The would-be worker for the adherents of Islam is often dismayed to find that his most earnest attempts have failed to provide a lodgment for his message in either the heart or the mind of his hearer. This is due principally to a difference of conception, a divergent mental outlook. It is sometimes stated, in a general way, that the Mussulman worships the same God as the Christian. But this is true only in a very remote sense. The Christian God is one being, while the Mussulman God is another.
The Christian is, or should be, what his religion has made him; and the Mussulman is likewise what his religion has made him—definitely so. This difference is exemplified even more strikingly in the manner in which the Quran (Koran) and other messages were supposed to have been received by Mohammed, than in the teaching of the Quran itself.
If he would discover the religious conception of the average Muslim (Moslem), it is incumbent upon the prospective missionary to Islam to acquaint himself with the mode of "inspiration" claimed. I do not intend to convey the idea that the average believer in Islam is a person of intellectual attainment and intelligent religious belief according to Christian standards. The opposite is almost entirely the case. Islam, like Roman Catholicism in another sphere, finds its greatest strength in the illiteracy and bigotry, religiously speaking especially, of the greater number of its adherents. Islam does not call for conscientious, intelligent cooperation in following out a set of right principles, but for surrendering unconditionally and unthinkingly to a set of arbitrary directions sent down by an arbitrary being. This is explained in the Islamic idea of two kinds of "inspiration."
Wahl; and ilham are used to express these two different kinds of inspiration. Wahi, for instance, is the form of inspiration under which the Quran is supposed to have been given, and implies that the words communicated are the very words of God. This form of inspiration, reckoned to be the highest of all, is considered to have been communicated to Mohammed by the angel Gabriel. In this respect, Mohammed is the most favored of all the "prophets," for the angel Gabriel is said to have appeared to him no less than 24,000 times, but to Jesus only io times, to Moses 400, to Abraham 42, to Noah 50, to Enoch 4, and to Adam 12 times. Mohammed, therefore, has a large margin.
The entire Quran is supposed to have been prepared in heaven, and Gabriel was simply the instrumentality through which the wahi, or divine revelation, was handed to mankind. That is, Gabriel imparted it to Mohammed, but not always by word of mouth. Sometimes Mohammed is supposed to have heard the tinkling of a bell, which was apparent to him alone, and through this he understood the revelation that Gabriel had for him. Sometimes Gabriel assumed human form to deliver the message, and sometimes a bright light enveloped Mohammed, through which Gabriel communicated the will of God. Thus, in wahi, Mohammed is merely a machine to hand over to mankind the unalterable "directions" brought from God by Gabriel.
The other form of "inspiration." known as ilham, is that given to a servant of God when that servant, under divine influence, delivers from his own mind the messages from God. Ilham somewhat approaches the Christian idea of inspiration. Even so, it is definitely not the same, and this is where the young Christian missionary is often perplexed. He sees in the Christian Word certain immutable principles which reveal the very character of God. Indeed, God is expressed in the principles He embodies, and the Christian understands a cooperation between God and man expressed in such terms as, "Come, let us reason together."
The Mussulman, however, knows nothing about such a coordination of purpose as the Christian understands. Indeed, the idea of God as a loving Father seeking the "lost sheep," or eagerly welcoming the "prodigal," is generally repugnant to the follower of Islam. That which has been "sent down" in the Quran is the complete and final code of "directions" concerning every matter for all mankind. It is for man to obey strictly its injunctions or to take the consequences. And so is the case with "inspiration," the Christian idea of which the Mussulman would consider a very defective arrangement. A combination of the human and the divine seems to him incomprehensible, if not altogether distasteful.
In India the missionary is often faced by disputatious Moslems with two or even more divergent "translations" of the New Testament. some of which include, and some of which reject, certain passages. To the follower of Islam, with his idea of "inspiration," this difference in "versions" is fatal. It proves conclusively what he already knew—that the gospel, which was once a part of God's word, has been corrupted by the Christians, and is no longer to be accepted as reliable. That is the deep, practically immovable conviction of any Moslem who has any intelligence regarding religious matters. As for 'he rest, the vast majority who never think and never question, they are, if possible, even more absolutely convinced that Islam is the only true religion. Ibn Khaldun, the Muslim historian, says:
"Of all the divine books, the Quran is the only one in which the text, words, and phrases have been communicated to a prophet in 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."
That the Quran is a literary miracle is the universal belief among Moslems, who claim that the actual text was spoken into the ear of the prophet. They admit that the other "divine" books were received as "ideas," but the danger is that the human element has vitally corrupted them, and this is especially so as pertains to the gospel. Thus the Quran, the, very word out of the mouth of God, is superior to them all. Obviously, there is the task before the missionary of becoming conversant with the making of the Christian Scriptures. He must know how we got our Bible. Although such an observation may seem superfluous, yet it is surprising how many missionaries come to India without an adequate knowledge of the antecedents of the Bible. Such men become utterly discomfited by the defenders of Islam, and become discouraged in their Christian experience.
As Christians, we consider the obvious impress of the personality of the various writers of the Bible, in the messages vouchsafed to them, as signs of the working of God's Spirit in using human instruments with their varying temperaments. The Christian is not unduly disturbed because there are slight variations or even seeming discrepancies in descriptions of the same event by different Bible writers, It is rather a proof that God's message for the human race, given through human instruments that betray their respective personalities, has remained inviolate. It is well understood in courts of law that if several avenues of testimony coincide too well, there is grave suspicion of collusion. The Christian does not claim that the Bible is an arbitrary, mechanical set of "directions" straight from heaven, without the cooperating influence of human temperament.
Not so the Mussulman with the Quran. With the book of Islam there is no room for "personality" or human temperament. The Quran is supposed to be a miracle of revelation, and a miracle in the manner of its revelation—unchanged and unchangeable. The facts, of course, by no means bear this out.
When Mohammed died, the alleged revelation ceased, of course. There was no Quran as we know it today. The "revelations" were on date leaves, white-stone tablets, and in the hearts of men. Those various portions which had been recited by Mohammed during the twenty-three years of his career, were committed to writing by some of his followers or learned by heart. The recital of the Quran was a matter of religious merit, and the believers tried to memorize and recite as much as possible.
Mohammed had been dead nearly one year when, at the battle of Yemana, a very large number of those most proficient in reciting the Quran were killed. Omar, Mohammed's adviser, became greatly alarmed at this, realizing that some portions of the "revelations" might thus be irretrievably lost. In agreement with the first caliph of Mecca, Abu Bekr, the young man Zayd, who had been Mohammed's scribe, was commissioned by Omar to collect the scattered "revelations." In due season all were compiled in the order in which the book is now arranged, and this was the authorized text for some twenty years after the death of Mohammed.
It soon became apparent, however, that either from varying modes of recitation, or perhaps from differences of expression in the sources of Zayd's first recension, a variety of readings crept into use. When this was observed, the Khalif a Uthman commissioned Zayd with three assistants to make another recension of the whole book, which was done in the Meccan dialect, considered the purest of all. The next thing, of course, was to burn all the offending editions; and so today there is only one uniform authoritative text throughout the Moslem world. This was a most effective way of obtaining the "uniformity" and "freedom from error" supposedly inherent in the Quran, and is indicative of the general psychology of the average Muslim in things religious. The desired uniformity and freedom from error must be achieved even if one must commit errors to bring it to pass.
The Christian believes that religion was made for man, but the Moslem believes that man was made for religion. The missionary obviously must help the Moslem to change his mental and religious outlook, and somehow help him to get a little of the mind which "was. in Christ Jesus," the Man of God.
