Islam by P. H. Briggs

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Apr 15, 1915

Islam

By P. H. Briggs

P. H. BRIGGS

According to Moslem tradition and belief, in the mysterious and isolated city of Mecca, Arabia, in April of A. D. 567 there was born to Hashim a son. Hashim was of the illustrious tribe of Koreish, the great benefactor of Mecca and the guardian of the Kaaba, which latter was an honor not conferred except upon those belonging to the most distinguished tribes and families. Abdul-Muttalib succeeded to these honors. He had many children, and Abdallah was the youngest and most beloved. He was remarkable for personal beauty, and possessed the secret of winning human friendship. He married Amina, of the tribe of Koreish, and on the night of the wedding, we are told, two hundred maidens died of broken hearts.

Mohammed was the only son born to these aristocratic parents, and his father died a few months after, leaving only five camels, a few sheep, and a slave. Legends of the followers of Mohammed illustrate their reverence for him by their assertions that on the moment of his coming into the world, he raised his eyes toward heaven and exclaimed, “God is great! There is no god but God, and I am his prophet.”

After his father’s death, his mother gave him into the care of a shepherdess, who nursed him in the mountains for two years, at the end of which time she returned him because he frequently had epileptic fits. His mother died when he was six years old, and his grandfather adopted him. On Abdul-Muttalib’s death, an uncle, Abu Talib, took the lad, brought him up, and remained his closest companion and protector throughout his life. Even in his youth he carried religious contemplation to an extreme, and it is believed that his epilepsy had much to do with this morbid tendency of his character. When he was twenty-five years old, he was employed by a rich widow, Kadija, also of the tribe of Koreish. He displayed such good judgment and business qualities in caring for her caravans and commercial interests, that, in spite of the fact that she was already twice widowed, she married him. They lived in faithful and happy wedlock until her death.

With this marriage, Mohammed acquired great wealth, which afforded him leisure to indulge the original bias of his mind; his old habits of contemplation were revived, and he spent much time in religious speculation. The desire to abolish idols and substitute a new religion grew upon him until it took his whole attention. It seemed to him that there was great need of a religion which would embody the faith of their forefathers with the simple doctrine of the unity of the Deity. Something had to be done; the time was ripe, and Mohammed stepped into the breach, launching the faith which is generally called by Christians after his name, but by all its followers, the faith of Islam.

When we consider that he believed that the religion of Adam had been repeatedly debased, and almost forgotten at times, but that a succession of prophets was destined to come into the world to restore it from time to time, and bring men’s minds back to God, we can scarcely doubt that he was honest in his convictions and in his purpose when he first undertook the reformation of the world, which he really began at the age of forty years. There is a possibility that his original honesty of purpose may have been lost, however, during the latter periods of his life.

The first convert to Mohammed’s new faith was his wife,—Kadija,—to whom he told the particulars of an interview which he claimed to have had with an angel. As was his custom, he was passing the month of Ramadan in the cave of Mt. Hara, after fasting, prayer, and meditation, when the angel Gabriel appeared to him, displaying a silken cloth on which were written the decrees of God as afterwards promulgated in the Koran. For some time Mohammed confined his revelations to the members of his own family and to his near relatives, but few of whom accepted his works as divine; and those who accepted were laughed at and persecuted until it became necessary for them to hold their meetings in a secret cave near Mecca. Even here they were discovered and attacked by a rabble. At the end of four years his converts numbered only forty.

With the beginning of his public ministry began his serious troubles, as well as his decided victories. After being driven to Medina for his safety, Mohammed gained such popularity that an army enlisted beneath his banners for the purpose of bringing into line all infidels and unbelievers, were it necessary. A long list of religious wars followed, through which, for the most part, the faith of Islam proved itself victorious.

Perhaps the most important event of his life was the promulgation of the “Valedictory Pilgrimage,” which was his last to the city of Mecca. It has been estimated that a throng of 150,000 persons accompanied him there. He preached to them from Mt. Ararat, exhorting them to piety and righteousness. On his return to Medina he shortly fell sick, and declined rapidly until his death. The mosque in which he was buried is today the object of adoration of over 175,000,000 persons. Within five years after Mohammed’s death, his successors had taken his banners across Asia to the Hellespont, and across Africa to Gibraltar.

The religion of Islam is contained in the Koran, the contents of which may be classified under three headings—precepts, history, and admonitions. The history is in a great degree copied from the Hebrew Scriptures. The precepts and admonitions are exhortations to accept the faith of Mohammed, holding out as a reward a heaven filled with every sensual delight. The faith gives God every attribute that Christianity gives, but does not accept Christ as being other than Mohammed was—a prophet from God to man to awaken new ideals of life. The idea that the world is redeemed by Christ’s righteousness, is entirely lost to Mohammedans. Their religion controls Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, Asia Minor, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan, and the Malay Peninsula. India has more than 57,000,000 Moslems, and China has about 25,000,000.

Ruled over by darkness and superstition, led astray by the deceptions of the great deceiver, this great throng are wandering on toward eternity, without the finger of prophecy to direct, and without the blood of Christ to redeem.