it may appear, is exactly and literally that which the Koran conveys,
or intends to convey, I at present take for granted. But that it indeed
is so, no one who has attentively perused and thought over the Arabic
text (for mere cursory reading, especially in a translation, will not
suffice) can hesitate to allow. In fact, every phrase of the preceding
sentences, every touch in this odious portrait has been taken, to the
best of my ability, word for word, or at least meaning for meaning from
the “Book” the truest mirror of the mind and scope of its writer. And
that such was in reality Mahomet’s mind and idea is fully confirmed by
the witness-tongue of contemporary tradition.”
The Koran shows that Mohammed had in a measure a correct knowledge of
the _physical_ attributes of God but an absolutely false conception of
his _moral_ attributes. This was perfectly natural because Mohammed had
no idea of the nature of sin—moral evil—or of holiness—moral perfection.
The Imam El Ghazzali a famous scholastic divine of the Moslems says of
God: “He is not a body endued with form nor a substance circumscribed
with limits or determined by measure. Neither does He resemble bodies,
as they are capable of being measured or divided. Neither is He a
substance nor do substances exist in Him; neither is He an accident nor
do accidents exist in Him. Neither is He like to anything that exists;
neither is anything like to Him; nor is He determinate in quantity
nor comprehended by bounds nor circumscribed by the differences of
situation nor contained in the heavens.... His nearness is not like
the nearness of bodies nor is His essence like the essence of bodies.
Neither doth He exist in anything; neither does anything exist in Him.”
God’s will is absolute and alone; the predestination of everything
and everybody to good or ill according to the caprice of sovereignty.
For there is no Fatherhood and no purpose of redemption to soften the
doctrine of the decrees. Hell must be filled and so Allah creates
infidels. The statements of the Koran on this doctrine are coarse and
of tradition, blasphemous. Islam reduces God to the category of the
will; He is a despot, an Oriental despot, and as the _moral_-law is not
emphasized He is not bound by any standard of justice. Worship of the
creature is heinous to the Moslem mind, and yet Allah punished Satan
for not being willing to worship Adam. (Koran ii. 28-31.) Allah is
merciful in winking at the sins of the prophet but is the avenger of
all unbelievers in him.
A God-machine, a unit-cause
Vast, inaccessible
Who doles out mercy, breaks His laws
And compromises ill.
A God whose law is changeless fate,—
Who grants each prophet-wish—
For prayer and fasting opes heaven’s gate,
And pardons for backsheesh.
This is _not_ “the only True God” whom we know through Jesus Christ and
so knowing have life-eternal. “No man knoweth the Father but the _Son_
and he to whom the Son revealeth Him. He who denies the incarnation
remains ignorant of God’s true character. As Fairbairn says, “the love
which the _Godhead_ makes immanent and essential to God, gives God an
altogether new meaning and actuality for religion; while thought is not
forced to conceive Monotheism as the apotheosis of an Almighty will or
an impersonal ideal of the pure reason.” Islam knows no Godhead, and
Allah is not love.
Transcribers Note: To fit within page and layout constraints this
Chart the linked tabular format. The
section beginning with A; Faith and B:Practice Appears to derrive
equally from "The Doctrine of God" and "The Doctrine of Revelation"
so has been abstracted and linked from the position the author seems
to have intended. General notes have been abstracted and displayed as
footnotes.
ANALYSIS OF ISLAM AS A SYSTEM, DEVELOPED FROM IT’S CREED.
“There is no god but Allah and Mohammed is his apostle.”
The Doctrine of God
(Negative.)
“There is no god but God.”
[Pantheism of Force]
1. His names
of the _essence_, _Allah_ (_the absolute unit_)
of the attributes,—_Ninety-nine names_
2. His attributes
The physical emphasized above the _moral_.
Deification of _absolute force_.
3. His nature
Expressed by a series of _negations_
“He is _not_.”
