Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
GENUINENESS OF FAITH IN HIS
DIVINE MISSION:
“The essential
sincerity of Muhammad’s nature cannot be questioned: and an historical
criticism that blinks no fact, yields nothing to credulity, weighs every
testimony, has no partisan interest, and seeks only the truth, must acknowledge
his claim to belong to that order of prophets who, whatever the nature of their
physical experience may have been, in diverse times, in diverse manners, have
admonished, taught and uttered austere and sublime thoughts, laid down
principles of conduct nobler than those they found, and devoted themselves
fearlessly to their high calling, being irresistibly impelled to their ministry
by a power within.”[1]
“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 as impostor raises more problems than it solves.
Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the
West as Muhammad … Thus, not merely must we credit Muhammad with essential
honesty and integrity of purpose, if we are to understand him at all; if we are
to correct the errors we have inherited from the past, we must in every
particular case hold firmly to the belief in his sincerity until the opposite
is conclusively proved; and we must not forget that conclusive proof is a much
stricter requirement than a show of plausibility, and in a matter such as this
only to be attained with difficulty.”[2]
A GREAT EXEMPLAR:
“Serious or trivial, his daily behaviour has instituted a
canon which millions observe at this day with conscious memory. 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.”[3]
PERMANENT IMPACT OF REVOLUTION:
“It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion
that deserves our wonder; the same pure and perfect impression which he
engraved at Makka and Madina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve
centuries … The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any
visible idol; the honours 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.”[4]
DEVOTION TO GOD AND TO RIGHTEOUSNESS
IN CONDUCT:
“The ignorance displayed by most Christians regarding the
Muslim religion is appalling … Mohammad alone, among the nations at that time,
believed in one God to the exclusion of all others. He insisted on righteousness
as the source of conduct, of filial duty, and on frequent prayers to the
Everliving God, and of respect to all other peoples, and of justice and mercy
to and moderation in all things, and to hold in great respect learning of every
kind … Most of the absurdities which Christians would have us believe to exist
in the Qur’an were never uttered by Mohammad himself, nor are they to be found
in a correct translation of the work.”[5]
CHARGE OF VOLUPTUOUSNESS REFUTED:
“By the force of his extraordinary personality, Muhammad
revolutionized life in Arabia and throughout the East. With his own hands he
smashed ancient idols and established a religion dedicated to one God. He
lifted women from the bondage in which desert custom held them and preached general
social justice.
“Muslims think it particularly ironic when Muhammad is
charged by Western writers with having established a voluptuous religion. Among
drunkards he abolished alcohol, so that even today all good Muslims are
prohibitionists. Among the lazy he ordained individual ritual prayers five
times each day. In a nation that revelled in feasting he instituted a most
rigorous day-time fast lasting as full month each year.
“Western writers have based their charges of voluptuousness
mainly on the question of women. Before Muhammad, however, men were encouraged
to take innumerable wives; he limited them to four only, and the Koran is
explicit that husbands who are unable to maintain strict equality between two
or more wives must confine themselves to one …”[6]
[1] Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt: The New International Encyclopaedia, 1916,
Vol. 16, p. 72.
[2] W. Montgomery Watt: Muhammad at Makka, Oxford 1953, p. 52.
[3] D. G. Hogarth: A History of Arabia, Oxford 1922, p. 52.
[4] Edward Gibbon and Simon Ockley: History of the Saracen Empire,
London 1870, p. 54.
