STUDIES IN THE FAITHS. II. 
 
 ISLAM 
 
[All rights reserved."] 
 
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ISLAM 
 
 BY 
 
 ANNIE H. MALL 
 
 AUTHOR OF 
 ' YESHUDAS,' 'SUWARTA,' 'STUDIES IN BUDDHISM,' ETC. 
 
 
 
 ' : 
 .. 
 
 . - 
 
 1905 
 LONDON 
 
 J. M. DENT & CO. 
 
 NEW YORK: E. P. BUTTON & CO. 
 

 ) 
 
 RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 BREAD STREET HILL, E.G., AND 
 
 BUNGAY, SUFFOLK. 
 

 PREFACE 
 
 PERHAPS mutual understanding and 
 sympathy are more difficult between 
 Christianity and Islam than between any 
 two of the world's living Faiths. On the 
 side of Islam is the too-little remembered 
 fact that the only Christianity of which she 
 is, so to speak, officially conscious, is the 
 least true, the least pure ; while on the 
 Christian side, we tend to turn even from 
 such points of contact as exist between 
 ourselves and this latest of the Faiths with 
 an undefined shrinking from the possibility 
 of sympathy : the prophet repels us, the 
 religion repels us, the moral code repels 
 us, the history repels us. When we dis- 
 cover that Islam claims to supersede 
 Christianity, we are filled with indignation 
 and horror. When we discover, as we do 
 at intervals, how dark the darkness of 
 
 O ^ ,fl Q Q 
 
 At ( 4 o o 
 
vi Preface 
 
 Muslim lands and how cruel the tender 
 mercies of Muslim rule may be, we desire 
 nothing better than that Islam should be 
 blotted from off the face of the earth. 
 
 But Islam is still a world power, before 
 which the Christian nations of Europe 
 have stood helpless even while fellow- 
 Christians have been cruelly and wickedly 
 entreated. Islam cannot be ignored nor 
 despised. Rather it is imperative that it 
 should be studied, if possible with sym- 
 pathy, by the Christian peoples, in order 
 that the Muslim motive power may be 
 understood, and that Islam may be met face 
 to face, as it must one day be met by 
 Christianity, worthily and Christianly. 
 What if the inevitable battle should be 
 fought by the armies of the Cross, rather 
 than by the armies of the Nations ? 
 
 This little book has been prepared, not 
 primarily as a study of Islam, but rather 
 to indicate directions which Christian, 
 and especially Missionary, thought might 
 
Preface vii 
 
 profitably take. For the sake of those who 
 have not already some knowledge of Islam 
 itself, or of its doctrines as they compare 
 with those of our own Faith, the chapters 
 have followed these two lines ; but matters 
 of great importance to the special student 
 have been necessarily omitted ; and others 
 have been very lightly touched upon. For 
 the guidance of any who are desirous of 
 making a more exhaustive study of this 
 most important of all subjects, to those 
 who have at heart the honour of Christ and 
 His speedy reign, there is available a very 
 large literature, in English, German, and 
 French, upon Islam and its relation to 
 Christianity. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. ISLAM . . . . u 
 
 1. THE APOSTLE OF ISLAM . 13 
 
 2. THE GREAT THOUGHTS OF ISLAM . 20 
 
 3. THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ISLAM . 32 
 
 4. THE SOLIDARITY OF ISLAM . . 42 
 
 II. ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY . 47 
 
 1. MUHAMMAD AND JESUS . . 49 
 
 2. THE FATHER-GOD . . 54 
 
 3. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE . . 57 
 
 4. THE FAILURE OF CHRISTIANITY . 61 
 
 III. THE COMING BATTLE . . 67 
 
 IX 
 
I 
 
 ISLAM 
 

 IN THE NAME OF THE MOST MERCIFUL 
 
 GOD. 
 
 Praise be to God, Lord of the worlds 
 
 'The most merciful 
 
 The King of the day of Judgment. 
 
 Thee only do we worship, and to Thee do we 
 
 cry for help. 
 
 Guide Thou us in the straight way- 
 In the way of those to whom Thou hast been 
 
 gracious- 
 
 With whom Thou art not angry 
 And who go not astray. Amen. 
 
 The great Prayer of Islam. 
 
 12 
 

 
 THE APOSTLE OF ISLAM. 
 
 " By the brightness of the morning, 
 
 and by the night when it groweth dark 
 Thy Lord hath not forsaken thee, 
 
 Neither doth He hate thee. 
 Verily the life to come shall be better for thee 
 
 than this present life, 
 and thy Lord shall give thee a reward 
 with which thou shalt be well pleased. 
 
 " Did He not find thee an orphan , 
 
 and hath He not taken care of thee ? 
 Did He notjind thee wandering in error, 
 
 and hath He not guided thee into the truth ? 
 Did He notjind thee needy, 
 
 and hath He not enriched thee ? 
 Wherefore oppress not the orphan, neither 
 
 repulse the beggar, 
 but declare the goodness of the Lord." 
 
 Sura xcvi. 
 
1 4 Islam 
 
 THERE is in the story of Islam an interest 
 quite unique ; it is the work of one unaided 
 mind, the mind of a man unlettered and 
 ignorant, who came of an isolated people, 
 and who gained such knowledge as he had 
 of the great world from hearsay as he 
 travelled between Central Arabia and 
 Syria in charge of the merchant caravan of 
 his mistress. This man, morally very frail 
 to our thinking, is all but divine to two 
 hundred millions of men and women. 
 His word is final to them ; it alone reveals 
 God, it alone guides life, it alone commands 
 all Muslim rulers, and it defies Christianity 
 as no other power has done. 
 
 Muhammad lived six hundred years after 
 Christ, his Faith came into existence in 
 full view of Christianity, it publicly claims 
 to be a higher revelation and to supersede 
 Christianity ; and the Christian nations 
 have not yet disproved the claim. The 
 attempt has not indeed been made, unless 
 we reckon the chivalrous and ill-fated 
 
The Apostle of Islam 1 5 
 
 missions of the Crusades to redeem the Holy 
 Sepulchre from the hands of the Muslim. 
 Whether Christianity realizes the fact of 
 her failure in this respect, or not, Islam is 
 fully conscious of it. 
 
 Muhammad the Praised One was Muham- 
 born at Mecca on August 29th, 570 A.D. mac * 
 He was left an orphan while still a little 
 child, and was adopted by an uncle. Later 
 he became steward to a lady of Mecca, 
 Khadija, who asked him to become her 
 husband, and was, until her death, his 
 faithful and loving wife. This marriage 
 procured for Muhammad that which he 
 coveted above all things, leisure for the 
 study of the things of God. 
 
