sell - outlines of islam

8/8/2019 Sell - Outlines of Islam

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OUTLINES OF ISLAMBY

THE REV. CANON SELL, D.D., M.R .A.S .nu.ow 011' TH . UMIVBJl8I'l"Y 011' IlADBA.B

AUTHOR OF 'THE F AI TH O F ISLAM'. 'THE HiSTORICAL DEVEL-OPMENT OF THE QUR'AN I. BAHAISM I. I SL AM : I TS R IS E

A ND P R OG R ES S ', 'THE R E CE N SI O NS O F THE gUR'AN' THE CULT OF ALI '

THE CHRISTIAN LITERATURE SOCIETYFOR INDIA

LONDON. MADRAS AND COLOMBO1912


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PRINTED AT THES. P. C. K. PRESS, VEPERY, MADRAS

1912

PREFACETills little book has been prepared for the use ofstudy classes. It covers all the necessary ground, andwill afford a foundation on which an extensive knowledge of the whole system of I sl am can be built up.I have tried to deal with the subject as simply andbriefly as possible, and have not, therefore, quoted orig.inal authorities, but the work as it now stands is basedupon them.I have referred in the foot-notes to many usefulEnglish books, which the student may consult withmuch profit.

MADRASDecember 2, 1912 EDWARD SELL


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CONTENTSCHAPTER PAGE

I. MUHAMMAD 1II . THE MEANING OF THE WORD ISLAM. 14III. THE QUR'AN 19IV. THE TRADITIONS: SUNNA 23V. IJMA': QIYAS 2S

VI. THE CREED 27VII. SOME PRACTICAL DUTIES 3SVlII. FIQH 38IX. THE SECTS OF ISLAM 48X. FEASTS AND FASTS SSXI. THE EARLY KHALIFAS S9Xli. THE VARIOUS KHALlFATES 64Xlii. THE MUSLIM VIEW OF JESUS

CHRIST 70XIV. THE STRENGTH AND THE WEAK

NESS OF ISLAM - 74xv. GENERAL SURVEY 80


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OUTLINES OF ISLAMCHAPTER I

MUI:fAMMADAT the end of the sixth century, the people of Arabiawere pagans, though t h e r ~ were amongst them manyJewish colonies and some Christian settlements.1 TheSaMans or star-worshippers also lived in Arabia. Therewas no s trong central authority ab le to control theaffairs of the various Arab tribes. The neighbouring States were encroaching on Arab terri tory andthe polit ical outlook was gloomy. The t ime was ripefor the advent of a strong, earnest leader of men.Mu!)ammad, the founder and p rophet o f I sl am , wasborn in A. D. 570. His father died before he was born.His mother Amina, in accordance with a custom thenprevalent in Mecca, put the child out to nurse witha woman called I:falfma, who belonged t o the tri beof the Bani Sa'd; so he was brought up in the opencountry. Af ter a few years he returned to Mecca tolive with his mother. Many marvellous stories arerecorded in the Traditions about the event s whichhappened to him in h is infancy ; but they are legends

1 See Zwemer, Islam. pp. 13-22.


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2 OUTL INES OF ISLAM MUI:IAMMAD 3wit hout much real historical basis. When the boywas about six years old his mother died, and his k ~ n dold grandfather, 'Abdu'l-Mullalib, took charge o f h im .Two years after, his grandfather died. When he w twelve years old, his uncle Abu Talih then became hI Sguardian. Mu1).ammad went with h i unc le on mercanti le journey to Syria and met with many d I f r e r e ~ tpeople, Jews and Chr is ti an s amongst t hem. In thisand in subsequen t journeys, he ga ined a good deal ofinformation which was afterwards usef ul to h im. ~ spent a good dea l of time in t he open count ry lookmgafter 'sheep and goats, and sO t he d ay s pa ss ed on,until the t ime came when it was nec es sa ry t o do something better t o h el p his uncle, who was now in poorcircumstances.There was a wealthy l ady i n Mecca called Khadija,who engaged Mubammad to manage some o f h er t r a d ~ing concerns. He was put in charge of a large c a r a ~ a no f mer chandise. Mub ammad, now a good lookmgyoung man , so successfully managed the busin,ess ~ n trusted to his car e tha t Khadija fen in love With himand soon after married him. Mul;tammad was now acomparatively rich man. .. In Khadlja's house he met some men, few m number,who ' ; ; ;e distressed at the religious and political stateo f Arabi a. A few had g iv en up i do la tr y and wer ened Haniu; a name by which Abraham is c al le d i n~ Qu;/in.' 'They said they wished to re-establish th .

religion o f Abraham . Khadrja was much mfluencedb y th ese men, and no doubt Mu1)ammad a ls o h ad hi s

J Suras ii. 129; iv. 124.

thoughts directed to a purer religion than the idolwor sh ip o f Mecca, and h is a tt en ti on d rawn to thed ange r t o his count ry by the encroachments of theRomans and Persians. Thus the seeds of a religiousand patriotic movement were sown in his mind, soonto take root and gr ow int o a s ys tem o f religion andpolity which became powerful in his own lifetime, andin after centuries spread over many lands.One of these J;Ian(fs, Zaid ibn Amr, made the Meccans

angry b y h is protest against their idolatry, and so leftthe c ity and lead a solitary life near Mount ~ l i n t , notfar away from Mecca. Many of the Meccans used tor et ir e t o t he s ame place during the month of RamaQanfor meditation or for penance. As yet in Mecca Mu!)ammad had to conform to the idolatry of his people,bu t at Mount 1:Iira, to which, with h is wife and family,he now used to retire, he could hold familiar discoursewit h Zai d the I:Ianff. As h is mind brooded over thenew teaching, his thoughts were led to the idea ofa new system under a patriot ic leader. I t is said thatone day Gabriel appeared to h im and said ;- -

Recite thou in the name of the Lord who created;Created man from dots of blood. 1This was the beginning of what he said was theinspiration which came to him from God. 'V e shallexplain this more fully when we come to consider theQur'an. For some time no further revelation came andMuJ;tammad was much dispir i ted; but at length Gabrielappeared again. and the revelations came steadily onafter that.

l S u r a t u ' J ~ ' A l a q (xcvi) 1-2.


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4 OUTL INES OF ISLAM MUI:IAMMAD 5He now determined to give up idolatry. Hi s wife

Khadrja was h is first convert; his cousin, afterward hisson-in-law, 'All, a lad of about thirteen years of age,was the second. Then followed Zaid bin I :Iar itha , aslave to whom Mubammad had given his freedom, andAbu Bakr, a rich and highly"esteemed merchant, whowas acqua in ted with the I:fanifs. So a few converts,connected by family and social ties with Mu'Q.ammad,were made.Th e missionary propaganda then t ook a wider f orm

and the believers met secretly in a more retired spot,in the house of a l-Arqam, h imse lf a recent convert.Ins truc tion was the re given to those who desired toreceive i t. MUQammad now began a 1110re open propaganda, and this roused up the animosity o f the Meccans,whose material prosperity depended largely on the timehonoured cus toms of the ir religion, which made Meccathe religious centre of all Arabia. Persecution soonbegan, bu t i t is said that only fIve converts returned topaganism. Mul;tammad advised those whom he couldnot protect to emigrate to Abyssinia.The Meccan mocked at his revelation and called him

a mad man, a soothsayer (kahin). This was becauseh is revelat ions were composed in a sort of rhymingprose, called Sai', a form whi ch the kahins, or soothsayers, used. This hosti li ty cal led for th severe de nunciations from the Prophet.]Finding that persecution failed, the Meccans tried

another plan to silence Mul;1ammad. They sent amessenger to him, offering him mater ia l advantages

and supreme power, if be would l et the ir gods alone.MuJ:.tammad refused. Then a deputation waited onhis uncle Abu Talib to urge him to restrain his nephew.Abu Talib was not a convert, bu t the ti e of clanshipwas very strong, and he determined to stand by hisnephew.At this time MUQammad had a momentary fall.

Wearied by opposition he seems to have felt that acompromise was jus t possible, and so one day in thepresence of some of the leading men of Mecca in,. 'the Ka ba, the ArabIan Pantheon, with its threehundred and s ix ty idols, he recited some verses in theSuratu'n-Najam (Iiii) and then went on to say : -

Do you see aI-Lilt and al-'UzzaAnd Manilt I the third besides.Those on the exalted femalesAnd verily their intercession is to be hoped for.

The las t words of the Slira suggests the compromise -Prostrate yourself then to God and worship.

They all did so, and the Meccans were delighted, forMUQammad had acknowledged their goddesses, andthey w ~ t h him b ad prostrated themselves hefore God .Mul;1ammad saw his mistake and brought a revelation tto show that what he had said was due to the temptationof the devil. To his honour be it said that now andfor ever he broke with ido la try.Other converts now began t o come in, and the Mus

lims were no longer confined to the secluded quarters of

] Suras l xx iv . 11. 17, 26-9; cxi. 1-5; civ. 4-7.] Names of idol goddesses.Zwemer. Islam, p. 12. Fo r the names o f o the r idols, seeII Sitra xxii. 51.


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6 OUTLINES OF ISLAM MUI:IAMMAD 7al.Arqam's house for their meetings, which now tookplacein more public places. They even performed theirr ites of prayer in the Ka'ba , or central place of worshipin Mecca .The Quraish, the leaders of Meccan Society, now de

termined to excommunicate Abu Talib and his brothers,e


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8 OUTLINES OF ISLAM MUI;IAMMAD 9at first he and his followers turned towards Jerusalem inprayer, and observedsome Jewish fast days; but the Jewswould not admit his c laim to be the Prophet, of whomtheir Scriptures spoke, and the end of it all was thatMul,tammad made Mecca the Qibla, or direction towardwhich prayer should be made, an d prescribed other fastdays.' He then accused t he J ews of corrupting theirScriptures, but even the Qur'an does not prove that theyal tered the text of t he Old Testament. All that can beshown from it is tha t they were charged with a lter ingits meaning when they read iLl Anyhow, the Jewswould have nothing to dowith him, incurred his enimity,and afterwards suffered bitter persecution at his hands.

He soon took a commanding position at MadJ'na, andpeople came to him to set tle the ir d ispu tes. Hi sdecisions, probably good ones, for foolish oDes wouldhave ruined his case, have been recorded in manyvolumes and have now the force of a sacred law allover the Muslim world.In the early days at Madina the immigrants (MaM-

j ir6n) were poor and suffered much distress. Theclimate did not suit them, and theyhad no lands to cultivate. The only way to secure property was to plundercaravans of merchandise and to confiscate the lands oft he J ews. The t riba l wars amongst t he Arab s werefrequent, and probably such act s o f looting were notlooked upon as involving anything very disgraceful .Anyhow the Muslims at Madina needed property badly.The Meccan merchants were considerable traders and

J Sura ii. 138-9. 181.j! SUras iii. 72 ; v. 16. 18.

sent caravans of goods for sale to other parts, orbroughtthem from other trading centres to Mecca .

