Internet Medieval Sourcebook
W. Montgomery Watt:
Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman (1961)
W. Montgomery Watt. Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman. Oxford
University Press, 1961. from pg. 229.
ASSESSMENT
APPEARANCE AND MANNER
Muhammad, according to some apparently authentic accounts, was of average height
or a little above the average. His chest and shoulders were broad, and altogether he
was of sturdy build. His arms were long, and his hands and feet rough. His forehead
was large and prominent, and he had a hooked nose and large black eyes with a touch
of brown. The hair of his head was long and thick, straight or slightly curled. His beard
also was thick, and he had a thin line of fine hair on his neck and chest. His cheeks
were spare, his mouth large, and he had a pleasant smile. In complexion he was fair.
He always walked as if he was rushing downhill, and others had difficulty in keeping up
with him. When he turned in any direction, he did so with his whole body.
He was given to sadness, and there were long periods of silence when he was deep in
thought; yet he never rested but was always busy with something. He never spoke
unnecessarily. What he said was always to the point and sufficient to make his
meaning clear, but there was no padding. From the first to last he spoke rapidly. Over
his feelings he had a firm control. When he was annoyed he would turn aside; when he
was pleased, he lowered his eyes. His time was carefully apportioned according to the
various demands on him. In his dealings with people he was above all tactful. He could
be severe at times, though in the main he was not rough but gentle. His laugh was
mostly a smile.
Of the many stories illustrating his gentleness and tenderness of feeling, some at least
are worthy of credence. The widow of his cousin Ja'far ibn-Abi-Talib herself told her
grand-daughter how he broke the news of Ja'far's death. She had been busy one
morning with her household duties, which had included tanning forty hides and
kneading dough, when Muhammad called. She collected her children --she had three
sons by Ja'far -- washed their faces and anointed them. When Muhammad entered, he
asked for the sons of Ja'far. She brought them, and Muhammad put his arms round
them and smelt them, as a mother would a baby. Then his eyes filled with tears and he
burst out weeping. ' Have you heard something about Ja'far ? ' she asked, and he told
her he had been killed. Later he instructed some of his people to prepare food for
Ja'far's household, ' for they are too busy today to think about themselves '.
He seems to have been specially fond of children and to have got on well with them.
Perhaps it was the yearning of a man who saw all his sons die as infants. Much of his
paternal affection went to his adopted son Zayd. He was also attached to his younger
cousin 'Ali ibn-Abi-Talib, who had been a member of his household for a time; but he
doubtless realized that 'Ah had not the makings of a successful statesman. For a time a
grand-daughter called Umamah was a favourite. He would carry her on his shoulder
during the public prayers, setting her down when he bowed or prostrated, then picking
her up again. On one occasion he teased his wives by showing them a necklace and
saying he would give it to the one who was dearest to him; when he thought their
feelings were sufficiently agitated, he presented it not to any of them, but to
Umamah.
He was able to enter into the spirit of childish games and had many friends among
children. He had fun with the children who came back from Abyssinia and spoke
Abyssinian. In one house in Medina there was a small boy with whom he was
accustomed to have jokes. One day he found the small boy looking very sad, and
asked what was the matter. When he was told that his pet nightingale had died, he did
what he could to comfort him. His kindness extended even to animals, which is
remarkable for Muhammad's century and part of the world. As his men marched
towards Mecca just before the conquest they passed a bitch with puppies; and
Muhammad not merely gave orders that they were not to be disturbed, but posted a
man to see that the orders were carried out.
These are interesting sidelights on the personality of Muhammad, and fill out the
picture formed of him from his conduct of public affairs. He gained men's respect and
confidence by the religious basis of his activity and by qualities such as courage,
resoluteness, impartiality and firmness inclining to severity but tempered by generosity.
In addition to these he had a charm of manner which won their affection and secured
their devotion.
THE ALLEGED MORAL FAILURES
Of all the world's great men none has been so much maligned as Muhammad. We saw
above how this has come about. For centuries Islam was the great enemy of
Christendom, since Christendom was in direct contact with no other organized states
comparable in power to the Muslims. The Byzantine empire, after losing some of its
best provinces to the Arabs, was being attacked in Asia Minor, while Western Europe
was threatened through Spain and Sicily. Even before the Crusades focused attention
on the expulsion of the Saracens from the Holy Land, medieval Europe was building up
a conception of ' the great enemy '. At one point Muhammad was transformed into
Mahound, the prince of darkness. By the twelfth century the ideas about Islam and
Muslims current in the crusading armies were such travesties that they had a bad effect
on morale. Practical considerations thus combined with scholarly zeal to foster the
study and dissemination of more accurate information abo Muhammad and his
religion.