 The time was past when the idol- 
 atrous worship of his tribe the religious 
 tribe of Arabia had any meaning for him. 
 He had had glimpses of a purer, a more 
 satisfying Faith. Both Jews and Christians 
 had crossed his path, who had spoken or 
 the one God : Creator, Ruler, Provider ; 
 
1 6 Islam 
 
 and the idea had seized and held his 
 The Call imagination. Upon this idea he now medi- 
 tated in his chosen retreat, a cave near 
 Mecca, until it possessed him ; he dreamed 
 dreams and saw visions, and at length 
 came forth to make them known, being 
 assured that he had been called to proclaim 
 the reign of the one only God upon earth. 
 Rejection But the people of Mecca, custodians of 
 the religious traditions of Arabia, would 
 have none of this new doctrine ; they 
 fiercely opposed the preacher, and very 
 soon drove him and his little company of 
 disciples (of whom his wife had been the 
 first) from the city. 
 
 Flight The Hajrat^ or Flight, from which dates 
 the Muhammadan era, took place on July 
 i6th, 622 A.D. 
 
 A refuge was found in the rival city of 
 Madina. 
 
 Madina At Madina, Muhammad found leisure to 
 mature and carry out the Idea which had 
 now possessed him that he should found a 
 
The Apostle of Islam 1 7 
 
 Reign of God upon the earth. " Behind the 
 quiet and unobtrusive exterior," writes Sir 
 William Muir, u lay hid a resolve, a strength 
 and fixedness of will, a sublime determina- 
 tion, destined to achieve the marvellous 
 work of bowing towards himself the heart 
 of all Arabia as the heart of one man." 
 There is, to the sympathetic student of his 
 
 life, nothing wonderful in the hold which 
 
 . 
 
 Muhammad took upon his followers. | He 
 mastered men by the force of his iron will, 
 and then won them by the force of his 
 noble and generous nature._J 
 
 Many words have been wasted upon the Character 
 problems of the character of this sixth- 
 century Prophet, and it is not intended to 
 enter upon them here. It must be re- 
 membered that if the vision of Muhammad 
 was world-wide while his personal life 
 remained at the limit of his time and his 
 isolated race, there are not lacking similar 
 examples elsewhere of great leaders whose 
 private lives we explain by their generation 
 
 B 
 
1 8 Islam 
 
 and surroundings ; also, it is probably wise, 
 that until we know and are able to sym- 
 pathize with the Arabic character, we of the 
 West should say little in way of condemna- 
 tion, all the more that condemnation of 
 the Prophet is not the method to win men 
 from his allegiance. 
 
 Personal There is a far more important ques- 
 r^i * 
 
 1 tion which may not be passed over. Did 
 
 Muhammad realize the personal claim in- 
 volved in his religious message ? Was 
 his soul so pre-occupied with the grand 
 Idea that his own relation to it was 
 not at first apparent ? For, it cannot 
 be forgotten that from the beginning the 
 second Article of the Muslim Creed was 
 inherent in the first. God is known as 
 God to the Muslim only because the 
 Apostle of God has proclaimed Him to be 
 God. Muhammad is the Revealer of God, 
 and God is God. This is the true and 
 inevitable order. 
 
 This claim, as a foundation of belief, was 
 
The Apostle of Islam 1 9 
 
 the source of success of the arms of Islam 
 in the past, and is the living power of Islam 
 to-day ; at the same time, it was and is the 
 test of the man and of his message. Is 
 Muhammad the Revealer of God ? There 
 is possible one answer only to the question, 
 so far as the disciples of the Christ Whom 
 he claimed to supersede are concerned ; 
 but the answer does not end the story of 
 the relation between Christianity and the 
 Arabian Prophet. Would that it did ! 
 
 Muhammad died at Madina on June Death 
 9th, 632 A.D., in his sixty-second year. 
 His death was peace. His last words were, 
 " The blessed Companionship on high." 
 
 Being dead this man still rules. In all The dead 
 human history there is no more striking hand 
 illustration of the might of the " dead 
 hand ' than is presented in Islam. 
 
THE GREAT THOUGHTS OF ISLAM. 
 
 I. GOD. 
 
 La-ilaha-Il-lal-laho. There is no God save God. 
 
 " Say, God is one God; the eternal God : He beget- 
 teth not, neither is begotten : There is not any one like 
 unto Him. 
 
 " Dost thou not know that God is almighty ? Dost 
 thou not know that unto God belongeth the Kingdom of 
 Heaven ? neither have ye any protector or helper except 
 God. 
 
 " To God belongeth the East and the West ; therefore 
 wheresoever ye turn yourselves to pray, there is the face of 
 God ; for God is omnipresent and omniscient. 
 
 " Tour God is one God, there is no God but He, the 
 most merciful." 
 
 It was with a very simple message, 
 apparently, that Muhammad came forth 
 from his long meditation in his lonely cave. 
 The message was not even original. Not 
 only had Arab mystics already dreamt of 
 the aloneness of God, but there were Jews 
 and Christians, inheritors of the same 
 supreme truth, settled here and there over 
 the land ; .and Muhammad had come into 
 
 20 
 
The Great 'Thoughts of Islam 21 
 
 contact with both during his early Syrian 
 journeys. The Idea had become familiar 
 to him long before. 
 
 But, the God of Muhammad's con- The God 
 templations was not the God of Judaism, 
 
 r ... . hammad 
 
 nor the God of Christianity ; he deliberately 
 
 rejected both Faiths. True, God is Spirit, 
 God is one, God is alone, God is Creator ; 
 He is the al-knowing, al-present, al- 
 governing One. High attributes are 
 ascribed to Him, as in the ninety-nine 
 Names which the pious Mussulman rever- 
 ently repeats with the aid of his string of 
 beads ; but neither these, nor the various 
 attributes ascribed to Him in the Quran 
 itself, largely affect the Muslim conception 
 of God. ' 
 
 The God of Muhammad is a Being of 
 two supreme characteristics. He is the 
 supreme Will, and His Will is carried 
 into effect by His supreme Power. 
 
 Will : absolute, eternal, unchanging ; 
 far above such human distinctions as right 
 
2 2 Islam 
 
 and wrong, justice and injustice. That 
 which the Will of God ordains, that is 
 right, just, and final. 
 
 Power : so unrestrained, so awful, 
 carries that Will into effect, that there exists 
 no will or power save God's alone. That 
 which is ordained, good or evil, righteous 
 or unrighteous in man's poor view, is of 
 God. He is the only Doer. "In the 
 creation of heaven and earth, and in the ship 
 which sails on the sea . . . ALL is GOD." 
 All creatures, even man, are in the awful 
 grip of this great Spirit, helpless ; they do 
 that which He ordains, that and no other. 
 
 " Why are you so naughty ? ' 
 
 " God knows." 
 
 The reply of the little child is the reply 
 of Islam to all problems. It is the secret 
 of the awful fatalism which paralyzes men's 
 emotions and will. Two countenances 
 remain, after many years, vividly impressed 
 upon my memory ; that of a man, guilty 
 of crime and under severe sentence, whom 
 
The Great ^Thoughts of Islam 23 
 
 no appeal could move from his perfect 
 serenity. He was not a hardened criminal ; 
 he was simply convinced that God was the 
 Doer of the deed and he himself only the 
 instrument for the carrying out of His 
 will. The other was a father, carrying in 
 his arms a dearly-loved little child to the 
 grave. He moved rapidly down the 
 crowded street at the head of the proces- 
 sion of mourners, unconscious either of 
 curiosity or of sympathy around him. 
 The set grim expression might have sug- 
 gested the idea of Spartan endurance, save 
 for the deep eyes which gazed into the far 
 distance, and told unmistakably of the 
 submission of a strong will to a Stronger, 
 the will of his God. 
 
