Copyright © 2007 by R. Blade All Rights Reserved
rblade@sbcglobal.net
An atheist talks with the prophet and apostle of Islam.
Contents
The fictional conversation in this book was created from and elaborates upon selected events in Muhammad’s life as described in the following scholarly books:
Is Religion Killing Us? Jack Nelson Pallmeyer
Muhammad, M. Cook
Muhammad, Karen Armstrong
Muhammad, Maxime Rodinson
Muhammad at Medina, W. Montgomery Watt
The History of al-Tabari, Volume 6, Muhammad at Mecca (translated by W. Montgomery Watt)
The Rough Guide to History of Islam, Justin White
What is Islam? W. Montgomery Watt
What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam,
John L. Esposito
In the above named books some events of Muhammad’s life and the timeline in which they occurred differ as do the spellings of words whether for names or places. This book makes no pretense at clarifying any of those differences. I hereby acknowledge my appreciation of and reliance upon the above named books.
The following Internet sites were visited for general review of
information about Muhammad:
alislam.org
faithfreedom.org
islamanswers.net
usc.edu
Wikipedia.org
Fictional Conversation
The fictional conversation in this book is between a modern American atheist host and the reconstituted Muhammad Adallah the ‘Messenger of God’. The conversation was created from selected events in Muhammad’s life described in the books and source information specified in the front matter Acknowledgement. During the conversation the host is mindful that Muhammad doesn't have any scientific knowledge. He refers to his notes to prompt responses from Muhammad.
NB: This book is not a biography or psychological examination of Muhammad. Moreover this book is not an explanation of the Bible, Quran, Judaism, Christiansim, or Islam. There are brief comments about these topics in the Postlog.
Quran
In this book any mention of the Quran is a reference to the ‘physical book’ of Islamic text compiled ‘after’ Muhammad’s death. Muhammad must have originated some of the information eventually compiled for the Quran but he was not its author and obviously never had or saw a copy of it. See the Postlog for more information about the Quran.
Arabia
The great peninsula of Arabia was bordered north and west by the mostly Christian Roman Byzantine Empire and north and east by the mostly Zoroastrian Persian Empire. The Red Sea, Arabian Sea, and Persian Gulf surrounded Arabia. The Fertile Crescent was a huge sprawling area covering the northern tip of Arabia from the southeastern part of the Roman Byzantine Empire to the northwestern part of the Persian Empire. The area is shaped like a crescent and is called fertile because of the waters of the Nile, Jordan, Euphrates, and Tigris rivers. Today that area comprises Middle East nations.
Most of Arabia was desert with little arable land and water. The southern half exposed to rain had oases and fertile land. In cities such as Mecca there were merchants, craftsmen, and farmers near water supplies. There were also Bedouin tribes, pastoral nomads, who with their animals migrated to areas of water and vegetation to graze their animals. They lived ascetically in tents coping with scarcities of food and water. For the most part Arabia was populated by pagan Arabs and scattered Jewish tribes. Today the northern and southern parts of Arabia are Middle East nations with Saudi Arabia in the middle.
Before Muhammad
The Roman Emperor Constantine the Great abandoned Rome the capitol of Rome’s two empires, Roman Western Empire and Roman Eastern Empire. In 326 he moved the capitol Rome to the Roman Byzantine Empire and named the new capitol after himself using the eponym Constantinople. After the Roman Western Empire fell in 476 the Roman Eastern Empire later became known as the Roman Byzantine Empire named after the original city of Byzantium (now Istanbul, Turkey). The Roman Byzantine Empire and Persian Empire were constantly at war fighting over the control of the area now called the Middle East.
Paganism was the predominant religious belief in Europe, Middle East, and North Africa. Powerful imperial nations such as Rome imposed its paganism on conquered nations. Then came the one God of Judaism, Christianism, and Islam but each with its own God. To ascribe to one God a different God for each religion is an oxymoron, nevertheless that’s what happened − Elohim the God of Jews, Father the God of Christians, Allah the God of Muslims.
Exceptionally visionary men imposed their inspirational and revelatory beliefs on family, friends, and tribes. Three men were most influential in transitioning from paganism to the one God − Moses, Constantine the Great, and Muhammad. Moses imposed Judaism on the 12 tribes of Israel; Constantine imposed Christianity on the vast pagan Roman Empire; Muhammad imposed Islam on Arabia.
Seeds of Conflict between Jews and Muslims
Abraham’s wife Sarai was barren so she proposed that her Egyptian maid servant Hagar sleep with him in the hope that she would birth him a son. It came to pass that Hagar birthed a son whom Abraham named Ishmael (because God heard Sarai’s plea). Thereafter the two women quarreled and at Sarai’s insistence Abraham dispatched Hagar and Ishmael to the desert wilderness. The abandoned mother and son frantically searched back and forth for water. Dying of thirst they were rescued by the Archangel Gabriel who brought forth the virgin spring Zamzam in the area later called Mecca. Henceforth Arabs would be blood relatives of ancestral mother Hagar and ancestral fathers Abraham and Ishmael. Their progeny would grow up to be Muslims. But Abraham was also the ancestral father of Jews.
Kaaba
Near the bubbling Zamzam virgin spring God ordered Abraham and Ishmael to build a sanctuary for worshipping God. That sanctuary was called the Kaaba, the sacred shrine of the God of Arabs. When completed God hurled into it the sacred Black Stone to remind Arabs of heaven. In Mecca the Zamzam spring provided much needed water and the Kaaba was and still is a holy place for prayer. Arab tribes could participate in peace and brotherhood, a respite from the dangers and struggles of daily life in Arabia, by making pilgrimages to the Kaaba. The pilgrimages were and still called Hajj. About a 10-mile radius surrounding the Kaaba was considered hallowed ground in which violence was prohibited. Before Islam the Kaaba contained idols of gods worshipped by pagan Arabs. After Islam Muslims worshipped only Allah. Today the Kaaba is the most important Muslim shrine in Arabia; it measures about 34’ x 39’ x 49’ high. Its walls consist of a heavy black fabric designed with Quranic verses embroidered with filaments of gold.
Differences in Source Information
Because of the many differences in source information for this book the author R. Blade made the following determinations:
Day/Month – with few exceptions eliminated day and month because of the difficulties in translating days and months of the Islamic lunar calendar to Christian Gregorian calendar.
Distances – calculated the mileage between geographic locations.
Names – spelled the names of persons and places. For names having multiple spelling, used the most common name.
Timeline – established the sequence of events and their approximate dates. All dates are in the AD/CE period unless otherwise specified.
Glossary
Al-Fath The Victory, the Muslim practice of identifying defeat as victory.
Allah The Supreme Being, the God of Islam.
Allahu Akbar God is the Greatest.
Caesaropapist A Caesar and a papist; one person the secular head of state (government) and also head of church (religion), an absolute dictator.
community The Muslim community.
Constitution The Constitution of Medina.
Emigrant A Muslim who departed Mecca for Yathrib.
fatwa An Islamic decree issued by a religious leader.
Fertile Crescent The parts of the Roman Byzantine Empire and Persian Empire bordering northeastern Arabia in the areas of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
Gabriel The Archangel who delivers God’s messages to humans.
hadith Oral or written accounts of what Muhammad said and did (see sunna).
Hajj Pilgrimage, compulsory major pilgrimage to Mecca required at least once in the life of an adult Muslim to perform prescribed rituals at the Kaaba and in its sanctified surrounding territory (see Umra).
Helpers Arabs in Medina who helped settle in that city Emigrant Muslims from Mecca. They were not Muslims at the time but probably converted to Islam later.
hijab A curtain or covering, most Muslim women wear a hijab and/or veil.
Hijra Muhammad’s flight from Mecca to Medina in order to avoid capture by the Quraish. The flight marks the beginning of the Islamic calendar whose dates are suffixed with AH (After Hijra).
Hira Name of the mountain and its cave in which Muhammad meditated and had his first revelation.
infidel Generally anyone not a Muslim, an unbeliever.
Islam Submission to the will of Allah (see Muslim).
Isra Night flight, Gabriel and Muhammad’s nocturnal journey from Mecca to Jerusalem (see Miraj).
jihad Holy war or crusade. Generally the Islamic struggle and sacred duty of Muslims in the name of Allah. In wars of a ‘lesser jihad’ Allah’s angels fight alongside Muslims whose deaths are rewarded in heaven. In a ‘greater jihad’ Muslims engage in purification, the spiritual effort of good over evil.
Kaaba The rectangular sanctuary built by Abraham and Ishmael for Arabs to worship God in the area that became Mecca.
Medina Muhammad’s new name for Yathrib.
Miraj Ladder, the ladder Muhammad used to climb through the heavens to where God dwells in the 7th heaven (see Isra).
mosque A building primarily a religious and political center because in Islam the two are inseparable.
Muslim One who submits (see Islam).
pagan A believer in more than one god.
Quraish The most powerful tribe in Mecca.
Quran The ‘recitation’ by Muhammad of Allah’s verses. After Muhammad’s death the book of Islamic text compiled and arranged into 114 chapters.
Ramadan A month-long indulgence of fasting and prayer from dawn to sunset.
sharia Islamic holy law in the Quran.
Shia The lesser of two dominant Muslim divisions (see Sunni).
sunna Examples of Muhammad as moral exemplar derived from hadith.
Sunni The larger of two dominant Muslim divisions (see Shia).
Syria That part of the Roman Byzantine Empire bordering northern Arabia.
Treaty The Treaty of Hudaybiya.
umma The Muslim community in Yathrib/Medina, then in Arabia, and today worldwide.
Umra Visitation, the Lesser Pilgrimage to Mecca for the Hajj (not compulsory).
unbeliever Anyone who doesn’t believe in the one God Allah.
Yathrib A small pre-Islamic city about 225 miles north of Mecca (Muhammad renamed it Medina).
Zamzam Bubbling spring, the virgin spring in Mecca brought forth by Gabriel to save the lives of Hagar and her son Ishmael.
(570-595)HOST Welcome Muhammad the praised one ‘Peace be Upon You’. Today you have hundreds of praiseworthy phrases, more than anyone else in recorded history. You have been reconstituted for a conversation with me. I must tell you at this beginning that I’m an atheist, an unbeliever, as you would say.
MUHAMMAD There’s only one God, Allah the Supreme Being. I am prophet and apostle of his chosen religion Islam. My mission was to convert unbelievers to Islam. Am I being recalled from paradise to convert you?
HOST No, no that’s not possible. I’m an unbeliever in Allah or any God. Let’s begin at the beginning with your birth. You were born in Mecca in 570 the Year of the Elephant. What’s the significance of the elephant?
MUHAMMAD We need to go back to 560 to Christian Abyssinia, a province of the Roman Byzantine Empire. At that time the Abyssinian governor Abraha governed the southern part of Arabia. He was jealous of the prestige and wealth that the sacred shrine Kaaba brought to Mecca, the most powerful and wealthy city in Arabia. To attract trade and wealth in southern Arabia, Abraha built a great Christian church in the city of Sana’a.
HOST Today Sana’a is the capital of Yemen.
MUHAMMAD Failing to compete with the commercial success of Mecca, Abraha decided to destroy the Kaaba. In Africa he captured and chained the largest elephant he could find, assembled a large army, crossed the Red Sea, and marched towards Mecca.
HOST I understand the army but why an elephant?
MUHAMMAD The Kaaba’s walls were built of loosely fit stones. An elephant could easily destroy the entire shrine. At the edge of Mecca’s sacred territory the elephant knelt down as if praying and wouldn’t get up. The next day stinging raindrops fell on his troops and poisonous boils erupted all over their bodies. Abraha realized that God had chosen the Kaaba over his Christian church so he withdrew with his elephant and army and returned to Abyssinia.
HOST That event was so important it’s in the Quran, Chapter105. Al-Fil (The Elephant).
HOST The Quran is the book that contains everything about your life from birth to death. You need not be concerned about it because it was compiled after your death. Tell me about your father and mother.
MUHAMMAD My father was Abd Abdallah chief of the Hashim clan of the Quraish tribe the most powerful tribe in Mecca. The Quraish had the honor of guarding and maintaining the Kaaba. Unfortunately my father died in 569 before I was born leaving my mother almost destitute. He left her only a few camels, some sheep, and a slave girl to help her.
HOST He was chief of your clan so why did he die impoverished?
MUHAMMAD His rich caravan was raided by Bedouins and he lost everything.
HOST What about your mother?
MUHAMMAD My mother was Amina Wahb. Once she told me that while I was in her womb she heard voices telling her that I was predestined to become a great man. When I was born she named me Muhammad ‘the praised one’. During the night her swollen breasts radiated light.
HOST That must have proved a great advantage during night feedings.
MUHAMMAD Being widowed with no man to protect us she thought pastoral desert life in the desert was safer and healthier than life in Mecca.
HOST Why?
MUHAMMAD Mecca was a commercial city of had all the big city problems such as pagans worshipping idols, money lending at usurious rates, prostitution, men drunk on alcohol, and thievery. My mother placed me with the Bedouin wet nurse Halima telling her that I would grow up to be a great man. She and her family were members of the Hawazin tribe. Halima was poor and her breasts dry, even her animal’s udders were dry. She took me hoping that I the great man to be would bring her poor family good fortune. Perhaps one day she might even receive gifts from my mother, the mother of the great man to be. I recall Halima telling my mother that when she first tried to suckle me her breasts suddenly swelled with milk and her animal’s udders filled with milk. Thanking God Halima and her family drank milk until their bellies were swollen. It was several years after that I had a very frightening experience.
HOST Your predestined greatness was tested one day in a most bizarre story as told by Halima’s children.
MUHAMMAD They told her that while playing with me two men in white robes seized me, tore out my heart, and at precisely that moment it snowed in the hot dry desert.
HOST Why didn’t you bleed to death?
MUHAMMAD I didn’t bleed at all. They washed my heart with the freshly fallen snow and then set up a pair of scales. They placed my heart on one scale and all the land of Arabia on the other. When the scales broke the men fell prostrate on the ground weeping. Then rising they declared "Muhammad you are beloved of God" and disappeared. The story so terrorized Halima she returned me to my mother who gave her the few goods she had in appreciation of her care of me.
HOST How old were you?
MUHAMMAD I don’t know maybe 3 or 4.
HOST All that I’ve read refers to you as simply Muhammad. Didn’t you have a last name?
MUHAMMAD I don’t understand. I’m the son of Abdallah Abd al-Muttalib.
HOST Why aren’t you called Muhammad Abdallah or Muhammad Mutallib?
MUHAMMAD Everyone In Mecca knew of my lineage.
HOST Well, let’s continue with your mother.
MUHAMMAD When I was about 6 or 7 my mother took me on a trip to Yathrib to visit the grave of my father. He died on that fatal caravan trip from Mecca to Yathrib when Bedouins plundered his caravan. Her brothers my uncles were also buried n Yathrib.
HOST Shortly thereafter your mother died and you were orphaned.
MUHAMMAD When I lost my mother men raised me. My paternal grandfather Abd Muttalib became my guardian. He had two sons my uncles Abbas and Hamzah. I remember my grandfather would take me to the Kaaba to acquaint me with its sacredness. He would pray to the pagan al-Lat ‘The Goddess’ one of the ‘Daughters of God’. He explained that as members of the Hashim clan we had the honor of guarding the Kaaba.
HOST When you were about 10 your grandfather died.
MUHAMMAD I was much saddened. He was my friend and I missed our visits to the Kaaba. My uncle Abu Talib became my guardian and protector. He was the chief of the Hashim clan, a merchant, and a gifted poet. I remember he took me on one of his merchant caravans to Medina and taught me how to handle camels. My other uncles Abbas and Hamzah took turns in training me to handle horses. They were especially demanding when training me in self-protection and the military arts.
HOST When you were growing up from about 580-585 the Quraish tribe was at war with the Bedouin Hawazin tribe in the area of Taif south of Mecca.
MUHAMMAD Each tribe was trying to control the lucrative caravan trade route from Yemen to Mecca. After 5 years of fighting the Hawazin gave up.
HOST That war involved your uncle Abu Talib.
MUHAMMAD My uncle Talib was a fearless soldier and prosperous merchant. Under his tutorship I learned the art of merchant trading and accompanied him on many caravan journeys. It was during those journeys I acquired some knowledge of Judaism and Christianism.
HOST During one of those journeys Talib’s caravan stopped for refreshments at a Christian hermitage in Syria. A monk there named Bahira divined the presence of a special Arab destined to be a holy man, a man of God. Do you recall the particulars of that event?
MUHAMMAD He spoke to and examined all in our caravan except me because I was the youngest traveler. I was resting in the shade of a palm tree. When he noticed me he asked my uncle’s permission to examine me; my uncle agreed. Approaching me he said "I noticed that the branches of this palm are bent down to shade you". After questioning me he asked if he could examine my back. When he recognized the dark mark between my shoulders he uttered "My son you have the seal of the prophet. You might be the long expected prophet of Arabs but you will shed the blood of Jews, confiscate their possessions, and make slaves of their women and children as had the Romans". He told my uncle to guard me from Jews who would likely kill me if they found out the expected Messiah was not a Jew but an Arab. Stunned at the monk’s declaration we said little during the remainder of the journey back to Mecca.
HOST My notes indicate that as a youth you were solidly built in a medium frame and average height. You had dark bushy hair and beard. Your had dark skin and large black eyes. Is that about right?
MUHAMMAD I think so.
HOST You were a fast walker and had a genial demeanor but always in a pensive mood, deep in thought. When someone spoke to you, you appeared startled as if that person had interrupted your thought. What were you thinking of?
MUHAMMAD What was to become of me? Brought up in the homes and under the tutorship of men I missed my mother. What little opportunity I had to meet women was lost when I accompanied my uncle on his long caravan journeys to Syria.
HOST In your early twenties you tried to change that by asking for the hand of one of your uncle Talib’s daughters.
MUHAMMAD I asked my uncle for the hand of his daughter Fakhita. He refused me because I had no animals, no worldly goods, and no money. Depressed at being rejected by my uncle I sought the companionship of women but was not successful. I yearned for the look and touch, the scent and companionship of a woman.
HOST Speaking of women it was said that in the company of women your face revealed a soft glow, an empathic expression yearning to engage them in conversation and friendship.
MUHAMMAD True, I did yearn for their companionship.
HOST When you were about 21 you joined an organization called the Hilful Fudul.
MUHAMMAD I joined The League of the Virtuous who were concerned about taking advantage of the poor and depressed. At the Kaaba I spoke about fair dealing with merchant traders who were unfairly treated of wrong doing to see that justice was done.
HOST You became a successful merchant trader yourself and caravan agent earning the envious reputation for being honest and trustworthy.
MUHAMMAD The widow Khadijah Khuwaylid a successful business woman and distant cousin hired me to manage her merchant caravans to Syria. She said I was different form her other managers and was impressed by my thoughtful deliberations in making decisions. She thought I was an idealist.
HOST In fact she was so impressed she proposed marriage in 595.
MUHAMMAD I happily accepted her proposal. She was about 40 and I 25. On our wedding day she gave me the young slave boy Zayd Harith. We got to be good friends so I ransomed him, gave him his freedom, and adopted him as my son. Marriage quickly improved my life and social status.
HOST Having married a widow there’s disagreement over the number of your children she birthed. Some claim she birthed you 6 children, 2 sons and 4 daughters. Others claim the daughters were from a previous marriage or were the daughters of her sister.
MUHAMMAD We had two sons Qasim and Abdallah who unfortunately died in infancy. We had also two daughters Zaynab and Fatimah. The other two girls Ruqayyah and Umm Kulthum were from her previous marriage.
HOST Speaking of sons your uncle’s son Ali Abu Talib would later marry your daughter Fatimah. In 605 you were 35 and had an opportunity to show your managerial skills. You resolved a particularly perplexing problem at the Kaaba.
MUHAMMAD The Quraish were responsible for the maintenance of the Kaaba. Some of the stones in its walls had fallen out so the Quraish decided to rebuild the walls and add a roof. During the rebuilding different clans insisted on the honor of moving the sacred Black Stone back to its original position. After much quarreling I resolved the dispute by placing the Black Stone in the center of a blanket. I directed a member of each disputatious clan to help carry the blanket to the southeast corner of the Kaaba where they gently slid off the stone to its original position.
HOST After that bit of wisdom they considered you one of the leaders.
MUHAMMAD That day outside the Kaaba I heard the voice of Gabriel. He commanded me to step 35 paces from the Kaaba’s southeast corner and there excavate earth from the sand filled well. I did so and at that location ordered several workers to begin digging. When they dug to the bottom of the well two gazelles leapt up to the ground. Their thin legs unsteady as if newly expelled from their mother’s womb but their lustrous eyes were filled with appreciation. Suddenly they leapt toward the Red Sea, swam across, and returned to their native African homeland.
HOST What’s the point of that story?
MUHAMMAD Even if the good and righteous suffer and are buried by adversity those who believe in Allah will leap from the clutches of Satan. They will be free to return to their homeland in heaven whence they fell to earth as a blood clot.
HOST In your late 30’s you broke away from the paganism of Mecca and became seriously interested in the Supreme Being, the one God of Arabs.
MUHAMMAD I frequently contemplated upon the one Supreme Being of Arabs rather than their many pagan gods. The Jews had one God as did Christians so why shouldn’t Arabs have one God? Taking refuge from the many pagan idols and rituals in and around the Kaaba, I routinely sequestered myself for meditation in a cave in Mount Hira. I’d go there for holy retreat in the cool and quiet of evenings. Sometimes I’d take refreshments and alone spend the entire evening in solitude. The next morning I’d watch the sun rise in the east. That sun was Allah, the God of Arabs, not the God of Jews or Christians.
(610)HOST In 610 you had an extraordinary experience, a revelation in a cave.
MUHAMMAD A terrifying but exalting revelation.
HOST Were you praying alone as usual?
MUHAMMAD Yes.
HOST In a state of deep meditation?
MUHAMMAD Yes. There was a brief flash of light and there appeared a body in brilliant white raiment, not human but like a man.
HOST You had your eyes closed?
MUHAMMAD Yes.
HOST How could you see a body like a man?
MUHAMMAD As if in a dream. When I opened my eyes he was still there. I was overpowered by a terrible and fearsome sensation. I drew back covering my face with my arms as if to defend myself from his radiance and approach.
HOST When you covered your face did the apparition go away?
MUHAMMAD No.
HOST Who or what was the man-body?
MUHAMMAD I don’t know. He said "Fear not for I am Gabriel the angel who reveals God’s truth".
HOST You were hallucinating.
MUHAMMAD What’s that?
HOST Seeing something that wasn’t there, a split mind phenomenon.
MUHAMMAD No, he was there in his white radiant raiment. He spoke to me. I heard his words. He said "Hail Muhammad blessed are you among men, beloved of God, who proclaims you his last prophet".
HOST God revealed himself to other prophets, notably Moses and Jesus. Previously Gabriel also announced "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the Fruit of thy womb, Jesus".
MUHAMMAD Then he said "Muhammad you are the Messenger of God".
HOST Gabriel first called you God’s last prophet. Then he called you the Messenger of God? God had previous messengers. Moses delivered God’s words to Hebrews and they became Jews. Jesus delivered God’s messages to Jews and pagans who became Christians. Will you deliver God’s words to Arabs?
MUHAMMAD Yes. Then Gabriel said "You must be aware of the mark between your shoulders. It’s God’s mark of a prophet, the mark from the horn of the wild ox whose wildness will gore unbelievers and steer nations to the one God".
HOST Your mark was probably from an eruption of seborrhea keratosis.
MUHAMMAD What's that?
HOST Just thinking out loud.
MUHAMMAD Then he said "Allah chooses Islam as his religion and you as his apostle.
