Fri03292024

Last updateSun, 20 Aug 2023 9pm

Back You are here: Home Library Islam Islam: Faith, Practice & History Part III: History Lesson 36 8. Lamartine’s Homage to the Prophet

8. Lamartine’s Homage to the Prophet

8. Lamartine’s Homage to the Prophet

 An eighteenth century French historian, Lamartine, writes the following in his Histoire de la Turquie (1854) about the Prophet of Islam:

 “Never has man set for himself, voluntarily or involuntarily, a more sublime aim, since this aim was superhuman: to subvert superstitions which had been interposed between man and his Creator, to render God unto man and man unto God; to restore the rational and sacred idea of divinity amidst the chaos of the material and disfigured gods of idolatry, then existing...

 “If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the true criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?...

 “Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad. As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?”

 * * *

 This lesson has been compiled and edited by S. M. Rizvi from the difference sources including the following: The Shi’ite Islam by Tabataba’i. A Brief History of the Fourteen Infallibles, published by WOFIS, Tehran. A Glance at the Life of the Prophet of Islam by Dar Rah-e Haq. The Early History of Islam by S. Safdar Husayn.

You have no rights to post comments

Find us on Facebook