[Reader-list] "It's Likely the Prophet Muhammad Never Existed" - A Theory

[inder salim]

Dear Shuddha

what a wonderful way of writing on a most delicate subject as this. i
am really delighted.

i dont know to where i read, but may be you know
that the exact sound to utter ALLAH has become extinct.

thanks once again

love
is



On Sun, Nov 16, 2008 at 10:49 PM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
<shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
> Dear Kshmendra,
>
> Thank you for posting this interesting article. While the Prophet
> Muhammad's life and career as a religious teacher is very well
> documented, I would not dismiss the work of Prof. Kalisch off hand.
> Even if I did not agree with him. And I do not disbelieve that he is
> a pious Muslim either. Religious faith (or the lack thereof) is a
> matter of inner conviction, not of outer demonstration.
>
> I know that I am stepping into delicate territory, but the standards
> of textual and historical criticism of biographical sources on which
> the 'faith' in the events that constitute the career of the prophet
> we have come to know as Muhammad are not exactly watertight. What
> emerges from the mist of a cluster of narratives are the details of
> the life of an exemplary, deeply human, and humane person, who is
> given the name Muhammad. I have been enriched by reading several
> biographical narratives of this life and career, but have always come
> away with the feeling that what we know about what lies behind the
> biography pales in comparison to what we do not know, and may never
> know.
>
> But whether that person (the one millions revere as the prophet
> Muhammad) is one person, or, whether the events, details and
> attributes are a portmanteau collection of the details of several
> similar people, or ,whether they are in the nature of 'lived' desires
> and projections, all of these remain an open question to me. Further,
> we can also ask whether the record as it exists papers over and
> actually simplifies a far more complex and rich life.I choose the
> version that give me a deeply spiritual man of the world, a fair,
> balanced, reasonable man, often torn by doubt, a full blooded man who
> was kind, just and delighted in the company of men, women and
> children. A man who never denied, like many other religious figures
> did, the coursing of desire in our bodies, but always asked how best
> to harness desire so that it fulfills rather than erodes our capacity
> to live well. Who preached peace and fought a good fight, when all
> else failed. I say this as a non-muslim, even as an unbeliever. But
> this image of a life, does not become any less important for me, if
> it is proven that it does not add up to the life of an acutal person.
> I may believe it does, but supposing it did not, the lessons of the
> narrative would still remain vital and urgent, for believer as well,
> I believe, for the non-believer.
>
> There are large gaps, inconsistencies and frayed edges in this
> record. And it is possible in some ways to have many different, and
> not always internally consistent versions of the prophets life,
> actions and career.
>
> The same is true if we speak of figures like Jesus, or Moses, or
> indeed the Buddha. This should not lead us to hold these
> 'biographies' in any disdain. Just to acknowledge the limits of our
> own understanding especially when dealing with threads of narrative
> that have in some instances grown fragile with time. I have often
> wondered how we can reconcile the free spirited Krishna of the
> Vrindavan and Mathura years, whom I love, with the wily strategist of
> the Mahabharata (whom I am ambivalent about) are there two, three,
> many Krishnas? Is Krishna a richly imagined and wondrous place-holder
> for all manner of conduct and speculations, ranging from the bower to
> the battlefield. These are questions that I believe, should not be
> thrown away and dismissed. Sometimes they can be engaging and rewarding.
>
> The field of textual and hermeneutic criticism in Islamic studies,
> long dormant, is just beginning to open up, and what it needs most of
> all is debate, discussion and research. As someone with an active
> interest in the study of Islamic history, I can state that the
> greatest obstacle has been contemporary Islamic orthodoxy's disregard
> for (and tuning its back on) the high standards of criticism,
