Note 12 — Chapter II · STUDY OF THE LIFE OF MUḤAMMAD CONSIDERED AS A PREACHER OF ISLAM.
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It seems strange that in the face of these passages, some have denied that Islam was originally intended by its founder to be a universal religion. Thus Sir William Muir says, “That the heritage of Islam is the world, was an afterthought. The idea, spite of much prophetic tradition, had been conceived but dimly, if at all, by Mahomet himself. His world was Arabia, and for it the new dispensation was ordained. From first to last the summons was to Arabs and to none other.… The seed of a universal creed had indeed been sown; but that it ever germinated was due to circumstance rather than design.” (The Caliphate, pp. 43–4.) Caetani is the latest exponent of this view. (Annali dell’Islām, vol. v. pp. 323–4.) ↑