What Non-Muslims Say About Muhammad, The Prophet of
Islam
What Non-Muslims Say
About …Muhammad, The Prophet of Islam
(Peace and Blessings be Upon Him and His Family)
Muhammad is not the
father of any of your men, but he is the Messenger of God and the Last of the
Prophets. (Holy Qur'an 33:40)
This is a collection of
short quotations from a wide variety of Non-Muslim notables, including
academics, writers, philosophers, poets, politicians, and activists belonging
to the East and the West.
To our knowledge none
of them ever became Muslims. These
words, therefore, reflect their personal views on various aspects of the life
of the Prophet.
Michael H. Hart (1932-
) Professor of astronomy, physics and the history of science.
q "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." [The 100: A Ranking
Of The Most Influential Persons In History, New York, 1978, p. 33]
William Montgomery Watt
(1909- ) Professor (Emeritus) of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University
of Edinburgh.
q "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." [Mohammad At
Mecca, Oxford, 1953, p. 52]
Alphonse de Lamartine
(1790-1869) French poet and statesman.
q "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?"[Translated from Histoire De La Turquie, Paris, 1854, vol. II, pp.
276-277]
Reverend Bosworth Smith
(1794-1884) Late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.
q "… he was Caesar and Pope in one;
but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and 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 a right Divine, it was Mohammed; for he
had all the power without its instruments and without its supports."
Mohammed and Mohammedanism, London, 1874, p. 235]
Mohandas
KaramchandGandhi (1869-1948) Indian thinker, statesman, and nationalist leader.
q "....I became more than ever
convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It
was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the prophet, the
scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and
followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in
his own mission. These, and not the sword carried everything before them and
surmounted every trouble." [Young
India (periodical), 1928, Volume X]
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
Considered the greatest British historian of his time.
q "The greatest success of Mohammad's
life was effected by sheer moral force without
the stroke of a sword."
[History Of The Saracen
Empire, London, 1870]
John William Draper
(1811-1882) American scientist, philosopher, and historian.
q "Four years after the death of
Justinian, A.D. 569, was born at Mecca, in Arabia the man who, of all men
exercised the greatest influence upon the human race . . . Mohammed." [A
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, London, 1875, vol.1, pp.
329-330]
David George Hogarth
(1862-1927) English archaeologist, author, and keeper of the Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford.
q “Serious or trivial, his daily behaviour
has instituted a canon which millions observe this day with conscious
mimicry. No one regarded by any section
of the human race as Perfect Man has been imitated so minutely. The conduct of
the Founder of Christianity has not so governed the ordinary life of His
followers. Moreover, no Founder of a religion has been left on so solitary an
eminence as the Muslim Apostle.” [Arabia, Oxford, 1922, p. 52]
Washington Irving
(1783-1859) Well-known as the “first American man of letters".
q “He was sober and abstemious in his
diet, and a rigorous observer of fasts. He indulged in no magnificence of
apparel, the ostentation of a petty mind; neither was his simplicity in dress
affected, but the result of a real disregard to distinction from so trivial a
source ... In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends and
strangers, the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak, with equity, and was
beloved by the common people for the affability with which he received them,
and listened to their complaints ... His military triumphs awakened no pride
nor vain glory, as they would have done had they been effected for selfish
purposes. In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity
of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from
affecting regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual
testimonial of respect were shown to him." [Life of Mahomet, London, 1889,
pp. 192-3, 199]
Annie Besant
(1847-1933) British theosophist and nationalist leader in India. President of
the Indian National Congress in 1917.
q "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." [The Life And Teachings Of Muhammad, Madras,
1932, p. 4]
Edward Gibbon
(1737-1794) Considered the greatest British historian of his time.
q "His (i.e., Muhammad's) memory was
capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his
judgment clear, rapid and decisive. He possessed the courage of both thought
and action."[History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London,
1838, vol.5, p.335]
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