Islam Her Moral And Spiritual Value Part 2

"Alone, alone, all all alone, Alone on a wide wide sea!"

No mere saint, but G.o.d Himself, "took pity on" his "soul in agony." He was not alone, for G.o.d was with him. This self-communion of Mohammed with his thoughts, was to him none other than communion with G.o.d, because his thoughts were concentrated on Him with all the soul and strength he was humanly capable of.

The power of persuasion does not always lie in the flow and eloquence of speech. The strongest are often the most silent. G.o.d never speaks but in the still small voice of consciousness, that comes to every man in the dark watches of the night, when the hum and movement of life is hushed into the silence of sleep!

Solitude, too, that twin-sister of Silence, "though," as De Quincey says, "it may be silent as light, is, like light, the mightiest of agencies; for solitude is essential to man." But if essential to the ordinary man, it is as the breath of life to men of G.o.d and prophets.

Solitude, in fact, sinks deep into a pure and simple nature, and changes him in a great measure. Unconsciously it intensifies him to a superlative degree, and inspires him with an awe of itself that becomes sacred to him. Within himself the recluse feels weak, unstable and inconsistent. Without he is strong in the consciousness of the omnipotence and supremacy of the Infinite. "Solitude generates a certain amount of sublime exaltation. It is like the smoke arising from the burning bush. A mysterious lucidity of mind results, which converts the student into the seer, and the poet into a prophet." In a word, there is an enthusiasm, an influence, and a power in solitude that the civilized man, or the man who has never been subjected to it, cannot form the slightest or faintest conception of. For the silence of solitude and the solitude of silence is a state (common to all primitive people) in which the being believes himself to be not only "p????? ?e??," i.e.

full of G.o.d, but that the G.o.d predominates. Hence the enthusiasm, the rapture, and the power to divine and speak in divers tongues.

Surely, if ever man was in deadly earnest, this faithful son of Arabia was. If ever man opened his heart and soul to the Father and Mother of all things, this Mohammed, the merchant, did. Truly if ever the great Author of our being responded to a soul in silent agony, i.e. in conflict, in a struggle for victory, it was to this great descendant of the bond-woman Hagar! For in Islam, and the soul of Islam, such as he inculcated, the victory was greater than any Marathon or Thermopylae.

CHAPTER IV

MOHAMMED'S PRINCIPLES AND BELIEFS

Mohammed, as I have more than once said, was all for unity and cohesion, therefore against division and disintegration of any kind. Concentration was as the breath of life to him. Dissension a deadly evil. In his scheme of religion and politics there was no place for schism. Schism meant discord, and discord the devil. To him discord was as Ate, the mother of dissension. He recognized, as Spenser evidently did, that "discord harder is to end than to begin":

"For all her studie was, and all her thought, How she might overthrow the things that concord wrought."

And above all things, this Statesman Prophet was the essence and personification of centralization and concord. For unity alone rendered Islam feasible. Thus in the second Surah he insists that mankind was of one faith from the beginning. Thus too as a just, faithful and consistent man, he is opposed to violence and taking the offensive, even in the name and under the cloak of religion; he constantly advocates and authorizes (that is, has G.o.d's authority for) the defensive. He even recommends, at the same time that he excuses, war and retaliation on the unbeliever and infidel. On the whole, however, I am bound to admit that Mohammed disapproves of and discountenances violence in religion. He, in fact, distinctly forbids his followers from enforcing it. Their own persecution was to be met by patience. Apostates and unbelievers were to be given time meet for repentance. Yet to him, fanatic as he was with regard to religion, Islam was the only true Faith, the covenant, the sure ark of G.o.d that alone could secure salvation. Of this and of G.o.d he was no more than an Apostle--i.e. a messenger; also an expounder--but as such he obviously tried to live up to his name of Faithful. This speaks volumes for his toleration and humanity in an age when neither one nor the other of these attributes were much in repute; when both, in fact, were at a low ebb. Yet it shows us how intensely human the Prophet was.

