Satan came to Jesus and said, 'Dost Thou not speak the truth?' 'Certainly,' answered Jesus. 'Well then,' said Satan, 'climb this mountain and cast Thyself down.' Jesus said, 'Woe to thee, for hath not God said, O Son of Man, tempt Me not by casting thyself into destruction, for I do that which I will.'
From the above instances taken from well-known Mohammedan writers it will be seen that the Christ of post-Koranic tradition is far more life-like than the Christ of the Koran. The latter is a mere lay-figure, bedecked with honorific titles indeed, such as the 'Spirit of God and a word proceeding from Him,' and working miracles, but displaying no character. In the post-Koranic writers, on the other hand, we have His sinlessness, His return to judgment, His humility, His unworldliness, His sufferings, His doctrine of the New Birth, topics upon which the Koran is entirely silent. An open-minded Moslem perusing the above passages in the original Persian and Arabic (and many might be added) would certainly gain a far higher conception of our Lord than from anything he would find in the Koran.
In one tradition He is called 'Imam al ashin,' 'Leader of the wanderers.'
Although Mohammed said, 'There is no monkery in Islam,' and rebuked one of his followers who showed a tendency to it, celibacy and homelessness have often marked the saints of Islam.
One of them, Bishr Hafi, being asked why he did not marry, answered, 'I am afraid of that verse in the Koran, "The rights of women over men are the same as the rights of men over women."'
| Transcriber's Note: There are a number of words, mostly Arabic, spelled in different ways in the present book. As many of these are variants often used in the transliteration of Arabic names, these differences have been retained. Below is the list of the words which have been spelled differently at different places in the book: Adham, Adhem. Alghazzali, Algazzali. Bayazid, Bayezid. Hassan, Hasan. Hejaj, Hejjaj. Judgment, Judgement. Kaf, Kàf. Khorassan, Khorasan. Muhammad, Mohammed, Muhammed, Mohammad. Mohammedan, Muhammadan, Muhammedan, Mahommadan, Mohammadan. Mohammedanism, Muhammedanism. Saadi, Sa'di. Sofiân, Sofyan. Suhrawardy, Suhrawardi. |