Did Muhammad (S.A.W) really exist?

Below is an excerpt from the book ‘The Misrepresented Prophet’ (Available now):

The orientalist Professor Sven Kalisch claimed that the person of Muhammad ﷺ never existed and that the evidence to prove his existence was unreliable and of dubious nature.[[1]]

He was refuted by many of his contemporaries, with leading orientalist and historian Tilman Nagel stating that ‘of course Muhammad existed’ as he could not fathom the idea that thousands of thousands of pages of information were forged and that the person did not exist.

 From this I would argue that he existed based on three points:

1.       Muhammad ﷺ wrote letters to the leaders of the neighbouring areas

The Prophet Muhammad had letters written by his scribes towards the heads of various neighbouring states (the Byzantium & Sassanian Empire), which have been documented in history:

An example of a few letters are pictured below:[[2]]

 One could argue that these letters are forged, but it would not be feasible as the amount of documentation regarding Muhammad ﷺ is already expansive, so why bother forging more proof when the vast majority accepted him as a real figure.

Forging such letters would arise suspicion amongst the neighboring states who are addressed in the letters, therefore it is unlikely that the letters were forged as there are original copies of the letters remaining, which can be carbon-dated back to the time of the Prophet ﷺ.

2.       The Hadith Tradition

One issue with the claim that Muhammad ﷺ did not exist and that he was forged by the later Arabs is that the early and late scholars were cautious to narrate incidents regarding his life, with the famous prophetic tradition that:

لاَ تَكْذِبُوا عَلَىَّ فَإِنَّهُ مَنْ كَذَبَ عَلَىَّ فَلْيَلِجِ النَّارَ

“Do not lie regarding me, for he who lies regarding me shall be cast into the fire”[[3]]

If it was feasible that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ did not exist and that the scholars fabricated his life then they would not have documented such ‘statements’ of his as this greatly restricts their authority and ability to transmit from the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ.

Based on the aforementioned hadith, scholars are rigorously tested for reliability, memory and piety, along with those whom he narrated from and this can lead to many scholars having their works rejected.

For example, Al-Waqidi (d. 207) is a prominent narrator of the battles of the Prophet Muhammad but due to his weakness in reliability he was deemed a fabricator of tales and rejected by the masses.

So if the Arabs were to fabricate the person of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ then they would not have uttered such restricting statements less they be deemed unreliable.

However it can be argued that the Arabs uttered these statements to ensure that only the learned men amongst them depict the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in the way they imagine him. This is easily refuted by the fact that the Arabs were not a learned nation, nor were they one for prophecy as the Ka’bah was a centre of trade and pilgrimage. By fabricating a new Prophet who suffered a lot of trial and tribulations, they risk angering the Christian Byzantium state who deem Jesus to be the son of God and the new religion is deeming this ideology heretical, so it would make more sense for the Arabs to continue their trade and grow before they decide to change the order of Arabia, a place that not even the Romans or Persians thought to conquer due to the harsh weather, rough terrain and poor living conditions.

2.      Early critics of Islam document the Prophet ﷺ

My final case to prove that the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ existed is due to the fact that multiple personalities in early history documented the person of Muhammad.

For example, John Mansur (famously known as John of Damascus) was born in the year 675, around 43 years after the ‘death’ of the Prophet Muhammad. He was one of the earliest Christian critics of the Prophet Muhammad.

He (John) criticises the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ in his treatise on heresies that:[[4]]

·         A man claims to receive revelation and a book without any witnesses

·         A man comes with a book 600 years later to deny that Jesus was God

·         The Muslims criticise the Christians for their veneration of the cross, so he criticises them on their veneration of the black stone

·         Muhammad (ﷺ) legalised polygamy for his own gain

·         The new religion is completely wrong in its prohibition of images, veneration of saints and states that the trinity best explains the person of Jesus

He was an open critic of the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ¸ and lived in an Islamic state but was free to say as he pleased and continued to propagate against the Prophet ﷺ until his death. The fact that Non-Muslims document the person of Muhammad (ﷺ), critiquing him and speaking about a new book that he brought makes it very difficult to state that he did not exist.

If he did not exist then he would not be so openly against him and state that Islam is a ‘Christian heresy’, but the fact that he was heavily criticised from an early stage refutes the notion that later Arabs fabricated him, thus proving that he did exist.

[1] Higgins, Andrew. “Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt.” Wall Street Journal, 16 Nov. 2008, www.wsj.com/articles/SB122669909279629451

[2] “In Pictures: Prophet Muhammad’s Letters That Were Sent to Rulers” Al Arabiya English, 14 May 2017, english.alarabiya.net/en/features/2017/05/14/In-Pictures-Prophet-Muhammad-s-letters-to-heads-of-states.

[3] “Hadith - Book of Knowledge”- Sahih Al-Bukhari - Sunnah.Com - Sayings and Teachings of Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه و سلم). Sunnah.Com, sunnah.com/bukhari/3/48 (Sahih al-Bukhari 106)

[4] Saint John of Damascus (Translated by Frederic H. Chase). “The Fathers Of The Church” A New Translation Vol 37. Internet Archive, Fathers Of The Church, Inc., 20 Aug. 1958, archive.org/stream/fathersofthechur009511mbp#page/n203/mode/2up. Pages 151-153