To second section
The Doctrine of Revelation: (Positive.)
“Mohammed is the apostle of God.”
[The sole channel of revelation and abrogates former revelations.]
I. By the KORAN
(Wahi El Matlu)
Revelation, verbal, and which teaches the twofold demands of
Islam:—
[The Book]
II. By TRADITION
(Wahi gheir Matlu)
Revelation by example of
the perfect prophet
[The Man]
1. Records of what Mohammed _did_ (Sunnat-el-fa’il) (example)
2. Records of what Mohammed _enjoined_ (Sunnat-el-kaul) (precept)
3. Records of what Mohammed _allowed_ (Sunnat-el-takrir)
(license)[A]]
A. The Sunnite Traditions: (collected and recorded by the
following six authorities)
1. Buchari A. H. 256[B]]
2. Muslim ” 261[B]
3. Tirmizi ” 279[B]
4. Abu Daood ” 275[B]
5. An-Nasaee ” 303[B]
6. Ibn Majah ” 273[B]
B. The Shiah Traditions: (five authorities)
1. Kafi A. H. 329
2. Sheikh Ali ” 381
3. “Tahzib” ” 466[C]
4. “Istibsar” ” 466[C]
5. Ar-Razi ” 406
III. Other Authority
a. Among the _Sunnites_:
IJMA’A or unanimous consent of the leading companions of
Mohammed concerning I.
KIYAS or the deductions of orthodox teachers from sources
I. and II.
b. Among the _Shiahs_:
The doctrine of the twelve IMAMS—beginning with _Ali_ who
interpret I. and II.
Second Section
A. Faith:
(what to believe)
“Iman”
1. In God
2. Angels
(angels, jinn, devils)
3. Books
Modern Moslems believe that 104 “books” were
sent from heaven in the following order:
To Adam—ten books
” Seth—fifty
” Enoch—thirty
” Abraham—ten
These are utterly lost.
” Moses—the TORAH
” David—the ZABOOR
” Jesus—the INJIL
These are highly spoken of in the Koran but are now
in corrupted condition and have been abrogated by
the final book.
” _Mohammed_—the KORAN (eternal in origin; complete and
miraculous in character; supreme in beauty and
authority.)
4. Last Day (Judgement)
5. Predestination
6. Prophets
A. _The Greater_:
Adam—“Chosen of God”
Noah—“Preacher of God”
Abraham—“Friend of God”
Moses—“Spokesman of God”
Jesus—called “Word of God and “Spirit of God.”
MOHAMMED, (_who has 201 names and titles_)
Enoch, Hud, Salih,
Ishmael, Issac,
Jacob, Joseph, Lot,
Aaron, Shuaib,
Zakariah, John,
David, Solomon,
Elias, Job, Jonah,
Ezra, Lukman,
Zu-el-kifl and
Alexander the Great,
Elisha.
B. _The Less_: Of these there have been thousands.
Twenty-two are mentioned in the Koran:
7. Resurrection
B. Practice
(what to do)
“Din” [_the five pillars_]
1. Repetition of Creed
2. _Prayer_ (five times daily) including:
1. Purification
washing various parts of the body three times ac’d’g
to fourteen rules
2. Posture (prostrations)
facing the kiblah (Mecca)
prostrations
genuflections
3. Petition
Declaration
the Fatihah or first Surah.
Praise and confession—the Salaam.
3. Fasting (month of Ramadhan)
4. Alms giving (about 1-40 of income.)
5. Pilgrimage
_Mecca_ (incumbent)
Medina (meritorious but voluntary)
Kerbela, Meshed Ali, etc., (Shiahs)
[A] Verbally handed down from mouth to mouth and finally _sifted_ and
recorded by both sects:
[B] Not one of them flourished until _three cenruries_ after Mohammed.
[C] By Abu Jaafar.
ANALYSIS OF THE BORROWED ELEMENTS OF ISLAM.
