Criticism of Muhammad

Criticism of Muhammad has existed since the 7th century, when Muhammad was decried by his non-Muslim Arab contemporaries for preaching monotheism, and by the Jewish tribes of Arabia for what they claimed were unwarranted appropriation of Biblical narratives and figures,[6] vituperation of the Jewish faith,[6] and proclaiming himself as "the last prophet" without performing any miracle or showing any personal requirement demanded in the Hebrew Bible to distinguish a true prophet chosen by the God of Israel from a false claimant. For these reasons, they gave him the derogatory nickname ha-Meshuggah (Hebrew: מְשֻׁגָּע‬‎, "the Madman" or "the Possessed").[7][8][9] During the Middle Ages various[3][4][5][10] Western and Byzantine Christian thinkers considered Muhammad to be a perverted,[3][5] deplorable man,[3][5] a false prophet,[3][4][5] and even the Antichrist,[3][4] as he was frequently seen in Christendom as a heretic[2][3][4][5] or possessed by demons.[2][5] Some of them, like Thomas Aquinas, criticized Muhammad's promises of carnal pleasure in the afterlife.[5]

Dante's Inferno casts Muhammad in Hell,[1][2][3] reflecting his negative image in the Christian world.[3][4][5] Here, William Blake's illustration of Inferno depicts Muhammad pulling his chest open which has been sliced by a demon to symbolize his role as a "schismatic",[2][3] since Islam was considered a heresy by Medieval Christians.[3][4][5]

Modern religious[3][11][12] and secular[13][14][15][16] criticism of Islam[11][12][13][14][15][16] has concerned Muhammad's sincerity in claiming to be a prophet, his morality, his ownership of slaves,[17][18] his treatment of enemies, his marriages,[19] his treatment of doctrinal matters, and his alleged psychological condition. Muhammad has been accused of sadism and mercilessness—including the invasion of the Banu Qurayza tribe in Medina[20][21][22][23][24][25]—sexual relationships with slaves, and his marriage to Aisha when she was six years old,[19][26][27] which according to most estimates was consummated when she was nine.[28]

Critics

Ex-Muslim Atheist/Agnostic criticism

Many early former Muslims such as Ibn al-Rawandi, Al-Ma'arri, and Abu Isa al-Warraq were famous religious skeptics, polymaths, and philosophers that criticized Islam,[10] the alleged authority and reliability of the Qu'ran,[10] Muhammad's morality,[10] and his claims to be a prophet.[10][29]

The Quran also mentions critics of Muhammad; for example Quran 25:4-6 says the critics complained that Mohammad was passing off what others were telling him as revelations:

Those who disbelieve say, "This is nothing but a lie that he made up, and others have helped him at it...Tales of the ancients; he wrote them down; they are dictated to him morning and evening."[30]

Jewish criticism

In the Middle Ages, it was common for Jewish writers to describe Muhammad as ha-Meshuggah ("The Madman"), a term of contempt frequently used in the Bible for those who believe themselves to be prophets.[7]

Christian criticism

Early Middle Ages

The earliest documented Christian knowledge of Muhammad stems from Byzantine sources, written shortly after Muhammad's death in 632. In the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati, a dialogue between a recent Christian convert and several Jews, one participant writes that his brother "wrote to [him] saying that a deceiving prophet has appeared amidst the Saracens". Another participant in the Doctrina replies about Muhammad: "He is deceiving. For do prophets come with sword and chariot?, …[Y]ou will discover nothing true from the said prophet except human bloodshed".[31]

Muhammed and the Monk Sergius (Bahira), 1508, by Dutch artist Lucas van Leyden. In early Christian criticism, it was claimed that Bahira was a heretical monk whose errant views inspired the Qur'an.[32]

One Christian who came under the early dominion of the Islamic Caliphate was John of Damascus (c. 676–749 AD), who was familiar with Islam and Arabic. The second chapter of his book, The Fount of Wisdom, titled "Concerning Heresies", presents a series of discussions between Christians and Muslims. John claimed that an Arian monk (whom he did not know was Bahira) influenced Muhammad and the writer viewed the Islamic doctrines as nothing more than a hodgepodge culled from the Bible.[33] Among the first sources representing Muhammad is the polemical work "Concerning Heresy" (Perì hairéseōn) of John of Damascus, translated from Greek into Latin. In this manuscript, the Syrian priest represents Muhammad as a "false prophet," and an "Antichrist". Some demonstrate that Muhammad was pointed out in this manuscript as "Mamed",[34] but this study was corrected by Ahlam Sbaihat who affirmed that it is the form ΜΩΑΜΕθ (Moameth) which is mentioned in this manuscript. The phoneme h and the gemination of m do not exist in Greek so it has disappeared from John's uses.[35]

From the 9th century onwards, highly negative biographies of Muhammad were written in Latin,[36] such as the one by Álvaro of Córdoba proclaiming him the Antichrist.[37] Since the 7th century, Muhammad and his name have been connected to several stereotypes. Many sources mentioned exaggerated and sometimes wrong stereotypes. These stereotypes are born in the East but adopted by or developed in Western cultures. These references played a principal role in introducing Muhammad and his religion to the West as the false prophet, Saracen prince or deity, the Biblical beast, a schismatic from Christianity and a satanic creature, and the Antichrist.[38]

Middle Ages

During the 12th century Peter the Venerable, who saw Muhammad as the precursor to the Anti-Christ and the successor of Arius,[37] ordered the translation of the Qur'an into Latin (Lex Mahumet pseudoprophete) and the collection of information on Muhammad so that Islamic teachings could be refuted by Christian scholars.[36] During the 13th century a series of works by European scholars such as Pedro Pascual, Ricoldo de Monte Croce, and Ramon Llull[36] depicted Muhammad as an Antichrist and argued that Islam was a Christian heresy.[36]

The fact that Muhammad was unlettered, that he married a wealthy widow, that in his later life he had several wives, that he ruled over a human community, was involved in several wars, and that he died like an ordinary person in contrast to the Christian belief in the supernatural end of Christ's earthly life were all arguments used to discredit Muhammad.[36] One common allegation laid against Muhammad was that he was an impostor who, in order to satisfy his ambition and his lust, propagated religious teachings that he knew to be false.[39] Some medieval ecclesiastical writers portrayed Muhammad as possessed by Satan, a "precursor of the Antichrist" or the Antichrist himself.[40] In Dante's The Divine Comedy, Muhammad dwells in the 9th Bolgia of the Eighth Circle of Hell and is depicted as disemboweled; the contrapasso represented thereby implicates Muhammad as a schismatic, figuratively rending the body of the Catholic Church and compromising the integrity of the truth of Christianity in the same way Muhammad's body is depicted as literally wounded.

Peter the Venerable, with other monks, 13th-century illuminated manuscript.

A more positive interpretation appears in the 13th-century Estoire del Saint Grail, the first book in the vast Arthurian cycle, the Lancelot-Grail. In describing the travels of Joseph of Arimathea, keeper of the Holy Grail, the author says that most residents of the Middle East were pagans until the coming of Muhammad, who is shown as a true prophet sent by God to bring Christianity to the region. This mission however failed when Muhammad's pride caused him to alter God's wishes, thereby deceiving his followers. Nevertheless, Muhammad's religion is portrayed as being greatly superior to paganism.[41]

The Tultusceptrum de libro domni Metobii, an Andalusian manuscript with unknown dating, recounts how Muhammad (called Ozim, from Hashim) was tricked by Satan into adulterating an originally pure divine revelation. The story argues God was concerned about the spiritual fate of the Arabs and wanted to correct their deviation from the faith. He then sends an angel to the monk Osius who orders him to preach to the Arabs. Osius however is in ill-health and orders a young monk, Ozim, to carry out the angel's orders instead. Ozim sets out to follow his orders, but gets stopped by an evil angel on the way. The ignorant Ozim believes him to be the same angel that spoke to Osius before. The evil angel modifies and corrupts the original message given to Ozim by Osius, and renames Ozim Muhammad. From this followed the erroneous teachings of Islam, according to the Tultusceptrum.[42]

Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas was highly critical of Muhammad's character and ethics, claiming that his teachings were largely in conformity to his immoral lifestyle. He wrote in Summa Contra Gentiles:

""[Muhammad] seduced the people by promises of carnal pleasure to which the concupiscence of the flesh goads us. His teaching also contained precepts that were in conformity with his promises, and he gave free rein to carnal pleasure. In all this, as is not unexpected, he was obeyed by carnal men. As for proofs of the truth of his doctrine, he brought forward only such as could be grasped by the natural ability of anyone with a very modest wisdom... Nor do divine pronouncements on the part of preceding prophets offer him any witness. On the contrary, he perverts almost all the testimonies of the Old and New Testaments by making them into fabrications of his own, as can be seen by anyone who examines his law. It was, therefore, a shrewd decision on his part to forbid his followers to read the Old and New Testaments, lest these books convict him of falsity. It is thus clear that those who place any faith in his words believe foolishly".[43]

Martin Luther

Martin Luther referred to Muhammad as "a devil and first-born child of Satan."[44] Luther's primary target of criticism at the time was the Pope, and Luther's characterization of Muhammad was intended to draw a comparison to show that the Pope was worse.[45]

20th-century

In the early 20th century Western scholarly views of Muhammad changed, including critical views. In the 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia Gabriel Oussani states that Muhammad was inspired by an "imperfect understanding" of Judaism and Christianity, but that the views of Luther and those who call Muhammad a "wicked impostor", a "dastardly liar" and a "willful deceiver" are an "indiscriminate abuse" and "unsupported by facts." Instead, 19th-century Western scholars such as Aloys Sprenger, Theodor Noldeke, Gustav Weil, William Muir, Sigismund Koelle, Grimme and D.S. Margoliouth "give us a more correct and unbiased estimate of Muhammad's life and character, and substantially agree as to his motives, prophetic call, personal qualifications, and sincerity."[40]

Muir, Marcus Dods and others have suggested that Muhammad was at first sincere, but later became deceptive. Koelle finds "the key to the first period of Muhammad's life in Khadija, his first wife," after whose death he became prey to his "evil passions."[40] Samuel Marinus Zwemer, a Christian missionary, criticised the life of Muhammad by the standards of the Old and New Testaments, by the pagan morality of his Arab compatriots, and last, by the new law which he brought.[46] Quoting Johnstone, Zwemer concludes by claiming that his harsh judgment rests on evidence which "comes all from the lips and the pens of his [i.e. Muhammad's] own devoted adherents."[40][47]

Hindu criticism

Nineteenth century

Swami Vivekananda

In his 1875 work Satyarth Prakash, Dayanand Saraswati, the founder of Arya Samaj, quoted and interpreted several verses of the Koran and described Muhammad as "pugnacious", an "imposter", and one who held out "a bait to men and women, in the name of God, to compass his own selfish needs."[48] Swami Vivekananda wrote in his 1896 book Raja Yoga that though Muhammad was inspired, "he was not a trained Yogi, nor did he know the reason of what he was doing." Vivekananda wrote that great evil has been done through Muhammad's fanaticism with "whole countries destroyed" and "millions upon millions of people killed."[49]

1920s caricatures

In the 1920s, three caricatures published by Hindus attacked Muhammad and marriages—the book Vichitra Jivan (meaning Strange Life) by Pandit Kalicharan Sharma in 1923, the pamphlet Rangila Rasul (meaning The Colourful Prophet) by an anonymous author going by the pseudonym of Pandit Chamupati in 1924, and the essay Sair-i-Dozakh (meaning The Trip to Hell) by Devi Sharan Sharma in 1927.[50][51] In Vichitra Jivan, Sharma wrote that Muhammad fell victim to many evils, all his marriages were extraordinary and improper, and that he suffered from epilepsy.[50]

Sharma examined in detail the "marvelous powers" of Muhammad, the "products of his body", and every feature of his "marital and sexual relations", and ended the book by saying that such a person could not have been a divine messenger.[50] The Sair-i-Dozakh was a take on the Isra and Mi'raj, Muhammad's journey to heaven and hell according to Islamic traditions. Described as a "brutal satire" by Gene Thursby, it described a dream purportedly experienced by the author in which he mounts a mysterious animal and sees various Hindu and Sikh deities and Gurus in the realm of salvation.[50]

Modern criticism

Jai Maharaj, sponsor of the Satyameva Jayate website, wrote that Muhammad was "in fact a terrorist, criminal and murderer whose entire life was based on victimizing innocents and indulging in mindless violence, carnage and massacre." Maharaj chronicled what he called were Muhammad's "criminal acts in the form of battles and murders", including the killing of four merchants during the sacred month of Rajab, the killing of 70 merchants and 900 men from Mecca, the killing of the poets 'Asma' bint Marwan and Abu 'Afak, and the initial motivation to kill followed by eventual expelling of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qaynuqa.[52]

Voltaire

Frontispiece of the 1753 edition of Voltaire's play Mahomet

Mahomet (French: Le fanatisme, ou Mahomet le Prophète, literally "Fanaticism, or Mahomet the Prophet") is a five-act tragedy written in 1736 by French playwright and philosopher Voltaire. It made its debut performance in Lille on 25 April 1741. The play is a study of religious fanaticism and self-serving manipulation based on an episode in the traditional biography of Muhammad in which he orders the murder of his critics. Voltaire described the play as "written in opposition to the founder of a false and barbarous sect to whom could I with more propriety inscribe a satire on the cruelty and errors of a false prophet".[53]

In a letter to Frederick II of Prussia in 1740 Voltaire ascribes to Muhammad a brutality that "is assuredly nothing any man can excuse" and suggests that his following stems from superstition and lack of Enlightenment.[54] He wanted to portray Muhammad as "Tartuffe with a sword in his hand."[55][56]

Modern Western criticisms

Modern critics have criticized Muhammad for preaching beliefs that are incompatible with democracy; Somali-Dutch feminist writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali has called him a "tyrant"[57] and a "pervert".[58] The Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders calls Muhammad a "mass murderer and a pedophile".[59]

Neuroscientist and prominent ideological critic Sam Harris contrasts the example of Muhammad with that of Jesus Christ. While he regards Christ as something of a "hippie" figure, Muhammad is an altogether different character and one whose example "as held in Islam is universally not [that of] a pacifist," but rather one of a "conquering warlord who spread the faith by the sword." Harris notes that while sayings such as "render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's" provide Christianity with a "rationale for peace," it is impossible to justify non-violence as central to Islam. Harris says that the example of Muhammad provides an imperative to "convert, subjugate, or kill" and "the core principle of Islam is Jihad."[60] Harris also suggests that Muhammad "may well have been schizophrenic," dismissing Muhammad's claim that the Koran was dictated to him by the archangel Gabriel.[61]

American historian Daniel Pipes sees Muhammad as a politician, stating that "because Muhammad created a new community, the religion that was its raison d'être had to meet the political needs of its adherents."[62]

In 2012 a film titled Innocence of Muslims and alternatively The Real Life of Muhammad and Muhammad Movie Trailer was released by Nakoula Basseley Nakoula. A Vanity Fair article described the video as "Exceptionally amateurish, with disjointed dialogue, jumpy editing, and performances that would have looked melodramatic even in a silent movie, the clip is clearly designed to offend Muslims, portraying Mohammed as a bloodthirsty murderer and Lothario and pedophile with omnidirectional sexual appetites."[63] Reacting to the release of the film, violent demonstrations and attacks targeted western institutions through the Muslim world.

