Muhammad's "Prophethood": Real or Myth

Printer-friendly versionSend to friendPDF versionJahanshah Rashidian   Nabuwat or the prophecy of Muhammad is one of the pillars, indeed, the foundation, of Islam. It is a requisite for every Muslim to believe in the prophecy of Muhammad, namely Muhammad-al-Rassul Allah (i.e. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah). Information on Muhammad’s life are deduced from the Koran, the "Sirah" (biography of the Prophet), and some parts of the “Hadiths” (prophetic sayings and deeds), which are considered as "Sahih" (reliable). However, these give us sufficient information to pass a general judgment on the prophet of Islam and his alleged prophecy. Nothing will be wrong if we suppose that Muhammad was a person with all social and cultural norms of his time. However, almost 100 "surahs" (chapters) of the Koran attempt to confirm the claim of Nabuwat; and as if all these surahs were not enough, Islamic scholars have additionally narrated different sayings over different periods and circumstances to endorse the belief on Nabuwat, but his prophecy has never been proven or unquestionably accepted by some famous scholars like Ibn Sina, Farabi, and Razi. Before the alleged Nabuwat, according to many resources, Muhammad was a reliable caravan-businessman (Muhammad al-Amin), working for his elderly wealthy wife, Khadijah, as her caravan leader. Later on, as a self-appointed prophet in Mecca, he showed a messiah attitude sage, a poetic man with peculiar but harmless personality traits. After 10 years of prophetic career, he was forced to leave his hometown, Mecca. And his migration, known as "Hijrat", to Medina in 622 had a far-reaching impact upon Islamic as well as world history. Like several alleged prophets of his time, his claim and fame of prophecy could've faded out right after his death in Mecca in the desert sands of Arabia; even the subcontinent of Arabia, let alone the whole world, would not know anything about him. But that was not the case—thanks to the Hijrat. In Medina, he declared that God had sent him to guide mankind till the Day of Judgment, and turned Medina into his military enclave for realizing his so-called prophetic ambition through the force of arms. As a ‘prophet of swords’ of Allah, he suddenly turned to realizing his very personal ambitions; and he misused the alleged divine commands, supposedly from Allah, and the existing traditional norms of society to that end. He even went so far to violate ethical norms of his own religion to achieve his whims. As such, he had the privilege of having more wives than was permitted under his own Islamic law. He even had the controversial right to marry his daughter-in-law, Zainab, deemed as incest in Arab social ethics; and he forced his adopted son, Zaid, to divorce her so that he could marry her. As a husband, he had the advantage to arbitrarily treat his wives as he liked. In his financial exploits, he allowed himself the right to rob caravans (for which other robbers would have been beheaded), or to impose humiliating "Jizya" (taxes) on "Dhimmis" (subjugated Christian and Jewish minorities living in Islam-ruled lands). He ordered the confiscation of lands and properties from "Dhimmis", his enemies, as he wished. He openly claimed that, "the spoils of war, including the widows of killed enemies, were made lawful unto me". He gave orders to murder many “infidels”. According to Ali Dashti, who wanted to be an Islamic scholar but apostatised after reading about Muhammad’s life, while Muhammad surrounded Mecca in 630, a compromise of capitulation was achieved: Muhammad accepted a peaceful capitulation of Mecca in exchange for a general amnesty for the population, though excluding certain individuals like Ibn Abdullah, who was one of Muhammad's early companions and wrote down manuscripts of the Koran for him. He apostatised and fled Medina as Muhammad tried to kill him for having divulged the man-made origin of the Koran. Upon the capitulation of Mecca, he was ordered to be executed, but was saved by the lobbying of his foster brother Uthman, the prophet’s son-in-law. Although Muhammad accepted the peace treaty, on his return from Mecca to Medina, he attacked a group of Bedouins en route and so the treaty was voided. Apologetic historians claim that people of Mecca received Muhammad with opened arms, as did the Persians to escape tyranny of the “despotic” Sassanids. Many similar sayings by scholars like those of Ali Dashti leave us evidences at hand to raise a simple but taboo question to how such a person could have divine communication, let alone receive Nabuwat from God. Two dynasties of Islamic Golden Age, namely the Umayyads and Abbasids, established an Islamic empire containing a vast part of the-then known world, thanks to their jihadi swordsmen. Iran was one of their first preys, fallen during Caliph Omar, and it continued to be occupied under Othman, Ali, and several more caliphs. Massacred, enslaved, and long humiliated, Iran continued to be officially occupied by Muslims for two centuries, before falling into the hands of Iranian Muslim dynasties. Today, thanks to political Islam, Iranians are living under the rule of an Islamic regime. After the current acts of stoning, misogynistic crimes, amputation, religious persecution and many other barbaric acts, all committed by the name of Islam, the people of Iran are becoming increasingly curious to find out the real version of Islam, and especially the historical process that turned Iran Islamic. The people of Iran, as the 14-century-long victims of Islam, have now right to cast serious doubts on anything related to Islam, including its core pillar, the Nabuwat of Muhammad. Today an increasing section of Iranians cast doubt, or do not believe, in Muhammad’s Nabuwat. Was Muhammad’s “alleged” first rendezvous with Gabriel, the God's angel, at Mount Hira near Mecca all about a fictitious tale? Iranians are in a situation to ask themselves such timely questions.