MOHAMMEDANISM is the term fre quently given to the religion taught by Mohammed, but not used by the followers of that religion. Abu-Bar, the first caliph, is reported to have said that it is not Mohammed, but the God of Mohammed, that we worship. The term by which the religion is known, wherever professed, is Islam, °submission to the will of God." Those who embrace Islam are called Muslim (frequently written Moslem), a participle of the same stem from which the verbal noun Islam is derived. Still another term, used as the equivalent for Moslem, is Mumin, °believer." It, likewise, is a participle, formed from the stem that gives rise to the word Iman, °faith.° Islam is the religion professed by Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Arabia, Persia, Asia Minor, Afghanistan, Baluchistan, Turkestan and the Malay Peninsula. India has more than 57,000,000 Moslems. China has about 25,000,000. Owing to the great difficulty of securing exact figures, an accurate statement is impossible. It is generally estimated at 175,000,000.
Islam is divided by the theologians into two heads: Imin, and Din, apractice The separate articles of both heads are de termined by the Koran, the Traditions or say ings of Mohammed and the decisions of the learned officials. Under Iman are given six cardinal points of belief, as follows: belief In God and his unity; belief in angels, and good and bad spirits; belief in the Koran and revela tion; belief in the Prophet; belief in the resur rection and the judgment day; belief in God's absolute rule of the world. "There is no gad but Allah, and Mohammed is his envoy." As to Islam's conception of the deity He is above all omnipotent. No phrase occurs more frequently than this: "and He is powerful over all things.) He is omniscient; "And He knoweth all things,* is a phrase equally often met in the Koran. "With Him are the keys of the secret things; none knoweth them besides himself : He knoweth that which is on the dry land and in the sea; there falleth no leaf but He knoweth it; neither is there a single grain in the dark parts of the earth, neither a green thing nor a dry thing but it is written in the perspicuous book.* (Sura 6, 59). "He is the ever-living,
eternal God.° "God! there is no God but he; the living, the self-subsisting; neither slumber nor sleep seizeth him; to him belongeth what soever is in heaven or on earth.° (Ibid.). He is, moreover, the creator of all things. °His is the kingdom of heaven and earth; he giveth life and he putteth to death; and he is almighty. He is the first and the last; the manifest and the hidden; and he knoweth all things. It is he who created the heavens and the earth in six days, and then ascended his throne." (Sura 57, v. 2). His word alone creates, "When he de creeth a thing, he only saith unto it, 'Be, and it is.' (Sura 3, v. 4), cf. (Sura 11, v. 9). As a creator he works not as man works, "We created the heavens and the earth and what ever is between them, in six days, and no weariness affected us." (Sura 50, v. 37).
He is not only creator of all things, but ruler of all things, and protector as well. "It is he who causeth you to sleep by night, and knoweth what ye merit by day; he also awaketh you therein, that the prefixed term of your lives may the fulfilled. . . . He is supreme over his servants, and sendeth his guardian angels to watch over you, until, when death overtaketh one of you, our messengers cause him to die; and they will not neglect our com mands. . . . Say, who delivereth you from the darkness of the land, and of the sea, when ye call upon him humbly and in private, saying 'verily, if thou deliver us from these dangers, we will surely be thankful.' Say, God deliv ereth you from them and from every grief of mind.° (Sura 6, v.). His care is always as sured to those who follow his way. "Say, my Lord bath commanded me to observe justice; therefore set your face to pray at every place of worship, and call upon him, approving unto him the sincerity of your religion. . . . A part of mankind bath he directed." (Sura 7, 28). "Whoever therefore shall deny Tagut (error) and believe in God, he shall surely take hold on a strong handle, which shall not be broken; God is he who heareth and seeth. God is the patron of those who believe; he shall lead them out of darkness into light.' (Sura 2, v. 257).