Thomas Carlyle

Thomas Carlyle

What Diwan Chand Sharma said about Muhammad?

Muhammad up to the age of forty

Muhammad before his Prophethood

 

Up to the age of forty, Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a parson a spokesman or a lecturer.  He was never seen discussing the principles of metaphysics, beliefs, moral principles, ethics, law, politics, economics or sociology.

His Pagan people knew that he possessed an excellent personality, pleasant manners and He was well known as an honest and a trustworthy man.  His people used to call him the trustworthy honest man.

Nevertheless, there was nothing in his manner of life that would make his people expecting something great and revolutionary from him in the future.

 

Muhammad after the age of forty

At the age of forty, the Angel Gabriel revealed unto Muhammad the first seven verses of the Quran which are:

1) "Read (O prophet Muhammad) in the name of thy lord and cherisher, it is He who created,

2) Created man from "Alaq".

3) Read! And thy lord is most bountiful, is the most generous,

4) He who taught (the use of) the pen,

5) Taught the human what he did not know."

 

Since then, Muhammad has completely transformed.

Logically-wise, it is not possible for such a person of the above qualities to turn all of a sudden into a liar and claim that he is the Prophet of Allah and stimulate all the wrath of his people against himself.

His people offered to accept him as their King, to give him all the money he wants, to give him all the noble women he wants to marry them and he would leave the preaching of his religion. But he chose to refuse their tempting offers and go on preaching his religion single-handedly in face of all kinds of insults, social boycott and even physical assault by his own people.

Muhammad stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and conspiracies to eliminate him

Muhammad was but a human being.  He was a man with a mission, which was to unite humanity on the worship of One and Only One God and to teach them the way to honest and upright living based on the commands of God.  He always described himself as, "A Servant and Messenger of God".

 

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This article presents what Mahatma Gandhi, Thomas Carlyle, Diwan Chand Sharma and Encyclopedia Britannica said about the Prophet Muhammad

 

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869 –1948) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India during the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of mass civil disobedience, a philosophy firmly founded upon total nonviolence—which led India to independence and inspired movements for civil rights and freedom across the world. Gandhi is commonly known around the world as Mahatma Gandhi or "Great Soul". He is officially honored in India as the Father of the Nation; his birthday, 2 October, is commemorated there as Gandhi a national holiday, and worldwide as the International Day of Non-Violence.

 

Speaking on the character of Muhammad, Mahatma Gandhi says in (Young India):

"I wanted to know the best of one who holds today's undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind....I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle. When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet's biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life."

 

On the other hand, Diwan Chand Sharma, a Hindu scholar wrote [in his book "The Prophets of the East," Calcutta 1935, p. 122.],

"Muhammad was the soul of kindness, and his influence was felt and never forgotten by those around him."

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Thomas Carlyle (1795 –1881) was a Scottish satirical writer, essayist, historian and teacher during the Victorian era. He called economics "the dismal science", wrote articles for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, and became a controversial social commentator.

On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History also accorded a key function to heroes and great men in history. Carlyle centered history on the biography of a few central individuals.

 

Thomas Carlyle, in his book (Heroes and Heroworship), was too amazed to say: "how one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades."

 

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The Encyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia that is regarded as the most scholarly of encyclopedias.

Articles are aimed at educated people, and written by about 100 full-time editors and more than 4,000 expert contributors.

 

The Encyclopædia Britannica says:

"....a mass of detail in the early sources show that he was an honest and upright man who had gained the respect and loyalty of others who were like-wise honest and upright men."

(Vol. 12)

  

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Appendix

It is interesting that

• The first revealed word of the Quran was "Read".
• The last word in the first revealed five verses was "Know".
• The Arabic word pronounced as "Alaq" is translated to blood clot; however, in Arabic dictionary, it has 37 different meanings and all of them fit for the creation and nature of man.  The meanings of "Alaq" will be given in a separate article.

About the Author

Safaa Abdel-Aziz

Co-Chief Editor, October Weekly magazine, Cairo, Egypt.

Member of the Egyptian Society of Save Children.

Member of the Egyptian Society of Tourism

Need a little help with my world history homework ?

Thomas Carlyle, a Scottish writer, said that history was “the biography of great men.” Ibn Khaldun, an Arab historian, defined history as “information about human social organizations.”

(a)
What is the main difference between these two views of history?

(b)
How might each man's viewpoint have affected the way he wrote about history?

As far as part (a) is concerned, I'd say one big difference is that Carlyle attributes the events of history like individual achievements. It sounds like Khaldun recognizes that there is a big picture (social organizations vs individual men)

Concerning part (b) this would affect what topics and who they choose to write about. Carlyle probably only wrote about men's achievements and Khaldun probably wrote more about cultures as a whole.

That make sense?

Thomas Carlyle Rediscovered