A Wealth of Information
About Muhammad
(This is taken from F.F. Arbuthnot's Arabic Authors, originally published in 1890.)
A manual of Arabian history and literature would hardly be complete
unless some special mention of Muhammad was introduced. As previously
stated, his Koran forms the basis of the literary edifice of Arab
literature, while he himself undoubtedly holds the first place in Arab
history. As the author and founder of a new religion, which both
during his lifetime and after his death was accepted with a marvellous
rapidity, and is still being accepted in various parts of Africa, it
must be admitted that he was an extraordinary person. At the beginning
of what may be called his inspired life at Mecca, he stood forth as a
reformer, preacher, and apostle. But, though full of enthusiasm and
belief in the great cause that he advocated, he was, without doubt,
from the commencement to the end of his career, a practical man of
business, which Buddha and Jesus certainly were not.
The life of Muhammad has been written in many languages, and with such
voluminous details, that it is hardly necessary to enter into these
details very minutely here. Sir William Muir’s works on the subject
are graphic, descriptive, and full of interesting matter, while a
lengthy article on the subject of Muhammad and Muhammadism, in the
third volume of the ‘Dictionary of Christian Biography,’ from the pen
of the late Rev. G.P. Badger, is one of extraordinary interest. A
perusal of the above-named works, with Hughes’s ‘Dictionary of Islam’
as a reference book, will give the ordinary English reader as much
information as is likely to be required in the ordinary course of
things.
But by way of preface to certain remarks upon Muhammad as a reformer,
preacher, and apostle at Mecca, as pope and king at Madinah, as author
of the Koran, founder of a religion, legislator, military leader, and
organizer of the Arabs into a nation, it is perhaps necessary to give
a rapid summary of the principal events of a life which has had such
an influence upon so many people, and which has filled so many pages.
This summary will be as brief as possible:
His birth, August, A.D. 570, at Mecca, his father having died some
months previously.
His christening by the name of Muhammad, i.e., the Praised One. His
grandfather Abdul-Muttalib, who gave him the name, said it was given
to him ‘in the hope that his grandson would be praised by God in
heaven, and by God’s creatures on earth.’
His bringing up in the desert of the Benou-Saad by a Badawin nurse,
one Halimah, the wife of Harith, for five years.
His mother Aminah took him, aged six, to Madinah to present him to his
maternal relations there. She died on the return journey, A.D. 576.
Under the guardianship of his grandfather Abdul Muttalib (who loved
him dearly) for two years, from six to eight, when Abdul died, A.D.
578.
Under the guardianship of his uncle Abu Thaleb, the uterine brother of
his father, Abd-Allah.
When about twelve years old, Muhammad accompanied his uncle, Abu
Thaleb, into Syria on a mercantile expedition. His first visit to that
country, and his experiences there, A.D. 582.
His presence, during the sacrilegious war, at a battle between certain
tribes at or near Okatz, where he assisted his uncle, who took part in
the fight.
His attendance at sundry preachings and poetical and eloquent
recitations at Okatz, where it is said he imbibed the first lessons of
the art of poetry and the power of rhetoric, and also acquired certain
religious sentiments.
His life as a shepherd in the neighbourhood of Mecca, and the ideas
that such a lonely life, face to face with nature, would perhaps
inspire.
His acquisition of the title of Al-Amin, the Trustworthy.
His second visit to Syria, when twenty-five years old (A.D. 595), on a
mercantile expedition, as agent to the widow Khadijah, and his
acquisition of religious impressions there.
His successful business, and his marriage on his return to Khadijah,
fifteen years his senior in age, A.D. 595.
Six children born to Muhammad by Khadijah, most of whom died young.
The rebuilding of the Kaabah in A.D. 605, in which Muhammad
accidentally takes a prominent part.
His solitary contemplations and studies, from the age of twenty-five
to forty, at Mecca, and in the cave on Mount Hira near Mecca.
Here it is important to bear in mind the foregoing experiences in the
life of Muhammad as we approach the period of his alleged revelations.
There can be no doubt that by this time he had acquired, as well
through his own observation and inquiry, as through intimate converse
with Bara-kah, reputed the most learned Arab of the age, considerable
acquaintance with the dogmas of Judaism and Christianity; that he had
some knowledge of the Bible, the Talmud, and the Gospels; that he was
thoroughly versed in Arab legendary lore, and that, being gifted with
a ready flow of speech, an ardent imagination, together with a bold,
enterprising spirit, he was well equipped for carrying out that grand
social and religious revolution among his countrymen which he
contemplated.
