Unmasking Islam: Muhammad's Prophetic Claim

Unmasking Islam: Muhammad's Prophetic Claim

Islam is a religion which had developed from the Prophetic claim, preaching and life of Muhammad early in the seventh century of the Christian era. During that time, the old Arabian paganism was in a process of slow disintegration and Judaism and Christianity were widely gaining popularity. Several self-proclaimed Prophets had arisen with various degrees of success in convincing people. In the beginning Muhammad was such a self-proclaimed Prophet, but with time he successfully synchronized certain basic elements of Judaism and Christianity with the pagan practices and added some nationalistic Arab pride and it has become a world religion today.

From the authentic Islamic sources it appears that Muhammad thought of himself as in the succession of the Old Testament men of faith who was sent on a Divine mission by the one and only God, Allah. Like Noah, Jonah, and Elijah he preached a religious message in the name of this Supreme Lord, like Moses he also issued legislation in His name, and like Abraham he was not only a maintainer of righteousness but the founder of a community of the righteous. 

But unlike Christianity or Buddhism, his religious endeavor was an utter failure unless he was able to draw the sword and use it successfully to impose his religion on others.

Muhammad declared himself a Prophet of Allah when he was about forty years old. Bukhari’s Hadith (1:3) recorded Muhammad’s first experience with the angel Gabriel. But this Divine confrontation was less heavenly and more demonic. Once in the cave of Hira, the angel Gabriel came to him with some written messages from Allah and asked him to read. Muhammad replied,

"I do not know how to read”. Three times Muhammad expressed his inability to read but Gabriel forcefully gave him the message of Allah, the famous first revelations of Qur’an.

“Read (Prophet Muhammad) in the Name of your Lord who created the human from a (blood) clot. Read! Your Lord is the Most Generous, who taught by the pen, taught the human, what he did not know” (Q: 96.1-5).

So the truth of Allah’s message started descending upon Muhammad in a violent way. This is entirely sufficient for a rational person to seriously doubt about the truthfulness of Qur’anic message and Muhammad’s reliability as a Prophet. Surprisingly, Muhammad himself was the first person to doubt the genuineness of the revelation. He hurried back to his wife bewildered and terrorized, "What's wrong with me?” he asks his wife. Just as kids hide under the covers when they are afraid of monsters in the dark, so Muhammad had his wife wrap him in a blanket; he did not want to see the cause of terror again. He thought he was either going mad or possessed by an evil spirit.

After this first revelation Allah was silent for about three years. Muhammad was so sad that he preferred to commit suicide. Several times he intended to throw himself from the top of high mountains but every time he went up the top of mountain in order to throw himself down, Gabriel would appear before him and said, “O Muhammad! You are indeed Allah’s Apostle in truth.” This is how Muhammad began to believe that he was a messenger of God. A messenger of such a demonic God who's influence caused him to attempt suicide.

Few people are aware of Muhammad's suicide attempts. Few Islamic leaders will teach this to their fellow Muslims because it casts a stain upon Muhammad; it brings doubt to his trustworthiness and the credibility of his assumed "Prophetic" experience. Some Muslims deny the sources of the story. Other more intelligent Muslims, knowledgeable about the sources, respond by saying that the shock of the experience caused him to attempt suicide.

According to Qur’an, Muhammad was the seal of the Prophets:

“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men. He is the Messenger of Allah and the Seal of the Prophets. Allah has knowledge of all things” (Q: 33.40).

According to Islamic sources (Bukhari: 1.4.189; Muslim: 30.5790; Sunan of Abu Dawud 32:4071), Muhammad had a big mole on his back between the shoulders which was as big as a pigeon’s egg. He claimed that the big mole is the proof of his Prophet Hood

There is no religious scripture which confirms that a mole between the shoulders is a sign of Prophet Hood. What he claimed to be a proof of Allah’s seal was a physical deformity which anyone can have. There is no ‘divinity’ in this. It is simply beyond the capacity of a logical thinker how this is supposed to be one of the proofs that convince people of Muhammad’s Prophet Hood!

Muhammad gave no solid proof of his Prophet Hood. He only claimed to the title of Prophet of Allah. Did he lie? Was he under delusion? The validity of Islam is closely dependent on the reliability of Muhammad. If there is no solid reason to conclude that Muhammad was the true messenger of God, we may reasonably suppose that Islam is false. If we can prove that Muhammad was untrustworthy, Islam self-destructs. The scholars, who are most familiar with Arabic sources and had clear understanding of the life and time of Muhammad; like Margoliouth, Hurgronge, Lammens, Caetani are the most decisive against Muhammad’s Prophetic claim. The more we read their valuable research works, the more we find it difficult to disagree with them. How can we be sure that Muhammad did not lie? Muhammad declared that lying is acceptable if it is used to propagate the cause of Islam by killing the enemy.

This particular statement should make us wonder how often Muhammad took advantage of this principle while claiming his title of a Prophet and preaching his message.

If we take Qur’an as a primary foundation of Muhammad’s Prophethood, the doubt is still not dispelled at all. The next question is to ascertain how firm ground does it provide.

There are serious doubts about the trustworthiness of Qur’an also. Like Muhammad’s Prophetic claim, Qur’an itself is self-declarative. It describes itself by various generic terms, comments, explains, distinguishes, puts itself in contrast with other religious books and claims to be holy.

The Qur’anic claims are great, but what is miserable is that, this supposed to be holy book fails to prove either Muhammad’s Prophetic claim or its Divine origin.

Ultimately, it becomes a circular reasoning. Qur’an is God’s words because Muhammad said so and Muhammad was God’s messenger because Qur’an says so. Circular reasoning is a logical fallacy. We are not happy with this.