The Muslims form a nation over thirteen centuries old ,with more than six hundred million people in all parts of the world. The prophet Muhammad was the first citizen of this nation, it`s teacher and guide.
In this essay we will attempt to outline and critically access the principle elements of the historical sources relating to early Islam: The Qur’an, Ahadith and the biographies of Muhammad.
The Qur’an from Muslim perspective.
The Qur`an is the sacred book of Islam, the word of God and his final revelation. To Muslim The Qur`an is the ‘mother of all books.
It was revealed to Muhammad for guidance of mankind, He recited the verses, and then they were memorized and written down by others. The original books do not exist, most of them have been lost and only their translation exists today.
The Qur`an is written in Arabic ,a language today recognised as a major language. It deals with many affairs in peacetimes and during war. It provides advice in matters like marriage ,divorce, birth and death, property inheritance, buying and selling, trade and commerce, civil and criminal law, in short the Qur`an is a book of complete guidance embracing all different aspects of life. (Fazlur ,1965,p.30)
The revelation.
According to Muslim tradition during the month of Ramadan,Muhammad at the age of forty, tended to pray and meditate by himself in a cave on mount Hira outside the city of Mecca, in year 610 A.D.,he began to have visions,and revelation, from God through the angel Gabriel.
Hence, each single word contained in the Quran is divine, free from human influence.
Muhammad later preached these messages in Mecca where they were firstly rejected by the pagan worshipers and Muhammad was forced to escape to Medina where the first Muslim community was born.
He and his followers later returned to Mecca and converted its inhabitants to Islam before going on to conquer the entire Arabian peninsula, and further parts of the world .
The Qur`an is written in the most perfect written Arabic, and the way in which it has been structured, help the audience’s efforts to recall the message of the text.
According to Muslim tradition, the Qur’anic verses were originally memorized by Muhammad’s companions .
the Qur’an is, for Muslims, the work of God, it has been interpreted in many ways
For some, the ‘fundamentalists’ it is literally true
For others, such as the Sufis, every verse has an inner and more important meaning.
based on Q 2:23 : Muslims see the Qur’an as unsurpassable and unique
“If you have doubts about the revelation we have sent down to our servant, then produce a single sura like it -enlist whatever supporters you have other than God- if you truly think you can”.
and again:
“Say, ‘Even if all mankind and jinn came together to produce something like this Qur’an, they could not produce anything like it, however much they helped each other” Q 17:88
Qur’an critical viewpoint.
In recent years there has been a tendency on the part of Western scholars to accept what Muslims stated about the origins of the Qur’an.
Western scholars and some Muslim scholars, are careful-ling questioning the traditional view of the Qur’an.
The historical authenticity of early texts has been the subject of great debate among scholars and the traditionalists that without any reliable font that concern these text of early Islamic literature assert as complete and authentic works, while critics argue that the Qur’an is lacking in exactness and they doubt its historical reliability and accuracy of the hadith and the biographies of Muhammad, having been recorded so long after the facts.
Language difficulties.
Ancient Arabic was an early simple language, a mixed Arabic-Syriac language, the traders’ language of Mecca and it was based on Christian liturgical texts.
Professor Luxenberg states that when the final text of the Qur’an was codified, those working on it did not understand the original sense and meaning of this mixture trading language any more, and they vehemently and casually turned it into classical Arabic. http://www.livius.org/opinion/Luxenberg.htm
Written Arabic only had consonants and there were no defining vowels, Furthermore, when the Qur’an was codified a script was used in which several consonants shared the same signs.
There were 28 consonants but only 17 symbols, which means that Only 17 signs were used to write 28 consonants.
Early Islamic linguists, and since the 19th century also western scholars of Islam, have discovered loanwords in the Qur’an derived from various languages, mainly from Syriac. In the 7th century this was the spoken language of the Middle East, as well as Greek, that was mainly spoken in the Byzantine empire. Mecca, Muhammad’s home city was a trade settlement and Muhammad himself worked in the caravan trade for years. It is unthinkable that he had no knowledge of Syriac. So it is not surprising that Syriac loanwords are present in the Qur’an.
Further Argument.
textual exegesis of the Quran
Based on form and in depth text analysis, we also notice an untiring use of monotheistic similes with and from Judeo-Christian sources, Mohammad interpreted the rise of Islam as the development of what was originally a Judeo-Christian group. As this sect evolved and differentiated itself from its Judeo-Christian heritages, the Quran also progressed and was constantly in change for over a century.
