Prophet Muhammad

“ To those who have done well, weal and to spare,
Neither blackness shall cover their faces nor shame! these are the inmates of Paradise, to abide therein for ever.
And as for those who have earned evil, the recompense of evil is its like; shame shall cover them—no defender shall they have against God—as though their faces were darkened with the gloom of night: these are the inmates of the Fire to abide therein for ever.
And on the day we will gather them all together, then will we say to those who made Partners with God, “To your place, ye and your Partners!” ”

“ Verily your Lord is God, who made the heavens and the earth in six days—then ascended the throne to govern all things: there is none to plead with Him save by His permission.—This is God, your Lord! then worship ye Him: will ye not mind?
Unto Him shall ye all return by the sure promise of God: behold! He produces a creature, then maketh it return again, that He may reward with equity those who believe and do the things that are right: but those who believe not, for them is the scalding drink, and an aching torment—because they did not believe. ”

“ Fight in the path of God with those who fight with you;—but exceed not; verily God loveth not those who exceed.—And kill them wheresoever ye find them, and thrust them out from whence they thrust you out; for dissent is worse than slaughter; but fight them not at the Sacred Mosque, unless they fight you there: but if they fight you, then kill them: such is the reward of the infidels! ”

“ There are seven people whom God will draw under His own shadow, on that Day when there will be no other shadow: one a just king; another, who hath employed himself in devotion from his youth; the third, who fixeth his heart on the Mosque till he return to it; the fourth, two men whose friendship is to please God, whether together or separate; the fifth, a man who remembereth God when he is alone, and weepeth; the sixth, a man who is tempted by a rich and beautiful woman, and saith, Verily I fear God! ”

“ And what aileth you that ye give not alms in the path of God, when God’s is the heritage of the heavens and the earth? Those of you who give before the victory, and fight, shall not be deemed equal,—they are of nobler degree than those who give afterwards and fight. Yet to all hath God promised the beauteous reward; and God knoweth what ye do.
Who is he who will lend God a good loan?—He will double it for him, and his shall be a noble recompense. ”

“ He never struck any one in his life. The worst expression he ever made use of in conversation was, ‘What has come to him? may his forehead be darkened with mud!’ When asked to curse some one, he replied, ‘I have not been sent to curse, but to be a mercy to mankind.’ ‘He visited the sick, followed any bier he met, accepted the invitation of a slave to dinner, mended his own clothes, milked the goats, and waited upon himself,’ relates summarily another tradition. He never first withdrew his hand out of another man’s palm, and turned not before the other had turned. ”

“ If a negro slave is appointed to rule over you, hear him, and obey him, though his head should be like a dried grape.
There is no obedience due to sinful commands, nor to any other than what is lawful.
O Prophet of God, if we have princes over us, wanting our rights, and withholding our rights from us, then what do you order us? He said, “Ye must hear them and obey their orders: it is on them to be just and good, and on you to be obedient and submissive.”
He is not strong or powerful who throws people down, but he is strong who withholds himself from anger. ”

“ Is it a matter of wonder to the people that we revealed to a man from among themselves, “Warn the people; and bring good tidings to those who believe, that the reward of their good faith is with their Lord?” ”

“ Verily we have sent thee as a witness and a herald of gladness and a warner,
That ye may believe in God and in His Apostle; and may revere Him, and honour Him, and magnify Him morning and evening.
In truth, they who swear fealty to thee, do but swear fealty to God: the hand of God is upon their hands! Whosoever therefore breaketh it, breaketh it only to his own hurt; but whosoever is true to what he hath covenanted with God, He will give him a great reward. ”

“ In the Name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful.
All that is in the heavens, and all that is in the earth, magnifieth God: His is the kingdom, His is the praise, and He is powerful over all things.
It is He who hath created you; and one of you is an unbeliever, and another a believer ”

“ When the Prophet sent an army out to fight, he would say, March in the name of God and by His aid and on the religion of the Messenger of God. Kill not the old man who cannot fight, nor young children nor women; and steal not the spoils of war, but put your spoils together; and quarrel not amongst yourselves, but be good to one another, for God loveth the doer of good. ”

“ Thus doth God frame parables. For those who respond to their Lord, good; but those who respond not to Him, had they all that the earth containeth and its like beside it, they would surely give it in ransom: these shall have an evil reckoning, and Hell shall be their home,—and wretched the bed!
Is he who knoweth that what hath been sent down to thee from thy Lord is naught but the truth, like to him who is blind? but men of understanding alone will mind,
Who fulfil their covenant with God and break not the compact ”

“ Whoso pursueth the road of knowledge, God will direct him to the road of Paradise; and verily the angels spread their arms to receive him who seeketh after knowledge; and everything in heaven and earth will ask grace for him; and verily the superiority of a learned man over a mere worshipper is like that of the full moon over all the stars.
Hearing is not like seeing: verily God acquainted Moses of his tribe’s worshipping a calf, but he did not throw down the tables; but when Moses went to his tribe, and saw with his eyes the calf they had made, he threw down the tables and broke them. ”

“ The life on the hills gave him the true shepherd’s eye for nature which is seen in every speech of the Korān; and it was in those solitary watches under the silent sky, with none near to distract him, that he began those earnest communings with his soul which made him in the end the prophet of his nation. Beyond this shepherd life and his later and more adventurous trade of camel-driver to the Syrian caravans of his rich cousin, Khadīja, whom he presently married [Pg xxvii] at the age of twenty-five, there is little that can be positively asserted of Mohammad’s youth. ”