 This awful God has taken hold of the 
 imagination of all Islam. He was very 
 real to the Prophet, and the Prophet has 
 communicated his faith to those who have 
 followed him. Mussulmans may be, in 
 our sense, bad men, but they are rarely 
 
24 Islam 
 
 irreligious men. There are no atheists in 
 Islam. A man who, under the influence of 
 English secular education, lightly declared 
 that he had grown beyond so childish a 
 superstition, which however he declared 
 to be " good for women and children," 
 changed countenance while we discussed 
 the religious education of his wife. He 
 could not rid himself easily of the con- 
 victions of his childhood, as the grave face 
 and reverent voice bore witness. 
 
 But, the Will of God is far more 
 present in the thought of the Muslim than 
 is God Himself. God touches his life 
 through His Will only. God is apart ; 
 seeing, knowing and judging indeed, but 
 apart in His absolute sovereignty, in the 
 inexorable way in which He carries out 
 His Purpose. We have, therefore, as a 
 corrolary to the teaching regarding the Will, 
 the teaching of the pitiful helplessness of 
 man in His Hand. God may crush me ; 
 He can do it ; I can say nothing. In 
 
'The Great Thoughts of Islam 25 
 
 conversation with a woman on one occa- 
 sion reference was made to the Christian 
 doctrine of the assurance of the child 
 relation with God. She exclaimed, " Surely 
 that is blasphemy ; it is almost like saying 
 what the Will of God for you is. If saved, 
 God is merciful ; if cast into Jahannam 
 (hell), God is just." 
 
 ISLAM means resignation, submission, 
 homage, to this Will of God. The 
 relation of the Muslim to his God is truly 
 expressed in the word. 
 
 Thus early do Christ and Muhammad 
 part company. 
 
 2. THE WORD OF GOD. 
 
 " // is He Who hath sent down unto you the book of 
 the Quran, distinguishing between good and evil ; and 
 they to whom W 'e gave the scripture know that it is sent 
 down from thy Lord, with truth ; Be not therefore one 
 of these ( who doubt thereof. The words of the Lord are 
 
26 Islam 
 
 perfect in truth and justice ; there is none 'who can change 
 His 'words ; He both heareth and knoweth" 
 
 The Will of God is supreme in His 
 universe ; Islam tells in one word the 
 relation of the Faithful to that Will ; and 
 the Will is revealed to men in its final form 
 Quran the Quran. The Quran descended from 
 highest heaven complete, and was passed 
 on by the Angel to the Prophet Sura by 
 Sura, as its message was required. The 
 Quran supersedes all other scriptures, it is 
 the eternal Divine Word ; there is no 
 further truth to be revealed, for this is 
 literally the last word of God to man. 
 The human language medium is Arabic, 
 and as each several word is an Act of God, 
 the very words are sacred. There cannot, 
 therefore, be any authorized translation of 
 the Quran ; and, as in its completeness it 
 is one undivided message, to issue it in 
 parts would be grievous sin. The book is 
 published and used in many lands, and 
 passes through many hands, but so great 
 
'The Great Thoughts cf Islam 27 
 
 has been the care that it should be pre- 
 served perfect, that it is believed to be 
 practically unchanged since the scattered 
 leaves were gathered reverently together 
 after the Prophet's death. There is no 
 doctrine of inspiration so high as this. 
 
 3. THE THOUGHT OF SIN. 
 
 " Man chooseth to be wicked for the time which is 
 before him. He asketh, When shall the day of resurrec- 
 tion be ? But 'when the night shall be dazzled, and the 
 moon shall be eclipsed, and the sun and the moon shall be 
 in conjunction, on that day man shall say, Where is a 
 place of refuge ? By no means ; there shall be no place 
 to fly unto. With thy Lord shall be a sure mansion of 
 rest in that day ; on that day shall man be told that <which 
 he hath done, first and last. Tea, a man shall be an 
 evidence against himself; and though he offer his excuses, 
 they shall not be received." 
 
 " There shall every soul experience that 'which it shall 
 have sent before it" 
 
 As is the God so are His worshippers ; 
 and the conception of the religious life in 
 

 28 Islam 
 
 Islam follows naturally upon the conception 
 of God. Thus, sin is terrible, but not first 
 Sin as a deviation from a standard of absolute 
 righteousness ; it is terrible because it is 
 rebellion against an awful majesty. This 
 is fundamental. Yet to say that Islam is 
 non-moral, that sin is an arbitrary term, and 
 that reward and punishment are in the 
 hands of an arbitrary God, is not the whole 
 truth. There are two kinds of sin (re- 
 mindingus of the Roman Catholic doctrine), 
 sin greater and lesser. Among the greater 
 sins are 
 
 Unfaithfulness to God. 
 
 Despair of the mercy of God, or 
 
 Too strong an assurance of God's mercy. 
 
 False witness when on oath. 
 
 The practice of magic. 
 
 Drunkenness. 
 
 Theft. 
 
 Usury. 
 
 Murder. 
 
 Disobedience to parents. 
 
*T/ie Great Thoughts of Islam 29 
 
 Flight before unbelievers in battle. 
 
 Seizing the property of the orphan. 
 And the constant repetition of lesser sins 
 becomes a greater sin. 
 
 Lesser sins are very many, and are not 
 enumerated ; among them are gambling, 
 the use of images in worship, and slander. 
 Punishment awarded by the law is very 
 severe ; the punishment awarded by God 
 is as He shall ordain. The future has a 
 great share in the thought of the people of 
 the East ; they are less materialistic, less 
 bound up in the present life than those of 
 the West. Therefore the present life is 
 more affected by the future possibilities, 
 and in the case of a larger proportion of 
 men and women than is the case with us. 
 
 4. THE JUDGMENT OF GOD. 
 
 " The striking. What is the striking ? and 'what shall 
 make thee to understand how terrible the striking will be ? 
 On that day men shall be like moths scattered abroad, and 
 
3 o Islam 
 
 the mountains shall be like carded 'wool of 'various colours 
 driven by the wind ; moreover, he 'whose balance shall be 
 heavy with good works shall lead a pleasing life ; but as 
 to him 'whose balance shall be light his dwelling shall be 
 the pit of hell. What shall make thee to understand how 
 frightful the pit of hell is ? It is a burning Jlre." 
 
 Judgment Much has been said and written about the 
 Muslim Paradise, and there are indeed no 
 parts of the Quran so weak as those which 
 dwell upon the sweets of the future life of the 
 Faithful. Serious Mussulmans, when on 
 rare occasions 1 have heard them refer to 
 this subject, have invariably explained these 
 passages as symbolical. However that 
 may be, the passages in the Quran which 
 teach of the day of resurrection and of 
 judgment are frequent and solemn. No 
 doubt the judgment of God is used as a 
 threat against unbelievers, but it is also 
 
 D 
 
 continually addressed to the Faithful as 
 a motive ; and these teachings have, as I 
 believe, far greater influence upon the life 
 of the religious Muslim than all the pro- 
 mised joys of Paradise. 
 
