Defending the Prophet against numerous criticisms from an E-mail Evangelical Christian

From: http://www.ruqaiyyah.karoo.net/

A reply to one email letter, after a series from the same earnest person.

By: Sr. Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood.


Dear Sister, may peace be with you. I am afraid this will have to be my last email to you as you make so many challenges and I am very busy with all the other things I am obliged to do. I do not have enough hours in my day, and I cannot keep on writing back to you. I am sorry for that.

However, I have to tell you that your email has really shocked me - if this is (as it must be) an example of the sort of malicious propaganda put about by non-Muslims against us Muslims. In most of the things you say, what you state is virtually the absolute opposite of the reality.

Even if you hold tight to your belief in Jesus as the Son of God, please try to understand that Muhammad never claimed to be of similar status, but claimed to be one of God's chosen prophets, in the same way as Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel and all the others - who are all named and have verses about them in the Qur'an. Allah told us that we should not argue over who was the greatest or most influential etc - but should treat them all with the same respect, since although their talents varied, they were all chosen servants of the One True God. I suppose that as a Christian you do accept all the prophets named in the pre-Jesus scriptures. There has only been one further prophet since the lifetime of Jesus, and he would not have been necessary for God to choose and call if people had not turned monotheism and love of God into a kind of Baal cult (which all the prophets of the Old Testament fought against so manfully).Within 30 years of Jesus' life on earth, the true faith was already corrupted by pagans, especially the Roman version of Mithraism.

In a message dated 8/27/06 1:54:00 AM GMT Daylight Time, my correspondent wrote: Muhammad, who never knew his father, was orphaned and later was a slave trader. He made his money by buying and selling slaves, other human beings of all ages and race.

The first part is true - Muhammad was conceived during the first 3 days of his father Abdullah's marriage, and Abdullah died before he was born.
He did indeed become a trader, but he and his family traded in perfumes and perishable foodstuffs, not slaves. In fact, he set aside a considerable portion of his personal income to buy the freedom of slaves, a habit he inherited from his famous grandfather Abdu’l Muttalib, the Guardian of the Ka’bah.

It is true that there were slaves in Muhammad’s household, as in nearly all households of the time. It is on record that many of the slaves that had been given to him for his household refused to leave him and stayed with him until they died, even when they were granted their freedom. Two famous examples were Zayd ibn Harithah, who lived in his household from the age of 14 and who he adopted as his own son, and his ‘nanny’ Umm Ayman, who had been with him since his birth. When Zayd married Umm Ayman, their son Usamah was seen as the Prophet's first grandson.

Please refer to my separate article on slavery in Islam.
You stated:
· Young strong slaves made good money. Young girls were sold for sex.
· Young boys were castrated and used for housework
· The old and infirm were cheap and expendable. When they could no longer work they were killed off like an old dog.

These horrible things were indeed often the fate of people captured in war or seized by slave-tradeers. It was revulsion at these nasty cruelties and injustices that led the teenage Muhammad to become one of the founder members of the Hilf ul-Fudl, an Order of Chivalry set up by one of his uncles and other influential Makkan sheikhs to assist the poor and downtrodden, the slaves and the cheated. Muhammad remained a member of that Order for the rest of his life. The members of it were a byword for chivalry and for assisting as many unfortunates of the above categories as they could.

Slaves flocked into Islam, and many became the leading Muslims of his time. eg Bilal, an Abyssinian bought out of slavery by the Prophet's best friend Abu Bakr. And many, many others. They loved Islam because it gave them so many protections and rights (which they had never had before, even from Christian masters!!) His wife Khadijah's family, for example, had many Christian members, and they all kept slaves - but Khadijah was already famous as a wealthy woman who freed as many as she could even before the Prophet married her!

