Studies in a Mosque - The Search For Mecca

ISLAM. 91
belief in One All- Powerful God. Islam is the " self-
surrender" of every man to the will of God. Its
danger lies ui the stress laid on the power of God,
which has brought about the stifling effects of fatalism.
Mohammad taught the foreknowledge of God, but he
did not lay down precisely the doctrine of Predestina-
tion. He found it, as all have found it, a stumbling-
block in the way of man's progress. It perplexed him,
and he spoke of it, but often contradicted himself;
and he Avould become angry if the subject were mooted
in his presence : " Sit not with a disputer about
fate," he said, " nor begin a conversation with him."
Mohammad vaguely recognised that little margin of
Free Will which makes life not wholly mechanical.
This doctrine of one Supreme God, to whose will
it is the duty of every man to surrender himself, is
the kernel of Islam, the truth for which Mohammad
lived and suffered and triumphed. But it was no new
teaching, as he himself was constantly saying. His
was only the last of revelations. Many prophets
Abraham, Moses, and Christ—had taught the same
faith before ; but people had hearkened little to their
words. So Mohammad was sent, not different from
them, a simple messenger, yet the last and greatest of
them, the " seal of prophecy," the " most excellent
of the creation of God." This is the second dogma of
Islam : "Mohammad is the apostle of God." It is well
worthy of notice that it is not said, " Mohammad is
the only apostle of God." Islam is more tolerant in
this matter than other religions. Its prophet is not
the sole commissioner of the Most High, nor is his
—