Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 1.djvu/58

 50 OWEN BERKELEY-HILL

intense reverence for authority. According to a saying of the i

prophet, even if a negro slave is placed in authority he must |

be obeyed. Among the varieties of authority enumerated, that |

vested in parents is given a foremost place. "And your Lord has I

commanded that you shall not serve (any) but I lim and goodness ^

to your parents. If either or both of them reach old age with f

you, say not to them (so much as) 'Ugh' nor chide them, and J

speak to them a generous word". "And make yourself submissi- |

vely gentle to them with compassion, and say: my Lord! have |

compassion on them, as they brought ine up (when 1 was) little." |

(Koran, Chapter XVII, v. 23-24). 'The injunction to obey parents I

implicitly is however qualified by the proviso that parents are |

only entitled to obedience from their children as long as they do 1

not compel their cliiidren to serve others tlian God [Koran, s

Chapter XXIX, v, 8), •|

It is in this connection that we meet what appears at first sight to be a strange paradox in the belief and practice of Islam, the explanation of which lies in the full recognition of the enor- mous subjective feeling for authority entertained l)y Mohammed. Thus, in spite of the repeated insistence on reverence for all in authority made by him, Mohammed cannot escape from the charge that he taught his followers, directly or implicitly, to be- lieve that they should fight for their faith, that they should assert themselves as the favoured people, and that it is wrong for them to endure if they can help it, a direct and visible assertion ol infidel superiority. Hence the adherents of no religious system are so prone as the Mohammedans to sudden outbur.sts of frenzy against the very authority they are adjured to revere and obey. The ex- planation lies in the fact that we are dealing once more with a case of ambivalent "compromise" on the part of Mohammed.

We have already cited two instances of this manifestation of the working of the unconscious mind of Molvamn>ed, one in re- gard to the perpetuation of that ancient temple of idolatry, the Kaaba, which succeeded, and the other relating to the worship of the three "exalted Females", which failed. Again we find this same tendency manifested in the attitude adopted by Mohammed towards authority. While on the one hand the authority of [varcnts and rulers was to be respected according to the objective feeling of Mohammed, on the other hand, in pursuance of his subjective feeling on the subject of parental authority, it must be opposed

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