“ THE TABLE-TALK OF MOHAMMAD.
When God created the creation He wrote a book, which is near him upon the sovran Throne; and what is written in it is this: Verily my compassion overcometh my wrath.
Say not, if people do good to us, we will do good to them, and if people oppress us, we will oppress them: but resolve that if people do good to you, you will do good to them, and if they oppress you, oppress them not again.
God saith: Whoso doth one good act, for him are ten rewards, and I also give more to whomsoever I will; and whoso doth ill, its retaliation is equal to it, or else I forgive him ”

“ A man asked the Prophet what was the mark whereby a man might know the reality of his faith. He said, “If thou derive pleasure from the good which thou hast done, and be grieved for the evil which thou hast committed, thou art a true believer.” ”

“ In the houses God hath suffered to be raised, for His name to be commemorated therein, men magnify Him at morn and eve:
Men whom neither merchandise nor trafficking divert from remembering God and being instant in prayer and giving alms, fearing a day when hearts and eyes shall quiver;
That God may recompense them for the best that they have wrought, and give them increase of His grace; for God maketh provision for whom He pleaseth without count.
But those who disbelieve are like a vapour in a plain: the thirsty thinketh it water, till, when he cometh to it, he findeth nothing ”

“ Arab poetry is a sealed book to most, even among special Orientalists; they construe it, but it does not move them. The cause is to be found in the abrupt transition of thought which is required if we would enter into the spirit of desert song. The Arab stands in direct contrast to ourselves of the north. He is not in the least like an Englishman. His mind travels by entirely different routes from ours, and his body is built up of much more inflammable materials. His free desert air makes him impatient of control in a degree which we can scarcely understand in an organised community. ”

“ The Arabs of the desert who were left behind will say to thee, “Our property and our families employed us; so ask pardon for us.” They speak with their tongues what is not in their hearts. Say: But who can obtain aught for you from God, if He design for you harm, or design for you benefit? Nay, God is acquainted with what ye do!
Nay, ye thought that the Apostles and the faithful would not come back to their families any more, and that seemed good in your hearts, and ye thought an evil thought, and ye are a lost people. ”

“ Or thou have a house of gold; or thou ascend up into Heaven; and we will not believe in thy ascent until thou send down to us a book which we may read.” Say: Extolled be the glory of my Lord! Am I aught save a man, a messenger?
And nothing prevented men from believing, when the guidance came to them, but their saying, “Hath God sent a mere man as a messenger?”
Say: Had there been angels upon the earth walking at ease, we had surely sent them an angel from heaven as an apostle.
Say: God is witness enough between me and you: verily He knoweth and seeth His servants. ”

“ The aim of this little volume is to present all that is most enduring and memorable in the public orations and private sayings of the prophet Mohammad in such a form that the general reader may be tempted to learn a little of what a great man was and of what made him great. At present, it must be allowed that although “Auld Mahound” is a household word, he is very little more than a word. Things are constantly being said, written, and preached about the Arab prophet and the religion he taught, of which an elementary acquaintance with him would show the absurdity. ”

“ It is He who hath made the sun for shining, and the moon for light, and ordained him mansions that ye may learn the number of years and the reckoning of time. God did not create that but in truth. He maketh His signs plain to a people who know. ”

“ Hitherto we have been looking at but one side of Arab life. The Bedawis were indeed the bulk of the race and furnished the swords of the Muslim conquests; but there was also a vigorous town-life in Arabia, and the citizens waxed rich with the gains of their trafficking. For through Arabia ran the trade-route between east and west: it was the Arab traders who carried the produce of the Yemen to the markets of Syria; and how ancient was their commerce one may divine from the words of a poet of Judaea, spoken more than a thousand years before the coming of Mohammad ”

“ To the credit of Mohammad and of his clan, only one man of them refused to share his fate, though most of them did not hold with his doctrines. Sooner than give up their kinsman, they went, every man of them, save that one, into their own quarter of the city, and there abode in banishment for two years. Starvation was busy with the incarcerated family, when the Koreysh grew ashamed of their work, and five chiefs arose and put on their armour and went to the ravine where the banished people were shut up, and bade them come forth. ”

“ Certain general rules of prayer are given, hospitality and thrift are commended in a breath, “Let not thy hand be chained to thy neck, nor yet stretch it out right open;” infanticide, inchastity, homicide (save in blood-revenge) , the robbing of orphans, a false balance, usury, a broken covenant, and a proud stomach, are denounced; certain foods are prohibited; and the whole duty of man is thus briefly summed up:—“Say: I am only a man like you: I am inspired that your God is but One God. Then let him who hopeth to meet his Lord do righteousness, and join no (idol) in his worship of God.” ”

“ It is not for a believer to kill a believer, but by mistake; and whoso killeth a believer by mistake must free a believing slave; and the blood-wit must be paid to his family, unless they remit it in alms; but if he be of a people hostile to you, and yet a believer, then let him only free a believing slave, and if it be a tribe between whom and you there is an alliance, then let the blood-wit be paid to his family, and let him free a believing slave; but if he cannot find the means, then let him fast for two consecutive months—a penance from God: for God is all-knowing and wise. ”

“ Then shall ye find for yourselves no helper against us.
And we have honoured the sons of Adam; and we have borne them on the land and on the sea, and have fed them with good things, and distinguished them above many of our creatures.
On a day we will summon all men with their scripture: then whoso is given his book into his right hand,—these shall read their book and not be wronged a whit. ”

“ Who knoweth the hidden and the seen, the Great, the Most High.
Equal is he of you who concealeth his words and he that proclaimeth them: he who hideth by night, and he who goeth abroad by day.
Each hath angels before him and behind him, who watch over him by God’s command. Verily God doth not change towards a people, till they change themselves; and when God willeth evil unto a people, there is no averting it, nor have they any protector beside Him. ”