The Days of Mohammed

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The Days of Mohammed

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Wilson
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Title: The Days of Mohammed
Author: Anna May Wilson

Release Date: December 31, 2005 [eBook #17435]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE DAYS OF MOHAMMED.
by
ANNA MAY WILSON.

David C. Cook Publishing Company, Elgin, Ill., and 36 Washington St.,
Chicago. Copyright, 1897, by David C. Cook Publishing Company.

PREFACE.
In "The Days of Mohammed," one aim of the author has been to bring
out the fact that it is possible to begin the heaven-life on earth. It is
hoped that a few helpful thoughts as to the means of attaining this life
may be exemplified in the career of the various characters depicted.
An attempt has been made, by constant reference to the best works on
Mohammed and Arabia, to render the historical basis strictly correct.
Especial indebtedness is acknowledged to the writings of Irving,
Burton, and the Rev. Geo. Bush; also to the travels of Burckhardt,
Joseph Pitts, Ludovico Bartema and Giovanni Finati, each of whom
undertook a pilgrimage to the cities of Medina and Mecca; also to the
excellent synopsis of the life and times of Mohammed as given by Prof.
Max Müller in the introduction to Palmer's translation of the Koran.
As the tiny pebble cast into the water sends its circling wavelets to the
distant shore, so this little book is cast forth upon the world, in the hope
that it may exert some influence in bringing hope and comfort to some

weary heart, and that, in helping someone to attain a clearer conception
of Divine love and companionship, it may, if in never so insignificant a
degree, perhaps help on to that time when all shall
"Trust the Hand of Light will lead the people, Till the thunders pass,
the spectres vanish, And the Light is Victor, and the darkness Dawns
into the Jubilee of the Ages."

PRECEDING EVENTS--SUMMARY.
Yusuf, a Guebre priest, a man of intensely religious temperament, and
one of those whose duty it is to keep alive the sacred fire of the Persian
temple, has long sought for a more heart-satisfying religion than that
afforded to him by the doctrines of his country. Though a man of
kindliest disposition, yet so benighted he is that, led on by a deep study
of the mysteries of Magian and Sabæan rites, he has been induced to
offer, in human sacrifice, Imri, the little granddaughter of Ama, an aged
Persian woman, and daughter of an Arab, Uzza, who, though married to
a Persian, lives at Oman with his wife, and knows nothing of the
sacrifice until it is over.
The death of the child, though beneath his own hand, immediately
strikes horror to the heart of the priest. His whole soul revolts against
the inhumanity of the act, which has not brought to him or Ama the
blessing he had hoped for, and he rebels against the religion which has,
though ever so rarely, permitted the exercise of such an atrocious rite.
He becomes more than ever dissatisfied with the vagueness of his belief.
He cannot find the rest which he desires; the Zendavesta of Zoroaster
can no longer satisfy his heart's longing; his country-people are sunk in
idolatry, and, instead of worshiping the God of whom the priests have a
vague conception, persist in bowing down before the symbols
themselves, discerning naught but the objects--the sun, moon, stars,
fire--light, all in all.
Yusuf, indeed, has a clearer idea of God; but he worships him from afar
off, and looks upon him as a God of wrath and judgment rather than as

the Father of love and mercy. In his new spiritual agitation he
conceives the idea of a closer relation with the Lord of the universe; his
whole soul calls out for a vivid realization of God, and he casts about
for light in his trouble.
From a passing stranger, traveling in Persia--a descendant of those
Sabæan Persians who at an early age obtained a footing in Arabia, and
whose influence was, for a time, so strongly marked through the whole
district known as the Nejd,