “Life
+was but a means to an end, that end, beginning, mean and end to all
+things--God.” Only synchronous with this ruling principle was the idea
+of national unity. Never once did he falter or swerve from it. To this
+allegiance and fidelity of his to God and centralization it is possible
+to trace the devotion of Moslems to their Faith. “We are, as we often
+say, the creatures of circumstances. In that expression there is a higher
+philosophy than might at first sight appear. Our actions are not the pure
+and unmingled results of our desires. They are the offspring of many
+various and mixed conditions. In that which seems to be the most voluntary
+decision, there enters much that is altogether involuntary--more perhaps
+than we generally suppose.” This was very much the case with Mohammed.
+He was largely the creature of circumstances--the personification of his
+environment. It was the genius of this that entered into and obsessed
+him. That formed and swayed him as it willed. That made him as strong
+and inflexible as itself. That, combining with the commercial knowledge
+and experience he possessed and the political acumen he acquired, made
+him what he was. Here in a tiny nutshell lies the kernel and origin of
+the soul of Islam. The possibility that Mohammed was rather of Caucasian
+than Ishmaelitish descent, in reality makes little if any difference in
+the psychological analysis of his character. Fundamentally, human nature
+is human nature all the world over. In this respect racial and colour
+distinctions make no difference. Even moral and physical characteristics
+are merely superficial classifications. Inherent tendencies, strong and
+rooted as they are, may be amended or modified by environment. So that
+although it is vaguely possible that his moral courage and other mental
+features were of Caucasian origin, in the main he was essentially
+Semitic in character, patriarchal in principle, and humanistic in
+spirit. In Lecky’s opinion: “If we take a broad view of the course of
+history and examine the relations of great bodies of men, we find that
+religion and patriotism are the chief moral influences to which they
+have been subject, and that the separate modification and mutual
+interaction of these two agents may almost be said to constitute the
+moral history of mankind.” This most certainly has been the case with
+regard to Islam. Religion was the medium chosen by Mohammed for the
+furtherance of his truly imperial design. It was entirely through
+religion, or rather the interpretation he placed upon it, that he built
+up first of all a natural patriotism, then an international spirit, that
+expanded into the mighty creed of Islam. Prior to this, Arabia as he
+found it was narrow to an extreme. The only patriotism--if patriotism it
+can be called--was clannish and communal. Outside these stilted limits,
+every one was regarded with suspicion, contempt, indifference, and
+invariably with undisguised hostility. Yet the great and solid
+foundation of this splendid spiritual and temporal empire was laid by
+one man. But how great and how heroic! Indeed, “take him all in all, the
+history of humanity has seen few more earnest, noble and sincere
+‘prophets,’ men irresistibly impelled by an inner power to admonish and
+to teach, and to utter austere and sublime truths, the full purport of
+which is often unknown to themselves.”
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISLAM
+
+
+The better to gauge the present political aspect of the Moslem world,
+the statesmen of Europe--of France and Great Britain more
+particularly--should make an earnest study of the spirit of Islam. If we
+regard Islam as the work of Mohammed--as we are bound to--there are
+certain broad features we must also recognize. Right away from its very
+inception he worked not only as a prophet, but as a political reformer.
+Travelling as he did with his eyes, ears and all his senses open, the
+political state of the eastern portion of Europe and the western side of
+Asia must have been well known to him. To accomplish his religious ends
+was impossible without the political unity of Arabia. To him the
+political and religious unity of his country were synonymous. As a
+shrewd and practical trader, the material advantages of commerce were
+taken into consideration. He recognized that without a sound commercial
+basis and political unity there could be no national stability. He also
+saw that in a country like Arabia, split up into clans and communities,
+it was only possible to effect this through the spiritual potentialities
+of the one and only true God. If he did not himself accomplish this
+great project, we know at least that it was the magnificent legacy he
+bequeathed to his followers in the spirit of Islam, that eventually did
+so in reality. He or the spirit he evoked was clearly and unmistakably
+the cause of all subsequent Moslem triumphs, intellectual and political
+as well as religious. Thus it was that scarcely eighty years after his
+death, Islam reigned supreme over Arabia, Syria, Persia, all the
+northern coast of Africa, including Egypt, as well as Spain. So, too,
+notwithstanding the internal schisms and rifts that subsequently took
+place, it kept on growing with great strides, until at last in 1453, the
+Crescent gleamed from the spires of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and
+the soul-stirring war cry “La ilah illa Allah” resounded seventy-six
+years afterwards before the very gates of Vienna. Lecky is undoubtedly
+right in assuming that: “To trace in every great movement the part which
+belongs to the individual and the part which belongs to general causes
+without exaggerating either side is one of the most difficult tasks of
+the historian.” But in the case of Islam there can be no mistake. True,
+the Arabs in themselves were a great and virile people. But it was the
+genius of Mohammed, the spirit he breathed into them through the soul of
+Islam, that exalted them. That raised them out of the lethargy and low
+level of tribal stagnation, up to the high water mark of national unity
+and Empire. It was in the sublimity of Mohammed’s deism, the simplicity,
+the sobriety and purity it inculcated, the fidelity of its founder to
+his own tenets, that acted on their moral and intellectual fibre with
+all the magnetism of true inspiration. To them Islam was the Faith--the
+Faith God.
+
+Just as Christianity stands for the faith of the great European family
+of nations, Islam stands for those countries whose political
+institutions are still based on the Patriarchal system. But
+Europe--however superior her peoples may think themselves--is not in the
+position, and certainly cannot afford, to look down upon Islam as an
+inferior product of an inferior section of the great human family. East
+may be East, and West, West--the system of one represented by polygamy,
+of the other by monogamy. But because Christianity is conformable to
+European ideals and notions, it does not in the least follow that it is
+compatible with those of the East. Because the civilized net result it
+has effected has eventually proved greater than that achieved by Islam,
+is no evidence whatever of Islam’s worthlessness or decadence. It is
+not the spirit of Islam that has failed, but the people who believe in
+it. They have fallen away from the high ideal that was set them by their
+master. In this respect, however, Christianity has also degenerated. It
+is a creed of profession more than of practice. It has never
+consistently practised what it has preached. A very wide gulf divides
+its practices from its ideals. “If to do were as easy as to know what
+were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages
+princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions:
+I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the
+twenty to follow mine own teaching.” So Shakespeare. This holds as good
+now as when he wrote it. Human nature never alters fundamentally. It is
+the same to-day as it was yesterday, and as it will be unto all
+eternity. Christendom much more so than Islam, is split up into sects
+and denominations, and there can be no question about it that the chief
+obstacle to unity among these various bodies at the present moment is
+want of sincerity and earnestness!
+
+Compared with the average Moslem, the average Christian too is certainly
+lukewarm. The nearest approach to Moslem perfervidness is in the piety
+of the Irish Catholics. But devotional as they are, even this falls far
+short of the rigid practice of the true Moslem. Not only, however, is
+he fervid and in downright earnest, but he is above all constant,
+faithful, and consistent to the principles of his creed. Thus, although
+there is no fatherhood about Allah, there is for all that a true and
+real brotherhood in Islam which contrasts very favourably with the
+professed brotherhood of Christendom. Colour or race, for instance,
+makes no difference to it. Islam, in fact, is above all such petty
+differences. She draws no hard and fast rules, has no such violent
+antipathies, bigotries and prejudices as Christendom. Professes little
+but practises much. Colour in her eyes is no disgrace, no bar to God,
+much less therefore to human fellowship and assimilation. This, as we
+know, is not the case with Christians. To them colour and race (as
+witness in the United States of America) is an impassable barrier, that
+is more insurmountable even than the great wall of China, over which
+they find it impossible to step.
+
+There are in nature, as Novalis endeavours to explain in his
+philosophical romances, many realities and verities, the truth or
+essence of which cannot be grasped by the cold and critical intellect of
+man. Only by and through the sympathetic intuition of feeling can truths
+such as these be known or understood. This is indeed so. No matter how
+hard and material we may be, however thoroughly scientific; no matter
+how high we may place reason--even on the highest pinnacle of human
+attainment, there are times when the emotions overpower and dominate it.
+There are times when reason, even in its calmest and most calculating
+moments, is simply inundated and overwhelmed by the flood-tide of human
+feelings. In any case it is clear that although in the abstract it is
+impossible to detach or even insulate thought from feeling and feeling
+from volition, these three--feeling, thought and will--act, and often
+co-operate together, in every mental causation. But it is just as
+difficult for a system to free itself from its own peculiar
+idiosyncrasies and prejudices as it is for an individual to dissociate
+himself from his motives. It is exactly the same with regard to Islam
+and Christendom. The latter has allowed its prejudices and its feelings
+to obliterate or to stultify its reason. It does not know, it does not
+understand Islam. Merely because it does not want or makes no effort to
+know or to understand it. Because it has no sympathy with it. Because in
+place of sympathy it is in reality antipathetic. Yet while professing
+toleration, Christendom does not hesitate to despise and condemn Islam.
+To Christendom, Islam is a mere creed and abstraction--a creed beyond
+and outside its cold and autocratic pale. A creed belonging to another
+world and heaven than its own. A creed of colour and of sombre shades,
+nay even of gloom and darkness, blood, fire and sword, when the crescent
+and green flag of the Jihad is hoisted; a creed which is not to be
+thought of in the same breath as the snow-white fabric of the
+transcendent cross.
+
+The fact of the matter is, that Christendom in the earlier days of
+Islam, jealous and fearful of her younger and more vigorous rival,
+always recoiled from Islam under the veil of a self-satisfied cant, as
+from a monstrous monstrosity of the most vicious and immoral type. A
+form of “Moloch horridus,” bristling all over with polygamous
+excrescences, and cruel sharp-pointed spines, ever ready to thrust their
+awful venom into the unoffending human species. Yet if only Christendom
+had long ago cultivated the virtue of patience, and the breadth and
+depth of mind, to look into the matter, she would have discovered--as
+those sceptics who have done so have discovered--the pure and
+unadulterated truth. She would have found, that as the Moloch horridus
+of Australia conceals an inoffensive character under a weird if
+repulsive exterior; so Islam, under an outward form which bigotry and
+prejudice have exaggerated out of all shape, possesses a moral and
+spiritual value beyond all cavil or question. Islam no doubt has its
+faults and many of them. The position of women is not perhaps as it
+should be. The law and the practice of divorce is a real blot on her
+system. Education is at a low ebb. The custom of the separation of
+sexes, of which polygamy and divorce are the necessary outcome, are
+undoubtedly pernicious. It cannot, of course, be expected that young men
+and women who have never met or associated, and whose marriages are
+arranged for them, can have any exalted ideas or feelings on the subject
+of love. It is not possible that young men who have never felt the
+refining influence and the moral restraint of female society, can
+possess either chivalry or a high ideal, with regard to an element
+unique in itself. Nevertheless, contrary to received European opinion,
+there exists for all that a very real and hearty affection and a warm
+sympathy between Moslem husbands and wives. What is more, this affection
+and sympathy will possibly contrast quite favourably with the family
+devotion of most European countries.
+
+With regard to women, however, the social system, it must be admitted,
+is less successful. It leaves room for improvement. The institution of
+female slavery is distinctly a blot. The lot of the Moslem girl morally
+and socially is not so much unhappy as neglected. Her ordinary education
+is practically negative; the religious part of it is regarded as
+superfluous. But it is a popular fallacy, as I have already pointed
+out, to attribute to Islam the doctrine that women have no souls.
+Unfortunately, however, the idea prevails generally throughout Europe
+that these precious possessions are ignored by modern custom: that the
+fair sex is not encouraged to pray either in private or in public. It is
+believed, too, that the vigorous ritual prescribed for the male members
+is considered sufficient for both. So that Moslem women by ignoring the
+one neglect the other, with consequences that are morally and physically
+disastrous. But these are not by any means the real facts of the case.
+Personally, of course, I cannot speak of such matters from experience.
+Isolated and secluded as the women of Islam are, and their privacy so
+rigorously guarded by a ring fence of stringent rules, it is not
+possible for the European to give an adequate opinion thereon. But
+according to the reliable authority of so eminent a Moslem as Syed Ameer
+Ali, and others, the women among civilized Moslem communities know their
+prayers and religious duties just as well as the men--and are devout and
+pious--more so perhaps than the other sex. As to their cleanliness, it
+is beyond question. Yet in spite of so many obstacles--no education,
+seclusion, and a generally defective training--the women are not
+unhappy. They are on the whole as fully occupied (in their own way of
+course) and as well cared for as the women of Europe.
+
+The fact of the matter is, Islam is suffering from mental stagnation,
+from the inevitable reaction that always succeeds a long period of
+active development. The Arabs, in a word, have had their day. With
+regard to education generally, the teaching is of a stereotyped pattern.
+There is no freshness or originality about it. Moslem studies have, in
+fact, lost all or most of their vitality. “The bloom of Arab culture has
+long been brushed away, and there now remains only a hollow kernel.” But
+it is after all by her virtues and not her defects that we must appraise
+the true value of Islam. Most unquestionably she has great and redeeming
+features. The throwing of stones or of mud is at best an injudicious
+proceeding. Apart from this it is undignified and unworthy of so high a
+civilization. It is not for Christendom to throw stones any more than it
+is for Islam. Indeed, in this respect, Europe could well take a leaf out
+of the book of Moslem self-restraint and dignity. Moslem society, too,
+may compare very favourably with European. Taken in the mass, the
+polygamous Moslem is every whit as moral--more so in fact--than his
+English, French, or German contemporary. In a great measure polygamy is
+much more a theoretical than a practical institution. Not one in twenty
+Moslems has even two wives. In any case it is not in the proper and
+legitimate practice of polygamy, but in the abuse of it, that the evil
+lies. On the whole there is no promiscuous immorality among the
+followers of Islam. Drunkenness and prostitution are practically
+non-existent. In towns where Europeans have made them a necessity, they
+are always worse. Abstinence and sobriety are not only professed but
+practised. In these respects the young Moslem certainly stands above his
+contemporary in Europe. Marrying early as he does, he knows nothing of
+“the wild oats” that are so promiscuously and so religiously sown by the
+youth of Europe. He sows no rank or noisome weeds for his children’s
+children to reap a gruesome harvest. As far, therefore, as the male sex
+are concerned, the social system of Islam is certainly more moral and
+wholesome than that of Christendom.
+
+The cult of Mormonism, as it has existed and still exists in Utah State
+and Salt Lake City, is a problem that should set all statesmen thinking!
+As a psychological conundrum and from a rational standpoint, it is a
+most interesting question. It confronts us with a dual anomaly! First of
+all by the enforcement of a sociological system in distinct opposition
+to, and in defiance of all ethnic conditions. To make the anomaly all
+the greater, the religious part of this cult is founded on a palpable
+sham. There is not even about it the possibility of reality that always
+exists at the back of many ancient myths.
+
+The so-called revelation of Joseph Smith, is the clumsy imposture of a
+man who in no sense of the word was either great or sincere. It is
+unquestionably the work of one or more persons who initiated the
+movement in their own self-interests, and to cloak principles that were
+at complete variance with Christian doctrine and European opinion.
+Mohammed, as we know, did not receive any revelation “on the eternity of
+the marriage covenant, or the plurality of wives.” This, according to
+Mormon statement, was reserved for Joseph Smith alone. As a great
+statesman and prophet, Mohammed recognized polygamy to be an ethnic
+condition, therefore wisely did not interfere with it. Any radical
+innovation in this direction would have been more than a political
+error. As a revolutionary measure, it would have completely upset the
+entire fabric of Arabian and Eastern society. A pandemoniac
+topsy-turveydom would have been the immediate consequence. The
+death-knell of Islam, the direct result. Yet the very personal god of
+Joseph Smith was so very short-sighted or painstaking that he sanctioned
+absolutely a mere matter of domestic arrangement and economy. Could any
+two extremes present a wider and more striking contrast? Is it possible
+even to compare the splendid sincerity of this sublime creed of
+self-surrender to God--the soul of which came direct from all that is
+great in nature--with the thin transparency of what at best was a poor
+attempt at fiction, which emanated from the mentality of a human
+mediocrity? Is it justifiable to mention them in the same breath?
+
+Yet in spite of these startling contradictions, it is quite certain that
+the Mormon State, in an economic sense, is a prosperous, flourishing and
+thriving community. Its people too are orderly, well-behaved,
+law-abiding and industrious. From a moral and social standpoint, there
+is no fault to find with them. The anti-polygamic legislation of the
+United States Government, although it has recently been enforced with
+much greater severity than at first, has not stamped out polygamy. Does
+this or does this not demonstrate that polygamy--which in the eyes of
+Christendom constitutes one of the chief offences of Islam--is not the
+crime it is represented to be? Is it, in fact, a crime at all? Does it
+not prove that only the abuse of it, as the abuse of any, even a good
+thing, is wrong? But that the actual system itself as an ethnic
+condition peculiar to certain racial sections of mankind, is nothing but
+the outcome or evolution of sociologic customs and usages?
+
+To contend as all the Mu’tazilite doctors do that Islam is not a
+polygamous system because it only tolerates a limited polygamy under
+stringent conditions which tends to monogamy is but a metaphysical
+quibble. It is but an attempt to split a hair. It does not alter the
+fact that when a system permits more than one wife, and its founder
+sanctioned four, it is certainly not monogamous. Such an argument will
+not hold water for even a moment. It is but a mere contention--“a bone,”
+as the Persian proverb says, “thrown to two dogs,” a palpable piece of
+sophistry. It is but the begging of an obvious fact, a reality that can
+neither be avoided nor eluded. As Burns so very happily puts it:
+
+    “But facts are cheels that winna ding
+    An downa be disputed.”
+
+From theories such as this, Islam can derive no benefit. Just as in a
+broad sense she can suffer no disparagement from the fact that she
+countenances polygamy, she can afford to dispense with any such
+apologies. It is always a sounder principle to look truth in the face,
+even if that truth is unpalatable. However much civilization or the
+march and progress of events may ultimately modify polygamy, the actual
+custom itself was but an outcome of circumstances and conditions that
+at the time were inevitable and did not (as they do not now) imply a
+crime against or subversion of natural laws. To stigmatize a system that
+time and usage have sanctified for thousands of years, merely because it
+offends _the easily outraged feelings of a super-sensitive Christendom_,
+or even on other grounds, is, to say the least of it, undignified. To
+impute a crime to the thing itself is almost, but not quite, on a par
+with the theology that pronounces a child to be the product of a sinful
+act. If the cause is sinful, the effect must also be sinful? Such a
+theory is certainly unnatural, if not monstrous! It is a perversion of
+that Nature from which we ourselves have evolved, and of that God or
+First Cause from which all causes and effects have proceeded.
+
+Regarding this question from the broadest of standpoints, there is no
+need of an apology. Contention such as that of the Mu’tazilite doctors,
+casts too much of a reflection--an insult almost--on the great spirit
+and the splendid traditions of Islam. It is altogether unworthy of her.
+The fact of a polygamous system did not in one whit detract from the
+splendour of the empire that was built upon Mohammed’s virile creed,
+although the subsequent abuse of it may possibly have done so! Even
+admitting that monogamy is an improvement on polygamy, the Christian
+Faith was yet young when Mohammed first founded Islam. Thirteen hundred
+years make a vast difference in the aspect of social progress and
+development. And as I have already pointed out, even Mohammed, with all
+his great power and influence, dared not have upset the corner-stone
+upon which the entire social fabric of the Patriarchal system was based.
+However great he was as a Prophet, he was much too great a statesman to
+have even spent a thought on an innovation so startlingly radical and
+revolutionary.
+
+But Christendom in the mass has never rationally considered this
+question from a broad-minded and liberal aspect! The attitude of its
+missionaries towards the great Moslem Church is, to say the least of it,
+uncalled for and unjustifiable. Their irrational arrogance and
+aggressiveness is only exceeded by their psychological ignorance of
+Islamic spirit and morality, added to an overweening egotism, blind
+bigotry and narrow sectarian prejudices. In a dual sense their attitude
+is offensive in the extreme. Offensive because it is hostile as well as
+impertinent. To attempt the conversion of Islam is a liberty that
+amounts to licence in face of its utter futility. This in itself
+demonstrates an ignorance of ethnic conditions on the part of European
+statesmen and missionaries that is as amazing and preposterous as it is
+deplorable. So, too, to denounce Islam, as Christian missionaries do in
+no unmeasured terms, in books, on platforms and in the pulpit, is surely
+unpardonable--surely a reflection on civilization. Christianity will
+never convert or supplant Islam. As long as the one lasts the other will
+endure. From the most catholic of standpoints, from a religious, a
+social, a political, and an economic sense, it would be sounder and more
+politic to leave Islam alone. It would be more to the point if Christian
+missionaries devoted their energies to the bottom dogs of the slums of
+their own European cities, and to rescue the poor helpless infants who
+in their thousands are being slowly done to death through vice and crime
+that is worse than bestial. Unquestionably there is in our own European
+system a moral cancer that is just as virulent as any that Islam can
+produce. This indeed is a question that European statesmen should turn
+their attention to. For more than anything, it is this onslaught on the
+strongholds of Islam by Christendom, that explains the Moslem menace.
+The one, if it exists, is but a counterblast to the other.
+
+It is an indisputable fact that in China and in various parts of the
+world, the high-handed interference and injudicious zeal of Christian
+missionaries--outrunning all discretion, tact, and common sense--has
+frequently been the cause of war and bloodshed. Is this, I ask,
+compatible with Christian tenets and professions? Do not practices such
+as these fall far short of the high ideals that are so consistently
+flourished in the face of those who are outside its pale? Do they not
+bring moral discredit on a great creed, and tend to reduce it to the low
+level of mere and fulsome cant? But one small specimen of this open and
+undisguised hostility will suffice. In the _X. Y. Z._ of July 24, 1908,
+under the heading in large type of “ISLAM THE ENEMY,” appears the
+following: “At the annual meeting held in connexion with the Church
+Missionary Society at Harrogate recently, the Rev. W. Y. Potter said:
+‘The calls which are most urgent are perhaps those to combat advancing
+Mohammedanism in West Africa, to direct the new desire for learning in
+China, to protect the Japanese nation from Agnosticism, by gathering in
+the millions in these lands into the folds of the Christian Church.’”
+
+A sentence like this speaks for itself. It is self-condemnatory. It
+condemns the speaker and the whole system which advances and encourages
+such narrow and vicious methods. It condemns, too, a journalism that
+gives such poor and unworthy utterances a place, even as a mere “Fill
+up.”
+
+Islam is not an enemy. It is Christendom only that makes her so. It is
+that craven conscience, which finding in her a teacher and a worker of
+solid worth, has aroused the envy and malice of the ever jealous
+theological spirit, which has invariably been responsible for so much
+war and bloodshed. It is a relic of the same militant envy that, burning
+with fury throughout the Dark Ages, fired the Crusades to a very great
+extent. A cramped and dogmatic spirit such as this does not surely
+represent the true spirit of modern Europe, which is presumably rational
+and reasonable, and consistent with the genius of progress and
+advancement. There is no real and spontaneous Moslem menace. Even,
+however, if there is, it is but the re-echo of these aggressively
+Christian sentiments. It is but the answer to a challenge, as
+undignified and contemptuous as it is aggressive and defiant. Islam, I
+repeat, is not an enemy, but a co-worker with us in the great and
+glorious cause of uplifting humanity from a lower to a higher
+civilization. Islam has neither intention nor design of encroaching upon
+the spiritual preserves of Christendom. Further, she has no itching wish
+to do so. Her leaders have the common sense to recognize that
+Christendom is separated from her by ethnic laws and social customs that
+are indivisible. She is only too willing; all, in fact, she asks, is to
+be left alone to work in her own sphere of influence. Is it not
+possible, then, for a Christendom professing so vast a moral and every
+other kind of superiority, to meet her half way, to make a truce or
+compromise to the effect that each should work in its own legitimate
+sphere? A pugnacious method such as she pursues towards Islam is as bad,
+worse in fact, than a thousand red rags to an infuriated bull. For like
+the unfortunate victim in a Spanish bull-fight, tormented to its death
+by matadors, piccadors, torreadors, and a host of other “dors,” Islam is
+beset and heckled by the frothy vapourings of theocratic firebrands, and
+the unbridled licence of Europe’s gutter press.
+
+The origin of Islam, as I have described it, is in itself evidence of
+Islam’s moral and spiritual stability--of that part of her which has not
+deviated from, but clung to the spirit of her great Founder. But even
+allowing for denominational deviations, Islam in the mass is truly
+devout.
+
+The two creeds represent two absolutely divergent sections of humanity.
+Unquestionably in a social, moral and religious sense, Islam is Islam,
+and Christendom, Christendom. To remedy this divergence, to bring the
+two sections together, enters into the impossible.
+
+A natural arrangement such as this cannot be interfered with or altered.
+Defective as it is from a human aspect, it is all the same
+irremediable--a hiatus as wide apart as the suns in space, beyond the
+power of human effort to bring together. It is only possible for the
+rational gospel of humanism, the great religion of natural sympathy, to
+heal the breach. This it can only do by turning humanity into one great
+human family. This alone would sweep away the disturbing factors of
+creeds, denominations, and sects. But is such a thing possible?
+Scarcely! Certainly not so long as the egotism and egotheism of man is
+so predominant a force in human sociology, or so long as the present
+physical and mental environments of the two sections remain the same.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+EUROPE’S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF INFLUENCE
+
+
+But apart from all these weighty considerations, the attitude of Europe
+towards Islam should be one of eternal gratitude, instead of base
+ingratitude and forgetfulness. Never to this day has Europe acknowledged
+in an honest and whole-hearted manner the great and everlasting debt she
+owes to Islamic culture and civilization. Only in a lukewarm and
+perfunctory way has she recognized that when, during the Dark Ages, her
+people were sunk in feudalism and ignorance, Moslem civilization under
+the Arabs reached a high standard of social and scientific splendour,
+that kept alive the flickering embers of European society from utter
+decadence.
+
+Do not we, who now consider ourselves on the topmost pinnacle ever
+reached by culture and civilization, recognize that had it not been for
+the high culture, the civilization and intellectual as well as social
+splendour of the Arabs, and to the soundness of their school system,
+Europe would to this day have remained sunk in the darkness of
+ignorance? Have we forgotten that the Mohammedan maxim was that, “the
+real learning of a man is of more public importance than any particular
+religious opinions he may entertain”--that Moslem liberality was in
+striking contrast with the then intolerant state of Europe? Have we
+forgotten that the Khalifate arose in the most degenerate period of Rome
+and Persia, also that the greater part of Europe lay under the dark
+cloud of barbarism? Does the magnificent valour of the Arabs, inspired
+as it was by a theism as lofty as it was pure, not appeal to us? Does
+not the moderation and comparative toleration shown by them to the
+conquered, notwithstanding the fierce and burning ardour to regenerate
+mankind that impelled them onwards to conquest, also appeal to us? Does
+it not all the more appeal to us, when we contrast this with the
+bitterness of the attitude of the Christian sects towards one another?
+Especially when we consider that in Christendom as it was then
+constituted, extortion, tyranny and imperial centralization, combining
+with ecclesiastical despotism and persecution, had practically
+extinguished patriotism, by substituting in its place a schismatic and
+degenerate church.
+
+Is it not obvious that in her outlook on Islam, Europe has overlooked
+her own Dark Ages--that awful period of intellectual oblivion which
+commenced with the decline of classical learning subsequent to the
+establishment of the barbarians in Europe in the fifth century, and
+continued down to the Renaissance, i.e. towards the end of the
+fourteenth century? Is it too not evident that she has lost all
+recollection of the torn and disturbed state of Christendom even in the
+middle of the fifteenth century when the Renaissance was in full swing,
+or had at least run half its course? How few Europeans there are who
+know the name of Æneas Sylvius--fewer still who can remember the
+striking and vivid picture he has drawn of the state of Europe in those
+days of dawning intelligence! Yet this prelate, afterward Pope Pius II,
+sums up the then European situation in a curious but concise and
+explicit document--a species of state paper dated 1454. Possessing as he
+did a personal knowledge of Europe, and being a man of great natural
+shrewdness and power of observation, Æneas Sylvius was of all men then
+living the best qualified to describe the state of affairs at this
+period. So that his observations are not only significant, but entitled
+to weight and consideration.
+
+Discussing the prospects of the projected crusade, he praises warmly
+Philip of Burgundy for his readiness in the matter, then gives his
+reason for concluding that the Diet at Frankfort must be a failure. For
+there is no real unity in Christendom; neither Pope nor Cæsar is duly
+reverenced or believed in; they are but feigned names or painted
+effigies--each state has its own king: there is a prince to every house.
+Italy is disturbed, Genoa being at feud with Aragon; nay, worse, Venice
+has actually a treaty with the Turk. In Spain are many kings, all
+differing in power, government, aims and opinions. There is even war too
+there about Granada. France is still looking uneasily across the Channel
+at England, her old foe, and England watches France. The Germans are
+divided, without coherence; their cities quarrel with their princes;
+their princes fight among themselves. Luxemburg is a cause of dispute
+between the King of Bohemia and the Duke of Burgundy.
+
+Is it possible that Europe is unmindful of, and has the ingratitude to
+ignore, the splendid services of the scientists and philosophers of
+Arabia? Are the names of Assamh, Abu Othman, Alberuni, Albeithar, Abu
+Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Rushd
+(Averroes) of Cordova, the chief commentator on Aristotle, Ibn Bajja
+(Avempace) besides a host of others, but dead letters? Is the great work
+that they have done, and the fame they have left behind them in their
+books, to be consigned to the limbo of oblivion, by an ungrateful
+because antipathetic Europe? Does the work of Alhazen, author of optical
+treatises, who understood the weight of air, corrected the Greek
+misconception or theory of vision, and determined the function of the
+retina, count for nothing? Do we owe no tribute to a great thinker such
+as Ghazali, who in speaking of his attempts to detach himself from his
+youthful opinions says: “I said to myself, my aim is simply to know the
+truth of things, consequently it is indispensable for me to ascertain
+what is knowledge”? It cannot be that already we have lost sight of the
+amazing intellectual activity of the Moslem world, during the earlier
+part of the “Abbasid” period more especially? It cannot be that we have
+quite forgotten the irrecoverable loss that was inflicted on Arabian
+literature and on the world at large by the wanton destruction of
+thousands of books that was prompted by Christian bigotry and
+fanaticism? It cannot surely be said of Christian Europe that for
+centuries now she has done her best to hide her obligation to the Arabs?
+Yet most assuredly obligations such as these are far too sacred to lie
+much longer hidden! Let Europe--Christendom rather--confess and
+acknowledge her fault. Let her proclaim aloud to her own ignorant
+masses, and to the world at large, the ingratitude she has displayed,
+and the eternal debt she owes to the Islam she no longer despises. Open
+confession is good for the soul, and only a confession such as this can
+wipe off the black stain which has for so long besmirched her fair fame.
+Let Christendom once and for all recognize that the greatest of all
+faults is to be conscious of none--that acknowledging a fault is saying,
+only in other words, we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday. Only
+through magnanimity such as this can she claim redemption. For she must
+surely know that “injustice founded on religious rancour and national
+conceit cannot be perpetrated for ever.”
+
+Let me endeavour to make my meaning somewhat clearer, by means of two
+simple illustrations--the one belonging to the eighteenth century, the
+other to the twentieth. “How many great men do you reckon?” Buffon was
+asked one day. “Five,” answered he at once; “Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz,
+Montesquieu, and myself.”
+
+Some five to six years ago, the present German Emperor, in giving his
+views on divine revelation and manifestation, is said to have expressed
+himself as follows: “To promote man’s development God has revealed
+Himself in man, whether he be priest or king, whether heathen, Jew, or
+Christian. So in Moses, Abraham, Homer, Charlemagne, Luther,
+Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant, and the Emperor William the Great, whom God
+thus sought out to achieve imperishable results. His grandfather often
+said that he was an instrument in God’s hands.”
+
+Comment on my part of any kind would be but an insult to the intelligent
+or sympathetic reader. But the way in which Islam is studiously ignored
+in both cases is surely significant and luminous. These are but two mere
+examples taken at random, but they are typical of European arrogance,
+egotism, and her general attitude of supercilious apathy towards the
+Moslem world. After all--even when an enlightened emperor is
+concerned--it is but a step, and a short quick step, from the sublime to
+the ridiculous.
+
+In Europe’s own interest it would in the end repay her statesmen to
+treat the world of Islam with greater sympathy and toleration, also with
+but ordinary justice. These remarks apply more forcibly of course to
+Great Britain and France. From the standpoint of the highest
+statesmanship, these two states should utilize the power they possess
+towards the attainment of this wise and politic object. Instead of
+permitting any such impolitic measures (as e.g. those made by Christian
+missionaries to proselytize) they should, by every means that lies
+within their power, advance, encourage, and stimulate the work of Islam
+in its own proper and legitimate sphere of influence. Reflection will
+remind them that intolerance or persecution in any form, as the history
+of Christianity itself proves, always aided, but never deterred, the
+development of any creed. These facts alone ought to recommend the study
+of Islam to all British statesman. But in addition, I would point out to
+them one feature that is worth looking into. This is, that the same
+blend of materialism and spirit, the same desire for unity, cohesion and
+construction, which characterized Mohammed’s efforts, have operated also
+in the building up of the British Empire. It is practically out of these
+forces, but under different aspects and conditions of social and
+physical environment, that England has expanded into Greater Britain.
+Given the same conditions and environment, and the same vigorous people,
+and there is no knowing what the true spirit and fervour of Islam might
+not have effected. Remember that the soul of Islam, as the Prophet left
+it, did not lack in spiritual stamina. The lack of it has been in her
+disciples, who have found it difficult to live up to the rigid standard
+that was set them by their Lord and Master. In a great international or
+rather intercreedal question such as this, it is highly impolitic to
+make comparisons, more especially when the creeds in question represent
+a sphere of thought and a sociological system so widely divergent as
+Islam and Christendom. All the same, there are facts that the latter
+should be reminded of. Throughout its great and growing history,
+particularly its earlier career when fanaticism was excusable, militant
+and violent as she has been, Islam never descended to so hateful a
+system as the diabolical Inquisition, never stained the great soul of
+her Faith by ruthless and bloody massacres such as those of the
+Albigenses, Waldenses, and St. Bartholomew. On the contrary, she showed
+a spirit of religious toleration that was as rational as it was
+remarkable. Indeed under the Ommiades of Spain (755-1031) this was in
+every sense greater, higher and wider than that which prevails at
+present in modern Spain. It is true of course that Ma’mun, one of the
+Abbasid Caliphs, established in 833 A.D. a mihna or Inquisition, in
+order to uphold the rationalism of the Mu’tazilite doctrine against
+orthodoxy. But it was shortlived. For soon after his successor W’athik
+is said to have officially abandoned rationalism; and in fourteen years
+from its initiation, the cruel and bigoted Mutawakkil sternly put his
+foot on it, and with it the Inquisition. This, however, was not an
+Inquisition such as that of the Romish Church. In reality it was but a
+council established with the object only of introducing rationalism
+into the empire and to keep out reactionaries from the State Service. In
+other words, it was but a “Test,” which was promulgated and administered
+on the same lines and principles as the Test Act in England. Is it wise
+then for the statesmen of Europe to ignore such weighty facts? Would it
+not be more politic on their part to take cognizance of them? It is on
+facts such as these that European policy in its relationship to Islam
+should be based. It is only by making the study of universal history a
+science that the politician can ever hope to become a statesman. This
+means a thorough and comprehensive grasp of ancient as well as modern
+history. Such a grasp alone will enable him to look into the future and
+shape his policy. But to do so without a complete knowledge of Islam’s
+history in the past, and the manifest part she has yet to play in the
+history of the future, is to show an utter ignorance of statecraft, but
+especially of that wider sphere of “welt politik” which bears the same
+analogy to the former as, in military parlance, strategy does to
+tactics. These shapers of the destinies of their various nations must
+remember that Islam has done for the East, or rather for the world of
+polygamy, what Christendom has done for the West or world of monogamy.
+She has uplifted millions upon millions of human beings from a much
+lower to a far higher scale of civilization. In Africa and in Asia she
+has purified the primitive cults of their sacrificial abominations, has
+introduced a better and humaner legislation, has encouraged commerce and
+industries and established a more stable form of government. Finally,
+she has exalted the supreme God, whose worship had practically fallen
+into abeyance, to a pinnacle of solitary grandeur, and in this way
+uplifted the people into a far higher moral and spiritual atmosphere. To
+quote Stanley Lane Poole, she has given them “a form of pure theism,
+simpler and more austere than the theism of most forms of Christianity,
+lofty in its conception of the relation of man to God, and noble in its
+doctrine of the duty of man to man, and of man to the lower creation.”
+Islam, in fact, has done a great work. She has left a mark on the pages
+of human history which is indelible, that can never be effaced--that
+only when the world grows wiser will be acknowledged in full--in other
+words, when the sun of knowledge shall have dispelled the black clouds
+of ignorance. But Islam is still doing, and will continue to do, the
+great work that her founder initiated. This is a work that Christianity
+can never do. Islam too has a mission. But her mission is in quite
+another sphere to that of Christendom. It is (and has for some time
+been) the preconceived opinion in Europe that the power and influence
+of Islam since the waning of her conquests have come to a standstill.
+That morally and spiritually her influence is demoralizing and
+corruptive--the bane, in a word, of those nations that she is
+proselytizing. But this is not so. Never was a greater and more
+unpardonable mistake made than this. An error rather than a mistake. The
+wish but prompts the thought. There is still much moral and spiritual
+vitality in Islam, therefore elasticity and power of expansion. In
+Africa especially, among all the Bantu and negroid tribes whose
+sociology is patriarchal, there is a great work for her to do. These
+peoples by their whole social system and in every moral sense belong to
+the sphere of Islam and not of Christendom.
+
+To judge or even criticize Islam from a European standpoint is uneven.
+To get her proper measure, Islam must be weighed from the aspect of the
+ethnic basis upon which she rests. To compare one system by the standard
+of another, it is only possible to arrive at a distorted or unequal
+result. Islam can no more be judged by modern commonplace methods than
+Europe can be judged on the same lines by Islam, or than Mohammed
+himself whose splendid concept it was. The manners and morals of his own
+time must also be taken into consideration. The two creeds of Islam and
+Christendom have been built on different bases, and constructed out of
+different material. The God of one is the God of universal nature. The
+God of the other is a triform Being--a metaphysical trinity in unity.
+Socially the Moslem is a polygamist, religiously he is an unitarian. The
+European is just the opposite to this. Socially he is a monogamist,
+religiously he is a trinitarian. In a word, the system of these two
+great human divisions differ as much from each other as their foot gear.
+That of the Moslem again conforms to nature. That is, his shoe is made
+to fit the foot, which narrows at the heel, and splays out at the toes.
+In Europe, on the contrary, the foot is made to fit the shoe, which,
+wide at the heel, narrows into a point at the toes. How is it possible
+then for two such widely divergent systems to agree?
+
+But at least they can agree to differ. At least there is one broad base
+upon which they can meet. On the grounds of a common humanity, on the
+grounds of a common sympathy, by a common birth and a common death they
+are equal. It is not for Christendom to hang back. Islam is quite ready
+to meet her more than half-way. From the superior vantage ground of her
+position, it is for her to hold out the right hand of fellowship. It is
+for her to recognize the real worth of Islam. It is for her to respect
+not to contemn her great coadjutor. For her to regard Islam, not as a
+foe or even a rival, so much as a great and worthy co-partner with her,
+in the work of civilization. From this reasonable and rational
+standpoint the sphere of Islam’s influence should be wisely left alone.
+For the enforcement of Christianity on races such as those of Africa,
+for instance, whose system is patriarchal, can only end, as it has
+already done, in their utter denationalization and hybridization. To
+Europeanize and turn into Christians these sons of nature merely for the
+motive of gaining converts is impolitic, if not immoral. It but makes
+human mules of them. Wiser far to let them remain as they are. As well
+try to turn camelopards into crocodiles or pythons into hippos, as
+convert Africans into Europeans. Islam attempts nothing unnatural of
+this kind--nothing that is opposed to ethnic conditions and sociological
+usages. In her case she but develops the lama into the camel.
+
+It is impossible, fatuous in fact, to ignore or even overlook the basic
+importance of physical environment. Even science in this respect has
+been backward, and very slowly recognized that geography is obviously
+and essentially the basis of all history--i.e. of all human action and
+development. The importance of climate and climatic changes on the
+habits, customs, temperament and character of races, has never been
+clearly and thoroughly realized. Not until this has been estimated and
+appreciated at its true value, will it be possible for reason to
+override the dogmas and bigotries of short-sighted and prejudiced
+theology. But the day is fast approaching when this fact must be
+acknowledged as a universal truth. Then only will Islam and other creeds
+be appraised from an even and rational standpoint.
+
+Even admitting that Islam has receded from Mohammed’s moral and
+spiritual high water mark, this is all the more reason why the statesmen
+of Europe should stretch out a helping hand to assist in raising her to
+her former level. All the more reason why they should encourage and
+stimulate her to higher aims and endeavours. This assuredly would be a
+more dignified and statesmanlike proceeding than that which, if it does
+not sanction, at all events permits the good name and fame of Islam to
+be smirched with contumely, and to be held up before the world as a
+standing menace to civilization. A course such as I have suggested, is
+much more likely to bring about a better understanding and preparation
+towards any possible fusion. On the other hand, the present propaganda
+of active theological aggression and political indifference, is bound to
+make the breach wider than ever with the ultimate certainty of
+disruption. In face of such a climax there is but this one remedy. As a
+moral and spiritual factor in the regeneration of humanity, Islam is
+indispensable. In her own sphere she must not be interfered with. The
+good of humanity is a higher cause to work for than the mere
+glorification of creed and sect. The cause of humanity strikes wider,
+deeper and higher than that of any creed or denomination. By working
+towards this end, by sinking denominational differences in the common
+stock-pot of humanity, the world at large and civilization in particular
+will in the end gain ever so much more.
+
+In speaking of Islam and of Moslems as I have done, I have spoken of
+them as I have found them. Apart from a careful study of the Koran, my
+knowledge of both is based on personal facts and experiences as varied
+as they are extensive. In every clime and under a variety of conditions,
+I have been in touch with Moslems of all classes and shades, and have
+always found them animated by the same spirit--for race or colour makes
+no difference to the spirit of Islam. Always consistent and devout,
+always God-fearing and sincere as regards their Faith. Before all things
+religious, their cult, the creed of Mohammed--i.e. El Islam or
+self-surrender. Afghan, Arab, Baluchi, Hindustani, Somali, Turk,
+Egyptian, Hadendowa, Berber, Senegalese, Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba,
+Mandingo, Malay, I have found them in the main Islamic to the very
+core. In peace or war, in camp and cantonment, working and fighting with
+or against them, my experience of their moral consistency and spiritual
+stamina has been the same. Brave to a fault, endowed with the reckless
+courage of the Fatalist, fearless and contemptuous of death, their
+fidelity to their Faith, their belief in the greatness of Mohammed, and
+their veneration of God, is a something that once it is rightly
+understood, can only be respected and appreciated at its true value. For
+my part, seeing as I have their splendid heroism in their own cause, and
+their touching devotion to those whose salt they have eaten, my feelings
+towards them is not only one of unmixed admiration and respect, but also
+of deep esteem and regard. Such men are worthy of Islam, as Islam indeed
+is worthy of them. Only the soul--the moral and spiritual essence--of
+Islam could have made them what they are, could have turned out of the
+dregs of barbarism a human material so truly splendid.
+
+With experience and facts such as these before me, I for one find it
+impossible to forget, and only natural to acknowledge with candour, the
+great and magnificent part that Islam has occupied in the history of the
+world. In the intellectual strife of heroes who have wrestled and fought
+for the truth and who for many centuries led the world, in the arena of
+battle and of conquest where warriors have led the van, the sons of
+Islam stand on a pedestal of their own making, that as the world grows
+older and more enlightened, will stand out in all the greater
+prominence. Stand out as men who have taken as great and heroic though
+not so sustained a part on the stage of universal history as the giants
+and heroes of Christendom.
+
+Even in a study of this length it is in reality impossible to deal
+exhaustively with a question so wide and extensive as this, which
+requires a large volume to itself. But I have said enough, I trust, to
+show that the value of Islam as a moral and spiritual factor in the
+civilization of the world is very considerable. I hope too that to all
+who are reasonable and rational in their views, I have shown, as clearly
+and as concisely as it is possible to do within such narrow limits, that
+the so-called “_Moslem menace_” is but the wraith of an over-heated
+imagination--the bogie conjured up by a hectoring and arrogant
+theocracy, backed up, unfortunately, by an indiscreet and tactless
+Press, ever ready to exaggerate any piece of cheap claptrap into the
+sensation of the moment. Always eager to lift up even garbage such as
+this to the higher level of dramatic denouements, by giving undue
+prominence to the unreliable froth and effervescence of irresponsible
+and excitable cranks. In a word, by a process of moral aggravation that
+is unworthy a great and liberal Press.
+
+Finally, I have endeavoured to make it clear, that apart from motives of
+honour and high principles and consistent with the dignity of the great
+Aryan family, Europe should adopt towards Islam a policy of conciliation
+and co-operation: if for nothing else, to avoid being hoisted by her own
+overcharged and explosive petard. If I have done but this, then at least
+my labour shall not have been in vain.
+
+[Decoration]
+
+
+
+
+ISLAM--CORRIGENDA.
+
+
+P. 8, Foreword. In lines 3 and 2 from bottom, _united_ should read
+_suited_.
+
+On p. 57, line just above quotation, _could be still:_ should read
+_could be: still--_
+
+P. 87. In line 3 from bottom, _an an alysis of_ should read _an analysis
+of_.
+
+
+
+
+Liscard Commercial and Collegiate Schools,
+
+_Liscard, Cheshire_.
+
+
+These Schools, which are highly recommended by Major A. G. LEONARD,
+differentiate in the teaching given to their Senior boys, there being
+three courses to meet the requirements of those destined for (A)
+Commerce, (B) the Professions or the University, (C) Engineering, etc.
+
+This Advertisement is inserted in the hope of securing as private
+boarders a limited number of European, Asiatic, or African pupils whose
+parents wish them to be educated in England. Such parents may rely on
+the Headmaster’s complete and sympathetic attention to their children.
+
+References given and required. All particulars will be furnished on
+application to--
+
+    MR. W. P. HAMMERSLEY,
+
+    “_Harbour View_,”
+
+    Seabank Road, Liscard, Cheshire.
+
+
+
+
+PROVISIONS & OUTFIT
+
+
+Griffiths, McAlister & Co.,
+
+    EXPORT PROVISION MERCHANTS, Etc.,
+      29-31, Manesty’s Lane, LIVERPOOL.
+        14, Billiter Street, LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+Suppliers of all kinds of Provisions, Camp Equipment, Medical Stores,
+Wines, Spirits, and Mineral Waters, etc., for Exploring and Mining
+Expeditions; also for private use abroad.
+
+All Goods suitably packed for Hot and Cold Climates, and made up in
+loads suitable for all modes of Transport.
+
+
+    CONTRACTORS TO THE CROWN AGENTS
+    FOR THE COLONIES.
+
+    _Suppliers to Lieut. Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition,
+    1907-1909._
+
+
+    Telegraphic Addresses:--
+      “COOMASSIE,” LIVERPOOL.
+      “APPEASABLE,” LONDON.
+
+Codes used--A, B, C, 4th and 5th Editions and Lieber’s.
+
+
+ESTABLISHED 1880.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber’s Note
+
+
+Italics are indicated by underscores, _like this_.
+
+The corrigenda were originally inserted before the Foreword; they have
+been implemented, and moved to the end of the text for reference.
+
+The advertisements were originally printed on either side of the title
+page; they have been moved to the end of the text.
+
+The following sentence, which seems to be missing one or more words, has
+been retained as printed:
+
+     Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas and ideals that he kept
+     to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+
+Both “half way” and “half-way” are used.
+
+The following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been
+corrected:
+
+    Title page:
+    _“Personal Law of the Mohammedans,” etc_
+    changed to
+    _“Personal Law of the Mohammedans,” etc._
+
+    Page 9:
+    South American Guacho is not
+    changed to
+    South American Gaucho is not
+
+    Page 9:
+    adapted for idealistic minds.
+    changed to
+    adapted for idealistic minds?
+
+    Page 27:
+    the orginator of a new
+    changed to
+    the originator of a new
+
+    Page 32:
+    (an under rather than an over-estimate)
+    changed to
+    (an under- rather than an over-estimate)
+
+    Page 33:
+    God’s omnipresence and omipotence had made
+    changed to
+    God’s omnipresence and omnipotence had made
+
+    Page 56:
+    each a mighty voice,
+    changed to
+    each a mighty voice,”
+
+    Page 56:
+    blackness that prevades the very soul
+    changed to
+    blackness that pervades the very soul
+
+    Page 57:
+    grandeur and appaling sameness
+    changed to
+    grandeur and appalling sameness
+
+    Page 66:
+    truths are only found in the depths of the thought.
+    changed to
+    truths are only found in the depths of the thought.”
+
+    Page 72:
+    were much in repute, when both,
+    changed to
+    were much in repute; when both,
+
+    Page 82:
+    secrets _of God_ neither do I say
+    changed to
+    secrets _of God_, neither do I say
+
+    Page 87:
+    to hurl inuendoes, anathemas
+    changed to
+    to hurl innuendoes, anathemas
+
+    Page 91:
+    known as Aeneas Sylvius (Pius Aeneas):
+    changed to
+    known as Æneas Sylvius (Pius Æneas):
+
+    Page 94:
+    the sacred reduit and rallying ground
+    changed to
+    the sacred réduit and rallying ground
+
+    Page 96:
+    awakening of the spirit of commerce
+    changed to
+    awakening of the spirit of commerce.
+
+    Page 103:
+    I also will wait it with you.
+    changed to
+    I also will wait it with you.”
+
+    Page 125:
+    Islam, in fact is above
+    changed to
+    Islam, in fact, is above
+
+    Page 130:
+    In a great measure pologamy is much more
+    changed to
+    In a great measure polygamy is much more
+
+    Page 134:
+    all the Mutalazite doctors
+    changed to
+    all the Mu’tazilite doctors
+
+    Page 135:
+    that of the Mutalazite doctors
+    changed to
+    that of the Mu’tazilite doctors
+
+    Page 139:
+    She is only too willing, all, in fact,
+    changed to
+    She is only too willing; all, in fact,
+
+    Page 146:
+    ascertain what is knowledge?”
+    changed to
+    ascertain what is knowledge”?
+
+    Page 147:
+    “Newton, Bacon, Liebnitz, Montesquieu, and myself.”
+    changed to
+    “Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and myself.”
+
+    Page 156:
+    other creeds be apprised
+    changed to
+    other creeds be appraised
+
+All other peculiarities and inconsistencies of spelling, punctuation and
+capitalisation have been retained as printed.
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by 
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
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diff --git a/38114-0.zip b/38114-0.zip
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by 
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value
+       A Rational And Pyschological Study
+
+Author: Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+Release Date: November 23, 2011 [EBook #38114]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Anne Grieve and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    ISLAM
+
+    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE
+
+
+
+
+    ISLAM
+
+    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE
+
+    A Rational and Psychological Study
+
+
+    By
+    MAJOR ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD
+
+    LATE 2ND BATT. EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
+
+    _Author of "The Camel, Its Uses and Management," "How we made
+    Rhodesia," "The Lower Niger and its Tribes"_
+
+
+    With a Foreword by
+    SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E.
+
+    _Author of "The Spirit of Islam," "Life and Teachings of Mohammed,"
+    "Mohammedan Law," "Personal Law of the
+    Mohammedans," etc._
+
+
+    LONDON
+    LUZAC & CO
+    46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
+    1909
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+I am glad to introduce this book with an expression of the pleasure and
+interest with which I have read Major Leonard's admirable psychological
+study of a subject, the importance of which it is hardly possible to
+overrate.
+
+Unfortunately it has been too common hitherto to regard Islam as an
+antagonistic force to Christendom; to depreciate its Founder and to
+discount its Ideals. As the author justly observes, it is hardly
+possible for a student really anxious to acquaint himself with the inner
+spirit of another Faith, to gain an insight into its true character
+until he has divested himself of ancient prejudices that narrow his
+perspective and prevent his taking a broad view of the aims and
+aspirations of the great men who from time to time have tried to uplift
+humanity.
+
+Major Leonard has dealt with his subject in this broad spirit; he has
+approached it with sympathy born of intimate acquaintance with races
+and peoples who profess the Faith of Islam. His is eminently a
+philosophical study of its Founder, of its true moral and spiritual
+utility, and of the great impetus it gave to the progress of the world.
+
+In the eight chapters that constitute this book he has discussed the
+entire range of questions affecting the personality of Mohammed and the
+tendency of his religion. In his treatment he shows himself a
+philosophical rationalist animated with a reverence for the Arabian
+Teacher--the evident outcome of a true appreciation of the mainspring of
+his actions.
+
+In the first chapter the author has applied himself to expose the
+absurdity and hollowness of the Pan-Islamic "bogey." That the growing
+_rapprochement_ between Moslem communities, hitherto divided by
+sectarian feuds, should be viewed with disfavour by Europe as indicating
+a danger to its predominance and selfish ambitions is intelligible. But
+that it should be regarded as a deliberate challenge to, or intended as
+a hostile demonstration against Christendom, is a mere chimera. Major
+Leonard proves conclusively that the Pan-Islamic movement is no modern
+political movement; but that morally and spiritually Islam, in its very
+essence, is Pan-Islamic; in other words, a creed that recognizes in
+practice the brotherhood of man to a degree unknown in any other
+religion, and admits in its commonwealth no difference of race, colour
+or rank.
+
+Moslems, laymen and scholars, will probably not agree with some of Major
+Leonard's remarks in his outline of the Prophet's character and
+temperament; but they must all acknowledge his sincerity. He describes
+Mohammed as a great and true man--great not only as a teacher, but as a
+patriot and statesman; a material as well as a spiritual builder, who
+constructed a nation and an enduring Faith, which holds, to a greater
+degree than most others, the hearts of millions of human beings; a man
+true to himself and his people, but above all to his God.
+
+The author has gone to the Koran itself for the animating purpose of
+Mohammed's strenuous and noble life. He believes that the national good
+to be obtained only by the recognition of the conception of a God who is
+both "national and universal" was the dominant idea that impelled and
+inspired the Prophet of Arabia. In his appreciation of Mohammed's
+teachings, Major Leonard has grasped the real spirit of Islam; and both
+as regards his moral and spiritual precepts, as also the enunciations
+respecting the duties of every-day life, the author has given the
+Arabian Prophet his due. He dwells on Mohammed's affection and sympathy
+for the weak, the afflicted and suffering, with the orphan and the
+stricken; on his humanity to the dumb creatures of God; on the duties of
+parents to children, and of children to parents; on his burning
+denunciations of the terrible crime of female infanticide.
+
+In the eighth and last chapter Major Leonard speaks of the debt Europe
+owes to Islam, and endeavours to show that the religion of Mohammed, far
+from being antagonistic to human development, has materially helped in
+the progress of the world. It is part of Major Leonard's thesis that
+Christianity and Islam belong to "different spheres of influence"; in
+other words, whilst Christianity is suited to certain races, Islam is
+peculiarly suited to others. Races and peoples adapt their religions to
+their own respective advancement, and the same religion varies among
+different communities according to the stage of their development. The
+Christianity of the barbarous South American Gaucho is not the same as
+that of the cultured Englishman, nor is the Islam of the cultivated
+Moslem identical with that professed by ignorant followers of the Faith.
+But it would be hard to say that philosophical Christianity exactly
+answers the needs of the lower strata of Christendom to whom the
+positive directions of a simple practical faith might appeal with
+greater force. Might not Islam, with its emphatic prohibition of drink,
+the primary cause of all the vice and crime in Europe, prove a far
+greater civilizing agency in the slums of European cities, and do far
+more good in reclaiming the debased, than a religion which does not
+possess that positive character and is only adapted for idealistic
+minds?
+
+Whatever view a rationalist may hold on this point, I feel that Major
+Leonard has laid the world of literature under a debt for his admirable
+monograph on a peculiarly interesting subject.
+
+    AMEER ALI.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                    PAGE
+
+    CHAPTER I
+
+    THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!                      13
+
+
+    CHAPTER II
+
+    AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED'S TEMPERAMENT
+    AND CHARACTERISTICS                               23
+
+
+    CHAPTER III
+
+    THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED             51
+
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+
+    MOHAMMED'S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS                 71
+
+
+    CHAPTER V
+
+    THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET'S
+    CHARACTER                                         84
+
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+
+    A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED'S WORK
+    AND WORTH                                        101
+
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+
+    MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM'S ATTITUDE
+    TOWARDS ISLAM                                    121
+
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+
+    EUROPE'S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF
+    INFLUENCE                                        142
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!
+
+
+For some time past, but more especially during the last year or two, it
+has become quite the fashion in Europe to rail at and to suspect the
+good faith and motives of the Moslem world. If we are to believe the
+European Press, Europe is in deadly danger. The "_Yellow Peril_" of a
+few years ago has, by means of the juggling of modern journalism,
+cleverly transformed itself into the "_Moslem Menace_." According to
+this trenchant successor of the ancient oracle, there is unrest and
+seething turmoil everywhere. In Egypt, a national confederation; in
+Morocco, a crisis; in the heart of Africa, the Senussi movement; in
+Turkey and Arabia, secret associations and agitation; in Persia even,
+disaffection but co-operation. In one word, Europe--Christian, civilized
+and unoffending Europe--is confronted with a Pan-Islamic confederation,
+that is co-operating to achieve the unity and the nationalization of all
+Islam, with the express object of ultimately turning upon Christendom,
+and rending her into a thousand tattered fragments.
+
+That there has been no revival of "the chronic conspiracy" within our
+Indian Empire, is, however, easily explained. This, which purposed to be
+a religious agitation among Indian Moslems, was an expression more
+familiar twenty-five years ago and was attributed to the influence of
+Wahabite oratory. It is, of course, possible that the present agitation
+and unrest among the Hindus generally, but the Bengalis in particular,
+has for the time being at all events diverted the attention of the
+outside world in other directions. But it is also more or less generally
+taken for granted that the Moslem population of India has sunk into a
+state of political lethargy, which if it does not betoken loyalty,
+obviously demonstrates a dumb and passive revolutionary torpor that is
+tantamount to it.
+
+That agitation and unrest exist throughout the Moslem world would be
+nothing either new or unusual. In a human sense, Islam is identical with
+Christendom. She too has her social functions, her political parties,
+associations, confederations and societies. She has her religious sects
+and denominations. As with us, so with Islam, there are affinities, and
+antipathies, emulations and jealousies, competitions and rivalries,
+likes and dislikes, envy, malice, hatred and all uncharitableness. The
+interest of self predominates before all else. In kind there is
+certainly no difference, in degree it is possible that Europe may be a
+step or two higher. But this is not the point that I would here
+emphasize. To fall back on the time-honoured maxim, immortalized by
+Shakespeare, comparisons of this kind are incompatible if not odious.
+Besides, recrimination is as futile as it is injudicious and
+undignified.
+
+It is not of moral discrepancies on either side that I would speak. Nor
+have I any wish to rake up the low-lying sediment, or to disturb the
+still waters which are running deep in the great ocean of Moslem life.
+Under the conditions that prevail, it is assuredly best to let sleeping
+dogs lie. Left alone they are much less troublesome. There is always the
+possibility that they may oversleep themselves and fall into a dormant
+and inactive state. In this way the still waters of sedition and
+agitation soon find their own level--the embers of revolt may at times
+flare up, but they soon flicker out.
+
+It is of the moral and spiritual utility, with the soul of Islam, that I
+am now about to deal. For Islam, believe me, has a soul--a sincere and
+earnest soul, a great and profound soul--that is worth knowing. It is in
+this soul that the whole kernel and essence of Islam lies. A thorough
+knowledge and a clear comprehension of this great spirit will alone
+enable the statesmen and thinkers of Europe to understand the complex
+problems of so-called Pan-Islamism. To obtain this grasp, however,
+certain qualifications are absolutely essential. It is necessary--e.g.,
+to approach the subject from a rational and reasonable standpoint--to
+detach the mind from all preconceived dogmas and opinions; to lay aside
+all prejudices, racial, religious, social and otherwise, and all
+bigotries and intolerance; to be confined to no one creed, sect or
+denomination of any kind, sort or description, but the one great world
+of Humanity that, in the eyes of Nature, is of one soul and body. This
+may be a large, or as cousin Jonathan would call it, a tall, order. It
+bulks big and sounds ponderous. In face of what human nature is, it
+appears impracticable. But even in human nature there are exceptions and
+possibilities. An aspect such as this, then, though improbable, is
+certainly possible, if exceptional. Let us presume at least that in this
+instance it is so. It is, at all events, on these broad lines that the
+following pages have been written. It is the true spirit of human
+sympathy and fellowship that has moved me--the sympathy and fellowship
+that would draw together, or at least nearer to each other, the worlds
+of Christendom and Islam.
+
+The better to achieve my object, I have consulted no works on either
+Mohammed or Islam, but have gone straight to the source or fountain
+head--to Mohammed himself, the Koran, and to Moslems of various
+nationalities with whom I have been brought into close and personal
+touch during a wide and a varied experience. It is here in the man and
+his work that the true soul of Islam is to be found. Just as in its
+founders and foundations lies the heart and essence of Christianity, it
+is in and out of the merits as well as demerits of Mohammed's work, that
+we shall form the true estimate of Islamic utility. By their fruits ye
+shall know them. Men do not gather figs of thorns, or grapes of
+thistles. Mohammed most certainly did not. As he sowed, so he has
+reaped! So he is still reaping. The Koran was the immediate consequence
+of his concentration and communion with Nature and Nature's God: Islam
+the natural result. In other words, Islam is the devotion of Moslems to
+Mohammed and the Koran--his work, plus their patient resignation and
+entire submission to God, His will and His service! The man of fixed and
+unchanging purpose has a supreme contempt for obstacles. But when, as in
+Mohammed's case, that purpose is the glorification of God, he has at
+hand a lever that can move the world. In this peculiar sense the great
+Prophet of Arabia was self-contained. He had everything within himself:
+that everything centred in God and Arabian unity. He sought only what he
+needed. This was to unify God and his country. How he succeeded is a
+matter of history.
+
+D'Aubign� in his history of the Reformation, speaking of Luther, says:
+"Men, when designed by God to influence their contemporaries, are first
+seized and drawn along by the peculiar tendencies of their age."
+Undoubtedly this, in a great measure, is so. It is quite evident that
+Mohammed was influenced in this way. Yet it is also obvious that he was
+not so much seized by the peculiar tendencies of his age (for in many
+ways he was far in advance of it), as that he was obsessed and dominated
+by the energy or spirit of God, and utilized these special features with
+the design of disseminating this overmastering God possession to others.
+
+"There are but three sorts of persons," Pascal used to say: "those who
+serve God, having found Him; those who employ themselves in seeking Him,
+not having found Him; and those who live without seeking Him or having
+found Him. The first are reasonable and happy; the last are mad and
+miserable; the intermediate are miserable and reasonable."
+
+If ever man on this earth found God, if ever man devoted his life to
+God's service with a good and a great motive, it is certain that the
+Prophet of Arabia was that man. That on the whole and in the truest
+sense of the word he was reasonable, is best seen in the result which
+his labour achieved. That he was happy, is quite another matter. Real as
+is our existence, happiness at best is but an ephemeral phase of it. Yet
+there is much truth in the assertion, that gaiety seeks the crowd, while
+happiness loves silence and solitude as Mohammed himself did. In any
+case, if the satisfaction which ensues as the consequence of duty done,
+and well done, is happiness; if the consciousness that he has done his
+best in all sincerity and conscientiousness, gives happiness to the ego,
+then it is possible to assume that in bequeathing the grand heritage of
+Islam to posterity, Mohammed must have gone to his final rest in a state
+of supreme happiness.
+
+Self-belief--"that thing given to man by his Creator," as Carlyle calls
+it--was, as I shall show, a salient feature in Mohammed's character.
+More than half a Bedawin (or what was practically the same thing,
+passing a great part of his life in deserts), this was only natural. But
+he did not allow this self-consciousness to degenerate, either into
+vanity or egotism. It neither spoilt nor conquered him. He knew his own
+weakness--none better--therefore relied all the more on the power of
+God. It was this outside influence which reacted on him so powerfully
+from within. It was this judicious blend or amalgam of two seemingly
+different thought-currents, which were in reality only a bifurcation of
+the same current, that gave him all his strength. It was this unique
+combination of an apparent dualism (through intense mental
+concentration) in one divine Monism that gave Mohammed victory over
+every obstacle. It was this compressed one-ness--the most sublime
+triumph of individual concentration in the world's history--that carried
+Islam into the uttermost parts of the earth. It was this centralization
+of moral or religious gravity that swelled the belief of one man--a
+modest camel-driving trader only--into the perfervid belief of hundreds
+of millions. "For given a sincere man, you have given a thing worth
+attending to. Since sincerity, what is it but a divorce from earth and
+earthly feelings?"
+
+One thing more. To thoroughly comprehend the spirit of Mohammed or the
+soul of Islam, the student himself must be thoroughly in earnest and
+sincere. He must in addition possess that moral, mental and intellectual
+sympathy which gives the ego an insight into human subtleties as well as
+simplicities. He must take Mohammed and Islam as he finds them--in the
+same intensely sincere spirit that constituted the one and inculcated
+the other. He must at the outset recognize that Mohammed was no mere
+spiritual pedlar, no vulgar time-serving vagrant, but one of the most
+profoundly sincere and earnest spirits of any age or epoch. A man not
+only great, but one of the greatest--i.e. truest--men that Humanity has
+ever produced. Great, i.e. not simply as a prophet, but as a patriot and
+a statesman: a material as well as a spiritual builder who constructed a
+great nation, a greater empire, and more even than all these, a still
+greater Faith. True, moreover, because he was true to himself, to his
+people, and above all to his God. Recognizing this, he will thus
+acknowledge that Islam is a profound and true cult, which strives to
+uplift its votaries from the depths of human darkness upwards into the
+higher realm of Light and Truth. It is in this deep sense of
+earnestness, and in this tense but even-minded spirit of equity, that I
+have endeavoured to make my study both rational and psychological: in
+other words, reasonable and true to the spirit. Naturally, therefore, I
+have avoided those narrow and devilish pitfalls of racial, creedal and
+colour prejudices--that awful curse of Humanity, that insuperable
+barrier to the cult of Humanitarianism--which leads to the deadly cancer
+of _Misconception_. Finally--making due allowance for space
+limitations--I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to get to the
+root of all that is good and great in the immortal work of this leader
+of men who was so good and so great in every sense. In this way only is
+it possible to get at the truth. Shallow, superficial and paradoxical
+inquiries are mere empty vanities as utterly useless, from a human
+standpoint, as those which are biassed and one-sided. To reach the
+depths, to touch the bottom, to get to the root of any true man's
+motives, sincerity and thoroughness are as essential as intellectual
+acumen and profundity.
+
+In this short study my one idea all through has been to delineate
+Mohammed as he was and Islam as she is. For this reason I have neither
+painted them with my own colouring, nor introduced into their natural
+complexion any outside flesh tints. In plain English, I have not placed
+upon their beliefs and principles a construction that, being ethnically
+foreign to the entire sociological system upon which they are based,
+would have been a fundamental error, at complete variance with them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED'S TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS
+
+
+One of the first thoughts that a very careful perusal of the Koran
+brings home to me, is the intense humanity of Mohammed and his work. The
+more one studies the various motives that led to his so-called
+revelations, the more one is struck by the strong associations that
+connect these divine messages and ordinances with the actions and
+movements that were going on all round him, as well as in his own
+mind--owing in a great measure to his own preaching.
+
+In estimating the moral value of either Christianity or Islam, it is
+necessary to take into consideration, also to make allowance for, the
+times in which their founders lived. To attempt to judge one or other of
+them from the scientific standpoint of modern culture and civilization
+would be not only uneven but impossible. To gauge the standard of their
+mental and moral attainments, the student must investigate their work,
+and compare, then contrast, it with the general intellectual level of
+their own age. When this has been done, he should try and, if possible,
+realize what effect the advent and the doctrines advocated by them (in
+the one case some 1,900 years, and in the other 1,300 years ago) would
+now produce. In this way only is it feasible to arrive at a true and
+legitimate conclusion. But in doing so, the inquirer must divest,
+certainly dissociate himself, from all existing ideas on the subject,
+and deal with it as it is, and not what he thinks it ought to be.
+
+The more one studies the Koran, the more obvious does it become that
+Mohammed had a powerfully receptive mind, and a specially retentive
+memory. Notwithstanding that he was illiterate, unable even to read and
+write, it is clear that he was well versed in all the tenets and
+traditions of his own people and of the Jews; and that in addition he
+had made himself acquainted with some of the doctrines and dogmas of the
+Christian Gospels. It is above all certain that for a great number of
+years Mohammed concentrated his mind thereon with the force and
+intensity of a sincere and ardent nature. But first and foremost the one
+great idea of the being, unity and providence of God predominated all
+his thoughts. Acting on a temperament that was highly emotional, and
+perceptibly neurotic or melancholic, the revelations embodied in the
+Koran were the natural result of so long and continuous a
+concentration. Still it is equally obvious that combining with this
+emotionalism and neurasthenia was a strong vein of commercialism and
+common sense, also marked political and administrative ability. It is
+further evident that in Mohammed's character there commingled a very
+curious and conflicting number of elements and tendencies. Dominating
+all of these, however, was an intense zeal, an insatiable ambition, an
+overpowering individuality and egotism, and an inflexible doggedness and
+determination to attain his own ends. To convert, that is, the weakness
+and disintegration of the various tribes that composed the Arab nation
+into the union of one consolidated whole, with himself and family at its
+head, as a human representation of the unity and supremacy of the one
+and only God. This latter, as we know, was in no way original. It is
+clear all throughout that he had profited from his knowledge of Jewish
+tradition and experience, and that he based his theory on the dogmas of
+Moses and Abraham. He had long since realized that it was the worship of
+their own tribal and communal gods by the members of the various Arab
+tribes and communities that accentuated the differences and divisions
+between them. He determined, therefore, as the Jewish leaders long
+before him had attempted, to consolidate and weld them into a single
+nation, through the worship of the one supreme and indivisible God. It
+was on and through this divine indivisibility that he decided to base
+and construct the unity and nationalization of the people.
+
+Unquestionably Mohammed's movement was as much political as it was
+religious, as much material as it was spiritual. But being of a
+profoundly reflective, at the same time of a practical, turn of mind, he
+chose religion as the only possible and thoroughly reliable means of
+achieving his great and noble ends; not only possible and thorough,
+however, but the most potential. Mohammed, in fact, judged the capacity
+and characteristics of his countrymen to a nicety. Unconsciously--for
+legislation to him was a natural heritage--he followed the example of
+the most famous legislators, and instituted such laws as at the time
+were the best that the people were capable of receiving. Tactful and
+diplomatic to a degree, it was policy on his part to retain a certain
+number of the old beliefs and customs in order to satisfy the people. He
+knew, none better, the fierce and turbulent temper of his countrymen,
+and how it was most politic to deal with them. In making this concession
+he showed his political wisdom, if not a certain breadth and greatness
+of statecraft. After all it was, from an independent standpoint, but a
+small concession as compared to the prize that he got in return for it.