Points of contention

Ownership of slaves

Sociologist Rodney Stark argues that "the fundamental problem facing Muslim theologians vis-à-vis the morality of slavery is that "Muhammad bought, sold, captured, and owned slaves", and that his followers saw him as the perfect example to emulate. Stark contrasts Islam with Christianity, writing that Christian theologians wouldn't have been able to "work their way around the biblical acceptance of slavery" if Jesus had owned slaves, as Muhammad did.[64]

Slavery existed in pre-Islamic Arabia, and Muhammad never expressed any intention of abolishing the practice,[17][65] as he saw it "as part of the natural order of things".[17][65] He did want to improve the condition of slaves, and exhorted his followers to treat them more humanely,[17][65] i.e., as human beings as well as property, with kindness and compassion.[17][66][67] His decrees greatly limited those who could be enslaved and under what circumstances (including barring Muslims from enslaving other Muslims), allowed slaves to achieve their freedom and made freeing slaves a virtuous act.[67] He made it legal for his men to marry their slaves and the women they captured in war.[68][67] Muhammad would send his companions like Abu Bakr and Uthman ibn Affan to buy slaves to free. Many early converts to Islam were the poor and former slaves like Bilal ibn Rabah al-Habashi.[69][70][71]

Treatment of enemies

Norman Geisler accuses Muhammad of "mercilessness" towards the Jewish tribes of Medina.[72] Geisler also argues that Muhammad "had no aversion to politically expedient assassinations", "was not indisposed to breaking promises when he found it advantageous" and "engaged in retaliation towards those who mocked him."[72] The Orientalist William Muir, in assessing Muhammad's character, described him as cruel and faithless in dealing with his enemies.[73][Note 1]

Magnanimity or moderation are nowhere discernible as features in the conduct of Mahomet towards such of his enemies as failed to tender a timely allegiance. Over the bodies of the Coreish who fell at Badr, he exulted with savage satisfaction; and several prisoners,—accused of no crime but that of scepticism and political opposition,—were deliberately executed at his command. The Prince of Kheibar, after being subjected to inhuman torture for the purpose of discovering the treasures of his tribe, was, with his cousin, put to death on the pretext of having treacherously concealed them: and his wife was led away captive to the tent of the conqueror. Sentence of exile was enforced by Mahomet with rigorous severity on two whole Jewish tribes at Medîna; and of a third, likewise his neighbours, the women and children were sold into distant captivity, while the men, amounting to several hundreds, were butchered in cold blood before his eyes. ... The perfidious attack at Nakhla, where the first blood in the internecine war with the Coreish was shed, although at first disavowed by Mahomet for its scandalous breach of the sacred usages of Arabia, was eventually justified by a pretended revelation. ... The pretext on which the Bani Nadhîr were besieged and expatriated (namely, that Gabriel had revealed their design against the prophet’s life,) was feeble and unworthy of an honest cause. When Medîna was beleaguered by the confederate army, Mahomet sought the services of Nueim, a traitor, and employed him to sow distrust among the enemy by false and treacherous reports; "for", said he, "what else is War but a game at deception?” ... And what is perhaps worst of all, the dastardly assassination of political and religious opponents, countenanced and frequently directed as they were in all their cruel and perfidious details by Mahomet himself, leaves a dark and indelible blot upon his character.[73]

Jean de Sismondi suggests that Muhammad had a specific animosity against Jews, because of the few differences that separated two mostly similar cults. He is among the historians suggesting that he killed many Jews through supplice, whereas he was usually known for his clemency.[74]

Jewish tribes of Medina

The massacre of the Banu Qurayza

Muhammad has been often criticized outside of the Islamic world for his treatment of the Jewish tribes of Medina.[75] An example is the mass killing of the men of the Banu Qurayza, a Jewish tribe of Medina. The tribe was accused of having engaged in treasonous agreements with the enemies besieging Medina in the Battle of the Trench in 627.[76][77]

Ibn Ishaq writes that Muhammad approved the beheading of some 600–700 in all, with some saying as high as 800–900, who surrendered after a siege that lasted several weeks.[78] (Also see Bukhari 5:59:362) (Yusuf Ali notes that the Qur'an discusses this battle in verses ^{[Quran 33:10]}).[79] They were buried in a mass grave in the Medina market place, and the women and children were sold into slavery.

According to Norman Stillman, the incident cannot be judged by present-day moral standards. Citing Deut. 20:13–14 as an example, Stillman states that the slaughter of adult males and the enslavement of women and children—though no doubt causing bitter suffering—was common practice throughout the ancient world.[80] According to Rudi Paret, adverse public opinion was more a point of concern to Muhammad when he had some date palms cut down during a siege, than after this incident.[81] Esposito also argues that in Muhammad's time, traitors were executed and points to similar situations in the Bible.[82] Esposito says that Muhammad's motivation was political rather than racial or theological; he was trying to establish Muslim dominance and rule in Arabia.[75]

Some historians, such as W.N. Arafat and Barakat Ahmad, have disputed the historicity of the incident.[83] Ahmad argues that only the leading members of the tribe were killed.[84][85] Arafat argued based on accounts by Malik ibn Anas and Ibn Hajar that Ibn Ishaq gathered information from descendants of the Qurayza Jews, who exaggerated the details of the incident.[86] He also maintained that not all adult males were killed but only those who actually fought in the battle, however, William Montgomery Watt described this argument as "not entirely convincing."[87]

Notable hadith according to Robert Spencer

Robert Spencer pointed out that Muhammad said in Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim:[88]

Allah's Apostle said, "I have been sent with the shortest expressions bearing the widest meanings, and I have been made victorious with terror (cast in the hearts of the enemy), and while I was sleeping, the keys of the treasures of the world were brought to me and put in my hand." Abu Huraira added: Allah's Apostle has left the world and now you, people, are bringing out those treasures (i.e. the Prophet did not benefit by them). Narrated in Abu Huraira. Sahih Bukhari 4,52,220,[89] see also Sahih Muslim 4,1062, Sahih Muslim 4,1063, Sahih Muslim 4,1066, Sahih Muslim 4,1067 and Sahih Bukhari 9,87,127.

Spencer notes that Muhammad also said in another Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim:[90]

The Prophet said, "Who is ready to kill Ka'b ibn al-Ashraf who has really hurt Allah and His Apostle?" Muhammad bin Maslama said, "O Allah's Apostle! Do you like me to kill him?" He replied in the affirmative. So, Muhammad bin Maslama went to him (i.e. Ka'b) and said, "This person (i.e. the Prophet) has put us to task and asked us for charity." Ka'b replied, "By Allah, you will get tired of him." Muhammad said to him, "We have followed him, so we dislike to leave him till we see the end of his affair." Muhammad bin Maslama went on talking to him in this way till he got the chance to kill him. Narrated Jabir bin 'Abdullah Sahih Bukhari 4,52,270,[91] see also Sahih Bukhari 5,59,369, Sahih Muslim 19,4436.

Spencer also quotes a Sahih al-Bukhari and Sahih Muslim that reads:[92]

The Prophet passed by me at a place called Al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, "They (i.e. women and children) are from them (i.e. pagans)." I also heard the Prophet saying, "The institution of Hima is invalid except for Allah and His Apostle." Narrated As-Sab bin Jaththama Sahih Bukhari 4,52,256,[93] see also Sahih Muslim 19,4321, Sahih Muslim 19,4322, Sahih Muslim 19,4323

Death of Kenana ibn al-Rabi

According to one account, after the last fort of the Jewish settlement called Khaybar was taken by Muhammad and his men, the chief of the Jews, called Kinana ibn al-Rabi, was asked by Muhammad to reveal the location of some hidden treasure. When he refused, Muhammad ordered a man to torture Kinana, and the man "kindled a fire with flint and steel on his chest until he was nearly dead." Kinana was then beheaded, and Muhammad took his young wife Safiyya as a concubine.[94]

Critics take these events, especially the story of the torture of Kinana, to be another blot on Muhammad's character.[73][95] Those few Western scholars who discuss the alleged torture of Kinana, like William Muir, have generally not questioned the validity of the story.[96] Muslims generally dispute this incident. Some claim that this was yet another story that Ibn Ishaq heard second-hand from Jewish sources, casting doubt on its authenticity.[97] Others argue that Kinana was killed in battle and never taken captive.[98]

Muhammad's marriages

Muhammad's marriages have long provided another source of Western criticism of the moral character of the prophet.

John Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path[99]

One of the popular historical criticisms of Muhammad in the West has been his polygynous marriages.[75][100][101][Note 2] According to American historian John Esposito, the Semitic cultures in general permitted polygamy (for example, the practice could be found in biblical and postbiblical Judaism); it was particularly a common practice among Arabs, especially among nobles and leaders.[75]

Muslims have often pointed out that Muhammad married Khadija (a widow whose age is estimated to have been 40), when he was 25 years old, and remained monogamous to her for more than 24 years until she died.[75] Norman Geisler frames Muhammad's marriages as a question of moral inconsistency, since Muhammad was unwilling to abide by the revealed limit of four wives that he enjoined on other men.[102] The Quran states that the limit of four wives does not apply to Muhammad.^{[Quran 33:50]} Muslims have generally responded that the marriages of Muhammad were not conducted to satisfy worldly desires or lusts, but rather they were done for a higher purpose and due to God's command.[103] Medieval Sufi, Ibn Arabi, sees Muhammad's relationships with his wives as a proof of his superiority amongst men.[104] John Esposito states that polygamy served multiple purposes, including solidifying political alliances among Arab chiefs and marrying widows of companions who died in combat that needed protection.[105]

Age of 3rd wife Aisha

From the 20th century onwards, a common point of contention has been Muhammad's marriage to Aisha, who was said in traditional Islamic sources[106] to have been six when betrothed to Muhammad,[26][27][28] and nine when she went to live with Muhammad[26][27][28] and the marriage was consummated,[26][28] although according to some scholars it is assumed that the marriage was consummated upon her reaching puberty.[28][107][108][109][110][111]

Critics such as Baptist pastor Jerry Vines and the Dutch Party for Freedom leader Geert Wilders have cited the age of Aisha to denounce Muhammad for having had sex with a nine-year-old, referring to Muhammad as a pedophile.[59][112][113] An early 20th-century adherent of the Arya Samaj Hindu reform movement noted in Rangila Rasul that Aisha was young enough to be Muhammad's granddaughter.[114]

It is described in Bukhari that Aisha, while living with Muhammad, used to play with dolls along with her girlfriends.[115][116][117] Journalist Katherine Zoepf finds this description emphasising Aisha's childishness despite being married to a man in his fifties can make for "upsetting reading".[118]

Jeremy Stangroom and Ophelia Benson argue that Aisha "was much too young to have offered anything like her informed consent, even if it had been sought". Writing that Muhammad's life is considered exemplary for Muslims and one to which all Muslim men should aspire, they quote Kecia Ali: "accepting the rightness of his act raises the question: on what basis can one reject the marriage of young girls today?" They also compare the practice of child marriage to that of colonial slavery, arguing that both practices were legal at the time but are now seen as inherently immoral.[119]

American historian of Islam Denise Spellberg states that "these specific references to the bride's age reinforce Aisha's pre-menarcheal status and, implicitly, her virginity."[28]

Colin Turner, a UK professor of Islamic studies,[120] states that marriages between an older man and a young girl, consummated once the wife reached what was considered at the time to be adult age, were customary among the Bedouins, and hence Muhammad's marriage would not have been considered improper by his contemporaries.[121] Karen Armstrong, the British author on comparative religion, has affirmed that "There was no impropriety in Muhammad's marriage to Aisha. Marriages conducted in absentia to seal an alliance were often contracted at this time between adults and minors who were even younger than Aisha. This practice continued in Europe well into the early modern period."[122]

Asma Barlas, a Pakistani-American academic, states that Muslims who calculate Aisha's age based on the more detailed information available about her sister Asma estimate that she was over 13 and perhaps between 17-19 at the time of her marriage.[123]

Zaynab bint Jahsh

Western criticism has focused especially on the marriage of Muhammad to his first cousin Zaynab bint Jahsh, the divorced wife of Zayd ibn Harithah, an ex-slave whom Muhammad had adopted as his son.[124] According to Tabari, taken from Al-Waqidi, the story goes that[125] "One day Muhammad went out looking for Zayd. There was a covering of haircloth over the doorway, but the wind had lifted the covering so that the doorway was uncovered. Zaynab was in her chamber, undressed, and admiration for her entered the heart of the Prophet. After that Allah made her unattractive to Zayd and he divorced Zainab." Karen Armstrong's 2006 biography of Muhammad contextualises this: "A pious woman, [Zaynab] was a skilled leather-worker and gave all the proceeds of her craft to the poor. Muhammad seems to have seen her with new eyes and to have fallen in love quite suddenly when he had called at her house one afternoon to speak to Zayd, who happened to be out. Not expecting any visitors, Zaynab had come to the door in dishabille, more revealingly dressed than usual, and Muhammad had averted his eyes hastily, muttering 'Praise be to Allah, who changes men's hearts!'"[122]

