Francois Voltaire (1694-1778) is contemporary of Edward Gibbon, and one of the most famous French authors. He was a courageous fighter against tyranny, bigotry and cruelty of the rulers and clergy. He is master of critical analysis, wit and satire.
In his historical work Voltaire frankly spoke against papal intolerance, but appreciated progressive measures of Islamic movement, an appreciation which resulted in many problems for him.
Warrants of arrest were issued against him for his revolutionary and alleged heretical writings. He was forced to flee from France to England, where Gibbon had attended Voltaire meetings.
Voltaire on Muhammad
“Voltaire defended Muhammad in his book Les Moeurs et L’esprit des Nations as a profound political thinker and founder* of a rational religion.
Voltaire also pointed out that Muslim polity had always been more tolerant than Christian tradition.”**
Voltaire has further observed as quoted by R. Bosworth Smith:
“The turn of Arabia came, when the hour had already struck when the most complete, the most sudden and the most extra ordinary revolution that has ever come over any nation upon earth”.***
*Founder is misnomer for the Prophet Mohammed. Islam is a continuation of all divine revelations of the past. The meaning of Islam is to surrender to the will of God.
It may be born in mind that Voltaire and a few other who paid compliments to the Prophet of Islam had earlier made some adverse remarks against him, but those were before they embarked upon a deeper study of the Holy Prophet Muhammad’s life.
**Muhammad, A Biography of the Prophet, Kam Armstrong, page 36.
***The Glory of Muhammad, Published by Seerat International Centre Pakistan, page 58.