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zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Wednesday, November 23, 2005 - 02:22 pm: | 
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Thanks Scott i am well - Yes the EarthQuake was a huge disaster claiming the lives of thousands -- thanks again for your good wishes Scott hugs zaheer |
Scott Whitmore (Emhotep)
Starlite Member
Username: Emhotep
| | Posted on Friday, November 18, 2005 - 08:39 pm: |
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I am Happy to see that You are still here Zaheer my friend. I had feared that you may have been hurt during the Earthquake over there, and I have been praying that you were alive & safe ever since it happened. Praise be to Allah Almighty you are.
Scott Whitmore
zanthor2691@aol.com
" If You Don't Stand For Something,
You Will Fail At Everything."
Wm. Scott Whitmore aka ~ Em~Hotep ~
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zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Friday, November 11, 2005 - 01:58 pm: |
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Western Scholars Has Discussed Muhammad (peace be upon him)
Muhammad (peace be upon him) a last messenger of Allah Almighty. Who has brought mankind into light from darkness. He has passed on the Divine Message of Allah Almighty [Quran] to entire mankind. Muhammad peace be upon him has established the first ever Islamic State in Medina with a divine laws of Allah Almighty " The Quran" as its constitution. Here we have able to gather the compliments of reknown western scholars which they have written or said in public. We are able to acquire the refrences of those books or events in which Islam & Muhammad peace be upon him has been dicussed by these laurets. We hope that you will enjoy your stay.
Scholar Name Reference Source
Sir William Muir
Life of Mohammad, London 1903 - read more
J. H. Denison
Emotion as the Basis of Civilization, London, 1928, pp. 265, 269 - read more
John William Draper
A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, London 1875, vol. 1, pp. 329-330 - read more
James A. Michener
op. cit - read more
Stanley Lane-Poole The Speeches and Table-Talk of the Prophet Mohammad, London 1882, Introduction, pp. 46,47 - read more
Arthur Gliman The Saracens, London 1887 pp. 184, 185 - read more
H.G. Wells The Outline of History, London 1920, p. 325. - read more
Edward Gibbon The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London 1838, vol. 5, p. 335 - read more
Thomas Carlyle op. cit., p. 311 . - read more
Annie Besant The Life and Teachings of Muhammad. Madras 1932, p. 4 - read more
Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt The New International Encyclopedia, 1916, vol. 16, p. 72 - read more
G. Lindsay Johnson, F.R.C.S The Two Worlds, Manchester, 9th August 1940 - read more
James A. Michener op. cit. - read more
Jean L'heureux Etude sur L'Islamisme, p. 35 - read more
H.A.R. Gibb Mohammedanism, London 1953, p. 33 - read more
Annie Besant The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, pp. 25, 26. - read more
Marquis of Dufferin and Ava
Speeches Delivered in India, London 1890, p. 24 - read more
Bertrand Russell History of Western Philosophy, London 1948, p. 419. - read more
E. Alexander Powell The Struggle for Power in Moslem Asia, New York 1923, p. 48 - read more
A. M. Lothrop Stoddard The New World of Islam, London 1932, pp. 1-3 . - read more
` J.H.Denison : In the fifth and sixth centuries the civilized world stood on the verge of a chaos. The old emotional cultures that had made civilization possible, since they had given to men a sense of unity and of reverence for their rulers, had broken down, and nothing had been found adequate to take their place… It seemed then the great civilization which it had taken four thousand years to construct was on the verge of disintegration, and that mankind was likely to return to that condition of barbarism where every tribe and sect was against the next, and law and order was unknown… The old tribal sanctions had lost their power… The new sanctions created by Christianity were working division and destruction instead of unity and order. It was a time fraught with tragedy. Civilization, like a gigantic tree whose foliage had overarched the world and whose branches had borne the golden fruits of art and science and literature, stood tottering… rotted to the core. Was there any emotional culture that could be brought in to gather mankind once more into unity and to save civilization- It was among these people that the man (Muhammad) was born who was to unite the whole known world of the east and south.
` John William Draper : Four years after the death of Justinian, 569 C.E. was born at Mecca,in Arabia, the man who, of all men,has exercised the greatest influence upon the human race.
`Sir William Muir: Our authorities, says Muir, all agree in ascribing to the youth of Mohammad a modesty of deportment and purity of manners rare among the People of Mecca… Endowed with a refined mind and delicate taste, reserved and meditative, he lived much within himself, and the ponderings of his heart no doubt supplied occupation for leisure hours spent by others of a lower stamp in rude sports and profligacy. The fair character and honorable bearing of the unobtrusive youth won the approbation of his fellow-citizens; and he received the title, by common consent, of Al-Ameen, the Trustworthy.
`James A. Michener: He became head of the state and the testimony even of his enemies is that he administered wisely. The wisdom he displayed in judging intricate cases became the basis for the religious law that governs Islam today.. Forced now to fight in defence of the freedom of conscience which he preached, he became an accomplished military leader. Although he repeatedly went into battle outnumbered and out-speared as much as five to one, he won some spectacular victories.
`Stanley Lane-Poole: The day of Mohammad's greatest triumph over his enemies was also the day of his grandest victory over himself. He freely forgave the Koraysh all the years of sorrow and cruel scorn in which they had afflicted him and gave an amnesty to the whole population of Mekka. Four criminals whom justice condemned made up Mohammad's proscription list when he entered as a conqueror to the city of his bitterest enemies. The army followed his example, and entered quietly and peacefully: no house was robbed, no women insulted. One thing alone suffered destruction. Going to the Kaaba, Mohammad stood before each of the three hundred and sixty idols, and pointed to it with his staff, saying, 'Truth is come and falsehood is fled away!', and at these words his attendants hewed them down, and all the idols and household gods of Mekka and round about were destroyed.It was thus Mohammad entered again his native city. Through all the annals of conquest there is no triumphant entry comparable to this one.
`Arthur Gliman: In comparison, for example, with the cruelty of the Crusaders, who, in 1099, put seventy thousand Muslims, men, women and helpless children to death when Jerusalem fell into their hands: or with that of the English army, also fighting under the Cross, which in the year of grace 1874 burned an African capital, in its war on the Gold Coast. Muhammad's victory was in very truth one of religion and not of politics; he rejected every token of personal homage, and declined all regal authority: and when the haughty chiefs of the Koreishites appeared before him he asked:
"What can you expect at my hands?
"Mercy O generous brother!
