§ 45. The Mohammedan Religion.
lslâm is not a new religion, nor can we expect a new one after the appearance of that religion
which is perfect and intended for all nations and ages. It is a compound or mosaic of preëxisting
elements, a rude attempt to combine heathenism, Judaism and Christianity, which Mohammed
found in Arabia, but in a very imperfect form.^184 It is professedly, a restoration of the faith of
Abraham, the common father of Isaac and of Ishmael. But it is not the genuine faith of Abraham
with its Messianic hopes and aspirations looking directly to the gospel dispensation as its goal and
fulfilment, but a bastard Judaism of Ishmael, and the post-Christian and anti-Christian Judaism of
the Talmud. Still less did Mohammed know the pure religion of Jesus as laid down in the New
Testament, but only a perversion and caricature of it such as we find in the wretched apocryphal
and heretical Gospels. This ignorance of the Bible and the corruptions of Eastern Christianity with
which the Mohammedans came in contact, furnish some excuse for their misbelief and stubborn
prejudices. And yet even the poor pseudo-Jewish and pseudo-Christian elements of the Koran were
strong enough to reform the old heathenism of Arabia and Africa and to lift it to a much higher
level. The great and unquestionable merit of Islâm is the breaking up of idolatry and the diffusion
of monotheism.
The creed of Islâm is simple, and consists of six articles: God, predestination, the angels
(good and bad), the books, the prophets, the resurrection and judgment with eternal reward and
eternal punishment.
God.
Monotheism is the comer-stone of the system. It is expressed in the ever-repeated sentence:
"There is no god but God (Allâh, i.e., the true, the only God), and Mohammed is his prophet (or
apostle)."^185 Gibbon calls this a "compound of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction." The first
clause certainly is a great and mighty truth borrowed from the Old Testament (Deut. 6:4); and is
the religious strength of the system. But the Mohammedan (like the later Jewish, the Socinian, and
the Unitarian) monotheism is abstract, monotonous, divested of inner life and fulness, anti-trinitarian,
and so far anti-Christian. One of the last things which a Mohammedan will admit, is the divinity
of Christ. Many of the divine attributes are vividly apprehended, emphasized and repeated in prayer.
But Allah is a God of infinite power and wisdom, not a God of redeeming love to all mankind; a
despotic sovereign of trembling subjects and slaves, not a loving Father of trustful children. He is
an object of reverence and fear rather than of love and gratitude. He is the God of fate who has
unalterably foreordained all things evil as well as good; hence unconditional resignation to him
(this is the meaning of Islâm) is true wisdom and piety. He is not a hidden, unknowable being, but
(^184) Luther said of the religion of the Turks: "Also ist’s ein Glaub zusammengeflickt aus der Jüden, Christen und Heiden
Glaube." Milman (II. 139) calls Mohammedanism "the republication of a more comprehensive Judaism with some depraved
forms of Christianity." Renan describes it as "the least original" of the religious creations of humanity. Geiger and Deutsch
(both Hebrews) give prominence to the Jewish element. "It is not merely parallelisms," says Deutsch, "reminiscences, allusions,
technical terms, and the like, of Judaism, its lore and dogma and ceremony, its Halacha and Haggadah (which may most briefly
be rendered by ’Law’ and ’Legend’), which we find in the Koran; but we think Islâm neither more nor less than Judaism as
adapted to Arabia—plus the apostleship of Jesus and Mohammed. Nay, we verily believe that a great deal of such Christianity
as has found its way into the Koran, has found it through Jewish channels" (l.c. p. 64).
(^185) Lâ ilâha ill’ Allâh, wa Muhammeda rrasúlà ’llâh. Allâh is composed of the article al, "the," and ilâh, "a god," and is
equivalent to the Hebrew Eli and Elohim. He was known to the Arabs before Mohammed, and regarded as the chief god in their
pantheon.