Annie H Small

Islam Annie H Small

The reply of the little child is the reply of Islam to all problems. It is the secret of the awful fatalism which paralyzes men's emotions and will. Two countenances remain, after many years, vividly impressed upon my memory; that of a man, guilty of crime and under severe sentence, whom no appeal could move from his perfect serenity. He was not a hardened criminal; he was simply convinced that God was the Doer of the deed and he himself only the instrument for the carrying out of His will. The other was a father, carrying in his arms a dearly-loved little child to the grave. He moved rapidly down the crowded street at the head of the procession of mourners, unconscious either of curiosity or of sympathy around him. The set grim expression might have suggested the idea of Spartan endurance, save for the deep eyes which gazed into the far distance, and told unmistakably of the submission of a strong will to a Stronger, the will of his God. This awful God has taken hold of the imagination of all Islam. He was very real to the Prophet, and the Prophet has communicated his faith to those who have followed him. Mussulmans may be, in our sense, bad men, but they are rarely irreligious men. There are no atheists in Islam. A man who, under the influence of English secular education, lightly declared that he had grown beyond so childish a superstition, which however he declared to be "good for women and children," changed countenance while we discussed the religious education of his wife. He could not rid himself easily of the convictions of his childhood, as the grave face and reverent voice bore witness. But, the Will of God is far more present in the thought of the Muslim than is God Himself. God touches his life through His Will only. God is apart; seeing, knowing and judging indeed, but apart in His absolute sovereignty, in the inexorable way in which He carries out His Purpose. We have, therefore, as a corollary to the teaching regarding the Will, the teaching of the pitiful helplessness of man in His Hand. God may crush me; He can do it; I can say nothing. In conversation with a woman on one occasion reference was made to the Christian doctrine of the assurance of the child relation with God. She exclaimed, "Surely that is blasphemy; it is almost like saying what the Will of God for you is. If saved, God is merciful; if cast into Jahannam (hell), God is just."