A respected family has asked Dr.Shabbir if we could elaborate a bit on the history of the Prophet as told in this beautiful movie:
The Legacy of the Prophet
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4978427310683385172&q=legacy+of+the+prophet
It is an outstanding work, and I sincerely request everybody to watch it.
Here I will give my own small summary of what I believe is correct and false in the movie. There are only 3 real mistakes in the movie, which I will explain. For the rest, the movie is very well presented.
Correct:
- Their approach. They approach Islam as a System of Life. Throughout the movie, the focus is on sociological and humane changes the Prophet has created. They quote a beautiful Hadith which Muhammed says: "You want to serve God? Then serve Humanity.."
The true purpose of the Quran, is to create a System of Life for the whole of Mankind and unite them under this constitution. It is not focussed on rituals, miracles, condemning non-Muslims or the concept of praising God.
Islam is a Divine Social Movement, that gives the perfect Laws for Mankind to live by.
- Their peacefull look on matters. They have interviewed Muslim and non-Muslim scholars who all approach Islam very peacefully and very openminded. Which gives a very open and welcoming view on Islam.
- Their non-miraclous approach of the History. They see Muhammed as a man, a human being. Not a person with special powers, just a man with exceptional high moral and courage. Exactly how the Quran describes him.
Incorrect:
- The so-called Christian monk Warraqa. It is highly tragic that a fabricated story found a place in our ancient history and lives to this day. Tabari, ibn Hisham, Shibli, Maududi et al want us to believe that the exalted Messenger was terribly frightened at the first Revelation. That he came home shivering and his caring wife Khadijah (RA) covered him with a blanket. She reassured him and then took him to her Christian cousin Waraqah bin Nawfil who was a scholar of the Bible. It was he to confirm that Muhammad (S) had received Revelation through Angel Gabriel! Waraqah still does not embrace Islam! It is amazing that billions have been buying this story for one thousand years. Ladies and gentlemen, will you?
How can a person declare you as a Prophet, but then do not follow you? Where is Warraqa in the remaingin history of Islam? Why did he not join the Islamic community in Medina or Mecca?
After his so-called confirmation of the Prophet, he not only stays Christian, he never even shows up again in the whole history of the first Muslims!
Can you accept this then to be true? There are 3 scenario's:
1. He turned Muslim, but his deeds and presence is not recorded in present Muslim History.
2. He was a hypocrite and never believed Muhammed was a Prophet, or he later rejected his own confirmation of Muhammed being a Prophet.
3. He never existed and was made up to create a story where Muhammed is confirmed by a Christian, so the Christians are seen as the accepters of Muhammed and the Jews again as the deniers.
This good-guy bad-guy game is played out throughout whole Islamic History. Where the Christians are presented as the ones who support and accept Islam, and the Jews as the ever-rejecters of Islam.
- The so-called marriage to Aisha when she was 9, and the engagement settled when she was six.
THE MARRIAGEABLE AGE
The beginning of the physiological cycles in a girl and nocturnal emissions in a boy are commonly believed to be their age of marriage. To the unfortunate Mullah, everything revolves around sex. A Hadith of Bukhari atrociously tells us that a girl can have Nikah (the marital contract) at 6 and the marriage can be consummated at age 9 since the exalted Prophet did that with Hazrat Ayesha! Is there any wonder that the West call him a child-molester? Why don't then the Sunnah-peddlers "marry off" their daughters at 6 and 9? Many countries set an arbitrary 16 years for the girl and 18 years for the boy. The Divine Wisdom enshrined in the Qur'an makes things so sensible. It sets up three rational criteria:
1 - Sufficient maturity to grant consent.
2 - Ability to sign a legal contract.
3 - Competence to take care of one's own finances.
4:6 Train and educate the orphans well and test them. When they reach the age of marriage and attain sound judgment, release their property to them. The marriageable age shall mean attainment of physical and mental maturity when one can legally make a solemn contract (4:21). -----.
4:19 O You who have chosen to be graced with belief! It is not lawful for you to force women into marrying or holding on to them in marriage against their will. --.
4:21 And how could you take the marital gift back from her after you have lived intimately with each other and after she has taken from you a very Solemn Pledge of the marital contract?
