When one goes through this literature, it can be seen that the aversion to Islam and what it stands for has been the driving force for the writings of these Oreintalists. They have all along been encouraged and cheered on by their clergy, who had lost their important position in the society and the source of income, in the bright light of Islam. These Orientalists are immune – deaf, dumb and blind – to the Glory of Islam, that has spread its light in the hearts of millions of sincere men and women who have turned to Allah – the only One worthy of worship, to the Qur’an - His revealed book and to Muhammad (pbuh) - His final Messenger, seeking a purpose in this life and a place in Paradise.
The insinuations of these orientalists are wide and varied and most of them are trivial and and self contradictory. The knowledge of the human race has advanced tremendously in the 20th century in every field of science and the teachings of the Qur’an still remain valid because it is a book revealed by Allah for all mankind for all time, while the earlier scriptures, ‘texts inspired by God but written down by human beings’, have failed the test of time. This failure is not a recent one, but started from the very moment people started tampering with it for selfish reasons. This paper attempts to answer some of the questions persistantly raised by these orientalists, and Insha Allah should satisfy the doubts still lingering in the minds of some innocent people. We also hope that this paper will satisfy the quest of men and women, who genuinely seek the truth and guide them to Islam, which is the religion preached by every Prophet of God.


A. THEORY OF PHYSICAL AND MENTAL SHORT COMINGS
A.1 EPILEPSY
INSINUATION
William Muir, one of the widely respected orientalists has made the wildest insinuation that the Prophet (pbuh) was, since his boyhood, a life-long patient of epilepsy of “falling disease” with reference to the incident of Shaqq al Sadr – (the miraculous cleaving of Muhammad’s breast during his childhood by an angel). This insinuation originated with the Greeks and was then taken up by subsequent writers.
OBSERVATIONS
Some of the orientalists even misread the expression ‘fa-‘alhiqihi’ occurring in the report as bi-alhaqqiiyah and then strangely translated it as “ the hypochondriacal disease”.
Referring to the incident of Shaqq al Sadr, Muir says that it was “probably a fit of epilepsy”. To support this theory of epilepsy, Muir cites a footnote to his text referring to the work of Seerah by Ibn Hisham (Ibn Ishaq). But disregarding the fact, that in Wustenfeld’s edition of that work, as also in all other editions the material expression in the report is ‘usiba’, Muir reproduces it as ‘umiba’ which is apparently a strange and meaningless expression. He then gives its meaning as “had a fit”. If he had in fact followed a faulty manuscript or printed copy of the work, it would have been proper to refer to that. However, Muir did not do so.
When Syed Ahmed Khan pointed out in the year1870 these gross mistakes on Muir’s part, the latter simply omitted the footnote in question from the subsequent edition of his book without altering or modifying his assertion, for which the footnote had originally been given as evidence. Thus, even though the mistake and misuse of the source were pointed out, the allegation was persistently advanced.