MUHAMMAD - THE GREATEST MAN IN HISTORY

PROPHET MUHAMMAD (PEACE BE UPON HIM)

- THE GREATEST MAN IN HISTORY -

By DR AMIR FARID ISAHAK

IN THE NAME OF GOD, MOST GRACIOUS, MOST COMPASSIONATE

There were many great men and women in history. By the opinions of their own people or followers, every one of them would have been proclaimed the greatest in history. But it is only objective and valid if we look at the opinions of those who were not their followers, so that there were no elements of bias. This does not mean that their followers could not give accurate assessments, but objective and independent inquiry require that these opinions be regarded with suspicion, and can only be included as additional information.

Following various criteria of greatness, different scholars would still have different opinions about who excelled most in the different fields of human endeavour. If we then combine the opinions of reputable scholars and historians, and find that in their assessment, one person outshines others and keeps appearing in their choice of being the best or among the best in many fields, then that person is indeed the greatest person in history.

Below are some quotes of opinions and assessments of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him (PBUH), made by non-Muslim scholars, thinkers and historians, that would justify my claim that indeed he was The Greatest Man in History.

You may not agree with their opinions and conclusions. However, you cannot afford to ignore this man after reading the list of accolades given by non-Muslims who had nothing to gain by being untruthful in their praises of him. The list mentioned here is only a small portion of a bigger list of commendations.

There are of course many who have also written negatively about him, but none of these critics come close to be considered as serious scholars or historians. Those who have unfairly ridiculed him have found that the Muslims truly love their Prophet, and will react accordingly. Unfortunately, to this day, most non-Muslims still do not grasp how much the Muslims really love Muhammad (PBUH), and why they become so emotionally affected when he is ridiculed. He is also among the most-loved human beings.

In the quotations below, some early Western writers mistakenly used the word Muhammadanism for Islam. Additionally, even those who praised him often erroneously followed the general Western story that Islam was spread by the sword - which has also been denied by many modern non-Muslim scholars. We must realize that history is according to who wrote it, and we have been fed with only the Western ( Christian ) version of history until recent times. The Christian West not only distorted Islam, it also demonized Muhammad (PBUH).

WHAT NON-MUSLIM SCHOLARS/THINKERS/HISTORIANS SAID ABOUT MUHAMMAD (PBUH)

1) THERE IS NO MAN IN HISTORY GREATER THAN MUHAMMAD - Lamartine (1854),
Alphonse de Lamartine, the renowned French historian, when speaking on the essentials of human greatness, wrote:

"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 imposed between man and his Creator, to render God unto man 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, and 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 Sea, Spain, and part of Gaul.”

"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare compare any great man in 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, 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 which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blends together peoples of every tongue and race. He has left 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 the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or rather it was not the miracle of man but that of reason.”

"The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of the fabulous theologies, was in itself such a miracle that upon it's 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 revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in Mecca, 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 misfortune, 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 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 the 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.11, pp 276- 277).

Prof. K. S. Ramakrishna Rao,
Head of the Department of Philosophy,Government College for Women University of Mysore, Mandya-571401 (Karnatika).
(Re-printed from "Islam and Modern age", Hydrabad, March 1978):

“The personality of Mohammad! It is most difficult to get into the truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes. There is Mohammad the Prophet, there is Mohammad the General; Mohammad the King; Mohammad the Warrior; Mohammad the Businessman; Mohammad the Preacher; Mohammad the Philosopher; Mohammad the Statesman; Mohammad the Orator; Mohammad the reformer; Mohammad the Refuge of orphans; Mohammad the Protector of slaves; Mohammad the Emancipator of women; Mohammad the Law-giver; Mohammad the Judge; Mohammad the Saint.
And in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is like, a hero."

Descartes:
“The Union of theorists, organizer and leader in one man, is the rarest phenomenon on this earth; Therein consists greatness… In the person of the Prophet of Islam the world has seen this rarest phenomenon walking on the earth, walking in flesh and blood”.


Reverend Bosworth Smith:
"Head of the state as well as the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but, he was pope without the pope's claims, 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 a right divine It was Mohammad..”

J.W.H. Stab:
“Judged by the smallness of the means at his disposal, and the extent and permanence of the work that he accomplished, his name in world's history shines with a more specious lustre than that of the Prophet of Makkah. To the impulse which he gave numberless dynasties have owed their existence, fair cities and stately palaces and temples have arisen, and wide provinces became obedient to the Faith. And beyond all this, his words have governed the belief of generations, been accepted as their rule of life, and their certain guide to the world to come. At a thousand shrines the voices of the faithful invoke blessings on him, whom they esteem the very Prophet of God, the seal of the Apostles.... Judged by the standards to human renown, the glory of what mortal can compare with his?”
(J.W.H. Stab in 'Islam and its Founder')

2) MUHAMMAD WAS THE GREATEST LEADER IN HISTORY - Jules Masserman,
 TIME Magazine, 15 July 1974
Prof Jules Masserman, a Jewish scholar, was asked by Time Magazine to evaluate the greatest leaders in history. His conclusion?

