robert spencer-did muhammad exist__ an inquiry into islams obscure origins-intercollegiate studies institute (2012) (1)

elationship, the Qur'an also has Mary being born of the wife of Imran, the father of Moses (3:36).
If, therefore, Muhammad had a son who survived into adulthood—he is said to have had as many as
five sons, all of whom died before reaching puberty—the son would have been a prophet as well, and
Muhammad would not have been the last prophet, “the Seal of the Prophets.” 17 Cornell University
professor David S. Powers, a scholar of Islamic history and law, has written an extraordinarily wellresearched
and well-reasoned book-length examination of the Zaynab incident and its historical and
theological status. In it Powers notes that “as the Last Prophet, Muhammad could not have a son who
reached puberty; otherwise, as Muqatil states, that son would have been a prophet.” 18 Muqatil ibn
Sulayman (d. 767) was an early commentator on the Qur'an.
Suddenly, then, the presence of Muhammad's adopted son takes on immense importance to Islamic
theology. Powers explains:
The logic of this argument applies not only to Muhammad's natural sons, none of whom reached puberty, but also to his adopted
son Zayd, who did. By virtue of his status as Muhammad's adult son, Zayd b. Muhammad was a member of the Abrahamic family to
which the mantle of prophecy had been entrusted as an exclusive possession. Similarly, Muhammad's grandson, Usama b. Zayd b.
Muhammad, was also a member of this family. In theory, the mantle of prophecy might have passed from Muhammad to Zayd, and
from Zayd to Usama. 19
Indeed, something very like this developed among the Shiites, who differed from the Sunnis in
maintaining that the leader of the Islamic community had to be a member of Muhammad's household. In the
absence of a son, the authority fell to Ali ibn Abi Talib, by virtue of his being Muhammad's son-in-law,
the husband of his daughter Fatima. By that point, then, Zayd's claim to be Muhammad's son must have
already been repudiated. Powers observes:
The Muslim community had no choice but to construct its foundation narrative in such a way as to marginalize both Zayd and
Usama. However, Muhammad's repudiation of Zayd did not fully eliminate the threat to the theological doctrine of the finality of
prophecy. This is because at the time of Zayd's repudiation in 5 A.H. [A.D. 626], he was already a grown man. The fact that the
Prophet had an adult son named Zayd b. Muhammad conflicted with the assertion in v. 40 that “Muhammad is not the father of any of
your men.” For the sake of theological consistency, it was important to demonstrate that the man who had been Muhammad's son
failed to outlive the Prophet. Like Muhammad's repudiation of Zayd, the death of the Beloved of the Messenger of God some time prior
to the year 11/632 was a theological imperative. 20 Sure enough, Islamic tradition holds that Zayd died in the Battle of Muta in the year
629—three years before Muhammad himself.
Thus in order to ensure the centrality of Muhammad in Islamic tradition, and to establish a religious
orthodoxy that held the empire together, stories had to be invented emphasizing that Muhammad had
neither natural nor adopted sons. This was because a son of Muhammad could potentially become a
rallying figure for a rival political faction, as Ali became for the Shiites. Even Aisha said: “Had Zayd
outlived Muhammad, he would have appointed him as his successor.” 21 So Zayd had to die before
Muhammad, and Usama had to be seen as having no reasonable claim to leadership. A delegitimization of
adoption had the added benefit of striking at Islam's chief spiritual rival, Christianity, with its doctrine of
Gentiles as adopted sons of God.
To our twenty-first-century Western sensibilities, then, the traditional account of Muhammad's marriage
to the wife of his adopted son at first appears to construct a cover for that action by delegitimizing
adoption, saying (as in Qur'an 33:4) that adopted sons are not to be considered actual sons. But a closer