apacity. Hence in this one sentence
is summed up a system which, for want of a better name, I may be
permitted to call the 'Pantheism of Force.' 'God is One in the totality
of omnipotent and omnipresent action, which acknowledges no rule,
standard, or limit, save one sole and absolute will. He communicates
nothing to His creatures, for their seeming power and act ever remain
His alone, and in return He receives nothing from them.' 'It is His
singular satisfaction to let created beings continually feel that they
are nothing else than His slaves, that they may the better acknowledge
His superiority.' 'He Himself, sterile in His inaccessible height,
neither loving nor enjoying aught save His own and self-measured
decree, without son, companion, or councillor, is no less barren for
Himself than for His creatures, and His own barrenness and lone egoism
in Himself is the cause and rule of His indifferent and unregarding
despotism around.'[94]

Palgrave allows that such a notion of the Deity is monstrous, but maintains
that it is the "truest mirror of the mind and scope of the writer of the
Book" (Quran), and that, as such, it is confirmed by authentic Tradition
and learned commentaries. At all events, Palgrave possessed {111} the two
essential qualifications for a critic of Islam--a knowledge of the
literature, and intercourse with the people. So far as my experience goes I
have never seen any reason to differ from Palgrave's statement. Men are
often better than their creeds. Even the Prophet was not always consistent.
There are some redeeming points in Islam. But the root idea of the whole is
as described above, and from it no system can be deduced which will grow in
grace and beauty as age after age rolls by.

The Arab proverb states that "The worshipper models himself on what he
worships."[95] Thus a return to "first principles," sometimes proclaimed as
the hope of Turkey, is but the "putting back the hour-hand of Islam" to the
place where indeed Muhammad always meant it to stay, for

"Islam is in its essence stationary, and was framed thus to remain.
Sterile, like its God, lifeless like its first Principle and supreme
Original in all that constitutes true life--for life is love,
participation, and progress, and of these the Quranic Deity has
none--it justly repudiates all change, all advance, all
development."[96]

Muhammad Ibn 'Abd-ul Wahh