186 THE MADINA PERIOD

Jerusalem is to the Jew. It bears with it all the influence of centuries of associations. It carries the Muslim back to the cradle of his faith, the childhood of his Prophet; it reminds him of the struggle between the old faith and the new, of the overthrow of the idols, and the establishment of the One God. Most of all, it bids him remember that all his brother Muslims are worshipping toward the same sacred spot; that he is one of a great company of believers, united by one faith, filled with the same hopes, reverencing the same things, worshipping the same God. Muhammad showed his knowledge of the religious emotions in man when he preserved the sanctity of the temple of Mecca.' 1 Thus, in one way, the retention of the Hajj strengthens the orthodox system of Islam, but the more it does so, the less hope there is of reform and enlightened progress. From this point of view the adoption of the pagan Pilgrimage into the Islamic system was not only a weak concession to the sentiment of an idolatrous people, but it was also a grave error of judgement.

This brings us to the conclusion of the main historical events as they are referred to in the Qur'an, but there are many other topics which we
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his life to restore that venerated temple to its true purpose, to expel the idols from the holy place of Abraham and Ishmael. His traditionary love so clung around it that he adopted from its local worship many grotesque and superstitious ceremonies which seem strangely at variance with the generally reasonable and decorous ritual of the Moslem. In an Arab, a son of Ishmael, all this was, if not rational, at least natural. But why should Persians, Moors, Turks and Indians, aliens from the stock of Abraham, be sent to worship at a shrine the whole of whose associations belong to another nation.' History and Conquest of the Saracens, p. 52.
1 Stanley Lane-Poole, Studies in a Mosque, p. 96. 
THE WEAKNESS OF ISLAM 187

have not touched upon. Political matters, such as the formation of treaties, the conduct of the disaffected, and the treatment of allies, all now find a place in the Qur'an. Civil matters, such as laws for marriage, divorce, inheritance, evidence, wills and so on are also treated of, and the Qur'an becomes the record wherein are contained the rules and regulations of a theocratic government. 1 For the most part these occur in the Madina Suras. The second, fourth and fifth Suras, equivalent in length to about one-seventh part of the Qur'an, deal very fully with religious and civil duties and penal regulations. It is the weakness of Islam that in all these matters it claims to be a final and perfect revelation. It is not, as Judaism was, a local and temporary system, leading men on to fuller truth; for it asserts itself as the universal and final religion. Some of its laws may have been judicious, as a temporary expedient with barbarous races, but they are intolerable when 'proclaimed as the ultimate voice of conscience.'

It has been said, 'considered as delivered only to pagan Arabs, the religious, moral and civil precepts of the Qur'an are admirable. The error of their author was in delivering them to others beside pagan Arabs.' The temporary reform, being exalted to the position of a divine unchangeable
1 Stanley Lane-Poole, though he writes with admiration of Muhammad, yet on this subject says: 'Islam is unfortunately a social system as well as a religion; and herein lies the great difficulty of fairly estimating its good and its bad influence in the world. . . .
In all civilized and wealthy countries the social system of Islam exerts a ruinous influence on all classes, and, if there is to be any great future for the Muhammadan world, that system of society must be done away.' Lane, Selections from the Kur’an, pp. lxxxviii, xcix.