I. From HEATHENISM
(As existing in Mecca or prevalent
in other parts of Arabia.)
a. Sabeanism:
Astrological superstitions, _e. g._, that meteorites are
cast at the devil.
Oaths by the stars and planets. (Surahs 56, 53, etc.)
Circumambulation of Kaaba—and, perhaps, the _lunar_ calendar.
b. Arabian Idolatry:
Allah (as _name_ of supreme deity), used in old poets and
worshipped by Hanifs.
Mecca—centre of religious pilgrimage—The black-stone, etc.
Pilgrimage—_in every detail_: dress, hair offerings,
casting stones, sacrifice, running.
Polygamy, slavery, easy divorce, and social laws generally.
Ceremonial cleanliness, forbidden foods, _circumcision_.
c. Zoroastrianism:
Cosmogony—The different stories of the earth. Bridge over
hell.
Paradise—Its character—the _houris_=pairikas of Avesta.
Doctrine of _Jinn_ and their various kinds. Exorcism of jinn
(Surah 113, 114).
d. Buddhism:
The use of the rosary.
(See Hughes’ Dict. of Islam.)
II. From JUDAISM
(The Old Testament but more especially
the _Talmud_ as the source of Jewish
ideas prevalent in Arabia just
before Mohammed.)
A. Ideas and Doctrines:
(According to the divisions
of Rabbi Geiger.)
1. Words that represent Jewish ideas
(and are _not_ Arabic but Hebrew.) _Taboot_ (ark); _Torah_
(law); _Eden_; _Gehinnom_; _Rabbi_, _Abbar_=teacher;
_Sakinat_=Shekinah; _Taghoot_ (used hundreds of times
in Koran)=error; _Furkan_, etc., etc., etc.
2. Doctrinal views.
_Unity of God._
Resurrection.
Seven hells and seven heavens.
Final judgment. Signs of last day.
Gog and Magog.
3. Moral and Ceremonial laws.
Prayer. Its time, posture, direction, etc.
Laws regarding impurity of body. Washing
with water or with sand.
Laws regarding purification of women, etc.
4. Views of life
Use of “inshallah”; age of discretion corresponds to
Talmud.
B. Stories and Legends:
(According to Rabbi Geiger.)
Adam, Cain, Enoch; the fabulous things in Koran are
_identical_ with Talmud.
Noah—the flood—Eber (Hud)—Isaac,—Ishmael—_Joseph_.
Cf. Koran with Talmud.
Abraham—His idolatry—Nimrod’s oven—Pharao—the calf—(taken
from Talmud.)
Moses—The fables related of him and Aaron are old Jewish
tales.
Jethro (Shuaib); Saul (Taloot); Goliath (Jiloot), and
_Solomon_ especially. Cf. Talmud.
III. From CHRISTIANITY
(Corrupt form, as found in the
apocryphal gospels.)
“_Gospel of Barnabas._”
1. Reverence for New Testament—Injil—(Zacharias, John, Gabriel).
2. Respect for religious teachers; the Koran references to
priests and monks.
3. Jesus Christ—His names—Word of God, Spirit of God, etc.—Puerile
miracles—_Denial of crucifixion_. (Basilidians, etc.)
4. The Virgin—Her sinlessness—and the apostles—“hawari” an
_Abyssinian_ word meaning “pure ones.”
5. Wrong ideas of the Trinity. As held by Arabian heretical sects.
6. Christian legends as of “Seven Sleepers,” “Alexander of the
horns,” “Lokman” (=Æsop.)
7. A fast month. Ramadhan to imitate lent.
8. Alms-giving as an essential part of true worship.
“The Koran could not
have been composed by
any except God....
Will they say he forged
it? Answer bring therefore
a chapter like unto
it.”—THE KORAN. (Surah Yunas.)