[5] G. Lindsay Johnson, F.R.C.S.: The Two Worlds, Manchester, 9th
August, 1940.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
Chapter 3
MUHAMMAD’S
PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER AND SIDELIGHTS ON SOME REFORMS
PERSONALITY AND CHARACTER:
Mohammad was of middle height, rather thin but broad of
shoulder, wide of chest, strong of bone and muscle. His head was massive,
strongly developed. Dark hair, slightly curled, flowed in a dense mass almost
to his shoulders; even in advanced age it was sprinkled with only about twenty
grey hairs, produced by the agonies of his ‘Revelations’. His face was
oval-shaped, slightly tawny of colour. Fine long arched eye-brows were divided
by a vein, which throbbed visibly in moments of passion. Great black restless
eyes shone out from under long heavy eyelashes. His nose was large, slightly
acquiline. His teeth, upon which he bestowed great care, were well set,
dazzling white. A full beard framed his manly face. His skin was clear and
soft, his complexion ‘red and white’. His hands were as ‘silk and satin’, even
as those of a woman. His step was quick and elastic, yet firm as that of one
who steps ‘from a high to a low place’. In turning his face, he would also turn
his whole body. His whole gait and presence was dignified and imposing. His
countenance was mild and pensive. His laugh was rarely more than a smile.
“In his habits he was extremely simple, although he bestowed
great care on his person. His eating and drinking, his dress and his furniture
retained, even when he had reached the fullness of power, their almost
primitive nature. The only luxuries he indulged in were arms, which he highly
prized, and a pair of yellow boots, a present from the Negus of Abyssinia.
Perfumes, however, he loved passionately, being most sensitive to smells.
Strong drink he abhorred.
“… He was gifted with mighty powers of imagination, elevation
of mind, delicacy and refinement of feeling.” ‘He is more modest than a virgin
behind her curtain’, it was said of him. He was most indulgent to his
inferiors, and would never allow his little page to be scolded whatever he did.
‘Ten years’, said Anas, his servant, ‘I was about the Prophet, and he never
said as much as ‘uff’ to me’. He was very affectionate towards his family. One
of his boys died on his breast in the smoky house of the nurse, a blacksmith’s
wife. He was very fond of children; he would stop them in the streets and pat
little heads. He never struck anyone in his life. The worst expression he ever
made use of in conversation was, ‘What has come to him? May his forehead become
darkened with mud!’ When asked to curse someone he replied, ‘I have not been
sent to curse, but to be a mercy to mankind’. ‘He visited the sick, followed
any bier he met, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own
clothes, milked the goats, and waited upon himself,’ relates summarily another
tradition. He never first withdrew his hand thus, out of another man’s palm,
and turned not before the other had turned.
“He was the most faithful protector of those he protected,
the sweetest and most agreeable in conversation. Those who saw him were
suddenly filled with reverence; those who came near him loved him; they who
described him would say, ‘I have never seen his like either before or after’.
He was of great taciturnity, but when he spoke it was with emphasis and
deliberation and no one could forget what he said.
“He lived with his wives in a row of humble cottages
separated from one another by palm-branches, cemented together with mud. He
would kindle the fire, sweep the floor, and milk the goats himself. The little
food he had was always shared with those who dropped in to partake of it.
Indeed outside the Prophet’s house was a bench or a gallery, on which were always
found a number of poor who lived entirely upon his generosity, and were hence
called ‘the people of the bench’. His ordinary food was dates and water, or
barley bread; milk and honey were luxuries of which he was fond, but which he
rarely allowed himself. The fare of the desert seemed most congenial to him
even when he was sovereign of Arabia.
“There is something so tender and womanly, and withal so
heroic, about the man, that one is in peril of finding the judgment
unconsciously blinded by the feeling of reverence, and well-nigh love, that
such a nature inspires. He who, standing alone, braved for years the hatred of
his people, is the same who was never the first to withdraw his hand from
another’s clasp; the beloved of children, who never passed a group of little
ones without a smile from his wonderful eyes and kind word for them, sounding
all the kinder in that sweet-toned voice. The frank friendship, the noble
generosity, the dauntless courage and hope of the man, all tend to melt
criticism into admiration.
