44 EEV. W. ST. CLAIR TISDALL, M.A., D.D._, ON THE INFLUENCE 



if it were not for thee, I should not have created the world." 

 It is a Sufi tradition that makes Muhammad say, " He that 

 hath seen me hath seen God " (an imitation of John xiv, 9). 

 This does not represent the " Orthodox " Yiew, but it is an 

 extreme instance of the influence upon Islam which rivalry of 

 Christ's claim has produced. The fact is that, just as among 

 thoughtful Jews it became felt that some link or " Mediator " 

 between the Creator and creation was necessary, so learned 

 Muslims found that they could not logically approach the 

 Unknow^n God, the One, except through a Mediator of some 

 kind. Hence it has become necessary to invest Muhammad 

 with more or less of this character in Sunni theology, while 

 'All holds even a higher one among the Shf ites. 



With reference to Muhammad, the effect has been to apply to 

 him many of the highest titles of Christ. This shows how 

 completely many Muslim theologians have become convinced 

 that reason requires the existence of someone possessed of 

 these attributes. Eefusing to admit Christ to be such, they 

 have endeavoured to clothe Muhammad with these titles of 

 Christ, though w^ithout seeing how completely contrary all this 

 is to his low personal character. It has been pointed out that 

 any learned Sunni would agree* that St. Paul's wordsf about our 

 Lord, who is the firstborn of all creation ; for in him were all 

 things created, in the heavens and upon the earth, things visible 

 and things invisible, whether thrones or dominions or princi- 

 palities or powers, all things have been created through him and 

 unto him, and in him all things consist ; and he is the head of 

 the body, the Church (of Islam), who is the beginning, the 

 Firstborn, that in all things (Muhammad) might have the 

 pre-eminence," with these few requisite changes, apply to 

 Muhammad. All such statements can be matched, for instance, 

 in the Arabic " Poem of the Mantle," where it is said, " All glory 

 and praise be to Muhammad; the glory of history, the firstborn 

 of all creatures." But all this shews w^hat an immense influence 

 Christianity has had upon the present form of the theology 

 of Orthodox Islam. Some of the Muslim unorthodox sects 

 have borrowed much more than this. 



The Druses, for example, go so far as to declare the tyrant 

 Hakim an Incarnation of God, and worship him as such. The 

 seel of the 'Ali-ilahis take their name from the fact that they 



* Zwemer, Muhammad or Christ, pp. 130, 131 ; Nicholson, Mystics of 

 Islam, pp. 82, 83. 

 t Col. i, 15-18. 



