The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-02-02
The Faith of Islam.

Twelve hundred years have passed
away and the many points in Islam
now the creed of one hundred and fifty
five millions of our race-remain I'M
changed. Still the doctrine of the
Divine unity is the center of the Mus
sulman' faith. Still may it claim to be,
in a true sense, "a holy religionn '-en-
forcing truth, courage, piety, purity,
under terrible sanction. But during
the twelve centuries that it has lived in
the hearts and intellects of men, it has,
of course, cha gcd; for to live is to
change. Like Christianity and Budd-
hism, Islam has its saints and its
shrines, its rosaries and its relics, its
mystics and its monks. Like them, it
has developed vast systems of meta
physical speculation, and like them,
| too, its beatitudes are for the patient
and the truthful, the lowly and the
| charitable, the self denying and the I'M
worldly. The religion preached by Mo-
manned was simply monotheism and
is incontestably the simplest and the
most free from mysteries of the positive
religions. Mohammed did not claim
| for himself an incarnation, nor did he
pretend to any mediatorial or vicarious
| functions. He did not even pretend to
| be the founder of new creed, but
simply to have been commissioned to
| proclaim Islam Incomplete submission
| to the will of God-and its cardinal
doctrine the unity of the Godhead. In
chapter ii. of the Koran we read ITO
| God belongeth the East and the West;
! therefore whithersoever We turn your
| selves to pray there is the face of God;
for God is omnipotent and omniscent. :"
| Thus Mohammed proclaimed anew an
eternal truth at time when it appeared
almost forgotten, and his message was
addressed to all men. The strong faith
in an unseen God as seen made the fol-
lowers of the man of Mecca irresistible
| The object aimed at by pure Buddhism
is Nirvana, or the being blown outlike
a flame, and that of Brahminism the
union with the Supreme Spirit. The
Christians highest hope is the union
with a loving God, but the God of the
| Mohammedans is an irresistible des-
pot, who sits in an awful and unap-
proachable majesty. He creates the
soul and breathes into it its wickedness
and piety. He misleadeth whom he
WILL ''whomsoever God shall please to
direct He will open His breast receive
the faith of Islam. Whomsoever he
shall please to lead into error,
He will render his breast straight
and narrow as though he were
climbing up into Heaven. Thus doeth
God intlict treble punishment on those
who believe not"
The duty of Mohammedan is not to
question but submit, and by confession
of the unity escape the torments of he'll.
Fatalism is thus the central tenet of
Islam. 1t was one of the strong causes
which has enabled the rude barbarians
of the desert to triumph over disciplined
armies, and it has always proved one
Of the great curses of MOhammedan
governments. The great bulk of peo-
| pie in Mohammedan country remain
passive under misrule and tyranny, be-
cause they regard them as DEGREES of
fate it is useless to strive against.
They are only reused to action when
they have to perform the one common
duty laid upon the faithful which is to
be the agents of Gods vengeance on
those who believe ot-BrOOkJyl1 Eagle.