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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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