Seeing Muhammad as Both a Prophet and a Politician

obmar · Seeing Muhammad as Both a Prophet and a Politician

Seeing Muhammad as Both a Prophet and a Politician
By LAURIE GOODSTEIN
Published: December 20, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/20/books/20goods.html

The religion with the most adherents on the planet is
Christianity, and few people would say they are
unfamiliar with the story of its founder and prophet,
Jesus. The second largest faith is Islam, and yet
there is boundless ignorance among non-Muslims about
the story of its founder and prophet, Muhammad, even
after 9/11 set off a global panic about whether Islam
fuels terrorism.

Since then Muhammad has been defined by his
detractors: who have called him a terrorist, a lunatic
and most colorfully — by the Rev. Jerry Vines, former
president of the Southern Baptist Convention — a
“demon-possessed pedophile.” Even Pope Benedict XVI,
whatever his intention, created an uproar by
unearthing a remark from a 14th-century emperor who
cited Muhammad’s contributions to religion as “only
evil and inhuman.” Is this the prophet of the world’s
1.3 billion Muslims?

It may be time then to put down the biographies of
John Adams and Ronald Reagan and devote a little
attention to Muhammad. But beware. Several new
biographies picture Muhammad through the lens of a
suicide bomber, and ultimately these books reveal more
about suicide bombers than Muhammad.

To glimpse how the vast majority of the world’s
Muslims understand their prophet and their faith,
Karen Armstrong’s short biography is a good place to
start. The volume is part of a series called “Eminent
Lives”: small profiles of big-name subjects by
big-name authors.

Ms. Armstrong, best known for “A History of God,” is a
scholar and a former nun with a genius for presenting
religions as products of temporal forces — like
geography, culture and economics — without minimizing
the workings of transcendent spiritual forces.

She profiles Muhammad as both a mystic touched by God
on a mountaintop and a canny political and social
reformer. He preached loyalty to God rather than
tribe; reconciliation rather than retaliation; care
for orphans and the poor; and in many ways,
empowerment of women, which will be a surprise to
some. The Koran gave women property rights and freed
orphans from the obligation to marry their guardians:
radical changes at a time when women were traded like
camels.

Ms. Armstrong writes: “His life was a tireless
campaign against greed, injustice and arrogance. He
realized that Arabia was at a turning point and that
the old way of thinking would no longer suffice, so he
wore himself out in the creative effort to evolve an
entirely new solution.” In a nod to her subtitle, “A
Prophet for Our Time,” she argues that as of Sept. 11,
2001, we have entered a new historical era that
requires an equally thorough re-evaluation.

This notion that we have entered a new era was one of
the reasons that Ms. Armstrong decided to revisit a
subject she had already covered in 1992 with
“Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet.”

Muhammad (570-632) was born in a nouveau riche Mecca.
Unlike most Arabs, the Meccans were not nomads but
traders and financiers who profited from the caravans
that stopped in Mecca for water from its underground
spring. The site was holy to the Bedouin because it
housed the Kabah, a cube-shaped granite building that
was tended by Muhammad’s tribe, the Quraysh.

Muhammad was orphaned as a child and taken in by
relatives, but his fortunes changed at the age of 25
when he married Khadija, an older widow who hired him
to manage her caravans. At 40 Muhammad declared he had
been seized by a terrifying force and commanded by God
to recite scripture.

Khadija was his first convert. At first he shared his
revelations with a small group of friends and family
members, who became his disciples, “convinced that he
was the long-awaited Arab prophet.” As Muhammad, who
was illiterate, recited new passages, believers wrote
them down: a compilation that became the Koran.

The Meccans were offended by Muhammad’s preaching that
the ideal was submission. (Islam means submission.) He
taught that the proper way to pray was to bow,
forehead to the earth, “a posture that would be
repugnant to the haughty Quraysh,” Ms. Armstrong
notes. Muhammad also insisted that the Meccans abandon
the worship of their three stone goddesses, because
there was only one God, Allah.

Muhammad and his followers were exiled to Medina, 250
miles north of Mecca. He did not conquer Medina so
much as form alliances and win converts. But there
were epic battles with the Quraysh and other tribes,
and Muhammad was a fighter and tactician.

“Muhammad was not a pacifist,” Ms. Armstrong writes.
“He believed that warfare was sometimes inevitable and
even necessary.”

This is why some passages in the Koran are rules for
warfare. Terrorist groups cite these selectively — or
contort or violate them. The Koran says not to take
aim at civilians; some terrorist groups declare all
Israelis to be combatants because Israelis are
required to perform military service.

Ms. Armstrong declines to stand in judgment of events
that have scandalized other biographers; as when
Muhammad falls for the wife of his adopted adult son
and takes her as his fifth wife. Ms. Armstrong writes:
“This story has shocked some of Muhammad’s Western
critics who are used to more ascetic, Christian
heroes, but the Muslim sources seem to find nothing
untoward in this demonstration of their prophet’s
virility. Nor are they disturbed that Muhammad had
more than four wives: why should God not give his
prophet a few privileges?”

Muhammad ultimately took back Mecca and reclaimed the
Kabah, still the destination for the Muslim
pilgrimage. Ms. Armstrong argues that he prevailed by
compassion, wisdom and steadfast submission to God.
This is the power of his story and the reason that
more parents around the world name their children
Muhammad than any other name.