IN the last lecture we saw that in the S} T stem of Mohammed, God is the Ruler of the universe. He is the King, the Lord of the ages. Like the Bibli cal writers, Mohammed conceived this very literally. To him God is the active mover of the constella tions and the seasons. Our notion of second causes or of a fixed law of nature had not entered his mind. God works by means of His creatures, but His di rect command passes upon them for each of their acts. In this sense he delegates a part of His power to man. In the account of the creation of man, God says that He is about to place a vicegerent on the earth ; and again : " Do you not see that God has made subservient to you what is in the heavens and what is in the earth ? " The doctrine, as you discover, is that of the Bible. Man is the ruler over nature, and nature is created for man s use and benefit.

The existence of intelligent creatures who are strictly obedient to God makes no difficulty with His government. But when we assert the freedom of these creatures, there is implied a possibility that they may act contrary to His command, and a prob-

• Koran 31 1S1 , cf . 2 28 .

132

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 133

lem emerges. As soon as we assert the existence of sin the problem becomes acute. For sin is the free dom of the created will asserting itself against the will of the Creator. This is the great question with which philosophy has wrestled since first man began to reflect upon his relation to the universe.

The question assumes its largest proportions in monotheism. In polytheism there is no single will which claims to rule the sum of things. The gods are necessarily limited in power, because there are several of them. In dualism the solution is found by assuming an eternal conflict between two powers a solution which projects the shadow of evil into the infinite both before and behind. For Mohammed, with whom we have now to deal, this solution had no attractions, and he does not betray an acquaintance with it even in his polemic.

The most religious minds seem to answer our prob lem by determinism that is, they cling to the sover eignty of God and let the freedom of the creature exist only in appearance. Even in heathenism this theory asserts itself. The Greeks in their theology found room for an all- deciding fate against whom Zeus himself was powerless. The heathen Arab saw in what went on around him the w r orking of Des tiny a power that rules the world and accomplishes its will in spite of gods and men. The Bedawy (says Wellhausen) is the independent man " his own arm helps him, and his brother ; no god assists him ; he commends his soul to no saint. Allah is to him fate, and nothing more : Fate is generally spoken of without qualification not as the decree of Allah.

134 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

But the conviction that all is decreed and predestined spurs on the Arab hero and poet to do what he has undertaken without consideration of danger. Fear not to march against danger, for the danger which a man tries to avoid is just the one that he meets - the dog bites the one who is afraid of him. Fatalism, if we may call it so, does not lead the Arab to fold his hands in his bosom. On the contrary, it is the source of desperate energy it is of no use to avoid death; therefore Forward! And, further, the cer tainty of death is a motive to give freely and not to be anxious for the morrow ; I know that an evening is corning, after which no fear and no want can befall me; then I shall make the House of Truth a long visit. Why, then, should I take care for that which decays and falls into ruins? Let others foul their watering-places ; I will keep my camels ready to slay for the guest. " *

We have heard so much of Moslem fatalism that we are accustomed to ascribe this doctrine to Mohammed. But this extract shows that it was already current before his time. Not unlikely the popular idea of it is derived from later literature. You remember the story of Ajeeb in " A Thousand and One Nights." Ajeeb was shipwrecked on an uninhabited island. Seeing a boat approach, he screened himself from observation and watched. He saw a party laud and enter a subterranean dwelling, prepared with great care. There they left a young man and departed, concealing the only door to the hiding-place. The young man is one for whom an astrologer has pre-

• Wellhausen, Skizzen \md Vorarltiten, III., p. 1;>5.

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dieted death at the hands of Ajeeb on a day cer tain now near at hand. The father takes this means of protecting his son. But fate is inexorable. Against his own will, Ajeeb strikes the fatal blow and the prophecy is fulfilled to the letter. As the writer says in an apt quotation :

" We trod the steps appointed for us : and the man whose

steps are appointed must tread them. He whose death is decreed to take place in a certain land, will not die in any land but that." *

More impressive perhaps, and preserving more of the primitive sense of that Destiny which broods over the world, are such stories as that of the City of Brass. The traveller through the desert sees in the distance a lofty city wall. He approaches it, but meets no living being. He enters its streets and walks through its palaces. Spacious halls open before him, shaded courts, lofty pavilions. But all are empty. If the inhabitants can be said to exist, they exist only in the form of statues, having been turned into stone by an inexorable decree. And the visitor fails not to find a tablet graven with an admonition which recites the shortness of life, the vanity of worldly pomp and pleasure, and the certainty of fate. He reads and is overcome by emotion. He bursts into tears or falls in a swoon. And when he recovers, he goes forth in sadness reflecting on the lot of man.t

What I am trying to show is that the fatalistic

• Lane, A Thousand and One Nights (1877), I., p. 13G; Beirut

edition of the text, I., p. 42. t Ibid., III., p. 109 ff.