A man of great patience, prudence and trustworthiness, of retentive memory, strong character, and with the disposition of a judge--a very commander of men. Thus he acknowledges the divinity of G.o.d in forgiving, and the humanity of man in demanding reparation and rest.i.tution. Here the moral excellence of Mohammed s.h.i.+nes out as a brilliant. In Surah xiv., "a grievous punishment is _prepared_ for the unjust. But they who shall have believed and wrought righteousness, shall be introduced into gardens, wherein rivers flow; they shall remain therein _for ever_ by the permission of their Lord, and their salutation therein _shall be_ Peace." From this and many other similar pa.s.sages, it would seem that Mohammed, by his constant reiteration of _Promises_ and _Threats_, by his determined insistence thereon, hoped ultimately to convince even his enemies of his sincerity also of the fact that Islam, as the creed of the one and only G.o.d, was the true Faith. Again in this pa.s.sage (Surah vi.), "G.o.d causeth the grain and the date-stone to put forth, He bringeth forth the living from the dead, and He bringeth forth the dead from the living. This is G.o.d," etc., etc.; we get a clear insight into the intensity and comprehensiveness of the divine conception as it appeared to him. A little further on in the same pa.s.sage he speaks of G.o.d as "He who hath produced you from one soul; and hath provided for you a sure receptacle and a repository," namely in the loins of your fathers, and the womb of your mothers--one of those gleams of pantheism that I have already alluded to.

But of all the pa.s.sages in the Koran, the following is, in many ways, one of the most significant: "Whatever good befalleth thee, O man, it is from G.o.d; and whatever evil befalleth thee, it is from thyself." It is obvious from this that the prophet believed evil to be a human weakness with man as an active and self-willed agent. Sale in a note thereon says: "These words are not to be understood as contradicting the preceding verse, that all is from G.o.d, since the evil that befalls mankind, though ordered by G.o.d, is yet the consequence of their own wicked actions." But as Mohammed regarded the sublime divinity of G.o.d, it would be more accurate to interpret the _evil_ not as being ordained or even sanctioned by G.o.d, but as being permitted, or rather not prevented by Him as a thing inevitable. To him the purity, sanct.i.ty and inviolability of G.o.d was of such vast moment, that it was unjust--a mortal sin--to devise even a lie against Him. "And who is more unjust than he who deviseth a lie against G.o.d, that he may seduce men without understanding?" The frequent repet.i.tion of this and other like pa.s.sages is significant of Mohammed's sincerity, also of his moral persistence and tenacity. It was from his point of view bad enough to have doubt thrown on the authenticity of his mission. This he could to some extent put up with. But it was as naught compared to the reflection, the crime of perjury committed against the Almighty. To cast a slur on His holiness in this audacious way, was nothing short of blasphemy, a crime worthy of eternal h.e.l.l fire and d.a.m.nation. Few men in the world's history were as loyal to their G.o.d as this grim but faithful product of Arabia the Stony. In this respect, and particularly with regard to the depth and intensity of their religious zeal and fervour, there was a strong resemblance between Cromwell and Mohammed. To both of these moral ironsides, those who did not believe as they believed were unbelievers, and as such outside the pale of G.o.d's mercy. For believers, however, nothing was too good. To such an extent did these principles influence the latter, that he even went so far as to promise that all grudges should be removed from the minds of the faithful. Here again we have evidence of Mohammed's unquestionable humanity; also of civilization to a marked degree. For a grudge, although fundamentally and characteristically human, was at the same time, and still is among the Bedawins, a peculiarly Arabian idiosyncrasy; a.s.sociated as it was, and often culminating as it did, in acts of vengeance identical to the Corsican vendetta, "the terrible blood feud which even the most reckless fear for their posterity."

