The position thus assailed was not at first a hard and fast dogma of Islám. It was more a speculative opinion than anything else, but the opposition of the Mutazilites soon led all who wished to be considered orthodox to become not only stout assertors of the eternity of the Qurán, but to give up their lives in defence of what they believed to be true. The Mutazilites by asserting the subjective nature of the Quránic inspiration brought the book itself within the reach of criticism. This was too much for orthodox Islám to bear even though the Khalíf Mámún in the
year 212 A.H. issued a fatva declaring that all who asserted the eternity of the Qurán were guilty of heresy. Some six years after this, the Imám Ahmad Ibn Hanbal was severely beaten, and then imprisoned because he refused to assent to the truth of the decree issued by the Khalíf. Al Buwaiti, a famous disciple of As-Sháfa'í, used an ingenious argument to fortify his own mind when being punished by the order of the Khalíf. He was taken all the way from Cairo to Baghdád and told to confess that the Qurán was created. On his refusal, he was imprisoned at Baghdád and there remained in chains till the day of his death. As Ar-Rábí Ibn Sulaimán says: "I saw Al Buwaiti mounted on a mule: round his neck was a wooden collar, on his legs were fetters, from these to the collar extended an iron chain to which was attached a clog weighing fifty pounds. Whilst they led him on he continued repeating these words, 'Almighty God created the world by means of the word Be! Now, if that word was created, one created thing would have created another.'"[[121]] Al Buwaiti here refers to the verse, "Verily our speech unto a thing when we will the same, is that we only say to it, 'Be,' and it is,—Kun fayakúna." (Súra xxxvi. 82). This, in the way Al Buwaiti applied it, is a standing argument of the orthodox to prove the eternity of the Qurán.
When times changed men were put to death for holding the opposite opinion. The Imám As-Sháfa'í held a public disputation in Baghdád with Hafs, a Mutazilite preacher, on this very point. Sháfa'í quoted the verse, "God said be, and it was," and asked, "Did not God create all things by the word be?" Hafs assented. "If then the Qurán was created, must not the word be have been created with it?" Hafs could not deny so plain a proposition. "Then," said Sháfa'í, "All things, according to you, were created by a created being, which is a gross inconsistency and manifest
impiety." Hafs was reduced to silence, and such an effect had Sháfa'í's logic on the audience that they put Hafs to death as a pestilent heretic. Thus did the Ash'arían opinions on the subject of the Divine attributes again gain the mastery.[[122]]
The Mutazilites failed, and the reason why is plain. They were, as a rule, influenced by no high spiritual motives; often they were mere quibblers. They sought no light in an external revelation. Driven to a reaction by the rigid system they combated, they would have made reason alone their chief guide. The nobler spirits among them were impotent to regenerate the faith they professed to follow. It was, however, a great movement, and at one time, it threatened to change the whole nature of Islám. This period of Muslim history, famed as that in which the effort was made to cast off the fetters of the rigid system which Islám was gradually tightening by the increased authority given to traditionalism, and to the refinements of the four Imáms, was undoubtedly a period of, comparatively speaking, high civilization. Baghdád, the capital of the Khalífate, was a busy, populous, well-governed city. This it mainly owed to the influence of the Persian family of the Barmecides, one of whom was Vizier to the Khalíf Hárún-ur-Rashíd. Hárún's fame as a good man is quite undeserved. It is true that he was a patron of learning, that his Empire was extensive, that he gained many victories, that his reign was the culminating point of Arab grandeur. But for all that, he was a morose despot, a cruel man, thoroughly given up to pleasures of a very questionable nature. Drunkenness and debauchery were common at court. Plots and intrigues were ever at work. Such was the state of one of the greatest, if not the greatest, periods
of Muslim rule. This, too, was at a time most favourable for the development of any good which Islám might have possessed. It should be remembered that whatever glory is rightly attached to this period is connected with an epoch when heresy was specially prevalent, when orthodoxy was weak in Baghdád. The culture of the time was in spite of, not on account of, the influence of orthodox Islám.
2. Angels.—Of this article of the creed Muhammad Al-Berkevi says:—
"We must confess that God has angels who act according to His order and who do not rebel against Him. They neither eat nor drink, nor is there amongst them any difference of sex. Some are near the throne of God; those are His messengers. Each one has his particular work. Some are on earth, some in heaven, some are always standing, some always prostrate themselves and some laud and praise God. Others have charge of men and record all their actions. Some angels are high in stature and are possessed of great power. Such an one is Gabriel (Jibrá,íl) who in the space of one hour can descend from heaven to earth, and who with one wing can lift up a mountain.
We must believe in 'Izrá,íl who receives the souls of men when they die, and in Isráfíl into whose charge is committed the trumpet. This trumpet he has actually in his hand, and placed to his mouth ready to blow when God gives the order. When he receives that order he will blow such a terrible blast that all living things will die.[[123]] This is the commencement of the last day. The world will remain in this state of death forty years. Then God Most High will revive Isráfíl who will blow a second blast, at the sound of which all the dead will rise to life."[[124]]
This confession of faith makes no mention of Míká,íl (Michael), the fourth of the archangels. His special duty is to see that all created beings have what is needful for them. He has charge of the rain-fall, plants, grain and all that is required for the sustenance of men, beasts, fishes, &c. Gabriel's special charge is the communication of God's will to prophets. The words "one terrible in power" (Súra liii. 5)
are generally applied to him. He is honoured with the privilege of nearness to God. Tradition says that on the night of the Mi'ráj, the Prophet saw that Gabriel had six hundred wings, and that his body was so large that from one shoulder to the other the distance was so great that a swift flying bird would require five hundred years to pass over it.