DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4646#0032
32
■whole term of Suni supremacy, there was never wanting in Persia a
secret current of opposition, and of adherence to the family of All.
Although the Persians outwardly performed Suni rites they mourned
for the Saint and Hero with whom their real religious feelings were
inseparably connected. The name of Ali was the constant watchword
of insurrection, and there was never absent, the rumour of some
Imam or Messiah, who was to deliver them from the oppressor.
There can be no doubt the Shia theology deflected somewhat from
the Shemitic spirit which inspired the first publication of Islam, and
that it was a temperate endeavour to steer a middle course between
paganism and the narrow, cruel, jealous monotheism of the Arab Sunis.
The Shiah theologians whilst reverencing, the Koran enriched the
tautologous creed of " God is God," with a more human element, and
taught the mission of Ali, whom they honoured, as the most perfect
of men, and even as something more, saying of him, "Thou art not
God, but thou art not far from God." He was to them the " Light
of God."
The Sunis denounce the constructive blasphemy of this praise of Ali
as a quasi divine incarnation, j list in the same way as the Jews con-
demn the leading tenet of the Christian faith. They even charged
the Shias with picking this portion of their theology from the Christ-
ians. Indeed it may have been the fact that the Shias derived their
ideas of Ali, of a semi-divine man, of a mediator, from the Christians,
though some say it was from the Magians. Then the feminine ele-
ment was not wanting in the Shia system ; that element which has
been so powerful in softening and refining western Christendom, which
has inspired so much divine poetry and art, which was the leading
idea of chivalry, and which has had so much to do with the formation
of the modern European character. I refer, my Lord, to the honour
paid to the memory of Fatima the daughter of the Prophet and the
wife of Ali.
I shall now read some extracts from authorities, in illustration of
the difference between Shia and Suni theology. Baron Von Ham-
mer observing that the two great schools of Islam, the Sunis and the
Shiahs, hold the same fundamental faith but differ on points of prac-
tice, compares them to the Eastern and Western churches of Chris-
tianity. The chevalier de Chardin, the great French traveller in Persia,
looking to what the Shiahs have added to the Suni creed, compares
■whole term of Suni supremacy, there was never wanting in Persia a
secret current of opposition, and of adherence to the family of All.
Although the Persians outwardly performed Suni rites they mourned
for the Saint and Hero with whom their real religious feelings were
inseparably connected. The name of Ali was the constant watchword
of insurrection, and there was never absent, the rumour of some
Imam or Messiah, who was to deliver them from the oppressor.
There can be no doubt the Shia theology deflected somewhat from
the Shemitic spirit which inspired the first publication of Islam, and
that it was a temperate endeavour to steer a middle course between
paganism and the narrow, cruel, jealous monotheism of the Arab Sunis.
The Shiah theologians whilst reverencing, the Koran enriched the
tautologous creed of " God is God," with a more human element, and
taught the mission of Ali, whom they honoured, as the most perfect
of men, and even as something more, saying of him, "Thou art not
God, but thou art not far from God." He was to them the " Light
of God."
The Sunis denounce the constructive blasphemy of this praise of Ali
as a quasi divine incarnation, j list in the same way as the Jews con-
demn the leading tenet of the Christian faith. They even charged
the Shias with picking this portion of their theology from the Christ-
ians. Indeed it may have been the fact that the Shias derived their
ideas of Ali, of a semi-divine man, of a mediator, from the Christians,
though some say it was from the Magians. Then the feminine ele-
ment was not wanting in the Shia system ; that element which has
been so powerful in softening and refining western Christendom, which
has inspired so much divine poetry and art, which was the leading
idea of chivalry, and which has had so much to do with the formation
of the modern European character. I refer, my Lord, to the honour
paid to the memory of Fatima the daughter of the Prophet and the
wife of Ali.
I shall now read some extracts from authorities, in illustration of
the difference between Shia and Suni theology. Baron Von Ham-
mer observing that the two great schools of Islam, the Sunis and the
Shiahs, hold the same fundamental faith but differ on points of prac-
tice, compares them to the Eastern and Western churches of Chris-
tianity. The chevalier de Chardin, the great French traveller in Persia,
looking to what the Shiahs have added to the Suni creed, compares