Christianity and Islam | Page 4

own
compatriots, he was especially impressed with the seriousness of the
Hebrews and Christians which contrasted strongly with the indifference
of the heathen Arabs. The Arab was familiar with the conception of an
almighty God, and this idea had not been obscured by the worship of
trees, stones, fire and the heavenly bodies: but his reverence for this
God was somewhat impersonal and he felt no instinct to approach Him,
unless he had some hopes or fears to satisfy. The idea of a reckoning
between man and God was alien to the Arab mind. Christian and
Jewish influence became operative upon Muhammed with reference to
this special point. The idea of the day of judgment, when an account of
earthly deeds and misdeeds will be required, when the joys of Paradise
will be opened to the good and the bad will be cast into the fiery abyss,
such was the great idea, which suddenly filled Muhammed's mind and
dispelled the indifference begotten of routine and stirred his mental
powers.
Polytheism was incompatible with the idea of God as a judge supreme
and righteous, but yet merciful. Thus monotheism was indissolubly
connected with Muhammed's first religious impulses, though the
dogma had not assumed the polemical form in which it afterwards
confronted the old Arabian and Christian beliefs. But a mind stirred by
religious emotion only rose to the height of prophetic power after a
long course of development which human knowledge can but dimly
surmise. Christianity and Judaism had their sacred books which the
founders of these religions had produced. In them were the words of
God, transmitted through Moses to the Jews and through Jesus to the
Christians. Jesus and Moses had been God's ambassadors to their
peoples. Who then could bring to the Arabs the glad tidings which
should guide them to the happy fields of Paradise? Among primitive
peoples God is regarded as very near to man. The Arabs had, their

fortune-tellers and augurs who cast lots before God and explained His
will in mysterious rhythmical utterances. Muhammed was at first more
intimately connected with this class of Arab fortune-tellers than is
usually supposed. The best proof of the fact is the vehemence with
which he repudiates all comparison between these fortune-tellers and
himself, even as early Christian apologetics and polemics attacked the
rival cults of the later classical world, which possessed forms of ritual
akin to those observed by Christianity. The existence of a
fortune-telling class among the Arabs shows that Muhammed may well
have been endowed with psychological tendencies which only awaited
the vivifying influence of Judaism and Christianity to emerge as the
prophetic impulse forcing him to stand forth in public and to stir the
people from their indifference: "Be ye converted, for the day of
judgment is at hand: God has declared it unto me, as he declared it unto
Moses and Jesus. I am the apostle of God to you, Arabs. Salvation is
yours only if ye submit to the will of God preached by me." This act of
submission Muhammed calls Islam. Thus at the hour of Islam's birth,
before its founder had proclaimed his ideas, the influence of
Christianity is indisputable. It was this influence which made of the
Arab seer and inspired prophet, the apostle of God.
Muhammed regarded Judaism and Christianity as religious movements
purely national in character. God in His mercy had announced His will
to different nations through His prophets. As God's word had been
interpreted for the Jews and for the Christians, so there was to be a
special interpretation for the benefit of the Arabs. These interpretations
were naturally identical in manner and differed only as regards place
and time. Muhammed had heard of the Jewish Messiah and of the
Christian Paraclete, whom, however, he failed to identify with the Holy
Ghost and he applied to himself the allusions to one who should come
after Moses and Jesus. Thus in the Qoran 61.6 we read, "Jesus, the Son
of Mary, said: Children of Israel, I am God's apostle to you. I confirm
in your hands the Thora (the law) and I announce the coming of another
apostle after me whose name is Ahmed." Ahmed is the equivalent of
Muhammed. The verse has been variously interpreted and even rejected
as an interpolation: but its authenticity is attested by its perfect
correspondence with what we know of Muhammed's pretensions.
To trace in detail the development of his attitude towards Christianity is

a more difficult task than to discover the growth of his views upon
Judaism; probably he pursued a similar course in either case. At first he
assumed the identity of the two religions with one another and with his
own doctrine; afterwards he regarded them as advancing by gradations.
Adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Muhammed, these in his