Ten Great Religions by James Freeman Clarke

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Among the earliest converts of Mohammed, after Khadijah, were his two
adopted children, Ali and Zeid. Ali was the son of his guardian, Abu
Talib, who had become poor, and found it hard to support his family.
Mohammed, "prompted by his usual kindness and consideration," says Mr.
Muir, went to his rich uncle Abbas, and proposed that each of them should
adopt one of Abu Talib's children, which was done. His other adopted son,
Zeid, belonged to a Syrian tribe, and had been taken captive by marauders,
sold into slavery, and given to Khadijah, who presented him to her
husband. After a while the father of Zeid heard where he was, and coming
to Mecca offered a large sum as ransom for his son. Mohammed had become
very fond of Zeid, but he called him, and gave him his choice to go or
stay. Zeid said, "I will not leave thee; thou art in the place to me of
father and mother." Then Mohammed took him to the Kaaba, and touching the
Black Stone said, "Bear witness, all here! Zeid is my son. I shall be his
heir, and he mine." So the father returned home contented, and Zeid was
henceforth known as "Zeid ibn Mohammed,"--Zeid, the son of Mohammed.

It is reported that when Ali was about thirteen years old Mohammed was one
day praying with him in one of the retired glens near Mecca, whither they
had gone to avoid the ridicule of their opponents. Abu Talib, passing by,
said, "My nephew! what is this new faith I see thee following?" "O my
uncle," replied Mohammed, "it is the religion of God, his angels and
prophets, the religion of Abraham. The Lord hath sent me as his apostle;
and thou, uncle, art most worthy to be invited to believe." Abu Talib
replied, "I am not able, my nephew, to separate from the customs of my
forefathers, but I swear that while I live no one shall trouble thee."
Then he said to Ali, "My son, he will not invite thee to anything which is
not good; wherefore thou art free to cleave to him."

Another early and important convert was Abu Bakr, father of Mohammed's
favorite wife, Ayesha, and afterward the prophet's successor. Ayesha said
she "could not remember the time when both her parents were not true
believers." Of Abu Bakr, the prophet said, "I never invited any to the
faith who did not show hesitation, except Abu Bakr. When I proposed Islam
to him he at once accepted it." He was thoughtful, calm, tender, and firm.
He is still known as "Al Sadich," the true one. Another of his titles is
"the Second of the Two,"--from having been the only companion of Mohammed
in his flight from Mecca. Hassan, the poet of Medina, thus says of him:--

"And the second of the two in the glorious cave, while the foes were
searching around, and they two were in the mountain,--
And the prophet of the Lord, they well knew, loved him more than all
the world; he held no one equal unto him."[391]

Abu Bakr was at this time a successful merchant, and possessed some forty
thousand dirhems. But he spent most of it in purchasing and giving freedom
to Moslem slaves, who were persecuted by their masters for their religion.
He was an influential man among the Koreish. This powerful tribe, the
rulers of Mecca, who from the first treated Mohammed with contempt,
gradually became violent persecutors of him and his followers. Their main
wrath fell on the unprotected slaves, whom they exposed to the scorching
sun, and who, in their intolerable thirst, would sometimes recant, and
acknowledge the idols. Some of them remained firm, and afterward showed
with triumph their scars. Mohammed, Abu Bakr, Ali, and all who were
connected with powerful families, were for a long time safe. For the
principal protection in such a disorganized society was the principle that
each tribe must defend every one of its members, at all hazards. Of
course, Mohammed was very desirous to gain over members of the great
families, but he felt bound to take equal pains with the poor and
helpless, as appears from the following anecdote: "The prophet was engaged
in deep converse with the chief Walid, for he greatly desired his
conversion. Then a blind man passed that way, and asked to hear the Koran.
But Mohammed was displeased with the interruption, and turned from him
roughly."[392] But he was afterward grieved to think he had slighted one
whom God had perhaps chosen, and had paid court to a reprobate. So his
remorse took the form of a divine message and embodied itself as
follows:--

"The prophet frowned and turned aside
Because the blind man came to him.
Who shall tell thee if he may not be purified?
Or whether thy admonition might not profit him?
The rich man
Thou receivest graciously,
Although he be not inwardly pure.
But him who cometh earnestly inquiring,
And trembling with anxiety,
Him thou dost neglect."[393]