"Be it so; you are free! He exclaimed
`H.G. Wells: A year before his death, at the end of the tenth year of the Hegira, Muhammad made his last pilgrimage from Medina to Mecca. He made then a great sermon to his people… The reader will note that the first paragraph sweeps away all plunder and blood feuds among the followers of Islam. The last makes the, believing Negro the equal of the Caliph… they established in the world a great tradition of dignified fair dealing, they breathe a spirit of generosity, and they are human and workable. They created a society more free from widespread cruelty and social oppression than any society had ever been in the world before.
`Edward Gibbon: His (i.e., Muhammad's) memory was capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid and decisive. He possessed the courage of both thought and action; and… the first idea which he entertained of his divine mission bears the stamp of an original and superior genius.
`Thomas Carlyle: 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 lightning out of heaven: the, rest of the men waited for him like fuel, and then they too would aflame.
`Annie Besant: It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme.
` Prof. Nathaniel Schmidt: The essential sincerity of Muhammad's nature cannot be questioned: and an historical criticism that blinks no fact, yields nothing to credulity, weighs every testimony, has no partisan interest, and seeks only the truth, must acknowledge his claim to belong to that order of prophets who, whatever the nature of their physical experience may have been, in diverse times, in diverse manners, have admonished, taught and uttered austere and sublime thoughts, laid down principles of conduct nobler than those they found, and devoted themselves fearlessly to their high calling, being irresistibly impelled to their ministry by a power within.
`G. Lindsay Johnson: The ignorance displayed by most Christians regarding the Muslim religion is appalling… Mohammad alone, among the nations at that time, believed in one God to the exclusion of all others. He insisted on righteousness as the source of conduct, of filial duty, and on frequent prayers to, the Ever-living God, and of respect to all other peoples, and of justice and mercy to and moderation in all things, and to hold in great respect learning of every kind… Most of the absurdities which Christians would have us believe to exist in the Quran were never uttered by Mohammad himself, nor are they to be found in a correct translation of the work
`James A. Michener: In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical. When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumors of God's personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced, 'An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human being'
`Jean L'heureux: Islam had the power of peacefully conquering souls by the simplicity of its theology, the clearness of its dogma and principles, and the definite number of the practices which it demands. In contrast to Christianity which has been undergoing continual transformation since its origin, Islam has remained identical with itself.
`H.A.R. Gibb: That his (Muhammad's) reforms enhanced the status of women in general is universally admitted.
`Annie Besant: You can find others stating that the religion (Islam) is evil, because it sanctions a limited polygamy. But you do not hear as a rule the criticism which I spoke out one day in a London hall where I knew that the audience was entirely uninstructed. I pointed out to them that monogamy with a blended mass of prostitution was a hypocrisy and more degrading than a limited polygamy.
Naturally a statement like that gives offence, but it has to be made, because it must be remembered that the law of Islam in relation to women was until lately, when parts of it have been imitated in England, the most just law, as far as women are concerned, to be found in the world. Dealing with property, dealing with rights of succession and so on, dealing with cases of divorce, it was far beyond the law of the West, in the respect that was paid to the rights of women. Those things are forgotten while people are hypnotized by the words monogamy and polygamy and do not look at what lies behind it in the West-the frightful degradation of women who are thrown into the streets when their first protectors, weary of them, no longer give them any assistance…
"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 a slander to say that Islam preaches that women have no souls.
`Marquis of Dufferin and Ava: It is to Mussulman science, to Mussulman art, and to Mussulman literature that Europe has been in a great measure indebted for its extrication from the darkness of the Middle Ages.
` Bertrand Russell: Our use of the phrase 'the Dark Ages' to cover the period from 699 to 1,000 marks our undue concentration on Western Europe… From India to Spain, the brilliant civilization of Islam flourished. What was lost to Christendom at this time was not lost to civilization, but quite the contrary… To us it seems that West-European civilization is civilization; but this is a narrow view.
`E. Alexander Powell: In their wars of conquest, however, the Muslims exhibited a degree of toleration which puts many Christian nations to shame
`A. M. Lothrop Stoddard: The closer we examine this development the more extra-ordinary does it appear. The other great religions won their way slowly, by painful struggle, and finally triumphed with the aid of powerful monarchs converted to the new faith. Christianity had its Constantine, Buddhism its Asoka, and Zoroastrianism its Cyrus, each lending to his chosen cult the mighty force of secular authority. Not so Islam. Arising in a desert land sparsely inhabited by a nomad race previously undistinguished in human annals, Islam sallied forth on its great adventure with the slenderest human backing and against the heaviest material odds. Yet Islam triumphed with seemingly miraculous ease, and a couple of generations saw the Fiery Crescent borne victorious from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas and from the deserts of Central Asia to of Central Africa… Preaching a simple, austere monotheism, free from priest-craft or elaborate doctrinal trappings, he tapped the well-springs of religious zeal always present in the Semitic heart.
Forgetting the chronic rivalries and blood feuds which had consumed their energies in internecine strife, and welded into a glowing unity by the fire of their new-found faith, the Arabs poured forth from their deserts to conquer the earth for Allah, the one true God… "They (Arabs) were no blood thirsty savages, bent solely on loot and destruction. On the contrary, they were an innately gifted race, eager to learn and appreciative of the cultural gifts, which older civilizations had to bestow. Intermarrying freely and professing a common belief, conquerors and conquered rapidly fused, and from this fusion arose a new civilization – the Saracenic civilization, in which the ancient cultures of Greece, Rome and Persia were revitalized by the Arab genius and the Islamic spirit. For the first three centuries of its existence (circ. C.E. 650-1000) the realm of Islam was the most civilized and progressive portion of the world.
Studded with splendid cities, gracious mosques, and quiet universities where the wisdom of the ancient world was preserved and appreciated, the Moslem world offered a striking contrast to the Christian West, then sunk in the night of the Dark Ages.
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zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Sunday, August 28, 2005 - 08:39 pm: |
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For History of Islam click
http://www.islamicity.com/mosque/ihame/Sec7.htm |
zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Saturday, August 27, 2005 - 07:25 pm: |
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There then ensued desperate days for the ummah. Muhammad had to contend with the hostility of some of the pagans in Medina, who resented the power of the Muslim newcomers and were determined to expel them from the settlement. He also had to deal with Mecca, where Abu Sufyan now directed the campaign against him, and had launched two major offensives against the Muslims in Medina. His object was not simply to defeat the ummah in battle, but to annihilate all the Muslims. The harsh ethic of the desert meant that there were no half-measures in warfare: if possible, a victorious chief was expected to exterminate the enemy, so the ummah faced the threat of total extinction. In 625 Mecca inflicted a severe defeat on the ummah at the Battle of Uhud, but two years later the Muslims trounced the Meccans at the Battle of the Trench, so called because Muhammad protected the settlement by digging a ditch around Medina, which threw the Quraysh, who still regarded war rather as a chivalric game and had never heard of such an unsporting trick, into confusion, and rendered their cavalry useless. Muhammad's second victory over the numerically superior Quraysh (there had been ten thousand Meccans to three thousand Muslims) was a turning point. It convinced the nomadic tribes that Muhammad was the coming man, and made the Quraysh look decidedly passe. The gods in whose name they fought were clearly not working on their behalf. Many of the tribes wanted to become the allies of the ummah, and Muhammad began to build a powerful tribal confederacy, whose members swore not to attack one another and to fight each other's enemies. Some of the Meccans also began to defect and made the hijrah to Medina; at last, after five years of deadly peril, Muhammad could be confident that the ummah would survive.
