=Idea of Corporeal Resurrection.=—As in Christianity, some Moslems
believe in corporeal resurrection, others do not. Some believe that God
can be seen by corporeal sight, others entirely deny it. But all believe
that when the human souls are gathered up in the Great Account, the
Divine Presence will enfold the Universe.
These outlines represent in brief the Islâmic conception of man’s
relation to God. Regarding his duties towards himself and his fellow
beings it is probably more emphatic and certainly more explicit than
any other older system. It denounces self-indulgence, insists upon
self-discipline, and makes self-restraint a part of the religious law.
=The Ethical Code of Islâm.=—The ethical code of Islâm is summarised
as follows in the fourth chapter (_Sura_) of the Koran: ‘Come, I will
rehearse what your Lord hath enjoined on you: that ye assign not to Him
a partner; that ye be good to your parents; and that ye slay not your
children because of poverty; for them and for you We will provide; and
that ye come not near to pollutions, outward or inward; and that ye slay
not a soul whom God hath forbidden unless by right ... and draw not nigh
to the wealth of the orphan, save so as to better it ... and when ye
pronounce judgment then be just, though it be the affair of a kinsman.
And God’s compact fulfil ye; that is, what He hath ordained to you,
Verily this is My right way; follow it then.’... ‘Blessed are they who
believe and humbly offer their thanksgiving to their Lord ... who are
constant in their charity, and who guard their chastity, and who observe
their trust and covenants.... Verily, God bids you do justice and good
and give to kindred their due; and He forbids you to sin and do wrong and
oppress.’
=Fasting.=—Periodical fasting is prescribed as a lesson in the exercise
of the subjugation of the senses. Its practical usefulness is most
perceptible among coarser natures, for whom in reality it was intended as
a measure of discipline of the highest value. ‘O ye that have believed,
a fast is ordained to you ... that ye may practise piety, a fast of a
computed number of days. But he among you who shall be ailing, or on a
journey (shall fast) an equal number of other days; and they that are
able to keep it (and do not) shall make atonement by maintaining a poor
man.’
=Prohibition of Wine.=—Islâm characterises drink as ‘the mother of all
wickedness,’ and inebriation, a sin. The prohibition of drunkenness has
saved the lower strata of Mussulmans from the degradation and misery
which so constantly meet the eye in Western countries; and from the
crimes that are usually committed under its effect. We do not hear of
parents maddened by drink murdering their offspring; of human beings
turning into beasts under the influence of liquor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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