+It was a compromise in other words. Yet this and his own evidence in the
+Koran is important as showing that Mohammed was not so much in a strict
+sense the originator of a new creed as he was a reformer and the
+renovator of an old one. It was the impress of his great personality,
+distinguished as this was by the intense sincerity and earnestness of
+his nature, that has left its mark on human history.
+
+Mohammed was a thinker and a worker not only for his own, but for all
+time. He recognized that man was equally a political and religious
+product of God's creation. He understood that as a counterpoise to man's
+materialism and to the destructive in his nature, is that indefinable
+essence which we call the spiritual and the constructive. The more one
+looks into and understands the Koran, the more obvious is it that
+Mohammed concentrated all the active and vigorous energies of his vivid
+and powerful imagination, also his virile mentality, on the
+accomplishment of his great design. For design it certainly was. The
+wish undoubtedly was father to the thought. Not, however, in an
+invidious sense, but in the firm conviction that design and not accident
+or chance is one of the controlling principles of God and His creation,
+and that, consistent with this principle, he, Mohammed, had been chosen
+as the divine agent. Personal ambition and aggrandizement never for a
+moment entered his head, or formed part of it. The national good, to be
+attained only by a national or universal God--the one and only God of
+the universe--was the one great ambition that inspired and impelled him.
+Because although every one for himself and God for us all is presumably
+a natural law, Mohammed managed to evade it. But in evading it, he was
+not revolutionary. On the contrary, in this way he rose one step upward
+above the lower human level towards that higher humanity which
+approaches the divine.
+
+This design, as I have just said, originated from the doctrine of divine
+unity attributed to Moses and Abraham. Indeed, as one reads the Koran
+carefully and steadily through from beginning to end, it is manifested
+in every surah--almost, in fact, on every page. The whole work, in fact,
+is saturated with the one idea, inspired by the one thought. Everywhere
+there is evidence of the final object in view, the unconquerable will,
+the inflexible resolve, the fixed purpose, the indomitable perseverance,
+the unyielding persistency, the infinite and interminable patience, the
+calm endurance, the irresistible courage, and the grim tenacity of the
+ego. So much so is this evident, that when I compare this determinism
+with the neurotic element in Mohammed's character, I am obliged to
+admit that the balance remains with the former. Yet--and this I think is
+the strangest feature about this strange but commanding
+personality--there is no getting away from the fact that he was much
+under the influence of the latter.
+
+It is, of course, possible that Mohammed was what in Arabia is called a
+"Saudawi," or person of melancholy temperament--what nowadays would be
+called a hypochondriacal dyspeptic. Melancholia is a complaint that the
+Arabs are subject to, students, philosophers and literary men more
+especially. A distaste for society, a longing for solitude, an unsettled
+habit of mind, and a neglect of worldly affairs are always attributed to
+it. It is very probably--to some extent at least--as Burton suggests,
+the effect of overworking the brain in a hot, dry atmosphere; also due
+in some measure to the highly nervous and bilious temperament
+constitutional to the Arabs: a temperament that in Mohammed's case was
+aggravated by excessive emotionalism.
+
+It is clear that once Mohammed got hold of, or was obsessed by, the idea
+that he was God's chosen messenger, and that his sayings were inspired
+by God (a very old and primitive belief remember): or rather as soon as
+ever Khadija and others of his household were imbued with the idea, then
+he never relaxed his hold of it for a moment. The confidence of those
+about him, his faithful spouse more especially, gave him confidence in
+himself. Confidence engendered conviction, and conviction led to the
+Koran and the ultimate triumph of his cause. That he was sincere in all
+this, there is not the slightest doubt, but in taking the measure of his
+sincerity we must be guided entirely by the fact that he was essentially
+a man who had long before made up his mind to bring about the unity of
+his country. Indeed the whole history of Khadija's association with the
+matter shows this. To be a prophet in his own country or household, a
+man must inspire respect, or the still greater feeling of veneration. No
+man, unless he is earnest and devout, could possibly impress the members
+of his family. They are bound to find him out. This applies all the more
+forcibly to an eastern household in which polygamy prevails, and that is
+made up of so many opposing elements and conflicting interests, the
+atmosphere of which is only too often one necessarily of envies,
+jealousies, rivalries, suspicions, intrigues, and even conspiracies. If
+Mohammed had been insincere, if instead of convictions, his belief had
+been a mere profession or a sham; if it had not been one of austere,
+rigid practice and self-denial, then those about him would neither have
+been impressed, nor would they have espoused his cause as warmly and
+valiantly as they did. Not only were they impressed, however, but
+convinced, and it was their convictions that strengthened and confirmed
+his own faith. But once he had gained their confidence, his mission was
+assured. There was no doubt whatever then in his own mind that he was
+God's chosen apostle, to whom God had revealed His word--the words of
+truth and life. From this out, his own vigour, his own extraordinary
+individuality and inflexibility carried him through from beginning to
+end. Once others believed in and relied on him, his own latent
+self-reliance grew into a living and active factor that carried all
+before it. But as he looked at it, all his strength was from God. God
+was at his elbow and in his heart, therefore he could not fail. Nothing,
+in fact, shows better than this aspect of the matter how very wise and
+all-knowing (his constant refrain about God in the Koran) Mohammed
+himself was. How tactful and diplomatic, but above all, how deep his
+knowledge of human nature. Had Khadija and his household not believed in
+him, it is safe to assume that then there would have been no Prophet and
+no Islam. As Novalis says: "My conviction gains infinitely the moment
+another soul will believe in it." So it was with Mohammed. So it is with
+us all. So Carlyle pithily observes: "A false man found a religion? Why
+a false man cannot build a brick house!" I have already shown that
+Mohammed was not false. But neither did he found a religion. Apart from
+the fact that he was a reality, and as true as any of the world's great
+prophets, Mohammed was unable to perform the impossible. Religion as a
+natural product was beyond his comprehension and potentialities. Islam
+like Christianity was a creed--a human or artificial development--the
+healthy and vigorous offspring of a noble and sublime, yet in no sense
+original conception. But there was no demerit in this want of
+originality. Because as Carlyle says: "The merit of originality is not
+novelty; it is sincerity": and with regard to Mohammed, this has been
+more than once acknowledged.
+
+Launched upon the world of Arabia in no false and unreal spirit, but
+with the spirit of grim sincerity and earnestness, Islam has proved its
+stability spiritually and materially, the present result of which speaks
+for itself. It is enough to say that a creed whose followers now number
+over 250,000,000, or some 15 per cent. of the human race (an under-
+rather than an over-estimate), could have sprung from a healthy and
+vigorous seed only--a seed that has been nourished and kept alive by the
+vital spark of human sympathies, hopes and aspirations.
+
+What appears to me as so remarkable and so significant, so truly
+characteristic of the man, is the way in which he never lets go his grip
+of the central idea and purpose, but follows it up step by step. And as
+he follows, he makes every point that he can, seizes every opportunity,
+takes every advantage of every ordinary event and occurrence that is
+going on around him, makes the best of every reverse, turns even his
+set-backs and reverses into moral victories; and accepts it all as
+inevitable with the calmness of a philosophy that emanated from his own
+wondrous egoism and that inexhaustible fund of patience and reserve of
+courage which so distinguishes his character. In this respect alone
+Mohammed truly was a remarkable man--a man infinitely above, not only
+his surroundings, but his age. With Mohammed, not only was the great
+fact of his own existence great to him, but in almost every page of the
+Koran it is obvious that God's omnipresence and omnipotence had made a
+profound and lasting impression on him. Everywhere and in everything--in
+natural objects more especially--he saw and felt the hand and the power
+of God. And to him it was a power so overwhelmingly terrific and
+transcendent in all its aspects, that it defied description and
+demonstrated the insignificance and impotence of man. In more senses
+than one he was a pantheist. To him, either God was Nature and Nature
+God, or God was in Nature and Nature was in God. At bottom of him the
+old primitive belief was there, but in unity and concentration he saw
+strength. In his mind there was no room, no place, for lesser deities.
+The power and the splendour of the one creative God--who lived and moved
+and had His being throughout the universe, overshadowed, or, rather, had
+absorbed, them all. In the grim silence of the desert, in the vastness
+of the heavens, in the great infinity of space, in the scintillation of
+the stars, in every fibre of his own consciousness, God was with him. To
+Mohammed God was not a personal being but the God and Maker of the
+universe and all mankind. With him the entire theme and volume of his
+stream of thought was God and his religion. Coming from the core and
+centre of him as it did, even through the long vista of thirteen
+centuries, one can picture this overmastering element in every line of
+his stern-set and yet gentle face: a face reflective and speaking, that
+not only had a history stamped upon every feature, but a great, a
+strenuous, and a commanding history. _In vino veritas_ is as true to-day
+as when first it was uttered. So too the saw, that "mastership like wine
+unmasks the man." But Mohammed needed no unmasking. God and the
+truth--the truth about God as it dominated him--was the rich, strong
+wine which coursed through every vein and fibre of his mental organism,
+stimulating and spurring him onwards to a sustained and continuous
+effort that ended only in death. A sincere and earnest man, a natural,
+therefore a deeply religious man, to him God was also a Dayyan (one of
+the ninety-nine epithets of God), i.e. "A weigher of good and evil"; One
+who computed and settled accounts; the holder of the even balance and
+scales of justice, the Judge and Arbiter of all mankind.
+
+But apart from these functions, the power and sublimity of the Supreme
+Being, as he saw it expressed in the silent grandeur of the desert, the
+death-like stillness of the sandy sea, the frowning ruggedness and
+majesty of the mountains, the immense universality of Nature, was always
+before his eyes and in all his thoughts. Full of this feeling, of the
+awe and veneration innate in man and co-existent with the eternal ages,
+he bursts out in the second surah: "God! there is no God but He; the
+living, the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizeth Him; to
+Him _belongeth_ whatsoever is in heaven, and on earth. Who is he that
+can intercede with Him, but through His good pleasure? He knoweth that
+which is past, and that which is to come unto them, and they shall not
+comprehend anything of His knowledge, but so far as He pleaseth. His
+throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both
+is no burden unto Him. He is the high and mighty."
+
+As a natural outburst of emotions and convictions that had been pent up
+within his own inner consciousness, that were the offspring of some
+twenty years of journeyings to and fro across the deserts where "Amin"
+the faithful one was in direct and constant contact with Nature, and
+often in silent communion with the Infinite, these few words are truly
+magnificent and sublime; magnificent not only for the boldness and
+sublimity of their imagery and conception, but magnificent also with the
+intensity and profundity of true sincerity. Few, but all the more pithy
+for that, these words are from the heart and soul of the man--a man who
+speaks not unadvisedly with his lips, but who feels with every nerve and
+fibre of his intensely emotional being. They are (as he himself feels)
+the outpouring of an insignificant and impotent atom, yet of a sincere
+and earnest man approaching in all humility and veneration, and with the
+loyalty and allegiance of a true believer and servant, the great,
+invisible He, who holds him and all creatures in the hollow of His
+mighty hand.
+
+In a conversation that Luther had one day with some friends at table, he
+spoke of the world as a vast and magnificent pack of cards composed of
+emperors, kings, princes and so forth. For several ages these had been
+vanquished by the Pope. Then God had come upon the scene, and chosen the
+"ace," the very smallest card in the pack--himself, in a word--and
+overthrown this conqueror of worldly powers and principalities.
+Mohammed, as much as Luther, was one of "God's Aces." Seldom, indeed, in
+the history of the world, has so great a human river flowed from a
+source so puny. Never did the divine manifest itself in a single pip, so
+seemingly small and insignificant as a cause, yet so pre-eminently and
+consistently great as an effect!
+
+"Men," says Dumas in one of his historico-romantic masterpieces, "are
+visible, palpable, moral. You can meet, attack, subdue them; and when
+they are subdued you can subject them to trial and hang them. But ideas
+you cannot oppose in that way. They glide unseen; they penetrate; they
+hide themselves especially from the sight of those who would destroy
+them. Hidden in the depths of the soul, they there throw out deep roots.
+The more you cut off the branches which imprudently appear, the more
+powerful and inextirpable become the roots below.
+
+"An idea is a young giant which must be watched night and day; for the
+idea which yesterday crawled at your feet, to-morrow will dispose of
+your head. An idea is a spark falling upon straw." ... "For the mind of
+man is no inert receptacle of knowledge, but absorbs and incorporates
+into its own constitution the ideas which it receives." Thus it was with
+Mohammed. God was the spark, the vital spark of spiritual flame, and
+this humble but honest Arab trader was the straw, that after twenty
+years of silent but tenacious smouldering God had set a light to.
+
+The better, however, to understand his character and purpose, we must
+divide his life into two sections. The first when, as trader from the
+age of thirteen up to forty, first for his uncle and then for Khadija,
+he was the man of business. Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas
+and ideals that he kept to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+For not until the time was ripe and the hour had come, not until he felt
+the call--felt, that is, that he was ready and able to begin--did he
+confide even in Khadija. The second section when, as the apostle of God,
+he worked with all the fiery fervour yet steady zeal of a true prophet,
+to put his ideas into practice. But there was this difference with
+regard to Mohammed as a theorist. He was not a man of many ideas. In
+reality one central idea alone inspired him. But great and magnificent
+as that was, it was equal to a multitude. It was a growing and a
+spreading giant which, like the prolific banyan tree, threw out branch
+and root with such extravagant luxuriance, that it completely
+overshadowed and predominated the entire expanse of his mental area. We
+know what this idea was. We know that round and out of the central stem
+of God's overmastering unity Mohammed had determined to construct an
+Arabian nation--possibly something even greater. We know, too, that the
+one was but the offspring of the other. Or it may be that they were the
+twin offspring of all this profound and concentrated contemplation. But
+we do not know how this great idea first took root. Let us, however, try
+and trace it to its source as nearly as we can.
+
+With still greater emphasis than Chrysostom, who asserted that "the true
+Shekinah is man," Carlyle says: "the essence of our being, the mystery
+in us that calls itself 'I,' is a breath of heaven; the highest Being
+reveals Himself in man." An idea such as this would never have occurred
+to Mohammed. The fatherhood of God in its accepted human sense was
+repugnant to him. The mere thought was sacrilege!
+
+His conception of God was much too exalted, much too divine for this.
+God and humanity could have no possible connexion. God was the
+Creator--the Potter, who out of the clay or matter in chaos had made
+the world and all therein. Humanity was but a small part only of His
+creation. Men were but as clay in His hands--mere creatures of His.
+Beyond this hard and fast line there could be no relationship between
+God and man. Association was as impossible as comparison was
+objectionable. God, as supreme Creator and Director of the universe, was
+a Being altogether distinct and apart from His own creation. Yet as such
+He was the soul or spirit of it, the breath of life to all that lived,
+and of death to all that died. Man was as evil, as puny, and as weak as
+God was great and good and strong. God was too exalted and glorious for
+words. Incomprehensible and inscrutable, He was beyond the power of
+language, outside the narrow limitations of thought to imagine. Just as
+the heavens were divided from the earth by boundless space, so far apart
+was God from man. The endless immensity of everything was insufficient
+to express His omnipotence--fell far short of the unthinkable reality.
+Even the heavens and earth as His handiwork did not convey as completely
+as it might appear to do the capacity of the power that belonged to Him.
+To Mohammed, in every vibrating star an all-seeing eye and glory of the
+great Creator, God, was visible; in every tiny blade of grass, in every
+spring of water, He was manifest and tangible. So some eleven centuries
+after Mohammed was laid to rest, a poor, struggling, but undaunted
+artist-poet, looking from his mean London garret with the eyes of a
+dreamer-mystic into the great invisible above and beyond him (just as
+Amin the faithful one had done), yearned:
+
+    "To see the world in a grain of sand,
+    And a heaven in a wild flower;
+    Hold Infinity in the palm of "his" hand,
+    And eternity in an hour."
+
+And in the middle of the late departed century--which rushed across the
+great void of Time like a hissing meteor--thus Tennyson:
+
+    "Flower in the crannied wall,
+    I pluck you out of the crannies,
+    I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
+    Little flower; but if I could understand
+    What you are, root and all, and all in all,
+    I should know what God and man is."
+
+While to Wordsworth, with a faith in Nature and Nature's God as deep as
+Mohammed, the meanest flower that blows, gave thoughts that often lay
+too deep for words.
+
+Society is only too apt to judge or condemn facts and men; also to
+ridicule the age and its spirit. This drastic method saves the trouble
+of comprehending them. The society of keen Arab traders and wily
+Bedouins which environed Mohammed did not comprehend him. To them he
+was not so much like a fish out of water, as a land quadruped at sea,
+altogether out of his element as well as out of his depth--a flotsam
+struggling to get to dry land as a jetsam.
+
+Immeasurably above and beyond his social contemporaries either morally
+or spiritually, to them Mohammed was an enigma and a mystery. "Scenting
+a mystery is like the first bite at a piece of scandal, and holy souls
+do not detest it. In the secret compartments of bigotry there is some
+curiosity for scandal." But among Mohammed's opponents--the Koreish more
+particularly--it was not merely scandal that moved them: it was
+jealousy, envy, malice, and in the end sheer diabolical hatred. In
+describing the state of a mind that is advancing, we must remember that
+all progress is not made in one march or even series of marches.
+Mohammed's march was entirely uphill, dead against the collar, the whole
+way and all the time, except, perhaps, just towards the end. Yet each
+day's march brought him nearer to the goal of his desires. Slowly but
+surely he made progress, and with it reputation. The slowness of his
+movement, his advance, made progress and reputation all the more not a
+dead, but a living certainty. But there is always anarchy in reputation.
+It was this reputation--this individuality that dared to insolently
+assert itself in the overthrow of their ancestral gods--which explained
+Koreish hostility.
+
+Mohammed was a calm, yet by no means an unprogressive agent of
+Providence. Brains that are absorbed either in mania or wisdom, or, as
+often happens, in both at once, are permeated very very slowly by the
+things of this world. But even admitting that there was melancholia,
+there was no mania about Mohammed. If ever a man was sane and healthy,
+he was. "You grant a devout man, you grant a wise man: no man has a
+seeing eye without first having had a seeing heart." This fits his case
+to a nicety. A more devout man than Mohammed never lived. He was as
+pre-eminently wise as he was devout. He utilized his wisdom to the
+fullest extent of his capacity, and he proved his devoutness by putting
+his beliefs to the infallible test of stern and rigid practice. A trader
+to his finger tips, a clear-sighted man of business, and a statesman
+with prophetic instincts, who profited by the past, utilized the
+present, and prepared for the future, in this sense he was a
+contradiction. The being absorbed in wisdom did not prevent him from
+carrying on his worldly duties in the most conscientious and thorough
+manner. _Per contra_, his worldly duties did not prevent him from
+philosophical absorption. The one was his duty, the other the breath of
+life to him. His veneration of God gradually crystallized the religion
+in him into a creed. This is generally the result of concentration. His
+absorption of God ended in God's absorption of him. It was a long and
+gradual process which occupied twenty years. During this period of
+embryonic development he withdrew, as it were, into himself. Then when
+the crisis arrived, it came out of him, as a river flows out of a
+spring, and was called Islam. "Our chimeras," says Victor Hugo, "are the
+things which most resemble ourselves, and each man dreams of the
+unknown, and the impossible according to his nature." Mohammed's
+chimera, as we know, was God and Arabian unity. But there was nothing
+chimerical about the former, and with this invincible lever, the latter
+too was a distinct probability. For although he was doubtless
+superstitious--that is natural--and wrestled with shadows and visions,
+Mohammed dealt in realities. To him God was the most real thing, the
+sternest reality of all in the universe. God, in fact, was the Universe.
+These, which to another would have been the unknown and the impossible,
+were to him the possible and the inevitable. The nature that was in him
+was the nature of God and the universe. There is a point where
+profundity is oblivion, when light becomes extinguished. Though from a
+literary aspect Mohammed was not profound, in a religious sense his
+profundity, centring as it did in God, burst forth into the Cimmerian
+darkness which enveloped his country with the brilliancy of a meteor
+that illumines the blackest night.
+
+There is too a way of encountering error by going all the way to meet
+the truth, also by a sort of violent good faith which accepts everything
+unconditionally. There was nothing violent (certainly not for a long
+period), but there was everything that stands for goodness and stability
+in Mohammed's faith. It was thus--in the spirit of a hero and the valour
+of a Paladin--he encountered the error and opposition of his enemies by
+first of all going out of his way to meet the truth; then, in spite of
+themselves and their hostility, by enforcing it upon those who would not
+be persuaded. According to Fontenelle, "there is only truth that
+persuades, and even without requiring to appear with all its proofs. It
+makes its way so naturally into the mind, that when it is heard for the
+first time, it seems as if one were only remembering." This was very
+much the case with Mohammed. This was why he tried at first to lead and
+not to drive his countrymen to the truth. To him who saw the truth of
+God's existence, His mercy written as plainly in the falling raindrop as
+His power of retribution is in the lightning that flashes across the sky
+as if it would rend it, their stubbornness in rejecting God was utterly
+incomprehensible. His mind had two attitudes. The one was turned to God,
+the other to man. In contemplating God, he but studied man's interests
+and his own. But contemplation with Mohammed did not end by becoming a
+form of indolence. Imaginative--visionary, in fact--as he was, he did
+not allow his imagination to play tricks with him. He did not fancy that
+he wanted for nothing. Even when married to Khadija, and in tolerable
+affluence, there was obviously a great void in his life. This want of
+course was spiritual. Exact and punctilious as he was in his temporal
+duties, his whole bent and inclination was towards the former. As a
+younger and poorer man, he had looked so much at the humanity around him
+that he saw right down into its very soul. With the same fervent
+intensity he had looked into nature until he saw or rather felt the
+creator and controller thereof. "There are times when the unknown
+reveals itself in a mysterious way to the spirit of man. A sudden rent
+in the veil of darkness will make manifest things hitherto unseen, and
+then close again upon the mysteries within. Such visions have
+occasionally the power to effect a transfiguration in those whom they
+visit. They convert a poor camel-driver into a Mahomet; a peasant girl
+tending her goats into a Joan of Arc." A conscientious and faithful
+worker, Mohammed was at the same time a dreamer. But his dreams were but
+the reflex of his work and of his ideas. These came to him like
+mountainous waves, or the swell of an angry surf as it thunders on the
+beach with a threatening roar, a mass of water that would submerge the
+very earth. His ideas did not, however, submerge him. Nor did they
+destroy or bury him. Out of their unknown and bosky depths Mohammed
+invariably rose to the surface with the buoyancy of a life-belt, calm
+and unmoved, for his spiritual centre of gravity always held him up. He
+dreamt of man, but chiefly of God--of God's goodness and greatness, of
+man's impotence and frailty. He looked at the solid earth on which he
+stood, with its stones and its sand, its wheat and its tares, its joys
+and sorrows, but particularly its suffering children and helpless women.
+Then he looked at the vast void above, with its star-spangled sky, its
+sun and moon, and the God that made all and was in all. This led him to
+think of the void that was in himself, and to compare the one with the
+other. Then he pondered and compared. The greatness of it all passed
+into him and he dreamt again. There was no void above, for God filled
+it. So too his own emptiness gave place to the Supreme. All at once a
+great feeling of tenderness was aroused within him. From the egotism of
+the _genus vir_, he passed to the contemplation of the _genus homo_, the
+man who contemplates and feels. God had touched his heart. In
+forgetfulness of self was born a great compassion for all. For years and
+years Mohammed lived with his neck in a noose of obstacles composed of
+human thorns and millstones. He was, so to speak, an outcast, thrown on
+the dung heap, and into the brambles; at times even in the mud. Yet no
+mud clung to him, not even to his feet. His head at all events was
+always in the light, his hand always resting on the omnipotence of the
+Almighty. Invariably gentle, attentive, serious, benevolent, easily
+satisfied, he remained serene and peaceful. It was only in the last
+extremity, when all his persuasive earnestness failed him, that his
+enemies stirred him to wrath. But it was a just and dispassionate wrath;
+it was the wrath of God. For whether they liked or no, Mohammed in his
+dual capacity as God's agent and Arabian patriot had made up his mind
+that they should have God. On this point he was inexorable. Feeling that
+there is an eternity in justice, he felt that in justice to God, and to
+themselves, and in spite of themselves, it was his duty to proclaim the
+truth. Many a less tenaciously sincere man, many a real hero, would have
+shrunk from and have succumbed before an ordeal so terrific, a contest
+so supremely Titanic. But Mohammed was made of sterner stuff, of the
+spirit that gods are made of. Failure was a word that he did not
+recognize. With God at his back, success was an absolute certainty--a
+foregone conclusion.
+
+Whatever might be his desire to remain where he was and cling to it, he
+was impelled to advance, to continue, to go on further and still
+further. Yet to think and to ask himself where it was all going to lead
+him to? But although he thought, he never hesitated, never turned back.
+His hand was to the plough--the plough God. God was the goal, the end,
+the summit of human existence and ambition. Humanity was the soil, and
+to get there he must furrow his way through its enmities and affections.
+Firm and exceptional natures are thus moulded out of miseries,
+misfortunes and afflictions. As a result of his work history shows us
+more and more that Mohammed was firm and exceptional to the very highest
+degree. Yet there was nothing of that hypocrisy which Victor Hugo calls
+supreme cynicism about him. He was too human, too much in earnest, to be
+anything but Amin the Faithful. There is, after all, more in a name than
+meets the eye. In some names there is history and the tragedy of
+history. In others there is the might and majesty of a commanding
+magnetism, which recognizes the sublimity of truth. In Mohammed's case,
+even to this day over two hundred and fifty million human beings bow the
+knee through him to God. Yes, there is much--a world of meaning--that is
+inexpressible in a name--a magic and a _je ne sais quoi_ which under the
+label of Napoleon led men to the Kingdom Come of glory--in other words,
+to destruction and the devil--but that with Mohammed was the open sesame
+to the glory and power of God. A rose by any other name may smell as
+sweet. But Islam without the halo of time-honoured sanctity that
+attaches to the name of Mohammed, would sound as but a hollow brass or a
+tinkling cymbal. Just, in fact, as the man himself was sincere and
+faithful, there is, and there will continue to be, a magic in his
+name--more so even than that of Christ has for the Christian--drawing
+men to God, as he in person drew them not alone by sheer force of will
+and character, but by a force which was even stronger, the force of
+sincerity and truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED
+
+
+A true son of the desert, it is impossible to understand the powerful
+and complex personality of Mohammed, unless we can appreciate the
+peculiar character and genius of the desert. More so in some ways even
+than the seaman, the dweller or sojourner in the desert is distinct and
+unique in himself. Possessing the courage of the Fatalist, and as free
+as the roving winds of heaven, he is all the same of a shrinking and
+timorous nature, confronted as he often is by certain aspects and
+phenomena that imperil his life and strike down to the very roots of his
+moral consciousness.
+
+In the desert there is, comparatively speaking, little life. Unlike the
+forest region, it is naked and almost destitute. There, as at sea, man
+is face to face not only with the great elements, but with the greater
+Infinite and Invisible. He is nearer to God and the immensity of Nature.
+There is nothing--or little at least--to distract his attention--nothing
+between him and the ever watchful Inscrutable. There is no shade from
+the sun by day, no protection from the moon and stars at night. They
+look down on him as from the pinnacle of the sublimest elevation. The
+fiercer glory of the sun by day burns into his very soul, consumes his
+very marrow. The milder effulgence of the moon by night throws its
+silvery glamour over all his senses. The lesser and more distant
+splendour of the stars--those watch-fires of angelic spirits--in their
+countless myriads awe and bewilder him. In the choking breath of the
+simoom he feels the potentialities of God, and his own helpless
+impotence. Struck all of a heap by its stifling blast, he is filled with
+fear and trembling in the presence of a Power invisible yet tangible and
+deadly. Whether he wills or not, the fear of God--of the Inexorable and
+Inevitable--enters into his heart and takes possession of his inmost
+soul. Call it the fear of God or not, it is practically one and the same
+feature--the mere human label makes no difference to this awful and
+unseen reality--the same fear of the Unknown, the Unexpected and the
+Inevitable: the Inevitable that is always with us, the agnostic and the
+sophist no less than with the theologian, yet unseen, incomprehensible
+and omnipotent. But more than anything, it is the awful and impenetrable
+silence that impresses and appals the silent and dignified nomad of the
+desert.
+
+To those who have never been outside the confines of civilization, it is
+not logically possible even to guess at the extraordinary influence--a
+fascination amounting to witchery--that the silence and solitude of the
+desert exercises over one. Yet if I were asked to define the essence and
+subtlety of this influence, I could but answer that it is indefinable;
+all the same a glamour that, like the force of gravity, is irresistible.
+Free and open like the sea (but fresh only at night), it is not the
+witchery of the soft blue sky, for the sky of the desert is hard and
+steely; it is not the fierce white heat of the fervid sun that melts
+into the very marrow of one's bones; but rather is it the soothing magic
+of the moon at night, under the brilliant canopy of the heavens, when
+the earth, cooling rapidly, is lulled into eternal silence, that one
+falls under the magic spell of its wondrous influence. But even the
+glamour of the moon is out-glamoured by the darkness of the night under
+whose funereal pall even the great suns and planets hide their
+diminished heads. There is in the darkness and the silence of the night
+a mystery and a profundity that arouses the sluggish, even the stagnant
+consciousness of the dullard--that much more so attracts the quickening
+soul of the mystic and visionary, which springs to it with the same
+eager avidity that a lean and hungry trout leaps at the first fly which
+he sees after a long and enforced abstinence. It is in this darkness and
+silence of the night, rather than in the fierce glare of the midday sun,
+that the fear of the great Infinite comes to man. For if we but think of
+it, what a spectre-teeming spectacle is night. We hear strange, weird
+sounds. We know not whence they come or whither they go. Or it may be
+that all around us is as the silence of the grave--of eternal death. We
+see the evening star looming large like a great world on fire. The blue
+of the sky looms black. The stars seem to speak to us; the whole scene
+is impressive--a sight for the gods. In the desert, however, and to the
+earnest thinker whose centre of gravity is God, night is something more
+than a mere spectacle--a something greater, grander and more terrifying
+than a simple impression--a feeling deeper and sublimer even than a
+conviction: a revelation of the Unseen Unknown which is all the time
+behind that which he sees and knows.
+
+Full as night is of phantoms, shades, sounds and silence, it is no
+illusive mirage, no mere empty simulacrum. But in every way it is a
+reality and a substance which is tangible, that touches one not only on
+the spot, on the raw, but everywhere; that fills one with vague fears,
+and brings even the proudest and the sternest to their knees before the
+power of the great Omnipotence. The very stars which hang out in the
+great firmament appear as God's sign-posts--great all-seeing eyes that
+are ever upon us--or like eternal watch-fires which contrast the
+eternity of God with the momentary mortality of man; they enhance the
+blackness of the blue. Peering as they do into the awesome watcher's
+inmost soul, they either drive him headlong into the blackness and
+terrors of evil, or lead him by their kindly light into the glory of the
+Almighty Presence. Unquestionably the night is either diabolical or
+sacred. Not only this, she is the brooder and breeder of all primitive
+doctrines, the conceiver and the mother of all human creeds. In her
+immense womb there is a latent light, a smouldering volcano full of
+ashes, cinders, and dead men's bones; yet full also of fire-sparks that
+are capable of flashing into luminosity, even of bursting into hissing,
+leaping and devouring flames. It was thus that Christianity and Islam
+came into being. It was thus out of the primeval sacrifices, the shadows
+and silence of death and darkness, that all creeds have crept into and
+out of the minds of men. Tortuous human ant-heaps bored and tunnelled
+through and through by human ideas, human hopes, and human aspirations;
+worlds in the low-lying limbo of the foetus stage, fecundating in all
+directions into beliefs, faiths, creeds, sects, denominations,
+quackeries, dissimulations and charlatanism. Labyrinthine, subterranean,
+and full of subtleties as all these creeds appear to be, they are easy
+enough to comprehend. They have all sprung from the same simple seed if
+we would but recognize it. If we but looked at this vista of the past as
+through a mental telescope, if we but grasped the substance and not the
+shadow, went straight to the simple root instead of to the theological
+and metaphysical subtleties of it all, we would find it absolutely
+simple. If we would but for a moment drop from our eyes the dense scales
+of dogma, bigotry and prejudice, there would be no difficulty in tracing
+back all these enigmatic ramifications and gloomy obscurities of
+pristine darkness and chaos to the one central germ idea, the one
+vitalizing spark that inspires and illumines them all.
+
+It is obvious that Wordsworth, when he speaks of only "two voices," the
+one "of the sea," the other "of the mountains"--"each a mighty voice,"
+quite overlooked the bleakness and silence of the desert. This
+overpowering blackness that pervades the very soul, creeps through every
+vent into the bones and chills one to the very marrow. This sublime
+silence, that speaks to one as the still small voice of God spoke to
+Moses, and that fills the thinker with even greater awe and veneration
+than the crashing and rolling thunder. This silence which is of
+eternity, therefore golden, while speech is of to-day and only silvern,
+for as Carlyle reminds us: "After speech has done its best, silence has
+to include all that speech has forgotten or cannot express."
+
+Speaking for myself, who have passed many days of my existence at sea,
+and many more still in the desert, there is that in the latter which
+always reminds me of the former. To be sure, the ever restless sea with
+its almost myriad moods--its calm, its motion, its rippling smiles, its
+wavy undulations, its heights and depths, its fickleness and treachery,
+its dazzling beauties, its fierce turbulence--is as unlike the desert,
+with its grim stiff grandeur and appalling sameness as it well could be:
+still--
+
+    "Tho' inland far we be,
+    Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
+    Which brought us thither."
+
+There is no music in it by day or by night, only the dead still hush of
+silence. Yet the desert has its aspects, if it has not its moods and
+contrasts--as singular as they are striking. See, or rather feel it
+under the fierce and scorching glare of the fiery sun, that almost
+shrivels you into a mummy; see it also under the softer spell of the
+silvery orb, when the air is balmy, if not fresh, and you will at once
+imagine yourself to be in an altogether different and enchanted world.
+Then again, lose yourself in the desert on a dark night when for once in
+a way the stars are dim or obscured by clouds, and you will realize as
+you never before have done, the awesome reality of the sense of
+loneliness--a feeling which can only be compared to that felt by the
+hunted criminal hiding in a city, and against whom every man's hand is
+raised.
+
+But there is besides in the desert the fateful mirage that, like the
+ocean sirens, has lured so many to their doom. Finally there is the
+oasis which stands out of the sea of shimmering sand, like an island
+paradise that towers over the waste of seething waters which encircle
+it. The desert too, like the sea, has its ships and its men. Ships that
+pass by day as well as by night. Ships that stride across the great
+sandy wastes, grunting and gawky, with unwearying patience, unyielding
+tenacity, and unerring instinct. As are the ships, so are the men. But
+in place of gawkiness and grunts, the golden virtue of silence, and the
+conscious pride of natural dignity. Men who in their very port and
+carriage are the very spirit and personification of the desert. Men who
+represent not the genii, but the genius of the great dry sea of sand
+and silence. Indeed, if ever men on this planet of ours were
+patriarchal, if ever men bore themselves with the gait and the simple
+dignity of free men, the Bedawins of Arabia and the North African
+deserts do. With the lynx-like, yet enigmatic expression that calls to
+mind a combination of eagle keenness and owl-like solemnity, there is
+about them a freedom of manner and bearing, a dignity of carriage, an
+independence of character, that are the peculiarly glorious and
+distinctive heirlooms of the air, expanse and grandeur of these inland
+seas. In every sense, moral and physical, they are the products of an
+unrestricted environment that has made them what they are--wanderers on
+the face of the earth. But wanderers from choice. Untrammelled even to
+licence; giving an unbridled rein to their spirit of independence.
+Regarding with supreme contempt the luxuries and even necessaries of
+civilization. Yet with it all slaves to the spiritual fears that haunt
+them. Relics of a primitive and old-world civilization, there is about
+these Bedawins a flavour of antiquity, of a past that is hoary with the
+hoariness of eternal age, so distant that we cannot conjecture about it,
+even in the vaguest of terms. In addition to this everlasting antiquity
+and conservatism, there is about these patriarchs a naturally dignified
+reticence, and an air of calm, quiet assurance and authority, that are
+peculiarly their own personal property. But there is even more than
+this. There is that same universal concept--common to all primitive
+people who have not outlived it--of belief in the fear of a supreme
+power. That same awe and reverence for the patriarchal authority
+connected with that of the ancestors which has preceded it; that calm
+and philosophical acceptation of Karma or Fatalism; that same dread of
+consequences; that identical terror of malignant demons; that same
+shrinking from the inevitable, which is the heritage of all natural
+people. Inherent instincts that even twelve centuries of Islam have
+scarcely modified. When we get underneath the surface of human nature as
+represented by the Arab, whether he came from the east, the west, the
+south, or the centre, it is obvious that the underlying motive for most,
+if not all, of his social customs is inspired by that personal or
+religious instinct which is so closely allied to the primary instincts
+of all. Out of such fundamental material did Mohammed emerge!
+
+Nevertheless, with all its drawbacks, there is about the desert, only in
+a different degree, the pleasure of the pathless woods, the rapture of
+the lonely shore. Just as by the deep and rolling sea whose very roar is
+music, there is a society where none intrudes, so with the desert.
+Right in the very core and centre of its silence and solitude, the man
+whose ears and eyes are open to receive impressions, finds himself in
+the presence of that invisible but omniscient power of Nature. The power
+that, while it causes the earnest thinker to pause and reflect, makes
+the average human being yearn for the companionship of his own kind. But
+it was not so with Mohammed. Mohammed was not as other men are. He was a
+thought leader. Not a deep thinker by any means; but profoundly in
+earnest. Few men in the world's history--judging at least by
+results--have been more in earnest than he was. In Hannibal there is the
+same earnest fixity of purpose, only different in kind, the same
+unquenchable ardour, and the same iron will that kept him faithful to
+the sacred vow of undying vengeance against the Romans, that his father
+exacted from him on the altar of their ancestral gods. In William the
+Silent too, but also in another direction, we find the same relentless
+purpose and the same inflexible sincerity to attain the independence and
+autonomy of the United Provinces. Cromwell likewise gave his life and
+his services--all that was best in him in fact--in the firm and sincere
+conviction that he was God's chosen instrument. But in none of these
+men, not even in the great and heroic Ironside, was there the same
+fervent godliness, i.e. the fear and veneration of God. It was Luther
+most of all who approached Mohammed in the sincerity of his purpose,
+i.e. of his religion. For although Luther was essentially a priest, and
+did not found a new creed, his sincerity showed itself as a Protestant
+and Reformer. In his whole life the fear and veneration of God as the
+motive factor of his existence was manifest.
+
+It is, of course, just possible, as Tennyson surmises, that:
+
+    "... Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
+    And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns."
+
+This, however, is vague and brings us no nearer to an exact
+comprehension of the matter. The better to understand this feeling of
+fear that so dominated men of the Numa, Buddha, Luther, John Knox,
+Cromwell and Mohammed type, it is essential that the student grasps and
+measures the actual measure of difference that divides religion from
+creed. It is but meet that we should accept the rational axiom, that
+religion is natural, and creed the egotistical and personal
+interpretation placed upon religion by human beings. As Draper says:
+"When natural causes suffice, it is needless to look for supernatural."
+So Bacon, looking with the insight of true genius into the Book of
+Nature, up to Nature's God, said in that immortal aphorism which opens
+the _Novum Organum_, "Homo Natur� minister et interpres"--man is the
+servant and interpreter of Nature. This will make it easier to get at
+the root of this dual feeling of fear and veneration. But to do so it is
+necessary for the student to look as far back into the past as he can.
+In every ancient cult that has ever existed, in the Chald�an, the
+Egyptian, the Aryan, the various (so-called Pagan) African, for example,
+the same overmastering element predominates. In Grecian annals and
+literature--in the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_, Hesiod's _Theogony_, in the
+great tragedies of �schylus, in Plutarch and other writers--Fear is not
+merely reverenced as "_Holy_," but in Greece, as elsewhere, altars were
+erected and worship offered to her as a goddess.
+
+It is in its definition and conception of religion that humanity has
+gone astray. By general acceptation religion and creed have always been
+confounded. Natural religion is spoken of as a something different and
+widely apart from Christianity, as a religion revealed. This is not so.
+There is no difference between them. Christianity is but the development
+of natural religion on the lines and ideas of certain individuals. There
+is no such thing as revelation. Religion is an evolution. It is natural.
+It comes to us from Nature, i.e. from the God out of which Nature has
+evolved. Hence its constructive and destructive dualism. It is a living
+and vital force that is innate in man as being one with Nature.
+Obviously this veneration, this fear of the Unseen, the Unexpected and
+the Inevitable (which I have spoken of), is one of the root instincts
+out of which it unfolds itself. Most unquestionably it is the outward
+and visible expression of the inner consciousness or spirit that moves
+man to the adoration of veneration in the constructive direction, and of
+fear in the destructive. This varies in the individual. Thus on the one
+hand we have a Mohammed; on the other a Napoleon. From the very
+beginning of human existence right down until now this fear of God has
+predominated. It still exists. It will go on existing. Religion is as
+much a part of the human constitution as the primal instincts. Creed is
+acquired. It is environment and education that makes or forms creed. The
+child becomes what his teacher makes him, as he can neither distinguish,
+discriminate nor judge for himself. But to make him Jew, Gentile or
+Christian, the religion must be in him. Creed, in a word, is but the
+view that is taken of natural religion by the ego. But a matter so
+important as this, however, cannot here be entered into.
+
+As it has been with all the great religious leaders of history, so too
+it was with Mohammed. Fearing, yet venerating, the might, the majesty
+and the goodness of God, the companionship that he most wanted was not
+human but divine. Communion with Him, through his own thought and
+through the great Infinity around him, was what his heart most desired.
+A town Arab by birth and breeding, a Bedawin by feeling and instinct, he
+was something more than a mere native of Arabia. Rather a son of men, an
+apostle chosen out specially from among men, that he might bear to them
+the message and truth of God.
+
+"Men," says Victor Hugo, "talk to themselves, speak to themselves, but
+the external silence is not interrupted. There is a grand tumult;
+everything speaks within us, excepting the mouth. The realities of the
+soul, for all they are not visible and palpable, are not the less
+realities." The great reality, as I have shown, that obsessed Mohammed
+was God. Though invisible in person or even in spirit, God was none the
+less visible and palpable to him as much in the finest speck of sand as
+in the consuming glory of the sun. In the mocking spectres of the night,
+as well as in the shifting shadows of the morning, the might and majesty
+of Allah was supreme. In the dead silence of human solitude, the grand
+tumult within him was only grand and tumultuous because God talked to
+him and he to God in the suppressed sibilance of hushed and awesome
+whisperings. "Diamonds are only found in the darkness of the earth;
+truths are only found in the depths of the thought." As it seemed to
+Father Madeline, the ex-convict Jean Valjean, so it appeared to
+Mohammed, "that after descending into these depths, after groping for
+some time in the densest of this darkness, he had found one of these
+diamonds, one of these truths, which he held in his hand, and which
+dazzled his eyes when he looked at it." The brilliant which Mohammed
+searched for was the truth--the greatest brilliant of all! The truth
+that he found as it appeared to him was God. Thus he immolated his whole
+being to the will of God, as to the truth which resides in Him alone.
+Like Pascal, Mohammed believed that "one can be quite sure that there is
+a God without knowing what He is." Or in the words of Hobbes: "Forasmuch
+as God Almighty is incomprehensible, it follows that we can have no
+conception or image of the Deity, except only this, that _there is a
+God_." This in sense if not in word was Mohammed's idea of God as he
+tried to conceive Him. For him it was sufficient that God was the only
+God--the Creator and the Controller of the universe! "There are touching
+illusions which are perhaps sublime realities." But to Mohammed, God was
+not even "the Great Illusion," but a stern as well as a sublime reality!
+To him the desert and lone places were God's dwelling-place--as far
+away from the busy hum and haunts of men as He could get. But only
+because of the delightful charm of golden silence and solitude--only
+because in the midst thereof, as in the heavenly paradise, God dwelt
+there. The one fair spirit that he dwelt and communed with--not in close
+proximity however, but with a great gulf fixed between--was the one and
+only God, who had at last constituted him His minister and apostle,
+because of his great love and devotion to Him. It was for this that
+Mohammed sought the desert. It was there under the stars--the flashing
+forget-me-nots of God's great power--that alone with Nature and his own
+thoughts, he sought God. Who is there of us can say that he did or did
+not find Him? Can we, or can we not, by searching find God? Whether we
+can or no, however, is not the question--is not for us to decide! But
+one fact is certain--one fact is obvious. It was in the core and centre
+of the eternal silence and solitude of mountain fastnesses and desert
+expanses that the spirit of Islam had its origin. It was there, as it
+were under the myriad eyes of the great and infinite God, under the
+fiery blaze of the burning sun, under the cooler and more clinging
+glamour of the mellow moon, under the dimmer gloom and mystery of
+darkness, there with his face to the red-hot furnace blasts and
+suffocation of the simoom, that the message came to him. Alone with his
+thoughts:
+
+    "Alone, alone, all all alone,
+    Alone on a wide wide sea!"
+
+No mere saint, but God Himself, "took pity on" his "soul in agony." He
+was not alone, for God was with him. This self-communion of Mohammed
+with his thoughts, was to him none other than communion with God,
+because his thoughts were concentrated on Him with all the soul and
+strength he was humanly capable of.
+
+The power of persuasion does not always lie in the flow and eloquence of
+speech. The strongest are often the most silent. God never speaks but in
+the still small voice of consciousness, that comes to every man in the
+dark watches of the night, when the hum and movement of life is hushed
+into the silence of sleep!
+
+Solitude, too, that twin-sister of Silence, "though," as De Quincey
+says, "it may be silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of
+agencies; for solitude is essential to man." But if essential to the
+ordinary man, it is as the breath of life to men of God and prophets.
+Solitude, in fact, sinks deep into a pure and simple nature, and changes
+him in a great measure. Unconsciously it intensifies him to a
+superlative degree, and inspires him with an awe of itself that becomes
+sacred to him. Within himself the recluse feels weak, unstable and
+inconsistent. Without he is strong in the consciousness of the
+omnipotence and supremacy of the Infinite. "Solitude generates a certain
+amount of sublime exaltation. It is like the smoke arising from the
+burning bush. A mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts the
+student into the seer, and the poet into a prophet." In a word, there is
+an enthusiasm, an influence, and a power in solitude that the civilized
+man, or the man who has never been subjected to it, cannot form the
+slightest or faintest conception of. For the silence of solitude and the
+solitude of silence is a state (common to all primitive people) in which
+the being believes himself to be not only "+pl�r�s theou+," i.e.
+full of God, but that the God predominates. Hence the enthusiasm, the
+rapture, and the power to divine and speak in divers tongues.
+
+Surely, if ever man was in deadly earnest, this faithful son of Arabia
+was. If ever man opened his heart and soul to the Father and Mother of
+all things, this Mohammed, the merchant, did. Truly if ever the great
+Author of our being responded to a soul in silent agony, i.e. in
+conflict, in a struggle for victory, it was to this great descendant of
+the bond-woman Hagar! For in Islam, and the soul of Islam, such as he
+inculcated, the victory was greater than any Marathon or Thermopyl�.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MOHAMMED'S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS
+
+
+Mohammed, as I have more than once said, was all for unity and cohesion,
+therefore against division and disintegration of any kind. Concentration
+was as the breath of life to him. Dissension a deadly evil. In his
+scheme of religion and politics there was no place for schism. Schism
+meant discord, and discord the devil. To him discord was as Ate, the
+mother of dissension. He recognized, as Spenser evidently did, that
+"discord harder is to end than to begin":
+
+    "For all her studie was, and all her thought,
+    How she might overthrow the things that concord wrought."
+
+And above all things, this Statesman Prophet was the essence and
+personification of centralization and concord. For unity alone rendered
+Islam feasible. Thus in the second Surah he insists that mankind was of
+one faith from the beginning. Thus too as a just, faithful and
+consistent man, he is opposed to violence and taking the offensive, even
+in the name and under the cloak of religion; he constantly advocates
+and authorizes (that is, has God's authority for) the defensive. He even
+recommends, at the same time that he excuses, war and retaliation on the
+unbeliever and infidel. On the whole, however, I am bound to admit that
+Mohammed disapproves of and discountenances violence in religion. He, in
+fact, distinctly forbids his followers from enforcing it. Their own
+persecution was to be met by patience. Apostates and unbelievers were to
+be given time meet for repentance. Yet to him, fanatic as he was with
+regard to religion, Islam was the only true Faith, the covenant, the
+sure ark of God that alone could secure salvation. Of this and of God he
+was no more than an Apostle--i.e. a messenger; also an expounder--but as
+such he obviously tried to live up to his name of Faithful. This speaks
+volumes for his toleration and humanity in an age when neither one nor
+the other of these attributes were much in repute; when both, in fact,
+were at a low ebb. Yet it shows us how intensely human the Prophet was.
+A man of great patience, prudence and trustworthiness, of retentive
+memory, strong character, and with the disposition of a judge--a very
+commander of men. Thus he acknowledges the divinity of God in forgiving,
+and the humanity of man in demanding reparation and restitution. Here
+the moral excellence of Mohammed shines out as a brilliant. In Surah
+xiv., "a grievous punishment is _prepared_ for the unjust. But they who
+shall have believed and wrought righteousness, shall be introduced into
+gardens, wherein rivers flow; they shall remain therein _for ever_ by
+the permission of their Lord, and their salutation therein _shall be_
+Peace." From this and many other similar passages, it would seem that
+Mohammed, by his constant reiteration of _Promises_ and _Threats_, by
+his determined insistence thereon, hoped ultimately to convince even his
+enemies of his sincerity also of the fact that Islam, as the creed of
+the one and only God, was the true Faith. Again in this passage (Surah
+vi.), "God causeth the grain and the date-stone to put forth, He
+bringeth forth the living from the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead
+from the living. This is God," etc., etc.; we get a clear insight into
+the intensity and comprehensiveness of the divine conception as it
+appeared to him. A little further on in the same passage he speaks of
+God as "He who hath produced you from one soul; and hath provided for
+you a sure receptacle and a repository," namely in the loins of your
+fathers, and the womb of your mothers--one of those gleams of pantheism
+that I have already alluded to.
+
+But of all the passages in the Koran, the following is, in many ways,
+one of the most significant: "Whatever good befalleth thee, O man, it is
+from God; and whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself." It is
+obvious from this that the prophet believed evil to be a human weakness
+with man as an active and self-willed agent. Sale in a note thereon
+says: "These words are not to be understood as contradicting the
+preceding verse, that all is from God, since the evil that befalls
+mankind, though ordered by God, is yet the consequence of their own
+wicked actions." But as Mohammed regarded the sublime divinity of God,
+it would be more accurate to interpret the _evil_ not as being ordained
+or even sanctioned by God, but as being permitted, or rather not
+prevented by Him as a thing inevitable. To him the purity, sanctity and
+inviolability of God was of such vast moment, that it was unjust--a
+mortal sin--to devise even a lie against Him. "And who is more unjust
+than he who deviseth a lie against God, that he may seduce men without
+understanding?" The frequent repetition of this and other like passages
+is significant of Mohammed's sincerity, also of his moral persistence
+and tenacity. It was from his point of view bad enough to have doubt
+thrown on the authenticity of his mission. This he could to some extent
+put up with. But it was as naught compared to the reflection, the crime
+of perjury committed against the Almighty. To cast a slur on His
+holiness in this audacious way, was nothing short of blasphemy, a crime
+worthy of eternal hell fire and damnation. Few men in the world's
+history were as loyal to their God as this grim but faithful product of
+Arabia the Stony. In this respect, and particularly with regard to the
+depth and intensity of their religious zeal and fervour, there was a
+strong resemblance between Cromwell and Mohammed. To both of these moral
+ironsides, those who did not believe as they believed were unbelievers,
+and as such outside the pale of God's mercy. For believers, however,
+nothing was too good. To such an extent did these principles influence
+the latter, that he even went so far as to promise that all grudges
+should be removed from the minds of the faithful. Here again we have
+evidence of Mohammed's unquestionable humanity; also of civilization to
+a marked degree. For a grudge, although fundamentally and
+characteristically human, was at the same time, and still is among the
+Bedawins, a peculiarly Arabian idiosyncrasy; associated as it was, and
+often culminating as it did, in acts of vengeance identical to the
+Corsican vendetta, "the terrible blood feud which even the most reckless
+fear for their posterity."
+
+In spite, however, of his eagerness and zeal for conversion, consistent
+as this was with his idea of national autonomy, in nothing did Mohammed
+show his sincerity so much as in his thoroughness and honesty. He was
+nothing if not thorough. The long and arduous probation he passed
+through in preparing and fitting himself for his mission--the mental
+concentration, the wrestlings with all that is evil and inexorable in
+man's nature, the night watches, the agonies, the communings with
+God--all go to prove this. And if to be outspoken and candid is honesty,
+then indeed no one has surpassed him in that respect. In his eyes a true
+disciple of Islam meant a man who lived and acted up to the tenets and
+principles of its faith. For instance, with him there was no such fiasco
+as a death-bed repentance. "But no repentance _shall be accepted_ from
+those who do evil until _the time_ when death presenteth itself unto one
+of them, _and he_ saith verily I repent now; nor unto those who die
+unbelievers: for them have we prepared a grievous punishment." Such an
+act was wholly repugnant to the fine sense of equity and justice that he
+possessed, advocating as he so strenuously did the use of "a full
+measure and just balance." As one who had given practically his whole
+life to the service and adoration of God, his soul rose in revolt and
+abhorred so vile a subterfuge. It was adding insult to injury. A mere
+sneaking stratagem of priestly artifice, held out as an alluring but
+offensive bait. A despicable and devilish cunning on the part of the
+unbeliever, who would endeavour to throw dust into the sun-piercing
+vision of the Most High, all unconscious of the thinness and
+transparency of his device and of God's searching penetration, that
+could pierce through all eternity even unto the uttermost ends of His
+mighty universe! To serve mammon a lifetime, and then at the last
+moment, when on the brink of death's unending precipice, to turn to God
+and expect to reap the same reward of eternal bliss as the whole-hearted
+believer who has given all or a great part of his life to God's service,
+was impossible. The very thought of it was monstrous. The choice lay
+with the ego himself! Evil was his own doing! Good also lay within his
+reach. It was in a great measure a matter of choice. Every man was more
+or less responsible for his own undoing. To a life of evil, a death-bed
+repentance was not capable of producing more than its own equivalent of
+happiness, i.e. the merest possible fragment. This was in accordance
+with God's principle of the scales of justice and an even balance. Yet
+Mohammed was not against repentance and contrition when sincere and made
+in due and proper time. Over and over again he holds out the olive
+branch, and reiterates the forgiveness and mercy of God, as attributes
+that belonged to Him alone. Mercy, indeed, was not so much an
+_attribute_ as a _monopoly_. "He hath prescribed unto Himself mercy," as
+compatible with the fact that He was the final Court of Appeal. However
+adversely the theologian may criticize this from the modern Christian
+standpoint, it is clear and direct proof of Mohammed's whole-hearted
+sincerity. Further it is equally direct and tangible evidence of the
+ardour and zeal that was in him as a prophet and reformer.
+
+God, with all His sternness and inflexibility, as He appeared to
+Mohammed, was just and merciful. A strict comparison between Yahveh and
+Allah certainly inclines the balance in favour of the latter. Jehovah at
+His best was a God of blood and vengeance, at His worst a voracious
+monster. In Allah, stern and avenging God as He was, there was at least
+compassion and mercy and forgiveness. He was not inexorable. He would
+listen to reason. Mohammed himself was a distinct advance on the founder
+of the ancient Jewish faith. He was more humane, a man of broader and
+deeper sympathies. Stern and hard to a degree where God and the Faith
+was concerned; where men, but especially women and children, were
+concerned, he was all tenderness and pity.
+
+Dutiful and obedient to his uncle who had been a father to him, he was a
+faithful servant, an exemplary husband, a kind father, a good master.
+The very name of Faithful, by which he was always distinguished, proves
+beyond a doubt what manner of man he was. An orphan himself in
+childhood, early inured to poverty, his heart went out to all those who
+had the misfortune to be similarly situated. For the poor, the weak, the
+helpless, he had a fellow-feeling. The degraded or at least dependent
+and unprotected position of women, their moral and legal helplessness
+most of all, appealed to him. But in no sense because he was sensual.
+Sensuality was not one of his many failings. A man from top to bottom,
+by birth, breeding and environment Mohammed was an Arab and a Patriarch.
+As such he only naturally liked women and children. To men and for the
+Faith a strong hard man, to the weak and helpless he was tender and
+affectionate. As he was strong, so he was merciful and full of human
+sympathies. His long and happy union with Khadija shows not only that he
+was faithful to a degree, but a man of high moral fibre. A man too full
+of the gravity of life to squander his substance in mere sensuality. But
+in all eastern and African countries where polygamy prevails, marriage
+is a pure matter of political convenience. Mohammed knew this. He
+recognized that marriage was a very important factor in securing
+influence and power. It threw out octopean feelers at various tangents
+and established certain associations and connexions to which it clung,
+as a limpet to a rock or a devil-fish to its victim. The same principle
+down almost to our own day has been a powerful factor in European
+statecraft. Even the earlier practice of keeping mistresses, so much
+indulged in by the sovereign holders of so-called "divine rights," had
+much in common with this custom. It was undoubtedly this motive more
+than any other which influenced Mohammed. It was an essential feature in
+his great design. For in spite of his overwhelming devotion to God,
+notwithstanding God's obsession of him, Mohammed was essentially human.
+There was room and sorrow in his heart for human frailties. His desire
+was strong to remedy them. He too like Luther was a Protestant, and a
+Reformer.
+
+As to the soulless theory regarding the fair sex, which has been
+literally thrust upon the Moslem world by an antipathetic if not
+inimical Christendom, I quite agree with Burton. "The Moslems never went
+so far." At all events if some of them have done so, "Certain '_Fathers
+of the Church_,' it must be remembered, did not believe that women have
+souls." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in one of that inimitable series of
+letters which she wrote, admits as much. In this particular letter
+written from Constantinople on May 29, 1717 (O.S.), to the Abb� Conti,
+she says: "Our vulgar notion that they (the Turks) do not own women to
+have any souls is a mistake." And then she continues, but in not so
+accurate a vein: "'Tis true, they say they are not of so elevated a
+kind, and therefore must not hope to be admitted into the paradise
+appointed for the men, who are to be entertained by celestial beauties.
+But there is a place of happiness destined for souls of the inferior
+order, where all good women are to be in eternal bliss." It is in no
+sense surprising, therefore, that to Mohammed Allah was the merciful. So
+in the sixth surah, he writes: "We (as if identifying himself with God)
+will not impose a task on any soul beyond its ability. For this
+self-same reason, God is minded to make _his religion_ light unto you:
+for man was created weak." Strong and enduring as sincerity and
+conviction made him, Mohammed knew his own weakness. Hence with a
+clemency that was divine he made concessions such as these. In these he
+acknowledged that, "to err is human, to forgive divine." All the more,
+however, we cannot but admire his candour. Even as regards himself, his
+shortcomings and inadequacies, he speaks with an openness and
+straightforwardness that disarms suspicion--that forces the inquirer to
+respect him with all the greater reverence as a great leader of men. "So
+say I not unto you, the treasures of God are in my power; neither _do I
+say_, I know the secrets _of God_, neither do I say unto you, Verily I am
+an angel: I follow only that which is revealed unto me." Indeed the more
+closely and carefully I look into his words in comparison with his life
+and acts, the more obvious do his candour and sincerity become. The more
+obvious is it to me that although essentially the product of a grim and
+petrified environment, he himself was unique. A man in advance of his
+time and people. For deep down in the soul of him, the rich milk of
+human kindness welled up out of the same eternal source from which he
+derived his fear and veneration for the Supreme! Truly the Prophet and
+spiritual ruler of the East and polygamy, as Christ stands for the West
+and monogamy!
+
+It was with these weapons, combined with the tenacity of an elastic and
+imperishable patience, that Mohammed fought the Koreish and other
+tribes, and it was with them he finally conquered. Had he been
+insincere, there would have been no Islam. Had there been no spirit of a
+divine moral conception such as he infused into the creed (which came
+through him from the great fountain head of God and Nature), Islam
+would have withered and perished from sheer exhaustion and debility.
+From the standpoint of physical and moral purity, Mohammed was in every
+sense an Essene. Not only therefore was cleanliness of the body an
+absolute essential, but cleanliness of mind. Filthy immoral actions and
+depravities that he knew existed, unjust violence and iniquities,
+whether openly done or in concealment, were condemned and forbidden in
+scathing terms as a violation of God's express command. The sophistry
+that would make an evil to be no crime unless found out, he denounced
+with all the fiery ardour of his fervent nature. From God there was no
+concealment. In his eyes it was a crime all the same--greater, in fact,
+because of attempted concealment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET'S CHARACTER
+
+
+In refuting those sceptics who have doubted the truth and sincerity of
+Islam, Carlyle condemns scepticism (rather too hastily it seems to me)
+as an indication of spiritual paralysis. Most unquestionably he was
+right in denouncing the former as an idiotic and godless theory. But
+scepticism itself in a general sense is not necessarily an evil. On the
+contrary, it is a natural tendency that arises out of the instinct of
+curiosity. Knowledge is not an inert and passive principle, but an
+active and dynamic force. Buckle in his history speaks of scepticism as
+stimulating curiosity. But he has put the cart before the horse. It is
+curiosity that excites scepticism. Curiosity is an animal instinct--the
+basis of all science. It exists in the lower animal creation--scepticism
+only in the upper human section. It is a higher or further development,
+a tendency that is certainly strengthened, if not acquired through
+education.
+
+According to Lecky, "The first stage to toleration in England was due to
+the spirit of scepticism encroaching upon the doctrine of exclusive
+salvation"; and "the extinction of the spirit of intolerance both in
+Catholic and Protestant countries--due to the spirit of rationalism--was
+the noblest of all the conquests of civilization." But as rationalism
+itself is chiefly the consequence of scepticism and the result of
+inquiry, it is obvious that in a deeply fundamental sense, the world is
+very considerably indebted to science or the spirit of scepticism.
+Indeed all knowledge has arisen from experience, and the desire to
+search into the root of things--to know what is what. Without curiosity
+and scepticism, human thought would have long since stagnated and the
+world remained sunk in ignorance. As Ghazali says, "No knowledge without
+assurance deserves the name of knowledge." Seeing is not always
+devouring. Curiosity is not necessarily gluttony, or "scepticism, that
+curse of the intellect," as Victor Hugo calls it. Gluttony is unnatural,
+unwholesome, and bestial. It is not so much overdoing, as a flagrant
+abuse and outrage of a natural appetite. It is a kicking against the
+pricks--a flying in the face of Providence. But curiosity as an instinct
+direct from Nature is healthy, therefore the use of it as also wholesome
+stands in need of stimulus and encouragement.
+
+So Tennyson said of Shelley:--
+
+    "There lives more faith in honest doubt,
+    Believe me, than in half the creeds."
+
+In this righteous sense Mohammed was curious. As one of her own
+selection, Nature had specially endowed him with curiosity. He was one
+of her human, sensitive plants. As an observer, all his senses were
+developed and on the alert. He not only saw, but felt every vibration
+that thrilled, as it were, the very soul of the first great mother. In
+every flitting cloud, as in every fugitive thought, he was conscious of
+an unseen Power. A look-out man rather than a prophet, it was thus he
+groped or rather felt his way until he felt God. "I feel that there is a
+God," said La Bruy�re, "and I do not feel that there is none: that is
+enough for me; the reasoning of the world is useless to me: I conclude
+that God exists." It was in much the same vein of self-argument that
+Mohammed communed to himself. Having felt God, God became for him a
+necessity: more so even, an essential--an absolutism which banished all
+else from his mind. The thought that there was no God did not occur to
+him. But the thought that other gods could exist in the same universe
+with the one omnipotence was to him as monstrous as it was unthinkable.
+Besides Him there was no room for any other. The very thought in his
+estimation perished from inanition and sheer inability of conception!
+The trinity of Christianity was to him as impossible and unacceptable
+as the antediluvian or later polytheism of his own countrymen.
+
+All active minds are sceptical. Carlyle himself--although he appears to
+have been unconscious of the fact--was himself a sceptic. But it was
+peculiarly characteristic of the antagonistic dualism of his nature on
+the one hand to hurl innuendoes, anathemas (and every kind of mental
+brickbat that he could lay hold of) at what he called scepticism or
+unbelief. On the other hand, to hold up belief as absolutely essential
+to human existence. But like all theoretical crotchets, he carried his
+philosophical speculations too far. In other words, he sometimes
+overreached himself. According to his particular dogma, in his opinion,
+the life of man cannot subsist on doubt or denial, it subsists only on
+belief. But this is altogether beside the mark. Scepticism does not
+necessarily imply doubt or denial. Belief itself cannot exist without
+it. It is out of the ashes of scepticism that the immortal Phoenix of
+belief arises. It is out of the doubt and denial of accepted doctrines
+that all creeds (including Christianity and Islam) have grown into
+being. The doubt engendered by scepticism is after all only an
+investigation or leading into, an analysis of the nature of dogmas,
+doctrines or creeds. It is an investigation that may or may not have a
+result. It is but a search for or groping after the truth, as the
+consequence of moral, intellectual or spiritual dissatisfaction. It is
+also the desire to know, to find out the pros and cons of all the sides
+to a question. The spirit or element of doubt is the necessary, the
+essential precursor of improvement and progress. Hence the immense
+importance and significance of Scepticism. It is the very sum and
+substance of all human knowledge. As the acorn is to the oak, scepticism
+is to knowledge--the seed from which has sprung up all we know, and ever
+shall know. The ever fluent channel through which all the great
+intellectual giants and reformers of the world have poured out the
+glowing flash-lights of their intellect into the normal darkness of
+human minds. It is the moral effluvium out of which our modern
+civilization has constructed itself. Without it, the dense gloom and
+black obscurity of ignorance would have reigned supreme. Confused,
+chaotic, and enigmatic as the world now is--even in the full glare of
+its sunlight--without it (if it were possible to imagine such a state)
+the world would have been an enigma, a chaos and confusion worse
+confounded. For scepticism is, as it were, the sun in all its glory, as
+compared to the black oblivion of eternal night. If neither Luther nor
+Mohammed had been sceptics, there would have been no Reformation and no
+Islam. They did not take everything for granted. They were not satisfied
+with things as they were. They looked into the heart of them and found
+much room for improvement. They examined what they could, rejected that
+which was spiritually objectionable to them, but made use of what was
+most appropriate to their respective situations. It was only those
+features that best suited the exigencies of the case that they were
+prompt to lay hold of.
+
+Yet Mohammed was not of vigorous intellectuality, nor in any sense an
+original thinker. The constant repetition of formulas and reiteration of
+the same ideas that occur throughout the Koran show this. It is
+extremely probable that his mentality was at times overshadowed either
+by neurasthenic tendencies, or a predisposition to melancholia, and this
+was more than likely heightened by a life of excessive mental
+concentration combined with asceticism.
+
+But sincere as he was, Mohammed would not have been a true Arabian, had
+he not been diplomatic. Thus the commencement of the fourteenth surah is
+a clever but obvious device on his part; a meeting of his enemies with
+their own weapons, a flinging back to them of their own words and
+objections to the truth in their own teeth. It is clear too that here,
+for the time being, he has resolved on a change of tactics and of front.
+To prove to them that he is as of old the man to be trusted, he
+endeavours to disarm their incredulity by his own outspokenness and
+candour. As the sequel showed, he clearly demonstrates his own
+perspicacity and knowledge of human nature. He saw that by arguing with
+his countrymen, by always opposing their doubts with sophistry and
+argument, would be of little avail--useless, in fact. Such a course
+would but have encouraged and stimulated their opposition, on the ground
+that their beliefs, as worth refuting, were also based on truth or at
+least on strong evidence. Besides, Mohammed was painfully conscious of
+his own disability and helplessness to convince them by the performance
+of anything purporting to be miraculous. That on occasions he displayed
+artfulness and guile--duplicity, in fact--is not to be denied. The
+invention, e.g., of his night journey from Mecca to heaven vi�
+Jerusalem, was one of them. When he gave out that Gabriel had revealed
+to him the conspiracy that had been formed against him, which through
+ordinary means he had discovered, was another of these pious frauds. But
+after all, what are these trifles compared with those that in their
+myriads have been perpetrated by the great Church of Christendom? What
+are they as compared to a long life of strenuous sincerity, great
+nobility and earnest effort in the cause of humanity? It is impossible
+to lose sight of the fact that in working for God, he was all the time
+raising his countrymen from a lower to a higher level. Besides, the
+necessity of dissimulation, which is one of the heaviest taxes on a
+king, and the prerogative of a priest, is one of those idiosyncrasies
+that human flesh being heir to, even a prophet cannot at times escape
+from. We are reminded of the phrase: "Qui scit dissimulare, scit
+regnare"--He is a ruler who can conceal his thoughts--attributed to the
+Emperor Sigismund by that cultured and ambitious but false and subtle
+Pontiff Pius II, known as �neas Sylvius (Pius �neas): also the identical
+answer that Louis XI is said to have made to those who urged him to give
+his son Charles a better education, in order that the boy might in his
+day become a good king.
+
+It was not only that Mohammed's enemies were sceptical of his powers and
+his mission, but they mistrusted his intentions. This, indeed, to a
+sincere and earnest man like himself, was a bitter pill; a pill he found
+it hard to swallow. For he was conscious of his own sincerity, and as
+time went on, an increasing following gave him greater confidence in the
+reality of his mission. Indeed in proportion as his self-confidence
+developed, his conviction in the power and unity of God became an ever
+increasing quantity. This increasing consciousness of God's power and
+his own sincerity had the gradual effect of making him bolder and more
+aggressive, so that this outspokenness was a direct outcome of it, until
+at last Mohammed felt that it was his duty not merely to announce
+"Islam"--"_the true Faith_," but to enforce its acceptance on the
+people. This, of course, as we know, was after his flight to Medina.
+True his own people, the Koreish, had driven him out with scorn and
+violence, had cast contumely and dishonour on him, by rejecting the
+word, while strangers had hearkened unto him and accepted it. It is
+equally true that the sustained vindictiveness shown by the Koreish was
+sufficient in itself to excite the spirit of retaliation, even in a man
+of Mohammed's patient and tenacious character. But suggestive as this
+may be, it is quite certain that he acted on conviction in assuming the
+offensive. It is obvious, too, that in doing so, he felt that he was
+acting under divine compulsion. In any case, we must allow that "a man
+is really of weight in the balance of Fate, only when he has the right
+on his own account to cause men to be slain." In Mohammed's case,
+however, if conviction counts for anything, his right was a divine
+right. According to Dumas: "In human nature there are antipathies to be
+overcome--_sympathies which may be forced_." (The italics are mine.)