> interpretative skill and analytical rigour that were the hall mark of
> debates in Islamic theological hermeneutics and exegesis in early
> medieval times.
>
> Maybe Prof. Kalisch's work can serve as a provocation to get people
> in Islamic studies more determinedly back on the track of useful
> research and investigation, even if in order to disprove his
> propositions. Whatever the case may be, I think these are questions
> that have to be pursued with reason and debate and research, not with
> calls to attack on the tired basis of 'injured' religious sentiments.
>
>  I condemn any attack on the work and academic liberty of Prof.
> Kalisch, no matter which quarter it comes from.
>
> regards
>
> Shuddha
>
>
> On 16-Nov-08, at 7:13 PM, Kshmendra Kaul wrote:
>
>> This is absolutely the most bizzare thing I have read in a very
>> long time. If it were not the WSJ carrying this article, I would
>> have laughed it off as yet another prank or cheap gutter propaganda.
>>
>> It is akin to hearing someone say that "Man did not land on the
>> Moon" or "The Twin Towers were brought down on 9/11 by the USA
>> itself".
>>
>> Kshmendra
>>
>>
>> NOVEMBER 15, 2008
>> "Professor Hired for Outreach to Muslims Delivers a Jolt"
>> "Islamic Theologian's Theory: It's Likely the Prophet Muhammad
>> Never Existed"
>> By ANDREW HIGGINS
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122669909279629451.html#printMode
>>
>> MÜNSTER, Germany -- Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a Muslim convert and
>> Germany's first professor of Islamic theology, fasts during the
>> Muslim holy month, doesn't like to shake hands with Muslim women
>> and has spent years studying Islamic scripture. Islam, he says,
>> guides his life.
>>
>> So it came as something of a surprise when Prof. Kalisch announced
>> the fruit of his theological research. His conclusion: The Prophet
>> Muhammad probably never existed.
>>
>>
>> Muslims, not surprisingly, are outraged. Even Danish cartoonists
>> who triggered global protests a couple of years ago didn't portray
>> the Prophet as fictional. German police, worried about a violent
>> backlash, told the professor to move his religious-studies center
>> to more-secure premises.
>> "We had no idea he would have ideas like this," says Thomas Bauer,
>> a fellow academic at Münster University who sat on a committee that
>> appointed Prof. Kalisch. "I'm a more orthodox Muslim than he is,
>> and I'm not a Muslim."
>>
>> When Prof. Kalisch took up his theology chair four years ago, he
>> was seen as proof that modern Western scholarship and Islamic ways
>> can mingle -- and counter the influence of radical preachers in
>> Germany. He was put in charge of a new program at Münster, one of
>> Germany's oldest and most respected universities, to train teachers
>> in state schools to teach Muslim pupils about their faith.
>>
>> Muslim leaders cheered and joined an advisory board at his Center
>> for Religious Studies. Politicians hailed the appointment as a sign
>> of Germany's readiness to absorb some three million Muslims into
>> mainstream society. But, says Andreas Pinkwart, a minister
>> responsible for higher education in this north German region, "the
>> results are disappointing."
>>
>> Prof. Kalisch, who insists he's still a Muslim, says he knew he
>> would get in trouble but wanted to subject Islam to the same
>> scrutiny as Christianity and Judaism. German scholars of the 19th
>> century, he notes, were among the first to raise questions about
>> the historical accuracy of the Bible.
>>
>> Many scholars of Islam question the accuracy of ancient sources on
>> Muhammad's life. The earliest biography, of which no copies
>> survive, dated from roughly a century after the generally accepted
>> year of his death, 632, and is known only by references to it in
>> much later texts. But only a few scholars have doubted Muhammad's
>> existence. Most say his life is better documented than that of Jesus.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Of course Muhammad existed," says Tilman Nagel, a scholar in
>> Göttingen and author of a new book, "Muhammad: Life and Legend."
>> The Prophet differed from the flawless figure of Islamic tradition,
>> Prof. Nagel says, but "it is quite astonishing to say that
>> thousands and thousands of pages about him were all forged" and
>> there was no such person.
>>
