Writings That Challenge Prejudices Against Prophet Mohammad

By Grace Mubashir, New Age Islam

10 October 2022

Many noted historians have and are challenging prejudices against Prophet Muhammad. This article discusses few important writings in this regard.

Sir Hamilton Alexander Rosskeen Gibb is a well-known Scottish scholar and historian. Born in 1885, died in 1971, he studied at Edinburgh University. (Learned Arabic, Hebrew and Aramaic languages. MA in Arabic. Served as a lecturer at Oxford and Harvard Universities.)  He has authored several books on Arabic literature, Islam, medieval history, and Ottoman poetry.

In his book 'Muhammadanism', Gibb makes some distinctive observations about Prophet Muhammad:

The Prophet's was a creative personality. Like any creative person, he went through many conflicts. External pressures made it difficult for him. But they did not stop him from carving a unique path. He was shaken by the injustices of the middle-class commercial city of Makka. He called upon the people to repent to God through religious inspiration. But the Meccan elite heard it as a challenge to their supremacy. They feared that the Prophet's monotheism would undermine the financial foundations of their churches. The Prophet stood for peace. Rivals, however, dragged him into conflicts.

Lord La Martin (1790-1869) was a French poet, author and statesman. Full name: Alphonse Marie Louis de Prat de Lamartine, Knight of Prataz. He was instrumental in establishing the Second Republic under Napoleon Bonaparte. Worked as a member of the National Assembly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and member of the Chamber of Deputies of various provinces, he is a prolific presence in French intellectual world.

As a writer, his major contributions are in the fields of novels, poetry and history. He has been described as a nature lover, a spiritualist and a romantic. The most famous of his works is the novel Gracilla published in 1852.

La Martin's observations about Prophet Muhammad are remarkable. He writes about the Prophet in his ‘History de la Turkey’:

“If greatness of purpose, scarcity of resources, and astonishing results are the three criteria of human genius, then who in modern history shall we dare compare with Muhammad? The most famous men made only weapons, laws, and empires. If they have made anything at all, it is nothing but material powers that crumble before their very eyes. This man created not only armies, empires, nations, and dynasties, but also millions of people over one-third of the inhabited world at that time. Above all he changed altars, religions, ideas, creeds, souls… His endurance in victory, his will devoted to a single ideal, the absence of any attempt to establish the empire, the endless prayers, the conversations with God, the death and the posthumous victory all testify that the Prophet was not a hypocrite. His ideal was twofold: the oneness of God and the immateriality of God. The first says what God is and the second what God is not.

The first was to uproot the false gods. The latter started an idea with words. Philosopher, orator, prophet, lawgiver, warrior, conqueror of ideals, redeemer of rational beliefs, founder of an idol-free society, ruler of twenty earthly empires and one spiritual empire – this is Muhammad. By any measure of human glory we may ask who is more glorious than him.'

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) is an Englishman who is famous as a historian, philosopher, mathematician, orator and writer. He wrote a comprehensive history of the French Revolution in three volumes. His fame in mathematics is based on the 'Carlyle Circle'. The most famous works are “On Heroes and Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History” (1841). Carlyle argued that the actions of great men have a decisive influence on history. He is also known for this theory. The book 'On Heroes and Hero Worship’, and the ‘Heroic in History' is a compilation of six lectures titled ‘Hero as Divinity, Hero as Prophet, Hero as Poet, Hero as Priest, Hero as Man of Letters and Hero as King’.

Carlyle sees Prophet Muhammad as a prophetic hero who had a decisive influence on history. His words about Prophet Muhammad:

"It is a great shame to listen to the accusation that Islam is a lie and Muhammad is a liar and a cheat. We have seen that he stood firm in his principles. He was kind, generous, compassionate, pious, virtuous, a true man, hardworking and honest. Besides all these virtues, he was gentle, patient, gracious, happy and admirable to others. Sometimes he joked and teased his friends. He was truthful, zealous, holy, great-minded and conscientious. Within him was the light that brightened the darkest nights. His face was so radiant. He was great by nature. He did not study in any school or under any guru.