Mohammed did not encourage his followers to martyrdom. On the contrary, he
allowed them to dissemble to save themselves. He found one of his
disciples sobbing bitterly because he had been compelled by ill-treatment
to abuse his master and worship the idols. "But how dost thou find thy
heart?" said the prophet. "Steadfast in the faith," said he. "Then,"
answered Mohammed, "if they repeat their cruelty, thou mayest repeat thy
words." He also had himself an hour of vacillation. Tired of the severe
and seemingly hopeless struggle with the Koreish, and seeing no way of
overcoming their bitter hostility, he bethought himself of the method of
compromise, more than seven centuries before America was discovered. He
had been preaching Islam five years, and had only forty or fifty converts.
Those among them who had no protectors he had advised to fly to the
Christian kingdom of Abyssinia. "Yonder," said he, pointing to the west,
"lies a land wherein no one is wronged. Go there and remain until the Lord
shall open a way for you." Some fifteen or twenty had gone, and met with a
kind reception. This was the first "Hegira," and showed the strength of
faith in these exiles, who gave up their country rather than Islam. But
they heard, before long, that the Koreish had been converted by Mohammed,
and they returned to Mecca. The facts were these.

One day, when the chief citizens were sitting near the Kaaba, Mohammed
came, and began to recite in their hearing one of the Suras of the Koran.
In this Sura three of the goddesses worshipped by the Koreish were
mentioned. When he came to their names he added two lines in which he
conceded that their intercession might avail with God. The Koreish were so
delighted at this acknowledgment of their deities, that when he added
another line calling on them to worship Allah, they all prostrated
themselves on the ground and adored God. Then they rose, and expressed
their satisfaction, and agreed to be his followers, and receive Islam,
with this slight alteration, that their goddesses and favorite idols were
to be respected. Mohammed went home and began to be unhappy in his mind.
The compromise, it seems, lasted long enough for the Abyssinian exiles to
hear of it and to come home. But at last the prophet recovered himself,
and took back his concession. The verse of the Sura was cancelled, and
another inserted, declaring that these goddesses were only names, invented
by the idolaters. Ever after, the intercession of idols was condemned with
scorn. But Mohammed records his lapse thus in the seventeenth Sura of the
Koran:--

"And truly, they were near tempting thee from what we taught thee, that
thou shouldst invent a different revelation; and then they would have
inclined unto thee.

And if we had not strengthened thee, verily thou hadst inclined to them
a little.

Then thou shouldst not have found against us any helper."

After this, naturally, the persecution became hotter than ever. A second
body of exiles went to Abyssinia. Had not the venerable Abu Talib
protected Mohammed, his life might have been lost. As it was, the
persecutors threatened the old man with deadly enmity unless he gave up
Mohammed. But Abu Talib, though agreeing with them in their religion, and
worshipping their gods, refused to surrender his nephew to them. Once,
when Mohammed had disappeared, and his uncle suspected that the Koreish
had seized him, he armed a party of Hashimite youths with dirks, and went
to the Kaaba, to the Koreish. But on the way he heard that Mohammed was
found. Then, in the presence of the Koreish, he told his young men to draw
their dirks, and said, "By the Lord! had ye killed him, not one of you had
remained alive." This boldness cowed their violence for a time. But as the
unpopularity of Mohammed increased, he and all his party were obliged to
take refuge with the Hashimites in a secluded quarter of the city
belonging to Abu Talib. The conversion of Omar about this time only
increased their rage. They formed an alliance against the Hashimites,
agreeing that they would neither buy nor sell, marry, nor have any
dealings with them. This oath was committed to writing, sealed, and hung
up in the Kaaba. For two or three years the Hashimites remained shut up in
their fortress, and often deprived of the necessaries of life. Their
friends would sometimes secretly supply them with provisions; but the
cries of the hungry children would often be heard by those outside. They
were blockaded in their intrenchments. But many of the chief people in
Mecca began to be moved by pity, and at last it was suggested to Abu Talib
that the bond hung up in the Kaaba had been eaten by the ants, so as to be
no longer valid. This being found to be the case, it was decided that the
league was at an end, and the Hashimites returned to their homes. But
other misfortunes were in store for Mohammed. The good Abu Talib soon
died, and, not long after, Khadijah. His protector gone, what could
Mohammed do? He left the city, and went with only Zeid for a companion on
a mission to Tayif, sixty or seventy miles east of Mecca, in hopes of
converting the inhabitants. Who can think of the prophet, in this lonely
journey, without sympathy? He was going to preach the doctrine of One God
to idolaters. But he made no impression on them, and, as he left the town,
was followed by a mob, hooting, and pelting him with stones. At last they
left him, and in the shadow of some trees he betook himself to prayer. His
words have been preserved, it is believed by the Moslems, and are as
follows: "O Lord! I make my complaint unto thee of the feebleness of my
strength, and the weakness of my plans. I am insignificant in the sight of
men. O thou most merciful! Lord of the weak! Thou art my Lord! Do not
abandon me. Leave me not a prey to these strangers, nor to my foes. If
thou art not offended, I am safe. I seek refuge in the light of thy
countenance, by which all darkness is dispersed, and peace comes. There is
no power, no help, but in thee." In that hour of prayer, the faith of
Mohammed was the same as that of Luther praying for protection against the
Pope. It was a part of the universal religion of human nature. Certainly
this man was no impostor. A man, going alone to summon an idolatrous city
to repentance, must at least have believed in his own doctrine.

