Annie H. Small

When ye Pray, say—

Father,

Hallowed be Thy Name.

Thy Kingdom come.

Give us day by day our daily bread.

And forgive us our sins: for we ourselves also forgive every one that is indebted to us.

And bring us not into temptation.

Amen.

The great Prayer of Christianity.

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1. Muhammad and Jesus.

“Jesus is no other than a servant, Whom We have favoured with the gift of prophecy; and We appointed Him for an example unto the children of Israel (if We pleased, verily We could from ourselves produce angels, to succeed you in the earth), and He shall be a sign of the approach of the last hour; wherefore doubt not thereof.”

“O ye who have received the Scriptures, exceed not the just bounds of your religion, neither say of God other than the truth. Verily Jesus Christ the Son of Mary is the Apostle of God, and His Word Which He conveyed to Mary, and a Spirit proceeding from Him. Believe, therefore, in God and His apostles, and say not, There are three Gods. Forbear this. It will be better for you.”

“The Christians say, Christ is the son of God. This is their saying in their mouths; they imitate the saying of those who were unbelievers in former times. May God resist them. How are they infatuated, they take their priests and their monks for their lords, besides God and Christ the son of Mary; although they are commanded to worship one God only: there is no God but He. Far be that from Him which they associate with Him. They seek to extinguish the light of God with their mouths; but God willeth no other than to perfect His light, although the infidels be averse thereto.”

There are in the Quran many references to our Lord Jesus Christ, but there is practically no historic knowledge. It must be remembered that in Muhammad’s time there was no Arabic version of the Bible; he was therefore dependent for information upon the Jews and Christians with whom he came into contact. That he formed conclusions upon very insufficient knowledge is the terrible blunder of his life, of which full use has been made by Christian writers. Enough has not been made of the responsibility of the church which had no better tales to tell, no truer account to give, of their Lord and their Faith. The Christianity presented to this Seeker after God was painfully inadequate to his need.

The little Muhammad discovered led to his acknowledgment of the Jewish and Christian books, which he had never read, with reservations. It led also to a far more important admission. The Jesus of the Quran is denied Divinity, but the character of Jesus did not fail of effect. All criticism is directed towards the professors of the Christian Faith, and their doctrines. This “son of Mary” is, in Muhammad’s view, that which he never dreamt of claiming for himself, a man unstained by sin. Not only so, but titles and honours are yielded to Him little short of Divine:—He is Masih, the Messiah; Qaul-ul-Haqq, the Word of Truth; Kalima, the word; He is “the Apostle of God to confirm the law, and to announce an Apostle who should come after Him, whose name should be Ahmad;” He had near access to God, and was “illustrious in this world and the next.”

Yet Muhammad supersedes Jesus Christ!

The Death of Jesus There is another part of the problem of the rejection of our Lord; the attitude of the Quran towards the Death of Jesus. The death upon the Cross is indignantly denied.

“They have not believed on Jesus, and have spoken against Mary a grievous calumny; and have said, Verily we have slain Christ Jesus the Son of Mary, the Apostle of God; yet they slew Him not, neither crucified Him, but He was represented by one in His likeness; ... They did not really kill Him; but God took Him up unto Himself; and God is mighty and wise ... on the day of resurrection He shall be witness against them.”

It is said that Muhammad so hated the sign of the Cross, that if any article, however valuable, came into his possession bearing the mark, it was destroyed at once. The horror of the thought that Jesus should have died the abhorred death, or that God Himself should have permitted it, seems to be the argument against its having occurred. In the Quran that which is symbolized by the Cross—the approach of God to sinful man in mercy and love—is entirely lacking. There is no hint that the Christian Message of Atonement through the Gift of the Saviour’s life to God in man’s name had ever reached the Prophet. There is therefore no assurance, save the Prophet’s word for it, that God upon His far Throne, hears, or hearing answers and forgives the sin of His creatures; there is no assurance of salvation in Islam.

It is a tragic story; the responsibility for which it has been the habit of Christian writers to cast largely upon Muhammad. The apportionment of guilt is not so lightly determined.

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2. The Father-God.

“To me, I confess, it seems a very considerable thing, just to believe in God; difficult indeed to avoid honestly, and not easy to accomplish worthily; a thing not lightly to profess, but rather humbly to be sought; not to be found at the end of any syllogism, but in the inmost fountains of purity and affection; not the sudden gift of the intellect, but to be earned by a loving and brave life.”

