Preparation for his Mission. — Placed in affluent cir- cumstances by marriage, Mohammed gradually aban- doned commercial enterprises and gave himself up to religious contemplation, to which he may have been in- duced by a cousin of his consort, who, like many Arabs- of his time,'had relinquished idolatry, and had been con- verted first to Judaism, then to Christianity, but had failed to find satisfaction in either. Mohammed was no scholar — it is even doubtful whether he acquired read- ing and M-riting in later years — his education had cer- tainly been neglected in his earlier years by reason of circumstances. Chirography had only been introduced into Arabia a short time previously, though poetry was highly cultivated — for this, however, in spite of his oratorical talent, he had little aptitude. On the whole, his visionary character and piety formed a great con- trast to the sober and robust Arabs of his time, who in- dulged in wine, gambling, and sensuality as the main objects of life ; while he, though not insensible to terres- trial enjoyments, was more disposed to religious reflec- tion. Ketired in solitude, he made God, the future life, and revelation the themes of his thoughts, and reviewed the various systems of religion known to him by oral tradition, in order to form from them a new religion adapted to Arabia. There were at this time Ebionitish Christians in the country — the Rakusi and the Hanifs. To the first belonged, according to Sprenger's conjecture {Leben v. Lehre des Mohammed, i, 43 sq.), Koss, who preached at jNIecca the unity of God and the resurrec- tion of the dead, and for this purpose also visited the fair at Okhad, where Mohammed had heard him. The Hanifs were (as Sprenger will have it) Essencs,who had lost nearly all knowledge of the Bible, and had sub- mitted to various foreign influences, but professed a rigid monotheism. Their religious book was called the " Koll of Abraham." In the time of Mohammed several members of this sect were living at INIecca and JMedina, and Mohammed himself, who originally had worshipped the gods of his people, became a Hanif. The doctrine of the Hanifs was " Islam" — i. e. submission to the one God ; they were themselves " Moslem" — i. e. men char- acterized by such submission. Besides his knowledge from such connections, Mohammed enjoyed the instruc- tion of Jewish scholars, among whom are particularly mentioned a celebrated rabbi, Abdallah Ibn-Salaam, and Waraka, the nephew of his wife. (Comp. Abrah. Geiger, Was hat Mohammed avs dem Judenihume avf- genommen, Bonn, 1833.) The Arabs, Moliammed kncAv, were ready for a new faith, and he desired the establish- ment of a religious system which should embody the essentials of all that his countrymen were acquainted with. Idolatry was already on the wane. The idols were considered by the poets and other intelligent Arabs as powerless beings, at most as mediators between the su- preme God (Allah) and mankind; and there were some who even accepted the belief in a future life, as enter- tained among the Jews and Christians of Arabia. The greatest opposition he had reason to fear was from relig- ious indifference, scepticism, and selfishness. According to the Koran, from which alone we can correctly gather Mohammed's religious views, he laid down the following fundamental doctrines: The existence of a monotheistic divinity, a being superior to all ; a revelation, but only by special inspiration (by which alone the prophets were distinguished, while in all other respects on an equality with the rest of mankind) ; and, finally, a life hereafter, in which the virtuous were to be rewarded and the vicious punished. In his opinion, this was the religion of Abraham, who, as the Koran says, was nei- ther Jew nor Christian, but a pious, (iod-fearing man. Moses and Christ were prophets; but their revelation had been distorted by Jews and Christians. He there-
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fi)re determined that some of the laws and ordinances of the Old Testament, not suitable for Arabia, should be set aside ; and of the New, many dogmas, which were looked upon by him and his contemporaries as border- ing on idolatry, should be revoked, in order to success- fully convert his people to monotheism.
Moliammed having arrived at these results by reflec- tion and tradition, notwithstanding the prejudices of his time, from which he was by no means himself free, and endowed with a ner\^ous constitution and a lively imagination, it was not at all unnatural for him to come, after a time, to regard himself as actually called of God to build up his people in a new faith. Mohammed, as we gatlier from the oldest and most trustworthy narra- tives, was an epileptic, and as such was considered to be ])ossessed of evil spirits. At first he believed the same ; but gradually he came to the conclusion, confirmed by his friends, that d;i'mons had no power over so pure and pious a man as he was, and he conceived the idea that he was not controlled by evil spirits, but that he was visited by angels, whom he, disposed to hallucinations of vision and audition, and afflicted with a morbid state of body and mind, saw in dreams, or even while awake conceived he saw. What seemed to him good and true, after such epileptic attacks, he esteemed revelation, in which he, at least in the first stage of his prophetic course, firmly believed, and which imparted to his pen- sive, variable character the necessary courage and en- durance to brave all mortifications and perils.