The problem of reconciling the attributes of God with the dogma of His
unity was solved with no less subtlety. The mere idea that a
multiplicity of attributes was incompatible with absolute unity was
only possible in a school which had spent centuries in the desperate
attempt to reconcile the inference of a divine Trinity with the
conception of absolute divine unity.

Finally, the third question, "Was the Qoran, the word of God, created
or not?" is an obvious counterpart of the Logos problem, of the
struggle to secure recognition of the Logos as eternal and uncreated
together with God. Islam solved the question by distinguishing the
eternal and uncreated Qoran from the revealed and created. The eternal
nature of the Qoran was a dogma entirely alien to the strict
monotheism of Islam: but this fact was never realised, any more than
the fact that the acceptance of the dogma was a triumph for
Graeco-Christian dialectic. There can be no more striking proof of the
strength of Christian influence: it was able to undermine the
fundamental dogma of Islam, and the Muhammedans never realised the
fact.

In our review of these dogmatic questions, we have met with a novel
tendency, that to metaphysical speculation and dialectic. It was from
Christendom, not directly from the Greek world, that this spirit
reached Islam: the first attitude of Muhammedanism towards it was that
which Christianity adopted towards all non-religious systems of
thought. Islam took it up as a useful weapon for the struggle against
heresy. But it soon became a favourite and trusted implement and
eventually its influence upon Muhammedan philosophy became paramount.
Here we meet with a further Christian influence, which, when once