{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_38114/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_38114","id":"gutenberg_38114","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/38114","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Psychiatry/Psychology","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Islam"],"text":"Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Anne Grieve and the Online\nDistributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This\nfile was produced from images generously made available\nby The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)\n\n\n\n    ISLAM\n\n    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE\n\n\n\n\n    ISLAM\n\n    HER MORAL AND SPIRITUAL VALUE\n\n    A Rational and Psychological Study\n\n\n    By\n    MAJOR ARTHUR GLYN LEONARD\n\n    LATE 2ND BATT. EAST LANCASHIRE REGIMENT\n\n    _Author of \u201cThe Camel, Its Uses and Management,\u201d \u201cHow we made\n    Rhodesia,\u201d \u201cThe Lower Niger and its Tribes\u201d_\n\n\n    With a Foreword by\n    SYED AMEER ALI, M.A., C.I.E.\n\n    _Author of \u201cThe Spirit of Islam,\u201d \u201cLife and Teachings of Mohammed,\u201d\n    \u201cMohammedan Law,\u201d \u201cPersonal Law of the\n    Mohammedans,\u201d etc._\n\n\n    LONDON\n    LUZAC & CO\n    46, GREAT RUSSELL STREET\n    1909\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nI am glad to introduce this book with an expression of the pleasure and\ninterest with which I have read Major Leonard\u2019s admirable psychological\nstudy of a subject, the importance of which it is hardly possible to\noverrate.\n\nUnfortunately it has been too common hitherto to regard Islam as an\nantagonistic force to Christendom; to depreciate its Founder and to\ndiscount its Ideals. As the author justly observes, it is hardly\npossible for a student really anxious to acquaint himself with the inner\nspirit of another Faith, to gain an insight into its true character\nuntil he has divested himself of ancient prejudices that narrow his\nperspective and prevent his taking a broad view of the aims and\naspirations of the great men who from time to time have tried to uplift\nhumanity.\n\nMajor Leonard has dealt with his subject in this broad spirit; he has\napproached it with sympathy born of intimate acquaintance with races\nand peoples who profess the Faith of Islam. His is eminently a\nphilosophical study of its Founder, of its true moral and spiritual\nutility, and of the great impetus it gave to the progress of the world.\n\nIn the eight chapters that constitute this book he has discussed the\nentire range of questions affecting the personality of Mohammed and the\ntendency of his religion. In his treatment he shows himself a\nphilosophical rationalist animated with a reverence for the Arabian\nTeacher--the evident outcome of a true appreciation of the mainspring of\nhis actions.\n\nIn the first chapter the author has applied himself to expose the\nabsurdity and hollowness of the Pan-Islamic \u201cbogey.\u201d That the growing\n_rapprochement_ between Moslem communities, hitherto divided by\nsectarian feuds, should be viewed with disfavour by Europe as indicating\na danger to its predominance and selfish ambitions is intelligible. But\nthat it should be regarded as a deliberate challenge to, or intended as\na hostile demonstration against Christendom, is a mere chimera. Major\nLeonard proves conclusively that the Pan-Islamic movement is no modern\npolitical movement; but that morally and spiritually Islam, in its very\nessence, is Pan-Islamic; in other words, a creed that recognizes in\npractice the brotherhood of man to a degree unknown in any other\nreligion, and admits in its commonwealth no difference of race, colour\nor rank.\n\nMoslems, laymen and scholars, will probably not agree with some of Major\nLeonard\u2019s remarks in his outline of the Prophet\u2019s character and\ntemperament; but they must all acknowledge his sincerity. He describes\nMohammed as a great and true man--great not only as a teacher, but as a\npatriot and statesman; a material as well as a spiritual builder, who\nconstructed a nation and an enduring Faith, which holds, to a greater\ndegree than most others, the hearts of millions of human beings; a man\ntrue to himself and his people, but above all to his God.\n\nThe author has gone to the Koran itself for the animating purpose of\nMohammed\u2019s strenuous and noble life. He believes that the national good\nto be obtained only by the recognition of the conception of a God who is\nboth \u201cnational and universal\u201d was the dominant idea that impelled and\ninspired the Prophet of Arabia. In his appreciation of Mohammed\u2019s\nteachings, Major Leonard has grasped the real spirit of Islam; and both\nas regards his moral and spiritual precepts, as also the enunciations\nrespecting the duties of every-day life, the author has given the\nArabian Prophet his due. He dwells on Mohammed\u2019s affection and sympathy\nfor the weak, the afflicted and suffering, with the orphan and the\nstricken; on his humanity to the dumb creatures of God; on the duties of\nparents to children, and of children to parents; on his burning\ndenunciations of the terrible crime of female infanticide.\n\nIn the eighth and last chapter Major Leonard speaks of the debt Europe\nowes to Islam, and endeavours to show that the religion of Mohammed, far\nfrom being antagonistic to human development, has materially helped in\nthe progress of the world. It is part of Major Leonard\u2019s thesis that\nChristianity and Islam belong to \u201cdifferent spheres of influence\u201d; in\nother words, whilst Christianity is suited to certain races, Islam is\npeculiarly suited to others. Races and peoples adapt their religions to\ntheir own respective advancement, and the same religion varies among\ndifferent communities according to the stage of their development. The\nChristianity of the barbarous South American Gaucho is not the same as\nthat of the cultured Englishman, nor is the Islam of the cultivated\nMoslem identical with that professed by ignorant followers of the Faith.\nBut it would be hard to say that philosophical Christianity exactly\nanswers the needs of the lower strata of Christendom to whom the\npositive directions of a simple practical faith might appeal with\ngreater force. Might not Islam, with its emphatic prohibition of drink,\nthe primary cause of all the vice and crime in Europe, prove a far\ngreater civilizing agency in the slums of European cities, and do far\nmore good in reclaiming the debased, than a religion which does not\npossess that positive character and is only adapted for idealistic\nminds?\n\nWhatever view a rationalist may hold on this point, I feel that Major\nLeonard has laid the world of literature under a debt for his admirable\nmonograph on a peculiarly interesting subject.\n\n    AMEER ALI.\n\n\n\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\n                                                    PAGE\n\n    CHAPTER I\n\n    THE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!                      13\n\n\n    CHAPTER II\n\n    AN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED\u2019S TEMPERAMENT\n    AND CHARACTERISTICS                               23\n\n\n    CHAPTER III\n\n    THE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED             51\n\n\n    CHAPTER IV\n\n    MOHAMMED\u2019S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS                 71\n\n\n    CHAPTER V\n\n    THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET\u2019S\n    CHARACTER                                         84\n\n\n    CHAPTER VI\n\n    A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED\u2019S WORK\n    AND WORTH                                        101\n\n\n    CHAPTER VII\n\n    MOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM\u2019S ATTITUDE\n    TOWARDS ISLAM                                    121\n\n\n    CHAPTER VIII\n\n    EUROPE\u2019S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF\n    INFLUENCE                                        142\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE SO-CALLED MOSLEM MENACE!\n\n\nFor some time past, but more especially during the last year or two, it\nhas become quite the fashion in Europe to rail at and to suspect the\ngood faith and motives of the Moslem world. If we are to believe the\nEuropean Press, Europe is in deadly danger. The \u201c_Yellow Peril_\u201d of a\nfew years ago has, by means of the juggling of modern journalism,\ncleverly transformed itself into the \u201c_Moslem Menace_.\u201d According to\nthis trenchant successor of the ancient oracle, there is unrest and\nseething turmoil everywhere. In Egypt, a national confederation; in\nMorocco, a crisis; in the heart of Africa, the Senussi movement; in\nTurkey and Arabia, secret associations and agitation; in Persia even,\ndisaffection but co-operation. In one word, Europe--Christian, civilized\nand unoffending Europe--is confronted with a Pan-Islamic confederation,\nthat is co-operating to achieve the unity and the nationalization of all\nIslam, with the express object of ultimately turning upon Christendom,\nand rending her into a thousand tattered fragments.\n\nThat there has been no revival of \u201cthe chronic conspiracy\u201d within our\nIndian Empire, is, however, easily explained. This, which purposed to be\na religious agitation among Indian Moslems, was an expression more\nfamiliar twenty-five years ago and was attributed to the influence of\nWahabite oratory. It is, of course, possible that the present agitation\nand unrest among the Hindus generally, but the Bengalis in particular,\nhas for the time being at all events diverted the attention of the\noutside world in other directions. But it is also more or less generally\ntaken for granted that the Moslem population of India has sunk into a\nstate of political lethargy, which if it does not betoken loyalty,\nobviously demonstrates a dumb and passive revolutionary torpor that is\ntantamount to it.\n\nThat agitation and unrest exist throughout the Moslem world would be\nnothing either new or unusual. In a human sense, Islam is identical with\nChristendom. She too has her social functions, her political parties,\nassociations, confederations and societies. She has her religious sects\nand denominations. As with us, so with Islam, there are affinities, and\nantipathies, emulations and jealousies, competitions and rivalries,\nlikes and dislikes, envy, malice, hatred and all uncharitableness. The\ninterest of self predominates before all else. In kind there is\ncertainly no difference, in degree it is possible that Europe may be a\nstep or two higher. But this is not the point that I would here\nemphasize. To fall back on the time-honoured maxim, immortalized by\nShakespeare, comparisons of this kind are incompatible if not odious.\nBesides, recrimination is as futile as it is injudicious and\nundignified.\n\nIt is not of moral discrepancies on either side that I would speak. Nor\nhave I any wish to rake up the low-lying sediment, or to disturb the\nstill waters which are running deep in the great ocean of Moslem life.\nUnder the conditions that prevail, it is assuredly best to let sleeping\ndogs lie. Left alone they are much less troublesome. There is always the\npossibility that they may oversleep themselves and fall into a dormant\nand inactive state. In this way the still waters of sedition and\nagitation soon find their own level--the embers of revolt may at times\nflare up, but they soon flicker out.\n\nIt is of the moral and spiritual utility, with the soul of Islam, that I\nam now about to deal. For Islam, believe me, has a soul--a sincere and\nearnest soul, a great and profound soul--that is worth knowing. It is in\nthis soul that the whole kernel and essence of Islam lies. A thorough\nknowledge and a clear comprehension of this great spirit will alone\nenable the statesmen and thinkers of Europe to understand the complex\nproblems of so-called Pan-Islamism. To obtain this grasp, however,\ncertain qualifications are absolutely essential. It is necessary--e.g.,\nto approach the subject from a rational and reasonable standpoint--to\ndetach the mind from all preconceived dogmas and opinions; to lay aside\nall prejudices, racial, religious, social and otherwise, and all\nbigotries and intolerance; to be confined to no one creed, sect or\ndenomination of any kind, sort or description, but the one great world\nof Humanity that, in the eyes of Nature, is of one soul and body. This\nmay be a large, or as cousin Jonathan would call it, a tall, order. It\nbulks big and sounds ponderous. In face of what human nature is, it\nappears impracticable. But even in human nature there are exceptions and\npossibilities. An aspect such as this, then, though improbable, is\ncertainly possible, if exceptional. Let us presume at least that in this\ninstance it is so. It is, at all events, on these broad lines that the\nfollowing pages have been written. It is the true spirit of human\nsympathy and fellowship that has moved me--the sympathy and fellowship\nthat would draw together, or at least nearer to each other, the worlds\nof Christendom and Islam.\n\nThe better to achieve my object, I have consulted no works on either\nMohammed or Islam, but have gone straight to the source or fountain\nhead--to Mohammed himself, the Koran, and to Moslems of various\nnationalities with whom I have been brought into close and personal\ntouch during a wide and a varied experience. It is here in the man and\nhis work that the true soul of Islam is to be found. Just as in its\nfounders and foundations lies the heart and essence of Christianity, it\nis in and out of the merits as well as demerits of Mohammed\u2019s work, that\nwe shall form the true estimate of Islamic utility. By their fruits ye\nshall know them. Men do not gather figs of thorns, or grapes of\nthistles. Mohammed most certainly did not. As he sowed, so he has\nreaped! So he is still reaping. The Koran was the immediate consequence\nof his concentration and communion with Nature and Nature\u2019s God: Islam\nthe natural result. In other words, Islam is the devotion of Moslems to\nMohammed and the Koran--his work, plus their patient resignation and\nentire submission to God, His will and His service! The man of fixed and\nunchanging purpose has a supreme contempt for obstacles. But when, as in\nMohammed\u2019s case, that purpose is the glorification of God, he has at\nhand a lever that can move the world. In this peculiar sense the great\nProphet of Arabia was self-contained. He had everything within himself:\nthat everything centred in God and Arabian unity. He sought only what he\nneeded. This was to unify God and his country. How he succeeded is a\nmatter of history.\n\nD\u2019Aubign\u00e9 in his history of the Reformation, speaking of Luther, says:\n\u201cMen, when designed by God to influence their contemporaries, are first\nseized and drawn along by the peculiar tendencies of their age.\u201d\nUndoubtedly this, in a great measure, is so. It is quite evident that\nMohammed was influenced in this way. Yet it is also obvious that he was\nnot so much seized by the peculiar tendencies of his age (for in many\nways he was far in advance of it), as that he was obsessed and dominated\nby the energy or spirit of God, and utilized these special features with\nthe design of disseminating this overmastering God possession to others.\n\n\u201cThere are but three sorts of persons,\u201d Pascal used to say: \u201cthose who\nserve God, having found Him; those who employ themselves in seeking Him,\nnot having found Him; and those who live without seeking Him or having\nfound Him. The first are reasonable and happy; the last are mad and\nmiserable; the intermediate are miserable and reasonable.\u201d\n\nIf ever man on this earth found God, if ever man devoted his life to\nGod\u2019s service with a good and a great motive, it is certain that the\nProphet of Arabia was that man. That on the whole and in the truest\nsense of the word he was reasonable, is best seen in the result which\nhis labour achieved. That he was happy, is quite another matter. Real as\nis our existence, happiness at best is but an ephemeral phase of it. Yet\nthere is much truth in the assertion, that gaiety seeks the crowd, while\nhappiness loves silence and solitude as Mohammed himself did. In any\ncase, if the satisfaction which ensues as the consequence of duty done,\nand well done, is happiness; if the consciousness that he has done his\nbest in all sincerity and conscientiousness, gives happiness to the ego,\nthen it is possible to assume that in bequeathing the grand heritage of\nIslam to posterity, Mohammed must have gone to his final rest in a state\nof supreme happiness.\n\nSelf-belief--\u201cthat thing given to man by his Creator,\u201d as Carlyle calls\nit--was, as I shall show, a salient feature in Mohammed\u2019s character.\nMore than half a Bedawin (or what was practically the same thing,\npassing a great part of his life in deserts), this was only natural. But\nhe did not allow this self-consciousness to degenerate, either into\nvanity or egotism. It neither spoilt nor conquered him. He knew his own\nweakness--none better--therefore relied all the more on the power of\nGod. It was this outside influence which reacted on him so powerfully\nfrom within. It was this judicious blend or amalgam of two seemingly\ndifferent thought-currents, which were in reality only a bifurcation of\nthe same current, that gave him all his strength. It was this unique\ncombination of an apparent dualism (through intense mental\nconcentration) in one divine Monism that gave Mohammed victory over\nevery obstacle. It was this compressed one-ness--the most sublime\ntriumph of individual concentration in the world\u2019s history--that carried\nIslam into the uttermost parts of the earth. It was this centralization\nof moral or religious gravity that swelled the belief of one man--a\nmodest camel-driving trader only--into the perfervid belief of hundreds\nof millions. \u201cFor given a sincere man, you have given a thing worth\nattending to. Since sincerity, what is it but a divorce from earth and\nearthly feelings?\u201d\n\nOne thing more. To thoroughly comprehend the spirit of Mohammed or the\nsoul of Islam, the student himself must be thoroughly in earnest and\nsincere. He must in addition possess that moral, mental and intellectual\nsympathy which gives the ego an insight into human subtleties as well as\nsimplicities. He must take Mohammed and Islam as he finds them--in the\nsame intensely sincere spirit that constituted the one and inculcated\nthe other. He must at the outset recognize that Mohammed was no mere\nspiritual pedlar, no vulgar time-serving vagrant, but one of the most\nprofoundly sincere and earnest spirits of any age or epoch. A man not\nonly great, but one of the greatest--i.e. truest--men that Humanity has\never produced. Great, i.e. not simply as a prophet, but as a patriot and\na statesman: a material as well as a spiritual builder who constructed a\ngreat nation, a greater empire, and more even than all these, a still\ngreater Faith. True, moreover, because he was true to himself, to his\npeople, and above all to his God. Recognizing this, he will thus\nacknowledge that Islam is a profound and true cult, which strives to\nuplift its votaries from the depths of human darkness upwards into the\nhigher realm of Light and Truth. It is in this deep sense of\nearnestness, and in this tense but even-minded spirit of equity, that I\nhave endeavoured to make my study both rational and psychological: in\nother words, reasonable and true to the spirit. Naturally, therefore, I\nhave avoided those narrow and devilish pitfalls of racial, creedal and\ncolour prejudices--that awful curse of Humanity, that insuperable\nbarrier to the cult of Humanitarianism--which leads to the deadly cancer\nof _Misconception_. Finally--making due allowance for space\nlimitations--I have endeavoured to the best of my ability to get to the\nroot of all that is good and great in the immortal work of this leader\nof men who was so good and so great in every sense. In this way only is\nit possible to get at the truth. Shallow, superficial and paradoxical\ninquiries are mere empty vanities as utterly useless, from a human\nstandpoint, as those which are biassed and one-sided. To reach the\ndepths, to touch the bottom, to get to the root of any true man\u2019s\nmotives, sincerity and thoroughness are as essential as intellectual\nacumen and profundity.\n\nIn this short study my one idea all through has been to delineate\nMohammed as he was and Islam as she is. For this reason I have neither\npainted them with my own colouring, nor introduced into their natural\ncomplexion any outside flesh tints. In plain English, I have not placed\nupon their beliefs and principles a construction that, being ethnically\nforeign to the entire sociological system upon which they are based,\nwould have been a fundamental error, at complete variance with them.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nAN OUTLINE OF MOHAMMED\u2019S TEMPERAMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS\n\n\nOne of the first thoughts that a very careful perusal of the Koran\nbrings home to me, is the intense humanity of Mohammed and his work. The\nmore one studies the various motives that led to his so-called\nrevelations, the more one is struck by the strong associations that\nconnect these divine messages and ordinances with the actions and\nmovements that were going on all round him, as well as in his own\nmind--owing in a great measure to his own preaching.\n\nIn estimating the moral value of either Christianity or Islam, it is\nnecessary to take into consideration, also to make allowance for, the\ntimes in which their founders lived. To attempt to judge one or other of\nthem from the scientific standpoint of modern culture and civilization\nwould be not only uneven but impossible. To gauge the standard of their\nmental and moral attainments, the student must investigate their work,\nand compare, then contrast, it with the general intellectual level of\ntheir own age. When this has been done, he should try and, if possible,\nrealize what effect the advent and the doctrines advocated by them (in\nthe one case some 1,900 years, and in the other 1,300 years ago) would\nnow produce. In this way only is it feasible to arrive at a true and\nlegitimate conclusion. But in doing so, the inquirer must divest,\ncertainly dissociate himself, from all existing ideas on the subject,\nand deal with it as it is, and not what he thinks it ought to be.\n\nThe more one studies the Koran, the more obvious does it become that\nMohammed had a powerfully receptive mind, and a specially retentive\nmemory. Notwithstanding that he was illiterate, unable even to read and\nwrite, it is clear that he was well versed in all the tenets and\ntraditions of his own people and of the Jews; and that in addition he\nhad made himself acquainted with some of the doctrines and dogmas of the\nChristian Gospels. It is above all certain that for a great number of\nyears Mohammed concentrated his mind thereon with the force and\nintensity of a sincere and ardent nature. But first and foremost the one\ngreat idea of the being, unity and providence of God predominated all\nhis thoughts. Acting on a temperament that was highly emotional, and\nperceptibly neurotic or melancholic, the revelations embodied in the\nKoran were the natural result of so long and continuous a\nconcentration. Still it is equally obvious that combining with this\nemotionalism and neurasthenia was a strong vein of commercialism and\ncommon sense, also marked political and administrative ability. It is\nfurther evident that in Mohammed\u2019s character there commingled a very\ncurious and conflicting number of elements and tendencies. Dominating\nall of these, however, was an intense zeal, an insatiable ambition, an\noverpowering individuality and egotism, and an inflexible doggedness and\ndetermination to attain his own ends. To convert, that is, the weakness\nand disintegration of the various tribes that composed the Arab nation\ninto the union of one consolidated whole, with himself and family at its\nhead, as a human representation of the unity and supremacy of the one\nand only God. This latter, as we know, was in no way original. It is\nclear all throughout that he had profited from his knowledge of Jewish\ntradition and experience, and that he based his theory on the dogmas of\nMoses and Abraham. He had long since realized that it was the worship of\ntheir own tribal and communal gods by the members of the various Arab\ntribes and communities that accentuated the differences and divisions\nbetween them. He determined, therefore, as the Jewish leaders long\nbefore him had attempted, to consolidate and weld them into a single\nnation, through the worship of the one supreme and indivisible God. It\nwas on and through this divine indivisibility that he decided to base\nand construct the unity and nationalization of the people.\n\nUnquestionably Mohammed\u2019s movement was as much political as it was\nreligious, as much material as it was spiritual. But being of a\nprofoundly reflective, at the same time of a practical, turn of mind, he\nchose religion as the only possible and thoroughly reliable means of\nachieving his great and noble ends; not only possible and thorough,\nhowever, but the most potential. Mohammed, in fact, judged the capacity\nand characteristics of his countrymen to a nicety. Unconsciously--for\nlegislation to him was a natural heritage--he followed the example of\nthe most famous legislators, and instituted such laws as at the time\nwere the best that the people were capable of receiving. Tactful and\ndiplomatic to a degree, it was policy on his part to retain a certain\nnumber of the old beliefs and customs in order to satisfy the people. He\nknew, none better, the fierce and turbulent temper of his countrymen,\nand how it was most politic to deal with them. In making this concession\nhe showed his political wisdom, if not a certain breadth and greatness\nof statecraft. After all it was, from an independent standpoint, but a\nsmall concession as compared to the prize that he got in return for it.