‘What do you think of Muhammad?’

I was sitting with several hundred Muslim men listening to them singing – a first for me. A friend had invited me to a Milad celebration at a local school. The Milad is the day on which many Muslims commemorate the birth of Muhammad. Not all Muslims approve, as some think that it borders on idolatry. However, the preacher was in full flow talking about miracles Muhammad is supposed to have done, how kind he was – apparently Muhammad even cut up his cloak rather than wake a sleeping cat – and how much his companions loved him. “Do you love the prophet?”, he asked the audience. There was a vague murmur. Clearly, he was not impressed with the response. “DO YOU LOVE THE PROPHET?”, he roared! “YES!” Hands waved all over the auditorium and the congregation broke out into quwwali, singing a song of praise to Muhammad. It had all the hallmarks and passion of a Pentecostal revival meeting!

This maybe helps to explain – although not to excuse – the reaction around the world when Muslims feel that their prophet has been publicly insulted. The offence caused by Salman Rushdie’s book, ‘The Satanic Verses’, resurfaced when Rushdie was attacked in New York by a Muslim in 2021. The 2005 Danish cartoons set off an even greater level of global anger resulting in riots and deaths, which peaked when the Charlie Hebdo offices were attacked by extremists in revenge for yet more cartoons in 2015. Feelings run deep and can spark extreme reactions in places as far afield as Afghanistan and Niger, often stoked by malicious rumours and extremist agendas.

So, against this sensitive backdrop, how do Christians respond and speak about Muhammad, the prophet of Islam?

A vexed question

Veteran Jesuit Qur’an scholar, Daniel Madigan, believes that ‘the question of Muhammad is without doubt the most avoided question in Muslim-Christian relations’.[1] The reason? Christians are well aware of how strong Muslim sentiment is. ‘Muhammad’s figure towers over Islam, not just as its founder, but as the “perfect man” … considered infallible, free from sin, and serves as the supreme example whom all Muslims are obliged to emulate’.[2]

Given such emotion and devotion, it is very important for Christians, and others, to consider carefully  their response to the question, ‘what do you think of Muhammad?’. These responses vary widely amongst Christians, ranging from those who revere him as a holy man, or even a type of prophet, through to those who see him as a charlatan or worse and denigrate him in the most extreme language. Some even suspect that he never existed at all.

A prophet?

Some professing Christians writing and thinking seriously about Islam have found themselves able to affirm Muhammad as a genuine prophet. For instance, Montgomery Watt (d.2006) was an ordained Anglican as well as a professor of Islamic Studies and wrote, ‘I consider that Muhammad was truly a prophet, and think that we Christians should admit this’.[3] The famous Roman Catholic theologian, Hans Küng (d.2021), believed something similar. He suggested that the ‘recognition of the title Prophet for Muhammad (would) have major positive consequences for an understanding between Christians and Muslims’.[4] Clinton Bennett, a Baptist minister and inter-faith practitioner, goes further and sees Jesus and Muhammad as two parallel sources of revelation. He observes that in Christianity Christ is "God made man" and in Islam "God's self-disclosure is a book", the Qur’an faithfully revealed by Muhammad.[5]

Confessional suicide

Of course, these sorts of statements are only possible if Jesus Christ is not seen as unique. So, for Christians who are pluralist in their theology, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is just one way amongst many others and Muhammad is just as valid as a source of revelation. For Christians concerned about the uniqueness of Jesus, this is not an option. They would label the above views as ‘liberal’ and feel that to recognise Muhammad as a prophet is to deny their own faith and the importance of the central Gospel tenets of incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection, all of which Muhammad seemingly denied. As Christian Troll, another Catholic theologian says, ‘Christians cannot recognize Muhammad as a prophet without thereby denying their own faith’.[6] Or as John Azumah, a Presbyterian minister and director of The Sanneh Institute, puts it, they would ‘commit confessional suicide’.[7] This, of course, is disappointing to Muslims, who often point out that they believe Jesus to be a prophet and don’t understand why Christians can’t return the compliment.

A messenger who started well?

So, there are Christians who try to work out a positive response which stops short of recognising Muhammad as a full prophet. For instance, Troll acknowledges that ‘Muhammad was sent by God to proclaim an essential aspect of the truth, namely the oneness and transcendence of God’.[8] This is reminiscent of a famous answer to the question given by Patriarch Timothy (d.823) of the Church of the East. Responding to the Muslim caliph, he was able to say that ‘Muhammad taught about God, His Word and His Spirit, and since all the prophets had prophesied about God, His Word and His Spirit, Muhammad walked, therefore, in the path of all the prophets’.[9] Martin Accad, a Lebanese theologian, suggests the possibility that Muhammad started out on that path well but then later ‘shifted course for utilitarian political purposes’.[10]

A well-intentioned reformer?

