The vital forces of Christianity and Islam : six studies by missionaries to Moslems

THE VITAL FORCES

OF

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

Published by HUMPHREY MILFORD,
London, on behalf of the Continuation
Committee of the World Missionary Conference

THE VITAL FORCES

-

OF

CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

SIX STUDIES BY MISSIONARIES TO MOSLEMS,

WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY THE REV. S. M.

ZWEMER, D.D., AND A CONCLUDING STUDY BY

PROFESSOR DUNCAN B. MACDONALD, D.D.

HUMPHREY MILFORD

OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS

LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW

NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY

1915

PREFATORY NOTE

THE studies contained in this volume appeared in
successive numbers of the International Review of
Missions and are reissued by the desire of the
Continuation Committee of the World Missionary
Conference. An introductory chapter has been
kindly contributed by Dr. S. M. Zwemer, in which
the distinctive character of these contributions to
the study of Islam is made clear. It is believed
that all who are concerned in missions to Moslems
will find instruction and inspiration in the living
experience which the studies record.

In order to facilitate the use of the book by
students, a second index has been added classifying
the material under the six main topics dealt with.

Acknowledgments are due to the Rev. H. U.
Weitbrecht, Ph.D., D.D., for the transliteration of
Arabic names and terms ; to the Rev. W. H. T.
Gairdner, for help in the preparation of the indexes,
generously given during a short holiday ; and to
Miss G. A. Gollock, who has seen the volume
through the press.

J. H. OLDHAM

EDINBURGH, March 1915

V

360430

CONTENTS

PAGE

INTRODUCTION . . . . .1

By Rev. S. M. Zwemer, D.D., Cairo.

FIRST STUDY . . ••'..' ., . 11

By Rev. W. H. T. Gairdner, Cairo.

SECOND STUDY .... , 45

By Rev. W. A. Shedd, D.D., Urumia.

THIRD STUDY . . . . .77

By Pastor Gottfried Simon, formerly of
Sumatra.

FOURTH STUDY . . . . .123

By Professor Stewart Crawford, Beirut.

FIFTH STUDY . . . . .157

By Professor Siraju'd Din, Lahore.

SIXTH STUDY . . . . .193

By the Rev. Canon Godfrey Dale, Zanzibar.

SEVENTH STUDY . . . . * 213

By Professor Duncan B. Macdonald, D.D.,
Hartford Theological Seminary, U.S.A.

GENERAL INDEX . . . . ,241

INDEX TO Six MAIN TOPICS . . , 244

vii

NOTE ON TRANSLITERATION OF ARABIC NAMES
AND TERMS

IN default of a universally recognized standard of translitera-
tion it must suffice, for present purposes, to explain what has
been accepted here as approximating1 to the best systems in
use, without entering1 on minuter distinctions.

Broadly speaking, the consonants not mentioned below have
the same value as in the leading European languages.
Otherwise (following the order of the Arabic alphabet) :

The elision of alif (|) is expressed by an apostrophe, e.g.
rasululldh.

th (d;) = English th in thing.

h (<£-) = a modified, deep guttural h.
kh (£) = ch in loch.

dh ( j) = th in the. (In Persia and India read as 0.)
s (jjtf) = modified 5.
z (\jP) — modified z.

The Arabic letter 'ain (%) being unpronounceable by Euro-
peans, is rendered by an inverted apostrophe, e.g. shari'a.

gh_(^) = a voiced kh, something like the French rgrasseyj.
t (b) and z (^) = modified t and z.

q ( Jj) = a deep guttural k sound.

The long vowels in Arabic are \-alif (\ ) = a ; waw (j) = u ;

and yay (^) = I (continental value in each case). The corre-
sponding short vowels are rendered a, u, and i (unmarked).

Exceptions are made in the case of Allah, Mohammed,
Moslem, and Koran, which have become conventionalized as
English words.

H. U. WEITBRECHT

INTRODUCTION

By the Rev. S. M. ZWEMER, D.D., F.R.G.S.,
Board of Foreign Missions of the Reformed
Church in America ; Cairo (late of Bahrein,
Persian Gulf).

INTRODUCTION

By the Rev. S. M. ZWEMER, D.D., F.R.G.S.

ALL missionaries in Moslem lands and students of
the Moslem problem everywhere will welcome the
appearance of this series of able articles on the
Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam. They were
written for the International Review of Missions
and are now gathered together and published in
compact form to reach a still larger circle of
readers. The writers of the papers were asked to
supply from their own experience an answer to the
following questions, without necessarily adhering
exactly to the precise form in which the questions
were put :

1. In your contact with Moslems, what have
you found to be the elements in their faith which
are really vital ; i.e., which are genuinely prized as
a religious help and consolation, or which tend to
influence character and conduct ?

2. Have you, on the other hand, found in indi-
viduals any dissatisfaction with their faith on specific
points ?

4 Vital Fcrct-s of Christianity and Islam

3. Which elements in the Christian Gospel and
the Christian life have you found to possess the
greatest power of appeal ?

4. Which elements in Christianity awaken most
opposition or create most difficulty?

5. What elements in Islam present points of
contact with Christianity, and may be used by the
teacher as a foundation on which to build ?

6. Has your contact with Moslems shed any
fresh light on the New Testament, or enlarged or
altered your understanding of what is most vital
and essential in the Christian faith?

The answers given are not based on theories
or conjectures, but come from the school of ripe
experience and of lifelong study and sympathetic
understanding of Islam and of Moslems. Those
that give their testimony are as strong and
representative a group as it would be possible to
select without increasing its number. It includes
missionaries who have laboured or are still at
work in Egypt, Syria, Persia, the Dutch East
Indies and East Africa; an Indian convert from
Islam and a distinguished student of the problem
at home.

The Rev. W. H. T. Gairdner who writes the
first paper has been at work among the educated
Moslems of Cairo under the Church Missionary
Society since 1897 ; he is at the head of the
Cairo Study Centre for the training of missionaries
to Moslems and is the author of the life of his

Introduction — S. M. Zwemer 5

former colleague, Douglas Thornton, and of other
works. The Rev. W. A. Shedd, D.D., has been a
missionary of the Presbyterian Church of America
(North) in Persia for many years and is specially
conversant with the Shi'a form of Islam. Pastor
Gottfried Simon also speaks with authority, having
laboured for eleven years among Mohammedans
and the Batak tribes threatened by the advance
of Islam in Sumatra. His contribution is, in fact,
a scholarly condensation of his work, Islam und
Christentum im Kampf um die Eroberung der
animistischen Heidenwelt, which has recently
appeared in an English translation. Professor
Stewart Crawford, who contributes the fourth
article, writes from the point of view of one who
has been in close contact with Mohammedanism in
Syria. He was born in the mission field and
spent his boyhood among the Syrians. Then for
fifteen years he engaged in itinerant work as
missionary in Damascus and the Anti-Lebanon.
At present he is a professor in tne Syrian
Protestant College. Professor Siraju 'd Dm of the
Forman Christian College at Lahore knows by
experience that the vital power of the Gospel
can overcome and lead captive all the vital forces
of Islam in its train. He is a convert from
Mohammedanism and has had experience both in
his college work and as a bazaar preacher in
leading others to the living Christ. No less

6 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

authoritative is the message of the Rev. Canon
Dale, Chancellor of Zanzibar Cathedral, who
joined the Universities' Mission in 1889. He
also writes from experience and knows both the
points of contact and of contrast between Islam
and Christianity. Dr. Duncan B. Macdonald,
who contributes the last paper, is, as we all
know, one of the foremost authorities on the
history and dogma of Islam. His three important
volumes on the Development of Moslem Theology,
the Religious Attitude and Life in Islam and
Aspects of Islam should be in every missionary
library.

It is, of course, impossible that even so strong
and representative a group of seven writers could
present the whole of missionary experience or be
always in perfect agreement. Nor would this be
desirable. They do give us, however, foundation
for future study and a consensus of opinion on
the leading elements of the baffling problem, and
lay down principles for its systematic study far
in advance of anything hitherto attempted or
available.

It is, of course, true that there is a sense in
which we cannot speak of vital forces in Islam
at all. In Christ alone is the life. He is the
sole source and the perennial fountain of the
life that is life indeed. Like all other non-
Christian systems and philosophies Islam is a

Introduction — S. M. Zwemer 7

dying religion. Neither the character of the
Koran nor of its prophet have in them the promise
or potency of life that will endure. Moreover,
at the present time there are in Islam many
evidences of decay. The Earl of Cromer, writing
of Egypt, said: 'Reformed Islam is Islam no
longer — it is something else, and we cannot yet
tell what it will eventually be. ... Christian
nations may advance in civilization, freedom, and
morality, in philosophy, science, and arts, but
Islam stands still, and thus stationary, so far as
the lessons of history avail, it will remain.' In
1899, delegates from the Moslem world assembled
in Mecca and gave fourteen days 'to investigate
into the causes for the decay of Islam.' Fifty-
seven reasons were given, including fatalism, the
opposition of science, the rejection of religious
liberty, neglect of education, and inactivity due
to the hopelessness of the cause itself. We
find the same note of despair in the recent
volume of essays by an educated Indian Moslem,
S. Khuda Buksh, M. A. He speaks of the ' hideous
deformity' of Moslem society and of 'the vice
and immorality, the selfishness, self seeking, and
hypocrisy which are corrupting it through and
through.' Those who live among Moslems and read
Moslem newspapers and books are more and more
surprised that Islam itself is not conscious of its
strength but of its weakness and decay and

8 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

that everywhere Moslems are bemoaning a day of
opportunity that is lost. The Moslem pulpit and
the Moslem press in the great centres of Islam
unite in a wail of despair. ' O ye servants of
God,' said a Cairo preacher last year, ' the time
has come for Moslems to look after their affairs
and to regard their religion and conduct as a
sick man looks toward his remedy and the man
who is drowning toward dry land.' Some months
later Mohammed Al 'Attar of Al Azhar University
published his essay, Where is Islam? in which he
despairs of all reform and exposes to public
gaze, in all their corrupt nakedness, the decaying
forces at work in Islam. According to these
physicians the patient suffers from an incurable
malady. The expansion of Islam and its world-
wide conquests are indeed tokens of its outward
strength but it lacks inward vitality.

The writers of the papers here collected are
naturally perfectly cognizant of these facts. As
Christians they know that real life is found only
in Christ. But they use the term 'vital forces'
to describe those truths and characteristics which
have for many centuries had such marvellous
power over the hearts of men. The strength of
any religion lies not in its bad qualities or
tendencies, but in its good; not in its false
teachings, but in its truths and half truths. To
study Islam with sympathy, therefore, we must

Introduction — S. M. Zwemer 9

seek to know where its real strength lies and
what there is in its teaching that captivates
the minds and hearts of Moslems (i.e. those
surrendered to it). We must know Islam at its
best that we may point Moslems to a way that
is better. We must give full credit to all its
elements of strength and beauty in order that we
may with greater gladness and boldness present
Jesus Christ, who is altogether strength and
beauty, because in Him are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge and in Him alone
dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

The Moslem heart and the Moslem world have
only one great need — Jesus Christ. In Him is
the life and the life was the light of men. 'The
fresh breath of Jesus,' as Jalalu 'd Dm, the Moslem
mystic, called it, is proving and will evermore
prove the only real vital force in Moslem lands :

And granite man's heart is till grace intervene
And crushing it clothe the long barren with green.
When the fresh breath of Jesus shall touch the heart's

core,
It will live, it will breathe, it will blossom once more.

In the present conditions and opportunities that
confront the Church of God throughout the whole
Moslem world we face a new and grave responsi-
bility. It can only be met by the outpouring of
life in loving service, by sacrificial obedience to
the last command of our Saviour, and by the

io Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

immediate sympathetic, tactful but also fearless
and direct proclamation of the Gospel by word
and by deed. Then will the vital forces of
Christianity come to their own over against the
vital forces of Islam.

FIRST STUDY

By the Rev. W. H. T. GAIRDNER, Church
Missionary Society ; Cairo.

FIRST STUDY
By the Rev. W. H. T. GAIRDNER

Is the evangelization of Islam — in this or any other
generation — worth while ? And if so, just how is it
worth while ?

Of these two questions the former expresses a
doubt which is entertained, with the utmost facility,
by those in whom the Christian ideal of evangeliza-
tion is unformed or imperfectly realized ; and which
cannot but suggest itself at times even to those to
whom Christianity and world evangelization have
become absolutely inseparable terms. These last are,
and in the very nature of things must be, idealists.
Starting from the tremendous premiss of the
universality of Christ, which for them is paramount
and of all things most certain, they apply it every-
where and to everything, seeing in each refractory
phenomenon only a challenge to prove in their own
lives the truth of the premiss challenged. Reason-
ing of this sublime a priori type is absolutely
justifiable. It lies at the root of all that is most

heroic in man — even if it is responsible for that

13

14 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

which is only fanatical. It accounts for his progress,
won, against all seeming and in spite of the mockery
of circumstance, by his faith and effort and blood —
even if it also accounts for much that has thwarted
progress. The question of the evangelizing of Islam,
that stubbornest and most refractory of phenomena
for Christian idealists, is for such minds rightly and
sufficiently solved by their own all-embracing
principle. And yet, if only for the sake of those
whose thought is habitually suspicious of a priori
reasoning, and who have not yet grasped the all-
embracing principle of the universality of Christ, it
is surely worth while to ask the second question of
the two with which we started — how is the evangeliz-
ing of Islam worth while ? Nay, even among those
who are convinced of the universality of Christ there
may well be some whose minds demand an answer to
this question. History presents so many examples
of the ruinous breakdown of the most heroic idealism,
when it has refused to check its a priori reasonings
by a reference to the realities of the case.

There is, indeed, for every one a reward in each
honest attempt to consider steadily the phenomena
that seem most flagrantly to contradict the founda-
tion principle of his life. For the effort invariably
ends in the enrichment of the principle itself. In
this paper we desire to make some such attempt to
answer the questions with which we started.

Such an inquiry might, of course, be conducted

First Study— W. H. T. Gatrdner 15

on various lines ; we might, for example, prove the
political, or social, or general reactive benefits of
Mohammedan missions, and the undesirability on
general grounds of discontinuing them. Or one
might point to the genuineness of those who have
actually come over to the faith of Christ from Islam,
and the manifest value of many of them to the
Church of God. In this paper, however, it is
intended to take a different line. We shall try
first to discover how much in Islam seems to possess
practical religious significance, as distinct from
merely formal importance ; and then what has been
felt by some Moslems to be unsatisfactory in their
own religion. This will lead us to consider Chris-
tianity with a Moslem's eyes, and to inquire, first,
what aspects of Christianity arouse his antagonism
— whether unjustly, because they are part of God's
truth, or justly, because they arise from man's
failure; and then the aspects which gain his
sympathy — either because they resemble features of
his own religion, or because they meet some need
which his own religion fails to meet. The results
of such an inquiry should afford materials for an
answer to the two questions with which we started ;
and they will further suggest what are the aspects
of the Christian message which it would appear
most necessary to emphasize, realize afresh, and, it
may be, rediscover, in the task of bringing that
message to Islam.

1 6 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

The judgments passed as these various points
are reviewed represent, of course, only the writer's
individual opinions, based on his own observation
and reflection. The results gained must therefore
be defective ; they may be in part erroneous. The
judgments of a single individual cannot be other
than defective. Only from a synthesis of such
articles as this can come any real illumination upon
the questions raised by our inquiry. And it is
only as his personal contribution to such a synthesis,
which must result from the comparison of the
experience of a number of workers in the Moslem
field, that the writer ventures to offer the observa-
tions and judgments contained in the present paper.

Not all of the vast system of Islam is religiously
significant. Much of the colossal development of
the canon law, for example, is, like all casuistical
systems, of purely theoretic interest. Some of it
has never been in anything but practical abeyance,
for it represented from the first rather the theoriz-
ing or idealizing of the Mohammedan lawyers, like
that of a Plato in his 4 Laws,' as to what the life of
a full, realized Mohammedan state or individual
should be. Theoretically, of course, every Moslem
carries the whole content of the canon law in his
heart ; actually, not every one even of the lawyers
so much as carries it in his head.

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 17

The same thing applies to the system of Islamic
theology and of religious ritual. Not all of it is of
equal religious significance. Some of the theology
is purely the property of the professional theologians,
and therefore of no religious significance at all.
And, in regard to ritual, it is often that which is
unofficial rather than that which is officially recog-
nized that is found religiously to matter. What
strikes the superficial observer as of enormous
importance often expresses formal allegiance rather
than religious life.

The heart of every religion is its doctrine of
God. When we strip the Mohammedan doctrine
of Allah of all that is admittedly of purely theoretic
interest, it would appear that what is of living
significance to Moslems is their conviction that
Allah is, that He is more than a principle or an
'influence not themselves,' that He is a personal
force, and that He has a definite relation to the world
— which includes a real, though quite inscrutable
and also passionless favour towards themselves. This
faith unquestionably affects the whole thinking and
doing of Mohammedans. It may not always produce
a particularly ethical fruit, but it is what to them
matters. It gives them a steady, if stiff, Weltan-
schauung \ it very often enables them to face loss,
trouble, and adversity with complete stoicism.
Though the length to which they have pushed
deism might seem to imply a hopelessly remote deity,

1 8 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

their conception of the unmitigated omnipotence of
Allah brings Him virtually near — for man is every
way surrounded by, nay, himself exists through the
immediate working of Allah's will and power. And
though their conviction of the absolute ' difference '
between Allah's nature and attributes and their own
logically leads to complete agnosticism, they find
ways through which there is given them a knowledge
of Allah and the unseen world — the way of revela-
tion through His Prophet and His book, and, as we
shall see, the way of mysticism also.

Another aspect of the Moslem's religion which is
unquestionably vital to him is his personal attitude
to his Prophet. The clause ' Muhammadun rasulu?
llah? is at least as essential and significant an article
of faith to him as ' La ildha ilia? Hah."1 In some
respects the Traditions come nearer to the life of
a Mohammedan than does the Koran itself, and
one does not wonder that the Egyptian peasant —
if what the writer has been told is true — will
sometimes refuse to perjure himself on al Bukhari,
while he will cheerfully do so on al Quran. The
Moslem's devotion to his Prophet, his admiration
and enthusiasm, nay, his personal love for him, are
intense realities. He believes that that Prophet
suffered and sacrificed in loyalty to his mission.
Sometimes he throws over theological or philo-
sophical proofs of the truth of Islam, and points
simply to 'the fact of Mohammed.' He feels a

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 19

personal relationship to him; he is conscious of
a personal gratitude for the ineffable services he
rendered. Here again comes in the importance of
the Traditions, fictitious though most of them
have been shown by modern criticism to be. For
if, as Goldziher has pointed out in his latest work,1
it is the Traditions that have idealized Mohammed
and mitigated the primitive Arab barbarity of some
aspects of his career, it is to them that we owe the
fact that the pious Moslem is able to glide away
from such aspects, and to emphasize to himself more
genuinely ethical, more humane traits, and thus in
some measure to feel his own demand for moral
satisfaction met. It was this devotion to the man
in the earliest days, it is this still to-day, that has
made possible, if it has not actually determined, the
development of Islam as a system of minute legalism
and casuistry, based upon the practice of Mohammed
even more than upon the word of Allah. It is
indeed remarkable to reflect how Christianity, which
regarded its Founder as divine, never preserved,
much less invented, minutiae concerning His daily
life, and so was saved from enslaving itself to a
new system of law; while Islam, the very religion
which arose to protest against the excessive esteem-
ing of any man, ended by binding itself hand and
foot, and for all generations, to one man's dictation
in all the concerns of both private and public life.
1 Vorlesungen in Islam^ p. 44.

2O Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

Another reality of the Moslem's religious life is
his pride in Islam, its position as latest and last of
the religions, its triumphs, its' literature and its
learning, its saints and its doctors. It is this,
and his consciousness of its universality 'for black
men and red,'1 that account for another reality
— his sense of the Moslem fraternity, and the
many ways in which he gives expression to it in
deed.

When we ask, further, what is really significant in
the Moslem's spiritual life, we often find that it is
not what bulks most largely to the casual observer.
Every traveller to the East has been struck by the
phenomenon of Moslem prayer, whether the wonder-
ful, silent, machine-like movements of the rows of
worshippers in the mosques, or the private — yet how
public! — prayer of the single worshipper in the
city or in the field. Personally, the writer ques-
tions whether the impression of tremendous spiritual
reality thus given altogether corresponds with facts.
Statutory prayer is taught to the small boy of seven
as a drill, and a drill it to some extent remains.
These five daily prayers are, indeed, classified as a
' work ' or ' duty,' and this classification affects the
whole way in which they are instinctively regarded.
Not thus does the element of feeling enter into
Moslem prayer. That comes in less statutory services

1 Or ' white,' as we should say ; all those whose cheeks can
show a red colour.

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 21

— Koran readings at feast or fast or festivity, and
above all the dhikr — that door which Mohammedan
mysticism has opened to the world of religious
emotion. It is there he feels ; it is there he believes
that his spirit comes in contact with the unseen and
into the Presence. The attitude of the old mystics
of Islam in speaking of the canonical salat and the
uncanonical dhikr is typical. Al Ghazzali is en-
thusiastic for the latter, in which he felt he found
a road to God : the former he upholds indeed most
strenuously, as a duty which must on no account be
pretermitted, but a duty with aspects the utility of
which, real enough he doubts not, is known only to
Allah. Other mystics, too, have left apologiae for
the official ordinances of Islam, but the very vigour
they put into their f task seems to show how much
justificatory support y%ey felt those ordinances
needed. *\

As for the aesthetic element of worship, that too
does not come from the silence and severity of
the mosque services — even the Friday Tchutba is now
conventional. It is the highly elaborate, ornate
chanting of the Koran — an art the delight of which
is born half of music and half of word — that gives
him that element of aesthetic uplift which in the
West is found in storied window richly dight, in
pealing organ, in melodies and harmonies that thrill
and uplift the soul. Does not this susceptibility of
the Moslem to the reading of the Koran suggest

22 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

that beauty in the reading of prayer or scripture in
our own churches might be more earnestly studied,
and that opportunities lying ready to hand in this
direction are not being made as full use of by us as
they might easily be ?

The hold which mysticism has upon Moslems,
especially in the old historic countries of the East,
and the reality of the part it plays in their religious
lives, cannot be exaggerated. The subject demands
more careful and detailed study than it has yet
received, and also suggests that Christian mysticism
should be more deeply studied with a view to
seeing whether its message would not definitely
appeal to those to whom the mystical element in
religion is the most dear of all.

Though the Mohammedan, as a rule, simply has
no eyes for the clearest defects in his own system,
there are aspects of Islam which individual Moslems,
at least, find to be unsatisfactory. Some of these
we must now study.

As far as the present writer has observed, this
dissatisfaction does not touch their doctrine of Allah,
nor the souFs relation to Him. He cannot say that
he has found evidence of inarticulate desire after
a God of holiness and love, nor of consciences
burdened by the sense of sin which nothing in Islam
could relieve. To the Moslem, while still a Moslem,

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 23

these things remain undreamed of, and if there is a
void here, it is not an aching one.

But it is to be believed that dissatisfaction with
the moral ideal presented by Mohammed's character
is already beginning to be felt by some. It is not
unknown to come across Moslems who have realized
that, side by side with the Traditions ascribing to
the Prophet pious dictum and genial deed, there are
stories which show that often he rose no higher than
current Arab ideal and Arab practice. As incidents
in the life of an Arab conqueror, the tales of raiding,
private assassinations and public executions, perpetual
enlargements of the hareem, and so forth, might be
historically explicable and therefore pardonable ; but
it is another matter that they should be taken as a
setting forth of the moral ideal for all time. It has
to be borne in mind, further, that if the results of
the European criticism of the Traditions penetrate
into the East (and there are signs that they will not
fail to find some prepared soil), the old idealizing
of Mohammed will probably become more difficult ;
for, as we have remarked, it is in the Traditions
that this idealizing takes place. The writer re-
members one young Moslem of the Tradition-
criticizing school saying to him : ' The important
thing is to accept the Koran ; it was no part of the
mission of the Prophet to give a moral ideal. Ac-
cept the Koran, and then let Jesus, if you like, be
better than Mohammed,'

24 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

Accept the Koran! — but already the note of
dissatisfaction with that, too, can be dimly detected.
Not for ever can the Mohammedan shut his eyes
to the puerilities which fill so many of its pages,
the contradiction between its commendation of the
previous ' books ' and its still unexplained disagree-
ment with those books' contents. These and other
difficulties have already caused individual Moslems
dissatisfaction and doubt ; and already a critical
theory, unreconcilable with the form in which
the book is cast (throughout, a direct address
from the Deity) has been attempted in India.
But of all sacred books the Koran least lends
itself to such adjustment. Will its very unyielding
rigidity, hitherto its strength, prove its destruction
when the real strain of the testing comes ?

Then again, though Moslems usually criticize
Christianity for being so largely destitute of con-
crete, detailed commands and prohibitions, the
legalistic and casuistical evolution which Islam
inevitably underwent has many a time provoked
dissatisfaction. The casuistry of Abu Hamfa, one
of the four received legists of Islam, was recently
made the subject of bitter complaint in a leading
article in a Cairo daily paper. The mortmain of
the sharl'a, and the dead clutch it keeps on the
freedom of social and political development, is
bitterly felt and silently resented by many a re-
former. The veil, polygamy, servile concubinage,

First Study — W. H. T. Gairdner 25

the whole position of women, the inequality lying
at the root of the conception of the Moslem state
— all these things are matters which reformers are
burning to change, and yet must pay lip-homage
to, because revelation seems to have given them
their final form. The Sufi or mystic movement is
likewise, in some aspects, a protest against the
enslavement which every system of ordinances
imposes on the soul in the ethical sphere.

Such are the doubts which even now are not
unknown, in one form or other, to many who
know and care nothing about Christianity ; and
when a man leaves Islam for the faith of Christ
it is generally one or other of these doubts upon
which his dissatisfaction has fixed.

Ill

We have said that many a Moslem is dissatisfied
with Islam without having the smallest leaning
to Christianity. What then is his attitude towards
the Christian religion when it is presented to him ?
In what ways does it repel or attract him ?

In most respects the instinctive antipathy and
antagonism of Mohammedans are as great as ever
they have been these thirteen centuries. The
fatal blunder of the uninstructed Arabian still
produces in his millions of followers the utter
repudiation of all that is distinctive in Christianity.
The case is closed ; they dare not look into it

26 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

again, just as they dared not in the first century
of the Hijra, when, nevertheless, they were in
need of information which only Jews and Christians
could give them. The real figure of Jesus Christ ;
the fact of His death, with its ineffable beauty
and endless significance; the Easter message of
the empty tomb and the risen Lord ; and, needless
to say, His divine Sonship and oneness with the
Father ; the Fatherhood and its redeeming love
in Christ; and the eternal Spirit of Jesus — all
these truths, together with the Book that is the
means of their conveyance, are still to the Moslem
a stumbling-block and foolishness. There are no
signs of a more sympathetic study or understand-
ing of our faith. Deliberate ignorance or con-
temptuous acquaintance is still the rule. The one
amelioration of the situation — and surely, by the
way, this would justify missions to Islam even if
they did not produce a single convert — is the fact
that modern missions have at least made Moslems
respect some Christians, and in them recognize,
however unwillingly, the fruits of faith and love.
In many a Moslem the old attitude of absolutely
sincere and absolutely unmitigated contempt for
the religion of the Nazarenes has perforce been
modified through his respect and friendship for
some Nazarenes, and his hearty admiration for
their work.

The stumbling-blocks which have been named

First Study — W. H. T. Gairdner 27

cannot be avoided. They must be turned into
stepping-stones. The doctrines in question must
be presented by us, not as hard, formulated lumps
of creed, but as an organic tissue of faith, warm
with life and perpetually giving rise to new life.
There are other stumbling-blocks, however, which
are by no means so divine.

The failure of Christianity to leaven all western
life, its practical, nay, its avowed abandonment
by so many in France and elsewhere, are grievous
hindrances to its reception in the East. Again,
the indescribably divided state of the Church in
eastern lands is most naturally and inevitably
a real stumbling-block to the Moslem. Each
little community, however insignificant, apparently
ascribing to itself alone all orthodoxy, intensely
aloof, and generally instinctively hostile to its
neighbour ; plural patriarchs for the same see,
plural birthdays, passion- weeks, and Easters for
the same Christ; plural altars for the members
of the same Body while they live, and plural
graveyards for them when they die, even in death
hugging their own isolations, and elbowing each
other out into the cold — what sights could be
more pitifully ridiculous, if they were not such
an utter shame ? ; Become a Christian ! which sort
of Christian?' . . . 'Was your Christ born twice,
and did He die twice?' — such are the questions
which the Moslems ask.

28 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

There are some other, if smaller, ways in which
modern Christendom places unnecessary stumbling-
blocks in the way of Mohammedans. When we
have such a chance to show them the secret of
freedom and spirituality, combined with reverence
and order, in public prayer, it is to be regretted
that so often carelessness with regard to outward
things on the part of Christians should give
Moslems the impression of slovenliness and ir-
reverence in worship. Then, again, the matter
of ablution is one to which sufficient thought
has not been given. The Englishman's principle
that cleanliness is next to godliness has, indeed,
enabled him to solve this delicate question at
least quite as successfully as the Mohammedan,
who has narrowed the scope of cleanliness while
he has gone on to make what he recognizes of
it part of godliness. But it behoves us to see
that Christendom in the East, in general, does not
fail to adopt either the one guiding principle or
the other. Ceremonial ablutions may often defeat
their own ends ; yet this is not a matter in which,
while protesting against the ceremonialism, Chris-
tians can afford to offend a scruple at the base
of which lies something of permanent value.

The question of wine appears to the present
writer a much more difficult one. The denuncia-
tion of wine-drinking as essentially reprehensible,
in conjunction with the use of it as a sacramental

First Study — W. H. T. Gairdner 29

symbol, makes a contradiction so flagrant that
it is not be wondered that the Moslems have
stumbled at it. The terms in which the teetotal
crusade is preached in the East need to be chosen
with the utmost care, and unfortunately are not
always so chosen. It is to be feared that in our
zeal to exculpate Christianity in this matter we
have but played into Mohammedan hands. In
our honest endeavours to take away one stone of
offence, have we dropped another in its place ?

IV

We have now touched on some points in the
Christian faith which inspire Islam with aversion.
Is there no more genial side to the inter-relations
of the two religions ? Something must be said on
this deeply important aspect.

It may be said that there are in Christianity
aspects common to Islam, and further, aspects which
the Moslem can hardly but admire, even though it
be wistfully, since he cannot find them in his own
religion.

We hardly need to go over again the familiar
ground of the articles of the Christian creed, which
are, or seem to be, identical with beliefs held by
Mohammedans, such as the unity of God, the
reality of revelation, and others of the greatest
moment which will occur to all. There can be no
doubt that, on the wise principle of advancing along

30 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

lines of least resistance, these beliefs should be
emphasized in all Christian preaching, and indeed
they are emphasized in every religious conversation
in the East between Moslem and Christian, or at
least in the tacitly understood presuppositions upon
which it proceeds. Yet it may be suggested that
Christians might go further along these lines. For
example, the Moslem claim to be the only true
Unitarians should drive the Christian to preach the
Unity with emphasis and significance, at the same
time making it to be felt that his tri-unitarianism
enriches and not embarrasses his fundamental
doctrine, ' I believe in One God.' It is possible
that in so doing he will have Islam to thank for
recalling him from positions which he has taken up
to safeguard his tri-unitarianism, but which really
threaten both the one and the other aspect of his
doctrine of God.

Again, it is probable that we have not profited
as much as we might have done from points of
contact which Islam almost involuntarily offers.
Sometimes Islam seems to be groping after a truth
which Christianity richly possesses. Take, for
example, the strange Moslem version of the Logos
doctrine, so out of keeping with the general trend
of Moslem theological thought, so embarrassing
to the theologian of Islam. According to this
doctrine Allah had from all eternity a Word,
which Word ' became ' a Jcitdb — a book with a divine

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 31

message. The nature of this pre-existence ; the
relation of that Word in eternity to that Koran in
time ; l the question how to conceive the transition
from the eternal to the temporal orders — these have
proved questions metaphysically as perplexing to
the Moslem as to the Christian theologian. But
for that very reason they enable the latter to
present the idea of the Christian Logos to the
Moslem as something not inherently impossible,
even if difficult of grasping ; something the need
of which Moslems themselves have felt, and tried
to import into Islam even against the whole trend
of the system ; something which, just because it is
so entirely in line with all Christian thought, will
be found in Christianity more fully developed, and
more richly satisfying by just as much as a conscious
personality is of greater dignity than an impersonal
book. Again, the hints dropped in the Koran and
the Traditions of the special, the ' real ' Presence of
God locally as well as morally (in the burning bush,
in the ' lowest heaven,' and the like), might be used
more than they are to press home the possibility
of a Real Presence in Christ, and its greater reason-
ableness by just so much as a sinless human body is
of greater dignity than desert shrub or intermediate
heaven.

1 One standard theological text goes so far as to say that
the Word in eternity might be properly, though less natur-
ally, called * Koran.'

32 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

In ways like these it may be discovered that that
mental praeparatio which our Lord's first disciples
undoubtedly had to enable them to receive the
deeper mysteries of Christian monotheism, and
which sometimes seems so hopelessly absent in
Moslems, is to be found among them also, if it be
carefully sought out. The Jewish ear was already
attuned to the expression, 'Son of God'; to the
Moslem ear, through an early misunderstanding,
it is wholly repellent. But, as we have seen, the
Moslem may have had some other praeparatio
evangelica, by beginning with which the Christian
evangelist may s-ucceed in curing him of his
prejudice against expressions he had previously
misunderstood. And here, again, he on his part
may be doing the Christian evangelist a service
by unconsciously driving the latter back to the
Scriptures, and compelling him to ask exactly
what God meant that first generation of Jewish
Christians to understand by the ' Son of God ' — an
expression which had been current for centuries in
Jewish thought, but to which their Master had
given a new and ineffable significance.

