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This feature of weakness was, however, soon discovered by the leaders of the new faith, and steps were taken to establish the creed on a sound philosophical basis. Mr. Khaja Khan's interesting work, The Philosophy of Islam' (pp. 61 and 62), throws considerable light on the nature of these steps:
“The presence of the Prophet and His companions had sufficient mesmerizing and spiritualizing power to purify the hearts of those who were brought under the influence of their magnetic personalities. After their days, people devised various ways and processes of keeping the torch burning. In the meanwhile, Islam came in contact with various phases of philosophical thought in its expansion on its Eastern and Western borders.
" During the time of Mamun-ul-Rashid* several Grecian and Sanskrit works were translated into Arabic. While the discursive, ethical philosophy of the Greeks was absorbed on one side, the austerities of the Eastern nations leavened Muslim thought on the other. The Nicomachian Ethics of Aristotle with the commentary of Porphyry was translated intc Arabic by Ishaq, and the other two works of the same philosopher, Endemian Ethics and Magna Moralia, were translated by Abu Umar of Damascus. With the aid of these translations, the moralists of Islam began to write original works and to adapt the Islamic preaching to the ethical speculations of the Greeks and vice versa."
Knowledge thus acquired proved to be the foundation of the school of Muslim thought which has come to be known as Sufeism,
That there is no difference between the teachings of Islam and Hinduism on the essentials of religion, may also be shown by the following quotations from Muslim books :
(1) "The veriest truth of truths of Arabic is the speech of the poet Lubaid who said, Know, everything besides God is non-existent."
* 813-833 A. D.
† The Philosophy of Islam,' p. 87.
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