Books: The Koran

U >> Unknown >> The Koran

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 | 54 | 55 | 56 | 57 | 58 | 59 | 60 | 61 | 62 | 63 | 64 | 65 | 66 | 67 | 68 | 69 | 70 | 71 | 72 | 73 | 74 | 75 | 76 | 77 | 78 | 79 | 80 | 81 | 82 | 83 | 84 | 85 | 86 | 87 | 88 | 89 | 90 | 91 | 92 | 93

1 Abulfeda, Vit. Moham. p. 2. 2 See Kor. c. 2. 3
Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 76. 4 Kor. c. 9. 5 See
Casaub. of Enthusiasm, p. 148.

the Arabs, is the wise conduct and great prudence he all along showed in
pursuing his design, which seem inconsistent with the wild notions of a hot-
brained religionist. But though all enthusiasts or madmen do not behave with
the same gravity and circumspection that he did, yet he will not be the first
instance, by several, of a person who has been out of the way only quoad hoc,
and in all other respects acted with the greatest decency and precaution.
The terrible destruction of the eastern churches, once so glorious and
flourishing, by the sudden spreading of Mohammedism, and the great successes
of its professors against the Christians, necessarily inspire a horror of that
religion in those to whom it has been so fatal; and no wonder if they
endeavour to set the character of its founder, and its doctrines, in the most
infamous light. But the damage done by Mohammed to Christianity seems to have
been rather owing to his ignorance than malice; for his great misfortune was,
his not having a competent knowledge of the real and pure doctrines of the
Christian religion, which was in his time so abominably corrupted, that it is
not surprising if he went too far, and resolved to abolish what he might think
incapable of reformation.
It is scarce to be doubted but that Mohammed had a violent desire of being
reckoned an extraordinary person, which he could attain to by no means more
effectually, than by pretending to be a messenger sent from GOD, to inform
mankind of his will. This might be at first his utmost ambition; and had his
fellow-citizens treated him less injuriously, and not obliged him by their
persecutions to seek refuge elsewhere, and to take up arms against them in his
own defence, he had perhaps continued a private person, and contented himself
with the veneration and respect due to his prophetical office; but being once
got at the head of a little army, and encouraged by success, it is no wonder
if he raised his thoughts to attempt what had never before entered his
imagination.
That Mohammed was, as the Arabs are by complexion,1 a great lover of women,
we are assured by his own confession; and he is constantly upbraided with it
by the controversial writers, who fail not to urge the number of women with
whom he had to do, as a demonstrative argument of his sensuality, which they
think sufficiently proves him to have been a wicked man, and consequently an
impostor. But it must be considered that polygamy, though it be forbidden by
the Christian religion, was in Mohammed's time frequently practised in Arabia
and other parts of the east, and was not counted an immorality, nor was a man
worse esteemed on that account; for which reason Mohammed permitted the
plurality of wives, with certain limitations, among his own followers, who
argue for the lawfulness of it from several reasons, and particularly from the
examples of persons allowed on all hands to have been good men; some of whom
have been honoured with the divine correspondence. The several laws relating
to marriages and divorces, and the peculiar privileges granted to Mohammed in
his Korân, were almost all taken by him from the Jewish decisions, as will
appear hereafter; and therefore he might think those