MARRIAGE WITH HAZRAT AYESHA 622 CE:
Contrary to the Imamist propaganda, the exalted Prophet had no more than one wife at a time. And Hazrat Ayesha was a sister, not daughter of Hazrat Abu Bakr. The Prophet (S) did not marry for three years after Hazrat Khadijah's demise in Makkah three years before Hijrah. Hazrat Ayesha was the widow of a martyr, Saleh bin Saleh Al-'Ataib. She was 48 years old at the time of marriage to the exalted Prophet.
Sahaba Kiraam including Hazrat Abu Bakr strongly recommended that the Prophet (S) and she got into the solemn union of marriage. The blessed wedding took place in 622 CE when Muhammad (S) was 52 years old. Kitab-e-Dalail-e-Nabawwut Syedna Muhammad (S), by Abdul Jabbar Qaramati, written 150 years before Tabari, the first ever 'canonized' historian.
Azwaaj-in-Nabi wal-Ashaab, by Sheikh Hammad bin Hakam. The rest is nothing but slanderous imagination of the Zoroastrian "Imam" Tabari and the Jewish biographer Ibn Ishaq and his Parsi follower Ibn Hisham.
The histories and Hadith were written in the 3th century after the Prophet under the guidance of the ruling Elite. The concept of an elite goes against the whole injunction of the Quranic System, and thus the interpretation of the Quran and the history of the Prophet had to be changed so the elite could hold their power and wealth.
Marrying females of very young ages was already a custom with many peoples, and still is around the world. But to twist History to make us believe the Prophet Muhammed also married an underaged girl had to do with the overall program of coinciding Muhammed's deeds with that of the Jewish Prophets.
For example, when Prophet Muhammed and Abu Bakr flee to Medina, they hide in a cave. Many stories tell us that human presence at the entrance of the cave was hidden by the sudden appearence of a spiderweb and a nest of birds. Because of this, the enemies didn't believe anyone entered the cave. Although I do not immediately doubt the story they hid in a cave, the spiderweb and bird's nest do strike me with doubt, why? Because the same story is told in the 2000 year old Jewish Talmud, the Jewish History and explanation of the Bible:
When King Saul pursued David, he hid in a cave near Jerusalem. A spider made its web across the cave’s entrance. Saul saw the web and called his men away, for the undisturbed web showed no one had entered. David's life was saved, and he became the King of Israel.
Just type in "Prophet David spider" in Google, and you will find hundreds of sites quoting this ancient story.
In the Hadith we can also find many stories on how the Prophet Muhammed performed miracles, split the moon, and cured people. Does this not recall the story of Moses splitting the Sea and Jesus curing people?
People believe these stories while the Quran clearly says no signs next to the Quran have been given to Prophet Muhammed. The splitting of the moon in the Quran refers to the symbolic split between the Arabian tribes, which had the moon as symbol. Al-Laat, their favorite goddess was the goddess of the moon. See for further explanation on the splitting of the moon: http://ourbeacon.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=580#580
The scholars who worked for the elite of the 3th century of Islam did everything to make the Prophet Muhammed look like the previous Prophets as recorded in their scripures. But their scriptures are corrupted and do not tell the original stories of the Prophets.
Sadly they believed it did, and thus Prophet Muhammed's true history , who behaved and acted very different from many recordings on how Prophets behaved, had to be changed.
To marry young girls was not only custom with many people's, it is also a Jewish custom. So Aisha was changed from the sister of Abu Bakr, into the young daughter of Abu Bakr, so the Prophet's behaviour would coincide with Jewish custom.
The Jewish Talmud interpretation of the Bible story in Numbers, says that the girls captured, were all around 3 years old:
Numbers 31:18 but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
But all the young girls who have not known a man by sleeping with him, keep alive for yourselves. From here R. Shimon b. Yohai used to say: a Proselyte girl who became a proselyte in the age of less than three years and one day, is rendered fit to marry into the priesthood."
According to the Tannaïte Rabbis, Moses therefore had ordered the Israelites to kill all women older than three years and a day, because they were "suitable for having sexual relations."
