Universally
Respected Prophet
Views of Non Muslims
By Dr. A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq
Notwithstanding the palpable bias, many
non Muslim scholars, historians, thinkers and statesmen had to acknowledge, the
superiority of virtues of the Prophet of Islam.
In the quotations below, Western writers have used
the word Mohammedanism for Islam. The word Mohammedanism connotes worship of
Muhammad, an absolutely unworthy statement for any learned man to use. Prophet
Muhammad's mission was to propagate the worship of the One and Only God (in
Arabic Allah), the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. His mission
was essentially the same as that of earlier Prophets of God. In the
historical context, many such terminologies about Muhammad, Islam, and Muslims were
borrowed from earlier European writings of the Eleventh to the Nineteenth
century, a time when ignorance and prejudice prevailed. The quotations below
attest to the facts, which may be disregarded.
Thomas
Carlyle in 'Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History,' 1840: "The
lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man
(Muhammad) are disgraceful to ourselves only." "A silent great soul,
one of that who cannot but be earnest. He was to kindle the world, the world’s
Maker had ordered so."
Gibbon in 'The Decline and Fall of the Roman
Empire ' 1823: “The good sense of Muhammad despised the pomp of
royalty. The Apostle of God submitted to the menial offices of the family; he
kindled the fire; swept the floor; milked the ewes; and mended with his own
hands his shoes and garments. Disdaining the penance and merit of a hermit, he
observed without effort of vanity the abstemious diet of an Arab.
Edward Gibbon and Simon Oakley in ‘History of the Saracen Empire,’
London
Reverend Bosworth Smith in 'Muhammad and Mohammedanism,' London,
1874: "Head of the State as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in
one; but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the
legions of Caesar, without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a
police force, without a fixed revenue. If ever a man ruled by a right divine,
it was Muhammad, for he had all the powers without their supports. He cared not
for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping
with his public life." "In Mohammedanism every thing is different
here. Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history....We know of
the external history of Muhammad....while for his internal history after his
mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in
its preservation....on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been
able to cast a serious doubt."
Edward Montet, 'La Propagande Chretienne et ses Adversaries
Musulmans,' Paris
Alphonse de LaMartaine in 'Historie de la Turquie,' Paris, 1854:
"Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime
aim, since this aim was superhuman; to subvert superstitions which had been
imposed between man and his Creator, to render God unto man and man unto God;
to restore the rational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the
material and disfigured gods of idolatry, then existing. Never has a man
undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so feeble means, for he
(Muhammad) had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great
design, no other instrument than himself and no other aid except a handful of
men living in a corner of the desert. Finally, never has a man accomplished
such a huge and lasting revolution in the world, because in less than two
centuries after its appearance, Islam, in faith and in arms, reigned over the
whole of Arabia, and conquered, in God's name, Persia Khorasan, Transoxania,
Western India, Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, all the known continent of Northern
Africa, numerous islands of the Mediterranean Sea, Spain, and part of Gaul”.
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing
results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any
great man in 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, 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 the souls”. … "On the basis of a
Book, every letter which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality
which blend together peoples of every tongue and race. He has left the
indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality the hatred of false gods
and the passion for the One and Immaterial God. This avenging patriotism
against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of
Muhammad; the conquest of one-third the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or
rather it was not the miracle of man but that of reason”.
"The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the
exhaustion of the fabulous theologies, was in itself such a miracle that upon
it's utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and
set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic
revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying
the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in
Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim
of his fellow countrymen... 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 words”…. "Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror
of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs.... 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?"
Mahatma Gandhi, statement published in 'Young India
Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8,
1936: "If any religion had the chance of ruling over England Europe within the next hundred years, it could be
Islam." “I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation
because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me
to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can
make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in
my opinion for from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior of
Humanity."…"I believe that if a man like him were to assume the
dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a
way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied
about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of
tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”
Dr. William Draper in 'History of Intellectual Development of
Europe': “Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born in Mecca Arabia , the man who, of all men, has exercised the
greatest influence upon the human race... To be the religious head of many
empires, to guide the daily life of one-third of the human race, may perhaps
justify the title of a Messenger of God”.
