In India, there are a number of enlightened Muhammadans, ornaments to native society, useful servants of the State, men who show a laudable zeal in all social reforms, so far as is consistent with a reputation for orthodoxy. Their number is far too few, and they do not, in many cases, represent orthodox Islam, nor do I believe their counterpart would be found amongst the 'Ulama of a Muslim State. The fact is that the wave of scepticism which has passed over Europe has not left the East untouched. Hindu and Muslim alike have felt its influence, but to judge of either the one system or the other from the very liberal utterances of a few men who expound their views before English audiences is to yield oneself up to delusion on the subject. Islam in India has also felt the influence of contact with other races and creeds, though, theologically speaking, the Iman and the Din, the faith and the practice, are unchanged, and remain as I have {xii} described them in chapters four and five. If Islam in India has lost some of its original fierceness, it has also adopted many superstitious practices, such as those against which the Wahhabis protest. The great mass of the Musalman people are quite as superstitious, if not more so, than their heathen neighbours. Still the manliness, the suavity of manner, the deep learning, after an oriental fashion, of many Indian Musalmans render them a very attractive people. It is true there is a darker side--much bigotry, pride of race, scorn of other creeds, and, speaking generally, a tendency to inertness. It is thus that in Bengal, Madras and perhaps in other places, they have fallen far behind the Hindus in educational status, and in the number of appointments they hold in the Government service. Indeed, this subject is a serious one and deserves the special attention of the Indian Government. In Bengal the proportion of Musalmans to Hindus in the upper ranks of the Uncovenanted Civil Service in 1871 was 77 to 341. In the year 1880 it had declined to 53 to 451. The state of affairs in Madras is equally bad. Yet an intelligent Muslim, as a rule, makes a good official. Looking at the subject from a wider stand-point, I think the Church has hardly yet realised how great a barrier this system of Islam is to her onward march in the East. Surely special men with special training are required for such an enterprise as that of encountering Islam in its own strongholds. No better pioneers of the Christian {xiii} faith could be found in the East than men won from the Crescent to the Cross. All who are engaged in such an enterprise will perhaps find some help in this volume, and I am not without hope that it may also throw some light on the political questions of the day. {1} * * * * * THE FAITH OF ISLAM. CHAPTER I. THE FOUNDATIONS OF ISLAM.