It is no contradiction to what has just been said,
but rather complementary to it, to assert now that
these points of resemblance between the two creeds
cannot be assumed to be real identities. They are
not so. If the essence of a thing lies in its essential
attributes, the Moslem Allah is not the Christian

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 33

God and Father ; still less is the 'Isa of the Koran
the Jesus of the Gospel. The Mohammedan idea
of revelation is not the same as ours ; and nothing
but discomfiture can result from trying (as Christians
in the East unfortunately often do try) to square
the inspiration of the Scriptures with that claimed
for the Koran. The same thing is true of other
apparent similarities. Between the Christian and
the Mohammedan conceptions there is no true
identity; and yet the relationship must not be
denied. It is as though an imperfect artist, after
a visit to Dresden, tried to draw the face of the
Sistine Madonna from memory. The result would
give no true copy, not even perhaps the faintest
resemblance. Yet a true copy was what was intended.
It was to have been the Sistine Madonna and no
other. And only by allowing this assumption
could a wise teacher point out where and how the
work had so utterly failed. Imperfect, distorted,
null beyond all words to express it, may be the
Mohammedan representation of our God in his
Allah, of our Christ in his 'Isa. Yet these re-
present his honest, his earnest attempt, and the
Christian cannot but begin on that understanding,
and then try to show his friend feature after feature,
lovely and glorious, of the true portrait. The
mental image formed by Apollos of the Christ he
preached at Ephesus may have seemed to Aquila
and Priscilla extraordinarily unlike the adored
3

34 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

Jesus, whom they now knew, hopelessly deficient
and at points inaccurate and misleading ; yet their
dealing with him is summed up in that gentle
remark, 'They took him and expounded unto him
the way of God more carefully.' And so, while the
Figure before Apollos' eyes did not move, the mists
that concealed and distorted It disappeared, and Its
divine glory shone full out.

The character of Christ is, indeed, something
which does attract the Moslem. Is it only our
faulty presentation of that Figure that explains
why the Moslem, while he allows to Jesus Christ
every grace, seems to turn to Mohammed when he
thinks of the attribute of strength? True, the
category of physical force is a veritable obsession
with Islam. Yet a doubt remains : has our por-
traiture here done violence to the divine original?
It is the same question which the revolt of the
German Nietzsche in our own world and day is
in so different a way pressing home upon the
Church.1 From this unworthy suspicion of weak-
ness that Figure must be cleared. Its divine
energy, exhaustless vigour, and resistless power
must be given their proper emphasis : Ecce Vir ! : —
not the less, but all the more so, because He was

1 It is not an accident that writers of this school sometimes
show a tendency to laud Islam. Bernard Shaw, in his play,
Getting Married^ makes one of his characters express the
opinion that the future religion of Europe may well be a
sort of ' reformed Mohammedanism.'

First Study— W. H. T. Galrdner 35

so perfectly gentle with little children, so uncon-
descendingly courteous to women ; so understanding
with the weak and with the fallen, and so tender
in every relation of friendship and love: Ecce
Homo! And the story of His Passion may not,
and must not, be represented in the telling as feeble
passivity. Rather must that one idea, insisted on
by the master-hand which drew the picture in the
Fourth Gospel, be insisted on also by us, namely,
that through and in every detail He was royal and
divine, proving in His own insulted body that the
weakness of God is both more majestic and stronger
than the strength of man : Ecce Rex ! What, in fact,
but very strength itself could have given and left His
royalty as the uppermost impression, after a night
and a day of unresisted mishandling? The action
of the Passion ! The activity of its passiveness !

The character of Christ, then, does attract the
Mohammedan, and will do so more and more.
Many a Moslem, when he has fairly placed it along-
side of the character of Mohammed, has seen the
immeasurable difference — one which is not diminished
even when one allows to the latter all the virtues
that can honestly be claimed for him. One cannot
measure the importance of this fact, if the question
at issue between the two faiths tends in the future
to resolve itself more and more into a conflict
between two ethical ideals, as lying at the root of
the difference between two theologies.

36 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

There is just one feature of the doctrine of Christ
which does seem to have an attraction of its own
for Moslems. They, rejecting His death, are all
the more forward to acclaim His ascension (or
* elevation ' as they call it), and to listen with eager
curiosity, and sometimes with real assent, when they
are led on from that to His living and perpetual
intercession. The contrast between their dead
Prophet, lying in his splendid tomb in al Medina,
and the Christ who passed into the heavens alive,
sometimes strikes them very forcibly. Many a
simple Moslem man and woman has, even without
definitely quitting Islam, found the sheet-anchor of
a new life of faith in the one thought : ' The dead
Prophet, the living Intercessor.'

Other features of Christianity which often un-
deniably attract Moslems can be only briefly noticed.
The ethical freedom of the religion of Christ has
been already mentioned, with the consequent absence
of casuistical rules for the individual, and cramping
regulations for the social and political life. But
not many Moslems have had this revealed to them
yet. The freedom, purposefulness, intimacy, and
simplicity of Christian prayer is another such feature.
It is totally different in its whole scope and aim
from the Moslem's salat\ ampler than his quite
undeveloped du'd ; saner and ampler than his dhikr.
And as such it ought to impress all Moslems who
witness it ; as such it indeed does impress some of

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 37

them. The ideal and the practice of Christian love,
forgiveness, truthfulness, and chastity have time and
again extorted the admiration of Mohammedans
when they have witnessed them. The enterprise of
Christian missions, the unheard-of privations and
heroisms of pioneers amid the arctic cold and dark-
ness or the awful circumstances of African bar-
barism, arouse in them wonder and ready praise,
and are a real witness to the divinity of Christianity,
or at least a standing disproof of their theory of
its total corruption and falsity. The life of the
Christian family, when they see it ; Christian
womanhood, calm, capable, womanly, gracious, self-
controlled — this, too, fills them with wonder. They
know Islam has never produced such women ; they
know it is not producing them to-day ; they strive
to ascribe the overwhelming difference to custom,
race, education — any reason that can be found. It
seems impossible but that some of them have an
inkling of the truth that Mohammed adopted and
stereotyped the Arab conception of woman, which
was fundamentally and finally sexual ; while Jesus
Christ, by the silent action of a lifetime, laid the
first emphasis on the identity of her humanity
rather than on the difference of her sex, thus both
dignifying her and man in his attitude to her.

In regard to the more theological aspects of
Christianity, the writer is unable to say that any
Christian conception naturally attracts Moslems,

38 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

or appeals to any conscious craving on their part.
It is only when for one cause or other a Moslem's
faith in Islam is shaken, and he finds a home in
Christianity, that very gradually his thoughts about
God expand and demand to find in Him what only
Christ has ever revealed.

It will have become already fairly clear what
aspects of the Christian faith it seems to the present
writer need most strongly to be emphasized; what
aspects, we might say, Islam teaches us to emphasize,
to realize afresh, in some cases, perhaps, even to
rediscover. In this final section we shall try to
gather together and complete suggestions that
have already been made in the preceding pages.

The unity of God needs to be emphasized afresh.
Some presentations of the Atonement that were
distressingly suggestive of tritheism, even to the
extent of asserting the existence of differences of
ethical character within the Godhead, may be
henceforth buried, surely unlamented. The em-
phasis on the Unity makes the Incarnation and
Atonement much more divine because much more
God's acts. 6 God so loved the world . . .' ' God was
in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself . . .'
And the more they are realized as God's sole acts,
the greater and more significant they appear.

Moreover, until the divine Unity has been

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 39

grasped and re-emphasized, the enriching effect, the
real value of the revelation of Father, Son, and Spirit,
cannot be felt. To find love, and social life, and
relations of reciprocal joy in the very heart of God-
head is surely to be assured for ever of the personality
of God, and to be made secure from the negations
of deism on one side and pantheism on the other,
into both of which Moslem thought tends constantly
to fall. It means, too, the final redemption of our
conception of God from mere barren sovereignty,
loveless and unloved ; from the revolting callousness
of absolutism, with its arbitrary cruelties and
favours, an absolutism no more worthy of man's
gratitude or respect than that of Setebos as con-
ceived by Caliban — a conception, nevertheless,
which is normal and invariable in Moslem thought.

We have already seen that the real attraction
which mysticism has for Mohammedans is a call to
the Christian Church. If mysticism had at first
some difficulty in finding its way into the Moslem
scheme, and if the reconciliation of Sufi dhikr with
canonical salat once caused embarrassment, no such
difficulty existed in Christianity, for which the
two words EN CHRISTO enshrined a divine mysticism
in the heart of religion from the very outset, and
which was unembarrassed by the formal rigidities
of Islam. Do not these facts constitute a call to
the Christian Church more deeply to experience all
that lies EN CHRISTO, and further to attempt to

4O Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

interpret and preach that experience to Moham-
medans ? Let a Christian Sufiism appeal to the
heart of the Sufiism of Islam.

Islam, again, alike by the shallowness of its ethical
conceptions of Allah, and the consequent shallowness
of its ethical doctrine of man, drives us to emphasize
and realize afresh those two burning attributes of
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ — His
holiness and His love. From these two, each the
obverse of the other, follows as by divine naturalness
and necessity that self-sacrifice of love to save the
sinner from his sin which we call the Atonement.
And Islam, as we have seen, by its uncompromising
insistence on the Unity, helps us to find the love
and the action of God at the beginning, middle, and
end of the entire redemptive work, both for the race
and the individual.

Islam with its obsession for the category of power
and force compels Christian thought to see more
clearly the bearing of its own fundamental asser-
tions. All power must indeed be ascribed unto
God — but what power ? The reaction against the
barren Moslem doctrine of omnipotence leads us to
perceive that physical omnipotence is as feeble
a category, ethically, as either brute force or
mechanical power ; that ethical omnipotence, in
certain moments of its work, may well seem to spell
weakness in the physical sphere ; that, nevertheless,
the weakness of God is stronger than the strength

First Study— W. H. T. Gairdner 41

of man * and that the Cross was the victory of a
distinctively divine and distinctively human strength,
which the living glow and splendour of the Resur-
rection did but vindicate and demonstrate. We
have already seen how Islam, like some modern
philosophies, makes us study once more the inex-
haustible portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ, and find
in every feature of its strength, life and energy
divine ; a strength of which His gentleness was the
ideal obverse ; and which transmuted the very types
of utmost earthly indignity into circumstances of
royalty itself.

From Islam, too, we may gain a clearer realization
that it behoved Him, the principle of whose life was
self-communication, to have for all eternity a con-
scious Word, and no mere unconscious principle or
attribute ; One who in that inscrutable ' becoming '
(which after all merely expresses the oncoming of
eternity on time) 'became flesh,' perfect man in
the image of God ; whose ' words ' are not, like the
limited vocables of the Koran, collected between the
two covers of a book, but are rather the total self-
expression of a perfect life, which never spoke more
eloquently than in the perfect silence of His sacrifice.
The limited Koran against the limitless Christ !

In the religious ethical life we have already seen
what qualities appeal strongly to Moslems, and what
by the grace of God the Church must show forth.
But one word may be added. In all the perplexities

42 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

of the problem of sex, both social and individual,
one thing stands out clear — that the incessant
sounding of the sexual note in the Koran, the Tra-
ditions, the canon law, and in the poetry, literature,
theology, and entire system of Islam, tends to make
impossible the highest individual, family, or social
life, and defeats the very ends it appears to have
had in view. In its attitude of man to woman, of
woman to man, Islam seems to us to have hopelessly
missed both dignity and beauty, and to be far from
having secured happiness; and that because it has
made woman in every way a prisoner of sex, and
thus has shut up man to a merely sexual way of
regarding her. Islam claims, on the other hand, to
have accommodated itself to the facts of human
nature, and, like certain modern philosophies of the
West, accuses Christianity of having sinned against
human nature in having commanded impossible
renunciations. Such accusations may indeed lead
Christianity to take stock of itself, and to see
whether its true assertion of the paramount necessity
and possibility of self-discipline may have led to
negations and abnegations which are no part of the
message of Him in whom the totality of human
nature was sanctified. But apart from the corrective
of exaggerations to which criticism may lead, the fact
remains unshaken that the relation of man to woman
and of woman to man which was made possible by
Jesus Christ, is in truth the sanest as well as the

First Study — W. H. T. Gairdner 43

purest, the strongest and the richest and the most
perfectly human. The Spirit of Jesus teaches that
the highest and the happiest solution of the sex
problem is won in the out-and-out acceptance of the
subordination of impulse to self-discipline ; and that
this unstrained self-discipline, in which alone impulse
itself finds its true human interpretation and God-
ordained satisfaction, is made possible by Jesus
Christ for whoever wills its possibility, without any
despairing negation or abnegation whatsoever.

The Spirit of Jesus — in this word all that we
have been trying to express in this concluding
section is summed up. Only that Spirit can avail
with Islam. And yet, it is because the Church,
whose one sole asset that Spirit is, needs in every
generation to rediscover His fulness — it is because
of this that she may perhaps learn some lesson from
her great antagonist, perhaps see that antagonist
unconsciously motioning her towards aspects of His
fulness which otherwise, it may be, might have
escaped her eyes.

SECOND STUDY

By the Rev. W. A. SHEDD, D.D., Board of
Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church
in the U.S.A. ; Uruinia, Persia.

45

SECOND STUDY

By the Rev. W. A. SHEDD, D.D.

THE purpose of this paper is to reproduce the
impression received during residence in a Moslem
land from contact with Mohammedans in school
work, religious discussion, social intercourse, and
the various affairs of daily life. It is not an
attempt to maintain a thesis, or to give an account
of any phase of missionary work, or even to give
the writer's final conclusions. He has sought to
be frank and sympathetic in his relations with
Mohammedans, among whom he feels it an honour
to count not a few friends, and the effort will be
to be candid in this attempted transcript of his
impressions. In the nature of the case specific
proofs cannot be cited for every statement. The
range of observation is limited to one country and
mainly to a single province, and to the smaller of
the two great divisions of Islam, viz., to the Shi'a
Mohammedans of the province of Azerbaijan in
Persia. The paper is in part also an attempt to
describe the attitude of Mohammedans towards

47

48 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

their own religion and towards Christianity. This
again, in the very nature of the case, is very difficult
to do with fairness. In one respect there is perhaps
danger of over-estimating the difficulty. The pro-
foundness of the difference between the East and
the West in their views of truth and attitude
towards life has been a favourite subject of writers
on Asiatic matters. No one can live in the East
and attempt to enter into eastern life without
again and again being baffled by the different point
of view from which Asiatics look at things ; but
the conviction has grown in the writer's mind with
the experience of passing years that the chasm is
not impassable by any means. The theory that
the race is divided into sections which are mutually
inaccessible in intellectual and spiritual things is
refuted by the whole trend of modern history.
The social ideals of the West are penetrating the
East and are laying hold of the masses in those
lands. Under these conditions one has a right
to expect that the religious ideas that have inspired
Europe and America may be so presented in their
inherent power that they may lay hold on the
Mohammedan world.

I

What is the Moslem's attitude to his own
religion? Which are the elements that hold him
with living power, and which are those whose hold

Second Study— W. 4. Shedd 49

is weak or which he would throw off? Two pre-
liminary remarks may be made. Obviously one must
beware of universal statements. Mohammedans
vary, as do Christians, in temperament and in
education. A doctrine or a practice that holds
one man with a powerful attraction may be re-
pellent to another. In the second place, tendencies
of thought and of theological development may be
more significant than outspoken praise or blame.
The former may be the unconscious expression of
a deep need on the part of many, while the latter
may represent the passing mood of a few. Usually
the former is the summing up of a much larger
experience than the latter.

Faith in one living God is certainly an element with
living power. There are a good many sceptics in
Persia but there are very few atheists. The language
of everyday life is saturated with the acknowledg-
ment of the living power of God. Most of the
phrases, such as 'If God will,' * Praise be to God,'
' God forbid,' are thoughtless expressions of habit
and not acts of conscious faith ; and yet custom in
its origin is crystallized conviction, and if the
conviction is lost the custom will pass into disuse.
Besides, there are other evidences for the faith.
There are very few suicides in Moslem lands, and
that not because life is easy and men are contented.
The reason is that the hereafter and the judgment
are too vividly real for men to take liberties of
4

50 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

that sort. The writer was talking not long since
with a Moslem in a railway carriage in Russia and
the conversation turned on recent political changes
in Persia. The Moslem said that he believed that
the Russian intervention was the means used by
God to cast down the oppressors and to relieve the
oppressed. It was not the expression of assumed
piety but of a real conviction. Another Moslem
was in the habit of saying that life's contrarieties
prove God's existence, meaning that the thwarting
of our wills is the evidence of a higher will. Islam
assumes, and men assume in their daily lives, that
this living God has a direct relation to men. He
has sent a line of great prophets who have revealed
His will for man in the form of law. He accepts
worship and He hears prayer. Fatalism is not the
ruling conception of the universe among Persian
Shi'ite Moslems. The feeling of helplessness in
the hands of an all-powerful Ruler is not absent,
but it is softened both in theology and in popular
feeling. What may be called the feeling that
God is good-natured is very common. 4God is
gracious (karim) ' is a very common expression, and
the idea seems to be that He is not vindictive
and will pass over little faults, especially in
Mohammedans. The Nestorian Christian in an
exactly similar way falls back on the expression,
6 God is merciful.' In both instances the effect on
morality is disastrous. The value of the faith in

Second Study — W. A. Shedd 51

God's living power is limited by the defects in the
character of God as conceived by Moslems, but the
faith itself enters into life in innumerable ways.

The legalistic idea of merit plays a large part
in life. This is the idea that certain acts, either
those prescribed by the law or endorsed by religious
custom, such as the fast and the various pilgrimages,
or acts of mercy, are reckoned by God to the
advantage of the doer. Theoretically the motive
of the act enters into the reckoning of merit ; but
practically this element has a very small part in it,
so that one may say that in the popular idea the
reward is not based on the ethical character of
the act but is in large measure arbitrary. The
thousands of pilgrims who every year go to the
shrines and above all to Kerbala, the general
observance of the Ramadhan fast, the unintelligent
reading of the Arabic Koran, the building of
bridges, the indiscriminate giving of alms, and
the support of religious mendicants are evidences
of the power of this conception. No religious force
works in more ways and more universally than
this.

In Persia, faith in the Imamat is another almost
universal force. This implies that God not only
reveals His will through the prophets but is in a
more or less clearly defined way actually present
in human life in some person, pre-eminently in the
line of the Imams, 'All and his descendants. This

52 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

faith works out in various sects in manifold ways.
It lay at the bases of the claims of Sayyid 'All
Mohammed, the Bab, and of his more famous
successor, Bahau'llah. Around Lake Urumia in
recent years a sect has gathered about the person
of a religious teacher in Maragha, who claimed to
be in some sense the resting-place of the divine
presence. It is startling, perhaps, but thoroughly
typical, to be told by a watchmaker in his dingy
little shop in the bazaar, after a discussion of the
alleged necessity of the presence of a representative
of the Twelfth Imam, ' 1 am He,' i.e., 'I am the
one in whom for this time and place this divine
presence is to be found.' Such sects appear and
disappear with each generation. Among the 'All
Ilahis, an ancient heretical sect and by far the
most numerous of them all, the divine power is
centered hi the Pirs, as their religious heads are
called. The honour paid by the Persians to the
Sayyids is connected with this belief, as they all
claim descent from 'All. It covers and excuses a
vast amount of rascality and rapacity.

Probably no Roman Catholic calls more instinct-
ively on the Virgin and the saints for help than
does a Shi'ite Moslem on the Imams. The writer
was once becalmed on the Lake of Urumia and the
passengers, under the leadership of a lusty Sayyid,
relieved the monotony of the hot and tiresome
delay by praying for a wind. All in chorus would

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 53

implore help from the great prophets and the
Imams, calling on each one in turn.

Closely allied to this belief is another religious
force that is exceedingly strong among the people
here. This is allegiance to a personal guide. It is
the principle about which the dervish orders and
the more irregular religious devotees cluster. The
practices, such as the dhiJcrs, in which the attempt
is made to secure a mystical union with the divine
through an emotional or sub-conscious bond, are
carried on under the personal leadership of a murshid.
The religion of the Kurds, who are Sunnis and not
Shf as, has for one of its main principles allegiance
to their shaikhs, by whom they swear and to whom
they do abject reverence. This allegiance is not
tribal nor wholly hereditary, and to some extent it
is voluntary, i.e., the individual chooses the religious
leader whom he accepts. The authority descends
more or less from father to son, but it is based
originally on a reputation for ascetic holiness and
devotion to religion. These shaikhs are, in many
cases at least, descended from the Sayyids, or reputed
descendants of the Prophet. The idea of personal
authority underlies the ecclesiastical organization
in Persian Islam, if it can properly be called an
organization. There is no formal hierarchy, although
the authority of the mujtdhids, or accepted expounders
of the law, is very great. The basis of the authority
in practice, if not in theory, is democratic, and the

54 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

measure of a mujtahuTs authority is largely the
amount and character of his popular following.
Certain places, especially sacred shrines like Kerbala
and Meshed and to a less extent cities of political
importance, are recognized as sees of religious
authority ; but the choice of the occupant of any
given see is exceedingly irregular and democratic.
Acquaintance with a Persian will often reveal the
fact that he is the disciple (murld) of some miytahid,
or it may be of a less authorized religious teacher,
whom he regards as in a special sense his religious
director and teacher. This element of personal
influence is in accordance with the whole scheme of
life, in which favour accorded on the basis of friend-
ship and acquaintance plays a great part. The
shopkeeper as a personal favour will change his
price and the official will for your sake grant what
is only your right. In civil life men will often put
themselves under the protection of some powerful
man, who has no legal claim on their allegiance, and
he will accept them as his proteges. In religion this
idea is found in the mediatorship of the prophets
and holy men with Mohammed at their head, for
whose sake the Ruler of the universe grants favours
and forgives sin.

It will be noted that the religious forces named
do not all strictly belong to Islam. A full account
would include a great mass of belief in magic, evil
eye, charms, shrines, fortune-tellers, and such like,

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 55

which cannot be described briefly and yet play a
large part in the religious life of the people. For
example, in the city where the writer lives one of
the principal figures is a woman, a Jewish proselyte
to Islam, who is something of a ventriloquist and
evidently very shrewd. She claims to have a spirit
at her service whom she calls Mohammed, who finds
lost articles, gives information as to absent relatives,
or foretells the future. She is consulted by all
classes, including many Christians. Similarly
Christian shrines are visited by Moslems to secure
the favour of the patron saint. In a more intel-
lectual way eclecticism is a living force. The tend-
ency among many who are weary of the burdens and
frivolities of traditional Islam is to fall back on a
more or less vague theism, which is taken as the
common foundation of the great religions. One is
often told that the revelation is the same, though
the mediums of revelation vary, that the actor is
the same, though the mask and voice are changed.
This has a basis in the claim of Mohammed that his
message is the same in substance as that of Abraham
and succeeding prophets. It is often joined with
faith in some special religious leader, who claims to
guide men anew in the one way of life.

Dissatisfaction with Islam may be traced along
two lines. One is the expressed statements of

56 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

individuals, and the other the attempt to supply
deficiencies by importing and developing practices
from without. Perhaps the second is the more
significant. The most outspoken complaint is
against the mullas and traditional practices favoured
by them. A cartoon in a paper published in
Turkish by Moslems of Tiflis pictures the old and
new eras. In the former a mulla is pulling a crowd
of men along by a rope, while in the latter the rope
is broken and the mulla is tumbling headlong. A
Mohammedan recently made the statement that
in certain regions to call a man an akhfund (or
preacher) is equivalent to reviling him. This is a
revolt against abuses that are capable of reform
without touching the essence of the faith. The
nationalist revival in Persia leads occasionally to
revolt against Islam as a foreign religion imposed
on Persia by conquerors. An expression of this
feeling in a newspaper was the cause of its suppres-
sion. There is complaint against the minute and
vexatious requirements of the law, which expresses
itself largely in the neglect of those requirements.
There is a growing looseness in the keeping of the
fast, though the breach is mainly in private and not
in public. A zealous progressive suggested in his
newspaper the abolition of the veil for women, with
the result that he stayed a long time in prison.
This complaint against the law strikes at one of the
fundamentals of the religion ; for while the law may

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 57

be drastically pruned without touching the Koran,
its roots and some of its branches are in the holy
book. Babism, or Bahaism, is largely an expression
of this dissatisfaction, which it meets not by doing
away with ritual law but by substituting a new law
for the old. Any attempt to establish legislative
government is bound to accentuate this conflict, for
the idea of Islam is that government is not estab-
lished to make law, but to enforce the already
existing sacred law, which covers all departments of
life.

An element of apparent strength in Islam is the
brevity and simplicity of its creed and the way of
salvation it offers. This is an apparent element of
strength, because there is a great latitude of freedom,
provided only the articles of faith are professed.
The Mohammedanism of the schools is supplemented
by a multitude of beliefs and practices, which are for
the most part not Mohammedan in origin ; and
even the scholastic theology, through the medium
or under cover of the traditions, has incorporated
foreign elements. Almost any sect is tolerated in
Persia, provided only that the creed, the fast, and
a few other matters are respected so far as out-
ward profession is concerned. The history of the
incorporation of Sufiism and the theory and practice
of mysticism are to the point. These sentences
are being written on the tenth of Muharram, the
anniversary of the tragedy of Kerbala, in the mind

58 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

of the Shi'ites the great martyrdom of history.
From the city come the sounds of the mourning
processions that pass along the streets, and they
bring to the imagination the long lines of men and
boys beating and cutting themselves in token of
their participation in the grief of the tragedy.
To-day is the great day, but for ten days private
and public life has been subordinated to the same
religious purpose. Sermons, poems, theatrical re-
presentations, and religious symbolism have all kept
before the mind the day of Kerbala. This is the
great religious demonstration of the year and also
the national and patriotic celebration. Not only in
its historical basis is it later than Mohammed but
in its theological idea it is not Koranic. The bases
on which it rests are the Imamat and atonement
through suffering, the abiding presence of the divine
in humanity and forgiveness based on propitiation.
It is an attempt to meet the deep needs of the
human heart which were ignored by the Prophet,
and to make of Islam a national faith in spite of
the Arabs who murdered the descendants of the
Prophet. Strangely enough the fiercest partisans
of the house of 'All and the most fanatical patriots
are Turkish subjects of Persia, who nevertheless
claim the heritage of Iran and not of Turan. The
civilized and irreligious Persian may scoff at the
ceremonies of Muharram, or grumblingly make
public compliance to its demands, but it is the

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 59

central fact in religion for the vast majority of
Persian Shi'ites. The preaching in the village
mosques mainly concerns itself with the story of the
Imams and bases the hope of salvation on their
sufferings. Surely here is a deep and widespread,
though unconscious, dissatisfaction, which in order
to meet its need has created a myth and founded a
national cult.

in

The attempt may next be made to determine
the attitude of the Mohammedan to Christianity,
and to see how contact with it affects him. He
is brought up to look on Christianity as a religion
whose day is past, or possibly as one that answers
well enough for the Christians but which is inferior
to Islam. The question between Islam and Chris-
tianity was closed long ago by the Prophet and
sealed by the victories of the former. Islam was
predicted, he believes, by Jesus Christ, and the
failure to accept it is due partly to the fact that
the true Injil was taken to heaven, and what
remains is a book of distorted traditions. New
light may arise for Islam by the coming of the
Imam Mahdi or by some working of the hidden
Imam, but not from Christianity. This assured
position is shaken perhaps by the discovery that
among some Christians there is a degree of truth-
fulness and unselfish service, such as he has not

60 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

found in Islam; while further acquaintance may
reveal to him that his ideas as to the beliefs of
Christianity were largely erroneous, for example,
that the Trinity is not three separate Persons,
two of whom were of human origin, and that
Christ is not regarded as the Son of God in the
sense that he had supposed. On the other hand,
the superficial contact of a Mohammedan with
Christians may have a repellent influence. Most
of them meet him only in trade and their object
is to get the best of him in a bargain. Others,
it may be, are representatives of European Powers,
which according to his belief are set on exploiting
if not destroying his nation. Western social habits
are such as to be misunderstood and often to cause
baseless scandal. To his mind many of the Euro-
peans whom he knows seem to be destitute of
religion. A Persian who professes no religion and
whose language is devoid of religious expressions is
practically unknown, although his profession may be
very different from his actual belief. The mutual
recriminations of Christians of different sects have
their share in strengthening his prejudices against
all, though he has too often heard the tradition
that there will be seventy-two or seventy-three
sects in Islam to regard division as much of an
argument against a religion. The above is not a
complete statement of the difficulties that lie in
the way of a Moslem giving to Christianity a fair

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 61

hearing. The fear of the consequences of conversion,
caused by the intolerance of Islam, is an important
element. Ignorance, prejudice, contempt of subject
races, misunderstanding, suspicion, fanatical pride,
and the effect of the sins, errors, and lack of tact on
the part of Christians help to pile up obstacles.

Other difficulties come up when he gives to
Christianity a hearing. The doctrines of the
Trinity and of the deity of our Lord have been
obstacles from the time of the Koran, and they
are often made more difficult by the manner of
their presentation. If he is persuaded to read the
New Testament, he may find new difficulties in
the form of the book, which is so unlike his idea
of what a sacred book should be. He may be
struck with the absence of law, which he has been
taught is the object above all others of revelation.
He has been taught that Christ was not really
crucified, and so he is puzzled by the story of
the crucifixion and the resurrection. The com-
posite authorship of the book is also against his
preconceived ideas. Possibly, too, the Christians
seem to him in their informal references to the
Bible and unconventional use of it not to show
the reverence due to a divine book. His whole
conception of religion is very different from the
Christian conception. He has been taught — and
even liberal Moslems seem to believe it — that in
the Koran are to be found science, jurisprudence,

62 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

politics, social ethics, and all else that enters into
human life. The present leader of the Bahais,
'Abbas Effendi, states this idea of religion very
definitely in relation to the Manifestation or
Educator, whose guidance is to include by way
of definite instruction every sphere of life. New
Testament Christianity makes no such claim. It
is a gospel, centred in the life, teaching, death
and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The miraculous
element in the life is not a difficulty to the
Moslem. Much in the teaching he cannot but
admire, though the form is not what he expects.
The chief offence is the cross. Recently I looked
over some popular religious manuals published in
the Transcaucasian (or Azerbaijan) Turkish by
the more progressive Moslems. In them the story
of Jesus is that founded on the suggestion of
the Koran that He was rescued by God from
death, some one else dying in His stead. The
New Testament says that Christ died for sinners,
willingly offering Himself. The Moslem says
that a sinner died unwillingly in Christ's stead.
For the glory of sacrifice the Moslem substitutes
an escape wrought by God. This is done not
out of perverseness, but from a desire to honour
the Lord Jesus by saving Him from the shame
of the cross. Little wonder that the epistles do
not appeal with power to Moslems, for they are
saturated with faith in the death of Jesus. The

Second Study— PP. A. Shedd 63

conception of religion is different, and with this go
different conceptions of salvation, of sin, and of
forgiveness. The evangelical Christian and the
Moslem move religiously on different planes.

Another difficulty lies in the sphere of character
and ethical practice. The most deep-seated de-
moralization in Persian character is the result of
the intolerance of Islam. Very possibly it goes
back to the rule of the Zoroastrian clergy under
the Sassanian kings, but at all events it was in-
tensified by the Arab conquest. One may believe
that the conception of an almighty and living
God preached with the force of faith was a great
factor in the conquest of Persia by Islam ; but the
sword was the most prominent factor and there
must have been much insincere profession. As
time passed and the irresistible speculativeness of
the Persian mind produced variations of doctrine,
some of them revolutionary in character, the in-
sincerity became more widespread, particularly
among the intellectuals. Finally Shi'ite Islam
formally recognized the rightfulness of insincere
profession ; and this theory of ethics is accepted
by every Persian sect, including the Bahals, and is
practised by all. The greatest difficulty in presenting
truth to a Persian is not the separation in intel-
lectual conceptions and religious ideals, but the lack
of sincerity and frankness in all religious intercourse.
Christianity must not and cannot meet men on any

64 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

basis but that of truthfulness, and that common
meeting-place is hard to secure in Persia. This
insincerity may be covered by politeness, affability,
and intellectual acuteness, but at bottom it is
stubborn and ugly.

