166 ‘THE REY. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., ON ISLAM: 
term with reference to GOD seems to the Muslim to be most 
terrible blasphemy: Muhammadan theologians tell us that 
the gulf between Gop and Man is so immeasurable that no 
inferences with regard to Gop’s dealings can possibly be 
drawn by considering what our intuitions with reference to 
justice or holiness may require.* A modern writer well says, 
«“ Theref is no creed the inner life of which has been so com- 
pletely crushed under an inexorable weight of ritual. For 
that deep, impassable gulf which divides man from God 
empties all religious acts of spiritual Jife and meaning, and 
reduces them to rites and ceremonies.” Hauri writes, ‘‘ How- 
evert much he” (Muhammad) “discourses about GoD’s 
Righteousness, His Wrath against sin, His Grace and Mercy, 
yet Allah is not holy love, not the negation of all self-seekng 
and sensuality. Neither in Holiness nor in Love is He just. 
Towards the ungodly, Love does not attain to its right. 
Allah is quick and ready enough to punish them, to lead 
them astray and to harden their hearts; His Wrath is not 
free from passion. Towards Believers, that Holiness which 
can love nothing impure is defective. Allah can permit His 
Prophet to do things that would otherwise be objectionable: 
to the rest of the Believers also He van permit what is not of 
itself good. . . Thecommandments which Allah gives are 
not the expression of His Nature; they are arbitrary and can 
therefore be retracted and replaced by others. Thus the Gop 
of Muhammad leaves upon us the impression of an arbitrary 
Oriental despot, who makes His enemies experience His 
wrath in a terrible manner, and loads His faithful servants 
with benefits, besides winking at their misdeeds.” The one 
attribute of Gop which to the Muslim mind towers above and 
almost overshadows all others is His almighty Power. Islam 
may with reason be called the Deification of Power. This 
Power may be exercised in the most arbitrary manner, and 
is unrestrained by any law of Holiness or Justice existent m 
the very being of Gop. Hence it is that Muhammadans 
entirely fail to see the moral obliquity of many of their 
* Al Ghazzall, e.g., says: “ Nor is His justice to be compared with the 
justice of men, because a man may be suspected of acting unjustly by 
invading the possession of another ; but no injustice can be conceived of 
Gop, who can find nothing belonging to any other besides Himself.” 
(Quoted by Ockley, ‘“‘ Hist. of the Saracens.”) 
+ Osburn, “ Islam under the Khalifs of Baghdad,” p. 4. 
t “Der Islam,” p. 45. 
