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What Does West Thinks of Muslims
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HOLY QURAN AND ISLAM
The Quran (also Koran) is the holy book of Islam. Muslim claim that the Quran is a message of GOD delivered through Muhammad as revealed to him by the Angel Gabriel over a period of 23 years. It consists of 114 chapters with a total of 6,236 verses. It includes stories of many of the people and events of the Jewish and Christian traditions although differing in both substance and detail. Well-known Biblical characters such as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Mary, and John the Baptist are mentioned in the Quran as prophets sent by GOD (guiding humanity to the right path), and in roles that are often different than those portrayed in the Jewish and Christian doctrines.
Pope Paul VI said of Islam:
“The Church regards with esteem also the Moslems. They adore the one God, living and subsisting in Himself; merciful and all- powerful, the Creator of heaven and earth, who has spoken to men; they take pains to submit wholeheartedly to even His inscrutable decrees, just as Abraham, with whom the faith of Islam takes pleasure in linking itself, submitted to God. Though they do not acknowledge Jesus as God, they revere Him as a prophet. They also honor Mary, His virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion. In addition, they await the day of judgment when God will render their deserts to all those who have been raised up from the dead. Finally, they value the moral life and worship God especially through prayer, almsgiving and fasting.” [Pope Paul VI, Second Vatican Council, 1965]
Philosopher Hegel said:
“In Islam the limited principle of the Jews is expanded into universality and thereby overcome. Here, God is no longer, as with the Asiatics, contemplated as existent in immediately sensuous mode but is apprehended as the one infinite sublime Power beyond all the multiplicity of the world. Islam is, therefore, in the strictest sense of the world, the religion of sublimity.”
Islam is a Abrahamic religion originating with prophet Muhammad, a 7th century Arab, and centered on the religious text known as the Qur'an. It is the second-largest religion in the world today, with an estimated 1.5 billion adherents, spread across the globe, known as Muslims. Linguistically, Islam means submission, referring to the total surrender of one's self to God (Allah), and a Muslim is "one who submits to God".
VERSES FROM HOLY QURAN:
GOD
Surah 2:164 - “Verily, in the creation of the heavens and of the earth, and the succession of night and day: and in the ships that speed through the sea with what is useful to man: and in the waters which God sends down from the sky, giving life thereby to the earth after it had been lifeless, and causing all manner of living creatures to multiply thereon: and in the change of the winds, and the clouds that run their appointed courses between sky and earth: [in all this] there are messages indeed for people who use their reason.”
ONENESS
“He is Allah, the One.
Allah, the Absolute.
He begets not nor was begotten.
And there is no one comparable to Him”. [112:1–4]
Freedom of Religion
“There is no compulsion in religion”. [Sura 2:256]
Say [O Prophet], O ye that reject Faith! I worship not that which ye worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. And I will not worship that which ye have been wont to worship, Nor will ye worship that which I worship. To you be your Way, and to me mine. [Sura 109:1-6]
Science
"We [God] have made of water everything living." [Sura 21:30]
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WHAT DO WESTERN SCHOLARS SAY ABOUT QURAN?
“The above observation makes the hypothesis advanced by those who see Muhammad as the author of the Qur'an untenable. How could a man, from being illiterate, become the most important author, in terms of literary merits, in the whole of Arabic literature? How could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature that no other human being could possibly have developed at that time, and all this without once making the slightest error in his pronouncement on the subject?"