“He was an enthusiast in that noblest sense when enthusiasm
becomes the salt of the earth, the one thing that keep men from rotting whilst
they live. Enthusiasm is often used despitefully, because it is joined to an
unworthy cause, or falls upon barren ground and bears no fruit. So was it not
with Muhammad. He was an enthusiast when enthusiasm was the one thing needed to
set the world aflame, and his enthusiasm was noble for a noble cause. He was
one of those happy few who have attained the supreme joy of making one great
truth their very life-spring. He was the messenger of the one God, and never to
his life’s end did he forget who he was or the message which was the marrow of
his being. He brought his tidings to his people with a grand dignity sprung
from the consciousness of his high office together with a most sweet humility
…”[1]
“His (i.e., Muhammad’s) politeness to the great, his
affability to the humble, and his dignified bearing to the presumptuous,
procured him respect, admiration and applause. His talents were equally fitted
for persuasion or command. Deeply read in the volume of nature, though entirely
ignorant of letters, his mind could expand into controversy with the acutest of
his enemies, or contract itself to the apprehension of the meanest of his
disciples. His simple eloquence, rendered impressive by the expression of a
countenance wherein awfulness of majesty was tempered by an amiable sweetness,
excited emotion of veneration and love; and he was gifted with the
authoritative air of genius which alike influences the learned and commands the
illiterate. As a friend and a parent, he exhibited the softest feelings of
nature; but, while in possession of the kind and generous emotions of the
heart, and engaged in the discharge of most of the social and domestic duties,
he disgraced not his assumed title of an apostle of God. With all that
simplicity which is so natural to a great mind, he performed the humblest
offices whose homeliness it would be idle to conceal with pompuous diction, even
while Lord of Arabia, he mended his own shoes and coarse woollen garments,
milked the ewes, swept the hearth, and kindled the fire. Dates and water were
his usual fare and milk and honey his luxuries. When he travelled he divided
his morsel with his servant. The sincerity of his exhortations to benevolence
was justified at his death by the exhausted state of his coffers.”[2]
“Mohammed … despised grandeur, and lived on principle an
extremely frugal life, though he was no ascetic… He is reputed to have behaved
very simply, and there is no reason for not supposing that he did. He performed
the most menial tasks with his own hands, and was essentially puritan, saying
the Divine revelation forbade him to wear either gold or silk .”[3]
“His deportment, in general, was calm and equable; he
… was grave and dignified, though he is said to have possessed a smile of
captivating sweetness. His complexion was more ruddy than is usual with Arabs,
and in his excited and enthusiastic moments there was a glow and radiance in
his countenance, which his disciples magnified into the supernatural light of
prophecy.
“His intellectual qualities were undoubtedly of an
extraordinary kind. He had a quick apprehension, a retentive memory, a vivid
imagination and an inventive genius.
“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 a result of
real disregard for distinction from so trivial a source.
“In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends and
strangers, the rich and the poor, the powerful and the weak, with equity, and
was loved 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 a regal
state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonials of
respect were shown to him. If he aimed at universal dominion, it was the
dominion of the faith, as to the temporal rule which grew up in his hands, as
he used it without ostentation, so he took no step to perpetuate it in his
family.”[4]
“Mahomet himself, after all that can be said about him, was
not a sensual man … His household was of the frugalest; his common diet barley-bread and water;
sometimes for months there was not a fire once lighted on his hearth. They
record with just pride that he would mend his own shoes, patch his own cloak …
careless of what vulgar men toil for … something better in him than hunger of
any sort, or these wild Arab men, fighting and jostling three and twenty years
at his hand, in close contact with him always, would not have reverenced him
so! They were wild men, bursting ever and anon with quarrel, with all kinds of
fierce sincerity; without right worth and manhood, no man could have commanded
them … No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own
clouting. During three-and-twenty years of rough actual trial, I find something
of a veritable hero necessary for that myself.”[5][6]
“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; and … the first
idea which he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original
and superior genius.”[7]
“Head of the State as well as of the Church”, remarks
Bosworth Smith, “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 body-guard, 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 Mohammad,