\nIt was a compromise in other words. Yet this and his own evidence in the\nKoran is important as showing that Mohammed was not so much in a strict\nsense the originator of a new creed as he was a reformer and the\nrenovator of an old one. It was the impress of his great personality,\ndistinguished as this was by the intense sincerity and earnestness of\nhis nature, that has left its mark on human history.\n\nMohammed was a thinker and a worker not only for his own, but for all\ntime. He recognized that man was equally a political and religious\nproduct of God\u2019s creation. He understood that as a counterpoise to man\u2019s\nmaterialism and to the destructive in his nature, is that indefinable\nessence which we call the spiritual and the constructive. The more one\nlooks into and understands the Koran, the more obvious is it that\nMohammed concentrated all the active and vigorous energies of his vivid\nand powerful imagination, also his virile mentality, on the\naccomplishment of his great design. For design it certainly was. The\nwish undoubtedly was father to the thought. Not, however, in an\ninvidious sense, but in the firm conviction that design and not accident\nor chance is one of the controlling principles of God and His creation,\nand that, consistent with this principle, he, Mohammed, had been chosen\nas the divine agent. Personal ambition and aggrandizement never for a\nmoment entered his head, or formed part of it. The national good, to be\nattained only by a national or universal God--the one and only God of\nthe universe--was the one great ambition that inspired and impelled him.\nBecause although every one for himself and God for us all is presumably\na natural law, Mohammed managed to evade it. But in evading it, he was\nnot revolutionary. On the contrary, in this way he rose one step upward\nabove the lower human level towards that higher humanity which\napproaches the divine.\n\nThis design, as I have just said, originated from the doctrine of divine\nunity attributed to Moses and Abraham. Indeed, as one reads the Koran\ncarefully and steadily through from beginning to end, it is manifested\nin every surah--almost, in fact, on every page. The whole work, in fact,\nis saturated with the one idea, inspired by the one thought. Everywhere\nthere is evidence of the final object in view, the unconquerable will,\nthe inflexible resolve, the fixed purpose, the indomitable perseverance,\nthe unyielding persistency, the infinite and interminable patience, the\ncalm endurance, the irresistible courage, and the grim tenacity of the\nego. So much so is this evident, that when I compare this determinism\nwith the neurotic element in Mohammed\u2019s character, I am obliged to\nadmit that the balance remains with the former. Yet--and this I think is\nthe strangest feature about this strange but commanding\npersonality--there is no getting away from the fact that he was much\nunder the influence of the latter.\n\nIt is, of course, possible that Mohammed was what in Arabia is called a\n\u201cSaudawi,\u201d or person of melancholy temperament--what nowadays would be\ncalled a hypochondriacal dyspeptic. Melancholia is a complaint that the\nArabs are subject to, students, philosophers and literary men more\nespecially. A distaste for society, a longing for solitude, an unsettled\nhabit of mind, and a neglect of worldly affairs are always attributed to\nit. It is very probably--to some extent at least--as Burton suggests,\nthe effect of overworking the brain in a hot, dry atmosphere; also due\nin some measure to the highly nervous and bilious temperament\nconstitutional to the Arabs: a temperament that in Mohammed\u2019s case was\naggravated by excessive emotionalism.\n\nIt is clear that once Mohammed got hold of, or was obsessed by, the idea\nthat he was God\u2019s chosen messenger, and that his sayings were inspired\nby God (a very old and primitive belief remember): or rather as soon as\never Khadija and others of his household were imbued with the idea, then\nhe never relaxed his hold of it for a moment. The confidence of those\nabout him, his faithful spouse more especially, gave him confidence in\nhimself. Confidence engendered conviction, and conviction led to the\nKoran and the ultimate triumph of his cause. That he was sincere in all\nthis, there is not the slightest doubt, but in taking the measure of his\nsincerity we must be guided entirely by the fact that he was essentially\na man who had long before made up his mind to bring about the unity of\nhis country. Indeed the whole history of Khadija\u2019s association with the\nmatter shows this. To be a prophet in his own country or household, a\nman must inspire respect, or the still greater feeling of veneration. No\nman, unless he is earnest and devout, could possibly impress the members\nof his family. They are bound to find him out. This applies all the more\nforcibly to an eastern household in which polygamy prevails, and that is\nmade up of so many opposing elements and conflicting interests, the\natmosphere of which is only too often one necessarily of envies,\njealousies, rivalries, suspicions, intrigues, and even conspiracies. If\nMohammed had been insincere, if instead of convictions, his belief had\nbeen a mere profession or a sham; if it had not been one of austere,\nrigid practice and self-denial, then those about him would neither have\nbeen impressed, nor would they have espoused his cause as warmly and\nvaliantly as they did. Not only were they impressed, however, but\nconvinced, and it was their convictions that strengthened and confirmed\nhis own faith. But once he had gained their confidence, his mission was\nassured. There was no doubt whatever then in his own mind that he was\nGod\u2019s chosen apostle, to whom God had revealed His word--the words of\ntruth and life. From this out, his own vigour, his own extraordinary\nindividuality and inflexibility carried him through from beginning to\nend. Once others believed in and relied on him, his own latent\nself-reliance grew into a living and active factor that carried all\nbefore it. But as he looked at it, all his strength was from God. God\nwas at his elbow and in his heart, therefore he could not fail. Nothing,\nin fact, shows better than this aspect of the matter how very wise and\nall-knowing (his constant refrain about God in the Koran) Mohammed\nhimself was. How tactful and diplomatic, but above all, how deep his\nknowledge of human nature. Had Khadija and his household not believed in\nhim, it is safe to assume that then there would have been no Prophet and\nno Islam. As Novalis says: \u201cMy conviction gains infinitely the moment\nanother soul will believe in it.\u201d So it was with Mohammed. So it is with\nus all. So Carlyle pithily observes: \u201cA false man found a religion? Why\na false man cannot build a brick house!\u201d I have already shown that\nMohammed was not false. But neither did he found a religion. Apart from\nthe fact that he was a reality, and as true as any of the world\u2019s great\nprophets, Mohammed was unable to perform the impossible. Religion as a\nnatural product was beyond his comprehension and potentialities. Islam\nlike Christianity was a creed--a human or artificial development--the\nhealthy and vigorous offspring of a noble and sublime, yet in no sense\noriginal conception. But there was no demerit in this want of\noriginality. Because as Carlyle says: \u201cThe merit of originality is not\nnovelty; it is sincerity\u201d: and with regard to Mohammed, this has been\nmore than once acknowledged.\n\nLaunched upon the world of Arabia in no false and unreal spirit, but\nwith the spirit of grim sincerity and earnestness, Islam has proved its\nstability spiritually and materially, the present result of which speaks\nfor itself. It is enough to say that a creed whose followers now number\nover 250,000,000, or some 15 per cent. of the human race (an under-\nrather than an over-estimate), could have sprung from a healthy and\nvigorous seed only--a seed that has been nourished and kept alive by the\nvital spark of human sympathies, hopes and aspirations.\n\nWhat appears to me as so remarkable and so significant, so truly\ncharacteristic of the man, is the way in which he never lets go his grip\nof the central idea and purpose, but follows it up step by step. And as\nhe follows, he makes every point that he can, seizes every opportunity,\ntakes every advantage of every ordinary event and occurrence that is\ngoing on around him, makes the best of every reverse, turns even his\nset-backs and reverses into moral victories; and accepts it all as\ninevitable with the calmness of a philosophy that emanated from his own\nwondrous egoism and that inexhaustible fund of patience and reserve of\ncourage which so distinguishes his character. In this respect alone\nMohammed truly was a remarkable man--a man infinitely above, not only\nhis surroundings, but his age. With Mohammed, not only was the great\nfact of his own existence great to him, but in almost every page of the\nKoran it is obvious that God\u2019s omnipresence and omnipotence had made a\nprofound and lasting impression on him. Everywhere and in everything--in\nnatural objects more especially--he saw and felt the hand and the power\nof God. And to him it was a power so overwhelmingly terrific and\ntranscendent in all its aspects, that it defied description and\ndemonstrated the insignificance and impotence of man. In more senses\nthan one he was a pantheist. To him, either God was Nature and Nature\nGod, or God was in Nature and Nature was in God. At bottom of him the\nold primitive belief was there, but in unity and concentration he saw\nstrength. In his mind there was no room, no place, for lesser deities.\nThe power and the splendour of the one creative God--who lived and moved\nand had His being throughout the universe, overshadowed, or, rather, had\nabsorbed, them all. In the grim silence of the desert, in the vastness\nof the heavens, in the great infinity of space, in the scintillation of\nthe stars, in every fibre of his own consciousness, God was with him. To\nMohammed God was not a personal being but the God and Maker of the\nuniverse and all mankind. With him the entire theme and volume of his\nstream of thought was God and his religion. Coming from the core and\ncentre of him as it did, even through the long vista of thirteen\ncenturies, one can picture this overmastering element in every line of\nhis stern-set and yet gentle face: a face reflective and speaking, that\nnot only had a history stamped upon every feature, but a great, a\nstrenuous, and a commanding history. _In vino veritas_ is as true to-day\nas when first it was uttered. So too the saw, that \u201cmastership like wine\nunmasks the man.\u201d But Mohammed needed no unmasking. God and the\ntruth--the truth about God as it dominated him--was the rich, strong\nwine which coursed through every vein and fibre of his mental organism,\nstimulating and spurring him onwards to a sustained and continuous\neffort that ended only in death. A sincere and earnest man, a natural,\ntherefore a deeply religious man, to him God was also a Dayyan (one of\nthe ninety-nine epithets of God), i.e. \u201cA weigher of good and evil\u201d; One\nwho computed and settled accounts; the holder of the even balance and\nscales of justice, the Judge and Arbiter of all mankind.\n\nBut apart from these functions, the power and sublimity of the Supreme\nBeing, as he saw it expressed in the silent grandeur of the desert, the\ndeath-like stillness of the sandy sea, the frowning ruggedness and\nmajesty of the mountains, the immense universality of Nature, was always\nbefore his eyes and in all his thoughts. Full of this feeling, of the\nawe and veneration innate in man and co-existent with the eternal ages,\nhe bursts out in the second surah: \u201cGod! there is no God but He; the\nliving, the self-subsisting: neither slumber nor sleep seizeth Him; to\nHim _belongeth_ whatsoever is in heaven, and on earth. Who is he that\ncan intercede with Him, but through His good pleasure? He knoweth that\nwhich is past, and that which is to come unto them, and they shall not\ncomprehend anything of His knowledge, but so far as He pleaseth. His\nthrone is extended over heaven and earth, and the preservation of both\nis no burden unto Him. He is the high and mighty.\u201d\n\nAs a natural outburst of emotions and convictions that had been pent up\nwithin his own inner consciousness, that were the offspring of some\ntwenty years of journeyings to and fro across the deserts where \u201cAmin\u201d\nthe faithful one was in direct and constant contact with Nature, and\noften in silent communion with the Infinite, these few words are truly\nmagnificent and sublime; magnificent not only for the boldness and\nsublimity of their imagery and conception, but magnificent also with the\nintensity and profundity of true sincerity. Few, but all the more pithy\nfor that, these words are from the heart and soul of the man--a man who\nspeaks not unadvisedly with his lips, but who feels with every nerve and\nfibre of his intensely emotional being. They are (as he himself feels)\nthe outpouring of an insignificant and impotent atom, yet of a sincere\nand earnest man approaching in all humility and veneration, and with the\nloyalty and allegiance of a true believer and servant, the great,\ninvisible He, who holds him and all creatures in the hollow of His\nmighty hand.\n\nIn a conversation that Luther had one day with some friends at table, he\nspoke of the world as a vast and magnificent pack of cards composed of\nemperors, kings, princes and so forth. For several ages these had been\nvanquished by the Pope. Then God had come upon the scene, and chosen the\n\u201cace,\u201d the very smallest card in the pack--himself, in a word--and\noverthrown this conqueror of worldly powers and principalities.\nMohammed, as much as Luther, was one of \u201cGod\u2019s Aces.\u201d Seldom, indeed, in\nthe history of the world, has so great a human river flowed from a\nsource so puny. Never did the divine manifest itself in a single pip, so\nseemingly small and insignificant as a cause, yet so pre-eminently and\nconsistently great as an effect!\n\n\u201cMen,\u201d says Dumas in one of his historico-romantic masterpieces, \u201care\nvisible, palpable, moral. You can meet, attack, subdue them; and when\nthey are subdued you can subject them to trial and hang them. But ideas\nyou cannot oppose in that way. They glide unseen; they penetrate; they\nhide themselves especially from the sight of those who would destroy\nthem. Hidden in the depths of the soul, they there throw out deep roots.\nThe more you cut off the branches which imprudently appear, the more\npowerful and inextirpable become the roots below.\n\n\u201cAn idea is a young giant which must be watched night and day; for the\nidea which yesterday crawled at your feet, to-morrow will dispose of\nyour head. An idea is a spark falling upon straw.\u201d ... \u201cFor the mind of\nman is no inert receptacle of knowledge, but absorbs and incorporates\ninto its own constitution the ideas which it receives.\u201d Thus it was with\nMohammed. God was the spark, the vital spark of spiritual flame, and\nthis humble but honest Arab trader was the straw, that after twenty\nyears of silent but tenacious smouldering God had set a light to.\n\nThe better, however, to understand his character and purpose, we must\ndivide his life into two sections. The first when, as trader from the\nage of thirteen up to forty, first for his uncle and then for Khadija,\nhe was the man of business. Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas\nand ideals that he kept to himself however; that he divulged to no one.\nFor not until the time was ripe and the hour had come, not until he felt\nthe call--felt, that is, that he was ready and able to begin--did he\nconfide even in Khadija. The second section when, as the apostle of God,\nhe worked with all the fiery fervour yet steady zeal of a true prophet,\nto put his ideas into practice. But there was this difference with\nregard to Mohammed as a theorist. He was not a man of many ideas. In\nreality one central idea alone inspired him. But great and magnificent\nas that was, it was equal to a multitude. It was a growing and a\nspreading giant which, like the prolific banyan tree, threw out branch\nand root with such extravagant luxuriance, that it completely\novershadowed and predominated the entire expanse of his mental area. We\nknow what this idea was. We know that round and out of the central stem\nof God\u2019s overmastering unity Mohammed had determined to construct an\nArabian nation--possibly something even greater. We know, too, that the\none was but the offspring of the other. Or it may be that they were the\ntwin offspring of all this profound and concentrated contemplation. But\nwe do not know how this great idea first took root. Let us, however, try\nand trace it to its source as nearly as we can.\n\nWith still greater emphasis than Chrysostom, who asserted that \u201cthe true\nShekinah is man,\u201d Carlyle says: \u201cthe essence of our being, the mystery\nin us that calls itself \u2018I,\u2019 is a breath of heaven; the highest Being\nreveals Himself in man.\u201d An idea such as this would never have occurred\nto Mohammed. The fatherhood of God in its accepted human sense was\nrepugnant to him. The mere thought was sacrilege!\n\nHis conception of God was much too exalted, much too divine for this.\nGod and humanity could have no possible connexion. God was the\nCreator--the Potter, who out of the clay or matter in chaos had made\nthe world and all therein. Humanity was but a small part only of His\ncreation. Men were but as clay in His hands--mere creatures of His.\nBeyond this hard and fast line there could be no relationship between\nGod and man. Association was as impossible as comparison was\nobjectionable. God, as supreme Creator and Director of the universe, was\na Being altogether distinct and apart from His own creation. Yet as such\nHe was the soul or spirit of it, the breath of life to all that lived,\nand of death to all that died. Man was as evil, as puny, and as weak as\nGod was great and good and strong. God was too exalted and glorious for\nwords. Incomprehensible and inscrutable, He was beyond the power of\nlanguage, outside the narrow limitations of thought to imagine. Just as\nthe heavens were divided from the earth by boundless space, so far apart\nwas God from man. The endless immensity of everything was insufficient\nto express His omnipotence--fell far short of the unthinkable reality.\nEven the heavens and earth as His handiwork did not convey as completely\nas it might appear to do the capacity of the power that belonged to Him.\nTo Mohammed, in every vibrating star an all-seeing eye and glory of the\ngreat Creator, God, was visible; in every tiny blade of grass, in every\nspring of water, He was manifest and tangible. So some eleven centuries\nafter Mohammed was laid to rest, a poor, struggling, but undaunted\nartist-poet, looking from his mean London garret with the eyes of a\ndreamer-mystic into the great invisible above and beyond him (just as\nAmin the faithful one had done), yearned:\n\n    \u201cTo see the world in a grain of sand,\n    And a heaven in a wild flower;\n    Hold Infinity in the palm of \u201chis\u201d hand,\n    And eternity in an hour.\u201d\n\nAnd in the middle of the late departed century--which rushed across the\ngreat void of Time like a hissing meteor--thus Tennyson:\n\n    \u201cFlower in the crannied wall,\n    I pluck you out of the crannies,\n    I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,\n    Little flower; but if I could understand\n    What you are, root and all, and all in all,\n    I should know what God and man is.\u201d\n\nWhile to Wordsworth, with a faith in Nature and Nature\u2019s God as deep as\nMohammed, the meanest flower that blows, gave thoughts that often lay\ntoo deep for words.\n\nSociety is only too apt to judge or condemn facts and men; also to\nridicule the age and its spirit. This drastic method saves the trouble\nof comprehending them. The society of keen Arab traders and wily\nBedouins which environed Mohammed did not comprehend him. To them he\nwas not so much like a fish out of water, as a land quadruped at sea,\naltogether out of his element as well as out of his depth--a flotsam\nstruggling to get to dry land as a jetsam.\n\nImmeasurably above and beyond his social contemporaries either morally\nor spiritually, to them Mohammed was an enigma and a mystery. \u201cScenting\na mystery is like the first bite at a piece of scandal, and holy souls\ndo not detest it. In the secret compartments of bigotry there is some\ncuriosity for scandal.\u201d But among Mohammed\u2019s opponents--the Koreish more\nparticularly--it was not merely scandal that moved them: it was\njealousy, envy, malice, and in the end sheer diabolical hatred. In\ndescribing the state of a mind that is advancing, we must remember that\nall progress is not made in one march or even series of marches.\nMohammed\u2019s march was entirely uphill, dead against the collar, the whole\nway and all the time, except, perhaps, just towards the end. Yet each\nday\u2019s march brought him nearer to the goal of his desires. Slowly but\nsurely he made progress, and with it reputation. The slowness of his\nmovement, his advance, made progress and reputation all the more not a\ndead, but a living certainty. But there is always anarchy in reputation.\nIt was this reputation--this individuality that dared to insolently\nassert itself in the overthrow of their ancestral gods--which explained\nKoreish hostility.\n\nMohammed was a calm, yet by no means an unprogressive agent of\nProvidence. Brains that are absorbed either in mania or wisdom, or, as\noften happens, in both at once, are permeated very very slowly by the\nthings of this world. But even admitting that there was melancholia,\nthere was no mania about Mohammed. If ever a man was sane and healthy,\nhe was. \u201cYou grant a devout man, you grant a wise man: no man has a\nseeing eye without first having had a seeing heart.\u201d This fits his case\nto a nicety. A more devout man than Mohammed never lived. He was as\npre-eminently wise as he was devout. He utilized his wisdom to the\nfullest extent of his capacity, and he proved his devoutness by putting\nhis beliefs to the infallible test of stern and rigid practice. A trader\nto his finger tips, a clear-sighted man of business, and a statesman\nwith prophetic instincts, who profited by the past, utilized the\npresent, and prepared for the future, in this sense he was a\ncontradiction. The being absorbed in wisdom did not prevent him from\ncarrying on his worldly duties in the most conscientious and thorough\nmanner. _Per contra_, his worldly duties did not prevent him from\nphilosophical absorption. The one was his duty, the other the breath of\nlife to him. His veneration of God gradually crystallized the religion\nin him into a creed. This is generally the result of concentration. His\nabsorption of God ended in God\u2019s absorption of him. It was a long and\ngradual process which occupied twenty years. During this period of\nembryonic development he withdrew, as it were, into himself. Then when\nthe crisis arrived, it came out of him, as a river flows out of a\nspring, and was called Islam. \u201cOur chimeras,\u201d says Victor Hugo, \u201care the\nthings which most resemble ourselves, and each man dreams of the\nunknown, and the impossible according to his nature.\u201d Mohammed\u2019s\nchimera, as we know, was God and Arabian unity. But there was nothing\nchimerical about the former, and with this invincible lever, the latter\ntoo was a distinct probability. For although he was doubtless\nsuperstitious--that is natural--and wrestled with shadows and visions,\nMohammed dealt in realities. To him God was the most real thing, the\nsternest reality of all in the universe. God, in fact, was the Universe.\nThese, which to another would have been the unknown and the impossible,\nwere to him the possible and the inevitable. The nature that was in him\nwas the nature of God and the universe. There is a point where\nprofundity is oblivion, when light becomes extinguished. Though from a\nliterary aspect Mohammed was not profound, in a religious sense his\nprofundity, centring as it did in God, burst forth into the Cimmerian\ndarkness which enveloped his country with the brilliancy of a meteor\nthat illumines the blackest night.\n\nThere is too a way of encountering error by going all the way to meet\nthe truth, also by a sort of violent good faith which accepts everything\nunconditionally. There was nothing violent (certainly not for a long\nperiod), but there was everything that stands for goodness and stability\nin Mohammed\u2019s faith. It was thus--in the spirit of a hero and the valour\nof a Paladin--he encountered the error and opposition of his enemies by\nfirst of all going out of his way to meet the truth; then, in spite of\nthemselves and their hostility, by enforcing it upon those who would not\nbe persuaded. According to Fontenelle, \u201cthere is only truth that\npersuades, and even without requiring to appear with all its proofs. It\nmakes its way so naturally into the mind, that when it is heard for the\nfirst time, it seems as if one were only remembering.