IV

The solvent that removes the prejudices of
Moslems is love expressed in beneficent deeds and
in unselfish character. Probably the greatest work
that Christian missions have done in Mohammedan
lands is to present in life and deed the fruits of
Christianity. Hospitals, schools, relief of poverty,
and integrity and honour in daily life have pre-
sented a new idea of service, religion, and manhood.
This ideal differs from that of the saints of Islam.
The position of woman in the Christian home and
society has an attraction, especially for women.
Many of them realize something of the evils caused
by polygamy and divorce, and in general the
relation of the sexes is so different in the two
religions that the contrast cannot but be striking.
More important than institutional Christianity is
the influence of personal character in the social
relations of life. Just what this has meant in
Persia is shown in the biography of Dr. Cochran1

1 The Foreign Doctor : A Biography of Joseph Plumb
Cochran, M.D., of Persia. New York : Fleming H. Revell
Company, 1911.

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 65

by Dr. Robert E. Speer. After his death Dr.
Cochran's character was lauded by one of the most
orthodox preachers in Urumia in a sermon in the
mosque, and no one can tell how many prejudices
were softened by that life of sincere service. The
solvent that will remove the mass of misconception
and mis-information is knowledge imparted in as
non-controversial a way as possible. Much is being
done to accomplish this indirectly, but there is need
also for direct efforts in this direction. Not long
since a mulla was for a few months a patient in a
missionary hospital. He was a preacher of con-
siderable reputation in l^s home city, and so he
would influence the opinion of others as to Chris-
tianity. Before he left he asked for several copies
of a little book that states in an uncontroversial
way the doctrines of evangelical Christianity, in
order that he might show his Moslem friends how
erroneous were their ideas of the Christian religion.
The social and political results of Christianity are
far less effective than its manifestation in personal
character. For one thing, the Oriental has not
learned to judge religion by such standards, and
besides, the faults and shortcomings of western
civilization are obtruded on his view. Influences from
the West are tending to undermine Islam and are
producing scepticism and materialism, and the most
constructive of them is the missionary influence.
The purity and nobility of the moral ideas set
5

66 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

forth in the teachings of Jesus attract some. A
teacher of Moslem theology of some prominence
once remarked to the writer that he believed that
the teacher par excellence of morals and manhood is
Jesus Christ. Some sayings, such as those about
marriage, are criticized as impracticable, but never-
theless the attraction of the ideal is great. Another
attractive element in the ethical character of
Christianity is its adaptability to progress and
freedom, because its ethics are not embodied in a
legal code and because religion in its origins is not
tied up with government. Argument along this
line at least gains a respectful hearing. Some see
that church and state in Islam are inseparable,
or separable only under non-Moslem rule, and
that this is a great obstacle to social progress.
The contrast on this point between Christ and
Mohammed can be very helpful. One young man
of uncommon purity of character was attracted to
Christianity by the contrast between the sensual
paradise of Islam and the spiritual heaven of which
his teacher told him and which he found in the
New Testament. Especially with the simple and
more ignorant the gospel story of our Lord is
attractive. The learned are apt to lose its beauty
in the marvellous legends of Jesus found in the
Traditions. The gospel story takes the hearer into
the heart of Christianity, and it brings up in a
non-controversial way the fundamental differences

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 67

between Christianity and Islam. As already
pointed out, the death and resurrection of Christ
have no place in Mohammedanism, and with this
is connected the vital difference in the conception
of salvation. So also anything that will lead
Moslems to read the Scriptures is of great value.
They at least will have many misconceptions
corrected and may be led to deeper inquiry. The
greatest attractive force is Christ Himself. No
Moslem can speak of Him with anything but
reverence, and we can let Him speak in His words
in the gospels. The most uncompromising claims
of Christianity are in those words. Just so far as
we can base His claims on His own words, we make
them strong. We must present Him, as He offered
Himself, as the light and truth of the world and
as the saviour and king of men.

A topic of importance is the relation of the
teachings of Islam to those of Christianity. The
history of the rise and development of Islam would
lead one to expect a close relation, and experience
shows that the relation is complicated. A
Mohammedan receives Christian truth into a mind
filled with a large amount of belief. These pre-
vious beliefs can by no possibility be all expelled,
even if it were desirable. Any attempt to dis-
possess a man of all his religious convictions in order

68 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

that he may receive a totally new set is absurd.
Furthermore, Christian faith is not a set of beliefs,
but the acceptance of a personal saviour ; and faith
itself must be trusted to take possession of the
heart and mind and to expel the alien affections
and opinions. With a man born into a Christian
environment a more or less definite set of Christian
beliefs forms a part of that environment. He may
himself conclude later that the beliefs are only partly
Christian, or are only partially true to the facts of
science or experience, and in all probability, con-
sciously or unconsciously, the beliefs will change.
Every intelligent Christian must be more or less
aware of such a process in his experience. We must
expect a similar process in the case of the Moham-
medan who is drawn to Christ, and must not despise
the day of small things. On the other hand, in order
that a man should look to Christ as a saviour there
must be certain convictions, e.g., that he is himself
in need of salvation, that there is a divine power that
seeks to save, and that sin is not the inevitable con-
dition of mankind. As he inquires after Christ, he
finds that Christ Himself makes certain assertions
regarding God and man, and makes certain claims
regarding Himself. It is not necessary or possible
that the sinner seeking a saviour should accept
definitely or understand fully all that is involved in
those assertions and claims ; but it is inconceivable,
for example, that a man should accept Christ as

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 69

saviour and not say after Him, ' Our Father who art
in heaven.'

The beliefs that seem thus to be inextricably
related to the acceptance of salvation in Christ are
not the same as those which revelation and Christian
history have found it necessary to elaborate regard-
ing the facts of spiritual life, and which may be
essential in the subsequent Christian life. Even
these latter cannot be ignored altogether in pre-
senting the Christian faith to a Mohammedan.
For example, the doctrine of the Trinity has been
accepted by the Church and has become a part of
its living experience. To the Mohammedan, as to
most Christians, this doctrine stands in the fore-
front of Christianity as a presupposition, and not
as a product of Christian life. The Christian
missionary, although he may not believe that it is
one of the primary doctrines for an inquirer, cannot
ignore it or say that it belongs to esoteric Chris-
tianity, for there is no such distinction, and cannot
be. The missionary must meet the issue and state
the belief of Christians in the way best calculated
to give the true impression, realizing meantime that
the way of faith is the knowledge of God as father,
finding in Jesus Christ a divine saviour, and experi-
encing in his life the working of the Holy Spirit.
He can at least testify that this doctrine, which has
been made a stumbling block, is to him the expres-
sion of the deepest experience of the soul and of

7O Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the facts of redemption, and can strive to show
how it makes the thought of God, the ineffable and
absolute, nearer and richer in meaning, and intel-
lectually more conceivable in His attributes and
nature and in His relation to His creatures. Other
doctrines that must be stated and defended are
our belief as to Christ the Son, and our acceptance
of the Holy Scriptures.

In brief, while the great end of missionary effort
is not the substitution of one set of beliefs for
another, but the presentation of Christ as saviour,
this implies a certain amount of doctrine, and in
its working in life is inevitably associated with a
body of more or less definite teaching. One must
trust the ' implanted word ' to win the day for truth,
once it comes into close quarters with error in the
soul's warfare, and yet the openness and honesty of
Christianity require that we state our beliefs and
defend them.

It is obvious that the teachings received with
Christianity, and those accompanying Moham-
medanism, must in some measure lie side by side
in the mind of any Moslem who receives in any
degree Christian truth. How far will they come
into conflict? How far is that conflict immediate
and how far is it more remote and the result of
the working out of belief? And how far will
the beliefs previously accepted fit in with and
strengthen those coming with Christian faith? It

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 71

is the conviction of the writer that there is no
immediate casting off of one belief in God and
the acceptance of another. Christians and Moslems
are both believers in the Unity, the one God,
creator and controller of all things. Probably no
Mohammedan would seriously object to the reply
in the Westminster Catechism to the question,
'What is God?' except perhaps to the word
6 Spirit,' and then largely because of a confusion of
terms. As the Christian revelation and experience
fill the word 'God' with richer meaning, the
Mohammedan will find how utterly inadequate
his conception was and alien elements will dis-
appear. Our part is to strive to lead men to find
the Father, or to find that Allah is Father, and
that this name is greater than all those recounted
on the beads of the pious. The type of Christian
doctrine needed is not the high Calvinism that
would limit His Fatherhood, nor is it the
inchoate belief in a power working for righteous-
ness. We have no right to lose the sturdiness of
the Mohammedan's faith, though we may deplore
its bareness of ethical content and the remoteness
of God from the heart. The Persian idea of God
is not so rigid as the Arab's, perhaps because his
home is not in the wastes of the desert, and one
has the right to use faith in God's immanence,
though it may have degenerated into pantheism ;
his yearning for an incarnation, though it has led

72 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

to subjugation to unworthy pretenders; and his
revolt from absolute fatalism.

The second article in the creed of Islam is
incompatible with Christian faith. It is not very
material what view is taken of the character of
Mohammed. The claims made by his western
apologists are mainly relative to his age and not
absolute, as those of Christ, and if admitted go
only a little way to substantiate what the Moham-
medan means in confessing that Mohammed is the
Prophet of God. He means that Mohammed is
the last of the prophets and the greatest of all.
Even those sects that believe in a later manifesta-
tion maintain Mohammed in the highest rank,
and maintain that he superseded his predecessors.
And in popular Islam the glorification makes him
superhuman. This claim carries with it the rejec-
tion of Christ except as a superseded prophet. It
is not a question of a theory of the Atonement or
of the person of Christ, but of any atonement,
any redemption, any incarnation that is in any
way unique. The conflict of claims is immediate
and cannot be stayed. A belief that is involved
in the prophethood of Mohammed is that of
revelation through human mediums and of sacred
books that preserve the revelation. The common
basis here is undeniable, but its value may easily
be over-estimated. The Koran and the New
Testament are so dissimilar in structure and

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 73

purpose that it is useless to try to put the New
Testament in the place in which the Mohammedan
puts the Koran. It is not enough, however, to
show that the Christian conception of revelation is
different. It must be shown to be richer and
higher, and such it is.

It may be found in the end that the greatest
praeparatio evangelica in Mohammedan countries
is in the religious life outside the lines of the
Koran, and in the various semi-Mohammedan sects.
The yearning after a mystical union with the
Divine, the longing to see the divine image in
some human life, the desire for a way of forgive-
ness opened by the self-sacrifice of divine love
instead of the bare fiat of will, the vigils and
prayers and aspirations of poets and philosophers,
may be the most powerful Christward forces. It
may be that many of these are echoes of Christian
truth, for the witness to Christ has never been
entirely wanting in the lands of Islam ; and in
any case they are from Him, and He alone can
guide these efforts to their goal and satisfy these
longings.

Islam has one great lesson to teach us, the
power of faith in a living God, not an abstraction,
but One who rules the affairs of men. Another
lesson is similar to this — the power of the appeal
to personal authority. Nothing is more marvellous
in Islam than the impress of the personality of

74 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the Prophet on men of alien races and successive
ages. As already pointed out, this force of
personality is a striking feature in the religious
life of Islam. It is the principal means used in
the propagation of new sects and doctrines. For
example, Bahais make very little use of the
printed page, or of preaching in the formal sense
in which the personality of the preacher is
obscured in the conventionality of the address.
The chief reliance is on the personal efforts of
the 'missionaries,' who make the greatest use of
informal social gatherings. The lesson is emphasis
on the personal claims of our Lord, and faith
in the power of personal influence exercised
persistently through the channels of social inter-
course, benevolent work, school life, or business.
The missionary message of Islam has been in a
sense a gospel, the definite proclamation of the
personal relation of God to the individual. This
is implied in the requirement that each Moslem
confess his faith, and in the ritual prayer. But
Islam in its workings is legalistic, and in developed
Islam the law is the great institution of religion.
The Pauline theology of free grace, and the great
apostle's glory in the Gospel, are the message
for Mohammedan legalism now as for Judaistic
legalism in the first century. Life among Moham-
medans leads one to rejoice in the conception of
Christianity as the Gospel, the message of personal

Second Study— W. A. Shedd 75

and social salvation. One rejoices in the freedom
of Christianity from identification with any specific
form of social or political organization, and in the
inapproachable ideal of manhood revealed by
Christ and being gradually learned and realized
by His followers. One reads with new joy the
great words of the apostles : ' The law was given
by Moses ; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ,'
and 'I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is
the power of God unto salvation.'

THIRD STUDY

By Pastor GOTTFRIED SIMON, Dozent at the
Theologische Schule, Bethel bei Bielefeld;
formerly of the Rhenish Missionary Society,
Sumatra.

77

THIRD STUDY

By Pastor GOTTFRIED SIMON l (Sumatra)

THE observations and information recorded in this
article are based entirely upon my personal ex-
periences during the eleven years which I spent as
a missionary amongst the Bataks in Sumatra. For
the last century there has been amongst this tribe
a constantly increasing movement towards the
acceptance of Islam, a movement which is one of
the final results of the six hundred years of Moslem
propaganda in the Dutch Archipelago. The
character of Islam as professed by the Bataks corre-
sponds, generally speaking, to the type of Moham-
medanism which has developed in the Dutch East
Indies. It furnishes an instance also of the manner
in which Islam has found entrance amongst peoples
of lower culture.

It has been my lot to come into contact with
Mohammedans of very different kinds ; occasionally
with races who had adopted Islam centuries ago,

1 This article was written in German ; the translation into
English has been revised by the author.

79

8o Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

like the Malays and Javanese, but for the most
part with tribes who had been converted only for
a generation. I have also had opportunity to
witness personally the course of Moslem propaganda
amongst heathen tribes in various regions. The
Christian congregations which I have served con-
sisted either entirely of those who had formerly
been Mohammedans, or of pagans who before
their conversion to the Gospel had been hesitating
between Islam and Christianity. The Rhenish
Missionary Society, to which I belonged, has
received into its congregations from 6000 to 8000
converts from amongst Mohammedans. We may
estimate the number of Christian converts from
Mohammedanism in the Dutch East Indies at
about 30,000.!

It is the propaganda of Islam amongst pagan
nations that shows most clearly how far Islam
possesses vital religious energies, for we cannot
fully explain the transition of pagans to Islam as
the result of mere worldly motives, though social
and political factors undoubtedly have not a little
to do with the change. The pagan on his low

1 For details regarding the statements of this article,
compare my work, Islam und Christentum im Kampf um
die Eroberung der animistischen Heidenwelt. 2 Auflage.
Berlin, 1914. An English translation was published in
1912 : The Progress and Arrest of Islam in Sumatra.
London : Marshall Brothers.

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 8 1

level of culture hopes in every way to be lifted by
joining Islam. He is further impelled towards it
by his anxiety lest he should be politically ex-
tinguished through the irresistible preponderance
of a foreign government. Islam appears to him to
be a power on a level with the European colonial
Government, and in it he hopes to gain a bulwark
which may enable him to retain, if not his political,
at least his religious independence. In earlier times
the favour shown to Islam by the colonial Govern-
ment had a tendency to induce pagans to adopt
the religion of the crescent. At present the Dutch
Government is not so much inclined as formerly to
take the part of Islam, but notwithstanding this
many government provisions still help to further
the popular movement in its favour. The Malay
language, generally written in Arabic script, is
regarded as a second sacred language next to the
Arabic ; it is in general use as the official language
of administration and justice, and is the lingua
franca of the Dutch East Indies. The native
officials, writers, and soldiers, and the teachers in
the secular government schools are Mohammedans,
and often do more for the Mohammedan propa-
ganda than is now acceptable to their European
superiors.

In the last resort, however, it is the religious
substance of the Moslem doctrine which attracts
the heathen, for the animist is of a thoroughly
6

82 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

religious disposition and it is his religious inherit-
ance which under present circumstances he finds to
be seriously imperilled. These peoples, who were
hitherto without a history or civilization worthy
of the name, have perforce entered into the main
stream of the world's history and culture and be-
come exposed to the critical conditions which such
entrance involves ; this transition has destroyed the
foundations of the popular religion, which was
too naiTow and circumscribed to meet the require-
ments of modern conditions. Their reverence for
ancestors, their fear of spirits and such respect as
they had for the God in whom, though at a great
distance, they believed, are all tottering. The old
religious powers on whose incalculable favour the
hopes of the pagan were founded have proved to
be entirely inadequate. They have no power to
delay the destruction of the freedom and the
nationality of the people, who are therefore seeking
a new religious foundation which will give them a
better support under the conditions of the modern
age.

Unless the Bataks had believed that Islam would
help them in this respect they would not have
become Mohammedans. At the outset the pro-
clamation of the unity of God in its absoluteness
makes a strong impression upon the pagan. The
old polytheism, and still more the old polydae-
monism, tended to draw the soul of the pagan

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 83

restlessly to and fro. He would often begin his
prayer with a long repetition of the names of all
the gods which he knew, but was none the less
oppressed by anxiety lest he should have omitted
some mighty divinity, and so he would pray to the
gods whom he knew to pass on his desires to those
whom he might have forgotten. Such perplexity
and anxiety was done away with by prayer to one
almighty Allah. The proof that the latter really
possesses the power which the Moslem teacher
ascribes to him is furnished by the economic pre-
ponderance of the Moslem trader, the social
superiority of the Moslem government official, and
the intellectual superiority of the Moslem school-
master. Most of all, the mind of the people is
impressed by the belief that the Moslem magician
entirely overshadows the heathen medicine man,
because he has received his magical powers direct
from Allah. The brutal insolence with which the
proud pilgrim from Mecca spurns the superstiti-
tious beliefs of the pagan, which hitherto have
been considered as above question, convinces the
pagan that firm faith in Allah confers an over-
whelming power upon men.

This one God is no human invention. The
Moslem appeals to a book, the Koran, from which
he quotes. True, the pagan does not understand
its Arabic words, but he sees that the employment
of these ' book words ' confers upon him who quotes

84 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

them a remarkable assurance of manner. He easily
comes to the conclusion that the possession of a
divine revelation embodied in writing and thus
unchangeable is an immense advantage, for hitherto
he has known only oral tradition, which is subject
to continual modifications, a few written magical
formulas, and a mythology which is highly developed
but constantly modified by the imaginative story-
teller. He has no infallible document. Speaking
generally, he attributes the wisdom of the fathers
not to God but to the fathers themselves ; they got
it from somewhere, perhaps actually from within
themselves, but at all events not from God. In
Islam, on the contrary, the one God speaks through
the one book to the one race of man. Thus the
pagan who has hitherto been groping among the
many perplexities of life has found a firm standing
ground. In the hour of death, too, the Moham-
medan has a comfort which the heathen does not
possess. The latter has a belief in an existence
beyond the grave, but it is one which fills him
with terror, whether he is destined to hover eter-
nally in the air without rest as an evil spirit or to
find an entrance into the kingdom of the dead.
The one God, on the other hand, promises in his
one book to every Moslem an unspeakable fulness
of bliss, a sevenfold heaven and a paradise glorious
beyond measure. The more the animist feels his
position threatened by the inrush of modern culture,

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 8 5

and the more clearly he becomes conscious of his
social, political, intellectual, and moral impotence,
with the more passionate eagerness does his soul
embrace the idea of the promised paradise which
will bring to him bliss, and to the white man
damnation. Paradise attracts him by the very
refinement of sensual gratification : eating and
drinking, idleness and enjoyment beckon to the
faithful. No lack of present earthly well-being
fails to find its full compensation in the life to come.
Nor does Islam neglect to provide for such souls
as have a real desire for inward communion with
God. There are wandering teachers who proclaim
the virtue of the rosary and who give directions
for mystical exercises. The aspirant who desires to
follow their teachings is secluded for some weeks,
day and night, in a mosque and allowed little food.
He is promised that saints and prophets, and finally
Allah himself, will appear in his soul, and when
that takes place the devotee has reached the highest
state of holiness. He has become confessedly the
favourite of God and a certain heir of paradise.

What influence has this Mohammedan piety on
the character of the believer? The mystical
exercises to which I have just referred give an
unequivocal answer. The man who participates
in them becomes proud and self-satisfied. His need

86 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

is supplied. He requires no further teaching. He
is guarded against injury when in the grave by the
angel of the dead, he is no longer liable to judgment
by the angel Gabriel ; for has he not seen God ?
People will bring him presents as to a prince, and
make a deeper obeisance before him than before
the chief of a tribe. The more pious the Moslem
is the more pronounced is his estimate of himself,
and the greater his self-glorification. In his case
the desire for teaching which the pagan manifested
has disappeared. The man who has been initiated
into the mystic secrets has obtained the hidden
(batin) knowledge of God. With his superiors he
is blase, cringingly polite ; towards unbelievers gruff
and fanatical : the heathen is a filthy dog, the Chris-
tian the fuel of hell. The ordinary believer imitates
this revered saint as closely as possible.

The result of this is that the common people
become more and more dependent ; they entrust
themselves absolutely to these holy men, believing
that they will show them the way to God. Nor
can the common man help himself in this matter.
Were he to rely upon himself he could not possibly
find his way in the labyrinth of the new religious
ordinances. It would mean his learning a foreign
language, Arabic, his reading a number of books,
especially the Koran, studying Mohammedan law
with its regulations for the smallest details of life
and knowing a multitude of ceremonies and religious

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 87

ordinances. Any one who is being instructed by a
Moslem teacher, for example, regarding the daily
prayers, will soon find out how difficult it is to
attain such knowledge. For instance, it is im-
portant for him to know, when he places his fingers
upon his knees in prayer, how far they must extend
over the limb beyond the knee. In such things
there is only one man who can really guide him,
the village priest, and when his knowledge is ex-
hausted it is necessary to inquire of the next
higher religious authority in the district. The
Moslem has been delivered over, bound hand and
foot, to his priesthood in matters that concern his
welfare equally in this world and the next. The
new Moslem religion thus makes its adherents the
very slaves of men, and that to a higher degree
than their old paganism, although the pagan is
completely dependent upon his sorcerers.

This relation we find takes the life out of personal
piety and paralyses the natural religious forces of
the people. The prayer formulas once learned
mechanically in an unknown tongue promote mental
sloth. The moral judgment is deprived of scope
for action, on the one hand by a casuistic law, and
on the other by a fatalism which denies all freedom
of the will. The practical religious life is petrified
into dead performances, which is what almsgiving,
pilgrimage, fasting, reciting the Koran, the pre-
scribed ritual ablutions, prostrations (throwing one-

88 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

self on the ground) at prayer, so called, five times a
day and the repetition of incomprehensible Arabic
formulas really are. Thus the inward spiritual
and religious nature becomes atrophied. The fact
that the ordinary convert quietly endures such a
condition of servility is explained by the fatalism
which he brought over with him from paganism.
Things are as they are ; it is God s will that some
should be wise and have good fortune in this world,
and that others should be robbed and cheated by
them. He has fixed the life destiny of each man
once for all and nothing can alter it; one must
accept it like everything else. The belief is not in
a fate separate from God, but in a God who is
Himself an arbitrary and incomprehensible fate
against which it is futile to rebel.

HI

I have noticed discontent with the teaching of
Islam only amongst those Moslems who had already
come into contact with Christianity. I have,
however, known of Malay pilgrims who, on return-
ing from Mecca to the coast districts, have cast
away their turbans and given strong utterance to
their indignation at the impositions which had been
practised on them in Mecca. Again, the harsh-
ness of Mohammedan priests in their disregard of
traditional customs has sometimes elicited passing
displeasure. For instance, when the village priest

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 89

at my mission station, after having been married
for several years, divorced his wife without returning
to her a share of the marriage portion, the people
were indignant. And when the priest raised the
scale of offerings and threatened that if the people
did not meet his demands he would not bury them,
they complained, though without result. In places
where the higher priesthood is in full agreement
with the indigenous chiefs, the hand of the rulers
lies heavy upon the helpless people and their minds
are full of discontent, but they are far too slack to
attempt any resistance. In some cases the covetous-
ness of their teachers is contrasted by Moslems with
the unselfish love of faithful missionaries and their
native assistants. Sometimes, too, though seldom,
we meet men who are uneasy as to whether their
good works will really obtain entrance for them
into paradise ; but the Mohammedan priest himself
declares that in this life it is impossible to attain
complete assurance that God will receive a man
into heaven. If He is pleased to do so He will,
but if not there is no help for it. The Moslem is so
accustomed to this uncertainty that it hardly occurs
to him to consider whether there might not be
another alternative.

IV

From what I have said we see that a belief in
the existence of one God and a hope of delights in

90 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the world to come awaken religious impulses in the
Mohammedan Malay. We cannot say that they
furnish him with vital energies ; for the Moslem
belief in God does not necessarily involve the desire
for communion with Him or for willing obedience
to Him, but rather a helpless submission to the
almighty will which dominates everything, and
against which man is powerless. The hope of
Islam in a world to come occupies the fancy and
influences the desires, but not the moral will. The
moral character and conduct of the man is a matter
of indifference, the important thing is that he
should be able to show as great an amount as
possible of meritorious work in the performance
of duties and ceremonies. The commonest daily
religious performance is that of the fivefold prayer,
but this does not satisfy the longing of the soul for
God, because it is regarded simply as work delivered
in payment of His due. The Moslem desires to
offer to God the reverence due to Him, but to
establish a personal relationship between himself
and God is far from his thoughts.

Were we to examine the remaining phenomena of
religious life in Islam on the same lines, we should
find everywhere that personal religious life is set
aside in favour of ceremonies, that duty is performed
mechanically, simply because it must be done, that
fasts are observed simply because every one fasts.
No one dares to break a fast, for who would expose

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 9 1

himself alone to the curse of the teachers and
perhaps even of God Himself? There may indeed
be some who earnestly desire to stand right with
God, and some there are who undertake the pilgrim-
age to Mecca from this motive. Others are driven
to do so by an evil conscience ; after a dissolute life
they desire to adjust their final balance of account
with God ; but the subsidiary motives which operate
in the case of the ten thousand annual pilgrims from
the Dutch Archipelago are to a very small extent of
a religious nature. The pilgrim desires to have an
opportunity of seeing the world and later on to
attain a respected position in his own country as a
religious teacher, and this he can only acquire by
going to Mecca. Indeed reports of the dissolute
life which he may lead in Mecca in the companionship
of beautiful women allure many a hot-blooded young
man of the higher classes to undertake the pilgrim-
age. The pilgrimage then really ceases to be a
penitential journey and becomes rather the holiday
excursion of a pampered man of the world. The
general reverence in which the Koran is held does
not result from its fruitful influence upon the
spiritual life of the Moslem community. The con-
tents of the book matter but little, seeing that they
are so slightly known. Its religious value is held
to consist in the fact that the believer possesses a
holy volume, which he takes in his hand when he
has to swear an oath, to which he pays an idolatrous

92 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

veneration and from which he may be able to chant
a few passages in order to gain religious merit.

The most important religious possession in the
eyes of the brown race is the divine gift of
'wisdom' (ilmu\ as they call the Arabian magic.
God is regarded as the disposer of innumerable
magic formulas, a portion of which He bestows upon
His elect prophets and saints, and such bestowal is
a most especial proof of His favour, seeing that
thereby God in effect delivers Himself into the hands
of the believer. The man who is able to use the
right magic formula at the right time and in the
right place has power over God. As against the
Moslem magic, the Almighty Himself is powerless,
He cannot even prevent a sinner who is ripe for
hell being magically transported into paradise by a
clever magician, and hence they say that God can
only be resisted through God. Accordingly, what
the pagan has lost in the way of magic by throwing
over his old religion is amply restored to him by
Islam. The talismans and amulets engraved with
divine names, Koranic verses, and fragments of the
ritual prayers have immeasurably enriched his old
pagan inventory of magical properties.

The promises which the Moslem teacher makes to
the pagan before his conversion are too high-flown
not to produce disappointment in the mind of the

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 93

new disciple later on, but when the convert perceives
that his new religion does not give him what he
expected from it he does not blame his religion, but
his own inadequate religious knowledge and his sloth.
If only, he says to himself, I could read Arabic like
the village priest, had I only visited Mecca, had I
regularly during the past year paid all my dues and
always said the daily prayers, had I been able to
avoid all mistakes in my ceremonial purifications,
how different things would be with my religious life.
If, notwithstanding this humility, discontent
makes its appearance among believers, their priest
knows how to make adroit use of such feelings in
order to urge his congregation to greater perform-
ances. He will threaten them with the impending
judgment of God, which will chastise them for
their negligence in the performance of their Moslem
duties. He announces the end of the world; only
some special performance can avert the wrath of
God which the saint initiated in the counsels of God
distinctly perceives to be imminent. Our Bataks
are quick-witted enough to feel in their intercourse
with the more educated Christians their ignorance
in matters relating to their own religion, but they
comfort themselves with the thought that after all
there are plenty of teachers who can tell them about
it. If they only had the same hidden knowledge
they too would be able to reply to the criticisms
of Christians.

94 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

From what has been said it will be easily
understood that the Moslem is seldom driven to
acceptance of the Gospel by discontent with his
present religion. Nevertheless, continuous contact
of Mohammedans with the Gospel does awaken in
some of them a suspicion that it offers them
something which Islam does not possess. What
this is one cannot of course express in a formula.

I have often noticed that Mohammedans took
delight in the biblical stories, both of the Old and
New Testaments. The mere fact that these stories
were read to them in their mother tongue appealed
to them. It was different from anything that they
had known before. True, fantastic Moslem stories
are told amongst the people now and again, and
they like to listen to them, but they treat them as
belonging to the same class as the heathen fairy
tales and fables which have no claim to truthfulness.
The Mohammedan is impressed by the fact that God
prepared His people Israel for many centuries by
prophets who foretold the mission of Jesus, and by
His genealogy contained in Scripture. The notable
Mohammedan families amongst the Bataks plume
themselves not a little upon their ancestry.

The Bataks are sympathetically impressed by
the miracles of our Lord. No doubt they regard
miracles as the usual sign of a religious leader,
but the miraculous works of Jesus are of a different
type from the wonders and magical tricks which are

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 95

related about the dead or living saints of Islam.
Jesus, they see, did miracles only when He was able
thereby to help others. When did He ever, as do
all the sorcerers of black magic, use His miraculous
gifts for His own enrichment ?

The manner in which our Lord sets forth His
teachings in epigrams and parables is pleasing to
the Batak, whose popular morality is fond of pro-
verbs and imagery. Jesus was poor, unlike the
magicians who without exception use their wonder-
working powers for their own benefit, while He went
from place to place healing and helping others.
This feature in our Lord's character attracts them,
for they feel their own extreme poverty, especially
in contrast to the well-to-do Europeans. Their
compassion is aroused at the treatment of our
Saviour by His own people. Surely, they feel, He
did not deserve this. The story of the crucifixion
touches them. They well understand, from the
experiences of 'heir own life, how the covetous
priests by their I. *rigues brought death upon Him,
for every one of them has suffered, in the case of
himself or others, injustice of some kind. The
Batak takes little interest at first in the vicarious
and redemptive aspect of the death of Christ, but
he is much impressed with our Lord's power over
evil spirits and over death, and with His prophecy
of His return as a mighty judge. They think that
such a leader and mediator is not unacceptable, but

96 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

that Mohammedans have surely a much better
mediator in the person of their Prophet.

The Bataks appreciate the loving invitations of
Christ, as represented in the parables of the Good
Shepherd and the Prodigal Son. They think it
decidedly convenient to get rid of sin and its con-
sequences so easily. They may shake their heads
at the story of the resurrection as being improbable,
but it seems to them by no means impossible. As
long as they do not realize that a belief in Jesus
must oust faith in Mohammed they have no objec-
tion to allowing that Jesus is the Son of God, seeing
that all men are children of God, as even pagans
know, for has not God created them and placed
them in the world ? They are ready to allow that
the Jesus of the Gospel is the same as the 'Isa of
whom the Mohammedan teachers also know some-
thing. We shall see afterwards at what point their
rejection comes in.

Generally speaking, one may say that the mission-
ary's greatest difficulty is to get the ear of Moslems
at all when he speaks of the Gospel. Only those are
prepared to listen on whom the conduct of Christians
has already made an impression. They know that
the missionaries are always anxious to promote the
bodily welfare of all men, whether Malays, Chinese,
or Bataks. This is sufficiently proved by the daily
medical ministrations in the forty main stations and
440 out-stations, and by the orphanage and the

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 97

two leper asylums, in one of which more than 300
lepers are cared for. The Mohammedans know
perfectly well that this labour of love on the part of
missionaries and doctors as also of native helpers
is carried on entirely without self interest, even
although crafty Mecca pilgrims would persuade the
people that the missionaries will demand large sums
of money on the recovery of their patients, or that
they receive a special reward in coin for every
patient. Decades of long sustained labour have
convinced the people of the untenability of such
calumnies. Some priests will tell the people that
the white man is merely a slave of Allah and has
been commissioned by Him to deliver Mohammedans
from sickness and suffering. God, in fact, has
punished the white men by putting upon them
the task of healing the sick, whereas the Moslem
priesthood would never think of defiling themselves
by such servile ministrations. But this again does
not readily find acceptance. On the contrary it is
a common thing in wide circles for the people to
reply to the charges of the priests that the Chris-
tians after all have a real religion.

The life and character of many Christians, in-
cluding some of our native helpers and leaders, is
not all that it might be, but the Mohammedan
nevertheless has to confess that their behaviour is
a marked advance upon the arrogant and overbearing
conduct of the Islamic priesthood. Mohammedans
7

98 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

recognize that the serious efforts of our village
elders to settle quarrels, especially between young
married people, are praiseworthy. Polygamy has
never become an institution amongst the pagan
Bataks ; it is regarded as a cause of strife and the
privilege of the rich. The monogamous marriage
of Christians, the high esteem in which women are
held, the peacefulness of happy marriages which
they see in the dwellings of the missionaries and
their helpers, are all in agreement with Batak
ideas. Divorce is rendered difficult by their tribal
laws, and although the chiefs are ready to take
advantage of it the popular conscience disapproves
of it and the strict rule of monogamous marriage
in the Christian Church is not a little impressive
to the Moslem. He is also attracted by the
Christian marriage rite, clearly setting forth as it
does by word and ceremony the indissolubility of
the marriage bond, in the plighting of troth between
bride and bridegroom, the joining of their hands,
the marriage exhortation and the divine benediction.
It often enough happens that the spectacle of a
Christian marriage gives the first impulse to the
conversion of a Moslem. We may say that Christian
worship in general, with hymn-singing by young
people, prayers in the vernacular, preaching that
can be understood by all, the fatherly attitude of
the clergy in their exhortation and pastoral minis-
trations which breathe the spirit of loving service,

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 99

all go to impress Moslems favourably. When one
of them has been to a Christian service, if only a
funeral, he will not easily venture to say that the
Christians have no religion. Many among our
Christians, though, alas ! not all, preserve their
faith through sickness and in the face of death.
They have renounced all magic and witchcraft and
committed their bodies and souls with quiet trust
into the hands of God. Simply and without false
shame they confess the assurance of forgiveness of
their sins through the cross of Christ. Thus they
bear eloquent witness to the power of the Saviour
among the Mohammedan relatives whom popular
custom brings to the bed of sickness and death.

Value is attached to the educative influence of
Christian missions. Obedience to parents is regarded
even amongst pagans as a virtue, but one which
they fail to call forth in their children, and Islam
has done nothing to amend this. Hence the
Christian school which seriously inculcates the fifth
commandment attracts Mohammedans. It is true
that the percentage of children attending Christian
schools who actually go over to Christianity is
very small, but the people, hungry as they are for
education, regard it as no small benefit that all
children without any religious distinction are re-
ceived as pupils. Finally, Mohammedans themselves,
when occasion serves, will confess that the Christian
school equips the child better for life and has a

ioo Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

more favourable moral influence upon him than
Moslem instruction in the Koran, through which
the children learn with difficulty a few fragments
of Arabic and possibly the Arabic alphabet. They
allow also that the young people are far better
cared for by the Christian workers than by Moslem
teachers, the majority of whom give teaching in
magic along with their school work. Dabbling in
magic leads the youths to immorality, and makes
them impudent to young girls and discourteous to
elders ; for in reliance upon the magic powers which
they believe themselves to have attained they fear
nothing — are they not charmed against thrusts and
cuts, and even against the bullets of European
soldiers, and are they not, by reason of their magic,
superior to the village elders in wisdom and elo-
quence? It is an open secret that it is precisely
the most famous of the Mohammedan teachers who
exert the most deleterious influence on youth.

The Christian Church stands for unity in the
Batak country. In all churches of the mission
the same Gospel is read; there are no differences
in doctrine. The Church has a stable organization.
The effective organization of the Christian Church
is chiefly manifested in its discipline; offences
against Christian morality are followed by the
same penalties whether in north or south. It is
the Church, and not the missionary, which pro-
nounces judgment, and it does not hesitate, if

*'• • •'•»• *> i* '•!';•••' :'• : A
Third Study— Gottfr e'd' Simon' IDi

need be, to excommunicate members of high social
position. Clear-sighted and resolute action of this
kind makes a powerful impression on a people
lacking in strength of will.

VI

It may seem strange that the same points in the
Christian life and doctrine which attract the
Mohammedan also call forth his opposition. For
instance the discipline of the Christian Church
inspires him with respect, but when he considers
the matter quietly the fear arises that this same
discipline may prove unpleasant to him and limit
his personal freedom. To be bound to one wife
throughout life and under all circumstances, and
to have no possibility of taking another in addition,
is to many a disagreeable limitation. In other words,
the lofty demands of Christian morality alarm
Moslems. They are ready to admire them, but
only so long as admiration has not to be exchanged
for allegiance. The silencing power of the Word of
God gives it a grip upon a man's conscience ; that
is not always pleasant. The possibility of inward
communion with God which is afforded by Christian
prayer places a man in the presence of God and
lays upon him the obligation of seeking communion
with God, and this is a hindrance to sinful pleasure.
The ritual prayers of Islam are indeed difficult to
learn, on account of their complicated ceremonial,

io? Vital Forcts of Christianity and Islam

but they have the advantage over Christian prayers
in not disquieting the conscience.

In fine the chief offence arises from the fact that
the conscience is touched by Christian teaching.
This is true also of the doctrine of the person
of Christ. At first the outsider regards the doctrine
of the Trinity as a ridiculous and foolish pro-
position, and the Mohammedan teachers do their
best to represent it to their disciples as absolutely
senseless. But this is not where the real difficulty
lies. The Batak is extremely fond of a hair-splitting
discussion of a difficult question. He would simply
delight in a subtle disputation about the Trinity
and about the divine Sonship of our Lord, and such
conversations do sometimes have an enlightening
effect. Thoughtful hearers may see that the
doctrine of the Trinity is by no means the un-
thinkable proposition that they imagine. But that
does not mean that the real stumbling-block has
been removed. The same may be said of the
divine Sonship of our Lord. The Mohammedan
is fond of attacking it with cheap ridicule. How
can God have a son? Do you suppose that He
has a wife ? But the mocker is often disarmed by
a simple question. Do you believe that God can
do whatever He pleases? Can He then not have
a son without taking a wife? To overcome an
objection of this kind is not difficult, but as soon
as the Mohammedan realizes that this Jesus has

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 103

a unique relation to God, that He can share His
place with no other, whether spirits, whom He
has the power to drive out, or prophets, who do
not know God as He does, the more pronounced
does his opposition become. He recognizes that
the worship of Christ excludes the worship of
Mohammed. Either Mohammed is the mediator,
or Christ: he cannot hold to both. But who
would dare to give up Mohammed ?

The acceptance of Christ means a breach with
every form of animism ; the wearing of amulets is
a sin for him who believes in the power of Jesus.
All the secret magical implements and powers of
the priests are forbidden to the disciple of Christ.
There are no such things as magical methods of
becoming rich. Beautiful as the story of the
Prodigal Son may be, it has the bitter moral that
any one returning to the Father's house must con-
form to the way of that house.

We have seen that the cross of Jesus calls forth
the sympathy of hearers. Occasionally the common
Mohammedan objection is made to it that cruci-
fixion was a fate unworthy of a holy prophet, but
generally speaking the Cross is rejected because the
Mohammedan cannot understand that anything of
the kind should be a necessary condition of the
forgiveness of sins.

The preaching of the missionary ought neither to
smooth away the angles and the edges of the Gospel,

IO4 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

nor to emphasize unnecessarily at the beginning the
elements which most repel the hearer. We have to
ask, then, whether there are points of Christian
doctrine which may be kept back in order to avoid
unnecessary offence. In answer to this we must
remember that it is impossible in setting forth
Christianity to confine ourselves to a certain limited
area of its doctrine. We might perhaps do so in
public teaching, in which the preacher can choose
his own ground, but as soon as we come to anything
like a discussion, the opponent simply forces us to
deal with doctrines the exposition of which we
would prefer to postpone. In the Moslem we have
an opponent who possesses a knowledge, however
incorrect, of Christianity. Our task therefore is
not to carry to the Moslem as we would to the
heathen an entirely unknown doctrine as something
completely new, but rather to remove mountains
of prejudice and to correct a multitude of miscon-
ceptions as to our Christian doctrine. The Moham-
medan priests in the Dutch East Indies who have
been trained in Mecca have been regularly taught to
dispute with Christians, and even the least educated
village priest has some idea of how to do this. The
more thoroughly, however, we answer our opponent,
the less shall we be able to avoid those doctrines
which cause special offence, for every part of the
Christian teaching, if thoroughly explained, stands
in definite contrast to that of Islam, and our inter-

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 105

locators will soon compel us to make the antithesis
quite clear. For instance, we are asked on what we
base our certainty of entering into paradise, or of
the forgiveness of sins. In answer we point to
Jesus and His cross, and say that we believe in
redemption through His blood, and justification
through His grace. We thereby exclude all merit
on the part of man, and the Moslem forthwith
realizes that we thus stigmatize all his works of
merit, his religious observances, his fasting, his
pilgrimage, and so forth, as entirely without value
as the basis of salvation. But the man who has
all his life set his hope upon such meritorious
works of course feels himself injured when he sees
how lightly we esteem what appears to him most
precious. Again, we are often driven to explain
the depth of the biblical idea of sin, and to show
that even the secret desire of the heart to take the
property or the wife of one's neighbour, or even a
lack of love to one's neighbour, is sinful. In contrast
with this the Moslem naturally feels how superficial is
his conception of sin. To him sin is the neglect of
a clause in the Islamic civil law of marriage, or the
defective performance of some small ritual action.
Again, we are asked about the teaching of the Bible,
and, first and foremost, the inquirer wants to know
what it says about Mohammed and the Koran. He
very soon has to be told that the Bible contains the
final and binding revelation of God to mankind,

io6 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

and accordingly he realizes that to the Christian
Mohammed's claim is void and his book a mere
human production. I need hardly say that it is
unnecessary to expose in a controversial way the
moral weaknesses of Mohammed's life, or the con-
tradictions of the Koran, but if I endeavour, with-
out making comparisons, to set forth in itself the
glory of Christ and the fulness of biblical teaching,
the sensitive Moslem soon finds out that his Prophet
and his holy book will not endure comparison with
this Prophet and this Book of books, and this too
will cause offence. It is not necessary that I should
explicitly condemn the sensual descriptions of the
joys of paradise. I have only to explain the
spiritual nature of the Christian hope after death,
and the fulness of joy in perfect communion with
Christ and the vision of God, to make the Moslem
feel that for me at least the joys of his paradise
are worthless, and it irritates him that his glowing
expectations have no attraction for me.

VII

We have seen that it is difficult to present
Christian teaching to the Mohammedan without
offending him, but by that I do not mean to say
that there are no points of contact in Islam itself
for the proclamation of the Gospel. For instance,
if we take the omnipotence of God we shall find
that every ascription of praise to the divine good-

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 107

ness which sustains us and the entire creation meets
with lively agreement on the part of the Moslem,
and in speaking of it we may even adopt his
phraseology to a certain extent. Indeed this fact
is of the greatest importance for the evangelizing
of Moslems, for it is on this common ground that
the missionary finds it possible to get a hearing at
all, since, generally speaking, the Moslem regards
the Christian as a man without religion. The
attitude of the many unbelieving Europeans among
the colonists, who are absorbed in their work, often
with the desire to make their fortune quickly,
has hitherto strengthened the notion in his mind
that the white man has no appreciation of things
religious. But when I am able to speak of God
in the phraseology of the Moslem he perceives
that I at any rate have a desire for the honour
of God, a hope of paradise, a faith in prophets
and in sacred scriptures, and an acceptance of the
duty of submission to God, that I honour Him
with worship, and repudiate such sins as theft,
falsehood, murder, and adultery no less decidedly
than the Moslem does. We can also go a step
further than this, by pointing out that the Koran
and the Bible agree in certain doctrines. When
a mocking opponent utters obscene blasphemies
against the virgin birth of Christ one can point out
to him that the Koran also teaches the birth of Jesus
Christ without a father, and he has to confess with

1 08 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

confusion that his religion forbids him to speak
offensively about the history of the birth of Christ.
We may often connect what we have to say with
the mention common to both books of Adam as
the first of the human race, of Abraham, Joseph,
Solomon and other Old Testament characters. The
knowledge of the Koran, however, amongst the
Mohammedan priests who are generally ignorant of
Arabic is too imperfect for us to effect much with
arguments taken from that book. It is important
to make diligent use of such points of contact
because by that means alone can we gain the
Moslem's confidence. It is, however, quite another
question whether we are justified in employing a
doctrine contained in the Koran as the basis for
an extended discussion. Passages about Satan and
the angels are the simplest to handle. They are
prominent neither among the Moslems of Sumatra
nor in Christianity. But even on these minor
points the difference between us is patent, for when-
ever we seek to build upon our common foundation
we must first destroy a great part of it. We
must protest against the worship of angels which is
especially carried on by Moslem sorcerers, whereas
this is the very thing which is important for the
Moslem. We cannot assign the role to the angel
Gabriel assigned to him by Moslem theology
at the end of the world, which is, to hold the
scales: he decides whether the weight of good

Third Study— Gottfried Simon 1 09

works is adequate, he is actually lord at the
judgment.

If we begin to develop the teaching to be drawn
from mercy as a divine attribute we are at once
met with a difficulty. We have to protest against
the idea that God's goodness is a matter of mood,
and that it is a matter of complete indifference to
Him whether He sends a man to heaven or hell.
We must teach that we are not slaves of God,
with no power of self-determination, but rather
His beloved children. However useful, therefore,
we find the acknowledgment and praise of God's
mercy as a means of gaining a hearing, it fails
us as a common ground when we begin to employ
it as a starting-point for the doctrines of God's
attributes in detail. In order to guard against
gross misunderstanding we are compelled to attack
the Moslem conception of the divine mercy.
Further, the fact that we reverence the 'Isa of
Islam whom we call Jesus, is, to begin with, a
useful point of contact, but when we come to
teach about His life and work we can only do
so in the light of the Cross. The apocryphal
legend about the Jew on whom 'Isa is said to
have conferred His own image so that he might
be crucified in His stead, to say nothing of other
mythical stories, is such a total misapprehension
of the picture of Jesus that we really have first
to obliterate the features of 'Isa from the heart

1 1 o Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

of the Moslem before we can print upon it the
true lineaments of our Jesus. The hope of the
Mahdl, or as they say in the Dutch East Indies,
the expectation that ' the righteous and white
prince ' will appear before the end of all things, can
scarcely serve to awaken an understanding of the
second advent of Jesus. For at His return 'Isa is
to surrender His kingdom in a final conflict to
Mohammed and then Himself turn Mohammedan.
The Moslem's mystical exercises certainly testify to
his search after communion with God. They do
not, however, serve to awaken his understanding for
the Christ within us. For such mystical exercises con-
jure God into man, to absorb man in the deity. The
more passive a man is in the mystical art the better.
Whereas the Christ within us awakens for the first
time in men the living power to work in His name.

The difficulty is perhaps greatest in the matter
of eschatology. In dealing with this doctrine we
obviously have to depopulate the sensually furnished
paradise of the Moslem in order to make room
for the Christian hope of eternal life in its spiritual
outlines. We must be ready to take away from
the Moslem his houris, the dishes wide as the
circle of the earth and full of fragrant viands,
the perfumes and luxurious couches, the sparkling
brooks, and trees whose fruits fall into his mouth :
in fact little is left to represent the common belief
but the name ' paradise ' : the contents are totally

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 1 1 1

different. We behold the Lamb slain, the tree of
life, the redeemed in white robes, and look forward
to the marriage supper to which we shall sit down
with the Lord. But these are of course sensible
figures for supersensible experience. What is essen-
tial in such imagery is not the sensible figure but
the supersensible Christ and our supersensible com-
munion with Him. An ideal hitherto sensible is
therefore not merged in some new sensible goal,
but rather the Christian representation foregoes any
attempt to depict the details of the Last Day. It
definitely refuses to allow eschatological experience
to be sensibly apprehended and thereby to become
alluring ; rather the earthly expression is made the
vehicle of the expectation of intangible, supramun-
dane reality. The fact that Christian eschatology
lays no weight on complete representation of the
life to come saves it from the temptation to indulge
in grotesque and fantastic descriptions, and shows
that the earthly imagery is but a picture of the
supernatural reality. It has no intention of satis-
fying impertinent curiosity or of alluring by
means of sensual desire. The allurement is only
for the spiritual side of man and the satisfaction
is for the Christian's home-sickness. We can see
what a wide difference there is between the
eschatological tendency of the two religions, and
the further we enter into the essential meaning
of either the more does this divergence increase.

H2 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

The same thing might be proved with regard
to other religious conceptions such as sin, judgment,
hell, and so forth. We should everywhere encounter
the same difficulties. The Moslem associates with
the words in question entirely different ideas from
those of the Christian. It is therefore impossible
simply to employ the religious vocabulary of Islam
as the foundation of our missionary presentation
of the Gospel. In the case of these conceptions
also, what on first comparison seems to be a common
foundation disappears when we scrutinize it more
closely. If, therefore, we do not wish that the
old errors in the mind of the Moslem should be
merely adorned with Christian names and so give
rise to an entirely unbiblical syncretism, we must
not hesitate to overthrow without remorse these
supposed common foundations, and to cast aside
their fragments. Only then can a new building
be erected on the new foundation. We may, in
fact, accept it as a general law that congruity
between Christianity and Islam is apparent only
at ^first sight. The further investigation proceeds,
the deeper does the gulf between the two become.
No doubt those who have confined themselves in
their discussions with Mohammedans to mere
skirmishing will have much to say of the breadth
of the common foundation. Those who have led
up the main army of the vital forces of the Gospel
against the Islamic enemy become painfully con-

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 113

scious how the supposed common ground gives
way under their feet. It is as true of converts from
Islam in this connexion as it was of the Pharisees :
they must die with Christ ; and because it is always
a bitter thing to die, conversions from Islam are
both difficult and rare.

VIII

The present controversy of Christianity with the
Moslem faith undoubtedly translates many things
in the New Testament from the dim light of the
past into the bright noonday of the present. Many
points of contact exist between the Phariseeism of
the Palestinian Jew at the time of Christ and Islam
of the present age. In both cases we see the same
anxious observance of the ceremonial laws of food ;
Mohammedan teachers in Sumatra publish popular
tracts on the question as to which tropical animals
are clean and which are unclean. In both cases we
observe the opinion that that which enters into the
mouth defiles the man, while evil thoughts, especially
hatred towards a non-Moslem, the sin of witchcraft
and hypocritical flattery of powerful unbelievers
are allowed to have free course. In both cases
we notice the ostentatious praying at the corners
of the street so as to be seen of men, in both
contempt towards those who are without, because
they do not belong to the elect people of God, in
both the sensuous expectations as to resurrection,
8

1 14 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

which last, as we know, differentiated the Palestinian
Pharisee from the Hellenistic Jew. A man on
undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca often leaves
his nearest relatives to suffer for lack of his help
in order that he may become a pilgrim, just as
did the Jew who, according to our Lord's saying,
let his parents suffer for the sake of Corban. The
Moslem trader imagines himself to be religious
when, like the Jew of the time of our Lord, he
swears by all kinds of objects. As the Jew de-
manded signs and wonders from our Lord as a
proof of His mission so precisely does the Moslem
of the present day reproach the missionary because
he, unlike the Moslem teacher, evinces no command
of divine powers of magic. The struggle of the
apostle Paul to maintain the free grace of God
and his energetic repudiation of all justification
by works again become intelligible to us in the
conflict with Islam. The reproach of the Cross,
too, is keenly felt by the Moslem, to whom it is
inconceivable that the chosen Prophet should have
suffered a shameful execution. The evangelical
freedom of St. Paul has by some been misconstrued
as a lack of piety; the Moslem levels the same
reproach at us, and when he sees that the Christian
convert no longer observes the ritual prayers and
purifications he regards him as an unbeliever.

Some theologians of our time have expressed
surprise at the record of the apostolic decree

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 1 1 5

given in Acts xv, because it seems to have been
so soon superseded, but our experience in missions
to Moslems renders this quite intelligible. One of
our most difficult problems is the linking together
of converts from Islam and paganism into one
inwardly and outwardly united communion, and
in order to compass this we have to use provisional
compromises regarding Christian customs as to food
and the like which afterwards may be superseded.
If the two parties are to live together in the unity
of the Church, each must be prepared to sacrifice
something of its legitimate freedom. Moreover,
such provisional ordinances require a special degree
of wisdom which is given to us only by the Holy
Spirit, and we cannot be surprised that the members
of the apostolic council in a similar situation should
appeal in their circular very specially to His guidance.
Such characters as Simon the magician, who
claim to be possessed of a special divine power
and for this reason are idolized by the people,
appear constantly amongst Indonesian Moslems
of to-day. The idea of Simon and the other
magicians that the Holy Spirit could be bought
for money corresponds entirely with the practice
of Moslem magicians, who believe themselves to
be furnished with mystical power. We have here
mysticism degenerating into magic. In strong
contrast with such, the Christian mysticism of
St. Paul shines out brightly. Such mysticism

1 1 6 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

speaks indeed of the Christ within us. Its exponent
says in so many words, 'I live, yet not I.' But
this mysticism knows no mechanical exercises, no
passive contemplation which can produce spiritual
exaltation to order. The boundary between the
person of Christ and the human personality
indwelt by Him is in no way obliterated, but the
mystical communion between them remains a true
communion, that is it consists of a vital connexion
between two personalities each of which maintains
its separate existence and activity. Both God and
man remain each what they are : there can be no
such thing as the absorption of the human into
the divine.

The teaching of Scripture regarding miracles
is also illuminated by comparison with Islam.
Miracles are among the proofs of a divine mission
and the disciples of the Moslem magicians lay
claim to miraculous gifts as did the sons of
the Pharisees. When therefore St. Paul regards
conviction of the conscience by the Gospel as the
essential proof of the truth of Christianity this
view stands in sharp contrast with the notion
of the Moslem world. Mohammedanism still
regards the miracle as primarily a proof of divine
favour, and by its doctrine of magical wonders
actually degrades the conception of divine freedom.
The Deity becomes subservient to a human being
who is thoroughly practised in magic, however he

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 1 1 7

may follow his own selfish ends, whereas our
Saviour by His miracles relieves the needs of men.
By them He does not coerce God, but, on the
contrary, the miracles are counted as answers to
His prayers. Moreover, in Islam the miraculous
effect is bound up with the power of the magic
formula. The really effective element is the magic
word and the magic ceremony, whereas in the
New Testament the miracle ever stands as a free
activity of the living God. To the disciple of
Jesus, no less than to Himself, does the principle
apply that the proof of true discipleship is not
the miracle but the doing of the Father's will.
He is not to rejoice in the possession of miraculous
gifts but in the certainty that his name is written
in heaven.

The convert from Islam who has escaped from
religious servitude gives us an insight into the
true nature of Christian freedom. He greets with
joy evangelical freedom from the law. No longer
is he cramped and intimidated by a casuistic law-
book with an endless series of individual commands.
The broad principles of his free Christian life
are now based on the love of Christ, responsibility
to the supreme Judge, fear of the living God, and
the guidance of His Spirit. The disciple of Christ
who is led by the Spirit has been released from
the guidance of Islamic divines; he is himself
taught of God.

1 1 8 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

The contrast between the Christian and the
Moslem hope of a life to come casts light, as we
saw above, upon New Testament eschatology.
The Christian message of a future life may appear
simple and even bald to the Moslem whose soul
has been filled with the fantastic and sensuous
notions of paradise presented by his faith. In the
same way the Jew, whose mind was filled with
eschatological hopes such as those depicted in
the Jewish apocalypses of the time of Jesus, must
have felt the apparent poverty and reserve of the
teaching which Jesus and His apostles gave of
the life to come. There are few indications in
the New Testament regarding the intermediate
condition of the soul of which Moslem divines
have so much to tell. But it is this same modest
reserve which forms the best attestation of the
truth of the New Testament teachings. When
we read that St. Paul seriously warned the new
converts of Thessalonica by no means to forget
their common daily work by reason of the bright
hope of the advent, we are reminded that to this
day similar undesirable results follow amongst
Mohammedans from fantastic expectations of a
coming redemption. If a priest of some reputa-
tion announces that on such and such a day the
final judgment may be expected to take place,
people will seriously set to work to sell their
property and will give up cultivating their fields

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 1 1 9

because the end is at hand. Many a sluggard
will lie in his hut and look on passively while
the rice birds consume his harvest. He knows
that bitter starvation may enter his house, but
he takes comfort from the prospect of another
world, where he will have food and drink in rich
abundance.

The vital forces of the Gospel become manifest
precisely at those points at which the Moslem
doctrines seem to be most living and effective.
Belief in the one God to whom all things are
subject has overcome the uncertainty which was
felt by worshippers of spirits with regard to their
thickly populated spiritual world. But we have
seen also that Islam is unable to establish the
true unity and holiness, the omnipotence and the
mercy of this one God. Evangelical history
proclaims One who is the reflection of His
Father's glory, who is sinless, who has power over
spirits, and who seals His faithful love by death.
He, being the perfect image of the Father, the
brightness of His glory, manifests in His character
the qualities of the holy God. In other words,
the revelation of Christ who is one in essence
with the Father preserves the monotheistic con-
ception of God from distortion.

From this it follows that the negation of
animism, which is a fundamental characteristic of
the Old and New Testaments, guards Christian

1 20 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

doctrine against the syncretism which characterizes
Islam in every country, for Islam asserts monothe-
ism without renouncing animism. The victory
of biblical teaching over the animistic tendency
in man is not gained by a detailed prohibition of
all possible animistic observances, though such
are not wanting in Scripture. The fundamental
principle of biblical religion is the restoration of
true communion between the individual and God,
realized in a life of prayer which by its very
nature destroys the inclination to intercourse with
spirits. Moreover, nature is placed entirely under
the control of God and thereby the possibility
of compelling nature by means of magic is removed.
The monotheistic conception of God in Islam
which negates the Incarnation tends towards two
extremes. On the one hand, it removes God as
separate from the world to an infinite distance
in order to preserve His distinctness as against
creation ; but as a result of this the practical
reality of God is turned into an empty abstraction.
This is at bottom an atheistic tendency. On the
other hand, the Moslem believer engages in mystical
exercises with the object of magically drawing God
into his soul. He is moved to do this by a desire
after the one God, but in doing it he confuses man
and God. In both cases the personality of God is
assailed. The Christian message avoids this restless
oscillation between extreme views simply by setting

Third Study — Gottfried Simon 121

forth the history of God's work in the world. This
as given in the Bible shows both how far and how
near God is, how He works upon man and man
upon Him, and viewed in this aspect the biblical
history acquires an additional spiritual value.

The hints which I have given may suffice, though
others are near at hand. In place of the many
human and heavenly mediators we have the one
divine and human Mediator ; in place of a mass of
regulations sanctioned by God, we have the one
inexhaustible ideal of life presented to us in the life
of Christ ; instead of all sorts of means and devices
to attain the life desired by God, we have the one
personal Spirit of God who is the renewer of our
life. The living power bestowed by the Triune
God upon the believer serves in fact as the helm of
Christianity as it makes its way over the world, a
helm which Islam lacks.

The question may be asked whether, in view of
the considerations which I have brought forward,
our conception of what is essentially and vitally
effective in Christianity has been shifted. In any
case it has been deepened. Certain aspects of
Christian doctrine which seemed to me not funda-
mental for my own religious life have been shown
by comparison with Islam to be indispensable and
constructive elements ; while conversely, doctrines
which I once regarded as necessary for the growth
of faith I have been now able to put aside for the

122 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

present, without doubting, however, that though
they proved non-essential in the beginnings of the
religious life of the converted Moslem, they will find
their place in a later development.

We see then that Christianity has no reason to
view the display of the powers of Islam with dis-
couragement. The river of God has water in
abundance for even the thirsty Moslem world.
For the water which Islam offers the soul athirst
for God, sweet and alluring as men may think it,
cannot possibly satisfy the innermost needs of the
soul. The vital power of the Gospel alone can do
that, and this is the precious experience which we
have every one of us made to whom it has been
granted to offer the bread of life to the Moslem
world.

FOURTH STUDY

By Professor STEWART CRAWFORD, Syrian Pro-
testant College, Beirut.

123

FOURTH STUDY

By Professor STEWART CRAWFORD, Syrian Protestant
College, Beirut

THIS article is written from the point of view of one
who has been in contact with Mohammedanism in
Syria. Born on the mission field, the author has
from boyhood been familiar with the language and
the life of the common people. Fifteen years of
his active service as a missionary were occupied with
itinerant work in the field of the Irish Presbyterian
Church in Damascus and the Anti-Lebanon. He
was later transferred to the Syrian Protestant
College in Beirut where he is entering on his tenth
year as teacher of the Bible and ethics.

In Syria, Islam is to be seen under comparatively
favourable conditions. The people are intellectually
active and imitative. Commerce, the spread of
intelligence by means of schools and the native
newspapers, the influence of missions, have all
introduced western forces into the native environ-
ment. Socially, it would be difficult to find a race

more genial and kindly, or more approachable

125

126 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

wherever a sympathetic relationship is established.
Innumerable social opportunities, under all the
varied conditions of city and village life and of
wayside travel, have made it possible to see into
the mind of the Moslem as well as of the oriental
Christian. In the college, under more unique
conditions, it has been the writer's privilege to deal
each year with scores of Moslem youths, many of
them coming from far distant regions of Islam, and
to help their minds to unfold in the presence of
Christian teaching and companionship. The process
is one of thrilling interest to every lover of his
fellowmen, and reproduces on a small scale the
successes, the failures, and the unlooked-for develop-
ments of the larger field of contact, on the world
stage, of intelligent Mohammedanism with intelli-
gent Christianity. This intermingling of earnest
and intelligent forces, from the two bodies, has
only just begun ; but in it lies the chief hope of a
native spiritual uplift, and moral leadership which
will bring the world of Islam to a consciousness of
the gospel ideal of 6 self-surrender ' to God.

VITAL ELEMENTS OF ISLAM AS A PRESENT-DAY
RELIGION

Islam remains vital because it is a religion.
Before all else that it may be socially and politically,
Islam is a system that in its own way serves to
maintain the religious life of its followers. Were

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 127

it not able to meet certain needs of the human
spirit with influences that nourish a life of faith
within men, it could not have become the force
that it is to-day in the personality of so many
millions of our fellow -beings. This elementary
proposition is sometimes called in question. To
all who do so we can only say that they have
remained strangers to the inward and invisible
forces of Mohammedanism.

Islam must also be credited with having called
into activity many of the noblest forces in the
nature of man. From the beginning of its history,
Mohammedanism has been able to adapt to its
purposes, and in many cases to ennoble, religious
elements and usages previously existing. In our
day, this masterful faith is engaged, on a larger
scale than ever before, in the task of appropriating to
its uses modern knowledge, ideals, and institutions,
all of which were undreamed of a thousand years
ago by the followers of any religion.

Let us attempt to set forth sympathetically, yet
as impartially as we can, some of the reasons for
the continued hold of Islam on the religious nature
of its followers. The spiritual vitality of the system
consists not so much in the new movements within
Mohammedanism, which are observed so frequently,
as in the natural religious value of its old familiar
features. Indeed the system as a whole is capable
of lending itself to a very vital form of religious

128 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

life, and in every generation is doing so, in some
measure, for the majority of its adherents.

1. Among the sources of its strength we would
mention first the simplicity of the main religious
ideas underlying Mohammedanism. Islam creates
in men a profound conviction that there is but one
God— a proposition the simplicity of which has
ever proved very restful amid the confusing claims
of polytheism and saint worship, slslam also never
wearies of proclaiming that God is great — Allahu
akbar — a declaration that for the sincerely religious
is near of kin to the larger Hebrew demand, ' Magnify
the Lord with me.' The adjective 'great' has no
necessary physical or unworthy implications. For
every grade of Moslem intelligence, the word akbar
connotes all the greatness of which the individual
speaker has been able to conceive. Such an elastic
general term, the contents of which have endless
possibilities of development, may well serve as a
simple basis for a faith of growing spiritual insight.
Another fundamental proposition for the Moslem
mind is that God is a God of judgment. This was
not only a vital doctrine for many a converted
polytheist in Arabia, but is to-day the simple basis
for a great part of the religious effort put forth in
the lives of individual Moslems, of whatever rank.
So far we have treated nothing that is distinctively
Moslem, though it must be repeated most emphatic-
ally that these three great truths, thus set forth

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 129

in simple, pregnant statements, are genuine and
dominating convictions of the popular Moslem
mind.

The distinctively Mohammedan portion of the
creed of Islam is summed up in the daily and
almost hourly testimony of its followers that God
is the God of the prophet Mohammed and of all
who believe in him. This vital conception of a
divinely revealed bond between God and the
followers of His greatest prophet is the mainspring
of Mohammedan fervour and confidence. This
primal religious conviction is profound in its
simplicity, and at the same time is so broad that
it has provided the basis for all subsequent develop-
ments of ritual and doctrine. The great mass of
Moslems, however, dwell simply and devoutly upon
these great religious propositions, and make little
attempt to develop them intellectually or to
reconcile them with their growing knowledge of
nature, with the history of other religions, or with
the peculiar ethical problems which modern civiliza-
tion is forcing on their attention.

2. j The second element of strength to be observed
within Islam is the success with which its forms of
worship promote a certain perennial activity of
man's religious nature. The oriental temperament
expresses itself and its moods readily and earnestly,
although usually in conventional forms. It loves
to seize upon and perpetuate those forms of utter-
9

130 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

ance which provide a channel for the activity of its
richest impulses. These often become stereotyped
and to some extent meaningless, but yet, through
very force of repetition, they are maintained close
at hand as instruments of the spirit ready for the
use of the oriental nature when aroused. And how
truly and how frequently the religious nature of
Moslems is called into genuine activity in connexion
with their forms of worship is perhaps rarely
realized by those who are familiar chiefly with
the degradation and the ignorance of the average
Moslem community.

We see, for example, what a far-reaching impres-
sion on the religious psychology of the Oriental is
produced by the acted and spoken prayer of Islam.
To those brought up under the system, the genu-
flections of the stated Moslem prayer and the audible
utterance with which it is accompanied furnish as
natural and grateful a channel of self-expression,
godward, as is provided for oriental self-expression,
manward, by the rich and elaborate though stereo-
typed usages of polite social life.

Reference should be made here to the effect on
Moslems of the call to prayer from the minaret.
The more artistic and poetic impression made on
the occidental traveller probably never enters the
mind of the Moslem. On his part the impression
made is more concrete and of practical religious
import. He is proud that the faith of Islam is

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 131

thereby honoured and proclaimed. Though but a
small percentage of any community may be found
to obey regularly the call of the mu'azzin by attend-
ance upon the mosque, nevertheless every Moslem
who hears that cry derives from it a sense of religious
satisfaction that is of vast import in perpetuating
the hold of the system on its votaries. The mu'azzin
performs a certain priestly service for his co-religion-
ists which is approved, more or less consciously, by
every individual believer within the radius of that
unique call.

A similar activity of the religious nature is also
promoted effectively by the use of the qibla, or
turning-point in prayer. Every Moslem intends to
face Mecca in all stated prayer, and from this action
he derives much the same satisfaction as did Daniel
when he looked three times a day towards his qibla
at Jerusalem. Here is a democratic and universal
act of religious ritual which gives great assurance to
the believer, not only when engaged in prayer but
especially during his last illness when his bed is
turned that he may face Mecca. The same symbolic
action brings great comfort to the stricken mourners
as they reverently lay the body of the dead on its
right side in the grave, with the face turned toward
their holy city. Moslem society has nowhere yet
outgrown the stage of religious symbolism in which
these acts seem of vital significance.