+"Iron is not the loadstone; but by rubbing it with a loadstone we make
+it, in its turn, attract iron." This may be, but it is not in reality
+so. It is but a mere figure of speech that the great novelist makes use
+of, and which he puts into the mouth of Ren�, the poisoner, in support
+of some theory or argument. It is, of course, possible that antipathies
+may be overcome by sympathy. This, however, depends entirely on the
+power of the one and the weakness of the other. But sympathy cannot be
+forced. To endeavour to force sympathy is to attempt the unnatural. The
+most that can be expected from such a cause is dissimulation. This
+certainly was Mohammed's experience. Although ultimately he and his
+successors forced the word of God on these his inveterate enemies, he
+never succeeded in forcing his sympathies upon them. Death and Time
+alone accomplished what his own personality failed to do. Through the
+victory he gained by them, he now lives enshrined in the sanctified halo
+of a sympathy that, emanating from every Moslem heart, forms with his
+own the great and throbbing soul of Islam.
+
+But Mohammed was not only spiritual. He, like every human being, had a
+material side to his character. Not only was he a preacher and a
+prophet; not only was he a lawgiver--a law and a light unto his people
+to this very day; but as one who himself rigidly practised self-denial
+and economy and condemned extravagance, who possessed the organizing
+ability to administer the estate of others, and who could command
+preferably in peace, but if necessary in war, he was a statesman and an
+economist. Unquestionably too he looked ahead--he made provision for the
+future. His whole apostolic life was one long and arduous preparation
+for coming events. As an instance of this, the ordering of the yearly
+pilgrimage to Mecca was as much a political as a religious ordinance. By
+this measure of policy--this master stroke of psychologic insight into
+human eventualities, Mohammed showed his natural genius. For without a
+doubt he aimed at preserving to Arabia the point and focus of a
+religious centre, that would make for national consolidation and unity,
+and serve as the sacred r�duit and rallying ground for the world of
+Islam. So too he showed his capacity for system and organization in
+legalizing the fifth part of all booty and property confiscated to be
+paid into the public treasury. In the same way he insisted on the giving
+of Zakat or alms for charitable purposes, apart from those contributions
+he received from his followers for maintenance. In making these
+ordinances appear as divine injunctions, Mohammed showed no more
+insincerity or inconsistence than he did in claiming the whole Koran as
+a series of revelations. The political and economic factors were as much
+a radical part of his entire design, as the religious. The one could not
+exist without the other. Statesman as he was, he recognized that
+religious unity could only be firmly established through political
+co-operation, and that to secure national stability the sinews of war
+were essential.
+
+It is all through quite obvious that he had the trading instinct of his
+people. In any case the training he received at the hands and in the
+employ of his uncle Abu Talib, as well as the subsequent management of
+Khadija's business, had imbued him very powerfully with business
+principles and practical ideas. Abu Talib, like his father and
+grandfather before him, carried on a considerable trade with Syria and
+Yemen. He carried to Damascus, to Basra and other places in Syria, the
+dates of Hijaz and Hijr, and the perfumes of Yemen, bringing back with
+him in return the products of the Byzantine Empire. Mohammed, as is
+known, accompanied him, and without doubt laid the foundation of an
+economic experience, that subsequently proved valuable.
+
+Commerce has always been the greatest of civilizing factors. According
+to Buckle: "Among the accessories of modern civilization there is none
+of greater moment than Trade." So too Hallam says: "Under a second
+class of events that contributed to destroy the spirit of the Feudal
+system, we may reckon the abolition of villenage, the increase of
+commerce, and consequent opulence of merchants and artisans, and
+especially the institution of free cities and boroughs. This is one of
+the most important and interesting steps in the progress of society
+during the Middle Ages, and deserves particular consideration." But this
+is all the more important as showing that trade was in reality a more
+powerful factor for civilization than Christianity, which after several
+centuries of hold on the people of Europe, had done little more than
+inflame them with a zeal and a zest for fighting. It is significant also
+that while Rome rose to her greatest eminence under the Ancestral
+worship of her founders, when she became Christian, Christianity did not
+prevent her from declining and falling into pieces. But it is equally
+significant that while the opulence conferred by commerce on Rome,
+eventually brought reaction and ruin upon her people, the effect it had
+upon the barbarians who overthrew the Eternal City, was sufficiently
+stimulating to encourage them to invade a degenerate empire. For the
+desire of wealth and plunder was but the first awakening of the spirit
+of commerce. To be sure the crusades gave a great stimulus to trade.
+But there was more of the militant spirit than Christianity about them.
+Besides, although commercial prosperity often accompanies war, reaction
+is certain to supervene. Obviously the essential importance of trade was
+a truth that the Merchant-Prophet soon recognized. Intuitively, and with
+the keenness of perception that marked him, he naturally utilized every
+lesson that it taught him and every advantage that it gave him. Nor has
+he been the only theologian who saw its utility in a religious light.
+The Jesuits long afterwards recognized the agency of commerce in
+promoting and diffusing religious belief, and became great merchants as
+well as great missionaries. So too it was through commerce, as Draper
+points out, "that the Papacy first learned to turn to art. The ensuing
+development of Europe" (in the Renaissance) "was really based on the
+commerce of _upper_ Italy, and not on the Church. The statesmen of
+Florence were the inventors of the balance of power."
+
+Quoting from Syed Ameer Ali's _Spirit of Islam_, Fihr, surnamed Koreish,
+a descendant of Maad--who flourished in the third century--was the
+ancestor of the tribe that gave to Arabia her prophet and legislator.
+This fact, trifling as it may appear, is, however, remarkable, if not
+significant. For this word "Koreish" is derived from "Karash," to
+trade; and it appears that Fihr and his descendants were always devoted
+to commerce. From this it is safe to assume that trading was an inherent
+instinct in Mohammed.
+
+This apart, to him personally Islam was a something more than a mere
+creed or belief. It was God's own religion sealed and delivered to him
+by God. Not to deliver it to his people as commanded, not to carry it
+through--by persuasion first of all, by fire and sword if man's
+obstinacy and rejection of it made it necessary--would mean that he had
+failed in his duty to the Most High. The sense and spirit of duty was
+stronger in Mohammed than in Nelson. In him it was not simply an active
+and vital principle. It was an impelling force. So inseparable from God,
+that to him it appeared as God Himself. But with him God always came
+first. His duty to his country was subordinate to his duty to his Maker.
+His duty to Him, therefore, was his duty to his country. So in surah xi.
+he says: "O my people, do ye work according to your condition; I will
+surely work according to my duty," i.e. according to God. In numerous
+passages he points out that God was absolutely averse to profusion and
+extravagance, equally so to meanness. True liberality in his opinion
+consisted in the happy mean between the two extremes. "And waste not
+thy substance profusely; for the profuse are brethren of the devils: and
+the devil was ungrateful unto his Lord" (surah xvii.). Again in the
+sixth, "But be not profuse, for God loveth not those who are too
+profuse"; and in the following the economic instinct shows itself most
+significantly: "O true believers, consume not your wealth among
+yourselves in vanity; unless there be merchandizing among you by mutual
+consent." Once more Mohammed demonstrates his great profundity and
+insight into the character, the customs and traditions of his
+countrymen. All Oriental and African nations from time immemorial have
+been notably extravagant, especially in regard to marriage ceremonials
+and funeral rites. Even to this day among the Hindus and most African
+tribes, it is a code of honour, a sacred injunction of their religion,
+to spend profusely on marriage and burial feasts. Indeed this is
+frequently done to the impoverishment, and, in the latter case, even to
+the ruination of whole families or households. The Arabs, it appears,
+were no exception to this. At the same time they were a curious blend of
+meanness and extravagance. To Mohammed, rigid economist as he was, and
+inspired to the core by the duty that had been intrusted to him, this
+prodigality was a great sin. Not only did his countrymen squander away
+their substance in folly and luxury, but they were particularly guilty
+of extravagance in killing camels, and distributing them by lot merely
+out of vanity and ostentation. Worse even than this, they were given to
+the destruction of their female children. Against this evil Mohammed
+sternly set his face. This in itself shows his great moral superiority
+over his countrymen. It shows also the possession of a higher and more
+refined yet practical intelligence, that was able to grasp the economic
+possibilities which were bound to ensue from the preservation of female
+children. Essentially an Arab patriarch at heart (which he in some
+measure proved by his marriages), Mohammed, however, was still more
+essentially a Humanist. With the moral greatness of a good man, and the
+mental perception of genius, he felt and recognized that it was against
+all the laws of God to destroy the fecundity of and the productive in
+nature. Thus it was that he placed the divine tabu on the abuse and
+destruction of all that was beneficial to humanity, but especially on
+men, animals and the produce of the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED'S WORK AND WORTH
+
+
+Taken as a whole, the Koran is certainly not a work of literary art.
+Mohammed, in a literary sense, was neither a poet nor a writer. He was,
+as he says of himself, only an illiterate apostle. This, from an
+artistic point of view, is of course regrettable. In his mother tongue
+he had a rich and splendid medium. A language of high philosophical and
+poetical character, that "follows the mind," as Burton says, and gives
+birth to its offspring: that is free from the "luggage of particles"
+which clogs our modern tongues--leaves a mysterious vagueness between
+the relation of word to word, which materially assists the sentiment,
+not the sense of the poet. A language too that luxuriates in "rich and
+varied synonyms, illustrating the finest shades of meaning," that are
+artfully used--"now scattered to startle us by distinctness, now to form
+as it were a star about which dimly seen satellites revolve." Finally
+which revels in a wealth of rhyme that leaves the poet almost
+unfettered to choose the desired or exact expression. Undoubtedly in a
+literary sense, here at hand, was a mighty and magnificent weapon. A
+quiverful of musical arrows, quivering as they waited for the poetic
+muse--the fine frenzy, the seething imagination, the running ready
+fire--to launch them forth into the humming haunts and hearts of men.
+But in no sense was this Merchant-Prophet a knight-errant. Kindly and
+tender as he was towards women and children, he was not addicted (as his
+countrymen were) to chivalry in any form. The race of heroines of Al
+Islam had no attraction for him. The "Hawa (or 'Ishk') uzri,"
+"pardonable love," of the Bedawin, a certain species of platonic
+affection, did not exist for him. He had no room for such trivialities
+in his life. It was too serious and pre-occupied. Too much occupied with
+the affairs of his Master, and worldly business matters that had to be
+attended to. So that he had no time to waste on such pleasantries.
+Trifles that were as light as air in contrast to the stern and deadly
+realities of existence. Yet without doubt he must have attended the
+annual fairs that were held at various places, at "Zul Mejaz," at Majna,
+and at Okadh. The latter, Syed Ameer Ali tells us, was a place famous in
+Arab tradition. It was the Olympia of Yemen. The fair held here in the
+sacred month of "Zu'lkada," was a great national gathering. A sort of
+"God's truce" was then proclaimed. War and the shedding of human blood
+was forbidden. To it came merchants with their wares from all parts of
+Arabia and other distant lands; also the poets and heroes of the desert.
+These (many of whom were disguised from the avengers of blood feuds in
+masks or veils) recited their poems, displayed their literary talents,
+and sang of their glory and their prowess. But Mohammed's aims and
+inclinations did not lie in this direction. He was too much of a working
+philosopher to be a mere poetic dreamer or play actor. His genius lay in
+his profound earnestness, his great moral strength, his capacity for
+work, his political foresight and acumen, his iron will and his
+inexhaustible patience. It is certain that he believed (in the
+philosophic principle) that "everything comes to him who waits." For he
+himself says: "Wait therefore the event, for I also will wait it with
+you." Obviously he was imbued with the same tenacity, and many of the
+imperturbable characteristics of the camel of his own Arabian deserts.
+Unquestionably he knew how "_to wait_," recognized that the essence of
+all human wisdom lies in this single feature, and that the greatest, the
+strongest and the most successful is he who waits and watches. It was
+thus that he waited with the unvarying purpose and pertinacity of a man
+who knew and appreciated his own value at its proper worth. For he felt
+in every nerve and fibre of his consciousness, that as God makes no man
+or no thing in vain, the future must have some (great) thing, some great
+prize, in reserve for him. We know what that prize was. We know also
+that it only came to him after a life of unwearied toil, and assiduous
+devotion to his great and noble purpose, and then only in reality
+through the moral and spiritual victory which death gave him.
+
+Yet, in spite of its artistic defects, Mohammed's work turned out, as we
+know, into a success that even he himself could never have anticipated.
+But in a spiritual sense, judging merely by results, the Koran has lost
+nothing because of its lack of literary art and beauty. Had it gushed
+all over with the eastern music of the Songs of Solomon, had it arrested
+the attention by the same aphoristic wisdom of the Proverbs, thrilled
+its readers by the recital of a tragedy so intensely powerful, so
+realistic and majestic as the drama of Job, and appealed to them through
+the joys, the sorrows and the grand poetry of the Psalms! Had it, in
+fact, sparkled all over with those beauties of language and metaphor
+that distinguish the Bible, the result that it might have attained could
+scarcely have been greater than that which it has accomplished without
+these trappings. It is, in fact, probable that it might have lost. It is
+just possible that what it would have gained as an ornate work, it would
+have lost in sincerity. The Koran, in fact, was essentially the
+offspring of Mohammed's own unique personality. This, as I have tried to
+show, was the peculiar outcome of his dual environment--the frowning,
+rugged and arid aspect of stony mountains and sandy wastes, plus the
+commercial and political instincts that were inherent as well as
+developed on his trade journeys and at the various towns and marts which
+he visited. Nevertheless there was in this Semitic Puritan, as there is
+in almost every Arab, a certain rugged vein of poetry--the wild song of
+freedom--that bursts out here and there. But only now and then like the
+thunderstorm that is so great a rarity in the desert. For the gravity
+and over-concentration of his thoughts on the one definite object,
+oppressed him so weightily, that it left no time for others. Just as
+fast as rain is swallowed up by the parched and thirsty sand after a
+long spell of drought, so his soul, thirsting as it did after God,
+gulped and kept down the poetry and sentiment at bottom of him. All the
+same, if a book is to be gauged by its net results--by the effect it has
+produced on all that is deepest and best in human nature--then the
+Koran must necessarily take high rank as one of the world's greatest
+works. In much the same way, only in another and more material
+direction, the _Wealth of Nations_ has also left its impress on the
+shaping of human destinies.
+
+Mohammed's sincerity and fixity of purpose is a fact we cannot get away
+from. It is this which has chained his followers as with the sure cord
+of God to the Faith. Islam, in a word, is a creed of practice not
+theory. By practice it was formed. On practice it has lived. It was
+because Mohammed practised what he preached, that the small seed of his
+original idea blossomed at last into the mighty "Igdrasil" of the
+East--the great banyan tree of existence. Verily this sun-burnt son of
+Arabia Petr�a was a tangible reality and no desert simulacrum. A reality
+that lives in the soul of Islam. A reality that will endure until the
+end of all things human. It is not manners that maketh the man. It is
+man that makes the manners. It is the nature that is around him, the
+nature that is in him, and that comes out of him as mental and moral
+energies, that makes the man. Town bred as he was, it was the desert in
+all its naked and silent grandeur that made Mohammed, that inspired him
+with all the might and majesty of God, and turned him into a prophet.
+Yet it was his career as a trader and the inherent tribal instinct that
+developed the political element in him. As Longfellow says: "Glorious
+indeed is the world of God around us; but more glorious is the world of
+God within us. There lies the land of song, there lies the poet's native
+land." But in Mohammed's case, as in the case of all great workers and
+thinkers, the world that is around us, is the world of our inner
+consciousness. The two are synonymous if not one. Only with him the
+native earth was religion, and he was the Prophet, not the Poet of it.
+"It is Nature's highest reward to a true, simple, great soul, that he
+gets thus to be _a part of herself_." It was thus with Mohammed.
+Thought, though changeable, is eternal. It never dies. So the one idea
+that possessed Mohammed now possesses (differing only in merely
+superficial degrees) some two hundred and fifty millions.
+
+Carlyle is mistaken, certainly much too premature, when he says: "Even
+in Arabia, as I compute, Mahommet will have exhausted himself and become
+obsolete, while this Shakespeare, this Dante may still be young; while
+this Shakespeare may still pretend to be a priest of mankind, of Arabia
+as of other places, for unlimited periods to come." Religion is
+entirely an universal matter, Thought a question of environment. Roughly
+speaking, the world of Thought is divided into two camps of east and
+west. To the former belongs Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam; to the latter
+Christianity and the growing cult of Rationalism. It is impossible to
+predict or in any way to foreshadow any fusion of these hostile
+elements. The day when humanism--i.e. the religion of humanity, as the
+natural product of her highest intellectual effort--shall have fused and
+humanized all the nations of the Earth into one great civilized family,
+is too far distant and beyond the present scope of human speculation.
+
+If men are to be regarded especially as to the weight and power with
+which they operate on the minds of their fellow-men, then this
+camel-driving trader must without question be estimated as a great
+man--a man a long way above his fellows. Assuredly too it is chiefly
+through the Koran that his great and God-like thoughts, crystallized
+into greater motives and actions, have filtered down through the events
+and developments of thirteen centuries, as a purifying, fertilizing, and
+elevating factor.
+
+Looking at him and his work from every aspect, Mohammed was not merely a
+heroic prophet. He was much more. A king and a leader of men. A ruler
+and a judge over them. If we are to judge of him, to take him for what
+he is worth, by his work--the rich ripe fruit of his rare and strenuous
+effort--the Koran on the one hand, and, on the other, the mighty
+spiritual force he has left behind him in the Church of Islam, we must
+pronounce him to have been a great and remarkable man. A man who, when
+his true value is understood and appreciated, will stand out in history
+as a political and religious reformer of a virile and heroic type. A man
+who will be regarded in even a greater light than he now is, when
+humanity shall have become less denominational and more rationally
+humanitarian. In reality Mohammed was an ultra great man. The difference
+(as it appears to me) between other great men and himself was wide. The
+ordinary type of great man--a John Knox for example--is a patriot
+essentially. He is for his country first, then for God and humanity. As
+I have shown, with Mohammed it was just the reverse. An Arab by accident
+of birth, he put God and nature before everything. It was this that made
+him a humanist; this that placed him before his age. For Mohammed,
+without a shadow of a doubt, was centuries before his age. In his God
+concept, in his rejection of the ancient myth of immaculate conception,
+in his refusing to acknowledge Christ's divinity, he was essentially a
+modern--a modern of the twentieth century. It was this catholicity
+therefore that made Islam blossom into a spiritual energy that embraces
+so many national units.
+
+Mohammed fought with all his might and main. In exact proportion to his
+labour he has prevailed. Prevailed over the issues of life and death.
+Death had no terrors for him. Life alone was full of terror--i.e. of the
+fear of God. In death there was no sting. In the grave there was no
+victory. Death but killed the mortal part of him. The spiritual it has
+increased and multiplied out of all proportion. The present soul of
+Islam is the spirit of Mohammed. Only when this exhausts itself will
+Islam wither and die! To this day he is, and for many �ons to come he
+will be in spirit, the ruler and judge over Islam. In spite of sects and
+theological speculators, as long as Islam lasts, his spirit will
+continue to preside over its destinies. His spirit lives in the spirit
+of the creed that he bequeathed as a divine legacy to humanity--i.e. to
+those sections of it which have been nurtured in the system and
+adoration of the Patriarch. For though the material part of him is dead,
+the spiritual still speaks with a voice that is myriad-tongued. As God's
+word, there is a sanctity in the Koran for every Moslem that exceeds
+the reverence of the Christian for the Bible, as much as the fiery
+splendour of the sun surpasses the cold pale glamour of the moon--which
+is but a shadow, a pale reflection of the substance and reality. There
+is, in fact, on the part of the Moslem a veneration accorded to the
+Koran that practically equals the veneration of the African or the Irish
+for their land. Compatible with this, there is for the Moslem but one
+Prophet. As God's chosen agent for the dissemination of His word,
+Mohammed stands alone and aloof on a pinnacle that is humanly
+unapproachable. Many faults have been imputed to him, many charges
+brought against him. To the average, indeed even to the educated
+Christian, Mohammed is nothing but the very strangest compound of right
+and wrong, of error and truth, the abolisher of superstition according
+to his own showing, yet a believer in charms, dreams, omens, and jinns.
+But what of all this? Does not reasoning such as this itself prove how
+very inconsequent and inconsistent is man, even though he be a European
+and a Christian? Is not superstition of the same kind as rife at this
+very moment in Europe, nay in the very centres and strongholds of
+Christendom? What about the ikons, the charms, the amulets, the sacred
+relics and the images of the Greek and Romish Churches? Is not this but
+a form of materialism which itself is a phase or part--a very large
+part--of Nature? Did not superstition (derived from "super," above or
+beyond measure, and "sto," to stand) originally imply excess of scruple,
+or of ceremonial observances in religion? Did it not describe a
+superfluity of worship that exceeded what was either enjoined or
+fitting? What does Cicero say of it in his treatise on _The Nature of
+the Gods_? (I quote from an old translation): "Not only Philosophers,
+but all our forefathers dydde ever separate _superstition_ from true
+religion. For they whiche prayed all day that theyr children might
+overlyve (superstites essent), were called _superstitious_; which name
+after was larger extended." Is not this thing we call superstition--this
+belief in the super or rather outside natural as distinguished from the
+vague and merely vulgar absurdities that are so common--but the result
+of inherent instincts that humanity, as simply one form of natural
+development, derives direct from Nature? Is not this Naturism more or
+less developed in us all--more in the ignorant, less in the educated,
+and least of all in the scientist; the sceptic who knows most, because
+he has looked and searched more into the truth and reality of things;
+because he has learnt by experience, fact, knowledge, therefore a
+greater intelligence to discriminate which from what and why from
+wherefore? In any case, does not the fact that Mohammed was
+superstitious all the more clearly prove that he was no mere vulgar
+designer who practised self-deception and pretensions with regard to his
+mission, but that he was thoroughly sincere in believing himself to be
+the specially selected Apostle of the Great Designer and Controller of
+the universe?
+
+But it is not to Mohammed's faults that we must look. All great men are
+moulded out of faults. It is in his virtues and greatnesses--and they
+are many--that we will find the true man. In this Carlyle was a right
+guide, and showed his own breadth of mind and greatness. These prove
+Mohammed to have been one of humanity's greatest constructors. It is
+true that he destroyed, but on a small scale comparatively in proportion
+to the immensity of his constructive labour. As evidence of this, the
+physical, the moral and the spiritual wealth of Islam speaks in round
+numbers and solid realities. In another of his great romances, Dumas,
+speaking of John Knox, says: "He who had raised such a storm had need to
+be, and he was, a Titan; indeed John Knox was one of those men whom
+great religious and political revolutions invariably beget. Born in
+Scotland or England during the Presbyterian Reformation, they are
+called John Knox or Oliver Cromwell; born in France, in the time of
+political reform, they are called Mirabeau or Danton." Mohammed was, in
+every sense of the word, more titanic than a Cromwell or a Mirabeau. He
+was not by nature or at heart a destroyer. When he destroyed it was only
+because his hand was forced by the crass and obstinate antagonism of
+those upon whom his sincerity and persuasiveness had aroused an envious
+and deadly hatred. The whole aim, end and object of his existence was to
+develop the adoration and religion of God. The storm he raised was
+conjured into being by the God that obsessed him. Hence the soul and
+constructiveness in it. Hence the mighty spirit of Islam, measurable
+only by a soul capacity which has never ceased to expand and develop. No
+sane man surely can deny that Islam was and is a great work? The moral
+figs and grapes that she has achieved are not such as could have been
+gathered from the thorn and thistle of human effort. Yet curiously
+enough, as I have shown, the environment in which it was born was
+strangely stern and sterile! This, however, is one of those natural
+anomalies that we would do well to leave alone. One of those paradoxes,
+those mysteries which Nature teems with, that are altogether beyond
+human comprehension.
+
+Whether or not he had made a study of the Socratic precept "+Gn�thi
+seauton+" "know thyself," Mohammed knew himself as thoroughly as it is
+possible for a man to do. Early in life he took his own measure. Gauged
+his own strength and weakness. Estimated the breadth, the length, and
+the depth to which he could go. As a result of this moral estimate, he
+felt that his resources without God were as slender as a broken reed
+buffeted by storm winds. He knew that his real strength lay in the
+knowledge and power of God and of Nature. The temperament and character
+of the Psalmist--he who looked on God as the strong tower and rock of
+his defence, his refuge, not however in time of trouble alone, but at
+all times--was strongly developed in him. The genius of the whole
+Semitic race was centred in Mohammed. It was this, amounting as it does
+to the sublimest egotheism, that gave him confidence, then conviction.
+It was this righteous conviction that carried him as it were on the
+wings of the wind--immortal breath and soul, as he pictured it--of the
+living and eternal God. Through this feeling he converted the innate
+fear and veneration that inspired him into the hand and power of the
+Almighty. If genius implies a keen psychological insight into the nature
+and inner consciousness of life's issues, added to inexhaustible energy,
+capacity for work and patience, then Mohammed was a genius. Certainly,
+if we accept Buffon's definition of genius, as, "but a greater aptitude
+for perseverance," he was without doubt a genius of the highest degree.
+The founder of a faith--one of the greatest the world has
+produced--spiritual commander of the faithful, his genius was
+essentially moral and religious. His whole life was one long labour of
+love and devotion to achieve his object, i.e. to proclaim God to the
+nations of the earth: the first half of it passed in secular work but in
+silent contemplation; the second half, itself divisible into two
+periods, twelve years of persuasion, followed to the close by active
+aggression and battle.
+
+Impulsive, passionate, and spontaneous Mohammed may have been, for like
+all great leaders he was many-sided. But in no sense of the word can
+Islam be said to have been the outcome of spontaneity. On the contrary,
+it was in every way the result of calm and deliberate reflection, of
+long and continuous contact with the forces and phenomena of Nature; but
+above all of an unceasing concentration and communion with the unseen
+power that controls them. Stretching over some twenty years, it went on
+uninterrupted by domestic cares or trade transactions. All these were
+secondary matters and had to give way to the central idea that occupied
+his whole mind, that revolved around his work and his thoughts, as the
+earth gyrates about the sun. His centre of gravity was God. This gravity
+formed his character, gave him courage and endurance in all his trials
+and afflictions, counselled and guided him in his ordinary vocations. It
+was this gravity and concentration that commanded the respect and trust
+of all who knew him and came under his magnetic influence.
+
+But Mohammed was not infallible. Dogma--everything human in fact--is
+open and liable to error. Even infallibility itself--as we speak of
+it--is fallible. As Draper so aptly remarks: "He who is infallible, must
+needs be immutable." In many of the ordinary ways of life he was no
+doubt changeable and inconsistent. He was, after all, only human--but
+not with regard to the Faith. Here was he as firm as a rock, and showed
+a fixity of purpose that nothing could shake or alter. With him, "Life
+was but a means to an end, that end, beginning, mean and end to all
+things--God." Only synchronous with this ruling principle was the idea
+of national unity. Never once did he falter or swerve from it. To this
+allegiance and fidelity of his to God and centralization it is possible
+to trace the devotion of Moslems to their Faith. "We are, as we often
+say, the creatures of circumstances. In that expression there is a higher
+philosophy than might at first sight appear. Our actions are not the pure
+and unmingled results of our desires. They are the offspring of many
+various and mixed conditions. In that which seems to be the most voluntary
+decision, there enters much that is altogether involuntary--more perhaps
+than we generally suppose." This was very much the case with Mohammed.
+He was largely the creature of circumstances--the personification of his
+environment. It was the genius of this that entered into and obsessed
+him. That formed and swayed him as it willed. That made him as strong
+and inflexible as itself. That, combining with the commercial knowledge
+and experience he possessed and the political acumen he acquired, made
+him what he was. Here in a tiny nutshell lies the kernel and origin of
+the soul of Islam. The possibility that Mohammed was rather of Caucasian
+than Ishmaelitish descent, in reality makes little if any difference in
+the psychological analysis of his character. Fundamentally, human nature
+is human nature all the world over. In this respect racial and colour
+distinctions make no difference. Even moral and physical characteristics
+are merely superficial classifications. Inherent tendencies, strong and
+rooted as they are, may be amended or modified by environment. So that
+although it is vaguely possible that his moral courage and other mental
+features were of Caucasian origin, in the main he was essentially
+Semitic in character, patriarchal in principle, and humanistic in
+spirit. In Lecky's opinion: "If we take a broad view of the course of
+history and examine the relations of great bodies of men, we find that
+religion and patriotism are the chief moral influences to which they
+have been subject, and that the separate modification and mutual
+interaction of these two agents may almost be said to constitute the
+moral history of mankind." This most certainly has been the case with
+regard to Islam. Religion was the medium chosen by Mohammed for the
+furtherance of his truly imperial design. It was entirely through
+religion, or rather the interpretation he placed upon it, that he built
+up first of all a natural patriotism, then an international spirit, that
+expanded into the mighty creed of Islam. Prior to this, Arabia as he
+found it was narrow to an extreme. The only patriotism--if patriotism it
+can be called--was clannish and communal. Outside these stilted limits,
+every one was regarded with suspicion, contempt, indifference, and
+invariably with undisguised hostility. Yet the great and solid
+foundation of this splendid spiritual and temporal empire was laid by
+one man. But how great and how heroic! Indeed, "take him all in all, the
+history of humanity has seen few more earnest, noble and sincere
+'prophets,' men irresistibly impelled by an inner power to admonish and
+to teach, and to utter austere and sublime truths, the full purport of
+which is often unknown to themselves."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISLAM
+
+
+The better to gauge the present political aspect of the Moslem world,
+the statesmen of Europe--of France and Great Britain more
+particularly--should make an earnest study of the spirit of Islam. If we
+regard Islam as the work of Mohammed--as we are bound to--there are
+certain broad features we must also recognize. Right away from its very
+inception he worked not only as a prophet, but as a political reformer.
+Travelling as he did with his eyes, ears and all his senses open, the
+political state of the eastern portion of Europe and the western side of
+Asia must have been well known to him. To accomplish his religious ends
+was impossible without the political unity of Arabia. To him the
+political and religious unity of his country were synonymous. As a
+shrewd and practical trader, the material advantages of commerce were
+taken into consideration. He recognized that without a sound commercial
+basis and political unity there could be no national stability. He also
+saw that in a country like Arabia, split up into clans and communities,
+it was only possible to effect this through the spiritual potentialities
+of the one and only true God. If he did not himself accomplish this
+great project, we know at least that it was the magnificent legacy he
+bequeathed to his followers in the spirit of Islam, that eventually did
+so in reality. He or the spirit he evoked was clearly and unmistakably
+the cause of all subsequent Moslem triumphs, intellectual and political
+as well as religious. Thus it was that scarcely eighty years after his
+death, Islam reigned supreme over Arabia, Syria, Persia, all the
+northern coast of Africa, including Egypt, as well as Spain. So, too,
+notwithstanding the internal schisms and rifts that subsequently took
+place, it kept on growing with great strides, until at last in 1453, the
+Crescent gleamed from the spires of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and
+the soul-stirring war cry "La ilah illa Allah" resounded seventy-six
+years afterwards before the very gates of Vienna. Lecky is undoubtedly
+right in assuming that: "To trace in every great movement the part which
+belongs to the individual and the part which belongs to general causes
+without exaggerating either side is one of the most difficult tasks of
+the historian." But in the case of Islam there can be no mistake. True,
+the Arabs in themselves were a great and virile people. But it was the
+genius of Mohammed, the spirit he breathed into them through the soul of
+Islam, that exalted them. That raised them out of the lethargy and low
+level of tribal stagnation, up to the high water mark of national unity
+and Empire. It was in the sublimity of Mohammed's deism, the simplicity,
+the sobriety and purity it inculcated, the fidelity of its founder to
+his own tenets, that acted on their moral and intellectual fibre with
+all the magnetism of true inspiration. To them Islam was the Faith--the
+Faith God.
+
+Just as Christianity stands for the faith of the great European family
+of nations, Islam stands for those countries whose political
+institutions are still based on the Patriarchal system. But
+Europe--however superior her peoples may think themselves--is not in the
+position, and certainly cannot afford, to look down upon Islam as an
+inferior product of an inferior section of the great human family. East
+may be East, and West, West--the system of one represented by polygamy,
+of the other by monogamy. But because Christianity is conformable to
+European ideals and notions, it does not in the least follow that it is
+compatible with those of the East. Because the civilized net result it
+has effected has eventually proved greater than that achieved by Islam,
+is no evidence whatever of Islam's worthlessness or decadence. It is
+not the spirit of Islam that has failed, but the people who believe in
+it. They have fallen away from the high ideal that was set them by their
+master. In this respect, however, Christianity has also degenerated. It
+is a creed of profession more than of practice. It has never
+consistently practised what it has preached. A very wide gulf divides
+its practices from its ideals. "If to do were as easy as to know what
+were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages
+princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions:
+I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the
+twenty to follow mine own teaching." So Shakespeare. This holds as good
+now as when he wrote it. Human nature never alters fundamentally. It is
+the same to-day as it was yesterday, and as it will be unto all
+eternity. Christendom much more so than Islam, is split up into sects
+and denominations, and there can be no question about it that the chief
+obstacle to unity among these various bodies at the present moment is
+want of sincerity and earnestness!
+
+Compared with the average Moslem, the average Christian too is certainly
+lukewarm. The nearest approach to Moslem perfervidness is in the piety
+of the Irish Catholics. But devotional as they are, even this falls far
+short of the rigid practice of the true Moslem. Not only, however, is
+he fervid and in downright earnest, but he is above all constant,
+faithful, and consistent to the principles of his creed. Thus, although
+there is no fatherhood about Allah, there is for all that a true and
+real brotherhood in Islam which contrasts very favourably with the
+professed brotherhood of Christendom. Colour or race, for instance,
+makes no difference to it. Islam, in fact, is above all such petty
+differences. She draws no hard and fast rules, has no such violent
+antipathies, bigotries and prejudices as Christendom. Professes little
+but practises much. Colour in her eyes is no disgrace, no bar to God,
+much less therefore to human fellowship and assimilation. This, as we
+know, is not the case with Christians. To them colour and race (as
+witness in the United States of America) is an impassable barrier, that
+is more insurmountable even than the great wall of China, over which
+they find it impossible to step.
+
+There are in nature, as Novalis endeavours to explain in his
+philosophical romances, many realities and verities, the truth or
+essence of which cannot be grasped by the cold and critical intellect of
+man. Only by and through the sympathetic intuition of feeling can truths
+such as these be known or understood. This is indeed so. No matter how
+hard and material we may be, however thoroughly scientific; no matter
+how high we may place reason--even on the highest pinnacle of human
+attainment, there are times when the emotions overpower and dominate it.
+There are times when reason, even in its calmest and most calculating
+moments, is simply inundated and overwhelmed by the flood-tide of human
+feelings. In any case it is clear that although in the abstract it is
+impossible to detach or even insulate thought from feeling and feeling
+from volition, these three--feeling, thought and will--act, and often
+co-operate together, in every mental causation. But it is just as
+difficult for a system to free itself from its own peculiar
+idiosyncrasies and prejudices as it is for an individual to dissociate
+himself from his motives. It is exactly the same with regard to Islam
+and Christendom. The latter has allowed its prejudices and its feelings
+to obliterate or to stultify its reason. It does not know, it does not
+understand Islam. Merely because it does not want or makes no effort to
+know or to understand it. Because it has no sympathy with it. Because in
+place of sympathy it is in reality antipathetic. Yet while professing
+toleration, Christendom does not hesitate to despise and condemn Islam.
+To Christendom, Islam is a mere creed and abstraction--a creed beyond
+and outside its cold and autocratic pale. A creed belonging to another
+world and heaven than its own. A creed of colour and of sombre shades,
+nay even of gloom and darkness, blood, fire and sword, when the crescent
+and green flag of the Jihad is hoisted; a creed which is not to be
+thought of in the same breath as the snow-white fabric of the
+transcendent cross.
+
+The fact of the matter is, that Christendom in the earlier days of
+Islam, jealous and fearful of her younger and more vigorous rival,
+always recoiled from Islam under the veil of a self-satisfied cant, as
+from a monstrous monstrosity of the most vicious and immoral type. A
+form of "Moloch horridus," bristling all over with polygamous
+excrescences, and cruel sharp-pointed spines, ever ready to thrust their
+awful venom into the unoffending human species. Yet if only Christendom
+had long ago cultivated the virtue of patience, and the breadth and
+depth of mind, to look into the matter, she would have discovered--as
+those sceptics who have done so have discovered--the pure and
+unadulterated truth. She would have found, that as the Moloch horridus
+of Australia conceals an inoffensive character under a weird if
+repulsive exterior; so Islam, under an outward form which bigotry and
+prejudice have exaggerated out of all shape, possesses a moral and
+spiritual value beyond all cavil or question. Islam no doubt has its
+faults and many of them. The position of women is not perhaps as it
+should be. The law and the practice of divorce is a real blot on her
+system. Education is at a low ebb. The custom of the separation of
+sexes, of which polygamy and divorce are the necessary outcome, are
+undoubtedly pernicious. It cannot, of course, be expected that young men
+and women who have never met or associated, and whose marriages are
+arranged for them, can have any exalted ideas or feelings on the subject
+of love. It is not possible that young men who have never felt the
+refining influence and the moral restraint of female society, can
+possess either chivalry or a high ideal, with regard to an element
+unique in itself. Nevertheless, contrary to received European opinion,
+there exists for all that a very real and hearty affection and a warm
+sympathy between Moslem husbands and wives. What is more, this affection
+and sympathy will possibly contrast quite favourably with the family
+devotion of most European countries.
+
+With regard to women, however, the social system, it must be admitted,
+is less successful. It leaves room for improvement. The institution of
+female slavery is distinctly a blot. The lot of the Moslem girl morally
+and socially is not so much unhappy as neglected. Her ordinary education
+is practically negative; the religious part of it is regarded as
+superfluous. But it is a popular fallacy, as I have already pointed
+out, to attribute to Islam the doctrine that women have no souls.
+Unfortunately, however, the idea prevails generally throughout Europe
+that these precious possessions are ignored by modern custom: that the
+fair sex is not encouraged to pray either in private or in public. It is
+believed, too, that the vigorous ritual prescribed for the male members
+is considered sufficient for both. So that Moslem women by ignoring the
+one neglect the other, with consequences that are morally and physically
+disastrous. But these are not by any means the real facts of the case.
+Personally, of course, I cannot speak of such matters from experience.
+Isolated and secluded as the women of Islam are, and their privacy so
+rigorously guarded by a ring fence of stringent rules, it is not
+possible for the European to give an adequate opinion thereon. But
+according to the reliable authority of so eminent a Moslem as Syed Ameer
+Ali, and others, the women among civilized Moslem communities know their
+prayers and religious duties just as well as the men--and are devout and
+pious--more so perhaps than the other sex. As to their cleanliness, it
+is beyond question. Yet in spite of so many obstacles--no education,
+seclusion, and a generally defective training--the women are not
+unhappy. They are on the whole as fully occupied (in their own way of
+course) and as well cared for as the women of Europe.
+
+The fact of the matter is, Islam is suffering from mental stagnation,
+from the inevitable reaction that always succeeds a long period of
+active development. The Arabs, in a word, have had their day. With
+regard to education generally, the teaching is of a stereotyped pattern.
+There is no freshness or originality about it. Moslem studies have, in
+fact, lost all or most of their vitality. "The bloom of Arab culture has
+long been brushed away, and there now remains only a hollow kernel." But
+it is after all by her virtues and not her defects that we must appraise
+the true value of Islam. Most unquestionably she has great and redeeming
+features. The throwing of stones or of mud is at best an injudicious
+proceeding. Apart from this it is undignified and unworthy of so high a
+civilization. It is not for Christendom to throw stones any more than it
+is for Islam. Indeed, in this respect, Europe could well take a leaf out
+of the book of Moslem self-restraint and dignity. Moslem society, too,
+may compare very favourably with European. Taken in the mass, the
+polygamous Moslem is every whit as moral--more so in fact--than his
+English, French, or German contemporary. In a great measure polygamy is
+much more a theoretical than a practical institution. Not one in twenty
+Moslems has even two wives. In any case it is not in the proper and
+legitimate practice of polygamy, but in the abuse of it, that the evil
+lies. On the whole there is no promiscuous immorality among the
+followers of Islam. Drunkenness and prostitution are practically
+non-existent. In towns where Europeans have made them a necessity, they
+are always worse. Abstinence and sobriety are not only professed but
+practised. In these respects the young Moslem certainly stands above his
+contemporary in Europe. Marrying early as he does, he knows nothing of
+"the wild oats" that are so promiscuously and so religiously sown by the
+youth of Europe. He sows no rank or noisome weeds for his children's
+children to reap a gruesome harvest. As far, therefore, as the male sex
+are concerned, the social system of Islam is certainly more moral and
+wholesome than that of Christendom.
+
+The cult of Mormonism, as it has existed and still exists in Utah State
+and Salt Lake City, is a problem that should set all statesmen thinking!
+As a psychological conundrum and from a rational standpoint, it is a
+most interesting question. It confronts us with a dual anomaly! First of
+all by the enforcement of a sociological system in distinct opposition
+to, and in defiance of all ethnic conditions. To make the anomaly all
+the greater, the religious part of this cult is founded on a palpable
+sham. There is not even about it the possibility of reality that always
+exists at the back of many ancient myths.
+
+The so-called revelation of Joseph Smith, is the clumsy imposture of a
+man who in no sense of the word was either great or sincere. It is
+unquestionably the work of one or more persons who initiated the
+movement in their own self-interests, and to cloak principles that were
+at complete variance with Christian doctrine and European opinion.
+Mohammed, as we know, did not receive any revelation "on the eternity of
+the marriage covenant, or the plurality of wives." This, according to
+Mormon statement, was reserved for Joseph Smith alone. As a great
+statesman and prophet, Mohammed recognized polygamy to be an ethnic
+condition, therefore wisely did not interfere with it. Any radical
+innovation in this direction would have been more than a political
+error. As a revolutionary measure, it would have completely upset the
+entire fabric of Arabian and Eastern society. A pandemoniac
+topsy-turveydom would have been the immediate consequence. The
+death-knell of Islam, the direct result. Yet the very personal god of
+Joseph Smith was so very short-sighted or painstaking that he sanctioned
+absolutely a mere matter of domestic arrangement and economy. Could any
+two extremes present a wider and more striking contrast? Is it possible
+even to compare the splendid sincerity of this sublime creed of
+self-surrender to God--the soul of which came direct from all that is
+great in nature--with the thin transparency of what at best was a poor
+attempt at fiction, which emanated from the mentality of a human
+mediocrity? Is it justifiable to mention them in the same breath?
+
+Yet in spite of these startling contradictions, it is quite certain that
+the Mormon State, in an economic sense, is a prosperous, flourishing and
+thriving community. Its people too are orderly, well-behaved,
+law-abiding and industrious. From a moral and social standpoint, there
+is no fault to find with them. The anti-polygamic legislation of the
+United States Government, although it has recently been enforced with
+much greater severity than at first, has not stamped out polygamy. Does
+this or does this not demonstrate that polygamy--which in the eyes of
+Christendom constitutes one of the chief offences of Islam--is not the
+crime it is represented to be? Is it, in fact, a crime at all? Does it
+not prove that only the abuse of it, as the abuse of any, even a good
+thing, is wrong? But that the actual system itself as an ethnic
+condition peculiar to certain racial sections of mankind, is nothing but
+the outcome or evolution of sociologic customs and usages?
+
+To contend as all the Mu'tazilite doctors do that Islam is not a
+polygamous system because it only tolerates a limited polygamy under
+stringent conditions which tends to monogamy is but a metaphysical
+quibble. It is but an attempt to split a hair. It does not alter the
+fact that when a system permits more than one wife, and its founder
+sanctioned four, it is certainly not monogamous. Such an argument will
+not hold water for even a moment. It is but a mere contention--"a bone,"
+as the Persian proverb says, "thrown to two dogs," a palpable piece of
+sophistry. It is but the begging of an obvious fact, a reality that can
+neither be avoided nor eluded. As Burns so very happily puts it:
+
+    "But facts are cheels that winna ding
+    An downa be disputed."
+
+From theories such as this, Islam can derive no benefit. Just as in a
+broad sense she can suffer no disparagement from the fact that she
+countenances polygamy, she can afford to dispense with any such
+apologies. It is always a sounder principle to look truth in the face,
+even if that truth is unpalatable. However much civilization or the
+march and progress of events may ultimately modify polygamy, the actual
+custom itself was but an outcome of circumstances and conditions that
+at the time were inevitable and did not (as they do not now) imply a
+crime against or subversion of natural laws. To stigmatize a system that
+time and usage have sanctified for thousands of years, merely because it
+offends _the easily outraged feelings of a super-sensitive Christendom_,
+or even on other grounds, is, to say the least of it, undignified. To
+impute a crime to the thing itself is almost, but not quite, on a par
+with the theology that pronounces a child to be the product of a sinful
+act. If the cause is sinful, the effect must also be sinful? Such a
+theory is certainly unnatural, if not monstrous! It is a perversion of
+that Nature from which we ourselves have evolved, and of that God or
+First Cause from which all causes and effects have proceeded.
+
+Regarding this question from the broadest of standpoints, there is no
+need of an apology. Contention such as that of the Mu'tazilite doctors,
+casts too much of a reflection--an insult almost--on the great spirit
+and the splendid traditions of Islam. It is altogether unworthy of her.
+The fact of a polygamous system did not in one whit detract from the
+splendour of the empire that was built upon Mohammed's virile creed,
+although the subsequent abuse of it may possibly have done so! Even
+admitting that monogamy is an improvement on polygamy, the Christian
+Faith was yet young when Mohammed first founded Islam. Thirteen hundred
+years make a vast difference in the aspect of social progress and
+development. And as I have already pointed out, even Mohammed, with all
+his great power and influence, dared not have upset the corner-stone
+upon which the entire social fabric of the Patriarchal system was based.
+However great he was as a Prophet, he was much too great a statesman to
+have even spent a thought on an innovation so startlingly radical and
+revolutionary.
+
+But Christendom in the mass has never rationally considered this
+question from a broad-minded and liberal aspect! The attitude of its
+missionaries towards the great Moslem Church is, to say the least of it,
+uncalled for and unjustifiable. Their irrational arrogance and
+aggressiveness is only exceeded by their psychological ignorance of
+Islamic spirit and morality, added to an overweening egotism, blind
+bigotry and narrow sectarian prejudices. In a dual sense their attitude
+is offensive in the extreme. Offensive because it is hostile as well as
+impertinent. To attempt the conversion of Islam is a liberty that
+amounts to licence in face of its utter futility. This in itself
+demonstrates an ignorance of ethnic conditions on the part of European
+statesmen and missionaries that is as amazing and preposterous as it is
+deplorable. So, too, to denounce Islam, as Christian missionaries do in
+no unmeasured terms, in books, on platforms and in the pulpit, is surely
+unpardonable--surely a reflection on civilization. Christianity will
+never convert or supplant Islam. As long as the one lasts the other will
+endure. From the most catholic of standpoints, from a religious, a
+social, a political, and an economic sense, it would be sounder and more
+politic to leave Islam alone. It would be more to the point if Christian
+missionaries devoted their energies to the bottom dogs of the slums of
+their own European cities, and to rescue the poor helpless infants who
+in their thousands are being slowly done to death through vice and crime
+that is worse than bestial. Unquestionably there is in our own European
+system a moral cancer that is just as virulent as any that Islam can
+produce. This indeed is a question that European statesmen should turn
+their attention to. For more than anything, it is this onslaught on the
+strongholds of Islam by Christendom, that explains the Moslem menace.
+The one, if it exists, is but a counterblast to the other.
+
+It is an indisputable fact that in China and in various parts of the
+world, the high-handed interference and injudicious zeal of Christian
+missionaries--outrunning all discretion, tact, and common sense--has
+frequently been the cause of war and bloodshed. Is this, I ask,
+compatible with Christian tenets and professions? Do not practices such
+as these fall far short of the high ideals that are so consistently
+flourished in the face of those who are outside its pale? Do they not
+bring moral discredit on a great creed, and tend to reduce it to the low
+level of mere and fulsome cant? But one small specimen of this open and
+undisguised hostility will suffice. In the _X. Y. Z._ of July 24, 1908,
+under the heading in large type of "ISLAM THE ENEMY," appears the
+following: "At the annual meeting held in connexion with the Church
+Missionary Society at Harrogate recently, the Rev. W. Y. Potter said:
+'The calls which are most urgent are perhaps those to combat advancing
+Mohammedanism in West Africa, to direct the new desire for learning in
+China, to protect the Japanese nation from Agnosticism, by gathering in
+the millions in these lands into the folds of the Christian Church.'"
+
+A sentence like this speaks for itself. It is self-condemnatory. It
+condemns the speaker and the whole system which advances and encourages
+such narrow and vicious methods. It condemns, too, a journalism that
+gives such poor and unworthy utterances a place, even as a mere "Fill
+up."
+
+Islam is not an enemy. It is Christendom only that makes her so. It is
+that craven conscience, which finding in her a teacher and a worker of
+solid worth, has aroused the envy and malice of the ever jealous
+theological spirit, which has invariably been responsible for so much
+war and bloodshed. It is a relic of the same militant envy that, burning
+with fury throughout the Dark Ages, fired the Crusades to a very great
+extent. A cramped and dogmatic spirit such as this does not surely
+represent the true spirit of modern Europe, which is presumably rational
+and reasonable, and consistent with the genius of progress and
+advancement. There is no real and spontaneous Moslem menace. Even,
+however, if there is, it is but the re-echo of these aggressively
+Christian sentiments. It is but the answer to a challenge, as
+undignified and contemptuous as it is aggressive and defiant. Islam, I
+repeat, is not an enemy, but a co-worker with us in the great and
+glorious cause of uplifting humanity from a lower to a higher
+civilization. Islam has neither intention nor design of encroaching upon
+the spiritual preserves of Christendom. Further, she has no itching wish
+to do so. Her leaders have the common sense to recognize that
+Christendom is separated from her by ethnic laws and social customs that
+are indivisible. She is only too willing; all, in fact, she asks, is to
+be left alone to work in her own sphere of influence. Is it not
+possible, then, for a Christendom professing so vast a moral and every
+other kind of superiority, to meet her half way, to make a truce or
+compromise to the effect that each should work in its own legitimate
+sphere? A pugnacious method such as she pursues towards Islam is as bad,
+worse in fact, than a thousand red rags to an infuriated bull. For like
+the unfortunate victim in a Spanish bull-fight, tormented to its death
+by matadors, piccadors, torreadors, and a host of other "dors," Islam is
+beset and heckled by the frothy vapourings of theocratic firebrands, and
+the unbridled licence of Europe's gutter press.
+
+The origin of Islam, as I have described it, is in itself evidence of
+Islam's moral and spiritual stability--of that part of her which has not
+deviated from, but clung to the spirit of her great Founder. But even
+allowing for denominational deviations, Islam in the mass is truly
+devout.
+
+The two creeds represent two absolutely divergent sections of humanity.
+Unquestionably in a social, moral and religious sense, Islam is Islam,
+and Christendom, Christendom. To remedy this divergence, to bring the
+two sections together, enters into the impossible.
+
+A natural arrangement such as this cannot be interfered with or altered.
+Defective as it is from a human aspect, it is all the same
+irremediable--a hiatus as wide apart as the suns in space, beyond the
+power of human effort to bring together. It is only possible for the
+rational gospel of humanism, the great religion of natural sympathy, to
+heal the breach. This it can only do by turning humanity into one great
+human family. This alone would sweep away the disturbing factors of
+creeds, denominations, and sects. But is such a thing possible?
+Scarcely! Certainly not so long as the egotism and egotheism of man is
+so predominant a force in human sociology, or so long as the present
+physical and mental environments of the two sections remain the same.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+EUROPE'S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF INFLUENCE
+
+
+But apart from all these weighty considerations, the attitude of Europe
+towards Islam should be one of eternal gratitude, instead of base
+ingratitude and forgetfulness. Never to this day has Europe acknowledged
+in an honest and whole-hearted manner the great and everlasting debt she
+owes to Islamic culture and civilization. Only in a lukewarm and
+perfunctory way has she recognized that when, during the Dark Ages, her
+people were sunk in feudalism and ignorance, Moslem civilization under
+the Arabs reached a high standard of social and scientific splendour,
+that kept alive the flickering embers of European society from utter
+decadence.
+
+Do not we, who now consider ourselves on the topmost pinnacle ever
+reached by culture and civilization, recognize that had it not been for
+the high culture, the civilization and intellectual as well as social
+splendour of the Arabs, and to the soundness of their school system,
+Europe would to this day have remained sunk in the darkness of
+ignorance? Have we forgotten that the Mohammedan maxim was that, "the
+real learning of a man is of more public importance than any particular
+religious opinions he may entertain"--that Moslem liberality was in
+striking contrast with the then intolerant state of Europe? Have we
+forgotten that the Khalifate arose in the most degenerate period of Rome
+and Persia, also that the greater part of Europe lay under the dark
+cloud of barbarism? Does the magnificent valour of the Arabs, inspired
+as it was by a theism as lofty as it was pure, not appeal to us? Does
+not the moderation and comparative toleration shown by them to the
+conquered, notwithstanding the fierce and burning ardour to regenerate
+mankind that impelled them onwards to conquest, also appeal to us? Does
+it not all the more appeal to us, when we contrast this with the
+bitterness of the attitude of the Christian sects towards one another?
+Especially when we consider that in Christendom as it was then
+constituted, extortion, tyranny and imperial centralization, combining
+with ecclesiastical despotism and persecution, had practically
+extinguished patriotism, by substituting in its place a schismatic and
+degenerate church.
+
+Is it not obvious that in her outlook on Islam, Europe has overlooked
+her own Dark Ages--that awful period of intellectual oblivion which
+commenced with the decline of classical learning subsequent to the
+establishment of the barbarians in Europe in the fifth century, and
+continued down to the Renaissance, i.e. towards the end of the
+fourteenth century? Is it too not evident that she has lost all
+recollection of the torn and disturbed state of Christendom even in the
+middle of the fifteenth century when the Renaissance was in full swing,
+or had at least run half its course? How few Europeans there are who
+know the name of �neas Sylvius--fewer still who can remember the
+striking and vivid picture he has drawn of the state of Europe in those
+days of dawning intelligence! Yet this prelate, afterward Pope Pius II,
+sums up the then European situation in a curious but concise and
+explicit document--a species of state paper dated 1454. Possessing as he
+did a personal knowledge of Europe, and being a man of great natural
+shrewdness and power of observation, �neas Sylvius was of all men then
+living the best qualified to describe the state of affairs at this
+period. So that his observations are not only significant, but entitled
+to weight and consideration.
+
+Discussing the prospects of the projected crusade, he praises warmly
+Philip of Burgundy for his readiness in the matter, then gives his
+reason for concluding that the Diet at Frankfort must be a failure. For
+there is no real unity in Christendom; neither Pope nor C�sar is duly
+reverenced or believed in; they are but feigned names or painted
+effigies--each state has its own king: there is a prince to every house.
+Italy is disturbed, Genoa being at feud with Aragon; nay, worse, Venice
+has actually a treaty with the Turk. In Spain are many kings, all
+differing in power, government, aims and opinions. There is even war too
+there about Granada. France is still looking uneasily across the Channel
+at England, her old foe, and England watches France. The Germans are
+divided, without coherence; their cities quarrel with their princes;
+their princes fight among themselves. Luxemburg is a cause of dispute
+between the King of Bohemia and the Duke of Burgundy.
+
+Is it possible that Europe is unmindful of, and has the ingratitude to
+ignore, the splendid services of the scientists and philosophers of
+Arabia? Are the names of Assamh, Abu Othman, Alberuni, Albeithar, Abu
+Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Rushd
+(Averroes) of Cordova, the chief commentator on Aristotle, Ibn Bajja
+(Avempace) besides a host of others, but dead letters? Is the great work
+that they have done, and the fame they have left behind them in their
+books, to be consigned to the limbo of oblivion, by an ungrateful
+because antipathetic Europe? Does the work of Alhazen, author of optical
+treatises, who understood the weight of air, corrected the Greek
+misconception or theory of vision, and determined the function of the
+retina, count for nothing? Do we owe no tribute to a great thinker such
+as Ghazali, who in speaking of his attempts to detach himself from his
+youthful opinions says: "I said to myself, my aim is simply to know the
+truth of things, consequently it is indispensable for me to ascertain
+what is knowledge"? It cannot be that already we have lost sight of the
+amazing intellectual activity of the Moslem world, during the earlier
+part of the "Abbasid" period more especially? It cannot be that we have
+quite forgotten the irrecoverable loss that was inflicted on Arabian
+literature and on the world at large by the wanton destruction of
+thousands of books that was prompted by Christian bigotry and
+fanaticism? It cannot surely be said of Christian Europe that for
+centuries now she has done her best to hide her obligation to the Arabs?
+Yet most assuredly obligations such as these are far too sacred to lie
+much longer hidden! Let Europe--Christendom rather--confess and
+acknowledge her fault. Let her proclaim aloud to her own ignorant
+masses, and to the world at large, the ingratitude she has displayed,
+and the eternal debt she owes to the Islam she no longer despises. Open
+confession is good for the soul, and only a confession such as this can
+wipe off the black stain which has for so long besmirched her fair fame.
+Let Christendom once and for all recognize that the greatest of all
+faults is to be conscious of none--that acknowledging a fault is saying,
+only in other words, we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday. Only
+through magnanimity such as this can she claim redemption. For she must
+surely know that "injustice founded on religious rancour and national
+conceit cannot be perpetrated for ever."
+
+Let me endeavour to make my meaning somewhat clearer, by means of two
+simple illustrations--the one belonging to the eighteenth century, the
+other to the twentieth. "How many great men do you reckon?" Buffon was
+asked one day. "Five," answered he at once; "Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz,
+Montesquieu, and myself."
+
+Some five to six years ago, the present German Emperor, in giving his
+views on divine revelation and manifestation, is said to have expressed
+himself as follows: "To promote man's development God has revealed
+Himself in man, whether he be priest or king, whether heathen, Jew, or
+Christian. So in Moses, Abraham, Homer, Charlemagne, Luther,
+Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant, and the Emperor William the Great, whom God
+thus sought out to achieve imperishable results. His grandfather often
+said that he was an instrument in God's hands."
+
+Comment on my part of any kind would be but an insult to the intelligent
+or sympathetic reader. But the way in which Islam is studiously ignored
+in both cases is surely significant and luminous. These are but two mere
+examples taken at random, but they are typical of European arrogance,
+egotism, and her general attitude of supercilious apathy towards the
+Moslem world. After all--even when an enlightened emperor is
+concerned--it is but a step, and a short quick step, from the sublime to
+the ridiculous.
+
+In Europe's own interest it would in the end repay her statesmen to
+treat the world of Islam with greater sympathy and toleration, also with
+but ordinary justice. These remarks apply more forcibly of course to
+Great Britain and France. From the standpoint of the highest
+statesmanship, these two states should utilize the power they possess
+towards the attainment of this wise and politic object. Instead of
+permitting any such impolitic measures (as e.g. those made by Christian
+missionaries to proselytize) they should, by every means that lies
+within their power, advance, encourage, and stimulate the work of Islam
+in its own proper and legitimate sphere of influence. Reflection will
+remind them that intolerance or persecution in any form, as the history
+of Christianity itself proves, always aided, but never deterred, the
+development of any creed. These facts alone ought to recommend the study
+of Islam to all British statesman. But in addition, I would point out to
+them one feature that is worth looking into. This is, that the same
+blend of materialism and spirit, the same desire for unity, cohesion and
+construction, which characterized Mohammed's efforts, have operated also
+in the building up of the British Empire. It is practically out of these
+forces, but under different aspects and conditions of social and
+physical environment, that England has expanded into Greater Britain.
+Given the same conditions and environment, and the same vigorous people,
+and there is no knowing what the true spirit and fervour of Islam might
+not have effected. Remember that the soul of Islam, as the Prophet left
+it, did not lack in spiritual stamina. The lack of it has been in her
+disciples, who have found it difficult to live up to the rigid standard
+that was set them by their Lord and Master. In a great international or
+rather intercreedal question such as this, it is highly impolitic to
+make comparisons, more especially when the creeds in question represent
+a sphere of thought and a sociological system so widely divergent as
+Islam and Christendom. All the same, there are facts that the latter
+should be reminded of. Throughout its great and growing history,
+particularly its earlier career when fanaticism was excusable, militant
+and violent as she has been, Islam never descended to so hateful a
+system as the diabolical Inquisition, never stained the great soul of
+her Faith by ruthless and bloody massacres such as those of the
+Albigenses, Waldenses, and St. Bartholomew. On the contrary, she showed
+a spirit of religious toleration that was as rational as it was
+remarkable. Indeed under the Ommiades of Spain (755-1031) this was in
+every sense greater, higher and wider than that which prevails at
+present in modern Spain. It is true of course that Ma'mun, one of the
+Abbasid Caliphs, established in 833 A.D. a mihna or Inquisition, in
+order to uphold the rationalism of the Mu'tazilite doctrine against
+orthodoxy. But it was shortlived. For soon after his successor W'athik
+is said to have officially abandoned rationalism; and in fourteen years
+from its initiation, the cruel and bigoted Mutawakkil sternly put his
+foot on it, and with it the Inquisition. This, however, was not an
+Inquisition such as that of the Romish Church. In reality it was but a
+council established with the object only of introducing rationalism
+into the empire and to keep out reactionaries from the State Service. In
+other words, it was but a "Test," which was promulgated and administered
+on the same lines and principles as the Test Act in England. Is it wise
+then for the statesmen of Europe to ignore such weighty facts? Would it
+not be more politic on their part to take cognizance of them? It is on
+facts such as these that European policy in its relationship to Islam
+should be based. It is only by making the study of universal history a
+science that the politician can ever hope to become a statesman. This
+means a thorough and comprehensive grasp of ancient as well as modern
+history. Such a grasp alone will enable him to look into the future and
+shape his policy. But to do so without a complete knowledge of Islam's
+history in the past, and the manifest part she has yet to play in the
+history of the future, is to show an utter ignorance of statecraft, but
+especially of that wider sphere of "welt politik" which bears the same
+analogy to the former as, in military parlance, strategy does to
+tactics. These shapers of the destinies of their various nations must
+remember that Islam has done for the East, or rather for the world of
+polygamy, what Christendom has done for the West or world of monogamy.
+She has uplifted millions upon millions of human beings from a much
+lower to a far higher scale of civilization. In Africa and in Asia she
+has purified the primitive cults of their sacrificial abominations, has
+introduced a better and humaner legislation, has encouraged commerce and
+industries and established a more stable form of government. Finally,
+she has exalted the supreme God, whose worship had practically fallen
+into abeyance, to a pinnacle of solitary grandeur, and in this way
+uplifted the people into a far higher moral and spiritual atmosphere. To
+quote Stanley Lane Poole, she has given them "a form of pure theism,
+simpler and more austere than the theism of most forms of Christianity,
+lofty in its conception of the relation of man to God, and noble in its
+doctrine of the duty of man to man, and of man to the lower creation."
+Islam, in fact, has done a great work. She has left a mark on the pages
+of human history which is indelible, that can never be effaced--that
+only when the world grows wiser will be acknowledged in full--in other
+words, when the sun of knowledge shall have dispelled the black clouds
+of ignorance. But Islam is still doing, and will continue to do, the
+great work that her founder initiated. This is a work that Christianity
+can never do. Islam too has a mission. But her mission is in quite
+another sphere to that of Christendom. It is (and has for some time
+been) the preconceived opinion in Europe that the power and influence
+of Islam since the waning of her conquests have come to a standstill.
+That morally and spiritually her influence is demoralizing and
+corruptive--the bane, in a word, of those nations that she is
+proselytizing. But this is not so. Never was a greater and more
+unpardonable mistake made than this. An error rather than a mistake. The
+wish but prompts the thought. There is still much moral and spiritual
+vitality in Islam, therefore elasticity and power of expansion. In
+Africa especially, among all the Bantu and negroid tribes whose
+sociology is patriarchal, there is a great work for her to do. These
+peoples by their whole social system and in every moral sense belong to
+the sphere of Islam and not of Christendom.
+
+To judge or even criticize Islam from a European standpoint is uneven.
+To get her proper measure, Islam must be weighed from the aspect of the
+ethnic basis upon which she rests. To compare one system by the standard
+of another, it is only possible to arrive at a distorted or unequal
+result. Islam can no more be judged by modern commonplace methods than
+Europe can be judged on the same lines by Islam, or than Mohammed
+himself whose splendid concept it was. The manners and morals of his own
+time must also be taken into consideration. The two creeds of Islam and
+Christendom have been built on different bases, and constructed out of
+different material. The God of one is the God of universal nature. The
+God of the other is a triform Being--a metaphysical trinity in unity.
+Socially the Moslem is a polygamist, religiously he is an unitarian. The
+European is just the opposite to this. Socially he is a monogamist,
+religiously he is a trinitarian. In a word, the system of these two
+great human divisions differ as much from each other as their foot gear.
+That of the Moslem again conforms to nature. That is, his shoe is made
+to fit the foot, which narrows at the heel, and splays out at the toes.
+In Europe, on the contrary, the foot is made to fit the shoe, which,
+wide at the heel, narrows into a point at the toes. How is it possible
+then for two such widely divergent systems to agree?
+
+But at least they can agree to differ. At least there is one broad base
+upon which they can meet. On the grounds of a common humanity, on the
+grounds of a common sympathy, by a common birth and a common death they
+are equal. It is not for Christendom to hang back. Islam is quite ready
+to meet her more than half-way. From the superior vantage ground of her
+position, it is for her to hold out the right hand of fellowship. It is
+for her to recognize the real worth of Islam. It is for her to respect
+not to contemn her great coadjutor. For her to regard Islam, not as a
+foe or even a rival, so much as a great and worthy co-partner with her,
+in the work of civilization. From this reasonable and rational
+standpoint the sphere of Islam's influence should be wisely left alone.
+For the enforcement of Christianity on races such as those of Africa,
+for instance, whose system is patriarchal, can only end, as it has
+already done, in their utter denationalization and hybridization. To
+Europeanize and turn into Christians these sons of nature merely for the
+motive of gaining converts is impolitic, if not immoral. It but makes
+human mules of them. Wiser far to let them remain as they are. As well
+try to turn camelopards into crocodiles or pythons into hippos, as
+convert Africans into Europeans. Islam attempts nothing unnatural of
+this kind--nothing that is opposed to ethnic conditions and sociological
+usages. In her case she but develops the lama into the camel.
+
+It is impossible, fatuous in fact, to ignore or even overlook the basic
+importance of physical environment. Even science in this respect has
+been backward, and very slowly recognized that geography is obviously
+and essentially the basis of all history--i.e. of all human action and
+development. The importance of climate and climatic changes on the
+habits, customs, temperament and character of races, has never been
+clearly and thoroughly realized. Not until this has been estimated and
+appreciated at its true value, will it be possible for reason to
+override the dogmas and bigotries of short-sighted and prejudiced
+theology. But the day is fast approaching when this fact must be
+acknowledged as a universal truth. Then only will Islam and other creeds
+be appraised from an even and rational standpoint.
+
+Even admitting that Islam has receded from Mohammed's moral and
+spiritual high water mark, this is all the more reason why the statesmen
+of Europe should stretch out a helping hand to assist in raising her to
+her former level. All the more reason why they should encourage and
+stimulate her to higher aims and endeavours. This assuredly would be a
+more dignified and statesmanlike proceeding than that which, if it does
+not sanction, at all events permits the good name and fame of Islam to
+be smirched with contumely, and to be held up before the world as a
+standing menace to civilization. A course such as I have suggested, is
+much more likely to bring about a better understanding and preparation
+towards any possible fusion. On the other hand, the present propaganda
+of active theological aggression and political indifference, is bound to
+make the breach wider than ever with the ultimate certainty of
+disruption. In face of such a climax there is but this one remedy. As a
+moral and spiritual factor in the regeneration of humanity, Islam is
+indispensable. In her own sphere she must not be interfered with. The
+good of humanity is a higher cause to work for than the mere
+glorification of creed and sect. The cause of humanity strikes wider,
+deeper and higher than that of any creed or denomination. By working
+towards this end, by sinking denominational differences in the common
+stock-pot of humanity, the world at large and civilization in particular
+will in the end gain ever so much more.
+
+In speaking of Islam and of Moslems as I have done, I have spoken of
+them as I have found them. Apart from a careful study of the Koran, my
+knowledge of both is based on personal facts and experiences as varied
+as they are extensive. In every clime and under a variety of conditions,
+I have been in touch with Moslems of all classes and shades, and have
+always found them animated by the same spirit--for race or colour makes
+no difference to the spirit of Islam. Always consistent and devout,
+always God-fearing and sincere as regards their Faith. Before all things
+religious, their cult, the creed of Mohammed--i.e. El Islam or
+self-surrender. Afghan, Arab, Baluchi, Hindustani, Somali, Turk,
+Egyptian, Hadendowa, Berber, Senegalese, Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba,
+Mandingo, Malay, I have found them in the main Islamic to the very
+core. In peace or war, in camp and cantonment, working and fighting with
+or against them, my experience of their moral consistency and spiritual
+stamina has been the same. Brave to a fault, endowed with the reckless
+courage of the Fatalist, fearless and contemptuous of death, their
+fidelity to their Faith, their belief in the greatness of Mohammed, and
+their veneration of God, is a something that once it is rightly
+understood, can only be respected and appreciated at its true value. For
+my part, seeing as I have their splendid heroism in their own cause, and
+their touching devotion to those whose salt they have eaten, my feelings
+towards them is not only one of unmixed admiration and respect, but also
+of deep esteem and regard. Such men are worthy of Islam, as Islam indeed
+is worthy of them. Only the soul--the moral and spiritual essence--of
+Islam could have made them what they are, could have turned out of the
+dregs of barbarism a human material so truly splendid.
+
+With experience and facts such as these before me, I for one find it
+impossible to forget, and only natural to acknowledge with candour, the
+great and magnificent part that Islam has occupied in the history of the
+world. In the intellectual strife of heroes who have wrestled and fought
+for the truth and who for many centuries led the world, in the arena of
+battle and of conquest where warriors have led the van, the sons of
+Islam stand on a pedestal of their own making, that as the world grows
+older and more enlightened, will stand out in all the greater
+prominence. Stand out as men who have taken as great and heroic though
+not so sustained a part on the stage of universal history as the giants
+and heroes of Christendom.
+
+Even in a study of this length it is in reality impossible to deal
+exhaustively with a question so wide and extensive as this, which
+requires a large volume to itself. But I have said enough, I trust, to
+show that the value of Islam as a moral and spiritual factor in the
+civilization of the world is very considerable. I hope too that to all
+who are reasonable and rational in their views, I have shown, as clearly
+and as concisely as it is possible to do within such narrow limits, that
+the so-called "_Moslem menace_" is but the wraith of an over-heated
+imagination--the bogie conjured up by a hectoring and arrogant
+theocracy, backed up, unfortunately, by an indiscreet and tactless
+Press, ever ready to exaggerate any piece of cheap claptrap into the
+sensation of the moment. Always eager to lift up even garbage such as
+this to the higher level of dramatic denouements, by giving undue
+prominence to the unreliable froth and effervescence of irresponsible
+and excitable cranks. In a word, by a process of moral aggravation that
+is unworthy a great and liberal Press.
+
+Finally, I have endeavoured to make it clear, that apart from motives of
+honour and high principles and consistent with the dignity of the great
+Aryan family, Europe should adopt towards Islam a policy of conciliation
+and co-operation: if for nothing else, to avoid being hoisted by her own
+overcharged and explosive petard. If I have done but this, then at least
+my labour shall not have been in vain.
