Muhammad (PBUH) – The Final Messenger
“Muhammad, … was born about A.D. 570 into an Arabian tribe that worshiped idols. Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden. …”Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God’s word, sensing his own inadequacy. But the angel commanded ‘Read’. So far as we know, Muhammad was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those inspired words which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth: “There is one God.”
James A. Michener, ‘Islam: The Misunderstood Religion’ in Reader’s Digest, May 1955, pp. 68-70.
“…I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and his own mission. These, and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every trouble.”
Gandhi – Young India, 1924.
“I believe if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring much needed peace and happiness. I have studied him – the man and in my opinion is far from being an anti-Christ. He must be called the Savior of Humanity. I have prophesied about the faith of Mohammad that it would be acceptable the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”
George Bernard Shaw – The Genuine Islam Vol. No. 8, 1936.
“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 an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.”
Montgomery Watt – Mohammad at Mecca, Oxford 1953.
“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?”
Lamartine – Histoire de la Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol II, pp. 276-77.
“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 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 Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and
without its supports.”
Rev. Bosworth Smith, Mohammed and Mohammadanism, London 1874, p. 92.
“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 the Supreme. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.”
Annie Besant, The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, pp 4.
The lies (Western slander) which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man (Muhammed) are disgraceful to ourselves only… How one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades… A silent great soul, one of that who cannot but be earnest. He was to kindle the world; the world’s Maker had ordered so.”
Thomas Caryle – Heros and Heros Worship.
“I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of Quran which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness.”
Napolean Bonaparte – Christian Cherfils BONAPARTE ET ISLAM (PARIS 1914).