MAHOMET AND HIS FOLLOWERS.

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume XX, Issue 3936, 19 June 1877, Page 2

MAHOMET AND HIS FOLLOWERS.

Sir, — I shall be glad if you will allow me to make a few remarks on this matter in your valuable paper. It is frequently asserted, and generally supposed, that Mahomet attempted to supersede the religion of Christ. This is quite a mistake ; it was Paganism and idolatry that Mahomet attempted to overthrow, and in a great measure succeeded n overthrowing. Of Christianity and its truth and loveliness Mahomet had heard nothing, nor was anything known of it where he lived at the commencement of his religious career. Had it been different he might have embraced it, and the Hawke's Bay Herald would not have contained this interesting controversy. Mahomet's great and honest mind revolted against the belief that these shapeless blocks of wood and stone that the hand of man had hewn into forms more or less ghastly and hideous were gods, and that it could be necessary or beneficial to mankind to pray to and perform horrible, inhuman rites and ceremonies before them ; this infidelity to the religion of his youth, caused him much thought and anxiety when after some years in this state he, during the fast of the Ramadan, after having remained apart in meditation, came forth in joy, saying to his wife Kedijah, "I have found the truth," and then framed his . famous formula, which to this day is constantly being quoted by his followers. ' ' There is no god but God ; God is good, God is great." His wife and Ms slave Seid were his first converts ; some time after he converted his cousin ; and after thirteen years of preaching, suffering, and persecution he had made forty converts, and at this time he had to fly from Mecca to Medina for his life. But even this did not daunt him; he continued his preaching fearlessly, and converted many, and before he died saw the religion that he had been the means of founding spreading its branches over a large portion of the globe. In less than a century from its first foundation we find it extending from Granada to Delhi, and at the present time it enrols under its banners one-sixth of the inhabitants of the earth, and it is still increasing its numbers by converting many savage tribes in Africa and elsewhere, from barbarous fetichisms to a religion whose fundamental basis is belief in the one true God. Christians frequently urge against Mahomet that his creed has been propagated at the edge of the sword, and occasionally Mahometans have been guilty of this crime ; but I ask all honest Christians if we have a right to blame Mahomet for this ? Rather let us remember that our Master said, "He that is without sin cast the first stone," and repent in sackcloth and ashes that we have disregarded his rebuke to one of his impetuous followers, " Put up thy sword within its sheath." It is asserted that Mahometanism makes converts by pandering to the lusts of mankind, in fact by being a pleasant religion to follow, but I think few Avho have resided amongst the Mahometans, and observed the various forms that their creed enforces upon them, with its numerous prayings, fastings, ablutions, and its abstinence from alcoholic drinks, and various kinds of food, will maintain that this is an easy religion to fellow. And let me say also that these various rites are paid the most rigid observance. The statement that there is little temptation for the consumption of alcohol in hot countries is manifestly absurd, and opposed to the experience of every Englishman who has travelled, and the fact remains that it is a common occurrence for Mahometans, converted to Christianity, to signalise the occasion by intemperate bibling. In their treatment of inferiors the Mahometans can compare favorably with the Christians ; their slaves are considerately and kindly used, and after a few years of faithful service are called sons and fed at their master's table ; and they, the Mahometans, are never known to wantonly illtreat dogs or horses. Perhaps your readers may object, and point to the atrocities in Bulgaria in contradiction to this ; but if so, let me tell them that these atrocities were committed by the BashiBazouks, a semi-savage horde, whose actions are no more typical of Mahemetanism than the habits of the Abysinians are of Christianity. The Mahometan missionaries are deserving of all praise. They leave father, mother, sisters and country, in the cause of their religion, and go and reside permanently amongst those whom they wish to convert, making themselves one with them, and winning their love and respect, and teaching them morality, virtue and godliness. For further information on this subject I refer your readers to two articles that appeared some two years ago in Fraser's Magazine, entitled ' l Christianity and the Negro race," and "Mahometanism and the Negro race," by a Negro ; the author, a Negro, is an ordained clergyman of the Church of England. Mahomet is accused of having led a a vicious life, but lean find no proofs to support this. It is but reasonable to suppose that the man whose love of truth led him to break away from the pagan creeds he had been brought up in, and whose devotion to the cause induced him to bear persecution rather than recant, must have been a good man, swayed by human passions perhaps, but were not the Apostles the same 1 As we find Mahomet in the Koran, expressing regret that his life was not as blameless, or his spirit as meek as the Prophet of the Kyahs, i.e., Jesus, so might his detractors regret that they nave not the veracity, the nobleness, and the independence of Mahomet. It is asserted that Mahomet copied all that is good of the Koran from the Bible, but the only proof of this is a certain similarity existing between many parts of both. In his later years Mahomet became acquainted with the Bible, but at that time a great portion of the Koran was written, how much we do not know, but we may allow that latterly the ideas may have been suggested by the Bible. Even if he did copy from it, it is to his credit that he knew which parts to choose, and which to avoid. The fact that similar phrases occur in the Bible and Koran cannot by itself be taken as proof that the latter was copied from the former ; if such were the case, we should have to admit that David copied a portion of his Psalms from the Brahmin Vedas, and that Christ merely quoted Budda when expounding some of his greatest principles. In proof of the similarity, I will quote a few extracts from the Vedas of the Brahmins and Dhamma, Padam of the Buddists : — Extract from the Rig Yea. " Let me not yet, O Varunna, enter into the house of clay. Have mercy Almighty, have mercy ! through want of strength have I done wrong. Have mercy, Almighty, have mercy ! " Whenever we men O Varunna commit an offence towards the Heavenly Host ; whenever we break the law through thoughtlessness, have mercy Almighty, have mercy ! ' ' Wide and mighty are the works of him who stemmed asunder the wide firmaments, and lifted on high the bright and glorious heaven. He stretched out apart the starry sky and earth. ' ' It was not our own doing, O Varunna 1 It was temptation, an intoxicating draught, passion, and thoughtlessness. Even sleep brings unrighteousness. The Lord God enlighteneth the foolish. O Lord, Varunna, may this song go to thine heart." Extracts from the Artharva Veda. " The great Lord of world sees as if he was near. If a man stands, or walks, or hides, if he lied down or rises up, King Varunna knows it. He who should fly far away to the sky, even he would not be rid of Varunna. King Varunna sees all that is between heaven

