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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/38114-0.txt b/38114-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f194019 --- /dev/null +++ b/38114-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3784 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ISLAM *** + +***** This file should be named 38114-0.txt or 38114-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/1/1/38114/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/38114-0.zip b/38114-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..478ee55 --- /dev/null +++ b/38114-0.zip diff --git a/38114-8.txt b/38114-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0212d58 --- /dev/null +++ b/38114-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,3798 @@ +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 Chaldan, 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 "+plrs 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 Bruyre, "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 rduit 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 Petra 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 "+Gnthi +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 Csar 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 rduit 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 *** + +***** This file should be named 38114-8.txt or 38114-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/1/1/38114/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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.) + + + + + + +</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 & 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—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—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"> + +</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—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. +</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—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—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 +<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—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. +</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—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 +<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—“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. +<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—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?” +</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—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—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 <em>Misconception</em>. Finally—making due allowance for space +limitations—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—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—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, +<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—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. +</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—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—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. +</p> + +<p> +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. +</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—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—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. +</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—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—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—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 +<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—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—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 +<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—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—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! +</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—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 +<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—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—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—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 +<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—which rushed across the +great void of Time like a hissing meteor—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—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—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 +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_43" title="43"> </a> +that dared to insolently +assert itself in the overthrow of their ancestral gods—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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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—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—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—a world of meaning—that is +inexpressible in a name—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—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. +</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—or little at least—to distract his attention—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—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. +</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—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 +<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—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. +</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—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, +<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”—“<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—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 <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—</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—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—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—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—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! +</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—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 +<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>”—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 <cite>Iliad</cite>, the <cite>Odyssey</cite>, Hesiod’s <cite>Theogony</cite>, in the +great tragedies of Æschylus, in Plutarch and other writers—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—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—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—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 +<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—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 <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—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—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—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 +<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—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 <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—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—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—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. +</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—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. +</p> + +<p> +So Tennyson said of Shelley:— +</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—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—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 <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—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 +<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—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 +<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>”—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, <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”—“<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—<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—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—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 <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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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,” +<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—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 +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_106" title="106"> </a> +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 <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—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—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. +</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—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—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, +<a class="pagenum" name="Page_110" title="110"> </a> +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. +</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—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 +<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—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—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 <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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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 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—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. +</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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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 +<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—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 +<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—more so in fact—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—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? +</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—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 +<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—“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—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 +<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—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—outrunning all discretion, tact, and common sense—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—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—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”—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—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. +</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—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—Christendom rather—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—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—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—even when an enlightened emperor is +concerned—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—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 +<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—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—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—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—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—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 +<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—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. +</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—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 & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works - Frome." +title="Printer's Logo" /> +</div> + +<h2> +<a name="ISLAM_CORRIGENDA" id="ISLAM_CORRIGENDA"> +ISLAM—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—</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— +</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 & OUTFIT +</p> + +<p class="adhead"> +Griffiths, McAlister & 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:— +</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—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 *** + +***** This file should be named 38114-h.htm or 38114-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/1/1/38114/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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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 *** + +***** This file should be named 38114.txt or 38114.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/8/1/1/38114/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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