Muhammad (pbuh) had no bread nor meat to offer, no sugar-plums of any kind, in this world or the next! The only thing he could offer his bedraggled, poor shepherd people was trial and tribulations and the straitjacketing of their lives here on earth and the good pleasures of God in the Hereafter. The life of the Prophet was an open book before them. He had shown them as to what he was; the nobility of his character, his integrity of purpose, his earnestness and fiery enthusiasm for the truth he had come to preach revealed the hero; and they followed him.
Mr. Stanley Lane Poole's estimate of our hero is so beautiful and yet so truthful that I cannot resist the temptation of quoting it here:
HE
WAS AN ENTHUSIAST IN THAT NOBLEST SENSE WHEN ENTHUSIASM BECOMES THE
SALT OF THE
EARTH, THE ONE THING THAT KEEPS 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
MOHAMMED. 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 LIFESPRING.
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, WHOSE ROOTS LAY IN THE
KNOW-LEDGE OF HIS
OWN WEAKNESS."
It
may easily be conceded that Muhammad (pbuh) was blessed with the
flimsiest of human resources. In fact
the odds were loaded against him.
But what about his fortune towards the end of his earthly sojourn?
He was
the overlord of the whole of Arabia! What about the endless means at
his disposal then? We will allow a
Christian missionary to answer
that -
HE
WAS CAESAR AND POPE IN ONE, BUT HE WAS POPE WITHOUT THE POPE'S
PRETENTIONS, AND
CAESAR WITHOUT THE LEGIONS OF
CAESAR: WITHOUT A STANDING ARMY, WITHOUT A
BODYGUARD, 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
POWERS WITHOUT ITS INSTRUMENTS
AND WITHOUT ITS SUPPORTS."
R. Bosworth Smith Mohammad
and
Mohammadanism",
London
1874,
p.92
To Be Continued....
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