Muhammad (saw) – The Perfect Man — Page 934
CHAPTER 42 The Greatest and the most Successful Prophet 934 prejudice. Perhaps one place to start is with the figure of Mu h ammad: a complex, passionate man who sometimes did things that it is difficult for us to accept, but who had genius of a profound order and founded a religion and a cultural tradition that was not based on the sword - despite the Western myth - and the name 'Islam' signifies peace and reconciliation. " 7 (5) W Montgomery Watt (1960) in his book, 'Muhammad at Mad i nah'; writes: "It must rank as one of Mu h ammad's greatest achievements that he effected a genuine reconciliation with the leading men of Mecca - the men who a few months before had been his implacable enemies. In both Meccan and Medinan periods Mu h ammad's contemporaries looked on him as a good and upright man, and in the eyes of history he is a moral and social reformer. . . . The more one reflects on the history of Muhammad and of early Islam, the more one is amazed at the vastness of his achievement. Circumstances presented him with an opportunity such as few men have had, but the man was fully matched with the hour. Had it not been for his gifts as seer, statesman, and