GENUINENESS OF FAITH IN HIS DIVINE MISSION

  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] 

 

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[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.

[6] James A. Michener, op. cit. 

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to be continued . . . . .