comparison with the most brilliant orators or magnificent poets of the
universe. Their poetry, above all, allowing them to celebrate heroic
exploits; and their open-minded generosity by which they were led to
sing love's joy and sadness, became, for such hot-blooded men, the
object of passionate adoration, marvellously well served by the most
enchanting language ever known.
Their public fairs, particularly that held at Okaz, furnished an
opportunity for real poetical contests, where the winner heard his
poem applauded by a madly delighted throng, and then it was written
out fully in letters of gold, and hung up in the Temple of the Ka'bah.
Of these poetical triumphs, called "Al-Muaalaquate," ("The
Suspended"), seven have been handed down to us and prove what great
heights were attained by the genius of the Bedouin primitive poets.
But, at the same time as we admire such brilliant qualities innate in
the Arabs, we have to deplore great errors. The monotheistic religion
of their great ancestor Ibrahim (Abraham) was entirely forgotten,
despite their continued veneration for the Temple built with their own
hands. They had become "Mushrikun," ("Associates"). To Allah, the Only
One, partners were adjoined in the shape of idols, who were generally
preferred. Every tribe and family possessed a favourite idol; and, at
that epoch, three hundred and sixty false gods, of wood or stone,
dishonoured the Holy Ka'bah.
The most gross superstition flourished in addition to idolatry. Games
of chance, divining by arrows, drunkenness and sorcery debased the
brains of these men, all otherwise remarkably gifted. Fretting under
all restraint, lacking all ideas of decency, they married as many
women as they could afford to feed; and as widows were considered to
belong to their husbands' estate, revolting unions took place between
stepmothers and stepsons.
Still more abominable was the custom of the "Wa'du'l-Binat," (Burying
Girls Alive). By some strange morbid decay of the feeling of honour,
and also through fear that the debauchery of daughters or their
capture by an enemy might one day bring opprobrium on their families,
many unnatural fathers preferred to get rid of their female offspring,
by burying them alive as soon as they were born.
To sum up: the Arabs' leaning towards ostentation, their aristocratic
prejudice and overweening pride, caused them to rebel against all
discipline or authority. Consequently, union and progress becoming
impossible, incessant warfare and pitiless vendettas between tribes
and families submerged all Arabia in a sea of blood.
Such were the errors that saddened Mohammad. He could no longer bring
himself to look upon them, and as he saw no cure for such deep-rooted
and general evil, which he thought was infallibly destined to draw
down on his people the terrible punishment of Heaven, such as
annihilated the inhabitants of Thamud and Ad, he hid himself away in
the most deserted spots he could find. Far from the contact of human
beings, he was able to drive out of his memory the odious remembrance
of their iniquity.
It was then that he gave way entirely to the imperious need of
meditation and religious worship that mastered his soul. He wandered
in sandy ravines, following capricious meandering watercourses, or
climbing up the steep sides of rocky mountains, to recline at their
summits and let his glance and imagination be lost in the depths of
the arid expanse that stretched away at his feet as far as the most
unattainable horizon.
During many long hours, stock-still in the midst of such impressive
empty space; in this ocean of light where deathly silence reigned, he
would be engrossed in mute and ecstatic contemplation of the
sight--incomparably grand and varied--offered to him by the elements
of heaven and earth obeying a mysterious, unknown, inconceivable,
universal and unique Power....
He gazed on dunes and rocks, veiled at first by the dawn's rosy gauze,
studded with humble pebbles that became sparkling precious stones when
the early rays of the sun broke forth. Next came the shroud of
dazzling light which the orb of day, at its zenith, spread over the
tired earth that was as still as a corpse. Then followed a golden
flood that the sun, as it declined, let loose in great waves all over
the world, as if wishing that its departure should give rise to even
greater regret. At last was seen the moon's scarf, irisated like a
pigeon's breast, splashing the sky with its sparks that changed into
myriads of stars.
And there arose proud columns that in still weather the sand erected
joyously, as if trying to reach the blue vault above; or furious
spouts which, on stormy days, gushed from the bottom of ravines, to
attack dark, lightning-loaded mists. Caravans of clouds sometimes
careered, shaped like flocks of white sheep, driven by the wind away
from the high peaks where they were formed; forced to depart before
they could bedew their birthplace with rainy tears. On other days,
diluvian storms broke in cascades over bare mountains, vomiting forth
impetuous torrents, thundering in the valleys.
