Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is undoubtedly one of the greatest and most influential leaders in human history. Yet, he is also a highly misunderstood figure, particularly in the West, due to a lack of authentic knowledge and research about him. However, those scholars who made a sincere effort to understand his life, teachings, and methods were typically impressed with his character and leadership. Here are seven quotations on Prophet Muhammad ﷺ by Western writers from recent centuries.  

1) Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910), Russian writer and philosopher:

“I am one of those who are very much impressed by the Prophet Muhammad who was chosen by the One God to have His last message revealed through his soul, heart and mind.  He chose him to be the last prophet; hence, no other prophets would come after him.  His acknowledgement of the prophets, who had been sent by God before him to produce the global social building for which Muhammad had been sent to complete, is indubitable evidence that he came with Islam to conclude the social building for the entire humanity everywhere.”

2) Washington Irving (1783-1859), American writer, historian and diplomat:

“In his private dealings he was just. He treated friends and strangers, the rich and poor, the powerful and the weak, with equity, and was beloved by the common people for the affability with which he received them, and listened to their complaints.”

3) John Medows Rodwell (1808–1900), English clergyman and writer on Islam:

“Muhammad’s career is a wonderful instance of the force and life that resides in him who possesses an intense faith in God and in the unseen world. He will always be regarded as one of those who have had that influence over the faith, morals and whole earthly life of their fellow men, which none but a really great man ever did, or can exercise; and whose efforts to propagate a great verity will prosper.”

4) William James Durant (1885-1981), American writer, historian and philosopher:

“If we judge greatness by influence, he was one of the giants of history. He undertook to raise the spiritual and moral level of a people harassed into barbarism by heat and foodless wastes, and he succeeded more completely than any other reformer… When he began, Arabia was a desert flotsam of idolatrous tribes; when he died it was a nation.”

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5) David Samuel Margoliouth (1858-1940), English orientalist and Anglican priest:

“His humanity extended itself to the lower creation. He forbade the employment of living birds as targets for marksmen and remonstrated with those who ill-treated their camels. When some of his followers had set fire to an anthill he compelled them to extinguish it. Foolish acts of cruelty which were connected with old superstitions were swept away by him [along] with other institutions of paganism.”

6) Alfred W. Martin (1862-1932), American philosopher and writer on religion:

“Nor is anything in religion’s history more remarkable than the way in which Muhammad fitted his transfiguring ideas into the existing social system of Arabia. To his everlasting credit, it must be said that in lifting to a higher plane of life the communities of his day and place, he achieved that which neither the Judaism nor the Christianity of Medieval Arabia could accomplish. Nay, more, in the fulfillment of that civilizing work, Muhammad rendered invaluable service not only to Arabia but also to the entire world.”

7) Barnaby Rogerson (1960-), British author and television presenter:

“Even when viewed in an entirely secular perspective he remains a superhero. He was founder of the caliphate, one of the greatest empires of the world; creator of classical Arabic, a new literature and world language; founder of a new national identity, the Arab; and the creator of Islam, a worldwide culture that is now 1200 million strong and growing more rapidly than you can count. Only by marrying the best qualities of certain characters from European civilization – a combination, say, of Alexander the Great, Diogenes and Aristotle, or the Emperor Constantine, St. Paul and St. Francis – can you begin to understand the measure of the man.”

Also read: 10 Quotations by Western Scholars on Prophet Muhammad