According to William Montgomery Watt, Zaynab herself was working for marriage with Muhammad and was not happy being married to Zayd.[126][127] Watt also places doubt on the story outlined by Al-Waqidi and states that it should be taken with a "grain of salt."[128] According to Watt, Zaynab was either thirty-five or thirty-eight years old at the time and that the story initially outlined by Al-Waqidi in which he detailed Muhammad's incident with Zaynab during the absence of Zayd may have been tampered with in the course of transmission.[128] According to Mazheruddin Siddiqi, Zaynab as the cousin of Muhammad was seen by him many times before her marriage to Zayd.[129] Siddiqi states: "He [Muhammad] had seen her many times before but he was never attracted to her physical beauty, else he would have married her, instead of insisting on her that she should marry Zaid."[130]

The English translation of the book, The Wives of the Messenger of Allah by Muhammad Swaleh Awadh, states that she was married to Muhammad in Dhul Qa'adah, in the fifth year of Hijra. Since Zaynab was the wife of Muhammad's adopted son, pre-Islamic practices frowned upon such her marriage with the prophet.[131] Arab society would have viewed this union as profoundly wrong; because they considered an adopted son was truly a "son", for a man to marry his adopted son's wife—even if she was divorced—was considered wrong.[132][133]

The marriage was used by Munafiqs of Medina to discredit Muhammad on two fronts, one of double standards as she was his fifth wife, while everyone else was restricted to four, and marrying his adopted son's wife. This was exactly what Muhammad feared and was initially hesitant in marrying her. The Qur'an, however, confirmed that this marriage was valid. Thus Muhammad, confident of his faith in the Qur'an, proceeded to reject the existing Arabic norms.[134] When Zaynab's waiting period from her divorce was complete, Muhammad married her.[135] In reference to this incident, Sura Al-Ahzab 33:37 says:

Behold! Thou didst say to one who had received the grace of Allah and thy favour: "Retain thou (in wedlock) thy wife, and fear Allah." But thou didst hide in thy heart that which Allah was about to make manifest: thou didst fear the people, but it is more fitting that thou shouldst fear Allah. Then when Zaid had dissolved (his marriage) with her, with the necessary (formality), We joined her in marriage to thee: in order that (in future) there may be no difficulty to the Believers in (the matter of) marriage with the wives of their adopted sons, when the latter have dissolved with the necessary (formality) (their marriage) with them. And Allah's command must be fulfilled.

After this verse was announced, Muhammad proceeded to reject the existing Arabic norms on the prohibition to marry the wives of adopted sons, which was considered extremely wrong and incestuous among Arabs.[136][137] Thereafter the legal status of adoption was not recognised under Islam. Zayd reverted to being known by his original name of "Zayd ibn Harithah" instead of "Zayd ibn Muhammad".[138]

Orientalists and critics have pointed to this Sura as an example of a self-serving revelation that merely reflects Muhammad's own lust and sexual desires rather than the will of God.[19][139][140][141][142][143]

Religious syncretism and compromise

John Mason Neale (1818–1866) accused Muhammad of pandering to his followers, arguing that he constructed Islam out of a mixture of beliefs that provided something for everyone.[144]

That Mahomet was not the enthusiast which some semi-infidel or latitudinarian authors have considered him, is evident from the ingenuity with which, while he panders to the passions of his followers, he also infuses into his religion so much of each of those tenets to which the varying sects of his countrymen were addicted, as to enable each and all to please themselves by the belief that the new doctrine was only a reform of, and improvement on, that to which they had been accustomed. The Christians were conciliated by the acknowledgment of our LORD as the Greatest of Prophets; the Jews, by the respectful mention of Moses and their other Lawgivers; the idolaters, by the veneration which the Impostor professed for the Temple of Mecca, and the black stone which it contained; and the Chaldeans, by the pre-eminence which he gives to the ministrations of the Angel Gabriel, and his whole scheme of the Seven Heavens. To a people devoted to the gratification of their passions and addicted to Oriental luxury, he appealed, not unsuccessfully, by the promise of a Paradise whose sensual delights were unbounded, and the permission of a free exercise of pleasures in this world.[144]

Thomas Patrick Hughes (b. 1838) argued that the Hajj represents an expedient compromise between Muhammad's monotheistic principles and Arabian paganism.[145]

The Makkan pilgrimage admits of no other explanation than this, that the Prophet of Arabia found it expedient to compromise with Arabian idolatry. And hence we find the superstition and silly customs of the Ḥajj grafted on to a religion which professes to be both monotheistic in its principle, and iconoclastic in its practices.

A careful and critical study of Islām will, we think, convince any candid mind that at first Muḥammad intended to construct his religion on the lines of the Old Testament. Abraham, the true Muslim, was his prototype, Moses his law-giver, and Jerusalem his Qiblah. But circumstances were ever wont to change not only the Prophet’s revelations, but also his moral standards. Makkah became the Qiblah; and the spectacle of the Muslim world bowing in the direction of a black stone, whilst they worship the one God, marks Islām, with its Makkan pilgrimage; as a religion of compromise.

Apologists of Islām have endeavoured to shield Muḥammad from the solemn charge of having "forged the name of God", but we know of nothing which can justify the act of giving the stupid and unmeaning ceremonies of the pilgrimage all the force and solemnity of a divine enactment.[145]

Islamic scholar Yasir Qadhi stated that while non-Muslims believe Muhammad "adopted certain things from paganism and then added his own two cents for us", he instead states that Muhammad resurrected the original teachings of the Islamic prophet Ibrahim, citing an Islamic narrative of a man named Amr Ibn Luhay who later introduced paganism in Arabia.[146][147] Muḥammad ibn ʻAbd Allāh Azraqī mentions the story his book titled Kitāb akhbār Makkah.[147]

Psychological and medical condition

Muhammad depicted as having a seizure (1640)

Humphrey Prideaux, engraving by John Simon

Muhammad is reported to have had mysterious seizures at the moments of inspiration. According to Philip Schaff (1819–1893), during his revelations Muhammad "sometimes growled like a camel, foamed at his mouth, and streamed with perspiration."[148] Welch, a scholar of Islamic studies, in the Encyclopedia of Islam states that the graphic descriptions of Muhammad's condition at these moments may be regarded as genuine, since they are unlikely to have been invented by later Muslims. According to Welch, these seizures should have been the most convincing evidence for the superhuman origin of Muhammad's inspirations for people around him. Others adopted alternative explanations for these seizures and claimed that he was possessed, a soothsayer, or a magician. Welch states it remains uncertain whether Muhammad had such experiences before he began to see himself as a prophet and if so how long did he have such experiences.[149]

According to Temkin, the first attribution of epileptic seizures to Muhammad comes from the 8th century Byzantine historian Theophanes who wrote that Muhammad's wife "was very much grieved that she, being of noble descent, was tied to such a man, who was not only poor but epileptic as well."[150] In the Middle Ages, the general perception of those who suffered epilepsy was an unclean and incurable wretch who might be possessed by the Devil. The political hostility between Islam and Christianity contributed to the continuation of the accusation of epilepsy throughout the Middle Ages.[150] The Christian minister Archdeacon Humphrey Prideaux gave the following description of Muhammad's visions:[150]

He pretended to receive all his revelations from the Angel Gabriel, and that he was sent from God of purpose to deliver them unto him. And whereas he was subject to the falling-sickness, whenever the fit was upon him, he pretended it to be a Trance, and that the Angel Gabriel comes from God with some Revelations unto him.

A portrait of Fyodor Dostoyevsky in 1872, painted by Vasily Perov

Some modern Western scholars also have a skeptical view of Muhammad's seizures. Frank R. Freemon states Muhammad had "conscious control over the course of the spells and can pretend to be in a religious trance."[150] During the nineteenth century, as Islam was no longer a political or military threat to Western society, and perceptions of epilepsy changed, the theological and moral associations with epilepsy were removed; epilepsy was now viewed as a medical disorder.[150] Nineteenth-century orientalist Margoliouth claimed that Muhammad suffered from epilepsy and even occasionally faked it for effect.[151]

Sprenger attributes Muhammad's revelations to epileptic fits or a "paroxysm of cataleptic insanity."[40] In Schaff's view, Muhammad's "early and frequent epileptic fits" provided "some light on his revelations."[148] The most famous epileptic of the 19th century, Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821–1881) wrote that epileptic attacks have an inspirational quality; he said they are "a supreme exaltation of emotional subjectivity" in which time stands still. Dostoyevsky claimed that his own attacks were similar to those of Muhammad: "Probably it was of such an instant, that the epileptic Mahomet was speaking when he said that he had visited all the dwelling places of Allah within a shorter time than it took for his pitcher full of water to empty itself."[150]

In an essay that discusses views of Muhammad's psychology, Franz Bul (1903) is said to have observed that "hysterical natures find unusual difficulty and often complete inability to distinguish the false from the true", and to have thought this to be "the safest way to interpret the strange inconsistencies in the life of the Prophet." In the same essay Duncan Black Macdonald (1911) is credited with the opinion that "fruitful investigation of the Prophet's life (should) proceed upon the assumption that he was fundamentally a pathological case."[152]

Modern Western scholars of Islam have rejected the diagnosis of epilepsy.[150] Tor Andrae rejects the idea that the inspired state is pathological attributing it to a scientifically superficial and hasty theory arguing that those who consider Muhammad epileptic should consider all types of semi-conscious and trance-like states, occasional loss of consciousness, and similar conditions as epileptic attacks. Andrae writes that "[i]f epilepsy is to denote only those severe attacks which involve serious consequences for the physical and mental health, then the statement that Mohammad suffered from epilepsy must be emphatically rejected." Caesar Farah suggests that "[t]hese insinuations resulted from the 19th-century infatuation with scientifically superficial theories of medical psychology."[153] Noth, in the Encyclopedia of Islam, states that such accusations were a typical feature of medieval European Christian polemic.[154]

Maxime Rodinson says that it is most probable that Muhammad's conditions was basically of the same kind as that found in many mystics rather than epilepsy.[155] Fazlur Rahman refutes epileptic fits for the following reasons: Muhammad's condition begins with his career at the age of 40; according to the tradition seizures are invariably associated with the revelation and never occur by itself. Lastly, a sophisticated society like the Meccan or Medinese would have identified epilepsy clearly and definitely.[156]

William Montgomery Watt also disagrees with the epilepsy diagnosis, saying that "there are no real grounds for such a view." Elaborating, he says that "epilepsy leads to physical and mental degeneration, and there are no signs of that in Muhammad." He then goes further and states that Muhammad was psychologically sound in general: "he (Muhammad) was clearly in full possession of his faculties to the very end of his life." Watt concludes by stating "It is incredible that a person subject to epilepsy, or hysteria, or even ungovernable fits of emotion, could have been the active leader of military expeditions, or the cool far-seeing guide of a city-state and a growing religious community; but all this we know Muhammad to have been."[157]

Frank R. Freemon (1976) thinks that the above reasons given by modern biographers of Muhammad in rejection of epilepsy come from the widespread misconceptions about the various types of epilepsy.[150] In his differential diagnosis, Freemon rejects schizophrenic hallucinations,[Note 3] drug-induced mental changes such as might occur after eating plants containing hallucinogenic materials,[Note 4] transient ischemic attacks,[Note 5] hypoglycemia,[Note 6] labyrinthitis, Ménière's disease, or other inner ear maladies.[Note 7] At the end, Freemon argues that if one were forced to make a diagnosis psychomotor seizures of temporal lobe epilepsy would be the most tenable one, although our lack of scientific as well as historical knowledge makes unequivocal decision impossible. Freemon cites evidences supporting and opposing this diagnosis.[Note 8] In the end, Freemon points out that a medical diagnosis should not ignore Muhammad's moral message because it is just as likely, perhaps more likely, for God communicate with a person in an abnormal state of mind.[Note 9]

From a Muslim point of view, Freemon says, Muhammed's mental state at the time of revelation was unique and is not therefore amenable to medical or scientific discourse.[150] In reaction to Freemon's article, GM. S. Megahed, a Muslim neurologist criticized the article arguing that there are no scientific explanations for many religious phenomena, and that if Muhammad's message is a result of psychomotor seizures, then on the same basis Moses' and Jesus' message would be the result of psychomotor seizures. In response, Freemon attributed such negative reactions to his article to the general misconceptions about epilepsy as a demeaning condition. Freemon said that he did plan to write an article on the inspirational spells of St. Paul, but the existence of such misconceptions caused him to cancel it.[158]

Neglected legacy

Muhammad has been criticized for several omissions during his prophethood: he left the Muslim community leaderless following his death by failing to declare the individual, selection process or institution that should succeed him,[159][160][161][162] he failed to collect the Quran in a definitive text (later achieved during Uthman's Caliphate),[163] and he failed to collect and codify his prophetic tradition, which work was later undertaken by scholars in the 8th and 9th centuries and became the second most important source of Islam's teachings.[164]

Criticism of Muhammad's personal motivations

19th century and early 20th century

William Muir, like many other 19th-century scholars divides Muhammad's life into two periods—Meccan and Medinan. He asserts that "in the Meccan period of [Muhammad's] life there certainly can be traced no personal ends or unworthy motives," painting him as a man of good faith and a genuine reformer. However, that all changed after the Hijra, according to Muir. "There [in Medina] temporal power, aggrandisement, and self-gratification mingled rapidly with the grand object of the Prophet's life, and they were sought and attained by just the same instrumentality." From that point on, he accuses Muhammad of manufacturing "messages from heaven" in order to justify a lust for women and reprisals against enemies, among other sins.[165]

Philip Schaff says that "in the earlier part of his life he [Muhammad] was a sincere reformer and enthusiast, but after the establishment of his kingdom a slave of ambition for conquest" and describes him as "a slave of sensual passion."[148] William St. Clair Tisdall also accused Muhammad of inventing revelations to justify his own desires.[166][167]

But at Medina he seems to have cast off all shame; and the incidents connected with his marital relations, more especially the story of his marriage with Zainab the wife of his adopted son Zaid, and his connexion with Mary the Coptic slave-girl, are sufficient proof of his unbridled licentiousness and of his daring impiety in venturing to ascribe to GOD Most High the verses which he composed to sanction such conduct.[166]

