What Did They Say About Prophet Muhammad PBUH Sunday, November 11, 2012

During the centuries of the Crusades, all sorts of slanders were invented against the Prophet Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him.  With the birth of the modern age, however, marked with religious tolerance and freedom of thought, there has been a great change in the approach of Western authors in their delineation of his life and character.  The views of some non-Muslim scholars regarding Prophet Muhammad, given at the end, justify this opinion.

The West has still to go a step forward to discover the greatest reality about Muhammad, and that is his being the true and last Prophet of God for all of humanity.  In spite of all its objectivity and enlightenment here has been no sincere and objective attempt by the West to understand the Prophethood of Muhammad.  It is so strange that very glowing tributes are paid to him for his integrity and achievement, but his claim of being the Prophet of God has been rejected explicitly and implicitly.  It is here that a searching of the heart is required, and a review if the so-called objectivity is needed.  The following glaring facts from the life of Muhammad  have been furnished to facilitate an unbiased, logical and objective decision regarding his Prophethood.

Up to the age of forty, Muhammad was not known as a statesman, a preacher or an orator.  He was never seen discussing the principles of metaphysics, ethics, law, politics, economics or sociology.  No doubt he possessed an excellent character, charming manners and was highly cultured.  Yet there was nothing so deeply striking and so radically extraordinary in him that would make men expect something great and revolutionary from him in the future.  But when he came out from the Cave of Hira with a new message, he was completely transformed. 

Is it possible for such a person of the above qualities to turn all of a sudden into ‘an imposter’ and claim to be the Prophet of God and thus invite the rage of his people?  One might ask, for what reason did he suffer all the hardships imposed on him?  His people offered to accept him as their king and to lay all the riches of the land at his feet if only he would leave the preaching of his religion.  But he chose to refuse their tempting offers and go on preaching his religion single-handedly in the face of all kinds of insults, social boycott and even physical assault by his own people.  Was it not only God’s support and his firm will to disseminate the message of God and his deep-rooted belief that ultimately Islam would emerge as the only way of life for humanity, that he stood like a mountain in the face of all opposition and conspiracies to eliminate him?  Furthermore, had he come with a design of rivalry with the Christians and the Jews, why should he have made belief in Jesus and Moses and other Prophets of God, may God praise them all, a basic requirement of faith without which no one could be a Muslim?

Is it not an incontrovertible proof of his Prophethood that in spite of being unlettered and having led a very normal and quiet life for forty years, when he began preaching his message, all of Arabia stood in awe and wonder at his wonderful eloquence and oratory?  It was so matchless that the whole legion of Arab poets, preachers and orators of the highest caliber failed to bring forth its equivalent.  And above all, how could he then pronounce truths of a scientific nature contained in the Quran that no human being could possibly have developed at that time?

Last but not least, why did he lead a hard life, even after gaining power and authority? Just ponder over the words he uttered while dying: “We, the community of the Prophets, are not inherited.  Whatever we leave behind is for charity.”

As a matter of fact, Muhammad is the last link of the chain of Prophets sent in different lands and times since the beginning of human life on this planet.  The following are writings of some western authors regarding Muhammad.

Lamartine, Histoire de la Turquie, Paris 1854, Vol II, pp. 276-77:

“If greatness of purpose, smallness of means, and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?  The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only.  They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes. 

This man moved not only armies, legislations, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls, the forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma.  This dogma was twofold, the unit of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with words.

“Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images; the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad.  As regards all standards by which human greatness may be measured, we may well ask, is there any man greater than he?”

Edward Gibbon and Simon Ocklay, History of the Saracen Empire, London, 1870, p. 54:

“It is not the propagation but the permanency of his religion that deserves our wonder, the same pure and perfect impression which he engraved at Mecca and Medina is preserved, after the revolutions of twelve centuries by the Indian, the African and the Turkish proselytes of the Quran. The Mahometans[1]  have uniformly withstood the temptation of reducing the object of their faith and devotion to a level with the senses and imagination of man.  ‘I believe in One God and Mahomet the Apostle of God’, is the simple and invariable profession of Islam.  The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honors of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion.”