In trying to trace the sources and development of the religious ideas developed in the Quran recent study have decisively showed that the main external influences (together with the Old Testament resources) can be traced back to Syriac Christianity. It is now well recognized that there were structured Jewish and Christian churches amongst the established communities in the north, the south, and the east of Arabia. The Arab town of Hira on the Euphrates was the base of a Nestorian group which undoubtedly lead some kind of missionary activity in Arabia, and there are many references in old Arabic poetry to hermits living in isolated caves in the wilderness.
With an outlook of the close commercial relations between Mecca and the Yemen it would be normal to say that some religious ideas and stories were carried to Mecca with the trading caravans and there are details of vocabulary in the Quran which lead to this assumption.
Professor Wansbrough In his book Quranic Studies Sources and Methods of Scriptural Interpretation concluded that the canonization of the text that we today call the Quran, and even the emergence of the concept of Islam, probably did not occur till the end of the eighth century, more than 150 years after the death of Muhammad.
Oral transmission.
the Qur’an was considered of principal importance in relations to safeguarding, and many Muslims would memorize and learn to recite the Qur’an in its wholeness word by word. Tradition say that Muhammad and his followers could recite the complete Qur’an by heart .(Goldziher,1981,p. 23)
For Muslims this would appear sufficient evidence to demonstrate that the veracity and reliability of oral transmission through the century is possible with great accuracy.
Muhammad Muslim perspective
The prophet Mohammad takes a special place in the life and conscience of Muslims today, just as he did in the past. (Tariq,2007,p.35).
His mission was to get people at large to believe in One True God (Allah), the Creator of all, and also to show and teach the laws of moral, social, legal, ethical conduct and matters of importance for humanity in general. Therefore following Muhammad’s example and teachings is an integral part of Islam identity. (Maxime, 1985, p.73)
Mohammad for Muslims, is the ‘perfect person’, the sinless model
When Muslims speak his name they will add ‘peace and blessings be upon him’
In Surah 33, of the Quran we find the following statement:
“Muhammad is not the father of any of your men, but is the Messenger of God and the seal of the Prophets”.
To the Islam world, this verse has been understood to mean that Muhammad was selected by God as the final prophet because of his qualities he was kind, considerate, wise and just and there will be no more prophets, there will be no new scripture.
Hadith and and the biographies of Muhammad.- Critical perspective.
The sira and hadith literature provide further information on Muhammad’s life.
A standard Islamic source that attempts to provide some sort of context to the Qur’an and also where most of the historical information about Muhammad is derived from are the hadith, a collection of authoritative traditions that were handed down orally and are considered to be the words and deeds of the prophet Muhammad and also what the prophet approved .
This are short reports or narratives on the sayings and deeds of Muhammad which were collected by Muslims in the ninth and tenth centuries. The most famous was written by Ibn Ishaq, born in 717 and died in 767 Life of God’s Messenger. This traditions began to be written down during the reign of Umar
But, strangely enough none of these collections have survived,
the work is lost, but was used word for word at great length by Ibn Hisham .
The key problem however is, as just stated, there are no existing copies of this work the main source is the redaction of Ibn Hisham (d. 833) which according to scholars was following his own desire to spread a positive message of Islam and its great prophet, and so he removed whatever he thought was inappropriate to the Messenger of God” (Peters, 2009. p. 23) giving not a true reflection of the Prophet Muhammad’s life.
He states at the beginning that he has edited it so as to omit: ‘things which it is disgraceful to discuss; matters which could distress certain people.
Things or fact like the one where Muhammad allowed his followers to raid the Meccan caravans in the month of Rahab held by Arab tradition to be a sacred month when fighting was strictly forbidden.
The Meccans were outraged at this act which was seen as cowardly. Muhammad himself seems at first to have been rather embarrassed by the raid, for he refused to distribute the loot which had been taken. Shortly after, however, another Qur’anic revelation was received to accommodate this matter.
Further comment
The biographies record at least 70 assassinations prompted by Muhammad against his opponents who disagreed with him.
We know about his problems in Mecca, where they were initially rejected by the pagan worshipers and Muhammad was forced to escape to Medina where the first Muslim community was born. He and his followers later returned to Mecca where they subdued it’s inhabitants and by strength converted them to Islam before going on to conquer the entire Arabian peninsula, and then further battles and conquest lead to the proliferation of Islam around the world.
