Religion of the Crescent

88	THE RELIGION OF THE CRESCENT.

say that He has lied or stolen or murdered, and so we confess that we have done so. Yet after all the fault is not ours; GOD is the Creator of both good and evil."

By calling sin a disease the Muhammadan does not imply that we require to be cured of it, any more than does the Hindu who uses precisely the same language. His idea is rather that liability to sin is a weakness consequent upon our being men, just in the same way that our inability to know or to do all things is a weakness or imperfection. Yet as the removal of the latter defect is not necessary for our happiness, so neither is the former. Certain actions are sins here because GOD has disallowed them to us on earth: they will be permitted in the next world and will then cease to be sinful. It will be evident that purity of heart is neither considered necessary nor desirable: in

Is Paradise
a Sensual one?

fact it would be hardly too much to say that it is impossible for a Muslim.

Many Muhammadan writers¹ have seen something

¹ As, for example, Al Baidhawi, Al Ghazzali, &c. The writer of the controversial work "Mizanu'l Mawazin" (written in answer to Dr. Pfander's "Mizanu'l Haqq") seems inclined to do the same, but he does not venture to do so very clearly lest he should shock orthodox minds. His defence amounts to saying that much that Muhammad says of Paradise—its four rivers of honey, wine, &c.—is "supported by the Gemara and Talmud." So far he is right, but this is not the case with regard to the Houris and, in fact, the generally sensual character of the Muhammadan Paradise.

THE WEAKNESS OF ISLAM.

of this, and have therefore endeavoured to explain the delights of Paradise as mentioned in the Qur'an and the Traditions as meaning something spiritual and as not being merely sensual. Others believe^l that, besides the sensual gratifications there permitted to the majority of the Justified, a nobler and more spiritual recompense will be bestowed upon the noble natures among them. But all such ideas and suggestions are not only very probably of later date than Muhammad's time, but moreover are not generally accepted even now by the vast majority of Muslims.

Again, from both the Qur'an² and the Traditions it is evident that Muhammad regarded Sin as a mere external pollution³ adhering to the body and capable of being washed

Sin an
external
pollution.

off by proper ablutions or by the performance of certain rites. On one occasion he is related to have said to some of his followers, "If ⁴ there be a river at the gate of any one of you, in which he bathes five times every day, will there remain any defilement on him?" They replied, "No dirt will remain on him." The "Prophet" said, "Then that is what the Five Prayers are like; by means of them GOD wipes out sins." Again Abu Dharr tells us that one day in winter Muhammad went out when the leaves were

¹ We shall recur to this subject when speaking of Muhammadan ideas about the future life.
² E.g., Surah ii. 273.
³ Mishkat, "Kitabu's Salat," sect. i., p. 4).
⁴ Ibid., sect. iii., p. 50.

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