Prophethood - part 2: invectives against the prophethood
Here, we continue our five-part series of this article by Mr. Murad showing the issue of Muhammad's prophethood as central to conflict between the West and Muslims:
Part 2: Invectives against the Prophethood:
The history of the West’s enmity towards the prophethood of Muhammad is not recent. Ever since Islam and Christianity came face to face, the Christian world and especially Europe, have launched an ever-lasting war against Islam, the target being the person of Muhammad and his prophethood.
Emerging out from the deserts of Arabian Peninsula, the disciples of Muhammad within an unbelievably short span of time, conquered Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Tunis and Algeria – the nerve centers of Christianity. Significantly, not only the lands but the hearts and souls were also conquered; majority of the population of captured areas voluntarily embraced Islam. Moreover, Islam as an illuminating faith dominated the whole region and did not decline for at least one thousand years despite continuous Christian intrigues and conspiracies. There is not much theological difference between Islam and Christianity and this is the most lamentable fact.
Instead of sorting the differences by cool analysis, the hatred caused by a handful of miscreants always led to long Islam–Christianity duels. The two religions were so similar that Islam seemed to be the revival of real Christianity. Christians were at a loss on how to explain their distorted theological stories and events, in front of clear Islamic perception. Thus, their main concern was to stop Christians from converting to Islam.
They firmly believed the root-cause of this calamity as the prophethood of Muhammad . It was more than evident that the real source of Muslim strength and courage was their firm belief, commitment to and unprecedented love with the person of Muhammad . Christians thus invested all their energies to prove that the claim of the prophethood of Muhammad was (God forbid) false, based on unfounded stories and statements. They propagated that Muhammad wrote the Quran himself by pirating Christian and Jewish traditions and scripts and that the Quran’s subject and style is full of irrelevant statements. Thus, they tried to prove that the book is not credible enough to claim to be revealed.
However, this was not a serious and informed campaign. Series of false allegations signifying bad taste were fabricated with evil design and then propagated against the life and character of the Prophet . Be it the far dark ages, the medieval times or the present so-called enlightenment era, events of the Prophet’s life have constantly been distorted. The Quran was denounced to be ‘a self-created and unauthentic’ book. Islam was alleged to be spread through the 'sword'. They claimed that the Prophet allured a group of obedient disciples by allowing for them piracy, physical and material enjoyment and temptation, and that he utilized this motivated band of army to conquer lands. Indecent and objectionable words were used to narrate such stories.
In fact, the smut is hard to be quoted. However, for the sake of authenticity of our statement, a few examples will be mentioned but with a high degree of uneasiness. It will only be done with the view that the mentioning of evil is not an evil in itself as the Quran has itself described the allegations of its opponents.
According to the book Encounters and Clashes: Islam and Christianity in History II, Rome, Saint John of Damascus (753 A.D), a high official of Ummayyad dynasty, before the time of 'Umar bin 'Abdul-'Azeez said: "A false prophet named Muhammad had arisen from among Banu Ismaa'eel, who was a literate of the Torah and the Injeel (The Gospel and the Bible). He had also been a student of a Christian saint. Based on his immature literal capability, he had put forth a modified version of Christianity. He had deceived people to believe him a pious man. Then he faked up the story that a divine book was revealed to him. This book, comprising of absurd and ridiculous materials, he handed over to his disciples to obey and follow. Unlike Moses and Jesus, he was unable to provide evidence of receiving divine message. Neither was he able to show any miracle. How can a person be trusted who produced a divine revelation of his own choice only to marry the wife of Zayd?"
Similarly, a member of Khaleefah Ma'moon's cabinet, pen named 'Abdul Masiuh Al-Kindi, cooked up an article in the name of Ar-Risaalah wherein he, to defame the Prophet Muhammad wrote: "How could Muhammad be a true prophet, whereas he killed people, pirated trade caravans, committed immorality and could not demonstrate any miracle in support of his claim of prophethood. As far as the Quran is concerned, it is a book composed of faked material collected from the Christians and Jews. How can it be claimed to be divine?"
Until the beginning of the present century, Saint Johns' deliberations and Ar-Risaalah of Al-Kindi have continued to play a vital and decisive role in shaping the attitude and thought of Europe regarding Prophet Muhammad . The Latin translation of Ar-Risaalah was published in Spain and then in Switzerland during the 12th and 15th centuries, respectively. It became so important to the Europeans that in the 19th century, Sir William Moore found it essential to publish its English translation from London.
