Through Force or Faith? — Page 23
Refutation of the Allegations Made Against Islam 23 followed, if it was not mainly caused by, the life of one man, the Prophet of Mecca. Whatever the opinion one may have of this extraordi- nary man, whether it be that of the devout Muslim who considers him the last and greatest herald of God’s word, or of the fanatical Christian of former days, who consid- ered him an emissary of the Evil One, or of certain modern Orientalists, who look on him rather as a politician than a saint, as an organiser of Asia in general and Arabia in par- ticular, against Europe, rather than as a religious reformer; there can be no difference as to the immensity of the effect which his life has had on the history of the world. To those of us, to whom the man is everything, the milieu but little, he is the supreme instance of what can be done by one man. Even others, who hold that the con- ditions of time and place, the surroundings of every sort, the capacity of receptivity of the human mind, have, more than an individual effort, brought about the great steps in the world’s history, cannot well deny, that even if this step were to come, without Muhammad, it would have been indefinitely delayed. ( Arabian Society at the time of Muhammad, Pringle Kennedy, pp. 8, 10, 18, 21) S. P. Scott writes: If the object of religion be the inculcation of morals, the diminution of evil, the promotion of human happiness, the expansion of the human intellect, if the performance of good works will avail in that great day when mankind