\u201d This was very\nmuch the case with Mohammed. This was why he tried at first to lead and\nnot to drive his countrymen to the truth. To him who saw the truth of\nGod\u2019s existence, His mercy written as plainly in the falling raindrop as\nHis power of retribution is in the lightning that flashes across the sky\nas if it would rend it, their stubbornness in rejecting God was utterly\nincomprehensible. His mind had two attitudes. The one was turned to God,\nthe other to man. In contemplating God, he but studied man\u2019s interests\nand his own. But contemplation with Mohammed did not end by becoming a\nform of indolence. Imaginative--visionary, in fact--as he was, he did\nnot allow his imagination to play tricks with him. He did not fancy that\nhe wanted for nothing. Even when married to Khadija, and in tolerable\naffluence, there was obviously a great void in his life. This want of\ncourse was spiritual. Exact and punctilious as he was in his temporal\nduties, his whole bent and inclination was towards the former. As a\nyounger and poorer man, he had looked so much at the humanity around him\nthat he saw right down into its very soul. With the same fervent\nintensity he had looked into nature until he saw or rather felt the\ncreator and controller thereof. \u201cThere are times when the unknown\nreveals itself in a mysterious way to the spirit of man. A sudden rent\nin the veil of darkness will make manifest things hitherto unseen, and\nthen close again upon the mysteries within. Such visions have\noccasionally the power to effect a transfiguration in those whom they\nvisit. They convert a poor camel-driver into a Mahomet; a peasant girl\ntending her goats into a Joan of Arc.\u201d A conscientious and faithful\nworker, Mohammed was at the same time a dreamer. But his dreams were but\nthe reflex of his work and of his ideas. These came to him like\nmountainous waves, or the swell of an angry surf as it thunders on the\nbeach with a threatening roar, a mass of water that would submerge the\nvery earth. His ideas did not, however, submerge him. Nor did they\ndestroy or bury him. Out of their unknown and bosky depths Mohammed\ninvariably rose to the surface with the buoyancy of a life-belt, calm\nand unmoved, for his spiritual centre of gravity always held him up. He\ndreamt of man, but chiefly of God--of God\u2019s goodness and greatness, of\nman\u2019s impotence and frailty. He looked at the solid earth on which he\nstood, with its stones and its sand, its wheat and its tares, its joys\nand sorrows, but particularly its suffering children and helpless women.\nThen he looked at the vast void above, with its star-spangled sky, its\nsun and moon, and the God that made all and was in all. This led him to\nthink of the void that was in himself, and to compare the one with the\nother. Then he pondered and compared. The greatness of it all passed\ninto him and he dreamt again. There was no void above, for God filled\nit. So too his own emptiness gave place to the Supreme. All at once a\ngreat feeling of tenderness was aroused within him. From the egotism of\nthe _genus vir_, he passed to the contemplation of the _genus homo_, the\nman who contemplates and feels. God had touched his heart. In\nforgetfulness of self was born a great compassion for all. For years and\nyears Mohammed lived with his neck in a noose of obstacles composed of\nhuman thorns and millstones. He was, so to speak, an outcast, thrown on\nthe dung heap, and into the brambles; at times even in the mud. Yet no\nmud clung to him, not even to his feet. His head at all events was\nalways in the light, his hand always resting on the omnipotence of the\nAlmighty. Invariably gentle, attentive, serious, benevolent, easily\nsatisfied, he remained serene and peaceful. It was only in the last\nextremity, when all his persuasive earnestness failed him, that his\nenemies stirred him to wrath. But it was a just and dispassionate wrath;\nit was the wrath of God. For whether they liked or no, Mohammed in his\ndual capacity as God\u2019s agent and Arabian patriot had made up his mind\nthat they should have God. On this point he was inexorable. Feeling that\nthere is an eternity in justice, he felt that in justice to God, and to\nthemselves, and in spite of themselves, it was his duty to proclaim the\ntruth. Many a less tenaciously sincere man, many a real hero, would have\nshrunk from and have succumbed before an ordeal so terrific, a contest\nso supremely Titanic. But Mohammed was made of sterner stuff, of the\nspirit that gods are made of. Failure was a word that he did not\nrecognize. With God at his back, success was an absolute certainty--a\nforegone conclusion.\n\nWhatever might be his desire to remain where he was and cling to it, he\nwas impelled to advance, to continue, to go on further and still\nfurther. Yet to think and to ask himself where it was all going to lead\nhim to? But although he thought, he never hesitated, never turned back.\nHis hand was to the plough--the plough God. God was the goal, the end,\nthe summit of human existence and ambition. Humanity was the soil, and\nto get there he must furrow his way through its enmities and affections.\nFirm and exceptional natures are thus moulded out of miseries,\nmisfortunes and afflictions. As a result of his work history shows us\nmore and more that Mohammed was firm and exceptional to the very highest\ndegree. Yet there was nothing of that hypocrisy which Victor Hugo calls\nsupreme cynicism about him. He was too human, too much in earnest, to be\nanything but Amin the Faithful. There is, after all, more in a name than\nmeets the eye. In some names there is history and the tragedy of\nhistory. In others there is the might and majesty of a commanding\nmagnetism, which recognizes the sublimity of truth. In Mohammed\u2019s case,\neven to this day over two hundred and fifty million human beings bow the\nknee through him to God. Yes, there is much--a world of meaning--that is\ninexpressible in a name--a magic and a _je ne sais quoi_ which under the\nlabel of Napoleon led men to the Kingdom Come of glory--in other words,\nto destruction and the devil--but that with Mohammed was the open sesame\nto the glory and power of God. A rose by any other name may smell as\nsweet. But Islam without the halo of time-honoured sanctity that\nattaches to the name of Mohammed, would sound as but a hollow brass or a\ntinkling cymbal. Just, in fact, as the man himself was sincere and\nfaithful, there is, and there will continue to be, a magic in his\nname--more so even than that of Christ has for the Christian--drawing\nmen to God, as he in person drew them not alone by sheer force of will\nand character, but by a force which was even stronger, the force of\nsincerity and truth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE ENVIRONMENT THAT MOULDED MOHAMMED\n\n\nA true son of the desert, it is impossible to understand the powerful\nand complex personality of Mohammed, unless we can appreciate the\npeculiar character and genius of the desert. More so in some ways even\nthan the seaman, the dweller or sojourner in the desert is distinct and\nunique in himself. Possessing the courage of the Fatalist, and as free\nas the roving winds of heaven, he is all the same of a shrinking and\ntimorous nature, confronted as he often is by certain aspects and\nphenomena that imperil his life and strike down to the very roots of his\nmoral consciousness.\n\nIn the desert there is, comparatively speaking, little life. Unlike the\nforest region, it is naked and almost destitute. There, as at sea, man\nis face to face not only with the great elements, but with the greater\nInfinite and Invisible. He is nearer to God and the immensity of Nature.\nThere is nothing--or little at least--to distract his attention--nothing\nbetween him and the ever watchful Inscrutable. There is no shade from\nthe sun by day, no protection from the moon and stars at night. They\nlook down on him as from the pinnacle of the sublimest elevation. The\nfiercer glory of the sun by day burns into his very soul, consumes his\nvery marrow. The milder effulgence of the moon by night throws its\nsilvery glamour over all his senses. The lesser and more distant\nsplendour of the stars--those watch-fires of angelic spirits--in their\ncountless myriads awe and bewilder him. In the choking breath of the\nsimoom he feels the potentialities of God, and his own helpless\nimpotence. Struck all of a heap by its stifling blast, he is filled with\nfear and trembling in the presence of a Power invisible yet tangible and\ndeadly. Whether he wills or not, the fear of God--of the Inexorable and\nInevitable--enters into his heart and takes possession of his inmost\nsoul. Call it the fear of God or not, it is practically one and the same\nfeature--the mere human label makes no difference to this awful and\nunseen reality--the same fear of the Unknown, the Unexpected and the\nInevitable: the Inevitable that is always with us, the agnostic and the\nsophist no less than with the theologian, yet unseen, incomprehensible\nand omnipotent. But more than anything, it is the awful and impenetrable\nsilence that impresses and appals the silent and dignified nomad of the\ndesert.\n\nTo those who have never been outside the confines of civilization, it is\nnot logically possible even to guess at the extraordinary influence--a\nfascination amounting to witchery--that the silence and solitude of the\ndesert exercises over one. Yet if I were asked to define the essence and\nsubtlety of this influence, I could but answer that it is indefinable;\nall the same a glamour that, like the force of gravity, is irresistible.\nFree and open like the sea (but fresh only at night), it is not the\nwitchery of the soft blue sky, for the sky of the desert is hard and\nsteely; it is not the fierce white heat of the fervid sun that melts\ninto the very marrow of one\u2019s bones; but rather is it the soothing magic\nof the moon at night, under the brilliant canopy of the heavens, when\nthe earth, cooling rapidly, is lulled into eternal silence, that one\nfalls under the magic spell of its wondrous influence. But even the\nglamour of the moon is out-glamoured by the darkness of the night under\nwhose funereal pall even the great suns and planets hide their\ndiminished heads. There is in the darkness and the silence of the night\na mystery and a profundity that arouses the sluggish, even the stagnant\nconsciousness of the dullard--that much more so attracts the quickening\nsoul of the mystic and visionary, which springs to it with the same\neager avidity that a lean and hungry trout leaps at the first fly which\nhe sees after a long and enforced abstinence. It is in this darkness and\nsilence of the night, rather than in the fierce glare of the midday sun,\nthat the fear of the great Infinite comes to man. For if we but think of\nit, what a spectre-teeming spectacle is night. We hear strange, weird\nsounds. We know not whence they come or whither they go. Or it may be\nthat all around us is as the silence of the grave--of eternal death. We\nsee the evening star looming large like a great world on fire. The blue\nof the sky looms black. The stars seem to speak to us; the whole scene\nis impressive--a sight for the gods. In the desert, however, and to the\nearnest thinker whose centre of gravity is God, night is something more\nthan a mere spectacle--a something greater, grander and more terrifying\nthan a simple impression--a feeling deeper and sublimer even than a\nconviction: a revelation of the Unseen Unknown which is all the time\nbehind that which he sees and knows.\n\nFull as night is of phantoms, shades, sounds and silence, it is no\nillusive mirage, no mere empty simulacrum. But in every way it is a\nreality and a substance which is tangible, that touches one not only on\nthe spot, on the raw, but everywhere; that fills one with vague fears,\nand brings even the proudest and the sternest to their knees before the\npower of the great Omnipotence. The very stars which hang out in the\ngreat firmament appear as God\u2019s sign-posts--great all-seeing eyes that\nare ever upon us--or like eternal watch-fires which contrast the\neternity of God with the momentary mortality of man; they enhance the\nblackness of the blue. Peering as they do into the awesome watcher\u2019s\ninmost soul, they either drive him headlong into the blackness and\nterrors of evil, or lead him by their kindly light into the glory of the\nAlmighty Presence. Unquestionably the night is either diabolical or\nsacred. Not only this, she is the brooder and breeder of all primitive\ndoctrines, the conceiver and the mother of all human creeds. In her\nimmense womb there is a latent light, a smouldering volcano full of\nashes, cinders, and dead men\u2019s bones; yet full also of fire-sparks that\nare capable of flashing into luminosity, even of bursting into hissing,\nleaping and devouring flames. It was thus that Christianity and Islam\ncame into being. It was thus out of the primeval sacrifices, the shadows\nand silence of death and darkness, that all creeds have crept into and\nout of the minds of men. Tortuous human ant-heaps bored and tunnelled\nthrough and through by human ideas, human hopes, and human aspirations;\nworlds in the low-lying limbo of the f\u0153tus stage, fecundating in all\ndirections into beliefs, faiths, creeds, sects, denominations,\nquackeries, dissimulations and charlatanism. Labyrinthine, subterranean,\nand full of subtleties as all these creeds appear to be, they are easy\nenough to comprehend. They have all sprung from the same simple seed if\nwe would but recognize it. If we but looked at this vista of the past as\nthrough a mental telescope, if we but grasped the substance and not the\nshadow, went straight to the simple root instead of to the theological\nand metaphysical subtleties of it all, we would find it absolutely\nsimple. If we would but for a moment drop from our eyes the dense scales\nof dogma, bigotry and prejudice, there would be no difficulty in tracing\nback all these enigmatic ramifications and gloomy obscurities of\npristine darkness and chaos to the one central germ idea, the one\nvitalizing spark that inspires and illumines them all.\n\nIt is obvious that Wordsworth, when he speaks of only \u201ctwo voices,\u201d the\none \u201cof the sea,\u201d the other \u201cof the mountains\u201d--\u201ceach a mighty voice,\u201d\nquite overlooked the bleakness and silence of the desert. This\noverpowering blackness that pervades the very soul, creeps through every\nvent into the bones and chills one to the very marrow. This sublime\nsilence, that speaks to one as the still small voice of God spoke to\nMoses, and that fills the thinker with even greater awe and veneration\nthan the crashing and rolling thunder. This silence which is of\neternity, therefore golden, while speech is of to-day and only silvern,\nfor as Carlyle reminds us: \u201cAfter speech has done its best, silence has\nto include all that speech has forgotten or cannot express.\u201d\n\nSpeaking for myself, who have passed many days of my existence at sea,\nand many more still in the desert, there is that in the latter which\nalways reminds me of the former. To be sure, the ever restless sea with\nits almost myriad moods--its calm, its motion, its rippling smiles, its\nwavy undulations, its heights and depths, its fickleness and treachery,\nits dazzling beauties, its fierce turbulence--is as unlike the desert,\nwith its grim stiff grandeur and appalling sameness as it well could be:\nstill--\n\n    \u201cTho\u2019 inland far we be,\n    Our souls have sight of that immortal sea\n    Which brought us thither.\u201d\n\nThere is no music in it by day or by night, only the dead still hush of\nsilence. Yet the desert has its aspects, if it has not its moods and\ncontrasts--as singular as they are striking. See, or rather feel it\nunder the fierce and scorching glare of the fiery sun, that almost\nshrivels you into a mummy; see it also under the softer spell of the\nsilvery orb, when the air is balmy, if not fresh, and you will at once\nimagine yourself to be in an altogether different and enchanted world.\nThen again, lose yourself in the desert on a dark night when for once in\na way the stars are dim or obscured by clouds, and you will realize as\nyou never before have done, the awesome reality of the sense of\nloneliness--a feeling which can only be compared to that felt by the\nhunted criminal hiding in a city, and against whom every man\u2019s hand is\nraised.\n\nBut there is besides in the desert the fateful mirage that, like the\nocean sirens, has lured so many to their doom. Finally there is the\noasis which stands out of the sea of shimmering sand, like an island\nparadise that towers over the waste of seething waters which encircle\nit. The desert too, like the sea, has its ships and its men. Ships that\npass by day as well as by night. Ships that stride across the great\nsandy wastes, grunting and gawky, with unwearying patience, unyielding\ntenacity, and unerring instinct. As are the ships, so are the men. But\nin place of gawkiness and grunts, the golden virtue of silence, and the\nconscious pride of natural dignity. Men who in their very port and\ncarriage are the very spirit and personification of the desert. Men who\nrepresent not the genii, but the genius of the great dry sea of sand\nand silence. Indeed, if ever men on this planet of ours were\npatriarchal, if ever men bore themselves with the gait and the simple\ndignity of free men, the Bedawins of Arabia and the North African\ndeserts do. With the lynx-like, yet enigmatic expression that calls to\nmind a combination of eagle keenness and owl-like solemnity, there is\nabout them a freedom of manner and bearing, a dignity of carriage, an\nindependence of character, that are the peculiarly glorious and\ndistinctive heirlooms of the air, expanse and grandeur of these inland\nseas. In every sense, moral and physical, they are the products of an\nunrestricted environment that has made them what they are--wanderers on\nthe face of the earth. But wanderers from choice. Untrammelled even to\nlicence; giving an unbridled rein to their spirit of independence.\nRegarding with supreme contempt the luxuries and even necessaries of\ncivilization. Yet with it all slaves to the spiritual fears that haunt\nthem. Relics of a primitive and old-world civilization, there is about\nthese Bedawins a flavour of antiquity, of a past that is hoary with the\nhoariness of eternal age, so distant that we cannot conjecture about it,\neven in the vaguest of terms. In addition to this everlasting antiquity\nand conservatism, there is about these patriarchs a naturally dignified\nreticence, and an air of calm, quiet assurance and authority, that are\npeculiarly their own personal property. But there is even more than\nthis. There is that same universal concept--common to all primitive\npeople who have not outlived it--of belief in the fear of a supreme\npower. That same awe and reverence for the patriarchal authority\nconnected with that of the ancestors which has preceded it; that calm\nand philosophical acceptation of Karma or Fatalism; that same dread of\nconsequences; that identical terror of malignant demons; that same\nshrinking from the inevitable, which is the heritage of all natural\npeople. Inherent instincts that even twelve centuries of Islam have\nscarcely modified. When we get underneath the surface of human nature as\nrepresented by the Arab, whether he came from the east, the west, the\nsouth, or the centre, it is obvious that the underlying motive for most,\nif not all, of his social customs is inspired by that personal or\nreligious instinct which is so closely allied to the primary instincts\nof all. Out of such fundamental material did Mohammed emerge!\n\nNevertheless, with all its drawbacks, there is about the desert, only in\na different degree, the pleasure of the pathless woods, the rapture of\nthe lonely shore. Just as by the deep and rolling sea whose very roar is\nmusic, there is a society where none intrudes, so with the desert.\nRight in the very core and centre of its silence and solitude, the man\nwhose ears and eyes are open to receive impressions, finds himself in\nthe presence of that invisible but omniscient power of Nature. The power\nthat, while it causes the earnest thinker to pause and reflect, makes\nthe average human being yearn for the companionship of his own kind. But\nit was not so with Mohammed. Mohammed was not as other men are. He was a\nthought leader. Not a deep thinker by any means; but profoundly in\nearnest. Few men in the world\u2019s history--judging at least by\nresults--have been more in earnest than he was. In Hannibal there is the\nsame earnest fixity of purpose, only different in kind, the same\nunquenchable ardour, and the same iron will that kept him faithful to\nthe sacred vow of undying vengeance against the Romans, that his father\nexacted from him on the altar of their ancestral gods. In William the\nSilent too, but also in another direction, we find the same relentless\npurpose and the same inflexible sincerity to attain the independence and\nautonomy of the United Provinces. Cromwell likewise gave his life and\nhis services--all that was best in him in fact--in the firm and sincere\nconviction that he was God\u2019s chosen instrument. But in none of these\nmen, not even in the great and heroic Ironside, was there the same\nfervent godliness, i.e. the fear and veneration of God. It was Luther\nmost of all who approached Mohammed in the sincerity of his purpose,\ni.e. of his religion. For although Luther was essentially a priest, and\ndid not found a new creed, his sincerity showed itself as a Protestant\nand Reformer. In his whole life the fear and veneration of God as the\nmotive factor of his existence was manifest.\n\nIt is, of course, just possible, as Tennyson surmises, that:\n\n    \u201c... Through the ages one increasing purpose runs,\n    And the thoughts of men are widen\u2019d with the process of the suns.\u201d\n\nThis, however, is vague and brings us no nearer to an exact\ncomprehension of the matter. The better to understand this feeling of\nfear that so dominated men of the Numa, Buddha, Luther, John Knox,\nCromwell and Mohammed type, it is essential that the student grasps and\nmeasures the actual measure of difference that divides religion from\ncreed. It is but meet that we should accept the rational axiom, that\nreligion is natural, and creed the egotistical and personal\ninterpretation placed upon religion by human beings. As Draper says:\n\u201cWhen natural causes suffice, it is needless to look for supernatural.\u201d\nSo Bacon, looking with the insight of true genius into the Book of\nNature, up to Nature\u2019s God, said in that immortal aphorism which opens\nthe _Novum Organum_, \u201cHomo Natur\u00e6 minister et interpres\u201d--man is the\nservant and interpreter of Nature. This will make it easier to get at\nthe root of this dual feeling of fear and veneration. But to do so it is\nnecessary for the student to look as far back into the past as he can.\nIn every ancient cult that has ever existed, in the Chald\u00e6an, the\nEgyptian, the Aryan, the various (so-called Pagan) African, for example,\nthe same overmastering element predominates. In Grecian annals and\nliterature--in the _Iliad_, the _Odyssey_, Hesiod\u2019s _Theogony_, in the\ngreat tragedies of \u00c6schylus, in Plutarch and other writers--Fear is not\nmerely reverenced as \u201c_Holy_,\u201d but in Greece, as elsewhere, altars were\nerected and worship offered to her as a goddess.\n\nIt is in its definition and conception of religion that humanity has\ngone astray. By general acceptation religion and creed have always been\nconfounded. Natural religion is spoken of as a something different and\nwidely apart from Christianity, as a religion revealed. This is not so.\nThere is no difference between them. Christianity is but the development\nof natural religion on the lines and ideas of certain individuals. There\nis no such thing as revelation. Religion is an evolution. It is natural.\nIt comes to us from Nature, i.e. from the God out of which Nature has\nevolved. Hence its constructive and destructive dualism. It is a living\nand vital force that is innate in man as being one with Nature.\nObviously this veneration, this fear of the Unseen, the Unexpected and\nthe Inevitable (which I have spoken of), is one of the root instincts\nout of which it unfolds itself. Most unquestionably it is the outward\nand visible expression of the inner consciousness or spirit that moves\nman to the adoration of veneration in the constructive direction, and of\nfear in the destructive. This varies in the individual. Thus on the one\nhand we have a Mohammed; on the other a Napoleon. From the very\nbeginning of human existence right down until now this fear of God has\npredominated. It still exists. It will go on existing. Religion is as\nmuch a part of the human constitution as the primal instincts. Creed is\nacquired. It is environment and education that makes or forms creed. The\nchild becomes what his teacher makes him, as he can neither distinguish,\ndiscriminate nor judge for himself. But to make him Jew, Gentile or\nChristian, the religion must be in him. Creed, in a word, is but the\nview that is taken of natural religion by the ego. But a matter so\nimportant as this, however, cannot here be entered into.\n\nAs it has been with all the great religious leaders of history, so too\nit was with Mohammed. Fearing, yet venerating, the might, the majesty\nand the goodness of God, the companionship that he most wanted was not\nhuman but divine. Communion with Him, through his own thought and\nthrough the great Infinity around him, was what his heart most desired.\nA town Arab by birth and breeding, a Bedawin by feeling and instinct, he\nwas something more than a mere native of Arabia. Rather a son of men, an\napostle chosen out specially from among men, that he might bear to them\nthe message and truth of God.\n\n\u201cMen,\u201d says Victor Hugo, \u201ctalk to themselves, speak to themselves, but\nthe external silence is not interrupted. There is a grand tumult;\neverything speaks within us, excepting the mouth. The realities of the\nsoul, for all they are not visible and palpable, are not the less\nrealities.