Said Rabbi Joseph, "Come and take note: A girl three years and one day old is betrothed by intercourse. And if a Levir has had intercourse with her, he has acquired her. And one can be liable on her account because of the law prohibiting intercourse with a married woman. And she imparts uncleanness to him who has intercourse with her when she is menstruating, to convey uncleanness to the lower as to the upper layer [of what lies beneath]. If she was married to a priest, she may eat food in the status of priestly rations. If one of those who are unfit for marriage with her had intercourse with her, he has rendered her unfit to marry into the priesthood. If any of those who are forbidden in the Torah to have intercourse with her had intercourse with her, he is put to death on her account, but she is free of responsibility [M.Nid. 5].
Sanhedrin 7/55B
R. Nahman bar Isaac said. "They made the decree that a gentile child should be deemed unclean with the flux uncleanness [described at Lev.15], so that an Israelite child should not hang around with him and commit pederasty [as he does]."
For said R. Zira, "I had much anguish with R. Assi, and R. Assi with R. Yohanan, and R. Yohanan with R. Yannai, and R. Yannai with R. Nathan b. Amram, and R. Nathan b. Amram with Rabbi [on this matter]: 'From what age is a gentile child deemed unclean with the flux uncleanness [described at Lev.15]'? And he said to me, 'On the day on which he is born.' But when I came to R. Hiyya, he said to me, 'From the age of nine years and one day.' And when I came and laid the matter before Rabbi, he said to me, 'Discard my reply and adopt that of R. Hiyya, who declared, "From what age is a gentile child deemed unclean with the flux uncleanness [described at Lev.15]? From the age of nine years and one day."'
[37A] Since he is then suitable for having sexual relations, he also is deemed unclean with the flux uncleanness [of Lev.15]."
Said Rabina, "Therefore a gentile girl who is three years and one day old, since she is then suitable to have sexual relations, also imparts uncleanness of the flux variety."
Abodah Zarah 36B-37A
A girl three years and one day old is betrothed by intercourse. "A girl three years old may be betrothed through an act of sexual intercourse," the words of R. Meir. And sages say, "Three years and one day old."
And if a Levir has had intercourse with her, he has acquired her. And they are liable on her account because of the law prohibiting intercourse with a married woman. And she imparts uncleanness to him who has intercourse with her when she is menstruating to convey uncleanness to the lower as to the upper layer. If she was married to a priest, she eats heave offering. If one of those who are unfit for marriage has intercourse with her, he has rendered her unfit to marry into the priesthood. If one of all those who are forbidden in the Torah to have intercourse with her did so, they are put to death on her account. But she is free of responsibility.
If she is younger than that age, intercourse with her is like putting a finger in the eye. (Mishnah Niddah 5:4)
As you can see, most Hadith and History of Islam mostly came out of the Jewish Stories. Circumcision, Stoning, Headscarf and many more interpretations and non-Quranic rituals, mostly came from the Jewish Scriptures.
- The killings of the 700 Jews in Medina. The stories goes, that after the battle of the trench in 627AD. The Jews who broke the treaty they had with the Muslims, were killed. The story goes that the Jews of Medina, who had signed a treaty with the Muslims that said they would defend Medina togehter with the Muslims, had betrayed this treaty by working with the Meccans during the siege. After the Muslims had won, they captured the Jews of the Banu Kuraiza, then the story goes that one of the Muslim soldiers who was badly injured, was asked how to judge them. He said to kill all males and sell the women and children as slaves!!!
How can this be while the Quran forbids slavery and the Prophet hated slavery!! He clearly had said many times: "How can you enslave them while their mothers bore them free?". This story completely contradicts the Quran. Supposedly more then 700 men were slaughtered, the women and children sold and the other 2 tribes were banished.
How Muslims can believe this story while the Quran clearly gives a different account of the story. See how the so-called Muslim scholars of the past has blinded the Muslims:
59:2 He it is Who got out the rejecters among the People of the Book from their dwelling places at the very gathering of the forces. You deemed not that they would leave and they deemed that their strongholds would defend them against God. But God reached them in a manner they little expected and caused awe in their hearts. So they dismantled their dwellings by their own hands and the hands of the believers. Learn a lesson, then, O You who have vision!