“A totally objective examination of it [the Qur'an] in the light of modern knowledge, leads us to recognize the agreement between the two, as has been already noted on repeated occasions. It makes us deem it quite unthinkable for a man of Muhammad's time to have been the author of such statements on account of the state of knowledge in his day. Such considerations are part of what gives the Qur'anic Revelation its unique place, and forces the impartial scientist to admit his inability to provide an explanation which calls solely upon materialistic reasoning." [Maurice Bucaille, THE QUR'AN AND MODERN SCIENCE]
“The Qur'an cannot be translated. ...The book is here rendered almost literally and every effort has been made to choose befitting language. But the result is not the Glorious Qur'an, that inimitable symphony, the very sounds of which move men to tears and ecstasy.” [Marmaduke Pickthall in the Translator of the Qur'an]
“In making the present attempt to improve on the performance of my predecessors, and to produce something which might be accepted as echoing however faintly the sublime rhetoric of the Arabic Koran, I have been at pains to study the intricate and richly varied rhythms which - apart from the message itself - constitute the Koran's undeniable claim to rank amongst the greatest literary masterpieces of mankind... This very characteristic feature has been almost totally ignored by previous translators; it is therefore not surprising that what they have wrought sounds dull and flat indeed in comparison with the splendidly decorated original.” [Arthur J. Arberry, THE KORAN INTERPRETED]
“However often we turn to it [the Qur'an] at first disgusting us each time afresh, it soon attracts, astounds, and in the end enforces our reverence... Its style, in accordance with its contents and aim is stern, grand, terrible — ever and anon truly sublime — Thus this book will go on exercising through all ages a most potent influence.” [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]
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Analysis of Muhammad by Western Academics:
Jules Masserman, as quoted in "Who Were Histories Great Leaders?" in TIME magazine (15 July 1974):
“Leaders must fulfill three functions — provide for the well-being of the led, provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure, and provide them with one set of beliefs. People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same.”
A French Historian says:
“Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; 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? “
[Alphonse de Lamartine, Histoire de la Turquie (1854), Vol. II, pp. 276-277]
“The personality of Muhammad, it is most difficult to get into the whole truth of it. Only a glimpse of it I can catch. What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes. There is Muhammad the Prophet. There is Muhammad the Warrior; Muhammad the Businessman; Muhammad the Statesman; Muhammad the Orator; Muhammad the Reformer; Muhammad the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad the Protector of Slaves; Muhammad the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad the Judge; Muhammad the Saint. All in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is alike a hero.”
[K. S. Ramakrishna Rao, in Muhammad the Prophet of Islam (1979)]
“Head of the State as well as of the Church, he was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar. Without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue, if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by a right Divine, it was Mohammed.”
[Reginald Bosworth Smith, in "Mohammedanism and Christianity" (7 March 1874), published in Mohammed and Mohammedanism (1889), p. 289]
“I have studied him — the wonderful man, and in my opinion far from being an Anti-Christ he must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much-needed peace and happiness.”
[George Bernard Shaw, as quoted in The Genuine Islam, Singapore, Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936]
“He spoke in the market and other public places. Most of those who heard him laughed at what he told them; but some poor people and a few slaves believed him and adopted the new religion. Others said he was a dreamer and a fool.
Mohammed, however, paid no heed to the insults he received. He went on telling about the appearance of Gabriel and preaching the doctrines which he said the angel had ordered him to teach the people.”
Mohammed, however, paid no heed to the insults he received. He went on telling about the appearance of Gabriel and preaching the doctrines which he said the angel had ordered him to teach the people.”
“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world's most influential person 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 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. Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as 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. 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.”
[Michael H. Hart, who in his book The 100 : A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History (1978) placed Muhammad in the first position, p. 33]
“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.” [Johann Wolfgang Goethe, Noten und Abhandlungen zum Weststlichen Dvan , WA
“I wanted to know the best of one who holds today undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind ... I became more than 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. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life.”
[Mahatma Gandhi, speaking on the character of Muhammad in Young India.]
“Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born in Mecca , in Arabia , the man Muhammad, who of all men, has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race. To be the religious head of many empires, to guide the daily life of one-third of the human race, may perhaps justify the title of a Messenger of God.”
[Dr. William Draper, M.D. L.L.D. in "History of Intellectual Development of Europe " (1876)]
“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.”
[Annie Besant, in "The Life and Teachings of Mohammad (1932), p. 4.]
“In little more than a year he was actually the spiritual, nominal and temporal ruler of Medina
[John Austin, in "Muhammad the Prophet of Allah" in T.P.'s and Cassel 's Weekly (24 September 1927)]
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