Alphonse de
LaMartaine's Testimony
" 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.
Reference: 'Historie de la Turquie,' Paris,
1854.
- Who
is Alphonse de Lamartine ?
Lamartine was a Romantic poet, a member of the
provisional government, and a one-time
presidential candidate. Here he recounts events in
France in 1848. Initial demands were for liberal
political reforms. Soon social and economic issues
came quickly to the fore as an organized working
class began to make demands.
Click
here to read more about his life