In Medina, the chief casualties of this Muslim success were the three Jewish tribes of Qaynuqah, Nadir and Qurayzah, who were determined to destroy Muhammad and who all independently formed alliances with Mecca. They had powerful armies, and obviously posed a threat to the Muslims, since their territory was so situated that they could easily join a besieging Meccan army or attack the ummah from the rear. When the Qaynuqah staged an unsuccessful rebellion against Muhammad in 625, they were expelled from Medina, in accordance with Arab custom. Muhammad tried to reassure the Nadir, and made a special treaty with them, but when he discovered that they had been plotting to assassinate him they too were sent into exile, where they joined the nearby Jewish settlement of Khaybar, and drummed up support for Abu Sufyan among the northern Arab tribes. The Nadir proved to be even more of a danger outside Medina, so when the Jewish tribe of Qurayzah sided with Mecca during the Battle of the Trench, when for a time it seemed that the Muslims faced certain defeat, Muhammad showed no mercy. The seven hundred men of the Qurayzah were killed, and their women and children sold as slaves.
The massacre of the Qurayzah was a horrible incident, but it would be a mistake to judge it by the standards of our own time. This was a very primitive society: the Muslims themselves had just narrowly escaped extermination, and had Muhammad simply exiled the Qurayzah they would have swelled the Jewish opposition in Khaybar and brought another war upon the ummah. In seventh-century Arabia an Arab chief was not expected to show mercy to traitors like the Qurayzah. The executions sent a grim message to Khaybar and helped to quell the pagan opposition in Medina, since the pagan leaders had been the allies of the rebellious Jews. This was a fight to the death, and everybody had always known that the stakes were high. The struggle did not indicate any hostility towards Jews in general, but only towards the three rebel tribes. The Quran continued to revere Jewish prophets and to urge Muslims to respect the People of the Book. Smaller Jewish groups continued to live in Medina, and later Jews, like Christians, enjoyed full religious liberty in the Islamic empires. Anti-semitism is a Christian vice. Hatred of the Jews became marked in the Muslim world only after the creation of the state of Israel in 1948 and the subsequent loss of Arab Palestine. It is significant that Muslims were compelled to import anti-Jewish myths from Europe, and translate into Arabic such virulently anti-semitic texts as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, because they had no such traditions of their own. Because of this new hostility towards the Jewish people, some Muslims now quote the passages in the Quran that refer to Muhammad's struggle with the three rebellious Jewish tribes to justify their prejudice. By taking these verses out of context, they have distorted both the message of the Quran and the attitude of the Prophet, who himself felt no such hatred of Judaism.
Muhammad's intransigence towards the Qurayzah had been designed to bring hostilities to an end as soon as possible. The Quran teaches that war is such a catastrophe that Muslims must use every method in their power to restore peace and normality in the shortest possible time.18 Arabia was a chronically violent society, and the ummah had to fight its way to peace. Major social change of the type that Muhammad was attempting in the peninsula is rarely achieved without bloodshed. But after the Battle of the Trench, when Muhammad had humiliated Mecca and quashed the opposition in Medina, he felt that it was time to abandon the jihad and begin a peace offensive. In March 628 he set in train a daring and imaginative initiative that brought the conflict to a close. He announced that he was going to make the hajj. to Mecca, and asked for volunteers to accompany him. Since pilgrims were forbidden to carry arms, the Muslims would be walking directly into the lions' den and putting themselves at the mercy of the hostile and resentful Quraysh. Nevertheless, about a thousand Muslims agreed to join the Prophet and set out for Mecca, dressed in the traditional white robes of the hajji. If the Quraysh forbade Arabs to approach the Kabah or attacked bona fide pilgrims they would betray their sacred duty as the guardians of the shrine. The Quraysh did, however, dispatch troops to attack the pilgrims before they reached the area outside the city where violence was forbidden, but the Prophet evaded them and, with the help of some of his Bedouin allies, managed to reach the edge of the sanctuary, camped at Hudaybiyyah and awaited developments. Eventually the Quraysh were pressured by this peaceful demonstration to sign a treaty with the ummah. It was an unpopular move on both sides. Many of the Muslims were eager for action, and felt that the treaty was shameful, but Muhammad was determined to achieve victory by peaceful means.
Hudaybiyyah was another turning point. It impressed still more of the Bedouin, and conversion to Islam became even more of an irreversible trend. Eventually in 630, when the Quraysh violated the treaty by attacking one of the Prophet's tribal allies, Muhammad marched upon Mecca with an army of ten thousand men. Faced with this overwhelming force and, as pragmatists, realizing what it signified, the Quraysh conceded defeat, opened the city gates, and Muhammad took Mecca without shedding a drop of blood. He destroyed the idols around the Kabah, rededicated it to Allah, the one God, and gave the old pagan rites of the hajj, an Islamic significance by linking them to the story of Abraham, Hagar and Ismail. None of the Quraysh was forced to become Muslim, but Muhammad's victory convinced some of his most principled opponents, such as Abu Sufyan, that the old religion had failed. When Muhammad died in 632, in the arms of his beloved wife Aisha, almost all the tribes of Arabia had joined the ummah as Confederates or as converted Muslims. Since members of the ummah could not, of course, attack one another, the ghastly cycle of tribal warfare, of vendetta and counter-vendetta, had ended. Single-handedly, Muhammad had brought peace to war-torn Arabia.also The picture of Islam as a violent, backward, and insular tradition should be laid to rest, says Karen Armstrong, bestselling author of Muhammad and A History of God. Delving deep into Islamic history, Armstrong sketches the arc of a story that begins with the stirring of revelation in an Arab businessman named Muhammad. His concern with the poor who were being left behind in the blush of his society's new prosperity sets the tone for the tale of a culture that values community as a manifestation of God. Muhammad's ideas catch fire, quickly blossoming into a political empire. As the empire expands and the once fractured Arabs subdue and overtake the vast Persian domain, the story of a community becomes a panoramic drama. With great dexterity, Armstrong narrates the Sunni-Shi'ite schism, the rise of Persian influence, the clashes with Western crusaders and Mongolian conquerors, and the spiritual explorations that traced the route to God. Armstrong brings us through the debacle of European colonialism right up to the present day, putting Islamic fundamentalism into context as part of a worldwide phenomenon. Islam: A Short History, like Bruce Lawrence's Shattering the Myth and Mark Huband's Warriors of the Prophet, introduces us to a faith that beckons like a minaret to those who dare to venture beyond the headlines. --Brian Bruya
(Karen Armstrong)
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ALIANNE OUSSAMEUR (Alianne)
Starlite Member
Username: Alianne
| | Posted on Saturday, July 30, 2005 - 12:07 pm: |
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BRAVO!!!MICHAEL, YOU HAVE THIS CORRECT  "They would actually see The word and the Holy spirit were with the father before creation".
