Mohammed, The Prophet of Islam Part 1

Mohammed, The Prophet of Islam.

by H. E. E. Hayes.

PREFACE.

So-called Moslem missionaries are spreading through the Press such idealistic and false views of the religion and character of Mohammed, that we need to be on our guard against them.

Unbiased historians have stated that there is much that is deplorable in the life of the prophet of Islam. And it is certain that his teaching has increased the degradation of the nations that have come under its influence.

Much of the literature that is being circulated in England by the "Moslem missionaries," claims that Moslem women are better off, so far as property rights go, than their Christian sisters. However true this may be, it does not lift them out of the degradation of polygamy and concubinage, with a capricious system of divorce, which makes them the victims of the selfish baseness of their husbands and masters, which Mohammed himself sanctioned.

The following essay, it is hoped, will help to counteract the false ideas that are being scattered abroad, and lead those who read to study more deeply the problems and sorrows of millions of the Moslem subjects of our Gracious King.

The prayers of all Christians are asked on behalf of these millions, and for those who labour to preach the "unsearchable riches of Christ"

amongst them.

H.E.E. HAYES.

GREENHITHE:

July, 1914.

INTRODUCTION.

Just as the character of Jesus is stamped upon the religion which originated in His Person, so is the character of Mohammed impressed upon the system which he, with marvellous ingenuity, founded. The practical influence of Islam upon individual lives produces results that reflect unmistakably the character of its founder, and a careful study of the tenets of the system in relation to its history enable the student to estimate the real worth of the man.

As the Apostle of G.o.d, Mohammed is the ideal of every true Moslem. His life is the standard by which the lives of his followers are tested, although he himself confesses that his life was not holy. In the Koran, and the earlier traditions, he is pictured as being in no way better than his fellows, and as weak and liable to error as the poorest of his contemporaries. Yet later tradition minimises his faults and weakness, and surrounds his person with a halo of glory that makes him appear sinless and almost divine. All the doubtful incidents of his life are either eliminated and ignored, or a.s.siduously supported and defended by his pious, misguided followers.

It is a point in his favour that he never claimed infallibility for his actions or opinions; and his habit of attempting to cover or justify his glaring faults by suitable revelations, although indefensibly immoral, reveals the fact that he was conscious of his own shortcomings. When he was at the zenith of his power, "revelation"

became merely an instrument of self glorification, licensing him in every whim and fancy, because it gave him, as the prophet of G.o.d, exemption from all law and order. His scheme was characteristically ingenious and immoral. Had he known of the divine effulgence with which he was afterwards encircled by his fanatical followers, he would, in all probability, have strongly discountenanced it. The incongruous sanct.i.ty with which his commonplace utterances and petty actions were invested would have caused fear lest it became derogatory to his creed of divine unity.

TRADITION.

As a source of information, the traditions are obviously unreliable, for they are coloured by the excessive zeal and irrational bias of men whose judgment was warped by irrepressible fanaticism. They attributed to their hero elements that are grotesquely impossible. His advent was in their estimation, so portentous that it was celebrated by events which, for the time, upset all natural law. And his whole life has been linked with miraculous happenings of a most ludicrous type. More reasonable men have exalted the prophet because they have convinced themselves that he was what he ought to have been. This may account for the pious confidence of some of the more intelligent, who, accepting tradition as historical, have exalted their hero to the ideal, and have received the imagined glory as real. This tendency to exalt their master is well ill.u.s.trated by the maxim of Shafy--"In the exaltation of Mohammed it is lawful to exaggerate"--a maxim invaluable to men who were seeking to glorify the prophet, and the usefulness of which was fully appreciated by the legislators and doctors when they were called upon to cope with the new relations and exigencies that came into being after his death. The conquests and progress of Islam necessitated almost daily the framing of new rules, while in the application of the old, constant modification and adaptation were required. To meet these needs, actual or supposed sayings and actions of the prophet were eagerly sought after, and, in time, with the growth of a professional body of traditionalists, all legitimate sources being exhausted, that which was doubtful, and even disputed, was accepted as authentic and reliable. Imagination augmented the legitimate springs of information, and the result was an exhaustive acc.u.mulation of precedents for every possible circ.u.mstance.

