Rules for Devotions.—Although the practice of the Teacher has consecrated certain rules for the performance of the devotions, the ritual of the Koran itself is astonishing in its simplicity.[7] The forms were prescribed for disciplinary purposes and to maintain in Islâm uniformity of practice and cohesiveness. But the main essentials are purity of heart and forgetfulness of self. ‘It is not righteousness that ye turn your faces in prayer towards the east or the west; but righteousness is of him who believeth in God.... Who giveth money for God’s sake unto his kindred, and unto orphans and the needy, and the stranger, and those who ask, and for the redemption of captives; who is constant at prayer and giveth alms; and of those who perform their covenants when they have covenanted, and who behave themselves patiently in hardship and adversity and in times of violence, these are they who are the true.’
Every Place Sacred to God.—As God’s mercy and power pervade the universe, and every spot is consecrated to His holy name, the orisons may be offered at any place where the worshipper happens to be at the appointed hour. A remembrance even, a humble prayer whispered in the recesses of the heart, is enough to bring down the grace of the Lord, to cleanse it from impurity and strengthen it for the battle of life. And when the Moslem stands before his God, his first prayer is for divine guidance. ‘Praise to God, the Lord of the Worlds, the compassionate and merciful. The Sovereign of the Day of Judgment, to Thee we offer our worship, and from Thee we seek help and succour. Guide us in the right path, the path of those to whom Thou hast been gracious, and not of those with whom Thou art angered or who have gone astray.’
Purification.—Physical cleanliness was an essential part of worship in almost all the ancient theurgic creeds. In Islâm it is a natural concomitant to the idea of moral purity, for no man is supposed to approach God in a state of uncleanliness. And as an unclean body implies an unclean mind, purification of those parts most likely to be soiled—the hands, feet, and face—is considered necessary before devotional exercise. But it is not indispensable; conditions may exist which may render frequent ablutions impossible. The soldier on the battlefield, the traveller in the desert, the denizen of a wintry land, and others similarly circumstanced may offer their prayers without undergoing any such formality. The rule, though thus liable to qualification, is most beneficent in its tendency. It prevents the growth of that class which is euphemistically described in England as ‘the great unwashed,’ whilst it promotes in an eminent degree hygienic and sanitary conditions among the masses.
At the same time it is especially inculcated that the Almighty can only be approached in purity and humility of spirit, and that the most important purification is the cleansing of the heart from all blamable inclinations and frailties, and the mind from all vicious ideas and thoughts which distract the attention from God.
No Priesthood in Islâm.—The absence of a specially interested class to act as intermediaries between God and man differentiates Islâm from all other creeds. In the Islâmic system every man is his own priest and pleads for himself for forgiveness and mercy. ‘No sacrifice, no ceremonial invented by vested interests is needed to bring the anxious heart nearer to its Comforter.’[8]
Essentially a democratic creed, it recognises no distinction of race or colour among its followers. High or low, rich or poor, white, yellow, or black are on the same level in the sight of their Lord.
The democratic character of its appeal, its repudiation of all adventitious barriers of caste, explain the powerful fascination it exercises over divers races of mankind.
Belief in a Future Life.—Belief in a future life and accountability for human actions in another existence are two principal doctrines of the Islâmic creed. Both ideas take different shapes in different minds according to individual culture and environment. Man is not a fortuitous item in creation; nor does the cessation of life on earth mean an end of the human soul. Physical death only releases it from its earthly habiliments. The soul, which is an emanation from God, exists for ever.
Judaism.—Early Judaism does not show any trace of a belief in a future life or in future rewards and punishment. It is only after the Babylonian Captivity the Jewish mind rose to that conception, and the Zoroastrian Bihasht and Duzakh[9] became the prototypes of the Jewish hell and heaven.[10]
Zoroastrianism.—Similarly the vivid descriptions of the kingdom of Heaven contained in the Christian Scriptures are without doubt a reflex of the Zoroastrian conception. Thus, at the time of Mohammed’s advent, Jew, Christian, and Zoroastrian all looked to material rewards and punishments in a future existence.[11] In Islâm the pains and joys of the Hereafter were used as a lever for raising the people from the fetishism and soulless life to which they had become wedded,—to a conception of spiritual ideals and of the duties imposed by God on man.