FEW PEOPLE EVER UNDERSTAND THAT JESUS HAD A PREHUMAN EXISTENCE. HOWEVER IT IS NOT A TEACHING OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.IT IS BIBLICAL HOWEVER AND I MUST POINT OUT TO YOU THAT YOU DO NOT HAVE AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE TRINITY AS THE CATHOLIC DO. NOT TO WORRY AS IT IS A FALSE DOCTRINE AND GOD MUST FIND IT DETESTABLE |
Michael .P (Mik3y)
Starlite Member
Username: Mik3y
| | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 08:06 pm: |
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I have read my Bible and the trinity is One God not three like some misguided people seem to percieve. If, people actually read the Bible carefully and not just seen "Son of Man" and Jesus saying "Dear Father". They would actually see The word and the Holy spirit were with the father before creation. Therefore since we believe there was only and will only ever be one God! Jesus Never asks for us to worship any other God But The father. And in the Father is the Son and the Holy spirit lies in him also.
Michael william James
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ALIANNE OUSSAMEUR (Alianne)
Starlite Member
Username: Alianne
| | Posted on Friday, July 29, 2005 - 05:40 pm: |
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MICHAEL THIS SCRIPTURE CAN BE FOUND IN THE BIBLE "God intends to annihilate all who worship other gods but HIM( Deut. 6:15). Jesus' father was not a three in one God. Jesus was a Jew and worshipped the God of the Jews...YHWH. Read your Bible to save your life Michael. A well meaning friend, and by the way MISS SNOW is correct. |
Michael .P (Mik3y)
Starlite Member
Username: Mik3y
| | Posted on Thursday, July 28, 2005 - 11:43 am: |
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The trinity is an understanding of How the Father, Son, and Holy spirit are all Together appearing at once. If there is only one God..there Cannot be three correct?! If Satan was to be apart of this teaching as you say.. then where is he? Where is he when this has opened the hearts of Many to God time and time again. This is no lie by Satan. Satan is the decieving one who has caused many to fight over the understanding of the Father,Son, and Holy spirit. Catholics merely put the 3 into a logical perspective. There surely can be only one God and if All are present at the one time.. They surely must be one. Im sorry we shall have to agree to disagree on this claim you have made
Michael william James
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ALIANNE OUSSAMEUR (Alianne)
Starlite Member
Username: Alianne
| | Posted on Wednesday, July 27, 2005 - 10:25 am: |
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MICHAEL, YOU SAY YOU ARE TIRED OF MEN TEACHING LIES??? "to thine own self be true" THE TRINITY IS THE BIGGEST LIE THAT SATAN HAS PERMEATED THROUGH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH. EVEN THE NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPIDIA SAYS THAT IT WAS NOT PRIOR TO THE 4TH CENTURY THAT THE FORMULATION OF 3 PERSONS IN ONE GOD WAS SOLIDLY ESTABLISHED. YOU NEED TO DO SOME MORE RESEARCH MY FRIEND |
Michael .P (Mik3y)
Starlite Member
Username: Mik3y
| | Posted on Tuesday, July 26, 2005 - 11:17 pm: |
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Actually the Christians who worship jesus Are worshiping God..because we believe in the Holy trinity.. The father, Son, and Holy spirit. Apart, from that this is a discussion forum.
Michael william James
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ALIANNE OUSSAMEUR (Alianne)
Starlite Member
Username: Alianne
| | Posted on Saturday, July 23, 2005 - 10:34 am: |
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ZAHEER: Europeans were taught for centuries that Muslims worshipped the Prophet Muhammad in the same way that Christians worship Jesus.
TRUE CHRISTIANS DO NOT WORSHIP JESUS, THEY WORSHIP THE FATHER |
ALIANNE OUSSAMEUR (Alianne)
Starlite Member
Username: Alianne
| | Posted on Thursday, July 21, 2005 - 08:41 pm: |
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Like all religions, Islam exerts an enormous influence upon the lives of its followers. .... Since there are roughly twice as many Christians as Moslems in the world |
ALIANNE OUSSAMEUR (Alianne)
Starlite Member
Username: Alianne
| | Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 - 03:47 pm: |
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I WAS TAUGHT THAT THE WORD "ISLAM" MEANY SUBMISSION.  umh! |
zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Monday, July 18, 2005 - 01:48 am: |
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1. What is Islam?
The word 'Islam' is an Arabic word that means 'submitting and surrendering your will to Almighty God'. The word comes from the same root as the Arabic word 'salam', which means peace. Unlike the names used for other religions, such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, the name for the religion of Islam was both revealed by God and carries a deep spritual meaning — only by submitting one’s will to Almighty God can one obtain true peace both in this life and in thelife hereafter. Islam teaches that all religions originally had the same essential message — which was to submit whole-heartedly to the will of God and to worship Him and Him alone. For this reason, Islam is not a new religion but is the same divinely revealed Ultimate Truth that God revealed to all prophets, including Noah, Abraham, Moses and Jesus.
2. Who are Muslims?
The Arabic word 'Muslim' literally means 'someone who submits to the will of God'. The message of Islam is meant for the entire world and anyone who accepts this message becomes a Muslim. Some people mistakenly believe that Islam is just a religion for Arabs, but nothing could be further from the truth, since in actuality over 80% of the world's Muslims are not Arabs! Even though most Arabs are Muslims, there are Arabs who are Christians, Jews and atheists. If one just takes a look at the various peoples who live in the Muslim World — from Nigeria to Bosnia and from Morocco to Indonesia — it is easy enough to see that Muslims come from all different races, ethnic groups and nationalities. From the very beginning, Islam had a universal message for all people. This can be seen in the fact that some of the early companions of the Prophet Muhammad were not only Arabs, but also Persians, Africans and Byzantine Romans. Being a Muslim entails complete acceptance and active obedience to the revealed will of Almighty God. A Muslim is a person who freely accepts to base his beliefs, values and faith on the will of Almighty God. In the past, even though you don't see it as much today, the word 'Mohammedans' was often used as a label for Muslims. This label is a misnomer and is the result of either willful distortion or sheer ignorance. One of the reasons for the misconception is that Europeans were taught for centuries that Muslims worshipped the Prophet Muhammad in the same way that Christians worship Jesus. This is absolutely not true since a Muslim is not permitted to worship anyone or anything besides Almighty God.