XVIII
THE PROPHET AND HIS BOOK
In 570 A. D. Abdullah the son of Abd el Muttalib a Mecca merchant went
on a trading trip from Mecca to Medina and died there; the same year
his wife, Amina, gave birth to a boy, named _Mohammed_, at Mecca. One
hundred years later the name of this Arab lad, joined to that of the
Almighty, was called out from ten thousand mosques five times daily,
from Muscat to Morocco, and his new religion was sweeping everything
before it in three continents.
What is the explanation of this marvel of history? Many theories have
been laid down and the true explanation is probably the sum of all
of them. The weakness of Oriental Christianity and the corrupt state
of the church; the condition of the Roman and Persian empires; the
character of the new religion; the power of the sword and fanaticism;
the genius of Mohammed; the partial truth of his teaching; the
genius of Mohammed’s successors; the hope of plunder and love of
conquest;—such are some of the causes given for the early and rapid
success of Islam.
Mohammed was a prophet without miracles but not without genius.
Whatever we may deny him we can never deny that he was a great man with
great talents. But he was not a self-made man. His environment accounts
in a large measure for his might and for his method in becoming a
religious leader. There was first of all the political factor. “The
year of the elephant” had seen the defeat of the Christian hosts of
Yemen who came to attack the Kaaba. This victory was to the young and
ardent mind of Mohammed prophetic of the political future of Mecca and
no doubt his ambition assigned himself the chief place in the coming
conflict of Arabia against the Roman and Persian oppressors.
Next came the religious factor. The times were ripe for religious
leadership and Mecca was already the centre of a new movement. The
Hanifs had rejected the old idolatry and entertained the hope that a
prophet would arise from among them.[60] There was material of all
sorts at hand to furnish the platform of a new faith; it only required
the builder’s eye to call cosmos out of chaos. To succeed in doing
this it would be necessary to reject material also; a comprehensive
religion and a compromising religion, so as to suit Jew and Christian
and idolater alike.
Then there was the family factor, or, in other words, the aristocratic
standing of Mohammed. He was not a mere “camel-driver.” The Koreish
were the ruling clan of Mecca; Mecca was even then the centre for all
Arabia; and Mohammed’s grandfather, Abd el Muttalib, was the most
influential and powerful man of that aristocratic city. The pet-child
of Abd el Muttalib was the orphan boy Mohammed. Until his eighth year
he was under the shelter and favor of this chief man of the Koreish.
He learned what it was to be lordly and to exercise power, and never
forgot it. The man, his wife and his training were the determinative
factors in the character of Mohammed. The ruling factor was the mind
and genius of the man himself. Of attractive personal qualities,
beautiful countenance, and accomplished in business, he first won the
attention and then the heart of a very wealthy widow, Khadijah. Koelle
tells us that she was “evidently an Arab lady of a strong mind and
mature experience who maintained a decided ascendency over her husband,
and managed him with great wisdom and firmness. This appears from
nothing more strikingly, than from the very remarkable fact that she
succeeded in keeping him from marrying any other wife as long as she
lived, though at her death, when he had long ceased to be a young man
he indulged without restraint in the multiplication of wives. But as
Khadijah herself was favorably disposed toward Hanifism, it is highly
probable that she exercised her commanding influence over her husband
in such a manner as to promote and strengthen his own attachment to the
reformatory sect of monotheists.”
Mohammed married this woman when he had reached his twenty-fifth year.
At the age of forty he began to have his revelations and to preach his
new religion. His first convert, naturally perhaps, was his wife, then
Ali and Zeid his two adopted children; then his friend, the prosperous
merchant, Abu-Bekr. Such was the nucleus for the new faith.
Mohammed is described in tradition as a man above middle height, of
spare figure, commanding presence, massive head, noble brow, and
jet-black hair. His eyes were piercing. He had a long bushy beard.
Decision marked his every movement and he always walked rapidly.
