+ All Categories
Home > Documents > Mohammed and Islam

Mohammed and Islam

Date post: 04-Jun-2018
Category:
Upload: juan-de-herat
View: 219 times
Download: 0 times
Share this document with a friend

of 384

Transcript
  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    1/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    2/383

    ./

    ^,3.6.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    3/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    4/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    5/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    6/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    7/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAMy BYIGNAZ GOLDZIHER, Ph.D.

    Professor of Semitic Philology at the University of Budapest

    Translated froi the GermanBY

    Kate Chambers Seelye, Ph.D.

    With an Introduction by Morris Jastrow, Jr., Ph.D., LL.D,, Professor of SemiticLanguages at the University of Pennsylvania

    NEW HAVEN : YALE UNIVEKSITY PRESSLONDON : HUMPHREY' MILFORDOXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

    MDCCcbxvii

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    8/383

    ^^^^

    Copyright, 1917BY

    Yale University Press

    First published, February, 1917

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    9/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    10/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    11/383

    INTRODUCTIONThrough the publication during the past fifty years of

    a large number of Arabic sources for the study of Moham-medanism, before that accessible only in the manuscriptcollections of European libraries, our knowledge of theorigin and course of Islam, and more particularly of thedevelopment of Islamic theology in the various countriesto which the religion spread, has been greatly extended.Hand in hand with the publication of important Arabictexts has gone the critical study of the material in theform of monographs, and of papers in the transactionsand journals of learned societies. Naturally, Europeanscholarsin Germany and Austria, in England andFrance, Holland and Italyhave been the chief workersin this field, though during the last decades some valu-able contributions have been made by American scholars.The strong impetus to Arabic studies, the result ofwhich is seen in the considerable body of scholars nowdevoting themselves to the subject, may be traced backto the distinguished French Orientalist, Silvestre deSacy (1758-1838) and to his pupil Heinrich LeberechtFleischer (1801-1888), for many years Professor ofOriental Languages at the University of Leipzig, andwho had the distinction of training a large proportion ofthe Arabic scholars of the following generation. Othernotable Arabists of the middle of the nineteenth centurywere Gustav Wilhelm Freytag of the University of Bonn(1788-1861) also a pupil of de Sacy, Ferdinand Wuesten-feld (1808-1899), particularly active in the publication ofArabic texts, Heinrich Ewald (1803-1875) of the Uni-versity of Gottingen, and Reinhart Dozy of the Univer-sity of Leyden (1820-1883), while coming closer to ourown days we have the late Professor M. J. de Goeje

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    12/383

    viii MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.(1836-1909), Dozy's successor; Ignazio Guidi of Rome(1844- ), Julius Wellhausen of Gottingen (1844- ),and Theodor Noeldeke of Strassburg, the latter perhapsthe greatest Semitist of any age and who is still active ateighty. Among the pupils of Professor Fleischer, duringwhose lifetime Leipzig was the center of Arabic studies,were such eminent scholars as the late David HeinrichMiiller of the University of Vienna (1846-1913), the lateAlbert Socin (1844-1899) who became Fleischer's succes-sor, the late Hartwig Derenbourg (1844-1908) who filledthe chair of Silvestre de Sacy in the Ecole des LanguesOrientales Vivantes, Paris, and Ignaz Goldziher of theUniversity of Budapest, whose prodigious learning ledProfessor Noeldeke to proclaim him recently as ^'withouta rival in the domain of Mohammedan theolog^^ andphilosophy. English readers will, therefore, be par-ticularly grateful to Mrs. Seelye for having made acces-sible to them a volume in which Professor Goldziliersums up in popular form the results of his life-longresearches in the field in which he is an acknowledgedmaster. The six chapters of the present work were orig-inally prepared for delivery in this country under theauspices of the American Committee for Lectures on theHistory of Eeligion in 1908, but owing to illness, fromwhich he has happily recovered. Professor Goldziher wasunable, after he had prepared the lectures, to undertakethe trip across the ocean. The present translation intoEnglish is authorized by the distinguished author, whohas in the course of a revision of his work made someadditions in order to bring it down to date. It was mygood fortune to have had Mrs. Seelye as a pupil in Ara-bic for a time, and to suggest to her the preparation ofthis translation, at the same time undertaking, as myshare, to go over her version and to compare it sentencefor sentence with the original so as to make certain by ourunited efforts of having reproduced Professor Goldzi-

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    13/383

    INTRODUCTIOlsr. ixlier's exposition accurately and, as I hope, in a readableform. The task was not an easy one, as in general trans-lations from German into English require particular careand skill; and these difficulties are increased when itcomes to translating a work such as that of ProfessorGoldziher, containing a great many technical terms andinvolving the exposition of a subject exceedingly intri-cate at times.Before proceeding to outline the main features of Pro-

    fessor Goldziher 's important volume, which will nodoubt take rank as an authoritative presentation of thetheme, it may not be out of place to give a brief sketchof the author's career.Born in Hungary in 1850, he carried on his university

    studies at Budapest, Berlin, Leyden and more par-ticularly at Leipzig. After obtaining his degree of Doc-tor of Philosophy, he travelled for a year in the Orientand was one of the first Europeans to continue his Arabicstudies at Al-Azhar, the famous University of Cairo.Through this opportunity he not only became conversantwith modern Arabic in addition to his knowledge of theclassical speech, but came into close contact with nativetheologians which strengthened his interest in thosephases of Mohammedanism to which he has devoted thegreater part of his career. On his return to his owncountry he became connected with the University ofBudapest, where he has occupied for many years thechair of Oriental Languages. His productivity has beenas extensive as it has been valuable.Apart from an earlier work on ' ' Mythology among the

    Hebrews,'' of which an English translation was issuedin 1877, he established his reputation as one of the lead-ing Arabic scholars of his time by a volume on the Zahi-rite sect, published in 1884, and in which he betrayed thatwide range of learning combined with rare acumen, whichhave made his researches so invaluable to all students

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    14/383

    X MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.of Islam. Two volumes of * ^ Mohammedan Studies(1889-1890), followed by two further volumes of studieson Arabic Philology (1896-1899), deal with many impor-tant problems and embody results of investigations that,apart from their intrinsic value, opened up new avenuesof research for others.Professor Goldziher has been an active contributor to

    the leading Oriental journals of Europe and has receivedthe recognition of honorary membership in the learnedacademies of England, France, Germany, Denmark, Hol-land, Austria-Hungary, Sweden, the United States, andeven of India and Egypt, while Cambridge and AberdeenUniversities have conferred honorary degrees upon him.The present volume reveals all those special qualities

    distinguishing Professor Goldziher 's work, a thoroughgrasp of the niceties of Mohammedan theology, acquiredas a result of the profound and long-continued study ofthe huge Arabic literature on the subject, critical insightand striking originality in the combination of innumer-able details to present a vivid picture. The general aimof the work mav be set doAvn as an endeavor to set forthin detail the factors involved in the development of therather simple and relatively few ideas launched byMohammed, into an elaborate and complicated system oftheology, at once legal and speculative and at the sametime practical. The part played in this developmentthrough the military conquests of the followers ofMohammed during the first two or three generationsafter his death is shown by Professor Goldziher in themanner in which regulations for government and forreligious practices are evolved, theoretically on the basisof the utterances in the Koran, but practically inresponse to the necessity of maintaining a strong holdon the followers of Islam, more particularly in the con-quered lands outside of Arabia. A conflict ensuedbetween the worldly minded elements concerned with

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    15/383

    INTRODUCTION. xiproblems of taxation and strengthening governmentalcontrol, and the pious adherents whose absorption in thetenets and ideals of Mohammed's teachings was as com-plete as it was sincere. Professor Goldziher shows howthis conflict led to the rise of innumerable ^^traditions''regarding Mohammed's sayings and doings, as the pat-tern to hold good for all times, and although these ^'tra-ditions, growing into an extensive ^^Hadith (thatis, 'tradition ) literature, have turned out on a criticalexamination to be for the larger part entirely spurious,they have a value as showing the increasing emphasislaid on the Prophet's personality as the ultimate author-ity. It is to Professor Goldziher 's researches that weowe largely the present view taken of the ^'Hadith lit-erature by Arabic scholars, and the place to be assignedto it in the development of both Mohannnedan law anddogma. In this volume the learned author sums up hisstudies within this field, and adds much to reinforce hisformer conclusions of the manner in which this curioussystem of carrying back to a fictitious source the reli-gious practices, political methods and theological doc-trines arose with the growth of the little religious com-munity, founded by Mohammed, into a world religionin close affiliation with widely extended political ambi-tions. Mohammedan law and Mohammedan dogmatismbecame the pivot around which the entire history ofIslam has revolved down to our own days. The two chap-ters, in which this legal and dogmatic development of thereligion are set forth, will give the reader entirely newpoints of view regarding the history of Islam, and pre-pare him for the exposition that follows of ascetic andmystic movements within Mohammedanism and whichstill hold a strong sway in Mohammedan lands.

