" "The most precious
gain is that made by manual labour; that which a man thus earns and
gives to himself, his people, his sons and his servants, is as
meritorious as alms." Thus practical work is made incumbent upon the
believer, and the extent to which manufacture flourished in East and
West during the middle ages is well known.
A similar affinity is apparent as regards ideas upon social position
and occupation. Before God man is but a slave: even the mighty Caliphs
themselves, even those who were stigmatised by posterity as secular
monarchs, included in their official titles the designation, "slave of
God." This theory was carried out into the smallest details of life,
even into those which modern observers would consider as unconcerned
with religion. Thus at meals the Muslim was not allowed to recline at
table, an ancient custom which the upper classes had followed for
centuries: he must sit, "as a slave," according to the letter of the
law. All are alike slaves, for the reason that they are believers:
hence the humiliation of those whom chance has exalted is thought
desirable. This idealism is undoubtedly more deeply rooted in the
popular consciousness of the East than of the West. In the East great
social distinctions occur; but while religion recognises them, it
forbids insistence upon them.
As especially distinctive of social work in either religion we might
be inclined to regard the unparalleled extent of organizations for the
care of the poor, for widows and orphans, for the old, infirm and
sick, the public hospitals and almshouses and religious foundations in
the widest sense of the term; but the object of these activities was
not primarily social nor were they undertaken to make life easier for
the poor: religious selfishness was the leading motive, the desire to
purify self by good works and to secure the right to pre-eminence in
heaven.
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