The Life of Muhammad

by M. Husayn Haykal

  True, after Muhammad’s death the Muslims differed, and they fabricated thousands of hadiths and reports to support their various causes. From the day Abu Lu’lu’ah, the servant of al Mughirah, killed ‘Umar ibn al Khattab and ‘Uthman ibn ‘Affan assumed the caliphate, the old pre-Islamic enmity of Banu Hashim and Banu Umayyah reappeared. When, upon the murder of ‘Uthman, civil war broke out between the Muslims, ‘A’ishah fought against ‘Ali and ‘Ali’s supporters consolidated themselves into a party, the fabrication of hadiths spread to the point where ‘Ali ibn Abu Talib himself had to reject the practice and warn against it. He reportedly said: “We have no book and no writing to read to you except the Qur’an and this sheet which I have received from the Prophet of God in which he specified the duties prescribed by charity.” Apparently, this exhortation did not stop the Hadith narrators from fabricating their stories either in support of a cause they advocated, or of a virtue or practice to which they exhorted the Muslims and which they thought would have more appeal if vested with prophetic authority. When the Banu Umayyah firmly established themselves in power, their protagonists among the Hadith narrators deprecated the prophetic traditions reported by the party of ‘Ali ibn Abu Talib, and the latter defended those traditions and propagated them with all the means at their disposal. Undoubtedly they also deprecated the traditions reported by ‘A’ishah, “Mother of the Faithful.” A humorous piece of reportage was given us by ibn ‘Asakir who wrote: “Abu Sa’d Isma’il ibn al Muthannaal Istrabadhi was giving a sermon one day in Damascus when a man stood up and asked him what he thought of the hadith of the Prophet: ‘I am the city of knowledge and ‘All is its gate.’ Abu Sa’d pondered the question for a while and then replied: Indeed! No one knows this hadith of the Prophet except those who lived in the first century of Islam. What the Prophet had said, he continued, was, rather, “I am the city of knowledge; Abu Bakr is its foundation; ‘Umar, its walls; ‘Uthman its ceiling; and ‘Ali is its gate.’ The audience was quite pleased with his reply and asked him to furnish them with its chain of narrators. Abu Sa’d could not furnish any chain and was terribly embarrassed.” Thus hadiths were fabricated for political and other purposes. This wanton multiplication alarmed the Muslims because many ran counter to the Book of God. The attempts to stop this wave of fabrication under the Umawis did not succeed. When the ‘Abbasids took over, and al Ma’mun assumed the caliphate almost two centuries after the death of the Prophet, the fabricated hadiths numbered in the thousands and hundreds of thousands and contained an unimaginable amount of contradiction and variety. It was then that the collectors applied themselves to the task of putting the Hadith together and the biographers of the Prophet wrote their biographies. Al Waqidi, ibn Hisham and al Mada’ini lived and wrote their books in the days of al Ma’mun. They could not afford to contradict the caliphate and hence could not apply with the precision due the Prophet’s criterion that his traditions ought to be checked against the Qur’an and accepted only if they accorded therewith.

  Had this criterion, which does not differ from the modern method of scientific criticism, been applied with precision, the ancient masters would have altered much of their writing. Circumstances of history imposed upon them the application of it to some of their writings but not to others. The later generations inherited their method of treating the biography of the Prophet without questioning it. Had they been true to history, they would have applied this criterion in general as well as in detail. No reported events disagreeing with the Qur’an would have been spared, and none would have been confirmed but those which agreed with the Book of God as well as the laws of nature. Even so, these hadiths would have been subject to strict analysis and established only with valid proof and incontestable evidence. This stand was taken by the greatest Muslim scholars of the past as well as of the present. The grand Shaykh of al Azhar, Muhammad Mustafa al Maraghi, wrote in his foreword to this book: “Muhammad-may God’s peace and blessing be upon him-had only one irresistible miracle-the Qur’an. But it is not irrational. How eloquent is the verse of al Busayri: ‘God did not try us with anything irrational. Thus, we fell under neither doubt nor illusion.’