“Leaders must fulfill three functions —provide for the well-being of the led, provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure, and provide them with one set of beliefs. People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same”.
(Jules Masserman in 'Who Were History’s Great Leaders?' TIME Magazine, 15 July 1974)

3) MUHAMMAD WAS THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PERSON IN HISTORY – Dr William Draper (1874) & Michael Hart (1978)

Dr. William Draper (1874) wrote:

“Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born in Mecca, in Arabia, the man who, of all men, has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race... To be the religious head of many empires, to guide the daily life of one-third of the human race, may perhaps justify the title of a Messenger of God.”
(Dr. William Draper in 'History of the Intellectual Development of Europe' 1874, 5th Edition)

Over 100 years later, Michael H. Hart (1978) wrote:

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the secular and religious levels. ...It is probable that the relative influence of Muhammad on Islam has been larger than the combined influence of Jesus Christ and St. Paul on Christianity. ...It is this unparalleled combination of secular and religious influence which I feel entitles Muhammad to be considered the most influential single figure in human history.”
(M H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York, 1978, pp. 33)

4) MUHAMMAD IS THE MOST SUCCESSFUL RELIGIOUS PERSONALITY IN THE WORLD – Encyclopedia Brittanica.

The Encyclopedia Britannica calls him "the most successful of all prophets and religious personalities of the world."

5) MUHAMMAD IS THE SAVIOUR OF HUMANITY- George Bernard Shaw (1936)

"If any religion had the chance of ruling over England, nay Europe within the next hundred years, it could be Islam."

“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion for from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity."

"I believe that 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 it the much needed peace and happiness: I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”

(Sir George Bernard Shaw in 'The Genuine Islam,' Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936).

6) MUHAMMAD FOUNDED THE FIRST LEAGUE OF NATIONS – Prof C. Snouck Hurgronje

Prof. Hurgronje: "The League of Nations founded by the prophet of Islam put the principle of international unity and human brotherhood on such universal foundations as to show candle to other nations ... the fact is that no nation of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has done towards the realization of the idea of the League of Nations." The world has not hesitated to raise to divinity individuals whose lives and missions have been lost in legend. Historically speaking, none of these legends achieved even a fraction of what Muhammad accomplished. And all of his striving was for the sole purpose of uniting mankind for the worship of the one God on the codes of moral excellence. Muhammad or his followers never at any time claimed that he was a son of God, a God-incarnate, or a man having a divine nature - he always was and is even today considered as only a human messenger chosen by God.

7) MORE GLOWING PRAISES BY MANY NON-MUSLIM SCHOLARS

8) AN EULOGY BY EMPEROR HONG WU (FOUNDER OF THE MING DYNASTY) WHO WAS NOT A MUSLIM

The Chinese Emperor’s Poem About the Prophet Muhammad (saw)

Hong-Wu (also known by his given name Zhū Yuánzhāng) was the Emperor of China between 1368 – 1398 CE. He was the first Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, leading an Army that conquered the country and defeated away the Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty.

Despite being a non-Muslim, Hong-Wu ordered the construction of several mosques in Nanjing, Yunnan, Guangdong and Fujian. He rebuilt the Jinjue Mosque in Nanjing and large numbers of Hui (Muslim Chinese) people moved to the city during his rule.

The eulogy is in the form of a poem, each verse containing 4 words (characters) and 4 syllables. The below translation has strayed away from trying to keep the 4 word per verse translation in favor of a more literal translation which conveys the full meaning in flowing English.

CONCLUSION

Could it be a coincidence that a man from the Arabian desert who claimed to be the chosen last Prophet and Messenger of GOD to deliver the Final Revelation (Qur’an) and to teach humanity the true religion of GOD (Islam); and who GOD honours in the Qur’an as “The best example for mankind to follow” actually was objectively and scholarly judged by many unbiased non-Muslim critics to be the most influential man, the most successful secular and spiritual personality, the man who accomplished most as a human being, the greatest leader, the saviour of mankind, and therefore the greatest man who ever lived?

Was it also a coincidence that he was the first leader ever in the history of mankind to establish a nation-state with a written constitution (The Medina Constitution) and his teachings led to the establishment of the first league of nations, in accordance to his claimed divine mission to unite mankind in the worship of the one GOD under the guidance of the religion of peace through submission to GOD (Islam)?

Or is it because he actually was the last prophet and messenger that he claimed to be, who understood and practised perfectly the religion of GOD that he was chosen to teach and lead by example?

Indeed if religion is the guidance or way of life for a human’s existence in this world, then the founder or prophet of the true religion of GOD must become the greatest and most successful human being, and nothing less. Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was exemplary in all the important spheres of human life. He had indeed proven his claim to be true!

Whoever you are, whatever you believe in, you must know about him, and about the message he preached and practised that made him the greatest human being. There are other great teachers who taught great things, but the greatest message was only taught by the greatest man. And that message is Islam.

[ This is an introductory part of an article on the life, mission and greatness of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), which will be available later ]