influenced by Christian thought and western culture; but it is difficult to
believe that Muhammad so intended his words to be taken, or that his hearers so
understood them. Muhammad's mind was intensely practical and not in the least
given to mysticism. In the arrangements of the world and in the affairs of men
he saw no difficulties and no mystery. The punishments of hell are material, no
orthodox Muslim attempts to allegorize them; why then should the material joys
of paradise be set aside? It must, however, be noted that these descriptions of
a voluptuous paradise are given at a time when Muhammad was living a chaste and
temperate life with a single wife. This is urged as a plea in support of the
allegorical view; but it must be borne in mind that, though Muhammad was
undoubtedly fond of and faithful to Khadija,1 yet he was subject to
her. She was the master, she had raised him from poverty, given him a position,
placed him in comparative affluence; but she kept her fortune in her own hands.
Muhammad had not, even assuming that he wished so to do, the means of granting
dowries, or of, in any way, obtaining other wives. That his moderation then was
compulsory seems to some critics evident from the fact that as soon as he was
free he gratified his
