Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

tians, and thus by Mahomed. Mahomed's teaching, even as later recorded or indicated in the Korân, shows a harmony with the results of scientific Biblical investigations which cannot be regarded as a chance coincidence. If this remarkable general agreement could be explained by human design, not by the trustworthiness of Ebionite tradition, based on aboriginal Christianity, the Korân would point, in a prophetical sense to those results of Biblical criticism, unknown even two centuries ago, without which the various Scriptures forming what is wrongly called the Book, would have remained for all, what the Bible is for millions, a sealed book of mysteries.

Only by the application of scientific principles it has become possible to excavate the foundations of prepaulinic Christianity and thus of the Korân. If it be objected that some of the doctrines conveyed by the sermon on the mount, such as the injunction to love the enemy and to be peacemakers, have not been practised by the followers of Mahomed, Christians have to reproach themselves in like manner. The Muslim will be able, it is hoped, not only to read and explain the Korân according to its tone reading,' as it is recommended in this book, but also to have a feeling heart for the incomparably sublime prayer which their Lord Jesus addressed to the One God. Muslims will recognize the Lord's prayer as a prayer for the Divine 'direction' of humanity, a prayer for the submission, resignation or Islam of the human will to the will of God. The time may come when Mahomedans will teach that prayer in their schools, repeat it in their mosques and at their private devotions. Mahomed may well have been afraid that by the word 'Father' which in the Korân is never applied to God, his unenlightened followers might be misled into the belief that, in a literal and fleshly sense, man can be a son of God. The Muslims will remain in perfect accord with the doctrines of the Korân if they pray, with their Jesus the Messiah, 'Our Father which art in heaven.' The 'name' of God, said to have been 'in' the angel accompanying the Israelites in the wilderness, means the holy spirit of God, whom Gabriel brought to Mary and to Mahomed. According to the Koran God himself 'breathed' of his spirit into Jesus, and various passages mysteriously indicate that Mahomed was under the influence of the Spirit. He must have known, through the Ebionites, that Jesus had taught the innate presence of that Divine power in man, though Israel's rulers had kept this fact in secret. If Mahomed had promulgated this doctrine of Jesus, he would not have been understood by his followers. Therefore the Korân states no more than that it is by the Spirit, as is implied, God sends down of his grace on whomsoever of his servants he wills.' That grace, that spirit was sent to Mahomed as it was to Jesus, the 'holy' son of Mary. The Korân indicates that Jesus performed miracles with the permission of God.' The recorded fact that contemporaries of Jesus likewise cast out devils by the

spirit of God, Mahomed must have known, and if, as far as we know, he did not refer to this important circumstance, this may be explained by the ignorance of the people. Nothwitstanding the Korân's apparent silence on the indwelling of the spirit in man, as Jesus was the first to teach by word and deed in Israel, Muslims will not act contrary to Mahomed's implied doctrine on the Spirit when they pray, as Jesus did, hallowed be thy name.' The meaning of these words would remain essentially the same if Mahomedans prayed, 'hallowed be the name of Allah.' The Muslim believes that he must be resigned to the will of God, and therefore he can give expression to his ancestral faith by the words of the prayer which Jesus taught to his disciples: "Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth.' Mahomedans, Jews and Christians, in future all men, will pray to God for the daily bread, food for body and soul. Like Jesus, Mahomed has taught that God forbids sin, and that men are to forgive trespasses. With Jesus Mahomedans will pray: 'Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.' To pray for the continuity of Divine guidance is to pray that man may never be forsaken by the Divine enlightening power, by which a spiritual communion can be established between man and God. Without this sacred monitor within himself, man would be exposed to the temptation of following his own will. This is the meaning of the words, 'Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.' It will be nothing new for the followers of Mahomed to pray with Jesus, "Thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever.'