D.S. Margoliouth, another 19th-century scholar, sees Muhammad as a charlatan who beguiled his followers with techniques like those used by fraudulent mediums today. He has expressed a view that Muhammad faked his religious sincerity, playing the part of a messenger from God like a man in a play, adjusting his performances to create an illusion of spirituality.[168] Margoliouth is especially critical of the character of Muhammad as revealed in Ibn Ishaq's famous biography, which he holds as especially telling because Muslims cannot dismiss it as the writings of an enemy:

In order to gain his ends he (Muhammad) recoils from no expedient, and he approves of similar unscrupulousness on the part of his adherents, when exercised in his interest. He profits to the utmost from the chivalry of the Meccans, but rarely requites it with the like... For whatever he does he is prepared to plead the express authorization of the deity. It is, however, impossible to find any doctrine which he is not prepared to abandon in order to secure a political end.[169]

Late 20th century

According to William Montgomery Watt and Richard Bell, recent writers have generally dismissed the idea that Muhammad deliberately deceived his followers, arguing that Muhammad "was absolutely sincere and acted in complete good faith".[170] Modern secular historians generally decline to address the question of whether the messages Muhammad reported being revealed to him were from "his unconscious, the collective unconscious functioning in him, or from some divine source", but they acknowledge that the material came from "beyond his conscious mind."[171] Watt says that sincerity does not directly imply correctness: In contemporary terms, Muhammad might have mistaken for divine revelation his own unconscious.[172] William Montgomery Watt states:

Only a profound belief in himself and his mission explains Muhammad's readiness to endure hardship and persecution during the Meccan period when from a secular point of view there was no prospect of success. Without sincerity how could he have won the allegiance and even devotion of men of strong and upright character like Abu-Bakr and 'Umar ? ... There is thus a strong case for holding that Muhammad was sincere. If in some respects he was mistaken, his mistakes were not due to deliberate lying or imposture.[173]...the important point is that the message was not the product of Muhammad's conscious mind. He believed that he could easily distinguish between his own thinking and these revelations. His sincerity in this belief must be accepted by the modern historian, for this alone makes credible the development of a great religion. The further question, however, whether the messages came from Muhammad's unconscious, or the collective unconscious functioning in him, or from some divine source, is beyond the competence of the historian.[171]

Rudi Paret agrees, writing that "Muhammad was not a deceiver,"[174] and Welch also holds that "the really powerful factor in Muhammad’s life and the essential clue to his extraordinary success was his unshakable belief from beginning to end that he had been called by God. A conviction such as this, which, once firmly established, does not admit of the slightest doubt, exercises an incalculable influence on others. The certainty with which he came forward as the executor of God’s will gave his words and ordinances an authority that proved finally compelling."[175]

Bernard Lewis, another modern historian, commenting on the common Western Medieval view of Muhammad as a self-seeking impostor, states that[176]

The modern historian will not readily believe that so great and significant a movement was started by a self-seeking impostor. Nor will he be satisfied with a purely supernatural explanation, whether it postulates aid of divine or diabolical origin; rather, like Gibbon, will he seek 'with becoming submission, to ask not indeed what were the first, but what were the secondary causes of the rapid growth' of the new faith.

Watt rejects the idea that Muhammad's moral behavior deteriorated after he migrated to Medinia. He argues that "it is based on too facile a use of the principle that all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely". Watt interprets incidents in the Medinan period in such a way that they mark "no failure in Muhammad to live to his ideals and no lapse from his moral principles."[177]

gollark: Unless we switch to Wayland, so does Linux.

gollark: On Linux there's some xev command which is able to read *any* input event.

gollark: Just listen for key events somehow and log them, generally speaking.

gollark: Anyway, there *is* a bare-metal CC emulator, but it's not very accurate. Importantly, it doesn't have networking, and potatOS needs that. And it doesn't work outside of QEMU for some reason.

gollark: ... that *would* be very cool.

Notes

Thomas Patrick Hughes also accuses Muhammad of cruelty. "A striking instance of the cruelty of Muḥammad’s character occurs in a tradition given in the Ṣaḥīḥu 'l-Bukhārī (p. 1019). Anas relates, "Some of the people of the tribe of 'Ukl came to the Prophet and embraced Islām; but the air of al-Madīnah did not agree with them, and they wanted to leave the place. And the Prophet ordered them to go where the camels given in alms were assembled, and to drink their milk, which they did, and recovered from their sickness. But after this they became apostates, and renounced Islām, and stole the camels. Then the Prophet sent some people after them, and they were seized and brought back to al-Madīnah. Then the Prophet ordered their hands and their feet to be cut off as a punishment for theft, and their eyes to be pulled out. But the Prophet did not stop the bleeding, and they died". And in another it reads, "The Prophet ordered hot irons to be drawn across their eyes, and then to be cast on the plain of al-Madīnah; and when they asked for water it was not given them, and they died"." Hughes, T.P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W.H. Allen & Co.
See for example William Muir, who says "Shortly after the death of Khadîja, the Prophet married again; but it was not till the mature age of fifty-four that he made the dangerous trial of polygamy, by taking Ayesha, yet a child, as the rival of Sauda. Once the natural limits of restraint were overpassed, Mahomet fell an easy prey to his strong passion for the sex. In his fifty-sixth year he married Haphsa; and the following year, in two succeeding months, Zeinab bint Khozeima, and Omm Salma. But his desires were not to be satisfied by the range of a harem already greater than was permitted to any of his followers; rather, as age advanced, they were stimulated to seek for new and varied indulgence. A few months after his nuptials with Zeinab and Omm Salma, the charms of a second Zeinab were by accident discovered too fully before the Prophet's admiring gaze. She was the wife of Zeid, his adopted son and bosom friend; but he was unable to smother the flame she had kindled in his breast; and, by divine command she was taken to his bed. In the same year he married a seventh wife, and also a concubine. And at last, when he was full threescore years of age, no fewer than three new wives, besides Mary the Coptic slave, were within the space of seven months added to his already well filled harem. The bare recital of these facts may justify the saying of Ibn Abbâs,—"Verily the chiefest among the Moslems (meaning Mahomet) was the foremost of them in his passion for women;"—a fatal example imitated too readily by his followers, who adopt the Prince of Medîna, rather than the Prophet of Mecca, for their pattern." Muir, W. (1861). The Life of Mahomet (Vol. 4, pp. 309–11). London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Freemon starts his own differential diagnosis by arguing that "one must remember that Muhammad's inspired followers lived closely with him in his early and unsuccessful ministry; these same individuals demonstrated brilliant leadership of the explosively expanding Islamic state after his death". He thus rejects schizophrenic hallucinations thesis arguing that the blunted affect of the schizophrenic can hardly inspire the tenacious loyalty of the early followers. "It is also unlikely that a person with loose associations and other elements of schizophrenic thought disorder could guide the political and military fortunes of the early Islamic state."
Freemon does so for two reasons: It can not justify the rapid, almost paroxysmal onset of these spells. Furthermore, without personal conviction of the reality of his visions, Muhammad could not have convinced his astute followers.
According to Freemon, "Too many of these spells occurred over too long a period of time to suggest transient ischemic attacks, and no neurologic deficits outside the mental sphere were observed."
Freemon argues that long duration, absence of worsening, and paroxysmal onset make hypoglycemia unlikely
He argues that absence of vertigo rules out labyrinthitis, Meniere's disease, or other inner ear maladies.
Supporting this diagnosis, he cites Paroxysmal onset, failing to the ground with loss of conscious, autonomic dysfunction and hallucinatory imagery. On the evidences opposing the diagnosis he mentions the late age of onset, lack of recognition as seizures by his contemporaries, and lastly poetic, organized statements in immediate postictal period.
Freemon explains this by quoting William James"Just as our primary wide-awake consciousness throws open our senses to the touch of things material, so it is logically conceivable that if there be higher spiritual agencies that can directly touch us, the psychological condition of their doing so might be our possession of a subconscious region which alone should yield access to them. The hubbub of the waking life might close a door which in the dreamy subliminal might remain ajar or open."