The Great Thoughts of Islam 3 1 
 
 " What thinkest thou of him who denieth 
 the future judgment as a falsehood ? It is 
 he who pusheth away the orphan , and stirreth 
 not up others to feed the poor. Woe be unto 
 those who pray and who are negligent at their 
 prayer ; who play the hypocrites, and deny 
 necessaries to the needy''' 
 
 This was the message of the Arabian 
 Apostle. 
 
 
 
THE RELIGIOUS LIFE IN ISLAM. 
 
 " Clothe not the truth 'with vanity, 
 
 neither conceal the truth against your own 
 
 knowledge ; 
 Observe the stated seasons of prayer, 
 
 and pay your legal alms, 
 
 and bow down yourselves with those who 
 
 bow down. 
 Will ye command men to do justice^ 
 
 and forget your own souls ? 
 Tet ye read the books of the law ; 
 
 do ye not therefore understand ? 
 
 I. THE REPETITION OF THE CREED. 
 
 La ildha Il-lal-laho, Muhammad-ur-Rasul- 
 Ullah. 
 
 God is the alone God, and Muhammad is 
 the Apostle of God. 
 
 Kalima The Creed must be repeated by the true 
 Muslim once at the least during his life- 
 
The Religious Life of Islam 33 
 
 time. This is the confession of the lips, 
 and must be made correctly and without 
 hesitation ; it is also the confession of the 
 heart, and must be held till death. 
 
 2. THE DAILY DEVOTIONS. 
 
 "Therefore glorify God when the evening overtaketh 
 you, and when ye rise in the morning; 
 
 And unto him be praise in heaven and earth, and at 
 sunset, and when ye rest at noon." 
 
 There are five services of prayer daily, Sulat 
 observed with great regularity by all 
 religious men and women. The form is 
 liturgical ; the word Sid at has rather the 
 meaning of devotional service than of hours 
 
 D 
 
 of prayer. The first hour is at dawn of day. Hours 
 The second is at noon. The third is 
 between four and five in the afternoon. 
 The fourth service is held as the sun 
 disappears beneath the horizon. The fifth 
 is at the retiring hour at night. 
 
 Before prayer all Mussulmans cleanse Prepara- 
 face, ears and nostrils, hands and feet ; tion 
 
34 Islam 
 
 that they may be free of all bodily 
 pullution before entering the presence of 
 God. Many change their garments each 
 time they pray. The room is cleaned, 
 and the worshipper who has cleaned the 
 room changes his garments before engaging 
 in the service. 
 
 Solemnity This service of prayer in the case of 
 serious worshippers is very touching to the 
 sympathetic witness ; it is true, as so many 
 critics of Islam have noted, that prayer is 
 formal, and is repeated in an unknown 
 tongue ; but to those who know the heart 
 hunger which constantly finds expression in 
 that five-times-repeated daily liturgy, who 
 would fain change the constant refrain 
 <c God is great" for the gladder " God is 
 love," the service, whether in the mosque, 
 in the home, or on the wayside, is one of 
 the most pathetic appeals addressed to the 
 unknown God by any people. 
 
 There is no mediation ; prayer is 
 offered directly to God, the only reference 
 
The Religious Life of Islam 35 
 
 to the Prophet being a prayer " for 
 Muhammad and his descendants." 
 
 Prayer is always offered in the sacred 
 language. 
 
 3. RAMADHAN, THE MONTH OF FASTING. 
 
 " true believers, a fast is ordained you, as it <was 
 ordained to those before you, that ye may fear God. A 
 certain number of days shall ye fast ; but he among you 
 <who shall be sick, or on a journey, shall fast an equal 
 number of other days. And those who can keep it and do 
 not, must reckon their neglect by maintaining of a poor 
 man. And he ivho voluntarily dealeth better 'with the 
 poor man than he is obliged, this shall be better for him. 
 But if ye fast it 'will be better for you, if ye kne'w it." 
 
 It is probable that Muhammad ordained Roza 
 the month of fasting in imitation of the 
 Christian Lent. Ramadhan, the ninth 
 month of the year, made sacred for ever 
 by the descent of the Quran from highest 
 heaven, to be revealed to the Angel Gabriel 
 (who delivered it as required to the 
 Prophet), is set apart for this religious 
 
3 6 Islam 
 
 sacrifice. Every Mussulman is on the look- 
 out for the first appearance of the new 
 moon, sign of the beginning of the fast 
 (the lunar year is followed), and from 
 that evening for thirty days, from dawn 
 until sunset neither food nor water is 
 touched. When Ramadhan in the course 
 of the years occurs in the hot season, the 
 fast is terrible in its severity. Cloudless 
 sky, scorching sun, burning winds, and not 
 one drop of water to quench the awful 
 thirst ; and at the same time additional 
 prayers, with the accompanying genu- 
 flections ; this while the day's task must 
 still be accomplished ; it is a terrible test 
 of the obedience and devotion of the 
 Faithful. It is true that travellers, invalids, 
 women nursing little children, and the 
 weak, are exempt ; but the fasts are 
 supposed to be made up, and we have 
 known many who have struggled through 
 the month, who were quite unfit for it. 
 The early morning and evening meal- 
 
The Religious Life of Islam 37 
 
 taken before dawn and after sunset is not 
 appetizing, for it is always composed of 
 stale food. 
 
 I have never known any religious man 
 or woman who regarded the fast as a hard- 
 ship. " It is little we can do to serve 
 God," said one woman. Little children 
 plead to be allowed to fast. Boys and 
 girls become utterly exhausted, parched 
 and fainting, in homes where religious 
 observances are faithfully kept. 
 
 4. ALMSGIVING. 
 
 " Forget not liberality among you, for God seeth that Zakat 
 'which ye do." 
 
 " The Lord is surely in a watch-tower, 'whence he 
 observeth the actions of men. Moreover man, when his 
 Lord trieth him by prosperity, and honoureth him, and is 
 bounteous to him, saith : My Lord honoureth me ; but 
 when he proveth him by afflictions, and withholdeth His 
 provisions from him, he saith : My Lord despiseth me. 
 By no means; but ye honour not the orphan, neither do ye 
 excite one another to feed the poor ; and ye devour the 
 inheritance of the weak, 'with undistinguishing greediness ; 
 ana 1 ye love riches with much affection. . . . 
 
3 8 Islam 
 
 " thou soul which art at rest, return unto thy Lord, 
 well pleased with thy reward, and well pleasing unto out- 
 God ; enter among my servants, and enter Paradise. " 
 
 A fortieth part of the income belongs to 
 the poor, and is, in Muslim lands, a com- 
 pulsory tax. It is distinct from private 
 almsgiving. 
 