    In the fifth chapter Professor Goldziher touches uponthe most intricate of all problems connected with Moham-medanism, the formation of the numerous sects in Islam.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    16/383

    xii MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.The difficult theme is set forth in a remarkably illuminat-ing manner. The author picks out the salient featuresof the two chief divisions of MohammedanismSunna(or Orthodoxy) and Shi 'ismand then sets forth inlogical sequence the almost endless ramifications of Sun-nite and Shi'ite doctrines. For all who would seek topenetrate to the core of the great religion which stillsways the lives of a very large proportion of mankind,some two hundred millions, Professor Goldziher'svolume will be an indispensable guide. As a companionvolume to it, in English, it may be proper to refer hereto the lectures on Mohammedanism, delivered in thiscountry, under the auspices of the American Committeefor Lectures on the History of Religion, by ProfessorC. Snouck Hurgronje^ before various universities andnow published in book form. Always excepting Noel-deke, who forms a class by himself. Professors Goldziherand Snouck Hurgronje are the two leading Arabicscholars of the age, recognized as such the world over,and English readers are indeed fortunate to have attheir disposal two works of such commanding interestand authoritative status that complement one another.It is to be hoped that the appearance of these two con-tributions to our knowledge of one of the great reli-gions of the world will stimulate interest in the subject,and be of service also in promoting Arabic studies in ourAmerican universities.

    MoEKis Jastkow, Jr.

    University of Pennsylvania, January, 1917.

    ^Mohammedanism by C. Snouck Hurgronje (Xew York, Putnam's, 1916).

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    17/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    18/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    19/383

    CHAPTER I.MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.I. The question, what from a psychological point of

    view is the origin of religion, has been variouslyanswered by investigators of the subject who treat reli-gion as an independent science. Prof. C. P. Tiele in hisGifford Lectures at Edinburgh has collected a number ofthese answers and submitted them to a critical examina-tion.^ He recognizes the consciousness of causalitywhich he regards inherent in man, the feeling of depend-ence, the perception of the eternal, and the renunciationof the world as the ruling emotions from which havesprung the seeds of psychic religion. To me this phe-nomenon in the life of man seems to be of far too com-plicated a nature to justify its working evidence from asingle motive. Nowhere do we find religion as anabstraction, disassociated from definite historical con-ditions. It lives in deeper and higher forms, in positivemanifestations, which have been differentiated throughsocial conditions.Any one of these, together with other stiinuli of reli-gious instincts, may take a leading place without, how-ever, entirely excluding other auxiliary factors. In thevery first steps of its development, its character is ruledby a predominating motive, which maintains its leader-ship throughout the further development of the whole his-torical life of the religion. This holds good also forreligious forms, whose rise is the product of individualinspiration. In the case of the particular religion, withthe historical aspects of which we are to deal in theselectures, the name which its founder gave it at the verybeginning, and which it has now borne for fourteen cen-turies reveals its prevailing features and characteristics.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    20/383

    2 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.Islam means submissionthe submission of the faith-

    ful to Allah. This term, which characterizes better thanany other the essence of the relation in which Mohammedplaces the believers to the object of their worship, epito-mizes the feeling of dependence on an unlimited Powerto whom man must give himself up, willingly or unwill-ingly. This is the predominating principle inherent inall expressions of this religion, in its ideas and its forms,in its morals and its worship, which determine, as itsdecisive mark, the characteristic instruction which manis to gain by it. Islam in fact, furnishes the strongestexample of Schleiermacher's theory that religion arisesfrom a feeling of dependence.

    II. The task before us in these lectures does notdemand that we should point out the peculiarities of thissystem of religion, but rather that we present the factorswhich have cooperated in its historical development.Islam, as it appears in its final shaping, is the result ofvarious influences by means of which it has developedinto an ethical view of life, into a legal and dogmaticsystem attaining a definite orthodox form. We have todeal also with the factors which have directed the streamof Islam into various channels. For Islam is no homo-geneous church, its historical life finds its full expressionin the very diversities which it has itself produced.The forces which determine the historical life of an

    institution are twofold. First, the inner impulses spring-ing from the very being of the institution and acting asimpelling forces to further its growth. Second, thoseintellectual influences which come from without, whichenrich the range of ideas, and make them more fruitfulin bringing about its historical development. Althoughin Islam the practical proof of the impulses of the firstkind are not lacking, nevertheless it is mostly the assimi-lation of foreign influences which mark the most impor-tant moments of its history. Its dogmatic development

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    21/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 3betrays Hellenistic thouglit, its legal form shows theunmistakable influence of Roman Law, its civic organi-zation, as it is unfolded in the ^ Abbaside caliphate, showsthe moulding of Persian civic ideas, while its mysticismillustrates the appropriation of Neoplatonic and Indianways of thought. But in each one of these fields Islamproves its capability to assimilate and work over foreignelements, so that its foreign character is evident onlythrough the sharp analysis of critical investigation. Thisreceptive character stamps Islam from its very birth, jIts founder, Mohammed, proclaims no new ideas. Hebrought no new contribution to the thoughts concerning'the relation of man to the supernatural and infinite.This fact, however, does not in the least lessen the rela-tive worth of his religious conception. When the his-torian of morals wishes to decide on the effect of anhistorical event, the question of its originality is notuppermost in his consideration. In an historical esti-mate of the ethical system of Mohammed the questionis not whether the content of his proclamation wasoriginal in every way, the absolute pioneer conceptionof his soul. The proclamation of the Arabian Prophetis an eclectic^ composition of religious views to whichhe was aroused through his contact with Jewish, Chris-tian and other^ elements, by which he himself wasstrongly moved and which he regarded as suitable forthe awakening of an earnest religious disposition amonghis people. His ordinances, although taken from foreignsources, he recognized as necessary for the mouldingof life in accordance with the divine will. His inmost soulwas so aroused that those influences which had thusawakened him, became inspirations, that were confirmedby outward impressions and by divine revelations, ofwhich he sincerely felt himself to be the instrument.

    It lies outside our task to follow the pathologicalmoments which aroused and strengthened in him the

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    22/383

    4 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.consciousness of revelation. We recall Harnack's sig-nificant words concerning ^^ Maladies which attack greatmen only, who in turn create out of this malady a newlife, an energy hitherto unsuspected surmounting allbarriers, and the zeal of prophets and apostles. ' '^ Beforeus stands the prodigious historical effect of the call toIslam, more particularly the effect on the immediatecircle, to whom Mohammed's proclamations were directlygiven. The lack of originality was made up for by thefact that Mohammed, with unwearied perseverance,announced these teachings as representing the \i.tal inter-ests of the community. With solicitous tenacity heproclaimed them to the masses in spite of their arrogantscorn. For no historical effect was connected with thesilent protest of pious men before Mohammed's time,men who had protested, more by their lives than by theirwords, against the heathen Arabian interpretation oflife. We do not know just what a certain Klialid ibnSinan meant when he spoke of the prophet who let hispeople go astray. Mohammed is the first effective his-torical reformer of Arabia. Therein lies his originalityin spite of the lack of it in the subject matter of histeaching. The intercourse which the travels of his earlylife secured for him, and the fruits of which he garneredduring the period of ascetic retirement, aroused the over-wrought conscience of an earnest man against the reli-gious and ethical character of his countrymen. Arabianpolytheism, gross and bare as it was, and which for itsfetishlike worship, had as its gathering place the nationalsanctuary,the Ka'ba with its black stonein Moham-med's home town, could not elevate the morals of apeople imbued with tribal life and customs. Further-more, the natives of this town were marked by a pre-vailing materialistic, plutocratic and haughty attitude.For the care of the sanctuary was not only a religiousprivilege, but also an important source of revenue.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    23/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 5Mohammed bemoans the oppression of the poor, thethirst for gain, dishonesty in commerce, and overbear-ing indifference toward the higher interest of humanlife and its duties toward the ^^ prayerful and piousones'' (Sura 18, v. 44),the ^^ tinsel of its mundaneworld. The impressions of former teachings remainedactive in him, and he now applied them to these dis-quieting observations. In the loneliness of the cavesnear the city whither he was wont to withdraw, the manof two-score years felt himself more and more impelledthrough vivid dreams, visions and hallucinations to goamong his people, and to warn them of the destructionto which their actions were leading them. He feelshimself irresistably forced to become the moral teacherof his people, *' their warner and messenger.''

    III. At the beginning of his career these observationsturned to eschatological representations, which more andmore completely took possession of his inmost soul.They form, as it were, the ^^Idee mere of his procla-mations. What he had heard of a future judgment whichwould overwhelm the world, he now applies to the con-ditions about him, the knowledge of which filled hissoul with horror. He places before the careless, over-weening tribes of the proud Meccan plutocrats, whoknow nothing of humility, ^Hhe prophecy of theapproaching judgment, which he paints in fiery colors.He tells them of the resurrection and of the futurereckoning whose details present themselves to his wildvision in terrifying form ; of God, as judge of the world,as the sole arbiter of the *^Day of judgment, who, inmercy, gathers out of the ruins of the world the fewwho had been obedient, who had not scorned and deridedthe cry of the ^'Warner, but who by introspection hadtorn themselves from arrogant ambitions and the powersecured by worldly wealth, and had given themselves toa realization of their dependence on the one absolute

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    24/383

    6 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.God of the universe. It is above all escliatological repre-sentation on which Mohammed founded the call torepentance and submission.^ And one resultnot thecauseof this perception, is the rejection of the poly-theism, by means of which paganism had broken theabsolute power of deity. Any characteristic predicatedof Allah can ^^ neither help nor harm.'^ There is onlyone Lord of the judgment day. Nothing can be asso-ciated with his unlimited and unchangeable decree. Afeeling of such absolute dependence as that which pos-sessed Mohammed could have as its object one beingonly, the only one Allah. But the terrible picture of thejudgment, the features of which he had gathered largelyfrom the literature of the Apocrypha, was not balancedby the hopes of the coming of the ^'Kingdom of Heaven.'''Mohammed is a messenger of the Dies Irae, of thedestruction of the world. His eschatology, in its pictureof the world, cultivates only the pessimistic aspect. Theoptimistic aspect is entirely transferred to paradise, forthe chosen. He has no ray of hope left over for themundane world. It is thus simply a system of borrowedbuilding stones which serves the prophet in the con-struction of his escliatological message. The history ofthe Old Testament, mostly, it is true, in the sense of theAgada, is used as a warning example of the fate ofancient peoples, who, hardening their hearts, scorned theexhortations sent to them. Mohammed classes himselfas the last of the ancient prophets. The picture of thejudgment and destruction of the world painted in glow-ing colors, the exhortation to prepare for it, by for-saking ungodliness and the worldly life, tales of the fateof ancient peoples and their attitude toward the prophetssent to them, reference to the creation of the world, andto the wonderful formation of man,proof of the powerof God,dependence of the creature whom he canannihilate and recreate according to his inclination,all

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    25/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 7these are contained in the oldest parts of that book ofrevelations, recognized in the literature of the worldas the Kgran. It is composed of about 114 divisions(Suras), of very different scope ; about one third belongsto the first ten years of Mohammed's prophetic activityduring the time of his work in Mecca.

