power with wilfulness and capaciousness. Believing God to be all-
powerful, they also believed that He was more wilful and
irresponsible than any earthly king and that His actions were as
unaccountable as those of a dictator. In short, God was regarded as
a glorified King, or rather as a magnified Dictator. He differed from
the earthly dictators only in possessing immensely greater power,
and in no other respect. Men of immature mind are impressed by
power, especially when it is exercised to satisfy a passing whim. They
suppose that God destroys anyone, good or bad, for no better
reason than to demonstrate His absolute power. The chief
preoccupation of such people was the appeasement of God as they
conceived of Him, and yet they could not think of any plan of
action which would always succeed in appeasing an utterly
capricious Being. No wonder that men felt helpless. They despaired
of discovering through reason, a way of life which would be in
accordance with the Will of God, because they believed that God
acted in an arbitrary manner and reason had no influence over His
actions.
Men, no doubt, feared such a God but they could not possibly
love and respect Him. This idea of God provided no incentive to
seek a better way of life or to set about understanding the world in
which they lived. In fact, there could be no way of life which was
better than another – because the same action might at one time
please God and at another time provoke His wrath. They saw that a
sudden passing fancy might induce a despot to punish the man who
had rendered a great service to him and reward one who had been
refractory. There could also be no question of seeking to
understand a world which was brought into existence in an arbitrary
way. It could have no law or order, no rhyme or reason. At best, it
would be the scene of fortuitous events which could neither be
foreseen nor controlled. Such are the implications of the idea that
God is an absolute despot. This idea held sway over the mind of the
savage.
With the increase in knowledge and growth of mental powers,
the orderly succession of events around him could not fail to
impress man. Gradually he sought and discovered the laws which
governed natural events in the external world. Much later, he turned
his attention to the inner world of the mind and in the course of
Islam: A Challenge to Religion 139