3. Who is Allah?
Very often one will here the Arabic word 'Allah' being used in regards to Islam. The word 'Allah' is simply the Arabic word for Almighty God, and is the same word used by Arabic speaking Christians and Jews. If one were to pick up an Arabic translation of the Bible, one would see the word 'Allah' being use where the word 'God' is used in English. Actually, the Arabic word for Almighty God, “Allah”, is quite similiar to the word for God in other Semitic languages — for example, the Hebrew word for God is “Elah”. For various reasons, some non-Muslims mistakenly believe that Muslims worship a different God than Jews and Christians. This is certainly not the case, since the Pure Monotheism of Islam calls all people to the worship of the God of Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and all of the other prophets. However, even though Jews, Christians and Muslims worship the same God — since there is only one God — their concepts concerning Him differ in some significant ways.
4. Who is Muhammad?
The last and final prophet that God sent to humanity was the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad explained, interpreted and lived the teachings of Islam. The Prophet Muhammad is the greatest of all prophets for many reasons, but mainly because the results of his mission have brought more people into the pure belief in One God than any other prophet. Even though other religious communities claimed to believe in One God, over time they had corrupted their beliefs by taking their prophets and saints as intercessors with Almighty God. Some religions believe their prophets to be manifestions of God, “God Incarnate” or the “Son of God”. All of these false ideas lead to the creature being worshipped instead of the Creator, which contributed to the idolatrous practice of believing that Almighty God can be approached through intermediaries. In order to guard against these falsehoods, the Prophet Muhammad always emphasized that he was only a human-being tasked with the preaching of God’s message. He taught Muslims to refer to him as “the Messenger of God and His Slave”. To Muslims, Muhammad is the supreme example for all people — he was the exemplary prophet, statesman, military leader, ruler, teacher, neighbor husband, father and friend. Unlike other prophets and messengers, the Prophet Muhammad lived in the full light of history. Muslims don't need to have 'faith' that he existed and that his teachings are preserved — they know it to be a fact. Even when his followers only numbered a few dozen, Almighty God informed Muhammad that he had be sent as a mercy to all of mankind. Because people had distorted or forgotten God’s messages, God took it upon Himself to protect the message revealed to Muhammad. This was because Almighty God promised not to send another messenger after him. Since all of God’s messengers have preached the message of Islam — i.e. submission to the will of God and the worship of God alone — Muhammad is actually the last prophet of Islam, not the first.
5. What are the Teachings of Islam?
The foundation of the Islamic faith is belief in the Unity of God. This means to believe that there is only one Creator and Sustainer of everything in the Universe, and that nothing is divine or worthy of being worshipped except for Him. Truly believing in the Unity of God means much more than simply believing that there is 'One God' — as opposed to two, three or four. There are a number of religions that claim belief in “One God” and believe that ultimately there is only one Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. Islam, however, not only insists on this, but also rejects using such words as 'Lord' and 'Savior' for anyone besides Almighty God. Islam also rejects the use of all intermediaries between God and Man, and insists that people approach God directly and reserve all worship for Him alone. Muslims believe that Almighty God is Compassionate, Loving and Merciful. The essence of falsehood is the claim that God cannot deal with and forgive His creatures directly. By over-emphasizing the burden of sin, as well as claiming that God cannot forgive you directly, false religions seek to get people to despair of the Mercy of God. Once they are convinced that they cannot approach God directly, people can be mislead into turning to false gods for help. These “false gods” can take various forms, such as saints, angels, or someone who is believed to be the “Son of God” or “God Incarnate”. In almost all cases, people who worship, pray to or seek help from a false god don’t consider it to be, or call it, a “god”. They claim belief in One Supreme God, but claim that they pray to and worship others beside God only to get closer to Him. In Islam, there is a clear distinction between the Creator and the created. There is no ambiguity in divinity — anything that is created is not deserving of worship and only the Creator is worthy of being worshipped. Some religions falsely believe that God has become part of His creation, and this has led people to believe that they can worship something created in order to reach their Creator. Muslims believe that even though God is Unique and beyond comprehension — He has no 'Son', partners or associates. According to Muslim belief, Almighty God 'does not beget nor was He begotten' — neither literally, allegorically, metaphorically, physically or metaphysically — He is Absolutely Unique and Eternal. He is in control of everything and is perfectly capable of bestowing His infinite Mercy and Forgiveness to whomever He chooses. That is why is called the All-Powerful and Most-Merciful. Almighty God has created the Universe for man, and as such wants the best for all human beings. Muslims see everything in the Universe as a sign of the Creatorship and Benevolence of Almighty God. Also, the belief in the Unity of God is not merely a metaphysical concept. It is a dynamic belief that effects ones view of humanity, society and all aspects of life. As a logical corollary to the Islamic belief in the Oneness of God, is its belief in the oneness of mankind and humanity.
6. What is the Qur'an?
It is the final revelation of the will of Almighty God's to all of mankind, which was conveyed through the Angel Gabriel, in Arabic, to the Prophet Muhammad in its sounds, words and meanings. The Qur’an, sometimes spelled Koran, was relayed to the Prophet's companions, which they memorized verbatim, and which has been publicly and continually recited by them and their successors until the present day. In short, the Qur'an is the book of guidance from God par excellence. The Qur'an is still memorized and taught by millions of people. The language of the Qur'an, Arabic, is still a living language to millions of people, so unlike the scriptures of other religions, the Qur'an is still read in its original language by countless millions of people. The Qu'ran is a living miracle in the Arabic language; and is know to be inimitable in its style, form and spiritual impact. God's final revelation to mankind, the Qur'an, was revealed to the Prophet Muhammad over a period of 23 years. The Qur'an, in contrast to many other religious books, was always thought to be the Word of God by those who believed in it, i.e. it wasn't something decreed by a religious council many years after being written. Also, the Qu'ran was recited publicly in front of both the Muslim and non-Muslim communities during the life of the Prophet Muhammad. The entire Qur'an was also completely written down in lifetime of the Prophet, and numerous companions of the Prophet memorized the entire Qur'an word-for-word as it was revealed. So unlike other scriptures, the Qur'an was always in the hands of the common believers, it was always thought to be God's word and, due to wide-spread memorization, it was perfectly preserved. In regards to the teachings of the Qur'an - it is a universal scripture, and it is addressed to all of mankind, and not to a particular tribe or 'chosen people'. The message that it brings is nothing new, but the same message of all of the prophets - submit to Almighty God and worship Him alone. As such, God's revelation in the Qur'an focuses on teaching human beings the importance of believing in the Unity of God and framing their lives around the guidance which He has sent. Additionally, the Qur'an contains the stories of the previous prophets, such as Abraham, Noah, Moses and Jesus; as well as many commands and prohibitions from God. In modern times in which so many people are caught up in doubt, spiritual despair and 'political correctness', the Qur'anic teachings offer solutions to the emptiness of our lives and the turmoil that is gripping the world today.
