Muhammad - aspects of his life

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We have absence of evidence....We have this one book [Qur'an], and nothing. There is complete darkness..... (Professor Patrica Crone, Princeton University, 2012)

Muhammad receiving the word of God from the Angel Gabriel.

Muhammad: I have fabricated things against God and have imputed to Him words He has not spoken (al-Tabari 6:111)

Allah: And they indeed strove hard to beguile you away from what we have revealed to you, that you should invent other than it against us (Qur'an 17:73)

Abstract: The life of Muhammad (c.570-632AD) is both well known by his almost two billion followers, but also questioned by historians and theologians, with controversy arising as to whether he was an historical fiction, a minor Arab warlord, or the true creator of Islam. The following article provides a brief chronological outline of the historic Muhammad as presented in his various biographies and related publications such as the Qur'an and Hadith. It also considers aspects of his existence or not.

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Contents

1. Introduction
2. Chronology
3. Comments
4. References

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1. Introduction

Did Muhammad (c.570-632AD) actually exist? Was he a real person? Or is he merely an historical fiction, created around a series of texts which formed the basis of Islam, such as the Qur'an and as revealed by him during the period 613-632AD? Was he a fictional character who manifest a century after his "death" in work by an Arab historian? The latter case has been put in a number of recent texts, along with others who suggest that whilst the real Muhammad did exist, he was not responsible for the creation of Islam, but rather that arose out of the work of a non-trinitarian Arab Christian sect (Ohlig 2007, Higgins 2008, Jansen 2011, Holland 2012, Nevo & Koren 2013). Unlike the historic Jesus Christ, wherein there are a number of contemporary accounts, artefacts and archaeological records which refer to his presence in the time and place as outlined in the New Testament section of the Bible, the same does not exist for Muhammad. There are no significant contemporary records - textual, pictorial, artefact or archaeological. His legend is based largely on scant information contained in the Qur'an, which was compiled after his death, and in the Hadith, which is also a post-mortem collection of oral histories by friends and associates. According to historian Dr. Neil Hamson, Muhammad was an historical fiction, and the evidence for this is revealed in the following video:

Who was the real Muhammad? Early evidence vs. Islamic tradition, Dr. Neil Hamson: Critical Theology, YouTube, duration: 21.32 minutes.

Hamson, in separate videos, further suggests that the Qur'an was written by Christian scholars, rather than Muhammad, and the Hadith by writers during the mid to late 8th century. A similar story is presented by Tom Holland in his 2012 documentary Islam: The Untold Story:

Tom Holland, Islam: The Untold Story, Channel 4, August 2012, YouTube, duration: 71.25 minutes.

However, the more commonly accepted belief - held by some two billion Muslims - is that he was a real person who lived between circa 570 and 632AD. According to a Google AI Overview, precise biographical information derives from the following sources, as summarised in Wikipedia (2025):

The earliest, most comprehensive biography of Prophet Muhammad is Sīrat Rasūl Allah (The Life of the Messenger of God) by Ibn Ishaq (d. 767/768 CE), though his original work is lost and survives through the edited version by his student Ibn Hisham (d. 834 CE). These sira (biographies) compiled oral traditions and anecdotes, providing foundational accounts of Muhammad's life, revelations, and the early Muslim community, serving as crucial context for the Quran, despite being written over a century after his death (c. 632 CE).

The History of al-Tabari is also a significant biographical source, though only completed in 915AD, some three centuries after Muhammad first began preaching and converting people to Islam. The following chronological summary of aspects of the life of Muhammad is based on the published biographical accounts and other supporting information.

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2. Chronology

c.570

- Muhammad ("praiseworthy") is born in Mecca to the Banu Hashim clan of the Quraysh. His father Abdullah ibn Abd al-Muttalib died a few months before his birth. His mother was Amina bint Wahb. He claimed descent from Ishmael, son of Abraham.

576

- Death of Muhammad's mother Aminah.

595

- First marriage of Muhammad, to Khadijah bint Khuwaylid (555-619). She was also his employer. He subsequently had approximately thirteen wives and innumerable concubines.

c.610

- Beginning of the Call of Muhammad when he reports that during prayer in a mountain cave near Mecca called Hira he was visited by the Angel Gabriel who passed on to him messages from God / Allah. This apparently continued through to the end of his life.

613

- Muhammad begins publically preaching his revelations, emphasising that complete submission (Islam) to God is required, and that he was a prophet and messenger of God (Allah).

615

- Flight of Muhammad's first followers to Abyssinia / Ethiopia.

619

- Death of first wife, Khadijah.

620

- Muhammad's reputed Night Journey from Mecca to the Temple of Jerusalem, and then to the Seventh Heaven.

