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      In   the   name  of   ALLAH,   the    Beneficent,   the    Merciful



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             I N F O R M A T I O N    &   N E W S    N E T W O R K

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Date: Mon, 8 Aug 1994 14:00:43 -0600
From: mahmed@xnet.com (M. Ahmed)
Subject: 12. What They Say About Muhammad (pbuh)

III&E Brochure Series; No. 12
(published by The Institute of Islamic Information and Education (III&E)
and reproduced with permission)
----------------------------

In the Name of Allah, The Beneficent, The Merciful

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT MUHAMMAD (PBUH)

During the centuries of the crusades, all sorts of slanders were invented
against Prophet Muhammad (pbuh).  But 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 views of some non-Muslim scholars regarding
Prophet Muhammad, given at the end, justify this opinion.

But the West has still to go a step forward to discover the greatest
reality about Muhammad and that is his being the true and the last Prophet
of God for the whole humanity.  In spite of all its objectivity and
enlightenment there has been no sincere and objective attempt by the West
to understand the Prophethood of Muhammad (pbuh).  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 has been 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 (pbuh) have been furnished to facilitate an
unbiased, logical and objective decision regarding his Prophethood.

Up to the age of forty, Muhammad 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, charming manners and was 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 (HIRA) with a new message, he was
completely transformed.  Is it possible for such a person of the above
qualities to turn all of a sudden into 'an impostor' and claim to be the
Prophet of Allah and invite all the rage of his people?  One might ask: for
what reason did he suffer all those hardships?  His people offered to
accept him as their King and he would leave the preaching of his religion.
But he chose to refuse their tempting offers and go on preaching his
religion single-handedly in face of all kinds of insults, social boycott
and even physical assault by his own people.  Was it not only God's support
and his firm will to disseminate the message of Allah and his deep-rooted
belief that ultimately Islam would emerge as the only way of life for
humanity, that he stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and
conspiracies to eliminate him?  Furthermore, had he come with a design of
rivalry with the Christians and the Jews, why should he have made belief in
Jesus Christ and Moses and other Prophets of God (peace be upon them), a
basic requirement of faith without which no one could be a Muslim?

Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his Prophethood that in spite of
being unlettered and having led a very normal and quiet life for forty
years, when he began preaching his message, all of Arabia stood in awe and
wonder and was bewitched by his wonderful eloquence and oratory?  It was so
matchless that the whole legion of Arab poets, preachers and orators of the
highest calibre failed to bring forth its equivalent.  And above all, how
could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature contained in the
Qur'an that no other human being could possible have developed at that
time?

Last but not least, why did he lead a hard life even after gaining power
and authority?  Just ponder over the words he uttered while dying: "We the
community of the Prophets are not inherited.  Whatever we leave is for
charity."

As a matter of fact, Muhammad (pbuh) is the last link of the chain of
Prophets sent in different lands and times since the very beginning of the
human life on this planet.  Read the following writings of the Western
authors:

"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 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, 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. 276-277.

"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 an 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 honours 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 Mohammed, 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 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 Watt, 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 rumours 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
READER'S DIGEST (American edition), 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.

---------------------

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For more information please contact:

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- Reprinted with the permission of World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY),
P.O. Box 10845, Riyadh 11443, Saudi Arabia