for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports. He
rose superior to the title and ceremonies, the solemn trifling, and the proud
humility of court etiquette. To hereditary kings, to princes born in the
purple, these things are naturally enough as the breath of life; but those who
ought to have known better, even self-made rulers, and those the foremost in
the files of time—a Caesar, a Cromwell, a Napolean, have been unable to resist
their tinsel attractions. Mohammad was content with the reality; he cared not
for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping
with his public life. ‘God’, says AlBokhari, ‘offered him the keys of the
treasures of the earth, but he would not accept them’.”[8]
“Never has a man set for himself, voluntarily or
involuntarily, a more sublime aim, since this aim was superhuman: to subvert
superstitions which had been interposed between man and his Creator; to render
God unto man he and man unto God; to restore the rational and sacred idea of
divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured gods of idolatry, then
existing. Never has a man undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so
feeble means, for he (Muhammad) had in the conception as well as in the
execution of such a great design no other instrument than himself, and no other
aid, except a handful of men living in a corner of the desert. Finally, never
has a man accomplished such a huge and lasting revolution in the world, because
in less than two centuries after its appearance, Islam in faith and in arms,
reigned over the whole of Arabia, conquered, in God’s name, Persia, Khorasan,
Transoxania, Western India, Syria, Egypt, Abyssinia, all the known continent of
Northern Africa, numerous islands of the Mediterranean, Spain, and a part of
Gaul.
“If 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? The most famous men created arms,
laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material
powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. 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 the souls.
On the basis of
a Book, every letter of which has become law, he created a spiritual
nationality which blended together peoples of every tongue and of every race.
He has left for us as the indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality
the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and Immaterial God. This
avenging patriotism against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the
followers of Muhammad; the conquest of one-third of the earth to his dogma was
his miracle, or rather it was not the miracle of a man but that of reason. The
idea of the Unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of fabulous
theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon its utterance from his lips
it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the
world.
His life, his meditations, his heroic revilings against the
superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of
idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years at Makka, his acceptance
of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow
countrymen; all these and, finally, his flight, his incessant preaching, his
wars against odds, his faith in his success and his superhuman security in
fortune, 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 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. This dogma was two-fold, 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 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?”[9]
“… These Arabs, the man Mahomet and that one century,—is it
not as if a spark had fallen, one spark, on a world of what seemed black
unnoticeable sand; but lo! the sand proves explosive powder, blazes heaven-high
from Delhi to Grenada; I said the Great Man was always as lightning out of
heaven, the rest of the men waited for him like fuel, and then they too would
aflame.”[10]
“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 Supreme.”[11]
[1] Stanley Lane-Poole: The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet
Mohammad, Introduction, pp. 27-30.
[2] John Davenport: An Apology for Mohammad and the Koran, pp. 52-53.
[3] A. C. Bouquet: Comparative Religion, Penguin Books, Harmondsworth,
Middlesex, 1954, pp. 269-270.
[4] Washington Irving: Mahomet and his Successors, London 1909; pp.
192193, 199.
[5] Thomas, Carlyle: On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History,
p.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
PERSECUTION AND MIGRATION
FROM MAKKA:
“Muhammad’s message infuriated those rich Arabs whose faith
required many idols, and he and his new followers were driven from Makka, his
home.”[1]
AT MADINA:
“In little more than a year he was actually the spiritual,
nominal and temporal ruler of Madina, with his hand on the lever that was to
shake the world.”[2]
“… he became head of the state and the testimony even of his
enemies is that he administered wisely. The wisdom he displayed in judging
intricate cases became the basis for the religious law that governs Islam
today.”[3]
“… Forced now to fight in defence of the freedom of
conscience which he preached, he became an accomplished military leader.