+
+[Decoration]
+
+
+
+
+ISLAM--CORRIGENDA.
+
+
+P. 8, Foreword. In lines 3 and 2 from bottom, _united_ should read
+_suited_.
+
+On p. 57, line just above quotation, _could be still:_ should read
+_could be: still--_
+
+P. 87. In line 3 from bottom, _an an alysis of_ should read _an analysis
+of_.
+
+
+
+
+Liscard Commercial and Collegiate Schools,
+
+_Liscard, Cheshire_.
+
+
+These Schools, which are highly recommended by Major A. G. LEONARD,
+differentiate in the teaching given to their Senior boys, there being
+three courses to meet the requirements of those destined for (A)
+Commerce, (B) the Professions or the University, (C) Engineering, etc.
+
+This Advertisement is inserted in the hope of securing as private
+boarders a limited number of European, Asiatic, or African pupils whose
+parents wish them to be educated in England. Such parents may rely on
+the Headmaster's complete and sympathetic attention to their children.
+
+References given and required. All particulars will be furnished on
+application to--
+
+    MR. W. P. HAMMERSLEY,
+
+    "_Harbour View_,"
+
+    Seabank Road, Liscard, Cheshire.
+
+
+
+
+PROVISIONS & OUTFIT
+
+
+Griffiths, McAlister & Co.,
+
+    EXPORT PROVISION MERCHANTS, Etc.,
+      29-31, Manesty's Lane, LIVERPOOL.
+        14, Billiter Street, LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+Suppliers of all kinds of Provisions, Camp Equipment, Medical Stores,
+Wines, Spirits, and Mineral Waters, etc., for Exploring and Mining
+Expeditions; also for private use abroad.
+
+All Goods suitably packed for Hot and Cold Climates, and made up in
+loads suitable for all modes of Transport.
+
+
+    CONTRACTORS TO THE CROWN AGENTS
+    FOR THE COLONIES.
+
+    _Suppliers to Lieut. Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition,
+    1907-1909._
+
+
+    Telegraphic Addresses:--
+      "COOMASSIE," LIVERPOOL.
+      "APPEASABLE," LONDON.
+
+Codes used--A, B, C, 4th and 5th Editions and Lieber's.
+
+
+ESTABLISHED 1880.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+
+Italics are indicated by underscores, _like this_.
+
+For this text version, the oe ligature has been replaced by oe, and
+Greek text has been transliterated and surrounded by plus signs, +like
+this+.
+
+The corrigenda were originally inserted before the Foreword; they have
+been implemented, and moved to the end of the text for reference.
+
+The advertisements were originally printed on either side of the title
+page; they have been moved to the end of the text.
+
+The following sentence, which seems to be missing one or more words, has
+been retained as printed:
+
+     Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas and ideals that he kept
+     to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+
+Both "half way" and "half-way" are used.
+
+The following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been
+corrected:
+
+    Title page:
+    _"Personal Law of the Mohammedans," etc_
+    changed to
+    _"Personal Law of the Mohammedans," etc._
+
+    Page 9:
+    South American Guacho is not
+    changed to
+    South American Gaucho is not
+
+    Page 9:
+    adapted for idealistic minds.
+    changed to
+    adapted for idealistic minds?
+
+    Page 27:
+    the orginator of a new
+    changed to
+    the originator of a new
+
+    Page 32:
+    (an under rather than an over-estimate)
+    changed to
+    (an under- rather than an over-estimate)
+
+    Page 33:
+    God's omnipresence and omipotence had made
+    changed to
+    God's omnipresence and omnipotence had made
+
+    Page 56:
+    each a mighty voice,
+    changed to
+    each a mighty voice,"
+
+    Page 56:
+    blackness that prevades the very soul
+    changed to
+    blackness that pervades the very soul
+
+    Page 57:
+    grandeur and appaling sameness
+    changed to
+    grandeur and appalling sameness
+
+    Page 66:
+    truths are only found in the depths of the thought.
+    changed to
+    truths are only found in the depths of the thought."
+
+    Page 72:
+    were much in repute, when both,
+    changed to
+    were much in repute; when both,
+
+    Page 82:
+    secrets _of God_ neither do I say
+    changed to
+    secrets _of God_, neither do I say
+
+    Page 87:
+    to hurl inuendoes, anathemas
+    changed to
+    to hurl innuendoes, anathemas
+
+    Page 91:
+    known as Aeneas Sylvius (Pius Aeneas):
+    changed to
+    known as �neas Sylvius (Pius �neas):
+
+    Page 94:
+    the sacred reduit and rallying ground
+    changed to
+    the sacred r�duit and rallying ground
+
+    Page 96:
+    awakening of the spirit of commerce
+    changed to
+    awakening of the spirit of commerce.
+
+    Page 103:
+    I also will wait it with you.
+    changed to
+    I also will wait it with you."
+
+    Page 125:
+    Islam, in fact is above
+    changed to
+    Islam, in fact, is above
+
+    Page 130:
+    In a great measure pologamy is much more
+    changed to
+    In a great measure polygamy is much more
+
+    Page 134:
+    all the Mutalazite doctors
+    changed to
+    all the Mu'tazilite doctors
+
+    Page 135:
+    that of the Mutalazite doctors
+    changed to
+    that of the Mu'tazilite doctors
+
+    Page 139:
+    She is only too willing, all, in fact,
+    changed to
+    She is only too willing; all, in fact,
+
+    Page 146:
+    ascertain what is knowledge?"
+    changed to
+    ascertain what is knowledge"?
+
+    Page 147:
+    "Newton, Bacon, Liebnitz, Montesquieu, and myself."
+    changed to
+    "Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and myself."
+
+    Page 156:
+    other creeds be apprised
+    changed to
+    other creeds be appraised
+
+All other peculiarities and inconsistencies of spelling, punctuation and
+capitalisation have been retained as printed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by 
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM ***
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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by 
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value
+       A Rational And Pyschological Study
+
+Author: Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+Release Date: November 23, 2011 [EBook #38114]
+
+Language: English
+
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+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM ***
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+</pre>
+
+
+<p class="halftitle">
+ISLAM<br />
+HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE
+</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 286px;">
+<img src="images/cover.jpg"
+width="286"
+height="450"
+alt="Front Cover"
+title="Cover" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>
+ISLAM<br />
+<br />
+HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE<br />
+<br />
+<span class="small">A Rational and Psychological Study</span><br />
+<br />
+<br />
+<span class="small">By</span><br />
+MAJOR ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD<br />
+<br />
+</h1>
+
+<p class="fmatter">
+LATE 2ND BATT. EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
+</p>
+
+<p class="fmatter">
+<i>Author of “The Camel, Its Uses and Management,” “How we made<br />
+Rhodesia,” “The Lower Niger and its Tribes”</i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="fmatter">
+With a Foreword by<br />
+SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E.<br />
+<br />
+<i>Author of “The Spirit of Islam,” “Life and Teachings of Mohammed,”<br />
+“Mohammedan Law,” <a name="transnote_title_page" id="transnote_title_page">“Personal Law of the<br />
+Mohammedans,” etc.</a></i>
+</p>
+
+<p class="fmatter">
+LONDON<br />
+LUZAC &amp; CO<br />
+46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET<br />
+1909<br />
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_5" title="5"> </a>
+FOREWORD
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+I am glad to introduce this book with an expression of the pleasure and
+interest with which I have read Major Leonard’s admirable psychological
+study of a subject, the importance of which it is hardly possible to
+overrate.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unfortunately it has been too common hitherto to regard Islam as an
+antagonistic force to Christendom; to depreciate its Founder and to
+discount its Ideals. As the author justly observes, it is hardly
+possible for a student really anxious to acquaint himself with the inner
+spirit of another Faith, to gain an insight into its true character
+until he has divested himself of ancient prejudices that narrow his
+perspective and prevent his taking a broad view of the aims and
+aspirations of the great men who from time to time have tried to uplift
+humanity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Major Leonard has dealt with his subject in this broad spirit; he has
+approached it with sympathy born of intimate acquaintance
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_6" title="6"> </a>
+with races
+and peoples who profess the Faith of Islam. His is eminently a
+philosophical study of its Founder, of its true moral and spiritual
+utility, and of the great impetus it gave to the progress of the world.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the eight chapters that constitute this book he has discussed the
+entire range of questions affecting the personality of Mohammed and the
+tendency of his religion. In his treatment he shows himself a
+philosophical rationalist animated with a reverence for the Arabian
+Teacher&mdash;the evident outcome of a true appreciation of the mainspring of
+his actions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the first chapter the author has applied himself to expose the
+absurdity and hollowness of the Pan-Islamic “bogey.” That the growing
+<i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">rapprochement</i> between Moslem communities, hitherto divided by
+sectarian feuds, should be viewed with disfavour by Europe as indicating
+a danger to its predominance and selfish ambitions is intelligible. But
+that it should be regarded as a deliberate challenge to, or intended as
+a hostile demonstration against Christendom, is a mere chimera. Major
+Leonard proves conclusively that the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_7" title="7"> </a>
+Pan-Islamic movement is no modern
+political movement; but that morally and spiritually Islam, in its very
+essence, is Pan-Islamic; in other words, a creed that recognizes in
+practice the brotherhood of man to a degree unknown in any other
+religion, and admits in its commonwealth no difference of race, colour
+or rank.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Moslems, laymen and scholars, will probably not agree with some of Major
+Leonard’s remarks in his outline of the Prophet’s character and
+temperament; but they must all acknowledge his sincerity. He describes
+Mohammed as a great and true man&mdash;great not only as a teacher, but as a
+patriot and statesman; a material as well as a spiritual builder, who
+constructed a nation and an enduring Faith, which holds, to a greater
+degree than most others, the hearts of millions of human beings; a man
+true to himself and his people, but above all to his God.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The author has gone to the Koran itself for the animating purpose of
+Mohammed’s strenuous and noble life. He believes that the national good
+to be obtained only by the recognition of the conception of a God who is
+both “national and universal” was the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_8" title="8"> </a>
+dominant idea that impelled and
+inspired the Prophet of Arabia. In his appreciation of Mohammed’s
+teachings, Major Leonard has grasped the real spirit of Islam; and both
+as regards his moral and spiritual precepts, as also the enunciations
+respecting the duties of every-day life, the author has given the
+Arabian Prophet his due. He dwells on Mohammed’s affection and sympathy
+for the weak, the afflicted and suffering, with the orphan and the
+stricken; on his humanity to the dumb creatures of God; on the duties of
+parents to children, and of children to parents; on his burning
+denunciations of the terrible crime of female infanticide.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the eighth and last chapter Major Leonard speaks of the debt Europe
+owes to Islam, and endeavours to show that the religion of Mohammed, far
+from being antagonistic to human development, has materially helped in
+the progress of the world. It is part of Major Leonard’s thesis that
+Christianity and Islam belong to “different spheres of influence”; in
+other words, whilst Christianity is <a name="corrigenda_1" id="corrigenda_1">suited</a> to certain races, Islam is
+peculiarly suited to others. Races and peoples adapt their religions to
+their own respective advancement,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_9" title="9"> </a>
+and the same religion varies among
+different communities according to the stage of their development. The
+Christianity of the barbarous <a name="transnote_page_9a" id="transnote_page_9a">South American Gaucho is not</a>
+the same as that of the cultured Englishman, nor is the Islam of the cultivated
+Moslem identical with that professed by ignorant followers of the Faith.
+But it would be hard to say that philosophical Christianity exactly
+answers the needs of the lower strata of Christendom to whom the
+positive directions of a simple practical faith might appeal with
+greater force. Might not Islam, with its emphatic prohibition of drink,
+the primary cause of all the vice and crime in Europe, prove a far
+greater civilizing agency in the slums of European cities, and do far
+more good in reclaiming the debased, than a religion which does not
+possess that positive character and is only <a name="transnote_page_9b" id="transnote_page_9b">adapted for idealistic
+minds?</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whatever view a rationalist may hold on this point, I feel that Major
+Leonard has laid the world of literature under a debt for his admirable
+monograph on a peculiarly interesting subject.
+</p>
+
+<p class="ralign">
+AMEER ALI.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_10" title="10"> </a>
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_11" title="11"> </a>
+<a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS">
+CONTENTS
+</a>
+</h2>
+
+<div class="center">
+<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="2" summary="Table of Contents">
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+&nbsp;
+</td>
+<td align="right" class="small">
+PAGE
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">
+CHAPTER I
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+The So-called Moslem Menace!
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+13
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">
+CHAPTER II
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+An Outline of Mohammed’s Temperament<br />
+and Characteristics
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+23
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">
+CHAPTER III
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+The Environment that Moulded Mohammed
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+51
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">
+CHAPTER IV
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+Mohammed’s Principles and Beliefs
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+71
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">
+CHAPTER V
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+The Material and Other Sides of the Prophet’s<br />
+Character
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+84
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">
+CHAPTER VI
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+A Brief Summary of Mohammed’s Work<br />
+and Worth
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+101
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_12" title="12"> </a>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">
+CHAPTER VII
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+Moslem Morality and Christendom’s Attitude<br />
+towards Islam
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+121
+</td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td align="left">
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</a>
+<br />
+<span class="smcap">
+Europe’s Debt to Islam: Ethnic Spheres of<br />
+Influence
+</span>
+</td>
+<td align="right" valign="bottom">
+142
+</td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+</div>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_13" title="13"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I">
+CHAPTER I
+</a>
+<br />
+THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+For some time past, but more especially during the last year or two, it
+has become quite the fashion in Europe to rail at and to suspect the
+good faith and motives of the Moslem world. If we are to believe the
+European Press, Europe is in deadly danger. The “<em>Yellow Peril</em>” of a
+few years ago has, by means of the juggling of modern journalism,
+cleverly transformed itself into the “<em>Moslem Menace</em>.” According to
+this trenchant successor of the ancient oracle, there is unrest and
+seething turmoil everywhere. In Egypt, a national confederation; in
+Morocco, a crisis; in the heart of Africa, the Senussi movement; in
+Turkey and Arabia, secret associations and agitation; in Persia even,
+disaffection but co-operation. In one word, Europe&mdash;Christian, civilized
+and unoffending Europe&mdash;is confronted with a Pan-Islamic confederation,
+that is co-operating to achieve the unity and the nationalization of all
+Islam, with the express object of ultimately turning upon Christendom,
+and rending her into a thousand tattered fragments.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_14" title="14"> </a>
+That there has been no revival of “the chronic conspiracy” within our
+Indian Empire, is, however, easily explained. This, which purposed to be
+a religious agitation among Indian Moslems, was an expression more
+familiar twenty-five years ago and was attributed to the influence of
+Wahabite oratory. It is, of course, possible that the present agitation
+and unrest among the Hindus generally, but the Bengalis in particular,
+has for the time being at all events diverted the attention of the
+outside world in other directions. But it is also more or less generally
+taken for granted that the Moslem population of India has sunk into a
+state of political lethargy, which if it does not betoken loyalty,
+obviously demonstrates a dumb and passive revolutionary torpor that is
+tantamount to it.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+That agitation and unrest exist throughout the Moslem world would be
+nothing either new or unusual. In a human sense, Islam is identical with
+Christendom. She too has her social functions, her political parties,
+associations, confederations and societies. She has her religious sects
+and denominations. As with us, so with Islam, there are affinities, and
+antipathies, emulations and jealousies, competitions and rivalries,
+likes and dislikes, envy, malice, hatred and all uncharitableness. The
+interest of self predominates
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_15" title="15"> </a>
+before all else. In kind there is
+certainly no difference, in degree it is possible that Europe may be a
+step or two higher. But this is not the point that I would here
+emphasize. To fall back on the time-honoured maxim, immortalized by
+Shakespeare, comparisons of this kind are incompatible if not odious.
+Besides, recrimination is as futile as it is injudicious and
+undignified.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is not of moral discrepancies on either side that I would speak. Nor
+have I any wish to rake up the low-lying sediment, or to disturb the
+still waters which are running deep in the great ocean of Moslem life.
+Under the conditions that prevail, it is assuredly best to let sleeping
+dogs lie. Left alone they are much less troublesome. There is always the
+possibility that they may oversleep themselves and fall into a dormant
+and inactive state. In this way the still waters of sedition and
+agitation soon find their own level&mdash;the embers of revolt may at times
+flare up, but they soon flicker out.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is of the moral and spiritual utility, with the soul of Islam, that I
+am now about to deal. For Islam, believe me, has a soul&mdash;a sincere and
+earnest soul, a great and profound soul&mdash;that is worth knowing. It is in
+this soul that the whole kernel and essence of Islam lies. A thorough
+knowledge and a clear comprehension of this great spirit will alone
+enable
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_16" title="16"> </a>
+the statesmen and thinkers of Europe to understand the complex
+problems of so-called Pan-Islamism. To obtain this grasp, however,
+certain qualifications are absolutely essential. It is necessary&mdash;e.g.,
+to approach the subject from a rational and reasonable standpoint&mdash;to
+detach the mind from all preconceived dogmas and opinions; to lay aside
+all prejudices, racial, religious, social and otherwise, and all
+bigotries and intolerance; to be confined to no one creed, sect or
+denomination of any kind, sort or description, but the one great world
+of Humanity that, in the eyes of Nature, is of one soul and body. This
+may be a large, or as cousin Jonathan would call it, a tall, order. It
+bulks big and sounds ponderous. In face of what human nature is, it
+appears impracticable. But even in human nature there are exceptions and
+possibilities. An aspect such as this, then, though improbable, is
+certainly possible, if exceptional. Let us presume at least that in this
+instance it is so. It is, at all events, on these broad lines that the
+following pages have been written. It is the true spirit of human
+sympathy and fellowship that has moved me&mdash;the sympathy and fellowship
+that would draw together, or at least nearer to each other, the worlds
+of Christendom and Islam.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The better to achieve my object, I have
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_17" title="17"> </a>
+consulted no works on either
+Mohammed or Islam, but have gone straight to the source or fountain
+head&mdash;to Mohammed himself, the Koran, and to Moslems of various
+nationalities with whom I have been brought into close and personal
+touch during a wide and a varied experience. It is here in the man and
+his work that the true soul of Islam is to be found. Just as in its
+founders and foundations lies the heart and essence of Christianity, it
+is in and out of the merits as well as demerits of Mohammed’s work, that
+we shall form the true estimate of Islamic utility. By their fruits ye
+shall know them. Men do not gather figs of thorns, or grapes of
+thistles. Mohammed most certainly did not. As he sowed, so he has
+reaped! So he is still reaping. The Koran was the immediate consequence
+of his concentration and communion with Nature and Nature’s God: Islam
+the natural result. In other words, Islam is the devotion of Moslems to
+Mohammed and the Koran&mdash;his work, plus their patient resignation and
+entire submission to God, His will and His service! The man of fixed and
+unchanging purpose has a supreme contempt for obstacles. But when, as in
+Mohammed’s case, that purpose is the glorification of God, he has at
+hand a lever that can move the world. In this peculiar sense the great
+Prophet of Arabia was self-contained. He
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_18" title="18"> </a>
+had everything within himself:
+that everything centred in God and Arabian unity. He sought only what he
+needed. This was to unify God and his country. How he succeeded is a
+matter of history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+D’Aubigné in his history of the Reformation, speaking of Luther, says:
+“Men, when designed by God to influence their contemporaries, are first
+seized and drawn along by the peculiar tendencies of their age.”
+Undoubtedly this, in a great measure, is so. It is quite evident that
+Mohammed was influenced in this way. Yet it is also obvious that he was
+not so much seized by the peculiar tendencies of his age (for in many
+ways he was far in advance of it), as that he was obsessed and dominated
+by the energy or spirit of God, and utilized these special features with
+the design of disseminating this overmastering God possession to others.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“There are but three sorts of persons,” Pascal used to say: “those who
+serve God, having found Him; those who employ themselves in seeking Him,
+not having found Him; and those who live without seeking Him or having
+found Him. The first are reasonable and happy; the last are mad and
+miserable; the intermediate are miserable and reasonable.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If ever man on this earth found God, if ever man devoted his life to
+God’s service with
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_19" title="19"> </a>
+a good and a great motive, it is certain that the
+Prophet of Arabia was that man. That on the whole and in the truest
+sense of the word he was reasonable, is best seen in the result which
+his labour achieved. That he was happy, is quite another matter. Real as
+is our existence, happiness at best is but an ephemeral phase of it. Yet
+there is much truth in the assertion, that gaiety seeks the crowd, while
+happiness loves silence and solitude as Mohammed himself did. In any
+case, if the satisfaction which ensues as the consequence of duty done,
+and well done, is happiness; if the consciousness that he has done his
+best in all sincerity and conscientiousness, gives happiness to the ego,
+then it is possible to assume that in bequeathing the grand heritage of
+Islam to posterity, Mohammed must have gone to his final rest in a state
+of supreme happiness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Self-belief&mdash;“that thing given to man by his Creator,” as Carlyle calls
+it&mdash;was, as I shall show, a salient feature in Mohammed’s character.
+More than half a Bedawin (or what was practically the same thing,
+passing a great part of his life in deserts), this was only natural. But
+he did not allow this self-consciousness to degenerate, either into
+vanity or egotism. It neither spoilt nor conquered him. He knew his own
+weakness&mdash;none better&mdash;therefore relied all the more on the power of
+God.
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_20" title="20"> </a>
+It was this outside influence which reacted on him so powerfully
+from within. It was this judicious blend or amalgam of two seemingly
+different thought-currents, which were in reality only a bifurcation of
+the same current, that gave him all his strength. It was this unique
+combination of an apparent dualism (through intense mental
+concentration) in one divine Monism that gave Mohammed victory over
+every obstacle. It was this compressed one-ness&mdash;the most sublime
+triumph of individual concentration in the world’s history&mdash;that carried
+Islam into the uttermost parts of the earth. It was this centralization
+of moral or religious gravity that swelled the belief of one man&mdash;a
+modest camel-driving trader only&mdash;into the perfervid belief of hundreds
+of millions. “For given a sincere man, you have given a thing worth
+attending to. Since sincerity, what is it but a divorce from earth and
+earthly feelings?”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+One thing more. To thoroughly comprehend the spirit of Mohammed or the
+soul of Islam, the student himself must be thoroughly in earnest and
+sincere. He must in addition possess that moral, mental and intellectual
+sympathy which gives the ego an insight into human subtleties as well as
+simplicities. He must take Mohammed and Islam as he finds them&mdash;in the
+same intensely sincere spirit that constituted the one and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_21" title="21"> </a>
+inculcated
+the other. He must at the outset recognize that Mohammed was no mere
+spiritual pedlar, no vulgar time-serving vagrant, but one of the most
+profoundly sincere and earnest spirits of any age or epoch. A man not
+only great, but one of the greatest&mdash;i.e. truest&mdash;men that Humanity has
+ever produced. Great, i.e. not simply as a prophet, but as a patriot and
+a statesman: a material as well as a spiritual builder who constructed a
+great nation, a greater empire, and more even than all these, a still
+greater Faith. True, moreover, because he was true to himself, to his
+people, and above all to his God. Recognizing this, he will thus
+acknowledge that Islam is a profound and true cult, which strives to
+uplift its votaries from the depths of human darkness upwards into the
+higher realm of Light and Truth. It is in this deep sense of
+earnestness, and in this tense but even-minded spirit of equity, that I
+have endeavoured to make my study both rational and psychological: in
+other words, reasonable and true to the spirit. Naturally, therefore, I
+have avoided those narrow and devilish pitfalls of racial, creedal and
+colour prejudices&mdash;that awful curse of Humanity, that insuperable
+barrier to the cult of Humanitarianism&mdash;which leads to the deadly cancer
+of <em>Misconception</em>. Finally&mdash;making due allowance for space
+limitations&mdash;I have endeavoured
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_22" title="22"> </a>
+to the best of my ability to get to the
+root of all that is good and great in the immortal work of this leader
+of men who was so good and so great in every sense. In this way only is
+it possible to get at the truth. Shallow, superficial and paradoxical
+inquiries are mere empty vanities as utterly useless, from a human
+standpoint, as those which are biassed and one-sided. To reach the
+depths, to touch the bottom, to get to the root of any true man’s
+motives, sincerity and thoroughness are as essential as intellectual
+acumen and profundity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In this short study my one idea all through has been to delineate
+Mohammed as he was and Islam as she is. For this reason I have neither
+painted them with my own colouring, nor introduced into their natural
+complexion any outside flesh tints. In plain English, I have not placed
+upon their beliefs and principles a construction that, being ethnically
+foreign to the entire sociological system upon which they are based,
+would have been a fundamental error, at complete variance with them.
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_23" title="23"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II">
+CHAPTER II
+</a>
+<br />
+AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED’S TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+One of the first thoughts that a very careful perusal of the Koran
+brings home to me, is the intense humanity of Mohammed and his work. The
+more one studies the various motives that led to his so-called
+revelations, the more one is struck by the strong associations that
+connect these divine messages and ordinances with the actions and
+movements that were going on all round him, as well as in his own
+mind&mdash;owing in a great measure to his own preaching.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In estimating the moral value of either Christianity or Islam, it is
+necessary to take into consideration, also to make allowance for, the
+times in which their founders lived. To attempt to judge one or other of
+them from the scientific standpoint of modern culture and civilization
+would be not only uneven but impossible. To gauge the standard of their
+mental and moral attainments, the student must investigate their work,
+and compare, then contrast, it with the general intellectual level of
+their own age. When
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_24" title="24"> </a>
+this has been done, he should try and, if possible,
+realize what effect the advent and the doctrines advocated by them (in
+the one case some 1,900 years, and in the other 1,300 years ago) would
+now produce. In this way only is it feasible to arrive at a true and
+legitimate conclusion. But in doing so, the inquirer must divest,
+certainly dissociate himself, from all existing ideas on the subject,
+and deal with it as it is, and not what he thinks it ought to be.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The more one studies the Koran, the more obvious does it become that
+Mohammed had a powerfully receptive mind, and a specially retentive
+memory. Notwithstanding that he was illiterate, unable even to read and
+write, it is clear that he was well versed in all the tenets and
+traditions of his own people and of the Jews; and that in addition he
+had made himself acquainted with some of the doctrines and dogmas of the
+Christian Gospels. It is above all certain that for a great number of
+years Mohammed concentrated his mind thereon with the force and
+intensity of a sincere and ardent nature. But first and foremost the one
+great idea of the being, unity and providence of God predominated all
+his thoughts. Acting on a temperament that was highly emotional, and
+perceptibly neurotic or melancholic, the revelations embodied in the
+Koran were the natural result of so long and continuous
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_25" title="25"> </a>
+a
+concentration. Still it is equally obvious that combining with this
+emotionalism and neurasthenia was a strong vein of commercialism and
+common sense, also marked political and administrative ability. It is
+further evident that in Mohammed’s character there commingled a very
+curious and conflicting number of elements and tendencies. Dominating
+all of these, however, was an intense zeal, an insatiable ambition, an
+overpowering individuality and egotism, and an inflexible doggedness and
+determination to attain his own ends. To convert, that is, the weakness
+and disintegration of the various tribes that composed the Arab nation
+into the union of one consolidated whole, with himself and family at its
+head, as a human representation of the unity and supremacy of the one
+and only God. This latter, as we know, was in no way original. It is
+clear all throughout that he had profited from his knowledge of Jewish
+tradition and experience, and that he based his theory on the dogmas of
+Moses and Abraham. He had long since realized that it was the worship of
+their own tribal and communal gods by the members of the various Arab
+tribes and communities that accentuated the differences and divisions
+between them. He determined, therefore, as the Jewish leaders long
+before him had attempted, to consolidate
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_26" title="26"> </a>
+and weld them into a single
+nation, through the worship of the one supreme and indivisible God. It
+was on and through this divine indivisibility that he decided to base
+and construct the unity and nationalization of the people.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Unquestionably Mohammed’s movement was as much political as it was
+religious, as much material as it was spiritual. But being of a
+profoundly reflective, at the same time of a practical, turn of mind, he
+chose religion as the only possible and thoroughly reliable means of
+achieving his great and noble ends; not only possible and thorough,
+however, but the most potential. Mohammed, in fact, judged the capacity
+and characteristics of his countrymen to a nicety. Unconsciously&mdash;for
+legislation to him was a natural heritage&mdash;he followed the example of
+the most famous legislators, and instituted such laws as at the time
+were the best that the people were capable of receiving. Tactful and
+diplomatic to a degree, it was policy on his part to retain a certain
+number of the old beliefs and customs in order to satisfy the people. He
+knew, none better, the fierce and turbulent temper of his countrymen,
+and how it was most politic to deal with them. In making this concession
+he showed his political wisdom, if not a certain breadth and greatness
+of statecraft. After all it was, from an independent standpoint,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_27" title="27"> </a>
+but a
+small concession as compared to the prize that he got in return for it.
+It was a compromise in other words. Yet this and his own evidence in the
+Koran is important as showing that Mohammed was not so much in a strict
+sense <a name="transnote_page_27" id="transnote_page_27">the originator of a new</a> creed as he was a reformer and the
+renovator of an old one. It was the impress of his great personality,
+distinguished as this was by the intense sincerity and earnestness of
+his nature, that has left its mark on human history.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mohammed was a thinker and a worker not only for his own, but for all
+time. He recognized that man was equally a political and religious
+product of God’s creation. He understood that as a counterpoise to man’s
+materialism and to the destructive in his nature, is that indefinable
+essence which we call the spiritual and the constructive. The more one
+looks into and understands the Koran, the more obvious is it that
+Mohammed concentrated all the active and vigorous energies of his vivid
+and powerful imagination, also his virile mentality, on the
+accomplishment of his great design. For design it certainly was. The
+wish undoubtedly was father to the thought. Not, however, in an
+invidious sense, but in the firm conviction that design and not accident
+or chance is one of the controlling principles of God and His creation,
+and that, consistent with this principle, he, Mohammed,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_28" title="28"> </a>
+had been chosen
+as the divine agent. Personal ambition and aggrandizement never for a
+moment entered his head, or formed part of it. The national good, to be
+attained only by a national or universal God&mdash;the one and only God of
+the universe&mdash;was the one great ambition that inspired and impelled him.
+Because although every one for himself and God for us all is presumably
+a natural law, Mohammed managed to evade it. But in evading it, he was
+not revolutionary. On the contrary, in this way he rose one step upward
+above the lower human level towards that higher humanity which
+approaches the divine.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This design, as I have just said, originated from the doctrine of divine
+unity attributed to Moses and Abraham. Indeed, as one reads the Koran
+carefully and steadily through from beginning to end, it is manifested
+in every surah&mdash;almost, in fact, on every page. The whole work, in fact,
+is saturated with the one idea, inspired by the one thought. Everywhere
+there is evidence of the final object in view, the unconquerable will,
+the inflexible resolve, the fixed purpose, the indomitable perseverance,
+the unyielding persistency, the infinite and interminable patience, the
+calm endurance, the irresistible courage, and the grim tenacity of the
+ego. So much so is this evident, that when I compare this determinism
+with the neurotic element in Mohammed’s character,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_29" title="29"> </a>
+I am obliged to
+admit that the balance remains with the former. Yet&mdash;and this I think is
+the strangest feature about this strange but commanding
+personality&mdash;there is no getting away from the fact that he was much
+under the influence of the latter.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is, of course, possible that Mohammed was what in Arabia is called a
+“Saudawi,” or person of melancholy temperament&mdash;what nowadays would be
+called a hypochondriacal dyspeptic. Melancholia is a complaint that the
+Arabs are subject to, students, philosophers and literary men more
+especially. A distaste for society, a longing for solitude, an unsettled
+habit of mind, and a neglect of worldly affairs are always attributed to
+it. It is very probably&mdash;to some extent at least&mdash;as Burton suggests,
+the effect of overworking the brain in a hot, dry atmosphere; also due
+in some measure to the highly nervous and bilious temperament
+constitutional to the Arabs: a temperament that in Mohammed’s case was
+aggravated by excessive emotionalism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is clear that once Mohammed got hold of, or was obsessed by, the idea
+that he was God’s chosen messenger, and that his sayings were inspired
+by God (a very old and primitive belief remember): or rather as soon as
+ever Khadija and others of his household were imbued with the idea, then
+he never relaxed his hold of it
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_30" title="30"> </a>
+for a moment. The confidence of those
+about him, his faithful spouse more especially, gave him confidence in
+himself. Confidence engendered conviction, and conviction led to the
+Koran and the ultimate triumph of his cause. That he was sincere in all
+this, there is not the slightest doubt, but in taking the measure of his
+sincerity we must be guided entirely by the fact that he was essentially
+a man who had long before made up his mind to bring about the unity of
+his country. Indeed the whole history of Khadija’s association with the
+matter shows this. To be a prophet in his own country or household, a
+man must inspire respect, or the still greater feeling of veneration. No
+man, unless he is earnest and devout, could possibly impress the members
+of his family. They are bound to find him out. This applies all the more
+forcibly to an eastern household in which polygamy prevails, and that is
+made up of so many opposing elements and conflicting interests, the
+atmosphere of which is only too often one necessarily of envies,
+jealousies, rivalries, suspicions, intrigues, and even conspiracies. If
+Mohammed had been insincere, if instead of convictions, his belief had
+been a mere profession or a sham; if it had not been one of austere,
+rigid practice and self-denial, then those about him would neither have
+been impressed, nor would they have espoused his cause as warmly and
+valiantly as
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_31" title="31"> </a>
+they did. Not only were they impressed, however, but
+convinced, and it was their convictions that strengthened and confirmed
+his own faith. But once he had gained their confidence, his mission was
+assured. There was no doubt whatever then in his own mind that he was
+God’s chosen apostle, to whom God had revealed His word&mdash;the words of
+truth and life. From this out, his own vigour, his own extraordinary
+individuality and inflexibility carried him through from beginning to
+end. Once others believed in and relied on him, his own latent
+self-reliance grew into a living and active factor that carried all
+before it. But as he looked at it, all his strength was from God. God
+was at his elbow and in his heart, therefore he could not fail. Nothing,
+in fact, shows better than this aspect of the matter how very wise and
+all-knowing (his constant refrain about God in the Koran) Mohammed
+himself was. How tactful and diplomatic, but above all, how deep his
+knowledge of human nature. Had Khadija and his household not believed in
+him, it is safe to assume that then there would have been no Prophet and
+no Islam. As Novalis says: “My conviction gains infinitely the moment
+another soul will believe in it.” So it was with Mohammed. So it is with
+us all. So Carlyle pithily observes: “A false man found a religion? Why
+a false man cannot build a
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_32" title="32"> </a>
+brick house!” I have already shown that
+Mohammed was not false. But neither did he found a religion. Apart from
+the fact that he was a reality, and as true as any of the world’s great
+prophets, Mohammed was unable to perform the impossible. Religion as a
+natural product was beyond his comprehension and potentialities. Islam
+like Christianity was a creed&mdash;a human or artificial development&mdash;the
+healthy and vigorous offspring of a noble and sublime, yet in no sense
+original conception. But there was no demerit in this want of
+originality. Because as Carlyle says: “The merit of originality is not
+novelty; it is sincerity”: and with regard to Mohammed, this has been
+more than once acknowledged.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Launched upon the world of Arabia in no false and unreal spirit, but
+with the spirit of grim sincerity and earnestness, Islam has proved its
+stability spiritually and materially, the present result of which speaks
+for itself. It is enough to say that a creed whose followers now number
+over 250,000,000, or some 15 per cent. of the human race <a name="transnote_page_32" id="transnote_page_32">(an under-
+rather than an over-estimate)</a>, could have sprung from a healthy and
+vigorous seed only&mdash;a seed that has been nourished and kept alive by the
+vital spark of human sympathies, hopes and aspirations.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+What appears to me as so remarkable and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_33" title="33"> </a>
+so significant, so truly
+characteristic of the man, is the way in which he never lets go his grip
+of the central idea and purpose, but follows it up step by step. And as
+he follows, he makes every point that he can, seizes every opportunity,
+takes every advantage of every ordinary event and occurrence that is
+going on around him, makes the best of every reverse, turns even his
+set-backs and reverses into moral victories; and accepts it all as
+inevitable with the calmness of a philosophy that emanated from his own
+wondrous egoism and that inexhaustible fund of patience and reserve of
+courage which so distinguishes his character. In this respect alone
+Mohammed truly was a remarkable man&mdash;a man infinitely above, not only
+his surroundings, but his age. With Mohammed, not only was the great
+fact of his own existence great to him, but in almost every page of the
+Koran it is obvious that <a name="transnote_page_33" id="transnote_page_33">God’s omnipresence and omnipotence had made</a> a
+profound and lasting impression on him. Everywhere and in everything&mdash;in
+natural objects more especially&mdash;he saw and felt the hand and the power
+of God. And to him it was a power so overwhelmingly terrific and
+transcendent in all its aspects, that it defied description and
+demonstrated the insignificance and impotence of man. In more senses
+than one he was a pantheist. To him, either God was Nature and Nature
+God, or God was
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_34" title="34"> </a>
+in Nature and Nature was in God. At bottom of him the
+old primitive belief was there, but in unity and concentration he saw
+strength. In his mind there was no room, no place, for lesser deities.
+The power and the splendour of the one creative God&mdash;who lived and moved
+and had His being throughout the universe, overshadowed, or, rather, had
+absorbed, them all. In the grim silence of the desert, in the vastness
+of the heavens, in the great infinity of space, in the scintillation of
+the stars, in every fibre of his own consciousness, God was with him. To
+Mohammed God was not a personal being but the God and Maker of the
+universe and all mankind. With him the entire theme and volume of his
+stream of thought was God and his religion. Coming from the core and
+centre of him as it did, even through the long vista of thirteen
+centuries, one can picture this overmastering element in every line of
+his stern-set and yet gentle face: a face reflective and speaking, that
+not only had a history stamped upon every feature, but a great, a
+strenuous, and a commanding history. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">In vino veritas</i> is as true to-day
+as when first it was uttered. So too the saw, that “mastership like wine
+unmasks the man.” But Mohammed needed no unmasking. God and the
+truth&mdash;the truth about God as it dominated him&mdash;was the rich, strong
+wine which coursed through every vein and fibre of his mental organism,
+stimulating
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_35" title="35"> </a>
+and spurring him onwards to a sustained and continuous
+effort that ended only in death. A sincere and earnest man, a natural,
+therefore a deeply religious man, to him God was also a Dayyan (one of
+the ninety-nine epithets of God), i.e. “A weigher of good and evil”; One
+who computed and settled accounts; the holder of the even balance and
+scales of justice, the Judge and Arbiter of all mankind.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But apart from these functions, the power and sublimity of the Supreme
+Being, as he saw it expressed in the silent grandeur of the desert, the
+death-like stillness of the sandy sea, the frowning ruggedness and
+majesty of the mountains, the immense universality of Nature, was always
+before his eyes and in all his thoughts. Full of this feeling, of the
+awe and veneration innate in man and co-existent with the eternal ages,
+he bursts out in the second surah: “God! there is no God but He; the
+living, the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizeth Him; to
+Him <em>belongeth</em> whatsoever is in heaven, and on earth. Who is he that
+can intercede with Him, but through His good pleasure? He knoweth that
+which is past, and that which is to come unto them, and they shall not
+comprehend anything of His knowledge, but so far as He pleaseth. His
+throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_36" title="36"> </a>
+of both
+is no burden unto Him. He is the high and mighty.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As a natural outburst of emotions and convictions that had been pent up
+within his own inner consciousness, that were the offspring of some
+twenty years of journeyings to and fro across the deserts where “Amin”
+the faithful one was in direct and constant contact with Nature, and
+often in silent communion with the Infinite, these few words are truly
+magnificent and sublime; magnificent not only for the boldness and
+sublimity of their imagery and conception, but magnificent also with the
+intensity and profundity of true sincerity. Few, but all the more pithy
+for that, these words are from the heart and soul of the man&mdash;a man who
+speaks not unadvisedly with his lips, but who feels with every nerve and
+fibre of his intensely emotional being. They are (as he himself feels)
+the outpouring of an insignificant and impotent atom, yet of a sincere
+and earnest man approaching in all humility and veneration, and with the
+loyalty and allegiance of a true believer and servant, the great,
+invisible He, who holds him and all creatures in the hollow of His
+mighty hand.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In a conversation that Luther had one day with some friends at table, he
+spoke of the world as a vast and magnificent pack of cards composed of
+emperors, kings, princes and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_37" title="37"> </a>
+so forth. For several ages these had been
+vanquished by the Pope. Then God had come upon the scene, and chosen the
+“ace,” the very smallest card in the pack&mdash;himself, in a word&mdash;and
+overthrown this conqueror of worldly powers and principalities.
+Mohammed, as much as Luther, was one of “God’s Aces.” Seldom, indeed, in
+the history of the world, has so great a human river flowed from a
+source so puny. Never did the divine manifest itself in a single pip, so
+seemingly small and insignificant as a cause, yet so pre-eminently and
+consistently great as an effect!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Men,” says Dumas in one of his historico-romantic masterpieces, “are
+visible, palpable, moral. You can meet, attack, subdue them; and when
+they are subdued you can subject them to trial and hang them. But ideas
+you cannot oppose in that way. They glide unseen; they penetrate; they
+hide themselves especially from the sight of those who would destroy
+them. Hidden in the depths of the soul, they there throw out deep roots.
+The more you cut off the branches which imprudently appear, the more
+powerful and inextirpable become the roots below.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“An idea is a young giant which must be watched night and day; for the
+idea which yesterday crawled at your feet, to-morrow will dispose of
+your head. An idea is a spark
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_38" title="38"> </a>
+falling upon straw.” ... “For the mind of
+man is no inert receptacle of knowledge, but absorbs and incorporates
+into its own constitution the ideas which it receives.” Thus it was with
+Mohammed. God was the spark, the vital spark of spiritual flame, and
+this humble but honest Arab trader was the straw, that after twenty
+years of silent but tenacious smouldering God had set a light to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The better, however, to understand his character and purpose, we must
+divide his life into two sections. The first when, as trader from the
+age of thirteen up to forty, first for his uncle and then for Khadija,
+he was the man of business.
+<a name="transnote_page_38" id="transnote_page_38">
+Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas
+and ideals that he kept to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+</a>
+For not until the time was ripe and the hour had come, not until he felt
+the call&mdash;felt, that is, that he was ready and able to begin&mdash;did he
+confide even in Khadija. The second section when, as the apostle of God,
+he worked with all the fiery fervour yet steady zeal of a true prophet,
+to put his ideas into practice. But there was this difference with
+regard to Mohammed as a theorist. He was not a man of many ideas. In
+reality one central idea alone inspired him. But great and magnificent
+as that was, it was equal to a multitude. It was a growing and a
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_39" title="39"> </a>
+spreading giant which, like the prolific banyan tree, threw out branch
+and root with such extravagant luxuriance, that it completely
+overshadowed and predominated the entire expanse of his mental area. We
+know what this idea was. We know that round and out of the central stem
+of God’s overmastering unity Mohammed had determined to construct an
+Arabian nation&mdash;possibly something even greater. We know, too, that the
+one was but the offspring of the other. Or it may be that they were the
+twin offspring of all this profound and concentrated contemplation. But
+we do not know how this great idea first took root. Let us, however, try
+and trace it to its source as nearly as we can.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With still greater emphasis than Chrysostom, who asserted that “the true
+Shekinah is man,” Carlyle says: “the essence of our being, the mystery
+in us that calls itself ‘I,’ is a breath of heaven; the highest Being
+reveals Himself in man.” An idea such as this would never have occurred
+to Mohammed. The fatherhood of God in its accepted human sense was
+repugnant to him. The mere thought was sacrilege!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+His conception of God was much too exalted, much too divine for this.
+God and humanity could have no possible connexion. God was the
+Creator&mdash;the Potter, who out of the clay
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_40" title="40"> </a>
+or matter in chaos had made
+the world and all therein. Humanity was but a small part only of His
+creation. Men were but as clay in His hands&mdash;mere creatures of His.
+Beyond this hard and fast line there could be no relationship between
+God and man. Association was as impossible as comparison was
+objectionable. God, as supreme Creator and Director of the universe, was
+a Being altogether distinct and apart from His own creation. Yet as such
+He was the soul or spirit of it, the breath of life to all that lived,
+and of death to all that died. Man was as evil, as puny, and as weak as
+God was great and good and strong. God was too exalted and glorious for
+words. Incomprehensible and inscrutable, He was beyond the power of
+language, outside the narrow limitations of thought to imagine. Just as
+the heavens were divided from the earth by boundless space, so far apart
+was God from man. The endless immensity of everything was insufficient
+to express His omnipotence&mdash;fell far short of the unthinkable reality.
+Even the heavens and earth as His handiwork did not convey as completely
+as it might appear to do the capacity of the power that belonged to Him.
+To Mohammed, in every vibrating star an all-seeing eye and glory of the
+great Creator, God, was visible; in every tiny blade of grass, in every
+spring of water, He was manifest and tangible. So
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_41" title="41"> </a>
+some eleven centuries
+after Mohammed was laid to rest, a poor, struggling, but undaunted
+artist-poet, looking from his mean London garret with the eyes of a
+dreamer-mystic into the great invisible above and beyond him (just as
+Amin the faithful one had done), yearned:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“To see the world in a grain of sand,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+And a heaven in a wild flower;<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+Hold Infinity in the palm of “his” hand,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+And eternity in an hour.”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+And in the middle of the late departed century&mdash;which rushed across the
+great void of Time like a hissing meteor&mdash;thus Tennyson:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“Flower in the crannied wall,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+I pluck you out of the crannies,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+Little flower; but if I could understand<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+What you are, root and all, and all in all,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+I should know what God and man is.”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+While to Wordsworth, with a faith in Nature and Nature’s God as deep as
+Mohammed, the meanest flower that blows, gave thoughts that often lay
+too deep for words.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Society is only too apt to judge or condemn facts and men; also to
+ridicule the age and its spirit. This drastic method saves the trouble
+of comprehending them. The society of keen Arab traders and wily
+Bedouins which environed
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_42" title="42"> </a>
+Mohammed did not comprehend him. To them he
+was not so much like a fish out of water, as a land quadruped at sea,
+altogether out of his element as well as out of his depth&mdash;a flotsam
+struggling to get to dry land as a jetsam.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Immeasurably above and beyond his social contemporaries either morally
+or spiritually, to them Mohammed was an enigma and a mystery. “Scenting
+a mystery is like the first bite at a piece of scandal, and holy souls
+do not detest it. In the secret compartments of bigotry there is some
+curiosity for scandal.” But among Mohammed’s opponents&mdash;the Koreish more
+particularly&mdash;it was not merely scandal that moved them: it was
+jealousy, envy, malice, and in the end sheer diabolical hatred. In
+describing the state of a mind that is advancing, we must remember that
+all progress is not made in one march or even series of marches.
+Mohammed’s march was entirely uphill, dead against the collar, the whole
+way and all the time, except, perhaps, just towards the end. Yet each
+day’s march brought him nearer to the goal of his desires. Slowly but
+surely he made progress, and with it reputation. The slowness of his
+movement, his advance, made progress and reputation all the more not a
+dead, but a living certainty. But there is always anarchy in reputation.
+It was this reputation&mdash;this individuality
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_43" title="43"> </a>
+that dared to insolently
+assert itself in the overthrow of their ancestral gods&mdash;which explained
+Koreish hostility.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mohammed was a calm, yet by no means an unprogressive agent of
+Providence. Brains that are absorbed either in mania or wisdom, or, as
+often happens, in both at once, are permeated very very slowly by the
+things of this world. But even admitting that there was melancholia,
+there was no mania about Mohammed. If ever a man was sane and healthy,
+he was. “You grant a devout man, you grant a wise man: no man has a
+seeing eye without first having had a seeing heart.” This fits his case
+to a nicety. A more devout man than Mohammed never lived. He was as
+pre-eminently wise as he was devout. He utilized his wisdom to the
+fullest extent of his capacity, and he proved his devoutness by putting
+his beliefs to the infallible test of stern and rigid practice. A trader
+to his finger tips, a clear-sighted man of business, and a statesman
+with prophetic instincts, who profited by the past, utilized the
+present, and prepared for the future, in this sense he was a
+contradiction. The being absorbed in wisdom did not prevent him from
+carrying on his worldly duties in the most conscientious and thorough
+manner. <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Per contra</i>, his worldly duties did not prevent him from
+philosophical absorption. The one was his duty, the other
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_44" title="44"> </a>
+the breath of
+life to him. His veneration of God gradually crystallized the religion
+in him into a creed. This is generally the result of concentration. His
+absorption of God ended in God’s absorption of him. It was a long and
+gradual process which occupied twenty years. During this period of
+embryonic development he withdrew, as it were, into himself. Then when
+the crisis arrived, it came out of him, as a river flows out of a
+spring, and was called Islam. “Our chimeras,” says Victor Hugo, “are the
+things which most resemble ourselves, and each man dreams of the
+unknown, and the impossible according to his nature.” Mohammed’s
+chimera, as we know, was God and Arabian unity. But there was nothing
+chimerical about the former, and with this invincible lever, the latter
+too was a distinct probability. For although he was doubtless
+superstitious&mdash;that is natural&mdash;and wrestled with shadows and visions,
+Mohammed dealt in realities. To him God was the most real thing, the
+sternest reality of all in the universe. God, in fact, was the Universe.
+These, which to another would have been the unknown and the impossible,
+were to him the possible and the inevitable. The nature that was in him
+was the nature of God and the universe. There is a point where
+profundity is oblivion, when light becomes extinguished. Though from a
+literary aspect
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_45" title="45"> </a>
+Mohammed was not profound, in a religious sense his
+profundity, centring as it did in God, burst forth into the Cimmerian
+darkness which enveloped his country with the brilliancy of a meteor
+that illumines the blackest night.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There is too a way of encountering error by going all the way to meet
+the truth, also by a sort of violent good faith which accepts everything
+unconditionally. There was nothing violent (certainly not for a long
+period), but there was everything that stands for goodness and stability
+in Mohammed’s faith. It was thus&mdash;in the spirit of a hero and the valour
+of a Paladin&mdash;he encountered the error and opposition of his enemies by
+first of all going out of his way to meet the truth; then, in spite of
+themselves and their hostility, by enforcing it upon those who would not
+be persuaded. According to Fontenelle, “there is only truth that
+persuades, and even without requiring to appear with all its proofs. It
+makes its way so naturally into the mind, that when it is heard for the
+first time, it seems as if one were only remembering.” This was very
+much the case with Mohammed. This was why he tried at first to lead and
+not to drive his countrymen to the truth. To him who saw the truth of
+God’s existence, His mercy written as plainly in the falling raindrop as
+His power of retribution is in the lightning that flashes across the sky
+as if it
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_46" title="46"> </a>
+would rend it, their stubbornness in rejecting God was utterly
+incomprehensible. His mind had two attitudes. The one was turned to God,
+the other to man. In contemplating God, he but studied man’s interests
+and his own. But contemplation with Mohammed did not end by becoming a
+form of indolence. Imaginative&mdash;visionary, in fact&mdash;as he was, he did
+not allow his imagination to play tricks with him. He did not fancy that
+he wanted for nothing. Even when married to Khadija, and in tolerable
+affluence, there was obviously a great void in his life. This want of
+course was spiritual. Exact and punctilious as he was in his temporal
+duties, his whole bent and inclination was towards the former. As a
+younger and poorer man, he had looked so much at the humanity around him
+that he saw right down into its very soul. With the same fervent
+intensity he had looked into nature until he saw or rather felt the
+creator and controller thereof. “There are times when the unknown
+reveals itself in a mysterious way to the spirit of man. A sudden rent
+in the veil of darkness will make manifest things hitherto unseen, and
+then close again upon the mysteries within. Such visions have
+occasionally the power to effect a transfiguration in those whom they
+visit. They convert a poor camel-driver into a Mahomet; a peasant girl
+tending her goats into a Joan
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_47" title="47"> </a>
+of Arc.” A conscientious and faithful
+worker, Mohammed was at the same time a dreamer. But his dreams were but
+the reflex of his work and of his ideas. These came to him like
+mountainous waves, or the swell of an angry surf as it thunders on the
+beach with a threatening roar, a mass of water that would submerge the
+very earth. His ideas did not, however, submerge him. Nor did they
+destroy or bury him. Out of their unknown and bosky depths Mohammed
+invariably rose to the surface with the buoyancy of a life-belt, calm
+and unmoved, for his spiritual centre of gravity always held him up. He
+dreamt of man, but chiefly of God&mdash;of God’s goodness and greatness, of
+man’s impotence and frailty. He looked at the solid earth on which he
+stood, with its stones and its sand, its wheat and its tares, its joys
+and sorrows, but particularly its suffering children and helpless women.
+Then he looked at the vast void above, with its star-spangled sky, its
+sun and moon, and the God that made all and was in all. This led him to
+think of the void that was in himself, and to compare the one with the
+other. Then he pondered and compared. The greatness of it all passed
+into him and he dreamt again. There was no void above, for God filled
+it. So too his own emptiness gave place to the Supreme. All at once a
+great feeling of tenderness was aroused within him. From
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_48" title="48"> </a>
+the egotism of
+the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">genus vir</i>, he passed to the contemplation of the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">genus homo</i>, the
+man who contemplates and feels. God had touched his heart. In
+forgetfulness of self was born a great compassion for all. For years and
+years Mohammed lived with his neck in a noose of obstacles composed of
+human thorns and millstones. He was, so to speak, an outcast, thrown on
+the dung heap, and into the brambles; at times even in the mud. Yet no
+mud clung to him, not even to his feet. His head at all events was
+always in the light, his hand always resting on the omnipotence of the
+Almighty. Invariably gentle, attentive, serious, benevolent, easily
+satisfied, he remained serene and peaceful. It was only in the last
+extremity, when all his persuasive earnestness failed him, that his
+enemies stirred him to wrath. But it was a just and dispassionate wrath;
+it was the wrath of God. For whether they liked or no, Mohammed in his
+dual capacity as God’s agent and Arabian patriot had made up his mind
+that they should have God. On this point he was inexorable. Feeling that
+there is an eternity in justice, he felt that in justice to God, and to
+themselves, and in spite of themselves, it was his duty to proclaim the
+truth. Many a less tenaciously sincere man, many a real hero, would have
+shrunk from and have succumbed before an ordeal so terrific, a contest
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_49" title="49"> </a>
+so supremely Titanic. But Mohammed was made of sterner stuff, of the
+spirit that gods are made of. Failure was a word that he did not
+recognize. With God at his back, success was an absolute certainty&mdash;a
+foregone conclusion.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Whatever might be his desire to remain where he was and cling to it, he
+was impelled to advance, to continue, to go on further and still
+further. Yet to think and to ask himself where it was all going to lead
+him to? But although he thought, he never hesitated, never turned back.
+His hand was to the plough&mdash;the plough God. God was the goal, the end,
+the summit of human existence and ambition. Humanity was the soil, and
+to get there he must furrow his way through its enmities and affections.
+Firm and exceptional natures are thus moulded out of miseries,
+misfortunes and afflictions. As a result of his work history shows us
+more and more that Mohammed was firm and exceptional to the very highest
+degree. Yet there was nothing of that hypocrisy which Victor Hugo calls
+supreme cynicism about him. He was too human, too much in earnest, to be
+anything but Amin the Faithful. There is, after all, more in a name than
+meets the eye. In some names there is history and the tragedy of
+history. In others there is the might and majesty of a commanding
+magnetism,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_50" title="50"> </a>
+which recognizes the sublimity of truth. In Mohammed’s case,
+even to this day over two hundred and fifty million human beings bow the
+knee through him to God. Yes, there is much&mdash;a world of meaning&mdash;that is
+inexpressible in a name&mdash;a magic and a <i lang="fr" xml:lang="fr">je ne sais quoi</i> which under the
+label of Napoleon led men to the Kingdom Come of glory&mdash;in other words,
+to destruction and the devil&mdash;but that with Mohammed was the open sesame
+to the glory and power of God. A rose by any other name may smell as
+sweet. But Islam without the halo of time-honoured sanctity that
+attaches to the name of Mohammed, would sound as but a hollow brass or a
+tinkling cymbal. Just, in fact, as the man himself was sincere and
+faithful, there is, and there will continue to be, a magic in his
+name&mdash;more so even than that of Christ has for the Christian&mdash;drawing
+men to God, as he in person drew them not alone by sheer force of will
+and character, but by a force which was even stronger, the force of
+sincerity and truth.
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_51" title="51"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III">
+CHAPTER III
+</a>
+<br />
+THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+A true son of the desert, it is impossible to understand the powerful
+and complex personality of Mohammed, unless we can appreciate the
+peculiar character and genius of the desert. More so in some ways even
+than the seaman, the dweller or sojourner in the desert is distinct and
+unique in himself. Possessing the courage of the Fatalist, and as free
+as the roving winds of heaven, he is all the same of a shrinking and
+timorous nature, confronted as he often is by certain aspects and
+phenomena that imperil his life and strike down to the very roots of his
+moral consciousness.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In the desert there is, comparatively speaking, little life. Unlike the
+forest region, it is naked and almost destitute. There, as at sea, man
+is face to face not only with the great elements, but with the greater
+Infinite and Invisible. He is nearer to God and the immensity of Nature.
+There is nothing&mdash;or little at least&mdash;to distract his attention&mdash;nothing
+between him and the ever watchful Inscrutable. There is no shade from
+the sun
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_52" title="52"> </a>
+by day, no protection from the moon and stars at night. They
+look down on him as from the pinnacle of the sublimest elevation. The
+fiercer glory of the sun by day burns into his very soul, consumes his
+very marrow. The milder effulgence of the moon by night throws its
+silvery glamour over all his senses. The lesser and more distant
+splendour of the stars&mdash;those watch-fires of angelic spirits&mdash;in their
+countless myriads awe and bewilder him. In the choking breath of the
+simoom he feels the potentialities of God, and his own helpless
+impotence. Struck all of a heap by its stifling blast, he is filled with
+fear and trembling in the presence of a Power invisible yet tangible and
+deadly. Whether he wills or not, the fear of God&mdash;of the Inexorable and
+Inevitable&mdash;enters into his heart and takes possession of his inmost
+soul. Call it the fear of God or not, it is practically one and the same
+feature&mdash;the mere human label makes no difference to this awful and
+unseen reality&mdash;the same fear of the Unknown, the Unexpected and the
+Inevitable: the Inevitable that is always with us, the agnostic and the
+sophist no less than with the theologian, yet unseen, incomprehensible
+and omnipotent. But more than anything, it is the awful and impenetrable
+silence that impresses and appals the silent and dignified nomad of the
+desert.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_53" title="53"> </a>
+To those who have never been outside the confines of civilization, it is
+not logically possible even to guess at the extraordinary influence&mdash;a
+fascination amounting to witchery&mdash;that the silence and solitude of the
+desert exercises over one. Yet if I were asked to define the essence and
+subtlety of this influence, I could but answer that it is indefinable;
+all the same a glamour that, like the force of gravity, is irresistible.
+Free and open like the sea (but fresh only at night), it is not the
+witchery of the soft blue sky, for the sky of the desert is hard and
+steely; it is not the fierce white heat of the fervid sun that melts
+into the very marrow of one’s bones; but rather is it the soothing magic
+of the moon at night, under the brilliant canopy of the heavens, when
+the earth, cooling rapidly, is lulled into eternal silence, that one
+falls under the magic spell of its wondrous influence. But even the
+glamour of the moon is out-glamoured by the darkness of the night under
+whose funereal pall even the great suns and planets hide their
+diminished heads. There is in the darkness and the silence of the night
+a mystery and a profundity that arouses the sluggish, even the stagnant
+consciousness of the dullard&mdash;that much more so attracts the quickening
+soul of the mystic and visionary, which springs to it with the same
+eager avidity that a lean and hungry trout leaps
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_54" title="54"> </a>
+at the first fly which
+he sees after a long and enforced abstinence. It is in this darkness and
+silence of the night, rather than in the fierce glare of the midday sun,
+that the fear of the great Infinite comes to man. For if we but think of
+it, what a spectre-teeming spectacle is night. We hear strange, weird
+sounds. We know not whence they come or whither they go. Or it may be
+that all around us is as the silence of the grave&mdash;of eternal death. We
+see the evening star looming large like a great world on fire. The blue
+of the sky looms black. The stars seem to speak to us; the whole scene
+is impressive&mdash;a sight for the gods. In the desert, however, and to the
+earnest thinker whose centre of gravity is God, night is something more
+than a mere spectacle&mdash;a something greater, grander and more terrifying
+than a simple impression&mdash;a feeling deeper and sublimer even than a
+conviction: a revelation of the Unseen Unknown which is all the time
+behind that which he sees and knows.
+</p>
+
+<p>Full as night is of phantoms, shades, sounds and silence, it is no
+illusive mirage, no mere empty simulacrum. But in every way it is a
+reality and a substance which is tangible, that touches one not only on
+the spot, on the raw, but everywhere; that fills one with vague fears,
+and brings even the proudest and the sternest to their knees before the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_55" title="55"> </a>
+power of the great Omnipotence. The very stars which hang out in the
+great firmament appear as God’s sign-posts&mdash;great all-seeing eyes that
+are ever upon us&mdash;or like eternal watch-fires which contrast the
+eternity of God with the momentary mortality of man; they enhance the
+blackness of the blue. Peering as they do into the awesome watcher’s
+inmost soul, they either drive him headlong into the blackness and
+terrors of evil, or lead him by their kindly light into the glory of the
+Almighty Presence. Unquestionably the night is either diabolical or
+sacred. Not only this, she is the brooder and breeder of all primitive
+doctrines, the conceiver and the mother of all human creeds. In her
+immense womb there is a latent light, a smouldering volcano full of
+ashes, cinders, and dead men’s bones; yet full also of fire-sparks that
+are capable of flashing into luminosity, even of bursting into hissing,
+leaping and devouring flames. It was thus that Christianity and Islam
+came into being. It was thus out of the primeval sacrifices, the shadows
+and silence of death and darkness, that all creeds have crept into and
+out of the minds of men. Tortuous human ant-heaps bored and tunnelled
+through and through by human ideas, human hopes, and human aspirations;
+worlds in the low-lying limbo of the fœtus stage, fecundating in all
+directions into beliefs, faiths, creeds,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_56" title="56"> </a>
+sects, denominations,
+quackeries, dissimulations and charlatanism. Labyrinthine, subterranean,
+and full of subtleties as all these creeds appear to be, they are easy
+enough to comprehend. They have all sprung from the same simple seed if
+we would but recognize it. If we but looked at this vista of the past as
+through a mental telescope, if we but grasped the substance and not the
+shadow, went straight to the simple root instead of to the theological
+and metaphysical subtleties of it all, we would find it absolutely
+simple. If we would but for a moment drop from our eyes the dense scales
+of dogma, bigotry and prejudice, there would be no difficulty in tracing
+back all these enigmatic ramifications and gloomy obscurities of
+pristine darkness and chaos to the one central germ idea, the one
+vitalizing spark that inspires and illumines them all.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is obvious that Wordsworth, when he speaks of only “two voices,” the
+one “of the sea,” the other “of the mountains”&mdash;“<a name="transnote_page_56a" id="transnote_page_56a">each a mighty voice,”</a>
+quite overlooked the bleakness and silence of the desert. This
+overpowering <a name="transnote_page_56b" id="transnote_page_56b">blackness that pervades the very soul</a>, creeps through every
+vent into the bones and chills one to the very marrow. This sublime
+silence, that speaks to one as the still small voice of God spoke to
+Moses, and that fills the thinker with even greater
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_57" title="57"> </a>
+awe and veneration
+than the crashing and rolling thunder. This silence which is of
+eternity, therefore golden, while speech is of to-day and only silvern,
+for as Carlyle reminds us: “After speech has done its best, silence has
+to include all that speech has forgotten or cannot express.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Speaking for myself, who have passed many days of my existence at sea,
+and many more still in the desert, there is that in the latter which
+always reminds me of the former. To be sure, the ever restless sea with
+its almost myriad moods&mdash;its calm, its motion, its rippling smiles, its
+wavy undulations, its heights and depths, its fickleness and treachery,
+its dazzling beauties, its fierce turbulence&mdash;is as unlike the desert,
+with its grim stiff <a name="transnote_page_57" id="transnote_page_57">grandeur and appalling sameness</a> as it well <a name="corrigenda_2" id="corrigenda_2">could be:
+still&mdash;</a>
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“Tho’ inland far we be,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+Our souls have sight of that immortal sea<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+Which brought us thither.”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+There is no music in it by day or by night, only the dead still hush of
+silence. Yet the desert has its aspects, if it has not its moods and
+contrasts&mdash;as singular as they are striking. See, or rather feel it
+under the fierce and scorching glare of the fiery sun, that almost
+shrivels you into a mummy; see it also under the softer spell of the
+silvery orb,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_58" title="58"> </a>
+when the air is balmy, if not fresh, and you will at once
+imagine yourself to be in an altogether different and enchanted world.
+Then again, lose yourself in the desert on a dark night when for once in
+a way the stars are dim or obscured by clouds, and you will realize as
+you never before have done, the awesome reality of the sense of
+loneliness&mdash;a feeling which can only be compared to that felt by the
+hunted criminal hiding in a city, and against whom every man’s hand is
+raised.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But there is besides in the desert the fateful mirage that, like the
+ocean sirens, has lured so many to their doom. Finally there is the
+oasis which stands out of the sea of shimmering sand, like an island
+paradise that towers over the waste of seething waters which encircle
+it. The desert too, like the sea, has its ships and its men. Ships that
+pass by day as well as by night. Ships that stride across the great
+sandy wastes, grunting and gawky, with unwearying patience, unyielding
+tenacity, and unerring instinct. As are the ships, so are the men. But
+in place of gawkiness and grunts, the golden virtue of silence, and the
+conscious pride of natural dignity. Men who in their very port and
+carriage are the very spirit and personification of the desert. Men who
+represent not the genii, but the genius of the great dry sea
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_59" title="59"> </a>
+of sand
+and silence. Indeed, if ever men on this planet of ours were
+patriarchal, if ever men bore themselves with the gait and the simple
+dignity of free men, the Bedawins of Arabia and the North African
+deserts do. With the lynx-like, yet enigmatic expression that calls to
+mind a combination of eagle keenness and owl-like solemnity, there is
+about them a freedom of manner and bearing, a dignity of carriage, an
+independence of character, that are the peculiarly glorious and
+distinctive heirlooms of the air, expanse and grandeur of these inland
+seas. In every sense, moral and physical, they are the products of an
+unrestricted environment that has made them what they are&mdash;wanderers on
+the face of the earth. But wanderers from choice. Untrammelled even to
+licence; giving an unbridled rein to their spirit of independence.
+Regarding with supreme contempt the luxuries and even necessaries of
+civilization. Yet with it all slaves to the spiritual fears that haunt
+them. Relics of a primitive and old-world civilization, there is about
+these Bedawins a flavour of antiquity, of a past that is hoary with the
+hoariness of eternal age, so distant that we cannot conjecture about it,
+even in the vaguest of terms. In addition to this everlasting antiquity
+and conservatism, there is about these patriarchs a naturally dignified
+reticence, and an air of
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_60" title="60"> </a>
+calm, quiet assurance and authority, that are
+peculiarly their own personal property. But there is even more than
+this. There is that same universal concept&mdash;common to all primitive
+people who have not outlived it&mdash;of belief in the fear of a supreme
+power. That same awe and reverence for the patriarchal authority
+connected with that of the ancestors which has preceded it; that calm
+and philosophical acceptation of Karma or Fatalism; that same dread of
+consequences; that identical terror of malignant demons; that same
+shrinking from the inevitable, which is the heritage of all natural
+people. Inherent instincts that even twelve centuries of Islam have
+scarcely modified. When we get underneath the surface of human nature as
+represented by the Arab, whether he came from the east, the west, the
+south, or the centre, it is obvious that the underlying motive for most,
+if not all, of his social customs is inspired by that personal or
+religious instinct which is so closely allied to the primary instincts
+of all. Out of such fundamental material did Mohammed emerge!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Nevertheless, with all its drawbacks, there is about the desert, only in
+a different degree, the pleasure of the pathless woods, the rapture of
+the lonely shore. Just as by the deep and rolling sea whose very roar is
+music, there
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_61" title="61"> </a>
+is a society where none intrudes, so with the desert.
+Right in the very core and centre of its silence and solitude, the man
+whose ears and eyes are open to receive impressions, finds himself in
+the presence of that invisible but omniscient power of Nature. The power
+that, while it causes the earnest thinker to pause and reflect, makes
+the average human being yearn for the companionship of his own kind. But
+it was not so with Mohammed. Mohammed was not as other men are. He was a
+thought leader. Not a deep thinker by any means; but profoundly in
+earnest. Few men in the world’s history&mdash;judging at least by
+results&mdash;have been more in earnest than he was. In Hannibal there is the
+same earnest fixity of purpose, only different in kind, the same
+unquenchable ardour, and the same iron will that kept him faithful to
+the sacred vow of undying vengeance against the Romans, that his father
+exacted from him on the altar of their ancestral gods. In William the
+Silent too, but also in another direction, we find the same relentless
+purpose and the same inflexible sincerity to attain the independence and
+autonomy of the United Provinces. Cromwell likewise gave his life and
+his services&mdash;all that was best in him in fact&mdash;in the firm and sincere
+conviction that he was God’s chosen instrument. But in none of these
+men, not even in the great and heroic Ironside, was
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_62" title="62"> </a>
+there the same
+fervent godliness, i.e. the fear and veneration of God. It was Luther
+most of all who approached Mohammed in the sincerity of his purpose,
+i.e. of his religion. For although Luther was essentially a priest, and
+did not found a new creed, his sincerity showed itself as a Protestant
+and Reformer. In his whole life the fear and veneration of God as the
+motive factor of his existence was manifest.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is, of course, just possible, as Tennyson surmises, that:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“... Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+And the thoughts of men are widen’d with the process of the suns.”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+This, however, is vague and brings us no nearer to an exact
+comprehension of the matter. The better to understand this feeling of
+fear that so dominated men of the Numa, Buddha, Luther, John Knox,
+Cromwell and Mohammed type, it is essential that the student grasps and
+measures the actual measure of difference that divides religion from
+creed. It is but meet that we should accept the rational axiom, that
+religion is natural, and creed the egotistical and personal
+interpretation placed upon religion by human beings. As Draper says:
+“When natural causes suffice, it is needless to look for supernatural.”
+So Bacon, looking with the insight of true genius into the Book of
+Nature,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_63" title="63"> </a>
+up to Nature’s God, said in that immortal aphorism which opens
+the <i lang="la" xml:lang="la">Novum Organum</i>, “<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Homo Naturæ minister et interpres</span>”&mdash;man is the
+servant and interpreter of Nature. This will make it easier to get at
+the root of this dual feeling of fear and veneration. But to do so it is
+necessary for the student to look as far back into the past as he can.
+In every ancient cult that has ever existed, in the Chaldæan, the
+Egyptian, the Aryan, the various (so-called Pagan) African, for example,
+the same overmastering element predominates. In Grecian annals and
+literature&mdash;in the <cite>Iliad</cite>, the <cite>Odyssey</cite>, Hesiod’s <cite>Theogony</cite>, in the
+great tragedies of Æschylus, in Plutarch and other writers&mdash;Fear is not
+merely reverenced as “<em>Holy</em>,” but in Greece, as elsewhere, altars were
+erected and worship offered to her as a goddess.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is in its definition and conception of religion that humanity has
+gone astray. By general acceptation religion and creed have always been
+confounded. Natural religion is spoken of as a something different and
+widely apart from Christianity, as a religion revealed. This is not so.