His yearnings after religious truth and his first poetic productions.
His mental depressions.
His first inspirations from the angel Gabriel, A.D. 610.
His account of his visions to his wife, who became the first convert
to al-Islam, or the creed of Muhammad.
His next converts were Ali, his adopted son and cousin;
Zaid-bin-Harithah, also an adopted son; Warakah; and
Abdul-Kaabah-bin-Kuhafah, one of the most influential and learned men
of Mecca, on conversion named Abd Allah, and afterwards called Abu
Bakr, ‘The Father of the Virgin,’ ‘The Companion of the Cave,’ ‘The
Second of the Two,’ ‘The True,’ ‘The Sighing,’ etc., and who eventually
became the first Khalifah, or Successor.
Other conversions followed; viz., Saad, Zobeir, Talha; Othman bin
Affan, the third Khalifah, or Successor, after Abu Bakr and Omar;
Abdar-Rahman, and several more.
The injunctions of Muhammad to his converts were then as follows: ‘The
duty of believing in one God; in a future reward reserved for the
righteous in another life, and a future punishment for the wicked; of
acknowledging himself as the Apostle of God, and of obeying him as
such; of practising ablution; of offering up prayer according to
certain specified rules.’ These, he said, did not constitute a new
religion, but merely restored the ancient religion of Abraham to its
pristine purity. His teachings, he maintained, were revelations
conveyed to him by Gabriel, and he simply repeated what the angel
communicated to him.
His assumption of the title of Apostle of God, in whose name he now
spoke, A.D. 610.
His frequent revelations for three years, and the commencement of his
public preaching to the Koraish, who would not listen, but regarded
him as a half-witted poet.
His denouncement of idolatry, and the consequent persecutions of
himself and his followers by the Koraish.
Conversions in the house of Arcam, afterwards styled the House of
Islam.
The first emigration to Abyssinia of some of his followers by his
advice, and their speedy return, A.D. 615.
The lapse of Muhammad and his idolatrous concession, but afterwards
disowned and disavowed.
The second emigration to Abyssinia, A.D. 615-616.
The conversion of Hamzah and Omar and thirty-nine adherents of the
latter—a great event, A.D. 615-616.
The Koraish try to come to terms with Muhammad, but fail.
The prohibition of all intercourse with Muhammad and his followers by
order of the Koraish, and a general persecution.
The excommunication of Muhammad and of the descendants of Hisham and
Muttalib, which lasted more than three years, A.D. 617-620.
The death of Muhammad’s first wife, Khadijah, in December, A.D. 619,
and of his uncle, Abu Thaleb, in January, 620.
His critical position. He seeks an asylum at Taif, but not being well
received, returns to Mecca, remaining there in comparative retirement.
His marriage, A.D. 620, with Saudah-bint-Zamaah, the widow of one
Sukran, and his betrothal to Ayesha, the daughter of Abu Bakr, then
only eight years old.
The first meeting at the Pilgrimage of a party from Yathrib (Madinah),
to whom Muhammad expounds his doctrines. The listeners profess their
belief in him, and propose to advocate his cause in their native
place. March, A.D. 620.
The conference at Akabah, a hill on the north side of Mecca, with the
men of certain tribes resident at Yathrib, who took an oath to be
faithful to Muhammad and his religion. This is called ‘the first
pledge of Akabah.’ April, A.D. 621.
The despatch of Musaab, a Meccan disciple, to Yathrib, for the purpose
of giving instruction in the Koran and in the rites of the new
religion.
The Night of the Ladder, or the miraculous journey first from Mecca to
Jerusalem upon the beast called al-Burak, and then the ascent from
Jerusalem to heaven, under the guidance of Gabriel, and what he saw
there. Apparently a dream or vision, A.D. 621.
Second meeting at Akabah, called ‘the second pledge of Akabah,’ and
engagements ratified. March, A.D. 622.
Distrust of the Koraish. Proposal to kill Muhammad, who had advised
his followers to flee to Yathrib. April and May, A.D. 622.