Brief reference must also be made to the religious

132 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

value of the fast month because of the heroic demand
it makes upon the will of the believer. It is all too
easy a method of criticism to dilate exclusively on
the crude inconsistencies and the hypocrisy that
disfigure the fast — defects that have appeared in
every elaborate fast ritual in history. The fact
remains that for the mass of Moslems the month of
Ramadhan calls for a degree of self-control that goes
a long way to maintain their faith in active control
of their nature.

The dhiJcr worship is another peculiar feature of
Islamic activity. This chanted form of service
begins with steady eager ejaculations, which are
uttered at an increasing rate of speed and energy
until a burst of exhausting frenzy is reached. This
brings each stanza of the chant to a climax, and is
then followed by a brief interval of silence and rest
before the chant is resumed and carried through
the same stages as before. This peculiar relic of
Canaanite religious activity is not a recognized
feature of orthodox Islam, but is nevertheless a
well-nigh universal type of usage and is invariably
associated with the more mystical dervish move-
ments which are so common. It is difficult for the
Westerner to realize what a channel for religious
energy is provided in the dhiJcr, and how eagerly it
is employed in every time of deep religious need or
feeling. These hysterical dhikr exercises afford
opportunity at times for a whole community to

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 133

engage in an orgy of spiritual frenzy which intensi-
fies the hold of Islam upon their natures. The
great majority of the participants feel then that
they have 'got religion.' Even the onlookers
become silent participants in the blessing. Thus
the reader may realize something of the success with
which Moslem forms of worship promote an intense
type of religious activity, and one most satisfying to
the spiritual nature of its votaries.

3. A third element of inward strength in the
Moslem religion is the class consciousness that forms
a vital bond of union between its adherents. This
sense of unity is being greatly intensified in our day
by pressure upon Islam from without. This phase
of the subject will be touched upon later. In this
section it is sufficient to point out that a common
outward practice in worship, and the co-operative
character of so many of its forms, go a long way to
create the feeling of oneness that permeates the
world of Islam. Though greatly divided by doctrinal
and social differences, which have always made im-
possible any effective political union on a large scale,
nevertheless the people of Islam, as such, never lose
consciousness of the brotherhood of faith as a ground
of unity underlying all their differences. Any one
who has seen the Friday mosque services, with their
long lines of worshippers performing in unison the
ritual of prayer, will realize the subtle power of such
a service to weld into one consciousness the religious

134 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

feelings of the participants. Even the age-long feud
between Shi'ite and Sunnite has not obliterated the
class enthusiasm of Islam, begotten of the funda-
mental shahdda, or testimony to God and His
prophet, which forms the vital nucleus of every act
of worship.

The chief moral effect of the great annual pilgrim-
age to Mecca is probably to be sought in this con-
nexion. The greed of those who direct the pilgrims
at the various shrines, and the frauds practised so
brazenly on them by the people of the holy city,
may call for indignant criticism even from the most
devout Moslem. But these lamentable social defects,
in most cases, only serve as a foil to the stimulating
effects of crowd psychology as realized at Mecca.
The individual pilgrim is awestruck by the mass
movement exemplified in the pilgrimage of so many
fellow-believers. When he returns to his distant
home, no feature of his experience is dilated on with
more enthusiasm as he narrates the events of the
pilgrimage to his friends. Thus countless individuals
are drawn within the mystic spell of a profound
class consciousness which is essentially religious.

Modern pan-Islamic movements did not create
this consciousness. They have each sought to take
advantage of it, but in most cases with no great
effect on the masses. Under individual Moslem
governments this religious unity may seem identified
for a time with a particular political interest and

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 135

organization. This is the case, however, only
because the social and economic influences prevailing
in a certain area have welded religious and political
forms of activity into one identical movement. On
the larger international scale it is otherwise. In the
latter case, conflicting economic interests ultimately
render futile any artificial political union which
bases itself primarily on the existence of a common
religious faith. Religious zeal can not, for any
length of time, weld different regions and races into
a powerful external movement that acts in defiance
of conflicting economic interests. Those who dream
of an outward kingdom of pan-Islam, and those who
dread such a consummation, alike ignore the chief
lesson of modern historical science, which is that the
grouping of outward social forces is ultimately de-
termined by economic necessities. Nevertheless the
spiritual unity of Islam is a great reality, and acts
as a powerful promoter of vital religious forces
throughout all its branches. Increased facilities for
intercommunication of thought are serving to re-
vitalize this class consciousness and render it an
increasing inspiration to individual piety.

4. A fourth religious influence in Islam that is a
constant living force is the effect of their sacred
book upon its readers. The rhythm and the
spiritual energy of its diction are lost in a trans-
lation. Even sayings of singular moral fervour lose
something of their force in another tongue. But

136 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the impartial reader can discover passages, even in
a translation of the Koran, which he can see would
be eagerly seized upon to feed the souls of men who
knew no deeper fulfilment of their needs. Any one
who has entered into the life of a Moslem people
knows that countless numbers draw a simple type
of spiritual nourishment from the daily repetition
of sayings from the Koran ; and in many individual
cases the conscience is thereby genuinely quickened
along certain noble moral lines.

The methods of western higher criticism are being
adopted by some of the younger scholars in Islam,
who are attempting a new exposition of the litera-
ture and the tendencies of their religion. By some
writers the nobler and more striking portions of the
Koran are being given a publicity and turned to
uses hitherto unknown. The orthodox leaders are
disturbed by this new freedom in the use of the
sacred book. But they are unable to check success-
fully the tendency of modern education to create
new forms of religious activity and of personal piety
in the Moslem world. This new type of devotion
and of ethical aspiration in the study of the
Koran may have great significance for the future of
Islam.

5^ The fifth feature of present-day Islam that
indicates the presence of a vital religious energy is
the progressive idealization of the Prophet's person-
ality by his followers. The clearest evidence of this

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 137

process is seen in the maulid form of service. The
maulid is strictly the anniversary of the Prophet's
birthday, and is everywhere an occasion for joyful
public celebration. The term has also come to be
employed as a name for a certain form of service
in vogue at circumcisions and weddings or any glad
social event. At these services the hymns chanted
by paid leaders and choirs are the principal feature.
At certain stages in the ceremony the audience
participates with brief responses. The subject of
these hymns is invariably the birth of the Prophet
with a recitation of the significance for heaven and
earth of that sublime event. The writers of these
rhapsodies vie with one another in the extravagant
phraseology with which they set forth the personal
charms and perfections of the Prophet's physical and
moral being. The adoration of heavenly beings
for his person, and the marvellous response of all
physical nature to his advent on earth, are the
favourite themes of the maulid poets. They have
even advanced to a mystical philosophy of the
Prophet's cosmic significance, in which his pre-
existence is practically assumed, and the supreme
influence in heaven of his intercessory function is
set forth with all the florid wealth of oriental
imagery. At certain intervals in the service the
assembly suddenly lapses into an impressive silence
while all whisper thefatiha prayer. The lips of
each believer move but no sound is uttered. For

138 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

this feature of the service, no one rises to his feet
or changes his position, though all faces wear an
aspect of devotion. Toward the close of the cere-
mony, at a given signal, all rise to their feet, and
face the qibla, while they chant audibly and in
concert a few lines of direct address to the Prophet,
in which he is saluted with enthusiastic expressions
of personal loyalty and devotion. Orthodox leaders
profess to deprecate many of the tendencies in these
maulid services, but find themselves utterly powerless
to stem the rising tide of popular enthusiasm for this
form of worship. The philosophic conceptions from
which a practical deification of the Prophet has
resulted have undoubtedly had their origin in the
intellectual activity of educated converts from
Christianity. During past centuries, these men,
gradually and under a veiled form, have imported
into their new faith all the mystical doctrines of
the Church concerning the person of Christ. The
modern popularity of the maulid mode of worship
seems partly due to the progressive crystallization
of the vital forces of Islam in the mould of a moral
enthusiasm-fthe enthusiasm of personal devotion
and loyalty to an ideal leader. That this process
unfolds possibilities of marked moral progress is
undeniable. That it contains a subtle element of
strength is seen in the fact that it to a certain
degree supplies a substitute for the enthusiasm of
an intelligent, spiritual Christianity. It is to be

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 139

expected that this type of Mohammedan worship will
lend itself to considerable adaptation and develop-
ment, under the pressure of modern ethical and
spiritual ideals.

This review of the vital forces of Islam may
convey to some readers a new sense of the religious
reality of many forms of Moslem activity. It is
just this feature of Islam that is often overlooked,
even by those who are most familiar with its ex-
ternal features. The moral degradation all too
evident in most sections of Moslem society produces
the impression on many otherwise close observers of
Islam that vital religious experiences are the rare
exception in Moslem life. Not only does this view
commit a great injustice in its interpretation of the
Moslem world but it prevents the Christian friends
of Islam from making a sympathetic and natural use
of forces and tendencies which have a real affinity
for the Gospel.

FEATURES OF EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY WHICH
APPEAL MOST POWERFULLY TO THE MOSLEM

The oriental Churches in their ancient home have
lost all power of spiritual appeal to the Moslem.
Until they become leavened with a new spiritual
vitality they can do nothing toward the evangeliza-
tion of the Moslem masses. It is very different with
the Protestant bodies that have sought to influence
Islam. They have everywhere won the respect of

140 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

such individual Mohammedans as have become
acquainted with the life and principles of gospel
believers. Moreover, it has become widely under-
stood in the Moslem world that Protestant missions,
notwithstanding their zeal to lead Mohammedans
away from their faith, do continually render unselfish
service to old and young. The theological contro-
versy of centuries between Christian and Moslem
debaters has no fresh power of appeal to Moslem
hearers. The latter often admire the dialectical skill
of the Christian apologist, and often admit that they
are unable to meet his arguments, but they remain
unmoved in their adherence to Islam. The practical
gospel message, however, touches a new chord in the
Moslem hearer. He gives little heed to the tradi-
tional doctrinal phrases even when employed by the
missionary, but his nature is often thrilled by the
two following fundamental propositions of the Pro-
testant faith.

1. The gospel of the divine saving energy appeals
to the average Moslem mind as a great discovery.
That God is gracious when He is pleased, or when
those whom He especially favours intercede with
Him for their followers, is a commonplace of the
Moslem faith. But that God has a great desire to
draw near to men is a new thought to Islam. The
rich gospel word ' love ' has a strange sound at first
to the Arab Moslem. Though this term usually
suggests a pure principle to Moslem thought, it

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 141

does not connect itself naturally with the holiest
impulses. For this reason the meaning of the
Gospel is more directly brought home to Moslems
by other phrases. Islam professes to magnify the
principle of self-surrender to God, but it has no
joyful announcement that God has surrounded man
with influences that appeal to his conscience and his
higher self, in order that human nature everywhere
may be awakened to faith, and may be enabled to
make an intelligent and loyal surrender of its powers
to the divine purpose. This way of speaking of God
rarely offends the Moslem, if it is not confused with
doctrinal phrases and assertions which awaken the
age-long suspicions and aversions of the Moslem
mind. To present Jesus Christ as the supreme
apostle of this practical saving energy creates a new
interest in His unique personality. It also creates
a new appreciation for the Gospel, by directing
toward this portion of the message some of the
simple faith in God's greatness that abounds in
the Moslem heart.

2. The second feature of evangelical Christian
faith that appeals with new spiritual force to many
Moslems is the conviction that ethical interests are
supreme in all God's dealings with men. There are
single and isolated statements in the popular Moslem
philosophy which partially prepare the mind for the
gospel emphasis on character as the vital element
in revelation and religion. It is a new thought.

142 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

however, to the Moslem that the divine activity
should be ceaselessly and definitely directed toward
the creation of character in the human race. This
feature also of the Gospel rarely offends the Moslem.
To proclaim God as a God of character, and His
chief revelation as pre-eminently a revelation of the
laws of character, and to find the test of religious
truth and progress in the renewal of character
forces in the lives of believers — this conception of
religion, even though it reveals as by a flash the
profound moral defects of his own religious system,
often awakens a sincere response in the Moslem
conscience. Then a new glory attaches itself to
Jesus Christ as the apostle of character redemption,
and in this presentation of His unique religious
value many Moslems will be found to be profoundly
interested.

Even a limited experience of the moral leadership
of Jesus Christ leads men far beyond Islam, and
prepares them to make a spiritual use of doctrinal
statements.

As far as possible such statements had better be
reserved for private discussion. A great and favour-
able change is often produced in the attitude of
individual Moslem inquirers when they learn that
the blessings of the Gospel depend on a humble
expectant attitude to the moral leadings of God's
Spirit as interpreted by Jesus Christ, and not upon
the acceptance of a creed.

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 143

EXTERNAL FEATURES OF CHRISTIANITY, DOCTRINAL
AND SOCIAL, WHICH REPEL MOSLEMS

The greater portion of the Moslem world knows
nothing as yet of Christianity except its external
features. That these historic features should be
totally misunderstood, when viewed solely from
without, is but to be expected. There is less
excuse for the heralds of Christianity when they
fail to reach a sympathetic realization of the in-
evitable misapprehension and suspicion that have
ruled the Moslem mind in its attitude toward all
things Christian.

1. The first cause of offence to the Moslem is
the apparent dishonour done to God by Christian
doctrine. In the forefront, in this respect, stand
the doctrines of the Trinity and of the divinity of
Christ. It is usually true that no amount of
intellectual explanation will make these seem reason-
able, or even reverent statements, to the Moslem
unacquainted with the evangelical Christian spirit.
The widespread pantheistic tendencies with their
mystical metaphysical terms seem to prepare certain
groups of Moslems to accept gladly the doctrine of
Christ's divinity. In the great majority of these
cases no ethical value has attached itself to the
doctrine, and their use of the term is only a travesty
of an intelligent Christian faith in the unique
personality of Jesus as a moral revelation of God.

1 44 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

Thus fundamental Christian doctrines are often
most misunderstood by those seemingly most
friendly. The natural alternative for the missionary
is to set these doctrinal statements firmly and
deliberately aside, as secondary questions, until
some common ground of spiritual hunger and
appreciation can be developed between the rival
faiths. This course is not easy for men of vigorous
doctrinal tendencies, nevertheless it may be the
only course which will help the Moslem masses to
put first things first. The Moslem who receives from
the gospel message new light on the moral nature
of monotheism, will in time come to see the vast
service that the doctrine of the Trinity has rendered
to the Church in leading it to a truer knowledge of
God, but the richer personal appreciation of the
divine nature must precede any living use of the
doctrine. From the beginning, frankly tell him
that he may or may not accept the doctrine in your
terms, but that you and he together must gain new
views of the fulness of the divine nature. You have
then done much to disarm him of the spirit of
antagonism. Similarly, assure the Moslem that the
assertion by the Church of the divinity of Christ
has grown out of a living experience of Christ's
leadership, and that a similar experience of that
leadership may be a saving power to men to whom
the doctrinal interpretation of it seems contradictory.
Convince him that you are more eager to have him

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 145

feel the mastery of Jesus over the conscience than
you are to establish any particular doctrine, and
he begins to take hold of truth by the right
handle.

Much the same treatment is possible in explaining
the reality and significance of Christ's death. The
Moslem believes sincerely that he honours Jesus by
holding that the Christ was providentially snatched
away from death. A wholly new light dawns on
the Moslem mind when it is shown simply that the
self-surrender of Jesus would have been incomplete
had He avoided death. Thus the cardinal principle
of Islam, that of complete surrender to God's will,
can be applied with telling force to the confirmation
and the moral interpretation of an event which the
average Moslem of to-day half suspects must have
actually taken place. The shrine worship of popular
Islam has maintained in familiar use a large amount
of sacrificial phraseology which has no moral affinity
for the gospel interpretation of salvation by means
of a Saviour the principles of whose life were glorified
in His death. Groups of simple Moslems often
accept the sacrificial terminology of a certain type
of Christian address all too readily because it
associates itself, in their thoughts, with the semi-
heathen formulae or conceptions of the local shrine
worship. In such cases they have gained no new
moral interpretation of the ways of God with men.
To Moslems who are thoughtful enough to be
10

146 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

orthodox in their own system, the moral interpreta-
tion alone can commend the doctrine of the Cross
and that of the Incarnation. Then only will
doctrines which seemed to do dishonour to God be
gradually apprehended by the Moslem as the loyal
utterances of men who had received a fresh mani-
festation of God in the glorious interior life of
Jesus Christ, a life that is inseparable from the
power of God as He inhabits the human spirit of
every disciple of Jesus.

2. A second feature of Christianity that necessarily
repels all Moslems is the historical denial by
Christendom of all Mohammedan claims and ex-
periences. It requires but a slight knowledge of
comparative religion to convince men that the
supreme and final revelation of God was not ap-
prehended in Arabia. The claims of the prophet
Mohammed, as these have been set forth by his
followers, will ever be rejected by the Christian
consciousness as doing violence to spiritual and
moral reality. Nevertheless vast multitudes owe
to the Prophet of Arabia all that they have
consciously received of religious knowledge and
moral impulse. Countless individuals have also
drawn near to God sincerely and helpfully in the
name of Mohammed. Such men know that their
experience has been genuine. They infer that
it is blind hostility to truth that prompts the great
denial of Islam by Christendom. Modern insight

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 147

into religious psychology is making it possible for
the missionary to draw a clear distinction between
claims which are unjustified, and an experience
which is genuine. In the Moslem controversy we
now can do justice to lesser truth, while we
maintain loyal testimony to that which is higher.
Most students of history now realize that, not-
withstanding the Prophet's limitations, God used
the personality and influence of Mohammed to lead
his followers into a larger and truer religious life,
and along a more vigorous plane of character
development. Though only in isolated centres has
Islam remained a progressive force, it has neverthe-
less held to its early achievements with marvellous
vitality. The souls of millions are still thrilled
by its message. It is now possible for evangelical
Christianity to apply to the facts of Islam and of
our own religion one and the same standard of
historical interpretation for spiritual realities.
The missionary who disproves the distinctive claims
of Islam by the methods of science, and its dis-
passionate spirit, will continue to seem the enemy
of the faith in Moslem eyes, but he will be thought
of as an honourable enemy. The Arab race, even
should it adopt Christianity to-morrow, would
continue to give a large place in its regard to the
striking personality and achievements of the
Arabian prophet. Let us pave the way for the
final adjustment of spiritual values by projecting

148 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

ourselves forward into the historical consciousness
of an evangelized Arabia, and generously insist on
doing full justice to the greatest historic figure in
the annals of Arabdom.

3. Very little needs to be said of the demoralizing
tendencies in avowedly Christian society to which
the Moslem can point with honest scorn. He has
a right to despise the moral standards which
prevail in those phases of European life with which
he is most familiar. Islam is often held responsible
for all the shortcomings of its followers. Can we
expect the Moslem to judge more discriminatingly
of Christianity? How rarely does the note of
humility and confession enter into the Christian
appeal to the Moslem world ! Perhaps if we varied
our mode of address and called on earnest Moslems
to co-operate with us in teaching the world to make
a new surrender to God, we would find greater
blessing attending our missionary efforts. Such
a type of fellowship would enable Moslem and
Christian to study together the vital things in
human experience, and would develop in each a new
loyalty to the moral tests of religion.

4. This leads us to mention the fourth great
stumbling-block to Islam in the manifest hostility
of Christendom to Moslem interests as a whole.
The age of the crusades is past, but the spirit of
the crusades apparently still seeks the destruction
of Moslem domination or even independence. At

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 149

least so it seems to the Moslem. In view of certain
recent political adjustments, the cynical indifference
of European governments to the Moslem point of
view or sense of justice would seem to some of us
to confirm the theory that the claims of a common
humanity, and of a universal law of equity, are
not applied to the conflict of Moslem and
Christian interests, as the modern ideal demands
that they should be applied to rival Christian
interests. All this appearance of hostility to natural
human rights embitters the relations of the two
religions. The missionary purpose and endeavour
are construed as a part of the hostile intention to
wipe out Islam. It needs to be made clear that
the missionary programme includes the conservation
of every Islamic right, and the utmost consideration
for every conscientious attempt to promote the
interests of Islam as a system. The evangelical
missionary would replace that system as rapidly as
possible by a great awakening of moral and spiritual
forces within the Islamic world, an awakening that
will gradually lift all its peoples into fulness of life
as made known by Jesus Christ. This is not the
destruction of Islam, it is rather a transformation
of its forces and its career by conferring on its
followers the liberty of the sons of God. The
evangelization of Islam will not be chiefly or
essentially a process of humiliation for its peoples,
but will assuredly confer on them new corporate

1 50 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

powers and opportunities. No more urgent duty
devolves upon the present-day missionary to Islam
than to interpret his aim so that it will be seen to be
not a hostile propaganda, but rather the enthusiasm
of humanity that finds its source in the living Christ.

POINTS OF NATURAL CONTACT BETWEEN THE BETTER
ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIANITY AND ISLAM

1. Both systems set a supreme value on faith
in God, both are beset by the same foes to religion
in the form of scepticism and materialism. These
are ancient foes, but they fight with modern weapons,
and can be met successfully only by providing a
modern equipment for men of religion. A smatter-
ing of natural science is bringing thousands of
young Moslems to deny the invisible forces of
all religion. The great influx of luxury into the
social environment is sapping the moral energy of
the common people. On every hand earnest
Moslems lament the disappearance of religion.
Thousands of Christian workers could join hands
with such men as brothers of the spirit. The
Moslem weapons for the defence of religion are
exceedingly old fashioned. Most tactfully and
patiently the Christian defender of religion must
enlighten his Moslem brother as to the nature of
the battleground and the use of modern arguments.
On these fundamental questions it is possible for
earnest men to confer with less bigotry than prevails

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 151

on other lines of religious discussion. They may
learn to unite in the service of moral and religious
principle without any immediate alteration in the
historic position of their respective faiths. Such
mutual respect and co-operation is never far from
the kingdom of God.

2. Another point of contact between the better
elements of Islam and Christianity is to be found
in the modern awakening to social aspirations
and reform. Everywhere new interests are being
aroused in Islam. Men are discussing the aspects
of civilization by which society is ennobled. It is
becoming a commonplace of Moslem writers to speak
of the vast influence of women for good or evil, and
to advocate the training of girls for a noble woman-
hood. This is not infrequently coupled with the
demand that the modesty and retirement of the
veil be maintained as against the painted and
fashionable immodesty of European civilization.
The new and the old mingle strangely together
in the new awakening, but there is a genuine desire
to lift society on to a new level. Here again there
is a common ground of aspirations for social reform
which can be made use of in the interests of a
larger spiritual union, and which will draw together
in a new bond many of the social leaders in the
two religions.

These two points of contact may now be sys-
tematically developed by the missionary. Some

152 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

workers still fear that zeal for social reform has
no necessary affinity for saving faith. Can that
old dualism be successfully maintained in the face
of the modern demand for the practical moral
renewal of society in the interests of a nobler
individual life ?

THE FAVOURABLE INFLUENCE OF ISLAM ON CHRISTIAN
THOUGHT

The missionary experience of the Christian Church
may be expected not only to renew her energies
but to react even on her own inner development.
How far may her experience with Islam modify
any of her thought processes? This may seem a
startling question for the missionary to put to
himself, but it may contain some valuable sug-
gestions as to the best attitude and method to
be adopted on the mission field. It is only as
mere suggestions that the writer would venture
to point out two possible lines of favourable
influence by Islam on Christianity.

1. The first is that Christian leaders will come
to use a simpler and less confusing spiritual ter-
minology. Only as one has occasion to present to
Moslems the average type of devotional literature
does one become aware of the extraordinary con-
fusion of thought that is produced in their mind
by the mixture of figurative terms with simple
matter-of-fact statements. The Moslem often fails

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 153

to see just what we are most desirous to prove
to him — that Jesus leads us directly to God. An
educated Moslem inquirer asked pathetically of
a lady missionary in the Sudan, 'What is the
secret of the great difference between your religion
and ours ? ' Her reply was, ' It is because we have
learned to love Jesus Christ.' Another missionary,
who heard the lady afterwards describing the
incident, asked her permission to make a suggestion
as to a clearer mode of reply. She generously
asked for the criticism, which was this: 'That
Moslem would have understood your point better
had you said "Jesus Christ has taught us how
to love God."1 If any one will look with the
eyes of an intelligent and friendly Moslem at
much of our hymnology and devotional literature,
he will see that we often substitute terms for one
another that do not describe values which are
precisely equivalent. We may unconsciously mis-
represent our Lord's purpose by the fervour of
our figurative phraseology. Whatever confuses the
Moslem must to a slight degree at least confuse
our own children and pupils. Mission experience
among Moslems may clarify and simplify the terms
in which the central spiritual values of the Gospel
are set forth by the Church.

2. The second line of development in Christian
thought that may be promoted by contact with
missions to Islam, is the conviction that the rapid

154 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

extension of the Kingdom among new sections of
our race depends upon the degree of moral co-
operation that can be attained between Christian
leaders and earnest men in other religions. In the
providence of God, moral issues are now under
discussion in most of the nations of the world.
With regard to certain aspects of life a new
earnestness of thought is manifested. The Spirit
of God is thus calling into being new instrument-
alities for the awakening of a higher life in men.
Is this not a call to the Church to cultivate a
new method of missionary approach to those who
have hitherto been regarded as people of an alien
faith? The thought moulds of their faith may
still be the crude and outworn doctrines of a
bygone religious movement, but their natures are
throbbing under the vital appeal of newly revealed
moral and social needs. No immediate purpose
is served by discussing with them the religious
doctrines to which mainly through force of habit
they cling. Let us give our time and strength to
developing a sense of co-operation between their
newly awakened manhood and all that is Christlike
in western men. Then the dead can be left to
bury their dead, while the living interests of man
are seen to be the direct concern of the kingdom
of God and of His Christ. Hopeful moral move-
ments are beginning to take hold of educated
minds in Islam. Though many such individuals

Fourth Study — Stewart Crawford 155

have small interest in the Christian creed, they
long to share the moral uplift of Protestantism.
The message for these men is the moral stimulus
to be found in taking Christ's point of view. Where
even a slight degree of moral co-operation becomes
possible there is born a sympathetic relationship
between Moslem and Christian. The changed
situation will bring in the dawn of a new era
for Islam and the development of a larger com-
prehension of divine methods by the Church.

FIFTH STUDY

By Professor SIRAJU 'D DIN, Forman Christian
College, Lahore (Presbyterian Church in the
United States of America).

FIFTH STUDY

By Professor SIRAJU 'D DIN

FOLLOWING upon papers treating of Islam in Egypt,
Persia, Sumatra and Syria, the present article is
written by an Indian convert from Islam, a resident
of Lahore, the capital of the Panjab.

The British Empire has been called the greatest
Mohammedan power in the world and India is by
far the most Mohammedan of British possessions. In
India, Bengal has a larger number of Mohammedans
than the Panjab, but the Bengal Mohammedans
are outnumbered by the Hindus, and in point of
influence and education they are far behind. The
Panjab is therefore the most Mohammedan of
India's provinces ; the bulk of the Panjab popula-
tion being Mohammedans, and in point of influence,
as well as on account of the proximity of the
Mohammedan countries of Afghanistan, Baluchistan
and Persia, the Panjab holds a unique position in
India as the stronghold of Indian Mohammedanism.
It is also noteworthy that the largest number of

Christian converts from Islam in India are from

159

1 60 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the Panjab. Indian Mohammedans are also non-
Arabic speaking people. I emphasize this point,
for the Mohammedan scriptures, as scriptures, are
read and the entire canonical Mohammedan de-
votional exercises are conducted up to the present
time — the twentieth century of the Christian and
the fourteenth century of the Mohammedan era —
in Arabic, a language altogether unintelligible to
nine hundred and ninety-nine out of every thousand
of Indian Mohammedans. From what I know of the
spirit of Islam, I venture to make the same state-
ment about Mohammedans all over the world,
except Arabia, Egypt and Syria, where Arabic is
the spoken language of Mohammedans. Through
their political and educational conditions Indian
Mohammedans have been more thoroughly leavened
by western civilization than the Mohammedans of
any other country in the world, not excepting even
Turkey in Europe.

I write therefore from the point of view of one
who is familiar with Mohammedanism as it prevails
in the Panjab. I have accepted the invitation to
write on the subject of the vital forces of Christianity
and Islam for two reasons : First, because of my
personal experience of some of the good things of
both these faiths ; secondly, because during the
course of my research as an inquirer (which lasted
for nine long years, and of which during the first
four years all my spare time, before and after

Fifth Study — Siraju 'd Djn 161

school and college hours, was almost exclusively
devoted to secret prayerful investigation) although
at first the whole realm of religion seemed to me
to be like an infinite expanse with no visible
horizon, and the search after God like an ocean
whose shores are beyond human ken, I very soon
came to hold the position that truth lay between
Islam and Christianity and all my subsequent
thought was consequently confined to these two
claimants.

THE VITAL ELEMENTS OF ISLAM

To start with, it will help us to remember that
Islam is a Semitic faith in its origin, its conception
and its power, belonging as it does to the brother-
hood of the trio of faiths claiming Abraham as
their great pillar and in an important sense their
founder; that it claims to be the successor and
the superseder of Judaism and Christianity, and
that its sacred book has borrowed unreservedly
from the history of these two faiths — unfortunately
making a regular mess of sacred history for lack
of the historic sense in the mind of its author —
as well as from the moral, social and political codes
of both systems and particularly the former. It
will also help us in understanding Islam, as well
as in dealing with Moslems, to conceive of Islam
as Judaism revived, reformed (in the partial light
of Christianity) and perpetuated. With all due

ii

1 62 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

reverence for the word of God we may in our
dealings with the Mohammedans justifiably expand
its teachings as follows: 'The law was given by
Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ:
but during the age of grace, owing chiefly to the
gracelessness of its advocates, law was reintroduced
by the great son of Hagar, re-establishing for
millions of the human race the covenant of Mount
Sinai in Arabia which gendereth to bondage —
finally, to bring, let us hope, in the providence of
God, many of these millions to partake in the
blessings of the new covenant as citizens of
Jerusalem which is above and is free and the
mother of us all.' For the exceedingly close
resemblance between the Jew and the Mohammedan
notice the articles in the creed of Islam which
express belief in God and in His angels and in His
books (all the books of the Old and New Testa-
ments) and in His prophets (all the Old Testament
prophets and Jesus as another of the long line
of prophets) and in the day of judgment, and the
apportioning of good and evil by Himself, and in
the resurrection of the dead (not in the trans-
migration of souls).

After Professor Crawford's most sympathetic,
impartial and forcible description of the vital forces
of Islam, I shall only very briefly touch on some
of the vital points. I make his account my own
and most strongly re-invite the attention of every

Fifth Study— Sir aju V Din 163

missionary working among Mohammedans to this
part of his paper as well as to his statement of
those features in Christianity that repel Moslems,
for I believe that the sources and depth of the
vitality of Islam at its best are not generally
understood by missionaries ; hence largely the failure
in winning Mohammedans for Christ.

The foremost teaching of Islam is that emphati-
cally Jewish teaching of the one God, Jehovah, the
Moslems1 Allah in contradistinction to the gods of
the heathen, which is the one great lesson of the
whole Old Testament history and teaching. Hence
Roman Catholic Christianity on account of certain
idolatrous practices creates great repulsion in the
mind of a Mohammedan. This inheritance from
Abraham's faith of strict monotheism saves the
Moslem from idolatry, atheism, gross superstitions
of the heathen and their pusillanimity of character,
and imparts to him that sturdiness of faith which
serves as a safeguard against the faithlessness of
suicide and the fears of plague and pestilence.
During the last few years of the prevalence of
plague in India there was a marked contrast
between the conduct of the idolatrous heathen who
in panic and fright fled from their villages and
towns, in many cases heartlessly leaving their nearest
and dearest dying ones to their own sad fate, and
that of the Mohammedans who stuck to their homes
in the faith that Allah was everywhere and that the

1 64 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

time of their death was fixed, and who perhaps
enjoyed comparative immunity from the ravages of
the dread disease.

The Moslem's strong faith is greatly assisted by
the easy rationalism of Islam, the rationalism of
Semitic theism, which is another source of its
strength. This leads us to emphasize the study
of the Old Testament in Christian schools and
homes as a basis for Christian theism. Some of
the sublimest parts of this great book should be
learnt by heart. The devotional life of pious
Mohammedans is another important feature of
Islam. It originates in the idea of merit, but it
also finds its motive power in that peculiar delight
and consolation to the soul which is an accompani-
ment of the communion with the unseen and which
often shows itself in the expression of the devotee's
face. Protestant Christianity in its protest against
certain tendencies of Roman Catholicism seems to be
failing in its emphasis on this important feature of
religious life.

As has been suggested in a previous paper in the
present volume, the chanting of the Koran has a
peculiar effect on the religious earnestness of a
Moslem, irrespective of the meaning of what he is
chanting. For instance, the following vindictive
verses are read with great reverence and deep
musical effect in the course of prayer : ' Both the
hands of Abu Lahab are cut off and he himself is

Fifth Study— Siraju V Din 165

cut oft*. He will soon fall into flaming fire and also
his wife who carries fuel on her head ' ; or again the
following verses : ' O Prophet, we have made it
lawful for thee to have for thy wives those women
whose marriage gifts thou hast paid and those
concubines that God has given into thy hands, and
the daughters of thy paternal and maternal uncles
and aunts, who have fled with thee from Medina,
and believing women who offer themselves to the
Prophet if the Prophet desire to marry them. This
permission is particularly for thee and not for
other believers.' This shows how, especially
among the non-Arabic speaking Mohammedans,
both the devotional exercises and the chanting
of the Koran become, to a large extent, formal
mechanical exercises with no corresponding spiritual
uplift. It is interesting to note here that Islam
does not allow music or singing ; a person indulging
in singing is regarded as an infidel. Chanting the
Koranic verses partly fills up the gap in the
Moslem's heart. But mystics, who generally fling
aside all irksome demands of the Moslem law, freely
indulge in music and call it ' the food for the
soul.'