With the revelation of Islam, life improved enormously for slaves of Muslim masters, since Islam:
· forbade the castration of slaves,
· forbade masters forcing themselves on to female slaves,
· gave slaves the right to appeal to shari’ah law to gain redress for rape or injury,
· gave slaves the right to marry and keep their children,
· gave all slaves the right to earn money and buy themselves out,
· refused to allow people-buyers to split up families,
· warned all Muslims that to hold any person against their will (except immediately after a battle) was the criminal offence of hirabah (this included hijacking, holding by force, etc) and could carry the death penalty in some cases;
· taught that captives after a battle were to be treated as members of their own households (many said they got better treatment than they did at home!), and were allowed to be ransomed if possible. Sometimes the ransom was money, sometimes to use their abilities to teach or help until the captor was satisfied. Often they were set free for nothing.

You said: Slavery was his business. This was how the prophet made his money. This was the pagan way of life that he determined to preserve from the threat of Christianity, and that he personally abused, castrated, flogged and killed rebellious slaves.

What rubbish. The opposite.
You said: Although illiterate, he was a shrewd businessman who married his boss, an older and rich widow. He despised her with a vengeance. When she died, he inherited all her wealth.

Very few Arabs had learned how to read or write - it was not because they were stupid but because in the Middle East gentlemen's families employed scribes! As it happened, in the Prophet's own family his grandfather and father could read and write, and so could his wife Khadijah and his later wives Aishah, Hafsah and Umm Salamah - who were taught by their own fathers alongside the boys of the family!

Muhammad was a shrewd businessman, but he loved Khadijah, and despite the normal practice of wealthy men in those days to take extra wives and concubines, although Khadijah was 15 years his senior he never looked at another woman or sought another wife until she died some 25 years after their marriage (during which time she bore him at least 6 children! - she already had about 6 from two previous husbands, who had both left her their wealth). He never felt anything but the greatest love for Khadijah - they are one of the most famous love matches of history!!

Even after her death, he did not remarry for several years but carried on as a single parent with the youngsters still in his household. Eventually he was persuaded to remarry - firstly to one of his oldest friends and one of the first converts to Islam, the heroic widow Sawdah bint Zama’h (who was about 50 at the time, as was he, and had been told she could not return to her eminent father’s household unless she gave up Islam), and then to the daughters of his best friends and others. All were said to have loved him dearly, especially Aishah, Umm Salamah and the Jewish rabbi's daughter Zaynab/Safiyyah. (You will be able to read about their lives if you get my book on the Prophet, hopefully to be published later this year, insha'Allah).

You said: He went on to have 13 wives and many concubines, whom he treated as personal property.

Most books maintain that the Prophet had 11 wives, 9 of whom were still living when he passed away. I would agree with you that he did have 13, two of these 13 ladies having disputed status. Some Muslims have thought they were concubines, (ie. not ‘many’ but two – one was a lady whose husband had recently been killed, and the other was the daughter of a leading Coptic Christian who had been sent to his household by the ruler of Egypt) but the teaching of Islam insisted that sex outside marriage was forbidden. The difference between a wife and a concubine-wife was that a concubine was usually not a free woman, and therefore did not receive a dowry payment when she married a Muslim man. If a Muslim man established marital relationship with a non-free woman, the usual practice was to pay for her freedon in lieu of dowry.


You said: • Mohammed's youngest wife was only 9 years old.
• He bought her from her parents because of her great beauty.

9 was not an unusual age for marriage in those days and that part of the world (as elsewhere). The normal age for a first marriage was about 15 for girls and 16 for boys. It was considered more proper for youngsters who started to show an interest in sexual activity (and girls who had begun menstruation) to be happily married rather than risk seduction, rape and sex outside marriage plus abortions etc.

The Prophet did not buy Aishah nor marry her because of her great beauty. She was the daughter of his best friend and had loved him since her birth. The only money paid was the mahr – the new concept of a dowry which Muslim men were obliged to pay to wives when they married, on the grounds that even if these ladies owned nothing before, they commenced married life with some property and finance of their own. It was theirs to keep.

Please refer to my separate articles on the age of Aishah at her marriage, and child-marriage.
You said: He clearly had a voracious sexual appetite and was well known to be promiscuous.