136 THE BIBLK AND ISLAM

doctrine of which we now speak runs through Arab literature. It is found in the early poets ; it is found in the later story-tellers. The latter are, to be sure, influenced by the theologians, and these claim to rep resent the mind of Mohammed. But we must not too readily assume that they correctly represent the mind of Mohammed. It is not impossible that they are under a bias. In Islam, as in other religions, the fiercest battles have been fought over this very ques tion of predestination and freedom. The two ele ments of the problem being really irreconcilable, two parties arose, according as one factor or the other was emphasized. When Greek philosophy was made known to Moslem thinkers under the Abbaside Ca liphs, there came into prominence a rationalistic school of theologians called the Motazilites, that is : the Seceders. We are not here concerned with their theology in general. The point which interests us is that they denied an absolute decree or predestination on the part of God. They did this with the desire to protect the responsibility of man as a free agent, and also wdth the desire to establish the justice of God. For they reasoned that, if the actions of man are done in accordance with an unalterable decree, there is no justice in punishing. They call them selves therefore believers in the Unify and Justice of God. Their teaching on this point is set forth by a native authority * in these words : " They affirm that man has freedom and that he is the originator of his actions, both good and bad, and that he is therefore a

• Schahrastani s Rcligionspartheien und Philosop]te?ischulen,

iibcrsetzt von Dr. Th. Huarbriicker (1850), I, p. 43.

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being who deserves reward and punishment in the next world for what he has done. But [they affirm] that God cannot be brought into connection with evil and unrighteousness and unbelief and disobedience [as their cause]. For as He is righteous when He brings forth righteousness, so He would be un righteous if He were the cause of unrighteousness." So far the Motazilites. Their opponents took their stand on the divine omnipotence and did not shrink from the conclusion that God is the author of sin, and that man has no power over his own acts.* Al though the school which finally prevailed tried to mediate, its members rescued for man only the sem blance of freedom. The accepted Mohammedan the ology is undoubtedly deterministic.

For this reason we must look with suspicion on some of the traditions which ascribe to Mohammed high predestinarianism. We have already found reason to believe that traditions were invented by the adherents of the different theological schools, in order to secure the Prophet s name tor their doctrine. One such tradition, as I believe, has done much to form our idea of Moslem fatalism. It is the one given by Palgrave in these words : " When God resolved to create the human race, He took into His hands a mass of earth the same whence all mankind were to be formed, and in which they after a manner pre-existed. Having divided the clod into two parts, He threw the one-half into hell and said : These to eternal fire and I care not ; and projected the other half into heaven,

• Schahrastani, I., pp 92, 102. Dugat, Histoire des Philosophes

et des Theologiens Musulmans (1878), p. 45.

133 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

adding: Those to Paradise and I care not." " So far as this tradition makes the impression of brutal indifference on the part of God, we need not hesitate to say that it misrepresents the mind of Mohammed. The impression made by the whole body of traditions 011 this subject is very different. Even the one which is nearest in form to the one just quoted, and which may be a modification of the same tradition, has a different tone : " God created Adam and struck him on the right side and brought out white children you would say they were pearls ; then He struck his left side and brought out black children, you would say they were coals. Then God said : Those of the right side are towards Paradise, and I have no fear ; and He said of those of the left side : They are tow ards hell and I have no fear." f The words trans lated I have no fear may indeed mean I have no con cern in the matter. But they may mean also : I have no fear that their actions will not bear out what I have determined concerning them. This latter is at least a plausible interpretation, as we see from another tradition, which is given in immediate connection with the foregoing, and which is reported thus : " God took an engagement from the family of Adam, and brought out a family from the back of Adam and scat tered them before Him. After that God spoke to them in his presence saying : Am not I your Creator? They said : Yes, we bear witness to Thy Godhead

• I have cited from Ilughes s Dictionary of Islam, p. 148, where

the passage is ascribed to Palgrave, who gives the reference, Mish- cat, liab-ul-Qadr. I do not fiud the tradition in the English Jlishcat.

t Mishcat, I , p. J3G.

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that they might not plead ignorance on the Day of Res urrection." This tradition is quite opposed to the doctrine of arbitrary election. The evident endeavor is to supply a reason for men s final sentence. The reason why the unbelievers are condemned is that they have acted contrary to the profession which they made in their pre- existent state hence God can justly punish them for apostasy. This tradition is moreover almost identical with a Koran verse : " God took the descendants of the sons of Adam from their backs, and made them testify against themselves : Am not I your Lord ? They replied : Yea, we testify. This was that you might not say at the Resurrection : We were forgetful in this matter, or should say : It was only that our fathers were idolaters aforetime and we are their posterity ; wilt Thou destroy us for what the liars have done ? " * We may also cite here another tradition : " Mohammed was asked about the children of idolaters, whether they would go to heaven or hell. He replied : God knows best what their ac tions would have been ; it depends upon this." In another place he says that infants are born with nat ural religion ; their parents give them the special turn of Jew or Christian, t Once more we are told that when a believer is examined after death, he is shown the place prepared for him in the Fire, which God has exchanged for a seat in Paradise. Here is no absolute predestination, but provision for a double possibility, the final decision depending on the ac tions of the individual.

Mohammed, according to these indications, was

• Koran 7 m . t Dochari, II., p. 95.