During the span of one millennium, the Europeans in general and the Christian saints in particular had been repeating what Al-Kindi and Saint John had said about the Quran and Muhammad . The main focus had been:
1- To prove the Quran to be based on controversial and contradicting information obtained from the Jews and Christians
2- To breed moral allegations against the person of Muhammad and
3- To convince people that, like any other politician or ruler, Muhammad was deceptive and his actions were deceitful (God forbid)
The purpose of mentioning the above examples is to clarify the basic premise of the topic. Now, the 20th century is over. A long time has elapsed. Today, the interaction between Islam and Christianity is more frequent and extensive. Everybody claims to possess scientific, informed and impartial attitude in his investigation of facts. Moreover, there are slogans of co-existence on the basis of sympathy and equitable justice for all. Unfortunately, we find no basic change in European attitude and thought.
Even the scholars, known for their liberal, broad-minded approach and civilised deliberations (e.g. Vatican, Montogomery Watt, Kenneth Cragg etc.), have done the same thing. They did change their styles but without changing the subject. They have polished their words to uphold the much-repeated allegations. The old scheme was pursued, only disguised in a more "civilised" manner. Words were sugarcoated and interpretations updated, but the theme was the same. Resultantly, the outcome of all such efforts was futile.
The Medieval Age is peculiar for the most absurd propagation of invectives against Islam. The pattern of allegations and disinformation cooked up during this period speaks of the non-Muslims’ bafflement. For example, it was said that:
1- The Quran has come travelling on the horns of a bull
2- The Prophet Muhammad alleged that a dove used to bring revelations to him
3- He was epileptic
4- He was a magician and thus hypnotised people
5- He was under the spell of Jinn and Satan (devil)
6- A rebel Christian monk taught him religion
Today these crude arguments have been bettered by fancy psychological, social and political interpretations to cater to modern apprehension. For example, Rodinson psychologically erodes the status of Prophet Muhammad and finds source of Quran following Freud's theory. Watt, using his sociological acumen, finds this source in:
1- The nomadic life of Arabs in Arabian deserts
2- Their Jaahiliyyah customs
3- The influence of the feudal system of Makkah
4- The Christian and Judaic teachings and traditions, and
5- The necessity of a firm political system for the Arabs at that time.
Cragg raised the question of the origin of prophethood and states that it lies:
1- Under the apprehensions and efforts of Muhammad to unite Arabs, and
2- In the conviction that the Quran is by all means a divine book since only an Arab script could ensure unity and provide identity to the Arabs.
Answering as to "How this idea and conviction matured?" Cragg adds that Muhammad conceived the view through keen observation of other people of the books viz. Christian and Jews. As a result, the concept of the Quran started brimming in his mind (God forbid).
In addition to these efforts, an immense academic work was carried out to produce fiction based on fabricated stories to defame and denounce the Quran and the Prophet . These writings highlight and drive around blasphemous stories like:
1- The Satanic Verses to prove exotic influence on the divine revelations (the Quran)
2- The case of Nakhlah to show materialistic notions and political maneuvering of the Prophet
3- The case of the killing of Banu Quraydhah as an evidence that Muhammad was blood-thirsty
4- The marriage with Zaynab bint Jahsh as a case of moral corruption of the Prophet .
The nature of these invectives is malicious, but surprisingly they were not fabricated in the Prophet's lifetime. Even the Mushrikeen and the Kuffaar refrained from raising such derogatory remarks on the person of the Prophet . Excepting this difference in attitude, Jaahiliyyah of the 6th century Arabs is no different from the Jaahiliyyah of modern times. Even today, the same old false allegations and futile objections are being repeated that the Prophet was a poet, a story-teller, was under the influence of a Jinn, was a magician, was a claimant of divinity and that he was a man who raised himself on a big lie and that many people assisted him in this business.
The Quran disproves the claim in this way, "And they say, 'Legends of the former peoples which he has written down, and they are dictated to him morning and afternoon.'"[Quran: 25:5]. Again, the Quran rebuts one of these allegations in this way, "And We certainly know that they say, 'It is only a human being who teaches him (i.e. the Prophet ).' The tongue of the one they refer to is foreign, and this (i.e. Quran) is (in) a clear Arabic language." [Quran: 16:103]
One would readily visualise the reflection of these allegations, and of course, the intentions behind them, posed by Europe on Muhammad for over a thousand years, in the following verses of the Quran: "Similarly, there came not to those before them any messenger except that they said: 'A magician or a madman!' Did they suggest it to them? Rather, they (themselves) are a transgressing people." [Quran: 51:52-53)
In his book, Islam and the West, the Making of an Image, Norman Daniel, dealt with the matter in this way: "While looking at the works of even impartial writers, we should never overlook the historically antagonistic behaviour and attitude of Christianity towards Islam and Muhammad . That is because a similar attitude has been and still today remains as a dominant and essential component of thoughts of every Western scholar who speaks on this subject."