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7: MUḤAMMAD 18 |
Now we come to Muḥammad. Americans and Europeans
have heard a number of stories about the Prophet which
they have thought to be true, although the narrators were
either ignorant or antagonistic: most of them were clergy;
others were ignorant Muslims who repeated unfounded
traditions about Muḥammad which they ignorantly believed
to be to His praise.
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For example, a foolish man said to a clergyman that the
true proof of greatness is bravery and the shedding of
blood, and that in one day on the field of battle a follower
of Muḥammad had cut off the heads of one hundred men!
This misled the clergyman to infer that killing is considered
the way to prove one’s faith to Muḥammad, while
this is merely imaginary. The military expeditions of
Muḥammad, on the contrary, were always defensive actions:
a proof of this is that during thirteen years, in
Mecca, He and His followers endured the most violent
persecutions. At this period they were the target for the
arrows of hatred: some of His companions were killed and
their property confiscated; others fled to foreign lands.
Muḥammad Himself, after the most extreme persecutions
by the Qurayshites, who finally resolved to kill Him, fled to
Medina in the middle of the night. Yet even then His
19
enemies did not cease their persecutions, but pursued
Him to Medina, and His disciples even to Abyssinia.
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These Arab tribes were in the lowest depths of savagery
and barbarism, and in comparison with them the savages
of Africa and wild Indians of America were as advanced as
a Plato. The savages of America do not bury their children
alive as these Arabs did their daughters, glorying in it as
being an honorable thing to do.
1
Thus many of the men
would threaten their wives, saying, “If a daughter is born
to you, I will kill you.” Even down to the present time the
Arabs dread having daughters. Further, a man was permitted
to take a thousand women, and most husbands had
more than ten wives in their household. When these
tribes made war, the one which was victorious would take
the women and children of the vanquished tribe captive
and treat them as slaves.
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When a man who had ten wives died, the sons of these
women rushed at each other’s mothers; and if one of the
sons threw his mantle over the head of his father’s wife and
cried out, “This woman is my lawful property,” at once
the unfortunate woman became his prisoner and slave. He
could do whatever he wished with her. He could kill her,
imprison her in a well, or beat, curse and torture her until
death released her. According to the Arab habits and customs,
he was her master. It is evident that malignity,
jealousy, hatred and enmity must have existed between
the wives and children of a household, and it is, therefore,
needless to enlarge upon the subject. Again, consider
what was the condition and life of these oppressed
women! Moreover, the means by which these Arab tribes
lived consisted in pillage and robbery, so that they were
perpetually engaged in fighting and war, killing one another,
plundering and devastating each other’s property,
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and capturing women and children, whom they would sell
to strangers. How often it happened that the daughters
and sons of a prince, who spent their day in comfort and
luxury, found themselves, when night fell, reduced to
shame, poverty and captivity. Yesterday they were princes,
today they are captives; yesterday they were great
ladies, today they are slaves.
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Muḥammad received the Divine Revelation among
these tribes, and after enduring thirteen years of persecution
from them, He fled.
2
But this people did not cease to
oppress; they united to exterminate Him and all His followers.
It was under such circumstances that Muḥammad
was forced to take up arms. This is the truth: we are not
bigoted and do not wish to defend Him, but we are just,
and we say what is just. Look at it with justice. If Christ
Himself had been placed in such circumstances among
such tyrannical and barbarous tribes, and if for thirteen
years He with His disciples had endured all these trials
with patience, culminating in flight from His native
land—if in spite of this these lawless tribes continued to
pursue Him, to slaughter the men, to pillage their property,
and to capture their women and children—what
would have been Christ’s conduct with regard to them? If
this oppression had fallen only upon Himself, He would
have forgiven them, and such an act of forgiveness would
have been most praiseworthy; but if He had seen that
these cruel and bloodthirsty murderers wished to kill, to
pillage and to injure all these oppressed ones, and to take
captive the women and children, it is certain that He
would have protected them and would have resisted the
tyrants. What objection, then, can be taken to Muḥammad’s
action? Is it this, that He did not, with His followers,
and their women and children, submit to these savage
tribes? To free these tribes from their bloodthirstiness was
the greatest kindness, and to coerce and restrain them was
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a true mercy. They were like a man holding in his hand a
cup of poison, which, when about to drink, a friend breaks
and thus saves him. If Christ had been placed in similar
circumstances, it is certain that with a conquering power
He would have delivered the men, women and children
from the claws of these bloodthirsty wolves.
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Muḥammad never fought against the Christians; on the
contrary, He treated them kindly and gave them perfect
freedom. A community of Christian people lived at
Najrán and were under His care and protection. Muḥammad
said, “If anyone infringes their rights, I Myself will
be his enemy, and in the presence of God I will bring a
charge against him.” In the edicts which He promulgated
it is clearly stated that the lives, properties and honor of
the Christians and Jews are under the protection of God;
and that if a Muḥammadan married a Christian woman,
the husband must not prevent her from going to church,
nor oblige her to veil herself; and that if she died, he must
place her remains in the care of the Christian clergy.