Since that time much has been achieved, especially durin the last two centuries, but
many of the old prejudices linge on. Yet in the modern world, where contacts between
Christians and Muslims are closer than ever before, it is urgent that both should strive
to reach an objective view of Muhammad's character. The denigration of him by
European writers has too often been followed by a romantic idealization of his figure by
other Europeans and by Muslim. Neither denigration nor idealization is an adequate
basis for the mutual relations of nearly half the human race. We are now back at the
questions with which we began. We have an outline of the facts on which ultimate
judgements mus be based. What are our ultimate judgements to be ?
One of the common allegations against Muhammad is tha he was an impostor, who to
satisfy his ambition and his lust propagated religious teachings which he himself knew
to be false. Such insincerity makes the development of the Islamic religion
incomprehensible. This point was first vigorously made over a hundred years ago by
Thomas Carlyle in his lectures On Heroes, and it has since been increasingly accepted
by scholars. Only a profound belief in himself and his mission explains Muhammad's
readiness to endure hardship and persecution during the Meccan period when from a
secular point of view there was no prospect of success. Without sincerity how could he
have won the allegiance and even devotion of men of strong and upright character like
Abu-Bakr and 'Umar ? For the theist there is the further question how God could have
allowed a great religion like Islam to develop on a basis of lies and deceit. There is thus
a strong case for holding that Muhammad was sincere. If in some respects he was
mistaken, his mistakes were not due to deliberate Iying or imposture.
The other main allegations of moral defect in Muhammad are that he was treacherous
and lustful. These are supported be reference to events like the violation of the sacred
month on the expedition of Nakhlah (624) and his marriage to Zaynab bint-Jahsh, the
divorced wife of his adopted son. About the bare facts there is no dispute, but it is not
so clear that the facts justify the allegations. Was the violation of the sacred month an
act of treachery or a justified breach with a piece of pagan religion ? Was the marriage
with Zaynab a yielding to sexual desire or a mainly political act in which an undesirable
practice of ' adoption ' belonging to a lower moral level was ended ? Sufficient has
been said above about the interpretation of these events to show that the case against
Muhammad is much weaker than is sometimes thought.
The discussions of these allegations, however, raises a fundamental question. How are
we to judge Muhammad ? By the standards of his own time and country ? Or by those
of the most enlightened opinion in the West today ? When the sources are closely
scrutinized, it is clear that those of Muhammad's actions which are disapproved by the
modern West were not the object of the moral criticism of his contemporaries. They
criticized some of his acts, but their motives were superstitious prejudice or fear of the
consequences. If they criticized the events at Nakhlah, it was because they feared
some punishment from the offended pagan gods or the worldly vengeance of the
Meccans. If they were amazed at the mass execution of the Jews of the clan of
Qurayzah, it was at the number and danger of the blood-feuds incurred. The marriage
with Zaynab seemed incestuous, but this conception of incest was bound up with old
practices belonging to a lower, communalistic level of familial institutions where a
child's paternity was not definitely known; and this lower level was in process being
eliminated by Islam.
From the standpoint of Muhammad's time, then, the allegations of treachery and
sensuality cannot be maintained. His contemporaries did not find him morally defective
in any way. On the contrary, some of the acts criticized by the modern Westerner show
that Muhammad's standards werehigher than those of his time. In his day and
generation he was a social reformer, even a reformer in the sphere of morals. He
created a new system of social security and a new family structure, both of which were
a vast improvement on what went before. By taking what was best in the morality of the
nomad and adapting it for settled communities, he established a religious and social
framework for the life of many races of men. That is not the work of a traitor or ' an old
lecher'.
It is sometimes asserted that Muhammad's character ( declined after he went to
Medina, but there are no solid grounds for this view. It is based on too facile a use of
the principal that all power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The
allegations of moral defects are attached to incidents belonging to the Medinan and not
the Meccan period, but according to the interpretation of these incidentsgiven in this
book they marked no failure in Muhammad to live to his ideals and no lapse from his
moral principles. The persecuted preacher of Mecca was no less a man of his time than
the ruler of Medina. If nothing is recorded of the preacher to show us how different his
attitude was from that of nineteenth-century Europe, it does not follow that his ideals
were any loftier (by our standards) than those of the reforming ruler. The opposite is
more likely to be the case since the preacher was nearer to the pagan background. In
both Meccan and Medinan periods Muhammad's contemporaries looked on him as a
good and upright man, and in the eyes of history he is a moral and social reformer.
