CHAPTER I.

THE BIOGRAPHIES OF MOHAMMED BY MOSLEM AUTHORS, ATTRIBUTING TO THEIR PROPHET AN EQUALITY WITH, OR EVEN A SUPERIORITY TO, THE PROPHET OF NAZARETH, APPEAR IN THE LIGHT OF A THINLY DISGUISED PLAGIARISM OF THE EVANGELICAL RECORDS, AND MOHAMMED HIMSELF AS AN OBVIOUS PARODY OF JESUS CHRIST.

REMARK: In the following numerous illustrations of the subject of this chapter, the method, uniformly observed, is: first (a) to point out the Christian Original, by the quotation of a few verses from the Bible; and then (b) to show the Mohammedan Imitation thereof, by a literal translation of ample portions from Moslem biographical works. The reader is requested to remember that what he is reading about Mohammed, in both the chapters of this Second Book, is merely a faithful translation of Mohammedan records, and not a statement of the author's own opinion, or an indorsement of those records. Only the headings of the first chapter and the footnotes of both, conveying the requisite explanations and elucidations, are by the author.

(1.) Pre-existence is ascribed as first to Christ, so afterwards to Mohammed, and each of them is represented as the Cause or Medium of the existence of all other creatures.

a. In the New Testament we are taught that Jesus Christ had pre-existed, before He came to live the life of man upon this earth; and that all things received their being through Him. St. John opens his Gospel thus, 'In the beginning

was the Word (= Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made' (John i. 1-3). St. Paul, in writing to the Colossians, refers to the same subject, Jesus Christ, in these words: 'Who is the firstborn of every creature: for by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers all things were created by him, and for him; and he is before all things, and by him all things consist' (Col. i. 15-17).

b. In Mohammed's biography, 'Rawzat ul Ahbab,' we read as follows: 'The learned doctors of religion differ as to which thing was the first of the creatures. Some regard Reason (= Logos), others the Pen (= kalam, with which destiny was written), and, again, others the Light of Mohammed's prophetship, as the first created thing. Each of these views is supported by tradition. If all three views are true, they can best be thus reconciled, that absolutely the first creature is the Light of our Prophet; and that the priority of Reason and the Pen is only qualitative, i.e. Reason is the first created power, and the Pen the first created substance. But there are men of deep research who hold that these three expressions mean one and the same thing, which, being considered from different points of view, is called by different names; that is to say, this one and self-same thing is called Reason, because it knows itself and its origin, and comprehends all other things; Pen, because by its instrumentality the impresses of knowledge upon the Preserved Tablet and other works, were made; and Light of Mohammed,¹ because all perfections possible are but rays of this Light. In some books of history it is recorded that Ibn Abbas said: The first creature which God made was a Pen, whose length was 500 years, and its thickness 40 years. When God said to it,