    IV. It lies outside of my province to recount here thestory of his success and his failures. The year 622 marksthe first epoch in the history of Islam. Ridiculed by hiscountrymen and tribesmen, Mohammed flees to thenorthern city of Yathrib, whose people coming from asouthern stock, showed themselves more receptive toreligious influences. Here also, owing to the large colonyof Jews, the ideas which Mohammed advanced were morefamiliar, or at least appeared less strange. Becauseof the help which people of this town gave to the prophetand his followers, whom they sheltered, Yathrib becameMedina, ^'the City'' (of the prophet), by which nameit has ever since been known. Here Mohammed is stillfurther inspired by the Holy Spirit, and the majorityof the Suras of the Koran bear the mark of this newhome. But even though, in his new relations, he doesnot cease to fulfill and practice his calling as a ^^warner,his message takes a new direction. It is no longer merelythe eschatological visionary who speaks. The new rela-tions make him a warrior, a conqueror, a statesman,an organizer of the new and constantly growing com-munity. Islam, as an institution, here received itsshape ; here were sown the first seeds of its social, legal,and political regulations.The revelations which Mohammed announced on Mec-

    can soil had, as yet, indicated no new religion. Reli-gious feelings were aroused in a small group only. Aconception of the world marked by the idea of resigna-tion to God was fostered, but was, as yet, far removedfrom strict definition, and had not yet given rise clearly

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    26/383

    8 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.to teachings and forms. Pious feelings betrayed them-selves in ascetic acts, which we also find among Jewsand Christians, in devotional acts (recitation with genu-flections and prostration), self-imposed abstinence, anddeeds of kindness, whose modality as to form, time andamount, had not yet been determined by hard and fastrules. Finally the community of believers was not yetdefinitely formed. It was in Medina that Islam tookshape as an institution, and at the same time as a fight-ing organization whose war trumpet sounds through thewhole later history of Islam. The erstwhile devotedmartyr, who had preached patient submission to hisfaithful Meccan followers scorned by their fellow citi-zens, is now organizing warlike undertakings. The manwho despised worldly possessions is now taking in handthe disposition of booty and regulation of the laws ofinheritance and of property. It is true he does notcease to proclaim the worthlessness of all worldly things.At the same time, however, laws are given, regulationsare made for religious practices and the closest socialrelationships of life. ^^Here the laws of conduct takeon definite form. These laws served as the basis of laterlegislation, although several, in the course of preparationduring the Meccan teachings, had been carried in embryoby the exiles from Mecca to the Palm City of Arabia. ' '^

    It was really in Medina that Islam was born. The truefeatures of its historical life were formed here. When-ever, therefore, the need of religious reconstructionappeared in Islam, its followers appealed to the Sunna(traditional custom) of that Medina in which Mohammedand his companions first began to bring into concreteform the laws regulating the relations of life, accordingto his conceptions of Islam. We will return to this later.

    :> The Hijra (flight to Medina) accordingly is not onlyan important date in the history of Islam, because ofthe change it wrought in the outward fortunes of the

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    27/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 9community ; marks, not only the time in which the littlegroup of the prophet's followers, having found a securehaven, began to take aggressive measures and wage awar against the enemy, which in 630 resulted in theconquest of Mecca and subsequently in the subjectionof Arabia; but it also marks an epoch in the religiousformation of Islam.The Medina period brings about, moreover, a radical

    change in Mohammed's apperception of his own char-acter. In Mecca Mohammed felt himself a prophet, andclassed himself and his mission in the rank of the Biblical^* Messengers, in order like them to warn and to savehis fellow-men from destruction. In Medina, underchanged external relations, his aims also take a differenttrend. In this environment, differing so greatly fromthat of Mecca, other views in regard to his calling as aprophet became prominent. He wishes now to be con-sidered as having come to restore and reestablish thevitiated and misrepresented religion of Abraham. Hisannouncements are interwoven with Abrahamic tradi-tions. He asserts that the worship he is instituting,although formerly organized by Abraham, had in thecourse of time been vitiated and heathenized. He wishesto reinstate in the Abrahamic sense the dm, or religion ofthe one God, as he had come, above all, to legitimatize(musaddik) what God had made known in formerrevelations.^

    In general, his contention, that the former messageswere misrepresented and vitiated, played a greater partin the recognition of his own position as a prophet, andof his work. Fawning apostates strengthened him in theidea that adherents of the old religion had pervertedthe sacred writings, and had concealed the promisesin which prophets and evangelists had announced his ownfuture coming. This charge, originating in the Koran,was later extensively developed in Islamic literature.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    28/383

    10 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.The polemic against Jews and Christians now forms animportant part of the revelations of Medina. Althoughformerly he recognized cloisters, churches and syna-gogues as true places of worship (Sura 22, v. 211), theruhbcin (monks) of the Christians and the ahhdr(scribes) of the Jews, who were actually his teachers,now became objects of attack. It does not suit him thatthese leaders, in reality merely selfish men, should exer-cise an entirely unwarranted, and in fact almost a di\dneauthority, over their fellows (Sura 9, v. 31), leading thepeople astray from the way of God (Sura 9, v. 36). Hegives the ascetic ruhban credit for their humble bearing,and regards them as being in closer sympathy with^hefaithful than the Jews, who took a decisive stand againstIslam (Sura 5, v. 85), and he reproaches the Scribes withadditions they had made to the divine legislation (Sura3,v. 72).

    V. This Medina decade was therefore a time of attackwith sword and pen, as well as of defense. The changein Mohammed's prophetic character necessarily madeitself felt in the style and rhetorical content of the Koran.Even the oldest records of the book have clearly dif-

    ferentiated between the two divisions of the 114 Surasinto which its contents are dividedditferentiating withsure instinct the Mecca from the Medina parts.

    This chronological difference wholly justifies the criti-cal and aesthetic consideration of the Koran. To theMecca period belong the messages in which Mohammedpresents the creations of his glowing enthusiasm in afantastic oratorical form coming directly from his soul.He does not brandish his sword, he is not speaking towarriors and subjects, but is declaring rather, to hisnumerous adversaries the convictions which dominate hissoul; that the power of Allah to create and rule theworld is infinite; that the awful day of judgment anddestruction, the vision of which destroys his peace of

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    29/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 11mind, is near at hand; that the former peoples and'tyrants who opposed the warners sent by God, shouldbe punished.

    Gradually, however, the prophetic energy weakens inthe Medina messages in which the rhetoric, having lostall vigor, because of the triviality of the object, haddropped to a lower plain and sunk to the level of com-mon prose. With clever calculations and consideration,with wary cunning and policy, he now agitates againstthe internal and external opponents of his aims, heorganizes the faithful, enacts, as has already been pointedout, civic and religious laws for the developing organi-zation, as well as rules for the practical relations of life.He even at times includes in the divine revelations madeto him his own unimportant personal and domesticaifairs.^ The diminishing of his rhetorical vigor is notoffset even by the Saj' the rhymed prose characteristicof the Koran in general and occurring also in the surasof this period. This was the form in which the ancientsoothsayers delivered their oracles. No Arab couldhave recognized them in any other form as the words ofGod. Mohannned, to the end, adhered to the claim thatsuch was his speech, but how great a distance betweenthe Saj* of the early Mecca and the Medina speechesWhile in Mecca, he announces his visions in Saj^ lines,every one of which responds to the feverish beating ofhis heart. This form of revelation loses its swing andits strength in Medina, even when he turns back to thesubjects of the Mecca messages.^Mohammed himself declared his Koran an inimitablework. His followers, without considering any one ofits parts as having more merit than another, regardedthe book as divinely supernatural, sent to them throughthe prophet. In fact it was to them the supreme miracleby which the prophet established the truth of his divinemission.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    30/383

    12 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.VI. The Koran then, is the first basis of the religion

    of Islam, its sacred writing, its revealed document. Inits entirety it represents a combination of the two firstepochs in the infancy of Islam, differing so much fromone another.Although the Arabian mind, owing to its inherent dis-

    position and to the conditions of life, was not given tothe consideration of supernatural things, the great suc-cess of the prophet and his immediate followers over theopponents of Islam did much to strengthen the beliefof the Arabs in his mission. Although these historicalsuccesses did not, as one is apt to think, directly resultin the complete union of these Arab tribes, politicallydivided and religiously only loosely bound by any centralauthority, and constantly quarreling over their localcults, nevertheless, they did become a strong elementof union between these divergent elements. The prophethad held up as the ideal the union into an ethical andreligious community which, according to his teachings,should be bound together by the feeling of dependenceon the one Allah. ^'0, ye believers, fear God as hedeserveth to be feared ; and die not until ye have becomeMoslems. And hold ye fast by the cord of God andremember God's goodness towards you, how that whenye were enemies, he united your hearts and by his favorye became brethren (Sura 3, v. 97-98). Fear of Godwas now to have the preference over genealogy and triballife. The conception of this unity broadened more andmore after the death of the prophet, owing to the con-quests whose successes have not yet been equalled in thehistory of the world.