Sprenger, in his essay on "Tradition," regarding the value and nature of the material needed for compiling a life of Mohammed, says:

"During the stir and activity of the first sixty years, thousands and thousands occupied themselves with handing down traditions. In every mosque they committed them to memory, and rehea.r.s.ed them in every social gathering. All such knowledge was the common property of the nation; it was learned by heart and transmitted orally. It possessed, therefore, in the highest possible degree, the elements of life and plasticity. Bunson has discovered the divinity of the Bible in its always having been the people's book. If this criterion be decisive, then no religion has better claim to be called the 'vox Dei,' because none is in so full a sense the 'vox populi.' The creations of the period we have been considering possess this character for hundreds of millions of our fellow men; for modern Islamism is as far removed from the spirit in which the Coran was composed, as Catholicism is from the spirit of the Gospel; and modern Islamism is grounded upon tradition. But in tradition we find nothing but the Ideal, Invention, Fancy, Historical facts, however they may have been floating among the people in the days if Ibn 'Abbas, and the other founders of genealogy, were trodden under feet, because men wished to remove every barrier which stood in the way of self-glorification. And of the thousand inventions which every day gave birth to, only those were recognised as true which most flattered the religious and national pride ..."

He also goes on to say:

"The time of creative activity, the gestation era of Moslem knowledge, pa.s.sed away. Hajjaj choked the young life in its own blood, and the Abbaside dynasty, with kingly patriotism, sold the dearly-bought conquests of the nation, first to the Persians, and then to Turkish slaves, with the view of procuring an imaginary security for their throne. And thus there arose for the spiritual life also a new period. Already Wackidi had begun to work up into shape the ma.s.s of his traditionary stores, and busy himself in the department of scholastic industry. In the schools one could as little affect now the material tradition, or alter its nature, as attempt to change the organism of the new-born child. However arbitrary might be the invention of the 'Miraj' (Mahomed's heavenly journey), and other fabrications of the first century, they still formed in this way the positive element and soul of religious, political and social life. The schools, as always, confined their exertions to collecting, comparing, abbreviating, systematising, and commenting. The material was altogether divine; and any unprejudiced historical inquiry, any simple and natural interpretation of the Coran, any free judgment on tradition or its origin, was condemned as apostasy. The only task that remained was to work up, in scholastic form, the existing material; and in this way was developed a literature of boundless dimensions, which yet at bottom possessed nothing real. The whole spiritual activity of the Mohamedans, from the time of the prophet to the present day, is a dream; but it is a dream in which a large portion of the human race have lived; and it has all the interest which things relating to mankind always possess for man."

Sir William Muir agrees with these views, subject to two considerations. He says:--

"The tendency to glorify Mohammed and the reciters of the traditions was considerably modified by the mortal strife which characterised the factions that opposed one another at the period, where, in attempting to depreciate one another, they would not be averse to perpetuating traditions in support of their contentions; such partisanship secured no insignificant body of historical fact, which otherwise would have been lost."

He also points out that in a state of society circ.u.mscribed and dwarfed by the powerful Islamic system, which proscribed the free exercise of thought and discussion, tradition can scarcely be said to be the "vox populi." The growth and development of tradition, the flagrant distortion of historical fact, the ethical code of Islam, may well give rise to a questioning of the validity of the prophet's arrogant claims, and by their very methods of defence the apologists of Islam exhibit its weakness and inadequacy to meet the religious needs of man. The natural bias of Mohammed is evident throughout the Coran. His conceptions of G.o.d, of the future life, and of the duty of man, are all influenced by his consuming master pa.s.sion. In all his writings there are lacking those characteristics which distinguish the true prophet--the messenger of G.o.d--from those to whom he is sent.

This will be apparent by contrasting his views with those of any of the Old Testament prophets. They were eminently men prepared for their high calling by lofty yet practical communion with G.o.d--men whose message was inspired by a vision of Divine Majesty, and an impressive conception of the justice and awful purity of Jehovah. Men who called the nation to righteousness of life by a stirring appeal to conscience, and an unfaltering denunciation of the evils of the time.

Their spiritual aspirations, therefore, by far surpa.s.s the loftiest ideals of the prophet of Islam, while their ethical conceptions infinitely transcend all that Mohammed dreamed of. The voice of the Eternal is clearly heard in the earnest utterances that fell from their lips, and through all their prophecies the willingness of Divine Mercy to reason with men in spite of their erring ways, is apparent.

Three characteristic elements are perceived in their preaching--a very keen and practical conscience of sin; an overpowering vision of G.o.d; and a very sharp perception of the politics of their day. Of these elements, Mohammed's teaching possesses only the last.

