Considering Islam

My advice would be, don't chose a religion like you chose breakfast cereals. It's not about which one you like, or which one your girlfriend is ok with. It's the one you think is true that you should pick.

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Lol, the life of the Prophet(saw) is too specific, detailed and extensive for it to just be hallucinations.

format_quote Originally Posted by Michael

mentioning pre-Islamic Arabian paganism and saying that hallucinations could have accounted for the visions of the Prophet (SAWS). I'm not sure if this is true. Has anyone here read the book?

yes but this ignores the fact that the Prophet sallallahi alaihi wasallaam had come with countless facts in the Quran, these accusations such as a hallucination or madman, i ask you then why is it that all the information is correct? quite a bizzarre chance for such a large quantity of information to hold 100% correct dont you think?

Also hallucinations normally cause people to act in a way which goes against morality etc, but the visions our prophet saw and received inspired him to act as the best man to ever walk on this planet, thus i say such visions can only be from Allah.

Hello Michael,

format_quote Originally Posted by Michael

However, I got a copy of Malise Ruthven's Islam in the World today, and it seems to have an anti-Islamic spirit, mentioning pre-Islamic Arabian paganism and saying that hallucinations could have accounted for the visions of the Prophet (SAWS). I'm not sure if this is true. Has anyone here read the book?

I have not read the book, although Malise Ruthven seems to be known for writing on "Islamist terrorism" and Jihad. He also appears to have been the first writer to use the term "Islamofascism" (in The Independent on 8 September 1990).



An important point needs to be borne in mind when reading Western writings on Islam. Islam has been the object of studies by 'orientalists', who are non-Muslim scholars that have achieved considerable repute as authorities on Islam. Over the last two centuries, they have published an extensive amount of literature on the subject. With regards to such people, it has been said that:

Nevertheless, however worthy their labours may have been, particularly in the historical and and philological fields, they have contributed little to a better understanding of the Muslim religion in the Christian or post-Christian milieu, simply because they have failed to arouse much interest outside their specialised academic circles. One is forced also to concede that Oriental studies in the West have not always been inspired by the purest spirit of scholarly impartiality, and it is hard to deny that some Islamicists and Arabists have worked with the clear intention of belittling Islam and its adherents. This tendency was particularly marked for obvious reasons in the heyday of the colonial empires, but it would be an exaggeration to claim that it has vanished without trace.

[written by the Swiss journalist and author, Roger Du Pasquier]

Furthermore:

As is the case with many things, being aware of the problem is half the battle. Once a sincere seeker of the Truth is aware of the long standing misunderstanding and hostility between Islam and the West and learns not to trust everything which they see in print authentic knowledge and information can be gained much more quickly. Certainly, not all Western writings on Islam have the same degree of bias they run the range from willful distortion to simple ignorance and there are even a few that could be classified as sincere efforts by non-Muslims to portray Islam in a positive light. However, even most of these works are plagued by seemingly unintentional errors, however minor, due to the author's lack of Islamic knowledge. In the spirit of fairness, it should be said that even some contemporary books on Islam by Muslim authors suffer from these same shortcomings, usually due to a lack of knowledge, heretical ideas and or depending on non-Muslim sources.

This having been said, it should come as no surprise that learning about Islam in the West especially when relying on works in European languages has never been an easy task. Just a couple of decades ago, an English speaking person who was interested in Islam, and wishing to limit their reading to works by Muslim authors, might have been limited to reading a translation of the Qur'an, a few translated hadeeth books and a few dozen pamphlet-sized essays. However, in the past several years the widespread availability of Islamic books written by believing and committed Muslims and the advent of the Internet have made obtaining authentic information on almost any aspect of Islam much easier. Today, hardly a week goes by that a new English translation of a classic Islamic work is not announced. Keeping this in mind, I would encourage the reader to consult books written by Muslim authors when trying to learn about Islam.

[Abu Iman Abd al-Rahman Robert Squires]

On the topic of the biography of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him), it is not a new subject amongst orientalists. They have studied it with a view to cast aspersion on the life of the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and discrediting his personality.

The coming of wahy (inspiration)to Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) is the central affair of his life. His claim to Prophethood and Messengership of Allah, the genuineness of the Qur'an as Allah's Words and status of Islam as a divinely communicated religion, all rest upon this affair. Naturally, therefore, the subject of wahy has received the orientalists' major attention and they have advanced a good deal of assumptions and theories about it. In general, the aim of all these theories and assumptions is to show, by one device or another, that the texts of the revelations making up the Qur'an were Muhammad's (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) own composition. The most that the professedly objective orientalists concede is that Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) might have been sincere in his conviction that he was inspired by God; nevertheless the texts he gave out as revelation were the products of his own mind and thought.

It is understandable that no Jew or Christian, nor, for that matter, a non-Muslim, could conscientiously admit that Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was God's Messenger and that the Qur'an is God's Words without sacrificing his conviction or without being sceptical about his own faith. What is special with the orientalists, however, is that they do not leave the matter there by simply denying divine origin for the Qur'an and divine commission for Muhammad (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him). They proceed further than that and endeavour to show, from the Islamic sources and texts, that that really is the case. And in so far as they do so, they in effect assume the role of missionaries of their own faiths and their writings degenerate in most cases into sophisticated anti-Islamic propaganda in the garb of historical research.

[Excerpted with slight modifications from Sirat Al-Nabi (pbuh) and the Orientalists by Muhammad Mohar Ali]

Orientalists purport various "explanations" to make sense of the authorship of the Qur'an, one of these revolving around the idea that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) was a madman. A number of fanciful descriptions have been suggested, such as his being an "epileptic" possessed by devils; having "trances", "fits", "ecstatic periods", "reveries of profound meditation", "swoons connected with morbid excitability of mental or physical constitution", suffering from "falling disease", "Hypochondriacal disease", being "lost in dreamy, pleasant thoughts" or a "hypnotic state" and perhaps a wild assortment of many others. Yet orientalists themselves have had to reject these claims as false, as mentioned from the same book as above:

The theory of epilepsy or of any such ailment cannot be sustained neither on historical nor on rational and medical grounds. It is evident from all the available accounts that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) possessed and retained till his death an uncommon physical and mental health and resourcefulness. Nor did he ever exhibit any sign of debility and degeneration of body and mind which, by the common verdict of past and present medical science, are the unavoidable effects of epilepsy and hysteria. Not that this fact is quite unknown to the protagonists of the insinuation.

Modern authors merely took these same ideas from the disbelievers of old, as Allah, Exalted be He, informs us in the Qur'an, (interpretation of the meaning):

Do they not reflect? There is no madness in their companion (Muhammad pbuh). He is but a plain warner.
[7:184]

Nay! he (Muhammad pbuh) has come with the truth (i.e. Allâh's Religion - Islâmic Monotheism and this Qur'ân) and he confirms the Messengers (before him who brought Allâh's religion - Islâmic Monotheism).
[37:36-37]


So this should give us some insight into the claims of Western writers within the appropriate context, where there is much misunderstanding, mistranslation and distortion of information, as well as inconsistency and reiteration of the same assumptions, theories and allegations with no supporting evidence. It further demonstrates the need to consult books written by Muslim authors when trying to learn about Islam, such as the following list of recommended reading:

Studying Islam - List of Resources


Regards.

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