The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) ๐
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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heard a Voice; and sometimes he saw a human figure; and sometimes he
felt a noise in his ears like the tinkling of bells, or a low, deep hum as if
bees were swarming round his head. At this period of his life every
chapter of the Koran was delivered in throes of pain. The paroxysm was
preceded by depression of spirits; his face became clouded; his
extremities turned cold; he shook like a man in an ague and called for a
covering. His face assumed an expression horrible to see; the vein
between his eyebrows became distended; his eyes were fixed; his head
moved to and fro, as if he was conversing; and then he gave forth the
oracle or sudra. Sometimes he would fall like a man intoxicated to the
ground, but the ordinary conclusion of the fit was a profuse perspiration,
by which he appeared to be relieved. His sufferings were at times
unusually severeโhe used often to speak of the three terrific sudras
which had given him grey hairs.
His friends were alarmed at his state of mind. Some ascribed it to the
eccentricities of poetical genius; others declared that he was possessed of
an evil spirit; others said he was insane. When he began to preach against
the idols of the Caaba, the practice of female infanticide, and other evil
customs of the town; when he declared that there was no divine being but
God, and that he was the messenger of God; when he related the ancient
legends of the prophets which he said had been told him by the angel
Gabriel, there was a general outburst of merriment and scorn. They said
he had picked it all up from a Christian who kept a jewellerยดs shop in the
town. They requested him to perform miracles; the poets composed
comic ballads which the people sang when he began to preach; the
women pointed at him with the finger; it became an amusement of the
children to pelt Mohammed. This was perhaps the hardest season of his
lifeโridicule is the most terrible of all weapons. But his wife
encouraged him to persevere, and so did the Voice, which came to him
and sang: โBy the brightness of the morn that rises, and by the darkness
of the night that descends, thy God hath not forsaken thee, Mohammed.
For know that there is a life beyond the grave, and it will be better for
thee than thy present life; and thy Lord will give thee a rich reward. Did
he not find thee an orphan, and did he not care for thee? Did he not find
thee wandering in error, and hath he not guided thee to truth? Did he not
find thee needy, and hath he not enriched thee? Wherefore oppress not
the orphan, neither repulse the beggar, but declare the goodness of the
Lord.โ
This Voice was the echo of Mohammedโs conscience and the expression
of his ideas. Owing to his peculiar constitution his thoughts became
audible as soon as they became intense. So long as his mind remained
pure, the Voice was that of a good angel; when afterwards guilty wishes
entered his heart, the voice became that of Mephistopheles.
Mohammedโs family did not accept his mission: his converts were at first
chiefly made among the slaves. But soon these converts became so
numerous among all classes that the Meccans ceased to ridicule
Mohammed and began to hate him. Nor did he attempt to ingratiate
himself in their affections. โHe called the living fools, the dead denizens
of hell-fire.โ The heads of families took counsel together. They went to
Abu Talib, the patriarch of the house to which Mohammed belonged, and
offered the price of blood, and then double the price of blood, and then a
stalwart young man for Mohammedโs life, and then, being always
refused, went off declaring that there would be war. Abu Talib adjured
Mohammed not to ruin the family. The prophetโs lip quivered: he burst
into tears, but he said he must go on. Abu Talib hinted that his protection
might be withdrawn. Then Mohammed declared that if the sun came
down on his right hand and the moon on his left he would not swerve
from the work which God had given him to do. Abu Talib, finding him
inflexible, assured him that his protection should never be withdrawn. In
the meantime the patriarchs returned and said, โWhat is it that you want,
Mohammed? Do you wish for riches? We will make you rich. Do you
wish for honour? We will make you the mayor of the town.โ
Mohammed replied with a chapter of the Koran. They then assembled in
the town hall and entered into a solemn league and covenant to keep apart
from the family of Abu Talib. It was sent to Coventry. None would buy
with them nor sell with them, eat with them nor drink with them. This
lasted for three years, but when as people passed by the house they heard
the cries of the starving children from behind the walls, they relented and
sold them grain. There was one member of the family, Abu Laheb, who
withdrew from it at that juncture and became Mohammedโs most
inveterate foe.
Each family agreed also to punish its own Mohammedans. Many were
exposed to the glow of the midday sun on the scorching gravel outside
the town, and to the torments of thirst. A mulatto slave was tortured by a
great stone being placed on his chest, the while he cried out continually,
โThere is only one God! There is only one God!โ Mohammed
recommended his disciples to escape to Abyssinia, โa land of
righteousness, a land where none was wronged.โ They were kindly
received by the Negus, who refused to give them up in spite of the envoys
with presents of red leather who were sent to him from Mecca with that
request.