If by promiscuous you mean he enjoyed sexual liaisons outside of marriage, that is nonsense. He was indeed known to have kept his wives happy and content, but I doubt if it would be appropriate to suggest that his appetite was voracious - since most of his time was spent in prayer, including several hours each night. The wives were also expected to pray long hours and be abstemious and charitable. The Prophet commented many times that he enjoyed women, but the kind of enjoyment he was referring to was the company of his many old female friends and acquaintances, most of whom were of similar age to himself and in their 50+ years while he was at Madinah. Some of them even fought in the battles in their 50s, at least two bearing children on the battlefield (not to him but to their husbands!)

It was recorded that he used to visit all his wives every day, but this did not imply that he had sexual intercourse with all of them! As regards that, the wives expected to be treated scrupulously fairly, and the Prophet spent nights with each in turn, even if they did not wish to have any sexual intimacy with him (or vice versa). His second wife, Sawdah, gave up her night with him to young Aishah shortly after they married, when Aishah felt somewhat threatened by the arrival of further wives.
You said: His life revolved around his harem, his slaves, battles and talk of his god and satan.

By harem, you mean his family and household. Most of his later wives came into his household with children and loyal servants from their previous marriages, and his household included his own staff, and the staff of the women who joined him, I have estimated that there were at least 28 children or young people and some 30 or so staff living in his establishment at the Madinah mosque. They were all greatly loved, not only by him but by everyone. It is therefore hardly surprising that his life revolved around them all – the greater marvel is that he could make time for them all, and deeply cared for them all.

Although the impression is often given that he spent all his time fighting battles, in fact some of the most famous battles only lasted a day, and all the battles put together only amounted to a few months out of his lifetime.

He certainly did spend most of his time talking about God, and praying, and helping others.

You said: He became very rich and influential.

Indeed - but since he believed the rightful owner of all things was God, he usually gave away anything he received as a gift. Tribute was utilised very meticulously, mainly for charitable purposes. When he died, he owned virtually nothing - everything was given away.
You said: His ideals of human rights extended only to his own faithful followers or brotherhood.

nonsense.
You said: All infidels or non-Muslims were fair game for conquest or enslavement.

Not at all. The only people he stood up to were those who attacked Islam or abused and exploited others. He was a defender of the weak and downtrodden. Nobody was forced to become Muslim. Prisoners could be taken in battle, but they were to be ransomed afterwards. Muslim were not allowed to seize slaves, but were highly commended for setting them free, or buying their freedom.

You said: He began to claim he was in direct personal contact with God.

Every Muslim believes he was in direct contact with God through the angel Gabriel.
You said: There are good and bad in every society. Like Hitler, Mohammed courted the bad.

What!!???

You said: He commanded his faithful followers and associates to believe him

To believe in God, whose word he was giving them as God's messenger and Prophet.
You said: Mohammed put the dogs and perverts in control of his society.

What!!!???
You said: He dictated his God's words, whom he called Allah, and ordered them to memorise it. He nominated one deity, Allah, as his God, emphasising Allah as the one true God. This God was not to be confused with the Jewish or Christian God. He called it a new religion and proclaimed himself God's prophet.

He was God's Prophet - but the religion was not new at all. Islam is the original and true faith - the discovery that there is such a thing as a God and that wise people seek to find out and carry out His will. That is what Islam means - submission to the will of God.

He did indeed dictate God's words, as he himself could not write. Many people could, however, and the messages were written down by many. Many others did indeed memorise every word, and still do to this day. Such a person is called a hafiz or hafizah. There are many. I am not one, but if I need to find something quickly, I can ring up an Islamic bookstore I know and ask the counter-clerk to call out and ask if there is a hafiz in the shop. There usually is, and I get my answer.

The word Allah is simply the Arabic for 'The Almighty', and is what most people call God. You may not know that Arabic Christians call God 'Allah' automatically.
You said: He borrowed Jewish doctrine and combined some of it with his brand of morality.

