THE REFORM OF MOHAMMEDANISM. T HE reform of Mohammedanism may seem
to be a contradiction in terms, because the more powerful adherents of the faith—all the Sunnites—profess a rigid devotion to a tradition which admits no change. One wonders, for instance, whether the Western forms and habits which are inevitably being introduced into the Turkish Empire as part of the Constitution can possibly be accepted in the long run by those who stand by the absolute or literal authority of the Koran and the Sunna. And if the Turkish Empire does accept them, will it still be a Mohammedan nation in the sense in which we have always understood Mohammedanism ? Bradlaugh said : " Religions do not die ; they change." Mohammedanism will have changed appreciably by the time the Turkish Constitu- tion has firmly established itself. We do not by any means think such a change is utterly impossible ; it may con- ceivably come unconsciously and unwittingly, and be none the less real. It is easy to say that the theory of orthodox Mohammedanism admits of no change. But it is still easier to prove that all over the Mohammedan world there are internal movements of unrest, new liberalising aspirations, which affect not only the Shiahs of contemplative Persia, not only the Mohammedans of India, but the formalists of Turkey and Arabia and Egypt. We wrote a short time ago of the singular development of Mohammedanism at Constantinople which might be described as a Broad Church movement. At the other extreme from this modernising tendency is the fanatical violence of the Senussi in Northern Africa, whose influence is certainly not dwindling. Their ferocity against foreigners and infidels gives the French as much trouble as ever, and the lamented death of Mr. Boyd Alexander only a few weeks ago is said to have been due to them. It is unnecessary to multiply instances of the very various developments within Islam. We desire now only to examine the statements in a very interesting paper on " Persia and the Regeneration of Islam " read by Mr. Bernard Temple last week before the Society of Arts.
The attempt to regenerate Islam of which Mr. Temple spoke comes from Bahaism, which is the complete, or at all events extended, form of what most of us have long been content to call Babism. Mr. Temple compares Bahaism with the Reformation in Europe ; it is, he says, the rise of Protestantism within Islam, and about a fifth part of the population of Persia acknowledges the Bahai faith. He thinks that events are now shaping themselves in Asia which may end in " reconstructing the whole fabric of present-day internationalism, and add a chapter to the world's history as dramatic and momentous as any that has been written." Bahaism is not confined to Persia. There are said to be more than two million Bahais in the world, and success is claimed for it in converting Sunnis as well as Shiahs. Mr. Temple says :-
"In Egypt, it appears, Bahais are becoming numerous. Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli, I am told, are not being left unvisited. The Northern provinces of India provide a large potential harvest-field, where there are already many sowers, and I have met Bahais in Bombay, Karachi, Quetta, Peshawar, Rawal- pindi, Lahore, Delhi, and Lucknow,—all proselytes from Islam. Outside the Moslem world Bahai missionaries, quietly purposeful and steadfast, are carrying the teachings of the Kitab-nl-Aqdas ' (the Most Holy Book) into many unsuspected regions. Converts have been won among the Sikhs of Amritsar and the Brahmans of Benares, in which cities I have met a few of them in friendly converse ; among the Buddhists of Ceylon, Burma, and Siam; and among the Taoists of China and the Shintoists of Japan. Japan, indeed, is said to be proving particularly responsive to the call. Many Persian Jews in Tehran have become Bahais, and I have been privileged to attend some of their secret or semi-secret assemblies. These Jewish Bahais tell me that in Hamadan, in Persia, one of the oldest Jewish settlements in the world, where the reputed tombs of Esther and Mordecai are shown, at least a third of the Jewish community has openly or secretly gone over to the new movement. No Christian missionary to the Jews in any part of the world can boast a triumph equal to this. The Parsees of Bombay, who have preserved their religious and racial integrity for centuries by dint of an inpenetrable aloofness, are now, for the first time in their history, beginning to show signs of doubting themselves since Bahai influences reached them, and many Parsees have actually become Bahais, while others (I have been told by one of their number) are held back only by social restraints. A more intellectual form of Bahai proselytism has expanded into Europe, and has been fruitful in Russia, Germany, Prance, and England. I found a large community of Bahais flourishing in Baku. The number of Bahais in London is appre- ciable : smaller circles exist in Manchester, Liverpool, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. The United States of America promise to become a great Western stronghold of Bahaism."
What does Bahaism teach ? Being a Protestant move- ment, its spirit is anti-clerical. It wants to extract the spiritual purity of a faith which has been corrupted, glossed upon, and eclipsed by the priestly class. If the true metal is extracted from the ore, then there will be no obstacle to the union of Sunnis and Shiahs, and nothing less than that union is aimed at by Bahaism. To turn to more definite teaching, Baha Ullah, the successor of the Bab and the founder of Bahaism, lays it down in the " Book of Laws " that the sword must be for ever put away,—a hard saying for Islam ! The " Word" must govern the world. This idea is borrowed from the " Logos " of Christianity. The religion of the Bab, we may say, contained Christian as well as Parsee and Jewish elements ; the Bab foretold that a greater than himself should succeed him, and the Bahais believe that in Baha Ullah is to be found the most complete incarnation of the " Logos " ever blown upon earth. Mr. Temple goes on :— "He proclaims universal peace, and calls upon the nations to settle their differences by a board of arbitration. He pleads for a broad spirit of friendship and tolerance, to be shown to all the peoples of the earth : Ye are all the fruits of one tree.' as he expresses it. He enjoins his followers to seek for a universal language. He says : This is the means of union, if ye knew it and the greatest source of concord and civilisation, did ye recog- nise it.' He tells parents that they must educate their children, boy and girl alike, giving them the best instruction they can afford, and the poor must be educated by a board of councillors to be elected in each city, for he considers that until ignorance be uprooted there oan be no true progress. All must learn and practise some craft, trade, or profession, which, if practised con- scientiously and diligently, will be considered as the highest act of worship. There are no priests connected with this religion, and those who teach this Faith should not receive any pay, but support themselves by other means. The acquisition of the arts and sciences is recommended. Marriage is advised, and celibacy and asceticism are condemned. Baha Ullah wishes his religion to be one of joy and gladness. He strongly condemns gambling, the use of opium, intemperance, and other vices, and he lays down
some interesting hygienic laws. A law is given advocating kind- ness to animals, and beasts of burden are not to be ill-treated or overloaded. Both the Bab and Baha Ullah preached the emancipation of women. Under this teaching, woman assumes her rightful position as the equal of man."
It is natural that Bahaism should have a favourable field in Persia owing to the reflective temper of Persian thought. It is not without meaning that Persia rejected the externalism and materialism of Sunnite Moham- medanism. Before the Mohammedan conquest of Persia the pantheistic ideas of Buddhism had taken root in the soil, and these were much more suited to men who instinctively turn to mysticism than the theory of a God distinct in essence from the sons of men. When Persia had become Mohammedan it was quite in the order of things that the idea of the Unity of God, which orthodox Mohammedans interpret in so rigid a sense of a remote deity with no affinities to man, should translate itself, in a Pantheistic and mystical sense, into the Sufism that is so characteristic of thoughtful Persians. Mr. Temple said nothing of Sufism and its future relations to Bahaism. If his paper had been shorter, there would have been time for a more profitable discussion. Light might have been thrown on many points on which we can at present pretend to little knowledge. Sufism is widely professed, or at least entertained, in Persia, and yet it is difficult to say what the number of its adherents is because the term in itself may mean much or nothing. It may mean the extreme of mysticism, or it may be used as a convenient title to cover atheism. It is so characteristic of Persia, in any case, that one ventures to say that Bahaism would have definitely to absorb or exclude it before it could dominate Persia, as the Reformation dominated England. Another doubt which occurs to us is whether the Bab, Mirza Ali Mohamed, who died for his faith in 1850, would regard Bahaism as the true faith if be could come back to life. Mr. Temple writes as though there could be little question on that point, and yet it is to be remembered that after the death of the Bab, Subh-i-ezel, whom Mr. Temple does not mention, was regarded by all Babis as their rightful leader. They continued to accept him as such till his half-brother Baha Ullah announced that he himself was " He whom God shall manifest,"—the glorious successor so often spoken of by the Bab. Before that bold announcement, which, as it has turned out, was to carry all before it, was made, the belief of the Babis probably was that the one yet greater than the Bab would not come till generations had prepared the way. The Bab declared himself to be the Imam, the Point, or Primal Truth of his age, but he was always careful to say another age would be capable of a still better revelation. Had another age arrived within twenty years ? We cannot feel at all sure that Subh-i-ezel, who was taken to Cyprus when he died, did not represent the mind of the Bab better than Baha, whose followers are said to number millions, while the Ezelis only number hundreds. Again, the essence of Bahaism is so transparently Babism that we are doubtful whether it is justifiable to say that the Bab was only a forerunner—the John the Baptist—of Baha Ullah. The old name of Babism seems to have some right to continue in use. If the Bab had safely escaped, as he nearly did, at the time of his execution, it is probable that Babism would have spread like fire, and Bahaism would never have been heard of. Those who have read Professor E. G.
Browne's fascinating studies in Babism will remember the description of the Bab's execution,—how the bullets of the firing-party at Tabriz pierced, by an extraordinary chance, the ropes with which he was bound ; how before the smoke had cleared away he had taken refuge in a guard-house near by, where for some moments he lay hidden, and the cry that a, miracle had been performed was trembling on the lips of all.
Suppose that the Bab had been safely conveyed away in the confusion ! But it is useless to speculate now on what might have happened. Bahaism is the fact of to-day. Its spread is extraordinary, but we feel sure that Mr. Temple overrates its importance and prophesies for it far too much.
Christian Science or esoteric Buddhism might by arguing ahead make out a similarly good case for itself in America, and possibly in other countries. Nor can we think that Islam will ever be regenerated by the fusion of Sunnis and Shiahs, who, indeed, stand for something more than a, cleavage in religious organisations like that of the Anglican and Orthodox Churches,—they represent two different habits of mind.
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