{"id":3686,"date":"2016-11-05T17:24:58","date_gmt":"2016-11-05T14:24:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/?p=3686"},"modified":"2016-11-05T17:31:44","modified_gmt":"2016-11-05T14:31:44","slug":"said-muhammad-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/said-muhammad-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"What they said about Muhammad- Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Listen to Audio<\/p>\n\n

Lamartine, Histoire de la Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol II, pp. 276-77:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153If 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? \u00c2\u00a0The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only.\u00c2\u00a0 They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes.\u00c2\u00a0 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… the 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.\u00c2\u00a0 This dogma was twofold, the unit 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Philosopher, 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.\u00c2\u00a0 As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay, History of the Saracen Empire, London, 1870, p. 54:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It 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 Quran…The Mahometans[1]<\/span><\/a> \u00c2\u00a0have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcI believe in One God and Mahomet the Apostle of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122, is the simple and invariable profession of Islam.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Bosworth Smith, Mohammed and Mohammadanism, London 1874, p. 92:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Annie Besant, The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, p. 4:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It 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.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

W. Montgomery, Mohammad at Mecca, Oxford 1953, p. 52:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153His 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 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c all argue his fundamental integrity.\u00c2\u00a0 To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves.\u00c2\u00a0 Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

James A. Michener, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIslam: The Misunderstood Religion\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 in Reader\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Digest (American Edition), May 1955, pp. 68-70:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Muhammad, the inspired man who founded Islam, was born about A.D. 570 into an Arabian tribe that worshipped idols.\u00c2\u00a0 Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden.\u00c2\u00a0 At twenty he was already a successful businessman, and soon became director of camel caravans for a wealthy widow.\u00c2\u00a0 When he reached twenty-five, his employer, recognizing his merit, proposed marriage.\u00c2\u00a0 Even though she was fifteen years older, he married her, and as long as she lived, remained a devoted husband.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s word, sensing his own inadequacy.\u00c2\u00a0 But the angel commanded \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcRead\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 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: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153There is one God.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical.\u00c2\u00a0 When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumors of God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s personal condolence quickly arose.\u00c2\u00a0 Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced, \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcAn eclipse is a phenomenon of nature.\u00c2\u00a0 It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human-being.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153At Muhammad\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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: \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcIf there are any among you who worshipped Muhammad, he is dead.\u00c2\u00a0 But if it is God you worshipped, He lives forever.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Michael H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc. 1978, p. 33:<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Listen to Audio Lamartine, Histoire de la Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol II, pp. 276-77: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153If 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? \u00c2\u00a0The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only.\u00c2\u00a0 They […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-3686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3686"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whyislam.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=3686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}