Although he repeatedly went into battle outnumbered and outspeared as much as
five to one, he won some spectacular victories.”[4]
CONQUEST OF MAKKA:
“The day of Mohammad’s greatest triumph over his enemies was
also the day of his grandest victory over himself. He freely forgave the
Koraysh all the years of sorrow and cruel scorn in which they had afflicted him
and gave an amnesty to the whole population of Makka. Four criminals whom
justice condemned made up Mohammad’s proscription list when he entered as a
conqueror to the city of his bitterest enemies. The army followed his example,
and entered quietly and peacefully; no house was robbed, no women insulted. One
thing alone suffered destruction. Going to the Kaaba, Mohammad stood before
each of the three hundred and sixty idols, and pointed to it with his staff,
saying, ‘Truth is come and falsehood is fled away!’, and at these words his attendants
hewed them down, and all the idols and household gods of Makka and round about
were destroyed.”
“It was thus Mohammad entered again
his native city. Through all the annals of conquest there is no triumphant
entry comparable to this one.”[5]
“… in comparison, for example, with the cruelty of the
Crusaders, who, in 1099, put seventy thousand Muslims, men, women and helpless
children to death when Jerusalem fell into their hands; or with that of the
English army, also fighting under the Cross, which in the year of grace 1874
burned an African capital, in its war on the Gold Coast. Muhammad’s victory was
in very truth one of religion and not of politics; he rejected every token of
personal homage, and declined all regal authority; and when the haughty chiefs
of the Koreishites appeared before him he asked:
FAREWELL PILGRIMAGE AND A GREAT
SERMON ON HUMAN RIGHTS:
“A year before his death, at the end of the tenth year of the
Hegira, Muhammad made his last pilgrimage from Madina to Makka. He made then a
great sermon to his people … The reader will note that the first paragraph
sweeps away all plunder and blood feuds among the followers of Islam. The last
makes the believing Negro the equal of the Caliph … they established in the
world a great tradition of dignified fair dealing, they breathe a spirit of
generosity, and they are human and workable. They created a society more free
from widespread cruelty and social oppression than any society had ever been in
the world before.”[7]
Return To Companionship on High :
“… this very human prophet of God … had such a remarkable
personal influence over all with whom he was brought into contact that, neither
when a poverty-stricken and hunted fugitive, nor at the height of his
prosperity, did he ever have to complain of treachery from those who had once
embraced his faith. His confidence in himself, and in his inspiration from on
high, was ever greater when he was suffering under disappointment and defeat
than when he was able to dictate his own terms to his conquered enemies.
Muhammad died [8]
as he had lived, surrounded by his early followers, friends and votaries: his
death as devoid of mystery as his life of disguise.”[9]
[5] Stanley Lane-Poole: The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet
Mohammad, London 1882, Introduction, pp. 46, 47. (Bold lettering are the
present writer’s).
[6] Arthur Gilman: The Saracens, London 1887 pp. 184, 185.
[7] H.G. Wells: The Outline of History, London 1920, p. 325.
Quranic Foundations And Structure Of Muslim Society
BIRTH OF MUHAMMAD :
“Four years after the death of Justinian, 569 A.D.,[1]
was born at Makka, in Arabia, the man who, of all men, has exercised the
greatest influence upon the human race.”13
MUHAMMAD’S YOUTH:
“Our authorities”, says Muir, “all agree in ascribing to the
youth of Mohammad a modesty of deportment and purity of manners rare among the
people of Makka … Endowed with a refined mind and delicate taste, reserved and
meditative, he lived much within himself, and the ponderings of his heart no
doubt supplied occupation for leisure hours spent by others of a lower stamp in
rude sports and profligacy. The fair character and honorable bearing of the
unobtrusive youth won the approbation of his fellow-citizens; and he received
the title, by common consent, of Al-AmÊn, the Trustworthy.”14
“… Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous
of the poor and the needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the
downtrodden. At twenty he was already a successful businessman, and soon became
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 the older, he married her, and as long as she lived remained a
devoted husband."
