The Faith of Islam

E >> Edward Sell >> The Faith of Islam

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Transcriber's note: A few typographical errors have been corrected: they
are listed at the end of the text. Original page numbers are shown as {99}.

THE

FAITH OF ISLAM:

BY

THE REV. EDWARD SELL,
FELLOW OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS.

* * * * *

TRUeBNER & CO., LONDON. ADDISON & CO., MADRAS. 1880.

_All rights reserved._

* * * * *

MADRAS:
PRINTED BY ADDISON AND CO., MOUNT ROAD.

* * * * *

PREFACE.

The following pages embody a study of Islam during a residence of fifteen
years in India, the greater part of which time I have been in daily
intercourse with Musalmans. I have given in the footnotes the authorities
from which I quote. I was not able to procure in Madras a copy of the
Arabic edition of Ibn Khaldoun's great work, but the French translation by
Baron M. de Slane, to which I so frequently refer, is thoroughly reliable.
The quotations from the Quran are made from Rodwell's translation. The
original has been consulted when necessary.

A few slight and occasional errors in transliteration have occurred, such
as Sulat for Salat, Munkar for Munkir, &c., but in no case is the meaning
affected.

In some words, such as Khalif, Khalifate, and Omar, I have retained the
anglicised form instead of using the more correct terms, Khalifa, Khilafat,
'Umr. The letter Q has been used to distinguish the Kaf-i-Karashat from the
Kaf-i-Tazi.

E. S.

MADRAS,
_December 1st, 1880._

{v}

* * * * *

CONTENTS.

Introduction. ... PAGE ix

CHAPTER I.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ISLAM.

The Quran--Its revelation--Miraculous nature--Arrangement of Quran--Osman's
recension. The Sunnat--The authority of Sunnat--Tradition--Bid'at or
innovation--Shia'h Traditions. Ijma'--Ijtihad--Four orthodox Imams, Hanifa,
Malik, Shafa'i and Hanbal. Qias--Established by the early
Mujtahidin--Sterility of Islam ... PAGE 1

Note to Chapter I. Ijtihad ... PAGE 32

CHAPTER II.

EXEGESIS OF THE QURAN AND THE TRADITIONS.

Inspiration--The seven readings--Work of a Commentator--Words and Sentences
of the Quran--Use of the words--Deductions of arguments from the
Quran--Divisions of the Quran--Abrogation--Creation of the Quran--Hadis or
Tradition--Collections of Traditions--Classification of Traditions ... PAGE
37

CHAPTER III.

THE SECTS OF ISLAM.

The Shia'hs--The Imamat--Kharigites--Nur-i-Muhammadi--Imam--Isma,ilians and
Imamites--Ghair-i-Mahdis--Da,iri--Mahmudiah--Khalifate--Sufiism--Persian
Poetry--Darwishes--Omar Khayyam--Wahhabis--their rise--spread in
India--doctrines and influence ... PAGE 73

Note to Chapter III. Wahhabiism ... PAGE 114

{vi}

CHAPTER IV.

THE CREED OF ISLAM

Iman--God--Attributes of God--Discussions on the nature of God--The rise of
the Mutazilites--The Sifatians--Mushabihites--Names of God--Creation of the
Quran. Angels--Recording Angels--Harut and Marut--Munkir and Nakir--Jinn.
The Books--Abrogation--Tahrif. The Prophets--Rank and inspiration of
prophets--Nabi and Rasul--Sinlessness of prophets--The
Anbiya-ulul-'Azm--Miracles of prophets--The Mi'raj. The Resurrection and
the last day--The Trumpets--Descent of the
books--Balances--Bridge--Al-A'raf--Al-Barzakh--Intercession of
Muhammad--Heaven--Hell. The Predestination of good and
evil--Jabrians--Qadrians--Ash'arians--Free-will--Apostacy ... PAGE 116

Note to Chapter IV. Muslim Philosophy ... PAGE 181

CHAPTER V.

THE PRACTICAL DUTIES OF ISLAM.

Farz, wajib, sunnat, mustahab and mubah actions--Haram or unlawful acts.
Tashahhud. Salat--Wazu--Ghusl--Tayammum--Namaz--Farz, sunnat, witr and nafl
rak'ats--Appointed hours of prayer--Friday Namaz and sermon--Namaz on a
journey and in time of war--Namaz in Ramazan, during an eclipse and in time
of drought--Funeral service--Its ritual and prayers. Fasting--Its time and
nature. Zakat--Nisab--Proportion of property to be given as
alms--Recipients of the Zakat. The Hajj--Farz, sunnat, wajib and mustahab
duties connected with the Hajj--Time for the Hajj--Arrival of the Haji at
Mecca--Tawaf--Ceremonies of the Hajj--Conclusion of the Hajj--Formal nature
of Islam ... PAGE 187

Note to Chapter V. Fatva on the Namaz ... PAGE 233

{vii}

CHAPTER VI.

THE FEASTS AND FASTS OF ISLAM.

Muharram--'Ashur Khana--Marsiya--Waqi'a Khan--'Alams--Ceremonies of the
'Ashura--Fatihas for 'Ali, for Hasan and Husain--Akhir-i-char Shamba--Bara
Wafat--Jashn-i-milad-i-Sharif--Asar-i-Sharif--Shab Barat--Ramazan and
'Id-ul-Fitr--'Itikaf--Sadqa--Sermon on the 'Id-ul-Fitr--Baqr-'Id or
'Id-uz-Zuha--Sermon on the 'Id-uz-Zuha--The Qurban or Sacrifice--Festival
of Madar--Festival of Salar Mas'ud Ghazi--Festival of Khaja Khizr--Feast of
Pir Dastgir Sahib--Festival of Qadir Wali Sahib ... PAGE 237

Index of Technical Terms ... PAGE 265

{ix}

* * * * *

INTRODUCTION.

It is necessary to enter into some explanation as regards the contents of
this work. It does not fall in with its plan to enter into an account
either of the life of Muhammad or of the wide and rapid spread of the
system founded by him. The first has been done by able writers in England,
France and Germany. I could add nothing new to this portion of the subject,
nor throw new light upon it. The political growth of Muslim nations has
also been set forth in various ways.

It seems to me that the more important study at this time is that of the
religious system which has grown out of the Prophet's teaching, and of its
effect upon the individual and the community. What the Church in her
missionary enterprise has to deal with, what European Governments in the
political world have to do with is Islam as it is, and as it now influences
those who rule and those who are ruled under it.

I have, therefore, tried to show from authentic sources, and from a
practical knowledge of it, what the Faith of Islam really is, and how it
influences men and nations in the present day. I think that recent Fatvas
delivered by the 'Ulama in Constantinople show how firmly a Muslim State is
bound in the fetters of an unchangeable Law, whilst the present practice of
orthodox Muslims all the world {x} over is a constant carrying out of the
precepts given in the Quran and the Sunnat, and an illustration of the
principles I have shown to belong to Islam. On this subject it is not too
much to say that there is, except amongst Oriental scholars, much
misconception.

Again, much that is written on Islam is written either in ignorant
prejudice, or from an ideal standpoint. To understand it aright, one should
know its literature and live amongst its people. I have tried faithfully to
prove every statement I have made; and if, now and again, I have quoted
European authors, it is only by way of illustration. I rest my case
entirely upon Musalman authorities themselves. Still more, I have
ascertained from living witnesses that the principles I have tried to show
as existing in Islam, are really at work now and are as potent as at any
previous period.

I have thus traced up from the very foundations the rise and development of
the system, seeking wherever possible to link the past with the present. In
order not to interfere with this unity of plan, I have had to leave many
subjects untouched, such as those connected with the civil law, with
slavery, divorce, jihad or religious wars, &c. A good digest of Muhammadan
Law[1] will give all necessary information on these points. The basis of
the Law which determines these questions is what I have described in my
first chapter. Ijtihad, for example, rules quite as effectually in a
question of domestic {xi} economy or political jurisprudence as on points
of dogma. It was not, therefore, necessary for me to go into details on
these points.

When I have drawn any conclusion from data which Muhammadan literature, and
the present practice of Muslims have afforded me, I have striven to give
what seems to me a just and right one. Still, I gladly take this
opportunity of stating that I have found many Muslims better than their
creed, men with whom it is a pleasure to associate, and whom I respect for
many virtues and esteem as friends. I judge the system, not any individual
in it.

In India, there are a number of enlightened Muhammadans, ornaments to
native society, useful servants of the State, men who show a laudable zeal
in all social reforms, so far as is consistent with a reputation for
orthodoxy. Their number is far too few, and they do not, in many cases,
represent orthodox Islam, nor do I believe their counterpart would be found
amongst the 'Ulama of a Muslim State. The fact is that the wave of
scepticism which has passed over Europe has not left the East untouched.
Hindu and Muslim alike have felt its influence, but to judge of either the
one system or the other from the very liberal utterances of a few men who
expound their views before English audiences is to yield oneself up to
delusion on the subject.

Islam in India has also felt the influence of contact with other races and
creeds, though, theologically speaking, the Iman and the Din, the faith and
the practice, are unchanged, and remain as I have {xii} described them in
chapters four and five. If Islam in India has lost some of its original
fierceness, it has also adopted many superstitious practices, such as those
against which the Wahhabis protest. The great mass of the Musalman people
are quite as superstitious, if not more so, than their heathen neighbours.
Still the manliness, the suavity of manner, the deep learning, after an
oriental fashion, of many Indian Musalmans render them a very attractive
people. It is true there is a darker side--much bigotry, pride of race,
scorn of other creeds, and, speaking generally, a tendency to inertness. It
is thus that in Bengal, Madras and perhaps in other places, they have
fallen far behind the Hindus in educational status, and in the number of
appointments they hold in the Government service. Indeed, this subject is a
serious one and deserves the special attention of the Indian Government. In
Bengal the proportion of Musalmans to Hindus in the upper ranks of the
Uncovenanted Civil Service in 1871 was 77 to 341. In the year 1880 it had
declined to 53 to 451. The state of affairs in Madras is equally bad. Yet
an intelligent Muslim, as a rule, makes a good official.

Looking at the subject from a wider stand-point, I think the Church has
hardly yet realised how great a barrier this system of Islam is to her
onward march in the East. Surely special men with special training are
required for such an enterprise as that of encountering Islam in its own
strongholds. No better pioneers of the Christian {xiii} faith could be
found in the East than men won from the Crescent to the Cross.

All who are engaged in such an enterprise will perhaps find some help in
this volume, and I am not without hope that it may also throw some light on
the political questions of the day.

{1}

* * * * *

THE FAITH OF ISLAM.

CHAPTER I.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ISLAM.

The creed of Islam, "La-ilaha-il-lal-lahu wa Muhammad-ur-Rasul-Ullah,"
(There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the Apostle of God) is very
short, but the system itself is a very dogmatic one. Such statements as:
"The Quran is an all-embracing and sufficient code, regulating everything,"
"The Quran contains the _entire_ code of Islam--that is, it is not a book
of religious precepts merely, but it governs all that a Muslim does," "The
Quran contains the whole religion of Muhammad," "The Quran which contains
the whole Gospel of Islam" are not simply misleading, they are erroneous.
So far from the Quran alone being the _sole_ rule of faith and practice to
Muslims, there is not one single sect amongst them whose faith and practice
is based on it alone. No one among them disputes its authority or casts any
doubt upon its genuineness. Its voice is supreme in all that it concerns,
but its exegesis, the whole system of legal jurisprudence and of
theological science, is largely founded on the Traditions. Amongst the
orthodox Musalmans, the foundations of the Faith are four in number, the
Quran, Sunnat, Ijma' and Qias. The fact that all the sects do not agree
with the orthodox--the Sunnis--in this matter illustrates another important
fact in Islam--the want of unity amongst its followers. {2}

1. THE QURAN.--The question of the inspiration will be fully discussed, and
an account of the laws of the exegesis of the Quran will be given in the
next chapter. It is sufficient now to state that this book is held in the
highest veneration by Muslims of every sect. When being read it is kept on
a stand elevated above the floor, and no one must read or touch it without
first making a legal ablution.[2] It is not translated unless there is the
most urgent necessity, and even then the Arabic text is printed with the
translation. It is said that God chose the sacred month of Ramazan in which
to give all the revelations which in the form of books have been vouchsafed
to mankind. Thus on the first night of that month the books of Abraham came
down from heaven; on the sixth the books of Moses; on the thirteenth the
Injil, or Gospel, and on the twenty-seventh the Quran. On that night, the
Laylut-ul-Qadr, or "night of power," the whole Quran is said to have
descended to the lowest of the seven heavens, from whence it was brought
piecemeal to Muhammad as occasion required.[3] "Verily we have caused it
(the Quran) to descend on the night of power." (Sura xcvii. 1.) That night
is called the blessed night, the night better than a thousand months, the
night when angels came down by the permission of their Lord, the night
which bringeth peace and blessings till the rosy dawn. Twice on that night
in the solitude of the cave of Hira the voice called, twice though pressed
sore "as if a fearful weight had been laid upon him," the prophet struggled
{3} against its influence. The third time he heard the words:--

"Recite thou, in the name of thy Lord who created--
Created man from clots of blood." (Sura xcvi. 5.)

"When the voice had ceased to speak, telling how from minutest beginnings
man had been called into existence, and lifted up by understanding and
knowledge of the Lord, who is most beneficent, and who by the pen had
revealed that which man did not know, Muhammad woke up from his trance and
felt as if "a book had been written in his heart." He was much alarmed.
Tradition records that he went hastily to his wife and said--"O Khadija!
what has happened to me!" He lay down and she watched by him. When he
recovered from his paroxysm, he said "O Khadija! he of whom one would not
have believed (_i.e._, himself) has become either a soothsayer (kahin) or
mad." She replied, "God is my protection, O Ab-ul-kasim. He will surely not
let such a thing happen unto thee, for thou speakest the truth, dost not
return evil for evil, keepest faith, art of a good life and art kind to thy
relatives and friends, and neither art thou a talker abroad in the bazaars.
What has befallen thee? Hast thou seen aught terrible?" Muhammad replied
"Yes." And he told her what he had seen. Whereupon she answered and
said:--"Rejoice, O dear husband and be of good cheer. He in whose hands
stands Khadija's life, is my witness that thou wilt be the Prophet of this
people."[4] The next Sura, the 74th, was revealed at Mecca, after which
there seems to have been an intermission, called the Fatrah. It was during
this time that the Prophet gained some knowledge of the contents of the
Jewish and the Christian Scriptures.

Gabriel is believed to have been the medium of communication. This fact,
however, is only once stated in the Quran:--"Say, whoso is the enemy of
Gabriel--For he it is {4} who by God's leave hath caused the Quran to
descend on thy heart" (Sura ii. 91.) This Sura was revealed some years
after the Prophet's flight to Madina. The other references to the
revelation of the Quran are:--"Verily from the Lord of the worlds hath this
book come down; the Faithful Spirit (Ruh-ul-Amin) hath come down with it"
(Sura xxvi. 192.) "The Quran is no other than a revelation revealed to him,
one terrible in power (Shadid-ul-Qua) taught it him." (Sura liii. 5.) These
latter passages do not state clearly that Gabriel was the medium of
communication, but the belief that he was is almost, if not entirely,
universal, and the Commentators say that the terms "Ruh-ul-Amin" and
"Shadid-ul-Qua" refer to no other angel or spirit. The use of the word
"taught" in the last Sura quoted, and the following expression in Sura
lxxv. 18. "When we have _recited it_, then follow thou the recital," show
that the Quran is entirely an objective revelation and that Muhammad was
only a passive medium of communication. The Muhammadan historian, Ibn
Khaldoun, says on this point:--"Of all the divine books the Quran is the
only one of which the text, words and phrases have been communicated to a
prophet by an audible voice. It is otherwise with the Pentateuch, the
Gospel and the other divine books: the prophets received them under the
form of ideas."[5] This expresses the universal belief on this point--a
belief which reveals the essentially mechanical nature of Islam.

The Quran thus revealed is now looked upon as the standing miracle of
Islam. Other divine books, it is admitted, were revelations received under
the form of ideas, but the Quran is far superior to them all for the actual
text was revealed to the ear of the prophet. Thus we read in Sura lxxv.
16-19:--

{5}

"Move not thy tongue in haste to follow and master this revelation;
For we will see to the collecting and recital of it;
_But when we have recited it_, then follow thou the recital;
And verily it shall be ours to make it clear to thee."

The Quran is, then, believed to be a miraculous revelation of divine
eloquence, as regards both _form_ and _substance_, arrangement of words,
and its revelation of sacred things. It is asserted that each
well-accredited prophet performed miracles in that particular department of
human skill or science most flourishing in his age. Thus in the days of
Moses magic exercised a wide influence, but all the magicians of Pharaoh's
court had to submit to the superior skill of the Hebrew prophet. In the
days of Jesus the science of medicine flourished. Men possessed great skill
in the art of healing; but no physician could equal the skill of Jesus, who
not only healed the sick, but raised the dead. In the days of Muhammad the
special and most striking feature of the age was the wonderful power of the
Arabs in the art of poetry. Muhammad-ud-Damiri says:--"Wisdom hath alighted
on three things--the brain of the Franks, the hands of the Chinese and the
tongue of the Arabs." They were unrivalled for their eloquence, for the
skill with which they arranged their material and gave expression to their
thoughts. It is in this very particular that superior excellence is claimed
for the Quran.[6] It is to the Muhammadan mind a sure evidence of its
miraculous origin that it should excel in this respect. Muslims say that
miracles have followed the revelations given to other prophets in order to
confirm the divine message. In this case the Quran is both a revelation and
a miracle. {6} Muhammad himself said:--"Each prophet has received manifest
signs which carried conviction to men: but that which I have received is
the revelation. So I hope to have a larger following on the day of
resurrection than any other prophet has." Ibn Khaldoun says that "by this
the Prophet means that such a wonderful miracle as the Quran, which is also
a revelation, should carry conviction to a very large number."[7] To a
Muslim the fact is quite clear, and so to him the Quran is far superior to
all the preceding books. Muhammad is said to have convinced a rival, Lebid,
a poet-laureate, of the truth of his mission by reciting to him a portion
of the now second Sura. "Unquestionably it is one of the very grandest
specimens of Koranic or Arabic diction.... But even descriptions of this
kind, grand as they be, are not sufficient to kindle and preserve the
enthusiasm and the faith and the hope of a nation like the Arabs.... The
poets before him had sung of valour and generosity, of love and strife and
revenge ... of early graves, upon which weeps the morning cloud, and of the
fleeting nature of life which comes and goes as the waves of the desert
sands, as the tents of a caravan, as a flower that shoots up and dies away.
Or they shoot their bitter arrows of satire right into the enemy's own
soul. Muhammad sang of none of these. No love-minstrelsy his, not the joys
of the world, nor sword, nor camel, nor jealousy, nor human vengeance, not
the glories of tribe or ancestor. He preached Islam." The very fierceness
with which this is done, the swearing such as Arab orator, proficient
though he may have been in the art, had never made, the dogmatic certainty
with which the Prophet proclaimed his message have tended, equally with the
passionate grandeur of his utterances, to hold the Muslim world spell-bound
to the letter and imbued with all the narrowness of the book.

So sacred is the text supposed to be that only the {7} Companions[8] of the
Prophet are deemed worthy of being commentators on it. The work of learned
divines since then has been to learn the Quran by heart and to master the
traditions, with the writings of the earliest commentators thereon. The
revelation itself is never made a subject of investigation or tried by the
ordinary rules of criticism. If only the Isnad, or chain of authorities for
any interpretation, is good, that interpretation is unhesitatingly accepted
as the correct one. It is a fundamental article of belief that no other
book in the world can possibly approach near to it in thought or
expression. It deals with positive precepts rather than with principles.
Its decrees are held to be binding not in the spirit merely but in the very
letter on all men, at all times and under every circumstance of life. This
follows as a natural consequence from the belief in its eternal nature.

The various portions recited by the Prophet during the twenty-three years
of his prophetical career were committed to writing by some of his
followers, or treasured up in their memories. As the recital of the Quran
formed a part of every act of public worship, and as such recital was an
act of great religious merit, every Muslim tried to remember as much as he
could. He who could do so best was entitled to the highest honour, and was
often the recipient of a substantial reward.[9] The Arab love for poetry
facilitated the exercise of this faculty. When the Prophet died the
revelation ceased. There was no distinct copy of the whole, nothing to show
what was of transitory importance, what of permanent value. There is
nothing which proves that the Prophet took any special care of any
portions. There seems to have been no definite order in which, when the
book was {8} compiled, the various Suras were arranged, for the Quran, as
it now exists, is utterly devoid of all historical or logical sequence. For
a year after the Prophet's death nothing seems to have been done; but then
the battle of Yemana took place in which a very large number of the best
Quran reciters were slain. Omar took fright at this, and addressing the
Khalif Abu Bakr, said, "The slaughter may again wax hot amongst the
repeaters of the Quran in other fields of battle, and much may be lost
therefrom. Now, therefore, my advice is that thou shouldest give speedy
orders for the collection of the Quran." Abu Bakr agreed, and said to Zeid
who had been an amanuensis of the Prophet:--"Thou art a young man, and
wise, against whom no one amongst us can cast an imputation; and thou wert
wont to write down the inspired revelations of the Prophet of the Lord,
wherefore now search out the Quran and bring it all together." Zeid being
at length pressed to undertake the task proceeded to gather the Quran
together from "date leaves, and tablets of white stone, and from the hearts
of men." In course of time it was all compiled in the order in which the
book is now arranged. This was the authorized text for some twenty-three
years after the death of Muhammad. Owing, however, either to different
modes of recitation, or to differences of expression in the sources from
which Zeid's first recension was made, a variety of different readings
crept into the copies in use. The Faithful became alarmed and the Khalif
Osman was persuaded to put a stop to such a danger. He appointed Zeid with
three of the leading men of the Quraish as assistants to go over the whole
work again. A careful recension was made of the whole book which was then
assimilated to the Meccan dialect, the purest in Arabia. After this all
other copies of the Quran were burnt by order of the Khalif, and new
transcripts were made of the revised edition which was now the only
authorised copy. As it is a fundamental tenet of Islam that the Quran is
incorruptible and absolutely free {9} from error, no little difficulty has
been felt in explaining the need of Osman's new and revised edition and of
the circumstances under which it took place; but as usual a Tradition has
been handed down which makes it lawful to read the Quran in seven dialects.
The book in its present form may be accepted as a genuine reproduction of
Abu Bakr's edition with authoritative corrections. We may rest assured that
we have in the Quran now in use the record of what Muhammad said. It thus
becomes a fundamental basis of Islam. It was a common practice of the early
Muslims when speaking of the Prophet to say:--"His character is the Quran."
When people curious to know details of the life of their beloved master
asked 'Ayesha, one of his widows, about him, she used to reply:--"Thou hast
the Quran, art thou not an Arab and readest the Arab tongue? Why dost thou
ask me, for the Prophet's disposition is no other than the Quran?"

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