The Prophet gave orders that such caravans shouldbecaptured. The earlier raids were unsuccessful. Thencame an attempt which led to the famous battle of Badr.Mu1).ammad heard that a rich caravan was on its way toMecca and determined to capture it ; but the leader ofthe caravan obtained news of this proposed attack andmanaged to elude it. A numher of Meccans went forthto meet it and protect it, but as i t reached home safelytheir services were not needed. Ho wev er, they feltthat their commerce was in danger, and that the Muslimsneeded a lesson; so some of them proceeded on theirway and t he battle of Badr was the result. They weredefeated and the v ic tory added much to Mui,>ammad'sprestige. It was a turning point in his career. Defeatwould have been disastrous.1

The Jews were not pleased at this victory and someof their c lever sat ir is ts composed verses adverse toMu1}ammad. This led to the assas sinat ion of Abu'Afak and K a ~ b ibn Ashraf, Jewish satirists. A Jewishtribe the Bani Qainuqa' were then expelled from theirhomes and all their property was confiscated. MuQ.am-mad's power kept on increasing and soon his mencaptured a rich caravan of goods. The Meccans werein despair. Their existence depended on their m e r c a n ~tile pursuits; so an expedit ion under Abu Sufyan setout to punish the Mus lims . This led to the battle ofUQ.ud. The Muslims sustained a severe def ea t, due

1For a full account of this battle. see The Battles 01 Badr andoj U ~ " d (C.L.S.).


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10 OUTLINES OF ISLAM MUI:IAMMAD 11partly to disobedience t o o rd er s b y part of the defending force. This was a severe blow to Mul;mmmad.He had claimed the victory at Bad r a s a mark of thedivine favour; did not then this defeat show disfavour?I t required great skill to make it look otherwise'but Mu!)ammad was skilfnl . The third Sura is fuJiof verses expla in ing the defea t. l Th e Meccans, in theusual undecisive way i n whi ch the Arabs fought, didno t follow up their victory a nd no p ermane nt goodresulted f rom it.After a defeat Mul;tammad usually sought after some

conquest to res tore his prestige, so now the men ofanother J ewish t ri be , t he Bani NaQlr, were banishedfrom their homes with o.nIy such goods a s t hey couldload upon their camels. The banishment of theseJews enabled Mul)ammad to provide lands and sus te .oance for his needy followers. This was confirmed bya revelation.'

MulJammad had married s ix wives ,J when he sawZainab, the wife of his freed slave and adopted sonZaid, and wished to take her. I t was not legal t marry the wife of an adopted son; but Mul.Iammada lways had a revelation ready when occasion required,and he produced one a lter ing the law about adoptedsons." ]'he whole transaction and t he b ri ng ing in ofalleged revelations t o j us ti fy it is a great blot on thecharacter of Mul:mmmad.1S(tra i i i. 13"-5, 140, 145-6 , 150 . 159 , 160 .i Sura Iix. 7-8.3 He married ten wives after thedea th of Khadi ja . They dwe ltin separate rooms near his house... Sura xxxiii. .,.

Th e Meccans now laid siege to Madrna, but suddenlyraised it and ret ired. Mu1)ammad then found occasionto quarrel with a large Jewish community, t he Ban iQ u r a i ~ . They were accused of disloyalty, but there isno sufficient p roo f o f this. Mul:tammad had by thistime so alienated t he J ews tha t he could hardly expecthearty co-operation from them; but they gave no activeassistance to the Meccans. It is a long and sad s to ry .Seven o r e ight hundred men were slaughtered in coldblood, the Prophet looking on. Of the women somewere taken by the Muslims. The rest were sold asslaves. A beautiful widow Rail, lana was taken byMul:tammad as his concubine. Th e whole transactionwas cruel. Even if punishment was d ue , which is byno means clear, banishment would have been sufficient. lThe assassinations of individuals and this rnassacre

have called forth apologies for them, and i t is s ai d thatthey are not wor se than many events in Old Testamenttimes, or than deeds also done by many secular rulers.That is so ; bu t savage deeds in the Old Testament arenot recorded as examples for us to follow; the p e r s e ~cu ti on s b y s ec ula r rulers are facts which merit ourdisapprobation. But MuQ.ammad, in the opinion ofMuslims, is no ordinary ruler. He is looked upon asGod's latest messenger, bringing in a new, final andperfect system of religion, polity and law. It is believedthat in a ll he said, or did, he was guided hy a constantdivine inspiration, so that all his words and actions forma rule of faith, called the Sunna , which is the basis of

1 Fo r a Cull account, see G.hazu'as alld San'yas (C.L.S.). pp .44-57.


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12 O UT LI NE S O F ISLAM MUI:JAMMAD 13religious and moral law. All apologies for Mu1)ammad,based on the fact that other leaders, religious or secular,have done similar things, are beside the question altogether.

Many Arab tribes sti ll held aloof from Mu1)ammad.and he n ow s aw th at , in order to become supreme inArabia, t he sacred city of Mecca should be under h iscontrol. In t he yea r A. D. 628 the Muslims started outto visit Mecca; but were not allowed to enter the city.Then the Meccans agreed to a truce fo r ten years , andto allow Mul}ammad and his followers to enter the cityon the following yea r and remain three days. In A. D .629 the Muslims entered Mecca, the inhabitants ofwhich r et ir ed for the occasion. Mul)ammad and hisfollowers performed the usual rites of the pilgrimagea nd t he n r et ur ne d t o Madina, but he longed to possessMecca. By the agreement jus t referred to it was notlawful to attempt to doso for ten years , but Multammadfound an excuse, made war upon the Meccans and cap -tured the city. He destroyed all the idols, but kep t upthe old pagan ritual 1 o f t he I:Iajj or annual pilgrimage.This gave ?\.ful)ammad great power , for he w as no w t herul er ove r t he cap it al of Arabia. Other conquests followed until the Muslim supremacy was complete.

In A. D. 632 Mul)ammad died. As a successful ArabShaikh, whg united the people, preserved them as anat ion from absorpt ion by other people, abolished idolatry and some other evils, Mu1.lammad must be called agreat man; but he claimed, and all Muslims admit t he

IFor the rites. see The Faith oj Isldm, pp. 332-44 and Hadji;Kblin, With the Pilgrims to Mecca, chapters iv to xii.

claim, to be a Prophet , sent by God to reveal Hi s latestwill, a nd to supersede Judaism and Christianity. In hissystem he embodied the great social evils of polygamy,concubinage, facility of divorce and slavery, all of whichare so connected with the legal system a nd t he Qur'anthat they cannot be abolished from Islam. So Islamwas a retrogression, not an enlightened advance, andMul:tammad's claim t o be a teacher sent by God canno tbe admitted.


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CHAPTER IITHE MEANING OF THE WORD ISLAMl\'1USLIM writer, commenting on the word Islam says:The word does not imply, as is commonly supposed,absolute submission t o God' s will, bu t means, on thecontrary, striving after righteousness:} There seemsto be some ground for this statement in the text : -

There are others of us who have gone astray. Andwhoso be came a Musl im pursueth the way oftruth!Th e word aslama, 'became Muslim', is interpreted

by the commentators t o mean 'those who placed theneck under the order of God'; those who 'came underthe order ' ; ' those who sincerely accept t he dogma ofth e Uni,y of God ' . The ' way of tlUth' is said to bethe 'finding t he r eward of good work;,. the 'desireof goodness.' The word Islam is not found in theearly Meccan Suras. I t Occurs twice in late Meccanones:-

That man's breast will He open to Ishim.3Shall he, t hen, whose breast God has opened ~ Ishim. 4

MEANING OF THE WORD ISLAM 15I t occurs four times in Madina Suras : -The true religion (dill) with God is Islam.'Whoso desireth any other religion (din) than Islam,that religion shall not be accepted from him.1I t is my pleasure that Islam be your religion.'Who more impious than, he who when calJed toIslam deviseth a falsehood concerning God?"

A contrast between iman, or faith, and I sl am isshown in the text : -Th e Arabs say, 'W e believe '. Say th ou, Yf! he-l ieve not , t he re fo re say rather, Vtle professIslam' (aslamna), for the fai th ( iman) hath notyet found it s way into your hearts."

There are various forms of the verb in the sense ofembracing Islam, and the noun Muslim i s a lso used,but they are found for the most part in late Suras .6 .The meaning assigned in Persian commentaries toMusl im i s muttqad and hukmbardar, hoth of whichwords mean submissive or obedient to orders given.There is a verse which seems to he on the side ofresignation :-They who set their faces with resignation God-ward (man aslama wajhahu lillahi), and do thatwhich is right, their reward is with their Lord. 7

Again in the same Sura we have: -I resi gn myself t o the Lor d o f the ''''orlds (aslamala lirabi'/cilami-It).8

1Sye


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16 OUTLINES OF ISLAM MEANING OF THE WORD ISLAM 17or about to come under condemnat ion (halik); butwhen he ' sets his face Godward and doeth that whichis right' he adds il:>san to I sl am and is a Mul:>sin, thatis, oDe who in addition to performing the outwardduties of the law shows active benevolence; and whent o a ll thi s i s added t a ~ i q , or sincerity of heart, leadingon to iman, or firm belief in the art ic le s of the creed,the man is a Mu'min, or a true believer, which seemsto .be the highest state of al l.

The true believers (al-Mu'miniin) are only thosewho believe in Allah and Hi s Apostle and afterwards doubt not.'Dr . Hirschfeld considers that 'Syed Amir 'Ali's definition of Islam as a U striving after righteousness" only

rel lects the theore tica l and moral s ide of the question,which is limit ed to the initial s tage o f Islam." Themeaning which has obtained favour in the Muslimbody at large seems to be the one I have descr ibed ,namely, the formal performance of certain outwardduties. The fact that the term is not found in theearlier Si iras supports this v iew, for it was only as thesystem grew into shape that the five obligatory duties'of Islam, came to be fixed as those which he whowould be a Muslim must perform. If there ever wasan ethical meaning attached to the term Islam. it seemsto have been lost in very early days, for it is difficultto fix a period in which it was not used in the mechani-cal sense now universally accepted by Muslim commentat"rs. The very term Is lam thus emphasizes that

I slam is defined to be outward obedience, and whensincerity ( t a ~ i q ) is joined to it, as shown by.a beliefin God, Angels, Divine Books, Prophets, the Las tDay, and the Predestination to good or evil, it makesa man a true believer.

