Muhammad

"Mohammed used to go with his foster-brother to feed the family flocks. One day his foster-brother returned home and announced that some one had attacked his brother. They all started out, and found Mohammed, who told them that some one had come with a golden cup filled with snow, had cut open his breast and taken out his heart and cleansed it, removing a black clot."

"I always took the view — contrary to most previous scholars of Islam — that the Quran was not something that Muhammad had consciously produced. For long, however, I hesitated to speak of him as a prophet, because Muslims would have taken this to mean that everything in the Quran was finally and absolutely true, which was something I did not believe. More recently, however, I have said that Muhammad is a prophet comparable to the Old Testament prophets, though with a different task, namely, to bring the knowledge of God to people without such knowledge, whereas their task was mainly to criticize the conduct of those who already believed in God."

"Since the creation of the universe"

"The universe began with the heavenly tablet recording his name."

"If we judge greatness by influence, he was one of the giants of history."

"Muhammad was the soul of kindness, and his influence was felt and never forgotten by those around him."

"The Prophet Muhammad at God's behest, called men to the worship of one God and proclaimed that, by responding to this call, mankind would achieve true dignity, honour, prosperity and happiness. Within an astonishingly brief period, and over vast areas which were in the grip of ignorance, darkness and confusion were finally dispelled, order was established and all manner of beneficent institutions sprang into life, a high moral order was set up and the blessings of knowledge, learning and science began to be widely diffused. The strength of this message was its crystal clear simplicity and marvelous easiness, for Islam reached out to the soul of the people without having recourse to long explanations and involved sermons. Thanks to this message, bringing the ideals of tauhid, resalat, peace and harmony, paganism in its various forms was defeated, and human dignity finally became a reality. Islam taught right thinking, proper action and honest speaking, and for these reasons it found its way, without any difficulty, into both the minds and hearts of men."

"If it is possible to write a biography of Muhammad, it is because one does not adopt a critical approach to the texts. And if one wants to adopt a critical approach to the texts, the attempt becomes simply impossible."

""I BELIEVE IN ONE GOD, AND MOHAMED, AN 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 honor of the Prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtues; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion."

"Muhammad was a prince; he rallied his compatriots around him. In a few years, the Muslims conquered half of the world. They plucked more souls from false gods, knocked down more idols, razed more pagan temples in fifteen years than the followers of Moses and Jesus did in fifteen centuries. Muhammad was a great man. He would indeed have been a god, if the revolution that he had performed had not been prepared by the circumstances."

"I have seen the light of Muhammad (with my mind's eye). I have seen the prophet and the messenger of God, in other words, I have understood his message or imbibed his spirit. After contemplating the glory of God, my ego was completely eliminated."

"I regard Mohammed as a great man, who solved a political problem of appalling difficulty, — the construction of a state and an empire out of the Arab tribes. I have endeavored, in recounting the mode in which he accomplished this, to do justice to his intellectual ability and to observe towards him the respectful attitude which his greatness deserves."

"God made your praise and uttered your glorification"

"the full moon dwindles when seeing the beauty of Muhammad."

"To speak any word but your name"

"No better leaders guiding you on the Path of God"

"Glad tidings of the Guide and his birth spread east and west,"

"God conveyed you by night to the Farthest Mosque,"

"He brought his community from darkness to light, and afforded shadow for them when the sun was burning bright; Muhammad, God's messenger and closest friend, his prime choice among his creatures, the best one ever created by God and His proof on His earth; he, guiding to His truth and alerting to His wisdom and calling to His guidance; he whose birth was blessed and whose arrival was fortunate; radiant is his morning light and glowing his lamp at night; he, whose wars are victorious and whose sermons are glorious,..."

"Another of the auspicious omens predicting my future greatness, was this: in a dream I saw the Prophet Muhammad, "on whom be the Grace of God," who congratulated me and said, "in consequence of the support you have given to my descendants, the Almighty has decreed that seventy-two of your posterity shall sit on the throne of Sovereignty." When I awoke, I wrote all the particulars of this dream to my Peer, he replied by letter, "I congratulate you on this dream, your having seen the Prophet, (on whom be the grace of God), proves that you will certainly obtain numerous victories and that many happy consequences will arise from this dream.""

"During the revision of their scriptures, Hindus inserted the names of Muhammad (PBUH) as Kalki Avatar, Narashansa, Muhammad and Mamha Rishi in Hindu scriptures to please the Muslim rulers during the Islamic rule. According to Sultan Mubin, a professor of Sanskrit at Shibli College, these are fabrications and later additions by Hindus. Hindus included these in Muslim scriptures to please the Muslim rulers, such as the Kalki Purana and Bhavishya Purana, which contain many prophecies on Islamic matters. The reasoning behind this is that most of the Hindu scriptures were translated into Arabic in the Baitul Hikmah during the reign of Caliph Mamun bin Al Rashid, but no writer of that time mentioned anything about these prophecies in any of their books. For example, he mentions the Arabic translation of Al-Biruni's Bharatattva ("Tahqiq Ma Lil Hind Min Qaqulat Mayqulat Fi Aliaql Aw Marzula") and two other Hindu scriptures, neither of which mentions any of these prophecies."

