Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
and Peril:
FACTS AND FIGURES FOR LAYMEN
By
S. M. Zwemer, F. R. G. S.
women."
H. H. JESSUP, D.D.,
A veteran Missionary in Syria.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
The following facts and figures, giving a general
view of one of the largest and most difficult of
present-day missionary problems, were compiled
and condensed from the author’s “Islam, A Chal-
lenge to Faith.’’ For a fuller account of the
Mohammedan religion and the present needs and
opportunities of the Mohammedon world from the
standpoint of Christian missions, the reader is
WHAT MOSLEMS —
BELIEVE. It is incumbent on
all Moslemshave a firm faith in God, His
to
Angels, His Books, His Prophets, the Day of
'
Jesus Christ teaches God above us, God with us, and
God in us.”
The Moslems also assert their belief in angels,
jinn and devils. This belief is not theoretical, but
is intensely practical, and touches everyday life at
Eternal
Slumber doth not overtake Him. neither sleep.
To Him belongeth whatever is in heaven and on
the earth.
Who shall intercede with Him except by His per-
mission? He knows what is between their
hands and behind them ;
degradation of women ;
(f) it petrifies social life; (g)
and offers no doctrine of redemption from sin or
atonement by sacrifice.
Mohammed was not only the Prophet but the
prophecy of Islam. His life has become the ideal of
conduct and the standard of character for all the
millions of the Moslem world. What that life was
can be learned from his biography and although he
was doubtless a great leader and a man of genius
his home life and his character as a religious teacher
are such as to be entirely unworthy of imitation.
According to Moslem belief, however, the very faults
of his character become his endless glory and the
signs of his superiority, ^.^.,his practice of polygamy
and cruel wars are interpreted as special privileges.
He dwells in the highest heaven and is several degrees
above Jesus, our Saviour, in honor and station. His
name is never uttered or written without the addition
of a prayer. Yet, a calm and critical study of his
life proves him to have been an ambitious and sensual
enthusiast, who did not scruple to break nearly every
precept of the moral law to further hi« own ends.
—
PREDESTINATION. This last article is the key-
stone in the arch of the Moslem faith. It is the only
philosophy of Islam, and the most fertile article of the
creed in its effects on everyday life. Most Moslem sects
“deny all free-agency in man, and say that man is neces-
sarily constrained by the force of God’s eternal and
immutable decree to act as he does!” God wills both
good and evil there is no escaping from the caprice of
;
—
ELLITEIIACY. The illiteracy of the Mohammedan
world to-day is as surprising as it is appalling. One
would think that a religion which almost worships its
Sacred Book, and which was once mistress of science
: