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Prophet Mohammad in the eye of the west
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 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 human-being." 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.