The Islam that was revealed to Prophet Muhammad, , (may Allah exalt his mention) is the continuation and culmination of all the preceding revealed religions and hence, it is for all times and all people. This status of Islam is sustained by some obvious facts.
Firstly, there is no other revealed book extant in the same form and content as it was revealed. Secondly, no other revealed religion has any convincing claim to provide guidance in all walks of human life for all times. However, Islam addresses humanity at large and offers basic guidance regarding all human problems. Moreover, it has withstood the test of 1400 years and has the potential to establish an ideal society, as it did under the leadership of the last Prophet Muhammad, .
It was a miracle that Prophet Muhammad, , could win over even his toughest enemies to the fold of Islam without adequate material resources. Worshippers of idols, blind followers of the ways of forefathers, promoters of tribal feuds, abusers of human dignity and blood, become the most disciplined nation under the guidance of Islam and its Prophet, . Islam opened before them vistas of spiritual heights and human dignity by declaring righteousness as the sole criterion for merit and honor. Islam shaped their social, cultural, moral and commercial life with basic laws and principles which are in conformity with human nature, and hence applicable in all times, as human nature does not change.
It is so unfortunate that instead of sincerely trying to understand the phenomenal success of Islam during its earlier time, the Christian West considered it as a rival religion. During the centuries of the Crusades, this trend gained much force and impetus and a large body of literature was produced to tarnish the image of Islam. However, Islam has begun to unfold its genuineness to the modern scholars whose bold and objective observations on Islam belie all the charges levelled against it by the so-called ‘unbiased’ Orientalists.
Here we furnish some observations on Islam by renowned non-Muslim scholars of modern times. The truth needs no advocates to plead on its behalf. However, the prolonged malicious propaganda against Islam has created great confusion even in the minds of free and objective thinkers.
We hope that the following observations would contribute to initiating an objective evaluation of Islam.
"It (Islam) replaced monkishness by manliness. It gives hope to the slave, brotherhood to mankind, and recognition of the fundamental facts of human nature.”
Canon Taylor [Paper read before the Church Congress at Walverhamton, Oct. 7, 1887 CE, Quoted by Arnond in The Preaching of Islam, p. 71-72.]
“Sense of justice is one of the most wonderful ideals of Islam, because as I read in the Quran, I find those dynamic principles of life, not mystic but practical ethics for the daily conduct of life suited to whole world.”
Sarojini Naidu [Lectures on The Ideals of Islam see Speeches and Writings of Sarojini Naidu, Madras, 1918,p.167.]
“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.]
“But Islam has a still further service to render to the cause of humanity. It stands after all nearer to the real East than Europe does, and it possesses a magnificent tradition of inter-racial understanding and cooperation. No other society has such a records of success in uniting in an equality of status, of opportunity, and of endeavors so many and various races of mankind… Islam has still the power to reconcile apparently irreconcilable elements of race and tradition. If ever the opposition of the Great societies of East and West is to be replaced by cooperation, the mediation of Islam is an indispensable condition. In its hand lies very largely the solution of the problem with which Europe is faced in its relations with the East. If they unite, the hope of a peaceful issue is immeasurably enhanced. But if Europe, by rejecting the cooperation of Islam, throws it into the arms of its rivals, the issue can only be disastrous for both”.
H.A.R. Gibb [Whither Islam, London, 1932,p. 379]
“I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion, which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence, which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him -- the wonderful man -- and in my opinion far from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Savior 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. I have prophesied about the faith of Muhammad that it would be acceptable to the Europe of tomorrow as it is beginning to be acceptable to the Europe of today.”
G. B. Shaw [The Genuine Islam, Vol. 1, No. 81936]
“The extinction of race consciousness as between Muslims is one of the outstanding achievement of Islam and in the contemporary world there is, as it happens, a crying need for the propagation of this Islamic virtue.”
A. J. Toynbee [Civilization on Trial, New York, 1948, p. 205]
“The rise of Islam is perhaps the most amazing event in human history. Spreading from a land and a people previously negligible, Islam spread within a century over half the earth, shattering great empires, overthrowing long-established religion, remolding the souls of races, and building up a whole new world – the world of Islam. The closer we examine this development the more extraordinary it appears. 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 the deserts of central Africa….”
A. M. L. Stoddard [Quoted in Islam: The Religion of all Prophets, Begum Bawani Waqf, Karachi, Pakistan p. 56.]
“Islam is a religion that is essentially rationalistic in the widest sense of this term considered etymologically and historically. The definition of rationalism as a system that bases religion beliefs on principles furnished by the reason applies to it exactly. It cannot be denied that many doctrines and systems of theology and also many superstitions, from the worships of saints to the use of rosaries and amulets, have become grafted on the main trunk on Muslim creed. But in spite of the rich development, in every sense of the term, of the teachings of the Prophet, the Quran has invariably kept its place as the fundamental starting point, and the dogma of unity of God has always been proclaimed therein with the grandeur, a majesty, an invariable purity and with a note of sure conviction, which it is hard to find surpassed outside the pale of Islam. This fidelity to the fundamental dogma of the religion, the elemental simplicity of the formula in which it is enunciated, the power that is gains from the fervid conviction of the missionaries who propagate it, are so many causes to explain the success of Muhammad’s missionary efforts. A creed so precise; so stripped of all theological complexities and consequently so accessible to the ordinary understanding might be expected to possess, and does indeed possess, a marvelous power of winning its way into the consciences of men.”
Edward Montet [La Propagande Chretienne Et Ses Adversaries Musulmans, Paris 1890, Quoted by T. W. Arnold in The Preaching of Islam, London 1913, p. 413-414]
“I am not a Muslim in the usual sense, though I hope I am a “Muslim” as one surrendered to God, but I believe that embedded in the Quran and other expressions of the Islamic vision are vast stores of divine truth from which I and other Occidentals have still much to learn; and Islam is certainly a strong contender for supplying of the basic framework of the one religion of the future”.
W. Montgomery Watt [Islam and Christianity Today, London 1983, p. IX]
PHOTO CAPTION
William Montgomery Watt