Shahrastani in the al-Milal wa'n-Ni!,al (p. 27) drawsa distinction between Islam, im3.D (faith), and i1)san(devotion, benevolence) in the fol lowing tradi tion:'Gabri el one day came in the form of an Arab andsat near the Prophet and said, II 0 Messenger of God,what is Is lam ?" The Prophet replied, U Islam is tot est ify to the uni ty of God and the apost leship of Hi sProphet, to say the pres.cribed prayers, to give alms,to observe the fast of Rama


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20 OUTL INES OF ISLAM THE QUR'AN 21survivors the revelations they had learnt by heart.The next Khalifa, 'Uthman, appointeda man called Zaidt o make a c o ~ r e c t copy; when this was done a ll o thercopies and parts of copies were destroyed. l This i s theQur 'a n a s we now have it and it may be accepted asauthentic. The Suras , o r chapt er s, wer e not placedin chronological order . The longer chapters wereplaced f ir st in the book and the shorter ones last. Asthe shorter were revea led before the longer ones, it isa good plan to read these hefore the others.'Very early in the history of Islam, seven different

ways o f r eading the Qur'an arose ; these are called the'seven readings ',3The inspiration of the Qur'an is peculiar. I t is called

wal).i, which means that it contains the very words ofG od, for, it is said that Mul,1ammad gave forth exactlywhat he received, and so there is no human element init at all. This inspiration came in various ways. Thearchangel Gabriel sometimes appeared in the form of aman and instructed the Prophet . Sometimes Mul)ammad heard the tinkling of a bel l. This caused much disturbance, for he became agitated a nd t he perspirationrol led down h is face. Apparently he had some sortof fits, for, when he was in such a condition, Khadijaand others aashed cold water over him. At other times

1 All t hi s i s f ul ly described in The Rescensions of the Qur'lin(C.L.S.).

i Rodwell's translation of the Qur'Q.n follows approximately thechronological o rd er. See a lso SeU's Historical Developme'Jt 0/the Qtfr 'dn (S.P.C.K.) for a cr it ical s tudy of the subject.

J See 1'he Faith of Isldm, pp. 62-5; The Rescensions of thef)ur'dn (C.L.S.). pp. 12-13.

angels brought the message and when Mul,lammad madethe night. journey to heaven (aut. p. 7), God, so it issaid, spoke t o h im direct. In all theseways the inspiration was the same. I t was quite mechanical. The P rophet was simply a medium to reproduce what he heard .It is verbal inspiration in its extremest form.M ul;1am-mad gave forth exactly what he received.The Qur'an i s looked upon as quite superior to any

other revealed book, both as regards form and substance. It is the s tand ing mir ac le o f Islam. As amatter of fact Mul}.a.mmad gained from Jews, Christians,apocryphal Gospels and Zoroastrian sources the knowledge of much w hic h he g av e forth as revelations.1There are II 4 Suras, or chapters, each called by

a different name. There a re many o ther divisions withwhich we need not concern ourse lves now.I The sentences and words are al l classified, and there ar e regulations for the reading of i t, all of which the student ofthe Arabic Qur'an should know.' The Qur'an is thefirst foundation on which Islam rests, and a dogma , orlaw,' based on i t must be accepted as t rue and binding jan order, or direction, conveyed i n i t is called farcJ (obligatory) and i s b inding on all Muslims . So the book i sheld in great reverence, and none must touch i t b ut thosewho a ft er t he ceremonial ablutions are purified. It sown order is, ' Le t none touch it bu t the purified. '.f , Agreat par t of the book consists of legendary stories,

1For all this, see alQur'dn (C.L.S.); The Qur'an i n l sl dm(C.L.S.).

i See- The Faith 0/ Islam, pp. 81-3.3 Ibid. Appendix on 'llmu't-Tajwtd..f, Sura lvi. 78.


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22 OUTLINES OF ISLAMand legis lative enactments made to meet local require-ments. I t contains historical errors, and makes per-manent social institutions of a degrading order. Thereare many foreign words used in the Qur'an!

l,?n these and the concept ions borrowed with them, see al .Q U an (C.L.S.), pp. 25-6; also Rabbi Geiger, Judaism andIslam (S.P.C.K.. Madr.,). pp. 3lH5.

CHAPTER IVTHE TRADITIONS: SUNNA

(I) THE TRADITIONs.-In Muslim theology a Tradition or I;Iadil!! {pI Al.uidi!hJ means some saying by theProphet, other t han wha t he spoke as ~ h Qur'an ; buti t i s bel ieved that t hose u tt erance s were by the formof inspiration called ilham, that i s, the words are thoseof the Prophet, though the idea conveyed is an inspiredone . Then a ll these say ings were remembered and oneman handed them on to another and so they are cal ledTraditions. I t doe s not mean a tJadition as to whatot her people thought of MuJ:>ammad bu t a record ofwhat he said. These Ttaditions cover a vast amount ofs - u b j ~ c t s , such -as doctrine, customs of social life, ritualobservances, judgements in cases submitted to the Pro-phet for decis ion and so on. They a ll have the force ofdivine commands. Muslims hold that MuJ:>ammad wasa perfect , s inless man and that all he did, or said wasdone and said under a constant divine influence.

(2). SUNNA.-It follows then that the Traditions forma divine rule of fai th and p rac ti ce for a ll Musl ims. Indeed they form what i s cal led the Sunna, or rule toguide believers. The larger body of Muslims are calledSuon ts , or those who follow the Sunna. The impor.l ance of tbe T radi tion s then ar ise s from the fact thati t is through them we know what the Sunna is.


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24 OUTLINES OF ISLAMI_D addition to the Qur'an, therefore, we have the

Sunna as a second bRSis, or foundation, of Islam. I t ismost important to remember that the Qur'an alone doesnot tell us all about Islam.No doubt, in course of time, many spuriousTraditions

found currency, but great theologians set themselves tocollect what they believed to be authentic ones and thenput them into books. They gi ve t he chain (isnad) Iof narrators for each one. The principle on which theywent in making the col lect ions seems to have been tolook rather to the isnad than to any scientific investi.gation of t he p robabi li ty o f t he accur acy of the Tradition. The men, whose collections of Traditions areconsidered good, are Bukhari, born A.H. 194 (A.D. 809);Muslim, died A. H. 261 (A.D. 874) ; Abu Da'Ud Saiistani,bornA.H. 202 (A.D. 817); TirmidlJi, born A.H. 209 (A.D.824); Nasa'i, born A.H. 214 (A.D. 829); Ibn Maiah,born, A.H. 209 (A. D. 824).' Shi'ahs do not accept thesecollections of Traditions but have collections of theirown.The Traditions are divided in various classes. When

the cha in o f narrators (isnad) is good it is called anundoubled Tradition.'; then there are genuine T r a ~ditions, good ones and weak ones. The rules fordetermining the value of a Tradit ion have been strictlydrawn up,-but a sound historical criticism would rejecta great many of them.'

I bnnd l it eral ly means .making a statement on the authorityof another pel'son' .

t Fol' funer infol'mation, see The Faith 0/ Islam (3rd edition).pp. 93-7.J See The Faith oj Islam, pp. 98-101.

CHAPTER VIjMA': QIYAS

(I) IJMA'.-When the Prophet was alive m ~ couldgo to him for advice in many matters, and I orderto settle disputed cases . An infal lible authOrity wasready to give an infallible opinion. They knew thatGabriel could bring some revelation, or that Mul;tammadby the ilham mode of inspiration could give a s ? ~ n dopinion ' but after h is death there was nO such hvmgautho ri ;y to appea l to. Then c ame lima', the thirdfoundation of Islam. It means collecting or assembling, and is technical ly used to express the unanimousconsent of the leading theologians, or wha t we shouldcall t the unanimous consent of the fathers'. P r ~ t i .cally it is a collect ion of the opinions of the Compamons( A ~ Q a b ) of the Prophet and their immediate successors.They knew more about h is views and hiS deeds thananyone else; and so when they were a g r e ~ d on anysubject or po int i t was called Ijma\ and thiS had th.eforce of law. In course of t ime all the mass of T ~ a d l .tions and of opinion based on Ijma' had to be codified,and passed on into four great Schools of jurisprudence,known as the Ijanifi, Malik!, Shari '! , and I:Ianhalisystems, named after the famous legists who foundedthem. We shall refer to them in another chapter.l ima' is the third ha sis o f I sl am.(2) QIYAs.-But even the elaborate plan which we


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26 OUTLINES OF ISLAM

THE CREEDCHAPTER VI

He is not begot ten;unto Him.'to be seven in

I Sura cxii.3 Suras, Ivii. 8; vi. 59.5Suras lxx\". 1 61: xh. 4, 32 .

TH E Kallma or creed of Islam consists of five articlesof belief: I be lieve in God; Angels; Books; Prophets;the Last Day; Predestination by God of good and eVil;the Resurrection. .

(I ) GOD.-Muslims lay great stress on the. UUlty o God. 'H e i s s ingu la r without anythmg lIke Him,separate having no equal.'

Say: He is God alone;God the eternal!He begetteth not, andAnd there is none likeTh e divine attributes are said

nnmber :- h b t(i) Life.' God is neither begotten, nor does e ege.He is self-existent.(ii) Knowledge.3 He is omniscient. The pa st an dthe future are known to him.

. . t t He can raise theiii) Power." I:Ie IS omDlpo en .dead and do a ll things.(iv) Will;' He can do what he wills and whatever he

wil ls comes to p a S S .(v) Hearing." He hears all sounds.

t Suras cxii: ii. 256; xxv. 60... Suras ii. 19: Hi. 159: Ixx\. 40.15 Sura xlh. 5.

have described fai led to meet every case, and so Qiyascomes in as a fourth foundation of ISlam. It meansthe analogical reasoning of the learned with regard tothe teaching of the Qur'an, the Sunna and ljma'. ATradition states that one day a woman came to theProphet and said: ' My father d ied without making thepilgrimage.' The Prophet said: ' I f thy f athe r hadleft a debt what wouldest thou do?' , I would pay thedebt.' ' Good then pay this debt also.' This is auexample of Qiyas , or reasoning by analogy. At firsts ight i t would s eem as if this princ ip le would a llow ofmuch freedom of interpretation j but it is not so, forevery case must be based on the Quc'an, the Sunna andthe Ijma'. I f the Prophet has not provi ded a law,one must b e deduced ana logica lly from those he hasgiven. Hi s teaching contains explicity, or implicity,.the solution of every ca se. Thus uniformity is pro.duced, but at the loss of life and growth. ' Qiyas thenaffords no hope of enlightened progress. It removesno fetters of the past, for in it there must be no diver.gence in principle from a leg islat ion imperfect in itsrelation to modern life and stationary in its essence.'


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28 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE CREED 29(vi) Seeing.' He sees a ll things even the steps of ablack an t on a dark stone on a dark night.(vii) Speech.' He speaks but not with a tongue asmen do, He speaks to some o f H is servants direct as toMoses, and to Mu\Iammad on the night of the ascent

(ante p. 7) ; to some through the instrumentality ofGabriel (ante p. 19). This speech or word (ka lam)which reveals God's will is eternal, and so the Qur"an isbelived to be eternal in i ts nature.All Muslims believe in the above; but the theologians

have held many discussions on the questions, whetherthese attributes are internal or external; whether theyare part of God's essence or not. This subject isabstruse and difficult and we may pass it by.J In somerespects the Muslim view of God is very defect ive..'Speaking generaHy the idea of power is most prominent.and Allah is rather the God of force than the all-lovingFather.

