# Reading > Religious Texts >  What Great People said about the Prophet Muhammad PBUH?

## Gurrato Alaien

What Great People said about the Prophet Muhammad PBUH?

Some of the famous, contemporary personalities who read the biography of the Messenger of Allaah, sallallaahu alayhi wa sallam, could not help but admit that he was a master with excellent manners and an honorable character, and the following are some of their sayings:

Michael Hart , author of The 100: 
A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History said: "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 religious and secular level. 

George Bernard Shaw, the British playwright said: 
The world is in dire need of a man with the mind of Muhammad; religious people in the Middle Ages, due to their ignorance and prejudice, had pictured him in a very dark way as they used to consider him the enemy of Christianity. But after looking into the story of this man I found it to be an amazing and a miraculous one, and I came to the conclusion that he was never an enemy of Christianity, and must be called instead the savior of humanity. In my opinion, if he was to be given control over the world today, he would solve our problems and secure the peace and happiness which the world is longing for. 

Annie Besant, wrote in The Life and Teachings of Muhammad : 
It is impossible for anyone who studies the personality of the great Prophet of the Arabs, and come to know how this prophet he used to live, and how he taught the people, but to feel respect towards this honorable prophet; one of the great messengers whom Allaah sent 

Alphonse de La Martaine wrote in Historie de la Turquie: 
"If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a 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. Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs... 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? 

J.W.H. Stab wrote in Islam and its Founder  : 
 Judged by the smallness of the means at his disposal, and the extent and permanence of the work that he accomplished, no name in world's history shines with a more specious luster 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? 

Dr. Gustav Weil writes in History of the Islamic Peoples : 
Muhammad was a shining example to his people. His character was pure and stainless. His house, his dress, his food - they were characterized by a rare simplicity. So unpretentious was he that he would receive from his companions no special mark of reverence, nor would he accept any service from his slave which he could do for himself. He was accessible to all and at all times. He visited the sick and was full of sympathy for all. Unlimited was his benevolence and generosity as also was his anxious care for the welfare of the community. 

Th e British philosopher, Thomas Carlyle, who won the Nobel Prize for his book The Heroes wrote: 
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. 

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the German writer said: 
Us, Europeans, with all our concepts could not reach what Muhammad has reached, and no one will be able to precede him. I have looked in the history of humanity for an example and found that it was Muhammad, as the truth must be revealed. Indeed, Muhammad succeeded to subdue the entire world to monotheism.

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## Whifflingpin

Is not this forum for discussion of texts?

The great British philosopher, Thomas Carlyle, who died twenty years before the Nobel prize was instituted, wrote, in his book "On Heroes etc," "We can also read the Koran... I must say it is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook. A wearisome confused jumble, crude, incondite; - insupportable stupidity, in short! ... with every allowance, one feels it difficult to see how any mortal ever could consider this Koran as a book written in Heaven, too good for the Earth; as a well written book, or indeed as a book at all; and not a bewildering rhapsody; written, so far as writing goes, as badly as almost any book ever was."

He then went on to say in [it] there is a merit quite other than the literary one. If a book comes from the heart, it will contrive to reach other hearts; all art and authorcraft are of small account to that It [the Koran] is the confused torment of a great rude human soulfervent, earnest, struggling vehemently to utter itself in words The panting breathless haste and vehemence of a man struggling in the thick of battle for life and salvation; this is the mood he is in!

One problem Moslems have (in trying to convince others) is that they insist, as a matter of faith, that the Koran is sublimely or divinely written and formed, when anyone (Westerner at at any rate) reading the Koran without the inspiration of faith will almost certainly agree with the first paragraph that I quoted from Carlyle. If Moslem apologists could present the Koran as Carlyle does in the second paragraph that I quoted, then maybe, non-Muslims could start to take it seriously.

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## so_soni

You Couldn't Be More Right If You Tried!!

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