Part 3

The high poetic fervour of the first group of Mekka speeches is to some extent lost in the Second, and still more in the Third period, corresponding to the fifth and sixth years, and from thence to the Hijra, respectively, and each comprising twenty-one speeches. The change is partly one of style, partly of matter. The verses and the speeches themselves become longer and more rambling; the resonant oaths by all the wonders of nature are exchanged for the mild asseveration, “By the Korān.” There is more self-assertion and formality, and the special words of God are as it were italicised by the prefixed verb, “Say.” It must be remembered that the speeches of the Korān are all supposed to be the utterances of God _in propriâ personâ_, of whom Mohammad is only the mouthpiece. The apparent vindications and laudations of the prophet himself are explicable from this point of view; and the reader must never forget it when he is perplexed by the “we” (God), and “thou” (Mohammad), and “ye” (the audience), of the Korān. The most important alteration to be observed in the progress of the orations at Mekka is the introduction of numerous stories derived, with considerable corruptions, from the Jewish Haggadah. More than fifteen hundred verses, nearly a quarter of the Kur-ān, are occupied with wearisome repetitions of these legends. They are to be seen methodically arranged in Lane’s _Selections from the Kur-ān_, and I need only say that, with the exception of one or two typical examples (like the speech called _The Moon_, p. 41), and a few digressions in speeches (like _The Children of Israel_, p. 57) that were too important to be omitted, these tales are excluded from the present collection. Their only real interest is Mohammad’s use of them as evidence of the continuity of revelation. He believed that all preceding prophets were inspired of God, and that they taught the same faith as himself. From Adam to Jesus they all brought their messages to their people, and were rejected. He makes them exhort their people in precisely similar words to those with which he exhorts the Koreysh. There is nothing new in his own doctrine, he says, it is but the teaching of Abraham, of Moses, of Christ, of all the prophets. But it is the last and best, the seal of prophecy, after which no other will be given before the Great Day. It supersedes or confirms all that goes before.

Quite half of the second group of Mekka speeches consists of these Jewish legends. There are not so many in the third, and none in the first. But if the Third does not contain quite so many of these tedious fables, it is even tamer in style. Mohammad seems to be cataloguing the signs of nature mechanically, and he is constantly recurring to the charge of forgery which was often brought against him, or to the demand for miracles, which he always frankly admitted he could not gratify. I am only a warner, he said; I cannot show you a sign--a miracle--except what ye see every day and night. Signs are with God: He who could make the heavens could easily show you a sign if He pleased; beware, lest one day ye see a sign indeed, and taste in hell that which ye called a lie! That the old eloquence, in spite of repetition and wearing trouble, was not dead, may be seen from the speech called _Thunder_ (p. 104), where the nature painting is as fine as anywhere in the Korān.

The first great division of Mohammad’s speeches, then, is oratorical rather than dogmatic. He has a great dogma, indeed, and uses every resource to recommend it. But there is little detail in these ninety Mekka speeches. Hardly any definite laws or precepts are to be found in them, and most of these in the speech entitled _The Children of Israel_ (p. 57). Certain general rules of prayer are given, hospitality and thrift are commended in a breath, “Let not thy hand be chained to thy neck, nor yet stretch it out right open;” infanticide, inchastity, homicide (save in blood-revenge), the robbing of orphans, a false balance, usury, a broken covenant, and a proud stomach, are denounced; certain foods are prohibited; and the whole duty of man is thus briefly summed up:--“Say: I am only a man like you: I am inspired that your God is but One God. Then let him who hopeth to meet his Lord do righteousness, and join no (idol) in his worship of God.”

There is little here of a complicated ritual or a metaphysical theology. Thus far the social and religious laws which we associate with Islām are not found in the Mohammadan Bible. We hear only the voice crying in the wilderness, “Hear ye, people! The Lord your God is one Lord.”

