Boreal

From Merchant to Messenger

The Prophet Muhammad's struggle for legitimacy as revealed in the Koran

Muhammad vs. Moses

2:107 Do you not know that to Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth, and that apart from Allah you have no guardian or helper?

2:108 Or would you rather question your Messenger as Moses was questioned before? He who veers from belief to unbelief has strayed from the Right Path.

 Sorry, Muhammad, but you weren’t there.

28:44 You were not on the western side [of the Mountain], when We decreed the commandment to Moses, and you were not one of the witnesses.

28:45 But We created other generations whose age lasted for too long, and you were not dwelling among the inhabitants of Midian reciting Our Verses to them, but We were sending other Messengers.

If it’s any consolation, you are My first Messenger to the Arabs.

28:46 You were not by the side of the Mountain when We called, but [We are sending you (Muhammad)] as a mercy from your Lord, to warn a people who had no warner prior to you, that perchance they might remember.

Why do people wait for Me to make their lives miserable before seeking My instructions on how to behave (if they hope to avoid My visiting another calamity)?

28:47 And lest an adversity befall them, on account of what their hands have perpetrated, so that they could say: “Our Lord, if only You had sent us a Messenger, that we might follow your signs and be among the believers.”

Again, if only God had done for Muhammad what He did for Moses!

28:48 But, when the Truth came to them from Us, they said: “If only he (Muhammad) had been given the like of what Moses had received?”…

Allah countered that even after the spectacular way He delivered His Message via Moses, people chose not to believe.

28:48 …Had they not disbelieved in what Moses received formerly? They said: “Two sorceries backing each other up”, and they said: “We are disbelieving in both.”

When questioned on the divine origins of the Koran, God’s main tactic was to have Muhammad challenge the sceptics to do better.

28:49 Say: “Bring, then, a Book from Allah giving better guidance than both (the Qur’an and the Torah), and I will follow it, if you are truthful.”

If they don’t take up the challenge, it is because they are delusional and Allah can’t be bothered with such people.

28:50 If, however, they do not answer you, then know that they only follow their fancies; and who is more in error than he who follows his own fancy without guidance from Allah. Allah, surely, does not guide the wrongdoing people.

It’s not that the Meccans did not want to believe that their forty-something tribesman with whom they had grown up had been chosen, out of the blue, to speak on God’s behalf. They just wanted some tangible proof, and it need not be tablets.

6:7 Had We sent down upon you a Book on parchment so that they could touch it with their own hands, those who disbelieve would still have said: “This is nothing but manifest sorcery.”

The Koran was revealed to Muhammad by the angel Gabriel with whom he spent nights rote-learning the Koran.

6:8 And they say: “Why has not an angel been sent down to him [the Prophet]?” But had we sent down an angel, their fate would have been sealed, and then they would not have been given any respite.

If He had sent an angel—which He did— Allah said it would have appeared in the form of a man (see Chapter "Slander" for the hadith about Gabriel appearing before Muhammad, six hundred wings and all), therefore people would not have believed it was an angel.

6:9 And had We made him an angel, We would have certainly made him [look like] a man and thus confounded them with what they are using to confound others.

It was really a Moses-like spectacle that the people wanted, which God acknowledged (Revelation 3:183).

3:181 Allah has heard the words of those who said: “Allah is poor, and we are rich.” We shall write down what they said, together with their killing of the Prophets unjustly, and We shall say: “Taste the torment of burning [in the Fire]!”

3:182 That is, on account of what your hands did earlier, and that Allah is not unjust to His servants;

3:183 Those who say: “Allah has actually commanded us not to trust a messenger until he brings us an offering consumed by the Fire.” Say [to them]: “Messengers have already come to you with clear proofs (miracles) before me, together with what you asked for. Why then did you kill them, if you are truthful?”

Apart from Jesus, whose death was an illusion concocted by Allah (see Shared Prophets: "Jesus - Crucifixion," Boreal Books), not even Moududi could fathom which messengers were allegedly killed. Is it any wonder that Muhammad was accused of lying?

3:184 If, however, they accuse you of lying, Messengers who before you brought clear proofs (miracles), the Scriptures and the illuminating Book were also accused of lying.

A Moses-like delivery of the Koran would have been an earth-shattering event of historical proportions, with thousands upon thousands of eyewitnesses, many writing down what they had seen—which was not the case when Moses delivered his tablets—making it difficult for cynics to disprove what had taken place as the awe-inspiring story quickly spread across the known world. There would have been the Tablets in God’s own handwriting and in Arabic. WOW! This written record, carved in stone, would be beyond dispute, making it unnecessary for Allah to cause the violent deaths of so many men, women, and children to this day in an effort to convince the survivors to believe.