Gibb, known as H. A. R. Gibb was a Scottish scholar of Islam and Middle East, and one of the editors of the Islamic Encyclopaedia, in his book “Mohammedanism” Gibb discussed about the creative personality of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him). He looks upon the Prophet as ‘a reflection of the real man’, he says:
“Mohammad suffered, on the one hand, like every other creative personality, the constraints of external circumstances, and on the other he broke a new channel through the ideas and conventions of his time and place.
The one certain fact is that his impulse was religious through and through. From the beginning of his career as a preacher his outlook and his judgment of persons and events were dominated by his conception of God’s government and purposes in the world of men.
The figure of Mohammad has suffered greatly from the hodgepodge of trivialities fathered upon him by later generations of his followers.
Yet through largeness of humanity-sympathy for the weak, a gentleness that seldom turned to anger save when dishonour seemed to be done to God, something even of shyness in personal intercourse, and a glint of humor – all of which contrasts so strangely with the prevailing temper and spirit of his age and of his followers that it cannot be other than a reflection of the real man”.
Gibb neither denied his debt to earlier scholars nor his own insights and knowledge to others. His work is marked by integrity and objectivity, and a deep humanity and understanding.