\u201d The great reality, as I have shown, that obsessed Mohammed\nwas God. Though invisible in person or even in spirit, God was none the\nless visible and palpable to him as much in the finest speck of sand as\nin the consuming glory of the sun. In the mocking spectres of the night,\nas well as in the shifting shadows of the morning, the might and majesty\nof Allah was supreme. In the dead silence of human solitude, the grand\ntumult within him was only grand and tumultuous because God talked to\nhim and he to God in the suppressed sibilance of hushed and awesome\nwhisperings. \u201cDiamonds are only found in the darkness of the earth;\ntruths are only found in the depths of the thought.\u201d As it seemed to\nFather Madeline, the ex-convict Jean Valjean, so it appeared to\nMohammed, \u201cthat after descending into these depths, after groping for\nsome time in the densest of this darkness, he had found one of these\ndiamonds, one of these truths, which he held in his hand, and which\ndazzled his eyes when he looked at it.\u201d The brilliant which Mohammed\nsearched for was the truth--the greatest brilliant of all! The truth\nthat he found as it appeared to him was God. Thus he immolated his whole\nbeing to the will of God, as to the truth which resides in Him alone.\nLike Pascal, Mohammed believed that \u201cone can be quite sure that there is\na God without knowing what He is.\u201d Or in the words of Hobbes: \u201cForasmuch\nas God Almighty is incomprehensible, it follows that we can have no\nconception or image of the Deity, except only this, that _there is a\nGod_.\u201d This in sense if not in word was Mohammed\u2019s idea of God as he\ntried to conceive Him. For him it was sufficient that God was the only\nGod--the Creator and the Controller of the universe! \u201cThere are touching\nillusions which are perhaps sublime realities.\u201d But to Mohammed, God was\nnot even \u201cthe Great Illusion,\u201d but a stern as well as a sublime reality!\nTo him the desert and lone places were God\u2019s dwelling-place--as far\naway from the busy hum and haunts of men as He could get. But only\nbecause of the delightful charm of golden silence and solitude--only\nbecause in the midst thereof, as in the heavenly paradise, God dwelt\nthere. The one fair spirit that he dwelt and communed with--not in close\nproximity however, but with a great gulf fixed between--was the one and\nonly God, who had at last constituted him His minister and apostle,\nbecause of his great love and devotion to Him. It was for this that\nMohammed sought the desert. It was there under the stars--the flashing\nforget-me-nots of God\u2019s great power--that alone with Nature and his own\nthoughts, he sought God. Who is there of us can say that he did or did\nnot find Him? Can we, or can we not, by searching find God? Whether we\ncan or no, however, is not the question--is not for us to decide! But\none fact is certain--one fact is obvious. It was in the core and centre\nof the eternal silence and solitude of mountain fastnesses and desert\nexpanses that the spirit of Islam had its origin. It was there, as it\nwere under the myriad eyes of the great and infinite God, under the\nfiery blaze of the burning sun, under the cooler and more clinging\nglamour of the mellow moon, under the dimmer gloom and mystery of\ndarkness, there with his face to the red-hot furnace blasts and\nsuffocation of the simoom, that the message came to him. Alone with his\nthoughts:\n\n    \u201cAlone, alone, all all alone,\n    Alone on a wide wide sea!\u201d\n\nNo mere saint, but God Himself, \u201ctook pity on\u201d his \u201csoul in agony.\u201d He\nwas not alone, for God was with him. This self-communion of Mohammed\nwith his thoughts, was to him none other than communion with God,\nbecause his thoughts were concentrated on Him with all the soul and\nstrength he was humanly capable of.\n\nThe power of persuasion does not always lie in the flow and eloquence of\nspeech. The strongest are often the most silent. God never speaks but in\nthe still small voice of consciousness, that comes to every man in the\ndark watches of the night, when the hum and movement of life is hushed\ninto the silence of sleep!\n\nSolitude, too, that twin-sister of Silence, \u201cthough,\u201d as De Quincey\nsays, \u201cit may be silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of\nagencies; for solitude is essential to man.\u201d But if essential to the\nordinary man, it is as the breath of life to men of God and prophets.\nSolitude, in fact, sinks deep into a pure and simple nature, and changes\nhim in a great measure. Unconsciously it intensifies him to a\nsuperlative degree, and inspires him with an awe of itself that becomes\nsacred to him. Within himself the recluse feels weak, unstable and\ninconsistent. Without he is strong in the consciousness of the\nomnipotence and supremacy of the Infinite. \u201cSolitude generates a certain\namount of sublime exaltation. It is like the smoke arising from the\nburning bush. A mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts the\nstudent into the seer, and the poet into a prophet.\u201d In a word, there is\nan enthusiasm, an influence, and a power in solitude that the civilized\nman, or the man who has never been subjected to it, cannot form the\nslightest or faintest conception of. For the silence of solitude and the\nsolitude of silence is a state (common to all primitive people) in which\nthe being believes himself to be not only \u201c\u03c0\u03bb\u03ae\u03c1\u03b7\u03c2 \u03b8\u03b5\u03bf\u1fe6,\u201d i.e.\nfull of God, but that the God predominates. Hence the enthusiasm, the\nrapture, and the power to divine and speak in divers tongues.\n\nSurely, if ever man was in deadly earnest, this faithful son of Arabia\nwas. If ever man opened his heart and soul to the Father and Mother of\nall things, this Mohammed, the merchant, did. Truly if ever the great\nAuthor of our being responded to a soul in silent agony, i.e. in\nconflict, in a struggle for victory, it was to this great descendant of\nthe bond-woman Hagar! For in Islam, and the soul of Islam, such as he\ninculcated, the victory was greater than any Marathon or Thermopyl\u00e6.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nMOHAMMED\u2019S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS\n\n\nMohammed, as I have more than once said, was all for unity and cohesion,\ntherefore against division and disintegration of any kind. Concentration\nwas as the breath of life to him. Dissension a deadly evil. In his\nscheme of religion and politics there was no place for schism. Schism\nmeant discord, and discord the devil. To him discord was as Ate, the\nmother of dissension. He recognized, as Spenser evidently did, that\n\u201cdiscord harder is to end than to begin\u201d:\n\n    \u201cFor all her studie was, and all her thought,\n    How she might overthrow the things that concord wrought.\u201d\n\nAnd above all things, this Statesman Prophet was the essence and\npersonification of centralization and concord. For unity alone rendered\nIslam feasible. Thus in the second Surah he insists that mankind was of\none faith from the beginning. Thus too as a just, faithful and\nconsistent man, he is opposed to violence and taking the offensive, even\nin the name and under the cloak of religion; he constantly advocates\nand authorizes (that is, has God\u2019s authority for) the defensive. He even\nrecommends, at the same time that he excuses, war and retaliation on the\nunbeliever and infidel. On the whole, however, I am bound to admit that\nMohammed disapproves of and discountenances violence in religion. He, in\nfact, distinctly forbids his followers from enforcing it. Their own\npersecution was to be met by patience. Apostates and unbelievers were to\nbe given time meet for repentance. Yet to him, fanatic as he was with\nregard to religion, Islam was the only true Faith, the covenant, the\nsure ark of God that alone could secure salvation. Of this and of God he\nwas no more than an Apostle--i.e. a messenger; also an expounder--but as\nsuch he obviously tried to live up to his name of Faithful. This speaks\nvolumes for his toleration and humanity in an age when neither one nor\nthe other of these attributes were much in repute; when both, in fact,\nwere at a low ebb. Yet it shows us how intensely human the Prophet was.\nA man of great patience, prudence and trustworthiness, of retentive\nmemory, strong character, and with the disposition of a judge--a very\ncommander of men. Thus he acknowledges the divinity of God in forgiving,\nand the humanity of man in demanding reparation and restitution. Here\nthe moral excellence of Mohammed shines out as a brilliant. In Surah\nxiv., \u201ca grievous punishment is _prepared_ for the unjust. But they who\nshall have believed and wrought righteousness, shall be introduced into\ngardens, wherein rivers flow; they shall remain therein _for ever_ by\nthe permission of their Lord, and their salutation therein _shall be_\nPeace.\u201d From this and many other similar passages, it would seem that\nMohammed, by his constant reiteration of _Promises_ and _Threats_, by\nhis determined insistence thereon, hoped ultimately to convince even his\nenemies of his sincerity also of the fact that Islam, as the creed of\nthe one and only God, was the true Faith. Again in this passage (Surah\nvi.), \u201cGod causeth the grain and the date-stone to put forth, He\nbringeth forth the living from the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead\nfrom the living. This is God,\u201d etc., etc.; we get a clear insight into\nthe intensity and comprehensiveness of the divine conception as it\nappeared to him. A little further on in the same passage he speaks of\nGod as \u201cHe who hath produced you from one soul; and hath provided for\nyou a sure receptacle and a repository,\u201d namely in the loins of your\nfathers, and the womb of your mothers--one of those gleams of pantheism\nthat I have already alluded to.\n\nBut of all the passages in the Koran, the following is, in many ways,\none of the most significant: \u201cWhatever good befalleth thee, O man, it is\nfrom God; and whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself.\u201d It is\nobvious from this that the prophet believed evil to be a human weakness\nwith man as an active and self-willed agent. Sale in a note thereon\nsays: \u201cThese words are not to be understood as contradicting the\npreceding verse, that all is from God, since the evil that befalls\nmankind, though ordered by God, is yet the consequence of their own\nwicked actions.\u201d But as Mohammed regarded the sublime divinity of God,\nit would be more accurate to interpret the _evil_ not as being ordained\nor even sanctioned by God, but as being permitted, or rather not\nprevented by Him as a thing inevitable. To him the purity, sanctity and\ninviolability of God was of such vast moment, that it was unjust--a\nmortal sin--to devise even a lie against Him. \u201cAnd who is more unjust\nthan he who deviseth a lie against God, that he may seduce men without\nunderstanding?\u201d The frequent repetition of this and other like passages\nis significant of Mohammed\u2019s sincerity, also of his moral persistence\nand tenacity. It was from his point of view bad enough to have doubt\nthrown on the authenticity of his mission. This he could to some extent\nput up with. But it was as naught compared to the reflection, the crime\nof perjury committed against the Almighty. To cast a slur on His\nholiness in this audacious way, was nothing short of blasphemy, a crime\nworthy of eternal hell fire and damnation. Few men in the world\u2019s\nhistory were as loyal to their God as this grim but faithful product of\nArabia the Stony. In this respect, and particularly with regard to the\ndepth and intensity of their religious zeal and fervour, there was a\nstrong resemblance between Cromwell and Mohammed. To both of these moral\nironsides, those who did not believe as they believed were unbelievers,\nand as such outside the pale of God\u2019s mercy. For believers, however,\nnothing was too good. To such an extent did these principles influence\nthe latter, that he even went so far as to promise that all grudges\nshould be removed from the minds of the faithful. Here again we have\nevidence of Mohammed\u2019s unquestionable humanity; also of civilization to\na marked degree. For a grudge, although fundamentally and\ncharacteristically human, was at the same time, and still is among the\nBedawins, a peculiarly Arabian idiosyncrasy; associated as it was, and\noften culminating as it did, in acts of vengeance identical to the\nCorsican vendetta, \u201cthe terrible blood feud which even the most reckless\nfear for their posterity.\u201d\n\nIn spite, however, of his eagerness and zeal for conversion, consistent\nas this was with his idea of national autonomy, in nothing did Mohammed\nshow his sincerity so much as in his thoroughness and honesty. He was\nnothing if not thorough. The long and arduous probation he passed\nthrough in preparing and fitting himself for his mission--the mental\nconcentration, the wrestlings with all that is evil and inexorable in\nman\u2019s nature, the night watches, the agonies, the communings with\nGod--all go to prove this. And if to be outspoken and candid is honesty,\nthen indeed no one has surpassed him in that respect. In his eyes a true\ndisciple of Islam meant a man who lived and acted up to the tenets and\nprinciples of its faith. For instance, with him there was no such fiasco\nas a death-bed repentance. \u201cBut no repentance _shall be accepted_ from\nthose who do evil until _the time_ when death presenteth itself unto one\nof them, _and he_ saith verily I repent now; nor unto those who die\nunbelievers: for them have we prepared a grievous punishment.\u201d Such an\nact was wholly repugnant to the fine sense of equity and justice that he\npossessed, advocating as he so strenuously did the use of \u201ca full\nmeasure and just balance.\u201d As one who had given practically his whole\nlife to the service and adoration of God, his soul rose in revolt and\nabhorred so vile a subterfuge. It was adding insult to injury. A mere\nsneaking stratagem of priestly artifice, held out as an alluring but\noffensive bait. A despicable and devilish cunning on the part of the\nunbeliever, who would endeavour to throw dust into the sun-piercing\nvision of the Most High, all unconscious of the thinness and\ntransparency of his device and of God\u2019s searching penetration, that\ncould pierce through all eternity even unto the uttermost ends of His\nmighty universe! To serve mammon a lifetime, and then at the last\nmoment, when on the brink of death\u2019s unending precipice, to turn to God\nand expect to reap the same reward of eternal bliss as the whole-hearted\nbeliever who has given all or a great part of his life to God\u2019s service,\nwas impossible. The very thought of it was monstrous. The choice lay\nwith the ego himself! Evil was his own doing! Good also lay within his\nreach. It was in a great measure a matter of choice. Every man was more\nor less responsible for his own undoing. To a life of evil, a death-bed\nrepentance was not capable of producing more than its own equivalent of\nhappiness, i.e. the merest possible fragment. This was in accordance\nwith God\u2019s principle of the scales of justice and an even balance. Yet\nMohammed was not against repentance and contrition when sincere and made\nin due and proper time. Over and over again he holds out the olive\nbranch, and reiterates the forgiveness and mercy of God, as attributes\nthat belonged to Him alone. Mercy, indeed, was not so much an\n_attribute_ as a _monopoly_. \u201cHe hath prescribed unto Himself mercy,\u201d as\ncompatible with the fact that He was the final Court of Appeal. However\nadversely the theologian may criticize this from the modern Christian\nstandpoint, it is clear and direct proof of Mohammed\u2019s whole-hearted\nsincerity. Further it is equally direct and tangible evidence of the\nardour and zeal that was in him as a prophet and reformer.\n\nGod, with all His sternness and inflexibility, as He appeared to\nMohammed, was just and merciful. A strict comparison between Yahveh and\nAllah certainly inclines the balance in favour of the latter. Jehovah at\nHis best was a God of blood and vengeance, at His worst a voracious\nmonster. In Allah, stern and avenging God as He was, there was at least\ncompassion and mercy and forgiveness. He was not inexorable. He would\nlisten to reason. Mohammed himself was a distinct advance on the founder\nof the ancient Jewish faith. He was more humane, a man of broader and\ndeeper sympathies. Stern and hard to a degree where God and the Faith\nwas concerned; where men, but especially women and children, were\nconcerned, he was all tenderness and pity.\n\nDutiful and obedient to his uncle who had been a father to him, he was a\nfaithful servant, an exemplary husband, a kind father, a good master.\nThe very name of Faithful, by which he was always distinguished, proves\nbeyond a doubt what manner of man he was. An orphan himself in\nchildhood, early inured to poverty, his heart went out to all those who\nhad the misfortune to be similarly situated. For the poor, the weak, the\nhelpless, he had a fellow-feeling. The degraded or at least dependent\nand unprotected position of women, their moral and legal helplessness\nmost of all, appealed to him. But in no sense because he was sensual.\nSensuality was not one of his many failings. A man from top to bottom,\nby birth, breeding and environment Mohammed was an Arab and a Patriarch.\nAs such he only naturally liked women and children. To men and for the\nFaith a strong hard man, to the weak and helpless he was tender and\naffectionate. As he was strong, so he was merciful and full of human\nsympathies. His long and happy union with Khadija shows not only that he\nwas faithful to a degree, but a man of high moral fibre. A man too full\nof the gravity of life to squander his substance in mere sensuality. But\nin all eastern and African countries where polygamy prevails, marriage\nis a pure matter of political convenience. Mohammed knew this. He\nrecognized that marriage was a very important factor in securing\ninfluence and power. It threw out octopean feelers at various tangents\nand established certain associations and connexions to which it clung,\nas a limpet to a rock or a devil-fish to its victim. The same principle\ndown almost to our own day has been a powerful factor in European\nstatecraft. Even the earlier practice of keeping mistresses, so much\nindulged in by the sovereign holders of so-called \u201cdivine rights,\u201d had\nmuch in common with this custom. It was undoubtedly this motive more\nthan any other which influenced Mohammed. It was an essential feature in\nhis great design. For in spite of his overwhelming devotion to God,\nnotwithstanding God\u2019s obsession of him, Mohammed was essentially human.\nThere was room and sorrow in his heart for human frailties. His desire\nwas strong to remedy them. He too like Luther was a Protestant, and a\nReformer.\n\nAs to the soulless theory regarding the fair sex, which has been\nliterally thrust upon the Moslem world by an antipathetic if not\ninimical Christendom, I quite agree with Burton. \u201cThe Moslems never went\nso far.\u201d At all events if some of them have done so, \u201cCertain \u2018_Fathers\nof the Church_,\u2019 it must be remembered, did not believe that women have\nsouls.\u201d Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in one of that inimitable series of\nletters which she wrote, admits as much. In this particular letter\nwritten from Constantinople on May 29, 1717 (O.S.), to the Abb\u00e9 Conti,\nshe says: \u201cOur vulgar notion that they (the Turks) do not own women to\nhave any souls is a mistake.\u201d And then she continues, but in not so\naccurate a vein: \u201c\u2019Tis true, they say they are not of so elevated a\nkind, and therefore must not hope to be admitted into the paradise\nappointed for the men, who are to be entertained by celestial beauties.\nBut there is a place of happiness destined for souls of the inferior\norder, where all good women are to be in eternal bliss.\u201d It is in no\nsense surprising, therefore, that to Mohammed Allah was the merciful. So\nin the sixth surah, he writes: \u201cWe (as if identifying himself with God)\nwill not impose a task on any soul beyond its ability. For this\nself-same reason, God is minded to make _his religion_ light unto you:\nfor man was created weak.\u201d Strong and enduring as sincerity and\nconviction made him, Mohammed knew his own weakness. Hence with a\nclemency that was divine he made concessions such as these. In these he\nacknowledged that, \u201cto err is human, to forgive divine.\u201d All the more,\nhowever, we cannot but admire his candour. Even as regards himself, his\nshortcomings and inadequacies, he speaks with an openness and\nstraightforwardness that disarms suspicion--that forces the inquirer to\nrespect him with all the greater reverence as a great leader of men. \u201cSo\nsay I not unto you, the treasures of God are in my power; neither _do I\nsay_, I know the secrets _of God_, neither do I say unto you, Verily I am\nan angel: I follow only that which is revealed unto me.\u201d Indeed the more\nclosely and carefully I look into his words in comparison with his life\nand acts, the more obvious do his candour and sincerity become. The more\nobvious is it to me that although essentially the product of a grim and\npetrified environment, he himself was unique. A man in advance of his\ntime and people. For deep down in the soul of him, the rich milk of\nhuman kindness welled up out of the same eternal source from which he\nderived his fear and veneration for the Supreme! Truly the Prophet and\nspiritual ruler of the East and polygamy, as Christ stands for the West\nand monogamy!\n\nIt was with these weapons, combined with the tenacity of an elastic and\nimperishable patience, that Mohammed fought the Koreish and other\ntribes, and it was with them he finally conquered. Had he been\ninsincere, there would have been no Islam. Had there been no spirit of a\ndivine moral conception such as he infused into the creed (which came\nthrough him from the great fountain head of God and Nature), Islam\nwould have withered and perished from sheer exhaustion and debility.\nFrom the standpoint of physical and moral purity, Mohammed was in every\nsense an Essene. Not only therefore was cleanliness of the body an\nabsolute essential, but cleanliness of mind. Filthy immoral actions and\ndepravities that he knew existed, unjust violence and iniquities,\nwhether openly done or in concealment, were condemned and forbidden in\nscathing terms as a violation of God\u2019s express command. The sophistry\nthat would make an evil to be no crime unless found out, he denounced\nwith all the fiery ardour of his fervent nature. From God there was no\nconcealment. In his eyes it was a crime all the same--greater, in fact,\nbecause of attempted concealment.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET\u2019S CHARACTER\n\n\nIn refuting those sceptics who have doubted the truth and sincerity of\nIslam, Carlyle condemns scepticism (rather too hastily it seems to me)\nas an indication of spiritual paralysis. Most unquestionably he was\nright in denouncing the former as an idiotic and godless theory. But\nscepticism itself in a general sense is not necessarily an evil. On the\ncontrary, it is a natural tendency that arises out of the instinct of\ncuriosity. Knowledge is not an inert and passive principle, but an\nactive and dynamic force. Buckle in his history speaks of scepticism as\nstimulating curiosity. But he has put the cart before the horse. It is\ncuriosity that excites scepticism. Curiosity is an animal instinct--the\nbasis of all science. It exists in the lower animal creation--scepticism\nonly in the upper human section. It is a higher or further development,\na tendency that is certainly strengthened, if not acquired through\neducation.\n\nAccording to Lecky, \u201cThe first stage to toleration in England was due to\nthe spirit of scepticism encroaching upon the doctrine of exclusive\nsalvation\u201d; and \u201cthe extinction of the spirit of intolerance both in\nCatholic and Protestant countries--due to the spirit of rationalism--was\nthe noblest of all the conquests of civilization.\u201d But as rationalism\nitself is chiefly the consequence of scepticism and the result of\ninquiry, it is obvious that in a deeply fundamental sense, the world is\nvery considerably indebted to science or the spirit of scepticism.\nIndeed all knowledge has arisen from experience, and the desire to\nsearch into the root of things--to know what is what. Without curiosity\nand scepticism, human thought would have long since stagnated and the\nworld remained sunk in ignorance. As Ghazali says, \u201cNo knowledge without\nassurance deserves the name of knowledge.\u201d Seeing is not always\ndevouring. Curiosity is not necessarily gluttony, or \u201cscepticism, that\ncurse of the intellect,\u201d as Victor Hugo calls it. Gluttony is unnatural,\nunwholesome, and bestial. It is not so much overdoing, as a flagrant\nabuse and outrage of a natural appetite. It is a kicking against the\npricks--a flying in the face of Providence. But curiosity as an instinct\ndirect from Nature is healthy, therefore the use of it as also wholesome\nstands in need of stimulus and encouragement.\n\nSo Tennyson said of Shelley:--\n\n    \u201cThere lives more faith in honest doubt,\n    Believe me, than in half the creeds.