Divinely Inspired or Charlatan?Whether there be a God or not, most people would conclude that should such an entity exist, someone claiming to be a messenger or being directly guided by Him, Her or It should possess characteristics of a degree superior to that expected among the common man. How does Muhammad’s traits stack up against what would be expected of a human being supposedly guided by a superior being? Using the Islamic scriptures, Qur’an and Hadiths, we can ascertain from his teachings and actions, the nature of his personality. Muhammad was certainly a caring and generous person. Many hadiths describe him as being kind and charitable. However such attributes were focussed solely on those who accepted his message, those who recited the Islamic article of faith which includes the statement that Muhammad is the apostle of Allah, and to those who fought in the way of Allah to bring victory to Muhammad. When such characteristics are limited only to those who seek the interest of the person dispensing it, we can easily ascertain their lack of genuineness and the degree of selfishness involved. Muhammad clearly says, many times, in the Qur’an to not take friends from the unbelievers. One such verse is Qur'an 4:89 which clearly rejects any form of universal love and kindness:
So choose not friends from the unbelievers till they forsake their homes in the way of Allah; if they turn back then take them and kill them wherever ye find them, and choose no friend nor helper from among them.
Basically what Muhammad states here is that a Muslim should not befriend those who have failed to give up their homes and family to embrace his cult. If they do accept Islam but then turn away from it, you have God's permission to seek them out wherever they may be and kill them.
Muhammad was a man seeking self aggrandisement, domination and adulation from among his followers, in other words a narcissist. He used the tool of religion to subvert the minds of his followers with promises of an opulent paradise and threats of an eternal torturous hell to gain their reverence. It was only through him that an afterlife in paradise was guaranteed. A narcissist would lie, cheat and scheme to achieve his goals. Perfect examples of these qualities in Muhammad were his claims to be:
These and many more affirmations about himself reveal Muhammad to be a man who suffered from a lack of self esteem, needing to build grandiose fantasies in an attempt to project an aura of invincibility. He portayed himelf as the best example of a human being, a role model to be followed until the end of time.
Muhammad married Aisha when she was six years old and consummated the marriage on her ninth birthday when he was fifty three. His claim that seeing her when she was five in a dream, was Allah’s sign and consent for the marriage (SB 62:15). A man of that age cannot have such feelings for a five year old girl unless he was inclined to paedophilic tendencies. Also a God that could find time to sanction the marriage of a six year old girl to a fifty year old man, as Muhammad claimed Allah had done, is a god who really has no business running a universe.
The Qur'an itself sanctions the divorce of wives who have not yet reached puperty. Verse 65:44 states that with divorce a woman should wait three months before re-marrying, ...and for those who have no courses {wives not yet reached puberty} it is the same.
Muslim apologists claim that child marriages in those days were normal, yet they forget to mention that such marriages were between children of similar ages, not of an elderly fifty year old to a six year old. Muhammad exposed his desire for young girls when a Muslim soldier revealed he had married a widow. Muhammad’s response was, “Why have you not married a virgin to fondle with each other?” (SB 38:504) Such examples, because of their endorsement by Muhammad, has continued down the ages where to this day in Islamic countries, because young girls attract a larger dowry, children are sold into marriages to men old enough to be their grandfathers.
Muhammad’s massacre of the Banu Qurayzah tribe is infamous in Islamic history. Ordering the genocide of all the men from a tribe in addition to banishing entire communities from their homelands, Muhammad confirmed his trait as a mass murderer even to his deathbed when he ordered the extinction of Jews and Christians from Arabia.