and earth. He has counted the twinklings of the eyes of men. " Where life is free in the third heaven of heavens, where the worlds are radient, where there is happiness and delight, where joy and pleasure reside, where the desire of our desires is attained,— there make me immortal !" Extracts from the Dhamma Padam. " Conquer anger by mildness, evil by good, falsehood by truth. Be not desirous of discovering the faults of others, but zealously guard against your own. Abstain from foolish conversation, and from betraying the secrets of others. Abstain from coveting, from all evil wishes to others, from all unjust suspicion. To be free from sin, be contented, be grateful, subject to reproof, having a mind unshaken by prosperity and adversity. He is a more noble warrior who subdues himself than he who in battle conquers thousands. All the religion of Budda is contained in these three precepts : Purify thy mind, abstain from vice, practise virtue. To the virtuous all is pure. Therefore, think not that going unclothed, fasting, or lying on the ground, can make the impure pure, for the mind will still remain the same." The date at which the Vedas were written is fixed by all scholars as prior te the of David, and Budda died some years before Christ became incarnate. The quotation from the Koran which appeared in to-day's Herald would make no one who is acquainted with Eastern customs regard it as ridiculous. The riding npon an ass is a sign of friendship and becoming modesty, for this reason the Saviour chose this animal to make His last entry into Jerusalem. The white cock also is a symbolical bird with the Mahometans. Moreover, the Koran, in its original tongue, is written in poetical rythm, only equalled by that of the Pentatuche and a few others of the older Biblical writings, and to translate poetry from the original language to the prose of a totally different one, is to shred it of much of its beauty, and frequently to turn the sublime into the ridiculous. In proof of this, I recommend any of your readers sufficiently acquainted with the language, to read the French translation of Shakespeare. I must now conclude, Mr Editor, for I have carried the length of this letter beyond all bounds, but there is much more that I could say, from personal experience, that redounds to the credit of the followers of the prophet. Suffice it to say that I have written this defence of . Mahomet, not from any wish to convert your readers to that creed, "for if I could I would not, and if I would I could not ;" but simply in the hope that those previously ignorant of the matter may take a more liberal view of mankind, and look upon the Mahometans and other socalled heathens with a more truly Christian spirit, and in the words of Budda, "Be not desirous of discovering the faults of others, but zealously guard against your own," and fully endorsed by the Infallible Head of our Church, in the words, " Pluck first the mote out of thine eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pluck the beam out of thy brother's eye." — I am, &c, De Insula. June 16, 1877.