Mohammad’s position at Medina was totally different from that he occupied at Mekka. Instead of a struggling reformer, despised and ridiculed by almost every man he met, he was a king, ruling a large city with despotic power, and needing every resource of statecraft to maintain order among its contentious elements. There was a large party, known in the Korān as the “Disaffected” or “Hypocrites,” who found it politic to profess Islām, but were ready to avail themselves of any propitious occasion to overturn or injure it. Still more important were the Jewish Arab tribes settled at Medina, who at first hoped to find a tool to their hands in the new prophet, who seemed to teach something very like Judaism; but who, when they found him unmanageable, straightway turned upon him with double malignity, and exerted themselves in all treacherous ways to countermine his authority and help his enemies within and without the city. Mohammad has been blamed for the severity with which he suppressed the rebellious parties in his state, and the sentences of exile and death passed upon the Jews have been regarded as proofs of a vindictive nature. An impartial study of the facts of the case, however, shows plainly that strong measures were needed for the preservation of the Muslim religion and polity; and the vigorous blows struck by Mohammad at rebellion in the beginning probably saved bloodshed afterwards. Whilst the prophet’s supremacy was being established and maintained among the mixed population of Medina, a vigorous warfare was carried on outside with his old persecutors, the Koreysh. On the history of this war, consisting as it did mainly of small raids and attacks upon caravans, I need not dwell. Its leading features were the two battles of Bedr and Ohud, in the first of which three hundred Muslims, though outnumbered at the odds of three to one, were completely victorious (A.D. 624, A.H. 2); whilst at Ohud, being outnumbered in the like proportion, and deserted by the “Disaffected” party, they were almost as decisively defeated (A.H. 3). Two years later the Koreysh gathered together their allies, advanced upon Medina, and besieged it for fifteen days; but the foresight of Mohammad in digging a trench, and the enthusiasm of the Muslims in defending it, resisted all assaults, and the coming of the heavy storms for which the climate of Medina is noted drove the enemy back to Mekka. The next year (A.H. 6) a ten years’ truce (see _The Victory_, p. 124, and notes) was concluded with the Koreysh, in pursuance of which a strange scene took place in the following spring. It was agreed that Mohammad and his people should perform the Lesser Pilgrimage, and that the Koreysh should for that purpose vacate Mekka for three days. Accordingly in March 629, about two thousand Muslims, with Mohammad at their head on his famous camel, El-Kaswa,--the camel on which he had fled from Mekka,--trooped down the valley and performed the rites which every Muslim to this day observes.

“It was surely a strange sight which at this time presented itself in the vale of Mekka, a sight unique in the history of the world. The ancient city is for three days evacuated by all its inhabitants, high and low, every house deserted; and as they retire, the exiled converts, many years banished from their birthplace, approach in a great body, accompanied by their allies, revisit the empty homes of their childhood, and within the short allotted space fulfil the rites of pilgrimage. The ousted inhabitants, climbing the heights around, take refuge under tents or other shelter among the hills and glens; and clustering on the overhanging peak of Abu-Kubeys, thence watch the movements of the visitors beneath them, as with the Prophet at their head they make the circuit of the Kaaba and the rapid procession between Es-Safā and Marwah; and anxiously scan every figure if perchance they may recognise among the worshippers some long lost friend or relative. It was a scene rendered possible only by the throes which gave birth to Islām.” When the three days were over, Mohammad and his party peaceably returned to Medina, and the Mekkans re-entered their homes. But this pilgrimage, and the self-restraint of the Muslims therein, advanced the cause of Islām among its enemies. Converts increased daily, and some leading men of the Koreysh went over to Mohammad. The clans around were sending-in deputations of homage. But the final keystone was set in the 8th year of the flight (A.D. 630), when a body of Koreysh broke the truce by attacking an ally of the Muslims, and Mohammad forthwith marched upon Mekka with ten thousand men, and the city, despairing of defence, surrendered. The day of Mohammad’s greatest triumph over his enemies was also the day of his grandest victory over himself. He freely forgave the Koreysh all the years of sorrow and cruel scorn in which they had afflicted him, and gave an amnesty to the whole population of Mekka. Four criminals whom justice condemned made up Mohammad’s proscription list when he entered as a conqueror to the city of his bitterest enemies. The army followed his example, and entered quietly and peaceably; no house was robbed, no women insulted. One thing alone suffered destruction. Going to the Kaaba, Mohammad stood before each of the three hundred and sixty idols, and pointed to it with his staff, saying, “Truth is come, and falsehood is fled away!” and at these words his attendants hewed them down, and all the idols and household gods of Mekka and round about were destroyed.