(2) ANGELS.-These are beings amongst whom is nodistinction of sex , who neither eat nor drink. Some arein heaven and some on earth. There are four archangels: Gabriel (jibra'iJ) the medium of inspirationI zra 'l l who rece ives the souls of men when they die ;Is raf il, who will blow the trumpet at the last day;

JSura vi. 103.-:l See The Faith of Isldm, p. 210 et seq. On al l the at tr ibutes

of God, see Klein, The Religion o jlsld m. pp. SS-9.3Those who wish to study it may consult The Faith o j l s l d m ,pp. 186-208_4See {or a discuss ion oC this point. The Muslim Idea 0/ God

(C.L.S.); Zwemer, Islam, pp. 86-7; Zwemer, The MoslemDoctrine of God; Goldsack, God in Isla", (C.L.S.).

Mika'i! who sees that all created beings are providedwith sustenance. The ange ls des ire to do the will ofGod.' They are s in less. Ibl is (Sa tan) was turned outof paradise, because he refused to do homage to Adam.'They intercede for men. On the r ight hand sideof eachman is an angel who records his good deeds; on theleft one who records the evil ones.3 They support thethrone of God and some have charge of hell.' Munkarand Nak'ir are two fierce angels who visit the corpse inthe grave soon after it is buried. They cause the corpseto sit up and they say to it, 'Who is thy Lord, what isthy religion and wbo is thy Prophet?'Distinct from the angels thougb nearly allied to themis the order of linn (Genii), beings created of fire.' Theyare looked upon with fear and dread, and many foolishstories are believed about them.

The teaching about angels and the linn is derivedfrom Zoroastrian sources. IS(3) THE BOOKS.-The angel Gabriel is the one bywhom the books of God came to propbet s. Thus thePentateuch (Taurat) came to Moses, the Psalms(ZaMr) to David, the Gospel (Inji!) to Christ, theQur'an to Mu\Iammad. There are a hundred others,called collectiyely ' the books of the propbets' ($u\IUfu'lAnbiya). The Qur 'an is considered superior to all the1Sura xxi. 19-20.iSitra m. 38.3Suras vi. 61 : xliii. 80; I. )6."Suraslxix. 17 ; lxxiv. 30; xliii. 77.$Suras xv. 26-7; lxxii . 19; xxxviii. 36.l$See Rabbi Geiger, Judaism IffJd Isldrn (S.P.C.K.. Madras).

pp. 26-4; Tisdall, Sourees of tile Qur'un. p. 84.


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30 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE CREED 31

, See The Faith of Isldm, pp . 244-9.4See Klein, The Religion oj Islam.[pp. 72-4.

s ay t he ir Imams 1 ar e superior to prophets. Prophetsar e supposed to be without sin, but it is a curious factt ha t' t he Qur 'a n ascribes sin t o al l pr op het s e xc ep tJ es us .' Th ey have the power o f working miracles.3A Nabi is a prophet who is inspired, bu t does notnecessarily deliver a message. A Rasul delivers tomen commands wh ic h he rece ives d ir ec t from God.There ar e certain qualifications, such as faithfulness,truthfulness and so on which prophets must possess .'(5) THE RESURRECTION AND THE LAST DAY.

These two articles of the creed may he taken together.I sr li fi l wiJl b low on the trumpet, and all will die. Hewill give another blast and all will arise. ' Some say hewill blow three times, the f irst to t er ri fy , the second toslay, t he thi rd to quicken the dead. The resurrection ofthe body i s men ti oned in the Qur'an,6 though Mui}ammad could not te ll when it wou ld come to pass.1 ThiswiJl he followed hy the descent of the hooks , i n whi char e recorded all the actions, good and bad, o f each individual.' The book will h e put i nt o t he r ight hand o f thegood and into the left hand o f t he evildoers,' who will besen t to hell. There is no e ternal punishment f or Muslims, for at l as t a ll will be s aved. A ll non -Mus lims willbe in hel l fo r eve r.Then come the balances, into the scales of whichgood and had works are cast. Those whose good deedsoutweigh the had go to paradise; if the bad predominate

others. Only the actual words of Chr is t ar e consideredto he the revelation which came from heaven. Allthe r es t is looked npon as Traditions (Ai}adith) handeddown hy the Companions of Jesns Christ. The Actsof the Apostles and the Epistles are not looked uponas books from heaven, bu t as t he writings of good men.Practically Muslims reject t he O ld a nd New Tes ta.

ments, though they ought not to do so, for t he Qur 'a nrefers to t hem with respect. I t attests the previousscriptures of the Jews. 1 It reproaches them with theneglect of their sac red hook. ' I t calls t he B ib le arevelation from God.' Muslims say that the Bible hasbeen corrupted or changed, but even the Qur 'an doegnot prove that the t ex t h as heen corrupted.'(4) THE PROPHETS.-God has sen t many prophets,

Adam bemg the /irst and Mul}ammad th e last. Twentyfive are mentioned in the Qur 'an. Six J who were theheads of their respective dispensations, have specialtitles. Adam the chosen of God; Mui}ammad theProphet of God; Abraham the friend of God; Mosesone with whom God speaks; Jesus the Spirit of God iand Mu1}.ammad the messenger of God. The re a redegrees of rank among the p r o p h e t s , . ~ Mul}.ammad'sposition being the highest. Some say tha t the prophetsar e superior to angels; others deny this. The Sbf'ahs

I Sura i i. 95.Sllra iii. 184.Soras v. 47 ; ii. 130; xxxvii. 117; xl. 56 ; xxvii. 44.( The Faith of lsldm, p. 238; Klein. The Rel igion of

J:Jldm. p. 70. and on t he whole subject o f t he testimony of th eQur'an tu the Dible: Muir, The Cora.. (S.P.C.K.l, pp. 66-239.

S Sura ii. 254.

1 See chapter ix.3 Ibid. , pp. 249-52.Sura xxxix. 68.eSuras xvii. 53 ; lxxix. 10-14.a Sura xvii. H.

1Sura lxxix. 41-5.9Suras Ixxxiv. 8-11; lxix. 25.


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32 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE CREED 33they go to belJ.l The Mu'razills, a rationalistic sectsaid that the Qur'anic references to the balances werefigurative statementse:l

After all this is over, a very narrow bridge (Siral) hasto be crossed. In the Qur'an i t iscalled a road,>but theTraditions s ay t hat it is a bridge, sharper than theedge of a sword, finer than hair, suspended over hell.Those who are saved will trip across in the twinkling ofan eye. Th e others will s tumble and fal l into hel l.There i s a wall called a l-A' ra r between heaven and

hell. Persons whose cases are doubtful will sit on it.They will look towards heaven, but will not be admitted;towards hell aud beg not to be sent there.'The signs of the last day are many. Among them are

the appearance of Masll}u'dDajjal or Antichrist, thedecay of fai th among men, ravages by Gog and Magogthe second advent of Jesus Christ to a ss is t Imam aIMahdi, who wi ll t hen appea r and bring all t he worldinto the true fa ith .

In the Qur'an there are eight different names forheaven. ; Sensual delights are vividly pourtrayed.'Some modern Musl ims ill India look llpoll these descriptions as figurative expressions, but the torments ofhell are held to be li teral, and, if so} it is reasonableto look on the declared joys of paradise as literal

lSuras xxiii.-104; vii. 7-8: c i. 5-8 .iS ee The Faith of Islam. p. 2.59.'3Sua xxxvii. 23."Sura vii. 44--5; see The Faith o/Isldm, pp. 261-2. SUlas ",v. 16 ; vi. 127; xl. 42; Ix. 73 ; I;;;. 15 ; vi. 70;

IxxxiiL 1S; xvi ii . 107 .II Suras JxxviiL 31.-4; lvi.. 22. 34-5; xxxvii. 4 0 ~ 7 .

also.' Hell is divided into seven divisions; ]ahannamfor Muhammadans, who will however pass tbrough it, but not 'remain there; Lazwa, a raging fire, for the polytheists who reject Ml$lmmad. This includes Christians.The other divisions are for] ews and other people.'

(6 ) THE PREDESTINATION OF GOOD AND EVlIThere are various opinions on the subject amongstMuslims_Th e Jab aria ns deny all free ag enc y in man. God isresponsible for all his actions.Th e Qadariansdeny al-qadr, or God's absolute decree,and assert that man i s al togethe r a free agent.The Ash'arians hold that God has one eternal willand so f ar agr ee with the ]aharians, but they allowsome power to man. This power they call kasb. oracquisition, because when God wills a thing, the manacqui res by a creat ive ac t of God the power to do it.l t is an attempt to solve a great difficulty and it i s notsuccessful. Practically Muslims are fatalists. Thishas lead to a distorted view o f t he character of God,and has done much to retard the progress of the Muslimcommunity all theworld over. The Qur'an is not c learin its teaching on the subject. Sometimes it is on ODeside and sometimes on the other.' Th e Mu'taziHs1The subject is discussed in The Historical Development 01

the Qur'a". pp. 27-32.t Sura xix. 71-2.3For Mus lim views of heaven and heU, s ee Klein, The

Religion of Isl4m. pp. 91-6; The Faith of/slam. p p . 2 6 6 ~ 8 .fi On t he free-will side are Suras lUi. 32 : xl. 43 ; xviii. 28 ;

lV. 81; against it are Sums lxxvi. 29-30; x.vi. 38: vi. 36. 39 : liH.44-S; Ivii. 22.

3


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34 OUTLINES OF ISLAMwere s trong upholders of the doc tr ine of free-will, butthey are considered to be heretics.'

On the authority of Traditions, recorded by Muslim,Malik, Tirmidhf and AbU Da'ud , i t is sai d that Godcreated some persons for paradise, and some for hell;and that both cases are recorded in a book, kept nearGod.'Iman, or the faith by which the creed is accepted,is defined as beli ef of the mind, confession by thetongue, without any reference to good works. TheMu'taziHs consider good works essential to faith. Itis a disputed point whether faith can increase or oot.3

1 See The Faith of Isldm. pp. 273-7 on the whole sub je ct ;also Klein, The Religion of Islam, pp. 97-105.

9 M i s 1 J k d t u ' l M a ~ d b i l J Babu'l-Qadr.3 See article on Iman in the Encyclopcedia of Rcligr'on and

Ethics.

CHAPTER VIISOME PRACTICAL DUTIES

WE now pass on to consider briefly what are call edthe practical duties of Is lam. They are all farQ duties,that is, are based on commands given in the Qur"an orthe Traditions. They are ;-(I) THE RECITAL OF THE KALIMA OR CREED.-'There is no god bu t God and MuQammad is the Apostleof God.' A ful le r form is, ' I testify that t here is nogod but God. I testify to Hi s unity and t ha t He hasno partner, I testify that Mul).ammad is His servant andHis messenger.' Each convert must repeat at least ,the shorter form in Arabic, and every Musl im mustrepeat it aloud, believe it in his heart, recite it correctly,and profess it constantly.