"Ziaur Rahman Ajmi, Fusulun Fi Adiyanil Hind."

": Dillu Ram Kausuri, Dillu Ram Kausari: The Hindu poet who composed eulogies for the Prophet Muhammad published by Firstpost, December 1, 2017."

"Since the coming of Jesus Christ, Mahometanism has overspread a great part of the barbarous world. But this carries in it such apparent and certain marks of falsity, that it can be no temptation to any person in whom there is but a spark of good sense...The author from whom it was derived: a robber, one drenched in sensuality, and therefore utterly unqualified to be the revealer of the will of the holy God to men..."

"Not a few of the false prophets—for instance, Mahomet—without premeditated foresight, have by slow and imperceptible degrees gained over parties of retainers, and afterwards deceived both themselves and others: accordingly, the circumstances of their birth and their condition, in their early years, are in the case of such impostors unknown, unworthy of trust, and fictitious."

"But do you mean to tell me that the man who in the full flush of youthful vigour, a young man of four and twenty, married a woman much his senior, and remained faithful to her for six and twenty years, at fifty years of age when the passions are dying married for lust and sexual passion? Not thus are men's lives to be judged. And you look at the women whom he married, you will find that by every one of them an alliance was made for his people, or something was gained for his followers, or the woman was in sore need of protection... It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knew 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 reread them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher."

"How one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades? The lies which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man are disgraceful to ourselves only. A silent great soul, one of that who cannot but be in earnest. He was to kindle the world; the Worlds Maker had ordered so."

"It is a great shame for any one to listen to the accusation that Islaam is a lie and that Muhammad was a fabricator and a deceiver. We saw that he remained steadfast upon his principles, with firm determination; kind and generous, compassionate, pious, virtuous, with real manhood, hardworking and sincere. Besides all these qualities, he was lenient with others, tolerant, kind, cheerful and praiseworthy and perhaps he would joke and tease his companions. He was just, truthful, smart, pure, magnanimous and present-minded; his face was radiant as if he had lights within him to illuminate the darkest of nights; he was a great man by nature who was not educated in a school nor nurtured by a teacher as he was not in need of any of this."

"By the false prophet, is sometimes meant the Pope and his clergy; but here an eye seems to be had to Mahomet, whom his followers call the great prophet of God."

"I wanted to know the best of one who holds today undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind ... 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 in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle."

"The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and language: the discourse of a philosopher would vibrate without effect on the ear of a peasant; yet how minute is the distance of their understandings, if it be compared with the contact of an infinite and a finite mind, with the word of God expressed by the tongue or the pen of a mortal! The inspiration of the Hebrew prophets, of the apostles and evangelists of Christ, might not be incompatible with the exercise of their reason and memory; and the diversity of their genius is strongly marked in the style and composition of the books of the Old and New Testament. But Mahomet was content with a character, more humble, yet more sublime, of a simple editor; the substance of the Koran. ... In the spirit of enthusiasm or vanity, the prophet [Muhammad] rests the truth of his mission on the merit of his book; audaciously challenges both men and angels to imitate the beauties of a single page; and presumes to assert that God alone could dictate this incomparable performance. This argument is most powerfully addressed to a devout Arabian, whose mind is attuned to faith and rapture; whose ear is delighted by the music of sounds; and whose ignorance is incapable of comparing the productions of human genius. The harmony and copiousness of style will not reach, in a version, the European infidel: he will peruse with impatience the endless incoherent rhapsody of fable, and precept, and declamation, which seldom excites a sentiment or an idea, which sometimes crawls in the dust, and is sometimes lost in the clouds. The divine attributes exalt the fancy of the Arabian missionary; but his loftiest strains must yield to the sublime simplicity of the book of Job, composed in a remote age, in the same country, and in the same language. If the composition of the Koran exceed the faculties of a man to what superior intelligence should we ascribe the Iliad of Homer, or the Philippics of Demosthenes? In all religions, the life of the founder supplies the silence of his written revelation."

"He is a prophet and not a poet and therefore his Koran is to be seen as Divine Law, and not as a book of a human being made for education or entertainment."