140 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

not what we should call a fatalist. In fact, he was not a systematic theologian. Ho knew nothing of philosophy, and the endeavor to teach it to him would probably have failed. But he was a man of religious conviction. His statements on the doctrine before us are to be interpreted by his religious, not by any dogmatic, faith. All of us who have a living faith in a living God accept His sovereignty over the universe. So far as this is in us, we interpret the experience of our daily lives in conformity with His rule over the universe. Our comfort in adversity is that our Father does all things well, and our joy in prosperity springs from the thought that it is He who is active in providing for our wants. The religious leader en courages and comforts his followers by this faith. If they lose heart, he points them to God who is able to help, and who surely will not abandon the right. If they meet misfortune, he gives them the assurance that even this is in God s plan for them. When they are successful he makes the success confirm their faith that God is working for them. In all this, emphasis is naturally laid upon the almighty power and the all- determining will of God. Mohammed s declarations. on this point are to be explained along these lines. They are not philosophical propositions concerning the universal scheme of things. They are the ap plication of a living faith to the particular circum stances of an individual experience. When his situ ation was gloomy or even (to human eye) desperate, he was compelled to take strong hold on the power and grace of God. He says : " Every condition is best for the believer. ... If he is incased, he

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 141

thanks God ; and if Iris condition is bad ho has pa tience, for which he is rewarded." This is not the statement of a theory of the universe. It is an ex pression of religious trust, a trust which traces one s individual lot to the goodness of God. It reminds us of the Biblical assertion that all things work to gether for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.* Again we read in a tradition : " Seek for that which will benefit you, and ask God for assistance, and do not tire in so doing ; and if any misfortune befalls you do not say : If I had done so and so ; but say : God ordained it, and He does what He will because the word if opens the Devil s business."! This was a practical philos ophy of human life. It was not intended to be a spec ulative reconciliation of sovereignty and freedom.

If the speculative question was ever forced upon Mohammed, he probably declined to answer it. He came once upon a company engaged in debating about fate ; and he became angry, so that he was red in the face, and said : "Has God ordered you to debate of fate, or was I sent to you for this ? Your forefathers were destroyed for debating about fate and destiny. I adjure you not to argue on these points." \. This tradition seems to me much less likely to have been invented than some of the others we have been con sidering, and it therefore seems to me more nearly to represent the mind of the Prophet. He had no idea of laying upon the doctrine of the divine decrees the emphasis which was afterward laid upon it by the dogmatic theologians. We shall bear this in mind in

• Roru. 8- 8 . f Mishcat, II., p. 517. J Ibid., I., p. 31.

142 TUB BIBLE AND ISLAM

examining the statements of the Koran and the Koran is here, as elsewhere, our most valuable source. At the beginning of his mission the mind of Mo hammed was occupied with the great thought of the Day of Judgment. Nearly all the earliest suras dwell upon this subject. The terrors which usher in the Day are described with great variety of imagery, and these descriptions are followed by a picture of Para dise with its bliss, or of Gehenna with its torments. The implication of this whole series of revelations is that man is responsible. He is punished or rewarded for his actions, and these (we may conclude) are within his own power. The terms in which the evil-doers are described generally express an activity. "When the angels say that they are sent against a people of evil doers, we notice that it is an active participle of the most active form of the verb that is used. The same people are described a little later on as transgressors those who pass beyond the due bounds. Thamud turned with disdain from the commandment of their Lord ; Pharaoh, and before him, the people of the cities which were overturned for their sin, disobeyed the messenger of their Lord.* He who receives his book in his left hand at the Judgment has his indict ment formulated in these terms: "He did not be lieve in God Most High, nor did he emulate others in feeding the poor." f It agrees with these words of action that jinn and men are created only to serve God but that they disobeyed. $ Man was created up right, therefore, but sought out many inventions. Even where it is said that man was created with nat-

• Koran 51^ M - 69* 7C ; . f C J " f . t 5 1 5

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 143

ural infirmities, it is implied that these do not inter fere with his responsibility. The plain and obvious interpretation of these passages is in line with the declaration of Ezekiel, who rejected with indignation the thought that the children are punished for the sins of the parents, and who proclaimed with all his energy : The soul that sinneth it shall die.

We find it distinctly asserted in a second group of passages, that recompense is according to works : " Those who believe and do good works receive an unstinted reward " " these receive a garden in which the streams flow perennially." * This is set forth fig uratively in the words : " He whose scale is heavy shall have a life of delight, but he whose scale is light, his dwelling is the abyss." "On that day a man shall be told what he brought forward and what he kept back yea a man shall be witness against him self, though he proffer his excuses, "f Whether there is a specific reference here to sins of commission and sins of omission as is sometimes supposed, it cannot be doubted that the enumeration of sins is in order to a proportionate punishment. Those who are con demned will know that it is because of what they have done : " Every soul is a pledge for what it has gained but the men of the right hand when in the garden shall ask the evil-doers : AVhat thrust you into the Fire ? They will reply : We were not in the habit of prayer and we did not feed the poor, and we used to enter into idle discourse with the vain talkers, and we used to deny the coming of the Judgment Day." J Quite in accord with this is the following :

• 8-t 55 , 85". f 101 s f , 75 !3 f . J 74 41 .

144 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

" Has [the unbeliever] not been told of what is in the rolls of Moses and of Abraham, who was faithful, namely : that no soul is burdened with the burden of another, and that a man receives only that which ho has wrought, and that he shall certainly be shown his work ? Then shall he be recompensed with a com plete recompense." * As Mohammed professes to quote here from the earlier Scriptures we may look for a Biblical reminiscence. And we find a close parallel in a New Testament passage which declares that each man shall bear his own burden, and in that connection we read : " whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

The same doctrine is virtually contained in the fre quent exhortations to repent which we find in this early period. There have been preachers who called men to repentance, though convinced that men had no ability to follow the call. But we must remember that Mohammed had no theological training. With him the natural supposition is that when he called men to turn from their evil ways, they had somo power of choice in the matter. So AVO interpret the- questions addressed to the unhappy inhabitants of hell " Why did you not believe ? " or, " Why did you not reflect?" or again, "Why were you not grate ful ? " f Even Pharaoh has the possibility of repent ance, for Moses says to him : " Wilt thou purify thy self, that I may direct thee to thy Lord and thou shalt fear Him ? " $ It is to the same effect when we find two alternatives set before man. that he may make a choice : " We led him to the two roads, but he does

• 53 j7 ff , cf. Gal. G 5 7 . f 5G 57 - 69 . % 79 !9 .

