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QUOTATIONS
FROM FAMOUS PEOPLE
Dr.
A. Zahoor and Dr. Z. Haq
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"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."
The picture of
the Muslim soldier advancing with a sword in one
hand and the Qur'an in the other is quite false.
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.
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.
"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.”
"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."
"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."
"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... 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?"
I wanted to know the
best of the life of one who holds today an
undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of
mankind.... I became more than ever convinced that
it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in
those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid
simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the
Prophet the scrupulous regard for pledges, his
intense devotion to his friends and followers, his
intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust
in God and in his own mission. These and not the
sword carried everything before them and
surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the
second volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was
sorry there was not more for me to read of that
great life.
"If any
religion had the chance of ruling over England,
nay 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.”
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 secular and religious level. ...It is
probable that the relative influence of Muhammad
on Islam has been larger than the combined
influence of Jesus Christ and St. Paul on
Christianity. ...It is this unparalleled
combination of secular and religious influence
which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered
the most influential single figure in human
history.
Four years after the
death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born in Mecca,
in 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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'.”
Incidentally these
well-established facts dispose of the idea so
widely fostered in Christian writings that the
Muslims, wherever they went, forced people to
accept Islam at the point of the sword.
K.
S. Ramakrishna Rao in 'Mohammed: The Prophet of
Islam,' 1989
My problem to write
this monograph is easier, because we are not
generally fed now on that (distorted) kind of
history and much time need not be spent on
pointing out our misrepresentations of Islam. The
theory of Islam and sword, for instance, is not
heard now in any quarter worth the name. The
principle of Islam that “there is no compulsion
in religion” is well known
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