It is clear beyond doubt that Christian and Jewish influences, to a
large extent, unsettled and disturbed the beliefs of the Pagan Arabs
and paved the way for the prophet. Resistance to his faith there was,
but it was resistance on the part of those, who sought to maintain the
old faith and superstition; not on account of any warmth of conviction
or sincerity of zeal, but on account of the fear and apprehension that
the success of Islam would mean loss of large incomes derived from the
temples and old heathen practices.[8] But resistance, founded upon
such a selfish basis, could not prevent, and indeed did not prevent,
the onward progress of Islam. In the deadly conflict between Islam and
the Arab Heathenism Islam triumphed.
We, now, proceed to enquire as to what was the basis or, in other
words, what were the sources from which Islam was derived. Islam freely
borrowed from Judaism and Christianity and even did not hesitate to
adopt practices prevalent in Pre-Islamic Arabia. In fashioning his
religion the prophet adopted an eclectic method, retaining or rejecting
from the older systems whatever seemed to him necessary and proper.
It is not exactly within the scope of my paper to precisely specify
or to accurately define the exact obligation of Islam to Christianity
or Judaism. Such a discussion would take me far afield. Professor
Wellhausen is inclined to belittle the influence of Judaism in the
birth and infancy of Islam and points to the Islamic conception of
Jesus, as the greatest of the prophets before Mohamed, as a conclusive
proof of his contention. But the present writer is not prepared to
attach much weight to this argument. If the Islamic conception of
Jesus, indeed, is to be put forward as indicating the absence of Judaic
influence on early Islam; with equal force might the Islamic conception
of Jesus be urged as subversive of the theory of Christian influence,
so stoutly advocated by Professor Wellhausen.[9] The basis of dogmatic
Christianity, namely, the sonship of Christ, Mohamed inveighed against
early and late. It would be idle to deny the indebtedness of Islam
to Judaism. Mohamed has not merely accepted dogmas and doctrines of
Judaism, minute Talmudical ordinances, but has even adopted, in its
entirety, some of the Jewish practices and, far above all these, that
which indeed constitutes the very foundation of Islam, namely, the
conception of a severe and uncompromising monotheism.[10] The fact is
that both Judaism and Christianity were used and used freely by the
prophet in building up his religion. Nor is this a new theory. The
prophet never put himself forward as introducing something new but he
invariably claimed for himself the honour of reviving the old and the
true beliefs which had fallen into neglect and oblivion. But besides
the Jewish and Christian sources, not a small portion of Islamic ritual
and ceremonials were mere reproductions of Pre-Islamic practices. The
entire ceremonies relating to the pilgrimage (Hajj) and the sacred
service, at the temple of Mecca, have survived in Islam with little
or no variation from the days of Arab Heathenism;[11] the only change
that Mohamed effected in them was to allow the pilgrims to put on a
particular pilgrim dress consisting of two pieces of cloth of which one
covers the hip and the other breast and shoulders; while the head has
to be kept uncovered, as in ancient days, when they used to make up
their hair into a sort of wig by means of some glutinous substance. And
so indeed it has remained, to this day, the prescribed pilgrim costume.
After visiting the Kabah they used, in heathen days, to visit the two
rocky hills of Safa and Merwah on which were placed two bronze idols.
Mohamed went so far in his toleration of the heathen pilgrimage customs
that he suffered the visit to Safa and Marwah to continue as before,
but had the two idols removed. Of the history of the origin of the
forms of the prayer, prostration, ablution, and fasts our knowledge is
vague, uncertain and shadowy.
Islam has, says Von Kremer,
largely drawn upon Judaism, Christianity, the religion of Zoroaster
and possibly even from Manichenism. From Parsiism it has taken both
directly and indirectly. A number of obviously Parsi ideas have
penetrated into Islam through the channel of Jewish books; notably
the Talmud. The doctrine of the resurrection, most of the legends
relating to heaven and hell, and the entire system of demonology have
found their way into the Qur´an through Judaism. So indeed did the
description of the trial and the tortures of the dead in the grave by
two angels _Munkar_ and _Nakir_. The idea of the bridge _sirat_ as
thin as a hair, which leads to paradise across the abyss of hell is
certainly derived from the Parsis; having passed over into the Qur´an
through the Midrash. But Islam has not hesitated to borrow directly
from Parsiism. It is a significant fact that the word _din_, which
so repeatedly occurs in the Qur´an, has been borrowed from the Parsi
books. In the Huzveresh it appears in exactly the same form (old
Backtrian dæna).[12]
It is not suggested that the prophet had access to the written books
of either the Jews or the Christians; though in some passages of
the Qur´an we can trace direct resemblances to the text of the Old
Testament and the Mishna.[13] His knowledge of the Jewish and Christian
books, at times faulty and imperfect to a degree, was derived almost
exclusively by oral communications.
I trust I have said enough to illustrate the condition of Arabia before
Islam and the sources from which the prophet of Arabia received his
religious inspiration. I, now, go on to explain Islam and its tenets.