THE HERO PROPHET Muhammad the Greatest

THE HERO PROPHET

Carlyle was a man of genius and God gifted him with the art of articulation. In his own way, he wanted to put the records straight. He planned to deliver a lecture and he chose a very provocative topic "The hero as Prophet." and he chose this hero-prophet to be the most maligned man of his time, "MUHAMMAD (PBUH)!" Not Moses, David, Solomon, or Jesus but Muhammad! To placate his overwhelming Anglican (belonging to the Church of England) fellow countrymen, he apologised - "AS THERE IS NO DANGER OF OUR BECOMING, ANY OF US, MAHOMETANS, I MEAN TO SAY ALL THE GOOD OF HIM I JUSTLY CAN."

In other words he, as well as his elite audience were free from the fear of converting to Islam, and could take a chance in paying some compliments to Muhammad (pbuh). If he had any fears regarding the strength of their faith, he would not have taken that chance. In an era of hatred and spite towards everything Islamic and to an audience full of scepticism and cynicism, Carlyle unfolded many a glowing truth about his hero - Muhammad (pbuh) "To the praise-worthy," indeed be praise. 

For that is what the very name Muhammad means - the Praised One - the Praiseworthy. There are times when Carlyle uses words and expressions, which might not be too pleasing to the believing Muslim, but one has to forgive him as he was walking a cultural tightrope, and he succeeded eminently. He Paid our hero many ardent and enthusiastic tribute, and defended him from the false charges and calumnies of his enemies, exactly as the Prophet had done in the case of Jesus (pbuh) and his mother.

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To Be Continued....

FROM THE HISTORICAL PAST Muhammad the Greatest

Chapter 2

FROM THE HISTORICAL PAST

It is not difficult to reproduce a further dozen or more eulogies by the admirers and critics of Muhammad (pbuh). Despite all their objectivity, jaundiced minds can always conjure up some aspersions. Let me take my readers deep down in past history.

It was Friday the 8th of May, 1840, that is about a hundred and fifty years ago, at a time when it was a sacrilege to say anything good about Muhammad (pbuh), and the Christian West was rained to hate the man Muhammad (pbuh) and his religion, the same way as dogs were at one stage trained in my country to hate all black people. At that time in history, Thomas Carlyle, one of the greatest thinkers of the past century delivered a series of lectures under the theme - "Heroes and Hero-worship."

DEVELOPED SICKNESS

Carlyle exposed this blind prejudice of his people at the beginning of his talk. He made reference to one of the literary giants a Dutch scholar and statesman, by the name of Hugo Grotius, [From page 57 of the book - "On Heroes Hero-worship and the Heroic in History" by Thomas Carlyle, London 1959.] who had written a bitter and abusive invective against the prophet of Islam. He had falsely charged that the Holy Prophet had trained pigeons to pick out peas from his ears, so that he could by this trick bluff his people that the Holy Ghost in the shape of a dove was revealing God's Revelation to him, which he then had them recorded in his Bible the Qur’ân. Perhaps Grotius was inspired into this fairy-tale from his reading of his own Holy Scriptures: 'Then, Jesus, when he had been baptized (by John the Baptist in the Jordan River), came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God Descending Like A Dove and alighting upon him. (Emphasis added) Matthew 3:16

WHERE'S THE AUTHORITY

Pococke, another respected intellectual of the time, like "doubting Thomas" (John 20:25), wanted proof about Muhammad (pbuh), the pigeons, and the peas? Grotius answered "THAT THERE WAS NO PROOF!" He just felt like inventing this story for his audience. To him and his audience the "pigeons and peas" theory was more plausible than that of the Archangel dictating to Muhammad (pbuh). These falsities wringed the heart of Carlyle. He cried: "THE LIES, WHICH WELL-MEANING ZEAL HAS HEAPED ROUND THIS MAN, ARE DISGRACEFUL TO OURSELVES ONLY." Thomas Carlyle

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To Be Continued....

SHARE THE ANGER

SHARE THE ANGER
 

Before anyone assails the Professor of undue bias and "bribery," let me give them a few more names of admirers of Muhammad (pbuh).

1. "MUHUMMAD WAS THE SOUL OF KINDNESS, AND HIS INFLUENCE WAS FELT AND NEVER FORGOTTEN BY THOSE AROUND HIM." A Hindu scholar - Diwan Chand Sharma in his "The Prophets of the East," Calcutta 1935, p. 122.

2. "FOUR YEARS AFTER THE DEATH OF JUSTINIAN, A.D. 569, WAS BORN AT MAKKAH, IN ARABIA THE MAN WHO, OF ALL MEN EXERCISED THE GREATEST INFLUENCE UPON THE HUMAN RACE … MOHAMMED ..." John William Draper, M.D., LLD., in his "A History of the lntellectual Development of Europe",- London 1875.

