About 200 years ago Thomas Carlyle, political philosopher and unbiased historian of England, was courageous enough to frankly admit the fault of Europe for its contemptuous attitude towards the Prophet, in his famous book On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History.
He had not only dispelled the misgivings and medieval prejudices of his people about the Prophet of Islam, but highlighted his dignified person as a hero Prophet.
Some of the amazing aspects of the Prophet’s life addressed by Carlyle are worthy of consideration. He begins by mentioning the state of the Arabs:
“They were wild men, bursting ever and anon into quarrel, into all kinds of fierce sincerity; without right worth and manhood, no man could have commanded them.
They called him Prophet, you say?
Why, he stood there face to face with them; bare, not enshrined in any mystery; visibly clouting his own cloak, cobbling his own shoes; fighting, counseling, ordering in the midst of them: they must have seen what kind of a man he was. Let him be called what you like!
No emperor with his tiaras was obeyed as this man in a cloak of his own clouting.
During three-and-twenty years of rough actual trial. I find something of a veritable Hero necessary for that, of itself…”
Carlyle further says:
“Europe has begun now to sense the wisdom of Muhammad and has developed a passion for his religion.
It will also come to exonerate Islamic doctrine from all the false accusations laid at its door by Europeans in the Middle Ages.
The religion of Muhammad will be the system upon which peace and contentment will be founded. From his Philosophy, Europe will derive the solution to perplexities, problems and complexities . . .
Many of my fellow countrymen and other Europeans venerate the teachings of Islam.
Hence I confirm my prophecy by saying that the first stirrings of the age of European Islam are near, this is inevitable.
Yes, the world today is in dire need of a man like Muhammad to solve its complex problems.
Muhammad was abstemious and simple in his abode, his food and his drink and his clothing and in the rest of his life and conditions. His food consisted mainly of bread with dates and water. He often mended his own clothes. What could be more honorable than this?
Hail Muhammad the Prophet of rough clothing and food, who strived, was active during the day and awake during the night and persistent in promoting the religion of Allah. He was not one to covet that which lesser men covet such as rank, empire and power. He is in truth the Prophet of the sublime morals.
A silent great soul – one that who could not but be earnest, he was to kindle the world as the Maker of the world had ordered so. The lies which well-meaning zeal has heaped round this man [Muhammad] are disgraceful to us only.”
1. On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History. Thomas Carlyle