1 Ammian. Marcell. l. 14, c. 4.

institutions the more just and reasonable, as he found them practised or
approved by the professors of a religion which was confessedly of divine
original.
But whatever were his motives, Mohammed had certainly the personal
qualifications which were necessary to accomplish his undertaking. The
Mohammedan authors are excessive in their commendations of him, and speak much
of his religious and moral virtues; as his piety, veracity, justice,
liberality, clemency, humility, and abstinence. His charity, in particular,
they say, was so conspicuous, that he had seldom any money in his house,
keeping no more for his own use than was just sufficient to maintain his
family; and he frequently spared even some part of his own provisions to
supply the necessities of the poor; so that before the year's end he had
generally little or nothing left:1 "GOD," says al Bokhâri, "offered him the
keys of the treasures of the earth, but he would not accept them." Though the
eulogies of these writers are justly to be suspected of partiality, yet thus
much, I think, may be inferred from thence, that for an Arab who had been
educated in Paganism, and had but a very imperfect knowledge of his duty, he
was a man of at least tolerable morals, and not such a monster of wickedness
as he is usually represented. And indeed it is scarce possible to conceive,
that a wretch of so profligate a character should ever have succeeded in an
enterprise of this nature; a little hypocrisy and saving of appearances, at
least, must have been absolutely necessary; and the sincerity of his
intentions is what I pretend not to inquire into.
He had indisputably a very piercing and sagacious wit, and was thoroughly
versed in all the arts of insinuation.2 The eastern historians describe him
to have been a man of an excellent judgment, and a happy memory; and these
natural parts were improved by a great experience and knowledge of men, and
the observations he had made in his travels. They say he was a person of few
words, of an equal cheerful temper, pleasant and familiar in conversation, of
inoffensive behaviour towards his friends, and of great condescension towards
his inferiors.3 To all which were joined a comely agreeable person, and a
polite address; accomplishments of no small service in preventing those in his
favour whom he attempted to persuade.
As to acquired learning, it is confessed he had none at all; having had no
other education than what was customary in his tribe, who neglected, and
perhaps despised, what we call literature; esteeming no language in comparison
with their own, their skill in which they gained by use and not by books, and
contenting themselves with improving their private experience by committing to
memory such passages of their poets as they judged might be of use to them in
life. This defect was so far from being prejudicial or putting a stop to his
design, that he made the greatest use of it; insisting that the writings which
he produced as revelations from GOD, could not possibly be a forgery of his
own; because it was not conceivable that a person who could neither write nor
read should be able to compose a book of such excellent doctrine, and in so
elegant a style; and thereby obviating

1 Vide Abulfeda Vit. Moham. p. 144, &c. 2 Vide Prid. Life of
Mahomet, p. 105. 3 Vide Abulfed. ubi sup.

an objection that might have carried a great deal of weight.1 And for this
reason his followers, instead of being ashamed of their master's ignorance,
glory in it, as an evident proof of his divine mission, and scruple not to
call him (as he is indeed called in the Korân itself2) the "illiterate
prophet."
The scheme of religion which Mohammed framed, and the design and artful
contrivance of those written revelations (as he pretended them to be) which
compose his Korân, shall be the subject of the following sections: I shall
therefore in the remainder of this relate, as briefly as possible, the steps
he took towards the effecting of his enterprise, and the accidents which
concurred to his success therein.
Before he made any attempt abroad, he rightly judged that it was necessary
for him to begin by the conversion of his own household. Having therefore
retired with his family, as he had done several times before, to the above-
mentioned cave in Mount Hara, he there opened the secret of his mission to his
wife Khadîjah; and acquainted her that the angel Gabriel had just before
appeared to him, and told him that he was appointed the apostle of GOD: he
also repeated to her a passage3 which he pretended had been revealed to him by
the ministry of the angel, with those other circumstances of his first
appearance, which are related by the Mohammedan writers. Khadîjah received
the news with great joy,1 swearing by him in whose hands her soul was, that
she trusted he would be the prophet of his nation, and immediately
communicated what she had heard to her cousin, Warakah Ebn Nawfal, who, being
a Christian, could write in the Hebrew character, and was tolerably well
versed in the scriptures;2 and he as readily came into her opinion, assuring
her that the same angel who had formerly appeared unto Moses was now sent to
Mohammed.3 This first overture the prophet made in the month of Ramadân, in
the fortieth year of his age, which is therefore usually called the year of
his mission.
Encouraged by so good a beginning, he resolved to proceed, and try for some
time what he could do by private persuasion, not daring to hazard the whole
affair by exposing it too suddenly to the public. He soon made proselytes of
those under his own roof, viz., his wife Khadîjah, his servant Zeid Ebn
Hâretha (to whom he gave his freedom4 on that occasion, which afterwards
became a rule to his followers), and his cousin and pupil Ali, the son of Abu
Tâleb, though then very young: but this last, making no account of the other
two, used to style himself the "first of believers." The next person Mohammed
applied to was Abdallah Ebn Abi Kohâfa, surnamed Abu Becr, a man of great
authority among the Koreish, and one whose interest he well knew would be of
great service to him, as it soon appeared, for Abu Becr being gained over,
prevailed also on Othmân Ebn Affân, Abd'alrahmân Ebn Awf, Saad Ebn Abi Wakkâs,
al Zobeir Ebn al Awâm, and Telha Ebn Obeid'allah, all principal men in Mecca,
to follow his example.

