Since nine centuries in European societies some myths about Prophet Muhammad have been established due to historical conflict between Europe and Islamic world. But many of thinkers, philosophers and scholars have had another opinion, an objective and logical. Poets, novelists and writers were more distinguished to express their views on Muhammad. Emotions or illusions did not plunge them about truth, which they used to discuss and reach it. Lessing, Goethe, Pushkin, Lamartine, Collins, in addition to: Tolstoy, H G Wales, Bernard Shaw and Kazentzakis, represent a selection of most famous poets and writers in Europe. Goethe and Tolstoy were discussed in last two articles. We have to recognize others and what they have said in this regard.
Gotthold Lessing (1729-1781), the German writer, was one of the most prominent protagonists of Enlightenment era. He was a poet, philosopher, dramatist, publicist, and art critic. His plays and theoretical writings substantially influenced the development of German literature. In his writings he tried to contribute to the development of a new bourgeois theatre in Germany and defended the faithful Christian’s right for freedom of thought. In addition, he spoke up for tolerance of the other world religions in many arguments.
He considered Islam as a natural religion, called it the age of enlightenment and important for Western culture as Rome and Greece. He defined tolerance as the will to respect and dialogue, which had to lead to recognition Muhammad and Islam. Lessing believed that every thinker agree with him that all key principles in teachings of Muhammad stems from innate natural religion. He is a Prophet for today endeavor us to promote Islam.
The 19th century writer and poet Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837), who founded the literature of his language with epic and lyric poems, plays, novels, and short stories, was one of the earliest significant literary figures in Russia. His most famous works include the drama Boris Godunov (1825) and the epic poem Eugene Onegin (1823-1831). Pushkin helped establishing a strong Russian literary tradition, and his work influenced many of the writers who followed him. He provided a literary heritage for Russians, whose native language had hitherto been considered unfit for literature. He was also a versatile writer of great vigor and optimism who understood the many facets of the Russian character. His lyric poetry and his simple, vivid prose were invaluable models for the writers who followed him.
Pushkin was among the early Russian poets who were inspired by the Prophet’s biography in his poems, especially in Glimpses from the Prophet in which he talked about the early stage of prophethood and the Prophet’s reflection on the universe and the reality of existence. In his poem Glimpses from the Qur’an, it becomes clear how Islam influenced Pushkin. He begins the poem by quoting a number of verses from the Holy Qur’an. We mention what Pushkin says: The chest was cut, removed from it the beating heart, the angels washed it, replaced it again! arise you Prophet move around the world, enlighten the hearts of the people.
French poet Alphonse La Martine (1790-1869), a man of letters and statesman, was a leader of the Romantic Movement. He is known chiefly for his poetry, which has the Romantic characteristics of sentiment expressed with lyric grace and refinement, an atmosphere of gentle melancholy, and effective descriptions of rural scenery, particularly as a reflection of the poet’s mood. His most popular and influential volume of poems is French poet (1820); other volumes are New Poetic Meditations (1823), Poetic and Religious Harmonies (1830), Jocelyn (1836), An Angel’s Fall (1838), and Reflections (1839). He was also a prolific writer of fiction and of biographical, critical, and historical works.
Lamartine conceived that Muhammad accomplished so much in such diverse fields of human thought and behavior in the fullest blaze of human history. Every detail of his private life and public utterances has been accurately documented and faithfully preserved to our day. The authenticity of the record so preserved are vouched for not only by the faithful followers but even by his prejudiced critics. Muhammad was a religious teacher, a social reformer, a moral guide, an administrative colossus, a faithful friend, a wonderful companion, a devoted husband, a loving father- all in one. No other man in history ever excelled or equaled him in any of these different aspects of life- but it was only for the selfless personality of Muhammad to achieve such incredible perfections.
He said: “The remarkable incident in my whole life, is that I have studied the life of Prophet Muhammad , and I realized its greatness and eternity, who dare to compare any man from history with Prophet Muhammad?! Who is greater than him, looking to all criterions measuring man’s greatness?
His behavior in the time of glory, his ambitions to spread the massage, his long lasting prayers, and his celestial interlocution all are evidence to a perfect faith that helped him to establish the basics of his massage. The messenger, the project, the conqueror, the corrector of the believes the one who established worshipping which not depend on images, is Muhammad .He has destroyed all believes that adopting mediator between the creator and his creation”.
in Histoire de la Turquie, 1854 Lamartine confirmed that Muhammad had in the conception as well as in the execution of such a great design, no other instrument than himself and no other aid except a handful of men living in a corner of the desert. Never has a man accomplished such a huge and lasting revolution in the world, because in less than two centuries after its appearance, Islam, in faith and in arms, reigned over the whole of Arabia, and conquered, in God’s name, most countries.
He wonders: If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astonishing results are the three criteria of a human genius, who could dare compare any great man in 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, legislations, empires, peoples, 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 the souls.
On the basis of a Book, every letter which has become law, he created a spiritual nationality which blends together peoples of every tongue and race. He has left the indelible characteristic of this Muslim nationality the hatred of false gods and the passion for the One and Immaterial God. This avenging patriotism against the profanation of Heaven formed the virtue of the followers of Muhammad; the conquest of one-third the earth to the dogma was his miracle; or rather it was not the miracle of man but that of reason.
