Chapter 7.1.Who was Muhammad?

1. The Traditional or Standard Islamic Narrative (SIN) about Muhammad.

Islam claims: Muhammad is a prophet and messenger of God.

Muhammad ibn Abdullah c. 570 CE – 8 June 632 CE was an Arab religious, social, and political leader and the founder of the world religion of Islam.

According to Islamic doctrine, he was a prophet, sent to preach and confirm the monotheistic teachings of adam, Abraham, Moses, Jesus, and other prophets. He is believed to be the final prophet of God in all the main branches of Islam, though some modern denominations diverge from this belief. Muhammad united Arabia into a single Muslim polity, with the Quran as well as his teachings and practices forming the basis of Islamic religious belief.

According to SIN Muhammad was born approximately 570 CE (Year of the Elephant) in Mecca. He was the son of Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib and Amina bint Wahb. His father was the son of Quraysh tribal leader Abd al-Muttalib ibn Hashim, and Abdullah died a few months before Muhammad's birth. His mother Amina died when he was six, leaving Muhammad an orphan. He was raised under the care of his grandfather, Abd al-Muttalib, and uncle, Abu Talib ibn Abd al-Muttalib.

In later years, he would periodically seclude himself in a mountain cave named Hira for several nights of prayer. When he was 40, Muhammad reported being visited by Gabriel in the cave and receiving his first revelation from God. In 613, Muhammad started preaching these revelations publicly, proclaiming that "God is One", that complete "submission" (islam) to God is the right way of life (dīn), and that he was a prophet and messenger of God, like the other prophets in Islam.

Muhammad's followers were initially few, and experienced hostility from Meccan polytheists for 13 years. To escape ongoing persecution, he sent some of his followers to Abyssinia in 615, before he and his followers migrated from Mecca to Medina (then known as Yathrib) later in 622.

This event, the Hijra, marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar, also known as the Hijri Calendar. In Medina, Muhammad united the tribes under the Constitution of Medina. In December 629, after eight years of intermittent fighting with Meccan tribes, Muhammad gathered an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marched on the city of Mecca. The conquest went largely uncontested, and Muhammad seized the city with little bloodshed. In 632, a few months after returning from the Farewell Pilgrimage, he fell ill and died. By the time of his death, most of the Arabian Peninsula had converted to Islam.

The revelations (each known as Ayah – literally, "Sign [of God]") that Muhammad reported receiving until his death form the verses of the Quran, regarded by Muslims as the verbatim "Word of God" on which the religion is based. Besides the Quran, Muhammad's teachings, and practices (sunnah), found in the Hadith and sira (biography) literature, are also upheld and used as sources of Islamic law (see Sharia).

Read this article... Muhammad in the light of the Quran

2. The Life of Muhammad.

Many things are said about Muhammad, his life, his many wives and what example and legacy he left to follow.

As it is "dangerous" to question the man Muhammad openly - Just think about Charlie Hebdo and the Cartoon-reaction - So I won't go this direction.

But there are People that know Islam very well and can speak out of experience about this religion and their prophet Muhammad, and are not afraid to openly share their viewpoint.

The conclusion of Dr Wafa Sultan about Muhammad.

She is a Syrian Medical doctor; You can read more about her own story here...

To read more about Muhammad's life:

DR. MICHAEL IGNATIUS MULUK’S TWO BOOKS (A SERIES ABOUT MUHAMMAD).

Note: These Books are further discussed in Chapter 9.1.Allah or Jahwe, under the Title "Identity theft"

- How Muhammad Stole the Judeo-Christian Tradition

- How Muhammad Inverted the Judeo-Christian Tradition

3. The wives of Muhammad.

One aspect about Muhammad that anybody wonders about - Muhammad's many wives (One Muslim told me that one is not at all allowed to question any of this traditional history)

BUT...A Post on Facebook reads:

IF I WERE A MUSLIM AND READ MUHAMMAD'S HISTORY, THIS WILL BE THE ONE ASPECT ABOUT MUHAMMAD'S LIFE THAT WILL DEFINITELY MAKE ME CHANGE MY FAITH...