In comparison with these formidable elements, which never dared to
rebel against the law imposed upon them by Supreme Power, how weak and
arrogant Humanity seemed to be! It relied upon the strength of mundane
institutions, and now such feeble trifles were liquefied by the mirage
viewed by Mohammad in the mirrored waves of seething ether, as if to
proffer the image of the absolute vanity of the things of this world.
The "Khelous" (Desert Retirement), was the main source of Mohammad's
education. It cleansed his heart of all worldly thoughts. That is why
tradition has named it "Safat as Safa,"--The Purity of Purity.
Little by little, the soul of the boundless Desert penetrated his
soul, bringing him the intuition of the unlimited grandeur of the Lord
of All the Worlds. The most imperceptible secrets of Nature communed
in the uttermost hidden depths of his being, impregnating his mind so
violently that these eternal truths were on the point of escaping from
his lips. Carlyle, the great thinker, cannot restrain his admiration
in this connection. "The word of such a man is a Voice direct from
Nature's own heart. Men do and must listen to that as to nothing
else;--all else is wind in comparison." (_The Hero as Prophet_,
London, 1840.)
How is it that some Orientalists of the West have put forward the
theory that Mohammad profited by this retirement to arrange and
elaborate his future task in its most minute details? Some of these
scholars have even gone so far as to insinuate that, during his
seclusion, he composed the Qur'an in its entirety. Have they not
noticed that, in this Divine Book, there is no preconceived plan
according to human methods; and that each of the Surahs, taken alone,
is applicable to events that happened later, extending over a period
of more than two decades and which it was impossible for Mohammad to
foresee?
That they could find no other explanation of his long meditation is
due to their ignorance of the Arab mind. If these learned men had
lived among the Bedouins long enough to understand that the
contemplation in which the denizens of the desert are often seen
engrossed, squatting on a hill-top, staring into vacancy, is not that
state of empty-headed idiocy described by a few travellers, possessed
of more humour than observation. If, above all, they themselves had
the opportunity of revelling in the unutterable charm of the ecstasy,
which can only arise from viewing the immensity of the desert, they
would have acknowledged that thereby surprising advantage accrues to
the intuitive faculties of the intellect, and therefore they could
never have been so clumsily mistaken.
This contemplation is as a crucible in which melt nascent emotive
feelings and thoughts, issuing therefrom in a state of extraordinary
purity. It may be also be compared to an accumulator storing up
supernatural force, although hidden and unknowing, such as the latent
power of fire lurking in the core of a tree-trunk. The forces
accumulated by contemplation remain unsuspected by all, even by those
in whom they reside. But let the tiniest spark fly out and a flashing
flame will immediately rise heavenwards to dazzle the universe.
At that epoch, it is certain that Mohammad had none of the intentions
with which Orientalists have credited him. He had not even made a plan
of any kind. In his "Khilwah" there was meditation, but no
premeditation. Mohammad, at last, enjoyed luminous visions and heard
mysterious calls, at the moment fixed by Providence to manifest His
bounty by the intervention of the man He had chosen to be His
Prophet.
Mohammad has said: "For ten months before the first Revelation, my
sleep was disturbed by dazzling dreams, like unto the rays of early
dawn, and when I could no longer be seen from the houses, I heard
voices calling: 'O Mohammad! O Mohammad!' I turned round and looked
behind me, first to the right, then to the left, but I could only see
shrubs and stones. It was then that I was overwhelmed with frightful
anguish. Hating sorcerers and diviners, I feared lest I had become
like them, unknowingly and against my will. These voices that seemed
to spring from inanimate objects, might have been those of the Jinn in
hiding--the Jinn that give informations to wizards and fortune-tellers
concerning celestial matters and so help them to carry on their
nefarious trade."
[Sidenote: THE REVELATIONS (_A.D. 611_)]
Hollowed out of a block of red granite on the Jabal An-Noor, or
Mountain of Light, about three miles from Makkah, to the left of the
Arafa road, is the grotto of Hira, chosen by Mohammad to seek
seclusion there yearly for one whole month, living day and night in
absolute retirement.
He would take some provisions, consisting mainly of "Kaak" (a kind of
biscuit cooked in oil and which possessed the advantage of remaining
indefinitely in a good state of preservation), so as not to be forced
to return to the town. If, by any chance, his stock of food became
exhausted and he was obliged to go and fetch other eatables, he went
back to his cave, for any interruption of his ecstatic meditations
made him suffer greatly.
