Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 16.djvu/581

Rh MOHAMMED.] MOHAMMED ANIS M 553 Law. Mohammed thus laid the foundations of his position in a manner precisely similar to that which Moses (Exod. xviii.) is said to have followed ; and just as the Torah grew out of the decisions of Moses, so did the Sunna out of those of Mohammed. It was perhaps in judicial and regulative activity, which he continued quietly to carry on to the very end of his life, that his vocation chiefly lay. At all events his work in this direction was extremely beneficial, if only because he was the creator of law and justice where previously there had been nothing but violence, self-help, or at best voluntary arrangement. But the contents of his legislation also (if it can be called by such a name) marked a distinct advance upon what had been the previ ous use and wont in Arabia. In particular, he made it his special care to set a fence round the rights of property, and to protect and raise the place of woman in marriage. Blood revenge he retained indeed, but completely altered its character by reserving to himself the right of permitting it ; in other words, the right of capital sentence. It need not be said that in many ways he availed himself of that which already existed, whether in the form of Arab usage or of Jewish law ; he followed the latter, in particular, in his laws relating to marriage. Religion. The new situation of affairs inevitably brought it about that religion was made a mere servant in the work of forming a commonwealth. Never has this service been better performed ; never has it been utilized with greater adroitness as a means towards this end. In Mecca, Islam had originally been nothing more than the individual con viction of Mohammed ; it was only after severe struggles that he went so far as to preach it, and even his preaching had no other aim than to create individual conviction in others. What he said was of the simplest description that people ought to believe in God and in judgment to come, that men ought to live their lives seriously and not waste them in follies, that one ought not to be high-minded or covetous, and so on. A community arose, it is true, even in Mecca, and was confirmed by the persecutions. There also religious meetings were held and social prayers. But everything was still in a very fluid and rudimentary stage ; religion retained its inward character. It was not until the first two years after the Flight that it gradually lost this, and became, if not exclusively, yet to a very large extent, a mere drill system for the community. 1 No god but the one God (la ihlh ilia llah) was the entire sum of their dogmatic, and less importance was attached to belief in it than to profession of it. It was the watchword and battle-cry. The prayers 2 took the form of military exer cises ; they were imitated with the greatest precision by the congregation, after the example of the Imam. The mosque was, in fact, the great exercising ground of Islam ; it was there that the Moslems acquired the esprit de corps and rigid discipline which distinguished their armies. Next to the monotheistic confession (tauhid) and to prayer (salat) came almsgiving (zakat, sadaka) as a third important means by which Mohammed awakened and brought into action among his followers the feeling of fellow ship. The alms by and by grew to be a sort of tithe, which 1 This is to be understood as applying to the system as a whole. Of course, there are always individuals who break through system ; but the historical power of Islam rests upon the system. To the system also belongs the spiritual jargon which Mohammed introduced. It was no longer permissible to say &quot; Good morning ! ( im sabahan), the phrase now ran, &quot;Peace be with thee !&quot; and on every occasion pious forms of speech were demanded. Characteristic of the puritan- ism of the system is the prohibition of wine and of gaming, first issued iu the years immediately following the Flight, and the contempt for poetry. 2 They were five in number at sunrise, noon, afternoon, sunset, and late evening. Each prayer consisted originally of two, afterwards of four, prostrations. The chief weekly public service (jom a), with ser mon, was held on Friday at mid-day. afterwards became the basis of the Moslem fiscal system, and so at the same time the material foundation of the Moslem state. Religion received so practical a develop ment that of alms nothing but the name remained, and the convenient fiction that the taxes had to be paid to God. Just in proportion to the closeness of the union into In- which Islam brought its followers did its exclusiveness creased towards them that were without increase. If in Mecca c. x r clu &quot; Mohammed in his relations to the other monotheistic reli- 8M gions had observed the principle, &quot; he that is not against me is for me,&quot; in Medina his rule was &quot; he that is not for me is against me.&quot; As circumstances were, he had to ad- The just matters chiefly with the Jews. Without any intention Jews- on their part, they had helped to prepare the ground for him in Medina ; he had great hopes from them, and at first treated them on no different footing from that of the Arab families which recognized him. But as his relations with the Aus and Khazraj consolidated, those which he had with the Jews became less close. The conjunction of reli gious with political authority, the development of civil polity out of religion, of the kingship from the prophetic function, was precisely what they objected to. 3 On the other hand, while the old polity of Medina, broken up and disorganized as it was, had no difficulty in tolerating foreign elements within its limits, the new political system created by Islam changed the situation, and rendered it necessary that these should be either assimilated or ex pelled. Mohammed s hostility to the Jews found expression, in the first instance, theoretically more than practically, 4 and especially in the care with which he now differentiated certain important religious usages which he had taken over from Judaism, so that they became distinguishing marks between Islam and Mosaism. Thus, for example, he altered the direction of prayer (Kibla), which formerly used to be towards Jerusalem, so that it now was towards Mecca ; and for the fast on the 10th of Tisri ( Ashura) he sub stituted that of the month of Ramadan. 5 In appointing Friday as the principal day of public worship, he may also possibly have had some polemical reference to the Jewish Sabbath. Of these alterations the greatest in positive importance is the transference of the Kibla to Mecca. It symbolizes the completion of the Arabizing process which went on step by step with the change Islam underwent from being an individual to being a political religion. In substituting the Meccan Ka ba for the sanctuary at Jeru salem, Mohammed did not merely bid farewell to Judaism and assert his independence of it ; what he chiefly did was to make a concession to heathenism, and bring about a nationalization of Islam, for the purpose of welding together the Arab tribes (Kabail) into one community. Of similar significance was the institution of the feast of sacrifice ( id al-doha) on the day of the Meccan festival. The Moslems were to observe the latter as much as possible, even if they could not be actually present on the spot. Thus we have the five chief precepts of Islam (1) Con- Precepts fession of the unity of God ; (2) stated prayer ; (3) alms- o! giving ; (4) the fast of Ramadan ; (5) observance of the festival of Mecca. Capable of having deeper meanings 3 While Islam had the effect of uniting the Arabs politically, uni formity of religion in the case of the Jews had no such effect ; on the contrary, the mutual feuds and hatreds in which they indulged con duced greatly to the advantage of the Moslems. The Jews, of course, recognised Mohammed s supremacy as a fact, but they denied any legal title thereto as arising from his prophetic office. 4 Compare the well-known second sura, in which a long attack is made on Judaism. B A connection with the Christian fasts is usually alleged, possible that Christian influence may have to do with the long duration of the fasts, but it cannot have anything to do with the selection of Ramadan ; for in the first years after the Flight, Ramadan fell not in Spring but in December. XVI. 7