“I believe in God the Father Almighty.”

These simple, solemn, tender words contain the Christian Thought of God. In the one word “Almighty” is summed up Muhammad’s idea of supreme Will and Power; the Christian prefixes a Name to the attribute which so governs the sphere of the exercise of that will and power that it is difficult to conceive that the two teachings represent the same Being.

Fatherhood In the view of Him to Whom we owe the Father Idea, the All of God and the All of His universe are summed up in the Fatherhood; that is, Jesus did not think of the al-might of God as exerted from without, the oneness of Creator and Created is in His view indissoluble. The birds could not maintain their little life, nor the lilies their delicate tints, without the Father; and words fail Him to tell of the closeness of the Fatherly interest in each member of His nearer offspring. “The very hairs of your head are numbered.”

The Parable of Jesus And when words have failed, He takes up His parable; “My Father worketh, and I work.” The lifework of Jesus is, He tells us, the Father’s work made visible.

Gentle, healing Hands were laid upon the suffering; sufficient food was provided for the hungry; Feet, never weary, travelled hither and thither on errands of pity; Arms were open to gather in the little children; Eyes spoke of love and understanding where words missed their object; happy human fellowship was offered: and all was a parable of the work of the Father-God.

The Father-Gift It was not a new thought to His hearers that the profoundest attribute of God is holiness, and that distinctions between right and wrong become acute in His presence; but it was a revelation to which the world of men has not yet become accustomed that the Father is so set upon goodness in the children who had miserably failed of it, that no sacrifice was too great, even for Him, to secure it; and that this austerity towards evil and purpose to subdue it, was the Father love in its highest exercise. In the Cross, symbol at once of man’s sin and of His own grace, our Lord is still speaking the parable of the Father’s “work.” “The Father worketh, and I work.” “God so loved the world that He gave”—Jesus.

Muhammad felt after God, and attained the idea of His apartness, aloneness, immensity.

Jesus knew God, and revealed to us that man had never been, and never could be, outside of God; and that the only true home of man’s spirit is in His presence, under His gracious rule; for man and God are actually akin, first by nature, doubly so through His Revealer and our Brother, Jesus Christ. Therefore, we “believe in God the Father Almighty, AND in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord.”

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“Christianity is the bearing in upon us of a character until we find the character irresistible.”

The study of the Muslim ideal of life throws into prominence several too-rarely considered peculiarities of Christ’s ideal life.

At-one-ment of Life 1. There is, in Christ’s view, no division between the secular and the religious life. The beginning of His revelation of the Father’s work was His meeting of a difficulty at a village wedding feast, which thereupon became a sacrament; and from that time onward we find no trace of any distinction in His own Life or in His teaching. To Him all life was sacred; and consisted in loyalty to the Father, and service of the brethren, one undivided duty. “Inasmuch,” He taught, “as ye did your unconscious daily brotherly task, you did it to Me;” and “I and the Father are One.”

Freedom 2. The Christian view of life is one of perfect freedom. We are not slaves, but sons, and free. Free, that is, as children are; free of the Father’s presence, gifts, love; free within the Family traditions; free, in sympathy with the Father to choose always the better and the best; without any suggestion of limit to the possibilities of the child nature. “Perfect as the Father is perfect” is Christ’s own amazing word.

Progress 3. Freedom, and therefore progress, for each son in his own life, for each generation of sons according to the situation and the call. Not uniformity within the Brotherhood, but individuality within the limits of the Family likeness, under the safe direction of the Spirit of the Father present with each one. The spaciousness of the Life-plan for every son of the Father cannot be exaggerated; there is no rigidity in Christianity.

Brotherhood 4. There is another Christian idea suggested by a study of Islam, which emerges from the last, the idea of the Brotherhood of the Father’s children. This is of the very essence of Christianity as it is of Islam; but has never been carried into effect in the same magnificent way. There are various illustrations of this. The absence of all caste distinction in Muslim society, the kindly relations which exist between master and servant, rich and poor, Mussulmans of various races. Christianity has much to learn in these directions. The Missionary ImpulseAgain, the desire to bring men within the Brotherhood is a passion with every true Muslim. “Every Mussulman is more or less of a missionary—that is, he intensely desires to secure converts from non-mussulman peoples.... All the emotions which impel a Christian to proselytize are in a Mussulman, strengthened by all the motives which impel a political leader, and all the motives which sway a recruiting sergeant, until proselytism has become a passion, which whenever success seems practicable and especially success on a large scale, develops in the quietest Mussulman a fury of ardour which induces him to break down every obstacle, his own strongest prejudices included, rather than stand for an instant in a neophyte’s way.”[1] Until the same imperialism—the word is hackneyed, but best conveys the idea—has seized the Christian imagination and conscience, the children of the Father will not have proved worthy of their name; for He loved and longed after the world of men, and His children should one and all do likewise.

