--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Webb, Mohammed collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 2 number: 7 published: 1899-05 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Webb, Mohammed, "The Spirit of Islam," *Improvement Era* 2, no. 7 (May 1899): 490–495.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera27unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera27unse start_page: 490 end_page: 495 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1899-05) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera27unse publication_year: 1899 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1899, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # The Spirit of Islam THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM. BY MOHAMMED WEBB. In order to understand the spirit of Islam, let us take the prophet as a child. He was born in Mecca. All historians — and I shall simply now state that Christian historians have written of him —that he was remarkable as a boy for the purity of his character. He was utterly free from the vices which afflicted the youth of Mecca. As he grew to manhood his character became unimpeachable, so much so that he was known all over the city as "the trusty." Those characteristics with which he is accredited by Christian writers were manifested in no degree whatever. He began life as a merchant, following his uncle's caravans to southern Europe and Syria, and he demonstrated the fact that he was an excellent business man. He was successful, so much so that the wealthy widow Kadijah, whose husband had died, selected him to take charge of her business interests. He had never displayed any disposition to associate with the fair sex; sensuality was no part of his character at all. He married this widow, and with her accumulated a large fortune, with which he engaged in the same trade as his uncle, Abu Taleb. This marriage, by the way, was not brought about by Mohammed. He did not go to Kadijah and ask her to be his wife, but she, taking perhaps a mercenary view of the situation, engaged him for life to be her business manager. Mohammed rejected the proposal at first, and would have refused it altogether, but his uncle, Abu Taleb, said it was the best thing ^ could do and that he should marry her. Notwithstanding the fact that the laws of the country allow him to take as many wives as he pleased. Christian historians THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM. 491 agree that he was true to Kadijah for twenty-five years and never availed himself of the opportunity to take another wife. He was true to her until the day of her death. Now, let us see what the word Islam means. It is the most expressive word in existence for a religion. It means, simply and literally, resignation to the will of God. It means aspiration to God. The Moslem system is designated to cultivate all that is purest and noblest and grandest in the human character. Some people say Islam is impossible in a high state of civilization. Now, that is the result of ignorance. Look at Spain in the eighth century, when it was the center of all the arts and sciences, when Christian Europe went to Moslem Spain to learn all there was worth — knowing languages, arts, all the new discoveries were to be found in Moslem Spain and in Moslem Spain alone. There was no civilization in the world as high as that of Moslem Spain. With this spirit of resignation to the will of God is inculcated the idea of individual responsibility, that every man is responsible not to this man, or that man, or the other man, but responsible to God for every thought and act of his life. He must pay for every act that he commits; he is rewarded for every thought that he thinks. There is no mediator, there is no priesthood, there is no ministry. The Moslem brotherhood stands upon a perfect equality, God and the brotherhood of recognizing only the fatherhood of man. The emir, who leads in prayer, preaches no sermon. He goes to the mosque every day at noon and reads two chapters from the holy Koran. He descends to the floor upon a perfect level with the hundreds, or thousands, of worshipers, and the prayer goes on, he simply leading it. The whole system is calculated to inculcate that idea of perfect brotherhood. The subject is so broad that I can only touch upon it. There is somuch unfamiliar to Americans and Englishmen in Islam that I regret exceedingly that I have not more time to speak of it. A man said to me in New York the other day: Must I give up Jesus and the Bible if I become a Mohammedan? No, no. There is no Mussulman on earth who does not recognize the inspiration of Jesus. The system is one that has been taught by Moses, by Abraham, by Jesus, by Mohammed, by every inspired man the 492 IMPROVEMENT ERA. world has ever known. You need not give up Jesus, but assert your manhood. Go to God. Now let us work at the practical side of Islam in reference to the application of the spirit of Islam to daily life. A Mussulman is told that he must pray. So is everyone else; so are the followers of every other religion. But the Mussulman is not told to pray when he feels like it, does not interfere with his business, if it with his inclinations or some other engagement. Some people do not pray at such times; they say it does not make very much difference, we can make it up some other time. A little study of human nature will show that there are people who pray from a conscientious idea of doing a duty; but there are a great many others who shirk a duty at every chance if it interfers with pleas- ure or business. The wisdom of Mohammed was apparent in the single item of prayer. He did not say, "Pray when you feel like it," but "Pray five times a day at a certain time." The Mussulman rises in the morning before daylight, because his first prayer must be said before the first streaks of light appear in the east. At just the first trace of dawn he sinks upon his knees and offers his prayer to God. The prayer can be said at no other time. That is the time to say it. The result is he must get up in the morning to do it. It encourages early rising. Now, you say that is a slavish system. Very true. Humanity differs very materially. There are men who need a slavish system. We have evidence of it all around us, in every religious system known. They want to be slaves to a system, and let us take that system which will accomplish the best results. His next prayer is said between twelve and one o'clock, or just as the sun is passing the meridian. At no other time. The third prayer is between four and five o'clock. The fourth prayer is just as the sun has sunk in the west; the light of the day is dying out. The last prayer of the day is repeated just before he steps into bed. There is a difference of opinion among those who want to argue over doctrinal matters as to the exact time of the evening prayer, but there is no doubt about the other ones. Some Mussulmans will insist upon it that you can pray any time after the sunset prayer. Others say no, you must pray when you go to bed. I — THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM. 493 am inclined to believe from what I know of the prophet's character that he intended that that was to be the last prayer of the day, and that a man should go to sleep presenting his soul purified to God. Now, before that man says a prayer he must wash himself he performs his ablutions. The result is that the intelligent Mussulman is physically clean. It is not optional with him to take his bath and perform his ablutions when he sees fit, but he must do it just before he prays. That system, as applied to the masses intelligently, must secure beneficial results. There are Mohammedans who say they do not need to pray. The other Mohammedans say: "That is between you and God, I believe I must pray." The system is so thoroughly elastic, so thoroughly applicable to all the needs of humanity that it seems to me that it is exactly the system that we need in our country, and that is why I am here, and that is why I am in the United States. A gentleman asked me if we had organized a mission in New York. I him yes, but not in the ordinary sense; that we told simply wanted people to study Islam and know what it was. The day of blind belief has passed away. Intelligent humanity wants a reason for every belief, and I say that that spirit is commendable and should be encouraged wherever it goes, and that is one of the prominent features of Islam. We speak of using force, that Mohammed went with the sword in one hand and the Koran in the other. I want to show you tomorrow that he did nothing of that sort. No man is expected to believe anything that is not in perfect harmony with his reason and common sense. There is one particular spirit which is a part of Islamistic idea that prevails among the Moslems — and now I am speaking not of the lower classes, nor of the masses of the Moslems the missionaries see when they go to the East, but I am speaking of the educated, intelligent Moslems, and they are the safest guides. No one would expect me to go into the slums of Chicago to find a reflection of the Christian religion. You cannot expect to find it in the character and the acts and the thoughts of the poor, ignorant coolie, who can neither read nor write, and who has associated with the most degraded characters all his life. 494 IMPROVEMENT ERA. But the spirit that prevails among the Moslems of the higher class is indifference to this world. The world is a secondary con- for, the life sideration, and the world beyond is the world to strive beyond is the life that has some value to it. It is worth devoting allour lives to secure in that life happiness and perfect bliss. The idea of paradise naturally follows. It is popularly believed that Mohammed talked of a paradise where beautiful houris were given to men, that they led a life of sensual joy and luxury, and all that sort of thing. The idea is no more absurd than the golden streets and pearly gates idea of the Christian. Mohammed taught us a spiritual truth; he taught a truth which every man who knows anything of the spiritual side of religion ought to know. And he taught it in a manner which would most readily reach the minds and hearts of his hearers. The poor Arabs who lived in the dry, sandy deserts looked upon broad fields of green grass and flowing rivers and beautiful trees as a paradise. We are accustomed, perhaps, to that sort of thing; some of us run away with the idea, perhaps, that golden streets and pearly gates are better than that. His idea was to show them that they were to secure a perfect bliss, and to an Arab, if he could reach an open field where the grass grew green under his feet, and the birds sang, and the trees bore pearls and rubies, and all that sort of thing, it would be bliss. Mind you, Mohammed never taught that, but he is credited with teaching it, and I believe he taught something to illustrate this great spiritual truth that he was trying to force upon their minds, and it has been corrupted into the idea of a garden full of houris. The next feature of the spirit of Islam is fraternity. One of the first things Mohammed did after being driven out of Mecca and located in Medina was to encourage the formation of a Moslem brotherhood, with a perfect community of property, a socialistic idea impracticable in this civilization but perfectly practical in that time. His followers assembled around him and contributed all they had. The idea was, "Do anything to help your brother; what belongs to your brother belongs to you, and what belongs to you belongs to your brother. If he needs help, help him." THE SPIRIT OF ISLAM. 495 Caste lines are broken down entirely. We find on one occasion Omar, one of the most energetic and vigorous of his caliphs, exchanged with his slave in riding on the camel. The daughters of Mohammed in the household would divide the time grinding corn with the slaves. The idea was taught, "Your slave is your brother." Social conditions make him your slave, but he is none the less your brother. This idea of close fraternity, this extreme devotion to fraternity, was the cause of the Moslem triumph at arms. In the latter years, after the death of Mohammed, the idea was paramount in every instance, and it was only when that bond of fraternity was broken that we find the decadence of the Islamistic power in Spain. Readers of history can very readily trace where the first serpent made its entry into the Islamistic social system, that serpent of disunion and division. We find the Christians coming up on the other side, closely knit in the same bond of brotherhood. Does that bond of brotherhood exist today? It exists among the Mussulmans of India. It exists among the better class of Mussulmans of Egypt and Turkey in a degree that would surprise you. I know an old man in Bombay who had lost everything and was being helped along by his Mohammedan brethren. A wealthy man reputed to be worth something like half a million or a million and half dollars, owned a very beautiful yacht, and this man went to him and said: "I want to borrow your yacht to go fishing." "Certainly, take it whenever you want it; it is yours." During my stay in the East, every time I visited Bombay, almost, that old fellow would go out fishing. I dined in the house of a wealthy Mussulman, and that same old man came in. As he entered the door he said, "Peace be with you." A chair was set for him at the table. We were eating at the table at the time, in deference to me, possibly. Usually they eat upon the floor, in the most primitive fashion, and with their fingers, but the better class of Mohammedans, or rather those who have acquired European ideas, eat with the fork and knife, with glass furniture on the table, etc. On that occasion we were at the table, and this old man was invited to sit down and take dinner with us. That fraternal idea impressed me more deeply, possibly, than anything else. I felt that I was among my brethren, and that Mussulmans were