bic god was Allah, as every head
of a household has the name of "father" and every monarch that of
"king." And as every tribal god was Allah, the thought arose, no
doubt in very early times, of one god who was common to the tribes.
Language paved the way for thought; while the tribal gods were still
believed in and adored, this figure rose above them--a being who has
no special worship of his own, who does not ask for it nor need it,
but who yet fills, as none of the lesser beings does, the character
of deity. Allah was the god of all the tribes; and as his figure grew
in the mind of the country, it was inevitable that the worship of the
historical gods should still further lose its importance, till only
the women and children really cared for it. A monotheism of a grave
and earnest kind thus made its way beside the old belief in many
gods. Mahomet found that his fellow-countrymen did not really believe
in the minor gods; when they were in danger or in urgent need of any
blessing, it was to Allah that they called. The fall of the idols,
when it came about, took place very easily; they were no longer
needed. The Arabs had come to believe in a god who dwelt in heaven
and was the creator of the world, who ordained man's life with an
irreversible decree, by whom the bitter and the sweet, both the
hitting of the mark and the missing it, were alike fixed. The moral
character of Allah was not markedly in advance of that of his people.
What a man gains by robbery he calls the gift of Allah, while what is
gained by industry is called by another name. Yet Allah is also felt
by some to keep them back from robbery; he powerfully upholds the
moral standards which have been reached. He is the defender of
strangers, the avenger of treason. His moral influence is negative,
however, rather than positive. He does not inspire with ideals of
goodness; but he holds back from evil. He is not a being who is ever
likely to enter, like the God of the Jews, into intimate and
affectionate relations with men; he is too abstract and has too
little history to be capable of such unbending; his religion, when it
comes to be fully formed, will be one of puritans and fanatics rather
than of the meek and lowly. He is the one great instance of a god
without any natural basis who has come to exercise rule. He is a god
of whom reason can thoroughly approve--no absurd legends cling to
him; he is from the first great, mighty, and moral; and he rules the
world