HOST Gabriel changed God to Allah? Which God sent Gabriel to you, the God of Jews or Christians or Allah?
MUHAMMAD I don’t know.
HOST Did you ask him?
MUHAMMAD No, his voice was stern and threatening. He spoke with such authority I was afraid to ask. Then he said "Allah cannot be described. To do so is blasphemy".
HOST What’s Islam
MUHAMMAD The religion chosen by Allah.
HOST Yes but what is it? God previously chose Moses and Jesus. From them we have Judaism God’s chosen people and then Christianism the Father’s love for people. And now God chose you and Islam. What is Islam, a new religion following the paths of Judaism and Christianism?
MUHAMMAD He said "Know that Islam is an improvement over the sins of Judaism and Christiansim. Jews sinned by worshipping the Golden Calf and then claiming they are God’s chosen people.
HOST Yahweh the one God of Jews was ineffable. Jews named him Elohim so they could talk to and describe God.
MUHAMMAD Allah cannot be described. To do so is blasphemous. Gabriel himself said it.
HOST Do you know how Christians sinned?
MUHAMMAD No.
HOST Christians sinned by dividing the Father into a Godhead in which the ‘Father’ is divided into the 3 Gods of Trinity – Father, Son, and Holy Ghost thereby returning to paganism and idolatry.
MUHAMMAD I can only speak of Allah and Islam, not of the one God of Jews or the three Gods of Christians.
HOST In that respect Islam is closer to Judaism than Christianism. That makes Islam the third religion in the trinity of religions? This is getting too confusing. Let’s get back to Gabriel. What happened next?
MUHAMMAD Gabriel told me he was going to recite God’s verses and ordered me to write them. When I told him I couldn’t write he ordered me to repeat the verses as he recited them. He spoke clearly and slowly and I repeated each verse.
HOST How many verses were there?
MUHAMMAD Hundreds. I then had to courage to ask, "How am I to remember hundreds of verses"? At that he disappeared as mysteriously as he appeared.
HOST What did the verses mean?
MUHAMMAD I don’t know but I felt like they were commandments from Allah himself.
HOST I’m guessing but they probably are the verses of the first chapter of the Quran, Chapter 1. Al-Fatiha (The Opening).
MUHAMMAD You again mentioned the Quran, my recitation.
HOST Your supposed recitation from Allah, Gabriel, other angels as revealed in your dreams and trances.
MUHAMMAD I never heard of Al-Fatiha, the Quran, or my recitation. It was Gabriel who ordered me to repeat his recitation.
HOST There are so many versions of the Quran you might have trouble recognizing verses. I have a copy of the version by Yusuf Ali. I’ll read the first 5 verses of his first chapter to see if you remember them:
In the name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.
Praise be to Allah, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the Worlds;
Most Gracious, Most Merciful;
Master of the Day of Judgement.
Thee do we worship, and Thine aid we seek.
MUHAMMAD Those words sound familiar, like the words from Gabriel.
HOST In deep meditation you got yourself into a trance manifesting the apparition and voice of Gabriel whom in reality wasn’t there. High on transcendent holiness you probably had an episode of schizophrenia.
MUHAMMAD I don’t know anything about that. But I know that Allah revealed himself to me through Gabriel.
HOST There was no Gabriel; you were alone hallucinating in the cave. Like Moses you climbed a mountain to meet God. You climbed into a cave and met your God Allah not as smoke from a burning bush but as Gabriel. That’s what must have happened to you.
MUHAMMAD It was terrifying. When Gabriel departed I was separated from myself, standing beside myself, I was looking at myself, wondering what happened to me.
HOST Post traumatic stress syndrome.
MUHAMMAD What? On the way home I realized that Jews and Christians had scripture but Arabs had none. The verses must be interpreted as the scripture of Islam. There’s no God but Allah and on earth I was to be the messenger of his verses.
HOST Except for understanding caravan bills of lading you were illiterate. How could you possibly preserve verses you couldn’t write?
MUHAMMAD I never thought much of learning in order to write or read the works of others. I always had the notion that knowledge comes from within. Most of what I know came from my inner self, except of course for the stories of elders.
HOST When you returned home what did you do?
MUHAMMAD I returned home confused and trembling. Khadija asked "What ‘s wrong with you"? I told her what happened. She comforted me claiming that I was beloved of God. About a week later she called upon the advice of her Christian cousin who asked me to recite the verses and I did.
HOST How could you possibly have remembered all those verses word for word?
MUHAMMAD They were written in my heart. I recited them word for word. Khadija’s Christian cousin was also shaken declaring that my experience was the fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah. He quoted Isaiah’s prophecy (29: verses 11 and 18) referring to the illiterate and the deaf who shall hear the words of the book.
HOST What book?
MUHAMMAD I don’t know.
HOST The Quran?
MUHAMMAD I never heard of a book called the Quran except from you.
HOST Did you ever have any revelations without Gabriel?
MUHAMMAD Of course, in the cave Allah would appear as a blinding white light. Angels would appear like Gabriel as a bright white light.
HOST Were you facing the cave’s entrance?
MUHAMMAD No, I always faced the other end of the cave so I could meditate without the distraction of daylight. Sometimes I heard words, sometimes I saw visions, sometimes I heard words and saw visions.
HOST You were obsessed with the fantasy of Allah. He’s only an obsession, a pattern in your mind, the inescapable resident of the temporal lobes in your brain.
MUHAMMAD I don’t know what that means but I tell you that Allah speaks to me; I repeat his verses. Sometimes I repeat a torrent of words so fast I don’t understand any of them. I feel Allah’s power and holiness in his strange words but don’t know what they mean.
HOST You were probably emoting in tongues. We call it speaking in tongues.
MUHAMMAD I don’t know what that means but the words rushed out of me like a fountain gushing strange words into the air.
HOST It’s almost unimaginable! You were an illiterate prophet with a genius for reciting and memorizing Allah’s verses which you knew not what they meant. Speaking of prophets God sent Moses to Jews and then sent Jesus to Jews. Until your revelation Arabs did not have a prophet. Is that why Arabs felt inferior to Jews and Christians?
MUHAMMAD No, not inferior but separated from the God of prophets. Perhaps other prophets were holy men who couldn’t write. We don’t know the mind of the God of prophets.
HOST Moses never wrote a book and neither did Jesus but after Moses was Judaism and after Jesus was Christianity. Many generations later religious scholars wrote their teachings in the Old Testament and the New Testament respectively. Both testaments are now in the book called the Bible. Jews and Christians are known as People of the Book.
MUHAMMAD I’ve heard of the People of the Book. On my caravan trips I learned a little about the religions of Jews and Christians.
HOST But Islam was not yet a religion and you certainly had no book of Islamic scripture. Will Islam be the religion to make Arabs equal to Jews and Christians?
MUHAMMAD Islam is Allah’s chosen religion. I was named apostle of Islam and from that moment Islam was my life’s mission. First I converted those close to me such as Khadijah, my family, and some cousins. Then I converted my friends including Abu Bakr and Uthman Affan who became my lifelong companions. For two years I recited the verses to my family, friends, and others who would listen. Most of them became believers, Muslims, who submitted to Allah.
HOST Did you have any more revelations?
MUHAMMAD I was so terrified after my first revelation I didn’t have another for 3 years.
HOST Did you have control of your revelations?
MUHAMMAD No, they just happened I know not why.
HOST So you had more revelations.
MUHAMMAD Yes, many. Once Gabriel came to me and said "There is no God but Allah; he is that he is; he is unbegotten and everlasting.
HOST Did you ever consider that there’s no God, no Allah?
MUHAMMAD Blasphemy! He is that he is.
HOST God is merely the uninformed answers to mankind’s ignorance as posed by the questions in – who, what, where, why, how, and when.
MUHAMMAD God is the creator of all there is. We all believe in God even pagans who have more than one god.
HOST In that case God created evil, disease, hunger, pain, and the endless afflictions of mankind.
MUHAMMAD Blasphemy! If I had my sword I’d behead you in the name of the living God Allah, most merciful and most compassionate.
HOST Many people need heroes. Absent living heroes they turn to God. You were an orphan, alone in the world. Did you need a hero called Allah?
MUHAMMAD Allah is the creator of all there is. He is that he is. If you don’t believe in God what do you believe in?
HOST Knowledge of myself and of the universe.
MUHAMMAD That’s not a substitute for Allah, the most compassionate, most merciful, and creator of all there is.
HOST My substitute is a seed that grows to a living thing, evidence of evolution at work. Well, enough of that. Let’s get on with your apostlehood and preaching.
(611-622)HOST About 611 you began preaching in public.
MUHAMMAD I had a revelation in which Gabriel said "As apostle and prophet of Islam you must recite Allah’s verses in Mecca".
HOST Complying with Gabriel’s order you began your apostlehood by preaching in Mecca.
MUHAMMAD Inspired by Gabriel I preached in and around Mecca. I told unbelievers that the one God was Allah, not the God of Jews or Christians. I preached the verses of Allah.
HOST Those verses were denounced by unbelievers.
MUHAMMAD Allah’s authority is not to be questioned. His authority is total and absolute. I told them we must be grateful to Allah for what he has bestowed upon us. I preached the Day of Resurrection and the doom of Judgement Day.
HOST Those ritual days were denounced by unbelievers.
MUHAMMAD While some of them denounced my preaching I was careful not to denounce their pagan deities.
HOST You were on a dangerous mission because Meccans were pagans, unbelievers. They derived their prestige and wealth from other pagans who made pilgrimages to Mecca for the Hajj and traded goods in and around the Kaaba.
MUHAMMAD True but I told them they should convert to believers, Muslims, for total submission to Islam and Allah. At Mount Safa I issued an open invitation to the public inviting them to convert to Islam. I attracted and converted Quraish leaders such as Abu Bakr, Uthman Affan, and Ali Talib son of my uncle Abu Talib.
HOST Did your uncle also convert?
MUHAMMAD No.
HOST Let’s talk about Islam. Just what is it? Is it Allah’s new religion?
MUHAMMAD I dare not speak for Allah.
HOST But you’ve been converting unbelievers in his name.
MUHAMMAD Islam is the total submission to the will of Allah and complete obedience to his laws in private and public life.
HOST What does that mean for daily living?
MUHAMMAD For a Muslim the purpose of life is to know, love, and serve Allah. In submitting to Allah Muslims achieve a state of Islamic piety and honor.
HOST Meaning?
MUHAMMAD Obedience to Allah brings peace of mind and purity of soul which makes Muslims acceptable to Allah and grateful for his love.
HOST That sounds like Judaism or Christianism merely substituting Allah for Elohim or Father.
MUHAMMAD For Arabs Allah is the one true God most merciful and compassionate.
HOST Islam is your version of Judaism adapted to Arabic traditions.
MUHAMMAD Gabriel recited that Islam is Allah’s chosen religion.
HOST But not a new religion created solely from Arabic traditions. Before you came along pagans had the Supreme Being, the god of all Arabs. With your preaching the Supreme Being became another God, Allah of Islam.
MUHAMMAD No, Allah is the one Supreme Being.
HOST So what did you preach in the name of Allah?
MUHAMMAD The equality of men and women, sharing of wealth by merchants, and giving alms to the poor.
HOST Why should rich merchants share their wealth? It leads to dependence by the poor and a welfare state.
MUHAMMAD Individualism leads to selfishness and poverty, one of causes of female infanticide.
HOST It’s written that the strength of a tribe was in the number of its adult males not females. Also girls outlived boys and that was the cause of burying alive female births.
MUHAMMAD I preached for a just society without infanticide. I preached for more justice. A Muslim should take a life for a life not a life for an eye, as some Arabs did in tribal feuds. I preached the abolition of aristocratic privilege and rule based on merit. On Judgement Day Allah will judge our acts on earth. Arabs who lived a pious life would enter the Kingdom of Heaven; those who did not believe and submit to Allah would suffer eternal punishment in hell.
HOST All that sounds like something Jesus said, straight out of the New Testament. Are you aware that atheists deny that heaven and hell exist and that there’ll never be a Judgement Day? Those beliefs are totally alien to life on earth.
MUHAMMAD Atheists are wrong. My hearers who believed in me called me prophet of God and likened me to Moses and Jesus.
HOST I understand most hearers considered your preaching outlandish revelations, others mocked you calling you a damned fool, a fraudulent prophet, and only a cult leader. Most of your own clan and tribe denounced you, your religion, and Allah.
MUHAMMAD They claimed I associated mostly with the poor and the uneducated rabble of society such as slaves.
HOST They were the most vulnerable and easiest to convert because you promised them more than they had.
MUHAMMAD I prophesied that Islam would give Muslims a better life in paradise because of Allah’s compassion and mercy.
HOST The poor are always the common denominator that yields the most converts. My notes indicate that you dressed like the poor wearing coarse simple clothes instead of robes and even shared your food with them.
MUHAMMAD My clan leaders cursed me for pretending to be like one of them, one of the deprived instead of the son of Abd Abdallah and nephew of Abu Talib chiefs of the Hashim clan. But as apostle I had to be the example. My family and I lived frugally because we shared our worldly goods, food, and income with the poor.
HOST In 614 you had a revelation that further inspired you to continue preaching.
MUHAMMAD It was revealed to me that Romans would defeat the Persians and that I should follow their example. Preaching in the streets of Mecca I prophesied Muslims would triumph over unbelievers.
HOST When you first began preaching you were careful not to cast aspersions on tribal pagan deities.
MUHAMMAD In order to win converts.
HOST But it’s claimed that you allowed so-called converts to worship pagan deities while at the same time worshipping Allah.
MUHAMMAD Yes but only to win enough converts until I established a considerable following. Afterwards I prohibited the dual practice.
HOST That prohibition caused some converts to abandon Islam and return to paganism. It created a schism among Muslims who began fighting each other and there was bloodshed.
MUHAMMAD Arabs honored their pagan ancestors who worshipped many deities. It was hard for them to break with the past. I told them their pagan idols were pretenders to be destroyed and that they must worship only Allah. I told them they should convert to believers, Muslims, for total submission to Allah. There had to be strict adherence to Allah’s laws because he’s greater than all of mankind and all of their pagan gods.
HOST Most of them were greatly offended by your preaching because it debased and mocked their ancestral practices for pagan gods. Most rejected your Allah. Some of them thought you were insane and even offered to help you recover your senses. Several of them threatened you with physical harm and death.
MUHAMMAD You must understand that Quraish wealth depended on pagan gods for merchant trading in and around the Kaaba. If Allah replaced pagan gods it would end the sources of their wealth, Mecca’s lucrative merchant trading, and Hajj pilgrimages. Suhayl Amr and Abu Sufyan as well as other Quraish leaders violently opposed my preaching.
HOST But you continued to preach even though your life had been threatened.
MUHAMMAD The Quraish ostricized me from tribal affairs and withdrew their tribal support of me. My uncle Talib used his influence with the Quraish to protect me from being attacked. In areas where I was forbidden to preach I trained my companions to go out and preach.
HOST Jesus had disciples and you had companions who followed you around memorizing your words. Disciples disseminated Jesus’ acts and words by preaching the gospels. Companions disseminated your acts and words by preaching hadith. Many scholars claim the oral tradition of telling and retelling hadith altered to oblivion your original words and way of life.
MUHAMMAD Perhaps but keep in mind that hadith reflected my interpretations and recitals of Allah’s verses.
HOST Most Islamic scholars agree that the oral dissemination of hadith supported the then required changes in the new religion of Islam.
MUHAMMAD Allah’s verses are true, just, and eternal. They do not change and cannot be altered by a human.
HOST The word sunna is associated with hadith. What’s the significance of sunna.?
MUHAMMAD Sunna are examples of hadiths, examples of one’s way of life.
HOST I still don’t understand.
MUHAMMAD For example in hadith it’s decreed that every male Muslim should be circumcised. In sunna every male must be circumcised to comply with Muslim tradition.
HOST It’s claimed you preached with the name Allah on your lips. It infuriated your clansmen who threatened you and even threatened your uncle. I have a copy of one of their complaints:
‘O Abu Talib, your nephew has cursed our gods, insulted our religion, mocked our way of life and accused our forefathers of error; either you must stop him or you must let us get at him … and we will rid you of him.’ (Armstrong, p119)
MUHAMMAD I cried out:
‘O my uncle, by God if they put the sun in my right hand and the moon in my left on condition that I abandon this course, until God has made it victorious, or I perish therein, I would not abandon it.’ (Armstrong, p119)
and then I wept and ran from the room.
HOST So what did your uncle do?
MUHAMMAD He called me back declaring:
‘Go and say what you please, for by God I will never give you up on any account.’ (Armstrong, p120).
I was safe so long as I was under his protection. Any harm done to me would require my clan to take revenge thereby beginning a blood feud with the offending Quraish clans. In the ancient system of Arabic justice the injured party must avenge any harm done to any member of its clan. The exception was slaves; they were prohibited from membership in a clan or tribe.
HOST You were reviled by some, loved by others. Clan fought against clan and the tribe caught in between was helpless to resolve the conflicts between Muslims and unbelievers most of whom were Arabs. What exactly were you preaching that so antagonized the Hashim your own clan and the Quraish your tribe?
MUHAMMAD I preached Meccans should end the worship of pagan idols and embrace Islam. I decreed social and economic equality for all Muslims irrespective of class, sex, and social status, the abolition of alcohol and gambling, the abolition of slavery, the abolition of wealth for the privileged few, and the distribution of wealth to the less fortunate.
HOST Abolition of wealth? Wealthy merchants gave Mecca its prestige. Were you intending to steal money from wealthy merchants to give to the poor? Were you prophesying the end of Mecca?
MUHAMMAD Allah commands us to be generous to the poor. I suggested a tax on the rich to be used as alms for the poor.
HOST That’s socialism.
MUHAMMAD What’s that?
HOST What you were preaching? Were you trying to destroy Mecca’s wealth?
MUHAMMAD Each one must be true to his heart. Many who converted were disowned by their families and driven out of their homes. Several slaves whom I converted were beheaded.
HOST Your social reforms attempted to give women equal rights. That means in cases of adultery women would no longer be stoned to death.
MUHAMMAD Adulterous men and women would get equal punishment, 100 lashes each for example. However men and women in family groups could engage in mutual sexal intercourse without punishment.
HOST In other words adultery. Why was that?
MUHAMMAD Men and women in those groups had the right to have sex with more than one partner.
HOST But when a baby was born who was the father?
MUHAMMAD Within a family group the parentage of a child was never questioned.
HOST You legalized prostitution.
MUHAMMAD No, no. I maintained family group tradition while prohibiting public prostitution.
HOST But you made prostitution permissible in family groups.
MUHAMMAD Those men and women were responsible for the welfare of each child. It was the group effort that prevented infanticide.
HOST It took a village to raise a child?
MUHAMMAD No, the responsible group in the village raised the child.
HOST By the way speaking of children and babies Aisha Bakr your future wife was born in that year 614.
MUHAMMAD My reforms also prohibited the ancient custom of burying alive unwanted babies considered inferior especially babies of slaves.
HOST In America we still practice infanticide. Unwanted babies are murdered, thrown into dumpsters, trash barrels, or deposited on the steps of a hoped for caretaker.
MUHAMMAD I decreed that women have rights to education, property, marriage, divorce, and inheritance. As for women’s inheritance I specified in detail the manner in which property was to be distributed upon a relative’s death.
HOST Your Islam reached into the very private lives of Muslims, men and women, whether living or dead.
MUHAMMAD Many tribes and even settled communities resisted giving women some or any of my declared rights.
HOST That’s still true today. In many Islamic countries social equality is limited to adult males. Women do not have the same rights as men.
MUHAMMAD I’ve been told the Bible subordinates women to men. In the Bible Eve was the product of Adam’s rib and therefore physically subordinate to him. She was morally inferior to Adam because she enticed him to eat fruit forbidden by God. I believe they were equal and it was Adam not Eve who tempted her to eat the forbidden fruit. In Islam women are equal to men.
HOST Let’s talk about slaves for a moment. You decreed the abolition of slavery but you and your wives owned slaves. In fact you were a slave trader buying and selling slaves. Weren’t you being hypocritical?
MUHAMMAD I decreed that slaves whether black, white, male, or female would not be treated as movable property but humans having religious rights and certain social and legal rights. As humans males should not be castrated and females should not be forced into prostitution. If a female slave had a baby by her master that baby was considered free.
HOST But as property you bought, traded, and sold slaves.
MUHAMMAD I bought slaves in order to free and convert them to Islam. I dealt with slaves to share my worldly goods with them. I sold them only to owners who promised to treat them fairly. My companion Abu Bakr also did the same.
HOST Slavery was an ancient Arabic custom but your decree didn’t end slavery.
MUHAMMAD My decree certainly improved the customs of the Romans and Persians. I especially criticized Romans for making slaves of conquered peoples.
HOST There was the matter of young female slaves. You bought and sold young female slaves.
MUHAMMAD Ancient customs permitted Arabs to have sexual intercourse with female slaves.
HOST Weren’t he reasons for your social reforms to get rid of ancient Arabic customs like that?
MUHAMMAD Some customs went back thousands of years; it was impossible to get rid of them.
HOST The rights you gave slaves did not include their refusal to have sex with Muslims. It’s written you bought young female slaves, girls, for your own sexual desires and after abusing them sold them.
MUHAMMAD I never abused them besides I cannot change nature’s sexual attraction between men and women.
HOST You mean between men and young girls.
MUHAMMAD In any event my preaching of social reforms deviated from and destroyed ancient Arabic traditions. Instead of winning over converts, my continued preaching made the Quraish persecute Muslims even more. To escape persecution and save themselves I suggested that my companions sail across the Red Sea to Abyssinia.
HOST At that time Abyssinia was Christian. It was reported you thought Christians had very low moral standards.
MUHAMMAD Islamic customs and laws are higher than all other customs and laws whether for an individual, country, Jew or Christian.
HOST But you still convinced several dozen of your companions and their women to sail across the Red Sea to Christian Abyssinia.
MUHAMMAD They included my companions Abu Bakr and his daughter Aisha, Uthman Affan, and Abdallah Jahsh. To lessen the persecutions in Mecca while they prepared to emigrate, I invoked in public the intercession of pagan al-Lat ‘The Goddess’. I thought about my kindly grandfather praying to al-Lat at the Kaaba. Prostrating myself before the crowd I silently begged Allah to forgive my weakness in trying to protect my companions. Meccans crowded around me thinking I had changed my mind and was publicly praying to al-Lat. Word spread throughout Mecca that I had embraced al-Lat and that Muslims should not be persecuted. That evening in a dream Gabriel condemned me for preaching words not recited by him. But later in another dream Allah forgave me by declaring I was still the ‘Seal of Prophets’.
HOST When your companions in Abyssinia got the news that Meccans stopped persecuting Muslims they returned to Mecca only to find nothing had changed.
MUHAMMAD The Meccans had not relented and continued to persecute Muslims especially my companions who had returned.
HOST Your proselytizing made many enemies, such as Umar Khattab. He expelled from Mecca his pagan half-brother who converted to Islam. You made Umar so angry that in 616 he decided to kill you because you would not stop preaching and converting unbelievers to Islam.
MUHAMMAD One day while I was reciting verses in a friend’s house I was warned that Umar was marching to the house to kill me. With sword in hand he was wildly flailing at the air as if to behead me. Before bursting into the house I saw him standing by an open window listening to my verses. Overtaken with emotion at their beauty and truth, he entered the house and falling to his knees begged me to forgive his evil intent and convert him to Islam. I turned another enemy to a Muslim.
HOST In the New Testament on the road to Damascus, Paul was converted by a lightning bolt. On the road where you were preaching Umar was converted by your verses. It appears that life was so unbearable before and during your time that people would convert to any belief that promised a better life.