  The late Muhammad Rashid Rida, editor of al Manar, wrote in answer to our critics: “The most important objection which the Azharis and the Sufis raise against Haykal concerns the problem of the miracles. In my book, Al Wahy al Muhammadi, I have analyzed the problem from all aspects in the second chapter and the second section of the fifth chapter. I have established there that the Qur’an alone is the conclusive proof of the prophethood of Muhammad-may God’s peace and blessing be upon him-as well as of the other prophets of their messages and prophecies regarding him. In our age it is impossible to prove any work of the Prophet except by the Qur’an. From its standpoint, supernatural events are ipso facto doubtful. Besides the ubiquitous reports of their occurrence in all ages and places, they are believed in by the superstitious of all faiths. I have also analyzed the causes of this predeliction for belief in miracles and distinguished the miraculous from the spiritual and shown the relationship of both to cosmic laws.”[Al Manar, May 3, 1935, p. 793]

  In his book, Al Islam wa al Nasraniyyah, Muhammad ‘Abduh, the great scholar and leader wrote: “Islam, therefore, and its demand for faith in God and in His unity, depend only on rational proof and common sense human thinking. Islam does not overwhelm the mind with the supernatural, confuse the understanding with the extraordinary, impose acquiescent silence by resorting to heavenly intervention, nor does it impede the movement of thought by any sudden cry of divinity. All the Muslims are agreed, except those whose opinion is insignificant, that faith in God is prior to faith in prophethood and that it is not possible to believe in a prophet except after one has come to believe in God. It is unreasonable to demand faith in God on the ground that the prophets or the revealed books had said so, for it is unreasonable to believe that any book had been revealed by God unless one already believed that God exists and that it is possible for Him to reveal a book or send a messenger.”

  I am inclined to think that those who wrote biographies of the Prophet agreed with this view. The earlier generation of them could not apply it because of the historical circumstances in which they lived. The later generation of them suspended the principle deliberately on account of their belief that the more miraculous their portrayal of the Prophet, the more faith this would engender among their audience. They assumed, quite naively, that the inclusion of these extraneous matters into his biography achieved a good purpose. Had they lived to our day and seen how the enemies of Islam had taken their writings as an argument against Islam and its people, they would have followed the Qur’an more closely and agreed with al Ghazzali, Muhammad ‘Abduh, al Maraghi, and all other objective scholars. And had they lived in our day and age, and witnessed how their stories have alienated many Muslim minds and hearts instead of confirming their faith, they would have been satisfied with the indubitable proofs and arguments of the Book of God.

  Reports Condemned by Reason and Science

  Now that the defect of reports condemned by reason and science has become obvious, scientific and critical analysis of the materials involved is demanded. This is equally the demand of Islam and a service to it as well as to the history of the Arab Prophet. It is a necessary requisite if that history is to illuminate the road of mankind towards high culture and civilization.

  The Qur’an and Miracles

  We will quickly agree with the views of the objective Muslim scholars as soon as we compare a number of narratives from the biography and Hadith books with the Qur’an. The latter told us that the Makkans had asked the Prophet to perform some miracles if they were to believe in him; it mentioned specifically their demands, and refuted them. God said

  “They said that they will never believe in you unless you cause a fountain to spring forth from the earth; or create for yourself a garden of big trees and vines and cause abundant streams of water to run from one side of it to the other, or cause heaven to fall
upon them in pieces as you had claimed, or bring God and His angels before them face to face, or create for yourself a beauteous palace, or ascend to heaven in front of them. ‘Nay,’ they said to Muhammad, ‘we will not believe in your ascension unless you send down upon us a book confirming that you have done all these things clearly and unequivocally.’ Answer: ‘Praised be my Lord: Have I ever claimed to be anything but a human and a messenger?” [Qur’an, 17:90-93]

  God also said: “They swore their strongest oaths that if they could witness a miracle they would believe. Answer: ‘Miracles are God’s prerogative, not mine.’ But what would convince you [Muhammad] that they will not believe even if such miracles were to take place? Let their mind and understanding remain as confused as ever. Let them wander aimlessly in their misguidance. Indeed, unless of course God wills for them to believe, they will not believe even if We sent them the angels, caused the dead to speak to them, and placed everything squarely before them. But most of them are ignorant.”[Qur’an, 6:109-111] There is no mention in the whole Qur’an of any miracle intended to support the prophethood of Muhammad except the Qur’an, notwithstanding its acknowledge of many of the miracles performed with God’s permission by the prophets preceding Muhammad and description of the many other favors which God has bestowed upon him. What the Qur’an did report about the Arab Prophet does not violate any of the laws of nature in the least degree.

