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.