Bosworth Smith, Mohammed and Mohammadanism, London 1874, p. 92:

“He was Caesar and Pope in one; but he was Pope without Pope’s pretensions, Caesar without the legions of Caesar: without a standing army, without a bodyguard, without a palace, without a fixed revenue; if ever any man had the right to say that he ruled by the right divine, it was Mohammed, for he had all the power without its instruments and without its supports.”

Annie Besant, The Life and Teachings of Muhammad, Madras 1932, p. 4:

“It is impossible for anyone who studies the life and character of the great Prophet of Arabia, who knows how he taught and how he lived, to feel anything but reverence for that mighty Prophet, one of the great messengers of the Supreme.  And although in what I put to you I shall say many things which may be familiar to many, yet I myself feel whenever I re-read them, a new way of admiration, a new sense of reverence for that mighty Arabian teacher.”

W. Montgomery, Mohammad at Mecca, Oxford 1953, p. 52:

“His readiness to undergo persecutions for his beliefs, the high moral character of the men who believed in him and looked up to him as leader, and the greatness of his ultimate achievement – all argue his fundamental integrity.  To suppose Muhammad an impostor raises more problems than it solves.  Moreover, none of the great figures of history is so poorly appreciated in the West as Muhammad.”

James A. Michener, ‘Islam: The Misunderstood Religion’ in Reader’s Digest (American Edition), May 1955, pp. 68-70:

“Muhammad, the inspired man who founded Islam, was born about A.D. 570 into an Arabian tribe that worshipped idols.  Orphaned at birth, he was always particularly solicitous of the poor and needy, the widow and the orphan, the slave and the downtrodden.  At twenty he was already a successful businessman, and soon became director of camel caravans for a wealthy widow.  When he reached twenty-five, his employer, recognizing his merit, proposed marriage.  Even though she was fifteen years older, he married her, and as long as she lived, remained a devoted husband.

“Like almost every major prophet before him, Muhammad fought shy of serving as the transmitter of God’s word, sensing his own inadequacy.  But the angel commanded ‘Read’.  So far as we know, Muhammad was unable to read or write, but he began to dictate those inspired words which would soon revolutionize a large segment of the earth: “There is one God.”

“In all things Muhammad was profoundly practical.  When his beloved son Ibrahim died, an eclipse occurred, and rumors of God’s personal condolence quickly arose.  Whereupon Muhammad is said to have announced, ‘An eclipse is a phenomenon of nature.  It is foolish to attribute such things to the death or birth of a human-being.’

“At Muhammad’s own death an attempt was made to deify him, but the man who was to become his administrative successor killed the hysteria with one of the noblest speeches in religious history: ‘If there are any among you who worshipped Muhammad, he is dead.  But if it is God you worshipped, He lives forever.’”

Michael H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York: Hart Publishing Company, Inc. 1978, p. 33:

“My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular level.”

Encyclopedia Britannica:

“....a mass of detail in the early sources show that he was an honest and upright man who had gained the respect and loyalty of others who were like-wise honest and upright men.” (Vol. 12)

George Bernard Shaw said about him:

“He must be called the Saviour of Humanity.  I believe that if a man like him were to assume the dictatorship of the modern world, he would succeed in solving its problems in a way that would bring it much needed peace and happiness.” (The Genuine Islam, Singapore, Vol. 1, No. 8, 1936)

He was by far the most remarkable man that ever set foot on this earth.  He preached a religion, founded a state, built a nation, laid down a moral code, initiated numerous social and political reforms, established a powerful and dynamic society to practice and represent his teachings and completely revolutionized the worlds of human thought and behavior for all times to come.

His Name is Muhammad.  He was born in Arabia in the year 570 C.E., started his mission of preaching the religion of Truth, Islam (submission to One God) at the age of forty and departed from this world at the age of sixty-three.  During this short period of twenty three years of his Prophethood, he changed the complete Arabian peninsula from paganism and idolatry to worship of One God, from tribal quarrels and wars to national solidarity and cohesion, from drunkenness and debauchery to sobriety and piety, from lawlessness and anarchy to disciplined living, from utter bankruptcy to the highest standards of moral excellence.  Human history has never known such a complete transformation of a people or a place before or since - and imagine all these unbelievable wonders in just over two decades.