In June, A.D. 622, Muhammad himself secretly leaves Mecca with Abu
Bakr. They first go to a cave in Mount Thur, about three miles to the
south of Mecca, and reach Yathrib (henceforward to be called Al
Madinah, ‘The City’ par excellence) a few days afterwards.
On his way there, at Kuba, a village two miles to the south of
Madinah, Muhammad laid the foundation of a mosque called ‘The Fear of
God.’ This was the first temple raised by Islam.
Enthusiastic reception at Madinah, a charter drawn up, and Muhammad
assumes the reins of both spiritual and temporal sovereignty.
His family arrives from Mecca.
He completes his house and mosque at Madinah, and draws up a bond of
union between the Ansars, or auxiliaries, of Madinah and the Al
Muhajirun, or emigrants from Mecca, who were the first to embrace
Islam.
Marriage with Ayesha consummated, January, A.D. 623.
Marriage of Fatimah, Muhammad’s daughter, to Ali bin Abu Thaleb, the
adopted son and cousin of Muhammad, June, A.D. 623.
The call to prayer; the Kiblah, or place to which the face was turned
in prayer, changed from Jerusalem to Mecca; the fast of Ramadhan, and
the tithe, or poor rate, instituted. Friday appointed as the day for
public service in the mosque. Commencement of hostilities with the
people of Mecca, the first blood shed, and the first booty taken by
the Muslim.
Battle of Badr, or Bedr—a victory. January, A.D. 624.
A Surah, or chapter, issued about ‘The Spoils,’ how to be divided,
which now forms Chapter VIII. of the Koran.
Commencement of disputes with the Jews, and the exile of the Benou
Kainuka, a Jewish tribe settled at Madinah, to Syria.
Assassination of certain Jews.
Marriage of Muhammad to Hafsah, the daughter of Omar, on the death of
her husband Khunais, December, A.D. 624. His fourth wife.
Defeat at Ohud, January, A.D. 625.
Further military expeditions.
The exile of the Benou Nadhir, another Jewish tribe residing near
Madinah.
Muhammad marries a fifth wife, Zaineb-bint-Khuzaimah, the widow of
Obaidah, slain at Badr. January, A.D. 626.
Further hostilities with Arab tribes.
Muhammad marries his sixth wife, Omm-Salamah, widow of Abu Salamah,
February, A.D. 626.
Further warlike expeditions.
Muhammad marries his seventh wife, Zainab bint Jahsh, purposely
divorced by his freedman and adopted son Zaid bin Harithah, so that
she might marry the Prophet. June, A.D. 626.
Further military expeditions.
Muhammad marries his eighth wife, Juwairiyyah-bint Harith, who
survived him forty-five years. December, A.D. 626.
Ayesha, the favourite wife, and the daughter of Abu Bakr, accused of
adultery, but eventually acquitted by a Divine revelation.
Siege of Madinah, February and March, A.D. 627.
Massacre of the Benou Koreitza, a Jewish tribe near Madinah. Muhammad
takes Rohana, the beautiful Jewess, as a concubine.
Several minor expeditious.
An intended pilgrimage to Mecca, but Muhammad, with his followers, do
not go further than Al-Hodeibiah.
A truce made with the Koraish for ten years, and permission given to
Muhammad to visit the Kaabah the next year, for three days only.
March, A.D. 628.
Letters sent by Muhammad to foreign sovereigns and princes, inviting
them to embrace Islam; but these met with a moderate success only.
Expedition against the Jews of Khaibar, and its complete success.
August, A.D. 628.
Marriage of Muhammad with Safiyyah, the bride of Kinanah, his ninth
wife, August, A.D. 628. He partakes of a poisoned kid, dressed and
offered to him by a woman named Zeinab.
His marriage with Omm Habiba, widow of Obaid Allah, and daughter of
Abu Sofyan, October, A.D. 628. His tenth wife.
He takes Mary, the Coptic maid, as a concubine, sent to him by Jarih
bin Mutta, the Governor of Egypt.
There were now nine wives and two concubines living in the harem of
the Prophet.
Several small expeditions.
Despatch of further letters to foreign potentates and princes.
His pilgrimage to Mecca for three days, as previously stipulated, and
known as the ‘Solemn visit of the Fulfilment.’ February, A.D. 629.
His marriage with Maimunah bint Harith, his eleventh and last wife.
