said," answered the old man, "regarding the former condition of the
Arabs is true. Their food was green lizards; they buried their infant
daughters alive; nay, some of them feasted on dead carcases, and drank
blood; while others slew their kinsfolk, and thought themselves great
and valiant, when by so doing they became possessed of more property.
They were clothed with hair garments, they knew not good from evil, and
made no distinction between that which was lawful and unlawful. Such
was our state; but God in his mercy has sent us, by a holy prophet, a
sacred volume, which teaches us the true faith."

These words, I think, show us the secret of Islam. They are a just
comment on that short and rugged chapter of the Koran which is said to
have been Mohammed's first attempt either at prophecy or writing; when,
after long fasting and meditation among the desert hills, under the
glorious eastern stars, he came down and told his good Kadijah that he
had found a great thing, and that she must help him to write it down.
And what was this which seemed to the unlettered camel-driver so
priceless a treasure? Not merely that God was one God--vast as that
discovery was--but that he was a God "who showeth to man the thing which
he knew not;" a "most merciful God;" a God, in a word, who could be
trusted; a God who would teach and strengthen; a God, as he said, who
would give him courage to set his face like a flint, and would put an
answer in his mouth when his idolatrous countrymen cavilled and sneered
at his message to them, to turn from their idols of wood and stone, and
become righteous men, as Abraham their forefather was righteous.

"A God who showeth to man the thing which he knew not." That idea gave
might to Islam, because it was a real idea, an eternal fact; the result
of a true insight into the character of God. And that idea alone,
believe me, will give conquering might either to creed, philosophy, or