1.—ON GOD

Tradition can of course not say much on the nature of God, as this lies beyond its reach. Whatever true knowledge of God, his nature and his attributes Muhammadanism contains has been received and borrowed from Scripture, or from Jews and Christians, and consequently the Musalmáns believe in all the attributes of God revealed in Holy Writ. But having rejected the revelation of God in Christ, and the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, their knowledge of God has no real practical tendency, it is but a matter of cold speculation, occupying only the understanding, and leaving the heart unaffected and unaltered. It is true, they acknowledge that God is pure, holy, just, and infinitely gracious and merciful. But these glorious attributes are merely a matter of head knowledge, and exercise not upon them that quickening, sanctifying, and consoling influence which they do upon Christians. For what idea of justice and love, of holiness and mercy, can a religion give, which teaches on the one hand, that hundreds of sins are forgiven for the reading of a few chapters of the Koran, or by the repetition of some Arabic words; and on the other hand asserts, that many men and Jins (genii) have been created by God for hell, or as the common saying renders this passage of the Koran, to fill up hell, with them. God’s holiness and mercy, His justice and love can only be rightly understood so as to exercise

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a practical and life-giving influence on the mind, when viewed and received in Christ. Only in Christ, and in the revelation of God connected with Him, that is in the Scriptures, does God appear a God of perfect holiness as well as of perfect love; and the believer learns to fear and to love him,—to fear Him with a fear flowing from love, and to love Him with reverence, like a child his parent. In Christ God has come nigh unto man’s heart and affections, and man has been brought nigh unto God. But to one who does not know Christ, or who denies Him, and rejects the belief in a Triune Jehovah, God is a God afar off and unknown, to whom he feels he cannot approach,—mere a dead idea, and not the living and life-giving God: “for whosoever denieth the Son the same hath not the Father.” His knowledge of God can therefore never be a practical one, nor exercise a sanctifying influence over him; it will be mere knowledge and matter of speculation. It is on this ground that Muhammadanism, like all other false systems, treats but slightly of the moral attributes of God, but gives all preeminence to His metaphysical perfections. The Muhammadans are therefore peculiarly fond of metaphysical discussions about the divine nature, but they do this in such an indifferent and heartless manner as fully proves that they know nothing of the living God. The following passage, taken from a Persian Treatise on Divinity, is a specimen of such a dead metaphysical knowledge of a dead

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God, the creature of man’s foolish ideas. It is said there: “God is not a body that can be measured; He possesses neither length nor breadth, depth nor height; it is impossible, that there should exist in His nature any necessity to possess the properties of any thing; and He is no line, that is, a thing which can be divided in but one direction; nor is He a flat surface; that is, a thing which can be divided in both directions. He, the great God, is neither heavy nor light; he is neither in motion nor at rest; He is neither in space nor in time. Before Him the past and future are but the eternal present, and He is free from all properties of the creatures.” After this, it will not surprise us to learn, that the Muhammadans never call God by the dear and consoling name of Father, nor do they ever call themselves God’s children. God is the Alláh tála, the great God, and they, even the most religious amongst them, are only Bandas, servants. They are however so far consistent, for only in Christ is God a Father, and the believer alone His adopted and beloved child.

Another consequence of this knowledge, or rather ignorance of God is, that the Muhammadans do not know of such a thing as prayer in the scriptural sense of the word. Their regular and prescribed Namáz, or prayers, are but a mechanical ceremony; everything depends on this, that all the prescribed evolutions of the body are strictly performed, and all the enjoined words correctly repeated; and these words must all be in the

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Arabic tongue, for in this alone the Namáz can be performed. And even these Arabic words are not words of prayer, but only certain verses of the Koran, speaking of God and His attributes, and certain short sentences or words, as Alláhu akbar, God is great; Alhamedulillah, God is praised, &c.—which are repeated several times in the same prayer. Of private prayer or devotion they have no idea at all, and commonly prefer to perform their prayers in a public place or in the presence of others. If a Muhammadan is in great distress, all that he does is, to repeat a certain number more of the prescribed prayers, and sometimes he may also add a few words or some ejaculations of his own. Their mystical writers and poets, and the spiritualists or Internals as they are called, who hold all ceremonies and external prayer as useless, and conform to them merely to avoid scorn or persecution, speak indeed much of internal prayer and spiritual communion with God; but they, having all more or less imbibed the principles of Pantheism, mean by these expressions nothing more than internal contemplation, or rather absorption of the mind into the Divine Being. But that any Muhammadan should ever bow his knees in the closet before his God, and pour out his heart before Him, ask forgiveness of his sins, and seek peace for his soul, and strength from on high to walk in His paths, such a thing is altogether unknown to them, and has in all probability never happened except when the light of the Gospel be-

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gan to shine on such a soul. Prayer is therefore no delight to their hearts, but a heavy burden laid upon them. And but for the good advice of Moses to Muhammad it would have been altogether intollerable; for according to a tradition, related in the Mishcát ul Masábih, as well as in Hayát ul Kúlúb, vol. ii. leaf 176, God ordered them to pray fifty times a day, but Muhammad, by Moses’ advice, bargained it down to five times. The tradition is as follows: Muhammad in his journey to heaven, having arrived at the throne of God, was among other things ordered to command his followers to pray fifty times a day. On his return he passed by Moses, who asked him, “What have you been ordered? Muhammad said, fifty prayers every day. Then Moses said, verily, your sects will not be able to perform fifty prayers every day. Return then to your Lord, and ask your sects to be eased: and I returned, and ten prayers were taken off. Then I went to Moses, and he asked me as before; and I returned to God’s court, and ten prayers more were curtailed. Then I went to Moses, and he said as before; then I returned to God’s court, and ten more were taken off. And I went to Moses, and he said as before; then I returned to God, and ten more were lessened. Then I went to Moses, and he said as before; then I went to God’s court, and was ordered five prayers every day. Then I went to Moses, and he said, How many prayers have you been ordered? I said, five prayers every day. He said, verily your sects will

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not be able to perform five prayers every day; return then to your Cherisher, and ask them to be lightened. I said, I have asked him till I am quite ashamed; I cannot return to him again, but I am satisfied, and resign the work of my sects to God.”*

Now if the doctrine concerning God is such a dead and lifeless one as described above, the religion built on such a foundation cannot be otherwise than a dead and unsanctifying religion, which will never be able to raise man from his spiritual death, nor enlighten his mind and sanctify his heart: it will leave him in the bondage of darkness, superstition and sin, as the following extracts from Muhammadan traditions will clearly show, and the moral state of the Muhammadan nations fully proves.

* Mishcát, vol. ii. p. 694.

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