622

- The flight or migration of Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina. This is referred to as the Hijra and the beginning of the so-called Muslim Era / Calendar.

[NB: Whilst in Mecca Muhammad's teachings are in step with Jews and Christians. This changes when he moves to Medina and becomes more antagonistic towards all non-Muslims, especially Jews and Christians who had begun to reject him and expose him as a false prophet (Wood 2023). He begins to kill and expel Jewish tribes.]

Islamic expansion from 622 to 632AD.

- The Constitution of Medina is implemented by Muhammad and installs him as supreme leader of the Medina  area and its various tribes.

624

- The battle of Badr, where the Quraysh are defeated by the Muslims.

- Muhammad expels the Banu Qaynuqa Jewish tribe from Medina.

625

- The battle of 'Uhud, where the Muslims are defeated.

626

- The Jewish tribe of al-Nadir is crushed and expelled from Medina.

627

- The War of the Ditch.

- The Meccans' expedition against the Muslims in Medina. The attackers are driven off.

- The Jewish tribe of Qurayzah is raided and put to the sword, with up to 900 men ritualistically beheaded by Muhammad and his two brothers.

628

- The Treaty of Hudaybiyya, marking a truce with the Quraysh who recognise Muhammad's right to convert people without hindrance.

- The Battle of Khaybar between Muslims and the Jewish community. After this, Muhammad is given poisoned lamb to eat and dies from it three years later.

629

- The Jews of Khaybar are crushed and expelled.

- Muhammad sends letters and messages to the kings of Persia, Yemen, and Ethiopia, and the Emperor Haraclius, inviting them to accept Islam.

- December: Muhammad gains an army of 10,000 Muslim converts and marches on Mecca.

630

- Muhammad takes control of Mecca. The entire population is converted to Islam.

- The truce of 628 is broken by the Quaraysh.

- The Ka'bah is established as the religious centre of Islam.

631

- The Year of Embassies - Islam accepted by the Arabian tribes.

632

- Muhammad's farewell pilgrimage to Mecca.

- March: Muhammad returns to Medina.

- 8 June: Death of Muhammad. He dies a painful death from poisoning, after eating lamb given him by Jewish woman Zaynab Bint al-Harith, as warned by Allah (Wood 2022). This took place in 628AD after he attacked Khaybar and killed the family of the woman. This death by Allah "severing his aorta" for being a false prophet and fabricating revelations was foretold in the Qur'an 69: 44-46.

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632-634

- The Qur'an is compiled by Muhammad's companions on the order of his successor, caliph Abu Bakr.

644-656

- The standard edition of the Quran is established by successor third caliph Uthman.

767

- The earliest written biography of Muhammad is published by Ibn Ishaq in his Life of God's Messenger.

800s

- Islamic conquests extend west into Egypt and north Africa, Europe as far as Spain and southern France, and east through Persia towards India, Tibet and China.

Islamic conquest between 7th and 9th centuries.

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3. Comments

The doubts cast over the historicity of Muhammad reinforce the suggestion by Dr. Neil Hamson and others that the Qur'an was not written by him, but rather, was a cruel, heretical satire composed by an Arab Christian sect, or some other unknown sect, which did not believe in the concept of the Blessed Trinity or that Jesus Christ was God, present on earth as the Son of God. They therefore sought to ridicule Christian theology by constructing a scenario and text which presented God as the very opposite of that portrayed in the Bible, and most especially in the New Testament account of the teachings and work of Jesus Christ. The God of the Qur'an is a fearful, vengeful, vain, egotistical, racist, sexist, cruel God, not the God of peace, love and compassion as presented in person to the world by historical figures such as Jesus and Buddha, or as revealed over time to others and recorded in text such as those gathered in the Old Testament and Torah. In fact, Muhammad's Allah is the very antithesis of the Judaeo-Christian God.

To create such a contrary divine figure would have required a concerted effort on the part of knowledgeable Christians, or others with a deep hatred of Jews and Christians. Futhermore, the inherently evil nature of the content of the Qur'an in its call to kill and main and imprison, and subsequent Hadith biographical accounts and interpretations of teachings, puts paid to any belief that it was actually the word of God transmitted to an individual subsequently known as Muhammad through the Angel Gabriel in a cave near Mecca.