3. "I DOUBT WHETHER ANY MAN WHOSE EXTERNAL CONDITIONS CHANGED SO MUCH EVER CHANGED HIMSELF LESS TO MEET THEM." R. V. C. Bodley in "The Messenger,"- London 1946, p.9.

4. "I HAVE STUDIED HIM - THE WONDERFUL MAN - AND IN MY OPINION FAR FROM BEING AN ANTICHRIST, HE MUST BE CALLED THE SAVIOUR OF HUMANITY." George Bernard Shaw, in "The Genuine Islam",- Vol. 1, No. 81936.

5. "BY A FORTUNE ABSOLUTELY UNIQUE IN HISTORY, MOHAMMED IS A THREEFOLD FOUNDER OF A NATION, OF AN EMPIRE, AND OF A RELIGION." R. Bosworth-Smith in "Mohammed and Mohammedanism".- 1946.  

6. "MOHAMMED WAS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL OF ALL RELIGIOUS PERSONALITIES." Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th Edition

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To Be Continued....

WHAT SAY THE SCEPTICS?

WHAT SAY THE SCEPTICS?

• Michael H. Hart put Muhammad No. 1 on his list and his own Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ (pbuh) No. 3.Why? -"He was bribed!"(?) 

• William McNeill considers Muhammad as worthy of honour in his list of the first three names of his. Why? "He was bribed!" (?) 

• James Gavin puts Muhammad (pbuh) before Christ (pbuh). Why? "He was bribed!" (?) 

• James Masserman adjudges Muhammad (pbuh) No. 1 and his own hero Moses (pbuh) a close second. Why? "He was bribed!" (?) 

"ARE WE TO SUPPOSE THAT ALL THE GLOWING ADULATION OF MUHAMMAD (PBUH) WAS A MISERABLE PIECE OF INTELLECTUAL LEGERDEMAIN, HOCUS POCUS . . . I, FOR MY PART, CANNOT FORM ANY SUCH SUPPOSITION ... ONE WOULD BE ENTIRELY AT A LOSS WHAT TO THINK OF MANKIND AT ALL IF QUACKERY SO GREW AND

FLOURISHED IN THE WORLD."

Yet the scoffers bemoan anyone who has anything good to say about Muhammad (pbuh) or Islam AS HAVING BEEN BRIBED by the Arabs! They are giving too much credit to my brethren. I repeat: "It is possible, but it is improbable!"

During the Second World War, Norway produced only one "Quisling." He was tried for treason and executed. It is unlikely that America and the Western world have just reached puberty to spawn a breed of Quislings nurtured by hot petrodollars from the Middle East. Please do not demean your honest, courageous men, who without fear or favour are prepared to suffer obloquy for their convictions. We must all admire them! We can now justifiably conclude that the God of Mercy, Who forever recognises the sincere efforts of His servants, is only fulfilling His Promise to Muhammad (pbuh), His Chosen Messenger - 
 

AND HAVE WE NOT RAISED HIGH THE ESTEEM (IN WHICH) THOU (ARE HELD)?  

Noble Qur’ân 94:4

Alternative renderings:

(a) Have We not exalted thy fame?

(b) And have We not raised thy name for thee?

(c) Have We not given you high renown?

Friends and foes alike, as if by some secret compulsion are made to pay unsolicited tributes to this mighty Messenger of God. But the Almighty commanders even the devil into His service, as He had done in the time of Jesus (pbuh), (Matthew 4:1 -11). Even the devil sometimes speaks Gospel truths. 

Professor K. S. Ramakrishna Rao, a Hindu philosopher in his book "MUHUMMED - The Prophet of lslam", quotes the arch devil himself, yes, Adolf Hitler, to prove the unique greatness of Muhammad (pbuh). The Professor, like Jules Masserman who had evaluated the Prophet of Islam on three grounds also saw in Hitler's "Mein Kamp!" a three faceted jewel, a rare commodity which he found in our hero under discussion. Quoting Hitler, he says:

"A GREAT THEORIST IS SELDOM A GREAT LEADER. AN AGITATOR IS FAR MORE LIKELY TO POSSESS THESE QUALITIES. HE WILL ALWAYS BE A BETTER LEADER. FOR, LEADERSHIP MEANS THE ABILITY TO MOVE MASSES OF MEN. THE TALENT TO PRODUCE IDEAS HAS NOTHING IN COMMON WITH THE CAPACITY FOR LEADERSHIP." HITLER CONTINUES, "THE UNION OF THE THEORIST, ORGANISER, AND LEADER IN ONE MAN IS THE RAREST PHENOMENON ON THIS EARTH; THEREIN CONSISTS GREATNESS." PROFESSOR RAO CONCLUDES, IN HIS OWN WORDS, "IN THE PERSON OF THE PROPHET OF ISLAM THE WORLD HAS SEEN THIS RAREST PHENOMENON ON EARTH, WALKING IN FLESH AND BLOOD."

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To Be Continued....