But the hour of success was at hand. No amount of error, no bitterness of
prejudice, no vested interest in falsehood, can resist the determined
conviction of a single soul. Only believe a truth strongly enough to hold
it through good report and ill report, and at last the great world of
half-believers comes round to you. And usually the success comes suddenly
at last, after weary years of disappointment. The great tree, which seems
so solid and firm, has been secretly decaying within, and is hollow at
heart; at last it falls in a moment, filling the forest with the echoes of
its ruin. The dam, which seems strong enough to resist a torrent, has been
slowly undermined by a thousand minute rills of water; at last it is
suddenly swept away, and opens a yawning breach for the tumbling cataract.
And almost as suddenly came the triumph of Mohammed.

At Medina and in its neighborhood there had long been numerous and
powerful tribes of Jewish proselytes. In their conflicts with the
idolaters, they had often predicted the speedy coming of a prophet like
Moses. The Jewish influence was great at Medina, and that of the idolaters
was divided by bitter quarrels. Now it must be remembered that at this
time Mohammed taught a kind of modified Judaism. He came to revive the
religion of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He continually referred to the Old
Testament and the Talmud for authority. He was a prophet and inspired, but
not to teach anything new. He was to restore the universal religion which
God had taught to man in the beginning,--the religion of all true
patriarchs and prophets. Its essential doctrine was the unity of God, and
his supremacy and providence. Its one duty was Islam, or submission to the
Divine will. Its worship was prayer and almsgiving. At this time he did
not make belief in himself the main point; it was to profess the unity of
God, and to submit wholly to God. So that the semi-Judaized pilgrims from
Medina to Mecca were quite prepared to accept his teachings. Mohammed, at
the time of the pilgrimage, met with many of them, and they promised to
become his disciples. The pledge they took was as follows: "We will not
worship any but the one God; we will not steal, nor commit adultery, nor
kill our children (female): we will not slander at all, nor disobey the
prophet in anything that is right." This was afterward called the "Pledge
of Women," because it did not require them to fight for Islam. This faith
spread rapidly among the idolaters at Medina,--much more so than the
Jewish system. The Jews required too much of their proselytes; they
insisted on their becoming Jews. They demanded a change of all their
previous customs. But Mohammed only asked for submission.

About this time Mohammed had his famous dream or vision, in which he was
carried by Gabriel on a winged steed to Jerusalem, to meet all the
prophets of God and be welcomed by them to their number, and then to the
seventh heaven into the presence of God. It was so vivid that he deemed it
a reality, and maintained that he had been to Jerusalem and to heaven.
This, and the Koran itself, were the only miracles he ever claimed.

The Medina Moslems having entered into a second pledge, to receive
Mohammed and his friends, and to protect them, the prophet gave orders to
his followers to leave Mecca secretly in small parties, and repair to
Medina. As the stout sea-captain remains the last on a sinking vessel,
Mohammed stayed quietly at Mecca till all the others had gone. Only Abu
Bakr's family and his own remained. The rest of the believers, to the
number of about two hundred, had disappeared.