LaMartine, the renowned historian speaking on the essentials of human greatness wonders:

“If greatness of purpose, smallness of means and astounding results are the three criteria of human genius, who could dare to compare any great man in modern history with Muhammad?  The most famous men created arms, laws and empires only.  They founded, if anything at all, no more than material powers which often crumbled away before their eyes.  This man moved not only armies, legislation, empires, peoples and dynasties, but millions of men in one-third of the then inhabited world; and more than that, he moved the altars, the gods, the religions, the ideas, the beliefs and souls, his forbearance in victory, his ambition, which was entirely devoted to one idea and in no manner striving for an empire; his endless prayers, his mystic conversations with God, his death and his triumph after death; all these attest not to an imposture but to a firm conviction which gave him the power to restore a dogma.  This dogma was two-fold, the unity of God and the immateriality of God; the former telling what God is, the latter telling what God is not; the one overthrowing false gods with the sword, the other starting an idea with the words.”

“Philosopher, orator, apostle, legislator, warrior, conqueror of ideas, restorer of rational dogmas, of a cult without images, the founder of twenty terrestrial empires and of one spiritual empire, that is Muhammad.  As regards all the standards by which Human Greatness may be measured, we may well ask, Is there any man greater than he?” [Lamartine, Histoire de la Turqui, Paris, 1854, Vol. II, pp 276-277]

The world has had its share of great personalities.  But these were one-sided figures who distinguished themselves in but one or two fields, such as religious thought or military leadership.  The lives and teachings of these great personalities of the world are shrouded in the mist of time.  There is so much speculation about the time and place of their birth, the mode and style of their life, the nature and detail of their teachings and the degree and measure of their success or failure that it is impossible for humanity to reconstruct accurately the lives and teachings of these men.

Not so this man.  Muhammad, may the mercy and blessings of God be upon him, accomplished so much in such diverse fields of human thought and behavior in the fullest blaze of human history.  Every detail of his private life and public utterances has been accurately documented and faithfully preserved to our day.  The authenticity of the record so preserved are vouched for not only by the faithful followers but even by his prejudiced critics.

Muhammad was a religious teacher, a social reformer, a moral guide, an administrative colossus, a faithful friend, a wonderful companion, a devoted husband, a loving father - all in one.  No other man in history ever excelled or equaled him in any of these different aspects of life - but it was only for the selfless personality of Muhammad to achieve such incredible perfections.

Mahatma Gandhi, speaking on the character of Muhammad, says in (Young India):

“I wanted to know the best of one who holds today’s undisputed sway over the hearts of millions of mankind. I became more than convinced that it was not the sword that won a place for Islam in those days in the scheme of life.  It was the rigid simplicity, the utter self-effacement of the Prophet, the scrupulous regard for his pledges, his intense devotion to this friends and followers, his intrepidity, his fearlessness, his absolute trust in God and in his own mission. These and not the sword carried everything before them and surmounted every obstacle.  When I closed the 2nd volume (of the Prophet’s biography), I was sorry there was not more for me to read of the great life.”

Thomas Carlyle in his (Heroes and Heroworship), was simply amazed as to:

“how one man single-handedly, could weld warring tribes and wandering Bedouins into a most powerful and civilized nation in less than two decades.”

Diwan Chand Sharma wrote:

“Muhammad was the soul of kindness, and his influence was felt and never forgotten by those around him.” [D.C. Sharma, The Prophet of the East, Calcutta, 1935, pp. 12]

Edward Gibbon and Simon Ockley speaking on the profession of Islam write:

“I believe in One God, and Mahomet, an Apostle of God’is the simple and invariable profession of Islam.  The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honor of the Prophet has never transgressed the measure of human virtues; and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion.” [History of the Saracan Empires, London, 1870, p. 54]

Muhammad was nothing more or less than a human being.  But he was a man with a noble mission, which was to unite humanity on the worship of One and Only One God and to teach them the way to honest and upright living based on the commands of God.  He always described himself as, “A Servant and Messenger of God,” and so indeed every action of his proclaimed to be.

