A Dictionary of Islam Being a cyclopedia of the...

I say ‘relative,’ because it is clear that in such a theology no place is left for absolute good or evil, reason or extravagance, all is abridged in the autocratical will of the One great Agent: ‘sic volo, sic jubeo, stet pro ratione voluntas’; or, more significantly still, in Arabic Kema yeshao (ka-mā yashāʾu), ‘as He wills it,’ to quote the constantly recurring expression of the Coran.

“Thus immeasureably and eternally exalted above, and dissimilar from, all creatures, which lie levelled before Him on one common plane of instrumentality and inertness, God is One in the totality of omnipotent and omnipresent action, which acknowledges no rule, standard, or limit, save His own sole and absolute will. He communicates nothing to His creatures, for their seeming power and act ever remain His alone, and in return He receives nothing from them; for whatever they may be, that they are in Him, by Him, and from Him only. And, secondly, no superiority, no distinction, no pre-eminence, can be lawfully claimed by one creature over its fellow, in the utter equalisation of their unexceptional servitude and abasement; all are alike tools of the one solitary Force which employs them to crush or to benefit, to truth or to error, to honour or shame, to happiness or misery, quite independently of their individual fitness, deserts, or advantage, and simply because ‘He wills it,’ and ‘as He wills it.’

“One might at first sight think that this tremendous Autocrat, this uncontrolled and unsympathising Power, would be far above anything like passions, desires, or inclinations. Yet such is not the case, for He has with respect to His creatures one main feeling and source of action, namely, jealousy of them, lest they should perchance attribute to themselves something of what is His alone, and thus encroach on His all-engrossing kingdom. Hence He is ever more prone to punish than to reward, to inflict pain than to bestow pleasure, to ruin than to build. It is His singular satisfaction to let created beings continually feel that they are nothing else than His slaves, His tools, and contemptible tools also, that thus they may the better acknowledge His superiority, and know His power to be above their power, His cunning above their cunning, His will above their will, His pride above their pride; or rather, that there is no power, cunning, will, or pride, save His own.

“But He Himself, sterile in His inaccessible height, neither loving nor enjoying aught save His own and self-measured decree, without son, companion, or counsellor, is no less barren of Himself than for His creatures, and His own barrenness and lone egoism in Himself is the cause and rule of His indifferent and unregarding despotism around. The first note is the key of the whole tune, and the primal idea of God runs through and modifies the whole system and creed that centres in Him.

“That the notion here given of the Deity, monstrous and blasphemous as it may appear, is exactly and literally that which the Coran conveys or intends to convey, I at present take for granted. But that it indeed is so, no one who has attentively perused and thought over the Arabic text (for mere cursory reading, especially in a translation, will not suffice), can hesitate to allow. In fact, every phrase of the preceding sentences, every touch in this odious portrait, has been taken, to the best of my ability, word for word, or at least meaning for meaning, from the ‘Book,’ the truest mirror of the mind and scope of its writer.

“And that such was in reality Mahomet’s mind and idea, is fully confirmed by the witness-tongue of contemporary tradition. Of this we have many authentic samples: the Saheeh (Ṣaḥīḥ), the Commentary of Beydāwi (al-Baiẓāwī), the Mishkat ul Masabih, and fifty similar works, afford ample testimony on this point. But for the benefit of my readers in general, all of whom may not have drunk equally deep at the fountain-heads of Islamic dogma, I will subjoin a specimen, known perhaps to many Orientalists, yet too characteristic to be here omitted, a repetition of which I have endured times out of number from admiring and approving Wahhābīs in Nejed.

“ ‘Accordingly, when God’—so runs the tradition: I had better said, the blasphemy—‘resolved to create the human race, He took into His hands a mass of earth, the same whence all mankind were to be formed, and in which they after a manner pre-existed; and having then divided the clod into two equal portions, He threw the one half into hell, saying, “These to eternal fire, and I care not”; and projected the other half into heaven, adding, “and these to Paradise, I care not.” ’ (See Mishkātu ʾl-Maṣābīḥ, Bābu ʾl-Qadr.)

“Commentary would here be superfluous. But in this we have before us the adequate idea of predestination, or, to give it a truer name, pre-damnation, held and taught in the school of the Coran. Paradise and hell are at once totally independent of love or hatred on the part of the Deity, and of merits or demerits, of good or evil conduct, on the part of the creature; and, in the corresponding theory, rightly so, since the very actions which we call good or ill-deserving, right or wrong, wicked or virtuous, are in their essence all one and of one, and accordingly merit neither praise nor blame, punishment nor recompense, except and simply after the arbitrary value which the all-regulating will of the great despot may choose to assign or impute to them. In a word, He burns one individual through all eternity amid red-hot chains and seas of molten fire, and seats another in the plenary enjoyment of an everlasting brothel between forty celestial concubines, just and equally for His own good pleasure, and because He wills it.