\u201d\n\nIn this righteous sense Mohammed was curious. As one of her own\nselection, Nature had specially endowed him with curiosity. He was one\nof her human, sensitive plants. As an observer, all his senses were\ndeveloped and on the alert. He not only saw, but felt every vibration\nthat thrilled, as it were, the very soul of the first great mother. In\nevery flitting cloud, as in every fugitive thought, he was conscious of\nan unseen Power. A look-out man rather than a prophet, it was thus he\ngroped or rather felt his way until he felt God. \u201cI feel that there is a\nGod,\u201d said La Bruy\u00e8re, \u201cand I do not feel that there is none: that is\nenough for me; the reasoning of the world is useless to me: I conclude\nthat God exists.\u201d It was in much the same vein of self-argument that\nMohammed communed to himself. Having felt God, God became for him a\nnecessity: more so even, an essential--an absolutism which banished all\nelse from his mind. The thought that there was no God did not occur to\nhim. But the thought that other gods could exist in the same universe\nwith the one omnipotence was to him as monstrous as it was unthinkable.\nBesides Him there was no room for any other. The very thought in his\nestimation perished from inanition and sheer inability of conception!\nThe trinity of Christianity was to him as impossible and unacceptable\nas the antediluvian or later polytheism of his own countrymen.\n\nAll active minds are sceptical. Carlyle himself--although he appears to\nhave been unconscious of the fact--was himself a sceptic. But it was\npeculiarly characteristic of the antagonistic dualism of his nature on\nthe one hand to hurl innuendoes, anathemas (and every kind of mental\nbrickbat that he could lay hold of) at what he called scepticism or\nunbelief. On the other hand, to hold up belief as absolutely essential\nto human existence. But like all theoretical crotchets, he carried his\nphilosophical speculations too far. In other words, he sometimes\noverreached himself. According to his particular dogma, in his opinion,\nthe life of man cannot subsist on doubt or denial, it subsists only on\nbelief. But this is altogether beside the mark. Scepticism does not\nnecessarily imply doubt or denial. Belief itself cannot exist without\nit. It is out of the ashes of scepticism that the immortal Ph\u0153nix of\nbelief arises. It is out of the doubt and denial of accepted doctrines\nthat all creeds (including Christianity and Islam) have grown into\nbeing. The doubt engendered by scepticism is after all only an\ninvestigation or leading into, an analysis of the nature of dogmas,\ndoctrines or creeds. It is an investigation that may or may not have a\nresult. It is but a search for or groping after the truth, as the\nconsequence of moral, intellectual or spiritual dissatisfaction. It is\nalso the desire to know, to find out the pros and cons of all the sides\nto a question. The spirit or element of doubt is the necessary, the\nessential precursor of improvement and progress. Hence the immense\nimportance and significance of Scepticism. It is the very sum and\nsubstance of all human knowledge. As the acorn is to the oak, scepticism\nis to knowledge--the seed from which has sprung up all we know, and ever\nshall know. The ever fluent channel through which all the great\nintellectual giants and reformers of the world have poured out the\nglowing flash-lights of their intellect into the normal darkness of\nhuman minds. It is the moral effluvium out of which our modern\ncivilization has constructed itself. Without it, the dense gloom and\nblack obscurity of ignorance would have reigned supreme. Confused,\nchaotic, and enigmatic as the world now is--even in the full glare of\nits sunlight--without it (if it were possible to imagine such a state)\nthe world would have been an enigma, a chaos and confusion worse\nconfounded. For scepticism is, as it were, the sun in all its glory, as\ncompared to the black oblivion of eternal night. If neither Luther nor\nMohammed had been sceptics, there would have been no Reformation and no\nIslam. They did not take everything for granted. They were not satisfied\nwith things as they were. They looked into the heart of them and found\nmuch room for improvement. They examined what they could, rejected that\nwhich was spiritually objectionable to them, but made use of what was\nmost appropriate to their respective situations. It was only those\nfeatures that best suited the exigencies of the case that they were\nprompt to lay hold of.\n\nYet Mohammed was not of vigorous intellectuality, nor in any sense an\noriginal thinker. The constant repetition of formulas and reiteration of\nthe same ideas that occur throughout the Koran show this. It is\nextremely probable that his mentality was at times overshadowed either\nby neurasthenic tendencies, or a predisposition to melancholia, and this\nwas more than likely heightened by a life of excessive mental\nconcentration combined with asceticism.\n\nBut sincere as he was, Mohammed would not have been a true Arabian, had\nhe not been diplomatic. Thus the commencement of the fourteenth surah is\na clever but obvious device on his part; a meeting of his enemies with\ntheir own weapons, a flinging back to them of their own words and\nobjections to the truth in their own teeth. It is clear too that here,\nfor the time being, he has resolved on a change of tactics and of front.\nTo prove to them that he is as of old the man to be trusted, he\nendeavours to disarm their incredulity by his own outspokenness and\ncandour. As the sequel showed, he clearly demonstrates his own\nperspicacity and knowledge of human nature. He saw that by arguing with\nhis countrymen, by always opposing their doubts with sophistry and\nargument, would be of little avail--useless, in fact. Such a course\nwould but have encouraged and stimulated their opposition, on the ground\nthat their beliefs, as worth refuting, were also based on truth or at\nleast on strong evidence. Besides, Mohammed was painfully conscious of\nhis own disability and helplessness to convince them by the performance\nof anything purporting to be miraculous. That on occasions he displayed\nartfulness and guile--duplicity, in fact--is not to be denied. The\ninvention, e.g., of his night journey from Mecca to heaven vi\u00e2\nJerusalem, was one of them. When he gave out that Gabriel had revealed\nto him the conspiracy that had been formed against him, which through\nordinary means he had discovered, was another of these pious frauds. But\nafter all, what are these trifles compared with those that in their\nmyriads have been perpetrated by the great Church of Christendom? What\nare they as compared to a long life of strenuous sincerity, great\nnobility and earnest effort in the cause of humanity? It is impossible\nto lose sight of the fact that in working for God, he was all the time\nraising his countrymen from a lower to a higher level. Besides, the\nnecessity of dissimulation, which is one of the heaviest taxes on a\nking, and the prerogative of a priest, is one of those idiosyncrasies\nthat human flesh being heir to, even a prophet cannot at times escape\nfrom. We are reminded of the phrase: \u201cQui scit dissimulare, scit\nregnare\u201d--He is a ruler who can conceal his thoughts--attributed to the\nEmperor Sigismund by that cultured and ambitious but false and subtle\nPontiff Pius II, known as \u00c6neas Sylvius (Pius \u00c6neas): also the identical\nanswer that Louis XI is said to have made to those who urged him to give\nhis son Charles a better education, in order that the boy might in his\nday become a good king.\n\nIt was not only that Mohammed\u2019s enemies were sceptical of his powers and\nhis mission, but they mistrusted his intentions. This, indeed, to a\nsincere and earnest man like himself, was a bitter pill; a pill he found\nit hard to swallow. For he was conscious of his own sincerity, and as\ntime went on, an increasing following gave him greater confidence in the\nreality of his mission. Indeed in proportion as his self-confidence\ndeveloped, his conviction in the power and unity of God became an ever\nincreasing quantity. This increasing consciousness of God\u2019s power and\nhis own sincerity had the gradual effect of making him bolder and more\naggressive, so that this outspokenness was a direct outcome of it, until\nat last Mohammed felt that it was his duty not merely to announce\n\u201cIslam\u201d--\u201c_the true Faith_,\u201d but to enforce its acceptance on the\npeople. This, of course, as we know, was after his flight to Medina.\nTrue his own people, the Koreish, had driven him out with scorn and\nviolence, had cast contumely and dishonour on him, by rejecting the\nword, while strangers had hearkened unto him and accepted it. It is\nequally true that the sustained vindictiveness shown by the Koreish was\nsufficient in itself to excite the spirit of retaliation, even in a man\nof Mohammed\u2019s patient and tenacious character. But suggestive as this\nmay be, it is quite certain that he acted on conviction in assuming the\noffensive. It is obvious, too, that in doing so, he felt that he was\nacting under divine compulsion. In any case, we must allow that \u201ca man\nis really of weight in the balance of Fate, only when he has the right\non his own account to cause men to be slain.\u201d In Mohammed\u2019s case,\nhowever, if conviction counts for anything, his right was a divine\nright. According to Dumas: \u201cIn human nature there are antipathies to be\novercome--_sympathies which may be forced_.\u201d (The italics are mine.)\n\u201cIron is not the loadstone; but by rubbing it with a loadstone we make\nit, in its turn, attract iron.\u201d This may be, but it is not in reality\nso. It is but a mere figure of speech that the great novelist makes use\nof, and which he puts into the mouth of Ren\u00e9, the poisoner, in support\nof some theory or argument. It is, of course, possible that antipathies\nmay be overcome by sympathy. This, however, depends entirely on the\npower of the one and the weakness of the other. But sympathy cannot be\nforced. To endeavour to force sympathy is to attempt the unnatural. The\nmost that can be expected from such a cause is dissimulation. This\ncertainly was Mohammed\u2019s experience. Although ultimately he and his\nsuccessors forced the word of God on these his inveterate enemies, he\nnever succeeded in forcing his sympathies upon them. Death and Time\nalone accomplished what his own personality failed to do. Through the\nvictory he gained by them, he now lives enshrined in the sanctified halo\nof a sympathy that, emanating from every Moslem heart, forms with his\nown the great and throbbing soul of Islam.\n\nBut Mohammed was not only spiritual. He, like every human being, had a\nmaterial side to his character. Not only was he a preacher and a\nprophet; not only was he a lawgiver--a law and a light unto his people\nto this very day; but as one who himself rigidly practised self-denial\nand economy and condemned extravagance, who possessed the organizing\nability to administer the estate of others, and who could command\npreferably in peace, but if necessary in war, he was a statesman and an\neconomist. Unquestionably too he looked ahead--he made provision for the\nfuture. His whole apostolic life was one long and arduous preparation\nfor coming events. As an instance of this, the ordering of the yearly\npilgrimage to Mecca was as much a political as a religious ordinance. By\nthis measure of policy--this master stroke of psychologic insight into\nhuman eventualities, Mohammed showed his natural genius. For without a\ndoubt he aimed at preserving to Arabia the point and focus of a\nreligious centre, that would make for national consolidation and unity,\nand serve as the sacred r\u00e9duit and rallying ground for the world of\nIslam. So too he showed his capacity for system and organization in\nlegalizing the fifth part of all booty and property confiscated to be\npaid into the public treasury. In the same way he insisted on the giving\nof Zakat or alms for charitable purposes, apart from those contributions\nhe received from his followers for maintenance. In making these\nordinances appear as divine injunctions, Mohammed showed no more\ninsincerity or inconsistence than he did in claiming the whole Koran as\na series of revelations. The political and economic factors were as much\na radical part of his entire design, as the religious. The one could not\nexist without the other. Statesman as he was, he recognized that\nreligious unity could only be firmly established through political\nco-operation, and that to secure national stability the sinews of war\nwere essential.\n\nIt is all through quite obvious that he had the trading instinct of his\npeople. In any case the training he received at the hands and in the\nemploy of his uncle Abu Talib, as well as the subsequent management of\nKhadija\u2019s business, had imbued him very powerfully with business\nprinciples and practical ideas. Abu Talib, like his father and\ngrandfather before him, carried on a considerable trade with Syria and\nYemen. He carried to Damascus, to Basra and other places in Syria, the\ndates of Hijaz and Hijr, and the perfumes of Yemen, bringing back with\nhim in return the products of the Byzantine Empire. Mohammed, as is\nknown, accompanied him, and without doubt laid the foundation of an\neconomic experience, that subsequently proved valuable.\n\nCommerce has always been the greatest of civilizing factors. According\nto Buckle: \u201cAmong the accessories of modern civilization there is none\nof greater moment than Trade.\u201d So too Hallam says: \u201cUnder a second\nclass of events that contributed to destroy the spirit of the Feudal\nsystem, we may reckon the abolition of villenage, the increase of\ncommerce, and consequent opulence of merchants and artisans, and\nespecially the institution of free cities and boroughs. This is one of\nthe most important and interesting steps in the progress of society\nduring the Middle Ages, and deserves particular consideration.\u201d But this\nis all the more important as showing that trade was in reality a more\npowerful factor for civilization than Christianity, which after several\ncenturies of hold on the people of Europe, had done little more than\ninflame them with a zeal and a zest for fighting. It is significant also\nthat while Rome rose to her greatest eminence under the Ancestral\nworship of her founders, when she became Christian, Christianity did not\nprevent her from declining and falling into pieces. But it is equally\nsignificant that while the opulence conferred by commerce on Rome,\neventually brought reaction and ruin upon her people, the effect it had\nupon the barbarians who overthrew the Eternal City, was sufficiently\nstimulating to encourage them to invade a degenerate empire. For the\ndesire of wealth and plunder was but the first awakening of the spirit\nof commerce. To be sure the crusades gave a great stimulus to trade.\nBut there was more of the militant spirit than Christianity about them.\nBesides, although commercial prosperity often accompanies war, reaction\nis certain to supervene. Obviously the essential importance of trade was\na truth that the Merchant-Prophet soon recognized. Intuitively, and with\nthe keenness of perception that marked him, he naturally utilized every\nlesson that it taught him and every advantage that it gave him. Nor has\nhe been the only theologian who saw its utility in a religious light.\nThe Jesuits long afterwards recognized the agency of commerce in\npromoting and diffusing religious belief, and became great merchants as\nwell as great missionaries. So too it was through commerce, as Draper\npoints out, \u201cthat the Papacy first learned to turn to art. The ensuing\ndevelopment of Europe\u201d (in the Renaissance) \u201cwas really based on the\ncommerce of _upper_ Italy, and not on the Church. The statesmen of\nFlorence were the inventors of the balance of power.\u201d\n\nQuoting from Syed Ameer Ali\u2019s _Spirit of Islam_, Fihr, surnamed Koreish,\na descendant of Maad--who flourished in the third century--was the\nancestor of the tribe that gave to Arabia her prophet and legislator.\nThis fact, trifling as it may appear, is, however, remarkable, if not\nsignificant. For this word \u201cKoreish\u201d is derived from \u201cKarash,\u201d to\ntrade; and it appears that Fihr and his descendants were always devoted\nto commerce. From this it is safe to assume that trading was an inherent\ninstinct in Mohammed.\n\nThis apart, to him personally Islam was a something more than a mere\ncreed or belief. It was God\u2019s own religion sealed and delivered to him\nby God. Not to deliver it to his people as commanded, not to carry it\nthrough--by persuasion first of all, by fire and sword if man\u2019s\nobstinacy and rejection of it made it necessary--would mean that he had\nfailed in his duty to the Most High. The sense and spirit of duty was\nstronger in Mohammed than in Nelson. In him it was not simply an active\nand vital principle. It was an impelling force. So inseparable from God,\nthat to him it appeared as God Himself. But with him God always came\nfirst. His duty to his country was subordinate to his duty to his Maker.\nHis duty to Him, therefore, was his duty to his country. So in surah xi.\nhe says: \u201cO my people, do ye work according to your condition; I will\nsurely work according to my duty,\u201d i.e. according to God. In numerous\npassages he points out that God was absolutely averse to profusion and\nextravagance, equally so to meanness. True liberality in his opinion\nconsisted in the happy mean between the two extremes. \u201cAnd waste not\nthy substance profusely; for the profuse are brethren of the devils: and\nthe devil was ungrateful unto his Lord\u201d (surah xvii.). Again in the\nsixth, \u201cBut be not profuse, for God loveth not those who are too\nprofuse\u201d; and in the following the economic instinct shows itself most\nsignificantly: \u201cO true believers, consume not your wealth among\nyourselves in vanity; unless there be merchandizing among you by mutual\nconsent.\u201d Once more Mohammed demonstrates his great profundity and\ninsight into the character, the customs and traditions of his\ncountrymen. All Oriental and African nations from time immemorial have\nbeen notably extravagant, especially in regard to marriage ceremonials\nand funeral rites. Even to this day among the Hindus and most African\ntribes, it is a code of honour, a sacred injunction of their religion,\nto spend profusely on marriage and burial feasts. Indeed this is\nfrequently done to the impoverishment, and, in the latter case, even to\nthe ruination of whole families or households. The Arabs, it appears,\nwere no exception to this. At the same time they were a curious blend of\nmeanness and extravagance. To Mohammed, rigid economist as he was, and\ninspired to the core by the duty that had been intrusted to him, this\nprodigality was a great sin. Not only did his countrymen squander away\ntheir substance in folly and luxury, but they were particularly guilty\nof extravagance in killing camels, and distributing them by lot merely\nout of vanity and ostentation. Worse even than this, they were given to\nthe destruction of their female children. Against this evil Mohammed\nsternly set his face. This in itself shows his great moral superiority\nover his countrymen. It shows also the possession of a higher and more\nrefined yet practical intelligence, that was able to grasp the economic\npossibilities which were bound to ensue from the preservation of female\nchildren. Essentially an Arab patriarch at heart (which he in some\nmeasure proved by his marriages), Mohammed, however, was still more\nessentially a Humanist. With the moral greatness of a good man, and the\nmental perception of genius, he felt and recognized that it was against\nall the laws of God to destroy the fecundity of and the productive in\nnature. Thus it was that he placed the divine tabu on the abuse and\ndestruction of all that was beneficial to humanity, but especially on\nmen, animals and the produce of the earth.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nA BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED\u2019S WORK AND WORTH\n\n\nTaken as a whole, the Koran is certainly not a work of literary art.\nMohammed, in a literary sense, was neither a poet nor a writer. He was,\nas he says of himself, only an illiterate apostle. This, from an\nartistic point of view, is of course regrettable. In his mother tongue\nhe had a rich and splendid medium. A language of high philosophical and\npoetical character, that \u201cfollows the mind,\u201d as Burton says, and gives\nbirth to its offspring: that is free from the \u201cluggage of particles\u201d\nwhich clogs our modern tongues--leaves a mysterious vagueness between\nthe relation of word to word, which materially assists the sentiment,\nnot the sense of the poet. A language too that luxuriates in \u201crich and\nvaried synonyms, illustrating the finest shades of meaning,\u201d that are\nartfully used--\u201cnow scattered to startle us by distinctness, now to form\nas it were a star about which dimly seen satellites revolve.\u201d Finally\nwhich revels in a wealth of rhyme that leaves the poet almost\nunfettered to choose the desired or exact expression. Undoubtedly in a\nliterary sense, here at hand, was a mighty and magnificent weapon. A\nquiverful of musical arrows, quivering as they waited for the poetic\nmuse--the fine frenzy, the seething imagination, the running ready\nfire--to launch them forth into the humming haunts and hearts of men.\nBut in no sense was this Merchant-Prophet a knight-errant. Kindly and\ntender as he was towards women and children, he was not addicted (as his\ncountrymen were) to chivalry in any form. The race of heroines of Al\nIslam had no attraction for him. The \u201cHawa (or \u2018Ishk\u2019) uzri,\u201d\n\u201cpardonable love,\u201d of the Bedawin, a certain species of platonic\naffection, did not exist for him. He had no room for such trivialities\nin his life. It was too serious and pre-occupied. Too much occupied with\nthe affairs of his Master, and worldly business matters that had to be\nattended to. So that he had no time to waste on such pleasantries.\nTrifles that were as light as air in contrast to the stern and deadly\nrealities of existence. Yet without doubt he must have attended the\nannual fairs that were held at various places, at \u201cZul Mejaz,\u201d at Majna,\nand at Okadh. The latter, Syed Ameer Ali tells us, was a place famous in\nArab tradition. It was the Olympia of Yemen. The fair held here in the\nsacred month of \u201cZu\u2019lkada,\u201d was a great national gathering. A sort of\n\u201cGod\u2019s truce\u201d was then proclaimed. War and the shedding of human blood\nwas forbidden. To it came merchants with their wares from all parts of\nArabia and other distant lands; also the poets and heroes of the desert.\nThese (many of whom were disguised from the avengers of blood feuds in\nmasks or veils) recited their poems, displayed their literary talents,\nand sang of their glory and their prowess. But Mohammed\u2019s aims and\ninclinations did not lie in this direction. He was too much of a working\nphilosopher to be a mere poetic dreamer or play actor. His genius lay in\nhis profound earnestness, his great moral strength, his capacity for\nwork, his political foresight and acumen, his iron will and his\ninexhaustible patience. It is certain that he believed (in the\nphilosophic principle) that \u201ceverything comes to him who waits.\u201d For he\nhimself says: \u201cWait therefore the event, for I also will wait it with\nyou.\u201d Obviously he was imbued with the same tenacity, and many of the\nimperturbable characteristics of the camel of his own Arabian deserts.\nUnquestionably he knew how \u201c_to wait_,\u201d recognized that the essence of\nall human wisdom lies in this single feature, and that the greatest, the\nstrongest and the most successful is he who waits and watches. It was\nthus that he waited with the unvarying purpose and pertinacity of a man\nwho knew and appreciated his own value at its proper worth. For he felt\nin every nerve and fibre of his consciousness, that as God makes no man\nor no thing in vain, the future must have some (great) thing, some great\nprize, in reserve for him. We know what that prize was. We know also\nthat it only came to him after a life of unwearied toil, and assiduous\ndevotion to his great and noble purpose, and then only in reality\nthrough the moral and spiritual victory which death gave him.\n\nYet, in spite of its artistic defects, Mohammed\u2019s work turned out, as we\nknow, into a success that even he himself could never have anticipated.\nBut in a spiritual sense, judging merely by results, the Koran has lost\nnothing because of its lack of literary art and beauty. Had it gushed\nall over with the eastern music of the Songs of Solomon, had it arrested\nthe attention by the same aphoristic wisdom of the Proverbs, thrilled\nits readers by the recital of a tragedy so intensely powerful, so\nrealistic and majestic as the drama of Job, and appealed to them through\nthe joys, the sorrows and the grand poetry of the Psalms! Had it, in\nfact, sparkled all over with those beauties of language and metaphor\nthat distinguish the Bible, the result that it might have attained could\nscarcely have been greater than that which it has accomplished without\nthese trappings. It is, in fact, probable that it might have lost. It is\njust possible that what it would have gained as an ornate work, it would\nhave lost in sincerity. The Koran, in fact, was essentially the\noffspring of Mohammed\u2019s own unique personality. This, as I have tried to\nshow, was the peculiar outcome of his dual environment--the frowning,\nrugged and arid aspect of stony mountains and sandy wastes, plus the\ncommercial and political instincts that were inherent as well as\ndeveloped on his trade journeys and at the various towns and marts which\nhe visited. Nevertheless there was in this Semitic Puritan, as there is\nin almost every Arab, a certain rugged vein of poetry--the wild song of\nfreedom--that bursts out here and there. But only now and then like the\nthunderstorm that is so great a rarity in the desert. For the gravity\nand over-concentration of his thoughts on the one definite object,\noppressed him so weightily, that it left no time for others. Just as\nfast as rain is swallowed up by the parched and thirsty sand after a\nlong spell of drought, so his soul, thirsting as it did after God,\ngulped and kept down the poetry and sentiment at bottom of him. All the\nsame, if a book is to be gauged by its net results--by the effect it has\nproduced on all that is deepest and best in human nature--then the\nKoran must necessarily take high rank as one of the world\u2019s greatest\nworks. In much the same way, only in another and more material\ndirection, the _Wealth of Nations_ has also left its impress on the\nshaping of human destinies.