THE LIFE OF MOHAMMAD

THE PROPHET

OF ALLAH

  "The man's words were not false...
a fiery mass of Life cast-up from
the great bosom of Nature herself."
("On Heroes," by THOMAS CARLYLE,
London, 1841.)

Frontispiece

"In the name

of Allah!

the Compassionate

the Merciful"

HISTORY

OF THE

PROPHECY

"Upon His Hero

(Mohammad),

boundless veneration."

There is no God but Allah, and Mohammad is the Prophet of Allah.

THE LIFE OF

MOHAMMAD

THE PROPHET OF ALLAH

BY

E. DINET and SLIMAN BEN IBRAHIM

ILLUSTRATED BY

E. DINET

ORNAMENTAL PAGES BY MOHAMMAD RACIM

PARIS

THE PARIS BOOK CLUB, 11, RUE DE CHATEAUDUN

THIS
WORK
IS DEDICATED
BY THE AUTHOR-PAINTER
AND HIS ARAB COLLABORATOR
TO THE MEMORY OF THE VALIANT MOSLEM SOLDIERS
PARTICULARLY THOSE OF FRANCE AND ENGLAND
WHO, IN THE SACRED CAUSE OF
RIGHT, JUSTICE AND HUMANITY
HAVE PIOUSLY SACRIFICED
THEIR LIVES IN
THE GREAT WAR
OF THE
NATIONS

Index

Transcriber's Notes

PREFACE

An existence, so full of stirring events as that of the Prophet Mohammad, cannot be described by us in all its details. As there are limits to all books, we have had to rest content with a selection of the most important episodes, so that each might be developed as we deemed necessary. Thus we present to the reader a series of pictures and not a complete history.

Our scaffolding and sketches are borrowed from very ancient authors such as Ibn Hisham, Ibn Sad, etc., without forgetting a more modern writer, Ali Borhan id-Din Al-Halabi who, in his book known by the title of "Es Sirat'al Halabia," gathered together different versions from all the best-known historians. An incontestable proof of their veracity, in our opinion, is that these narratives, some dating as far back as twelve centuries, fit in perfectly with the manners, customs, hopes and language of the Moslems of the desert; those who at the present day, by their mode of living, are more akin to the Arabs of the Hijaz among whom Mohammad accomplished his Mission.

These remarks will serve to warn the reader that in this work will be found none of those learned paradoxes destined to destroy traditions, such sophisms delighting modern Orientalists by reason of their love of novelty.

The study of innovations introduced in this way into the Prophet's history has caused us to note that they were often prompted by feelings inimical to Islam which were not only out of place in scientific research, but were also unworthy of our epoch. As displayed by their authors, they generally denoted strange ignorance of Arab customs, notwithstanding that these commentaries were accompanied by considerable erudition, although too bookish. In order to refute such new-fangled assertions, it was enough to check each in turn. Being so contradictory, one killed the other. Their extreme improbabilities, from the standpoint of Oriental psychology, only served to enhance with still greater clarity the perfect likelihood of those traditions sanctioned in the world of Islam.

We have been guided by them. We have been satisfied to choose those that seemed most characteristic, setting each in its proper place, thanks to information gleaned in long interviews with pilgrims visiting the Holy Cities of the Hijaz, while reviewing these episodes in the light of our experience of Moslem life, in the Great Desert of Sahara, where one of us two had lived from birth and the other for the last thirty years and more.

In strict agreement with the Qur'an, the only indisputable book according to the Moslem Doctors of the earliest times and those imbued with the modern liberal spirit, such as the celebrated Shaikh Abdu, we have put aside all the posthumous miracles attributed to the Arab Prophet and which only serve to blur his true physiognomy.

Among all the Prophets founders of religions, Mohammad is the only one who, relying solely on the evidence shown by his Mission and the divine eloquence of the Qur'an, was able to do without the assistance of miracles, thus performing the greatest of all—the one which Ernest Renan, forgetting his example, declared to be utterly impossible. "The greatest miracle," said he, speaking of Jesus Christ, "would have been if he had wrought not any. Never would the laws of history and popular psychology have been more violently infringed."

On the other hand, we have taken care not to turn a deaf ear to tales in legendary shape. A legend, and above all, an Oriental legend, is an incomparable means of expression. It serves to paint mere facts in lasting colours and make them stand out in bold relief, far removed from the icy and so-called impartial account of an up-to-date reporter.

Our readers, enlightened by the foregoing warning, must therefore not let themselves be the victims of the numerous errors committed by Hellenism, Latinism and Scholasticism, when interpreting "literally" the sacred books of the East, while beneath seeming magic allegories scattered here and there in this narrative, will easily be discerned realities, poetically transposed, but not at all disfigured by the imagination of the Arabs.

With still more reason, the Qur'an should be read in the same way, for is it not written: "God setteth forth these similitudes to men that haply they may be admonished." (The Qur'an, xiv, 30.)