Question

What do you think is the biggest challenge/issue/problem that the nature of the sources for Muhammad's life present for scholars and students of this subject?

How does/should this affect the way that we study this subject in an academic setting?

Answer 1

Muhammad (PBUH) is the prophet of Islam. He belonged to the Queresh tribe of Mecca; He was born in 571 AD. His father had expired before his birth. As a tradition of Meccans, he was given to Halima Tai to take care of him and breastfeed him. His mother died when he was around five years of age.

His life history is known to the world through sunnah (his way of living life) and Hadiths (sayings of Muhammed). He was not educated, being orphaned at an early age he was looked after by his grandfather Abdul Mutalib and after his death, he was taken care of by his uncle Abu-Talib till his death.

Among Arabs tribes, he was known as an Ameen(Honest). From childhood he was different from the other Arab children; he never worshiped the idols that the Arabs used to worship, and always found to be praying to Allah. He was the descendant of the prophet Abraham, so the concept of Allah the almighty was there among the Arabs. But the Arabs had taken to the worship of idols and they had around 365 idols in the Kaaba. (a sacred place for Muslims and believed to be built by Abraham and his son Ishmael)

When he was 25 years of age he had gone to sell the goods of an Arab wealthy woman Khadija and made a good profit for her. She was impressed by his honesty and later on, she married him.

At the age of 40, he claimed to be the prophet of Allah and sent to the whole world as the messenger of Allah.

During his time the Arabs believed in many God and Goddesses, slavery was common, there was a large class gap between the wealthy person and the poor. Alcohol was common, and people to indulge all sorts of sinful activities. The girls (not all) were buried alive, and it was not taken as a sin. On the whole, the Arab society and the culture were the worst of its kind on the earth when he gave the message of Allah to the world. There is no God except Allah. Stop Idol worship and pray to Allah. He said all are equal in the eyes of Allah. There is no rich and poor the character of a person is his true self.

The people who were oppressed and treated badly got attracted to the teachings of equality and believe in one God. His message brought a change in Arab society, the people who used to engage in sinful activities started changing and removed idols from their houses. The teaching of brotherhood brought the people together. As we see in the life of every prophet, those who are poor and oppressed accept the message of the prophet more easily. In the same way, his message was accepted by the people, who found it to be true and believed in the oneness of God. The wealthy and people from the upper class started misbehaving and ill-treating him. They started inflicting bodily harm to him.

He never stopped from spreading the message of Allah, as the number of his followers increased the cruelty of the Arab non-followers started increasing.

He was made to migrate (hijrat) from Mecca to Medina in 622AD the people of Medina accepted him with open arms and the spread of Islam begun.

The life of Muhammed (peace be upon him) is an open book. He is the most sorts after figuring for the scholars to study because the time of his prophethood was the time when the Arab world was the worst of its kind on this earth. He taught them the true teaching and removed idol worship and brought a positive change in those people.

Drinking of alcohol was common among Arabs when he proclaimed that Alcohol is not allowed, all the Muslim threw it immediately. His followers were always ready to defend him and follow each and every word that he tells them to obey. They knew he never tells anything from his own, whatever is told by him are revealed to him by the Allah the almighty.

The revelation of the Quran is a miracle. He was an Ummi(illiterate) he could not read or write. Whatever was revealed to him, he used to dictate to his followers and they used to byheart it and write it down. Thus the Quran is still present in its original form. As the people use to byheart it from generation to generation it is transferred from one person to another.

His whole life is the replica of what a common person should do in society. The scholars claimed that Islam is spread through sword it is the misconception that is spread to malign Islam, His life is the replica of what happened during that time. He was targeted and harassed by the Meccans continuously, and made to migrate to Medina. After his migration to Medina, the Meccan were harassing those who were left behind in Mecca and looting the people from Medina. When the Meccans crossed their limit of harassing. Allah who is the most merciful told him to defend against Meccan oppression and after many years of his prophethood he took the Sword to defend Muslims and Islam and he never spread it through the sword.

His teaching is the most beautiful teachings if the scholars read it unbiased and without stereotyping that Isalm spread through Sword. It was the teachings of equality, belief in God, give respect to all women, education to children, be pious, do not cheat, help poor, and all are equal in the eyes of God.

In the academic studies, the life of Muhammed should be present in contact with the situation of that era, and how the people got changed from bad to worst. His followers are examples of sacrifice and true life. The scholars say that he married multiple times. The fact his all his marriages were with some purpose the woman is a good teacher for the children and community. Through his wives, the teaching of Islam was spread to women and children.' All his marriages were before the law of four marriages came into force. The permission of four legal marriages was given with the reason as the men were killed during the war and the number of widows was increasing Islam gave permission to marry these widows so that they would get shelter and security. It was not for comfort, it was the need of that time to protect women from discomfort.

The book Quran is the revelation from God, as he could not read or write he had no knowledge about previous prophets, but the Quran describes various prophets from Adam to Jesus, it gives scientific knowledge that is being researched and found to be true. The conception of a child, about the sun and the moon, sea and from insect to the animals, in fact, it has everything in it. From the academic point of view instead of teaching stereotype Islam it should be properly balanced and based on the true facts is the need of the time.