http://thetruereligion.org
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zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 09:38 pm: |
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For scientific data in the Quran click
http://www.islamicity.com/science/
and
http://www.islamic-awareness.org/Quran/Science/scientists.html |
zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 09:24 pm: |
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Dr. Moore was a former President of the Canadian Association of Anatomists, and of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists. He was honoured by the Canadian Association of Anatomists with the prestigious J.C.B. Grant Award and in 1994 he received the Honoured Member Award of the American Association of Clinical Anatomists "for outstanding contributions to the field of clinical anatomy."For the past three years, I have worked with the Embryology Committee of King cAbdulaziz University in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, helping them to interpret the many statements in the Qur'an and Sunnah referring to human reproduction and prenatal development. At first I was astonished by the accuracy of the statements that were recorded in the 7th century AD, before the science of embryology was established. Although I was aware of the glorious history of Muslim scientists in the 10th century AD, and some of their contributions to Medicine, I knew nothing about the religious facts and beliefs contained in the Qur'an and Sunnah."[2]
At a conference in Cairo he presented a research paper and stated:
"It has been a great pleasure for me to help clarify statements in the Qur'an about human development. It is clear to me that these statements must have come to Muhammad from God, or Allah, because most of this knowledge was not discovered until many centuries later. This proves to me that Muhammad must have been a messenger of God, or Allah." [1]
Professor Moore also stated that:
"...Because the staging of human embryos is complex, owing to the continuous process of change during development, it is proposed that a new system of classification could be developed using the terms mentioned in the Qur'an and Sunnah. The proposed system is simple, comprehensive, and conforms with present embryological knowledge.
"The intensive studies of the Qur'an and Hadith in the last four years have revealed a system of classifying human embryos that is amazing since it was recorded in the seventh century A.D... the descriptions in the Qur'an cannot be based on scientific knowledge in the seventh century..."[1]
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Author of over 200 publications. Former President of the Teratology Society among other accomplishments. Professor Johnson began to take an interest in the scientific signs in the Qur'an at the 7th Saudi Medical Conference (1982), when a special committee was formed to investigate scientific signs in the Qur'an and Hadith
"...in summary, the Qur'an describes not only the development of external form, but emphasises also the internal stages, the stages inside the embryo, of its creation and development, emphasising major events recognised by contemporary science."
"As a scientist, I can only deal with things which I can specifically see. I can understand embryology and developmental biology. I can understand the words that are translated to me from the Qur'an. As I gave the example before, if I were to transpose myself into that era, knowing what I do today and describing things, I could not describe the things that were described...
I see no evidence to refute the concept that this individual Muhammad had to be developing this information from some place... so I see nothing here in conflict with the concept that divine intervention was involved in what he was able to write..." [1]Author and editor of over 20 books, and has published over 181 scientific papers. Co-author of The Developing Human (5th Edition, with Keith L. Moore). He received the J.C.B. Grant Award in 1991. Professor Peraud presented several research papers
"It seems to me that Muhammad was a very ordinary man, he couldn't read, didn't know how to write, in fact he was an illiterate...
We're talking about 1400 years ago, you have some illiterate person making profound statements that are amazingly accurate, of a scientific nature...
I personally can't see how this could be mere chance, there are too many accuracies and like Dr. Moore, I have no difficulty in my mind reconciling that this is a divine inspiration or revelation which lead him to these statements." [1]______________________________________
Joe Leigh Simpson
He is the President of the American Fertility Society. He has received many awards, including the Association of Professors of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Public Recognition Award in 1992. Like many others, Professor Simpson was taken by surprise when he discovered that the Qur'an and Hadith contain verses related to his specialised field of study
"... these Hadiths (sayings of Muhammad) could not have been obtained on the basis of the scientific knowledge that was available at the time of the 'writer'... It follows that not only is there no conflict between genetics and religion (Islam) but in fact religion (Islam) may guide science by adding revelation to some of the traditional scientific approaches... There exist statements in the Qur'an shown centuries later to be valid which support knowledge in the Qur'an having been derived from God." [1
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Professor Kroner is one of the world's most famous geologists, becoming well known among his colleague scientists for his criticisms against the theories of some of the major scientists in his field.
"Thinking where Muhammad came from... I think it is almost impossible that he could have known about things like the common origin of the universe, because scientists have only found out within the last few years with very complicated and advanced technological methods that this is the case."
"Somebody who did not know something about nuclear physics 1400 years ago could not, I think, be in a position to find out from his own mind for instance that the earth and the heavens had the same origin, or many others of the questions that we have discussed here...
If you combine all these and you combine all these statements that are being made in the Qur'an in terms that relate to the earth and the formation of the earth and science in general, you can basically say that statements made there in many ways are true, they can now be confirmed by scientific methods, and in a way, you can say that the Qur'an is a simple science text book for the simple man. And that many of the statements made in there at that time could not be proven, but that modern scientific methods are now in a position to prove what Muhammad said 1400 years ago." [1]
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Yushidi Kusan
Director of the Tokyo Observatory, Tokyo, Japan
"I say, I am very much impressed by finding true astronomical facts in Qur'an, and for us modern astronomers have been studying very small piece of the universe. We have concentrated our efforts for understanding of very small part. Because by using telescopes, we can see only very few parts of the sky without thinking about the whole universe. So by reading Qur'an and by answering to the questions, I think I can find my future way for investigation of the universe." [1]
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Professor Hay is one of the best known marine scientist in the USA. when about many questions about the marine surface, the divider between upper and lower sea, and about the ocean floor and marine geology.
"I find it very interesting that this sort of information is in the ancient scriptures of the Holy Qur'an, and I have no way of knowing where they would have come from. But I think it is extremely interesting that they are there and this work is going on to discover it, the meaning of some of the passages."
