This Power may be exercised in the most arbitrary1 manner, and is unrestrained by any
Law of Holiness
1 As an example, take the following story, found among the Bilochis (Rev. Arthur Lewis' "Bilochi Stories," pp. 22, 23):—
"The prophet Moses was going one day to the court of God. In the way he met a man saying his prayers, who was very attentive to the service of God. There was another man who was careless, and did nothing. The man of prayer said, 'O Moses, the friend of God, you are going to the court of God. Speak to God and ask Him to take me to heaven. Give my message to God.' The other (idle) man said, 'Ask God if I am written in His account or not.' Then Moses, the Friend of God, went to the court of God. He told God this story, that one man who was very prayerful asked to be taken to heaven because he was troubled in the world, and that another (idle) fellow wished to know what would become of him. God said to Moses, 'You go and give this message. Tell that idle fellow that I will torment him in hell, and the other man that I will take him to
heaven. I am at present engaged in work; I am causing one hundred camels with their loads to pass through the eye of a needle. When that shall be done, I will take him to heaven.'
"The prayerful man, when he heard this, said, 'Is God such a person as to cause one hundred camels with their loads to pass through the eye of a needle? How could there possibly be a way for them?' The other man, the idle one, said, 'Doubtless God will cause them to pass through; it is an easy thing for God to do.'
"Then Moses the Friend of God went home. Some time after Moses went again to the court of
God. He sees the man of prayer tormented in hell, and the idle one sitting in the court
of heaven. Then Moses sat down very troubled. God said, 'You are My friend; why are you
troubled?' Moses answered, 'Lord, I am not troubled.' God again
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THE WEAKNESS OF ISLAM.
61
or Justice1 existent in the very Being of GOD. Hence it is that Muhammadans entirely
fail to see the moral obliquity of many of their "Prophet's" actions. If one mentions them
GOD commands
breaches of
Moral Law.
they say, "Yes, if any one of us were to do such a thing it would be murder or adultery,
but when Muhammad the Chosen, the Apostle of GOD, did so, he did not thereby become either a
murderer or an adulterer,2 [Footnote continued from previous page]
asked, saying, 'I see you are troubled, tell me the cause.' Then he said, 'Lord, I am troubled because Thy actions are incomprehensible. That man who was so diligent in his prayers, is tormented in hell; that idle fellow is seated in heaven. This is the reason of my trouble.' God said, 'Do not be troubled. When you took My message, what answer did that man of prayer give? He answered, What kind of a person is God, that He can cause a hundred camels with their hundred loads to pass through the eye of a needle? He did not trust Me, therefore he is now tormented. The idle and careless man trusted Me, therefore he is come to heaven.'
'"The man of prayer lost his game through one word. The idle man won his by one word, because he trusted Me.'"
1 Yet, without the Divine inspiration to which Muhammad pretended, Euripides knew that
Ει θεοι τι δρωσιν αισχρον, ουκ εισιν
θεοι.
(Frag. Belleroph. 300.)
2 Mr. Bosworth Smith,"Mohammed and Mohammedanism," pp. 143-4, says that the Jewish Rabbis
also held "that a prophet who was properly commissioned might supersede any law." But even so they
assuredly did not hold that Prophets were above the moral law. Certainly the Old Testament is clear
enough in its teaching on this point. It shows us that not even David or Solomon could transgress
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