 5. PILGRIMAGE. 
 
 Hajj " They who shall disbelieve, and obstruct the way oj 
 God, and hinder men from "visiting the holy temple at 
 Mecca, 'which We have appointed for a place of worship 
 unto all men ; the inhabitant thereof and the stranger have 
 an equal right to visit it" 
 
 Islam is scattered in many lands ; but 
 the idea of Muhammad was of a universal 
 Kingdom. The idea was never realized, 
 but the grip of the master hand is felt to 
 this day. Each of the duties of the Faith 
 is a symbol of its unity ; but the constrain- 
 ing symbol is the centralization at Mecca. 
 This is the sole remaining sign of the 
 great vision. Islam is far scattered ; it is 
 
The Religious Life of Islam 39 
 
 broken into many sects ; there are language 
 separations, and deeper racial separations ; 
 but the whole unwieldy system and follow- 
 ing is bound together by the Mecca 
 pilgrimage, the least spiritual thing in the 
 whole system. Muhammad made a brave 
 battle for the unity and pure spirituality of 
 God. But it was the deepest desire of his 
 heart to win Mecca. He did so at the 
 expense of his central belief. Mussulmans 
 visit the idolatrous city to-day as they did 
 in the long past idolatrous ages. The 
 visible church of Islam is not a pure and 
 beautiful and worthy mosque ; it is the 
 old idolatrous stone of Mecca. 
 
 Every true Muslim is bound to visit 
 Mecca at the least once in his lifetime. 
 
 6. SOCIAL MORALITY. 
 
 The social morality of Islam is notwith- Social 
 standing the marriage laws very high. Morality 
 and is guided by such virtues as these : 
 
40 Islam 
 
 modesty, honesty, kindness and brotherli- 
 ness. When Muhammad fled from Mecca 
 with his followers, and settled in Madina, 
 the little community was a commonwealth, 
 and that ideal has been retained in wonder- 
 ful manner throughout the centuries and 
 the far wanderings. There is no caste in 
 Islam, neither the Eastern nor the Western 
 form of that system. Each man stands in 
 the same relation to the God Who rules 
 him, and the consequent brotherhood is a 
 very real thing. Poor and rich are not 
 divided, to be poor is in itself a claim, and if 
 a poor man comes to a rich man for aid, 
 the rich man regards it as a favour. The 
 laws of hospitality are most noble ; 
 strangers are assured in any Muslim house 
 of a welcome, a meal, a rest, and if need be, 
 even of clothing. Hospitality is an act of 
 worship. 
 
 The aged are held in a beautiful 
 reverence ; the poor, and especially the 
 orphan, is cared for as a religious duty ; in 
 
The Religious Life of Islam 41 
 
 the home the patriarchal system still rules, 
 the servant is a part of the family, and is 
 treated with kindness. Is he not a brother 
 in the Faith ? 
 
 The position of woman remains as it was 
 left by Muhammad thirteen hundred years 
 ago for there is no growth in Islam and 
 it is not easy to define it. On the one hand 
 is the marriage law, which gives to the 
 husband full power over his wife or wives ; 
 on the other, the property law, which 
 grants to a woman holding property in 
 her own right, absolute control over it. 
 In the latter respect, therefore, the law of 
 Islam is in advance of the law of great 
 Britain. I have known the curious 
 anomaly of a woman whose person was at 
 the mercy of a brutal drunken wretch, 
 whom she yet held in some degree in check 
 through his dependence upon her for the 
 means with which to live his chosen life. 
 
THE SOLIDARITY OF ISLAM. 
 
 " They seek to extinguish God's light 'with their mouths ; 
 but God 'will perfect His light, though the infidels be averse 
 thereto. It is He Who hath sent His Apostle with the 
 direction, and the religion of truth, that He may exalt the 
 same above every religion, although the idolators be averse 
 thereto." 
 
 There are two closely associated char- 
 acteristics of Islam which impress every 
 Rigidity student :--the immovable rigidity which 
 paralyzes individual action as well as social 
 and religious progress and for ever holds 
 its professors arrested at the stage and 
 within the limit of Arab conditions as they 
 were thirteen centuries ago ; and the 
 Solidarity solidarity of the world of Islam as it exists 
 to-day. 
 
 It is at this point that the contrast 
 between the methods of Jesus and of 
 
 42 
 
The Solidarity of Islam 43 
 
 Muhammad is most sharply emphasized. 
 The founder of Christianity neither wrote, 
 nor left instructions for the preservation 
 of His teachings ; His method is best 
 typified by His own favourite illustration ; 
 His message is a seed, growing of its own 
 living life, mysteriously, silently, slowly, 
 producing fruit after its kind indeed, but 
 each several fruit during each several 
 season drawing its own share of nourish- 
 ment even as it drew its life directly from the 
 root, original and distinct from any other. 
 Muhammad spoke, in the most literal 
 sense, the last word ; the teaching has 
 crystallized ; principle and detail are alike 
 unyielding. 
 
 Muhammad was a statesman as well as Muham- 
 a poet ; he had in view not only the m ^ s 
 
 r 1 i j ^11 Vision 
 
 conversion or the world to God and to 
 himself, but also a world kingdom based 
 upon the religious idea ; and for the 
 second end he worked possibly even "better 
 than he knew." 
 
44 Islam 
 
 Symbols The study of the symbols of this bond 
 arity" ^ uniformity- -not of union is illuminat- 
 
 1. Creed ing : The Creed) binding to the God of 
 
 Islam through the Apostle of that God ; 
 
 2. Prayer the daily Prayer Ritual: it has been truly 
 
 said that " each Muslim is a Church," it is 
 no less true that the Muslim world is a 
 Church, bound indissolubly by this uniform 
 
 3. Quran service of devotion ; the Quran and 
 
 4. Fast Ramadhan, the Book, and the Fast v/hich 
 
 commemorates the gift of the Book ; and 
 
 5. Pil- above all, the Pilgrimage to Mecca, the 
 gnmage \ oc ^\ habitation of Islam, sublime notwith- 
 standing the apparent foolishness of the 
 ceremonial. " Thither the tribes go up," 
 from Turkey, Syria, Persia, Afghanistan, 
 India, China, Egypt and other North 
 African lands, and Arabia herself. National 
 distinctions are forgotten ; slave and 
 master travel as brother worshippers ; 
 Islam feels her solidarity through the 
 far-seeing provision of the centraliza- 
 tion of her religious life, in the city 
 
The Solidarity of Islam 45 
 
 which is sacred to the memory of the 
 Apostle. 
 
 The fact that Islam is broken up into as 
 many sects as is Christianity, does not 
 affect this solidarity so greatly as might be 
 supposed from the experience of Christi- 
 anity ; in face of the Unbeliever the Faith- 
 ful stand a solid army, the separations 
 touch none of these symbols of unity. A 
 solid army confronts the world. It has 
 been asserted by one who knew Islam well, 
 that the conversion to another Faith of an 
 insignificant Muslim in an obscure village 
 is known and mourned (or resented) over 
 the whole Muslim world. However that 
 may be, the solidarity of Islam is a grave 
 and a suggestive fact ; and the Faith which 
 hopes one day to win it, would do well to 
 oppose the statesmanship of Muhammad 
 with a statesmanship and a wisdom equal 
 with his. 
 