References

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During the twenty-five years of his union with Ḥadijah Muhammad had no other wife; but scarcely two months had elapsed after her death (619) when he married Sauda, the widow of Sakran, who, with her husband, had become an early convert to Islam and who was one of the emigrants to Abyssinia. At about the same time Muhammad contracted an engagement with 'A'ishah, the six-year-old daughter of Abu Bakr, and married her shortly after his arrival at Medina. 'A'ishah was the only one of his wives who had not been previously married; and she remained his favorite to the end. [...] In his married life, as well as in his religious life, a change seems to have come over Muhammad after his removal to Medina. In the space of ten years he took twelve or thirteen wives and had several concubines: even the faithful were scandalized, and the prophet had to resort to alleged special revelations from God to justify his conduct. Such was the case when he wished to marry Zainab, the wife of his adopted son Zaid.
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Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:234, Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:236, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:64, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:65, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:88.
Sahih Muslim, 8:3309, Sahih Muslim, 8:3310, Sahih Muslim, 8:3311; Sunan Abu Dawood, 41:4915.
Spellberg, Denise A. (1994). Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 9780231079990.
Tariq Ali (2003), The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity, Verso, pp. 55-56.
ClearQuran: Surah 25
Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr., "Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest", Church History, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 1969), pp. 139–49 [139–42], quoting from Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati 86–87
From Writings, by St John of Damascus, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 37 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), pp. 153–60. Posted 26 March 2006 to The Othordox Christian Information Center – St. John of Damascus’s Critique of Islam Archived 30 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine
Critique of Islam Archived 30 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine St. John of Damascus, From Writings, by St John of Damascus, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 37 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), pp. 153–60. Posted 26 March 2006 on the Orthodox Information Center website Archived 2 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine.
Cited by Powers, David Stephan. 2009. Muḥammad is not the Father of any of your Men: the Making of the Last Prophet. USA: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 29.
Sbaihat, Ahlam (2015), "Stereotypes associated with real prototypes of the prophet of Islam's name till the 19th century". Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature Vol. 7, No. 1, 2015, p. 25. http://journals.yu.edu.jo/jjmll/Issues/vol7no12015/Nom2.pdf Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
"Muhammad." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 10 Jan. 2007, .
Kenneth Meyer Setton (1 July 1992). "Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of Turkish Doom". Diane Publishing. ISBN 0871692015. pp. 4–15
See Sbaihat, Ahlam (2015), "Stereotypes associated with real prototypes of the prophet of Islam's name till the 19th century". Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature Vol. 7, No. 1, 2015, pp. 21–38. http://journals.yu.edu.jo/jjmll/Issues/vol7no12015/Nom2.pdf Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine
Watt, Montgomery, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press, 1961. From p. 229.
"Catholic Encyclopedia: Mohammed and Mohammedanism (Islam)". Newadvent.org. Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (1 December 1992). Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, Volume 1 of 5. New York: Garland. ISBN 0824077334.
J. Tolan, Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam (1996) pp. 100–01
Summa Contra Gentiles Book 1, Chapter 16, Art.4
"Mohammed and Mohammedanism", Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913
Moncure Daniel Conway (1879). Demonology and Devil-lore, Volume 2. H. Holt. p. 249.
Zwemer suggests Muhammad defied Arab ethical traditions, and that he personally violated the strict sexual morality of his own moral system.
Zwemer, "Islam, a Challenge to Faith" (New York, 1907)
Saraswati, Dayanand (1875). "An Examination of the Doctrine of Islam". Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth). Varanasi, India: Star Press. pp. 672–83. Retrieved 2 April 2012.
Vivekananda, Swami (1997). Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures by the Swami Vivekananda on Raja Yoga Also Pantanjali's Yoga Aphorisms, with Commentaries, and Glossary of Sanskrit Terms (Reprint ed.). Whitefish, Montana, United States: Kessinger Publishing. p. 79. ISBN 978-1564597977. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
Thursby, Gene R. (1975). Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India: A Study of Controversy, Conflict, and Communal Movements in Northern India, 1923–1928: Volume 35 of Studies in the History of Religions. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Publishers. pp. 40–61. ISBN 978-9004043800. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
Kelly, John Dunham (1991). A Politics of Virtue: Hinduism, Sexuality, and Countercolonial Discourse in Fiji. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0226430317. Retrieved 6 May 2012.
Sharpe, Warren B. (2002). Philosophy for the Serious Heretic: The Limitations of Belief and the Derivation of Natural Moral Principles. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse. pp. 214–18. ISBN 978-0595215966. Retrieved 2 May 2012.
The Works of Voltaire: The Dramatic Works of Voltaire. Voltaire, Tobias George Smollett, John Morley, William F. Fleming, Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh. Publisher Werner, 1905. Original from Princeton University. p. 12
"But that a camel-merchant should stir up insurrection in his village; that in league with some miserable followers he persuades them that he talks with the angel Gabriel; that he boasts of having been carried to heaven, where he received in part this unintelligible book, each page of which makes common sense shudder; that, to pay homage to this book, he delivers his country to iron and flame; that he cuts the throats of fathers and kidnaps daughters; that he gives to the defeated the choice of his religion or death: this is assuredly nothing any man can excuse, at least if he was not born a Turk, or if superstition has not extinguished all natural light in him." – Referring to Muhammad, in a letter to Frederick II of Prussia (December 1740), published in Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, Vol. 7 (1869), edited by Georges Avenel, p. 105
Georges Minois (12 October 2012). The Atheist's Bible: The Most Dangerous Book That Never Existed. University of Chicago Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0226530307.
"Je sais que Mahomet n’a pas tramé précisément l’espèce de trahison qui fait le sujet de cette tragédie... Je n’ai pas prétendu mettre seulement une action vraie sur la scène, mais des moeurs vraies; faire penser les hommes comme ils pensent dans les circonstances où ils se trouvent, et représenter enfin ce que la fourberie peut inventer de plus atroce, et ce que le fanatisme peut exécuter de plus horrible. Mahomet n’est ici autre chose que Tartuffe les armes à la main." – Letter D2386, to Frederick II of Prussia (January 1740), published in The Complete Works of Voltaire, Institus et Musée Voltaire, 1971, XCI, p. 383
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Rodney Stark, "For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery", p. 338, 2003, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691114366
Levy, Reuben (2000). "Slavery in Islam". The Social Structure of Islam. NY: Routledge. pp. 73–90. ISBN 978-0415209106.
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See Tahfeem ul Qur'an by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Vol. 2, pp. 112–13, footnote 44; Also see commentary on verses ^{[Quran 23:1]}: Vol. 3, notes 7-1, p. 241; 2000, Islamic Publications.
Ali Ünal, The Qur'an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, p. 1323
Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Slaves and Slavery
Bilal b. Rabah, Encyclopedia of Islam
Geisler, N.L. (1999). In Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Article on Muhammad, Character of.
Muir, W. (1861). The Life of Mahomet, Volume IV (pp. 307–09). London: Smith, Elder and Co.
de Sismondi, Jean. Histoire de la chute de Rome et du déclin de la civilisation occidentale (in French). Mahomet devoit aux juifs une partie de ses connoissances et de sa religion; mais il éprouvoit contre eux cette haine qui semble s'animer dans les sectes religieuses, lorsqu'il n'y a entre elles qu'une seule différence au milieu de nombreux rapports. De puissantes colonies de cette nation, riches, commerçantes et dépourvues de toutes vertus guerrières, étoient établies en Arabie, à peu de distance de Médine. Mahomet les attaqua successivement, de l'an 628 à l'an 627 ; il né se contenta pas de partager leurs richesses, il abandonna presque tous les vaincus à des supplices qui, dans d'autres guerres, souilloient rarement ses armes. (book 2, pp. 27-28)
John Esposito, Islam the Straight Path, Oxford University Press, pp. 17–18
Bukhari 5:59:362
Daniel W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam, p. 81, 2003, Blackwell Publishers, ISBN 0-631-21604-9
Ibn Ishaq, A. Guillaume (translator), The Life of Muhammad, p. 464, 2002, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0196360331
Yusuf Ali, "The Meaning of the Holy Quran", (11th Edition), p. 1059, Amana Publications, 1989, ISBN 0915957760
Stillman (1974), p. 16
Quoted in Stillman (1974), p. 16
BBC Radio 4, Beyond Belief, 2 Oct 2006, Islam and the sword
Meri, p. 754.
Barakat Ahmad, Muhammad and the Jews: A Re-examination, holds that only the leaders of the Qurayza were killed.
Nemoy, Leon. Barakat Ahmad's "Muhammad and the Jews". The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 72, No. 4. (Apr. 1982), p. 325. Nemoy is sourcing Ahmed's Muhammad and the Jews.
Walid Najib Arafat (1976). "New Light on the Story of Banū Qurayẓa and the Jews of Medina". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. 100–07.
Watt, Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 5, p. 436, "Kurayza, Banu".
Spencer, Robert, 'The Truth About Muhammad' (2006). pp. 165–66:
In-book reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 2977: Book 56, Hadith 186
Spencer, Robert, 'The Truth About Muhammad' (2006). pp. 115–16:
In-book reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 3031: Book 56, Hadith 238
Spencer, Robert, 'The Truth About Muhammad' (2006). pp. 97–98:
In-book reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 3012: Book 56, Hadith 221
Ibn Ishaq, A. Guillaume (translator), The Life of Muhammad, pp. 510–17, 2002, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0196360331
Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 99, Prometheus Books, 1995, ISBN 0879759844
William Muir, Life of Mahomet, p. 391, 2003, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 0766177416
"Rebuttal to Silas's Article "Muhammad and the Death of Kinana"". Answering-christianity.com. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
"Safiyah Bint Huyeiy Ibn Akhtab". Islamonline.com. 25 August 2015. Archived from the original on 15 March 2006.
John L. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 16.
Fazlur Rahman, Islam, p. 28
"Before leaving the subject of marriages, it may be proper to take notice of some peculiar privileges in relation thereto, which, as is asserted, were granted by God to Muhammad, to the exclusion of all other Muslims. One of them was, that he might lawfully marry as many wives and have as many concubines as he pleased, without being confined to any particular number; a privilege which, he asserted, had been granted to the prophets before him. Another was, that he might alter the turns of his wives, and favour such of them as he thought fit, without being tied to that order and equality which others are obliged to observe. A third privilege was, that no man might marry any of his wives, either such as he should divorce during his lifetime, or such as he should leave widows at his death." Wollaston, A.N. (1905). The Sword of Islam (p. 327). New York: E.P. Dutton and Company.
"Muhammad received a revelation from God that a man should have no more than four wives at once, yet he had many more. A Muslim defender of Muhammad, writing in The Prophet of Islam as the Ideal Husband, admitted that he had fifteen wives. Yet he tells others they may have only four. How can someone be a perfect moral example and not live by one of the basic laws he laid down for others as from God?" Geisler, N.L. (1999). In Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Article on Muhammad, Character of.
Yahiya Emerick (2014). Critical Lives: Muhammad. Alpha Books. p. 136. ISBN 978-0028643717. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
Ibn Arabi. "The Seals of Wisdom (Fusus Al-Hikam)". Aisha Bewley. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.
Esposito, John L. (2005). Islam: The Straight Path (PDF) (Revised Third ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 16–17. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2018. As was customary for Arab chiefs, many were political marriages to cement alliances. Others were marriages to the widows of his companions who had fallen in combat and were in need of protection. Remarriage was difficult in a society that emphasized virgin marriages. Aisha was the only virgin that Muhammad married and the wife with whom he had the closest relationship. Fifth, as we shall see later, Muhammad's teachings and actions, as well as the Quranic message, improved the status of all women—wives, daughters, mothers, widows, and orphans.
Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:234, Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:235, Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:236, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:88; Sahih Muslim, 8:3309, Sahih Muslim, 8:3310, Sahih Muslim, 8:3311; Sunan Abu Dawood, 41:4915, Sunan Abu Dawood, 41:4917; and various sīra.
Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Harper San Francisco, 1992, p. 157.
Barlas (2002), pp. 125–26
Tabari, Volume 9, p. 131; Tabari, Volume 7, Page 7
A. C. Brown, Jonathan (2014). Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy. Oneworld Publications. pp. 143–44. ISBN 978-1780744209.
A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2014). Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy. Oneworld Publications. p. 316. n° 50. ISBN 978-1780744209. Evidence that the Prophet waited for Aisha to reach physical maturity before consummation comes from al-Ṭabarī, who says she was too young for intercourse at the time of the marriage contract;
Cooperman, Alan (20 June 2002). "Anti-Muslim Remarks Stir Tempest". The Washington Post.
Collins, Christopher (1 November 2010). Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture. ISBN 978-0271047249. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
Chamupati, Pandit (1924). रंगीला रसूल [Colourful Prophet] (PDF) (in Hindi). Delhi, India: Mohamamad Rafi. pp. 18, 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 April 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2012.
Norma Tarazi (1995). The Child in Islam. American Trust Publications. p. 79. ISBN 978-0892591589.
Catharina Raudvere (2014). Islam: An Introduction (illustrated ed.). I.B.Tauris. p. 202. ISBN 978-1848850842.
Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1999). The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam (Al-Halal Wal Haram Fil Islam) (reprint, revised ed.). American Trust Publications. pp. 106–07. ISBN 978-0892590162.
Katherine Zoepf (2016). Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World. Penguin. ISBN 9780698411470.
Ophelia Benson; Jeremy Stangroom (2009). Does God Hate Women?. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 38–40. ISBN 978-1441118622.
"Dr CP Turner – Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2015.
C. (Colin) Turner (19 December 2013). Islam: The Basics. Routledge Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-1134296910.
Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: Prophet for Our Time, HarperPress, 2006, p. 167 ISBN 0007232454
Barlas, Asma (2012). "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an. University of Texas Press. p. 126. On the other hand, however, Muslims who calculate 'Ayesha's age based on details of her sister Asma's age, about whom more is known, as well as on details of the Hijra (the Prophet's migration from Mecca to Madina), maintain that she was over thirteen and perhaps between seventeen and nineteen when she got married.
A modern Arabic biography of Muḥammad. Antonie Wessels. Publisher Brill Archive, 1972. ISBN 9004034153 pp. 100–15
Tabari VIII:3 ^ Tabari VIII:4
William Montgomery Watt (1961), Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, Oxford University Press, p. 158, ISBN 978-0198810780
Watt (1961), p. 157
Watt (1961), p. 158
Mazheruddin Siddiqi (1980), The Holy Prophet and the Orientalists, Islamic Research Institute, p. 163)
Siddiqi (1980), p. 163
Watt, "Aisha bint Abu Bakr", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online
"...the marriage of a man with the wife of his adopted son, even though divorced, was looked upon by the Arabs as a very wrong thing indeed." Sell, E. (1905). The Historical Development of the Quran (pp. 149–50). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
"This liberality did not prevent severe comments from those who regarded adopted sonship as real sonship—for which view Mohammed’s institution of brotherhoods gave some support—and who, therefore, regarded this union as incestuous." Margoliouth, D.S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 321). New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
Watt (1956), pp. 330–31
Watt, p. 156.
Lecker, M (2002). "Zayd B. Haritha". Encyclopaedia of Islam. 11 (2nd ed.). Brill Academic Publishers. p. 475. ISBN 978-9004127562.
Watt, W.M. (1956). Muhammad at Medina, pp. 330-31. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.
Landau-Tasseron/Tabari, p. 9.
"Being the wife of an adopted son, she was unlawful to the Prophet, but a pretended revelation (see Qur’ān, Sūrah xxxiii. 37) settled the difficulty, and Muḥammad married her. "Hughes, T.P. (1885). A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W. H. Allen & Co.
"However, Muhammad did this, and had to justify his action by alleging that he had for it the direct sanction of God. It was first necessary to show that God did not approve of the general objection to marriage with wives of adopted sons, and so the revelation came thus: Nor hath He made your adopted sons to be as your sons. – Súratu’l Ahzáb (33) v. 4. ... Having thus settled the general principle, the way was clear for Muhammad to act in this particular case, and to claim divine sanction for setting at nought the sentiment of the Arab people. So the revelation goes on to say: And remember when thou (i.e. Muhammad) said to him (i.e. Zaid), unto whom God had shown favour and to whom thou also hadst shown favour, 'Keep thy wife to thyself and fear God;’ and thou didst hide in thy mind what God would bring to light and thou didst fear man; but more right had it been to fear God. And when Zaid had settled to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it might not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted sons when they have settled the affairs concerning them. And the order of God is to be performed. No blame attaches to the Prophet where God hath given him a permission. – Súratu’l Ahzáb (33) vv. 37–38. This relaxation of the moral law for Muhammad’s benefit, because he was a prophet, shows how easy the divorce between religion and morality becomes in Islám." Sell, E. (1905). The Historical Development of the Quran (pp. 150–52). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
"But we learn the same lesson from all such investigations, and that is how completely Muḥammad adapted his pretended revelations to what he believed to be the need of the moment. The same thing is true with regard to what we read in Sûrah Al Aḥzâb regarding the circumstances attending his marriage with Zainab, whom his adopted son Zaid divorced for his sake. The subject is too unsavoury for us to deal with at any length, but a reference to what the Qur’ân itself (Sûrah XXXIII., 37) says about the matter, coupled with the explanations afforded by the Commentators and the Traditions, will prove that Muḥammad’s own character and disposition have left their mark upon the moral law of Islâm and upon the Qur’ân itself." Tisdall, W. S. C. (1911). The Original Sources of the Qur’ân (pp. 278–79). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
"But at Medina he seems to have cast off all shame; and the incidents connected with his marital relations, more especially the story of his marriage with Zainab the wife of his adopted son Zaid, and his connexion with Mary the Coptic slave-girl, are sufficient proof of his unbridled licentiousness and of his daring impiety in venturing to ascribe to GOD Most High the verses which he composed to sanction such conduct." Tisdall, W. S. C. (1895). The Religion of the Crescent, or Islâm: Its Strength, Its Weakness, Its Origin, Its Influence. Non-Christian Religious Systems (p. 177). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
"The scandal of the marriage was removed by this extraordinary revelation, and Zeid was thenceforward called not "the son of Mahomet", as heretofore, but by his proper name, "Zeid, the son of Hârith". Our only matter of wonder is, that the Revelations of Mahomet continued after this to be regarded by his people as inspired communications from the Almighty, when they were so palpably formed to secure his own objects, and pander even to his evil desires. We hear of no doubts or questionings; and we can only attribute the confiding and credulous spirit of his followers to the absolute ascendancy of his powerful mind over all who came within its influence." Muir, W. (1861). The Life of Mahomet (Vol. 3, p. 231). London: Smith, Elder and Co.
Neale, J.M. (1847). A History of the Holy Eastern Church: The Patriarchate of Alexandria. London: Joseph Masters. Volume II, Section I "Rise of Mahometanism" (p. 68)
Hughes, T.P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W.H. Allen & Co. p. 159.
Yasir Qadhi (23 July 2012), Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 4 – Religious status of the world before Islam, retrieved 30 September 2018
Al-Azraqī: Akhbār Makkah. Vol. 1, p. 100.
Schaff, P., & Schaff, D.S. (1910). History of the Christian church. Third edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Volume 4, Chapter III, section 42 "Life and Character of Mohammed"
Encyclopedia of Islam online, Muhammad article
Frank R. Freemon, A Differential Diagnosis of the Inspirational Spells of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, Journal of Epilepsia, 17:4 23–427, 1976
Margoliouth, David Samuel (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. Putnam. p. 46.
Jeffery, Arthur (2000). The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. Prometheus Books. p. 346. ISBN 978-1573927871.
See:
- Caesar Farah, "Islam: Beliefs and Observances" (2003), Barron's Educational Series, ISBN 0764122266
- Tor Andrae, Mohammad: The Man and his Faith, trans. Theophil Menzel (New York: Harper Torch Book Series, 1960), p. 51
Muhammad, Encyclopedia of Islam.
Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad: Prophet of Islam, p. 56
Fazlur Rahman, Islam, University of Chicago Press, p. 13
See:
- W. Montgomery Watt, Richard Bell. "Bell's Introduction to the Qur'an"(1995) Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748605975, pp. 17–18;
- Watt, W. Montgomery (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0198810780. Retrieved 22 October 2006.
Letters to the Editor, Journal of Epilepsia. 18(2), 1977.
Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes (2013). Muslim Institutions (reprint ed.). Routledge. pp. 18–19. ISBN 978-1135030261.
William Hare (1995). The Struggle for the Holy Land: Arabs, Jews, and the Emergence of Israel. Madison Books. p. 73. ISBN 978-1568330402.
Spectrum: Journal of the Association of Adventist Forums, Volume 30. The Association. 2002. p. 19.
Joseph Morrison Skelly (2009). Political Islam from Muhammad to Ahmadinejad: Defenders, Detractors, and Definitions. ABC-CLIO. p. 38. ISBN 978-0313372247.
Gaudefroy-Demombynes 2013, p. 19.
Gaudefroy-Demombynes 2013, p. 21.
Muir, William (1878). Life of Mahomet. Kessinger Publishing. p. 583. ISBN 978-0766177413.
Tisdall, W.S.C. (1895). The Religion of the Crescent, or Islâm: Its Strength, Its Weakness, Its Origin, Its Influence. Non-Christian Religious Systems (p. 177). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
"But we learn the same lesson from all such investigations, and that is how completely Muḥammad adapted his pretended revelations to what he believed to be the need of the moment. The same thing is true with regard to what we read in Sûrah Al Aḥzâb regarding the circumstances attending his marriage with Zainab, whom his adopted son Zaid divorced for his sake. ... a reference to what the Qur’ân itself (Sûrah XXXIII., 37) says about the matter, coupled with the explanations afforded by the Commentators and the Traditions, will prove that Muḥammad’s own character and disposition have left their mark upon the moral law of Islâm and upon the Qur’ân itself." Tisdall, W.S.C. (1911). The Original Sources of the Qur’ân (pp. 278–79). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
Margoliouth, David Samuel (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. Putnam. pp. 88–89, 104–06.
Margoliouth, David Samuel (1926). Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Volume 8). T&T Clark. p. 878. ISBN 978-0567094896.
Watt, Bell (1995) p. 18
The Cambridge History of Islam (1970), Cambridge University Press, p. 30
Watt, Muhammad Prophet and Statesman, p. 17
Watt, Montgomery, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press, 1961. From p. 232.
Minou Reeves, Muhammad in Europe, New York University Press, p. 6, 2000
Encyclopedia of Islam, Muhammad
The Arabs in History, Lewis, pp. 45–46
Watt, W. Montgomery (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0198810780. Retrieved 22 October 2006.