In spite, however, of his eagerness and zeal for conversion, consistent as this was with his idea of national autonomy, in nothing did Mohammed show his sincerity so much as in his thoroughness and honesty. He was nothing if not thorough. The long and arduous probation he pa.s.sed through in preparing and fitting himself for his mission--the mental concentration, the wrestlings with all that is evil and inexorable in man's nature, the night watches, the agonies, the communings with G.o.d--all go to prove this. And if to be outspoken and candid is honesty, then indeed no one has surpa.s.sed him in that respect. In his eyes a true disciple of Islam meant a man who lived and acted up to the tenets and principles of its faith. For instance, with him there was no such fiasco as a death-bed repentance. "But no repentance _shall be accepted_ from those who do evil until _the time_ when death presenteth itself unto one of them, _and he_ saith verily I repent now; nor unto those who die unbelievers: for them have we prepared a grievous punishment." Such an act was wholly repugnant to the fine sense of equity and justice that he possessed, advocating as he so strenuously did the use of "a full measure and just balance." As one who had given practically his whole life to the service and adoration of G.o.d, his soul rose in revolt and abhorred so vile a subterfuge. It was adding insult to injury. A mere sneaking stratagem of priestly artifice, held out as an alluring but offensive bait. A despicable and devilish cunning on the part of the unbeliever, who would endeavour to throw dust into the sun-piercing vision of the Most High, all unconscious of the thinness and transparency of his device and of G.o.d's searching penetration, that could pierce through all eternity even unto the uttermost ends of His mighty universe! To serve mammon a lifetime, and then at the last moment, when on the brink of death's unending precipice, to turn to G.o.d and expect to reap the same reward of eternal bliss as the whole-hearted believer who has given all or a great part of his life to G.o.d's service, was impossible. The very thought of it was monstrous. The choice lay with the ego himself! Evil was his own doing! Good also lay within his reach. It was in a great measure a matter of choice. Every man was more or less responsible for his own undoing. To a life of evil, a death-bed repentance was not capable of producing more than its own equivalent of happiness, i.e. the merest possible fragment. This was in accordance with G.o.d's principle of the scales of justice and an even balance. Yet Mohammed was not against repentance and contrition when sincere and made in due and proper time. Over and over again he holds out the olive branch, and reiterates the forgiveness and mercy of G.o.d, as attributes that belonged to Him alone. Mercy, indeed, was not so much an _attribute_ as a _monopoly_. "He hath prescribed unto Himself mercy," as compatible with the fact that He was the final Court of Appeal. However adversely the theologian may criticize this from the modern Christian standpoint, it is clear and direct proof of Mohammed's whole-hearted sincerity. Further it is equally direct and tangible evidence of the ardour and zeal that was in him as a prophet and reformer.

G.o.d, with all His sternness and inflexibility, as He appeared to Mohammed, was just and merciful. A strict comparison between Yahveh and Allah certainly inclines the balance in favour of the latter. Jehovah at His best was a G.o.d of blood and vengeance, at His worst a voracious monster. In Allah, stern and avenging G.o.d as He was, there was at least compa.s.sion and mercy and forgiveness. He was not inexorable. He would listen to reason. Mohammed himself was a distinct advance on the founder of the ancient Jewish faith. He was more humane, a man of broader and deeper sympathies. Stern and hard to a degree where G.o.d and the Faith was concerned; where men, but especially women and children, were concerned, he was all tenderness and pity.

Dutiful and obedient to his uncle who had been a father to him, he was a faithful servant, an exemplary husband, a kind father, a good master.

The very name of Faithful, by which he was always distinguished, proves beyond a doubt what manner of man he was. An orphan himself in childhood, early inured to poverty, his heart went out to all those who had the misfortune to be similarly situated. For the poor, the weak, the helpless, he had a fellow-feeling. The degraded or at least dependent and unprotected position of women, their moral and legal helplessness most of all, appealed to him. But in no sense because he was sensual.

Sensuality was not one of his many failings. A man from top to bottom, by birth, breeding and environment Mohammed was an Arab and a Patriarch.

As such he only naturally liked women and children. To men and for the Faith a strong hard man, to the weak and helpless he was tender and affectionate. As he was strong, so he was merciful and full of human sympathies. His long and happy union with Khadija shows not only that he was faithful to a degree, but a man of high moral fibre. A man too full of the gravity of life to squander his substance in mere sensuality. But in all eastern and African countries where polygamy prevails, marriage is a pure matter of political convenience. Mohammed knew this. He recognized that marriage was a very important factor in securing influence and power. It threw out octopean feelers at various tangents and established certain a.s.sociations and connexions to which it clung, as a limpet to a rock or a devil-fish to its victim. The same principle down almost to our own day has been a powerful factor in European statecraft. Even the earlier practice of keeping mistresses, so much indulged in by the sovereign holders of so-called "divine rights," had much in common with this custom. It was undoubtedly this motive more than any other which influenced Mohammed. It was an essential feature in his great design. For in spite of his overwhelming devotion to G.o.d, notwithstanding G.o.d's obsession of him, Mohammed was essentially human.

