Almost all the defenders of Muhammad (phuh) who spoke out against the false theory that he spread his religion at the point of the sword, were Westerners. Let us now hear what some non-Muslim Easterners have to say on the subject:
8a.
THE MORE I STUDY THE MORE I DISCOVER THAT THE STRENGTH OF ISLAM DOES
NOT LIE IN THE
SWORD.
Mahatma Gandhi - the father of modern India, in "Young
India."
b.
THEY {Muhammad's critics} SEE FIRE INSTEAD OF LIGHT, UGLINESS INSTEAD
OF GOOD. THEY DISTORT
AND PRESENT EVERY GOOD QUALITY AS A GREAT VICE. IT REFLECTS THEIR OWN
DEPRAVITY... THE CRITICS ARE
BLIND. THEY CANNOT SEE THAT THE ONLY ‘SWORD' MUHAMMAD
WIELDED WAS THE SWORD OF MERCY,
COMPASSION, FRIENDSHIP AND FORGIVENESS - THE
SWORD THAT CONQUERS ENEMIES AND
PURIFIES THEIR HEARTS. HIS SWORD WAS SHARPER
THAN THE SWORD OF STEEL.
Pandit
Gyanandra Dev Sharma Shastri, at a meeting in Gorakhpur lndia). 1928
c.
HE PREFERRED MIGRATION TO FIGHTING HIS OWN PEOPLE, BUT WHEN
OPPRESSION WENT
BEYOND THE PALE OF TOLERANCE HE
TOOK UP HIS SWORD IN SELF-DEFENCE. THOSE WHO
BELIEVE RELIGION CAN BE SPREAD BY
FORCE ARE FOOLS WHO NEITHER KNOW THE WAYS OF
RELIGION NOR THE WAYS OF THE
WORLD. THEY ARE PROUD OF THIS BELIEF BECAUSE THEY ARE
A LONG, LONG WAY AWAY FROM THE
TRUTH.
A
Sikh journalist in "Nawan Hindustan," Delhi, 17 November
1947.
It
was Rudyard Kipling who said, "East is East and West Is West,
never the twain shall meet!" He was wrong!
In the defence of Muhammad
{pbuh}, all, who are not blinded by prejudice will converge.
THREE OTHER STANDARDS
Fourteen
years after Thomas Carlyle had delivered his lecture on his Hero
Prophet, a Frenchman by the
name of Lamartine wrote the
history of the Turks. Incidentally, the Turks being Muslims,
Lamartine touched on
some aspects of Islam and its founder. Like our Jules Wasserman (see
page 10) of current times, who had
conceived three objective
standards for discovering greatness of leadership; Lamartine had over
2 century ago
thought of three other objective standards for conferring GREATNESS.
We must give credit to the
Westemer for this type of
insight. Lamartine opines:
9.
IF GREATNESS OF PURPOSE, SMALLNESS OF MEANS AND ASTOUNDING RESULTS
[The full
quotation from Lamartine's book
will be found in appendix''B" page 61. ] ARE THE THREE CRITERIA
OF HUMAN
GENIUS, WHO COULD DARE TO COMPARE ANY GREAT MAN IN MODERN HISTORY
WITH MUHUMMED?
{Lamartine ends his lengthy segment of literary masterpiece with the
words): . . .
PHILOSOPHER,
ORATOR, APOSTLE, LEGISLATOR, WARRIOR, CONQUEROR OF IDEAS, RESTORER
OF RATIONAL BELIEFS, OF A CULT
WITHOUT IMAGES: THE FOUNDER OF TWENTY TERRESTRIAL
EMPIRES AND OF ONE SPIRITUAL
EMPIRE, THAT IS MUHUMMED. AS REGARDS ALL STANDARDS BY
WHICH HUMAN GREATNESS MAY BE
MEASURED, WE MAY WELL ASK, IS THERE ANY MAN
GREATER THEN HE?
Lamartine,
"Historie de la Turquie," Paris 1854
The
answer to his question, "Is there any man greater than he?"
is reposed in the question itself. By implication he is saying . . .
"there is no man greater than Muhammad. Muhammad is the greatest
man that ever
lived!"
And have We not raised high the esteem (in which) thou (O Muhammad are held)?
And have We not raised high the esteem (in which) thou (O Muhammad are held)?
[Qur'an 94:4]
To Be Continued....