Further important conversions at Mecca, such as Othman bin Talha, the
guardian of the Kaabah; Amru, or Amr bin al-Aasi, a man renowned for
sagacity, and who, during the Khalifate of Omar, conquered Egypt; and
Khalid bin Walid, whose exploits obtained for him the title of ‘The
Sword of God.’ This last was the most talented general of the Muslims.
Several military excursions.
Battle at Muta with certain Syrian tribes subject to the Roman
authorities, September, A.D. 629. A defeat.
Further military expeditions.
Expedition against Mecca, and its complete success. Destruction of
pictures, images, and idols at Mecca and the surrounding districts.
January, 630.
Expedition against the Benou Thakif at Taif, and their allies the
Benou Huwazin, and the battle of Honein, February, A.D. 630.
Siege of Taif, and its abandonment, followed later by the submission
of Malik, the chief of the Benou Thakif, and the greater part of the
tribe.
Muhammad performs the Lesser Pilgrimage and returns to Madinah.
The birth of a son by his Coptic slave and concubine Mary, April, A.D.
630. The boy, named Ibrahim, lived only about a year.
Quarrel with his legitimate wives about Mary, the Coptic slave, whom
he had freed after the birth of the child.
Arrival of a Christian deputation at Madinah, and their discussions
without conversion on either side. The Christians designated Jesus
Christ as the Son of God, and the Second Person in the Trinity.
Muhammad denied this, quoting the following from the Koran:
‘Jesus, the son of Mary, is only an apostle of God, and His word,
which He conveyed into Mary, and a spirit proceeding from Himself.
Believe, therefore, in God and His apostle, and say not three.
Forbear; it will be better for you. God is only one God. Far be it
from His glory that He should have a son.’
Deputations from certain Arab tribes.
Several lesser expeditions.
Campaign of Tabuk, which ended without fighting, and the submission of
many tribes, October, A.D. 630.
Definite establishment of the Muslim Empire, A.D. 631.
Expedition of Ali to Yaman, December, A.D. 631.
Muhammad’s solemn and greater pilgrimage to Mecca, i.e. ‘the Al-Hijj,’
or the Greater Pilgrimage, as compared with ‘the Umrah,’ or Lesser
Pilgrimage. March, A.D. 632.
His speeches at this pilgrimage, known in Muhammadan history as ‘The
pilgrimage of the announcement,’ or ‘The pilgrimage of Islam,’ or ‘The
farewell pilgrimage.’ His establishment of the lunar year, and his
farewell addresses.
Indisposition of Muhammad, and the three revolts—one headed by
Tulaihah bin Khuwailid, a famous warrior of Najd; one by Musailamah;
and one by Al-Aswad, all of which were eventually completely crushed
after Muhammad’s death by Abu Bakr and his generals.
Another expedition to Syria projected.
Muhammad’s health becomes worse. His retirement to Ayesha’s apartment.
His final discourses.
Abu Bakr appointed to lead the public prayers.
Muhammad’s last appearance in the mosque at Madinah.
His death and burial, June, A.D. 632.
From the above summary of the principal events of Muhammad’s life, it
will be perceived that up to the age of forty he was a student and
acquirer of knowledge, much alone and occupied with his thoughts. At
forty-one he began his public ministry, and stood forth as a reformer,
preacher, and apostle at Mecca, and this continued till he finally
left that place, in June, A.D. 622. As a reformer he proposed to do
away with idols, to suppress gambling and drinking, and to abolish
female infanticide, at that time much practised by the Arabs. As a
preacher and apostle he urged the people to accept the belief in one
God, whose injunctions were communicated to him by Gabriel for the
benefit of the humanities. Prayer and ablution were also then
ordained; fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimages were instituted later
on.
Before Muhammad’s time there had been several earnest seekers after
the one God, the God of Abraham. Of these persons Zaid, the Inquirer,
may be mentioned, as also Warakah, a cousin of Muhammad’s first wife,
Khadijah; Othman bin Huwairith, and Obaid Allah bin Jahsh. The people
who professed this theism were termed Hanyfs; but their state of mind
was as yet a purely speculative one, and they had announced nothing
definite. But the ground was so far laid open, and had been prepared
to a certain extent for Muhammad and his express revelation, that
‘There was no God but the God, and that Muhammad was His apostle.’
