The Preaching of Islam: A History of the Propagation of the Muslim Faith

by Sir Thomas Walker Arnold

Foremost among these is the simplicity[18] of the Muslim creed, There is no god but God; Muḥammad is the Apostle of God. Assent to these two simple doctrines is all that is demanded of the convert, and the whole history of Muslim dogmatics fails to present any attempt on the part of ecclesiastical assemblies to force on the mass of believers any symbol couched in more elaborate and complex terms. This simple creed demands no great trial of faith, arouses as a rule no particular intellectual difficulties and is within the compass of the meanest intelligence. Unencumbered with theological subtleties, it may be expounded by any, even the most unversed in theological expression. The first half of it enunciates a doctrine that is almost universally accepted by men as a necessary postulate, while the second half is based on a theory of man’s relationship to God that is almost equally wide-spread, viz. that at intervals in the world’s history God grants some revelation of Himself to men through the mouthpiece of inspired prophets. This, the rationalistic character of the Muslim creed, and the advantage it reaps therefrom in its missionary efforts, have nowhere been more admirably brought out than in the following sentences of Professor Montet:—

“Islam is a religion that is essentially rationalistic in the widest sense of this term considered etymologically and historically. The definition of rationalism as a system that bases religious beliefs on principles furnished by the reason, applies to it exactly. It is true that Muḥammad, who was an enthusiast and possessed, too, the ardour of faith and the fire of conviction, that precious quality he transmitted to so many of his disciples,—brought forward his reform as a [[414]]revelation: but this kind of revelation is only one form of exposition and his religion has all the marks of a collection of doctrines founded on the data of reason. To believers, the Muhammadan creed is summed up in belief in the unity of God and in the mission of His Prophet, and to ourselves who coldly analyse his doctrines, to belief in God and a future life; these two dogmas, the minimum of religious belief, statements that to the religious man rest on the firm basis of reason, sum up the whole doctrinal teaching of the Qurʼān. The simplicity and the clearness of this teaching are certainly among the most obvious forces at work in the religion and the missionary activity of Islam. It cannot be denied that many doctrines and systems of theology and also many superstitions, from the worship of saints to the use of rosaries and amulets, have become grafted on to the main trunk of the Muslim creed. But in spite of the rich development, in every sense of the term, of the teachings of the Prophet, the Qurʼān has invariably kept its place as the fundamental starting-point, and the dogma of the unity of God has always been proclaimed therein with a grandeur, a majesty, an invariable purity and with a note of sure conviction, which it is hard to find surpassed outside the pale of Islam. This fidelity to the fundamental dogma of the religion, the elemental simplicity of the formula in which it is enunciated, the proof that it gains from the fervid conviction of the missionaries who propagate it, are so many causes to explain the success of Muhammadan missionary efforts. A creed so precise, so stripped of all theological complexities and consequently so accessible to the ordinary understanding, might be expected to possess and does indeed possess a marvellous power of winning its way into the consciences of men.”[19]

Bishop Lefroy considers that the “secret of the extraordinary power for conquest and advance which Islam has in its best ages evinced” is to be found in its recognition of the Existence of God rather than the Unity of God. “Not so much that God is one as that God IS—that His existence is the ultimate fact of the universe—that His will is supreme[[415]]—His sovereignty absolute—His power limitless … the conviction that, amidst all the chaos and confusion and disorders of the world which so fearfully obscure it, there is nevertheless, an ultimate Will, resistless, supreme, and that man is called to be a minister of that Will, to promulgate it, to compel—if necessary by very simple and elementary means indeed—obedience to that Will—this it was which welded the Mohammedan hosts into so invincible an engine of conquest, which inspired them with a spirit of military subordination and discipline, as well as with a contempt of death, such as has probably never been surpassed in any system—this it is which, so far as it is still in any true sense operative amongst Mohammadans, gives at once that backbone of character, that firmness of determination and strength of will, and also that uncomplaining patience and submission in the presence of the bitterest misfortune, which characterise and adorn the best adherents of the creed.”[20]

When the convert has accepted and learned this simple creed, he has then to be instructed in the five practical duties of his religion: (1) recital of the creed, (2) observance of the five appointed times of prayer, (3) payment of the legal alms, (4) fasting during the month of Ramaḍān, and (5) the pilgrimage to Mecca.

The observance of this last duty has often been objected to as a strange survival of idolatry in the midst of the monotheism of the Prophet’s teaching, but it must be borne in mind that to him it connected itself with Abraham, whose religion it was his mission to restore.[21] But above all—and herein is its supreme importance in the missionary history of Islam—it ordains a yearly gathering of believers, of all nations and languages, brought together from all parts of the world, to pray in that sacred place towards which their faces are set in every hour of private worship in their distant homes. No fetch of religious genius could have conceived a better expedient for impressing on the minds of the faithful a sense of their common life and of their brotherhood in the bonds of faith. Here, in a supreme act of common worship, [[416]]the Negro of the west coast of Africa meets the Chinaman from the distant east; the courtly and polished Ottoman recognises his brother Muslim in the wild islander from the farthest end of the Malayan Sea. At the same time throughout the whole Muhammadan world the hearts of believers are lifted up in sympathy with their more fortunate brethren gathered together in the sacred city, as in their own homes they celebrate the festival of ʻĪd al-Aḍḥạ̄ or (as it is called in Turkey and Egypt) the feast of Bayrām. Their visit to the sacred city has been to many Muslims the experience that has stirred them up to “strive in the path of God,” and in the preceding pages constant reference has been made to the active part taken by the ḥājīs in missionary work.