The strength of the social bond in Islam may
also be traced to its Semitic origin. The most
prominent feature here is the idea of brotherhood
and equality in Islam. The following lines, quoted
from a report of the address of a great Hindu

1 66 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

speaker in Calcutta in connexion with the recent
Balkan war, throw light on this subject :

In his opinion, the so-called democracy in Europe
existed only in name. Caste in India, however bad
and much maligned it might be, was a thousand
times better than the invidious distinction observed
between the rich and the poor. Real democracy lay
in the teachings and the lofty religion of the Prophet
of Arabia. He had been to Lucknow where he visited
a building which, he was told, used to serve as a
common place of worship during the Mohammedan
rule. While going round the edifice, he asked his
guide, * What portion used to be the place for the
Nawab and his family during divine service ? ' This
query irritated the gentleman, who said rather ex-
citedly, 'What? Place for the Nawab in the house
of God ? The Nawab stood by the common street
beggar.' This, remarked the speaker, was true
democracy which no religion except Islam, not even
Hinduism, could establish. Europe was drifting on
the current of unmanning materialistic luxury. So it
was indispensable that Turkey should be there with
the transcendental teachings of self-abnegation of her
Prophet.

That the teaching and example of the Prophet
of Nazareth on the subject of the brotherhood of
man are unequalled in history is admitted by all,
but the deplorable fact yet remains that the
unchristian materialistic tendencies of modern
civilization, which are shutting men out from one
another on account of the colour bar and the

Fifth Study — Siraju 'd Din 167

barrier of riches, are sapping the foundations of
the highest spiritual life in Christendom and keep-
ing people away from Him who came to establish
the reign of freedom and brotherhood on earth and
mixed on terms of equality with the humblest and
the lowliest, the outcast and the publican.

The last but not the least of the vital forces of
Islam is that supplied by Sufiism or mysticism,
which by its secret teaching has coloured the whole
life of Islam. No Mohammedans, except perhaps
the Wahhabis, are truly Unitarians ; all others have
been led to deify Mohammed more or less. I had
a Wahhabi neighbour who would never sing any of
those beautiful hymns addressed to Mohammed
which are the life and soul of an ordinary devout
Mohammedan. There was a famous old devout
man in the same neighbourhood, a great author of
hymns, whose very breath of life it was to
compose hymns in adoration of Mohammed. The
devout Mohammedan is never so enthusiastic as
when he calls on his Prophet, ' Yd Nabi ' (O Prophet),
' intercede for me before God on the judgment
day and have my sins forgiven.' Hymns to the
Prophet are sung most enthusiastically and devotion-
ally on the birthday of Mohammed (a very common
practice which is sometimes condemned by the
ultra- orthodox Mohammedans as un-Islamic and
savouring of Christianity), and on the day of
Mohammed's mtfraj or ascension, as well as on the

1 68 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

lattatii'l qadr — the night on which God apportions
good and evil for the whole year. Pious men, and
women who are naturally more dependent and
religious, are never so full of devotion as on these
occasions. Their whole nature is stirred up and
their whole heart goes out in worship and adoration
when these hymns are sung. The entire popular
religion as well as literature is saturated with the
deification and glorification of Mohammed. In-
numerable instances of this could be cited from
Mohammedan literature. One line of a popular
hymn runs thus : ' What a manifestation of the
glory of Ahmad (Mohammed) is there in the
garden. In every flower and in every plant the
light of Mohammed is visible.1 Among the Shi'a
Mohammedans sometimes 'All the son-in-law of the
Prophet or Hasan and Husain the grandsons of the
Prophet are deified. Others pay divine honour to
the great Pir 'Abdul Qadir JilanI, a descendant of
the Prophet. Two lines of a hymn addressed to this
Pir read thus : ' Thou removest sorrow, thou takest
away pain. Thou forgivest sins. Thou didst restore
the widow's son to life. Thou didst transform a
thief and robber into a saint.1 In Kashmir 'the
country of saints,1 the constant invocation on the
lips of a Mohammedan is ' Yd Pir ' (O Pir 'Abdu1!
Qadir JilanI). There is nothing more soul stirring
in Mohammedan worship than to hear these prayers
and hymns chanted in the ' service of the Pir Saljib,1

Fifth Study—Sir aju *d Din 169

which is held at night and continued until early
morning. Here then, we believe, is the most vital
force in Islam that binds the souls of the most
earnest seekers after God to what they believe to
be ' Islam.'

DISSATISFACTION OF INDIVIDUAL MOHAMMEDANS WITH
THEIR FAITH ON SPECIFIC POINTS

More than individual dissatisfaction with the
vexatious requirements of compulsory fasting for
a whole month, especially under the strenuous
conditions of modern life, and the observance
of five stated daily prayers with the necessary
ablutions, the neglect of any of which condemns
the believer to long years of punishment, has
been felt chiefly by a certain school of advanced
educated Mohammedans. This has been expressed,
more by example than in words, by the leaders
and followers of the school in a growing slackness
concerning these two cardinal and most exacting
duties of Islam. Of the other three cardinal
duties, the repetition of the Kalima or creed
entails no particular inconvenience, while pilgrim-
age and almsgiving are not of universal applica-
tion.

Dissatisfaction has also been felt with the lip-
worship of which there is bound to be too much
in a legalistic religion like Islam, especially in
non- Arabic speaking countries where not a word of

1 70 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the elaborate ceremonial is understood. Some years
ago an Indian Maulawi challenged the whole Moslem
world to show that prayers could not be offered
in one's mother-tongue, but no practical results
have followed from this challenge so far. Prayers
are still repeated in Arabic by Mohammedans
all over India. Sufi ism or mysticism may be
regarded from this point of view as a reaction
against the legalism of Islam. It is a common
saying among the Mohammedans that ' true inward
peace and consolation can be found not in legalistic
Islam, but in Sufiism.' A deep insight into the
divine personality of Jesus Christ and the human
limitations and imperfections of Mohammed is
afforded here. The latter in his human impatience
was anxious to correct and reform the small
details in the lives of his followers, to the extent
of explaining how high their trousers should be
from the ankles and in what fashion they should
clip the hair of the moustache, whereas the former
ignored even the more important details in the
lives of His disciples, hungering only to impart
His spirit unto them, and knowing that if they
could but get His spirit and become like-minded
with Him the details of their conduct would
work themselves out rightly, though not with the
dead uniformity of Islam.

The greatest dissatisfaction is beginning to be
felt all over the Mohammedan world in connexion

Fifth Study — Siraju V Din 171

with the retrogressive tendencies of Islam in
matters political and social, and this dissatisfaction
is bound to grow in intensity as well as extent
with the progress of education and enlightenment.
This is but the necessary consequence of being
led by the great son of Hagar and Ishmael back
into the bondage of law after having come out
from the bondage of the Jewish law into the
liberty of the Gospel. First, let us notice the
spirit of political retrogression. The Koran lays
down in black and white certain laws relating to
life and property, which, since it claims to be the
final and most perfect revelation, must be binding
for all time, all countries and all stages of civiliza-
tion ; e.g. that a thief s hands should be cut off ;
that an adulterer should be stoned to death ; that
we should be guided by the law of a tooth for
a tooth, an eye for an eye, an ear for an ear;
that property should be divided among the
survivors of a deceased person in certain fixed
proportions named in the Koran. Sir John
Malcolm in his history of Persia tells of the
age-long feuds between families and tribes resulting
from the purely retaliatory law of a tooth for a
tooth. The writer knew a Pathan whose son was
accidentally killed by a man and who therefore
cherished in his breast, for long years, an intense
desire to kill the murderer of his son ; the neglect
of this religious duty was regarded by the father

172 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

as culpable in the sight of God. Hence there
is no room for legislation either criminal or civil
or social. All that is left to the believer is the
interpretation of the law in particular cases. I
know of a devout Mohammedan friend who
declined the offer of a high administrative post
under the Government, preferring to remain in
clerical work, with no prospect of a rise, because
he could not conscientiously execute the man-made
laws of the British Government in opposition to
the God-made laws of Islam as laid down in
the Koran. Hence also the justifiable feeling
of helplessness and impatience shown in the
matter of parliaments and legislation by some
of the Turks, as being against the express
mandates of their holy book and the traditions
and the example of the founder of their religion.
What a contrast between this covenant that
gendereth to bondage and the glorious liberty
of the Gospel which is so elastic as to suit all
grades of civilization !

The dissatisfaction of the modern educated
Mohammedan with the political bondage of Islam
is exceeded only by his dissatisfaction with its
whole social system, especially as regards the
relation of the sexes. The most potent causes of
complaint are polygamy, divorce, the veil, and also
concubinage and jiJidd or religious war, wherever
the last two still bear sway. Of all these, polygamy

Fifth Study — Siraju V Din 173

is the burning question among Indian Moham-
medans at present. From all sorts of quarters,
including the conservative Mohammedans, opinions
are expressed condemning polygamy as not only
harmful but vicious and even criminal. There
is a new sect of some considerable importance
called the Ahl i Qu^an, or the people of the Koran,
scattered over several cities of the Panjab. They
claim the Koran to be the only rule of faith and
practice to the entire exclusion of the Traditions.
The founder of this sect, when asked his opinion
about polygamy, told the writer that he considered
it to be as bad as fornication. When questioned
further whether the Prophet had more than one
wife, he emphatically declared (in the teeth of all
authentic history) that neither Mohammed nor any
of the prophets ever married more than one wife.
One of the most learned Mohammedan leaders,
who was held in high esteem by all Indian
Mohammedans, puts on the title page of a most
pathetic story on polygamy the following words:
' Listen to me if your ears are not deaf, on no
account whatsoever marry two wives,1 for, as he
puts it elsewhere, ' a man has not got two hearts
in his breast.1 In a local Mohammedan women's
paper, published as this article is being written,
a lady strongly condemns an educated Moham-
medan, who has been to England, for having
called a bigamous person a fornicator and a

174 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

tyrant, and then, after his own return from
England, marrying a second wife. The manager
of the paper, as though conscious of the fact that
such a condemnation of bigamy went too far into
the roots of Islam, adds by way of explanation,
while still strongly condemning bigamy, that 'two
wives may be allowed if the husband gives two
similar houses, similar clothes, the same amount
of money to each wife1 — as though polygamy was
a luxury for the rich ! — ' and equal attention to
both.1 But do rich men possess two hearts in
their breasts?

'Marry,' says the Koran, 'from amongst the
women that please you, two or three or four, and
if you are afraid you will not be able to do justice,
then marry one.' The tendency among educated
Mohammedans is to defend Islam against polygamy
by emphasizing the conditional clause, 'if you are
afraid you will not be able to do justice,' so
stringently, and to interpret justice in such an abso-
lute and metaphysically perfect sense as to make it
mean that it was impossible for any one to be just
and hence to marry a second wife. But the practice
and example of the Prophet and his immediate
followers, as well as of the Mohammedans in all
countries other than India (where Hindu ideals
are partly responsible for the greater prevalence of
monogamy), falsify such a prohibition of polygamy.
In fact, while condemning polygamy in such strong

Fifth Study — Siraju V Din 175

language, Mohammedans forget all the time that
their Prophet was a greater polygamist than any of
his followers, for while he allowed only four wives
to the believers he himself had more than a dozen
of them.

The same attempt is made to show that divorce
is allowed only in extreme emergency, but the
constant reiteration of permission for divorce in
the Koran and the example of its founder and his
best friends, as well as the practice of non-Indian
Mohammedans, prove this to be false. One of
the two beloved grandsons of Mohammed, the
Imams Hasan and Husain, held in the highest
esteem by all Mohammedans and believed by Shi'as
to be the propitiators for their sins, divorced scores
of wives according to the best Shi'a authorities on
the subject.

The veil has also its origin in the Koran, where
the Prophet's wives and faithful women are ordered
to hide themselves from all men except their fathers,
sons, brothers, nephews and slaves. The same
remarks apply to concubinage and jihad. The
truth is that the roots of the entire social system
of Islam are deep down in its foundations in the
very life and conduct of its founder. Here Islam
stands self-condemned. It has, moreover, its own
condemnation in its divine unalterable scriptural
basis, for the Koran claims to be the eternal, the
final and the perfect revelation. Hence in the

176 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

words of the note repeatedly sounded at the
Lucknow Conference of 1911, 'Reformed Islam
with its advocacy of parliaments, legislative bodies,
abolition of polygamy, divorce, the veil, etc. would
be Islam no longer.1 This inherent weakness of
Islam has been and will continue to be one of the
potent causes in the conversion of Moslems to
Christianity.

FEATURES OF CHRISTIANITY THAT APPEAL TO THE
MOSLEM

The Mohammedan speaks of himself and the Jew
and the Christian as the Ahli Kitab (the people of
a book), and so they are. As it is with a Jew,
so in the case of a Moslem, you can never make
an appeal to any earnest-minded Mohammedan
apart from the Scriptures. I have seen many a
Christian lecturer as well as preacher address
Mohammedans without directly referring them to
the Scriptures. Make your preaching or your
lecture as philosophical or as scientific as you like,
but base it on the word of God and keep as close
to the word as possible throughout your exposition
of the subject. You will find that the word is quick
and powerful. It may be mentioned in this con-
nexion that the argument from prophecy possesses
a very great power of appeal for the Moslem.
The story of the Hebrew nation as depicted in the
Bible and their fate as borne out by their history

Fifth Study — Siraju 'd Dm 177

subsequent to the crucifixion carry much weight
with them.

The teaching of our Lord is admired even though
it is said to be so high as not to be practical. But
the Moslem is satisfied when he is told that our
Saviour literally practised what He preached. The
virtue of forbearance as shown by the servants of
Christ also attracts them. But offence is caused
by our inconsistency, our division of our lives into
water-tight compartments. As a preacher of the
Gospel a man may show forbearance, but in his
capacity as a private individual he may be vindictive.
Hence the importance of patience and love and tact
in private life as well as in bazar preaching. Control
of temper in some slight detail may leave a lasting
impression. As an inquirer I was once greatly
touched by the conduct of a Mohammedan convert
to Christianity, from whose hands one of the
audience snatched his Bible while he was preaching
and walked away with it, the preacher showing no
perturbation of spirit.

There can be no two opinions as to the great
influence of the Christian institutions for the relief
and remedy of suffering, ignorance and darkness, in
the form of hospitals, schools, homes for widows,
orphanages, and leper asylums. But their efficiency
is minimized by the Christian worker's greater
allegiance to the profession than to the object of
the profession, by making the profession an end
12

178 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

instead of always looking on it as a means for win-
ning souls. A medical or educational missionary is
oftentimes too much of a doctor or an educationist
to bear direct out-and-out witness to his Master,
and is apt to think a great deal too much of his
efficiency as a doctor or a teacher at the expense of
his success in winning souls.

The idea of secret Christian prayer, if translated
into life, appeals to the devout Mohammedan, and
so do the simplicity and naturalness of Christian
public prayer, as well as the Christian family prayer,
the last being altogether unknown to the Moham-
medans. In this respect the simple worship of the
more liberal evangelical churches is more attractive
to the Moslem than the elaborate High Church
ritualistic service which may sometimes have even
a repulsive effect on the mind of a Mohammedan
at first sight, as savouring of idolatry.

Our Lord's miracles when presented as the
triumphs of the life of faith are greatly appre-
ciated. But what we need more is the living faith
to work miracles. Protestant Christianity in its
reaction against Romanism, while accepting the
highest form of miracle in the world of conscience,
has unfortunately and inconsistently denied the
present operation of miracles in the lower and
physical world. This is a stumbling-block to the
religious nature of the Orient, and this kind of
stumbling-block goeth not out except by faithful

Fifth Study — Siraju V Din 179

prayer and fasting. Notice also the bearing of the
greatest miracle-working faith on rational theism
which is so dear to Islam. By far the most con-
vincing argument in favour of theism is the super-
natural intervention of God in the form of a
miracle, and Jesus Christ Himself is unquestionably
the greatest and most historic and the most vital
of all miracles. In the presence of Christ what
sceptic or atheist can even foolishly say ' There is
no God ' ?

The ethical freedom of Christianity and its
spirituality have a great charm, especially for the
Mohammedan mystic who in vain seeks in the
Koran for something that is not to be found there
at all, and who with the famous Persian mystic,
Maulawl Jalalu'd Dm Rum!, exclaims, ' I have
gathered the marrow from the Koran, but I have
thrown away the bones before the dogs.' What he
strives to draw out from the sacred book of the
Moslems by the most indirect and unwarranted
ratiocination is the very life and breath of the
Christian Scriptures.

One of the greatest concrete attractions for the
world of Islam is the realization of free strong
Christian womanhood as presented by the sight of
a Florence Nightingale or any of God's humbler
handmaids devotedly, quietly and patiently doing
their work, day after day and year after year, in the
streets and zenanas of all great cities in mission

1 80 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

lands, without any of those fears which Islam con-
ceives in the public appearance of women. It is
one of the greatest triumphs of Christianity to
demonstrate to Islam that it is possible not only for
one but for hundreds and thousands of women to be
liberated from the shackles of custom and to be
brought from the dark seclusion of the hareem into
the bright broad daylight of God's active out-of-
door world, transforming the prisoner of sex into
a service-rendering, misery-relieving, humanity-up-
lifting angel.

The last and the greatest attraction, particularly
to Islam and generally to any religion, is for us to
believe and to demonstrate that Christ Jesus came
not to destroy but to fulfil the best and highest
aspirations of every religion, to present Christianity
more as fulfilment and less as destruction, to apply
the golden rule of sympathy in studying the deepest
religious experiences of the most earnest-minded
Mohammedans, to clothe Christian truth, with the
necessary safeguards, in terms of that experience (as
has been already very partially done in the case of
Christian hymnology) so as to bring the truth home
to their hearts most effectively — in short to prove
that Christ the desire of all nations is also the desire
of the devout Moslem's heart.

And this brings us at once to the subject of
the points of contact between Christianity and
Islam.

Fifth Study— Sir aju V Djn 181

SOME POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY
AND ISLAM

We believe that our method of approach to the
Mohammedan should be essentially the same as the
method of our Lord and of St. Paul in dealing with
the Jews. The greatest power of appeal lies in the
points of contact, for the Mohammedan religion is
fundamentally Semitic in its origin.

With the briefest reference to the well-known
vast region of resemblances in the fundamental
beliefs, namely, the belief in the unity of God, in
His prophets and His revealed books, in the resur-
rection of the dead and the day of judgment, and
furthermore the belief in all the peculiar events of
our Lord^s life, namely, His supernatural birth, His
miraculous life, His ascension and His second com-
ing— we pass on to notice the phenomenon which
reveals the great common ground of appeal in the
shape of religious experience. (The writer can bear
personal testimony to the fact of having met with
men of deep spiritual experience in Islam, as well
as with the phenomenon of lives made extremely
sensitive to sin.) We postulate that the Moham-
medan mind has in all centuries, contrary to the
spirit of Islam, sought for a mediator and found or
made one by idealization. Mohammedan literature
as well as popular Mohammedan religion bear
abundant testimony to this fact, but we shall here

1 82 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

quote only from the orthodox Moslem's primary
sources of authority. Both the most reliable and
final authorities on the traditions of Mohammed,
namely, Bukhari and Muslim, agree in relating the
following tradition which is known to Mohammedans
by the name of the Tradition of Shqfcfatu 7 Kubra or
the great intercession. All sinners, among whom,
it is worthy of note, all saints of God are included,
will, on the day of judgment, when the wrath of
God is kindled against the sins of men, seek for a
mediator among the prophets. They will come to
Adam, the first man, and entreat him to intercede
on their behalf. Adam will be ashamed to remember
his own sins and acknowledge his inability to inter-
cede for them. He will direct them to Noah, the
first of the prophets. Noah will remember his own
sins and confess his inability to plead for the sinners,
and so on in turn with Abraham, the friend of God
and the father of the faithful, and Moses, the servant
of God, the one who spoke with God face to face.
Moses will send them on to Jesus, who will finally
guide them to Mohammed, ' whose former and latter
sins have been forgiven." Mohammed will then be
the only man who will dare to intercede for the
sinners. Three facts are most notable here. First,
that prophets are also sinners. Second, that whereas
each prophet acknowledges his inability to inter-
cede ' because he remembers his own sins,' Jesus is
not said to have remembered His sins, but is made,

Fifth Study— Sir aju V Dm 183

without reason, to send sinners on to Mohammed.
Thus it is acknowledged that He is the sinless
Prophet. But the most noteworthy fact is this, that
out of the whole human race only one man is found
worthy of interceding for the sins of the whole
world. Let the Moslem acknowledge this truth
and more than half the battle of Christianity against
Islam has been fought and won. Apply the
Mohammedan's criterion of being without personal
sins as a necessary condition for intercession, and
you have convinced him of the truth as far as intel-
lectual conviction can go. Furthermore, if there is
only one man in the whole world who can be the
intercessor, surely God would be unjust if He were
not to put some clear unmistakable marks on him,
so as to make him absolutely unique and separate
from the rest of the world. Now by the common
admission of both Christianity and Islam, Jesus
Christ bears not one but five such marks : firstly,
the ante-birth mark, the unique unbroken series of
prophetic announcements about His birth and life
and death; secondly, the birth-mark, His unique
virgin birth ; thirdly, the life-mark, His life of
unique supernatural power; fourthly, the death-
mark, His unparalleled destiny in the form of
ascension to the heavens alive ; fifthly, the post-
death mark, His unique privilege in the shape of
second coming.

Turning now to the second great sect of Islam,

1 84 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the Shi'a Moslems, we find here not only the belief
in a mediator, but also salvation through the
mediator's sufferings. We read in 'Hassan and
Hussain? by Colonel Pelly, Political Resident in
the Persian Gulf (pp. 336 ff.) that on the day of
judgment even the prophets will be heard crying
aloud for their own salvation. Mohammed is re-
presented as being in extreme distress because his
people have been consigned to everlasting perdition.
Finally Gabriel brings the key of paradise and
delivers it to Mohammed with the following message
from his God : ' Heave not such burning sighs from
thy breast. He who has seen most trials, endured
most afflictions and been most patient in his suffer-
ings, the same shall win the privilege of intercession.
He shall raise the standard of intercession in the
day of judgment who hath voluntarily put his head
under the sword of trial, ready to have it cloven
into two like the point of a pen. Take thou this
key of intercession from me and give it to him who
has undergone the greatest trials.' Mohammed then
orders all the prophets to appear before himself and
one by one to relate their sufferings. The keenest
competition is between Jacob and Hasan. (Jesus
Christ is not mentioned as a competitor, for accord-
ing to the Mohammedan belief, He is not supposed
to have been crucified.) The judgment is finally
pronounced in favour of Husain, God Himself
declares ' None has suffered like Husain, none has

Fifth Study— Sir aju V Djn 185

like him been obedient in my service. The privilege
of making intercession for sinners is exclusively his.1
Here we have the real essence of the doctrine of
atonement, namely, salvation by the greatest suffer-
ing of the most obedient son of man. The principle
is there, all that we have to do is to appeal to the
actual facts in human experience and show where it
has been fulfilled.

Compare with this belief the custom of 'Aq'iqa
permitted by all the four Imams, according to
which the parents offer an animal as a sacrifice for
the life of a boy or girl and the mulla tells the
father to pronounce the following words at the
moment of offering the sacrifice : ' O God, accept
this animal from me for my son or daughter as a
ransom, blood for blood, flesh for flesh, bones for
bones, skin for skin, and hair for hair.'

Coming finally to Sufiism, we find the most
fundamental Christian doctrine of the nature and
person of Christ realized spiritually and interpreted
metaphysically. We shall here quote only from one
book entitled Al Insaniil Kamil, or ' The Perfect
Man ' (notice the Christian title) written by a great
Mohammedan divine of the eighth century of the
Mohammedan era and covering more than 200
pages of fine Arabic print. An abstract of this
book in English, called The Doctrine of' Absolute
Unity as expounded by 6Abdu V Karlma V Jlldm, from
the pen of a learned Panjabi Mohammedan, appeared

1 86 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

in 1900 in the Indian Antiquary of Bombay from
which the following detached sentences have been
culled :

A condensed statement of the doctrine of the Perfect
Man as given by the author himself runs thus : ' Divine
nature soars upwards, human nature sinks downwards,
hence perfect human nature must stand midway be-
tween the two — in one word, the Perfect Man must
be the God-man.' The author has greatly emphasized
the doctrine of the Logos — a doctrine which has
always found favour with almost all the profound
thinkers of Islam. He becomes the paragon of per-
fection, the object of worship, the preserver of the
universe. He is the point where man-ness and God-
ness become one and result in the birth of the God-
man. The Perfect Man is the joining link. In the
God-man the absolute being which has left its absolute-
ness returns into itself, and but for the God-man it
could not have done so. The light through the agency
of which God sees Himself is due to the principle of
difference in the nature of the Absolute Being itself.
He recognizes this principle in the following verses :

If you say that God is one you are right,
But if you say that He is two this is also true.
If you say, no, He is three, you are right ;
For this is the real nature of man.

What greater contact between Christianity and
Islam could possibly be sought than the one herein
provided? There is the longing, the search after
Christ ; all that is required is faithfully to present
Him before the hungry and thirsty souls and to

Fifth Study — Siraju V Din 1 87

show that He whom they seek, the man perfect in
life and deed, is not the one whom they have
idealized against facts and who may in his own
person disappoint them in the end, but that it is
the Son of Man, who is the chief among ten
thousand, the brightness of His Father's glory and
the express image of His person.

THE LIGHT SHED BY ISLAM ON CHRISTIANITY

We shall content ourselves with two most im-
portant points in this connexion.

The first and foremost lesson of Islam to western
Christianity and, in fact, of the East generally to
the West (for Hinduism and Buddhism are also
distinctly devotional) is that of the importance of
devotional prayer life in the Protestant church.
The East, where all religions originated, emphasizes
the contemplative, the meditative life, the life
hidden in God, the life of the groanings that
cannot be uttered. The unduly speculative turn
of the eastern mind is the outcome of the abuse
not of the use of this exercise. What the peoples
of the West and Christians in general need is more
vision. Perhaps the greatest stumbling-block in
Christendom at present is that of undue stress on
materialism, the love of the mighty dollar, the sin
of not discriminating between the values of things ;
and the only remedy for this sin is to be found in
divine communion. This will also be the remedy

1 88 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

for most of the avoidable stumbling-blocks that
we put in the way of the non -Christian world, as
well as the unavoidable difficulties that come in the
way of the seeker after truth. An educated and
respectable Indian Christian who on the eve of
his retirement from government service became a
Roman Catholic, expressed a desire to live close to
the Catholic chapel in order that his daily devotions
might not be neglected. The earnest-minded
Mohammedan when he approaches Christianity with
an unprejudiced mind is more or less satisfied and
even pleased with the practical side of the individual,
the family and the social life of the average Pro-
testant Christian, but he feels the absence of the
devotional aspect. We are asked to pray always
and not only five times in the day ; should not the
time spent by us in daily communion at least com-
pare favourably with the Mohammedan's devotional
time in duration? Or rather, do we cultivate the
habit of realizing the presence of God sufficiently
to enable us to live in that constant atmosphere of
prayer which our religion and profession demand ?

In the second place, the life and history of Islam
afford the strongest psychological argument and the
mightiest historical proof of the inmost irrepressible
yearning of the human heart after Christ. The
mighty religion that came into existence with one
of its avowed objects that of stamping out the idea
of the deification of Christ or any man whatsoever,

Fifth Study— Sir aju V Djn 189

not only ended in doing the same thing with its
Prophet and its saints, but it has, from the very
start and throughout the thirteen centuries of its
existence, had to yield to a strong current of anti-
Islamic pro-Christian tendency to seek for a divine-
human mediator, without which its own strong
grip on millions would have been greatly slackened,
if not its very existence threatened with premature
decay. We cannot do better than let this truth
be expressed in the words of a learned Indian
Mohammedan, now a barrister-at-law and a doctor
of philosophy, from whose article on the ' Perfect
Man1 we have already quoted and who seems to
have been not far from the kingdom of God when
he wrote these words :

We have now the doctrine of the Perfect Man com-
pleted. All through the author has maintained his
argumentation by an appeal to different verses of the
Koran and to the several traditions of the Prophet,
the authenticity of which he never doubts. Although
he reproduces the Christian doctrine of the Trinity,
except that his God-man is Mohammed instead of
Christ, he never alludes to his having been ever
influenced by Christian theology. He looks upon the
doctrine as something common between the two forms
of religion, and accuses Christians of a blasphemous
interpretation of the doctrine by regarding the
personality of God as split up into three distinct
personalities. Our own belief, however, is that this
splendid doctrine has not been well understood by
the majority of Islamic and even Christian thinkers.

1 90 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

The doctrine is but another way of stating the truth
that the absolute unity must have in itself a principle
of difference in order to evolve diversity out of itself.
Almost all the attacks of Mohammedan theologians
are directed against vulgar beliefs, while the truth of
real Christianity has not sufficiently been recognized.
Although the author accuses Christians of a very
serious misunderstanding, yet he regards their sin as
venial, holding that their shirk (the splitting up of
the divine personality) is the essence of all Tauhid or
Unity. I believe no Islamic thinker will object to
the deep meaning of the Trinity as explained by this
author or will hesitate in approving Kant's inter-
pretation of the doctrine of redemption. Sheikh
Muhaiyu'd Dm Ibn i fArabi says that the error of
Christianity does not lie in making Christ God, but
that it lies in making God Christ.

In summing up his doctrine of the Perfect Man,
the Mohammedan writer referred to above rejoices
over the fact that his author is the triumphant
possessor of the deep metaphysical meaning of the
Trinity, and he has every right so to rejoice, for
in this author we are inclined to perceive the
St. Paul of Christianity in Islam. How much
more should we rejoice to find Islam, the most
Unitarian of all religions and the mightiest avowed
antagonist of the conception of the God-man and
of the Trinity, drawing its deepest inspiration from
these conceptions, in spite of itself. But above all,
we should rejoice that we are the possessors of
the reality and the fundamental source of the

Fifth Study — Siraju 'd Djtt igi

Trinity, the incarnation, the mediatorship — namely,
Christ Jesus the crucified Mediator, who by His
cross and resurrection is able to draw all Moham-
medans to Himself, through us who are the
responsible custodians of this most precious of
possessions.

SIXTH STUDY

By the Rev. Canon GODFREY DALE, Universities'
Mission to Central Africa ; Zanzibar.

SIXTH STUDY

By the Rev. Canon GODFREY DALE

IT is the object of these papers that each contributor
should answer the same questions, but with as much
local colouring as possible; therefore it must be
clearly understood that what is stated refers to
particular circumstances only, and the opinions
expressed are the result of personal experience
under these particular circumstances. The general
history and features of East African Islam are too
well known to need restatement. Let it suffice
to say that within the memory of the present
generation East Africa had scarcely come into
contact with western civilization and western
thought. It is probable that in Zanzibar there
existed a Mohammedanism nearer to the original
than that existing in countries in which western
thought had influenced the Mohammedan world.
So much then by way of introduction.

VITAL ELEMENTS IN ISLAM

For the purpose of this paper it is well to explain
the meaning attached by the writer to the ex-

195

1 96 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

pression 'vital forces.' It is taken to mean those
religious forces in Islam which a Christian missionary
can make use of as a stepping-stone to the Christian
faith, because not antagonistic to the spirit of his
own religion.

In Zanzibar and those parts of East Africa
known to the writer by personal experience or from
trustworthy information Mohammedanism seems to
possess vital forces in the following respects.

Mohammedanism has a very real sense of the
existence and unity of God, of the divine govern-
ment of the universe, of the providential control
over the little details of everyday life. The constant
repetition of such phrases as in sha Allah, ma sha
Allah, and alhamdu lYllak shows that even the
more ignorant Moslems in East Africa have this
sense of a providential control of each particular
life. The inscriptions on their houses, the religious
element introduced into former heathen customs,
the religious significance attached to the principal
events of everyday life — birth, marriage, sickness,
death — testify to this. To the ordinary African,
with his idea of a far-away God who takes little
notice of and little interest in the lives of men,
a creed which attaches the thought of God to such
common actions as washing, dressing, or eating
makes God near and real, and must prove attractive.
In ordinary conversation with an East African who
has become a Mohammedan it is very noticeable

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 197

how thoroughly he has adapted his thoughts to
this new way of regarding himself and the circum-
stances of his daily life.

And equally attractive is the corporate side of
the religious life. The religious dances, the religious
fasts and festivals, the general interest taken in
them by Moslems of all classes, the way in which
a Moslem qua Moslem is regarded as having a
claim on others of his faith where his faith is
concerned, the intense excitement caused if one
Moslem of sufficient standing becomes a convert
to Christianity, the way in which the recent wars
with Turkey have sent a thrill throughout the
Moslem population in a remote place like Zanzibar
— all these facts point to a corporate sense which
is vital, for they show how a common faith, strongly
held, binds its adherents into one body, so that if
one member suffers or rejoices all the other members
suffer or rejoice with it.

Another vital element is the importance of re-
ligious education in the eyes of the Mohammedan
world. Hence the numerous Koran schools in
Zanzibar and Pemba. Even when the Koran is
taught in the government school, men prefer that
their sons should learn the Koran at home first.
The Koran to them is the book of God and as such
deserving of study above all other books. And
though it is true that very few know sufficient
Arabic to reap any real benefit or knowledge from

198 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

such study, yet the principle is generally recognized.
To them religious education is of the first import-
ance, and they realize that if a religion is believed
to be true it is incumbent on the professors of that
religion to direct and control their life and their
calling in life according to the principles of that
religion. They have a political and ecclesiastical
constitution which they regard as based on religious
principles. They have told me again and again
how surprised they are to find a Christian judge
deciding a case of law without reference to the
Injll or to some generally accepted interpretation
of the Christian scriptures. We can have no quarrel
with them for thus emphasizing the importance of
religious education, or the part which religion ought
to play in the affairs of life. The action of modern
governments in the matter of divorce sets the
Christian world thinking in this connexion. We
wish they would follow the Injll.