Even if they can’t go quite that far, other Christians attempt ‘to work out as positive and realistic an assessment of Muhammad as possible’.[11] According to Fouad Masri, a Lebanese pastor and author, this could include acknowledging that Muhammad ‘taught the worship of one God ... released the Arabs from paganism. … stopped the practice of infanticide … gave more rights to women ... taught that men and women are equal in the sight of God … and abolished idols and destroyed them’.[12] Others see Muhammad as an example of generosity and hospitality, as well as someone who was interested in and cared for creation.[13] The cat above may be an example of that! That said, these Christians also recognise Muhammad as a man of his time, engaged as he was in political alliances, military battles and dispensing justice.

Contrasting Jesus and Muhammad

Other Christians, however, do not find it easy to see any good in Muhammad. They see him in very negative light and often start by comparing – or rather contrasting – him with Jesus. An Orthodox writer believes that Jesus was ‘forgiving, a peacemaker, kind, magnanimous’, whereas Muhammad ‘was interested in earthly power, a legalistic worldly empire, many wives and concubines’ and killed his enemies rather than loved them.[14] Some contrast Jesus’ many miracles with Muhammad’s seeming lack of miracles, apart from his (supposed) reception of the Qur’an. Others contrast their teaching on different subjects from leadership to love. Finally, the point is made that in both traditions Jesus is believed to be still alive whilst Muhammad is dead.

Such writing has a very long history. In the 8th century, John of Damascus, an Arab Christian monk, labelled Muhammad a heretic and false prophet and derided him for making legal provision for polygamy and committing adultery.[15] In the 16th century, the Protestant reformer John Calvin described Muhammad as one of the ‘two horns of the anti-Christ’, the other being the Pope, who at that point in history was seen by the reformers as a heinous opponent of the Gospel. Martin Luther also referred to Muhammad as ‘blasphemous’ and supported Christendom waging war on the ‘Turks’, as Muslims were then called.[16] So it is maybe no surprise that this tradition lives on.

Morally questionable?

Consequently, there are some Christians who pour opprobrium on Muhammad and grossly insult him. In widely reported comments following 9/11, one American evangelical Christian leader claimed Muhammad was a terrorist[17] and another something even worse.[18] He is attacked for allowing Muslim men to marry up to four wives and for taking more himself (Q33:50). Coupled with Qur’anic descriptions of the young comely virgins with beautiful eyes (Q52:20, Q55:56), called houris, awaiting believing men in paradise, this suggests to some Christians that Muhammad had a heightened sexual appetite. He is particularly criticised for his betrothal and later marriage to the child bride Aisha.[19] Such accusations are obviously upsetting and offensive to Muslims, some of whom have their own explanations of Muhammad’s life and actions.

Another major area of criticism is Muhammad’s involvement in warfare and battles. Many Christian writers see a ‘trajectory of violence’ in Muhammad’s life and revelations whereby his earlier life in Mecca was peaceable but his later life in Medina was characterised by warfare.[20] For them, this culminated in his later treatment of the Jewish tribe of Banu Qurayza, which broke a treaty with Muhammad. Depending on the account, Muhammad either sanctioned the beheading of several hundred men or took part in the executions himself.[21]

Of course, discussing such issues can be very sensitive and has even raised questions regarding freedom of speech. Obviously, serious discussion based on historical accounts and the Muslim narrative itself should not be proscribed. However, neither should inflammatory language be used that might result in religious hatred. There is clearly a fine – and controversial – line there.

Did Muhammad even exist?!

However, whilst the polemicists above use the traditional Muslim biography of Muhammad to attack Islam, other Christians take a rather different approach. Using the work of various academic historians, sometimes called revisionists, they question whether a man called Muhammad ever existed at all and seek to undermine the Muslim historical narrative.[22] Theories include that: there are no historical records of a city called Mecca before the mid-8th century; Islam was a religious system created after the Arab expansion for the purposes of empire building; the original qibla (direction of prayer) found in some archaeological ruins was towards Petra in modern-day Jordan rather than towards Jerusalem and then later Mecca as in the Muslim account; coins with Islamic inscriptions do not appear until much later suggesting a later start date for Islam; and even that there are no written records from the 7th century of someone called Muhammad outside of the later Islamic records.[23] As well-known debater Jay Smith says, ‘the Islam practiced today is nothing more than an Abbasid (i.e. 8th century) creation, redacted back to the 7th century, proving that (Muslims) have the wrong book, the wrong man, and the wrong place!’[24]

