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

during the eighth and ninth centuries, as it appears from the historical evidence, that ongoing evolution had
to be explained somehow. The hadiths would thus need to convince the faithful that although they had
never heard of these sayings of Muhammad before, they were authentic and ancient tradition.
The best way to explain and justify this considerable theological flux would have been to make
revision, and even forgetfulness, part of the new divine revelations from the beginning. And so it was
done.
One hadith, for example, relates how Muhammad revised a revelation he had just received from Allah
because of a question a blind man posed to him. The revelation concerned the value of fighting jihad:
“Such believers as sit at home are not the equals of those who struggle in the path of God [mujahidun fi
sabil Allah] with their possessions and their selves.” According to the hadith, Muhammad called for one
of his scribes, Zayd ibn Thabit, so he could dictate the revelation. But when the prophet began to dictate,
a blind man, Amr bin Umm Maktum, interrupted him, calling out, “O Allah's apostle! What is your order
for me, as I am a blind man?” Would Amr be considered a lesser Muslim for being unable to participate
in jihad warfare because of his disability? Hearing the question, Muhammad dictated the new revelation
with a caveat: “Such believers as sit at home—unless they have an injury—are not the equals of those
who struggle in the path of God with their possessions and their selves” (Qur'an 4:95). 6
Another hadith relates how Muhammad was traveling with Umar, who later became caliph, when Umar
asked a question of his prophet. Muhammad, however, did not answer. Umar repeated his question twice
but still received no answer. This greatly disquieted Umar: “I feared that a piece of Qur'an was being sent
down about me. It was not long before I heard a crier calling for me, and I said that I feared that a piece of
Qur'an had been sent down about me.” 7 A portion of the Qur'an—sura 48—did indeed come to
Muhammad, so the hadith goes, but Umar was not rebuked or even mentioned in it. Still, Umar clearly had
the idea that Qur'anic revelation—the revelation of the perfect and eternal book—could be altered by his
questioning or by his behavior. This would indicate either that Umar had a place in Allah's eternal plan
for the Qur'anic revelation or that it was not perfect and eternal at all but could be altered as
circumstances warranted. And that may have been the purpose this hadith served: to explain the variants
that such alterations created.
Another trace of the alterations to the Qur'an comes from the thirteenth-century Muslim historian Ibn al-
Athir. He stated that one of Muhammad's secretaries, Abdullah ibn Sa‘d ibn Abi Sarh, “used to record the
revelation for the Prophet” in Medina but then left Islam and returned to Mecca, where he noted that
Muhammad was remarkably cavalier about the revelations he received: “I used to orient Muhammad
wherever I willed; he dictated to me ‘All-Powerful All-Wise’ and I suggested ‘All Knowing All-Wise’ so
he would say: ‘Yes, it is all the same.’” 8
The ninth-century Muslim historian al-Waqidi records that Abdullah ibn Sa‘d said to the Meccans: “It
was only a Christian slave who was teaching him (Muhammad); I used to write to him and change
whatever I wanted.” 9 In line with this, another thirteenth-century Islamic scholar, Abdullah al-Baydawi,
recorded in a hadith that Abdullah ibn Sa‘d used to mock Muhammad's claim to have received
revelations: “‘To me it has been revealed,’ when naught has been revealed to him.” This secretary to the
prophet repudiated Islam when he became convinced that divine intervention was not responsible for the
Qur'an. Muhammad was once dictating Qur'an 23:14 to Abdullah: “We created man of an extraction of