It is a striking confirmation of our theory that antipaulinian Ebionite Christians instructed Mahomed in the general truths of aboriginal or prepaulinic Christianity, to find that the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples, whilst not containing the slightest references to the later, introduced new doctrines of Paul, may be said to form the foundation for the doctrines of Mahomed, even as after his death recorded in the Korân. That prayer must have been taught to Mahomed by the Ebionite Christians of Syria. Mahomed will have regarded it as the utmost value, for what it contains as well as for that which it excludes. We do not fear to err by submitting, that Mahomed often repeated the prayer of 'Our Lord Jesus Christ, son of Mary,' that it was for him a guidance and a comfort, and that he regarded its author as being at the head of those whom Mahomed called his 'associates above.' Followers of Mahomed! 'Rise to the conviction that Mahomed, like Jesus, preached aboriginal or Jewish Christianity in all its essential points,' that the Korân, like the prayer of Jesus, absolutely excludes what has been wrongly called, during nearly two thou sand years, the Christianity of Jesus. We venture to assert that those be excluded from the predtcted trial, from this foretold will, who have striven to preserve the Jewish Christianity which was preached

by Jesus and Mahomed, instead of having been misled into the blind acceptance of a gnostic Christianity of oriental origin, never recognized by Judaism, byJesus nor by his chosen apostles, and firmly opposed by Islam. Which will be the land promised by the Psalmist to the righteous, or Muslim, who shall inherit it and dwell therein forever? It will be the holy land from the Euphrates to the Nile, said to have been promised to Abraham; Israelites with Islamites and many from other nations will there live peaceably together, in spiritual unity without uniformity.

Only a revision and partial reform will be required with regard to the five foundations or pillars of practice in Islam. The recital of the Kalimah or creed: 'There is no Deity but God, and Mahomed is the Rasûl or Apostle of God,' wil lremain an unaltered institution; for the Koran constantly connects Mahomed with the previous apostles, above all with Jesus the Messiah. The Sulât (Salat) or prayer will remain the pillar of religion.' The partial ablutions ordered to precede prayer will be explained as symbols of the spiritual purity which the Muslim strives to attain. The Ramazan or month of fasting stands in connection with similar Jewish and Christian rites. The Zaka't, literally' purification,' the legal alms or poor rate, is an admirable provision for the poor. The yearly Mahomedan pilgrimage, not obligatory, and undertaken only by those in easy circumstances, if freed from all superstitions, will be in future a true symbol of the brotherhood of mankind. Under the protection of efficient arrangements, it will help to establish that progress, based on liberty, equality, and fraternity, which was the most sacred aim of Mahomed's mission. With regard to the house of God, the ideal of Mahomed was that to which Isaiah and Jesus referred, 'a house of prayer for all people.' As a matter of fact, the Mahomedan is not forbidden to worship in a Jewish synagogue or in a Christian church. The apostle who destroyed idolatry wherever he could do so, had it not in his power to remove all idolatrous practices at the Kaaba and in other places. He cannot have wished to prevent, even if he could have done so, a future development and reformation in Islam. The principles of Islamic reform which we are indicating are either expressed or implied in the Korân and by living tradition.

To the progress of Islamite nations the present position in which woman is placed offers a serious hindrance. Unlimited polygamy probably prevailed among the Arabs prior to the promulgation of İslam, and it would have been impossible for Mahomed to provide efficient remedies against the accumulated evils of polygamy. As regards his own example, we are of opinion that, if Khadija had survived Mahomed, his faithfulness to her would have made of his life a a protest against polygamy. Respecting his marriages after Khadija's death, they ought to be considered from the most humane point

