The
Misconception of Western Writers
The Western “scholars” of Islam and the orientalists who have published a number of books on the life-history of the Prophet (SAW), have generally erred in their over-all assessment of the Prophetic mission.
The main
reason for their misunderstanding is that they did not at all appreciate the
culminatoy and summatory character of his prophetic mission. They do have a
vague notion of the basic and primary objectives of the prophetic call, and
hence they feel that a prophet may at best be a preacher, a mentor, a teacher,
a reformer and a warner. But as they are not clear about the finality of
Prophethood and the summatory character of Prophet Muhammad’s mission, they
cannot possibly imagine a prophet as a statesman, a commander of fighting
armies, and an administrator. They just cannot swallow the fact that Prophet
Muhammad (SAW) performed all the above mentioned functions, that he was both a
preacher and a statesman. Finding it difficult to reconcile mentally all the
capacities of Prophet Muhammad (SAW), some openly repudiated his Divine
messenger-ship and only acclaim him to be a great leader. Others had recourse
to very naive and foolish theses.
Thus, in
the words of Dr. Michael Hart, “he [Prophet Muhammad] was the only man in
history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.”
Arnold Toynbee maintains that “Muhammad failed as a prophet and succeeded as a statesman.”
Montgomery Watt speaks of the Prophet as “one of the greatest sons of Adam”, but, unable to harmonize the “secular” with the “religious”, he has, very wrongly, divided the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) into two disparate and disjointed phases, hence the titles of his two books are “Muhammad At Makkah” and “Muhammad At Medinah.” The insinuation here is that the personality of the Prophet at Makkah was entirely different from his personality at Medinah.
All this, in fact, is the result of a fundamental misconception regarding Prophet Muhammad’s Divinely ordained mission as the last of all prophets.
Arnold Toynbee maintains that “Muhammad failed as a prophet and succeeded as a statesman.”
Montgomery Watt speaks of the Prophet as “one of the greatest sons of Adam”, but, unable to harmonize the “secular” with the “religious”, he has, very wrongly, divided the life of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) into two disparate and disjointed phases, hence the titles of his two books are “Muhammad At Makkah” and “Muhammad At Medinah.” The insinuation here is that the personality of the Prophet at Makkah was entirely different from his personality at Medinah.
All this, in fact, is the result of a fundamental misconception regarding Prophet Muhammad’s Divinely ordained mission as the last of all prophets.
To Be Continued ....
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