He saw himself the leader of a
world-wide conquest--the promoter of a prodigious scheme of universal
reform. He was not merely the messenger of the Arab people, but the
mouthpiece of God to the whole wide world. And by the Divine Power that
possessed him would receive the humble homage of proud and mighty nations,
whose haughty monarchs would bow in lowly submission to his imperious
will! Prophetic insight, regal authority, judicial administration were his
by divine right, to be enforced, if needs be, at the point of the Islamic
sword.
As his position improved, so his ideals deteriorated. His early piety
was modified by the lust of worldly power. In place of patient pacific
methods of propagation, he adopted a cruel, ruthless, warlike policy,
and it was not long--perhaps owing to the extreme poverty which
afflicted the new community--before the would-be prophet became the
leader of a robber host. Yet even in spite of the glamour that
surrounded him, and the questionable behaviour that characterised this
period of his life, we catch occasional glimpses of that which reveals
the working of nobler instincts in his mind. Had his environment been
other than it was, Mohammed had been indeed a hero in the world's
history. Ignorance of truth led him to place himself under the
mysterious power of hallucination. The lonely brooding of the cave had
produced that which had urged him into a position of bondage.
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