Posted on 07/05/2021 2:00:24 AM PDT by Jyotishi
The new revised and expanded edition of Did Muhammad Exist? contains:
o 25% new material.
o Answers to objections raised to the first edition.
o Information that makes it clear that Islam could not have originated the way it is described as doing so in the standard, canonical Islamic accounts.
o The reasons why it is more likely that the Muhammad of Islamic tradition is more myth and legend than historical figure.
o Newly revealed facts showing that the current Qur’anic text is not the original, and has been changed multiple times.
o Why the traditional Islamic stories of Muhammad’s life could not have taken place where they are described as happening;
o How the Arabs of the time in which Muhammad is supposed to have lived and its immediate aftermath did not believe in Islam as we understand it today;
o Evidence that the Qur’an was not collected and distributed in the year 653, as Islamic tradition claims, and parts of it existed as separate books over fifty years after that;
o Indications that the seventh-century Arab conquerors did not think of themselves as Muslims, and never called themselves Muslims;
o Startling signs that although Muslims everywhere in the world today pray facing Mecca, this practice was unknown in the earliest mosques to be built;
o The false premises of modern historians: how the man whom modern-day historians say received reports from “his aunt Aisha” about Muhammad’s life: why he is not a reliable source for anything Muhammad said or did, or even for his existence itself;
o “There is no god but Allah, and Qutham is his prophet”: the extraordinary Islamic traditions that record that Muhammad was originally known by another name;
o The strange and telling inconsistencies in the Islamic traditions about Muhammad’s first revelation;
o How the Arabic of the Qur’an is not the Arabic of southern Arabia, where Islam is supposed to have originated;
o Which angel appeared to Muhammad to give him the Qur’an? The Islamic traditions naming one other than Gabriel;
o Much, much more.
Preorder here. [Amazon]
Sounds like the kind of book the author goes on a hit list for writing. Because peaceful friendly religion.
Can we just shorten it, and say Islam originated in the fires of hell? 🔥
A historian from that area of the world and who is now a Christian said Allah was originally a moon goddess. If you are the author of the book reviewed by Spencer, what are your thoughts about Allah aka moon goddess?
“If you are the author of the book . . .”
The book’s author is Robert Spencer. There are comments on his book here:
It is surprising that Amazon is selling the book.
Yes that’s about right.
People believe all sorts of crazy things. Look at Scientology, or the people that still think the earth is flat.
So many things, even the Jill & Joe relationship, have their real origins and the mythology.
I’ve read the earlier edition.
Definitely worth buying and reading.
I am an amateur historian specializing in the area from india to Greece from about 1000 BC to 1000 AD. This book’s contentions are factually correct. What Robert Spencer claims has every indication of being true.
Read it, highly recommended
Btw jyothishi, I bought it on Amazon years ago, it wasn’t banned then and isn’t banned now because Robert Spencer is not anti Muslim. The book is historically factual
Being accurate and historical does not seem to be enough to avoid being deplatformed/depersoned these days.
More interesting is that Islam for it’s first century considered itself a branch of Christianity. The very earliest texts do not distinguish between Muslims and Christians as followers of a different faith.
Islam likely grew out of the Arian heresy, that always had strong support among the barbarians outside of the empire, and denied the divinity of Jesus and the Trinity.
Let’s not leave out Climate Scientologists.
British historian Tom Holland wrote and produced a video (also in 2012) that aired on Channel 4 (a British public TV channel) titled "Islam: The Untold Story" (which is available on on several Internet websites) that can be found on various putting forth the claims that:
1. There are no historical accounts of Muhammad having existed until 70 years after his alleged death,
2. There is no historical evidence that the Arab wars of expansion that began late in the supposed lifetime of Muhammad (and which eventually conquered all of Arabia, northern Africa, and southern Europe to Asia Minor) were either inspired by Islam or performed by followers of Islam,
3. That the modern of city of Mecca bears no resemblance (in either name or location) to the city from which Muhammad allegedly ascended, and
4. That the Quran went through several edits, eventually being re-tooled by power brokers who would use it to their own ends to control the Arab peoples.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Holland_(author)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islam:_The_Untold_Story
My Point #2 (above) refers to the earliest phase of the Muslims’ military campaigns of expansion. Later on Islam obviously became the driving force, but that isn’t how it started.
Thanks. Just ordered the book.
Thanks. Just ordered a copy.
I would also recommend after that to read
Tom Holland in the shadow of the sword
Mindy Belz they say we are infidels
Bill Warner a taste of isla,
Nabeel Qureishi no God but one: Allah or Jesus?
I think it wasn’t from the Arian heresy. Arianism consiJesus yo be that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who was begotten by God the Father in time ie that the Son of God did not always exist but was begotten within time by God the Father, therefore Jesus was not co-eternal with God the Father.
Arianism holds that the Son is distinct from the Father (and therefore subordinate to Him).
Islam seems to be from a mix of Gnosticism (they variously believe that Jesus either was replaced on the cross by another man (Simin of Cyrene) or was a phantom. Both are in the Quran;
And Arab converts to Judaism like Dhu Nuwas,Yūsuf Asʾar Yathʾar, a Jewish king of Yemen between 517 and 525–527 C.E., who came to renown on account of his persecutions of peoples of other religions, notably Christians, living in his kingdom.
And Arab paganism with the djinn (according to the Quran Satan is a Djinn not an angel, and djinn are made from fire, Angel’s from air and man from earth)
And Zoroastrianism especially Zurvanism with its stark good and evil contrasts.
To me it seems so likely that the Arab mercenaries fighting for the Sassanid and Byzantine empires in their 80 year war got tired of not getting paid, took over some parts and were astounded by how easy it was as the two empires were exhausted by the century long war and the justinian plague. They were some flavour of Ebionite ie Jewish Christians who then junked all of the Christ is God belief in the 8th century
Good points. You’re right it wasn’t Arianism itself, but Islam grew out of the same context that saw almost all the barbarians outside Roman control embrace unique interpretations of Christianity.
For the Visigoths and Vandals it is labelled as Arianism, for the Syrians Ebionism. For all of them it is a mix of local traditions and Christianity with non-trinitarism as a common denominator.
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