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 145

not climb the ascent. How wilt thou know what is the ascent ? It is the setting free of the slave, and the nourishment of one s orphan kinsmen in the day of famine, or the feeding of the poor who cleaves to the dust."*

If at this period of his activity the Prophet had had the doctrine of absolute predestination in mind, it is probable that he would have asserted it in con nection with some of these passages. But he does not assert it, even in expressing his idea of God s method of working. What we find emphasized is not God s decree, but His knowledge : " Does not the unbeliever know that God sees ? " " Doth he not know that when what is in the graves comes forth and what is in the breasts is brought to light, in that day their Lord will be informed concerning them ? " f Another expression of the same thing is the figure of the heavenly book. There are passages in which this is apparently the book of fate, but these are later. The primary conception was of a book of record. It is said of the one who receives his book behind his back : " He thought indeed that he would not be put to grief ; but his Lord was observant of him." This record is made by the angels : " And verily there are over you guardians, holy scribes who know what you do." $ In a passage which probably refers to the ac tions of men, God says : " They indeed did not fear an accounting, and accused Our revelation of false hood. But we registered everything in a book. Taste then ! We will only increase your punishment." To the same effect are the passages already alluded

• 90 1(H6 . f 96 14 and 100 ff . J 84 14 f , 82 10 . 78 28 ff .

10

14:6 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

to, in which God is said to try men. For this period further, the assertion that God directs men does not mean that He exerts irresistible grace. The verb is used of one who puts travellers in the desert on the right path. He points out the road, as Moses pointed it out to Pharaoh. It does not follow that the direc tion will be effectual. In the early revelations, which we are now considering, God is not said to lead men astray. He knows those who go astray and He knows those who let themselves be guided,* is the utmost that is affirmed.

As w r e turn to the later sections of the Koran we notice first, that the view we have been considering is still affirmed : " Observe prayer and give alms ; whatever good you lay up in store for yourselves you shall find in the presence of God." f The verse re minds us of the New Testament exhortation to lay up treasures in heaven. "O, you who believe, you have the care of your own souls ; do yourselves no harm ! Whoever goes astray after you have been rightly guided you shall all be brought to God and He will inform you of your actions." The doctrine of rec ompense is hero sharply asserted, and it is assumed that there is a possibility of going astray even after

• C8 7 . There is an apparent exception to this statement in 74 :u

where God is said actively to lead astray. But this is an interpola tion of a later date. In another instance (91 7 - 8 ) as commonly in terpreted, God is said to create the soul and inspire it with evil and with good. But as the word translated inspired may also mean taught, it is safer to suppose that the verse is no exception to the consensus of these early suras ; and that the meaning is simply that God gives the soul a knowledge of good and evil.

t2 104 . J5 104 .

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 14-7

once being guided into the right path. Again we hear : " O, Men, the truth has come to you from your Lord ; whoever lets himself be guided does so to his own benefit, and whoever goes astray does so to his own hurt." * That God is a ready reckoner is frequently affirmed and also that He is just not wronging one " even to the snapping of the fin- gers."f God tests men moreover, and He puts their actions upon record just as was affirmed in the ear lier period.

But in this later period wo find a distinctly more pronounced theory that God s activity extends even into the sphere of human choice. We can see to a certain extent how this problem became more com plex as the Prophet advanced in his career. At first he was controlled by the great thought of the Judg ment and its near approach. This thought and the consequent duty of warning men, absorbed him. For the world about him, he assumed one simple thing that every one should repent and accept his message. But as time went on, he was perplexed not only by the delay of the Judgment he never claimed to know its exact date but by the obstinacy of the unbe lievers. A few men recognized his mission enough to show that there was something in his message. But the majority were rendered apparently more obstinate, for they passed from simple indifference to active hostility. The problem of the divine will and the human will assumed a practical meaning. It was now a question whether God could allow His designs to be thwarted. The little communion of Moslems

• 10 10R . |4 ! - :! . J2D , 54 -.

148 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

looked to their Prophet to answer them this question. For their relief and to strengthen his own soul, he was compelled to assert that even the evil actions, unbelief, and persecutions, of the wicked are within the plan of God.

This ground was apparently taken even at Mecca. The experience at Medina only fortified the position. For at Medina an infant state Avas struggling into ex istence. The little community had frequent occasion to realize that God s ways are not as our ways. Some times, indeed, His care was notably manifest. But quite as often the expectations of the believers were disappointed. They were visited by fever ; they suf fered from famine ; they were disappointed by the lukewarmness or even hostility of some in whom they trusted. The Jews were a thorn in their side. In stead of becoming converts or, at least, allies of the Prophet, they plotted against him, murmured at his claims, insinuated doubts of his mission, and provoked his followers to break the peace. It is evident that the problem of the universe was becoming more com plicated.