It is highly probable that when Muhammad first began his public
exhortations he had a strong idea of bringing not only the Arabs, but
also the Jews and Christians, into his fold, and establishing one
universal faith on the basis of one God, Almighty, Eternal, Merciful,
Compassionate. It was on this account that he made Jerusalem the Kiblah,
or consecrated direction of worship, and introduced into the Suras, or
chapters, that he issued from time to time a good deal of matter
connected with our Old and New Testaments. He particularly mentioned
Abraham as the Father of the Faith, and acknowledging that there had
already existed many thousand prophets, and three hundred and fifteen
apostles, or messengers, he quoted nine of these last as special
messengers, viz., Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Job, David,
Jesus, the son of Mary, and himself. To five of these he gave special
titles. He called Noah the preacher of God; Abraham the friend of God;
Moses the converser with God; Jesus the spirit of God; and himself the
apostle, or messenger, of God. But of the nine above mentioned four
only, viz., Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad, held the highest rank as
prophet-apostles.
It would, therefore, appear that Muhammad really hoped to establish
one religion, acknowledging one God and a future life, and admitting
that the earlier prophets had emanated from God as apostles or
messengers. The world was too young and too ignorant in Muhammad’s
time to accept such an idea. It may, however, be accepted some day,
when knowledge overcomes prejudice. Nations may have different habits,
manners, and customs, but the God they all worship is one and the
same.
Muhammad’s life, from the age of forty to fifty, was one long struggle
with the Koraish. Had it not been for the support given him by some of
his influential relations at Mecca, he would either have been killed,
or compelled to leave the place before he did. It is true that during
these twelve years he made some excellent converts and faithful
followers; but still it must be regarded as an historical fact that
Muhammad failed at Mecca, as Jesus had failed at Jerusalem. In the one
case Jesus was sacrificed, and passed away, leaving the story of His
life, His words and His works in the heads of His disciples, who, with
the suddenly converted Paul, certain Alexandrian Jews, the Emperor
Constantine, some literary remains of Plato, along with a destruction
of adverse manuscripts and documents, finally established the
Christian religion. In the other case Muhammad, failing at Mecca,
succeeded at Madinah, and before his death had so far settled matters
that the religion was fairly established, and was thus saved the
severe and bitter struggles of the first centuries of the Christian
Churches.
It has seldom been a matter of speculation as to what would have been
the course of the world’s history if Muhammad had been slain by the
Koraish before he left Mecca, or if Jesus had not been crucified by
the Jews. It is probable that in the end both religions would have
been eventually established in other ways, and by other means,
depending a good deal on the followers of the two men. But as the
subject is purely speculative, it can hardly be entertained in this
purely historical chapter.
Once at Madinah, Muhammad became a personage. Supported by his Meccan
followers (al-Muhâjirûn), and the Madinese auxiliaries (Ansârs), he
assumed immediately a spiritual and temporal authority, and became a
sort of Pope-King. He kept that position for the rest of his life,
improving it by his military successes, his diplomatic arrangements,
his spiritual instructions, and his social legislation.
It was probably shortly before he went to Madinah, or very soon after
his arrival there, that he gave up all ideas of bringing over Jews,
Christians, and Sabæans to his views. He determined to adapt them to
the manners and customs of the Arabs only. In this he showed his
wisdom and his knowledge of business. He changed the Kiblah from
Jerusalem to Mecca. In the place of the Jewish trumpet, or the
Christian bell, he introduced the call to prayer still heard from the
tapering minarets of every mosque throughout the Muhammadan world.
By the Christian world it has been sometimes considered that Muhammad
was good and virtuous at Mecca, but vicious and wicked at Madinah.
Such calls to mind the reply of an Indian youth when asked in an
examination to give an outline of the character of our good Queen
Elizabeth. He briefly described her as ‘a great and virtuous princess,
but in her old age she became dissolute, and had a lover called
Essex.’
But the position of Muhammad at Madinah was entirely different to what
it had been at Mecca. At the latter place he was unable to assert
himself. Indeed, it was as much as he could do to keep himself and his
followers going at all, constantly subject as they were to persecution
from the Koraish. All this was changed at Madinah, and his ten years
rule there was remarkable for his various military expeditions, his
organization of the different tribes, his bitter persecution of the
Jews, his still-continued inspired utterances, which now included
spiritual, social, and legal matters, and his repeated marriages.
