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Description: The statements of western
scholars who have studied Islam about the Prophet.
Part 1:
Introduction.
During the centuries of the
Crusades, all sorts of slanders were invented against the Prophet Muhammad,
may God praise him. With the
birth of the modern age, however, marked with religious tolerance and
freedom of thought, there has been a great change in the approach of
Western authors in their delineation of his life and character. The views of some non-Muslim
scholars regarding Prophet Muhammad, given at the end, justify this
opinion.
The West has still to go a step
forward to discover the greatest reality about Muhammad, and that is his
being the true and last Prophet of God for all of humanity. In spite of all its objectivity and
enlightenment here has been no sincere and objective attempt by the West to
understand the Prophethood of Muhammad. It is so strange that very glowing tributes are paid to
him for his integrity and achievement, but his claim of being the Prophet
of God has been rejected explicitly and implicitly. It is here that a searching of the
heart is required, and a review if the so-called objectivity is needed. The following glaring facts from
the life of Muhammad have been
furnished to facilitate an unbiased, logical and objective decision
regarding his Prophethood.
Up to the age of forty, Muhammad
was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator. He was never seen discussing the
principles of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics or
sociology. No doubt he
possessed an excellent character, charming manners and was highly
cultured. Yet there was
nothing so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary in him that would
make men expect something great and revolutionary from him in the
future. But when he came out
from the Cave of Hira with a new message, he was completely
transformed. Is it possible
for such a person of the above qualities to turn all of a sudden into ‘an
imposter’ and claim to be the Prophet of God and thus invite the rage of
his people? One might ask, for
what reason did he suffer all the hardships imposed on him? His people offered to accept him as
their king and to lay all the riches of the land at his feet if only he
would leave the preaching of his religion. But he chose to refuse their tempting offers and go on
preaching his religion single-handedly in the face of all kinds of insults,
social boycott and even physical assault by his own people. Was it not only God’s support and
his firm will to disseminate the message of God and his deep-rooted belief
that ultimately Islam would emerge as the only way of life for humanity,
that he stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and
conspiracies to eliminate him?
Furthermore, had he come with a design of rivalry with the
Christians and the Jews, why should he have made belief in Jesus and Moses
and other Prophets of God, may God praise them all, a basic requirement of
faith without which no one could be a Muslim?
Is it not an incontrovertible
proof of his Prophethood that in spite of being unlettered and having led a
very normal and quiet life for forty years, when he began preaching his
message, all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder at his wonderful eloquence
and oratory? It was so
matchless that the whole legion of Arab poets, preachers and orators of the
highest caliber failed to bring forth its equivalent. And above all, how could he then
pronounce truths of a scientific nature contained in the Quran that no
human being could possibly have developed at that time?
Last but not least, why did he
lead a hard life, even after gaining power and authority? Just ponder over the words he
uttered while dying:
“We,
the community of the Prophets, are not inherited. Whatever we leave is for charity.”
As a matter of fact, Muhammad is
the last link of the chain of Prophets sent in different lands and times
since the beginning of human life on this planet. The following are writings of some western authors regarding
Muhammad.
Lamartine, Histoire de la
Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol II, pp. 276-77:
“If
greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the
three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in
modern history with Muhammad?
The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all,
no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their
eyes. This man moved not only
armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men
in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the
altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls... the
forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one
idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his
mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all
these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him
the power to restore a dogma.
This dogma was twofold, the unit of God and the immateriality of
God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not;
the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea
with words.
“Philosopher,
orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of
rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty
terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which
human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater
than he?”
Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay,
History of the Saracen Empire, London, 1870, p. 54:
“It is
not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our
wonder, the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and
Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the
Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Quran...The
Mahometans[1] have uniformly
withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith and devotion
to a level with the senses and imagination of man. ‘I believe in One God and Mahomet
the Apostle of God’, is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity
has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honors of the prophet have
never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and his living precepts
have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason
and religion.”
Bosworth Smith, Mohammed and
Mohammadanism, London 1874, p. 92:
“He
was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope’s pretensions,
Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a
bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had
the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he
had all the power without its instruments and without its supports.”
Annie Besant, The Life and
Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, p. 4:
“It is
impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great
Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel
anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers
of the Supreme. And although
in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many,
yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new
sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.”
W. Montgomery, Mohammad at Mecca,
Oxford 1953, p. 52:
“His
readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character
of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the
greatness of his ultimate achievement – all argue his fundamental
integrity. To suppose Muhammad
an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so
poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.”
James A. Michener, ‘Islam: The
Misunderstood Religion’ in Reader’s Digest (American Edition), May 1955,
pp. 68-70:
“Muhammad,
the inspired man who founded Islam, was born about A.D. 570 into an Arabian
tribe that worshipped idols.
Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor
and needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden. At twenty he was already a
successful businessman, and soon became director of camel caravans for a wealthy
widow. When he reached
twenty-five, his employer, recognizing his merit, proposed marriage. Even though she was fifteen years
older, he married her, and as long as she lived, remained a devoted
husband.
“Like
almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as
the transmitter of God’s word, sensing his own inadequacy. But the angel commanded
‘Read’. So far as we know,
Muhammad was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those
inspired words which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth:
“There is one God.”
“In
all things Muhammad was profoundly practical. When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred,
and rumors of God’s personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have
announced, ‘An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or
birth of a human-being.’
“At
Muhammad’s own death an attempt was made to deify him, but the man who was
to become his administrative successor killed the hysteria with one of the
noblest speeches in religious history: ‘If there are any among you who
worshipped Muhammad, he is dead.
But if it is God you worshipped, He lives forever.’”
Michael H. Hart, The 100: A
Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York: Hart
Publishing Company, Inc. 1978, p. 33:
“My
choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons
may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the
only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and
secular level.”
Footnotes:
[1]
The term Mahometans and Mohammadanism is a misnomer introduced by
orientalists certain due to their lack of understanding of Islam, in
analogy to Christ and Christianity.
Next: What They Have Said about Muhammad
(part 2 of 3)
Source: www.IslamReligion.com
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