MUHAMMAD Upset by Umar’s conversion his uncle Abu Jahl and friend Abu Sufyan persuaded the Quraish to unite against the Hashim and Muttalib clans of my ancestors.
HOST In fact the Quraish prepared a document banning any social intermingling and trade with your clans.
MUHAMMAD The Hashim and Muttalib clans were exiled to a valley outside Mecca. To my sorrow all members of our clans were banished even pagans and slaves. The banishment meant privation and starvation – no food, water, or merchandise of any kind. We couldn’t buy or trade animals whether goats, sheep, or camels. The ban was written on parchment and as if to emphasize support by pagan gods the Quraish hid the parchment in the Kaaba for safekeeping.
HOST Obviously you were prohibited from preaching in Mecca. Why didn’t you relent and quit preaching? Thousands in the two clans suffered because of your obstinate preaching and proselytizing. Why would an apostle of Islam cause his people to suffer?
MUHAMMAD Allah commanded me to spread Islam and that’s what I was doing.
HOST You let your ego get in the way of your common sense and humanitarianism.
MUHAMMAD Fortunately our clans had friends. Food was smuggled to us preventing starvation. Animals and provisions found their way to us for the necessities of daily living. Eventually several Quraishite leaders sympathetic to our banishment offered me a compromise to end the ban. They suggested that at the Kaaba pagans could worship pagan gods and Muslims could worship Allah. I rejected the compromise.
HOST Why? That was a fair compromise.
MUHAMMAD I responded:
Say: ‘O unbelievers,
I serve not what you serve
and you are not serving what I serve,
nor am I serving what you have served,
neither are you serving what I serve.
To you and your religion, and to me and my religion!’
(Armstrong, p132)
HOST Why were you so intolerant of other religions?
MUHAMMAD I answered again "To you and your religion, and to me and my religion".
HOST Apparently your answer was important to Muslims its verses are now in the Quran, Chapter 109. Al-Kafiroon (The Disbelievers). Disbelievers means me, an atheist. Dubious of your prophethood pagans demanded proof.
MUHAMMAD I prayed to Allah for a manifestation of my prophethood. While praying it was revealed to me that I was to gather Meccans on a certain night, recite verses, and point my index finger at the moon. On that night while reciting verses I pointed my index finger at the moon. The left half was on the left side of a cloud and the right half on the right side and in the middle was a green crescent. A woman cried out "Look the light half of the moon and dark half are split in two by a green crescent"! Trembling in fear pagans uttered "By Allah you are truly his prophet". That night all there assembled converted to Islam.
HOST In your time everyone knew that the moon had two halves twice a month, the first quarter and last quarter. They imagined you performed the cosmological event and hailed it a miracle. It’s even referenced in the Quran, Chapter 54. Al-Qumar (The Moon).
MUHAMMAD If Moses was able to divide the Red Sea I was able to split the moon. We both were prophets.
HOST Splitting the moon is a much greater miracle than dividing the Red Sea. I’m afraid your assumption is another example of the fierce rivalry and struggle for superiority between Jews and Muslims. Speaking of miracles what about the miracle of the polluted well?
MUHAMMAD Outside Mecca was a well of brackish sour water unfit to drink or even water animals. The people begged me for another miracle or they would die of thirst. I was taken to the well and spit in it; thereafter the water turned pure and sweet.
HOST With your miracles of splitting the moon and sweetening brackish water there was more conversions to Islam. But the conversions made the intolerant Quraish increase their persecutions.
MUHAMMAD They especially persecuted the poor and slaves by beatings, depriving them of food and water, locking them up, and binding them to posts in the blistering desert sun. As their leader I had to find refuge for them, perhaps once more across the Red Sea in Abyssinia.
HOST You begged the King of Abyssinia to again give Muslims refuge even though you demeaned Christian Abyssinia for its low moral standards.
MUHAMMAD Christians having been persecuted I hoped the king would give refuge to persecuted Muslims. Fortunately the king agreed and many Muslim families departed Mecca for Abyssinia.
HOST Some of your best friends, your companions, were among them.
MUHAMMAD I didn’t want them to suffer because of my preaching. Abu Bakr, Jafar Talib my cousin, Uthman Affan, and Abdu Jahsh were among my companions who emigrated.
HOST I understand some Abyssinian Christians resented giving Muslims refuge again because they were aware of your demeaning opinions of them.
MUHAMMAD The Quraish took that advantage of their resentment by sending delegates to the king begging for the return of Muslims to Mecca. In the presence of the king and his Christian bishops Meccan delegates related the story of the virginal conception of Jesus in Mary’s womb, adding that Muslims did not believe in the divinity of Jesus. In the presence of his outraged bishops the king was forced to return the Muslims.
HOST When your life was again threatened you forced to escape from Mecca and became a refugee.
MUHAMMAD The Quraish continued to harass my family and me. When they again threatened to do me bodily harm I had to leave to protect my family. A fellow Muslim Arkham who lived in Mount Safa had previously invited me to take refuge in his home. It was time for me to accept his invitation so I departed for Mount Safa not far from the Kaaba. There I felt free to again preach Islam and declare my submission to Allah. A good number of unbelievers converted to Islam but the continuing ban and hostility in Mecca forced me to sojourn there for several years. However one night I dreamt that the ban’s parchment hidden in the Kaaba had been destroyed so I hurried back to Mecca.
HOST The ban was unexpectedly ended by a miracle.
MUHAMMAD At the Kaaba one of the sympathetic Quraish leaders found remnants of the parchment on which the ban was written; it had been eaten by worms. He shouted "The ban has been destroyed; it has been eaten by worms; Allah has willed it’! After more than two years the ban ended but it ruined my uncle Talib and other merchants. They lost most of their wealth because they were deprived of caravan trade.
HOST The year 619 was truly a year of sorrow for you. Your wife Khadijah died and then your favorite uncle Abu Talib died.
MUHAMMAD When Khadijah died my 4 daughters and I were devastated. We consoled each other for weeks. When my uncle Abu Talib died his two sons Ali and Jafar were orphaned so I adopted Ali and uncle Abbas took in Jafar.
HOST Several months after Khadijah died you married your second wife another widow Sawda Zama; you were 49, she 30 without children.
MUHAMMAD I was married to Khadijah for 25 years and never slept with another woman. But I longed for the company, the feel, and scent of a woman. Then Suhayl Amir chief of the Amir Quraish clan suggested I marry Sawda the widow of his brother. I was ready for her; I agreed and so did she.
HOST Because you continued to preach about Allah your uncle’s death made you more vulnerable to persecution and attack from the Quraish.
MUHAMMAD When he died I lost my full protection against the Quraish. His half-brother Abu Lahab gave me only minimal protection and the leadership of the Hashim clan passed to Amr Hahsim a pagan. He was supported by Abu Sufyan and other Quraish leaders who increased their persecution of me.
HOST Your own clan chief joined in your persecution? It’s said that they mocked you, threw dirt at you and your family, and even tried to poison your food. Is that true?
MUHAMMAD Unfortunately yes but Abu Lahab a friend of my uncle Talib offered me protection.
HOST Because of your continued preaching and proselytizing Muslims were persecuted and endured poverty. Except for Abu Lahab’s minimal protection your continued preaching was so offensive to the Quraish and demeaning of their ancestral gods they again decided to kill you.
MUHAMMAD As if to give me a last warning the Quraish killed several Muslims. I sequestered myself in the Hira cave and prayed to Allah for help in finding refuge. Mecca was no longer safe for me.
HOST You sought refuge in Taif, a walled city about 50 miles southeast of Mecca.
MUHAMMAD In Taif Arabs were believers in the pagan al-Lat ‘The Goddess’. When I arrived I begged some food from 3 brothers lounging in their garden. After eating I explained my predicament in Mecca and hoping to find new converts explained Islam. I told them I was the Messenger of the God Allah. They angrily retorted that if God chose an outcast like me to be his messenger the Kaaba should be destroyed. The brothers were outraged that I a stranger who begged food from them had the effrontery to suggest they renounce their religion for mine. They ordered their slaves to stone me until I fled from Taif.
HOST You were lucky to escape.
MUHAMMAD The slaves chased and stoned me so badly I bled profusely. I ran and hid in a nearby vineyard. Hiding among the vines, exhausted, I fell asleep. In my dream I prayed to Allah to forgive my weakness in failing to convert pagans to Islam. Allah answered that total submission to Islam is achieved only through suffering and certainly by martyrdom. In the morning I was awakened by a man who, seeing my condition, gave me some food and water. I told him of my dangerous encounter. He told me he was Christian not a pagan. He picked several bunches of grapes for my return to Mecca where I was intercepted by one the Quraish and refused me entry. Fortunately Mutim Uday a non-Muslim and old friend of my uncle Talib offered to sponsor me and I was allowed to enter Mecca.
HOST Back in Mecca you heard your companion Abu Bakr had been persecuted.
MUHAMMAD Next to his house he built a small mosque where he recited verses. Pagan Arabs demanded he destroy the mosque. When he refused they destroyed it, tied him to a pole, and exposed him to the torrid daytime sun. Abu’s clan the Taim could not protect him because they had been threatened by the Quraish.
HOST In 620 at the Kaaba you had two miraculous experiences, first the Isra the night flight and then the Miraj the ladder.
MUHAMMAD One night in July I retired to a spot near the Kaaba. After reciting Allah’s verses I fell asleep. Then appeared Gabriel mounted on an Arabian strong white stallion named Ar-Rad, the thunder. Gabriel ordered me to mount the horse and sit in back of him. From the Kaaba the stallion galloped through the night to Mount Moriah in Jerusalem.
HOST Solomon and Herod built several temples there. Even in your dreams you couldn’t escape the Jewish past.
MUHAMMAD As we approached the Temple Mount the horse turned and performed an amazing maneuver, it side-stepped to the entrance of the Temple Mount.
HOST Why?
MUHAMMAD When I asked Gabriel he answered "We two would arrive as equals, not as one mounted behind the other".
HOST In dressage we call that a two-tracking maneuver. That stallion must surely have been the ancestor of today’s Lippizaner white stallions.
MUHAMMAD The great prophets Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and Jesus greeted us and together we prayed.
HOST In what language did the prophets and you pray?
MUHAMMAD Each prayed in his own language but to me all prayers sounded alike.
HOST By the way do you know that Abraham was not a Jew?
MUHAMMAD He was the ancestral father of the Jewish nation and of Arabs. After prayers I was offered bowls of water, milk, and wine. I drank the milk, reminding me of my infancy with the Bedouin wet nurse.
HOST Wisely choosing the middle option, neither ascetic nor hedonistic.
MUHAMMAD Suddenly all the prophets disappeared. Then Gabriel ordered a giant ladder to be placed on the Sacred Rock upon which the Ark of the Covenant was placed.
HOST The same rock on which Abraham offered to sacrifice Isaac his only son.
MUHAMMAD Abraham offered to sacrifice Ishmael not Isaac.
HOST It’s also the site where Constantine’s mother Helena built a church later named Church of the Holy Wisdom.
MUHAMMAD Gabriel ordered me to mount the ladder and climb up through the heavens to the 7th Heaven. He then turned away to depart. When I asked him why he wasn’t joining me he answered "Because I live where angels dwell near the Throne of God in 7th Heaven". When he disappeared I began climbing the ladder. At the first heaven I was taken on a quick tour of Hell where I heard the wailing of the damned. They pleaded with me for rescue from their eternal damnation. I was so distraught at their wailing I was relieved at leaving Hell. As I traversed the heavens the advocates of Abraham, Moses, and Jesus greeted me. I continued my ascent through the remaining 6 heavens. At the 7th heaven I was greeted by Abraham himself and two angels escorted me to the antechamber of the Throne of God. From inside shone a light so bright I had to shield my eyes. Then I heard a fearsome but loving voice commanding me to pray 50 times a day after which the angels escorted me back to Abraham. When I told him of God’s commandment to pray 50 times a day, he ordered me back to get the number reduced. Abraham kept sending me back until God reduced the number to 5.
HOST That’s why Muslims pray 5 times a day. What kind of God would make the mistake of asking you to pray 50 times a day and then keep changing his mind each time you objected.
MUHAMMAD A merciful and loving God.
HOST Obviously those journeys were merely perceived spiritual experiences. You must have been dreaming or in a trance wherein you imagined the journeys.
MUHAMMAD No, my eyes were open. Gabriel and I were in the temple. I spoke with the prophets Abraham, Moses, and Jesus. I visited Hell where I saw the suffering and heard the wailing. I climbed the ladder to the 7th Heaven. When I related my nocturnal journeys to friends there were skeptics who didn’t believe me.
HOST Obviously.
MUHAMMAD Several of them had actually visited the Temple Mount and questioned me about its physical particulars. I answered to their satisfaction.
HOST Your nocturnal journey with Gabriel was later commemorated as the Isra, the night flight. Your ascension through the heavens was later commemorated as the Miraj, the ladder.
MUHAMMAD Appropriate commemorations for my extraordinary experiences.
HOST My note on the 620 Hajj indicates that you visited a small group of Arabs from Yathrib, about 225 miles north of Mecca.
MUHAMMAD I frequently visited camps of Hajj pilgrims to acquaint them with Islam and perhaps convert several. The Yathrib Arabs made the Hajj pilgrimage to worship the pagan Manat, The Goddess of Fate, and were camped at the Aqaba site. To begin a conversation I asked them about their tribe. They said they were from the Khasraj tribe in Yathrib, the smaller of two Arab tribes there the other being the Aws. For more than 100 years the two tribes fought a civil war for control of Yathrib. Finally in the Battle of Bh’ath the Aws defeated the Khasraj whose chief Ibn Ubay refused to fight in the battle. I was astonished to learn that the chief of a tribe would refuse to fight in its defense and still remain its chief.
HOST My notes indicate Yathrib was an agricultural community first settled by Jews and later Arabs.
MUHAMMAD The Arabs told me that Yathrib was populated by three Jewish tribes the Nadir, Qurayza, and Qaynuqa. The Nadir and Qurayza became allies of the Aws; the Qaynuqa were allied with the Khasraj, the losers in the war. Many Jews had Arabic names but retained the religion and scripture of their one God Elohim. The Arabs there worshipped idols; they had neither one God nor any scripture.
HOST Jews considered Arabs inferior because of their lack of one God and scripture.
MUHAMMAD I told the Arabs about Islam explaining that believers in Allah were called Muslims and their submission to him was called Islam. I then began my recitation of verses. Rather than disbelieve or mock me they were eagerly receptive to my recitation. Their belief in Allah would make them equal to Jews so they swore an oath to Islam and converted. They promised to return next year with friends who might be also interested in Islam. When I informed them of Quraish persecutions in Mecca they responded that Muslims and their one God Allah would not be persecuted in Yathrib because Jews believed in one God.
HOST That year 620, a year after you married Sawda, you got an unusual proposition from your closest companion Abu Bakr.
MUHAMMAD In order to establish a blood bond and political alliance with me he suggested that I betroth Aisha his 6 year old daughter. I consented because he was my best friend and I was always in need of political allies for my mission.
HOST You agreed to betroth a 6 year-old girl? Females were used for bartering?
MUHAMMAD For mutual protection it was common practice to establish relationships with friends through blood alliances. Our betrothal was a simple informal ceremony; simple words were spoken and some food consumed.
HOST After the betrothal there’s some confusion about where Aisha lived, with her parents or with Sawda or with you?
MUHAMMAD At that time Aisha lived with her parents.
HOST As promised the Yathrib Arabs returned the next year for the 621 Hajj.
MUHAMMAD With them were members of the Aws tribe and several women. They had indeed helped in finding Arabs interested in Islam. The Aws questioned me about Allah so I preached to them. They were so impressed they converted to Islam, declaring they finally had one God as did Jews. I asked if there were in Yathrib other Arabs interested in Islam. They answered there might but for the persistent tribal warfare between the two Arab tribes and between the tribes of Arabs and Jews. They pledged to help me in converting unbelievers in Yathrib to Islam.
HOST I understand that religious differences and occasional raids of each other’s harvests led to most of the hostilities between Arabs and Jews.
MUHAMMAD Yathrib tribes were in desperate need of peaceful existence. When I offered to arbitrate their differences they accepted. I suggested that I send back with them a group of Muslims to explain Islam and plead our case for possible safe refuge in Yathrib. They agreed so I selected my companion Musab Umayr to be in charge of the Muslim delegation.
HOST There’s a story that you requested Musab to find 12 Helpers in Yathrib willing to spread Islam. Were you following in the footsteps of Jesus and his 12 disciples?
HOST During the Hajj that year you also encountered a group of Bedouins that didn’t end well.
MUHAMMAD As you know I usually visited several campsites spreading the word about Islam. I learned of a group of Bedouins nearby so I told them about the Bedouin nurse Halima who had nurtured me as an infant. I took advantage of their interest by preaching to them about Islam. They were outraged that I took advantage of their welcome and hospitality by renouncing their ancient pagan gods in favor of Allah. They drove me away beating me with their camel whips.
HOST After the Hajj a group of Muslims praying in public was attacked by the Quraish.
MUHAMMAD A pagan wielding the jawbone of a camel struck and wounded one of the Muslims. That blow shed more blood between Meccan pagans and Muslims, a struggle that would endure for 8 years.
HOST Why would Muslims be praying outside in a group instead of in a mosque or individually at home?
MUHAMMAD Muslims need to pray 5 times a day beginning at dawn, noon, afternoon, sunset, and evening whether at home or in public. Praying in public shows pagans our determined belief in Islam.
HOST But in Mecca Muslims praying in public was like adding fuel to a blazing fire. The next year during the 622 Hajj you got good news when Musab Umayr arrived with a large party of pilgrims from Yathrib. Informed of your devotion to Allah, your intelligence, honesty, and prophethood they offered you and your followers refuge in Yathrib.
MUHAMMAD Musab asssured me there were Arabs in Yathrib who agreed to help Muslims emigrating from Mecca. He called those Arabs Helpers. They would help Muslims find homes until they could set up homes of their own. Arabs interested in Islam would welcome Muslims to counterbalance the greater number of Jews there. You need to understand the humanitarian significance of their offer. It was rare for Arabs to abandon their ancestral tribes and homes for life with another tribe at another location. I had to be sure Muslims from Mecca would be welcome by Arabs in Yathrib.
HOST Wasn’t there a suggestion that as an honest outsider you might be able to impartially resolve their tribal conflicts?
MUHAMMAD Musab told me that Sa’d the chief of an Aws clan made the startling suggestion that Yathrib was in need of an impartial arbiter and that as prophet I might be able to resolve tribal conflicts. Musab converted Sa’d who then convinced his entire clan to convert but other clans resisted.
HOST What about the secret pledge you made?
MUHAMMAD In order to confirm the sincerity of their help I secretly met with leading Yathrib Arabs to negotiate a simple Pledge of Alliance.
HOST Were you already thinking of war and planning an alliance?
MUHAMMAD It was a simple agreement wherein Helpers and Arabs in Yathrib would pledge alliance and obedience to me in case of war.
HOST That would have been a red flag for me. Why would anyone agree to such a pledge before the fact of your resolution of their tribal conflicts? You had yet to arbitrate any peace.
MUHAMMAD I had to be sure of help if the Quraish pursued us to Yathrib. They agreed to the pledge and signed it. I was satisfied that Musims could now depart Mecca and be welcomed in Yathrib.
HOST According to my notes in 622 during July-August the first group of Mulsims without you left Mecca for Yathrib.
MUHAMMAD To avoid attracting attention the families of my companions departed in small groups and on separate days. Eventually Umar Khattab, Abdallah Jahsh, Uthman Affan, Zayd, Hamzah, and of course my family departed without me. I made sure the Quraish saw me in Mecca in the company of my protector Mutim Uday.
(622-624)HOST In August 622 soon after your companions departed your protector Mutim Uday died and you were forced to flee Mecca to save yourself.
MUHAMMAD The Quraish recruited bounty hunters offering a reward for me dead or alive. I ran to my friend Bakr and warned him because he would be next. We hid in the Hira cave while bounty hunters searched for us. That night I dreamt Gabriel ordered me to leave Mecca and preach in Yathrib.
HOST Soon thereafter you and Bakr fled from Mecca.
MUHAMMAD It was painful for us to leave Mecca and the Kaaba but we had no choice. We were fugitives and as such Bakr hired a wily desert guide who led us on a zigzag route to confuse the pursuing Quraish bounty hunters.
HOST Thereafter Islamic leaders identified your flight from Mecca with the inoffensive name Hijra, the Emigration. It wasn’t a planned emigration at all; it was a desperate flight from bounty hunters, an escape for your lives.
MUHAMMAD A large reward was offered for me dead or alive.
HOST In Islam the Hijra was such an important event it marks the beginning of the Muslim Era whose calendar dates are suffixed BH (Before Hijra) and AH (After Hijra). In late September 622 Bakr and you eventually arrived in Quba about 40 miles southeast of Yathrib.
MUHAMMAD We lingered in Quba for more than a week during which time we built a small house also used as a mosque. When I got word that Arabs in Yathrib were anxious to see me their prophet I decided to go there.
HOST They were anxious to show you off to Jews, to show them that Arabs also had a prophet.
MUHAMMAD Bakr and I mounted our camels and traveled to Yathrib.
HOST You might be interested in knowing that in the Old Testament your flight was prophesied by Isaiah (21: 13-15). He prophesied that Arabs in Arabia would flee from the sword and as fugitives wold be greeted by Helpers offering bread and water.
MUHAMMAD In Yathrib as promised we were welcomed by Helpers. I established the practice of brothering in which an Emigrant was assigned a Helper. They would be brothers in peace and war.
HOST You keep mentioning war and making alliances for war, giving me the impression you were preparing for war.
MUHAMMAD You must consider that tribal wars were common. My decree of brothering stated that if a brother was killed in battle his partner would avenge his death and inherit his property.
HOST You might be interested in knowing that in my country’s prisons black inmates convert to Islam and call each other brother, a continuation of your decree. In order to reach out to the dominant population of Jews, you instituted a number of changes.
MUHAMMAD I suggested that Muslim make the following changes:
>Hold meetings on Friday afternoons to coincide with
the Jewish Sabbath.
>On Yom Kippur Pray and fast in the manner of Jews.
>Eat Jewish food and marry Jews.
>Retain the Jewish tradition of circumcision.
>While praying face Jerusalem as did Jews.
HOST Why were you trying to convert Arabs to Jews?
MUHAMMAD Nothing could be further from the truth.
HOST What’s the truth as you envisioned it.
MUHAMMAD Muslims should demonstrate to Jews their tolerance of Jewish culture and religion. To live in peace Muslims and Jews must reconcile their differences.
HOST Jews had different dietary laws than Muslims.
MUHAMMAD I reconciled the differences by forbidding the eating of carrion, food containing blood, pork, animals that died naturally, and animals that were sacrificed.
HOST You were known to be kind to animals. When sacrificing them you ordered blades to be sharpened so animals wouldn’t endure the many blows of a dull blade. But you had harsh words for hunters.
MUHAMMAD I cursed anyone who hunted for sport or needlessly killed animals. On Judgement Day Allah will question hunters about their ruthless acts.
HOST You complained about men who needlessly sat on their camels.
MUHAMMAD Some men sit for hours on their camels merely gossiping. Those men should either ride their camels or unburden them by getting off their backs.
HOST I agree. Moreover I don’t think animals should be caged or put in zoos. Animals should remain in their natural habitat. We probably have that in common.
MUHAMMAD Animals should be well cared for and never beaten. They are Allah’s creatures. Whoever is kind to animals is kind to himself.
