Ameer Ali

“ I have not the least doubt we should, Ameer Ali: but go on with your story; you will forget what your train of thought was, if you digress in this manner. He resumed.
Nearly a month elapsed, and after this weary time to me, Ismail returned, accompanied by Hoosein. My father, for so I shall call him, remarked a change in my appearance, which I accounted for as I had done to the Moola, and he seemed satisfied. But was I? Oh, no! I was consumed by my burning curiosity to know all that was hidden from me. ”

“ And yet Ameer Ali is a murderer, one before whom every murderer of the known world, in times past or present,—except perhaps some of his own profession, the free bands of Germany, the Lanzknechts, the Banditti, Condottieri, of Italy, the Buccaneers and Pirates, and in our own time the fraternity of Burkes and Hares (a degenerate system of Thuggee, by the bye, at which Ameer Ali, when I told him of them, laughed heartily, and said they were sad bunglers) —must be counted men of small account. ”

“ His Koran denounces murderers. Blood for blood, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, is the doctrine of his Prophet, which he trembles at while he believes.—And Ameer Ali is a Bhula Admee even in the eyes of his jailers; a respectable man, a religious man, one who from his youth up has said his Namaz five times a day, is most devout in his life and conduct, is most particular in his ablutions, keeps the fast of the Ramzan and every saint's day in his calendar, dresses in green clothes in the Mohorum, and beats his breast and tears his hair as a good Syud of Hindostan ought to do ”

“ Although the mind would ordinarily reject sympathy with the joys or sorrows of a murderer like Ameer Ali, one so deeply stained with crime of the most revolting nature, yet for the moment I was moved to see, that after the lapse of nearly twenty years by his account, the simple mention of the death of his favourite child could so much affect him, even to tears, and they were genuine. ”

“ His language is pure and fluent, perhaps a little affected from his knowledge of Persian, which, though slight, is sufficient to enable him to introduce words and expressions in that language, often when they are not needed; but still it is pure Oordoo; he prides himself upon it, and holds in supreme contempt those who speak the corrupt patois of the Dukhun, or the still worse one of Hindostan. Altogether Ameer Ali is a character, and a man of immense importance in his own opinion, and that of every one else ”

“ Shere Ali fled northwards, and died soon after. His son, Yakoob Khan, assumed temporarily the position of Ameer, but in the convulsed state of the country lie possessed little real power or authority. In May, 1879, he met the British authorities at Gundamuk, and after considerable discussion signed a treaty, the chief points of which were as follows:— The foreign affairs of Afghanistan were to be under our guidance; and we undertook to support the Ameer against foreign aggression; British agents were to reside in the country ”

“ This obliged the Ameer to come to a final decision; and the die was cast by the escort being stopped, by force, on its arrival at Ali-Musjid.
There is no doubt that the Ameer, and his friends, calculated that it was already too late in the season for the English to gather a sufficient force, on the frontier, to force the passes held by the Afghan army before the snows. The promptness of action of the English government, the valor of their troops, and the unusually late setting in of the winter combined to overthrow the Ameer's plans. ”

“ Henceforth his life is a record of unceasing struggle to reclaim the Koreish and the surrounding people from idolatry and the practices of heathenism, to teach them their duty to God and man. The first to accept his mission were his beloved wife, his cousin Ali, the son of Abû Tâlib, his uncle, the brave and chivalrous Hamza, the faithful Abû Bakr, and several other men and women who knew him intimately and loved and revered him. Most of them were people of position, wealth, and intelligence; others were simple, honest folk in the lower walks of life. ”

“ People do not easily put aside prejudices born of centuries of political and religious antagonism. It may, therefore, be of some interest to know the estimate of the Arabian Teacher formed by his immediate followers and disciples, many of whom were unquestionably men of great intelligence and moral vigour, who readily sacrificed for his Teachings, at a time when he was only a humble and persecuted preacher, wealth, position, and influence, and who, by their character and environment, were not likely to be influenced by light or common worldly motives. ”

“ The Gospel of Islâm is the Koran—the Book—in which are embodied the teachings and precepts of the Arabian Prophet.
From this first principle, the belief in God, spring all the duties human beings owe to Him and to each other. The recognition by man of God’s divine grace and mercy, and the constant remembrance of His benefactions is the very essence of the Islâmic Faith. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Khudayar Khan had an elder brother, Mullah Khan, who had been passed over by Mussulman Kuli, when the state was put in order after the dissensions that arose on the death of the great ruler, Mahomed Ali. Now, on the death of Mussulman Kuli, who had given vitality to the régime of Khudayar, Mullah Khan and his partisans began to intrigue once more. Several Kipchak and Kirghiz leaders joined his cause, and Yakoob Beg at once became one of his most active supporters. ”

“ The Mutazalite or rationalistic school was founded by Wâsil, who died in 785 A.C. Mâmûn, the sixth Abbasside Caliph, was a strenuous upholder of his doctrines.
‘The Brothers of Purity.’—Towards the close of the tenth century a body of thinkers, whose researches extended to every department of the human mind, and whose great aim was to introduce a spirit of eclecticism in Islâm, established a brotherhood of intellect, which was to embrace all men animated with the single purpose of promoting the moral and intellectual welfare of the nation. ”

“ He is represented to have been a very enlightened prince, and emissaries from foreign nations returned from his court relating with surprise how they had found a courteous and refined man where they expected to have seen a coarse and savage Mongol. While Yunus ruled in Jungaria another striking individual was predominant in Kashgar. Ababakar, son of Saniz, who was the son of Seyyid Ali, ruler of Kashgar, was one of the few sovereigns of that state whose acts entitle them to consideration. ”

