Algeria from withinBodley, R. V. C. (Ronald Victor Courtenay)
History
Algeria from within
Bodley, R. V. C. (Ronald Victor Courtenay)
Algeria -- Description and travel
The Arabs say, “When God created the world he took a handful
of dust in either hand, cast it to right and to the left. The
dust to the right was destined to be people who would always be
happy and inherit paradise; the dust to the left only contained
woes and eternal damnation.” “God created you, you and all
your actions,” Koran Sourate, XXXVII. That is to say that all,
good and bad, are decided and determined by the Almighty. Sins are
predestined and are divided into two categories, the greater and the
lesser. The greater comprise theft, adultery, usury, wine-drinking,
false witness. The smaller are the weaknesses of human nature, but,
whatever they may be, man is destined to commit them, and nothing
can prevent him from so doing.
That is why Arabs take life so calmly, never hurry, or get into
unnecessary tempers when things go wrong. They firmly believe that
what is written is written, and that no power but God can alter it.
Taking them as a whole, it makes them seem very happy, and it would
appear to be the only solution to the worries of modern life.
From this point of view are developed many other beliefs, and it is
the basis of the strength of the Moslem faith. Mohammed, though a
great religious genius and a reformer, was not a theologist, and
it is even curious to note the lack of dogma in the Koran. His
great merit was the way in which he created a great and living
organization. His successors developed the theological side of the
matter, but, if one examines the Koran itself, one is struck by the
absence of mysticism. It is, in itself, more a book of laws, such as
the Old Testament. The whole of the theology is really compressed
into two passages occurring in Sourates II. and IV., which, summed
up, convey that the true Mohammedan who wishes to be saved must
believe in God; the prophets or envoys of God, with Mohammed as the
greatest; the angels, the inspired books—that is to say the Bible,
with the Koran as the most important; and the Day of Judgment.
They further believe in heaven and hell, which are depicted very
roughly as places of happiness and torment. Above hell is a bridge
as narrow as a hair and as sharp as a knife-blade, across which the
souls of the dead departed must pass to enter heaven. The sinners
slip and fall into hell, while the righteous cross safely with
the aid of the sheep into heaven. Mankind is divided into three
categories—those who deny Mohammedanism are destined to eternal
fire; those who believe in one God, but who, being sinners, pass
through a state of purgatory before going into Paradise; those few
strict Mohammedans who go direct to heaven.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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