During the centuries of the crusades, all sorts of slanders were invented against the Prophet Muhammad. But with the establishment of freedom of thought and expression and religious tolerance there has been a great change and different views in the approach of Western authors in their delineation of Muhammad's life and character. The views of some non-Muslim scholars regarding Prophet Muhammad may justify this attitude.
However, the West still has to go a step forward to discover the greatest reality about the Prophet Muhammad who is the last link of the chain of Prophets sent in different lands and times since the very beginning of the human life on this planet.
In this article, the quotes of Edward Gibbon, Reverend Bosworth Smith and Annie Besant are presented.
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Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. Gibbon's work has been criticized for its aggressively scathing view of Christianity. Gibbon's apparent antagonism to Christian doctrine spilled over into the Jewish faith, inevitably leading to charges of anti-Semitism.
1) What Edward Gibbon said about Muhammad?
"It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our wonder, the same pure and perfect impression which he (Muhammad) engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran. . .
The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man. 'I believe in One God and Mahomet the Apostle of God' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honors 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."
Source: Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay, the Prophet of Islam in the, HISTORY OF THE SARACEN EMPIRE, London, 1870, p. 54, (Translated to German, Spanish, Chinese, Arabic, and Hebrew).
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Annie Besant (1847 –1933); she was a prominent Theosophist, women's rights activist, writer and orator.
2) What Annie Besant said about Muhammad?
"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."
Source: Annie Besant, THE LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF MUHAMMAD, Madras, 1932, p. 4.
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Last but not least,
3) What Reverend Bosworth Smith said about Muhammad?
"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. He cared not for the dressings of power. The simplicity of his private life was in keeping with his public life." "
"In Mohammadanism every thing is different here. Instead of the shadowy and the mysterious, we have history....We know of the external history of Muhammad....while for his internal history after his mission had been proclaimed, we have a book absolutely unique in its origin, in its preservation....on the Substantial authority of which no one has ever been able to cast a serious doubt."
Source: Reverend Bosworth Smith, MOHAMMAD AND MOHAMMADANISM, London, 1874, p. 92.