+There is no difference between them. Christianity is but the development
+of natural religion on the lines and ideas of certain individuals. There
+is no such thing as revelation. Religion is an evolution. It is natural.
+It comes to
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_64" title="64"> </a>
+us from Nature, i.e. from the God out of which Nature has
+evolved. Hence its constructive and destructive dualism. It is a living
+and vital force that is innate in man as being one with Nature.
+Obviously this veneration, this fear of the Unseen, the Unexpected and
+the Inevitable (which I have spoken of), is one of the root instincts
+out of which it unfolds itself. Most unquestionably it is the outward
+and visible expression of the inner consciousness or spirit that moves
+man to the adoration of veneration in the constructive direction, and of
+fear in the destructive. This varies in the individual. Thus on the one
+hand we have a Mohammed; on the other a Napoleon. From the very
+beginning of human existence right down until now this fear of God has
+predominated. It still exists. It will go on existing. Religion is as
+much a part of the human constitution as the primal instincts. Creed is
+acquired. It is environment and education that makes or forms creed. The
+child becomes what his teacher makes him, as he can neither distinguish,
+discriminate nor judge for himself. But to make him Jew, Gentile or
+Christian, the religion must be in him. Creed, in a word, is but the
+view that is taken of natural religion by the ego. But a matter so
+important as this, however, cannot here be entered into.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As it has been with all the great religious leaders of history, so too
+it was with Mohammed.
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_65" title="65"> </a>
+Fearing, yet venerating, the might, the majesty
+and the goodness of God, the companionship that he most wanted was not
+human but divine. Communion with Him, through his own thought and
+through the great Infinity around him, was what his heart most desired.
+A town Arab by birth and breeding, a Bedawin by feeling and instinct, he
+was something more than a mere native of Arabia. Rather a son of men, an
+apostle chosen out specially from among men, that he might bear to them
+the message and truth of God.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+“Men,” says Victor Hugo, “talk to themselves, speak to themselves, but
+the external silence is not interrupted. There is a grand tumult;
+everything speaks within us, excepting the mouth. The realities of the
+soul, for all they are not visible and palpable, are not the less
+realities.” The great reality, as I have shown, that obsessed Mohammed
+was God. Though invisible in person or even in spirit, God was none the
+less visible and palpable to him as much in the finest speck of sand as
+in the consuming glory of the sun. In the mocking spectres of the night,
+as well as in the shifting shadows of the morning, the might and majesty
+of Allah was supreme. In the dead silence of human solitude, the grand
+tumult within him was only grand and tumultuous because God talked to
+him and he to God in the suppressed sibilance of hushed and awesome
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_66" title="66"> </a>
+whisperings. “Diamonds are only found in the darkness of the earth;
+<a name="transnote_page_66" id="transnote_page_66">truths are only found in the depths of the thought.”</a> As it seemed to
+Father Madeline, the ex-convict Jean Valjean, so it appeared to
+Mohammed, “that after descending into these depths, after groping for
+some time in the densest of this darkness, he had found one of these
+diamonds, one of these truths, which he held in his hand, and which
+dazzled his eyes when he looked at it.” The brilliant which Mohammed
+searched for was the truth&mdash;the greatest brilliant of all! The truth
+that he found as it appeared to him was God. Thus he immolated his whole
+being to the will of God, as to the truth which resides in Him alone.
+Like Pascal, Mohammed believed that “one can be quite sure that there is
+a God without knowing what He is.” Or in the words of Hobbes: “Forasmuch
+as God Almighty is incomprehensible, it follows that we can have no
+conception or image of the Deity, except only this, that <em>there is a
+God</em>.” This in sense if not in word was Mohammed’s idea of God as he
+tried to conceive Him. For him it was sufficient that God was the only
+God&mdash;the Creator and the Controller of the universe! “There are touching
+illusions which are perhaps sublime realities.” But to Mohammed, God was
+not even “the Great Illusion,” but a stern as well as a sublime reality!
+To him the desert and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_67" title="67"> </a>
+lone places were God’s dwelling-place&mdash;as far
+away from the busy hum and haunts of men as He could get. But only
+because of the delightful charm of golden silence and solitude&mdash;only
+because in the midst thereof, as in the heavenly paradise, God dwelt
+there. The one fair spirit that he dwelt and communed with&mdash;not in close
+proximity however, but with a great gulf fixed between&mdash;was the one and
+only God, who had at last constituted him His minister and apostle,
+because of his great love and devotion to Him. It was for this that
+Mohammed sought the desert. It was there under the stars&mdash;the flashing
+forget-me-nots of God’s great power&mdash;that alone with Nature and his own
+thoughts, he sought God. Who is there of us can say that he did or did
+not find Him? Can we, or can we not, by searching find God? Whether we
+can or no, however, is not the question&mdash;is not for us to decide! But
+one fact is certain&mdash;one fact is obvious. It was in the core and centre
+of the eternal silence and solitude of mountain fastnesses and desert
+expanses that the spirit of Islam had its origin. It was there, as it
+were under the myriad eyes of the great and infinite God, under the
+fiery blaze of the burning sun, under the cooler and more clinging
+glamour of the mellow moon, under the dimmer gloom and mystery of
+darkness, there with his face to the red-hot furnace blasts and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_68" title="68"> </a>
+suffocation of the simoom, that the message came to him. Alone with his
+thoughts:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“Alone, alone, all all alone,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+Alone on a wide wide sea!”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+No mere saint, but God Himself, “took pity on” his “soul in agony.” He
+was not alone, for God was with him. This self-communion of Mohammed
+with his thoughts, was to him none other than communion with God,
+because his thoughts were concentrated on Him with all the soul and
+strength he was humanly capable of.</p>
+
+<p>The power of persuasion does not always lie in the flow and eloquence of
+speech. The strongest are often the most silent. God never speaks but in
+the still small voice of consciousness, that comes to every man in the
+dark watches of the night, when the hum and movement of life is hushed
+into the silence of sleep!</p>
+
+<p>Solitude, too, that twin-sister of Silence, “though,” as De Quincey
+says, “it may be silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of
+agencies; for solitude is essential to man.” But if essential to the
+ordinary man, it is as the breath of life to men of God and prophets.
+Solitude, in fact, sinks deep into a pure and simple nature, and changes
+him in a great measure. Unconsciously it intensifies him
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_69" title="69"> </a>
+to a
+superlative degree, and inspires him with an awe of itself that becomes
+sacred to him. Within himself the recluse feels weak, unstable and
+inconsistent. Without he is strong in the consciousness of the
+omnipotence and supremacy of the Infinite. “Solitude generates a certain
+amount of sublime exaltation. It is like the smoke arising from the
+burning bush. A mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts the
+student into the seer, and the poet into a prophet.” In a word, there is
+an enthusiasm, an influence, and a power in solitude that the civilized
+man, or the man who has never been subjected to it, cannot form the
+slightest or faintest conception of. For the silence of solitude and the
+solitude of silence is a state (common to all primitive people) in which
+the being believes himself to be not only “<span lang="grc" xml:lang="grc">πλήρης θεοῦ</span>,” i.e.
+full of God, but that the God predominates. Hence the enthusiasm, the
+rapture, and the power to divine and speak in divers tongues.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Surely, if ever man was in deadly earnest, this faithful son of Arabia
+was. If ever man opened his heart and soul to the Father and Mother of
+all things, this Mohammed, the merchant, did. Truly if ever the great
+Author of our being responded to a soul in silent agony, i.e. in
+conflict, in a struggle for victory, it was to this great descendant of
+the bond-woman
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_70" title="70"> </a>
+Hagar! For in Islam, and the soul of Islam, such as he
+inculcated, the victory was greater than any Marathon or Thermopylæ.
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_71" title="71"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV">
+CHAPTER IV
+</a>
+<br />
+MOHAMMED’S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+Mohammed, as I have more than once said, was all for unity and cohesion,
+therefore against division and disintegration of any kind. Concentration
+was as the breath of life to him. Dissension a deadly evil. In his
+scheme of religion and politics there was no place for schism. Schism
+meant discord, and discord the devil. To him discord was as Ate, the
+mother of dissension. He recognized, as Spenser evidently did, that
+“discord harder is to end than to begin”:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“For all her studie was, and all her thought,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+How she might overthrow the things that concord wrought.”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+And above all things, this Statesman Prophet was the essence and
+personification of centralization and concord. For unity alone rendered
+Islam feasible. Thus in the second Surah he insists that mankind was of
+one faith from the beginning. Thus too as a just, faithful and
+consistent man, he is opposed to violence and taking the offensive, even
+in the name and under the cloak of
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_72" title="72"> </a>
+religion; he constantly advocates
+and authorizes (that is, has God’s authority for) the defensive. He even
+recommends, at the same time that he excuses, war and retaliation on the
+unbeliever and infidel. On the whole, however, I am bound to admit that
+Mohammed disapproves of and discountenances violence in religion. He, in
+fact, distinctly forbids his followers from enforcing it. Their own
+persecution was to be met by patience. Apostates and unbelievers were to
+be given time meet for repentance. Yet to him, fanatic as he was with
+regard to religion, Islam was the only true Faith, the covenant, the
+sure ark of God that alone could secure salvation. Of this and of God he
+was no more than an Apostle&mdash;i.e. a messenger; also an expounder&mdash;but as
+such he obviously tried to live up to his name of Faithful. This speaks
+volumes for his toleration and humanity in an age when neither one nor
+the other of these attributes <a name="transnote_page_72" id="transnote_page_72">were much in repute; when both,</a> in fact,
+were at a low ebb. Yet it shows us how intensely human the Prophet was.
+A man of great patience, prudence and trustworthiness, of retentive
+memory, strong character, and with the disposition of a judge&mdash;a very
+commander of men. Thus he acknowledges the divinity of God in forgiving,
+and the humanity of man in demanding reparation and restitution.
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_73" title="73"> </a>
+Here
+the moral excellence of Mohammed shines out as a brilliant. In Surah
+xiv., “a grievous punishment is <em>prepared</em> for the unjust. But they who
+shall have believed and wrought righteousness, shall be introduced into
+gardens, wherein rivers flow; they shall remain therein <em>for ever</em> by
+the permission of their Lord, and their salutation therein <em>shall be</em>
+Peace.” From this and many other similar passages, it would seem that
+Mohammed, by his constant reiteration of <em>Promises</em> and <em>Threats</em>, by
+his determined insistence thereon, hoped ultimately to convince even his
+enemies of his sincerity also of the fact that Islam, as the creed of
+the one and only God, was the true Faith. Again in this passage (Surah
+vi.), “God causeth the grain and the date-stone to put forth, He
+bringeth forth the living from the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead
+from the living. This is God,” etc., etc.; we get a clear insight into
+the intensity and comprehensiveness of the divine conception as it
+appeared to him. A little further on in the same passage he speaks of
+God as “He who hath produced you from one soul; and hath provided for
+you a sure receptacle and a repository,” namely in the loins of your
+fathers, and the womb of your mothers&mdash;one of those gleams of pantheism
+that I have already alluded to.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But of all the passages in the Koran, the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_74" title="74"> </a>
+following is, in many ways,
+one of the most significant: “Whatever good befalleth thee, O man, it is
+from God; and whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself.” It is
+obvious from this that the prophet believed evil to be a human weakness
+with man as an active and self-willed agent. Sale in a note thereon
+says: “These words are not to be understood as contradicting the
+preceding verse, that all is from God, since the evil that befalls
+mankind, though ordered by God, is yet the consequence of their own
+wicked actions.” But as Mohammed regarded the sublime divinity of God,
+it would be more accurate to interpret the <em>evil</em> not as being ordained
+or even sanctioned by God, but as being permitted, or rather not
+prevented by Him as a thing inevitable. To him the purity, sanctity and
+inviolability of God was of such vast moment, that it was unjust&mdash;a
+mortal sin&mdash;to devise even a lie against Him. “And who is more unjust
+than he who deviseth a lie against God, that he may seduce men without
+understanding?” The frequent repetition of this and other like passages
+is significant of Mohammed’s sincerity, also of his moral persistence
+and tenacity. It was from his point of view bad enough to have doubt
+thrown on the authenticity of his mission. This he could to some extent
+put up with. But it was as naught compared
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_75" title="75"> </a>
+to the reflection, the crime
+of perjury committed against the Almighty. To cast a slur on His
+holiness in this audacious way, was nothing short of blasphemy, a crime
+worthy of eternal hell fire and damnation. Few men in the world’s
+history were as loyal to their God as this grim but faithful product of
+Arabia the Stony. In this respect, and particularly with regard to the
+depth and intensity of their religious zeal and fervour, there was a
+strong resemblance between Cromwell and Mohammed. To both of these moral
+ironsides, those who did not believe as they believed were unbelievers,
+and as such outside the pale of God’s mercy. For believers, however,
+nothing was too good. To such an extent did these principles influence
+the latter, that he even went so far as to promise that all grudges
+should be removed from the minds of the faithful. Here again we have
+evidence of Mohammed’s unquestionable humanity; also of civilization to
+a marked degree. For a grudge, although fundamentally and
+characteristically human, was at the same time, and still is among the
+Bedawins, a peculiarly Arabian idiosyncrasy; associated as it was, and
+often culminating as it did, in acts of vengeance identical to the
+Corsican vendetta, “the terrible blood feud which even the most reckless
+fear for their posterity.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_76" title="76"> </a>
+In spite, however, of his eagerness and zeal for conversion, consistent
+as this was with his idea of national autonomy, in nothing did Mohammed
+show his sincerity so much as in his thoroughness and honesty. He was
+nothing if not thorough. The long and arduous probation he passed
+through in preparing and fitting himself for his mission&mdash;the mental
+concentration, the wrestlings with all that is evil and inexorable in
+man’s nature, the night watches, the agonies, the communings with
+God&mdash;all go to prove this. And if to be outspoken and candid is honesty,
+then indeed no one has surpassed him in that respect. In his eyes a true
+disciple of Islam meant a man who lived and acted up to the tenets and
+principles of its faith. For instance, with him there was no such fiasco
+as a death-bed repentance. “But no repentance <em>shall be accepted</em> from
+those who do evil until <em>the time</em> when death presenteth itself unto one
+of them, <em>and he</em> saith verily I repent now; nor unto those who die
+unbelievers: for them have we prepared a grievous punishment.” Such an
+act was wholly repugnant to the fine sense of equity and justice that he
+possessed, advocating as he so strenuously did the use of “a full
+measure and just balance.” As one who had given practically his whole
+life to the service and adoration of God, his soul rose in revolt and
+abhorred so vile
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_77" title="77"> </a>
+a subterfuge. It was adding insult to injury. A mere
+sneaking stratagem of priestly artifice, held out as an alluring but
+offensive bait. A despicable and devilish cunning on the part of the
+unbeliever, who would endeavour to throw dust into the sun-piercing
+vision of the Most High, all unconscious of the thinness and
+transparency of his device and of God’s searching penetration, that
+could pierce through all eternity even unto the uttermost ends of His
+mighty universe! To serve mammon a lifetime, and then at the last
+moment, when on the brink of death’s unending precipice, to turn to God
+and expect to reap the same reward of eternal bliss as the whole-hearted
+believer who has given all or a great part of his life to God’s service,
+was impossible. The very thought of it was monstrous. The choice lay
+with the ego himself! Evil was his own doing! Good also lay within his
+reach. It was in a great measure a matter of choice. Every man was more
+or less responsible for his own undoing. To a life of evil, a death-bed
+repentance was not capable of producing more than its own equivalent of
+happiness, i.e. the merest possible fragment. This was in accordance
+with God’s principle of the scales of justice and an even balance. Yet
+Mohammed was not against repentance and contrition when sincere and made
+in due and proper time. Over and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_78" title="78"> </a>
+over again he holds out the olive
+branch, and reiterates the forgiveness and mercy of God, as attributes
+that belonged to Him alone. Mercy, indeed, was not so much an
+<em>attribute</em> as a <em>monopoly</em>. “He hath prescribed unto Himself mercy,” as
+compatible with the fact that He was the final Court of Appeal. However
+adversely the theologian may criticize this from the modern Christian
+standpoint, it is clear and direct proof of Mohammed’s whole-hearted
+sincerity. Further it is equally direct and tangible evidence of the
+ardour and zeal that was in him as a prophet and reformer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+God, with all His sternness and inflexibility, as He appeared to
+Mohammed, was just and merciful. A strict comparison between Yahveh and
+Allah certainly inclines the balance in favour of the latter. Jehovah at
+His best was a God of blood and vengeance, at His worst a voracious
+monster. In Allah, stern and avenging God as He was, there was at least
+compassion and mercy and forgiveness. He was not inexorable. He would
+listen to reason. Mohammed himself was a distinct advance on the founder
+of the ancient Jewish faith. He was more humane, a man of broader and
+deeper sympathies. Stern and hard to a degree where God and the Faith
+was concerned; where men, but especially women and children, were
+concerned, he was all tenderness and pity.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_79" title="79"> </a>
+Dutiful and obedient to his uncle who had been a father to him, he was a
+faithful servant, an exemplary husband, a kind father, a good master.
+The very name of Faithful, by which he was always distinguished, proves
+beyond a doubt what manner of man he was. An orphan himself in
+childhood, early inured to poverty, his heart went out to all those who
+had the misfortune to be similarly situated. For the poor, the weak, the
+helpless, he had a fellow-feeling. The degraded or at least dependent
+and unprotected position of women, their moral and legal helplessness
+most of all, appealed to him. But in no sense because he was sensual.
+Sensuality was not one of his many failings. A man from top to bottom,
+by birth, breeding and environment Mohammed was an Arab and a Patriarch.
+As such he only naturally liked women and children. To men and for the
+Faith a strong hard man, to the weak and helpless he was tender and
+affectionate. As he was strong, so he was merciful and full of human
+sympathies. His long and happy union with Khadija shows not only that he
+was faithful to a degree, but a man of high moral fibre. A man too full
+of the gravity of life to squander his substance in mere sensuality. But
+in all eastern and African countries where polygamy prevails, marriage
+is a pure matter of political convenience. Mohammed knew this. He
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_80" title="80"> </a>
+recognized that marriage was a very important factor in securing
+influence and power. It threw out octopean feelers at various tangents
+and established certain associations and connexions to which it clung,
+as a limpet to a rock or a devil-fish to its victim. The same principle
+down almost to our own day has been a powerful factor in European
+statecraft. Even the earlier practice of keeping mistresses, so much
+indulged in by the sovereign holders of so-called “divine rights,” had
+much in common with this custom. It was undoubtedly this motive more
+than any other which influenced Mohammed. It was an essential feature in
+his great design. For in spite of his overwhelming devotion to God,
+notwithstanding God’s obsession of him, Mohammed was essentially human.
+There was room and sorrow in his heart for human frailties. His desire
+was strong to remedy them. He too like Luther was a Protestant, and a
+Reformer.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+As to the soulless theory regarding the fair sex, which has been
+literally thrust upon the Moslem world by an antipathetic if not
+inimical Christendom, I quite agree with Burton. “The Moslems never went
+so far.” At all events if some of them have done so, “Certain ‘<em>Fathers
+of the Church</em>,’ it must be remembered, did not believe that women have
+souls.” Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in one
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_81" title="81"> </a>
+of that inimitable series of
+letters which she wrote, admits as much. In this particular letter
+written from Constantinople on May 29, 1717 (O.S.), to the Abbé Conti,
+she says: “Our vulgar notion that they (the Turks) do not own women to
+have any souls is a mistake.” And then she continues, but in not so
+accurate a vein: “’Tis true, they say they are not of so elevated a
+kind, and therefore must not hope to be admitted into the paradise
+appointed for the men, who are to be entertained by celestial beauties.
+But there is a place of happiness destined for souls of the inferior
+order, where all good women are to be in eternal bliss.” It is in no
+sense surprising, therefore, that to Mohammed Allah was the merciful. So
+in the sixth surah, he writes: “We (as if identifying himself with God)
+will not impose a task on any soul beyond its ability. For this
+self-same reason, God is minded to make <em>his religion</em> light unto you:
+for man was created weak.” Strong and enduring as sincerity and
+conviction made him, Mohammed knew his own weakness. Hence with a
+clemency that was divine he made concessions such as these. In these he
+acknowledged that, “to err is human, to forgive divine.” All the more,
+however, we cannot but admire his candour. Even as regards himself, his
+shortcomings and inadequacies, he speaks with an openness and
+straightforwardness
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_82" title="82"> </a>
+that disarms suspicion&mdash;that forces the inquirer to
+respect him with all the greater reverence as a great leader of men. “So
+say I not unto you, the treasures of God are in my power; neither <em>do I
+say</em>, I know the <a name="transnote_page_82" id="transnote_page_82">secrets <em>of God</em>, neither do I say</a> unto you, Verily I am
+an angel: I follow only that which is revealed unto me.” Indeed the more
+closely and carefully I look into his words in comparison with his life
+and acts, the more obvious do his candour and sincerity become. The more
+obvious is it to me that although essentially the product of a grim and
+petrified environment, he himself was unique. A man in advance of his
+time and people. For deep down in the soul of him, the rich milk of
+human kindness welled up out of the same eternal source from which he
+derived his fear and veneration for the Supreme! Truly the Prophet and
+spiritual ruler of the East and polygamy, as Christ stands for the West
+and monogamy!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was with these weapons, combined with the tenacity of an elastic and
+imperishable patience, that Mohammed fought the Koreish and other
+tribes, and it was with them he finally conquered. Had he been
+insincere, there would have been no Islam. Had there been no spirit of a
+divine moral conception such as he infused into the creed (which came
+through him from the great fountain head of
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_83" title="83"> </a>
+God and Nature), Islam
+would have withered and perished from sheer exhaustion and debility.
+From the standpoint of physical and moral purity, Mohammed was in every
+sense an Essene. Not only therefore was cleanliness of the body an
+absolute essential, but cleanliness of mind. Filthy immoral actions and
+depravities that he knew existed, unjust violence and iniquities,
+whether openly done or in concealment, were condemned and forbidden in
+scathing terms as a violation of God’s express command. The sophistry
+that would make an evil to be no crime unless found out, he denounced
+with all the fiery ardour of his fervent nature. From God there was no
+concealment. In his eyes it was a crime all the same&mdash;greater, in fact,
+because of attempted concealment.
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_84" title="84"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V">
+CHAPTER V
+</a>
+<br />
+THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET’S CHARACTER
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+In refuting those sceptics who have doubted the truth and sincerity of
+Islam, Carlyle condemns scepticism (rather too hastily it seems to me)
+as an indication of spiritual paralysis. Most unquestionably he was
+right in denouncing the former as an idiotic and godless theory. But
+scepticism itself in a general sense is not necessarily an evil. On the
+contrary, it is a natural tendency that arises out of the instinct of
+curiosity. Knowledge is not an inert and passive principle, but an
+active and dynamic force. Buckle in his history speaks of scepticism as
+stimulating curiosity. But he has put the cart before the horse. It is
+curiosity that excites scepticism. Curiosity is an animal instinct&mdash;the
+basis of all science. It exists in the lower animal creation&mdash;scepticism
+only in the upper human section. It is a higher or further development,
+a tendency that is certainly strengthened, if not acquired through
+education.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+According to Lecky, “The first stage to toleration in England was due to
+the spirit
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_85" title="85"> </a>
+of scepticism encroaching upon the doctrine of exclusive
+salvation”; and “the extinction of the spirit of intolerance both in
+Catholic and Protestant countries&mdash;due to the spirit of rationalism&mdash;was
+the noblest of all the conquests of civilization.” But as rationalism
+itself is chiefly the consequence of scepticism and the result of
+inquiry, it is obvious that in a deeply fundamental sense, the world is
+very considerably indebted to science or the spirit of scepticism.
+Indeed all knowledge has arisen from experience, and the desire to
+search into the root of things&mdash;to know what is what. Without curiosity
+and scepticism, human thought would have long since stagnated and the
+world remained sunk in ignorance. As Ghazali says, “No knowledge without
+assurance deserves the name of knowledge.” Seeing is not always
+devouring. Curiosity is not necessarily gluttony, or “scepticism, that
+curse of the intellect,” as Victor Hugo calls it. Gluttony is unnatural,
+unwholesome, and bestial. It is not so much overdoing, as a flagrant
+abuse and outrage of a natural appetite. It is a kicking against the
+pricks&mdash;a flying in the face of Providence. But curiosity as an instinct
+direct from Nature is healthy, therefore the use of it as also wholesome
+stands in need of stimulus and encouragement.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+So Tennyson said of Shelley:&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem">
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_86" title="86"> </a>
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“There lives more faith in honest doubt,<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+Believe me, than in half the creeds.”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+In this righteous sense Mohammed was curious. As one of her own
+selection, Nature had specially endowed him with curiosity. He was one
+of her human, sensitive plants. As an observer, all his senses were
+developed and on the alert. He not only saw, but felt every vibration
+that thrilled, as it were, the very soul of the first great mother. In
+every flitting cloud, as in every fugitive thought, he was conscious of
+an unseen Power. A look-out man rather than a prophet, it was thus he
+groped or rather felt his way until he felt God. “I feel that there is a
+God,” said La Bruyère, “and I do not feel that there is none: that is
+enough for me; the reasoning of the world is useless to me: I conclude
+that God exists.” It was in much the same vein of self-argument that
+Mohammed communed to himself. Having felt God, God became for him a
+necessity: more so even, an essential&mdash;an absolutism which banished all
+else from his mind. The thought that there was no God did not occur to
+him. But the thought that other gods could exist in the same universe
+with the one omnipotence was to him as monstrous as it was unthinkable.
+Besides Him there was no room for any other. The very thought in his
+estimation perished from inanition and sheer inability of conception!
+The trinity of
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_87" title="87"> </a>
+Christianity was to him as impossible and unacceptable
+as the antediluvian or later polytheism of his own countrymen.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All active minds are sceptical. Carlyle himself&mdash;although he appears to
+have been unconscious of the fact&mdash;was himself a sceptic. But it was
+peculiarly characteristic of the antagonistic dualism of his nature on
+the one hand <a name="transnote_page_87" id="transnote_page_87">to hurl innuendoes, anathemas</a> (and every kind of mental
+brickbat that he could lay hold of) at what he called scepticism or
+unbelief. On the other hand, to hold up belief as absolutely essential
+to human existence. But like all theoretical crotchets, he carried his
+philosophical speculations too far. In other words, he sometimes
+overreached himself. According to his particular dogma, in his opinion,
+the life of man cannot subsist on doubt or denial, it subsists only on
+belief. But this is altogether beside the mark. Scepticism does not
+necessarily imply doubt or denial. Belief itself cannot exist without
+it. It is out of the ashes of scepticism that the immortal Phœnix of
+belief arises. It is out of the doubt and denial of accepted doctrines
+that all creeds (including Christianity and Islam) have grown into
+being. The doubt engendered by scepticism is after all only an
+investigation or leading into, <a name="corrigenda_3" id="corrigenda_3">an analysis of</a> the nature of dogmas,
+doctrines or creeds. It is an investigation that may or may not
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_88" title="88"> </a>
+have a
+result. It is but a search for or groping after the truth, as the
+consequence of moral, intellectual or spiritual dissatisfaction. It is
+also the desire to know, to find out the pros and cons of all the sides
+to a question. The spirit or element of doubt is the necessary, the
+essential precursor of improvement and progress. Hence the immense
+importance and significance of Scepticism. It is the very sum and
+substance of all human knowledge. As the acorn is to the oak, scepticism
+is to knowledge&mdash;the seed from which has sprung up all we know, and ever
+shall know. The ever fluent channel through which all the great
+intellectual giants and reformers of the world have poured out the
+glowing flash-lights of their intellect into the normal darkness of
+human minds. It is the moral effluvium out of which our modern
+civilization has constructed itself. Without it, the dense gloom and
+black obscurity of ignorance would have reigned supreme. Confused,
+chaotic, and enigmatic as the world now is&mdash;even in the full glare of
+its sunlight&mdash;without it (if it were possible to imagine such a state)
+the world would have been an enigma, a chaos and confusion worse
+confounded. For scepticism is, as it were, the sun in all its glory, as
+compared to the black oblivion of eternal night. If neither Luther nor
+Mohammed had been sceptics, there would have been no Reformation and no
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_89" title="89"> </a>
+Islam. They did not take everything for granted. They were not satisfied
+with things as they were. They looked into the heart of them and found
+much room for improvement. They examined what they could, rejected that
+which was spiritually objectionable to them, but made use of what was
+most appropriate to their respective situations. It was only those
+features that best suited the exigencies of the case that they were
+prompt to lay hold of.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet Mohammed was not of vigorous intellectuality, nor in any sense an
+original thinker. The constant repetition of formulas and reiteration of
+the same ideas that occur throughout the Koran show this. It is
+extremely probable that his mentality was at times overshadowed either
+by neurasthenic tendencies, or a predisposition to melancholia, and this
+was more than likely heightened by a life of excessive mental
+concentration combined with asceticism.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But sincere as he was, Mohammed would not have been a true Arabian, had
+he not been diplomatic. Thus the commencement of the fourteenth surah is
+a clever but obvious device on his part; a meeting of his enemies with
+their own weapons, a flinging back to them of their own words and
+objections to the truth in their own teeth. It is clear too that here,
+for the time being, he has resolved on a change of tactics and of front.
+To prove to them that
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_90" title="90"> </a>
+he is as of old the man to be trusted, he
+endeavours to disarm their incredulity by his own outspokenness and
+candour. As the sequel showed, he clearly demonstrates his own
+perspicacity and knowledge of human nature. He saw that by arguing with
+his countrymen, by always opposing their doubts with sophistry and
+argument, would be of little avail&mdash;useless, in fact. Such a course
+would but have encouraged and stimulated their opposition, on the ground
+that their beliefs, as worth refuting, were also based on truth or at
+least on strong evidence. Besides, Mohammed was painfully conscious of
+his own disability and helplessness to convince them by the performance
+of anything purporting to be miraculous. That on occasions he displayed
+artfulness and guile&mdash;duplicity, in fact&mdash;is not to be denied. The
+invention, e.g., of his night journey from Mecca to heaven viâ
+Jerusalem, was one of them. When he gave out that Gabriel had revealed
+to him the conspiracy that had been formed against him, which through
+ordinary means he had discovered, was another of these pious frauds. But
+after all, what are these trifles compared with those that in their
+myriads have been perpetrated by the great Church of Christendom? What
+are they as compared to a long life of strenuous sincerity, great
+nobility and earnest effort in the cause of humanity? It is impossible
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_91" title="91"> </a>
+to lose sight of the fact that in working for God, he was all the time
+raising his countrymen from a lower to a higher level. Besides, the
+necessity of dissimulation, which is one of the heaviest taxes on a
+king, and the prerogative of a priest, is one of those idiosyncrasies
+that human flesh being heir to, even a prophet cannot at times escape
+from. We are reminded of the phrase: “<span lang="la" xml:lang="la">Qui scit dissimulare, scit
+regnare</span>”&mdash;He is a ruler who can conceal his thoughts&mdash;attributed to the
+Emperor Sigismund by that cultured and ambitious but false and subtle
+Pontiff Pius II, <a name="transnote_page_91" id="transnote_page_91">known as Æneas Sylvius (Pius Æneas):</a> also the identical
+answer that Louis XI is said to have made to those who urged him to give
+his son Charles a better education, in order that the boy might in his
+day become a good king.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It was not only that Mohammed’s enemies were sceptical of his powers and
+his mission, but they mistrusted his intentions. This, indeed, to a
+sincere and earnest man like himself, was a bitter pill; a pill he found
+it hard to swallow. For he was conscious of his own sincerity, and as
+time went on, an increasing following gave him greater confidence in the
+reality of his mission. Indeed in proportion as his self-confidence
+developed, his conviction in the power and unity of God became an ever
+increasing quantity. This increasing consciousness of God’s power and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_92" title="92"> </a>
+his own sincerity had the gradual effect of making him bolder and more
+aggressive, so that this outspokenness was a direct outcome of it, until
+at last Mohammed felt that it was his duty not merely to announce
+“Islam”&mdash;“<em>the true Faith</em>,” but to enforce its acceptance on the
+people. This, of course, as we know, was after his flight to Medina.
+True his own people, the Koreish, had driven him out with scorn and
+violence, had cast contumely and dishonour on him, by rejecting the
+word, while strangers had hearkened unto him and accepted it. It is
+equally true that the sustained vindictiveness shown by the Koreish was
+sufficient in itself to excite the spirit of retaliation, even in a man
+of Mohammed’s patient and tenacious character. But suggestive as this
+may be, it is quite certain that he acted on conviction in assuming the
+offensive. It is obvious, too, that in doing so, he felt that he was
+acting under divine compulsion. In any case, we must allow that “a man
+is really of weight in the balance of Fate, only when he has the right
+on his own account to cause men to be slain.” In Mohammed’s case,
+however, if conviction counts for anything, his right was a divine
+right. According to Dumas: “In human nature there are antipathies to be
+overcome&mdash;<em>sympathies which may be forced</em>.” (The italics are mine.)
+“Iron is not the loadstone; but by
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_93" title="93"> </a>
+rubbing it with a loadstone we make
+it, in its turn, attract iron.” This may be, but it is not in reality
+so. It is but a mere figure of speech that the great novelist makes use
+of, and which he puts into the mouth of René, the poisoner, in support
+of some theory or argument. It is, of course, possible that antipathies
+may be overcome by sympathy. This, however, depends entirely on the
+power of the one and the weakness of the other. But sympathy cannot be
+forced. To endeavour to force sympathy is to attempt the unnatural. The
+most that can be expected from such a cause is dissimulation. This
+certainly was Mohammed’s experience. Although ultimately he and his
+successors forced the word of God on these his inveterate enemies, he
+never succeeded in forcing his sympathies upon them. Death and Time
+alone accomplished what his own personality failed to do. Through the
+victory he gained by them, he now lives enshrined in the sanctified halo
+of a sympathy that, emanating from every Moslem heart, forms with his
+own the great and throbbing soul of Islam.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Mohammed was not only spiritual. He, like every human being, had a
+material side to his character. Not only was he a preacher and a
+prophet; not only was he a lawgiver&mdash;a law and a light unto his people
+to this very day; but as one who
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_94" title="94"> </a>
+himself rigidly practised self-denial
+and economy and condemned extravagance, who possessed the organizing
+ability to administer the estate of others, and who could command
+preferably in peace, but if necessary in war, he was a statesman and an
+economist. Unquestionably too he looked ahead&mdash;he made provision for the
+future. His whole apostolic life was one long and arduous preparation
+for coming events. As an instance of this, the ordering of the yearly
+pilgrimage to Mecca was as much a political as a religious ordinance. By
+this measure of policy&mdash;this master stroke of psychologic insight into
+human eventualities, Mohammed showed his natural genius. For without a
+doubt he aimed at preserving to Arabia the point and focus of a
+religious centre, that would make for national consolidation and unity,
+and serve as <a name="transnote_page_94" id="transnote_page_94">the sacred réduit and rallying ground</a> for the world of
+Islam. So too he showed his capacity for system and organization in
+legalizing the fifth part of all booty and property confiscated to be
+paid into the public treasury. In the same way he insisted on the giving
+of Zakat or alms for charitable purposes, apart from those contributions
+he received from his followers for maintenance. In making these
+ordinances appear as divine injunctions, Mohammed showed no more
+insincerity or inconsistence than he did in claiming the whole Koran
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_95" title="95"> </a>
+as
+a series of revelations. The political and economic factors were as much
+a radical part of his entire design, as the religious. The one could not
+exist without the other. Statesman as he was, he recognized that
+religious unity could only be firmly established through political
+co-operation, and that to secure national stability the sinews of war
+were essential.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is all through quite obvious that he had the trading instinct of his
+people. In any case the training he received at the hands and in the
+employ of his uncle Abu Talib, as well as the subsequent management of
+Khadija’s business, had imbued him very powerfully with business
+principles and practical ideas. Abu Talib, like his father and
+grandfather before him, carried on a considerable trade with Syria and
+Yemen. He carried to Damascus, to Basra and other places in Syria, the
+dates of Hijaz and Hijr, and the perfumes of Yemen, bringing back with
+him in return the products of the Byzantine Empire. Mohammed, as is
+known, accompanied him, and without doubt laid the foundation of an
+economic experience, that subsequently proved valuable.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Commerce has always been the greatest of civilizing factors. According
+to Buckle: “Among the accessories of modern civilization there is none
+of greater moment than
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_96" title="96"> </a>
+Trade.” So too Hallam says: “Under a second
+class of events that contributed to destroy the spirit of the Feudal
+system, we may reckon the abolition of villenage, the increase of
+commerce, and consequent opulence of merchants and artisans, and
+especially the institution of free cities and boroughs. This is one of
+the most important and interesting steps in the progress of society
+during the Middle Ages, and deserves particular consideration.” But this
+is all the more important as showing that trade was in reality a more
+powerful factor for civilization than Christianity, which after several
+centuries of hold on the people of Europe, had done little more than
+inflame them with a zeal and a zest for fighting. It is significant also
+that while Rome rose to her greatest eminence under the Ancestral
+worship of her founders, when she became Christian, Christianity did not
+prevent her from declining and falling into pieces. But it is equally
+significant that while the opulence conferred by commerce on Rome,
+eventually brought reaction and ruin upon her people, the effect it had
+upon the barbarians who overthrew the Eternal City, was sufficiently
+stimulating to encourage them to invade a degenerate empire. For the
+desire of wealth and plunder was but the first <a name="transnote_page_96" id="transnote_page_96">awakening of the spirit
+of commerce.</a> To be sure the crusades gave
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_97" title="97"> </a>
+a great stimulus to trade.
+But there was more of the militant spirit than Christianity about them.
+Besides, although commercial prosperity often accompanies war, reaction
+is certain to supervene. Obviously the essential importance of trade was
+a truth that the Merchant-Prophet soon recognized. Intuitively, and with
+the keenness of perception that marked him, he naturally utilized every
+lesson that it taught him and every advantage that it gave him. Nor has
+he been the only theologian who saw its utility in a religious light.
+The Jesuits long afterwards recognized the agency of commerce in
+promoting and diffusing religious belief, and became great merchants as
+well as great missionaries. So too it was through commerce, as Draper
+points out, “that the Papacy first learned to turn to art. The ensuing
+development of Europe” (in the Renaissance) “was really based on the
+commerce of <em>upper</em> Italy, and not on the Church. The statesmen of
+Florence were the inventors of the balance of power.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Quoting from Syed Ameer Ali’s <cite>Spirit of Islam</cite>, Fihr, surnamed Koreish,
+a descendant of Maad&mdash;who flourished in the third century&mdash;was the
+ancestor of the tribe that gave to Arabia her prophet and legislator.
+This fact, trifling as it may appear, is, however, remarkable, if not
+significant. For this word
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_98" title="98"> </a>
+“Koreish” is derived from “Karash,” to
+trade; and it appears that Fihr and his descendants were always devoted
+to commerce. From this it is safe to assume that trading was an inherent
+instinct in Mohammed.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This apart, to him personally Islam was a something more than a mere
+creed or belief. It was God’s own religion sealed and delivered to him
+by God. Not to deliver it to his people as commanded, not to carry it
+through&mdash;by persuasion first of all, by fire and sword if man’s
+obstinacy and rejection of it made it necessary&mdash;would mean that he had
+failed in his duty to the Most High. The sense and spirit of duty was
+stronger in Mohammed than in Nelson. In him it was not simply an active
+and vital principle. It was an impelling force. So inseparable from God,
+that to him it appeared as God Himself. But with him God always came
+first. His duty to his country was subordinate to his duty to his Maker.
+His duty to Him, therefore, was his duty to his country. So in surah xi.
+he says: “O my people, do ye work according to your condition; I will
+surely work according to my duty,” i.e. according to God. In numerous
+passages he points out that God was absolutely averse to profusion and
+extravagance, equally so to meanness. True liberality in his opinion
+consisted in the happy mean between the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_99" title="99"> </a>
+two extremes. “And waste not
+thy substance profusely; for the profuse are brethren of the devils: and
+the devil was ungrateful unto his Lord” (surah xvii.). Again in the
+sixth, “But be not profuse, for God loveth not those who are too
+profuse”; and in the following the economic instinct shows itself most
+significantly: “O true believers, consume not your wealth among
+yourselves in vanity; unless there be merchandizing among you by mutual
+consent.” Once more Mohammed demonstrates his great profundity and
+insight into the character, the customs and traditions of his
+countrymen. All Oriental and African nations from time immemorial have
+been notably extravagant, especially in regard to marriage ceremonials
+and funeral rites. Even to this day among the Hindus and most African
+tribes, it is a code of honour, a sacred injunction of their religion,
+to spend profusely on marriage and burial feasts. Indeed this is
+frequently done to the impoverishment, and, in the latter case, even to
+the ruination of whole families or households. The Arabs, it appears,
+were no exception to this. At the same time they were a curious blend of
+meanness and extravagance. To Mohammed, rigid economist as he was, and
+inspired to the core by the duty that had been intrusted to him, this
+prodigality was a great sin. Not only did his countrymen
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_100" title="100"> </a>
+squander away
+their substance in folly and luxury, but they were particularly guilty
+of extravagance in killing camels, and distributing them by lot merely
+out of vanity and ostentation. Worse even than this, they were given to
+the destruction of their female children. Against this evil Mohammed
+sternly set his face. This in itself shows his great moral superiority
+over his countrymen. It shows also the possession of a higher and more
+refined yet practical intelligence, that was able to grasp the economic
+possibilities which were bound to ensue from the preservation of female
+children. Essentially an Arab patriarch at heart (which he in some
+measure proved by his marriages), Mohammed, however, was still more
+essentially a Humanist. With the moral greatness of a good man, and the
+mental perception of genius, he felt and recognized that it was against
+all the laws of God to destroy the fecundity of and the productive in
+nature. Thus it was that he placed the divine tabu on the abuse and
+destruction of all that was beneficial to humanity, but especially on
+men, animals and the produce of the earth.
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_101" title="101"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI">
+CHAPTER VI
+</a>
+<br />
+A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED’S WORK AND WORTH
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+Taken as a whole, the Koran is certainly not a work of literary art.
+Mohammed, in a literary sense, was neither a poet nor a writer. He was,
+as he says of himself, only an illiterate apostle. This, from an
+artistic point of view, is of course regrettable. In his mother tongue
+he had a rich and splendid medium. A language of high philosophical and
+poetical character, that “follows the mind,” as Burton says, and gives
+birth to its offspring: that is free from the “luggage of particles”
+which clogs our modern tongues&mdash;leaves a mysterious vagueness between
+the relation of word to word, which materially assists the sentiment,
+not the sense of the poet. A language too that luxuriates in “rich and
+varied synonyms, illustrating the finest shades of meaning,” that are
+artfully used&mdash;“now scattered to startle us by distinctness, now to form
+as it were a star about which dimly seen satellites revolve.” Finally
+which revels in a wealth of rhyme that leaves the poet almost
+unfettered
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_102" title="102"> </a>
+to choose the desired or exact expression. Undoubtedly in a
+literary sense, here at hand, was a mighty and magnificent weapon. A
+quiverful of musical arrows, quivering as they waited for the poetic
+muse&mdash;the fine frenzy, the seething imagination, the running ready
+fire&mdash;to launch them forth into the humming haunts and hearts of men.
+But in no sense was this Merchant-Prophet a knight-errant. Kindly and
+tender as he was towards women and children, he was not addicted (as his
+countrymen were) to chivalry in any form. The race of heroines of Al
+Islam had no attraction for him. The “Hawa (or ‘Ishk’) uzri,”
+“pardonable love,” of the Bedawin, a certain species of platonic
+affection, did not exist for him. He had no room for such trivialities
+in his life. It was too serious and pre-occupied. Too much occupied with
+the affairs of his Master, and worldly business matters that had to be
+attended to. So that he had no time to waste on such pleasantries.
+Trifles that were as light as air in contrast to the stern and deadly
+realities of existence. Yet without doubt he must have attended the
+annual fairs that were held at various places, at “Zul Mejaz,” at Majna,
+and at Okadh. The latter, Syed Ameer Ali tells us, was a place famous in
+Arab tradition. It was the Olympia of Yemen. The fair held here in the
+sacred month of “Zu’lkada,”
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_103" title="103"> </a>
+was a great national gathering. A sort of
+“God’s truce” was then proclaimed. War and the shedding of human blood
+was forbidden. To it came merchants with their wares from all parts of
+Arabia and other distant lands; also the poets and heroes of the desert.
+These (many of whom were disguised from the avengers of blood feuds in
+masks or veils) recited their poems, displayed their literary talents,
+and sang of their glory and their prowess. But Mohammed’s aims and
+inclinations did not lie in this direction. He was too much of a working
+philosopher to be a mere poetic dreamer or play actor. His genius lay in
+his profound earnestness, his great moral strength, his capacity for
+work, his political foresight and acumen, his iron will and his
+inexhaustible patience. It is certain that he believed (in the
+philosophic principle) that “everything comes to him who waits.” For he
+himself says: “Wait therefore the event, for <a name="transnote_page_103" id="transnote_page_103">I also will wait it with
+you.”</a> Obviously he was imbued with the same tenacity, and many of the
+imperturbable characteristics of the camel of his own Arabian deserts.
+Unquestionably he knew how “<em>to wait</em>,” recognized that the essence of
+all human wisdom lies in this single feature, and that the greatest, the
+strongest and the most successful is he who waits and watches. It was
+thus that he waited with the unvarying
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_104" title="104"> </a>
+purpose and pertinacity of a man
+who knew and appreciated his own value at its proper worth. For he felt
+in every nerve and fibre of his consciousness, that as God makes no man
+or no thing in vain, the future must have some (great) thing, some great
+prize, in reserve for him. We know what that prize was. We know also
+that it only came to him after a life of unwearied toil, and assiduous
+devotion to his great and noble purpose, and then only in reality
+through the moral and spiritual victory which death gave him.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet, in spite of its artistic defects, Mohammed’s work turned out, as we
+know, into a success that even he himself could never have anticipated.
+But in a spiritual sense, judging merely by results, the Koran has lost
+nothing because of its lack of literary art and beauty. Had it gushed
+all over with the eastern music of the Songs of Solomon, had it arrested
+the attention by the same aphoristic wisdom of the Proverbs, thrilled
+its readers by the recital of a tragedy so intensely powerful, so
+realistic and majestic as the drama of Job, and appealed to them through
+the joys, the sorrows and the grand poetry of the Psalms! Had it, in
+fact, sparkled all over with those beauties of language and metaphor
+that distinguish the Bible, the result that it might have attained could
+scarcely
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_105" title="105"> </a>
+have been greater than that which it has accomplished without
+these trappings. It is, in fact, probable that it might have lost. It is
+just possible that what it would have gained as an ornate work, it would
+have lost in sincerity. The Koran, in fact, was essentially the
+offspring of Mohammed’s own unique personality. This, as I have tried to
+show, was the peculiar outcome of his dual environment&mdash;the frowning,
+rugged and arid aspect of stony mountains and sandy wastes, plus the
+commercial and political instincts that were inherent as well as
+developed on his trade journeys and at the various towns and marts which
+he visited. Nevertheless there was in this Semitic Puritan, as there is
+in almost every Arab, a certain rugged vein of poetry&mdash;the wild song of
+freedom&mdash;that bursts out here and there. But only now and then like the
+thunderstorm that is so great a rarity in the desert. For the gravity
+and over-concentration of his thoughts on the one definite object,
+oppressed him so weightily, that it left no time for others. Just as
+fast as rain is swallowed up by the parched and thirsty sand after a
+long spell of drought, so his soul, thirsting as it did after God,
+gulped and kept down the poetry and sentiment at bottom of him. All the
+same, if a book is to be gauged by its net results&mdash;by the effect it has
+produced on all that is deepest and best
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_106" title="106"> </a>
+in human nature&mdash;then the
+Koran must necessarily take high rank as one of the world’s greatest
+works. In much the same way, only in another and more material
+direction, the <cite>Wealth of Nations</cite> has also left its impress on the
+shaping of human destinies.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mohammed’s sincerity and fixity of purpose is a fact we cannot get away
+from. It is this which has chained his followers as with the sure cord
+of God to the Faith. Islam, in a word, is a creed of practice not
+theory. By practice it was formed. On practice it has lived. It was
+because Mohammed practised what he preached, that the small seed of his
+original idea blossomed at last into the mighty “Igdrasil” of the
+East&mdash;the great banyan tree of existence. Verily this sun-burnt son of
+Arabia Petræa was a tangible reality and no desert simulacrum. A reality
+that lives in the soul of Islam. A reality that will endure until the
+end of all things human. It is not manners that maketh the man. It is
+man that makes the manners. It is the nature that is around him, the
+nature that is in him, and that comes out of him as mental and moral
+energies, that makes the man. Town bred as he was, it was the desert in
+all its naked and silent grandeur that made Mohammed, that inspired him
+with all the might and majesty
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_107" title="107"> </a>
+of God, and turned him into a prophet.
+Yet it was his career as a trader and the inherent tribal instinct that
+developed the political element in him. As Longfellow says: “Glorious
+indeed is the world of God around us; but more glorious is the world of
+God within us. There lies the land of song, there lies the poet’s native
+land.” But in Mohammed’s case, as in the case of all great workers and
+thinkers, the world that is around us, is the world of our inner
+consciousness. The two are synonymous if not one. Only with him the
+native earth was religion, and he was the Prophet, not the Poet of it.
+“It is Nature’s highest reward to a true, simple, great soul, that he
+gets thus to be <em>a part of herself</em>.” It was thus with Mohammed.
+Thought, though changeable, is eternal. It never dies. So the one idea
+that possessed Mohammed now possesses (differing only in merely
+superficial degrees) some two hundred and fifty millions.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Carlyle is mistaken, certainly much too premature, when he says: “Even
+in Arabia, as I compute, Mahommet will have exhausted himself and become
+obsolete, while this Shakespeare, this Dante may still be young; while
+this Shakespeare may still pretend to be a priest of mankind, of Arabia
+as of other places, for unlimited periods to come.” Religion
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_108" title="108"> </a>
+is
+entirely an universal matter, Thought a question of environment. Roughly
+speaking, the world of Thought is divided into two camps of east and
+west. To the former belongs Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam; to the latter
+Christianity and the growing cult of Rationalism. It is impossible to
+predict or in any way to foreshadow any fusion of these hostile
+elements. The day when humanism&mdash;i.e. the religion of humanity, as the
+natural product of her highest intellectual effort&mdash;shall have fused and
+humanized all the nations of the Earth into one great civilized family,
+is too far distant and beyond the present scope of human speculation.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+If men are to be regarded especially as to the weight and power with
+which they operate on the minds of their fellow-men, then this
+camel-driving trader must without question be estimated as a great
+man&mdash;a man a long way above his fellows. Assuredly too it is chiefly
+through the Koran that his great and God-like thoughts, crystallized
+into greater motives and actions, have filtered down through the events
+and developments of thirteen centuries, as a purifying, fertilizing, and
+elevating factor.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Looking at him and his work from every aspect, Mohammed was not merely a
+heroic prophet. He was much more. A king and
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_109" title="109"> </a>
+a leader of men. A ruler
+and a judge over them. If we are to judge of him, to take him for what
+he is worth, by his work&mdash;the rich ripe fruit of his rare and strenuous
+effort&mdash;the Koran on the one hand, and, on the other, the mighty
+spiritual force he has left behind him in the Church of Islam, we must
+pronounce him to have been a great and remarkable man. A man who, when
+his true value is understood and appreciated, will stand out in history
+as a political and religious reformer of a virile and heroic type. A man
+who will be regarded in even a greater light than he now is, when
+humanity shall have become less denominational and more rationally
+humanitarian. In reality Mohammed was an ultra great man. The difference
+(as it appears to me) between other great men and himself was wide. The
+ordinary type of great man&mdash;a John Knox for example&mdash;is a patriot
+essentially. He is for his country first, then for God and humanity. As
+I have shown, with Mohammed it was just the reverse. An Arab by accident
+of birth, he put God and nature before everything. It was this that made
+him a humanist; this that placed him before his age. For Mohammed,
+without a shadow of a doubt, was centuries before his age. In his God
+concept, in his rejection of the ancient myth of immaculate conception,
+in his refusing to acknowledge Christ’s divinity,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_110" title="110"> </a>
+he was essentially a
+modern&mdash;a modern of the twentieth century. It was this catholicity
+therefore that made Islam blossom into a spiritual energy that embraces
+so many national units.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Mohammed fought with all his might and main. In exact proportion to his
+labour he has prevailed. Prevailed over the issues of life and death.
+Death had no terrors for him. Life alone was full of terror&mdash;i.e. of the
+fear of God. In death there was no sting. In the grave there was no
+victory. Death but killed the mortal part of him. The spiritual it has
+increased and multiplied out of all proportion. The present soul of
+Islam is the spirit of Mohammed. Only when this exhausts itself will
+Islam wither and die! To this day he is, and for many æons to come he
+will be in spirit, the ruler and judge over Islam. In spite of sects and
+theological speculators, as long as Islam lasts, his spirit will
+continue to preside over its destinies. His spirit lives in the spirit
+of the creed that he bequeathed as a divine legacy to humanity&mdash;i.e. to
+those sections of it which have been nurtured in the system and
+adoration of the Patriarch. For though the material part of him is dead,
+the spiritual still speaks with a voice that is myriad-tongued. As God’s
+word, there is a sanctity in the Koran for every Moslem that exceeds
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_111" title="111"> </a>
+the reverence of the Christian for the Bible, as much as the fiery
+splendour of the sun surpasses the cold pale glamour of the moon&mdash;which
+is but a shadow, a pale reflection of the substance and reality. There
+is, in fact, on the part of the Moslem a veneration accorded to the
+Koran that practically equals the veneration of the African or the Irish
+for their land. Compatible with this, there is for the Moslem but one
+Prophet. As God’s chosen agent for the dissemination of His word,
+Mohammed stands alone and aloof on a pinnacle that is humanly
+unapproachable. Many faults have been imputed to him, many charges
+brought against him. To the average, indeed even to the educated
+Christian, Mohammed is nothing but the very strangest compound of right
+and wrong, of error and truth, the abolisher of superstition according
+to his own showing, yet a believer in charms, dreams, omens, and jinns.
+But what of all this? Does not reasoning such as this itself prove how
+very inconsequent and inconsistent is man, even though he be a European
+and a Christian? Is not superstition of the same kind as rife at this
+very moment in Europe, nay in the very centres and strongholds of
+Christendom? What about the ikons, the charms, the amulets, the sacred
+relics and the images of the Greek and Romish Churches? Is not this
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_112" title="112"> </a>
+but
+a form of materialism which itself is a phase or part&mdash;a very large
+part&mdash;of Nature? Did not superstition (derived from “super,” above or
+beyond measure, and “sto,” to stand) originally imply excess of scruple,
+or of ceremonial observances in religion? Did it not describe a
+superfluity of worship that exceeded what was either enjoined or
+fitting? What does Cicero say of it in his treatise on <cite>The Nature of
+the Gods</cite>? (I quote from an old translation): “Not only Philosophers,
+but all our forefathers dydde ever separate <em>superstition</em> from true
+religion. For they whiche prayed all day that theyr children might
+overlyve (superstites essent), were called <em>superstitious</em>; which name
+after was larger extended.” Is not this thing we call superstition&mdash;this
+belief in the super or rather outside natural as distinguished from the
+vague and merely vulgar absurdities that are so common&mdash;but the result
+of inherent instincts that humanity, as simply one form of natural
+development, derives direct from Nature? Is not this Naturism more or
+less developed in us all&mdash;more in the ignorant, less in the educated,
+and least of all in the scientist; the sceptic who knows most, because
+he has looked and searched more into the truth and reality of things;
+because he has learnt by experience, fact, knowledge, therefore a
+greater intelligence to discriminate
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_113" title="113"> </a>
+which from what and why from
+wherefore? In any case, does not the fact that Mohammed was
+superstitious all the more clearly prove that he was no mere vulgar
+designer who practised self-deception and pretensions with regard to his
+mission, but that he was thoroughly sincere in believing himself to be
+the specially selected Apostle of the Great Designer and Controller of
+the universe?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But it is not to Mohammed’s faults that we must look. All great men are
+moulded out of faults. It is in his virtues and greatnesses&mdash;and they
+are many&mdash;that we will find the true man. In this Carlyle was a right
+guide, and showed his own breadth of mind and greatness. These prove
+Mohammed to have been one of humanity’s greatest constructors. It is
+true that he destroyed, but on a small scale comparatively in proportion
+to the immensity of his constructive labour. As evidence of this, the
+physical, the moral and the spiritual wealth of Islam speaks in round
+numbers and solid realities. In another of his great romances, Dumas,
+speaking of John Knox, says: “He who had raised such a storm had need to
+be, and he was, a Titan; indeed John Knox was one of those men whom
+great religious and political revolutions invariably beget. Born in
+Scotland or England during the Presbyterian Reformation, they
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_114" title="114"> </a>
+are
+called John Knox or Oliver Cromwell; born in France, in the time of
+political reform, they are called Mirabeau or Danton.” Mohammed was, in
+every sense of the word, more titanic than a Cromwell or a Mirabeau. He
+was not by nature or at heart a destroyer. When he destroyed it was only
+because his hand was forced by the crass and obstinate antagonism of
+those upon whom his sincerity and persuasiveness had aroused an envious
+and deadly hatred. The whole aim, end and object of his existence was to
+develop the adoration and religion of God. The storm he raised was
+conjured into being by the God that obsessed him. Hence the soul and
+constructiveness in it. Hence the mighty spirit of Islam, measurable
+only by a soul capacity which has never ceased to expand and develop. No
+sane man surely can deny that Islam was and is a great work? The moral
+figs and grapes that she has achieved are not such as could have been
+gathered from the thorn and thistle of human effort. Yet curiously
+enough, as I have shown, the environment in which it was born was
+strangely stern and sterile! This, however, is one of those natural
+anomalies that we would do well to leave alone. One of those paradoxes,
+those mysteries which Nature teems with, that are altogether beyond
+human comprehension.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_115" title="115"> </a>
+Whether or not he had made a study of the Socratic precept “<span lang="grc" xml:lang="grc">Γνῶθι σεαυτόν</span>”
+“know thyself,” Mohammed knew himself as thoroughly as it is possible for
+a man to do. Early in life he took his own measure. Gauged his own strength
+and weakness. Estimated the breadth, the length, and the depth to which he
+could go. As a result of this moral estimate, he felt that his resources
+without God were as slender as a broken reed buffeted by storm winds. He
+knew that his real strength lay in the knowledge and power of God and of
+Nature. The temperament and character of the Psalmist&mdash;he who looked on
+God as the strong tower and rock of his defence, his refuge, not however
+in time of trouble alone, but at all times&mdash;was strongly developed in him.
+The genius of the whole Semitic race was centred in Mohammed. It was this,
+amounting as it does to the sublimest egotheism, that gave him confidence,
+then conviction. It was this righteous conviction that carried him as it
+were on the wings of the wind&mdash;immortal breath and soul, as he pictured
+it&mdash;of the living and eternal God. Through this feeling he converted the
+innate fear and veneration that inspired him into the hand and power of
+the Almighty. If genius implies a keen psychological insight into the
+nature and inner consciousness of life’s issues, added to inexhaustible
+energy, capacity for work and patience, then Mohammed was
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_116" title="116"> </a>
+a genius.
+Certainly, if we accept Buffon’s definition of genius, as, “but a greater
+aptitude for perseverance,” he was without doubt a genius of the highest
+degree. The founder of a faith&mdash;one of the greatest the world has
+produced&mdash;spiritual commander of the faithful, his genius was
+essentially moral and religious. His whole life was one long labour of
+love and devotion to achieve his object, i.e. to proclaim God to the
+nations of the earth: the first half of it passed in secular work but in
+silent contemplation; the second half, itself divisible into two
+periods, twelve years of persuasion, followed to the close by active
+aggression and battle.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Impulsive, passionate, and spontaneous Mohammed may have been, for like
+all great leaders he was many-sided. But in no sense of the word can
+Islam be said to have been the outcome of spontaneity. On the contrary,
+it was in every way the result of calm and deliberate reflection, of
+long and continuous contact with the forces and phenomena of Nature; but
+above all of an unceasing concentration and communion with the unseen
+power that controls them. Stretching over some twenty years, it went on
+uninterrupted by domestic cares or trade transactions. All these were
+secondary matters and had to give way to the central idea that occupied
+his whole mind, that revolved around his work and his thoughts, as the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_117" title="117"> </a>
+earth gyrates about the sun. His centre of gravity was God. This gravity
+formed his character, gave him courage and endurance in all his trials
+and afflictions, counselled and guided him in his ordinary vocations. It
+was this gravity and concentration that commanded the respect and trust
+of all who knew him and came under his magnetic influence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Mohammed was not infallible. Dogma&mdash;everything human in fact&mdash;is
+open and liable to error. Even infallibility itself&mdash;as we speak of
+it&mdash;is fallible. As Draper so aptly remarks: “He who is infallible, must
+needs be immutable.” In many of the ordinary ways of life he was no
+doubt changeable and inconsistent. He was, after all, only human&mdash;but
+not with regard to the Faith. Here was he as firm as a rock, and showed
+a fixity of purpose that nothing could shake or alter. With him, “Life
+was but a means to an end, that end, beginning, mean and end to all
+things&mdash;God.” Only synchronous with this ruling principle was the idea
+of national unity. Never once did he falter or swerve from it. To this
+allegiance and fidelity of his to God and centralization it is possible
+to trace the devotion of Moslems to their Faith. “We are, as we often
+say, the creatures of circumstances. In that expression there is a higher
+philosophy than might at first sight appear. Our actions are
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_118" title="118"> </a>
+not the pure
+and unmingled results of our desires. They are the offspring of many
+various and mixed conditions. In that which seems to be the most voluntary
+decision, there enters much that is altogether involuntary&mdash;more perhaps
+than we generally suppose.” This was very much the case with Mohammed.
+He was largely the creature of circumstances&mdash;the personification of his
+environment. It was the genius of this that entered into and obsessed
+him. That formed and swayed him as it willed. That made him as strong
+and inflexible as itself. That, combining with the commercial knowledge
+and experience he possessed and the political acumen he acquired, made
+him what he was. Here in a tiny nutshell lies the kernel and origin of
+the soul of Islam. The possibility that Mohammed was rather of Caucasian
+than Ishmaelitish descent, in reality makes little if any difference in
+the psychological analysis of his character. Fundamentally, human nature
+is human nature all the world over. In this respect racial and colour
+distinctions make no difference. Even moral and physical characteristics
+are merely superficial classifications. Inherent tendencies, strong and
+rooted as they are, may be amended or modified by environment. So that
+although it is vaguely possible that his moral courage and other mental
+features were of Caucasian origin, in the main he was essentially
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_119" title="119"> </a>
+Semitic in character, patriarchal in principle, and humanistic in
+spirit. In Lecky’s opinion: “If we take a broad view of the course of
+history and examine the relations of great bodies of men, we find that
+religion and patriotism are the chief moral influences to which they
+have been subject, and that the separate modification and mutual
+interaction of these two agents may almost be said to constitute the
+moral history of mankind.” This most certainly has been the case with
+regard to Islam. Religion was the medium chosen by Mohammed for the
+furtherance of his truly imperial design. It was entirely through
+religion, or rather the interpretation he placed upon it, that he built
+up first of all a natural patriotism, then an international spirit, that
+expanded into the mighty creed of Islam. Prior to this, Arabia as he
+found it was narrow to an extreme. The only patriotism&mdash;if patriotism it
+can be called&mdash;was clannish and communal. Outside these stilted limits,
+every one was regarded with suspicion, contempt, indifference, and
+invariably with undisguised hostility. Yet the great and solid
+foundation of this splendid spiritual and temporal empire was laid by
+one man. But how great and how heroic! Indeed, “take him all in all, the
+history of humanity has seen few more earnest, noble and sincere
+‘prophets,’ men irresistibly impelled by an
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_120" title="120"> </a>
+inner power to admonish and
+to teach, and to utter austere and sublime truths, the full purport of
+which is often unknown to themselves.”
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_121" title="121"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII">
+CHAPTER VII
+</a>
+<br />
+MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISLAM
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+The better to gauge the present political aspect of the Moslem world,
+the statesmen of Europe&mdash;of France and Great Britain more
+particularly&mdash;should make an earnest study of the spirit of Islam. If we
+regard Islam as the work of Mohammed&mdash;as we are bound to&mdash;there are
+certain broad features we must also recognize. Right away from its very
+inception he worked not only as a prophet, but as a political reformer.
+Travelling as he did with his eyes, ears and all his senses open, the
+political state of the eastern portion of Europe and the western side of
+Asia must have been well known to him. To accomplish his religious ends
+was impossible without the political unity of Arabia. To him the
+political and religious unity of his country were synonymous. As a
+shrewd and practical trader, the material advantages of commerce were
+taken into consideration. He recognized that without a sound commercial
+basis and political unity there could be no national stability. He also
+saw that in a
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_122" title="122"> </a>
+country like Arabia, split up into clans and communities,
+it was only possible to effect this through the spiritual potentialities
+of the one and only true God. If he did not himself accomplish this
+great project, we know at least that it was the magnificent legacy he
+bequeathed to his followers in the spirit of Islam, that eventually did
+so in reality. He or the spirit he evoked was clearly and unmistakably
+the cause of all subsequent Moslem triumphs, intellectual and political
+as well as religious. Thus it was that scarcely eighty years after his
+death, Islam reigned supreme over Arabia, Syria, Persia, all the
+northern coast of Africa, including Egypt, as well as Spain. So, too,
+notwithstanding the internal schisms and rifts that subsequently took
+place, it kept on growing with great strides, until at last in 1453, the
+Crescent gleamed from the spires of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and
+the soul-stirring war cry “<span lang="ar" xml:lang="ar">La ilah illa Allah</span>” resounded seventy-six
+years afterwards before the very gates of Vienna. Lecky is undoubtedly
+right in assuming that: “To trace in every great movement the part which
+belongs to the individual and the part which belongs to general causes
+without exaggerating either side is one of the most difficult tasks of
+the historian.” But in the case of Islam there can be no mistake. True,
+the Arabs in themselves were a great and virile people. But
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_123" title="123"> </a>
+it was the
+genius of Mohammed, the spirit he breathed into them through the soul of
+Islam, that exalted them. That raised them out of the lethargy and low
+level of tribal stagnation, up to the high water mark of national unity
+and Empire. It was in the sublimity of Mohammed’s deism, the simplicity,
+the sobriety and purity it inculcated, the fidelity of its founder to
+his own tenets, that acted on their moral and intellectual fibre with
+all the magnetism of true inspiration. To them Islam was the Faith&mdash;the
+Faith God.
+</p>
+
+<p>Just as Christianity stands for the faith of the great European family
+of nations, Islam stands for those countries whose political
+institutions are still based on the Patriarchal system. But
+Europe&mdash;however superior her peoples may think themselves&mdash;is not in the
+position, and certainly cannot afford, to look down upon Islam as an
+inferior product of an inferior section of the great human family. East
+may be East, and West, West&mdash;the system of one represented by polygamy,
+of the other by monogamy. But because Christianity is conformable to
+European ideals and notions, it does not in the least follow that it is
+compatible with those of the East. Because the civilized net result it
+has effected has eventually proved greater than that achieved by Islam,
+is no evidence whatever of Islam’s worthlessness or decadence. It is
+not
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_124" title="124"> </a>
+the spirit of Islam that has failed, but the people who believe in
+it. They have fallen away from the high ideal that was set them by their
+master. In this respect, however, Christianity has also degenerated. It
+is a creed of profession more than of practice. It has never
+consistently practised what it has preached. A very wide gulf divides
+its practices from its ideals. “If to do were as easy as to know what
+were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men’s cottages
+princes’ palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions:
+I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the
+twenty to follow mine own teaching.” So Shakespeare. This holds as good
+now as when he wrote it. Human nature never alters fundamentally. It is
+the same to-day as it was yesterday, and as it will be unto all
+eternity. Christendom much more so than Islam, is split up into sects
+and denominations, and there can be no question about it that the chief
+obstacle to unity among these various bodies at the present moment is
+want of sincerity and earnestness!
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Compared with the average Moslem, the average Christian too is certainly
+lukewarm. The nearest approach to Moslem perfervidness is in the piety
+of the Irish Catholics. But devotional as they are, even this falls far
+short of the rigid practice of the true Moslem. Not
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_125" title="125"> </a>
+only, however, is
+he fervid and in downright earnest, but he is above all constant,
+faithful, and consistent to the principles of his creed. Thus, although
+there is no fatherhood about Allah, there is for all that a true and
+real brotherhood in Islam which contrasts very favourably with the
+professed brotherhood of Christendom. Colour or race, for instance,
+makes no difference to it. <a name="transnote_page_125" id="transnote_page_125">Islam, in fact, is above</a> all such petty
+differences. She draws no hard and fast rules, has no such violent
+antipathies, bigotries and prejudices as Christendom. Professes little
+but practises much. Colour in her eyes is no disgrace, no bar to God,
+much less therefore to human fellowship and assimilation. This, as we
+know, is not the case with Christians. To them colour and race (as
+witness in the United States of America) is an impassable barrier, that
+is more insurmountable even than the great wall of China, over which
+they find it impossible to step.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+There are in nature, as Novalis endeavours to explain in his
+philosophical romances, many realities and verities, the truth or
+essence of which cannot be grasped by the cold and critical intellect of
+man. Only by and through the sympathetic intuition of feeling can truths
+such as these be known or understood. This is indeed so. No matter how
+hard and material we may be, however
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_126" title="126"> </a>
+thoroughly scientific; no matter
+how high we may place reason&mdash;even on the highest pinnacle of human
+attainment, there are times when the emotions overpower and dominate it.
+There are times when reason, even in its calmest and most calculating
+moments, is simply inundated and overwhelmed by the flood-tide of human
+feelings. In any case it is clear that although in the abstract it is
+impossible to detach or even insulate thought from feeling and feeling
+from volition, these three&mdash;feeling, thought and will&mdash;act, and often
+co-operate together, in every mental causation. But it is just as
+difficult for a system to free itself from its own peculiar
+idiosyncrasies and prejudices as it is for an individual to dissociate
+himself from his motives. It is exactly the same with regard to Islam
+and Christendom. The latter has allowed its prejudices and its feelings
+to obliterate or to stultify its reason. It does not know, it does not
+understand Islam. Merely because it does not want or makes no effort to
+know or to understand it. Because it has no sympathy with it. Because in
+place of sympathy it is in reality antipathetic. Yet while professing
+toleration, Christendom does not hesitate to despise and condemn Islam.
