Islâm

by Syed Ameer Ali

A Mussulman is allowed to marry one, two, three, or four wives, provided he can deal with all of them ‘with equity.’ If that be not possible he can marry but one.

Many of the best minds of Islâm have perceived in this rule a virtual prohibition of polygamy. The moral effect of the institution on Mussulman society as a whole can hardly be ignored: it has prevented the growth in Mussulman countries, untainted by foreign social ideas, of that class whose existence is alike an outrage on our humanity and a disgrace to civilisation. Considering how the profession of the hetairai, honoured among some nations, despised among others, but tolerated by most, has flourished through all ages, it is no small credit to the Arabian Teacher that it was so effectually stopped in Islâm.

Divorce.—As in the Jewish system, option was given to the husband to dissolve the marriage tie. At the same time the act was pronounced to be ‘the most abominable in the sight of the Lord.’

Bondsmen and Bondswomen.—Only persons taken in lawful warfare were permitted to be held in bondage. The emancipation of bonds-folk was declared one of the highest acts of piety.[24] And any person who made a provision for their ransom was the favoured of God. Traffic in human beings was strictly forbidden, and the man who dealt in slaves was pronounced to be the accursed of God. In a word, human chattelhood is unknown in Islâm; and the institution which is called ‘slavery’ in Europe and America has no existence in Mohammedan countries. In Islâm, parents were not to be separated from children; brothers from brothers, or one relation from another. The Moslem bondsman and bondswoman were members of the master’s family; were on no account to be ill-treated; were to be fed and clothed like the masters and mistresses. Once emancipated they could intermarry with the master’s sons or daughters. Relations with bondswomen were sanctioned by the Rabbinical Laws. They were common in Christian communities, and were freely practised in the Southern States of North America until very recent times by people who considered themselves and were regarded by many others as highly civilised. Among them the issue of a slave-woman was for ever a slave: the smallest taint of slave-blood, however remote, subjected the unfortunate being to be sold as a slave. Although the system of Mohammed, with the object of avoiding a drastic solution, tolerated relations with bondswomen,—with far greater humanity it declared that the issue of such connections were legitimate, and that the bondswoman who bore children to her master was ipso facto emancipated; that thenceforth she was no more his bondswoman, but ‘the mother of his child.’

Intellectualism.—In the domains of intellect the teachings of Islâm give every encouragement to the cultivation of the mind and make the pursuit of knowledge a religious duty. ‘Acquire knowledge,’ said the Prophet of Islâm, ‘because he who acquires it, performs an act of piety; who speaks of it, praises the Lord; who seeks it, adores God; who dispenses instruction in it, bestows alms; and who imparts it to its fitting objects, performs an act of devotion to God. Knowledge enables its possessor to distinguish what is forbidden from what is not; it lights the way to Heaven; it is our friend in the desert, our society in solitude, our companion when bereft of friends; it guides us to happiness; it sustains us in misery; it is an ornament in the company of friends; it serves as an armour against our enemies. With knowledge the servant of God rises to the heights of goodness and to a noble position, associates with the sovereigns of the world, and attains to the perfection of happiness in the next.’ ‘The ink of the scholar is more holy than the blood of the martyr.’ ‘He who leaves his home in search of knowledge walks in the path of God.’ ‘He who travels in search of knowledge, to him God shows the way to Paradise.’ ‘To listen to the instructions of science and learning for one hour is more meritorious than attending the funerals of a thousand martyrs—more meritorious than standing up in prayer for a thousand nights.’[25]

This brief summary of the principal teachings of Islâm will probably enable the reader to form a fairly accurate notion of the aims and aspirations of the new Gospel and of its work in the elevation of mankind in the moral and social scale. But the conception will hardly be clear without some knowledge of the history of the Teacher or some idea of his wonderful and engaging personality.

CHAPTER II

Mohammed.—Mohammed—the Praised—as his name implies, was born in Mecca in the year 570 of the Christian era.[26] The foundation of this city lies in the dim past. It was held by many tribes before it came into the possession of the Koreish, the noblest of them all. Its famous temple, now the holy shrine of the Kaaba, gave it pre-eminence over all the cities of Arabia, and made it the commercial and religious capital of the peninsula. At the time of the Prophet’s birth, the government of Mecca was vested in a Decemvirate, of which his grandfather was the chief. Mohammed’s father died before his birth; his mother when he was only six years old.

The doubly orphaned child, bereft of all that parental tenderness which forms the blessing of early childhood remained in his grandfather’s charge for three years, when the death of the venerable patriarch threw him on the care of his uncle—Abû Tâlib. Mohammed spent his youth as a member of Abû Tâlib’s family.