It was thus that Mohammad entered again his native city. Through all the annals of conquest there is no triumphant entry comparable to this one.

The taking of Mekka was soon followed by the adhesion of all Arabia. Every reader knows the story of the spread of Islām. The tribes of every part of the peninsula sent embassies to do homage to the prophet. Arabia was not enough: Mohammad had written in his bold uncompromising way to the great kings of the East--to the Persian Chosroes and the Greek Emperor; and these little knew how soon his invitation to the faith would be repeated, and how quickly Islām would be knocking at their doors with no faltering hand.

The prophet’s career was near its end. In the tenth year of the flight, twenty-three years after he had first felt the spirit move him to preach to his people, he resolved once more to leave his adopted city and go to Mekka to perform a farewell pilgrimage. And when the rites were done in the valley of Minā, the prophet spake unto the multitude--the forty thousand pilgrims--with solemn last words:

Ye people, hearken to my words: for I know not whether after this year I shall ever be amongst you here again.

Your lives and your property are sacred and inviolable amongst one another until the end of time.

The Lord hath ordained to every man the share of his inheritance; a testament is not lawful to the prejudice of heirs.

The child belongeth to the parent, and the violater of wedlock shall be stoned.

Ye people, ye have rights demandable of your wives, and they have rights demandable of you. Treat your women well.

And your slaves, see that ye feed them with such food as ye eat yourselves, and clothe them with the stuff ye wear. And if they commit a fault which ye are not willing to forgive, then sell them, for they are the servants of the Lord and are not to be tormented.

Ye people! hearken unto my speech and comprehend it. Know that every Muslim is the brother of every other Muslim. All of you are on the same equality: ye are one brotherhood.

Then looking up to heaven he cried, “O Lord, I have delivered my message and fulfilled my mission.” And all the multitude answered, “Yea, verily hast thou!”--“O Lord, I beseech thee, bear Thou witness to it!” and, like Moses, he lifted up his hands and blessed the people. Three months more and Mohammad was dead,--A.H. 11, A.D. 632.

And when it was noised abroad that the prophet was dead, Omar, the fiery-hearted, the Simon Peter of Islām, rushed among the people and fiercely told them they lied; it could not be true. And Abu-Bekr came and said, “Ye people! he that hath worshipped Mohammad, let him know that Mohammad is dead; but he that hath worshipped God, that the Lord liveth and doth not die.”

* * * * *

The altered circumstances of Mohammad’s life at Medina produced a corresponding change in his speeches. They are now not so much exhortations to unbelievers as directions and encouragements to the faithful; and instead of being one complete oration, as most of the early speeches are, they are a collection of isolated “rulings” on various points of conduct. The prophet’s house at Medina became a court of appeal for the whole body of Muslims. They came to him with all their difficulties,--domestic, social, political, religious,--and asked for direction. Then Mohammad said in few words what he thought right and just; and these decisions have been treated as laws binding upon the Mohammadan world for all time. It is fortunate that Mohammad was a man of sound common sense, or the law of Islām would be a preposterous medley. As it is, it seems clear that the prophet never wished to lay down a code of law, and, instead of volunteering rules of conduct and ritual, used to wait to have them extorted from him by questioning. “God wishes to make things easy for you,” he says, “for man was created weak.” He seems to have distrusted himself as a lawgiver, for there is a tradition which relates a speech of his in which he cautions the people against taking his decision on worldly affairs as infallible. When he speaks of the things of God he is to be obeyed; but when he deals with human affairs he is only a man like those about him. He was contented to leave the ordinary Arab customs in force except when they were manifestly unjust. The truth is that, as in the Mekka speeches so in those of Medina, the legal and dogmatic element is curiously small. The greater part of those long chapters uttered in fragments at Medina, and then pieced together haphazard by the prophet’s amanuenses, consists of diatribes against the Jews and hypocrites, reflections on the conduct of the allies in battle, encouragement after defeat, exhortations as to the future, besides a great deal of personal matter--regulations of the prophet’s harem, vindications of his own or his wives’ conduct,--and similar things of a temporary and local interest. Though the style is monotonous and longwinded, like the third Mekka period, there are still flashes of the old eloquence, though perhaps it is less spontaneous than of old, such as we hear in the chapter of _Light_--