+To Christendom, Islam is a mere creed and abstraction&mdash;a creed beyond
+and outside its cold and autocratic pale. A creed belonging to another
+world and heaven
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_127" title="127"> </a>
+than its own. A creed of colour and of sombre shades,
+nay even of gloom and darkness, blood, fire and sword, when the crescent
+and green flag of the Jihad is hoisted; a creed which is not to be
+thought of in the same breath as the snow-white fabric of the
+transcendent cross.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fact of the matter is, that Christendom in the earlier days of
+Islam, jealous and fearful of her younger and more vigorous rival,
+always recoiled from Islam under the veil of a self-satisfied cant, as
+from a monstrous monstrosity of the most vicious and immoral type. A
+form of “Moloch horridus,” bristling all over with polygamous
+excrescences, and cruel sharp-pointed spines, ever ready to thrust their
+awful venom into the unoffending human species. Yet if only Christendom
+had long ago cultivated the virtue of patience, and the breadth and
+depth of mind, to look into the matter, she would have discovered&mdash;as
+those sceptics who have done so have discovered&mdash;the pure and
+unadulterated truth. She would have found, that as the Moloch horridus
+of Australia conceals an inoffensive character under a weird if
+repulsive exterior; so Islam, under an outward form which bigotry and
+prejudice have exaggerated out of all shape, possesses a moral and
+spiritual value beyond all cavil or question. Islam no doubt has its
+faults and many of them. The position of women is
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_128" title="128"> </a>
+not perhaps as it
+should be. The law and the practice of divorce is a real blot on her
+system. Education is at a low ebb. The custom of the separation of
+sexes, of which polygamy and divorce are the necessary outcome, are
+undoubtedly pernicious. It cannot, of course, be expected that young men
+and women who have never met or associated, and whose marriages are
+arranged for them, can have any exalted ideas or feelings on the subject
+of love. It is not possible that young men who have never felt the
+refining influence and the moral restraint of female society, can
+possess either chivalry or a high ideal, with regard to an element
+unique in itself. Nevertheless, contrary to received European opinion,
+there exists for all that a very real and hearty affection and a warm
+sympathy between Moslem husbands and wives. What is more, this affection
+and sympathy will possibly contrast quite favourably with the family
+devotion of most European countries.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With regard to women, however, the social system, it must be admitted,
+is less successful. It leaves room for improvement. The institution of
+female slavery is distinctly a blot. The lot of the Moslem girl morally
+and socially is not so much unhappy as neglected. Her ordinary education
+is practically negative; the religious part of it is regarded as
+superfluous. But it is a popular fallacy, as I have
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_129" title="129"> </a>
+already pointed
+out, to attribute to Islam the doctrine that women have no souls.
+Unfortunately, however, the idea prevails generally throughout Europe
+that these precious possessions are ignored by modern custom: that the
+fair sex is not encouraged to pray either in private or in public. It is
+believed, too, that the vigorous ritual prescribed for the male members
+is considered sufficient for both. So that Moslem women by ignoring the
+one neglect the other, with consequences that are morally and physically
+disastrous. But these are not by any means the real facts of the case.
+Personally, of course, I cannot speak of such matters from experience.
+Isolated and secluded as the women of Islam are, and their privacy so
+rigorously guarded by a ring fence of stringent rules, it is not
+possible for the European to give an adequate opinion thereon. But
+according to the reliable authority of so eminent a Moslem as Syed Ameer
+Ali, and others, the women among civilized Moslem communities know their
+prayers and religious duties just as well as the men&mdash;and are devout and
+pious&mdash;more so perhaps than the other sex. As to their cleanliness, it
+is beyond question. Yet in spite of so many obstacles&mdash;no education,
+seclusion, and a generally defective training&mdash;the women are not
+unhappy. They are on the whole as fully occupied (in their own
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_130" title="130"> </a>
+way of
+course) and as well cared for as the women of Europe.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The fact of the matter is, Islam is suffering from mental stagnation,
+from the inevitable reaction that always succeeds a long period of
+active development. The Arabs, in a word, have had their day. With
+regard to education generally, the teaching is of a stereotyped pattern.
+There is no freshness or originality about it. Moslem studies have, in
+fact, lost all or most of their vitality. “The bloom of Arab culture has
+long been brushed away, and there now remains only a hollow kernel.” But
+it is after all by her virtues and not her defects that we must appraise
+the true value of Islam. Most unquestionably she has great and redeeming
+features. The throwing of stones or of mud is at best an injudicious
+proceeding. Apart from this it is undignified and unworthy of so high a
+civilization. It is not for Christendom to throw stones any more than it
+is for Islam. Indeed, in this respect, Europe could well take a leaf out
+of the book of Moslem self-restraint and dignity. Moslem society, too,
+may compare very favourably with European. Taken in the mass, the
+polygamous Moslem is every whit as moral&mdash;more so in fact&mdash;than his
+English, French, or German contemporary. <a name="transnote_page_130" id="transnote_page_130">In a great measure polygamy is
+much more</a> a theoretical than a
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_131" title="131"> </a>
+practical institution. Not one in twenty
+Moslems has even two wives. In any case it is not in the proper and
+legitimate practice of polygamy, but in the abuse of it, that the evil
+lies. On the whole there is no promiscuous immorality among the
+followers of Islam. Drunkenness and prostitution are practically
+non-existent. In towns where Europeans have made them a necessity, they
+are always worse. Abstinence and sobriety are not only professed but
+practised. In these respects the young Moslem certainly stands above his
+contemporary in Europe. Marrying early as he does, he knows nothing of
+“the wild oats” that are so promiscuously and so religiously sown by the
+youth of Europe. He sows no rank or noisome weeds for his children’s
+children to reap a gruesome harvest. As far, therefore, as the male sex
+are concerned, the social system of Islam is certainly more moral and
+wholesome than that of Christendom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The cult of Mormonism, as it has existed and still exists in Utah State
+and Salt Lake City, is a problem that should set all statesmen thinking!
+As a psychological conundrum and from a rational standpoint, it is a
+most interesting question. It confronts us with a dual anomaly! First of
+all by the enforcement of a sociological system in distinct opposition
+to, and in defiance of all ethnic conditions. To make the anomaly all
+the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_132" title="132"> </a>
+greater, the religious part of this cult is founded on a palpable
+sham. There is not even about it the possibility of reality that always
+exists at the back of many ancient myths.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The so-called revelation of Joseph Smith, is the clumsy imposture of a
+man who in no sense of the word was either great or sincere. It is
+unquestionably the work of one or more persons who initiated the
+movement in their own self-interests, and to cloak principles that were
+at complete variance with Christian doctrine and European opinion.
+Mohammed, as we know, did not receive any revelation “on the eternity of
+the marriage covenant, or the plurality of wives.” This, according to
+Mormon statement, was reserved for Joseph Smith alone. As a great
+statesman and prophet, Mohammed recognized polygamy to be an ethnic
+condition, therefore wisely did not interfere with it. Any radical
+innovation in this direction would have been more than a political
+error. As a revolutionary measure, it would have completely upset the
+entire fabric of Arabian and Eastern society. A pandemoniac
+topsy-turveydom would have been the immediate consequence. The
+death-knell of Islam, the direct result. Yet the very personal god of
+Joseph Smith was so very short-sighted or painstaking that he sanctioned
+absolutely a mere matter of domestic arrangement and economy. Could
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_133" title="133"> </a>
+any
+two extremes present a wider and more striking contrast? Is it possible
+even to compare the splendid sincerity of this sublime creed of
+self-surrender to God&mdash;the soul of which came direct from all that is
+great in nature&mdash;with the thin transparency of what at best was a poor
+attempt at fiction, which emanated from the mentality of a human
+mediocrity? Is it justifiable to mention them in the same breath?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Yet in spite of these startling contradictions, it is quite certain that
+the Mormon State, in an economic sense, is a prosperous, flourishing and
+thriving community. Its people too are orderly, well-behaved,
+law-abiding and industrious. From a moral and social standpoint, there
+is no fault to find with them. The anti-polygamic legislation of the
+United States Government, although it has recently been enforced with
+much greater severity than at first, has not stamped out polygamy. Does
+this or does this not demonstrate that polygamy&mdash;which in the eyes of
+Christendom constitutes one of the chief offences of Islam&mdash;is not the
+crime it is represented to be? Is it, in fact, a crime at all? Does it
+not prove that only the abuse of it, as the abuse of any, even a good
+thing, is wrong? But that the actual system itself as an ethnic
+condition peculiar to certain racial sections of mankind, is nothing but
+the outcome or
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_134" title="134"> </a>
+evolution of sociologic customs and usages?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To contend as <a name="transnote_page_134" id="transnote_page_134">all the Mu’tazilite doctors</a> do that Islam is not a
+polygamous system because it only tolerates a limited polygamy under
+stringent conditions which tends to monogamy is but a metaphysical
+quibble. It is but an attempt to split a hair. It does not alter the
+fact that when a system permits more than one wife, and its founder
+sanctioned four, it is certainly not monogamous. Such an argument will
+not hold water for even a moment. It is but a mere contention&mdash;“a bone,”
+as the Persian proverb says, “thrown to two dogs,” a palpable piece of
+sophistry. It is but the begging of an obvious fact, a reality that can
+neither be avoided nor eluded. As Burns so very happily puts it:
+</p>
+
+<div class="poem" lang="sco" xml:lang="sco">
+<div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">
+“But facts are cheels that winna ding<br />
+</span>
+<span class="i0">
+An downa be disputed.”<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+</div>
+
+<p>
+From theories such as this, Islam can derive no benefit. Just as in a
+broad sense she can suffer no disparagement from the fact that she
+countenances polygamy, she can afford to dispense with any such
+apologies. It is always a sounder principle to look truth in the face,
+even if that truth is unpalatable. However much civilization or the
+march and progress of events may ultimately modify polygamy, the actual
+custom itself was but an outcome of circumstances and conditions
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_135" title="135"> </a>
+that
+at the time were inevitable and did not (as they do not now) imply a
+crime against or subversion of natural laws. To stigmatize a system that
+time and usage have sanctified for thousands of years, merely because it
+offends <em>the easily outraged feelings of a super-sensitive Christendom</em>,
+or even on other grounds, is, to say the least of it, undignified. To
+impute a crime to the thing itself is almost, but not quite, on a par
+with the theology that pronounces a child to be the product of a sinful
+act. If the cause is sinful, the effect must also be sinful? Such a
+theory is certainly unnatural, if not monstrous! It is a perversion of
+that Nature from which we ourselves have evolved, and of that God or
+First Cause from which all causes and effects have proceeded.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Regarding this question from the broadest of standpoints, there is no
+need of an apology. Contention such as <a name="transnote_page_135" id="transnote_page_135">that of the Mu’tazilite doctors</a>,
+casts too much of a reflection&mdash;an insult almost&mdash;on the great spirit
+and the splendid traditions of Islam. It is altogether unworthy of her.
+The fact of a polygamous system did not in one whit detract from the
+splendour of the empire that was built upon Mohammed’s virile creed,
+although the subsequent abuse of it may possibly have done so! Even
+admitting that monogamy is an improvement on polygamy, the Christian
+Faith
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_136" title="136"> </a>
+was yet young when Mohammed first founded Islam. Thirteen hundred
+years make a vast difference in the aspect of social progress and
+development. And as I have already pointed out, even Mohammed, with all
+his great power and influence, dared not have upset the corner-stone
+upon which the entire social fabric of the Patriarchal system was based.
+However great he was as a Prophet, he was much too great a statesman to
+have even spent a thought on an innovation so startlingly radical and
+revolutionary.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But Christendom in the mass has never rationally considered this
+question from a broad-minded and liberal aspect! The attitude of its
+missionaries towards the great Moslem Church is, to say the least of it,
+uncalled for and unjustifiable. Their irrational arrogance and
+aggressiveness is only exceeded by their psychological ignorance of
+Islamic spirit and morality, added to an overweening egotism, blind
+bigotry and narrow sectarian prejudices. In a dual sense their attitude
+is offensive in the extreme. Offensive because it is hostile as well as
+impertinent. To attempt the conversion of Islam is a liberty that
+amounts to licence in face of its utter futility. This in itself
+demonstrates an ignorance of ethnic conditions on the part of European
+statesmen and missionaries that is as amazing and preposterous as it is
+deplorable.
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_137" title="137"> </a>
+So, too, to denounce Islam, as Christian missionaries do in
+no unmeasured terms, in books, on platforms and in the pulpit, is surely
+unpardonable&mdash;surely a reflection on civilization. Christianity will
+never convert or supplant Islam. As long as the one lasts the other will
+endure. From the most catholic of standpoints, from a religious, a
+social, a political, and an economic sense, it would be sounder and more
+politic to leave Islam alone. It would be more to the point if Christian
+missionaries devoted their energies to the bottom dogs of the slums of
+their own European cities, and to rescue the poor helpless infants who
+in their thousands are being slowly done to death through vice and crime
+that is worse than bestial. Unquestionably there is in our own European
+system a moral cancer that is just as virulent as any that Islam can
+produce. This indeed is a question that European statesmen should turn
+their attention to. For more than anything, it is this onslaught on the
+strongholds of Islam by Christendom, that explains the Moslem menace.
+The one, if it exists, is but a counterblast to the other.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is an indisputable fact that in China and in various parts of the
+world, the high-handed interference and injudicious zeal of Christian
+missionaries&mdash;outrunning all discretion, tact, and common sense&mdash;has
+frequently
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_138" title="138"> </a>
+been the cause of war and bloodshed. Is this, I ask,
+compatible with Christian tenets and professions? Do not practices such
+as these fall far short of the high ideals that are so consistently
+flourished in the face of those who are outside its pale? Do they not
+bring moral discredit on a great creed, and tend to reduce it to the low
+level of mere and fulsome cant? But one small specimen of this open and
+undisguised hostility will suffice. In the <cite>X. Y. Z.</cite> of July 24, 1908,
+under the heading in large type of “ISLAM THE ENEMY,” appears the
+following: “At the annual meeting held in connexion with the Church
+Missionary Society at Harrogate recently, the Rev. W. Y. Potter said:
+‘The calls which are most urgent are perhaps those to combat advancing
+Mohammedanism in West Africa, to direct the new desire for learning in
+China, to protect the Japanese nation from Agnosticism, by gathering in
+the millions in these lands into the folds of the Christian Church.’”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A sentence like this speaks for itself. It is self-condemnatory. It
+condemns the speaker and the whole system which advances and encourages
+such narrow and vicious methods. It condemns, too, a journalism that
+gives such poor and unworthy utterances a place, even as a mere “Fill
+up.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Islam is not an enemy. It is Christendom only that makes her so. It is
+that craven
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_139" title="139"> </a>
+conscience, which finding in her a teacher and a worker of
+solid worth, has aroused the envy and malice of the ever jealous
+theological spirit, which has invariably been responsible for so much
+war and bloodshed. It is a relic of the same militant envy that, burning
+with fury throughout the Dark Ages, fired the Crusades to a very great
+extent. A cramped and dogmatic spirit such as this does not surely
+represent the true spirit of modern Europe, which is presumably rational
+and reasonable, and consistent with the genius of progress and
+advancement. There is no real and spontaneous Moslem menace. Even,
+however, if there is, it is but the re-echo of these aggressively
+Christian sentiments. It is but the answer to a challenge, as
+undignified and contemptuous as it is aggressive and defiant. Islam, I
+repeat, is not an enemy, but a co-worker with us in the great and
+glorious cause of uplifting humanity from a lower to a higher
+civilization. Islam has neither intention nor design of encroaching upon
+the spiritual preserves of Christendom. Further, she has no itching wish
+to do so. Her leaders have the common sense to recognize that
+Christendom is separated from her by ethnic laws and social customs that
+are indivisible. <a name="transnote_page_139" id="transnote_page_139">She is only too willing; all, in fact,</a> she asks, is to
+be left alone to work in her own sphere of influence. Is it not
+possible, then, for a Christendom professing
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_140" title="140"> </a>
+so vast a moral and every
+other kind of superiority, to meet her half way, to make a truce or
+compromise to the effect that each should work in its own legitimate
+sphere? A pugnacious method such as she pursues towards Islam is as bad,
+worse in fact, than a thousand red rags to an infuriated bull. For like
+the unfortunate victim in a Spanish bull-fight, tormented to its death
+by matadors, piccadors, torreadors, and a host of other “dors,” Islam is
+beset and heckled by the frothy vapourings of theocratic firebrands, and
+the unbridled licence of Europe’s gutter press.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The origin of Islam, as I have described it, is in itself evidence of
+Islam’s moral and spiritual stability&mdash;of that part of her which has not
+deviated from, but clung to the spirit of her great Founder. But even
+allowing for denominational deviations, Islam in the mass is truly
+devout.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The two creeds represent two absolutely divergent sections of humanity.
+Unquestionably in a social, moral and religious sense, Islam is Islam,
+and Christendom, Christendom. To remedy this divergence, to bring the
+two sections together, enters into the impossible.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+A natural arrangement such as this cannot be interfered with or altered.
+Defective as it is from a human aspect, it is all the same
+irremediable&mdash;a hiatus as wide apart as the suns in space, beyond the
+power of human
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_141" title="141"> </a>
+effort to bring together. It is only possible for the
+rational gospel of humanism, the great religion of natural sympathy, to
+heal the breach. This it can only do by turning humanity into one great
+human family. This alone would sweep away the disturbing factors of
+creeds, denominations, and sects. But is such a thing possible?
+Scarcely! Certainly not so long as the egotism and egotheism of man is
+so predominant a force in human sociology, or so long as the present
+physical and mental environments of the two sections remain the same.
+</p>
+
+<h2>
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_142" title="142"> </a>
+<a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII">
+CHAPTER VIII
+</a>
+<br />
+EUROPE’S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF INFLUENCE
+</h2>
+
+<p class="cap">
+But apart from all these weighty considerations, the attitude of Europe
+towards Islam should be one of eternal gratitude, instead of base
+ingratitude and forgetfulness. Never to this day has Europe acknowledged
+in an honest and whole-hearted manner the great and everlasting debt she
+owes to Islamic culture and civilization. Only in a lukewarm and
+perfunctory way has she recognized that when, during the Dark Ages, her
+people were sunk in feudalism and ignorance, Moslem civilization under
+the Arabs reached a high standard of social and scientific splendour,
+that kept alive the flickering embers of European society from utter
+decadence.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Do not we, who now consider ourselves on the topmost pinnacle ever
+reached by culture and civilization, recognize that had it not been for
+the high culture, the civilization and intellectual as well as social
+splendour of the Arabs, and to the soundness of their school system,
+Europe would to this day
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_143" title="143"> </a>
+have remained sunk in the darkness of
+ignorance? Have we forgotten that the Mohammedan maxim was that, “the
+real learning of a man is of more public importance than any particular
+religious opinions he may entertain”&mdash;that Moslem liberality was in
+striking contrast with the then intolerant state of Europe? Have we
+forgotten that the Khalifate arose in the most degenerate period of Rome
+and Persia, also that the greater part of Europe lay under the dark
+cloud of barbarism? Does the magnificent valour of the Arabs, inspired
+as it was by a theism as lofty as it was pure, not appeal to us? Does
+not the moderation and comparative toleration shown by them to the
+conquered, notwithstanding the fierce and burning ardour to regenerate
+mankind that impelled them onwards to conquest, also appeal to us? Does
+it not all the more appeal to us, when we contrast this with the
+bitterness of the attitude of the Christian sects towards one another?
+Especially when we consider that in Christendom as it was then
+constituted, extortion, tyranny and imperial centralization, combining
+with ecclesiastical despotism and persecution, had practically
+extinguished patriotism, by substituting in its place a schismatic and
+degenerate church.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is it not obvious that in her outlook on
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_144" title="144"> </a>
+Islam, Europe has overlooked
+her own Dark Ages&mdash;that awful period of intellectual oblivion which
+commenced with the decline of classical learning subsequent to the
+establishment of the barbarians in Europe in the fifth century, and
+continued down to the Renaissance, i.e. towards the end of the
+fourteenth century? Is it too not evident that she has lost all
+recollection of the torn and disturbed state of Christendom even in the
+middle of the fifteenth century when the Renaissance was in full swing,
+or had at least run half its course? How few Europeans there are who
+know the name of Æneas Sylvius&mdash;fewer still who can remember the
+striking and vivid picture he has drawn of the state of Europe in those
+days of dawning intelligence! Yet this prelate, afterward Pope Pius II,
+sums up the then European situation in a curious but concise and
+explicit document&mdash;a species of state paper dated 1454. Possessing as he
+did a personal knowledge of Europe, and being a man of great natural
+shrewdness and power of observation, Æneas Sylvius was of all men then
+living the best qualified to describe the state of affairs at this
+period. So that his observations are not only significant, but entitled
+to weight and consideration.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Discussing the prospects of the projected crusade, he praises warmly
+Philip of Burgundy for his readiness in the matter, then
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_145" title="145"> </a>
+gives his
+reason for concluding that the Diet at Frankfort must be a failure. For
+there is no real unity in Christendom; neither Pope nor Cæsar is duly
+reverenced or believed in; they are but feigned names or painted
+effigies&mdash;each state has its own king: there is a prince to every house.
+Italy is disturbed, Genoa being at feud with Aragon; nay, worse, Venice
+has actually a treaty with the Turk. In Spain are many kings, all
+differing in power, government, aims and opinions. There is even war too
+there about Granada. France is still looking uneasily across the Channel
+at England, her old foe, and England watches France. The Germans are
+divided, without coherence; their cities quarrel with their princes;
+their princes fight among themselves. Luxemburg is a cause of dispute
+between the King of Bohemia and the Duke of Burgundy.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Is it possible that Europe is unmindful of, and has the ingratitude to
+ignore, the splendid services of the scientists and philosophers of
+Arabia? Are the names of Assamh, Abu Othman, Alberuni, Albeithar, Abu
+Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Rushd
+(Averroes) of Cordova, the chief commentator on Aristotle, Ibn Bajja
+(Avempace) besides a host of others, but dead letters? Is the great work
+that they have done, and the fame they have left behind
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_146" title="146"> </a>
+them in their
+books, to be consigned to the limbo of oblivion, by an ungrateful
+because antipathetic Europe? Does the work of Alhazen, author of optical
+treatises, who understood the weight of air, corrected the Greek
+misconception or theory of vision, and determined the function of the
+retina, count for nothing? Do we owe no tribute to a great thinker such
+as Ghazali, who in speaking of his attempts to detach himself from his
+youthful opinions says: “I said to myself, my aim is simply to know the
+truth of things, consequently it is indispensable for me to <a name="transnote_page_146" id="transnote_page_146">ascertain
+what is knowledge”?</a> It cannot be that already we have lost sight of the
+amazing intellectual activity of the Moslem world, during the earlier
+part of the “Abbasid” period more especially? It cannot be that we have
+quite forgotten the irrecoverable loss that was inflicted on Arabian
+literature and on the world at large by the wanton destruction of
+thousands of books that was prompted by Christian bigotry and
+fanaticism? It cannot surely be said of Christian Europe that for
+centuries now she has done her best to hide her obligation to the Arabs?
+Yet most assuredly obligations such as these are far too sacred to lie
+much longer hidden! Let Europe&mdash;Christendom rather&mdash;confess and
+acknowledge her fault. Let her proclaim aloud to her own ignorant
+masses,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_147" title="147"> </a>
+and to the world at large, the ingratitude she has displayed,
+and the eternal debt she owes to the Islam she no longer despises. Open
+confession is good for the soul, and only a confession such as this can
+wipe off the black stain which has for so long besmirched her fair fame.
+Let Christendom once and for all recognize that the greatest of all
+faults is to be conscious of none&mdash;that acknowledging a fault is saying,
+only in other words, we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday. Only
+through magnanimity such as this can she claim redemption. For she must
+surely know that “injustice founded on religious rancour and national
+conceit cannot be perpetrated for ever.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Let me endeavour to make my meaning somewhat clearer, by means of two
+simple illustrations&mdash;the one belonging to the eighteenth century, the
+other to the twentieth. “How many great men do you reckon?” Buffon was
+asked one day. “Five,” answered he at once; <a name="transnote_page_147" id="transnote_page_147">“Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz,
+Montesquieu, and myself.”</a>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Some five to six years ago, the present German Emperor, in giving his
+views on divine revelation and manifestation, is said to have expressed
+himself as follows: “To promote man’s development God has revealed
+Himself in man, whether he be priest or king, whether heathen, Jew, or
+Christian.
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_148" title="148"> </a>
+So in Moses, Abraham, Homer, Charlemagne, Luther,
+Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant, and the Emperor William the Great, whom God
+thus sought out to achieve imperishable results. His grandfather often
+said that he was an instrument in God’s hands.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Comment on my part of any kind would be but an insult to the intelligent
+or sympathetic reader. But the way in which Islam is studiously ignored
+in both cases is surely significant and luminous. These are but two mere
+examples taken at random, but they are typical of European arrogance,
+egotism, and her general attitude of supercilious apathy towards the
+Moslem world. After all&mdash;even when an enlightened emperor is
+concerned&mdash;it is but a step, and a short quick step, from the sublime to
+the ridiculous.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In Europe’s own interest it would in the end repay her statesmen to
+treat the world of Islam with greater sympathy and toleration, also with
+but ordinary justice. These remarks apply more forcibly of course to
+Great Britain and France. From the standpoint of the highest
+statesmanship, these two states should utilize the power they possess
+towards the attainment of this wise and politic object. Instead of
+permitting any such impolitic measures (as e.g. those made by Christian
+missionaries to proselytize) they should, by every means that lies
+within their power,
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_149" title="149"> </a>
+advance, encourage, and stimulate the work of Islam
+in its own proper and legitimate sphere of influence. Reflection will
+remind them that intolerance or persecution in any form, as the history
+of Christianity itself proves, always aided, but never deterred, the
+development of any creed. These facts alone ought to recommend the study
+of Islam to all British statesman. But in addition, I would point out to
+them one feature that is worth looking into. This is, that the same
+blend of materialism and spirit, the same desire for unity, cohesion and
+construction, which characterized Mohammed’s efforts, have operated also
+in the building up of the British Empire. It is practically out of these
+forces, but under different aspects and conditions of social and
+physical environment, that England has expanded into Greater Britain.
+Given the same conditions and environment, and the same vigorous people,
+and there is no knowing what the true spirit and fervour of Islam might
+not have effected. Remember that the soul of Islam, as the Prophet left
+it, did not lack in spiritual stamina. The lack of it has been in her
+disciples, who have found it difficult to live up to the rigid standard
+that was set them by their Lord and Master. In a great international or
+rather intercreedal question such as this, it is highly impolitic to
+make comparisons, more especially when the
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_150" title="150"> </a>
+creeds in question represent
+a sphere of thought and a sociological system so widely divergent as
+Islam and Christendom. All the same, there are facts that the latter
+should be reminded of. Throughout its great and growing history,
+particularly its earlier career when fanaticism was excusable, militant
+and violent as she has been, Islam never descended to so hateful a
+system as the diabolical Inquisition, never stained the great soul of
+her Faith by ruthless and bloody massacres such as those of the
+Albigenses, Waldenses, and St. Bartholomew. On the contrary, she showed
+a spirit of religious toleration that was as rational as it was
+remarkable. Indeed under the Ommiades of Spain (755-1031) this was in
+every sense greater, higher and wider than that which prevails at
+present in modern Spain. It is true of course that Ma’mun, one of the
+Abbasid Caliphs, established in 833 <span class="small">A.D.</span> a mihna or Inquisition, in
+order to uphold the rationalism of the Mu’tazilite doctrine against
+orthodoxy. But it was shortlived. For soon after his successor W’athik
+is said to have officially abandoned rationalism; and in fourteen years
+from its initiation, the cruel and bigoted Mutawakkil sternly put his
+foot on it, and with it the Inquisition. This, however, was not an
+Inquisition such as that of the Romish Church. In reality it was but a
+council established with the object only of
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_151" title="151"> </a>
+introducing rationalism
+into the empire and to keep out reactionaries from the State Service. In
+other words, it was but a “Test,” which was promulgated and administered
+on the same lines and principles as the Test Act in England. Is it wise
+then for the statesmen of Europe to ignore such weighty facts? Would it
+not be more politic on their part to take cognizance of them? It is on
+facts such as these that European policy in its relationship to Islam
+should be based. It is only by making the study of universal history a
+science that the politician can ever hope to become a statesman. This
+means a thorough and comprehensive grasp of ancient as well as modern
+history. Such a grasp alone will enable him to look into the future and
+shape his policy. But to do so without a complete knowledge of Islam’s
+history in the past, and the manifest part she has yet to play in the
+history of the future, is to show an utter ignorance of statecraft, but
+especially of that wider sphere of “<span lang="de" xml:lang="de">welt politik</span>” which bears the same
+analogy to the former as, in military parlance, strategy does to
+tactics. These shapers of the destinies of their various nations must
+remember that Islam has done for the East, or rather for the world of
+polygamy, what Christendom has done for the West or world of monogamy.
+She has uplifted millions upon millions of human beings from a
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_152" title="152"> </a>
+much
+lower to a far higher scale of civilization. In Africa and in Asia she
+has purified the primitive cults of their sacrificial abominations, has
+introduced a better and humaner legislation, has encouraged commerce and
+industries and established a more stable form of government. Finally,
+she has exalted the supreme God, whose worship had practically fallen
+into abeyance, to a pinnacle of solitary grandeur, and in this way
+uplifted the people into a far higher moral and spiritual atmosphere. To
+quote Stanley Lane Poole, she has given them “a form of pure theism,
+simpler and more austere than the theism of most forms of Christianity,
+lofty in its conception of the relation of man to God, and noble in its
+doctrine of the duty of man to man, and of man to the lower creation.”
+Islam, in fact, has done a great work. She has left a mark on the pages
+of human history which is indelible, that can never be effaced&mdash;that
+only when the world grows wiser will be acknowledged in full&mdash;in other
+words, when the sun of knowledge shall have dispelled the black clouds
+of ignorance. But Islam is still doing, and will continue to do, the
+great work that her founder initiated. This is a work that Christianity
+can never do. Islam too has a mission. But her mission is in quite
+another sphere to that of Christendom. It is (and has for some time
+been) the preconceived opinion in Europe
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_153" title="153"> </a>
+that the power and influence
+of Islam since the waning of her conquests have come to a standstill.
+That morally and spiritually her influence is demoralizing and
+corruptive&mdash;the bane, in a word, of those nations that she is
+proselytizing. But this is not so. Never was a greater and more
+unpardonable mistake made than this. An error rather than a mistake. The
+wish but prompts the thought. There is still much moral and spiritual
+vitality in Islam, therefore elasticity and power of expansion. In
+Africa especially, among all the Bantu and negroid tribes whose
+sociology is patriarchal, there is a great work for her to do. These
+peoples by their whole social system and in every moral sense belong to
+the sphere of Islam and not of Christendom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+To judge or even criticize Islam from a European standpoint is uneven.
+To get her proper measure, Islam must be weighed from the aspect of the
+ethnic basis upon which she rests. To compare one system by the standard
+of another, it is only possible to arrive at a distorted or unequal
+result. Islam can no more be judged by modern commonplace methods than
+Europe can be judged on the same lines by Islam, or than Mohammed
+himself whose splendid concept it was. The manners and morals of his own
+time must also be taken into consideration. The two creeds of Islam and
+Christendom have been built on different
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_154" title="154"> </a>
+bases, and constructed out of
+different material. The God of one is the God of universal nature. The
+God of the other is a triform Being&mdash;a metaphysical trinity in unity.
+Socially the Moslem is a polygamist, religiously he is an unitarian. The
+European is just the opposite to this. Socially he is a monogamist,
+religiously he is a trinitarian. In a word, the system of these two
+great human divisions differ as much from each other as their foot gear.
+That of the Moslem again conforms to nature. That is, his shoe is made
+to fit the foot, which narrows at the heel, and splays out at the toes.
+In Europe, on the contrary, the foot is made to fit the shoe, which,
+wide at the heel, narrows into a point at the toes. How is it possible
+then for two such widely divergent systems to agree?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+But at least they can agree to differ. At least there is one broad base
+upon which they can meet. On the grounds of a common humanity, on the
+grounds of a common sympathy, by a common birth and a common death they
+are equal. It is not for Christendom to hang back. Islam is quite ready
+to meet her more than half-way. From the superior vantage ground of her
+position, it is for her to hold out the right hand of fellowship. It is
+for her to recognize the real worth of Islam. It is for her to respect
+not to contemn her great coadjutor. For her to regard
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_155" title="155"> </a>
+Islam, not as a
+foe or even a rival, so much as a great and worthy co-partner with her,
+in the work of civilization. From this reasonable and rational
+standpoint the sphere of Islam’s influence should be wisely left alone.
+For the enforcement of Christianity on races such as those of Africa,
+for instance, whose system is patriarchal, can only end, as it has
+already done, in their utter denationalization and hybridization. To
+Europeanize and turn into Christians these sons of nature merely for the
+motive of gaining converts is impolitic, if not immoral. It but makes
+human mules of them. Wiser far to let them remain as they are. As well
+try to turn camelopards into crocodiles or pythons into hippos, as
+convert Africans into Europeans. Islam attempts nothing unnatural of
+this kind&mdash;nothing that is opposed to ethnic conditions and sociological
+usages. In her case she but develops the lama into the camel.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+It is impossible, fatuous in fact, to ignore or even overlook the basic
+importance of physical environment. Even science in this respect has
+been backward, and very slowly recognized that geography is obviously
+and essentially the basis of all history&mdash;i.e. of all human action and
+development. The importance of climate and climatic changes on the
+habits, customs, temperament and character of races, has never been
+clearly and thoroughly realized.
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_156" title="156"> </a>
+Not until this has been estimated and
+appreciated at its true value, will it be possible for reason to
+override the dogmas and bigotries of short-sighted and prejudiced
+theology. But the day is fast approaching when this fact must be
+acknowledged as a universal truth. Then only will Islam and <a name="transnote_page_156" id="transnote_page_156">other creeds
+be appraised</a> from an even and rational standpoint.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even admitting that Islam has receded from Mohammed’s moral and
+spiritual high water mark, this is all the more reason why the statesmen
+of Europe should stretch out a helping hand to assist in raising her to
+her former level. All the more reason why they should encourage and
+stimulate her to higher aims and endeavours. This assuredly would be a
+more dignified and statesmanlike proceeding than that which, if it does
+not sanction, at all events permits the good name and fame of Islam to
+be smirched with contumely, and to be held up before the world as a
+standing menace to civilization. A course such as I have suggested, is
+much more likely to bring about a better understanding and preparation
+towards any possible fusion. On the other hand, the present propaganda
+of active theological aggression and political indifference, is bound to
+make the breach wider than ever with the ultimate certainty of
+disruption. In face of such a climax there is but this one
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_157" title="157"> </a>
+remedy. As a
+moral and spiritual factor in the regeneration of humanity, Islam is
+indispensable. In her own sphere she must not be interfered with. The
+good of humanity is a higher cause to work for than the mere
+glorification of creed and sect. The cause of humanity strikes wider,
+deeper and higher than that of any creed or denomination. By working
+towards this end, by sinking denominational differences in the common
+stock-pot of humanity, the world at large and civilization in particular
+will in the end gain ever so much more.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+In speaking of Islam and of Moslems as I have done, I have spoken of
+them as I have found them. Apart from a careful study of the Koran, my
+knowledge of both is based on personal facts and experiences as varied
+as they are extensive. In every clime and under a variety of conditions,
+I have been in touch with Moslems of all classes and shades, and have
+always found them animated by the same spirit&mdash;for race or colour makes
+no difference to the spirit of Islam. Always consistent and devout,
+always God-fearing and sincere as regards their Faith. Before all things
+religious, their cult, the creed of Mohammed&mdash;i.e. El Islam or
+self-surrender. Afghan, Arab, Baluchi, Hindustani, Somali, Turk,
+Egyptian, Hadendowa, Berber, Senegalese, Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba,
+Mandingo, Malay, I
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_158" title="158"> </a>
+have found them in the main Islamic to the very
+core. In peace or war, in camp and cantonment, working and fighting with
+or against them, my experience of their moral consistency and spiritual
+stamina has been the same. Brave to a fault, endowed with the reckless
+courage of the Fatalist, fearless and contemptuous of death, their
+fidelity to their Faith, their belief in the greatness of Mohammed, and
+their veneration of God, is a something that once it is rightly
+understood, can only be respected and appreciated at its true value. For
+my part, seeing as I have their splendid heroism in their own cause, and
+their touching devotion to those whose salt they have eaten, my feelings
+towards them is not only one of unmixed admiration and respect, but also
+of deep esteem and regard. Such men are worthy of Islam, as Islam indeed
+is worthy of them. Only the soul&mdash;the moral and spiritual essence&mdash;of
+Islam could have made them what they are, could have turned out of the
+dregs of barbarism a human material so truly splendid.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+With experience and facts such as these before me, I for one find it
+impossible to forget, and only natural to acknowledge with candour, the
+great and magnificent part that Islam has occupied in the history of the
+world. In the intellectual strife of heroes who have wrestled and fought
+for the truth and who for
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_159" title="159"> </a>
+many centuries led the world, in the arena of
+battle and of conquest where warriors have led the van, the sons of
+Islam stand on a pedestal of their own making, that as the world grows
+older and more enlightened, will stand out in all the greater
+prominence. Stand out as men who have taken as great and heroic though
+not so sustained a part on the stage of universal history as the giants
+and heroes of Christendom.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Even in a study of this length it is in reality impossible to deal
+exhaustively with a question so wide and extensive as this, which
+requires a large volume to itself. But I have said enough, I trust, to
+show that the value of Islam as a moral and spiritual factor in the
+civilization of the world is very considerable. I hope too that to all
+who are reasonable and rational in their views, I have shown, as clearly
+and as concisely as it is possible to do within such narrow limits, that
+the so-called “<em>Moslem menace</em>” is but the wraith of an over-heated
+imagination&mdash;the bogie conjured up by a hectoring and arrogant
+theocracy, backed up, unfortunately, by an indiscreet and tactless
+Press, ever ready to exaggerate any piece of cheap claptrap into the
+sensation of the moment. Always eager to lift up even garbage such as
+this to the higher level of dramatic denouements, by giving undue
+prominence to the unreliable froth and effervescence
+<a class="pagenum" name="Page_160" title="160"> </a>
+of irresponsible
+and excitable cranks. In a word, by a process of moral aggravation that
+is unworthy a great and liberal Press.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Finally, I have endeavoured to make it clear, that apart from motives of
+honour and high principles and consistent with the dignity of the great
+Aryan family, Europe should adopt towards Islam a policy of conciliation
+and co-operation: if for nothing else, to avoid being hoisted by her own
+overcharged and explosive petard. If I have done but this, then at least
+my labour shall not have been in vain.
+</p>
+
+<div class="figright" style="width: 150px;">
+<img src="images/logo.jpg"
+width="102" height="150"
+alt="Butler &amp; Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works - Frome."
+title="Printer&#39;s Logo" />
+</div>
+
+<h2>
+<a name="ISLAM_CORRIGENDA" id="ISLAM_CORRIGENDA">
+ISLAM&mdash;CORRIGENDA.
+</a>
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#corrigenda_1">P. 8, Foreword</a>. In lines 3 and 2 from bottom, <em>united</em> should read
+<em>suited</em>.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#corrigenda_2">On p. 57, line just above quotation</a>, <em>could be still:</em> should read
+<em>could be: still&mdash;</em>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#corrigenda_3">P. 87. In line 3 from bottom</a>, <em>an an alysis of</em> should read <em>an analysis
+of</em>.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="adhead">
+Liscard Commercial and Collegiate Schools,<br />
+
+<i>Liscard, Cheshire</i>.
+</p>
+
+<p class="cap">
+These Schools, which are highly recommended by Major <span class="smcap">A. G. Leonard</span>,
+differentiate in the teaching given to their Senior boys, there being
+three courses to meet the requirements of those destined for (<span class="small">A</span>)
+Commerce, (<span class="small">B</span>) the Professions or the University, (<span class="small">C</span>) Engineering, etc.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+This Advertisement is inserted in the hope of securing as private
+boarders a limited number of European, Asiatic, or African pupils whose
+parents wish them to be educated in England. Such parents may rely on
+the Headmaster’s complete and sympathetic attention to their children.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+References given and required. All particulars will be furnished on
+application to&mdash;
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+<span class="smcap">Mr. W. P. Hammersley</span>,<br />
+“<i>Harbour View</i>,”<br />
+Seabank Road, Liscard, Cheshire.<br />
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="adhead">
+PROVISIONS &amp; OUTFIT
+</p>
+
+<p class="adhead">
+Griffiths, McAlister &amp; Co.,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 25%">EXPORT PROVISION MERCHANTS, Etc.,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 35%">29-31, Manesty’s Lane, LIVERPOOL.</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 45%">14, Billiter Street, LONDON, E.C.</span><br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Suppliers of all kinds of Provisions, Camp Equipment, Medical Stores,
+Wines, Spirits, and Mineral Waters, etc., for Exploring and Mining
+Expeditions; also for private use abroad.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All Goods suitably packed for Hot and Cold Climates, and made up in
+loads suitable for all modes of Transport.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+CONTRACTORS TO THE CROWN AGENTS<br />
+FOR THE COLONIES.<br />
+<br />
+<i>Suppliers to Lieut. Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition,<br />
+1907-1909.</i>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<span style="margin-left: 10%;">
+Telegraphic Addresses:&mdash;
+</span>
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 25%;">
+“COOMASSIE,” LIVERPOOL.
+</span>
+<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 25%;">
+“APPEASABLE,” LONDON.
+</span>
+<br />
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+Codes used&mdash;A, B, C, 4th and 5th Editions and Lieber’s.
+</p>
+
+<p class="center">
+ESTABLISHED 1880.
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>
+Transcriber’s Note
+</h2>
+
+<p>
+The <a href="#ISLAM_CORRIGENDA">corrigenda</a> were originally inserted before the Foreword; they have
+been implemented, and moved to the end of the text for reference.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The advertisements were originally printed on either side of the title
+page; they have been moved to the end of the text.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_38">The following sentence</a>, which seems to be missing one or more words, has
+been retained as printed:
+</p>
+
+<p style="margin-left: 10%;">
+Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas and ideals that he kept
+to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+Both “half way” and “half-way” are used.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+The following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been
+corrected:
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_title_page">Title page</a>:
+<br />
+<i>“Personal Law of the Mohammedans,” etc</i>
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+<i>“Personal Law of the Mohammedans,” etc.</i>
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_9a">Page 9</a>:
+<br />
+South American Guacho is not
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+South American Gaucho is not
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_9b">Page 9</a>:
+<br />
+adapted for idealistic minds.
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+adapted for idealistic minds?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_27">Page 27</a>:
+<br />
+the orginator of a new
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+the originator of a new
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_32">Page 32</a>:
+<br />
+(an under rather than an over-estimate)
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+(an under- rather than an over-estimate)
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_33">Page 33</a>:
+<br />
+God’s omnipresence and omipotence had made
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+God’s omnipresence and omnipotence had made
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_56a">Page 56</a>:
+<br />
+each a mighty voice,
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+each a mighty voice,”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_56b">Page 56</a>:
+<br />
+blackness that prevades the very soul
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+blackness that pervades the very soul
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_57">Page 57</a>:
+<br />
+grandeur and appaling sameness
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+grandeur and appalling sameness
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_66">Page 66</a>:
+<br />
+truths are only found in the depths of the thought.
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+truths are only found in the depths of the thought.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_72">Page 72</a>:
+<br />
+were much in repute, when both,
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+were much in repute; when both,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_82">Page 82</a>:
+<br />
+secrets <em>of God</em> neither do I say
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+secrets <em>of God</em>, neither do I say
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_87">Page 87</a>:
+<br />
+to hurl inuendoes, anathemas
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+to hurl innuendoes, anathemas
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_91">Page 91</a>:
+<br />
+known as Aeneas Sylvius (Pius Aeneas):
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+known as Æneas Sylvius (Pius Æneas):
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_94">Page 94</a>:
+<br />
+the sacred reduit and rallying ground
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+the sacred réduit and rallying ground
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_96">Page 96</a>:
+<br />
+awakening of the spirit of commerce
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+awakening of the spirit of commerce.
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_103">Page 103</a>:
+<br />
+I also will wait it with you.
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+I also will wait it with you.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_125">Page 125</a>:
+<br />
+Islam, in fact is above
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+Islam, in fact, is above
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_130">Page 130</a>:
+<br />
+In a great measure pologamy is much more
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+In a great measure polygamy is much more
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_134">Page 134</a>:
+<br />
+all the Mutalazite doctors
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+all the Mu’tazilite doctors
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_135">Page 135</a>:
+<br />
+that of the Mutalazite doctors
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+that of the Mu’tazilite doctors
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_139">Page 139</a>:
+<br />
+She is only too willing, all, in fact,
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+She is only too willing; all, in fact,
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_146">Page 146</a>:
+<br />
+ascertain what is knowledge?”
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+ascertain what is knowledge”?
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_147">Page 147</a>:
+<br />
+“Newton, Bacon, Liebnitz, Montesquieu, and myself.”
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+“Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and myself.”
+</p>
+
+<p>
+<a href="#transnote_page_156">Page 156</a>:
+<br />
+other creeds be apprised
+<br />
+changed to
+<br />
+other creeds be appraised
+</p>
+
+<p>
+All other peculiarities and inconsistencies of spelling, punctuation and
+capitalisation have been retained as printed.
+</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by 
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM ***
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value
+       A Rational And Pyschological Study
+
+Author: Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+Release Date: November 23, 2011 [EBook #38114]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Anne Grieve and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+    ISLAM
+
+    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE
+
+
+
+
+    ISLAM
+
+    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE
+
+    A Rational and Psychological Study
+
+
+    By
+    MAJOR ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD
+
+    LATE 2ND BATT. EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT
+
+    _Author of "The Camel, Its Uses and Management," "How we made
+    Rhodesia," "The Lower Niger and its Tribes"_
+
+
+    With a Foreword by
+    SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E.
+
+    _Author of "The Spirit of Islam," "Life and Teachings of Mohammed,"
+    "Mohammedan Law," "Personal Law of the
+    Mohammedans," etc._
+
+
+    LONDON
+    LUZAC & CO
+    46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET
+    1909
+
+
+
+
+FOREWORD
+
+
+I am glad to introduce this book with an expression of the pleasure and
+interest with which I have read Major Leonard's admirable psychological
+study of a subject, the importance of which it is hardly possible to
+overrate.
+
+Unfortunately it has been too common hitherto to regard Islam as an
+antagonistic force to Christendom; to depreciate its Founder and to
+discount its Ideals. As the author justly observes, it is hardly
+possible for a student really anxious to acquaint himself with the inner
+spirit of another Faith, to gain an insight into its true character
+until he has divested himself of ancient prejudices that narrow his
+perspective and prevent his taking a broad view of the aims and
+aspirations of the great men who from time to time have tried to uplift
+humanity.
+
+Major Leonard has dealt with his subject in this broad spirit; he has
+approached it with sympathy born of intimate acquaintance with races
+and peoples who profess the Faith of Islam. His is eminently a
+philosophical study of its Founder, of its true moral and spiritual
+utility, and of the great impetus it gave to the progress of the world.
+
+In the eight chapters that constitute this book he has discussed the
+entire range of questions affecting the personality of Mohammed and the
+tendency of his religion. In his treatment he shows himself a
+philosophical rationalist animated with a reverence for the Arabian
+Teacher--the evident outcome of a true appreciation of the mainspring of
+his actions.
+
+In the first chapter the author has applied himself to expose the
+absurdity and hollowness of the Pan-Islamic "bogey." That the growing
+_rapprochement_ between Moslem communities, hitherto divided by
+sectarian feuds, should be viewed with disfavour by Europe as indicating
+a danger to its predominance and selfish ambitions is intelligible. But
+that it should be regarded as a deliberate challenge to, or intended as
+a hostile demonstration against Christendom, is a mere chimera. Major
+Leonard proves conclusively that the Pan-Islamic movement is no modern
+political movement; but that morally and spiritually Islam, in its very
+essence, is Pan-Islamic; in other words, a creed that recognizes in
+practice the brotherhood of man to a degree unknown in any other
+religion, and admits in its commonwealth no difference of race, colour
+or rank.
+
+Moslems, laymen and scholars, will probably not agree with some of Major
+Leonard's remarks in his outline of the Prophet's character and
+temperament; but they must all acknowledge his sincerity. He describes
+Mohammed as a great and true man--great not only as a teacher, but as a
+patriot and statesman; a material as well as a spiritual builder, who
+constructed a nation and an enduring Faith, which holds, to a greater
+degree than most others, the hearts of millions of human beings; a man
+true to himself and his people, but above all to his God.
+
+The author has gone to the Koran itself for the animating purpose of
+Mohammed's strenuous and noble life. He believes that the national good
+to be obtained only by the recognition of the conception of a God who is
+both "national and universal" was the dominant idea that impelled and
+inspired the Prophet of Arabia. In his appreciation of Mohammed's
+teachings, Major Leonard has grasped the real spirit of Islam; and both
+as regards his moral and spiritual precepts, as also the enunciations
+respecting the duties of every-day life, the author has given the
+Arabian Prophet his due. He dwells on Mohammed's affection and sympathy
+for the weak, the afflicted and suffering, with the orphan and the
+stricken; on his humanity to the dumb creatures of God; on the duties of
+parents to children, and of children to parents; on his burning
+denunciations of the terrible crime of female infanticide.
+
+In the eighth and last chapter Major Leonard speaks of the debt Europe
+owes to Islam, and endeavours to show that the religion of Mohammed, far
+from being antagonistic to human development, has materially helped in
+the progress of the world. It is part of Major Leonard's thesis that
+Christianity and Islam belong to "different spheres of influence"; in
+other words, whilst Christianity is suited to certain races, Islam is
+peculiarly suited to others. Races and peoples adapt their religions to
+their own respective advancement, and the same religion varies among
+different communities according to the stage of their development. The
+Christianity of the barbarous South American Gaucho is not the same as
+that of the cultured Englishman, nor is the Islam of the cultivated
+Moslem identical with that professed by ignorant followers of the Faith.
+But it would be hard to say that philosophical Christianity exactly
+answers the needs of the lower strata of Christendom to whom the
+positive directions of a simple practical faith might appeal with
+greater force. Might not Islam, with its emphatic prohibition of drink,
+the primary cause of all the vice and crime in Europe, prove a far
+greater civilizing agency in the slums of European cities, and do far
+more good in reclaiming the debased, than a religion which does not
+possess that positive character and is only adapted for idealistic
+minds?
+
+Whatever view a rationalist may hold on this point, I feel that Major
+Leonard has laid the world of literature under a debt for his admirable
+monograph on a peculiarly interesting subject.
+
+    AMEER ALI.
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                    PAGE
+
+    CHAPTER I
+
+    THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!                      13
+
+
+    CHAPTER II
+
+    AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED'S TEMPERAMENT
+    AND CHARACTERISTICS                               23
+
+
+    CHAPTER III
+
+    THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED             51
+
+
+    CHAPTER IV
+
+    MOHAMMED'S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS                 71
+
+
+    CHAPTER V
+
+    THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET'S
+    CHARACTER                                         84
+
+
+    CHAPTER VI
+
+    A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED'S WORK
+    AND WORTH                                        101
+
+
+    CHAPTER VII
+
+    MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM'S ATTITUDE
+    TOWARDS ISLAM                                    121
+
+
+    CHAPTER VIII
+
+    EUROPE'S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF
+    INFLUENCE                                        142
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!
+
+
+For some time past, but more especially during the last year or two, it
+has become quite the fashion in Europe to rail at and to suspect the
+good faith and motives of the Moslem world. If we are to believe the
+European Press, Europe is in deadly danger. The "_Yellow Peril_" of a
+few years ago has, by means of the juggling of modern journalism,
+cleverly transformed itself into the "_Moslem Menace_." According to
+this trenchant successor of the ancient oracle, there is unrest and
+seething turmoil everywhere. In Egypt, a national confederation; in
+Morocco, a crisis; in the heart of Africa, the Senussi movement; in
+Turkey and Arabia, secret associations and agitation; in Persia even,
+disaffection but co-operation. In one word, Europe--Christian, civilized
+and unoffending Europe--is confronted with a Pan-Islamic confederation,
+that is co-operating to achieve the unity and the nationalization of all
+Islam, with the express object of ultimately turning upon Christendom,
+and rending her into a thousand tattered fragments.
+
+That there has been no revival of "the chronic conspiracy" within our
+Indian Empire, is, however, easily explained. This, which purposed to be
+a religious agitation among Indian Moslems, was an expression more
+familiar twenty-five years ago and was attributed to the influence of
+Wahabite oratory. It is, of course, possible that the present agitation
+and unrest among the Hindus generally, but the Bengalis in particular,
+has for the time being at all events diverted the attention of the
+outside world in other directions. But it is also more or less generally
+taken for granted that the Moslem population of India has sunk into a
+state of political lethargy, which if it does not betoken loyalty,
+obviously demonstrates a dumb and passive revolutionary torpor that is
+tantamount to it.
+
+That agitation and unrest exist throughout the Moslem world would be
+nothing either new or unusual. In a human sense, Islam is identical with
+Christendom. She too has her social functions, her political parties,
+associations, confederations and societies. She has her religious sects
+and denominations. As with us, so with Islam, there are affinities, and
+antipathies, emulations and jealousies, competitions and rivalries,
+likes and dislikes, envy, malice, hatred and all uncharitableness. The
+interest of self predominates before all else. In kind there is
+certainly no difference, in degree it is possible that Europe may be a
+step or two higher. But this is not the point that I would here
+emphasize. To fall back on the time-honoured maxim, immortalized by
+Shakespeare, comparisons of this kind are incompatible if not odious.
+Besides, recrimination is as futile as it is injudicious and
+undignified.
+
+It is not of moral discrepancies on either side that I would speak. Nor
+have I any wish to rake up the low-lying sediment, or to disturb the
+still waters which are running deep in the great ocean of Moslem life.
+Under the conditions that prevail, it is assuredly best to let sleeping
+dogs lie. Left alone they are much less troublesome. There is always the
+possibility that they may oversleep themselves and fall into a dormant
+and inactive state. In this way the still waters of sedition and
+agitation soon find their own level--the embers of revolt may at times
+flare up, but they soon flicker out.
+
+It is of the moral and spiritual utility, with the soul of Islam, that I
+am now about to deal. For Islam, believe me, has a soul--a sincere and
+earnest soul, a great and profound soul--that is worth knowing. It is in
+this soul that the whole kernel and essence of Islam lies. A thorough
+knowledge and a clear comprehension of this great spirit will alone
+enable the statesmen and thinkers of Europe to understand the complex
+problems of so-called Pan-Islamism. To obtain this grasp, however,
+certain qualifications are absolutely essential. It is necessary--e.g.,
+to approach the subject from a rational and reasonable standpoint--to
+detach the mind from all preconceived dogmas and opinions; to lay aside
+all prejudices, racial, religious, social and otherwise, and all
+bigotries and intolerance; to be confined to no one creed, sect or
+denomination of any kind, sort or description, but the one great world
+of Humanity that, in the eyes of Nature, is of one soul and body. This
+may be a large, or as cousin Jonathan would call it, a tall, order. It
+bulks big and sounds ponderous. In face of what human nature is, it
+appears impracticable. But even in human nature there are exceptions and
+possibilities. An aspect such as this, then, though improbable, is
+certainly possible, if exceptional. Let us presume at least that in this
+instance it is so. It is, at all events, on these broad lines that the
+following pages have been written. It is the true spirit of human
+sympathy and fellowship that has moved me--the sympathy and fellowship
+that would draw together, or at least nearer to each other, the worlds
+of Christendom and Islam.
+
+The better to achieve my object, I have consulted no works on either
+Mohammed or Islam, but have gone straight to the source or fountain
+head--to Mohammed himself, the Koran, and to Moslems of various
+nationalities with whom I have been brought into close and personal
+touch during a wide and a varied experience. It is here in the man and
+his work that the true soul of Islam is to be found. Just as in its
+founders and foundations lies the heart and essence of Christianity, it
+is in and out of the merits as well as demerits of Mohammed's work, that
+we shall form the true estimate of Islamic utility. By their fruits ye
+shall know them. Men do not gather figs of thorns, or grapes of
+thistles. Mohammed most certainly did not. As he sowed, so he has
+reaped! So he is still reaping. The Koran was the immediate consequence
+of his concentration and communion with Nature and Nature's God: Islam
+the natural result. In other words, Islam is the devotion of Moslems to
+Mohammed and the Koran--his work, plus their patient resignation and
+entire submission to God, His will and His service! The man of fixed and
+unchanging purpose has a supreme contempt for obstacles. But when, as in
+Mohammed's case, that purpose is the glorification of God, he has at
+hand a lever that can move the world. In this peculiar sense the great
+Prophet of Arabia was self-contained. He had everything within himself:
+that everything centred in God and Arabian unity. He sought only what he
+needed. This was to unify God and his country. How he succeeded is a
+matter of history.
+
+D'Aubigne in his history of the Reformation, speaking of Luther, says:
+"Men, when designed by God to influence their contemporaries, are first
+seized and drawn along by the peculiar tendencies of their age."
+Undoubtedly this, in a great measure, is so. It is quite evident that
+Mohammed was influenced in this way. Yet it is also obvious that he was
+not so much seized by the peculiar tendencies of his age (for in many
+ways he was far in advance of it), as that he was obsessed and dominated
+by the energy or spirit of God, and utilized these special features with
+the design of disseminating this overmastering God possession to others.
+
+"There are but three sorts of persons," Pascal used to say: "those who
+serve God, having found Him; those who employ themselves in seeking Him,
+not having found Him; and those who live without seeking Him or having
+found Him. The first are reasonable and happy; the last are mad and
+miserable; the intermediate are miserable and reasonable."
+
+If ever man on this earth found God, if ever man devoted his life to
+God's service with a good and a great motive, it is certain that the
+Prophet of Arabia was that man. That on the whole and in the truest
+sense of the word he was reasonable, is best seen in the result which
+his labour achieved. That he was happy, is quite another matter. Real as
+is our existence, happiness at best is but an ephemeral phase of it. Yet
+there is much truth in the assertion, that gaiety seeks the crowd, while
+happiness loves silence and solitude as Mohammed himself did. In any
+case, if the satisfaction which ensues as the consequence of duty done,
+and well done, is happiness; if the consciousness that he has done his
+best in all sincerity and conscientiousness, gives happiness to the ego,
+then it is possible to assume that in bequeathing the grand heritage of
+Islam to posterity, Mohammed must have gone to his final rest in a state
+of supreme happiness.
+
+Self-belief--"that thing given to man by his Creator," as Carlyle calls
+it--was, as I shall show, a salient feature in Mohammed's character.
+More than half a Bedawin (or what was practically the same thing,
+passing a great part of his life in deserts), this was only natural. But
+he did not allow this self-consciousness to degenerate, either into
+vanity or egotism. It neither spoilt nor conquered him. He knew his own
+weakness--none better--therefore relied all the more on the power of
+God. It was this outside influence which reacted on him so powerfully
+from within. It was this judicious blend or amalgam of two seemingly
+different thought-currents, which were in reality only a bifurcation of
+the same current, that gave him all his strength. It was this unique
+combination of an apparent dualism (through intense mental
+concentration) in one divine Monism that gave Mohammed victory over
+every obstacle. It was this compressed one-ness--the most sublime
+triumph of individual concentration in the world's history--that carried
+Islam into the uttermost parts of the earth. It was this centralization
+of moral or religious gravity that swelled the belief of one man--a
+modest camel-driving trader only--into the perfervid belief of hundreds
+of millions. "For given a sincere man, you have given a thing worth
+attending to. Since sincerity, what is it but a divorce from earth and
+earthly feelings?"
+
+One thing more. To thoroughly comprehend the spirit of Mohammed or the
+soul of Islam, the student himself must be thoroughly in earnest and
+sincere. He must in addition possess that moral, mental and intellectual
+sympathy which gives the ego an insight into human subtleties as well as
+simplicities. He must take Mohammed and Islam as he finds them--in the
+same intensely sincere spirit that constituted the one and inculcated
+the other. He must at the outset recognize that Mohammed was no mere
+spiritual pedlar, no vulgar time-serving vagrant, but one of the most
+profoundly sincere and earnest spirits of any age or epoch. A man not
+only great, but one of the greatest--i.e. truest--men that Humanity has
+ever produced. Great, i.e. not simply as a prophet, but as a patriot and
+a statesman: a material as well as a spiritual builder who constructed a
+great nation, a greater empire, and more even than all these, a still
+greater Faith. True, moreover, because he was true to himself, to his
+people, and above all to his God. Recognizing this, he will thus
+acknowledge that Islam is a profound and true cult, which strives to
+uplift its votaries from the depths of human darkness upwards into the
+higher realm of Light and Truth. It is in this deep sense of
+earnestness, and in this tense but even-minded spirit of equity, that I
+have endeavoured to make my study both rational and psychological: in
+other words, reasonable and true to the spirit. Naturally, therefore, I
+have avoided those narrow and devilish pitfalls of racial, creedal and
+colour prejudices--that awful curse of Humanity, that insuperable
+barrier to the cult of Humanitarianism--which leads to the deadly cancer
+of _Misconception_. Finally--making due allowance for space
+limitations--I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to get to the
+root of all that is good and great in the immortal work of this leader
+of men who was so good and so great in every sense. In this way only is
+it possible to get at the truth. Shallow, superficial and paradoxical
+inquiries are mere empty vanities as utterly useless, from a human
+standpoint, as those which are biassed and one-sided. To reach the
+depths, to touch the bottom, to get to the root of any true man's
+motives, sincerity and thoroughness are as essential as intellectual
+acumen and profundity.
+
+In this short study my one idea all through has been to delineate
+Mohammed as he was and Islam as she is. For this reason I have neither
+painted them with my own colouring, nor introduced into their natural
+complexion any outside flesh tints. In plain English, I have not placed
+upon their beliefs and principles a construction that, being ethnically
+foreign to the entire sociological system upon which they are based,
+would have been a fundamental error, at complete variance with them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED'S TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS
+
+
+One of the first thoughts that a very careful perusal of the Koran
+brings home to me, is the intense humanity of Mohammed and his work. The
+more one studies the various motives that led to his so-called
+revelations, the more one is struck by the strong associations that
+connect these divine messages and ordinances with the actions and
+movements that were going on all round him, as well as in his own
+mind--owing in a great measure to his own preaching.
+
+In estimating the moral value of either Christianity or Islam, it is
+necessary to take into consideration, also to make allowance for, the
+times in which their founders lived. To attempt to judge one or other of
+them from the scientific standpoint of modern culture and civilization
+would be not only uneven but impossible. To gauge the standard of their
+mental and moral attainments, the student must investigate their work,
+and compare, then contrast, it with the general intellectual level of
+their own age. When this has been done, he should try and, if possible,
+realize what effect the advent and the doctrines advocated by them (in
+the one case some 1,900 years, and in the other 1,300 years ago) would
+now produce. In this way only is it feasible to arrive at a true and
+legitimate conclusion. But in doing so, the inquirer must divest,
+certainly dissociate himself, from all existing ideas on the subject,
+and deal with it as it is, and not what he thinks it ought to be.
+
+The more one studies the Koran, the more obvious does it become that
+Mohammed had a powerfully receptive mind, and a specially retentive
+memory. Notwithstanding that he was illiterate, unable even to read and
+write, it is clear that he was well versed in all the tenets and
+traditions of his own people and of the Jews; and that in addition he
+had made himself acquainted with some of the doctrines and dogmas of the
+Christian Gospels. It is above all certain that for a great number of
+years Mohammed concentrated his mind thereon with the force and
+intensity of a sincere and ardent nature. But first and foremost the one
+great idea of the being, unity and providence of God predominated all
+his thoughts. Acting on a temperament that was highly emotional, and
+perceptibly neurotic or melancholic, the revelations embodied in the
+Koran were the natural result of so long and continuous a
+concentration. Still it is equally obvious that combining with this
+emotionalism and neurasthenia was a strong vein of commercialism and
+common sense, also marked political and administrative ability. It is
+further evident that in Mohammed's character there commingled a very
+curious and conflicting number of elements and tendencies. Dominating
+all of these, however, was an intense zeal, an insatiable ambition, an
+overpowering individuality and egotism, and an inflexible doggedness and
+determination to attain his own ends. To convert, that is, the weakness
+and disintegration of the various tribes that composed the Arab nation
+into the union of one consolidated whole, with himself and family at its
+head, as a human representation of the unity and supremacy of the one
+and only God. This latter, as we know, was in no way original. It is
+clear all throughout that he had profited from his knowledge of Jewish
+tradition and experience, and that he based his theory on the dogmas of
+Moses and Abraham. He had long since realized that it was the worship of
+their own tribal and communal gods by the members of the various Arab
+tribes and communities that accentuated the differences and divisions
+between them. He determined, therefore, as the Jewish leaders long
+before him had attempted, to consolidate and weld them into a single
+nation, through the worship of the one supreme and indivisible God. It
+was on and through this divine indivisibility that he decided to base
+and construct the unity and nationalization of the people.
+
+Unquestionably Mohammed's movement was as much political as it was
+religious, as much material as it was spiritual. But being of a
+profoundly reflective, at the same time of a practical, turn of mind, he
+chose religion as the only possible and thoroughly reliable means of
+achieving his great and noble ends; not only possible and thorough,
+however, but the most potential. Mohammed, in fact, judged the capacity
+and characteristics of his countrymen to a nicety. Unconsciously--for
+legislation to him was a natural heritage--he followed the example of
+the most famous legislators, and instituted such laws as at the time
+were the best that the people were capable of receiving. Tactful and
+diplomatic to a degree, it was policy on his part to retain a certain
+number of the old beliefs and customs in order to satisfy the people. He
+knew, none better, the fierce and turbulent temper of his countrymen,
+and how it was most politic to deal with them. In making this concession
+he showed his political wisdom, if not a certain breadth and greatness
+of statecraft. After all it was, from an independent standpoint, but a
+small concession as compared to the prize that he got in return for it.
+It was a compromise in other words. Yet this and his own evidence in the
+Koran is important as showing that Mohammed was not so much in a strict
+sense the originator of a new creed as he was a reformer and the
+renovator of an old one. It was the impress of his great personality,
+distinguished as this was by the intense sincerity and earnestness of
+his nature, that has left its mark on human history.
+
+Mohammed was a thinker and a worker not only for his own, but for all
+time. He recognized that man was equally a political and religious
+product of God's creation. He understood that as a counterpoise to man's
+materialism and to the destructive in his nature, is that indefinable
+essence which we call the spiritual and the constructive. The more one
+looks into and understands the Koran, the more obvious is it that
+Mohammed concentrated all the active and vigorous energies of his vivid
+and powerful imagination, also his virile mentality, on the
+accomplishment of his great design. For design it certainly was. The
+wish undoubtedly was father to the thought. Not, however, in an
+invidious sense, but in the firm conviction that design and not accident
+or chance is one of the controlling principles of God and His creation,
+and that, consistent with this principle, he, Mohammed, had been chosen
+as the divine agent. Personal ambition and aggrandizement never for a
+moment entered his head, or formed part of it. The national good, to be
+attained only by a national or universal God--the one and only God of
+the universe--was the one great ambition that inspired and impelled him.
+Because although every one for himself and God for us all is presumably
+a natural law, Mohammed managed to evade it. But in evading it, he was
+not revolutionary. On the contrary, in this way he rose one step upward
+above the lower human level towards that higher humanity which
+approaches the divine.
+
+This design, as I have just said, originated from the doctrine of divine
+unity attributed to Moses and Abraham. Indeed, as one reads the Koran
+carefully and steadily through from beginning to end, it is manifested
+in every surah--almost, in fact, on every page. The whole work, in fact,
+is saturated with the one idea, inspired by the one thought. Everywhere
+there is evidence of the final object in view, the unconquerable will,
+the inflexible resolve, the fixed purpose, the indomitable perseverance,
+the unyielding persistency, the infinite and interminable patience, the
+calm endurance, the irresistible courage, and the grim tenacity of the
+ego. So much so is this evident, that when I compare this determinism
+with the neurotic element in Mohammed's character, I am obliged to
+admit that the balance remains with the former. Yet--and this I think is
+the strangest feature about this strange but commanding
+personality--there is no getting away from the fact that he was much
+under the influence of the latter.
+
+It is, of course, possible that Mohammed was what in Arabia is called a
+"Saudawi," or person of melancholy temperament--what nowadays would be
+called a hypochondriacal dyspeptic. Melancholia is a complaint that the
+Arabs are subject to, students, philosophers and literary men more
+especially. A distaste for society, a longing for solitude, an unsettled
+habit of mind, and a neglect of worldly affairs are always attributed to
+it. It is very probably--to some extent at least--as Burton suggests,
+the effect of overworking the brain in a hot, dry atmosphere; also due
+in some measure to the highly nervous and bilious temperament
+constitutional to the Arabs: a temperament that in Mohammed's case was
+aggravated by excessive emotionalism.
+
+It is clear that once Mohammed got hold of, or was obsessed by, the idea
+that he was God's chosen messenger, and that his sayings were inspired
+by God (a very old and primitive belief remember): or rather as soon as
+ever Khadija and others of his household were imbued with the idea, then
+he never relaxed his hold of it for a moment. The confidence of those
+about him, his faithful spouse more especially, gave him confidence in
+himself. Confidence engendered conviction, and conviction led to the
+Koran and the ultimate triumph of his cause. That he was sincere in all
+this, there is not the slightest doubt, but in taking the measure of his
+sincerity we must be guided entirely by the fact that he was essentially
+a man who had long before made up his mind to bring about the unity of
+his country. Indeed the whole history of Khadija's association with the
+matter shows this. To be a prophet in his own country or household, a
+man must inspire respect, or the still greater feeling of veneration. No
+man, unless he is earnest and devout, could possibly impress the members
+of his family. They are bound to find him out. This applies all the more
+forcibly to an eastern household in which polygamy prevails, and that is
+made up of so many opposing elements and conflicting interests, the
+atmosphere of which is only too often one necessarily of envies,
+jealousies, rivalries, suspicions, intrigues, and even conspiracies. If
+Mohammed had been insincere, if instead of convictions, his belief had
+been a mere profession or a sham; if it had not been one of austere,
+rigid practice and self-denial, then those about him would neither have
+been impressed, nor would they have espoused his cause as warmly and
+valiantly as they did. Not only were they impressed, however, but
+convinced, and it was their convictions that strengthened and confirmed
+his own faith. But once he had gained their confidence, his mission was
+assured. There was no doubt whatever then in his own mind that he was
+God's chosen apostle, to whom God had revealed His word--the words of
+truth and life. From this out, his own vigour, his own extraordinary
+individuality and inflexibility carried him through from beginning to
+end. Once others believed in and relied on him, his own latent
+self-reliance grew into a living and active factor that carried all
+before it. But as he looked at it, all his strength was from God. God
+was at his elbow and in his heart, therefore he could not fail. Nothing,
+in fact, shows better than this aspect of the matter how very wise and
+all-knowing (his constant refrain about God in the Koran) Mohammed
+himself was. How tactful and diplomatic, but above all, how deep his
+knowledge of human nature. Had Khadija and his household not believed in
+him, it is safe to assume that then there would have been no Prophet and
+no Islam. As Novalis says: "My conviction gains infinitely the moment
+another soul will believe in it." So it was with Mohammed. So it is with
+us all. So Carlyle pithily observes: "A false man found a religion? Why
+a false man cannot build a brick house!" I have already shown that
+Mohammed was not false. But neither did he found a religion. Apart from
+the fact that he was a reality, and as true as any of the world's great
+prophets, Mohammed was unable to perform the impossible. Religion as a
+natural product was beyond his comprehension and potentialities. Islam
+like Christianity was a creed--a human or artificial development--the
+healthy and vigorous offspring of a noble and sublime, yet in no sense
+original conception. But there was no demerit in this want of
+originality. Because as Carlyle says: "The merit of originality is not
+novelty; it is sincerity": and with regard to Mohammed, this has been
+more than once acknowledged.
