What they say about Muhammad

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT MUHAMMAD
WAMY Series on Islam No. 4
During the Crusades, all sorts of slanders were levelled against the
Prophet Muhammad. With the birth of the modern age, which is
characterized by a greater degree of religious tolerance and freedom
of thought, there has been a change in the approach of western
authors who study the Prophet's life and characters. A sampling of
their views is given below.
Unfortunately, the West still has not realized the greatest aspect of
the Prophet: he is the last of the prophets sent by God to guide
mankind to the truth. In spite of its great advances in other areas of
life, the West still has not made a sincere and objective attempt to
understand the message brought by the Prophet. Although some
people have seen him as a person worthy of high praise and have
paid him glowing tributes on the levels of personal integrity and
achievement, his claim of being the Prophet of God has almost always
been rejected, either explicitly or implicitly, as false. It is time to
treat this last claim with a spirit of true objectivity and openmindedness.
Just who was Muhammad? According to all accounts, which are
authentic and accepted by all Muslim scholars, up until the age of
forty he was known to his people as a decent man. He was not a
statesman, a preacher, or an orator. He was never seen discussing
principles or theories associated with metaphysics, ethics, law,
politics, economics, or sociology. He possessed an excellent character,
charming manners, and was highly cultured. But his characteristics
are not so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary that people
would expect something great and revolutionary from him in the
future.
One of Muhammad's customs was to retire to a nearby cave for
private sessions of thinking and meditation. This in itself was not
unusual, for other people also did this. But when he came out of his
cave after receiving the first revelation, he was completely
transformed.
Several questions need to be asked here. Is it possible for a person
known and respected for his honesty and trustworthiness to
announce suddenly that he is the Prophet of God and then begin to
call upon his people to abandon their old lives and beliefs for new
ones? Also, if he were a false prophet, why did he suffer through all
of the hardships that his people imposed upon him? And why, when
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 cease and desist, did he
refuse to do so? Why did he continue to preach Islam 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, along with his firm will, to disseminate
the Islamic revelation and his deep-rooted belief that ultimately
Islam would emerge as the sole universal religion, that he refused to
be cowed and swayed by any of the opposition and plots launched
against him by his enemies? Furthermore, if he intended to use
Islam as a rival religion against Judaism and Christianity, why did he
make belief in Jesus Christ, Moses, and all of the other prophets of
God a basic requirement of the Islamic faith?
Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his prophethood that, despite
being unlettered and having led a very normal and quiet life for
forty years, that all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder of his
wonderful eloquence and oratory when he began to preach Islam? It
was so matchless that legions of Arab poets, preachers, and orators of
the highest caliber failed to produce a composition that could
compare with or equal it. And, above all, how could he state scientific
truths that would not be known by to the rest of humanity for
centuries and that he could not learn about in any other way except
through divine revelation?
Last but not least, why did he lead an even harder life after gaining
power and authority? Just ponder the words he uttered when he was
dying: "We, the community of the Prophets, do not inherit. All that
we leave is for charity"
Consider what others have said about this extraordinary man:
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 modem 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, legislation, 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.... His 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 deathall
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 unity 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 the 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?
- Lamartine
Histoire de la Turquie, Pans 1854, Vol. 11, pp. 276-77.
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 Madina is
preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the
Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran...
The Mahometans 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 is 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.
- Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay
History of the Saracen Empire, London 1870, p 54.
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 Mohammad, for he had all the
power without its instruments and without its supports.
- Bosworth Smith
Mohammad and Mohammadanism, London 1874, p 92.
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.
- Annie Besant
The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, p 4
His readiness to undergo persecution 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.
- W Montgomery Watt
Mohammad At Mecca, Oxford, 1953, p 52.
Muhammad, the inspired man who founded Islam, was born
about AD. 570 into an Arabian tube 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 meet, 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 humanbeing."
At Muhammads 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 for ever'.
James A. Michene~
"Islam: The Misunderstood Religion,"
Reader's Digest (Amencan ea.) May 1955, pp. 68-70.
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.
Michael H. Hart
The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History,
New York: Hart Publishing Company Inc. 1978, p 33.