Reflections
For centuries, the Prophet (p) has been an inspiriation to Muslims; he is our beloved model and spiritual guide. He has also been a source of reverence and respect for countless others who follow other faith traditions as well, or no faith at all.

We welcome additional reflections on the Prophet (p), either your own, or others you have come across, to submit please send them to: celebrate@celebratingtheprophet.org.


Sir Thomas Carlyle

Scottish essayist, satirist and historian.
Our current hypothesis about Mahomet, that he was a scheming Impostor, a Falsehood incarnate, that his religion is a mere mass of quackery and fatuity, begins really to be now untenable to any one. The lies, which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man, are disgraceful to ourselves only[*].......a Great Man especially, of him I will venture to assert that it is incredible he should have been other than true.
This Mahomet, then, we will in no wise consider as an Inanity and Theatricality, a poor conscious ambitious schemer; we cannot conceive him so.
How one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades.
A silent great soul, one of that who cannot but be earnest. He was to kindle the world, the world’s Maker had ordered so.
...I said, the Great Man was always as lightning out of Heaven; the rest of men waited for him like fuel, and then they too would flame.
(Lectures on Heroes, Hero-Worship,
and the Heroic in History, [May 8, 1840.] Lecture II. The Hero As Prophet.)
Indian leader during struggle for independance,
I become more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers and 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.


Mahatma Ghandi


George Bernard Shaw
 Irish playwright and Nobel Prize winner, author of Pygmalion
I have always held the religion of Muhammad in high estimation because of its wonderful vitality. It is the only religion which appears to me to possess that assimilating capacity to the changing phase of existence which can make itself appeal to every age. I have studied him - the wonderful man and in my opinion for from being an anti-Christ, he must be called the Saviour of Humanity. I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it the much needed peace and happiness:...
(The Genuine Islam, Vol. I, No 8)
French writer, poet and politician
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? The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only. They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes.

... 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 conversations with God, his death and his triumph over death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma...

Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all the standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may ask, is there any man greater than he?
(Lamartine, Histoire de la Turquie, Paris, 1854, Vol. II)


Alphonse de Lamartine
Author and historian
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 Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports.
By a fortune absolutely unique in history, Mohammed is a threefold founder of a nation, of an empire, and of a religion.
(Mohmmad and Mohammadanism, London, 1874.)

R. Bosworth Smith

Edward Gibbon
 Highly influential British historian
The good sense of Muhammad despised the pomp of royalty. The Apostle of God submitted to the menial offices of the family; he kindled the fire; swept the floor; milked the ewes; and mended with his own hands his shoes and garments. Disdaining the penance and merit of a hermit, he observed without effort of vanity the abstemious diet of an Arab.
('The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire', 1823)
American author, wrote Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Rip van Winkle
He was sober and abstemious in his diet and a rigorous observer of fasts. He indulged in no magnificence of apparel, the ostentation of a petty mind; neither was his simplicity in dress affected but a result of real disregard for distinction from so trivial a source.
In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends and strangers, the rich and poor, the powerful and weak, with equity, and was beloved by the common people for the affability with which he received them, and listened to their complaints.

...In the time of his greatest power he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affecting a regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonials of respect were shown to him. If he aimed at a universal dominion, it was the dominion of faith; as to the temporal rule which grew up in his hands, as he used it without ostentation, so he took no step to perpetuate it in his family.
('Mahomet and His Successors', 1849)

Washington Irving

Annie Besant
 Prominent women's rights activist, Theosophist
It is impossible for anyone who studies 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. And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.
(The Life and Teachings of Muhammad)
English Islamic Scholar
His readiness to undergo persecution for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement all argue his fundamental integrity To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves. Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.
(Mohammad At Mecca, Oxford, 1953)

W Montgomery Watt

*Much of the literature that has been produced about the Prophet (p) has historically been polemical in nature. Instead of an open minded and well researched depiction of him, myths, lies, half-truths and distortions were created and perpetuated. It is this behavior that Thomas Carlyle is addressing. Ultimately such distortions are 'disgraceful' for the one creating them because it reveals their prejudices and displays a disregard for civil dialogue. It has been disappointing to witness the same behavior among some in our modern age in total disregard for respect and mutual understanding. Thomas Carlyle's words ring true in our age as well.