2 45. THE MOHAMMEDAN RELIGION. 187
in His infancy (as in the apocryphal Gospels), and during His public ministry, or rather Allah wrought miracles through Him. Mohammed disclaims the miraculous power, and relied upon the stronger testimony of the truth of his doctrine. Jesus proclaimed the pure doctrine of the unity of God and disclaimed divine honors.
The crucifixion of Jesus is denied. He was delivered by a miracle from the death intended for Him, and taken up by God into Paradise with His mother. The Jews slew one like Him, by mistake. This absurd docetic idea is supposed to be the com mon belief of Christians.1
Jesus predicted the coming of Mohammed, when he said : "O children of Israel ! of a truth I am God's apostle to you to con firm the law which was given before me, and to announce an apostle that shall come after me whose name shall be Ahmed !" 2 Thus the promise of the Holy Ghost, " the other Paraclete/1 (John xiv. 16) was applied by Mohammed to himself by a sin gular confusion of Paraclctos (jtaodxtyToz) with Peridytos (Treplx^yroc, heard all round, famous) or Ahmed (the glorified, the illus trious), one of the prophet's names.3
Owing to this partial recognition of Christianity Mohammed
ah ein mythologischer Mythus aus Ezech. 47 mil eingewobenen judischen Zilgen, der seine Heimath im Ebionismus hat."
1 Sura 4. This view of the crucifixion is no doubt derived from apocryphal sources. The Gnostic sect of Basilides supposed Simon of Gyrene, the Evangel. Barrabce, Judas, to have been that other person who was crucified instead of Jesus. Mani (Epist. Fund.) says that the prince of darkness was nailed to the cross, and wore the crown of thorns.
2 Sura 61.
3 The Moslems refer also some other passages of Scripture to Mohammed and his religion, e. g. Gen. xvi. 10; xvii. 20; xxi. 12, 13; xxvii. 20 (the pro mise of God to bless Hagar and Ishmael) ; Deut. xviii. 15, 18 (the promise to raise up a prophet like Moses) ; Isa. xxi. 67 (where Mohammed is supposed to be meant by the ''rider on the camel," as distinct from Jesus, "the rider on the ass"); John iv. 21; 1 John iv. 23 (where he is the spirit that is of God, because he proclaimed that Jesus was a true man, not God) ; Deut. xxxii. 2 (where Sinai is said to mean the Jewish, Seir the Christian, and Paran the Mohammedan revelation).
188 FOURTH PEEIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
was originally regarded not as the founder of a new religion, but as one of the chief heretics.1 The same opinion is expressed by several modern writers, Catholic and Protestant. Dollinger says : " Islam must be considered at bottom a Christian heresy, the bastard offspring of a Christian father and a Jewish mother, and is indeed more closely allied to Christianity than Manicha3ism, which is reckoned a Christian sect." 2 Stanley calls Islam an " eccentric heretical form of Eastern Christianity/7 and Ewald more correctly, " the last and most powerful offshoot of Gnosti
THE ETHICS OF
Resignation (Islam) to the omnipotent will of Allah is the chief virtue. It is the most powerful motive both in action and suffering, and is carried to the excess of fatalism and apathy.
The use of pork and wine is strictly forbidden; prayer, fast ing (especially during the whole month of Ramadhan), and alms giving are enjoined. Prayer carries man half-way to God, fasting brings him to the door of God's palace, alms secure admittance. The total abstinence from strong drink by the whole people, even in countries where the vine grows in abundance, reveals a remarkable power of self-control, which puts many Christian nations to shame. Mohammedanism is a great temperance society. Herein lies its greatest moral force.
POLYGAMY.
But on the other hand tha heathen vice of polygamy and con cubinage is perpetuated and encouraged by the example of the prophet. He restrained and regulated an existing practice, and gave it the sanction of religion. Ordinary believers are restricted to four wives (exclusive of slaves), and generally have only one
1 So by John of Damascus and the mediaeval writers against Islam. Peter of Clugny speaks of '* hcereses Saraeenorum sive Ismaelitarum." Comp. Gass, Gennadius und Pletho, p. 109.
2 Lectures on the Reunion of Churches, p. 7 (transl. by Oxenham, 1872).
3 Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, Vol. I. (1871), p. 418.