Page:Judaism and Islam, a prize essay - Geiger - 1898.pdf/64

 46 JUDAISM AND ISLAM.

proving a borrowing from another. Other views again are so well-known and so fully worked out that we need not discuss them in detail, but shall find a mere mention of them sufficient. Of this kind is that of the idea of the unity of God, the fundamental doctrine of Israel and Isldm. At the time of the rise of the latter, this view was to be found in Judaism alone, * and therefore Muhammad must have borrowed it from that religion. This may be consi- dered as proved without any unnecessary display of learning on the point. The idea of future reward and punishment is common to all religions, but it is held in so many different ways that we shall be obliged to consider.it in our argument. Cardinal points of faith have also passed from Judaism into Christianity. To decide whether these points as adopted in the Quran have come from the Jews or from the Christians, we must direct our special attention to a comparison between the forms in which the beliefs are held in both those religions, and the form in which they are presented to us by Muhammad. This is to answer the objection, that in the following discussion so little is to be found about the cardinal dogmas, for even the enumeration of them is foreign to our purpose,

Every religion which conceives G-od as an active work- ing providence must have some distinct teaching on the creation, and this Muhammad gives in accordance with the Bible, viz., that God created heaven and earth and all that therein is in six days ; 2 although in another place he diverges somewhat and says that the earth was created in two days, the mountains and the green herbs in four days, and the heavens with all their divisions in two days more. 3 Though this passage is nothing but a flight of poetic fancy, still it shews how little Muhammad knew of the Bible, inasmuch as he is aware of nothing but the general fact

1 Christianity also teaches the Unity of God. Ed.

2 Sftraa X. 3, XI. 9, L. 37, LVII. 4. . 3 s&rft XLI g_ n