Any agreement which the quiet work of the scholars had
secured upon any question was ratified by God and was thus irrevocably
and eternally binding. For instance, the proclamation to the faithful
of new ideas upon the exposition of the Qoran or of tradition was
absolutely forbidden; the scholars, in other words the clergy, had
convinced themselves, by the fact of their unanimity upon the point,
that the customary and traditional mode of exposition was the one
pleasing to God. Ideas of this kind naturally remind us of Roman
Catholic practice. The influence of Eastern Christianity upon Islam is
undoubtedly visible here. This influence could not in the face of
Muhammedan tradition and custom, create an organised clergy, but it
produced a clerical class to guard religious thought, and as religion
spread, to supervise thought of every kind.
Christianity again condemned marriage, though it eventually agreed to
a compromise sanctifying this tie; Islam, on the contrary, found in
the Qoran the text "Ye that are unmarried shall marry" (24, 32). In
the face of so clear a statement, the condemnation of marriage, which
in any case was contrary to the whole spirit of the Qoran, could not
be maintained. Thus the Muhammedan tradition contains numerous sayings
in support of marriage. "A childless house contains no blessing": "the
breath of a son is as the breath of Paradise"; "when a man looks upon
his wife (in love) and she upon him, God looks down in mercy upon them
both.
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