And when he was asked about the source of the Qur'an, he replied, "Well, I would think it must be the divine being." [1] |
zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 11:06 am: |
|
Please note that this thread is only for the purpose of Indroduction of Mohammad ( Peace be upon him) please discussions on the other thread.
for more on Mohammad (peace be upon him )click
http://sultan.org/#muhammad
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zaheer - uddin (Zaheer)
Starlite Member
Username: Zaheer
| | Posted on Saturday, July 16, 2005 - 11:02 am: |
|
Excerpt from Hart's book:
Michael H. Hart
The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York: Hart Publishing Company Inc. 1978, p 33
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 levels...
Muhammad founded and promulgated one of the world's great religions, and became an immensely effective political leader. Today, thirteen centuries after his death, his influence is still powerful and pervasive... Like all religions, Islam exerts an enormous influence upon the lives of its followers. It is for this reason that the founders of the world's great religions all figure prominently in this book. Since there are roughly twice as many Christians as Moslems in the world, it may initially seem strange that Muhammad has been ranked higher than Jesus. There are two principal reasons for that decision. First, Muhammad played a far more important role in the development of Islam than Jesus did in the development of Christianity. Although Jesus was responsible for the main ethical and moral precepts of Christianity (insofar as these differed from Judaism), St. Paul was the main developer of Christian theology, its principal proselytizer, and the author of a large portion of the New Testament.
Muhammad, however, was responsible for both the theology of Islam and its main ethical and moral principles. In addition, he played the key role in proselytizing the new faith, and in establishing the religious practices of Islam. Moreover, he is the author of the Moslem holy scriptures, the Koran, a collection of certain of Muhammad's insights that he believed had been directly revealed to him by Allah. Most of these utterances were copied more or less faithfully during Muhammad's lifetime and were collected together in authoritative form not long after his death. The Koran therefore, closely represents Muhammad's ideas and teachings and to a considerable extent his exact words. No such detailed compilation of the teachings of Christ has survived. Since the Koran is at least as important to Moslems as the Bible is to Christians, the influence of Muhammed through the medium of the Koran has been enormous 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. On the purely religious level, then, it seems likely that Muhammad has been as influential in human history as Jesus.
Furthermore, Muhammad (unlike Jesus) was a secular as well as a 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... the Arab conquests of the seventh century have continued to play an important role in human history, down to the present day. 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
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Muhammed( peace be upon him) comes to a people steeped in ignorance. They married their step-mothers and buried their daughters alive; drunkenness, idolatry, and gambling were the order of the day. There was hardly anything to distinguish between the 'man' and the 'animal' of the time. From this abject ignorance, Muhammed elevated the Arabs, in the words of Thomas Carlysle, 'Into torch-bearers of light and learning. To the Arab nation it was as a birth from darkness into light. Arabia first became alive by means of it. A poor shepherd people, roaming unnoticed in its deserts since the creation of the world. See, the unnoticed becomes world notable, the small has grown world-great. Within one century afterwards Arabia was at Granada on one hand and at Delhi on the other. Glancing in valor and splendor, and the light of Genius, Arabia shines over section of the world..'
( THOMAS CARLYLE HERO AND HEROWORSHIP)
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If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modem 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, legislation, empires, peoples and 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 souls.... His forbearance in victory, his ambition which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire, his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma. This dogma was twofold: the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with the words. 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? -
Lamartine Histoire de la Turquie, Pans 1854, Vol. 11, pp. 276-77.
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It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our wonder; the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Madina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Koran... The Mahometans have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man. I believe in One God and Mahomet is the Apostle of God' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honors of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion.
Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay
History of the Saracen Empire,
London 1870, p 54.
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He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope's pretensions, 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 the right divine, it was Mohammad, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports. -
Bosworth Smith Mohammad and Mohammadanism, London 1874, p 92.
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It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows 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 re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher. -
Annie Besant The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, p 4
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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 leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement all argue his fundamental integrity To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad. -
W Montgomery Watt Mohammad At Mecca,
Oxford, 1953, p 52.
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Muhammad, the inspired man who founded Islam, was born about AD. 570 into an Arabian tube that worshipped idols. Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor and needy the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden. At twenty he was already a successful businessman, and soon became director of camel caravans for a wealthy widow. When he reached twenty-five his employer, recognizing his meet, proposed marriage. Even though she was fifteen years older, he married her, and as long as she lived remained a devoted husband. Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God's word, sensing his own inadequacy But the angel commanded Read'. So far as we know, Muhammad was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those inspired words which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth: "There is one God." In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical. When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumors of God's personal condolence quickly arose. Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced,' An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature. It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a humanbeing." At Muhammads own death an attempt was made to deify him, but the man who was to become his administrative successor killed the hysteria with one of the noblest speeches in religious history: 'If there are any among you who worshipped Muhammad, he is dead. But if it is God you worshipped, He lives for ever'.
James A. Michene~ "Islam: The Misunderstood Religion," Reader's Digest (Amencan ea.) May 1955, pp. 68-70.
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George Bernard Shaw was quoted as saying:
'If a man like Muhammed were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness.'