Again, even if we keep in mind the fact that
religious practices such as prayer, fasting, and
almsgiving are too much associated in the mind
of the Moslem with the idea of wages earned for
so much work done, an idea not at all in keeping
with the spirit of Christianity, yet there can
be no doubt, surely, that the habit of connecting
the present life with the life of the world to come
by such religious exercises is a gain in countries
where the idea of the vital connexion between

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 199

the two worlds has been of the very vaguest kind
conceivable.

And — not to dwell too long on only one question
— the two ideas of the transcendence of God and
the sovereignty of the divine will, grossly abused as
both ideas are in the minds of the general folk,
contain in them the essence of all true awe and
wonder and adoration on the one hand and resigna-
tion and obedience on the other.

DISSATISFACTION OF INDIVIDUAL MOHAMMEDANS WITH
THEIR FAITH ON SPECIFIC POINTS

Of course the writer here is strictly confined to
his own experience. I record mine for what it is
worth. There are a few specific points concerning
which I have detected signs of uneasiness.

First, slavery. On at least two occasions when
discussing slavery with intelligent and well educated
Mohammedans, admissions have been frankly made
that the present Mohammedan law on the subject
(say in the Minhqj) is inconsistent with the principle
of justice that you must not do to another what you
would not like done to yourself, and that slavery
conflicts with an orthodox tradition which places
these very words in the mouth of Mohammed.
They see that the logical application of the law of
slavery, when applied to the circumstances of every-
day life, does lead to consequences which the moral
sense common to all mankind must condemn.

2OO Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

So again with polygamy and concubinage. Again
and again in the course of ordinary conversation
have I detected signs of dissatisfaction and listened
to frank admissions that the actual results of
polygamy are bad, that polygamy is constantly the
cause of the breaking up of the peace of domestic
life, that it leads to perpetual jealousies and often to
deadly crimes. They begin to see that facilities of
divorce are an encouragement to unfaithfulness, and
that the children of different wives, on the decease of
the father, not rarely engage in bitter disputes as to
inheritance, disputes which create scandal and give
rise to family feuds. And I have heard statements
from people of very different ranks in life which
show that at least a few are beginning to recognize
the beauty of the Christian teaching of faithfulness
to one wife until death. They have admitted
again and again that, whatever the cause may be,
it is unquestionable that Islam in this part of the
world has failed to produce a type of womankind
that could be safely allowed the freedom of the
Christian woman.

At the back of the minds of some of the best and
most thoughtful there is some questioning as to
the nature of the divine forgiveness, as to the reality
of a forgiveness which is largely divorced from
moral considerations, which, as taught and believed
by the general folk, rests upon the arbitrary caprice
of One whom they regard in the light of an absolute

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 201

despot. One Moslem who believed that God is
merciful and compassionate, and who, I believe,
was sincere, expressed to me his dissatisfaction with
a faith which gave no outward and visible sign of
forgiveness, which left him in a state of uncertainty
as to whether he was forgiven or not. He wanted
to know whether there was an assurance of forgive-
ness in the Christian faith and whether there were
any definite means by which such forgiveness could
be secured.

Mohammedans are willing to admit the practical
difficulties of fatalism. Again and again you hear
from their lips the baldest statements which seem
to convey the idea that they have no sense of moral
responsibility at all, and yet in their heart of hearts
they are not satisfied. Conscience makes cowards
of them as of other people, and it is not difficult to
draw from them admissions which show that their
belief in fatalism is of the intellect only, not of the
heart.

With regard to compulsion in matters of faith,
Moslems have often admitted to me that compulsion
is a poor and unsafe method of gaining converts
to their faith. They consent at once to the words
of the Koran, ' There is no compulsion in religion,'
but then few of them are sufficiently learned to
reply that the words have been abrogated by the
verse of the Sword. It is a very interesting experi-
ment to relate the parable of the tares and then

202 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

listen to their comments on the words 'Let both
grow together until the harvest.'

With regard to the Koran, and the life of
Mohammed considered as the great exemplar, we
are on very delicate ground. As to the Koran, I
have noticed uneasiness as to the scientific state-
ments in it. Their belief in the literal inspiration
of the Koran prevents them from saying that the
science of the Koran is the science of the Arabs of
the sixth or seventh centuries. Their theory of the
origin of the Koran binds them hand and foot, yet
even here in Zanzibar, where education in the
modern sense is in its infancy, signs of inward
questioning have not been wanting.

With regard to the example set by Mohammed,
they are ready to condemn certain actions performed
by him, if these actions are stripped of their original
surroundings and presented to them hypothetically
as the actions of any other man. But as all those
who are acquainted with the Moslem know, if
you say ' Mohammed did what you condemn,' the
reply would be that any action whatsoever performed
by Mohammed after his call to the prophetic office
was performed by divine permission and therefore
lawful to him, even if unlawful for any one else.
We may well ask if this reply really satisfies the
hearer whose moral sense is not completely
paralysed.

It must be clearly understood that such dis-

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 203

satisfaction as that referred to here is the rare
exception. It is very far from the intention of
the writer to suggest that there is any marked
sign that the self-complacency of the Moslem world
with regard to Mohammedanism has suffered any
serious shock in Zanzibar at present.

FEATURES IN CHRISTIANITY WHICH APPEAL TO THE
MOSLEM IN EAST AFRICA

There is very little evidence that there is any-
thing on the dogmatic side of Christianity which
attracts the Mohammedan other than those elements
of Christianity which have been incorporated into
the Koran. It has been observed that teaching
concerning the love of God, or the Christian belief
in the fatherliness of God (if disconnected from the
doctrine of the Incarnation), and teaching as to the
power of grace inherent in Christianity to lift a
man out of himself to a higher moral level and
to empower him freely to conform to the divine
will, are listened to with interest. The Sonship of
Christ is as repugnant to them as ever and the
Incarnation as inconceivable, but statements which
represent the dealings of Almighty God with the
individual soul as conducted on the lines according
to which a good father deals with his children
receive general acceptance in my experience. This
leads on to the conception of God as perfect love,
and is no doubt a gain.

2O4 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

There is no doubt whatever that the Christian
character, wherever they see it manifested, does
attract them powerfully. Those most hostile to
us fear the power of its attraction, fear for the
faith of their co-religionists who are brought into
touch with it. The lives of the doctors and nurses
in the hospital, the Christian patience and ease of
Christian teachers in the schools, the courtesy and
gentleness and good temper of the Christian contro-
versialist in the streets and the bazaars, and the
sincerity of Christian devotion wherever it exists,
these attract as they always have and always will.
Again and again has this been proved. It is within
the power of any Christian in any part of the
Moslem world thus to multiply the evidences of
Christianity.

The teaching of our Saviour and the history of
His life attract if you do not start with statements
which you know are unacceptable. It is astonishing
how they consent to much of the teaching in the
gospels. As prejudice mostly prevents them from
reading the text of the gospel, it is possible that
we can scarcely do any more valuable work than the
work of familiarizing the minds of the Moslem
population with the teaching of our Lord, trusting
that in this way the moral and spiritual change will
be effected which must precede acceptance of the
profound truths of the Christian faith.

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 205

THE PRESENTATION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH TO
THE MOSLEM

There is a place for controversy, no doubt. We
can scarcely read the passages in the gospels which
tell of the attitude of the Jews to our Lord and
His method of dealing with them, or read the
account of the work of St. Paul and St. Stephen
without concluding that there is a place for con-
troversy in the Christian life. We must be ready
to give an answer for the hope that is in us and
earnestly to contend for the faith. But, in the
main, such work is preparatory only, and serves
its purpose best if it confines itself to removing
misconceptions from the mind of the Moslem and
giving clear and courteous statements of the evidence
on which Christian beliefs rest. There can be no
doubt that the deepest results are produced by the
good fruits of the spirit of Christ. Truth and
gentleness, patience, forbearance and courtesy, self-
sacrifice, and spirituality in all its forms ; the work
in the hospitals, the better treatment of prisoners,
the freedom of the courts of justice from corruption,
Christian domestic life at its best, the pains freely
bestowed on the education of the young, the real
interest taken by those who are in authority in
the general welfare of those whom they govern —
all these are signs of practical Christianity and
are having their effect in a quiet way. Not all,

206 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

by any manner of means, but a considerable
number of people are quite capable of drawing
the right conclusion when the present condition
of a place like Zanzibar is contrasted with its
condition under the old regime. Those who
suffered have not forgotten.

The lives of the prophets and their teaching,
together with the personal religion of the psalms,
is common ground and affords a good opening
for further teaching. Many of the psalms might
have been written by a good Mohammedan.
They are surprised to find how wholeheartedly
they can be repeated by Christian and Moslem,
e.g. psalms cvi., cxxxix. Then there is the life
of our Lord, His parables, His miracles, the
Sermon on the Mount. When the desired im-
pression has been produced, we can give the
stronger meat : the fatherhood of God, the Cruci-
fixion, the Resurrection and Ascension, with the
evidence, the cumulative evidence, for the belief
that the life of Christ was the life of One for
whom the names teacher, master, prophet proved
to be inadequate in the eyes of those who knew
Him best. It is probably preferable that the
listeners should discover for themselves the difference
in many points dogmatic and practical between
the two religions. Listeners should be given
plenty of time for reflection. The Christian's
everyday life is the best commentary on and the

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 207

best witness to the truths of Christian teaching and
Christian principles. If you cast your bread upon
the waters, you will find it, if only after many days.

ELEMENTS IN CHRISTIANITY WHICH EXCITE
OPPOSITION

Here, unfortunately, there can be no hesitation
about the answer to be given. In a pamphlet
circulated in Zanzibar, which deals with the effect
produced on Mohammedan scholars by Christian
teaching in Christian schools, the author mentions
twice the doctrines belief in which is, in his opinion,
pernicious in its results. (1) Belief in the Holy
Trinity, which he regards as totally subversive of
all faith in the unity of God. (2) Belief in the
divinity of our Lord and in the doctrine of the
Incarnation. He cannot use words too strong in
order to condemn the madness of people who can
believe at one and the same time that Christ is
God and that He ate and drank and slept and
walked and rode, was weary and oppressed, suffered,
was crucified and died. From some source or other
the writer has heard of the blessed Sacrament, and
has evidently read a more or less exact statement
of the faith of the Church concerning it. Needless
to say it is utterly incomprehensible to him.
He cries with Nicodemus, only with less courtesy,
'How can these things be?' Most of these ob-
jections are of course stereotyped, and familiar

208 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

to every one who has had any acquaintance with
Mohammedans. The Mohammedan controversialist
is ever ready to plunge into the most profound
doctrines ; and it is with difficulty that the Christian,
even in a place like Zanzibar, can refuse to answer
without appearing to the listeners to be unable to
answer. Silence is misunderstood. Experience also
has taught me that the passage quoted by Professor
Siraju 'd Dm of Lahore 'that the error of Chris-
tianity does not lie in making Christ God but that
it lies in making God Christ ' is one that we shall
do well to bear in mind. Some clear exposure of
such a misconception is of first-rate importance.
I have heard it urged against us. In practical life,
the matter of swine's flesh and wine is often referred
to, the former with most abhorrence, for the very
good reason that a large number of Mohammedans,
men and women, drink wine in this country. They
confess to it. The impression left on my mind is
that the sting has gone out of these kinds of
taunts to a very large degree.

It is difficult to see how the objections to the
fundamental doctrines of Christianity can be removed
until the faith of the Moslem in the Koran has
been largely modified, because, as is generally
known, the misconceptions and misstatements of
these doctrines in the Koran are accepted on the
ground of the infallibility of the Koran. The
Koran stands or falls with them.

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 209

THE INFLUENCE OF MOHAMMEDANISM ON THE CHAR-
ACTER OF THE EAST AFRICAN MOSLEM

I am not writing about the Arab. His char-
acter has been described again and again by
competent observers. Nor does the following refer
to the Indian Moslem, of whom there are many
in Zanzibar. What follows refers to the East
African who has become a Moslem, and is, as
such, distinct from the African pagan and the
African Christian.

Now if the rules which govern African domestic
life are lax, those which govern the married life
of the Moslem are laxer still, if we can judge by
results. Divorce is rife and children very scarce.
The effect on home life is not good. It is quite
common to hear people of all sorts contrasting
the simplicity of the African mainland people
with the life and manners of the people of the
coast. The coast man is not loved. If he has
a stronger individuality and a more dignified
manner than the native of the mainland, he has
far more pride and self-satisfaction. He is nearly
always a fatalist, often with a fatalism which
paralyses his sense of moral responsibility. He is
as coarse as the African native, but with a coarse-
ness which is the more objectionable because
associated in his mind with religious duties. He
is superficial to a degree, external, formal and
14

2 1 o Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

material, impervious to spiritual ideas. He is
more honesl than truthful; when temperate, and
not all Moslems are tempi-rale, he is temperate
with the temperance \\liuh results from obedience
to a positive prohibition and is not the result of
an ethical principle intelligently accepted and
willingly obeyed. The Koran he rarely under-
stands. He is very superstitious. He is clean in
his person, and can, if he likes, be courteous and
hospitable. In dealing with him you are almost
certain before long to desire to see some sign of
the spirit of truth, and humility, and purity and
love — in a word, the spirit of Christ. They need
Christ, and the saddest fact of all about them is
that they do not seem to have the vaguest sense
of their need of a saviour or a new birth. As
with the IMiari.M-e of old, they think they see,
therefore their sin remaineth.

THE LIGHT SHED BY ISLAM ON CHRISTIANITY

There are at least two ways in which Christianity
is benefited by contact with Mohammedanism. In
the first place, we realize the value of a religion
like our own which responds to human needs
which are left untouched by Mohammedanism ;
and in the second place, contact with Moham-
medanism does awaken the Christian to some
elements in his own faith which perhaps, but for
that contact, he would have forgotten, or which

Sixth Study — Godfrey Dale 2 1 1

hitherto have had iiiKiiflirienl. influence on his life
and character. Contact with Mohammedanism
throw?, in In relief the value of certain ChriHtian
beliefs, such OH the fatherhood of God, the freedom
of the human will, the necessity of purity of
heart, the need of a new birth and a new power
to lift us up from our dead Helves to higher
things, the freedom of the service of God, the
need of the perfect life, truly sinless, the need
of the teaching of the Cross with its tremendous
emphasis on the sinfulness of sin, the necessity
of the great gift of the Spirit of truth and
holiness, the beauty of a faith the dominant force
of which is love, the beauty of Christian home
life, the spiritual nature of heavenly joys and the
vision of the city of God. 'The city was pure
gold/ Others could add to this list, no doubt,
and add their testimony that daily contact with
Mohammedanism has helped them to understand
how fully the Good Physician knew what was in
man, how perfectly the Good Shepherd has pro-
vided for the wants of His disciples.

Christianity has benefited by contact with
Mohammedanism in another way. The Christian
has been compelled to think out the exact meaning
of his belief in the unity of God, and he has
been forced to think out the idea of the tran-
scendence of God. Some perhaps have discovered
that their belief in the providential dealings of

212 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

God has become vague and tinged with doubt.
They have been startled into self-examination by
the in sha Allah and the alhamdu IVllah of the
Moslem ; they have been reminded that religion
is a power that touches life at all points and at
all times, and cannot be kept in a separate
compartment of the mind ; that religious belief
should be at the back of all justice and is the
true foundation of all social and political relation-
ships ; that our attitude and demeanour in a
place of worship should not be that of an ill-
bred boor or a too familiar child, but that the
outward adoration of the body should bear witness
to the inward adoration of the heart ; that there
is nothing in the Christian religion that a man
need be ashamed of in the presence of his fellow-
men ; and that a man is never so clothed with
true dignity as when he worships the Lord in the
beauty of holiness.

SEVENTH STUDY

By Professor D. B. MACDONALD, D.D., Hartford
Theological Seminary, U.S.A.

213

SEVENTH STUDY

By Professor D. B. MACDONALD

IT is not now necessary to demonstrate that there
are vital forces in Islam. The preceding papers in
this series, all by men who are no mere theorists
or book students but of long and intimate contact
with the facts of Mohammedan life, have made
that plain beyond all cavil. And it will even be
seen, I think, that the closer in these writers has
been their contact and the deeper has been their
understanding, the fuller has been their apprecia-
tion of the spiritual realities lying behind their
subject. It is easy to see the superficialities of a
religion — its hypocrisies, formalities, inadequacies —
but it takes patience and sympathy to pierce under-
neath it to the leading of the One Spirit and to
find in its votaries, as we so often may, the anima
naturaliter Christiana.

I have no such claim to be heard as these writers
can show. My personal contact with the East is
measured by months and not by years. The sources

on which, for my impressions, I must now draw are,

215

2 1 6 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

on one side, the writings of Mohammedan theo-
logians— mystics, dogmaticians, philosophers — and,
on another side, that mare magnum of popular
literature mirroring in the ideas and events of the
lives of the masses the final results, working down
into the common soul of Islam, of all those aspira-
tions, constructions and dialectic searchings. Such
books must always, for the home-staying student,
take the place of contact with the Moslem world
itself, and the best known of them all is, of course,
the Arabian Nights. They do not mislead nor
misinform, as does that contact so of ben until it is
controlled, and as still oftener do books of travel,
and I would bear my testimony now that when I
did meet the Moslem world face to face, the picture
of its workings and ideas and usages which I had
gained from these romances, poems and religious
tales needed modification in no essential point —
almost, even, in no detail. I need hardly add that
to attain this result complete texts must be read.
Islam must be taken as it is; otherwise it is not
Islam.

But how, to such an onlooker, does the situation
present itself? Broadly, I am in agreement with
all that has preceded in these papers on the religious
life in Islam. It is needless here to rehearse the
details. On two elements only in that life, and
these paradoxically confronting one another, I would
feel like laying more stress. First, the prayer-

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 217

meetings of the dervishes, the so-called dhikrs or
zikrs, and all the emotional religious life of which
these are the public and concerted expression. Only
those, on the one hand, who minimize the part
which religion plays in life can disregard these its
normal vehicles. And only those, on the other,
who have actually, and with open mind and heart,
witnessed these acts of worship and, still more, have
talked — soul to soul — with men who have felt these
influences personally and could describe them — only
these can really weigh how enormous a part they
hold in stimulating, deepening and purifying the
religious consciousness. Undoubtedly there lie in
them also great dangers. All manifestations of
religious emotion are surrounded with possibilities
of hypocrisy, self-delusion and abandonment of self-
control. But those who know the theological
literature of Islam will remember how elaborately
its clearest and most spiritual minds have dealt
with these dangers, and those who have witnessed
a dhikr with any understanding must have seen
how completely the presiding shaikh was controlling
all the manifestations and steadying the thoughts
of the worshippers who were taking part. Of course
this takes no account of the public and spectacular
dhikrs either got up for tourists or connected, like
those at the display of the kiswa embroideries in
Cairo, with the great formal ceremonies of the
faith. These can be utterly empty of religious

2 1 8 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

content and mislead as to the real nature of what
they travesty, which is a coming together of earnest
minds to worship Allah in spirit and in truth. Of
such I do not speak here.

Nor can it be said that, in spite of all the care,
theoretical and practical, of theologians and leaders,
dhikrs never have evil consequences. They most
unfortunately have. No one can play with his
emotional life without risk of acquiring the knack
of auto-hypnosis; and, if of a weaker nature,
practising it as a spiritual dram-drinking. The
risks are there and are real, and the consequences
sometimes follow. But, however that may be, the
importance of the dhikr as a vehicle of the religious
life cannot be exaggerated, and it might be well
for missionaries to consider to what extent and in
what forms it could be taken over into Christian
worship for the use of their converts or as a means
of evangelizing. That converts from Islam miss
its stimulus and suggestion is certain, and the sing-
ing of hymns — especially to western tunes and in
western metres — cannot take its place. This leads
naturally into a large subject, a discussion of which
cannot be attempted here. Briefly it is that the
Christian Church will need to face the problem of
the full orientalizing and arabizing of its language
and forms of expression. Far too often these are
stamped by Moslems as un- Arabic, and of necessity
they cause an initial repulsion which has to be

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 219

overcome. Even the native Christian Arabic of
Syria repels a Moslem, though he might often find
it hard to say against exactly what turn of phrase
his objection lies. But the naturalizing of the
dhikr for Christian purposes is a much wider matter
than any mere use of words, and involves deeper
difficulties. I would only now most earnestly
commend the consideration of it to all in any way
concerned.

With the dhiJcr connects immediately another
Moslem usage. It is the reciting of the Most
Beautiful Names of Allah. This, also, has its two
sides, a formally empty and a personally devout,
and at the first of these, unfortunately, most
observers of Islam stop. But the nourishing of the
religious life on the contemplation of God is an
essential part of all religions, and that con-
templation has, from the very beginnings of Islam,
moved round the names and epithets applied and
applicable to Allah. From the Sunday school books
and Bible helps of our youth — before it was thought
that religion consisted in the higher criticism — we
used to learn lists of names, offices and epithets of
Christ, as these could be extracted from the Bible.
A similar method has held in Islam from Mohammed
himself down, and is indeed rooted in the very
genius of the Arabic language. So, in the Koran,
as in the old poetry of the desert, the rolling
rhythms are rounded with sonorous epithets, and

220 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

the midnight devotions of Mohammed consisted
in describing Allah as this and that.1 The after
generations have followed in his path, and from the
fixed, stately ceremonial of the salat, through the
freer and more spontaneous, yet also governed and
restrained, ejaculations of the dhikr to the daily and
hourly meditations of the pious, all the forms of
expression are cast in this mould. Thus an immense
number of names has been brought together, either
found in the Koran or developed from Koranic ideas,
and out of these a canonical ninety-nine have been
selected which are called the Most Beautiful Names
of Allah. These the pious recite in a fixed order as
they slip the ninety-nine beads of the Moslem rosary
through their fingers, though the wayfaring man
may content himself with simply murmuring, * Allah,
Allah, Allah ! '

There lies here, I am certain, a wide field which
the judicious missionary will know how to occupy.
When some shaikh, after discussion, says to him,
' Nay, brother, tell me some of your Most Beautiful
Names and I will tell you some of mine,' he will put
into such name-form some of the spiritual depths
of the Bible, and thus, without controversy or even
any sense of strangeness, lead his friend into the

1 It may be pointed out that the only basis on which to
work out a doctrine of the nature of Allah, as developed in
the Koran, is to be found in these names. See the article
* Allah' in the Leyden Encyclopaedia of Mohammedanism.

Ssventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 221

range of Christian ideas. ' We say of God,' he may
reply, or 'In our Book stands written that He is
this or that.' To have a store of such names in
his memory, cast in impeccable Arabic, of a rather
' high ' type and impeccable not only in form but
in that indefinable thing called linguistic atmosphere,
should be the ambition of every missionary. It is
true that some doctrines by no amount of outward
form or atmosphere can be rendered anything but
strange and repellent to the Moslem ; but it is equally
certain that there are many sides of the religious
life where the wealth of religious experience in the
Bible may vindicate itself over the poverty and
onesidedness of the Koran and yet excite no surprise
and raise no controversy.

This distinction is illustrated in the other element
in the religious life of Islam to which I wish to draw
attention. By no form nor atmosphere, save, as we
shall see, that created by the Divine Figure Itself
and for Itself, can the conception of Fatherhood and
Sonship between God and man be rendered anything
but repellent, even blasphemous, to a Moslem. This
applies not only to the doctrine of the divine Sonship,
but also to every relationship between God and
man not specifically of Creator and created. With
Moslems there is no such point of contact as St.
Paul found in the verse of the Greek poet, ' For we
are also his children.' Apparently, Mohammed
wished to deal with the question of sonship root

222 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

and branch. Allah in the Koran is never a father
and men are never His sons. And the same holds
of the traditions from Mohammed and of all the
after religious development. The Church of Allah
never consists of His children and no saint in his
ecstasy ever heard himself addressed as 'My son.'
Men are the slaves of Allah, His absolute property to
do with as He wills. For while the human owner
of a slave is under certain legal restraints and has
certain legal duties towards him, such can never
hold of Allah. The Pauline example of the potter
and the vessels is applied even in the devotional
life of Islam with the most unflinching logic. It is
unfortunate that our translations too often weaken
this by rendering 'abd not as * slave ' but ' servant.1
In this they follow a similar mistranslation of eebed
in the Old Testament and are influenced by a feeling
of recoil from all its implications. But the theology
of Islam does not so recoil and no implications turn
its serene inhumanity. The absoluteness of Allah
over everything is preserved and that absoluteness,
be it noticed, is no creation of the later dogma-
ticians, but was fully developed in at least one side
of Mohammed's brain.

For precisely here lies the eternal paradox of
Islam, a paradox which has led to endless contro-
versy in Islam within and among those studying it
from without ; but both sides of which are absolutely
true. Islam is a spiritual religion and knows the

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 223

relation in the spirit between God and man. Thus
devotion is possible for it, and the dhikr and all the
experiences of the saint whose life is hidden in God.
But Islam is also Calvinism run wild, outdoing all
the vagaries of the most outrd Dutch Confessions.
And this paradox goes back to Mohammed himself.
On one side he was a genuine saint with genuine
religious experiences ; but on another his theology,
whence derived is still one of our puzzles, was un-
compromising as to the absoluteness of Allah, both
of His will and power and of His difference from
all other beings. So all the way down through
the history of the Moslem Church and in the lives
of individual Moslems, we find this ever-renewed
opposition between the experience of the religious
life and the systems derived from dogmas. The
orthodox Moslem had to square them in one way
or another and commonly did so by keeping them
apart and by urging and developing now one and
now the other. By his own experience and the
record of that of others, including Mohammed
himself, he had his real religion, and so long as
that remained unsystematized and in the realm of
feeling, the fundamental dogmas of his faith did
not trouble him. But if — either to defend that
faith against unbelievers without or critics within,
or simply to state it in definite form — he had to
bring the two into contact, then the unyielding
theological system normally asserted itself, and his

224 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

religion became a theology of the most closely
argued, invulnerable, but also impossible type. To
bring the two into a real agreement meant heresy
sooner or later. Some attempted it by dint of
metaphysical speculation and, removed in these
clouds from common sight, span ontological and
cosmological hypotheses of more or less explicit
and conscious pantheism. Echoes, too, from these
systems tended to filter through even to the
multitude. In the dervish fraternities were and are
men at all stages of theological and philosophical
growth, and so for the unlearned and the half-
learned the too glaring contrast might be helped
by some phrase or some fragment of an idea. And
always there was the refuge of turning and flinging
themselves in adoration before the mystery. So the
life of Islam continued and continues to be possible,
and at one time the missionary will be faced by
depths of devout quietism and at another by a fully
armed monster of logic in which he will find it hard
to recognize any religion at all.

But whatever be the form before him, he will
discover one kind of phrase that he can never use
unless he would be met by more or less gentle
negation. ' Our Father which art in heaven ' and
' Like as a father pitieth his children ' — these words
suggest to us the most irreducible minimum of a
religious attitude. Men of all faiths, we imagine,
might join in using them. But the denial of them

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 225

has passed into Moslem blood and bone, and the
Mohammedan sees in them indefinite vistas of
controversy. However close he may feel to Allah
he stands always in His presence as an 6abd. Yet
it should never be forgotten that, for an Oriental,
behind the word 6abd, 6 slave,' some approximation
to the idea of child may lie. All depends upon
how it is used. The Moslem ' slave ' like the
4 slave ' of the Old Testament is the property of
his master; but he is also one of his master's
household, under his master's care and may even be
the heir of all that his master has. Thus, in the
devotional literature of Islam, the word is often
used where we find it hard or impossible to translate
it as 'slave,' so different are, to us, the ideas and
images which the words raise. Very frequently
6 creature ' comes much closer to the burden of the
context, and though theology may emphasize the
absoluteness of the divine control, religion always
pleads the closeness of the human relation.

It will thus be seen that the idea before which
the Moslem, even in his religious aspirations, recoils
is that of generation. The article in the creed,
' Begotten not made,' however rendered in Arabic —
and the current rendering is one of crude directness
— must always be the essential stumbling-block.
Whether it would have been possible to maintain
the Christian verity while expressing the relation of
the Son to the Father as a Procession is probably

226 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

now a useless speculation; it would certainly have
made the Christian position much easier for the
Moslem. To the conception of an inner multi-
plicity in the nature of God Islam has, though
always finally rejecting it, from time to time
approximated. But while the representation of the
coming into being of such a multiplicity by an
eternal ' procession ' (sudur) has been rejected by
Islam as only heretical, any connexion of such a
multiplicity with fatherhood has never been con-
ceived of in any but the simplest physical fashion
and has, consequently, been viewed with horror.
To some aspects of this I will return.

What has now been said brings us, then, back to
the question which must ever be primary, How can
Christ be best preached to Moslems ? We have to
take them as we find them — even as Paul took the
Athenians — and present the body of Christian truth
so as to meet and complete their strivings. There
are certain vital forces working in Islam ; there is
a great vital force working in Christendom. How
can we bring that force — which is Christ — to bear
on those forces which are the workings and yearnings
of the human spirit fostered and guided, as we must
believe, by that Divine Spirit which has never left
itself without a witness within us ? These strivings
within Islam have been variously coloured, biassed
and stunted by Islam itself with its strange inherit-
ance from we know not what Christian heresy.

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 227

And it is there, in these imposed modifications, that
the taking of Moslems as we find them enters.
What do they, as Moslems, think of Christ ? How
far are they on the road towards Him ? How does
the thought of Him, if at all, already affect them ?
To that I wish now to turn.

So far as these questions are theological, the
answer to them is easy ; so far as they are religious, it
is very difficult. The Moslem doctrine of the nature
of Christ can be put in half a dozen sentences.
He is a semi-angelic semi-human being, but of
sinless flesh and nature ; a new creation by Allah
springing from Allah's direct creative word as did
Adam and hence called a Word from Allah, and
even the Word of Allah. But He is also specifically
called an 6aM9 a creature. His mother was also
conceived without sin in order that even on the
human side He might have no taint of inheritance.
He is called a Spirit from Allah and even the Spirit
of Allah, just as are the angels. His life on earth
was surrounded with miracle and in His birth-body
Allah took Him to one of the heavens where He
now is and whence He shall come to rule the world
in the last days. But the eternal Sonship is rejected
with the death on the cross, the resurrection and
rule at God's right hand. Nor does He return to
judge the quick and the dead. In fact, the Islamic
doctrine leaves us questioning why this semi-angelic
being came to earth at all. Some positive element

228 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

must have been dropped by Mohammed from the
system which was taught to him. Jesus in it was
evidently a second Adam, but His theological re-
lationship to the first has vanished. He must have
been sent for a purpose; that, too, has vanished.
The missionary might ask some arousing questions
on these points. He might ask, too, what was
involved in His being a special manifestation in
time of the eternal Word of Allah. It may be
answered that all things are products of Allah's
creative Word. But in the case of Jesus stress is
laid upon a certain uniqueness — what was it ? Up
to a certain point Islamic doctrine leads straight to
a Logos conception of the nature of Christ ; but at
that point it stops sharply.

Yet the Logos idea has found an entrance into
Islamic theology, and that in two forms. The
doctrine concerning the Koran is that it represents
upon earth the Word or Speech (Kaldm) which has
been with Allah from all eternity, by which He
made the worlds. This, it may be said roughly, is
our Nicene form of the Logos doctrine. On the
other hand, the Arian form appears in the doctrine
of the person of Mohammed. He is the first of all
created beings, and for his sake the worlds were
created. Both of these ideas are exceedingly vital
forces in Islam to-day and show the craving of the
human mind for some such mediating conception —
some link between God and man. Thus reformers

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 229

in Islam now tend to rally to one or other of two
cries : either, ' Back to the Koran ! ' or ' Back to
Mohammed ! '

Urging to the first cry are many forces. For all
Arabic speakers, the Koran is peculiarly their book.
It is the supreme flowering of the genius of the
language. No criticism of it by an outsider is ever
heard with patience. And, in truth, there are in
it, here and there, passages of haunting music.
Mohammed, it should never be forgotten, was a
poet of the primitive, incoherent, ecstatic type
before he was a prophet. So its cadences still
intoxicate and endless repetitions have not staled
its melodies. In the ears of the Moslem, schooled
in them from infancy, they constantly ring, and the
book witnesses to itself of its uniqueness. And
when to this is added that it is a divine book ; that
in it Allah speaks to man as with His own speech,
a Quality of His from all eternity — the theological
statements of this vary but such is their substance
— then that the Koran should be a rallying point
for all Moslems is easily intelligible. The life of
Mohammed, the bearer, may be smirched; but
the divine Word abides untouchable. Patriotism,
beauty, habit, faith, all unite to protect it. In
face of this — a most vital fact with all, especially
with educated Moslems — I can only repeat what I
have said above, that a heavy burden of duty lies
on all concerned to see that the Christian message

2 3° Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

is clad in a garb that will do it no discredit ; that
the supreme magic for the Arabic-speaking peoples
— and by their proverb a lawful magic — the magic
of language, is not disregarded.

But to the more emotional and less educated
Moslems, especially to those who, born in non-
Arabic lands, cannot so intoxicate themselves on
the rhythms of the book of the Arabs, the more
human interest of the figure of Mohammed himself
appeals. And so it has come about that he is often
practically deified, however contrary to exact Islam
and to the Prophet's own declarations such an
apotheosis may be. It is a question of tempera-
ment and environment, and the missionary need
not be surprised at any form he may meet and
must not think that the doctrine of his district is
universal Islam. We have had our time of
bibliolatry, and we have now, apparently, a time
of speaking of Jesus and addressing Him in prayer
as though He were the only person in the Godhead.
These Moslem vagaries should lead us to be only
the more careful as to the forms of our theological
statements. We sometimes think we can get along
without a theology and upon religious experience
alone. Theology thus cast out avenges itself by
coming back in perverted forms.

