We need hardly urge that the Koran is not a systematically arranged code, and that all the laws and regulations hitherto enumerated, although contained in it, either bodily or, us it were, in germs—further developed by the Surma (q.v.)—are to a great extent only mentioned in an incidental manner, thrown together and mixed up, often in the strangest manner, with the most heterogeneous dicta, dogmas, moral exhortations, civil and criminal laws, etc., and are principally to he considered as supplementary to the existing laws and regulations which they either abrogated, confirmed, or extended, accord ing to tire pressing demand of circumstances during the prophet's life. In eases for which subsequent ages found no written rules laid down by the prophet, traditional oral dicta were taken as the norm, and later still, precedents of the caliphs were binding, Hence contradictions in theory and practice have crept in, according to the different traditions and decisions of the imams or expounders of the law, besides the various interpretations put upon the book itself within the pale of the different Mohammedan sects. The secular tribunals, therefore, not =frequently differ in their decisions from the judicial tribunals; and the distinction between the written civil law of the ecclesias tical courts and the common law, aided by the executive power, is, fortunately for the cause of human culture and the spread of civilization, getting clearer and clearer every day.
That part of Islam, however, which has undergone (because not to be circumscribed and defined by doctors) the least changes in the course of time, and which most distinctly reveals the mind of its author, is also its most complete and its most shining part—we mean the ethics of the Koran. They are not found, any more than the other laws, brought together in one, or two, or three Surahs, but "like golden threads" they are woven into thehuge fabric of the religious constitution of Mohammed. Injustice, false hood, pride, revengefulness, calumny, mockery, avarice, prodigality, debauchery, mis trast, and suspicion are inveighed against as ungodly and wicked; while benevolence, liberality, modesty, forbearance, patience and endurance, frugality, sincerity, straight forwardness, decency, love of peace and truth, and above all, trusting in God and sub mitting to his will, are considered as the pillars of true piety, and the principal signs of a true believer. Nor must we omit to point out expressly that Mohammed never laid down that doctrine of absolute predestination and " fatality " which destroys all human will and freedom, since the individual's deeds cannot alter one iota in his destiny either in this world or in the next. So far from it. foolhardiness is distinctly prohibited in the Koran (ii. 196). Caution is recommended. Prayer, the highest ceremonial law of Islam, is modified in case of danger. It is legal to earn one's livelihood on Friday after and to shorten,th&rekdiuglin the Koran fct the of attending to business. All of which is enough to slibik that the Moslein is not to expect to be fed pursuant to a divine decree whether he be idle or not. On the other hand, a glance at the whole system of faith, built on hope and fear, rewards and punishments, paradise and hell, both to be man's portion according to his nets in and the incessant exhortations to virtue, and denunciations of vice, are sutheient to prove that aboriginal predestination, such as St. Augustine taught it; is not in the Koran, where only submission to the Lord's will, hope during misfortune, modesty in prosperity; and entire confidence in the divine plans, are supported by the argument, that everything is in the hands of the highest being, and that there is against his absolute decrees.
And tins is one instil/1'6e of the way in which most of Mohammed's dicta have been daveloped and explained--both by sectarians and enemies within and without Islam—in such a manner that he lias'often been made to teach the very reverse of what he really did teach; and thus niOnstrosities now found in his creed, if carefully traced back to their original sources, will, in most' eases, be seen to be the growth of later generations, or the very things he abrogated. That, again, the worst side of his character, the often wanton cruelty with which he pursued his great mission, the propagation of his faith, should by his successors have been taken as a thing to be principally imitated, is not to be wondered at, considering how brilliant the results of the policy of the bloody sword had proved. Scarcely a century had elapsed after Mohammed's death, and Islam reigned supreme over'Arabia, Syria, Persia, Egypt, the whole of the northern coast of Africa, even as far as Spain; and notwithstanding the subsequent strifes and divisions in the interior of this gigantic realm, 'and greW outwardly, until the crescent was made to gleam from the of St. Constantinople, and the war-cry "Allah it Allah I" resounded before the gates of Vienna. From that time, however, the splendor and the power of Mohammedanismbegan to wane. Although there are counted about 130 millions this day all over the globe who profess Islam, and although it is, especially at this present,juncture,.making great progress among the African races, yet the num ber of real and thorough' is infinitely small; and since it has left off conquer ing, it has lost also that energy and elasticity which promises great things. Its future fate will depend chiefly, we should say, on the progress of European conquest in the east, and the amount of western civilization which it will, for good or evil, import into those parts.
We cannot consider in this place what Islam has the cause of all humanity, or, more exactly, what was its precise share. in the development of science and art in Europe. We refer to. the special articles which treat of these subjects, and particularly .10 the biographies found in the course of this work of men eminent in every branch of human knowledge who have issued from the ranks of Islam. Broadly speaking, the Mohannnedans may be said to have been the enlightened teachers of barbarous Europe from the 9th to the 13th century. It is from the glorious days of the Abbaside rulers that the real renaissance of Greek spirit and Greek culture is to be dated. Classical lit eratere would have been irredeemably lost, had it been for the home it found in the schools of the " unbelievers" the "dark ages." Arabic philosophy, medicine, natural history, geography, history, grainmar. rhetoric, and the "golden art of poetry," schooled by the old Hellenic masters, brought forth an abundant harvest of works, many of which will live and teach as lOng'aS there will he generations to be taught.
Besides the. Koran, the Sauna, and the (Arabic, Persian, Turkish, etc.) writers on the foregoing subject, we mention as further references the works of the European scholars Maracci, Hyde, Prid'saux, Chardin, Ryer, Rebind, D'Herbelot, Sale, De Sacy, Hammer, Burckhardt; Sprenger, Burton, Muir, Garcin de Tassy, Lane; 'Weil, Geiger, litildeke. See KonAN', MottAsfsrEb, SAUTES, SRAFITTES, SIINNA, NOLIAMME