Mr. Ameer Ali explains Islam as “striving after righteousness,” but Prof. Hirschfeld, in his luminous Researches into the Composition and Exegesis of the Qur´an, very correctly points out that Mr. Ameer Ali’s definition only reflects the theoretical and moral side of the question—limited to the initial stage of Islam.[14]

The term Islam, as time went by, included the whole of the theoretical and practical constitution of the faith and as such it is interpreted by Al-Ghazzali in his Ihya-ul-ulum (p. 104, vol. I.) Islam, says he, is an expression for submission and unquestioning obedience, abandonment of insubordination, defiance and opposition. And it is in this light, indeed, that the prophet himself regarded Islam. “The Bedwins say: ‘we believe,’ Speak! you shall not ‘believe’ (only) but say we practice Islam (Aslamna).” (XLIX. 14) In Surah III. 17 (Cf. V. 79) Islam is identified with din (Cf. LXI. 7-9) and the relation between the two synonyms, says Prof. Hirschfeld, is broadly discussed by Al-Shahrastani (Milal, pp. 25 to 27) and is stated to embrace the five duties, viz.:—Of testifying to the unity of God and the Divine inspiration of Mohamed, the duties of reciting prayers, giving alms, fasting in the Ramadhan, and performing the pilgrimage to Mecca. The fundamental basis of Islam is the unity of God; stern, unbending monotheism and this doctrine of the unity of God is proclaimed in the Qur´an, in season and out of season and ever and anon with augmented emphasis. To associate gods with God is the most unpardonable sin and the prophet’s extensive vocabulary of vituperation is never exhausted in attacking those who associate gods with God. In Surah VI (verses 74-79) we have one of the most charming passages testifying to the unity of God:—

And remember when Abraham said to his father, Azar, thou takest those images as God? verily I see that thou and thy people are in manifest error.

And so did we show Abraham the domain of the heavens and of the earth that he might be one of those who are established in knowledge. And when the night overshadowed him he beheld a star “This, said he, is My Lord” but when it set, he cried, “I love not gods which set.” And when he beheld the moon uprising “This,” said he, “is my Lord” but when it set, he said, “surely, if My Lord guide me not I shall be of those who go astray.”

And when he beheld the Sun uprise, he said, “This is my Lord,” “this is the greatest” but when it set, he said “O my people I share not with you the guilt of joining gods with God.”

I verily turn my face to him who hath created the Heavens and the earth following the right religion and I am not one of those who add gods to God.

Not a whit has Gibbon[15] exaggerated the truth when he wrote “the creed of Mohamed is free from suspicion or ambiguity and the Qur´an is a glorious testimony to the unity of God. The prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars and planets, on the rational principle that whatever is born must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and perish.” And, again, says the historian of the Roman Empire, “these sublime truths, thus announced in the language of the prophet, are firmly held by his disciples and defined with metaphysical precision by the interpreters of the Qur´an. A philosophic atheist might subscribe the popular creed of Mohamedans: a creed too sublime perhaps for our present faculties.”

The unity of God, therefore, is the central faith of Islam and connected with it, by natural process as it were, is the belief that man is responsible to the creator for his actions and deeds. This belief, the Pre-Islamic Arab never knew or conceived, and the prophet Mohamed, by inculcating this belief, not only laid the foundation of a spiritual life among his countrymen, but laid the foundation of a well-organized society; soon destined to grow into a magnificent empire. The sphere of duty and obligation, charity and sympathy, confined hitherto merely to tribesmen, was widened and extended and the narrow tribal tie was lost in the larger brotherhood of faith. At this distance of time, it is perhaps difficult for us to fully realize the influence of this teaching, but to it alone must we ascribe the dethronement of those ideals of Arabian Paganism which the author of the Muhammedanische Studien has so graphically described, comparing and contrasting them with the higher ideals substituted by Islam.[16] The religion of the prophet, like the wand of a magician, completely and utterly changed the life of the Arabs. It hushed their tribal disputes into silence, it destroyed their insularity, it set up a purer and a more refined standard of domestic life, it opened before them fresh vistas of spiritual happiness and temporal success.

Next to the unity of God, Islam enjoins five daily prayers upon its followers. It is curious that the Qur´an lays down no rule as to the manner in which the prayer should be offered. Apparently, as Mr. Ameer Ali[17] points out, the practice of the prophet has associated certain rights and ceremonies to the due observance of prayers. In the Mohamedan prayer we observe the Jewish practice of standing erect, the Christian of prostration and a third of inclination.[18] Originally the prophet instituted three daily prayers.[19] Their extension to five was an innovation of the late Meccan period; the details of the purity legislation appear to have still later. “Yet the theory,” says Prof. Margoliouth, “that God should be approached only by persons in a state of purity was known in South Arabia before Mohamed’s time, whence it is probable that his earliest converts were instructed therein.”

Prayers are to be performed five times in course of every day: between daybreak and sunrise, between noon and the “asr” (which later period is about mid-time between noon and nightfall) between the ‘asr’ and sunset, between sunset and the “asha” (or the period when the darkness of night commences) and at, or after the “asha.” It is considered more meritorious to take part in the public salat of the community conducted by a leader (Imam) than to discharge the salat by oneself.[20] Von Kremer has rightly emphasised the importance of the Muslim prayer by recognizing the mosque as the drill ground for the warlike believers of early Islam. In stern discipline, in unconditional obedience, says Von Kremer, the author of the Culturgeschichte des orients, lay the greatest achievement of Mohamed and the real secret of the strength of Islam.[21] The five daily prayers where the leader (the Imam) stood before the community, closely arrayed behind him, and where every movement of his was imitated with military preciseness, by the hundreds of the faithful assembled in the mosque, served, among the Muslims, in those times, the purpose of that what is known now as the drill ground: a school where the people learnt to assemble, to move in a body and to follow the Commander.

In the Qur´an[22] the command to pay the poor-tax (zakat) directly follows the command to pray: perform the prayers and pay the poor-tax. This tax had a strong communistic complexion which is evidenced by the following tradition: “The prophet sent Ma´dh to Yaman and told him: summon them to accept the confession of faith namely, there is no God but Allah and I that am his prophet; if they listen to it; teach them further that God has ordained five daily prayers; if they are also agreeable to this; teach them further that God has enjoined the poor-tax (sadakah) payable by the wealthy upon their property for distribution among the poor.”[23] This tax was annually payable upon camels, oxen (bulls and cows) and buffalos, sheep and goats, horses and mules and asses and gold and silver (whether in money or ornaments, etc.,) provided the property was of a certain amount; as five camels, thirty oxen, forty sheep, five horses, two hundred dirhams, or twenty dinars.[24] The proportion is generally one-fortieth, which is to be paid in kind or in money or other equivalent.

The third most important obligation enjoined by Islam is fasting in the month of Ramadhan. The Muslim must abstain from eating and drinking and from every indulgence of the senses, every day during the month of Ramadhan, from the first appearance of daybreak until sunset, unless physically incapacitated. The last but not least is the pilgrimage to Mecca and mount Arafat, which the Muslim must perform at least once in his life.

These then; namely, the unity of God, the belief in the Divine mission of the prophet, five daily prayers, fasting in the month of Ramadhan and the pilgrimage, are the essentials of Islam. The one supreme mission of the prophet was to create and to maintain an absolute brotherhood in faith. All Muslims were declared equal, irrespective of birth, rank or profession; and the world has never seen, perhaps, a more perfect democracy than the one called into being by the prophet. Truly, the most worthy of honour in the sight of God, says the Qur´an, is he who feareth Him most; for the faithful are brethren; whereupon make peace between your brethren. A similar refrain runs through the parting sermon of the prophet; “O men! God has taken away from you the arrogance and pride of ancestry of heathen days. An Arab has no excellence or superiority over a barbarian than that which is secured to him by his God-fearing and righteousness. Ye are all the progeny of Adam, and Adam himself is of the Earth.”

No caste and no priestcraft does Islam recognise. Every Muslim is his own priest and every spot of land is his mosque to pray and to worship Allah. For no other purpose than to keep alive the sense of corporate unity of the Muslims did the prophet declare the superiority of the public prayer over prayer by oneself and establish the institution of pilgrimage.

Year after year, from all parts of the Islamic world, streamed to Mekka, Muslims in thousands and tens of thousands, to worship Allah at the Ka´bah and to perform the Hajj. There, at Mekka, year after year, Muslims of divers nationalities recognised and realised the potent spell of their faith and felt more deeply and keenly than ever the tie which bound them together. Moreover, as Von Kremer points out, there did the Muslims obtain an opportunity of listening to the lectures of far-famed professors and men of letters who attracted, year by year, an ever-increasing audience. There indeed, did Islam shine forth in its full lustre; attracting and alluring, enthralling and captivating its followers, as it could do nowhere else. Every spot, associated with some historical incident; every place, connected with some important event or other of the life of the teacher, awakened the love and fired the enthusiasm of Muslims for the son of Abdullah, the maker of Arabia and the founder of Islam.

In his fascinating book, The Life and Teachings of Mohamed, Mr. Ameer Ali has admirably summed up the Islamic teachings:—“Nothing can be simpler or more in accord with the advance of the human intellect than the teachings of the Arabian prophet. The few rules for religious ceremonial which he prescribed were chiefly with the object of maintaining discipline and uniformity, so necessary in certain stages of society, but they were by no means of an inflexible character. He allowed them to be broken in cases of illness or other causes. ‘God wishes to make things easy for you, for’ says the Qur´an ‘man was created weak.’ The legal principles which he enunciated were either delivered as answers to questions put to him as the Chief Magistrate of Medina or to remove or correct patent evils. The prophet’s Islam recognized no ritual likely to distract the mind from the thought of the one God, no law to keep enchained the conscience of advancing humanity.”

Nothing was more distant from the prophet’s thought than to fetter the mind or to lay down fixed, immutable, unchanging laws for his followers. The Qur´an is a book of guidance to the faithful and not, to be sure, an obstacle in the path of their social, moral, legal and intellectual progress. The requirements of Islam are at once easy and simple and leave scope to Muslims to take part in their duties as subjects or citizens; to attend to their religious obligations without sacrificing their worldly prosperity and to adopt, whatever is good, in any community or civilisation, without any interference on the part of their religion.