During the
centuries of the crusades, all sorts of slanders
were invented against the Prophet Muhammad (p)2.
However, with the birth of the modern age, 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 West, however, has yet to go a step forward to
discover the greatest reality about Muhammad (p);
that is his being the true and the last Prophet of
God for all humanity.
Despite all its objectivity and enlightenment,
there has been no sincere and objective attempt by
the West to understand the Prophethood of Muhammad
(p). 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 is
rejected explicitly or implicitly. It is here that
a searching of the heart is required, and a review
of the so-called objectivity is needed. The
following glaring facts from the life of Muhammad
(p) have been furnished to facilitate an unbiased,
logical and objective decision regarding his
Prophethood.
Up to the age of forty, Muhammad (p) 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 and charming manners and was known to be
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 of the Cave of Hira, with a new message,
he was completely transformed. “Is it possible
for a person known to possess an upright and
unblemished character, to suddenly turn ‘an
impostor’ and claim to be the Prophet of
God?”. It is well known that his claim invited
the rage of his people, and marked the beginning
of a long, arduous struggle. One might ask: “for
what reason did he suffer all those hardships?”
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 message.
But he turned down their alluring offers and
continued to preach in the face of insults, social
boycott and even physical assault. Furthermore,
had he come with a design of rivalry with the
Christians and the Jews, why should he have
believed in Jesus Christ and Moses and other
Prophets of God (peace be upon them), which is a
basic requirement of faith without which no one
could be a Muslim?
It is well known that Muhammad (p) was unlettered
and had led a very uneventful life before he
announced his mission to the world at the age of
forty. Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his
Prophethood, that despite being unlettered, all of
Arabia stood in awe and wonder when he began
preaching his message, and was bewitched by the
wonderful eloquence of his message? The whole
legion of Arab poets, preachers and orators of the
highest caliber failed to bring forth the
equivalent of the Qur’an, which remains
inimitable to this day. And above all, how could
he then pronounce truths of scientific nature
contained in the Qur’an that no human being
could possibly have discovered at that time?
Last, but not the least, why did he lead a hard
life even after gaining power and authority? The
words he uttered while dying were: “We the
community of the Prophets are not inherited.
Whatever we leave is for charity.”
As a matter of fact, Muhammad (p), is the last
link of Prophets sent in different lands and times
since the beginning of the human life on earth.
“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... 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 impostor 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, Paris 1854 Vol. II, pp.
276-77.]
“It is not the propagation but the permanency of
his religion that deserves our wonder; the same
pure and perfect impression that 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.” [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
Smifu, 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 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.” [W. Montgomery, Mohammad at Mecca,
Oxford, 1953, p. 52.]
“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’.” [James A.
Michener, ‘Islam The Misunderstood Religion’,
In the Reader’s Digest (American Edition) for
May 1955, pp. 68-70.]
[Source : WAMY3 Series on Islam]
1. The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential
Persons in History, New York: Hart Publishing
Company, Inc., 1978, p. 33.
2. (p) here stands for “peace be upon him”
3. World Assembly of Muslim Youth
