The unity of God is the first article of faith; the second, the divine mission of Mohammed. The God of Mohammed resembles the Allah Taala of the primitive Arabic religion, the Jehovah of Mosaism, and the Ahuramazda of the Parsee monotheist not yet corrupted. The story of creation is borrowed from the Jews. The jinns of primitive religion have been preserved, transformed into angels and demons. That is what Zoroaster did with regard to the Indian divinities, the devas. It is forbidden to honour the angels, they are perishable and will die in the day of judgment. The arch-fiend also has the Hebrew name of Satan and the Greek one of Iblis (Diabolos); but as Ahriman of the duallist Neopardism has never taken his true signification in Judaism, the idea the Koran gives of the arch-fiend and his subjects is more Christian than Jewish. However, Mohammed diverges in one point from church doctrine—the impossibility of converting devils. According to him devils may be converted, and he himself has converted many.
The revelations of God are worked by means of prophets and holy books. Each period has its revelation which God modifies according to the needs of the time, and this idea, beautiful in itself, would be fecund if Mohammed had not given his revelation as the last and most perfect. Adam had already received the gift of prophecy, and the number of prophets was not inconsiderable, seeing they were ordinarily reckoned at 124,000, but the six greatest are Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and Mohammed. The Koran admits the miraculous birth of Jesus—for brevity’s sake we will not speak of all the others—but he was not the Son of God but a man in the proper sense of the word, and witnessed in speaking of himself that he was only a servant of the Divinity; he declares that not he but God alone is omniscient. On the judgment day, Allah will say: “Oh, Jesus, Son of Mary, hast thou said to men, place my mother and myself as gods by the side of God?” And Jesus will answer, “Far be the thought from me; how can I pretend to a name which does not belong to me?” It is not so clearly seen whether the Koran admits the Ascension. As to miracles, Jesus did a great number, even when his mother was still feeding him, and later he raised the dead, etc. To crown all, it was not he who was crucified, but a man whom they took for him. The principal object of his doctrine was, like that of all prophets, to announce the unity of God.
Man has five great duties to fulfil. He must admit the two principal dogmas of Islamism, pray, fast, give alms, and go on pilgrimage to Mecca. These duties are called the Pillars of Islamism. According to the revelation made to Mohammed when he journeyed to heaven, and which is not noted in the Koran (for this book only orders prayers three times a day), all believers ought, after having gone through the prescribed purifications, to pray at a given time for five minutes each day, by preference at the mosque. Mohammed is a great deal more occupied with the ceremonies of prayer than with the prayer itself, for there are designated passages of the Koran and consecrated formulas to be recited; so there can be no question of spontaneous prayer, and if in the Moslem countries the degenerate cult consists in a mechanical movement of the lips, the fault to a large extent must be attributed to the prophet himself. The attitudes, gestures, inflexions of the head and body are exactly regulated by Mohammed himself, and even more by theologians who came after. On Fridays there is gathering for common prayer, but the day is not a time of repose like the Jewish Sabbath or the Christian Sunday. With the exception of prayer-time, each follows his daily occupation.
Fasting is prescribed for the whole month of Ramadhan. It is only after sunset that eating and drinking are permitted. Mohammed decreed this law at Medina, in a time when the fixed lunar year was still followed—that is, when the solar year was made up by the intercalation of a supplementary month; consequently the month of Ramadhan regularly fell in winter. But when afterwards Mohammed had established the vague lunar year and the month of Ramadhan fell by chance in summer, it was a severe trial not to dare to take a drop of water all through the long and stifling summer day. It is not astonishing, then, that the Moslem is generally morose and bad tempered during the fast and awaits its end with impatience. But, once over, there is celebrated on the first day of the month of Khauwal, the most joyous fête known to Islamism, that of the fast-breaking (aid-al-fitr) or “little fête” (the little bairam of the Turks), which, in certain countries, lasts three days. The fifth great duty, which all Moslems of age and free, and of no matter which sex, have to accomplish once in a life-time is the pilgrimage to Mecca.
THE PILGRIMAGE TO MECCA
This pilgrimage was borrowed from the ancient religion with all the ceremonies which accompany it, although they have been modified in some respects and received a touch of Islamism. In spite of their great antiquity, they were not much observed by Arabs in the time of Mohammed except mechanically. But, as Islamism retained them, it was necessary to justify them.
When Adam had been driven from the terrestrial paradise and sent into the world, he lamented to God: “Alas! I shall hear no more the angels’ voices.” “That,” said God, “is the result of your sin. But build me a temple and walk around it thinking of me as you have seen the angels do around my throne.” Adam arrived in the neighbourhood of Mecca, and laid there the foundations of the holy temple whilst the angels, aiding him, brought large blocks of rock from five mountains. It was on to these foundations that the temple itself descended from heaven. Adam also received from paradise a tent formed of red hyacinth, in which the place of repose was the angular stone. Also a white hyacinth, only blackened because sinners had touched it. This is the famous Black Stone.
At the time of the deluge both temple and tent were taken up to heaven, but the Black Stone was hidden in the mountain of Abu Kobais, which is near Mecca. Afterwards the spot where the temple had stood remained known to men and was visited as a sacred place. It was there, in fact, that Abraham came with Hagar and Ishmael and left them to their fate. The water which Hagar had brought being soon exhausted, she and her son suffered greatly from thirst. As far as her eyes could see there was no living being near. So to get a wider view she climbed Mount Safa, then the Merwa heights which are opposite, but still saw no one. On returning she found her son dying of thirst. Not knowing what to do, she returned in haste to the two hills, and in her misery ran several times from one to the other. When in desperation she returned, there was water bubbling near her son. She hastened to pile sand round that it should not escape before she had filled her pitcher; then she and her son drank. This spring ran in that place where the wells of Zemzem were afterwards dug.
When on a visit to Ishmael, Abraham told him that God had ordered him to build a temple in a certain spot; father and son set immediately to work, and in digging came across the old foundations laid by Adam. Abraham wanted to set in one of the angles a recognisable stone to mark the spot where the procession should begin round the temple; but while Ishmael was seeking a suitable stone the angel Gabriel brought Abraham the Black Stone, which he had been to fetch from Mount Abu Kobais. Abraham took and placed it in the angle. When the wall was too high for him to reach up he mounted on a big stone which Ishmael placed before him and removed when necessary.
The temple finished, both father and son on Gabriel’s order walked round it seven times, carefully touching the four corners each time. Then, bowing twice, they prayed behind the large stone on which Abraham had stood. Gabriel also taught them the rites which they had to accomplish in other sacred spots. First they had to hurry rapidly seven times on the path between the two hills of Safa and Merwa, in memory of the journeys Hagar had made in her agony. Then he led them to the valley of Mina; but on their arrival the devil (Iblis) showed himself. “Throw something at him,” said Gabriel. Abraham obeyed by throwing seven little stones, upon which Iblis went away. In the middle and at the foot of the valley he was seen again, but each time Abraham drove him away with little stones. Thence arose the custom of throwing stones in the Mina valley during the pilgrimage. But when, led by Gabriel, he had also visited Mozdalifa and Arafa and learned what ceremonies there were to be performed he received orders to tell all men they were to go on a pilgrimage to the Kaaba and other sacred spots. “My voice cannot reach to them,” he answered. “Do what I command you,” then said God; “I know what to do so that they may hear.”