Writers seem to agree that he had the genius to command and expected
obedience from equals as well as inferiors. James Freeman Clarke says
that to him more than to any other of whom history makes mention was
given:
“The monarch mind, the mystery of commanding,
The birth-hour gift, the art Napoleon
Of wielding, moulding, gathering, welding, banding
The hearts of thousands till they moved as one.”
As to the moral character of Mohammed there is great diversity of
opinion and the conclusions of different scholars cannot be easily
reconciled. Muir, Dods, Badger, and others claim that he was at first
sincere and upright, himself believing in his so-called revelations,
but that afterward, intoxicated by success, he used the dignity of his
prophetship for personal ends and was conscious of deceiving the people
in some of his later revelations. Bosworth Smith and his like, maintain
that he was “a very Prophet of God” all through his life and that the
sins and faults of his later years are only specks on the sun of his
glory. Older writers, with whom I agree, saw in Mohammed only the skill
of a clever impostor from the day of his first message to the day of
his death. Koelle, whose book is a mine of accurate scholarship and
whose experience of many years mission-work in Moslem lands qualifies
him for a sober judgment, sees no striking contrast between the earlier
and later part of Mohammed’s life that cannot be easily explained
by the influence of Khadijah. He was _semper idem_, an ambitious
enthusiast choosing different means for the same end and never very
particular as to the character of the means used.
Aside from the question of Mohammed’s sincerity no one can apologize
for his moral character if judged according to the law of his time,
the law himself professed to reveal or the law of the New Testament.
By the New Testament law of Jesus Christ, who was the last prophet
before Mohammed and whom Mohammed acknowledged as the Word of God, the
Arabian prophet stands self-condemned. The most cursory examination of
his biography proves that he broke repeatedly every sacred precept of
the Sermon on the Mount. And the Koran itself proves that the Spirit of
Jesus was entirely absent from the mind of Mohammed. The Arabs among
whom Mohammed was born and grew to manhood also had a law, although
they were idolaters, slave-holders and polygamists. Even the robbers of
the desert who, like Mohammed, laid in wait for caravans, had a code
of honor. Three flagrant breaches of this code stain the character
of Mohammed.[61] It was quite lawful to marry a captive woman whose
relatives had been slain in battle, but not until _three months after
their death_. Mohammed only waited three days in the case of the Jewess
Safia. It was lawful to rob merchants but not pilgrims on their way to
Mecca. Mohammed broke this old law and “revealed a verse” to justify
his conduct. Even in the “Time of Ignorance” it was incest to marry
the wife of an adopted son even after his decease. The prophet Mohammed
fell in love with the lawful wife of his adopted son Zeid, prevailed
on him to divorce her and then married her immediately; for this also
he had a “special revelation.” But Mohammed was not only guilty of
breaking the old Arab laws and coming infinitely short of the law of
Christ, he never even kept the laws of which he claimed to be the
divinely appointed medium and custodian. When Khadijah died he found
his own law, lax as it was, insufficient to restrain his lusts. His
followers were to be content with four lawful wives; he indulged in ten
and entered into negotiations for matrimony with thirty others.
It is impossible to form a just estimate of the character of Mohammed
unless we know somewhat of his relations with women. This subject
however is of necessity shrouded from a decent contemplation by the
superabounding brutality and filthiness of its character. A recent
writer in a missionary magazine touching on this subject says, “We must
pass the matter over, simply noting that there are depths of filth in
the Prophet’s character which may assort well enough with the depraved
sensuality of the bulk of his followers ... but which are simply
loathsome in the eyes of all over whom Christianity in any measure or
degree has influence.” We have no inclination to lift the veil that
in most English biographies covers the family-life of the prophet of
Arabia. But it is only fair to remark that these love-adventures and
the disgusting details of his married life form a large part of the
“lives of the prophet of God” which are the fireside literature of
educated Moslems.