Muhammad’s calculated and surprise attacks on the Jewish and Pagan tribes of Arabia are perfect examples of a terrorist. He used intimidation, coercion and fear to avenge those unwilling to submit to his political and religious ideologies. He even popularised the burning (now bombing) of Mosques, with believers inside praying, claiming those adherents intended to harm Islam (Q.9:107-8). Their only crime being their unwillingness to join Muhammad on his jihad to conquer Tabuk (see chapter ‘Sirat Rasul Allah’ section ‘Tabuk’). The Islamic terrorists of today are on no different a path than Muhammad set for them fourteen hundreds years ago. After Muhammad, the women of Arabia had lost all their rights and privileges as human beings and in effect became chattel, mere possession of their men-folk. Prior to Islam women were not subjected to veils, they owned businesses (as did Muhammad’s first wife), were poets, tribal leaders and queens and even led armies. This all changed with Islamic misogynistic teachings. Muhammad was not kind to women. He encouraged the beating of wives, which he himself did. He raped and encouraged raping of female captives and slaves. He belittled women by stating they are intellectually inferior to men and are to be treated like domestic animals. He threatened women with hellfire for not properly serving their husbands, prescribed half the inheritance for women compared to men and proclaimed that a woman’s testimony is worth only half that of a man’s. These and many more repressive teachings concerning women clearly illustrates Muhammad’s trait as a misogynist, sanctioning the utter subjugation of women by men. The chapter ‘A Woman Subdued’ provides further details on these points. In addition to his eleven wives, Muhammad also possessed a number of concubines; women captured as slaves and used for sex, without marriage. A man, claiming to be divinely inspired yet living a life of lewdness, indecency and lustfulness could never live up to the mantle of ‘the best of creation’ as he claimed. His licentious lifestyle nullified any claim to divinity. The highlight of the Muslim expeditions was the victory scramble to apportion the war booty. A key component of that booty was women. When asked by his soldiers about the correct procedure regarding married women, pagan women, under-aged women, Muhammad’s response was women whom your right hands possess (women captured in battle) were lawful to be used as desired. Muhammad himself after battles spent the night with the women he captured, even though they had just lost their husbands, fathers and brothers. In essence Muhammad was not only a rapist but sanctioned rape as legal for Muslim men capturing infidel women. It is not unknown throughout history for men to kill their own women-folk when defeat by marauding Islamic invaders was inevitable to save their brutalisation at the hands of Muslims. Following the battle of Khaybar, Muhammad desperately sought to locate the hidden treasures they were purported to possess. In one of his roles as warlord, this time torturer, Muhammad had Kinana tormented with a fire on his chest to ascertain the location of the treasures. Another incident has Muhammad ordering the torture of men who had killed a shepherd and stole some camels. “Cut their hands and feet, and brand their eyes with heated pieces of iron and put them on the mountain with no water until they die” were the commands of Muhammad. Anyone who offends or criticises Islam or Muhammad needs to be concerned for their life. This is nothing new. Assassinations for such ‘crimes’ commenced in the time of Muhammad himself. The founder of Islam, to protect his ideology from critics, ordered the killing of many detractors. As an assassin, Muhammad kept dissent of his cult to a minimum. After the death of his first wife Khadija, Muhammad was broke. On moving to Medina he lived off the generosity of the new converts there. However to achieve his mission it was necessary to amass wealth essential for building an army. This he realised from the stealing and looting from tribes in and around Arabia. As a looter he attacked innocent tribes, drove them out of their lands and confiscated their belongings. He justified this behaviour in the Qur’an:
These verses made lawful unto Muslims the property, including women and children, of the non-Muslims. Everything of the earth belongs to Allah and hence it is the duty of Muslims to reclaim all for the service of Muslims and Allah.
This was a key component to the spread of Islam. Muslim soldiers had tangible booty to look forward to, or if not that, unlimited pleasures in Muhammad’s paradise. The incentive of sharing in the booty as opposed to fighting for a stipend or country’s honour, gave Muslims that impetus to go out and expand their personal wealth and in the process spread Islam.
Muhammad never respected the belief or religion of anyone. He was disrespectful of those who did not accept his preaching, referring to them as dogs (Q7:176), vilest of animals (Q8:55), deaf, dumb and blind (Q2:18) and evil (Q7:177).
These traits of Muhammad are well documented in Islamic scriptures and are available for all to assess whether such an individual qualifies as a representative of a higher being or a mere charlatan.
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