>> All the same, Prof. Nagel has signed a petition in support of Prof.
>> Kalisch, who has faced blistering criticism from Muslim groups and
>> some secular German academics. "We are in Europe," Prof. Nagel
>> says. "Education is about thinking, not just learning by heart."
>> Prof. Kalisch's religious studies center recently removed a sign
>> and erased its address from its Web site. The professor, a burly 42-
>> year-old, says he has received no specific threats but has been
>> denounced as apostate, a capital offense in some readings of Islam.
>> "Maybe people are speculating that some idiot will come and cut off
>> my head," he said during an interview in his study.
>>
>> A few minutes later, an assistant arrived in a panic to say a
>> suspicious-looking digital clock had been found lying in the
>> hallway. Police, called to the scene, declared the clock harmless.
>>
>> A convert to Islam at age 15, Prof. Kalisch says he was drawn to
>> the faith because it seemed more rational than others. He embraced
>> a branch of Shiite Islam noted for its skeptical bent. After
>> working briefly as a lawyer, he began work in 2001 on a
>> postdoctoral thesis in Islamic law in Hamburg, to go through the
>> elaborate process required to become a professor in Germany.
>>
>> The Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S. that year appalled Mr. Kalisch but
>> didn't dent his devotion. Indeed, after he arrived at Münster
>> University in 2004, he struck some as too conservative. Sami
>> Alrabaa, a scholar at a nearby college, recalls attending a lecture
>> by Prof. Kalisch and being upset by his doctrinaire defense of
>> Islamic law, known as Sharia.
>> In private, he was moving in a different direction. He devoured
>> works questioning the existence of Abraham, Moses and Jesus. Then
>> "I said to myself: You've dealt with Christianity and Judaism but
>> what about your own religion? Can you take it for granted that
>> Muhammad existed?"
>>
>> He had no doubts at first, but slowly they emerged. He was struck,
>> he says, by the fact that the first coins bearing Muhammad's name
>> did not appear until the late 7th century -- six decades after the
>> religion did.
>>
>> He traded ideas with some scholars in Saarbrücken who in recent
>> years have been pushing the idea of Muhammad's nonexistence. They
>> claim that "Muhammad" wasn't the name of a person but a title, and
>> that Islam began as a Christian heresy.
>>
>> Prof. Kalisch didn't buy all of this. Contributing last year to a
>> book on Islam, he weighed the odds and called Muhammad's existence
>> "more probable than not." By early this year, though, his thinking
>> had shifted. "The more I read, the historical person at the root of
>> the whole thing became more and more improbable," he says.
>>
>> He has doubts, too, about the Quran. "God doesn't write books,"
>> Prof. Kalisch says.
>> Some of his students voiced alarm at the direction of his teaching.
>> "I began to wonder if he would one day say he doesn't exist
>> himself," says one. A few boycotted his lectures. Others sang his
>> praises.
>>
>> Prof. Kalisch says he "never told students 'just believe what
>> Kalisch thinks' " but seeks to teach them to think independently.
>> Religions, he says, are "crutches" that help believers get to "the
>> spiritual truth behind them." To him, what matters isn't whether
>> Muhammad actually lived but the philosophy presented in his name.
>>
>> This summer, the dispute hit the headlines. A Turkish-language
>> German newspaper reported on it with gusto. Media in the Muslim
>> world picked up on it.
>>
>> Germany's Muslim Coordinating Council withdrew from the advisory
>> board of Prof. Kalisch's center. Some Council members refused to
>> address him by his adopted Muslim name, Muhammad, saying that he
>> should now be known as Sven.
>>
>> German academics split. Michael Marx, a Quran scholar at the Berlin-
>> Brandenburg Academy of Sciences, warned that Prof. Kalisch's views
>> would discredit German scholarship and make it difficult for German
>> scholars to work in Muslim lands. But Ursula Spuler-Stegemann, an
>> Islamic studies scholar at the University of Marburg, set up a Web
>> site called solidaritymuhammadkalisch.com and started an online
>> petition of support.
>> Alarmed that a pioneering effort at Muslim outreach was only
>> stoking antagonism, Münster University decided to douse the flames.
