LECTURE IV

THE MOULDING OF THE PROPHET

IN the previous lecture, the independence of Muhammad was insisted on. That, however, had reference to the beginnings of his mission. It was not intended to deny, what is indeed undeniable, that there was a great deal of direct influence exerted upon him by Judaism and Christianity, and that much of the Qur'an is directly dependent upon the Bible, and stories associated with the Bible. That influence was of cardinal importance, but it was in the course of his mission rather than before it began that it was exerted. He thoroughly believed that the Monotheistic religion which prevailed around Arabia was the same as that which he sought to establish. How could there be more than one form of the religion of the One God? He also thoroughly believed that this Monotheistic religion had preserved a Revelation, which perhaps he conceived of as an original revelation given to man, but lost and forgotten by idolaters. In any case he had no hesitation in adopting, as his own belief, what he discovered to be part of this revelation, or in fact anything which he found to be believed and related in connection with it, by

those who followed the religion of the One God. He made no concealment of his borrowing from that source. Why should he? Could there be more than one revelation? God might make known His decrees to different peoples in different forms, but the actual content of the Revelation must always be the same. To find out what it was and put it in Arabic form, was that not to give his people the Revelation? But he had evidently great difficulty in finding out what Revelation, or the Scripture which he soon discovered was regarded as the record of it, really contained. He took everything which came to him as connected with Scripture as being part of the Revelation, and accepted it implicitly — until he found that he had been led astray. Then he conceived a deep resentment against those whom he accused of having falsified the Scriptures.

To us, knowing the result and tracing his borrowings from Christianity and Judaism, there often appears to be a certain designed and cunning opportuneness in them. He seems to adopt what suits his own purposes at the moment, and to pass by what does not suit them; when he has attained some immediate object he drops what he had previously adopted; and finally, when he is strong enough, he breaks with the Jews and the Christians in turn. It would be easy to make out a case against him as having been absolutely unscrupulous. That would be, however, a misunderstanding of him. The reason for the apparent opportuneness of his borrowings is, I think, that knowledge only came to him as