No doubt it is true that God cannot be worshiped without idolatry in some form or other, although many people would think it absurd. God is what man makes Him, though His True Being is beyond the capacity of man's making, or even perceiving. Therefore the real belief in God is unintelligible; only that part of God is intelligible which man makes. Man makes it in the form of man, or in the attributes which seem to him good in man; and that is the only way of modeling God, if man ever does so. To make a statue of stone in some form and to worship it as God is the primitive stage of worship; but to picture God in a human form, in the form of some Hero, Prophet, or Savior, is an advanced kind of worship. But when man Worships God for His goodness--in other words, impressed by the sublimity of His nature--when man holds the vision of Divine "Beauty, recognizing the beauty in merit, power, or virtue; and when he sees this in its perfection, and he calls it God, Whom he worships, then it is a higher kind of worship. This stage of God-realization is a step forward from the realization of the Deity in a limited human form.

This influence was brought in the Hindu religion mostly during the time of Shankara Charya, who did not interfere with the others who were in the primitive stage and worshiped idols, but tried throughout his life, in a very intelligent and gentle way, to make the Truth known wisely in his land, which was spread slowly; yet its influence has been helpful. In the Semitic races this higher form of worship is known to have been introduced by Abraham, and it is this idea which was called Islam, which sometimes disappeared and sometimes appeared during the time of different prophets mentioned in the Bible, and became materialized more during the time of Muhammed, when a nation formed and was made the custodian of a religion, the main spirit of which was this idea; and it was called by the same name as its origin, Islam. There cannot be a greater proof of this fact than the name of the holy city, Dar-as-Salaam (which is known in the West, in a corrupt form, Jerusalem ), Gate of Salaam, or Islam, Peace. This name existed very long before the coming of Muhammed. Therefore the word Islam has its origin in this ideal, although afterwards it became the name of a nation that held this ideal.