HOST It’s written you could converse with animals. Camels sought you out in order to complain about their masters’ ill treatments.
MUHAMMAD But certain animals such as bats, hyenas, and snakes are so ugly they ought to be killed.
HOST Why?
MUHAMMAD In the night bats come upon innocent sleeping people and suck their blood. Female hyenas have an extended clitoris like a male penis. Allah does not mix male and female in one being.
HOST Are you implying human hermaphrodites evolved from female hyenas?
MUHAMMAD What?
HOST Never mind, and snakes?
MUHAMMAD It was a snake that tricked Adam into eating the forbidden fruit he gave to Eve, after which God expelled them from the Garden of Eden.
HOST Speaking of Adam and Eve you approved of Muslims marrying Jews and having children of mixed religions.
MUHAMMAD Recall that Abraham a Hebrew and Hagar an Arab conceived a son Ishmael.
HOST Abraham was not a Jew because he preceded Moses whose 10 Commandments and Promised Land established Judaism.
MUHAMMAD Abraham was the ancestral father of Jews and Muslims. If Muslims and Jews married their children would be related by blood to the relatives of both parents. Those children would grow up in an Islamic family because Muslim husbands control their wives. Also blood relatives, Jews and Muslims, are less likely to kill each other.
HOST What about Muslims marrying pagans?
MUHAMMAD No, absolutely not. Muslims and Jews believe in the one God. Pagans are idolaters who believe in many gods.
HOST That reminds me of what a Catholic priest told me. Catholics should have lots of babies who grow up and make donations to support the Church. Getting back to Yathrib, what happened there?
MUHAMMAD To acquaint ourselves with the neighborhoods of Yathrib, Bakr and I mounted our camels for touring the city. All of a sudden my camel fell to its knees and wouldn’t get up. I told Bakr the camel had dropped to its knees on sacred ground, a sign from Allah for me to build a mosque there. I found the landowner and negotiated to buy the land from him.
HOST Speaking of money you had no job and no business. Where did you get the money to support yourself, your wives, concubines, buy slaves, and still give alms to the poor? Where did all that money come from and where did you get money to buy land for a mosque?
MUHAMMAD From Khadijah’s estate and my generous companions. The fact that I lived frugally kept intact most of her money. Also my friends contributed what they could afford.
HOST Is that how the mosque got built?
MUHAMMAD I gathered as many Muslims as I was able we began building a brick mosque. Completed in 623 I dedicated it the ‘Prophet’s Mosque’ and held my first Friday prayer. Later I expanded the mosque greatly increasing its size.
HOST You instituted the Muslim summons to prayer still done today all over the world.
MUHAMMAD To the delight of all gathered for the dedication, I had a contest to find the man with the loudest voice. I ordered him to climb to the rooftop of the nearest house and summon Muslims to prayer by calling out three times "Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar" (God is the Greatest).
HOST In English al-Llah, the God, could refer to more than one God.
MUHAMMAD Muslims know al-Llah or Allahu is the one and true God, the Supreme Being. Muslims also know not to confuse al-Llah with the pagan al-Lat ‘The Goddess’. In the new mosque I prostrated myself with knees and head touching the ground and prayed for 3 days without water or food.
HOST You took the position of animals feeding, only you were feeding on Allah.
MUHAMMAD It’s the position of adoration while praying. Muslims prostrate themselves in submission to Allah, just as wives submit to their husbands and children submit to their parents.
HOST By the way I have a copy of the updated plan of your expanded mosque. It was a multifunction building including areas for prayer, politics, and a great reception hall.
MUHAMMAD I intended the mosque to be a spiritual and governmental center for my Muslim community the umma. The reception hall would be used for celebrations and to receive guests and foreign dignitaries.
HOST You also built two small additions to the mosque.
MUHAMMAD I attached two small buildings, one for for Sawda and another for Aisha my future wife.
HOST A girl of only 8.
MUHAMMAD I was thinking of the future.
HOST To further ingratiate yourself to Jews you recommended the Arabic name Yathrib be changed to the Jewish name Medina.
MUHAMMAD Yes, in honor of the first settlers in the area. Jews wholeheartedly agreed and I proclaimed that Yathrib was henceforth to be called Medina.
HOST Why did you do that? It displeased pagan Arabs and Muslims who wanted to retain Yathrib to be historically equal to Jews.
MUHAMMAD My proclamation was merely another concession for peace.
HOST Your concessions even included Jewish hair styling.
MUHAMMAD Jews wore loose flowing hair so I suggested Muslims do the same but they insisted on combing and parting their hair as was their custom. I allowed my hair to grow and braided it in pigtails, as did some Jews.
HOST Why were you making such changes?
MUHAMMAD To firmly establish Muslims in Medina I needed the approval of Jews for my Constitution of Medina.
HOST A Constitution you had secretly drawn up only with Muslim leaders of the umma, your religious community.
MUHAMMAD A plan under which Arabs, Jews, and Muslims would tolerate each other to live in peace. Muslims lived in umma and Jews in their settlements. The umma was the Islamic religious community, not a confederacy of kindred Arab tribes.
HOST I have a copy of that Constitution. In it you named yourself leader of the Emigrants having the same power as chief of a tribe. You also named yourself the sole arbiter of all tribal disputes, a dictator.
MUHAMMAD I was opposed by Ibn Ubay an Arab political leader who claimed he should have been named arbitrator of tribal disputes because of his leadership role in Yathrib.
HOST The Constitution is a lengthy document consisting of many provisions summarized as follows:
>Jews, Muslims, and pagans would live together in harmony.
>Muslims would live in their own community called the umma.
>A group consists of one or more tribes having the same religion.
>Each group shall practice its own religion and be responsible for maintaining itself.
>If a group is attacked the other groups shall come to its aid.
>All groups are prohibited from trading with or supporting the Quraish.
>Any future pledge or alliance by any tribe shall support the Constitution.
MUHAMMAD When meeting with Jewish leaders I called the Constitution a covenant, a term more acceptable to them. Sometimes Jews referred to it as the ‘Covenant of Medina’.
HOST Jews had a history of covenants, as with the covenant between God and the Israelites.
MUHAMMAD I applied the Constitutions provisions through personal relationships with tribal leaders rather than a central governing authority. I rejected aristocratic privilege with its burdensome hierarchy.
HOST That gave you all the power of a dictator.
MUHAMMAD Power I needed to arbitrate disputes such as existing alliances with other tribes. I assured those tribes their alliances would remain intact and be honored. I pledged my full support declaring that their peace was my peace and their war my war. Convinced of my sincerity all tribes signed the Constitution. Later I was rewarded for my leadership when the Aws and Khasraj tribes converted to Islam.
HOST Arabs who converted accepted you as God’s last prophet. Some Arabs even declared you were the Messiah who would deliver them from Jews. But Jews did not convert because they rejected you as a prophet claiming only a Jew could be a prophet. Moreover they disdainfully rejected you as the expected Messiah declaring only a Jew could be the Messiah.
MUHAMMAD I never claimed to be the Messiah.
HOST It seems to me that Messiahs are associated with new religions. The first expected Messiah was the Jew Jesus who spread the Word through preaching. Jews who followed him believed in his prophethood and made him the Son of God.
HOST You were more like the prophet Moses than Jesus. He was a man-God, human and divine.
MUHAMMAD I was Allah’s messenger. To claim to be the Son of God is sacrilegious.
HOST Jesus’ death birthed Christianity from Judaism but it didn’t deliver Jews from their enemies. Perhaps Jews were fortunate that you weren’t their expected Messiah lest Judaism be converted to Islam.
MUHAMMAD Nevertheless I continued to preach in and around Medina where Muslims had relatively equal social status with Jews.
HOST In Medina there were 3 Jewish tribes the Qaynuqa, Nadir, and Qurayza.
MUHAMMAD I had drawn up another Pledge of Alliance with neighboring tribes of Medina. The tribes whether Arabs, Jews, or pagans would be obedient to and support me in peace or war; they agreed.
HOST That was a political coup in which you converted a loose agricultural community of hostile tribes to the city-state of Medina. That was an extraordinary accomplishment for a man of God.
MUHAMMAD I united the disparate cultures, languages, and religions into a common alliance in order to forestall any threat by Mecca.
HOST But there were Arabs and Jews disappointed with the Constitution. Before your arrival Ibn Ubay chief of the Khrasraj tribe was politically motivated to become the King of Yathrib.
MUHAMMAD On occasion he tried to negotiate tribal conflicts between the Aws and Khrasraj Arabs and between Arabs and Jews. But neither Arabs or Jews trusted him because he made decisions favoring his own tribe the Khrasraj. Later after the acceptance of the Constitution he led a group of Muslims and Qaynuqa Jews discontented with some of its provisions. The discontented were called Hypocrites.
HOST What prompted their discontent?
MUHAMMAD The Muslim Hypocrites believed in Islam but not in my prophethood. Jewish Hypocrites complained I was not like the prophets of the Bible because I didn’t perform miracles as had Moses and Jesus.
HOST Some Jews complained they were expecting a Messiah and got instead a poor Arab, a pretender prophet.
MUHAMMAD Yes and they declared I was rejected by my own tribe the Quraish who expelled me from Mecca my birthplace. Moreover they claimed Moses and Jesus were never expelled from their homelands.
HOST Your sympathetic companions advised you on how to respond to the Jewish Hypocrites.
MUHAMMAD They advised me as follows:
Arabs are sons of Abraham and Hagar.
Jews are sons of Abraham and Sarai.
In the eyes of God Arabs preceded the Jews.
>In Mecca Moses was the favorite prophet but in Yathrib it was Abraham.
>Abraham was the ‘father of believers in the one God’ which made him the first Muslim.
>When Abraham submitted to God’s command of offering as holocaust his only son Isaac, his total submission to God was called Islam.
>God ordered Abraham and Ishmael to build the Kaaba in preparation for the expected Arab prophet Muhammad.
>Biblical Jews were faithless because they worshipped the Golden Calf.
>Jews became Christians but Muslims remain faithful to Islam.
HOST Did you actually say all those things to Jews?
MUHAMMAD Yes.
HOST Did your answers pacify the Hypocrite Ubay?
MUHAMMAD To pacify Ubay I assigned him an honored seat in the mosque and allowed him to address the congregation. But old animosities erupted and fights broke out between Muslims and converted Jews. They complained that my words were Islamic scripture, not the words of God, and that my words corrupted the Jewish Biblical scripture in the Old Testament.
HOST Well, enough of Hypocrites. What about your caravans raids? How did they get started?
MUHAMMAD Most Muslims from Mecca who emigrated to Medina were businessmen and merchants. They knew nothing about farming dates and other crops. The Quraish confiscated all their properties without giving them any compensation. This left Emigrants in Medina without adequate means of earning a living and totally reliant upon Helpers. I had to find a means for their survival.
HOST So in 622 you resorted to the ancient Arabic tradition of poor tribes raiding caravans of rich tribes. That’s stealing especially for a man of God. You became a thief who specialized in raiding caravans traveling to and from Mecca.
MUHAMMAD In order to obtain animals, food, worldly goods, and money for the umma. I believed we were entitled to raid Meccan caravans because the Quraish had expelled us from Mecca. Know that Mecca was a convenient rest stop for caravans traveling between India and Syria and normally passed between the Red Sea and Medina.
HOST In 623 you married your third wife the girl Aisha; you were 53, she was 9.
MUHAMMAD I had a dream in which an angel brought Aisha to me. She was wrapped in white silks and when I uncovered her I desired her. I mentioned my dream to my companion, her father Abu Bakr, and we agreed it was time for the marriage.
HOST Did Aisha have any idea of what was happening to her? What were the events leading to the marriage?
MUHAMMAD She was playing with friends when her mother summoned her and handed her over to several women. After congratulating her they took her into a small room where they washed and perfumed her. They dressed her in a white silk gown and presented her to her father. We were married in a simple ceremony after which her father handed her over to me.
HOST There’s been a raging controversy about when the marriage was consummated.
MUHAMMAD As usual after the ceremony.
HOST Today you’d be called a pedophile, as are some Catholic priests.
MUHAMMAD You appear to be upset.
HOST She was only 9.
MUHAMMAD It was not unusual in my day. Keep in mind there was much tribal warfare in my time. In order to avoid war it was common practice for clan leaders to establish blood alliances by marrying their young girl-daughters to older tribal or community leaders. Obviously you’re from a different culture.
HOST But she was so young, only a wisp of a girl.
MUHAMMAD No harm was done because of her age. The next day she happily played with her dolls.
HOST It was reported you had a great sexual appetite for Aisha, suspended only by raiding caravans and later by going to war. Today we call it sublimation.
MUHAMMAD I don’t understand that word. My mission in life was to recite God’s verses and convert unbelievers to Islam in the name of Allah.
HOST 623 was the year of raids on Meccan caravans and retaliatory raids by Meccans.
MUHAMMAD In Mecca we were forced to defend ourselves; we were forced to be defensive. In Medina we were able to take offense action, the raiding of large Meccan caravans. They were worth raiding because of their rich cargoes. The raids were carried out without deliberately injuring or killing caravan merchants
HOST Your initial attempts failed.
MUHAMMAD I dispatched two raiding parties against Meccan caravans but neither was successful because of bad intelligence from my Bedouin spies. In retaliation the Meccan leader Amr Hashim successfully led a raiding party and captured Muslim livestock. Thereafter I led a raiding party against an expected Meccan caravan but it eluded me.
HOST That was your third unsuccessful attempt. In my country 3 strikes and you’re out.
MUHAMMAD What?
HOST Thinking out loud again. In January 624 you sent a small raiding party led by your cousin Abdallah Jahsh to spy on a Meccan caravan near Nakhlah about 30 miles northeast of Mecca. It didn’t end well.
MUHAMMAD I told Jahsh not to confront the Meccans because for unbelievers it was a holy month and killing was prohibited. It happened there was a misunderstanding during the raid. A Muslim killed a pagan merchant, after which all the caravan merchants fled or surrendered. Jahsh took the caravan’s cargo and merchant prisoners back to Medina.
HOST You claimed the raids were carried out without killing but in the Nakhlah raid a caravan merchant was killed by a Muslim.
MUHAMMAD It was an accident. At first I rebuked Jahsh and his raiding party for killing during a holy month and I refused to share any of the plunder. Later feeling partially responsible for what happened, I consoled Jahsh. I told him Allah approves of righting a wrong, the wrong committed by the Quraish when they expelled Muslims from Mecca.
HOST In our time we were forced into a righteous war because the dictator Hitler was killing millions of Jews and others.
MUHAMMAD God approves the jihad, the righteous war. Recall that with God’s help David slew Goliath.
HOST You used the mosque’s great reception hall for the distribution of plunder. What was the plunder?
MUHAMMAD Mostly treasure of worldly goods, money, and animals. I distributed the plunder to leaders of the expedition and to the poor of the umma. My share by agreement was at least one-fifth of the total taken. I gave large shares to Jahsh and other leaders of the raid. Most of my share was used to support the umma and buy arms, horses, and supplies for future raids. I gifted the remainder to my wives and friends. Bedouin spies who informed me of caravan movements also got shares. When Ibn Ubay realized he could also profit from plunder he became a true Muslim.
HOST We now come to your change of direction while praying. What was that all about?
MUHAMMAD One day while leading prayers in the mosque I had a revelation instructing me to turn towards the Kaaba. I interrupted the praying and ordered the entire congregation to turn towards Mecca, prostrate themselves, and pray.
HOST What has physical direction to do with the spirituality of prayer?
MUHAMMAD Muslims had an identity in Mecca , not Jerusalem. Henceforth all Muslims would pray facing the Kaaba in Mecca. The few Jews who converted to Islam were discontented because they considered the change of direction an insult to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
HOST During the Miraj you ascended to Heaven from the Temple Mount and God ordered you to pray 5 times a day. Arabs wandering around in the desert with nothing to do might pray 5 times a day but it’s not likely for Muslims working in cities.
MUHAMMAD All Muslims should pray 5 times a day. I had another revelation in which Gabriel ordered me to go to the nearest oasis. There he instructed me on how to purify myself before praying. Muslims must clean their private parts, feet, hands, mouth, and teeth before praying.
HOST Praying has nothing to do with the cleanliness of the mouth. Besides praying is merely talking to one’s self. Christians can pray anytime without ritual purification.
MUHAMMAD The mouths of Muslims must be immaculate in order for their words to issue forth and be acceptable to Allah. Allah requires it. A true Muslim submits willingly to prayer and the laws of Allah.
(624-632)HOST In March 624 you got word that Abu Sufyan was in charge of a large rich caravan returning from Jerusalem to Mecca.
MUHAMMAD When I learned that most rich Meccan merchants invested money in it I assembled a force of about 350 Muslims to relieve the caravan of its riches. I was supported by my uncle Hamzah Muttalib and son-in-law Ali. When Sufyan spied my force he sent a courier to Meccca for troops to protect the caravan. In accordance with Arab tradition and tribal law the Quraish were bound to avenge the killing of the Meccan caravan merchant at Nakhlah. Unfortunately that meant there would be a blood feud between Mecca and Medina.
HOST Resulting in a de facto state of war that led to the Battle of Badr.
MUHAMMAD In order to avoid imminent war Sufyan maneuvered his caravan beyond our reach and headed south for Mecca. Abu Jahl leader of the Quraish troops was supported by Amr Hashim my sworn enemy; they commanded about 1,000 Meccans. Both leaders were determined to do battle and marched towards us.
HOST You clashed at the Well of Badr near the Red Sea, about 75 miles southwest of Medina.
MUHAMMAD We had skirmished with the Quraish before but this was the first large scale battle. Each Quraishite chief commanded his own clan. The Quraish fought separate battles without a unified plan. I had previously drilled Muslims in the manner of Roman legions taught to me by my uncles. My disciplined force attacked under a unified battle plan. First we attacked as a single force killing several clan chiefs and then controlled access to the Well of Badr depriving them of water. Many Quraish leaders were killed including their leader Abu Jahl. Thereafter the Quraish fled the field of battle.
HOST Although outnumbered 3-to-1 you were victorious.
MUHAMMAD At battle’s end we lost 14, killed 70, and captured as many prisoners.
HOST Your victorious Muslims cut the throats of some prisoners and beheaded others.
MUHAMMAD I stopped them because some of the prisoners were friends and relatives of Muslims in Medina. The victorious Muslims wanted to march on Mecca ignoring the blood ties between Mecca and Medina. I pacified them by demanding that for each Muslim killed the Quraish must pay tribute of animals, money, and women.
HOST Making women part of tribute abuses your decree of equal rights for women.
MUHAMMAD There are some ancient Arabic customs not easily ignored. The spoils of war and opportunities for raping women normally accompany victory.
HOST I understand the spoils of war but where did the women come from.
MUHAMMAD Another ancient Arabic custom was to have women accompany their men into battle.
HOST It was reported your unexpected victory was achieved through divine intervention, that Allah sent a squadron of militant angels to fight alongside Muslims. Surely you were beloved of Allah; you had defeated the most powerful tribe in Arabia.
MUHAMMAD Allah had defeated the Arabian pagan God of unbelievers.
HOST News of your victory spread like wildfire and catapulted you to the most successful military commander in Arabia.
MUHAMMAD When the Khuzaah and Bedouin tribes saw the plunder taken from the battle they asked to join me in future raids.
HOST Back in Medina your victory was not celebrated by Jews.
MUHAMMAD They feared a full-scale war with Mecca would destroy their settlements, depriving them of water and food.
HOST Arabs feared your growing power would deprive them of their tribal independence. You also had to deal with dissident writers and poets.
MUHAMMAD I had to deal with two writers, a poet and a poetess. They were propagandists for Mecca; they wrote verses against Islam and me. I issued a fatwa against them.
HOST You had them assassinated by your henchmen. The poet was beheaded and the poetess had her throat cut in front of her children.
MUHAMMAD I also had to deal with Ibn Ubay and his Hypocrites who feared my military power. He was supported by Jews and challenged me for the leadership of the umma. But we had an opportunity for celebration. My cousin Ali Talib married my daughter Fatimah.
HOST Your victory at Badr was not appreciated by the Qaynuqa Jews the oldest and most powerful Jewish tribe in Medina.
MUHAMMAD They were envious of the expanding power of Muslims. At every opportunity they reminded us they were God’s chosen people.
HOST Qaynuqa Jews were craftsmen, mostly goldsmiths. They built a market place in Medina for buying goods and selling gold.
MUHAMMAD After unsuccessfully trying to convert them to Islam, I built my own market place to compete with them. Again I implored the Qaynuqa Jews to accept me as prophet of God and convert to Islam. They not only refused conversion but warned me that I could not easily defeat them.
HOST They said that after your victory at Badr? That sounds like a challenge.
MUHAMMAD Their conversion would have convinced the umma of my political skills making me its sole leader. Several days later there was a skirmish in the Qaynuqa market place between a Muslim woman and Jew. The skirmish resulted in the killing of two Muslim men whose relatives retaliated by killing two Jews.
HOST The Jews retaliated killing Muslims.
MUHAMMAD There were revenge killings by each side that escalated to an insurgency. Ubay was allied with the Qaynuqa and demanded that I make peace with them. When I attempted to arbitrate the crisis Jews rejected my offer. Expecting me to attack they barricaded themselves in their fortress and appealed for help from Ubay and other allies but got none. As was his habit Ubay deserted them. To end the matter I laid siege to their fortress and after several weeks they surrendered ending the confrontation.
HOST After which you chained all the male prisoners and planned to behead them.
MUHAMMAD Elder and wiser Jews persuaded me they would pay tribute if I released them. I agreed and confiscated all their gold, possessions, and land. Then I expelled them from the area and divided the spoils among my companions and the umma. As the commandant of the army I deserved the larger part in dividing the spoils of war.
HOST Your expulsion of Qaynuqa Jews is reminiscent of the Quraish expelling Muslims from Mecca. You did to Jews what Meccans did to you.
MUHAMMAD The Qaynuqa temporarily found refuge with another Jewsih tribe and eventually migrated north settling near the Syrian border. Their expulsion made Muslims the controlling force in Medina and Islam the dominant religion. My leadership role in Medina was reinforced. Thereafter if there was any talk of action against me I sent my troops to end any incipient rebellion.
HOST Early the next year 625 you got a sort of reprieve from confrontation and war.
MUHAMMAD To establish a blood alliance with my companion Umar Khattab I married his widowed daughter Hafsah Umar.
HOST She was your fourth wife; you were 55 and she only 18 without children. Widows that young meant she might have married at the onset of menstruation.
MUHAMMAD Another ancient Arab custom. Hafsa was literate and hot-tempered as was Aisha who was happy to welcome another independent young wife to the harem.
HOST You were then the son-in-law of Abu Bakr and Umar Khattab establishing blood, political, and religious ties with them. In 625 Ubay got the support of the Jewish Nadir and Qurayza tribes in Medina. They feared your rise to power especially after you expelled the Qaynuqa Jews.
MUHAMMAD Ubay believed in Islam but feared my victory at Badr might motivate me to find reasons for demanding his support in making war.
HOST You were also the undisputed leader of the umma.
MUHAMMAD Therefore he opposed me at every opportunity. As did Kab Ashraf, chief and poet of the Nadir Jews who supported Ubay. Kab blamed me for beheading the Quraishite leaders captured at Badr. He defected to Mecca where he wrote disparaging verses against me and Islam while writing eulogies commemorating the beheaded Quraishites. He persuaded the Quraish to negotiate alliances with Jewish tribes in order to depose me. That violated the Constitution of Medina.
HOST You had your own poet Abd Rawaha, a Helper who wrote complimentary verses of you and Islam. He spied for you, informing you of Ubay’s plots against you.