He was now forty, and, for the last fifteen years, by dint of anxious
Adoration, he tried to rid the Hanif religion, that is to say the
monotheistic creed of his ancestor Abraham, of the vulgar
modifications from which it had suffered at the hands of the citizens
of Makkah, when one night, the twenty-fifth, twenty-seventh or
twenty-ninth of the month of Ramadhan (January 15-17, or 19, A.D.
611), the unforgettable Event occurred by which the Merciful One
proved His generosity to His creature, by sending His Revelation on
earth in the first verses of the Qur'an, by the lips of His Messenger.
The Prophet has said: "I had fallen asleep in the grotto of Hira, when
the angel Jibra'il appeared to me, and unfolding before my eyes a long
strip of silken stuff embroidered with written letters: 'Read!' said
he.--'I am not one of those who read,' I replied. He caught hold of me
at once, tightening the silken folds round my limbs, mouth and
nostrils with such violence that I could not breathe. I thought the
hour of my death had arrived.
"Letting me go, he repeated: 'Read!'--'I am not one of those who
read,' I answered as before. Again he clutched me and I felt my last
breath about to escape from my breast. Finally he loosened his hold
and repeated for the third time: 'Read!'--'What am I to read?' I
asked, in my affright lest he tighten the silk around me anew and this
time I felt certain that my lungs would not have held out.
"It was then that he said to me: '_Read! in the name of thy Lord who
created * Created man from clots of blood * Read! For thy Lord is the
most beneficent * Who hath taught the use of the pen * Hath taught Man
that which he knew not._' (THE QUR'AN, XCVI, 1-5).
"I recited these words after him. He vanished. Starting out of my
sleep, I had the impression that the whole of a Book had just been
engraved on my heart.
"I went out of the cave to collect my thoughts, when halfway down the
mountain, I heard a voice that came from Heaven, crying out to me: 'O
Mohammad, thou art the Prophet of Allah and I am Jibra'il!' I raised
my glance to the sky. It was filled by Jibra'il's presence. Despite
all I could do to turn my eyes, wellnigh blinded, in the direction of
other parts of the horizon, the angel's dazzling apparition was always
before me. And I stood rooted to the spot, unable to go backwards Or
forwards. I was petrified.
"For the second time, Jibra'il said to me: 'O Mohammad, thou art the
Prophet of Allah and I am Jibra'il!' He then disappeared like a vision
in a dream. It was then that in great haste, my heart beating in the
most terrible anguish, I ran towards my dwelling...."
[Illustration: _The Encampment._ 2 views]
When the Prophet crossed the threshold of his house, he rushed to
Khadijah, hiding his face in her lap and trembling as if in a fit of
ague, as he cried: 'Cover me up! Cover me up!' His servants flocked
busily round him, keeping him enwrapped until his emotion had
subsided. Khadijah, much upset, questioned him: 'O Father of Qasim,
where wert thou? By Allah, what befell thee? I sent some of my
servants to meet thee, but they came back without having met thee,
either at Hira, or on the outskirts of the city.'
The Prophet told her what had happened to him. 'I thought I should
have died!' he added. 'That could not be,' answered Khadijah,
regaining her composure. 'Surely Allah sought not to do thee harm, for
thou art kind to thy family, merciful to the weak and helpful towards
the victims of injustice. O son of my uncle! thou dost bring me
excellent tidings and that I do affirm. I swear, by the name of Him
who holdeth in His hands the soul of Khadijah, that I hoped for this
news. There is no doubt about it--thou wilt be the Prophet of our
nation.'
Ever since she had heard the miraculous reports that Maisarah, her
slave, brought her, and which confirmed what she had remarked herself,
Khadijah was convinced that the highest destiny was in store for her
husband, and she was not at all astonished at such a Revelation. She
quickly gathered her flowing robes about her, and hastened to the
house of her cousin Waraqah ibn Naufal to apprise him of what had just
come to her ears.
