The Faith of Islam | Page 3

the special attention of the Indian Government. In Bengal the proportion of Musalmáns to Hindus in the upper ranks of the Uncovenanted Civil Service in 1871 was 77 to 341. In the year 1880 it had declined to 53 to 451. The state of affairs in Madras is equally bad. Yet an intelligent Muslim, as a rule, makes a good official.
Looking at the subject from a wider stand-point, I think the Church has hardly yet realised how great a barrier this system of Islám is to her onward march in the East. Surely special men with special training are required for such an enterprise as that of encountering Islám in its own strongholds. No better pioneers of the Christian {xiii} faith could be found in the East than men won from the Crescent to the Cross.
All who are engaged in such an enterprise will perhaps find some help in this volume, and I am not without hope that it may also throw some light on the political questions of the day.
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THE FAITH OF ISLáM.
CHAPTER I.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF ISLáM.
The creed of Islám, "Lá-iláha-il-lal-láhu wa Muhammad-ur-Rasúl-Ulláh," (There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the Apostle of God) is very short, but the system itself is a very dogmatic one. Such statements as: "The Qurán is an all-embracing and sufficient code, regulating everything," "The Qurán contains the entire code of Islám--that is, it is not a book of religious precepts merely, but it governs all that a Muslim does," "The Qurán contains the whole religion of Muhammad," "The Qurán which contains the whole Gospel of Islám" are not simply misleading, they are erroneous. So far from the Qurán alone being the sole rule of faith and practice to Muslims, there is not one single sect amongst them whose faith and practice is based on it alone. No one among them disputes its authority or casts any doubt upon its genuineness. Its voice is supreme in all that it concerns, but its exegesis, the whole system of legal jurisprudence and of theological science, is largely founded on the Traditions. Amongst the orthodox Musalmáns, the foundations of the Faith are four in number, the Qurán, Sunnat, Ijmá' and Qíás. The fact that all the sects do not agree with the orthodox--the Sunnís--in this matter illustrates another important fact in Islám--the want of unity amongst its followers. {2}
1. THE QURáN.--The question of the inspiration will be fully discussed, and an account of the laws of the exegesis of the Qurán will be given in the next chapter. It is sufficient now to state that this book is held in the highest veneration by Muslims of every sect. When being read it is kept on a stand elevated above the floor, and no one must read or touch it without first making a legal ablution.[2] It is not translated unless there is the most urgent necessity, and even then the Arabic text is printed with the translation. It is said that God chose the sacred month of Ramazán in which to give all the revelations which in the form of books have been vouchsafed to mankind. Thus on the first night of that month the books of Abraham came down from heaven; on the sixth the books of Moses; on the thirteenth the Injíl, or Gospel, and on the twenty-seventh the Qurán. On that night, the Laylut-ul-Qadr, or "night of power," the whole Qurán is said to have descended to the lowest of the seven heavens, from whence it was brought piecemeal to Muhammad as occasion required.[3] "Verily we have caused it (the Qurán) to descend on the night of power." (Súra xcvii. 1.) That night is called the blessed night, the night better than a thousand months, the night when angels came down by the permission of their Lord, the night which bringeth peace and blessings till the rosy dawn. Twice on that night in the solitude of the cave of Hira the voice called, twice though pressed sore "as if a fearful weight had been laid upon him," the prophet struggled {3} against its influence. The third time he heard the words:--
"Recite thou, in the name of thy Lord who created-- Created man from clots of blood." (Súra xcvi. 5.)
"When the voice had ceased to speak, telling how from minutest beginnings man had been called into existence, and lifted up by understanding and knowledge of the Lord, who is most beneficent, and who by the pen had revealed that which man did not know, Muhammad woke up from his trance and felt as if "a book had been written in his heart." He was much alarmed. Tradition records that he went hastily to his wife and said--"O Khadíja! what has happened to me!" He lay down and she watched