Something to reflect on.
According to the earliest sources Muhammad married at least eleven possibly fourteen women after the death of Khadija .
However or not political reason could be found for most of Muhammad marriages , personal desires definitely played a big part has is made clear by the early accounts of his life. A tradition preserved by al Bukkhari states that he satisfied nine of his wives in a single night .
Most people , regard sexual prowess as being incompatible with prophecy.
In other accounts is said that Muhammad declared that he loved nothing better than prayer, sweet odours and women.
In addition to all It was also was written some 200 years after the Prophet’s death and raises questions over its authenticity as the original source is lost and only fragments remain, leaving historians with the unpopular job of splitting real fact from creative writing.
Problem with the Oral Transmission.
Cook warns of the danger in accepting oral tradition as a reliable source when he states that if “the life of Muhammad was transmitted orally for a century before it was reduced to writing, then the chances are that the material will have undergone considerable alteration in the process” (Cook, 1983. p.65)
Kussas.
Pre Islamic Arabs have a long tradition of storytelling Kussas who told tales modelled on the Biblical stories, which were popular at the time, as well as stories from Iran
The main aim of the storytellers was the same as that of the tribal poets, the glorification of their tribe entertaining people with legendary “tales of the Prophets” (Peters, 2009. p. 27).
This appears to be rational assumption as the unreliability of oral transmission can be clearly seen in the number of variations in the traditions and furthermore historians do not exclude the possibility that even the biographies have very little historical foundation and owe more to the art of elaborated narration.
Our Critic tend to view oral tradition with suspicion, due to the opportunity of corruption and manipulation as there is no way of corroborating this with written evidence at the time of the events.
Non Arabic sources.
The first documented Christian awareness of Muhammad is from Byzantine sources. They point out that both Jews and Christians saw Muhammad as a misleading prophet.
In the Doctrina Jacobi nuper baptizati of 634, Muhammad is depicted as being devious for do prophets come with sword and chariot “You will discover nothing true from the said prophet except human bloodshed.”
Contradictory Hadiths.
Muslim scholars were faced with a huge series of traditions many of them clearly contradictory, and voluntarily agreed that there are numerous forged hadiths, however this does not weaken their relevance to Muslims.
This muddle among early Muslims led Al Bukari, in an attempt to put an end the proliferation of forged hadiths, to compile an authentic authoritative text in the 9th Century
In order to compile an authoritative text Muslim scholar developed the ‘science of hadith’. Each hadith was accompanied by an isnad a chain of transmitters going back to the companions of the prophet Muhammad
The important questions were: Was transmission feasibleWere the transmitters reliable?
The significant problem with this method is that the earliest hadith do not mention the chain of transmitters for its authenticity.
Several western scholars and professors most of which are the authors of book indicated in the bibliography of this paper, have been far more critical of Muslim traditions and argue that there are no hadith which are truly reliable.
Most Muslims do not question the stories and are shocked by any who do
A few Muslims are beginning to question the Muslim sources. The truth is we have found a lot of discrepancy on how Islam came into existence.
Bibliography;ABDULLAH, YUSUF ALI. 1937. The Holy Qur’an, Translation and Commentary. Lahore.
AFZALUR R., 1992,Islam ideology and the way of life, Published by Seerah foundation, London.
COOK, M. 1983. Muhammad. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
FAZLUR R.,1965, Islam, Weindenfeld and Nicolson, London.
GOLDZIER I, 1981,Introduction to Islamic theology and Law, Princeton University Press, Princeton ,New Jersey.
KURSHID A.,1992, Islam its meaning and Message, Published by the Islamic Foundation, Leicester UK.
MAXIME R..!985, Mohammed, Published by Pelican Books, Uk.
PETERS, F. E. 2009. The Quest: The Historians’ Search for Jesus and Muhammad. Maryland: Recorded Books, LLC.
SAYYD A,1989,Towards understanding Islam, Published by the Islamic Foundation, Leicester UK.
SELL, D. D. 1923. The Historical Development of the Qur’an, 4th ed. London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.
TARIQ R.,2007,In the footstep of the prophet, Oxford university press, New York.
http://www.livius.org/opinion/Luxenberg.htmaccessed on 7/03/2011