No man in Makkah was more conversant with Holy Writ than Waraqah, a
convert to Christianity; and, like the Syrian monks, he lived in hopes
of the advent of a Prophet to be born in Arab-land. Therefore, he had
no sooner heard his cousin's story than he cried out, while tears of
joy welled up in his eyes: 'Most Holy God! If what thou sayest is
exact, O Khadijah, He who manifested His presence to thy husband is
the great Namus, Allah's confidant: the Angel who appeared to Our Lord
Moses! Mohammad will be the Prophet of our Nation! Doubt it not and
repeat my words to him that he be convinced thereof.'
What time the Prophet, according to his wont after each term of
retirement, was performing the ritual circuits round the Ka'bah,
Waraqah, despite weakness due to his great age and blindness caused by
too much reading, had himself led at once into Mohammad's presence, so
as to listen to the story of his adventure from his own lips. When the
sightless old man was satisfied that Mohammad told the truth and had
repeated to him the same predictions, he exclaimed: 'Ah! I should like
to be still in the land of the living when your fellow-men will send
thee into exile!'--'How so?' cried the Prophet. 'Shall I be
banished?'--'Of a surety, they will send thee into exile,' Waraqah
went on, 'for never hath mortal man brought what thou bringest without
falling a victim to the most dastardly persecution. Ah! if God deigned
to lengthen my days until then, I would devote all my energies to
helping thee to triumph over thy enemies!' Death, however, prevented
Waraqah from seeing his wishes fulfilled.
All Mohammad's doubt vanished. The fulgurating Revelation set all his
unknowing aspirations in a blaze and fanned the flame of the latent
forces stored in his soul during fifteen years of contemplation. It
had opened his eyes and taught him the formidable, superhuman part he
had to play and which was now forced upon him. In reality, all this
was quite unexpected, despite the monks' predictions that he had
forgotten long ago, even if he had ever paid the slightest attention
to them. His anguish and his fear lest he should have fallen a victim
to diabolical hallucinations furnishes us with indisputable proofs of
his state of mind.
He who had fled from his fellows and had never aspired to fill any
post of public utility, such as his citizen-comrades would have been
glad to grant, was ready now, with resolute faith and courage, to
fulfil the most overwhelming mission that can be confided to a human
being, and he cared not a jot for the terrible ordeals that he knew
were inevitable.
During that night, for ever memorable, known by the name of
"Leilat-al-Qada," or "Night of Destiny," the Qur'an came down in its
entirety from the highest Heaven where it was kept, as far as the
inferior Heaven, situated immediately above the earth. And there it
had been deposited in the "Bait-al-Izza," or "House of Glory,"
underneath which was erected the "Baitu'l-Lah," or "House of Allah,"
which signifies the Holy Ka'bah.
"_Verily, we have caused It (the Qur'an) to descend on the night of
Power * And what shall teach thee what the Night of Power is? * The
Night of Power is better than a thousand months! * Therein descend the
angels and the Spirit by permission of their Lord for every matter. *
All is peace until the breaking of the morn._" (THE QUR'AN, XCVII,
1-5.)
Then, from this lower Heaven, after the first verses are revealed to
Mohammad, together with a general comprehension of his Mission, the
words of Allah, comprising the Qur'an, come down now from between his
lips, Surah following Surah, for a period of twenty-three years, so as
to guide all his actions, establish the laws of religion and organise
the triumph of Islam.
For the benefit of our European readers, we consider it needful to add
the following commentary to this story of the Revelation, according to
Arab historians:
The angel Jibra'il, who sought out the Prophet at Hira is none other
than the angel Gabriel who appeared to Daniel; and to Mary, the mother
of Jesus; but real Moslems say that Jibra'il is totally unlike the
pink-cheeked, fair-haired youth, with wings of varied hues, as seen in
the cheap, religious, saintly images of the Europeans. The angel
Jibra'il is "ar-Ruh," the "Pure Spirit," (THE QUR'AN, XCVII, 6); and
also "An Namus," or "The Invisible Adviser." Sometimes he manifested
his presence to Mohammad by stray sounds resembling tinkling bells or
the hum of bees, by which he caused Allah's Messenger to suffer more
than anything. His brow would be bathed in sweat, even during cold
wintry days, and it was only when the noise died away that he
understood what the angel had revealed to him. At other times, when
Jibra'il taught Mohammad ritual movements, the angel made his presence
manifest by assuming the appearance of a mortal resembling Dihyah ibn
Khalifah, one of the Prophet's companions.