13John William Draper: A
History of the Intellectual Development of Europe. London 1875, vol. 1 pp.
329-330.
14Sir William Muir: Life of
Mohammad, London 1903.
“By forty this man of the desert had secured for himself a
most satisfying life: a loving wife, fine children and wealth. Then in a series
of dramatic and terrifying events, he began to receive through the Archangel
Gabriel a revelation of God’s word.”[2]
UNFOLDING OF PROPHETIC CONSCIOUSNESS
AND THE CALL:
“Ah no!” says Carlyle, “this deep-hearted Son of the
Wilderness with his beaming black eyes and open social deep soul, had other
thoughts than ambition. A silent great man; he was one of those who cannot BUT
be in earnest; whom Nature herself has appointed to be sincere.
While others
walk in formulas and hearsays, contented enough to dwell there, this man could
not screen himself in formulas: he was alone with his own soul and the reality
of things. The great mystery of Existence, as I said, glared in upon him, with
its terrors, with its splendors; no hearsays could hide that unspeakable fact.
‘Here am I’; such SINCERITY as we name it, has in very truth something of
divine. The word of such a man is a Voice direct from Nature’s own Heart.
Men
do and must listen to that as to nothing else: all else is wind in comparison.
From of old, a thousand thoughts, in his pilgrimings and wanderings, had been
in this man. What am I? What is this unfathomable Thing I live in, which men
name Universe? What is Life; What is Death? What am I to believe? What am I to
do? The grim rocks of Mount Hira, of Mount Sinai, the stern sandy solitudes,
answered not. The great Heaven rolling silent overhead with its blue glancing
stars, answered not. There was no answer. The man’s own soul, and what of God’s
inspiration dwelt there, had to answer.”[3]
“Certainly he had two of the most important characteristics
of the prophetic order. He saw truth about God which his fellowmen did not see,
and he had an irresistible inward impulse to publish this truth. In respect of
this latter qualification, Mohammed may stand in comparison with the most
courageous of the heroic prophets of Israel. For the truth’s sake he risked his
life, he suffered daily persecution for years, and eventually banishment, the
loss of property, of the goodwill of his fellow-citizens, and of the confidence
of his friends; he suffered, in short, as much as any man can suffer short of
death, which he only escaped by flight, and yet he unflinchingly proclaimed his
message. No bribe, threat or inducement, could silence him. ‘Though they array
against me the sun on the right hand and the moon on the left, I cannot
renounce my purpose’. And it was this persistency, this belief in his call, to
proclaim the unity of God, which was the making of Islam.
“Other men have been monotheists in the midst of idolaters,
but no other man has founded a strong and enduring monotheistic religion. The
distinction in his case was his resolution that other men should believe. If we
ask what it was that made Mohammed proselytizing where other men had been
content to cherish a solitary faith, we must answer that it was nothing else
than the depth and force of his own conviction of the truth. To himself the
difference between one God and many, between the unseen Creator and those ugly
lumps of stone or wood, was simply infinite. The one creed was death and
darkness to him, the other life and light … Who can doubt the earnestness of
that search after truth and the living God, that drove the affluent merchant
from his comfortable home and his fond wife, to make his abode for months at a
time in the dismal cave of Mount Hira? If we respect the shrinking of Isaiah or
Jeremiah from the heavy task of proclaiming unwelcome truth, we must also
respect the keen sensitiveness of Mohammed, who was so burdened by this
responsibility…”[4]
“… we feel that the words which he (Muhammad) speaks are not
the words of an ordinary man. They have their immediate source in the inner
reality of things, since he lives in constant fellowship with this reality.”[5]
FIRST CONVERTS :
“It is strongly corroborative of
Mohammed’s sincerity that the earliest converts to Islam were his bosom friends
and the people of his household, who, all intimately acquainted with his
private life, could not fail to have detected those discrepancies which more or
less invariably exist between the pretensions of the hypocritical deceiver and
his actions at home.”[6]