Speaking on the aspect of equality before God in Islam, the famous poetess of India,Sarojini Naidu says: “It was the first religion that preached and practiced democracy; for, in the mosque, when the call for prayer is sounded and worshippers are gathered together, the democracy of Islam is embodied five times a day when the peasant and king kneel side by side and proclaim: ‘God Alone is Great’...  I have been struck over and over again by this indivisible unity of Islam that makes man instinctively a brother.” [S. Naidu, Ideals of Islam, vide Speeches & Writings, Madras, 1918, p. 169]

In the words of Prof. Hurgronje: “The league of nations founded by the prophet of Islam put the principle of international unity and human brotherhood on such universal foundations as to show candle to other nations.” He continues: “The fact is that no nation of the world can show a parallel to what Islam has done towards the realization of the idea of the League of Nations.”

The world has not hesitated to raise to divinity, individuals whose lives and missions have been lost in legend.  Historically speaking, none of these legends achieved even a fraction of what Muhammad accomplished.  And all his striving was for the sole purpose of uniting mankind for the worship of One God on the codes of moral excellence.  Muhammad or his followers never at any time claimed that he was a Son of God or the God-incarnate or a man with divinity - but he always was and is even today considered as only a Messenger chosen by God.

Michael  H. Hart in his recently published book on ratings of men who contributed towards the benefit and upliftment of mankind writes: “My choice of Muhammad to lead the list of the world’s most influential persons may surprise some readers and may be questioned by others, but he was the only man in history who was supremely successful on both the religious and secular levels.”  [M.H. Hart, The 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Persons in History, New York, 1978, p. 33]

K. S. Ramakrishna Rao, an Indian Professor of Philosophy in his booklet, (“Muhammad, The Prophet of Islam,”) calls him the “Perfect model for human life.”  Prof. Ramakrishna Rao explains his point by saying: “The personality of Muhammad, it is most difficult to get into the whole truth of it.  Only a glimpse of it I can catch.  What a dramatic succession of picturesque scenes!  There is Muhammad, the Prophet.  There is Muhammad, the Warrior; Muhammad, the Businessman; Muhammad, the Statesman; Muhammad, the Orator; Muhammad, the Reformer; Muhammad, the Refuge of Orphans; Muhammad, the Protector of Slaves; Muhammad, the Emancipator of Women; Muhammad, the Judge; Muhammad, the Saint.  All in all these magnificent roles, in all these departments of human activities, he is alike a hero.”

Today after a lapse of fourteen centuries, the life and teachings of Muhammad have survived without the slightest loss, alteration or interpolation.  They offer the same undying hope for treating mankind’s many ills, which they did when he was alive.  This is not a claim of Muhammad’s followers but also the inescapable conclusion forced upon by a critical and unbiased history.

The least you could do as a thinking and concerned human being is to stop for a moment and ask yourself: Could these statements sounding so extraordinary and revolutionary be really true?  And supposing they really are true and you did not know this man Muhammad or hear about him, isn’t it time you responded to this tremendous challenge and put in some effort to know him?

It will cost you nothing but it may prove to be the beginning of a completely new era in your life.

Download E-Book WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT THE PROPHET MUHAMMAD PBUH right here!.

[Source: islamreligion.com]

[1] The term Mahometans and Mohammadanism is a misnomer introduced by orientalists certain due to their lack of understanding of Islam, in analogy to Christ and Christianity.

The Moon Split? Friday, June 25, 2010

A photo from NASA using Apollo 10 and Apollo 11 shows an indication that the Moon was split on the past.

The above pictures shows the location of the “Rocky Belt” which shows the moon was once split.The unbelievers of Makkah said to the prophet that if you are truly a prophet split the moon and if you do we shall believe. It was a full moon that night.

The Miracle of the splitting of the moon was demonstrated 1400 years ago for people who persisted in denial of Muhammad’s Prophethood. As was related by Adbullah ibn Mas‘ud, while they were in Mina one night, Prophet Muhammad split the moon into two by a gesture of his index finger. The halves of the moon appeared one behind the mountain and the other in front of it. Then, the Prophet turned to us and said: ‘Be witnesses!’

The Qur’an refers to this miracle in the following verses:

"The Hour has approached, and the moon split. But whenever they see a sign, they turn away and say, ‘This is evident magic’." [Quran - 1:2]

In a TV interview with the Egyptian Geologist Dr. Zaghloul Annajar, the anchor asked him about the verse:

"The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder (the people of Makkah requested Prophet Muhammad [PBUH] to show them a miracle, so he showed them the splitting of the moon)." (Quran 54:1) whether it contains any Quranic scientific astounding facts?

Dr. Zaghloul answered saying that he has a story to tell about this verse.

He started explaining that at a time he delivered a lecture at Cardiff University in the West of Britain. The attendees included both Muslims and non-Muslims. A vital dialogue was taking place around scientific facts included in the Noble Quran. During the course of the lecture, a Muslim young man stood asking me, Sir Do you see in the Saying of Al Haq Tabarak wa Ta`ala (Allah the Truth) may He be Exalted - and he referred to the above mentioned verse - any indication to the scientific facts included in the Quran? Dr. Najjar answered: No because scientific astounding discoveries are interpreted through science whereas a miracle is something supernatural, which may not be interpreted through the usual. The splitting of the moon is a miracle, which happened to Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) in order to prove his prophecy. Tangible miracles are only a testimony of truth for those who witnessed it. It is only that the incident was mentioned in Quran and Prophet's Sunnah that made us believe other wise we Muslims of this era would have never believed in it. In addition that we know for sure that Allah is most capable of anything. At that point Dr. Zaghloul narrated the story of moon splitting as included in Sunnah books.

He said, Sunnah books tell that five years before the immigration of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from Mecca to Medina, a group of people from the tribe of Quraish came challenging him saying: Oh Muhammad if you were really a Prophet and a Messenger bring to us a miracle to establish this fact. So he asked them what do you want? They said in an effort to complicate matters for him: split the moon for us. The Messenger of ALLAH (PBUH) stood supplicating to Allah to support him and grant him victory in this hard situation. Allah may He be Exalted inspired him to sign towards the moon with his finger. Immediately, the moon cleft into two parts standing far from each other for several hours then cling back together. The pagans started claiming: Oh Muhammad (PBUH) practiced witchcraft on us.

At this point some of the wise men explained that magic would only affect the attendees whereas it can not maintain influence on everybody in general. They waited for travelers who were coming back from their journeys. The pagans harried up to the borders of Mecca in anticipation to meet the travelers. When the first arrivals appeared, they asked them did you see anything extraordinary happened to the moon? The travelers answered yes on the night (X) we saw the moon splitting into two parts which remained asunder for sometime then reattached. Upon this statement, a number of the group believed while the rest remained pagans. Therefore, the verse explains "The Hour has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder (the people of Makkah requested Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) to show them a miracle, so he showed them the splitting of the moon). * And if they see a sign, they turn away, and say: This is continuous magic. *They belied the Verses of Allah - this Quran), and followed their own lusts. And every matter will be settled according to the kind of deeds: good deeds will take their doers to Paradise and similarly evil deeds will take their doers to Hell." (Quran 54:1-3) until the end of the verses which were revealed in this regard.

Dr. Najjar continued that at this point a British Muslim young man introduced himself as Daoud Moussa Peetcock head of the British Islamic Party. He carried on saying sir if you allow me I would like to add on this issue? I said please do. He explained saying: At the time when I was searching in religions (before he embraced Islam), a Muslim student gave me as a present the translation of the meaning of Quran. I thanked him and took it home. The first Surat I came across when I opened the book, it was Chapter of the Moon I read "has drawn near, and the moon has been cleft asunder". I said to myself, is this statement logical? Is it possible for the moon to split and then reattach what kind of power may cause this? The man explained that this verse made me reluctant to continue reading. I became busy with my life,yet ALLAH of course Knows how sincere I was about finding the truth.

So, One day ALLAH made me sit to watch TV. It was a talk show between a British commentator and three American astronautics specialists. The show host was blaming the scientists for spending thriftily over space trips at a time when earth is suffering hunger,poverty, diseases and backwardness. He was telling them, it would have been more feasible to allocate this kind of money for reconstruction of earth. To this argument, the three men answered defending their position that such technology is widely applied in many wakes of life such as medicine, industry and agriculture. They added that the money is never wasted but it rather supported the development of highly advanced technology.

During their dialogue, they mentioned the trip in which a man landed on the moon surface as it consumes the the largest cost which comes to more than US $100.000.000.000. The British TV anchor screamed saying what kind of thrift is this? A hundred thousand million dollars just to plant the American flag on the moon surface? They answered no; the objective was not to plant the American flag but rather to study the interior composition of the moon. We actually came to a finding that would cost us double folds of this amount for people to believe and yet they will never believe. The show host inquired what is this fact? They replied: One day this moon was split and then reattached. The show host again probed: how did you realize that? The scientists responded about finding a belt of transformed rocks cutting the moon from its surface to core and then to the surface again. The stated saying: we consulted with earth scientists and geologists who explained that such phenomenon would never occur unless this moon one day split and then reattached.

The British Muslim man said: I jumped out of my chair saying ALLAH (SWT) forced the Americans to spend more than a hundred billion dollars to prove to Muslims a a miracle that took place 1400 years ago for Mohamed (PBUH)? This religion must be the truth. He added: I went back to the Quran and recited Surat Al Qamar, which was my gate for accepting Islam.


Image source:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021029.html

Original Image Source from NASA Official Website:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0210/rille_apollo10_big.jpg

So No one think it's been Photoshop Edited or something, and this link below show that the picture came from NASA itself and still being a topic of research:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap021029.html

Scientists of NASA still Researching the Cause of this until today with no definitive results.

Ali Sina's UNDERSTANDING MUHAMMAD, A Psychobiography Thursday, April 29, 2010

By Mohd Elfie Nieshaem Juferi

For those who are familiar with the extremist Islamophobic website called “Faithfreedom International”, the name of its founder Ali Sina (a pseudonym) is synonymous with the bigotry and vile rhetoric often displayed against Muslims and Islam.

This was a person who openly advocated for the atomic bomb to be used on Muslim populations and have many times declared that he will “wipe out” Islam within 30 years. Now this relatively unknown figure within academic circles — apart from becoming the self-appointed hero for the cause of Islamophobia, bigotry and the new emerging school of lay-people and pseudo-scholars — has moved beyond the world that he is more accustomed with on the internet.

Like his predecessors, such as the infamous Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch, Ali Sina is now attempting to make his name within the world of published authors with the publication of his book Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography. Whilst it is true that over the course of years he has gathered a large following of largely misled haters, Ali Sina still has had to resort to self-publishing with a relatively small publishing press where anyone with anything to rant about can publish their own.

The book claims to be a “psychobiography” of the Prophet Muhammad, upon whom be peace, but it is far from being objective and sane in its purported “scholarship”. It claims to refer to the Islamic religious texts (heavily relying on translations and not the original Arabic sources which betrays the author’s lack of command in the language) and then attempts to characterize Muhammad (SAWS) in “modern analytical terms”. Coming from a Shi’ite background in predominantly Shi’ite Iran, it is not clear from the onset as to why Ali Sina favours referencing the Sunni sources such as the hadith collection of Bukhari and Muslim (which is not used by the Shi’a and largely unfamiliar to them) and hardly mentions the Shi’ite sources themselves which talks about the Prophet (SAWS). This leads us to suspect that he may not have the credentials of an Iranian Muslim as he claims to have. Unfortunately, this book does nothing more than to resort to the old underhanded technique of cherry-picking a handful of half-truths, sprinkling them with lies, exaggerations and misrepresentations, and eventually to come up with a twisted mix of politically-motivated propaganda.

While Ali Sina believes that his agenda will liberate Muslims, common sense would tell you that Ali Sina’s book comes nowhere close to it. In fact, he is much more likely to lend credence to the grumblings of right-wing nutjobs who want to stoke fear and hatred. The quality of Ali Sina’s “different” pseudo-scholarship is thus displayed by the revival of a long-abandoned polemic against the historical character of the Prophet of Islam – namely, the issue of epilepsy. Nuanced scholars such as the Swedish academic Tor Andrae and prolific writer Karen Armstrong have long dismissed the idea of epilepsy as nonsense. It seems that Ali Sina believes that such studies regarding the Prophet (SAWS) in historiography should be abandoned and instead we should return to Orientalists such as Margoliouth, Muir and other Christian missionaries who would have us believe that the Prophet (SAWS) was epileptic. Ali Sina consistently maligns the Prophet (SAWS) as delusional – while at the same time ignoring that the coherence, completeness and success of Islam in its 1400 years of history show that it cannot be the product of a madman’s mind, nor of that of an epileptic. Ali Sina then calls him (SAWS) a liar (an all too familiar accusation), conveniently ignoring how much he suffered for twenty years before gaining the upper hand and even then he had lived as a poor man with no luxuries. The inconsistencies of Ali Sina’s accusations against the Prophet (P) are themselves testament to the foolishness of his reasoning.