59:3 And if God had not decreed banishment for them, behold, He would have punished them harder in this world, yet for them is suffering of the Fire in the life to come.
59:4 This, because they had opposed God and His Messenger. And whoever opposes God, for him God is Stern in grasping.
The Quran clearly descibes the banishment of ALL of the Jewish tribes of Medina, verse 59:3 clearly says ALL Jews were banished and that they were NOT punished harder except banishment!
When do the Muslims learn and start using the Quran as their criterion and not blindly follow the stories of their forefathers!!!
It is very good to know that still many scholars do reject this story. One non-Muslim Historian and Philosopher, the very knowledgable Mark Heirman, says in his book on the seperation of Quran and State:
"The question is if this story of this unique slaughter is true or not and if they can be acribed to Muhammed. The advantages of this version [of killing 700 Jews] is that Islam can be plead as "a Jewish Example of handling affairs". The Christians [who saw, defending ones life and accepting this life as a gift from God, as an opposite of the Christian view] thus could claim Islam as a fallback into the ways of the Old Testament."
[ Eastern Days Arabian Nights; Politics and Religion in the History of Islam. Mark Heirman 2002. Translation from Dutch into English]
The Christians hated the Quranic view of Life on Earth being good, they resented sex as normal. Islam views this world as important as the Next Life. Muhammed was normally married, he didn't led himself be killed by his enemies as the Christian Jesus.
Thus many stories were created by the Christians were Muhammed is portrayed as a barberian, a ruthless killer, a dictator, a pedofile and so on. The Hadith literature are accounts of the endless struggle between all the sects and the Elite fighting for power. We can see Hadith that tries to slander Muhammed as a barbarian, others as a saint, others as a sex-maniac, others as a miracle worker. And so on and so on.
When one group made up a story on the Prophet, be it good or bad, another responded with the opposite to counter it. This is why groups slandered him, and why others tried to make him look like Muhammed was the same as the Jewish Prophets.
In the end, in the third century. The elite made advantage of this storytelling battle, and recorded everything that they could use to stay in power and use their wealth as they wanted.
As Mark Heirman says in his book, 'They did everything to seperate Quran from State by underminging the Prophet, changing his History and changing the Arabic meanings'.
When will the Muslims wake up. When do the Muslims learn and start using the Quran as their criterion and not blindly follow the stories of their forefathers!!!
17:36 And you shall not follow blindly any information of which you have no direct knowledge. (Using your faculties of perception and conception) you must verify it for yourself. In the Court of your Lord, you will be held
accountable for your hearing, Sight, and the faculty of reasoning. (And so, the insane and the disabled will have their incapacities taken into account in a court of law)
7:28 (As an example) when people commit an indecency they say, "We found our forefathers doing it and God has enjoined it upon us." (Made it natural for us) Say (O Prophet), "God never enjoins indecency. Do you attribute to God of which you have no knowledge?"
43:21 What! Have We given them a Scripture before this to which they are holding fast?
43:22 Nay, but they say, "Indeed, we found our fathers following a certain
religion, and we find our way in their footprints."
43:23 Likewise, whenever We sent before you a Warner to any township, its wealthy ones said, "Behold! We have found our forefathers following a certain religion, and we will follow in their footsteps." (‘Ummah’ = A community with common beliefs = Those who share a common religion. ‘Mutrifeen’ = The wealthy = Those given to material possessions = The social and financial elite = Those steeped in luxury = Those who are used to enjoying the fruit of others’ labor = Those who thrive on easy money = Who get wealthy without hard work)
43:24 He said, “What! Even though I bring you better Guidance than that you found your ancestors following?" They replied, "Indeed, we deny that there is any Truth in what you (Prophets) are sent with.”
43:25 And so We requited them. Then see the end of the rejecters.
Sources:
QXP Quran as it eXPlains itself http://www.beacon2005.com/QXP.pdf
True History and False Beliefs http://www.ourbeacon.com/truehistory.pdf
Eastern Days Arabian Nights; Politics and Religion in the History of Islam. Mark Heirman 2002. Translation from Dutch into English