Page 150 - Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich Full Book | Success Learned

home of the magic stone called the Caaba, great city of trade and the center of
trade routes, was unsanitary, its children were sent to be raised in the desert by
Bedouins. Mohammed was thus nurtured, drawing strength and healthfrom the
milk of nomad, vicarious mothers. He tended sheep and soon hired out to a rich
widow as leader of her caravans. He traveled to all parts of the Eastern World,
talked with many men of diverse beliefs and observed the decline of Christian-
ity into warring sects. When he was twenty-eight, Khadija, the widow, looked
upon him with favor, and married him. Her father would have objected to such
a marriage, so she got him drunk and held him up while he gave the paternal

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blessing. For the next twelve years Mohammed lived as a rich and respected and
very shrewd trader. Then he took to wandering in the desert, and one day he
returned with the first verse of the Koran and told Khadija that the archangel
Gabriel had appeared to him and said that he was to be the Messenger of God.

"The Koran, the revealed word of God, was the closest thing to a miracle in Mo-
hammed's life. He had not been a poet; he had no gift of words. Yet the verses
of the Koran, as he received them and recited them to the faithful, were better
than any verses which the professional poets of the tribes could produce. This,
to the Arabs, was a miracle. To them the gift of words was the greatest gift, the
poet was all-powerful. In addition the Koran said that all men were equal before
God, that the world should be a democratic state-Islam. It was this political her-
esy, plus Mohammed's desire to destroy all the 360 idols in the courtyard of the
Caaba, which brought about his banishment. The idols brought the desert tribes
to Mecca, and that meant trade. So the business men of Mecca, the capitalists,
of which he had been one, set upon Mohammed. Then he retreated to the desert
and demanded sovereignty over the world.

"The rise of Islam began. Out of the desert came aflame which would not be
extinguished-a democratic army fighting as a unit and prepared to die without
wincing. Mohammed had invited the Jews and Christians to join him; for he
was not building a new religion. He was calling all who believed in one God to
join in a single faith. If the Jews and Christians had accepted his invitation Is-
lam would have conquered the world. They didn't. They would not even accept
Mohammed's innovation of humane warfare. When the armies of the prophet
entered Jerusalem not a single person was killed because of his faith. When the
crusaders entered the city, centuries later, not a Moslem man, woman, or child
was spared. But the Christians did accept one Moslem idea-the place of learn-
ing, the university."