UCTION.

Just as the character of Jesus is stamped upon the religion which
originated in His Person, so is the character of Mohammed impressed
upon the system which he, with marvellous ingenuity, founded. The
practical influence of Islam upon individual lives produces results
that reflect unmistakably the character of its founder, and a careful
study of the tenets of the system in relation to its history enable
the student to estimate the real worth of the man.

As the Apostle of God, Mohammed is the ideal of every true Moslem. His
life is the standard by which the lives of his followers are tested,
although he himself confesses that his life was not holy. In the
Koran, and the earlier traditions, he is pictured as being in no way
better than his fellows, and as weak and liable to error as the
poorest of his contemporaries. Yet later tradition minimises his
faults and weakness, and surrounds his person with a halo of glory
that makes him appear sinless and almost divine. All the doubtful
incidents of his life are either eliminated and ignored, or
assiduously supported and defended by his pious, misguided followers.

It is a point in his favour that he never claimed infallibility for
his actions or opinions; and his habit of attempting to cover or
justify his glaring faults by suitable revelations, although
indefensibly immoral, reveals the fact that he was conscious of his
own shortcomings. When he was at the zenith of his power, "revelation"
became merely an instrument of self glorification, licensing him in
every whim and fancy, because it gave him, as the prophet of God,
exemption from all law and order. His scheme was characteristically
ingenious and immoral. Had he known of the divine effulgence with
which he was afterwards encircled by his fanatical followers, he
would, in all probability, have strongly discountenanced it. The
incongruous sanctity with which his commonplace utterances and petty
actions were invested would have caused fear lest it became derogatory
to his creed of divine unity.

TRADITION.

As a source of information, the traditions are obviously unreliable,
for they are coloured by the excessive zeal and irrational bias of
men whose judgment was warped by irrepressible fanaticism. They
attributed to their hero elements that are grotesquely impossible. His
advent was in their estimation, so portentous that it was celebrated
by events which, for the time, upset all natural law. And his