II 
 
 ISLAM AND CHRISTIANITY 
 
WHEN YE PRAY, SAY 
 
 Father^ 
 
 Hallowed be 'Thy Name. 
 Thy Kingdom come. 
 Give us day by day our daily bread. 
 And forgive us our sins : for we ourselves 
 also forgive every one that is indebted to us. 
 And bring us not into temptation. 
 
 Amen. 
 The great Prayer of Christianity. 
 
i. MUHAMMAD AND JESUS. 
 
 " Jesus is no other than a servant. Whom We have 
 favoured with the gift of prophecy ; and We appointed 
 Him for an example unto the children of Israel (If We 
 pleased, verily We could from ourselves produce angels ', to 
 succeed you in the earth}, and He shall be a sign of the 
 approach of the last hour ; wherefore doubt not thereof." 
 " ye t who have received the Scriptures, exceed not the 
 just bounds of your religion, neither say of God other than 
 the truth. Verily Jesus Christ the Son of Mary is the 
 Apostle of God, and His Word Which He conveyed to 
 Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him. Believe, there- 
 fore, in God and His apostles, and say not, There are 
 three Gods. Forbear this. It will be better for you." 
 
 11 The Christians say, Christ is the son of God. This 
 is their saying in their mouths ; they imitate the saying of 
 those who were unbelievers in former times. May God 
 resist them. Ho e w are they infatuated, they take their 
 priests and their monks for their lords, besides God and 
 Christ the son of Mary ; although they are commanded to 
 worship one God only : there is no God but He. Far be 
 that from Him which they associate with Him. They 
 seek to extinguish the light of God with their mouths ; but 
 God willeth no other than to perfect His light, although 
 the infidels be averse thereto." 
 
 49 D 
 
50 Islam 
 
 There are in the Quran many references 
 to our Lord Jesus Christ, but there is 
 practically no historic knowledge. It must 
 be remembered that in Muhammad's time 
 there was no Arabic version of the Bible ; 
 he was therefore dependent for information 
 upon the Jews and Christians with whom 
 he came into contact. That he formed 
 conclusions upon very insufficient know- 
 ledge is the terrible blunder of his life, of 
 which full use has been made by Christian 
 writers. Enough has not been made of 
 the responsibility of the church which had 
 no better tales to tell, no truer account to 
 give, of their Lord and their Faith. The 
 Christianity presented to this Seeker after 
 God was painfully inadequate to his need. 
 
 The little Muhammad discovered led to 
 his acknowledgment of the Jewish and 
 Christian books, which he had never read, 
 with reservations. It led also to a far 
 more important admission. The Jesus of 
 the Quran is denied Divinity, but the 
 
Muhammad and Jesus 51 
 
 character of Jesus did not fail of effect. 
 All criticism is directed towards the pro- 
 fessors of the Christian Faith, and their 
 doctrines. This " son of Mary ' is, in 
 Muhammad's view, that which he never 
 dreamt of claiming for himself, a man 
 unstained by sin. Not only so, but titles 
 and honours are yielded to Him little short 
 of Divine : He is Masih, the Messiah ; 
 Qaul-ul-Haqq, the Word of Truth ; 
 Kalima, the word ; He is " the Apostle of 
 God to confirm the law, and to announce 
 an Apostle who should come after Him, 
 whose name should be Ahmad ; ' He had 
 near access to God, and was " illustrious 
 in this world and the next." 
 
 Yet Muhammad supersedes Jesus Christ! 
 
 There is another part of the problem of The 
 the rejection of our Lord ; the attitude of Death 
 the Quran towards the Death of Jesus. The 
 death upon the Cross is indignantly denied. 
 
 " They have not believed on Jesus, and have spoken 
 against Mary a grievous calumny; and have said, Verily 
 
5 2 Islam 
 
 ive have slain Christ Jesus the Son of Mary, the Apostle 
 of God j yet they slew Him not, neither crucified Him, 
 but He tuas represented by one in His likeness ; . . . 
 They did not really kill Him ; but God took Him up unto 
 Himself ; and God is mighty and wise . . . on the day 
 of resurrection He shall be witness against them." 
 
 It is said that Muhammad so hated the 
 sign of the Cross, that if any article, how- 
 ever valuable, came into his possession 
 bearing the mark, it was destroyed at once. 
 The horror of the thought that Jesus 
 should have died the abhorred death, or 
 that God Himself should have permitted 
 it, seems to be the argument against its 
 having occurred. In the Quran that which 
 is symbolized by the Cross- -the approach 
 of God to sinful man in mercy and love- 
 is entirely lacking. There is no hint that 
 the Christian Message of Atonement 
 through the Gift of the Saviour's life to 
 God in man's name had ever reached the 
 Prophet. There is therefore no assurance, 
 save the Prophet's word for it, that God 
 upon His far Throne, hears, or hearing 
 
Muhammad and Jesus 53 
 
 answers and forgives the sin of His 
 creatures ; there is no assurance of salvation 
 in Islam. 
 
 It is a tragic story ; the responsibility 
 for which it has been the habit of Christian 
 writers to cast largely upon Muhammad. 
 The apportionment of guilt is not so lightly 
 determined. 
 
2. THE FATHER-GOD. 
 
 " To me, I confess, it seems a very considerable thing, 
 just to believe in God ; difficult indeed to avoid honestly, 
 and not easy to accomplish worthily ; a thing not lightly to 
 profess, but rather humbly to be sought ; not to be found at 
 the end of any syllogism, but in the inmost fountains of 
 purity and affection ; not the sudden gift of the intellect, 
 but to be earned by a loving and brave life." 
 
 " I believe in God the Father dlmighty." 
 
 These simple, solemn, tender words contain 
 the Christian Thought of God. In the one 
 word " Almighty " is summed up Muham- 
 mad's idea of supreme Will and Power ; 
 the Christian prefixes a Name to the at- 
 tribute which so governs the sphere of the 
 exercise of that will and power that it is 
 difficult to conceive that the two teachings 
 represent the same Being. 
 
 Father- In the view of Him to Whom we owe 
 
 hood the Father Idea, the All of God and the 
 
 All of His universe are summed up in the 
 
 54 
 
The Father-God 55 
 
 Fatherhood ; that is, Jesus did not think 
 of the al-might of God as exerted from 
 without, the oneness of Creator and Created 
 is in His view indissoluble. The birds 
 could not maintain their little life, nor the 
 lilies their delicate tints, without the Father ; 
 and words fail Him to tell of the closeness 
 of the Fatherly interest in each member of 
 His nearer offspring. " 'The very hairs of 
 your head are numbered" 
 
 And when words have failed, He takes 
 up His parable ; " My Father worketh, The Par- 
 and I work. 11 The lifework of Jesus a T ble of 
 
 J Jesus 
 
 is, He tells us, the Father's work made 
 visible. 
 
