Introduction

INTRODUCTION I n an American publication entitled The Hundred, the author mentions the one hundred people he believes to have exerted the most significant influence on human history. The author, Dr Michael Hart, was born into a Christian family and received a scientific education. But at the top of his roll of honour, he has placed neither Christ’s name nor Newton’s. There was one person, he believes, whose achievements excelled all others: that person was the Prophet Muhammad. No one else has had such an impact on the history of man. “He was the only man in history,” he writes, “supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.”1 Just as to the American Michael, Hart the Prophet is the most outstanding figure of human history, to the English historian Thomas Carlyle, he is “the hero of the Prophets.” In ancient times, when Abraham and Ishmael were building the House in Makkah, they prayed for a prophet among their descendants. Two thousand five hundred years later, this “hero,” the Prophet Muhammad, arose from the People of Makkah, bringing with him special divine succour. The prayer of Abraham was fulfilled, and with it, the purpose of the prophets’ coming to the world was achieved.