    VII. If anything in Mohaimned's religious productioncan be called original, it is the negative side of his revela-tions. They were intended to eliminate all the barbaritiesof Arabian paganism in worship and social intercourse,in tribal life and in their conceptions of the world; in

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    31/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 13other words, they were to eliminate the jahiliyya, thepre-Islamic barbarity, in so far as it stamped these con-ceptions and customs as opposed to Islam. As we havealready mentioned, the positive teaching and organiza-tions show an eclectic character. Judaism and Chris-tianity have an equal share in the elements of which theseare composed, of whose peculiarities I cannot speakhere.^

    It is well known that in its final form Islam has fiYQpoints upon which its confession is based. The firstdrafts (liturgical and humanitarian) go back to theMecca period, but their more definite, formal shape wasgiven in the Medina period. 1. The acknowledgmentof one God and the recognition of Mohammed as theapostle of God; 2. The ritual of the divine worship,whose early beginnings as vigils and recitations, withtheir accompanying postures, genuflections and prostra-tions, as well as the ceremonial purifications, had itsorigin in the usages of oriental Christianity; 3. Alms,first a free-will offering, later a definitely determinedcontribution to the needs of the community; 4. Fast-ingfirst on the 10th day of the month (an imitationof the Jewish Day of atonement {' dsliura)laterchanged to the month of Eamadan, the 9th of the variablelunar year; 5. The pilgrimage to the old Arabiannational sanctuary in Mecca, the Ka^ba, the ^^ house ofGod. ' '^ This last requirement Mohammed retained frompaganism, but clothed it in monotheistic garb, and gaveit new interpretations through Abrahamic legends.

    Just as the Christian elements of the Koran reachedMohammed largely through the apocryphal traditionsand heresies disseminated throughout oriental Chris-tendom, similarly many of the elements of orientalgnosticism found an entrance into Islamism. Moham-med appropriated a medley of ideas that reached himthrough his casual contact with men during his mer-

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    32/383

    14 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.cantile travels, and utilized most of this material in avery unsystematic manner. How far removed from hisoriginal conception are the mystical words (Sura 24, v.35) which the Moslems regard as their ^^ golden text '^In Mohammed's conception concerning the laws givenby God to the Jews, especially those dealing with for-bidden foods, laid on them as a punishment for theirdisobedience, we see the influence of the depreciationby the Gnostics of the Old Testament laws promulgated,according to them, by a frowning God void of benevo-lence. Except in a very few cases these laws wereabrogated by Islam. God had not forbidden to the faith-ful anything palatable. These laws were fetters andburdens laid upon the Israelites by God (Sura 2, v. 286;4, V. 158; 7, v. 156). This, although not identical withMarcionistic theories, is in accord with them. Togetherwith this and closely akin to the speculations which arecrudely indicated in the Clementine homilies, we findthe theory put forward of a pure ancient religion, to berestored by the prophet, and also the assumption that thesacred writings had been corrupted.

    Besides Jews and Christians, the Parsees, whosedisciples came under Mohammed's observation as Majus(Magi) and whom he also regards as opposed to heathen-ism, left their impress on the receptive mind of theArabian prophet. It was from the Parsees that hereceived the far-reaching suggestion which robs theSabbath of its character as a day of rest. He choseFriday as the weeldy day of assembly, but even in adopt-ing the hexaemeron theory of creation, he emphaticallyrejects the idea that God rested on the 7th day. There-fore, not the 7th day, but the day preceding is taken,not as a day of rest, but as a day of assembly on whichall worldly business is permitted after the close ofworship.*

    VIII. If we are now to regard Mohammed's produc-

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    33/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 15tion as a whole, and to consider for a moment its intrinsicvalue judged from its ethical effect, we must of coursebe careful to avoid an apologetic and polemic attitude.Even in modern presentations of Islam there is a strongtendency to take its numbers as the absolute standardby which to judge its religious value, and to found onthat the final estimate. The same tendency considersthe idea of God as deeply rooted in Islam because itinflexibly excludes the thought of His immanence. Italso considers its ethics dangerous because it is dom-inated by the principle of obedience and submissionwhich is already apparent in its name. This attitudeassumes as possible that the dominating belief of thefaithful, of living under an absolute divine law, or thebelief in the detachment of the Divine being in Islamhindered the approach to God by faith, virtue, and benev-olence, and kept one from His mercy (Sura 9, v. 100), asthough a pious worshipper, fervent in his devotions,filled with the humble consciousness of his dependence,weakness and helplessness, raising his soul to the sourceof almighty strength and perfection, could differentiatehimself according to philosophical formulae. Those,who would in a subjective spirit estimate the religionof others, should recall the words of Abbe Loisy, thetheologian (1906) : *^One can say of all religions thatthey possess for the consciences of its adherents anabsolute, and for the comprehension of the philosopherand critic, a relative value. ''^ This fact has generallybeen lost sight of in judging the effect of Islam on itsfollowers. Furthermore, in the case of Islam the religionhas been unjustly held responsible for moral deficiencies,and intellectual lacks which may have their origin in the

    . disposition of the races.^ As a matter of fact, Islam, dis-seminated among a people belonging to these races, has

    ' moderated rather than caused their crudeness. Besides,Islam is not an abstraction to be considered apart from

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    34/383

    ri i; _:: ._. _ ..;, :. ->.' . .:- %r :;:-'--:.- ^ ^ ^^^^r^l^S^i ^^.SSfBWfflWBBgCSBSaaKB^

    16 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.its historical periods of development, or from the geo-graphical boundaries of its spread, or from the ethniccharacter of its followers, but in connection with itsvarious embodiments and effects.In order to prove Islam's insignificant religious and

    moral value, men have appealed to the language in whichits teachings were given. It has been said, e. g., thatIslam lacks the ethical conception which we call con-science, and the attempt is made to prove this by theassertion that ^^ neither in Arabic itself nor in any otherlanguage used by the Mohammedans can a word befound which would correctly express what we mean bythe word conscience.''^ Such conclusions could easilylead us astray in other lines. The assumption that aword alone can be taken as a credible proof of theexistence of a conception, has sho\vn itself to be aprejudice. ''A lack in the language is not necessarilya sign of a lack in the heart. * If this were so, onecould assert that the feeling of gratitude was unkno\vnto the poets of the Vedas, because the word ^ thanksis foreign to the Vedic language.^ Even in the ninthcentury the Arabic scholar Jahiz disproves the remarkof a dilettante friend who thought he found a proofof the avaricious character of the Greeks in the factthat their language apparently had no word for * liber-ality (Jud). Others also have come to the conclusionthat the lack of the word ^^ sincerity (nasiha) inPersian, was a sufficient proof of the inbred untrust-worthiness of this people.^Didactic sentences, principles mirroring ethical con-ceptions, should be tested by more than a word, aterminus technicus, such as those which are used in theconsideration of the ''question of conscience in Islam.Among the forty (really forty-two) traditions of theNawawl, supposed to present a compendium of the reli-gious principles of a true Moslem, we find as No. 27,

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    35/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 17the following quotation, which is taken from the bestcollections: ''In the name of the prophet, virtue is theessence of good qualities ; sin is that which troubles thesoul, and thou dost not wish that other people shouldknow it of thee.'' Wabisa ibn Ma' bad says: Once Icame before the prophet. He divined that I had cometo question him as to the nature of virtue. He said:'Question thine heart (literally demand a fetwa, a deci-sion of thine heart) ; virtue is that which pacifies thesoul, and pacifies the heart; sin is that which producesunrest in the soul and turmoil in the bosom, whatevermeaning men may have given to it ' *Lay thine handupon thy bosom, and ask thine heart; from that whichcauses thine heart unrest, thou shouldst forbear.' Andthe same teachings gave the Moslem tradition accordingto which Adam ended his exhortation to his childrenjust before his death with the words . . . As Iapproached the forbidden tree, I felt unrest in myheart, in other words, my conscience troubled me.