Mrs. Annie Besant needs no introduction. She was born in London in 1847, a British socialist, women's emancipation activist, theosophist, front fighter of the Irish and Indian independence movement, speaker and author of over 300 books and pamphlets. She died in 1933 at Adyar, Tamil Nadu. The two lectures delivered in London and Junagadh on the omnipresent Prophet Muhammad and Islam is famous. The Theosophical Society has published these lectures in book form under the title “The Life and Teachings of Muhammad”.

Their discourse on the Prophet begins thus: “Anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, how he taught and lived, will feel nothing but reverence for that mighty Prophet. He was one of the great prophets of the Lord……. As I read about him again, I feel a new kind of admiration and respect for that master of Arabia.'

In his speech in London, Annie Besant answers the accusations leveled against the Prophet by the West. Criticisms against the Prophet and Islam, they say, stem from ignorance.

Martin Lings (1909-2005), a famous English writer, authentic Shakespearean scholar and thinker, was attracted to the spiritual thoughts of Frijof Schuon and embraced Sufism. He went to Egypt and acquired a genealogy in Arabic while working as a curator of ancient Arabic manuscripts at the British Museum. The book "Muhammad: His Life Based on the Earliest Sources" was prepared using early Arabic sources.

This is a book that presents the biography of the Prophet in the form of story-telling in a language rich with poetry. The drama of the presentation and the beauty of the production make the book very readable. Each event is described beautifully in this book with its background description.

The hand of a calligrapher can also be seen in the writing. The noble old language was used for the dialogues and translation of the Qur'an. The description is simple yet elegant.

The writing ability is fairly large and this book encourages readers to read Kampod

Kampu without any hesitation. Chapters are of no length at all. Eighty five chapters. Every important event in the Prophet's life is described in each chapter. The historical context of each incident is brutally unraveled.

When reading this book, one feels that we are traveling with the Prophet in Makkah, Madinah and Taif. That is the success of this book. Martin Lings moved his pen through that life, fully absorbing the prophet and witnessing with his heart.

The first edition was released in 1983. It has received critical acclaim and several awards. Martin Lings revised the book in 1991, the year before his death. The book has been translated into various world languages. The Malayalam translation was released in 2013. It is now version seven. Poet KT Soupy's translation has received much praise.

Annemarie Schimmel

Annemarie Schimmel (1922-2003) was a German scholar who wrote extensively on Islam and Sufism. She was a professor at Harvard University from 1967 to 1992.

'And Muhammad is His Messenger' is the book she wrote as a gift of love to Prophet. Schimmel writes this book after establishing a romantic relationship with the Prophet. The author describes this book as the result of a heart-to-heart relationship developed over decades with the Prophet. It was because of her heart connection with the Prophet that she had the opportunity to attend Mawlid congregations when she was in Turkey. Schimmel, who got to know Islam and Rasool from the books of Syed Amir Ali, established a heart-to-heart with the Sufi path. They were very close to Islamic culture.

Allama Iqbal's philosophical poems shaped Schimmel's concept of the Prophet.

They Experience Rasool From A Sufi Spiritual Level.

This work is not a complete biography of the Prophet. Rather, it is a book that expresses the spiritual aspects of the Prophet's personality. The beautiful example of the Prophet, the humble position of the Prophet, the supernatural miracles associated with the Prophet, the charm of various names of the Prophet Muhammad, the Muhammadan light, the birthday celebration, the night journey, the poems written about the Prophet in different languages, the Muhammadan way, the Prophet in Iqbal poems are the contents of this book.

Montgomery Watt

Prophetic Biographies William Montgomery Watt (1909-2006), Professor of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Edinburgh, is best known as a Scottish historian, Anglican priest, academician, Orientalist, non-Muslim Western Islamic scholar, and author. He was a lecturer at Edinburgh University from 1964-79. Watt is known as 'the last Orientalist'. He has worked as visiting professor in various universities.

Montgomery Watt, who has written many books on Islamic theology, philosophy, history, and politics, has published two famous biographical books on the Prophet, "Muhammad at Mecca" published in 1953 and "Muhammad at Medina" published in 1956. In 1961 he published the book "Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman" which compiled these two works in one volume. The first two are his most famous books.

