The Qur'an and Muhammad

Millions of Muslims prostrate themselves everyday towards Mecca reciting verses of the Qur’an venerating Muhammad, as the messenger of God. In so doing, they affirm a belief in Muhammad as the seal of the prophets belonging to Abraham’s monotheistic traditions.

Yet, the Qur’ an depicts a somewhat troubling picture of Muhammad especially following the immigration to Medina where the moral code guiding his actions receded. The Qur’an passages dictated by Muhammad in Medina seldom teach supreme truths relating to divinity and the spiritual reform of the individual.

In point of fact, the whole character of the revelations changed and now Allah condoned violence and intolerance, on the one hand, and Muhammad’s less elevated desires, on the other; especially in relation to his lust for women.

The revelations of the Qur’an in Medina followed Muhammad and his companions needs and ideas. Umar Ibn Al-Khatab, for instance, boasted of having given advice which was supported by subsequent Qur’an’s revelations. One of Muhammad’s wives Aisha also remarked on the Qur’an’s readiness to answer the Prophet’s wishes.

The Qur’an, for instance, supported Muhammad’s desire, which was in conflict with social taboos, to marry his daughter-in-law Zaynab bint Jahsh, the wife of his adoptive son Zayd Ibn Haritha. According to existing Arab traditions, marrying Zaynab would be a dreadful act of incest as adoption, to all purposes, was regarded as natural fatherhood.

The Prophet’s inflammable passions and the Qur’an’s passages (Al-Ahzab XXXIII:37) supporting them gave rise to speculation and scepticism among the community of believers at the time. Rumours spread about the authenticity of some verses of the Qur’an and whether Muhammad concealed God’s revelations to the believers.

It certainly seems that the moral guidance of the Qur’an gave way to Muhammad’s unquenched lust for women.

Satanic verses

Satanic Verses

Few, if any, religious texts have caused as much turmoil in human history as did the Qur’an. In fact, a trail of blood follows the Qur’an to as early as the seventh century, following the Prophet’s death in 632 AD, when the very prophethood of Muhammad was put in question.

The uproar and violence that followed the publication of Salman’s Rushdie’s novel “Satanic Verses” in 1988 is but a case in point. Rushdie famously invoked the so-called “ Satanic ” verses that Muhammad incorporated into the Qur’an and then later repudiated as verses revealed by Satan.

The verses allowed for a reconcilaition with the pagan Meccans by recognising three of their goddesses: Allat, Al-Uzza and Manat. Muhammad was scolded by Gabriel for the insertion, according to early Muslim traditions.

The verses were then expunged from the text of the Qur’an and Muhammad excused his own conduct by claiming that Satan casts words into the mouths of all the prophets. God then abrogated what Satan whispered to Muhammad and rebuked him especially for degrading divinity by associating it with female deities. (Sura Al-Najm 53:19-22)

It is at this juncture that one can discern disturbances in the revelations and, subsequently, the text of the Qur’an. Scholarly work by Richard Bell reveals major revisions in the formulation of Sura Al-Najm, for instance.

Verses 1-18 describe two visions of Allah by Muhammad which were met by fierce objections. Verses were then introduced into Al-Najm to modify the impression of visual manifestations of God. Muhammad also famously inserted the utterance of his secretary Abdullah Ibn Sa’ad into the Qur’an, which casts serious doubts on his inspirations.

Studies of the Qur’an found it cluttered with repetitions and stylistic errors. Montgomery Watt ‘s textual analysis of the Qur’an, for instance, found evidence of rhyming phrases that do not fit into the passage, abrupt changes of rhyme and a juxtaposition of apparently contradictory assertions.

It is, thus, no wonder that Muhammad’s attempt to dominate by virtue of the doctrine he put forward was met with fierce opposition by key members of his community. In fact, the persecution of the members of Muhammad’s sect only started following the revelation, and the retraction, of the “satanic verses.”

From that time onward, Muhammad’s only option in the highly literary Arab community was to dominate by the power of the sword.

Beyond the Qur'an

Another holy war, for no less than the very soul of Islam, is looming out of the maze of cyberspace. The dispute centers over the authenticity of the Qur’an, as the uncreated Word of God, saw both bloggers and Facebook members engaged in furious debates often descending into obscene abuse and rage.

One such blog “ The Season of Migration from Islam”(Moussim Al Hijra min Al-Islam), by Zohair Salem, openly accuses Prophet Muhammad of falsehood, violence and of authoring the Qur’an.

One of the points that Salem brings to the fore is the apparent discrepancy between the early peaceful commandments of the Qur’an in Mecca, when Islam was weak, and those revealed in Medina calling for aggression, as Islam came to dominate the entire Arab peninsula.

The gravity of such allegations could only be fathomed, in light of the centrality of the Qur'an, considered as the definitive word of God, to the Islamic faith. The Qur’an is traditionally seen as an uncreated text revealed to Muhammad through the archangel Gabriel over a period of some twenty three years. *

The impasse posed by the apparent contradictions in the Qur’anic injunctions was resolved by adopting a system of abrogation with the latter aggressive commandments abrogating the earlier verses calling for peace and freedom of belief.

The contradictions in the Qur’an are especially acute in dealing with non-Muslims and women. Whereas the verses revealed in Mecca, over the first thirteen years of revelations, call for peace, freedom of belief and equality between men and women; those revealed in Medina, in the latter period, are violent in nature and reduce women to half beings created for the pleasure of men.

With heresy accusations being historically attached to any attempt to go beyond the Qur’an, there is very little hope that the likes of Salem could prevail any time soon. In the meantime, those that are looking to live by laws allowing for co-existence, tolerance and equality can only find solace in following Salem’s call for a “ Season of Migration from Islam” in the virtual world of Facebook.

* for information on the Qur’an see http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/ISLAM/QURAN.HTM