  The Greatest Miracle

  Since this is the logic of the Book of God and is demanded by the advent of His Prophet, what reason could have caused some of the Muslims of the past, and still cause some of them in the present, to attribute miracles to Muhammad? It must be their reading in the Qur’an of miracles performed by prophets preceding Muhammad and their jumping to the conclusion that such supernatural occurrences are necessary for prophethood. They thus believed the stories circulating about Muhammad’s miracles despite the fact that they could not find any confirmation of them in the Qur’an. They mistakenly believed that the more of them they could muster the more convinced they and their audiences would be of their faith. To compare the Arab Prophet with his predecessor prophets is to compare the incomparable. For he was the last of the prophets and the first one sent by God unto all mankind rather than unto any specific people alone. That is why God desired that the “miracle” of Muhammad be human and rational, though unmatchable by any humans or genii. This miracle is the Qur’an itself, the greatest that God permitted. He-may His glory be praised-willed that His Prophet’s mission be established by rational argument and clear proof. He willed that His religion achieve victory in the life of His prophet and that men might see in his victory the might and dominion of God. Had God willed that a material miracle force the conversion of Makkah, the miracle would have occurred and would have been mentioned in the Qur’an. But some men do not believe except in that which their reason understands and corroborates. The proper way to convince them would be to appeal to their understanding and reason. God made the Qur’an Muhammad’s convincing argument, a miracle of the “illiterate Prophet.” He willed that men’s entry into Islam and the sense of their faith in Him be dependent upon true conviction and apodeictic evidence. A religion thus founded would be worthy of the faith of all men in all times whatever their race or language.

  Should a people convert to Islam today who did not need any miracle beside the Qur’an, this fact would neither detract from their faith nor from the worth of their conversion. As long as a people is not itself recipient of a revelation, it is perfectly legitimate to subject all the reports of such revelation to the closest scrutiny. That which unquestionable proof confirms is acceptable; the rest may validly be put to question. To believe in God alone without associate does not need recourse to a miracle. Nor does it need more than consideration of the nature of this universe which God created. On the other hand, to believe in the Prophethood of Muhammad who, by command of God, called men precisely unto such faith, does not need any miracles other than the Qur’an. Nor does it need any more than the presentation of the revealed text to consciousness.

  Were a people to believe today in this religion without the benefit of any miracle other than the Qur’an, its faithful would belong to one of the following kinds: the man whose mind and heart does not oscillate but is guided by God directly to the object of his faith, as was the case with Abu Bakr who believed without hesitation; and, the man who does not seek his faith in the miraculous but in the natural (i.e., the created world, unlimited in space or time and running perfectly in accordance with eternal and immutable laws), and whose reason guides him from these laws of nature to the creator and fashioner thereof. Even if miracles did exist, they would constitute no problem for either kind of believer who regards them as mere signs of divine mercy. Many leaders of Islamic knowledge regard this kind of faith as indeed the highest. Some of them even prescribe that faith should not stand on a foundation of fear of God’s punishment or ambition to win His reward. They insist that it should be held purely for the sake of God and involve an actual annihilation of self in God. To Him all things belong; and so do we. To Him, we and all things shall return.