It has been frequently said that Muhammad, in his virtuous days, was
content with one wife at Mecca, but in his vicious days at Madinah he
had ten wives and two concubines. As a matter of fact, after
Khadijah’s death Muhammad’s marriages were in most cases more or less
a matter of business. By them he allied himself to Abu Bakr, Omar, Abu
Sofyan, Khalid bin Walid, and other important persons. He further
married the widows of some of his followers killed in battle, perhaps
‘pour encourager les autres.’ It is also probable that he was very
anxious to have children, all of his having died except Fatima, who
was married to Ali.
At the same time it must be admitted that Muhammad had a weakness for
women in his later years—witness the case of Zainab bint Jahsh, the
Jewish concubine Rohana, and the Coptic maid Mary. Indeed, his
favourite wife Ayesha used to say of him: ‘The Prophet loved three
things—women, scents, and food; he had his heart’s desire of the two
first, but not of the last,’ The reasons for this want of food, and
many other traditions connected with the character of Muhammad, are to
be found in the last chapter and the supplement at the end of Sir
William Muir’s most excellent and interesting work on the life of this
extraordinary man, who, if author of the Koran only, would be
entitled to rank among the immortals.
According to Muslim orthodox theology, the Koran is the inspired Word
of God, uncreated, and eternal in its original essence. ‘He who says
the word of God is created is an infidel,’ such is the decree of
Muhamniadan doctrine. Leaving everybody to form their own opinion on
such a matter, it is only necessary here briefly to allude to the
work, and to suppose that Muhammad was the inspired author of it.
The Koran is divided into 114 suras, or chapters, and 6,666 verses.
The word itself signifies reading or recitation, and Muhammad always
asserted that he only recited what had been repeated to him. But the
Koran represents Muhammad from many points of view, in different
capacities, and under different necessities. Ayesha, his favourite
wife, when asked in later years as a widow to relate something about
the Prophet, replied: ‘Have you not the Koran, and have you not read
it? for that will tell you everything about him.’
The Koran was not collected or arranged until after Muhammad’s death.
It is to be regretted that there is no reliable record of the exact
order in which its various verses and chapters were given to the world
by the Prophet, as that would have given us a great insight into the
working of his mind from the time that he began his first recitals up
to the time of his death. It is true that attempts have been made to
formulate the order of delivery, but these can only be more or less
conjecture. At the same time, though earlier and later verses appear
mixed up in the different chapters, in some cases, of course, the
period to which they belong can be pretty accurately fixed and
determined.
As an interesting work, it can hardly be compared with our Old and New
Testaments, nor would it be fair to make such a comparison. It must be
remembered that the Koran is the work of Muhammad alone, while the
Biblos, or Book, commonly called the Bible, is the work of many men.
In its compilation many authors were rejected, and it represents as a
whole the united talents of the ages. Indeed, the Bible may be
considered as the most wonderful book in existence, and certainly the
most interesting after visiting the countries it describes and the
localities it refers to. If read from a matter-of-fact point of view,
it gives an abundance of various kinds of literature, and describes
the workings of the human mind from the earliest ages, and the
progress of ideas as they gradually and slowly dawned upon man and
drove him onwards. If read from a spiritual or mystical point of view,
it can be interpreted in many ways to meet the views of either the
readers or the hearers. In a word, the Bible is full of prose and
poetry, fact and imagination, history and fiction. It was lately
described in an Italian newspaper, Il Secolo, about to issue a
popular edition of it in halfpenny numbers, as follows:
‘There is one book which gathers up the poetry and the science of
humanity, and that book is the Bible; and with this book no other work
in any literature can be compared. It is a book that Newton read
continually, that Cromwell carried at his saddle, and that Voltaire
kept always on his study table. It is a book that believers and
unbelievers should alike study, and that ought to be found in every
house.’
As a scientific work it has little value except that it represents the
extent of scientific knowledge possessed by the authors at the time
the different books were written.