The Koreish, amazed at these events, knew not what to do. Why had the
Moslems gone? and why had Mohammed remained? How dared he to stay,
unprotected, in their midst? They might kill him;--but then his tribe
would take a bloody vengeance on his murderers. At last they proposed to
seize him, and that a number of men, one from each tribe and family,
should at the same moment drive their dirks into him. Or perhaps it might
be better to send an assassin to waylay him on his way to Medina. While
they were discussing these alternatives, news was brought to them that
Mohammed also had disappeared, and Abu Bakr with him. They immediately
went to their houses. In that of Mohammed they found the young Ali, who,
being asked where his father was, replied, "I do not know. I am not his
keeper. Did you not order him to go from the city? I suppose he is gone."
Getting no more information at the house of Abu Bakr, they sent out
parties of armed men, mounted on swift horses and camels, to search the
whole route to Medina, and bring the fugitives back. After a few days the
pursuers returned, saying that there were no signs of any persons having
gone in that direction. If they had gone that way they would certainly
have overtaken them.

Meantime where were the fugitives? Instead of going north to Medina, they
had hidden in a cave on a mountain, about five or six miles to the south
of Mecca. Here they remained concealed three days and nights, in imminent
danger from their pursuers, who once, it is said, came to the mouth of the
cave, but, seeing spiders' webs spun across the opening, concluded no one
could have gone in recently. There was a crevice in the roof through which
the morning light entered, and Abu Bakr said, "If one of them were to
look down, he would see us." "Think not so, Abu Bakr," said the prophet.
"We are two, but God is in the midst, a third."

The next day, satisfied that the heat of the pursuit had abated, they took
the camels which had privately been brought to them from the city by the
son of Abu Bakr, and set off for Medina, leaving Mecca on the right. By
the calculations of M. Caussin de Perceval, it was on the 20th of June,
A.D. 622.

Sec. 4. Change in the Character of Mohammed after the Hegira.

From the Hegira the Mohammedan era begins; and from that point of the
prophet's history his fortunes rise, but his character degenerates. He has
borne adversity and opposition with a faith and a patience almost sublime;
but prosperity he will not bear so well. Down to that time he had been a
prophet, teaching God's truth to those who would receive it, and by the
manifestation of that truth commending himself to every man's conscience.
Now he was to become a politician, the head of a party, contriving
expedients for its success. Before, his only weapon was truth; now, his
chief means was force. Instead of convincing his opponents, he now
compelled them to submit by the terror of his power. His revelations
changed their tone; they adapted themselves to his needs, and on all
occasions, even when he wanted to take an extra wife, inspiration came to
his aid.

What sadder tragedy is there than to see a great soul thus conquered by
success? "All these things," says Satan, "I will give thee, if thou wilt
fall down and worship me." When Jesus related his temptation to his
disciples he put it in the form of a parable. How could they, how can we,
understand the temptations of a nature like that of Christ! Perhaps he saw
that he could have a great apparent success by the use of worldly means.
He could bring the Jew and the Gentile to acknowledge and receive his
truth. Some slight concession to worldly wisdom, some little compromise
with existing errors, some hardly perceptible variation from perfect
truthfulness, and lo! the kingdom of God would come in that very hour,
instead of lingering through long centuries. What evils might not be
spared to the race, what woes to the world, if the divine gospel of love
to God and man were inaugurated by Christ himself! This, perhaps, was one
of the temptations. But Jesus said, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He would
use only good means for good ends. He would take God's way to do God's
work. He would die on the cross, but not vary from the perfect truth. The
same temptation came to Mohammed, and he yielded. Up to the Hegira,
Mohammed might also have said, "My kingdom is not of this world." But now
the sword and falsehood were to serve him, as his most faithful servants,
in building up Islam. His _ends_ were the same as before. His object was
still to establish the service of the one living and true God. But his
_means_, henceforth, are of the earth, earthy.

What a noble religion would Islam have been, if Mohammed could have gone
on as he began! He accepted all the essential truths of Judaism, he
recognized Moses and Christ as true teachers. He taught that there was one
universal religion, the substance of which was faith in one Supreme Being,
submission to his will, trust in his providence, and good-will to his
creatures. Prayer and alms were the only worship which God required. A
marvellous and mighty work, says Mr. Muir, had been wrought by these few
precepts. From time beyond memory Mecca and the whole peninsula had been
steeped in spiritual torpor. The influences of Judaism, Christianity, and
philosophy had been feeble and transient. Dark superstitions prevailed,
the mothers of dark vices. And now, in thirteen years of preaching, a body
of men and women had risen, who rejected idolatry; worshipped the one
great God; lived lives of prayer; practised chastity, benevolence, and
justice; and were ready to do and to bear everything for the truth. All
this came from the depth of conviction in the soul of this one man.

