Rebuttals to Robert Spencer’s book The Truth About Muhammad: The Founder of The World’s Most Intolerant Religion Part 1: Rebuttals False stories/allgations about Prophet Muhammad found in Spencer’s Book. Also Rebuttals to Robert Spencer’s wishful thinking and fantasies about the “Sources” of the Quran

Ehteshaam Gulam

In this short article, I document some of the false stories about Prophet Muhammad that are included in Robert Spencer's book. I also document the problems with his allgations that the Quran copied off the Talmud and Christian Apocrphal sources, and the problems with certain Ibn Ishaq and Al-Tabari stories which were included in Robert's book.

Pre-Islamic Arabia was a rough land. Blood feuds were frequent, and the people had grown to be as harsh and unyielding as their desert land. Women were treated as chattel; female infanticide were common, as women were regarded as a financial liability. Polygamy was widely practiced, in fact a man could have as many wives as he wanted.

Later, the Qur'an would inveigh against female infanticide as bringing retribution on the dreadful Day of Judgment: (Quran 81:1-14).

When the Qurashy (which was pagan) rejected Prophet Muhammad, the other Arab tribes of Arabia rejected Prophet Muhammad. When the Qurashy tribe accepted Prophet Muhammad the other tribes also accepted him.


Chapter 2: In Search for the Historic Muhammad

•The Unreliablity of Ibn Ishaq, Al-Waqidi, Ibn Sa’d and Al-Tabari. Robert Spencer admits to using a lot of Ibn Ishaq and Ibn Sa’d as well as Bukhari and Muslim, here and there.

•I document here, that there are several problems with Ibn Ishaq. Robert Spencer in his desperate attempts to somehow make Ibn Ishaq reliable says that Imam Malik later forgave Ibn Ishaq (page 27). This is a complete lie. It’s a fact that Imam Malik called Ibn Ishaq a liar. He also said that Ibn Ishaq takes his stories from the Jews and doesn’t provide isnads (chains of transmissions) for his stories. It is obvious in Ibn Ishaq's Sira that he doesn’t provide sources or chains of authorities for his stories. This is why Muslim Scholars reject most of the stories and material in Ibn Ishaq. Ibn Sa’d is a little better than Ibn Ishaq, but again there are several problems with Ibn Sa’d’s chain of transmissions. Moreover he was a disciple of Al-Waqidi (who was considered a liar).

To read what Malik really said about Ibn Ishaq and why no Muslim Schoalr takes Ibn Ishsaq's stories seriously, I recommned you read this.

In Chapter 3, Rob alleges that The Prophet thought he was demon possessed or that a demon had visited him. This is actually false. In Bukhari, vol. 4, book 59, no. 3238--- confirms that it was an Angel sent to the Prophet. This is found in Pages 41-42 of Rob's book.


Rebuttal to “Sucidial Despair Returns” (Chapter 3)

Rob says that the Prophet tried to commit sucicide on pages 44-45. However this story has been proven false.  Prophet Muhamamd never attempted to kill himself. The story is found in  in Ibn Sa'ad's book, Kitab Al Tabaqaat. The Narration contains Al Waqidi, who has been condemned. Al-Waqadi, like Ibn Ishaq, has been called a liar by several Islamic scholars. For example Imam Shafi’i (one of the four greatest imams in the world) had called Al-Waqidi’s books “load’s of lies” and other traditionists say the same. The second source for the sucidie story is found in Al Tabari's book, Al Tarikh. The Problem with the narration is it contains two weak narrators:  Ibn Fadl Al Abrash and Ibn Humayd Al Raazi (both of these narrators are considered unreliable). So there is a problem with the chain of transmission (isnad) and content (matn) of this narration, therefore rendering it unreliable. The third narration of the allged sucide attempt is found in Bukahari. However it must be remembered that there are some false hadith in Bukhari. There are broken chains found in his hadith. The hadith that speaks of Prophet Muhammad attemping sucicide is one of them. the part of the narration given regarding the Prophet peace be upon him going on top of the mountains is reported by Imam Zuhri (d. 52-124 A.H.) who relates it from unknown sources on the authority of Aisha. There is a gap in the chain of transmission between Aisha and Imam Zuhri, thus we don't know if the missing link in the chain is a reliable narrator or not.

Rebuttal to Muhammad’s Revelations and their sources (Chapter 4)

On pages 49—Rob alleges that Prophet Muhammad copied the story of Cain and Abel from the Pirqe de-Rabbi (a Jewish Rabbinical source) and he copied the story of Abraham being thrown into the fire from the Midrash Genesis Kabbah (another Jewish Rabbincal source). However these Rabbinic sources were written after Islam (*) (*). Rob also allges that the Arabic Infancy Gospel was copied by the author of the Quran. But again this has been proven false here.

On Pages 59-60 Robert Spencer tells the story of Zaniab Bint Jash. Rob is honest enough to admit that Zaid and Zaynab were given to each other in marriage by Prophet Muhammad. This is found in the Quran 33:36. Zanaib Bint Jash looked down upon her marriage to Zaid because she was a very beautiful woman and was from a noble family whereupon Zaid was a freed slave. However the story of Prophet Muhammad seeing Zanaib half naked with her beautiful body exposed and desiring her is false. Oreintalists such as Muir, Dermenghem, Washington Irving, Lammens, and others have repeated the tale insisting that it is true. This story is false. Al-Tabari does not tell of any narrator, so this story cannot be taken seriously.

Rebuttal to “A Warner in the face of terrific punishment” (Chapter 5)

Rebuttal to the “Satanic Verses” (Found in Chapter 5) pages 78-83. The story of the Satanic Vereses is false.

Rebuttal to The Women of Banu Mustaliq (Did Prophet Muhamamd order the rape of the women of Banu Mustaliq?) (Found in Chapter 8)

As for having sex with captives, and the treatment of The Women of Banu Mustaliq, I already dealt with this issue here.

Rebuttal to “The Raid of Khaybar” (Chapter 8)

*The false stories that there were treasures in Khaybar and the false story of the Torture of Kinanna in order to locate the treasure” Page 139-140. Robert Spencer tells the false story of Kinanna being tortured with fire on the orders of the Prophet in order to reveal where he hid some treasure (money). However again this story is false. I document this here.

Rebuttal to “Murder of the Poets” (Found in Chapter 9)

*The false stories of the killing of Abu Afak and Asma Bin Marwan. Found in pages 162-163. The killing of Abu Afak and Asama Bint Marwan on the orders of the Prophet is false, it never happened. I document the problems with these stories here.


Other Rebuttals to Robert Spencer's book can be found here.

Let's Review:

  • The Satanic Verses, The Killing of Abu Afak, Asama Bint Marwan are all false. Yet they are included in Robert Spencer's book, which proves that he has no regard for Muslim Scholarship.
  • The torture of Kinanna with fire on the orders of the Prophet in order to extract treasure from him, is also false. There is no source for this story.
  • The Muslim army never had sexual intercourse with the Women of Banu Mustaliq. There is no evidence for this, and in Islam a man must free and marry his female captive, as I document here.
  • There are several problems with Ibn Ishaq's Sira (Biography) of the Prophet, which can be found here. Yet Robert Spencer keeps using this work over and over in his book.




Back