To return to the Koran, which may, then, be regarded as the Bible of
the Muslims. According to Mr. Badger: ‘It embodies the utterances of
the Arabian Prophet on all subjects, religious and moral,
administrative and judicial, political and diplomatic, from the outset
to the close of his career, together with a complete code of laws for
regulating marriage, divorce, guardianship of orphans, bargains,
wills, evidence, usury, and the intercourse of private and domestic
life, as they were dictated by him to his secretaries, and by them
committed to writing on palm-leaves, the shoulder-blades of sheep, and
other tablets. These, it appears, were thrown pell-mell into chests,
where they remained till the reign of Abu Bakr, the immediate
successor of Muhammad, who, during the first year of his Khalifate,
entrusted Zaid-bin Harithah, an Ansar, or auxiliary, and one of the
amanuenses of the Prophet, with the task of collecting them together,
which he did, as well from “the breasts of men” as from the
afore-named materials, meaning thereby that he availed himself of the
memories of those who had committed parts of the Prophet’s utterances
to memory. [Tradition states that one of the contemporary Muslims had
learnt as many as seventy chapters by heart.] Zaid’s copy continued to
be the standard text during the Khalifate of Abu Bakr, who committed
it to the keeping of Hafsah, one of Muhammad’s widows. Certain
disputes having arisen regarding this text, owing mainly to the
variations of dialect and punctuation occurring therein, Omar, the
successor of Abu Bakr, in the tenth year of his Khalifate, determined
to establish a text which should be the sole standard, and delegated
to Zaid, with whom he associated several eminent Arab scholars of the
Al-Koraish, the task of its reduction. On its completion copies were
forwarded to the principal stations of the empire, and all previously
existing copies were submitted to the flames. This is the text now in
general use among Muslims, and there is every reason to believe it to
be a faithful rescript of the original fragmentary collection, amended
only in its dialectical variations, and made conformable to the purer
Arabic of the Al-Koraish, in which the contents of the Koran were
announced by Muhammad.’
From a literary point of view the Koran is regarded as a specimen of
the purest Arabic, and written in half poetry and half prose. It has
been said that in some cases grammarians have adapted their rules to
agree with certain phrases and expressions used in it, and that though
several attempts have been made to produce a work equal to it, as far
as elegant writing is concerned, none have as yet succeeded.
With the Koran, then, as a basis to work upon, Muhammad became the
author and, it may be said, also founder of the Muhammadan faith,
although as regards the foundation of any religion the followers of
the author are generally the real founders of his faith. Of the three
authors of great religions, viz., Moses, Buddha, and Jesus, who had
gone before, Moses seems to have had much in common with Muhammad, and
the two resembled each other in some ways. Buddha and Jesus were, on
the other hand, entirely spiritualistic, their ideas on many subjects
much the same, and their preachings and teachings run together very
much on parallel lines.
The connecting links, however, between Buddhism and Christianity, if
any, have yet to be discovered and determined. It may happen that some
day further light may be thrown upon the subject; but at present, in
spite of similarity of ideas, of sentiments, and of parables in the
two religions, there is no positive proof of any connection between
them, except that one preceded the other. While history has recorded
every detail of Muhammad’s life, both before and after his public
ministry, which did not begin until he was forty years of age,
history, alas! gives us no detailed record of the life of Jesus prior
to the commencement of His public ministry in His thirtieth year. Had
He travelled Himself to the further East? Had He studied under
Buddhist missionaries? Had He taken the vows of poverty, chastity, and
obedience, before He was baptized by John the Essene? Had He anything
to do with the sects called Essenes, Therapeuts, Gnostics, Nazarites,
the Brethren, which existed both before and during His lifetime?
These, and many other questions which might be asked, can now probably
never be answered, and the only thing that can be confidently asserted
is that the character and the spiritual teachings of Christ, as handed
down to us, much resemble the character and spiritual teachings of
Buddha.
A few paragraphs must be devoted to Moses and Muhammad, as the first
organizers of the Jews and the Arabs into separate and distinct
nationalities. The two men had very different material to work upon,
but they succeeded with the aid of Eloah, or Allah, supporting their
own efforts.
It is probably historically true that the good old patriarch Abraham
once lived, and may be considered to be the father of the Jewish,
Christian, and Muhammadan religions. According to Arab tradition,
Abraham, assisted by Ishmael, built the Kaabah at Mecca, so called
because it was nearly a kaabah, or square. Anyhow, Abraham has ever
been regarded with the greatest veneration by the Muslims, and his
tomb at Hebron at the present day is so jealously guarded by them that
the Jews and the Christians are not permitted to enter its sacred
precincts.
Abraham and his followers worshipped Eloah, or the Almighty God, as
the one and only God, offering up to Him at times various sacrifices.
According to Rénan, in his ‘History of the People of Israel,’ ‘the
primitive religion of Israel was the worship of the Elohim, a
collective name for the invisible forces that govern the world, and
which are vaguely conceived as forming a supreme power at once single
and manifold.’
