They feel that there is something wrong in things as they are,
for Islam is no longer politically prosperous, and they would see it
united once more and reorganized even at the expense of some dogmatic
concessions. I know that many even of the Shafites themselves will deny
this, for no Mussulman will willingly acknowledge that he is an advocate
of change; but it is unquestionable that among members of their school
such ideas are more frequently found than with the others.
Among the Shafites, too, ideas of a moral reformation find a footing,
and they speak more openly than the rest their suspicion that the house
of Othman, with its fornications and its bestialities and contempt of
justice, has been the ruin of Islam. Arabian custom is the basis of its
ideas upon this head, for most Arabs out of Africa if anything are
Shafites; and it is the school of the virtuous poor rather than of the
licentious rich. It is more humane in its bearing towards Jews and
Christians, finding a common ground with them in the worship of the one
true God, the moral law propounded at various times to man, and the
natural distinction between right and wrong. I may exaggerate this,
perhaps, but something of it certainly exists, and it is a feeling that
is growing.
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