by Robert Spencer
Why
would it matter if Muhammad never existed? Certainly the accepted story
of Islam's origins is taken for granted as historically accurate; while many
don't accept Muhammad's claim to have been a prophet, few doubt that there was
a man named Muhammad who in the early seventh century began to claim that he
was receiving messages from Allah through the angel Gabriel. Many who
hear about my new book Did Muhammad Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam's Obscure
Origins ask why it would matter whether or not Muhammad existed -- after all, a
billion Muslims believe he did, and they are not going to stop doing so because
of some historical investigations.
Yet
the numerous indications that the standard account of Muhammad's life is more
legend than fact actually have considerable implications for the contemporary
political scene.
These
are just a few of the weaknesses in the traditional account of Muhammad's life
and the early days of Islam:
-
No record of Muhammad's reported death in 632 appears until more than a
century after that date.
-
The early accounts written by the people the Arabs conquered never
mention Islam, Muhammad, or the Qur'an. They call the conquerors
"Ishmaelites," "Saracens," "Muhajirun," and
"Hagarians," but never "Muslims."
-
The Arab conquerors, in their coins and inscriptions, don't mention Islam
or the Qur'an for the first six decades of their conquests. Mentions of
"Muhammad" are non-specific and on at least two occasions are
accompanied by a cross. The word can be used not only as a proper name,
but also as an honorific.
-
The Qur'an, even by the canonical Muslim account, was not distributed in
its present form until the 650s. Casting into serious doubt that standard
account is the fact that neither the Arabians nor the Christians and Jews in
the region mention its existence until the early eighth century.
-
We don't begin to hear about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, and about
Islam itself until the 690s, during the reign of the caliph Abd al-Malik.
Coins and inscriptions reflecting Islamic beliefs begin to appear at this
time also.
-
In the middle of the eighth century, the Abbasid dynasty supplanted the
Umayyad line of Abd al-Malik. In the Abbasid period, biographical
material about Muhammad began to proliferate. The first complete
biography of the prophet of Islam finally appeared during this era-at least 125
years after the traditional date of his death.
The
lack of confirming detail in the historical record, the late development of
biographical material about the Islamic prophet, the atmosphere of political
and religious factionalism in which that material developed, and much more,
suggest that the Muhammad of Islamic tradition did not exist, or if he did, he
was substantially different from how that tradition portrays him.
How
to make sense of all this? If the Arab forces that conquered so much
territory beginning in the 630s were not energized by the teachings of a new
prophet and the divine word he delivered, how did the Islamic character of
their empire arise at all? If Muhammad did not exist, why was it ever
considered necessary to invent him?
Every
empire of the day had a civic religion. The Eastern Roman (Byzantine)
Empire was Christian. Its rival Persia, meanwhile, was Zoroastrian.
The Arab Empire quickly controlled and needed to unify huge expanses of
territory where different religions predominated. The empire was growing
quickly, soon rivaling the Byzantine and Persian Empires in size and power.
But at first, it did not have a compelling political theology to compete
with those it supplanted and to solidify its conquests. It needed a
common religion -- a political theology that would provide the foundation for
the empire's unity and secure allegiance to the state.
Toward
the end of the seventh century and the beginning of the eighth, the leaders of
the Muslim world began to speak specifically about Islam, its prophet, and
eventually its book. Stories about Muhammad began to circulate. A
warrior-prophet would justify the new empire's aggressive expansionism.
To give those conquests a theological justification -- as Muhammad's
teachings and example do -- would place them beyond criticism.
This
is why Islam developed as such a profoundly political religion. Islam is
a political faith: the divine kingdom is very much of this world, with God's
wrath and judgment to be expected not only in the next life, but also in this
one, to be delivered by believers. Allah says in the Qur'an: "As for
those disbelieving infidels, I will punish them with a terrible agony in this
world and the next. They have no one to help or save them" (3:56).
Allah also exhorts Muslims to wage war against those infidels, apostates,
and polytheists (2:191, 4:89, 9:5, 9:29).
There
is compelling reason to conclude that Muhammad, the messenger of Allah came
into existence only after the Arab Empire was firmly entrenched and casting
about for a political theology to anchor and unify it. Muhammad and the
Qur'an cemented the power of the Umayyad caliphate and then that of the Abbasid
caliphate.
This
is not just academic speculation. The non-Muslim world can be aided
significantly in its understanding of the global jihad threat -- an
understanding that has been notably lacking even at the highest levels since
September 11, 2001 -- by a careful, unbiased examination of the origins of
Islam. There is a great deal of debate today in the United States and
Western Europe about the nature of Islamic law; anti-sharia measures have been
proposed in at least twenty states, and one state -- Oklahoma -- voted to ban
sharia in November 2010, although that law was quickly overturned as an
infringement upon Muslims' religious freedom. Others have been
successfully resisted on the same grounds.
If
it is understood that the political aspect of Islam preceded the religious
aspect, that might change. But that will happen only if a sufficient
number of people are willing to go wherever the truth my take them.
Robert
Spencer is the director of Jihad Watch and author of the New York Times
bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The
Truth About Muhammad. His latest book, Did Muhammad Exist?, is now
available.
Courtesy:
No comments:
Post a Comment