>> Prof. Kalisch was told he could keep his professorship but must
>> stop teaching Islam to future school teachers.
>>
>> The professor says he's more determined than ever to keep probing
>> his faith. He is finishing a book to explain his thoughts. It's in
>> English instead of German because he wants to make a bigger impact.
>> "I'm convinced that what I'm doing is necessary. There must be a
>> free discussion of Islam," he says.
>>
>> —Almut Schoenfeld in Berlin contributed to this article.
>> Write to Andrew Higgins at andrew.higgins at wsj.com
>>
>>
>> TRANSLATED EXCERPTS FROM THE ARTICLE IN GERMAN BY Muhammad Sven
>> Kalisch >>>>>>
>>
>> NOVEMBER 14, 2008, 8:10 P.M. ET
>> "Excerpt: Muslim Academic Questions Muhammad's Existence"
>> "Below are translated excerpts from an article in German entitled,
>> "Islamic Theology Without the Historic Muhammad -- Comments on the
>> Challenges of the Historical-Critical Method for Islamic Thinking,"
>> by Germany's Prof. Muhammad Kalisch, a Muslim."
>> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122633888141714211.html#printMode
>>
>>
>> Up to some time ago I was convinced that Muhammad was a historical
>> figure. Although I always based my thinking on the assumption that
>> the Islamic historical narrative regarding Muhammad was very
>> unreliable, I had no doubts that at least the basic lines of his
>> biography were historically correct.
>>
>> I have now moved away from this position and will soon publish a
>> book in which I will, among other things, comment on this question
>> and explain my arguments in more detail. This essay is only a short
>> summary of my most important arguments. It also deals with the
>> question of what implications historical-critical research has for
>> the Islamic theory and how I deal with my research results as a
>> theologian.
>>
>> With regard to the historical existence of Muhammad ... I consider
>> my position simply as a continuation of the most recent research
>> results. It appears so spectacular only because it has been said by
>> a Muslim ... Most Western scientists turn down such an hypotheses
>> out of respect for Islam or because they are afraid of the
>> reactions of their Muslim friends or because they think it is
>> speculative nonsense.
>>
>> The word "respect" sounds wonderful but it is completely
>> inappropriate here because one really refers to the opposite.
>> Whoever thinks that Muslims can't deal with facts puts Muslims on
>> the same level as small children who can't think and decide for
>> themselves and whose illusions of Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny
>> one doesn't want to destroy.
>>
>> Whoever really bases his thoughts on the equality of all human
>> beings must expect the same intellectual performance. Really
>> treating Muslims with respect would imply that they are strong
>> enough to deal with their religion on the basis of our modern level
>> of knowledge. "Islamophobes" think we Muslims are barbarians, the
>> "kind-hearted" take us for "noble savages"... The result is the
>> same: Muslims are seen as different from the rest of the world --
>> they either belong in a "petting zoo" or in cages for wild animals,
>> but by all means they belong in a zoo.
>>
>> The final argument is even more awful because it can only be
>> described as cowardly. Religious fundamentalists are spreading out
>> (not only Islamic fundamentalist) and freedom of thought must be
>> defended no matter what. There must not be any compromise on this
>> otherwise we set the track for a retreat into the Middle Ages and
>> this can happen much faster than many people think.
>>
>> My position with regard to the historical existence of Muhammad is
>> that I believe neither his existence nor his non-existence can be
>> proven. I, however, lean towards the non-existence but I don't
>> think it can be proven. It is my impression that, unless there are
>> some sensational archeological discoveries -- an Islamic "Qumran"
>> or "Nag Hammadi" -- the question of Muhammad's existence will
>> probably never be finally clarified.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
> Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> The Sarai Programme at CSDS
> Raqs Media Collective
> shuddha at sarai.net
> www.sarai.net
> www.raqsmediacollective.net
>
>
> _________________________________________
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