There was room and sorrow in his heart for human frailties. His desire was strong to remedy them. He too like Luther was a Protestant, and a Reformer.

As to the soulless theory regarding the fair s.e.x, which has been literally thrust upon the Moslem world by an antipathetic if not inimical Christendom, I quite agree with Burton. "The Moslems never went so far." At all events if some of them have done so, "Certain '_Fathers of the Church_,' it must be remembered, did not believe that women have souls." Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, in one of that inimitable series of letters which she wrote, admits as much. In this particular letter written from Constantinople on May 29, 1717 (O.S.), to the Abbe Conti, she says: "Our vulgar notion that they (the Turks) do not own women to have any souls is a mistake." And then she continues, but in not so accurate a vein: "'Tis true, they say they are not of so elevated a kind, and therefore must not hope to be admitted into the paradise appointed for the men, who are to be entertained by celestial beauties.

But there is a place of happiness destined for souls of the inferior order, where all good women are to be in eternal bliss." It is in no sense surprising, therefore, that to Mohammed Allah was the merciful. So in the sixth surah, he writes: "We (as if identifying himself with G.o.d) will not impose a task on any soul beyond its ability. For this self-same reason, G.o.d is minded to make _his religion_ light unto you: for man was created weak." Strong and enduring as sincerity and conviction made him, Mohammed knew his own weakness. Hence with a clemency that was divine he made concessions such as these. In these he acknowledged that, "to err is human, to forgive divine." All the more, however, we cannot but admire his candour. Even as regards himself, his shortcomings and inadequacies, he speaks with an openness and straightforwardness that disarms suspicion--that forces the inquirer to respect him with all the greater reverence as a great leader of men. "So say I not unto you, the treasures of G.o.d are in my power; neither _do I say_, I know the secrets _of G.o.d_, neither do I say unto you, Verily I am an angel: I follow only that which is revealed unto me." Indeed the more closely and carefully I look into his words in comparison with his life and acts, the more obvious do his candour and sincerity become. The more obvious is it to me that although essentially the product of a grim and petrified environment, he himself was unique. A man in advance of his time and people. For deep down in the soul of him, the rich milk of human kindness welled up out of the same eternal source from which he derived his fear and veneration for the Supreme! Truly the Prophet and spiritual ruler of the East and polygamy, as Christ stands for the West and monogamy!

It was with these weapons, combined with the tenacity of an elastic and imperishable patience, that Mohammed fought the Koreish and other tribes, and it was with them he finally conquered. Had he been insincere, there would have been no Islam. Had there been no spirit of a divine moral conception such as he infused into the creed (which came through him from the great fountain head of G.o.d and Nature), Islam would have withered and perished from sheer exhaustion and debility.

From the standpoint of physical and moral purity, Mohammed was in every sense an Essene. Not only therefore was cleanliness of the body an absolute essential, but cleanliness of mind. Filthy immoral actions and depravities that he knew existed, unjust violence and iniquities, whether openly done or in concealment, were condemned and forbidden in scathing terms as a violation of G.o.d's express command. The sophistry that would make an evil to be no crime unless found out, he denounced with all the fiery ardour of his fervent nature. From G.o.d there was no concealment. In his eyes it was a crime all the same--greater, in fact, because of attempted concealment.

CHAPTER V

THE MATERIAL AND OTHER SIDES OF THE PROPHET'S CHARACTER

In refuting those sceptics who have doubted the truth and sincerity of Islam, Carlyle condemns scepticism (rather too hastily it seems to me) as an indication of spiritual paralysis. Most unquestionably he was right in denouncing the former as an idiotic and G.o.dless theory. But scepticism itself in a general sense is not necessarily an evil. On the contrary, it is a natural tendency that arises out of the instinct of curiosity. Knowledge is not an inert and pa.s.sive principle, but an active and dynamic force. Buckle in his history speaks of scepticism as stimulating curiosity. But he has put the cart before the horse. It is curiosity that excites scepticism. Curiosity is an animal instinct--the basis of all science. It exists in the lower animal creation--scepticism only in the upper human section. It is a higher or further development, a tendency that is certainly strengthened, if not acquired through education.

