THE CEYLON MUHAMMADANS. 
out between the visible and invisible world, hence, also, 
ohere is not, nor ever has been, any ‘ solidiarity*^ 
tn Islam, The resistless sovereignty of an inscrutable 
God has obliterated the notion of progress, and effectually 
prevented the the idea of a national life from coming into 
existence. God is supreme. What he wills can only be 
known by what he brings to pass, and against his decree, 
as manifested in the progross of events, it is idle to strive. 
The Prophet knew of no religious life, where the 
external rite was not deemed of greater importance 
than the inner state, and, in consequence, be gave 
that character to Islam also. Hence, there are no 
moral gradations in the Koran. All precepts proceed 
from the will of God and all are enforced with the 
same threatening emphasis, a failure of performance 
in the meanest trivialities of civil life involves the 
same tremendous penalties as apostacy or idolatry. 
In the traditions this moral confusion is even more 
apparent. These traditions are a record of the answers 
and acts of the Prophet in response to the inquiries 
of his followers, and those who have not studied 
them know nothing whatever of the true spirit of 
Islam. There is a verse in the second Sura which says, 
‘God has created the whole earth for you.’ The you 
means, of course, the true believers, and the whole 
earth has been created for their use and benefit. The 
whole earth they then classify under three heads : 1st, 
land which never had an owner ; 2nd, land which had 
an owner, and has been abandoned ; 3rd, the persons 
and the property of the infidels. From this third 
division the same legists deduce the legitimacy 
of slavery, piracy, and a state of perpetual war 
between the faithful and the unbelieving world. 
These are methods whereby the Moslem enters into 
the possession of his God-given inlieritence. The 
Moslem does not persecute a Christian on account 
of his religion, because the difference of religion makes 
the latter, his slave. This single fact throws a startl- 
ing light on the causes of the decadence of the Mahom- 
medan ivorld. Since the death of the Prophet, Islam 
has not been so much a religion as a barbarous code of 
laws, which consign those who reject them to hopeless 
political servitude, and, as divine, scornfully rejects 
the possibility of improvement from within. Wherever 
the Mahommedan conqueror penetrates, he enforces 
this code, in all its unmitigated barbarism. It has been 
urged in praise of Islam that it has proved more 
potent that Christianity in eradicating national dif- 
ferences, and imposing upon all its votaries a single 
type of character. Precisely th’S has been the reason 
of its baneful power. It achieves uniformity because in- 
tellectual and moral stagnation follow in its wake. 