MUHAMMAD Kab even advised Abu Sufyan leader of the Quraish to raid an unprotected Muslim settlement. Sufyan obliged by raiding their crops, capturing their animals, and killing two Muslims. By the time I reacted to the raid Sufyan had withdrawn from the area.
HOST Eventually Kab returned to Medina.
MUHAMMAD He continued to write malicious and seditious verses against me. I found most offensive the erotic poems he wrote about Muslim women. Having broken the terms of the Constitution and having blasphemed Islam and Muslim women, I issued another fatwa and had him killed.
HOST It’s told you instructed the assassins to behead him and bring you his head.
MUHAMMAD When presented with the head I praised Allah that Satan’s scribe would no longer write subversive verses.
HOST That reminds me of John the Baptist’s head presented to Herod.
MUHAMMAD Jews feared for their lives. The Nadir complained bitterly that I killed their poet and one of their leaders. Therefore in addition to the existing Constitution I offered the Nadir further security through an additional peace plan and they agreed.
HOST Since the defeat at Badr caravans from Mecca were fearful of using the coastal Red Sea route to northern cities and Syria. Instead they were forced to use the more hazardous inland easterly route having little water.
MUHAMMAD My Bedouin spies alerted me there was a large rich Meccan caravan traveling along the new inland route. It was Safwan Umayya’s caravan so I ordered Zayd to raid it. While the caravan was watering at a well Zayd’s men assaulted it. When Meccans saw the swords of Muslims glinting in the morning sun they fled abandoning the entire richly endowed caravan.
HOST It must have been the raid that literally broke the camels’ backs. What about all the rich plunder?
MUHAMMAD I distributed as usual. I took one-fifth and distributed large shares to leaders of the raid. The Umma, my companions, and Bedouin spies also got their shares.
HOST When news of the loss of Umayya’s caravan reached Mecca, the Quraish prepared for war against Medina.
MUHAMMAD In order to maintain its prestige, wealth, and continue attracting merchant traders Mecca had to avenge our raid. It was also an opportunity for them to avenge their defeat at Badr. They made alliances with Bedouins and Jews including those in Mecca. The city of Taif also provided a contingent of Arabs.
HOST In March 625 determined to crush you Abu Sufyan led his coalition army of 3,000 troops, almost as many camels, at least 200 cavalry, and marched towards Medina. Safwan Umayya shared command to retaliate against you for the loss of his richest caravan.
MUHAMMAD They camped at the base of Mount Uhhud about 20 southwest of Medina. I ordered all Muslims including their families and animals into the city of Medina. Because of my urgent order Muslims abandoned their farms. Sufyan’s army gorged itself on the crops left in the fields, harvested what they couldn’t eat, and burned the remainder. Enraged Muslims cried out for revenge and war. I put on my armor and led a force of about 750 Muslims against them. We marched to Mount Uhud to engage Sufyan. In accordance with the Constitution Jews were obligated to support me but they refused to fight claiming it was their Sabbath.
HOST It really was their Sabbath day.
MUHAMMAD Muslims accused Jews of not supporting the Constitution and indirectly supporting the Quraish. Nearing the battleground Ubay realized we were outnumbered more than 3-to-1. He balked calling the imminent battle suicide and departed with his force of about 350 Hypocrites thereby deserting our cause and depleting our force.
HOST Didn’t Sufyan try to make peace with the Aws and Khasraj Arabs who were with you?
MUHAMMAD Sufyan begged them to go home because he had no quarrel with them. I convinced them to fight. I recited a passionate sermon about paradise for Muslims who die in battle fighting for Allah.
HOST I have one of many accounts of that sermon:
‘In heaven reclining on couches in the soft shade of pavilions you will be attended by houris who service your every need. The Houris veil their lustrous green eyes and expose under scanty silks pomegrante breasts and limbs white as milk. They will serve you goblets of sweet red wine. The multitude of virgins ever virgin will be your innocent concubines or wives. Do not fret for the women and children you leave behind for they will join you in paradise’.
In your social reforms you forbid the drinking of wine.
MUHAMMAD Wine is one of the many rewards in paradise. Unlike Jews who didn’t keep their word Muslims honored the Constitution and remained with my army. The two armies marched towards each other. Sufyan’s wife Hind and other Quraishite wives followed their husbands encouraging them to fight by chanting for revenge while drumming on tambourines. Hind hated me because she lost her father and two sons at Badr.
HOST It’s written she swore an oath to eat your penis because you were having sexual intercourse with your child-wfe Aisha.
MUHAMMAD Using the same tactics as at Badr I repulsed Sufyan’s first assault. In the confusion of battle my archers disobeyed my orders and Sufyan attacked my flanks causing my archers to flee in ignominy. Then the Meccan Khalid Walid’s cavalry attacked my left flank and we had to retreat. My uncle Hamza was speared and killed. I was knocked of my horse and carried to safety. Noticing my horse without me Meccans quickly spread the rumor that I had been killed. Elated by my presumed death Sufyan overpowered my retreating troops but in doing so lost too many men to pursue us into Medina. Sufyan declared victory, withdrew from the battleground, and marched towards Mecca.
HOST It’s written that at the battle’s end Meccans mutilated the bodies of wounded and dead Muslims.
MUHAMMAD One corpse thought to be mine was brought to Hind. Her uncontrolled hatred of me and her obsession for revenge led to barbarism and cannibalism. In a fit of rage she mutilated the corpse’s face, limbs, cut off its genitals, and consumed the tip of its penis to fulfill her vow. Hind encouraged other wives to mutilate Muslim corpses. They did so cutting off noses, ears, penises, and extracting entrails. Some wives departed the battleground wearing the butchered entrails as necklaces, trophies of victory. Bedouin allies were so disgusted at Meccan savagery and cannibalism they vowed never again to fight alongside the Quraish.
HOST Sufyan lost 22 and you lost 75, just about the number of Emigrants who departed Mecca for Yathrib. Sufyan declared he was victorious because he had taken into battle the pagan idol of al-Uzza ‘The Mightiest One’. You had no idol of Allah.
MUHAMMAD Muslims do not worship idols. How can one depict what has never been seen? It’s blasphemous for man to attempt to depict Allah.
HOST It appears God helped Muslims at Badr and abandoned them at Uhud.
MUHAMMAD When Muslims asked why we were defeated I explained that some of us must have disobeyed Allah’s laws. They accepted my explanation. I explained also that Sufyan was only partially victorious because he failed to capture me or conquer Medina.
HOST At the end of a battle you uttered a quotation now famous.
MUHAMMAD You're probably talking about my comment:
‘We return from the little jihad to the greater jihad'. (Armstrong, p168)
HOST Meaning what?
MUHAMMAD We return from temporary war on the battlefield to our lifelong war which is the struggle between the forces of good and evil.
HOST In Medina Ubay and Jews celebrated your defeat. Ubay reminded Jews that he might have been King of the peaceful city of Yathrib had not you and your Muslims migrated there.
MUHAMMAD I wasn’t worried about Ubay. Muslims killed at Uhud meant there were widows and families without a father. I encouraged able bodied men to marry Muslim widows and virtuous women whether handmaidens, Jews, or slaves.
HOST Sounds like Catholic propaganda for large families to increase the number of Catholics for supporting the Church.
MUHAMMAD I encouraged men to have large families to replenish men lost in war, proclaiming that Allah would care for them.
HOST You took your own advice on marrying widows. In April 625 you married the widow Zaynab Khuzayma your fifth marriage and fourth wife, you were 55. How old was she?
MUHAMMAD She was in her 20’s without children and the widow of a Muslim slain at Badr. She was the daughter of a Bedouin chief with whom I formed a political alliance. She joined Sawda, Aisha, and Hafsah, Unfortunately she died several months after the wedding.
HOST After your marriage to Zaynab you got back to the business of politics. You accused the Nadir Jews of violating the Constitution because they failed to support you in the battle at Uhud. Huyay Akhtab chief of the Jews replied that it was their Sabbath and the covenant permitted religious freedom. Furthermore you yourself violated the Constitution by killing Ka’d their poet and chief. Wasn’t Huyay justified in his complaints?
MUHAMMAD Protecting Muslims in Medina was more important than one Jewish tribe. I demanded the Nadir Jews pay tribute for their cowardice. Ubay who had withdrawn his Hypocrites from the Uhud battle not only supported the Nadir Jews but he offered to defend them against me. Expecting Ubay’s help the Jews refused to admit any wrong and refused to pay tribute. They barricaded themselves in their fortress, a sure sign they were seceding from Medina. That evening I had a dream in which Gabriel revealed the Nadir Jews were planning to kill me in retaliation for my assassination of Ka’d. Next morning my troops surrounded the fortress and demand the Jews surrender and leave Medina. When Ubay saw the size of my force he reneged on his promise to help the Jews and withdrew his Hypocrites as he had done at Uhud.
HOST Then you did something we refer to as ‘cutting off your nose to spite you face’. You ordered all the Jews’ date palm tress cut down. You not only cut down needed food for the umma but also a cash crop.
MUHAMMAD After several weeks of isolation in their fortress, and realizing their date palms had been destroyed, they surrendered begging me to spare their lives. Ubay begged me not to behead them. I agreed and expelled them from Medina.
HOST Unlike the Qaynuqa Jews the Nadir departed with a show of arrogance. Today we call it an example of ‘in your face’. Tell me about their showy departure.
MUHAMMAD They departed Medina in a caravan of 600 camels loaded with all their goods. Members of the umma lined the streets to observe the passing parade.
HOST I have one of several accounts of their departure:
‘Nadir women sang to the tunes of pipes and the drumming tempoed by tambourines. Young women reclined on couches mounted on camels. Dressed in gossamer silks, brocaded gowns, and jewelry the young women reclined in sexually seductive positions. They purposely defied Muslim sexual sensibilities by solicitously gesturing to Muslim men’.
MUHAMMAD The caravan traveled north to the Jewish settlement of Khaybar Oasis. Most Jews remained at Khaybar while others continued north to Syria. That evening I had a dream in which Allah revealed I had done the right thing. Thereafter I divided the Nadir land among Emigrant Muslims. Having land to cultivate they became independent and no longer dependent upon the largess of Helpers.
HOST But you had cut down the date palm trees.
MUHAMMAD There were other date palms further out from Medina.
HOST It’s written that you reserved for yourself a large parcel of land making you financially independent, in fact land rich.
MUHAMMAD I needed land for the umma to farm and be self sufficient.
HOST Having defeated you at Uhud, and in the attempt to get rid of you, Abu Sufyan challenged you to meet him again on April 626 at the Badr battleground.
MUHAMMAD With about 1,500 troops I marched to Badr and camped there waiting for Sufyan who had departed Mecca with his army. It was a year of severe drought. While waiting I got word that Sufyan turned about and marched back to Mecca because he couldn’t find forage for his camels and horses. In Mecca he was reproached and demeaned by the Quraish for not fulfilling their order to rid Arabia of Islam and me. Bedouins were harsher in their condemnation charging him with cowardice and praising me for accepting the challenge with a lesser force.
HOST It was obvious to all there was a stalemate. There would have to be a final battle to decide which city was supreme Mecca or Medina.
MUHAMMAD When I learned the Quraish were making alliances for the siege of Medina I sought the help of neighboring tribes promising them a share of the spoils.
HOST That year you also deserved praise for marrying the widow Umm Salama your sixth wife; you were 56 and she 29 without children.
MUHAMMAD Her husband was killed at Uhud. At first she hesitated to marry me because she didn’t like being a harem wife but then submitted. She was aristocratic in bearing and openly jealous of harem wives because she considered rather common.
HOST Why did you marry so many women?
MUHAMMAD I tried to have sons but it appears my chosen wives were barren. I accepted Allah’s purpose and waited for his command.
HOST Counting your wives and concubines it’s claimed you had relationships with about 40 women. Is that true?
MUHAMMAD My dear friend I would need to hire a scribe to record all my encounters and relationships with women. Having lost my mother at an early age I learned to appreciate women of any age and status.
HOST About the year 626 you introduced the use of a hijab for your wives, why?
MUHAMMAD My friends told me the sexual charms of my young wives Aisha and Hafsah were attracting unwanted advances from men in the umma. One night I had a revelation in which Gabriel recited verses of a covering, a hijab, to seclude ‘for my eyes only’ my wives’ sexual charms. I told them to wear a hijab in public but Aisha and Hafsah refused to cover their bodies. Instead of the hijab I suggested they wear a headscarf and veil; they agreed.
HOST The hijab or headscarf and veil worn by your wives became symbols of status separating them from wives in the umma. Thereafter umma wives began wearing hijabs or headscarves and veils because they claimed they were as good as harem wives.
MUHAMMAD Some men even spied on my wives when they relieved themselves. Worried about their safety I moved wives into huts on the grounds of the mosque.
HOST You must have built a settlement of huts for all your wives.
MUHAMMAD I slept with each wife in turn because I had no apartment of my own in the mosque.
HOST Were you required to have intercourse during each visit?
MUHAMMAD I followed my heart’s desire. There were times when we only comforted each other.
HOST Were those times mostly with your older wives? The rumor was that you had sex only with your young wives.
MUHAMMAD Nonsense Khadijah and I had 6 children.
HOST In January 627 your Bedouin spies informed you that a large caravan was camped between Mecca and Medina at the Muraysi Well near the coast of the Red Sea.
NUHAMMAD I learned it was the caravan of the wealthy Mustaliq a subclan of the Quraish. I immediately assembled a raiding party. Aisha asked to join me and I agreed. Also some of Ubay’s Hypocrites joined because of the prospect of sharing the expected rich plunder. When the Mustaliq recognized my approaching force they fled leaving behind thousands of animals and several hundred women and children. One of the young women captured was Juwayriya Harith. She had been taken by a Hypocrite. I was so aroused by her heavenly beauty I offered to buy her form him and he agreed. She told me she was the daughter of the chief of the Mustaliq. I immediately sent for the chief and offered to marry her. We agreed upon a price. Told of my offer she agreed to marry me. Additionally the chief demanded some of the plunder be returned to him. I so desirous of her that much to the chief’s surprise I returned more than he asked for and even freed the women and children.
HOST I understand your new bride to be made Aisha very unhappy.
MUHAMMAD When Aisha’s eyes beheld Juwayriya she was noticeably upset that I had managed to acquire such a ravishing young beauty.
HOST There’s more to your story.
MUHAMMAD You mean marriage?
HOST No that night.
MUHAMMAD Having agreed to marriage I saw no reason to wait. I was anxious to possess her and that night we slept together.
HOST What about Aisha?
MUHAMMAD One of her guards told me he heard her weeping.
HOST You broke with the Arab tradition of waiting until after a woman’s first menstrual period to have sex. You insisted that Muslim men comply with that custom but you ignored it.
MUHAMMAD I succumbed to her ravishing beauty. But I had her promise of marriage.
HOST In fact the next year she converted to Islam you married her. She was your eighth wife; you were 58 and she 20 without children.
MUHAMMAD She was the prize I took for myself in the raid of Mustaliq caravan.
HOST About the caravan what about the Hypocrites who joined you for a large share of the plunder? You returned most of it for Juwayriya.
MUHAMMAD I explained what happened. They were furious and promised never to join me on another of my raiding parties.
HOST We now come to the Aisha affair. On the way back to Medina the caravan paused to rest. During the pause Aisha dismounted from her camel to relieve herself. When she returned the caravan had departed. A young man in the caravan had also fallen behind and recognized her. He knelt down offering himself as a stool so she could mount his camel. When they caught up with the caravan the Hypocrites spread the rumor that she and the young man had been intimate, the reason for their delay at joining the caravan.
MUHAMMAD In Medina the rumor was that Aisha had sex with the young man her own age to retaliate against me because I had taken the beautiful young Juwayriya for myself. Without any proof community gossips and even several jealous harem wives believed Aisha was guilty of adultery.
HOST A punishable crime in Islamic law.
MUHAMMAD That gave Ubay the excuse for declaring I wasn’t fit to lead the umma because I couldn’t control my wife, something every Arab man was expected to do. Ubay’s Khasraj tribe claimed Aisha was guilty of adultery. Their antagonists the Aws declared Aisha was innocent. The two tribes long engaged in conflicts almost attacked each other over their opinions.
HOST Did you question her?
MUHAMMAD When I questioned Aisha she angrily denied the accusation. She was often critical of me and had a hot temper but calmly described what happened. As the wife of Muhammad she was convinced she would be missed and rescued. Being thirsty she drank the water of a nearby pond covered with lotus flowers. She fell asleep under a palm tree and dreamt that I had mounted her. When she awoke I was not there and later was rescued by the young man.
HOST How did you resolve the matter?
MUHAMMAD I was so upset over the whole affair that I swooned into a trance. Thereupon Gabriel appeared telling me Aisha was innocent. When I awoke I called out to Aisha "My dear Aisha Allah has spoken to me of your innocence"! I held her in my arms comforting and kissing her.
HOST That was certainly more human than having her stoned to death.
MUHAMMAD Thereafter I proclaimed to the umma there must be 4 witnesses to any alleged act of adultery or rape.
HOST We now come to the siege of Medina and the Battle of the Trench.
MUHAMMAD Mecca feared the growing power of Medina as a city-state. With its wealth Mecca bribed several tribes as allies against us. Sufyan’s army consisted of the Quraish, Bedouins, the large Ghatafan tribe, and some of the exiled Qaynuqa and Khaybar Jews.
HOST In March 627 Abu Sufyan’s coalition army of 10,000 marched against Medina.
MUHAMMAD When I got word that Mecca was planning to attack Medina, I tried to get the help of Qurayza Jews but they refused. In spite of that I was able to assemble 3,000 Muslims including Hypocrites and bribed Bedouins.
HOST You bribed Bedouins?
MUHAMMAD I needed allies. Determined not to make the same mistake as in the Battle of Uhud, I ordered the umma to harvest its crops thereby eliminating fodder for Sufyan’s animals. Medina was naturally fortified on three sides but was vulnerable by attack from the north. I ordered the umma to dig a deep trench along Medina’s north side. I directed they use the excavated earth to build an embankment from which they could shoot arrows down upon the attacking enemy.
HOST The next month April 627 Sufyan attacked Medina. Once more you were outnumbered 3-to-1.
MUHAMMAD When Ubay perceived the apparent onslaught of Sufyans’ superior force, he urged his Hypocrites to save themselves and once more they deserted. When Sufyan’s army attacked a swarm of arrows from my embankment repulsed them. When his cavalry attacked its horses couldn’t jump the trench. After several weeks of fierce battle Sufyan’s army ran out of provisions and his weakened camels and horses died from lack of fodder.
HOST What about the great change of weather?
MUHAMMAD Without warning it got very cold with gusty winds and driving rain. I recited Allah’s verses for protection and victory. When a great dust storm enveloped Sufyan’s army and the deep mud made it impossible for him to order another assault his allies abandoned. He was forced to withdraw from the battlefield and led his army back to Mecca in apparent defeat.
HOST Sounds like your verses turned the tide of battle. Allah had again intervened on behalf of Islam. Reminds me of Constantine the Great who carried into battle the labarum with the symbol of Christianity he claimed gave him victory.
MUHAMMAD I ordered the hands and feet of war prisoners bound, beheaded them, and threw their heads and corpses into the trench.
HOST How could you do such a barbaric thing?
MUHAMMAD Allah demands punishment for unbelievers and those who attack Islam. Allah’s will demands it.
HOST Will is inactive unless acted upon. It might have been Allah’s will but you carried it out. It’s written you beheaded a captured pagan woman who wasn’t even fighting. She accepted her death sentence by denouncing Allah and you.
MUHAMMAD The woman was a pagan who helped the enemy. Her head and corpse were also thrown into the trench.
HOST After the Battle of the Trench you continued your barbarism with the massacre of Qurayza Jews.
MUHAMMAD They violated the Constitution twice, once by supporting Sufyan and then by fighting against me in the battle. I had a revelation in which Gabriel warned me about the treachery the Qurayza Jews who were preparing to attack me because they thought my army had been weakened in the battle. The next morning I attacked them.
HOST That would be in the spring of 627.
MUHAMMAD After several skirmishes they begged to surrender and leave under the same conditions as the Nadir Jews but I refused because of their treachery in supporting Sufyan. That evening I had a revelation in which Gabriel recited it was Allah’s judgement that I should behead all the men, divide their property, and sell into slavery their women and children.
HOST Did you always do what Allah or Gabriel commanded?
MUHAMMAD I was chosen Allah’s prophet and apostle of Islam. To teach the Jews a lesson I had a second trench dug in Medina’s marketplace where all passers by could observe Allah’s punishment. I ordered all males beyond puberty about 700 to be tied together in small groups. I ordered them beheaded, and had their heads and corpses thrown into the trench.
HOST It takes a crazed man wielding an Arabian sword half dozen fierce blows to cut off a human head. Where did all your hatred, barbarism, and utter savagery comes from?
MUHAMMAD Allah revealed to me that enemies of Islam such as the Qurayza Jews should be severely punished.
HOST But again you carried out his will.
MUHAMMAD In a dream Allah commanded me that either I punish the people of the book, or he would do so on Judgement Day. As his apostle on earth it was my solemn duty to punish the Jews.
HOST While swinging Arabian swords beheading Jews you and your Muslim executioners must have been slipping in the Jews’ blood mud. You were a man of God, an apostle and prophet. Where was your merciful and compassionate Allah when you were beheading Jews?
MUHAMMAD It was his will to punish the Jews. I was just following Allah’s command.
HOST In my country God commanded a mother to drown her 5 children which she did. Sometimes God’s commands are evil.
MUHAMMAD Blasphemy! If I had my Arabian sword I’d behead you. In the name of Allah, Allahu Akbar!
HOST As if the beheading of all the male Jews wasn’t enough, you confiscated all their treasure of worldly goods, money, animals, and food. You left the women and children destitute.
MUHAMMAD They had no need of any of that because they had no men.
HOST Of course, you beheaded them and then sold the women and children into slavery.
MUHAMMAD What good are women and children without men to support them?
HOST What happened to your social reforms prohibiting the abuse of women and children and selling them into slavery? You criticized the Romans for making slaves of conquered peoples but you did the same. You again acted as the hypocrite.
MUHAMMAD Ancient customs are not easily changed. But not all women and children were sold. Some women with children refused to be sold. I gave them the option of converting to Islam.
HOST To save themselves and their children they converted under penalty of beheading.
MUHAMMAD It was their choice.
HOST There’s also a story about poison lamb. Was that true?
MUHAMMAD To show her servitude to her conquerorsa Qurayzan Jewess prepared a meal of lamb for me and my friends. Upon tasting the lamb I spit it out because of its bitterness but my friends ate heartily and died that night. She had spiced the lamb with deadly poison. I apprehended and questioned her. She said that if I were truly a prophet I would spit out the lamb. Although I admired her courage and directness I had her beheaded for poisoning my friends.
HOST Wasn’t she justified. You and your friends were the killers of her relatives and friends.
MUHAMMAD It was war for the survival of Medina. We had no choice.
HOST There’s also the story of Rayhana Zayd a young and beautiful Qurayzan Jewess. You made her your concubine.
MUHAMMAD Her beauty saved her. Such a young beauty deserved my appreciation not my condemnation. I converted her and was about to marry her. Unfortunately the young beauty died a year later.
HOST The stunning events of the two trenches and beheadings were told and retold throughout Arabia. Unbelievers feared your military power and beheading more than their conversion to Islam. You became the most feared man in Arabia and used that power to spread Islam.
MUHAMMAD After that there were no Jews left in Medina except those who wisely converted to Islam. Several Bedouin tribes were so impressed with my summary beheadings of Jews they converted to Islam and joined the umma. The leaders of many tribes begged me for peace treaties to avoid the fate of the Qurayza Jews. I gave them a choice. Pagans could choose conversion or war. Jews and Christians could retain their religions but must submit to my rule and pay tribute in the form of taxes and food for the poor.
HOST There’s an unusual story about you and your widowed cousin Zaynab Jahsh the wife of your adopted son Zayd.
MUHAMMAD One day when I called on Zayd his wife Zaynab opened the door. She was scantily clad and I remarked on her beauty and sexual charm.
HOST Where was Zayd?
MUHAMMAD Not at home. Unhappily married to Zayd she told him of our encounter. Zayd interpreted my remark as an offer to marry her. He stopped having sex with her and divorced her. Thereafter I visited Zaynab and proposed marriage. She accepted.
HOST I thought marrying the ex-wife of a son, a daughter-in-law, was incestuous and unacceptable even for a prophet.
MUHAMMAD Although he was my adopted son I was troubled by my burning desire for her. Thinking about her day and night I fell into a trance in which Allah approved of the marriage.
HOST It seems to me your trances enabled you to manipulate people and events. In the spring of 627 you married your desirable cousin Zaynab your seventh wife; you were 57 and she in her late 30’s without children.
MUHAMMAD By the way Umm Salama and Zaynab, my 6th and 7th wives, were my cousins.
HOST King David and his son King Solomon were known for their sexual exploits each having many wives. Were you marrying all those women for sexual adventure or because you wanted sons or both?
MUHAMMAD Sons become successors to fathers.
HOST I thought Islam treated women as equals of men.
MUHAMMAD That’s true for the greater part but not as successors to rule over men. It’s the will of Allah. I didn’t have a son and needed political allies so I married cousins when available.
HOST In 627 you sent Zayd to raid a Meccan caravan returning from Syria. The raid was successful but you got a big surprise when Zayd returned.
MUHAMMAD One of the captured merchants was Abu As my pagan son-in-law who was married to my eldest daughter Zaynab. At the time both were living in Mecca. Zaynab begged me to reunite her with Abu held captive by me in Medina. I agreed and sent for her. When she arrived in Medina I told her she couldn’t sleep with him until he converted to Islam which he did.
HOST Later that year 627 you resumed raiding caravans sending expeditions to northern Arabia. You also sent expeditions to the border cities of the Roman Byzantine Empire and Persian Empire.
MUHAMMAD I did so to make Medina economically viable to compete with Mecca still the wealthiest city. We were able to recover enormous treasures of worldly goods, money, food, and animals.
HOST In March 628 you led a group of pilgrims for the Hajj in Mecca.
MUHAMMAD I dreamt I prayed at the Kaaba, performed the prescribed rituals in its surrounding sanctified territory, and had my head shaved. Determined to do all that I invited Muslims to accompany me, assuring them it would be a peaceful pilgrimage, not a military expedition. The pilgrims included my companions, my wife Umm Salama, and the two women present during the second meeting with Arabs at the Aqaba site. I led about 1,600 unarmed Muslims to Mecca including my opponent Ibn Ubay. We had camels and other animals required for sacrifice.
HOST You were known to be kind to animals but you sacrificed them in the name of Allah. Sacrificing animals is a pagan ritual. You renounced paganism in the name of Allah, so how do you justify sacrificing animals?
MUHAMMAD God commanded Abraham to sacrifice animals and Muslims do the same. Allah requires animal sacrifices to prove our faith in him.
HOST There’s an account that as your camel approached Mecca it suddenly stopped and refused to go farther.
MUHAMMAD That happened at Hudaybiya the edge of Mecca’s sacred territory about 20 miles north of the city. I took it as a sign from Allah so I decided to make camp there. That night I had a revelation in which there was talk of peace. Next morning I dispatched Zayd to Mecca. As my envoy I instructed him to inform the Quraish we were unarmed Hajj pilgrims except for our sheathed swords permitted throughout Arabia. He returned to inform me that the Meccan leaders Suhayl Amir, Ikrimah Jahl, Abu Safyan, and Khalid Walid were prepared to use force to prevent us from entering Mecca.
HOST Obviously suspicious of your real intent the Quraish surrounded Mecca to prevent your entry.
MUHAMMAD Many Muslims wanted to confront the Meccans but I promised the pilgrimage would be a peaceful one. Several days later I met with a party of Meccan delegates led by Suhayl Amir. They offered to negotiate for peace and I agreed.
HOST Probably aware of your demonstrated military ability and your divine ally Allah.
MUHAMMAD We negotiated for several days. There was general agreement on a treaty but problems with the opening words. I wanted a reference to Allah, the compassionate and merciful one. Suhayl refused the reference to Allah. I wanted to insert a reference to me as Messenger of God, the prophet and apostle of Islam. Suhayl again violently disagreed. After several days of haggling over wording we agreed on the Treaty of Hudaybiya.
HOST I have a copy of that Treaty. Generally it included the following provisions:
>This year 628 Muslims shall return to Medina without entering Mecca.
>Beginning next year 629 unarmed Muslims, except for their sheathed Arabian swords, may enter Mecca for the Umra or Lesser Pilgrimage but must leave 3 days later.
>Any Meccan settling in Medinia must be returned.
>Any Medinian settling in Mecca will not be returned.
>Muslims are forbidden to raid Meccan caravans.
>Bedouins and Jews are henceforth released from their alliances with Mecca and Medina.
>There’s to be a 10-year truce between Mecca and Medina.
MUHAMMAD In fact several Quraish leaders who helped negotiate the Treaty converted to Islam. Ikrimah Jahl and Suhayl Amir were my enemies but when the Treaty was signed they converted to Islam. My wife Sawda was the widow of Suhayl’s brother. But several of my pilgrims were stunned that I agreed to a treaty that favored Meccans. For example a Meccan settling in Medina must be returned but a Muslim settling in Mecca would not be returned. I answered that any Muslim who leaves Medina to settle in Mecca isn’t worth having. I explained the Treaty not only made peace but also made Medina equal to Mecca. Bedouins praised me for my political skills but some pilgrims complained they traveled 225 miles for nothing. How were they to survive if they couldn’t raid Meccan caravans? They refused to take part in certain Hajj rituals outside Mecca in its sacred territory. Their complaints had the makings of an incipient revolt against me.
HOST Is that when your wife Umm Salama intervened?
MUHAMMAD She suggested that I perform Hajj rituals as planned even if others didn’t. I did so and was happy when the others followed my example.
HOST After the Treaty you had a revelation that changed the outcome of defeat whether in war or in negotiation.
MUHAMMAD One evening Allah revealed to me the pilgrims’ failed attempt at the Hajj in Mecca was really Al-Fath (The Victory).
HOST How can a defeat or failure be a victory?
MUHAMMAD Because the Treaty ended hostilities between Mecca and Medina. I was so impressed with Allah’s message of ‘victory in defeat’ I applied it to my defeat at Uhud.
HOST How can you apply victory to a past defeat 3 years old?
MUHAMMAD Allah placed no restrictions on Al-Fath.
HOST The concept of ‘victory in defeat’ was so real to Muslims it became another chapter in the Quran, Chapter 48. Al-Fath (The Victory).
MUHAMMAD In implementing ‘victory in defeat’ I converted a number of unbelievers to Islam, especially the poor and slaves who felt life had defeated them.
HOST Today ‘victory in defeat’ still lives because after Jews repeatedly defeat Muslims in war Muslims declare victory.
MUHAMMAD Muslims are obedient to the will of a Allah.
HOST You should know that some Islamic scholars view as a victory your defeat at Uhud. Using the ‘victory in defeat’ concept to your advantage you sent envoys to Abyssinia, the Roman Byzantine Empire, and Persian Empire with letters urging their leaders to convert to Islam.
MUHAMMAD I was instructed by Allah to teach unbelievers the precepts and laws of Islam. The Al-Fath revelation convinced me to send letters to rulers urging them to accept me as a prophet and Islam as their religion.
HOST Is it true you sent a letter to Heraclius the Roman Emperor demanding that he embrace Islam? He had an army of at least 100,000 and could have squashed you like a bug under his boot.
MUHAMMAD If you don’t demand more than you expect you’ll get nothing. I was sowing the seeds of Islam throughout the Roman and Persian empires.
HOST The Persian ruler was so angry at your proposal he threatened to kill your envoy.
MUHAMMAD In the interest of diplomacy he later changed his mind, relented, and expelled him.
HOST Speaking of expulsions in 625 when you expelled Nadir Jews from Medina most of them settled in Khaybar. In the recent Battle of the Trench, Khaybar and Nadir Jews supported Sufyan’s Quraish coalition against you. Khaybar was a community of Jews about 50 miles north of Medina. My map shows Khaybar to be in an area made fertile by oases near the Red Sea.
MUHAMMAD Jews in khaybar lived in fortresses and controlled the water needed for date farming. They gave a share of their date harvests to Bedouins to protect them from hostile tribes.
HOST Sounds like the Mafia protection racket in my country.
MUHAMMAD I decided to punish the Jews in Khaybar to prevent any further attack against Medina.
HOST In 628 you led about 1500 Muslims and marched north for the Battle of Khaybar.
MUHAMMAD Upon my approach the Khaybar Jews withdrew to their fortresses considered impregnable. So I ordered that any Muslim who beheaded a Jew could keep that Jew’s worldly goods.
HOST It’s told that when Muslims presented you with over 100 severed heads you came to your senses and rescinded your order.
MUHAMMAD During the siege we killed many of the men and beheaded the leaders including Huyay Akhtab. When his son refused to reveal where the tribe’s treasure was hidden I had him tortured until he revealed its location. When the treasure was found I beheaded the son because he lied to me.
HOST Did worldly goods mean that much to you that you beheaded a young Jew simply because he refused to give up the tribe’s worldly goods?
MUHAMMAD You must remember that Allah approves of torture, jihad, and the punishment to right a wrong. After a month the Jews sued for peace. I had all the Nadir men beheaded. I should have beheaded them in Medina but was persuaded to accept their land and worldly goods instead. I sold their women and children into slavery.
HOST What happened to your social reforms about justice and equal rights?
MUHAMMAD My social reforms do not apply to war. You must learn to separate the civilian from the military. That which applies to my civilian social reforms are not applicable to military campaigns because in war we fight for our lives under a different set of rules.
HOST Today our wars have certain rules of conduct.
MUHAMMAD The point of war is to kill your enemies who are trying to kill you.
HOST What happened in the aftermath of that war?
MUHAMMAD The Khaybar Jews agreed to give me half their date crop and accept me as their prophet. As their new protector I replaced their Bedouin protectors. I confiscated most of their possessions including all their weapons for the benefit of the umma. I divided all the women among the Muslim males.
HOST There you go again. You decreed equal rights for women but abused them by dividing them among Muslim males.
MUHAMMAD It’s called the spoils of war. A common practice in Arabia and elsewhere. Better that than selling them into slavery.
HOST You took for yourself the beautiful 17 year old Jewess Safiyya Huyayy widow of the son you beheaded.
MUHAMMAD She was being held captive by a Muslim and I ransomed her, freeing her from captivity.
HOST In fact there’s an account of her by one of your guards. That evening while she was grieving for the father and husband you beheaded, you had her brought to your tent and bedded her for your own sexual pleasure. I would call that female abuse. You broke your own rule about Muslims not having sex with unbelievers until they converted to Islam.
MUHAMMAD I was planning to marry her.
HOST There was a tribe of Jews in Fadak about 65 miles north of Khaybar with whom you made peace.
MUHAMMAD When Fadak Jews got word that I had captured Khaybar they feared I would also capture Fadak, so they sent envoys to Khaybar and sued for peace. I offered them surrender terms in which I exacted tribute and part of their harvest. They agreed and we signed a peace treaty. I got rid of the Jewish threat north of Medina by offering Jewish settlements the same surrender terms as Fadak and they also agreed.
HOST On the way back to Medina you converted the beautiful Safiyya Huyayy to Islam and officially married her your tenth wife; you were 59 and she 17 without children. It’s written you were so enamored of her that you made a fool of yourself by kneeling on the ground so she could step on you while mounting her camel. The prophet Muhammad subordinating himself like a slave to his mistress, a teen Jewess?
MUHAMMAD Merely a courtesy to my lovely young wife.
HOST Today you would be called a dirty old man, marrying all those teenagers. When you got back to Medina you distributed the plunder from Khaybar and Fadak.
MUHAMMAD In Medina as usual I distributed the plunder among the umma and my wives. Having taken half their date crop Aisha gorged herself on dates declaring it was the first time in her young life she had the opportunity to do so. In the harem Aisha and Hafsah were jealous of the new teen beauty Safiyya but later the 3 young wives became friends.
HOST Several Muslim men questioned me about marrying a Jewess.
MUHAMMAD I urged them to intermarry with Jews and Christians in order to have Muslim children and spread Islam.
HOST What if their wives refused to raise Muslim children?
MUHAMMAD Muslim men control their wives. If men converted so would their wives. Certainly the children would be Muslim. As apostle of Allah my mission was to spread Islam.
HOST In 629 the Quraish military leader Khalid Walid realized there was no future for him in Mecca, so he emigrated to Medina.
MUHAMMAD I welcomed him and he converted to Islam. Khalid Walid was a superb military commander. In the Battle of Uhud his attack caused us to retreat
HOST In 629 you led 1600 Muslims to Mecca for the Umra. What’s the Umra?
MUHAMMAD The Umra is a visitation to Mecca for the Hajj called the Lesser Pilgrimage. In it Muslims were allowed to visit the Kaaba but not Mount Arafat nor the Valley of Mina. In accordance with the Treaty of Hudaybiya Muslims from Medina were allowed to enter Mecca unmolested for the Umra.
HOST So you and your pilgrims were allowed to enter Mecca.
MUHAMMAD In the Kaaba I kissed the Black Stone and then described in detail to pilgrims the performance of the 7 circlings around the Kaaba. After 3 days we had to leave Mecca as specified in the Treaty.
HOST That year sometime after you returned to Medina, you married again but in absentia.
MUHAMMAD Umm Habibah, formerly Ramlah Abi-Sufyan, was the widowed daughter of my old Quraish enemy Abu Sufyan. When her Christian husband died in Abyssinia, I decided to forge a political alliance with my enemy Sufyan by marrying his widowed daughter. I proposed the marriage and to my surprise he agreed. At the time she was still in Abyssinia so I dispatched a letter to the King of Abyssinia for permission to marry her. The king and she approved my proposal and we married in absentia.
HOST Umm was your ninth wife; you were 59 and she 30 without children. Thereafter she joined your harem in Medina.
MUHAMMAD The marriage officially performed I returned to my mission of spreading Islam. I sent envoys north to Muta just over the northern border of Arabia into the Roman Byzantine Empire.
HOST On my map Muta’s about 500 miles north of Medina, in your time a huge distance to travel. Today it’s part of Jordan.
MUHAMMAD I sent them on a peaceful mission to explain that I was the prophet and apostle of Allah’s chosen religion Islam. I told them that they should submit to Islam for peace and reconciliation.
HOST But you spread Islam supposedly the religion of peace and reconciliation by military campaigns, by declaring jihads against unbelievers in the name of the Allah.
MUHAMMAD Unfortunately pagan Arabs near Muta murdered all my peaceful envoys except one who escaped and told me of the massacre.
HOST In 629 you decided to retaliate for the murders of your envoys.
MUHAMMAD I mustered an army of 3,000 troops and named my military compatriots Jafar, Khalid, and Zayd as commanders. They marched north for Muta while I remained in Medina. When they arrived near Muta they were unexpectedly confronted by a huge army. From his previous encounter with Persians the Roman Emperor Heraclius had about 100,000 troops in the area. Muta was too far away from Medina for me to have had any up-to-date intelligence or to rescue them.
HOST I have a note that in the Battle of Muta, Jafar Talib your cousin and your adopted son Zayd Harith were killed.
MUHAMMAD Jafar lost one arm and continued to fight but then lost the other arm. Unable to defend himself he was killed. I prayed that in paradise Allah would give him wings. Their deaths were a great loss that depressed me.
HOST There’s a story about Zayd you might find embarrassing. He remained your adopted son but no longer your son-in-law because he divorced his wife Zaynab your cousin so you could marry her. It’s written that you sent him to Muta knowing it was a dangerous mission. If he were killed it would avoid any future embarrassment to you for having married your daughter-in-law.
MUHAMMAD That story is naught but profane. I loved Zayd as a blood son and would never deliberately send him to his death.
HOST In that battle your poet Abd Rawaha was also killed. All your military leaders were killed except Khalid Walid.
MUHAMMAD But in retreating Walid encountered Bedouin allies of Rome. There was another battle and more confusion. Wahlid the ‘Sword of Islam’, rallied our troops for an orderly withdrawal and led them back to Medina. The umma mocked and spat upon them for having been defeated at Muta.
HOST Where was Allah’s victory in defeat? In the meantime you married two more women upping your total marriages to 12 but those marriages were never consummated. What happened?
MUHAMMAD One of those wives became hysterical at the moment of consummation; she fled the bedchamber and was never again seen. The other refused to sleep with me because she claimed I had killed her father and brother in battle.
HOST So what did you do, use force?
MUHAMMAD No, no. I would never do that. Keep in mind I decreed women have equal rights. Those marriages were never consummated so I immediately and simply divorced them.
HOST Why did they agree to marry you? More to the point, why did you want to marry them?
MUHAMMAD Those marriages were strictly for political alliances. Having made the political alliances and agreeing to marry them I never thought of delving into their minds.
HOST Their absences left you with only 10 wives plus concubines. How did you manage that bevy of women?
MUHAMMAD To avoid jealousies I tried to sleep with each wife in turn, in an orderly manner.
HOST But that order was disrupted when you decided to divorce Sawda your oldest wife.
MUHAMMAD At that time I told Sawda I wanted a divorce but she begged me not to do so by convincing me I should retain my established alliance with her brother Suhayl Amr. She implored me not to divorce her. I finally agreed and we remained married.
HOST What about your concubines, when did you have time or the strength to visit them?
MUHAMMAD They were pleasant visits, substitutes for the rigors of matrimonial obligations.
HOST Depressed at losing Jafar, Zayd, and Abd Rawaha in the Battle of Muta you received a consolation gift. Having learned of their deaths in 629 the Roman ruler in Alexandria, Egypt sent you a consolation gift – a beautiful young teen slave with white skin, curly blond hair, single and without children. She was the Christian named Maria Qibtiyya ransomed by the ruler especially as a gift for you.
MUHAMMAD I was so taken by her beauty that I immediately installed her as my concubine. I prepared a hut for her near the mosque and made sure she was well cared for.
HOST Her arrival caused some jealousy among your teen wives.
MUHAMMAD I frequently visited Maria. Aisha and Hafsah were jealous of Maria but Juwayriya Harith and the Jewess Safiyya Huyayy were not.
HOST It’s written you were a frequent copulator of teens whether wives or concubines preferring them to older women.
MUHAMMAD You would think my older wives would have been a problem but it was my young wives who were constantly complaining about something or someone.
HOST Speaking of wives there were problems in your harem. There’s an account that Maria and you were caught by Hafsah in her bed. Your amorous encounter caused a series of problems in the harem and umma. Will you expand on that or is it too personal a matter?
MUHAMMAD Well, Hafsah was visiting her father when I happened upon Maria. I couldn’t resist her youthful beauty so I took her to the nearest empty hut and bedded her; it happened to be Hafsah’s hut. All of a sudden Hafsah appeared and caught us in the act; she became hysterical.
HOST A normal reaction, don’t you think? She caught you in flagrante delicto as we would say.
MUHAMMAD I begged Hafsah not to tell anyone but in anger she ran to Aisha her best friend. Aisha’s wagging and critical tongue spread the incident throughout the harem. From there the story was spread throughout the umma. I was so distraught I confined my self to the mosque without visiting my wives.
HOST That tryst got your young concubine pregnant.
MUHAMMAD When Aisha and Hafsah saw that Maria was pregnant they were so jealous they solicited other wives to join them in a hate campaign against her.
HOST I can imagine their jealousy over the pretty concubine with milk-white skin and curly blond hair carrying the prophet’s baby.
MUHAMMAD That bit of news gave my older wives reason to bitterly complain that they didn’t get their fair share of plunder from caravan raids. They complained I gave more luxury items to my young wives and even to Maria, a concubine without the status of the prophet’s wife. Then my young wives countered they were more deserving of luxury items because they would be of service to me longer than older wives.
HOST Today we call that a caterwauling catfight.
MUHAMMAD Much distressed and to my dislike harem quarrels became public gossip. For more than a month I completely withdrew from harem wives, secluded myself in the mosque, and slept only with Maria. My preference for her not only infuriated my young wives but the daily gossip in the umma was that I had abandoned my wives for my pregnant concubine who was possibly carrying my successor.
HOST You must have had a mole in your harem feeding gossip to the umma.
MUHAMMAD Mole?
HOST An informer, an agent.
MUHAMMAD In my disgust at their complaints and criticisms I considered divorcing all of them. After all as prophet I had women offering themselves to me at every opportunity.
HOST Muslim men in the umma were shocked that you allowed your wives to criticize you. They claimed you controlled Medina but couldn’t control your wives.
MUHAMMAD I appealed to Bakr and Umar, the fathers of Aisha and Hafsah. They scolded their daughters warning them they had better control their jealousy. Bakr and Umar cautioned me that in order to save their family honor divorcing their daughters might force them to end their valuable blood and political alliances with me. After due consideration and in despair I gave my wives an ultimatum. They must end their jealousy of Maria and live simply as I did without a merchant’s inventory of luxury items or continue their jealousy and pursuit of luxury items. In the latter case I would give each of them an amicable divorce with an adequate settlement.
HOST Obviously your ultimatum resolved the discord.
MUHAMMAD Praise be to Allah the compassionate and merciful. Maria gave birth to my son a joyous occasion. I named my son Ibrahim. His birth ended my wives’ hate campaign against Maria and their squabbling over luxury items.
HOST You gave your son a Hebrew name?
MUHAMMAD I regarded Abraham my predecessor prophet. I would proudly hold Ibrahim my only son showing him off to my wives who managed to force an approving smile. Unfortunately Ibrahim died in infancy as did my two sons by Khadijah. But I was not ungrateful to Allah I accepted his decision. Later I sent Maria away from the harem to avoid future fits of jealousy. I obtained an apartment for her in Medina and gave her a eunuch servant to help her
HOST I understand Umar tried to console you in the loss of your only son, your successor.
MUHAMMAD He suggested that rather than my simple coarse cloak and turban, I dress in silken brocades as did Roman and Persian rulers. He added that I should relieve my despair by living more opulently in palaces as did other rulers, have young female slaves to attend to my every need, and treat myself to banquet feasts. I told him as prophet I must live humbly to set an example for poor Muslims and those unbelievers who would like to convert to Islam.
HOST It’s claimed you lived simply hating luxury items and having little to eat. At other times you did the opposite taking the largest share of caravan plunder and the spoils of war.
MUHAMMAD I did what was required at the time.
HOST In November 629 the Taim subclan of the Quraish broke the Treaty of Hudaybiya by attacking one of your allies the Khuzaah tribe.
MUHAMMAD I immediately responded with 10,000 troops and marched to support the Khuzaah. Realizing they’d be defeated by my superior force the Taim sued for peace. I agreed to end hostilities if they agreed to any of my 3 conditions for peace: (1) pay blood money for each slain Khuzaah, (2) break their alliance with the Quraish, or (3) annul the Treaty. They accepted the third condition, annulment of the Treaty.
HOST The Taim later changed their minds.
MUHAMMAD In retaliation I considered attacking Mecca home of the Taim and Quarish. Realizing their mistake, the possibility of war, they sent Abu Sufyan to Medina to negotiate peace talks with me.