(2) SALAT OR NAMAZ_-This is really the formal recitation in Arabic of certain passages of the Qur'an, withsome ascriptions of praise to God. They really formwhat we should call' a service". An ordinary prayer iscalled du'a. The worshipper must be ceremoniouslydean, that is, he must perform the prescribed ablutions(wa(1u). There are f ive dai ly Salat , though the Qur'anOnly mentions four; 1 at dawn, soon after noonday, afternoon, just after sunset, and when night has closed in.

1Sura xxx. 17.


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wives at one a nd the same time. Of women, whoseem good in your eyes, marry two, or three or four.'lThus the Qur'an has made polygamy a law ofIslam. A few Muslims, influenced by western cuJtureand the moral ideals of Christianity, on the strengthof a c lause fo llowing the words just quoted, andwhich runs as fol lows: if ye f ea r t ha t ye shall no tac t equitably, then one only, ' a rgue t ha t Mul)ammadreally taught that monogamy was r ight , and that heonly allowed polygamy as a temporary measure. Bu tthis is on ly the private opinion of a few cuJtured menin moderndays. and isquite opposed to the law of Islam,and a s th at law is supposed to be perfect and final, itc a n ~ o t be changed without destroying the basis of Islamas a creed and a po li ty. Aga in , Mul ]ammad h imsel fwent far beyond the license he allowed to his ownfollowers. for he himself had eleven wives and produceda r evel at ion to support his action. I t i s said that notonly could h e ta ke in ma rri age persons whom it wasnot l awfu l for others to have, but th at he cou ld haveany believing woman who hath gi ve n herself to theProphet; if the Prophet desireth to take her-a privilegefor thee above the rest of the faithful," A fruitfulsource of evi l i s the temporary marriage, called Mut'a,allowed amongs t t he Shi' ah s. The Sunnis do notp ermi t it. The eminent theologian Ghaz.cili says:marriage is a kind of slavery. and the wife becomesthe slave of her husband,' I f they show any signsof disobedience t hey may be chastised.3

CHAPTER VInFIQH

FIQH is the technical term f or t he science of Islamiclaw. I t includes religious, ceremonial, civil and crimi.nal law. I t is also called 'IImu'I-Farii', or 'knowledgeof the branches' as distinguished from 'I1mu'I-USiil or, . ,knowledge of the roots,' that is, dogmatics. Fiqh isbased on the Qur'an, the SUDna, Ijma' and Qiyas (atttepp. 19-26). We have a lr eady considered the regulat ions laid down in connexion with prayer, fasting andthe pilgrimage. It i s not neces sa ry or possible in asma ll book to cover the whole ground of Fiqh, ' but afew important subjects may be dealt with.(I) MARRIAGE.-The technical word for this is

Nika!), which means the celebration of the marriagecontract. The festivities 51 connected with a marriage arecalled Shadi in Persian and Urdu, and 'Urs in Arabic.N i k a ~ , according to MuJ}ammadan law, is a civilcontract. A religions ceremony i s u sua l, bu t is notessential to the validity of marriage. The consent ofboth par ties is required. A Muslim may have foucIThe student will find a full a cc ount in Klein's Religion 0/

[skim. pp.117-226. Fo r advanced study, seeMr. Justice "Abdu'r_Ral]fm'sMuhammadan Jurisprudence (S.P.C.K. Press, Madras.Lune & Co., London).For a full account of the festivities, see Hughes, Dictionary ojIsldm. pp. 318-27. 1Sura iv. 3 .3See Sura iv. 38.

FIQH

:II See Sura xxxiii. 49.

39


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40 OUTL INES OF ISLAM FIQH 41(2) DIVORCE.-There a re three k inds of Talaq, ordivorce. F ir st , when t he words (Thou ar t divorced f

are said once only; in t hi s case the man may SOOncbange his mind and with the consent of his wife remarryher. Second, when he says the words twice at iotervals of a month , he may even then take her hackagain. Third, when he s ays t he words three times,the woman must he married to another man and hedivorced by him before she can rejoin her first husband.! In all cases of divorce, the dower, or marriagesettlement, must be pa id to the woman ; but a s Sir W.Muir says: ' the knowledge that the wife can make thisc ~ a i m is at t he bes t a miserable securityagainst capriCIOUS taste; a nd i n t he case of bondmaids tbat imperfectcheck is wanting.'(3) CONCUBINAGE.-An almost unlimited license isgiven to this, provided that the concubine is asIave and

DOt a free Muslim woman.' The Qur'anic authority, forit is found in Sura iVa 3 where permission is given totake' the s laves whom ye have acquired:3 Mubammadhad as concubines Mary the Copt and R a i ~ a n a , abeaut iful Jewess captive, who refused to give up herreligion and to marry a man, who had just before putboth her husband and r el at ives to a c ruel dea th . Sheremained a Jewess, and so Mu1;J.ammad made her hisconcubine. 51aves can he tak en as concubines eventhough their husbands ar e alive. A child born of aslave concubine is free.1Sura ii. 230; see Selections/rom the Qu,.'dn (C.L.S.) , p. 271;

Klein, Tire Religion ojlsl4m, p. 192. .:iI Hughes, Dictionary oj ldam, p. 59.3 See also Suras iv. 29 ; xxxiii. 49.

(4) SLAVERy.I-Mu!)ammad found the institution ofs lavery in Arabia. He did not abolish i t, though b;made regulations which, to some extent, amehorated ] ~ Still he adopted the system, and it i s now permanent 1DIslam. The Traditions often enjoin kindness to slaves,3but al l t hi s depends on the per sona l character of theowner, who possesses unlimited power over his ~ orfemale slaves A master who murders his slave IS not punished, which is a departure from t he law ~ ~ o s e s .Even apart from the fact tbat the institutIon of

slavery is nOw part ofwbat i s deemed to be a final andt he re fo re per fect law, it is so bound up wi th the l awsconcerning property and inheritance t ha t i t is impossibleto modify it without practically breaking up the legalsystem. So long as unlimited concubinage is allowed,so long, in lands under Muslim rule, w i ~ l slavery ~ x i s t . $(5) J IHAD.-This isa sacred war agamst unbebevers,e ither to win them over t o I sl am , or to exterminatethem, and thus to make Islam triumphant everywhere.I t is a duty incumbent on the community as a whole(far4-i.kifiiya), not necessarily on each individual thereof' bu t i f a Muslim coun tr y is invaded the duty offighting is obligatory (far4-i-'ain) on every :I;'luslim.Women should not join in a Jihad, for, when AYlshawished to go to a war , Mu!)ammad told her that ' herJihad was the making of the l: Ia jj " or the pilgrimage to

1See Klein, The Religion of 1sldm., pp. 19-68.51 Suras xxiii. 5; iv. 40; xxiv. 33.3 Hughes, Dictionaryo/lsldm, p. 599... Exod. xxi. 20.lr Suras i i. 86, 2145; iv. 76; viii. 40; ix. 5 , 29.


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42 OUTLINES OF ISLAM FIQHMecca. Some of h is w ives , however , were at thebattle of I;!unain and attended to the wounded.When a country is conquered, the inhabitants are

offered three alternatives. First, to become Muslims.Second, provided they are not idolaters, to retain theirreligion, hut p ay t he jizya, or p o I l ~ t a x J and submi t tovarious other restrictions. They thus become Dhim.mis. Third, if they do nei ther of the above, t h ~ e nar e slain and the women and children are sold as slaves,or otherwise disposed of at the will of the Muslim ruler.Muslim leg is ts d iv ide the world i nt o two great par ts :DaTu'I-Islam in which Jihad is not lawful, and Daru'l.I;Iarb. The former is a land governed by the law ofIslam, such as Turkey; the latter, a country belongingto infidels in which pe ace h as not been proclaimedbetween Muslims and unbelievers. The re a re differences of opinion as to when a Daru'lIslaffi becomes aD a r u ' l ~ I a r b , o r ' place of warfare '. Strictly speakingif a country is not governed by Isliimic law, or wherethere is no protection for Muslims, i t is a Diiru 'l .I .-Iarb.The question whether India is Daru'l-Isliim or Daru'!.I;Iarb has been o ft en di scus sed and the authoritiesdiffer, but, as it is a condition of Jihad tha t there shouldbe some prospect of success, the d iscus si on is moreacademic than practicaL!

(6) AposTACy.-An apostate is to be allowed theopportunity 0," returning to Islam: if h e refuses, thelaw declares that the death penalty is due.' A femaleapostate is not put to death, but must be kept inconfinement till she repents. Some authorities say she1See The Faith of I sldm. Appendix on Jihad.i Sura iv. 91 ; s ee The Faith of Islam, pp. 278-80.

should be beaten daily, and i f death fol lows no one is tobe blamed. As an apostate is outside t he l aw of Ishimand so loses i ts pro tect ion, i t foHows that if anyonekiHs him, he will incur no penalty of l aw, t hough h isaction may be deemed improper.lThe subjects just dealt with are all impo rta nt for ageneral knowledge of Islam; other legal questionsconcerning the civil and criminal law are highly technical and the r eade r who wishes t o know about t hem is, .referred to Kle in 's Religion of Islam. Before passmgon to consider the four schools of Muslim law, i t maybe weH to give the meaning of a few lega l terms .

(7) SOME LEGAL TERMS.(i) Fan,!, a duty enjoined in the Qur'au or theTraditions.(ii) Wajib, a duty of whicb there is some doubt asto i ts divine insti tution, that is, the proof for it is notvery clear.(iii) Sunna, a duty founded on the practice of Mu!)ammad. I t is of three kinds (a) Sunnatul-Fi'l, that whichMuhammad h imsel f did. (b) Sunnatu'l-Qaul, thatw h i ~ h he said should be done. (e) Sunnatu't-Taqrir,that which was done in his presence, and which he d idnot forbid.(iv) Musta!)abb, praiseworthyactions, which Mu!)ammad sometimes did and sometimes omitted.(v) MubaQ., works of supererogation, the omission ofwhich incurs no punishment.The above ar e lawful actions : the unlawful a re : -

(vi) Uaram, actions forbidden in the Qur'an and theTraditions.'See 'Abdu'rRal}fm, Muhammadan ]urispr,#dencc, p. 253.


