| 02 March 2010
One of the greatest Muslim thinkers of modern times says:
“To arrive at a correct appraisal of the Prophet’s contribution to human thought, one has to view it in the background of the history of the world as a whole. That would reveal that this unlettered dweller of the desert of Arabia, who was born in the ‘dark ages’ some 1,400 years ago, was the real pioneer of the modern age and the true leader of humanity. He is not only the leader of those who accept his leadership, but also of those also who do not acclaim him as such: even of those who denounce him! The only difference being that the latter are unaware of the fact that his guidance is still imperceptibly influencing their thoughts and their actions and is the governing principle of their lives and the very spirit of modern times”.
The month in which prophet Muhammad (SAW) was born is currently going on and we need to understand the life giving message of the prophet and the teaching, in reality, the only panacea to all ailments of humanity.
But I fail to understand what has gone wrong with the collective wisdom of humanity that the world is being made oblivious and indifferent from this redeeming solution to all problems we are caught in quagmire of. I know that the zealot Christian Churchmen and biased and bigoted Jewish Rabbis consider Muhammad (SAW) and his creed a death blow to their hegemonistic and unwarranted priestly privileges, as I also understand that the advocates of atheism including Communists and the secularised capitalists do not want to give up the status they have achieved after challenging religion at the cast of faltering discursive human reason in order to give their mundane creed the status of quasi revelation to allude to Russell who viewed communism the religion of twentieth century. I also discern that the enormous growth of Muslims and the rapidity with which their culture is making headway in the very heart of Europe has sent shivers in the spine of the protagonists of westernisation .I also appreciate the pathetic conditions of the man made religions which are serving the personal interests of some special classes of people at the cost of millions of the screaming masses and how Islam is posing a challenge to the pharoachic claims of these demi- gods .Therefore the whole phenomenon of the Danish cartoons ,the encouragement to Shatain Rushdies and Taslima Nasreens and such other western fallacies show the out pouring of the frustration these elements are suffering from .
But according to Mansoor Salim:
“.. ..No matter neither how Muhammad is disparaged, nor how some Muslims by their atrocious conduct bring infamy upon him, his towering and majestic presence in the lives of a vast and varied portion of mankind is almost unique”.
George Bernard Shaw in his writing “The Genuine Islam “says:
“I have studied him [Prophet Muhammad (SAW) -the wonderful Man (SAW)—and in my opinion far from being an anti –Christ, He must be called the saviour of humanity.”
Of Muhammad's presence in history and its immense consequence, none among non-Muslims perhaps wrote better on the subject than Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), essayist-historian of Scottish birth who gained renown in the Victorian era. Carlyle's essay on Muhammad in On Heroes and Hero-Worship is of timeless quality, and it remains radiant despite the recent surge in writings of all sorts on Islam and Muslim history.
Carlyle belonged to that school of historians for whom the moving force in history was great souls as heroes. Though our age has been so thoroughly corrupted by the materialist reading of history we still have voices which see the obvious and also endorse and acknowledge it as well.
The list, is long and it keeps getting longer, of the writers who have made it their mission and at times profession to, write scornfully about Muhammad (SAW). But Carlyle remarked,
"Our current hypothesis about Mahomet, that he was a scheming Impostor, a Falsehood incarnate, that his religion is a mere mass of quackery and fatuity, begins really to be now untenable to anyone. The lies, which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man, are disgraceful to ourselves only."
To Muhammad's foes Carlyle responded, "A false man found a religion? Why, a false man cannot build a brick house!" And then he proceeded to demolish the pretentions of miserable little souls -- the naysayers in every age ghoulishly scavenging on the remains of great souls -- mocking Muhammad (SAW).
A very remarkable book by Karen Armstrong, Muhammad A Biography of the Prophet, attempts to study the nature of the religious experience, the prophet had, in a sympathetic and meticulous manner. She says: "My own approach has been rather different. We know more about Muhammad than about the founder of any other major faith so that a study of his life can give us an important insight into the nature of the religious experience." She gives a sympathetic and balanced account of Islamic jihad, polygamy, and politics and exposes the ulterior motives behind Salman Rusdie's Satanic campaign against the Prophet (SAW).
