IU professor: Who was the Prophet Muhammad really? (2024)

He was a husband, a businessman, a grandfather, a warrior, a judge, a politician, and a religious leader.

For many of the 1.8 billion Muslims around the world, Muhammad ibn Abdullah (died,632 CE) is also the human being most worthy of respect, love and imitation. God chose him among all human beings to receive the Qur’an, God’s Word. They mention him in their prayers, religious songs, poetry and every day speech. He is like a member of their family.

Muslims regard Muhammad as a figure of many virtues, including patience, wisdom, courage, moderation, mercy, sincerity, generosity, frugality, humor and humility.

But many non-Muslim Americans and even a few Muslim Americans find aspects of his life story disturbing, even repugnant.

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Criticism of Muhammad can be dated to the era of the Crusades when Muhammad’s image became a victim of a propaganda war waged between some Christians and Muslims.

Much of it is also the product of anachronism, that is, of judging Muhammad, a figure of the late ancient world, by modern American standards.

Because he ruled a state, Muhammad is a religious figure much more akin to the Hebrew Bible’s King David than he is to Jesus or Buddha.

Muhammad’s story parallels that of many other ancient heroes and Middle Eastern religious figures: he was an orphan, and when he received his first revelations, he was filled with self-doubt. But he overcame those deficits because God had called him to be a prophet.

For over two decades he was married to one woman, Khadija, the Mother of the Believers. But like King David, he eventually married several women, perhaps as many as 13.

One of them was the 10-year old Aisha, a fact that leads modern critics of Muhammad to label him a child-molester.

But traditional Muslim scholars never felt the need to cover up or explain Muhammad’s marriage to Aisha because, by the standards of his day, he was marrying a woman, not a girl. Many marriages recounted in the Bible and the Qur’an, including that of Mary, mother of Jesus, would be illegal in contemporary America. Life was different in the ancient Middle East.

Like King David, Muhammad was also a military man. Modern critics sometimes accuse Muhammad of murder since he ordered the deaths of pagan and Jewish tribes who broke their agreements. By the standards of the day, this was not murder — it was warfare.

Attempting to understand Muhammad in his historical context is important, but to understand why Muhammad is loved by over a billion people, it is not enough.

To understand the Muhammad of Islamic faith we have to ask why Muslims have respected him, honored him, and sought to learn from him.

What he said and did is, after the Qur’an, the second source of the Shari‘a, the Islamic path to salvation. Muslims learn how to pray, when to fast, and even how to eat and dress based on his example and teaching.

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Every day, as they prostrate their bodies to Mecca, observant Muslims say, “Peace be upon you, oh Prophet, and the mercy and blessing of God.”

Muslims who seek a close, personal relationship with God view Muhammad as the example of how to do so. They recite his name as they meditate, chant, and sometimes sing and dance. They may celebrate his birthday.

Though the practice isn’t popular in the United States, Muslim overseas have often sought Muhammad’s intercession with God when they face an intractable problem. Visiting the tombs of his family members or of those spiritual masters who follow in his path is a traditional form of sacred pilgrimage for many, if not most Muslims.

When contemporary Muslim Americans embrace their prophet as an example of how to live an ethical life, they do not wish to return to the seventh century’s cultural norms. And they are often critical of medieval Islamic traditions that they say do not follow the Prophet’s example.

Their Muhammad is such a different figure than the one conjured by his critics.

In addition to teaching them how to perform Islamic religious rituals, the Prophet provides an example of how to raise children by using both discipline and humor. He is seen as a supporter of marriages that are loving, equal and sexually satisfying. He is a model of how to conduct oneself in business and in public.

Muslim Americans also evoke the Prophet Muhammad’s example as they seek to contribute to U.S. society through philanthropic engagement, community building and interfaith partnerships.

For those non-Muslims who wish to be in dialogue with their Muslim neighbors, coming to know how Muslims themselves think about Muhammad is a necessary step. Searching for who Muhammad really was — that is, research on the historical Muhammad — will continue, as it should. But learning about the Muhammad of Islamic faith is probably more important to fostering a community where people at the very least listen to each other across their religious differences.

Edward E. Curtis IV is Millennium Chair of the Liberal Arts at IUPUI. He is holding a community competition to reduce Islamophobia.