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[74] Thomas Patrick Hughes also accuses Muhammad of cruelty. "A striking instance of the cruelty of Muḥammad’s character occurs in a tradition given in the Ṣaḥīḥu 'l-Bukhārī (p. 1019). Anas relates, "Some of the people of the tribe of 'Ukl came to the Prophet and embraced Islām; but the air of al-Madīnah did not agree with them, and they wanted to leave the place. And the Prophet ordered them to go where the camels given in alms were assembled, and to drink their milk, which they did, and recovered from their sickness. But after this they became apostates, and renounced Islām, and stole the camels. Then the Prophet sent some people after them, and they were seized and brought back to al-Madīnah. Then the Prophet ordered their hands and their feet to be cut off as a punishment for theft, and their eyes to be pulled out. But the Prophet did not stop the bleeding, and they died". And in another it reads, "The Prophet ordered hot irons to be drawn across their eyes, and then to be cast on the plain of al-Madīnah; and when they asked for water it was not given them, and they died"." Hughes, T.P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W.H. Allen & Co.

[103] See for example William Muir, who says "Shortly after the death of Khadîja, the Prophet married again; but it was not till the mature age of fifty-four that he made the dangerous trial of polygamy, by taking Ayesha, yet a child, as the rival of Sauda. Once the natural limits of restraint were overpassed, Mahomet fell an easy prey to his strong passion for the sex. In his fifty-sixth year he married Haphsa; and the following year, in two succeeding months, Zeinab bint Khozeima, and Omm Salma. But his desires were not to be satisfied by the range of a harem already greater than was permitted to any of his followers; rather, as age advanced, they were stimulated to seek for new and varied indulgence. A few months after his nuptials with Zeinab and Omm Salma, the charms of a second Zeinab were by accident discovered too fully before the Prophet's admiring gaze. She was the wife of Zeid, his adopted son and bosom friend; but he was unable to smother the flame she had kindled in his breast; and, by divine command she was taken to his bed. In the same year he married a seventh wife, and also a concubine. And at last, when he was full threescore years of age, no fewer than three new wives, besides Mary the Coptic slave, were within the space of seven months added to his already well filled harem. The bare recital of these facts may justify the saying of Ibn Abbâs,—"Verily the chiefest among the Moslems (meaning Mahomet) was the foremost of them in his passion for women;"—a fatal example imitated too readily by his followers, who adopt the Prince of Medîna, rather than the Prophet of Mecca, for their pattern." Muir, W. (1861). The Life of Mahomet (Vol. 4, pp. 309–11). London: Smith, Elder and Co.

[160] Freemon starts his own differential diagnosis by arguing that "one must remember that Muhammad's inspired followers lived closely with him in his early and unsuccessful ministry; these same individuals demonstrated brilliant leadership of the explosively expanding Islamic state after his death". He thus rejects schizophrenic hallucinations thesis arguing that the blunted affect of the schizophrenic can hardly inspire the tenacious loyalty of the early followers. "It is also unlikely that a person with loose associations and other elements of schizophrenic thought disorder could guide the political and military fortunes of the early Islamic state."

[161] Freemon does so for two reasons: It can not justify the rapid, almost paroxysmal onset of these spells. Furthermore, without personal conviction of the reality of his visions, Muhammad could not have convinced his astute followers.

[162] According to Freemon, "Too many of these spells occurred over too long a period of time to suggest transient ischemic attacks, and no neurologic deficits outside the mental sphere were observed."

[163] Freemon argues that long duration, absence of worsening, and paroxysmal onset make hypoglycemia unlikely

[164] He argues that absence of vertigo rules out labyrinthitis, Meniere's disease, or other inner ear maladies.

[165] Supporting this diagnosis, he cites Paroxysmal onset, failing to the ground with loss of conscious, autonomic dysfunction and hallucinatory imagery. On the evidences opposing the diagnosis he mentions the late age of onset, lack of recognition as seizures by his contemporaries, and lastly poetic, organized statements in immediate postictal period.

[166] Freemon explains this by quoting William James"Just as our primary wide-awake consciousness throws open our senses to the touch of things material, so it is logically conceivable that if there be higher spiritual agencies that can directly touch us, the psychological condition of their doing so might be our possession of a subconscious region which alone should yield access to them. The hubbub of the waking life might close a door which in the dreamy subliminal might remain ajar or open."

[1] Inferno, Canto XXVIII Archived 4 October 2018 at the Wayback Machine, lines 22-63; translation by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1867).

[Buhl1993-2] Buhl, F.; Ehlert, Trude; Noth, A.; Schimmel, Annemarie; Welch, A. T. (2012) [1993]. "Muḥammad". In Bearman, P. J.; Bianquis, Th.; Bosworth, C. E.; van Donzel, E. J.; Heinrichs, W. P. (eds.). Encyclopaedia of Islam. 7 (2nd ed.). Leiden: Brill Publishers. pp. 360–376. doi:10.1163/1573-3912_islam_COM_0780. ISBN 978-90-04-16121-4.

[Quinn2008-3] Quinn, Frederick (2008). "The Prophet as Antichrist and Arab Lucifer (Early Times to 1600)". The Sum of All Heresies: The Image of Islam in Western Thought. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 17–54. ISBN 978-0195325638.

[Goddard2000-4] Goddard, Hugh (2000). "The First Age of Christian-Muslim Interaction (c. 830/215)". A History of Christian-Muslim Relations. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. pp. 34–49. ISBN 978-1-56663-340-6.

[Curtis2009-5] Criticism by Christians [...] was voiced soon after the advent of Islam starting with St. John of Damascus in the late seventh century, who wrote of "the false prophet", Muhammad. Rivalry, and often enmity, continued between the European Christian world and the Islamic world [...]. For Christian theologians, the "Other" was the infidel, the Muslim. [...] Theological disputes in Baghdad and Damascus, in the eighth to the tenth century, and in Andalusia up to the fourteenth century led Christian Orthodox and Byzantine theologians and rulers to continue seeing Islam as a threat. In the twelfth century, Peter the Venerable [...] who had the Koran translated into Latin, regarded Islam as a Christian heresy and Muhammad as a sexually self-indulgent and a murderer. [...] However, he called for the conversion, not the extermination, of Muslims. A century later, St. Thomas Aquinas in Summa contra Gentiles accused Muhammad of seducing people by promises of carnal pleasure, uttering truths mingled with many fables and announcing utterly false decisions that had no divine inspiration. Those who followed Muhammad were regarded by Aquinas as brutal, ignorant "beast-like men" and desert wanderers. Through them Muhammad, who asserted he was "sent in the power of arms", forced others to become followers by violence and armed power.
— Michael Curtis, Orientalism and Islam: European Thinkers on Oriental Despotism in the Middle East and India (2009), p. 31, Cambridge University Press, New York, ISBN 978-0521767255.

[JE2-6] The Jews [...] could not let pass unchallenged the way in which the Koran appropriated Biblical accounts and personages; for instance, its making Abraham an Arab and the founder of the Ka'bah at Mecca. The prophet, who looked upon every evident correction of his gospel as an attack upon his own reputation, brooked no contradiction, and unhesitatingly threw down the gauntlet to the Jews. Numerous passages in the Koran show how he gradually went from slight thrusts to malicious vituperations and brutal attacks on the customs and beliefs of the Jews. When they justified themselves by referring to the Bible, Muhammad, who had taken nothing therefrom at first hand, accused them of intentionally concealing its true meaning or of entirely misunderstanding it, and taunted them with being "asses who carry books" (sura lxii. 5). The increasing bitterness of this vituperation, which was similarly directed against the less numerous Christians of Medina, indicated that in time Muhammad would not hesitate to proceed to actual hostilities. The outbreak of the latter was deferred by the fact that the hatred of the prophet was turned more forcibly in another direction, namely, against the people of Mecca, whose earlier refusal of Islam and whose attitude toward the community appeared to him at Medina as a personal insult which constituted a sufficient cause for war.
— Richard Gottheil, Mary W. Montgomery, Hubert Grimme, "Mohammed" (1906), Jewish Encyclopedia, Kopelman Foundation.

[Stillman-7] Norman A. Stillman (1979). The Jews of Arab Lands: A History and Source Book. Jewish Publication Society. p. 236. ISBN 978-0827601987.

[8] Ibn Warraq, Defending the West: A Critique of Edward Said's Orientalism, p. 255.

[9] Andrew G. Bostom, The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism: From Sacred Texts to Solemn History, p. 21.

[John_of_Damascus-10] John of Damascus, De Haeresibus. See Migne, Patrologia Graeca, Vol. 94, 1864, cols 763–73. An English translation by the Reverend John W. Voorhis appeared in The Moslem World, October 1954, pp. 392–98.

[Cimino-11] Cimino, Richard (December 2005). ""No God in Common": American Evangelical Discourse on Islam after 9/11". Review of Religious Research. 47 (2): 162–74. doi:10.2307/3512048. JSTOR 3512048.

[ChristianPost-12] Dobbins, Mike (13 April 2015). "The Critics of Islam Were Right: An Apology to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Sam Harris, Bill Maher and Other So-Called Islamophobes". The Christian Post. Washington, D.C. Archived from the original on 10 December 2016. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

[Nyt-13] Akyol, Mustafa (13 January 2015). "Islam's Problem With Blasphemy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 October 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

[Independent-14] Cornwell, Rupert (10 April 2015). "Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Islam's most devastating critic". The Independent. London. Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 21 December 2019.

[Warraq-15] Ibn Warraq (2000). The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books. ISBN 978-1573927871.

[Spencer-16] Robert Spencer (2006). The Truth About Muhammad. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing. ISBN 978-1596980280.

[Gordon1989-17] Gordon, Murray (1989). "The Attitude of Islam Toward Slavery". Slavery in the Arab World. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 18–47. ISBN 978-0941533300.

[Willis2013-18] Willis, John Ralph, ed. (2013). Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa: Islam and the Ideology of Enslavement. 1. New York: Routledge. pp. vii–xi, 3–26. ISBN 978-0714631424.; Willis, John Ralph, ed. (1985). Slaves and Slavery in Muslim Africa: The Servile Estate. 2. New York: Routledge. pp. vii–xi. ISBN 978-0714632018.

[JE1-19] During the twenty-five years of his union with Ḥadijah Muhammad had no other wife; but scarcely two months had elapsed after her death (619) when he married Sauda, the widow of Sakran, who, with her husband, had become an early convert to Islam and who was one of the emigrants to Abyssinia. At about the same time Muhammad contracted an engagement with 'A'ishah, the six-year-old daughter of Abu Bakr, and married her shortly after his arrival at Medina. 'A'ishah was the only one of his wives who had not been previously married; and she remained his favorite to the end. [...] In his married life, as well as in his religious life, a change seems to have come over Muhammad after his removal to Medina. In the space of ten years he took twelve or thirteen wives and had several concubines: even the faithful were scandalized, and the prophet had to resort to alleged special revelations from God to justify his conduct. Such was the case when he wished to marry Zainab, the wife of his adopted son Zaid.
— Richard Gottheil, Mary W. Montgomery, Hubert Grimme, "Mohammed" (1906), Jewish Encyclopedia, Kopelman Foundation.

[20] The messenger of God went out into the marketplace of Medina and had trenches dug in it; then he sent for them and had them beheaded in those trenches. They were brought out to him in groups. Among them were the enemy of God, Huyayy b. Akhtab, and Ka’b b. Asad, the head of the tribe. They numbered 600 or 700—the largest estimate says they were between 800 and 900. As they were being taken in groups to the Messenger of God, they said to Ka’b b. Asad, "Ka’b, what do you understand. Do you not see that the summoner does not discharge [anyone] and that those of you who are taken away do not come back? By God, it is death!" the affair continued until the Messenger of God had finished with them.
— Al-Tabari, Victory of Islam, Volume 8, translated by Michael Fishbein (1997), State University of New York Press, pp. 35–36, ISBN 978-0791431504.

[21] Sunan Abu Dawud, 14:2665

[22] Sunan Abu Dawood, 38:4390

[23] Sahih al-Bukhari, 4:52:280

[24] Watt, W. Montgomery (July 1952). "The Condemnation of the Jews of Banu Qurayzah". The Muslim World. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley-Blackwell. 42 (3): 160–171. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1952.tb02149.x. ISSN 1478-1913.