According to Lecky, "The first stage to toleration in England was due to the spirit of scepticism encroaching upon the doctrine of exclusive salvation"; and "the extinction of the spirit of intolerance both in Catholic and Protestant countries--due to the spirit of rationalism--was the n.o.blest of all the conquests of civilization." But as rationalism itself is chiefly the consequence of scepticism and the result of inquiry, it is obvious that in a deeply fundamental sense, the world is very considerably indebted to science or the spirit of scepticism.

Indeed all knowledge has arisen from experience, and the desire to search into the root of things--to know what is what. Without curiosity and scepticism, human thought would have long since stagnated and the world remained sunk in ignorance. As Ghazali says, "No knowledge without a.s.surance deserves the name of knowledge." Seeing is not always devouring. Curiosity is not necessarily gluttony, or "scepticism, that curse of the intellect," as Victor Hugo calls it. Gluttony is unnatural, unwholesome, and b.e.s.t.i.a.l. It is not so much overdoing, as a flagrant abuse and outrage of a natural appet.i.te. It is a kicking against the p.r.i.c.ks--a flying in the face of Providence. But curiosity as an instinct direct from Nature is healthy, therefore the use of it as also wholesome stands in need of stimulus and encouragement.

So Tennyson said of Sh.e.l.ley:--

"There lives more faith in honest doubt, Believe me, than in half the creeds."

In this righteous sense Mohammed was curious. As one of her own selection, Nature had specially endowed him with curiosity. He was one of her human, sensitive plants. As an observer, all his senses were developed and on the alert. He not only saw, but felt every vibration that thrilled, as it were, the very soul of the first great mother. In every flitting cloud, as in every fugitive thought, he was conscious of an unseen Power. A look-out man rather than a prophet, it was thus he groped or rather felt his way until he felt G.o.d. "I feel that there is a G.o.d," said La Bruyere, "and I do not feel that there is none: that is enough for me; the reasoning of the world is useless to me: I conclude that G.o.d exists." It was in much the same vein of self-argument that Mohammed communed to himself. Having felt G.o.d, G.o.d became for him a necessity: more so even, an essential--an absolutism which banished all else from his mind. The thought that there was no G.o.d did not occur to him. But the thought that other G.o.ds could exist in the same universe with the one omnipotence was to him as monstrous as it was unthinkable.

Besides Him there was no room for any other. The very thought in his estimation perished from inanition and sheer inability of conception!

The trinity of Christianity was to him as impossible and unacceptable as the antediluvian or later polytheism of his own countrymen.

All active minds are sceptical. Carlyle himself--although he appears to have been unconscious of the fact--was himself a sceptic. But it was peculiarly characteristic of the antagonistic dualism of his nature on the one hand to hurl innuendoes, anathemas (and every kind of mental brickbat that he could lay hold of) at what he called scepticism or unbelief. On the other hand, to hold up belief as absolutely essential to human existence. But like all theoretical crotchets, he carried his philosophical speculations too far. In other words, he sometimes overreached himself. According to his particular dogma, in his opinion, the life of man cannot subsist on doubt or denial, it subsists only on belief. But this is altogether beside the mark. Scepticism does not necessarily imply doubt or denial. Belief itself cannot exist without it. It is out of the ashes of scepticism that the immortal Phnix of belief arises. It is out of the doubt and denial of accepted doctrines that all creeds (including Christianity and Islam) have grown into being. The doubt engendered by scepticism is after all only an investigation or leading into, an a.n.a.lysis of the nature of dogmas, doctrines or creeds. It is an investigation that may or may not have a result. It is but a search for or groping after the truth, as the consequence of moral, intellectual or spiritual dissatisfaction. It is also the desire to know, to find out the pros and cons of all the sides to a question. The spirit or element of doubt is the necessary, the essential precursor of improvement and progress. Hence the immense importance and significance of Scepticism. It is the very sum and substance of all human knowledge. As the acorn is to the oak, scepticism is to knowledge--the seed from which has sprung up all we know, and ever shall know. The ever fluent channel through which all the great intellectual giants and reformers of the world have poured out the glowing flash-lights of their intellect into the normal darkness of human minds. It is the moral effluvium out of which our modern civilization has constructed itself. Without it, the dense gloom and black obscurity of ignorance would have reigned supreme. Confused, chaotic, and enigmatic as the world now is--even in the full glare of its sunlight--without it (if it were possible to imagine such a state) the world would have been an enigma, a chaos and confusion worse confounded. For scepticism is, as it were, the sun in all its glory, as compared to the black oblivion of eternal night. If neither Luther nor Mohammed had been sceptics, there would have been no Reformation and no Islam. They did not take everything for granted. They were not satisfied with things as they were. They looked into the heart of them and found much room for improvement. They examined what they could, rejected that which was spiritually objectionable to them, but made use of what was most appropriate to their respective situations. It was only those features that best suited the exigencies of the case that they were prompt to lay hold of.