Ali Sina clearly ignores several facts contained within the Sirah itself; that the Prophet (P) spared the Makkans who had tortured and killed his followers for two decades even after conquering them, that he spared all the hypocrites in Madinah undermining his authority (something the man Sina describes would not tolerate), that he had all too often freed prisoners of war freed for no material gain, that he explicitly forbade harming innocent civilians such as women, children, elderly and monks; that he always honoured his treaties even if they were extremely unfair to him (until the disbelievers broke them), that his stories are filled with instances where he spared men who were out to kill him, that as soon as someone became Muslim, he forgave all their past evils, betrayals and murders. The only people that the Prophet (SAWS) was harsh with were with those who were treacherous and betrayed their pacts to turn on the Muslims in order to destroy them in their weakest moment – which is considered as high treason in times of war. Ali Sina deviously omits the context and interpreted such acts as something that the Prophet (SAWS) habitually does, which is nothing short of deception to his readers.

“There is no compulsion in religion, for the right way is clearly from the wrong way. Whoever therefore rejects the forces of evil and believes in God, he has taken hold of a support most unfailing, which shall never give way, for God is All Hearing and Knowing.”Qur’an, 2:256 “And so (O Prophet!), exhort them your task is only to exhort; you cannot compel them to believe.” Qur’an, 88:21,22; also see Qur’an 24:54 “Allah forbids you not, with regard to those who fight you not for (your) Faith nor drive you out of your homes, from dealing kindly and justly with them: for Allah loveth those who are just.” Qur’an, 60:8

The only people who would “love” this book are either psychologically demented — similar to Ali Sina himself — disaffected Muslims who have been hurt in the past and want to blame someone for their problems, or they are extremist Hindus and right-wing Christians who would like nothing better than to rationalize their extremist racism and xenophobic hatred with spurious scholarship. Muhammad (SAWS) did not witness any insurrections or attempts on his life at the hands of his own followers. Not even after his death did anyone attempt to assassinate his memory or desecrate his grave. Instead, the Prophet’s (SAWS) example spawned an empire that ruled over the Middle East for one thousand years and witnessed a revival of culture and learning the likes of which was not seen in the West until the Age of Enlightenment.

In summarizing this tiresome work, “Understanding Muhammad: A Psychobiography” is not a biography at all, much less a “psychobiography”, of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) but a pathetic attempt at character assassination and the rehashing of age-old polemics dating as far as the earliest days of Orientalism. In fact, the author’s methodology is consistent with what that is found on his website and other atheist websites online. It is simply bad history and even worse psychology by a man who can claim to be neither a historian nor a psychologist. He simply repeats the lying polemics of Serge Trifkovic, Robert Spencer, Ayaan Hirsi Ali and other atheists who have an axe to grind against Islam. When bigots and extremists approach any text, be it the Turner Diaries, the Bible, the Qur’an, Nietzche or the Sirah literature, they cannot be divorced from contextual hermeneutics. The reason why Ali Sina views the Prophet Muhammd (SAWS) in such light is simply a case of trying to find a demon through the nitpicking of isolated incidents. Indeed, if one were to play with such rhetoric, one could find justification for the Holocaust, even within the New Testament as Hitler did.

We have come to the conclusion that a brief psycho-analysis of Ali Sina will determine that he is simply a bigoted, disaffected former Muslim who is no doubt working out issues with his painful upbringing at the hands of his puritanical parents, cruel Islamic clergyman or perhaps a child-molesting Iranian mullah (or whatever the thorn in his side may be), as in his book he has focused all his rage into painting the most ugly portrait of the Prophet Muhammad (SAWS) that can ever be conceived by the most insane mind.