"My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential persons may surprise some readers may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular 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. On the purely religious level, then, it seems likely that Muhammad has been as influential in human history as Jesus. Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a religious leader. In fact, as the driving force behind the Arab conquests, he may well rank as the most influential political leader of all time. Of many important historical events, one might say that they were inevitable and would have occurred even without the particular political leader who guided them. For example, the South American colonies would probably have won their independence from Spain even if Simon Bolivar had never lived. But this cannot be said of the Arab conquests. Nothing similar had occurred before Muhammad, and there is no reason to believe that the conquests would have been achieved without him. The only comparable conquests in human history are those of the Mongols in the thirteenth century, which were primarily due to the influence of Genghis Khan. These conquests, however, though more extensive than those of the Arabs, did not prove permanent, and today the only areas occupied by the Mongols are those that they held prior to the time of Genghis Khan. ... the Arab conquests of the seventh century have continued to play an important role in human history, down to the present day. 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."

"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."

"Anas reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "No young man honours an old man on account of his age without Allah decreeing for him one who will honour him in his old age.""

"'Amr ibn Shu'ayb's grandfather said, "The Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Anyone who does not show mercy to our young people nor honour our old people is not one of us.""

"Jabir reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Every right thing is sadaqa.""

"Abu Usayd Malik ibn Rabi'a as-Sa'idi said, "Once while we were sitting with the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, a man from the Banu Salama came up and asked, 'O Messenger of Allah, is there any devotion to my parents which I can show them after their death?' He said, 'Yes, praying for them, asking forgiveness for them, fulfilling their pledges after them, maintaining ties with relations which are only maintained through them, and honouring any friend of theirs." [Abu Dawud]"

"One of the worst major wrong actions is for a man to curse his parents." It was said, "O Messenger of Allah, how can a man curse his parents?" He said, "He may curse another man's father who in turn curses his father, and curse his mother and he in turn curses his mother."

"Abu Hurayra reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "Once a man was walking along a road and became very thirsty. He found a well, climbed down into it and drank. When he came out, he saw a dog driven by thirst to eat mud. He said, 'This dog has reached the same extreme of thirst that I had reached.' So he climbed back down the well, filled his leather sock with water and, holding it between his teeth, climbed back up and let the dog drink Allah thanked him for that and forgave him." They said, "Messenger of Allah, do we then receive a reward on account of animals?'" He said, "There is a reward for every live animal [lit. everything with a moist liver].""

"Do you not consider, [O Muḥammad], those who were given a portion of the Scripture? They are invited to the Scripture of Allāh that it should arbitrate between them;1 then a party of them turns away, and they are refusing. That is because they say, "Never will the Fire touch us except for [a few] numbered days," and [because] they were deluded in their religion by what they were inventing. So how will it be when We assemble them for a Day about which there is no doubt? And each soul will be compensated [in full for] what it earned, and they will not be wronged. Say, "O Allāh, Owner of Sovereignty, You give sovereignty to whom You will and You take sovereignty away from whom You will. You honor whom You will and You humble whom You will. In Your hand is [all] good. Indeed, You are over all things competent. You cause the night to enter the day, and You cause the day to enter the night; and You bring the living out of the dead, and You bring the dead out of the living. And You give provision to whom You will without account [i.e., limit or measure].""

"Abu 'Abdullah 'Amr ibn al-'As reported that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "One of the major wrong actions is for a man to abuse his parents." They asked, "O Messenger of Allah, is it possible for a man to abuse his parents?" He replied, "Yes. He may curse another man's father who in turn curses his father, and curse his mother and he in turn curses his mother.""

"Salman ibn 'Amir reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "When one of you breaks the fast, he should break it with dates. They are a blessing. If he cannot find any dates, then water. It is pure." He said, "Sadaqa given to a poor person is sadaqa but to a relative it is both sadaqa and maintaining ties of kinship.""

"Ibn 'Abbas said that the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "There are two blessings which deceive many people: health and free time.""

"Asma' bint Abi Bakr as-Siddiq said, "My mother came to me during the time of the Messenger of Allah, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, while she was still an idolater and I asked the Messenger of Allah, 'My mother has come to me, wanting something. Shall I give it to her?' He said, 'Yes. Give to your mother.'""

"'Abdullah ibn 'Amr reported: "The Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, 'A person who maintains ties of kinship is not someone who only does so with those who maintain ties with him. A person who maintains ties of kinship is someone who restores them when they have been cut off.'""

"Abu Hurayra reported that the Prophet, may Allah bless him and grant him peace, said, "People will enter the Garden [paradise] whose hearts are like the hearts of birds.""

"So if they argue with you, say, "I have submitted myself to Allāh [in Islām], and [so have] those who follow me." And say to those who were given the Scripture and [to] the unlearned, "Have you submitted yourselves?" And if they submit [in Islām], they are rightly guided; but if they turn away - then upon you is only the [duty of] notification. And Allāh is Seeing of [His] servants."

"Or do you say that Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and the Descendants were Jews or Christians? Say, "Are you more knowing or is Allāh?" And who is more unjust than one who conceals a testimony he has from Allāh? And Allāh is not unaware of what you do."