#40: Jay DECIMATES Islam's ORIGINS using COINS & ROCKS!

We've proven that almost everything we know about Muhammad and the origins of Islam was not written down until 200 - 300 years after the fact, which suggests that it simply cannot be trusted historically. Let's therefore go back to the 7th century when all of these events supposedly took place, and look at some hard evidence from that century. The best and hardest evidence we can find are coins and rocks from the 7th century. You can't get any harder material then those two, since they don't disintegrate, nor deteriorate. So, let's find out what they tell us about who Muhammad was, and how Islam really began. We are told in the Islamic Traditions that everything which happened did so in Mecca and Medina, as that is where the Muslim Caliphs (i.e. Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman and Ali) lived and ruled, from 624 - 661 AD. Therefore, that should be the place where the coins for each of their Caliphates should have been minted. Yet, when we go to the 7th century, we find that there are no mints in that part of the world at all, certainly not that far south. In fact, all the mints are situated much further north, in the cities and towns of Tartus, Hims, Ba'albek, Dimashq, Abila, Jerash, Amman, Tabariya, Baysan, Yubna, and Illya, located in what is currently Syria, Jordan and Lebanon. The other mints are to the east, in the cities of Susa, Dasht, Bishapur, Istakhr, Darabjird, Arrajan, Tanbuk, Kazerun, Ardashir Khurra, and Kavad Khurra, located in what is currently Iraq and Iran. All of these mints would have been under the authority of any Arab leader or Caliph in the 7th century, including any Muslim Caliphs, yet none of these mints were in the Hejaz (in Central Western Arabia, where Mecca and Medina are located). Instead, they were all situated too far North. Why, because that is where the water is, and where the people were who would have used the coins. When we look at the Arab coins from that area and from that time we find a number of curiosities: -All the early 7th century coins show a clear Christian identity on both sides of the coin in the West, or a Zoroastrian identity in the East. • Between 624 – 660 AD: Early Islamic coins just don’t exist. Yet this is odd, since we're told that the Muslims controlled so much of the land & the mints in Syria & Iran (North). • Between 640 – 660 AD: The Arab Proxy states in that area all seem to be Christian, and certainly NOT Islamic during this “Rushidun Period”. • Between 661 – 680 AD: Mu’awiya, the first Muslim 'Umayyad' Caliph was a Christian, as his coins all have Christian symbols (in the West), and Zoroastrian symbols (in the East). For instance one coin shows Mu'awiya holding a cross with the title MHMD (the praised one) on the reverse side! • Between 692 – 693 AD: abd al-Malik introduce the 'Shahada' with Muhammad as the 'Praised One'. Could this be the 1st Islamic coin, or is the ‘praised one’ referring to Jesus? • Between 693 – 696 AD: Justinian II attacks and is defeated by abd al-Malik, who then adds his image, with the Shahada, either to confront the Byzantines, or claim Messiah-ship himself. • Between 696 – 705 AD: The Arabic script on the coin includes the Shahada along with ‘no associates’, while attacking Jesus’ divinity, John 3:16 about God having no sons, and stating Islam’s superiority. Note: While Allah’s name is introduced early on these 7th c. coins (it’s Nabataean and Arabic for ‘God’), Muhammad’s is not Doesn’t the numismatic evidence support the archaeological and documentary evidence? Doesn’t this suggest, therefore, that Islam was not introduced by Muhammad, but possibly by Abd al-Malik? These 7th c. Coins confront the traditional 9th-10th c. Islamic Narrative When we look at the Rock Inscriptions we find the same problems: • The 7th century inscriptions are all in the north, and the south, but not in Central Arabia. • A few begin to appear in the Hijaz in the 8th century, and later • The scholar Lindstedt looked at 100 Rock Inscriptions between 640 – 740 AD and found: -Prior to 690 there was no evidence of anything Islamic on the Inscriptions. Except for formulae, everything comes after 690 -690 – 710 the name of the Prophet Muhammad appears -710 – 720 Muslim rites appear (i.e. Prayers and Fasts) -720 - 730 The names ‘Muslim’ & ‘Islam' appear and refer to a specific group, in contradistinction to Christianity Thus, it was only in the 730s onward that there is evidence of a popular devotion to Muhammad as a  prophet and messenger, which makes the Islamic Traditions incredibly awkward. Furthermore, there is a 100-year silence prior to this that indicates that Islam did not exist as a distinct religion until long after the time of Muhammad, which casts doubt on whether he had any part in starting Islam. So, what then happened in the 7th century...stay tuned to find out! © Pfander Centre for Apologetics - US, August 6, 2023 (83,700) Music: 'Joy at Work' by Musiclfiles - from Filmmusic-io-Bought 2022-04-28