We are able to trace the working of the Prophet s mind on one phase of this problem with considerable distinctness. In the second year after the Flight he fought a successful battle against the Meccans at a place called Bedr. As the first pitched battle of Islam, this encounter deserves a place among the de cisive battles of the world ; for had the Moslems been defeated it is not unlikely that their movement would have ceased to be important ; and in this case the face of the world s history would have been entirely

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 149

changed. Tho victory was the more remarkable, in that Mohammed had only three hundred men against nine hundred and fifty of the Meccans. The decisive victory was taken at Medina to be a pledge of God s presence and approval, and at the same time as a foretaste of His judgment on His enemies. The eye of faith even saw the angels engage in the battle on the side of truth, and we may be sure that no ques tions were raised when the Prophet used the event as an illustration of God s will toward the believers.

The difficulty came when, a year later at Ohod, the Moslems suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the same foe, upon which they had seen the ven geance of God take effect at Bedr. On human rea soning, indeed, the defeat was easily accounted for. The Moslems were overconfident. They disregarded the advice of the wiser heads, and, instead of acting on the defensive, rushed to the conflict against large odds.* At the first appearance of success, the archers posted by Mohammed to defend his left flank de serted their station in the hope of booty. All this makes us wonder that the defeat was not more com plete than it actually was. But, in any case, it was a bitter experience to men who had counted on the continued favor of God. It became necessary for Mohammed to explain the ways of God and this he does, as follows : " If you suffer from wounds, so have other peoples suffered from the like ; and We make the fortune of men in battle vary, that God may know those who believe and may take from you wit-

• Seven hundred Moslems against three thousand Meccans, the

latter also better armed.

150 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

nesses * (God loves uot the evil-doers) ; and that God may try those who believe, and may destroy the unbe lievers. Or do you think to enter Paradise before God knows those of you who are zealous and stead fast ? . . . A soul does not die except by the permission of God [contained in] a definite decree, "f The speaker then points out that God is faithful to His promise, but that the believers had been seduced by the booty and had disobeyed their leader. He then adds : " Their desires mislead them to think un justly of God thoughts of heathenism in that they said : Have we any part in this affair ? Say to them : The whole belongs to God. They conceal in their hearts what they do not reveal to thee, saying : If we had had our way in the matter we [that is, our breth ren] had not been slain here. Say : Had ye remained in your houses, yet those whose death was decreed would have gone forth to the places where they lie, that God might search what is in your breasts and might try what is in your hearts. God knows what is in the breasts of men. As for those who turned back on the day of encounter, Satan made them slip for something which they had done. But God has pardoned them God is forgiving and forbearing. O Believers ! Be not like the unbelievers, who say con cerning their brethren, when they travel or are on a raid : If they had remained with us they had not died, or they had not been slain. [This came to pass] that God might place grief in their hearts God

• Or, martyrs as it is ordinarily translated. Those who die in

battle are especially distinguished. | 3134.139^

THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT 151

givetli life or giveth death, and God knows what you do." * Making allowance for a little incoherence, we find here a full statement of the later position of Mo hammed, a position which we may summarize under two heads.

1. All comes to pass by the decree of God. He has ordained even the defeat of the believers, as He inflicted similar defeat upon other generations : " How many a prophet has there been with whom many thousands have fought, yet they did not faint at what came upon them in the cause of God, nor did they grow weak nor submit God loves the persevering. Their only word was : Our Lord, forgive our sins and our transgressions in the cause committed to us ; establish our footsteps and help us against the unbe lievers." f The old point of view, that this is for the purpose of testing believers, is still held, but new points of view are opened. The decree is made more absolute. It sets the term of a man s life, so that ho will go to meet death at the appointed time, no mat ter what efforts are made to detain him. Other men might have remained at home on the day of Ohod, but those whose death was decreed would have gone forth to the field of death in spite of all. So Ave find in other places : " Death will overtake you, even though you be in lofty fortresses." The book of record now becomes a book of fate : " None receives long life, and the life of no one is cut short, except it is [re corded] in a book."|

2. We find more distinctly affirmed that God is active in the unbelief of man. He now leads some

• 3 M8ff . f3 1!0f . J4 80 , 35 12 .

152 TUE BIBLE AND ISLAM

astray, as well as leads some into the right path. As we had reason to suppose that His guidance is simply the pointing out of the right path, in which wen are free to walk or not, we might also think that even if He presents misleading indications, men have the ability to disregard these and still to find the right path. But the weakness of man is such that when God misleads him he is sure to go wrong. In such a case there is no hope of the man, he is irrevo cably lost. Such is evidently the teaching of the Koran in the period we have now reached. " If thy Lord had willed, all that are in the earth would have believed. Wilt thou then force men to believe ? It is not possible for a soul to believe except by permis sion of its Lord." " God leads astray whom He will and leads aright whom He will ; He is the Powerful, the Wise." " Whom God leads astray, for him thou wilt not find a road." " And why should you be di vided concerning the hypocrites, when God has over turned them on account of what they have done ? "Wilt thou direct those whom God has led astray ? " * Yet, although the action of God may be supposed to be irresistible in such cases, we find a certain syner- gisni (to use a theological term) allowed. Man co-oper ates in his own salvation, and man also has part in his own destruction. God conducts to Himself him ivlio repents^ but the wicked are not directed because they will not be: "How shall God guide aright a

• 10 a9 f , H 4 , 4 14 - 90 , cf. 76- 9 f , -Whoever will, let him take the

path to his Lord ; but ye -will not unless God wills," and Jno. 12 39 : " Therefore they could not believe."

t42 .