To the great qualities which Mohammed had shown as a prophet and
religious teacher were now added those of the captain and statesman. He
had at last obtained a position at Medina whence he could act on the Arabs
with other forces than those of eloquence and feeling. And now the man who
for forty years had been a simple citizen and led a quiet family life--who
afterward, for thirteen years, had been a patient but despised teacher of
the unity of God--passed the last ten years of his strange career in
building up a fanatical army of warriors, destined to conquer half the
civilized world. From this period the old solution of the Mohammedan
miracle is in order; from this time the sword leads, and the Koran
follows. To this familiar explanation of Mohammedan success, Mr. Carlyle
replies with the question: "Mohammedanism triumphed with the sword? But
where did it get its sword?" We can now answer that pithy inquiry. The
simple, earnest zeal of the original believers built up a power, which
then took the sword, and conquered with it. The reward of patient,
long-enduring faith is influence; with this influence ambition serves
itself for its own purpose. Such is, more or less, the history of every
religion, and, indeed, of every political party. Sects are founded, not by
politicians, but by men of faith, by men to whom ideas are realities, by
men who are willing to die for them. Such faith always triumphs at last;
it makes a multitude of converts; it becomes a great power. The deep and
strong convictions thus created are used by worldly men for their own
purposes. That the Mohammedan impulse was thus taken possession of by
worldly men is the judgment of M. Renan.[394] "From all sides," says he,
"we come to this singular result: that the Mussulman movement was started
almost without religious faith; that, setting aside a small number of
faithful disciples, Mahomet really wrought very little conviction in
Arabia." "The party of true Mussulmans had all their strength in Omar; but
after his assassination, that is to say, twelve years after the death of
the prophet, the opposite party triumphed by the election of Othman."
"The first generation of the Hegira was completely occupied in
exterminating the primitive Mussulmans, the true fathers of Islamism."
Perhaps it is bold to question the opinions of a Semitic scholar of the
force of M. Renan, but it seems to us that he goes too far in supposing
that such a movement as that of Islam could be _started_ without a
tremendous depth of conviction. At all events, supported by such writers
as Weil, Sprenger, and Muir, we will say that it was a powerful religious
movement founded on sincerest conviction, but gradually turned aside, and
used for worldly purposes and temporal triumphs. And, in thus diverting it
from divine objects to purely human ones, Mohammed himself led the way. He
adds another, and perhaps the greatest, illustration to the long list of
noble souls whose natures have become subdued to that which they worked
in; who have sought high ends by low means; who, talking of the noblest
truths, descend into the meanest prevarications, and so throw a doubt on
all sincerity, faith, and honor. Such was the judgment of a great
thinker--Goethe--concerning Mohammed. He believes him to have been at
first profoundly sincere, but he says of him that afterward "what in his
character is earthly increases and develops itself; the divine retires and
is obscured: his doctrine becomes a means rather than an end. All kinds of
practices are employed, nor are horrors wanting." Goethe intended to write
a drama upon Mohammed, to illustrate the sad fact that every man who
attempts to realize a great idea comes in contact with the lower world,
must place himself on its level in order to influence it, and thus often
compromises his higher aims, and at last forfeits them[395]. Such a man,
in modern times, was Lord Bacon in the political world; such a man, among
conquerors, was Cromwell; and among Christian sects how often do we see
the young enthusiast and saint end as the ambitious self-seeker and
Jesuit! Then we call him a hypocrite, because he continues to use the
familiar language of the time when his heart was true and simple, though
indulging himself in luxury and sin. It is curious, when we are all so
inconsistent, that we should find it so hard to understand inconsistency.
We, all of us, often say what is right and do what is wrong; but are we
deliberate hypocrites? No! we know that we are weak; we admit that we are
inconsistent; we say amen to the "video meliora, proboque,--deteriora
sequor," but we also know that we are not deliberate and intentional
hypocrites. Let us use the same large judgment in speaking of the faults
of Cromwell, Bacon, and Mohammed.