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The weekly news magazine Time dated July 15, 1974, carried a selection of opinions by various historians, writers, military men, businessmen an others on the subject: 'Who were History's Great Leaders?' Some said that it was Hitler; others said Gandhi, Buddha, Lincoln and the like. But Jules Masserman, a United States psychoanalyst, put the standards straight by giving the correct criteria wherewith to judge. He said: '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.' With the above three criteria he searches history and analyses Hitler, Pasteur, Gaesar, Moses, Confucius and the lot, and ultimately concludes: 'People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Ghandi 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 Muhammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same
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A spontaneous, passionate, yet just, true-meaning man! working out his life-task in the depths of the Desert there. How he was placed with Kadijah, a rich Widow, as her Steward, and travelled in her business, again to the Fairs of Syria; how he managed all, as one can well understand, with fidelity, adroitness; how her gratitude, her regard for him grew: the story of their marriage is altogether a graceful intelligible one, as told us by the Arab authors. He was twenty-five; she forty, though still beautiful. He seems to have lived in a most affectionate, peaceable, wholesome way with this wedded benefactress; loving her truly, and her alone. It goes greatly against the impostor theory, the fact that he lived in this entirely unexceptionable, entirely quiet and commonplace way, till the heat of his years was done. He was forty before he talked of any mission from Heaven. All his irregularities, real and supposed, date from after his fiftieth year, when the good Kadijah died. All his 'ambition,' seemingly, had been, hitherto, to live an honest life; his 'fame,' the mere good opinion of neighbors that knew him, had been sufficient hitherto. Not till he was already getting old, the prurient heat of his life all burnt out, and peace growing to be the chief thing this world could give him, did he start on the 'career of ambition;' and, belying all his past character and existence, set up as a wretched empty charlatan to acquire what he could now no longer enjoy! For my share, I have no faith whatever in that. Ah no: this deep-hearted Son of the Wilderness, with his beaming black eyes and open social deep soul, had other thoughts in him than ambition. A silent great soul; he was one of those who cannot but be in earnest; whom Nature herself has appointed to be sincere. While others walk in formulas and hearsays, contented enough to dwell there, this man could not screen himself in formulas; he was alone with his own soul and the reality of things. The great Mystery of Existence, as I said, glared in upon him, with its terrors, with its splendors; no hearsay’s could hide that unspeakable fact, 'Here am I!' Such sincerity, as we named it, has in very truth something of divine. The word of such a man is a Voice direct from Nature's own Heart. Men do and must listen to that as to nothing else; —all else is wind in comparison. From of old, a thousand thoughts, in his pilgrimings and wanderings, had been in this man: What am I? What is this unfathomable Thing I live in, which men name Universe? What is Life; what is Death? What am I to believe? What am I to do? The grim rocks of Mount Hara, of Mount Sinai, the stern sandy solitudes answered not. The great Heaven rolling silent overhead, with its blue-glancing stars, answered not. There was no answer. The man's own soul, and what of God's inspiration dwelt there, had to answer! It is the thing which all men have to ask themselves; which we too have to ask, and answer. This man felt it to be of infinite moment; all other things of no moment whatever in comparison. The jargon of argumentative Greek Sects, vague traditions of Jews, the stupid routine of Arab Idolatry: there was no answer in these. A Hero, as I repeat, has this first distinction, which indeed we may call first and last, the Alpha and Omega of his whole Heroism,
--- * THOMAS CARLYLE" ( Hero and Hero Worship)
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I believe in one God, and Muhammad, the Apostle of God,' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol: the honors of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue: and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion".
[Edward Gibbon and Simon Ockley, History of the Saracen Empire, London 1870, p.54].
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" Muhammad was the soul of kindness, and his influence was felt and never forgotten by those around him".
[Diwan Chand Sharma, The Prophets of the East, Calcutta 1935, p. 122].
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" Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born at Mecca, in Arabia the man who, of all men exercised the greatest influence upon the human race…Muhammad…"
[John William Draper, M.D., LL.D., A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, London 1875, Vol. 1, pp. 329-330].
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" I doubt whether any man whose external conditions changed so much ever changed himself less to meet them".
[R.V.C. Bodley, The Messenger, London, 1946, p.9].
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" That his (Muhammad's) reforms enhanced the status of women in general is universally admitted".
[H.A.R. Gibb, Mohammedanism, London 1953, p.33].
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" In little more than a year he was actually the spiritual, nominal and temporal ruler of Medina, with his hands on the lever that was to shake the world".
[John Austin, "Muhammad the Prophet of Allah," in T.P.'s and Cassel's Weeklyfor 24th September 1927].
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" Next to the Bible[10] (Qur'an) is the most esteemed and most powerful religious book in the world".
[J. Christy Wilson, Introducing islam, New York 1950, p.30].
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" It is more read than any other book in the world. The Christian Bible may be a world best-seller, but nearly 250 million[11] followers of the Prophet Muhammad read or recite long sections of Alcoran five times a day, every day of their lives, from the time they can talk".
[Charles Francis Potter. The Faiths Men Live By, Kingswood, Surrey 1955, p.81].
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" The Koran is the Mohammedan Bible, and is more reverenced than any other sacred book, more than the Jewish Old Testament or the Christian New Testament".
[J. Shillidy, D.D., The Lord Jesus in the Koran, Surat, 1913. p.111].
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" Well then, if the Koran were his own composition other men could rival it. Let them produce ten verses like it. If they could not (and it is obvious that they could not), then let them accept the Koran as an outstanding evidential miracle".
[H.A.R. Gibb, Mohammadenism, Calcutta 1931, p.4].
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" So there has been no opportunity for any forgery or pious fraud in the Koran, which distinguishes it from almost all other important religious works of ancient times….It is exceedingly strange that this illiterate person should have composed the best book in the language".
[Basanta Coomar Bose, Mohammedanism, Calcutta 1931, p.4].
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" The picture of the Muslim soldier advancing with sword in one hand and the Koran in the other is quite false".
[A.S. Tritton, Islam, London 1951, p.21].
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" History makes it clear, however, that the legend of fanatical Muslims sweeping through the world and forcing Islam at the point of the sword upon conquered races is one of the most fantastically absurd myths that historians have ever repeated".
[De Lacy O'Leary, Islam at the Crossroads, London 1923, p.8].
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A false man found a religion? Why, a false man cannot build a brick house! If he do not know and follow truly the properties of mortar, burnt clay and what else be works in, it is no house that he makes, but a rubbish-heap. It will not stand for twelve centuries, to lodge a hundred and eighty millions; it will fall straightway. A man must conform himself to Nature's laws, be verily in communion with Nature and the truth of things, or Nature will answer him, No, not at all!, many prominent world-leaders, do prosper by their quackery, for a day. It is like a forged bank-note; they get it passed out of their worthless hands: others, not they, have to smart for it. Nature bursts up in fire-flames, French Revolutions and such like, proclaiming with terrible veracity that forged notes are forged. But of a Great Man especially, of him I will venture to assert that it is incredible he should have been other than true. It seems to me the primary foundation of him, and of all that can lie in him, this., no man adequate to do anything, but is first of all in right earnest about it; what I call a sincere man. I should say sincerity, a deep, great, genuine sincerity, is the first characteristic of all men in any way heroic. Not the sincerity that calls itself sincere; ah no, that is a very poor matter indeed; —a shallow braggart conscious sincerity; oftenest self-conceit mainly. The Great Man's sincerity is of the kind he cannot speak of, is not conscious of: nay, I suppose, he is conscious rather of insincerity; for what man can walk accurately by the law of truth for one day? No, the Great Man does not boast himself sincere, far from that; perhaps does not ask himself if he is so: I would say rather, his sincerity does not depend on himself; he cannot help being sincere! The great Fact of Existence is great to him. Fly as he will, he cannot get out of the awful presence of this Reality. His mind is so made; he is great by that, first of all. Fearful and wonderful, real as Life, real as Death, is this Universe to him. Though all men should forget its truth, and walk in a vain show, he cannot. At all moments the Flame-image glares in upon him; undeniable, there, there! —I wish you to take this as my primary definition of a Great Man. A little man may have this, it is competent to all men that God has made: but a Great Man cannot be without it. Such a man is what we call an original man; he comes to us at first-hand. A messenger he, sent from the Infinite Unknown with tidings to us
( Thomas Carlyle0 Hero and Heroworship
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