God is the light of the heavens and the earth; his light is as a niche in which is a lamp, and the lamp in a glass; the glass is as it were a glittering star: it is lit from a blessed tree, an olive neither of the east nor of the west, the oil thereof would well-nigh shine though no fire touched it--light upon light--God guideth to His light whom He pleaseth. In the houses God hath suffered to be raised, for His name to be commemorated therein, men magnify Him at morn and eve: Men whom neither merchandise nor trafficking divert from remembering God and being instant in prayer and giving alms, fearing a day when hearts and eyes shall quiver; That God may recompense them for the best that they have wrought, and give them increase of His grace; for God maketh provision for whom He pleaseth without count. But those who disbelieve are like a vapour in a plain: the thirsty thinketh it water, till, when he cometh to it, he findeth nothing; but he findeth God with him; and He will settle his account, for God is quick at reckoning:-- Or like black night on a deep sea, which wave above wave doth cover, and cloud over wave, gloom upon gloom,--when one putteth out his hand he can scarcely see it; for to whom God giveth not light, he hath no light. Hast thou not seen that what is in the heavens and the earth magnifieth God, and the birds on the wing? each one knoweth its prayer and its praise, and God knoweth what they do: God’s is the empire of the heavens and the earth, and to Him must all things return! Hast thou not seen that God driveth the clouds, and then joineth them, and then heapeth them up, and thou mayest see the rain coming forth from their midst; and He sendeth down from the heaven mountain-clouds with hail therein, and He maketh it fall on whom He pleaseth, and He turneth it away from whom He pleaseth: the flashing of His lightning well nigh consumeth the eyes!

xxiv. 35-43.

The actual legal residue in the Medina chapters is singularly small. Chapters ii., iv., and v., contain nearly all the law of the Korān; but it must be allowed they are very long chapters, and form nearly a tenth part of it. Their practical import,--the definite ruling of Mohammad on dogmatic, ritual, civil, and criminal matters,--is collected in pp. 133-144, and need not be repeated here. The conclusion, however, is worth pointing clearly. The Korān does not contain, even in outline, the elaborate ritual and complicated law which now passes under the name of Islām. It contains merely those decisions which happened to be called for at Medina. Mohammad himself knew that it did not provide for every emergency, and recommended a principle of analogical deduction to guide his followers when they were in doubt. This analogical deduction has been the ruin of Islām. Commentators and jurists have set their nimble wits to work to extract from the Korān legal decisions which an ordinary mind could never discover there; and the whole structure of modern Mohammadanism has been built upon this foundation of sand. The Korān is not responsible for it.