[25] Rahman al-Mubarakpuri, Saifur (2005), The Sealed Nectar, Darussalam Publications, pp. 201–05, They [the Jews killed] numbered 600 or 700—the largest estimate says they were between 800 and 900.

[BukhariAisha-26] Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:234, Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:236, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:64, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:65, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:88.

[MuslimAisha-27] Sahih Muslim, 8:3309, Sahih Muslim, 8:3310, Sahih Muslim, 8:3311; Sunan Abu Dawood, 41:4915.

[Spellberg1994-28] Spellberg, Denise A. (1994). Politics, Gender, and the Islamic Past: The Legacy of 'A'isha Bint Abi Bakr. New York: Columbia University Press. pp. 39–40. ISBN 9780231079990.

[29] Tariq Ali (2003), The Clash of Fundamentalisms: Crusades, Jihads and Modernity, Verso, pp. 55-56.

[30] ClearQuran: Surah 25

[31] Walter Emil Kaegi, Jr., "Initial Byzantine Reactions to the Arab Conquest", Church History, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 1969), pp. 139–49 [139–42], quoting from Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati 86–87

[32] From Writings, by St John of Damascus, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 37 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), pp. 153–60. Posted 26 March 2006 to The Othordox Christian Information Center – St. John of Damascus’s Critique of Islam Archived 30 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine

[33] Critique of Islam Archived 30 June 2017 at the Wayback Machine St. John of Damascus, From Writings, by St John of Damascus, The Fathers of the Church, vol. 37 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press, 1958), pp. 153–60. Posted 26 March 2006 on the Orthodox Information Center website Archived 2 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine.

[34] Cited by Powers, David Stephan. 2009. Muḥammad is not the Father of any of your Men: the Making of the Last Prophet. USA: University of Pennsylvania Press, p. 29.

[35] Sbaihat, Ahlam (2015), "Stereotypes associated with real prototypes of the prophet of Islam's name till the 19th century". Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature Vol. 7, No. 1, 2015, p. 25. http://journals.yu.edu.jo/jjmll/Issues/vol7no12015/Nom2.pdf Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine

[Britannica-36] "Muhammad." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 10 Jan. 2007, .

[meyer2-37] Kenneth Meyer Setton (1 July 1992). "Western Hostility to Islam and Prophecies of Turkish Doom". Diane Publishing. ISBN 0871692015. pp. 4–15

[38] See Sbaihat, Ahlam (2015), "Stereotypes associated with real prototypes of the prophet of Islam's name till the 19th century". Jordan Journal of Modern Languages and Literature Vol. 7, No. 1, 2015, pp. 21–38. http://journals.yu.edu.jo/jjmll/Issues/vol7no12015/Nom2.pdf Archived 22 December 2015 at the Wayback Machine

[Watt-39] Watt, Montgomery, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press, 1961. From p. 229.

[Oussani-40] "Catholic Encyclopedia: Mohammed and Mohammedanism (Islam)". Newadvent.org. Archived from the original on 25 May 2017. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[41] Lacy, Norris J. (Ed.) (1 December 1992). Lancelot-Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation, Volume 1 of 5. New York: Garland. ISBN 0824077334.

[42] J. Tolan, Medieval Christian Perceptions of Islam (1996) pp. 100–01

[43] Summa Contra Gentiles Book 1, Chapter 16, Art.4

[44] "Mohammed and Mohammedanism", Catholic Encyclopedia, 1913

[45] Moncure Daniel Conway (1879). Demonology and Devil-lore, Volume 2. H. Holt. p. 249.

[46] Zwemer suggests Muhammad defied Arab ethical traditions, and that he personally violated the strict sexual morality of his own moral system.

[47] Zwemer, "Islam, a Challenge to Faith" (New York, 1907)

[48] Saraswati, Dayanand (1875). "An Examination of the Doctrine of Islam". Satyarth Prakash (The Light of Truth). Varanasi, India: Star Press. pp. 672–83. Retrieved 2 April 2012.

[49] Vivekananda, Swami (1997). Vedanta Philosophy: Lectures by the Swami Vivekananda on Raja Yoga Also Pantanjali's Yoga Aphorisms, with Commentaries, and Glossary of Sanskrit Terms (Reprint ed.). Whitefish, Montana, United States: Kessinger Publishing. p. 79. ISBN 978-1564597977. Retrieved 2 May 2012.

[grt1975-50] Thursby, Gene R. (1975). Hindu-Muslim Relations in British India: A Study of Controversy, Conflict, and Communal Movements in Northern India, 1923–1928: Volume 35 of Studies in the History of Religions. Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill Publishers. pp. 40–61. ISBN 978-9004043800. Retrieved 6 May 2012.

[jdk1991-51] Kelly, John Dunham (1991). A Politics of Virtue: Hinduism, Sexuality, and Countercolonial Discourse in Fiji. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 208. ISBN 978-0226430317. Retrieved 6 May 2012.

[52] Sharpe, Warren B. (2002). Philosophy for the Serious Heretic: The Limitations of Belief and the Derivation of Natural Moral Principles. Bloomington, Indiana: iUniverse. pp. 214–18. ISBN 978-0595215966. Retrieved 2 May 2012.

[53] The Works of Voltaire: The Dramatic Works of Voltaire. Voltaire, Tobias George Smollett, John Morley, William F. Fleming, Oliver Herbrand Gordon Leigh. Publisher Werner, 1905. Original from Princeton University. p. 12

[54] "But that a camel-merchant should stir up insurrection in his village; that in league with some miserable followers he persuades them that he talks with the angel Gabriel; that he boasts of having been carried to heaven, where he received in part this unintelligible book, each page of which makes common sense shudder; that, to pay homage to this book, he delivers his country to iron and flame; that he cuts the throats of fathers and kidnaps daughters; that he gives to the defeated the choice of his religion or death: this is assuredly nothing any man can excuse, at least if he was not born a Turk, or if superstition has not extinguished all natural light in him." – Referring to Muhammad, in a letter to Frederick II of Prussia (December 1740), published in Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire, Vol. 7 (1869), edited by Georges Avenel, p. 105

[55] Georges Minois (12 October 2012). The Atheist's Bible: The Most Dangerous Book That Never Existed. University of Chicago Press. p. 198. ISBN 978-0226530307.

[56] "Je sais que Mahomet n’a pas tramé précisément l’espèce de trahison qui fait le sujet de cette tragédie... Je n’ai pas prétendu mettre seulement une action vraie sur la scène, mais des moeurs vraies; faire penser les hommes comme ils pensent dans les circonstances où ils se trouvent, et représenter enfin ce que la fourberie peut inventer de plus atroce, et ce que le fanatisme peut exécuter de plus horrible. Mahomet n’est ici autre chose que Tartuffe les armes à la main." – Letter D2386, to Frederick II of Prussia (January 1740), published in The Complete Works of Voltaire, Institus et Musée Voltaire, 1971, XCI, p. 383

[Hirsi-57] "Slaughter And 'Submission'". CBS News. Archived from the original on 14 May 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[58] "SPIEGEL Interview with Ayaan Hirsi Ali: 'Everyone Is Afraid to Criticize Islam'". Spiegel Online. Spiegel.de. 6 February 2006. Archived from the original on 21 December 2007. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[Wilders-59] "Muhammad was a pedophile; press conference with Geert Wilders". 5 March 2010.

[60] "Debate Chris Hedges vs Sam Harris Religion". YouTube. 25 November 2011. Archived from the original on 26 April 2015. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[61] "Sam Harris. Islam, Quran, Perfect Man Muhammad's Hair Hazrat Bal Shrine in Kashmir. All Truth". YouTube. 12 June 2014. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[62] Pipes, Daniel (2002). In the Path of God : Islam and Political Power. Transaction Publishers. p. 43. ISBN 978-0765809810.

[63] Gross, Michael Joseph (27 December 2012). "The Making of The Innocence of Muslims: Cast Members Discuss the Film That Set Fire to the Arab World". Vanity Fair. Archived from the original on 14 June 2013. Retrieved 22 May 2013.

[64] Rodney Stark, "For the Glory of God: How Monotheism Led to Reformations, Science, Witch-Hunts, and the End of Slavery", p. 338, 2003, Princeton University Press, ISBN 0691114366

[Levy2000-65] Levy, Reuben (2000). "Slavery in Islam". The Social Structure of Islam. NY: Routledge. pp. 73–90. ISBN 978-0415209106.

[66] "Islam and Slavery". State University of New York at Oswego. Archived from the original on 30 September 2018. Retrieved 30 September 2018.

[BBC-67] "Slavery in Islam". BBC. 7 September 2009. Archived from the original on 6 October 2018. Retrieved 7 March 2019.

[68] See Tahfeem ul Qur'an by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi, Vol. 2, pp. 112–13, footnote 44; Also see commentary on verses ^{[Quran 23:1]}: Vol. 3, notes 7-1, p. 241; 2000, Islamic Publications.

[69] Ali Ünal, The Qur'an with Annotated Interpretation in Modern English, p. 1323

[70] Encyclopedia of the Qur'an, Slaves and Slavery

[71] Bilal b. Rabah, Encyclopedia of Islam

[Geisler_1999_Character_of_Muhammad-72] Geisler, N.L. (1999). In Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Article on Muhammad, Character of.

[Muir_1861_IV_p307-309-73] Muir, W. (1861). The Life of Mahomet, Volume IV (pp. 307–09). London: Smith, Elder and Co.

[75] Sismondi, Jean. Histoire de la chute de Rome et du déclin de la civilisation occidentale (in French). Mahomet devoit aux juifs une partie de ses connoissances et de sa religion; mais il éprouvoit contre eux cette haine qui semble s'animer dans les sectes religieuses, lorsqu'il n'y a entre elles qu'une seule différence au milieu de nombreux rapports. De puissantes colonies de cette nation, riches, commerçantes et dépourvues de toutes vertus guerrières, étoient établies en Arabie, à peu de distance de Médine. Mahomet les attaqua successivement, de l'an 628 à l'an 627 ; il né se contenta pas de partager leurs richesses, il abandonna presque tous les vaincus à des supplices qui, dans d'autres guerres, souilloient rarement ses armes. (book 2, pp. 27-28)

[Esposito18-76] John Esposito, Islam the Straight Path, Oxford University Press, pp. 17–18

[77] Bukhari 5:59:362

[78] Daniel W. Brown, A New Introduction to Islam, p. 81, 2003, Blackwell Publishers, ISBN 0-631-21604-9

[IbnIshaq-79] Ibn Ishaq, A. Guillaume (translator), The Life of Muhammad, p. 464, 2002, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0196360331

[80] Yusuf Ali, "The Meaning of the Holy Quran", (11th Edition), p. 1059, Amana Publications, 1989, ISBN 0915957760

[81] Stillman (1974), p. 16

[82] Quoted in Stillman (1974), p. 16

[83] BBC Radio 4, Beyond Belief, 2 Oct 2006, Islam and the sword

[Meri1-84] Meri, p. 754.

[85] Barakat Ahmad, Muhammad and the Jews: A Re-examination, holds that only the leaders of the Qurayza were killed.

[86] Nemoy, Leon. Barakat Ahmad's "Muhammad and the Jews". The Jewish Quarterly Review, New Ser., Vol. 72, No. 4. (Apr. 1982), p. 325. Nemoy is sourcing Ahmed's Muhammad and the Jews.

[Arafat-87] Walid Najib Arafat (1976). "New Light on the Story of Banū Qurayẓa and the Jews of Medina". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, pp. 100–07.

[Kurayza-88] Watt, Encyclopaedia of Islam, vol. 5, p. 436, "Kurayza, Banu".

[89] Spencer, Robert, 'The Truth About Muhammad' (2006). pp. 165–66:

[90] In-book reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 2977: Book 56, Hadith 186

[91] Spencer, Robert, 'The Truth About Muhammad' (2006). pp. 115–16:

[92] In-book reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 3031: Book 56, Hadith 238

[93] Spencer, Robert, 'The Truth About Muhammad' (2006). pp. 97–98:

[94] In-book reference: Sahih al-Bukhari 3012: Book 56, Hadith 221

[95] Ibn Ishaq, A. Guillaume (translator), The Life of Muhammad, pp. 510–17, 2002, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0196360331

[96] Ibn Warraq, Why I Am Not a Muslim, p. 99, Prometheus Books, 1995, ISBN 0879759844

[97] William Muir, Life of Mahomet, p. 391, 2003, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 0766177416

[98] "Rebuttal to Silas's Article "Muhammad and the Death of Kinana"". Answering-christianity.com. Archived from the original on 19 December 2013. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[99] "Safiyah Bint Huyeiy Ibn Akhtab". Islamonline.com. 25 August 2015. Archived from the original on 15 March 2006.

[100] John L. Esposito, Islam: The Straight Path, Third Edition, Oxford University Press, 1998, p. 16.

[Rahman-101] Fazlur Rahman, Islam, p. 28

[102] "Before leaving the subject of marriages, it may be proper to take notice of some peculiar privileges in relation thereto, which, as is asserted, were granted by God to Muhammad, to the exclusion of all other Muslims. One of them was, that he might lawfully marry as many wives and have as many concubines as he pleased, without being confined to any particular number; a privilege which, he asserted, had been granted to the prophets before him. Another was, that he might alter the turns of his wives, and favour such of them as he thought fit, without being tied to that order and equality which others are obliged to observe. A third privilege was, that no man might marry any of his wives, either such as he should divorce during his lifetime, or such as he should leave widows at his death." Wollaston, A.N. (1905). The Sword of Islam (p. 327). New York: E.P. Dutton and Company.

[104] "Muhammad received a revelation from God that a man should have no more than four wives at once, yet he had many more. A Muslim defender of Muhammad, writing in The Prophet of Islam as the Ideal Husband, admitted that he had fifteen wives. Yet he tells others they may have only four. How can someone be a perfect moral example and not live by one of the basic laws he laid down for others as from God?" Geisler, N.L. (1999). In Baker encyclopedia of Christian apologetics. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. Article on Muhammad, Character of.

[105] Yahiya Emerick (2014). Critical Lives: Muhammad. Alpha Books. p. 136. ISBN 978-0028643717. Retrieved 22 March 2015.

