The Life of Mohammad Part 32

We shall not risk trying to defend a custom thus violently condemned, but content ourselves with making a few observations. As a matter of fact, polygamy is universal and will last out the world, despite all present or future legislation. This is denied by none. The only question is to know if it is preferable to let it be avowed and limited, or let it flourish hypocritically and boundlessly.

All travellers, Gerard de Nerval and Lady Morgan to wit, have noted that among polygamous Moslems, polygamy is generally less widespread than among so-called monogamous Christians. What can be more natural?

For Catholics and Protestants, does not polygamy possess the allurement of forbidden fruit?

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Tombs of the Khaliphs. Under their rule, Moslem civilisation enlightened the World._]

By troubling about polygamy, shall we not be set down as old-fas.h.i.+oned? Without taking other things into consideration, the needs of modern life render it impraticable in large cities. It will have died out before long, among civilised Moslems. If the principle survives, it will only be applied in the desert depths where it is an imperious necessity.

Will morality improve by the disappearance of polygamy? That remains doubtful. Prost.i.tution, so rare in most Mussulman lands, will extend its ravages. A plague, now totally unknown, will break out: that of the celibacy of women, which causes desolation in monogamous countries--where, above all, following great wars, it attains disastrous proportions.

In a study on the future of the French colonies, Charles Dumas, writing about the Moslems, states: 'No race can gain freedom when it condemns the half of itself (i.e. its women) to eternal bondage.'

Is it true that Mussulman women are reduced to such a lamentable situation? It is certain that in the eyes of European women enjoying untrammelled freedom, the wearing of a veil and semi-claustration as well, to which the women of Islam are subjected, must seem to be tokens of the most unbearable slavery. But if these ladies of Europe heard the reflexions of these same Mussulman women, objects of monogamists' wives' heartfelt commiseration, they would be surprised to learn that they, in their turn, are not envied, but charitably pitied. Besides, the wearing of the veil and claustration are in no wise religious obligations. The Verses of the Qur'an (x.x.xIII, 53, 55) by which these questions are supported, are solely aimed at the Prophet's wives and not at those of all Believers, as might be deduced from the inexact translation of verse 55, by Kasimirski.

These practices, put in force many years after Mohammad's death, are therefore fiercely attacked by numerous champions of the feminine cause. Among them, we note Qasim Bey Amin, with his book: "Tahriru'l-Mirat" ("Woman's Emanc.i.p.ation"); and Es Zahawi, the poet of Bagdad, who wrote a celebrated letter on the veil, and says: 'Woman is the remedy of youth, the beauty of nature and the splendour of life.

Without women, man is a sterile syllogism--he does not conclude!' And then, relying on this verse: "_And it is for the women to act as the husbands act towards them with all fairness._" (THE QUR'AN, II, 228), he claims complete female freedom.

We will conclude by quoting the words of one of the fair s.e.x, al-Sitti Malika who, with the consent of her father, Hifni Bey Nasif, formerly professor at the University of Al Azhar, published a Qasida, terminating with this verse: 'To unveil, if one is chaste, is no harm; and if one is not chaste, veils in excess offer no protection.'

At the same times as European queens of fas.h.i.+on have tried to acclimatise the Turkish veil in the West, perhaps at some future period, near or distant, the custom of wearing the veil may die out in the East. In that case, the flower of Mussulman beauty will have been stripped of its graceful calyx. Will not the woman of the East regret the mysterious charm she owed to her filmy mask? Will she be compensated by the advantages accruing to her in consequence of budding forth in the strong light of civilisation? The example of the great misery reigning among her sisters of the West, struggling for life in opposition to men, may perhaps frighten the woman of the East when, with dazzled eyes, scarcely awakened from harem dreams, she plunges into the vortex of modern existence. The question is too delicate. We dare not come to a conclusion. After all, the interest and possibility of such reforms vary too completely, from one country to another, so that no general rule can be fixed.

But if we hesitate about pa.s.sing judgment on the reforms we have just set forth, we acknowledge unreservedly, to make amends, that the education of woman is an imperious necessity for the future of Islam.

Education has nothing to do with the above-mentioned customs. It is in agreement with all the principles of the religion, and during the period of Islamic splendour, was lavished on Mussulman femininity whose culture was superior to that of European women in those days.

In the East, education has never disappeared as completely as in some regions of the Maghrib. During a certain number of years, many Mussulman women pa.s.sed their leisure harem hours in educating themselves, and their new intellectual birth began to be generalised.

From education alone the evolution of manners and customs will proceed wherever it will be necessary in the sense and proportions creating the least amount of trouble in the bosom of families.

[Sidenote: CONCLUSION]

The knots relating to polygamy and the emanc.i.p.ation of woman (the only questions that give a shadow of right to inimical critics of Islam) once cut, Islam will appear to be what it really is: a religion essentially in conformity with the most modern needs and ideas, so much so that an Englishman, Oswald Wirth, was able to write: 'I discovered, one fine day, that I was a Mussulman, without knowing it, like Monsieur Jourdain with his prose.' In like fas.h.i.+on, Goethe, after having studied the principles of the Qur'an, declared: 'If that is Islam, do we not all live in Islam?'

Very soon, no one will venture to give credence to the childish legends perpetuated since the Crusades, and Islam will at last claim to take its place in the van of modern civilisation....

We were writing the concluding lines when suddenly the most formidable conflict ever know in history broke out in Europe, and thousands of Moslem soldiers, descendants of the warriors of Poitiers, immediately invaded the whole of France.

This time, they came not as conquerors, but as friends; as brothers-in-arms, summoned by the Allies to take part in this gigantic struggle on which depends the fate of civilisation. Their traditional heroism has been admired by all. The French soil is riddled by thousands of their graves, thereby they have implanted Islam for ever in the heart of Europe, in the most glorious way; and a strong contingent of the Prophet's disciples is now in European territory.

After such services rendered, it will be churlish to refuse them the freedom of the city, so to speak, that we have already claimed on their behalf. We go further and ask if it is admissible to think that their example, dealing the last blow at the imputations of the past, may give some Europeans food for fresh reflexion?

Undeceived by the failure of integral rationalism, many anxious minds seek new paths. "The modern system of intuition, towards which they hurry, following Bergson, its celebrated defender, represents decided reaction against rationalism, or to be more exact, against the powerlessness of rationalism....

"In the hearts of men hungering after faith, this eminent thinker has caused the aspirations they seem to have lost definitively to be born anew. He allows them to hope for the survival of the soul; he tells them that this world is not a great ma.s.s of machinery driven by blind forces and that intelligence is not the only formula of our senses....

"In affirming all this, the ill.u.s.trious philosopher is perhaps confining himself to the task of reviving ancient illusions; but he has awakened them so that we may hear; and at a moment when they may serve to prepare the elements of a new religion, needed by many men."

(_La Vie des Verites_, by Dr. Gustave Le Bon.)

Such a movement is irresistible, especially after the sanguinary ordeals we have undergone. We are therefore about to witness the efforts of new and old religions, trying to monopolize these manifestations and turn them to account. Rationalism, however, although defeated, has nevertheless been fruitful, and it will oppose an insuperable barrier to the dogmas that run counter to reason much too violently.

On the other hand, must not mystic, pathetic and poetical aspirations be reckoned with? Are they not the essential final causes of all religions? To sum up, are not the most needful conditions of a modern religion those of advanced Protestantism: "Unitarism," clothed in a glorious cloak of poetry?

Islam, freed from all the dross which it acc.u.mulated in its course, has precisely these conditions, and already small communities of European converts to Islam have been founded in England and America.

One of them, having Mr. Quilliam at his head, exists for several years past at Liverpool, and is remarkable for the fact that the majority of its proselytes belong to the weaker s.e.x.

The conversion of Lord Headley, an English peer, followed by that of other well-known leading Londoners, created a great sensation. The Mussulman commonwealth, founded by this eminent man, publishes a monthly magazine, "The Islamic Review," from which we take the following significant pa.s.sage:

"Why have Englishmen and other Europeans become Mussulmans? In the first place, because they sought for some simple, logical, essentially practical creed; (for we English flatter ourselves that we are the most practical people under the sun) a creed fitting in with the conditions, customs, and occupations of every people; a divine, true creed, where the Creator and Man are face to face, without any intermediary." (Sheldrake.)

That is what practical minds have found in Islam which, having no sacrements or wors.h.i.+p of saints, needs no priest and could, at a pinch, do without a temple. As Allah's presence fills the universe, is not the whole of the earth one immense Mosque?

Moreover, several modern desists, generally finding it difficult to express the aspiration of their souls, will find in the pure deism of true Islam, the most admirable ritual movements and words of prayer that an artistic mind could dream of. In short, for more than one, 'Islam realises the maximum of altruism with a minimum of metaphysics.' (Christian Cherfils.)

Other isolated conversions have taken place in France and in different countries of Europe, Africa and Asia. Perhaps, in this way, we may witness the realisation of this "Hadis" of the Prophet: 'a.s.suredly Allah will make this religion (Islam) all-powerful by means of men who were strangers thereto!' of the princ.i.p.al characteristic of Islam is that it is wonderfully fitted to all races of creation. Among his first disciples, Mohammad counted not only Arabs of the most different tribes, but also Persians, such as Salman al-Farsi; Christians, such as Waraqa; Abyssinians, such as Bilal; Jews, such as Mukhayriq, Abdullah ibn Sallam, etc. As it is said in the Qur'an: "_We have not sent thee otherwise than to mankind at large._" (x.x.xIV, 27.)

Even during Mohammad's life, and in the very beginning, his doctrine a.s.serted its stamp of universality. If suitable to all races, it is equally suitable to all intellects and to all degrees of civilisation.

Of supreme simplicity, as in Mu'tazilitcism; desperately esoteric, as in Sufiism, bringing guidance and consolation to the European "savant"--leaving thought absolutely free and untrammelled--as well as to the negro of the Soudan, thereby delivered from the superst.i.tion of his fetis.h.i.+sm. It exalts the soul of a practical English merchant, for whom 'time is money,' quite as much as that of a mystical philosopher; of a contemplative Oriental; or of a man of the West loving art and poetry. It will even allure a modern medical man, by the logic of its repeated ablutions and the rhythm of its bowing and prostration, just as salutary for physical well-being as for the health of the soul itself.

It is therefore not too foolhardy to think that when the fearful storm has pa.s.sed and the respect due to all nationalities, as well as to all religions, shall have been enforced, Islam will be able to look upon a future br.i.m.m.i.n.g with real hope.

Thanks to the great share it has taken in the events causing the upheaval of European civilisation, it has entered therein and will appear at last in its true light. The different nations will vie with each other in seeking to be allied to it, for they will have put its value to the test and have recognised the inexhaustible resources it possesses.

The disciples of the Prophet, awakened from their momentary lethargy, will take their brilliant place in the world.

--"Insha'llah!"--If Allah be willing!

[Ill.u.s.tration: (Calligraphy) _Allah will perhaps establish goodwill between yourselves and those of them with whom ye are at enmity, and Allah is Powerful: and Allah is Gracious, Merciful._]

_This book was finished at Bou-Saada, on the Twenty-seventh day of the month of Ramadhan; in the Year 1334 of the Hegira--the 28th of July, A.D. 1916._

_O Allah! be indulgent towards its authors; excuse the extravagant audacity that urged them on in their hope of doing good, to affront such a vast subject, despite the scantiness of their knowledge._

_O Thou, the Omniscient! pardon them the errors which, through ignorance, they may have committed in such a sublime history as that of Thy Messenger, Our Lord Mohammad, the Seal of the Prophets._

_May Allah pour out for him His Blessings and His Favours!_ _Likewise on his Relatives,_ _And on his Companions!_ _Amin._

etienne DINET.

Sliman ben IBRAHIM.

[Ill.u.s.tration: _A traditional old Scribe of the Desert._ Calligraphy: _One's pen should be enn.o.bled; that is, by treating of worthy matters._]

THE BOOK WAS FINISHED IN THE YEAR 1335 OF THE HEGIRA

[Ill.u.s.tration: MAP OF THE HIJAZ AND THE ROAD TO SYRIA]