Prophethood of Prophet Muhammad (p.b.u.h.)

The glorious Quran and Sunnah were revealed to Imam al-Anbia (The leader of all the Prophets and the messengers) Muhammad (p.b.u.h.). As Imam Tahawi said about him: Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) is undoubtedly Allah's most exalted creature, His most beloved Messenger and a chosen Prophet. He is the last of the Prophets, Imam of all pious people, the Master of all the Messengers and the most beloved to the Creator of this universe. Such were the qualities due to which Quran was revealed to him. Ibn Masud beautifully mentioned the Prophet (p.b.u.h.) when he said, 'Indeed Allah looked into the hearts of the servants and found the heart of the heart of the Muhammad (p.b.u.h.) to be the best of the hearts of His servants and so He chose him for himself and sent him as a messenger….. ' STATEMENTS OF NONMUSLIMS REGARDING PROPHET MUHAMMAD Timothy, Nestorian Christian and an eighth-century patriarch of the Assyrian Church stated: Muhammad is "worthy of all praise" and "walked in the path of the prophets" because he taught the unity of God. He taught the way of good works; he opposed idolatry and polytheism he taught about God, his Word, and his Spirit he showed his zeal by fighting against idolatry with the sword; like Abraham he left his kinfolk rather than worship idols. George Sale became the earliest Westerner to rise above bigotry toward Muhammad when he translated Quran into English from Arabic for the first time. That 1734 work, along with his clarifying notes, fulfilled his intention of giving "the original impartial justice." Sale, a Protestant lawyer, writes in his introduction: "Muhammad gave his Arabs the best religion he could, as well as the best laws; preferable, at least, to those of the ancient pagan lawgivers." For two centuries, Sale's work was the best single source in English for the study of Islam. Later in the eighteenth century, distinguished historian Edward Gibbon gave a balanced treatment of Muhammad's character. Gibbon recognized that Muhammad was "endowed with a pious and contemplative disposition and that he despised the pomp of royalty." Gibbon thought that Europeans who stress the prophet's amorous activities have "maliciously exaggerated the frailties of Muhammad." Thomas Carlyle, another outstanding English writer, became famous for his theory that "the history of the world is but the biography of great men." He discovered Muhammad to have been a sincere leader after approaching him in this positive manner: "I mean to say all the good of him I justly can." Carlyle rejected the characteristic European outlook of the preceding millennium, that Muhammad was "a scheming impostor." While laudatory toward the founder of Islam, Carlyle's appreciation did not carry over to the style of Quran as he read it in English. He confessed: "It is as toilsome reading as I ever undertook a wearisome confused jumble." Writing at the time of Carlyle in the nineteenth century, European historian Johann Doellinger asserted: "No other mortal has ever, from the beginning of the world, exercised such an immeasurable influence upon the religious, moral, and political relations of mankind, as has the Arab Muhammad." In the twentieth century, non-Muslim scholars have increasingly acknowledged the greatness of Muhammad. For five decades Anglican bishop Kenneth Cragg has been writing books to publicize the admirable qualities of Islam and has translated selections from Arabic religious literature. He states: Bassetti-Sani is aware that the Bible contains this promise to Abraham: "As for lshmael, I have heard you; I will bless him ... and make him a great nation." According to Muslim tradition, Muhammad is a descendant of Hagar's grandson Nebaioth (or Nabit). Alfred Guillaume, the English translator of the most important Arabic biographical sources on the prophet, writes: "Trustworthy tradition depicts a man of amazing ability in winning men's hearts by persuasion and in coercing and disarming his opponents. . . . He stands out as one of the great figures of history." Historian Will Durant likewise concludes his treatment of Muhammad with this tribute: If we judge greatness by influence, he was one of the giants of history. He undertook to raise the spiritual and moral level of a people harassed into barbarism by heat and foodless wastes, and he succeeded more completely than any other reformer seldom has any man so fully realized his dream.... When he began, Arabia was a desert flotsam of idolatrous tribes; when he died it was a nation. Michael Hart, a contemporary American scientist, offers a similar estimate of Muhammad's impact. Hart ranks the three most influential persons in history in this order: Muhammad, Isaac Newton, and Jesus. Hart places Muhammad at the top of his list of one hundred humans because he was "the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels." Within a century, his followers controlled the largest empire in human history.

what is islam?

Let’s talk frankly. Almost never do non-Muslims study Islam until they have first exhausted the religions of their exposure. Only after they have grown dissatisfied with the religions familiar to them, meaning Judaism, Christianity and all the fashionable “-isms”—Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism (and, as my young daughter once added, “tourism”)—do they consider Islam.

Perhaps other religions do not answer the big questions of life, such as “Who made us?” and “Why are we here?” Perhaps other religions do not reconcile the injustices of life with a fair and just Creator. Perhaps we find hypocrisy in the clergy, untenable tenets of faith in the canon, or corruption in the scripture. Whatever the reason, we perceive shortcomings in the religions of our exposure, and look elsewhere. And the ultimate “elsewhere” is Islam.

Now, Muslims would not like to hear me say that Islam is the “ultimate elsewhere.” But it is. Despite the fact that Muslims comprise one-fourth to one-fifth of the world’s population, non-Muslim media smears Islam with such horrible slanders that few non-Muslims view the religion in a positive light. Hence, it is normally the last religion seekers investigate.

Another problem is that by the time non-Muslims examine Islam, other religions have typically heightened their skepticism: If every “God-given” scripture we have ever seen is corrupt, how can the Islamic scripture be different? If charlatans have manipulated religions to suit their desires, how can we imagine the same not to have happened with Islam?

The answer can be given in a few lines, but takes books to explain. The short answer is this: There is a God. He is fair and just, and He wants us to achieve the reward of paradise. However, God has placed us in this worldly life as a test, to weed out the worthy from the unworthy. And we will be lost if left to our own devices. Why? Because we don’t know what He wants from us. We can’t navigate the twists and turns of this life without His guidance, and hence, He has given us guidance in the form of revelation.

Sure, previous religions have been corrupted, and that is one of the reasonswhy we have a chain of revelation. Ask yourself: wouldn’t God send another revelation if the preceding scriptures were impure? If preceding scriptures were corrupted, humans would need another revelation, to keep upon the straight path of His design.

So we should expect preceding scriptures to be corrupted, and we should expect the final revelation to be pure and unadulterated,for we cannot imagine a loving God leaving us astray. What we can imagine is God giving us a scripture, and men corrupting it; God giving us another scripture, and men corrupting it again … and again, and again. Until God sends a final revelation He promises to preserve until the end of time.

Muslims consider this final revelation to be the Holy Quran. You consider it … worth looking into. So let us return to the title of this article: Why Islam? Why should we believe that Islam is the religion of truth, the religion that possesses the pure and final revelation?

“Oh, just trust me.”

Now, how many times have you heard that line? A famous comedian used to joke that people of different cities cuss one another out in different ways. In Chicago, they cuss a person out this way, in Los Angeles they cuss a person outthat way, but in New York they just say, “Trust me.”

So don’t trust me—trust our Creator. Read the Quran, read books and study good websites. But whatever you do, get started, take it seriously, and pray for our Creator to guide you.

Your life may not depend on it, but your soul most definitely does.