Arguments for Muhammad
Muhammad’s Illiteracy
Muslims contend that because Muhammad was illiterate, there is no way that he could have recited the incredibly eloquent Suras that he did. They argue that this proves the Divine origin of the Koran.
First of all, as was already noted, the Koran isn’t that eloquent after all. Second, any uneducated (i.e. illiterate) person who listened to poets and story tellers recite their narratives could easily become a great orator himself without learning how to read or write. As was noted in the article on the sources of the Koran, Muhammad was surrounded by people his whole life who told such stories to him.
Next, it is questionable whether the Koran teaches that Muhammad was illiterate or not. The words that have been translated as “unlettered” (i.e. illiterate) in Suras 7:157 and 62:2 are al umni, and they can mean “illiterate” or “gentile”. In fact, when you put the word “gentile”, “pagan” or “common folk” into those places instead of “unlettered” as Arberry, Palmer, and Rodwell do, the change fits the passage just as well if not better.
Fourth, there are numerous Hadiths (i.e. traditions
of the sayings of Muhammad) where Muhammad asks for something to write with and write on (Sahih Bukhari 1.65, 1.114, 4.228, 4.393,
5.553, 5.716, 5.717, 7.88, 7.573, and 9.468). In fact, in one of those Hadiths, Muhammad writes a peace treaty with
“The infidels said (to the Prophet), “We do not agree with you on this, for if we knew that you are Apostle of Allah we would not have prevented you for anything (i.e. entering Mecca, etc.), but you are Muhammad, the son of ‘Abdullah.” Then he said to ‘Ali, “Erase (the name of) ‘Apostle of Allah’.” ‘Ali said, “No, by Allah, I will never erase you (i.e. your name).” Then Allah's Apostle took the writing sheet...and he did not know a better writing…and he wrote or got it the following written: “This is the peace treaty which Muhammad, the son of ‘Abdullah, has concluded: “Muhammad should not bring arms into Mecca except sheathed swords, and should not take with him any person of the people of Mecca even if such a person wanted to follow him, and if any of his companions wants to stay in Mecca, he should not forbid him.””
-excerpt from Sahih Bukhari 5.553
Also, he wrote his marriage contract with ‘Aisha (emphasis mine):
“Narrated ‘Ursa:
The Prophet wrote the (marriage contract) with ‘Aisha while she was six years old and
consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).”
-Sahih Bukhari 7.88
If the Hadiths (which Muslims believe to be authentic) are true, then the Muslim must accept the fact that Muhammad could read and write.
Prophecies for Muhammad
Since the Koran says that Muhammad’s coming was predicted in the Old and New Testaments (Sura 7:157), Muslims have been trying desperately to find prophecies in the Bible which predict the coming of Muhammad and Islam. However, their method is highly eisegetical, and in fact, there is nothing in the Bible which predicts the coming of Muhammad. This was documented in the article on the exegesis of Biblical texts used for Muhammad.
Prophecies by Muhammad
After realizing that Muhammad wasn’t like any of the Biblical prophets in that he didn’t predict the future, Muslims have rummaged through the Koran to find any sort of prophetic utterance that can be attributed to Muhammad. However, most of the examples brought forward have to do with Muhammad predicting victory for his troops in battle, and of course, all generals try to encourage their troops before a battle to raise their morale. In fact, at one such battle where Muhammad made a rallying cry to his troops, the Battle of Uhud, the Muslims and Muhammad lost! Then again, such rallying cries were probably never intended to be a prophecy from God.
There is only one that has any real significance, the
Roman war with
www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/false_prophecies.htm
Either way, the prediction is not
a long term prediction, and anyone could have guessed that the Byzantines were going to counter-attack the Persians after the capture
of
Lastly, there are a number of prophecies that were made by Muhammad recorded in the Koran and the Hadith that never came true. Several predict the end of the world which he said would come to an end only few hundred years after his coming. Others can be found here:
www.answering-islam.org/Shamoun/false_prophecies.htm
Miracles of Muhammad
Some Muslims point to the Hadiths
for the belief that Muhammad did miracles, which they say prove that he was a prophet. However, Muhammad himself says in multiple
passages in the Koran that he performed no miracles except the recitation of the Koran (Suras
Second, the Hadiths are of a highly questionable authenticity. Such miracles recorded in the Hadith include the belief that Muhammad chopped the moon in half with his sword (Sahih Bukhari 4:830-832, 5:208-211, 6:387-390). Of course, it must be asked, “Wouldn’t someone else on that side of the earth have seen this happen and recorded it?” No such historical event exists in historical records because it never happened! Also, the Hadiths record Muhammad making a number of statements about science that just aren’t true. For instance, Muhammad taught that mixing milk with camel urine and drinking it is good for your health:
“So the Prophet ordered them to go to the herd of camels and to drink their milk and urine [as a medicine].”
-Sahih Bukhari I:234
Another absurdity that Muhammad taught was the belief that if a fly falls into your cup, then one should just drink it because if one wing has the disease, the other will have the antidote (Sahih Bukhari 4:537)! I would suggest that the Muslim dump the Hadiths A.S.A.P. because the list of absurdities goes on and on!
Lastly, the belief that Muhammad did miracles was probably (if not definitely) a later addition by zealous followers to make him look as good as Jesus and the previous prophets. Robert Morey notes:
“These later legends claim predictions were made for Muhammad’s coming, add a supernatural element to his birth, depict him doing miracles, and claim that he was sinless and perfect and that he ascended into heaven. But these claims are not found in the Quran or in early Muslim traditions.