During the period of the sacred months Mohammed used often to visit the
encampments of the pilgrims outside the town. He announced to them
his mission; he preached on the unity of God and on the terrors of the
judgment-day. โGod has no daughters,โ said he, โfor how can he have
daughters when he has no spouse? He begetteth not, neither is he
begotten. There is none but he. O beware, ye idolators, of the time that is
to come, when the sun shall be folded up, when the stars shall fall, when
the mountains shall be made to pass away, when the childrenโs hair shall
grow white with anguish, when souls like locust swarms shall rise from
their graves, when the girl who hath been buried alive shall be asked for
what crime she was put to death, when the books shall be laid open, when
every soul shall know what it hath wrought! O the striking, the striking,
when men shall be scattered as moths in the wind! And then Allah shall
cry to Hell, Art thou filled full? And Hell shall cry to Allah, More, give
me more!โ
But there followed him everywhere a squint eyed man, fat, with flowing
locks on both sides of his head, and clothed in raiment of fine Aden stuff.
When Mohammed had finished his sermon he would say, โThis fellowโs
object is to draw you away from the gods to his fanciful ideas; wherefore
follow him not, O my brothers, neither listen to him.โ And who should
this be but his uncle, Abu Laheb! Whereupon the strangers would reply,
โYour own kinsmen ought to know you best. Why do they not believe
you if what you say is true?โ In return for these kind offices Mohammed
promised his uncle that he should go down to be burned in flaming fire,
and that his wife should go too, bearing a load of wood, with a cord of
twisted palm fibres round her neck.
And now two great sorrows fell upon Mohammed. He lost almost at the
same time his beloved wife and the noble-hearted parent of his clan. The
successor of Abu Talib continued the protection, yet Mohammed felt
insecure. His religion also made but small progress. The fact is that he
failed at Mecca as Jesus had failed at Jerusalem. He had made a few
ardent disciples who spent the day at his feet, or in reading snatches of
the Koran scrawled on date leaves, shoulder-blades of sheep, camel
bones, scraps of parchment, or tablets of smooth white stone. But he had
not so much as shaken the ruling idolatry, which was firmly based on
custom and self-interest. No doubt his disciples would in course of time
have diffused his religion throughout Arabia. Islam was formed; Islam
was alive; but Mohammed himself would never have witnessed its
triumph had it not been for a curious accident which now occurred. The
Arabs belonging to that city which was afterwards called Medina had
conquered a tribe of Jews. These had consoled themselves for the
bitterness of their defeat by declaring that a great prophet, the Messiah,
would soon appear, and would avenge them upon all their foes. The
Arabs believed them and trembled, for they stood in great dread of the
book which the Jews possessed, and which they supposed to be a magical
composition. So, when certain pilgrims from Medina heard Mohammed
announce that he was a messenger from God, they took it for granted that
he was the man, and determined to steal a march upon the Jews by
securing him for themselves. At their request he sent a missionary to
Medina; the townsmen were converted, and invited him to come and live
among them. In a dark ravine near Mecca, at the midnight hour, his
patriarch or father delivered him solemnly into their hands. Mohammed
was now no longer a citizen of Mecca; he was no longer โprotectedโ; he
had changed his nationality, and he was hunted like a deer before he
arrived safely in his new home.
Had Mohammed been killed in that celebrated flight he would have been
classed by historians among the glorious martyrs and the gentle saints.
His character before the Hegira resembled the character of Jesus. In both
of them we find the same sublime insanity, compounded of loyalty to
God, love for man, and inordinate self-conceit; both were subject to
savage fits of wrath, and having no weapons but their tongues, consigned
souls by wholesale to hell-fire. Both also humbled themselves before
God, preaching the religion of the heart, led pure, unblemished lives,
devoted themselves to a noble cause, and uttered maxims of charity and
love at strange variance with their occasional invectives. Of the life of
Jesus it is needless to speak; if he had any vices they have not been
recorded. But the conduct of Mohammed at Mecca was apparently not
less pure. He was married to an old woman; polygamy was a custom of
the land; his passions were strong, as was afterwards too plainly shown;
yet he did not take a second wife as long as his dear Khadijah was alive.
He never frequented the wine-shop or looked at the dancing girls or
talked abroad in the bazaars. He was more modest than a virgin behind
the curtain. When he met children he would stop and pat their cheeks; he
followed the bier that passed him in the street; he visited the sick; he was
kind to his inferiors; he would accept the invitation of a slave to dinner;
he was never the first to withdraw his hand when he shook hands; he was
humble, gentle, and kind; he waited always on himself, mending his own
clothes, milking his own goats; he never struck any one in his life. When
once asked to curse someone he said, โI have not been sent to curse but to
be a mercy to mankind.โ He reproached himself in the
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