The Revelation, of which this angel is the symbolic intermediary, is a
divine Irradiation and should be looked upon as the highest degree of
the mysterious Force, evidently surrounding mortals, since it is
totally independent of a man's will-power, and which we call
Inspiration.
[Sidenote: THE FIRST MOSLEMS.]
Prayer, preceded by ablutions, was the first duty taught to the
Prophet by the celestial envoy.
Mohammad, having returned to the place where he had first heard the
Revelation, Jibra'il appeared again, in the shape of a human being. 'O
Prophet!' he said, 'You must lead men to proclaim that there is no God
but Allah.'
He drove him towards a watercourse where Jibra'il stamped on the
ground with his foot. A spring immediately gushed forth, and setting
the example, the angel taught Mohammad the rites of Purification by
means of ablutions preceding all prayers. He then went through the
prayers, with the bowing, prostrations and sentences of which they
should be comprised; and the Prophet prayed with him, guided by the
angel's movements and words.
Mohammad felt his body relieved from a weighty burden by the
purification, and his soul brightened by the benefits of these
prayers. Then it was that, thrilling with the faith of belief,
Mohammad was about to return home to his wife when Jibra'il appearing
once more, said to him: 'Teach Khadijah salvation by Islam!' That is
to say, by voluntary resignation to all the Creator's commands. He
obeyed and spoke thus: 'O Khadijah! Jibra'il ordereth me to teach thee
salvation by Islam.' And Khadijah answered: 'Allah is Salvation; from
Him cometh Salvation, and let Salvation be on Jibra'il.'
Thus it came about that, of all living beings, Khadijah was Islam's
first convert. The Prophet took her at once to the miraculous spring,
where he taught her what he had just learnt. Copying her husband, she
purified herself by the ablutions and recited the prayers. Ever since
that day, Allah made use of this admirable woman to mitigate the
sorrows and pains of His Prophet in all the ordeals he had to undergo.
Khadijah's devotion endowed Mohammad with deep contempt for mortals'
wickedness, and his wife's firm faith served to comfort him when he
was looked upon as an impostor.
One of the first of the Prophet's companions to believe in his mission
was Ali, son of Abu Talib, only about ten years old just then, and who
Mohammad had adopted during a period of famine, so as to relieve his
uncle, at the head of a very large family.
Noticing that Mohammad and Khadijah kept aloof and became absorbed in
prayer, he marvelled greatly at seeing no object of worship set up in
front of them and he put this question to the Prophet: 'What rites
were ye both performing just now?'--'We were saying the prayers of the
pure religion that Allah hath just chosen for Himself and for which He
hath chosen me to be the Prophet,' he replied. 'O Ali! I do invite
thee to join with me. I invite thee to worship the Only Allah that
hath no partners and I call upon thee to renounce the idols Lat and
Uzza who can neither benefit nor harm their worshippers.'
'Say then: "_He is one Allah: * Allah the everlasting! * If He
begetteth not, and He is not begotten; * And there is none like unto
him. * He is Allah beside whom there is no god. He knoweth things
visible and invisible. He is the Compassionate, the Merciful! * And
when He decreeth a thing, He only saith to it, 'Be,' and it is. *
There is no Allah but He; the Living, the Self-subsisting. Neither
slumber seizeth Him, nor sleep. * No vision taketh in Him, but He
taketh in all vision: and He is the Subtile, the All-informed! It is
He who causeth to laugh and to weep * He causeth to die and maketh
alive * He bringeth forth the living out of the dead and the dead out
of the living: He quickeneth the earth after its death; thus it is
that ye too shall be brought forth. * The East and the West is
Allah's: therefore, whichever way ye turn, there is the Face of Allah:
truly Allah is Omnipresent and Omniscient ... * This is Allah, your
Lord. All power is His, But gods whom ye call on beside Him have no
power over the husk of a date-stone!_" (THE QUR'AN, CXII, 1, 4. LIX,
22. II, III, 256. VI, 103. LIII, 44, 45. XXX, 18. II, 109. XXXV, 14.)
'Never until this day,' Ali replied, 'have I hearkened unto such words
and I wish to consult Abu Talib, my father.'--'Do nothing of the
sort!' the Prophet hastened to tell him, for Mohammad feared lest the
news of his Mission should be noised abroad before the hour arrived to
divulge it in open day. 'If thou dost come to Islam, O Ali! thou must
keep the secret.'