As all the standard reference works point out, they are later fabrications made by embarrassed Muslims who were faced with the rather obvious fact that Muhammad was inferior to Jesus Christ. This led them to remold the life of Muhammad to parallel the life and miracles of Jesus.”
- Robert Morey, The Islamic Invasion (Las Vegas, NV: Christian Scholars Press, 1992), pp.102-103.
Morey continues:
“We are reminded
of the followers of
This fabrication did not last long as it was revealed that in all the literary sources concerning
In the same way, Muslim legendary material concerning the miracles of Muhammad all date after heated debates between Christians and Muslims.”
- Robert Morey, The Islamic Invasion (Las Vegas, NV: Christian Scholars Press, 1992), p.103.
Arguments from Character
According to Muslims, Muhammad had an exemplary moral character, and thus, his life is to be the highest moral example to mankind. Some even say that he was sinless! However, it is likely that not even Muhammad intended such a thing. Several times in the Koran, Allah either tells Muhammad to ask forgiveness for his sin or that he has been forgiven (Sura 40:55, 41:19, 48:1-2, etc.). In fact, according to Islam, only Mary and Jesus were born without sin (Sahih Bukhari 4.641). The belief that Muhammad was sinless probably stems from the same thing that his alleged miracles came from (see the quotes from Robert Morey’s work above).
Second, he was far from an exemplary moral character. He stole his adopted son-in-law’s wife under the guise of a revelation
from Allah (Sura 33:37)! He had multiple people assassinated for speaking against him (i.e. Abdollah Sarh, Imraul Qais’s daughter,
etc.)! He ordered the beating of wives (Sura
“Narrated ‘Ursa:
The Prophetwrote the (marriage contract) with ‘Aisha while she was six years old and consummated his marriage with her while she was nine years
old and she remained with him for nine years (i.e. till his death).”
-excerpt from Sahih Bukhari 7.88
This has been confirmed in other Hadiths (Sahih Bukhari 5.234, 5.236, 7.64-65, Sunan Abu Da’ud
41.4915-4917)! Muhammad was a pedophile, and just about nothing could put him further away from being the “highest moral example”
than this!
[More examples of Muhammad’s extreme moral failures are discussed in the article on Muhammad as a prophet.]
General Arguments for Islam
Rapid Spread of Islam
One of the big arguments for Islam is its rapid spread. Muslims argue that because their religion grew so quickly over the globe, it must have been guided by Allah.
However, many religions
and philosophies have grown quickly over the world in the past. Early on, Christianity spread from
Communism spread from
Next, it is clear that Islam was spread through the use of force. The promise of plunder, riches, and power is what initially attracted the Arab tribes to unite under Muhammad. In fact, when Muhammad died, many of the Arabs fell away from Islam, and Caliph Abu Bakr had to launch a war against them in order to keep them Muslims! Throughout the centuries, Islam gave an ultimatum to every conquered people: convert or die! One fundamentalist Muslim responded to Dr. Robert Morey’s book in this way:
“Mr. Morey also claims that Muhammad forced people to give up their idols and accept Islam. This statement is not true. What Muhammad did was give a choice to the pagans and idol worshippers to either give up their idols or die. No force was used, just a choice. If you believe your idols, then are you willing to die for them is the question that was faced. I put this question to Mr. Morey and his readers: Are you willing to die for your belief in Jesus Christ?”
-Waliyyuddin Shareef, In Response to Robert Morey’s Islamic Invasion, p.35.
The next thing that they did was to punish anyone who wanted to convert from Islam with death (Sura 4:88-89). So, the masses of Muslims all over the world were and still are kept captive from even thinking about changing religions by the barbaric Islamic fundamentalist hordes of their own nations. This has created nominal Muslims (i.e. Muslim in-name-only) on a grand scale!
The reason for the rapid growth of Islam today is the high birth rate of Islamic families. When most Islamic families around
the world are impoverished and their men are allowed to have up to four wives, the high rate of growth is understandable. Because
these families cannot afford all of their children, some of these people are shipped off to
Changed Lives
One argument that Muslims use to try to prove that Islam is the true religion of God is to point to the changed lives of its converts. They will use the examples of former drug addicts, rapists, murderers, etc. who turned their lives around when they converted to Islam.
Of course, any religion has its host of converts who turned from their self-destructive ways. Christianity has plenty of them, and I’m sure that there are Buddhist, Hindu, and New Age converts who ‘finally found peace’. The argument is completely subjective.
Also, there are plenty of converts to Islam who go off and become terrorists and radical terrorist sympathizers. We hear of
them on the news every day! There was one such irreligious Arab who used to party and drink at bars in
Conclusion
Probably the greatest argument against Islam is not the fact that the Koran contains errors or that Muhammad was clearly a false prophet. The greatest argument against Islam is that there is no reason to believe in it.
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Some helpful online reading can be found here:
www.answering-islam.org/Quran/index.html
Suggested reading:
- Robert Morey, The Islamic Invasion (Las Vegas, NV: Christian Scholars Press, 1992).
- Norman Geisler and Abdul Saleeb, Answering Islam (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker Books, 1993).
- Dr. Anis A. Shorrosh, Islam Unveiled (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1988).
Arguments for Islam,
Muhammad, and the
Koran Refuted
(Part 2)