172 A CHINESE LIFE OF MOHAMMED 



In proof of the divine commission being given about this 

 time, we are told many stories of Jews, Christians, and 

 priests of other religions who bore witness to the fact. I will 

 only quote one, about a high-priest at a temple near Mecca, 

 who was moved to call out in a loud voice that the great- 

 grandson of Hashim was the most eminent in heaven and 

 earth, the foremost of men and angels, and the leader of all 

 the prophets; he would destroy the false and establish the 

 true, and bring eternal peace. Most of the people who heard 

 did not know what he had been speaking about, but there was 

 a man named Abu Hulailieh sitting there who thought the 

 matter over carefully, and when three days later he heard 

 that the Prophet had received his commission and the. sayings 

 of the priest were true, he straightway followed the Prophet. 

 Some people asked him why he had changed his religion and' 

 he replied: "Ab first I belonged to the Jewish religion in 

 which they perform the ceremonials but do not know the 

 principles ; next I belonged to the Eoman Catholic religion 

 where they talk about the principles, but again I failed to 

 reach the principles themselves: for example, they say that 

 the Lord of Heaven is without form or likeness, yet they also 

 say that he descended to the earth ; when he descended to the 

 earth he had form. They teach people not to worship idols, 

 yet they themselves worship images. I then followed the 

 religion of the idols — which I found to* be a religion of devils, 

 and so discarded it. Hearing the fame of this priest I came 

 desiring to learn from him, and when I heard these words of 

 his. I rejected all the rest and followed the Prophet. It is 

 only the religion of the Prophet which is genuine in the 

 utmost degree, and about which there can be no> doubt. 

 I rejoice that I have escaped the pitfalls, and have entered 

 the boundary of Heaven. " 



Mohammed used to< reverently meditate upon the Way, 

 and daily went to Mount Hira and would there wander 

 thinking over deep things until gradually he began to under- 

 stand the beginnings of the transforming power of the Way. 

 Early in his forty-first year he was asleep one night when 

 suddenly he became conscious that a spirit spoke to him 

 saying : "Mohammed ! thy Way is pure ! thy virtue is chaste I 

 the purity, loyalty and love of the past generations reach 

 their full brilliance in thee; the Only True God now com- 

 mands thee to enter upon the Prophet's office in the interests, 

 of all under heaven. There is no deity but the True God and 

 thou art His appointed Messenger. Cause everyone to know 

 that they should worship the Only True God; destroy all 

 heresies and false sayings; receive the command and be not 

 remiss in attending to it. ' ' 



