To Dhimmi, Wansbrough Crone Cook say Mohammed never existed

Submitted by Khalaf (United States), Feb 2, 2006 at 12:52

Dhimmi: I have read about Wansbrough , Crone and Cook's theories about Mohammed and islam and it's origins which they think are all fictions.

Their theory is that first the arab hordes acquired an empire in the same way mongol Genghis Khan and his hordes did later. Once the arabs had an empire , a coherent religion was required in order to hold that empire together and legitimize that rule. In a process that involved massive backreading of history, and in conformity to the available jewish and christian models, this meant they needed a revelation and a prophet whose life could serve as a model for moral conduct and a framework for the appearance of the revelation; hence the Quran, the Hadith and the Sira were contrived and conjoined over a period of a couple of centuries.
Basically they are saying that Mohammed never existed.

I have no problem with their theory . Although this scenario may make some sense and eliminate a few anamolies, but I personally think their theory is too far fetched..

I believe that Mohammed did exist and a lot of what siras and hadiths say about his life did happen ( except the miracles which appear to be later concocted). However I cannot deny that some manipulations may have taken place in the scriptures in the first two centuries afterwards.

Since Quran says almost in every chapter " Obey Allah and obey Messenger, Obeying Messenger is obeying Allah, if you love Allah obey Messenger, if you want paradise follow messenger"" and also says that he is your role model; his believers who were ready to die at his behest must be taking notes of every thing he said and did, why wouldnt they, it is but natural.
History says that Aban b Usman son of third caliph Usman wrote a history book (which did not survive but I am sure later historians and sura writers must have acquired it).

Urwa bin Zubayr was , prophet's first cousin and considered an authority on sira and early history of islam. He is referred to by Saad , Ishaq and Tabari repeatedly . He is also called a founder of Islamic history.

It shows that siras and hadiths had as much reliability as quran .

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