I do not desire to explain the importance and significance ofIslam among the religious systems of the world; nor am I tofix and ascertain the exact position of Mohamed as a religious teacheramong the world’s great teachers of religions. My effort in thispaper is simpler and yet not altogether free from bewildering perplexities.I desire to explain what Islam is and what its teachingsare: Islam as preached and delivered by the prophet of Arabia;Islam stripped of the accretions of ages of theological disputes andcontroversies; in other words to sketch out, to the best of mylight and leading, Islam of the prophet Mohamed. Difficult thoughthis task is, it is not indeed a hopeless venture for one who haskept himself clear and free from narrow sectarianism.
To fully appreciate the message of Mohamed, it is essentialthat I should say something about the condition of Arabia beforeIslam. I must readily admit that so far as the Pagan Arabia isconcerned, we are in great dearth of authorities. Our informationis shadowy, fitful, and fragmentary and the industry ofEuropean scholars (such as Caussin De Perceval, Krehl, Wellhausen,Robertson Smith and Sir Charles Lyall) has succeeded but inlifting the veil merely at its fringe. But however partial andunsatisfactory as the account is, of the Pagan days; we can yet forman idea of the life that the Pagan Arabs led and the thoughts thatswayed and animated their conduct and their deeds. I will, therefore,describe “The Pre-Islamic Arabia” as briefly as I can.
The Pre-Islamic Arabs were not a nation. Of the sense of nationality,indeed, they had not the vaguest conception, though theywere linked by community of speech. Arabia was a sum-total ofloose and disconnected congeries of tribes and the tribe was thesource and the limit of social and political obligation. Beyond thetribe there lay no duty and no obligation either. Political relationswere moral; for morality was confined within the limits of thetribe. Political organisation was represented by the corporate[Pg 2]feeling which found expression in the exercise of the duties ofbrotherhood. Within the pale of the tribe obtained the prohibitionto kill, to commit adultery, to steal, &c., &c. Beyond it therewas no su