the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Mohammedanism
1910 New Catholic Dictionary
The religion founded by Mohammed after he had effected the conquest of Arabia and united its warring tribes into one nation and one religion in 632. It is made up of beliefs and practises taken from Arabian heathenism, Judaism, Christianity, Sabian Gnostics and Zoroaster. It requires, belief in one God, in its Angels, the Koran, in its Prophets, resurrection and judgment. God however predetermines everything absolutely and yet punishes evil and rewards good deeds by fantastic penalties and rewards, Paradise being a place of sensuous delights, so great in number and variety that to enjoy them one's powers of enjoyment must be multiplied one-hundredfold. The Angels of Mohammed are mainly a product of his imagination based on later Jewish and early Christian traditions. He required prayer five times daily, fasting at all times, but especially in the month of Ramadan, almsgiving, and a pilgrimage to Mecca. He forbade idolatry, apostasy, adultery, gambling, intoxicants, and false witness against other Moslems. The Koran allows each man four wives, slave mistresses, and concubines. The first, seventh, eleventh, and twelfth months of the Mohammedan year are sacred, the seventh being devoted to fasts, and the other three to make possible the pilgrimages to Mecca which occur during the twelfth. Mohammed's successors aimed at universal empire. At one time they extended their conquests to Western Asia, Spain and North Africa. In 1453 they became possessors of Constantinople and threatened Germany, but were defeated and driven back in 1683. There are over seventy Mohammedan sects, divided on political as well as religious grounds.
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Entry for 'Mohammedanism'. 1910 New Catholic Dictionary. https://www.studylight.org/​dictionaries/​eng/​ncd/​m/mohammedanism.html. 1910.