“ The whole creation with its manifold phenomena, so varied and yet so uniform, from the single blade of grass springing up in the field to the mighty stars soaring in the firmament, is a proof of His existence, His [5] mercy, His love, and His divine Providence ‘God: there is no God but He—the Living, the Eternal, no slumber seizeth Him. ”

“ He who, standing alone, braved for years the hatred of his people, is the same who was never the first to withdraw his hand from another’s clasp; the beloved of children, who never passed a group of little ones without a smile from his wonderful eyes and a kind word for them, sounding all the kinder in that sweet-toned voice. ”

“ Large masses of Moslems, no doubt, accept in their literal sense all the word-paintings of the Koran, a characteristic by no means confined to the followers of Islâm. But it is a calumny even against those Mussulman literalists to say that they look forward to sensual enjoyment in the next world. The pictures in the Koran of the joys and pains of after-life, although poetical and vivid, give no warrant for such an assertion. ‘But those who are pious shall dwell in gardens amid fountains ”

“ Thus the orphan son of Âmina, the sweet lady with the sweet name, which to this day evokes a pathetic remembrance in the heart of every Moslem, grew from infancy to youth, and from youth to manhood with many thoughts in his mind, brooding over the moral desolation that surrounded him,—for his people were sunk in the grossest idolatry, wedded to outrageous practices, given over to female infanticide. ”

“ Shiahism.—The Shiah Church traces its foundation to the Caliph Ali and the immediate descendants of the Prophet, regarded as the rightful expounders of his teachings. Some twenty millions of Indian Mussulmans are Shiahs; Shiahism is also the State religion of Persia. There are large numbers of Shiahs in the Hijaz, in Egypt and other [76] parts of the world, but always in a minority. The question of the title to the spiritual and temporal headship of Islâm forms the chief point of difference between the two churches. The Sunnis are the advocates of the principle of election ”

“ Eruption of the Tartars.—Hardly had the Moslems recovered from the destruction and havoc wrought by the Crusades, when the eruption of the Mongolian savages from the steppes of Tartary, falling like an avalanche, swept away all vestiges of culture and civilisation, and converted Middle and Western Asia into a charnel-house. And although centuries have passed since the sack of Bagdad and other famed centres of Moslem learning and arts, Islâm has not regained yet its true life and progressive vitality. ”

“ 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 ”

“ And yet, as an active living Faith Islâm has lost none of its pristine force nor the magic hold it possesses over its followers. In certain parts of the world it is spreading with greater rapidity than any other creed, and its acceptance among the less advanced races has invariably tended to raise them in the moral scale. ”

“ The Fall of Granada—Destruction of Moslem Civilisation, 1498 A.C.—And when, after a heroic struggle, the city of the Banu-Nasr, the home of culture, chivalry, and arts, capitulated to its Christian assailants, the glory of Moorish Spain died with the martyrs who were burnt at the stake or slaughtered like sheep regardless of age or sex, or suffocated in the caverns to which they betook themselves for refuge. ”

“ Your lives and property are sacred and inviolable amongst one another until ye appear before the Lord, as this day and this month is sacred for all; and remember ye shall have to appear before your Lord, who shall demand from you an account of all your actions. Ye people, ye have rights over your wives, and your wives have rights over you ... treat your wives with kindness ... ”

“ Under its influence a congeries of warring tribes consolidated into a nation carried aloft for centuries the torch of knowledge. With the fall of their empire, they ceased to be the preceptors of mankind. The younger nations who succeeded to their heritage continued some of their glory in arms, but less in arts and literature. ”

“ The belief that divine help is always nigh to relieve the distressed, to help the suffering, to assist the forsaken, arrests the hand of the most despondent or desperate, the most sick and weary with life, from taking his or her own life. ”

“ Meaning of Islâm.—Islâm is the name which the followers of the Arabian Prophet give to their religion. It means peace, greeting, safety, salvation. It does not involve, however, any idea of fatalism. In its ethical sense it signifies striving after righteousness. Man is a free agent within his limited sphere: the ordinances of God lay down the eternal principles of human [4] conduct. ”

“ Of all the great systems that aim at the elevation of mankind by an appeal to their religious consciousness, the latest-born is the religion preached by the Prophet of Arabia. The fundamental principles of right and wrong are common to all moral creeds; it is in their vitalising force, the life they infuse into humanity and the direction they give to human energies, that we must seek for elements of differentiation. ”

“ The Crusades.—The Crusades, which devastated Western Asia for two centuries, and inflicted untold miseries on the unfortunate people exposed to the merciless raids of the hordes of Europe who professed ‘the religion of peace,’ involved the Moslem nations in a life-and-death struggle, during which intellectual development came to a standstill. ”

“ It is difficult, if not impossible, for any one not endowed with a spirit of sympathy, or the faculty of transporting the mind to the social conditions and moral needs of other times, to do justice to the Teacher of another Faith, especially if that Faith is imagined to be in rivalry with his own. ”

“ Some believe that God can be seen by corporeal sight, others entirely deny it. But all believe that when the human souls are gathered up in the Great Account, the Divine Presence will enfold the Universe. ”

“ Here and there individuals had broken away from the old cults, but were still groping in darkness in search of the road to truth and salvation, unsatisfied spirits to whom neither Judaism nor Christianity brought any solution to the enigmas of life. ”

“ Considering how the profession of the hetairai, honoured among some nations, despised among others, but tolerated by most, has flourished [31] 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. ”