1 See Kor. c. 29. Prid. Life of Mahomet, p. 28, &c. 2 Chap. 7.
3 This passage is generally agreed to be the first five verses of the
96th chapter. 1 I do not remember to have read in any eastern
author, that Khadîjah ever rejected her husband's pretences as delusions, or
suspected him of any imposture. Yet see Prideaux's Life of Mahomet, p. 11,
&c. 2 Vide Poc. Spec. p. 157. 3 Vide Abulfed. Vit.
Moham. p. 16, where the learned translator has mistaken the meaning of this
passage. 4 For he was his purchased slave, as Abulfeda expressly
tells us, and not his cousin-german, as M. de Boulainvill. asserts (Vie de
Mah. p. 273).

These men were the six chief companions, who, with a few more, were converted
in the space of three years, at the end of which, Mohammed having, as he
hoped, a sufficient interest to support him, made his mission no longer a
secret, but gave out that GOD had commanded him to admonish his near
relations;5 and in order to do it with more convenience and prospect of
success, he directed Ali to prepare an entertainment, and invite the sons and
descendants of Abd'almotalleb, intending then to open his mind to them; this
was done, and about forty of them came; but Abu Laheb, one of his uncles,
making the company break up before Mohammed had an opportunity of speaking,
obliged him to give them a second invitation the next day; and when they were
come, he made them the following speech: "I know no man in all Arabia who can
offer his kindred a more excellent thing than I now do you. I offer you
happiness, both in this life and in that which is to come. GOD Almighty hath
commanded me to call you unto him; who therefore among you will be assisting
to me herein, and become my brother and my vicegerent?" All of them
hesitating, and declining the matter, Ali at length rose up and declared that
he would be his assistant, and vehemently threatened those who should oppose
him. Mohammed upon this embraced Ali with great demonstrations of affection,
and desired all who were present to hearken to and obey him as his deputy, at
which the company broke out into great laughter, telling Abu Tâleb that he
must now pay obedience to his son.
This repulse however was so far from discouraging Mohammed, that he began
to preach in public to the people, who heard him with some patience, till he
came to upbraid them with the idolatry, obstinacy, and perverseness of
themselves and their fathers, which so highly provoked them that they declared
themselves his enemies, and would soon have procured his ruin had he not been
protected by Abu Tâleb. The chief of the Koreish warmly solicited this person
to desert his nephew, making frequent remonstrances against the innovations he
was attempting, which proving ineffectual, they at length threatened him with
an open rupture if he did not prevail on Mohammed to desist. At this, Abu
Tâleb was so far moved that he earnestly dissuaded his nephew from pursuing
the affair any farther, representing the great danger he and his friends must
otherwise run. But Mohammed was not to be intimidated, telling his uncle
plainly "that if they set the sun against him on his right hand, and the moon
on his left, he would not leave his enterprise;" and Abu Tâleb, seeing him so
firmly resolved to proceed, used no further arguments, but promised to stand
by him against all his enemies.6
The Koreish, finding they could prevail neither by fair words nor menaces,
tried what they could do by force and ill-treatment, using Mohammed's
followers so very injuriously that it was not safe for them to continue at
Mecca any longer: whereupon Mohammed gave leave to such of them as had not
friends to protect them, to seek for refuge elsewhere. And accordingly, in
the fifth year of the prophet's mission, sixteen of them, four of whom were
women, fled into Ethiopia; and among them Othmân Ebn Affân and his wife
Rakîah, Mohammed's