of view, after duly weighing extenuating circumstances. Apart from the degradation of woman by polygamy, her social position is better than it has been generally acknowledged in Europe. It is not true that according to the faith of Islam women have 'no soul;' passages in the Koran prove the contrary, and it is a fact that the religious position of Moslem women is not inferior to that of Moslem men. Professor Leitner, who has lived the greater part of his life among Mahomedans, and based his critical examination of Islamic schools on about 6000 school reports, asserts that nothing except perhaps the Hindoo family-life in the higher castes, can exceed the respect, tenderness, purity and legitimate influence of women in the Mahomedan household. Mahomedan women are in possession of greater legal rights than are possessed by English women, even since the Married Women Property Act of 1882. With regard to the veil, it was not introduced by Khadija, yet the traditions about her gave a special sanction to it. It is said that she was told by Warakah, an angel of light would flee on beholding unveiled woman, and that therefore when she saw an angel fly away whilst she took off her veil, she felt convinced that it was Gabriel who had appeared to Mahomed. It was believed that the veil prevents evil spirits from doing harm. This superstitious idea may have stood in some connection with the rabbinical explanation of Genesis VI about the sons of God seeing the daughters of men, that they were fair.

Another hindrance to the progress of Islam lies in the want of a suitable education for the lower and middle classes. A carefully composed extract from the Korân, aalso translated in other languages, similar to the Bible extracts now demanded in parts of Protestant Germany, with annotations pointing out its innermost germ, and a popular epitome of the world's history, the elements of the comparative science of religions, the laws of nature, love towards all men, kindness to animals, love of truth, cleanliness and sanitary science ought to be taught to the followers of Mahomed by the best attainable teachers, irrespective of their nationality or creed. Thus enlightened, the people of Islam will be saved from the consequences of superstition, and soon understand the necessity of not regarding the Korân as a compendium of revelations. It was inevitable that the people of Islam should fall into this great mistake, since during preceding centuries a similar position has been assigned to the Scriptures collected in the Bible. This great and misleading error has only during the last centuries begun to be corrected by applying to the Bible the principles of critical investigation, thus proving, though not yet to all Christians, that these scriptures may be explained to contain God's word, but that they are not the word of God. This lament able error among Christians ought to be a warning to the people of Islam. Another effect of suitable general education among Mahom

edans, greatly to the advantage of those Christians who are a verse to the persecutions of Jews, will be the disappearance of the still legally secured inequalities, between different nationalities, between persons of different ranks and creeds, and the abolition of slavery.

Centuries before Mahomed the Jewish law against slavery has been set aside, according to which 'he that stealeth a man (an Israelite?) and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand he shall surely be put to death.' But Paul argued that the slave in a Christian household, though he have the prospect of being freed, is not to aim at his liberation. Even the runaway slave Onesimus, whom Paul had converted, was sent back to his master Philemon, who was told to receive him as a 'beloved brother,' wherein the legal emancipation is not necessarily included. It has been argued with the convincing power of truth, that whilst slavery was not in the apostolic age denounced as a curse of humanity, yet that, 'by connecting the onerous responsibilities with its practice, Mahomed's religion provided for its gradual but absolute extinction.' Mahomed exhorted his followers to enfranchise slaves, 'than which was not a more acceptable act to God.' He ruled 'that for certain sins of omission the penalty should be the manumission of slaves; he ordered that a slave should be allowed to buy himself off by the wages of his service, and that in case the unfortunate beings had no present means of gain and wanted to earn in some other employment enough to purchase their liberty, advances were to be made him from public funds. In certain contingences it was provided that the slave should become enfranchised without interference, and even against the will of his master. The contract or agreement in which the least doubt was discovered was constructed most favourably in the interests of the slave, and the slightest promise on the part of the master was made obligatory for the purposes of enfranchisement.' 1

What in our day is not happily called a crusade against slavery,' a word to which a crescentade' has been opposed, ought not to have been connected with the assertion that 'to reduce the negro to slavery is a right, since it is on Mahomedan doctrine that it reposes.' This direct charge against the Korân by Cardinal Lavigerie has not been repealed on another occasion when, however, he challenged the Sheiks ul Islam to declare that they consider the violent capture of an infidel, and his sale by the believer, as contrary to natural and to revealed law.

He added: I do not know in Africa a single independent Mahomedan state whose sovereign does not permit, under the most' atrocious conditions of barbarism, the hunting and the sale of slaves.' We must admit this evidence, but such practice is a violation of Ma1 Syed Ameer Ali.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »