68 THE RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

and He says of Himself in the Qur'an, "And1 as for every man, We have firmly fixed his bird (i e. his fate) upon his neck."

Muslims tell us that before the creation

Fate.

of the world GOD formed a Pen, and commanded it,2 saying, "Write My knowledge in My creation and in what exists unto the Day of the Resurrection." The Pen accordingly wrote on the Preserved Tablet an account of all that was to take place until the Resurrection Day, "even to the amount of the movement of the leaf of a tree as it rises or falls." A Muhammadan writer3 says,

"When Fate has come, Man cannot it avert:
Fate fails not, should he mind and sight exert.
Beyond the Lord's decree, writ by His pen,
Nor less nor more comes to His servants, men."

Meaning
of Islam.

The very name of the Religion of Muhammad, Islam, denotes self-surrender or resignation,—but it is resignation to such a deity4 as this,—the


1 Surah xvii. 14[13]:
وَكُلَّ إِنسَانٍ أَلْزَمْنَاهُ طَآئِرَهُ فِي عُنُقِهِ وَنُخْرِجُ لَهُ يَوْمَ الْقِيَامَةِ كِتَابًا يَلْقَاهُ مَنشُورًا
2 Qisasu'l Anbiya, p. 4.
3
جو آمد قضا و نه كردش قضا بر نه كردد بعقل وبصر بر آنجش خداوند رانده قلم رسد بر سرِ بنده نه بيش وكم
(Ibid., p. 17.) 
4
According to Muhammadan theology, God is the Author as well of evil as of good.
1 And every man's augury have We fastened to his own neck, and We shall bring forth for him on the Day of Resurrection a book which he will find wide open.
[Pickthal's translation]
THE WEAKNESS OF ISLAM. 69

resignation of impotence, of fear, of despair. How different it is from Christian resignation—the simple, childlike, trustful, reliance in love and faith upon an All-wise, Almighty, loving Father in Heaven, Who orders all things for our present and eternal good!

§ 3. Although the Muhammadan Religion inculcates the obligation of Prayer, as we have already

Muhammadan
Ideas about
Prayer.

seen,1 yet the ideas which Muslims have of prayer are very far indeed from being correct. It is regarded as a duty, not as a privilege, a task imposed upon Believers by the arbitrary fiat of their Lord, rather than a spiritual exercise and as a means of grace and

Tradition
 about
Night
Journey.

refreshing. This is made very clear by a tradition related by a great many Muhammadan authorities.2 Qatadah, for example, in relating the incidents of Muhammad's famous "Night journey,"3 tells us that the "Prophet,"


1 Lecture i., § 10. 
2
Qatadah, Ibn Shahab, Thabit, &c.
3
فرجعتُ فمررتُ علىَ موسىَ فقال بما اُمِرْتَ ـ قُلتُ اُمِرْتَ بخمسين صلوة كلّ يوم ـ قال اِنّ اُمّتك لا تستطيع خمسين صلوة كلّ يوم واِنّى واْللهِ قد جرّبتُ الناس قبلك وعالجتُ بنى اسرَائيل اشدّ المعالجة فارجع الى ربّك فسئلهُ التخفيف لاُّمتك ـ فرجعتُ فوضع عنّى عشراً ـ فرجعتُ الىَ موسىَ فقال مِثلهُ ـ فرجعتُ فوضع عشراً ـ فرجعتُ الىَ موسىَ فقال مثلهُ ـ فرجعت فوضع عنّى عشراً ـ فَأمِرْتُ بعشر صلوات كلّ يوم ـ فرجعت الىَ موسىَ فقال مثلهُ ـ فرجعت فَأمِرْتُ بخمس صلوات كلّ يوم
(Qatadah, quoted by Sayyid Ahmad, "Essay on Shaqq-i Sadr and Mi'raj," p. 31.)