Keagungan Nabi Muhammad s.a.w.

KEAGUNGAN NABI MUHAMMAD S.A.W.

Dihimpun oleh
IRFAN ANSHORY



DALAM SUASANA Maulid Nabi tanggal 12 Rabi`ul-Awwal 1429 H yang jatuh pada 20 Maret 2008, ada baiknya kita renungkan pendapat beberapa ilmuwan non-Muslim (agar relatif objektif) tentang keagungan manusia paling mulia di muka bumi, yaitu Junjungan dan Pemimpin Besar kita Nabi Muhammad Rasulullah s.a.w., serta bangkitnya agama Islam yang telah mengubah sejarah umat manusia.


JULES MASSERMAN, psikoanalis terkemuka dari Amerika Serikat:

“Leaders must fulfill three functions--provide for the well-being of the led, provide a social organization in which people feel relatively secure, and provide them with one set of beliefs. People like Pasteur and Salk are leaders in the first sense. People like Gandhi and Confucius, on one hand, and Alexander, Caesar and Hitler on the other, are leaders in the second and perhaps the third sense. Jesus and Buddha belong in the third category alone. Perhaps the greatest leader of all times was Mohammed, who combined all three functions. To a lesser degree, Moses did the same.”

“Who Were History’s Great Leaders?”, TIME Magazine, July 15, 1974, p.27.


LAMARTINE, politikus ternama dari Perancis:

“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?”

Histoire de la Turquie, Vol.II, Paris, 1854, p.277.


THOMAS CARLYLE, sastrawan terkenal dari Inggris:

“A poor shepherd people, roaming unnoticed in its deserts since the creation of the world; a Hero-Prophet was sent down to them with a word they could believe. See, the unnoticed becomes world-notable, the small has grown world-great. Within one century afterwards, Arabia is at Grenada on this hand, at Delhi on that—glancing in valour and splendour and the light of genius, Arabia shines through long ages over a great section of the world. Belief is great, live-giving. The history of a Nation becomes fruitful, soul-elevating, great, so soon as it believes. These Arabs, the man Mahomet, and that one century—is it not as if a spark had fallen, one spark, on a world of what seemed black unnoticeable sand; but lo, the sand proves explosive powder, blazes heaven-high from Delhi to Grenada! I said, the Great Man was always as lightning out of Heaven; the rest of men waited for him like fuel, and then they too would flame.”

On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History, London, 1887, pp.70-71.


LOTHROP STODDARD, sejarawan termasyhur dari Amerika Serikat:

“The rise of Islam is perhaps the most amazing event in human history. Springing from a land and a people like previously negligible, Islam spread within a century over half the earth, shattering great empires, overthrowing long-established religions, remoulding the souls of races, and building up a whole new world--world of Islam.

The closer we examine this development the more extraordinary does it appear. The other great religions won their way slowly, by painful struggle, and finally triumphed with the aid of powerful monarchs converted to the new faith. Christianity had its Constantine, Buddhism its Asoka, and Zoroastrianism its Cyrus, each lending to his chosen cult the mighty force of secular authority.

Not so Islam. Arising in a desert land sparsely inhabited by a nomad race previously undistinguished in human annals, Islam rallied forth on its great adventure with the slenderest human backing and against the heaviest material odds. Yet Islam triumphed with seemingly miraculous case, and a couple of generations saw the Fiery Crescent borne victorious from the Pyrenees to the Himalayas and from the deserts of Central Asia to the deserts of Central Africa.”

The New World of Islam, New York, 1925, p.5.


Buku Lothrop Stoddard ini, atas prakarsa Presiden Sukarno tahun 1965, telah diterjemahkan ke dalam Bahasa Indonesia dengan judul Dunia Baru Islam. Terjemahan dari kata-kata Stoddard di atas terdapat pada hal. 11, lebih menggebu-gebu dari naskah aslinya:

“Bangkitnya Islam, barangkali, satu peristiwa paling menakjubkan dalam sejarah manusia. Dalam tempoh seabad saja, dari gurun tandus dan suku bangsa terbelakang, Islam telah menyebar hampir menggenangi separoh dunia. Menghancurkan kerajaan-kerajaan besar, memusnahkan beberapa agama besar, yang telah dianut berbilang zaman dan abad. Mengadakan revolusi berpikir dalam jiwa bangsa-bangsa. Dan sekaligus membina satu dunia baru--Dunia Islam!

Kian dalam penyelidikan kita terhadap kemajuan Islam, kian bertambah takjub hati. Agama besar lain, tumbuh dan berkembang amat lambat, menghadapi berbagai ragam rintangan. Akhirnya beroleh kemenangan, lantaran bantuan raja-raja yang berkuasa yang memeluk agama itu. Agama Nasrani punya Konstantin, agama Budha punya Asoka dan agama Zoroaster punya raja Cyrus. Mereka raja-raja perkasa. Mereka tokoh-tokoh pembela dan penggalang agama yang dipeluknya, dengan segala kekuasaan dan kekuatan.

Tidak demikian Islam! Ia lahir di gurun tandus. Penduduknya sedikit, pengembara pula. Dan sebelum Islam datang, mereka tak punya kedudukan dan tempat dalam sejarah. Tetapi kemudian dengan cepat sekali, Islam berkembang ke segala penjuru dunia, tanpa bantuan kekuasaan dan kekuatan banyak umat. Dalam kesulitan mahadahsyat, Islam mendapat kemenangan nyata dan menakjubkan! Tak sampai dua abad dari detik kelahirannya, benderanya telah berkibar antara pegunungan Pyrenia dan Himalaya, antara padang pasir di tengah Asia sampai ke padang pasir di dua benua Afrika.” (disesuaikan dengan Ejaan Yang Disempurnakan, EYD 1972)***