+
+Launched upon the world of Arabia in no false and unreal spirit, but
+with the spirit of grim sincerity and earnestness, Islam has proved its
+stability spiritually and materially, the present result of which speaks
+for itself. It is enough to say that a creed whose followers now number
+over 250,000,000, or some 15 per cent. of the human race (an under-
+rather than an over-estimate), could have sprung from a healthy and
+vigorous seed only--a seed that has been nourished and kept alive by the
+vital spark of human sympathies, hopes and aspirations.
+
+What appears to me as so remarkable and so significant, so truly
+characteristic of the man, is the way in which he never lets go his grip
+of the central idea and purpose, but follows it up step by step. And as
+he follows, he makes every point that he can, seizes every opportunity,
+takes every advantage of every ordinary event and occurrence that is
+going on around him, makes the best of every reverse, turns even his
+set-backs and reverses into moral victories; and accepts it all as
+inevitable with the calmness of a philosophy that emanated from his own
+wondrous egoism and that inexhaustible fund of patience and reserve of
+courage which so distinguishes his character. In this respect alone
+Mohammed truly was a remarkable man--a man infinitely above, not only
+his surroundings, but his age. With Mohammed, not only was the great
+fact of his own existence great to him, but in almost every page of the
+Koran it is obvious that God's omnipresence and omnipotence had made a
+profound and lasting impression on him. Everywhere and in everything--in
+natural objects more especially--he saw and felt the hand and the power
+of God. And to him it was a power so overwhelmingly terrific and
+transcendent in all its aspects, that it defied description and
+demonstrated the insignificance and impotence of man. In more senses
+than one he was a pantheist. To him, either God was Nature and Nature
+God, or God was in Nature and Nature was in God. At bottom of him the
+old primitive belief was there, but in unity and concentration he saw
+strength. In his mind there was no room, no place, for lesser deities.
+The power and the splendour of the one creative God--who lived and moved
+and had His being throughout the universe, overshadowed, or, rather, had
+absorbed, them all. In the grim silence of the desert, in the vastness
+of the heavens, in the great infinity of space, in the scintillation of
+the stars, in every fibre of his own consciousness, God was with him. To
+Mohammed God was not a personal being but the God and Maker of the
+universe and all mankind. With him the entire theme and volume of his
+stream of thought was God and his religion. Coming from the core and
+centre of him as it did, even through the long vista of thirteen
+centuries, one can picture this overmastering element in every line of
+his stern-set and yet gentle face: a face reflective and speaking, that
+not only had a history stamped upon every feature, but a great, a
+strenuous, and a commanding history. _In vino veritas_ is as true to-day
+as when first it was uttered. So too the saw, that "mastership like wine
+unmasks the man." But Mohammed needed no unmasking. God and the
+truth--the truth about God as it dominated him--was the rich, strong
+wine which coursed through every vein and fibre of his mental organism,
+stimulating and spurring him onwards to a sustained and continuous
+effort that ended only in death. A sincere and earnest man, a natural,
+therefore a deeply religious man, to him God was also a Dayyan (one of
+the ninety-nine epithets of God), i.e. "A weigher of good and evil"; One
+who computed and settled accounts; the holder of the even balance and
+scales of justice, the Judge and Arbiter of all mankind.
+
+But apart from these functions, the power and sublimity of the Supreme
+Being, as he saw it expressed in the silent grandeur of the desert, the
+death-like stillness of the sandy sea, the frowning ruggedness and
+majesty of the mountains, the immense universality of Nature, was always
+before his eyes and in all his thoughts. Full of this feeling, of the
+awe and veneration innate in man and co-existent with the eternal ages,
+he bursts out in the second surah: "God! there is no God but He; the
+living, the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizeth Him; to
+Him _belongeth_ whatsoever is in heaven, and on earth. Who is he that
+can intercede with Him, but through His good pleasure? He knoweth that
+which is past, and that which is to come unto them, and they shall not
+comprehend anything of His knowledge, but so far as He pleaseth. His
+throne is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both
+is no burden unto Him. He is the high and mighty."
+
+As a natural outburst of emotions and convictions that had been pent up
+within his own inner consciousness, that were the offspring of some
+twenty years of journeyings to and fro across the deserts where "Amin"
+the faithful one was in direct and constant contact with Nature, and
+often in silent communion with the Infinite, these few words are truly
+magnificent and sublime; magnificent not only for the boldness and
+sublimity of their imagery and conception, but magnificent also with the
+intensity and profundity of true sincerity. Few, but all the more pithy
+for that, these words are from the heart and soul of the man--a man who
+speaks not unadvisedly with his lips, but who feels with every nerve and
+fibre of his intensely emotional being. They are (as he himself feels)
+the outpouring of an insignificant and impotent atom, yet of a sincere
+and earnest man approaching in all humility and veneration, and with the
+loyalty and allegiance of a true believer and servant, the great,
+invisible He, who holds him and all creatures in the hollow of His
+mighty hand.
+
+In a conversation that Luther had one day with some friends at table, he
+spoke of the world as a vast and magnificent pack of cards composed of
+emperors, kings, princes and so forth. For several ages these had been
+vanquished by the Pope. Then God had come upon the scene, and chosen the
+"ace," the very smallest card in the pack--himself, in a word--and
+overthrown this conqueror of worldly powers and principalities.
+Mohammed, as much as Luther, was one of "God's Aces." Seldom, indeed, in
+the history of the world, has so great a human river flowed from a
+source so puny. Never did the divine manifest itself in a single pip, so
+seemingly small and insignificant as a cause, yet so pre-eminently and
+consistently great as an effect!
+
+"Men," says Dumas in one of his historico-romantic masterpieces, "are
+visible, palpable, moral. You can meet, attack, subdue them; and when
+they are subdued you can subject them to trial and hang them. But ideas
+you cannot oppose in that way. They glide unseen; they penetrate; they
+hide themselves especially from the sight of those who would destroy
+them. Hidden in the depths of the soul, they there throw out deep roots.
+The more you cut off the branches which imprudently appear, the more
+powerful and inextirpable become the roots below.
+
+"An idea is a young giant which must be watched night and day; for the
+idea which yesterday crawled at your feet, to-morrow will dispose of
+your head. An idea is a spark falling upon straw." ... "For the mind of
+man is no inert receptacle of knowledge, but absorbs and incorporates
+into its own constitution the ideas which it receives." Thus it was with
+Mohammed. God was the spark, the vital spark of spiritual flame, and
+this humble but honest Arab trader was the straw, that after twenty
+years of silent but tenacious smouldering God had set a light to.
+
+The better, however, to understand his character and purpose, we must
+divide his life into two sections. The first when, as trader from the
+age of thirteen up to forty, first for his uncle and then for Khadija,
+he was the man of business. Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas
+and ideals that he kept to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+For not until the time was ripe and the hour had come, not until he felt
+the call--felt, that is, that he was ready and able to begin--did he
+confide even in Khadija. The second section when, as the apostle of God,
+he worked with all the fiery fervour yet steady zeal of a true prophet,
+to put his ideas into practice. But there was this difference with
+regard to Mohammed as a theorist. He was not a man of many ideas. In
+reality one central idea alone inspired him. But great and magnificent
+as that was, it was equal to a multitude. It was a growing and a
+spreading giant which, like the prolific banyan tree, threw out branch
+and root with such extravagant luxuriance, that it completely
+overshadowed and predominated the entire expanse of his mental area. We
+know what this idea was. We know that round and out of the central stem
+of God's overmastering unity Mohammed had determined to construct an
+Arabian nation--possibly something even greater. We know, too, that the
+one was but the offspring of the other. Or it may be that they were the
+twin offspring of all this profound and concentrated contemplation. But
+we do not know how this great idea first took root. Let us, however, try
+and trace it to its source as nearly as we can.
+
+With still greater emphasis than Chrysostom, who asserted that "the true
+Shekinah is man," Carlyle says: "the essence of our being, the mystery
+in us that calls itself 'I,' is a breath of heaven; the highest Being
+reveals Himself in man." An idea such as this would never have occurred
+to Mohammed. The fatherhood of God in its accepted human sense was
+repugnant to him. The mere thought was sacrilege!
+
+His conception of God was much too exalted, much too divine for this.
+God and humanity could have no possible connexion. God was the
+Creator--the Potter, who out of the clay or matter in chaos had made
+the world and all therein. Humanity was but a small part only of His
+creation. Men were but as clay in His hands--mere creatures of His.
+Beyond this hard and fast line there could be no relationship between
+God and man. Association was as impossible as comparison was
+objectionable. God, as supreme Creator and Director of the universe, was
+a Being altogether distinct and apart from His own creation. Yet as such
+He was the soul or spirit of it, the breath of life to all that lived,
+and of death to all that died. Man was as evil, as puny, and as weak as
+God was great and good and strong. God was too exalted and glorious for
+words. Incomprehensible and inscrutable, He was beyond the power of
+language, outside the narrow limitations of thought to imagine. Just as
+the heavens were divided from the earth by boundless space, so far apart
+was God from man. The endless immensity of everything was insufficient
+to express His omnipotence--fell far short of the unthinkable reality.
+Even the heavens and earth as His handiwork did not convey as completely
+as it might appear to do the capacity of the power that belonged to Him.
+To Mohammed, in every vibrating star an all-seeing eye and glory of the
+great Creator, God, was visible; in every tiny blade of grass, in every
+spring of water, He was manifest and tangible. So some eleven centuries
+after Mohammed was laid to rest, a poor, struggling, but undaunted
+artist-poet, looking from his mean London garret with the eyes of a
+dreamer-mystic into the great invisible above and beyond him (just as
+Amin the faithful one had done), yearned:
+
+    "To see the world in a grain of sand,
+    And a heaven in a wild flower;
+    Hold Infinity in the palm of "his" hand,
+    And eternity in an hour."
+
+And in the middle of the late departed century--which rushed across the
+great void of Time like a hissing meteor--thus Tennyson:
+
+    "Flower in the crannied wall,
+    I pluck you out of the crannies,
+    I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
+    Little flower; but if I could understand
+    What you are, root and all, and all in all,
+    I should know what God and man is."
+
+While to Wordsworth, with a faith in Nature and Nature's God as deep as
+Mohammed, the meanest flower that blows, gave thoughts that often lay
+too deep for words.
+
+Society is only too apt to judge or condemn facts and men; also to
+ridicule the age and its spirit. This drastic method saves the trouble
+of comprehending them. The society of keen Arab traders and wily
+Bedouins which environed Mohammed did not comprehend him. To them he
+was not so much like a fish out of water, as a land quadruped at sea,
+altogether out of his element as well as out of his depth--a flotsam
+struggling to get to dry land as a jetsam.
+
+Immeasurably above and beyond his social contemporaries either morally
+or spiritually, to them Mohammed was an enigma and a mystery. "Scenting
+a mystery is like the first bite at a piece of scandal, and holy souls
+do not detest it. In the secret compartments of bigotry there is some
+curiosity for scandal." But among Mohammed's opponents--the Koreish more
+particularly--it was not merely scandal that moved them: it was
+jealousy, envy, malice, and in the end sheer diabolical hatred. In
+describing the state of a mind that is advancing, we must remember that
+all progress is not made in one march or even series of marches.
+Mohammed's march was entirely uphill, dead against the collar, the whole
+way and all the time, except, perhaps, just towards the end. Yet each
+day's march brought him nearer to the goal of his desires. Slowly but
+surely he made progress, and with it reputation. The slowness of his
+movement, his advance, made progress and reputation all the more not a
+dead, but a living certainty. But there is always anarchy in reputation.
+It was this reputation--this individuality that dared to insolently
+assert itself in the overthrow of their ancestral gods--which explained
+Koreish hostility.
+
+Mohammed was a calm, yet by no means an unprogressive agent of
+Providence. Brains that are absorbed either in mania or wisdom, or, as
+often happens, in both at once, are permeated very very slowly by the
+things of this world. But even admitting that there was melancholia,
+there was no mania about Mohammed. If ever a man was sane and healthy,
+he was. "You grant a devout man, you grant a wise man: no man has a
+seeing eye without first having had a seeing heart." This fits his case
+to a nicety. A more devout man than Mohammed never lived. He was as
+pre-eminently wise as he was devout. He utilized his wisdom to the
+fullest extent of his capacity, and he proved his devoutness by putting
+his beliefs to the infallible test of stern and rigid practice. A trader
+to his finger tips, a clear-sighted man of business, and a statesman
+with prophetic instincts, who profited by the past, utilized the
+present, and prepared for the future, in this sense he was a
+contradiction. The being absorbed in wisdom did not prevent him from
+carrying on his worldly duties in the most conscientious and thorough
+manner. _Per contra_, his worldly duties did not prevent him from
+philosophical absorption. The one was his duty, the other the breath of
+life to him. His veneration of God gradually crystallized the religion
+in him into a creed. This is generally the result of concentration. His
+absorption of God ended in God's absorption of him. It was a long and
+gradual process which occupied twenty years. During this period of
+embryonic development he withdrew, as it were, into himself. Then when
+the crisis arrived, it came out of him, as a river flows out of a
+spring, and was called Islam. "Our chimeras," says Victor Hugo, "are the
+things which most resemble ourselves, and each man dreams of the
+unknown, and the impossible according to his nature." Mohammed's
+chimera, as we know, was God and Arabian unity. But there was nothing
+chimerical about the former, and with this invincible lever, the latter
+too was a distinct probability. For although he was doubtless
+superstitious--that is natural--and wrestled with shadows and visions,
+Mohammed dealt in realities. To him God was the most real thing, the
+sternest reality of all in the universe. God, in fact, was the Universe.
+These, which to another would have been the unknown and the impossible,
+were to him the possible and the inevitable. The nature that was in him
+was the nature of God and the universe. There is a point where
+profundity is oblivion, when light becomes extinguished. Though from a
+literary aspect Mohammed was not profound, in a religious sense his
+profundity, centring as it did in God, burst forth into the Cimmerian
+darkness which enveloped his country with the brilliancy of a meteor
+that illumines the blackest night.
+
+There is too a way of encountering error by going all the way to meet
+the truth, also by a sort of violent good faith which accepts everything
+unconditionally. There was nothing violent (certainly not for a long
+period), but there was everything that stands for goodness and stability
+in Mohammed's faith. It was thus--in the spirit of a hero and the valour
+of a Paladin--he encountered the error and opposition of his enemies by
+first of all going out of his way to meet the truth; then, in spite of
+themselves and their hostility, by enforcing it upon those who would not
+be persuaded. According to Fontenelle, "there is only truth that
+persuades, and even without requiring to appear with all its proofs. It
+makes its way so naturally into the mind, that when it is heard for the
+first time, it seems as if one were only remembering." This was very
+much the case with Mohammed. This was why he tried at first to lead and
+not to drive his countrymen to the truth. To him who saw the truth of
+God's existence, His mercy written as plainly in the falling raindrop as
+His power of retribution is in the lightning that flashes across the sky
+as if it would rend it, their stubbornness in rejecting God was utterly
+incomprehensible. His mind had two attitudes. The one was turned to God,
+the other to man. In contemplating God, he but studied man's interests
+and his own. But contemplation with Mohammed did not end by becoming a
+form of indolence. Imaginative--visionary, in fact--as he was, he did
+not allow his imagination to play tricks with him. He did not fancy that
+he wanted for nothing. Even when married to Khadija, and in tolerable
+affluence, there was obviously a great void in his life. This want of
+course was spiritual. Exact and punctilious as he was in his temporal
+duties, his whole bent and inclination was towards the former. As a
+younger and poorer man, he had looked so much at the humanity around him
+that he saw right down into its very soul. With the same fervent
+intensity he had looked into nature until he saw or rather felt the
+creator and controller thereof. "There are times when the unknown
+reveals itself in a mysterious way to the spirit of man. A sudden rent
+in the veil of darkness will make manifest things hitherto unseen, and
+then close again upon the mysteries within. Such visions have
+occasionally the power to effect a transfiguration in those whom they
+visit. They convert a poor camel-driver into a Mahomet; a peasant girl
+tending her goats into a Joan of Arc." A conscientious and faithful
+worker, Mohammed was at the same time a dreamer. But his dreams were but
+the reflex of his work and of his ideas. These came to him like
+mountainous waves, or the swell of an angry surf as it thunders on the
+beach with a threatening roar, a mass of water that would submerge the
+very earth. His ideas did not, however, submerge him. Nor did they
+destroy or bury him. Out of their unknown and bosky depths Mohammed
+invariably rose to the surface with the buoyancy of a life-belt, calm
+and unmoved, for his spiritual centre of gravity always held him up. He
+dreamt of man, but chiefly of God--of God's goodness and greatness, of
+man's impotence and frailty. He looked at the solid earth on which he
+stood, with its stones and its sand, its wheat and its tares, its joys
+and sorrows, but particularly its suffering children and helpless women.
+Then he looked at the vast void above, with its star-spangled sky, its
+sun and moon, and the God that made all and was in all. This led him to
+think of the void that was in himself, and to compare the one with the
+other. Then he pondered and compared. The greatness of it all passed
+into him and he dreamt again. There was no void above, for God filled
+it. So too his own emptiness gave place to the Supreme. All at once a
+great feeling of tenderness was aroused within him. From the egotism of
+the _genus vir_, he passed to the contemplation of the _genus homo_, the
+man who contemplates and feels. God had touched his heart. In
+forgetfulness of self was born a great compassion for all. For years and
+years Mohammed lived with his neck in a noose of obstacles composed of
+human thorns and millstones. He was, so to speak, an outcast, thrown on
+the dung heap, and into the brambles; at times even in the mud. Yet no
+mud clung to him, not even to his feet. His head at all events was
+always in the light, his hand always resting on the omnipotence of the
+Almighty. Invariably gentle, attentive, serious, benevolent, easily
+satisfied, he remained serene and peaceful. It was only in the last
+extremity, when all his persuasive earnestness failed him, that his
+enemies stirred him to wrath. But it was a just and dispassionate wrath;
+it was the wrath of God. For whether they liked or no, Mohammed in his
+dual capacity as God's agent and Arabian patriot had made up his mind
+that they should have God. On this point he was inexorable. Feeling that
+there is an eternity in justice, he felt that in justice to God, and to
+themselves, and in spite of themselves, it was his duty to proclaim the
+truth. Many a less tenaciously sincere man, many a real hero, would have
+shrunk from and have succumbed before an ordeal so terrific, a contest
+so supremely Titanic. But Mohammed was made of sterner stuff, of the
+spirit that gods are made of. Failure was a word that he did not
+recognize. With God at his back, success was an absolute certainty--a
+foregone conclusion.
+
+Whatever might be his desire to remain where he was and cling to it, he
+was impelled to advance, to continue, to go on further and still
+further. Yet to think and to ask himself where it was all going to lead
+him to? But although he thought, he never hesitated, never turned back.
+His hand was to the plough--the plough God. God was the goal, the end,
+the summit of human existence and ambition. Humanity was the soil, and
+to get there he must furrow his way through its enmities and affections.
+Firm and exceptional natures are thus moulded out of miseries,
+misfortunes and afflictions. As a result of his work history shows us
+more and more that Mohammed was firm and exceptional to the very highest
+degree. Yet there was nothing of that hypocrisy which Victor Hugo calls
+supreme cynicism about him. He was too human, too much in earnest, to be
+anything but Amin the Faithful. There is, after all, more in a name than
+meets the eye. In some names there is history and the tragedy of
+history. In others there is the might and majesty of a commanding
+magnetism, which recognizes the sublimity of truth. In Mohammed's case,
+even to this day over two hundred and fifty million human beings bow the
+knee through him to God. Yes, there is much--a world of meaning--that is
+inexpressible in a name--a magic and a _je ne sais quoi_ which under the
+label of Napoleon led men to the Kingdom Come of glory--in other words,
+to destruction and the devil--but that with Mohammed was the open sesame
+to the glory and power of God. A rose by any other name may smell as
+sweet. But Islam without the halo of time-honoured sanctity that
+attaches to the name of Mohammed, would sound as but a hollow brass or a
+tinkling cymbal. Just, in fact, as the man himself was sincere and
+faithful, there is, and there will continue to be, a magic in his
+name--more so even than that of Christ has for the Christian--drawing
+men to God, as he in person drew them not alone by sheer force of will
+and character, but by a force which was even stronger, the force of
+sincerity and truth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED
+
+
+A true son of the desert, it is impossible to understand the powerful
+and complex personality of Mohammed, unless we can appreciate the
+peculiar character and genius of the desert. More so in some ways even
+than the seaman, the dweller or sojourner in the desert is distinct and
+unique in himself. Possessing the courage of the Fatalist, and as free
+as the roving winds of heaven, he is all the same of a shrinking and
+timorous nature, confronted as he often is by certain aspects and
+phenomena that imperil his life and strike down to the very roots of his
+moral consciousness.
+
+In the desert there is, comparatively speaking, little life. Unlike the
+forest region, it is naked and almost destitute. There, as at sea, man
+is face to face not only with the great elements, but with the greater
+Infinite and Invisible. He is nearer to God and the immensity of Nature.
+There is nothing--or little at least--to distract his attention--nothing
+between him and the ever watchful Inscrutable. There is no shade from
+the sun by day, no protection from the moon and stars at night. They
+look down on him as from the pinnacle of the sublimest elevation. The
+fiercer glory of the sun by day burns into his very soul, consumes his
+very marrow. The milder effulgence of the moon by night throws its
+silvery glamour over all his senses. The lesser and more distant
+splendour of the stars--those watch-fires of angelic spirits--in their
+countless myriads awe and bewilder him. In the choking breath of the
+simoom he feels the potentialities of God, and his own helpless
+impotence. Struck all of a heap by its stifling blast, he is filled with
+fear and trembling in the presence of a Power invisible yet tangible and
+deadly. Whether he wills or not, the fear of God--of the Inexorable and
+Inevitable--enters into his heart and takes possession of his inmost
+soul. Call it the fear of God or not, it is practically one and the same
+feature--the mere human label makes no difference to this awful and
+unseen reality--the same fear of the Unknown, the Unexpected and the
+Inevitable: the Inevitable that is always with us, the agnostic and the
+sophist no less than with the theologian, yet unseen, incomprehensible
+and omnipotent. But more than anything, it is the awful and impenetrable
+silence that impresses and appals the silent and dignified nomad of the
+desert.
+
+To those who have never been outside the confines of civilization, it is
+not logically possible even to guess at the extraordinary influence--a
+fascination amounting to witchery--that the silence and solitude of the
+desert exercises over one. Yet if I were asked to define the essence and
+subtlety of this influence, I could but answer that it is indefinable;
+all the same a glamour that, like the force of gravity, is irresistible.
+Free and open like the sea (but fresh only at night), it is not the
+witchery of the soft blue sky, for the sky of the desert is hard and
+steely; it is not the fierce white heat of the fervid sun that melts
+into the very marrow of one's bones; but rather is it the soothing magic
+of the moon at night, under the brilliant canopy of the heavens, when
+the earth, cooling rapidly, is lulled into eternal silence, that one
+falls under the magic spell of its wondrous influence. But even the
+glamour of the moon is out-glamoured by the darkness of the night under
+whose funereal pall even the great suns and planets hide their
+diminished heads. There is in the darkness and the silence of the night
+a mystery and a profundity that arouses the sluggish, even the stagnant
+consciousness of the dullard--that much more so attracts the quickening
+soul of the mystic and visionary, which springs to it with the same
+eager avidity that a lean and hungry trout leaps at the first fly which
+he sees after a long and enforced abstinence. It is in this darkness and
+silence of the night, rather than in the fierce glare of the midday sun,
+that the fear of the great Infinite comes to man. For if we but think of
+it, what a spectre-teeming spectacle is night. We hear strange, weird
+sounds. We know not whence they come or whither they go. Or it may be
+that all around us is as the silence of the grave--of eternal death. We
+see the evening star looming large like a great world on fire. The blue
+of the sky looms black. The stars seem to speak to us; the whole scene
+is impressive--a sight for the gods. In the desert, however, and to the
+earnest thinker whose centre of gravity is God, night is something more
+than a mere spectacle--a something greater, grander and more terrifying
+than a simple impression--a feeling deeper and sublimer even than a
+conviction: a revelation of the Unseen Unknown which is all the time
+behind that which he sees and knows.
+
+Full as night is of phantoms, shades, sounds and silence, it is no
+illusive mirage, no mere empty simulacrum. But in every way it is a
+reality and a substance which is tangible, that touches one not only on
+the spot, on the raw, but everywhere; that fills one with vague fears,
+and brings even the proudest and the sternest to their knees before the
+power of the great Omnipotence. The very stars which hang out in the
+great firmament appear as God's sign-posts--great all-seeing eyes that
+are ever upon us--or like eternal watch-fires which contrast the
+eternity of God with the momentary mortality of man; they enhance the
+blackness of the blue. Peering as they do into the awesome watcher's
+inmost soul, they either drive him headlong into the blackness and
+terrors of evil, or lead him by their kindly light into the glory of the
+Almighty Presence. Unquestionably the night is either diabolical or
+sacred. Not only this, she is the brooder and breeder of all primitive
+doctrines, the conceiver and the mother of all human creeds. In her
+immense womb there is a latent light, a smouldering volcano full of
+ashes, cinders, and dead men's bones; yet full also of fire-sparks that
+are capable of flashing into luminosity, even of bursting into hissing,
+leaping and devouring flames. It was thus that Christianity and Islam
+came into being. It was thus out of the primeval sacrifices, the shadows
+and silence of death and darkness, that all creeds have crept into and
+out of the minds of men. Tortuous human ant-heaps bored and tunnelled
+through and through by human ideas, human hopes, and human aspirations;
+worlds in the low-lying limbo of the foetus stage, fecundating in all
+directions into beliefs, faiths, creeds, sects, denominations,
+quackeries, dissimulations and charlatanism. Labyrinthine, subterranean,
+and full of subtleties as all these creeds appear to be, they are easy
+enough to comprehend. They have all sprung from the same simple seed if
+we would but recognize it. If we but looked at this vista of the past as
+through a mental telescope, if we but grasped the substance and not the
+shadow, went straight to the simple root instead of to the theological
+and metaphysical subtleties of it all, we would find it absolutely
+simple. If we would but for a moment drop from our eyes the dense scales
+of dogma, bigotry and prejudice, there would be no difficulty in tracing
+back all these enigmatic ramifications and gloomy obscurities of
+pristine darkness and chaos to the one central germ idea, the one
+vitalizing spark that inspires and illumines them all.
+
+It is obvious that Wordsworth, when he speaks of only "two voices," the
+one "of the sea," the other "of the mountains"--"each a mighty voice,"
+quite overlooked the bleakness and silence of the desert. This
+overpowering blackness that pervades the very soul, creeps through every
+vent into the bones and chills one to the very marrow. This sublime
+silence, that speaks to one as the still small voice of God spoke to
+Moses, and that fills the thinker with even greater awe and veneration
+than the crashing and rolling thunder. This silence which is of
+eternity, therefore golden, while speech is of to-day and only silvern,
+for as Carlyle reminds us: "After speech has done its best, silence has
+to include all that speech has forgotten or cannot express."
+
+Speaking for myself, who have passed many days of my existence at sea,
+and many more still in the desert, there is that in the latter which
+always reminds me of the former. To be sure, the ever restless sea with
+its almost myriad moods--its calm, its motion, its rippling smiles, its
+wavy undulations, its heights and depths, its fickleness and treachery,
+its dazzling beauties, its fierce turbulence--is as unlike the desert,
+with its grim stiff grandeur and appalling sameness as it well could be:
+still--
+
+    "Tho' inland far we be,
+    Our souls have sight of that immortal sea
+    Which brought us thither."
+
+There is no music in it by day or by night, only the dead still hush of
+silence. Yet the desert has its aspects, if it has not its moods and
+contrasts--as singular as they are striking. See, or rather feel it
+under the fierce and scorching glare of the fiery sun, that almost
+shrivels you into a mummy; see it also under the softer spell of the
+silvery orb, when the air is balmy, if not fresh, and you will at once
+imagine yourself to be in an altogether different and enchanted world.
+Then again, lose yourself in the desert on a dark night when for once in
+a way the stars are dim or obscured by clouds, and you will realize as
+you never before have done, the awesome reality of the sense of
+loneliness--a feeling which can only be compared to that felt by the
+hunted criminal hiding in a city, and against whom every man's hand is
+raised.
+
+But there is besides in the desert the fateful mirage that, like the
+ocean sirens, has lured so many to their doom. Finally there is the
+oasis which stands out of the sea of shimmering sand, like an island
+paradise that towers over the waste of seething waters which encircle
+it. The desert too, like the sea, has its ships and its men. Ships that
+pass by day as well as by night. Ships that stride across the great
+sandy wastes, grunting and gawky, with unwearying patience, unyielding
+tenacity, and unerring instinct. As are the ships, so are the men. But
+in place of gawkiness and grunts, the golden virtue of silence, and the
+conscious pride of natural dignity. Men who in their very port and
+carriage are the very spirit and personification of the desert. Men who
+represent not the genii, but the genius of the great dry sea of sand
+and silence. Indeed, if ever men on this planet of ours were
+patriarchal, if ever men bore themselves with the gait and the simple
+dignity of free men, the Bedawins of Arabia and the North African
+deserts do. With the lynx-like, yet enigmatic expression that calls to
+mind a combination of eagle keenness and owl-like solemnity, there is
+about them a freedom of manner and bearing, a dignity of carriage, an
+independence of character, that are the peculiarly glorious and
+distinctive heirlooms of the air, expanse and grandeur of these inland
+seas. In every sense, moral and physical, they are the products of an
+unrestricted environment that has made them what they are--wanderers on
+the face of the earth. But wanderers from choice. Untrammelled even to
+licence; giving an unbridled rein to their spirit of independence.
+Regarding with supreme contempt the luxuries and even necessaries of
+civilization. Yet with it all slaves to the spiritual fears that haunt
+them. Relics of a primitive and old-world civilization, there is about
+these Bedawins a flavour of antiquity, of a past that is hoary with the
+hoariness of eternal age, so distant that we cannot conjecture about it,
+even in the vaguest of terms. In addition to this everlasting antiquity
+and conservatism, there is about these patriarchs a naturally dignified
+reticence, and an air of calm, quiet assurance and authority, that are
+peculiarly their own personal property. But there is even more than
+this. There is that same universal concept--common to all primitive
+people who have not outlived it--of belief in the fear of a supreme
+power. That same awe and reverence for the patriarchal authority
+connected with that of the ancestors which has preceded it; that calm
+and philosophical acceptation of Karma or Fatalism; that same dread of
+consequences; that identical terror of malignant demons; that same
+shrinking from the inevitable, which is the heritage of all natural
+people. Inherent instincts that even twelve centuries of Islam have
+scarcely modified. When we get underneath the surface of human nature as
+represented by the Arab, whether he came from the east, the west, the
+south, or the centre, it is obvious that the underlying motive for most,
+if not all, of his social customs is inspired by that personal or
+religious instinct which is so closely allied to the primary instincts
+of all. Out of such fundamental material did Mohammed emerge!
+
+Nevertheless, with all its drawbacks, there is about the desert, only in
+a different degree, the pleasure of the pathless woods, the rapture of
+the lonely shore. Just as by the deep and rolling sea whose very roar is
+music, there is a society where none intrudes, so with the desert.
+Right in the very core and centre of its silence and solitude, the man
+whose ears and eyes are open to receive impressions, finds himself in
+the presence of that invisible but omniscient power of Nature. The power
+that, while it causes the earnest thinker to pause and reflect, makes
+the average human being yearn for the companionship of his own kind. But
+it was not so with Mohammed. Mohammed was not as other men are. He was a
+thought leader. Not a deep thinker by any means; but profoundly in
+earnest. Few men in the world's history--judging at least by
+results--have been more in earnest than he was. In Hannibal there is the
+same earnest fixity of purpose, only different in kind, the same
+unquenchable ardour, and the same iron will that kept him faithful to
+the sacred vow of undying vengeance against the Romans, that his father
+exacted from him on the altar of their ancestral gods. In William the
+Silent too, but also in another direction, we find the same relentless
+purpose and the same inflexible sincerity to attain the independence and
+autonomy of the United Provinces. Cromwell likewise gave his life and
+his services--all that was best in him in fact--in the firm and sincere
+conviction that he was God's chosen instrument. But in none of these
+men, not even in the great and heroic Ironside, was there the same
+fervent godliness, i.e. the fear and veneration of God. It was Luther
+most of all who approached Mohammed in the sincerity of his purpose,
+i.e. of his religion. For although Luther was essentially a priest, and
+did not found a new creed, his sincerity showed itself as a Protestant
+and Reformer. In his whole life the fear and veneration of God as the
+motive factor of his existence was manifest.
+
+It is, of course, just possible, as Tennyson surmises, that:
+
+    "... Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
+    And the thoughts of men are widen'd with the process of the suns."
+
+This, however, is vague and brings us no nearer to an exact
+comprehension of the matter. The better to understand this feeling of
+fear that so dominated men of the Numa, Buddha, Luther, John Knox,
+Cromwell and Mohammed type, it is essential that the student grasps and
+measures the actual measure of difference that divides religion from
+creed. It is but meet that we should accept the rational axiom, that
+religion is natural, and creed the egotistical and personal
+interpretation placed upon religion by human beings. As Draper says:
+"When natural causes suffice, it is needless to look for supernatural."
+So Bacon, looking with the insight of true genius into the Book of
+Nature, up to Nature's God, said in that immortal aphorism which opens
+the _Novum Organum_, "Homo Naturae minister et interpres"--man is the
+servant and interpreter of Nature. This will make it easier to get at
+the root of this dual feeling of fear and veneration. But to do so it is
+necessary for the student to look as far back into the past as he can.
+In every ancient cult that has ever existed, in the Chaldaean, the
+Egyptian, the Aryan, the various (so-called Pagan) African, for example,
+the same overmastering element predominates. In Grecian annals and
+literature--in the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_, Hesiod's _Theogony_, in the
+great tragedies of AEschylus, in Plutarch and other writers--Fear is not
+merely reverenced as "_Holy_," but in Greece, as elsewhere, altars were
+erected and worship offered to her as a goddess.
+
+It is in its definition and conception of religion that humanity has
+gone astray. By general acceptation religion and creed have always been
+confounded. Natural religion is spoken of as a something different and
+widely apart from Christianity, as a religion revealed. This is not so.
+There is no difference between them. Christianity is but the development
+of natural religion on the lines and ideas of certain individuals. There
+is no such thing as revelation. Religion is an evolution. It is natural.
+It comes to us from Nature, i.e. from the God out of which Nature has
+evolved. Hence its constructive and destructive dualism. It is a living
+and vital force that is innate in man as being one with Nature.
+Obviously this veneration, this fear of the Unseen, the Unexpected and
+the Inevitable (which I have spoken of), is one of the root instincts
+out of which it unfolds itself. Most unquestionably it is the outward
+and visible expression of the inner consciousness or spirit that moves
+man to the adoration of veneration in the constructive direction, and of
+fear in the destructive. This varies in the individual. Thus on the one
+hand we have a Mohammed; on the other a Napoleon. From the very
+beginning of human existence right down until now this fear of God has
+predominated. It still exists. It will go on existing. Religion is as
+much a part of the human constitution as the primal instincts. Creed is
+acquired. It is environment and education that makes or forms creed. The
+child becomes what his teacher makes him, as he can neither distinguish,
+discriminate nor judge for himself. But to make him Jew, Gentile or
+Christian, the religion must be in him. Creed, in a word, is but the
+view that is taken of natural religion by the ego. But a matter so
+important as this, however, cannot here be entered into.
+
+As it has been with all the great religious leaders of history, so too
+it was with Mohammed. Fearing, yet venerating, the might, the majesty
+and the goodness of God, the companionship that he most wanted was not
+human but divine. Communion with Him, through his own thought and
+through the great Infinity around him, was what his heart most desired.
+A town Arab by birth and breeding, a Bedawin by feeling and instinct, he
+was something more than a mere native of Arabia. Rather a son of men, an
+apostle chosen out specially from among men, that he might bear to them
+the message and truth of God.
+
+"Men," says Victor Hugo, "talk to themselves, speak to themselves, but
+the external silence is not interrupted. There is a grand tumult;
+everything speaks within us, excepting the mouth. The realities of the
+soul, for all they are not visible and palpable, are not the less
+realities." The great reality, as I have shown, that obsessed Mohammed
+was God. Though invisible in person or even in spirit, God was none the
+less visible and palpable to him as much in the finest speck of sand as
+in the consuming glory of the sun. In the mocking spectres of the night,
+as well as in the shifting shadows of the morning, the might and majesty
+of Allah was supreme. In the dead silence of human solitude, the grand
+tumult within him was only grand and tumultuous because God talked to
+him and he to God in the suppressed sibilance of hushed and awesome
+whisperings. "Diamonds are only found in the darkness of the earth;
+truths are only found in the depths of the thought." As it seemed to
+Father Madeline, the ex-convict Jean Valjean, so it appeared to
+Mohammed, "that after descending into these depths, after groping for
+some time in the densest of this darkness, he had found one of these
+diamonds, one of these truths, which he held in his hand, and which
+dazzled his eyes when he looked at it." The brilliant which Mohammed
+searched for was the truth--the greatest brilliant of all! The truth
+that he found as it appeared to him was God. Thus he immolated his whole
+being to the will of God, as to the truth which resides in Him alone.
+Like Pascal, Mohammed believed that "one can be quite sure that there is
+a God without knowing what He is." Or in the words of Hobbes: "Forasmuch
+as God Almighty is incomprehensible, it follows that we can have no
+conception or image of the Deity, except only this, that _there is a
+God_." This in sense if not in word was Mohammed's idea of God as he
+tried to conceive Him. For him it was sufficient that God was the only
+God--the Creator and the Controller of the universe! "There are touching
+illusions which are perhaps sublime realities." But to Mohammed, God was
+not even "the Great Illusion," but a stern as well as a sublime reality!
+To him the desert and lone places were God's dwelling-place--as far
+away from the busy hum and haunts of men as He could get. But only
+because of the delightful charm of golden silence and solitude--only
+because in the midst thereof, as in the heavenly paradise, God dwelt
+there. The one fair spirit that he dwelt and communed with--not in close
+proximity however, but with a great gulf fixed between--was the one and
+only God, who had at last constituted him His minister and apostle,
+because of his great love and devotion to Him. It was for this that
+Mohammed sought the desert. It was there under the stars--the flashing
+forget-me-nots of God's great power--that alone with Nature and his own
+thoughts, he sought God. Who is there of us can say that he did or did
+not find Him? Can we, or can we not, by searching find God? Whether we
+can or no, however, is not the question--is not for us to decide! But
+one fact is certain--one fact is obvious. It was in the core and centre
+of the eternal silence and solitude of mountain fastnesses and desert
+expanses that the spirit of Islam had its origin. It was there, as it
+were under the myriad eyes of the great and infinite God, under the
+fiery blaze of the burning sun, under the cooler and more clinging
+glamour of the mellow moon, under the dimmer gloom and mystery of
+darkness, there with his face to the red-hot furnace blasts and
+suffocation of the simoom, that the message came to him. Alone with his
+thoughts:
+
+    "Alone, alone, all all alone,
+    Alone on a wide wide sea!"
+
+No mere saint, but God Himself, "took pity on" his "soul in agony." He
+was not alone, for God was with him. This self-communion of Mohammed
+with his thoughts, was to him none other than communion with God,
+because his thoughts were concentrated on Him with all the soul and
+strength he was humanly capable of.
+
+The power of persuasion does not always lie in the flow and eloquence of
+speech. The strongest are often the most silent. God never speaks but in
+the still small voice of consciousness, that comes to every man in the
+dark watches of the night, when the hum and movement of life is hushed
+into the silence of sleep!
+
+Solitude, too, that twin-sister of Silence, "though," as De Quincey
+says, "it may be silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of
+agencies; for solitude is essential to man." But if essential to the
+ordinary man, it is as the breath of life to men of God and prophets.
+Solitude, in fact, sinks deep into a pure and simple nature, and changes
+him in a great measure. Unconsciously it intensifies him to a
+superlative degree, and inspires him with an awe of itself that becomes
+sacred to him. Within himself the recluse feels weak, unstable and
+inconsistent. Without he is strong in the consciousness of the
+omnipotence and supremacy of the Infinite. "Solitude generates a certain
+amount of sublime exaltation. It is like the smoke arising from the
+burning bush. A mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts the
+student into the seer, and the poet into a prophet." In a word, there is
+an enthusiasm, an influence, and a power in solitude that the civilized
+man, or the man who has never been subjected to it, cannot form the
+slightest or faintest conception of. For the silence of solitude and the
+solitude of silence is a state (common to all primitive people) in which
+the being believes himself to be not only "+pleres theou+," i.e.
+full of God, but that the God predominates. Hence the enthusiasm, the
+rapture, and the power to divine and speak in divers tongues.
+
+Surely, if ever man was in deadly earnest, this faithful son of Arabia
+was. If ever man opened his heart and soul to the Father and Mother of
+all things, this Mohammed, the merchant, did. Truly if ever the great
+Author of our being responded to a soul in silent agony, i.e. in
+conflict, in a struggle for victory, it was to this great descendant of
+the bond-woman Hagar! For in Islam, and the soul of Islam, such as he
+inculcated, the victory was greater than any Marathon or Thermopylae.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+MOHAMMED'S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS
+
+
+Mohammed, as I have more than once said, was all for unity and cohesion,
+therefore against division and disintegration of any kind. Concentration
+was as the breath of life to him. Dissension a deadly evil. In his
+scheme of religion and politics there was no place for schism. Schism
+meant discord, and discord the devil. To him discord was as Ate, the
+mother of dissension. He recognized, as Spenser evidently did, that
+"discord harder is to end than to begin":
+
+    "For all her studie was, and all her thought,
+    How she might overthrow the things that concord wrought."
+
+And above all things, this Statesman Prophet was the essence and
+personification of centralization and concord. For unity alone rendered
+Islam feasible. Thus in the second Surah he insists that mankind was of
+one faith from the beginning. Thus too as a just, faithful and
+consistent man, he is opposed to violence and taking the offensive, even
+in the name and under the cloak of religion; he constantly advocates
+and authorizes (that is, has God's authority for) the defensive. He even
+recommends, at the same time that he excuses, war and retaliation on the
+unbeliever and infidel. On the whole, however, I am bound to admit that
+Mohammed disapproves of and discountenances violence in religion. He, in
+fact, distinctly forbids his followers from enforcing it. Their own
+persecution was to be met by patience. Apostates and unbelievers were to
+be given time meet for repentance. Yet to him, fanatic as he was with
+regard to religion, Islam was the only true Faith, the covenant, the
+sure ark of God that alone could secure salvation. Of this and of God he
+was no more than an Apostle--i.e. a messenger; also an expounder--but as
+such he obviously tried to live up to his name of Faithful. This speaks
+volumes for his toleration and humanity in an age when neither one nor
+the other of these attributes were much in repute; when both, in fact,
+were at a low ebb. Yet it shows us how intensely human the Prophet was.
+A man of great patience, prudence and trustworthiness, of retentive
+memory, strong character, and with the disposition of a judge--a very
+commander of men. Thus he acknowledges the divinity of God in forgiving,
+and the humanity of man in demanding reparation and restitution. Here
+the moral excellence of Mohammed shines out as a brilliant. In Surah
+xiv., "a grievous punishment is _prepared_ for the unjust. But they who
+shall have believed and wrought righteousness, shall be introduced into
+gardens, wherein rivers flow; they shall remain therein _for ever_ by
+the permission of their Lord, and their salutation therein _shall be_
+Peace." From this and many other similar passages, it would seem that
+Mohammed, by his constant reiteration of _Promises_ and _Threats_, by
+his determined insistence thereon, hoped ultimately to convince even his
+enemies of his sincerity also of the fact that Islam, as the creed of
+the one and only God, was the true Faith. Again in this passage (Surah
+vi.), "God causeth the grain and the date-stone to put forth, He
+bringeth forth the living from the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead
+from the living. This is God," etc., etc.; we get a clear insight into
+the intensity and comprehensiveness of the divine conception as it
+appeared to him. A little further on in the same passage he speaks of
+God as "He who hath produced you from one soul; and hath provided for
+you a sure receptacle and a repository," namely in the loins of your
+fathers, and the womb of your mothers--one of those gleams of pantheism
+that I have already alluded to.
+
+But of all the passages in the Koran, the following is, in many ways,
+one of the most significant: "Whatever good befalleth thee, O man, it is
+from God; and whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself." It is
+obvious from this that the prophet believed evil to be a human weakness
+with man as an active and self-willed agent. Sale in a note thereon
+says: "These words are not to be understood as contradicting the
+preceding verse, that all is from God, since the evil that befalls
+mankind, though ordered by God, is yet the consequence of their own
+wicked actions." But as Mohammed regarded the sublime divinity of God,
+it would be more accurate to interpret the _evil_ not as being ordained
+or even sanctioned by God, but as being permitted, or rather not
+prevented by Him as a thing inevitable. To him the purity, sanctity and
+inviolability of God was of such vast moment, that it was unjust--a
+mortal sin--to devise even a lie against Him. "And who is more unjust
+than he who deviseth a lie against God, that he may seduce men without
+understanding?" The frequent repetition of this and other like passages
+is significant of Mohammed's sincerity, also of his moral persistence
+and tenacity. It was from his point of view bad enough to have doubt
+thrown on the authenticity of his mission. This he could to some extent
+put up with. But it was as naught compared to the reflection, the crime
+of perjury committed against the Almighty. To cast a slur on His
+holiness in this audacious way, was nothing short of blasphemy, a crime
+worthy of eternal hell fire and damnation. Few men in the world's
+history were as loyal to their God as this grim but faithful product of
+Arabia the Stony. In this respect, and particularly with regard to the
+depth and intensity of their religious zeal and fervour, there was a
+strong resemblance between Cromwell and Mohammed. To both of these moral
+ironsides, those who did not believe as they believed were unbelievers,
+and as such outside the pale of God's mercy. For believers, however,
+nothing was too good. To such an extent did these principles influence
+the latter, that he even went so far as to promise that all grudges
+should be removed from the minds of the faithful. Here again we have
+evidence of Mohammed's unquestionable humanity; also of civilization to
+a marked degree. For a grudge, although fundamentally and
+characteristically human, was at the same time, and still is among the
+Bedawins, a peculiarly Arabian idiosyncrasy; associated as it was, and
+often culminating as it did, in acts of vengeance identical to the
+Corsican vendetta, "the terrible blood feud which even the most reckless
+fear for their posterity."
+
+In spite, however, of his eagerness and zeal for conversion, consistent
+as this was with his idea of national autonomy, in nothing did Mohammed
+show his sincerity so much as in his thoroughness and honesty. He was
+nothing if not thorough. The long and arduous probation he passed
+through in preparing and fitting himself for his mission--the mental
+concentration, the wrestlings with all that is evil and inexorable in
+man's nature, the night watches, the agonies, the communings with
+God--all go to prove this. And if to be outspoken and candid is honesty,
+then indeed no one has surpassed him in that respect. In his eyes a true
+disciple of Islam meant a man who lived and acted up to the tenets and
+principles of its faith. For instance, with him there was no such fiasco
+as a death-bed repentance. "But no repentance _shall be accepted_ from
+those who do evil until _the time_ when death presenteth itself unto one
+of them, _and he_ saith verily I repent now; nor unto those who die
+unbelievers: for them have we prepared a grievous punishment." Such an
+act was wholly repugnant to the fine sense of equity and justice that he
+possessed, advocating as he so strenuously did the use of "a full
+measure and just balance." As one who had given practically his whole
+life to the service and adoration of God, his soul rose in revolt and
+abhorred so vile a subterfuge. It was adding insult to injury. A mere
+sneaking stratagem of priestly artifice, held out as an alluring but
+offensive bait. A despicable and devilish cunning on the part of the
+unbeliever, who would endeavour to throw dust into the sun-piercing
+vision of the Most High, all unconscious of the thinness and
+transparency of his device and of God's searching penetration, that
+could pierce through all eternity even unto the uttermost ends of His
+mighty universe! To serve mammon a lifetime, and then at the last
+moment, when on the brink of death's unending precipice, to turn to God
+and expect to reap the same reward of eternal bliss as the whole-hearted
+believer who has given all or a great part of his life to God's service,
+was impossible. The very thought of it was monstrous. The choice lay
+with the ego himself! Evil was his own doing! Good also lay within his
+reach. It was in a great measure a matter of choice. Every man was more
+or less responsible for his own undoing. To a life of evil, a death-bed
+repentance was not capable of producing more than its own equivalent of
+happiness, i.e. the merest possible fragment. This was in accordance
+with God's principle of the scales of justice and an even balance. Yet
+Mohammed was not against repentance and contrition when sincere and made
+in due and proper time. Over and over again he holds out the olive
+branch, and reiterates the forgiveness and mercy of God, as attributes
+that belonged to Him alone. Mercy, indeed, was not so much an
+_attribute_ as a _monopoly_. "He hath prescribed unto Himself mercy," as
+compatible with the fact that He was the final Court of Appeal. However
+adversely the theologian may criticize this from the modern Christian
+standpoint, it is clear and direct proof of Mohammed's whole-hearted
+sincerity. Further it is equally direct and tangible evidence of the
+ardour and zeal that was in him as a prophet and reformer.
+
+God, with all His sternness and inflexibility, as He appeared to
+Mohammed, was just and merciful. A strict comparison between Yahveh and
+Allah certainly inclines the balance in favour of the latter. Jehovah at
+His best was a God of blood and vengeance, at His worst a voracious
+monster. In Allah, stern and avenging God as He was, there was at least
+compassion and mercy and forgiveness. He was not inexorable. He would
+listen to reason. Mohammed himself was a distinct advance on the founder
+of the ancient Jewish faith. He was more humane, a man of broader and
+deeper sympathies. Stern and hard to a degree where God and the Faith
+was concerned; where men, but especially women and children, were
+concerned, he was all tenderness and pity.
+
+Dutiful and obedient to his uncle who had been a father to him, he was a
+faithful servant, an exemplary husband, a kind father, a good master.
+The very name of Faithful, by which he was always distinguished, proves
+beyond a doubt what manner of man he was. An orphan himself in
+childhood, early inured to poverty, his heart went out to all those who
+had the misfortune to be similarly situated. For the poor, the weak, the
+helpless, he had a fellow-feeling. The degraded or at least dependent
+and unprotected position of women, their moral and legal helplessness
+most of all, appealed to him. But in no sense because he was sensual.
+Sensuality was not one of his many failings. A man from top to bottom,
+by birth, breeding and environment Mohammed was an Arab and a Patriarch.
+As such he only naturally liked women and children. To men and for the
+Faith a strong hard man, to the weak and helpless he was tender and
+affectionate. As he was strong, so he was merciful and full of human
+sympathies. His long and happy union with Khadija shows not only that he
+was faithful to a degree, but a man of high moral fibre. A man too full
+of the gravity of life to squander his substance in mere sensuality. But
+in all eastern and African countries where polygamy prevails, marriage
+is a pure matter of political convenience. Mohammed knew this. He
+recognized that marriage was a very important factor in securing
+influence and power. It threw out octopean feelers at various tangents
+and established certain associations and connexions to which it clung,
+as a limpet to a rock or a devil-fish to its victim. The same principle
+down almost to our own day has been a powerful factor in European
+statecraft. Even the earlier practice of keeping mistresses, so much
+indulged in by the sovereign holders of so-called "divine rights," had
+much in common with this custom. It was undoubtedly this motive more
+than any other which influenced Mohammed. It was an essential feature in
+his great design. For in spite of his overwhelming devotion to God,
+notwithstanding God's obsession of him, Mohammed was essentially human.
+There was room and sorrow in his heart for human frailties. His desire
+was strong to remedy them. He too like Luther was a Protestant, and a
+Reformer.
+
+As to the soulless theory regarding the fair sex, which has been
+literally thrust upon the Moslem world by an antipathetic if not
+inimical Christendom, I quite agree with Burton. "The Moslems never went
+so far." At all events if some of them have done so, "Certain '_Fathers
+of the Church_,' it must be remembered, did not believe that women have
+souls." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in one of that inimitable series of
+letters which she wrote, admits as much. In this particular letter
+written from Constantinople on May 29, 1717 (O.S.), to the Abbe Conti,
+she says: "Our vulgar notion that they (the Turks) do not own women to
+have any souls is a mistake." And then she continues, but in not so
+accurate a vein: "'Tis true, they say they are not of so elevated a
+kind, and therefore must not hope to be admitted into the paradise
+appointed for the men, who are to be entertained by celestial beauties.
+But there is a place of happiness destined for souls of the inferior
+order, where all good women are to be in eternal bliss." It is in no
+sense surprising, therefore, that to Mohammed Allah was the merciful. So
+in the sixth surah, he writes: "We (as if identifying himself with God)
+will not impose a task on any soul beyond its ability. For this
+self-same reason, God is minded to make _his religion_ light unto you:
+for man was created weak." Strong and enduring as sincerity and
+conviction made him, Mohammed knew his own weakness. Hence with a
+clemency that was divine he made concessions such as these. In these he
+acknowledged that, "to err is human, to forgive divine." All the more,
+however, we cannot but admire his candour. Even as regards himself, his
+shortcomings and inadequacies, he speaks with an openness and
+straightforwardness that disarms suspicion--that forces the inquirer to
+respect him with all the greater reverence as a great leader of men. "So
+say I not unto you, the treasures of God are in my power; neither _do I
+say_, I know the secrets _of God_, neither do I say unto you, Verily I am
+an angel: I follow only that which is revealed unto me." Indeed the more
+closely and carefully I look into his words in comparison with his life
+and acts, the more obvious do his candour and sincerity become. The more
+obvious is it to me that although essentially the product of a grim and
+petrified environment, he himself was unique. A man in advance of his
+time and people. For deep down in the soul of him, the rich milk of
+human kindness welled up out of the same eternal source from which he
+derived his fear and veneration for the Supreme! Truly the Prophet and
+spiritual ruler of the East and polygamy, as Christ stands for the West
+and monogamy!
+
+It was with these weapons, combined with the tenacity of an elastic and
+imperishable patience, that Mohammed fought the Koreish and other
+tribes, and it was with them he finally conquered. Had he been
+insincere, there would have been no Islam. Had there been no spirit of a
+divine moral conception such as he infused into the creed (which came
+through him from the great fountain head of God and Nature), Islam
+would have withered and perished from sheer exhaustion and debility.
+From the standpoint of physical and moral purity, Mohammed was in every
+sense an Essene. Not only therefore was cleanliness of the body an
+absolute essential, but cleanliness of mind. Filthy immoral actions and
+depravities that he knew existed, unjust violence and iniquities,
+whether openly done or in concealment, were condemned and forbidden in
+scathing terms as a violation of God's express command. The sophistry
+that would make an evil to be no crime unless found out, he denounced
+with all the fiery ardour of his fervent nature. From God there was no
+concealment. In his eyes it was a crime all the same--greater, in fact,
+because of attempted concealment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET'S CHARACTER
+
+
+In refuting those sceptics who have doubted the truth and sincerity of
+Islam, Carlyle condemns scepticism (rather too hastily it seems to me)
+as an indication of spiritual paralysis. Most unquestionably he was
+right in denouncing the former as an idiotic and godless theory. But
+scepticism itself in a general sense is not necessarily an evil. On the
+contrary, it is a natural tendency that arises out of the instinct of
+curiosity. Knowledge is not an inert and passive principle, but an
+active and dynamic force. Buckle in his history speaks of scepticism as
+stimulating curiosity. But he has put the cart before the horse. It is
+curiosity that excites scepticism. Curiosity is an animal instinct--the
+basis of all science. It exists in the lower animal creation--scepticism
+only in the upper human section. It is a higher or further development,
+a tendency that is certainly strengthened, if not acquired through
+education.
+
+According to Lecky, "The first stage to toleration in England was due to
+the spirit of scepticism encroaching upon the doctrine of exclusive
+salvation"; and "the extinction of the spirit of intolerance both in
+Catholic and Protestant countries--due to the spirit of rationalism--was
+the noblest of all the conquests of civilization." But as rationalism
+itself is chiefly the consequence of scepticism and the result of
+inquiry, it is obvious that in a deeply fundamental sense, the world is
+very considerably indebted to science or the spirit of scepticism.
+Indeed all knowledge has arisen from experience, and the desire to
+search into the root of things--to know what is what. Without curiosity
+and scepticism, human thought would have long since stagnated and the
+world remained sunk in ignorance. As Ghazali says, "No knowledge without
+assurance deserves the name of knowledge." Seeing is not always
+devouring. Curiosity is not necessarily gluttony, or "scepticism, that
+curse of the intellect," as Victor Hugo calls it. Gluttony is unnatural,
+unwholesome, and bestial. It is not so much overdoing, as a flagrant
+abuse and outrage of a natural appetite. It is a kicking against the
+pricks--a flying in the face of Providence. But curiosity as an instinct
+direct from Nature is healthy, therefore the use of it as also wholesome
+stands in need of stimulus and encouragement.
+
+So Tennyson said of Shelley:--
+
+    "There lives more faith in honest doubt,
+    Believe me, than in half the creeds."
+
+In this righteous sense Mohammed was curious. As one of her own
+selection, Nature had specially endowed him with curiosity. He was one
+of her human, sensitive plants. As an observer, all his senses were
+developed and on the alert. He not only saw, but felt every vibration
+that thrilled, as it were, the very soul of the first great mother. In
+every flitting cloud, as in every fugitive thought, he was conscious of
+an unseen Power. A look-out man rather than a prophet, it was thus he
+groped or rather felt his way until he felt God. "I feel that there is a
+God," said La Bruyere, "and I do not feel that there is none: that is
+enough for me; the reasoning of the world is useless to me: I conclude
+that God exists." It was in much the same vein of self-argument that
+Mohammed communed to himself. Having felt God, God became for him a
+necessity: more so even, an essential--an absolutism which banished all
+else from his mind. The thought that there was no God did not occur to
+him. But the thought that other gods could exist in the same universe
+with the one omnipotence was to him as monstrous as it was unthinkable.
+Besides Him there was no room for any other. The very thought in his
+estimation perished from inanition and sheer inability of conception!
+The trinity of Christianity was to him as impossible and unacceptable
+as the antediluvian or later polytheism of his own countrymen.
+
+All active minds are sceptical. Carlyle himself--although he appears to
+have been unconscious of the fact--was himself a sceptic. But it was
+peculiarly characteristic of the antagonistic dualism of his nature on
+the one hand to hurl innuendoes, anathemas (and every kind of mental
+brickbat that he could lay hold of) at what he called scepticism or
+unbelief. On the other hand, to hold up belief as absolutely essential
+to human existence. But like all theoretical crotchets, he carried his
+philosophical speculations too far. In other words, he sometimes
+overreached himself. According to his particular dogma, in his opinion,
+the life of man cannot subsist on doubt or denial, it subsists only on
+belief. But this is altogether beside the mark. Scepticism does not
+necessarily imply doubt or denial. Belief itself cannot exist without
+it. It is out of the ashes of scepticism that the immortal Phoenix of
+belief arises. It is out of the doubt and denial of accepted doctrines
+that all creeds (including Christianity and Islam) have grown into
+being. The doubt engendered by scepticism is after all only an
+investigation or leading into, an analysis of the nature of dogmas,
+doctrines or creeds. It is an investigation that may or may not have a
+result. It is but a search for or groping after the truth, as the
+consequence of moral, intellectual or spiritual dissatisfaction. It is
+also the desire to know, to find out the pros and cons of all the sides
+to a question. The spirit or element of doubt is the necessary, the
+essential precursor of improvement and progress. Hence the immense
+importance and significance of Scepticism. It is the very sum and
+substance of all human knowledge. As the acorn is to the oak, scepticism
+is to knowledge--the seed from which has sprung up all we know, and ever
+shall know. The ever fluent channel through which all the great
+intellectual giants and reformers of the world have poured out the
+glowing flash-lights of their intellect into the normal darkness of
+human minds. It is the moral effluvium out of which our modern
+civilization has constructed itself. Without it, the dense gloom and
+black obscurity of ignorance would have reigned supreme. Confused,
+chaotic, and enigmatic as the world now is--even in the full glare of
+its sunlight--without it (if it were possible to imagine such a state)
+the world would have been an enigma, a chaos and confusion worse
+confounded. For scepticism is, as it were, the sun in all its glory, as
+compared to the black oblivion of eternal night. If neither Luther nor
+Mohammed had been sceptics, there would have been no Reformation and no
+Islam. They did not take everything for granted. They were not satisfied
+with things as they were. They looked into the heart of them and found
+much room for improvement. They examined what they could, rejected that
+which was spiritually objectionable to them, but made use of what was
+most appropriate to their respective situations. It was only those
+features that best suited the exigencies of the case that they were
+prompt to lay hold of.
+
+Yet Mohammed was not of vigorous intellectuality, nor in any sense an
+original thinker. The constant repetition of formulas and reiteration of
+the same ideas that occur throughout the Koran show this. It is
+extremely probable that his mentality was at times overshadowed either
+by neurasthenic tendencies, or a predisposition to melancholia, and this
+was more than likely heightened by a life of excessive mental
+concentration combined with asceticism.
+
+But sincere as he was, Mohammed would not have been a true Arabian, had
+he not been diplomatic. Thus the commencement of the fourteenth surah is
+a clever but obvious device on his part; a meeting of his enemies with
+their own weapons, a flinging back to them of their own words and
+objections to the truth in their own teeth. It is clear too that here,
+for the time being, he has resolved on a change of tactics and of front.
+To prove to them that he is as of old the man to be trusted, he
+endeavours to disarm their incredulity by his own outspokenness and
+candour. As the sequel showed, he clearly demonstrates his own
+perspicacity and knowledge of human nature. He saw that by arguing with
+his countrymen, by always opposing their doubts with sophistry and
+argument, would be of little avail--useless, in fact. Such a course
+would but have encouraged and stimulated their opposition, on the ground
+that their beliefs, as worth refuting, were also based on truth or at
+least on strong evidence. Besides, Mohammed was painfully conscious of
+his own disability and helplessness to convince them by the performance
+of anything purporting to be miraculous. That on occasions he displayed
+artfulness and guile--duplicity, in fact--is not to be denied. The
+invention, e.g., of his night journey from Mecca to heaven via
+Jerusalem, was one of them. When he gave out that Gabriel had revealed
+to him the conspiracy that had been formed against him, which through
+ordinary means he had discovered, was another of these pious frauds. But
+after all, what are these trifles compared with those that in their
+myriads have been perpetrated by the great Church of Christendom? What
+are they as compared to a long life of strenuous sincerity, great
+nobility and earnest effort in the cause of humanity? It is impossible
+to lose sight of the fact that in working for God, he was all the time
+raising his countrymen from a lower to a higher level. Besides, the
+necessity of dissimulation, which is one of the heaviest taxes on a
+king, and the prerogative of a priest, is one of those idiosyncrasies
+that human flesh being heir to, even a prophet cannot at times escape
+from. We are reminded of the phrase: "Qui scit dissimulare, scit
+regnare"--He is a ruler who can conceal his thoughts--attributed to the
+Emperor Sigismund by that cultured and ambitious but false and subtle
+Pontiff Pius II, known as AEneas Sylvius (Pius AEneas): also the identical
+answer that Louis XI is said to have made to those who urged him to give
+his son Charles a better education, in order that the boy might in his
+day become a good king.
+
+It was not only that Mohammed's enemies were sceptical of his powers and
+his mission, but they mistrusted his intentions. This, indeed, to a
+sincere and earnest man like himself, was a bitter pill; a pill he found
+it hard to swallow. For he was conscious of his own sincerity, and as
+time went on, an increasing following gave him greater confidence in the
+reality of his mission. Indeed in proportion as his self-confidence
+developed, his conviction in the power and unity of God became an ever
+increasing quantity. This increasing consciousness of God's power and
+his own sincerity had the gradual effect of making him bolder and more
+aggressive, so that this outspokenness was a direct outcome of it, until
+at last Mohammed felt that it was his duty not merely to announce
+"Islam"--"_the true Faith_," but to enforce its acceptance on the
+people. This, of course, as we know, was after his flight to Medina.
+True his own people, the Koreish, had driven him out with scorn and
+violence, had cast contumely and dishonour on him, by rejecting the
+word, while strangers had hearkened unto him and accepted it. It is
+equally true that the sustained vindictiveness shown by the Koreish was
+sufficient in itself to excite the spirit of retaliation, even in a man
+of Mohammed's patient and tenacious character. But suggestive as this
+may be, it is quite certain that he acted on conviction in assuming the
+offensive. It is obvious, too, that in doing so, he felt that he was
+acting under divine compulsion. In any case, we must allow that "a man
+is really of weight in the balance of Fate, only when he has the right
+on his own account to cause men to be slain." In Mohammed's case,
+however, if conviction counts for anything, his right was a divine
+right. According to Dumas: "In human nature there are antipathies to be
+overcome--_sympathies which may be forced_." (The italics are mine.)
+"Iron is not the loadstone; but by rubbing it with a loadstone we make
+it, in its turn, attract iron." This may be, but it is not in reality
+so. It is but a mere figure of speech that the great novelist makes use
+of, and which he puts into the mouth of Rene, the poisoner, in support
+of some theory or argument. It is, of course, possible that antipathies
+may be overcome by sympathy. This, however, depends entirely on the
+power of the one and the weakness of the other. But sympathy cannot be
+forced. To endeavour to force sympathy is to attempt the unnatural. The
+most that can be expected from such a cause is dissimulation. This
+certainly was Mohammed's experience. Although ultimately he and his
+successors forced the word of God on these his inveterate enemies, he
+never succeeded in forcing his sympathies upon them. Death and Time
+alone accomplished what his own personality failed to do. Through the
+victory he gained by them, he now lives enshrined in the sanctified halo
+of a sympathy that, emanating from every Moslem heart, forms with his
+own the great and throbbing soul of Islam.
+
+But Mohammed was not only spiritual. He, like every human being, had a
+material side to his character. Not only was he a preacher and a
+prophet; not only was he a lawgiver--a law and a light unto his people
+to this very day; but as one who himself rigidly practised self-denial
+and economy and condemned extravagance, who possessed the organizing
+ability to administer the estate of others, and who could command
+preferably in peace, but if necessary in war, he was a statesman and an
+economist. Unquestionably too he looked ahead--he made provision for the
+future. His whole apostolic life was one long and arduous preparation
+for coming events. As an instance of this, the ordering of the yearly
+pilgrimage to Mecca was as much a political as a religious ordinance. By
+this measure of policy--this master stroke of psychologic insight into
+human eventualities, Mohammed showed his natural genius. For without a
+doubt he aimed at preserving to Arabia the point and focus of a
+religious centre, that would make for national consolidation and unity,
+and serve as the sacred reduit and rallying ground for the world of
+Islam. So too he showed his capacity for system and organization in
+legalizing the fifth part of all booty and property confiscated to be
+paid into the public treasury. In the same way he insisted on the giving
+of Zakat or alms for charitable purposes, apart from those contributions
+he received from his followers for maintenance. In making these
+ordinances appear as divine injunctions, Mohammed showed no more
+insincerity or inconsistence than he did in claiming the whole Koran as
+a series of revelations. The political and economic factors were as much
+a radical part of his entire design, as the religious. The one could not
+exist without the other. Statesman as he was, he recognized that
+religious unity could only be firmly established through political
+co-operation, and that to secure national stability the sinews of war
+were essential.
+
+It is all through quite obvious that he had the trading instinct of his
+people. In any case the training he received at the hands and in the
+employ of his uncle Abu Talib, as well as the subsequent management of
+Khadija's business, had imbued him very powerfully with business
+principles and practical ideas. Abu Talib, like his father and
+grandfather before him, carried on a considerable trade with Syria and
+Yemen. He carried to Damascus, to Basra and other places in Syria, the
+dates of Hijaz and Hijr, and the perfumes of Yemen, bringing back with
+him in return the products of the Byzantine Empire. Mohammed, as is
+known, accompanied him, and without doubt laid the foundation of an
+economic experience, that subsequently proved valuable.
+
+Commerce has always been the greatest of civilizing factors. According
+to Buckle: "Among the accessories of modern civilization there is none
+of greater moment than Trade." So too Hallam says: "Under a second
+class of events that contributed to destroy the spirit of the Feudal
+system, we may reckon the abolition of villenage, the increase of
+commerce, and consequent opulence of merchants and artisans, and
+especially the institution of free cities and boroughs. This is one of
+the most important and interesting steps in the progress of society
+during the Middle Ages, and deserves particular consideration." But this
+is all the more important as showing that trade was in reality a more
+powerful factor for civilization than Christianity, which after several
+centuries of hold on the people of Europe, had done little more than
+inflame them with a zeal and a zest for fighting. It is significant also
+that while Rome rose to her greatest eminence under the Ancestral
+worship of her founders, when she became Christian, Christianity did not
+prevent her from declining and falling into pieces. But it is equally
+significant that while the opulence conferred by commerce on Rome,
+eventually brought reaction and ruin upon her people, the effect it had
+upon the barbarians who overthrew the Eternal City, was sufficiently
+stimulating to encourage them to invade a degenerate empire. For the
+desire of wealth and plunder was but the first awakening of the spirit
+of commerce. To be sure the crusades gave a great stimulus to trade.
+But there was more of the militant spirit than Christianity about them.
+Besides, although commercial prosperity often accompanies war, reaction
+is certain to supervene. Obviously the essential importance of trade was
+a truth that the Merchant-Prophet soon recognized. Intuitively, and with
+the keenness of perception that marked him, he naturally utilized every
+lesson that it taught him and every advantage that it gave him. Nor has
+he been the only theologian who saw its utility in a religious light.
+The Jesuits long afterwards recognized the agency of commerce in
+promoting and diffusing religious belief, and became great merchants as
+well as great missionaries. So too it was through commerce, as Draper
+points out, "that the Papacy first learned to turn to art. The ensuing
+development of Europe" (in the Renaissance) "was really based on the
+commerce of _upper_ Italy, and not on the Church. The statesmen of
+Florence were the inventors of the balance of power."
+
+Quoting from Syed Ameer Ali's _Spirit of Islam_, Fihr, surnamed Koreish,
+a descendant of Maad--who flourished in the third century--was the
+ancestor of the tribe that gave to Arabia her prophet and legislator.
+This fact, trifling as it may appear, is, however, remarkable, if not
+significant. For this word "Koreish" is derived from "Karash," to
+trade; and it appears that Fihr and his descendants were always devoted
+to commerce. From this it is safe to assume that trading was an inherent
+instinct in Mohammed.
+
+This apart, to him personally Islam was a something more than a mere
+creed or belief. It was God's own religion sealed and delivered to him
+by God. Not to deliver it to his people as commanded, not to carry it
+through--by persuasion first of all, by fire and sword if man's
+obstinacy and rejection of it made it necessary--would mean that he had
+failed in his duty to the Most High. The sense and spirit of duty was
+stronger in Mohammed than in Nelson. In him it was not simply an active
+and vital principle. It was an impelling force. So inseparable from God,
+that to him it appeared as God Himself. But with him God always came
+first. His duty to his country was subordinate to his duty to his Maker.
+His duty to Him, therefore, was his duty to his country. So in surah xi.