‘This vague primitive monotheism got modified during the migrations of
the children of Israel, and especially during their struggles for the
conquest of Palestine, and at last gave place to the conception of
Jahveh, a national God conceived after the fashion of the gods of
polytheism, essentially anthropomorphic, the God of Israel in conflict
with the gods of the surrounding nations.’
‘It was the task of the prophets to change this low and narrow
conception of the Deity for a nobler one, to bring back the Jews to
the Elohistic idea in a spiritualized form, and to transform the
Jahveh or Jehovah of the times of the Judges into a God of all the
earth—universal, one and absolute, that God in spirit and in truth of
whom Jesus, the last of the prophets, completed the revelation.’
Certain events in the life of Joseph brought the family of Jacob to
Egypt, separated it from the other tribes, and made the Israelites
into a peculiar people.[5] As the twelve families of the sons of Jacob
expanded into twelve tribes, they grew in number to such an extent
that the Egyptian Government of the day began to be alarmed, and
commenced coercive proceedings, which led to the appearance of Moses,
first as a liberator, and then as the organizer of the twelve tribes
into a Jewish nationality.
[Footnote 5: The actual dates of these events and of the
exodus from Egypt have not yet been historically fixed. How
the Israelites first migrated to the land of Goshen, and how
they eventually left Egypt, is still a question of
considerable controversy. Further discoveries may yet throw
further light on the subject.]
When Moses first took the children of Israel out of Egypt, it was
probably his intention to lead them at once to the promised land.
Finding, however, that their physical strength and courage was not
equal to the conquest of Canaan, he kept them in the desert for forty
years, until the open-air life and the hardy fare had produced a new
generation of men fit to cope with the warriors of the land they were
about to attempt to conquer.
Doubtless, during this residence in the desert Moses legislated both
morally and socially for the Jews, as Muhammad did for the Arabs at
Madinah. But as the Koran was not put together during Muhammad’s
lifetime, so it is also highly probable that the Pentateuch, or five
books of Moses, were not collected and collated till some time after
his death, which last is described in the work itself.[6] Indeed, many
things mentioned in them show a more advanced state of civilization
than the children of Israel enjoyed during their wanderings in the
desert.
[Footnote 6: This subject is treated at considerable length
by Dr. A. Kuenen in ‘The Religion of Israel,’ translated by Alfred Heath May from the Dutch. Williams and Norgate:
London, 1882.]
But, still, to Moses the Jews owe their nationality, as the Arabs owed
theirs to Muhammad. The former found a weak people, united to a
certain extent, but quite unaccustomed to fighting and hardship, and
he welded them sufficiently together to enable them, under his
successors, to establish themselves in the promised land. The latter
found Arabia inhabited by a quantity of tribes, more or less hostile
to each other, but brave to a degree; fond of fighting and plundering,
and always at it; full of local jealousies and internal enmities,
which kept them separate. Muhammad not only induced them to believe in
one God, but also brought them together to such, an extent that his
successors were able to launch them as united warriors and conquerors
throughout the East, and to found an empire for the time being far
greater, grander, and more important than Canaan, as divided among the
twelve tribes, or the dominions of David and Solomon.
As a military leader Muhammad was not particularly celebrated. The
military expeditions undertaken by him in person are variously stated
to have been from nineteen to twenty-seven in number, whilst those in
which he was not present are stated to have amounted to more than
fifty. With the exception of one or two to the Syrian frontier, they
were chiefly directed against the Arabs and the Jews in Arabia, but
none of them were of the magnitude of those undertaken by his
successors, Abu Bakr and Omar, who, with the aid of the generals
Khalid, son of Walid, Mothanna, Amr bin Al’Aasi, and others, made
great conquests, and finally established the Muslim faith on a firm
and lasting basis. The details of these successes are admirably told
in Muir’s ‘Annals of the Early Khalifate.’
There appears to be a great resemblance between many of the military
and warlike expeditions undertaken by Muhammad in Arabia, and those of
the Jews, as narrated in the historical works of the Old Testament, in
Palestine. In both countries God was used as the authority, and
individuals and tribes were attacked and slaughtered much in the same
way. Indeed, if the numbers slain, as recorded by the Jewish
historians, are to be depended upon, it can only be inferred that the