reeds, though, theologically speaking, the Iman and the Din, the faith and
the practice, are unchanged, and remain as I have {xii} described them in
chapters four and five. If Islam in India has lost some of its original
fierceness, it has also adopted many superstitious practices, such as those
against which the Wahhabis protest. The great mass of the Musalman people
are quite as superstitious, if not more so, than their heathen neighbours.
Still the manliness, the suavity of manner, the deep learning, after an
oriental fashion, of many Indian Musalmans render them a very attractive
people. It is true there is a darker side--much bigotry, pride of race,
scorn of other creeds, and, speaking generally, a tendency to inertness. It
is thus that in Bengal, Madras and perhaps in other places, they have
fallen far behind the Hindus in educational status, and in the number of
appointments they hold in the Government service. Indeed, this subject is a
serious one and deserves the special attention of the Indian Government. In
Bengal the proportion of Musalmans to Hindus in the upper ranks of the
Uncovenanted Civil Service in 1871 was 77 to 341. In the year 1880 it had
declined to 53 to 451. The state of affairs in Madras is equally bad. Yet
an intelligent Muslim, as a rule, makes a good official.

Looking at the subject from a wider stand-point, I think the Church has
hardly yet realised how great a barrier this system of Islam is to her
onward march in the East. Surely special men with special training are
required for such an enterprise as that of encountering Islam in its own
strongholds. No better pioneers of the Christian {xiii} faith could be
found in the East than men won from the Crescent to the Cross.

All who are engaged in such an enterprise will perhaps find some help in
this volume, and I am not without hope that it may also throw some light on
the political questions of the day.

{1}

* * * * *

THE FAITH OF ISLAM.

CHAPTER I.

THE FOUNDATIONS OF ISLAM.

The creed of Islam, "La-ilaha-il-lal-lahu wa Muhammad-ur-Rasul-Ullah,"
(There is no deity but God, and Muhammad is the Apostle of God) is very
short, but the system itself is a very dogmatic one. Such statements as:
"The Quran is an all-embracing and sufficient code, regulating everything,"
"The Quran contains the _entire_ code of Islam--that is, it is not a book
of religious precepts merely, but it governs all that a Musli