Introduction
In this segment, Dr. Badawi will argue that Muhammad had no desire for power or prestige. He will then stress the legendary honesty of Muhammad. Unfortunately for Dr. Badawi, when we examine Islamic sources, we find that neither claim is true.
Jamal Badawi: We know that he became a Prophet at to age of 40, if he had this, why didn't he do this earlier? Did he express this desire to his wife or friends? If a person wants power, they must look into the political process and be nominated and show that he is a good politician. During the time of the Prophet, the Quraish had a council of leaders, there is no record of him going there to participate, he isolate himself to contemplate. When the first revelation came to him, he came down trembling. If a person wants to be a leader or Prophet, he would have been very happy. Even on cold days, he would perspire when receiving a revelation, if he wanted to be a leader, he should have been composed, standing like a big orator. He could have attained wealth and power with these sacrifices.
Perhaps Muhammad was not in any position to enter politics at an earlier age. When Muhammad was 25, he married Khadijah who was 40. I cannot know Muhammad's reasons for marrying an older woman, however, he did gain both wealth and prestige from this union. According to the scant historical record that we have today, it appears that Muhammad was very happy with his marriage and he and Khadijah were married for 20 when she died. What bothers me is, after Khadijah's death, Muhammad married a total of 14 wives in a ten year period, not to mention his concubines. What happened to Muhammad following Khadijah's death and why did he behave in this way? Perhaps the stress of his wife's death gave him emotional and psychological problems or, maybe Muhammad always had these tendencies and Khadijah, through her control of the family wealth, kept Muhammad and his desires in check. We may never know what really happened.
I am amazed at how often Dr. Badawi mentions Muhammad's theatrics during his purported "revelations". These types of behavior were not exhibited by any of God's Prophets in the Bible and cast serious doubts on Muhammad's claim to Prophethood. Muhammad's behavior resembles that of shamans and spirit mediums, not Prophets.
Jamal Badawi: The Prophet and his companions were persecuted, tortured and killed for their beliefs. Muhammad was struck with stones and was bleeding. He received an interesting offer from the leader of the Pagans who offered him wealth and leadership to stop preaching. If he wanted leadership a wealth, this was an easy way. Sura 41:1-48 tells us that the Qur'an was sent to people. The next time they sent a committee of leaders to him to compromise. Muhammad told them that he did not come up with this on his own, but it was sent from God. They sent his uncle Abu Talib. All he had to do was accommodate.
Muhammad and his follows did suffer, at times, for their belief as did Jesus and His followers. The crucial difference is that Jesus and His followers returned love for hatred. Muhammad and his followers were very cruel to their enemies once they had the upper hand.
Jamal Badawi: A noble objective must be made through noble means. But why didn't he tell people that everything was told to him by God word for word, even the Hadith? People loved and trusted him, they would have followed him, why would he have to make anything up? How could he fabricate the claim about the Qur'an if he was the author? The Qur'an says that the worst crime is to lie about what God said?
I agree that a noble objective must be made through noble means. I do not believe that Muhammad's objective or his means were noble.
Jamal Badawi: Sura 6:93:
The punishment for this is that they will be punished for eternity.
Sura 69:44:
Sura 42:24:
Nothing good comes from falsehood, nor does falsehood come from someone such as Muhammad
Sura 16:105:
I agree that nothing good comes from falsehood, however, falsehood did come from Muhammad. Bukhari tells us:
Allah's Apostle said, "Who is willing to kill Ka'b bin Al-Ashraf who has hurt Allah and His Apostle?" Thereupon Muhammad bin Maslama got up saying, "O Allah's Apostle! Would you like that I kill him?" The Prophet said, "Yes," Muhammad bin Maslama said, "Then allow me to say a (false) thing (i.e. to deceive Kab). "The Prophet said, "You may say it." .......
So, Muhammad tells his followers that they must not only lie, but they must kill a man who has "who has hurt Allah and His Apostle"! How can a man hurt Almighty God? Muhammad clearly condoned dishonesty as well as murder when it suited his purposes.
Jamal Badawi: Beyond reproach. For 40 years he was well known for his honesty and was called al Amin, the trustworthy. When God ordained him, Muhammad asked the people if they would believe him if he told them that an army was coming? They said yes and Muhammad then warned them against idol worship. Would he begin lying when he is 40? When the first group of Muslims went to Ethiopia, the Meccans tried to suppress them and the king asked them what type of man was Muhammad, Jafar testified to his honesty.
Beyond reproach?
His own wife Aishah noted his dishonesty in Sahih Bukhari :
A man asked permission to enter upon the Prophet. When the Prophet saw him, he said, "What an evil brother of his tribe! And what an evil son of his tribe!" When that man sat down, the Prophet behaved with him in a nice and polite manner and was completely at ease with him. When that person had left, 'Aisha said (to the Prophet). "O Allah's Apostle! When you saw that man, you said so-and-so about him, then you showed him a kind and polite behavior, and you enjoyed his company?" Allah's Apostle said, "O 'Aisha! Have you ever seen me speaking a bad and dirty language? (Remember that) the worst people in Allah's sight on the Day of Resurrection will be those whom the people leave (undisturbed) to be away from their evil (deeds)."
Jamal Badawi: There are always enemies of the truth, it happened in the life of all of the Prophets. None could give evidence that he was fabricating things. There is no record of Muhammad telling a lie, or that he fabricated verses. When the Prophet migrated to Medina, he left Ali and told him to return the things to the non-Muslims - his own persecutors, they trusted him so much that they trusted him to keep their things. Sahih Muslim tells us that they went to the Roman Emperor who asked if he lied before Prophethood, they said no.
I have already cited two examples of Muhammad's dishonesty!
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