How many wives did the Prophet Muhammad have?

This post on Quora.com gives a thorough explanation of the question.

Another Question asked in this post on Quoro.com is..."What were the ages of Muhammad's wives?" (You can read it there)

Depending on who wrote the report, one can get a very negative version, or a very nice version of Muhammad and his many wives. 

The reader must make up his own mind. Here are two versions.

Muhammad's wives
Muhammad’s Multiplicity of Marriages by Sam Shamoun

Two of Muhammad's wives need to be mentioned specially:

1) Zaynab bint Jahsh (Arabic: زينب بنت جحش‎; c. 590–641)

She was a first cousin and wife of Muhammad and therefore considered by Muslims to be a Mother of the Believers.

What is the story about this wife of the prophet; a Mother of the Believers?

She had previously been married to Muhammad's adopted son Zayd ibn Harithah. What? How did this work? 

This is the story? Read and decide for yourself.

2) Safiyya bint Huyayy Ibn Akhtab 

Safiyya bint Huyayy was a noblewoman, the daughter of Huyayy ibn Akhtab, chief of the Jewish tribe Banu Nadir, who was executed after surrendering at the Battle of the Trench.

She had been married first to the poet Sallam ibn Mishkam, who had divorced her, and second to Kenana ibn al-Rabi, a commander. In 628, at the Battle of Khaybar, Banu Nadir was defeated, her husband was executed and she was taken as a prisoner.

Muhammad freed her from her captor Dihya and proposed marriage, which Safiyya accepted. According to Martin Lings, Muhammad had given Safiyyah the choice of returning to the defeated Banu Nadir, or becoming Muslim and marrying him, and Safiyyah opted for the latter choice. Read more about her story here.

4. But did Muhammad really exist?

Many scholars today proof that there is no historical documentation available to proof that such a man exist in the period that Muhammad was supposed to live.

Muhammad, the prophet, simply does not stand up to historical testing and is proven to be a fraud after revealing all the new research material available today about the history of Muhammad, the Quran, and the Islam tradition.

In this last of a series of 16 episodes presented by Al Fadi and Jay Smit, they concluded...

The Search for Muhammad - Muhammad Is A Fraud!

Al Fadi and Dr. Jay wrap up this series of 16 episodes by discussing the political creation of Muhammad and Islam. Watch as they review and debunk the historical documents, locations, and dating of Islamic traditions based on historical data. In every respect, Muhammad appears to be only a vessel functioning to recreate Arab history and identity conceived by Abbasid to triumph over his enemies and establish his regime.

· The conclusion: Muhammad is a fraud.

· All this is a man-made religion.

To watch all the videos in this series of 16 episodes

Muslims are invited to listen and to take note of this research, and, if willing to seek for the truth, accept that the only truth is in the real Jesus Christ of the Bible.

For more information about Muhammad and if he actually exist?

5. Or is Muhammad ... a False Prophet?

"I will raise up for them a Prophet like you from among their brethren, and will put My words in His mouth, and He shall speak to them all that I command Him. And it shall be that whoever will not hear My words, which He speaks in My name, I will require it of him." (Deuteronomy 18:18-19)

Is Muhammad the prophet that God promised in this passage?

The verses that immediate follow the above verses read:

"But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in My name, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet shall die.’ And if you say in your heart, ‘How shall we know the word which the Lord has not spoken?’ - when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the thing does not happen or come to pass, that is the thing which the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously; you shall not be afraid of him." (Deuteronomy 18:20-22)

A prophet of God is the mouthpiece of God, who is perfect and never wrong. Therefore, when someone claims to be speaking as instructed by God and then makes a false statement, that person "has spoken presumptuously" and is not God's prophet.