Islam Rediscovered
24. A Case of Discovery*
~ 430 ~
Buddhism and Christianity, though they tolerate
marriage, yet exalt celibacy as a higher virtue. Islam
does not tolerate celibacy at all, but, on the contrary,
enjoins matrimony as a religious duty binding on
every true Muslim.
This system of universal matrimony, joined to
occasional polygamy amongst the wealthier classes,
makes it, that there is almost a total dearth in
Muslim countries of those professional out-castes
such as you invariably come across in such
shockingly large figures in the streets of London
and Paris, Vienna and St. Petersburg. Canon Isaac
Taylor, a dignitary of the Anglican Church, had the
courage to deliver himself in the following manner
before a Church Congress held at Wolverhampton
on the 7th October 1887: “Muhammad limited the
unbounded license of polygamy; it is the exception
rather than the rule in the most civilized Muslim
lands—European Turkey, Algiers and Egypt.
Polygamy,
with
all
its
evils,
has
its
counterbalancing advantages. It has abolished
female infanticide and gives every woman a legal
protector. Owing to polygamy, Muslim countries
are free from professional outcasts, a greater