Conclusion

The question of Muhammad’s identity is a particularly difficult one for Christians who want to affirm the uniqueness of Jesus. After all, whilst Muhammad’s recorded respect for Jesus is well-known, he did not accept Jesus’ divinity, incarnation, death or resurrection and saw himself as the final, ‘seal of the prophets’. So, for Christians, to affirm too much about Muhammad can be tantamount to denying their own faith. However, to affirm too little – or indeed insulting too greatly – risks giving offence to Muslims. After international episodes like those described in the introduction, Christians for the most part are fully aware of how central and important the person of Muhammad is to Muslims. So, it is not surprising if some Christians are reticent to engage in discussion about him.

[1] Daniel Madigan ‘Jesus and Muhammad: the sufficiency of prophecy’ in Ipgrave, Michael (ed.). 2005. Bearing the Word: Prophecy in Biblical and Qur'anic Perspective. London: Church House Publishing, 90.

[2] Patrick Sookhdeo. 2009. The Challenge of Islam to the Church and Its Mission, McLean, VA, Isaac Publishing, 19.

[3] Montgomery Watt. 1988. Muhammad's Mecca: history in the Qurʼān. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1 quoted in Clinton Bennett. 1998. In Search of Muhammad. London: Cassell, 130.

[4] Hans Küng. 2007. Islam: past, present and future, Oxford, Oneworld, 123.

[5] Clinton Bennett. 1998. In Search of Muhammad, London, Cassell, 226.

[6] Christian Troll quoted in David Marshall. 2013. ‘Muhammad in Contemporary Christian Theological Reflection’. Islam and Christian–Muslim Relations, 24, 161-172, 167.

[7] John Azumah. 2008. My Neighbour's Faith: Islam Explained for African Christians. Hippo Books,  146.

[8] Christian Troll. 2005. Muslims Ask, Christians Answer India, K.T Mathew, 41.

[9] http://www.tertullian.org/fathers/timothy_i_apology_01_text.htm.

[10] Martin Accad. 2020. The Quest for the Historical Muhammad. In: Martin Accad & Jonathan Andrews (eds.) The Religious Other: a biblical understanding of Islam, the Qur’an and Muhammad. Carlisle: Langham, 301.

[11] Ida Glaser. 2000. ‘Theological Questions: an Agenda for Study’. Transformation. 17(1): 44-48, 47.

[12] Fouad Masri. 2014. Connecting with Muslims: a guide to communicating effectively, Downers Grove, IL, Inter-Varsity Press, 96-97.

[13] Eveleyne Reisacher. 2016. Joyful Witness in the Muslim World: sharing the gospel in everyday encounters. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 95 & 126.

[14] http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/islam_definitivereply.aspx

[15] Fount of Knowledge, part two entitled ‘Heresies in Epitome: How They Began and Whence They Drew Their Origin’, http://orthodoxinfo.com/general/stjohn_islam.aspx.

[16] Luther’s ‘Appeal for Prayer against the Turks’ in The Works of Martin Luther Volume 43: Devotional Writings, Volume Two, 238. He is wrote a treatise ‘On War Against the Turk’

[17] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/falwell-brands-mohammed-a-terrorist

[18] https://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/15/us/baptist-pastor-attacks-islam-inciting-cries-of-intolerance.html

[19] There is much debate amongst Muslims over Aisha’s age at betrothal and consummation of the marriage.

[20] See for instance, Peter Cotterell. 2011. Muhammad: The man who transformed Arabia. Brunswick East, Victoria, Australia, Acorn Press, 161.

[21] Alfred Guillaume. Life of Muhammad, 463-5, and Sahih al-Bukhari, Vol. 5, Book 59, Hadith 447.

[22] For the historical revisionist argument see Holland, Tom. 2012. In the Shadow of the Sword: the battle for global empire and the end of the ancient world. London, Little, Brown.

[23] See for example the videos produced by Pfander Films at www.youtube.com/c/pfanderfilms. Many Islamic studies specialists now tend to reject these revisionist views and give more credence to the traditional narrative.

[24] Jay Smith. 2020. '5) Quest: Where in the 7th Century is that elusive Islam?', Pfander Films. Text taken from the YouTube webpage summary.