5 Kor. c. 74. See the notes thereon. 6 Abulfeda ubi
supra.

daughter. This was the first flight; but afterwards several others followed
them, retiring one after another, to the number of eighty-three men and
eighteen women, besides children.1 These refugees were kindly received by the
Najâshi,2 or king of Ethiopia, who refused to deliver them up to those whom
the Koreish sent to demand them, and, as the Arab writers unanimously attest,
even professed the Mohammedan religion.
In the sixth year of his mission3 Mohammed had the pleasure of seeing his
party strengthened by the conversion of his uncle Hamza, a man of great valour
and merit, and of Omar Ebn al Khattâb, a person highly esteemed, and once a
violent opposer of the prophet. As persecution generally advances rather than
obstructs the spreading of a religion, Islamism made so great a progress among
the Arab tribes, that the Koreish, to suppress it effectually, if possible, in
the seventh year of Mohammed's mission,4 made a solemn league or covenant
against the Hashemites and the family of al Motalleb, engaging themselves to
contract no marriages with any of them, and to have no communication with
them; and to give it the greater sanction, reduced it into writing, and laid
it up in the Caaba. Upon this the tribe became divided into two factions; and
the family of Hashem all repaired to Abu Tâleb, as their head; except only
Abd'al Uzza, surnamed Abu Laheb, who, out of his inveterate hatred to his
nephew and his doctrine, went over to the opposite party, whose chief was Abu
Sofiân Ebn Harb, of the family of Ommeya.
The families continued thus at variance for three years; but in the tenth
year of his mission, Mohammed told his uncle Abu Tâleb that GOD had manifestly
showed his disapprobation of the league which the Koreish had made against
them, by sending a worm to eat out every word of the instrument except the
name of GOD. Of this accident Mohammed had probably some private notice; for
Abu Tâleb went immediately to the Koreish and acquainted them with it;
offering, if it proved false, to deliver his nephew up to them; but in case it
were true, he insisted that they ought to lay aside their animosity, and annul
the league they had made against the Hashemites. To this they acquiesced, and
going to inspect the writing, to their great astonishment found it to be as
Abu Tâleb had said; and the league was thereupon declared void.
In the same year Abu Tâleb died, at the age of above fourscore; and it is
the general opinion that he died an infidel, though others say that when he
was at the point of death he embraced Mohammedism, and produce some passages
out of his poetical compositions to confirm their assertion. About a month,
or as some write, three days after the death of this great benefactor and
patron, Mohammed had the additional mortification to lose his wife Khadîjah,
who had so generously made his fortune. For which reason this year is called
the year of mourning.5
On the death of these two persons the Koreish began to be more troublesome
than ever to their prophet, and especially some who had formerly been his
intimate friends; insomuch that he found himself

1 Idem, Ebn Shohnah. 2 Dr. Prideaux seems to take this word
for a proper name, but it is only the title the Arabs give to every king of
this country. See his Life of Mahomet, p. 55 3 Ebn Shohnah
4 Al Jannâbi.
1 Abulfed. p. 28. Ebn Shohnah.