    It would be unjust to deny that a power working forgood lives in the teaching of Islam, that life from thestandpoint of Islam can be ethically blameless ; or thatit calls for mercy towards all the creatures of God,business integrity, love, faithfulness, self-restraint, allthose virtues which Islam borrowed from the religionswhose prophets it recognized as its teachers. A trueMoslem will exemplify a life which conforms to strictethical requirements.Islam is indeed a law, and demands ceremonial acts

    also from its adherents. Already in its earliest docu-mentthe Koranand not only in the traditional teach-ings which indicate the development of Islam, do we findthe feelings which accompany a deed described as thestandard of its religious merit, and it is in the Koranalso that legalism, unaccompanied by deeds of mercyand charity, is held of very little value.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    36/383

    18 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.^' There is no piety in turning yonr faces toward the

    east or the west, but he is pious who believeth in God,and the last day, and the angels, and the Scriptures, andthe prophets; who for the love of God disburseth hiswealth to his kindred, and to the orphans, and the needy,and the wayfarer and those who ask, and for ransomingwho observeth prayer, and payeth the legal alms, andwho is of those who are faithful to their engagementswhen they have engaged them, and patient under illsand hardships, and in time of trouble; these are theywho are just, and these are they who fear the Lord(Sura 2, v. 172). And in speaking of the rites of thepilgrimage, which he decrees (or rather retained fromthe traditions of Arabian paganism) on the groundthat ^Sve have imposed sacrificial rites on all people,so that they may commemorate the name of God overthe brute beasts which he hath provided for them,''Mohammed lays the greatest emphasis on the piousframe of mind which should accompany the act of wor-ship. ^^By no means can their flesh reach God, neithertheir blood; but piety on your jDart reacheth him'' (Sura22, V. 35, 38). The greatest importance is iDlaced on theIkJilds^ (unclouded purity) of the heart (Sura 40, v. 14)takwd al-'kuluby ^^the piety of the heart (Sura 22, v.23), halh sallm ^^a perfect heart which accords withthe lebli slidlem of the Psalmist ; standpoints which takeinto consideration the religious merit of the true believer.These convictions are carried still further, as we shallsoon see, in the traditions, and spread over the wholefield of religious life in the teachings concerning thesignificance of niyya,the conviction that the purposeunderlying all acts is the measure of religious deeds.The shadow of an egotistical or hypocritical motive,according to this precept, deprives every bonum opusof its worth. It will, therefore, not be possible for any 1impartial judge to approve Tisdall's utterance : ^^It will

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    37/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 19be evident, that purity of heart is neither considerednecessary nor desirable ; in fact, it would be hardly toomuch to say, that it is impossible for a Moslem.''''And which is the ^^ steep path (perhaps to be com-pared with the ^ ^ straight gate, ' ' Matth. 7 : 13, whichleads to life) which the company of the privileged, thosewho are to share the joys of paradise, follow? It is notthe hypocritical life almost entirely devoted to theceremonialto the practices and forms of outward wor-ship, that lies within this path, but rather the lifedevoted to good works. ^^It is to free the captive; orto feed, in a day of famine, the orphan who is of kin,or the poor man who lieth on the ground. Whoso doththis, belongs to those who believe and who recommendperseverance unto each other, these shall be the com-panions of the right hand (Sura 90:12-18comparewith this the verses of Isaiah 58: 6-9).

    In our next lecture we will show that the teachingsof the Koran find a further development and supplementin a great number of traditional sayings, which, eventhough not coming directly from the prophet, are never-theless indispensable to the characterization of the spiritof Islam. We have already made use of several of them,and since, in accordance with the plan of this introduc-tory lecture, we have examined the ethical value ofhistorical Islam, as set forth in the Koran, it may beproper at this point to point out that the dogmas whichare given in the Koran in primitive but clear enoughform, have developed in a different way in a great manyof the later utterances ascribed to the prophet.To Abu Darr for example he gives the followinginstruction: ^^A prayer in this mosque (in Medina) is Vof more value than thousands which are made in othermosques, with the exception of that in Mecca ; the prayermade in the latter is worth a hundred thousand timesmore than that which is performed in other mosques.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    38/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    39/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 21comprehends more and more the conception of the lifeacceptable to God. It is specially when the questionof formalism in religious conduct is under considerationthat emphasis is placed largely on saldt; i. e., submissionto the omnipotence of Allah to be manifested through thegeneral liturgy; and zakdt; i. e., the furthering of theinterests of the community by taking part in the requiredcontributions, in connection with which the care of thepoor, widows, orphans and travelers are the first toarouse the lawgiver's sense of duty. To be sure, Islam,in its development under the cooperation of foreigninfluences, has engrafted the subtlety of the casuists andthe hypercriticism of the dogmatists, and has allowedshrewd speculations to strain and artificialize its obe-dience to God and its faith. We shall presently see thisprocess of development, but we shall also come face toface again with efforts which mark a reaction againstthis growth.

    IX. Let us now consider some of the darker sides ofIslam. If Islam held itself strictly to historical wit-nesses, it could not offer its followers the ethical modeof life of one man as an example; an ^4mitatio'' ofMohammed would be impossible. But it is not to thehistorical picture that the believer turns. The piouslegends about the ideal Mohammed early take the placeof the historical man. The theology of Islam has con-formed to the demand for a picture which does notshow him merely as the mechanical organ of the divinerevelation and its spread among unbelievers, but alsoas hero and example of the highest virtue.^ Moham-med himself did not apparently desire this. God hadsent him ^^as a witness, as a mediator of a hatefuland warring message, as a crier to Allah, with hisconsent as a shining torch'' (Sura 33, v. 44-45). Heis a guide, but not a paragon, except in his hope inGod and in the last day, and in his diligent devotion

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    40/383

    22 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.(v. 21). The realization of his human weaknesses seemto have honestly influenced him, and he wishes to beregarded by his followers as a man with all the faultsof ordinary mortals. His work was greater than hisperson. He did not feel that he was a saint, and hedid not wish to pass as one. We will return to thisquestion when w^e come to the consideration of thedogmas concerning his sinlessness. Perhaps it is thisvery consciousness of human weakness which makes himreject all claim to miracles, which in his time and sur-roundings were considered necessary attributes of holi-ness. And we must also take into account his progressin the fulfilment of his mission, especially during theMedina period when conditions finally changed him froma suffering ascetic into a warrior and the head of astate. It is the merit of an Italian scholar, LeoneCaetani, to have put before us in a very interesting work,^^Annali delP Islam, '^ the worldly view in the oldesthistory of Islam. In this work, the writer carries outmore sharply than has even been done before, a com-prehensive critical review of the sources of the historyof Islam. He makes many important corrections in theideas about the activity of the prophet himself.

    It is indeed clear, that the saying ^ ^ More slayeth wordthan sword cannot apply to his Medina work. Withthe departure from Mecca the times ended in which he^^ turned away from unbelievers'' (Sura 15, v. 94) or*^ called them to the way of God merely through wisdomand good counsel (Sura 16, v. 126) ; rather the timehad come when the command sounded : ^ ^When the sacredmonths are passed, kill the unbelievers wherever youfind them; seize them, oppress them, and set yourselvesagainst them in every ambush (Sura 9, v. 5). *^ Fightin the path of God (Sura 2, v. 245).From the visions of the destruction of this evil world,he formed with rapid transition the conception of a

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    41/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 23kingdom wliich is to be of this world. His characterinevitably suffered many an injury arising from thepolitical change in Arabia due to the success of hispreaching, as well as to his own leadership. He broughtthe sword into the world, and *4t is not only with thestaff of his mouth that he smites the world, and notonly with the breath of his lips that he kills the Godless, ''it is a true war trumpet which he sounds, it is the bloodysword which he wields to bring about his kingdom.According to an Islamic tradition giving a correctaccount of his life, he is said to be known in the Thoraas ^'The prophet of battle and war.''-The conditions of the community, which he felt it was

    his divine calling to influence, were such that he couldnot confidently rely on the assurance: ^^ Allah will fightfor you, but you can rest in peace. He had to wagean earthly battle to attain recognition for his teachingsand still more for their mastery. And this earthly warwas the legacy he left to his successors.Peace was to him no virtue. ^^ Believers obey God and

    the Apostle: and render not your works vain. . . Benot fainthearted then, and invite not the infidels to peacewhen ye have the upper hand, for God is with you, andwill not defraud you of the recompense of your works''(Sura 47, v. 35, 37). Fighting must go on until ^^theword of God has the highest place. Not to take partin this war counted as an act of indifference to the willof God. Love of peace toward the heathen who hold backfrom the path of God is anything but virtue. ^^ Thosebelievers that sit at home free from trouble, and thosewho do valiantly in the cause of God with their sub-stance and their persons, shall not be treated alike. Godhath assigned to those who contend earnestly with theirpersons and with their substance, a rank above thosewho sit at home. Goodly promises hath he made to all.But God hath assigned to the strenuous a rich recom-

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    42/383

    24 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.pense, above those who sit at home. Rank of his ownbestowal, and forgiveness and mercy, for God is indul-gent, MercifuP' (Sura 4, v. 97, 98).X. This association (entanglement) with the inter-

    ests of the world, the position of continuous readinessfor war which forms the framework of the second partof Mohammed ^s career as his character became cor-rupted by worldly ambition, influenced also the outwardform of the higher conceptions of his religion. Thechoice of war as the means, and \T.ctory as the aim, ofhis prophetic calling, influenced also his conception ofGod whom he now wished to clothe with power by resortto arms. It is true, he apprehended the deity ^4n whosepath he waged his wars and performed his diplomaticacts, as monotheistic, clothed with powerful attributes.He unites absolute authority, unlimited power forrecompense, severity towards stubborn evil-doers, withthe attribute of mercy and gentleness (halim) ; he istolerant toward the sinner and forgiving toward therepentant. ^^Your Lord hath laid down for himself a lawof mercy'' (Sura 6, v. 54). As a commentary on thisappears the tradition: '^Wlien God had completed thecreation he wrote in the book which is preserved nearhim on the heavenly throne : My mercy is stronger thanmy anger. ''1 Even when **he smites with his punish-ment whomsoever he pleases, his mercy embraces allthings'' (Sura 7, v. 155). Nor is the attribute of lovelacking among those ascribed to him by Mohammed.Allah is wadiid, ''loving. ''If ye love God, follow me,and God will love you and forgive your sins. Verily,God does not love the unbelievers (Sura 3, v. 92).But he is also the God of war, which his prophets andtheir followers were to wage against the enemy. Andit was inevitable that many mythological elements shouldenter into this attribute in Mohammed's conception ofGod, as for instance, the all-powerful warrior resists the

