A Rejoinder to Pope's Allegations Against Islam — Page 53
that. The word this man spoke has been the life--guidance now of a hundred and eighty millions of men these twelve hundred years. These hundred and eighty millions were made by God as well as we. A greater number of God's creatures believe in Muhammad's (peace and blessing of Allah be on him) word at this hour, than in any other word whatever. Are we to suppose that it was a miserable piece of spiritual legerdemain, this which so many creatures of the Almighty have lived by and died by? I, for my part, cannot form any such supposition". (Thomas Carlyle 'On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History'. Pages 43 & 44. U of Nebraska Press (1966) Edward Gibbon Wrote: "His beneficial or pernicious influence on the public happiness is the last consideration in the character of Muhammad (peace be upon him). The most bitter or most bigoted of his Christian or Jewish foes will surely allow that he assumed a false commission to inculcate a salutary doctrine, less perfect only than their own. He piously supposed, as the basis of his religion, the truth and sanctity of their prior revolutions, the virtues and miracles of their founders. The idols of Arabia were broken before the throne of God; the blood of human victims was expiated by prayer, and fasting, and alms, the laudable or innocent arts of devotion;. . . he breathed among the faithful a spirit of charity and friendship; recommended the practice of the social virtues; and checked, by his laws and precepts, the thirst of revenge, and the oppression of widows and orphans. The hostile tribes were united in faith and obedience, and the valour which had been 53