The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1882-01-15
THE KORAN.

A certain formality is noticeable
in the custom now introduced of
beginning aspeech with the state
ment, this is the revelation Of God, !"
and emphasizing the name of the
Diety, as it were, by inverted COM
mas, by the initial verb say which
never appears in the earlier chapters
except in certain formulas. The
signs ofnature still hold a prominent
place in Mohammed's argument, but
the evidence he most frequently APP
peals tots the history of former proph
cts. These legends, derived from
the Jewish Haggadah but considera-
bly, corrupted, constitute very i'm
portant, but also a very uninterest-
ing part of the Koran. More than
1900 verses, or a quarter of the
whole work are occupied with end
less repetitionS of the same weari-
some tales. They may be found ar
ranged methodically in the second
part Of Lanes Selections where the
repetitions are omitted and the main
incidents prominently brought out.
From the Creation, the rebellion of
Idlis, or the devil, and the expulsion
from Paradise, these legends extend
to the miraculous birth of the Mes
siah. Adam and Eve, Cain and Able,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Ishmael
Isaac, Jacob, Joseph and his breth-
rem, job, Jethro, Moses, Saul. David,
Solomon, Jonah, Ezra, and Christ
are the chief characters who figure
in the K0ranic' lives of the saints,
and the events recorded are often as
puerile and absurd az any related in
medieval hagiology. To Moham-
med, however, they possessed a high
value. "God has sent down the best
of legends,a book uniform, repeating
whereat the skins of those that fear
their Lord to Creep" His doctrine
of the continuity Of revelation re-
CURED the support of such legends.
He held that all these preceding
prophets were true messengers of
God. Each brought his message to
the people, and each were rejected
and disbelieved. He puts words into
the mouths Of the patriarchs which |
are almost identical with his own
speeches, and the family likeness be-
tween Abraham and Moses and other |
Hebrew teachers and Mohammed,a |
depicted in the Koran, cannot escape !
the most superficial reader, Moham-
med believed that all these early |
prophets were sent by God to bring |
precisely the same message as was |
contained in the Koran; he believed |
in species of apostolic succession, |
and the only ground Of pre-eminence
he claimed for himself was that of |
Abraham and Moses and |
David and Christ had all come with
a portion of Gods truth; but No
manned came with the final revela-
ton, which superseded, while it
all that went before. He
is the seal of prophecy" the last
apostle whom God sends before the
day of retribution. Beyond this he
differs no whit from his predeces-
sOTs, and he is ever striving to im-
press upon his audience that his doc
trine is nothing new, but simply the
teaching Of all good men who have
gone before him. No doubt there
were times when his frequent reel
tails of the revelations which he at
to Moses and Christ had the
special motive converting Jews and
Christians; but many of these stories
were told before he cIme into any
intimate contract with either. and
can only be attributed 10 his theory
of the unity OF DrODhecV