دار استبلغ اسلامی Exactly after a century ! The present book has been demanded by distingui shed personalities, so we have been lucky to reproduce it in the present form, exactly after a complete century ! Although the present work has been considered the best essay about Islam, but as the author has not been a recognised muslim, there may be some defects in it, for which we are not responsible. Moharam 1391 March 1971 Department of Publications Darut-tablighe Islami. Ghum IRAN PREFACE THE present work is an humble but earnest endeavour to free the history of Mohammed from false accusations and illiberal imputations, and to vindicate his just claim to be regarded as one of the greatest benefactors of mankind. The writers who, misguided by a blind zeal, have thus assailed the fair fame of the Restorer of the Worship of the UNITY, have not only shown themselves to be wholly uninfluenced by the spirit of that charity so strongly and emphatically inculcated by the Saviour himself, but have also erred in judgment, for the least reflection would have convinced them that it is not from a Christian and modern stand-point that the Prophet and his doctrines ought to be examined and criticised, but from an Eastern one; in other words, Mohammed should be contemplated and judged as a religious reformer and legislator living in Arabia in the seventh century after Christ, and he must then, most undoubtedly, be acknowledged as the very greatest man whom Asia can claim as her son, if not, PREFACE. one of the rarest and most transcendent geniuses the world itself ever produced. If we consider what the Arabs were before Mohammed's appearance and what they became after it-if we reflect, moreover, upon the enthusiasm kindled and kept alive by his doctrine in the breasts of more than one hundred and sixty millions of the human race we cannot but feel that to withhold our admiration from so extraordinary and so great a man would be the most flagrant injustice, and that to attribute his advent to mere blind chance would be to doubt the over-ruling power of Divine Providence. In conclusion, the author would state that, in a few instances, when diffident of his own powers to do ample justice to so interesting and important a subject, he has availed himself of the ideas and language of other writers, an aid which he takes the present opportunity of candidly and gratefully acknowledging. 14, Grove Terrace, St. John's Wood, London, N.W. August, 1869. |