\n\nMohammed\u2019s sincerity and fixity of purpose is a fact we cannot get away\nfrom. It is this which has chained his followers as with the sure cord\nof God to the Faith. Islam, in a word, is a creed of practice not\ntheory. By practice it was formed. On practice it has lived. It was\nbecause Mohammed practised what he preached, that the small seed of his\noriginal idea blossomed at last into the mighty \u201cIgdrasil\u201d of the\nEast--the great banyan tree of existence. Verily this sun-burnt son of\nArabia Petr\u00e6a was a tangible reality and no desert simulacrum. A reality\nthat lives in the soul of Islam. A reality that will endure until the\nend of all things human. It is not manners that maketh the man. It is\nman that makes the manners. It is the nature that is around him, the\nnature that is in him, and that comes out of him as mental and moral\nenergies, that makes the man. Town bred as he was, it was the desert in\nall its naked and silent grandeur that made Mohammed, that inspired him\nwith all the might and majesty of God, and turned him into a prophet.\nYet it was his career as a trader and the inherent tribal instinct that\ndeveloped the political element in him. As Longfellow says: \u201cGlorious\nindeed is the world of God around us; but more glorious is the world of\nGod within us. There lies the land of song, there lies the poet\u2019s native\nland.\u201d But in Mohammed\u2019s case, as in the case of all great workers and\nthinkers, the world that is around us, is the world of our inner\nconsciousness. The two are synonymous if not one. Only with him the\nnative earth was religion, and he was the Prophet, not the Poet of it.\n\u201cIt is Nature\u2019s highest reward to a true, simple, great soul, that he\ngets thus to be _a part of herself_.\u201d It was thus with Mohammed.\nThought, though changeable, is eternal. It never dies. So the one idea\nthat possessed Mohammed now possesses (differing only in merely\nsuperficial degrees) some two hundred and fifty millions.\n\nCarlyle is mistaken, certainly much too premature, when he says: \u201cEven\nin Arabia, as I compute, Mahommet will have exhausted himself and become\nobsolete, while this Shakespeare, this Dante may still be young; while\nthis Shakespeare may still pretend to be a priest of mankind, of Arabia\nas of other places, for unlimited periods to come.\u201d Religion is\nentirely an universal matter, Thought a question of environment. Roughly\nspeaking, the world of Thought is divided into two camps of east and\nwest. To the former belongs Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam; to the latter\nChristianity and the growing cult of Rationalism. It is impossible to\npredict or in any way to foreshadow any fusion of these hostile\nelements. The day when humanism--i.e. the religion of humanity, as the\nnatural product of her highest intellectual effort--shall have fused and\nhumanized all the nations of the Earth into one great civilized family,\nis too far distant and beyond the present scope of human speculation.\n\nIf men are to be regarded especially as to the weight and power with\nwhich they operate on the minds of their fellow-men, then this\ncamel-driving trader must without question be estimated as a great\nman--a man a long way above his fellows. Assuredly too it is chiefly\nthrough the Koran that his great and God-like thoughts, crystallized\ninto greater motives and actions, have filtered down through the events\nand developments of thirteen centuries, as a purifying, fertilizing, and\nelevating factor.\n\nLooking at him and his work from every aspect, Mohammed was not merely a\nheroic prophet. He was much more. A king and a leader of men. A ruler\nand a judge over them. If we are to judge of him, to take him for what\nhe is worth, by his work--the rich ripe fruit of his rare and strenuous\neffort--the Koran on the one hand, and, on the other, the mighty\nspiritual force he has left behind him in the Church of Islam, we must\npronounce him to have been a great and remarkable man. A man who, when\nhis true value is understood and appreciated, will stand out in history\nas a political and religious reformer of a virile and heroic type. A man\nwho will be regarded in even a greater light than he now is, when\nhumanity shall have become less denominational and more rationally\nhumanitarian. In reality Mohammed was an ultra great man. The difference\n(as it appears to me) between other great men and himself was wide. The\nordinary type of great man--a John Knox for example--is a patriot\nessentially. He is for his country first, then for God and humanity. As\nI have shown, with Mohammed it was just the reverse. An Arab by accident\nof birth, he put God and nature before everything. It was this that made\nhim a humanist; this that placed him before his age. For Mohammed,\nwithout a shadow of a doubt, was centuries before his age. In his God\nconcept, in his rejection of the ancient myth of immaculate conception,\nin his refusing to acknowledge Christ\u2019s divinity, he was essentially a\nmodern--a modern of the twentieth century. It was this catholicity\ntherefore that made Islam blossom into a spiritual energy that embraces\nso many national units.\n\nMohammed fought with all his might and main. In exact proportion to his\nlabour he has prevailed. Prevailed over the issues of life and death.\nDeath had no terrors for him. Life alone was full of terror--i.e. of the\nfear of God. In death there was no sting. In the grave there was no\nvictory. Death but killed the mortal part of him. The spiritual it has\nincreased and multiplied out of all proportion. The present soul of\nIslam is the spirit of Mohammed. Only when this exhausts itself will\nIslam wither and die! To this day he is, and for many \u00e6ons to come he\nwill be in spirit, the ruler and judge over Islam. In spite of sects and\ntheological speculators, as long as Islam lasts, his spirit will\ncontinue to preside over its destinies. His spirit lives in the spirit\nof the creed that he bequeathed as a divine legacy to humanity--i.e. to\nthose sections of it which have been nurtured in the system and\nadoration of the Patriarch. For though the material part of him is dead,\nthe spiritual still speaks with a voice that is myriad-tongued. As God\u2019s\nword, there is a sanctity in the Koran for every Moslem that exceeds\nthe reverence of the Christian for the Bible, as much as the fiery\nsplendour of the sun surpasses the cold pale glamour of the moon--which\nis but a shadow, a pale reflection of the substance and reality. There\nis, in fact, on the part of the Moslem a veneration accorded to the\nKoran that practically equals the veneration of the African or the Irish\nfor their land. Compatible with this, there is for the Moslem but one\nProphet. As God\u2019s chosen agent for the dissemination of His word,\nMohammed stands alone and aloof on a pinnacle that is humanly\nunapproachable. Many faults have been imputed to him, many charges\nbrought against him. To the average, indeed even to the educated\nChristian, Mohammed is nothing but the very strangest compound of right\nand wrong, of error and truth, the abolisher of superstition according\nto his own showing, yet a believer in charms, dreams, omens, and jinns.\nBut what of all this? Does not reasoning such as this itself prove how\nvery inconsequent and inconsistent is man, even though he be a European\nand a Christian? Is not superstition of the same kind as rife at this\nvery moment in Europe, nay in the very centres and strongholds of\nChristendom? What about the ikons, the charms, the amulets, the sacred\nrelics and the images of the Greek and Romish Churches? Is not this but\na form of materialism which itself is a phase or part--a very large\npart--of Nature? Did not superstition (derived from \u201csuper,\u201d above or\nbeyond measure, and \u201csto,\u201d to stand) originally imply excess of scruple,\nor of ceremonial observances in religion? Did it not describe a\nsuperfluity of worship that exceeded what was either enjoined or\nfitting? What does Cicero say of it in his treatise on _The Nature of\nthe Gods_? (I quote from an old translation): \u201cNot only Philosophers,\nbut all our forefathers dydde ever separate _superstition_ from true\nreligion. For they whiche prayed all day that theyr children might\noverlyve (superstites essent), were called _superstitious_; which name\nafter was larger extended.\u201d Is not this thing we call superstition--this\nbelief in the super or rather outside natural as distinguished from the\nvague and merely vulgar absurdities that are so common--but the result\nof inherent instincts that humanity, as simply one form of natural\ndevelopment, derives direct from Nature? Is not this Naturism more or\nless developed in us all--more in the ignorant, less in the educated,\nand least of all in the scientist; the sceptic who knows most, because\nhe has looked and searched more into the truth and reality of things;\nbecause he has learnt by experience, fact, knowledge, therefore a\ngreater intelligence to discriminate which from what and why from\nwherefore? In any case, does not the fact that Mohammed was\nsuperstitious all the more clearly prove that he was no mere vulgar\ndesigner who practised self-deception and pretensions with regard to his\nmission, but that he was thoroughly sincere in believing himself to be\nthe specially selected Apostle of the Great Designer and Controller of\nthe universe?\n\nBut it is not to Mohammed\u2019s faults that we must look. All great men are\nmoulded out of faults. It is in his virtues and greatnesses--and they\nare many--that we will find the true man. In this Carlyle was a right\nguide, and showed his own breadth of mind and greatness. These prove\nMohammed to have been one of humanity\u2019s greatest constructors. It is\ntrue that he destroyed, but on a small scale comparatively in proportion\nto the immensity of his constructive labour. As evidence of this, the\nphysical, the moral and the spiritual wealth of Islam speaks in round\nnumbers and solid realities. In another of his great romances, Dumas,\nspeaking of John Knox, says: \u201cHe who had raised such a storm had need to\nbe, and he was, a Titan; indeed John Knox was one of those men whom\ngreat religious and political revolutions invariably beget. Born in\nScotland or England during the Presbyterian Reformation, they are\ncalled John Knox or Oliver Cromwell; born in France, in the time of\npolitical reform, they are called Mirabeau or Danton.\u201d Mohammed was, in\nevery sense of the word, more titanic than a Cromwell or a Mirabeau. He\nwas not by nature or at heart a destroyer. When he destroyed it was only\nbecause his hand was forced by the crass and obstinate antagonism of\nthose upon whom his sincerity and persuasiveness had aroused an envious\nand deadly hatred. The whole aim, end and object of his existence was to\ndevelop the adoration and religion of God. The storm he raised was\nconjured into being by the God that obsessed him. Hence the soul and\nconstructiveness in it. Hence the mighty spirit of Islam, measurable\nonly by a soul capacity which has never ceased to expand and develop. No\nsane man surely can deny that Islam was and is a great work? The moral\nfigs and grapes that she has achieved are not such as could have been\ngathered from the thorn and thistle of human effort. Yet curiously\nenough, as I have shown, the environment in which it was born was\nstrangely stern and sterile! This, however, is one of those natural\nanomalies that we would do well to leave alone. One of those paradoxes,\nthose mysteries which Nature teems with, that are altogether beyond\nhuman comprehension.\n\nWhether or not he had made a study of the Socratic precept \u201c\u0393\u03bd\u1ff6\u03b8\u03b9 \u03c3\u03b5\u03b1\u03c5\u03c4\u03cc\u03bd\u201d\n\u201cknow thyself,\u201d Mohammed knew himself as thoroughly as it is possible for\na man to do. Early in life he took his own measure. Gauged his own strength\nand weakness. Estimated the breadth, the length, and the depth to which he\ncould go. As a result of this moral estimate, he felt that his resources\nwithout God were as slender as a broken reed buffeted by storm winds. He\nknew that his real strength lay in the knowledge and power of God and of\nNature. The temperament and character of the Psalmist--he who looked on\nGod as the strong tower and rock of his defence, his refuge, not however\nin time of trouble alone, but at all times--was strongly developed in him.\nThe genius of the whole Semitic race was centred in Mohammed. It was this,\namounting as it does to the sublimest egotheism, that gave him confidence,\nthen conviction. It was this righteous conviction that carried him as it\nwere on the wings of the wind--immortal breath and soul, as he pictured\nit--of the living and eternal God. Through this feeling he converted the\ninnate fear and veneration that inspired him into the hand and power of\nthe Almighty. If genius implies a keen psychological insight into the\nnature and inner consciousness of life\u2019s issues, added to inexhaustible\nenergy, capacity for work and patience, then Mohammed was a genius.\nCertainly, if we accept Buffon\u2019s definition of genius, as, \u201cbut a greater\naptitude for perseverance,\u201d he was without doubt a genius of the highest\ndegree. The founder of a faith--one of the greatest the world has\nproduced--spiritual commander of the faithful, his genius was\nessentially moral and religious. His whole life was one long labour of\nlove and devotion to achieve his object, i.e. to proclaim God to the\nnations of the earth: the first half of it passed in secular work but in\nsilent contemplation; the second half, itself divisible into two\nperiods, twelve years of persuasion, followed to the close by active\naggression and battle.\n\nImpulsive, passionate, and spontaneous Mohammed may have been, for like\nall great leaders he was many-sided. But in no sense of the word can\nIslam be said to have been the outcome of spontaneity. On the contrary,\nit was in every way the result of calm and deliberate reflection, of\nlong and continuous contact with the forces and phenomena of Nature; but\nabove all of an unceasing concentration and communion with the unseen\npower that controls them. Stretching over some twenty years, it went on\nuninterrupted by domestic cares or trade transactions. All these were\nsecondary matters and had to give way to the central idea that occupied\nhis whole mind, that revolved around his work and his thoughts, as the\nearth gyrates about the sun. His centre of gravity was God. This gravity\nformed his character, gave him courage and endurance in all his trials\nand afflictions, counselled and guided him in his ordinary vocations. It\nwas this gravity and concentration that commanded the respect and trust\nof all who knew him and came under his magnetic influence.\n\nBut Mohammed was not infallible. Dogma--everything human in fact--is\nopen and liable to error. Even infallibility itself--as we speak of\nit--is fallible. As Draper so aptly remarks: \u201cHe who is infallible, must\nneeds be immutable.\u201d In many of the ordinary ways of life he was no\ndoubt changeable and inconsistent. He was, after all, only human--but\nnot with regard to the Faith. Here was he as firm as a rock, and showed\na fixity of purpose that nothing could shake or alter. With him, \u201cLife\nwas but a means to an end, that end, beginning, mean and end to all\nthings--God.\u201d Only synchronous with this ruling principle was the idea\nof national unity. Never once did he falter or swerve from it. To this\nallegiance and fidelity of his to God and centralization it is possible\nto trace the devotion of Moslems to their Faith. \u201cWe are, as we often\nsay, the creatures of circumstances. In that expression there is a higher\nphilosophy than might at first sight appear. Our actions are not the pure\nand unmingled results of our desires. They are the offspring of many\nvarious and mixed conditions. In that which seems to be the most voluntary\ndecision, there enters much that is altogether involuntary--more perhaps\nthan we generally suppose.\u201d This was very much the case with Mohammed.\nHe was largely the creature of circumstances--the personification of his\nenvironment. It was the genius of this that entered into and obsessed\nhim. That formed and swayed him as it willed. That made him as strong\nand inflexible as itself. That, combining with the commercial knowledge\nand experience he possessed and the political acumen he acquired, made\nhim what he was. Here in a tiny nutshell lies the kernel and origin of\nthe soul of Islam. The possibility that Mohammed was rather of Caucasian\nthan Ishmaelitish descent, in reality makes little if any difference in\nthe psychological analysis of his character. Fundamentally, human nature\nis human nature all the world over. In this respect racial and colour\ndistinctions make no difference. Even moral and physical characteristics\nare merely superficial classifications. Inherent tendencies, strong and\nrooted as they are, may be amended or modified by environment. So that\nalthough it is vaguely possible that his moral courage and other mental\nfeatures were of Caucasian origin, in the main he was essentially\nSemitic in character, patriarchal in principle, and humanistic in\nspirit. In Lecky\u2019s opinion: \u201cIf we take a broad view of the course of\nhistory and examine the relations of great bodies of men, we find that\nreligion and patriotism are the chief moral influences to which they\nhave been subject, and that the separate modification and mutual\ninteraction of these two agents may almost be said to constitute the\nmoral history of mankind.\u201d This most certainly has been the case with\nregard to Islam. Religion was the medium chosen by Mohammed for the\nfurtherance of his truly imperial design. It was entirely through\nreligion, or rather the interpretation he placed upon it, that he built\nup first of all a natural patriotism, then an international spirit, that\nexpanded into the mighty creed of Islam. Prior to this, Arabia as he\nfound it was narrow to an extreme. The only patriotism--if patriotism it\ncan be called--was clannish and communal. Outside these stilted limits,\nevery one was regarded with suspicion, contempt, indifference, and\ninvariably with undisguised hostility. Yet the great and solid\nfoundation of this splendid spiritual and temporal empire was laid by\none man. But how great and how heroic! Indeed, \u201ctake him all in all, the\nhistory of humanity has seen few more earnest, noble and sincere\n\u2018prophets,\u2019 men irresistibly impelled by an inner power to admonish and\nto teach, and to utter austere and sublime truths, the full purport of\nwhich is often unknown to themselves.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nMOSLEM MORALITY AND CHRISTENDOM\u2019S ATTITUDE TOWARDS ISLAM\n\n\nThe better to gauge the present political aspect of the Moslem world,\nthe statesmen of Europe--of France and Great Britain more\nparticularly--should make an earnest study of the spirit of Islam. If we\nregard Islam as the work of Mohammed--as we are bound to--there are\ncertain broad features we must also recognize. Right away from its very\ninception he worked not only as a prophet, but as a political reformer.\nTravelling as he did with his eyes, ears and all his senses open, the\npolitical state of the eastern portion of Europe and the western side of\nAsia must have been well known to him. To accomplish his religious ends\nwas impossible without the political unity of Arabia. To him the\npolitical and religious unity of his country were synonymous. As a\nshrewd and practical trader, the material advantages of commerce were\ntaken into consideration. He recognized that without a sound commercial\nbasis and political unity there could be no national stability. He also\nsaw that in a country like Arabia, split up into clans and communities,\nit was only possible to effect this through the spiritual potentialities\nof the one and only true God. If he did not himself accomplish this\ngreat project, we know at least that it was the magnificent legacy he\nbequeathed to his followers in the spirit of Islam, that eventually did\nso in reality. He or the spirit he evoked was clearly and unmistakably\nthe cause of all subsequent Moslem triumphs, intellectual and political\nas well as religious. Thus it was that scarcely eighty years after his\ndeath, Islam reigned supreme over Arabia, Syria, Persia, all the\nnorthern coast of Africa, including Egypt, as well as Spain. So, too,\nnotwithstanding the internal schisms and rifts that subsequently took\nplace, it kept on growing with great strides, until at last in 1453, the\nCrescent gleamed from the spires of St. Sophia at Constantinople, and\nthe soul-stirring war cry \u201cLa ilah illa Allah\u201d resounded seventy-six\nyears afterwards before the very gates of Vienna. Lecky is undoubtedly\nright in assuming that: \u201cTo trace in every great movement the part which\nbelongs to the individual and the part which belongs to general causes\nwithout exaggerating either side is one of the most difficult tasks of\nthe historian.\u201d But in the case of Islam there can be no mistake. True,\nthe Arabs in themselves were a great and virile people. But it was the\ngenius of Mohammed, the spirit he breathed into them through the soul of\nIslam, that exalted them. That raised them out of the lethargy and low\nlevel of tribal stagnation, up to the high water mark of national unity\nand Empire. It was in the sublimity of Mohammed\u2019s deism, the simplicity,\nthe sobriety and purity it inculcated, the fidelity of its founder to\nhis own tenets, that acted on their moral and intellectual fibre with\nall the magnetism of true inspiration. To them Islam was the Faith--the\nFaith God.\n\nJust as Christianity stands for the faith of the great European family\nof nations, Islam stands for those countries whose political\ninstitutions are still based on the Patriarchal system. But\nEurope--however superior her peoples may think themselves--is not in the\nposition, and certainly cannot afford, to look down upon Islam as an\ninferior product of an inferior section of the great human family. East\nmay be East, and West, West--the system of one represented by polygamy,\nof the other by monogamy. But because Christianity is conformable to\nEuropean ideals and notions, it does not in the least follow that it is\ncompatible with those of the East. Because the civilized net result it\nhas effected has eventually proved greater than that achieved by Islam,\nis no evidence whatever of Islam\u2019s worthlessness or decadence. It is\nnot the spirit of Islam that has failed, but the people who believe in\nit. They have fallen away from the high ideal that was set them by their\nmaster. In this respect, however, Christianity has also degenerated. It\nis a creed of profession more than of practice. It has never\nconsistently practised what it has preached. A very wide gulf divides\nits practices from its ideals. \u201cIf to do were as easy as to know what\nwere good to do, chapels had been churches and poor men\u2019s cottages\nprinces\u2019 palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions:\nI can easier teach twenty what were good to be done, than be one of the\ntwenty to follow mine own teaching.\u201d So Shakespeare. This holds as good\nnow as when he wrote it. Human nature never alters fundamentally. It is\nthe same to-day as it was yesterday, and as it will be unto all\neternity. Christendom much more so than Islam, is split up into sects\nand denominations, and there can be no question about it that the chief\nobstacle to unity among these various bodies at the present moment is\nwant of sincerity and earnestness!\n\nCompared with the average Moslem, the average Christian too is certainly\nlukewarm. The nearest approach to Moslem perfervidness is in the piety\nof the Irish Catholics. But devotional as they are, even this falls far\nshort of the rigid practice of the true Moslem. Not only, however, is\nhe fervid and in downright earnest, but he is above all constant,\nfaithful, and consistent to the principles of his creed. Thus, although\nthere is no fatherhood about Allah, there is for all that a true and\nreal brotherhood in Islam which contrasts very favourably with the\nprofessed brotherhood of Christendom. Colour or race, for instance,\nmakes no difference to it. Islam, in fact, is above all such petty\ndifferences. She draws no hard and fast rules, has no such violent\nantipathies, bigotries and prejudices as Christendom. Professes little\nbut practises much. Colour in her eyes is no disgrace, no bar to God,\nmuch less therefore to human fellowship and assimilation. This, as we\nknow, is not the case with Christians. To them colour and race (as\nwitness in the United States of America) is an impassable barrier, that\nis more insurmountable even than the great wall of China, over which\nthey find it impossible to step.