Two Old Faiths Part 10

[13] The meaning of the term is not quite certain. _Sessions_, or _Instructions_, may perhaps be the rendering. So Monier Williams.

[14] For example, Wordsworth:

"Thou, Thou alone Art everlasting, and the blessed Spirits Which Thou includest, as the sea her waves."

--_Excursion_, book iv.

[15] Or, the thing that really is--the [Greek: ontos on].

[16] _Ekamadvitiyam._

[17] This ill.u.s.tration is in the mouth of every Hindu disputant at the present day.

[18] Barth, p. 75.

[19] _Ekamadvitiyam._

[20]

Volui tibi suaviloquenti Carmine Pierio rationem exponere nostram Et quasi Musaeo dulci contingere melle.

[21] Dr. J. Muir, in _North British Review_, No. xlix, p. 224.

[22] _Miscellaneous Writings_ (Macmillan, 1861), vol. i, p.

77.

[23] But the truth is that every man is accounted a good Hindu who keeps the rules of caste and pays due respect to the Brahmans. What he believes, or disbelieves, is of little or no consequence.

[24] Yaska, probably in the fifth century B.C.

[25] Weber thinks that Christian elements may have been introduced, in course of time, into the representation.

[26] His Ramayana was written in Hindi verse in the sixteenth century.

[27] When Jhansi was captured in the times of the great mutiny English officers were disgusted to see the walls of the queen's palace covered with what they described as "grossly obscene" pictures. There is little or no doubt that these were simply representations of the acts of Krishna. Therefore to the Hindu queen they were religious pictures. When questioned about such things the Brahmans reply that deeds which would be wicked in men were quite right in Krishna, who, being G.o.d, could do whatever he pleased.

[28] Born probably in 1649.

[29] Raja Narayan Basu (Bose), in enumerating the sacred books of Hinduism, excluded the philosophical systems and included the Tantras. He was and, we believe, is a leading man in the Adi Brahma Somaj.

[30] Barth, as above, p. 202.

[31] So writes Vans Kennedy, a good authority. The rites, however, vary with varying places.

[32] _Asiatic Researches_, v, p. 356.

[33] Cicero.

[34] We learned from his own lips that among the books which most deeply impressed him were the Bible and the writings of Dr.

Chalmers.

[35] See _Life of Mohammed_, p. 138. Smith & Elder.

[36] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 172, where the results are compared.

[37] _Life of Mohammed_, p. 341; Sura ii, 257; xxix, 46.

[38] The only exceptions were the Jews of Kheibar and the Christians of Najran, who were permitted to continue in the profession of their faith. They were, however, forced by Omar to quit the peninsula, which thenceforward remained exclusively Mohammedan.

"Islam" is a synonym for the Mussulman faith. Its original meaning is "surrender" of one's self to G.o.d.

[39] _Apology of Al Kindy, the Christian_, p. 18. Smith & Elder, 1882. This remarkable apologist will be noticed further below.

[40] Princ.i.p.al Fairbairn: "The Primitive Polity of Islam,"

_Contemporary Review_, December, 1882, pp. 866, 867.

[41] Herr von Kremer, _Culturgeschichte des Orients_, unter den Chalifen, vol. i, p. 383.

[42] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 9. Smith & Elder, 1883.

[43] Gibbon's _Decline and Fall_, chapter li, and _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 184.

[44] _Ibid._; and Sura xliv, v. 25. _We_--that is, the Lord.

[45] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 46.

[46] See, for example, Sura lxxviii: "Verily for the pious there is a blissful abode: gardens and vineyards; and damsels with swelling bosoms, of a fitting age; and a full cup. Lovely large-eyed girls, like pearls hidden in their sh.e.l.ls, a reward for that which the faithful shall have wrought. Verily We have created them of a rare creation, virgins, young and fascinating.... Modest damsels averting their eyes, whom no man shall have known before, nor any Jinn," etc.

The reader will not fail to be struck by the materialistic character of Mohammed's paradise.

[47] See Sura _Jehad_; also _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p.

167, _et. seq._

[48] _Annals of the Early Caliphate_, p. 105, _et. seq._

[49] See _Annals_, etc., p. 253.

[50] Sura ix, v. 30.

[51] So Jews and Christians as possessing the Bible are named in the Koran.

[52] See _Annals_, etc., p. 213.

[53] _The Apology of Al Kindy_, written at the court of Al Mamun A.H. 215 (A.D. 830), with an essay on its age and authorship, p.

12. Smith & Elder, 1882.

[54] _Ibid._, p. 34.

[55] _Apology_, p. 47, _et. seq._