The idea of the unity of God, proclaimed amidst the exhaustion of the fabulous theogonies, was in itself such a miracle that upon it’s utterance from his lips it destroyed all the ancient temples of idols and set on fire one-third of the world. His life, his meditations, his heroic revelings against the superstitions of his country, and his boldness in defying the furies of idolatry, his firmness in enduring them for fifteen years in Mecca, his acceptance of the role of public scorn and almost of being a victim of his fellow countrymen… 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 words. Philosopher, Orator, Apostle, Legislator, Conqueror of Ideas, Restorer of Rational beliefs… 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?
The best known for writing The Woman in White and The Moonstone, the German literary Wilkie Collins (1824-1889), was the first full-length detective novels. His work includes fiction, plays, journalism, and biography. Throughout the 1850s, he developed a style of fiction that by the following decade had become known as the sensation novel. He mentioned in The Moonstone that Muhammad defend women and prompt them to enjoy virtues and he warned those who are not follow this. It’s really a high code.
Historian, and political philosopher, the English writer, H. G. Wells (1866 –1946) was the most famous today for his science fiction novels; The Time Machine, The War of the Worlds, The Invisible Man, The First Men in the Moon and The Island of Dr Moreau. He was a prolific writer of both fiction and non-fiction, and produced works in many genres, including contemporary novels, history, and social commentary. He was an outspoken socialist, his later works becoming increasingly political and didactic. Only his early science fiction novels are widely read today. In a short history of the world, 1922, He wrote that Muhammad declared himself to be the last chosen Prophet of God entrusted with a mission to perfect religion. He had been chosen to complete and perfect the revelation of God’s will.
Irish writer and Nobel laureate George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), author of more than 50 plays, rejected the romantic Victorian themes of his time and sought to bring about social reform through his dramatic portrayals of the ills of his time. Shaw, with mischievous humor and brilliant wit, became the most significant dramatist since Shakespeare, a prolific playwright, the most trenchant pamphleteer, the most readable music critic and best theatre critic of his generation. He also was an indefatigable writer of letters and a social critic and highly critical of institutional power.
Shaw Wrote In the Genuine Islam, 1936: “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 it appeal to every age.
Shaw expressed his great appreciation of the personality of the Prophet thus:
I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving the problems in a way that would bring the much needed peace and happiness. Europe is beginning to be enamored of the creed of Muhammad. In the next century it may go further in recognizing the utility of that creed in solving its problems.”
In the introduction to his play Man and the Arms, he confirmed that Islam is the religion of the future. Also in his play the Man of Destiny, he compared between the ambitions of Napoleon in power and the tolerance that Muslims exercised toward others.
I’ve studied Muhammad as an amazing man, and I’ve found him a way from antagonizing Jesus, he must be called the Savior of Humanity. Nowadays Europe starts to understand the faith of monotheism, and may be more than that, it confessing the ability of that faith to solve its problems by a way leading to peace and happiness, so through that essence you should understand my prediction.
if we judge the greatness by measuring the influence of that great on the people, so we should say that Muhammad is the greatest great in history, he stopped racism and myths, and established over Christianity and Judaism and his country’s religion, a very clear and a strong religion, that succeeded to be until these days a power with great danger. History has no man, except Muhammad, who is, a massage carrier, a nation establisher, a founder of a country…all these three things done by Muhammad, was a united unity, and religion was the power that maintain its unity over history.
Shaw confirmed that he understood the spirit of Islam and could explore the basic Islamic value, that is, the call to equality. It seems that this call was the main point of attraction to the men of letters in the early years of the 20th century.
Muhammad during this short period of 23 years of his Prophethood, he changed the complete Arabian peninsula from paganism and idolatry to worship of One God, from tribal quarrels and wars to national solidarity and cohesion, from drunkenness and debauchery to sobriety and piety, from lawlessness and anarchy to disciplined living, from utter bankruptcy to the highest standards of moral excellence. Human history has never known such a complete transformation of a people or a place before or since. And imagine all these unbelievable wonders in just over two decades. He was by far the most remarkable man that ever set foot on this earth. He preached a religion, founded a state, built a nation, laid down a moral code, initiated numerous social and political reforms, established a powerful and dynamic society to practice and represent his teachings and completely revolutionized the worlds of human thought and behavior for all times to come.
Nikos Kazantzakis (1885-1957), the great novelist of Greek, whose best-known work in English is the novel Zorba the Greek, 1943, which was made into a successful film, tells the story of an ageing Greek miner with an unconquerable zest for life. He published several books on religious- philosophical themes, including The Last Temptation of Christ, 1951 which was made into a film in 1988, and The Poor Man of God, 1953. He translated the works of Dante and Goethe and several ancient Greek classics into the Modern Greek language, of which he was one of the great masters. He also wrote philosophical essays, tragedies, and lyric and epic poetry, including The Odyssey: a Modern Sequel, 1938, a continuation of the Homeric epic. In the 1930s he traveled to Europe, Asia, and Africa, and he wrote many books in which he combined travel description with personal and philosophic commentary.
The image of the Prophet in the Greek literature can be found with Kazantzakis in his poem Mohammed in which he described the Prophet as one of the great personalities of the world. The poet feels proud that some Arab blood runs in his veins. He also highly hails the Prophet as a great man in a book he wrote about some international personalities.
Finally, there are many other poets, novelists and writers in Europe and West, like Walter, Doualemr (Germany), Lady Evelyn Kobold and Jones Oryx (England), have the same an objective and logical opinion about the Prophet, we have to read about them and what they said to help us to know the truth.
By Bashir Abul QarayaPhD.
Political Science Researcher &
Director of Research and Studies,
Electronic Village, Abu Dhabi, UAE