Page 165 - New English Book L

164

3 . That among all the sons of Adam (pbuh)

the name Muhammad (pbuh) should be given for the first
time alone to the son of ‘Abdullah and Amina in the town
of Makkah, is a unique miracle in the history of religions.
There could be no artificial device, attempt, or forgery in
this respect. His parents and relatives were pagans and
knew nothing of the prophecies in the Hebrew or Christian
Scriptures concerning a great Prophet who was promised
to come to restore and establish the religion of Islam. Their
choice of the name Muhammad (pbuh) or Ahmad could not
be explained away as a coincidence or an accidental event.
It was surely providential and inspired.

Whether the Arabian poets and men of letters had
preserved the archaic signification of the Hebrew passive
participle of the pi’el form of the verb hamad, or not, I
have no means to prove one way or another. However, the
Arabic passive Participle of the pi’el conjugation of the
verb hammida is Muhammad (pbuh) , and that of the Hebrew
himmid Mahmad or Mahamod. The affinity between the
similarity and the identity of the two forms is unquestionable.

I have faithfully reproduced the significations of
the Hebrew forms as given by the lexicographers and
translators. The intrinsical or spiritual sense of “Himdah”
and “Mahamod” is “praise and praiseworthy, celebrity
and celebrated, glory and glorious.” For among the
created beings and things, what can be “more glorious,
honourable, illustrious, and praised than that which is most
coveted and desired?” It is in this practical sense that the
Quran uses the word hamdu from which Ahmad (pbuh) and
Muhammad (pbuh) are derivations, and hamdu is the same
word as the Hebrew hemed. The glory of Muhammad
(pbuh) surpasses that of any other creatures, as illustrated by
Daniel (vii.), and in the oracle of Allah: “Law la ka lama
Khalaqna ’lAflaka” - “Were it not for thee, were it not