The Great Thoughts of Islam.

1. GOD.

La-ilaha-Il-lal-laho. There is no God save God.

“Say, God is one God; the eternal God: He begetteth 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.

“Your 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 contact with both during his early Syrian journeys. The Idea had become familiar to him long before.

The God of Muhammad But, the God of Muhammad’s contemplations was not the God of Judaism, 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 reverently 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 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 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 procession of mourners, unconscious either of curiosity or of sympathy around him. The set grim expression might have suggested 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 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 convictions 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 corollary 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 conversation with a woman on one occasion 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.

“It is He Who hath sent down unto you the book of the Quran, distinguishing between good and evil; and they to whom We 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 perfect in truth and justice; there is none who can change His words; He both heareth and knoweth.”

Quran 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 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 has been the care that it should be preserved 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 resurrection 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. Yea, 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.”

Sin As is the God so are His worshippers; and the conception of the religious life in Islam follows naturally upon the conception of God. Thus, sin is terrible, but not first 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 (reminding us of the Roman Catholic doctrine), sin greater and lesser. Among the greater sins are

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 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 fire.”

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 I 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 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 promised joys of Paradise.

“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.