Again, from the da’wah list: a person was convinced of the doctrine of monotheism, but unsure of the prophethood of Muhammad (sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam). Here were some brief points I made:

1. Before he was given the Prophethood, Muhammad’s title given to him by his community was “Al-Ameen”, “The Trustworthy”. No one had ever known him to tell a lie. This shows his character before Islam.

2. When he received the Revelation, the Makkans, who had degenerated into paganism, did not know what to make of the Quran or his message. Some said he was insane, some that he was a magician, some that he was a poet. The fact was, what he brought was so unusual - and the Arabs at that time were famous for their oratory and eloquence. However, the people were undecided about which of these labels actually fit because not one of them fit him completely.

3. The Prophet’s message was: worship God alone. As it says in the Quran, it is not possible for a Prophet to come and say “Worship me”. Many of the false prophets you hear of simply end up calling people to elevate them until they try to claim godhood for themselves. The fact that Muhammad called for an end to polytheism and insisted on monotheism is in line with the message of all previous Prophets.

4. The Prophet risked his own life in battles against the polytheists, he lived an incredibly simple life, to the point that his Companions would often see that he had lines on his skin from sleeping on a straw mat or tie a stone on his stomach to ward off hunger pains or have his feet swell from the hours he stood in prayer. This is a sign of his sincerity.

5. In general, nowadays the character of the Prophet is severely attacked and this is quite natural for their are people who believe in other religions who don’t want people to be Muslim or see Islam spread (although it is the fastest growing religion in America and the world). Most of these attacks are culturally biased, such as that he had many wives, etc. To try to be more objective, simply reflect on the fact that the Makkans, who were at war with him and would have loved to destroy him, did not bring these petty ethnocentric complaints against him. That is because they shared a common culture and indeed much of the world (including the culture of the Old Testament, etc.) contained the very practices that people are feeling morally outraged over now. An honest person should not stoop to this level of egocentrism or hypocrisy in their evaluations.

6. To summarize, Muhammad is not someone one can clearly dismiss. To dismiss him, people use the belief that “He was a liar”. This is contradicted by obvious signs of his putting his own life and property on the line for the cause in which he clearly believed. So they end up saying, “Perhaps he was truthful that he believed he was a Prophet, yet he was deluded.” Again, there are many examples that would contradict this analysis - he was known to be clear and level-headed. The thing is, it is logical incoherency to claim he was both, yet people conveniently use one excuse to dismiss some of his actions and the other to dismiss other actions. Yet one cannot be both a liar (a deliberate fraud) and a deluded person (in the same issue) at the same time.

Obviously, these few points do not cover the whole scope of information on Muhammad peace be upon him, so feel free to search. But in the end, you should know that since this is a RELIGIOUS matter, it is most definitely a matter of faith and not an absolute science.  So it is left to your heart and its guidance, which is between you and God. As I am fond of saying, “The jury is always out” on some questions in life, and we must try our best to come to a decision so that we can begin living by it.

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