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    43/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 25intrigues and perfidies of the enemy, continually oppos-ing them with cunning even more powerful. For,according to an ancient Arab proverb, ^^Warfare iscunning. '^ ^^They think of cunningand I (also) thinkof cunning'^ (Sura 86, v. 15, 16). God characterizes themanner of war which he uses against the gainsayers ofhis revelations, as ''efficient'' cunning: ''We will leadthem by degrees to their ruin, by ways which they knownot (Sura 68, v. 45= 7, v. 182). The word keidSiharmless kind of cunning and intrigueis used through-out this passage.- The expression makr, denotingdeeper cunning, is stronger ; Palmer translates it in oneplace as craft; in another as plot, and again as strata-gem. It includes, however, the idea of wiles (intrigue).( They practice wiles against our signs. Say: God isswifter in the performing of wiles'' [Sura 8, v. 30].)This is not true only in regard to the contemporary ene-mies of Allah and of his message, who manifest theirenmity in fighting and persecuting Mohammed. God issaid to have acted in the same way toward the earlierpagan peoples who scorned the prophets sent to them;toward the Thamudites for resisting Salih who was sentto them (Sura 27, v. 51), toward the Midianites to whomwas sent the prophet Shu'eib, the Jethro of the Bible(Sura 7, V. 95-97).One must not think that Mohammed conceived of Allah

    as a performer of intrigues. The real meaning to betaken from his threatening utterances, is that God treatseach one according to his actions,^ and that no humanintrigue avails against God, who frustrates all false anddishonorable acts, and, anticipating the evil plans of theenemy, turns betrayal and stratagem away from thefaithful.* That God will ward off mischief frombelievers, for God loveth not the false, the infidel (Sura22, V. 39). Mohammed's own political attitude towardthe hindrances which beset him is mirrored in the action

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    44/383

    26 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.which he attributes to the Lord of the world againstintrigues and evil-doers. His own inclinations and hismilitant methods in dealing with the internal adversary^are ascribed to God in whose Cause his wars are waged.*^0r if thou fear treachery from any people, throw theirtreaty to them as thou fairly mayest, for God lovethnot the treacherous. And think not that the infidels shallescape us. They shall not weaken God^' (Sura 8, v. 60).

    It is true that the terminology betrays rather the toneof a calculating diplomat, than that of a patient martyr.We must emphatically recognize that it has not influencedthe ethics of Islam, which forbid*^ perfidious action eventowards unbelievers. Nevertheless in Mohammed's con-ception of the deity the moment Allah is brought do^vnfrom his transcendental height to the level of an activeco-worker with the prophets entangled in the battles ofthis world, outcroppings of mythology betray themselves.So the transition from the sway of the sombre eschato-

    logical ideas which filled his soul and his prophecies atthe beginning of his career, to the mundane struggle sozealously carried on and so prominent in the final out-come, was completed in the outward growth of Moham-med's work. In this way historical Islam was stampedwith the impress of religious warfare, in strong contrastto the beginning when a permanent kingdom in a worlddestined to destruction did not come within the rangeof his vision. That which Mohammed leaves behind asa legacy for the future conduct of his community isembodied in what he enacted in his Arabian environ-ment; i. e., to fight unbelievers and to spread thekingdom of Allah's power, rather than of faith. Accord-ing to this, the first duty of the Moslem warrior is thesubjection of the unbeliever rather than his conversion.'^XL Various views have been expressed concerningthe question whether Mohammed's horizon was limitedto his native country of Arabia, or whether the con-

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    45/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 27sciousness of Ms prophetic calling had a wider vision;in other words, whether he felt he was called to be anational or a world prophet.^ I think we should inclineto the second proposition.^ It is of course natural thathe should interpret his inward call, and his anxiety overthe condemnation of the unjust, as applying first of allto those nearest him, who, because of their condition,aroused him to a perception of his calling as a prophet.^^Warn your nearest relatives, he gives as God's com-mand (Sura 26, v. 214). He was sent *'to warn themother of cities and those living in its neighborhood'(Sura 6, v. 92). But undoubtedly, even at the very begin-ning of his mission, his inner perception was alreadydirected to a broader sphere, although his limited geo-graphical horizon would prevent his suspecting theboundaries of a world religion. At the very beginningof his mission he asserts that Allah had sent him rah-matan lil- dlamlna, ^^out of mercy for the world (Sura21, V. 107). It is a commonplace in the Koran that God'sinstruction was given as dikrun lil-' dlamlna ** remem-brance of the world. ' ' EtVroj/ Koa/xov airavra . . . irdarj ryfcrlaet (Mark 16:15) ; (Koran 12, v. 104; 38, v. 87; 68, v.52; 81, V. 27). This ' alamun is constantly used in theKoran in all its various meanings. God is *4ord of the^alamun. He has adopted the differences in speech andcolor amongst men as signs of the ' dlamun (Sura 30, v.21). This is surely mankind in its widest sense. In thesame sense Mohammed extends his mission over thewhole area indicated by this word according to his ownunderstanding of it. His point of departure is natur-ally his own people and country. Nevertheless, the con-nections which, toward the end of his career, he aspiredto make with foreign powers, and the other undertakingsplanned by him, show a striving towards lands beyondArabia. His goal, according to a remark of Noldeke,extended to territories in which he was sure to meet the

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    46/383

    28 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.Eoman enemy. The last of the expeditions which heurged upon his warriors was an attack on the Byzantinekingdom. And the great conquests undertaken directlyafter his death, carried out by those most familiar withhis views, are indeed the best commentaries on his owndesires.

    Islamic tradition itself, in various utterances of theprophet, indicates that he was convinced of having amission to all mankind; to the red and black alike.^It emphasizes the universal characteristic of his missionto the farthest boundaries imaginable.* According totradition the prophet voices, in unmistakable words, thethought of the conquest of the world and foretells it insymbolic acts; indeed, it even finds in the Koran (Sura48, V. 61) the promise of the imminent conquest of theIranic and Roman states.^ Naturally we cannot followthe Moslem theologians as far as this. But making dueallowance for their exaggerations for reasons pointedout, we must still grant that Mohammed had alreadybegun to imagine a great power spreading far beyondthe boundaries of the Arabian nation, and including alarge part of mankind. Shortly after the death of itsfounder it begins its victorious course in Asia and Africa.

    XII. In a comprehensive characterization of Islam itwould be a gross error to place the principal importanceon the Koran, or to found a judgment of Islam simplyon this sacred book of the Moslem community. It coversat the most only the first two decades in the develop-ment of Islam. Throughout the entire history of Islamthe Koran remains as a divine foundation deeply rever-enced by the followers of the religion of Mohammed. Itis the object of a veneration such as has hardly yet beengiven to any other book in the literature of the world.^Even though, as a matter of course, later Islam con-stantly turns back to it as a standard by which to meas-ure the product of all ages, and believes it to be, or at

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    47/383

    MOHAMMED AND ISLAM. 29least, strives to be in harmony with it ; we must not losesight of the fact that it does not by any means sufficefor an understanding of historical Islam.Owing to his own mental changes, as well as to various

    personal experiences, Mohammed himself was forced tonullify several Koranic revelations by means of newerdivine revelations, thereby conceding that he abrogatedby divine command that which, a short time before, hadbeen revealed as the word of God. We must thereforebe prepared for the concessions which appear whenIslam crosses its Arabian boundaries and sets itselfup as a world powerWe cannot understand Islam without the Koran, butthe Koran does not by any means afford us a completeunderstanding of Islam in its course through history.In our next lectures we shall consider more in detail

    the phases of development which led Islam beyond theKoran.

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    48/383

    30 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.NOTES.

    I. 1. ^anleidung tot de Godsdienst wetenschap (Amsterdam 1899)177 fe.II. 1. This syncretic characteristic has been finally proved by K. VoUers

    in an analysis of the ' ' Chidher-legends in which he has found,together with Jewish and Christian elements, also late echoes ofBabylonian and Hellenistic mythology. Archiv fiir Eeligionswis-senchaft 1909. XII 277 ff.

    2. Hubert Grimme has lately emphasized the influence of the ideasprevalent in S. Arabia, especially in his ''Mohammed'^ (Munich1904) and in the * ' Orientalischen Studien (Noldeke-Fest-schrift) 453 ff.

    3. Harnack, ''Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums 93,above.

    III. 1. Kultur d. Gegenw. 94, 12-23 fr. below.IV. i. Ibid. 95. 12 fr. below ff.

    2. This point of view was established by C. Snouck Hurgronje inhis first work ''Het Mekkaansche Feest (Leiden 1880).

    V. 1. This peculiarity has been noticed by the Moslems themselves.Therefore, the following account concerning Abu Euhm al-Ghifari,a comrade of the prophet, is characteristic. During an expedi-tion he rode at the prophet's side on a she-camel. The two ani-mals came so near together that Abu Euhm's rather thick sandalsrubbed the prophet's leg causing him great pain. The prophetgave vent to his wrath by striking Abu Euhm's foot with hisriding whip. The latter, however, was in great perturbation''and he says himself, I feared, that a Koranic revelationwould be given about me, because I had been the cause of thisdreadful thing. ' ' Ibn Sa' d. Biographies IV. I, 180, 4-9.