So much must be said in fairness to Muhammad when he is measured against the
Arabs of his time. Muslims, however, claim that he is a model of conduct and character
for all mankind. In so doing they present him for judgement according to the standards
of enlightened world opinion. Though the world is increasingly becoming one world, it
has so far paid scant attention to Muhammad as a moral exemplar. Yet because
Muslims are numerous, it will sooner or later have to consider seriously whether from
the life and teaching of Muhammad any principles are to be learnt which will contribute
to the moral development of mankind.
To this question no final answer has yet been given. What has been said so far by
Muslims in support of their claims for Muhammad is but a preliminary statement and
has convinced few non-Muslims. It is still open to the Muslims of today, however, to
give the rest of the world a fuller and better presentation of their case. Will they be able
to sift the universal from the particular in the life of Muhammad and so discover moral
principles which make a creative contribution to the present world situation ? Or, if this
is too much to expect, will they at least be able to show that Muhammad's life is one
possible exemplification of the ideal for all humanity ? If they make a good case, some
Christians will be ready to listen to them and to learn whatever is to be learned.
In this enterprise the difficulties confronting Muslims are immense. A combination of
sound scholarship and deep moral insight is needed, and this combination is rare. My
personal view is that Muslims are unlikely to be successful in their attempt to influence
world opinion, at least in the sphere of morals. In the wider sphere of religion they have
probably something to contribute to the world, for they have retained emphases -- on
the reality of God, for example -- which have been neglected or forgotten in important
sections of the other monotheistic religions; and I for one gladly acknowledge my
indebtedness to the writings of men like al-Ghazali. But towards convincing Christian
Europe that Muhammad is the ideal man little, indeed nothing, has so far been
accomplished.
THE FOUNDATIONS OF GREATNESS
Circumstances of time and place favoured Muhammad. Various forces combined to set
the stage for his life-work and for the subsequent expansion of Islam. There was the
social unrest in Mecca and Medina, the movement towards monotheism, the reaction
against Hellenism in Syria and Egypt, the decline of the Persian and Byzantine
empires, and a growing realization by the nomadic Arabs of the opportunities for
plunder in the settled lands round them. Yet these forces, and others like them which
might be added, would not in themselves account for the rise of the empire known as
the Umayyad caliphate nor for the development of Islam into a world religion. There
was nothing inevitable or automatic about the spread of the Arabs and the growth of the
Islamic community. Without a remarkable combination of qualities in Muhammad it is
improbable that the expansion would have taken place, and the military potential of the
Arabs might easily have spent itself in raids on Syria and 'Iraq with no lasting
consequences. These qualities fall into three groups.
First there is Muhammad's gift as a seer. Through him -- or, on the orthodox Muslim
view, through the revelations made to him -- the Arab world was given a framework of
ideas within which the resolution of its social tensions became possible. The provision
of such a framework involved both insight into the fundamental causes of the social
malaise of the time, and the genius to express this insight in a form which would stir the
hearer to the depths of his being. The European reader may be ' put off ' by the Qur'an,
but it was admirably suited to the needs and conditions of the day.
Secondly, there is Muhammad's wisdom as a statesman. The conceptual structure
found in the Qur'an was merely a framework. The framework had to support a building
of concrete policies and concrete institutions. In the course of this book much has been
said about Muhammad's far-sighted political strategy and his social reforms. His
wisdom in these matters is shown by the rapid expansion of his small state to a
world-empire after his death, and by the adaptation of his social institutions to many
different environments and their continuance for thirteen centuries.
Thirdly, there is his skill and tact as an administrator and his wisdom in the choice of
men to whom to delegate administrative details. Sound institutions and a sound policy
will not go far if the execution of affairs is faulty and fumbling. When Muhammad died,
the state he had founded was a ' going concern ', able to withstand the shock of his
removal and, once it had recovered from this shock, to expand at prodigious speed.
The more one reflects on the history of Muhammad and of early Islam, the more one is
amazed at the vastness of his achievement. Circumstances presented him with an
opportunity such as few men have had, but the man was fully matched with the hour.
Had it not been for his gifts as seer, statesman, and administrator and, behind these,
his trust in God and firm belief that God had sent him, a notable chapter in the history
of mankind would have remained unwritten.
