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Thoughts on Islam by Great Writers and Thinkers of the Western World.
"Our use of the phrase 'The Dark Ages' to cover the period from 699 to 1000 marks our undue concentration on Western Europe … From India to Spain, the brilliant civilisation of Islam flourished. What was lost to Christendom at this time was not lost to civilisation, but quite the contrary … To us it seems that West-European civilisation is civilisation, but this is a narrow view". (History of Western Philosophy, London, 1948, p.419).
"… These Arabs, the man Mahomet and that one century, - is it not as if a spark had fallen, one spark on a world of what seemed black unnoticeable sand, but lo, the sand proves explosive powder, blazes heaven high from Delhi to Grenada: I said: the Great Man was always as lightening out of heaven; the rest of the men waited on him like fuel, and then they too would flame … How one man single-handedly could weld warring tribes and wandering boudouins into a most powerful and civilised nation in less then two decades". (On Heroes and Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History, London, 1918).
"I have prophesised about the faith of Muhammed [peace be upon him] that it would be acceptable tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today."
"I often think that woman is more free in Islam than in Christianity. Woman is more protected by Islam than by the faith which preaches monogamy. In Al'Quran the law about woman is more just and liberal. It is only in the last twenty years that Christian England has recognized the right of woman to property, while Islam has allowed this right from all times. It is slander to say that Islam preaches that women have no souls". (The Life and Teachings of Muhammed, 1932).
"If this be Islam, do we not all live in Islam".
(Writing in the 1770s)
"Moses has revealed the existence of God to his nation, Jesus Christ to the Roman world, Muhammed [peace be upon him] to the old continent…
Arabia was idolatrous when, six centuries after Jesus, Muhammed [pbuh] introduced the worship of the God of Abraham, of Ishmael, of Moses and of Jesus [peace be with them]. The ayrians and some other sects had disturbed the tranquillity of the East by agitating the question of the nature of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Muhammed [peace be upon him] declared that there was none but One God Who had no father, no son, and that the Trinity imported the idea of idolatry…
I hope the time is not far off when I shall be able to unite all the wise and educated men of all the countries and establish a uniform regime based on the principles of the Qur'an which alone are true and which alone can lead men to happiness"
(Bonaparte et l'Islam, by Cherfils, Paris: France, pp.105-125)
"My choice of Muhammed (peace be upon him) 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 levels". (The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York, 1978, p.33)
"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 [peace be upon him], the scrupulous regard for 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 second volume [of the Prophet's - peace be upon him - biography] I was sorry there was not more for me to read of a great life". (Young India).