“Men are thus all on one common level, here and hereafter, in their physical, social, and moral light—the level of slaves to one sole Master, of tools to one universal Agent. But the equalising process does not stop here: beasts, birds, fishes, insects, all participate of the same honour or debasement; all are, like man, the slaves of God, the tools and automata of His will; and hence Mahomet is simply logical and self-consistent when in the Coran he informs his followers, that birds, beasts, and the rest are ‘nations’ like themselves, nor does any intrinsic distinction exist between them and the human species, except what accidental diversity the ‘King, the Proud One, the Mighty, the Giant,’ &c., as he styles his God, may have been pleased to make, just as He willed it, and so long as He may will it.

“However, should any one think himself aggrieved by such association, he may console himself by reflecting that, on the other hand, angels, archangels, genii, devils, and whatever other spiritual beings may exist, are no less on his level also; and that if he himself be no better than a camel, he is, however, no worse than Gabriel or any seraph. And then, over all and above all, ‘There is no god but God.’ ”—(Central and Eastern Arabia, vol. i. p. 365.)

GOG AND MAGOG. Arabic Yājūj wa Mājūj, also spelt Maʾjūj wa Yaʾjūj (ياجوج و ماجوج). A barbarous people of Central Asia, perhaps the Turkomans, who are in the Qurʾān represented as doing evil in the land in the days of Ẕū ʾl-Qarnain (or Alexander). See Sūrah xviii. 93–97:—

GOLD. Arabic ẕahab (ذهب); Heb. זהב. The zakāt imposed upon gold is upon twenty mis̤qāls one-half mis̤qāl, and upon every four mis̤qāls in excess, one qīrāt̤, because the alms upon gold is one fortieth of the whole. This is due upon all gold, whether it be in coin or in ornaments. But ash-Shāfiʿī says it is not due upon the ornaments of women or the rings of men. (Hidāyah, vol. i. p. 27.)

The sale of gold is only lawful when it is exactly equal in point of weight, for Muḥammad said, “Sell gold for gold, from hand to hand, at an equal rate according to weight, for any inequality in point of weight is usury.” (Idem, vol. ii. 552.)

GOLIATH. Arabic Jālūt (جالوت). The giant whom King David slew. Mentioned in the Qurʾān, Sūrah ii. 251: “And when they went forth to battle against Jālūt and his army, they said, ‘O Lord, give us patience, and strengthen our feet, and help us against the infidels!’ Therefore they discomfited them by the will of God, and David slew Jālūt.”

Sūrah xviii. 103–5: “Shall we tell you who are they that have lost their labour most; whose efforts in the present life have been mistaken, and who deemed that what they did was right? They are those who believed not in the signs of the Lord, or that they should ever meet Him. Vain, therefore, are their works; and no weight will we allow them on the day of Resurrection.”

Faith in the above is belief in the mission of Muḥammad: all Muslims being considered in a state of grace, no matter what their actions may be. With reference to the good deeds of Muslims, the following is the teaching of Muḥammad, as recorded in the Traditions (Mishkāt, book x. chap. iii.):—

“When a man is brought to Islām and he performs it well, God covers all his former sins, and he gets ten rewards for every good act, up to seven hundred, and even more than that, whereas the reward of misdeeds is as one to one, unless God passes that over likewise.”

“Verily, God recordeth both the good deeds and the evil deeds. He who has proposed to do evil and did not do it, for him God recordeth one perfectly good deed. And he who intended to do good and put his intentions into practice, for him God recordeth from ten to seven hundred good deeds (according to their merits). And he who intended to do evil but did it not, God recordeth one good act; but he who intendeth to do evil and doeth it, for him God recordeth one evil deed.”

“Verily, the condition of that person who does evil and after that good deeds, is like the condition of a man with tight armour on, which has troubled him. He does one good deed and the rings of the armour become open. He does another good deed, and the armour falls from his body.”

“Verily there was a man amongst those who were before you to whom the angel of death came to take his soul, and he was asked ‘Have you done any good act?’ He said in answer, ‘I do not remember that I have done any good.’ It was said to him, ‘Look well into yourself, and consider if you have done any good work.’ He said, ‘I do not find any good in myself, except that I used to buy and sell in the world and used to claim my right from the rich, but allowed them their leisure to pay me when they liked, and I forgave the poor.’ Then God brought that man into paradise.”

“An adulteress was forgiven, who passed by a dog at a well, and the dog was holding out his tongue from thirst, which was near killing him. The woman drew off her boot and tied it to the end of her veil, and drew water for the dog, and gave him to drink, and she was forgiven on account of that act. It was asked the Prophet, ‘Verily, are there rewards for our doing good to quadrupeds, and giving them water to drink?’ He said, ‘There are rewards for benefiting every animal having a moist liver.’ ”

“Your smiling in your brother’s face is alms; and your exhorting mankind to virtuous deeds is alms; and your prohibiting the forbidden is alms; and your showing men the road when they lose it is alms; and your assisting the blind is alms; and your removing stones, thorns, and bones, which are inconvenient to man is alms; and your pouring water from your bucket into that of your brother is alms for you.”

GRANDFATHER. Arabic jadd (جد). If a father die without appointing an executor, the grandfather represents the father. And in making contracts of marriage, the grandfather has precedence of an executor, although the executor takes precedence in managing the property. (Hidāyah, vol. iv. p. 555.) In case of the father being poor, it is the duty of the grandfather to act for his grandchild in the distribution of alms, &c. (Idem, vol. ii. p. 244.)