WAS MUHAMMAD A PROPHET ?
So far Muhammad has been described from the point of view of the historian. Yet as
the founder of a world-religion he also demands a theological judgement. Emil Brunner,
for example, considers his claim to be a prophet, holds that it ' does not seem to be in
any way justified by the actual content of the revelations ', but admits that, ' had
Mohammed been a pre-Christian prophet of Arabia, it would not be easy to exclude him
from the ranks of the messengers who` prepared the way for the revelation '. Without
presuming to enter into the theological complexities behind Brunner's view, I shall try,
at the level of the educated man who has no special knowledge of either Christian or
Islamic theology, to put forward some general considerations relevant to the
question.
I would begin by asserting that there is found, at least in some men, what may be called
' creative imagination '. Notable instances are artists, poets and imaginative writers. All
these put into sensuous form (pictures, poems, dramas, novels) what many are feeling
but are unable to express fully. Great works of the creative imagination have thus a
certain universality, in that they give expression to the feelings and attitudes of a whole
generation. They are, of course, not imaginary, for they deal with real things; but they
employ images, visual or conjured up by words, to express what is beyond the range of
man's intellectual conceptions.
Prophets and prophetic religious leaders, I should maintain, share in this creative
imagination. They proclaim ideas connected with what is deepest and most central in
human experience, with special reference to the particular needs of their day and
generation. The mark of the great prophet is the profound attraction of his ideas for
those to whom they are addressed.
Where do such ideas come from ? Some would say ' from the unconscious '. Religious
people say ' from God ', at least with regard to the prophets of their own tradition,
though a few would go so far as to claim with Baron Friedrich von Hugel, ' that
everywhere there is some truth; that this truth comes originally from God .' Perhaps it
could be maintained that these ideas of the creative imagination come from that life in a
man which is greater than himself and is largely below the threshold of consciousness.
For the Christian this still implies some connexion with God, for, according to Saint
John, in the Word was life, and Jesus said ' I am the Life '.
The adoption of one of these views does not settle all the questions at issue. What
about those ideas of the creative imagination which are false or unsound ? Baron von
Hugel is careful to say only that truth comes from God. Religious tradition has also held
that ideas might come from the devil. Even if the creative imagination is an instrument
which may be used by God or Life, that does not necessarily imply that all its ideas are
true or sound. In Adolf Hitler the creative imagination was well developed, and his
ideas had a wide appeal, but it is usually held that he was neurotic and that those
Germans who followed him most devotedly became infected by his neurosis.
In Muhammad, I should hold, there was a welling up of the creative imagination, and
the ideas thus produced are to a great extent true and sound. It does not follow,
however, that all the Qur'anic ideas are true and sound. In particular there is at least
one point at which they seem to be unsoundthe idea that ' revelation ' or the product
of the creative imagination is superior to normal human traditions as a source of bare
historical fact. There are several verses in the Qur'an (II. 5I; 3. 39; I2. I03) to the effect
that ' this is one of the reports of the unseen which We reveal to thee; thou didst not
know it, thou nor thy people, before this '. One could admit a claim that the creative
imagination was able to give a new and truer interpretation of a historical event, but to
make it a source of bare fact is an exaggeration and false.
This point is of special concern to Christians, since the Qur'an denies the bare fact of
the death of Jesus on the cross, and Muslims still consider that this denial outweighs
the contrary testimony of historical tradition. The primary intention of the Qur'an was to
deny the Jews' interpretation of the crucifixion as a victory for themselves, but as
normally explained it goes much farther. The same exaggeration of the role of '
revelation ' has also had other consequences. The Arab contribution to Islamic culture
has been unduly magnified, and that of the civilized peoples of Egypt, Syria, 'Iraq and
Persia, later converted to Islam, has been sadly belittled.
Too much must not be made of this slight flaw. Which of us, conscious of being called
by God to perform a special task, would not have been more than a little proud ? On
the whole Muhammad was remarkably free from pride. Yet this slight exaggeration of
his own function has had grave consequences and cannot be ignored.
Finally, what of our question ? Was Muhammad a prophet ? He was a man in whom
creative imagination worked at deep levels and produced ideas relevant to the central
questions of human existence, so that his religion has had a widespread appeal, not
only in his own age but in succeeding centuries. Not all the ideas he proclaimed are
true and sound, but by God's grace he has been enabled to provide millions of men
with a better religion than they had before they testified that there is no god but God
and that Muhammad is the messenger of God.
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