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_001.jpg) During the centuries of the Crusades, all sorts of slanders
were invented against the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God
be upon 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 behind 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 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.”
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