Concerning the career of Mohammed after the Hegira, or flight from
Mecca (622 A. D.) a brief summary suffices to show of what spirit
he was. Under his orders and direction the Moslems lay in wait for
caravans and plundered them, the first victories of Islam were the
victories of highwaymen and robbers. Asma, the poetess who assailed the
character of Mohammed, was foully murdered in her sleep by Omeir, and
Mohammed praised him for the deed. Similarly Abu Afik, the Jew, was
killed at the request of Mohammed. The story of the massacre of the
Jewish captives is a dark stain also on the character of the prophet
whose mouth ever spoke of “the Merciful and Compassionate.” After the
victory, trenches were dug across the market-place and one by one the
male-captives were beheaded on the brink of the trench and cast in it.
The butchery lasted all day and it needed torch-light to finish it.
After dark Mohammed solaced himself with Rihana a Jewish captive girl,
who refused marriage and Islam, but became his bond-slave. It is no
wonder that shortly after, Zeinab, who had lost her father and brother
in battle, tried to avenge her race by attempting to poison Mohammed.
In the seventh year of the Hegira Mohammed went to Mecca and instituted
for all time the Moslem pilgrimage. The following year he again set
out for Mecca at the head of an army of 10,000 men and took the city
without a battle. Other expeditions followed and up to the day, almost
the hour, of his death the prophet was planning conquests by the sword.
It is a bloody story from the year of the Hegira until the close of
the Caliphates. He who reads it in Muir’s volumes cannot but feel the
sad contrast between the early days of Islam and the early days of
Christianity. The germ of all _sword-conquest_ must be sought in the
life and book of Mohammed. Both consecrate butchery in the service of
Allah. The successors of Mohammed were not less unmerciful than was the
prophet himself.
Thus far we have considered Mohammed from a critical standpoint and
have written facts. But the Mohammed of history and the Mohammed of the
present day Moslem biographers are two different persons. Even in the
Koran, Mohammed is human and liable to error. Tradition has changed
all that. He is now sinless and almost divine. The two hundred and
one names given him by pious believers proclaim his apotheosis. He
is called Light of God, Peace of the World, Glory of the Ages, First
of all Creatures and names yet more lofty and blasphemous. He is at
once the sealer and concealor of all former prophets and revelations.
They have not only been succeeded but also supplanted by Mohammed. No
Moslem prays _to_ him, but every Moslem daily prays for him in endless
repetition. He is the only powerful intercessor on the day of judgment.
Every detail of his early life is surrounded with fantastical miracles
and marvels to prove his divine commission. Even the evil in his life
is attributed to divine permission or command and so the very signs of
his character are his endless glory and his sign of superiority. God
favored him above all creatures. He dwells in the highest heaven and
is several degrees above Jesus in honor and station. His name is never
uttered or written without the addition of a prayer. “Ya Mohammed” is
the open sesame to every door of difficulty, temporal or spiritual.
One hears that name in the bazaar and in the street, in the mosque
and from the minaret. Sailors sing it while raising their sails;
_hammals_ groan it to raise a burden; the beggar howls it to obtain
alms; it is the Bedouin’s cry in attacking a caravan; it hushes babies
to sleep as a cradle song; it is the pillow of the sick and the last
word of the dying, it is written on the door-posts and in their hearts
as well as since eternity on the throne of God, it is to the devout
Moslem the name above every name; grammarians can tell you how its
four letters are representative of all the sciences and mysteries by
their wonderful combination. The name of Mohammed is the best to give
a child and the best to swear by for an end of all dispute in a close
bargain. The exceeding honor given to Mohammed’s name by his followers
is only _one_ indication of the place their prophet occupies in their
system and holds in their hearts. From the fullness of the heart the
mouth speaketh. Mohammed holds the keys of heaven and hell. No Moslem,
however bad his character, will perish finally; no unbeliever, however
good his life, can be saved except through Mohammed. One has only to
question the Moslem masses or read a single volume of the traditions to
prove these statements.