\n\nThere are in nature, as Novalis endeavours to explain in his\nphilosophical romances, many realities and verities, the truth or\nessence of which cannot be grasped by the cold and critical intellect of\nman. Only by and through the sympathetic intuition of feeling can truths\nsuch as these be known or understood. This is indeed so. No matter how\nhard and material we may be, however thoroughly scientific; no matter\nhow high we may place reason--even on the highest pinnacle of human\nattainment, there are times when the emotions overpower and dominate it.\nThere are times when reason, even in its calmest and most calculating\nmoments, is simply inundated and overwhelmed by the flood-tide of human\nfeelings. In any case it is clear that although in the abstract it is\nimpossible to detach or even insulate thought from feeling and feeling\nfrom volition, these three--feeling, thought and will--act, and often\nco-operate together, in every mental causation. But it is just as\ndifficult for a system to free itself from its own peculiar\nidiosyncrasies and prejudices as it is for an individual to dissociate\nhimself from his motives. It is exactly the same with regard to Islam\nand Christendom. The latter has allowed its prejudices and its feelings\nto obliterate or to stultify its reason. It does not know, it does not\nunderstand Islam. Merely because it does not want or makes no effort to\nknow or to understand it. Because it has no sympathy with it. Because in\nplace of sympathy it is in reality antipathetic. Yet while professing\ntoleration, Christendom does not hesitate to despise and condemn Islam.\nTo Christendom, Islam is a mere creed and abstraction--a creed beyond\nand outside its cold and autocratic pale. A creed belonging to another\nworld and heaven than its own. A creed of colour and of sombre shades,\nnay even of gloom and darkness, blood, fire and sword, when the crescent\nand green flag of the Jihad is hoisted; a creed which is not to be\nthought of in the same breath as the snow-white fabric of the\ntranscendent cross.\n\nThe fact of the matter is, that Christendom in the earlier days of\nIslam, jealous and fearful of her younger and more vigorous rival,\nalways recoiled from Islam under the veil of a self-satisfied cant, as\nfrom a monstrous monstrosity of the most vicious and immoral type. A\nform of \u201cMoloch horridus,\u201d bristling all over with polygamous\nexcrescences, and cruel sharp-pointed spines, ever ready to thrust their\nawful venom into the unoffending human species. Yet if only Christendom\nhad long ago cultivated the virtue of patience, and the breadth and\ndepth of mind, to look into the matter, she would have discovered--as\nthose sceptics who have done so have discovered--the pure and\nunadulterated truth. She would have found, that as the Moloch horridus\nof Australia conceals an inoffensive character under a weird if\nrepulsive exterior; so Islam, under an outward form which bigotry and\nprejudice have exaggerated out of all shape, possesses a moral and\nspiritual value beyond all cavil or question. Islam no doubt has its\nfaults and many of them. The position of women is not perhaps as it\nshould be. The law and the practice of divorce is a real blot on her\nsystem. Education is at a low ebb. The custom of the separation of\nsexes, of which polygamy and divorce are the necessary outcome, are\nundoubtedly pernicious. It cannot, of course, be expected that young men\nand women who have never met or associated, and whose marriages are\narranged for them, can have any exalted ideas or feelings on the subject\nof love. It is not possible that young men who have never felt the\nrefining influence and the moral restraint of female society, can\npossess either chivalry or a high ideal, with regard to an element\nunique in itself. Nevertheless, contrary to received European opinion,\nthere exists for all that a very real and hearty affection and a warm\nsympathy between Moslem husbands and wives. What is more, this affection\nand sympathy will possibly contrast quite favourably with the family\ndevotion of most European countries.\n\nWith regard to women, however, the social system, it must be admitted,\nis less successful. It leaves room for improvement. The institution of\nfemale slavery is distinctly a blot. The lot of the Moslem girl morally\nand socially is not so much unhappy as neglected. Her ordinary education\nis practically negative; the religious part of it is regarded as\nsuperfluous. But it is a popular fallacy, as I have already pointed\nout, to attribute to Islam the doctrine that women have no souls.\nUnfortunately, however, the idea prevails generally throughout Europe\nthat these precious possessions are ignored by modern custom: that the\nfair sex is not encouraged to pray either in private or in public. It is\nbelieved, too, that the vigorous ritual prescribed for the male members\nis considered sufficient for both. So that Moslem women by ignoring the\none neglect the other, with consequences that are morally and physically\ndisastrous. But these are not by any means the real facts of the case.\nPersonally, of course, I cannot speak of such matters from experience.\nIsolated and secluded as the women of Islam are, and their privacy so\nrigorously guarded by a ring fence of stringent rules, it is not\npossible for the European to give an adequate opinion thereon. But\naccording to the reliable authority of so eminent a Moslem as Syed Ameer\nAli, and others, the women among civilized Moslem communities know their\nprayers and religious duties just as well as the men--and are devout and\npious--more so perhaps than the other sex. As to their cleanliness, it\nis beyond question. Yet in spite of so many obstacles--no education,\nseclusion, and a generally defective training--the women are not\nunhappy. They are on the whole as fully occupied (in their own way of\ncourse) and as well cared for as the women of Europe.\n\nThe fact of the matter is, Islam is suffering from mental stagnation,\nfrom the inevitable reaction that always succeeds a long period of\nactive development. The Arabs, in a word, have had their day. With\nregard to education generally, the teaching is of a stereotyped pattern.\nThere is no freshness or originality about it. Moslem studies have, in\nfact, lost all or most of their vitality. \u201cThe bloom of Arab culture has\nlong been brushed away, and there now remains only a hollow kernel.\u201d But\nit is after all by her virtues and not her defects that we must appraise\nthe true value of Islam. Most unquestionably she has great and redeeming\nfeatures. The throwing of stones or of mud is at best an injudicious\nproceeding. Apart from this it is undignified and unworthy of so high a\ncivilization. It is not for Christendom to throw stones any more than it\nis for Islam. Indeed, in this respect, Europe could well take a leaf out\nof the book of Moslem self-restraint and dignity. Moslem society, too,\nmay compare very favourably with European. Taken in the mass, the\npolygamous Moslem is every whit as moral--more so in fact--than his\nEnglish, French, or German contemporary. In a great measure polygamy is\nmuch more a theoretical than a practical institution. Not one in twenty\nMoslems has even two wives. In any case it is not in the proper and\nlegitimate practice of polygamy, but in the abuse of it, that the evil\nlies. On the whole there is no promiscuous immorality among the\nfollowers of Islam. Drunkenness and prostitution are practically\nnon-existent. In towns where Europeans have made them a necessity, they\nare always worse. Abstinence and sobriety are not only professed but\npractised. In these respects the young Moslem certainly stands above his\ncontemporary in Europe. Marrying early as he does, he knows nothing of\n\u201cthe wild oats\u201d that are so promiscuously and so religiously sown by the\nyouth of Europe. He sows no rank or noisome weeds for his children\u2019s\nchildren to reap a gruesome harvest. As far, therefore, as the male sex\nare concerned, the social system of Islam is certainly more moral and\nwholesome than that of Christendom.\n\nThe cult of Mormonism, as it has existed and still exists in Utah State\nand Salt Lake City, is a problem that should set all statesmen thinking!\nAs a psychological conundrum and from a rational standpoint, it is a\nmost interesting question. It confronts us with a dual anomaly! First of\nall by the enforcement of a sociological system in distinct opposition\nto, and in defiance of all ethnic conditions. To make the anomaly all\nthe greater, the religious part of this cult is founded on a palpable\nsham. There is not even about it the possibility of reality that always\nexists at the back of many ancient myths.\n\nThe so-called revelation of Joseph Smith, is the clumsy imposture of a\nman who in no sense of the word was either great or sincere. It is\nunquestionably the work of one or more persons who initiated the\nmovement in their own self-interests, and to cloak principles that were\nat complete variance with Christian doctrine and European opinion.\nMohammed, as we know, did not receive any revelation \u201con the eternity of\nthe marriage covenant, or the plurality of wives.\u201d This, according to\nMormon statement, was reserved for Joseph Smith alone. As a great\nstatesman and prophet, Mohammed recognized polygamy to be an ethnic\ncondition, therefore wisely did not interfere with it. Any radical\ninnovation in this direction would have been more than a political\nerror. As a revolutionary measure, it would have completely upset the\nentire fabric of Arabian and Eastern society. A pandemoniac\ntopsy-turveydom would have been the immediate consequence. The\ndeath-knell of Islam, the direct result. Yet the very personal god of\nJoseph Smith was so very short-sighted or painstaking that he sanctioned\nabsolutely a mere matter of domestic arrangement and economy. Could any\ntwo extremes present a wider and more striking contrast? Is it possible\neven to compare the splendid sincerity of this sublime creed of\nself-surrender to God--the soul of which came direct from all that is\ngreat in nature--with the thin transparency of what at best was a poor\nattempt at fiction, which emanated from the mentality of a human\nmediocrity? Is it justifiable to mention them in the same breath?\n\nYet in spite of these startling contradictions, it is quite certain that\nthe Mormon State, in an economic sense, is a prosperous, flourishing and\nthriving community. Its people too are orderly, well-behaved,\nlaw-abiding and industrious. From a moral and social standpoint, there\nis no fault to find with them. The anti-polygamic legislation of the\nUnited States Government, although it has recently been enforced with\nmuch greater severity than at first, has not stamped out polygamy. Does\nthis or does this not demonstrate that polygamy--which in the eyes of\nChristendom constitutes one of the chief offences of Islam--is not the\ncrime it is represented to be? Is it, in fact, a crime at all? Does it\nnot prove that only the abuse of it, as the abuse of any, even a good\nthing, is wrong? But that the actual system itself as an ethnic\ncondition peculiar to certain racial sections of mankind, is nothing but\nthe outcome or evolution of sociologic customs and usages?\n\nTo contend as all the Mu\u2019tazilite doctors do that Islam is not a\npolygamous system because it only tolerates a limited polygamy under\nstringent conditions which tends to monogamy is but a metaphysical\nquibble. It is but an attempt to split a hair. It does not alter the\nfact that when a system permits more than one wife, and its founder\nsanctioned four, it is certainly not monogamous. Such an argument will\nnot hold water for even a moment. It is but a mere contention--\u201ca bone,\u201d\nas the Persian proverb says, \u201cthrown to two dogs,\u201d a palpable piece of\nsophistry. It is but the begging of an obvious fact, a reality that can\nneither be avoided nor eluded. As Burns so very happily puts it:\n\n    \u201cBut facts are cheels that winna ding\n    An downa be disputed.\u201d\n\nFrom theories such as this, Islam can derive no benefit. Just as in a\nbroad sense she can suffer no disparagement from the fact that she\ncountenances polygamy, she can afford to dispense with any such\napologies. It is always a sounder principle to look truth in the face,\neven if that truth is unpalatable. However much civilization or the\nmarch and progress of events may ultimately modify polygamy, the actual\ncustom itself was but an outcome of circumstances and conditions that\nat the time were inevitable and did not (as they do not now) imply a\ncrime against or subversion of natural laws. To stigmatize a system that\ntime and usage have sanctified for thousands of years, merely because it\noffends _the easily outraged feelings of a super-sensitive Christendom_,\nor even on other grounds, is, to say the least of it, undignified. To\nimpute a crime to the thing itself is almost, but not quite, on a par\nwith the theology that pronounces a child to be the product of a sinful\nact. If the cause is sinful, the effect must also be sinful? Such a\ntheory is certainly unnatural, if not monstrous! It is a perversion of\nthat Nature from which we ourselves have evolved, and of that God or\nFirst Cause from which all causes and effects have proceeded.\n\nRegarding this question from the broadest of standpoints, there is no\nneed of an apology. Contention such as that of the Mu\u2019tazilite doctors,\ncasts too much of a reflection--an insult almost--on the great spirit\nand the splendid traditions of Islam. It is altogether unworthy of her.\nThe fact of a polygamous system did not in one whit detract from the\nsplendour of the empire that was built upon Mohammed\u2019s virile creed,\nalthough the subsequent abuse of it may possibly have done so! Even\nadmitting that monogamy is an improvement on polygamy, the Christian\nFaith was yet young when Mohammed first founded Islam. Thirteen hundred\nyears make a vast difference in the aspect of social progress and\ndevelopment. And as I have already pointed out, even Mohammed, with all\nhis great power and influence, dared not have upset the corner-stone\nupon which the entire social fabric of the Patriarchal system was based.\nHowever great he was as a Prophet, he was much too great a statesman to\nhave even spent a thought on an innovation so startlingly radical and\nrevolutionary.\n\nBut Christendom in the mass has never rationally considered this\nquestion from a broad-minded and liberal aspect! The attitude of its\nmissionaries towards the great Moslem Church is, to say the least of it,\nuncalled for and unjustifiable. Their irrational arrogance and\naggressiveness is only exceeded by their psychological ignorance of\nIslamic spirit and morality, added to an overweening egotism, blind\nbigotry and narrow sectarian prejudices. In a dual sense their attitude\nis offensive in the extreme. Offensive because it is hostile as well as\nimpertinent. To attempt the conversion of Islam is a liberty that\namounts to licence in face of its utter futility. This in itself\ndemonstrates an ignorance of ethnic conditions on the part of European\nstatesmen and missionaries that is as amazing and preposterous as it is\ndeplorable. So, too, to denounce Islam, as Christian missionaries do in\nno unmeasured terms, in books, on platforms and in the pulpit, is surely\nunpardonable--surely a reflection on civilization. Christianity will\nnever convert or supplant Islam. As long as the one lasts the other will\nendure. From the most catholic of standpoints, from a religious, a\nsocial, a political, and an economic sense, it would be sounder and more\npolitic to leave Islam alone. It would be more to the point if Christian\nmissionaries devoted their energies to the bottom dogs of the slums of\ntheir own European cities, and to rescue the poor helpless infants who\nin their thousands are being slowly done to death through vice and crime\nthat is worse than bestial. Unquestionably there is in our own European\nsystem a moral cancer that is just as virulent as any that Islam can\nproduce. This indeed is a question that European statesmen should turn\ntheir attention to. For more than anything, it is this onslaught on the\nstrongholds of Islam by Christendom, that explains the Moslem menace.\nThe one, if it exists, is but a counterblast to the other.\n\nIt is an indisputable fact that in China and in various parts of the\nworld, the high-handed interference and injudicious zeal of Christian\nmissionaries--outrunning all discretion, tact, and common sense--has\nfrequently been the cause of war and bloodshed. Is this, I ask,\ncompatible with Christian tenets and professions? Do not practices such\nas these fall far short of the high ideals that are so consistently\nflourished in the face of those who are outside its pale? Do they not\nbring moral discredit on a great creed, and tend to reduce it to the low\nlevel of mere and fulsome cant? But one small specimen of this open and\nundisguised hostility will suffice. In the _X. Y. Z._ of July 24, 1908,\nunder the heading in large type of \u201cISLAM THE ENEMY,\u201d appears the\nfollowing: \u201cAt the annual meeting held in connexion with the Church\nMissionary Society at Harrogate recently, the Rev. W. Y. Potter said:\n\u2018The calls which are most urgent are perhaps those to combat advancing\nMohammedanism in West Africa, to direct the new desire for learning in\nChina, to protect the Japanese nation from Agnosticism, by gathering in\nthe millions in these lands into the folds of the Christian Church.\u2019\u201d\n\nA sentence like this speaks for itself. It is self-condemnatory. It\ncondemns the speaker and the whole system which advances and encourages\nsuch narrow and vicious methods. It condemns, too, a journalism that\ngives such poor and unworthy utterances a place, even as a mere \u201cFill\nup.\u201d\n\nIslam is not an enemy. It is Christendom only that makes her so. It is\nthat craven conscience, which finding in her a teacher and a worker of\nsolid worth, has aroused the envy and malice of the ever jealous\ntheological spirit, which has invariably been responsible for so much\nwar and bloodshed. It is a relic of the same militant envy that, burning\nwith fury throughout the Dark Ages, fired the Crusades to a very great\nextent. A cramped and dogmatic spirit such as this does not surely\nrepresent the true spirit of modern Europe, which is presumably rational\nand reasonable, and consistent with the genius of progress and\nadvancement. There is no real and spontaneous Moslem menace. Even,\nhowever, if there is, it is but the re-echo of these aggressively\nChristian sentiments. It is but the answer to a challenge, as\nundignified and contemptuous as it is aggressive and defiant. Islam, I\nrepeat, is not an enemy, but a co-worker with us in the great and\nglorious cause of uplifting humanity from a lower to a higher\ncivilization. Islam has neither intention nor design of encroaching upon\nthe spiritual preserves of Christendom. Further, she has no itching wish\nto do so. Her leaders have the common sense to recognize that\nChristendom is separated from her by ethnic laws and social customs that\nare indivisible. She is only too willing; all, in fact, she asks, is to\nbe left alone to work in her own sphere of influence. Is it not\npossible, then, for a Christendom professing so vast a moral and every\nother kind of superiority, to meet her half way, to make a truce or\ncompromise to the effect that each should work in its own legitimate\nsphere? A pugnacious method such as she pursues towards Islam is as bad,\nworse in fact, than a thousand red rags to an infuriated bull. For like\nthe unfortunate victim in a Spanish bull-fight, tormented to its death\nby matadors, piccadors, torreadors, and a host of other \u201cdors,\u201d Islam is\nbeset and heckled by the frothy vapourings of theocratic firebrands, and\nthe unbridled licence of Europe\u2019s gutter press.\n\nThe origin of Islam, as I have described it, is in itself evidence of\nIslam\u2019s moral and spiritual stability--of that part of her which has not\ndeviated from, but clung to the spirit of her great Founder. But even\nallowing for denominational deviations, Islam in the mass is truly\ndevout.\n\nThe two creeds represent two absolutely divergent sections of humanity.\nUnquestionably in a social, moral and religious sense, Islam is Islam,\nand Christendom, Christendom. To remedy this divergence, to bring the\ntwo sections together, enters into the impossible.\n\nA natural arrangement such as this cannot be interfered with or altered.\nDefective as it is from a human aspect, it is all the same\nirremediable--a hiatus as wide apart as the suns in space, beyond the\npower of human effort to bring together. It is only possible for the\nrational gospel of humanism, the great religion of natural sympathy, to\nheal the breach. This it can only do by turning humanity into one great\nhuman family. This alone would sweep away the disturbing factors of\ncreeds, denominations, and sects. But is such a thing possible?\nScarcely! Certainly not so long as the egotism and egotheism of man is\nso predominant a force in human sociology, or so long as the present\nphysical and mental environments of the two sections remain the same.\n\n\n\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nEUROPE\u2019S DEBT TO ISLAM: ETHNIC SPHERES OF INFLUENCE\n\n\nBut apart from all these weighty considerations, the attitude of Europe\ntowards Islam should be one of eternal gratitude, instead of base\ningratitude and forgetfulness. Never to this day has Europe acknowledged\nin an honest and whole-hearted manner the great and everlasting debt she\nowes to Islamic culture and civilization. Only in a lukewarm and\nperfunctory way has she recognized that when, during the Dark Ages, her\npeople were sunk in feudalism and ignorance, Moslem civilization under\nthe Arabs reached a high standard of social and scientific splendour,\nthat kept alive the flickering embers of European society from utter\ndecadence.\n\nDo not we, who now consider ourselves on the topmost pinnacle ever\nreached by culture and civilization, recognize that had it not been for\nthe high culture, the civilization and intellectual as well as social\nsplendour of the Arabs, and to the soundness of their school system,\nEurope would to this day have remained sunk in the darkness of\nignorance? Have we forgotten that the Mohammedan maxim was that, \u201cthe\nreal learning of a man is of more public importance than any particular\nreligious opinions he may entertain\u201d--that Moslem liberality was in\nstriking contrast with the then intolerant state of Europe? Have we\nforgotten that the Khalifate arose in the most degenerate period of Rome\nand Persia, also that the greater part of Europe lay under the dark\ncloud of barbarism? Does the magnificent valour of the Arabs, inspired\nas it was by a theism as lofty as it was pure, not appeal to us? Does\nnot the moderation and comparative toleration shown by them to the\nconquered, notwithstanding the fierce and burning ardour to regenerate\nmankind that impelled them onwards to conquest, also appeal to us? Does\nit not all the more appeal to us, when we contrast this with the\nbitterness of the attitude of the Christian sects towards one another?\nEspecially when we consider that in Christendom as it was then\nconstituted, extortion, tyranny and imperial centralization, combining\nwith ecclesiastical despotism and persecution, had practically\nextinguished patriotism, by substituting in its place a schismatic and\ndegenerate church.\n\nIs it not obvious that in her outlook on Islam, Europe has overlooked\nher own Dark Ages--that awful period of intellectual oblivion which\ncommenced with the decline of classical learning subsequent to the\nestablishment of the barbarians in Europe in the fifth century, and\ncontinued down to the Renaissance, i.e. towards the end of the\nfourteenth century? Is it too not evident that she has lost all\nrecollection of the torn and disturbed state of Christendom even in the\nmiddle of the fifteenth century when the Renaissance was in full swing,\nor had at least run half its course? How few Europeans there are who\nknow the name of \u00c6neas Sylvius--fewer still who can remember the\nstriking and vivid picture he has drawn of the state of Europe in those\ndays of dawning intelligence! Yet this prelate, afterward Pope Pius II,\nsums up the then European situation in a curious but concise and\nexplicit document--a species of state paper dated 1454. Possessing as he\ndid a personal knowledge of Europe, and being a man of great natural\nshrewdness and power of observation, \u00c6neas Sylvius was of all men then\nliving the best qualified to describe the state of affairs at this\nperiod. So that his observations are not only significant, but entitled\nto weight and consideration.\n\nDiscussing the prospects of the projected crusade, he praises warmly\nPhilip of Burgundy for his readiness in the matter, then gives his\nreason for concluding that the Diet at Frankfort must be a failure. For\nthere is no real unity in Christendom; neither Pope nor C\u00e6sar is duly\nreverenced or believed in; they are but feigned names or painted\neffigies--each state has its own king: there is a prince to every house.\nItaly is disturbed, Genoa being at feud with Aragon; nay, worse, Venice\nhas actually a treaty with the Turk. In Spain are many kings, all\ndiffering in power, government, aims and opinions. There is even war too\nthere about Granada. France is still looking uneasily across the Channel\nat England, her old foe, and England watches France. The Germans are\ndivided, without coherence; their cities quarrel with their princes;\ntheir princes fight among themselves. Luxemburg is a cause of dispute\nbetween the King of Bohemia and the Duke of Burgundy.