Unfortunately, this sad chapter of calumny and extreme expression of hatred against the Holy Founder of Islam did not come to an end. However, we do see a change in the wind, which has brought about one of the outstanding writers on Islam from England, that is Thomas Carlyle. He ushered in a new era of an approach towards Islam. In an age darkened by hatred he was the first lark with the courage and nobility to sing the praises of Prophet Muhammad (sas), and was the first swallow to give an indication of the coming spring.
After Carlyle, things began to change but did not go on to develop into a steady trend. Instead it remained an interrupted phenomena. We see that all through the history of criticism of the Prophet Muhammad (sas) there were scholars who sank back to their past, with a Salman Rushdie being born here and there. The birth of Rushdie is not a new phenomenon in the history of religious bigotry; deeply related to ignorance, the lack of tolerance is something well-known to man.
The introduction of the great orientalist Carlyle has already been made. Now let me quote two important passages from his book Heroes and Hero Worship. He says:
“Alas, such theories are very lamentable. If we would attain to knowledge of anything in God’s true Creation, let us disbelieve them wholly! They are the product of an Age of Scepticism; they indicate the saddest spiritual paralysis, and mere death-life of the souls of men: more godless theory, I think, was never promulgated in this Earth. A false man found a religion? Why, a false man cannot build a brick house! If he do not know and follow truly the properties of mortar, burnt clay and what else he works in, it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish-heap. It will not stand for twelve centuries, to lodge a hundred-and eighty millions; it will fall straitway.”
(Page 279)
He observes:
“The lies, which well-meaning zeal has heaped around this man, are disgraceful to ourselves only. When Pococke inquired of Grotius, Where the proof was of that story of the pigeon, trained to pick peas from Mahomet’s ear, and pass for an angel dictating to him? Grotius answered that there was no proof! It is really time to dismiss all that.”
(Page 279)
The one central, most important epithet in the Kalima is the word Abd, which describes the Prophet (sas) as a man and a slave; a man so true that he became the most devoted servant of his Lord. Today I have chosen to speak not on the prophesies of Prophet Muhammad, peace and blessings of Allah be upon him, but have elected to highlight his personality as a man, as a simple servant of God and as a humble person who lived all his life among his brothers, followers and enemies as a true man. In this regard I have chosen a few facets of his real life and will share them with you, for you to judge how close to humans yet how vastly different he was.
Why I said that being Abd was more important is because I believe that the prophecies of a Prophet are always being disputed by the enemy. At one end the Prophet is close to His God and at the other he is close to humanity. The humans cannot directly judge the authenticity of his claim of being from God, but they most certainly can judge him as a human. If as a man he is true, it is impossible for him to be a false prophet.
Again I quote Bosworth Smith, who in turn quotes Sir William Muir, in the following words:
“Mohammed was of middle height and of a strongly built frame; his head was large, and across his ample forehead, and above finely arching eyebrows, ran a strongly marked vein, which, when he was angry, would turn black and throb visibly. His eyes were coal black and piercing in their brightness; his hair curled slightly; and a long beard, which, like other Orientals, he would stroke when in deep thought, added to the general impressiveness of his appearance. His step was quick and firm ‘like that of one descending a hill’.”
(Page 83)
Bosworth Smith in the 1874 edition of his book Mohammed and Mohammedanism, writes about his character in the following words:
“He was a man of few words … and good faith. They called him ‘Al-Amyn,’ the Trusty. His tending his employer’s flocks; his journeys to Syria; possibly his short-lived friendship there with Sergius or Bahira, a Nastorian Monk; his famous vow to succour the oppressed; his employment by Khadijah in a trade venture, and his subsequent happy marriage with her, are about the only note-worthy external incidents in his early life.”
(Page 75)
However in the 1986 edition of the same book, published long after his death, we see how this has been changed:
“Hitherto a man of few words, and with few friends, he was yet noble with his own small circle of truthfulness and good faith. Men called him ‘Al-Amin’, or the Trusty. A rich widow, named Khadija, employed him to go on some trading journeys for her to Syria. The shepherd became a camel driver, and the trust committed to him he discharged with such fidelity and prudence that Khadija offered him her hand in marriage. She some fifteen years older than he; old enough, that is, in that Eastern climate to be his mother. Yet the marriage was one of real affection and respect, and from that time to the day of her death, a period of twenty four years, Mohammed remained faithful to her, and took no second wife, though the universal custom of his countrymen would have countenanced him in so doing.”
(Pages 95-96)
Describing his early life Carlyle tells us in his book:
“But, from an early age, he had been remarked as a thoughtful man. His companions named him ‘Al-Amin, The Faithful’. A man of truth and fidelity; true in what he did, in what he spake and thought. They noted that he always meant something. A man rather taciturn in speech; silent when there was nothing to be said; but pertinent, wise, sincere, when he did speak; always throwing light on the matter. This is the only sort of speech worth speaking! Through life we find him to have been regarded as an altogether solid, brotherly, genuine man. A serious, sincere character; yet amiable, cordial, companionable, jocose even—a good laugh in him withal: there are men whose laugh is as untrue as anything about them; who cannot laugh. One hears of Mahomet’s beauty: his fine sagacious honest face, brown florid complexion, beaming black eyes—I somehow like too that vein on the brow, which swelled-up black when he was in anger”.
(Pages 287-288)
Prophet Muhammad (sas) had lived among his people for forty years before he was commissioned by God as a Prophet. Even the severest critics of his character cannot put a finger on any blemish in his life up to that age. There is no dissension or disagreement among historians regarding this fact. As such the Holy Qur’an challenged those who rejected him by saying:
“Of course, I have lived among you throughout my life before this. Why don’t you use your wisdom?” (Surah Yunus 10:17)
Do you not see that a man who lived forty years of blameless life suddenly cannot tum into the most wanton man on earth. He, who never spoke a lie about his fellow beings, how could he dare speak lies about his Creator, the God he loved so much!