ITS ORIGIN, ITS STRENGTH, AND ITS WEAKNESS. 151 
produced by Him out of nothing, but yet denied the Resur- 
rection and the return to Gop. Others believed in a Creator, 
a creation, and some kind of a return to Gop for judgment, 
but denied Gop’s Prophets and worshipped false gods, con- 
cerning whom they believed that in the next world they 
would become mediators between themselves and Gop. 
Regarding the latter class of Arabs, Sayyid Ahmad admits 
that their doctrines, “plus the doctrine of revelations, were 
very nearly identical with the main principles of Isl4m.”* Ibn 
{shaq and Ibn Hisham inform us that idolatry had been 
introduced into Mecca only about fifteen generations before 
Muhammad.t The Arabs were doubtless conscious that it 
Ws - we ae oS Cake s\ ah ae vl 
Miz» cae wi Rien wr? mide Fall e < eye mites 
Sy yA de> =, Lud] casi dk | erate ses s 
ely ay on ‘ eats Esk, wie San ye aches 
cdg aN) lene cer aNd ust) phat, & us WS Lg JI gehkes 
Y pK “ ae. 2 te eae cea els 
Is oe be aay! ae ony ie ofall 
Zu ies ay, ae ay eli, ee Nyall, 
2) glial, 
= shee Ahmad, “Essay on the Religiens of the Pre-Islamic Arabs,” 
pp. 5, 
+ Strate r Rasil, pp. 27, sgg. They say (on Muhammad’s authority) 
that ‘Amr bin Labi was the pest to introduce idolatry into : sae — 
Gl Weak est onare wre 1,1 ws ul 
M 