  The Believers during the Life of the Prophet

  Those who believe today in God and in His Prophet and whose faith does not rest on miracles are in the same position as those who believed during the life of the Prophet. History has not reported to us that any one of those early companions had entered the faith because of a miracle he witnessed. Rather, it was the conclusive divine argument conveyed through revelation and the superlatively noble life of the Prophet himself which conduced those men to their faith. In fact, all biographies mention that a number of those who believed in Muhammad before the Isra’ abandoned their faith when the Prophet reported to them that he had been transported during the night from the Mosque of Makkah to the Blessed One of Jerusalem. Even Suraqah ibn Ju’shum, who pursued Muhammad on the latter’s flight to Madinah in order to capture him dead or alive and win the prize the Makkans had placed on his head, did not believe despite the miracle which the biographers have reported to have taken place on his way there. History has not reported a single case of an associationists who believed in Muhammad because of a miracle performed. Islam has no parallel to the case of the magicians of Pharaoh whose rods were swallowed up by that of Moses.’ [Qur’an, 26:43-48]

  The Goddesses and Tabuk

  The classical biographies are not unanimous in their reportage of the so-called miracles. Many a time their narratives were subject to strong criticism despite their corroboration by the books of Hadith. We have already referred to the question of the goddesses in this preface, and we have also treated the problem in detail in the course of this work. The story of the opening of Muhammad’s chest as reported by Halimah, Muhammad’s wet nurse, is equally inconclusive. There is a difference of opinion concerning Ualimah’s reports as well as the age of Muhammad at which the story has supposedly taken place. Likewise, the reports of the biographies and of the Hadith concerning Zayd and Zaynab are‘ devoid of foundation, as we shall have occasion to see later. Similar disagreement exists as regards the story of the military expedition to Tabuk (Jaysh al ‘Usrah). In his Sahih, Muslim reported from Mu’adh ibn Jabal that “the Prophet told ibn Jabal and his companions who were marching to Tabuk: ‘Tomorrow, but not before mid-day, you will, with God’s leave, reach the spring of Tabuk. You will not, however, touch its waters until I come.’ When we arrived, we found that two of our men had reached it before us and the spring had very little water. The Prophet asked the two men whether they had touched the water of the spring, and they confessed. He-may God’s peace and blessing be upon him criticized and scolded them as he should. They then filled a container with water from the spring. Mu’adh said: ‘The Prophet of God-may God’s peace and blessing be upon him-washed his face and his hands and poured the water back into the spring whereupon the spring gushed forth abundantly (he might have said ‘profusely’) until all men drank and were satisfied. The Prophet then said: ‘If you
were to live long enough, O Mu’adh, you would see this place full of gardens.”[The Sahih of Muslim, Istanbul, 1332 A.H., Vol. VII, p. 60.]

  In the biographies, on the other hand, the story of Tabuk is told in a different way without mention of any miracles. Thus we read in Ibn Hisham’s The Life of Muhammad: “When, in the morning, the men discovered they had no water, they complained to the Prophet-may God’s peace and blessing be upon him. He prayed to God, who then sent a rain cloud. So much rain fell that everybody drank his fill and filled his skin. Ibn Ishaq said: ‘Asim ibn ‘Umar ibn Qatadah, reporting from Mahmud ibn Labid, who in turn was reporting what he heard from some men of the Banu ‘Abd al Ashhal tribe, said: ‘I said to Mahmud, ‘Did these Muslims know that some hypocrites were among them’? He answered, ‘Yes. Sometimes a man would tell a hypocrite even if he were his brother, father, uncle or fellow tribesman; at other times he would not be able to differentiate between them.’ Mahmud continued: ‘A fellow tribesman told me of a well-known hypocrite who used to accompany the Prophet of God-may God’s peace and blessing be upon him wherever he went, and who was present at this expedition. After the miracle had taken place, we went to him and asked: ‘Are you still in doubt after what you saw with your own eyes?’ He answered, ‘It was but a passing cloud.’”

  Such a wide range of difference as separates the classical accounts of this story makes it impossible for us to affirm it conclusively. Those who apply themselves to the study of it should not stop at probable solutions which neither confirm nor deny the classical reports. Whenever they are confronted by a story not supported by positive evidence, the least they can do is to discard it. Should other investigators later on discover the required evidence, the duty of presenting the story with its proofclaims would devolve upon them.