The present writer, upon a close reading of the Qur'an in late 2025, was astounded by the effort contained therein to present God as everything that he is not in the the Christian canon, and to go further than that is attacking the beliefs of any person who did not strictly adhere to the ideology presented therein. To stray or disbelieve would result in eternal damnation in Hell as a result of the vengeful God who was all powerful and beyond deception. Fear God is the primary lesson presented throughout the Qur'an. And whether it was recorded by Muhammad or not, it remains a powerful, evil threat to all those who follow Islam, and to the rest of the world faced with the global threat of conquest and imposition of caliphates and Sharia. The death cult that is Islamic terrorist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood is a direct result of the content of the Qur'an, Hadith and other such texts. The recent Bondi Beach killings in Australia is an example of the relationship between the Islamic religion, groups such as ISIS and the education and training of individuals throughout the world, beginning back in 622AD and continuing through to the present. The following was noted by a former Muslim back in 2023, shortly after the Israeli terrorist attack of 7 October that year which resulted in the loss of 1200 lives and subsequent Free Palestine protest which supported HAMAS:

In these protests around the world people are shouting at Jews that the army of Muhammad is coming back. So they are reminding the whole world that Muhammad massacred Jews on the day of Khaybar [629AD]. He took their land; he took their belongings; and he made them slaves. So when we are in the 21st century and a Muslim in the UK is reminding the world that "the days of Muhammad are coming back, and we will do to the Jews the same thing that our Prophet did to them", that has to tell us something: That this hatred is attached to religion and is not separated from it. (Brother Rachid, 2 November 2023)

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4. References

al-Bukari, Muḥammad ibn Ismāʻīl, The translation of the meanings of Sahih al-Bukha: Arabic-English, 9 volumes, Muhammad Muhsin Khan, Darussalam Publishers, Riyadh-Saudi Arabia, 1997.

al-Tabari, Tafsir, The History of al-Tabari [The History of the Prophets and Kings], volume VI: Muhammad at Mecca, State University of New York, Albany, 1988. Translated and edited by W. Montgomery Watt and M.V. McDonald.

Crone, Patricia and Michael Cook, Michael, Hagarism: The Making of the Islamic World, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1977.

Hamson, Neil, Who was the real Muhammad? Early evidence vs. Islamic tradition, Dr. Neil Hamson: Critical Theology, 16 October 2025, YouTube, duration: 21.32 minutes.

-----, The Truth about the Hadith, Dr. Neil Hamson: Critical Theology, 8 November 2025, YouTube, duration: 14.07 minutes.

-----, The Qur’an was not written by Muslims - the earliest manuscripts prove it, Dr. Neil Hamson: Critical Theology, 27 December 2025, YouTube, duration: 8.30 minutes.

Higgins, Andrew, Islamic Theologian says Prophet Muhammad likely never existed, Wall Street Journal, New York, 16 November 2008.

Holland, Tom, Islam: The Untold Story, Channel 4, August 2012, YouTube, duration: 71.25 minutes.

Jansen, Hans, The historicity of Muhammad, Aisha and who knows who else, trykkefrihed.dk - information and debat [blog], 16 May 2011.

Lambert, Derek, The Quran is man-made, not divine, MythVision Podcast, 3 September 2025, YouTube, duration: 12.18 minutes.

Muhammad, The Koran, Penguin Classics, Penguin Books, London, 2014, 444p. Translated by N.J. Dawood.

Nevo, Yehuda D. and Judith Koren, Crossroads to Islam: The Origins of the Arab Religion and the Arab State, Prometheus Books, 2013, 462p.

Ohlig, Karl-Heinz, Der frühe Islam - eine historisch-kritische Rekonstruktion anhand zeitgenössischer Quellen, Schiller, Berlin, 2007, 666p. Second edition, 2019.

The Quranic Arabic Corpus [website], accessed 29 December 2025.

Wikipedia, Battle of Khaybar, Wikipedia, accessed 29 December 2025.

-----, Historicity of Muhammad, Wikipedia, accessed 28 December 2025.

-----, Patricia Crone, Wikipedia, accessed 28 December 2025.

-----, Sahil al-Bukari, Wikipedia, accessed 29 December 2025.

-----, Tafsir al-Tabari, Wikipedia, accessed 28 December 2025.

-----, The History of the Prophets and Kings, Wikipedia, accessed 29 December 2025.

Wood, David, Who Killed Muhammad?, Act 17 Polemics, 13 October 2022, YouTube, duration: 35.40 minutes.

----- & Brother Rachid, The real reason Muhammad hated Jews and preached genocide, Act 17 Polemics, 2 November 2023, YouTube, duration: 33.32 minutes.

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Islam | Ashin Wirathu - Buddhist Monk | Battle of Broken Hill 1915 | Charles III and Islam | Ilhan Omar | Life of Muhammad | Muslim Brotherhood in Australia | Politics | Qur'an quotes | Rational fear of Islam | References |

Last updated: 30 December 2025

Michael Organ, Australia