The Prophet of Islam in History

The life of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is a widely written-about subject; we have a plethora of biographical and historical books on him in different languages written by believing as well as unbelieving scholars. Yet, ironically enough, it is still difficult to understand his true historical personality. He never claimed to possess any super- human qualities and categorically stated that he had no power to perform miracles which were the domain of God alone. The Qurān also re-iterated that he was only a human being, but pointed out his exceptional role as a messenger and special personality as a man. It is on the basis of such Qurānic remarks that, in course of time, a mass of colourful legends and traditions developed around different events of his life. These traditional stories, which the Muslims regard as true to this day, were reverently incorporated in his first biographies compiled by the Muslim scholars during the classical period of Islam, becoming source books for later historians to sketch his life. In course of centuries, the Islamic historians of the prophet developed elaborate theories regarding his unique religious status which almost amounted to his deification; and in this way, his historical personality tended to disappear behind the colourful veil of legends. From the eighteenth century, however, when the West started recovering from the hang-over of the medieval Christian polemics about the founder of Islam, and the Western historians started studying and sketching his historical biographies from the original Arabic sources, the pendulum swung to the other extreme. Instead of making an analytical use of the Islamic traditions, which had substantial historical value, they, in the name of scientific and critical historiography, tended to totally disregard them or subject them to their own interpretations in order to find fault with his character. In complete disregard of his religious personality, they viewed his life in pure mundane terms, depicting him as a purely wordly character devoid of any genuine religious attributes. The true historical sketch of the life of the Prophet of Islam, therefore, gets blurred in biographical works of both categories hagiographical accounts of the Muslim writers and motivated critical – historiography of the Orientalists; and the great mass of literature on the subject falls in either of the two categories to the disappointment of a student today. It was only in the last century that a few Muslim historians, using the same scientific method of historical criticism as adopted by the Orientalists, were able to compile un-biased works. But, more often than not, they are either apologetic or concerned more about refuting the allegations of the Western writers rather than presenting a total history of their subject in a systematic and chronologically acceptable manner with different events of his life integrated in their true historical contexts so as to form an organic whole displaying gradual evolution of his religious as well as political personality. This Book is an attempt in this very direction. An effort has been made to present a complete picture of the life of the Prophet with different significant events arranged in a sequence without missing links so as to form an integrated whole. The book is based on the premise that traditional stories clustering around the personality of a religious leader cannot be totally separated from his history because they are necessary to recognize his charisma as well as historical image. This is also because they represent how he was seen by his contemporaries and what he was believed to have been by his followers of the succeeding generations. Any attempt to segregate the traditions from history in such cases may, therefore, amount to producing half the history only even though a few of them do not stand to reason today. An attempt has been made in this book to sketch the life of Muhammad without divesting it of his legendary image; the traditional stories associated with different events of his life have been described alongside plain historical facts. It may look like a combination of critical history-writing and legendary stories; but it does present the things in full relief. The book has been designed to cater to the need of the common readers, millions of whom have a quest to know what the founder of Islam actually preached and what Islam actually stands for. Since the life of Muhammad is the key to understanding of true Islam vis a vis current aberrations as well as mis-representations in this regard, the subject assumes great importance. It is in order to make the subject easily comprehensible that a simple and lucid style of presenting plain historical facts with brevity has been adopted; and for sparing the readers of going through volumes of lengthy critical discourses on controversial issues, the traditional versions as well as critical theories and arguments in respect of important events have been briefly referred to so as to drive home a generally acceptable position. For a better understanding of the manner in which history of the Prophet has been written by different groups having their own motives, a full chapter on the sources of his history has been added with detailed discussions on them, evaluating their relatives historical importance. An attempt has also been made to trace the evolution of history-writing about the Prophet since the beginning to the present times. Further, with a view to present his life and teachings in proper historical perspective, a detailed description of the legendary background of his family including traditional history of the Kābah and Makkah, of the socio and economics conditions prevalent during his time, of the regional history of the peninsula in its geographical background and of the religious beliefs and practices which he encountered, have been included in the second chapter entitled “The Setting” which describes the total conditions obtaining in Arabia on the eve of the rise of Islam. The remaining nine chapters are devoted to the actual history of his life tracing stages in development of his personality, evolution of his religious status as well as political power coming by default and shifts in his extraneous policies from time to time - all tending to display that his outwardly actions too were either divinely inspired or based on some noble considerations rather than imperialistic designs.