+he says: "O my people, do ye work according to your condition; I will
+surely work according to my duty," i.e. according to God. In numerous
+passages he points out that God was absolutely averse to profusion and
+extravagance, equally so to meanness. True liberality in his opinion
+consisted in the happy mean between the two extremes. "And waste not
+thy substance profusely; for the profuse are brethren of the devils: and
+the devil was ungrateful unto his Lord" (surah xvii.). Again in the
+sixth, "But be not profuse, for God loveth not those who are too
+profuse"; and in the following the economic instinct shows itself most
+significantly: "O true believers, consume not your wealth among
+yourselves in vanity; unless there be merchandizing among you by mutual
+consent." Once more Mohammed demonstrates his great profundity and
+insight into the character, the customs and traditions of his
+countrymen. All Oriental and African nations from time immemorial have
+been notably extravagant, especially in regard to marriage ceremonials
+and funeral rites. Even to this day among the Hindus and most African
+tribes, it is a code of honour, a sacred injunction of their religion,
+to spend profusely on marriage and burial feasts. Indeed this is
+frequently done to the impoverishment, and, in the latter case, even to
+the ruination of whole families or households. The Arabs, it appears,
+were no exception to this. At the same time they were a curious blend of
+meanness and extravagance. To Mohammed, rigid economist as he was, and
+inspired to the core by the duty that had been intrusted to him, this
+prodigality was a great sin. Not only did his countrymen squander away
+their substance in folly and luxury, but they were particularly guilty
+of extravagance in killing camels, and distributing them by lot merely
+out of vanity and ostentation. Worse even than this, they were given to
+the destruction of their female children. Against this evil Mohammed
+sternly set his face. This in itself shows his great moral superiority
+over his countrymen. It shows also the possession of a higher and more
+refined yet practical intelligence, that was able to grasp the economic
+possibilities which were bound to ensue from the preservation of female
+children. Essentially an Arab patriarch at heart (which he in some
+measure proved by his marriages), Mohammed, however, was still more
+essentially a Humanist. With the moral greatness of a good man, and the
+mental perception of genius, he felt and recognized that it was against
+all the laws of God to destroy the fecundity of and the productive in
+nature. Thus it was that he placed the divine tabu on the abuse and
+destruction of all that was beneficial to humanity, but especially on
+men, animals and the produce of the earth.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED'S WORK AND WORTH
+
+
+Taken as a whole, the Koran is certainly not a work of literary art.
+Mohammed, in a literary sense, was neither a poet nor a writer. He was,
+as he says of himself, only an illiterate apostle. This, from an
+artistic point of view, is of course regrettable. In his mother tongue
+he had a rich and splendid medium. A language of high philosophical and
+poetical character, that "follows the mind," as Burton says, and gives
+birth to its offspring: that is free from the "luggage of particles"
+which clogs our modern tongues--leaves a mysterious vagueness between
+the relation of word to word, which materially assists the sentiment,
+not the sense of the poet. A language too that luxuriates in "rich and
+varied synonyms, illustrating the finest shades of meaning," that are
+artfully used--"now scattered to startle us by distinctness, now to form
+as it were a star about which dimly seen satellites revolve." Finally
+which revels in a wealth of rhyme that leaves the poet almost
+unfettered to choose the desired or exact expression. Undoubtedly in a
+literary sense, here at hand, was a mighty and magnificent weapon. A
+quiverful of musical arrows, quivering as they waited for the poetic
+muse--the fine frenzy, the seething imagination, the running ready
+fire--to launch them forth into the humming haunts and hearts of men.
+But in no sense was this Merchant-Prophet a knight-errant. Kindly and
+tender as he was towards women and children, he was not addicted (as his
+countrymen were) to chivalry in any form. The race of heroines of Al
+Islam had no attraction for him. The "Hawa (or 'Ishk') uzri,"
+"pardonable love," of the Bedawin, a certain species of platonic
+affection, did not exist for him. He had no room for such trivialities
+in his life. It was too serious and pre-occupied. Too much occupied with
+the affairs of his Master, and worldly business matters that had to be
+attended to. So that he had no time to waste on such pleasantries.
+Trifles that were as light as air in contrast to the stern and deadly
+realities of existence. Yet without doubt he must have attended the
+annual fairs that were held at various places, at "Zul Mejaz," at Majna,
+and at Okadh. The latter, Syed Ameer Ali tells us, was a place famous in
+Arab tradition. It was the Olympia of Yemen. The fair held here in the
+sacred month of "Zu'lkada," was a great national gathering. A sort of
+"God's truce" was then proclaimed. War and the shedding of human blood
+was forbidden. To it came merchants with their wares from all parts of
+Arabia and other distant lands; also the poets and heroes of the desert.
+These (many of whom were disguised from the avengers of blood feuds in
+masks or veils) recited their poems, displayed their literary talents,
+and sang of their glory and their prowess. But Mohammed's aims and
+inclinations did not lie in this direction. He was too much of a working
+philosopher to be a mere poetic dreamer or play actor. His genius lay in
+his profound earnestness, his great moral strength, his capacity for
+work, his political foresight and acumen, his iron will and his
+inexhaustible patience. It is certain that he believed (in the
+philosophic principle) that "everything comes to him who waits." For he
+himself says: "Wait therefore the event, for I also will wait it with
+you." Obviously he was imbued with the same tenacity, and many of the
+imperturbable characteristics of the camel of his own Arabian deserts.
+Unquestionably he knew how "_to wait_," recognized that the essence of
+all human wisdom lies in this single feature, and that the greatest, the
+strongest and the most successful is he who waits and watches. It was
+thus that he waited with the unvarying purpose and pertinacity of a man
+who knew and appreciated his own value at its proper worth. For he felt
+in every nerve and fibre of his consciousness, that as God makes no man
+or no thing in vain, the future must have some (great) thing, some great
+prize, in reserve for him. We know what that prize was. We know also
+that it only came to him after a life of unwearied toil, and assiduous
+devotion to his great and noble purpose, and then only in reality
+through the moral and spiritual victory which death gave him.
+
+Yet, in spite of its artistic defects, Mohammed's work turned out, as we
+know, into a success that even he himself could never have anticipated.
+But in a spiritual sense, judging merely by results, the Koran has lost
+nothing because of its lack of literary art and beauty. Had it gushed
+all over with the eastern music of the Songs of Solomon, had it arrested
+the attention by the same aphoristic wisdom of the Proverbs, thrilled
+its readers by the recital of a tragedy so intensely powerful, so
+realistic and majestic as the drama of Job, and appealed to them through
+the joys, the sorrows and the grand poetry of the Psalms! Had it, in
+fact, sparkled all over with those beauties of language and metaphor
+that distinguish the Bible, the result that it might have attained could
+scarcely have been greater than that which it has accomplished without
+these trappings. It is, in fact, probable that it might have lost. It is
+just possible that what it would have gained as an ornate work, it would
+have lost in sincerity. The Koran, in fact, was essentially the
+offspring of Mohammed's own unique personality. This, as I have tried to
+show, was the peculiar outcome of his dual environment--the frowning,
+rugged and arid aspect of stony mountains and sandy wastes, plus the
+commercial and political instincts that were inherent as well as
+developed on his trade journeys and at the various towns and marts which
+he visited. Nevertheless there was in this Semitic Puritan, as there is
+in almost every Arab, a certain rugged vein of poetry--the wild song of
+freedom--that bursts out here and there. But only now and then like the
+thunderstorm that is so great a rarity in the desert. For the gravity
+and over-concentration of his thoughts on the one definite object,
+oppressed him so weightily, that it left no time for others. Just as
+fast as rain is swallowed up by the parched and thirsty sand after a
+long spell of drought, so his soul, thirsting as it did after God,
+gulped and kept down the poetry and sentiment at bottom of him. All the
+same, if a book is to be gauged by its net results--by the effect it has
+produced on all that is deepest and best in human nature--then the
+Koran must necessarily take high rank as one of the world's greatest
+works. In much the same way, only in another and more material
+direction, the _Wealth of Nations_ has also left its impress on the
+shaping of human destinies.
+
+Mohammed's sincerity and fixity of purpose is a fact we cannot get away
+from. It is this which has chained his followers as with the sure cord
+of God to the Faith. Islam, in a word, is a creed of practice not
+theory. By practice it was formed. On practice it has lived. It was
+because Mohammed practised what he preached, that the small seed of his
+original idea blossomed at last into the mighty "Igdrasil" of the
+East--the great banyan tree of existence. Verily this sun-burnt son of
+Arabia Petraea was a tangible reality and no desert simulacrum. A reality
+that lives in the soul of Islam. A reality that will endure until the
+end of all things human. It is not manners that maketh the man. It is
+man that makes the manners. It is the nature that is around him, the
+nature that is in him, and that comes out of him as mental and moral
+energies, that makes the man. Town bred as he was, it was the desert in
+all its naked and silent grandeur that made Mohammed, that inspired him
+with all the might and majesty of God, and turned him into a prophet.
+Yet it was his career as a trader and the inherent tribal instinct that
+developed the political element in him. As Longfellow says: "Glorious
+indeed is the world of God around us; but more glorious is the world of
+God within us. There lies the land of song, there lies the poet's native
+land." But in Mohammed's case, as in the case of all great workers and
+thinkers, the world that is around us, is the world of our inner
+consciousness. The two are synonymous if not one. Only with him the
+native earth was religion, and he was the Prophet, not the Poet of it.
+"It is Nature's highest reward to a true, simple, great soul, that he
+gets thus to be _a part of herself_." It was thus with Mohammed.
+Thought, though changeable, is eternal. It never dies. So the one idea
+that possessed Mohammed now possesses (differing only in merely
+superficial degrees) some two hundred and fifty millions.
+
+Carlyle is mistaken, certainly much too premature, when he says: "Even
+in Arabia, as I compute, Mahommet will have exhausted himself and become
+obsolete, while this Shakespeare, this Dante may still be young; while
+this Shakespeare may still pretend to be a priest of mankind, of Arabia
+as of other places, for unlimited periods to come." Religion is
+entirely an universal matter, Thought a question of environment. Roughly
+speaking, the world of Thought is divided into two camps of east and
+west. To the former belongs Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam; to the latter
+Christianity and the growing cult of Rationalism. It is impossible to
+predict or in any way to foreshadow any fusion of these hostile
+elements. The day when humanism--i.e. the religion of humanity, as the
+natural product of her highest intellectual effort--shall have fused and
+humanized all the nations of the Earth into one great civilized family,
+is too far distant and beyond the present scope of human speculation.
+
+If men are to be regarded especially as to the weight and power with
+which they operate on the minds of their fellow-men, then this
+camel-driving trader must without question be estimated as a great
+man--a man a long way above his fellows. Assuredly too it is chiefly
+through the Koran that his great and God-like thoughts, crystallized
+into greater motives and actions, have filtered down through the events
+and developments of thirteen centuries, as a purifying, fertilizing, and
+elevating factor.
+
+Looking at him and his work from every aspect, Mohammed was not merely a
+heroic prophet. He was much more. A king and a leader of men. A ruler
+and a judge over them. If we are to judge of him, to take him for what
+he is worth, by his work--the rich ripe fruit of his rare and strenuous
+effort--the Koran on the one hand, and, on the other, the mighty
+spiritual force he has left behind him in the Church of Islam, we must
+pronounce him to have been a great and remarkable man. A man who, when
+his true value is understood and appreciated, will stand out in history
+as a political and religious reformer of a virile and heroic type. A man
+who will be regarded in even a greater light than he now is, when
+humanity shall have become less denominational and more rationally
+humanitarian. In reality Mohammed was an ultra great man. The difference
+(as it appears to me) between other great men and himself was wide. The
+ordinary type of great man--a John Knox for example--is a patriot
+essentially. He is for his country first, then for God and humanity. As
+I have shown, with Mohammed it was just the reverse. An Arab by accident
+of birth, he put God and nature before everything. It was this that made
+him a humanist; this that placed him before his age. For Mohammed,
+without a shadow of a doubt, was centuries before his age. In his God
+concept, in his rejection of the ancient myth of immaculate conception,
+in his refusing to acknowledge Christ's divinity, he was essentially a
+modern--a modern of the twentieth century. It was this catholicity
+therefore that made Islam blossom into a spiritual energy that embraces
+so many national units.
+
+Mohammed fought with all his might and main. In exact proportion to his
+labour he has prevailed. Prevailed over the issues of life and death.
+Death had no terrors for him. Life alone was full of terror--i.e. of the
+fear of God. In death there was no sting. In the grave there was no
+victory. Death but killed the mortal part of him. The spiritual it has
+increased and multiplied out of all proportion. The present soul of
+Islam is the spirit of Mohammed. Only when this exhausts itself will
+Islam wither and die! To this day he is, and for many aeons to come he
+will be in spirit, the ruler and judge over Islam. In spite of sects and
+theological speculators, as long as Islam lasts, his spirit will
+continue to preside over its destinies. His spirit lives in the spirit
+of the creed that he bequeathed as a divine legacy to humanity--i.e. to
+those sections of it which have been nurtured in the system and
+adoration of the Patriarch. For though the material part of him is dead,
+the spiritual still speaks with a voice that is myriad-tongued. As God's
+word, there is a sanctity in the Koran for every Moslem that exceeds
+the reverence of the Christian for the Bible, as much as the fiery
+splendour of the sun surpasses the cold pale glamour of the moon--which
+is but a shadow, a pale reflection of the substance and reality. There
+is, in fact, on the part of the Moslem a veneration accorded to the
+Koran that practically equals the veneration of the African or the Irish
+for their land. Compatible with this, there is for the Moslem but one
+Prophet. As God's chosen agent for the dissemination of His word,
+Mohammed stands alone and aloof on a pinnacle that is humanly
+unapproachable. Many faults have been imputed to him, many charges
+brought against him. To the average, indeed even to the educated
+Christian, Mohammed is nothing but the very strangest compound of right
+and wrong, of error and truth, the abolisher of superstition according
+to his own showing, yet a believer in charms, dreams, omens, and jinns.
+But what of all this? Does not reasoning such as this itself prove how
+very inconsequent and inconsistent is man, even though he be a European
+and a Christian? Is not superstition of the same kind as rife at this
+very moment in Europe, nay in the very centres and strongholds of
+Christendom? What about the ikons, the charms, the amulets, the sacred
+relics and the images of the Greek and Romish Churches? Is not this but
+a form of materialism which itself is a phase or part--a very large
+part--of Nature? Did not superstition (derived from "super," above or
+beyond measure, and "sto," to stand) originally imply excess of scruple,
+or of ceremonial observances in religion? Did it not describe a
+superfluity of worship that exceeded what was either enjoined or
+fitting? What does Cicero say of it in his treatise on _The Nature of
+the Gods_? (I quote from an old translation): "Not only Philosophers,
+but all our forefathers dydde ever separate _superstition_ from true
+religion. For they whiche prayed all day that theyr children might
+overlyve (superstites essent), were called _superstitious_; which name
+after was larger extended." Is not this thing we call superstition--this
+belief in the super or rather outside natural as distinguished from the
+vague and merely vulgar absurdities that are so common--but the result
+of inherent instincts that humanity, as simply one form of natural
+development, derives direct from Nature? Is not this Naturism more or
+less developed in us all--more in the ignorant, less in the educated,
+and least of all in the scientist; the sceptic who knows most, because
+he has looked and searched more into the truth and reality of things;
+because he has learnt by experience, fact, knowledge, therefore a
+greater intelligence to discriminate which from what and why from
+wherefore? In any case, does not the fact that Mohammed was
+superstitious all the more clearly prove that he was no mere vulgar
+designer who practised self-deception and pretensions with regard to his
+mission, but that he was thoroughly sincere in believing himself to be
+the specially selected Apostle of the Great Designer and Controller of
+the universe?
+
+But it is not to Mohammed's faults that we must look. All great men are
+moulded out of faults. It is in his virtues and greatnesses--and they
+are many--that we will find the true man. In this Carlyle was a right
+guide, and showed his own breadth of mind and greatness. These prove
+Mohammed to have been one of humanity's greatest constructors. It is
+true that he destroyed, but on a small scale comparatively in proportion
+to the immensity of his constructive labour. As evidence of this, the
+physical, the moral and the spiritual wealth of Islam speaks in round
+numbers and solid realities. In another of his great romances, Dumas,
+speaking of John Knox, says: "He who had raised such a storm had need to
+be, and he was, a Titan; indeed John Knox was one of those men whom
+great religious and political revolutions invariably beget. Born in
+Scotland or England during the Presbyterian Reformation, they are
+called John Knox or Oliver Cromwell; born in France, in the time of
+political reform, they are called Mirabeau or Danton." Mohammed was, in
+every sense of the word, more titanic than a Cromwell or a Mirabeau. He
+was not by nature or at heart a destroyer. When he destroyed it was only
+because his hand was forced by the crass and obstinate antagonism of
+those upon whom his sincerity and persuasiveness had aroused an envious
+and deadly hatred. The whole aim, end and object of his existence was to
+develop the adoration and religion of God. The storm he raised was
+conjured into being by the God that obsessed him. Hence the soul and
+constructiveness in it. Hence the mighty spirit of Islam, measurable
+only by a soul capacity which has never ceased to expand and develop. No
+sane man surely can deny that Islam was and is a great work? The moral
+figs and grapes that she has achieved are not such as could have been
+gathered from the thorn and thistle of human effort. Yet curiously
+enough, as I have shown, the environment in which it was born was
+strangely stern and sterile! This, however, is one of those natural
+anomalies that we would do well to leave alone. One of those paradoxes,
+those mysteries which Nature teems with, that are altogether beyond
+human comprehension.
+
+Whether or not he had made a study of the Socratic precept "+Gnothi
+seauton+" "know thyself," Mohammed knew himself as thoroughly as it is
+possible for a man to do. Early in life he took his own measure. Gauged
+his own strength and weakness. Estimated the breadth, the length, and
+the depth to which he could go. As a result of this moral estimate, he
+felt that his resources without God were as slender as a broken reed
+buffeted by storm winds. He knew that his real strength lay in the
+knowledge and power of God and of Nature. The temperament and character
+of the Psalmist--he who looked on God as the strong tower and rock of
+his defence, his refuge, not however in time of trouble alone, but at
+all times--was strongly developed in him. The genius of the whole
+Semitic race was centred in Mohammed. It was this, amounting as it does
+to the sublimest egotheism, that gave him confidence, then conviction.
+It was this righteous conviction that carried him as it were on the
+wings of the wind--immortal breath and soul, as he pictured it--of the
+living and eternal God. Through this feeling he converted the innate
+fear and veneration that inspired him into the hand and power of the
+Almighty. If genius implies a keen psychological insight into the nature
+and inner consciousness of life's issues, added to inexhaustible energy,
+capacity for work and patience, then Mohammed was a genius. Certainly,
+if we accept Buffon's definition of genius, as, "but a greater aptitude
+for perseverance," he was without doubt a genius of the highest degree.
+The founder of a faith--one of the greatest the world has
+produced--spiritual commander of the faithful, his genius was
+essentially moral and religious. His whole life was one long labour of
+love and devotion to achieve his object, i.e. to proclaim God to the
+nations of the earth: the first half of it passed in secular work but in
+silent contemplation; the second half, itself divisible into two
+periods, twelve years of persuasion, followed to the close by active
+aggression and battle.
+
+Impulsive, passionate, and spontaneous Mohammed may have been, for like
+all great leaders he was many-sided. But in no sense of the word can
+Islam be said to have been the outcome of spontaneity. On the contrary,
+it was in every way the result of calm and deliberate reflection, of
+long and continuous contact with the forces and phenomena of Nature; but
+above all of an unceasing concentration and communion with the unseen
+power that controls them. Stretching over some twenty years, it went on
+uninterrupted by domestic cares or trade transactions. All these were
+secondary matters and had to give way to the central idea that occupied
+his whole mind, that revolved around his work and his thoughts, as the
+earth gyrates about the sun. His centre of gravity was God. This gravity
+formed his character, gave him courage and endurance in all his trials
+and afflictions, counselled and guided him in his ordinary vocations. It
+was this gravity and concentration that commanded the respect and trust
+of all who knew him and came under his magnetic influence.
+
+But Mohammed was not infallible. Dogma--everything human in fact--is
+open and liable to error. Even infallibility itself--as we speak of
+it--is fallible. As Draper so aptly remarks: "He who is infallible, must
+needs be immutable." In many of the ordinary ways of life he was no
+doubt changeable and inconsistent. He was, after all, only human--but
+not with regard to the Faith. Here was he as firm as a rock, and showed
+a fixity of purpose that nothing could shake or alter. With him, "Life
+was but a means to an end, that end, beginning, mean and end to all
+things--God." Only synchronous with this ruling principle was the idea
+of national unity. Never once did he falter or swerve from it. To this
+allegiance and fidelity of his to God and centralization it is possible
+to trace the devotion of Moslems to their Faith. "We are, as we often
+say, the creatures of circumstances. In that expression there is a higher
+philosophy than might at first sight appear. Our actions are not the pure
+and unmingled results of our desires. They are the offspring of many
+various and mixed conditions. In that which seems to be the most voluntary
+decision, there enters much that is altogether involuntary--more perhaps
+than we generally suppose." This was very much the case with Mohammed.
+He was largely the creature of circumstances--the personification of his
+environment. It was the genius of this that entered into and obsessed
+him. That formed and swayed him as it willed. That made him as strong
+and inflexible as itself. That, combining with the commercial knowledge
+and experience he possessed and the political acumen he acquired, made
+him what he was. Here in a tiny nutshell lies the kernel and origin of
+the soul of Islam. The possibility that Mohammed was rather of Caucasian
+than Ishmaelitish descent, in reality makes little if any difference in
+the psychological analysis of his character. Fundamentally, human nature
+is human nature all the world over. In this respect racial and colour
+distinctions make no difference. Even moral and physical characteristics
+are merely superficial classifications. Inherent tendencies, strong and
+rooted as they are, may be amended or modified by environment. So that
+although it is vaguely possible that his moral courage and other mental
+features were of Caucasian origin, in the main he was essentially
+Semitic in character, patriarchal in principle, and humanistic in
+spirit. In Lecky's opinion: "If we take a broad view of the course of
+history and examine the relations of great bodies of men, we find that
+religion and patriotism are the chief moral influences to which they
+have been subject, and that the separate modification and mutual
+interaction of these two agents may almost be said to constitute the
+moral history of mankind." This most certainly has been the case with
+regard to Islam. Religion was the medium chosen by Mohammed for the
+furtherance of his truly imperial design. It was entirely through
+religion, or rather the interpretation he placed upon it, that he built
+up first of all a natural patriotism, then an international spirit, that
+expanded into the mighty creed of Islam. Prior to this, Arabia as he
+found it was narrow to an extreme. The only patriotism--if patriotism it
+can be called--was clannish and communal. Outside these stilted limits,
+every one was regarded with suspicion, contempt, indifference, and
+invariably with undisguised hostility. Yet the great and solid
+foundation of this splendid spiritual and temporal empire was laid by
+one man. But how great and how heroic! Indeed, "take him all in all, the
+history of humanity has seen few more earnest, noble and sincere
+'prophets,' men irresistibly impelled by an inner power to admonish and
+to teach, and to utter austere and sublime truths, the full purport of
+which is often unknown to themselves."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM'S ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISLAM
+
+
+The better to gauge the present political aspect of the Moslem world,
+the statesmen of Europe--of France and Great Britain more
+particularly--should make an earnest study of the spirit of Islam. If we
+regard Islam as the work of Mohammed--as we are bound to--there are
+certain broad features we must also recognize. Right away from its very
+inception he worked not only as a prophet, but as a political reformer.
+Travelling as he did with his eyes, ears and all his senses open, the
+political state of the eastern portion of Europe and the western side of
+Asia must have been well known to him. To accomplish his religious ends
+was impossible without the political unity of Arabia. To him the
+political and religious unity of his country were synonymous. As a
+shrewd and practical trader, the material advantages of commerce were
+taken into consideration. He recognized that without a sound commercial
+basis and political unity there could be no national stability. He also
+saw that in a country like Arabia, split up into clans and communities,
+it was only possible to effect this through the spiritual potentialities
+of the one and only true God. If he did not himself accomplish this
+great project, we know at least that it was the magnificent legacy he
+bequeathed to his followers in the spirit of Islam, that eventually did
+so in reality. He or the spirit he evoked was clearly and unmistakably
+the cause of all subsequent Moslem triumphs, intellectual and political
+as well as religious. Thus it was that scarcely eighty years after his
+death, Islam reigned supreme over Arabia, Syria, Persia, all the
+northern coast of Africa, including Egypt, as well as Spain. So, too,
+notwithstanding the internal schisms and rifts that subsequently took
+place, it kept on growing with great strides, until at last in 1453, the
+Crescent gleamed from the spires of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and
+the soul-stirring war cry "La ilah illa Allah" resounded seventy-six
+years afterwards before the very gates of Vienna. Lecky is undoubtedly
+right in assuming that: "To trace in every great movement the part which
+belongs to the individual and the part which belongs to general causes
+without exaggerating either side is one of the most difficult tasks of
+the historian." But in the case of Islam there can be no mistake. True,
+the Arabs in themselves were a great and virile people. But it was the
+genius of Mohammed, the spirit he breathed into them through the soul of
+Islam, that exalted them. That raised them out of the lethargy and low
+level of tribal stagnation, up to the high water mark of national unity
+and Empire. It was in the sublimity of Mohammed's deism, the simplicity,
+the sobriety and purity it inculcated, the fidelity of its founder to
+his own tenets, that acted on their moral and intellectual fibre with
+all the magnetism of true inspiration. To them Islam was the Faith--the
+Faith God.
+
+Just as Christianity stands for the faith of the great European family
+of nations, Islam stands for those countries whose political
+institutions are still based on the Patriarchal system. But
+Europe--however superior her peoples may think themselves--is not in the
+position, and certainly cannot afford, to look down upon Islam as an
+inferior product of an inferior section of the great human family. East
+may be East, and West, West--the system of one represented by polygamy,
+of the other by monogamy. But because Christianity is conformable to
+European ideals and notions, it does not in the least follow that it is
+compatible with those of the East. Because the civilized net result it
+has effected has eventually proved greater than that achieved by Islam,
+is no evidence whatever of Islam's worthlessness or decadence. It is
+not the spirit of Islam that has failed, but the people who believe in
+it. They have fallen away from the high ideal that was set them by their
+master. In this respect, however, Christianity has also degenerated. It
+is a creed of profession more than of practice. It has never
+consistently practised what it has preached. A very wide gulf divides
+its practices from its ideals. "If to do were as easy as to know what
+were good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men's cottages
+princes' palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions:
+I can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the
+twenty to follow mine own teaching." So Shakespeare. This holds as good
+now as when he wrote it. Human nature never alters fundamentally. It is
+the same to-day as it was yesterday, and as it will be unto all
+eternity. Christendom much more so than Islam, is split up into sects
+and denominations, and there can be no question about it that the chief
+obstacle to unity among these various bodies at the present moment is
+want of sincerity and earnestness!
+
+Compared with the average Moslem, the average Christian too is certainly
+lukewarm. The nearest approach to Moslem perfervidness is in the piety
+of the Irish Catholics. But devotional as they are, even this falls far
+short of the rigid practice of the true Moslem. Not only, however, is
+he fervid and in downright earnest, but he is above all constant,
+faithful, and consistent to the principles of his creed. Thus, although
+there is no fatherhood about Allah, there is for all that a true and
+real brotherhood in Islam which contrasts very favourably with the
+professed brotherhood of Christendom. Colour or race, for instance,
+makes no difference to it. Islam, in fact, is above all such petty
+differences. She draws no hard and fast rules, has no such violent
+antipathies, bigotries and prejudices as Christendom. Professes little
+but practises much. Colour in her eyes is no disgrace, no bar to God,
+much less therefore to human fellowship and assimilation. This, as we
+know, is not the case with Christians. To them colour and race (as
+witness in the United States of America) is an impassable barrier, that
+is more insurmountable even than the great wall of China, over which
+they find it impossible to step.
+
+There are in nature, as Novalis endeavours to explain in his
+philosophical romances, many realities and verities, the truth or
+essence of which cannot be grasped by the cold and critical intellect of
+man. Only by and through the sympathetic intuition of feeling can truths
+such as these be known or understood. This is indeed so. No matter how
+hard and material we may be, however thoroughly scientific; no matter
+how high we may place reason--even on the highest pinnacle of human
+attainment, there are times when the emotions overpower and dominate it.
+There are times when reason, even in its calmest and most calculating
+moments, is simply inundated and overwhelmed by the flood-tide of human
+feelings. In any case it is clear that although in the abstract it is
+impossible to detach or even insulate thought from feeling and feeling
+from volition, these three--feeling, thought and will--act, and often
+co-operate together, in every mental causation. But it is just as
+difficult for a system to free itself from its own peculiar
+idiosyncrasies and prejudices as it is for an individual to dissociate
+himself from his motives. It is exactly the same with regard to Islam
+and Christendom. The latter has allowed its prejudices and its feelings
+to obliterate or to stultify its reason. It does not know, it does not
+understand Islam. Merely because it does not want or makes no effort to
+know or to understand it. Because it has no sympathy with it. Because in
+place of sympathy it is in reality antipathetic. Yet while professing
+toleration, Christendom does not hesitate to despise and condemn Islam.
+To Christendom, Islam is a mere creed and abstraction--a creed beyond
+and outside its cold and autocratic pale. A creed belonging to another
+world and heaven than its own. A creed of colour and of sombre shades,
+nay even of gloom and darkness, blood, fire and sword, when the crescent
+and green flag of the Jihad is hoisted; a creed which is not to be
+thought of in the same breath as the snow-white fabric of the
+transcendent cross.
+
+The fact of the matter is, that Christendom in the earlier days of
+Islam, jealous and fearful of her younger and more vigorous rival,
+always recoiled from Islam under the veil of a self-satisfied cant, as
+from a monstrous monstrosity of the most vicious and immoral type. A
+form of "Moloch horridus," bristling all over with polygamous
+excrescences, and cruel sharp-pointed spines, ever ready to thrust their
+awful venom into the unoffending human species. Yet if only Christendom
+had long ago cultivated the virtue of patience, and the breadth and
+depth of mind, to look into the matter, she would have discovered--as
+those sceptics who have done so have discovered--the pure and
+unadulterated truth. She would have found, that as the Moloch horridus
+of Australia conceals an inoffensive character under a weird if
+repulsive exterior; so Islam, under an outward form which bigotry and
+prejudice have exaggerated out of all shape, possesses a moral and
+spiritual value beyond all cavil or question. Islam no doubt has its
+faults and many of them. The position of women is not perhaps as it
+should be. The law and the practice of divorce is a real blot on her
+system. Education is at a low ebb. The custom of the separation of
+sexes, of which polygamy and divorce are the necessary outcome, are
+undoubtedly pernicious. It cannot, of course, be expected that young men
+and women who have never met or associated, and whose marriages are
+arranged for them, can have any exalted ideas or feelings on the subject
+of love. It is not possible that young men who have never felt the
+refining influence and the moral restraint of female society, can
+possess either chivalry or a high ideal, with regard to an element
+unique in itself. Nevertheless, contrary to received European opinion,
+there exists for all that a very real and hearty affection and a warm
+sympathy between Moslem husbands and wives. What is more, this affection
+and sympathy will possibly contrast quite favourably with the family
+devotion of most European countries.
+
+With regard to women, however, the social system, it must be admitted,
+is less successful. It leaves room for improvement. The institution of
+female slavery is distinctly a blot. The lot of the Moslem girl morally
+and socially is not so much unhappy as neglected. Her ordinary education
+is practically negative; the religious part of it is regarded as
+superfluous. But it is a popular fallacy, as I have already pointed
+out, to attribute to Islam the doctrine that women have no souls.
+Unfortunately, however, the idea prevails generally throughout Europe
+that these precious possessions are ignored by modern custom: that the
+fair sex is not encouraged to pray either in private or in public. It is
+believed, too, that the vigorous ritual prescribed for the male members
+is considered sufficient for both. So that Moslem women by ignoring the
+one neglect the other, with consequences that are morally and physically
+disastrous. But these are not by any means the real facts of the case.
+Personally, of course, I cannot speak of such matters from experience.
+Isolated and secluded as the women of Islam are, and their privacy so
+rigorously guarded by a ring fence of stringent rules, it is not
+possible for the European to give an adequate opinion thereon. But
+according to the reliable authority of so eminent a Moslem as Syed Ameer
+Ali, and others, the women among civilized Moslem communities know their
+prayers and religious duties just as well as the men--and are devout and
+pious--more so perhaps than the other sex. As to their cleanliness, it
+is beyond question. Yet in spite of so many obstacles--no education,
+seclusion, and a generally defective training--the women are not
+unhappy. They are on the whole as fully occupied (in their own way of
+course) and as well cared for as the women of Europe.
+
+The fact of the matter is, Islam is suffering from mental stagnation,
+from the inevitable reaction that always succeeds a long period of
+active development. The Arabs, in a word, have had their day. With
+regard to education generally, the teaching is of a stereotyped pattern.
+There is no freshness or originality about it. Moslem studies have, in
+fact, lost all or most of their vitality. "The bloom of Arab culture has
+long been brushed away, and there now remains only a hollow kernel." But
+it is after all by her virtues and not her defects that we must appraise
+the true value of Islam. Most unquestionably she has great and redeeming
+features. The throwing of stones or of mud is at best an injudicious
+proceeding. Apart from this it is undignified and unworthy of so high a
+civilization. It is not for Christendom to throw stones any more than it
+is for Islam. Indeed, in this respect, Europe could well take a leaf out
+of the book of Moslem self-restraint and dignity. Moslem society, too,
+may compare very favourably with European. Taken in the mass, the
+polygamous Moslem is every whit as moral--more so in fact--than his
+English, French, or German contemporary. In a great measure polygamy is
+much more a theoretical than a practical institution. Not one in twenty
+Moslems has even two wives. In any case it is not in the proper and
+legitimate practice of polygamy, but in the abuse of it, that the evil
+lies. On the whole there is no promiscuous immorality among the
+followers of Islam. Drunkenness and prostitution are practically
+non-existent. In towns where Europeans have made them a necessity, they
+are always worse. Abstinence and sobriety are not only professed but
+practised. In these respects the young Moslem certainly stands above his
+contemporary in Europe. Marrying early as he does, he knows nothing of
+"the wild oats" that are so promiscuously and so religiously sown by the
+youth of Europe. He sows no rank or noisome weeds for his children's
+children to reap a gruesome harvest. As far, therefore, as the male sex
+are concerned, the social system of Islam is certainly more moral and
+wholesome than that of Christendom.
+
+The cult of Mormonism, as it has existed and still exists in Utah State
+and Salt Lake City, is a problem that should set all statesmen thinking!
+As a psychological conundrum and from a rational standpoint, it is a
+most interesting question. It confronts us with a dual anomaly! First of
+all by the enforcement of a sociological system in distinct opposition
+to, and in defiance of all ethnic conditions. To make the anomaly all
+the greater, the religious part of this cult is founded on a palpable
+sham. There is not even about it the possibility of reality that always
+exists at the back of many ancient myths.
+
+The so-called revelation of Joseph Smith, is the clumsy imposture of a
+man who in no sense of the word was either great or sincere. It is
+unquestionably the work of one or more persons who initiated the
+movement in their own self-interests, and to cloak principles that were
+at complete variance with Christian doctrine and European opinion.
+Mohammed, as we know, did not receive any revelation "on the eternity of
+the marriage covenant, or the plurality of wives." This, according to
+Mormon statement, was reserved for Joseph Smith alone. As a great
+statesman and prophet, Mohammed recognized polygamy to be an ethnic
+condition, therefore wisely did not interfere with it. Any radical
+innovation in this direction would have been more than a political
+error. As a revolutionary measure, it would have completely upset the
+entire fabric of Arabian and Eastern society. A pandemoniac
+topsy-turveydom would have been the immediate consequence. The
+death-knell of Islam, the direct result. Yet the very personal god of
+Joseph Smith was so very short-sighted or painstaking that he sanctioned
+absolutely a mere matter of domestic arrangement and economy. Could any
+two extremes present a wider and more striking contrast? Is it possible
+even to compare the splendid sincerity of this sublime creed of
+self-surrender to God--the soul of which came direct from all that is
+great in nature--with the thin transparency of what at best was a poor
+attempt at fiction, which emanated from the mentality of a human
+mediocrity? Is it justifiable to mention them in the same breath?
+
+Yet in spite of these startling contradictions, it is quite certain that
+the Mormon State, in an economic sense, is a prosperous, flourishing and
+thriving community. Its people too are orderly, well-behaved,
+law-abiding and industrious. From a moral and social standpoint, there
+is no fault to find with them. The anti-polygamic legislation of the
+United States Government, although it has recently been enforced with
+much greater severity than at first, has not stamped out polygamy. Does
+this or does this not demonstrate that polygamy--which in the eyes of
+Christendom constitutes one of the chief offences of Islam--is not the
+crime it is represented to be? Is it, in fact, a crime at all? Does it
+not prove that only the abuse of it, as the abuse of any, even a good
+thing, is wrong? But that the actual system itself as an ethnic
+condition peculiar to certain racial sections of mankind, is nothing but
+the outcome or evolution of sociologic customs and usages?
+
+To contend as all the Mu'tazilite doctors do that Islam is not a
+polygamous system because it only tolerates a limited polygamy under
+stringent conditions which tends to monogamy is but a metaphysical
+quibble. It is but an attempt to split a hair. It does not alter the
+fact that when a system permits more than one wife, and its founder
+sanctioned four, it is certainly not monogamous. Such an argument will
+not hold water for even a moment. It is but a mere contention--"a bone,"
+as the Persian proverb says, "thrown to two dogs," a palpable piece of
+sophistry. It is but the begging of an obvious fact, a reality that can
+neither be avoided nor eluded. As Burns so very happily puts it:
+
+    "But facts are cheels that winna ding
+    An downa be disputed."
+
+From theories such as this, Islam can derive no benefit. Just as in a
+broad sense she can suffer no disparagement from the fact that she
+countenances polygamy, she can afford to dispense with any such
+apologies. It is always a sounder principle to look truth in the face,
+even if that truth is unpalatable. However much civilization or the
+march and progress of events may ultimately modify polygamy, the actual
+custom itself was but an outcome of circumstances and conditions that
+at the time were inevitable and did not (as they do not now) imply a
+crime against or subversion of natural laws. To stigmatize a system that
+time and usage have sanctified for thousands of years, merely because it
+offends _the easily outraged feelings of a super-sensitive Christendom_,
+or even on other grounds, is, to say the least of it, undignified. To
+impute a crime to the thing itself is almost, but not quite, on a par
+with the theology that pronounces a child to be the product of a sinful
+act. If the cause is sinful, the effect must also be sinful? Such a
+theory is certainly unnatural, if not monstrous! It is a perversion of
+that Nature from which we ourselves have evolved, and of that God or
+First Cause from which all causes and effects have proceeded.
+
+Regarding this question from the broadest of standpoints, there is no
+need of an apology. Contention such as that of the Mu'tazilite doctors,
+casts too much of a reflection--an insult almost--on the great spirit
+and the splendid traditions of Islam. It is altogether unworthy of her.
+The fact of a polygamous system did not in one whit detract from the
+splendour of the empire that was built upon Mohammed's virile creed,
+although the subsequent abuse of it may possibly have done so! Even
+admitting that monogamy is an improvement on polygamy, the Christian
+Faith was yet young when Mohammed first founded Islam. Thirteen hundred
+years make a vast difference in the aspect of social progress and
+development. And as I have already pointed out, even Mohammed, with all
+his great power and influence, dared not have upset the corner-stone
+upon which the entire social fabric of the Patriarchal system was based.
+However great he was as a Prophet, he was much too great a statesman to
+have even spent a thought on an innovation so startlingly radical and
+revolutionary.
+
+But Christendom in the mass has never rationally considered this
+question from a broad-minded and liberal aspect! The attitude of its
+missionaries towards the great Moslem Church is, to say the least of it,
+uncalled for and unjustifiable. Their irrational arrogance and
+aggressiveness is only exceeded by their psychological ignorance of
+Islamic spirit and morality, added to an overweening egotism, blind
+bigotry and narrow sectarian prejudices. In a dual sense their attitude
+is offensive in the extreme. Offensive because it is hostile as well as
+impertinent. To attempt the conversion of Islam is a liberty that
+amounts to licence in face of its utter futility. This in itself
+demonstrates an ignorance of ethnic conditions on the part of European
+statesmen and missionaries that is as amazing and preposterous as it is
+deplorable. So, too, to denounce Islam, as Christian missionaries do in
+no unmeasured terms, in books, on platforms and in the pulpit, is surely
+unpardonable--surely a reflection on civilization. Christianity will
+never convert or supplant Islam. As long as the one lasts the other will
+endure. From the most catholic of standpoints, from a religious, a
+social, a political, and an economic sense, it would be sounder and more
+politic to leave Islam alone. It would be more to the point if Christian
+missionaries devoted their energies to the bottom dogs of the slums of
+their own European cities, and to rescue the poor helpless infants who
+in their thousands are being slowly done to death through vice and crime
+that is worse than bestial. Unquestionably there is in our own European
+system a moral cancer that is just as virulent as any that Islam can
+produce. This indeed is a question that European statesmen should turn
+their attention to. For more than anything, it is this onslaught on the
+strongholds of Islam by Christendom, that explains the Moslem menace.
+The one, if it exists, is but a counterblast to the other.
+
+It is an indisputable fact that in China and in various parts of the
+world, the high-handed interference and injudicious zeal of Christian
+missionaries--outrunning all discretion, tact, and common sense--has
+frequently been the cause of war and bloodshed. Is this, I ask,
+compatible with Christian tenets and professions? Do not practices such
+as these fall far short of the high ideals that are so consistently
+flourished in the face of those who are outside its pale? Do they not
+bring moral discredit on a great creed, and tend to reduce it to the low
+level of mere and fulsome cant? But one small specimen of this open and
+undisguised hostility will suffice. In the _X. Y. Z._ of July 24, 1908,
+under the heading in large type of "ISLAM THE ENEMY," appears the
+following: "At the annual meeting held in connexion with the Church
+Missionary Society at Harrogate recently, the Rev. W. Y. Potter said:
+'The calls which are most urgent are perhaps those to combat advancing
+Mohammedanism in West Africa, to direct the new desire for learning in
+China, to protect the Japanese nation from Agnosticism, by gathering in
+the millions in these lands into the folds of the Christian Church.'"
+
+A sentence like this speaks for itself. It is self-condemnatory. It
+condemns the speaker and the whole system which advances and encourages
+such narrow and vicious methods. It condemns, too, a journalism that
+gives such poor and unworthy utterances a place, even as a mere "Fill
+up."
+
+Islam is not an enemy. It is Christendom only that makes her so. It is
+that craven conscience, which finding in her a teacher and a worker of
+solid worth, has aroused the envy and malice of the ever jealous
+theological spirit, which has invariably been responsible for so much
+war and bloodshed. It is a relic of the same militant envy that, burning
+with fury throughout the Dark Ages, fired the Crusades to a very great
+extent. A cramped and dogmatic spirit such as this does not surely
+represent the true spirit of modern Europe, which is presumably rational
+and reasonable, and consistent with the genius of progress and
+advancement. There is no real and spontaneous Moslem menace. Even,
+however, if there is, it is but the re-echo of these aggressively
+Christian sentiments. It is but the answer to a challenge, as
+undignified and contemptuous as it is aggressive and defiant. Islam, I
+repeat, is not an enemy, but a co-worker with us in the great and
+glorious cause of uplifting humanity from a lower to a higher
+civilization. Islam has neither intention nor design of encroaching upon
+the spiritual preserves of Christendom. Further, she has no itching wish
+to do so. Her leaders have the common sense to recognize that
+Christendom is separated from her by ethnic laws and social customs that
+are indivisible. She is only too willing; all, in fact, she asks, is to
+be left alone to work in her own sphere of influence. Is it not
+possible, then, for a Christendom professing so vast a moral and every
+other kind of superiority, to meet her half way, to make a truce or
+compromise to the effect that each should work in its own legitimate
+sphere? A pugnacious method such as she pursues towards Islam is as bad,
+worse in fact, than a thousand red rags to an infuriated bull. For like
+the unfortunate victim in a Spanish bull-fight, tormented to its death
+by matadors, piccadors, torreadors, and a host of other "dors," Islam is
+beset and heckled by the frothy vapourings of theocratic firebrands, and
+the unbridled licence of Europe's gutter press.
+
+The origin of Islam, as I have described it, is in itself evidence of
+Islam's moral and spiritual stability--of that part of her which has not
+deviated from, but clung to the spirit of her great Founder. But even
+allowing for denominational deviations, Islam in the mass is truly
+devout.
+
+The two creeds represent two absolutely divergent sections of humanity.
+Unquestionably in a social, moral and religious sense, Islam is Islam,
+and Christendom, Christendom. To remedy this divergence, to bring the
+two sections together, enters into the impossible.
+
+A natural arrangement such as this cannot be interfered with or altered.
+Defective as it is from a human aspect, it is all the same
+irremediable--a hiatus as wide apart as the suns in space, beyond the
+power of human effort to bring together. It is only possible for the
+rational gospel of humanism, the great religion of natural sympathy, to
+heal the breach. This it can only do by turning humanity into one great
+human family. This alone would sweep away the disturbing factors of
+creeds, denominations, and sects. But is such a thing possible?
+Scarcely! Certainly not so long as the egotism and egotheism of man is
+so predominant a force in human sociology, or so long as the present
+physical and mental environments of the two sections remain the same.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+EUROPE'S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF INFLUENCE
+
+
+But apart from all these weighty considerations, the attitude of Europe
+towards Islam should be one of eternal gratitude, instead of base
+ingratitude and forgetfulness. Never to this day has Europe acknowledged
+in an honest and whole-hearted manner the great and everlasting debt she
+owes to Islamic culture and civilization. Only in a lukewarm and
+perfunctory way has she recognized that when, during the Dark Ages, her
+people were sunk in feudalism and ignorance, Moslem civilization under
+the Arabs reached a high standard of social and scientific splendour,
+that kept alive the flickering embers of European society from utter
+decadence.
+
+Do not we, who now consider ourselves on the topmost pinnacle ever
+reached by culture and civilization, recognize that had it not been for
+the high culture, the civilization and intellectual as well as social
+splendour of the Arabs, and to the soundness of their school system,
+Europe would to this day have remained sunk in the darkness of
+ignorance? Have we forgotten that the Mohammedan maxim was that, "the
+real learning of a man is of more public importance than any particular
+religious opinions he may entertain"--that Moslem liberality was in
+striking contrast with the then intolerant state of Europe? Have we
+forgotten that the Khalifate arose in the most degenerate period of Rome
+and Persia, also that the greater part of Europe lay under the dark
+cloud of barbarism? Does the magnificent valour of the Arabs, inspired
+as it was by a theism as lofty as it was pure, not appeal to us? Does
+not the moderation and comparative toleration shown by them to the
+conquered, notwithstanding the fierce and burning ardour to regenerate
+mankind that impelled them onwards to conquest, also appeal to us? Does
+it not all the more appeal to us, when we contrast this with the
+bitterness of the attitude of the Christian sects towards one another?
+Especially when we consider that in Christendom as it was then
+constituted, extortion, tyranny and imperial centralization, combining
+with ecclesiastical despotism and persecution, had practically
+extinguished patriotism, by substituting in its place a schismatic and
+degenerate church.
+
+Is it not obvious that in her outlook on Islam, Europe has overlooked
+her own Dark Ages--that awful period of intellectual oblivion which
+commenced with the decline of classical learning subsequent to the
+establishment of the barbarians in Europe in the fifth century, and
+continued down to the Renaissance, i.e. towards the end of the
+fourteenth century? Is it too not evident that she has lost all
+recollection of the torn and disturbed state of Christendom even in the
+middle of the fifteenth century when the Renaissance was in full swing,
+or had at least run half its course? How few Europeans there are who
+know the name of AEneas Sylvius--fewer still who can remember the
+striking and vivid picture he has drawn of the state of Europe in those
+days of dawning intelligence! Yet this prelate, afterward Pope Pius II,
+sums up the then European situation in a curious but concise and
+explicit document--a species of state paper dated 1454. Possessing as he
+did a personal knowledge of Europe, and being a man of great natural
+shrewdness and power of observation, AEneas Sylvius was of all men then
+living the best qualified to describe the state of affairs at this
+period. So that his observations are not only significant, but entitled
+to weight and consideration.
+
+Discussing the prospects of the projected crusade, he praises warmly
+Philip of Burgundy for his readiness in the matter, then gives his
+reason for concluding that the Diet at Frankfort must be a failure. For
+there is no real unity in Christendom; neither Pope nor Caesar is duly
+reverenced or believed in; they are but feigned names or painted
+effigies--each state has its own king: there is a prince to every house.
+Italy is disturbed, Genoa being at feud with Aragon; nay, worse, Venice
+has actually a treaty with the Turk. In Spain are many kings, all
+differing in power, government, aims and opinions. There is even war too
+there about Granada. France is still looking uneasily across the Channel
+at England, her old foe, and England watches France. The Germans are
+divided, without coherence; their cities quarrel with their princes;
+their princes fight among themselves. Luxemburg is a cause of dispute
+between the King of Bohemia and the Duke of Burgundy.
+
+Is it possible that Europe is unmindful of, and has the ingratitude to
+ignore, the splendid services of the scientists and philosophers of
+Arabia? Are the names of Assamh, Abu Othman, Alberuni, Albeithar, Abu
+Ali Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Rushd
+(Averroes) of Cordova, the chief commentator on Aristotle, Ibn Bajja
+(Avempace) besides a host of others, but dead letters? Is the great work
+that they have done, and the fame they have left behind them in their
+books, to be consigned to the limbo of oblivion, by an ungrateful
+because antipathetic Europe? Does the work of Alhazen, author of optical
+treatises, who understood the weight of air, corrected the Greek
+misconception or theory of vision, and determined the function of the
+retina, count for nothing? Do we owe no tribute to a great thinker such
+as Ghazali, who in speaking of his attempts to detach himself from his
+youthful opinions says: "I said to myself, my aim is simply to know the
+truth of things, consequently it is indispensable for me to ascertain
+what is knowledge"? It cannot be that already we have lost sight of the
+amazing intellectual activity of the Moslem world, during the earlier
+part of the "Abbasid" period more especially? It cannot be that we have
+quite forgotten the irrecoverable loss that was inflicted on Arabian
+literature and on the world at large by the wanton destruction of
+thousands of books that was prompted by Christian bigotry and
+fanaticism? It cannot surely be said of Christian Europe that for
+centuries now she has done her best to hide her obligation to the Arabs?
+Yet most assuredly obligations such as these are far too sacred to lie
+much longer hidden! Let Europe--Christendom rather--confess and
+acknowledge her fault. Let her proclaim aloud to her own ignorant
+masses, and to the world at large, the ingratitude she has displayed,
+and the eternal debt she owes to the Islam she no longer despises. Open
+confession is good for the soul, and only a confession such as this can
+wipe off the black stain which has for so long besmirched her fair fame.
+Let Christendom once and for all recognize that the greatest of all
+faults is to be conscious of none--that acknowledging a fault is saying,
+only in other words, we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday. Only
+through magnanimity such as this can she claim redemption. For she must
+surely know that "injustice founded on religious rancour and national
+conceit cannot be perpetrated for ever."
+
+Let me endeavour to make my meaning somewhat clearer, by means of two
+simple illustrations--the one belonging to the eighteenth century, the
+other to the twentieth. "How many great men do you reckon?" Buffon was
+asked one day. "Five," answered he at once; "Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz,
+Montesquieu, and myself."
+
+Some five to six years ago, the present German Emperor, in giving his
+views on divine revelation and manifestation, is said to have expressed
+himself as follows: "To promote man's development God has revealed
+Himself in man, whether he be priest or king, whether heathen, Jew, or
+Christian. So in Moses, Abraham, Homer, Charlemagne, Luther,
+Shakespeare, Goethe, Kant, and the Emperor William the Great, whom God
+thus sought out to achieve imperishable results. His grandfather often
+said that he was an instrument in God's hands."
+
+Comment on my part of any kind would be but an insult to the intelligent
+or sympathetic reader. But the way in which Islam is studiously ignored
+in both cases is surely significant and luminous. These are but two mere
+examples taken at random, but they are typical of European arrogance,
+egotism, and her general attitude of supercilious apathy towards the
+Moslem world. After all--even when an enlightened emperor is
+concerned--it is but a step, and a short quick step, from the sublime to
+the ridiculous.
+
+In Europe's own interest it would in the end repay her statesmen to
+treat the world of Islam with greater sympathy and toleration, also with
+but ordinary justice. These remarks apply more forcibly of course to
+Great Britain and France. From the standpoint of the highest
+statesmanship, these two states should utilize the power they possess
+towards the attainment of this wise and politic object. Instead of
+permitting any such impolitic measures (as e.g. those made by Christian
+missionaries to proselytize) they should, by every means that lies
+within their power, advance, encourage, and stimulate the work of Islam
+in its own proper and legitimate sphere of influence. Reflection will
+remind them that intolerance or persecution in any form, as the history
+of Christianity itself proves, always aided, but never deterred, the
+development of any creed. These facts alone ought to recommend the study
+of Islam to all British statesman. But in addition, I would point out to
+them one feature that is worth looking into. This is, that the same
+blend of materialism and spirit, the same desire for unity, cohesion and
+construction, which characterized Mohammed's efforts, have operated also
+in the building up of the British Empire. It is practically out of these
+forces, but under different aspects and conditions of social and
+physical environment, that England has expanded into Greater Britain.
+Given the same conditions and environment, and the same vigorous people,
+and there is no knowing what the true spirit and fervour of Islam might
+not have effected. Remember that the soul of Islam, as the Prophet left
+it, did not lack in spiritual stamina. The lack of it has been in her
+disciples, who have found it difficult to live up to the rigid standard
+that was set them by their Lord and Master. In a great international or
+rather intercreedal question such as this, it is highly impolitic to
+make comparisons, more especially when the creeds in question represent
+a sphere of thought and a sociological system so widely divergent as
+Islam and Christendom. All the same, there are facts that the latter
+should be reminded of. Throughout its great and growing history,
+particularly its earlier career when fanaticism was excusable, militant
+and violent as she has been, Islam never descended to so hateful a
+system as the diabolical Inquisition, never stained the great soul of
+her Faith by ruthless and bloody massacres such as those of the
+Albigenses, Waldenses, and St. Bartholomew. On the contrary, she showed
+a spirit of religious toleration that was as rational as it was
+remarkable. Indeed under the Ommiades of Spain (755-1031) this was in
+every sense greater, higher and wider than that which prevails at
+present in modern Spain. It is true of course that Ma'mun, one of the
+Abbasid Caliphs, established in 833 A.D. a mihna or Inquisition, in
+order to uphold the rationalism of the Mu'tazilite doctrine against
+orthodoxy. But it was shortlived. For soon after his successor W'athik
+is said to have officially abandoned rationalism; and in fourteen years
+from its initiation, the cruel and bigoted Mutawakkil sternly put his
+foot on it, and with it the Inquisition. This, however, was not an
+Inquisition such as that of the Romish Church. In reality it was but a
+council established with the object only of introducing rationalism
+into the empire and to keep out reactionaries from the State Service. In
+other words, it was but a "Test," which was promulgated and administered
+on the same lines and principles as the Test Act in England. Is it wise
+then for the statesmen of Europe to ignore such weighty facts? Would it
+not be more politic on their part to take cognizance of them? It is on
+facts such as these that European policy in its relationship to Islam
+should be based. It is only by making the study of universal history a
+science that the politician can ever hope to become a statesman. This
+means a thorough and comprehensive grasp of ancient as well as modern
+history. Such a grasp alone will enable him to look into the future and
+shape his policy. But to do so without a complete knowledge of Islam's
+history in the past, and the manifest part she has yet to play in the
+history of the future, is to show an utter ignorance of statecraft, but
+especially of that wider sphere of "welt politik" which bears the same
+analogy to the former as, in military parlance, strategy does to
+tactics. These shapers of the destinies of their various nations must
+remember that Islam has done for the East, or rather for the world of
+polygamy, what Christendom has done for the West or world of monogamy.
+She has uplifted millions upon millions of human beings from a much
+lower to a far higher scale of civilization. In Africa and in Asia she
+has purified the primitive cults of their sacrificial abominations, has
+introduced a better and humaner legislation, has encouraged commerce and
+industries and established a more stable form of government. Finally,
+she has exalted the supreme God, whose worship had practically fallen
+into abeyance, to a pinnacle of solitary grandeur, and in this way
+uplifted the people into a far higher moral and spiritual atmosphere. To
+quote Stanley Lane Poole, she has given them "a form of pure theism,
+simpler and more austere than the theism of most forms of Christianity,
+lofty in its conception of the relation of man to God, and noble in its
+doctrine of the duty of man to man, and of man to the lower creation."
+Islam, in fact, has done a great work. She has left a mark on the pages
+of human history which is indelible, that can never be effaced--that
+only when the world grows wiser will be acknowledged in full--in other
+words, when the sun of knowledge shall have dispelled the black clouds
+of ignorance. But Islam is still doing, and will continue to do, the
+great work that her founder initiated. This is a work that Christianity
+can never do. Islam too has a mission. But her mission is in quite
+another sphere to that of Christendom. It is (and has for some time
+been) the preconceived opinion in Europe that the power and influence
+of Islam since the waning of her conquests have come to a standstill.
+That morally and spiritually her influence is demoralizing and
+corruptive--the bane, in a word, of those nations that she is
+proselytizing. But this is not so. Never was a greater and more
+unpardonable mistake made than this. An error rather than a mistake. The
+wish but prompts the thought. There is still much moral and spiritual
+vitality in Islam, therefore elasticity and power of expansion. In
+Africa especially, among all the Bantu and negroid tribes whose
+sociology is patriarchal, there is a great work for her to do. These
+peoples by their whole social system and in every moral sense belong to
+the sphere of Islam and not of Christendom.
+
+To judge or even criticize Islam from a European standpoint is uneven.
+To get her proper measure, Islam must be weighed from the aspect of the
+ethnic basis upon which she rests. To compare one system by the standard
+of another, it is only possible to arrive at a distorted or unequal
+result. Islam can no more be judged by modern commonplace methods than
+Europe can be judged on the same lines by Islam, or than Mohammed
+himself whose splendid concept it was. The manners and morals of his own
+time must also be taken into consideration. The two creeds of Islam and
+Christendom have been built on different bases, and constructed out of
+different material. The God of one is the God of universal nature. The
+God of the other is a triform Being--a metaphysical trinity in unity.
+Socially the Moslem is a polygamist, religiously he is an unitarian. The
+European is just the opposite to this. Socially he is a monogamist,
+religiously he is a trinitarian. In a word, the system of these two
+great human divisions differ as much from each other as their foot gear.
+That of the Moslem again conforms to nature. That is, his shoe is made
+to fit the foot, which narrows at the heel, and splays out at the toes.
+In Europe, on the contrary, the foot is made to fit the shoe, which,
+wide at the heel, narrows into a point at the toes. How is it possible
+then for two such widely divergent systems to agree?
+
+But at least they can agree to differ. At least there is one broad base
+upon which they can meet. On the grounds of a common humanity, on the
+grounds of a common sympathy, by a common birth and a common death they
+are equal. It is not for Christendom to hang back. Islam is quite ready
+to meet her more than half-way. From the superior vantage ground of her
+position, it is for her to hold out the right hand of fellowship. It is
+for her to recognize the real worth of Islam. It is for her to respect
+not to contemn her great coadjutor. For her to regard Islam, not as a
+foe or even a rival, so much as a great and worthy co-partner with her,
+in the work of civilization. From this reasonable and rational
+standpoint the sphere of Islam's influence should be wisely left alone.
+For the enforcement of Christianity on races such as those of Africa,
+for instance, whose system is patriarchal, can only end, as it has
+already done, in their utter denationalization and hybridization. To
+Europeanize and turn into Christians these sons of nature merely for the
+motive of gaining converts is impolitic, if not immoral. It but makes
+human mules of them. Wiser far to let them remain as they are. As well
+try to turn camelopards into crocodiles or pythons into hippos, as
+convert Africans into Europeans. Islam attempts nothing unnatural of
+this kind--nothing that is opposed to ethnic conditions and sociological
+usages. In her case she but develops the lama into the camel.
+
+It is impossible, fatuous in fact, to ignore or even overlook the basic
+importance of physical environment. Even science in this respect has
+been backward, and very slowly recognized that geography is obviously
+and essentially the basis of all history--i.e. of all human action and
+development. The importance of climate and climatic changes on the
+habits, customs, temperament and character of races, has never been
+clearly and thoroughly realized. Not until this has been estimated and
+appreciated at its true value, will it be possible for reason to
+override the dogmas and bigotries of short-sighted and prejudiced
+theology. But the day is fast approaching when this fact must be
+acknowledged as a universal truth. Then only will Islam and other creeds
+be appraised from an even and rational standpoint.
+
+Even admitting that Islam has receded from Mohammed's moral and
+spiritual high water mark, this is all the more reason why the statesmen
+of Europe should stretch out a helping hand to assist in raising her to
+her former level. All the more reason why they should encourage and
+stimulate her to higher aims and endeavours. This assuredly would be a
+more dignified and statesmanlike proceeding than that which, if it does
+not sanction, at all events permits the good name and fame of Islam to
+be smirched with contumely, and to be held up before the world as a
+standing menace to civilization. A course such as I have suggested, is
+much more likely to bring about a better understanding and preparation
+towards any possible fusion. On the other hand, the present propaganda
+of active theological aggression and political indifference, is bound to
+make the breach wider than ever with the ultimate certainty of
+disruption. In face of such a climax there is but this one remedy. As a
+moral and spiritual factor in the regeneration of humanity, Islam is
+indispensable. In her own sphere she must not be interfered with. The
+good of humanity is a higher cause to work for than the mere
+glorification of creed and sect. The cause of humanity strikes wider,
+deeper and higher than that of any creed or denomination. By working
+towards this end, by sinking denominational differences in the common
+stock-pot of humanity, the world at large and civilization in particular
+will in the end gain ever so much more.
+
+In speaking of Islam and of Moslems as I have done, I have spoken of
+them as I have found them. Apart from a careful study of the Koran, my
+knowledge of both is based on personal facts and experiences as varied
+as they are extensive. In every clime and under a variety of conditions,
+I have been in touch with Moslems of all classes and shades, and have
+always found them animated by the same spirit--for race or colour makes
+no difference to the spirit of Islam. Always consistent and devout,
+always God-fearing and sincere as regards their Faith. Before all things
+religious, their cult, the creed of Mohammed--i.e. El Islam or
+self-surrender. Afghan, Arab, Baluchi, Hindustani, Somali, Turk,
+Egyptian, Hadendowa, Berber, Senegalese, Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba,
+Mandingo, Malay, I have found them in the main Islamic to the very
+core. In peace or war, in camp and cantonment, working and fighting with
+or against them, my experience of their moral consistency and spiritual
+stamina has been the same. Brave to a fault, endowed with the reckless
+courage of the Fatalist, fearless and contemptuous of death, their
+fidelity to their Faith, their belief in the greatness of Mohammed, and
+their veneration of God, is a something that once it is rightly
+understood, can only be respected and appreciated at its true value. For
+my part, seeing as I have their splendid heroism in their own cause, and
+their touching devotion to those whose salt they have eaten, my feelings
+towards them is not only one of unmixed admiration and respect, but also
+of deep esteem and regard. Such men are worthy of Islam, as Islam indeed
+is worthy of them. Only the soul--the moral and spiritual essence--of
+Islam could have made them what they are, could have turned out of the
+dregs of barbarism a human material so truly splendid.
+
+With experience and facts such as these before me, I for one find it
+impossible to forget, and only natural to acknowledge with candour, the
+great and magnificent part that Islam has occupied in the history of the
+world. In the intellectual strife of heroes who have wrestled and fought
+for the truth and who for many centuries led the world, in the arena of
+battle and of conquest where warriors have led the van, the sons of
+Islam stand on a pedestal of their own making, that as the world grows
+older and more enlightened, will stand out in all the greater
+prominence. Stand out as men who have taken as great and heroic though
+not so sustained a part on the stage of universal history as the giants
+and heroes of Christendom.
+
+Even in a study of this length it is in reality impossible to deal
+exhaustively with a question so wide and extensive as this, which
+requires a large volume to itself. But I have said enough, I trust, to
+show that the value of Islam as a moral and spiritual factor in the
+civilization of the world is very considerable. I hope too that to all
+who are reasonable and rational in their views, I have shown, as clearly
+and as concisely as it is possible to do within such narrow limits, that
+the so-called "_Moslem menace_" is but the wraith of an over-heated
+imagination--the bogie conjured up by a hectoring and arrogant
+theocracy, backed up, unfortunately, by an indiscreet and tactless
+Press, ever ready to exaggerate any piece of cheap claptrap into the
+sensation of the moment. Always eager to lift up even garbage such as
+this to the higher level of dramatic denouements, by giving undue
+prominence to the unreliable froth and effervescence of irresponsible
+and excitable cranks. In a word, by a process of moral aggravation that
+is unworthy a great and liberal Press.
+
+Finally, I have endeavoured to make it clear, that apart from motives of
+honour and high principles and consistent with the dignity of the great
+Aryan family, Europe should adopt towards Islam a policy of conciliation
+and co-operation: if for nothing else, to avoid being hoisted by her own
+overcharged and explosive petard. If I have done but this, then at least
+my labour shall not have been in vain.
+
+[Decoration]
+
+
+
+
+ISLAM--CORRIGENDA.
+
+
+P. 8, Foreword. In lines 3 and 2 from bottom, _united_ should read
+_suited_.
+
+On p. 57, line just above quotation, _could be still:_ should read
+_could be: still--_
+
+P. 87. In line 3 from bottom, _an an alysis of_ should read _an analysis
+of_.
+
+
+
+
+Liscard Commercial and Collegiate Schools,
+
+_Liscard, Cheshire_.
+
+
+These Schools, which are highly recommended by Major A. G. LEONARD,
+differentiate in the teaching given to their Senior boys, there being
+three courses to meet the requirements of those destined for (A)
+Commerce, (B) the Professions or the University, (C) Engineering, etc.
+
+This Advertisement is inserted in the hope of securing as private
+boarders a limited number of European, Asiatic, or African pupils whose
+parents wish them to be educated in England. Such parents may rely on
+the Headmaster's complete and sympathetic attention to their children.
+
+References given and required. All particulars will be furnished on
+application to--
+
+    MR. W. P. HAMMERSLEY,
+
+    "_Harbour View_,"
+
+    Seabank Road, Liscard, Cheshire.
+
+
+
+
+PROVISIONS & OUTFIT
+
+
+Griffiths, McAlister & Co.,
+
+    EXPORT PROVISION MERCHANTS, Etc.,
+      29-31, Manesty's Lane, LIVERPOOL.
+        14, Billiter Street, LONDON, E.C.
+
+
+Suppliers of all kinds of Provisions, Camp Equipment, Medical Stores,
+Wines, Spirits, and Mineral Waters, etc., for Exploring and Mining
+Expeditions; also for private use abroad.
+
+All Goods suitably packed for Hot and Cold Climates, and made up in
+loads suitable for all modes of Transport.
+
+
+    CONTRACTORS TO THE CROWN AGENTS
+    FOR THE COLONIES.
+
+    _Suppliers to Lieut. Shackleton's Antarctic Expedition,
+    1907-1909._
+
+
+    Telegraphic Addresses:--
+      "COOMASSIE," LIVERPOOL.
+      "APPEASABLE," LONDON.
+
+Codes used--A, B, C, 4th and 5th Editions and Lieber's.
+
+
+ESTABLISHED 1880.
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note
+
+
+Italics are indicated by underscores, _like this_.
+
+For this text version, the oe ligature has been replaced by oe, and
+Greek text has been transliterated and surrounded by plus signs, +like
+this+.
+
+The corrigenda were originally inserted before the Foreword; they have
+been implemented, and moved to the end of the text for reference.
+
+The advertisements were originally printed on either side of the title
+page; they have been moved to the end of the text.
+
+The following sentence, which seems to be missing one or more words, has
+been retained as printed:
+
+     Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas and ideals that he kept
+     to himself however; that he divulged to no one.
+
+Both "half way" and "half-way" are used.
+
+The following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been
+corrected:
+
+    Title page:
+    _"Personal Law of the Mohammedans," etc_
+    changed to
+    _"Personal Law of the Mohammedans," etc._
+
+    Page 9:
+    South American Guacho is not
+    changed to
+    South American Gaucho is not
+
+    Page 9:
+    adapted for idealistic minds.
+    changed to
+    adapted for idealistic minds?
+
+    Page 27:
+    the orginator of a new
+    changed to
+    the originator of a new
+
+    Page 32:
+    (an under rather than an over-estimate)
+    changed to
+    (an under- rather than an over-estimate)
+
+    Page 33:
+    God's omnipresence and omipotence had made
+    changed to
+    God's omnipresence and omnipotence had made
+
+    Page 56:
+    each a mighty voice,
+    changed to
+    each a mighty voice,"
+
+    Page 56:
+    blackness that prevades the very soul
+    changed to
+    blackness that pervades the very soul
+
+    Page 57:
+    grandeur and appaling sameness
+    changed to
+    grandeur and appalling sameness
+
+    Page 66:
+    truths are only found in the depths of the thought.
+    changed to
+    truths are only found in the depths of the thought."
+
+    Page 72:
+    were much in repute, when both,
+    changed to
+    were much in repute; when both,
+
+    Page 82:
+    secrets _of God_ neither do I say
+    changed to
+    secrets _of God_, neither do I say
+
+    Page 87:
+    to hurl inuendoes, anathemas
+    changed to
+    to hurl innuendoes, anathemas
+
+    Page 91:
+    known as Aeneas Sylvius (Pius Aeneas):
+    changed to
+    known as AEneas Sylvius (Pius AEneas):
+
+    Page 94:
+    the sacred reduit and rallying ground
+    changed to
+    the sacred reduit and rallying ground
+
+    Page 96:
+    awakening of the spirit of commerce
+    changed to
+    awakening of the spirit of commerce.
+
+    Page 103:
+    I also will wait it with you.
+    changed to
+    I also will wait it with you."
+
+    Page 125:
+    Islam, in fact is above
+    changed to
+    Islam, in fact, is above
+
+    Page 130:
+    In a great measure pologamy is much more
+    changed to
+    In a great measure polygamy is much more
+
+    Page 134:
+    all the Mutalazite doctors
+    changed to
+    all the Mu'tazilite doctors
+
+    Page 135:
+    that of the Mutalazite doctors
+    changed to
+    that of the Mu'tazilite doctors
+
+    Page 139:
+    She is only too willing, all, in fact,
+    changed to
+    She is only too willing; all, in fact,
+
+    Page 146:
+    ascertain what is knowledge?"
+    changed to
+    ascertain what is knowledge"?
+
+    Page 147:
+    "Newton, Bacon, Liebnitz, Montesquieu, and myself."
+    changed to
+    "Newton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and myself."
+
+    Page 156:
+    other creeds be apprised
+    changed to
+    other creeds be appraised
+
+All other peculiarities and inconsistencies of spelling, punctuation and
+capitalisation have been retained as printed.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value, by
+Arthur Glyn Leonard
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM ***
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