Most Jewish doctrine is virtually identical to Islamic since it originates from the same One True God through the long series of Prophets.
You said: Islam means submission of woman to the will of man.

Nonsense. Islam means the submission of both men and women to the will of God. I think you will be giving many Muslim mamas a good laugh! In Islam, a woman does accept a husband as the head of her household, however - even if she is more intelligent and capable than him (as she frequently is). Husbands do not have the right to cause upset in the household but should confer with their wives. Muslim women do not accept Muslim men as their masters - they have but one Master and that is God. If a husband asks a wife to do anything contrary to the will of God (eg steal, lie, abuse etc etc), she is obliged as a Muslim to refuse and refrain from it.

You said: All Islamic women, our mother and sisters, live a life of extreme fear.

Are you including me in this?????

You said: His was a male dominated religion. Every man was a king in his own home.

It may seem male-dominated to non-Muslims since women live very private lives in most Muslim countries and you do not see them about on the streets unless they are modestly dressed or even fully veiled. As it happens, many women enjoy men doing their shopping. In Islam, the wife and mother is the Queen of the Home. It is her chief domain and she regards creating a happy Muslim environment as a great achievement.
You said: Women lost all rights, all their property, and became servants of menfolk.

Absolutely not. Women were granted all sorts of property rights and inheritance rights that they did not have before, and which did not become available in most countries until recently. Whether or not a woman is a servant of her man or vice versa is very much a personal matter. You may, however, be referring to the poor behaviour of men of certain cultural backgrounds who do not understand Islam, and although they claim to be Muslims do in fact abuse Islam by abusing their womenfolk. This is a scandalous situation, and outspoken Muslim reformers are doing their very best to put a stop to such abuses.
You said: No woman would ever raise her voice to a man in future.

Do you not know the famous account of Caliph Umar (before he was Caliph), when he went round to the Prophet's house and heard the women raising their voices and arguing?? He was shocked, because he was a very domineering man. He told off his daughter, one of those wives, and another (his own cousin) told him to mind his own business and stop interfering. If the Prophet was content with them, what right had he got to interfere??
You said: They would have to hide behind a veil. They would have to walk behind their man.

The first veil granted to Muslim women was the right to have some privacy in their small homes, which were very open to the life on the street. They were allowed to have an area curtained or veiled off, behind which men were not allowed to go without permission. This forbidden area is the harem, from 'haram' meaning 'forbidden'. I experienced marriage to a Pakistani in the 1990s, and when he used to bring back gangs of pals, I was very pleased that they were not allowed to come wandering through into my private bits of the house. I may have taken them in a tray full of tea and cakes, but they were not expected to come intruding into my space at all.
You said: They would have to endure any chastisement or even death without protest.

Nonsense! Do you not know of the Prophet's teaching that no Muslim should ever hit, hurt or abuse any of the weak, whether woman, child, old person or animal?? After one early sermon in Madinah a group of 70 women went to him in a deputation to complain about their husbands who believed it was perfectly all right for them to treat them like children and chastise them. The Prophet ruled in their favour and rebuked the men who had offended them. Any man who hits a woman could most certainly not expect to be included amongst 'the best of Muslims' - which was what they should all strive to be, if they loved God and His prophet.
You said: The tragedy was that many terrified women accepted their lot in the name of Allah.

Oh please!!!!
You said: They would survive only as home makers and sex objects for their man, produce his offspring, make his bed and cook his food.

Isn't this what marriage is largely all about??? My Christian mother, who has been married for 60 years, seemed to think that her marriage had been much like that!

Dear friend, you did mention many more matters, but I have run out of steam. However, I hope that my brief answers here will give you a little more food for thought. If you are an honest person, please try not to be misled by those who are either non-Muslim, or ignorant of Islam, or those who may happen to be Muslim but are abusing their faith. It is not fair to judge a world-faith by the behaviour and attitudes of the least of its followers. God bless you, wasalaam, Ruqaiyyah.