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46 OUTLINES OF ISLAM FIQH 47circumstances must be dealt with according to theprinciples of these Schools of Jur isprudence . A learnedMuslim j ~ ~ i s t says: 'After the close of the third centuryof the HIJra no one has succeeded in obtaining therecognition of the Mul}ammadan world as an independent thinker in Jurisprudence.' 1(9) TilE KIIALIFATE.-The KhaHfa (theviceregentofthe Prophet) is the highest official in the Muhammadan

world. He is sometimes called the Imam, or leaderin religious and worldly affairs. According to the law,amongst other qualifications, he ought to be descendedf rom the Arab tribe of the Quraish. to which Muham.mad belonged.' It is the duty of every Muslim to ~ b e ythe Imam. According to the Sunnis AbU Bakr was thefirst Ima.m. The Shi'ahs hold different views, which willbe explamed later On. There should be onlyone Khalifaat a time, but sometimes there were rival K h a l i f a s ~ TheSul tan of Turkey now c la ims to be the KhaHfa.' Thisis not a valid claim, for the office could not l ega ll y beso transferred, and the Sultan i s an Ottoman Turk andnot a Quraish Arab. The Sultan's claim has neverbeen admitted by the Moors in Morocco or hy thePerSians. Still, as the most powerful of the Muslimr u J ~ r ~ of the resent day, he occupies a prominentposItIon and is looked upon as t he Kha li fa . t houghb e ~ ~ n d the titular rank it means little now, as far as thepolItiCS of t h ~ n a ~ i o n s are concerned. The Khalifa maybe deposed, If hIs deposi tion is for t he good of Islam.: 'Abdu'.r-.Ral]fm, Muhammadan JurisJ,"'dence. p. 34.For ongmal authorities for this statement, see The Faith oj

[slam, pp. 119-20; see also the foot-notes to these pages.3See chapter xii.

It is the bounden duty of the Khalifa to preserve theboundaries of Islam intact: he cannot agree to thecession of even a foot of territory, unless compelled bysuperior force and so renderedhelpless. In such a casehe does not forfeit the Khalifate. This is why th eSultan of Turkey, being encumbe red with the t it le o fKhalifa always delays any rectification of frontiers, t i llcompelled by war to do so. The applica tion of thisprinciple has just received an interesting illustration inthe first two articles of the recent Treaty of peacebetween Italy and Turkey. They a re : -

i.-Italy maintains absolutely the law which declaredher full and entire sovereignty over Lybia, and, inconsequence, denies any form of sovereignty there onthe part of Turkey, whether open or disguised, nominal,effective, or partial. Nor does she consent to suchsovereignty under the form of a territorial concessionmade to Turkey.

i i . -Turkey, on her side, nei ther impugns nor recognizes the sovereignty of Italy. She ignores it ; andin that manDer avoids offending against the letter of theCoran l aw which fo rb ids t he ces si on of lands of theCaliph to the infidel. Italy consents to forgo the formalrecognition by Turkey, and will be content with procuring a recognition of her new rights from the Powers.

It will be seen that the Sul lan simply ignores thecession of territory, Italy accepts the position and doesnot demand any formal recognition of the occupation ofTripoli. All parties understand that Tripoli now belongsto Italy; but the face of the Khalifa had to he savedand this is the curious way of doing it.


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THE SECTS OF ISLAM 49

CHAPTER IXTHE SECTS OF ISLAM

THERE is a Tradi tion to the effect that Muhammad saidthere would be seventy-threesects in Islam, 'one of whichwould be orthodox. The Arabic writer Shahrastanl, inthe Mital w a ' 1 t ~ N i ! t a l , gives an account of a great many.We need only cons ider a f ew of them.(I) THE SHI'AHS.-This is the name applied to thefollowers of 'All, the fourth Khalifa. We shall see inchapter xi how a poli ti ca l feud arose in hi s time ; buttbe difference between the Sunnls and the Shl 'ahs soondeveloped into a doctrinal dispute on the Imamat,' thatis, as to the character and position of the I m a m s , ~ orleaders in religious as well a s in ci vil matters. TheShi'ahs say that after 'Ali there were twelve successiveImams, who alone were the rightful rulers in Islam.The tragic end of 'Ali and of his two sons, I:Iasan andI:Iusain, invested them with peculiar interest. 'Ali' wasregarded with almost divine honour. The Shl'ah Imami s looked upon as the divinely-appointed SUCcessor ofthe Prophet,. .. .a perfect and sinless man. He is the supreme Pontiff , the vicar 01 God upon earth. The last ofthese twelve Imams, al-Mahdl, or the guided one, and so

1 See The Faith 01 Islam. pp. 108-12.t The name Imam i s a lso g iven in a lower sense to the leaderof

prayer in a Mosque. The lounders of the four Schools of Laware also called Imams.

able to guide others, d isappeared in the year A. H. 329= A. D. 940; but he issupposed to bestill alive. It is saidthat at the end o f the age he will reappear and convertthe world to Ishim. 1 As we shall hereafter see, strangedevelopments of this belief in the existence of alMahdihave taken place. Tho se who believe in all twelveImams a re called Imamites. Some Shl 'ahs say thatthe era of the concealed Imam began after la'far Sadiq,the sixth Imam. They are called Isma'll lans, fromwhom strange s y s t ~ came into exi stence. ]a'fardied in A. H. 148. The members of this sect werefamous for the esoteric v iews they held. The mostextreme amongst them were cal led Batini s, from aword meaning inner. They spread rapidly in NorthAfrica. I:Iakim Amri'lla h, the fourth Khali fa o f theFatimide dynasty, was a great supporter of theIsma'iHans. From him originated other sects , such asthe Druses and the Nosar is .' r,:l.862WThe Bohoras (Borahs) of western I nd Ia a re mostlyShI'ahs of the Isma'illan sect. The majority are ofHindu origin. Their ancestors were converted byIsma'ilian missionaries. Very littl e is known abouttheir religious books.3A still further and modern development of this cut"ious cult of 'All is found in the rise of the Babis , nowcalled the Baha'IS, a modern rel igious sect in Persia. I

The distinctive dogma of the Shi'ahs, then, is the1See Bahdislt' (C.L.S.), pp. 2-3.i See The Druses (C.L.S.) and The e . l t oj 'Ali (C.L.S.).aThe Encycloprellia"jIslam, p. 738... For a full account of this curious movement, see Bahaism(c.r.s.).

4


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50 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE SECTS OF: ISLAM 51dogma of the Imamat. A. a mat ter of practice theShl'ahsobserve the ceremonies of the Muharram in commemoration of the deaths of 'All, l:Iasan and Ijusain.They alsopermitmut'a,or tempomrymarriage (ante p, 39)and admit a principle of religious compromise, calledtaqiya, in the daily life. This system of pious fraud,and the permis!iion to make temporary marriages havedone much to demoral ize the Shj'ah community. TheShi'ahs do not accept all the Tmditions which the Sunnisbelieve in, but have collections of their own. They alsohave their own system of law, and possess commentarieswritten by their own tbeologians. The Persians belongto the Shz'ah sect.(2) THE SUFIS.-Tbese hardly fonn a sect , as theyare to be found both amongst Sunnis and Shi'ahs,chiefly the latter. They are the mystics of Islam.Carried to it s full extent Sufiism leads on to pantheism.I t also often saps the vigour of the moral life, and soleads to antinomianism. The Persian poets are nearlyall Sufis. The name i s said to come from ~ 6 f , or wool,on account of the wooll en garments worn by easternascetics. It i s not easy to give a simple account of thismystical system in these Outlines, and so the reader isreferred to the book noted below.'(3) THE MU'TAZILIs.-These persons belong to a sect

which is considered unorthodox, butthe members of it really made an effort to introduce more freedom of thoughtinto the consideration of IsIamic dogmas and law.'

1 Sujiism (C.L.S.).I See The Faith oj Isldm. pp.19.5-6for an account of the origin

of the Mu'taziIis.

They flourished during a period of considerable intellectual activity at Baghdad, especially during the reignof the 'Abbaside Kha1ifas al-Ma'mun, a l - M u ' t a ~ i m andal-Walhiq (A.H. 198-232). Their distinctive viewswere these :-(i) They denied that the att ributes of God wereeternal.(ii) They held that the iknowledge of God was withinthe province of reason.(iii) They rejec ted the dogma that the Qur'an iseternal. They said it was created, and used the arguments (a) that i t was wri tten in Arabic, (b) that eventsare described in the past t ense, (c) that it containscommands and prohibitions, and so must have comeinto existence when there were people to be commandedand prohibited, (d) that if the Qur'an is eternal thereare two eternaJs, God and it, which den ie s the Unityof God, (e) that men can produce its like in eloquenceand arrangement.}(iv) They held the doctrine of free-will, and deniedthe absolute predestination by God of good and evil.Man is the author of his actions, both good and evi l,and is rewarded or punished accordingly.There are a few other djfferences of opinion betweenthem and the orthodox; but the, points mentioned aboveare the chief ones. Their great opponent was alAsh'ar)',' who was himse lf at one time a Mu'taziU.He restored the old orthodox system and is t hu s r esponsible for the] repress ion of a very real at tempt to

1 See on this. The Faith of Islam. pp. 1 9 9 - 2 0 0 ~ ; 210-11.I See The Faith of Islam. pp. 202-5


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52 OUTL INES OF ISLAM THE SECTS OF ISLAM 53The Mu'ta

though theirfew modernbring some freedom of thought into Ishim.zilfs have now ceas&d to exist as a s ec t,mor e liberal vi ews are adopted by aMuslims.(4) THE WAHHABlS. -WahMbls a re members ofan extremely f anat ic al s ec t, whi ch arose in Arabiain the first part of the eighteenth century. I t is calleda ft er the name of its founder Mul)amma't1 ibn 'Abdu' i .Wahhab, hut vVahhabis gi ve t hemse lv es t he nameof Muwahhid, or Unitarians. They held that Muslimsby making pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, and byother practices were departing from the puri ty of theFaith. In 1810 the Wahhabl ruler plundered the tombof the Prophet a t Madina, and distributed the relicshe found there to his soldiers. After n ine years possession of Mecca and Madina, the Wahhiibis were drivenf or th by the Turks. In Ind ia the leader of the Wahhab is was Syed Al.>mad who preached a jihad against theSikhs. He was followed by Mul.>ammad Isma'i1, whomet with considerable success.\I According to him, thetwo things to observe are taul}:id, o r t he Uni ty of God,and obedience to the Sunna; the two things to avoidare shirk,;j or association of anyth ing with God, andbid'at, innovation or change.. Wahhabiism claimed tobe a returll. to first principles, but it bound the fetters

I Syad Ami'r "Ali says that he belongs to the" philosophicaland legal. school of th e Mu'tazilis t. Personal Law of tn,Muhammadans. p. xi.

1I He wrote in Urdu. the T a q w i a t u ' l ~ / m d n , which gives a goodaccount of his teaching.3 For an accoun t o f the different kinds of shirk, see The F ~ i t hof Isldm, pp . 177-80.

of Islam more t ight ly than ever. I t afforded no re laxation from a system which looks upon the Qur'anand the Traditions as the basis of a complete law, socialand polit ical , moml and religious. It s idea of God isaltogether wrong. He is an arbitrary despot. The bestdescription of the \Vahhabi' conception of God is thatgiven by Palgrave.1 The political power of the Wahhahis is now broken, and the ir influence as a sect is muchlessened; though it stiB lingers on in some of the morefanatical of the Darwish Orders.(5) THE DARWISHEs .' -The Darwish Orders donot, strictly speaking, come under t he designation of

a sect; bu t this is .a c onv enie nt plac e in which todescribe them. There are no less than eightyeightof these Darwish Orders. The n rst was founded inthe ea rl y d ay s o f I sl am , t he l as t in A. H. 1293 = A. D.1876. The head of t he Order is called the Shaikh.He has unlimited power over all the members of theOrder. Under bim ar e Muqaddims, who answer tothe Abbots of monasteries. Then come the Ikhwan(sometimes writ ten Khouan) o r b re th ren. These allliv e i n zaw iyahs or monas te ries . Most of the Ordersalso have Associates, who may be called the lay members. They live in the outside world, but know thesecret signs, by the use o f wh ich t he y c an obta in thehelp of the Confraternity.ICentral and Eastern Arabia. vol. i, pp. 365-6. quoted inThe Faith of 1:01am. pp. 180-1.

i See The Religious Orders of Islam, for the best informatioaabout t hem i n an Eng li sh book. Val uabl e French books on th e'Subject are Rinn's Marabouts et Khouan, and Depout et Coppolane's Les Confrcrics Religieuses Musalmanes.


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54 O U TL IN ES O F ISLAMThe main religious ceremony of the Darwishes is

called Dhikr. I t i s a very peculiar ceremony 1, andis said by Darwishes to produce union of t he hear tand the tongue in saying the name of God. I t is partof a system of training and practice which weakens thepersona l will o f the Darwish and deadens his intellect.The object seems to be to crush out individuality andto make the novice, and the professed Darwish, abso-lutely subservient to the wi ll o f the Sha ikb .

The Darwishes are orthodox Muslims, inspired oftenwi th t he bigot ry of the W ahM bi s. T hey look withmuch disfavour on the civilizing influence of the Chris-t ian Powers in Egypt and Turkey. They would, i fpossible, restore the old exc lusive system of Islam.Many of them are influenced by the mystical teachingof the Sufis. The Orders are very numerous in Algeriaand in Morocco. Th e largest o f the modern Order s,the Sanus iyah , had i ts head-quarte rs in Tripoli; butsome years ago, in order to get' further away fromcivilization, retired farther inland. It was an activeopponent of the I talians in the l at e war in Tripoli.The Maulawiyya Order is known in Turkey as theMevlevi Darwlshes. They are famous for their mysticdance, which consists in whirling round and round withgreat rapidity.

The influ-ence o f these O rde rs ha s been g re at , espec ia lly of the Qadariyya and t he T ij an iyya Orders,in the promulgation of Islam in the Sudans and inCentral Africa. The late Mahdi o f Khartum wI'S aMuqaddim of the Qadir iyya Order.

1See The Religious CWders o/Isldm. pp. 32-4.

CHAPTER XFEASTS AND FASTS

IN different parts of the world t he re a re local feastsin honour of some famous saint. but these we passby and mention only a few of universal observance bySunnis, Sh1'ahs, or both.(I) MUHARRA/A.-This is the name of the first montho f the Mu1)ammadan year , the first thirteen days ofwhich the Shi'ahs observe as days of mourning for themartyrdoms of 'Ali and his sons l:Iasan and l;Iusain.Th e ceremonies are observed in the 'Ashur Kliana (tenday house), which is generally a temporary structure.Tabuts are made of wood covered with t inse ls to re-present the tombs of the martyrs. Standards are placedabout, which represent five members of the family ofthe Prophet. 1 Each evening large crowds assemble,singers chant marthiyas, or elegaic poems, in honour ofl;Iusain, after which when the emotions have been fullyroused, all rise up and beat their breasts , calling outl;Iusain! l;Iusain I Then the Waqi'a Khan (reciter ofevents) delivers an address, describing with many em-bellishments the story of the martyrdoms. Again allrise up, stand in l ines, sway their bodies, beat their \breasts, often till blood flows, and cry out IAll! IAll !

1This standard is a hand with outstretched fingers.


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56 O UT LI NE S O F ISLAM FEASTS AND FASTS 57J:Iusain! l;Iusain! On the seventh day, processions areformed, in which the standard of Qlisim, the son ofl:Iasan is carried. Other standards, representing variousepisodes of the sad events, are also brought out.On the tenth day, the 'Ashur-i, after certain ceremonies,the tinsel is stripped off the tab6ts, which are then castinto the water of a river or a pond. This is to remindthe people of the burning thirst which I.Jusain feltbefore his death. On the remaining three days, cer.tain cer emoni es are observed, at the c lo se of whichthe poor are fed.

The Sunnfs.view all this with much disapprobation,though they observe the 'Ashl in , ( tenth day) as afeas t, for on it they say God created Adam and Eve,Hi s throne, heaven, hell, the seat of judgement and thetablet of decrees, the pen, f at e, li fe and death.

The Shi'ahs maintain that the death of Husain formsan atonement for s in.(2) RAMADAN AND ' IDU'L-FITR.-Soon after his

arrival at Madina, Mul;1ammad ordained that the wholemon th of Rama4an should be kept as a fast.' Inthis month it is bel ieved that the Qur'an was sent downand so it i s cons idered a very sacred one , It is meritorious to repeat one-thirtieth part of the Qur'an eachnight. The f a ~ t i s only for the day. After sunset andbefore sunrise food in any quantity may he taken.Still in the hot season, the fast is a very trying one,for not even a drop of water mus t pass t he lips. Af terthirty days are ove r comes the I ftar, or breaking oft he fas t, and so this event is called 'Idu'I-Fitr, or

JSura ii. 181.

the 'feast of t he br eaki ng of t he fast'. I t is a veryjoyful occasion.(3) THE BAQAR-'ID.-In Egypt and Turkey this iscalled Bainim; in Persia 'Id-i-Qurban. Other namesfpr it are 'Idu'l-aQ,l.ul and 'Idu'Q,-Oul).a, which mean the'feast of sacrifice'. The Prophet at first kept the greatfast of the atonement with the Jews, but when 'heparted company with them he ins tituted this one . I tis connected with the I;lajj or Pilgrimage ceremonies.1I t is said to be held in commemoration of Abraham'swil lingness to sacr if ice Ishmae l, whom Muslim substitute for Jacob.Animals are offered in sacrifice. The Baqar-'Id andthe ' Idu 'l -F it r are the two great feasts of Islam. I fthey were prohibited in any country , i t would at oncebecome a Daru'l-Harb (allte p. 42) , and Jihad wouldbe l awful in it.(4) THE AKHIR CHAR SHAMBA.-This is th e P er sian name for a feast held on the las t Wednesdayof t he month Safar, a day on whi ch t he P rophet issaid to have experienced some mitigation of the illnesswhich later on terminated his l ife.(5) THE BARA WAFAT.-This i s he ld in some countries to commemorate the death of the Prophet; in someplaces this day is beld as the Jashn-i.Milad-i-Sharif,or the 'Feast of the noble b ir th ', or the anniversaryof his birth. A famous relic exhibited on this day,is a hair of the Prophet's beard. I t is said to bavethe miraculous property of growing again if a piecei s b roken off.

J Sura :x:xii. 34-7.


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58 OUTLINES OF ISLAM(6) THE LAYLATU'L.BARAT.-It is said that on this

night, the fourteenth of the month Sha'biin,God registersin the barat, or record, the actions men are to doin the ensuing year. Certain rel igious ceremonies areperformed, a cuncluding one being to visit cemeteries,place f lowers on graves and p ray for the sonls of thedeparted. On the fifteenth night there is great rejoicing and fireworks are let off in profusion.

The last three feasts are of minor importance.

CHAPTER XITHE EARLY KHALIFAS'

(1) ABU BAKR.-He was one o f Muhammad' searliest converts and a most devoted follower of theProphet. When Mul:>ammad died t he men of Madinawished to elect one of their own number as hissuccessor; but no one but a member of the Quraishtribe could have held the allegiance of al l the Arabs ,and so Abu Bakr was chosen. He was well fittedfor this post. for he was gentle as wel l as strong.He knew the mind of the Prophet and revered hismemory . There '\Yere many malcontents and civi l warseemed imminent, but Abu Bake wisely turned thedesire for war and plunder into other channels, and theArabs went forth to conquer other lands. I slam owesmuch to him, for he saved it from destruction.

He was simple and unostentatious in his habits andmodes of life. He was regarded as a great authorityon t he li fe and actions of the Prophet and men paidgreat respect to h is judgement on cas es which camebefore him. He is the authori ty for one hundredand forty-two of the sayings of Mnl:>ammad. I t is saidthatthe words' and God sent the tranquillity upon him"

1 A fuller account of these will be found in The Four Rightly-Guided KlJalijas (C.L.S.); Muir, The Early KlJalijate.

I Sura ix. 40.


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60 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE EARLY KHALIFAS 61refer to him. The verses in Sura xcii. 1-7 also referto his generosity.He died on August 22, A.D. 634. He l ef t h is markon Islam, for with a firm hand he put down rebellionsin Arabia, d irec ted the warlike spirit of the Bedouinsfrom internal tumults to external wars, and thus showed

administrative ability of a high order. I t is largely dueto h is tac t, f irmness and wisdom that Islam survivedthe difficulties which then beset it, and seemed likely torui n i t at the very commencement of i ts career.

(2) 'UMAR.-Ab6 Bakr nominated 'Umar as his successor. In his youth 'Umar had been a bitter opponentof Mul;1ammad, but after his conversion he ever showedhimself to be an ardent disciple. His daughter becameone of the wives of the Prophet , who valued his servicesvery highly. He was sent to destroy the idols atMecca, and a considerable portion of ' the confiscated property of the Bani NaQ.lr was bestowed on him. 1 'umarsent the victorious armies of Islam t o Syr ia , Persiaand Egypt. Damascas was captured in A.D. 634. Thecaptuation of Jerusalem followed. A very interestingChristian inscription was p laced on the walls of theChurch of St. John in Jerusalem by the Christianbuilders. I t remains there to this day, a silent prophecy over a-door of what is now a Muslim mosque, thatChrist shall come to His own again. t The Persian armywas defeated in the great battle of Qadisiya in A.D. 635.Before the action verses from t he Qur 'an J were r eadto the Mus lim t roops t hen drawn up in battle array.

1 See G.haswas and Sariyas (C.L.S.) , p. 30.:II See The Fonr Rightly-Guided Khalifas (C.L.S.), p. 21.3Sura viii. 15-16. 39--40. 66.

Another army invaded Egypt. Many of the peoplethere were illtreated by the religions officials sen t f romConstantinople, and some, no doubt, not realizing towhat i t would lead, welcomed t he i nvader s; but it isnot cor rect to say t ha t Egypt fell wi thou t a blow orthat the Egypt ians as a whole ass is ted the invaders. lI t is often said t ha t Umar caused the great library atAlexandria to be burnt, on the ground that if the booksdid not agree with the Qur'an they were worthless.This is not now considered a probable s tory .The booty taken in these wafS was immense, and'Vmar drew up regulations for its distribution. Th e

general principle was that priority of conversion, notdistinction of birth, regulated the division of spoils.Thus wars of aggression soon had a commerc ia l value .As an administrator with r eg ar d t o l an d and in oth6l"civil matters Umar showed considerable ability. Hereigned for about ten years and was then assassinated bya Persian slave. He saw the boundar ies of Islamextend far beyond Arabia, and conquered peoples payingtribute to it. He was simple in his habits, s tr ic t i nrel igious duties, and, for t he t ime in which he l ived , ifwe v iew him fr om a Mus lim s tandpo in t, a strong andjudicious ruler . Islam owes much to its first twoKIlalifas.

(3) 'UTHMAN.-'Umardid not nominate his successorand the re was considerable competition for the .ffice,but on November 7, A.D. 644, 'Ut!!miin was appointed.He was one of tee early converts to Islam whom thezeal of AbU Bakr brought in. He married Ruqaiya,

1See Butler, The Arab Conquest of Egypt. pp . 285-98.


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62 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE EARLY KHALIFAS 63the daughter of Mu1)ammad, and possessed the fullconfidence of his f a t h e r - i n ~ l a w .

Two distinct factions had been formed now. 'Aliwas a descendant ofI:Iashim; 'Uthman of Umaiya,both former leaders of the Qura ish c lan . 'u thmiinentirely fai led to keep the contending par ti es quiet . Infact, he favoured the Umaiya faction, and showed greatindiscretion by the way in which he deposed governorsand promoted men ofh i s own part y. He adopted auostentatious and luxurious mode of l ife, and spent theenormous wealth gained in req' ll t wars in fine housesand in other extravagant ways. So serious did mattersbecome that men began to look to 'Ali for redress.The end of it all was t ha t th e Khalifa was assassinated. Islam had now made great conquests , but thisdid not stay internal discord. 'Stronger to divide andrend asunder than the new creed was to unite, werethe old deep-rooted and long enduring family jealousiesof the Arabs.' 1 This disintegrating force 'Uthmancould not control. He carried out the final recensionof the Qur'an.'(4) 'ALI.-'Alf, nephew and son-in-law of the Propbet,was now elected Khalffa. He was one of the earliestconverts to Islam and proved to be a most devotedfollower of lIis master and benefactor. His first mistakewas the neg lect to prmish the murders of 'Uthman;bis next t he removal of the exist ing officials and thedismissal of Mu'awiya from his command in Syria.This led to a civil war, and Mu'aw iya led the army

1 Osborn, Islam under the Arabs. p. 99.2 See The Recensicm.s 0/ the Qur'an (C.L.S.).

of revol t and claimed the Khalffate. In the bat tl e ofSiffin 'Ali fought with his usual vigour, but Mu'awiyaave rt ed defeat by a curious s tr atagem. Copi es of theQur'an v;ere placed in the l ances of the soldiers . whoshouted The law of the Lord, le t i t decide betweenus." 'Ali pOinted out that this was a mere trick ; buthis men would not listen to him. They were fanaticsand loved a theological dispute, so he had to give inand the hatt Ie so nearlywon was los t. Six monthsafterthe arbitrators gave their decis ion which was tha;neither claimant should be Khalifa. The civil warcontinued, but soon after , 'Al l was assassinated anddied on January 25, A.D. 661. His two sons after wards came to a tragic end. This has drawn outthe sympathy of a la rge section of Muslims for 'Ali.He had some excel lent quali ties as a follower, butlacked those required in a ruler. His followers the

, 'Shf alis, who adopt the principle of divine right , con-sider that he should have been the first KhaIHa, andlook upon the preceding three as usurpers.

The outcome of all th is pol it ical t rouble and faction fights was the rise of a great schism, whichin due course evolved grave theological di fferences .We have now seen how ear ly discord, disunion andinternecine war set in, a prophetic illustration of whatwas hereafter to follow amongst diverse people, inmany lands, and dur ing long per iods of t ime.


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CHAPTER XIITHE VARIOUS KHALIFATES

(I ) TUE UMMAYA KIiALlFATE.--We have seen thatMu'awiya opposed 'Al i, and that , after the battle ofSHun, it was decided to refer the respect ive c la ims toarbitration (atlle p. 63). This was done bu t by a fraud'Ali was deposed.' He did not accept the decree andcivil war broke out a nd I slam saw two rival Khalifas,the oDe cursed from all the pulpits of 'Iraq, the otherfrom al l the mosques of Syria . After 'AH's death h i s ~son Hasan succeeded him. He was a weak voluptuousman .who on account of the many wives he divorcedin ~ r d e r to get fresh ones, was ni cknamed 'TheDivorcer', He was no match for Mu'awiya, in whosefavour he soon resigned. He retired to Madtoa ande ight years after was poisoned by ODe of his wives,whether at Mu'awiya's instigation or not it is difficultto say. Mu'awiya made Damascus the capital andappointed his son Yezed t as his successor. The peopleof Madina "bad hitherto either e lected the Kha ll fa , orapproved of his appointment. Now the elective principlewas set aside, and the hereditary one was substituted,which g ave great offence. Ho wever, the Ummaya1 See The Four Rightly-Guided Khalifas {C.L.S.}, pp. 52-3.j The Faith of Islam. p. lOS; Muir, Annals o f the ElJrly

Caliphf!lte, chapter xlviii.

THE VARIOUS KHALIFATES 65Khalifate now commenced. I t lasted from A. H. 41 toA.H. 127 or f ~ o m A.D. 661 to A.D. 745. Th e periodwas one of constant wars, which finally culminatedin the downfall of the Ummayas.' 1(2) THE SHI'AH IMAMs.-When Mu'awiya won theKhalifate from l:Iasan, the son of 'AU, the Shi'ahs stillretained his successors as their spiritual leaders. Thisline oftwelve Imams endedwith al-Mahdi, A. H. 260=A. D. 873 (at,le p. 49) .(3) THE 'ABBASIDE KHALIFAs.-They were thedescendants of 'Abbas, an uncle of the Prophet. Thefirst Khallfa of this dynasty was surnamed as-Saffal;t,or lbe Sanguinary, from bis savage character. He wasproclaimed Khalifa in A.H. 132=A.D. 750. Baghdadwas soon fixed upon as the capital, and under someo f the 'Abbaside Khalifas was for a time a centre oflearning a nd o f Oriental civilization. Bu t all this di dnot prevent constant insurrections and wars, and whenthe great invasion of the Mongols came, the empirefell under the rule of the Seljukian Turks, the Khalifaswere retained at Baghdad to keep up appearances, butlbey had no r ea l power. When H61lig6 Khan sackedBaghdad in A. D. 1258, t he l as t Khalifa, a l - M u s t a ' ~ i mwas put to death, with several members of his familyand thus tbe 'Abbaside Khalifate came to an end.' Th eMuslim world was distressed at t he abs ence of aKhalif... and so tbe rulers in Egypt invited Ab6'1Klisim, who had escaped the massa cre o f h is f ami lyIOn the downfall of this dynasty. see Osborn. Isldm NntUr Ihe

Arabs. part iii, chapter v.'See Osborn. Islam under t he Khali Js 0/ Baghdad. parts

ii and iii. 5


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66 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE VARIOUS KHALIFATES 67at Baghdad, to Egypt . He did so and was proclaimedKhali fa in Cairo under the name of a l - M u s t a D ~ i r .(4) THE WESTERN KHALIFATE.-When the 'Abbasides defeated and deposed the Kha\lfa of the Ummayadynasty, one youth, named 'Abdu'r.Ral}.rnan, after manyadventures found his way into Spain and became thefirst KhaHfa of the Ummaya ILhalifate of Cordova, A.D.755. The Muslims rwed in Spain until they weredefeated and expelled about the end of th e s ix teent hcentury. During part of that t ime civ il izat ion washigh, and the arts and sciences flourished, due largelyto their environment; for when expel led to Moroccothe Moors re lapsed into, and have s ince remained in,practical barbarism.(5) THE FATIMIDE KHALIFATE.-This was foundedby 'Ubaidu'llah, a grandson of the seventh Imam, andso a descendant of Fatima, in A.H. 297=A.D. 909. InA.D. 955 al-Mu'izz , the fourth Kl!alf fa , established hisrule in Egypt and made Cairo the capital . They werenot good rulers and al-l;Iakim was a m a d m a n . ~ Thelast Khalifa al-'Ac:lid was overthrown by $alal:lU'd-Din,(Saladin), who disliked t he Shi 'ahs , and in 1171 thedynasty came to an end.' He caused th e n ame ofthe 'Abbaside Khalifa to be proclaimed in the mosquesi n Egypt . "Saladin and h is successor s rul ed un ti l t her is e o f the Mamli iks 1250. '

1See Islam: it s Rise and Progress, pp. 60-2; Freman. History01 the Conquest of the Saracens, pp. 155-8. See The Druses (C.L.S.), pp. 22-33.:I See Lane-Poole's, A Histo,., ofEgypt, p. 193: Osborn. Isldm"fide,. the Arabs, part ii, chapter iii.Lane-Poole, A HistO"'1 oj Egypt, chapter vii-xi; Muir, TheMatn


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68 OUTLINES OF ISLAM THE VARIOUS KHALIFATES 69Sultans of Turkey can c la im to be Kha1ifas of Islamto-day. The c la im is not a val id one .' There were twoways in which a Kha1ifa could obtain the office; eitherby hereditary descent, or by a popular election. TheSultan received it in neither way; he s imply took i t byforce. The whole controversy on the sub ject is wel lwound up by Sir W. Muir. who says: C In virtue ofMutawakkil having resigned to them his office, the Osmanly Sultans assume that the functionsappertaining tothe Caliphate, those, namely, exercised by the Omeyyadand 'Abbaside Caliphs, both spiritual and temporal,have devolved upon them; and therefore that, like these.they are entitled as .. Successors of the Prophet" to allthe privileges, and bound to perform al l the dutiesappertaining to the office, including supreme rule overthe Moslem world. Were there no other bar, theTartar blood flowing in thei r veins would make theassumption altogether out of the question. Even ifbased on intermar ri age with female des cendant s ofCoreishite stock, the claim would be a weak anachro4nism. The real Caliphate endedwith the fall of Baghdadand death of Zahir, the las t Cal iph of 'Abbasidedescent ; and so d id the Fatimide (or schismatic) Calipha te end with its abolition by Saladin. The resuscitation by Beibars of the sacred office was a political

l S e e The Faith of l&Ulm. pp. 119-121. On page 119, it shouldhave been stated that, though Selim carried the KhaHfa awayfrom Egypt. it was hissuccessor,who actually tookover theoffice.This is al so the opinion of Muir in The Mameluke or SlaveDynasty 01 Egyp., p. 213, and of Stanley Lane-Pool. in Egypp 355 ; though this last author in Turke,. p. 162 says it was Selimwho assumed the office.

measure, meant to g ive an air of legitimacy to thethrone, and weaken the Fatimide faction which threatened it. The Egyptian Caliphs were possessed ofDO authority. Th

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