 Gentle, healing Hands were laid upon 
 the suffering ; sufficient food was provided 
 for the hungry ; Feet, never weary, 
 travelled hither and thither on errands of 
 pity ; Arms were open to gather in the 
 little children ; Eyes spoke of love and 
 understanding where words missed their 
 object ; happy human fellowship was 
 
5 6 Islam 
 
 offered : and all was a parable of the work 
 of the Father-God. 
 The It was not a new thought to His hearers 
 kf. r ~ that the profoundest attribute of God is 
 holiness, and that distinctions between 
 right and wrong become acute in His 
 presence ; but it was a revelation to which 
 the world of men has not yet become 
 accustomed that the Father is so set upon 
 goodness in the children who had miserably 
 failed of it, that no sacrifice was too great, 
 even for Him> to secure it ; and that this 
 austerity towards evil and purpose to sub- 
 due it, was the Father love in its highest 
 exercise. In the Cross, symbol at once of 
 man's sin and of His own grace, our Lord 
 is still speaking the parable of the Father's 
 "work." "The Father worketh, and I 
 work." " God so loved the world that He 
 gave " JESUS. 
 
 Muhammad felt after God, and attained 
 the idea of His apartness, aloneness, 
 
 immensity. 
 
The Christian Life 57 
 
 Jesus knew God, and revealed to us 
 that man had never been, and never could 
 be, outside of God ; and that the only true 
 home of man's spirit is in His presence, 
 under His gracious rule ; for man and God 
 are actually akin, first by nature, doubly so 
 through His Revealer and our Brother, 
 Jesus Christ. Therefore, we " believe in 
 God the Father Almighty -, AND in Jesus Christ 
 His only Son our Lord" 
 
 3. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 
 
 " Christianity is the bearing in upon us of a character 
 until <we find the character irresistible" 
 
 The study of the Muslim ideal of life 
 throws into prominence several too-rarely 
 considered peculiarities of Christ's ideal life. 
 
 i. There is, in Christ's view, no division At-one 
 between the secular and the religious life. " ie ? t * 
 
 Life 
 
 The beginning of His revelation of the 
 Father's work was His meeting of a dim"- 
 
 o 
 
 culty at a village wedding feast, which there- 
 upon became a sacrament ; and from that 
 
5 8 Islam 
 
 time onward we find no trace of any dis- 
 tinction in His own Life or in His teaching. 
 To Him all life was sacred ; and consisted 
 in loyalty to the Father, and service of 
 the brethren, one undivided duty. " Inas- 
 much," He taught, "as ye did your un- 
 conscious daily brotherly task, you did it to 
 Me ; " and " / and the Father are One." 
 
 Freedom 2. The Christian view of life is one of 
 perfect freedom. We are not slaves, but 
 sons, and free. Free, that is, as children 
 are ; free of the Father's presence, gifts, 
 love ; free within the Family traditions ; 
 free, in sympathy with the Father to choose 
 always the better and the best ; without any 
 suggestion of limit to the possibilities of 
 the child nature. " Perfect as the Father is 
 perfect* is Christ's own amazing word. 
 
 Progress 3. Freedom, and therefore progress, for 
 each son in his own life, for each generation 
 of sons according to the situation and the 
 call. Not uniformity within the Brother- 
 hood, but individuality within the limits of 
 
The Christian Life 59 
 
 the Family likeness, under the safe direc- 
 tion of the Spirit of the Father present with 
 each one. The spaciousness of the Life- 
 plan for every son of the Father cannot 
 be exaggerated ; there is no rigidity in 
 Christianity. 
 
 4. There is another Christian idea sug- Brother- 
 gested by a study of Islam, which emerges 
 from the last, the idea of the Brotherhood 
 of the Father's children. This is of the 
 very essence of Christianity as it is of 
 Islam ; but has never been carried into 
 effect in the same magnificent way. There 
 are various illustrations of this. The 
 absence of all caste distinction in Muslim 
 society, the kindly relations which exist 
 between master and servant, rich and poor, 
 Mussulmans of various races. Christianity 
 has much to learn in these directions. 
 Again, the desire to bring men within the ^he 
 Brotherhood is a passion with every true sionary 
 Muslim. ' <c Every Mussulman is more or lm P ulse 
 less of a missionary- -that is, he intensely 
 
 IS- 
 
60 Islam 
 
 desires to secure converts from non-mus- 
 sulman peoples . . . All the emotions 
 which impel a Christian to proselytize are 
 in a Mussulman, strengthened by all the 
 motives which impel a political leader, and 
 all the motives which sway a recruiting 
 sergeant, until proselytism has become a 
 passion, which whenever success seems 
 practicable and especially success on a large 
 scale, develops in the quietest Mussulman 
 a fury of ardour which induces him to 
 break down every obstacle, his own 
 strongest prejudices included, rather than 
 stand for an instant in a neophyte's way." 
 Until the same imperialism the word is 
 hackneyed, but best conveys the idea has 
 seized the Christian imagination and con- 
 science, the children of the Father will not 
 have proved worthy of their name ; for 
 He loved and longed after the world of 
 men, and His children should one and all 
 do likewise. 
 
 * Meredith Townsend, in Asia and Europe. 
 
The Failure of Christianity 61 
 4. THE FAILURE OF CHRISTIANITY. 
 
 " We do not see God's preparations." 
 
 The lack of the Imperialist vision set 
 before the Faithful by Christ has been the 
 weakness of Christendom during long 
 periods of her history. There have indeed 
 been imperialisms as in the great hierar- 
 chical systems but they have been of the 
 order of World-power visions which Christ 
 definitely rejected, and they were fore- 
 doomed to failure, so far as He was 
 concerned. 
 
 The Vision of Christ has nothing The 
 
 material in it, it relates itself at no point Kin 
 
 TTT , . ,, . Vision 
 
 with the World. He compares it con- 
 tinually to the little seed fallen into the 
 ground, dying to live, growing silently 
 from within of the power of its own 
 mysterious hidden life ; observation hardly 
 discloses its growth ; but as surely as 
 comes the harvest of the farmer, with its 
 thirty- -sixty- -hundred-fold result, so 
 
62 Islam 
 
 surely shall come the Kingdom of the 
 Father. 
 
 The The Church, as the visible responsible 
 c^\\ v ^- 
 
 1 organ of the mystic Brotherhood, to which 
 it fell to carry out the Purpose of the 
 Kingdom, and to present the idea of 
 solidarity and continuity from age to age, 
 has, as we acknowledge in thoughtful 
 moods, pitifully failed of this mission. 
 She is stately and impressive, but nineteen 
 centuries have not been sufficient to win 
 this little world for the Father. 
 
 There are many reasons for this failure. 
 Notably, the Church is in the world, and 
 has been greatly influenced by world 
 methods. 
 
 " The world is still deceived by ornament," 
 
 and the Church has tended to concentrate 
 her energies upon such details of her 
 task as yield most rapid and visible 
 results ; results which too often have 
 small relation to the object in view. She 
 has also wasted much energy upon the 
 
The Failure of Christianity 63 
 
 mere machinery of her task. There is 
 truth in the severe words of Dr. Martineau, 
 " Christ came to bring fire upon earth ; 
 and His disciples after eighteen centuries 
 are still discussing the best patent match 
 to get it kindled." " On furlough," 
 remarked a missionary, " one is over- 
 whelmed by the complexity, and the 
 labour, and the roar of Church machinery. 
 I suppose it is all needful, but one dreads 
 that the means may loom so large that the 
 end shall be forgotten." 
 