    2. Of. Noldeke, Gesehichte des Korans (Gottingen 1860) p. 49.(New Edition by Schwally, Leipzig 1909 p. 63).

    3. Nevertheless Moslem theologians do not wish to deny that cer-tain parts of the Koran are more important in content, thanothers. This point of view, sanctioned also by the orthodox, isestablished by Taki al-dia ibn Teymiyya. Jawab alii al-imdn fltafddul ay al-Kur'dn (Cairo 1322; Brockelmann, Hist, of ArabicLit. II 104, No. 19).VI. 1. Cf. E. Geyer in WZKM (1907) XXI 400.

    VII. 1. For the Jewish elements see A. J. Wensinck's dissertation,Mohammed en de Joden te Medina (Leiden 1908). C. H.Becker's work deals with the later development, but it alsothrows light on the early history. Christentum und Islam(Tubingen 1907).

    2. For this summary of the five principal duties see Bukhari, Imdn

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    49/383

    NOTES. 31No. 37, Tafsir No. 208, which also contains the oldest formulaof the Moslem creed.It would be useful for the understanding of the earliest develop-ment of Moslem morals, to investigate what duties from time totime were considered in old documents fimdamental to the beliefand religious practice of Islam. We would like to mention onewhich in a speech attributed to Mohammed is added as a sixthto the five points mentioned in the text and recognized sinceancient times as one of the fundamentals of Islam: ''That thoushouldst offer to men what thou desirest should be offered tothee, and that thou shouldst avoid doing to men what thou dostnot wish to be done to injure thee. (Ibn Sa'd VI 37, 12 ff.;Usd al-ghaha III 266, cf. 275 of the same group.) This lastteaching, taken by itself, appears as a detached speech of Moham-med. The 13th of the 40 traditions of the Nawawi (accordingto Bukhari and Muslim) : ''none of you is a true believer untilhe desires for his brother, that which he desires for himself.'*Cf. Ibn Kuteiba, d. Wiistenfeld 203, 13. A similar saying by'Ali ibn Husein, Ya'kubi, Amiales ed Houtsma II 364, 6 (3).

    3. Cf. now Martin Hartmann Der Islam (Leipzig 1909) p. 18.4. Cf. my treatise on Die Sabbath institution in Islam (Gedenk-

    buch fiir D. Kaufmann, Breslau 1900; p. 89. 91).VIII. 1. Eevue Critique et Litteraire. 1906 p. 307.

    2. See C. H. Becker's excellent remarks in the treatise: 1st derIslam eine Gefehr fiir unsere Kolonien. (Koloniale Eundschau,May 1909, 290 ff.) . Cf . also ' ' L 'Islam et 1 'etat marocain ' ' by Ed.Michaux Bellaire in the Eevue du Monde Musulman 1909, VIII313 ff. for the refutation of the widespread opinion, that theprinciples of Islam hinder practical progress.

    3. Tisdall, The Eeligion of the Crescent (London 1906 j Societyfor promoting Christian knowledge) 62.

    4. Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life quoted by EWestermark, ' ' The Origin and Development of the Moral IdeasII (London 1908) 160, with numerous examples. Because of thelack of an equivalent for the word interesting, Turkish andArabic people have as wrongly jumped to the conclusion that theraces whose native languages these are, lack intellectual curiosity.(Duncan B. Macdonald, The Eeligious Attitude and Life inIslam (Chicago 1909) 121 and Ibid. 122, the quotation fromTurkey in Europe by Odysseus.)

    5. Oldenberg, The Eeligion of the Veda (Berlin 1894) 305, 9.6. Le Livre des Avares ed. G. van Vloten (Leiden 1900)

    212, 3 ff.7. Tisdall 1. c. 88.

    IX. 1. It is the most zealous aim of the pious to imitate even in thesmallest details the Mohammed of the legends gifted with the

    J >

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    50/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    51/383

    NOTES. 33Even the old Sufi Abu-1-Husein al-Nuri assumes this as an

    ethical aim (^ Attar, TadUrat al-auliya ed. E. A. Nicholson,London 1907 II 55, 1). Ibn 'ArabT, from this standpoint ofthe imitation of God, demands the virtue of showing kindness toone's enemy. (Journ. Roy. As. Soc. 1906, p. 819, 10.) Underthe influence of his Sufiistic religious views Ghazali shows up anexhaustive summary of the preceding discussion as follows : ' ' Theperfection and happiness of man consist in the striving for therealization of the qualities of God and also in adorning one-self with the true essence of His attributes.'' In the introduc-tion to his ''Fattihat 'al-ulum (Cairo 1322) he gives as aHadith the saying: takhallaku di-ahUalc illahi (to try to acquirethe qualities of Allah). This is supposed to give deeper signifi-cance to the idea of the names of God {al-Maksad al-asna^Cairo, 1322, p. 23 ff.). Isma'il al-Farani (c. 1485) reflectsGhazali 's point of view in his commentary to Alfarabi (ed. Hor-ten, Zeitschr. fur Assyiiol. XX 350). This conception of theethical aim, in the case of the Sufis, was also influenced by thePlatonic conception, that the desired escape from mortal nature{dv7]T7i (pvccs) lay in ''being as much like God as possible.(Theaet. 176 B. Staat 613 A.) According to later Greek schol-ars ''growing in likeness {tashal)'buh z=: oixoicoais) to the creatoraccording to man's measure of strength (Alfarabi 's Phil-osophische Abhandlungen ed. F. Dieterici, Leiden 1890, 53,15 and often in the writings of the Pure Brethren ) is givenby the Arabian philosophers as the practical aim of philosophy.Sufiism, however, goes a step further in the definition of thesummum bonum, to which we will return further on.

    2. Oriens Christianus 1902, 392.X. 1. Bukhari, Tauliid No. 15. 22. 28. 55. J. Barth

    (Festschrift fiirBerliner, Frankfurt a. M. 1903, 38 No. 6) brings this speechinto a summary of the Midrashic elements in Moslem tradition.

    2. Several commentators place in this group Sura 13, V 14. cf.Kali, AmciU (Bulak, 1324) II 272.

    3. Cf. Hupfeld-Riehm, Commentary to Ps. 18, 27.4. The common saying: Allah yaTcMn al TcM'in (Allah betrays

    the treacherous) is explained in this sense: cf. Mada' atniTcJiada'aM Allah (they have deceived me, may Allah deceive them)(Cf. Sura 4, v. 141) Ibn Sa'd VIII 167, 25. Mu'awiyya in athreatening address to the resisting 'Irakians is said to have usedthe words : ' ' For Allah is strong in attack and in punishment, hedefrauded those who practice perfidy against him. Tabari I2913, 6.

    If then malcr and Iceid, which are ascribed to God, mean nothingbut the frustration of the opponent's cunning, then the phraseMalcr Allah has passed from the Koran into the speech of Islam

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    52/383

    34 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.and been unobjectionably appropriated by it, even in associa-tions wMcli do not fall under that interpretation. A very favor-ite Mohammedan supplication is: ''We seek refuge with Allahfrom the MaTcr Allah (Sheikh Hureyflsh, Kital) al-raud al-fa'ikfi-l-mawd' iz wal-raM'iJc, Cairo 1310, p. 10, 16; 13, 26) whichbelongs in the group of prayers in which one seeks help fromGod with God. (Cf. 'Attar, TadUrat al-auUya II, 80, 11; ZDMGXLVIII 98.) Among the prophet's prayers, which the faith-ful are commanded to use, the following plea is also mentioned:Help me and not those against me, practice malcr for mygood, but do not practice it for my evil. Nawawi, AdMr (Cairo1312) p. 175, 6 according to tradition Tirmidl II 272. This for-mula is found in still stronger form in the prayer-book of theShiites SahifaMmila (see Noldeke-Festschrift 314 below) 33, 6:cf. also the following speech: Even if one of my feet werestanding in paradise, and the other was still outside, I shouldnot feel safe from the Malcr Allah (Subkl, TahaTcdt al-Slmfi'iyyaIII 56, 7 below) cf. 'Attar 1. e. II 178, 21. The Moslems them-selves take this expression as meaning the unavoidable severepunishment of God.

    5. Cf. especially Ibn Sa'd II, I 31, 14.6. Ibid. IV, I 26 above.7. The oldest battles of Islam are set forth from this point of view

    in the Annali dell Islam by Leone Caetani, vol. II passim.XI. 1. Cf. now also Lammens, Etudes sur le regne du Calife Omaiy-

    ade Mo'awia I 422 (in Melanges de la Faculte orientale deI'Universite Saint Joseph III1908286), which rejects theacceptance of the early conception of Islam as a world of religion.

    2. I agree with Noldeke's view (in his review of Caetani 's work,Wiener Zeitschrift f . d. Kunde d. Morgenlandes XXI1907307)Noldeke there emphasizes the passages in the Koran in whichMohammed (already in Mecca) feels himself to be a messen-ger and Warner Tcdffatan lil-nds to all mankind.

    3. i. e. Arabians and Non-Arabians. (Muhammudansche StudienI 269.) But already the old interpreter, Mujahid, assigns theexpression the red to men, the black to the jinn ( Mus-nad Ahmed V, 145 below).

    4. It gives a scope to this universality which exceeds the circleof mankind, in truth, so that not only the jinn are included, butin a certain sense, the angels also. Ibn Hajar al-Heitami inMs Fatawl Hadithiyya (Cairo 1307) 114 fe. gives a lengthyexplanation of the Moslem view of this question.