There is, however, another source of information about Mohammad’s teaching and practice which is largely responsible for the present form of the once simple creed of Mekka. Besides the public speeches which were held to be directly inspired by God, and indeed copied from a book supposed to exist in the handwriting of God,--the chapters of the Korān,--there were many sayings of Mohammad which were said in a private unofficial way in his circle of intimate friends, and which were almost as carefully treasured up as the others. These are the Traditions, or as I may call them, the Table-Talk of Mohammad, for they correspond more nearly to what we mean by table-talk than any other form of composition. The Table-Talk of Mohammad deals with the most minute and delicate circumstances of life, and is much more serviceable to the lawyer than the Korān itself. The sayings are very numerous and very detailed; but how far they are genuine it is not easy to determine. The Korān is known beyond any doubt to be at this moment, in all practical respects, identical with the prophet’s words as collected immediately after his death. How it was edited and collected may be read elsewhere. The only point to be here insisted on is that its genuineness is above suspicion. Unfortunately, as much cannot be said for the Traditions. They were collected at a late period, subjected to a totally useless and preposterous criticism, and thus reduced from 600,000 to 7275, without becoming in the least more trustworthy in the process. It is almost impossible now to sift them with any certainty. All we can go upon is internal evidence, and a few obvious contradictions in date--as when people relate things which they apparently heard before they were born. Beyond this, criticism is helpless, and all we can do is what I have done here--to collect those which strike the attention and do not seem peculiarly improbable, and accept them provisionally as possibly correct reports of Mohammad’s table-talk. There are six standard collections of orthodox traditions, but those on pp. 147-182 are taken from an abridgment, the Mishkāt-el-Masābīh, which Captain A. N. Matthews had the patience to translate and publish at Calcutta in 1809. In the midst of such doubt, they are sufficient for the purpose of illustration, without any pretence of completeness or critical precision.

In conclusion, let us banish from our minds any conception of the Korān as a code of law, or a systematic exposition of a creed. It is neither of these. Let us only think of a simple enthusiast confronted with many and varied difficulties, and trying to meet them as best he could by the inward light that guided him. The guidance was not perfect, we know, and there is much that is blameworthy in Mohammad; but whatever we believe of him, let it be granted that his errors were not the result of premeditated imposition, but were the mistakes of an ignorant, impressible, superstitious, but nevertheless noble and great man.

_March 1882._

REFERENCES.

In the _Introduction_, pp. xviii.-xxv. and xliv.-xlviii., appeared before in my Introduction to Lane’s _Selections from the Kur-ān_, 2nd ed. (Trübner’s Oriental series, 1879), to which I must refer the reader for further information on Mohammad and Islām, and especially concerning the portions of the Korān dealing with the Jewish legends purposely omitted from the present work. Pp. xxxv.-xxxviii. reproduce a few paragraphs from the _Edinburgh Review_, No. 316, October 1881, p. 371, ff. The Arab poetry quoted in the Introduction is from the admirable versions contributed by Mr. C. J. Lyall to the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1877 and 1881. The description of Mohammad’s person and mode of life, pp. xxvii.-xxix., is from E. Deutsch, _Literary Remains_, p. 70, ff; and R. Bosworth Smith, _Mohammed and Mohammedanism_, 2d ed., p. 131; to which, and to the Rev. E. Sell’s _Faith of Islam_, in many respects the best treatise on the Mohammadan religion, as it now is, that has appeared in recent years, the reader is referred for much concerning modern and historical Mohammadanism which is beyond the design of the present volume.

In the text, I must acknowledge my general indebtedness to the versions of George Sale and the Rev. J. M. Rodwell for many valuable interpretations; but I wish especially to record my obligations to Prof. E. H. Palmer, in respect of some fine renderings which he has been the first to use in his translation of the Korān for the series of _Sacred Books of the East_, and which I have not hesitated to adopt.

S. L.-P.

ANALYTICAL TABLE OF CONTENTS.

PAGE

INTRODUCTION v

The Korān is capable of adequate representation in small compass and approximately chronological order. The original audience of Mohammad’s speeches: Arabian characteristics in desert-life and town-life, poetry and religion. Mohammad’s early life, person and habits, call to preach, and work at Mekka. The three periods of Mekka speeches. Change of position at Medina, and consequent change in oratory. The Medina speeches. Incompleteness of the law of the Korān. The Traditions or Table-talk. References lvi Analytical Table of Contents lvii