[C] We're looking for MUHAMMAD in the WRONG DIRECTION!

We now move to Muhammad, the supposed prophet of Islam, and ask the question concerning whether he ever existed. According to Muslims, their “Muhammad” was the last and greatest prophet, who lived in Mecca between 570-622 AD, and died in Medina in 632 AD. He modeled ‘Islam’ as the paradigm for the world, and received the Qur’an as the ‘final’ revelation for everyone. Everything we need to know about him we can find in the Sira of “Ibn Hisham” (d. 833 AD), and in the Hadith of “Al Bukhari” (d. 870 AD). Unfortunately, these references are all in the 9th – 19th centuries, 200 -1200 years after the fact… So, can we find this “Muhammad” of Islam in the 7th century, or in the place he lived (the Hijaz)? Before looking we need to deal first with the name, or rather the word itself…“Muhammad” Is it “Muhammad” or is it simply “mhmd” (the 4 letters ‘mim’, ‘ha’, ‘mim’, ‘daal’)? In the 7th century or earlier, in Arabic, it would have been ‘mhmd’ because there were no vowels in Arabic that early, just 16 consonants. The vowels were only created and added in the 8th and the 9th centuries So, let's take out the 3 vowels, and just pronounce the word as it was in the 7th century, which would have been MHMD. Suddenly we find him everywhere in the 7th century, and even before! MHMD means “the praised one”, or “the blessed one”, or “the anointed one”, and even “the Messiah” later on.. Thus, it is not a name but a title! It was first used in Ugaritic in 1400 BC. Then it was used in Hebrew, in 1000 BC, and is found in the Bible 11 times. For instance, look at Song of Solomon 5:16 where ‘Machmad’ means “Altogether Lovely”, referring to Solomon. It was subsequently employed by Saint Ambrose in the 4th c. AD as a title for Jesus Christ, the Messiah, and from that time on every time we see it in Christian texts, it refers to Jesus. The “Jews” referred to the MHMD in a 523 AD inscription, and then attached it as a title for their Exilarchs (including 5 of them in the 7th century). So, by the 7th century, the Christians used MHMD to refer to the returning ‘Messiah’, while the Jews used MHMD to refer to the Messiah yet to come (i.e. used with all of the 5 Exilarchs). So, the MHMD was well known in that part of the world, and at that time, but it was not pronounced as “Muhammad”…that is how we now pronounce it today, and there lies the confusion. Knowing that, let’s now look at the coins to see where MHMD was first introduced… In the 7th century and earlier, a ruler minted coins to announce who he was, what religion he belonged to, and where the coin was minted. Oddly, all of the 7th century mints are located in the NORTH, while no coins are Islamic. Yet, according to every Islamic Tradition, the center of Islam; therefore, where all the 5 caliphs ruled from, was in Medina, in the Hijaz. Even more troubling, none of the coins from 630-661 AD name Muhammad, Abu Bakr, Umar, Uthman, or Ali, though they were the “Caliphs” then. Finally, with the reign of Muawiyah (661-680 AD), we find coins of someone we know well; yet his coins all have crosses on them, proving that he was a Christian! One coin minted in 663 AD even has the name MHMD written on it! but, how can there be the name ”Muhammad” on a coin with crosses? It was “MHMD”, and thus had to be Jesus, due to the crosses on the front. These coins suggest that ALL of the Umayyads were “Christians”, and that there was an internecine clash between different sects within Christianity, the Trinitarians vs anti-Trinitarians, with the latter establishing its own religion at the end of the Umayyad dynasty in opposition to Christianity (mid-8th century), which then morphed into the Islam of today during the initial 100 – 200 years of the Abbasid dynasty, in the 9th – 10th centuries. Even the earliest 7th century inscriptions show that it was only in the 730s onward that there is evidence of popular devotion to MHMD as a prophet and messenger, which makes the Islamic Traditions incredibly awkward. 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. The 4 references to Muhammad in the Qur'an all refer to the MHMD, not Muhammad, which is also the same on the 691 AD Dome of the Rock. If these references are not the prophet from Mecca at all, but possibly references to Jesus Christ, then Muslims cannot use the Qur'an or the Dome of the Rock to support their prophet's existence in the 7th century, and one of the foundational pillars of Islam begins to fall. In fact, all of the 7th - 8th century references to 'Muhammad' are all to MHMD, suggesting that they are all referring to the title "The Praised One", or Jesus Christ, and not to the Muslim prophet 'Muhammad'. That is why they are all found too far to the north, where the Islamic Muhammad never went. © Pfander Centre for Apologetics & Polemics - US, 2024 (109,450)