Yet Mohammed was not of vigorous intellectuality, nor in any sense an original thinker. The constant repet.i.tion of formulas and reiteration of the same ideas that occur throughout the Koran show this. It is extremely probable that his mentality was at times overshadowed either by neurasthenic tendencies, or a predisposition to melancholia, and this was more than likely heightened by a life of excessive mental concentration combined with asceticism.

But sincere as he was, Mohammed would not have been a true Arabian, had he not been diplomatic. Thus the commencement of the fourteenth surah is a clever but obvious device on his part; a meeting of his enemies with their own weapons, a flinging back to them of their own words and objections to the truth in their own teeth. It is clear too that here, for the time being, he has resolved on a change of tactics and of front.

To prove to them that he is as of old the man to be trusted, he endeavours to disarm their incredulity by his own outspokenness and candour. As the sequel showed, he clearly demonstrates his own perspicacity and knowledge of human nature. He saw that by arguing with his countrymen, by always opposing their doubts with sophistry and argument, would be of little avail--useless, in fact. Such a course would but have encouraged and stimulated their opposition, on the ground that their beliefs, as worth refuting, were also based on truth or at least on strong evidence. Besides, Mohammed was painfully conscious of his own disability and helplessness to convince them by the performance of anything purporting to be miraculous. That on occasions he displayed artfulness and guile--duplicity, in fact--is not to be denied. The invention, e.g., of his night journey from Mecca to heaven via Jerusalem, was one of them. When he gave out that Gabriel had revealed to him the conspiracy that had been formed against him, which through ordinary means he had discovered, was another of these pious frauds. But after all, what are these trifles compared with those that in their myriads have been perpetrated by the great Church of Christendom? What are they as compared to a long life of strenuous sincerity, great n.o.bility and earnest effort in the cause of humanity? It is impossible to lose sight of the fact that in working for G.o.d, he was all the time raising his countrymen from a lower to a higher level. Besides, the necessity of dissimulation, which is one of the heaviest taxes on a king, and the prerogative of a priest, is one of those idiosyncrasies that human flesh being heir to, even a prophet cannot at times escape from. We are reminded of the phrase: "Qui scit dissimulare, scit regnare"--He is a ruler who can conceal his thoughts--attributed to the Emperor Sigismund by that cultured and ambitious but false and subtle Pontiff Pius II, known as aeneas Sylvius (Pius aeneas): also the identical answer that Louis XI is said to have made to those who urged him to give his son Charles a better education, in order that the boy might in his day become a good king.

It was not only that Mohammed's enemies were sceptical of his powers and his mission, but they mistrusted his intentions. This, indeed, to a sincere and earnest man like himself, was a bitter pill; a pill he found it hard to swallow. For he was conscious of his own sincerity, and as time went on, an increasing following gave him greater confidence in the reality of his mission. Indeed in proportion as his self-confidence developed, his conviction in the power and unity of G.o.d became an ever increasing quant.i.ty. This increasing consciousness of G.o.d's power and his own sincerity had the gradual effect of making him bolder and more aggressive, so that this outspokenness was a direct outcome of it, until at last Mohammed felt that it was his duty not merely to announce "Islam"--"_the true Faith_," but to enforce its acceptance on the people. This, of course, as we know, was after his flight to Medina.