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people who disbelieve after once believing and testi fying that the Apostle is true, when [also] evident proofs have come to them ? God will not guide the people who do evil."*

On this last point we find a variety of statements. In some cases men are said to be blinded by the se ductions of the world : " Cease from those who use their religion as a sport and a pastime, whom the life of the world has beguiled ; and remind them that a soul is corrupted by what it has acquired." f But this life of the world is ordained of God for this pur pose. Moses prays thus : " O Lord, Thou hast given Pharaoh and his nobles pomp and riches in this world to make them ivander from Thy path ; Our Lord, destroy their riches and harden their hearts, that they may not believe until they see exemplary punish ment." % In other passages God is more directly ac tive on the hearts of the wicked : " There are those who come to listen to thee, but on whose hearts We have placed veils lest they should understand, and in whose ears deafness ; and if they should see every kind of sign they would not believe in it so that they would [even then] come disputing with thee and saying: Verily this is nought but old wives fables." " These are they whose hearts and hearing and sight God has sealed : they are the heedless and without doubt they shall be the losers in the world to come." And again : " When thou recitest the Koran, We place between thee and those who do not believe in the world to come, a thick veil, and We have placed on their hearts coverings that they may not under-

• 380. f 6*9. 130. J 108.

154 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

stand, and in their ears deafness ; and when thou namest thy Lord, the Only One, in the recitation, they turn away in disgust." * In these and other pas sages we must not lose sight of the possibility that God s activity is conceived of as the infliction of judicial blindness. By the divine ordering, the man s sin becomes a cause of further sin : " That which they have done has covered their hearts " we read in one place ; and again : " We turn away their hearts and eyes [from the truth] because they do not believe in it at the first, and We leave them to wander about in their disobedience." f

On the other hand, Satan is the agent who brings men into sin, though not without the divine permis sion. He himself was tried by God and disobeyed. He then asked a reprieve from his sentence for a time, that he might become the tempter of men. He received permission and began his career with our first parents : " Satan made them slip from Paradise and brought them out from the place where they were.":}: And he is still active : " Those of you who turned their backs in the day of encounter this was only because Satan caused them to slip, for some thing which they had done." The passage is note worthy because the new temptation was a penalty for sin already committed. But whatever takes place, all is so thoroughly in the plan of God that He is said to have created men for this purpose : " If thy Lord had willed He would have made mankind OLIO people. But [as it is] they will not cease disputing,

• 6- 5 , !G ;i , 17 41 ff . t83 14 , 6 no .

J 2 34 . 3 149 .

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except the one on whom thy Lord has mercy. And for this He created them, and the word of thy Lord shall surely be accomplished [to wit] : "Verily I will fill Gehenna with men and with jinn." *

If what has been said is correct, we must admit that Mohammed held both sides of the doctrine we are considering. He had the religious sense which affirms God s absolute sovereignty ; at the same time he had the moral sense which declares man s respon sibility for his sin and the justice of his punishment. The latter judgment was more prominent in his earlier life, the other was added to it at a later time. But at no time was he a fatalist, for we mean by fatalism the assertion of God s activity to the entire extinction of human freedom. In holding on to the two apparently contradictory propositions, he was in line with most religious leaders certainly in line with the Biblical writers. Every one of the sentences quoted from the Koran can be paralleled by a verse from the Bible. The prophets, as preachers of righteousness, empha size the self-origination of the sinner s acts. They describe the evil-doers in the same terms of activity w r hich we have read in the Koran. Israel is " a sinning nation . . . children who corrupt their way ; they have forsaken Yahweh, they have rejected the Holy One of Israel, they have estranged themselves, turning backward."! Elsewhere the wicked are described as violent, as corrupters, as oppressors, as shedders of blood, as transgressors of the commandments. The resemblance to the terms cited above is striking. Another parallel is in the call to repent and in the

• ll m , cf. 32 13 . I Is. i 1 .

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assertion of the justice of God, both which could be abundantly illustrated by quotation. God s knowl edge of men s actions is spoken of in almost the same terms employed by Mohammed including the book of record: " I saw a great white throne and Him that sat upon it, from whose face earth and heaven fled away, and there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing be fore the throne ; and books were opened . . . and the dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works." " x " So thoroughly had Mohammed adopted the Biblical idea that we should have no sense of incongruity were we to find this passage incorporated bodily in the Koran. In this, as in some other matters that we have considered, he had apprehended and adopted the Biblical position.

And in his later doctrine ho was also in line with Biblical assertions. The perplexities which beset him were not unlike what the Prophets of Israel met. It seems ludicrous to compare the battle of Ohod to the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadrezzar. And yet, on a small scale, the battle of Ohod was a test of faith to the infant Islam quite similar in its effects to the capture of Jerusalem as it appeared to believ ing Hebrews. The Prophets were driven in this great crisis to take a firmer hold on God as the ruler of the universe. They were compelled to clarify their view of the test imposed by calamity ; and they came out of the conflict with the conviction that if God s ways are not our ways, this is because His ways are

• Ilev. 20 11 13 .

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higher than our ways. Mohammed s declarations are a weaker echo of these. But they are enough to show that he had apprehended and appropriated their thought.

