Mohammedanism

(-izm.) The religion established by Mohammed, also called Islâm, i. e., resignation, entire submi ion to the will and precepts of God. Its fundamental principles are contained in the two articles of belief: " There is no God but God; and Mohammed is God's Apostle." The Mohammedan doctrine of God's nature and attributes coincides with the Christian, in so far as he is by both taught to be the Creator of all things in heaven and earth, who rules and preserves all things, without beginning, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and full of mercy Yet, according to the Mohammedan belief, he has no offspring: " He be get teth not, nor is he begotten." Nor is Jesus called anything but a prophet and apostle, although his birth is said to have been due to a miraculous divine operation; and as the Koran superseded the Gospel, so Mohammed, Christ. The crucifixion is said to have been executed upon another person, Christ having been taken up unto God before the decree was carried out. He will come again upon the earth, to establish everywhere the Moslem religion, and to be a sign of the coming of the day of judgment. Next to the belief in God, the principal dogma of M. are the belief in angels; in divine revelation; in the resurrection and day of judgment; in God's absolute decrees, and predestination of good and evil. There are besides some negative precepts and institutions of the Koran, in which several things are prohibited; such as usury, the drinking of wine, all games of hazard or chance, the eating of blood and swine's flesh, and of whatever dios naturally, or is strangled, or is killed by accident or by conflict with another beast. The total number of Mohammedans at the present time is estimated at about 160,000,000. In Europe they are almost confined to Turkey; and even there they form, in the European part of it, a minority of the population. They prevail in Asiatic Turkey, Persia, Afghanistan, Be loo chi stan, Arabia, and Tartary, and are largely represented in India, Asiatic Ru ia, and the Malay Archipelago, and to some extent in China. Their number in Asia is estimated at about 50,000,000. In Africa, M. is still the prevailing religion in the entire north; and its rule extends far down eastward and into the centre of the continent. [s. 609]