Islam, a challenge to faith; studies on the Mohammedan religion and the needs and opportunities of the Mohammedan world from the standpoint of Christian missions . at polygamy and slavery have had a tre-mendous power in the spread and grasp of Islam. It isthe testimony of history that the slave-traders of Zanzi-bar were also the missionaries of Islam, in darkest Africa;and the last census report of Bengal states that the in-crease of the Mohammedan population there is due, notto conversions from Hinduism, but to polygamy and con-cubinage as open doors into a higher caste for submergedHindu wom
Islam, a challenge to faith; studies on the Mohammedan religion and the needs and opportunities of the Mohammedan world from the standpoint of Christian missions . at polygamy and slavery have had a tre-mendous power in the spread and grasp of Islam. It isthe testimony of history that the slave-traders of Zanzi-bar were also the missionaries of Islam, in darkest Africa;and the last census report of Bengal states that the in-crease of the Mohammedan population there is due, notto conversions from Hinduism, but to polygamy and con-cubinage as open doors into a higher caste for submergedHindu womanhood. We must also consider that theloose moral code of Islam is ever an attraction to the un-regenerate. It is impossible to give here, even in outline, the truecharacter, extent and effect of these three *religious in-stitutions of Islam. A Moslem who lives up to hisprivileges and who follows the example of the saints inhis calendar can have four wives and any number ofslave-concubines; can divorce at his pleasure; he can re-marry his divorced wives by a special though abominablearrangement; and, in addition to all this, if he belong to See Surah 33 i^^\i\^ THE ETHICS OF ISLAM 12/ the Shiah sect he can contract marriages for fun(Metaa), which are temporary. As Robert E. Speer said at the Student Volunteer con-vention at Nashville, 1906: *The very chapter in theMohammedan Bible which deals with the legal status ofwoman, and which provides that every Mohammedan mayhave four legal wives, and as many concubines or slavegirls as his right hand can hold, goes by the title in theKoran itself of The Cow.^ Altho, of course, the titleof the chapter was not given it for that reason. The degrading views held as regards the whole mar-riage relation are summed up by Ghazzali when he says:Marriage is a kind of slavery, for the wife becomes theslave (rakeek) of her husband, and it is her duty abso-lutely to obey him in everything he requires of her exceptin what is contrary to the law
Size: 949px × 2634px
Photo credit: © The Reading Room / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, bookpublishern, booksubjectislam