Besides the institution of the pilgrimage, the payment of the legal alms is another duty that continually reminds the Muslim that “the faithful are brothers”[22]—a religious theory that is very strikingly realised in Muhammadan society and seldom fails to express itself in acts of kindness towards the new convert. Whatever be his race, colour or antecedents he is received into the brotherhood of believers and takes his place as an equal among equals.

It is not, however, true, as some European writers have maintained, that if an unbeliever is the slave of a Muslim his conversion to Islam procures for him his manumission, for, according to Muhammadan law, the conversion of a slave does not affect the prior state of bondage;[23] and the condition of the Muslim slave has varied much according to the character of his master. But freedom is in many instances the reward of conversion, and devout minds have even recognised in enslavement God’s guidance to the true faith, as the negroes from the Upper Nile countries, whom Doughty met in Arabia. “In those Africans there is no resentment that they have been made slaves … even though cruel men-stealers rent them from their parentage. The patrons who paid their price have adopted them into their households, the males are circumcised and—that which enfranchises their souls, even in the long passion of [[417]]home-sickness—God has visited them in their mishap; they can say ‘it was His grace,’ since they be thereby entered into the saving religion. This, therefore, they think is the better country, where they are the Lord’s free men, a land of more civil life, the soil of the two Sanctuaries, the land of Mohammed:—for such they do give God thanks that their bodies were sometime sold into slavery!”[24]

Very effective also, both in winning and retaining, is the ordinance of the daily prayers five times a day. Montesquieu[25] has well said, “Une religion chargée de beaucoup de pratiques attache plus à elle qu’une autre qui l’est moins; on tient beaucoup aux choses dont on est continuellement occupé.” The religion of the Muslim is continually present with him and in the daily prayer manifests itself in a solemn and impressive ritual, which cannot leave either the worshipper or the spectator unaffected. Saʻīd b. Ḥasan, an Alexandrian Jew, who embraced Islam in the year 1298, speaks of the sight of the Friday prayer in a mosque as a determining factor in his own conversion. During a severe illness he had had a vision in which a voice bade him declare himself a Muslim. “And when I entered the mosque” (he goes on) “and saw the Muslims standing in rows like angels, I heard a voice speaking within me, ‘This is the community whose coming was announced by the prophets (on whom be blessings and peace!)’; and when the preacher came forth clad in his black robe, a deep feeling of awe fell upon me … and when he closed his sermon with the words, ‘Verily God enjoineth justice and kindness and the giving of gifts to kinsfolk, and He forbiddeth wickedness and wrong and oppression. He warneth you; haply ye will be mindful.’[26] And when the prayer began, I was mightily uplifted, for the rows of the Muslims appeared to me like rows of angels, to whose prostrations and genuflections God Almighty was revealing Himself, and I heard a voice within me saying, ‘If God spake twice unto the people of Israel throughout the ages, verily He speaketh unto this community in every time of [[418]]prayer,’ and I was convinced in my mind that I had been created to be a Muslim.”[27]

If Renan could say, “Je ne suis jamais entré dans une mosquée sans une vive émotion, le dirai-je? sans un certain regret de n’être pas musulman,”[28] it can be readily understood how the sight of the Muslim trader at prayer, his frequent prostrations, his absorbed and silent worship of the Unseen, would impress the heathen African, endued with that strong sense of the mysterious such as generally accompanies a low stage of civilisation. Curiosity would naturally prompt inquiry, and the knowledge of Islam thus imparted might sometimes win over a convert who might have turned aside had it been offered unsought, as a free gift. Of the fast during the month of Ramaḍān, it need only be said that it is a piece of standing evidence against the theory that Islam is a religious system that attracts by pandering to the self-indulgence of men. As Carlyle has said, “His religion is not an easy one: with rigorous fasts, lavations, strict complex formulas, prayers five times a day, and abstinence from wine, it did not succeed by being an easy religion.”

Bound up with these and other ritual observances, but not encumbered or obscured by them, the articles of the Muslim creed are incessantly finding outward manifestation in the life of the believer, and thus, becoming inextricably interwoven with the routine of his daily life, make the individual Musalman an exponent and teacher of his creed [[419]]far more than is the case with the adherents of most other religions.[29] Couched in such short and simple language, his creed makes but little demand upon the intellect, and the definiteness, positiveness, and minuteness of the ritual leave the believer in no doubt as to what he has to do, and these duties performed, he has the satisfaction of feeling that he has fulfilled all the precepts of the Law. In this union of rationalism and ritualism, we may find, to a great extent, the secret of the power that Islam has exercised over the minds of men. “If you would win the great masses give them the truth in rounded form, neat and clear, in visible and tangible guise.”[30]