HOST You had married Sufyan’s widowed daughter Umm Habibah.
MUHAMMAD In Medina Sufyan told me that since his defeat in the Battle of the Trench, he realized it was fruitless to continue the feud with me his son-in-law. He offered me his peace terms. At that time I was making plans to attack Mecca because it had broken the Treaty, so I refused his peace terms and he returned to Mecca. After 8 years of exile in Medina I was ready to attack Mecca.
HOST In January 630 the Taim having broken the Treaty you attacked Mecca.
MUHAMMAD I led an army of about 8,000 Muslims and marched south towards Mecca. On the way Bedouins, seeing my large army and realizing we must be on a special campaign for glory and plunder, joined me even though they didn’t know our final destination. They increased my army’s the total number to 10,000. Approaching Mecca Sufyan begged the Quraish to surrender to my superior force. His wife Hind who still hated me berated him for wanting to surrender. There were several skirmishes resulting in killings on each side. Later Sufyan convinced Quraish leaders to sue for peace. The Quraish surrendered and I marched unopposed into Mecca. I told them Allah had conquered their pagan gods.
HOST You conquered not only their pagan gods but the most prominent Arabian tribe and the wealthiest Arabian city.
MUHAMMAD The Quraish were frearful of reprisals such as paying tribute and beheadings. I assured them there would be none. I wasn’t going to exact tribute or persecute them or expel them as they had Muslims. In the name of Allah and Islam I insisted on the destruction of their pagan idols and the abolition of their failed pagan religion.
HOST You ordered Muslims to destroy all of the hundreds of pagan idols in and around the Kaaba.
MUHAMMAD At the Kaaba I proclaimed ‘al-fath’ the final victory crying aloud ‘Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar, Allahu Akbar’. Repeated by thousands of Muslims the cry echoed in Mecca and throughout its sacred territory. I then circled the Kaaba 7 times and entering it’s sacrosanct interior kissed the Black Stone. I smashed all the pagan idols and paintings except for a painting of Maryam and the infant Jesus. To complete the cleansing I converted the Kaaba to a mosque by rededicating the sacred Black Stone to Allah. In addressing the multitude I told them that cleansed of pagan idols their prayers would always be directed at the Kaaba now rededicated to Allah. Furthermore I proclaimed that henceforth only Muslims were allowed to make the pilgrimage to Mecca.
HOST I believe it was at that time you officially instituted the Muslim call to prayer.
MUHAMMAD Bilal was an Abyssinian black slave born in Mecca. Previously Abu Bakr had ransomed and freed him. Because of his loud resonant voice I appointed him the first muezzin giving him the privilege of being the first Muslim caller to prayer. Ascending to the Kaaba’s rooftop I had him call Muslims to prayer 3 times a day.
HOST You said ascending as in your Miraj, your ascension to heaven.
MUHAMMAD For Bilal it was an earthly ascension from former slave to a free Muslim of importance. After prayers at the Kaaba I cleansed Mecca by ordering the destruction of all pagan idols in the city and its environs.
HOST After you destroyed the pagan idols and their religion some Mecccans feared you would execute them as you had other enemies you defeated.
MUHAMMAD I told Mecccans I would give them an opportunity to profess their faith in Islam. I invited all Meccans to join me at Mount Safa where I would address them. At Safa the Quraish leaders lined up before me to personally pledge belief in Islam. Sufyan was the first one in the long line for converting to Islam.
HOST Reminds me of people lined up to see the pope, get his blessing, and kiss his jeweled hand.
MUHAMMAD When the Quraish saw their leaders convert they too converted. At last I had converted Mecca to Islam.
HOST What about Hind Sufyan’s wife your sworn enemy?
MUHAMMAD She approached me and after again berating me for having killed her kin at Badr, she defiantly claimed I couldn’t execute her because she was ready to swear an oath to Islam as had her cowering husband.
HOST Having learned of your destruction of pagan shrines in and around Mecca Bedouins were preparing to attack you to prevent you from destroying the 3 most important pagan shrines in Arabia.
MUHAMMAD Two weeks after I conquered Mecca I got word that Hawazin Bedouins and its subclan Thaqif assembled about 20,000 troops in the Hunayn valley near the walled city of Taif. I led a coalition of about 12,000 Muslims and Quraish to the valley. The Quraish were eager to do battle with their old enemy the Hawazin who attacked first and forced us to retreat.
HOST It’s written that God again sent his angels to fight alongside Muslims to repel the unbelievers.
MUHAMMAD Perhaps to fight alongside Khalid Walid the ‘Sword of Islam’. He counterattacked and repulsed the Hawazin who withdrew and fled the battlefield.
HOST In the heat of that battle you were wounded.
MUHAMMAD In response to my fervent prayers my wound turned out not serious.
HOST After your victory you confiscated their entire economy of treasure, worldly goods, animals, women, and children.
MUHAMMAD As usual the nomadic Hawazin had taken into battle all their worldly goods, families, and animals. We captured enormous amounts of worldly goods, huge sums of money, thousands of women and children, thousands upon thousands of camels and other animals. It was the largest confiscation of any military campaign or caravan raid. None of us had ever seen such a gathering of worldly goods, animals, women and children in one place. I ordered all the spoils to be rounded up and moved to Jirana between Mecca and Taif.
HOST I understand the Hawazin fled to Taif.
MUHAMMAD Some of the fleeing Hawazin took refuge in the hills, some in the village of Autus, and some in the walled city of Taif. So before distributing the spoils I decided to complete my military campaign by capturing Autus and Taif. After several skirmishes we took Autus and marched toward the fortress walled city of Taif.
HOST In Taif you were met with surprisingly stiff resistance and your siege failed.
MUHAMMAD It was a heavily fortified mountain city. I temporarily abandoned the siege because I got word some of my guards at Jirana were stealing everything they couild get their hands on and also raping women. With all the spoils ready for the taking it was too much of a temptation for them not to help themselves. My army was also anxious to get its share of the spoils so I returned to Jirana to distribute the spoils before rioting broke out and they began killing each other. Also I wanted to get back to Medina.
HOST I understand the Hawazin demanded you return some of their food or they would starve. You refused to give any of it back leaving them without means of survival.
MUHAMMAD Allah demands that enemies of Islam be severely punished. They asked for some of their worldly goods, animals, and women. They claimed they were destitute and couldn’t house feed themselves for lack of the tents, tools, and equipment I confiscated. I gave them two choices, worldly goods and animals or their women.
HOST You were not as generous as some of your companions would have us believe.
MUHAMMAD After haggling for several days they chose their women.
HOST As you would.
MUHAMMAD I agreed to return their chosen women only on condition that they convert to Islam. They agreed.
HOST But then you turned them against the Thaqif their allies walled up in Taif.
MUHAMMAD I ordered them to cut off trade with Taif by surrounding it to assure nothing got in or out of the city.
HOST You did to them what the Quraish did to you in Mecca when they banned your clan from trade because of your preaching.
MUHAMMAD Yes but Allah destroyed the document releasing us from the ban. I told the Hawazin if they would become my ally I would give back some of their animals and worldly goods. They agreed.
HOST Why did you relent?
MUHAMMAD I thought about Halima my wet nurse. She was a Bedouin member of the Hawazin tribe.
HOST You made another ally of a former enemy.
MUHAMMAD In Jirana I distributed the plunder giving large shares to Khalid Walid because he repulsed the enemy and also to Quraish leaders Abu Sufyan, Suhayl Amir, and Ikrimah Jahl. Suhayl and Ikrimah were so grateful of my generosity they immediately converted to Islam. Each leader got 100 camels and a generous distribution of worldly goods.
HOST But as usual you gave yourself the largest share.
MUHAMMAD By agreement the spoils of war were not limited to the one-fifth plunder from caravan raids. I also distributed spoils to the umma. Some ungrateful Helpers grumbled I gave more to the Quraish our former enemy than to members of the umma. I answered that Allah rejects the ungrateful and will punish them on Judgement Day.
HOST In the area were the 3 most important pagan shrines in Arabia, the shrines of the ‘Daughters of God’. I have a list of those pagan shrines:
In Taif was the shrine of al-Lat ‘The Goddess’.
In Qudayd was the shrine of al-Manat ‘The Goddess of Fate’.
In Nakhlah was the shrine of al-Uzza ‘The Mightiest One’.
MUHAMMAD I dispatched Ali and Khalid to destroy the shrines of al-Manat and al-Uzza. That left only the shrine of al-Lat ‘The Goddess’ in Taif.
HOST That year 630 your uncle Abbas Muttalib offered you his widowed sister Maymuna Harith. You married her your thirteenth wife; you were 60 and she 36 without children. Zaynab Khuzayma your 5th wife was her half sister. You had a preference for young women, so why did you marry older widowed women?
MUHAMMAD I felt sorry for them, orphaned and alone in their old age. Also my uncle supported me and I wanted to please him.
HOST At the time you had 10 wives and a number of concubines including Maria.
MUHAMMAD Maria was still one of my favorites.
HOST Speaking of Maria she was an orphan who you abused when you expelled her from her hut and exiled her in Medina.
MUHAMMAD Having been an orphan myself I felt her abandonment. That night I had a revelation in which an angel said "Muhammad your wives are barren. Free Maria whom you abandoned and she will bless you with another son". Thereafter I sent for her, freed , and married her.
HOST Maria became your fourteenth wife. You were 60 but how old was she?
MUHAMMAD Probably 18 or so.
HOST You wanted a son to be your successor but your social reforms favored individualism not aristocratic privilege and inheritance.
MUHAMMAD My son would continue my leadership of the umma for Islam.
HOST Your conquest of Mecca meant you had the most powerful army in Arabia. Pagan tribal leaders feared they would be taken over unless they converted to Islam.
MUHAMMAD Leaders of many tribes were convinced that Allah was greater than their pagan gods. They came to Medina to assure me of their peaceful intentions and to get my promise that I wouldn’t subjugate them. To assure me of their good intentions they offered to destroy their pagan idols, convert to Islam, and even provide troops to support me should I be attacked. I agreed to live in peace with them.
HOST About a year after your failed siege of Taif the Thaqif were still walled up there.
MUHAMMAD Realizing they would eventually have to surrender they sent envoys to Medina to negotiate peace with me. The envoys offered the following surrender terms: They wanted to continue worshipping al-Lat, to engage in adultery, lend money charging interest, drink wine, and gamble. I rejected all their terms. They offered to gradually reduce their demands over a 3-year period. I again refused. They agreed to convert to Islam if I would excuse them from having to destroy the shrine of al-Lat. I agreed and ordered Abu Sufyan to destroy it, the last of the three sacred pagan shrines. About a year later the Thaqif agreed to peace, become my allies, and support me if attacked.
HOST Meanwhile you were informed that Hypocrites in Medina met in the house of a Jew and were plotting against you.
MUHAMMAD To teach them a lesson I had the house burned down.
HOST Thereafter Hypocrites asked you to consecrate a new mosque they built in Quba.
MUHAMMAD I told them I would do it after I returned from my expedition to Tabuk.
HOST In October 631 after the subjugation of Taif you sent an expedition to Tabuk in northern Arabia about 350 miles northwest of Medina. Why far away Tabuk? It was near the border of the Roman Eastern Empire?.
MUHAMMAD The many settled communities up north had not converted to Islam and were open to subjugation. Rather than using my army to attack and convert small scattered tribes of Bedouins, I decided to use my army to greater advantage by converting the more populous northern settlements. Those populations would greatly expand Islam. Also I had to avenge our defeat at Muta.
HOST But you had trouble mustering an army because of the great distance to be traveled.
MUHAMMAD Many men in the umma refused to make the long arduous journey.
HOST How were you able to muster enough troops?
MUHAMMAD I reminded them of my mission in life and as Muslims now also their mission. I reminded them of Allah’s verses, of personal worth based on the piety and sanctity of life, and for martyrs who die in battle there was paradise with its houris.
HOST Your sermon worked because you were able to field an army.
MUHAMMAD I was able to assemble a sizeable force. I deputized Ali to be in charge of Medina in my absence. On our march Bedouins and other tribes joined my army in the hope of getting plunder. Nearing Tabuk I had about 30,000 troops. When Arabs in Tabuk saw my army approaching they sued for peace. I extracted tribute from them and demanded they convert to Islam. I continued my northward march and made camp in an area between Muta and Dumat Jandal. I gave command to Zayd’s black son Usama whose mother was an Abyssinian. He would avenge his father’s death at Muta and exact tribute from them.
HOST That’s what the Romans did. You used the same tactics as Romans even though you criticized them.
MUHAMMAD When I was informed there was a great fair at Dumat Jandal I gave Khalid a number of troops and ordered him to march there. I deputized him to convert the inhabitants to Islam and exact yearly tribute from them. Khalid apprehended the leader who begged for peace. He agreed to convert to Islam and pay yearly tribute.
HOST Dumat Jandal and other northern settlements became part of Islamic Arabia. You terrorized northern Arabia with your Islamic sword.
MUHAMMAD My mission was to spread Islam for Allah. After converting settlements to Islam I considered marching into the Fertile Crescent with its large populous cities.
HOST On my map the Fertile Crescent is the large area covering northern Arabia from the Jordan River to the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. You had a problem because the Fertile Crescent was in the Roman Byzantine and Persian empires.
MUHAMMAD Each of their separate armies was much larger than mine. The Roman Emperor Heraclius had an army of about 200,000 including the Christian Ghassanid tribe still loyal to Rome. I decided not to confront such a large force. Having already subjugated many settlements in northern Arabia I decided to march back to Medina.
HOST Returning from Tabuk you got word that the Hypocrites who asked you to consecrate their new mosque in Quba were waiting there to ambush and get rid of you so that Ibn Ubay could take over.
MUHAMMAD I ordered a contingent of my troops to capture, behead them, and then burn down the mosque.
HOST What do you think Allah thought of you burning down a mosque?
MUHAMMAD Allah instructed me to punish evil doers and that’s what I did.
HOST You terrorized Arabian tribes through fear of armed reprisals by you and beheadings. In the year 632 you had subjugated most of the numerous tribes of the Arabian Peninsula.
MUHAMMAD In doing so I instituted peace among them. I gave Bedouins and small tribes some of the land I conquered and told them they were no longer permitted to attack each other which eliminated their tribal feuding.
HOST Today you would be called an entrepreneur, a combination of military general and super salesman, you sold Islam to Arabia. You even deputized agents, your salesmen, to collect taxes and tribute in the tribes you subjugated. You were the most feared and powerful man in Arabia.
MUHAMMAD I was told the great warriors Saul and David subjugated tribes in Israel. My peace agreements called for tribes to pay taxes and tributes of food for the poor. I deputized agents to administer oaths for converting unbelievers to Islam. Some of them became permanent members of the tribes they administered.
HOST As general of the greatest military power in Arabia you united Arabia by imposing on it an Islamic theocracy. Arabia did not convert because of Allah; it converted because of your military power.
MUHAMMAD I was Allah’s prophet and apostle of Islam. My mission was to convert unbelievers to Islam and in doing so I gave them a choice. Pagans could choose conversion or war. Jews and Christians could retain their religions but had to submit to my rule, pay tribute in the form of taxes, and provide food for poor Arabs.
HOST In doing that you were a zealous crusader compelled by divine inspiration to achieve your mission. You slaughtered thousands of unbelievers including even fellow Muslims who tolerated unbelievers. As militarist you led armies into battles for 9 years, from the Battle of Badr (624) to the Battle of Tabuk (632).
MUHAMMAD I was forced to protect Medina and the umma against the enemies of Islam. I did so at Badr, Uhud, Medina and the trench, at Khaybar, and other places. To prevent another attack on Medina I had to defeat Meccca and its coalition of unbelievers.
HOST You established Islamic theocracies in Mecca and Medina. You were the Caesaropapist of Islamic Arabia, the undisputed head of mosque and government, an absolute Islamic dictator.
MUHAMMAD I don’t understand those words.
HOST Do you know about Rome?
MUHAMMAD I’ve heard its Roman Legions, of its great power, and renown.
HOST In Rome was Caesar the secular head of state, a dictator, having also the power of Pontifex Maximus the high priest. As required you acted as Caesar and Pontifex Maximus. You were a Caesaropapist, an absolute dictator, one person the head of mosque and government.
MUHAMMAD I still don’t understand those words.
HOST Why didn’t you establish a hierarchy, a clergy to help you?
MUHAMMAD I was chosen by Allah to be his last prophet. As apostle of Islam I was his representative on earth and preached his verses. Praise be to Allah.
HOST Today there still exist absolute dictators in the Middle East in counties such as Egypt, Iran, Jordan, and Syria. They pass power to their sons through privileged dictatorial inheritance.
MUHAMMAD I don’t know those countries.
HOST Those Middle East countries were established later. Changing the subject your challenger Ibn Ubay died.
MUHAMMAD He was a Muslim and to show him respect I prayed at his tomb.
HOST But he was your chief opponent and leader of the Hypocrites. Muslims always faithful to you violently protested your reverence at his tomb. They demonstrated in the streets, destroyed his property, and the properties of Hypocrites.
MUHAMMAD I was very distressed over it and that night I had a revelation – I was never again to pray at the tomb of a Hypocrite or doubter or unbeliever of Islam. Having assured Muslims of my decision they ceased demonstrating and destroying property.
(632)MUHAMMAD Gabriel appeared to me in a dream. He commanded me to make the pilgrimage because my health was failing. Feeling old and tired I wanted to make one last pilgrimage.
HOST Previously you made the Umra, the Lesser Pilgrimage.
MUHAMMAD Previously pagans were allowed to accompany Muslims on a pilgrimage. This was to be the Greater Pilgrimage, my last pilgrimage. I decreed that on this pilgrimage only Muslims would be permitted to accompany me.
HOST In February 632 you, your 9 wives, and thousands of pilgrims departed Medina and arrived in Mecca in March.
MUHAMMAD In Mecca I trembled at the sight of the Kaaba where my grandfather Abu Muttalib frequently took me as a child. At the Kaaba I cried out:
‘Here I am, O God, at your service’. (Armstrong, p214)
HOST I never asked you but what do pilgrims do in a Hajj?
MUHAMMAD Hajj rituals begin at the Kaaba the shrine built by Abraham and Ishmael, the fathers of all Arabs. There are many different Hajj rituals but I preferred the following:
>While meditating in prayer counterclockwise circle the Kaaba 7 times. Each circling intensifies submission to Allah by meditation and prayer. During the 7th circling total submission to Allah is achieved. Upon completion of the 7th circling I swooned into a trance and saw Allah and Gabriel smiling looking down upon me.
>Between Mount Marwah and Mount Safa run back and forth 7 times repeating Hagar’s frantic search for water when she and Ishmael were cast into the desert wilderness by Abraham. It symbolizes the Muslim’s struggle for life.
HOST Why 7 times in each ritual?
MUHAMMAD 7 is the favorite symbolic number of the Jews.
HOST But you were performing Islamic rituals.
MUHAMMAD Muslims do not deny the past.
HOST The distance between Mount Marwah and Mount Safa is about ¼ mile. Running back and forth would be about 2 miles. Did you actually run?
MUHAMMAD No, no. I rode my camel but upon completion I dismounted to proclaim 7 times the holy phrase "Allahu Akbar’.
>After that I stood on a slope of Mount Arafat to recall that Adam and Eve were founders of Humanity.
HOST Mount Arafat is 16 miles from Mecca. Did you actually walk?
MUHAMMAD I rode my camel but others insisted on walking to experience the suffering of martyrs.
>At Mina I threw stones at Satan’s 3 Pillars where he tried to persuade Abraham and Ishmael to disobey God’s command to build the Kaaba. It’s a reminder of the constant struggle between good and evil in the service of Allah.
>I reminded pilgrims of jihad the constant Islamic struggle in the service of Allah.
>I sacrificed a camel in memory of Abraham’s animal sacrifice after God excused him from offering as holocaust his only son Isaac.
>After performing those rituals I had my head shaved.
HOST Half of those rituals are based on Judaism. Even the number 7 comes from Judaism. Islam’s holiest shrine the Kaaba was built by Abraham and Ishmael as commanded by the God of Jews.
MUHAMMAD As commanded by the Supreme Being.
HOST After animals were sacrificed were they eaten?
MUHAMMAD No. Sacrificed animals belong to Allah.
HOST A great waste of much needed food. What was done with them?
MUHAMMAD They were burned or buried.
HOST I think those rituals and those of any religion are silly and a waste of time.
MUHAMMAD Blasphemy! If I had my sword I’d behead you.
HOST Well, I’m grateful for your recall without your sheathed Arabian sword. Having performed Hajj rituals you returned to the Kaaba where you delivered your farewell sermon.
MUHAMMAD I reminded pilgrims they must be grateful to Allah and obey his laws. I reminded them that God commanded Abraham and Ishmael to build the Kaaba and that they were the fathers of Arabs and therefore of Muslims. I went inside and for the last time kissed the sacred Black Stone. Then I led the pilgrims from Mecca to Mount Arafat and halted in the Valley of Uranah. I maneuvered my camel onto a hill from whose height I surveyed the multitude of over 120,000 pilgrims. Recall that for the Umra our previous Hajj there were only 1600 pilgrims.
HOST Dressed in your white robe, mounted on your camel above and overlooking the crowd, you must have appeared as Allah’s true prophet. You were the most powerful leader and greatest celebrity in Arabia. I have an outline of that sermon and will prompt your memory. You opened with an invocation to Allah.
MUHAMMAD Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar! Allah I give your message once more to my people:
O My people listen carefully to my words and tell them to your children and all those unfortunates who couldn’t be here today. You are on sacred ground the property of Islam. Be mindful that a Muslim’s property is his sacred trust therefore you must return borrowed property to its rightful owner. The property that belongs to one Muslim is not the property of another unless freely given. Muslims should keep their own money. If money is borrowed Allah forbids charging interest on debt; the wealthy must waive all interest due from debtors.
HOST You spoke about Satan.
MUHAMMAD Do not yield to Satan even for small things for they accumulate to big things such as stealing and murder. You must ignore blood feuds and waive the right of retaliation to avenge harm done to a relative. Neither inflict nor suffer inequities. When I’m gone do not do injustices for you will be judjed by Allah on Judgement Day.
HOST You gave men instructions for their behavior towards women.
MUHAMMAD O my people men have certain rights and so do women. Under his trust and with his permission Allah compassionately gives you women as wives. You must feed and clothe them and be kind to them for they are your helpmates. Your wives must be chaste; they must be friendly only to those whom your husband approves, they must never consort other men .
HOST You talked about Adam and Eve and human relations.
MUHAMMAD O my people I implore you to be tolerant of one another. Always remember the past:
>Adam and Eve are the ancestors of all mankind.
>An Arab is not superior to a non-Arab and a non-Arab is not superior to an Arab.
>A white is not superior to a non-white and a black is not superior to non-black.
>All Muslims are in one brotherhood and each Muslim is brother to another.
HOST You instructed Muslims to live a rightful life.
MUHAMMAD O my people do not disobey Allah’s laws:
>Worship only the compassionate and merciful Allah and be grateful to him for his guidance.
>Facing Mecca pray 5 times a day.
>Do not tamper with the Islamic lunar calendar.
>You must fast during the month of Ramadan.
>At least once in your lifetime perform the Hajj if possible.
>Taxes on the wealthy must be given as alms to the poor.
>You must be as slaves to Allah because he is your master.
He gave you freedom from Satan therefore you must live according to his will and laws. You live to service Allah and obey his laws.
HOST Ending your sermon you spoke of God’s chosen ones and closed with an admonition.
