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In the quotations below, Western writers have used the word
Muhammadanism for Islam. The word Muhammadanism 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.
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."
A. S. Tritton in 'Islam,' 1951
The picture of the Muslim soldier advancing with a sword in
one hand and the Qur'an in the other is quite false.
De Lacy O'Leary in 'Islam at the Crossroads,' London, 1923.
History makes it clear, however, that the legend of
fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing
Islam at the point of sword upon conquered races is one of
the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have
ever repeated.
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, 1870
"The greatest success of Mohammad’s life was effected by
sheer moral force."
“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
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 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.”
Lane-Poole in 'Speeches and Table Talk of the Prophet
Muhammad'
He was the most faithful protector of those he protected,
the sweetest and most agreeable in conversation. Those who
saw him were suddenly filled with reverence; those who came
near him loved him; they who described him would say, "I
have never seen his like either before or after." He was of
great taciturnity, but when he spoke it was with emphasis
and deliberation, and no one could forget what he said...
Annie Besant in 'The Life and Teachings of Mohammad,'
Madras, 1932.
It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and
character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knew 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 reread them, a new way of admiration, a new
sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.
W.C. Taylor in 'The History of Muhammadanism and its Sects'
So great was his liberality to the poor that he often left
his household unprovided, nor did he content himself with
relieving their wants, he entered into conversation with
them, and expressed a warm sympathy for their sufferings.
He was a firm friend and a faithful ally.
Reverend Bosworth Smith in 'Muhammad and Muhammadanism,'
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 Mohammadanism 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 1890. (Also in T.W. Arnold in 'The
Preaching of Islam,' London 1913.)
"Islam is a religion that is essentially rationalistic in
the widest sense of this term considered etymologically and
historically....the teachings of the Prophet, the Qur'an
has invariably kept its place as the fundamental starting
point, and the dogma of unity of God has always been
proclaimed therein with a grandeur a majesty, an invariable
purity and with a note of sure conviction, which it is hard
to find surpassed outside the pale of Islam....A creed so
precise, so stripped of all theological complexities and
consequently so accessible to the ordinary understanding
might be expected to possess and does indeed possess a
marvelous power of winning its way into the consciences of
men."
Dr. Gustav Weil in 'History of the Islamic Peoples'
Muhammad was a shining example to his people. His character
was pure and stainless. His house, his dress, his food -
they were characterized by a rare simplicity. So
unpretentious was he that he would receive from his
companions no special mark of reverence, nor would he
accept any service from his slave which he could do for
himself. He was accessible to all and at all times. He
visited the sick and was full of sympathy for all.
Unlimited was his benevolence and generosity as also was
his anxious care for the welfare of the community.
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 theogonies, 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: all these and finally, his flight
his incessant preaching, his wars against odds, his faith
in his success and his superhuman security in misfortune,
his 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 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?"
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