The lack of the Imperialist vision set before the Faithful by Christ has been the weakness of Christendom during long periods of her history. There have indeed been imperialisms—as in the great hierarchical systems—but they have been of the order of World-power visions which Christ definitely rejected, and they were foredoomed to failure, so far as He was concerned.

The Kingdom Vision The Vision of Christ has nothing material in it, it relates itself at no point with the World. He compares it continually to the little seed fallen into the ground, dying to live, growing silently from within of the power of its own mysterious hidden life; observation hardly discloses its growth; but as surely as comes the harvest of the farmer, with its thirty—sixty—hundred-fold result, so surely shall come the Kingdom of the Father.

The Church The Church, as the visible responsible organ of the mystic Brotherhood, to which it fell to carry out the Purpose of the Kingdom, and to present the idea of solidarity and continuity from age to age, has, as we acknowledge in thoughtful moods, pitifully failed of this mission. She is stately and impressive, but nineteen centuries have not been sufficient to win this little world for the Father.

There are many reasons for this failure. Notably, the Church is in the world, and has been greatly influenced by world methods.

“The world is still deceived by ornament,”

and the Church has tended to concentrate her energies upon such details of her task as yield most rapid and visible results; results which too often have small relation to the object in view. She has also wasted much energy upon the mere machinery of her task. There is truth in the severe words of Dr. Martineau, “Christ came to bring fire upon earth; and His disciples after eighteen centuries are still discussing the best patent match to get it kindled.” “On furlough,” remarked a missionary, “one is overwhelmed by the complexity, and the labour, and the roar of Church machinery. I suppose it is all needful, but one dreads that the means may loom so large that the end shall be forgotten.”

Comparison with Islam The story of Islam, the Church which has grown up side by side with the Church of Christ, is laden with suggestions upon this subject of the failure of the latter to bring in the Kingdom of the Father. One or two of these only can be noted.

1. Reference has already been made to several of the most noteworthy; e.g., the reality of the Muslim Brotherhood, and the easily-kindled missionary ardour; to the same category belongs another striking fact. The Muslim is never ashamed to confess His faith. His devotion to God and his loyalty to the Prophet are not matters too sacred for conversation. They are his deepest life, wherefore should he shun reference to them? When as much can be said of the members of each Christian Church, much will be gained.

“I’m not ashamed to own my Lord,
Or to defend His cause.”

2. Islam is broken up into some two hundred sects; Christianity into as many, or more. The family feuds have, in each case, been fiercely maintained. But, at the call—“Fight for the religion of God,” Islam rallies as one man, a solid front is offered to the enemies of the Faith. Just at this point, once again, Christianity has failed. The family feud is carried into the enemy’s country, and weakens the aggressive warfare, as only those who have taken part in that warfare can tell.

3. The solidarity of societies is a rarely realized but very solemn fact. The Church of Christ cannot divide herself into portions, and fling responsibilities from division to division, from age to age. Whether consciously or not, when one member suffers all suffer, when one member sins sin has come upon all; and history teaches no lesson more plainly than that the harvest of the deeds of one generation is reaped by another. Thus, the most solemn lesson provided by the story of Islam is contained in the very existence of Islam. A disloyal Church presented a false Faith to one of the most earnest Seekers after God who has ever gone forth upon the great Quest; and the Church has spent much wrath upon the “false Prophet” who has ever since been her greatest opponent. But she has never fairly faced her sin, nor acknowledged that the Islam of to-day is to all intents the harvest of the seed of false doctrine she sowed thirteen centuries ago. To discuss the truth or the falsehood of Muhammad’s claim will be the task of Islam when she is brought face to face with the true Christ; it is beside the mark for the Church of Christ. To her falls the far more awful duty of wiping out as best she may, and at whatever cost, the darkest blot which has marred her long history. Can it be that her Lord cannot largely own her aggressive work done in His Name, until the wrong has been righted?