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.’”
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