MUHAMMAD Allah be my witness that I have given your messages to my people and carried out my mission. O my people if you submit to Allah and are obedient to his laws you will never go astray. If you obey and follow Allah he will take you to paradise. Remember my people I leave my words and way of life for you. Tell your children and others what I have told you this day. O my people I am Allah’s last prophet and apostle of Islam. No other will come after me because Allah has given me his ‘Seal of Prophets’.
HOST When you returned to Medina you became seriously ill.
MUHAMMAD For several days I suffered severe headaches and bodily weakness. I had a bitter taste in my mouth. It reminded me of the bitterness of poisoned lamb.
HOST That episode happened 3 years ago. Is it possible the little poison you swallowed took 3 years to affect you?
MUHAMMAD I don’t know but I had a bitter metallic taste in my mouth.
HOST You had revelations for 23 years, from 610 until 632.
MUHAMMAD I had most of my revelations when I was with Khadijah and Aisha.
HOST Did you love them more than your other wives?
MUHAMMAD I loved them most of all.
HOST When you became seriously ill were you still having revelations?
MUHAMMAD No, I couldn’t enter into deep meditation.
HOST When you returned to Mediana you fell ill. Your increasing debility prevented you from exercising your leadership role in the umma.
MUHAMMAD I appointed Bakr to replace me.
HOST Your weakened condition prevented you from leading prayers in the mosque.
MUHAMMAD My illness prevented me from leading prayers in the mosque so I again appointed Abu Bakr to replace me until I regained my health. I recited Allah’s 3 commandments:
I directed Bakr to repeat them to the congregation. Then I recited the 5 Pillars of Islam:
Again I directed Bakr to repeat them to the congregation.
Several days later in his presence I got an unbearably painful headache and told him "The next world is surely better than this one. Take me Aisha’s hut". He surmised the meaning of my request and quietly wept while moving me to her hut.
HOST Aisha claims that you got a raging fever, began sweating, and became delirious.
MUHAMMAD I turned to Aisha for comfort. Even though she was hot-tempered and at times criticized me she was my favorite wife. She comforted me and I found peace in her arms. When I rested my head in her lap the light bothered me so I closed my eyes and breathed slowly as she stroked my head. When I heard her quietly weeping I opened my eyes. I saw how distraught she was and I whispered to her:
‘Nay, the most Exalted Companion in paradise’ (Armstrong, p256).
HOST On 8June632 Muhammad died at age 63. Thereupon his wives grieved as traditional Arab widows wailing and beating their breasts. He was first buried where he died in ground of Aisha’s hut. As God’s final and greatest prophet he was later entombed in Medina under the green dome of the Mosque of the Prophet. In Islam his tomb is second in importance only to the Kaaba.
His 10 wives survived him. Aisha became a powerful widow active in literature, a disseminator and authority on hadith. She became politically active in helping her father Abu Bakr become Muhammad’s first successor.
End of Conversation
Summary
Muhammad Abdallah was the greatest religious leader of his time and certainly of Arabia. The moral exemplar of Islam he was a visionary gifted with extraordinary leadership skills. In revelations and dreams Allah spoke to him but Muhammad never saw Allah. Muhammad saw, heard, and spoke to angels. The Archangel Gabriel told him he was the Messenger of God, God’s last prophet, and apostle of Islam.
Allah having proclaimed him the last prophet and apostle of Islam Muhammad pursued both with the dedicated zeal of his delusional revelations. Allah was resident in Muhammad’s temporal lobes. Probably a schizophrenic he was guided by his delusional apparitions and voices.
Muhammad experienced 23 years of revelations from 610 in the Hira cave in Mecca up to 632 the year he died in Medina. Beginning with his first revelation in 610 his prophethood and apostlehood took over his life. Unless Muhammad’s reforms are considered prophecies of future Arab societies, he was more apostle than prophet because he worked only two putative miracles, splitting the moon and spiting in a well to make its polluted water drinkable. Perhaps his lack of miracles is in his favor. He preached 10 years in Mecca 612-622 and 10 years in Medina 622-632. As apostle he was obsessed with missionary zeal for converting pagans and other unbelievers in Arabia to Muslims.
As arbiter he converted the agricultural community of Yathrib to the city-state of Medina. Allah revealed to him that Muslims would triumph over unbelievers. As potentate he carried out Allah’s will mostly through the tactics of terrorism and war. Commanding fewer troops than unbelievers he won battles because he declared that Allah sent him militant angels to fight alongside Muslims. He applied dreams and revelations to military tactics in uniting the disparate tribes of Arabia into a theocratic Islamic confederacy.
Constantine the Great converted the Roman Empire from paganism to Christianism. Muhammad converted Arabia from unbelievers to Islam. This was his greatest political achievement because it instilled national pride in Arabs.
He was the singular head of Islam and ruled through personal relationships not hierarchy. He was the strong man, an absolute dictator, the head of mosque and government, a Ceasaropapist. His gifted personality enabled him to achieve extraordinary success in the many leadership roles thrust upon him,
apostle>prophet>social reformer>politician>
military commandant>Caesaropapist,
quite a list of experiences and achievements for a holy man. His lifelong ambition was to make Islam the equal of Judaism and Christianism. Perhaps Islam is religiously equal but economically it is far inferior to either Christianism or Judaism. That inferiority creates much of today’s conflicts. Since his death in 632 there hasn’t been a Muslim of comparable renown.
Muhammad the Man
Orphaned in childhood Muhammad made determined efforts to be somebody, have people pay attention to him, and be appreciative of anyone who helped him achieve his goals. Without parents his lowly status of orphan made him a poor prospects for business ventures or marriage. His orphanage was a great motivating force for personal recognition and achievement. Underneath his subservient demeanor, lack of ostentation, and saintly composure was his driving obsession for Allah in converting unbelievers to Islam. He engaged in a lifelong pursuit to make himself socially equal to Jews and Islam equal to Judaism.
Lastly if Muhammad wasn’t a satyriasist he certainly was a girlizer and womanizer. Perhaps the same energy driving his prophethood and apostlehood drove him also towards sexual relations with females. The coalition of God and sex survives today buttressed by the pedophilia of Catholic priests.
Muhammad’s Marriages
In the following summary M represents Muhammad.
1st Khadijah Khuwaylid widow 40, M 25, married 595 in Mecca, birthed 2 sons Qasim and Abdallah who died in infancy and 4 daughters Zaynab, Ruqayyah, Umm Kulthum, and Fatimah, Khadijah died before M at age 64.
2nd Sawda Zama widow 30, M 49, married 619 in Mecca, no children, she survived M and died at age 77.
3rd Aisha Bakr virgin 9, M 53, married 623 in Medina, they had no children; she survived M and became politically active. (Aisha’s age when her marriage was consummated is uncertain. At the time M was married to Sawda. Why would he marry Aisha if he didn’t intend to consummate the marriage? He could have married her when she was 10, 11, or later.)
4th Hafsah Umar widow 18, M 55, married 625 in Medina, no children, she survived M.
5th Zaynab Khuzayma widow, 30, M 55, married April 625 in Medina, no children, she died 8 months after wedding.
6th Umm Salama widow 29, M56, married 626 in Medina, no children, she survived Muhammad and lived to the old age of 84.
7th Zaynab Jahsh M's cousin divorced from his adopted son Zayd, late 30’s, M57, married 627 in Medina , no children, she survived M and lived to at least 77.
8th Juwayriya Harith, single, 19-20, M 58, married 628 in Medina, no children, she survived M.
9th Umm Habibah widow 30, M 59, married 629 in absentia in Abyssinia, no children, joined M in Medina and survived M.
10th Safiyya Huyayy (Jewess) 17, widow, M 59, married 629 in Medina, no children, she survived M.
11th Nameless woman, he 59, married 629 Medina, no children, marriage not consummated, divorced her.
12th Nameless woman, he 59, married 629 Medina, no children, marriage not consummated, divorced her.
13th Maymuna Harith widow 27, M 60, married 630 in Medina, no children, she survived M and lived to 80.
14th Maria Qibtiyya 18?, M 60, married in Medina 631, she survived M for 5 years and died in 637. (Maria was his teen concubine; she birthed M a son Ibrahim who died in infancy. M married her in hope she would birth him another son to be his successor.
All Muhammad’s wives were Muslim or converted to Islam when they married him. Except for Khadijah Khuwaylid and Zaynab Khuzayma his wives survived him (died in 632). Because his wives were honored as ‘Mothers of the Believers’ it was incestuous for a Muslim man to marry any of Muhammad’s widows.
In the Quran Chapter 4. An-Nisa (The Women) mentions that Muslims may marry up to 4 women. But Chapter 33. Al-Ahzab (The Clans) permits Muhammad to have many wives and makes the ex post facto exception for Zaynab Jahsh (ex-wife of Muhammad’s son) giving her to Muhammad - "We gave her to you in marriage" The Quran approves of his marriages to women irrespective of age or relationship (applicable to 9 year-old Aisha).
Muhammad’s Religious Intolerance
Muhammad wanted freedom to practice Islam but was intolerant of all
other religions. Here are several notable examples:
In 610 his preaching demeaned pagans in Mecca and its environs by trying to convert them to Islam.
In 614 he did it again by trying to convert to Islam his own pagan clan and tribe. They resisted and warned him to stop but he continued to preach.
In 616 he demeaned pagans and their ancestors.
In 619 he took advantage of pagan hospitality in Taif and tried to convert them to Islam.
In 624 he expelled the Qaynuqua Jews from Medina.
In 625 he expelled the Nadir Jews from Medina.
In 627 he beheaded all male Jews of the Qurayza.
In 630 he destroyed all the pagan idols and shrines in and around Mecca. In different cities he destroyed the 3 most sacred pagan shrines in Arabia.
From 630-632 Muhammad’s military campaigns were fought to convert unbelievers to Islam. He spread Islam by conversion, subjugation, and war. People who converted became Muslims without punishment. People who refused to convert were subjugated by Muhammad and punished by having to pay tribute, taxes, and share their food harvests. People who refused to convert or be subjugated were attacked by Muhammad’s army. The men were executed usually by beheading and the women and children sold into slavery.
Muhammad’s Military Campaigns
Muhammad used the Arabian sword in battles (killings) and confrontations/expeditions (probably some killing).
Badr battle March 624, victory
Qaynuqa confrontation and expulsion March 624
Uhud battle March 625, defeat
Ndadir confrontation and expulsion 625
The Trench battle 627, victory
Qurayza battle 627, victory
Hudaybiya confrontation 628
Khaybar battle 628, victory
Muta battle 629, defeat
Mecca confrontation 630
Hunayn battle 630, victory
Autus battle 630, victory
Taif battle 630, victory
Tabuk 630-631, expeditions to northern Arabia
where he subjugated
tribes and cities.
The following military events were so important to Muslims they are mentioned in the Quran:
Battle of Badr, Chapter 3. Aal-E-Imran (Family of ‘Imran).
Expulsion of the Nadir Jews, Chapter 59. Al-Hashr (Exile).
Battle of Hunayn, Chapter 9. At-Tawba (Repentance).
Christians separate military and political acts from religion. Conversely Islam combines those acts to comply with Allah’s preference for fighters over pacifists.
O thou prophet, stir up the believers to fight: 'If there be twenty of you who endure, they will overcome two hundred, and if there be a hundred of you they will overcome a thousand of those who have disbelieved …’ (Watt, p25).
After conquering Mecca the most important and populated city in Arabia Muhammad spread Islam in the vast desert areas where scattered nomadic Bedouins were still practicing paganism. In his military crusade for spreading Islam throughout Arabia Muhammad was a follower of Attila King of Huns (406-453) who subjugated Europe and predecessor to Genghis Khan (1162-1227) who subjugated most of Asia.
There’s no doubt that if Muhammad had an army equal to the Romans or Persians he’d have tried to subjugate the Fertile Crescent and Middle East. He and Hitler had in common military conquests and political reforms. Muhammad conquered the Arabian peninsula to spread Islam. Hitler conquered Europe to spread Nazism. Today the Saudi Arabia flag has a representation of Muhammad’s Arabian sword.
Muhammad’s Legacy
Muhammad gave to posterity his words and way of life called Islam, a contradictory religion for good and evil.
The Good. Muhammad bequeathed to Arabia the one God Allah of Islam and equality between mosque and state. His social reforms demanded the ethical behavior of men and women. The rights of women were nearly equal to those of men because women were allowed to divorce and inherit wealth and retain wealth. He decreed prohibitions against female infanticide and drinking alcohol. He didn’t prohibit slavery but decreed slaves had social and religious rights. His economic reforms were based on socialism. He believed in welfare for those in need. Wealth was to be distributed from the rich to the poor. In fact he levied a tax on the rich to be used for alms to the poor. Conversely he believed in individual responsibility, a contradiction of his socialism. During his life he changed the religion of Arabia and after his death that of the Middle East. Today Islam is practiced throughout the world.
The Evil. Muhammad also bequeathed the Islamic fatwa and jihad. Under the guise of Allah’s approval and with impunity he raided caravans to steal their cargoes, had his enemies assassinated, beheaded Jews, instigated wars, and killed unbelievers. He subjugated Arabian pagan tribes, destroyed their sacred shrines, and killed unbelievers who refused to convert to Islam. In Saudi Arabia the terrorism of Muslim zealots called Wahhabis use the fatwa and jihad as Muhammad did.
In the American generated Iraq War terrorists whether Shia or Sunni are engaged in internecine evil. In Sudan in its Dafur region Muslims are committing genocide against Muslims. These evils are compounded by the silent evil and tacit approval of cowardly Islamic leaders worldwide who fail to denounce terrorists. In America Muslim college professors praise terrorists as heroes and martyrs because they ape Muhammad the moral exemplar for all mankind. Today Muhammad’s achievements are like straws carried away by the odious winds of Muslim terrorists who are killing unbelievers and each other. Today Islam lacks any counterbalancing good and Muslims in Iran are still trying to emulate Jews by building an Atomic bomb. Where is the Muslim who will rescue Islam from today’s hateful, barbaric, and murderous Islamic religion?
Muhammad the Demigod
As Allah’s ‘Messenger of God’ and ‘Seal of Prophets’ Muhammad’s presence expelled the devil. Muhammad was regent for converting unbelievers to Islam, Allah’s chosen religion. Perhaps to his credit Muhammad was not a prophet in the Biblical sense of Moses or Jesus; they performed many miracles. Even though Muhammad never performed any miracles Muslims publicize him as surpassing Moses and Jesus because Muhammad, the perfect man and moral exemplar, represents not only Islam but all mankind present and future.
From Judaism Muhammad developed Islam. Many Muslims act as if they are religiously deprived because Islam is not a truly Arabian or new religion like Christianity. Their deprivation is manifest in their inordinately and excessively flattering descriptions of Muhammad. Muslims converted the man for all reasons to demigod. Muslims praise him in such outlandishly laudable terms that they converted an extraordinarily gifted man to a fictional character, a ridiculous cartoon of a human, a grotesquerie of a great man. They have dressed Muhammad not in his simple coarse white robe but in the exhibitive arabesque vestments of a demigod. Any reference to him must be followed by PBUH (peace be upon him). It’s claimed that for each act of praise for Muhammad Allah blesses the praiser 10 times over his normal blessing. Muslims yearning for Allahs’ tenfold praise created hundreds of praises for Muhammad such as:
Peace be Upon Him (PBUH)
Upon Him be Peace and Blessings
God’s Blessings and Peace be Upon Him
One cannot read anything about Muhammad without these praises purposefully interjected throughout the writing. Is this salient writing style an Arabic convention or do writers of Muhammad want to detour readers from absent facts? Do Muslims persist in their superfluous praises of Muhammad to compensate for their presumption of religious inferiority? Perhaps a Muslim is not true to Islam unless he loves Muhammad more than himself, his family, and all of mankind. This appears to be the ideology of the irrational radical minds of terrorists who purposefully blow up themselves and indiscriminately innocent others.
Criticism of Muhammad
To criticize Muhammad is to criticize Allah. Therefore Muslims consider blasphemous any criticism or negative portrayals of Muhammad. Those are so offensive to Muslims their religious inferiority exacerbates the ancient Arabic custom of tribal vengeance upon the perpetrator. One can’t even refer to historic facts without incurring the wrath of zealous Muslims. For example in 622 Muhammad escaped Mecca for Yathrib because he was being pursued by bounty hunters out to kill him. Muslims insist that he departed Mecca of his own will and that it was a normal and planned ‘emigration’ (Hijra) of his own choosing. Today Muslims respond to criticism of Muhammad in the ancient Arabic tradition of vengeance. In coordinated worldwide reaction they demonstrate, destroy property, and even by kill a presumed perpetrator by order of fatwa or jihad. Moreover some Muslims consider any ‘factual evidence’ critical of Muhammad to be punishable by death. Consider the event of Pope Benedict 16. In 2006 he quoted a medieval scholar critical of Muhammad. Thereupon Muslim leaders publicly condemned him and several wanted him killed.
In the Quran there’s no criticism or contradiction of Muhammad. He was considered the perfect man, a crown jewel among base stones. The Quran presents him as the eternal exemplar of Islam praising his holiness and his humanitarian, military, and political skills. It excuses his beheadings, murders, pedophilia, and polygamy. Muhammad was indeed a contradiction of human traits and a man for any adventure of human experience. Any doubt or question about his behavior is excused or allowed ‘ex post facto’ with praise heaped upon praise for his behavior, the acts of the perfect man and moral exemplar for all mankind. For Muhammad what he did was more telling than what he said.
Depictions of Muhammmad
In art it’s blasphemous to show Muhammad’s face because it’s considered the ineffable face of Allah. Any image or picture of Muhammad is prohibited to prevent the idolatry of pagan worship. For the same reason to depict Muhammad is blacphemous except for his ascent to heaven with his face veiled. Moreover the veil must be embroidered with either an arabesque pattern in gold filigree or Quranic text of gold threads.
Muhammad’s Successors
Muhammad’s wives comprised his immediate family. Members of his extended family were Abu Bakr and Umar Khattab (fathers-in-law) Ali Talib and Uthman Affan (sons-in-law). Muhammad died without a son to succeed him so he announced that Ali Talib his son-in-law should be his successor. Arabic tradition of sons succeeding fathers is still true today in the Middle East where dictators pass power to their sons. The passing of power to a son was against Muhammad’s decree that power should be passed to a meritorious leader (sons-in-law could also be meritorious leaders).
There were disagreements about who should be his successor. Emigrants named Abu Bakr as his successor but Helpers named one of their own Sa’d Ubahah. Because of the many disputes among Muslims Muhammad’s grandson Husein established a separate group called Shia. Disputes over succession devolved to the eventual Islamic divisions of Shia and Sunni. Shias believed Ali Talib was the legitimate successor but Sunnis believed it was Abu Bakr. It happened that the order of succession was:
Aisha was politically active and led a revolt against Ali Talib (Shia) to be the 4th successor. Thereafter a rival group was formed called Sunni. Worldwide Sunnis are by far the much larger group. Today Muhammad’s self-appointed successor Osama bin Laden lives in delusionary solitude in a cave.
This Postlog is not intended to detail the differences and disputes between Shias and Sunnis but among the many differences Shias believe in the divine mysteries of the Quran while Sunnis believe in its literal meaning as revealed by Allah. The two groups argue over such petty items as Muhammad’s birthday, how to celebrate it, number of his wives and children. Muslims persecute each other over these and other petty disagreements. The hadith and sunna present more serious disputes. Many Shia hadith differ from Sunni hadith. Differences in their Islamic interpretations precipitated animosities that frequently resulted in killing each other. What’s in Islam that makes Muslims kill each other? Could it be Muhammad as exemplar? Today they’re still killing each other because of those differences.
Origins of Quran
The Quran contains the purported ‘recitation’ of Allah’s verses heard by Muhammad in his revelations and dreams. He was illiterate so everything in the Quran must be only a presumption of what he said and did. He originated some of the information in the Quran but he was not its author and never saw or had a copy of it. Any mention of the Quran in this book is a reference to the ‘physical book’ of Islamic text compiled ‘after’ Muhammad’s death.
The reason the Quran exists is that Muhammad’s companions memorized or recorded what he said and what he did. Whether oral or written the accounts are called hadith. His presumed words and way of life were disseminated generation to generation. Obviously the telling and retelling of hadith must have added, changed, or deleted some of the original information. Eventually hadith were elaborated to sunna, examples of Muhammad’s way of life as moral exemplar. Moreover hadith and sunna must have had miscible interfaces abounding with contradictions and ambiguities.
After Muhammad’s death his first successor Abu Bakr (632-634) supervised the first compilation of the lesser Quran in which hadith and sunna, true and/or fictional, were collected, combined, interpreted, edited, and rewritten. It must have had hundreds of authors (contributors). The third successor Uthman Affan (644-656) supervised the final compilation in which the Quran was critically revised. The entire effort, recension, became the final 114 chapters of the greater Quran.
Quran Reflects Muhammad
Given that hadith are all about what Muhammad said and did, and that sunna are examples of his way of life, the Quran is more about Muhammad than Allah. In fact of the 114 chapters of the Quran only 2 refer to Allah,
Chapter 40. Al-Ghafir (The Forgiver God)
Chapter 87. Al-Ala (The Most High)
but it’s interwoven with Allah’s love for grateful Muslims and his punishment of ungrateful Muslims.
The Quran is a handbook for total belief in Muhammad and submission to Allah. It’s the foundation of Islamic life – its culture, politics, theocracy, and religion. Its inexhaustible minutiae have the authority of statutory law imposing total control over every aspect of a Muslim’s life whether private or public, whether living or dead. Islam combines secularity with religion. Judaism and Christianism separate them.
Attributed to Muhammad the Quran is an anthology of Islamic philosophy, its customs and beliefs. It is obviously the product of public relations efforts by Islamic leaders because it excuses and legitimizes Muhammad’s faults and intolerance by declaring ‘ex post facto’ that Allah approved of all his words and deeds. The Quran is the book of Al-Mumtahina (She that is to be Examined) and needs to be redone. Overall the Quran represents Muhammad’s philosophical gobbledygook.
Quran Replaces Bible
Muslims believe the Quran replaces the Bible because it represents God’s third and final attempt at revealing an acceptable religion for mankind. Mulims believe the Quran is an improvement over the Bible because it came directly from Allah, symbolically:
Allah>Quran>Gabriiel>Muhammad
Hadith and sunna refute this belief. The development of the Quran might be symbolically expressed as follows:
Muhammad>revelations/dreams>hadith>
sunna>death>successor>recension>Quran
Keep in mind Muhammad is presumed the first contributor to the Quran but he didn’t write, edit, or help in compiling it; he was illiterate. Moreover he never had or saw a copy of the Quran because it was compiled after his death.
English and Arabic Languages
English is an alphabetic language enabling writers to precisely express themselves in their choices of words. In English writing there are spaces between words and delimiters between sentences. Arabic is a symbolic language whose miniature pictures support the adage ‘a picture is worth a thousand words’. That’s a problem in translating Arabic to English because each English word might require several different symbols depending upon who’s doing the Arabic writing. The following examples are taken from the English-Arabic Dictionary, Wortabet and Porter and the Oxford English-Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage:
atheist 3-5
God 3-4
prophet 2-3
Moreover some Arabic phonemes have no English equivalence. Arabic is such a vague language that translating the Quran yields many different versions.
Translating Arabic to English is like trying to separate egg whites and yolks after they’ve been stirred. Arabic writing approaches and hints at what it wants to express by circumambulating specificity. This might be the reason why each Arabic verse in the Quran requires several different English translations by Islamic scholars. Furthermore different Islamic groups have their own versions of the Quran. A reader might be tempted to ask "Will the real Quran stand up"? It’s difficult to determine specifics from symbolic language unless of course the symbols are for mathematics.
End of Book