Part 9 (1/2)
Indisposition of Muhammad, and the three revolts--one headed by Tulaihah bin Khuwailid, a famous warrior of Najd; one by Musailamah; and one by Al-Aswad, all of which were eventually completely crushed after Muhammad's death by Abu Bakr and his generals.
Another expedition to Syria projected.
Muhammad's health becomes worse. His retirement to Ayesha's apartment.
His final discourses.
Abu Bakr appointed to lead the public prayers.
Muhammad's last appearance in the mosque at Madinah.
His death and burial, June, A.D. 632.
From the above summary of the princ.i.p.al events of Muhammad's life, it will be perceived that up to the age of forty he was a student and acquirer of knowledge, much alone and occupied with his thoughts. At forty-one he began his public ministry, and stood forth as a reformer, preacher, and apostle at Mecca, and this continued till he finally left that place, in June, A.D. 622. As a reformer he proposed to do away with idols, to suppress gambling and drinking, and to abolish female infanticide, at that time much practised by the Arabs. As a preacher and apostle he urged the people to accept the belief in one G.o.d, whose injunctions were communicated to him by Gabriel for the benefit of the humanities. Prayer and ablution were also then ordained; fasting, almsgiving, and pilgrimages were inst.i.tuted later on.
Before Muhammad's time there had been several earnest seekers after the one G.o.d, the G.o.d of Abraham. Of these persons Zaid, the Inquirer, may be mentioned, as also Warakah, a cousin of Muhammad's first wife, Khadijah; Othman bin Huwairith, and Obaid Allah bin Jahsh. The people who professed this theism were termed Hanyfs; but their state of mind was as yet a purely speculative one, and they had announced nothing definite. But the ground was so far laid open, and had been prepared to a certain extent for Muhammad and his express revelation, that 'There was no G.o.d but the G.o.d, and that Muhammad was His apostle.'
It is highly probable that when Muhammad first began his public exhortations he had a strong idea of bringing not only the Arabs, but also the Jews and Christians, into his fold, and establis.h.i.+ng one universal faith on the basis of one G.o.d, Almighty, Eternal, Merciful, Compa.s.sionate. It was on this account that he made Jerusalem the Kiblah, or consecrated direction of wors.h.i.+p, and introduced into the Suras, or chapters, that he issued from time to time a good deal of matter connected with our Old and New Testaments. He particularly mentioned Abraham as the Father of the Faith, and acknowledging that there had already existed many thousand prophets, and three hundred and fifteen apostles, or messengers, he quoted nine of these last as special messengers, viz., Noah, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Job, David, Jesus, the son of Mary, and himself. To five of these he gave special t.i.tles. He called Noah the preacher of G.o.d; Abraham the friend of G.o.d; Moses the converser with G.o.d; Jesus the spirit of G.o.d; and himself the apostle, or messenger, of G.o.d. But of the nine above mentioned four only, viz., Moses, David, Jesus, and Muhammad, held the highest rank as prophet-apostles.
It would, therefore, appear that Muhammad really hoped to establish one religion, acknowledging one G.o.d and a future life, and admitting that the earlier prophets had emanated from G.o.d as apostles or messengers. The world was too young and too ignorant in Muhammad's time to accept such an idea. It may, however, be accepted some day, when knowledge overcomes prejudice. Nations may have different habits, manners, and customs, but the G.o.d they all wors.h.i.+p is one and the same.
Muhammad's life, from the age of forty to fifty, was one long struggle with the Koraish. Had it not been for the support given him by some of his influential relations at Mecca, he would either have been killed, or compelled to leave the place before he did. It is true that during these twelve years he made some excellent converts and faithful followers; but still it must be regarded as an historical fact that Muhammad failed at Mecca, as Jesus had failed at Jerusalem. In the one case Jesus was sacrificed, and pa.s.sed away, leaving the story of His life, His words and His works in the heads of His disciples, who, with the suddenly converted Paul, certain Alexandrian Jews, the Emperor Constantine, some literary remains of Plato, along with a destruction of adverse ma.n.u.scripts and doc.u.ments, finally established the Christian religion. In the other case Muhammad, failing at Mecca, succeeded at Madinah, and before his death had so far settled matters that the religion was fairly established, and was thus saved the severe and bitter struggles of the first centuries of the Christian Churches.
It has seldom been a matter of speculation as to what would have been the course of the world's history if Muhammad had been slain by the Koraish before he left Mecca, or if Jesus had not been crucified by the Jews. It is probable that in the end both religions would have been eventually established in other ways, and by other means, depending a good deal on the followers of the two men. But as the subject is purely speculative, it can hardly be entertained in this purely historical chapter.
Once at Madinah, Muhammad became a personage. Supported by his Meccan followers (al-Muhajirun), and the Madinese auxiliaries (Ansars), he a.s.sumed immediately a spiritual and temporal authority, and became a sort of Pope-King. He kept that position for the rest of his life, improving it by his military successes, his diplomatic arrangements, his spiritual instructions, and his social legislation.
It was probably shortly before he went to Madinah, or very soon after his arrival there, that he gave up all ideas of bringing over Jews, Christians, and Sabaeans to his views. He determined to adapt them to the manners and customs of the Arabs only. In this he showed his wisdom and his knowledge of business. He changed the Kiblah from Jerusalem to Mecca. In the place of the Jewish trumpet, or the Christian bell, he introduced the call to prayer still heard from the tapering minarets of every mosque throughout the Muhammadan world.
By the Christian world it has been sometimes considered that Muhammad was good and virtuous at Mecca, but vicious and wicked at Madinah.
Such calls to mind the reply of an Indian youth when asked in an examination to give an outline of the character of our good Queen Elizabeth. He briefly described her as 'a great and virtuous princess, but in her old age she became dissolute, and had a lover called Ess.e.x.'
But the position of Muhammad at Madinah was entirely different to what it had been at Mecca. At the latter place he was unable to a.s.sert himself. Indeed, it was as much as he could do to keep himself and his followers going at all, constantly subject as they were to persecution from the Koraish. All this was changed at Madinah, and his ten years rule there was remarkable for his various military expeditions, his organization of the different tribes, his bitter persecution of the Jews, his still-continued inspired utterances, which now included spiritual, social, and legal matters, and his repeated marriages.
It has been frequently said that Muhammad, in his virtuous days, was content with one wife at Mecca, but in his vicious days at Madinah he had ten wives and two concubines. As a matter of fact, after Khadijah's death Muhammad's marriages were in most cases more or less a matter of business. By them he allied himself to Abu Bakr, Omar, Abu Sofyan, Khalid bin Walid, and other important persons. He further married the widows of some of his followers killed in battle, perhaps 'pour encourager les autres.' It is also probable that he was very anxious to have children, all of his having died except Fatima, who was married to Ali.
At the same time it must be admitted that Muhammad had a weakness for women in his later years--witness the case of Zainab bint Jahsh, the Jewish concubine Rohana, and the Coptic maid Mary. Indeed, his favourite wife Ayesha used to say of him: 'The Prophet loved three things--women, scents, and food; he had his heart's desire of the two first, but not of the last,' The reasons for this want of food, and many other traditions connected with the character of Muhammad, are to be found in the last chapter and the supplement at the end of Sir William Muir's most excellent and interesting work on the life of this extraordinary man, who, if author of the Koran only, would be ent.i.tled to rank among the immortals.
According to Muslim orthodox theology, the Koran is the inspired Word of G.o.d, uncreated, and eternal in its original essence. 'He who says the word of G.o.d is created is an infidel,' such is the decree of Muhamniadan doctrine. Leaving everybody to form their own opinion on such a matter, it is only necessary here briefly to allude to the work, and to suppose that Muhammad was the inspired author of it.
The Koran is divided into 114 suras, or chapters, and 6,666 verses.
The word itself signifies reading or recitation, and Muhammad always a.s.serted that he only recited what had been repeated to him. But the Koran represents Muhammad from many points of view, in different capacities, and under different necessities. Ayesha, his favourite wife, when asked in later years as a widow to relate something about the Prophet, replied: 'Have you not the Koran, and have you not read it? for that will tell you everything about him.'
The Koran was not collected or arranged until after Muhammad's death.
It is to be regretted that there is no reliable record of the exact order in which its various verses and chapters were given to the world by the Prophet, as that would have given us a great insight into the working of his mind from the time that he began his first recitals up to the time of his death. It is true that attempts have been made to formulate the order of delivery, but these can only be more or less conjecture. At the same time, though earlier and later verses appear mixed up in the different chapters, in some cases, of course, the period to which they belong can be pretty accurately fixed and determined.
As an interesting work, it can hardly be compared with our Old and New Testaments, nor would it be fair to make such a comparison. It must be remembered that the Koran is the work of Muhammad alone, while the Biblos, or Book, commonly called the Bible, is the work of many men.
In its compilation many authors were rejected, and it represents as a whole the united talents of the ages. Indeed, the Bible may be considered as the most wonderful book in existence, and certainly the most interesting after visiting the countries it describes and the localities it refers to. If read from a matter-of-fact point of view, it gives an abundance of various kinds of literature, and describes the workings of the human mind from the earliest ages, and the progress of ideas as they gradually and slowly dawned upon man and drove him onwards. If read from a spiritual or mystical point of view, it can be interpreted in many ways to meet the views of either the readers or the hearers. In a word, the Bible is full of prose and poetry, fact and imagination, history and fiction. It was lately described in an Italian newspaper, _Il Secolo_, about to issue a popular edition of it in halfpenny numbers, as follows:
'There is one book which gathers up the poetry and the science of humanity, and that book is the Bible; and with this book no other work in any literature can be compared. It is a book that Newton read continually, that Cromwell carried at his saddle, and that Voltaire kept always on his study table. It is a book that believers and unbelievers should alike study, and that ought to be found in every house.'