\n\nIs it possible that Europe is unmindful of, and has the ingratitude to\nignore, the splendid services of the scientists and philosophers of\nArabia? Are the names of Assamh, Abu Othman, Alberuni, Albeithar, Abu\nAli Ibn Sina (Avicenna), the great physician and philosopher, Ibn Rushd\n(Averroes) of Cordova, the chief commentator on Aristotle, Ibn Bajja\n(Avempace) besides a host of others, but dead letters? Is the great work\nthat they have done, and the fame they have left behind them in their\nbooks, to be consigned to the limbo of oblivion, by an ungrateful\nbecause antipathetic Europe? Does the work of Alhazen, author of optical\ntreatises, who understood the weight of air, corrected the Greek\nmisconception or theory of vision, and determined the function of the\nretina, count for nothing? Do we owe no tribute to a great thinker such\nas Ghazali, who in speaking of his attempts to detach himself from his\nyouthful opinions says: \u201cI said to myself, my aim is simply to know the\ntruth of things, consequently it is indispensable for me to ascertain\nwhat is knowledge\u201d? It cannot be that already we have lost sight of the\namazing intellectual activity of the Moslem world, during the earlier\npart of the \u201cAbbasid\u201d period more especially? It cannot be that we have\nquite forgotten the irrecoverable loss that was inflicted on Arabian\nliterature and on the world at large by the wanton destruction of\nthousands of books that was prompted by Christian bigotry and\nfanaticism? It cannot surely be said of Christian Europe that for\ncenturies now she has done her best to hide her obligation to the Arabs?\nYet most assuredly obligations such as these are far too sacred to lie\nmuch longer hidden! Let Europe--Christendom rather--confess and\nacknowledge her fault. Let her proclaim aloud to her own ignorant\nmasses, and to the world at large, the ingratitude she has displayed,\nand the eternal debt she owes to the Islam she no longer despises. Open\nconfession is good for the soul, and only a confession such as this can\nwipe off the black stain which has for so long besmirched her fair fame.\nLet Christendom once and for all recognize that the greatest of all\nfaults is to be conscious of none--that acknowledging a fault is saying,\nonly in other words, we are wiser to-day than we were yesterday. Only\nthrough magnanimity such as this can she claim redemption. For she must\nsurely know that \u201cinjustice founded on religious rancour and national\nconceit cannot be perpetrated for ever.\u201d\n\nLet me endeavour to make my meaning somewhat clearer, by means of two\nsimple illustrations--the one belonging to the eighteenth century, the\nother to the twentieth. \u201cHow many great men do you reckon?\u201d Buffon was\nasked one day. \u201cFive,\u201d answered he at once; \u201cNewton, Bacon, Leibnitz,\nMontesquieu, and myself.\u201d\n\nSome five to six years ago, the present German Emperor, in giving his\nviews on divine revelation and manifestation, is said to have expressed\nhimself as follows: \u201cTo promote man\u2019s development God has revealed\nHimself in man, whether he be priest or king, whether heathen, Jew, or\nChristian. So in Moses, Abraham, Homer, Charlemagne, Luther,\nShakespeare, Goethe, Kant, and the Emperor William the Great, whom God\nthus sought out to achieve imperishable results. His grandfather often\nsaid that he was an instrument in God\u2019s hands.\u201d\n\nComment on my part of any kind would be but an insult to the intelligent\nor sympathetic reader. But the way in which Islam is studiously ignored\nin both cases is surely significant and luminous. These are but two mere\nexamples taken at random, but they are typical of European arrogance,\negotism, and her general attitude of supercilious apathy towards the\nMoslem world. After all--even when an enlightened emperor is\nconcerned--it is but a step, and a short quick step, from the sublime to\nthe ridiculous.\n\nIn Europe\u2019s own interest it would in the end repay her statesmen to\ntreat the world of Islam with greater sympathy and toleration, also with\nbut ordinary justice. These remarks apply more forcibly of course to\nGreat Britain and France. From the standpoint of the highest\nstatesmanship, these two states should utilize the power they possess\ntowards the attainment of this wise and politic object. Instead of\npermitting any such impolitic measures (as e.g. those made by Christian\nmissionaries to proselytize) they should, by every means that lies\nwithin their power, advance, encourage, and stimulate the work of Islam\nin its own proper and legitimate sphere of influence. Reflection will\nremind them that intolerance or persecution in any form, as the history\nof Christianity itself proves, always aided, but never deterred, the\ndevelopment of any creed. These facts alone ought to recommend the study\nof Islam to all British statesman. But in addition, I would point out to\nthem one feature that is worth looking into. This is, that the same\nblend of materialism and spirit, the same desire for unity, cohesion and\nconstruction, which characterized Mohammed\u2019s efforts, have operated also\nin the building up of the British Empire. It is practically out of these\nforces, but under different aspects and conditions of social and\nphysical environment, that England has expanded into Greater Britain.\nGiven the same conditions and environment, and the same vigorous people,\nand there is no knowing what the true spirit and fervour of Islam might\nnot have effected. Remember that the soul of Islam, as the Prophet left\nit, did not lack in spiritual stamina. The lack of it has been in her\ndisciples, who have found it difficult to live up to the rigid standard\nthat was set them by their Lord and Master. In a great international or\nrather intercreedal question such as this, it is highly impolitic to\nmake comparisons, more especially when the creeds in question represent\na sphere of thought and a sociological system so widely divergent as\nIslam and Christendom. All the same, there are facts that the latter\nshould be reminded of. Throughout its great and growing history,\nparticularly its earlier career when fanaticism was excusable, militant\nand violent as she has been, Islam never descended to so hateful a\nsystem as the diabolical Inquisition, never stained the great soul of\nher Faith by ruthless and bloody massacres such as those of the\nAlbigenses, Waldenses, and St. Bartholomew. On the contrary, she showed\na spirit of religious toleration that was as rational as it was\nremarkable. Indeed under the Ommiades of Spain (755-1031) this was in\nevery sense greater, higher and wider than that which prevails at\npresent in modern Spain. It is true of course that Ma\u2019mun, one of the\nAbbasid Caliphs, established in 833 A.D. a mihna or Inquisition, in\norder to uphold the rationalism of the Mu\u2019tazilite doctrine against\northodoxy. But it was shortlived. For soon after his successor W\u2019athik\nis said to have officially abandoned rationalism; and in fourteen years\nfrom its initiation, the cruel and bigoted Mutawakkil sternly put his\nfoot on it, and with it the Inquisition. This, however, was not an\nInquisition such as that of the Romish Church. In reality it was but a\ncouncil established with the object only of introducing rationalism\ninto the empire and to keep out reactionaries from the State Service. In\nother words, it was but a \u201cTest,\u201d which was promulgated and administered\non the same lines and principles as the Test Act in England. Is it wise\nthen for the statesmen of Europe to ignore such weighty facts? Would it\nnot be more politic on their part to take cognizance of them? It is on\nfacts such as these that European policy in its relationship to Islam\nshould be based. It is only by making the study of universal history a\nscience that the politician can ever hope to become a statesman. This\nmeans a thorough and comprehensive grasp of ancient as well as modern\nhistory. Such a grasp alone will enable him to look into the future and\nshape his policy. But to do so without a complete knowledge of Islam\u2019s\nhistory in the past, and the manifest part she has yet to play in the\nhistory of the future, is to show an utter ignorance of statecraft, but\nespecially of that wider sphere of \u201cwelt politik\u201d which bears the same\nanalogy to the former as, in military parlance, strategy does to\ntactics. These shapers of the destinies of their various nations must\nremember that Islam has done for the East, or rather for the world of\npolygamy, what Christendom has done for the West or world of monogamy.\nShe has uplifted millions upon millions of human beings from a much\nlower to a far higher scale of civilization. In Africa and in Asia she\nhas purified the primitive cults of their sacrificial abominations, has\nintroduced a better and humaner legislation, has encouraged commerce and\nindustries and established a more stable form of government. Finally,\nshe has exalted the supreme God, whose worship had practically fallen\ninto abeyance, to a pinnacle of solitary grandeur, and in this way\nuplifted the people into a far higher moral and spiritual atmosphere. To\nquote Stanley Lane Poole, she has given them \u201ca form of pure theism,\nsimpler and more austere than the theism of most forms of Christianity,\nlofty in its conception of the relation of man to God, and noble in its\ndoctrine of the duty of man to man, and of man to the lower creation.\u201d\nIslam, in fact, has done a great work. She has left a mark on the pages\nof human history which is indelible, that can never be effaced--that\nonly when the world grows wiser will be acknowledged in full--in other\nwords, when the sun of knowledge shall have dispelled the black clouds\nof ignorance. But Islam is still doing, and will continue to do, the\ngreat work that her founder initiated. This is a work that Christianity\ncan never do. Islam too has a mission. But her mission is in quite\nanother sphere to that of Christendom. It is (and has for some time\nbeen) the preconceived opinion in Europe that the power and influence\nof Islam since the waning of her conquests have come to a standstill.\nThat morally and spiritually her influence is demoralizing and\ncorruptive--the bane, in a word, of those nations that she is\nproselytizing. But this is not so. Never was a greater and more\nunpardonable mistake made than this. An error rather than a mistake. The\nwish but prompts the thought. There is still much moral and spiritual\nvitality in Islam, therefore elasticity and power of expansion. In\nAfrica especially, among all the Bantu and negroid tribes whose\nsociology is patriarchal, there is a great work for her to do. These\npeoples by their whole social system and in every moral sense belong to\nthe sphere of Islam and not of Christendom.\n\nTo judge or even criticize Islam from a European standpoint is uneven.\nTo get her proper measure, Islam must be weighed from the aspect of the\nethnic basis upon which she rests. To compare one system by the standard\nof another, it is only possible to arrive at a distorted or unequal\nresult. Islam can no more be judged by modern commonplace methods than\nEurope can be judged on the same lines by Islam, or than Mohammed\nhimself whose splendid concept it was. The manners and morals of his own\ntime must also be taken into consideration. The two creeds of Islam and\nChristendom have been built on different bases, and constructed out of\ndifferent material. The God of one is the God of universal nature. The\nGod of the other is a triform Being--a metaphysical trinity in unity.\nSocially the Moslem is a polygamist, religiously he is an unitarian. The\nEuropean is just the opposite to this. Socially he is a monogamist,\nreligiously he is a trinitarian. In a word, the system of these two\ngreat human divisions differ as much from each other as their foot gear.\nThat of the Moslem again conforms to nature. That is, his shoe is made\nto fit the foot, which narrows at the heel, and splays out at the toes.\nIn Europe, on the contrary, the foot is made to fit the shoe, which,\nwide at the heel, narrows into a point at the toes. How is it possible\nthen for two such widely divergent systems to agree?\n\nBut at least they can agree to differ. At least there is one broad base\nupon which they can meet. On the grounds of a common humanity, on the\ngrounds of a common sympathy, by a common birth and a common death they\nare equal. It is not for Christendom to hang back. Islam is quite ready\nto meet her more than half-way. From the superior vantage ground of her\nposition, it is for her to hold out the right hand of fellowship. It is\nfor her to recognize the real worth of Islam. It is for her to respect\nnot to contemn her great coadjutor. For her to regard Islam, not as a\nfoe or even a rival, so much as a great and worthy co-partner with her,\nin the work of civilization. From this reasonable and rational\nstandpoint the sphere of Islam\u2019s influence should be wisely left alone.\nFor the enforcement of Christianity on races such as those of Africa,\nfor instance, whose system is patriarchal, can only end, as it has\nalready done, in their utter denationalization and hybridization. To\nEuropeanize and turn into Christians these sons of nature merely for the\nmotive of gaining converts is impolitic, if not immoral. It but makes\nhuman mules of them. Wiser far to let them remain as they are. As well\ntry to turn camelopards into crocodiles or pythons into hippos, as\nconvert Africans into Europeans. Islam attempts nothing unnatural of\nthis kind--nothing that is opposed to ethnic conditions and sociological\nusages. In her case she but develops the lama into the camel.\n\nIt is impossible, fatuous in fact, to ignore or even overlook the basic\nimportance of physical environment. Even science in this respect has\nbeen backward, and very slowly recognized that geography is obviously\nand essentially the basis of all history--i.e. of all human action and\ndevelopment. The importance of climate and climatic changes on the\nhabits, customs, temperament and character of races, has never been\nclearly and thoroughly realized. Not until this has been estimated and\nappreciated at its true value, will it be possible for reason to\noverride the dogmas and bigotries of short-sighted and prejudiced\ntheology. But the day is fast approaching when this fact must be\nacknowledged as a universal truth. Then only will Islam and other creeds\nbe appraised from an even and rational standpoint.\n\nEven admitting that Islam has receded from Mohammed\u2019s moral and\nspiritual high water mark, this is all the more reason why the statesmen\nof Europe should stretch out a helping hand to assist in raising her to\nher former level. All the more reason why they should encourage and\nstimulate her to higher aims and endeavours. This assuredly would be a\nmore dignified and statesmanlike proceeding than that which, if it does\nnot sanction, at all events permits the good name and fame of Islam to\nbe smirched with contumely, and to be held up before the world as a\nstanding menace to civilization. A course such as I have suggested, is\nmuch more likely to bring about a better understanding and preparation\ntowards any possible fusion. On the other hand, the present propaganda\nof active theological aggression and political indifference, is bound to\nmake the breach wider than ever with the ultimate certainty of\ndisruption. In face of such a climax there is but this one remedy. As a\nmoral and spiritual factor in the regeneration of humanity, Islam is\nindispensable. In her own sphere she must not be interfered with. The\ngood of humanity is a higher cause to work for than the mere\nglorification of creed and sect. The cause of humanity strikes wider,\ndeeper and higher than that of any creed or denomination. By working\ntowards this end, by sinking denominational differences in the common\nstock-pot of humanity, the world at large and civilization in particular\nwill in the end gain ever so much more.\n\nIn speaking of Islam and of Moslems as I have done, I have spoken of\nthem as I have found them. Apart from a careful study of the Koran, my\nknowledge of both is based on personal facts and experiences as varied\nas they are extensive. In every clime and under a variety of conditions,\nI have been in touch with Moslems of all classes and shades, and have\nalways found them animated by the same spirit--for race or colour makes\nno difference to the spirit of Islam. Always consistent and devout,\nalways God-fearing and sincere as regards their Faith. Before all things\nreligious, their cult, the creed of Mohammed--i.e. El Islam or\nself-surrender. Afghan, Arab, Baluchi, Hindustani, Somali, Turk,\nEgyptian, Hadendowa, Berber, Senegalese, Fulani, Hausa, Yoruba,\nMandingo, Malay, I have found them in the main Islamic to the very\ncore. In peace or war, in camp and cantonment, working and fighting with\nor against them, my experience of their moral consistency and spiritual\nstamina has been the same. Brave to a fault, endowed with the reckless\ncourage of the Fatalist, fearless and contemptuous of death, their\nfidelity to their Faith, their belief in the greatness of Mohammed, and\ntheir veneration of God, is a something that once it is rightly\nunderstood, can only be respected and appreciated at its true value. For\nmy part, seeing as I have their splendid heroism in their own cause, and\ntheir touching devotion to those whose salt they have eaten, my feelings\ntowards them is not only one of unmixed admiration and respect, but also\nof deep esteem and regard. Such men are worthy of Islam, as Islam indeed\nis worthy of them. Only the soul--the moral and spiritual essence--of\nIslam could have made them what they are, could have turned out of the\ndregs of barbarism a human material so truly splendid.\n\nWith experience and facts such as these before me, I for one find it\nimpossible to forget, and only natural to acknowledge with candour, the\ngreat and magnificent part that Islam has occupied in the history of the\nworld. In the intellectual strife of heroes who have wrestled and fought\nfor the truth and who for many centuries led the world, in the arena of\nbattle and of conquest where warriors have led the van, the sons of\nIslam stand on a pedestal of their own making, that as the world grows\nolder and more enlightened, will stand out in all the greater\nprominence. Stand out as men who have taken as great and heroic though\nnot so sustained a part on the stage of universal history as the giants\nand heroes of Christendom.\n\nEven in a study of this length it is in reality impossible to deal\nexhaustively with a question so wide and extensive as this, which\nrequires a large volume to itself. But I have said enough, I trust, to\nshow that the value of Islam as a moral and spiritual factor in the\ncivilization of the world is very considerable. I hope too that to all\nwho are reasonable and rational in their views, I have shown, as clearly\nand as concisely as it is possible to do within such narrow limits, that\nthe so-called \u201c_Moslem menace_\u201d is but the wraith of an over-heated\nimagination--the bogie conjured up by a hectoring and arrogant\ntheocracy, backed up, unfortunately, by an indiscreet and tactless\nPress, ever ready to exaggerate any piece of cheap claptrap into the\nsensation of the moment. Always eager to lift up even garbage such as\nthis to the higher level of dramatic denouements, by giving undue\nprominence to the unreliable froth and effervescence of irresponsible\nand excitable cranks. In a word, by a process of moral aggravation that\nis unworthy a great and liberal Press.\n\nFinally, I have endeavoured to make it clear, that apart from motives of\nhonour and high principles and consistent with the dignity of the great\nAryan family, Europe should adopt towards Islam a policy of conciliation\nand co-operation: if for nothing else, to avoid being hoisted by her own\novercharged and explosive petard. If I have done but this, then at least\nmy labour shall not have been in vain.\n\n[Decoration]\n\n\n\n\nISLAM--CORRIGENDA.\n\n\nP. 8, Foreword. In lines 3 and 2 from bottom, _united_ should read\n_suited_.\n\nOn p. 57, line just above quotation, _could be still:_ should read\n_could be: still--_\n\nP. 87. In line 3 from bottom, _an an alysis of_ should read _an analysis\nof_.\n\n\n\n\nLiscard Commercial and Collegiate Schools,\n\n_Liscard, Cheshire_.\n\n\nThese Schools, which are highly recommended by Major A. G. LEONARD,\ndifferentiate in the teaching given to their Senior boys, there being\nthree courses to meet the requirements of those destined for (A)\nCommerce, (B) the Professions or the University, (C) Engineering, etc.\n\nThis Advertisement is inserted in the hope of securing as private\nboarders a limited number of European, Asiatic, or African pupils whose\nparents wish them to be educated in England. Such parents may rely on\nthe Headmaster\u2019s complete and sympathetic attention to their children.\n\nReferences given and required. All particulars will be furnished on\napplication to--\n\n    MR. W. P. HAMMERSLEY,\n\n    \u201c_Harbour View_,\u201d\n\n    Seabank Road, Liscard, Cheshire.\n\n\n\n\nPROVISIONS & OUTFIT\n\n\nGriffiths, McAlister & Co.,\n\n    EXPORT PROVISION MERCHANTS, Etc.,\n      29-31, Manesty\u2019s Lane, LIVERPOOL.\n        14, Billiter Street, LONDON, E.C.\n\n\nSuppliers of all kinds of Provisions, Camp Equipment, Medical Stores,\nWines, Spirits, and Mineral Waters, etc., for Exploring and Mining\nExpeditions; also for private use abroad.\n\nAll Goods suitably packed for Hot and Cold Climates, and made up in\nloads suitable for all modes of Transport.\n\n\n    CONTRACTORS TO THE CROWN AGENTS\n    FOR THE COLONIES.\n\n    _Suppliers to Lieut. Shackleton\u2019s Antarctic Expedition,\n    1907-1909._\n\n\n    Telegraphic Addresses:--\n      \u201cCOOMASSIE,\u201d LIVERPOOL.\n      \u201cAPPEASABLE,\u201d LONDON.\n\nCodes used--A, B, C, 4th and 5th Editions and Lieber\u2019s.\n\n\nESTABLISHED 1880.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber\u2019s Note\n\n\nItalics are indicated by underscores, _like this_.\n\nThe corrigenda were originally inserted before the Foreword; they have\nbeen implemented, and moved to the end of the text for reference.\n\nThe advertisements were originally printed on either side of the title\npage; they have been moved to the end of the text.\n\nThe following sentence, which seems to be missing one or more words, has\nbeen retained as printed:\n\n     Yet synchronous with this the man of ideas and ideals that he kept\n     to himself however; that he divulged to no one.\n\nBoth \u201chalf way\u201d and \u201chalf-way\u201d are used.\n\nThe following typographical errors and inconsistencies have been\ncorrected:\n\n    Title page:\n    _\u201cPersonal Law of the Mohammedans,\u201d etc_\n    changed to\n    _\u201cPersonal Law of the Mohammedans,\u201d etc._\n\n    Page 9:\n    South American Guacho is not\n    changed to\n    South American Gaucho is not\n\n    Page 9:\n    adapted for idealistic minds.\n    changed to\n    adapted for idealistic minds?\n\n    Page 27:\n    the orginator of a new\n    changed to\n    the originator of a new\n\n    Page 32:\n    (an under rather than an over-estimate)\n    changed to\n    (an under- rather than an over-estimate)\n\n    Page 33:\n    God\u2019s omnipresence and omipotence had made\n    changed to\n    God\u2019s omnipresence and omnipotence had made\n\n    Page 56:\n    each a mighty voice,\n    changed to\n    each a mighty voice,\u201d\n\n    Page 56:\n    blackness that prevades the very soul\n    changed to\n    blackness that pervades the very soul\n\n    Page 57:\n    grandeur and appaling sameness\n    changed to\n    grandeur and appalling sameness\n\n    Page 66:\n    truths are only found in the depths of the thought.\n    changed to\n    truths are only found in the depths of the thought.\u201d\n\n    Page 72:\n    were much in repute, when both,\n    changed to\n    were much in repute; when both,\n\n    Page 82:\n    secrets _of God_ neither do I say\n    changed to\n    secrets _of God_, neither do I say\n\n    Page 87:\n    to hurl inuendoes, anathemas\n    changed to\n    to hurl innuendoes, anathemas\n\n    Page 91:\n    known as Aeneas Sylvius (Pius Aeneas):\n    changed to\n    known as \u00c6neas Sylvius (Pius \u00c6neas):\n\n    Page 94:\n    the sacred reduit and rallying ground\n    changed to\n    the sacred r\u00e9duit and rallying ground\n\n    Page 96:\n    awakening of the spirit of commerce\n    changed to\n    awakening of the spirit of commerce.\n\n    Page 103:\n    I also will wait it with you.\n    changed to\n    I also will wait it with you.\u201d\n\n    Page 125:\n    Islam, in fact is above\n    changed to\n    Islam, in fact, is above\n\n    Page 130:\n    In a great measure pologamy is much more\n    changed to\n    In a great measure polygamy is much more\n\n    Page 134:\n    all the Mutalazite doctors\n    changed to\n    all the Mu\u2019tazilite doctors\n\n    Page 135:\n    that of the Mutalazite doctors\n    changed to\n    that of the Mu\u2019tazilite doctors\n\n    Page 139:\n    She is only too willing, all, in fact,\n    changed to\n    She is only too willing; all, in fact,\n\n    Page 146:\n    ascertain what is knowledge?\u201d\n    changed to\n    ascertain what is knowledge\u201d?\n\n    Page 147:\n    \u201cNewton, Bacon, Liebnitz, Montesquieu, and myself.\u201d\n    changed to\n    \u201cNewton, Bacon, Leibnitz, Montesquieu, and myself.\u201d\n\n    Page 156:\n    other creeds be apprised\n    changed to\n    other creeds be appraised\n\nAll other peculiarities and inconsistencies of spelling, punctuation and\ncapitalisation have been retained as printed.","title":"Islam, Her Moral And Spiritual Value: A Rational And Pyschological Study","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":34576}