MOHAMMED'S CONCEPTION OF G.o.d

His conception of G.o.d is essentially deistical. The intimate personal communion, so characteristic of the Old Testament, is unknown and unrealised: hence there is little, if anything, in his system that tends to draw men nigh to G.o.d. Attempts to remedy this characteristic defect have been vainly made by the dervish orders, which, while acknowledging the claims of Mohammed and his book, have introduced methods not sanctioned by the system, by which they attempt to find the communion with the Unseen, for which their souls crave. These methods are very much akin to the efforts of the devotees of Hinduism.

There is, therefore, lacking amongst Moslems that need which grows out of personal relationship with the Divine--that need which leads to moral transformation and spiritual intensity on the part of those who enjoy such fellowship. The Creator exists apart from His handiwork. He has predetermined the actions of men. They are destined to eternal bliss or destruction by an Inflexible Will, so that there is no need for Divine Interference in their affairs. "G.o.d is in His heaven, and the world is working out its end according to His unalterable decree."

Because of this gross conception, Palgrave has designated the system "The Pantheism of Force," and says:

"Immeasurably and eternally exalted above, and dissimilar from all creatures, which he levelled before Him on one common plane of instrumentality and inertness, G.o.d is One in the totality of omnipotent and omnipresent action, which acknowledges no rule, standard or limit, save His own sole and absolute will. He communicates nothing to His creatures, for their seeming power and act ever remain His alone, and in return He receives nothing from them; for whatever they may be, that they are in Him, by Him, and from Him only. And, secondly, no superiority, no distinction, no pre-eminence, can be lawfully claimed by one creature ever its fellow, in the utter equalisation of their unexceptional servitude and abas.e.m.e.nt; all are alike tools of the one solitary Force which employs them to crush or to benefit, to truth or to error, to honour or shame, to happiness or misery, quite independently of their individual fitness, deserts, or advantages, and simply because 'He wills it,' and 'as He wills it ...'

"One might at first sight think that this tremendous Autocrat, this uncontrolled and unsympathising Power, would be far above anything like pa.s.sions, desires, or inclinations. Yet such is not the case, for He has, with respect to His creatures, one main feeling and source of action, namely, jealousy of them, lest they should perchance attribute to themselves something of what is His alone, and thus encroach on His all engrossing kingdom. Hence He is ever more p.r.o.ne to punish than to reward; to inflict pain than to bestow pleasure; to ruin than to build. It is His singular satisfaction to let created beings continually feel that they are nothing else than His slaves, His tools, and contemptible tools also; that thus they may the better acknowledge His superiority, and know His power to be above their power, His cunning above their cunning, His will above their will, His pride above their pride--or, rather, that there is no power, cunning, will, or pride save His own.

"But He Himself, sterile in His inaccessible height, neither loving nor enjoying aught save His own and self-measured decree, without son, companion, or counsellor, is no less barren of Himself than for His creatures, and His own barrenness and lone egoism in Himself is the cause and rule of His indifferent and unregarding despotism around. The first note is the key of the whole tune, and the primal idea of G.o.d runs through and modifies the whole system and creed that centres in Him."

Contrast this summary with the teaching of the Old Testament prophets, the following quotations of which are but a small sample:--

"Come, now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

"Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your G.o.d. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned."

"The spirit of the Lord G.o.d is upon me: because the Lord has anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound, etc."

"As one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you, saith the Lord."

"Who is a G.o.d like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and pa.s.seth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger for ever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again; He will have compa.s.sion upon us. He will subdue our iniquities; and Thou wilt cast all our sins into the depths of the sea."

"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy G.o.d."

"The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knoweth them that trust in Him."

In the light of such lofty teaching, the conceptions of Mohammed appear gross and degraded. His asceticism and contemplation never brought him a vision of G.o.d that overwhelmed him and purified as by fire. He knew the Creator only from what he heard from the lips of sinful, ignorant men, whose ideas of Deity were base and ign.o.ble.

These ideas, and the pa.s.sions that made up such a large portion of his life, obscured his vision, warped his judgment, and led him to postulate a G.o.d that inhabited not a Holy Spiritual Realm, but a grossly carnal and sensuous paradise.

Millions have been brought beneath his sway because his system panders to the natural inclinations of man. Spiritual insight is blinded by carnal desire; conduct is influenced by unbridled license; bigotry and hatred are fostered by his policy of intoleration; and his followers are enslaved by a tyranny that blights the reason, because it discountenances inquiry, and places an insurmountable barrier in the way of all human progress.