“Never has a man set himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim, sincethis aim was superhuman: to subvert superstitions which had been interposed betweenman and his Creator, to render God unto man and man unto God; to restore therational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfiguredgods of idolatry, then existing. Never has a mane undertaken a work so far beyond human power with so feeblemeans, for he had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great designno other instrument than himself, and no other aid, except a handful of men living in acorner of the desert. Finally, never has a man accomplished such a huge and lastingrevolution in the world…If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the truecriteria of human genius, who would dare to compare any great man in modernhistory with Muhammad ? The most famous men created: arms, laws, and empiresonly. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which oftencrumbled away before their eyes. This man moved not only armies, legislations,empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the inhabitedworld, 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 of which has become law,he created a spiritual nationality, which blended together peoples of every tongue andof every race. He has left us – as the indelible characteristic of this Muslimnationality – the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and ImmaterialGod…The conquest of one-third of the earth to his dogma was his miracle; rather itwas not the miracle of a man but that of reason.His life, his meditations, his heroic revilings against the superstitions of his country,and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for thirteen years at Makkah, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen: all these and finally, his migration, hisincessant preaching, his wars against odds, his faith in his success and his superhumansecurity in misfortune, his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirelydevoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire, his endless prayers, hismystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death – all these…(served) to affirm conviction which gave him power to restore a creed… Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrialempires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards allstandards by which human greatness may be measured, we may ask, is there anygreatest man than he?”
Posted on: Tue, 09 Jul 2013 08:05:22 +0000
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