Prophet Mohamed

Many things have been written about Mohamed, the Arab prophet. There are many books written on various aspects of him. There is research done on him. We read judgments passed on the person, the personality and the things he has done. In the final analysis, if we are after the truth, all the things written about him have a limited value, because whatever is said or written is nothing but a narration based on hearsay. If you look up for his biography, following information is the standard formula: He was born in 570 AD. in Mecca; he was a successful merchant; his first revelation was in 610; he has moved to Medina in 622; he has returned to Mecca as a triumphant leader in 630 AD.; and he died in 632 AD. The extensive documentation on the Arab prophet is based on the Arabic written texts in the form of biographies, collections of prophet’s sayings and acts etc. You may say, there’s nothing wrong in that. There is something extremely wrong, because the earliest of these texts date from a time almost a century and a half after Mohamed’s death, which means that during this period only the word of mouth was working. Moreover we are told that the earlier sources on the prophet’s life story which do survive contradict the standard biography. These are the literary sources in Armenian, Greek, or Syriac, and the material remains such as papyri, inscriptions, and coins. Therefore his story could not be accepted as complete, detailed, and based on the objective truth, because what is presented or defended as the ‘truth and nothing but the truth’ about his life is again a narration based on another narration based on a hearsay etc. This is only natural. All the belief systems are identical in this sense. They create myths and legends to invent and present a central person, who in turn will guarantee their continuity. Therefore Spenta Mainyu is not in a position to give you the ‘truth’, instead he intends to present some notes out of that narrated literature on him.