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 . of themagree with the dictum of the Prophet that there is no sal-vation for heretics; while for rancor, bitterness, hatredand bloodshed the sad divisions of Christendom are faroutmatched by the history of sects in Islam. SheikhAbd ul Kader says there are no less than one hundred andfifty sects in Islam ;^ others, like the author of Ghiyas-nl-Lugliat, have been very careful to so prepare a list of allthe Moslem sects as to tally exac
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 . of themagree with the dictum of the Prophet that there is no sal-vation for heretics; while for rancor, bitterness, hatredand bloodshed the sad divisions of Christendom are faroutmatched by the history of sects in Islam. SheikhAbd ul Kader says there are no less than one hundred andfifty sects in Islam ;^ others, like the author of Ghiyas-nl-Lugliat, have been very careful to so prepare a list of allthe Moslem sects as to tally exactly with Mohammedsprophecy that they would number seventy-three! Bythis artificial classification there are six divisions, oftwelve sects each, from which one can choose a way of de-struction, and the seventy-third (that of the author) isthe path of Najiyah, or salvation. The table on page138 gives the chief Moslem sects and their relationone to another. The —This sect far outnumbers all others to-day, and was also the most influential in the history ofIslam. The Sunnis, as their name imports, are the fol- ^T. P. Hughes, Dictionary of Islam, ? < DIVISIOX, DISINTEGRATION AND REFORM 137 lowers of tradition and the foes of all innovation. Tothem the Koran was the Procrustean bed for the humanintellect. Everything was measured by it and by ortho-dox tradition. Especially on the doctrine of predestina-tion they were opposed to all compromise. When weconsider the deadening influence of their doctrine of fatal-ism, it is not surprising that they are opposed to all newphilosophy. The attainments of the Arabs in philosophyhave been greatly overrated; they were translators andtransmitters of the Greek philosophy, and whatever wasadded to Plato and Aristotle came not from the side oforthodoxy, but was entirely the work of heretics such asAverroes, Aifarabi and Avicenna.^ The philosopher of the Sunnis is Al Ghazzali, and theresult of his work was the complete triumph of
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