A. C. Benson

“ But if in Judæa itself, among the chosen race, where God was King, and prophecy and miracle, blessing and curse bore witness to His power if even there the people could leave His worship and go after strange gods—Moloch, and Remphan, and Ashtaroth, and all the host of heaven—what are we to look for among a people where no direct interference checked the yearning for idolatry, the worship of something that the eye could see and the hands could handle? ”

“ He begetteth not, neither is He begotten, and there is not any one like unto him.' This doctrine is the foundation of the belief of the Mahometans, whose creed is: 'There is no God but God, and Mahomet is the prophet of God.'
The heaven and hell of the Moslems is also described. The former is a place of purely material and sensual delights, full of soft couches, shady gardens, and murmuring streams, doubtless attractive enough to the dwellers in a burning desert: while of hell the Koran says: 'The wicked shall be cast into scorching fire; they shall have no food but dry thorns and thistles. ”

“ But now the crisis of his life was approaching—the period at which he came forward as the prophet of the one God whose existence he taught. It is hard to judge rightly of his motives in thus proclaiming himself. Nowadays, of course, we do not necessarily regard the founder of a religion different from our own as a wilful impostor, much less as one inspired by Satan. But such was once the opinion Christians held of Mahomet. The Protestant Luther said he was 'a devil.' His Roman Catholic opponents could find nothing worse to say of Mahomet than that he was like Luther. ”

“ Finally the Koran, while acknowledging Christ Jesus to be 'honourable and one of those who approached near to the presence of God,' declares that 'He is no other than a servant, whom God favoured with the gift of prophecy, but not to be associated with the worship of God;' and when He comes again at the last day it will be to confute the Christians who believed on Him as God, no less than the Jews who rejected and crucified Him. ”

“ Of course, the Koran is full of moral precepts, to many of which no one could take exception. Wine and gambling are forbidden. Crimes are to be punished on the principle of retaliation—an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Prayer, fasting, almsgiving, are all duties to be carefully observed. War against infidels is expressly commanded; the warrior who dies in such battle passes straight to heaven—a belief which, combined with their idea of inevitable fate, renders the Moslems desperately brave and careless of death, as our soldiers found in the recent battles in the Soudan. ”

“ Round it is a border of silver. The Kaaba was the centre of pilgrimages and of the strange mixture of ceremonies based partly on idolatry and partly on the biblical story of Abraham, Hagar, and Ishmael. For more than two thousand years this simple religion sufficed the people of Arabia: all through the period of the Jewish kingdoms and captivities, the rise and fall of Persia, Greece, and Rome, through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ ”

“ Mahomet was wounded in the mouth, and his men were driven from the field. The brave Hamza, the Lion of God, was slain by a negro, and the savage wife of one of the enemy's leaders tore his heart from his breast and gnawed it with her teeth.
Yet the battle had no decided results. The Coreish withdrew to Mecca; and some smaller expeditions sent out by Mahomet were successful. Two years after, 10,000 Meccans were repulsed from the walls of Medina, and in the subsequent year Mahomet attempted to lead his followers, to the number of 1,500, on a pilgrimage to the Kaaba at Mecca. ”

“ The Koran recognises four chief angels or archangels: Gabriel, the Angel of Revelation; Michael, the champion of the faith, and the friend of the Jews; Azrael, the angel of death, and Israfil, who is to sound the trumpet at the last day. The devil is called Eblis, and he is said to have fallen because he refused to worship Adam.
The book deals both with the Jewish and the Christian religions. But it mingles the Old Testament narrative with absurd stories, such as that in which the Seven Sleepers remain in a cave for 309 years ”

“ Its followers number 100 millions, or one-thirteenth of the inhabitants of the world, against 490 million Buddhists and 360 million Christians, But now that external conquest has ceased to supply the Moslem powers with a motive for energy, they have sunk lower and lower, neglecting all reform and attempt at political progress. 'It is Kismet, or Fate,' they say; it is no use struggling against the inevitable. ”

“ But soon after Mahomet, with 300 followers, encountered and routed nearly a thousand of his enemies at Badr, killing and taking prisoners over 100 men, and losing only fourteen. Two of the prisoners were put to death in cold blood, and the rest released for a heavy ransom. The sword was now fairly drawn.
The Meccans determined on revenge; 3,000 strong, they advanced within four miles of Medina. Mahomet took up a position at Ohod, with 1,000 men, weakened by a desertion to 700. ”

“ Even now it dominates Egypt, the Turkish Empire, Arabia, Persia, and Turkestan, prevails along the north coast of Africa and irregularly southward to the equator, has great influence in India and among the Malays, and has found a footing in China. ”