In other particulars than those just mentioned we may discover Biblical influence. The sinner s de struction of himself, for example, is affirmed in those passages which speak of him that digs a pit and falls into it himself, or of him whose violence comes down on his own head. Again : it is " because men do not like to retain God in their knowledge " that God gives them up to a reprobate mind.* If men are said in the Koran to be beguiled by the world so they are in the New Testament : " The cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the Word."f In both documents also, Satan is the tempter. Where the part of God is prominently in the mind of the Biblical writer, he does not hesitate to say that God blinds those who sin. Isaiah is commanded : " Make the heart of this people fat [that is, stupid] and make their ears heavy, and shut [literally, plaster over] their eyes, lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart, and turn again and be healed." The Biblical passage goes beyond Mohammed in making the blindness an effect of the preaching. The familiar texts which speak of God s hardening men s hearts also have their parallel in the Koran, and to the declaration of the latter that God leads men astray we may compare : " Why, O Yah weh, dost Thou make us to wander from Thy way dost harden our hearts so as not to fear

• Rom. r j8 . fMatt. 13 2 2 . J Is. 6 .

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Thee." * Finally, the purpose to fill Gehenna, with men and jinn reminds us that the wicked are sent to the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.f

Our consideration of the divine government up to this point has been mainly occupied with the prob lem of sovereignty and freedom. Concerning these, we find that Mohammed holds positions strictly anal ogous to those held by Biblical writers. He had ap prehended the Biblical doctrine. Before leaving the subject we may briefly consider his doctrine of de mons and angels. For it is evident that these also are subjects of the government of God, and their ac tivity furnishes problems similar to those presented by the freedom of man. In its strong sense of the reality of intelligent beings other than man, Islam is in line with mediaeval Christianity and Judaism. With the luxuriant fancy which has crowded Arabic literature with superhuman agencies we have nothing to do. But so far as they form a part of Moslem re ligion we cannot pass them by.

Arabic heathenism peopled the desert with a class of beings called collectively jinn (the singular is jinnee). We have no word which is exactly equiva lent, so that it is best to retain the Arabic term. The belief in the jinn goes back to the time when animals were an object of superstitious reverence. The word jann $ is applied in the Koran to serpents, and the identity of serpents and jinn was endorsed by Mo hammed himself. At least a tradition tells us of a

• Is. 63 17 . fMatt. 25".

J Used also interchangeably with jinn. The passage is 28 :il .

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young Moslem who on return from the wars had this experience : He found his young wife standing out side the house, and in jealous anger lifted his spear against her. She told him to enter the house and see what had driven her forth. He entered and found a serpent coiled upon the bed. Transfixing it with the spear he brought it into the court, where it writhed awhile about the shaft and then died. But at the same time the young man who was holding the spear also fell dead, though not having received a visible wound. Mohammed on being questioned declared that this was a, jinnee, and that many such who were true believers came into the houses of the Mos lems. The proper method of treating them, he said, was politely to entreat their departure. Only after three days (the time for which it is obligatory to entertain a guest) was it lawful to use violence against them. "We see that the line between ani mals and demons (in the Greek sense) was not clearly drawn.

Of the belief in this class of beings in the primitive Semitic religion we have traces in the Old Testament. The satyrs who danced among the ruins are clearly allied to the jinn, and so are the shedim which we have already had occasion to mention. In the ac count of the battle of Ohod a jinnee named Hairy-heels is said to have proclaimed the death of Mohammed. As the satyrs of the Hebrew are also hairy beings, this is a noteworthy coincidence. The night monster Lilith which is mentioned with the satyrs and which later Judaism classed with the Ghul belongs in the same company, and so does Azazel of whom we hear

1GO THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

in the book of Leviticus.* Mohammed had therefore a precedent for retaining this popular superstition in his religion. It enabled him plausibly to account for some things in heathenism, as we have already seen ; and it furnished a basis for the more complete scheme of angels and devils which he adopted from Judaism and Christianity.

The early Church had an elaborate theory concern ing angels and demons. An authority on Church his tory defines the position of the Fathers as follows : " In regard to the heavenly spirits who belong to the upper world, and in fact constitute it, the orthodox Fathers hold fast to the following points : (1) that they were created by God ; (2) that they are endowed with freedom but are without material bodies ; (3) that they had passed through a probation in which part of them had persevered in good, others had fallen ; (4) that the good spirits are organs of the di vine government, and their actions are useful and helpful to man and, indeed, belong to the means of grace ; (5) that the actual evil in the world is to bo attributed to the evil spirits, especially to their chief, the Devil, and that these have almost unbounded power on earth, but can only tempt man to sin, not compel him ; and that they can be put to flight by the name of Christ, the sign of the cross, and the sac raments." f This describes exactly the position of Mohammed except that, for the means of defence here named, he would substitute prayer. This scheme

• Cf. W. K. Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 113 ff. The Bibli

cal references are Lev. 17 T , Deut. 32", Is. 13- , 34 14 , Ps. 106- 7 . fllarnack, Doymengeschichte, II., p. 125 f.

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was combined with the belief in the jinn in such a way that it is not always easy to distinguish between the various classes of supernatural beings. Some times all are classed as jinn. Iblis is said to be an angel and he is also said to be of the jinn.* In gen eral, however, the angels appear to be of higher rank.

