Can some of the muslim posters please tell us more about Mohammed the historical figure and exactly what makes him so special for you as a prophet. Do you think the way he led his life was a good example that today's muslims should try to follow in all aspects? Thanks in advance.
I must admit that before this whole cartoon drawing thing, I haven't really spent much time reading up on the guy. But some people want to go as far as killing others because someone would draw a cartoon of him. So I was curious and read up a bit on him. But it would be more interesting to hear from those who have spent more time studying his life and why he would be a role model for them before I would make my own comments on what I have read or would ask more specific questions.
Now why would you want to support him? Aren't you suppose to be the real prophet? Hi Guise can I play?
It is an opportunity to present the view of their prophet to someone who does not share their faith. I am willing to listen. Perhaps it will be an interesting discussion.
Oddly, I'm as interested as ATW to hear the thoughts of conventional Muslims about it. Personally, I am part of the crew that think every non-Quranic text relating to Islam is either: 1) Corrupted by mistake. 2) Corrupted intentionally. 3) Corrupted by his enemies as a direct attack on the Prophet PBUH. An indication of the accuracy of these texts: the most witnessed event in the Hadith is the Prophet's farewell sermon on his deathbed. His words are not agreed even within the Sunni texts, nevermind the Shiite, Sufi, Bahai, Ahmadia, etc. texts. Most believe the sermon is actually the exact point in history where almost all the different sects of Islam were created. If this text, the most popular by far, could not be agreed upon, then IMO it does not bode well for the rest of the Hadith books. FYI, quick lesson: - Hadith are the sayings/actions of the Prophet. - Hadith books are the written form of those sayings/actions. - Two gentlemen, Al Bukhari and Al Muslim, are the publishers and "collectors" of the two main Hadith books which are considered accurate or "Sahih". They basically spent their lives searching for Hadith, writing them down and verifying them. - When you hear about Sharia law, it is mostly (I'd say 75%) derived from Hadith books. Oh, and essentially by not accepting these books, I am considered an infidel by extremists. Because the books say so. These books are the Sunni Hadith books. The other sects have different books and, in them, different texts. I don't know much about them, but they are 90% similar. I'm telling you this because these would be the sources used to describe him and you should be aware of the credibility of those sources. have fun!
Thank you Mathloom. I will admit that I am still a bit lost with regard to all those different books. If I remember correctly, you said that Hadith is inaccurate?
I personally believe it's full of errors. I don't believe the publishers or "collectors" intended any harm. Their intention was to collect what was said at the time and put it on paper in one place. I believe if they were alive today they would be mortified to find that their books constitute 75% of God's law in the Muslim world. Their intention was scientific. Just collect, and filter out the ones that do not have decent verification. That's why you'll find that, for example, in the Bukhari collection there will be hadiths that directly contradict each other. Because he could not find a fault with the source of either one of the contradictory hadiths, so both could not be excluded. Furthermore, he showed that he meant for this to be further verified/cleaned up by putting down the name of each person who recited the hadith going all the way back to the Prophet. That's why you'll find they are structured like: "Mathloom said AroundTheWorld said MadMax said Refman said the Prophet PBUH said: ..." A biography of every hadith "chain of narrators" is found as an appendix to each book. Bukhari's hadith collection, which is considered by most Sunni Muslims to be completely accurate, constitutes less than 10% of the hadiths he collected, i.e., he filtered out over 90% of what he collected as "inaccurate" and those ones are also placed in his "forged hadiths" book. It's commonplace on internet websites to take passages from the forged hadith books and quote them as sayings of the Prophet PBUH. It's difficult for a non-Muslim (and even some Muslims) to be able to notice things like that.
Mathloom, do you think Mohammed was/is infallible? Do you consider him and the life he lived a role model that you should follow in all aspects?
Mathloom, correct me if I'm wrong (I'm not muslim/do not practice Islam), but I believe the objection to depictions of Muhammad come from anything that could possibly violate the concept of tawhid, or oneness with god. Those who object to the depictions of Muhammad believe the depictions could lead to individuals idolizing Muhammad, which then destroys the concept of tawhid.