 The story of Islam, the Church which Corn- 
 has grown up side by side with the Church P a . n c 
 of Christ, is laden with suggestions upon Islam 
 this subject of the failure of the latter to 
 bring in the Kingdom of the Father. One 
 or two of these only can be noted. 
 
 i. Reference has already been made to 
 several of the most noteworthy ; e.g., the 
 reality of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the 
 easily-kindled missionary ardour ; to the 
 same category belongs another striking fact. 
 
64 Islam 
 
 The Muslim is never ashamed to confess 
 His faith. His devotion to God and his 
 loyalty to the Prophet are not matters too 
 sacred for conversation. They are his 
 deepest life, wherefore should he shun 
 reference to them ? When as much can be 
 said of the members of each Christian 
 Church, much will be gained. 
 
 " I'm not ashamed to own my Lord, 
 Or to defend His cause." 
 
 2. Islam is broken up into some two 
 hundred sects ; Christianity into as many, 
 or more. The family feuds have, in each 
 case, been fiercely maintained. But, at the 
 call u Fight for the religion of God" 
 Islam rallies as one man, a solid front is 
 offered to the enemies of the Faith. Just 
 at this point, once again, Christianity has 
 failed. The family feud is carried into the 
 enemy's country, and weakens the aggres- 
 sive warfare, as only those who have taken 
 part in that warfare can tell. 
 
 3. The solidarity of societies is a 
 
'The Failure of Christianity 65 
 
 rarely realized but very solemn fact. 
 The Church of Christ cannot divide her- 
 self into portions, and fling responsibili- 
 ties from division to division, from 
 age to age. Whether consciously or 
 not, when one member suffers all suffer, 
 when one member sins sin has come upon 
 all ; and history teaches no lesson more 
 plainly than that the harvest of the deeds of 
 one generation is reaped by another. Thus, 
 the most solemn lesson provided by the 
 story of Islam is contained in the very 
 existence of Islam. A disloyal Church 
 presented a false Faith to one of the most 
 earnest Seekers after God who has ever 
 gone forth upon the great Quest ; and the 
 Church has spent much wrath upon the 
 ''false Prophet" who has ever since been her 
 greatest opponent. But she has never fairly 
 faced her sin, nor acknowledged that the 
 Islam of to-day is to all intents the harvest 
 of the seed of false doctrine she sowed 
 thirteen centuries ago. To discuss the 
 
 E 
 
66 Islam 
 
 truth or the falsehood of Muhammad's 
 claim will be the task of Islam when she is 
 brought face to face with the true Christ ; 
 it is beside the mark for the Church of 
 Christ. To her falls the far more awful 
 duty of wiping out as best she may, and at 
 whatever cost, the darkest blot which has 
 marred her long history. Can it be that 
 her Lord cannot largely own her aggressive 
 work done in His Name, until the wrong 
 has been righted ? 
 
Ill 
 
 THE COMING BATTLE 
 
Fight for the religion of God, and know that God 
 is He Who heareth and knoweth." 
 
 Muhammad. 
 
 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the 
 nations . . . and lo, / am with you a/way, 
 even unto the end of the world' 1 
 
 Jesus Christ. 
 
THE COMING BATTLE. 
 
 ISLAM and Christianity are not sister 
 religions, as some would have us believe. 
 The very existence of Islam is a challenge 
 to Christianity ; and since Muhammad 
 sent out his missionary armies, the two 
 Faiths have been constant rivals and 
 enemies. All apologists of any weight on 
 both sides acknowledge the mutual exclu- 
 sion of Christ and Muhammad. Nothing 
 is gained on either side by denial of this 
 position. 
 
 History has corroborated this view only 
 too literally. In Muslim lands those bear- 
 ing the Christian name have suffered and 
 do suffer in proof of it. " To remain a 
 Christian" writes Mrs. King Lewis, in her 
 book 4 Critical Times in Turkey, and 
 England's Responsibility/ u means to 
 
 69 
 
jo Islam 
 
 court death in some terrible manner." The 
 best that can be said of other lands is that 
 there is an armed neutrality. 
 
 The two antagonists must one day 
 meet ; and the war, on the one side at 
 least, will be a religious war. It will be a 
 terrible war, waged at fearful cost. It 
 could hardly be otherwise, for the wrongs 
 to be avenged on either side are deep and 
 of long standing. 
 
 It is a saying with Mussulmans that 
 Christianity fears to meet Islam. Mission- 
 aries in Arabia have been taunted with the 
 fact that parties of two or three men are 
 sent by the Church of Christ to convert 
 Arabia, and the inference is drawn that the 
 older Faith dares not seriously to confront 
 the younger. Some colour is given to the 
 reproach by the fact that Christian Europe 
 dares not to confront the moribund 
 Turkish Empire in defence of those who 
 bear the Christian name. 
 
 The question of Christianity is, whether 
 

 The Coming Battle 71 
 
 
 
 the inevitable war shall be primarily or 
 entirely a war of the nations, bloody and 
 disastrous ; or whether it is not possible 
 even yet for the Church to unite her forces, 
 and to meet the common enemy with a 
 frank avowal of the first wrong, and an 
 offer, belated indeed, but now earnest and 
 sincere, of the knowledge of Christ. 
 
 The approach of Christian to Mussulman 
 must always be a difficult and delicate task. 
 He is prepossessed against Christ, he 
 cannot believe that Christianity is other 
 than a polytheistic Faith, " The very bells 
 of the churches ring, Jesus, Mary ; Jesus, 
 Mary," said a Muslim woman. Disdain 
 of the Prophet rouses his bitterest antagon- 
 ism. Discussions and arguments end as 
 they began. 
 
 But there is a soul of honour in him, 
 and a fair approach meets, as a rule, with a 
 fair response. a You have read the Quran? 
 Bring me a Bible," said a bigotted Muslim 
 woman to the writer. 
 
72 Islam 
 
 " Shall we talk the matter quietly over ? 
 Tell me of your Faith, and of what it 
 means to you ; and will you give me also 
 a hearing ? ' Such an appeal rarely fails ; 
 and if Christ and His message be fairly 
 introduced, the result may safely be left 
 with Him. 
 
 THE END 
 
A SHORT BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ACCESSIBLE 
 BOOKS UPON THE SUBJECT. 
 
 A Dictionary of Islam. By the REV. T. P. HUGHES, late of 
 Peshawar. 
 
 Notes on Muhammadanism. By the REV. T. P. HUGHES, late of 
 Peshawar. 
 
 The Life of Mahomet. By SIR WILLIAM Mum. 
 Mahomet and Islam. By SIR WILLIAM Mum. 
 Mohammed, Buddha, and Christ. By PROFESSOR DODS. 
 
 The Religion of the Crescent ; or, Islam : Its Strength, Its Weakness, 
 Its Origin, Its Influence. By the REV. W. ST. CLAIR 
 TISDALL, M.A. 
 
 Christianity and Islam. Epochs of Church History Series. 
 (A. D. F. Randolph and Co., New York.) 
 
 The Quran. Of which there are several translations. 
 
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