From the allusions to the jinn in the Koran we make out that Mohammed carried into their world the division of believers and unbelievers. They, like men, were created to serve but have disobeyed, and their reprobation is described in the same terms as the reprobation of men : " "We have created for Gehen na a great number of the jinn and of mankind, who have hearts with which they do not comprehend, and who have eyes with which they do not see, and who have ears with which they do not hear they are like the brutes, yea, even more wayward : these are the heedless." f The enmity of the evil ones among them toward mankind, shows itself in leading men to idol atry : " In the day when He shall gather them to gether [He shall say] : O people of the jinn, you have had too much advantage from men. Then will their devotees say : Our Lord, we profited each other, and we have reached the term Thou has set for us. Then will He reply : The Fire is your abode for ever." |

We have already noticed the Biblical parallel to this doctrine. Another point of resemblance is the theory of demoniacal possession. The Kaliin or sooth sayer in heathen Arabia spoke under the influence of a jinn. The Old Testament belief that a man could

• Koran 2 H , 7 ", IS 18 . f 7 178 . J 6 li8 .

11

162 THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

prophesy by means of a familiar spirit is well known. It is also well known that to the present day in Mo hammedan countries an insane person is supposed to be possessed by a jinnee. No clear line can here be drawn between the jinn and the Satans. The latter, however, are certainly borrowed from the older relig ions. Their chief is Iblis, whose name is a corrup tion of Diabolos, and therefore from a Christian source. Iblis was an angel ; he refused to bow to man because he was created of fire, while man was created of clay therefore, in his view, man was the inferior. For this disobedience he was banished from Paradise. In his further career, he became the tempter of man, and will continue to practise his arts until the final Judgment. The Satans are his helpers : " They turn men from the path, when these think they are guided aright."* We are told that Satan says to a man: Disbelieve ! " But when he disbelieves [Satan] says : Verily I am innocent of thy transgressions : I fear God, the Lord of the worlds." In the New Testa ment also we hear of devils who believe and shudder. Satan tried Job by sending calamities upon him.f Although he has no power over those Avho commit themselves to God,! h insinuates evil thoughts into the minds of believers when they are careless, so that he made even Mohammed forget part of his mes sage. " He makes promises and excites desires, but Satan promises only in order to deceive." II All this is done in order to destroy men, though it is not done without the permission of God ; and God s aim in permitting it, is to prove men s faith and steadfast-

• 43 36 . t38 4 - 4i! . llfi 01 G 67 . || 4" 9 .

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ness. That this is in accord with New Testament teaching, I need not stop to point out.* The mind of Mohammed, like that of the Biblical writers, was concerned with this as a practical matter. He, like they, saw in the temptation to sin an evil personal ity arrayed against the believer. Satan is a wolf to a man, " as a wolf to the sheep which seizes one separated from the flock "f just as in the New Testament he is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

And if we find the Biblical doctrine adopted for this class of beings, so we find it adopted for their counterpart, the angels. These were created to adore God, and they fulfil the purpose of their creation: " To Him belongs what is in heaven and on earth, and they who are in His presence are not too proud to serve Him, nor do they tire ; they utter praise by night and by day and do not cease." J How thoroughly Biblical this is, we see from Isaiah s vision (where the Seraphim adore God) and from several

• An extra-Biblical assertion is that Solomon bad power over the

demons. This apparently comes from a Jewish source, though Geiger points out nothing earlier than the Second Targum to Esther.

While on this subject I may mention a theory which appears in the Koran, that the shooting stars are heavenly darts thrown to drive away the jinn who lurk near heaven to get information (Kor. 37 6 f ) A Christian source is pointed out by Harnack (Texte und Unter- siichungen, VIII., p. 117) in the words of Tertullian : " Since the demons dwell in the air, near the stars, and in connection with the clouds, they know what is preparing there, and so are able to proph esy." In the clear air of Arabia, the shooting stars naturally fitted into this view.

t Mishcat, I., p. 51. t21 19f .

164: THE BIBLE AND ISLAM

passages in the Apocalypse. It is probably a remi niscence of Isaiah s vision when the angels are de scribed as having two, three, or four pair of wings.* They carry the throne of God, as do the living creat ures of Ezekiel s vision.! They are, moreover, the messengers of God and the organs of revelation ; and the Biblical influence goes so far that Mohammed borrows the names Gabriel and Michael. In the traditions it is uniformly Gabriel who brings the Koran, and this is apparently the mind of the Proph et, though only once in the Koran itself does he name Gabriel in connection with the revelations. You will remember that Gabriel appears in the New Testa ment as the briuger of God s messages.

Besides this, the angels have charge of the believer : " Each one has attendants who succeed each other, who guard him by the command of God."| They keep the record of man s actions : " When the two beings meet seated at the right and left [of a man], he does not utter a word that there is not for it a watcher ready." They are especially interested in the believer s worship. When one is praying in the mosque, the augels do not cease interceding for him, and the Amen of the leader in worship is taken up and repeated by them. !| In heaven they intercede for the believers : " The angels repeat the praise of their Lord and ask pardon for those on earth. "IT This goes further than the Biblical statements, which only say in general that the angels have charge over the believer and minister to him.** But the develop-

• Kor:m 35 . f 40 , GO". J 13 -. 50" 5 f .

il Bochari, I., pp. 14G, 170. f Koran 42 3 . ** Ps. 91", Hob. I 14 .

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ment is the same which we find in post-Biblical Christianity.

The results of our inquiry may be summed up in a very few words. In Mohammed we see the relig ious conception of a single Ruler of the universe united with the moral conception of the Supreme Judge. Without attempting to reconcile these, the Prophet does not hesitate to affirm them and to apply them to his own circumstances. He extends them also to the extra-human communities which he adopts partly from Arabic tradition, and partly from Jewish and Christian belief. Throughout, he shows dependence on Biblical ideas though without verbal quotation of Biblical language.