Arthur Glyn Leonard in 'Islam, Her Moral and Spiritual Values': It
was the genius of Muhammad, the spirit that he breathed into the Arabs through
the soul of Islam that exalted them. That raised them out of the lethargy and
low level of tribal stagnation up to the high watermark of national unity and
empire. It was in the sublimity of Muhammad's deism, the simplicity, the
sobriety and purity it inculcated the fidelity of its founder to his own
tenets, that acted on their moral and intellectual fiber with all the magnetism
of true inspiration.
Philip K. Hitti in 'History of the Arabs': Within a brief span of
mortal life, Muhammad called forth of unpromising material, a nation, never
welded before; in a country that was hitherto but a geographical expression he
established a religion which in vast areas suppressed Christianity and Judaism,
and laid the basis of an empire that was soon to embrace within its far flung
boundaries the fairest provinces the then civilized world.
Rodwell in the Preface to his translation of the Holy Qur'an:
“Mohammad's career is a wonderful instance of the force and life that resides
in him who possesses an intense faith in God and in the unseen world. He will
always be regarded as one of those who have had that influence over the faith,
morals and whole earthly life of their fellow men, which none but a really
great man ever did, or can exercise; and whose efforts to propagate a great
verity will prosper”".
W. Montgomery Watt in 'Muhammad at Mecca,' Oxford, 1953: “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 a leader, and the greatness
of his ultimate achievement - all argue his fundamental integrity. To suppose
Muhammad an impostor raises more problems that it solves. Moreover, none of the
great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad....
Thus, not merely must we credit Muhammad with essential honesty and integrity
of purpose, if we are to understand him at all; if we are to correct the errors
we have inherited from the past, we must not forget the conclusive proof is a
much stricter requirement than a show of plausibility, and in a matter such as
this only to be attained with difficulty”.
D. G. Hogarth in 'Arabia ':
“Serious or trivial, his daily behavior has instituted a canon which millions
observe this day with conscious memory. No one regarded by any section of the
human race as Perfect Man has ever been imitated so minutely. The conduct of
the founder of Christianity has not governed the ordinary life of his
followers. Moreover, no founder of a religion has left on so solitary an
eminence as the Muslim apostle”.
Washington Irving 'Mahomet and His Successors': “He was sober and
abstemious in his diet and a rigorous observer of fasts. He indulged in no
magnificence of apparel, the ostentation of a petty mind; neither was his simplicity
in dress affected but a result of real disregard for distinction from so
trivial a source. … In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends and
strangers, the rich and poor, the powerful and weak, with equity, and was
beloved by the common people for the affability with which he received them,
and listened to their complaints…..His military triumphs awakened no pride nor
vain glory, as they would have done had they been effected for selfish
purposes. In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity
of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from
affecting a regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual
testimonials of respect were shown to him. If he aimed at a universal dominion,
it was the dominion of faith; as to the temporal rule which grew up in his
hands, as he used it without ostentation, so he took no step to perpetuate it
in his family”.
James Michener in ‘Islam: The Misunderstood Religion,’ Reader’s
Digest, May 1955, pp. 68-70: "No other religion in history spread so
rapidly as Islam. The West has widely believed that this surge of religion was
made possible by the sword. But no modern scholar accepts this idea, and the
Qur’an is explicit in the support of the freedom of conscience." …. “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 worshiped Muhammad, he is dead. But if it is God you Worshiped, He lives
for ever'.”
CRITICISM:
While learned non Muslims respect
him, the ignorant bigots after failing in logical arguments against Islam, indulge
in personnel criticism of Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). This criticism
is based upon twisted historic narratives, half truths devoid of scriptural
support. The analysis and response is available at following: