Statements from outstanding people about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
Statements from outstanding people about the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ
“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.”
Michael H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, 1978, page 33.
“It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, …, 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.”
Annie Besant, an English theosophist, socialist and women’s rights activist.
“He must be called the Savior of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the leadership of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it much-needed peace and happiness.”
George Bernard Shaw in “The Genuine Islam, Singapore, Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936”:
“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, 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.”
Alphonse de LaMartaine, a French author, poet, and statesman.
“Muhammad has always been standing higher than Christianity. He does not consider God as a human being and never makes himself equal to God. Muslims worship nothing except God and Muhammad is His Messenger. There is not any mystery and secret in it.”
Leo Tolstoy, a renowned Russian novelist and moral thinker.
“His readiness to undergo persecution for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as a leader and the greatness of his ultimate achievement – all argue to his fundamental integrity. To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems that it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad… Thus, not only must we merely credit Muhammad with essential honesty and integrity of purpose, if we are to understand him at all; if we are to correct the errors we have inherited from the past, we must not forget that conclusive proof is a much stricter requirement than a show of a plausibility and in a matter such as this only to be attained with difficulty.”
- Montgomery Watt, a Scottish historian and orientalist.
“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 pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness and his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the second volume (of the Prophet’s biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of that great life.”
Mahatma Gandhi, statement published in “Young India”, 1924.
