What Non-Muslims say about Prophet Muhammad

“If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?”

“This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and 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 souls …”

“His forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea, and in no manner striving for an empire …; his endless prayers, his mystic conversation with god, his death and his triumph after death,”

“Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas (e.g. unity of God and immateriality of God, etc.), of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and 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?”

Lamartine, Histoire de la Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol. II, pp. 276-77.

“It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our wonder, the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved after the revolutions of twelve centuries,”

Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay, “History of the Saracen Empire” London 1870, P. 54.

“He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope’s pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Muhammad, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its support.”

Bosworth Smith, “Mohammad and Mohammadanism,” London 1874, P. 92

“It is impossible for anyone who studied the life and character of the great prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived to feel anything but reverence for that mighty prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme.”

Annie Besant, “The life and teachings of Muhammad,” Madras 1932, P. 4

“His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of men who believed in him and looked up to him as their leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement – all argue his fundamental integrity.”

W. Montgomery, “Muhammad in Mecca,” Oxford, 1953, P. 52

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers, and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.”

Michael H. Hart, “The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History,” New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc. 1978, P. 33.