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

ecause he had had a great desire for life. 29 After all, the Qur'an takes for granted that those who are the
“friends” of Allah will “long for death”: “You of Jewry, if you assert that you are the friends of God,
apart from other men, then do you long for death, if you speak truly” (62:6).
With Ibn Ishaq and al-Waqidi, it does not seem that we are dealing with straightforward historical
records. Raising doubts are the serious discrepancies from the non-Muslim historical accounts and the
legendary character of al-Waqidi's story. (And here again, if Muhammad was such a miracle worker and
seer, why do the critics of the prophet complain in the Qur'an that he has worked no wonders?) Add to
this the report that the three commanders whom Muhammad designated died in the order in which he
designated them; commanding generals can only wish that battles would unfold in such an orderly manner.
There may have been a battle at Muta, but what actually happened there is lost in mists of time and cannot
be reconstructed from Theophanes, Ibn Ishaq, or al-Waqidi.
Whether or not there was a battle between the Muslims and the Byzantines at Muta at some time in the
late 620s or early 630s, the Muslim accounts of it that include the martyrdom of Zayd have no historical
value. Like so many other elements of the canonical account of early Islam, they may have been invented
to emphasize a political and theological point—in this case, that “Muhammad is not the father of any of
your men” and hence is “the Seal of the Prophets.”
Muhammad Bewitched
Other tales that appear to show Muhammad in a less than flattering light have even less to recommend
their historicity. Apparently difficult to explain is why anyone would have invented the hadiths in which
Muhammad fell under the influence of magic spells. One spell made him think he had had sexual relations
with his wives when he actually had not. In one such hadith, Aisha recalls Muhammad telling her about
this spell:
O Aisha! Allah has instructed me regarding a matter about which I had asked Him. There came to me two men, one of them sat
near my feet and the other near my head. The one near my feet, asked the one near my head (pointing at me), “What is wrong with this
man?” The latter replied, “He is under the effect of magic.” The first one asked, “Who had worked magic on him?” The other replied,
“Lubaid bin Asam.” The first one asked, “What material (did he use)?” The other replied, “The skin of the pollen of a male date tree
with a comb and the hair stuck to it, kept under a stone in the well of Dharwan.”
Muhammad then went to a well and found that it was “the same well which was shown to me in the
dream”: “The tops of its date-palm trees look like the heads of the devils, and its water looks like the
henna infusion.” He ordered that the date palm trees be cut down and that the brackish water be drained,
which presumably ended the magic spell's power over him.
Aisha then asked him, “O Allah's Apostle! Won't you disclose (the magic object)?” Muhammad
refused: “Allah has cured me and I hate to circulate the evil among the people.” The hadith ends with
Aisha explaining that the magician who cast this spell on Muhammad, Lubaid bin Asam, “was a man from
Bani Zuraiq, an ally of the Jews.” 30
In another version of the story, one of Muhammad's companions explains that this magic, which was