True his own people, the Koreish, had driven him out with scorn and violence, had cast contumely and dishonour on him, by rejecting the word, while strangers had hearkened unto him and accepted it. It is equally true that the sustained vindictiveness shown by the Koreish was sufficient in itself to excite the spirit of retaliation, even in a man of Mohammed's patient and tenacious character. But suggestive as this may be, it is quite certain that he acted on conviction in a.s.suming the offensive. It is obvious, too, that in doing so, he felt that he was acting under divine compulsion. In any case, we must allow that "a man is really of weight in the balance of Fate, only when he has the right on his own account to cause men to be slain." In Mohammed's case, however, if conviction counts for anything, his right was a divine right. According to Dumas: "In human nature there are antipathies to be overcome--_sympathies which may be forced_." (The italics are mine.) "Iron is not the loadstone; but by rubbing it with a loadstone we make it, in its turn, attract iron." This may be, but it is not in reality so. It is but a mere figure of speech that the great novelist makes use of, and which he puts into the mouth of Rene, the poisoner, in support of some theory or argument. It is, of course, possible that antipathies may be overcome by sympathy. This, however, depends entirely on the power of the one and the weakness of the other. But sympathy cannot be forced. To endeavour to force sympathy is to attempt the unnatural. The most that can be expected from such a cause is dissimulation. This certainly was Mohammed's experience. Although ultimately he and his successors forced the word of G.o.d on these his inveterate enemies, he never succeeded in forcing his sympathies upon them. Death and Time alone accomplished what his own personality failed to do. Through the victory he gained by them, he now lives enshrined in the sanctified halo of a sympathy that, emanating from every Moslem heart, forms with his own the great and throbbing soul of Islam.

But Mohammed was not only spiritual. He, like every human being, had a material side to his character. Not only was he a preacher and a prophet; not only was he a lawgiver--a law and a light unto his people to this very day; but as one who himself rigidly practised self-denial and economy and condemned extravagance, who possessed the organizing ability to administer the estate of others, and who could command preferably in peace, but if necessary in war, he was a statesman and an economist. Unquestionably too he looked ahead--he made provision for the future. His whole apostolic life was one long and arduous preparation for coming events. As an instance of this, the ordering of the yearly pilgrimage to Mecca was as much a political as a religious ordinance. By this measure of policy--this master stroke of psychologic insight into human eventualities, Mohammed showed his natural genius. For without a doubt he aimed at preserving to Arabia the point and focus of a religious centre, that would make for national consolidation and unity, and serve as the sacred reduit and rallying ground for the world of Islam. So too he showed his capacity for system and organization in legalizing the fifth part of all booty and property confiscated to be paid into the public treasury. In the same way he insisted on the giving of Zakat or alms for charitable purposes, apart from those contributions he received from his followers for maintenance. In making these ordinances appear as divine injunctions, Mohammed showed no more insincerity or inconsistence than he did in claiming the whole Koran as a series of revelations. The political and economic factors were as much a radical part of his entire design, as the religious. The one could not exist without the other. Statesman as he was, he recognized that religious unity could only be firmly established through political co-operation, and that to secure national stability the sinews of war were essential.

It is all through quite obvious that he had the trading instinct of his people. In any case the training he received at the hands and in the employ of his uncle Abu Talib, as well as the subsequent management of Khadija's business, had imbued him very powerfully with business principles and practical ideas. Abu Talib, like his father and grandfather before him, carried on a considerable trade with Syria and Yemen. He carried to Damascus, to Basra and other places in Syria, the dates of Hijaz and Hijr, and the perfumes of Yemen, bringing back with him in return the products of the Byzantine Empire. Mohammed, as is known, accompanied him, and without doubt laid the foundation of an economic experience, that subsequently proved valuable.

Commerce has always been the greatest of civilizing factors. According to Buckle: "Among the accessories of modern civilization there is none of greater moment than Trade." So too Hallam says: "Under a second cla.s.s of events that contributed to destroy the spirit of the Feudal system, we may reckon the abolition of villenage, the increase of commerce, and consequent opulence of merchants and artisans, and especially the inst.i.tution of free cities and boroughs. This is one of the most important and interesting steps in the progress of society during the Middle Ages, and deserves particular consideration." But this is all the more important as showing that trade was in reality a more powerful factor for civilization than Christianity, which after several centuries of hold on the people of Europe, had done little more than inflame them with a zeal and a zest for fighting. It is significant also that while Rome rose to her greatest eminence under the Ancestral wors.h.i.+p of her founders, when she became Christian, Christianity did not prevent her from declining and falling into pieces. But it is equally significant that while the opulence conferred by commerce on Rome, eventually brought reaction and ruin upon her people, the effect it had upon the barbarians who overthrew the Eternal City, was sufficiently stimulating to encourage them to invade a degenerate empire. For the desire of wealth and plunder was but the first awakening of the spirit of commerce. To be sure the crusades gave a great stimulus to trade.

