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"if
greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the
three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in
modern history with muhammad? the most famous men created arms, laws and
empires only. they founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers
which often crumbled away before their eyes. this man moved not only armies,
legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in
one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the
altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls. . . his
forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea
and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic
conversations with god, his death and his triumph after death; all these
attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power
to restore a dogma. this dogma was twofold, the unity of god and the
immateriality of god; the former telling what god is, the latter telling what
god is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other
starting an idea with words.
"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?" Let us leave Muhammad to rest in peace please!
Friendship.
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