During the centuries of the crusades all sorts of slandered were invited against the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). But with religious tolerance and freedoms of thought, there has been a great change in the approach of western authors in their delineations 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 objectively and enlightenment there has been West to understand the prophet hood of Muhammad (PBUH). It is so him for integrity and achievement but his claim of beings the prophet of God has been rejected explicitly of implicitly. It is here that a searching of the heart is required and a review of the so-called objectivity is needed. The following glairing facts from the life of Muhammad (PBUH) have been furnished to facilities an unbiased, logical and objective decision regarding his prophet hood. 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 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 ‘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 hardship? 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 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 the 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 revelry with the Christian and the Jews why should he have made belief in Jesus Christ and Moses and other prophets of God (peace be upon them), a basis requirement of faith without which no one could be a Muslim?
It is not an incontrovertible proof of his prophet hood that in spite of being unlettered and having led a very normal and quite life for forty years, when he began preaching his message all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder and was bewitched by his wonderful eloquences and oratory? It was so matchless that the whole legion of Arab poets, preachers and orators of highest calibers failed to bring fourth its equivalent. And above all how could he then pronounce, truths of a scientific nature contained in the Quran that no other human beings could possibly have developed at that time?
Last but no least, why did he lead a hard life even after gaining power and authority? Just ponder over the words he uttered while dying: “We 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 beginnings of the human life of this planet.
If greatness of purpose smallness of means, and astounding result are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad? The most men created arms laws and empires only. The founded, if anything at all no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislation, 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 conversation 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 the words.
Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror do ideas, restore of rational dogmas, of cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empires, that is Muhammad. As regard all standard by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?
Lamar tine, Histoire de la Turqie, pairs 1854
Vol II, pp. 276-77
It is not a propaganda but the permanency of his religion that deserve 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 Mohammedans 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 degrade 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 place, 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 Mohammedanism.
London 1874, p. 92.
It is impossible for anyone who studied 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 will be familiar to many, yet myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new sense of reverence for that almighty Arabian teachers.
Annie Besant, The life and Teaching of Muhammad,
Madarsa 1932, p.4
His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him an looked up to him as leader and the greatness of his ultimate achievement-all argue his fundamental interigity to suppose Muhammad an imposter raise more problems than it solves. Moreover none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciate in the West as Muhammad.
W.Montgomery, Mohammad at Mecca, Oxford, 1953, p., 52.
Muhammad the inspired man who founded Islam was born about AD570 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 salve and the downtrodden. At twenty he was already a successful businessman and soon become 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 Mohammad fought shy of serving as a transmitter of God’s word sensing his own inadequacy. But the angle 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 revalorize 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 human- beings’.
At Muhammad’s own death an attempt was made to deify him, but the man who was become his administrative successor killed they hysteria with one of the noblest speeches in religious history: If there are any among you that worshipped Muhammad, he is dead. But if 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.
My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by other, but he was only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.
Michel H. Hart the 100: A ranking of the most Influential persons in history,
New York: Hart publishing company, in 1978, p 33.
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