Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/177

 STATEMENTS HOSTILE TO JUDAISM. 159

The Muslims assert 1 that the Jews of that period laid down that cohabitation was to take place in the usual way. On this Muhammad to please himself and his Arabs says: 3 "Tour wives are your tillage, go in therefore unto your tillage in what manner soever ye will," etc.

0. The most important and prominent change to be consi- dered in this connection is the removal of the prohibition about food, concerning which Muhammad asserts that it was imposed upon the Jews only on account of their iniquity. 3 (It is interest- ing that Jesus states just the converse when he speaks of the abolition of divorce. 4 ) Muhammad abolishes the law about meat in several passages, 5 but holds to part of it in others, 6 following it would seem the precedent of the apostles, to whom almost the same utterance is attributed in the New Testa- ment. 7 Thus he forbids carrion, blood, swine's flesh, and that which has been slain for an idol ; to which he adds in the first passage, that which is not properly killed, viz., that slain by strangling, or by a blow from an axe, that killed by a fall from a mountain, that which is gored, and that torn by wild beasts. These last rules, considering the total silence about them in other later passages, may be regarded as " abolished/' 8 In another passage 9 Muhammad mentions particular meats which were forbidden to the Jews. 10

D. Lastly, the following utterance 11 of Muhammad is decid- edly combative : " We have therein commanded them that they should give life for life, and eye for eye, and nose for nose, and ear for ear, and tooth for tooth ; and that wounds should also be punished by retaliation ; but whoever should remit it as alms it should be accepted as an atonement for him. And whoso

1 Sunna 460. 2 Sura II. 223.

3 Sura IV. 158. 4 St. Matthew, xix. 8.

5 Suras III. 44, SI, IV. 158, V. 89, 90.

6 Suras V. 4, VI. 146, XVI.116. 1 Acts, xv. 1928.

8 Jjlj* 9 Sura VI. 147.

10 Leviticus, xi. 3, 7, 27, ff. and 89 ff. Sura V. 49.