Muhammad: The Early Days

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In earlier segments of this series, we have examined the historical reliability of the Islamic traditions regarding Muhammad. While that is an important line of inquiry, it is also important to know what those traditions claim that Muhammad said and did, for Muslims believe and act upon those traditions to this day.

According to tradition, Muhammad’s father died around the time of his birth, and his mother when he was only six; before that, he had been entrusted to a foster mother and nursemaid, as was customary in those days. Islamic tradition later elaborated a number of hagiographical stories befitting his prophetic status. One has his mother, Aminah, saying: “When I delivered him, there emitted a light from my womb which illuminated the palaces of Syria.”

But most illustrative of a particular mindset among Muslims at the time of Muhammad’s prophetic career up to the present day are the many stories which suggest that a prophet was awaited in Arabia at that time, and that the Jewish and Christian Scriptures prophesied his coming. Ibn Ishaq recounts that a strange thing happened to his foster mother as she was returning him to his mother: “a number of Abyssinian Christians saw him with her when she brought him back after he had been weaned. They looked at him, asked questions about him, and studied him carefully, then they said to her, ‘Let us take this boy, and bring him to our king and our country, for he will have a great future. We know all about him.’ The person who told me this alleged that she could hardly get him away from them.”

Likewise, a few years later, Muhammad’s uncle Abu Talib, who was by this time his guardian, took him, while on a long journey, to the town of Busra in Syria to visit the Christian monk Bahira. Although he was still just a boy, “when Bahira saw him he stared at him closely, looking at his body and finding traces of his description (in the Christian books).”

Both these stories intimate that Christians were somehow expecting the advent of Muhammad. This is in accord with the Qur’anic assertion that Jesus himself foretold Muhammad’s coming: “And when Jesus son of Mary said, O children of Israel, indeed, I am the messenger of Allah to you, confirming what was before me in the Torah, and bringing good news of a messenger who comes after me, whose name is Ahmad. Yet when he has come to them with clear proofs, they say, This is mere sorcery.” (61:6) “Ahmad” is a variant of Muhammad; Muslims now identify the Paraclete whom Jesus promises to send (John 14:16) with the Prophet of Islam. Muhammad also abetted this idea during his prophetic career, saying, “I am (in response to) the prayer of my ancestor Ibrahim [Abraham], and ‘Isa Ibn Maryam [Jesus son of Mary] gave good news about me.”

As the young Muhammad stood before Bahira, the monk, demonstrating credentials as a proto-ecumenist, said to him: “Boy, I ask you by al-Lat and al-Uzza to answer my question.” Ibn Ishaq explains that “Bahira said this only because he had heard his people swearing by these gods” – two of the goddesses of the pagan Arabs. But the future Prophet of Islam would have none of it: “Do not ask me by al-Lat and al-Uzza, for by Allah nothing is more hateful to me than those two.” Bahira then proceeded to ask him questions, and Muhammad answered them in accord with what was expected of a future prophet. Bahira “looked at his back and saw the seal of prophethood between his shoulders in the very place described in his book.” Bahira then told Abu Talib: “Take your nephew back to his country and guard him carefully against the Jews, for by Allah! If they see him and know about him what I know, they will do him evil; a great future lies before this nephew of yours, so take him home quickly.”[1] He added: “Verily the Jews are his enemies, and he is the Prophet of these people; he is an Arab and the Jews are jealous of him wishing that he should have been an Israelite. So guard your brother’s son.”

This accords with another Islamic fable about Muhammad’s birth: a Jew, hearing that he had been born, asked to see the child. When he saw him, according to Ibn Sa‘d, and “observed the mole on his back” — said to be a sign of the prophet who was to come — he “fell into a swoon.” When he came to, he explained: “The prophethood has gone from the Israelites and the Scriptures out of their hands. It is written that he will fight with them and will kill their scholars,” a rather revealing statement as an early Muslim view of the mission of Muhammad.

Here thus sound two recurring themes of Islamic thought to this day: the proposition that the Christians (and Jews as well) knew Muhammad was coming but rejected him out of willful disobedience to the command of Allah – and that Jews are the most inveterate and crafty enemies of the Muslims, in accord with the Qur’an: “As often as they light a fire for war, Allah extinguishes it. Their effort is for corruption on the earth, and Allah does not love corrupters” (5:64), and “You will find the Jews and the idolaters the most vehement of mankind in hostility to those who believe. And you will find the closest in affection to those who believe those who say, Indeed, we are Christians. That is because there are among them priests and monks, and because they are not proud.” (5:82) Although the Qur’an is quite harsh toward Christians in other places (those who consider Jesus to be the Son of God are under the “curse of Allah” in Qur’an 9:30), the character of Bahira was perhaps created with that kind of friendly Christian in mind.

Notes:

[1] Ibn Ishaq, p. 80.