But there was more of the militant spirit than Christianity about them.

Besides, although commercial prosperity often accompanies war, reaction is certain to supervene. Obviously the essential importance of trade was a truth that the Merchant-Prophet soon recognized. Intuitively, and with the keenness of perception that marked him, he naturally utilized every lesson that it taught him and every advantage that it gave him. Nor has he been the only theologian who saw its utility in a religious light.

The Jesuits long afterwards recognized the agency of commerce in promoting and diffusing religious belief, and became great merchants as well as great missionaries. So too it was through commerce, as Draper points out, "that the Papacy first learned to turn to art. The ensuing development of Europe" (in the Renaissance) "was really based on the commerce of _upper_ Italy, and not on the Church. The statesmen of Florence were the inventors of the balance of power."

Quoting from Syed Ameer Ali's _Spirit of Islam_, Fihr, surnamed Koreish, a descendant of Maad--who flourished in the third century--was the ancestor of the tribe that gave to Arabia her prophet and legislator.

This fact, trifling as it may appear, is, however, remarkable, if not significant. For this word "Koreish" is derived from "Karash," to trade; and it appears that Fihr and his descendants were always devoted to commerce. From this it is safe to a.s.sume that trading was an inherent instinct in Mohammed.

This apart, to him personally Islam was a something more than a mere creed or belief. It was G.o.d's own religion sealed and delivered to him by G.o.d. Not to deliver it to his people as commanded, not to carry it through--by persuasion first of all, by fire and sword if man's obstinacy and rejection of it made it necessary--would mean that he had failed in his duty to the Most High. The sense and spirit of duty was stronger in Mohammed than in Nelson. In him it was not simply an active and vital principle. It was an impelling force. So inseparable from G.o.d, that to him it appeared as G.o.d Himself. But with him G.o.d always came first. His duty to his country was subordinate to his duty to his Maker.

His duty to Him, therefore, was his duty to his country. So in surah xi.

he says: "O my people, do ye work according to your condition; I will surely work according to my duty," i.e. according to G.o.d. In numerous pa.s.sages he points out that G.o.d was absolutely averse to profusion and extravagance, equally so to meanness. True liberality in his opinion consisted in the happy mean between the two extremes. "And waste not thy substance profusely; for the profuse are brethren of the devils: and the devil was ungrateful unto his Lord" (surah xvii.). Again in the sixth, "But be not profuse, for G.o.d loveth not those who are too profuse"; and in the following the economic instinct shows itself most significantly: "O true believers, consume not your wealth among yourselves in vanity; unless there be merchandizing among you by mutual consent." Once more Mohammed demonstrates his great profundity and insight into the character, the customs and traditions of his countrymen. All Oriental and African nations from time immemorial have been notably extravagant, especially in regard to marriage ceremonials and funeral rites. Even to this day among the Hindus and most African tribes, it is a code of honour, a sacred injunction of their religion, to spend profusely on marriage and burial feasts. Indeed this is frequently done to the impoverishment, and, in the latter case, even to the ruination of whole families or households. The Arabs, it appears, were no exception to this. At the same time they were a curious blend of meanness and extravagance. To Mohammed, rigid economist as he was, and inspired to the core by the duty that had been intrusted to him, this prodigality was a great sin. Not only did his countrymen squander away their substance in folly and luxury, but they were particularly guilty of extravagance in killing camels, and distributing them by lot merely out of vanity and ostentation. Worse even than this, they were given to the destruction of their female children. Against this evil Mohammed sternly set his face. This in itself shows his great moral superiority over his countrymen. It shows also the possession of a higher and more refined yet practical intelligence, that was able to grasp the economic possibilities which were bound to ensue from the preservation of female children. Essentially an Arab patriarch at heart (which he in some measure proved by his marriages), Mohammed, however, was still more essentially a Humanist. With the moral greatness of a good man, and the mental perception of genius, he felt and recognized that it was against all the laws of G.o.d to destroy the fecundity of and the productive in nature. Thus it was that he placed the divine tabu on the abuse and destruction of all that was beneficial to humanity, but especially on men, animals and the produce of the earth.

CHAPTER VI

A BRIEF SUMMARY OF MOHAMMED'S WORK AND WORTH