But I return to the second and more difficult side
of my question on the Moslem attitude towards
Christ. What place does He hold religiously

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 231

among them ? What part does He play in their
lives? Is He in any respect a vital force there?
I fear the answer must be that, for the great mass
of Moslems, He is not. On that side there is little
or nothing from which to begin. He does not even
seem to have struck the popular imagination as has
the mysterious al Khizr. He is theologically a
similarly mysterious figure among the prophets, and
if actual physical meetings with Him in this middle
earth cannot be looked for by Moslems, as they look
to meet al Khizr, visions of Him in dream might
be expected. Yet the evidence is that these occur
very rarely and almost only among dervishes and
under peculiar and predisposing circumstances. It
is true that there are certain stock anecdotes about
Him current in theological books of edification.
In these His unearthly, angelic nature appears.
He possesses peculiarly the power of raising the
dead. His words are of strange wisdom and His
conduct is sinless, or rather, His life moves in a
sphere in its nature apart from that of men. Gener-
ally, it may be said that Islam, while acknowledging
theologically His rank and treating Him at all
times with great respect, does not seem in its
religious or worldly need to turn towards Him.
Under such stress it seeks its local saints or al
Khizr or Mohammed himself, while ShPites, of
course, turn to the Imams. In the Last Days he
will play a large but undefined part with which the

232 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

religious Moslem does not greatly trouble himself
unless he aspires to be the Mahdi. Then he must
determine what role falls to him and what to 'Isa.

Yet in this, as in all phases of religion as opposed
to theology, and especially in the religion of the
masses, it is necessary to speak with caution. In
Lady Burton's time at Damascus there arose among
the Shadhilite dervishes a strange movement pro-
duced by visions of Jesus. Further, the broader
minded generally have shown a tendency to play
Him off against Mohammed, by way of vindicating
the universality of religion and the common value
of all religions. This has occurred more among
Turks and Persians and everywhere only among
advanced mystics. It is possible also that in
certain localities more closely connected with His
earthly life such religious influence may be found.
But I know of no evidence to that purport. Tales
are, of course, told to tourists, notably that He
and Mohammed will judge together at the Last
Day, one on the one side and the other on the
other of the valley of Kidron ; but these seem to
be fictions of dragomans, and are at best too
completely in the teeth of all sound doctrine to
be at all widely current among Moslems. That,
on that day, none shall judge save Allah Himself
is a fundamental article of the faith.

On another conception, to which attention has
already been drawn in more than one of the

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 233

preceding papers, I would wish to lay emphasis.
There can be no question that there has existed
and still exists, widespread among Moslems, a
strong feeling of the need of a mediator, an inter-
cessor between men and God. This has shown
itself in the doctrine which has gradually grown
up, apparently of necessity, and which is in the
teeth of statements of Mohammed himself, that
Mohammed will intercede for his people at the
Last Day and secure their entrance as a whole
into paradise. Only a single wretched man will
be left outside to satisfy God^s justice and keep
the letter of His threats. He is, as it were, a
scapegoat, and his fate is a ghastly parody on
some forms of the Christian doctrine of the Atone-
ment. This is intercession on behalf of the people
in general and, as such, belongs to Mohammed
alone. No other prophet, even, has a right to it,
and he only by the grace of Allah.1 But all
through the religious life of Islam runs the idea
of intercession on behalf of individuals by indi-
viduals who have acquired merit in the eyes of
Allah. This is what lies behind and conditions
the so-called 4 worship ' of saints, which is at bottom

1 1 pass over the interesting word iuajih) applied once to
Jesus in the Koran and explained by some commentators
as meaning 'intercessor in the world to come.' It is of
more importance for Mohammed's idea of Jesus than for
the position of Jesus in Islam.

234 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

prayer to them for the exertion of their personal
influence with Allah. Among Shi'ites, as has been
pointed out by one writer above, this has developed
into a doctrine of a virtue lying in the shed blood
of the slain Husain and his family. There is in
it a specific claim upon Allah. But this is only
a special case, sharpened by Sh?ite emotion, of a
general Moslem attitude towards the sufferings of
the saints. Theologically, Islam would never admit
the doctrine of a treasury of merit ; for in it, no
more than in Calvinism, can the human race by
any possibility acquire or hold merit in the eyes
of God. But religiously the idea certainly appears,
and in the lives of the saints we find them again
and again exercising flat pressure upon Allah. Of
course there might be here some fine distinguishing
between the ideas of influence with Allah — as being
the Friends of Allah (auliya) — and rights over
Allah, and theologians would undoubtedly draw
such a distinction. But in the attitudes and ideas
of the religious life it vanishes.

To that strange book, al Insanctl kamil, with its
approximations to Christian positions, allusion has
also been made in a preceding paper, and it
would be well if the book could have a more
careful study than has yet fallen to it. But such
phenomena keep appearing and disappearing in
the multiform and almost inchoate mass of Sufi
ideas. The human soul, when unbiassed by systems

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 235

and prejudices, is naturally Christian, and such
freedom has been the mark of Sufiism at all times.
An outstanding example which all missionaries
should study most carefully is given by the case
of al Hallaj. The book upon him by M. Louis
Massignon marks an epoch in our understanding
of earlier Moslem mysticism.

We come back, then, again to our question. All
things being so, how can Christ be best preached
to Moslems? Almost one is impelled to answer,
Do not preach Him ; let Him Himself do His own
work. If ever, it is face to face with Islam that
the preaching of man is foolishness. The path to
any formal presentation of Christian doctrine is
sown with misunderstanding and prejudice. Yet
the figure of Christ, simply presented as He lived
and spoke, seems to overcome these. An experience
which all, probably, who have worked among
Moslems have had, abundantly proves this. I
have spoken above of the Moslem horror before the
idea of the divine paternity. But it is peculiarly
in the Johannine writings that this ' begotten ' aspect
of the Son is emphasized. Without these that word
and its circle of ideas would probably have played
a much smaller part in the development of Christian
doctrine. And yet — and to this I think all mission-
aries will bear witness — it is precisely the Gospel
according to John which attracts and holds the
Moslem who has become a seeker for something

236 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

which his own religion cannot give him. It is
true that such men are all mystics and that the
mysticism of the book appeals to them. But it is the
mystical atmosphere of the great Figure itself which
overcomes and makes possible the words that are used.
And even this very difficulty may be turned to
account. In Philippians ii. 7, we read that He
took the form of a slave, fiouXog — an 6abd, a
'creature'; it is exactly the Koranic word for
Jesus. Can we, then, with Moslems begin at
that point ? Can we develop all that lies in that
word fiovXog and recognize all that a Moslem
thinks when he uses the word 6abd ? A multitude
of the most essential and germinative conceptions
of Christianity connect with that aspect of Jesus,
and they are those which Islam peculiarly needs.
I do not develop them here. That has been done
already in more than one of the preceding papers.
Then, when that Figure in its human life of
service and submission has once been brought
clearly into view and stands up concrete and real
with its testimony, its individual summons and
its promise, its mysterious background of relation-
ship to the Divine in time and in eternity will
far more easily follow. All the Logos ideas of
Islam can be related to it and thereby carried to
their true measure and end. The Moslem will
pass beyond that strange check which the Koran
imposes, and will be able to connect with Christ

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 237

those other stunted growths from the same stock
which Islam has related to the Koran and to
Mohammed. One forward step, especially, must
be made. In dealing with the Speech or Word
(Kalam) of Allah Islam has limited itself very
carefully to one side only of the Logos con-
ception. Its divine Logos is always oratio and
no conception of ratio is allowed to enter. This
is very marked and appears to spring from another
conception fundamental to Islam, that Allah must
be left a pure, unlimited Will — unlimited even
by any process of reason in Himself. That would
subordinate Allah to something else and make His
attitudes and acts less immediate and uncaused.
Just as right and wrong depend upon His will,
so He must be free also from the laws of thought.
I do not remember ever having met with a precise
statement of this; but it is involved in the care
with which reason (6aql) is kept out of all defini-
tions and descriptions of Allah. But this, be it
always remembered, is theology, and the religious
life of experience, on the other hand, has to
think and speak of Allah in terms of the aspects
under which it has known Him. It should not,
therefore, be difficult, at the cost of whatever
metaphysical confusion, to reintroduce thought
into the Moslem conception of the Divinity and
so far break up that impossible Unity. The
Word of Allah will cease to be a simple objectified

238 Vital Forces of Christianity and Islam

command (amr), like the Jewish Memra, and will
again, like the older Hebrew Khokmah^ be that
Wisdom in which and by which God does all
things.

I am very conscious that in what I have now
said there is more of theology and less of vital
experience than the title of this series of articles
would seem to demand. Yet that has sprung
from the very nature of the case. I am a student
of Moslem theology ; but only an onlooker upon
Moslem life. Lest any, however, should mistake
my attitude in the broad matter, let me now
finally state some practical propositions which
seem to me essential. I trust that missionaries
will forgive an outsider if he casts these, for
directness, in imperative form.

(1) As much as is in any way possible let the
Bible, and especially the figure of Christ in the
gospels, speak for themselves.

(2) As much as is in any way possible avoid
controversy, however friendly. Turn it with an
answer which will show that Christianity too has
beneath it a reasoned metaphysical system.

(3) As much as is in any way possible cultivate
religious conversation with Moslems and try to
understand their religious life. The reading of
their devotional and mystical books will greatly
help in this.

(4) As much as is in any way possible study

Seventh Study — D. B. Macdonald 239

the theological system of Islam in the treatises of
its theologians.

(5) Be thus prepared, when the genuine inquirer
who has been attracted by Christ and has read
the Bible brings forward theological difficulties,
to understand these and his mind in general and
to enter most fully into theological subtleties.
To us they may seem unreal ; to him, with his
training, they are vital.

(6) Never be surprised at the doctrine or the
aspect of Christianity which seems most to appeal
to any individual Moslem. He must begin where
he can. Avoid, therefore, fixed ' easy methods.'
I knew one man who became a sincere Christian
with a real grasp of Christian doctrine and who
began by being impressed with the historical
continuity of the books of Samuel and Kings.
Above all, do not think that there must be a
theological sense of sin. Many Moslems find rest
in Christ as a solution of the problems of the
world and of the mystery of the universe. Their
Christ is cosmic, but none the less real.

GENERAL INDEX

Ablutions, 28, 87, 169.

Al Bukhari, 18, 182.

Al Ghazzali, 21.

Ali Ilahls, 52.

Allah a vital reality to
Moslems, 17-8, 49-51,
128-9, 163-4, 196-7 ; not
the Christian God, but
an honest attempt to re-
present Him, 32-4 ; no
dissatisfaction felt with
Moslem conception of,
22-3 (but see also 200-1) ;
demoralizing influence of
belief in His easy-going
mercifulness, 50. See also
God.

Approach to Moslems,
methods of, 25-7, 38-40,
65-7, 94-6, 140-2, 143-6,
176-80, 203-4, 206. See
also Points of Contact,
Christ, presentation of, to
Moslems.

Ascension, 36, 181, 183,
206.

Atonement, 38, 40, 58-9, 72,
183-5, 233.

Bahaism, 51-2, 57, 62, 63,

74-

Bible. See Scriptures.
Brotherhood, sense of, a vital

element in Islam, 20, 133-

5, 165-6, 197.
16

Ceremonial, 28, 86-7, 90-2,
93, II3-4, 169-70.

Character, emphasis on, in
appeal to Moslems, 141-2.

Christ, necessity of empha-
sizing elements of strength
in character of, 34-5, 40-1 ;
attractive power of His
character, 34-5, 66-7, 95,
204, 235-6 ; attitude of
Moslems towards, 26, 32-7,
72, 109-10, 182-3, 207-8,
226-9, 230-2 ; divine Son-
ship of, 26, 32, 60, 70, 96,
102-3,143-5,203,207,225-
7, 235 ; death of, 26, 41,
6 1-3, 95, 103, 105-6, 114,
207, 211, 227 ; presentation
of, to Moslems, 9-10, 68-9,
94-6, 152-3, 226 ff., 235.
See also Approach to Mos-
lems, Points of Contact.

Christianity, defects of west-
ern, 27, 60, 107, 148 ; in-
stinctive antipathy to,
among Moslems, 25-6, 59,
96, 143, 207-8, 224-5;
ethical freedom of, an
attraction to Moslems, 36,
66, 179 ; light shed by
Islam on, 38-43, 73-5, 113-
22, 152-5, 187-91, 210-2.

Controversy, use of, 147, 205-
6, 238 ; impossibility of
avoiding, 104, 109-13.

242

General Index

Co-operation between Chris-
tians and Moslems, call
to, 153-5-

Cross, the. See Christ, death
of.

Dhikr^ religious significance
of, for Moslems, 21, 36, 53,
132-3, 216-20.

Eschatology. See Future Life.

Family, attractiveness of

Christian, 37, 41-3, 64, 98-

9, 1 88, 200, 205.
Fasting, 51, 56, 57, 87, 90,

105, 131-2, 169, 198.
Fatalism, 7, 50, 72, 87-8, 201,

209.
Force, emphasis on, in Islam,

34, 40-1.
Freedom of Christianity, 19,

36-7, 66, 74-5, 114, 117,

179.
Future Life, 84-5, 89-90,

1 10-3, 118-9.

God, unity of, 29-30, 38-9, 71,
82-3, 119-21, 163-4, 1 8 1,
207, 237-8 ; necessity of
emphasizing holiness and
love, 22-3, 40, 140-2 ; re-
lation between Christian
and Moslem conception of,
32-3, 70-2, 106-7, 1 1 6-7,
140-2, 221-2, 224-6 ; great-
ness of, 128 ; as Judge, 93,
128, 1 8 1-6, 233. See also
Allah.

Hostility of Christendom to
Moslem interests, 148-50.

Imamat, influence of, among
Shi'ite Moslems, 51-3, 58-

9.231.

Immortality. See Future Life.

Inspiration, 33, 61-3, 202.
See also Revelation.

Islam, dissatisfaction with,
among Moslems, 7-8, 22-5,
55-9, 88-9, 169-76, 199-
203 ; is evangelization of
Islam worth while, 13-
14 ; real vitality of, 8-
9, 126-7, 162-3 ; all ele-
ments not equally vital,
16-17 ; legalism of (see
Legalism) ; Semitic ele-
ments in, 161-5 ; intoler-
ance of, effect on Persian
character, 63-4 ; its pro-
paganda among pagan
peoples, 80 ff. ; eternal
paradox of, 222-4.

Kerbala, 51, 54, 57, 58.

Koran, effect of criticism
upon, 24, 136, 202 ; pre-
existence of, 30-1, 41, 228-
30 ; reciting of, 21-2, 135-
6, 164-5, 219-20; attract-
iveness to pagan of its
claim to be the revelation
of God, 83-4 ; use of, in
controversy, 106-9.

Legalism of Islam, a cause
of dissatisfaction, 24-5, 36,
56-7, 73-5, 170-2 J a domi-
nant force in Islam, 51.

Logos, doctrine of, in Islam,
30-1,41, 186,227-30,236-8.

Love, 26, 37, 64-5, 96-9, 140-
i, 177-8.

Magic, 54-5, 83, 92, 94-5,
99-100, 103, 114, 115-7,

120.

Marriage, 98, 101, 172-5.

See also Family.
Maulid services, 136-9.
Mecca, pilgrimage to, 83, 88,

91,97, 114, 134.

General Index

243

Merit, conception of, a uni-
versal force in Islam, 51,
105, 164, 234.

Miracle, 62, 181, 227 ; 94-5,
116-7, 178-9, 206.

Missions, Moslem estimate
of, 26, 37, 64, 96-7, 139-40,
177.

Mohammed, personal devo-
tion of Moslems to, 18-19,
129, 136-9, 146-8, 167-9,
23° j growing dissatisfac-
tion with character of, 23 ;
contrast between Christ
and, 35, 66-7, 72, 106, 170.

Mullas, dissatisfaction with,
56. See also Priesthood.

Mysticism, 18, 22, 25, 39-40,
57-9,73,85-6, 1 10, 115-6,
120,132,137-8,143,164-5,
167-9, 170, I79i 185, 236.

Names of Allah, 219-21.

Pan-Islamism, 134-5.

Paradise. See Future Life.

Perfect Man, doctrine of, in
Islam, 185-7, 189-91.

Personal authority, influence
of, in Islam, 53-4, 73-5.

Pilgrimage. See Mecca.

Points of contact between
Christianity and Islam,
29-32,36,70-2,73-4, 150-
2, 153-5, 181-7, 206.

Polygamy, 24, 64, 98, 172-6,
200.

Prayer, place of, in Moslem
life, 129-33, 1 8 8, 216-9 ;
formal prayers (salaf) less
significant than the dhikr,
20-1 ; attractiveness of
Christian prayer to Mos-
lems, 36-7, 178.

Priesthood, power of, 87, 88-
9, 93. See also Mullas.

Rationalism of Islam, 164.
Revelation, 29, 72-3, 84, 175-
6. See also Inspiration.

Scriptures, attractive power

of Christian, 94, 176-7, 206,

235-6.
Sin, the sense of, 22, 63, 96,

105, 107, 167, 168, 181-5.
Social aspiration and reform

among Moslems, 24, 56-7,

151, 171-6.
Spirit of Jesus, 43.
Sufiism, 25, 39-40, 57, 167-8,

170, 185-6, 234-5.

Traditions, source of idealiza-
tion of Mohammed, 18-19 ;
effect of European criti-
cism upon, 23.

Trinity, doctrine of, 61, 69-
70, 102-3, 143-4, 189-91,
207. See also 30, 38-9, 121.

Wahhabis, 167.

Wine, use of, 28-9, 208.

Women, dissatisfaction with
position of, 24-5 ; attrac-
tiveness of Christian atti-
tude to, 37, 179-80 ; funda-
mental difference between
Moslem and Christian
attitude to, 42-3.

Word. See Logos.

Writers of these studies,
notes on, 4-6 ; outlook
conditioned by their per-
sonal experience, 16, 47-8,
79-80, 125-6, 159-61, 195-
6, 209, 215-16.

Zikr. See Dhikr.

INDEX TO SIX MAIN TOPICS

(See pp. 3 and 4)

INTRODUCTORY— How to study Islam, 8-9; system not
all of equal religious significance, 16-17 ; danger of
universal statements, tendencies more significant than
expressed opinions, 49, 230 ; religious forces not ex-
clusively Islamic — part animistic, part Christian, 54-5,
138, 226 ; indebted also to Judaism, 161.

I. VITAL ELEMENTS IN ISLAM

DEVOTIONAL — Spiritual life
in Islam, sources of, 20-1 ;
religious nature called into
activity, 127, 129-30; the
dhikr as channel for re-
ligious energy, 21, 132 ;
effect on religious con-
sciousness, 217-8 ; psycho-
logical impression pro-
duced by acted and spoken
prayer, 130-1 ; religious
practices connect this life
with the next, 198-9 ;
mysticism or Sufiism, 21,
167-9 5 relation to murid
and mujtahidy 53-4 ; con-
stant opposition between
experience of religious life
and systems derived from
dogmas, 223-4.

DOCTRINAL— The existence
and unity of God, a real
sense of, 163, 196 ; who is

a personal force, in relation
to the world and to man,
17-18, 222-3 5 God present
in some person (Imamat),
51-2; His transcendence
and sovereignty, 199 ; reci-
tation of the Most Beauti-
ful Names of Allah, 219 ;
Islam vital because it is a
religion, 126 ; main re-
ligious ideas simple, 128 ;
brevity and simplicity of
creed, 57.

KORAN — Importance of, as
supplying a Logos doctrine,
228 ; aesthetic value of
chanting of Koran, 21 ;
effect of, irrespective of its
meaning, 1 64-5; associated
with all Moslem education,
197 ; its effect on con-
science, 135-6 ; new ethical
significance in its study,

Index to Six Main Topics

245

136 ; importance of a
* Book ' from propagandist
point of view, 84.

MOHAMMED— Personal atti-
tude to, 1 8 ; fostered by
Traditions, 19 ; his in-
fluence and personality,
147 ; progressive idealiza-
tion of Prophet expressed in
maulid, 136-8 ; practically
deified, 230 ; vital con-
ception of divinely revealed
bond between God, the
Prophet, and his followers,
129 ; Mohammed as inter-
cessor, 233 ; practically
equivalent to Logos, 228-9.

PROPAGANDA — Among
pagans reveals vital forces,
80 ; social and political
factors advance Islam, 80-
i ; but religious content
is main attraction, 81-2;
unity of Allah attracts
pagans, as contrasted with
polydaemonism, 82-3, 89 ;
power of Allah, as demon-
strated by economic, social,
and intellectual superiority
of Moslems, attractive to

pagans, 83 ; superiority of
Moslem to pagan magic,
83,192 ; possession of divine
revelation in writing as
compared with pagan oral
tradition, 84 ; a promised
Paradise contrasted with
uncertainties of pagan
beliefs, 84-5, 89-90; in-
fluence of wandering
teachers, 85.

SOCIAL AND ETHICAL —
Brotherhood and equality,
idea of, 20, 133, 165 ; pan-
Islamic movements not
source or product of re-
ligious class consciousness,
134-5 ; corporate sense
among Moslems, religious
and political, 197 ; pride in
history and universality of
Islam, 20 ; legalistic merit
resulting from religious
acts, 5 1 ; fast month main-
tains control of religion
over nature, 132 ; but un-
satisfactory motives under-
lie religious observances,
90-2.

II. SPECIFIC POINTS IN ISLAM WITH WHICH MOSLEMS

ARE DISSATISFIED

GENERAL — Evidences of
decay in Islam, 7-8 ; dis-
satisfaction 'the rare ex-
ception,' 203 ; traceable in
(a) express statements of
individuals, (ti) attempts
made to supply deficiencies
in Islam, 55-6 ; sects and
cults an expression of dis-
satisfaction, 57-9 ; dissatis-

faction created by contact
with Christianity, 88 ; yet
seldom drives to accept-
ance of Gospel, 94 (but see

DOCTRINAL — Doctrine of
Allah, or relation of soul
to Him, not touched with
dissatisfaction, 22 ; but
doubt felt as to reality of a

246

Index to Six Main Topics

divine forgiveness divorced
from moral considerations,
200-1 ; fatalism, 201.

KORAN — A faint note of
dissatisfaction with, 24 ;
touched by criticism in
India, 24 ; its scientific
statements indefensible, in
view of theory of inspira-
tion, 202.

LEGALISTIC — Requirements
of Moslem law, minute
and vexatious, 56; Baha-
ism expression of this
dissatisfaction, 57 ; cer-
tain school of educated
Moslems dissatisfied with
compulsory fasting, stated
prayers, ablutions, 169 ;
Arabic prayer in non-
Arabic speaking countries,
169-70 ; Sufi or mystic
movement is a protest
against enslavement by
Moslem ordinances, 25,
170.

MOHAMMED— His acts, all
lawful, but condemned if

dissociated from him,
202.

POLITICAL — Retrogressive
political tendencies, 170-
2 ; in Persia, Islam some-
times regarded as religion
imposed by conquerors,
56.

SOCIAL — Social system fixed
by revelation, 24-5 ; mod-
ern educated Moslem dis-
satisfied, 150, 172-6; edu-
cation of woman and girls,
151 ; position of woman,
veil, concubinage, divorce,
whole relation of the sexes,
24-5, 172-6, 200; poly-
gamy a burning question
in India, 173 ; slavery, 199 ;
impositions practised at
Mecca, 89 ; harshness and
covetousness of Moslem
teachers, 88-9 (but see 92-
3) ; the use of compulsion
to gain converts, 201 ;
dissatisfaction with social
system cause of conversion
to Christianity, 176.

III. ELEMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL AND
CHRISTIAN LIFE WHICH APPEAL TO MOSLEMS

CHRIST OF CHRISTIANITY,
THE — Christ Himself
appeals, 9, 67 ; until His
claim to supersede Moham-
med is realized, 96; His
character, 34-5 ; the Ful-
filler, 180; His life and
teaching, 66, 95, 96, 204 ;
the miracles, 94, 178 ;
story of crucifixion, 95

(but see 61) ; moral ideals
in teaching of Jesus, 65-
6, 177 ; His presentation
as the apostle of divine
saving energy, 140-1;
Christ in the Johannine
writings, 235 (but see
231-2).

DOCTRINES OF CHRISTI-
ANITY — Theological as-

Index to Six Main Topics

247

pect does not attract,
26-7, 37 ; except elements
incorporated in Koran,
203 ; such as Ascension
and Intercession, 36; new
thought of God, as a God
of character, 141-2 ; who
desires to draw near to
men, 140-1 ; erroneous
ideas of Christian doctrine
lessened by contact with
Christians, 60.

ETHICAL AND SOCIAL
TEACHING OF CHRISTI-
ANITY — Ethical freedom
of Christianity, 36, 66, 179 ;
Christian worship, 98-9,
178 ; Christian prayer,
public and private, 36, 178 ;
Christian marriage, 98 ;
the marriage rite, 98 ; the
spiritual heaven, 66 ; ex-
ercise of discipline by
native church, 101 ; ab-
sence of controversy in
teaching, 65 (but see
112).

FRUITS OF CHRISTIANITY—
Christian character, pro-
duct of divine activity,
141-2; influence of, feared
by Moslems, 204 ; Chris-
tian love, 37, 64 ; truthful-

ness and unselfish service,
59; forbearance, 177 ; life
of Christian family, 37 ;
Christian womanhood, 37,
64, 179; bearing of Chris-
tian teachers contrasted
with that of Islamic priest-
hood, 97-8 ; bearing of
Christians in face of death,
99 ; hearing for Gospel
won by conduct of Chris-
tians, 96 ; Christian govern-
ment, contrast with old
regime, 205-6.

MISSIONS, CHRISTIAN —
Enterprise of Christian
missions attracts, 26, 37,
64, 177 ; medical missions,
96-7 ; Moslem belief in
influence of educational
missions upon character,
99-100 ; Protestant mis-
sions have won respect
lost by oriental churches,
26, 139-40.

SCRIPTURES OF CHRISTIAN-
ITY, THE— Value of, for
Moslems, 67, 206, 235-6 ;
they also are ' people of a
book,' 176 ; power of argu-
ment from prophecy, 176,
94 ; biblical stories in ver-
nacular, 94.

IV. ELEMENTS IN THE CHRISTIAN GOSPEL AND CHRISTIAN
LIFE WHICH AWAKEN OPPOSITION AND CREATE
DIFFICULTY AMONG MOSLEMS

GENERAL— All that is dis-
tinctive in Christianity
repudiated, 25-6 ; some
stumbling - blocks inevi-
table, others removable,
27 ; Moslems regard

Christianity as religion
whose day is past, 59.
DOCTRINAL — Doctrinal
difficulties, increased by
method of presentation,
34-5, 38, 61, 152-3,

248

Index to Six Main Topics

225-6 ; certain doctrines
regarded as dishonouring
to God, 143 ; doctrines
of the Trinity, Deity of
Christ, Incarnation, 61,
102-3, 203, 207 ; recoil
from idea of generation,
225-6 ; * error of Christian-
ity does not lie in making
Christ God, but in making
God Christ,' 190, 208 ;
Cross dishonouring to
Jesus, unnecessary for for-
giveness, 62, 103, 145 ;
conception of Fatherhood
and sonship between God
and man repellent, 221-2,
224-5 ; different con-
ceptions of what a sacred
book should be, 61-2 ;
objections to Christian
doctrines stand or fall
with infallibility of Koran,
208 ; question of reserva-
tion of Christian doctrines
which cause offence, 104 ;
differences necessarily
called out in discussion,
105-6 ; doctrinal interpre-
tation should be sub-
ordinated to living experi-
ence, 144-5-

FAILURES OF CHRISTIAN-
ITY (RELIGIOUS)— Failure
of Church to orientalize
and arabize its forms of
expression, 218, 229-30;
divided state of Church in
eastern lands, 27, 60 ;
denial, by Protestant
Christendom, of present
operation of miracles in
physical world, 178 ; lack
of devotional life in Pro-
testant Christianity, 164;

certain Roman Catholi
practices, 163 ; ritualistic
services, 178; slovenliness
and irreverence in worship,
28 ; failure of Christendom
in the East as regards
ablution, 28 ; contradictory
teaching as to teetotalism
and sacramental use of
wine, 28-9 ; use of wine
and swine's flesh, 208 ;
absorption of a Christian
worker in his profession
as an end in itself, 178 ;
inconsistency bet ween pub-
lic and private life of a
preacher, 177.

FAILURES OF CHRISTIAN-
ITY (SOCIAL)— Failure of
Christianity to leaven
western life, 27 ; demoral-
izing tendencies in avow-
edly Christian society,
148 ; undue stress on
materialism, 187 ; lack of
religion among Europeans,
27, 60 ; contact with
nominal Christians in
trade and in politics, 60 ;
hostility of Christendom
to Moslem interests, 148-9 ;
denial of Moslem claims
and experiences by Chris-
tians, 146-7.

RELIGIOUS— Different con-
ceptions of religion, 61-2 ;
loss involved by prohibi-
tion of all magical imple-
ments and powers, 103 ;
fear of impact of Christian
teaching on conscience,
102 ; Christian sincerity a
difficulty where the in-
tolerance of Islam has
bred insincerity, 63-4 ; fear

Index to Six Main Topics

249

of consequences of con-
version, 6 1 ; elements

which attract may also
repel, 101-2.

V. POINTS OF CONTACT BETWEEN CHRISTIANITY
AND ISLAM

GENERAL— Inter-relation of
two religions deeply im-
portant, 29 ; Islam con-
tains some mental prae-
paratio for Christian mono-
theism, 32 ; mainly outside
Koran and in semi- Moham-
medan sects, 73 ; Moslem
mental content and envir-
onment change gradually,
67-8,70-1 ; missionary aim
not substitution of one set
of beliefs for another, but
presentation of Christ, 70 ;
points of resemblance are
not real identities, but
relationships, 32-3 ; con-
gruity of Christianity and
Islam more apparent than
real, 108-12 ; as to divine
mercy, 109 ; as to Jesus and
'Isa, 109 ; as to second
advent and return of
Mahdi, no; as to mysti-
cism, no; as to escha-
tology, in ; unbiblical
syncretism results from
lax use of Christian terms
for Moslem thought, 112.

DOCTRINAL (IN GENERAL)
— Fundamental beliefs in
common, 107, 181 ; agree-
ment in praise of divine
goodness, 107 ; supreme
value set on faith in God,
150; belief in the Unity,
71 ; hints of 'real pres-
ence' of God in Koran

17

and Traditions, 31 ; faith
in divine immanence,
though degenerated into
pantheism, 71 ; use of
Names of God, 219-21 ;
common antagonism to
scepticism and material-
ism, 150.

DOCTRINAL (IN RESPECT
TO A MEDIATOR) — Desire
for a mediator, 181-3;
salvation through His
sufferings, 183-5 J search
after 'the Perfect Man,'
185-6 ; belief in revelation
through human mediums,
72 ; but claims of Mo-
hammed conflict with
claims of Christ, 72 ;
yearning for an incarna-
tion, 71-2; Logos doctrine,
strangely incomplete, 30,
227-8 ; to be amplified
by Christian teaching, 31,
236-8 ; Johannine doctrine
of Christ, 235-6 ; Moslem
principle of complete sur-
render aids in moral in-
terpretation of death of
Christ, 145-6 ; power of
appeal to personal authority
— Mohammed or Christ,
73-4 ; approximation of
Moslem 'add to Christian
SovXoy, 225, 236.

DOCTRINAL (IN RESPECT
TO REVELATION)— Revela-
tion through sacred books,

250

Index to Six Main Topics

72 ; but Christian revela-
tion richer and higher, 73 ;
common ground in lives
of prophets and personal
religion of Psalms, 206 ;
life of our Lord, 206 (but
see 1 08).

MYSTICISM — Moslem and
Christian, 22; 'EN
CHRISTO,' 39, 40 ; possible
naturalizing of dhikr for
Christian purposes, 218-9 \
common ground of deep
religious experience, 181.

VI. LIGHT SHED ON THE VITAL ELEMENTS OF CHRIS-
TIANITY AND ON THE NEW TESTAMENT BY CONTACT

WITH ISLAM

GENERAL— Vital forces of
Gospel manifest at points
where Islam is living, 119-
21 ; contact with Islam
deepens conception of
Christianity, 121 ; alters
emphasis on its elements,
1 2 1-2 ; brings out elements
forgotten or underestim-
ated, 2 10- 1 ; reveals con-
fusion in Christian termin-
ology, 152; Christianity
meets needs untouched
by Islam, 210 ; moral co-
operation between Chris-
tian leaders and earnest
Moslems needed, 154-5 ;
contemplative life in Islam
calls for devotional prayer
life in church, 187 ; Chris-
tian beliefs defined by con-

tact with Islam, 211-2;
light on New Testament,
32,75, 113-9.

CHRISTIAN BELIEFS AND
IDEAS THROWN INTO
RELIEF BY I SLAM— Atone-
ment, 38 ; character of
Christ, 34-5, 41 ; eschat-
ology, 118-9 5 freedom,
religious, 117; God — His
unity, 30, 39 ; His holi-
ness, 40 ; His love, 40 ;
His ethical omnipotence,
40-1 ; faith in His living
rule, 73 ; incarnation, the,
38, 41 ; miracle, conception
of, 1 1 6-7; 'Perfect Man,'
the, 188-91 ; personality
as a force in religious life,
73-4 ; sex relationship,
42-3 ; ' spirit of Jesus,' 43.

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