32 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
None was able to subdue the Arabs permanently and they have overthrown the suzereinty of powerful monarchs like Sesostris, Cyres, Pompey and Trojan. The causes of this apparent spirit of independence among the Arabs are to be sought in the geography of their habitat.
Crude and inartistic as was the paganism of the Arabs ritual pomp, elaborate mythology or high philosophical speculation had no place in it. “The Religion of the Arabs, as well as of the Indians consisted in the worship of the Sun, the Moon, and the fixed stars.” [1] “Each tribe, each family, each independent warrior, created and changed the rites and the object of his fantastic worship; but the nation, in every age, has bowed to the religion as well as to the language of Mecca.” [2] The conversion of pagan to a new religion is never a hard task, for, pagans are anything but fanatic and most tolerant. The pagan Arabs were living in peaceful relations with the Christain communities in the North and at Najran in the South, with the Jewish communities residing in the North-east and the Zorastrians living in close proximity to the Persian Gulf. As a result of this propinquity, the interchange of ideas had been working towards a spiritual monotheism among the Arabs long before the birth of Muhamad and is typified by the Hanifs.
Independently or otherwise of the Hanafi movement, Muhamad, an Arab camel driver, conceived the idea of improving the lot of the degraded Arabs constantly fighting among themselves and offering human sacrifices to the numerous idols in Caaba. No man ever arrogated to himself the virtue of being a Prophet with so little equipment, but he made bold and the faith which, under the name of Islam, he preached to his family and nation is compounded of an eternal truth and a necessary fiction. “ That there is only one God, and that Mahomet is the apostle of God. ” [3] The circumstances of Muhamed’s birth are seemingly favourable to his proclamation as a Prophet. It will be remembered that Arabia was populated by various tribes all enjoying equal independence. All these tribe however united to respect the tribe of Koresh which by means, fair or foul, held the custody of the temple of Caaba and the Sacerdotal
1 Gibbon’s “ Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ” , Vol. V, p. 327.
2 Ibid. Vol. V, p. 327-8.
3 Ibid, Vol. V, p. 337.