    5. Ibn Sa'd II, I 83, 25.XII. 1. However one may judge of the rhetorical worth of the Koran,

    one cannot deny an existing bias. The people who were appointedto the unsettled parts, (under the Caliph Abu Bekr and 'Othman)

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    53/383

    NOTES. 35fulfilled their task at times in a very bungling way. With theexception of the oldest short Mecca Suras, which the prophet,even before his flight to Medina, had used as liturgical texts,and which, being detached, short, isolated pieces, were in littledanger of change from being edited, the sacred book, especiallyseveral of the Medina Suras, often present a picture of disorder,of lack of unity, which caused a great deal of trouble and difi-culty to the later expounders, who were obliged to regard thegiven sequence as inviolable. If one is to attack the text of theKoran as was lately urged by Eudolf Geyer (Gott Gel. Anz.1909, 51), with a view to producing ^'an edition truly criticaland in accord with the conclusions of science, one must alsotake into account the removal of verses from the original eon-text as well as interpolations. (Of. August Fischer, in theNoldeke-Festschrift 33 ff.) The confused character of the col-lection appears very clearly in the survey which Noldeke hasgiven concerning the order of detached Suras, in his ''Historyof the Koran (1 ed. pp. 70-174; 2 ed. pp. 87-234).The assumption of interpolations sometimes helps us to explain

    the difficulties. I should like to demonstrate this by an example.In the 246th Sura (from verse 27 on) we are told how decent

    people are to visit each other, how they are to announce them-selves, how they are to greet the inmates, and how women andchildren should then behave. The precepts concerning these rela-tionships have fallen into confusion because from v. 32-34 andfrom V. 35-56 digressions have been introduced which are onlyloosely connected with the main theme. (See Noldeke-Schwallyp. 211.) Finally at v. 57 the announcement of the visit is againtaken up till v. 59. Then v. 60 says: ''It is no restriction forthe blind and no confinement for the lame and no confinementfor you yourselves, that you eat (in anyone) of your houses,or in the houses of your mothers, or in the houses of yourbrothers, or in the houses of your sisters, or in the houses ofyour paternal uncles, or in the houses of your paternal aunts,or in the houses of your maternal uncles, or in the houses ofyour maternal aunts, or of any house of which you have thekey, or of your friend. It lays no crime on you, whether youeat apart or together. (61) And when you enter a house, thengreet each other with a greeting from Allah, fortunate and good. 'Mohammed here gives his people permission to sit freely at tablewith their relatives, to allow themselves to be invited to eateven with female blood-relatives. One can't overlook the factthat the first words of v. 60, which extends the liberty of theblind, lame and ill, in their natural connection have nothing todo with the subject. An author writing of Medicine in theKoran has taken this connection very seriously and has added

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    54/383

    36 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.the criticism to the fact that indeed the company of the blindand lame at meals was not harmful, that, ''on the contrary,a meal in common with a sick person can be very dangerous fromthe standpoint of health. Mohammed would have done better notto object to the disinclination to if (Opitz, ''Die Medizinim Koran,'' Stuttgart 1906, 63.)But upon closer consideration, we see that this passage so for-

    eign to the subject matter was introduced from another group.It did not originally concern itself with the question of takingpart in meals outside of one's own house, but rather with tak-ing part in the warlike undertakings of young Islam. In theSura 48 v. 11-16, the prophet declaims against those Arabianswho remain behind, who did not take part in the warlike expe-ditions, and threatens them with severe divine punishment.To that he adds v. 17: It is no compulsion (leisa . . . harajun)for the blind, and it is no compulsion for the lame, and it isno compulsion for the sick ' 'in the text word for word like Sura24 V. 60a, i. e., the remaining away of such people or of thoseseriously prevented for some other reason, counts as pardoned.This saying has now been introduced into other connections asa foreign element, and has apparently influenced the editing ofthe verse whose original beginning has not been construed in aright way. Even Moslem commentators, although without recog-nizing an interpolation, have tried to explain, the words accord-ing to their natural meaning as a pardon to those who remainaway from battle on account of bodily inability; but they mustsubmit to the objection to this view, that according to it, thepassage in question does not accord with what precedes andwhat follows. (Baidawi, ed. Fleischer II 31, 6.)

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    55/383

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    56/383

    38 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.through the wide sphere which was now opening beforethem.

    It was the events through w^hich Islam came into con-tact with other spheres of thought that first awoke in thebreasts of its more thoughtful followers real speculationon religious problems,speculation hitherto dormant inthe Arab. Moreover, the religious laws and ordinancespertaining to practical life, and the forms of legal ritual,were scanty and indefinite.The unfolding of the world of Moslem thought as well

    as the definite directions given to the various forms ofits manifestations and the establishment of its institu-tions, are all the result of the work of following genera-tions. Nor is this result brought about without inwardconflicts and without adjustments. How wrong it wouldbe under these circumstances to assume, as is oftenasserted at present, that Islam ^'enters the world as arounded system. ^'^ On the contrary, the Islam ofMohammed and of the Koran is immature and needsfor its completion the activity of the coming generations.We wish first to consider only a few requirements ofthe external life. The most immediate needs were pro-vided for by Mohammed and his helpers. We may creditthe tradition which tells us that Mohammed himselfestablished a graded tariff for the impost taxes.- Theconditions of his own time make it imperative to raisethe zakdt from the primitive level of communistic almsto a regulated governmental tax of an obligatory amount.

    After his death such regulations were, by sheer neces-sity, forced more and more into prominence. The sol-diers scattered through distant provinces, especiallythose who did not come from the religious circle ofMedina, had not gotten their bearings as to the mode ofreligious practices. And first now for the politicaldemands.The continuous wars and the extensive conquests

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    57/383

    THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 39demanded the establishment of military standards aswell as further laws for the conquered peoples. Theselaws had to deal with the legal status of the subjectsand with the economic problems arising from new con-ditions. It was especially the energetic caliph, ^Omar,the actual founder of the Moslem state, whose great con-quests in Syria, including Palestine and Egypt, broughtabout the first definite regulation of political and eco-nomic questions.IL The details of these regulations cannot interest ushere, since for our purposes the general knowledge of

    the fact is alone of importance, namely that the legaldevelopment of Islam began immediately after theprophet 's death and kept pace with its need.One of these details I must nevertheless take up, on

    account of its importance for an understanding of thecharacter of this early period. It is not to be denied thatthe 'oldest demands laid upon the conquering Moslemsface to face with the conquered unbelievers (in this firstphase of Moslem legal development), were penetratedwith the spirit of toleration.^ Whatever semblance ofreligious tolerance yet remains in Moslem states, andsuch semblances have been frequently verified by eight-eenth century travelers, goes back to the first half ofthe seventh century with its outspoken principle of free-dom in religious practices granted to monotheists ofanother faith.The tolerant attitude of ancient Islam drew its author-

    ity from the Koran (2, v. 257). ^^ There is no compulsionin belief. '^^ Even in later times in a few cases peoplefell back on this to ward oif from those heretics who hadbeen forced to embrace Islam the severe penal conse-quences generally the lot of apostates.^The accounts of the first Moslem decade offer many

    an example of the religious tolerance of the first caliphstowards followers of the ancient religions. The direc-

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    58/383

    40 MOHAMMED AND ISLAM.tions given to the leaders of conquering bands are veryinstructive. As a leading example we have the contractwhich.the prophet made with the Christians of Nejran,guaranteeing* the protection of Christian institutions;and also the directions which he gives Mu'ad ibn Jebelfor his conduct in Yemen: ^^No Jew is to be disturbedin his Judaism.''^ The peace treaties conceded to theByzantine empire crumbling more and more under Islam,were actuated by this lofty spirit^ though there werecertain barriers against the public practice of religiousceremonies (they could practice their religion undis-turbed) by the payment of a toleration tax (jizya). Onthe other hand, it is noteworthy that an historical studyof the sources leads to the conclusions^ that many arestriction,^ introduced in these old days, did not comeinto practice until a time more favorable to fanaticism.This, for example, holds true of the decree against thebuilding of new, or the repairing of old, churches. ^ OmarII in his narrow-mindedness, was apparently the first totake such a measure seriously. His example was readilyfollowed by rulers of the stamp of the ^Abbaside Muta-wakkil. And the fact that such stern rulers found occa-sion to attack temples of other faiths erected since theconquest, is in itself proof that there had hitherto beenno hindrance to such erections.

    Just as the principle of tolerance ruled in the sphereof religion, so it did in that of every-day life,in factthe kindly treatment of heretics in civic and economicmatters was raised to the level of law. The oppressionof non-Moslems (ahl al-diimna) who were under Moslemprotection, was condemned as a sin.^ When the governorof the Lebanon province once took very severe actionagainst the inhabitants, who had revolted against theoppression of the tax gatherers, he was incurring therebuke of the prophet : ' ^He who oppresses a protege andlays heavy burdens upon him, I myself will appear as his

  • 8/13/2019 Mohammed and Islam

    59/383

    THE DEVELOPMENT OF LAW. 41accuser on the judgment day.'^^ Until quite recentlythere used to be pointed out the site of the *^ Jew'shouse/' in the vicinity of Bostra, about which Porterin his book ^^Five Years in Damascus/' tells the follow- ^ing legend. *Omar had once torn down a mosque stand-ing on this site, because the governor had seized a Jew'shouse in order to replace it by a mosque.^^IIL Wliile, in this constructive period, the first task

    was to decide the judicial relation of conquering Islamto the subjected nations, still, the inner religious life andits legal regulation could not be ignored in any of itsbranches. In the case of the soldiers who had alreadybeen scattered far and wide, before the religious ritesand ceremonies had been definitely fixed, and who inthese distant lands forme


Recommended