As the title suggests, the theme of “Muhammad at Mecca” is the Meccan phase of the Prophet's life. The events leading up to the exodus to Madinah are analyzed in this volume. The content is organized into six parts. The first part analyzes the economic, political, social, religious and intellectual background of Arabia in four chapters. The second part covers the Prophet's birth, childhood, marriage to Khadijah, prophethood and the events of the Meccan period in six chapters. The third part consists of four chapters. The counter-subject is the message of Islam. The essence of the early revelations and their contemporary relevance are discussed in this section. The fourth part is about the first Muslims. Descriptions of the people who embraced Islam at the beginning of Prophethood are given in three chapters in this section. The fifth part deals with the difficulties and opposition faced by Rasool. The opposition to the Qur'an, the Abyssinian exodus, the testimony of the Qur'an, the leaders of the enemy and their strategies are described in five chapters. Part VI, entitled 'Expanding Horizons', deals in six chapters with the Prophet's Twaif journey, his approach to the nomadic tribes, his negotiations with the caravans from Medina, the Hijra, and his achievements in Mecca. All eight appendices are included in the book "Muhammad at Mecca".

 'Muhammad at Medina' is a sequel to 'Muhammad at Mecca' by Montgomery Watt. Both are published by Oxford University Press. When these two are combined, it becomes the biography of the Prophet. "Muhammad at Medina" is directed in ten parts. The first part, entitled 'The Outrage of the Quraysh', deals with the circumstances of the Hijra, the early military campaigns and the Battle of Badr. The second part, which discusses the failure of the Meccan resistance, covers the Meccan response to the Battle of Badr, the Battle of Uhd, the entry of the nomads, and the Siege of Medina in five chapters.

The third part deals with the Maccabi victory. It deals with the Battle of Hudaybiyah, the Surrender of Mecca and the Battle of Hunain. The fourth part discusses in detail the unification of the Arabs in seven chapters. The plot of the fifth part is the internal politics of Madinah. The politics of Madinah before and after the advent of the Prophet are dealt with in three chapters. Part VI is entitled “Muhammad and the Jews”. The Jews of Yathrib, the Prophet's efforts to reconcile with them, and the problems he encountered with them are described in six chapters. The seventh part is about the nature of the Islamic State. It discusses the constitution of Madinah, the status of the Messenger, the nature of the Muslim community in Madinah, and the economic situation. The change in social structure is discussed in the eighth part in five chapters. The ninth part is about Islam. This section contains comparative studies of Islam and primitive Arab religion, and Islam and Christianity. The tenth chapter is titled 'Man and His Glory'.

Montgomery Watt's name does not appear in the Orientalist genealogy of those who sat in closed rooms of ignorance and prejudice and dipped their pens in the ink of hatred and unjustly crucified the Prophet. Not that; this latter Orientalist also substantially corrected his predecessors. He followed the path of Thomas Carlyle in evaluating the Prophet. Through his works, Watt earnestly endeavored to change the approaches and paradigms of Western scholarship on Islam. He testifies that there is no world leader as misunderstood by the West as Prophet Muhammad. He reminds us that the greatness of Islam can only be understood if we understand the Prophet with honesty. Perhaps the first Christian clergyman to assert that Muhammad (pbuh) was a prophet of the Old Testament and succeeded in restoring monotheism to the Arabs was Montgomery Watt.

He carefully analyzes the socio-economic and political contexts of Makkah and Madinah and evaluates the transformations accomplished by Rasool. Watt's is one of the best sociological analyzes of the Prophet's era.

Watt was positively influenced by the Qur'an's uncompromising monotheistic position. Significantly, it prompted him to re-read the Christian doctrine of the Trinity he was following. He said that the Trinity should not be understood as a union of three God-persons. Watt's argument is that they represent the three aspects of God, like the special names of God (Asma'ul Husna) in the Qur'an. Montgomery Watt's study of the Prophet's biography was profound enough to be influenced only by the Qur'an.

Prophet Muhammad’s message is eternal and all relevant. The vilification campaign is misplaced and misinterpretation. His teachings should be permeated to all.

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A regular columnist for NewAgeIslam.com, Mubashir V.P is a PhD scholar in Islamic Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia and freelance journalist.

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