
From a Baha'i book by 'Abdu'l-Baha:

                            MUHAMMAD

     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 Muhammad which they ignorantly believed to be 
to His praise.

     Thus some benighted Muslims made His polygamy the pivot of
their praises and held it to be a wonder, regarding it as a
miracle; and European historians, for the most part, rely on the
tales of these ignorant people.

     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 Muhammad 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
Muhammad, while this is merely imaginary.  The military expeditions
of Muhammad, 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.  Muhammad 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
enemies did not cease their persecutions, but pursued Him to
Medina, and His disciples even to Abyssinia.

     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. 
[The Banu-Tamim, one of the most barbarous Arab tribes, practiced
this odious custom.]  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.

     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, 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.

     Muhammad received the Divine Revelation among these tribes,
and after enduring thirteen years of persecution from them, He
fled.  [To Medina.]  But this people did not cease to oppress; they
united to exterminate Him and all His followers.  It was under such
circumstances that Muhammad 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 Muhammad'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 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.

     Muhammad never fought against the Christians; on the contrary,
He treated them kindly and gave them perfect freedom.  A community
of Christian people lived at Najran and were under His care and
protection.  Muhammad 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 Muhammadan 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,
Islam ought to help them.  In case of war between Islam 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 Islam, 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 not dependent on my affirmation.  The
edict of the second Caliph [Of 'Umar] still exists in the custody
of the orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, and of this there is no
doubt. [Cf. Jurji Zaydan's _Umayyads and Abbasids_, trans. D. S.
Margoliouth.]

     Nevertheless, after a certain time, and through the
transgression of both the Muhammadans 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.

     For example, the Muslims say that Muhammad cleft the moon, and
that it fell on the mountain of Mecca: they think that the moon is
a small body which Muhammad divided into two parts and threw one
part on this mountain, and the other part on another mountain.

     Such stories are pure fanaticism.  Also the traditions which
the clergy quote, and the incidents with which they find fault, are
all exaggerated, if not entirely without foundation.  

     Briefly, Muhammad appeared in the desert of Hijaz 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.  Muhammad Himself was illiterate, and the Qur'an was
originally written upon the bladebones of sheep, or on palm leaves. 
These details indicate the condition of the people to whom Muhammad
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."

     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 perfections, the
prophethood of the Messengers of God, the divine laws, and some
scientific facts.

     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. [Copernicus.]  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 the mathematicians.  But there are some verses
revealed in the Qur'an 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.
[Qur'an 36:37]  Again, in another verse, "and each star moves in
its own heaven." [Qur'an 36:38]  Thus is explained the movement of
the sun, of the moon, of the earth, and of other bodies.  When the
Qur'an appeared, all the mathematicians ridiculed these statements
and attributed the theory to ignorance.  Even the doctors of Islam,
when they saw that these verses were contrary to the accepted
Ptolemaic system, were obliged to explain them away.

     It was not until after the fifteenth century of the Christian
era, nearly nine hundred years after Muhammad, that a famous
astronomer made new observations and important discoveries by the
aid of the telescope, which he had invented. [Galileo]  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'an agreed with existing facts, and that the Ptolemaic
system was imaginary.

     In short, many Oriental peoples have been reared for thirteen
centuries under the shadow of the religion of Muhammad.  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, Muhammad.  Was
this illustrious Man a thorough Educator or not?  A just judgment
is necessary.


                          'Abdu'l-Baha
             _Some Answered Questions_, pages 18-24
                   (c) 1930, 1954, 1964, 1981
               by the National Spiritual Assembly
               of the Baha'is of the United States
                       All Rights Reserved
                                
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