Although
they opposed Islam as religion and tried their utmost to vilify Prophet
Muhammad (pbuh) and prove that the Holy Qur’an was authored by Prophet Muhammad
rather than being a divine revelation (which is understandable in view of the
treatment heretics and deserters of faith used to get in those days) Rev. G. Margoliouth,
M.A. in his introduction to the late nineteenth century translation “The Koran”
by Rev. J.M. Rodwell had this to say:
“There
is, however, apart from its religious value, a more general view from which the
book should be considered. The Koran enjoys the distinction of having been the
starting-point of a new literary and philosophical movement which has
powerfully affected the finest and most cultivated minds among both Jews and
Christians in the Middle Ages. This general progress of the Muhammedan world
has somehow been arrested, but research has shown that what European scholars
knew of Greek philosophy, of mathematics, astronomy, and like sciences, for
several centuries before the Renaissance, was, roughly speaking, all derived
from Latin treatises ultimately based on Arabic originals; and it was the Koran
which, though indirectly, gave the first impetus to these studies among the
Arabs and their allies. Linguistic investigations, poetry, and other branches
of literature, also made their appearance soon after or simultaneously with the
publication of the Koran; and the literary movement thus initiated has resulted
in some of the finest products of genius and learning.”
Rev. Rodwell in his preface admits:
“We have no evidence that Muhammad had access to the Christian Scriptures, though it is just possible that fragments of the Old or New Testament may have reached him through Chadijah or Waraka, or other Meccan Christians, possessing MSS. of the sacred volume…..