obliged to seek for shelter elsewhere, and first pitched upon Tâyet, about
sixty miles east from Mecca, for the place of his retreat. Thither therefore
he went, accompanied by his servant Zeid, and applied himself to two of the
chief of the tribe of Thakîf, who were the inhabitants of that place; but they
received him very coldly. However, he stayed there a month; and some of the
more considerate and better sort of men treated him with a little respect: but
the slaves and inferior people at length rose against him, and bringing him to
the wall of the city, obliged him to depart and return to Mecca, where he put
himself under the protection of al Motáam Ebn Adi.2
This repulse greatly discouraged his followers: however, Mohammed was not
wanting to himself, but boldly continued to preach to the public assemblies at
the pilgrimage, and gained several proselytes, and among them six of the
inhabitants of Yathreb of the Jewish tribe of Khazraj, who on their return
home failed not to speak much in commendation of their new religion, and
exhorted their fellow-citizens to embrace the same.
In the twelfth year of his mission it was that Mohammed gave out that he he
had made his night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem and thence to heaven,3 so
much spoken of by all that write of him. Dr. Prideaux4 thinks he invented it
either to answer the expectations of those who demanded some miracle as a
proof of his mission, or else, by pretending to have conversed with GOD, to
establish the authority of whatever he should think fit to leave behind by way
of oral tradition, and make his sayings to serve the same purpose as the oral
law of the Jews. But I do not find that Mohammed himself ever expected so
great a regard should be paid to his sayings, as his followers have since
done; and seeing he all along disclaimed any power of performing miracles, it
seems rather to have been a fetch of policy to raise his reputation, by
pretending to have actually conversing with GOD in heaven, as Moses had
heretofore done in the mount, and to have received several institutions
immediately from him, whereas before he contented himself with persuading them
that he had all by the ministry of Gabriel.
However, this story seemed so absurd and incredible, that several of his
followers left him upon it, and it had probably ruined the whole design, had
not Abu Becr vouched for his veracity, and declared that if Mohammed affirmed
it to be true, he verily believed the whole. Which happy incident not only
retrieved the prophet's credit, but increased it to such a degree, that he was
secure of being able to make his disciples swallow whatever he pleased to
impose on them for the future. And I am apt to think this fiction,
notwithstanding its extravagance, was one of the most artful contrivances
Mohammed ever put in practice, and what chiefly contributed to the raising of
his reputation to that great height to which it afterwards arrived.
In this year, called by the Mohammedans the accepted year, twelve men of
Yathreb or Medina, of whom ten were of the tribe of Khazraj, and the other two
of that of Aws, came to Mecca, and took an oath of fidelity to Mohammed at al
Akaba, a hill on the north of that city. This oath was called the women's
oath, not that any women were pre-

2 Ebn Shohnah. 3 See the notes on the 17th chapter of the
Korân. 4 Life o Mahomet, p. 41, 51, &c.

sent at this time, but because a man was not thereby obliged to take up arms
in defence of Mohammed or his religion; it being the same oath that was
afterwards exacted of the women, the form of which we have in the Korân,1 and
is to this effect, viz.: "That they should renounce all idolatry; that they
should not steal, nor commit fornication, nor kill their children (as the
pagan Arabs used to do when they apprehended they should not be able to
maintain them2), nor forge calumnies; and that they should obey the prophet in
all things that were reasonable." When they had solemnly engaged to do all
this, Mohammed sent one of his disciples, named Masáb Ebn Omair, home with
them, to instruct them more fully in the grounds and ceremonies of his new
religion.
Masáb, being arrived at Medina, by the assistance of those who had been
formerly converted, gained several proselytes, particularly Osaid Ebn Hodeira,
a chief man of the city, and Saad Ebn Moâdh, prince of the tribe of Aws;
Mohammedism spreading so fast, that there was scarce a house wherein there
were not some who had embraced it.
The next year, being the thirteenth of Mohammed's mission, Masáh returned
to Mecca, accompanied by seventy-three men and two women of Medina, who had
professed Islamism, besides some others who were as yet unbelievers. On their
arrival, they immediately sent to Mohammed, and offered him their assistance,
of which he was now in great need, for his adversaries were by this time grown
so powerful in Mecca, that he could not stay there much longer without
imminent danger. Wherefore he accepted their proposal, and met them one
night, by appointment, at al Akaba above mentioned, attended by his uncle al
Abbas, who, though he was not then a believer, wished his nephew well, and
made a speech to those of Medina, wherein he told them, that as Mohammed was
obliged to quit his native city, and seek an asylum elsewhere, and they had
offered him their protection, they would do well not to deceive him; and that
if they were not firmly resolved to defend and not betray him, they had better
declare their minds, and let him provide for his safety in some other manner.
Upon their protesting their sincerity, Mohammed swore to be faithful to them,
on condition that they should protect him against all insults, as heartily as
they would their own wives and families. They then asked him what recompense
they were to expect if they should happen to be killed in his quarrel; he
answered, Paradise. Whereupon they pledged their faith to him, and so
returned home;3 after Mohammed had chosen twelve out of their number, who were
to have the same authority among them as the twelve apostles of Christ had
among his disciples.4
Hitherto Mohammed had propagated his religion by fair means, so that the
whole success of his enterprise, before his flight to Medina, must be
attributed to persuasion only, and not to compulsion. For before this second
oath of fealty or inauguration at al Akaba, he had no permission to use any
force at all; and in several places of the Korân, which he pretended were
revealed during his stay at Mecca,

