The Speeches & Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad

Chosen and Translated, with Introduction and Notes ,
STANLEY LANE-POOLE
London MACMILLAN AND CO. 1882
GOD! THERE IS NO GOD BUT HE, THE LIVING, THE STEADFAST! SLUMBER SEIZETH HIM NOT, NOR SLEEP. WHATSOEVER IS IN THE HEAVENS, AND WHATSOEVER IS IN THE EARTH, IS HIS. WHO IS THERE THAT SHALL PLEAD WITH HIM SAVE BY HIS LEAVE? HE KNOWETH WHAT WAS BEFORE THEM AND WHAT SHALL COME AFTER THEM, AND THEY COMPASS NOT AUGHT OF HIS KNOWLEDGE, BUT WHAT HE WILLETH. HIS THRONE OVERSPREADETH THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH, AND THE KEEPING OF BOTH IS NO BURDEN TO HIM: AND HE IS THE HIGH, THE GREAT!
THE THRONE VERSE, ii. 256.

The aim of this little volume is to present all that is most enduring and memorable in the public orations and private sayings of the prophet Mohammad in such a form that the general reader may be tempted to learn a little of what a great man was and of what made him great. At present, it must be allowed that although “Auld Mahound” is a household word, he is very little more than a word. Things are constantly being said, written, and preached about the Arab prophet and the religion he taught, of which an elementary acquaintance with him would show the absurdity. No one would dare to treat the ordinary classics of European literature in this fashion; or, if he did, his exposure would immediately ensue. What I wish to do is to enable any one, at the cost of the least possible exertion, to put himself into a position to judge of popular fallacies about Mohammad and his creed as surely and certainly as he can judge of errors in ordinary education and scholarship. I do not wish to mention the Korān by name more than can be helped, for I have observed that the word has a deterrent effect upon readers who like their literary food light and easy of digestion. It cannot, however, be disguised that a great deal of this book consists of the Korān, and it may therefore be as well to explain away as far as possible the prejudice which the ill-fated name is apt to excite. It is not easy to say for how much of this prejudice the standard English translator is responsible. The patient and meritorious George Sale put the Korān into tangled English and heavy quarto,—people read quartos then and did not call them éditions de luxe ,—his version then appeared in a clumsy octavo, with most undesirable type and paper; finally it has come out in a cheap edition, of which it need only be said that utility rather than taste has been consulted. One can hardly blame any one for refusing to look even at the outsides of these volumes. And the inside,—not the mere outward inside, if I may so say, the type and paper,—but the heart of hearts, the matter itself, is by no means calculated to tempt a reluctant reader. The Korān is there arranged according to the orthodox form, instead of in chronological order,—it must be allowed that the chronological order was not discovered in Sale’s time,—and the result is that impression of chaotic indefiniteness which impressed Carlyle so strongly, and which Carlyle has impressed upon most of the present generation. A large disorderly collection of prophetic rhapsody did not prove inviting, as the state of popular knowledge about Mohammad very clearly shows.