Bahá’í World/Volume 2/The Bahá’í Attitude Towards Muḥammad
THE BAHÁ’Í ATTITUDE TOWARDS MUḤAMMAD
Excerpts from Chapter on Muḥammad in the book, “Some Answered Questions,” dictated to Laura Clifford Barney at ‘Akká, Palestine, 1904-1906.
BY
‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ
Muḥammad appeared in the desert of Hijaz in the Arabian Peninsula, which was a desolate, sterile wilderness, sandy and uninhabited. Some parts, like Mecca and Madina, are extremely hot; the people are nomads with the manners and customs of the dwellers in the desert, and are entirely destitute of education and science. Muḥammad Himself was illiterate, and the Qur’án was originally written upon the blade bones of sheep, or on palm leaves. These details indicate the condition of the people to whom Muḥammad was sent.
These Arab tribes were in the lowest depths of savagery and barbarism. Muḥammad was reared among these tribes, and after enduring thirteen years of persecution from them, He fled (to Madina). But this people did not cease to oppress; they united to exterminate Him and all His followers. It was under such circumstances that Muḥammad was forced to take up arms.
This is the truth: personally we are not bigoted and do not wish to defend Him, but we are just, and we say what is just. Look at it with justice.
If Christ Himself had been placed in such circumstances among such tyrannical and barbarous tribes, and if for thirteen years He with His disciples had endured all these trials with patience culminating in flight from His native land—if in spite of this these lawless tribes continued to pursue Him, to slaughter the men, to pillage their property, and to capture their women and children, what would have been Christ’s conduct with regard to them? If this oppression had fallen only upon Himself He would have forgiven them, and such an act of forgiveness would have been most praiseworthy; but if He had seen that these cruel and blood-thirsty murderers wished to kill, to pillage and to injure all these oppressed ones, and to take captive the women and children, it is certain He would have protected them, and would have resisted the tyrants. What objection, then, can be taken to Muḥammad’s action?
Muḥammad never fought against the Christians; on the contrary, He treated them kindly and gave them perfect freedom. A community of Christian people lived at Najran who were under His care and protection. Muḥammad said, “If anyone infringes their rights, I myself will be his enemy, and in the presence of God I will bring a charge against him.” In the edicts which He promulgated it is clearly stated that the lives, properties, and laws of the Christians and Jews are under the protection of God.
Briefly, in such a country, and amidst such barbarous tribes, an illiterate man produced a Book in which, in a perfect and eloquent style, He explained the divine attributes and perfections, the prophethood of the Messengers of God, the divine laws, and some scientific facts.
Thus, you know that before the observations of modern times, that is to say, during the first centuries and down to the fifteenth century of the Christian era, all the mathematicians of the world [Page 252]
agreed that the earth was the center of the universe, and that the sun moved. The famous astronomer, Copernicus, who was the protagonist of the new theory, discovered the movement of the earth and the immobility of the sun. Until his time all the astronomers and philosophers of the world followed the Ptolemaic system, and whoever said anything against it was considered ignorant. Though Pythagoras, and Plato during the latter part of his life, adopted the theory that the annual movement of the sun around the Zodiac does not proceed from the sun, but rather from the movement of the earth around the sun; this theory had been entirely forgotten, and the Ptolemaic system was accepted by all mathematicians. But there are some verses revealed in the Qur’án contrary to the theory of the Ptolemaic system. One of them is, “The sun moves in a fixed place” (Sura 36), which shows the fixity of the sun, and its movement around an axis. Again, in another verse, “And each star moves in its own heaven” (Sura 36). Thus is explained the movement of the sun, of the moon, of the earth, and of other bodies. When the Qur’án appeared all the mathematicians ridiculed these statements, and attributed the theory to ignorance. Even the doctors of Islám, when they saw that these verses were contrary to the accepted Ptolemaic system, were obliged to explain them away.
It was not until after the fifteenth century of the Christian era, nearly nine hundred years after Muḥammad, that a famous astronomer, Galileo, made new observations and important discoveries by the aid of the telescope which he had invented. The rotation of the earth, the fixity of the sun, and also its movement around an axis, were discovered. It is thus evident that the verses of the Qur’án agree with existing facts, and that the Ptolemaic system is imaginary.
In short, many Oriental peoples have been reared for thirteen centuries under the shadow of the religion of Muḥammad. During the middle ages, while Europe was in the lowest depths of barbarism, the Arab peoples were superior to the other nations of the earth in learning, in the arts, mathematics, civilization, government, and other sciences. The enlightener and educator of these nomadic tribes, and the founder of the civilization and perfections of humanity among these different races, was an illiterate man, Muḥammad. Was this illustrious man a thorough educator or not? A just judgment is necessary.
