But, at the same time as we admire such brilliant qualities innate in the Arabs, we have to deplore great errors. The monotheistic religion of their great ancestor Ibrahim (Abraham) was entirely forgotten, despite their continued veneration for the Temple built with their own hands. They had become "Mushrikun," ("Associates"). To Allah, the Only One, partners were adjoined in the shape of idols, who were generally preferred. Every tribe and family possessed a favourite idol; and, at that epoch, three hundred and sixty false gods, of wood or stone, dishonoured the Holy Ka'bah.
The most gross superstition flourished in addition to idolatry. Games of chance, divining by arrows, drunkenness and sorcery debased the brains of these men, all otherwise remarkably gifted. Fretting under all restraint, lacking all ideas of decency, they married as many women as they could afford to feed; and as widows were considered to belong to their husbands' estate, revolting unions took place between stepmothers and stepsons.
Still more abominable was the custom of the "Wa'du'l-Binat," (Burying Girls Alive). By some strange morbid decay of the feeling of honour, and also through fear that the debauchery of daughters or their capture by an enemy might one day bring opprobrium on their families, many unnatural fathers preferred to get rid of their female offspring, by burying them alive as soon as they were born.
To sum up: the Arabs' leaning towards ostentation, their aristocratic prejudice and overweening pride, caused them to rebel against all discipline or authority. Consequently, union and progress becoming impossible, incessant warfare and pitiless vendettas between tribes and families submerged all Arabia in a sea of blood.
Such were the errors that saddened Mohammad. He could no longer bring himself to look upon them, and as he saw no cure for such deep-rooted and general evil, which he thought was infallibly destined to draw down on his people the terrible punishment of Heaven, such as annihilated the inhabitants of Thamud and Ad, he hid himself away in the most deserted spots he could find. Far from the contact of human beings, he was able to drive out of his memory the odious remembrance of their iniquity.
It was then that he gave way entirely to the imperious need of meditation and religious worship that mastered his soul. He wandered in sandy ravines, following capricious meandering watercourses, or climbing up the steep sides of rocky mountains, to recline at their summits and let his glance and imagination be lost in the depths of the arid expanse that stretched away at his feet as far as the most unattainable horizon.
During many long hours, stock-still in the midst of such impressive empty space; in this ocean of light where deathly silence reigned, he would be engrossed in mute and ecstatic contemplation of the sight—incomparably grand and varied—offered to him by the elements of heaven and earth obeying a mysterious, unknown, inconceivable, universal and unique Power....
He gazed on dunes and rocks, veiled at first by the dawn's rosy gauze, studded with humble pebbles that became sparkling precious stones when the early rays of the sun broke forth. Next came the shroud of dazzling light which the orb of day, at its zenith, spread over the tired earth that was as still as a corpse. Then followed a golden flood that the sun, as it declined, let loose in great waves all over the world, as if wishing that its departure should give rise to even greater regret. At last was seen the moon's scarf, irisated like a pigeon's breast, splashing the sky with its sparks that changed into myriads of stars.
And there arose proud columns that in still weather the sand erected joyously, as if trying to reach the blue vault above; or furious spouts which, on stormy days, gushed from the bottom of ravines, to attack dark, lightning-loaded mists. Caravans of clouds sometimes careered, shaped like flocks of white sheep, driven by the wind away from the high peaks where they were formed; forced to depart before they could bedew their birthplace with rainy tears. On other days, diluvian storms broke in cascades over bare mountains, vomiting forth impetuous torrents, thundering in the valleys.
In comparison with these formidable elements, which never dared to rebel against the law imposed upon them by Supreme Power, how weak and arrogant Humanity seemed to be! It relied upon the strength of mundane institutions, and now such feeble trifles were liquefied by the mirage viewed by Mohammad in the mirrored waves of seething ether, as if to proffer the image of the absolute vanity of the things of this world.