Muhammad: Seal of the Prophets — Page 3
MUHAMMAD : SEAL OF THE PROPHETS 3 Jesus had come into the world. At that time, the old religions of Greece and Rome, and of the hundred and one states along the Mediterranean, had lost their vitality. In their place, Caesarism had come as a living cult. The worship of the state as personified by the reigning Caesar, such was the religion of the Roman Empire. Other religions might exist, it was true; but they had to permit this new cult by the side of them and predominant over them. But Caesa rism failed to satisfy. The Eastern religions and superstitions (Egyptian, Syrian, and Persian) appealed to many, in the Roman world and found numerous votaries. The fatal fault of many of these creeds was that in many respects they were so ignoble…. When Christianity conquered Caesarism at the commencement of the fourth century, it, in its turn, became caesarised. No longer was it the pure creed, which had been taught some three centuries before. It had become largely de - spiritualized, ritualized, material ized…. How, in a few years, all this was changed, how, by 650 AD a great part of this world became a different world from what it had been before, is one of the most remarkable chapters in human history. This wonderful change followed, if it was not mainly caused by, the life of one man, the Prophet of Mecca. Whatever the opinion one may have of this extraordinary man, whether it be that of the devout Muslim who considers him the last and greatest herald of God’s word, or of the fanatical Christian of former days, who cons idered him an emissary of the Evil One, or of