Non-Muslim's Views about Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him)

What non-Muslims have said about Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), Islam's prophet and final messenger?

This is an assortment of short quotations from a wide assortment of Non-Muslim notables, including scholastics, scholars, rationalists, writers, lawmakers, and activists having a place with the East and the West. 

As far as anyone is concerned none of them ever became Muslims. These words, thusly, mirror their own perspectives on different parts of the life of the Prophet.

1. 

Reverend Bosworth Smith (1794-1884) Late Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford.

"… he was Caesar and Pope in one, but he was Pope without the Pope's pretensions, and Caesar without the legions of Caesar. Without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue, if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by a right Divine, it was Mohammed; for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports." Mohammed and Mohammedanism, London, 1874, p. 235]

2.

Washington Irving (1783-1859) Well-known as the “first American man of letters"

“He was sober and abstemious in his diet and a rigorous observer of fasts. He indulged in no magnificence of apparel, the ostentation of a petty mind; neither was his simplicity in dress affected, but the result of a real disregard to distinction from so trivial a source ... 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 ... His military triumphs awakened no pride nor vain glory, as they would have done had they been effected for selfish purposes. In the time of his greatest power, he maintained the same simplicity of manners and appearance as in the days of his adversity. So far from affecting regal state, he was displeased if, on entering a room, any unusual testimonial of respect were shown to him." [Life of Mahomet, London, 1889, pp. 192-3, 199]

3.

Edward Gibbon (1737-1794) Considered the greatest British historian of his time

"His (i.e., Muhammad's) memory was capacious and retentive, his wit easy and social, his imagination sublime, his judgment clear, rapid and decisive. He possessed the courage of both thought and action."[History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, London, 1838, vol.5, p.335]

4.

John William Draper (1811-1882) American scientist, philosopher, and historian

"Four years after the death of Justinian, A.D. 569, was born at Mecca, in Arabia the man who, of all men exercised the greatest influence upon the human race . . . Mohammed." [A History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, London, 1875, vol.1, pp. 329-330]

5.

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian thinker, statesman, and nationalist leader.

"....I became more than ever convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life. It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to his friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every trouble." [Young India (periodical), 1928, Volume X]