Some Observations on Islam by Some Western Writers
By Ali Unal
“But the Children of Israel had ceased to be a people; and the religions of the world were guilty, at least in the eyes of the Prophet, of giving sons, or daughters, or companions, to the Supreme God. In the rude idolatry of the Arabs, the crime is manifest and audacious: The Christians of the seventh centruy had insensibly relapsed into a semblance of paganism; their public and private vows were addressed to the relics and images that disgraced the temples of the East: the throne of the Almighty was darkened by a cloud of martyrs, and saints, and angels, the objects of popular veneration; and the Collyridian heretics, who flourished in the fruitful soil of Arabia, invested the Virgin Mary with the name and honours of a goddess. (“The Collyridian heresy was carried from Thrace to Arabia by some women, and the name was borrowed from the xo....upıs, or cake, which they offered to the goddess.” (Holtinger, Hift. Orient. p. 225-228) The mysteries of the Trinity and Incarnation appear to contradict the principle of the Divine Unity. In their obvious sense, they introduce three equal deities, and transform the man Jesus into the substance of the son of God; an orthodox commentary will satisfy only a believing mind: intemperate curiosity and zeal had torn the veil of the sanctuary: and each of the Oriental sects was eager to confess that all, except themselves, deserved the reproach of idolatry and polytheism. The creed of Muhammad is free from suspicion or ambiquity; and the Koran is a glorious testimony to the unity of God. The Prophet of Mecca rejected the worship of idols and men, of stars and planets, on the rational principle that whatever rises must set, that whatever is born must die, that whatever is corruptible must decay and perish.
“.. the order, the discipline, the temporal and spiritual ambition of the clergy are unknown to the Moslems; and the pages of the Law are the guides of their conscience and the oracles of their faith. From the Atlantic to the Ganges, the Koran is acknowledged as the fundamental code, not only of theology but of civil and criminal jurisprudence; and the laws which regulate the actions and the property of mankind, are guarded by the infallible and immutable sanction of the will of God.
“Mahomed 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.. (Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 1782-1788, London, Vol. 5 pp. 203-204, 273-274.)
“Among many excellencies of which the Koran may justly boast are two eminently conspicuous; the one being the tone of awe and reverence which it always observes when speaking of, or referring to, the Deity, to whom it never attributes human frailties and passions; the other the total absence throughout it of all impure, immoral and indecent ideas, expressions, narratives, etc., blemishes, which, it is much to be regretted, are of too frequent occurence in the Jewish Scriptures... The religion thus established by the Koran is a stern and severe monotheism: it has nothing abstract and indistinct in its primary notion of the Godhead. Allah, so far from being a mere philosophic first cause regulating the universe by established laws, while Itself stands aloof in unapproachable majesty, is an ever-present, ever-working energy. It is a religion, moreover, stripped of all controversy, and which, proposing no mystery to offer violence to reason, restricts the imagination of men to being satisfied with a plain, invariable worship, notwithstanding the fiery passions and blind zeal that so often transported them beyond themselves.
“Islam has never persecuted, never established an inquisition, never aimed at proselytism. It offered its religion, but never enforced it... The acceptance of that religion, moreover, conferred equal rights with the conquering body. Islam put an end to infanticide then prevalent in the surrounding countries. It put an end to slavery. It administered even-handed justice, not only to those who professed its religion, but to those who were conquered by its arms. It reduced taxation, the sole tribute to the state consisting of one tenth. It freed commerce from charges and impediments, it freed professors of other faiths from all fixed contributions whatsoever to the dominant creed.” (John Davenport, An Apology for Mohammed and the Koran, 1869, London, p. 80-81).
“The Koran made man clearly know the rights of God and learned him what the creatures can expect from God and the nature of the relationship between the Creator and the created. The Koran contains all ethical and philosophical principles and the true nature of virtues and vices, and the reality of phenomena.. The Koran also contains all principles of justice.. It guides man to virtues, moderation and equilibrium, and saves him from all kinds of deviation, to make him a perfect being..” (L.A.Sedillot, Histoire Generale Des Arabes: Leur Empire, Leur civilisation, leurs ecoles philosophiques, scientifiques et litteraires” Livre 2, 1877, Paris, 80-83, 95-96.)
“The Koran appeared a great, matchless novelty in respect of literary style. It is neither poetry nor prose, but something which penetrates into the soul. It stood for a literary revolution as well as a religious one.” (Ernest Renan, Histoire Generale et Systeme Compose des Langues Semitiques, Paris, 1878).
“It mustn’t be forgotten that it is God only who speaks in the Koran. As for the Prophet, he preached the revelation.” (Cl. Huart, Litterature Arabe, Paris, 1902, p. 37).
“Islam has the right of claiming to be the first religion to preach the pure Monotheism. It is just because of this pure Monotheism that Islam is completely free from all ambiquities and has an inflexible might.
“Islam continues to preserve all its religious power and authority. while all other religions older than it have been continuously losing their religious influence upon souls.
“The Koran, far from having been forcibly accepted by men, has spread far and wide by offering itself to free wills and convictions. The conversion of the Turks and Mongols, who defeated the Arabs, into Islam resulted from their convictions of the Koran. It has been so widely accepted in India, where the Arabs paid casual visits, that more than fifty millions of moslems are living there today.” (Dr. Gustave le Bon, La Civilisation des Arabes, Paris, 1884, pp. 102-108).
"Now, the wave of Muhammed
Is coming down onto the plain
with silvery flashes...
And, rivers from plains,
Streams from mountains
Are joyfully calling him: Brother!
Brother, take your brothers
To your eternal Source;
To the infinite Ocean,
That is waiting for us
with its open arms...
He is taking his brothers,
His children and treauseres
To the Creator, who is waiting,
Full of love and mercy.
“Im not trying to know
Whether the Koran is eternal or not;
But I believe as the requirement of being a moslem
That the Koran is the Book above all books.
“Jesus was feeling with all his purity
And preaching that God was one;
Each one who deified Him
Was wounding his holiest feelings.
Truth must be no longer kept hidden,
Must be made shine as done by Muhammed;
He conquered the world by preaching
Only the oneness of God.”
(Goethe, Muhammed, Vest-östliche Divan, Buch des Saengars...)
(German original)
“Nun tritt er
In die ebne silbeprangend...
Und die Flüsse von der Ebne
Und die Baeche von den Bergen
Jauchzen ihm und rufen: Bruder!
Bruder, nimm die Brüder mit,
Mit zu deinem alten Vater,
Zu dem ew’gen Ozean,
Der mit ausgespannten Armen
Unser wartet...
Und so traegt er seine Brüder,
Seine Schaetze, seine Kinder,
Dem erwartenden Erzeuger
Freudebrusend an das Herz.
“Ob dmer Koran von Ewigkeit sei?
Darnach frag’ ich nicht!..
Dass er das Buch der Bücher sei
Glaub’ ich aus Mosleminen-Pflicht.
“Jesus fühlte rein und dachte
Nur den Einen Gott im Stillen;
Wer ihn selbst zum Gotte machte
Krankte seinen heilgen Willen.
Und so muss das Rechte scheinen
Was acuh Mohamed gelungen;
Nur durch den Begriff des Einen
Hat er alle Welt bezwungen.