It was perhaps for the same reason that an attempt has been made by the Orientalists like Karen Armstrong to rectify some of the misgivings and maligning of the Orientalists. She has shown rather the superiority of the Prophet Muhammad to Jesus Christ even. She says,
"In the Quran, therefore, we have a contemporaneous commentary on Muhammad's career that is unique in the history of religion. In contrast, we know little about Jesus."
She says further
"New Testament scholars point out that the Gospel accounts of Jesse's passion and death are hopelessly confused, facts have been changed".
"... Very few of the actual words of Christ have been recorded”.
On the other hand, according to Karen:
"Muhammad comes over very differently from the idealised, numinous person of Christ in the Gospels... they (Muslims) have never claimed that he is divine. Indeed, he is a very human figure in the earlier histories."
"Muhammad had great spiritual as well as political gifts - the two do not always go together... and he was convinced that all religious people have a responsibility to create a good and just society." She says: -
"If we could view Muhammad as we do any other important historical figure, we would surely consider him to be one of the greatest geniuses the world has known..."
“...To appreciate his geniuses to the full, we must examine the society into which he was born and the forces with which he contended. When he descended from Mount Hira to bring the word of God to the Arabs, Muhammad was about to attempt the impossible”.
While comparing Jesus and Muhammad (SAW), Karen says:
"Instead of wandering in unworldly fashion round the hills of Galilee preaching and healing, like the Jesus of the Gospels, Muhammad had to engage in a grim political efforts to reform his society, and his followers were pledged to continue this struggle."
She compares the Christians and Muslims and says:
"Just as Christians have developed the practice of the initiation of Christ, Muslims seek to initiate Muhammad in their daily lives in order to approximate as close as possible to this perfection and so as to come close as they can to God Himself. As one might expect, this process of initiation has been more practical and concrete than the initiation of Christ".
She says that while “Christianity is a religion of love; Islam is a religion of social justice”.
"Loving your neighbour seen by Christians as the best of true religion; the Quranic definition of the religious spirit is less ambitious but arguably more practicable."
This rectifying attitude towards the subject of Seerah seems at its peak in Michael H. Hart. The author has given an objective statement of the contribution of the Prophet (SAW) while comparing Jesus with Muhammad, he says:
"A striking example of this is my ranking Muhammad higher than Jesus, in large part because of my belief that Muhammad had a much greater personal influence on the formulation of the Moslem religion than Jesus had on the formulation of the Christian religion."
Because, according to Hartt, St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles was instrumental in shaping and spreading Christian religion and not Jesus. He says: "No other man played so large role in propagation of Christianity."
In the introduction of his essay on Muhammad (SAW) Michael Hartt says:
"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 levels".
Comparing Jesus and the Prophet, Hartt says:
"... It may initially seem strange that Muhammad has been ranked higher than Jesus. There are two principal reasons for that decision first; Muhammad played a far more important role in the development of Islam than Jesus did in the development of Christianity. Although Jesus was responsible for the main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity... St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the author of a large portion of the New Testament."
"Muhammad, however, was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical and moral principles. In addition, he played the key role in proselytizing the new faith, and in establishing the religious practices of Islam."
"Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a religious leader. In fact, as the driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most influential political leader of all time." Concluding his essay, Hartt says:
"We see, then, that the Arab conquests of the seventh century have continued to play an important role in human history down to the present day. It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history."
Penguin published a new book authored by Barnaby Rogerson in 2003 on the Seerah of the Prophet .In this book Muhammad (SAW) has been treated as a ‘hero for all mankind’ who in his life time established the first united Arabia, and a new literary language, the classical Arabic of the Quran, for the Quran is believed to be the word of God revealed to Muhammad by the Angel Gabriel .A generation after his death he would be acknowledged as the founder of a world empire and a new civilization. This book is “an accessible and elegantly written general biography of the man who is arguably the most influential in the history of the world----his sole rival to this claim being Jesus Christ”.