1 Cap. 60. 2 Vide Kor. c. 6. 3 Abulfeda. Vit.
Moham. p. 40, &c. 4 Ebn Ishâk.

he declares his business was only to preach and admonish; that he had no
authority to compel any person to embrace his religion; and that whether
people believed, or not, was none of his concern, but belonged solely unto
GOD. And he was so far from allowing his followers to use force, that he
exhorted them to bear patiently those injuries which were offered them on
account of their faith; and when persecuted himself, chose rather to quit the
place of his birth and retire to Medina, than to make any resistance. But
this great passiveness and moderation seems entirely owing to his want of
power, and the great superiority of his opposers for the first twelve years of
his mission; for no sooner was he enabled, by the assistance of those of
Medina, to make head against his enemies, than he gave out, that GOD had
allowed him and his followers to defend themselves against the infidels; and
at length as his forces increased, he pretended to have the divine leave even
to attack them, and to destroy idolatry, and set up the true faith by the
sword; finding by experience that his designs would otherwise proceed very
slowly, if they were not utterly overthrown, and knowing on the other hand
that innovators, when they depend solely on their own strength, and can
compel, seldom run any risk; from whence, the politician observes, it follows,
that all the armed prophets have succeeded, and the unarmed ones have failed.
Moses, Cyrus, Theseus, and Romulus would not have been able to establish the
observance of their institutions for any length of time had they not been
armed.1 The first passage of the Korân which gave Mohammed the permission of
defending himself by arms, is said to have been that in the twenty-second
chapter; after which a great number to the same purpose were revealed.
That Mohammed had a right to take up arms for his own defence against his
unjust persecutors, may perhaps be allowed; but whether he ought afterwards to
have made use of that means for the establishing of his religion is a question
I will not here determine. How far the secular power may or ought to
interpose in affairs of this nature, mankind are not agreed. The method of
converting by the sword, gives no very favourable idea of the faith which is
so propagated, and is disallowed by everybody in those of another religion,
though the same persons are willing to admit of it for the advancement of
their own; supposing that though a false religion ought not to be established
by authority, yet a true one may; and accordingly force is almost as
constantly employed in these cases by those who have the power in their hands,
as it is constantly complained of by those who suffer the violence. It is
certainly one of the most convincing proofs that Mohammedism was no other than
human invention, that it owed its progress and establishment almost entirely
to the sword; and it is one of the strongest demonstrations of the divine
original of Christianity, that it prevailed against all the forces and powers
of the world by the mere dint of its own truth, after having stood the
assaults of all manner of persecutions, as well as other oppositions, for 300
years together and at length made the Roman emperors themselves submit
thereto;2 after which time, indeed, this proof seems to fail, Christianity
being