Should the Christians desire to build a church, Islám
ought to help them. In case of war between Islám and her
enemies, the Christians should be exempted from the obligation
of fighting, unless they desired of their own free
will to do so in defense of Islám, because they were under
its protection. But as a compensation for this immunity,
they should pay yearly a small sum of money. In short,
there are seven detailed edicts on these subjects, some
copies of which are still extant at Jerusalem. This is an established
fact and is not dependent on my affirmation.
The edict of the second Caliph
3
still exists in the custody
of the orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and of this there is
no doubt.
4
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Nevertheless, after a certain time, and through the
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transgression of both the Muḥammadans and the Christians,
hatred and enmity arose between them. Beyond this
fact, all the narrations of the Muslims, Christians and
others are simply fabrications, which have their origin in
fanaticism, or ignorance, or emanate from intense hostility.
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Briefly, Muḥammad appeared in the desert of Ḥijáz in
the Arabian Peninsula, which was a desolate, sterile
wilderness, sandy and uninhabited. Some parts, like
Mecca and Medina, are extremely hot; the people are
nomads with the manners and customs of the dwellers in
the desert, and are entirely destitute of education and science.
Muḥammad Himself was illiterate, and the Qur’án
was originally written upon the bladebones of sheep, or on
palm leaves. These details indicate the condition of the
people to whom Muḥammad was sent. The first question
which He put to them was, “Why do you not accept the
Pentateuch and the Gospel, and why do you not believe in
Christ and in Moses?” This saying presented difficulties to
them, and they argued, “Our forefathers did not believe in
the Pentateuch and the Gospel; tell us, why was this?” He
answered, “They were misled; you ought to reject those
who do not believe in the Pentateuch and the Gospel, even
though they are your fathers and your ancestors.”
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In such a country, and amidst such barbarous tribes, an
illiterate Man produced a book in which, in a perfect and
eloquent style, He explained the divine attributes and
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perfections, the prophethood of the Messengers of God,
the divine laws, and some scientific facts.
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Thus, you know that before the observations of modern
times—that is to say, during the first centuries and down
to the fifteenth century of the Christian era—all the mathematicians
of the world agreed that the earth was the center
of the universe, and that the sun moved. The famous
astronomer who was the protagonist of the new theory
discovered the movement of the earth and the immobility
of the sun.
5
Until his time all the astronomers and philosophers
of the world followed the Ptolemaic system, and
whoever said anything against it was considered ignorant.
Though Pythagoras, and Plato during the latter part of his
life, adopted the theory that the annual movement of the
sun around the zodiac does not proceed from the sun, but
rather from the movement of the earth around the sun,
this theory had been entirely forgotten, and the Ptolemaic
system was accepted by all mathematicians. But there are
some verses revealed in the Qur’án contrary to the theory
of the Ptolemaic system. One of them is “The sun moves
in a fixed place,” which shows the fixity of the sun, and its
movement around an axis.
6
Again, in another verse, “And
each star moves in its own heaven.”
7
Thus is explained the
movement of the sun, of the moon, of the earth, and of
other bodies. When the Qur’án appeared, all the mathematicians
ridiculed these statements and attributed the
theory to ignorance. Even the doctors of Islám, when they
saw that these verses were contrary to the accepted
Ptolemaic system, were obliged to explain them away.
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It was not until after the fifteenth century of the Christian
era, nearly nine hundred years after Muḥammad, that
a famous astronomer made new observations and important
discoveries by the aid of the telescope, which he had
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invented.
8
The rotation of the earth, the fixity of the sun,
and also its movement around an axis, were discovered. It
became evident that the verses of the Qur’án agreed with
existing facts, and that the Ptolemaic system was imaginary.
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In short, many Oriental peoples have been reared for
thirteen centuries under the shadow of the religion of
Muḥammad. During the Middle Ages, while Europe was
in the lowest depths of barbarism, the Arab peoples were
superior to the other nations of the earth in learning, in the
arts, mathematics, civilization, government and other sciences.
The Enlightener and Educator of these Arab tribes,
and the Founder of the civilization and perfections of humanity
among these different races, was an illiterate Man,
Muḥammad. Was this illustrious Man a thorough Educator
or not? A just judgment is necessary.
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1. | The Banú-Tamím, one of the most barbarous Arab tribes, practiced this odious custom. [ Back To Reference] |
2. | To Medina. [ Back To Reference] |
3. | Of ‘Umar. [ Back To Reference] |
4. | Cf. Jurjí Zaydán’s Umayyads and Abbasids, trans. D. S. Margoliouth. [ Back To Reference] |
5. | Copernicus. [ Back To Reference] |
6. | Cf. Qur’án 36:37. [ Back To Reference] |
7. | Cf. Qur’án 36:38. [ Back To Reference] |
8. | Galileo. [ Back To Reference] |