[106] Ibn Arabi. "The Seals of Wisdom (Fusus Al-Hikam)". Aisha Bewley. Archived from the original on 28 February 2015. Retrieved 22 March 2015.

[107] Esposito, John L. (2005). Islam: The Straight Path (PDF) (Revised Third ed.). Oxford University Press. pp. 16–17. Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 October 2018. As was customary for Arab chiefs, many were political marriages to cement alliances. Others were marriages to the widows of his companions who had fallen in combat and were in need of protection. Remarriage was difficult in a society that emphasized virgin marriages. Aisha was the only virgin that Muhammad married and the wife with whom he had the closest relationship. Fifth, as we shall see later, Muhammad's teachings and actions, as well as the Quranic message, improved the status of all women—wives, daughters, mothers, widows, and orphans.

[108] Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:234, Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:235, Sahih al-Bukhari, 5:58:236, Sahih al-Bukhari, 7:62:88; Sahih Muslim, 8:3309, Sahih Muslim, 8:3310, Sahih Muslim, 8:3311; Sunan Abu Dawood, 41:4915, Sunan Abu Dawood, 41:4917; and various sīra.

[Armstrong-109] Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet, Harper San Francisco, 1992, p. 157.

[110] Barlas (2002), pp. 125–26

[111] Tabari, Volume 9, p. 131; Tabari, Volume 7, Page 7

[112] A. C. Brown, Jonathan (2014). Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy. Oneworld Publications. pp. 143–44. ISBN 978-1780744209.

[113] A.C. Brown, Jonathan (2014). Misquoting Muhammad: The Challenge and Choices of Interpreting the Prophet's Legacy. Oneworld Publications. p. 316. n° 50. ISBN 978-1780744209. Evidence that the Prophet waited for Aisha to reach physical maturity before consummation comes from al-Ṭabarī, who says she was too young for intercourse at the time of the marriage contract;

[Vines-114] Cooperman, Alan (20 June 2002). "Anti-Muslim Remarks Stir Tempest". The Washington Post.

[115] Collins, Christopher (1 November 2010). Homeland Mythology: Biblical Narratives in American Culture. ISBN 978-0271047249. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[chamupati1924-116] Chamupati, Pandit (1924). रंगीला रसूल [Colourful Prophet] (PDF) (in Hindi). Delhi, India: Mohamamad Rafi. pp. 18, 22. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 April 2011. Retrieved 1 May 2012.

[117] Norma Tarazi (1995). The Child in Islam. American Trust Publications. p. 79. ISBN 978-0892591589.

[118] Catharina Raudvere (2014). Islam: An Introduction (illustrated ed.). I.B.Tauris. p. 202. ISBN 978-1848850842.

[119] Yusuf al-Qaradawi (1999). The Lawful and the Prohibited in Islam (Al-Halal Wal Haram Fil Islam) (reprint, revised ed.). American Trust Publications. pp. 106–07. ISBN 978-0892590162.

[120] Katherine Zoepf (2016). Excellent Daughters: The Secret Lives of Young Women Who Are Transforming the Arab World. Penguin. ISBN 9780698411470.

[121] Ophelia Benson; Jeremy Stangroom (2009). Does God Hate Women?. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 38–40. ISBN 978-1441118622.

[122] "Dr CP Turner – Durham University". Dur.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 4 December 2010. Retrieved 29 September 2015.

[123] C. (Colin) Turner (19 December 2013). Islam: The Basics. Routledge Press. pp. 34–35. ISBN 978-1134296910.

[:0-124] Karen Armstrong, Muhammad: Prophet for Our Time, HarperPress, 2006, p. 167 ISBN 0007232454

[125] Barlas, Asma (2012). "Believing Women" in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an. University of Texas Press. p. 126. On the other hand, however, Muslims who calculate 'Ayesha's age based on details of her sister Asma's age, about whom more is known, as well as on details of the Hijra (the Prophet's migration from Mecca to Madina), maintain that she was over thirteen and perhaps between seventeen and nineteen when she got married.

[126] A modern Arabic biography of Muḥammad. Antonie Wessels. Publisher Brill Archive, 1972. ISBN 9004034153 pp. 100–15

[127] Tabari VIII:3 ^ Tabari VIII:4

[128] William Montgomery Watt (1961), Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman, Oxford University Press, p. 158, ISBN 978-0198810780

[129] Watt (1961), p. 157

[Watt1961,_p.158-130] Watt (1961), p. 158

[131] Mazheruddin Siddiqi (1980), The Holy Prophet and the Orientalists, Islamic Research Institute, p. 163)

[132] Siddiqi (1980), p. 163

[133] Watt, "Aisha bint Abu Bakr", Encyclopaedia of Islam Online

[134] "...the marriage of a man with the wife of his adopted son, even though divorced, was looked upon by the Arabs as a very wrong thing indeed." Sell, E. (1905). The Historical Development of the Quran (pp. 149–50). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[135] "This liberality did not prevent severe comments from those who regarded adopted sonship as real sonship—for which view Mohammed’s institution of brotherhoods gave some support—and who, therefore, regarded this union as incestuous." Margoliouth, D.S. (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam (Third Edition., p. 321). New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons.

[136] Watt (1956), pp. 330–31

[137] Watt, p. 156.

[EI2-138] Lecker, M (2002). "Zayd B. Haritha". Encyclopaedia of Islam. 11 (2nd ed.). Brill Academic Publishers. p. 475. ISBN 978-9004127562.

[139] Watt, W.M. (1956). Muhammad at Medina, pp. 330-31. Oxford: The Clarendon Press.

[140] Landau-Tasseron/Tabari, p. 9.

[141] "Being the wife of an adopted son, she was unlawful to the Prophet, but a pretended revelation (see Qur’ān, Sūrah xxxiii. 37) settled the difficulty, and Muḥammad married her. "Hughes, T.P. (1885). A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W. H. Allen & Co.

[142] "However, Muhammad did this, and had to justify his action by alleging that he had for it the direct sanction of God. It was first necessary to show that God did not approve of the general objection to marriage with wives of adopted sons, and so the revelation came thus: Nor hath He made your adopted sons to be as your sons. – Súratu’l Ahzáb (33) v. 4. ... Having thus settled the general principle, the way was clear for Muhammad to act in this particular case, and to claim divine sanction for setting at nought the sentiment of the Arab people. So the revelation goes on to say: And remember when thou (i.e. Muhammad) said to him (i.e. Zaid), unto whom God had shown favour and to whom thou also hadst shown favour, 'Keep thy wife to thyself and fear God;’ and thou didst hide in thy mind what God would bring to light and thou didst fear man; but more right had it been to fear God. And when Zaid had settled to divorce her, we married her to thee, that it might not be a crime in the faithful to marry the wives of their adopted sons when they have settled the affairs concerning them. And the order of God is to be performed. No blame attaches to the Prophet where God hath given him a permission. – Súratu’l Ahzáb (33) vv. 37–38. This relaxation of the moral law for Muhammad’s benefit, because he was a prophet, shows how easy the divorce between religion and morality becomes in Islám." Sell, E. (1905). The Historical Development of the Quran (pp. 150–52). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[143] "But we learn the same lesson from all such investigations, and that is how completely Muḥammad adapted his pretended revelations to what he believed to be the need of the moment. The same thing is true with regard to what we read in Sûrah Al Aḥzâb regarding the circumstances attending his marriage with Zainab, whom his adopted son Zaid divorced for his sake. The subject is too unsavoury for us to deal with at any length, but a reference to what the Qur’ân itself (Sûrah XXXIII., 37) says about the matter, coupled with the explanations afforded by the Commentators and the Traditions, will prove that Muḥammad’s own character and disposition have left their mark upon the moral law of Islâm and upon the Qur’ân itself." Tisdall, W. S. C. (1911). The Original Sources of the Qur’ân (pp. 278–79). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[144] "But at Medina he seems to have cast off all shame; and the incidents connected with his marital relations, more especially the story of his marriage with Zainab the wife of his adopted son Zaid, and his connexion with Mary the Coptic slave-girl, are sufficient proof of his unbridled licentiousness and of his daring impiety in venturing to ascribe to GOD Most High the verses which he composed to sanction such conduct." Tisdall, W. S. C. (1895). The Religion of the Crescent, or Islâm: Its Strength, Its Weakness, Its Origin, Its Influence. Non-Christian Religious Systems (p. 177). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[145] "The scandal of the marriage was removed by this extraordinary revelation, and Zeid was thenceforward called not "the son of Mahomet", as heretofore, but by his proper name, "Zeid, the son of Hârith". Our only matter of wonder is, that the Revelations of Mahomet continued after this to be regarded by his people as inspired communications from the Almighty, when they were so palpably formed to secure his own objects, and pander even to his evil desires. We hear of no doubts or questionings; and we can only attribute the confiding and credulous spirit of his followers to the absolute ascendancy of his powerful mind over all who came within its influence." Muir, W. (1861). The Life of Mahomet (Vol. 3, p. 231). London: Smith, Elder and Co.

[Neale_1847_V.II_p.68-146] Neale, J.M. (1847). A History of the Holy Eastern Church: The Patriarchate of Alexandria. London: Joseph Masters. Volume II, Section I "Rise of Mahometanism" (p. 68)

[Hughes_1885_p._159-147] Hughes, T.P. (1885). In A Dictionary of Islam: Being a Cyclopædia of the Doctrines, Rites, Ceremonies, and Customs, together with the Technical and Theological Terms, of the Muhammadan Religion. London: W.H. Allen & Co. p. 159.

[148] Yasir Qadhi (23 July 2012), Seerah of Prophet Muhammed 4 – Religious status of the world before Islam, retrieved 30 September 2018

[:1-149] Al-Azraqī: Akhbār Makkah. Vol. 1, p. 100.

[Schaff_1910_4.III.42-150] Schaff, P., & Schaff, D.S. (1910). History of the Christian church. Third edition. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Volume 4, Chapter III, section 42 "Life and Character of Mohammed"

[151] Encyclopedia of Islam online, Muhammad article

[Freemon-152] Frank R. Freemon, A Differential Diagnosis of the Inspirational Spells of Muhammad the Prophet of Islam, Journal of Epilepsia, 17:4 23–427, 1976

[153] Margoliouth, David Samuel (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. Putnam. p. 46.

[154] Jeffery, Arthur (2000). The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. Prometheus Books. p. 346. ISBN 978-1573927871.

[155] See:
Caesar Farah, "Islam: Beliefs and Observances" (2003), Barron's Educational Series, ISBN 0764122266

Tor Andrae, Mohammad: The Man and his Faith, trans. Theophil Menzel (New York: Harper Torch Book Series, 1960), p. 51

[163] Caesar Farah, "Islam: Beliefs and Observances" (2003), Barron's Educational Series, ISBN 0764122266

[164] Tor Andrae, Mohammad: The Man and his Faith, trans. Theophil Menzel (New York: Harper Torch Book Series, 1960), p. 51

[156] Muhammad, Encyclopedia of Islam.

[157] Maxime Rodinson, Muhammad: Prophet of Islam, p. 56

[158] Fazlur Rahman, Islam, University of Chicago Press, p. 13

[159] See:
W. Montgomery Watt, Richard Bell. "Bell's Introduction to the Qur'an"(1995) Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748605975, pp. 17–18;

Watt, W. Montgomery (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0198810780. Retrieved 22 October 2006.

[169] W. Montgomery Watt, Richard Bell. "Bell's Introduction to the Qur'an"(1995) Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 0748605975, pp. 17–18;

[170] Watt, W. Montgomery (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0198810780. Retrieved 22 October 2006.

[167] Letters to the Editor, Journal of Epilepsia. 18(2), 1977.

[168] Maurice Gaudefroy-Demombynes (2013). Muslim Institutions (reprint ed.). Routledge. pp. 18–19. ISBN 978-1135030261.

[169] William Hare (1995). The Struggle for the Holy Land: Arabs, Jews, and the Emergence of Israel. Madison Books. p. 73. ISBN 978-1568330402.

[170] Spectrum: Journal of the Association of Adventist Forums, Volume 30. The Association. 2002. p. 19.

[171] Joseph Morrison Skelly (2009). Political Islam from Muhammad to Ahmadinejad: Defenders, Detractors, and Definitions. ABC-CLIO. p. 38. ISBN 978-0313372247.

[172] Gaudefroy-Demombynes 2013, p. 19.

[173] Gaudefroy-Demombynes 2013, p. 21.

[174] Muir, William (1878). Life of Mahomet. Kessinger Publishing. p. 583. ISBN 978-0766177413.

[Tisdall_2895_p177-175] Tisdall, W.S.C. (1895). The Religion of the Crescent, or Islâm: Its Strength, Its Weakness, Its Origin, Its Influence. Non-Christian Religious Systems (p. 177). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[176] "But we learn the same lesson from all such investigations, and that is how completely Muḥammad adapted his pretended revelations to what he believed to be the need of the moment. The same thing is true with regard to what we read in Sûrah Al Aḥzâb regarding the circumstances attending his marriage with Zainab, whom his adopted son Zaid divorced for his sake. ... a reference to what the Qur’ân itself (Sûrah XXXIII., 37) says about the matter, coupled with the explanations afforded by the Commentators and the Traditions, will prove that Muḥammad’s own character and disposition have left their mark upon the moral law of Islâm and upon the Qur’ân itself." Tisdall, W.S.C. (1911). The Original Sources of the Qur’ân (pp. 278–79). London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.

[177] Margoliouth, David Samuel (1905). Mohammed and the Rise of Islam. Putnam. pp. 88–89, 104–06.

[178] Margoliouth, David Samuel (1926). Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics (Volume 8). T&T Clark. p. 878. ISBN 978-0567094896.

[179] Watt, Bell (1995) p. 18

[Islam_1970_p._30-180] The Cambridge History of Islam (1970), Cambridge University Press, p. 30

[181] Watt, Muhammad Prophet and Statesman, p. 17

[Watt1-182] Watt, Montgomery, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press, 1961. From p. 232.

[183] Minou Reeves, Muhammad in Europe, New York University Press, p. 6, 2000

[184] Encyclopedia of Islam, Muhammad

[185] The Arabs in History, Lewis, pp. 45–46

[186] Watt, W. Montgomery (1961). Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford University Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0198810780. Retrieved 22 October 2006.

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