Thus we have traversed practically the whole circle of religious life
and have everywhere found Islam following in the path of Christian
thought. One department remains to be examined, which might be
expected to offer but scanty opportunity for borrowings of this kind;
this is dogma. Here, if anywhere, the contrast between the two
religions should be obvious. The initial divergencies were so
pronounced, that any adoption of Christian ideas would seem
impossible. Yet in those centuries, Christianity was chiefly agitated
by dogmatic questions, which occupied men's minds as greatly as social
problems at the present day. Here we can observe most distinctly, how
the problems at least were taken over by Islam.

Muhammedan dogmatic theology is concerned only with three main
questions, the problem of free-will, the being and attributes of God,
and the eternal uncreated nature of God's word. The mere mention of
these problems will recall the great dogmatic struggles of early
Christianity. At no time have the problems of free-will and the nature
of God, been subjects of fiercer dispute than during the
Christological and subsequent discussions. Upholders of freedom or of
determinism could alike find much to support their theories in the
Qoran: Muhammed was no dogmatist and for him the ideas of man's
responsibility and of God's almighty and universal power were not
mutually exclusive. The statement of the problem was adopted from
Christianity as also was the dialectical subtlety by which a solution
was reached, and which, while admitting the almighty power of God,
left man responsible for his deeds by regarding him as free to accept
or refuse the admonitions of God. Thus the thinkers and their demands
for justice and righteous dealing were reconciled to the blind
fatalism of the masses, which again was not a native Muhammedan
product, but is the outcome of the religious spirit of the East.